UB Discovery Seminar Program

Discovery Seminar Program—Spring 2010

Comparative Literature

• Reading Borges

Computer Science

• Data Mining

Extreme Events: Multidisciplinary

• Extreme Events: UB’s Research Role

Family Medicine

• The History of Medicine—An Overview

Geology

• Climate Change: Past, Present & Future

Global Gender Studies

• Globalization, Democracy and Gender

Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences

• Science, Technology and Human Values
• The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Ten Experiments in Science and their Scientific & Social Implications
• Translational Pharmacogenomics: Discovering New Genetic Methods to Link Diagnosis and Drug Treatment
• Vioxx-Drug Discovery & Development

Physics

• Global Warming—Fact or Myth?

Psychology

• The Biology of Gender

Social Sciences Interdisciplinary

• Grief, Loss and Coping

Visual Studies

• Appearance and Meaning from 1300 to 1900 in European Art

---

Comparative Literature

Reading Borges

• Instructor: David Johnson
• Department: Comparative Literature
• Day and Time: Monday, 1:00 – 1:50 pm
• Location: 257 Capen
• Section: B
• Registration Number: 167362

“Reading Borges” will provide an introduction to one of the 20th century’s most important writers. We will examine various short stores and brief essays. Our principal interest will be Borges’ philosophical investment in the questions of time and identity. We will be concerned with the constitution of immortality. We will ask what “possibility” means and how only the impossible can ever be possible. We will ask throughout the semester about the relation of philosophy to literature.

Computer Science

Data Mining

• Instructor: Satish Tripathi
• Department: UB Provost and Professor, Computer Science
• Day and Time: Monday, 4:00 – 4:50 pm
• Location: 257 Capen
• Section: D
• Registration Number: 165213

During the last decade the rate of data generation and storage has increased exponentially. In fact, predictions estimate the codified data generated will double every eleven hours within the next couple of decades. This rate of data generation will make it extremely difficult to get the desired information for a common user. Data-mining provides a very important tool to find “information” from data. In this seminar we will study discovery of information from huge data. Applications range from business, humanities to biological sciences.

Extreme Events: Multidisciplinary

Extreme Events: UB’s Research Role

• Instructor: Adel Sadek
• Department: Extreme Events: Multidisciplinary
• Day and Time: Thursday, 10:00 – 11:50 am
• Location: 414 Bonner
• Section: P
• Registration Number: 083509

Extreme Events are brief, abrupt episodes such as hurricanes and terrorist attacks that pose grave risks to human populations. To meet the challenges of these natural and human-cause hazards, UB researchers are collaborating across disciplines and delving into topics such as structural/systems engineering to achieve disaster resilience, medical and psychological reactions to extreme stress, disasters caused by avalanches and volcanoes, and preventing some types of disasters by identifying those with hostile intent. In this Discovery Seminar, seven faculty researchers from various departments who are immersed in Extreme Event studies will make thought-provoking presentations and engage students in interactive discussions.

Family Medicine

The History of Medicine—An Overview

• Instructor: William Fiden
• Department: Family Medicine
• Day and Time: Friday, 9:00 – 9:50 am
• Location: 257 Capen
• Section: U1
• Registration Number: 292046

How did modern medicine develop into what it is today? Where are medicine’s cultural and historical roots? This seminar will provide and overview of the development of medical care as provided primarily in the European tradition. Using excerpts from selected texts on this topic, the provision of medical care as an art and science, beginning with that of the Vreco Romans and extending to our American Frontiers would be presented and discussed. Students anticipating a career in health care, and students interested in cultural and social pre-cursers of modernity in medicine (or other professional fields) will particularly enjoy this seminar.

Geology

Climate Change: Past, Present & Future

• Instructor: Jason Briner
• Department: Geology
• Day and Time: Wednesday, 2:00 – 2:50 pm
• Location: 257 Capen
• Section: M
• Registration Number: 463190

It is hard to ignore global warming these days—it is in the newspapers, books, magazines, on the internet, etc. You may have even heard two sides of the story: The planet was warmer than today in the past so why is global warming a big deal, and besides, what is so bad about a warmer climate? Or, alternatively: If we don’t start reducing C0₂ emissions right now, we’ll pass a tipping point when there will be no turning back from catastrophic global warming, extreme weather events and rapidly flooding coastlines. Although the debate has largely shifted from “is global warming real?” to “what are we going to do about it?”, there are still many unknowns: How much do humans have to do with global warming? How warm will it get? And, what will it take to slow or stop global warming? This seminar will explore the truths and myths of global warming by covering the scientific basis for climate change, and at the same time acknowledge, but not focus on, the uncertainties.

