Higher Education : Innovation + Job News

A Towson University professor has taken the first steps to bring to life the engineering in STEM. With start-up funds from the Faculty Development and Research Committee's (FDRC) grant and fellowships program and a $100,000 grant from the Maryland Department of Labor, Licensing & Regulation (DLLR) under its Workforce One initiative, Pamela Lottero-Perdue, assistant professor in the Department of Physics, Astronomy & Geosciences, has launched a research program focused on teaching engineering to elementary-aged children.

"Engineering is one of the most neglected of the STEM disciplines in the K-12 educational system," says Lottero-Perdue, who began her career as an engineer and later taught high school level pre-college engineering before earning her Ph.D. in science education. "A lack of elementary engineering education misses opportunities to develop children's technological literacy and to learn science and math content that is inherently connected to the study of engineering."

Under the DLLR grant, Lottero-Perdue and her partners in Harford County Public Schools created science-technology-engineering integrated units using Engineering is Elementary (EiE) curricula developed by the National Center for Technological Literacy at the Boston Museum of Science and offered elementary educators in the district intensive professional development to teach those units.

This grant, as well as additional funding through the National Dissemination through Regional Partners (NDRP) project through the EiE program has enabled Lottero-Perdue and her team to provide professional development to more than 30 third-grade, fourth-grade, and enrichment teachers across seven elementary schools in the district. By creating co-teaching partnerships between the enrichment and classroom teachers, participants have been supported through the learning and teaching process. Often with little to no prior exposure to engineering content and pedagogy, the partnership is a vital component of the research. View Lottero-Perdue's work with HCPS made possible through her collaboration with David Reiss, Department of Electronic Media and Film.

Lottero-Perdue's research implements and evaluates EiE curriculum in elementary classroom settings, and, with Paz Galupo, Department of Psychology and director of the Institute for Academic Diversity and Inclusion, examines the way in which teachers experience the implementation process. With the preliminary data provided by the HCPS experience, Lottero-Perdue wants to pursue additional funding opportunities via the National Science Foundation or other sources of funding to support STEM education in the future. Currently, Lottero-Perdue is continuing EiE dissemination work through the NDRP program, which will begin the process of teacher professional development for first- and second-grade engineering units in the spring. By the end of the 2009-2010 school year, 34 classrooms of HCPS students will have received instruction in engineering, and Lottero-Perdue aims to help this number grow year by year in the district.

Source: Towson University
Writer: Walaika Haskins

And the winner is....the University of Maryland, College Park (UMCP) has won the nationwide contest, America's Greenest Campus. The contest challenged colleges to compete against each other to reduce their carbon footprints. UMCP took the prize for the school with the most participants with 2,257 participants and Rio Salado College won for the school with the most carbon reductions per participant, with more than 524 students participating and reducing their CO2 emissions on average by 4.40 percent. 

It is the first competition to measure the impact of everyday actions of campus community members, America's Greenest Campus began on March 31st, with support from its national spokesperson, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons.

Over 460 schools and 20,000 students, faculty and alumni participated in the contest, reducing nearly 19 million pounds of CO2 from the environment, saving 28 million gallons of water and conserving 4.5 million kilowatts of electricity.

"We are extremely proud that the University of Maryland won the America's Greenest Campus contest. Young people have the power to transform the world when it comes to energy and climate change and this competition was a great way of empowering our campus community to take action to reduce our carbon footprint," says student organizer Joanna Calabrese. "We mobilized over 2,000 students to get involved, and we know we can do even more. But this was a great start."

America's Greenest Campus is a partnership between SmartPower, the nation's leading clean energy and energy efficiency marketing organization, and Climate Culture, the premier online carbon measurement and reduction utility, with support from the U.S. Department of Energy and partnerships with leading youth environmental groups such as the National Wildlife Federation, the Sierra Student Coalition and the National Association of Environmental Law Societies.

"More than ever, young people are concerned about their impact on the environment and eager to improve their daily habits, and we created the America's Greenest Campus contest to provide a forum for that," says Tom Scaramellino, CEO of Efficiency 2.0, an energy efficiency startup that operates Climate Culture. "At 20,000 participants, this is the largest, most successful environmental contest ever among college students. We're so pleased with the results, we're gearing up for a second contest to take place in 2010."

