And the perfect time to be thinking about our newest program, Project Education. As many of us gear up for another year of High School, College, Grad School or prepare our children for a new year of learning, most of us think of school as a necessary evil. Few consider it a luxury, but to a child in Africa, getting a proper education is often too much to hope for. This is something we are working to change and you can help! Along with better education comes better opportunities for these kids and not just in the form of a higher paying job, it means better opportunities for their whole village and ultimately, their whole country. Statistics show that investing in education is the key to economic development and a stable economy leads to a higher quality of life. So next time you are out shopping for books, pencils and calculators, please consider sponsoring a child so that they too can have the education that they deserve.
Archive for the 'Schooling' Category
Today, Ascovime has achieved two major milestones with one big donation: 100 donors and over $5000 raised. This is a nice goal and is a testament to the grassroots nature of this small organization. Everyone out there is chipping in a little bit and helping get much needed healthcare and educational supplies to those in rural parts of Cameroon.
The mission of Ascovime is to provide rural populations in Cameroon with healthcare and educational supplies, all free of charge. Ascovime functions to achieve this goal in a rather unique way compared to other humanitarian organizations – all members contribute on a volunteer basis, so all the money raised goes directly to those who really need it. With this model comes the need for great grassroots efforts from all over the world.
Cool Students in Yaounde
Big banking in the UK received a lump of coal from jolly old Cambridge University this Christmas. The banking trade association in the UK wrote to Cambridge U asking them to censor an academic thesis of one of their students because it exposed one of their security flaws. Instead of jumping at fixing the flaw they simply try to cover it up. Click on the crest to check out the article:
A great read I found this morning…
Non-Anesthetized Mouse Model for Recording Sensory Urinary Bladder Activity
Peter Zvara 1*, Andrew J. Wright 1, Kristopher Roach 1, Michal Ursiny 1, Bennett Shapiro 1, Lawrence M. Dagrosa 1, Mark T. Nelson 2 and Thomas J. Heppner 2
- 1Surgery, University of Vermont, USA
- 2Pharmacology, Univeristy of Vermont, USA
The goal of this study was to develop an in vivo awake mouse model for extracellular bladder sensory nerve recording. A bipolar 125-µm silver electrode was positioned under a single postganglionic bladder nerve. Efferent nerve signals were eliminated by tying off the postganglionic bladder nerve between the major pelvic ganglion and the recording electrode. Sensory nerve activity was measured in the conscious animals 48 hours after surgery during continuous intravesical infusion of 0.9% saline/0.5% acetic acid followed by 0.5% acetic acid with capsazepine (10 µM) at a rate of 0.75 ml/h. Continuous infusion of 0.9% NaCl led to a gradual increase in the frequency of sensory nerve firing that peaked upon reaching threshold pressure. Non-micturition contractions were observed in some animals during filling and other animals exhibited only minimal pressure fluctuations; both types of events were associated with a rise in sensory nerve activity. Intravesical infusion of 0.5% acetic acid reduced the intermicturition interval. This was associated with a 2.1-fold increase in bladder pressure during filling and a 2-fold increase at both threshold and micturition pressures. Concurrent with these changes, sensory activity increased 2.8-fold during filling and 2.4-fold at threshold pressure. Subsequent intravesical infusion of capsazepine in 0.5% acetic acid reduced filling and threshold pressures by 21% and 31.2%, respectively, and produced corresponding decreases of 36% and 23.4% in sensory nerve activity. The current study shows that multi-fiber sensory nerve recordings can be reproducibly obtained from conscious mice.
Enjoy this great little tune made by some students at Middlebury College and a fledgling producer flown in from LA. Clever little commentary on what college kids do at school, the brotherhood of lacrosse, and then below is a classic small-town, politically correct report from the local news. Both are worth a chuckle.
Compelling newscast: (Embedding was disabled) on how the lacrosse players feelings were hurt.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4CSRAnGyqY&feature=related
The Times also wrote a little ditty about it:
News posted by the University of Vermont College of Engineering
Greetings to all!
There’s a great little news article posted by the University of Vermont College of Engineering about my medical mission to Africa. Everyone should go read it and pass it on, although just a small blurb, I think it captures the story quite well. Be sure to share the story with others and hopefully this will lead to more press in the near future!
You can click here to read the news article or find it through the College of Engineering and Mathematics homepage.
Thanks again and enjoy!
