text:
Peng Zou
PhD student with Junior Fellow Karen Lienkamp
Micro- and Nanostructured Materials – Combining Shape, Size and Chemical Functionality
The aim of our research is to use micro- and nanostructuring techniques to create polymer surfaces with defined topologies for biomedical applications. Using methods like colloidal lithography, electron beam lithography, dip-pen lithography or contact printing, we first generate micro- and nanopatterns on surfaces. These are then used as selective anchoring sites for polymers or initiating sites for polymerization reactions. We use numerous techniques for the characterization of such surfaces, among them atomic force microscopy, ellipsometry, and surface plasmon resonance. Further, biological assays are used to investigate the biocompatibility of our materials.


text:
(CNN) – Former Gov. Mark Sanford is getting hit with another TV ad in the South Carolina special congressional election, less than two weeks before voters head to the polls.
The latest spot again goes after the Republican's infamous secret trip in 2009. While his staff told reporters at the time he was hiking on the Appalachian Trail, it was discovered that the then-governor actually went to Argentina to see his mistress.
Follow @politicalticker Follow @KilloughCNN
"Mark Sanford abandoned his post," says the narrator, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan.
"No one, not even the National Guard could reach him," he continued. "What are we supposed to do when we can't get in touch with him–the leader? You can't just walk away. If I had abandoned my post, I could be court-martialed."
House Majority PAC, a third-party group attempting to retake the House for Democrats, paired up with VoteVets to renew the spot, which the left-leaning veterans group ran earlier this week. The commercial is part of six-figure ad buy announced by House Majority PAC last week.
Since launching his congressional campaign, Sanford has sought forgiveness and redemption for what he openly calls a mistake.
National Democratic groups started investing more resources in the 1st Congressional District race as Sanford began facing controversial headlines over trespassing accusations by his ex-wife, and as the Democratic candidate, Elizabeth Colbert Busch, sister of satirist Stephen Colbert, began gaining ground in the longtime Republican district.
On Thursday, the nonpartisan Cook Political Report changed its rating of the race to "lean Democratic" from "Toss-up." Before the trespassing allegation, the district was rated "lean Republican."
Democratic groups have focused on Sanford's affair and disappearance from his state four years ago. He and his ex-wife, Jenny, divorced in 2010 and Sanford finished out his term in 2011. He's now engaged to the Argentinean woman.
Sanford, for his part, has focused on Colbert Busch's decision to accept only one debate invitation and continues to paint her recent support from national groups as a sign that his opponent has strong ties to Washington, despite her attempts to campaign as an outsider.
Earlier this week, his campaign released an ad attacking Colbert Busch for accepting contributions for labor unions, even though she applauded Boeing's efforts to bring a new plant to South Carolina, a move strongly opposed by certain big labor groups.
The election is May 7.
- CNN's Kevin Bohn contributed to this report.
The gop continues to run the worst canadates like sanford ,Rubio and Cruz and bachmann and wonder why the keep having gop train wreck elections results . Morons !!!!
if the best Mr Appalachian Trail can come up with is the number of debates they have, he's toast. MAYBE the people of SC will see this and vote in someone who cares more about them than taking junkets on their dime to cheat on his wife and be derelict in his duties
Sandford should have seen this one coming. He left without letting anyone cover for him. AWOL isn't good for someone who is supposed to be running the show.
Mark Sanford like a lot of politicians has an ego. His happens to be so bighe thinks he can do no wrong. Very disturbing....
Should this man be elected, he is just one step away from another scandal. Mark Sandford has proven he has an ego bigger than that Appalachian Trail he so loves to hike.
Unfortunately for SC, he has also proven he is unfit for private sector employment.
Hey folks, Stanford is the dead person walking. Two weeks can not come fast enough and he gets buried in politics somewhere for good and for all. He has embarrassed himself, his family, his mistress and the entire nation. Enough is enough! No more of these kind of rubbish!
oh boy a real pig fight..no wonder politicans are rated lower than use car salesmen...maybe groups who produce trash commericials will make the list of most hated...
Sanford will likely win this thing. 1). Off-year election equals low turnout equals Republican victory. 2). Sanford's campaign has been rather brilliant. They've got South Carolinians hyped up into a paranoid frenzy, warning them that unless they vote for Sanford, an executive horde of greasy Jimmy Hoffas will swoop down upon the state and force them to join labor unions. This will be followed by a flanking maneuver by a battalion of California hipsters generaled by Nancy Pelosi, who will force the shell-shocked residents to give up their pickups for Priuses while mandating a vegetarian diet.
Hey, but if Busch wins, I'll happily eat my crow with relish.
When the Gov. of a state goes MIA over a piece of tail, even a "Soul Mate", they're not qualified to hold High office. This is supposed to be PUBLIC Service, not me,me,me...
This is a man who had already promised Jenny that he would not see his mistress again: so what does he do? Jets off to Argentina, and lies to everyone about where he was going and what he planned to do. He's a serial liar on a scale that already makes most politicians blush. His response to the trespassing complaint is typical Sanford.
Sanford, you are done, you gave it up for your "soul mate" hahahahahahha
I have long ago given up on the notion that politicians of any stripe are moral standard bearers, and so Snaford's mid-life crisis involving a young thing down Argentina way is within the norm for that crowd. The ad raises a valid point- Sanford abandoned his post- he was out of office, and unreachable because he wasn't "hiking the Appalacha=ian Trail" (where he could have been found in the event of a state emergency), no he was out of the country.
Republicans love that scary "3am phone call" fear-mongering about their opponents- well were was Sanford if that call came? He abandoned his state and its citizens. End of story.
Mark Sanford should hit the Appalachian Trail once again...and NOT the Campaign Trail!!!
This idiot betrayed the public trust and should NOT be rewarded with a high office for misusing public funds and chasing after skirts in Argentina while on the J.O.B!!!!
Cant get a real job huh? wonder why
Goodbye Sanford. You will plenty of time to go hiking after the election.
Lets see if the stereotype about southerners is true. My bet is that they will be smart enough not to elect this embarrassment again.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
|Infectious disease
|Classification and external resources
A false-colored electron micrograph shows a malaria sporozoite migrating through the midgut epithelia.
Infection is the invasion of a toxins they produce.[1] Infectious diseases, also known as transmissible diseases or communicable diseases, comprise clinically evident illness (i.e., characteristic medical signs and/or symptoms of disease) resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism.
Infections are caused by bacteria, nematodes such as roundworms and pinworms, arthropods such as ticks, mites, fleas, and lice, fungi such as ringworm, and other macroparasites such as tapeworms.
Hosts can fight infections using their immune system. Mammalian hosts react to infections with an innate response, often involving inflammation, followed by an adaptive response.[2]
The branch of medicine that focuses on infections and pathogens is infectious disease medicine. Physicians and veterinarians may use specific pharmaceutical drugs to treat infections (antibiotics, antivirals, antifungals, antiprotozoals, antihelminthics).
Classification 1
- Primary versus opportunistic 1.1
- Occult infection 1.2
- Infectious or not 1.3
- Contagiousness 1.4
- By anatomic location 1.5
Signs and symptoms 2
- Bacterial or viral 2.1
Pathophysiology 3
- Colonization 3.1
- Disease 3.2
- Transmission 3.3
Prevention 4
Immunity 4.1
- Host genetic factors 4.1.1
- Immunity 4.1
Diagnosis 5
- Symptomatic diagnostics 5.1
- Microbial culture 5.2
- Microscopy 5.3
- Biochemical tests 5.4
- Molecular diagnostics 5.5
- Indication of tests 5.6
- Anti-infective treatments 6
Epidemiology 7
- Historic pandemics 7.1
- Emerging diseases 7.2
History 8
- Medical specialists 8.1
- Society and culture 9
- Fossil record 10
- See also 11
- Notes and references 12
- External links 13
Bacterial infections are classified by the causative agent, as well as the symptoms and medical signs produced.
Symptomatic infections are apparent, whereas an infection that is active but does not produce noticeable symptoms may be called inapparent, silent, or subclinical. An infection that is inactive or dormant is called a latent infection.[3]
A short-term infection is an acute infection. A long-term infection is a chronic infection.
Primary versus opportunistic
Among the vast varieties of opportunistic pathogens:
- Primary pathogens cause disease as a result of their presence or activity within the normal, healthy host, and their intrinsic virulence (the severity of the disease they cause) is, in part, a necessary consequence of their need to reproduce and spread. Many of the most common primary pathogens of humans only infect humans, however many serious diseases are caused by organisms acquired from the environment or which infect non-human hosts.
- Opportunistic pathogens can cause an infectious disease in a host with depressed resistance. Opportunistic infection may be caused by microbes ordinarily in contact with the host, such as pathogenic bacteria or fungi in the gastrointestinal or the upper respiratory tract, and they may also result from (otherwise innocuous) microbes acquired from other hosts (as in Clostridium difficile colitis) or from the environment as a result of traumatic introduction (as in surgical wound infections or compound fractures). An opportunistic disease requires impairment of host defenses, which may occur as a result of genetic defects (such as Chronic granulomatous disease), exposure to antimicrobial drugs or immunosuppressive chemicals (as might occur following poisoning or cancer chemotherapy), exposure to ionizing radiation, or as a result of an infectious disease with immunosuppressive activity (such as with measles, malaria or HIV disease). Primary pathogens may also cause more severe disease in a host with depressed resistance than would normally occur in an immunosufficient host.[5]
Occult infection
Occult infection is a hidden infection first recognized by secondary manifestations. Fran Giampietro discovered this type, and coined the term "occult infection" in the late 1930s.
Infectious or not
One way of proving that a given disease is "infectious", is to satisfy testes. It is less clear that a pure culture comes from an animal source serving as host than it is when derived from microbes derived from plate culture. Epidemiology is another important tool used to study disease in a population. For infectious diseases it helps to determine if a disease outbreak is sporadic (occasional occurrence), endemic (regular cases often occurring in a region), epidemic (an unusually high number of cases in a region), or pandemic (a global epidemic).
