Volume V Issue 10
October 2009 |
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 American
Graduation Initiative
 Recently,
President Obama proposed the American Graduation Initiative, a $12
billion federal investment to substantially expand the capacity of the
nation's community college system. If implemented, the new program would
represent an historic new federal investment in the largest and fastest
growing segment of higher education. Community colleges already enroll
almost half of all U.S. undergraduates. The new support would be
concentrated in four principal areas:
* Community College
Challenge Fund to improve programs at community colleges, with an
emphasis on those for high-demand jobs. Funds would also be focused on
increasing high school dual enrollment programs.
* College Access and Completion Fund to support innovative programs to
increase student success.
* Renovation/Construction Fund to pay the interest on bonds or other
debt, seed capital campaigns, or create state revolving loan funds.
* National Online Skills Laboratory of high quality open web-based
career-oriented high school and college-level courses.
About 6.7 million students
are earning credits at 1,177 community, technical and junior colleges.
During the extended economic downturn, the almost 1,200 two-year
colleges have seen dramatic enrollment growth, fueled by high school
graduates seeking a lower cost entry into college and adult learners
needing new skills to gain employment or keep their jobs.
 Explore
more information about
academic degrees...
International
Chemistry Olympiad
 The
U.S. high school student team competing in the 41st International
Chemistry Olympiad won one gold and three silver medals at the event
held in Cambridge, England. The students, from Georgia, Indiana, New
Jersey and New York, competed against more than 250 students from 65
countries. The four U.S. students were selected from a beginning pool of
more than 11,000 high school chemistry students who vied to be on the
team. These four emerged after a two-week training camp held for the 20
student finalists last summer at the U.S. Air Force Academy.
Participating in local,
regional, and national programs and projects is a great way for students
to network with other kids who enjoy math, science, computing, and
engineering. Many projects encourage teamwork, provide a chance to do
hands on science, math, and engineering, and can expose students to
resources that can augment classroom experiences.
Find
out more about precollege programs and
projects...
DNA
Does Yoga!
 Researchers
have figured out how to make DNA bend and twist into a variety of new
shapes. These curvy new molecules could someday be used to build
nanoscale devices – smaller than the width of a human hair -- for
delivering drugs inside the body, growing new tissues or studying single
proteins. The exciting thing about this research is that it gives
scientists a way to make nanoscale objects with curving surfaces. For
comparison, imagine if we could not make the curved objects we see in
daily life -- we'd have no wheels, arches, hooks, etc. This is the same
kind of limitation nanotechnology researchers have been facing.
Hendrik Dietz of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Harvard Medical
School and colleagues now describe a way to make continuously curving
nanoscale shapes. They designed bundles of DNA strands, arranged in a
honeycomb lattice (somewhat like a nanosized piece of Twizzlers candy).
By adding extra DNA "letters" to some strands and removing them from
others, the researchers created stresses that helped the bundles
assemble into shapes that could twist and bend sharply. By combining
differently shaped DNA molecules, the researchers built complex shapes
such as gears and beachballs, which they described in the 7 August issue
of the journal Science.
Find
out more about careers in
biology and
bioengineering...
Degree
Profile: Radiation Therapist
 Treating
cancer in the human body is the principal use of radiation therapy. As
part of a medical radiation oncology team, radiation therapists use
machines -- called linear accelerators -- to administer radiation
treatment to patients. Linear accelerators, used in a procedure called
external beam therapy, project high-energy x-rays at targeted cancer
cells. As the x-rays collide with human tissue, they produce highly
energized ions that can shrink and eliminate cancerous tumors. Radiation
therapy is sometimes used as the sole treatment for cancer, but is
usually used in conjunction with chemotherapy or surgery. Working with
cancer patients can be stressful, but many radiation therapists also
find it rewarding. Radiation therapists hold about 15,000 jobs in the
United States. About 73 percent worked in hospitals, and about 17
percent worked in the offices of physicians. A small proportion worked
in outpatient care centers.
In terms of preparation,
employers usually require applicants to complete an associate or a
bachelor's degree program in radiation therapy. The median annual
earnings of wage-and-salary radiation therapists is about $66,170 in the
United States. Employment of radiation therapists is projected to grow
by 25 percent between 2006 and 2016, which is much faster than the
average for all occupations. As the U.S. population grows and an
increasing share of it is in the older age groups, the number of people
needing treatment is expected to increase and to spur demand for
radiation therapists. In addition, as radiation technology advances and
is able to treat more types of cancer, radiation therapy will be
prescribed more often..
Find
out more about a career as a
radiation
therapist...
