Volume IV Issue 6
June 2008 |
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 Flying
Eye Hospital
 ORBIS
International, a nonprofit development organization dedicated to saving
sight worldwide, is replacing its current DC-10 Flying Eye Hospital with
a DC-10 Series 30 freighter. United Airlines, with the support of FedEx
Corp., is donating the airplane to ORBIS. At the heart of ORBIS is the
world's only Flying Eye Hospital -- an aircraft containing an innovative
teaching facility and ophthalmic surgical center.
The ORBIS Flying Eye
Hospital is flown across the globe by volunteer pilots from FedEx
Express and United Airlines, and its international medical team conducts
treatment and training programs. Leading eye surgeons volunteer their
time to perform surgery and teach aboard the aircraft. Since their first
flight in 1982, ORBIS has carried out more than 900 sight-saving
programs in 86 countries, and trained more than 195,000
ophthalmologists, nurses, biomedical engineers, and other healthcare
workers.
A DC-10 Series 30 freighter
that will be donated to ORBIS is about 10 years younger than ORBIS's
current aircraft, and has a flying life of at least 20 years. The new
ORBIS Flying Eye Hospital will be
more efficient providing greater range, lower operating costs and better
reliability. A team, consisting of medical personnel, architects and
engineers, has been assembled to determine the design and architectural
modification necessary to convert the freighter into a state-of-the-art
ophthalmic medical facility. The conversion of the plane is expected to
take two years to complete.
 Find
out more about career paths in
engineering and
healthcare...
NASA
Student Research Program
 The
NASA Undergraduate Student
Research Project, offers internship opportunities for undergraduate
science and engineering students at all 10 NASA centers and additional
partner facilities. These mentor-guided internships provide hands-on,
real-life, career-related experiences that challenge, inspire, and
provide practical application that complements and expands upon
students' academic education.
Three internship sessions
are offered: a 15-week spring session, a 10-week summer session and a
15-week autumn session. Eligible applicants must be classified as
sophomores, juniors or seniors by the start of their internship. The
students must be U.S. citizens with academic majors or course
concentration in engineering, mathematics, computer science, or physical
and life sciences. Most students work on practical problems that will
see real applications in aerospace or on future NASA missions.
Internships and Coops are excellent opportunities for students to
explore career paths, work with professionals in their fields, and
network with other students with similar interests.
Find
out more about
coops and internships...
FDA
Embarks on Major Hiring Initiative
 Biologists,
chemists, medical officers, mathematical statisticians and investigators
are among the experts in demand as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration
begins a multi-year hiring initiative. The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) is hiring hundreds of individuals with science and
medical backgrounds to help meet the agency's responsibilities to assure
the safety and/or efficacy of human and veterinary drugs, biological
products, medical devices, food, cosmetics and products that emit
radiation. Positions will be available throughout the agency, including
in the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research, the Center for Drug
Evaluation and Research, the Center for Devices and Radiological Health,
the Center for Food Safety and Nutrition, and the Center for Veterinary
Medicine. It takes a large pool of talented people for the FDA to
protect and promote the public health," said John Dyer, FDA's Deputy
Commissioner for Operations and Chief Operating Officer. "Each month
there is a delay in bringing critical staff on board impairs the
agency's ability to fulfill this mission."
In fiscal year 2008 alone, the FDA is looking to fill more than 600 new
positions and to backfill over 700 others to implement the FDA
Amendments Act of 2007, the Food Protection Plan and the Import Safety
Action Plan. That's nearly triple the number of people hired from
2005-2007. Find out
more online.
Explore
career paths in healthcare,
mathematics,
biology, and
chemistry.
Degree
Profile: Dental Hygienist
 Dental
hygienists remove soft and hard deposits from teeth, teach patients how
to practice good oral hygiene, and provide other preventive dental care.
They examine patients' teeth and gums, recording the presence of
diseases or abnormalities. Dental hygienists use an assortment of
different tools to complete their tasks. Hand and rotary instruments and
ultrasonic devices are used to clean and polish teeth, including
removing calculus, stains, and plaque. Hygienists use digital and
traditional x-ray machines to take and develop dental pictures. They may
use models of teeth to explain oral hygiene, perform root planning as a
periodontal therapy, or apply cavity-preventative agents such as
fluorides and pit and fissure sealants. In some states, hygienists are
licensed to administer local anesthetics using syringes.
