2017
IMPROVING
HEALTH IMPROVING LIVES
FIRST LOOK
DIGITAL DETECTIVES H ere’s one stereotype that’s ready for the dustbin: The literary scholar, hunched over microfiche between long, lonely drives to out-of-the way auctions and musty secondhand shops, perennially in search of the one that got away.
An imaging specialist with the Library of Congress, home to the only known copy of the Dispatch from 1852, scanned the opening lines and emailed the image; almost immediately, Turpin knew he was onto something.
Zachary Turpin found the clue that ultimately led him to a lost novella by 19th century writer Walt Whitman with the click of a mouse.
A year earlier, he had discovered another Whitman work, a 50,000 word treatise on diet, exercise, sex and the advantages of the outdoors, again through digital digging. Ed Folsom, editor of the Walt Whitman Quarterly Review and an English professor at the University of Iowa, said the development of digital databases of 19th century periodicals is creating a golden age of discovery about early American literature.
Turpin, who completed his doctoral degree in English at the University of Houston this spring, is one of a new breed of literary detectives, working with the latest digital tools to discover papers, essays and even books that had been lost for a century or longer. Turpin says scholars of the past are true heroes, tracking materials to the source. “The tools we have today are much more powerful. The internet, textual analytic tools, digital photography. Being able to send images of a text across the country is powerful.” An image sent to his email inbox last year signaled that his hunch had been correct – a novella by Whitman, “Life and Adventures of Jack Engle: An Auto-Biography,” had been published in the New York Sunday Dispatch in 1852, the conclusion to a search that began months earlier when he entered a few phrases and character names from Whitman’s notes into a search engine. Scholars had long thought the book was never actually written, but Turpin found an ad promoting the story’s upcoming publication.
“Digital scholar-sleuths like Zach are opening up the possibilities,” Folsom said. “These databases are growing daily, as more and more 19th century newspapers are digitized. Graduate students today know that digital archival skills are crucial.”
Turpin with one of his sons at his kitchen table, the very place he conducted most of his research.
Ph o t o b y To d d S p o t h
FA L L 2 0 1 7
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TODAY ’S TOPIC
2017
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PUBLISHER
BEYOND FIREWALLS
Amr Elnashai Vice President for Research and Technology Transfer
AROUND HOUSTON
DIRECTOR
THE INNOVATION SCENE & UH
Lindsay Lewis Division of Research
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EDITOR
MEDIA MENTIONS
Jeannie Kever Media Relations
EDITORIAL BOARD Audrey Grayson, Engineering Kathy Major, Natural Sciences & Mathematics Toni Mooney Smith, Liberal Arts & Social Sciences Mike Rosen, Media Relations
GRAPHIC DESIGNER
Miguel Tovar
DIGITAL MEDIA MANAGER
Tim Holt
PHOTOGRAPHERS
Todd Spoth
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FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK
IS IT THE HEAT... OR THE HUMIDITY?
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Michael Starghill Tim Holt
WRITERS
FEATURE
Jeannie Kever John Lienhard Lindsay Lewis Ericka Mellon Eric Gerber
PROOFREADER
Ashley Merwin
CHANCELLOR AND PRESIDENT Renu Khator
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Printed on Recycled Paper The University of Houston is an EEO/AA institution. 08.2017 | 7,000 Copyright © 2017 by the University of Houston
A digital version of this publication is available at uh.edu/researchmag
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DIVISION OF RESEARCH
IMPROVING HEALTH IMPROVING LIVES
Q&A
Q&A WITH NASA’S PATRICE O. YARBOUGH
Send address and email updates to: University of Houston Donor & Alumni Records 5000 Gulf Fwy Bldg 1 Rm 272 Houston, Texas 77204-5035 Send feedback to: research@uh.edu Research and Innovation Magazine is published by the Division of Research in partnership with the Division of Marketing, Communication and Media Relations.
