By Carey Howard

Internships and Seminars at the World Health Organization!

May 27th, 2015 in Outside Announcements

A couple of weeks ago we hosted Adriana Velazquez Berumen, biomedical engineer and Senior Advisor on Medical Devices at the World Health Organization. She has kindly sent along some follow up information on her talk, internship opportunities at WHO and some other information:

1. For internships in WHO.

  1. The World Conference on Medical physics and biomedical engineering. This conference happens every 3 years, and will be held in Toronto in 2 weeks.
  1. If anyone is interested in listening to the two last days of the World Health Assembly or to downloading documents.
  1. For medical devices publications.
  1. To join the WHOMEDICALDEVICES LISTSERV (events, surveys, information, etc)

Doctors Without Borders webcast: Crisis Update in Yemen; Thursday, May 28th

May 27th, 2015 in Outside Announcements

Crisis Update: Yemen
Thursday, May 28, 1:00 PM EDT

PLEASE REGISTER ON EVENTBRITE TO RECEIVE THE LINK TO VIEW THE WEBCAST: https://crisis-update-yemen.eventbrite.com

The humanitarian crisis in Yemen grows more catastrophic each day. Fighting and indiscriminate airstrikes have harmed civilians, medical facilities, and critical infrastructure, disabling the only international airport in the country. These attacks, along with an unwavering blockade, have crippled Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières's (MSF's) ability to access people who are in dire need of care, as it is nearly impossible to get supplies and aid workers into the country. Fuel is all but unavailable, making it increasingly difficult for Yemenis to seek medical care, or even access clean drinking water. Since fighting broke out, more than 1,500 people have been killed, and MSF has treated more than 1,600 wounded by the fighting and bombings.

Panelists:

Robert Blecher, deputy program director, Middle East and North Africa, for International Crisis Group.

Philippe Bolopion, United Nations and crisis advocacy director for Human Rights Watch.

Pablo Marco, Middle East operations manager for MSF, and recently returned from Sana'a.

Phil Zabriskie, editorial director for MSF-USA, will moderate the discussion.

If you are unable to view the live broadcast of this webcast, the recording will be posted to the Livestream page.

AmeriCares seeks Program Manager for Safe Surgery Initiative in Medical Outreach Program

May 27th, 2015 in Jobs

ABOUT AMERICARES

AmeriCares is an emergency response and global health organization that saves lives and builds healthier futures for people in crisis in the U.S. and around the world. Every day, AmeriCares puts critically needed medicines and supplies in the hands of frontline health workers and develops innovative, sustainable health improvements in their communities. We are the leading nonprofit for delivering donated medicines and medical supplies to health programs around the world. We leverage this core competency with emergency preparedness, response and recovery efforts, and programs that improve health outcomes. Our programs increase access to care in more than 90 countries every year.

MEDICAL OUTREACH PROGRAM SUMMARY

US-based volunteer medical teams travel abroad to provide primary care, perform surgeries, respond to emergencies and strengthen local health care capacity. It is our mission to support this community with product and technical resources, and opportunities for collaboration to enhance their impact so more people have access to the health care they need to lead healthy, productive, independent lives. In fiscal 2014, Medical Outreach provided $48.5 million in product donations, allowing 1,223 medical outreach teams to see hundreds of thousands of patients, perform tens of thousands of surgeries and develop the skills of countless health care staff.

POSITION SUMMARY

A Safe Surgery Initiative (SSI) will improve access to safe surgery in low-resource settings, specifically it will increase the number of operating room staff that have access to and are trained in the use of pulse oximeters for patient monitoring as a critical component of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist. The program manager has primary responsibility for developing and implementing a SSI pilot program using our network of volunteer surgical teams, inventory of medical products, the Exchange website, and logistics and reporting capabilities to assess oximeter needs, deliver devices and training, collect related data and report on impact. The SSI will establish a sustainable model for an ongoing and expanded SSI to improve surgical safety, and for subsequent, additional health care quality initiatives.

