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News in Brief
AROUND CAMPUSBudget web site discusses stimulus plan impact, cost-saving task forces University of Iowa officials are communicating budget messages to UI faculty, staff, students, and alumni through a budget updates web site, http://budget.uiowa.edu. New entries on the site involve the following topics:
Click here to subscribe to the budget updates web site's RSS feeds.
Hygienic lab is first state public health lab to add new pregnancy screens The Iowa Maternal Screening Program now provides women across the state access to the most advanced and safest methods to screen for Down syndrome and open neural tube defects with the recent addition of the Iowa Maternal Integrated Screen to the tests performed at the University Hygienic Laboratory. "The Iowa Maternal Integrated Screen offers the most effective and safe method of screening for women because it uses information from both the first and second trimesters combined into a single risk assessment," says Stan Berberich, University Hygienic Laboratory manager for the maternal and newborn screening programs. With this method, Berberich explains, the screen-positive rate is significantly lower and provides a better detection rate than either the Iowa Maternal Quad Screen, which uses information from only the second trimester, or the Iowa Maternal First Trimester Screen, which uses information from only the first trimester. "A lower screen-positive rate reduces the number of women who will be offered a diagnostic test, such as an amniocentesis, which carries a small risk of complications, including miscarriage," Berberich says. The University Hygienic Laboratory is the first state public health laboratory in the nation to provide this important integrated screen, says Christopher Atchison, director of the laboratory. "Women throughout Iowa can benefit because this screen may reduce the need for other diagnostic tests and their associated risks," Atchison says.
Maia Quartet and Philharmonia Orchestra share the program Feb. 27 The Maia String Quartet and Philharmonia Orchestra from the University of Iowa School of Music will share the program of a free concert at 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 27, in the Main Ballroom of the Iowa Memorial Union. Music faculty members Benjamin Coelho, bassoon, and David Greenhoe, trumpet, will be featured soloists. The concert is the opening event of the second annual UI Orchestra Invitational. Members of five high school orchestras from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois will spend Friday and Saturday, Feb. 27–28, on campus, having clinics as an orchestra and seminars with UI School of Music faculty. The Maia Quartet will open the concert, playing Joseph Haydn's String Quartet in G major, op. 76 no. 1, and two movements from Johannes' Brahms String Quartet in C minor, op. 51 no. 1. The Philharmonia, one of four student orchestras at the University, will be led by graduate students in the conducting program. They will present three works: Christopher Fashun and Yuichi Ura will share conducting duties for the Symphony No. 88 in G major by Franz Joseph Haydn; Andrea Molina will conduct "Three Latin-American Sketches" by Aaron Copland; and Jeremy Starr will conduct the Concerto for Trumpet, Bassoon, and String Orchestra by Paul Hindemith, with Coelho and Greenhoe as soloists.
Nominate faculty and staff for Improving Our Workplace Award The Improving Our Workplace Award (IOWA) review committee is accepting nominations for faculty and staff whose initiative and innovation get results that sustain the services of the University. The committee welcomes nominations that also describe individual staff and teams who met the challenge of the flood. Nominations will be accepted until March 15. For more information, see www.uiowa.edu/hr/iowa/index.html.
Free fitness assessments available Feb. 24 Health Iowa/Student Health Service at the University of Iowa will offer free fitness assessments from 5 to 7 p.m., Tuesday, Feb. 24, on the main deck at the UI Field House. The fitness assessments give participants an opportunity to evaluate current fitness levels and educate themselves about appropriate physical activity goals. The assessments include blood pressure screening, resting heart rate, an aerobic step test, and various muscular fitness tests. Fitness specialists will be available to answer questions and provide information on leading a physically active lifestyle. The assessments are free and open to the public. No appointment is necessary.
Staff Council voting open: vote today UI Staff Council is accepting ballots for Staff Council elections until Feb. 26 at midnight.
Research professionals encouraged to explore development program The Research Staff Professional Development Committee is pleased to announce an innovative new Professional Development program targeted to UI Research Professionals. The new Research Staff Professional Development Program–Biomedical Series is scheduled to begin in March. Curriculum and other information for this program are listed at www.uiowa.edu/learn/research/index.html. Registration will begin at the end of February; class sizes are limited.
