Microbes and Society | OSPSANTG 60 | Autumn
Instructor & Department: Bendavid, Eran | Overseas Studies in Santiago
The spread of microbial species is associated with the spread of human beings across the planet. Role of microbial species in shaping human history and society. What role did microbial diseases play in early human migration and the spread of humans across the continents? How can we explain the uneven spread of diseases such as flu or HIV? Which human behaviors enhance, and which thwart, the spread of microbial species?
Network analysis for community ecology and conservation research | BIO 133 | Spring
Instructor & Department: Dirzo, Rodolfo | Biology
Co-instructors: Morrison, Beth
Plant-pollinator, predator-prey, and parasite-host are all examples of species interactions that can be analyzed using species interaction networks. Network analysis is an incredible tool to understand how ecological communities are impacted by environmental stressors like human development and climate change. In this class, we¿ll review and discuss relevant scientific literature and learn how to manipulate, visualize, and interpret species interaction network data. Students will develop grant-writing skills by producing a culminating research proposal and we will take a field trip to practice species interaction sampling techniques.
Outcomes Analysis | BIOMEDIN 251 | Spring
Instructor & Department: Bendavid, Eran | Biomedical Informatics, Health Research and Policy, Medicine
Co-instructors: Bhattacharya, Jayanta
Methods of conducting empirical studies which use large existing medical, survey, and other databases to ask both clinical and policy questions. Econometric and statistical models used to conduct medical outcomes research. How research is conducted on medical and health economics questions when a randomized trial is impossible. Problem sets emphasize hands-on data analysis and application of methods, including re-analyses of well-known studies.
Parasites and Pestilence: Infectious Public Health Challenges | HUMBIO 153 | Autumn
Instructor & Department: Smith, Darvin | Human Biology
We will learn about parasitic and other pestilence of public health importance and how they affect billions of people worldwide. We examine the pathogenesis, clinical syndromes, complex life cycles, and the interplay among environment, vectors, hosts, and reservoirs; we explore historical contexts as it informs current interventions and programming against disease. Public health policy initiatives aimed at halting disease transmission are viewed critically through the lens of researchers, public health level initiatives, popular media (TV and movies) and individual patients with these diseases. There will be guest visitors who have experienced these diseases and we will hear from several researchers and experts working on the challenges of controlling, eliminating or even eradicating these diseases. We will become familiar with the targeted diseases of the World Health Organization tropical disease research list, including river blindness, sleeping sickness, leishmaniasis, schistosomiasis, mycobacterial disease (tuberculosis and leprosy), malaria, toxoplasmosis, dracunculiasis, and intestinal helminthes. There will be a lab section for "hands on" learning and viewing of parasites. Interactive sessions will involve teaching each other about these biological forces of nature that invade humans.
Physical Biology of Macromolecules | BIOE 140 | Winter
Instructor & Department: Prakash, Manu | Bioengineering
Principles of statistical physics, thermodynamics, and kinetics with applications to molecular biology. Topics include entropy, temperature, chemical forces, enzyme kinetics, free energy and its uses, self assembly, cooperative transitions in macromolecules, molecular machines, feedback, and accurate replication.
Practical Approaches to Global Health Research | HRP 237 | Autumn
Instructor & Department: Luby, Stephen | Health Research and Policy, International Policy Studies, Medicine
Alt Course Numbers: IPS 290, MED 226
Notes: Aims at graduate students; undergraduates in their junior or senior year may enroll with instructor consent. This course is restricted to undergraduates unless they have completed 85 units or more.
How do you come up with an idea for health research overseas? How do you develop a research question, concept note, and get your project funded? How do you manage personnel in the field, difficult cultural situations, or unexpected problems? How do you create a sampling strategy, select a study design, and ensure ethical conduct with human subjects? This course takes students through the process of health research in under-resourced countries from the development of the initial research question and literature review to securing support and detailed planning for field work. Students progressively develop and receive weekly feedback on a concept note to support a funding proposal addressing a research question of their choosing.
Preventing Human Extinction | THINK 65 | Spring
Instructor & Department: Luby, Stephen | Thinking Matters
Co-instructors: Edwards, Paul N.
99.9% of all species that have ever inhabited Earth are now extinct. Yet the subject poses deeply disturbing implications for the only species that can anticipate its own demise, namely we ourselves. This course will explore several plausible scenarios by which human extinction could occur within the next 100 years. We'll study the psychological, social, and epistemological barriers that frequently derail efforts to avert these catastrophes. We will explore approaches to assessing these risks, strategies that could reduce them, and better ways to think and act as we move toward and uncertain future. Students will engage these issues through academic reading, apocalyptic fiction, group discussion, writing, and role-playing. We will consider the role of human agency in the evolution of these risks and their prevention, and our responsibilities as 21st-century citizens. This course satisfies the Scientific Method and Analysis or Social Inquiry Way (SMA or SI).
Probabilistic Graphical Models: Principles and Techniques | CS 228 | Winter
Instructor & Department: Ermon, Stefano | Computer Science
Probabilistic graphical modeling languages for representing complex domains, algorithms for reasoning using these representations, and learning these representations from data. Topics include: Bayesian and Markov networks, extensions to temporal modeling such as hidden Markov models and dynamic Bayesian networks, exact and approximate probabilistic inference algorithms, and methods for learning models from data. Also included are sample applications to various domains including speech recognition, biological modeling and discovery, medical diagnosis, message encoding, vision, and robot motion planning.
Rivers, Streams, and Canals | CEE 162E/262E | Spring
Instructor & Department: Koseff, Jeff | Civil and Environmental Engineering
Introduction to the movement of water through natural and engineered channels, streams, and rivers. Basic equations and theory (mass, momentum, and energy equations) for steady and unsteady descriptions of the flow. Application of theory to the design of flood- control and canal systems. Flow controls such as weirs and sluice gates; gradually varied flow; Saint-Venant equations and flood waves; and method of characteristics. Open channel flow laboratory experiments: controls such as weirs and gates, gradually varied flow, and waves.
Statistics in the Health Sciences | HUMBIO 89 | Autumn & Winter
Instructor & Department: Sainani, Kristin | Human Biology
Co-instructors: Serghiou, Stelios
This course aims to provide a firm grounding in the foundations of probability and statistics, with a focus on analyzing data from the health sciences. Students will learn how to read, interpret, and critically evaluate the statistics in medical and biological studies. The course also prepares students to be able to analyze their own data, guiding them on how to choose the correct statistical test, avoid common statistical pitfalls, and perform basic functions in R deducer.