Infectious diseases are sometimes called "contagious disease" when they are easily transmitted by contact with an ill person or their secretions (e.g., influenza). Thus, a contagious disease is a subset of infectious disease that is especially infective or easily transmitted. Other types of infectious/transmissible/communicable diseases with more specialized routes of infection, such as vector transmission or sexual transmission, are usually not regarded as "contagious," and often do not require medical isolation (sometimes loosely called quarantine) of victims. However, this specialized connotation of the word "contagious" and "contagious disease" (easy transmissibility) is not always respected in popular use.
By anatomic location
Infections can be classified by the anatomic location or organ system infected, including:
- Urinary tract infection
- Skin infection
- Respiratory tract infection
- Odontogenic infection (an infection that originates within a tooth or in the closely surrounding tissues)
- Vaginal infections
- Intra-amniotic infection
In addition, locations of inflammation where infection is the most common cause include pneumonia, meningitis and salpingitis.
Signs and symptoms
The symptoms of an infection depend on the type of disease. Some signs of infection affect the whole body generally, such as fatigue, loss of appetite, weight loss, fevers, night sweats, chills, aches and pains. Others are specific to individual body parts, such as skin rashes, coughing, or a runny nose.
In certain cases, infectious diseases may be asymptomatic for much or even all of their course in a given host. In the latter case, the disease may only be defined as a "disease" (which by definition means an illness) in hosts who secondarily become ill after contact with an asymptomatic carrier. An infection is not synonymous with an infectious disease, as some infections do not cause illness in a host.[5]
Bacterial and viral infections can both cause the same kinds of symptoms. It can be difficult to distinguish which is the cause of a specific infection.[6] It's important to distinguish, because viral infections cannot be cured by antibiotics.[7]
|Viral infection
|Bacterial infection
|Typical symptoms
|In general, viral infections are systemic. This means they involve many different parts of the body or more than one body system at the same time; i.e. a runny nose, sinus congestion, cough, body aches etc. They can be local at times as in viral conjunctivitis or "pink eye" and herpes. Only a few viral infections are painful, like herpes. The pain of viral infections is often described as itchy or burning.[6]
|The classic symptoms of a bacterial infection are localized redness, heat, swelling and pain. One of the hallmarks of a bacterial infection is local pain, pain that is in a specific part of the body. For example, if a cut occurs and is infected with bacteria, pain occurs at the site of the infection. Bacterial throat pain is often characterized by more pain on one side of the throat. An ear infection is more likely to be diagnosed as bacterial if the pain occurs in only one ear.[6] A cut that produces pus and milky-colored liquid is most likely infected.[8]
|Pathogenic viruses
|Pathogenic bacteria
There is a general chain of events that applies to infections. For infections to occur, a given chain of events must occur.[9] The chain of events involves several steps—which include the infectious agent, reservoir, entering a susceptible host, exit and transmission to new hosts. Each of the links must be present in a chronological order for an infection to develop. Understanding these steps helps health care workers target the infection and prevent it from occurring in the first place.[10]
Infection begins when an organism successfully colonizes by entering the body, growing and multiplying. Most humans are not easily infected. Those who are weak, sick, malnourished, have cancer or are diabetic have increased susceptibility to chronic or persistent infections. Individuals who have a suppressed immune system are particularly susceptible to opportunistic infections. Entrance to the host at host-pathogen interface, generally occurs through the mucosa in orifices like the oral cavity, nose, eyes, genitalia, anus, or the microbe can enter through open wounds. While a few organisms can grow at the initial site of entry, many migrate and cause systemic infection in different organs. Some pathogens grow within the host cells (intracellular) whereas others grow freely in bodily fluids.
Corynebacteria sp. and viridans streptococci, prevent the adhesion and colonization of pathogenic bacteria and thus have a symbiotic relationship with the host, preventing infection and speeding wound healing.
The variables involved in the outcome of a host becoming inoculated by a pathogen and the ultimate outcome include:
- the route of entry of the pathogen and the access to host regions that it gains
- the intrinsic virulence of the particular organism
- the quantity or load of the initial inoculant
- the immune status of the host being colonized
As an example, the staphylococcus species remains harmless on the skin, but, when present in a normally sterile space, such as in the capsule of a joint or the peritoneum, multiplies without resistance and creates a burden on the host.
It can be difficult to know which chronic wounds are infected. Despite the huge number of wounds seen in clinical practice, there are limited quality data for evaluated symptoms and signs. A review of chronic wounds in the Journal of the American Medical Association's "Rational Clinical Examination Series" quantified the importance of increased pain as an indicator of infection.[11] The review showed that the most useful finding is an increase in the level of pain [likelihood ratio (LR) range, 11-20] makes infection much more likely, but the absence of pain (negative likelihood ratio range, 0.64-0.88) does not rule out infection (summary LR 0.64-0.88).
Clostridium tetani releases a toxin that paralyzes muscles, and staphylococcus releases toxins that produce shock and sepsis. Not all infectious agents cause disease in all hosts. For example less than 5% of individuals infected with polio develop disease. On the other hand, some infectious agents are highly virulent. The prion causing mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease kills almost all animals and people that are infected.
Persistent infections occur because the body is unable to clear the organism after the initial infection. Persistent infections are characterized by the continual presence of the infectious organism, often as latent infection with occasional recurrent relapses of active infection. There are some viruses that can maintain a persistent infection by infecting different cells of the body. Some viruses once acquired never leave the body. A typical example is the herpes virus, which tends to hide in nerves and become reactivated when specific circumstances arise.
Persistent infections cause millions of deaths globally each year.[12] Chronic infections by parasites account for a high morbidity and mortality in many underdeveloped countries.
For infecting organisms to survive and repeat the infection cycle in other hosts, they (or their progeny) must leave an existing reservoir and cause infection elsewhere. Infection transmission can take place via many potential routes:
- Droplet contact, also known as the respiratory route, and the resultant infection can be termed airborne disease. If an infected person coughs or sneezes on another person the microorganisms, suspended in warm, moist droplets, may enter the body through the nose, mouth or eye surfaces.
- Fecal-oral transmission, wherein foodstuffs or water become contaminated (by people not washing their hands before preparing food, or untreated sewage being released into a drinking water supply) and the people who eat and drink them become infected. Common fecal-oral transmitted pathogens include Vibrio cholerae, Giardia species, rotaviruses, Entameba histolytica, Escherichia coli, and tape worms.[13] Most of these pathogens cause gastroenteritis.
- Sexual transmission, with the resulting disease being called sexually transmitted disease
- Oral transmission; Diseases that are transmitted primarily by oral means may be caught through direct oral contact such as kissing, or by indirect contact such as by sharing a drinking glass or a cigarette.
- Transmission by direct contact; Some diseases that are transmissible by direct contact include athlete's foot, impetigo and warts
- Vertical transmission'; directly from the mother to an embryo, fetus or baby during pregnancy or childbirth. It can occur when the mother gets an infection as an intercurrent disease in pregnancy.
- transplantation of infected material.
- Vector-borne transmission, transmitted by a disease itself but that transmits infection by conveying pathogens from one host to another.[14]
The relationship between virulence versus transmissibility is complex; if a disease is rapidly fatal, the host may die before the microbe can get passed along to another host.
Techniques like hand washing, wearing gowns, and wearing face masks can help prevent infections from being passed from the surgeon to the patient or vice versa. Frequent
- Articles with contributors link
- All articles with unsourced statements
- Articles with unsourced statements from October 2010
- Articles with unsourced statements from May 2013
- Articles to be expanded from June 2014
- All articles to be expanded
- Articles needing additional references from June 2014
- All articles needing additional references
- All pages needing factual verification
- WorldHeritage articles needing factual verification from June 2014
- All articles with dead external links
- Articles with dead external links from October 2014
- Articles with dead external links from November 2014
- CS1 maint: display-authors
- Commons category without a link on Wikidata
- Infectious diseases
- Epidemiology
- European Center for Disease Prevention and Control
- U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
- Infectious Disease Society of America (IDSA)
- Infectious Disease Index of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC)
- Vaccine Research Center Information concerning vaccine research clinical trials for Emerging and re-Emerging Infectious Diseases.
- Infection Information Resource
- Knowledge source for Health Care Professionals involved in Wound management www.woundsite.info
- Table: Global deaths from communicable diseases, 2010 - Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
External links
- ^ Definition of "infection" from several medical dictionaries - Retrieved on 2012-04-03
- ^ Alberto Signore (2013). "About inflammation and infection". EJNMMI Research 8 (3).
- ^ Kayser, Fritz H; Kurt A Bienz; Johannes Eckert; Rolf M Zinkernagel (2005). Medical microbiology. Stuttgart: Georg Thieme Verlag. p. 398.
- ^ a b This section incorporates public domain materials included in the text: Medical Microbiology Fourth Edition: Chapter 8 (1996). Baron, Samuel MD. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston.
- ^ a b c d e f Ryan KJ; Ray CG (editors) (2004). Sherris Medical Microbiology (4th ed.). McGraw Hill.
- ^ a b c Bacterial vs. Viral Infections - Do You Know the Difference? National Information Program on Antibiotics
- ^ Robert N. Golden, Fred Peterson. The Truth About Illness and Disease. Infobase Publishing, 2009. p. 181.
- ^ "Infection". Rencare. Retrieved 4 July 2013.
- ^ Infection Cycle - Retrieved on 2010-01-21
- ^ Understanding Infectious Diseases Science.Education.Nih.Gov article - Retrieved on 2010-01-21
- ^ Reddy M, Gill SS, Wu W, et al. Does this patient have an infection of a chronic wound?. JAMA. 2012 Feb 8;307(6):605-11. (Review) PMID 22318282
- ^ Chronic Infection Information Retrieved on 2010-01-14
- ^ Intestinal Parasites and Infection fungusfocus.com - Retrieved on 2010-01-21
- ^ Pathogens and vectors. MetaPathogen.com.
- ^ Generalized Infectious Cycle Diagram Illustration - Retrieved on 2010-01-21
- ^ eMedicine Health. "Bacterial and Viral Infections" 2010-02-08.
