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U.S. News & World Report: Maryland's lofty standing among U.S. graduate schools -- paced by the College of Computer, Mathematical and Physical Sciences (CMPS) and the College of Education -- continued with the release of the annual rankings by U.S. News & World Report. The number of UM programs in U.S. News's top 25 -- both undergraduate and graduate programs -- stands at 78; 29 programs have earned top 10 rankings. CMPS's Physics (No. 14), Computer Science (No. 14), and Mathematics (No. 20) programs are ranked among the nation's best. Physics has four academic specialties ranked among the nation's 10 best: Atomic/Molecular/Optical Physics (No. 7), Plasma Physics (No. 7), Quantum Physics (No. 9), Condensed Matter Physics (No. 10), and Cosmology/Relativity/Gravity No. 11. Within Computer Science, four academic specialties earned Top 20 honors: Artificial Intelligence (No. 14), Programming Language (No. 13), and Systems (No. 18). Mathematics' Applied Math ranked No. 12. Earth Science, an interdisciplinary program, at UM, had CMPS's Geochemistry rank No. 7; overall Earth Science is No. 32. The Counseling/Personnel Services program maintained its No. 1 ranking and the College of Education overall was ranked No. 25. Other Education Top 20 programs: Educational Psychology (No. 6), Higher Ed Administration (No. 10), Special Education (No. 11), Education Policy (No. 13), Elementary Teacher Education (No. 14), Administration & Supervision (No. 16), Curriculum and Instruction (No. 19), and Secondary Teacher Education (No. 22). The A. James Clark School of Engineering ranks No. 22 overall; its Aerospace/Aeronautical/Astronautical department ranks No. 9, Electrical/Electronic/Communications No. 14, and Mechanical Engineering No. 21. The recently instituted Biomedical/Bioengineering program rose from No. 43 to No. 35. Diverse Issues in Higher Education: "University of Maryland officials last week dedicated Knight Hall, a $30 million state-of-the-art home for the Philip Merrill College of Journalism. Ten years in the making, the striking grand glass enclosure embodies the innovation of a changing media landscape, officials declared of the facility, the construction of which was funded from public and private sources. Equipped with the latest digital and green technology, including a camera in every lecture hall, professors are expected to lead their students into the unchartered territory of multi-platform and entrepreneurial journalism. 'This building is of course bricks and mortar, but it symbolizes a powerful partnership between the public and private spaces and interests of our civil society,' said Dean Kevin Klose during a dedication ceremony Wednesday in College Park, Md. 'Journalism is by its nature a pursuit very similar to the pursuits of a great public university in that the core values are a constant search for provable, carefully observed, and carefully witnesse ... facts, events, ideas and beliefs.' The $30 million project was funded in part by private donors like the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation amounting to $14 million and supported by $16 million in state dollars. The new building is double the space of the journalism college's former home built in 1957, and students said their 'less ideal real estate' barely accommodated their growing needs much less their emergent ideas. 'This building represents the university's commitment to journalism,' said senior journalism major Steven Overly during the ceremony, adding that the turbulence of the industry could have been a deterrent to investment." Gazette Newspapers: "It wasn't 85 degrees and sunny like in past years, but that didn't stop thousands of people from flocking to the University of Maryland, College Park, on Saturday for the school's 12th annual Maryland Day celebration. About 55,000 people attended this year's event -- a campus-wide open house that offers food, games and everything from robotics demonstrations and dance workshops to rock climbing -- down from a record 77,500 last year, said UM spokesman Dave Ottalini. News forecasts throughout the week predicted rain Saturday, although actual precipitation proved to be little more than a steady drizzle. Ottalini said the event typically attracts crowds of more than 70,000. ... The first Maryland Day drew about 20,000 visitors in 1999, and it has since become the university's highest-attended annual event. All activities -- other than food and drink -- are free, and the day is run by student and staff volunteers eager to showcase the university to alumni, area residents and visitors of all ages. 'There are so many fun things for kids,' said University Park resident Brita Strandberg, after getting balloon hats for her 5-year-old twins Annika and Finn Gulling. 'The students do a terrific job of being really outgoing and kid-friendly.' This year's Maryland Day was a send-off of sorts for school President C. Dan Mote Jr., who will retire in August after 12 years at the university. Mote came up with the idea for Maryland Day shortly after arriving in 1998, and said the event has built enthusiasm not just on campus, but also among perspective students. 'I'm stunned by how many students I meet who tell me their first day on campus was Maryland Day,' Mote said. 'The big idea was to connect the university to the surrounding community.' " Maryland, with a Green Rating of 95, is included in the just published 'Guide to 286 Green Colleges' by the Princeton Review. The inclusion of UM is based on the 'Green Rating' scores schools received in the summer of 2009 when The Princeton Review published Green Rating scores in online college profiles and/or annual college guidebooks. Published in partnership with the U.S. Green Building Council (USGBC), the 'Guide to 286 Green Colleges' focuses solely on colleges and universities that demonstrate an above average commitment to sustainability activities and initiatives. The 'Green Rating' is a numerical score from 60 to 99 that's based on several data points. Of 697 schools that The Princeton Review gave 'Green Ratings' to in 2009, the 286 schools in the Guide received scores in the 80th or higher percentile. Gansler: Developers Call for New Regional Entity to Guide Area's Growth Washington Post: "Real estate and academic leaders called Thursday for a new regional entity with the power to tax and guide decisions on how the Washington area should grow in the next 20 years. The leaders spoke at an event to introduce the new 2030 Group, which consists of prominent developers. The group says it does not want to replace other government and industry groups devoted to regional cooperation, but that without a wider sphere of influence for business leaders who can fight the fragmentation of the District, Virginia and Maryland, Washington's long-term economic prosperity will be threatened. They said the new organization should consist of local civic government and business leaders. 'Benign neglect is not a solution,' said Jacques S. Gansler, who leads the Center for Public Policy and Private Enterprise at the University of Maryland. 'We have to create a vision of regional engagement. We need to stop talking about why we need regional connections . . . and get going.' ... The 2030 Group provided few answers Thursday, saying that its work of reaching out to elected officials and civic leaders was just starting. A public forum is planned for September at the University of Maryland. Gansler said the group does not envision 'replacing the governing structure' of Montgomery or Fairfax county or any other jurisdiction. But he acknowledged that local governments 'will have to give up a little of their authority and a little of their resources' for a regional entity to succeed. To raise money to pay for new roads, public transit and other public works projects, higher sales taxes, real estate taxes or other business taxes could be necessary, he said." Washington Post: "Salvatore Sciandra-Myers, a graduate student in the Persian department at the University of Maryland, builds his vocabulary by reading Iranian news clips, watching Iranian films and debating Iranian politics with his classmates. But when he studies abroad next year, the closest he will get to the Islamic republic is Tajikistan, a Central Asian country many miles away whose citizens use a different dialect and alphabet. 'Given the current political situation, we have to do the best we can,' said the 24-year-old Buffalo native, who has been studying Persian, otherwise known as Farsi, intensively for three years. After decades of political strife, and with debates over Iran's nuclear ambitions and human rights violations, fluency in Farsi is deemed a critical skill for a growing number of government jobs in intelligence and defense. ... UM's Persian program is strengthened by the large community of Iranian Americans in the Washington area. Students meet with native speakers several times a week to practice their conversation skills. And a popular Iranian Student Association on campus hosts regular meetings and events. A recent celebration of Nowruz, the Persian new year, drew hundreds of students and community members to campus. The program was expanded in 2008 to include undergraduate students, many of whom are weaving Farsi instruction into their studies of political science or journalism." UM Study: Pumping Up Alumni Giving at Public Colleges: Studies Find Surprising Trade-Offs Chronicle of Higher Education: "Contrary to common assumptions, public universities that increase their selectivity do not necessarily find themselves producing graduates who can donate more to their alma mater, according to a new study of such institutions. But winning on the football field and turning away low-income students does appear to have a financial payoff in terms of alumni giving, a second study of flagship state universities suggests. Both studies, scheduled to be presented in the coming days at the annual conference of the American Educational Research Association, differ from much other research on alumni giving in that they focus on the public sector and examine large numbers of institutions -- a sharp contrast from previous studies that have looked at private colleges or single institutions. The study focused on changes in university selectivity, scheduled to be presented on Monday, was conducted by Sean A. Simone, who did the research as a doctoral student at the University of Maryland, College Park and now works as a postdoctoral policy fellow at the National Center for Education Statistics, and Marvin A. Titus, an assistant professor of higher education at Maryland. The two researchers examined data from 147 public research universities over the course of 11 fiscal years, from 1996-97 through 2006-7. They based their assessments of the institutions' selectivity on the SAT scores of the entering freshman classes of the colleges studied (converting ACT scores to their SAT equivalent where necessary). The Maryland researchers' study found that, when other factors were taken into account, the SAT scores of incoming classes did not serve to predict the average amount each student donated to their institution after graduating. Becoming more selective did not, in itself, cause the institutions to reap more alumni support." Hutcheson: Scientists Work To Turn Trash Into Fuel WUSA-TV (Washington): "Who would have thought a tiny bug in a swamp might help solve two of Earth Day's most vexing problems? 