Tuesday, April 29, 2008 * Volume 25, Number 14
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James Allert, assistant professor, Department of Computer Science made a presentation on “The Visual Transformation of Introductory Computer Programming Courses” at TechED 2008, Ontario, CA, in April. Jane Carlson, assistant professor, Department of HPER, presented a poster entitled “Purpose Driven Grading” in a session sponsored by National Association of School-based Physical Education. John C. Green gave an invited talk on" Geology of the North Shore Highlands” at the Annual Symposium of the Minnesota Native Plant Society at the Bell Museum, UM, Minneapolis, in April. Georgia Keeney, associate professor, Department of HPER, presented an AAHE sponsored session describing and demonstrating Universal Learning Design principles applied to health education, “Universal Design for Health Educators - Process and Goal.” Ron Marchese, professor of Ancient History, recently published, with his colleagues at Cambridge University and the University of Vienna, “Plataiai in Boiotia: Geo-physical and Field Survey Conducted in 2002 - 2005” in the journal of the American School of Classical Studies - Hesperia, vol. 77, 2008, 43-71. In April Richard Ojakangas gave a presentation on Lake Superior-type Iron Formation and hosted a 3-hour discussion on iron-formation at NRRI to a select small group. George ‘Rip’ Rapp published, “Pharaonic Inscriptions From the Southern Eastern Desert of Egypt,” with Russell D. Rothe, William K. Miller, and George (Rip) Rapp, in Eisenbrauns, 504 pages. Work by Robert Repinski, associate professor, Department of Art and Design, has been selected for inclusion in “North of the 45th,” a juried exhibition featuring the work of artists living and working in the Midwest. Juror John Corbett, director of Corbett vs. Dempsey Gallery in Chicago, chose Repinski’s work. The exhibition runs from June 2 through July 5, at the DeVos Art Museum on the campus of Northern Michigan University in Marquette, MI. Ladona Tornabene, associate professor, Department of HPER, presented a pre-conference workshop on “Increasing Joy Through Motivational Goal Setting: Strategies for Educators/Practitioners.” See the nest issue of Currents. Cindy Hagley, water quality extension educator, gave two presentations, “Data for Discovery: Understanding Storm and Land Use Effects on Stream Quality,” with George Host and Rich Axler of NRRI for the Minnesota Science Teachers Association spring conference in Duluth in March. Doug Jensen, aquatic invasive species program coordinator, gave the presentation, “An Introduction to Aquatic Invasive Species Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point Program,” to the Minnesota Invasive Species Advisory Council in St. Paul in April. Jesse Schomberg, coastal communities educator, presented, “How to Grow a Town and Protect Water Quality,” for the 2008 Leadership Duluth Course during April at the DECC. MEDICAL
SCHOOL-DULUTH NEWS Graduate School Fellow, Anna A. Gybina, and professor, Joseph R. Prohaska, of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology recently published “Copper deficiency results in AMP-activated protein kinase activation and acetylCoA carboxylase phosphorylation in rat cerebellum” in the journal, Brain Research (volume 1204, 69-76). At the national conference “Experimental Biology 2008 Conference: Today’s Research: Tomorrow’s Health,” in San Diego CA, in April, professor Arlen Severson of the Anatomy and Cell Biology Department and students Josh Overgaard, Thomas Maust, Jennifer Sauter, Jonathan Lofgren, Jason Alder and Brett Glawe presented their poster, “Case-based learning for understanding cardiovascular development” for the Anatomy Education Poster Session. Professors Lorentz Wittmers and David Mohrman of the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology presented “An integrated framework for teaching oxygen delivery” for the Teaching, Learning and Testing in the Biological and Biomedical Poster Education Session. Libby Wagner’s (MS 4) research abstract, Trends in Obstetrical Care in Rural Minnesota, was selected as the Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians Research Forum’s Paper of Greatest Interest and will be published in the Minnesota Family Physician and the Research Network News. As part of a visit to UMD, Congresswoman Betty McCollum visited at the UMD Medical School to learn more about the Center of American Indian and Minority Health (CAIMH.) About three years ago, Title VII funding supporting the CAIMH and similar programs nationwide was eliminated by Congress. Joy Dorscher, M.D., Director of CAIMH, gathered a group of Native American medical students who were active in CAIMH activities to meet with McCollum. LSMS also hosted an event on the Duluth Campus called “The Field of Medicine” to interest potential medical students as they start planning for college. Junior high school students and their advisors from high schools in four counties in Northern Minnesota were invited to UMD. This year UMD students and faculty spoke to a new record of 6,593 elementary school students in 74 schools in communities throughout the state during the Brain Awareness Week outreach. The UM’s Future Doctors program visited UMD in April as part of a program organized by the Office of Admissions and 30 students participated. PHARMACY NEWS Assistant professor Bjoern Bauer is the lead author on a study that found one of the body’s own neurotransmitters released during epileptic seizures (glutamate) turns on a signaling pathway in the brain, which in turn increases production of a protein that could reduce medication entry into the brain. “This may in part explain why approximately 30 percent of patients with epilepsy do not respond to anti-epileptic medications,” said Bauer. “This finding suggests a promising way to improve the effectiveness of drugs that are used to treat epilepsy, though more research is needed before new therapies can be developed.” The study will be published in the May 2008 issue of Molecular Pharmacology. For more info, visit www.pharmacy.umn.edu. Haim Einat, assistant professor, has been awarded a $21,000 Grant-in-Aid of Research, Artistry and Scholarship from the UM Graduate School for the project titled, “We are in the dark here: behavioral effects of short day or melatonin in the diurnal Nile rat.” Faculty/Staff News --- This issue Subscribe for an E-mail notice of each Currents issue: instructions To submit material to CURRENTS, email currents@d.umn.edu The University of Minnesota is an equal opportunity educator and employer.
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