Embryology

Cork clinic hoping to resume some fertility treatments in May – Echo Live

The Sims Clinic, which operates a facility at City Gate in Mahon, says it is hoping to resume some of its fertility treatments next month, but it awaits government guidance on the situation.

The clinic, like others across Europe, had deferred fertility treatments following recent recommendations from the European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology (ESHRE) that assisted reproduction treatments such as IVF should temporarily not be carried out in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

ESHRE has now reviewed these recommendations and says that once the risk of COVID-19 infection is decreasing, treatments can be resumed in line with local regulations.

It has urged however that "vigilance and measured steps must be taken for safe practice and to minimise the risks related to SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19-positive patients or staff during treatment."

The Sims Clinic said it would look to resume some of its treatments in May, adding "however, we still await government guidance on the situation."

It said the resumption of services would be on a phased basis.

The safety of patients and staff is of paramount importance to us and we are making all preparations necessary. We have sourced PPE equipment and are ensuring our clinics are prepared for social distancing, the Sims Clinic said.

The clinic said that this would take some time and that staff will start to contact patients regarding their treatment next week.

See the rest here:
Cork clinic hoping to resume some fertility treatments in May - Echo Live

Embryology

Care home boss who exposed full horror of coronavirus in video diary reveals 16 of her residents have died – The Sun

A CARE home boss who exposed the full horror of coronavirus in a video diary has revealed that 16 of her residents have now succumbed to the disease.

Nicola Richards warned earlier this month that supplies of personal protective equipment were getting dangerously low as 39 of her residents and staff fell ill.

3

Give now to The Sun's NHS appeal

BRITAINs four million NHS staff are on the frontline in the battle against coronavirus.

But while they are helping save lives, who is there to help them?

The Sun has launched an appeal to raise 1MILLION for NHS workers. The Who Cares Wins Appeal aims to get vital support to staff in their hour of need.

We have teamed up with NHS Charities Together in their urgent Covid-19 Appeal to ensure the money gets to exactly who needs it.

The Sun is donating 50,000 and we would like YOU to help us raise a million pounds, to help THEM. No matter how little you can spare, please donate today here: http://www.thesun.co.uk/whocareswinsappeal.

Her grim update came as the World Health Organisation said those in long-term care facilities account for up to half of Europes coronavirus-related deaths.

Nicola, who recorded the diary for Sky News, is director of Palms Row Healthcare in Sheffield.

She said in her video diary, recorded earlier this month: Theres a lot of panic, unrest, apprehension, concern around.

Weve got staff really fretting about this.

3

3

Words cannot describe how difficult it is on the front line.

The impact has been something else.

Weve never been faced with anything like this.

The challenges have increased daily.

Nicola said infection rates at the firms three care homes in the city have slowed in the past week, but still urged authorities to provide more help.

She added: We do stress that we need this help now and that other providers need the support we have been lacking during the last month."

Breaking

BBC STAR DEADEx-BBC Watchdog presenter Lynn Faulds Wood dies aged 72 after a stroke

FATAL RISEUK corona death toll approaches government's 20,000 benchmark of 'doing well'

GIVEN CUPBrits break lockdown to queue at Costa and pack beaches as traffic shoots up 10%

FUNERAL SHOOTINGShots fired at funeral of dad dubbed 'Mr Ibiza' as hundreds lined streets

ARMED RESPONSEArmed cops in 3-hour stand off with knifeman who threatened to kill himself

'YOUR DUTY TO PROTECT'Husband and wife NHS doctors suing government over PPE shambles

The WHO admitted a deeply concerning picture was emerging of the bugs impact in care homes.

Its regional director for Europe, Dr Hans Kluge, said: According to estimates from countries in the European region, up to half of those who have died from Covid-19 were resident in long-term care facilities.

He added that 50 per cent of the worlds Covid-19 cases more than 1.2million have been in Europe, and they have resulted in more than 110,000 deaths.

Stopping IVF 'was so hard'

A FERTILITY watchdog boss said halting all IVF during the outbreak was the most difficult decision in its 30-year history.

Sally Cheshire, head of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, said safety and shortages of key staff and equipment were behind the decision.

We have huge sympathy for the thousands of patients who are not able to continue treatment, Mrs Cheshire said.

We are working on an exit strategy to allow treatment once restrictions are lifted, she added.

