"Let there be light!
Evolutionary origins of photoperception on animals"

Todd Oakley Professor
Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology
University of California, Santa Barbara

Dr. Xiaoxia Li
Cleveland Clinical Foundation
Lerner Research Institute
Department of Immunology
"Signal Transduction in Innate and Adaptive Immunity"

OWM Professional Development Series
Topic: "Effectiveness in Influencing Decisions"
Guest Speaker: Virginia Valian, PhD

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Sponsored by The Office of Women in Medicine and The ADVANCE Program at Brown University
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Professor Eric Kolaczyk, PhD
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Boston University
"Network Filtering"
Abstract: A canonical problem in statistical signal and image processing is the detection of faint targets against complex backgrounds, which has been likened to the proverbial task of “finding a needle in a haystack”. We consider the task of target detection when the `background' is neither one- nor two-dimensional but rather in the form of an association network. We model the acquisition of network data, including the potential presence of targets, using a system of sparse simultaneous equation models (SSEMs).

In this context, detection is approached as a two-step procedure, involving (i) statistical inference and removal of `background' network structure, using tools of sparse inference, and (ii) outlier detection in the network-filtered residuals. Theoretical performance of the methodology can be characterized using a combination of tools and concepts from sparse inference, compressive sampling, random matrix theory, and spectral graph theory. We illustrate the practical capabilities of this approach using simulations and the problem of drug target detection in the context of a network of gene interactions.

Binghui Shen, Ph.D., Professor and Director
Department of Radiation Biology
City of Hope National Medical Center and Beckman Research Institute, Duarte, California
"FEN1 mutations result in autoimmunity, chronic inflammation and cancers"

Emerging Marine Diseases: A case study of white band disease of threatened staghorn coral.

Steve Vollmer
Assistant Professor
Marine Science Center
Northeastern University

Derek Bingham, PhD
Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science
Simon Fraser University
"Efficient Emulators of Computer Experiments Using Compactly Supported Correlation Functions"
Abstract: Building an emulator for a computer simulator using standard Gaussian process models can be computationally infeasible when the number of evaluated input values is large. As an alternative, we propose using compactly supported correlation functions, which produce sparse correlation matrices that can be more easily manipulated. Following the usual approach of taking the correlation to be a product of correlations in each input dimension, we show how to impose restrictions on the correlation range for each input, giving sparsity, while also allowing the ranges to trade-off against one another, thereby giving good predictive performance when the data are non-isotropic. As an illustration, the method is to construct an emulator of photometric red-shifts of cosmological objects.

"XDR TB, in the Air and on the Ground" presented by Gerald H. Friedland, MD, Director, Yale University AIDS program. Co-sponsored by the Brown University AIDS Center.

Edward Ruthazer, Ph.D
Department of Neurology & Neurosurgery
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec

Morphological refinement of neuronal projections in the developing visual system is sensitive to visual experience and neuronal activity. Using multi photon in vivo time-lapse imaging of CNS
neurons, we examined the relationship between synaptic sites, neural activity and structural plasticity. Our findings suggest that synapses are direct sites of local structural stabilization and elaboration in the axonal arbor, but also support a broader role for synaptic activity in the regulation of the transcriptional profile of
neurons, modulating their susceptibility to undergo further plasticity in response to synaptic inputs.

More information: cvr.brown.edu

Sponsored by Center for Vision Research
Brown Institute for Brain Science

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Online registration available at www.riacc.org

Why do some physicians write about patients or the complex world of clinical practice?

OWM Professional Development Series

Topic: "The Division of Biology and Medicine and The Warren Alpert Medical School, Present and Future: Working Together for Excellence"

"A Bold Beginning"

Guest Speaker: Edward J. Wing, MD

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Edward J. Wing, MD will meet with the medical student body to discuss student related activities and initiatives, followed by Q&A session

Updates on HIV medication, routine HIV testing, health care worker occupational protection from bloodborne pathogens, and management of chronic HIV disease presented by faculty of Alpert Medical School of Brown University.

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Online registration available at https://apps.biomed.brown.edu/cme_registration/

Peter and Rosemary Grant
Princeton University

Evolution of Darwin's Finches

"Dissection of the functions of plasmacytoid dendritic cells and of their mechanisms of regulation during viral infection"

Marc Dalod, Ph.D.
Center d'Immunologie de Marseille Luminy,
Marseille, France

Elucidating Controls on Marine Nitrogen Cycling Using Gene-Based Methods

Bethany Jenkins Assistant Professor,
Departments of Cell and Molecular Biology and Graduate School of Oceanography
University of Rhode Island

Keynote Speaker:Jerome Groopman,MD, Recanati Chair of Medicine, Harvard University and Chief of Experimental Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

“How Doctors Think”

This lecture features distinguished writers and literary scholars to foster a reflective dialogue with the community about the illness experience. A reception and book signing will follow.

"Innate and acquired immune responses during pulmonary viral responses"

Nicholas W. Lukacs, Ph.D.
Professor of Pathology
Director of Molecular and Cellular Pathology
University of Michigan Medical School

The Brown University/Women and Infants Hospital Center of Excellence in Women's Health and The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University's Office of Women in Medicine will co-sponsor: "Celebrating Women's Health and Leadership". This program and networking event will celebrate and recognize the accomplishments of women medical faculty.

Jason Neff, Assistant Professor of Geological Sciences and Environmental Studies.
University of Colorado, Boulder.

"Manifest dust:a history of land use change, wind erosion and dust deposition in the western US"