- ^ a b Watts, Duncan (2003). Six degrees: the science of a connected age. London: William Heinemann.
- ^ Preston, Richard (1995). The hot zone. Garden City, N.Y.: Anchor Books.
- ^ Ferguson NM, Donnelly CA, Anderson RM (May 2001). "The foot-and-mouth epidemic in Great Britain: pattern of spread and impact of interventions". Science 292 (5519): 1155–60.
- ^ Ge D, Fellay J, Thompson AJ, Simon JS, Shianna KV, Urban TJ, Heinzen EL, Qiu P, Bertelsen AH, Muir AJ, Sulkowski M, McHutchison JG, Goldstein DB (2009). "Genetic variation in IL28B predicts hepatitis C treatment-induced viral clearance". Nature 461 (7262): 399–401.
- ^ Thomas DL, Thio CL, Martin MP, Qi Y, Ge D, O'Huigin C, Kidd J, Kidd K, Khakoo SI, Alexander G, Goedert JJ, Kirk GD, Donfield SM, Rosen HR, Tobler LH, Busch MP, McHutchison JG, Goldstein DB, Carrington M (2009). "Genetic variation in IL28B and spontaneous clearance of hepatitis C virus". Nature 461 (7265): 798–801.
- ^ a b Van den Bruel A, Haj-Hassan T, Thompson M, Buntinx F, Mant D (March 2010). "Diagnostic value of clinical features at presentation to identify serious infection in children in developed countries: a systematic review". Lancet 375 (9717): 834–45.
- ^ Nursing Pharmacology Made Incredibly Easy. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. 2009.p.483
- ^ Bacterial Infection Causes 2010-02-08
- ^ World Health Organization. "Staphylococcal infection" 2010-02-08.
- ^
- ^ CBC News (20 October 2014). "Could Ebola rank among the deadliest communicable diseases?".
- ^ "The World Health Report (Annex Table 2)" (PDF). 2004.
- ^ "Table 5" (PDF). 1995.
- ^ Lower respiratory infections include various pneumonias, influenzas and acute bronchitis.
- ^ Diarrheal diseases are caused by many different organisms, including cholera, botulism, and E. coli to name a few. See also: Intestinal infectious diseases
- ^ Tropical diseases include Chagas disease, dengue fever, lymphatic filariasis, leishmaniasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis and trypanosomiasis.
- ^ Infectious and Epidemic Disease in History
- ^ a b Dobson, Andrew P. and E. Robin Carter (1996) (full-text pdf)Infectious Diseases and Human Population History Bioscience;46 2.
- ^ Smallpox. North Carolina Digital History.
- ^ Smallpox and Vaccinia. National Center for Biotechnology Information.
- ^ Smallpox: The Triumph over the Most Terrible of the Ministers of Death
- ^ Multidrug-Resistant Tuberculosis. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
- ^ Influenza of 1918 (Spanish Flu) and the US Navy
- ^ a b Krauss H, Weber A, Appel M (2003). Zoonoses: Infectious Diseases Transmissible from Animals to Humans (3rd ed.). Washington, D.C.: ASM Press.
- ^ Potter P (July 2013). "Summer buzz". Emerg Infect Dis 19 (3): 1184.
- ^ Daszak et al.: Emerging Infectious Diseases of Wildlife-- Threats to Biodiversity and Human Health., USA 2000
- ^ Beretta M (2003). "The revival of Lucretian atomism and contagious diseases during the renaissance". Medicina nei secoli 15 (2): 129–54.
- ^ Robert Moorhead, "William Budd and typhoid fever". Retrieved March 7, 2010. J R Soc Med. 2002 November; 95(11): 561–564.
- ^ Nettle D (2009). "Ecological influences on human behavioural diversity: a review of recent findings". Trends Ecol. Evol. (Amst.) 24 (11): 618–24.
- ^ Molnar, R. E., 2001, Theropod paleopathology: a literature survey: In: Mesozoic Vertebrate Life, edited by Tanke, D. H., and Carpenter, K., Indiana University Press, p. 337-363.
Notes and references
- Host-pathogen interface
- Bioinformatics Resource Centers for Infectious Diseases
- Biological contamination
- Blood-borne disease
- Coinfection
- Copenhagen Consensus
- Disease diffusion mapping
- Foodborne illness
- Globalization and disease
- Human microbiome project
- Infection control
- Infectious disease dynamics
- Membrane vesicle trafficking
- Infectious disease eradication
- Infectious disease in the 20th century
- List of causes of death by rate
- List of diseases caused by insects
- List of epidemics
- List of human diseases associated with infectious pathogens
- List of infectious diseases
- Multiplicity of infection
- Neglected diseases
- Nosocomial infection
- Spatiotemporal Epidemiological Modeler (STEM)
- Spillover infection
- Threshold host density
- Transmission (medicine)
- Tropical disease
- Ubi pus, ibi evacua (Latin: "where there is pus, there evacuate it")
- Vaccine-preventable diseases
- Waterborne diseases
See also
Evidence of infection in fossil remains is a subject of interest for paleopathologists, scientists who study occurrences of injuries and illness in extinct life forms. Signs of infection have been discovered in the bones of carnivorous dinosaurs. When present, however, these infections seem to tend to be confined to only small regions of the body. A skull attributed to the early carnivorous dinosaur Herrerasaurus ischigualastensis exhibits pit-like wounds surrounded by swollen and porous bone. The unusual texture of the bone around the wounds suggests they were afflicted by a short-lived, non-lethal infection. Scientists who studied the skull speculated that the bite marks were received in a fight with another Herrerasaurus. Other carnivorous dinosaurs with documented evidence of infection include Acrocanthosaurus, Allosaurus, Tyrannosaurus and a tyrannosaur from the Kirtland Formation. The infections from both tyrannosaurs were received by being bitten during a fight, like the Herrerasaurus specimen.[46]
Fossil record
A number of studies have reported associations between pathogen load in an area and human behavior. Higher pathogen load is associated with decreased size of ethnic and religious groups in an area. This may be due high pathogen load favoring avoidance other groups which may reduce pathogen transmission or a high pathogen load preventing the creation of large settlements and armies which enforce a common culture. Higher pathogen load is also associated with more restricted sexual behavior which may reduce pathogen transmission. It also associated with higher preferences for health and attractiveness in mates. Higher fertility rates and shorter or less parental care per child is another association which may be a compensation for the higher mortality rate. There is also an association with polygyny which may be due to higher pathogen load making selecting males with a high genetic resistance increasingly important. Higher pathogen load is also associated with more collectivism and less individualism which may limit contacts with outside groups and infections. There are alternative explanations for at least some of the associations although some of these explanations may in turn ultimately be due to pathogen load. Thus, polygny may also be due to a lower male:female ratio in these areas but this may ultimately be due to male infants having increased mortality from infectious diseases. Another example is that poor socioeconomic factors may ultimately in part be due to high pathogen load preventing economic development.[45]
Society and culture
- The disease has not been definitively diagnosed after an initial workup
- The patient is immunocompromised (for example, in AIDS or after chemotherapy);
- The infectious agent is of an uncommon nature (e.g. tropical diseases);
- The disease has not responded to first line antibiotics;
- The disease might be dangerous to other patients, and the patient might have to be isolated
An infectious disease team may be alerted when:
The medical treatment of infectious diseases falls into the medical field of Infectiology and in some cases the study of propagation pertains to the field of Epidemiology. Generally, infections are initially diagnosed by primary care physicians or internal medicine specialists. For example, an "uncomplicated" pneumonia will generally be treated by the internist or the pulmonologist (lung physician).The work of the infectiologist therefore entails working with both patients and general practitioners, as well as laboratory scientists, immunologists, bacteriologists and other specialists.
Medical specialists
Gerhard Domagk developed sulphonamides, the first broad spectrum synthetic antibacterial drugs.
Alexander Fleming discovered the world's first antibiotic Penicillin which Florey and Chain then developed.
Edward Jenner, Jonas Salk and Albert Sabin developed effective vaccines for smallpox and polio, which would later result in the eradication and near-eradication of these diseases, respectively.
Robert Koch, provided the study of infectious diseases with a scientific basis known as Koch's postulates.
Louis Pasteur proved beyond doubt that certain diseases are caused by infectious agents, and developed a vaccine for rabies.
In the mid-19th century John Snow and William Budd did important work demonstrating the contagiousness of typhoid and cholera through contaminated water. Both are credited with decreasing epidemics of cholera in their towns by implementing measures to prevent contamination of water.[44]
Anton van Leeuwenhoek (1632–1723) advanced the science of microscopy by being the first to observe microorganisms, allowing for easy visualization of bacteria.
Ideas of contagion became more popular in Europe during the Renaissance, particularly through the writing of the Italian physician Girolamo Fracastoro.[43]
- Encroachment on wildlife habitats. The construction of new villages and housing developments in rural areas force animals to live in dense populations, creating opportunities for microbes to mutate and emerge.[42]
- Changes in agriculture. The introduction of new crops attracts new crop pests and the microbes they carry to farming communities, exposing people to unfamiliar diseases.
- The destruction of rain forests. As countries make use of their rain forests, by building roads through forests and clearing areas for settlement or commercial ventures, people encounter insects and other animals harboring previously unknown microorganisms.
- Uncontrolled urbanization. The rapid growth of cities in many developing countries tends to concentrate large numbers of people into crowded areas with poor sanitation. These conditions foster transmission of contagious diseases.
- Modern transport. Ships and other cargo carriers often harbor unintended "passengers", that can spread diseases to faraway destinations. While with international jet-airplane travel, people infected with a disease can carry it to distant lands, or home to their families, before their first symptoms appear.
Several human activities have led to the emergence of zoonotic human pathogens, including viruses, bacteria, protozoa, and rickettsia,[41] and spread of vector-borne diseases,[40] see also Globalization and Disease and Wildlife disease:
- Coevolution between parasite and host can lead to hosts becoming resistant to the parasites or the parasites may evolve greater virulence, leading to immunopathological disease.
