The Gazette by The Johns Hopkins University

o ur 4 1 ST ye ar

RE C O G N I T I O N

P UL ITZER P RIZE

Covering Homewood, East Baltimore, Peabody,

Economist Robert Moffitt, left,

Peabody composer Kevin

SAIS, APL and other campuses throughout the

and yeast geneticist Jef Boeke

Puts wins accolade for ‘Silent

Baltimore-Washington area and abroad, since 1971.

tapped for AAA&S, page 3

Night,’ his first opera, page 3

April 23, 2012

The newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University

O U T R E A C H

Volume 41 No. 31

E V E N T

Digging into research

Community service matchmaking By Greg Rienzi

The Gazette

will kirk / homewoodphoto.jhu.edu

ichelle Rozo, a third-year doctoral student in biology in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, says that she chose Johns Hopkins in part because of its MInDS (Mentoring to Inspire Diversity in Science) program, an outreach effort that, Program among other activipairs grad ties, encourages K-12 and undergraduate students to pursue a students career in science. Rozo says that she with local enjoyed her volunteer experiences during agencies her undergraduate days at Northwestern University and wanted to find something equally fulfilling in Baltimore. MInDS, she says, offered her a perfect way to pair her passion and interests with community service. This fall, Homewood graduate students like Rozo will have a new resource for finding their own ideal volunteer service match. In September, the university will launch the Graduate Student Community Engagement Program, which is designed to facilitate meaningful collaborations between community partners and graduate students in the schools of Arts and Sciences, Education and Engineering. The program, to be overseen by the university’s Center for Social Concern, aims to give Johns Hopkins graduate students the chance to enrich their academic experience by offering them real-world opportunities for applying their developing personal, professional and academic skills. Simultaneously, the community nonprofit organizations can get much-needed support for new and ongoing initiatives. Interested students will fill out an application and then meet with the Center for Social Concern to discuss available placements. The CSC staff will examine the student’s background,

Decaying leaves are fertile ground for junior Natalie Bray’s exploration of how levels of carbon dioxide affect the palatability of insects’ food sources. Her PURA project, her adviser says, represents a hot new topic in soil ecology.

PURA grants in hand, 46 JHU undergrads explore new territory By Greg Rienzi

The Gazette

atalie Bray spent part of last summer poking around in woods just south of Annapolis. On one excursion, the Johns Hopkins junior came across a red and black North American millipede (Narceus americanus), a “monster” some five inches long with row upon row of tiny red legs. She couldn’t wait to grab it.

“I really like collecting,” says Bray, who is majoring in Earth and planetary sciences. “I’m not squeamish. I’ve always liked bugs. I guess some folks think I’m strange like that.” Bray needed the crawly critter for her Provost’s Undergraduate Research Continued on page 7

The 19th Annual PURA Ceremony

o recognize the recipients of the 2011 Provost’s Undergraduate Research Awards, an event will be held on Tuesday, May 1, in Homewood’s Glass Pavilion. A poster session in which students will have an opportunity to display

the results of their research begins at 3 p.m. At the 4:30 p.m. recognition ceremony, hosted by Lloyd B. Minor, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, the honorees will be introduced by Scott Zeger, vice provost for research and chair of the PURA selection committee; Minor will present their certificates; and 2011 PURA recipi-

ent Katherine Magruder (oboe) and 2010 recipient Brian Barone (guitar) will perform Vincenzo Bellini’s Oboe Concerto in E-flat Major. A reception will follow at approximately 5:15 p.m. The entire Johns Hopkins community is invited.

Continued on page 9

In Brief

Provost’s Panel on Innovation; East Baltimore Housing, Neighborhood Fair; Pre-K at Play

C A L E N D AR

Blue Jay’s Perch community garden; John Tackett on classicism in decorative arts

10 Job Opportunities 10 Notices 11 Classifieds

2 23,15, 2012 2 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• April August 2011 I N B R I E F

Carey School plans workshop on Safe Space Sticker Program

he Committee for Diversity and Inclusion of the Carey Business School has planned a presentation for Thursday, April 26, on the Safe Space Sticker Program, which uses visible markers to indicate that a campus community is supportive of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender persons and their allies. Members of the GLBTA Resource Center of American University will facilitate the workshop in the second-floor atrium of Carey’s Harbor East campus. Lunch will be served at noon, followed by the two-hour presentation starting at 12:30 p.m. To register, write to carey.diversity@jhu.edu.

East Baltimore Housing and Neighborhood Fair planned

he long-planned revitalization of 88 acres north of the Johns Hopkins East Baltimore campus is taking shape, with new restaurants, a national pharmacy, the opening of the “929” apartment building, restoration of historic buildings and the construction of a $40 million public school and early childhood center on tap for 2012 and 2013. Johns Hopkins is a partner in this ambitious project, joining East Baltimore Development Inc., Baltimore City, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Forest City–New East Baltimore Partnership and others. In order for Johns Hopkins employees and others to learn more about housing opportunities, community resources and the plans for East Baltimore neighborhoods, representatives from the Johns Hopkins Live Near Your Work program, East Baltimore residential developers, the East Baltimore Community School, EBDI and other local associations will hold an East Baltimore Housing and Neighborhood Fair from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Monday, April 30, in Turner Concourse. The event is sponsored by Forest City–New East Baltimore Partnership. Those planning to attend are asked to RSVP to worklife@jhu.edu by Thursday, April 26. Simply enter “EB Fair” in the subject line and your name in the text.

School of Ed to host 40-plus kids on city’s Pre-K at Play Day

ohns Hopkins’ School of Education will host more than 40 students from Samuel Morse Elementary School in West Baltimore for Baltimore City Public Schools’ second annual Pre-K at Play Day, to be held from 10 a.m. to noon on Thursday, April 26. Pre-K students will participate in a variety of interactive activities offered by the university’s School of Education, Whiting School of Engineering, Peabody Institute and, new this year, School of Nursing. Referring to the program’s inaugural effort,

Editor Lois Perschetz Writer Greg Rienzi Production Lynna Bright Copy Editor Ann Stiller Photography Homewood Photography A d v e rt i s i n g The Gazelle Group Business Dianne MacLeod C i r c u l at i o n Lynette Floyd Webmaster Lauren Custer

Charlene Iannone-Campbell, director of early learning for city schools, said, “These activities provided children with firsthand experiences they would otherwise only have encountered through books or television. This initiative,” she said, “furthers [Baltimore schools’ chief] Dr. [Andres] Alonso’s initiative of student engagement and strengthening students’ prior knowledge by exposing them to new cultural, historical, scientific, educational and artistic experiences.” Last year, more than 5,000 pre-K students participated in the citywide program. Students visited 40 institutions including the Maryland Science Center, Port Discovery and Living Classrooms.

Undersec of state to discuss Open Government Partnership

aria Otero, undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights, will speak at SAIS at 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, April 26, about “The Open Government Partnership: A Progress Report.” Otero, a SAIS graduate, has taken a leading role at the State Department in launching and steering the OGP, a new multilateral initiative that aims to secure concrete commitments from governments to promote transparency and civic engagement. The event will be held in room 500 of the Bernstein-Offit Building. NonSAIS affiliates should RSVP to the SAIS International Development Program at developmentroundtable@jhu.edu. A live webcast of the event will be accessible at sais-jhu.edu/pressroom/live.html.

Provost’s Panel on Innovation wraps up lecture series

hat is the best environment for creative and innovative thinking? In what ways does the academic culture promote innovation? Are innovative ideas best found within disciplines or at the intersection of disciplines? Is innovation the result of serendipity and flashes of insight, or the result of effort and hard work? The 2011–12 Provost’s Lecture Series, focused on innovation, culminates next week in a panel discussion hosted by Provost Lloyd B. Minor to address these and other questions. Panelists are Lisa Cooper, professor of medicine and director of the Johns Hopkins Center to Eliminate Cardiovascular Health Disparities; Lisa Feigenson, associate professor of psychological and brain sciences; Jerry Krill, assistant director for science and technology at APL; and Charles Limb, associate professor of otolaryngology–head and neck surgery, a faculty member at Peabody and a Provost’s Fellow. The event will be held at 5 p.m. on Thursday, May 3, in room 150E of the Armstrong Medical Education Building, East Baltimore. To RSVP, email ProvostRSVP@jhu.edu.

Contributing Writers Applied Physics Laboratory Michael Buckley, Paulette Campbell Bloomberg School of Public Health Tim Parsons, Natalie Wood-Wright Carey Business School Andrew Blumberg, Patrick Ercolano Homewood Lisa De Nike, Amy Lunday, Dennis O’Shea, Tracey A. Reeves, Phil Sneiderman Johns Hopkins Medicine Christen Brownlee, Stephanie Desmon, Neil A. Grauer, Audrey Huang, John Lazarou, David March, Vanessa McMains, Ekaterina Pesheva, Vanessa Wasta, Maryalice Yakutchik Peabody Institute Richard Selden SAIS Felisa Neuringer Klubes School of Education James Campbell, Theresa Norton School of Nursing Kelly Brooks-Staub University Libraries and Museums Brian Shields, Heather Egan Stalfort

The Gazette is published weekly September through May and biweekly June through August for the Johns Hopkins University community by the Office of Communications, Suite 540, 901 S. Bond St., Baltimore, MD 21231, in cooperation with all university divisions. Subscriptions are $26 per year. Deadline for calendar items, notices and classifieds (free to JHU faculty, staff and students) is noon Monday, one week prior to publication date. Phone: 443-287-9900 Fax: 443-287-9920 General e-mail: gazette@jhu.edu Classifieds e-mail: gazads@jhu.edu On the Web: gazette.jhu.edu Paid advertising, which does not represent any endorsement by the university, is handled by the Gazelle Group at 443275-2687 or gazellegrp@comcast.net.

April 23, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

R E C O G N I T I O N

JHU profs named to American Academy of Arts and Sciences B y A m y L u n d ay a n d Vanessa McMains

Homewood and Johns Hopkins Medicine

yeast geneticist and an economist at The Johns Hopkins University are among 220 “thinkers and doers” in the 2012 class of new fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the academy announced last week. With the election of Jef Boeke, a professor of molecular biology and genetics in the School of Medicine, and Robert Moffitt, the Krieger-Eisenhower Professor of Economics in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, 50 members of the Johns Hopkins faculty have been named to the academy since its founding in 1780. Boeke and Moffitt join some of the world’s most accomplished leaders from academia, business, public affairs, the humanities and the arts from each generation who have been elected to the academy, including George Washington and Benjamin Franklin in the 18th century, Daniel Webster and Ralph Waldo Emerson in the 19th, and Albert Einstein and Winston Churchill in the 20th. The current membership includes more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize winners. Boeke is the founding director of the High Throughput Biology Center in the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences. He and his team of researchers engineered from scratch a computer-designed yeast chromosome and incorporated into their creation a new system that lets scientists intentionally rearrange the yeast’s genetic material. His ultimate goal is to synthesize the whole yeast genome (about 6,000 genes) with an international team of collaborators in the U.K., India and China. Additionally, Boeke and his colleagues are building maps of all genetic interactions in the relatively simple yeast cell. The data

Yeast geneticist Jef Boeke

Economist Robert Moffitt

from such massive genomewide experiments help identify the functions of the proteins encoded by yeast and the pathways in which they participate. This project will identify possible gene-gene interactions underlying human health and disease, because yeast, though it is a microorganism, is surprisingly similar to humans in important ways. Another focus of Boeke’s laboratory is the study of mobile genetic elements, so-called retrotransposons, found in all eukaryotic genomes. The scientists investigate the mechanism for how these pieces move around the genome, focusing on specific kinds found in the yeast and human genomes. The laboratory plans to develop these retrotransposons into powerful tools for the functional analysis of genes and genomes. Boeke joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1985. Moffitt is an authority on the incentives and disincentives inherent in the United States’ welfare system. Much of his research in labor economics has concerned the labor

supply decisions of female heads of family and the effect their choices have on the welfare system. His research has led to publications about the Aid to Families with Dependent Children, Food Stamp and Medicaid programs. He has published research on the labor supply effects of social insurance programs, including Social Security, unemployment insurance and disability insurance, as well as the U.S. income tax system. Moffitt has also studied the pattern of real wages over the business cycle and volatility in the U.S. labor market, and trends in U.S. earnings inequality, labor mobility and state government decision making. His research focuses as well on population economics and economic demography, an area in which he has estimated economic models of marriage, cohabitation, female headship and fertility.

