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Folk medicines have been demonstrated to exert a powerful governing force on many cultures of the world today. In these days of scientific knowledge and reasoned logic, belief in folk medicine (herbalism) is still strong, and many people have great faith in herbal products. The use of herbal products is increasing among the general population for a wide variety of ailments and fills a niche in the field of alternative medicine. This is occurring because many of the population have suffered a loss of faith in contemporary medicine and have found that the use of herbalism, oriental medicine, and a variety of therapeutic procedures can provide a mechanism of health care that better suits their needs than does that of the HMOs and managed care systems. Just what constitutes herbalism or folk medicine? Is it safe? Why does it exist? Humans love to experiment with self-medication, and people have used a wide variety of substances, some extremely noxious, until findings variety of plants and other natural substances that alleviated their miseries or raised their spirits. Many of the products currently in vogue go back to Grandma's medicine chest. How good are these products? These home remedies were passed from generation to generation and evolved as specifics for defined diseases. Can we lower health costs with these cures? How useful are many of these products? Are they safe? How good are such products as boneset, mullein, tansy, echinacea, kava - kava, St. John's wort, valerian, jewelweed, ginkgo, and garlic? I will review and discuss many of the herbal products being suggested today and try to explain their rational use and decide if they are toxic. Biography: Dr. Ralph N. Blomster
EDUCATION:
POSITIONS HELD:
TEACHING INTERESTS: AREAS OF RESEARCH INTEREST: Phytochemistry, Medicinal Folklore, Evaluation Phytochemical Screening, Collection and Extraction of Native Plants for Biological Testing Indexing, Storage and Retrieval of Phytochemical Literature, Drug Plant Exploration in Primative Geographic Areas Plant Tissue, Culture and Biotransformations,
For driving directions, visit: http://www.udmercy.edu/about/drivingdirections.htm Development of new more powerful laser surface spectroscopy techniques will be described in this presentation. These techniques rely on the surface-selective nonlinear optical 3-wave mixing processes such as Sum Frequency Generation, and can be performed in frequency- and time-domain (or both) to yield information on both molecular structure and ultrafast surface dynamics. Applications of the developed techniques will be discussed relating to (1) characterization of molecular order in Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) monolayers and (2) ultrafast dynamics of H-bond network of water at interfaces. In the case of LB monolayers, the time- and frequency-domain measurements provide information that allows more accurate characterization of the molecular conformation and orientation. Direct observation of water dynamics at interfaces on 100 fs time scale demonstrates dynamic heterogeneity of the aqueous H-bond network. Dr. Alexander V. Benderskii is a Assistant Professor of physical and analytical chemistry at Wayne State University. His current research interests involve the use of laser spectroscopy to study biological and material interfaces. He obtained his M.S. degree from the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology in 1992 and his Ph.D. from the University of Utah in 1996. His professional career includes postdoctoral fellowships at the University of California, Irvine (1996-1999) and at Columbia University (1999-2002). For further information, please leave a message for Felix Schneider at 248-583-1578 or email Felixschn@aol.com.
Future events:
May:
The Michigan Section of the American Association of Clinical Chemists will meet at William Beaumont Hospital on Mar.ch 15 at 5:00 PM. Jerry Yee, M.D., head of the Nephology Department of Henry Ford Hospital will present a one hour talk on renal disease and use of the calculated Glomerular Filtration Rate for early detection. The meeting will be held in the auditorium of the Administration Building at William Beaumont Hospital, Royal Oak campus. Beaumont is located at 3601 W. 13 Mile Road, just west of Woodward Ave. Enter on John B. Poole Drive at the western edge of the campus and follow that back to Administration Drive. Turn left and park in the surface lot next to the Administration Building or in the Research Building lot across the street. The auditorium is in the east section of the building.
AACC has applied for one hour of ACCENT CME credit for this meeting and hope
to see you there.
The Detroit Society of Coatings Technology (DSCT) is sponsoring the 30th Annual FOCUS Conference in 2005, entitled "Racing to a High Performance Finish." The Conference will be held on May 5, 2005 at the MSU Management Center in Troy, Michigan. The conference is an educational event for coatings formulators and manufacturers, end users, raw material and equipment suppliers, educators and students. The conference features technical speakers in two tracks and a two tutorial sessions. ("Principles of Rheology for Coatings" and "Testing Procedures for Damage to Automotive Finishes") The conference also includes an all day Coatings Showcase exhibit by suppliers to the industry.. Registration is $100 prior to April 17 and $125 at the door. (Students, $40). Program and registration information can be found on the Detroit Society website: www.dsct.org.