- Human activity is involved with many zoonoses. Under disease invasion, when a parasite invades a new host species, it may become pathogenic in the new host.[40]
In most cases, microorganisms live in harmony with their hosts via mutual or commensal interactions. Diseases can emerge when existing parasites become pathogenic or when new pathogenic parasites enter a new host.
Emerging diseases
- Plague of Justinian, from 541 to 750, killed between 50% and 60% of Europe's population.[33]
- The Black Death of 1347 to 1352 killed 25 million in Europe over 5 years. The plague reduced the world population from an estimated 450 million to between 350 and 375 million in the 14th century.
- The introduction of smallpox, measles, and typhus to the areas of Central and South America by European explorers during the 15th and 16th centuries caused pandemics among the native inhabitants. Between 1518 and 1568 disease pandemics are said to have caused the population of Mexico to fall from 20 million to 3 million.[34]
- The first European influenza epidemic occurred between 1556 and 1560, with an estimated mortality rate of 20%.[34]
- Smallpox killed an estimated 60 million Europeans during the 18th century[35] (approximately 400,000 per year).[36] Up to 30% of those infected, including 80% of the children under 5 years of age, died from the disease, and one-third of the survivors went blind.[37]
- In the 19th century, tuberculosis killed an estimated one-quarter of the adult population of Europe;[38] by 1918 one in six deaths in France were still caused by TB.
- The Influenza Pandemic of 1918 (or the Spanish Flu) killed 25-50 million people (about 2% of world population of 1.7 billion).[39] Today Influenza kills about 250,000 to 500,000 worldwide each year.
A pandemic (or global epidemic) is a disease that affects people over an extensive geographical area.
Historic pandemics
The top three single agent/disease killers are HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. While the number of deaths due to nearly every disease have decreased, deaths due to HIV/AIDS have increased fourfold. Childhood diseases include pertussis, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, measles and tetanus. Children also make up a large percentage of lower respiratory and diarrheal deaths.
|Cause of death
Deaths 2002
(in millions)
Percentage of
all deaths
Deaths 1993
(in millions)
|1993 Rank
|All infectious diseases
|Lower respiratory infections[30]
|Diarrheal diseases[31]
|Tuberculosis (TB)
|Hepatitis B
|Tropical diseases (6)[32]
|9, 10, 16-18
Note: Other causes of death include maternal and perinatal conditions (5.2%), nutritional deficiencies (0.9%),
noncommunicable conditions (58.8%), and injuries (9.1%).
The International Classification of Disease (ICD) code categories. The following table lists the top infectious disease killers which caused more than 100,000 deaths in 2002 (estimated). 1993 data is included for comparison.
"About 10 million people around the world died of communicable diseases in 2010," CBC News reports, citing data from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.[27]
When infection attacks the body, anti-infective drugs can suppress the infection. Four types of anti-infective or drugs exist: antibacterial (antibiotic), antiviral, antitubercular, and antifungal.[23] Depending on the severity and the type of infection, the antibiotic may be given by mouth, injection or may be applied topically.[24] Severe infections of the brain are usually treated with intravenous antibiotics. Sometimes, multiple antibiotics are used to decrease the risk of resistance and increase efficacy. Antibiotics only work for bacteria and do not affect viruses. Antibiotics work by slowing down the multiplication of bacteria or killing the bacteria. The most common classes of antibiotics used in medicine include penicillin, cephalosporins, aminoglycosides, macrolides, quinolones and tetracyclines.[25]
Anti-infective treatments
There is usually an indication for a specific identification of an infectious agent only when such identification can aid in the treatment or prevention of the disease, or to advance knowledge of the course of an illness prior to the development of effective therapeutic or preventative measures. For example, in the early 1980s, prior to the appearance of AZT for the treatment of AIDS, the course of the disease was closely followed by monitoring the composition of patient blood samples, even though the outcome would not offer the patient any further treatment options. In part, these studies on the appearance of HIV in specific communities permitted the advancement of hypotheses as to the route of transmission of the virus. By understanding how the disease was transmitted, resources could be targeted to the communities at greatest risk in campaigns aimed at reducing the number of new infections. The specific serological diagnostic identification, and later genotypic or molecular identification, of HIV also enabled the development of hypotheses as to the temporal and geographical origins of the virus, as well as a myriad of other hypothesis.[5] The development of molecular diagnostic tools have enabled physicians and researchers to monitor the efficacy of treatment with anti-retroviral drugs. Molecular diagnostics are now commonly used to identify HIV in healthy people long before the onset of illness and have been used to demonstrate the existence of people who are genetically resistant to HIV infection. Thus, while there still is no cure for AIDS, there is great therapeutic and predictive benefit to identifying the virus and monitoring the virus levels within the blood of infected individuals, both for the patient and for the community at large.
Indication of tests
Thus, the technological ability to detect any infectious agent rapidly and specifically are currently available. The only remaining blockades to the use of PCR as a standard tool of diagnosis are in its cost and application, neither of which is insurmountable. The diagnosis of a few diseases will not benefit from the development of PCR methods, such as some of the clostridial diseases (tetanus and botulism). These diseases are fundamentally biological poisonings by relatively small numbers of infectious bacteria that produce extremely potent neurotoxins. A significant proliferation of the infectious agent does not occur, this limits the ability of PCR to detect the presence of any bacteria.
Technologies based upon the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method will become nearly ubiquitous gold standards of diagnostics of the near future, for several reasons. First, the catalog of infectious agents has grown to the point that virtually all of the significant infectious agents of the human population have been identified. Second, an infectious agent must grow within the human body to cause disease; essentially it must amplify its own nucleic acids in order to cause a disease. This amplification of nucleic acid in infected tissue offers an opportunity to detect the infectious agent by using PCR. Third, the essential tools for directing PCR, primers, are derived from the genomes of infectious agents, and with time those genomes will be known, if they are not already.
Molecular diagnostics
Instrumentation can be used to read extremely small signals created by secondary reactions linked to the antibody – antigen binding. Instrumentation can control sampling, reagent use, reaction times, signal detection, calculation of results, and data management to yield a cost effective automated process for diagnosis of infectious disease.
Complex serological techniques have been developed into what are known as Immunoassays. Immunoassays can use the basic antibody – antigen binding as the basis to produce an electro - magnetic or particle radiation signal, which can be detected by some form of instrumentation. Signal of unknowns can be compared to that of standards allowing quantitation of the target antigen. To aid in the diagnosis of infectious diseases, immunoassays can detect or measure antigens from either infectious agents or proteins generated by an infected organism in response to a foreign agent. For example, immunoassay A may detect the presence of a surface protein from a virus particle. Immunoassay B on the other hand may detect or measure antibodies produced by an organism's immune system which are made to neutralize and allow the destruction of the virus.
Strep throat" is often diagnosed within minutes, and is based on the appearance of antigens made by the causative agent, S. pyogenes, that is retrieved from a patients throat with a cotton swab. Serological tests, if available, are usually the preferred route of identification, however the tests are costly to develop and the reagents used in the test often require refrigeration. Some serological methods are extremely costly, although when commonly used, such as with the "strep test", they can be inexpensive.[5]
The isolation of enzymes from infected tissue can also provide the basis of a biochemical diagnosis of an infectious disease. For example, humans can make neither RNA replicases nor reverse transcriptase, and the presence of these enzymes are characteristic of specific types of viral infections. The ability of the viral protein hemagglutinin to bind red blood cells together into a detectable matrix may also be characterized as a biochemical test for viral infection, although strictly speaking hemagglutinin is not an enzyme and has no metabolic function.
Biochemical tests used in the identification of infectious agents include the detection of metabolic or enzymatic products characteristic of a particular infectious agent. Since bacteria ferment carbohydrates in patterns characteristic of their genus and species, the detection of fermentation products is commonly used in bacterial identification. Acids, alcohols and gases are usually detected in these tests when bacteria are grown in selective liquid or solid media.
Biochemical tests
Other microscopic procedures may also aid in identifying infectious agents. Almost all cells readily stain with a number of basic dyes due to the electrostatic attraction between negatively charged cellular molecules and the positive charge on the dye. A cell is normally transparent under a microscope, and using a stain increases the contrast of a cell with its background. Staining a cell with a dye such as Giemsa stain or crystal violet allows a microscopist to describe its size, shape, internal and external components and its associations with other cells. The response of bacteria to different staining procedures is used in the taxonomic classification of microbes as well. Two methods, the Gram stain and the acid-fast stain, are the standard approaches used to classify bacteria and to diagnosis of disease. The Gram stain identifies the bacterial groups Firmicutes and Actinobacteria, both of which contain many significant human pathogens. The acid-fast staining procedure identifies the Actinobacterial genera Mycobacterium and Nocardia.
Another principal tool in the diagnosis of infectious disease is microscopy. Virtually all of the culture techniques discussed above rely, at some point, on microscopic examination for definitive identification of the infectious agent. Microscopy may be carried out with simple instruments, such as the compound light microscope, or with instruments as complex as an electron microscope. Samples obtained from patients may be viewed directly under the light microscope, and can often rapidly lead to identification. Microscopy is often also used in conjunction with biochemical staining techniques, and can be made exquisitely specific when used in combination with antibody based techniques. For example, the use of antibodies made artificially fluorescent (fluorescently labeled antibodies) can be directed to bind to and identify a specific antigens present on a pathogen. A fluorescence microscope is then used to detect fluorescently labeled antibodies bound to internalized antigens within clinical samples or cultured cells. This technique is especially useful in the diagnosis of viral diseases, where the light microscope is incapable of identifying a virus directly.
In the absence of suitable plate culture techniques, some microbes require culture within live animals. Bacteria such as Mycobacterium leprae and Treponema pallidum can be grown in animals, although serological and microscopic techniques make the use of live animals unnecessary. Viruses are also usually identified using alternatives to growth in culture or animals. Some viruses may be grown in embryonated eggs. Another useful identification method is Xenodiagnosis, or the use of a vector to support the growth of an infectious agent. Chagas disease is the most significant example, because it is difficult to directly demonstrate the presence of the causative agent, Trypanosoma cruzi in a patient, which therefore makes it difficult to definitively make a diagnosis. In this case, xenodiagnosis involves the use of the vector of the Chagas agent T. cruzi, an uninfected triatomine bug, which takes a blood meal from a person suspected of having been infected. The bug is later inspected for growth of T. cruzi within its gut.