Physicists
Make Room for Oddballs
 Here's
a question. How many gumballs of different sizes can fit in one of those
containers at the mall so as to reward a well-spent quarter? It's hard
to believe that most people never consider it even when guessing the
number of candies in a bowl at Halloween. But physicists at the
Materials Research Science and Engineering Center at New York University
recently developed a new way to help answer the question. They say the
solution is found in how the particles pack in terms of how many
neighboring gumballs a single gumball can randomly touch within a given
container.
Though it may seem intuitive, confirming the answer has long proven
elusive because of super complex geometry when dealing with
three-dimensional objects of mixed sizes and shapes. But in a recent
breakthrough, researchers Maxime Clusel, Eric Corwin and Alex Siemens
led by NYU physics professor Jasna Brujic, derived and tested a
statistical model that potentially could help industry sort through a
variety of packing problems from gumballs in vending machines to grain
storage in silos or dry clothes detergent in retail boxes.
The new model predicts the
geometry of randomly packing spheres of different sizes in terms of how
many nearest neighbors a particle can have, how far apart those
neighbors can be and how free space is distributed throughout the
packing. It does all this by determining geometric possibilities from
the viewpoint of a single particle, which the authors term the "granocentric"
view. The structure of a packing of spheres of equal size is an old
problem, whose complexity has challenged mathematicians and physicists
for centuries. At first one would think that the structure of packings
of spheres of random sizes is even more complex, but surprisingly, the
researchers discovered that this is not the case. The results could be
used in a variety of industrial packing processes. For example, the
model could be used to determine how finely to mill medicines that
pharmaceutical companies pack into drug capsules, producing more
effective pills that are smaller and easier to swallow.
Find
out more about careers in physics...
Math
May Reduce Guesswork in Tissue Transfer Surgery
 Plastic
surgeons are turning to mathematics to take the guesswork out of efforts
to ensure that live tissue segments that are selected to restore damaged
body parts will have enough blood and oxygen to survive the surgical
transfer. In the world's first published mathematical model of tissue
transfer, mathematicians have shown that they can use differential
equations to determine which tissue segments selected for transfer from
one part of the body to another location on the same body will receive
the level of oxygen required to sustain the tissue.
The
most common tissue transfers are used to restore body parts destroyed by
cancer and trauma. The researchers say reliable mathematical modeling of
the blood supply and oxygen in tissue segments will not only reduce
failures in reconstructive surgery, but will also improve understanding
of conditions in which an adequate blood supply is a basic problem, such
as heart disease, cancer and stroke. To obtain tissue for reconstructive
surgery, plastic surgeons cut away a segment of tissue, called a flap,
that is fed by a single set of perforator vessels – an artery and vein
that travel through underlying muscle to support skin and fat. Surgeons
generally agree that vessels at least 1.5 millimeters in diameter are
required to sustain oxygen flow within the flap intended for transfer.
"That guideline is based upon experience, trial and error. What we need
is a more precise ability to determine what the necessary blood vessel
size really is," said Michael Miller, professor of surgery and director
of the division of plastic surgery at Ohio State University and a senior
author of the research. "I'm convinced that there is a relationship
that's probably very predictive between the diameter and blood flow in
the vessel and the ability of the piece of the tissue we're transferring
to survive based on that." Mathematicians working on the problem have
set out to model that relationship. Find out more at
www.osu.edu.
Find
out more about careers in
mathematics,
medicine,
and healthcare...
Teens
Say "Count Me In!" for Mathematics
 This
school year, teens across the nation are pledging to support math
literacy by signing the Texas Instruments Count Me In! Pledge and
committing to tell others why math education is so important to the
future of their world. Students also are be encouraged to challenge
themselves to consider taking higher-level math courses to broaden their
college and career options. Teachers also can sign the pledge to win
free TI classroom technology and professional development. Studies have
shown that high school students who complete math beyond Algebra II
continue to college at much higher rates. By the time today's high
school students graduate from college, more than 6 million jobs will
require the skills and understanding of math, science, and students who
take more math classes have more earning potential than those who do
not. Now through October 15, teens, their parents and teachers can sign
the pledge at
www.countmeinpledge.com to support math literacy and be registered
for a chance to win the student or teacher grand prize packages, as well
as one of 84 daily prize pack drawings for students and teachers. There
are also loads of other educational resources at
www.education.ti.com, and a
special section for students at
http://education.ti.com/studentzone/.
Find
out about career paths in mathematics, engineering
and science...
Career Cornerstone News is a publication of the
Sloan Career Cornerstone Center. Click here
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foundations, or corporations who wish to support those
considering career paths in science, technology, engineering,
mathematics, or healthcare.
Find out more...
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