K U D O S

Peabody composer Puts wins Pulitzer Prize for ‘Silent Night’

Homewood

Peabody Institute

ANDREW SHAPTER

he opera Silent Night begins in an opera house, where a duet is being sung in German by a man and a woman in 18th-century costume. But this isn’t a work by Mozart; it’s a passage written by Kevin Puts in the style of Mozart, soon to be stopped short by an announcement that Germany is at war. On April 16, Columbia University released the list of winners of the 96th annual Pulitzer Prizes, which it administers, and the winner of the Pulitzer in music was Puts, a member of the Peabody Conservatory’s Composition Department since 2006, for Silent Night. Inspired by the film Joyeux Noel, which tells the story of a Christmastime ceasefire during World War I, the two-act opera— Puts’ first—was commissioned by Minnesota Opera and premiered last November. The librettist was Mark Campbell. “Kevin Puts joins a distinguished company of Pulitzer Prize winners, including Aaron Copland in 1945 for Appalachian Spring and Peabody alumnus Dominick Argento in 1975 for From the Diary of Virginia Woolf,” said Jeffrey Sharkey, director of the Peabody Institute. “We are all delighted with this latest addition to the remarkable history of Peabody’s Composition Department, where Pulitzer winner Elliott Carter and many other leading composers have taught. That Kevin and his faculty colleagues are continuing this

WMAP mission scores ‘world’s most cited’ in science pubs By Lisa De Nike

By Richard Selden

Kevin Puts

tradition of creative excellence is a source of great pride.” Born in St. Louis, 40-year-old Puts attended high school in Michigan and earned his Bachelor of Music and Doctor of Music Arts degrees from the University of Rochester’s Eastman School of Music. His Master of Music degree is from Yale. He now lives in Yonkers, N.Y., with his wife, a violinist with the New York Philharmonic, and their son. Silent Night will be presented next February by the Opera Company of Philadelphia at the Academy of Music. Puts’ music will be heard in Maryland later this spring, when Marin Alsop conducts performances by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra of his Symphony No. 4, From Mission San Juan Bautista (June 7, 8 and 10 at the Meyerhoff in Baltimore and June 9 at Strathmore in North Bethesda).

Moffitt joined the Johns Hopkins faculty in 1995, and he holds a joint appointment in the university’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. He is a past chief editor of the American Economic Review, a fellow of the Econometric Society and the Society of Labor Economists, and a national associate of the National Academy of Sciences. Moffitt received a MERIT Award from the National Institutes of Health and a Guggenheim Fellowship, is a past vice president of the Population Association of America and served as chair of the National Academy of Sciences Panel to Evaluate Welfare Reform. Boeke and Moffitt, who were elected April 17, will be inducted Oct. 6 in Cambridge, Mass., alongside other newly minted fellows, including Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, American film icons Clint Eastwood and Mel Brooks, Pulitzer Prize–winning playwright and screenwriter Neil Simon, composer Andre Previn, Amazon.com founder Jeffrey Bezos, Walt Disney president and CEO Robert A. Iger, and philanthropist Melinda F. Gates of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The academy also elected 17 foreign honorary members, including British recording artist and former Beatle Sir Paul McCartney and Dutch stem cell researcher Johannes C. Clevers. Academy fellows and foreign honorary members are nominated and elected to the academy by current members. A broad-based membership of scholars and practitioners from mathematics, physics, biological sciences, social sciences, humanities and the arts, public affairs and business allows the academy to conduct a wide range of interdisciplinary studies and public policy research.

ll three of the most highly cited scientific papers in the world published in 2011 were from an astrophysics space mission project led by a Johns Hopkins scientist, according to Thomson Reuters’ ScienceWatch. The papers cite results from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, a NASA spacecraft launched in 2001 that has revolutionized our knowledge of the history, composition and geometry of the universe. The WMAP mission is led by Charles L. Bennett, the Alumni Centennial Professor of Physics and Astronomy and Johns Hopkins Gilman Scholar in the Henry A. Rowland Department of Physics and Astronomy at The Johns Hopkins University. ScienceWatch’s website notes: “Although the spacecraft has now gone silent at the end of its mission, rafts of scientists are poring over the accumulated data, including the seven-year observations released last year.” WMAP determined the 13.7 billion–year age of the universe to within 1 percent, that atoms make up only 4.6 percent of the universe and that some kind of an anti-gravity energy makes up a whopping 73 percent of the universe. The 2003 WMAP results were named by Science magazine as the “breakthrough of the year.” “It is astounding how far science has taken us. We are even able to rule out some proposed theories of what happened in the first trillionth of a trillionth of a second of the universe,” Bennett said. “Despite the many discoveries, many questions remain. I am confident that future measurements will reveal even more in the coming years.” This is not the first time that WMAP results were among the most-cited scientific

papers in the world across all scientific disciplines, not just in physics and astronomy. It also happened in 2003, 2007 and 2009. This time WMAP captured the first, second and third spots in the rankings in a single year— a science trifecta. “These rankings are evidence of the great impact and reach of the Physics and Astronomy faculty here at Johns Hopkins,” said Daniel Reich, the department’s chair. Bennett came to Johns Hopkins in 2005 from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where he was a senior scientist for experimental cosmology. In 2010, his work on WMAP made him a co-winner of the prestigious Shaw Prize. He won the Comstock Prize in Physics in 2009, the Harvey Prize in 2006 and the Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. In 2006, he shared the Peter Gruber Foundation’s Cosmology Prize with Nobel laureate John Mather and the Cosmic Background Explorer team. Bennett was elected to the National Academy of Arts and Sciences in 2004 and the National Academy of Sciences in 2005. He has received two NASA Exceptional Achievement medals and a NASA Outstanding Leadership medal.

Related websites ‘ScienceWatch’:

sciencewatch.com/newsletter/ 2012/201203/hottest_research_ 2012 Charles L. Bennett:

cosmos.pha.jhu.edu/bennett NASA’s WMAP site:

map.gsfc.nasa.gov

4 23,15, 2012 4 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• April August 2011

Bioethicists urge less regulation for some human subjects research B y L e a h R a m s ay

Berman Institute of Bioethics

n an opinion article published in the April 18 theme edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association focusing on comparative effectiveness research, a team of Johns Hopkins University bioethicists argues forcefully for streamlining federal restrictions on at least some low-risk clinical comparative effectiveness research instead of easing them, as is now proposed, solely for low-risk social and behavior research involving surveys, interviews and focus groups. Writing in the journal’s new Viewpoint opinion section, the team supports many of the recently proposed changes to long-standing federal rules governing human subjects research that would allow research oversight to focus more on higher-risk research and streamline oversight for lower-risk research. The team asserts, however, that much comparative effectiveness research is also of low risk to patients and therefore should also be subject to streamlined oversight. Indeed, the proposed regulatory changes ignore this growing and critically important category of low-risk clinical research that compares the effectiveness and safety of different treatments already approved by the Food and Drug Administration. “The American public wants and needs to

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know which of different widely used medications is better for the medical problems they have,” says co-author Nancy Kass, the Phoebe R. Berman Professor of Bioethics and Public Health at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics. “Doing this type of comparative study poses little, if any, additional risk to the patients who take part, compared to their usual medical care. We need to make sure the regulatory environment makes it straightforward for doctors, patients and research institutions to want to do more of this kind of clinical research,” Kass says. The failure of the proposed changes in human subjects protections, known as the Common Rule, to include clinical comparative effective research “serves to perpetuate the view that all clinical research … involves more than minimal risk,” the Viewpoint article states. Kass’ co-authors are Ruth Faden, director of the Berman Institute, and Sean Tunis, president and CEO of the Center for Medical Technology Policy, a nonprofit organization that brings stakeholders together to identify key topics for comparative effectiveness research. In July 2011, the Department of Health and Human Services issued an advance notice of proposed changes to the Common Rule and asked for comment on suggested ways to modernize regulations governing any use of human subjects in any kind of research. “This is the first significant proposed change to regulations governing human subjects research in 20 years, so it is crucial that the growing field of clinical comparative effectiveness research, which helps doctors and patients make better treatment choices, is addressed now as well,” Kass says. The Viewpoint article says that revising long-standing federal regulations to focus more on high-risk research, and allowing more streamlined oversight for lower-risk research, ultimately will better provide

patients the careful protection they need in that smaller body of science that poses higher risk. The absence of attention to clinical comparative effectiveness research, or CCER, in thinking through how ethics oversight should be organized in the future, however, stands to put barriers in the way of these important studies. “Doctors and patients alike have voiced a need for more CCER studies that compare the relative safety and effectiveness of existing and widely used medical options for prevention, diagnosis or treatment,” Kass says. The proposed rule changes currently exclude CCER, the authors say, despite the fact that “many prospective studies of comparative effectiveness are of a low-risk equivalent to that posed by many behavioral and social science research studies” using surveys, interviews and focus groups. Noting a recent increase in federal investment in comparative research of this sort, the authors agree that “significant advances in CCER will depend on reducing the intensity and burden of oversight.” One example of the kind of CCER research that could be subject to streamlined review if changes to regulations included CCER, the authors say, would be a study in which patients treated for hypertension were

asked at their regular clinical appointment to respond to a detailed set of questions about their lifestyle and how they think their medications are working. “The timing of the reconsideration of the Common Rule with the rapid increase in investments in comparative effectiveness research highlights the importance of seizing this opportunity to advance the shared interests in ensuring that CCER evolves rapidly and ethically,” the authors state. “Crafting a framework that promotes an appropriate level of oversight for CCER studies that closely simulate routine clinical practice will be essential for the efficient generation of the real world evidence that patients and clinicians require.”

Related websites DHHS advance notice of proposed rulemaking:

gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2011-07-26/ html/2011-18792.htm Nancy Kass:

bioethicsinstitute.org/ mshome/?ID=65

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April 23, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

Free online tool estimates youth exposure to radio school ads

new online tool from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health determines the extent of exposure to radio alcohol advertisements among young people ages 12 to 20 in 75 different media markets. This free and userfriendly tool, available at camy.org/radiotool, is the first service to provide parents, health departments and other key audiences with access to customizable information on youth exposure to radio alcohol advertising. “Despite the proliferation of things like smart phones and tablets, radio continues to be a popular source of media among youth,” said David Jernigan, CAMY director. “This tool gives users in dozens of cities across the U.S. the ability to determine the scope to which young people in their community are exposed to alcohol marketing.” In 2003, trade groups for beer and distilled spirits committed to placing alcohol ads in

in each market were more likely to be heard by youth per capita than by adults. An earlier CAMY analysis of all 75 markets found close to one-third of advertising placements occurred when proportionately more youth were listening than were adults age 21 and above. The analysis also found that 9 percent of the ads in 75 markets failed to meet the industry standards, which accounted for almost 50 percent of all radio listeners age 12 and older. Three brands—Miller Lite, Bud Light and Coors Light—placed more than half these violating ads. “Alcohol is the leading substance abuse problem among youth in the U.S., and we know alcohol advertising and marketing have a significant impact on youth decisions to drink,” said Robert Brewer, alcohol program leader in the Division of Population Health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. “CAMY’s radio tool gives state and local health departments a brand new data

media venues only when underage youth comprise 30 percent of the audience or less. Since that time, a number of groups and officials, including the National Research Council, the Institute of Medicine and 24 state attorneys general, have called upon the alcohol industry to strengthen its standard and meet a “proportional” 15 percent placement standard, given that the group most at risk for underage drinking—12-to-20-yearolds—constitutes less than 15 percent of the U.S. population. At least 14 longitudinal research studies have found that the more young people are exposed to alcohol marketing, the more likely they are to start drinking or, if already drinking, to drink more. The tool provides three important measures for each market: the percent of alcohol ads that are out of compliance with the 30 percent standard; the percent that exceed the 15 percent proportional standard; and “youth overexposure,” that is, how many ads

source to help inform local efforts to reduce youth exposure to alcohol marketing.” Alcohol is responsible for 4,700 deaths per year among young people under the age of 21. Every day, close to 4,500 young people under 16 take their first drink, and binge drinking (defined as consuming five or more drinks within two hours) accounts for more than 90 percent of the alcohol consumed by young people. The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth monitors the marketing practices of the alcohol industry to focus attention and action on industry practices that jeopardize the health and safety of America’s youth. The center was founded in 2002 at Georgetown University with funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The center moved to the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2008 and is currently funded by the CDC. —Tim Parsons