'It's called Saccarophagus degradens, it means sugar eater or degrader,' says Steve Hutcheson of the University of Maryland. In a lab at the university, scientists from a spin-off company called Zymetis are trying to figure out if the bacterium can help reduce the waste going into landfills and reduce our dependence on petroleum. 'Plants have evolved over millions of years not to be eaten,' says Zymetis CEO Scott Laughlin. 'They've evolved in a way that makes them very hard to be digested.' What's remarkable about the bug growing in fermenters is it's ability to digest just about anything -- from cornstalks to sawdust and toothpicks -- and leave behind sugars that can be fermented into ethanol and many other fuels. Hutcheson say potential fuel sources include, 'grasses, hardwoods, softwoods. It could be marine materials: algae, crab shell.' Or poplar trees... In a lab across campus, Ganesh Sriram and his co-investigator are growing hundreds of poplar trees. If you can figure out how to break trees down into sugars, they might provide a much better fuel source than corn or sugarcane based ethanol, in part because they are not used for food. Sriram is manipulating the poplar's dna in hopes of making them grow faster. 'It's going to give the bacteria an extremely good source of biomass in order to degrade.' "
Renewable Engrgy Focus: "A new center of excellence for the development of fuel processing technology is being established, at the University of Maryland (UM) in College Park, to advance the operation of fuel cell products with non-hydrogen fuels. The new FuelWorks center will leverage ongoing collaboration among scientific and technical staff from its founding partners: UM, Canadian-based Ballard Power Systems, and the US Department of Defense's Army Research Laboratory (ARL). FuelWorks has a mandate to develop technologies that enable fuel cells to operate with fuels such as JP-8, diesel, natural gas, and LPG. It will be open to industry, academia and government agencies, and provide a forum for collaboration to advance fuel reforming technology for military and commercial applications. ... Ballard will also continue its active participation in UM's Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE), an industry-sponsored consortium of public and private organizations collaborating on clean energy solutions for portable and distributed power. 'FuelWorks will build on existing expertise at CEEE and, through collaboration between Ballard and other partners, it will address critical research needs for fuel cells operating in various applications, using existing and emerging fuels,' comments Reinhard Radermacher, Director of CEEE and Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Maryland." Business Journals: "Mina Mar Group Inc www.minamargroup.com announced that it has been welcomed into the State of Maryland International Incubator program in a ceremony hosted by Maryland's Secretary of State, John P. McDonough. 'We are delighted that Maryland has recognized what we do and to be offering our international companies the opportunity to gain further resources in the United States through Maryland's incubator program,' said Mr Robert Xu of Mina Mar Group China Incubator Portfolio Division at the signing ceremony. Mina Mar Group has long served as a financial consultant and incubator of many international companies from China, Europe and South America, bringing them into the U.S. markets. 'We are proud to be associated with the leading international incubator program in the U.S.,' said Mr. Xu." Dr. Kai Duh, head of the Maryland incubator program, and Herbert Rabin, director of UM's were at the signing ceremony. "The Maryland International Incubator (MI2) is the result of a collaboration between the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development (DBED). The mission of the International Incubator is to connect Maryland and International companies for successful joint ventures through a targeted array of business services, state-of-the-art facilities, and world-class resources."
Wall Street Journal, dateline College Park: "Chinese companies are increasingly looking to invest in the U.S., and state and local governments are scrambling to win a share of the money. But Chinese companies' go-slow approach and a longstanding preference for investing in Asia may leave governments disappointed. ... 'I think within the next two or three years, we will see a big wave' of Chinese investment into the U.S., says Clarence Kwon of Deloitte Services LP's Chinese services group. The trend could bring much-needed jobs and investments to states hit by the recession, and they are pulling out all the stops to attract Chinese investment. That includes opening offices in China, offering preferential tax policies and hosting Chinese delegations. In Maryland, officials are betting on an international incubator at the University of Maryland here in College Park. Seven of 11 companies approved so far to open offices are from China, and director Kai Duh says more Chinese investors are in talks to come. 'The goal is the same for every company,' he says. 'They would like to successfully enter the U.S. market. We'd like them to hire Maryland citizens and pay taxes.' ... Shanghai entrepreneur Steven Hu has set up in a corner office. His U.S.-China Training Service Center is working with the University of Maryland to enroll Chinese executives and students in business-oriented programs at the university. 'A lot of executives are very successful in the China market, but they are interested in learning about the international market,' says Mr. Hu. He estimates a $500,000 investment here will generate at least 10 local jobs, adding that program participants could later decide to invest in Maryland. Take Zhang Yajie, who attended an early course. Mr. Zhang, who has stakes in four manufacturing businesses in eastern China, plans to enroll a handful of employees in the program, then set up a company at the incubator."
St. Norbert Times: "Julia Chang Bloch, president of the U.S.-China Education Trust and the ambassador-in-residence at the University of Maryland, College Park Institute for Global Chinese Affairs, spoke recently on campus about the current state of U.S.-China security relations and provided the audience with a unique insight into the current state of the affairs in that East Asian country. 'The rise of China is the most remarkable transformation the world has ever seen,' said Bloch. She believes China is both a partner and contender to the United States in the global system -- 'a frenemy' -- because China experienced high economic growth in the past decade and established itself as a dominant global power. Ambassador Bloch spoke to St. Norbert students and community members as a part of the ongoing Great Decisions Speaker Series lectures sponsored by the Center for International Education and Peace and Justice Center. President Thomas Kunkel, a frequent visitor to China during his tenure as the dean of Phillip Merrill College of Journalism, introduced his friend and emphasized the importance of the upcoming 'Chinese century.' He also applauded individuals like Bloch for her efforts in bringing the two cultures together. Born and raised in Shanghai, while poverty was widespread and the basic infrastructure nonexistent, Bloch moved to San Francisco at the age of nine. Upon her return to China she was dazzled with the speed of economic, cultural and urban development which occurred during the years of her absence."
Washington Post: "Bob Akaoma -- a sixth-grader at Paint Branch Elementary School in College Park -- wasn't sure how he'd communicate with his new classmates when he was placed into a classroom with more than 30 Chinese students at Nankai University Elementary School in Tianjin. 'I started feeling comfortable because I'm studying their language and they're studying our language,' said Bob, 11, of Greenbelt. 'It was awesome . . . going to China is an opportunity that may never come in a lifetime.' Bob was among 19 Paint Branch sixth-graders and 15 staff members who visited China from March 26 to April 8. The school has a three-year partnership with Nankai, the University of Maryland, College Park, and the Confucius Institute, a Beijing-based nonprofit organization that promotes Chinese education at universities throughout the world." Civic Source: "In a presentation at the University of Maryland this week, Governor Martin O'Malley said that government transparency and openness, through the relentless collection of data, was the future of public policy. He also spoke of the challenges in completing a data-reliant picture when coordinating with other states or county jurisdictions. Speaking at the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy, Gov. O'Malley said technology could help policymakers better understand and measure the outcomes of policies they enact, and do so in much shorter timeframes. He stressed the importance of information that is 'shared by all' in order to help citizens and leaders understand what is at stake. Gov. O'Malley started by speaking about his efforts to leverage data while mayor of Baltimore. 'We're kleptocrats,' O'Malley said, 'We like to steal good ideas where ever we can find them.' Gov. O'Malley was speaking about his award-winning CitiStat, which was a tool modeled off New York City's ComStat that aggregates crime data onto a map to determine the best way to deploy law enforcement resources. CitiStat is currently a primary resource for law enforcement, but it has expanded beyond the ComStat model to measure performance in many city agencies, from waste management to housing to transportation. CitiStat has been further adopted by other governments both in the US and abroad.' "
Washington Post: "Former Maryland governor Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. (R) on Wednesday questioned the wisdom of the state's four-year freeze on public university tuition -- a key initiative of his Democratic successor -- saying it had hindered the system's growth in recent years. 'The freeze hurt higher education,' Ehrlich said during an hourlong appearance on 'Midday' on Baltimore's WYPR radio. Ehrlich, who is running again this year, told host Dan Rodricks that Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) 'was guilty of demagoguing on this issue.' Ehrlich said that at the time he left office in 2007, tuition rates at University System of Maryland campuses were 'the best deals in the world.' During Ehrlich's tenure, in-state tuition at some schools, including the flagship campus at College Park, rose more than 40 percent. The increases, approved by university regents, came largely in response to cuts in state funding early in Ehrlich's term, as he sought to close budget shortfalls."