The America's Greenest Campus contest also included the SmartPower Energy Smart Online Ad Challenge, which called for video submissions that promote the economic and environmental benefits of energy efficiency, for a $10,000 prize. The winning video will be announced December 5, 2009 and will be used in SmartPower's national advertising.

"Young people today are the largest wasters of energy in society, and through America's Greenest Campus, they are literally learning how to change their energy behavior," says Brian F. Keane, President of SmartPower. "Where they were once part of the climate problem -- now they are rapidly becoming a key part of the solution, learning how to conserve energy and change their behavior. They are leading the way -- and AGC is helping them get there!"

With their $5,000 winnings in hand, the University of Maryland will be providing support to their "Engaged University" program, a model community designed to influence the way the campus thinks about and engages in sustainable living and demonstrates the economic, social, and environmental benefits of long term sustainability.

Source: SmartPower
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Johns Hopkins materials scientists have found a new use for sodium beta-alumina, a chemical compound that has traditionally been thought of as an electrical conductor, a substance that allows electricity to flow through it. By orienting the compound in a different way, the researchers have turned it into a thin film insulator, which instead blocks the flow of electricity, but can induce large electric currents elsewhere. The material could have important applications in transistor technology and in devices such as electronic books.

The discovery is described in the November issue of the journal Nature Materials and appears in an early online edition.

"This form of sodium beta-alumina has some very useful characteristics," said Howard E. Katz, a professor of materials science and engineering who supervised the research team. "The material is produced in a liquid state, which means it can easily be deposited onto a surface in a precise pattern for the formation of printed circuits. But when it's heated, it forms a solid, thin transparent film. In addition, it allows us to operate at low voltages, meaning it requires less power to induce useful current.

That means its applications could operate with smaller batteries or be connected to a battery instead of a wall outlet."

The transparency and thinness of the material (the hardened film is only on the order of 100 atoms thick) make it ideal for use in the increasingly popular e-book readers, which rely on see-through screens and portable power sources, Katz said. He added that possible transportation applications include instrument readouts that can be displayed in the windshield of an aircraft or a ground vehicle.

The emergence of sodium beta-alumina as an insulator was a surprising development, Katz said. The compound, known for decades, has traditionally been used to conduct electricity and for this reason has been considered as a possible battery component. The material allows charged particles to flow easily parallel to a two-dimensional plane formed within its distinct atomic crystalline arrangement. "But we found that current does not flow nearly as easily perpendicular to the planes, or in unoriented material," Katz said. "The material acts as an insulator instead of a conductor. Our team was the first to exploit this discovery."

The Johns Hopkins researchers developed a method of processing sodium beta-alumina in a way that makes use of this insulation behavior occurring in the form of a thin film. Working with the Johns Hopkins Technology Transfer staff, Katz's team has filed for international patent protection for their discovery.

The lead author of the Nature Materials paper was Bhola N. Pal, who was a postdoctoral fellow in Katz's laboratory. In addition to Katz, who is chair of the Department of Materials Science and Engineering in the university's Whiting School of Engineering, the co-authors were Bal Mukund Dhar, a current doctoral student in the lab, and Kevin C. See, who recently completed his doctoral studies under Katz.

Funding for the research was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research and the National Science Foundation.

Source: Johns Hopkins University
Writer: Walaika Haskins

The completion of the human genome may have answered some of medical researches fundamental questions, however, the discovery has led to more complex questions for scientists. One in particular has left researchers studying gene control perplexed, "How is it that humans, being far more complex than the lowly yeast, do not proportionally contain in our genome significantly more gene-control proteins?"

A collaboration among scientists at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine that examined protein-DNA interactions across the whole genome may have an answer. Researchers have uncovered more than 300 proteins that appear to control genes, a heretofore undiscovered function for these proteins that were previously known to play other roles in cells. The results, which appear in the Oct. 30 issue of Cell, provide a partial explanation for human complexity over yeast but also throw a curve ball in what we previously understood about protein functions.

"Everyone knows that transcription factors bind to DNA and everyone knows that they bind in a sequence-specific manner," says Heng Zhu, Ph.D., an assistant professor in pharmacology and molecular sciences and a member of the High Throughput Biology Center. "But you only find what you look for, so we looked beyond and discovered proteins that essentially moonlight as transcription factors."

