Innovations in social finance
The emerging field of social finance is a hotbed of innovation in which new business models and practices are raising the game and extending reach to new markets around the world. What innovations in social finance are helping to catalyze this growth and development of the field? This session will explore ways to increase accountability through social metrics and standards, extend financial services to new populations, and adapt investment models and approaches in new geographies such as China.
Bio-security for a New Era
Secrets: The Ethics of Concealment and the Ethics of Science in Synthetic Biological Research
Dr. Laurie Zoloth, Center for Bioethics, Science and Society, Northwestern University
Increasingly sophisticated techniques allow for increasing powerful and creative tools of biology to create new or altered forms of life. Such synthetic biology may offer unprecedented avenues for drug development, alternate energy sources, and medical therapeutics. Yet increasing unease also mounts about the possibl
Large sand volume barrier islands: Environmental processes and development risks
This Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations "virtual field trip" explores the nature and structure of barrier islands with large sand volume, on which built structures are relatively well insulated from hurricane damage.
Forests and fires: The longleaf pine savanna
This Carolina Environmental Diversity Explorations "virtual field trip" examines the role of fire in maintaining the longleaf pine savanna as well as other rare plant communities found in Camp Lejune, North Carolina.
An Introduction to Clinical Trials
George Warimwe from the Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI)/Wellcome Trust Research Programme in Kilifi, Kenya presents an introduction to clinical trials aimed at trial site staff and anyone new to the field. Topics covered include: equipoise and hypothesis, protocol, trial design, comparative effectiveness, pharmacovigilance, ICH-GCP basics, informed consent, essential documents, databases and statistics.
Clays of the Piedmont: Origins, recovery, and use
A "virtual field trip" through the North Carolina Piedmont and thousands of years of history explains the origin of Piedmont clays and how clay is made into pottery. With high-resolution photographs.
Interview With Arthur Jones About Experiences In World War II
Arthur Jones served in WWII with the 219th Field Artillery, 35th Infantry Division of the Third Army. They landed in France shortly after Independence Day, 1944. Arthur's duty was to drive a Jeep that carried encoded messages back and forth between officers, under cover of dark. Hear his first-hand account of the 35th's push across France toward the German border, then their rush to Bastogne to assist the 101st Airborne during the Battle of the Bulge.
The biology of the 21st Century
Professor Denis Noble, who was a pioneer in the field of systems biology building the first working mathematical model of the heart and has been given an honorary degree at Warwick, talks about how the future study of biology will change in the 21st Century.
Understanding cancer: News from the frontline
This Oxford at Said seminar was dedicated to cancer research. Three researchers from the University of Oxford give insights into recent advances in the field of cancer cell biology, therapy and epidemiology. One in three people develop cancer, and one in five in Europe and North America die of the disease. Although environmental and lifestyle factors, for example smoking or sun exposure, affect the incidence of some cancer types, all human populations and many types of animal suffer from this di
You're the Scientist: Verifying Data Collected by Peers
As part of Journey North's Internet Field Team, your students collect backyard observations and share them with classrooms across North America. This throng of student observers expand the eyes and ears of scientists in ways never before possible. But in order for the data to be valid and useful, these observations must be accurate. How can we assess their reliability?
Birdsong Playback as a Tool for Teaching Animal Behavior
Animal behavior is often downplayed in general biology labs. Problems include where to deal with the topic in the syllabus, time constraints and special equipment needs, and the unpredictable nature of behavioral responses. Birdsong playback offers a solution to these problems. Birdsong relates well to several important conceptual areas of biology. Its acoustic features can be investigated easily using desktop computers, and it is a fairly reliable behavioral response obtainable in the field. Th
Biotic Indices of Stream Macroinvertebrates for Fun and (Educational) Profit
Water quality monitoring activities can support student inquiry into ecological concepts and pollution issues, as well as offer insight into integrating field and lab work. This exercise provides students with practice in identification (to order or family level) of stream macroinvertebrates that they've previously collected. Provided information indicates water pollution tolerance of the various taxa. Students use the data to calculate several different biotic indices for the macroinvertebrates
Adaptations of Aquatic Insects to Habitat and Food Resources in Streams
This exercise is a field study of the ecology of aquatic insects in a small stream. By using the inquiry technique, students discover how different animals have unique adaptations for being successful in particular habitats, especially at small spatial scales. Students also learn how these specializations establish essential ecological roles for the aquatic insects in stream ecosystems. Thus, students gain an appreciation of how biodiversity is not just a list of species in a particular environm
The City, Spring 2003
Examines the evolving structure of cities, the dynamic processes that shape them, and the significance of a city's history for its future development. Develops the ability to read urban form as an interplay of natural processes and human purposes over time. Field assignments in Boston provide the opportunity to use, develop, and refine these concepts.
10.492-2 Integrated Chemical Engineering Topics I: Introduction to Biocatalysis (MIT)
This course provides a brief introduction to the field of biocatalysis in the context of process design. Fundamental topics include why and when one may choose to use biological systems for chemical conversion, considerations for using free enzymes versus whole cells, and issues related to design and development of bioconversion processes. Biological and engineering problems are discussed as well as how one may arrive at both biological and engineering solutions.
When Everything Looks Like a Nail: Graph Models of the Internet
The general appeal of abstracting real-world networks to simple graphs is understandable and has been partly responsible for fueling the new field of "network science". However, as the Internet application has demonstrated, such abstractions that ignore much of what engineers consider as critical come at a price. For example, they can lead to the study of graph models that have little in common with the real-world networks that motivated these models in the first place. In turn, they tend to foc
1.040 Project Management (MIT)
1.040 covers three important aspects of construction project management:
the theory, methods and quantitative tools used to effectively plan, organize, and control construction projects;
efficient management methods revealed through practice and research; and
hands-on, practical project management knowledge from on-site situations and field trips.
The course relies on a basic project management framework in which the project life-cycle is broken into organizing, planning, monitoring, controlli
Statistical Reasoning I
Statistical Reasoning in Public Health provides an introduction to selected important topics in biostatistical concepts and reasoning through lectures, exercises, and bulletin board discussions. It represents an introduction to the field and provides a survey of data and data types. Specific topics include tools for describing central tendency and variability in data; methods for performing inference on population means and proportions via sample data; statistical hypothesis testing and its appl
7.3 Disposal requirements
Health, safety and risk assessment are of paramount importance both in the laboratory and the field. This unit will help make you more aware of the hazards and risks involved in laboratory and field-based research work, as well as giving you an overview of the legal requirements attached to this work. The unit discusses issues involved in the handling chemical and biological agents, basic safety procedures and common field-work hazards.
Worldwide Amphibian Declines
AmphibiaWeb is an online system enabling anyone with a Web browser to search and retrieve information relating to amphibian biology and conservation. This site was inspired by the global declines of amphibians, the study of which has been hindered by the lack of multidisplinary studies and a lack of coordination in monitoring, in field studies, and in lab studies. We hope AmphibiaWeb will encourage a shared vision for the study of global amphibian declines and the conservation of remaining amphi