Maryland Daily Record: "The public university system in Maryland will grow by 19 percent over the next decade to more than 176,000 students, according to enrollment projections adopted by the Board of Regents. Members of the University System of Maryland Board of Regents approved the projections Friday, just moments after sanctioning a 3 percent hike on in-state tuition during a meeting at the University of Maryland University College. The board reviewed issues aimed at shaping enrollment, funding and tuition schedules for its 13 institutions and two regional learning centers. ... Individually, the projections show most institutions will see increases: Frostburg State University and Salisbury University will experience growth between 3 and 5 percent and Towson University will expand by about 20 percent, largely at the graduate level. It also predicted figures for the system's flagship institution, the University of Maryland, College Park, would fall by about 6 percent."
Washington Post: "Regents of the University System of Maryland on Friday morning approved a tuition hike for the first time in four years, signaling the end of the state's semi-historic freeze. Tuition will rise 3 percent in the state university system, the first increase since 2005. In-state tuition and fees at the University of Maryland at College Park rise from $8,053 to $8,416 -- actually a 4.5 percent increase, when fees are factored in. They are apparently rising at a faster clip. Out-of-state tuition and fees at UM, not bound by the freeze, go from $23,990 to $24,831, an increase of 3.5 percent. Bowie State in-state tuition and fees go from $6,040 to $6,153, a bump of 1.9 percent; fees there are rising more slowly. Towson tuition and fees go from $7,418 to $7,656, a 3.2 percent bump. At the University of Maryland Baltimore County, resident tuition and fees go from $8,872 to $9,171, a 3.4 percent increase."
Maryland Daily Record: University of Maryland Robert H. Smith School of Business Full-time MBA tuition and fees per 17-credit semester: Part-time MBA per semester: $869 per credit Johns Hopkins University Carey School of Business Global MBA: $46,000 per year Part-time MBA: $1,100 per credit University of Baltimore and Towson University In-state: Tuition per class (3 credits): $1,704 Out-of-state: Tuition per class (3 credits): $2,472 Loyola University Maryland Sellinger School of Business and Management Executive MBA: $62,500 per year MBA Fellows: $60,500 Salisbury University Purdue School of Business In-state MBA: $270 per credit hour Out-of-state MBA: $566 per credit hour
PBS Nightly Business Report transcript: OLSON: "Two-thirds of undergraduates borrow money for college and paying tuition this year may be especially tough. A record amount of students in the U.S. already take out government loans, and in the 2008- 2009 school year, they took out 25 percent more than they had the year before. Sarah Bauder is the financial aid director at the University of Maryland, where the number of students filing for financial aid has increased sharply." SARAH BAUDER, FINANCIAL AID DIR., UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND: "The low income families have always filed. It's these high income families that either have lost a job or are thinking they may lose a job, so they're filing and they're asking for loans." OLSON: "Bauder doesn't encourage student debt, but she says loans aren't a bad idea if they're managed properly." BAUDER: "Good debt is education, a mortgage, that is where the investment is actually growing for you. That in the years to come, because you invested in yourself, it's going to pay off at a higher return." OLSON: "Still, it's important to note courts are reluctant to discharge loans, even in bankruptcy. For students looking to borrow money, financial aid counselors recommend starting with Federal Stafford loans, because they have low, fixed interest rates and repayment doesn't begin until six months after graduation. For parents, Federal plus loans are available with a fixed interest rate of about 8 percent. Repayment starts 60 days after the final check is disbursed. If students still need help filling the gaps, they can apply for private loans, which may have higher, variable interest rates. They're also harder to get these days. Many lenders shut their doors or tightened borrowing requirements during the recession. Other options include Federal Perkins loans for low-income families and peer-to-peer loans, where the lender decides the interest rate and repayment terms. Whichever option students choose, Bauder says it's important for them to be informed." BAUDER: "The information and the knowledge base does change behavior. Students start to think about what they're doing and do I really need this loan or do I need that much and what can I cut back on?" Inside Higher Ed: "Apple's new iPad computing tablet may have hit a few snags in its introduction to the college market. But experts say the network compatibility problems that have arisen on some campuses probably will not bear on the device's ability to penetrate higher education. And a new survey indicates that even before the media frenzy that accompanied its release earlier this month, Apple had made inroads with students interested in buying an e-reader. Among students who do not own a wireless electronic reading device, but are interested in buying one, the iPad is already more popular than the Amazon Kindle, according to Data released this week by Student Monitor, a firm that researches lifestyle and consumption trends among college students. The new data come as some colleges are seeding their campuses with iPads. North Carolina State University is loaning iPads to students through its library, the University of Maryland at College Park is planning to give iPads to students in its Digital Cultures and Creativity program, George Fox University has announced it will offer iPads to first-year students in the fall as an alternative to its laptop giveaway, and Seton Hill University says it will give all its students free iPads. Meanwhile, others are discouraging students from using the devices on campus." Washington Post: "This Twitter rhythm took the spotlight, literally, during a recent concert by the cellist Peter Gregson at the University of Maryland ... . Peter, who's done a lot with Twitter (including playing and broadcasting live from Twitter's headquarters), has been experimenting with allowing tweets during his performances that he projects on a screen over his head while he plays. At the concert I saw, the first tweets were experimental, hesitant; the next ones praised Peter's playing; and gradually they took on more attitude, asked questions, got restive, began criticizing the music, and then grew self-referential as people debated whether or not they were more of a distraction than an enhancement. There was a performance-art aspect to the whole thing, not only because the performer sometimes looked back at the screen and interacted with the comments he saw, but also because the old comments never went away, so what showed was the record of a conversation, with comments repeating insistently, in shifting cycles, defying the chronology of the conversation and leaving it to the reader to keep track of the larger story. Did it distract from the music? Absolutely. Did it keep the audience involved? To a degree. But after seeing how Twitter has moved from weird new phenomenon to part of the landscape in a short time, I wonder if in a year or so this development, too, will seem less odd and distracting." Washington Examiner: "Leon Major, artistic director of the Maryland Opera Studio, was 5 years old when his father turned on the radio to hear that (Joe Lewis-Max Schmeling fight. Leon Major, artistic director of the Maryland Opera Studio, was 5 years old when his father turned on the radio to hear that fight. It was over in less time than it took Major's dad, a tailor in the shtetl, to get a glass of tea from the kitchen. Now 77, Major isn't quite sure whether he remembers the match firsthand, or if he heard about it later. Memory is funny that way, especially when we're very young. But Major vividly recalls Louis' career-ending loss to Rocky Marciano in 1951. 'That incident stayed with me, because it was so devastating to so many people,' Major said. Even Marciano had looked up to Louis -- he visited the fallen champ backstage after the fight to apologize for beating him. Four decades would pass before Major began thinking seriously about making Louis' life the subject of an opera, but once the notion seized him, it wouldn't let go, even after numerous composers and a librettists turned the commission down. Some even suggested an opera about Jackie Robinson instead. Major's underdog dream has at last materialized: Last weekend, 'Shadowboxer," an original opera by composer Frank Proto and librettist John Chenault, directed by Major, had its premiere at the University of Maryland's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center." Gazette Newspapers: Award-winning Japanese director refines her play at Clarice Smith ... "One of the oldest stories in human history is that of 'Gilgamesh,' discovered on clay tablets -- some of which date back more than 3,000 years -- in Mesopotamia. Even by then, it was an old tale: Modern scholars believe the story was inspired by a king who lived more than 4,900 years ago (around 2900 B.C.). Izumi Ashizawa, assistant professor of acting and movement at the Department of Theatre at the University of Maryland, College Park, brings new insight to this ancient tale in a production scheduled to be showcased at the school's Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Ashizawa, a native of Japan, started working in theater as a teenager and went on to earn a master's of fine arts degree from the Yale School of Drama. Ashizawa won the Kennedy Center's American College Theatre Festival, Faculty Meritorious Achievement Awards, for excellence in directing and excellence in technology in scenic design for the Florida production of the show." College Park Approves $5M in East Campus Funding Gazette Newspapers: "College Park officials appear ready to let the University of Maryland, College Park, move forward with its East Campus development, despite concerns from some council members that the project lacks city input and could increase traffic in local neighborhoods. The City Council voted 5-2 Tuesday night to release $5 million in state funding to the university for its development, a $900 million project that would bring 38 acres of housing and retail to Route 1 across from campus. Council members Mark Cook (Dist. 3) and Stephanie Stullich (Dist. 3) cast the dissenting votes. Councilman Jack Perry (Dist. 2) was not present at the meeting. 'I think there is [possibly] really strong value [in East Campus] for the city and the university," Mayor Andrew Fellows said. 'I'm looking forward to the next year or two and working with the university.' State lawmakers required UM to obtain the city's approval prior to getting the funding. It will be used to begin renovations to the former Washington Post printing plant, which the university bought in February to house maintenance facilities currently located on East Campus. 'In order for this to work, we have to have collaboration and cooperation all around,' said Ann Wylie, UM's vice president of administrative affairs. 