The team suspects that many more proteins encoded by the human genome might also be moonlighting to control genes, which brings researchers to the paradox that less complex organisms, such as plants, appear to have more transcription factors than humans. "Maybe most of our genes are doing double, triple or quadruple the work," says Zhu. "This may be a widespread phenomenon in humans and the key to how we can be so complex without significantly more genes than organisms like plants."

Source: Heng Zhu, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Researchers have known for some time that 95 percent of the cells that shuttle sound to the brain are large, lively neurons found deep within the ear. These big boys have accounted for most of what scientists know about how hearing works. That said, however, scientist have also speculated that there could be a second set of rare, tiny cells that carry signals from the from the inner ear to the brain and play a part in how sound is processed.

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers report in the Oct. 22 issue of Nature that rat experiments have measured and recorded electrical activity of the type II neurons in the cochlea, snail-shell-like structure within the ear, for possibly the first time. Their research seems to confirm what had previously been posited that the cells do carry signals from the ear to the brain, and the sounds they likely respond to would need to be loud, such as sirens or alarms that might be even be described as painful or traumatic.

According to the researchers, they've also discovered that these cells perform by responding to glutamate, a neurotransmitter found throughout the nervous system that stimulate the cochlear to transmit acoustic information to the brain, released from sensory hair cells of the inner ear.

"No one thought recording them was even possible," says Paul A. Fuchs, Ph.D., the John E. Bordley Professor of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery and co-director of the Center for Sensory Biology in the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and a co-author of the report. "We knew the type II neurons were there and now at last we know something about what they do and how they do it."

Working with week-old rats, neuroscience graduate student Catherine Weisz removed live, soft tissue from the fragile cochlea and, guided by a powerful microscope, touched electrodes to the tiny type II nerve endings beneath the sensory hair cells. Different types of stimuli were used to activate sensory hair cells, allowing Weisz to record and analyze the resulting signals in type II fibers.

Results showed that, unlike type I neurons which are electrically activated by the quietest sounds we hear, and which saturate as sounds get louder, each type II neuron would need to be hit hard by a very loud sound to produce excitation, Fuchs says.

Fuchs and his team postulate that the two systems may serve different functional roles. "There's a distinct difference between analyzing sound to extract meaning - Is that a cat meowing, a baby crying or a man singing? - versus the startle reflex triggered by a thunderclap or other sudden loud sound." Type II afferents may play a role in such reflexive withdrawals from potential trauma."

Source: Paul Fuchs, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Using data gathered from Hurricane Katrina and four other destructive storms, researchers with Johns Hopkins and Texas A&M universities say they have discovered a way to accurately predict the number of power outages that will occur before a hurricane comes ashore. The study published in the current issue of the journal Risk Analysis.

The data garnered from the computer models could potentially result is significant financial savings for utility companies that could then conceivably be passed on to customers, according to the researchers say. In addition, the information could help companies determine appropriate utility crew levels and placements to facilitate rapid restoration of power following a severe storm.

The research focused on two common challenges facing utility companies as a hurricane is approaches -- deciding how many repair crews to request from other utilities, a decision that may cost the provider millions of dollars, and where to locate these crews within its service areas to enable fast and efficient restoration of service after the hurricane passes. The ability to accurately estimate the number of outages and where they will occur will allow utilities to better plan for the number and location of these crews, the researchers say.

What makes the research team's computational approach unique and increases its accuracy is the combination of more detailed information about the storm, the area it is impacting and the power system of the area, together with more appropriate statistical models.

"If the power company overestimates, it has spent a lot of unnecessary money," says Steven Quiring, an assistant professor of geography at Texas A&M. "If it underestimates, the time needed to restore power can take several extra days or longer, which is unacceptable to them and the people they serve. So these companies need the best estimates possible, and we think this study can help them make the best possible informed decision."

In addition, more accurate models "provide a much better basis for preparing for restoring power after the storm," Seth Guikema, an assistant professor of geography and environmental engineering at Johns Hopkins and formerly of Texas A&M says, adding that "the goal is to restore power faster and save customers money."

