The Texas Instruments Asia Marketing Program has organized a presentation on the commercial opportunities in China. This event will be April 27 at 1 p.m. at the Dallas Chinese Community Center, located at 400 North Greenville Ave. Suite #12. Dr. Kun Lin, the vice president of China Business Development for Texas Instruments Inc. will be the speaker. No fee is required to attend.

The University of Texas at Dallas is hosting a workshop beginning at 8:30 a.m. on April 29 in the Conference Center on the UTD campus on value management with key performance indicators

More than 85 % of senior executives say improving their firm's supply-chain performance is one of their top priorities, but fewer than 10% are adequately tracking that performance. And fewer still - 7 % collect the information necessary to meaningfully measure their progress. Those are the findings from a survey by Bain & Company. Moreover most technology projects fail or are challenged by lack of value focus. The objective of this workshop is to provide a systematic approach to set up the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) based Management System to improve the performance of the supply chain and deliver value.

For more information, see http://som.utdallas.edu/profdev and then click on short courses for additional information or call 972-883-2204.

The lecture "Fire and Ice: Social Aggression Among Girls" by Dr. Marion Underwood, associate professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at UTD, is scheduled for 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. on April 30 in the McDermott Library Auditorium (MC 2.410), on The University of Texas at Dallas campus. The lecture, part of the McDermott Library Lecture Series, originally was set for Wednesday, April 16, but had to be rescheduled.

Besides the informational aspect of the lecture the library is celebrating the publication of Dr. Underwood's new book, "Social Aggression Among Girls." Refreshments will be served prior to the lecture that is free and open to the public. For more information, please contact Tom Koch, 972-883-4951.

At 5 p.m. in the Homberger Conference Center, located at 2151 W. Holcombe Boulevard, The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston will host a free community forum in response to the global outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome-SARS. Experts in infectious diseases and the methodologies of identifying and fighting epidemics will come together to discuss the latest SARS information and suggest protective measures against the disease. The speakers include: R. Palmer Beasley, M.D., dean of the UT School of Public Health and winner of the internationally prestigious Prince Mahidol Award for Medicine; Lu-Yu Hwang, M.D., a faculty expert on the epidemiology of chronic viral infection; Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, M.D., assistant professor of medicine at the UT Medical School at Houston and medical director for epidemiology at Memorial Hermann Hospital.; Herbert DuPont, M.D., director of the Center for Infectious Diseases at the UT School of Public Health. For more information or for a reservation, call 713-500-3440..

University and industry researchers will gather for a one-day meeting that encourages interaction and dialog among scientists and engineers who are working in the rapidly-developing field of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). The conference will take place in the University Center, West 1st and S. West Streets. Researchers are invited to submit abstracts for presentation of papers at the workshop. Please visit the TEXMEMS V web site - http://mems.uta.edu/texmemsV.html - for submission information. The deadline is April 8.

The University of Texas at Dallas is hosting a two-day interactive management workshop specifically designed to provide a practical understanding of how accounting serves as the language of business beginning at 8:30 a.m. on May 7 in the Conference Center on the UTD campus. The course will enable the participant to better understand the accounting process, the company's financial statements and interpret the company's financial reports. It is developed for mid-level to senior managers whose job involves managing non-financial areas, operations and budgets.

For more information, see http://som.utdallas.edu/profdev and then click on short courses for additional information or call 972-883-2204.

As the World Health Organization issues more and more travel alerts as a result of SARS (severe acute respiratory syndrome), it is critical that members of the community separate the facts from the myths regarding this pandemic disease. SARS will be the subject of a presentation at 4:00 p.m. on Thursday, May 15.

The University of Texas at Dallas is proud to have Dr. David Lakey, the medical director of The University of Texas Health Center at Tyler Center for Pulmonary and Infectious Disease Control and an associate professor of medicine at the Health Center on campus to discuss the impact of SARS on both daily life on Earth and the study of infectious disease.

The presentation will be on Thursday, May 15 at 4:00 p.m. in the Karl Hoblitzelle Hall Auditorium on The University of Texas at Dallas campus. This event is free and open to the public.

Dr. Lakey earned a bachelor of science in chemistry, graduating with high honors, from the Rose Hulman Institute of Technology in Terra Haute, Ind., in May 1986. He received his medical degree with honors from the Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis in May 1990.

Dr. Lakey was a resident in internal medicine and pediatric medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, Tenn., from 1990 to 1994. He completed a fellowship in adult and pediatric infectious disease there in 1998. Dr. Lakey is board certified in pediatrics, internal medicine, infectious disease, and pediatric infectious disease.

Dr. Lakey has seen firsthand the devastation that infectious diseases can cause in an underdeveloped country. During his medical training, he went on two mission trips to a hospital in rural Kenya. He's also gone on mission trips to Belize, in Central America.

Infectious disease specialists at the Health Center and the TDH have developed a regional biodefense plan, including a response to a possible smallpox outbreak. Dr. Lakey is one of the key leaders of this plan, which involves vaccinating a limited number of health-care workers against the deadly infectious disease. In the event of a smallpox outbreak, they could care for smallpox victims without endangering themselves.

For more information, please email keithly@utdallas.edu

The Fourth Joint Meeting of Chinese Physicists Worldwide will be held at in Shanghai and hosted by Shanghai Jiao Tung University. The website is www.ocpa2003.net.