'This is a very good sign. I'm thrilled.' " eScienceNews: "The American Cancer Society has awarded $1.8 million to Cheryl Holt, an associate professor in the University of Maryland's School of Public Health, to develop and evaluate "spiritually themed health interventions" specific to prostate cancer for men attending 20 predominately African American churches in Prince George's County, Md." (Cheryl Holt, associate professor of public and community health at Maryland, leads a four-year study that will provide information on prostate cancer screening to African American men in Prince George's County, Md.) Washington Post: "After a two-year hiatus, a Prince George's County agricultural group reconvened this month and vowed not to let controversial land-use issues consume its efforts as they once did. The group's renewed focus will instead be on marketing local farms and locally grown products -- from eggplants and fresh-cut flowers to vineyards and livestock -- and supporting urban gardening initiatives. 'Farmers -- we're terrible at coming to a consensus and coming together and marketing,' said Yates Clagett, co-chairman of the Agricultural Preservation Work Group and president of the Prince George's County Farm Bureau. He owns a 260-acre farm in Baden. The County Council voted in February to reinstate the group, which is charged with making agricultural policy recommendations to the council and other agencies. It met April 14 at the County Administration Building in Upper Marlboro. ... Members now suggest the group embrace issues that are more likely to gain public and political support, such as promoting local farms and locally-grown produce. Cheverly resident Lisa Lincoln, a consultant and community activist, suggested a County Agriculture Day, an idea other members said they liked. 'We need to be promoting what we've got right here at every single turn,' said Janna Howley, the group's co-chairwoman and an agriculture marketing specialist with the University of Maryland Extension office in Clinton." People Washington Examiner, Q & A with President Mote: "C.D. 'Dan' Mote Jr., is an inventor, a professor of engineering and, until Aug. 31, the president of the University of Maryland, College Park. During his nearly 12-year tenure, the school has risen in rankings to the 18th-best public research university in the nation, up from 30th when Mote arrived on campus. A building boom started one year into his presidency has resulted in the Comcast Center sports complex and the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. Mote, 73, spoke with the Washington Examiner about his life in higher education, and the beliefs that have guided his long journey." ... "At your core, what is one of your defining beliefs?" "I believe in integrity. Without integrity, you've got nothing -- zero. You must be willing to stand for your values even at significant consequence to yourself. I believe in big ideas, grand visions, and I believe in the unwavering commitments that make grand plans happen." Science Magazine Q & A: "As a physicist at the University of Maryland, College Park, S. James Gates Jr. knows that innovation helps advance the scientific frontier. But he says that those who want to improve precollege math and science education are often much less willing to try new things. An upcoming report on the subject from the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) will attempt to correct that problem, he says. Its recommendations could include a grants program to train teachers to meet higher standards, a new federal agency to fund "market-based" solutions for raising student achievement, and scaling up programs that let students do science themselves. Gates is co-chair, with Eric Lander, of a PCAST working group on science, math, engineering, and technology (STEM) education that will be finishing its task shortly. In a conversation last week with ScienceInsider, Gates discussed some of the issues that the panel has been wrestling with and his own thoughts on what needs to be done." Q: "Why another report on STEM education? And what are the key issues?" J.G.: "There have been at least many tens of reports, and we don't want to produce just another report. I think the nation is looking at a third STEM crisis. The first one was the Second World War. This nation won that war because it out-innovated every other country that was a contender. And emblematic of that innovation was the invention of nuclear weapons of mass destruction. As someone who looks at policy, there's another story that's often overlooked. And that was the creation of the National Science Foundation. As recognized by Vannevar Bush, out of the war a unique resource [basic research] had been created that would serve the country for many years, and it needed to be preserved. The second crisis occurs with the launch of Sputnik. Suddenly, the nation realized that there was another country that was capable of technical innovation that was threatening. The public emblem of that was the space race and landing men on the moon. And the policy story had two aspects. One was the National Defense Education Act, in which the government for the first time supported substantial numbers of young people who would go into physical sciences to provide the manpower to support the increased technical needs of the nation. The second policy tool was the creation of DARPA [the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency]. It has been an amazing organization at leveraging serendipity for the nation's defense needs. I'm an amateur historian. But I'm also a scientist, and in physics, we don't survive without the ability to innovate." Science Magazine: "Clips of James Bond movies are unlikely to find their way into science lecture halls, unless the teacher is Edgar Moctezuma and he's teaching about medicinal plants. To convey the concept of drug dosage, Moctezuma shows his 200 undergraduate students the scene in Casino Royale in which Bond almost dies after being poisoned by a high dose of Digitalis purpurea, a plant extract used to treat heart disease. For people like Moctezuma, whose focus is on teaching biology courses to nonmajors, there is no well-trod career path, but most people with a focus on such teaching share a desire to promote scientific literacy. Conveying the importance of science, the excitement of science, and some real scientific knowledge to students with no vocational interest in science requires a blend of particular skills and wide-ranging interests, and often creativity in establishing a career. 'My main goal is for [the students] to have an appreciation and better understanding of plants and of biology in general,' says Moctezuma, who joined the Department of Cell Biology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Maryland, College Park, in 2003 as an instructor. ... The use of video (and other technologies) is common in such courses; indeed, the cinematic experience of Moctezuma's nonmajor students isn't limited to James Bond films. Moctezuma routinely shows his students science documentaries such as Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth and the time-lapsed photography movies produced by plant biologist Roger Hangarter, 'so they can watch a film and discuss or write how the film relates to the different concepts they would learn in class,' Moctezuma says. Moctezuma also takes his students to botanical gardens, where 'a lot of the exhibits are set up very similar to the ... lectures that I teach,' illustrating topics such as the crops of the world, or different biomes and ecosystems." Toledo Blade: "Work and resources are still needed to aid cities ravaged by an ailing U.S. auto industry, but the situation has improved from a year ago, the man charged with helping those communities said Tuesday in Toledo. 'If you think about it, just a year ago General Motors and Chrysler were teetering on the brink. Everybody's conversations were, "Can they get through bankruptcy?" ' said Ed Montgomery, the federal director of recovery for auto communities and workers. 'Are we out of the woods? Absolutely not. We have a lot more work to be done. But relative to a year ago, it's a much, much more optimistic picture.' Mr. Montgomery, an economist and a former dean at the University of Maryland who was deputy secretary of labor under President Clinton, was in Toledo to attend a daylong workshop for manufacturers and suppliers on how to modernize and innovate." Chronicle of Higher Education: "The National Academy of Sciences has announced the election of 72 new members and 18 foreign associates in recognition of their achievements in original research. A list of the new members and associates, with their affiliations, is available on the Web site of the National Academies." Roberta L. Rudnick; professor of geology, department of geology, University of Maryland, College Park Neil Gehrels; chief, Astroparticle Physics Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. (Adjunct professor at UM) (The induction next year of Rudnick and Gehrels will bring the number of University of Maryland, College Park faculty elected to NAS to 21 and to 38 the number of faculty who are National Academies (NAE, NAS, IOM) members. Those 38 include the three Maryland faculty elected to the National Academy of Engineering this February.) "The University of Maryland congratulates Roberta Rudnick and Neil Gehrels on their election to membership in the National Academy of Sciences," said University President C. D. Mote, Jr. "Their induction is a testament to their extraordinary contributions to science and brings great credit to themselves and the university. The election to the National Academies in recent years of many Maryland faculty members is a reflection of a strong culture of excellence across campus that is growing and deepening every year." Secretary Clinton Announces New Initiatives Under the Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas Department of State: "Senior ECPA Fellows (Energy and Climate Partnership of the Americas): Secretary Clinton named three U.S. scientists to serve as Senior ECPA Fellows to the Americas: 1) Dr. Daniel Kammen, Professor of Energy at the University of California, Berkeley; 2) Dr. Ruth Defries, Professor of Sustainable Development in Columbia University's Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology; and 3) Dr. Gerry Galloway, Professor of Engineering at the University of Maryland. They will travel to the hemisphere to provide advice, share experiences, and consult with regional counterparts on clean energy, sustainable landscapes, and adaptation. Considering the scientific expertise that exists within the Hemisphere, Secretary Clinton invited other governments to also name Senior ECPA Fellows from academia and the private sector." Defries also is a Distinguished University Professor of Geography at UM. Four University of Maryland students have been awarded scholarships by the Barry M. Goldwater Scholarship and Excellence in Education Foundation, which encourages students to pursue advanced study and careers in the sciences, engineering and mathematics. Among the 278 students nationwide chosen from 1,111 nominations are sophomores Katherine Manfred and Alexander Leishman, and juniors MengMeng Xu and Ethan Schaler. This is the second time that all four UM nominees have won Goldwater awards. 