CORONAVIRUS CRISIS - STAY IN THE KNOW

Don't miss the latest news and figures - and essential advice for you and your family.

To receive The Sun's Coronavirus newsletter in your inbox every tea time, sign up here.

To follow us on Facebook, simply 'Like' our Coronavirus page.

Get Britain's best-selling newspaper delivered to your smartphone or tablet each day - find out more.

Read the original here:
Care home boss who exposed full horror of coronavirus in video diary reveals 16 of her residents have died - The Sun

Embryology

The Impact of Suspended IVF Treatment On Women – GLAMOUR UK

At the moment, it feels like life has been put on pause... Literally. The government has advised us to stay at home to help control the spread of coronavirus. So what does this mean for women who are struggling to fall pregnant and embarking on IVF?

IVF is already a daunting, stressful and emotionally-draining process. But now, there are a whole new cohort of people with the added layer of uncertainty of whether they will ever get pregnant because treatment has been postponed indefinitely.

On 24 March, the official regulator for fertility clinics, Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) announced no new treatment can begin. It means patients whod already started an IVF cycle can finish it, but all treatment after 15 April has been stopped.

On the face of it, HFEAs measures are simply complying with government social distancing advice to flatten the curve and ease the burden on the NHS which is already under huge pressure. Sounds reasonable. But that doesnt change how upsetting this is for so many who now feel helpless in their pursuit of parenthood.

We have had many calls from patients who are upset and distressed by the indefinite delay, said Dr Geeta Nargund, Medical Director at CREATE Fertility and abc IVF. Not knowing when they're able to start treatment brings with it a potentially serious mental health impact, particularly when patients know that time is of the essence and that it may impact upon their chance to become biological mothers.

Dr Nargund says that once a patient is given medication to stimulate ovaries, it can take up to two weeks to mature the eggs and prepare them for egg collection. First, she is given stimulation medication and monitored with ultrasound scans and blood tests, before an egg-collection procedure is booked in. Next, the eggs are fertilised with sperm in a lab to create embryos. Embryo/s are either transferred as fresh embryos three or five days later or frozen for later use.

Nargund says the treatment suspension has been particularly hard for women who have waited a long time for IVF or those diagnosed with a very low egg reserve, for whom time is of the essence.

Matilda*, 37, from Cheshire has a low Anti-Mullerian hormone level for her age, indicating a decreased egg reserve. Shes had two unsuccessful rounds of NHS-funded IVF, in August 2019 and January 2020. She and partner Eric*, 41, scraped together savings and borrowed from family and friends for private treatment, costing around 7,000.

At first, I was reluctant, Matilda says. If you have another round of heartbreak, you lose all that money. But you also feel, if I dont do it, will I live the rest of my life in regret?

We decided, finding all the funds, going into debt, using our life-savings, its such a huge risk. Sometimes I feel physically sick about spending that amount on a small chance and potentially ending up with nothing at all, she explains.

The clinic put Matilda on the pill and scheduled her egg collection for 17 April. But her treatment was cancelled as it had surpassed HEFAs deadline by two days. As Matildas turning 38 in a couple of months, shes concerned the delay for someone her age could mean not having a biological child.

Your chances diminish every month. This could have been my month, this could have been my cycle. Im losing that chance and its getting less likely it will ever work. If this lasts six or twelve months, Ive spent all that money and its going to be pointless, she says. Ive lived from appointment-to-appointment for close to a year, trying to keep healthy, not drinking alcohol, doing things to prepare and now theres no appointments, theres nothing. I dont know how to carry on. Im depressed and angry at just how hopeless you are as a woman in this situation.

Matilda says she will try again once the suspension lifts, but knows her chances will be slimmer.

Leanne Jones, 31, from Hampshire is having pre-implantation genetic diagnosis (PGD) IVF because her husband Kyle, 30, has a genetic disorder called PKD1 which affects life-expectancy and has a 50% chance of being hereditary..

During five years of treatment, Leannes had two cycles resulting in early miscarriages in September 2019 and February 2020. When you have a positive pregnancy test, a door opens. Youre planning the next 35 years of your life and your emotions run away with you. Then someone goes nope and shuts the door. Its grief. My emotions were like someone had died. I felt like someone had taken my right to breathe and I couldnt catch my breath at all, she explains.

