National University of Ireland, Galway Science without Borders

Aim of the Module

The module in Neurophysiology will provide students with knowledge of the function of the brain and spinal cord. Topics covered will include organization and function of cells of the central nervous system, motor and somatosensoty processing, physiology underlying vision, hearing, sleep, learning, emotion, language, hunger and thermoregulation. Theoretical learning and understanding of will be aided by laboratory practical’s investigating the physiology of vision and hearing.

Open to: Speech and Language Therapy and Occupational Therapy students

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  Body fluids and compartments, and the distribution of electrolytes.
  
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  Nerve and muscle physiology, including how electrical impulses are generated and propagated to allow the body to function as an integrated system.
  
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  ABO blood groups, blood clotting mechanisms and blood composition.
  
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  The structure and function of the heart and its electrophysiology.
  
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  The structure of the human lung system, the volumes and capacities associated with normal lung function, and exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide.
  
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  The introductory principles relating to the role of the central nervous system.
  
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  Some fundamental principles of immune function.
  
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  The mechanisms of hormone function, and the roles of insulin and growth hormone in health and disease.
  

The module in Cardiovascular Physiology will provide students with a knowledge of the function of the cardiovascular system in health and disease. Topics covered will include cardiac and vascular smooth muscle physiology, endothelial cell function, the microcirculation, control of blood vessels, cardiovascular reflexes, co-ordinated cardiovascular responses, the cardiovascular system in disease. Theoretical learning will be aided by practical’s investigating heart and blood vessel function.

Aims and Objectives

In addition to offering a survey of the basics of biogeography via class lectures, this course also aims to introduce students to various methodologies used in biogeographic research. Hands-on field, lab, and data analysis exercises will allow students to put learned concepts into practice and give students experience working with the techniques used by biogeographers.
Learning Outcomes

* Comprehension of the basic principles of biogeography as a discipline

* A developed capacity to apply the field methodologies and data analysis techniques used in biogeography

* Critical understanding of human impacts on species distributions and modern conservation strategies

This module is focused on key concepts in evolutionary biology including the mechanisms operating on molecules, on populations and those involved in the formation of new species. It will also include topics such as evolutionary repatterning of development, evolutionary constraint and bias and evolutionary innovation.

2. Explain what is meant by molecular evolution and how it is employed to study evolution of species.

3 Describe in detail different types of speciation, including detailed discussion on the degree and type of isolation, selection and genetic mechanisms at play.

4. Describe the evolutionary origin of development and of metazoans

5. Explain the different modes in which development can be repatterned during evolution

6. Discuss how developmental processes can affect the direction of evolution

7. Display enhanced skills in writing essays on selected key concepts of evolutionary biology

Module Code	Module Title	ECTS	Taught/Examined in Semester	Examination Arrangements
Z0318	Geographic Information Systems and Biostatistics	5	1	2 hour exam

This module is focused on using data analysis to understand the environment. It includes an introduction to statistical analyses using examples from field ecology. There is also an introduction to mapping ecological data using geographic information systems (GIS).

On successful completion of this module the learner should be able to: 1.Demonstrate an understanding of the different types of data used in ecology and geographic analyses

2. Explore data using descriptive statistics and apply inferential statistics

3. Understand the role of statistics in planning, validating and communicating the findings of ecological research

4. Have an understanding of databases for managing information

5. Be able to create, edit and analyse spatial data using geographic information systems

6. Produce maps for visualisation and interpretation of ecological data

Constructing algorithms using various approaches: Recursion, Brute Force, Divide and Conquer, Dynamic Programming. Computational Complexity. Big Oh notation. The halting problem. Algorithms for sorting and searching. Graph based algorithms. Programming in Python.

This course introduces operating systems, the most fundamental piece of software running on any computer. On successful completion of this module the learner should be able to:

1. 
   Name and describe the main tasks of an operating system;
   
2. 
   Explain the concept and purpose of a process in an operating system;
   
3. 
   Represent the life cycle of a process in a diagrammatical fashion;
   
4. 
   Describe and compare various scheduling strategies;
   
5. 
   Explain and implement a queue data structure;
   
6. 
   Apply a semaphore as a tool in concurrent programming;
   
7. 
   Explain the necessary conditions for deadlock;
   
8. 
   Describe and apply an algorithmic strategy for deadlock detection.
   

This module introduces the fundamental concepts of propositional and predicate logic. Topics covered include the precise mathematical formulation of logical statements; the analysis of such statements to establish equivalence and consistency; and an introduction to mathematical techniques to check the validity of arguments in propositional and predicate logic.

On successful completion of this module the learner should be able to:

1. Represent mathematical statements in propositional and predicate logic

2. Establish if given compound propositions are equivalent

3. Derive the disjunctive and conjunctive normal forms of a proposition

4. Apply semantic and syntactic techniques to check logical consequence

5. Parse and analyse statements formulated in predicate logic

6. Demonstrate knowledge of mathematical and logical reasoning

This course introduces a framework for the incremental development of database driven web applications, using an object oriented programming language like Ruby for implementation purposes.

Topics covered in the course include:

1. The Model-View-Controller (MVC) software architecture.

2. Elements of the Ruby programming language.

3. The basics of some popular internet programming languages like HTML, CSS, XML.

4. The hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), composition of HTTP requests and HTTP responses.

5. Interacting with a database through HTML Forms.

6. Implementing model relationships through database connections.

7. Internal representation of web pages as document object model.

8. Manipulating the DOM through asynchronous requests.

9. Authenticating web site users.

10. Internationalization of web applications

On successful completion of this module the learner should be able to:

1. Explain the term web application.

2. List and describe the four basic CRUD functions of persistent storage.

3. Explain the Model-View-Controller software architecture.

4. Implement parts of a dynamic web site in an object oriented programming language.

5. Describe the relationship between web page and its internal representation as document
object model.

6. Use standard types of database connections to implement relationships between models.

7. Explain the concept of asynchronous requests and their effects.

8. Describe the relationship between standard CRUD actions and HTTP methods in a RESTful web

Topics covered include UNIX editors; UNIX commands; script programming: C shell scripts, AWK scripts, PERL scripts; CGI programming; UNIX operating systems. 

 

Module Code	Module Title	ECTS	Taught/Examined in Semester	Examination Arrangements
CT101	Computing Systems	10	Year Long	2 x 2 hour exams

The course is an introductory presentation of computing systems architecture and components: software, hardware and data that is being manipulated.

An introduction to algorithms, data structures and information systems

Fundamentals of Data, Evaluation and Control

Fundamentals of Problem Solving

Data Structures

Algorithms for searching

Algorithms for sorting

“Big Oh” notation

Algorithms for compression

Finite state machines

Information systems

Database systems

Social networks

Logic and Sets

Functions and relations

Google's page rank algorithm