'Maryland's four winners are a very distinguished group, who already show distinguished achievement in research, including journal publications and international work. They join the ranks of 33 previous winners from UM, who have pursued doctorates at prestigious institutions such as CalTech, Cambridge, Duke, Harvard, MIT, and Penn', said Robert L. Infantino, associate dean, College of Chemical and Life Sciences and Maryland's Goldwater faculty advisor. Business Journals: "The University of Maryland's Robert H. Smith School of Business and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have named the winners of the first Global Challenge, a first-of-its-kind competition that challenged teams of MBA and other graduate students to develop a public-private venture to support development and the tourism industry in Asia. Placing first and receiving the grand prize of $5,000 was a Smith School team with a pitch for a sustainable micro-tourism home stay program in Thailand. The teams pitched their business solutions at USAID's headquarters in the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. on April 23, where they were judged by representatives from USAID, industry-leading private sector companies, and NGOs. A joint team from the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Business received second place and $2,500 with a pitch for a Cambodian wildlife sanctuary and ecolodge. Third place and $1,000 went to a Smith School team who pitched a public-private partnership for medical tourism in Vietnam." Students Inhabitat: "Whoever said today's college kids are apathetic never met this group of University of Maryland students. 300 students and a team of faculty members are teaming up to design a house that derives power from wind, rain, solar and waste. The group is one of 20 teams selected to participate in the Department of Energy's Solar Decathlon 2011, a design competition to create a house that's fully powered by the sun -- and as you may know if you're a regular reader of Inhabitat, one of our favorite events of the year! Designers hope the house, WaterShed, will act like a mini-ecosystem, relying on rain, wind, solar and waste to function. According to current design plans, the home is broken into two rectangular units with a butterfly-shaped roof that can capture rainwater and sunlight. In addition to a rooftop photovoltaic array, the design boasts technology to control temperature, ventilation, humidity and light, and the house will be built with sustainable materials. The design also includes an edible green wall and garden, giving new meaning to the phrase 'local food.' Other teams competing in the competition include students from the US, Belgium, China and New Zealand. Teams will show their designs on the National Mall in October of 2011, with winners being selected then. We've yet to see any other team's design plans, but if they're anything like the WaterShed house, competition is sure to be pretty steep." Washington Post: "For the average college student, work means writing a paper, leading a campus organization or even being a mentor. But for Rachel Volke, a senior at the University of Maryland (biology, French), work is all the above and so much more. Aside from her class schedule and impressive list of extracurricular activities, Volke is working as an intern at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), where she has been involved in a variety of projects, including helping research and write a report related to the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus in parts of the Southern Hemisphere. Assigned to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, Volke has participated in many aspects of policy development and program management aimed at addressing public health. She has attended senior level policy meetings, researched public health issues and benefited from the kind of experience that no college course could accurately convey. 'Increases in the speed and frequency of international travel and trade have made the circulation of people and diseases much faster and easier.' she said. 'With this globalization has also come a greater need for international collaboration on public health issues, the field that I am most interested in,' Volke said." Arizona Republic: "Richard Garcia, 26, a Tillman Military Scholar from the University of Maryland who joined the Marines in 2003 as a way to support his family, made the cross-country trip to participate. The camaraderie among participants and volunteers who put together the event is a reflection of what Tillman means to a growing number of people, Garcia said. 'It's just great to see military members and civilians out here volunteering,' he said. 'There's a real sense of community here. I just got here and everybody has been very welcoming.' A wide range of emotions were represented at the finish line in Sun Devil Stadium. There were smiles and hugs. There also were tears." Arizona Republic: "The military scholarships range from a few thousand dollars to more than $10,000 per person, and they can be used to cover tuition, fees, books, room and board, and child care. The foundation received more than 500 applications last year for assistance. However, only roughly one-tenth of those who applied were awarded scholarships. Applications for the 2010-11 school year are being accepted until April 30. For additional information, go to pattillmanfoundation.org. 'We made a conscious decision to pick fewer scholars and give them more, to insure success,' Marie Tillman said. 'We didn't want to say, "Here's a little bit of money and good luck." We wanted to have an impact with those individuals and the lives of their families.' Changing the foundation's focus to assist those in the military also is helping the organization broaden its reach nationally, Tierney said. She said the military scholars will meet in Washington, D.C., in early June for a two-day summit on issues facing military families. One of those receiving a military scholarship is William 'Spanky' Gibson, a 38-year-old whose left leg was amputated after being shot by a sniper while serving in Iraq in 2006. Gibson, a master sergeant who is studying at the University of Maryland, said his $3,500 scholarship fills a financial void and allows him to allocate more of his money to his four children. He also said being associated with the Tillman Foundation is a source of pride and pushes him to sustain good grades. 'All of us who are Pat Tillman scholars, the 50-plus of us, are part of a legacy,' Gibson said. 'What an amazing thing to be a part of.' " Washington Examiner: "How do two choral directors, each with their own performance preferences, put together one cohesive and beautiful program for audiences to enjoy? 'We each select our own repertoire,' Nicole Aldrich, doctoral candidate and conductor of the University of Maryland's University Chorale, said. 'This semester I knew I wanted to do the Mozart "Solemn Vespers", and Kelly [Butler], a master graduate student and co-conductor] knew she wanted to conduct something by Vaughan Williams. After she selected the "Five English Folk Songs", the theme for the concert seemed to present itself and it was easy to choose the rest of the repertoire to fit the theme.' Appropriately then, 'Evening Prayer ... Bedtime Stories', will be presented at 7:30 p.m. Sunday by the 50-voice University Chorale at the campus' Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center. The program combines music for Vespers, the traditional evening prayer service in the Christian church, with another common evening ritual, the sharing of bedtime stories." Washington Post: "From a student ... I want to study architecture and really liked the program at Maryland. It's a little different from others. I told my architecture teacher about it and she said that's the way it used to be and that's the way it should be. Your first two years are really about engineering. You take calculus and physics and sketch classes. You don't even touch like Autocad or Revit [architecture software] for the first two years. And then you get evaluated after you take the first two years of the credits you have to and they evaluate you to go into architecture. So then your next two years in the studio, building models and working on drafts. It was a nice campus, well kept. The kids seemed nice. Even though it has a good amount of kids, it's such a big campus that you don't feel like you are in the middle of a crowd. And it's in a great location. They will take you on a bus from the campus to the Metro, and from there you can be in D.C. in less than an hour for less than 5 bucks." Gazette Newspapers: "Coming from a single-parent home with two other siblings, studying abroad in college did not seem like a possibility for Janine Hernandez-Diaz, a junior at the University of Maryland, College Park. 'It was a financial risk for me,' the sociology major and 2005 graduate of Bowie High School said. But in January, Hernandez-Diaz departed to study abroad in Egypt, becoming involved in a vastly different culture and putting to use what she had learned in her sociology classes. Hernandez-Diaz was part of the third group of students to take part in the Prince George's County International Ambassador (PGCIA) program, which gives travel scholarships of up to $1,500 to county public school graduates studying at the University of Maryland. A graduation ceremony for program participants was held April 22 at the County Administration Building in Upper Marlboro to bring awareness to the program and available scholarships. The partnership between the county executive's office and the University of Maryland grew out of a need to expose minorities to study abroad opportunities, PGCIA director Bai Akridge said." Annapolis Capital: "Alex Reynolds, a senior at Severna Park High School, didn't think the process was that nerve-racking, though. For him, the decision simply came down to a matter of in-terp-retation. He decided on the University of Maryland, College Park two weeks ago, the same day he soaked in the atmosphere on campus. 'It felt right,' he said. Until then, the 18-year-old was trying to decide between Maryland, Ohio State and Clemson. Alex, who wants to major in communications, said the pull of the Terps was just too strong. 'I've been in Maryland all my life,' he explained. 'I'm a Maryland fan. This is where I should go to school.' Classmate Shawn Greenspan also decided on Maryland recently, reasoning that his full scholarship, the school's honors program and its bioengineering classes were just too good to pass up. 'It was such a good deal,' said Shawn, who was named a Banneker Key Scholar and chose Maryland over the University of Virginia and the University of North Carolina. 