See what Learning and Development courses are right for you UI Learning and Development, a unit of Organizational Effectiveness, provides professional development services to faculty and staff. There are many learning opportunities that will support your professional development and growth. Look for classroom instruction on leadership issues for managers, frontline supervisors, human resource professionals, and office professionals. Check out the following links:
DISCOVERIESNew surgical implant tested at UI prevents total blindness A rare eye condition known as sympathetic ophthalmia occurs when vision is lost in one eye through injury or multiple surgeries, and the body's overactive immune system attacks the remaining healthy eye. Left untreated, a person can become completely blind. However, University of Iowa ophthalmologists and colleagues have tested and are now using a surgical implant called Retisert to prevent complete vision loss and eliminate dependence on systemic, or whole-body, immunosuppression. Before use of the surgical technique, doctors had to "shut down" a person's entire immune system to stop the attack on the remaining good eye. The new Retisert treatment involves the surgical implantation into the endangered eye of a small plastic tab that contains a slow-release steroid called fluocinoloe acetonide. The insert provides immunosuppression only to the endangered eye, not other body parts. It lasts for about two and a half years and then can be replaced. Along with UI retinal surgeons James Folk, M.D., professor of ophthalmology, and Karen Gehrs, M.D., clinical associate professor of ophthalmology, Mahajan published a retrospective paper online in January in the journal Ophthalmology that documents the successful use of Retisert to treat eight patients with sympathetic ophthalmia. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/february/021809implant.html.
Study finds recession associated with increases in minority victims of crime The victimization of both female and male blacks and Latinos increases during or after periods of economic recession, according to a study by researchers Karen Heimer of the University of Iowa and Janet Lauritsen of the University of Missouri-St. Louis. The study was presented Sunday, Feb. 15, at the 2009 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in Chicago. The study is the first of its kind to estimate trends in serious, non-lethal, violent victimization for non-Latino white, non-Latino black, and Latino males and females using data from the 1973-2005 National Crime Victimization Surveys, according to Lauritsen and Heimer. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/february/021609crime_victims.html.
UI researcher helps catch "calcium flickers" in action Calcium doesn't only help build strong bones. It's essential to many biological functions, including muscle contraction, hormone secretion, learning, and memory. Now, a University of Iowa researcher has contributed to a recent study that helps show how calcium drives cells to move in the right direction. Because this directional cell movement is fundamental to such processes as tissue formation, wound healing and tumor metastasis, the finding could help lead to new treatments for human diseases. The investigation was led by researchers at Peking University and appears in the Feb. 12 print issue of the journal Nature. The study resolves a long-standing paradox about intracellular calcium in migrating cells, said study author Long-Sheng Song, assistant professor of internal medicine at the UI Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, who is a scientist with expertise in calcium imaging. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/february/021209calciumflickers.html.
UI professor finds a way to make money investing in insurance stocks Investors have pummeled insurance and financial stocks lately, but a University of Iowa finance professor is actually making money trading them. Ty Leverty, assistant professor of finance in the Tippie College of Business, has been experimenting since last fall with a strategy of trading only the stocks of well-managed property and liability insurance companies. Although his test portfolio is extremely volatile, its value shows an increase of about 10 percent, as opposed to a broader market loss of about 30 percent during the same time. Leverty noticed last fall that when bad financial news is released, the stocks of property and liability insurers take their hits along with life insurance companies and other businesses in the financial services sector. However, he noticed that solid, well-managed property and liability companies usually bounced back the next day. Leverty suspects that investors unload all insurance stocks on bad news days, assuming that all of them are widely exposed to the failed financial products that led to the credit crisis and brought down so many financial services companies. However, he said property and liability stocks hold mostly short-term assets to match their mostly short-term, low risk policies, minimizing their exposure to the crisis. Read the full University News Services release at http://news-releases.uiowa.edu/2009/february/021209insurancestocks.html.
TRANSITIONSRinehart named assistant dean for veterans' affairs at College of Pharmacy Kathy J. Rinehart, chief of pharmacy service at the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC), has been named assistant dean for veterans' affairs at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy. The appointment to the newly created position was effective Feb. 1. Rinehart has held a variety of academic appointments in the college and serves as an adjunct assistant professor. She is a past Preceptor of the Year award recipient. Rinehart has served as chief of pharmacy at the Iowa City VAMC since July 2006 and has extensive experience as a clinical pharmacy specialist in ambulatory care. She also directed the Iowa City VA's Primary Care Pharmacy Residency Program. Rinehart earned both bachelor of science and doctoral degrees in pharmacy from The University of Iowa and completed a fellowship in clinical pharmacology conducted jointly by the UI College of Pharmacy and UI Carver College of Medicine.
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