The Kimbalitos: The Plan Kimball, Cold War, and Medicine in Paraguay, 1956–64

This article studies a faculty exchange from the medical school at the University of Buffalo (later the State University of New York, University at Buffalo) to the medical school in Asunción, Paraguay in the 1950s and 1960s. The arrival of U.S.-trained medical professionals spurred a new pedagogical program designed to improve medical education by reducing the number of students enrolled, making the curriculum more scientifically oriented, and demanding the professionalization of its future doctors. Moreover, the program was strategically designed to depoliticize the medical school in Asunción at the height of the Cold War. Using oral interviews of Paraguayans who participated in the reforms, government records, and documents produced by U.S. medical professionals, the article tracks how the program was started and under what conditions it operated, and concludes that both the United States and Paraguayan medical professionals considered the program a success—it improved the quality of Paraguayan medical professionals and, at least temporarily, neutralized the political leanings of the medical school.

From metabolism and behavior to respiratory physiology: an educational and research perspective

Throughout my academic career, I have been extremely fortunate to have as mentors, teachers, and advisors, remarkable individuals who helped me develop into a competent researcher and passionate teacher. This essay describes a period in my career as a graduate student that was challenging, but also rewarding. I was fortunate to have contact with world-class researchers and teachers, including Drs. Clyde Herried, Leon Fahri, Hermann Rahn, Donald Riggs, Verner Noell, and Barbara Howell. In addition, I attended excellent University of Buffalo Department of Physiology seminars presented by world-renown scientists. Looking back on the experience, allows me to appreciate the large impact they made on my subsequent career in education and research in physiology and neurobiology.

Interrogation, Confession, and Truth

Die Vernehmung ermöglicht es dem Beschuldigten, rechtlich gehört zu werden. Er darf aber die Mitwirkung an der Aufklärung der Tat ablehnen und seine Aussage verweigern, was sowohl in Europa als auch den USA als Ausfluss des Rechts angesehen wird, sich nicht selbst belasten zu müssen. Aus Sicht der Strafverfolgungsbehörden ist es das Ziel, zumindest eine Aussage und andere für die Aufklärung der Tat relevante Informationen zu erhalten, um den tatsächlich Schuldigen bestrafen zu können. Die Beiträge dieses Bandes beschäftigten sich aus rechtvergleichender Perspektive mit diesem Spannungsverhältnis. Wie weit geht der Schutz des Rechts, sich nicht selbst belasten zu müssen? Welche Mittel dürfen jenseits des Verbots körperlichen Zwangs eingesetzt werden, um den Beschuldigten dazu zu bewegen, eine Aussage zu machen? Wie sind die Risiken falscher Geständnisse einzuschätzen? Wissenschaftler aus den USA, den Niederlanden und der Bundesrepublik Deutschland versuchen, Antworten zu geben. Mit Beiträgen von Jan H. Crijns, Universiteit Leiden; Marieke Dubelaar, Radboud Universiteit; Lutz Eidam, Universität Bielefeld; Robert Horselenberg, Universiteit Maastricht; Richard A. Leo, University of San Francisco School of Law; Anthony O’Rourke, University of Buffalo School of Law; Andreas Ransiek, Universität Bielefeld; Christopher Slobgin, Vanderbilt University School of Law; Dave van Toor, Universiteit Heerlen/Universität Bielefeld; Thomas Weigend, Universität zu Köln.

Epilogue

The epilogue tracks the aftermath of the premiere of Rothko Chapel and focuses on the subsequent recording of the piece and its role in the life of the Chapel. The record managed to extend the circulation of both Feldman’s music and the chapel but also lead to conflicts between the de Menils’s and Feldman in his new position as composition professor at the University of Buffalo. It concludes with a broader reflection on the place of religion in the study of experimental music and notes the ways in which the Rothko Chapel event exemplifies the process by which events are deemed religious, that is taken as experiences are freighted with spiritual meaning.

Arrangement, Natural Variation, Legibility and Line Continuity as Discriminating Elements in Forensic Handwriting Analysis: A Study of Herman Melville’s April 11, 1846 Hydrarchos Satire

Along with a discussion of the CEDAR-FOX results, four of 21 discriminating elements described by Huber and Headrick in their text Handwriting Identification: Facts and Fundamentals (1999) were applied to investigate the genuineness of an 1846 handcrafted satirical newspaper called the “Hydrarchos.” As the writership of the “Hydrarchos” was unknown when the author purchased the original document in 2009, and because the author’s research pointed to Herman Melville as the probable writer, he approached Professor Sargur Srihari director of the CEDAR-FOX project at the University of Buffalo to see if Dr. Srihari’s scientific methodology and handwriting research could assist in determining whether Melville wrote the “Hydrarchos.” Once Dr. Srhihari and his colleagues’ research (2010, 2013) confirmed that Melville was the likely writer of the “Hydrarchos,” the author decided to use a more traditional approach to see if the techniques used by forensic document examiners would substantiate the CEDAR-FOX results. Purchase Article - $10