Microbiological culture is a principal tool used to diagnose infectious disease. In a microbial culture, a growth medium is provided for a specific agent. A sample taken from potentially diseased tissue or fluid is then tested for the presence of an infectious agent able to grow within that medium. Most pathogenic bacteria are easily grown on nutrient agar, a form of solid medium that supplies carbohydrates and proteins necessary for growth of a bacterium, along with copious amounts of water. A single bacterium will grow into a visible mound on the surface of the plate called a colony, which may be separated from other colonies or melded together into a "lawn". The size, color, shape and form of a colony is characteristic of the bacterial species, its specific genetic makeup (its strain), and the environment which supports its growth. Other ingredients are often added to the plate to aid in identification. Plates may contain substances that permit the growth of some bacteria and not others, or that change color in response to certain bacteria and not others. Bacteriological plates such as these are commonly used in the clinical identification of infectious bacterium. Microbial culture may also be used in the identification of viruses: the medium in this case being cells grown in culture that the virus can infect, and then alter or kill. In the case of viral identification, a region of dead cells results from viral growth, and is called a "plaque". Eukaryotic parasites may also be grown in culture as a means of identifying a particular agent.
Microbial culture
In children the presence of cyanosis, rapid breathing, poor peripheral perfusion, or a petechial rash increases the risk of a serious infection by greater than 5 fold.[22] Other important indicators include parental concern, clinical instinct, and temperature greater than 40 °C.[22]
The diagnosis is aided by the presenting symptoms in any individual with an infectious disease, yet it usually needs additional diagnostic techniques to confirm the suspicion. Some signs are specifically characteristic and indicative of a disease and are called pathognomonic signs; but these are rare.
Symptomatic diagnostics
Diagnosis of infectious disease is nearly always initiated by X-rays, CAT scans, PET scans or NMR) are used to produce images of internal abnormalities resulting from the growth of an infectious agent. The images are useful in detection of, for example, a bone abscess or a spongiform encephalopathy produced by a prion.
Diagnosis of infectious disease sometimes involves identifying an infectious agent either directly or indirectly. In practice most minor infectious diseases such as warts, cutaneous abscesses, respiratory system infections and diarrheal diseases are diagnosed by their clinical presentation. Conclusions about the cause of the disease are based upon the likelihood that a patient came in contact with a particular agent, the presence of a microbe in a community, and other epidemiological considerations. Given sufficient effort, all known infectious agents can be specifically identified. The benefits of identification, however, are often greatly outweighed by the cost, as often there is no specific treatment, the cause is obvious, or the outcome of an infection is benign.
The clearance of the pathogens, either treatment-induced or spontaneous, it can be influenced by the genetic variants carried by the individual patients. For instance, for genotype 1 hepatitis C treated with Pegylated interferon-alpha-2a or Pegylated interferon-alpha-2b (brand names Pegasys or PEG-Intron) combined with ribavirin, it has been shown that genetic polymorphisms near the human IL28B gene, encoding interferon lambda 3, are associated with significant differences in the treatment-induced clearance of the virus. This finding, originally reported in Nature,[20] showed that genotype 1 hepatitis C patients carrying certain genetic variant alleles near the IL28B gene are more possibly to achieve sustained virological response after the treatment than others. Later report from Nature[21] demonstrated that the same genetic variants are also associated with the natural clearance of the genotype 1 hepatitis C virus.
Host genetic factors
Immune resistance to an infectious disease requires a critical level of either antigen-specific antibodies and/or T cells when the host encounters the pathogen. Some individuals develop natural serum antibodies to the surface polysaccharides of some agents although they have had little or no contact with the agent, these natural antibodies confer specific protection to adults and are passively transmitted to newborns.
Resistance to infection (vaccination. Knowledge of the protective antigens and specific acquired host immune factors is more complete for primary pathogens than for opportunistic pathogens.
The immune system response to a microorganism often causes symptoms such as a high fever and inflammation, and has the potential to be more devastating than direct damage caused by a microbe.[5]
- a direct effect upon a pathogen, such as antibody-initiated complement-dependent bacteriolysis, opsonoization, phagocytosis and killing, as occurs for some bacteria,
- neutralization of viruses so that these organisms cannot enter cells,
- or by T lymphocytes which will kill a cell parasitized by a microorganism.
Infection with most pathogens does not result in death of the host and the offending organism is ultimately cleared after the symptoms of the disease have waned.[4] This process requires immune mechanisms to kill or inactivate the inoculum of the pathogen. Specific acquired immunity against infectious diseases may be mediated by antibodies and/or T lymphocytes. Immunity mediated by these two factors may be manifested by:
A general method to prevent transmission of vector-borne pathogens is pest control.
Another effective way to decrease the transmission rate of infectious diseases is to recognize the effects of small-world networks.[17] In epidemics, there are often extensive interactions within hubs or groups of infected individuals and other interactions within discrete hubs of susceptible individuals. Despite the low interaction between discrete hubs, the disease can jump to and spread in a susceptible hub via a single or few interactions with an infected hub. Thus, infection rates in small-world networks can be reduced somewhat if interactions between individuals within infected hubs are eliminated (Figure 1). However, infection rates can be drastically reduced if the main focus is on the prevention of transmission jumps between hubs. The use of needle exchange programs in areas with a high density of drug users with HIV is an example of the successful implementation of this treatment method. [6] Another example is the use of ring culling or vaccination of potentially susceptible livestock in adjacent farms to prevent the spread of the foot-and-mouth virus in 2001.[19]
One of the ways to prevent or slow down the transmission of infectious diseases is to recognize the different characteristics of various diseases.[17] Some critical disease characteristics that should be evaluated include virulence, distance traveled by victims, and level of contagiousness. The human strains of Ebola virus, for example, incapacitate their victims extremely quickly and kill them soon after. As a result, the victims of this disease do not have the opportunity to travel very far from the initial infection zone.[18] Also, this virus must spread through skin lesions or permeable membranes such as the eye. Thus, the initial stage of Ebola is not very contagious since its victims experience only internal hemorrhaging. As a result of the above features, the spread of Ebola is very rapid and usually stays within a relatively confined geographical area. In contrast, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) kills its victims very slowly by attacking their immune system.[5] As a result, many of its victims transmit the virus to other individuals before even realizing that they are carrying the disease. Also, the relatively low virulence allows its victims to travel long distances, increasing the likelihood of an epidemic.
- antiseptics, which are applied to living tissue/skin
- disinfectants, which destroy microorganisms found on non-living objects.
- antibiotics, called prophylactic when given as prevention rather as treatment of infection. However, long term use of antibiotics leads to resistance and chances of developing opportunistic infections like clostridium difficile colitis.[16] Thus, avoiding using antibiotics longer than necessary helps preventing such infectious diseases.
Antimicrobial substances used to prevent transmission of infections include:
Nutrition must be improved and one has to make changes in life style- such as avoiding the use of illicit drugs, using a condom, and entering an exercise program. Cooking foods well and avoiding foods that have been left outside for a long time is also important. [15]


text:
Translated Information
A range of translated brochures and information which may be useful for CALD patients/clients and their families from Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American and African backgrounds.
Disclaimer: Every effort has been made to source and ensure that the information provided in this section is correct at the date of posting on the website. Waitemata DHB and the site editors do not accept any responsibility for information which is incorrect or out of date. If you find any information that you believe may be inaccurate, please email to eCALD Admin.
- The following list is in alphabetical order.
- You can search information or brochures by language eg Chinese, Arabic or multiple languages.
- You can also search by keyword eg diet, diabetes, autism, mental health etc.
Filter resources
Showing 1 filtered results


text:
The Oman Library at the Middle East Institute
HOURS: Monday - Friday: 10 am - 5 pm, closed Saturday and Sunday
Search 23,000 books and periodicals of the Oman Library in our library catalog.
The Oman Library at the Middle East Institute is known to have the largest English language collection of literature on the Middle East in Washington, D.C, outside of the Library of Congress. It is estimated to house approximately 23,000 books and periodicals, all devoted to the region. Our collection holds materials in regional languages including Arabic, Hebrew, French,Turkish and Farsi. Works in the library include items addressing, among other topics, various aspects of history, culture, politics, literature, and languages of the Middle East, Islamic lands, and relevant regions which reflect and buttress our mission.
The collection at the Oman Library is a unique resource for scholarly information about the Middle East, defined by the Institute as those countries spanning from Morocco to Pakistan, including Turkey and the countries of Central Asia. Our biweekly Collection Spotlights feature specific works within our collections and describe potential applications for scholarly research. Perhaps the most unique and special aspect of our collection is that we offer materials that are not easily found elsewhere, including primary documents, hard-to-find periodicals, valuable travelogues and other geographical works, and a large number of rare books. Numerous items in our collection are one-of-a-kind pieces, with the Oman Library being the sole carrier of certain items. Learn more.
We are always looking to expand our collections. Learn how you can donate to the Library.
The Oman Library at the Middle East Institute is located in a pleasant converted nineteenth century coach house overlooking the garden of the Middle East Institute at 1761 N Street, NW, Washington, DC. For directions and transportation information click here.
You can also check us out on Facebook!
Using a RSS reader is an excellent way to stay on top of the news in specific subject areas. It is easy to create and use an account with feed readers such as The Old Reader, Digg Reader and Feedly, among others. Below is a file that you can download and import into your reader. It has a general Middle East news folder along with country-specific folders for Egypt, Turkey, and Afghanistan/Pakistan. It is intended to be a foundation from which to build on and modify as you discover more feeds that are pertinent to your work or interests.
(Update: The file now also includes a folder for news sources on Syria)
Download the RSS file here!
Instructions: Right-click on the link above and select 'Save Link As' to save the file to your computer, and name it "OmanLibraryRSS.xml". Then within the RSS reader of your choice, look for an option to Import an OPML or XML file, and choose the file from your computer.