As a midwife, Leanne sympathises for NHS staff, both in the face of COVID-19 and the suspension: It must be horrendous. Its hard but its the right thing.

What can you do if youre in a similar situation?

Dr Nargund suggests:

1. Use this time to make sure your body is ready for treatment. Make sure you're maintaining a healthy weight, getting regular exercise and following a balanced diet. While it may be difficult during this time, trying to stay relaxed and giving up vices such as smoking will all help to optimise your fertility status.

2. Do your research. There are multiple discussion groups and webinars being hosted that will allow you to better understand the treatment suspension and what it means for you, as well as ask questions of experts and decide on what treatment is right for you.

3. Explore getting treatment started online. Some clinics are offering virtual consultations that can be conducted over video call and using hormonal blood tests conducted at home. This will allow you to get the process moving and ensure that once the lockdown is lifted treatment can be started as soon as possible.

Help:

HFEA are updating patient guidance on their website.

The Fertility Network UK support line (0121 323 5025) is open Monday, Wednesday and Friday between 10am-4pm.

Professional Infertility Counselling Association(BICA) have a Find A Counsellor section on their website.

Professor Dr Geeta Nargund at CREATE Fertility is hosting webinars twice a week to provide information and guidance for all those considering starting treatment after the suspension.

*Matilda and Eric are fictional names

Read the original here:
The Impact of Suspended IVF Treatment On Women - GLAMOUR UK

Embryology

Ag in the Classroom lessons in the bag – Agri News

HENRY, Ill. University of Illinois Extension Marshall-Putnam Agriculture in the Classroom Program and the Marshall-Putnam Farm Bureau collaborated to provide Ag-Bag lessons to school classrooms.

Due to the stay-at-home order, students are not able to participate in their regular Ag in the Classroom lessons. Abrianne Holler, University of Illinois Extension Ag in the Classroom community worker, and Tiffany Moody, executive director of the Marshall-Putnam Farm Bureau, provided four different lessons focusing on agriculture for students who pick up a weekly lunch at school.

Lets Grow at Home was the first Ag-Bag. In this bag, students were given pots, seeds, magnifying glass or ruler, along with a way to mark their plants. A brief lesson about plants was enclosed with the supplies, including a germination journal to keep track of what they did each day with the plant.

Lets Get Poppin lesson was based on the Illinois state snack: POPCORN! Each bag had popcorn facts, a small bag of popcorn, and a popcorn craft.

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road? lesson was focused on the embryology project most students would have experienced first-hand in the classrooms with Extensions incubator project. This bag included a snack that was made to look like a chicken, chicken activities, and 4-H resources to watch chicks hatch online.

The fourth Ag-Bag was Calling all Conservation Superheroes. This bag was focused towards Earth Day. The lesson focused on resources on how to reduce, reuse, and recycle.

University of Illinois Extension Ag in the Classroom and the Marshall-Putnam Farm Bureau will continue to work together to support students, teachers, schools and parents, with the Ag-Bags and to provide experiential lessons highlighting the importance of agriculture.

For more information or questions, contact Holler at 815-224-0889 or by email at anholler@illinois.edu.

Original post:
Ag in the Classroom lessons in the bag - Agri News

Neuroscience

3 things you can do today to beat work stress, according to neuroscience – CNBC

Nearly every aspect of living and working has been upended by the coronavirus pandemic.

Running essential errands, checking on friends and family, caring for kids while school is shut down andstaying healthy have all become harder. On top of all that, workers are simultaneously worried about job security and may be logginglonger, more distracted hoursin their new work-from-home arrangements.

"In the brain, it's like we woke up one day in a war zone with no training or skills, and our brains are not dealing well with it," says David Rock, founder and CEO of NeuroLeadership Institute, a science-based leadership development company.

While it may feel like stress is coming at you from every direction, Rock tells CNBC Make It that it's important to boil down the root causes of stress to three main points: feelings of uncertainty, a lack of autonomy and a decrease in positive social interaction.

"Those three things combined make this the most stressful experience of most people's lives by many multiples," Rock adds.

The good news is that knowing these three root causes of stress is the first step to overcoming it at work and at home. Of course, if you're feeling particularly overwhelmed, you may want to talk to a mental health professional.Your workplace may offer teletherapy and counseling services through an employee assistance program, and some states have made free mental health hotlines available to residents.