Symptoms that mimic epilepsy linked to stress, poor coping skills

headlines out of western New York have described a group of more than a dozen female high school students who experienced uncontrollable tics and other movements, which many experts now believe are manifestations of a “contagious” psychiatric, rather than neurological, disorder. In a new study, a team of neuropsychologists and neurologists at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine suggests that people with PNES don’t necessarily experience more frequent or severe stressful events than people with epilepsy or neurologically healthy people do. However, they seem to lack effective coping mechanisms necessary to deal with those stresses and feel more distressed by them. “These patients behave as if they have an organic brain disease, but they don’t,” said Jason Brandt, the study’s senior investigator and a professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and of neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. “And it turns out that their life stresses weren’t all that high, but they’re very sensitive to stress, and they don’t deal with it well.” The Johns Hopkins researchers say that they undertook the new study in an effort to learn why “psychogenic” symptoms so closely simulate a physical disorder and why some people are more susceptible to these behaviors than others. Clearly, not every overwhelmed person develops seizure symptoms, they note, nor is it known how many people experience pseudoseizures. For the study, published online in the journal Seizure, the researchers evaluated 40 patients with PNES, 20 people with epilepsy and 40 healthy control volunteers, all of whom were asked to report the frequency of various stressful life events (both positive

WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

ased on their clinical experience and observations, a team of Johns Hopkins physicians and psychologists say that more than one-third of the patients admitted to The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s inpatient epilepsy monitoring unit for treatment of intractable seizures have been discovered to have stress-triggered symptoms rather than a true seizure disorder. These patients—returning war veterans, mothers in child custody battles and overextended professionals alike—have what doctors are calling a psychogenic nonepileptic seizure, or PNES. Their display of uncontrollable movements, far-off stares or convulsions, Johns Hopkins researchers say, is not the result of the abnormal electrical discharges in the brain that characterize epilepsy but instead appears to be stress-related behaviors that mimic, and are misdiagnosed as, the neurological disorder. One potent clue, the researchers note, is that anti-seizure medications fail to stop these patients’ symptoms, suggesting that nothing is physically wrong with their brains’ electrical activity. The researchers also say that from what they have seen in recent months, the diagnoses appear to be on the rise. In the past, behaviors like PNES were called hysteria. Now they are often considered by psychiatrists as part of a conversion disorder, in which the patient unconsciously converts emotional dysfunction into physical symptoms. In some cases, those afflicted have become paralyzed or blind because of emotional trauma. People at risk for pseudoseizures, the Johns Hopkins scientists say, are typically highly suggestible, which is why physicians often have tried not to publicize or draw attention to the condition. In recent months,

David Vaino, Katie Radin, President Ron Daniels, Leah Granovskaya and Hong Tai were among the hundreds with lunch on their minds when Spring Fair opened at noon on Friday. The picnic tables filled up quickly as the scents of pizza, French fries, cheesesteaks, hot dogs and roasted turkey legs wafted over the Homewood campus, signaling the start of the 41st annual student-run event.

and negative) over the previous five years. The research subjects then appraised the distress that these events induced. Each group reported roughly the same number of stressful events, but the PNES group reported much higher distress levels than the other two groups. The researchers found that the PNES group was less likely to plan a course of action to counter stressful life events. Those who used denial—the failure to acknowledge stressors—experienced greater distress than those who did not, illustrating the ineffectiveness of denial as a way of warding off anxiety, Brandt says. Along with seizure symptoms, patients with PNES often have other problematic behaviors and unstable relationships. Many remain occupationally disabled and have high health care expenditures, even years after the nonepileptic nature of their events is identified, the authors report. The costs of believing you have epilepsy when you don’t are high, Brandt notes. Financially, there are the costs of doctor visits, medication that doesn’t work and hospitalizations in specialty units such as Johns Hopkins’ Epilepsy Monitoring Unit. In the EMU, patients are hooked up to both a video camera, to capture the onset and characteristics of a seizure, and an EEG (an electroencephalogram), to monitor the electrical signals of the brain. Sensors attached to the scalp check for alignment of seizure behavior and abnormal electrical discharges in the brain. There are also psychological and social costs of having disabling seizures that can’t be controlled. Gregory L. Krauss, a professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins and one of the study’s coauthors, says that he is surprised by how many patients are being referred to his epilepsy unit without having epilepsy at all. And the numbers appear to be growing. He says that in recent months, as many as half of those referred to the unit have pseudoseizures. When the team discovers individuals who—using a computer analogy—don’t have a hardware problem but a software glitch, they get the good news. Often, Krauss says, symptoms go away quickly. But, Brandt says, such patients often need cognitive behavior therapy to help them develop more-effective coping skills. “There’s a lot of stress out there in our modern society, and this research highlights that many people don’t have the skills to cope with that,” Krauss said. People with PNES can spend years in treatment for epilepsy, say Krauss and his colleagues, who also report that neurologists may be misdiagnosing PNES patients by misreading their EEGs. In a study of 46 patients, published in the journal Neurology in 2005, the patterns seen on 54 percent of EEG readouts were misinterpreted as epilepsy. Krauss says that patients often come to him having been told by a neurologist that their EEG shows they have epilepsy. Another report by Krauss in Neurology, published in 2007, looked at the use of

service dogs trained to assist patients with epilepsy. The researchers determined that four of the six patients in the study actually had PNES and not epilepsy, and by alerting patients to an oncoming seizure, the dogs may instead have been perpetuating the pseudoseizures by putting the idea of seizures into the minds of those with PNES. The dogs are trained to anticipate overt behavior and presumably cannot distinguish between PNES and true seizure disorders. “We’re just seeing a large number of these patients, and we’ll probably see more of them,” Krauss said. Ronald P. Lesser and S. Marc Testa, both of Johns Hopkins, also worked on the newest study. —Stephanie Desmon

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6 23,15, 2012 6 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• April August 2011

Provost’s Undergraduate Research Awards

Summer 2011 recipients Jorge M. Benmaman, junior, chemical and biomolecular engineering, WSE “The Temporal and Spatial Role of Secretory Molecules That Govern Cancer Cell Motility” Sponsor: Denis Wirtz, Theophilus H. Smoot Professor of Engineering Science; professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of oncology; and director of the NCI Physical Sciences in Oncology Center, WSE and SoM Natalie Bray, junior, Earth and planetary sciences, KSAS “Effects of Increasing CO2 on Leaf Litter Palatability and Chemistry for Soil Animals” Sponsor: Katalin Szlavecz, associate research professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences, KSAS Sarah Bristol, senior, SoN “Mothers’ Documentation of the Persistent Impact of War on Their Children and Family in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Photovoice Project” Sponsor: Nancy Glass, associate professor, Community Public Health Nursing, SoN; associate director, Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health Melinda Chen, sophomore, biomedical engineering, WSE “Dynamic Interplay Between Cell Morphology and Biochemical Signaling Pathways”

Fall 2011 recipients Madeleine Beebe, senior, SoN “Abuse and Disrespect by Health Care Providers as a Barrier to Facility-based Births in Mali” Sponsor: Nicole Warren, assistant professor, Community Public Health, SoN Wui Yarn “Daphne” Chan, junior, chemical and biomolecular engineering, WSE “Formulation and Optimization of MucusPenetrating Nanoparticles for Delivery of Lung Cancer Drugs” Sponsor: Justin Hanes, director of the Center for Nanomedicine and professor of ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, chemical and biomolecular engineering, environmental health sciences, neurosurgery and oncology, SoM Sean Dangelmajer, junior, psychological and brain sciences, KSAS “Testosterone Regulation of NMDA Receptors in Relation to Sensorimotor Vocal Learning in Female Canaries” Sponsor: Gregory Ball, vice dean for science and research infrastructure, and professor in Psychological and Brain Sciences, KSAS Prabhav Deo, junior, neuroscience, KSAS “Reconciling Object-Based Attention With Independent Feature Selection” Sponsor: Jonathan Flombaum, assistant professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences, KSAS Zainab Doctor, sophomore, molecular and cell biology, KSAS “Discovery of Cellular Metabolites Regulating Mammalian Acetyl-Coenzyme A Synthetases” Sponsor: Young-Sam Lee, assistant professor, Biology, KSAS Kenneth Felsenstein, senior, public health studies and history of science, medicine and technology, KSAS “Tumor Angiogenesis: Rational Development of Therapeutic Strategies” Sponsor: Hans-Joerg Hammers, assistant professor of medicine, SoM

Sponsor: Takanari Inoue, assistant professor, Cell Biology, SoM Woo Jin Choi, senior, biomedical engineering, SoM “Preparation and Characterization of MucusPenetrating Drug Nanocrystals” Sponsor: Justin Hanes, director, Center for Nanomedicine at Johns Hopkins; professor of ophthalmology, biomedical engineering, chemical and biomolecular engineering, environmental health sciences, neurosurgery and oncology, SoM Nolan DiFrancesco, senior, international studies, KSAS “New Media in the Arab World: A Look Into Beirut” Sponsor: Fadel Abdallah, lecturer, Center for Language Teaching, KSAS

Crosslinking Proteins in Cancer Cell Motility in 3D Matrices” Sponsor: Denis Wirtz, Theophilus H. Smoot Professor of Engineering Science; professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of oncology; director of the NCI Physical Sciences in Oncology Center, WSE and SoM Xiang Li, senior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Engineering Brain Tumor Cells With BuiltIn Oxygen Sensors” Sponsor: Arvind P. Pathak, assistant professor, Radiology, SoM Rubi Luna, senior, biology, KSAS “Stress and Coping: Baccalaureate Nursing Students in Clinical Simulations” Sponsor: Darcy Thompson, assistant professor of pediatrics, SoM

Jean Fan, junior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Improving Computational Models of the Biological Consequences of Mutation Through Limiting the Phylogenetic Distances of Orthologous Sequences” Sponsor: Rachel Karchin, assistant professor, Biomedical Engineering and Institute for Computational Medicine, WSE

Katherine Magruder, senior, music performance, Peabody Institute “The Life and Times of Ferdinand Palmo: Food and Music in 19th-Century New York City” Sponsor: Susan Weiss, professor and chair of Musicology, Peabody Institute; joint appointment, German and Romance Languages and Literatures, KSAS

Jonah Furman, senior, philosophy, KSAS “The Anti-postmodernist Ethics of David Foster Wallace’s The Pale King” Sponsor: Yi-Ping Ong, assistant professor, Humanities Center, KSAS

Simon Pan, junior, molecular and cellular biology, KSAS “Unraveling the Apoptotic Signaling Pathways Regulated by Pax6 During Retinal Development” Sponsor: Valeria Canto-Soler, assistant professor of ophthalmology, SoM

Hasini U. Jayatilaka, junior, chemical and biomolecular engineering, WSE “The Role of Actin Bundling and

Jacqueline Ferguson, senior, public health studies, KSAS “Secondhand Smoke on the Homewood Campus” Sponsor: Erika Tang, assistant scientist and epidemiologist, Institute for Global Tobacco Control, SPH John J. Kim, junior, biomedical engineering, WSE “The Centrosome-Associated Retrogene, Centrin 1, Is a Novel Cancer Testis Antigen Biomarker and Plays a Key Role in Cancer” Sponsor: Robert Getzenberg, the Donald S. Coffey Professor of Urology, director of the Urology Research Laboratories and professor of oncology and of pharmacology and molecular sciences, SoM Akshay Krishnaswamy, senior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Independent Spatiotemporal Neural Patterns Underlying Reach-to-Grasp Movements” Sponsor: Nathan Crone, associate professor of neurology, SoM Nishant Ganesh Kumar, junior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Development of a Microfluidic Platform for Isolation of Axonal Materials to Assay to Microglia” Sponsor: Nitish Thakor, professor of biomedical engineering, electrical engineering and neurology, SoM Seung Hoon Lee, junior, neuroscience, KSAS “Developing Cross-Synaptic Tracers to Map the Neural Circuitry” Sponsor: Hongjun Song, professor of neurology and neuroscience, director of the Stem Cell Program, SoM Tiras Lin, junior, mechanical engineering, WSE “Fly on a Wall: A Combined ExperimentalComputational Study of the Aero and Body Dynamics of Landing in a Fruit Fly” Sponsor: Rajat Mittal, professor of mechanical engineering, WSE Maria Ly, junior, neuroscience and psychology, KSAS “Pattern Separation of Verbal Stimuli in Young and Older Adults” Sponsor: Michael Yassa, assistant professor, Psychological and Brain Sciences, KSAS