In developing their computer model, the researchers looked at damage data from five hurricanes: Dennis (1995), Danny (1997), Georges (1998), Ivan (2004) and Katrina (2005). In the areas studied, Ivan created 13,500 power outages; Katrina, more than 10,000; Dennis, about 4,800; Georges, 1,075; and Danny, 620.

For the worst of these storms, some customers were without power for up to 11 days. The research team collected information about the locations of outages in these past hurricanes, with an outage defined as permanent loss of power to a set of customers due to activation of a protective device in the power system.

The information also includes data about the power system in each area (poles, transformers, etc.), hurricane wind speeds, wetness of the soil, long-term average precipitation, the land use, local topography and other related factors. This was then used to train and validate a statistical regression model called a Generalized Additive Model, a particular form of model that can account for nonlinear relationships between the variables.

Source: Steven Quiring, Texas A&M
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Related links:

The team's "Risk Analysis" study:

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/fulltext/122542675/HTMLSTART

Seth Guikema's Web Page:

https://jshare.johnshopkins.edu/sguikem1/public_html/

Johns Hopkins Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering:

http://engineering.jhu.edu/~dogee/

Steven Quiring's Web Page:

http://geog.tamu.edu/~squiring/

Texas A&M video with Steven Quiring:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gcnltgtiemQ&

Frostburg State University's Renewable Energy Center has been awarded an $856,350 appropriation from the U.S. Department of Energy to fund the final steps in the establishment of its Sustainable Energy Research Facility (SERF), a green, self-sufficient, off-the-grid building designed for educational research on renewable energy in the Appalachian region.

The grant will enable the university to purchase research equipment and computer hardware and software, as well as to employ researchers and student assistants.

"Faculty and students will be using the new SERF facility to expand FSU's leadership role in the Appalachian region for research, development, implementation and training in renewable energy technologies and sustainable living," says Congressman Roscoe Bartlett. "America's grid, while an efficient and cost-effective distributor of electricity, is also remarkably vulnerable to natural disaster or deliberate attack. Residents and small businesses will benefit from SERF's work to develop alternative, renewable, local sources of energy and technologies to provide enough electricity for a small facility to operate independent of the grid."

SERF, a residential-size green building completely supplied by various renewable energy sources, will be built in the Allegany Business Center at FSU, near the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Sciences Appalachian Laboratory. The building will be completely functional in fall 2010 and accommodate the FSU Renewable Energy Center to conduct research, education and outreach programs.

The research planned at SERF will study the effectiveness of sustainable energy resources in Appalachia. Using sensors to record wind and solar energy data at numerous locations, the data will be collected at SERF for processing and analysis, used to model, design and control integrated renewable energy supply systems. The ultimate goal will be to develop a knowledge-base for renewable and clean energy resources available in the region.

"Frostburg State University is perfectly located for this and other new energy research projects, with the state's broadest access to renewable energy resources," says Stephen Spahr, FSU vice president for Economic Development and Government Relations. "With the work being done here on renewable energy and other new energy resources, like the research into the Marcellus Shale natural gas reserves, FSU is positioning the region as a center for energy for the future."

SERF will accommodate the FSU Renewable Energy Center to conduct extended research, education and community outreach programs on renewable energy applications developed by FSU faculty and their project partners. The facility will also serve as an example of a self-sufficient off-grid building for individuals such as homeowners, farmers or entrepreneurs who seek energy security in Western Maryland or similar geographic locations.

"The new funding secured by Congressman Bartlett will make it possible to purchase cutting-edge equipment and employ distinguished researchers to conduct renewable energy projects in SERF," said the Soysals, both faculty in the Department of Physics and Engineering. "The design team is currently completing the architectural plans. Construction will start this spring and the building will be completed in fall 2010."

The grant is managed by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory located at Morgantown, W.Va. The total budget for this phase of the project is $1.3 million, with about $455,000 coming from various other sources.

Source: Stephen Spahr, FSU
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Financial Times has named Loyola University Maryland's Sellinger School of Business and Managementone of the top Executive MBA programs in the world. The Sellinger program, which ranked in the top 25 of all U.S. private institutions, received high marks for its students meeting the aims that inspired them to enroll - 24th in the world. The Sellinger students also reported an average salary increase of 43 percent.