text:
HVD Fonts
After completing his studies (graphic design) in 2005, Hannes von Döhren worked in an advertising agency in Hamburg, Germany. Since 2007 he has been working as a freelance graphic- and type designer in Berlin. Von Döhren previously released several typefaces through Linotype, ITC and T26. He now releases some typefaces through his HVD Fonts foundry.


text:
Monday, August 13, 2007
Give them chocolate!
As many of you may know by now Rogue Valley Runners is giving away Dagoba chocolate in return for your old shoes. Most recycling centers don't have an option for athletic shoes and we want to be the outlet for Nike's reuse-a-shoe program. In addition, we will give you 10% off the purchase of your next pair of shoes. I don't know if you can handle that sweet of a deal. Read more about it in John Darling article for The Mail Tribune.
Posted by Rogue Valley Runners at 10:32 AM
2 comments:
- Catra said...
Hey Hal-
It was great seeing you & Ian.
What a wonderful surprise when I walked into your store. You have an awesome store. I will make sure to get the word out so when The PCT hikers hit Ashland they know where to go for shoes and other wonderful appearl.
Here is my blog so you can follow my wacky adventure catrapct.blogspot.com
Have a great run next week at Mont Blanc I will send you nothing but positive vibes.
Catra AKA "Dirt Diva"
- Thursday, August 16, 2007 6:12:00 PM
- Rennaker said...
why not free beer too?
- Friday, August 17, 2007 5:14:00 PM
Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)


text:
A man who said he planned on marrying Paris Hilton lunged at the socialite's boyfriend outside the Superior Court building in Van Nuys on Wednesday.
The man, who identified himself as James Rainford, grabbed the back of Cy Waits' shirt before Hilton's body guard intervened. Waits and Hilton were about to attend the trial of Hilton's alleged stalker, Nathan Lee Parada.
While her bodyguard wrestled the man to ground, Hilton recognized the suspect, saying "That's the guy who came on the bike to my house," referencing an incident from late last year.
Local news from across Southern California
When reporters asked the man who he was, he said, "I have someone in court."
Rainford also said he was planning to marry Hilton and he had photographic evidence.
"I've already proposed to her and her dad already said 'yes,'" he said.
Rainford also used a homophobic slur to describe Waits while talking to a roving crowd of reporters.
Hilton had posted on her Twitter account that a "psycho intruder just punched Cy in the back of the head as we were walking into the court house.''
Police Officer Cleon Joseph said the man has been detained and an investigation is under way.
Jury selection was completed Wednesday morning in the case of 32-year-old Nathan Lee Parada, who faces one felony count of attempted residential burglary for allegedly trying to break into Hilton's home.
He was arrested Aug. 24 by officers from the Los Angeles Police Department's Van Nuys Division, after Hilton called police to report that someone was outside her home.


text:
The Federal Emergency Management Agency says it will offer temporary manufactured homes to Colorado residents who have been unable to find housing after last month's floods.
KUSA-TV reported Thursday that the agency says the 50 HUD-approved homes are needed because of a housing shortage. More than 400 families are still living in hotels.
FEMA emphasizes the manufactured homes will not be the same ones used in the Katrina disaster but are HUD-approved homes similar to what you would find in any mobile home park.
They will likely be placed on existing concrete pads.
The federal agency told the television station that this type of temporary housing is considered a last resort but is needed because of Colorado's housing shortage.


text:
Twitter-land was abuzz last week with news that a formerly ardent critic of genetic engineering (GE) has recanted his position. Mark Lynas gave a long mea culpa speech at the Oxford Farming Conference, in which he apologized to the world for tearing up GE crops back in the day, and for what he described as his "anti-science environmentalism."
Unfortunately, Lynas then went on to ignore the weight of scientific evidence (more on that below). He claimed that GE crop production is good for biodiversity and necessary to feed the world, that organic farming is bad, and that "there is no reason at all why avoiding chemicals should be better for the environment." He then quickly slammed the door shut on public debate, pronouncing "discussion over." Many of us in the global scientific community were left shaking our heads, bemused if disappointed in Lynas' anti-science rhetorical flourishes.
Four excellent science- and evidence-based rebuttals to Lynas have since appeared, authored by University of Michigan evolution professor, John Vandermeer; Union of Concerned Scientists' Doug Gurian-Sherman; Dr. Brian John of UK's Durham University; and Earth Island Journal's Jason Mark.
Less rigorous was the response of journalists at the New York Times, New Yorker, L.A. Times, Slate and the Economist, who essentially reprinted large swaths of Lynas' speech, congratulating him on his "courageous" about-face, without bothering to investigate the veracity of any of his claims. In so doing, they've demonstrated their adroit use of the copy-paste function on their keyboards, but little else.
Separating evidence from rhetoric
Lynas went wrong in several areas. First, he claims that GE crops are critical to feeding the world. There are two fundamental problems with his reasoning: a) GE crops do not increase yield and b) focusing on productivity is not actually the way to solve world hunger.
Taking the second, larger point first: people are hungry because they cannot afford to buy food. They cannot afford food because they are poor, and their poverty is related to a host of complex political, social, economic and environmental factors. It turns out that things like global trade policies, land tenure, commodity speculation, corporate concentration ratios and biofuel mandates are more direct determinants of hunger than a crop plant's intrinsic yield.
That is why the most comprehensive global assessment of agriculture to date — the World Bank and U.N.-sponsored International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Scientific and Technology for Development (IAASTD), authored by 400 scientists and development experts from over 80 countries — highlighted the urgent need to undertake major shifts in governance, trade, finance and development policies in order to "feed the world." This could be achieved, says the IAASTD, by rebalancing power in the food system, supporting small-scale farmers and advancing social equity.
The scientific and technical challenge of the 21st century is not one of increasing productivity but of how to strengthen the ecological and human resilience of our food systems, in the face of increasing system stresses.
The IAASTD — and numerous other U.N. reports — have also concluded that increasing investment in agroecological and diversified farming systems is crucial to meeting the closely interconnected climate, water, energy and food challenges of the 21st century. According to the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, agroecological farming can double food production within 10 years, while mitigating climate change and alleviating poverty.
And on a purely practical level, one of the most cost-effective and sensible ways to address global food needs is to reduce food waste. From 30-50% of food produced globally goes to waste, according to a report out this month from the UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers.
In contrast, GE seeds were considered by IAASTD scientists unlikely to contribute to equitable and sustainable development or do much to reduce global hunger and poverty.
But does GE at least increase productivity?
Here too, GE seeds miss the mark. After 25 years of research, 14 years of commercialization and millions of dollars in public funding, GE has failed to deliver. GE crops neither increase yield nor provide nutritional benefits. U.S. land grant universities have even documented "yield drag" with losses of 5-10% in GE soy.
GE seeds sell pesticides
Lynas dismisses the notion that GE crops increase pesticide use. The reality is that herbicide-resistant GE seeds have driven enormous increases in pesticide applications over the past 16 years.
Virtually 100% of GE crops planted worldwide have been engineered to be used with herbicides or contain insecticidal toxins, or both, according to industry data. As superweeds and superbugs evolve resistance to GE crops and their associated pesticides, farmers resort to more chemical use, not less. This is happening in the U.S., India, China and South Africa.
The latest analysis of data out of Washington State University shows that GE crops have driven up overall pesticide use across the country, contributing to a 527 million pound increase in herbicide use between 1996 and 2011. And last year alone, GE crops used 20 percent more pesticides on average than non-GE crops.
This is the pesticide industry's dirty little secret: GE seeds are engineered to be the growth engine of the world's biggest pesticide companies, not the green solution to the world's food needs.
Will this change? Not anytime soon. Most of the "new generation" GE crops developed by Dow and Monsanto — and currently in the USDA pipeline awaiting agency approval—have been engineered for use with older and more hazardous pesticides like 2,4-D and dicamba. 2,4-D resistant corn alone is expected to drive a 25-fold increase in the use of 2,4-D on corn over the next six years, and weed scientists are predicting a new epidemic of herbicide-resistant "superweeds."
In addition to the emergence of superweeds, pesticides drifting off-target to damage neighboring crops is a key concern among farmers. This is why the Save Our Crops coalition of conventional farmers objects to the new generation of herbicide-resistant GE crops, a fundamental concern powerfully stated by Indiana soybean farmer, Troy Roush, in the video below.
What about organic farming?
Lynas also claims that GE agriculture protects biodiversity and that organic agriculture is no better for people or the environment. Yet by definition, organic farming removes chemical pesticides from the environment, thereby protecting farmers, farmworkers and their families, rural communities and children (as well as workers at pesticide manufacturing facilities) who bear disproportionate risks from pesticide exposure. See any number of articles by my co-worker Kristin Schafer, who tracks the science documenting health impacts of pesticides. The literature on environmental harms of pesticides is likewise vast.
In terms of biodiversity, it is GE soy in Brazil and Argentina — not organic farming — that drives Amazonian deforestation, threatening the region's fauna and flora. The IAASTD Latin America report cites damage to the Amazon, the Cerrado in Brazil and the Yungas forest in Argentina from the expansion of GE soybean plantations there, and calls for measures prohibiting the transfer of GE seeds among countries that are centers of genetic diversity for those crops.
Lynas goes on to accuse organic farmers of violating the rights and ability of GE farmers to produce their crops. In reality, it's the other way around: GE production threatens both organic and conventional farms and rural livelihoods with chemical drift and genetic contamination.
Finally, while hunger is not a matter of scarcity, it is worth noting that organic, small-scale farming can feed the world. A comprehensive examination of nearly 300 studies worldwide shows that organic farms in developing countries outperformed conventional practices by 57%, and that organic agriculture could produce enough food, on a per capita basis, to provide 2,640 to 4,380 calories per person per day — more than the suggested intake for healthy adults.
An in-depth UNEP/UNCTAD report on organic agriculture and food security in Africa likewise concluded that organic farming provides one of the most robust solutions to that region's food needs. For decades, cutting-edge research by the international Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL), the Rodale Institute and the Organic Farming Research Foundation has spearheaded scientific progress in the field and continues to demonstrate organic farming's high levels of water and land use efficiency.