'It was hard to turn down.' " Alumni Washington Post: "I faced a mini-crisis at the beginning of my senior year at Fordham University in New York. Through careless procrastination, I had failed to complete the foreign-language requirement for graduation. I took my case to the college dean and begged for a dispensation. I had decent grades, and I said was using the extra credits to get a minor in English. The dean, a Jesuit priest named Father Robert Roth, waived the requirement. Fair? Not really. But I got my bachelor's degree in 1977, I became a reporter and was scrappy enough to work my way to The Washington Post. I have never forgotten the break Father Roth gave me. She was a third-year business/accounting student at the University of Maryland at College Park when she lost interest and flunked out. Her mother told her to march back to College Park and throw herself on the mercy of the school, and 'we won't tell your father,' a D.C. firefighter who saved for years to put his kids through college. Alexander found a sympathetic ear in the dean of the business college. The dean helped get Alexander reinstated in Maryland's Family and Community Development curriculum, and she graduated in 1981 with a degree in general studies. She still remembers 'Dean Mattingly' of the business college as someone who played a key role in helping her to get where she is today. And where is that? Alexander, 51, is president and majority owner of Loudoun County-based Horizon Consulting, a 102-employee government consulting company that processes mortgage insurance applications for the Federal Housing Administration. Horizon Consulting earned a profit of $1.8 million last year on $8.1 million in revenue. She earns a healthy, six-figure income, has a net worth in the millions, owns a couple of investment properties and is a member of an investment club." Science & Technology Agence France-Presse: "Exploiting a principle that Einstein derided as 'spooky action at a distance,' physicists on Wednesday reported they had devised a machine that generates genuinely random numbers and closes a loophole in cryptography. The experiment helps open the way to next-generation ultra-secret communication, according to their paper, appearing in the British journal Nature. Cryptographers use random numbers as a key in which to encode a message, thus thwarting code-busters looking for a pattern that can crack open its contents. For practical purposes, cryptographers use algorithms known as pseudo-random number generators to provide these coveted digits. But there are always twinges of uncertainty about using these tools. One fear is that the programme may start to repeat itself at some point, churning out the same sequence of numbers and thus providing a telltale to spotters. Another is that people who made the programme may have kept a copy of it, which of course would be a security weakness. The experiment reported on Wednesday solves both dilemmas by providing what its authors call a certifiably random string of numbers, all generated in privacy. ... Over a month, the researchers carried out more than 3,000 consecutive entanglements, generating a string of 42 privately generated binary digits. Such a speed would of course be useless for cryptographers who need random numbers quickly, but the study is only a 'proof of concept' venture to show that it could be done. 'The random bit generation rate is extremely slow, said Chris Monroe, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland. 'But we expect speedups by orders of magnitude in coming years as we more efficiently entangle the atoms, perhaps by using atom-like quantum system embedded in a solid-state chip.' "
NPR: "Randomness is hard to come by. At least things that are absolutely, positively, 100 percent random. Take the example of a roulette wheel: It may seem that the number the ball falls on is a random event, but Antonio Acin of the Institute of Photonic Sciences in Barcelona says it's not. 'If you are able to compute the initial position and the speed of the ball, and you have a perfect model for the roulette, then you can predict where the ball is going to finish -- with certainty,' Acin says. In fact, he says everything that appears random in our world may just appear random because of lack of knowledge. So to find true randomness, Acin and his colleagues turned to the world of atoms and electrons, and to the laws of quantum mechanics. 'To be more precise, we are taking advantage of the nonlocal correlations of entangled quantum particles,' he says. So that means that the laws of quantum mechanics say some things truly are random, like for example, the clicks a Geiger counter makes when it measures something radioactive. 'Those are random, due to quantum mechanics,' says Christopher Monroe, Acin's colleague at the University of Maryland. But Monroe says there's a problem with the random clicks of a Geiger counter. You can't be certain that the box the counter is in doesn't have a mechanical flaw, or even worse, a device that records the clicks and sends them to your enemy. 'A stronger form of random-number generators are so-called device independent. It doesn't matter what's inside the box,' Monroe says."
Physics World: "Physicists in the US have used an optical 'frequency comb' to reliably entangle a pair of atomic qubits. The breakthrough bodes well for practicable quantum computing because it allows for simpler manipulation of quantum states than in previous systems. Quantum computing exploits the innate ambiguities of quantum physics to process certain calculations, such as searching or factorizing, much faster than any of today's computers. Whereas conventional bits of information can take only the values 0 or 1, a quantum computer's 'qubits' exist in a mixed-up superposition of both. This uncertainty allows any number of qubits, N, to be lumped together -- or 'entangled', in quantum speak -- to represent a huge 2N values, and then processed in parallel. Or, to put it another way, a quantum computer with just 10 entangled qubits could perform 1024 calculations at once. Entangling isn't easy, however. Achieving it with atomic-ion qubits, for example, requires two in-phase laser beams that have a frequency separation exactly matching that of the ions' spin states. In the past, physicists have made such beams from a single modulated laser, or from two lasers locked to a common source, but in either case the lasers must be very powerful to control the spin states with a reasonable speed. And because the spin transitions often lie in the ultraviolet, the lasing frequencies have to be up-shifted with optical systems that are often inefficient. Now, Chris Monroe and colleagues from the University of Maryland have shown that entanglement can be made more straightforward by using an optical frequency comb. These devices use interference effects on a single laser to create a series of pulses, equally spaced in frequency like the teeth of a comb, an invention that won Theodor W Hansch and John L Hall the 2005 Nobel Prize for Physics." NASA: "People don't discover a new type of moon rock every day, so consider the odds of finding one rich in a mineral that England's King Henry V wore on his battle helmet. And then imagine spotting, right on the Man in the Moon's nose, huge and previously unknown deposits of another mineral from the same family. Using data from NASA's Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) on India's Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, a team of researchers recently did just that. The new rock is a unique mixture of plain-old plagioclase -- plentiful in the Earth's crust and the moon's highlands -- and pink spinel, an especially beautiful arrangement of magnesium, aluminum and oxygen that, in its purest forms, is prized as a gemstone here on Earth. The rock was discovered on the far side of the moon by Carle Pieters, a planetary scientist at Brown University, Providence, R.I. and the principal investigator for the M3 science team. Shortly after, massive deposits of a different type of spinel were identified on the near side by other M3 team members, led by Jessica Sunshine at the University of Maryland, College Park." NASA: "With the help of amateur astronomers, the composite infrared spectrometer instrument aboard NASA's Cassini spacecraft has taken its first look at a massive blizzard in Saturn's atmosphere. The instrument collected the most detailed data to date of temperatures and gas distribution in that planet's storms. The data showed a large, turbulent storm, dredging up loads of material from the deep atmosphere and covering an area at least five times larger than the biggest blizzard in this year's Washington, D.C.-area storm front nicknamed 'Snowmageddon.' ... Cassini's radio and plasma wave instrument and imaging cameras have been tracking thunder and lightning storms on Saturn for years in a band around Saturn's mid-latitudes nicknamed "storm alley." But storms can come and go on a time scale of weeks, while Cassini's imaging and spectrometer observations have to be locked in place months in advance. ... In late March, Wesley, an amateur astronomer from Australia who was actually the first person to detect the new dark spot caused by an impact on Jupiter last summer, sent Cassini scientists an e-mail with a picture of the storm. 'I wanted to be sure that images like these were being seen by the Cassini team just in case this was something of interest to be imaged directly by Cassini or the Hubble Space Telescope,' Wesley wrote. Cassini scientists eagerly pored through the images, including a picture of the storm at its peak on March 13 by Go, who lives in the Philippines. By a stroke of luck, the composite infrared spectrometer happened to be targeting the latitude of the storms. The instrument's scientists knew there could be storms there, but didn't know when they might be active. 'A balloonist floating about 100 kilometers down from the bottom of Saturn's calm stratosphere would experience an ammonia-ice blizzard with the intensity of Snowmageddon,' said Brigette Hesman, a composite infrared spectrometer team member who is an assistant research scientist at the University of Maryland. 'These blizzards appear to be powered by violent storms deeper down -- perhaps another 100 to 200 kilometers down -- where lightning has been observed and the clouds are made of water and ammonia.' " Pecht: Waxman Probes Toyota's Deal with Doubt Safety Research: "When the auto industry needs America's best scientific minds to validate a foregone conclusion, they turn to Exponent. As we reported during Toyota Tactics Week, David Michaels called out the Menlo Park, California defense-litigation firm in his 2008 book Doubt is Their Product: How Industry's Assault on Science Threatens Your Health: 'Exponent's scientists are prolific writers of scientific reports and papers. While some might exist, I have yet to see an Exponent study that does not support the conclusion needed by the corporation or trade association that is paying the bill,' Michaels wrote. Which brings us to the news: the House Committee House Committee on Energy and Commerce has scheduled their second Toyota hearing on May 6 to focus in part on the automaker's work with Exponent to ferret out any possible electronic root causes of Sudden Unintended Acceleration. ... The Committee has been using electronics expert Michael Pecht, a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Maryland, and director of the University's Center for Advanced Life Cycle Engineering (CALCE), and veteran automotive engineer Neil Hanneman to locate the dross in Exponent's first report. What treasures might they find in this new cache of documents? Technical revelations? Or a behind-the-scenes view of the science-for-hire business?" Phys.org: "Peter Sunderland, assistant professor of fire protection engineering at the University of Maryland's A. James Clark School of Engineering, recently won a National Science Foundation Early Faculty Career Development Award to improve our understanding of how soot is formed and burned. The results of his research can show designers how to build cleaner and more efficient engines for trucks, buses, airplanes and other combustion systems, and reduce pollution that may harm our lungs and our environment. Surprisingly, soot has been hard to study because of the complex chemistry in flames. Sunderland aims to separate experimentally two overlapping phases of soot production -- soot formation and soot oxidation -- so each can be more effectively analyzed and measured. This in turn will help engine designers improve the way fuel is injected and burned in engines. Sunderland is the first to use a double-flame burner to study the chemical reactions that occur when soot oxidizes, or burns away. 