Ashok Verma, professor of clinical neurology and director of the Kessenich Family MDA-ALS Center and MDA Clinics; Carol Petito, professor of pathology and affiliate professor, Department of Neurological Surgery, director of Brain and Tissue Bank, and program director, Pathology Residency Training Program; and Judith Post, professor of radiology, neurological surgery and ophthalmology and director of Neuroradiology Fellowship at the Miller School of Medicine will present “A 55-year-old woman with hemiparesis and altered mental status” at the Neurology Clinicopathological Conference on Friday, March 26, from 11 a.m.-12 p.m. in the Lois Pope Life Center, seventh-floor auditorium. For more information, contact Jessica Busquets at 305-243-8785 or [email protected].

Thomas Hummel, of the Smell and Taste Clinic, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, University of Dresden Medical School, Dresden, Germany, will present “Assessment of taste function in humans” for Neurology Grand Rounds on Friday, March 26, from 10-11 a.m. in the Lois Pope Life Center, seventh-floor auditorium. For more information, contact Jessica Busquets at 305-243-8785 or [email protected].

USpeak presents Dispatches from the Customs House: New Work by UM Lecturers Alan Ramon Clinton, KC Culver, and Marta Otis, on Friday, March 26, from 6 to 8 p.m. on the Coral Gables Campus, at the Oasis Deli Café in the Whitten University Center. There also will be an Open Mic event. USpeak for Haiti invites audience members to read a poem and offer proceeds to the UM Haiti Relief fund. USpeak will be taped and broadcast by WVUM, UM’s student radio station, and is sponsored in part by UM Citizen’s Board and Auxiliary Services. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, call 305-284-2988 or go to www.as.miami.edu/english/creativewriting.

The Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences will host “Psychiatry Grand Rounds: Gender Differences in Drug Abuse” Friday, March 26 from 12 to 1:15 p.m. at Bascom Palmer Eye Institute, Retter Auditorium, second floor. Invited speaker Cora Lee Wetherington, women and sex/gender differences research coordinator and health scientist administrator at the National Institute of Drug Abuse, National Institutes of Health, will discuss the pitfalls of taking a unisex approach to drug abuse, gender differences in vulnerability to drug abuse, and gender differences in drug abuse treatment. This educational activity has been approved for 1.25 AMA PRA Category 1 Credit for physicians. 1.25 CE credit will be awarded to psychologists and 1.0 CE to social workers who attend. For more information, contact Carmen Bou-Crick at 305-355-9073, e-mail [email protected], or click here.

The integrity of scholarship and the scientific record requires that scholars and researchers uphold the highest scientific and ethical standards. Current policy and practice at UM reflects our shared commitment that the design, conduct, and reporting of scholarly activity and research will not be biased. As relationships between academic institutions and private industries become increasingly complex, we must continually reassess the manner in which we assure that scholarly activity and research at UM are unbiased.

On February 1, 2010, a new process was implemented to identify potential conflicts of interest (COI) in sponsored research at UM. Faculty and staff are strongly encouraged to attend a training session to review the current UM COI policy for sponsored research and to learn about the new process for identifying potential COI in sponsored research. The sessions will take place on:

• March 15: 9 to 10 a.m., McArthur Annex Auditorium – Room 202 (Coral Gables campus)

• March 23: 2 to 3 p.m., Clinical Research Building (CRB) Room 989 (Medical campus)

• March 26: 12 to 1 p.m., RSMAS Auditorium (RSMAS campus)

• April 13: 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., Flipse Building, Room 502 (Coral Gables campus)

• April 14: 1 to 2 p.m., Lois Pope LIFE Seventh-Floor Auditorium (Medical campus)

Please register through ULearn.

For questions on the training sessions, please contact the Office of Research Education and Training at 305-243-5092 or at [email protected].