Science & democracy
Science works best when done democratically; that is, in ways consistent with democratic values of transparency, accountability and participatory decision-making.
When Lynas concluded his speech, "I don't know about you, but I've had enough. The GM debate is over. It is finished," he rejected both science and democracy. That's really too bad.
Fortunately, we have many genuine models of science and democracy in action. When professional scientists engage respectfully with farmer-scientists, amazing things happen. When rural communities engage in grassroots science — whether monitoring pesticide drift in California, evaluating predator-prey dynamics in Indonesia, or tackling cassava mosaic virus in the Congo — we all benefit.
It's past time to move on from debunking empty arguments, and get back to the inspiring, creative work that so many are already engaged in: building vibrant food and farming systems and crafting smart policies, grounded in science and dedicated to the proposition that honesty, transparency and civic engagement matter.
This blog was originally posted on Civil Eats.
Hi Marcia!
My name is Santiago del Solar. I'm an Argentinean farmer and an agronomist.
I'm always worried to try to work better each year and help in my country to develop and have a much better ag.
Why do you say that GMO's don't improve yields and that we are using more chemicals when we plant GMO's? In my case it's just the opposite. We are using less and more friendly chemicals and I can prove it if you want the data.
Also when we talk about yields. They are getting better each year with GMO's. Especially corn where we have a lot of new events approved in Argentina.
But if you have better info, please share it with me! I always need to learn or realize if I'm wrong. If you want me to send info to you,just ask it.
All the best from Argentina
Hi Santiago, thanks so much for writing.
On impacts re: pesticide use in the U.S., what our scientists have found is that while insecticide use has decreased slightly with the introduction of Bt crops (down 56 million kg between 1996 and 2011), that decrease has been overwhelmed by a huge increase in herbicides (up 239 million kg). Also, insects are developing resistance to the Bt in Bt crops now, so the reduced insecticide effect is disappearing, as conventional farmers resort to more insecticides once again.
Overall, pesticide use in GE crops has increased in the U.S. by 183 million kg, or 7%. On average last year, GE crops used 20% more pesticides than non-GE crops, and the next wave of 2,4-D resistant GE crops are expected to drive up herbicide use by 50% more.
The data on GE crops failure to increase intrinsic yield are presented and analyzed by the Union of Concerned Scientists in their report, Failure to Yield. I'm not suprised, however, that you are seeing improved yields in some of the GE crops you are planting. The reason would not have to do with the GE traits which have been inserted by Monsanto or other biotech companies (those are typically insecticidal properties or herbicide-resistant, or both - which together account for 99.9% of all commercially available GE seeds).
Rather, the reason for good yield performance in GE crops is that Monsanto and the other companies use the germplasm or seed of the best high-yielding varieties available, which have been bred to yield well through conventional plant breeding methods (and often by public universities funded with taxpayer dollars). They then insert their insecticidal or herbicide resistant traits, patent it as a Monsanto (or Dow or Bayer or BASF...) product and market it as such.
A farmer in Iowa told me last year that his local extension agent advised him to buy as much of a conventional high-yielding variety of corn as possible, because - the extensionist warned him - Monsanto was engineering that variety to include Monsanto traits and the following year it would no longer be available as a conventional seed in the local seed store. So if he would want the high yielding characeristics of that seed in the future, he'd only be able to get it by buying it in the form of a patented Monsanto GE seed, and he'd also have to pay all the extra technology and licensing fees to Monsanto for the insecticidal/herbicide-resistant traits that he might not actually want or need!
I hope that helps answer your questions. I'd be glad to learn more about the situation you are observing in Argentina. Please do send me an email.
Thanks again!
Dear Marcia:
Thank you for answer my comment! As I told you, as a farmer I'm trying to improve every year and learn more about Ag, and having this contact with you helps me a lot!
I may talk about what is going on in Argentina only. And I can say that is not so easy to say how much of the yield improvement in corn is due to Biotech, genetics, better agricultural techniques or fertilizers. I think its all them added. We almost doubled yields in 20 years.
This year we had terrible floods in Bs As province and the harvest was delayed for months. Even in some small areas I even harvested corn a few weeks ago! We usually harvest during April. It was so flooded, that I could harvest it very late, and because we have BT corn, we could harvest it. If not, all the corn because of insects would have fall down and the ear gets in contact with water and we loose all harvest.It happened with the refuge ( 10 % area not BT). Corn was ruined in the refuge areas as it did years ago, when floods came and we didn't have Bt corn.
Why do you measure the increase in pesticides in pounds or kilos? We try to measure how much DL50/kg we use, so we know if we are improving or not using friendlier pesticides. And we are! I got all that data if you want to see it. I would like your opinion about the data.
Here in Argentina we have free choice of seeds. We may buy any brand we like or prefer. No one is saying that we should buy this or that brand ...thanks god!
But as I told you I would love to be in contact with you, so Im sending you my personal e-mail
All the best
I am interested in your response and details of how GMO yields are increasing and the use of chemicals is falling.
Can you give better details of this please as it is important and for many GMO food crops there is evidence of the opposite due to resistance genes entering the weeds in the area.
Yields seem to be up or down year to year as you get in normal years depending on seasons and weather etc etc.
There are fundamental reasons to think the GMO food actually turns to real non-food and researchers ten year study showing harm to organs of animals fed on this would vindicate such thoughts.
This applies to Monsanto NK603 and is research on one GMO food only.
Fundamental things such as use of genes from bacteria and viruses and resistance to antibiotics or markers at least give huge cause for concern that only scientists and not many of those would be concerned with as I am the only one I know of who is concerned.
Its all very well selling millions of tons maybe extra of soya, maize etc etc but not good if the food quality is reduced or actually very slowly harming everyone.
I fail to see logically how you would choose to eat foods that actually is LETHAL for certain living creatures but somehow marvelous for those not able to afford organic or certified non-GMO.
As this is a basic and simple concept it worries me after 40 years of use nobody thinks of how paleolithic man went about choosing what to eat.
Did he for example only choose foods that killed all other creatures as seems to be done for 2013 GMO foods?
Also I remember when you went to the shops you chose this variety or that variety. Why today is food heaped together so even organic food is reckoned to contain first one amount of GMO adulterant then more and then more again as all the food types interact when before they didn't?
In France it is technically or near a criminal offence to grow and sell ancient types of tomatoes and those that we get have skins so tough I now actually have to peel them! Something I do in 2013 that I NEVER had to do for fifty years before.
Dear Marcia
Thank you for answering my post.
As i said, I can only talk about Argentina. I do have charts and statistics myself, and I may send them to you if you give me an e mail address. But our Agricultural agency MINAGRI web site has all the data. YES! Corn yields are growing each year. Of course we have good and bad years. But we get double the yields we had 20 years ago.
With my family we eat corn, and its tasty and looks exactly the same years ago. its safe. Here in Argentina we all eat GM corn.
We always had weed resistance to herbicides. Before Glifosate and now. We also have resistance to some pesticides with insects. Now and before GM. And in Argentinean hospitals we have also bacteria resistance to some antibiotics. The answer to this is to rotate with different products. That was the way before, and that is the way today.
Of course we are concerned about trying to improve Ag. Using the better techniques. Maybe in south america we don't have prejudgment about some things that in developed countries sound terrible, but here is normal, and we rely our scientist. Our university, our regulations,and our Doctors. I hope this doesn't sound defying. And we are humble enough to change if something is going wrong.We don't own the truth.
But I never heard of any problem eating BT corn. Not animals or humans. That is may daily experience.
We had a dramatic change in Argentinas AG . For BETTER! With new technologies such as no till,GM, presicion agriculture. And we feel proud about it. We got rid of soil erosion with no till, and RR Soybeans had a lot to do. Argentina is different with GMo's and all the other new techs. More jobs. Better life. Better Ag.
And as I told you before. If we are wrong I will change. But the evidence here in Argentina is the opposite of what you are telling to me.
Of course I'm not a scientist. I'm a south american farmer and an agronomist trying to improve. So if you want me to send you data here goes my e mail again.
All the best from Argentina!


text:
UMass Lowell scales back Fall 2020 plan to minimize students, employees on campus. View the plan for more info.
The UMass Lowell Department of Biological Sciences offers a general master's degree, as well as several other options within the degree.
The Master of Science in Biological Sciences, and the Master of Science in Biological Sciences - Biotechnology Option provide the advanced study and training necessary to conduct independent research at a professional level and to be successful in today's competitive academic and industrial research markets. Students in the program will be encouraged to explore quantitative approaches to the solution of problems in the basic and applied biological sciences. Depending on their career goals, students may choose either research or course work options within the Department, or from the interdisciplinary Biotechnology option. All candidates for the master's degree are expected to demonstrate sufficient knowledge and skills to pursue independent and creative research activities.
Graduates of the Master of Science in Biological Sciences: Education, Communication and Outreach option will gain expertise in the biological sciences, while also taking appropriate coursework in education, psychology, and business that is tailored to their desired career. This program would be a great fit for students with career interests in education, curriculum development, as well as life science and sustainability training. Students selecting from this option would have a choice of completing coursework only, or coursework with a project of theses; a project or thesis could be in biology education depending on future career plans.
The Professional Science Master's Program (PSM) combines traditional training in biological sciences with additional preparation in areas outside of biology, such as project management and discipline-specific courses, to provide students with a broader expertise useful for attaining positions in private-sector companies. A thesis is not required, but each student must participate in a professional internship.
Four Professional Science Master's options are available:
Applications for the Master of Science, including the Biotechnology and Education, Communication and Outreach Options, are considered twice per year, with deadlines for receipt of applications of October 15 and January 10 for the following Spring and Fall semesters, respectively.
Entering graduate students are expected to have a sound preparation in the biological sciences, chemistry, physics, calculus, and statistics. A student found deficient in any of these areas may be required, during the first year, to take appropriate courses to eliminate the deficiencies. If the student has not had a biochemistry course, BIOL.5190 should be taken for graduate credit. The departmental Graduate Coordinator helps plan the entering students programs of study, acquaints them with research opportunities in the department, and assists in selecting research advisors.