'In a normal flame, like a candle, soot is formed low in the flame and burns off near the top,' Sunderland says. 'However there is a lot of overlap, making it difficult to measure the formation and oxidation rates. In this double flame, the upper flame has only soot oxidation, so there is no such overlap and thus the oxidation rates can be measured more accurately.' " Publishers Weekly: "On launch day last Saturday, Apple sold more than 300,000 iPads -- and users downloaded more than one million apps and more than 250,000 ebooks from the iBookstore. Parents immediately started snapping up picture book apps from Apple's online store. In fact, children's stories held six of the top 10 paid iPad book-app sales spots as of press time. Typical prices for children's book apps range anywhere from $2.99 for The Cat in the Hat to $9.99 for Miss Spider's Tea Party. ... As with the iPhone and iPod Touch, paid iPad apps aren't the only game in town-there's free material for kid-lit lovers, too. The app for the eight-year-old International Children's Digital Library, housed at the University of Maryland and largely funded by the National Science Foundation, lets iPad users read (but not download) more than 4,000 books from around the world. More than half are either written in English or have been translated into English. Kids can also read International Children's Digital Library stories on regular computers, but the iPad is more like a real book, said Allison Druin, director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland. 'The way children read books is sitting on their bed, sitting with their parents. Laptops are good, but an iPad is going to be even more freeing,' she said. 'The more that our technologies afford the feeling of what was once only able to be given to us through paper, the more we don't notice what the technology is, and we just care about the content.' " Forbes: Steven Salzberg, director of the Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology and the Horvitz Professor of Computer Science, writes his blog: "Next year we'll be back to one flu vaccine, thank goodness. The flu vaccine protects you against three different strains of the influenza virus, but for the past year, we had a separate vaccine for the new pandemic ('swine') flu. It's always hard to get people to take their shots (or 'jabs,' as they say in England -- why can't we come up with a less painful-sounding word?), and asking everyone to go out and get two shots was never ideal. For the next flu season, the vaccine will include these 3 strains: 1. The 2009 'swine flu' strain, H1N1 2. The previous seasonal flu, H3N2 3. Influenza B, a milder flu that has been around for decades. What happened? Well, the WHO, the CDC, and the FDA have decided to replace one of the three strains in the flu vaccine with the new H1N1. The strain they replaced was also called H1N1, which is rather confusing. Let's look at the history of these strains, which is an interesting picture of virus evolution." New Nation, Bangladesh: "University of Maryland and Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation has signed an Agreement of Cooperation for development of production and import of quality shrimps. The agreement was signed between Dr CD Mote, Jr., President of University of Maryland and Syed Mahmudul Huq of Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation on behalf of their respective organizations during the visit of a Bangladesh delegation last week in USA. The agreement was acknowledged by Dr Cheng-I Wei, Dean, College of Agriculture and Natural Resources of the University. On his return from the USA Syed Mahmud told BSS today that it's a tripartite cooperation agreement between the government, private entrepreneurs and the academics to enhance both the quality and the quantity of country's shrimp productions Mahmud said three aspects like food safety, environmental sustainability and social responsibility which are the pressing demands from the shrimp importers would be mitigated under this cooperation deal. He said as shrimp is a very labour intensive product, Bangladesh is the best country in the world to supply shrimp to the buyers. 'If we can maintain its food quality, no other country could compete with us in this vitally important export trades,' he added. Mamud said the present agreement would provide for, among others, joint research and training activities, exchange of scholars and experts for seminars, conferences and research activities. Under the agreement, Joint Institute for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition (JIFSAN), a joint initiative of US Food and Drug Administration and University of Maryland and Bangladesh Shrimp and Fish Foundation (BSFF) have already initiated a Training of Trainers Program for eventual implementation of 'Good Aquaculture Practices' throughout Bangladesh to ensure food safety, environmental sustainability and social responsibility both in terms of human and labour rights." Society & Culture Boston Globe: The strange but true tale of a phony currency, shame, and a grass-roots movement that could go global ... "What good is a currency that is not even worth the paper it's printed on? That's the intriguing question raised by the new 'zero rupee note' now circulating in southern India. It looks just like the country's 50 rupee bill but with some crucial differences: It is printed on just one side on plain paper, it bears a big fat '0' denomination, and it isn't legal tender. The notes do, however, have value to the people who carry them. They're designed as a radical new response to the pervasive problem of petty corruption. ... The usual tools used to fight corruption operate from the top down, and tend to be expensive and time-consuming to implement. One common approach is to use technology, such as computerized systems to process things like railway ticket sales or requests for copies of land deed records, taking corrupt humans out of the bureaucratic machinery altogether. Another is enacting good governance reforms, such as independent corruption investigators, higher public sector salaries to decrease the incentives for bribery, and streamlined regulations to eliminate unnecessary licenses or permissions. The zero rupee note is different: It is a low-cost, low-tech solution that works from the bottom up, not the top down. The note was first conceived in 2001 by Satindar Mohan Bhagat, a professor of physics at the University of Maryland, who was dismayed by the constant bribe demands he had to contend with on trips back to his native India. He began distributing the zero rupee note to other Indian expats in the Washington, D.C., area, encouraging them to use the bills to resist paying bribes whenever they traveled back home. Among those Bhagat met at Indian community events in Washington was Vijay Anand, a software programmer and systems administrator, who had moved to the United States in 1997." Parks: Height Fused Struggles of Blacks, Women Baltimore Sun: Sheri Parks, associate professor and co-director of graduate studies in the American Studies Department, writes an op/ed: "Dorothy Height, the grande dame of the civil rights movement, died recently in Washington after a long illness. She was 98. Mrs. Height, as everyone called her, was a force in the black civil rights movement for 60 years, 40 of them as the president of National Council of Negro Women. In life and in death, she has been called the matriarch and the queen of the movement. President Barack Obama called her its "godmother." The titles are reverential. She was a tall, stately woman, always perfectly dressed, her voice moderated and mannered. Style was and is an important element in the lives of upwardly moving African Americans -- it shows that we can be cultured, too. But behind the image of the grand lady was a woman who was a very active strategist and organizer. That balance, between the mannered lady and the activist, would play out for her entire professional life and says much about the still too-often hidden role of black women in the movement." Chronicle of Higher Education: "A new study from the University of Maryland finds that students are hooked on social media and cellphones, describing withdrawals in terms similar to those used by drug and alcohol addicts. The study from the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda, '24 Hours: Unplugged,' asked 200 students on the campus to give up all media for a full day and blog on private Web sites about their experience. Student reaction showed addictionlike withdrawal symptoms such as anxiety, misery, and being jittery, the authors wrote. One student wrote that texting and sending instant messages gives him or her 'a constant feeling of comfort,' without which he or she felt 'quite alone and secluded from my life.' Another said that he or she feels 'like most people these days are in a similar situation; for between having a Blackberry, a laptop, a television, and an iPod, people have become unable to shed their media skin.' Researchers were surprised by the number of students who said they were incredibly addicted to media, Susan D. Moeller, the project director, said in a news release. She is also the center's director and a journalism professor. 'But we noticed that what they wrote at length about was how they hated losing their personal connections,' she said. 'Going without media meant, in their world, going without their friends and family.' Some psychologists have warned that addiction is a serious issue and that comparisons with addiction should be handled with care. The American Psychiatric Association does not formally recognize 'Internet addiction' as a disorder. BBC News: "Views of the US around the world have improved sharply over the past year, a BBC World Service poll suggests. For the first time since the annual poll began in 2005, America's influence in the world is now seen as more positive than negative. The improved scores for the US coincided with Barack Obama becoming president, a BBC correspondent notes. As in 2009, Germany is viewed most favourably while Iran and Pakistan are seen as the most negative influences. Nearly 30,000 people in 28 countries were interviewed for the poll, between November 2009 and February 2010. Fifteen of the countries have been surveyed every year since 2005, allowing long-term trends to be discerned. ... 'People around the world today view the United States more positively than at any time since the second Iraq war," said Doug Miller, chairman of international polling firm GlobeScan, which carried out the poll with the Program on International Policy Attitudes (Pipa) at the University of Maryland. 