Learn more and apply here.

Take this amazing opportunity to learn the inside of a fast track global public career from one of our star graduates, Cristin Marona. Cristin is the Senior Development Advisor at GRM Futures Group International. She is currently based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

May 18th, 2015 in GH Announcements

Cristin Marona (BUSPH ’10) Guest Lecture

Thursday, May 21, 1:45 to 2:45 PM, Crosstown 460A

Take this amazing opportunity to learn the inside of a fast track global public career from one of our star graduates, Cristin Marona. Cristin is the Senior Development Advisor at GRM Futures Group International. She is currently based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

In that position she:

  • Manages a global portfolio covering areas of behavior chance communication, business development, and advocacy and capacity building on various health, economic and education focused programs.
  • Country lead and manager for the Tanzania portfolio. She also manages programs in South Africa and Nigeria.
  • Contributes to strategic input on behavior change communication interventions leading to health outcomes and goals. Behavior change communication work ranges in technical areas, including maternal and child health, gender based violence, orphans and vulnerable children, and poverty reduction.
  • Advocates in key areas to expand capacity and country ownership of health and education programs. Assists in forging strong partnerships with local community programs and local government initiatives that foster the practice of positive behavior among individuals and communities by improving their knowledge, attitudes, skills, and norms about key practices that promote improved strategies, use of appropriate tools, and improved behavior related to sustainable development and growth.

Cristin will be in Boston in May where she also serves as Co-Instructor with Professor James Wolf in GH744 Program Design for Global Health.

Don’t miss the opportunity to hear her describe her truly remarkable early career since she graduated BUSPH. She will also share first hand, real time career tips, her views on the most important skills to secure while at BUSPH and fascinating, behind the scenes stories from the field. For those of you determined to work in global health programs, Cristin’s advice and insights will prove invaluable.

To make be sure there will be enough room and FOOD and DRINK for all, be sure and RSVP on CareerLink, under Events/Info Sessions.

 

USAID job with AIDS/TB/Education Programs in Kyrgyzstan

May 15th, 2015 in Jobs

The USAID Kyrgyz Republic Mission (USAID/KR) is headquartered in Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic, with a sub-office in Osh in the south of the country. The Kyrgyz Republic is bordered by Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, and China and is an emerging parliamentary democracy still recovering from a violent political transition in 2010. Because it serves as a model for democracy in the region, and because of its proximity to South Asia and its potential to contribute to stability in nearby Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Kyrgyz Republic is of considerable geopolitical and strategic interest to the United States.

The U.S. Government's program of assistance in the Kyrgyz Republic is focused on the growth of diversified enterprise and trade; building a more open, democratic culture; better management of environmental resources, including energy; and improved HIV and Tuberculosis and education services. The mission manages over $35 million in assistance funds annually. The Mission implements its programs together with more than 30 contractor and grantee teams.

The Mission currently has three technical offices: the Economic Development Office (EDO), the Democracy and Governance Office (DGO) and the Health and Education Office (HEO). The HEO manages a diverse program of country-specific and regional activities and an annual portfolio of over $10 million. The HEO currently manages activities in the following areas:

• 3.1.1 HIV/AIDS
• 3.1.2 Tuberculosis
• 3.2.1 Basic Education
• 3.2.2 Higher Education

Learn more and apply here.

Summer 2015 Tutorial Series with the Research Computing Services group

May 15th, 2015 in GH Announcements

Summer 2015 Tutorial Series

May 26, 2015 – June 19, 2015

The Research Computing Services (RCS) group, part of Boston University Information Services & Technology, will offer a series of tutorials on programming, high performance computing, and scientific visualization. These tutorials are free and open to all members of the Boston University community.