Applications for the Professional Science Master's program (PSM) are accepted year round, but it is recommended that complete applications be submitted several months before expected matriculation. Similarly to the MS degree described above, applicants are expected to have a strong background in biological science.
Applications and information for admission to the MS and PSM programs can be found at the Graduate Admissions website.
Minimal core requirements for all options include 1 semester (3 credits) of Professional Communication in Science and Technology BIOL.6040, completion of Biochemistry BIOL.5190 or an approved equivalent and a minimum of 12 credits of formal course work selected from departmental electives (exclusive of thesis, project, problems, or other directed studies).
The remaining credits may be satisfied by additional electives within the department (thesis, project, problems, or more course work), by transfer credit for approved graduate level biological sciences courses taken at other accredited institutions (9 credit maximum), or by graduate courses taken in related disciplines within the University (e.g., bioinformatics, chemistry, environmental sciences, chemical engineering, radiological sciences; 8 credit maximum). There is no formal language requirement.
Students whose professional goals are to continue on for the Ph.D. degree, or who plan to seek employment in academic or industrial research laboratories as technicians or junior scientists are strongly advised to choose the thesis or project option in order to successfully compete for such positions. Students in the non-thesis option should endeavor to select courses with accompanying laboratories whenever possible.
In choosing to complete a thesis, the student concentrates on an in-depth, independent, scholarly investigation of a contemporary biological problem. Credit is allowed for 6-12 semester hours of M.S. Thesis Research. After consulting with the research advisor, the student selects two additional faculty members (one of whom must be from within the Department) to serve as members of the Thesis Committee. The student presents to the Committee a proposal of intended research and obtains the Committee's approval of the research topic. After completing the written thesis, the student gives an oral presentation of his results to the Thesis Committee.
The project track is designed for independent laboratory investigations of a more limited nature than completing a thesis. Generally, a project is completed in one or two semesters and credit is given for 3 or 6 semester hours of M.S. Project (no more than 6 credits will be allowed).
This track offers course work in breadth and depth, and may be of special interest to secondary school science teachers and individuals already employed in academic, hospital, or industrial laboratories. The course work only track may be completed during the day on a full-time basis or in late-afternoon or evening sessions on a part-time basis. However, since not all day courses are available in the evening sessions, a part-time student's progress toward the M.S. degree will depend not only on his/her available time and abilities, but also on the scheduling of electives. In some instances, with the consent of a faculty member, an evening student may elect to complete a thesis or project.
Credit (BIOL-5000; 3cr) may be requested by individuals who present satisfactory evidence (in the form of a written statement from their current supervisor) of engaging in at least one year of full-time experience in secondary school science teaching, or in an academic, hospital, or industrial laboratory setting.
Each student is required to complete one semester of Professional Communication in Science and Technology (BIOL.6040; 3 credits) in Biology.
This option is more structured than the M.S. in Biological Sciences program described above. The core curriculum offers extensive hands-on experience in current techniques and instrumentation. Field trips and seminars afford students an opportunity for interaction with the biotechnology industry. Students are encouraged to conduct research in one of the recognized areas of biotechnology or to present an innovative application of technology or engineering principles to a biological problem of economic interest. The nature and extent of the investigation will determine its degree credit value. Those who enter the program having already completed some of the core courses, or who already have extensive laboratory experience, may consult with an advisor to design a course of study appropriate to their needs. A variety of biotechnology-related electives are available.
Any 3 Required Laboratory courses from the following list:
Up to 9 credits of coursework may be taken in other departments. The sum of core and elective courses must total at least 30 credits.
The curriculum requires students to complete: 2 core courses (Biochemistry I and Professional Communication in Science and Technology) common to all options; 1-2 core courses specific to the option that allow for specialization; additional electives within and outside the Biology Department that permit flexibility in meeting the students' employment needs and interests; 2 advanced courses specific to the option; and a 1 credit Professional Internship that can be completed during a summer session or either academic semesters. The total minimum credit requirement for each option is 37.
Core Biology Requirements - Applied Biotechnology PSM Option
Additional Biology Courses - Applied Biotechnology PSM Option (3 credits minimum)
Advanced Biotechnology/Interdisciplinary Courses - Applied Biotechnology PSM Option (6 credits minimum)
Professional Internship Applied Biotechnology PSM Option (1 credit)
Core Requirements - Biosafety PSM Option
Additional Biology Courses - Biosafety PSM Option (18 credits)
Advanced Biosafety/Interdisciplinary Courses - Work Environment/Rad Science (choose 6 credits)
Professional Internship Biosafety PSM Option (1 credit)
Core Requirements Environmental Biotechnology PSM Option
Advanced Environmental Biotechnology/Interdisciplinary Courses (choose 14 credits)
Professional Internship Environmental Biotechnology PSM Option (1 credit)
Core Requirements Project Management for Life Sciences PSM Option
Additional Biology Courses Project Management for Life Sciences PSM Option (choose 21 credits)
(Graduate, BIOL.XXXX
Advanced Management Courses Project Management for Life Sciences PSM Option (choose 6 credits)
Professional Internship Project Management for Life Sciences PSM Option (1 credit)
This 33 credit program allows students to gain expertise in the biological sciences, while also taking appropriate coursework in education, psychology, and business that is tailored to their desired career. Students have the opportunity to diversify their coursework into other departments that are relevant for their career paths, without compromising the scientific rigor or their education and training.
Graduates of the Master of Science in Biological Sciences: Education, Communication and Outreach option will be prepared to:
Curriculum Pathways:


text:
"The Angel Inside is a powerfully simple story that helps you discover your potential for a passionate life!"
—John C. Maxwell, author, speaker and founder of INJOY Stewardship Services and EQUIP
Advance Praise for The Angel Inside
"Chris Widener's The Angel Inside is a short read that is long on wisdom for life. Take an hour and a half of your time and delve into this truly meaningful book. It will captivate you from beginning to end, but more important, it will help you create your own life of power and beauty."
—Jim Rohn – www.JimRohn.com
"A very special one-day relationship between a wise mentor and his struggling but eager protégé. What a delightful story for everyone to read, and from which to benefit greatly!"
—Bob Burg – www.Burg.com
"The Angel Inside is truly one of the most inspiring, encouraging motivational books I have ever read. Once I got started, I found it impossible to stop reading. And I say this as a man who has never read fiction; I've always said that when I get all of the truth, then I'll start reading fiction. It was a wonderful thrill to read a work of fiction that contains an enormous amount of truth and encouragement."
—Zig Ziglar


text:
Music Theory & Composition Professional Sequence
Students wishing to pursue the Bachelor of Music in Composition, the Bachelor of Music in Theory, or the Bachelor of Arts in Music Theory degrees must apply for admission to the professional sequence, which includes an application form, recommendation from a member of the theory faculty (for a theory degree) or the composition faculty (for a composition degree), recommendation from an applied teacher, and a portfolio of original writings (for a theory degree) or compositions (for a composition degree). The entire theory and composition faculty will review the application materials. Admission will be based on the following minimum criteria:
- Grade-point average of 3.0 in all MTHC courses
- Satisfactory faculty recommendations in music theory or music composition, and applied music
- Demonstration of performance proficiency on some instrument or voice
- Positive evaluation of the portfolio by the admission committee
Students must complete at least three semesters of music theory courses before applying for admission to the program. Transfer students must complete at least one semester at KU prior to applying for the sequence. Candidates will be reviewed for admission twice a year. The deadline for applications is April 15 (fall semester) or October 15 (spring semester) by 5:00 p.m. Submit application form and completed recommendations to the Director of the Music Theory and Composition Division Scott Murphy's mailbox, located outside 460 Murphy Hall, and submit portfolio in the form of PDF documents to firstname.lastname@example.com.


text:
Prior to the start of this game both teams new that earning 2 points was imperative. For the Phoenix Coyotes winning this game meant more than gaining points, a win for the Coyotes would have set a franchise record for the most wins at home. Vancouver made sure that achieving this record would be very hard as this game was finally won by Phoenix in the shootout.
The first period was quite uneventful; Vancouver looked very sluggish and failed to create many scoring chances in the Coyotes zone, although neither team was able to score. Phoenix dominated this period and played with more intensity than Vancouver.
The middle frame started very much like the first, until Jovanovski decided to turn up the momentum an opened up the scoring for the Coyotes, Doan and Upshall got the assist's. Approximately 49 seconds later Samuelsson tied the game for Vancouver with help from fellow Swede Henrik Sedin. Phoenix regained the lead late in the second when Prucha fired a shot past Luongo into the open net.
Phoenix were physical throughout the third playing a very good defensive game that kept the Canucks from tying things up. Luongo helped to keep his team in the game especially when he made a great save on a shot from the Coyotes leading scorer Shane Doan. With just over 6 minuets left in regulation Kyle Wellwood silenced the now raucous Coyotes fans when he rifled the puck into the net, forcing the game into overtime.
During overtime Phoenix threw everything they had at Luongo but he made things very difficult for the Coyotes. LaBarbera also made some great saves that ensured that this game could only be won with a shootout. This would be the second consecutive shootout for Phoenix who lost to San Jose the night before. The shootout went to the third round when Vrbata, Wellwood and Raymond all failed to score for their respective teams. Korpikoski sealed the win for Phoenix and helped to extend his teams home win streak by scoring the only goal of the shootout. This helped to set the franchise record of ten wins at home.
Vancouver's next game will be on New Years Eve, when they face The St Louis Blues. The Blues are currently sat in 12th place in the Western Conference and have lost their last three games. After the defeat to Phoenix Vancouver are still placed in the 8th spot in the Western Conference. Unfortunately Vancouver maybe without defenseman Kevin Beiksa for the next game as he suffered a bad skate cut to his left leg during the second period. Bieksa will not be with the team for the next game, he will travel back to Vancouver. The injury could possibly mean he is out of the line up for a few weeks.
On a final note as expected Team Canada have announced today that Canucks goalkeeper Roberto Luongo will play for his country in the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.
All feedback is welcome. You can follow me at www.twitter.com/canuckulhead