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Everybody has been there, staring in confusion at a Microsoft Word document after typing their name, phone number and email address, said Cherish Gehret, Career Services career counselor. What now? What else goes on the resume? What categories should be included? What is relevant and irrelevant?

As Gehret puts it, building a resume can be tough, especially for students who have not had to build one before. Students may search for resume templates and come up blank with ideas. They may wonder why their resume is not as extensive as the ones found in a search and become discouraged.

Career Services offers help not only reviewing resumes but also creating them. While online resume submission is allowed, it is encouraged to schedule an appointment.

Face-to-face appointments tend to be more detailed and gives the student an opportunity to ask more questions and gain more information, said Gehret.

Career Services uses Optimal Resume, which is free to all students, that has templates pre-loaded that are more relevant.

This free software offers multiple cover letter and resume templates that students can just plug their information into and then download to a Microsoft Word documents, said Gehret. It is very easy to access and utilize. There is no need for students to recreate the wheel by creating their own templates when Career Services already has them for you.

Gehret said that while there are some rules and recommendations, there is no template or format that is the absolute statute.

Some applications require a cover letter along with a resume. Career Services also assists students in building a cover letter.

After having their resume and cover letter reviewed, students should then consider a mock interview to help them ease their nerves before a job interview.

By nature, interviews tend to be somewhat uncomfortable experiences for most individuals, said Gehret. Most human beings get nervous before an interviews, sometimes to the point of yucky sweatiness, noticeable shaking and even sickness.

Mock interviews help students go into an interview prepared and confident.

Mock interviews should be treated like an actual interview, meaning the students should show up prepared, wear proper attire and arrive early.

Preparation is key, and mock interviews are a huge part of that, said Gehret.

Mock interviews are not just professional mock interviews; they can also be an academic mock interview.

One of the best pieces of advice I can give to students regarding both resume and interview prep is clich but true: be honest, be confident and be yourself, said Gehret.

To get more tips and pointers on resumes, cover letters and interview preparation, visit Career Services Resumes & Interviews, or call 918-444-3110.

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Career Services utilizes free software to aid in creating and updating resumes - The Northeastern

By Phil Sneiderman

A research team from the United States and Canada has developed and successfully tested new computational software that determines whether a human DNA sample includes an epigenetic add-on linked to cancer and other adverse health conditions.

In the Feb. 20 issue of the journal Nature Methods, team members from Johns Hopkins University, the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research, and the University of Toronto detailed their promising new method of detecting the presence of an extra mark on DNA called cytosine methylation.

Cytosine is one of the four main genetic building blocks, or nucleotides, that make up DNA. Methylation simply refers to the presence of a biochemical group attached to a nucleotide, in this case cytosine. This altered version of cytosine can affect the way important genes are switched on or off. Such genetic miscues can play havoc with healthy activity within cells.

Team members tested DNA samples from human breast cancer cells and successfully detected changes in methylation between cancer and normal samples

Examining these marks is important to researchers who are trying to pin down methylation's precise role in various health problems. But current methods of mapping methylation each have stubborn shortcomings, such as harsh handling of the DNA sample and the need to use particularly large and pre-treated tissue samples.

The new software described in Nature Methods is used with a commercially available nanopore sequencing device. The authors say this technique will directly characterize DNA methylation from smaller tissue samples.

"We show that with careful analysis of nanopore sequencing data, we can extract this extra layer of information," said lead author Jared T. Simpson, a principal investigator in the informatics and bio-computing program at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research and an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Toronto.

Image caption: The researchers used this nanopore sequencing device and new software to find DNA methylation marks that have been linked to cancer and other illnesses.

Image credit: Will Kirk / Homewood Photography

The international team's software is designed to work with an Oxford Nanopore Technologies MinION sequencer, roughly the size of a large USB thumb drive. When this unit is used, DNA is pulled through 512 extremely small holes, as an electric current passes through. Distinctive changes in the current as the DNA moves through the hole allow the software to identify the sequence of the DNA, and now the methylation marks on the DNA as well.

In their paper, the researchers said they first used synthetically methylated DNA to "train" their software to distinguish between methylated cytosine and cytosine that lacks the crucial biochemical attachment.

Team members then tested the software process on DNA samples derived from human breast cancer cells and successfully detected changes in methylation between cancer and normal samples.

"This technique can read long pieces of DNA and see changes in the extent of methylation in the sample," said Winston Timp, an assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Johns Hopkins who supervised the research and was senior author of the journal article. "It let us look at how the changes in methylation appear on individual molecules as they pass through this pore."

Such information is important, the researchers say, because faulty methylation is believed to play a role in birth defects and diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, as well as cancer.

"We already know," Timp said, "that methylation changes show up early in the development of cancer."

He said more information about DNA methylation could be helpful in devising new ways to detect cancer at an earlier stage, or in developing new treatments that are targeted more precisely to a patient's genetic makeup.

To help advance such research, the team members have made their nanopore sequencing software for detecting DNA methylation available on a free, open-source basis.

"We've taken this line of research a critical step further ahead," Timp said. "My hope is that others in this field will begin using the software right away."

Originally posted here:
New gene sequencing tool could aid in early detection, treatment of cancer - The Hub at Johns Hopkins

A Somerville man who admitted to killing a Hartselle man two years ago will cite the states stand your ground law when he asks a Morgan County judge today to dismiss the murder charge against him.

Gregory Bryan Crow, 29, and his attorneys will be in Morgan County Circuit Court Judge Steven Haddocks courtroom for Haddock to decide whether to dismiss the charge against Crow in the shooting death of Chad Lorance. The hearing begins at 9 a.m.