In addition to covering concepts, techniques, and tools which researchers may use in their own computing environments, these tutorials are designed to help you make effective use of the Boston University Shared Computing Cluster and its related scientific visualization resources. Faculty may contact us about custom tutorials for classes or research groups.

Charles River Campus Tutorials

Register

BU Medical Campus (BUMC) Tutorials

You may register for as many tutorials as you like. Registration is required and is accessed with your BU Kerberos password.

All Charles River campus sessions will be held in MCS B27 at 111 Cummington St (with one exception: Introduction to Maya will be held at the CAS Computer Lab, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, room 327.) To access MCS B27, we recommend that you enter 111 Cummington Mall via the “College of Arts & Sciences – Department of Computer Science – Department of Mathematics & Statistics” entrance, and then either: taking the elevator immediately on your right; or descending the stairs down the hall to your right.

The BU Medical Campus (BUMC) sessions will be held in the “L” building at 72 E Concord St using room number L1110. The “L” building is the BUMC main instructional building and the 11th floor is accessible by elevator. The tutorial room is at the end of the hall on the left.

If you don’t have a Kerberos password, or if you find that a tutorial is full, or have any other questions, please send email to scv-tutorial@bu.edu.

Tutorial Descriptions and Times

Research Computing Basics Tutorials

Introduction to BU’s Shared Computing Cluster (Hands‐on)

Tuesday, May 26, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Wednesday, May 27, 1:00pm – 3:00pm, BUMC L1110

This tutorial will introduce Boston University’s Shared Computing Cluster (SCC) in Holyoke, MA. This Linux cluster has more than 6000 processors and over two petabytes of storage available for Research Computing by students and faculty on the Charles River and BUMC campuses. A very large number of software packages for programming, mathematics, data analysis, plotting, statistics, visualization, and domain-specific disciplines are available as well on the SCC. You will get a general overview of the SCC and the facility that houses it and then a hands-on introduction covering connecting to and using the SCC for new users. This tutorial will cover a few basic Linux commands but we strongly encourage people to also take our more extensive “Introduction to Linux” tutorial.

There will also be ample time for questions of all types about the SCC. Those who wish can bring their own laptops and we will help you with installing the software you need to effectively connect to and use the SCC. Others will use the Windows machines in the room.

Introduction to Linux (Hands‐on)

Wednesday, May 27, 10:00am – 12:00pm

This tutorial will give attendees a hands-on introduction to Linux. Topics covered will include a short history of Linux, logging in with ssh, the Bash shell and shell scripts, I/O redirection (pipes), file system navigation, and job control. Time permitting, attendees will edit, compile, and run a simple C program.

Advanced Usage of the SCC

Thursday, May 28, 1:00pm – 3:00pm
Tuesday, June 2, 3:00pm – 5:00pm, BUMC L1110

This tutorial will provide some advanced techniques and common strategies used for interacting with the Shared Computing Cluster and its resources.

The topics discussed during the tutorial include:

  • Customizing your environment
  • Parallel computing on the SCC
  • Jobs monitoring (CPU and memory usage)
  • Profiling programs for performance optimization
  • General optimization strategies

Recommended prerequisite: some prior experience with high performance computing or attendance of our “Introduction to BU’s Shared Computing Cluster” tutorial.

Register

Computer Programming Tutorials

Introduction to Perl, Part One

Tuesday, May 26, 3:30pm – 5:30pm

Perl is a powerful and versatile programming language that can be used for a wide variety of programming tasks, including, but not limited to, text/data processing, system administration, and Web applications. Combing elements of C, Unix shell scripting languages, as well as text-processing utilities such as sed and awk, Perl can be used for both large scale projects and for small applications. Some experience in a command line environment (e.g. Unix) is helpful, but the basics of Perl are simpler than those of other languages making it accessible to a new programmer. Attending our Introduction to Linux tutorial or equivalent background is recommended. Please remember to sign up for all four sessions to complete the tutorial.

