To raise awareness about social justice and peace movements and to reflect on the work of peace activist Father Daniel Berrigan and the late Rev. Jack Lewis, who led Cornell United Religious Work (CURW) during the tumultuous anti-Vietnam War era, a weekend of festivities titled "Celebrating Peace Activism: America Is Still Hard to Find" and a visit from Berrigan are slated for Sept. 19-21 at Cornell University. Coordinated by the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP) at Cornell, the weekend includes a festival of music that includes Michelle Shocked, Stephan Smith, and Bread and Puppet Theater on the Arts Quad, a debate on the role of direct action and voting in political discourse, and remarks and a sermon by Berrigan. (August 26, 2003)
Cornell University Police is participating in National Stop on Red Week 2003, Aug. 30-Sept. 5 -- a national law-enforcement program dedicated to educating American motorists about the dangers of running red lights.
The process by which a cell reads the genetic code in its DNA in order to manufacture a protein is complex, involving dozens of enzymes and other biological molecules working together.
A flea lands on a man's arm and bites it. He scratches. The scratching aids the passage of the bacteria carried by the flea into the man's bloodstream. His temperature soars, his lymph glands swell and quickly his heart, liver and spleen are destroyed. He goes into septic shock, then into coma and finally dies. And that was just the bubonic plague. (August 21, 2003)
New York, NY (August 20, 2003) -- Surgeons at New York Weill Cornell medical center performed the world's first gene therapy for Parkinson's disease on a 55-year-old New York man on Monday, August 18. The historic surgery, which also marked the first-ever in vivo gene therapy in the brain for an adult neurological disease, was part of a phase I clinical trial approved by the Food and Drug Administration in October 2002. The five-hour procedure was performed by Dr. Michael G. Kaplitt, Director of Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital and Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. The patient is recovering normally and is expected to return home today, just two days after the surgery was performed."Monday's surgery represents the realization of nearly 15 years of research in this area," said Dr. Kaplitt. "The goal of our gene therapy approach is to 're-set' a specific group of cells that have become overactive in an affected part of the brain, causing the impaired movements associated with Parkinson's disease. We hope that this trial, which is the first of its kind, will prove to be a safe treatment to allow gene therapy to move forward for Parkinson's disease and other brain disorders."
To involve the Cornell University and Ithaca communities in an upcoming celebration of peace activism that includes a visit by the Rev. Daniel Berrigan, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP) at Cornell is calling for submissions of art, personal essays and photographs. The works will be displayed on campus Sept. 19-21, and some will be selected for publication. The Celebrating Peace Activism weekend will reflect on the work of noted activist Berrigan and the late Rev. Jack Lewis, who led Cornell United Religious Work during the late 1960s and early 1970s. The weekend's events, in addition to the exhibition, will include a sermon and a presentation on campus by Berrigan, a music festival with local and nationally known musicians and a round-table debate on the roles of direct action and voting in political discourse. (August 21, 2003)
It's become an annual Orientation week rite of passage at Cornell - the New Student Reading Project, which involves programs surrounding the reading of a text in common by all first-year students.
A diversity-education initiative for new students at Cornell University, called "One Vision, Many Voices," will begin its sophomore year on campus during Orientation 2003. Its goal is to facilitate discussion among students about issues of diversity and inclusiveness. "We had a great response from students last year and are looking to surpass attendance numbers this year," said Ednita Wright, assistant dean of students for diversity education and outreach at Cornell. (August 19, 2003)
The complete genome sequence of a leading bacterial plant pathogen offers new ways to stave off agricultural loss and perhaps foil animal or human infection, says a Cornell University researcher. According to Alan Collmer, Cornell professor of plant pathology, the sequencing (that is, determining the base sequence of each of the ordered DNA fragments in the genome) could help farmers repress tomato speck and other plant diseases. Medical researchers could be aided in comparing a related bacterium that causes fatal lung infections in cystic fibrosis patients. And environmentalists could be provided with a new tool in understanding how another related bacterium can live in soil and dine on toxic waste. (August 19, 2003)
The newest addition to Cornell University's North Campus is the Carol Tatkon Center, an academic center for first-year students, located in the south wing of the university's Balch Hall. A grand opening and ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new center will be held Friday, Aug. 22, at 5:15 p.m. The Carol Tatkon Center was designed to connect the academic heart of the university with the residential center for first-year student life on North Campus. It is administered by Cornell's Office of the Dean of Students in collaboration with the vice provost for undergraduate education and the Campus Life office. (August 19, 2003)
Shawhin Roudbari, a graduate student in Cornell University's School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, is working to help rural communities in South Africa hold on to more of their precious resource of water, which appears only briefly in late summer, leaving dry farmland when winter returns. He is one of six EWF-USA volunteers who are using their engineering skills to make a difference overseas this summer. He is spending three months designing and building rainwater storage tanks and installing them in eight villages, supported by a partnership of the International Water Management Institute, a research organization headquartered in Sri Lanka, and Engineers Without Frontiers USA (EWF-USA), a two-year-old national nonprofit group based at Cornell and supported by the university. (August 19, 2003)
New York, NY (August 18, 2003) -- Physician-scientists at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and Weill Cornell Medical College have shown that low-dose computed tomography (ct) screening for lung cancer may not only improve a lung cancer patient's chances for a cure, but is also likely to be cost-effective when compared with other widely accepted cancer screening methods. Published in the August Chest, the analysis demonstrates that annual low-dose CT screening for lung cancer compares quite favorably to cost-effectiveness ratios of other screenings. The study -- a collaboration between NewYork Weill Cornell Medical Center, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, and Columbia University Graduate School of Business -- finds that the yearly cost of saving one life using a single low-dose CT scan could be as low as $2,500. The analysis is based on data from the Early Lung Cancer Action Project (ELCAP) study, which analyzed the response of low-dose CT screening for 1,000 high-risk individuals. The current study's estimation of cost effectiveness is the first to employ detailed data from an actual screening study, unlike previous cost effectiveness studies that relied upon assumptions and hypothetical models.CT screening for lung cancer may be significantly more cost effective than annual PAP smear for cervical cancer screening, which costs approximately $50,000 per life-year saved, or annual mammography, which costs about $24,000 per life-year saved -- two well-accepted early detection strategies to decrease cancer mortality.