Griff Belser, who is Crows attorney, said in a motion seeking the hearing that Crow admits to killing Lorance, 32, at the Somerville home of Crows mother.

However, the defendant did so standing in his mothers driveway, and having been assaulted by the victim, Belser wrote in the motion.

Belser declined to comment before todays hearing.

Authorities said at the time of the shooting that Crow and Lorance had been longtime friends who were in an argument outside Crows mothers home.

The defendant contends that he acted in self-defense, as was his right under this statute, Belser said in the motion.

Morgan County District Attorney Scott Anderson said Thursday that prosecutors will concentrate on the facts that led to the shooting and the charges filed against Crow.

The court will determine whether the defendant proved that he had a legal right to stand his ground, Anderson said.

The stand your ground law adopted in 2006 says a person may use deadly force in self-defense or the defense of another person if the person reasonably believes that another person is committing or is about to commit first- or second-degree assault.

Attorney Jim Smith successfully used the stand your ground defense two years ago when a Morgan County jury took two hours to acquit Steve Childers of manslaughter.

Childers had shot and killed Jeremy Lorance, 35, while the two were in the driveway of Childers home in Priceville. Jeremy Lorance was the brother of Chad Lorance.

Smith said Wednesday that Crows defense will have to prove the elements of the law to have the charge dismissed.

If he was in a place where he could legally be and felt threatened, he has the right to protect himself and members of his family, Smith said.

Smith said its not as clear who was the aggressor in Crows case as it was when Childers shot Jeremy Lorance.

Prosecutors will want to submit evidence showing Crow was the aggressor, not Chad Lorance, Smith said.

Who was the aggressor is one factor that the court will take into consideration, Anderson said.

Haddock also held a pretrial hearing in 2015 on Smiths motion to dismiss the manslaughter charge against Childers based on the stand your ground law.

Haddock declined to dismiss the charge on procedural grounds. His ruling said the states higher courts had not given lower courts any procedural guidance for such a hearing, including what burden of proof was required by the state and the defense.

Haddocks ruling also said that for many decades and perhaps longer a jury has decided whether a defendant acted in self-defense in reaching a verdict.

The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals since has ruled that a defendant has a right to an evidentiary hearing in regards to a stand your ground defense and issued procedures for a hearing.

Crow is in Morgan County Jail with no bail. He was out of jail on $75,000 bail, but Haddock ordered him back to jail without bail in May after Crow was arrested for violating a protection order issued for his former wife.

Crows trial is set for March 6. His case is on a settlement docket scheduled for Thursday.

Continued here:
Somerville man wants murder charge dropped on 'stand your ... - The Decatur Daily

Thursday, February 23, 9:50 AM EST

By Jim Turner, The News Service of Florida

The House Criminal Justice Subcommittee, voted 9-4 along party lines Wednesday to approve the National Rifle Association-backed measure (HB 245), which would shift the burden of proof from defendants to prosecutors during pretrial hearings in stand your ground cases.

The bill, sponsored by Rep. Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, and Rep. Jason Fischer, R-Jacksonville, only has to clear the Judiciary Committee before reaching the House floor during the annual legislative session that starts March 7.

A Senate version (SB 128) has cleared its committees and could be one of the first bills approved by the full Senate next month.

The proposal stems from a Florida Supreme Court ruling in 2015 that said defendants have the burden of proof to show they should be shielded from prosecution under the stand your ground law.

In stand your ground cases, pretrial evidentiary hearings are held to determine whether defendants should be immune from prosecution.

Payne said the bill would strengthen the self-defense law and that concerns by critics are certainly overstated.

It does not protect those that are creating some type of felony or assault, Payne said after Wednesdays meeting. That is not what self-defense is for.

Opponents maintain the change would end cases before all the facts are revealed and contend that the stand your ground law has disproportionate effects, as it is used more successfully as a defense when white shooters kill African-Americans.

But Rep. Gayle Harrell, a Stuart Republican who was in the House when the stand your ground law was approved, said the proposal meets the intent of lawmakers who crafted the law in 2005.

Its a shame that we have to come to this point of having to clarify, but I believe that that was the case, Harrell said.

Meanwhile, Rep. Jared Moskowitz, D-Coral Springs, said he could support the change if it were more narrowly defined to situations where there is overriding evidence.

But he expressed concerns about people who may use the defense when the only witness was killed in the encounter.

Its blanket immunity and then were saying to the prosecution, You have to undo that immunity if you have enough evidence, Moskowitz said. And, Oh by the way you have to do it at a pretrial hearing, when usually all witnesses may not have been identified and all the evidence may not have been gathered at that point.

The proposed change, which is supported by the Florida Public Defender Association, was approved by the Senate in a 24-12 vote last year, but failed to advance through the House committee process.

New House leaders, however, appear to have put this years version of the bill on the fast track.

See the original post here:
Bill to shift burden of proof in stand your ground cases moving along in House - Jacksonville Daily Record

The bodies of at least 74 African migrants were found washed ashore along Libyas coast, according to the Libyan Red Crescent.

The incident occurred near Zawiya, a city close to Tripoli along Libyas northern coast. A representative of the Libyan Red Crescent says that after finding the remnants of a torn rubber boat, he expects more bodies to turn up over the coming days.

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Travis Allen is a former US Army Infantry Officer. While a Platoon Leader in Afghanistan, he was part of a joint Special Forces/Infantry team conducting Village Stability Operations in Kandahar Province. Travis graduated from the US Military Academy at West Point in 2010. In his other life, he brews beer and is a regular contributor to the Duffel Blog - The American Military's Finest News Source.

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Migrant crisis continues as 74 Africans found dead along Libyan coast - SOFREP (press release) (subscription)