Introduction to Perl, Part Two

Thursday, May 28, 3:30pm – 5:30pm

This tutorial is a continuation of Introduction to Perl, Part One. We strongly recommend that if you are interested in this tutorial, you register for Parts One, Three, and Four as well.

Introduction to Perl, Part Three

Tuesday, June 2, 3:30pm – 5:30pm

This tutorial is a continuation of Introduction to Perl, Part Two. We strongly recommend that if you are interested in this tutorial, you register for Parts One, Two, and Four as well.

Introduction to Perl, Part Four

Thursday, June 4, 3:30pm – 5:30pm

This tutorial is a continuation of Introduction to Perl, Part Three. We strongly recommend that if you are interested in this tutorial, you register for Parts One, Two, and Three as well.

Introduction to C Programming, Part One (Hands‐on)

Tuesday, June 2, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

This tutorial is primarily aimed at those who have some experience programming in another language, such as MATLAB, and want to learn to read, write, and modify C codes in a Unix environment. Although previous programming experience would be helpful, it is not mandatory. In this tutorial we will cover basic syntax, and write, compile, and run some simple codes. Basics of makefiles will also be covered. Please remember to sign up for all three sessions to complete the tutorial.

Introduction to C Programming, Part Two (Hands‐on)

Wednesday, June 3, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

This tutorial is a continuation of Introduction to C Programming, Part One (Hands‐on) described above. We strongly recommend that if you are interested in this tutorial, you also register for Part One and Part Three.

Introduction to C Programming, Part Three (Hands‐on)

Thursday, June 4, 6:00pm – 8:00pm

This tutorial is a continuation of Introduction to C Programming, Part Two (Hands‐on) described above. We strongly recommend that if you are interested in this tutorial, you also register for Part One and Part Two.

Introduction to Python for Non-programmers, Part One (Hands‐on)

Tuesday, June 16, 10:00am – 12:00pm

Prerequisite: zero programming experience. We will go slowly so that everyone understands programming concepts, like loops and functions.

This is an introduction to the essential features of Python. This tutorial includes a brief introduction to basic types (Integer, Float, String, and Boolean), if-statements, functions, lists, dictionaries, loops, and modules. We’ll look at some simple interactive tasks. After this tutorial you’ll be ready to explore all the amazing modules Python has to offer. We will work on examples in a web browser, so NO experience with Linux or the command line is necessary.

This is a two part tutorial, please sign up for both parts.

Introduction to Python for Non-programmers, Part Two (Hands‐on)

Wednesday, June 17, 10:00am – 12:00pm

This tutorial is a continuation of Introduction to Python for Non-Programmers, Part One. Please make sure to sign up for that session as well. We will complete the introduction to programming and the Python language.

Navigating Python (Hands‐on)

Friday, June 19, 10:00am – 12:00pm

This tutorial will introduce the Python programming language. It assumes you have some programming experience, and only a brief part of the tutorial will be dedicated to actual programming. If you need a more gentle introduction to programming, please attend “Introduction to Python for Non-programmers”. Other topics will include how to install Python on your personal computer, how to install and access third-party Python packages, how to use Python on the SCC, and how to find Python resources that will help your research. This tutorial will be part lecture style and part interactive, independent work. If you have a laptop and you want to install Python, please bring it and I will be available to help. If you want to work on a project or tutorial, there will be time for this too and I will be available to answer questions.

Plotting in Python with Matplotlib (Hands-on)

Friday, June 19, 1:00pm – 3:00pm

Prerequisites: Python experience at least equal to that provided by our Introduction to Python for Non-Programmers tutorial and familiarity with using Linux from the command-line.

This is a hands-on tutorial which will teach you to do plotting with Matplotlib, Python’s most popular plotting library. We will explore how to make a series of simple plots, both interactively and in scripts. We will discuss some of the more advanced features, including animations and interactive plots. This tutorial will also show you how you can customize every detail of your plots, such as the font color of the tick marks or the location of the legend.