AT UH, WE’RE DOING SOME PRETTY AMAZING RESEARCH – AND INNOVATION
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DISCUSSION BOARD
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CHANGE OF PLANS
CONTEMPLATIONS
THREE THINGS ARE TRUE
Photo illustration on Page 36 aggregated from Getty collections: E+: reall444, Nikada, abzee; iStock: Gizelka, Zerbor, rockptarmigan, valio84sl
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With a visionary leadership, an accomplished and experienced leadership team, and a location that is second-to-none, the University of Houston continues to reach higher levels of excellence in learning, discovery and engagement with its community. The more I learn about UH as the incoming vice president/vice chancellor for research and technology transfer, the more I am both impressed and energized to work tirelessly with my colleagues to realize the full potential of a young and vibrant university located in the fastest growing city in the United States and the 25th largest economy in the world. Our city is poised to lead the nation in advanced conventional and alternative energy, in health and biotechnology, and in manufacturing and data science applications. UH has the intellectual depth, interdisciplinary breadth and the ambition to partner with the City of Houston on all fronts, and enhance the quality of life for society, not only in Houston and Texas, but also nationwide and abroad. As an urban university, we equally value our community service role. UH has taken on supporting the neighboring underserved groups through the transfer of knowledge and wellness services to the most vulnerable communities in our region. We have partnered with community organizations, churches and schools to provide much-needed clinical support in areas such as Houston’s Third Ward and East End. UH also provides art, architectural renovation, social, psychological and legal services to communities in need. We embrace the highest technology research and development with the same enthusiasm as the most fundamental need-based support of our communities. This is the uniqueness that defines UH as a leading hub of intellect and humanity. This issue of Research and Innovation captures the dual and complementary role that our leading research-intensive urban university fulfills. We explore in this issue how urban universities like UH can be a partner in shaping community health and wellness. We also showcase UH’s role in building, expanding and maintaining Houston’s innovation ecosystem. We have added new sections to engage our broad audience of staff, faculty, students, alumni, friends, partners and the U.S. research community in a dialogue aimed at enhancing our understanding of the complex research enterprise, and emerging trends in research and development management. I hope that you enjoy this issue of Research and Innovation, and I look forward to your feedback on its content and presentation.
Amr Elnashai, FREng Vice President/Vice Chancellor for Research and Technology Transfer University of Houston/University of Houston System
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TODAY ’S TOPIC
Cybersecurity in 2017 means preparing for an ever-shifting list of threats
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Putting up a firewall and being done with cybersecurity is so 2005. “Things are moving so quickly, keeping up has become overwhelming,” said Chris Bronk, a cybersecurity expert at the University of Houston. “I have students working on a report out of the Department of Homeland Security from three months ago. It’s ancient history.” Industry, academia and governments are addressing the issue, but there is no silver bullet. Nor, in the public sector, is there much available funding for updated infrastructure and other safeguards. “No one says cybersecurity isn’t important, but if you ask what they have done, most likely the answer is ‘Nothing,’” said Larry Shi, a computer science associate professor and principal investigator on a project to limit cyber threats to 911 systems. “There is no money.” And in some ways, even the basic questions have changed.
Managing a moving target like cybersecurity isn’t easy, as threats multiply. While investigations into Russia’s role in the 2016 U.S. presidential election are on-going, the issue mushroomed when Wikileaks released documents describing sophisticated tools used by the Central Intelligence Agency to break into smartphones, computers and Internet-connected televisions as part of its espionage operations. Emergency 911 call centers in a dozen states were overwhelmed over a 12-hour period last fall in what investigators say was the largestever cyberattack on the U.S. emergency response system. More than 220,000 people in Ukraine lost power in December 2015 in the first cyberattack to knock a power grid offline. Attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure continue.
SUMMER 2017
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TODAY ’S TOPIC
Geopolitics
Disrupting 911
Today, cybersecurity is at the center of the global political stage – concerns about Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election, its electronic theft of confidential documents from Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and from the Democratic National Committee, disclosures about U.S. surveillance overseas and at home – but experts say the real issue isn’t what happened, but how that influences society.
Thinking about hackers’ motivations helps experts hone in on the most vulnerable targets. And emergency communication systems rank near the top.