Anita Ram, senior, public health studies, KSAS

Margarita “Sachi” Mana-ay, senior, SoN “Community Attitudes About Domestic Violence and Effects on Resource Utilization” Sponsor: Jacquelyn Campbell, Anna D. Wolf Professor, Community Public Health, SoN Hyun Sung Park, junior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Formation of Neuromuscular Junctions Using Embryonic Stem Cell–Derived Motor Neurons in a Novel Compartmentalized Microfluidic Chamber” Sponsors: John McDonald, executive director of the International Center for Spinal Cord Injury at the Hugo W. Moser Research Institute at Kennedy Krieger and an associate professor in Neurology and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, SoM; and In Hong Yang, research associate, Biomedical Engineering, SoM Elizabeth Peijnenburg, junior, molecular and cellular biology, KSAS “Directed Differentiation of Endothelial Cells from Human Pluripotent Stem Cells” Sponsor: Sharon Gerecht, assistant professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, WSE Anne Pigula, junior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Gender Differences in Skeletal Muscle Ischemic Response” Sponsor: Feilim Mac Gabhann, assistant professor of biomedical engineering and a core faculty member of the Institute for Computational Medicine, Johns Hopkins Institutions Richard Powers, senior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Computational Modeling of the Stereocilia Membrane and the Implications for Hair Cell Mechanotransduction” Sponsor: Alexander Spector, research professor in Biomedical Engineering and Mechanical Engineering, WSE Lauren Rubino, senior, SoN “Stress and Coping: Baccalaureate Nursing Students in Clinical Simulations” Sponsor: Pamela Jeffries, professor and associate dean for academic affairs, SoN David Sambade, junior, chemistry, KSAS “Redox Catalysis with Metalloporphyrin-Functionalized TiO2 for Solar Energy Conversion” Sponsor: Gerald Meyer, Bernard N. Baker Professor of Chemistry, KSAS

“Evaluating the Nutrition Transition in South India” Sponsor: Lawrence Cheskin, director, Weight Management Center, SPH Andrew Rosenberg, senior, international studies, KSAS “A Constitutional and Political Examination of the Same-Sex Marriage Debate” Sponsor: Joel B. Grossman, professor, Political Science, KSAS Malena Silva, junior, psychology and cognitive science, KSAS “Spatial Language and the Spatial Deficit in People with Williams Syndrome” Sponsor: Barbara Landau, Dick and Lydia Todd Professor and department chair, Cognitive Science, KSAS Eva Smith, sophomore, international studies, KSAS “Labor, Struggle and Change: The Story of Leticia Najarro Romero and Her Role in the Labor Movement of Guatemala” Sponsor: Peter Beilenson, lecturer, Public Health Studies, KSAS Andrew Snavely, senior, cellular and molecular biology, KSAS “Odorant Receptor Trafficking in Olfactory Sensory Neurons” Sponsor: Haiqing Zhao, associate professor, Biology, KSAS Alex Treiger, senior, public health, KSAS “Health Care, Civil Rights and Congress’ Contested Power: The Evolution of the Commerce Clause” Sponsor: Joel Grossman, professor, Political Science, KSAS

Arianne Sevilla, senior, chemical and biomolecular engineering, WSE “Measurement of Peeling Forces” Sponsor: Joelle Frechette, assistant professor, Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, WSE Steven Su, senior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Visualization and Quantitative Analysis of Ras Small GTPase in Primary Cilia Resorption” Sponsor: Takanari Inoue, assistant professor, Cell Biology, SoM Ang Andy Tu, junior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Acellular Artificial Lymph Node (aaLN) for Generation of Antigen-specific Cytotoxic Lymphocytes” Sponsor: Jonathan Schneck, professor of immunology and a member of the Institute for Cell Engineering, SoM Stephanie Valarezo, junior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Characterizing Lysosomes in Differentially Invasive/Metastatic Breast Cancer Cell Lines” Sponsor: Kristine Glunde, associate professor of radiology and oncology, SoM Hui Yang, senior, molecular and cellular biology, and mathematics, KSAS “Proinsulin’s Role in Regulating Early Eye Development” Sponsor: Valeria Canto-Soler, assistant professor of ophthalmology, SoM Ava Yap, junior, cellular and molecular biology, KSAS “Cadherin-Based Cancer Cell Motility in Epithelial Tissues” Sponsor: Denis Wirtz, Theophilus H. Smoot Professor of Engineering Science; professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering and of oncology; and director of the NCI Physical Sciences in Oncology Center, WSE and SoM Sohail Zahid, junior, biomedical engineering, WSE “Imputing Linkage Disequilibrium for Genomewide Association Studies” Sponsor: Joel Bader, associate professor, Biomedical Engineering, WSE

April 23, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

Continued from page 1 Award project. The Los Angeles native wanted to study the impact of increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide on leaf litter palatability and chemistry. Leaf chemistry, Bray says, is sensitive business. Soak up too much CO2, and the leaves could become an unappetizing snack for animals like millipedes, pill bugs and earthworms that eat dead and decaying plant matter. Or, even if the invertebrates do chow down, the altered chemistry of the leaves they’re ingesting could alter the composition of their droppings that enrich the soil. “The complex carbons in the leaves decompose much more slowly without earthworms and arthropods, such as millipedes,” Bray says. “By eating and digesting the leaves, they transform these compounds into simpler carbon and nitrogen forms. This process makes the soil rich enough for trees and plants to grow.” Since 1993, the PURAs have allowed students like Bray the opportunity to dig into important questions and explore ideas that could take them to a forest floor, a high-tech lab or across continents. This year, grants of up to $2,500 funded 46 original research projects proposed and carried out during summer and fall 2011 by students in each of the university’s four schools with full-time undergraduates: the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Whiting School of Engineering, the Peabody Conservatory and the School of Nursing. Mentored by faculty from across the university, the students pursued a variety of research activities, such as looking at the impact of new media in the Arab world, engineering brain tumor cells with built-in oxygen sensors, undertaking a constitutional and political examination of the same-sex marriage debate, optimizing mucus-penetrating nanoparticles for the delivery of lung-cancer drugs and investigating the life and times of a little-known restaurateur and opera theater impresario in 19th-century New York. (See facing page for a complete list of projects.) Through donations from the Hodson Trust, the Provost’s Undergraduate Research Awards program has supported 855 student endeavors over the past 19 years. In total, the Hodson Trust has contributed more than $3.5 million in both operating and endowment support to the PURA program. Scott Zeger, vice provost for research at Johns Hopkins, says that the awards are an important part of the university’s mission and its commitment to research opportunities for undergraduates. In a recent internal study, roughly onethird of Johns Hopkins juniors and seniors in the schools of Arts and Sciences and Engineering said that they were doing research or independent study in the current academic year through such programs as PURA, Woodrow Wilson fellowships or other. Roughly 13 percent of freshmen and sophomores in the Homewood schools said that they are participating in research or independent study. While precise numbers are not available, an estimated 40 percent of Johns Hopkins undergraduates will participate in some level of independent study or sponsored research before they graduate, according to statistics from the Provost’s Office. Zeger says that through research, students learn key skills such as how to frame a question, gather evidence, interpret findings, form a conclusion and practice self-criticism. He says it also allows them to grow as individuals. “These experiences are also about personal discovery,” he says. “The students come to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and abilities they didn’t think they had. Perhaps the way they thought about their problem wasn’t accurate and they had to adjust their thinking. This all leads them to a heightened sense of intellectual maturity and a newfound sense of confidence.”

Junior Simon Pan studied the role of the Pax6 gene in optic vesicle formation.

WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

Digging

On Tuesday, May 1, Lloyd Minor, provost and senior vice president for academic affairs, will host the annual PURA ceremony to honor the achievements of the program’s student researchers. The program will be held in the Glass Pavilion at Homewood. The entire Johns Hopkins community is invited to the event, which begins at 3 p.m. with an informal poster session allowing students to display and talk about their projects. A recognition ceremony hosted by Provost Minor will begin at 4:30 p.m. and will include student performances. “I think it’s brilliant, the best day of the year,” Zeger says. “I’m always impressed and gratified by the quality of the work. And it’s fun to watch the faculty hovering around, beaming with their own sense of pride.” The posters and presentations themselves tell a story of the discovery process, which sometimes brings more questions than answers. For Bray’s project, the arthropods she collected ate the leaves, even some sweetgum from Oak Ridge, Tenn., that had been exposed to 12 years of elevated CO2 levels and had turned a dark brown color, as compared to the normal orange brown of that particular leaf. “They didn’t seem to hate it like I thought they might,” she says. The next step, then, was to determine if the insects’ droppings were chemically similar in terms of carbon and nitrogen to the “normal” droppings. Specifically, she was interested in the carbon and nitrogen content, and the carbon isotope ratio, in the leaves, the animal tissue and the droppings. She is currently awaiting final data from a stable isotope facility where all her samples are being analyzed. Bray’s faculty adviser, Katalin Szlavecz, says that the impact of elevated C02 levels on the productivity of ecosystems deserves very close examination, as it has ramifications for every living thing, from the tiniest insect that eats the leaves to humans who eat the fruit off trees. “Natalie’s project represents a hot new topic in soil ecology. Understanding the soil food web is extremely challenging, and stable isotopes are a promising tool toward this goal,” says Szlavecz, an associate research professor in the Morton K. Blaustein Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences. “If successful, this method allows us to follow carbon from leaves through the soil food chain.” For her project, Bray traveled to the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center in Edgewater, Md., and to Hawk Mountain, Pa., to collect millipedes and isopods. Some students go much farther afield to conduct their research, like School of Nursing student Sarah Bristol. Bristol flew to the Democratic Republic of Congo last summer to conduct a “Photovoice” project to document the persistent impact of war and violence on the country’s women and children, and to better understand the role of solidarity groups in the health and well-being of these people. The Congo has experienced armed conflict since the 1990s, and sexual violence has been a common weapon used against women, men and children to destabilize families and communities. Bristol spent six weeks in the Congo and conducted her study in the Murhali Village in the nation’s Walungu Territory—a far cry from her small hometown of White Lake, Wis. The study’s 14 participants were members of a solidarity group sponsored by a local nongovernmental organization, Foundation RamaLevina, or FORAL. The group originally formed from a small band of women who gathered outside a local clinic. The individuals had already been seen and treated at the clinic but kept returning because they had mental wounds left to heal and wanted someone to listen. Bristol gave these women digital cameras, taught them how to use them and asked them to document their lives prior to, during and after the armed conflict. She says that the photos exceeded her expectations.

WILL KIRK / HOMEWOODPHOTO.JHU.EDU

Provost’s Undergraduate Research Awards

Nursing student Sarah Bristol traveled to the Congo for her ‘Photovoice’ project.

“Their ideas were so clever and powerful,” she says. The women would, for example, take pictures of other people’s animals to illustrate their lives as farmers prior to the conflict. Some took pictures of small children perched high on tree branches to depict how they would hide their own children when armed rebels came to town. To illustrate their current conditions, some photographed food to show how important nutrition had become in their lives. They gave every picture a title and an explanation. Bristol and other members of her research team later interviewed the women, through a translator, to review their photos and discuss the meaning assigned to them. Some common themes appeared, such as their happiness and strength before the war, the survival strategies used during the conflict, and life post-conflict, which included joining together and rebuilding lives. The notes from the interviews were used for analysis by FORAL staff, and each participant then presented her photographs and told her stories to women in her own solidarity group. Bristol says that her project has opened a new line of communication between FORAL and the women it serves. “Photovoice methodology is being integrated into FORAL’s evaluation of program activities to provide ongoing opportunity for women and other participants to provide insight and suggestions into needed activities and resources,” she says. “The women also shared with me that they want people outside their community to see how hard they are working to improve their own lives and the lives of their families. They want other women to have this opportunity as well.” Some PURA projects, like Simon Pan’s, are more traditionally lab-based and conducted right in Baltimore. Pan, a junior majoring in molecular and cell biology, used his PURA grant to study the role of the Pax6 gene in optic vesicle development; in particular, its role in promoting retinal cell survival at these early stages.