On Saturday, February 12, 2005, the Local Section's Career Services Committee along with the Younger Chemists Committee hosted Dr. Richard Bretz who presented "How to Manage an Effective Job Search". The event was held at the University of Detroit Mercy and was attended by approximately 25 local ACS members. The attendees came from as far away as Toledo, OH to participate in the event and ranged from undergraduates looking for summer jobs and graduate students looking for postdoctoral positions to others already working in industry and looking to further their careers. Dr. Bretz spoke about several topics including how to prepare a resume and curriculum vitae. He also presented several successful interviewing techniques and used several of his own experiences as examples. Dr. Bretz ended his presentation with several job searching statistics including median salaries for Bachelor, Master and PhD chemists in industry and academia. The event was capped off with resume reviews done by Dr. Bretz as well as Megan Klein, Chair of the Detroit local section Career Services Committee. Meghann Mouyianis, a current undergraduate Chemistry major at UDM said, "I am so glad that I had the opportunity to have my resume reviewed. I feel like I have a better chance of finding a good job now." The ACS provides several services, whether you are a new graduate, a seasoned chemist, or somewhere in between. ACS professional and employment services can help you reach your career goals. Visit www.chemistry.org to read ACS career publications, check out the calendar of ACS career workshops and meetings, and visit links to other resources. For upcoming Career Services or Younger Chemist Committee events contact Megan Klein (Career Services) at klein_megan@hotmail.com or Karrie Manes (YCC) at maneska@students.udmercy.edu.
Brent H. Besler of Ford Motor Company reports :"About maybe ten years ago I remember having a (I believe) Diamond Crystal brand container of 100% pure non-iodized table salt with a label trumpeting that was "lower in sodium" than leading table salt brands. The ingredients label just said sodium chloride. The only explanation is that they must use larger crystals, so that by volume there is less mass of sodium than the same volume of another table salt." Brent will be sent a prize for our winning March "Worst"!
The MSU's Women in Chemistry ACS Chapter holds a weekly speaker series:
Mar 22
Mar 29:
Apr 5
Apr 12
Apr 19
Apr 26 These meetings are held Tuesdays 6 - 7 pm at the1415 Biomedical Physical Sciences Bldg. in E. Lansing For more information and directions, please visit: www.chemistry.msu.edu/acswic. Everyone is welcome! This information will also be available through April on this site under What's New
The University of Detroit Mercy Chemistry Club hosted two merit badge clinics this February. On Saturday, February 5, 2005 twenty-five area Junior Girl Scouts from troop 1013 participated in earning a science merit badge. The girls learned about topics such as identifying chemicals on household labels, polymers, electrical circuits, how to make "gluep" and gained hands-on experience with AutoCAD thanks to Chem Club member Allen Brooks. The Chem Club members were once again dazzled by the participants' knowledge and enjoyed working with the girls. "I never ceased to be amazed by the amount of knowledge these girls have about science at such an early age." said Chem Club member Meghann Mouyianis. The Boy Scout Chemistry Merit Badge Clinic was held Saturday, February 19, 2005. Twelve scouts from the Metro Detroit area came to the University of Detroit Mercy to learn about such things as acid-base chemistry, the chemistry of pollution, biochemistry and electrochemistry. The Chem Club volunteers were assisted by Detroit ACS local section volunteers Mary Kay Heidtke and Charlene Hayden. "The Chem Club loves to host these kinds of events because the kids are so great." said Club president Karrie Manes. "It's amazing how quickly these kids catch on, I encountered several "Cartesian Diver" experts today." joked Club V.P. Bryan Vos. The UDM Chemistry Club hosts several Boy and Girl Scout Merit badge clinics throughout the school year. For more information, or to inquire about the next merit badge clinic date, please contact Dr. Matt Mio at miomj@udmercy.edu or Dr. Mark Benvenuto at benvenma@udmercy.edu.
MEMBER - GET - A - MEMBER" : MEMBERSHIP DRIVE EXTENDED Don't forget that the Detroit ACS Section is piggy-backing our member-get-a-member drive onto the national one. The drive is still going on, and the prizes are still to be awarded. Remember that the person who sponsors the new member, as well as the new member themselves, both get their name in the pool for the section's prizes. So, send those names to Jim Landis, at: jim.landis@gt.org Here are the rules: 1. Get a new person to sign up (pointing out to them, that ACS membership has a lot more going for it than just a, weekly trade magazine). 2. Fill out the paperwork and send it in. 3. As soon as the new member has confirmation (such as a, membership number, or a first issue of C&E News), send it, to Jim Landis, 131 Arthur Drive, Troy, MI 48083-1704, or the email address shown above. 4. Make sure to put the sponsor's name on whatever, document you send in, as well as that of the new member. 5. In April, 2005, we'll pick three winners by, putting all names in a hat, that's sponsors as well as new, members. 6. You can have your name in the hat more than once if, you sponsor more than one new member. The first prize is a $100 gift certificate to Best Buy and the two runner up prizes are $50 gift certificates to Best Buy., Okay, okay, our prizes are nowhere near as BIG as those, given out at the national level. But, and this is, important, look how much better your chances are here at, the local level of actually winning!, So, there are the rules. Let's see what we can do to, increase out membership enrollment. In an area the size of, southeast Michigan, we could easily find a thousand new, members if we try. Good luck, one and all!
Hey folks, are you aching to show a bit of pride in your Detroit Section of the ACS? Of course you are! The section now has polo shirts for sale. The shirts are a dark blue, with a left breast logo. They look good and only cost $25.00. If you are the cost conscious type, you can always get one for free (while supplies last!) by volunteering for a Kids and Chemistry event. If you don't know when the events are, keep reading your issues of the Detroit Chemist. We'll make sure to keep you informed. And you can keep your eyes open for the shirts! Map to March Meeting (not included in email edition)
March 15, 2005 March 17, 2005
ANACHEM/SAS March Presentation:
March 30, 2005
March 31, 2005
May 5, 2005
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