Friday, March 5, 2010

“Crash course in international studies (The Brown Daily Herald)” plus 3 more

“Crash course in international studies (The Brown Daily Herald)” plus 3 more

Crash course in international studies (The Brown Daily Herald)

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 10:06 PM PST

International students have always been a presence at the University, but technology is now allowing Brunonians to collaborate with students in Brazil, India and Cuba without requiring a passport.

A new seminar offered for the first time last fall, PPAI 1701G: "Science and Technology Policy in the Global South," enabled Brown students to work directly with students at other universities. Throughout the semester, students held video conferences with students from Brazil's Universidade Federal da Bahia and Universidade Nacional del Sur on social and racial inequalities relating to access to science and technology. In addition, the Brown students maintained a blog about renewable energies with students from India's University of Calcutta.

In designing the seminar, Geri Augusto, adjunct assistant professor in public policy, said she wanted to create a way in which her students were "learning with (other students) and not from them."  She said she wanted to create a forum for "an equitable and sophisticated two-way conversation."

"I'm always interested in how collaborative learning and teaching can take place across time and space," said Augusto, adding that she also continually looks for "ways we can increase learning that are more equitable."

"Ideas and perspectives exist everywhere among students," Augusto said. "What's different is the access." Technology is one way to make this access more equitable, she said.

Though the class was not associated with specific internationalization efforts, Augusto said she received a course internationalization grant from the office of Vice President for International Affairs Matthew Gutmann. The grant helped her travel to Salvador da Bahia, Brazil, over the summer and contact professors and students there.

"No matter how good electronic stuff is, face-to-face interchanges are very important when you are trying to establish a new relationship," Augusto said, adding that she will include a section on the Andes to the course when she teaches it next fall.

HMAN 1970R: "Literature and the Arts in Today's Cuba," a senior seminar offered last fall, also reflects the increasing role technology plays in classes that work with universities abroad. The class, taught last semester by Assistant Professor of Comparative Literature Esther Whitfield, was offered in the fall for the second time. Throughout the semester, students participated in several video conferences with Cuban intellectuals and artists — including architect Mario Coyula, writer Victor Fowler Calzada and filmmaker Fernando Perez.

Though the seminar was conducted primarily in English, all lectures were in Spanish, as were many of the readings. The students conducted video conferences in the Watson Center for Information Technology that were linked to Casa de las Americas, the cultural institution in Cuba where Brown students take classes while abroad.

Cuba's Internet censorship required the program to acquire special permission from the government to hold the video conferences. Though specialists were present during the conferences, both at Brown and in Cuba, there were often technical difficulties.

"The Cuban government had never set up one of these interchanges before, so they didn't really know how to do it," said Michelle Levinson '11, who studied in Cuba last fall and attended the e-lectures.

Despite technological problems, students back at Brown said they felt the class was a very valuable experience. Lily Friedman '09.5, who took the class last fall, said one of the reasons she first became interested in the seminar was because it focused on such an isolated part of the world.

"Traditionally, Cuba is a very inaccessible part of the world, especially for us in the United States," Friedman said.

Without Brown's special university-to-university relationship, the participating artists "probably would not have been able to present themselves to an international community," Levinson said.

Marianna Faircloth '10, another student who took the class, said she used the opportunity to communicate with a direct source. While working on her final paper, she e-mailed one speaker, who helped her find sources on Cuban tattooing and body art.

Without the guest lecturers, Friedman said, "It would have been a great art history class, but the artists never would have come to life in the same way."

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

MU fair educates students about international studies (The Huntington Herald-Dispatch)

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 09:43 PM PST

HUNTINGTON — Representatives from more than a dozen study aboard organizations were on-hand yesterday to inform students about opportunities to study aboard during their enrollment at Marshall University. Marshall sends approximately 150 students each year to study abroad.

"The fair is a great time for students to collect information if they are interested in going abroad at some point in their four years at Marshall," said Kylie Gallagher, Marshall's executive study abroad advisor. "Having a representative there to answer questions for each specific program is very helpful for students."

Representatives on-hand included Center for International Studies, Athena Abroad, International Studies Abroad, AHA International, Amizade, Academic Programs International, Semester at Sea, American Institute for Foreign Study, Study Abroad Italy, Centers for academic Programs Abroad, Institute for Study Abroad Butler University, World Learning SIT, Returning Students from Abroad and Marshall University's Study Abroad Office.

Survival packs including items handy for traveling were given away during the event.

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

International Cooperation Strengthens Cybersecurity's Role (Bernama)

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 06:30 PM PST

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Studies Presented At 2010 Genitourinary Cancers Symposium Advance Management, Treatment Of Prostate And Bladder Cancers (Medical News Today)

Posted: 04 Mar 2010 11:39 AM PST


Main Category: Prostate / Prostate Cancer
Also Included In: Cancer / Oncology
Article Date: 04 Mar 2010 - 8:00 PST

email icon email to a friend   printer icon printer friendly   write icon view / write opinions



New studies on the treatment of genitourinary cancers were released today in advance of the third annual Genitourinary Cancers Symposium, being held March 5-7, 2010, at the San Francisco Marriott.

The results of four studies were highlighted in a media presscast (press briefing via live webcast):

- Investigational chemotherapy drug increases survival for advanced prostate cancer: An international phase III clinical trial reports that a new chemotherapy drug called cabazitaxel increases survival by 30 percent in men, compared with standard therapy, with metastatic prostate cancer that has progressed despite docetaxel-based chemotherapy. There are currently no effective treatments in this setting.

- Molecular urine test predicts outcomes of prostate biopsy: A sub-analysis from a large prostate cancer prevention trial finds that the PCA3 urine test accurately predicts whether a prostate biopsy will reveal cancer - findings that may help guide prostate biopsy decisions in men suspected to have prostate cancer.

- Adding hormone therapy to radiation improves survival, reduces recurrence in men with intermediate-risk early-stage prostate cancer: A large phase III study reports that men with early-stage prostate cancer who are at increased risk of recurrence live longer and are less likely to experience a recurrence when they receive short-term hormone therapy before and during moderate-dose radiation therapy compared with men who receive radiation therapy alone.

- Adding urine biomarker tests to standard cystoscopy is not cost-effective for bladder cancer surveillance: Analysis demonstrates that routinely adding urine tests to out-patient cystoscopy unnecessarily increases the cost of monitoring for bladder cancer recurrence and the risk of a false-positive result, but does not improve tumor detection.

"Having a new chemotherapy drug for advanced prostate cancer is a very exciting development. Increasing survival among patients with advanced disease is a difficult feat, and a major step forward in clinical cancer research," said Nicholas J. Vogelzang, MD, Chair and Medical Director of the Developmental Therapeutics Committee of US Oncology, who moderated today's presscast. "Other important studies presented today will help inform the use of new biomarker tests to diagnose and monitor genitourinary cancers, and recognize their limitations."

Genitourinary cancers include those of the prostate, kidney, bladder and testis, as well as less common cancers such as those of the penis, ureters and other urinary organs. Each year more than 332,000 people in the United States are diagnosed with genitourinary cancers and more than 56,000 die of these diseases. The most common genitourinary cancer is prostate cancer, which is diagnosed in more than 192,000 men and claims more than 27,000 lives each year.

The Genitourinary Cancers Symposium is co-sponsored by the American Society for Clinical Oncology (ASCO), the American Society for Radiation Oncology (ASTRO) and the Society of Urologic Oncology (SUO).

Source
ASCO

Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)