"The Sellinger School is committed to shaping ethical businesspeople who can lead in a rapidly changing, increasingly complex global economy," says Karyl Leggio, Ph.D., dean of the Sellinger School. "It is extremely gratifying to me that our commitment has been recognized on an international scale, and I am honored to see the Sellinger and Loyola names listed among programs such as those at Wharton, Columbia University, and Duke University. This honor provides invaluable validation of our efforts to continue to expand our relationships and develop even stronger global learning and networking opportunities for our students."

Loyola is the only school in Baltimore and one of just two in Maryland to be recognized by the Financial Times, the premier resource for ranking EMBA programs. While there are more than 350 executive MBA programs in the world, the Financial Times judged only the best 95 eligible to be ranked. Rankings are based on a wide range of criteria; categories in which Loyola ranked particularly high include:

• Student salary increase: 43 percent
• Student aims achieved: Top 25 worldwide and first among schools in the Baltimore-Washington region
• Diversity: In percentage of female students, the Sellinger School tied for 13th in the U.S. and 25th worldwide.

The Sellinger School's focus on developing ethical leaders who are strategic thinkers attuned to the complexities of the global marketplace has earned its executive programs an exceptional reputation among area business leaders.

Loyola's inclusion in this year's Financial Times rankings was based on data and outcomes for the MBA Fellows class of 2006. The Fellows program is one of two executive business programs at Loyola's Sellinger School. The Financial Times recognition follows the inclusion of the Sellinger School's Professional MBA in U.S. News & World Report's list of the nation's best part-time MBA programs.

Source: Karyl Leggio, Ph.D., Loyola
Writer: Walaika Haskins

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) has launched a new web site that designers hope will enable the university's students to give prospective Retrievers a sense of what its really like to go to school there. "College.Be" came out of creative meetings between Ed Neenan, marketing director, Dept of Information Systems, Mark Neustadt, Neustadt Creative Marketing and UMBC's Creative Director, Jim Lord.

"Once we had the concept�the vibe�what we thought would communicate to and resonate with the prospective and current, new undergraduate college audience. The idea to build a unique, proprietary website specifically to support our radio and outdoor advertising campaign came about. Mark brought his colleagues Tracey and Amy at Fastspot into the mix. They had a methodology of using a social web aggregator�lots of behind the scenes function, with a branded screen face that is purely "College. Be." and UMBC,"explains Ed Neenan.

The first of its kind sites works as an aggregator for a bevy of social media websites, including Flickr, YouTube, Facebook, Last.fm and Twitter. Once students sign up for the site, any photos, video, Tweets, blog posts, and music lists that they've posted on other social media sites will be streamed to College.Be.Through the posted pictures, videos, Tweets, etc., potential students are able to get a feel for what current students think about UMBC and do when they aren't in class.

"Essentially, our purpose for going in to this was marketing. This site was developed primarily to appeal to prospective students and we needed to find a way to communicate the social world of UMBC. With the new technologies availabile in this day and age, it just made sense to try and use social media as a way to convey what life is like on UMBC's campus," says Mark Neustadt.

The site started with 20 students who "seeded" the site, but has grown to over 100 users in the week or more since it launched. The university plans to drive traffic to the site via a multi-pronged marketing campaign that will include radio, billboard and other outdoor advertising in the DC Metro area.

Source: Ed Neena, UMBC
Writer: Walaika Haskins

G.I. Jobs has named Harford Community College (HCC) on its list of 2010 "Military Friendly Schools". The list honors the top 15 percent of colleges, universities and trade schools doing the most to embrace American veterans as students. 

"This list is especially important now because the recently enacted Post-9/11 G.I. Bill has given veterans virtually unlimited financial means to go to school," says Rich McCormack, G.I. Jobs publisher. "Veterans can now enroll in any school, provided they're academically qualified. So schools are clamoring for them like never before. Veterans need a trusted friend to help them decide where to get educated. The Military Friends list is that trusted friend."

The list was compiled through research begun last May including a G.I. Jobs poll of more than 7,000 schools nationwide. Criteria for making the grade included efforts to recruit and retain military and veteran students. In addition, schools on the Military Friendly Schools list offer additional benefits to student veterans.

