December 15, 2008
New York Medical College School of Public Health Offers Health Education Certificate to Become a Certified Health Education Specialist
Unemployment is at a 14-year high and situation is even worse for younger workers. Nearly one in ten Americans aged 20 to 24 is unemployed. But health care remains an economic bright spot. The U.S. Department of Labors expects the health sector to add more than 1.4 million workers over the next ten years. The Bureau of Labor Statistics expects employment of health educators to grow by 26% - which is much faster than average.
New York Medical College School of Public Health’s 27-credit Graduate Certificate in Health Education is designed as a focused learning experience for students interested in health education. It facilitates their understanding of the basics of health education in public health, and develops the concepts and skills required for carrying out effective health education programs. It provides an in-depth understanding of health education program research, assessment, planning, implementation, evaluation, advocacy, and communication, and the various social and behavioral factors that influence health. Current health education initiatives include HIV/AIDS, obesity control, cessation of smoking, diabetes, etc.
Health educators design, conduct and evaluate activities to promote health behaviors and prevent costly illnesses. As health care costs rise, the need for their services grows. Health educators are hired as patient educators, health education teachers, health coaches, community organizers, public health educators, and health program managers.
Health educators who have met the standards of competence for Certified Health Educational Specialists (CHES) and passed the certifying examination established by the National Commission for Health Education Credentialing, Inc. (NCHEC) are entitled to the “CHES” designation after their name. NCHEC recognizes New York Medical College’s Graduate Certificate in Health Education as a basis for establishing eligibility to sit for the CHES examination.
The Certificate in Health Education prepares graduates to take positions as leaders in health promotion and disease prevention programs in voluntary health agencies, hospitals and other health care organizations, schools, business and industry, health-related government agencies and community outreach organizations.
The Certificate in Health Education may be taken independently or as part of a 46-credit Master of Public Health (MPH) in Behavioral Sciences and Health Promotion.
Source: New York Medical College
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December 3, 2008
The University of Southern Mississippi: Graduate Students Pitch Ideas in Annual Business Plan Competition
Eight teams of graduate students in the College of Business MBA program at The University of Southern Mississippi will vie for prize money in the fourth annual Golden Eagle Challenge Business Plan Competition at the Thad Cochran Center on Friday, Dec. 5.
Launched in 2005, the event was the state’s first collegiate business plan competition.
Dr. Jennifer Sequeira, a Southern Miss assistant professor of management and director of the competition said, “The teams have worked hard and have experienced many of the aspects of business start-up, from initial idea generation to the competition where they share their business plans and seek funding and potential commercialization. The students have experienced hardships, sacrifices and setbacks just as entrepreneurs do.”
Spending the majority of the semester preparing for the competition, these teams develop product and service ideas, company branding and business plans. The plans are then presented to a panel of mock investors who judge the plans based on a number of criteria.
The preliminary rounds begin at 9 a.m. The event will conclude with a finalists’ round at 2 p.m. Following the announcement and presentation of the winners, a reception will be held at 3:30 p.m. The public is invited to the final round and will be held in the Thad Cochran Center, Ballroom 1.
A sampling of this year’s teams include Green Screen, which will tout an eco-friendly umbrella, Simple Kitchen, which will promote the Kitchen Kiosk, an LCD touch-screen monitor designed for the kitchen to help make cooking more convenient and effective and The Velveteen Rut, a plan to provide social activities to preteens and teenagers.
The panel of judges is composed of executives from local and national businesses. Each will rate the teams with numerical scores in three areas – the written business plan, the presentation and the viability of the company. The goal of the panel is to reach a consensus on the company that represents the best investment opportunity.
Judges include Todd Gregory, group vice president of the Cintas Corporation in Baton Rouge; Richard “Ric” L. Williams Jr., community bank president for BancorpSouth in Gulfport; John Polk, president and CEO of Polk’s Meat Products in Magee; Dr. Beverly Dale, retired director of business development of Roche Molecular Systems Inc. in California; Abe Hudson , entrepreneur and author; Eric W. Hoffman, chief operating officer of Hoffman Media, LLC, in Birmingham. Three of the judges, Dale, Polk and Hudson are Southern Miss alumni.
This year’s competition is sponsored in part by Noetic Technologies Inc. of Hattiesburg.
Source: The University of Southern Mississippi
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December 3, 2008
University of California - Los Angeles: Anderson Applied Management Research Team Featured in Marianas Variety
The Northern Marianas could potentially be developed as a technology hub for U.S.-based companies looking for an alternative site to manufacture their products.