Here are Rock's suggestions for simple ways to start combating stress today.

"You might feel like the news is making you more certain," Rock says, "but it's actually making you more anxious."

To that end,you may want tolimit the amount of time and energy you focus on the news, other than essential details of how to keep you and your family safe.

First, try to limit the number of times you scroll through your news feed or turn on the TV news channel for example, in the morning before work and in the evening before dinner. When you do check the news, set an alarm for when you have to stop.

"It can be good for mental health to be productive and not focus on the news too much," Rock adds. Be intentional with how you spend your time consuming news, doing work and pursuing personal interests and hobbies.

For a lot of people, working from home means working with a host of new distractionshousemates, partners, kids, errands all of which can make you feel like your days are slipping away from you.

To that end,"it's important for your sense of certainty and autonomy to build a schedule and stick to it," Rock says.

Many remote-work experts agree it's crucial to establish some sort of routine so the confines of work and home don't bleed into each other, which can cause burnout. Establish a clear morning, work and evening schedule, and coordinate with people in your household. Communicate some of these boundaries with work colleagues, too.

Remember that during times of stress, you'll probably become more irritable toward others. "When things feel completely out of control, even small stressors become big stressors," Rock says.

Be open with others, whether members of your household or colleagues during the workday, about what you need from each other to avoid small conflicts from getting out of hand. Practicing empathy when you're on the receiving end of feedback can also go a long way to help you feel more in control.

One thing that might feel completely out your grasp is job security. Roughly 22 million Americans filed for unemployment in the first month since the pandemic upended the U.S. economy. And according to a recent Gallup poll, 25% of American workers are worried they could lose their job in the next year, compared to 8% of workers who felt that way last year.

Rock says even in the event of losing your job, you can find a way to exercise autonomy, such as controlling your spending or preparing your job-search plan. In today's situation, that might mean acknowledging you won't be able to find a new job for the next six months, and creating a plan about how you'll use your time until that point.

"It might sound glib, but it's actually quite powerful to be proactively making choices in a situation that feels like it's been done to you," Rock says. "It can be helpful to use the opportunity of a downturn to take time to reevaluate your career interests, reconnect with loved ones and get yourself in better physical and emotional shape."

Connecting with others during the pandemic is both harder to do and more crucial than ever to combat stress.

And just like you structure time for news and work, Rock says it can make a big difference to schedule time to socialize: "If we don't put those things in the calendar first, work will expand to fill the available time," he says.

That might include having a virtual coffee break with colleagues in the morning, or setting aside an hour every week to have lunch with your partner at home. To stay accountable for your log-off time, you may commit to a phone call with a friend or family member while taking an after-work walk around the neighborhood.

The key is to make these quality and positive interactions. "We need those interactions with people every day to calm our nervous systems," Rock says.

Correction: This story has been revised to reflect David Rock's role as founder and CEO of a leadership company.

Check out: The best credit cards of 2020 could earn you over $1,000 in 5 years

Don't miss:

Read the original here:
3 things you can do today to beat work stress, according to neuroscience - CNBC

Neuroscience

New Neuroscience Research Calls Where You Study Key to Faster Learning – Inc.

So what can you doif you need remember,or better yet memorize,something important?

According tonew research published earlier this month in the scientificjournalNeuron, stopstudying in your office. Or in your home. Or anywhere you're familiar. Study in a place that's new to you.

While that might seem odd, sincestudying in an unfamiliar setting sounds distractingrather thanconducive to learning, the opposite turns out to be true.

A fresh environment activatesthe dopamine system in your brain, and dopamine promotes associative learning, triggering feelings of reward that increase your brain's ability to absorb and retain information. (Associative learning is connecting a stimulus or action with a positive or negative outcome; think connecting the dots.)

In short, the naturalbuzzyou get from being somewhere new--or as the researchers call it, experiencing "inconsequential novel stimulus"--helps you learn more quickly.

"From avery practical perspective," the researchers write,"the results remind us to break our routine more often and seek out novel experiences to be better learners."

Need to nail a new sales demo? Need to nail a presentation? Need to remember a variety of facts and figures to support an idea?Study and rehearse somewhere new.

Just keep in mind that "new" really does mean new.

"Strictly speaking," the researchers write, "anything is only new the first time we perceive it."

Which means you'll constantly have to find new places to study.