Global Gender Studies

Globalization, Democracy and Gender

• Instructor: Barbara Wejnert
• Department: Global Gender Studies
• Day and Time: Tuesday, 1:00 – 1:50 pm
• Location: 708 Clemens
• Section: H
• Registration Number: 421123

In recent years, many scholars have sought to look into problems of interconnections between trends of globalization, democracy and the state as an independent explanatory factor in politically oriented social science. What have been the fruits of such efforts? This course surveys recent debates about global development and examines current research in several pertinent areas of globalization and its relation to gender and especially to maternal health: the impact of globalization and capitalist economic development on gender relations in the US and globally; and the impact of national politics and economy on forces of globalization on culture, including gender roles and gender relations.

Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences

Science, Technology and Human Values

• Instructor: David Triggle
• Department: School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Day and Time: Thursday, 11:00 – 11:50 pm
• Location: 257 Capen
• Section: X
• Registration Number: 284513

The 21st century poses a number of extremely serious challenges and critical public policy decisions that require input and dialog from an informed public. How will hot button scientific issues—such as energy availability, climate change, gene-based technologies (foods, stem cells diagnostics, genetic enhancement, etc), surveillance and privacy, intellectual property and knowledge privatization, and economic and cultural globalization—be dealt with by government, media, the scientific community, and the public? This seminar will explore the scientific method and the ethos of science, the relationship between science and its applications to a set of contemporary problems, and uncover how science policy is made, translated and implemented.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Ten Experiments in Science: Their Scientific & Social Implications

• Instructor: David Triggle
• Department: School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Day and Time: Wednesday, 11:00 – 11:50 am
• Location: 257 Capen
• Section: L
• Registration Number: 482013

Ten important experiments in science will be discussed. These will range from Otto Lowei’s discovery of nervous transmission in 1921, to Watson and Crick’s 1953 DNA discovery, Meitner and Frisch’s 1939 paper on uranium fission, Wakefield’s paper on vaccination and autism, Miller’s work on periodic life and Steptoe and Edward’s first “test-tube baby.” They will be discussed from several perspectives including how great discoveries are made possible, how they are published, their scientific and social impact, the competitive nature of the scientific process and its influence on scientists and the scientific method and the interaction between science and scientific and public ethics.

Translational Pharmacogenomics: Discovering New Genetic Methods to Link Diagnosis and Drug Treatment

• Instructor: Gene Morse
• Department: Department of Pharmacy
• Day and Time: Wednesday, 4:00 – 4:50 pm
• Location: 239 Cooke
• Section: R
• Registration Number: 238200

When adults and children develop disease they often seek medical care to determine the cause and to receive treatment. Traditionally, a thorough medical examination, laboratory work, and imaging tests are used to narrow the diagnosis. After a diagnosis is made, non-drug treatments as well as prescription or non-prescription medications may be provided as part of the overall treatment approach. Biomedical researchers are currently pursuing genetic testing, also referred to as “genomic” testing, to develop more definitive diagnostic tests and more specific treatments. This seminar program will provide an overview of current strategies to use translational pharmacogenomics to enhance diagnosis and guide treatment as part of the future to develop personalized medicine.