Pax6 functions as a master regulatory gene for eye development and is involved in regulating cell cycle events, proliferation and neuronal specification and differentiation. Pan’s project follows up on previous findings from a Wilmer Eye Institute lab where he works. By “knocking down” Pax6 expression in cells of the developing retina in chicken embryos, Pan and the lab staff found that in addition to a small eye phenotype and a failure of the optic lens to develop, the loss of Pax6 function led to massive amounts of apoptosis, or programmed cell death. In his study, Pan characterized the apoptotic pathway triggered by the loss of Pax6 that leads to retinal cell death. He concluded that Pax6 has a novel function in promoting retinal cell survival at these stages, and that loss of Pax6 triggers a cell-intrinsic death mechanism mediated by molecules known as caspases. Pan, who is from Honolulu, says that retinal degeneration diseases are a direct result of retinal cells undergoing apoptosis when they shouldn’t be, and so, understanding the molecular mechanisms by which cells die is critical in developing pharmaceutical interventions to attempt to rescue these dying cells. “The hope is that understanding Pax6’s role in cell survival will aid in understanding certain diseases of the eye, such as glaucoma, which involves the degeneration of retinal ganglion cells,” he says. M. Valeria Canto-Soler, Pan’s adviser and an assistant professor of ophthalmology in the School of Medicine, says that Pan’s natural curiosity and propensity to scientific thinking led him to review the literature related to the topic he was already working on in her lab, elaborate his own hypotheses and design the experiments to test them. “With his work, Simon has contributed to our understanding of the molecular mechanisms controlling the survival of the cells that give rise to the retina during embryonic development,” Canto-Soler says. “Also, Continued on page 10

8 23,15, 2012 8 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• April August 2011

Student teams to compete for JH Business Plan prize money By Pam Arrington

Whiting School of Education

he nationally recognized Johns Hopkins University Business Plan Competition, hosted by the Whiting School of Engineering’s Center for Leadership Education, provides an opportunity for students to take a novel idea or innovative technology and develop a business plan based around it. Starting with a concept, students build an understanding of their target market, analyze potential competitors, craft an effective market-entry strategy and present their

plans to industry professionals and venture capitalists. The business plans include information on the need for a product or service, the range of potential customers, competition in the marketplace and how the company will be financed and will ultimately turn a profit. On Friday, April 27, teams from seven JHU divisions will have about 15 minutes to present oral and PowerPoint summaries of their plans and to answer questions from the judges. The presentations and judging will take place from 1:30 to 5 p.m. in rooms 210 (general business category), 213 (life sciences) and 216 (social enterprises) of A P R I L

Homewood’s Hodson Hall. Winners will be announced during a dinner and awards ceremony, to be held from 5 to 7 p.m., featuring guest speaker Kevin Joseph, president and CEO of West Chester Hospital and senior vice president for UC Health in West Chester, Ohio. Joseph is a 1996 graduate of Johns Hopkins, having earned bachelor’s degrees in biomedical engineering, psychology and materials science. He joined West Chester Hospital as medical director of emergency medicine before the hospital opened in 2009, and that same year was named one of the Cincinnati Business Courier’s Forty Under 40. 2 3

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3 0

Calendar Continued from page 12 WSE. 110 Clark. HW (Videoconferenced to 709 Traylor. EB ) Mon., April 23, 4 p.m. “The ‘Sticky Sediment’ of Daily Life: Radical Domesticity, Revolutionary Christianity and the Problem of Wealth in Early 20th-Century Britain,” a History seminar with Seth Koven, Rutgers University. 308 Gilman. HW

“Factorization Homology and Link Invariants,” a Topology seminar with Hiro Lee Tanaka, Northwestern University. Sponsored by Mathematics. 308 Krieger. HW Mon., April 23, 4:30 p.m.

“Not Just for Kids: Enriching Information Retrieval With Reading Level Metadata,” a Center for Language and Speech Processing seminar with Kevyn Collins-Thompson, Microsoft Research. B17 Hackerman. HW

Tues., April 24, noon.

Tues., April 24, noon. “Evaluating Clinical Practice Variation Using a Knowledge-Based Temporal Sequence Alignment Framework,” a Health Informatics/Information Science faculty candidate seminar with Wei-Nchih Lee, Stanford University. Sponsored by Health Policy and Management. 688 Hampton House. EB

The M. Gordon Wolman Seminar— “Perspectives From Sustainability Science About Energy Sustainability” with Thomas Wilbanks, Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Sponsored by Geography and Environmental Engineering. 234 Ames. HW Tues., April 24, 3 p.m.

“A Mixed Method Study of Collaboration Among HIV Service Agencies in Baltimore,” a Health, Behavior and Society thesis defense seminar with Nidhi Khosla. W2017 SPH. EB

Wed., April 25, 10 a.m.

Wed., April 25, noon. “Gender and Health: A Multi-Method Approach to Understanding Access to Care and HIV Risk Among Transgender Adults,” an International Health thesis defense seminar with Tonia Poteat. W2015 SPH. EB

Mental Health Noon Seminar— “The Impact of Health Care Reform on Substance Abuse Treatment Among Homeless Adults” with Julia Zur, SPH. B14B Hampton House. EB

“Mechanisms of Motor Control and Reinforcement Learning in the Basal Ganglia,” a Neuroscience research seminar with Anatol Kreitzer, University of California, San Francisco. West Lecture Hall (ground floor), WBSB. EB

Wed., April 25, 1:30 p.m. “How

Thurs., April 26, 1:30 p.m.

Wed., April 25, 12:15 p.m.

to Have Fun With Membrane Receptors and Other Greasy Proteins,” an Institute for Biophysical Research seminar with Kalina Hristova, WSE. Part of the Chalk It Up to Biophysics series. 701 WBSB. EB

Wed., April 25, 3 p.m. “RealTime Bio-Inspired Sensory Processing,” an Electrical and Computer Engineering seminar with Garrick Orchard, WSE. 101 Shaffer. HW

“The mTOR and Hippo Pathway in Cell Growth, Organ Size and Tumorigenesis,” a Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences seminar with Kun-Liang Guan, University of California, San Diego. West Lecture Hall (ground floor), WBSB. EB

Wed., April 25, 4 p.m.

Thurs., April 26, 10:45 a.m.

“The Computational Power of Chemical Reaction Networks,” a Computer Science seminar with Rebecca Schulman, WSE. B17 Hackerman. HW Thurs., April 26, noon. The Bromery Seminar—“Exploring the Early Bombardment of the Inner Solar System” with William Bottke, NASA/NLSI CLOE Southwest Research Institute. Sponsored by Earth and Planetary Sciences. Olin Auditorium. HW

“Using High Throughput Screening to Identify Host Factors Involved in Immunity,” a Molecular Microbiology and Immunology/Infectious Diseases seminar with Sara Cherry, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. W1020 SPH. EB Thurs., April 26, noon.

“The Life Cycle of the Cell Nucleus,” a Cell Biology seminar with Martin Hetzer, Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Suite 2-200, 1830 Bldg. EB

Thurs., April 26, noon.

Thurs.,

April

26,

p.m.

The goal of the competition is to provide students a venue to organize and present their ideas in a professional, competitive and educational setting, and to encourage students to apply these ideas, concepts and products to develop enterprises and career opportunities. The teams represent the Whiting School of Engineering, the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences, the Carey Business School, the School of Medicine, the Bloomberg School of Public Health, the School of Education and SAIS. The prizes in each category are: $6,000 (first place), $4,000 (second place), $2,000 (third place) and $250 (runners-up).

“Bump Hunting in the Cancer Epigenome,” an Applied Mathematics and Statistics seminar with Rafael Irizarry, WSE. 304 Whitehead. HW Thurs., April 26, 3 p.m. “The Dynamics of E. coli Ultra-Structure,” a Mechanical Engineering seminar with Paul Wiggins, University of Washington. 1 Remsen. HW Thurs., April 26, 3:30 p.m.

“Characterization of SUMOModified Substrates by Mass Spectrometry,” a Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences thesis defense seminar with Omoruyi Osula. 303 WBSB. EB Thurs., April 26, 4 p.m. “Carbo-

hydrate-Based Vaccines,” a Biology seminar with Joanna KublerKielb, PDMI/NICHD/NIH. 100 Mudd. HW

Thurs., April 26, 4:15 p.m. “Montaigne and Skeptical Ataraxia,” a Philosophy seminar with Luiz Eva, Universidade Federal do Parana, Brazil. 288 Gilman. HW Fri., April 27, 10 a.m. “Changing Health Behaviors in Medical Settings,” a Center for Behavior and Health seminar with Stephen Rollnick, Cardiff University. Asthma and Allergy Auditorium. Bayview

“Nonlinear Growth of Wind-Driven Surface Waves by Critical-Layer Interaction,” a CEAFM seminar with Sang Soo Lee, Naval Surface Warfare Center. 50 Gilman. HW

Fri., April 27, 11 a.m.

Fri., April 27, 1 p.m. “Translational Mouse and Human Studies of Neuropsychiatric Diseases,” a Molecular and Comparative Pathobiology seminar with Christopher Ross, SoM. Turner West Room (ground floor), BRB. EB Mon., April 30, noon. “Informatics for Population Health: New Directions for Getting the

Most From ‘Big Data’,” a Health Informatics/Information Science faculty candidate seminar with Taxiarchis Botsis, FDA. Sponsored by Health Policy and Management. 688 Hampton House. EB Mon., April 30, 12:10 p.m. “Law

Enforcement Strategies to Prevent Gun Violence,” a Graduate Seminar in Injury Research and Policy with Gerald Murphy and Molly Griswold Davidson, Police Executive Research Forum, Washington, DC. Co-sponsored by the Center for Injury Research and Policy, the Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence and the Center for Gun Policy and Research. 250 Hampton House. EB

Mon., April 30, 12:15 p.m. “The Evolutionary Origins of Oskar and the Role of Gene Co-Option in Insect Germ Cell Specification,” a Carnegie Institution Embryology seminar with Cassandra Extavour, Harvard University. Rose Auditorium, 3520 San Martin Drive. HW

“Designing Vaccines: Differentiation and Function of Follicular Helper CD4 T Cells,” an Immunology Training Program seminar with Shane Crotty, La Jolla Institute of Allergy and Immunology. Tilghman Auditorium, Turner Concourse. EB

Mon., April 30, 1 p.m.

SPECIAL EVENTS

“A Devotion to Classicism: The Enduring Popularity in Decorative Arts,” a discussion by architect and interior designer John J. Tackett. Second in the three-part House Beautiful lecture series, sponsored by Johns Hopkins University Museums. $20 general admission, $15 for museum members and students. Advance registration recommended; call 410-5160341 or go to brownpapertickets .com/event/219369. Evergreen Museum & Library.

Wed., April 25, 6:30 p.m.

S.L.A.M. (Stop! and Look at Me) annual dance showcase for Johns Hopkins’ only hip-hop dance group; with guest performances by the Octopodes, Shakti, the Eclectics, Ladybirds and others. Tickets are $3 (purchased at the door); J-Cash is accepted. Shriver Hall. HW

Fri., April 27, 8 p.m.

Grand opening of the Blue Jay’s Perch community garden. Johns Hopkins at Eastern.

Sat., April 28, 11 a.m.

Mon., April 30, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. East Baltimore Hous-

ing and Neighborhood Fair, an opportunity to learn about housing opportunities, community resources and future plans for East Baltimore neighborhoods, with representatives from the Live Near Your Work program, East Baltimore residential developers, the East Baltimore Community School, EBDI and other local associations. (See In Brief, p. 2.) To RSVP, email worklife@jhu.edu by Thurs., April 26. Turner Concourse. EB S P OR T S Wed., April 25, 7 p.m. Women’s Lacrosse, vs. UMBC. Homewood Field. HW

Women’s Lacrosse, vs. Ohio State. Homewood Field. HW

Sat., April 28, 1 p.m.

SYMPOSIA Tues., April 24, 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The Many Faces of

Depression, the 28th annual Mood Disorders Research/Education Symposium with various speakers. To register, go to hopkinscme .edu/coursedetail.aspx/80026959. Sponsored by Johns Hopkins Continuing Medical Education, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Mood Disorders Center. Turner Auditorium. EB Thurs., April 26, 3 to 4:30 p.m. E2SHI symposium with an

address, “How Airborne Particles Affect Your Health: Recent Evidence, Remaining Challenges and What They Mean for Environmental Policy,” by Michelle Bell, Yale University. The address will be followed by a discussion with Hugh Ellis, WSE, and Roger Peng, SPH. Members of the community are welcome to attend. E2030 SPH. EB W OR K S H O P S Thurs., April 26, 12:30 p.m.

Presentation on the Safe Space Sticker Program, which uses visible markers to indicate that a campus community is supportive of GLBT people and their allies. (See In Brief, p. 2.) Sponsored by the Committee for Diversity and Inclusion of the Carey Business School. The workshop will be facilitated by members of the GLBTA Resource Center of American University. To register for the event, email carey .diversity@jhu.edu. Second floor atrium, 100 International Drive.