DMS Consulting, a team of five master of business administration students from the University of California, Los Angeles Anderson School of Management, arrived on island last Saturday to begin their research process regarding a new economic revitalization opportunity for the CNMI.
The five are Meera Damle, a Washington University graduate who is focused on UCLA's strategy and entrepreneurship program; Dave Eckardt, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy in 2007 focused on operations and consulting; Saurin Shah, graduate of the University of North Carolina Charlotte focused on finance and real estate; Sarah Unger, a graduate of Duke University who is focusing on strategy and finance; and David Wong, who graduated from Colombia University and is also focused on strategy and finance.
Their group was hired by Russ Snow, president & CEO of United Micronesian Development Association, to determine how Saipan can take advantage of its unique immigration and tax benefits to attract high-technology companies.
Shah said their research will take 20 weeks and they are now in the primary stage of "understanding the political landscape" of the CNMI.
After their brief stay on Saipan, the group's next step is to talk to different companies in California to consider the proposal.
They did recognize though that the idea may face obstacles because of Saipan's lack of reliable power supply, and the limited pool of talents who can be tapped for the proposed new high-technology manufacturing industry.
Source: University of California, Los Angeles
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December 2, 2008
Columbia University Establishes Master's Degree in Latin American and Caribbean Studies
Columbia University has established its first interdisciplinary post-graduate program in Latin American and Caribbean studies. The master's degree will be offered under the auspices of the Institute of Latin American Studies (ILAS) at the School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA).
The program is led by Pablo Piccato, associate professor of history and the new director of the Institute of Latin America Studies, which has supported scholarship and professional achievement in the field of Latin American studies for more than 40 years.
"This new degree program is a natural product of the University's strengths and builds on its solid foundation of expertise in Latin America," said Pablo Piccato, a distinguished historian who previously served as director of undergraduate studies in Columbia's history department and associate director of the Center for the Study of Ethnicity and Race.
Students who enroll in the one-year graduate program will have the opportunity to deepen their knowledge about the politics, economies, societies and cultures of the region, and will emerge with the grounding to become leaders in business, journalism and public service. The interdisciplinary nature of the program will allow students to tailor their courses of study and take classes throughout the entire University, including the Mailman School of Public Health and the Columbia Business School.
To complete the program, students are required to take 30 credits of graduate coursework, which includes a thesis that demonstrates the student's ability to apply formal training in Latin American and Caribbean studies toward a specific and original research problem. By graduation, students must also demonstrate knowledge of two languages of the region, which may include Spanish, Portuguese and/or a regional indigenous language. The Institute for Latin American Studies is now accepting applications for the 2009 fall semester; the deadline for applying is April 1, 2009.
Source: Columbia University, New York
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December 2, 2008
Colorado School of Mines: Mines Researchers Help Construct 'Ship in a Bottle Kit' on a Microchip
Scientists at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, the University of Stuttgart and Colorado School of Mines have constructed micromachines using the same trick that model makers use to get ships into a bottle where the masts and rigging of the sailing ship are not erected until it is in the bottle. In the same way, the scientists link the valves, pumps and stirrers of a microlaboratory to create a micro device on a chip. To do this, they introduce colloidal particles — tiny magnetizable plastic spheres — as components into the channels on the chip. A rotating magnetic field is used to link the components into larger aggregates and set them into motion as micromachines. (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), December 2, 2008.)
In the future, biologists and chemists want to avoid using bulky glass flasks, Bunsen burners and magnetic stirrers as far as possible in their experiments. Similarly to microelectronics, where electrons are steered through tiny conducting paths, they intend to perform chemical reactions in microfluidic systems, that is, chambers and channels just a few micrometers in diameter. These "labs on a chip" will then allow DNA sequences or blood samples to be analyzed much more quickly and more efficiently. As they only require tiny amounts of liquids, this approach costs much less than traditional methods, which require larger quantities of materials. These micro analytical systems would also be transportable, because their core parts take up very little space. Paramedics, for example, could analyze blood samples at the site of an accident.
Researchers working with Clemens Bechinger who is a professor at the University of Stuttgart and a Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Metals Research, and David Marr, a professor at Colorado School of Mines, have now found a new way to equip these miniaturized laboratories with moving parts and how to drive the tiny machines. They introduce colloidal particles, tiny plastic spheres with a diameter of just about five micrometers, into the channels and cavities on the chip.