Vioxx—Drug Discovery & Development

• Instructor: Kathleen Boje
• Department: School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Day and Time: Thursday, 2:00 – 2:50 pm
• Location: 540 Cooke
• Section: Q
• Registration Number: 029129

Only 1 of every 10,000 potential medicines investigated by US pharmaceutical companies makes it through the research and development (R&D) pipeline and is approved for clinical use by the US Food and Drug Administration. A new drug approval takes approximately 15 years of R&D with costs of over $800 million dollars. Potential new medicines pass through several crucial stages on their way from research laboratories to the pharmacy shelf. So what went wrong with Merck & Co with Vioxx (refecoxib), a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug approved by the FDA for osteoarthritis and acute pain, and subsequently recalled from the market? Following FDA approval 1999, Vioxx was heavily marketed and prescribed, with 80 million plus prescriptions, and a sales revenue of $2.5 billion in 2003. In 2004, Merck issued a voluntary recall amid controversy of increased risk of heart attack and stroke associated with long-term, high-dose Vioxx use. By 2006, 10,000 individual lawsuits and 190 class actions suits were filed against Merck over Vioxx’s adverse effects and the adequacy of Merck’s warnings. Merck’s legal strategy was to take each lawsuit to trial, resulting in winning some and losing others. The litigation ended when all parties announced a 4.85 billion class action settlement in November 2007. This Discovery Seminar will examine the drug development and approval process, using Vioxx as a case study. The format of the seminar will be that of a legal proceeding, with students assuming roles of Merck scientists, marketing & sales persons, Merck executives, FDA officials, independent experts, patients and lawyers. We will attempt to answer the question as we investigate the drug research & development process and drug approval process.

Physics

Global Warming—Fact or Myth?

• Instructor: Michael Ram
• Department: Physics
• Day and Time: Monday, 1:00 – 1:50 pm
• Location: 341 Fronczak
• Section: BB
• Registration Number: 259307

Global Warming is constantly in the news, even though many people who talk or write about it are not truly familiar with what the expression REALLY means (and implies). In this seminar, we will study what is meant by Global Warming, and will investigate its implications and will try to determine if it is really occurring. The semester will be guided by Professor Michael Ram (PhD) of the Physics Department who, as principal investigator in NSF’s GISP2 (Greenland Ice Sheet Project 2) program, studied how the dust concentration varied along the length of a ~3km-long ice core retrieved from central Greenland. One of the purposes of these measurements was to reconstruct how climate changed during the past 100,000+ years. Students will be actively engaged in the seminar, and will be assigned simple projects that will allow them to elucidate the debate.

Psychology

The Biology of Gender

• Instructor: Scott Wersinger
• Department: Psychology
• Day and Time: Tuesday, 10:00 – 10:50 am
• Location: 257 Capen
• Section: F
• Registration Number: 160423

Although males and females are far more similar than they are different, there are clear physical, physiological, and behavioral differences between them. In this seminar, we will first explore the biological mechanisms by which males become males and females become females. To understand the great diversity of mechanism by which this happens, we will venture throughout the animal kingdom from animals that have sexes but have no sex chromosomes to animals that change sex depending on the social environment, to animals that function as both male and female at the same time. We will then focus on the development of gender identity, whether one identifies as a male or a female, in humans. We will discuss and critically evaluate the role of both biological and social factors in the establishment of gender identity.

Social Sciences

Grief, Loss and Coping

• Instructor: Scott Harvey
• Department: Social Sciences Interdisciplinary
• Day and Time: Wednesday, 4:00 – 4:50 pm
• Location: 257 Capen
• Section: MM
• Registration Number: 443481

All people, at some point in their lives, are touched by an experience with grief. Grief and loss are natural parts of life, but we often find ourselves uncomfortable around the topic. Sometimes it can be hard for us to face our own grief, or to know how we can help others who have experienced a loss. This course, taught by bereavement counselors from Niagara Hospice, is designed to help participants learn about the nature of grief, to more fully understand their own grief, and to be better equipped to provide comfort to others who are grieving.

Visual Studies

Appearance and Meaning from 1300 to 1900 in European Art

• Instructor: Charles Carman
• Department: Visual Studies
• Day and Time: Wednesday, 12:00 – 12:50 pm
• Location: 608 Clemens
• Section: O
• Registration Number: 388369

We will examine the emergence of naturalistic art (mainly painting), i.e. the appearance of forms in nature more or less as the eye sees them from the late Middle Ages to the Enlightenment and beyond. The goal will be to discern the development of this naturalism and examine what it means in terms of shifting concepts of mankind’s relationship to over-arching cultural concepts of religion, politics and science. For example, how and why do religious concepts of man and nature become more secular, and how does this affect the look of art? We will also discuss how such analysis helps us understand the art and culture of today.