April 23, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

Study: Genetically engineered compound for back pain falls short By Stephanie Desmon

Johns Hopkins Medicine

espite the great promise that injecting a new type of anti-inflammatory pain medicine into the spine could relieve the severe leg and lower back pain of sciatica, a Johns Hopkins–led study has found that the current standard of care with steroid injections still does better. Etanercept, sold under the brand name Enbrel, is a genetically engineered smallprotein drug known as a tumor necrosis factor, or TNF, inhibitor. Currently, it is used to treat rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune disorders in which the immune system attacks healthy tissue causing pain, swelling and damage. The drug blocks TNF, a naturally produced substance that causes inflammation. Although steroids combat inflammation generally, TNF inhibitors specifically target the inflammatory molecules causing sciatica and other pain conditions, and keep them from binding to receptors in the central nervous system, potentially preventing the pain altogether. A team led by Steven P. Cohen, an associate professor of anesthesiology and critical care medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, conducted a blinded, placebo-controlled study, providing epidural injections of either 60 milligrams of a steroid, 4 milligrams of etanercept or 2 milliliters of saline to 84 adult patients with sciatica. One month after the second of two injections, the patients on steroids reported less pain and less disability than those in the other two groups. The study is published in the April 17 issue of the Annals of Internal Medicine. Cohen says that studies with etanercept grew out of efforts to prevent or limit the pain that commonly comes from a herniated disc pressing on a nerve root in the lower back or neck. Steroids work, he says, but they are not without drawbacks, including mixed and only temporary results in relieving pain, and the potential for catastrophic complications. Pain experts have long been working to try to find an alternative treatment that is safe and reliable, he notes. “People are desperate for a safer, more effective drug,” Cohen said. “This new treatment shows a lot of promise, but at least in the doses we gave it—the dose known to be

Matchmaking Continued from page 1 interests and skill set to find a suitable match. For example, a Psychological and Brain Sciences student might assist the city’s Department of Social Services in creating new health education initiatives; a Geography and Environmental Engineering student could conduct a GIS mapping of urban farms, gardens and open spaces; and a School of Education student could coordinate citywide efforts to improve education outcomes among public school students. The program’s participants will be asked to commit a minimum of five hours per week each semester to project-based community engagement work. The students will partner with organizations such as the Greater Homewood Community Corp., the Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Human Services, the Parks and People Foundation, Baltimore City Public Schools and the Citizens Planning and Housing Association. Bill Tiefenwerth, director of the Center for Social Concern, says that the new program will help provide a much-needed resource for these agencies: skilled manpower. “The state of the economy, while improving, has placed a great strain on nonprofits

safe—steroids still work better. And in those lower doses, etanercept may not be the drug everyone’s hoping it is. There’s still a lot more work to be done.” Cohen says that a study published last month found that patients who received more than twice as much etanercept as was used in his study felt better one and two weeks after their injections than those who got steroids, but not four weeks out. The dose of etanercept administered by Cohen’s team—4 milligrams—was deemed to be the optimum dose found to be both safe and effective in a pilot study done in patients and animals by Cohen and colleagues. The idea behind administering an epidural injection for sciatica is to directly bathe the spinal nerve roots in a medication designed to reduce inflammation—and pain—in order to give the body time to heal itself, Cohen says. This treatment allows for better relief at lower doses of the medication and, in turn, produces fewer side effects than when the medications are given by mouth or intravenously. The new study found that more patients treated with epidural steroids (75 percent) reported 50 percent or greater leg pain relief and felt better overall after one month compared to those who received saline (50 percent) or etanercept (42 percent). On a pain scale of 0 to 10, with 10 denoting the worst pain, those who received steroids reported, at one month, an average pain score of 2.1 compared with 3.6 in the etanercept group and 3.8 in the group injected with saline. Those in the steroid group also reported lower levels of disability (21 percent) than those in the saline group (29 percent) or etanercept group (38 percent). After six months, however, slightly more patients in the saline (40 percent) and etanercept (38 percent) groups had a positive outcome than those in the steroid group (29 percent). “The effect of the steroids didn’t last,” Cohen said, “affirming the fact that steroids work, but not for very long.” Cohen says that research now needs to be done to test the safety and effectiveness of higher doses of etanercept and other drugs that block the inflammatory molecules responsible for pain. Funding for the study was provided by the John P. Murtha Neuroscience and Pain Institute, the International Spinal Intervention Society and the Center for Rehabilitation Sciences Research.

and public services. It is our hope that the graduate interns will find meaningful life experiences through this program while providing needed help to our community through their research, scholarship or administrative expertise,” Tiefenwerth says. The program was inspired in part by the Johns Hopkins Student Outreach Resource Center, better known as SOURCE. SOURCE, founded in 2005, provides academic, professional and personal development opportunities for members of the schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health through community outreach and service-learning partnerships with community-based organizations. The center coordinates community involvement activities—from a one-time park cleanup to an in-depth internship—and functions as a clearinghouse through which community groups can request assistance. The Graduate Student Community Engagement Program will receive advisory support from the Homewood schools’ Office of Graduate Affairs and Admissions, and the School of Education’s Office of the Dean. An orientation for graduate student participants, including a community and interpersonal awareness course, will be held at the beginning of the fall 2012 semester. Applications will be available June 1 on the Center for Social Concern’s website, jhu.edu/csc. For more information, go to grad.jhu.edu/student-life/gscep. G

10 23,15, 2012 10 THE THE GAZETTE GAZETTE •• April August 2011 H U M A N

Notices

Hot Jobs

Johns Hopkins Baby Shower — Expect-

Listed below are some of the university’s newest openings for in-demand jobs that we most urgently need to fill. In addition to considering these opportunities, candidates are invited to search a complete listing of openings and apply for positions online at jobs.jhu.edu.

Homewood Office of Human Resources Wyman Park Building, Suite W600, 410-516-7196 The Reporting and Special Projects Specialist position is located within HR/Payroll Shared Services and is responsible for supporting the functional SAP processes and procedures as related to HR/Payroll Shared Services. This position will serve as the SAP reporting expert for Human Resources and Payroll Shared Services, which is a high-volume call center. The candidate for this position must be team-oriented and have the ability to multitask and meet deadlines on a consistent basis. For more information and to apply, go to jobs.jhu.edu. 51823

Reporting and Special Projects Specialist

Under the general direction of the Financial Systems Administration Manager, the LAN Administrator III for FSA works independently to develop and implement both server and desktop configurations. The LAN Administrator III meets with the customers to determine networking application, connectivity and hardware/software needs; researches, tests and makes recommendations for the purchase and maintenance of hardware, operating systems and application software at both the desktop user level and the server datacenter level; prepares and tests associated automatic software distribution packages; installs server operating systems and other software, fine-tuning them to meet system specifications; and develops and writes system documentation and maintenance procedures. For more information and to apply, go to jobs.jhu.edu. 52069

LAN Administrator III

Office of Human Resources 98 N. Broadway, Suite 300, 410-955-2990 The Department of Emergency Medicine is expanding its physician assistant staff and is thus seeking full-time PAs. These positions are available immediately for emergency medicine– trained, certified PAs seeking to build a career at a world-renowned academic center where they will work in The Johns Hopkins Hospital’s new state-of-the-art Emergency Department, opening this month in the new clinical building that will house the Cardiovascular and Critical Care Adult services. For detailed job descriptions and to apply, go to jobs.jhu.edu. Physician Assistant Physician Assistant

Schools of Public Health and Nursing Office of Human Resources 2021 E. Monument St., 410-955-3006 The Bloomberg School of Public Health is offering several opportunities for individuals who possess strong analytical, organizational and communication skills. For detailed job descriptions and to apply, go to jobs.jhu.edu. 52128 51864 51690

Research Program Manager Research Program Assistant Research Technologist

Johns Hopkins University is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of gender, marital status, pregnancy, race, color, ethnicity, national origin, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, veteran status, other legally protected characteristics or any other occupationally irrelevant criteria.

Woodcliffe Manor Apartments

S PA C I O U S

G A R D E N A PA RT M E N T L I V I N G I N

ant and new parents are invited to the Johns Hopkins Baby Shower, from 3 to 5 p.m., Tuesday, May 1, on the East Baltimore campus. Johns Hopkins offers a variety of services to support JHU faculty and staff and JHH/ JHHSC employees during the life transition of having a baby. Among the topics to be discussed at the shower are breastfeeding, choosing quality child care, postpartum depression and car seat safety. Participants can meet with a benefits representative to review their employee benefits package, or network with other expectant and new mothers and fathers. Men will have the opportunity to join other dads to discuss bonding with the baby or adjusting to new schedules. Guests can enter a drawing to win prizes. Register online at hopkinsworklife.org/

R O L A N D PA R K

• Large airy rooms • Hardwood Floors

B O A R D

babyshower or contact the Office of Work, Life and Engagement at 443-997-7000. The deadline for registration is Friday, April 27. Go to hopkinsworklife.org for information about other upcoming workshops and other programs. Sixth Annual Fiesta 5K — The sixth annual Fiesta 5K will be held Saturday, May 5, at Power Plant Live in downtown Baltimore. Funds raised from this event support the Robert Packard Center for ALS Research at Johns Hopkins, the only international scientific operation dedicated solely to curing ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. Last year the event attracted 2,400 runners and walkers, making it one of the top 10 races in Baltimore. To support Fiesta 5K, you can start your own team, sign up for the Neurology department’s team Neuro-toGo or sign up to walk or run on your own. Volunteers are also needed to help on the day of the event. For more information or to sign up, go to fiesta5k.com.

Sunlight plus lime juice makes drinking water safer B y N ata l i e W o o d - W r i g h t

Bloomberg School of Public Health

School of Medicine

49941 50912

B U L L E T I N

R E S O U R C E S

ooking for an inexpensive and effective way to quickly improve the quality of your drinking water? According to a team of researchers from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, sunlight and a twist of lime might do the trick. Researchers found that adding lime juice to water that is treated with a solar disinfection method removed detectable levels of harmful bacteria such as Escherichia coli significantly faster than solar disinfection alone. The results are featured in the April issue of American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. “For many countries, access to clean drinking water is still a major concern. Previous studies estimate that globally, half of all hospital beds are occupied by people suffering from a water-related illness,” said Kellogg Schwab, senior author of the study, director of the Johns Hopkins University Global Water Program and a professor in the Bloomberg School’s Department of Environmental Health Sciences. “The preliminary results of this study show solar disinfection of water combined with citrus could be effective at greatly reducing E. coli levels in just 30 minutes, a treatment time on par with boiling and other household water treatment methods. In addition, the 30 milliliters of juice per 2 liters of water amounts to about one-half Persian lime per bottle, a quantity that will likely not be prohibitively expensive or create an unpleasant flavor.” In low-income regions, solar disinfection of water is one of several household water treatment methods used to effectively reduce the incidence of diarrheal illness. One method of using sunlight to disinfect water that is recommended by the United Nations Children’s Fund is known as SODIS, for solar water dis-

infection. The SODIS method requires filling 1- or 2-liter polyethylene terephthalate bottles with water and then exposing them to sunlight for at least six hours. In cloudy weather, longer exposure times of up to 48 hours may be necessary to achieve adequate disinfection. To determine if one of the active constituents in limes, psoralens, could enhance solar disinfection of water, Schwab and Alexander Harding, lead author of the study and a student at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, looked at microbial reductions after exposure to both sunlight and simulated sunlight. The researchers filled PET plastic bottles with dechlorinated tap water and then added lime juice, lime slurry or synthetic psoralen and either E. coli, MS2 bacteriophage or murine norovirus. They found that lower levels of both E. coli and MS2 bacteriophage were statistically significant following solar disinfection when either lime juice or lime slurry was added to the water compared to solar disinfection alone. They did find however, that noroviruses were not dramatically reduced using this technique, indicating it is not a perfect solution. “Many cultures already practice treatment with citrus juice, perhaps indicating that this treatment method will be more appealing to potential SODIS users than other additives such as TiO2 [titanium dioxide] or H2O2 [hydrogen peroxide],” suggest the authors of the study. However, they caution, “additional research should be done to evaluate the use of lemon or other acidic fruits, as Persian limes may be difficult to obtain in certain regions.” The research was supported in part by the Osprey Foundation of Maryland, the Johns Hopkins University Global Water Program, the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Dean’s Funding for Summer Research and the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Scholarly Concentrations.

• Private balcony or terrace • Beautiful garden setting • Private parking available • University Parkway at West 39th St. 2 & 3 bedroom apartments located in a private park setting. Adjacent to Johns Hopkins University Homewood Campus and minutes from downtown Baltimore.