Register

Mathematics and Data Analysis Tutorials

Introduction to SAS (Hands‐on)

Wednesday, May 27, 1:00pm – 2:00pm

SAS (Statistical Analysis System) is one of the most powerful statistical packages available on any computer platform. This tutorial will introduce you to SAS on the desktop.

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

  • access SAS on Windows
  • create, edit, and save program files containing SAS commands
  • obtain printed output
  • create, run, and modify your own programs

Introduction to SPSS (Hands‐on)

Wednesday, May 27, 2:00pm – 3:00pm

SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) is a widely used program for analyzing data. SPSS uses windows and dialog boxes to manipulate data and perform statistical analyses. This hands-on tutorial will introduce you to the basics of SPSS and will give you one hours’ practice using SPSS on Microsoft Windows.

After completing this tutorial, you will be able to:

  • enter data into SPSS
  • use SPSS to transform data
  • use SPSS to perform basic statistical analyses

Introduction to MATLAB (Hands‐on)

Thursday, May 28, 10:00am – 12:00pm

MATLAB (for MATrix LABoratory) is a numerical computing environment developed by MathWorks, Inc. MATLAB is essentially an interpretive high level language that does not require data type declaration or compilation. It can be used to implement mathematical computations such as matrix manipulations with existing linear algebra packages. Many plotting and visualization tools are available as an integral part of MATLAB. MATLAB operations are very intuitive, user-friendly, and are used primarily in an interactive environment to enable fast proto-typing of research activities and efficient software development. Many highly specialized applications, such as Mathematical Finance, Bioinformatics, and Image Processing, are also available as toolboxes.

In this tutorial, many of the basic MATLAB operations, including basic 2D and 3D graphics, will be introduced. You will learn many of these operations hands-on. No prior programming experience in any languages is required to attend this course.

Introduction to R (Hands‐on)

Monday, June 1, 3:00pm – 5:30pm, BUMC L1110
Tuesday, June 2, 10:00am – 12:30pm

R is the most powerful, rapidly developing, highly reliable, open source statistical language. It is widely used among statisticians for the development of statistical software and for data analysis. New features appear every few months.

This tutorial introduces the R environment for statistical computing and will cover the following topics:

  • operators and arithmetic operations
  • atomic types, variable rules and built-in constants
  • scalar and vector function overview
  • working with data (workspace setup as well as reading, creating, exploring, and saving data)
  • working with R data types (vectors, matrices, lists, data frames)
  • working with script files
  • installing and loading R extension packages and getting help
  • overview of functions for data analysis

After completing this tutorial you will:

  • know the basics of the R environment.
  • get a solid understanding of various data types and objects used in R.
  • be able to create, load and analyze data.
  • find appropriate functions and get necessary help and examples for these functions.

Graphics in R (Hands‐on)

Thursday, June 4, 3:00pm – 5:30pm, BUMC L1110
Thursday, June 4, 10:00am – 12:30pm

R provides extensive and powerful graphics options that allow for the production of publication-ready, high quality diagrams, and plots. This tutorial introduces R graphics libraries and functions.

After completing this tutorial you will:

  • understand what to expect from R’s graphics capabilities.
  • be able to create, modify, and customize graphs and plots used in statistical analysis.
  • find appropriate libraries, download, and use them for your visualization needs.

Prerequisite: If you are new to the R environment we strongly recommend that you also register for the “Introduction to R” tutorial.

Programming in R (Hands‐on)

Monday, June 8, 3:00pm – 5:00pm, BUMC L1110
Tuesday, June 9, 10:00am – 12:00pm

This tutorial is the third in a series of R tutorials. It introduces basic R programming, debugging and optimization techniques and develops practices of proper and efficient R coding. It covers the following topics:

  • if-else and switch statements
  • types of loops (for, while, repeat) and loop control statements (next, break)
  • user functions and argument definitions
  • local and global variables
  • apply function family
  • sourcing, timing, compilation and debugging
  • code profiling and optimization

Prerequisite: We strongly recommend that you also register for the “Introduction to R” tutorial if you are new to the R environment.