Butsince new can be "inconsequential," where you go doesn't need to have a great view.Orspecial ambience.Or social cachet.

To learn better and faster, where you go justhas to be different.

Published on: Apr 23, 2020

The opinions expressed here by Inc.com columnists are their own, not those of Inc.com.

See more here:
New Neuroscience Research Calls Where You Study Key to Faster Learning - Inc.

Neuroscience

New Breakthrough Work Involving AI and Neuroscience – Can Spinal Cord Injury Be Treated? – Communal News

Breakthrough new research became available on April 20 discussing how neuroscientists created artificial neurons from protein strands to behave like live ones. Neurons are the nerve cells and nerve fibers that are electrically excitable cells in the nervous system that function to process and transmit information. In vertebrate animals, neurons are the core components of the brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerves.

The full research paper is titled Bioinspired bio-voltage memristors.

A memristor is a non-linear two-terminal electrical component relating electric charge and magnetic flux linkage. It was described and named in 1971 by Leon Chua, completing a theoretical quartet of fundamental electrical components which comprises the resistor, capacitor and inductor.

This advance could mean it would be possible to use artificial neurons and fuse them with live ones in the future, allowing science to easily treat spinal cord injuries and paralyzed people. Progress in artificial intelligence could also lead to energy efficient machines powered by AI in the future.

Scientists may also be able to achieve full stability in biological fluids, which would be an important feature for the medical community.

There is previous work that was published in March connecting live cells with artificial ones. The Internet aided in the creation of a virtual brain using actual live nerve cells. This breakthrough and novel project was created with collaboration from Italian, Swiss and British scientists. The artificial neurons came from Switzerland, electronic interneuron connection from the UK and the live nerve cells from Italy. All these were amalgamated into one functioning system. It means that a live nervous system can be collaborated with the technology into one.

The neural networks will be controlled via a regular laptop and can be used, in specially designed devices tailored to the patients and their needs, to compensate for the non functioning live neurons. It is highly plausible artificial neurons will be manufactured for wide use in neurological cases.

The researchers assembled a memristor from protein nanofibers and a thin silver wire. Electrical impulses were passed through the latter. As a result, the device created new branches and fiber connections that are hundreds of times thinner than a human contains. According to the diagram (available open source), the specifics of the work include the ability of the Geobacter sulfurreducens proteins to chemically reduce metals, hence the microbes get energy.

Authors of the work emphasize that the device they created does not have a software application, but the system operates at z 0.04-0.1 volts. This is very close to the voltage that a live neuron utilizes for energy.

The next step is to start testing these artificial neurons to connect with live ones. Obviously, there is a lot of work ahead before the research can enter trials and even be approved.

See the original post here:
New Breakthrough Work Involving AI and Neuroscience - Can Spinal Cord Injury Be Treated? - Communal News

Neuroscience

New Hinton Nature Paper Revisits Backpropagation, Offers Insights for Understanding Learning in the Cortex – Synced

Although Turing awardee and backpropagation pioneer Geoffrey Hintons interests have largely shifted to unsupervised learning, he recently co-authored a paper that takes a look back at backpropagation and explores its potential to contribute to understanding how the human cortex learns.

Hinton and a team of researchers from DeepMind, University College London, and University of Oxford published the paper last Friday on Nature Reviews Neuroscience. Their main idea is that biological brains could compute effective synaptic updates by using feedback connections to induce neuron activities whose locally computed differences encode backpropagation-like error signals.

Backpropagation of errors, or backprop, is a widely used algorithm in training artificial neural networks using gradient descent for supervised learning. The basics of continuous backpropagation were proposed in the 1960s, and in 1986 a Nature paper co-authored by Hinton showed experimentally that backprop can generate useful internal representations for neural networks.

The introduction of backpropagation also generated excitement in the neuroscience community, where it was viewed as a possible source of insight on understanding the learning process in the cortex. How the cortex modifies synapses to improve the performance of multistage networks remains one of the biggest mysteries in neuroscience.

Although we know that human brains learn by modifying the synaptic connections between neurons, synapses in the cortex are embedded within multi-layered networks, making it difficult to determine the effect of an individual synaptic modification on the behaviour of the system. In artificial neural networks, backprop tries to solve this problem by computing how slight changes in each synapses strength change the networks error rate using the chain rule of calculus.