410-243-1216

105 West 39th St. • Baltimore, MD 21210 Managed by The Broadview at Roland Park BroadviewApartments.com

Digging Continued from page 7 importantly, he has established several new experimental tools that will be very useful for many of the projects in our lab.” Pan says that his PURA experience has only solidified his love of research. “There can be such a sense of joy and

a feeling of discovery when your work has created new knowledge, something that nobody else knew,” he says. “It really is an incredible feeling, and worth all the time you put into doing the work.” Applications are now being accepted for the 2012 Provost’s Undergraduate Research Awards, which provide up to $2,500 or academic credit to students to work on original research projects with Johns Hopkins faculty. For more information, go to jhu.edu/ provost. G

April 23, 2012 • THE GAZETTE

Classifieds APARTMENTS/HOUSES FOR RENT Albemarle Square/Little Italy, 2BR, 2.5BA TH, newer construction, stainless steel appls, hdwd flrs, garage, no pets. $1,900/mo. albemarlestreet@hotmail.com. Bayview, furn’d 1BR, 1BA apt w/spacious living rm, dining rm, kitchen, laundry, hdwd flrs, AC, lg deck, high-speed Internet. $480/ mo + utils. 443-386-9146 or yifanfrances@ yahoo.com. Butchers Hill, 3-story house w/huge backyd, 2BR suites, 2.5BAs, kitchen, W/D, dw, sec sys, walk to school. $1,595/mo. Sharon, 443695-9073. Catonsville, medical office in multi-physician bldg, approx 1,000 sq ft, 2nd flr view of forest, opposite Charlestown Retirement Center. $1,675/mo + utils. 410-321-8889. Charles Village, furn’d 1BR, 1BA apt, avail May 2-12, flexible, great for visitors. $270/wk or $50/day. kralowsky@gmail.com. Charles Village, 2- or 3BR apt, 2BAs, 1,500 sq ft, new kitchen, BAs, flrs, walls, laundry and prkng on premises, blks to Homewood campus. 410-383-2876 or atoll4u@gmail.com. Charles Village, single-family house, furn’d 4BRs, great for visiting professor and family, avail July 2012-July 2013. Doug, teacher643@ gmail.com. Deep Creek Lake/Wisp, cozy 2BR cabin w/full kitchen; call for wkly/wknd rentals. 410-6389417 or jzpics@yahoo.com (for pics). Ednor Gardens, clean, modern 3BR, 2BA house, nr JHU/JHMI, avail Aug 1. $1,400/mo. mLj260@nyu.edu. Guilford, efficiency condo in Highfield House, nr Homewood campus/shuttle, 24-hr security. $800/mo incl all utils. 443-604-1912. Hampden, 2BR, 1BA TH apt, CAC, free Internet, 10-min walk to JHMI shuttle. $850/ mo. hampdenforrent@gmail.com. HICKORY HEIGHTS A lovely3BR hilltopduplex setting onnrHickory Avenue Hampden, lovely the Avenue, in Hampden! 2 BD units from $760 2 sets of W/D (upstairs and downstairs), 2 full with Balcony - $790 BAs, spacious eat-in kitchen, w/w crpt and Shown by appointment hdwd flrs, lg bsmt storage space, 1-yr lease, no 410.764.7776 pets, free off-street prkng. Mina, 410-592-2670.

M A R K E T P L A C E

Washington Monument. $1,662.50/mo. 785550-0929 or pianistsong@hotmail.com. Mt Vernon (1101 St Paul St), 1BR, 1BA apt, grand living w/20th flr view, 24-hr front desk. Susan, 443-604-7310. Ocean City, MD (137th St), 3BR, 2BA condo, lg in-ground pool, steps from beach, off-street prkng (2 spaces), short walk to restaurants/ entertainment. 410-544-2814. Rehoboth Beach, 3BR TH, 15-min walk to beach, dog-friendly, weekly rentals, JHU discounts for summer 2012. galeeena@yahoo.com. Lg 1BR apt, across from park, 2 flrs, W/D, AC, yd w/prkng pad, 10-min drive to JHH/ Homewood campus. $625/mo + utils + sec dep (1 month’s rent). Paula, 410-868-2815 or paulakowale@gmail.com.

Luxury Elevator Building in Charles Village! Spacious 2BD, 2BA, full size W/D. Free off street pkg. All new appliances! $1300 - $1425.00!

Shown by appointment

410.764.7776

www.brooksmanagementcompany.com

HICKORY HEIGHTS A lovely hilltop setting on Hickory Avenue in Hampden! 2 BD units from $760

with Balcony - $790 Shown by appointment

410.764.7776

www.brooksmanagementcompany.com

Luxury Elevator Building in Charles Village! Spacious 2BD, 2BA, full size W/D. Free off street pkg. All new appliances! $1300 - $1425.00!

Shown by appointment

410.764.7776

www.brooksmanagementcompany.com

Two F wanted to share new 3BR, 3.5BA TH, 2 blks to JHMI. $540 or $560/mo + utils. 410979-0721 or grant.tz@comcast.net.

CARS FOR SALE ’96 Toyota Tercel, manual, 4-cyl, 2-dr, great on gas mileage (37mpg highway), Md insp’d, new timing belt, tires, front struts, more; very reliable first/commuter car, 161K mi. $2,400. 410-260-8899. ’04 Acura TL w/navigation, silver, 1 owner, garage-kept, all records incl’d, 105K mi. $12,000. edrotman@yahoo.com. ’03 Toyota Camry LE, 3.0 V6, power steering/ brakes/windows/driver’s seat, AC, remote keyless entry, cloth seats, new tires, orig owner, just serviced, in good mechanical shape. $6,000/best offer. 443-255-4712. ’77 Toyota Landcruiser FJ40, 4" lift aluminum tub, steel wheels, bimini top and soft doors (hard top/doors avail), 118K mi. $7,950/best offer. 410-592-6423.

Very spacious 3- and 4BR apts nr Homewood campus, avail for summer/fall occupancy. $1,350/mo or $1,485/mo. 443-253-2113 or pulimood@aol.com.

’02 Toyota Celica, silver, automatic, in great cond, clean title, passed MD inspection, 80K mi, autocheck score: 94. $7,500. graciechen924@gmail.com.

Lg 1BR condo in gated community, W/D in unit, 3 swimming pools, tennis, discounts at the shops of Cross Keys. $1,400/mo (furn’d) or $1,200 (unfurn’d). 410-458-8416 or atorrie1@ gmail.com.

ITEMS FOR SALE

HOUSES FOR SALE Fells Point, 2BR, 2BA condo w/prkng, newly refinished hdwd flrs, fp, deck, freshly painted, more. $200,000. bethdmarshall@gmail.com.

Bicycles: 18" Trek 7-spd and 20" Raleigh 10- or 12-spd, both insp’d July 2011. $100/ea. Charles, 410-967-5388. Bassett pillowtop queen mattress w/boxspring and frame, like new, in orig plastic bags, $300; 3-shelf cherry bookcase, new in box, $20; 5-shelf cherry bookcase, new in box, $25. liushanxy@yahoo.com.

Greektown (opposite Bayview), 2BR, 2BA EOG, 1,400 sq ft, lg bright rms, newly renov’d, granite, upstairs laundry + nursery/office or third BR. $165,000. 410-935-8060.

Sm dining rm set, vintage water skis, exterior French doors, full-length Dior silver fox coat, fitness chair, office supplies, masonry/wood sprayer, garden mesh, kitchen supplies, dishware, decorative items, man’s travel bag, Fossil watch boxes, Playboy mags. 443-824-2198 or saleschick2011@hotmail.com.

Greenway, Manhattan-style efficiency condo in elegant owner-occupied and secure bldg, steps from Homewood campus. $86,500. 443414-6282.

Padlocks and keys, Krups coffeepot (new), foam mattress cushions, Revlon paraffin bath, microwave oven, snow and garden shovels. forsalenow7@yahoo.com.

Guilford, lovely 5BR, 2.5BA RH in historic neighborhood, move-in ready, walk to Homewood campus/JHH shuttle, perf for JH fellow or faculty w/family. $319,000. 443-416-3195.

Leather sleep sofa/futon, in good cond, lg size. $120. 410-889-1213 or judybyen@hotmail .com.

Fells Point, 3-story RH in historic district, lg priv yd, 4 blks to JHH. Dorothy, 443-750-7750.

www.brooksmanagementcompany.com

Mt Vernon, huge 2BR, 2.5BA apt w/loft, avail June, W/D in apt, fully equipped kitchen w/ oven, microwave, dw, disposal, MTA bus/light rail stop in front, 5-min walk to JHU shuttle or Charm City Circulator (purple) stop at

ROOMMATES WANTED F nonsmoking bedspacer wanted for contemporary condo in Washington Hill, adjacent to Church Professional Bldg, walk to JHH/ shuttle. $450/mo + utils. 717-739-8233 or retzcare@yahoo.com. Rm in big Bayview area TH, share w/other postdoc and student, 50 ft to hospital, furn’d, free Comcast Internet, CAC, laundry avail. $480/mo + utils. 443-386-8471 or fanauh2o@ yahoo.com. Sublet: Place in furn’d double rm at 2914 N Calvert, W/D, full kitchen. $350/mo. cjacob22@gmail.com. BR in lovely single-family house in Ruxton, shared BA, kitchen, laundry privileges. $400/ mo. 443-322-6569 (before 10pm). Prof’ls wanted to share furn’d 3BR, 2BA TH, walking distance to JHU Bayview Center and JHU shuttle line, new kitchen, hdwd flrs. $550/mo + 1/3 utils. jtian0627@hotmail.com. Rm avail in Ambassador Apts from the end of May, share w/27-yr-olds (grad student and technician), proof of income req’d by management; co-signers not allowed. $560/mo + utils (BGE and Comcast, about $30 per person per month), heat and water incl’d. arely_lop@ hotmail.com. Share quiet Federal Hill RH w/2 JHU TFA teachers, beginning summer 2012, spacious, furn’d living rm, stainless steel appls in kitchen, hdwd flrs, garage, 1-yr lease. $750/mo. kan .leslie@gmail.com (details and pics).

Apple iBook G4 (2), A1133/A1055, 12"/14", 1.33 GHz, 512MB, 40GB/60GB, WiFi, MS Office 2004, combo drive, in very good cond. $110/ea or best offer. hopkinsbob@yahoo.com. Serta double mattress, boxspring and frame, very good cond. $75. 443-804-1927. Fine quality furniture for sale by professor: leather club chair/recliner, glass coffee table, lg pine desk, many rugs. Best offers. 212-9608003 or shapi28@gmail.com. 1974 Hatteras, 43', new twin diesels, generator, bow thruster, AC, radar, nice boat. $67,000. stephenbowman2000@yahoo.com.

inquiries only. 410-235-2777 or eboettinger@ hotmail.com. Free: 90 Vogue patterns, size 10 or 12, 19752000, mostly used, free; also for artists, 1,000 to 2,000 corks, uncounted. 410-383-2128 or janicehbaker@verizon.net. Experienced, warm, energetic FT nanny avail, fine w/light housekeeping, laundry or pets, fab references. 410-736-0253 or 443-902-1687. Outdoor flea market nr Homewood/Hampden (37th and Roland Ave), 9am-3pm, May 5, $10 to rent a table. 410-366-4488. Single F looking for shared, furn’d apt w/ another F and priv BA nr the School of Public Health or nearby on bus route, May 20-Aug 20. 919-685-6296 or srrosen@gmail.com. PT, creative and attentive nanny sought for pair of 3-yr-olds in Charles Village, car and CRP certification required. Ben, btilghman@ gmail.com. Nanny w/over 3 yrs experience caring for babies, toddlers and preschoolers, responsible, loving, patient, active, good swimmer, loves sports, speaks both English (basic) and Mandarin (fluent). 443-838-0918 or wjfj@hotmail.com. Need a Chinese tutor? Learn to speak, read and write Mandarin Chinese in an easy way. 610-909-2535 or workjhu@gmail.com. Resident assistants wanted July 13-20 to supervise 60 high school students for one-week camp at Homewood campus. Shanna, 410735-4382. Piano lessons w/experienced teacher, Peabody doctorate, patient instruction. 410-662-7951. Hauling/junk removal, next-day pick up, free phone estimate ($40 and up), 15% discount all Hopkins. 410-419-3902. Two experienced movers w/30-ft enclosed box truck available, local/long distance, flat rate. John, 443-858-7264. Masterpiece Landscaping provides knowledgable on-site consultation, transplanting, bed prep, installation, sm tree/shrub shaping, licensed. Terry, 410-652-3446. Editing of biomedical journal articles offered by PhD biomedical scientist and certified editor in the life sciences. 443-600-2264 or michellejones@jonesbiomediting.com. Affordable and professional landscaper/certified horticulturist available to maintain existing gardens, also designing, planting or masonry; free consultations. David, 410-683-7373 or grogan.family@hotmail.com. Licensed landscaper avail for spring/summer lawn maintenance, mulching, yard cleanup, other services incl’d trash hauling. Taylor Landscaping LLC. 410-812-6090 or romilacapers@comcast.net. Certified personal and career coach committed to helping young professionals achieve their potential. 410-375-4042 or www .successful-thinking.net. Friday Night Swing Dance Club, open to public, great bands, no partners necessary. 410-663-0010 or www.fridaynightswing.com.