R Code Optimization (Hands‐on)

Thursday, June 11, 3:00pm – 5:00pm, BUMC L1110
Thursday, June 11, 10:00am – 12:00pm

This tutorial is primarily aimed at those who have some experience working in a Linux environment and programming in R. The topics covered in this tutorial:

  • debugging and profiling R code
  • choosing the right functions to speed-up your code
  • parallelization techniques
  • tuning your code for faster performance on the SCC cluster

Register

High Performance Computing Tutorials

Introduction to MPI, Part One

Tuesday, June 2, 1:00pm – 3:00pm

On contemporary computers, speeding up computations is most often achieved by employing multiprocessors concurrently on shared‐memory multi‐cored nodes or multiprocessor distributed‐memory clusters. MPI is a library of communication functions to enable and enhance multiprocessing on these computer architectures. This tutorial introduces many of the basic MPI functions through practical examples. Working knowledge of C or Fortran is required to attend the course. Basic knowledge of Unix/Linux will be helpful. MPI Part Two is a sequel to MPI Part One while MPI Part Three is a hands-on practice session for both MPI Part One and Part Two.

Introduction to MPI, Part Two

Wednesday, June 3, 1:00pm – 3:00pm

This tutorial is a continuation of Introduction to MPI, Part One described above. We strongly recommend that if you are interested in this tutorial, you also register for Part One.

Introduction to MPI, Part Three (Hands-on)

Wednesday, June 3, 3:30pm – 5:30pm

This tutorial is a hands-on practice session to the Introduction to MPI tutorial, Parts One and Two. Covered in the first two tutorial sessions are basics on how to use the Message Passing Interface library to program parallel computing applications on distributed memory and shared memory computers.

In this third, hands-on, session, you will be able to put into use many of the library functions learned in MPI One & Two to compute matrix multiplies in parallel.

Tuning MATLAB Codes For Better Performance (Hands‐on)

Wednesday, June 3, 10:00am – 12:00pm

Being an interpretive language, MATLAB provides many features to enhance the ease‐of‐use of interactive operations. However, these features may have the adverse effect of degrading computational performance. This is especially pronounced on jobs that require long run times and large memory. This tutorial identifies these pitfalls and demonstrates ways to improve user code performance.

The prerequisite for this course is a basic knowledge of MATLAB, either developed on your own or from our Introduction to MATLAB tutorial.

MATLAB Parallel Computing Toolbox

Wednesday, June 10, 3:30pm – 5:30pm

MATLAB Parallel Computing Toolbox is now available to Boston University’s MATLAB users. This toolbox enables users to solve computationally intensive and data intensive problems on multi‐cored personal computers, laptops, and especially the Shared Computing Cluster (SCC) managed by the Scientific Computing and Visualization group of Information Services & Technology.

Parallel processing operations such as parallel for‐loops, parallel numerical algorithms, and message‐passing functions let you implement task‐ and data‐parallel algorithms in MATLAB. Converting serial MATLAB applications to parallel MATLAB applications usually requires few code modifications and no programming in a low‐level language.

The prerequisite for this course is a basic knowledge of MATLAB, either developed on your own or from our Introduction to MATLAB tutorial.

Introduction to GPU Programming

Wednesday, June 10, 1:00pm – 3:00pm

Originally designed to render computer graphics, GPUs now provide the ability to accelerate scientific applications traditionally handled by CPUs. This tutorial is an introduction to general programming using GPUs. We will explore the applications that would benefit the most from GPU acceleration, go over different languages and software tools available on our Linux cluster, and discuss their benefits for different types of applications.

Introduction to CUDA

Wednesday, June 17, 1:00pm – 3:00pm

This tutorial will show you how to do calculations with CUDA C/C++, an API for programming massively parallel GPUs.

