Join members of the AIRS Project - UPEI International Choir & Song Circle every Wednesday from 4:30–5:30 pm in Robertson Library Building Annex, lower level - Room 103. Share songs from many cultures, learn about singing, and meet new people! No prior music experience is required. UPEI students, staff and faculty are all welcome to attend!

MODULE 1 Introduction to Bayesian Risk Assessment 3 day course June 13-15, 2013 Instructed by: Drs. Curtis Smith & Javier Sanchez This three-day course will introduce the concepts of probabilistic risk analysis (PRA) using a Bayesian framework. PRA is an analysis of the frequency and consequences of unwanted events in a system. This type of analysis relies on probabilistic (i.e., predictive) models and associated data. Because of PRA’s focus on low frequency scenarios, empirical data are often lacking. Bayesian inference techniques are useful in such situations because, unlike frequentist statistical methods, Bayesian techniques are able to incorporate nonempirical information. Furthermore, from a practical perspective, Bayesian techniques, which represent uncertainty with probability distributions, provide a ready framework for the propagation of uncertainties through the risk models, via Monte Carlo sampling. All the examples and exercises for this course will be using animal health and food safety problems and they will be developed using the statistical package WinBUGS (http://www.mrc-bsu.cam.ac.uk/bugs/winbugs/contents.shtml). The main instructor for this course will be Dr. Curtis Smith, one of the authors of the book entitled: “Bayesian Inference for Probabilistic Risk Assessment” (http://www.amazon.com/Bayesian-Inference-Probabilistic-Risk-Assessment/d...).

MODULE 2 Introduction to Multilevel Modelling 5 day course June 17-21, 2013 Instructed by: Drs. Ian Dohoo & Henrik Stryhn This five-day course is designed to provide students with the knowledge and skills required to successfully fit multilevel models to both continuous data (linear models) and discrete data (emphasis on logistic and Poisson models). The presentation of theoretical background material is limited to that which is required for a reasonable understanding of the methods employed. Specific topics covered in the course include: introduction to multilevel/hierarchical data, mixed models for continuous data, mixed models for discrete data, model evaluation (diagnostics), analysis of repeated measures and alternative approaches to dealing with clustered data (including Bayesian methods). The main software used for the instruction is MLwiN, but code for fitting models in either Stata or R will also be provided. Students are encouraged to bring their own data to the course and will be provided with time and assistance to analyze those data.

MODULE 3 Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery – an introductory course with focus on veterinary epidemiology applications 4 day course June 23-26, 2013 Instructed by: Drs. Fernanda Dorea & Crawford Revie The increasing quantity of electronic data available (including clinical and laboratory data) is allowing epidemiological intelligence to move from hypothesis testing to knowledge discovery. Data mining technology allows researchers to analyse large observational data sets, previously collected for different purposes, to summarize the data in novel ways, and to find unanticipated relationships. This data-driven process adopts fundamentally different approaches to traditional question-driven methods. Data mining has been used in epidemiology for early detection of disease outbreaks (syndromic surveillance) and studies of antimicrobial resistance, among others. This four-day course provides an introduction to machine learning techniques, covering both unsupervised – those in which training datasets are not required – as well as supervised approaches to both classification and regression tasks in data mining. The main software used in the course will be RapidMiner, the most widely used open source package for data mining; some use of R will also be made to illustrate the integration of features not yet available within RapidMiner.

The Students of the Canadian Veterinary Medical Association (SCVMA) will hold its annual symposium at the Atlantic Veterinary College from January 10 - 12. The SCVMA Symposium is the only national event in Canada which is planned by veterinary students, for veterinary students. The symposium will consist of a series of wet labs, conferences, and lectures as well as tours and social events. For more detailed information please visit: http://www.canadianveterinarians.net/programs/scvma-symposium.aspx#.UOcj...

As part of the UPEI Music Department Recital Series, the Toronto-based jazz trio Myriad will perform on Tuesday, January 22, 2013 featuring Chris Donnelly, jazz piano; Dan Fortin, bass and Ernesto Cervini, drums. The cost is $15 adult/$10 student and the concert will take place in the Dr. Steel Recital Hall.

The Be Well is a series of monthly sessions open to all students who want personal help, support and advice to further academic, personal or spiritual endeavors. The first "Be Well" session will be put on by James Reddin on January 16 at 11:30 am. This will be a group discussion based session and will look at helping you make the second term of this academic year the term you really want to have by getting started early on the things you want to do. Please call 902-566-0488 to register for this free session.

You are cordially invited to join Allen Roach, Minister Innovation and Advanced Learning, John Eden, CEO of Discovery Garden, and Dr. Wendy Carroll, Workforce Strategies Resource Group, UPEI for a new program funding announcement for business and its employees.

Join Sister Sue Kidd for the second Be Well session on spiritual wellness. Often we focus on intellectual and physical health, forgetting our spiritual needs. This talk will address some of the spiritual needs we encounter as well as the physical needs that may impact our wholeness and healthy well-being. Please call 902-566-0488 to register for this free session.

SPEAKER: Collin Arens, Biomedical Sciences TITLE: Sub-lethal effects of oil sands development on white sucker (Catostomus commersonii) in the Athabasca watershed.