Changing times in rural Alaska

Professional project report submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Masters of Arts in Journalism from the School of Journalism, University of Missouri--Columbia.In rural Alaska, bush pilots play a vital role "transporting people, cargo, and goods from cities to far-flung villages. In the past, they've also taken newspapers. But that all changed when the Internet came to town, in ways not always beneficial to local media outlets. Villagers near the town of Kodiak discuss how the Internet transformed how -- and from where -- they get their news. In general, villagers report that the Internet allows them to bypass Kodiak's local media for state, national, and international news. They also use the Internet to create village-level information forums. The Internet provides a service that local media did not, and gives villagers the ability to choose alternative information sources they feel are more relevant to their lives, as they say they cannot rely on Kodiak's local news outlets for information about their communities. The end of this analysis offers recommendations for local news outlets to better use the Internet to grow their audience in the market's outlying communities.Includes bibliographic references

Technical advances in robot-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomy

Since it was introduced in 1999, the da Vinci Surgical System has become an integral tool in urologic surgery, specifically in the management of localized prostate cancer. The original technique of robot-assisted laparoscopic prostatectomy (RALP) was developed and standardized in 2000 at the Institut Mutualiste Monsouris. Since that time, the technique of RALP has undergone various modifications. The driving force behind the evolution of the RALP technique in the past decade has been based on efforts to improve upon the three main objectives of surgery, namely the ‘trifecta’ of cancer cure and the preservation of potency and of urinary continence. In this review, we aim to provide an update on the midterm oncologic outcomes of RALP and focus specifically on two technical modifications that have been introduced in an effort to optimize the outcomes of potency and earlier return of urinary continence