CIT's Summer 2004 term of computer training classes has begun. Many existing courses are being updated, and more than 30 new subjects will be presented. As always, classes are available free-of-charge to all NIH staff. Sign-up and course descriptions are available at http://training.cit.nih.gov.

Personal Computing

"How to Get the Most Out of Outlook 2003" is an updated course highlighting the most efficient usage of Outlook 2003. "Introduction to Quark Xpress" will introduce some of the basic commands and processes of this desktop publishing program, which is the predominant software package used in publishing today. "Mac OS X for Migrating Users" will give users of Windows and Linux an understanding of how to use and administer OS X. "Security Features of Microsoft Desktop Programs" will discuss how to customize security settings.

Personal Digital Assistant (PDA)

The NIH Library is offering two of its PDA courses through CIT Training. "PDAs: Introduction" will demonstrate the features and functions of a PDA such as the Palm Tungsten C. "PDAs: Advanced Applications for Clinical Use" will explore how to add health-related applications from the web to the device.

Dr. Mohammad Al-Ubaydli, National Library of Medicine, author of Handheld Computers for Doctors will present "Palm Powered 101 (Handhelds for Doctors)." This class will include discussion of software and usage habits that are appropriate for biomedical researchers.

Database

Microsoft is returning to offer a new course, "Microsoft SQL Server Report Services." This seminar will provide a technical overview of Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services, the reporting lifecycle (authoring, management and delivery) and the product architecture. CIT will present "Advanced Queries and Reporting in Remedy," focusing on various methods of querying ticket data from Remedy. Direct methods include advanced searches and reporting within Remedy. Indirect methods include reporting through Access and Excel.

Statistics

Students will have the opportunity to attend new topics in SAS, STATISTICA and SPSS.

The SAS Institute is returning to CIT to offer two brief seminars. "SAS Data Mining" will discuss the functions and capabilities of data-mining products SAS Enterprise Miner and SAS Text Miner. "What's New in SAS (r)9?" will discuss the function of what SAS calls "the most significant release in its 28-year history."

Statsoft will be offering a new course on "STATISTICA and STATISTICA Data Miner for Analyzing and Finding Hidden Information in Messy Medical Data Sets." STATISTICA and STATISTICA Data Miner with its open architecture and an array of both statistical and machine-learning algorithms can find significant patterns and previously hidden information in medical data sets.

David Luckenbaugh of NIMH will offer "SPSS: General Use and Analysis." This class will help anyone with an interest in SPSS to get oriented to how it can be used and maximize what is generated. A wide range of topics will be covered from opening spreadsheets and defining defaults to finding the right statistic and presenting results.

Web Development

"Advanced CSS/XHTML" will discuss developing modern, standards-compliant sites that separate content from presentation for clean code and maximum portability. Another course, "Usability for Development," will discuss web interfaces, the basics of usability and some techniques for improving usability. "ASP.NET Quick Start Using C#" is an intermediate overview of ASP.NET for developers using Visual Studio .NET.

Other Seminars for Scientists

The largest growth in the training program this semester is within the Seminars for Scientists. Dr. Medha Bhagwat, NCBI, has added yet another course to her dynamic series. "NCBI's Identification and Correlation of Disease Genes to Phenotypes" deals with the identification of a disease gene using NCBI's human genome assembly. The reference genome assembly, along with integrated maps, literature and expression information comprises a powerful discovery system for exploring candidate human disease genes.

Partek Pro Inc. is returning to present one new and one newly expanded course. "Partek Pro for Gene Expression Analysis" is a greatly expanded introductory course. "Cluster Analysis: Unsupervised Classification for High Dimensional Gene Expression Data with Partek Pro" is intended for those already familiar with the software.

In addition to the MATLAB Fundamentals and Programming Techniques, Mathworks will be returning to give a course on "MATLAB – What's New in R14?" This seminar will explore advanced features in the latest release.

After many requests for additional Photoshop training, two new titles have been added: "Intermediate Photoshop" and "Using Photoshop to Create Scientific Posters."

Accelrys, which produces GCG, will present "MacVector and DS Gene – Easy-to-Use Sequence Analysis Solutions for Windows and Macintosh." These tools can be used for day-to-day sequence analysis and documentation in a single easy-to-use application.

Grants

In addition to "QVR for Roadmap," a new "Advanced QVR for Roadmap" is being offered. This course will discuss the use and purpose of the Standard Reports as they relate to retrieval and analysis of information relating to the NIH Roadmap as well as generating Pivot Table reports and manipulating the data in these special tables.

You can read course descriptions and register at the training web site, or contact the Training Program at (301) 594-6248 (TDD: 301-496-8294).