In this tutorial you will learn to do the following tasks in CUDA:

  • Write a basic “Hello, World!” program
  • Write and launch CUDA C kernels
  • Manage GPU memory
  • Run parallel kernels in CUDA C
  • Parallel communication and synchronization
  • Race conditions and atomic operations

C/C++ programming experience is required for this tutorial. You do not need prior parallel programming or graphics experience.

Register

Visualization Tutorials

Introduction to Maya (Hands‐on)

Wednesday, June 3, 2:00pm – 5:00pm

Autodesk Maya 2015 is a powerful state-of-the-art 3D modeling and animation software package. It has a wide variety of modeling, animation, special effects, and rendering tools. It has a customizable graphical user interface as well as a scripting language for optimal flexibility in problem solving and production.

In this tutorial we will show you how to get started using Maya. We will teach you the basic workflow for modeling, creating and applying materials, animation, and rendering. We will also cover the basics of importing scientific geometric data and creating high quality renderings and animations from it.

Ordinarily Maya is considered to have a steep learning curve, but in this tutorial we will present a workflow which will provide a sound foundation for pursuing more complex projects.

Note the unusual location for this tutorial. It will be held at the CAS Computer Lab, 685 Commonwealth Avenue, Room 327.

Scientific Visualization Using MATLAB (Hands-on)

Wednesday, June 10, 10:00am – 12:00pm

MATLAB is a high-performance language for technical computing. It integrates computation, visualization, and programming in an easy-to-use environment where problems and solutions are expressed in common mathematical notation. MATLAB has facilities for producing a wide variety of plots, graphs, surfaces, volumes, and specialized visualizations for scientific data.

This tutorial will present a hands-on introduction to producing scientific graphics with MATLAB. We will begin with examples of various plotting methods, including surface plots, slices, contours, isosurfaces, oriented glyphs, streaklines, etc. In addition, we will cover annotation, color mapping, MATLAB’s underlying graphics model, and the production of high-resolution images.

Register

Nominations Sought for Student Representatives to SPH Committees

May 8th, 2015 in GH Announcements

The School of Public Health is looking for student representation on all relevant school-wide committees. Student members serve as the voice for SPH students and are full voting members of these committees, including:

·         Education

·         Enrollment

·         Practicum

·         Student Experience

·         Practice

·         Research

 

To apply to be a student representative, please submit a copy of your resume and a one-paragraph self-nomination explaining why you are interested to Mary Murphy-Phillips at mcmurph@bu.edu, by Friday, May 15, 2015. Read more

 

 

ACDI/VOCA Service Learning Corps: International Volunteer Opportunity for summer or fall

May 7th, 2015 in Volunteer

Assignment Title: Rural Community Finance Specialist

Assignment Location: Monrovia, Liberia

Assignment Duration: 3 MONTHS, Negotiable for Summer OR Fall 2015

Assignment Summary:

ACDI/VOCA is currently seeking a Service Learning Corps Volunteer to work with the Central Bank of Liberia (CBL) in setting up and operationalizing banking systems for Rural Community Financial Institutions (RCFIs). The CBL has established RCFIs, with the hope that the mobilization of savings in these finance institutions will spur local investment and increase economic activities in rural Liberia. The services to be provided by the RCFIs will include savings mobilization, checking accounts, loans, direct deposits, money transfers services (including MoneyGram and Western Union). The selected volunteer will train 30 entry level staff with approximately 6 individuals for each RCFI facility.

View full description here: Liberia SLC Rural Finance

Live Webinar hosted by Doctors Without Borders; May 14th

May 7th, 2015 in Outside Announcements

Ebola in West Africa: Looking Back, Moving Forward
Thursday, May 14, 8:00PM EDT
Doctors Without Borders aid workers reflect on their recent work in West Africa, current challenges, and what remains to be done.

