Social Sciences

In recognition of its strengths in bioinformatics and related areas, the University at Buffalo has been awarded a major grant to develop professional master's degrees in disciplines closely related to bioinformatics by the prestigious Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.

Scientists at the University at Buffalo have shown that the drug methylphenidate, the generic form of Ritalin, which physicians have considered to have only short-term effects, appears to initiate changes in brain function that remain after the therapeutic effects have dissipated.

When UB hosts "Digital Frontiers: The Buffalo Summit 2001," on Nov. 2 and 3, one of the projects to be exhibited in connection with the event is a little honey called "EVL: Alive on the Grid" -- a peculiar virtual experience involving avatars, simultaneous occupation of virtual space, lots of music and dancing "ghosts."

As a result of efforts by the University at Buffalo and a UB professor of classics and a leading archaeologist of the ancient Middle East, ancient Nineveh and Nimrud have been added to the 2002 World Monuments Fund Watch List of the 100 Most Endangered Sites.

In a new study underway at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions, researchers are examining the cumulative effect of a number of risk factors associated with mothers' cocaine use on their infants' mental development.

The School of Social Work at the University at Buffalo has developed a Web site that offers online information and resources for those who are having personal difficulty coping with the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and its aftermath.

Have we developed the collective wisdom and conscience to deal with a world in which ubiquitous technological interactions are so intertwined that they cannot be untangled? Let's hope so, because that's what our future holds. "Digital Frontier: Buffalo Summit 2001," a major international conference to be held Nov. 2 and 3 at the University at Buffalo, will present observations and research on what digital technology has wrought by some of the most brilliant, pioneering thinkers in art, social science, applied science and engineering, medicine, philosophy and education.

With the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon now one month ago, this is the time when cases of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in those who witnessed the events in person or through the news media will start being diagnosed, according to a psychologist at the University at Buffalo.

Women with a history of problem drinking exhibited significant increases in abstinence and light-drinking days, and decreases in heavy drinking, after participating in a 10-week program at the University at Buffalo's Research Institute on Addictions.

The image of an airplane flying into the second tower of the World Trade Center and exploding in flames, played over and over on television following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, will remain in America's collective consciousness for a long time. For all, that image forever will represent a national tragedy. But for some, there will be a more profound personal effect, according to a University at Buffalo expert in psychological trauma.