“Design, Analysis, and Testing of In Vivo Surgical Robots,” M.S. Thesis Defense (Mechanical Engineering) by Tyler Wortman. Advisor: Shane Farritor. On Wednesday, Nov. 30, 2011 at 10 a.m. in N105 Scott Engineering Center. The public is welcome!

Rev. Jesse Jackson is one of America's foremost civil rights, religious and political figures. Over the past forty years, he has played a pivotal role in virtually every movement for empowerment, peace, civil rights, gender equality, and economic and social justice. In 2000, President Bill Clinton awarded Jackson the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. President and founder of the Rainbow/PUSH Coalition, Rev. Jackson has been called the "conscience of the nation" and "the great unifier," challenging America to establish just and humane priorities. He is known for bringing people together on common ground across lines of race, class, gender, and belief.

Jackson's speech, "There's Still More to Be Done," will be followed by a question-and-answer session with select audience members.

Free tickets for reserved seating for Jackson's speech will be available at the Lied Center Ticket Office, open 11 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday-Friday.

Bring your lunch. Visit with friends speaking your foreign language such as Spanish, German, French, Italian and others.

Learn what makes a good video for use on the Web, how to create one and how to access and use existing videos.

No need to sign up – just show up! Locations in the Union posted as “Content Convergence Conference.”

This session offered as part of a series of Content Convergence Conferences designed for UNL staff members who are charged with creation and upkeep of department and college websites. New tools are now available that will make that task easier. In a world where content is king, thinking through the best way to integrate information, photos, video and other content is critical in communicating effectively with students, faculty, business audiences, visitors seeking information and academic community members from other universities.

This year all UNL communicators — all interested faculty and staff, as well as interested students - are welcome to a series of sessions on making the most of your website.

For faculty, students and researchers who use human subjects in research and teaching. This session covers how to use NUgrant to file new protocols, apply for continuing review and request approval for modification. Please register online

Presenter: Eva Zurek, Department of Chemistry
State University of New York, Buffalo

This event was canceled on 11-30-11 because of bad weather.


“Mutation and Evolution,” will be presented by National Academy of Sciences’ Michael Lynch, Indiana University. Understanding the mechanisms of evolution and the degree to which generalities exist among phylogenetic lineages requires information on the rate at which mutations arise and their effects at the molecular and phenotypic levels. Although procuring such data has been technically challenging, high-throughput genomic sequencing is rapidly expanding our knowledge in molecular areas. With information on spontaneous mutations now available in a variety of organisms, general patterns have emerged for the scaling of the mutation rate with genome size, and support will be presented for the hypothesis that natural selection pushes mutation rates down to a lower limit set by the power of random genetic drift rather than by intrinsic limitations on repair mechanisms. Not only do larger, multicellular organisms have higher mutation rates / nucleotide site / generation than unicellular species, but gene structure in the former evolves in such a way as to become a larger mutational target. This sort of mutation-rate scaling with effective population sizes has implications for the rapidity with which various pathways can be exploited in adaptive evolution in different lineages, as well as consequences for the accumulation of deleterious mutations. The mutational-hazard hypothesis, which postulates that all forms of excess DNA impose a weak mutational burden, provides a compelling framework for interpreting a diversity of observations on phylogenetic patterns of genome size and gene-structural complexity. In addition, recent work provides strong evidence that fundamental features of protein evolution, including the tendency to evolve multimeric complexes, is dramatically altered in lineages experiencing high levels of random genetic drift. Taken together, empirical observations combined with population-genetic theory suggest that a substantial fraction of evolutionary change at the molecular and cellular levels can only be understood in a framework that acknowledges the central role played by the major nonadaptive forces of evolution – mutation, recombination, and random genetic drift.

A reception will be held at 3:30 p.m. The seminar is free and open to the public.

The Wind Ensemble will give a concert on Wednesday, Nov 30 at 7:30 pm in Kimball Recital Hall. Tickets: General admission $5, student/senior $3, available at the door approx. one hour before the performance.