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OBJECTIVES/SPECIFIC AIMS: To conduct a preliminary evaluation of the Social and Behavioral Research Best Practices Course. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Learners are sampled from 5 institutions: University of Michigan, University of Rochester, University of Florida, Boston University, and University of Buffalo. Learners who take the course and consent to be in the study receive a web link to a survey immediately after course completion and at 2–3 months follow up. In addition to demographic information, learners will report their perceptions of usefulness and relevance of the course to their job, their satisfaction with the course and associated job aids, and at follow-up, if and how the course impacted their work. Additional information will be collected from the learning management systems which host the course at each institution. The data collected will include the number of participants who take the course, the number who complete, how many times the course was attempted, and pass rates. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: We anticipate that several hundred learners will take the course by the end of our project. Of learners who agree to participate in the survey, we anticipate that they will find the course useful and relevant to social and behavioral clinical trials and will be satisfied with the course. Information including suggestions about missing content, items or content that were not extremely clear, or any other comments will be collected to iterate and expand the course. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE OF IMPACT: This course was developed to fill a gap in training in good clinical practice for social and behavioral research. An evaluation of how the training provided in the course impacts the jobs of learners is needed both to ensure that the most relevant information is included in the course as well as to identify ways that the training may contribute to the quality and safety of social and behavioral clinical trials.

Development of a Pedal Powered Wheelchair

A first student project to put pedals on a wheelchair for exercise and propulsion was unsuccessful. The need remained and in June of 2005 the “Eureka” event occurred. Seeing a five-year-old on her training-wheel-equipped bicycle suggested that a fifth wheel could be added in the center between the wheelchair's two large rear wheels, and a mast supported by the fifth wheel's axle could extend forward to support a front axle and pedal set. A chain drive completed the propulsion system. There are no pedal-powered wheelchairs currently on the market. Around 2001 a product (EZChair) without retractable pedals was on the market but withdrawn. A team at the University of Buffalo invented and patented a pedal-powered wheelchair in 1993 (US Patent 5,242,179), but it was not commercialized. Also, a Japanese company designed and built a series of fifth-wheel wheelchair designs. Between 2006 and late 2008 we built many prototypes incorporating geometries that permitted retracting the pedal. For compactness a “Pedalong” with three telescoping tubes was built but it proved impossible to secure tightly. In the next design twin telescoping tubes passing above and to the rear of the rear axle provided the desired extension. A clamp at the front of the outer tube provided tightness of the assembly. In the Northwestern research program (see below), there was some success, but awkwardness in operation prevented commercialization. In October 2008 a major design change from a fifth wheel in the center to a powering of the two standard rear wheels was begun. This required a new chain path geometry and addition of a differential to the drive train. With the new design user control, arm-powering and braking through the rear wheels is retained, and chair stability is improved. Twelve individuals with chronic post-stroke hemiplegia (>6 months post-stroke event) participated in a study to examine the metabolic energy expended when participants performed a 6-minute walk test, a 6 minute leg-propelled wheelchair trial (using the Pedalong), and a 6 minute arm-propelled wheelchair trial. VO2, VCO2, and distance traveled were measured using a portable metablic cart system and wheel-based distance measurement system. The Pedalong and walking trials showed equivalent oxygen consumption levels, but manual pushing was, on average, significantly less. All three modes (walking, leg-propelled and arm-propelled) resulting in similar distances traveled within the 6 minute period. The leg-propelled trials generated the greatest amount of VCO2 during expiration compared with the other modes. This means that more of the available oxygen is being utilized (metabolized) during the leg-propelled mode and so, a greater number of calories were being burned during this 6-minute test.

Précis: The Morality and Law of War

The following commentaries are responses to the rough drafts of six lectures—the Hourani Lectures—that I delivered at the University of Buffalo in November of 2006. This draft manuscript is being extensively revised and expanded for publication by Oxford University Press as a book provisionally called The Morality and Law of War. Even though in January 2007 the book was still both unpolished and incomplete, David Enoch at that time generously organized a workshop at the Law School of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem to discuss its ideas and arguments. George Fletcher chaired the meeting and Re'em Segev, Yuval Shany, and Noam Zohar all presented superb commentaries. The following papers have all grown out of that memorable occasion.