Information security used to be more about check-the-box safeguards, but the focus now is on figuring out how hackers can use the purloined data, said Art Conklin, director of the Center for Information Security Research and Education at UH. “A bigger question is not, was it Russia, how was it done or why, but rather, how has it affected us and what can we do about it after the fact,” Conklin said. “Disinformation has been around forever, but it has taken a much different form today. The gatekeepers are gone.” Indeed, the whole idea of “gatekeepers” and “truth” are in flux. “The idea now is that if information is hacked and stolen, it must be true,” said Bronk, who worked for the U.S. State Department before moving to academia. “And if it is being said by a government official, it must be a lie.” In this new up-is-down reality, the focus is on protecting what Bronk calls “the crown jewels of the organization. What would be embarrassing if it were leaked?” Cyberattacks challenge the long-held military theory of deterrence – our stockpile of weapons deters our enemies from using their own. Now, Bronk said, many conflicts play out in cyberspace, whether that is accusations that China has stolen intellectual property or against the United States regarding its use of cyberespionage. “ISIS has a cyberwing,” he said. “It’s the way things are headed. Countries still matter, but less than they used to. Who’s more powerful, Belgium or Google?” And what if, Conklin asked, the real purpose of the Russian hacking wasn’t to elect Donald Trump as president but to plant the idea that the average person’s vote doesn’t matter. “They’re playing the long game,” he said.
Who’s more powerful, Belgium or Google? ~Chris Bronk
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That was illustrated last fall when thousands of 911 calls – triggered by a link spread through Twitter and YouTube – flooded the emergency system, overwhelming operators from California to Florida and leaving them unable to answer legitimate calls. Shi said there is no one reason behind attacks on 911 and other public systems. Teenagers exploiting a bug in the iPhone triggered the fall 2016 attacks. “Teenagers hack without much thought about the consequences,” he said. “They think it sounds cool. Social media amplifies the risk.” Ransomware, in which critical data is encrypted and released only after a ransom is paid, is an increasing threat, and hospitals and other healthcare facilities are a common target. Healthcare systems often feel they have no choice but to pay up – being locked out of their electronic health records can be a matter of life or death for critically ill patients. Other ransomware attacks have targeted public computer systems, affecting 911 call centers and other operations. Even if not every target pays up, FBI estimates peg ransomware as a $1 billion a year global business. Safeguarding 911 systems is complicated by the fact that there are about 6,500 separate call centers, each answering to local authorities and often using outdated technologies. Most have no cybersecurity strategy. “They’re different from a commercial enterprise,” said Shi, who is leading a $2.6 million effort funded by the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Directorate, working with fellow computer science faculty Stephen Huang and Omprakash Gnawali to develop affordable strategies to prevent attacks and hasten recovery if prevention fails. “They don’t have the money, manpower or expertise to protect against cybercrimes.” It’s not enough to create a new technology, which local centers may or may not adopt. And the stakes are high – disrupting a commercial call center can result in lost sales. Disrupting 911 can mean lost lives. (Officials reported no deaths attributed to the attack on 911 last fall.) University researchers work with industry and consultants who understand call center operations and procedures. Great technology won’t help if the centers don’t adopt it, Shi said, so part of the task will be devising strategies to boost adoption. For call centers that ignore the risk because it hasn’t happened to them, Shi has a few words of caution. “It hasn’t happened yet,” he said. “The risk grows over time. Everything is connected.”
TODAY ’S TOPIC
Energy Infrastructure Researchers are on the case, searching for solutions to lower the risk while keeping the benefits of that interconnectivity, which Conklin said has changed the world, even beyond the spread of disinformation, or “fake news.” And just as understanding the motivation behind geopolitical cyber conflict is key to both prevention and managing the fallout, people fighting cyberattacks on energy infrastructure – utility plants, the electric grid, pipelines – have to understand the why, as well as the how. “For years, we’ve been very good at figuring out what happened and how,” Bronk said. “The smart money in our field now is asking, Why? Why was the electricity grid in Ukraine hacked?” One reason, he and Conklin suggest, is similar to those behind geopolitical and emergency systems hacking – to plant uncertainty. Not knowing if you will have electricity is in some ways more unsettling than not having it at all. A 2015 DHS report found that the energy sector topped the list of U.S. industries facing cyberattacks. Conklin, principal investigator for a $1.1 million DHS grant to improve security for critical energy infrastructure, has testified before state and federal regulators. He said it’s unclear how these threats will change the nation’s energy policies and infrastructure.