The relevance of backpropagation to the cortex however had been in doubt for some time. The method was viewed as biologically problematic, as it was classically described in the supervised learning setting while the brain is thought to learn mainly in an unsupervised fashion and appears to use its feedback connections for different purposes. Moreover, decades after it was first proposed, backpropagation had still failed to produce truly impressive performance in artificial systems.

Backprop made its comeback in the 2010s, contributing to the rapid progress in unsupervised learning problems such as image and speech generation, language modelling, and other prediction tasks. Combining backprop with reinforcement learning also enabled significant advances in solving control problems such as mastering Atari games and beating top human professionals in games like Go and poker.

The successes of artificial neural networks over the past decade along with developments in neuroscience have reinvigorated interest in whether backpropagation can offer insights for understanding learning in the cortex. The new paper proposes that the brain has the capacity to implement the core principles underlying backprop, despite the apparent differences between brains and artificial neural nets.

The researchers introduced neural gradient representation by activity differences (NGRAD), which they define as learning mechanisms that use differences in activity states to drive synaptic changes.

To function in neural circuits, NGRADs need to be able to coordinate interactions between feedforward and feedback pathways, compute differences between patterns of neural activities, and use these differences to make appropriate synaptic updates. Although it is not yet clear how biological circuits could support these operations, the researchers say that recent empirical studies present an expanding set of potential solutions to these implementation requirements.

The NGRAD framework demonstrates that it is possible to embrace the core principles of backpropagation while sidestepping many of its problematic implementation requirements. And although the researchers focused on the cortex because many of its architectural features resemble that of deep networks, they believe NGRADs may be relevant to any brain circuit that incorporates both feedforward and feedback connectivity.

Many pieces are still missing that would firmly connect backprop with learning in the brain. Nonetheless, the situation now is very much reversed from decades ago, when neuroscience was thought to have little to learn from backprop. Now, the researchers believe, learning by following the gradient of a performance measure can work very well in deep neural networks: It therefore seems likely that a slow evolution of the thousands of genes that control the brain would favour getting as close as possible to computing the gradients that are needed for efficient learning of the trillions of synapses it contains.

The paper Backpropagation and the Brain is available on Nature Reviews Neuroscience. The first author is Timothy P. Lillicrap, and the research team also includes Adam Santoro, Luke Marris and Colin J. Akerman.

Journalist: Yuan Yuan | Editor: Michael Sarazen

Like Loading...

Read the original post:
New Hinton Nature Paper Revisits Backpropagation, Offers Insights for Understanding Learning in the Cortex - Synced

Neuroscience

Five New Bass Professors Named for Excellence in Teaching and Research – Duke Today

Five Duke professors with demonstrated excellence in research and undergraduate instruction have been selected as the 2020 Bass Fellows.

This moment of crisis has highlighted the importance of having faculty who excel, both in teaching and in research, said Gary Bennett, vice provost for undergraduate education. Bass Fellows represent the best that Duke offers -- faculty with a commitment to discovery and delivering a transformational undergraduate education, one that changes lives and strengthens our global communities.

The chairs were created in 1996 when Anne T. and Robert Bass gave $10 million as a matching gift to encourage Duke alumni, parents and friends to endow the positions. Candidates are nominated by faculty and evaluated by a faculty committee for having achieved true excellence in both research and teaching and being good university citizens. Bass professors hold their named chairs for five-year terms and then become lifetime members of the Bass Society of Fellows, which now numbers 106.

Thomas Robisheaux, the Fred W. Shaffer Professor of History whose research focuses on early modern Europe, was elected this month to serve as the new faculty director of the Bass Society of Fellows. He succeeds Lisa Keister, a professor of sociology who holds a joint appointment in the Sanford School of Public Policy.

The newly appointed Bass Fellows are:

Brenton Hoffman, James L. and Elizabeth M. Vincent Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering. The primary goal of Hoffmans research program is to use an interdisciplinary approach to first advance the basic understanding of mechanotransduction and then use this knowledge to guide the development of new treatments for mechanosensitive diseases. He has developed and taught two major courses -- Cell Mechanics and Mechanotransduction, and Biomaterials and Biomechanics, a required course for juniors who choose to focus on cell and tissue engineering, biomaterials or biomechanics. Hoffman has mentored more than 20 undergraduate researchers.