 Some
states also allow hygienists to place and carve filling materials,
temporary fillings, and periodontal dressings; remove sutures; and
smooth and polish metal restorations. Dental hygienists also help
patients develop and maintain good oral health. Hygienists sometimes
make a diagnosis and other times may prepare clinical and laboratory
diagnostic tests for the dentist to interpret. Hygienists sometimes work
chair side with the dentist during treatment. Prospective dental
hygienists must become licensed in the state in which they wish to
practice. A degree from an accredited dental hygiene school is usually
required along with licensure examinations. Most dental hygiene programs
grant an associate degree.
Find
out more about a career as a
dental hygienist...
High
School Scientists Decode DNA Sequence
 Opportunities
for high school students to do research as part of a science class are
-- sadly -- all too rare. Where such opportunities do exist, students
often find themselves going through the motions of an experiment with a
predetermined outcome.
Against this backdrop, imagine a project where students can work in a
rapidly advancing field, doing original research, then publish their
results and share them with the scientific community.
About 300 New Jersey high school students had such an opportunity this
year through the Waksman Institute at Rutgers University, which operates
"HiGene: A Genome Sequencing Project for High Schools." With major
funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) through its
Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers Program,
students have been immersing themselves in a research project that draws
on the fields of molecular biology and bioinformatics. Five of the
students recently presented their findings to an audience of scientists
at the NSF. They described how they worked with bacteria that contained
a fragment of a DNA copy of RNA from brine shrimp, purified the
fragment, and performed a set of analyses to decode a DNA sequence that
had never been seen before. They were able to compare their sequence to
other DNA sequences and predict the functions of the genes. They then
went on to publish their findings through the National Center for
Biotechnology Information.
The Waksman Institute also hosts a Summer Institute where students can
begin the DNA sequencing project; but unlike other summer science
programs, the teachers of participating students must also attend. At
the institute, both teachers and students gain knowledge of molecular
biology as well as bioinformatics -- a field that uses techniques such
as applied mathematics and computer science to solve biological problems
at the molecular level. Links to the Waksman summer institute and other
summer opportunities for high school students are available
here...
The
Physics of Ripping
 Frustrated
by tape that won't peel off the roll in a straight line? Angry at
wallpaper that refuses to tear neatly off the wall? A new study reveals
why these efforts can be so aggravating. Wallpaper is not out to foil
you--it's just obeying the laws of physics, according to a team of
researchers from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)
in Paris, the Universidad de Santiago, Chile, and
MIT.
"You want to redecorate your bedroom, so you yank down the wallpaper.
You wish that the flap would tear all the way down to the floor, but it
comes together in a triangle and you have to start all over again," said
Pedro Reis, one of the authors of the paper and an applied mathematics
instructor at MIT. This pattern, where two cracks propagate toward each
other and meet at a point, is extremely robust. It applies not only to
wallpaper but other adhesives such as tape, as well as nonadhesive
plastic sheets such as the shrink-wrap that envelops compact discs. It
even extends to fruit: The skin on a tomato or a grape typically forms a
triangle when peeled off.
The team found that those ubiquitous triangular tears arise from
interactions between three inherent properties of adhesive materials:
elasticity (stiffness), adhesive energy (how strongly the adhesive
sticks to a surface) and fracture energy (how tough it is to rip). The
researchers developed a formulation that predicts the angle of the
triangle formed, based on those three properties. They also figured out
just how those triangular tears arise. As the strip is pulled, energy
builds up in the fold that forms where the tape is peeling from the
surface. The tape can release that energy in two ways: by unpeeling from
its surface and by becoming narrower, both of which it does.
Find
out more about careers in physics...
E-Prescribing
Gains Momentum
 Recently,
five of the nation's leading physician groups announced the launch of a
new program designed to help more physicians begin sending prescriptions
to pharmacies electronically. Electronic prescribing, or
"e-prescribing," replaces the need for handwritten, printed or faxed
prescriptions and is seen as a more accurate and efficient means of
prescribing medications. A new portal has been developed where
physicians can follow a step-by-step process designed to help them
transition from paper-based prescribing to e-prescribing. In an effort
to prevent medication errors, the Institute of Medicine has called for
all prescriptions in the U.S. to be written and received electronically
by 2010. GetRxConnected.com contains
urgent information and guidance for an estimated 150,000 prescribers
located throughout the U.S. that are currently using electronic medical
record (EMR) and other clinical software to fax prescriptions to
pharmacies. Computer-generated faxing of prescriptions not only prevents
physicians from achieving the gains in practice efficiency and patient
safety associated with e-prescribing, but starting January 1, 2009, all
computer-generated prescriptions covered by the Medicare Part D program
must be transmitted electronically and not via fax.
Find
more information about careers as a
pharmacist or a
physician...
Career Cornerstone News is a publication of the
Sloan Career Cornerstone Center. Click here
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