As the particles contain iron oxide, they group together when they are magnetized by an external magnetic field. The scientists construct the magnetic field with four coils so that the microparticles are literally remote controlled and form diamond shapes or cog wheels. "The shape they assemble into depends crucially on the geometry of the channels," explains Tobias Sawetzki, who a doctoral student is working on the project. The microparticles then remain in this shape as long as the magnetic field is switched on.
The geometry also determines the function of the aggregates. By tipping backwards and forwards, a rhombus creates openings and acts like a valve. On the other hand, if it rotates in a chamber with two inflows, it mixes the incoming liquids. The micro stirrer is also driven by a magnetic field that rotates clockwise or anticlockwise parallel to the chip. In the same way, the researchers in Stuttgart roll a cog wheel through a channel with a serrated wall. The cog wheel, which completely shuts the channel off, agitates liquid back and forth and only in combination with two valves, acts like a pump.
"Compared to other approaches to equipping microlaboratories with moving parts, our ship-in-a-bottle technique has several advantages," says David Marr.
Some scientists use pneumatic systems to pump liquids through microchannels, for example. However, this requires each component to be connected with a separate hose to the outside so that it can be supplied with compressed air. This is very complex and limits the integration density on microfluidic devices considerably, i.e. the total number of components on the chip.
With the new method, it is possible to accommodate up to 5,000 pumps on one square centimetre. Moreover, the new approach does not rely on elastic materials as are required for pneumatic pumps.
"It is much easier to produce suitable chips for applications if they only consist of a single material, silicon, if at all possible," says Clemens Bechinger. As the electrical control components like the mini-coils can be fabricated based on silicon, it would be ideal to make the microchannels from the same material. This would allow for integration of all the components on one chip, as in microelectronics," says Bechinger.
Currently the researchers are still using large coils, so that all the components are driven by a single magnetic field and they all move in time with each other. However, this need not be a disadvantage as processes in many applications run in parallel; for example when the pharmaceutical industry searches for a new active ingredient amongst many thousands of substances. Furthermore, the researchers can choose the geometry of the channels so skilfully that different aggregates fulfil completely different functions in the same magnetic field. This means that the Stuttgart physicists' method offers the option of driving a complex network of individual, standalone components with only one magnetic field.
Source: Colorado School of Mines
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December 1, 2008
University of California - Riverside: Graduate Students Are National Champions of Collegiate Competition in Entomology
Graduate students from UC Riverside’s Department of Entomology became the national champions of the Entomological Society of America’s Linnaean Games at the society’s annual meeting in Reno, Nev., that took place Nov. 16-19, 2008.
The Linnaean Games, named in honor of taxonomist Carl Linnaeus and played between university-sponsored student teams, are a lively question-and-answer, college bowl-style competition on entomological facts.
The UCR team, comprised of Casey Butler, Jennifer Henke, Jason Mottern, Rebeccah Waterworth and Deane Zahn, defeated teams from the University of Nebraska, Texas A & M, and the University of Florida to reach the championship round against North Carolina State University on Nov. 18.
Members of the UCR team each received a medal; the team received an engraved plaque.
The championship round was highly competitive, with the winners being determined by a tie-breaking question.
In preparation for the national competition, the UCR students first had to win the competition at the Entomological Society of America’s Pacific Branch meeting held in March 2008.
The students were coached and quizzed by Darcy A. Reed, an administrative specialist in the Department of Entomology. They studied various areas of entomology, including medical and veterinary entomology, physiology, morphology, and toxicology, taxonomy and systematics, ecology, agricultural and applied entomology as well as various aspects of cultural entomology, including poetry, literature and music. They also had to be up-to-date with current events and be well-versed with the histories of entomology and the Entomological Society of America.
“This year’s success is greatly due to the students’ diligence in studying not only for the games but also for their Ph.D. qualifying exams since all current team members are Ph.D. graduate students,” Reed said. “The knowledge and experiences of team members who received their undergraduate and master’s degrees from elsewhere in the United States were highly beneficial as many of the questions pertained to insect pests in the Midwest. Each team member brought his or her own unique abilities and expertise to the competition.”
Next up for the UCR team: preparation for next year’s competition at the Entomological Society of America’s Pacific Branch meeting (San Diego; March 2009) and a chance to defend their title at the next annual meeting of the Entomological Society of America (Indianapolis, Ind.; December 2009).
Source: University of California - Riverside
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