HCC recently gathered a campus-wide task force in order to identify ways in which services can be improved to assist active duty military, members of the Reserve forces, military family members and veterans. Among the recommendations to be implemented is a change in the college application that will enable veterans to self-identify and thus allow communication directed to them to better meet their special needs.

In addition staff members from Financial Aid and the College APG site attended a series of training sessions to learn about provisions of the new Post 9/11 G.I. Bill and coordinated changes in College policy to facilitate use of this and other Veteran and military educational programs.

The 2010 Military-Friendly School list can be found at www.militaryfriendlyschools.com/mfspr

Source: Rich McCormack, G.I. Jobs
Writer: Walaika Haskins 

 

Johns Hopkins University researcher Carol Greider, Ph.D., received the 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine from the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. One of the world's pioneering researchers on the structure of chromosome ends known as telomeres,  The Academy recognized Greider for her 1984 discovery of telomerase, an enzyme that maintains the length and integrity of chromosome ends and is critical for the health and survival of all living cells and organisms.

Greider is the Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Molecular Biology and Genetics in the Johns Hopkins Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. She shares the award with Elizabeth Blackburn, a professor of biochemistry and biophysics at the University of California, San Francisco, and Jack Szostack, Ph.D., of Harvard Medical School, who discovered that telomeres are made up of simple, repeating blocks of DNA building blocks and are found in all organisms. The trio also shared the 2006 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research for this work. Each of the three will receive a medal, a diploma and will split a cash prize of $1.4 million that will be handed out at a ceremony held in Stockholm on Dec. 10.

"What intrigues basic scientists like me is that any time we do a series of experiments, there are going to be three or four new questions that come up when you think you've answered one. Our approach shows that while you can do research that tries to answer specific questions about a disease, you can also just follow your nose," says Greider.


Source: Carol Greider, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Baltimore-area undergraduate and graduate students with an interest in solving urban problems have an opportunity to test their ideas, be recognized by city decision makers and win up to $4,000 by entering the 2010 Abell Award in Urban Policy competition.

Co-sponsored by the Abell Foundation and the Johns Hopkins University Institute for Policy Studies, the award is given annually to the students who author the most compelling papers on a pressing problem facing the city of Baltimore. The first place prize is $4,000 and second place is $1,000.

"The purpose of this award is to encourage fresh thinking about the serious challenges facing this city and to tap the intellectual capacity of the city's college and graduate students," said Bob Embry, president of the Abell Foundation.

The contest is open to full-time undergraduate and graduate students at Coppin State University; Goucher College; The Johns Hopkins University; Loyola University Maryland; Morgan State University; the College of Notre Dame; Towson University; the University of Baltimore; the University of Maryland, Baltimore; the University of Maryland, Baltimore County; theUniversity of Maryland, College Park; and Stevenson University.

Winners are selected by a panel of judges comprising Baltimore opinion leaders and practitioners. Past winners have focused on strategies for reusing vacant properties in Baltimore, new approaches for preventing and reducing youth violence, the impact of zero tolerance school discipline policies, measures to reduce infant mortality, and policies to reduce high Latina birth rates.

"The judges and I have been extremely impressed with the thoughtful analysis and creative solutions that are offered by these papers," says Sandra Newman, professor and director of the IPS Center on Housing, Neighborhoods, and Communities. "It is clear that Baltimore's graduate and undergraduate students have much to contribute to the solution of these very challenging problems, both during their schooling and, hopefully, beyond."

In addition to the cash award, winners will have their papers distributed to key city and state decision makers, featured in the Abell Foundation Newsletter, and posted on the Johns Hopkins IPS website.

Applying is a three-step process: Potential applicants must first complete and submit a one-page contest entry form by Oct. 23, and a thorough abstract by Nov. 23. Final papers are due by March 5, 2010.

For details, including the entry form, a sample abstract, official guidelines, FAQs and examples of winning papers, visit here or write. The award is co-sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Policy Studies and the Abell Foundation Inc.

Source: Sandra Newman, JHU Institute of Policy Studies
Writer: Walaika Haskins

Johns Hopkins' Center for the Epigenetics of Common Human Disease has been selected as one of four recipients of a $45 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant for Centers of Excellence to advance genomics research. The Hopkins Center will receive $16.8 million over five years.