Sheila Patek, Mrs. Alexander Heymeyer Professor of Biology. Patek studies the unifying principles that guide, limit, and promote the evolutionary diversity of biomechanical systems. Her research has yielded discoveries of new biological phenomena, original tests of macroevolutionary hypotheses, and new frameworks for understanding the mechanical foundations of biological diversity. Her classes receive very positive student evaluations. She also created the Muser website, which connects undergraduates to mentored research opportunities across campus.

Christine Payne, Mary Milus Yoh and Harold L. Yoh, Jr. Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering & Materials Science. Payne came to Duke from Georgia Tech in 2018. Her research focuses on cellular interactions with nanoparticles, which increasingly are being used as sources for heating in cancer therapy or as drug delivery vehicles. She has already made an impact on teaching through her new course on the Materials Science of Science Fiction.

Gregory Samenez-Larkin, Jack H. Neely Associate Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience. Samenez-Larkins research lies at the intersection of human development, affective science, health psychology, cognitive neuroscience, behavioral economics and experimental finance. His four undergraduate courses, including an upper-level seminar and a foundational statistics/data-analysis class, have earned him exceptional student evaluations.

Jun Yang, Bishop-MacDermott Family Professor of Computer Science. As the co-director of the Duke Database Research Group, Yangs primary research interest lies in the area of database and data-intensive computing, which includes computational journalism, using computing to help to preserve public interest journalism. Before his arrival at Duke, the computer science department did not offer any courses in databases. Yang developed a coherent curriculum from scratch. His highly popular Introduction to Database Systems, usually attracts about 150 students.

For more information, visit the Bass Fellows website.

More here:
Five New Bass Professors Named for Excellence in Teaching and Research - Duke Today

Neuroscience

Broncos Win Fulbrights and Goldwater Scholarship Awards – Business Wire

SANTA CLARA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Santa Clara University is proud to announce that five Santa Clara University students or alumni have won prestigious Fulbright and Goldwater awards, enabling them to pursue research in fields such as urban environmental mitigation, disability rights, agricultural innovation, or neuroscience.

We are very proud of our students who have worked so hard inside and outside of class to earn these very competitive fellowships. We also commend their professors and mentors who encouraged them throughout the process, said University President Kevin OBrien, S.J. The University is honored to count these young scholars as Santa Clara students and alumni, particularly as they put their Jesuit education into practice for service of others.

Recent alumna Erin Ronald 19 and seniors Griffin Garner 20, Mariana Perera 20, and Bridget Woody 20 each won Fulbright Scholarships, to study in Sweden, Uganda, Brazil, and Jamaica, respectively, while junior Max Bjorni 21 won the Goldwater Scholarship for outstanding science, engineering or math students. Two other SCU seniors, Ali Deambrosio 20 and Graeme Hugo 20 are Fulbright alternates, and will study in Uruguay and Chile, respectively, if other awardees are unable to participate.

Ronald will study urban climate mitigation policy in several cities in Sweden. Garner will work in Uganda to help smallholder coffee farmers incorporate best practices to thrive and grow amid climate change. Perera will study disability rights policy in Brazil. Woody proposed traveling to Kingston, Jamaica, to conduct research into how past technological innovations historically affected the colonized slave populations there, as a way to inform modern-day, ethical engineering innovation.

Bjorni, a double major in neuroscience and biology, was awarded a Barry Goldwater Scholarship, which recognizes the nations top college sophomores and juniors who intend to pursue research careers in the natural sciences, engineering, and mathematics.

About Santa Clara UniversityFounded in 1851, Santa Clara University sits in the heart of Silicon Valleythe worlds most innovative and entrepreneurial region. The Universitys stunningly landscaped 106-acre campus is home to the historic Mission Santa Clara de Ass. Ranked among the top 15 percent of national universities by U.S. News & World Report, SCU has among the best four-year graduation rates in the nation and is rated by PayScale in the top 1 percent of universities with the highest-paid graduates. SCU has produced elite levels of Fulbright Scholars as well as four Rhodes Scholars. With undergraduate programs in arts and sciences, business, and engineering, and graduate programs in six disciplines, the curriculum blends high-tech innovation with social consciousness grounded in the tradition of Jesuit, Catholic education. For more information see http://www.scu.edu.

View original post here:
Broncos Win Fulbrights and Goldwater Scholarship Awards - Business Wire