'While still well below that of countries like Germany and the UK, the global standing of the US is clearly on the rise again.' Pipa director Steven Kull noted: 'After a year, it appears the "Obama effect" is real.' 'Its influence on people's views worldwide, though, is to soften the negative aspects of the United States' image, while positive aspects are not yet coming into strong focus.' He added: 'While China's image is stuck in neutral, America has motored past it in the global soft-power competition.' " Security Management: "Domestic terrorist attacks perpetrated by individuals, or lone wolves, have increased since Timothy McVeigh's bombing of a federal building in Oklahoma City 15 years ago, reports a terrorism research organization. '[T]he attack by an individual unaffiliated with a terrorist organization in Oklahoma City reflected a shift in the nature of U.S. terrorist perpetrators in the mid-1990s,' reports the University of Maryland's National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START). '[S]ince 1995, a much higher percentage of terrorist attacks in the United States have been conducted by unaffiliated individuals, rather than by organized groups. In the period 1995 (post-Oklahoma City) through 2007, 43 out of 131 incidents with attributed perpetrators were committed by individuals -- 33% of all attacks in the United States in this period.' The report also finds that the average number of domestic terrorist attacks per year has declined since 1995, although they have become more lethal. In between 1970 and 2007, there was an average of 36 domestic terrorist attacks inside the United States. This average slid to 19 attacks per year since 1995, but attacks have become slightly more deadly. From 1970 to 1995, there were 2.1 deaths per attack. This has risen to 2.8 deaths per attack in between 1995 and 2007." Governing Magazine: Don Kettl, dean of Public Policy, writes an op/ed: "It didn't take long for Scott Brown, the newly elected senator from Massachusetts, to go from tea party darling to Republican rogue. When he cast a vote for the $15 billion jobs bill, his Facebook page quickly filled with complaints that he was trading in his pickup truck for a liberal limousine. The jobs bill that created political potholes for Brown was also aimed at filling some of the nation's nastiest infrastructure potholes. The looming crisis is no secret to drivers in Minnesota's Twin Cities who got stuck in hopeless traffic following the 2007 collapse of the I-35W Bridge over the Mississippi River, or to San Francisco Bay Area commuters mired in gridlock when the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge emergency repairs failed and the bridge was shut down. Riders of Washington, D.C.'s troubled subway system have suffered through collisions, derailments and maintenance problems, and four U.S. senators warned that the system had suffered 'an institutional failure.' The problem is huge -- and it's growing. The American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) estimates that the nation faces a $2.2 trillion infrastructure backlog. One of every eight bridges is 'structurally deficient,' and 85 percent of public transit systems are struggling to carry the growing number of riders. As ASCE President Blaine D. Leonard puts it, 'We are still driving on Eisenhower's roads and sending our kids to Roosevelt's schools.' " Editorial, The Guardian, UK: The world's best known female economist has warned cutting the deficit the Tory way would send the UK back into recession ... "Carmen Reinhart may be the best-known female economist in the world; she must certainly be the most frequently quoted. With fellow academic Ken Rogoff, she has spent the past couple of years comparing this banking crisis with those down the centuries. Together, they produced a book last year called This Time is Different. The title refers to the four most dangerous words in financial history (every bubble begins with some huckster claiming "this time it really is different"), while the authors point out how banking crises follow very similar courses -- ending in a surge in government debt and years of economic stagnation. Any opposition politician, whether in Westminster or Washington, seeking to pin wrecked public finances all on the supposed fecklessness of Gordon Brown or Barack Obama should read this book -- and also heed Professor Reinhart's warning that cutting the deficit this year (as the Tories urge) would send the economy back into a slump. The University of Maryland academic has been in the UK this week speaking at the Royal Economic Society conference. Her message was no cheerier: spiralling debt leaves governments exposed to a shock in credit markets. One can disagree with Professor Reinhart's conclusions, but all economists should be grateful for her data-gathering. Her study of banking crises covered 66 countries around the world over eight centuries -- everything from commodity prices to foreign-owned debt. A wonderful resource, albeit a very grim one." USA Today: "Just when to have the first child is more than just a family decision for the couple; it may have longer-term repercussions that affect a woman's lifelong earnings, according to a preliminary study presented Thursday at a session of the Population Association of America meeting here. Researchers at the University of Maryland, College Park and the University of California at Los Angeles reviewed 35 years of data from some 2,200 women born between 1944 and 1954, and found that women who had kids in the early- to mid-20s or even younger didn't fare as well economically as those who delayed. Research has found that women who are childless tend to have greater earnings and those with kids have what some have referred to as a 'motherhood penalty,' that is, lower wages for working mothers. But this new study, presented by co-author Joan Kahn, a sociologist at the University of Maryland, College Park, finds women who got more education and job training before having children don't experience that so-called 'penalty.' 'Women who delay childbearing end up as successful economically as women who didn't have children, and we look at it basically throughout their adult years -- well into their 50s,' she says." American Library Association: "When jobs go away, Americans turn to their libraries to find information about future employment or educational opportunities. This library usage trend and others are detailed in the 2010 State of America's Libraries report, released today by the American Library Association. The report shows that Americans have turned to their libraries in larger numbers in recent years. Since the recession took hold in December 2007, the local library, a traditional source of free access to books, magazines, CDs, and DVDs, has become a lifeline, offering technology training and workshops on topics that ranged from resume-writing to job-interview skills. ... However, the report also shows that increased library use did not lead to an increase in funding for libraries. Research by the ALA and the Center for Library and Information Innovation at the University of Maryland suggests a 'perfect storm' of growing community demand for library services and shrinking resources to meet that demand. While library use soars, a majority of states are reporting cuts in funding to public libraries and to the state library agencies that support them." Afro: "A new study reveals that while the race gap in the commission of violent crime has significantly narrowed in certain parts of the country, murder arrest rates for African Americans has been out-distancing those for Whites, particularly in large urban areas like the District of Columbia and Atlanta, where the rates have grown significantly over the past four decades. Violent offenses generally comprise homicide, forcible rape, robbery and assault. The study most notably points out that the trend in the District is now nearly three times greater than in the 1960s. 'From 1960 to about 1985, the gap in Black and White homicide rates narrowed by almost 50 percent,' said Gary LaFree, a University of Maryland criminologist who co-authored the study. 'Then it widened a bit between '85 and 2000,' he continued. 'So what's interesting is that Washington was one of the few cities in the country in which that was not true.' The study, 'Separate and Still Unequal,' which was conducted by UM in conjunction with Florida State University and the University of Oregon, also lent focus to Baltimore, finding that in comparison to the District, the gap there has remained mostly steady. ... The study, which was released in early March after 10 years in the making, details the ratio of Black versus White annual murder arrests for each of the 80 cities surveyed. It exemplifies, for example that, for every White person arrested for murder, 12 Blacks are taken into custody under the same charges. In his reference to the table, UM spokesman Neil Tickner, said the rates for Baltimore have remained 'flat,' going essentially from 5.32 percent in the 1960s to 7.56 percent in the 1990s.' " Detroit Free Press: "What to do when your child feels second-best What should a parent do when a child says a sibling is your favorite? Listen. Communicate your feelings in ways that assure your love for every child. Take steps to correct behavior that may be sending the wrong message. That's the advice from family psychologist Kenneth R. Greenberg (Education), who recently penned 'Tusky's Big Decision' (Xlibris, $25.99), a story about an elephant who runs away from home because he thinks his sister is loved more. 'There's some degree of favoritism in every family with more than one child,' says Greenberg, a University of Maryland professor emeritus. 'It can range from mild to severe, but it's inevitable because children are different.' Problems arise, psychologists say, when favoritism is overt and only one child is consistently favored. Favored children sometimes grow up facing more stress because they're held to higher standards or no standards. 'Parents should realize they're not doing that child a favor. It's like being a teacher's pet; teacher's pets don't do well with their peers or classmates," says Greenberg." Washington Times: "The national fear that Social Security and Medicare will go broke under the huge demands of aging baby boomers could be remedied by a major "tectonic" cultural shift. An unprecedented upturn in the number of older Americans who delay retirement is likely to continue and even accelerate over the next two decades, a trend that should ease the pinch, according to a Rand Corp. study released Wednesday. Funded by the National Institute on Aging, the research also suggested that lawmakers should consider dismantling barriers that discourage or penalize older workers from remaining on the job, and throw in some incentives to encourage employers to hire seniors. ... Retirees who continue to work even on a temporary or part-time basis experience fewer major diseases and are able to function better day-to-day than people who stop working altogether, according to a study of more than 12,000 workers between 51 and 61, conducted over a six-year period by the University of Maryland. The findings were reported late last year in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, published by the American Psychological Association."
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