SERVICES/ITEMS OFFERED OR WANTED

Patient, responsible, compassionate and experienced babysitter w/bacherlor’s degree avail, nonsmoker, comfortable w/pets. angelina930@ gmail.com.

Found in Hampden: delightful M cat, white and orange marmalade, neutered, very affectionate, a people cat, but he is skin and bone and desperately needs a home, serious

Tutor available: all subjects/levels; remedial, gifted; help w/college counseling, speech and essay writing, editing, proofreading, more. 410337-9877 (after 8pm) or i1__@hotmail.com.

PLACING ADS Classified listings are a free service for current, full-time Hopkins faculty, staff and students only. Ads should adhere to these general guidelines: • One ad per person per week. A new request must be submitted for each issue. • Ads are limited to 20 words, including phone, fax and e-mail.

• We cannot use Johns Hopkins business phone numbers or e-mail addresses. • Submissions will be condensed at the editor’s discretion. • Deadline is at noon Monday, one week prior to the edition in which the ad is to be run. • Real estate listings may be offered only by a Hopkins-affiliated seller not by Realtors or Agents.

(Boxed ads in this section are paid advertisements.) Classified ads may be faxed to 443-287-9920; e-mailed in the body of a message (no attachments) to gazads@jhu.edu; or mailed to Gazette Classifieds, Suite 540, 901 S. Bond St., Baltimore, MD 21231. To purchase a boxed display ad, contact the Gazelle Group at 443-275-2687.

12 THE GAZETTE • April 23, 2012 A P R I L

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Calendar COLLOQUIA Tues., April 24, 4 p.m. “The Dwelling Science: An Anthropology of the Otherwise,” an Anthropology colloquium with Elizabeth Povinelli, Columbia University. 404 Macaulay. HW

April

25,

3:30

Wed.,

April

25,

p.m.

“Johannes Regis,” a Peabody Musicology DMA colloquium with Sean Gallagher, Boston University. 308C Conservatory Bldg. Peabody Thurs., April 26, 3:45 p.m.

“Beyond the Height of Ellipsis: Parallelism Conditions on VP Ellipsis, Pseudogapping and Sluicing,” a Cognitive Science colloquium with Jeff Runner, University of Rochester. 111 Krieger. HW C O N FERE N C E S Thurs., April 26, 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Fri., April 27, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Exploring Dimensions

of African Diasporas, a Center for Africana Studies international conference, with a broad range of global experts on historical and cultural dimensions of the African Diaspora. Johns Hopkins faculty will participate as discussants and session leaders. Breakfast and on-site registration begin at 8 a.m. on both days. To register online, go to eventbrite.com/ event/3348977883. For a detailed program schedule, go to krieger .jhu.edu/africana/conference/ conf.html. Barber Board Room, Charles Commons. HW Fri., April 27, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Making Public Health Contagious, the third annual Undergraduate Conference in Public Health, featuring poster presentations, oral presentations, skill building events and a keynote address. Sponsored by the Public Health Student Forum. Glass Pavilion, Levering. HW DISCUSSIONS/ TALKS Mon.,

April

23,

Peabody

April

26,

4:30

p.m.

“Manifestations of Early Life ReExpressed in Cancer,” a Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center visiting professor lecture by Paul Davis, director, BEYOND Center for Fundamental Concepts in Science, Arizona State University. Owens Auditorium. EB

Thurs., April 26, 5 p.m. “Luigi Pulci Between Politics and Allegory in Medici Florence,” a German and Romance Languages and Literatures lecture by Alessandro Polcri, Fordham University. 479 Gilman. HW

The Carolyn and Edward Wenk Jr. Lecture in Technology and Public Policy— “Forever Ours: Technology, Economics and Institutions for Managing Long-Lived Environmental Problems” by Molly Macauley, Resources for the Future. Sponsored by Economics. Mason Hall Auditorium. HW

REA D I N G S / B OO K T A L K S Wed., April 25, 7 p.m. Author Tim Wendel will discuss and sign copies of his latest book, Summer of ’68. Barnes & Noble Johns Hopkins. HW Thurs., April 26, 6:30 p.m.

Francisco Gonzalez of SAIS will discuss his new book, Creative Destruction? Economic Crises and Democracy in Latin America. Sponsored by the SAIS American Foreign Policy Program. For information or to RSVP, email kkornell@jhu.edu. Kenney Auditorium, Nitze Bldg. SAIS

Fri., April 27, 3 p.m.

Since Spike Gjerde opened his famed Woodberry Kitchen in 2007, the Baltimore restaurant has been a go-to spot for foodies in the Mid-Atlantic. This week, he visits the Bloomberg School of Public Health to discuss his winning farm-to-table philosophy and the benefits of using local produce. See Discussions/Talks.

“Problems of Content in Kant’s Aesthetics,” a Humanities Center lecture by Eli Friedlander, Tel Aviv University. 208 Gilman. HW Mon., April 30, 4 p.m.

jhu.edu. 500 Bldg. SAIS

Bernstein-Offit

“Green Business in Baltimore,” a discussion with Thibault Manekin, cofounder, Seawall Development, of his social enterprise committed to developing green, affordable housing for Baltimore communities. Co-sponsored by Social Entrepreneurs in Public Health, the Green Student Group and SOURCE. W3030 SPH. EB

Thurs., April 26, noon.

and Allergy Center Auditorium. Bayview April 27, noon. Spike Gjerde from Woodberry Kitchen will discuss the benefits of his farm-to-table philosophy and of using local produce. (See photo, this page.) Co-sponsored by the Environmental Stewardship Committee, the Green Student Group, the Center for a Livable Future and the Office of Sustainability. E2030 SPH. EB

Fri.,

Mon., April 30, 4:30 p.m. The Passano Lecture—“Heart Making and Heart Breaking: The Genetic Circuitry of Cardiac Development, Disease and Regeneration” by Eric Olson, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas. Sponsored by Molecular Biology and Genetics. East Lecture Hall, WBSB. EB

Thurs., April 26, 4:30 p.m.

“The Open Government Partnership: A Progress Report,” a SAIS International Development Program discussion with Maria Otero, U.S. undersecretary of state for civilian security, democracy and human rights. (See In Brief, p. 2.) For information or to RSVP, email developmentroundtable@ jhu.edu. 500 Bernstein-Offit Bldg. SAIS Thurs., April 26, 6 p.m. “Preliminary Findings From an Impact Evaluation of Low-Cost Private Health Insurance in Nigeria,” a SAIS International Development Program discussion with Emily Gustafsson-Wright, Amsterdam Institute for International Development and guest scholar, the Brookings Institution; and Jacques van der Gaag, co-founder, Amsterdam Institute for International Development and senior fellow, Brookings Institution. (Speaker’s comments will be off the record.) For information or to RSVP, call 410-236-5908 or email dbishai@jhsph.edu. Co-sponsored by the Bloomberg School of Public Health. 806 Rome Bldg. SAIS

L E C T URE S

MUSIC

“Black Suns and a Bright Planet: Lars von Trier’s Melancholia,” a Humanities Center lecture by Thomas Elsaesser, professor emeritus, University of Amsterdam. 208 Gilman. HW

Tues., April 24, 5 p.m.

Mon., April 23, 4 p.m.

Tues., April 24, noon. “David Grossman and the Israeli Akedah,” a Leonard and Helen R. Stulman Program in Jewish Studies lecture by Yael Feldman, New York University. Smokler Center for Jewish Life (Hillel). HW

The 2012 Pickart Lecture—“In vivo Assembly of the Machinery for Ubiquitin-Dependent Protein Degradation” by Mark Hochstrasser, Yale University. Sponsored by Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. W1214 SPH. EB

Tues., April 24, 4 p.m.

Tues., April 24, 5 p.m. “Getting the Blues in Medieval French Literature,” a German and Romance Languages and Literatures lecture by Brian Reilly, KSAS. 388 Gilman. HW

a.m.

“Emerging From the Global Economic Crisis: A View From the Balkans,” a SAIS Center for Transatlantic Relations discussion with Bruce Hitchner, Tufts University. For information or to RSVP, call 202-6635883 or email mcunningham@

Thurs.,

“Augustus and the Lares,” a Classics lecture by Harriet Flower, Princeton University. 108 Gilman. HW

p.m.

“Clusters of Galaxies: An AllPurpose Laboratory for Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics,” an STScI colloquium with Tesla Jeltema, University of California, Santa Cruz. Bahcall Auditorium, Muller Bldg. HW

Sun., April 29, 7:30 p.m. Preparatory Recital featuring the winners of the Part-Recital Competition. Goodwin Recital Hall.

Thurs., April 26, 5 p.m.

Tues., April 24, 4:15 p.m. “Multilayer Light Harvesting Arrays for Molecular-Based Solar Cells,” a Chemistry colloquium with Peter Dinolfo, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. 233 Remsen. HW Wed.,

Research. West Lecture Hall, Armstrong Medical Education Bldg. EB

“How Many Times Must I Tell You? Talking to Patients About Behavior Change,” a Center for Behavior and Health discussion with motivational interviewing expert Stephen Rollnick, Cardiff University, Wales. Asthma

Fri., April 27, 10 a.m.

“A World Without AIDS: Achievements and Future Challenges in Fighting Against HIV” a Hopkins Medicine Distinguished Speaker lecture by Francoise Barre-Sinoussi, Pasteur Institute, France. Cosponsored by the Center for AIDS

Wed., April 25, 4 p.m.

Peabody at Homewood presents the Janos Quartet, performing music by Beethoven and Bartok. Admission is free but $10 is the suggested donation; $5 for students. Advance reservations are recommended; call 410-516-5589 or email homewoodmuseum@jhu .edu. A reception with the musicians follows. Homewood Museum. HW

Wed., April 25, 7:30 p.m. The Peabody Wind Ensemble performs. $15 general admission, $10 for senior citizens, $5 for students with ID. Friedberg Hall. Peabody Thurs., April 26, and Fri., April 27, 7:30 p.m. The Pea-

body Renaissance Ensemble performs “Ce moys de May,” early music from 16th-century France and Scotland for Mary, Queen of Scots. $15 general admission, $10 for senior citizens, $5 for students with ID. Griswold Hall. Peabody

Sat., April 28, 7:30 p.m. The Peabody Percussion Group performs. Friedberg Hall. Peabody April 29, 4 p.m. Virgil Fox Centennial Concert with organists John Walker and Donald Sutherland. Brown Memorial Park Avenue Presbyterian Church, 1316 Park Ave.

Sun.,

S E M I N AR S

“Crowded Environments: Protein Folding From Vitro to the Cell,” a Biophysics seminar with Martin Gruebele, University of Illinois. 111 Mergenthaler. HW

Mon., April 23, noon.

Mon., April 23, 12:10 p.m.

“Socio-Institutional Processes of Neighborhoods: Implications for Violence Prevention,” a Graduate Seminar in Injury Research and Policy with Caterina Gouvis Roman, Temple University. Co-sponsored by the Center for Injury Research and Policy, the Center for the Prevention of Youth Violence and the Center for Gun Policy and Research. 250 Hampton House. EB Mon., April 23, 12:15 p.m.

“Information in an RNA World,” a Carnegie Institution Embryology seminar with Irene Chen, Harvard University. Rose Auditorium, 3520 San Martin Drive. HW Mon., April 23, 12:15 p.m.

“Priority Setting for Health in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: Who Decides?” a Berman Institute of Bioethics noon seminar with Kalipso Chalkidou, director, NICE International, National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. W3008 SPH. EB Mon.,

April

23,

1:30

p.m.

“MRI-Based Models of the Heart,” a Biomedical Engineering seminar with Natalia Trayanova, Continued on page 8

(Events are free and Calendar open to the public Key except where indicated.) APL BRB CRB EB HW JHOC

Applied Physics Laboratory Broadway Research Building Cancer Research Building East Baltimore Homewood Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center KSAS Krieger School of Arts and Sciences NEB New Engineering Building PCTB Preclinical Teaching Building SAIS School of Advanced International Studies SoM School of Medicine SoN School of Nursing SPH School of Public Health WBSB Wood Basic Science Building WSE Whiting School of Engineering