Register now: http://ebola-update-webcast.eventbrite.com

Now over a year into the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) remains active in all three affected countries. Although the number of positive cases has decreased in Liberia and Sierra Leone, it continues to fluctuate in Guinea, with each new case carrying the potential to reignite the outbreak.

Much work remains to be done, and vigilance remains essential. The outbreak ravaged existing health systems throughout the affected region, forcing many medical facilities to close and killing hundreds of health personnel. This undercut the ability of health workers to treat preventable diseases or vaccinate children. The crisis made it very difficult for people to access assistance for non-Ebola illnesses or maternal care. Even if the worst of the outbreak is over, as we hope it is, the consequences of the epidemic will be with us for a long time to come.

On Thursday, May 14th, 8:00PM EDT, our outstanding panel of recently returned aid workers will explore the reality in the field at this stage of the outbreak. The panel will also discuss what lessons MSF has learned about responding to situations like this, and where we go from here.

Viewer participation is encouraged via a chat feature available during the webcast.

Panelists: 
Sophie Delaunay is the executive director of MSF-USA and recently visited West Africa.

Craig Spencer, MD, worked as a physician in an Ebola treatment center in Guinea in the fall of 2014. After developing symptoms back home in New York, he was himself diagnosed with Ebola. While undergoing intense media scrutiny, he was treated and was declared Ebola-free on November 10. And in March 2015, he went back to Guinea to continue fighting Ebola as an epidemiologist.

Ella Watson-Stryker began working for MSF in March 2014 as part of MSF’s initial response to the Ebola outbreak in Guinea. She returned for subsequent missions as a health promotion manager in Sierra Leone and Liberia, and was recently featured in Time magazine with other health care providers and aid workers in West Africa who were collectively named Person of the Year for 2014.

Gillian Burkhardt, OBGYN, recently returned from Sierra Leone, where she worked in an Ebola treatment center that was transitioning into a maternal care center. Her first assignment for MSF was at the beginning of 2014 in Sierra Leone prior to the Ebola outbreak.

Tim Shenk, MSF-USA press officer, spent two weeks as the lead field communications officer in Liberia in 2014, and will moderate the discussion.

Please register on Eventbrite to receive the link to view: http://ebola-update-webcast.eventbrite.com

Seats are available in Fall offering of PH825 – Analysis of Emerging Infections Using the One Health Approach.

May 7th, 2015 in GH Announcements

This course (recently renamed) qualifies for credits in GH and EH.  It also contains lots of infectious disease epidemiology.

PH 825 - Analysis of Emerging Infections Using the One Health Approach

Instructors:  David Hamer and Jean van Seventer

Credits: 4

Meeting Time:  Fall  Thursday  10:00 am – 12:45 pm

This class employs One Health, an approach to public health emphasizing the interconnectedness of human health, animal health, and the environment, to provide a basic understanding of factors involved in the natural history of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), and of approaches required for the control and prevention of these diseases.  The number of reported EIDs has been steadily increased over past decades and while the global burden of individual diseases is often minimal, historically, some EIDs (e.g., HIV, influenza, chikungunya, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA)) have had enormous global public health impact, and local impacts can often be quite severe, particularly in developing settings (e.g., Ebola in West Africa).  The majority of EIDs are vector-borne and/or zoonotic, and a wide range of social, behavioral, and physical environmental factors contribute to their emergence, making the One Health approach crucial to understanding these diseases.  In this class, case study of specific EIDs is used to illustrate the involvement of multiple factors in disease emergence and spread.  Emphasis is placed on understanding the natural history and pathogenesis of these EIDs, and the laboratory methods commonly used for their diagnosis and surveillance.   At the conclusion of the course, students will be able to apply the principles they have learned to analyze and determine the factors involved in the new emergence or re-emergence of an infectious disease; knowledge which is ultimately essential for determining appropriate disease control and prevention strategies

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