"We're grateful for such generous support to continue our work in understanding how epigenetic control affects disease," says the center's director, Andrew Feinberg, M.D., M.P.H.

For five years, Feinberg, professor of molecular medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, has led a team of researchers at the center to study the epigenetic basis of common health problems, including cancer, autism and psychiatric illnesses.

Epigenetics, or "above the genome," refers to changes in genes outside of the DNA sequence itself. The changes affect which genes are turned on or off, and therefore which proteins are produced in cells. According to Feinberg that's because epigenetic variation may be at least as great between individuals as variations in the DNA sequences themselves, understanding the epigenome may help explain how errors occur in normal development and how environmental factors lead to cancer, autism and other disorders.

The center has already developed novel statistical and analytical tools to identify epigenetic modifications across the human genome. With the new funds, awarded by two NIH institutes � the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI) and the National Institute of Mental Health � Feinberg and his colleagues plan to refine these tools so they can be used efficiently and cost effectively in large studies. The team will focus their efforts on studying the epigenetics of bipolar disorder, aging and autism. They will also explore how other factors, such as a person's genetic makeup, lifestyle choices and environmental exposures, interact with epigenetic factors to cause disease.

Source: Andrew Feinberg, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
Writer: Walaika Haskins

The Johns Hopkins University has received 250 research grants, for a total of $114 million, as a result of the federal stimulus package designed to advance scientific and medical knowledge while jump-starting the U.S. economy.

The grants will underwrite scientific investigations ranging from the best strategies to motivate drug addicts released from in-patient rehabilitation to agree to enroll in continuing sobriety support programs to the role certain proteins play in the development of muscle-wasting diseases, such as muscular dystrophy.

In addition to advancing the medical communities knowledge and understanding, the grants also serve to generate jobs at Johns Hopkins, boosting the region's economy, as employees spend their paychecks and Hopkins' laboratories hire personnel and buy supplies.

"This milestone is a testament to the outstanding research that our world-class faculty is conducting across the university," says Lloyd Minor, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs. "They have responded to the opportunities created by the stimulus package with the drive, commitment and entrepreneurial spirit that continues to distinguish Johns Hopkins."

Source: Lloyd Minor, Johns Hopkins University
Writer: Walaika Haskins

While much of the attention in the current debate over health care concentrates on the impact of escalating health care costs on small businesses and the uninsured, new data from the Johns Hopkins Nonprofit Listening Post Project shows that health care costs are also producing a heretofore unnoticed crisis for the country's nonprofit organizations and the nearly 13 million workers they employ.

Nearly all, 98 percent, of the responding nonprofits offering health benefits indicated that they are concerned about their organization's health care costs, with 59 percent ranking health care costs as one of their organization's top challenges.

The impact is already being felt as organizations decide to stop offering, or reduce coverage of, health benefits; institute higher employee co-pays and shares of insurance costs; and in pressures to hold down wages, shift to part-time employees, and even reduce mission-critical services.

The nonprofit workforce is the fourth largest industry in the U.S. A labor of love for most, employees generally work on lower pay scales. Nonprofits take a greater hit because thier health benefit costs are unusually high since nonprofit employers have used decent benefits packages to attract and retain quality staff. With health benefit costs steadily rising those flush benefits packages are no longer possible for large numbers of nonprofits, according to the July 2009 survey conducted by Johns Hopkins researchers.

"The evidence is now in," noted Lester Salamon, report author and director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies. "Escalating health insurance costs are taking a dramatic toll on our nation's nonprofits and the devoted employees who work for them."

Other findings from the Johns Hopkins health benefits survey include:

• A striking 80 percent of the nonprofit respondents reported offering health insurance coverage for their employees. Nevertheless, the proportion not offering such coverage rose by 62 percent compared to the results from a comparable survey in 2004.
• Virtually all (99 percent) of the large nonprofits responding reported offering health benefits to employees but less than half (46 percent) of the smallest organizations did, and cost was a major factor at work.
• Nearly three out of every four nonprofits offering health benefits reported that their organization's total direct health insurance costs increased during the past year, and for over a third of the respondents the increase was over 10 percent�well above the national average of 5 percent per year.

Writer: Walaika Haskins
Source: Lester Salamon, Johns Hopkins Center for Civil Society Studies