“We’re in the middle of the transformation,” he said. “Five years ago, security was about data. Today it’s about, can I trust the system to do what I need it to do.” And as with 911 emergency call centers, the stakes for energy can literally be those of life or death. Victims of identity theft or cyber bank fraud can get restitution, Conklin noted. “If I blow up a pipeline and kill people, there’s no backup that can bring them back.” Researchers are working to develop safeguards. But the old goal of absolute security doesn’t fit in today’s world of 24-7 connectivity. Bronk notes that there are now as many as 20 billion connected devices in the world, from internet-enabled refrigerators to Fitbits and “smart” thermostats. That’s more devices than people. All make us more vulnerable, as well as providing unprecedented power. The demand for cybersecurity workers is unprecedented, as well. Rakesh Verma, a professor of computer science whose research focuses on risks from phishing and malware emails, said the demand has grown over the past decade. “That’s both because of cyberattacks – on Sony, Chase Bank and Target, among others – that have reverberated in the news media and around the world, and two, because nation-states are getting involved in a big way.” The curriculum is constantly evolving, with new courses and efforts to adapt data science techniques for security challenges. Bronk, like Verma, says demand for graduates with strong cyber skills is booming. “It’s the most important revolution in human history,” Bronk said. “And we’re living through it.”
Baranozdemi/Vetta/Getty
Five years ago, security was about data. Today it’s about, can I trust the system to do what I need it to do. ~Art Conklin
SUMMER 2017
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AROUND HOUSTON
THE INNOVATION A COMMUNITY SCENE & OF EXCELLENCE Houston is an amazing city. It’s the “Energy Capital of the World,” and home to the world’s largest medical center, NASA mission control and our nation’s second busiest port. But when it comes to its innovation ecosystem, Houston is behind its urban competitors. Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner launched a task force to find out why and what it will take to boost the city’s innovation scene. In response, the Greater Houston Partnership launched a strategy office to bring startups and entrepreneurial activities to Houston to support the future needs of its regional industries.
UH MMADIA/iStock/Getty
UH is proud to be the home of 11 fellows of the National Academy of Inventors. These faculty drive the spirit of innovation across campus by championing inventions, tech development and commercialization within the academic environment. Benton F. Baugh Diana S.L. Chow Paul C.W. Chu Allan Jacobson Dmitri Litvinov Dan Luss
Kaushik Rajashekara Zhifeng Ren Venkat Selvamanickam Mohamed Soliman Richard Willson
A major component of Houston’s plan involves its universities. Here are some of the exciting innovation developments at the University of Houston.
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WHERE STARTUPS START UP ONE OF THE NATION’S TOP 10 ENTREPRENEURSHIP PROGRAMS
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RESEARCH & INNOVATION
STUDENT BUSINESSES STARTED
FACULTY STARTUPS LAUNCHED
NATION’S TOP ROYALTY EARNING PUBLIC INSTITUTION* *WITHOUT A MEDICAL SCHOOL
AROUND HOUSTON
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY PORTFOLIO
58 31 $28.3M 91
DISCLOSURES (FY16)
PATENTS (FY16)
LICENSING INCOMING (FY16)
UH RANKS AMONG THE TOP 100 SYSTEMS IN THE WORLD FOR UTILITY PATENTS
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STARTUPS More than 28 startups have launched from UH over the last 15 years, many of which include both faculty and students who have partnered to advance technology.
Saving Your Surfaces Integricote is the first nanotechnology company created at UH, with its protective sealers and stains for wood, masonry and concrete manufactured at the UH Energy Research Park.
Reclaiming Earth Elements Though a technology transfer program at UH, a team of entrepreneurship students were introduced to the rare earth reclamation process and the inventors. After discovering commercial opportunities for the technology, REEcycle obtained an exclusive license to the IP from UH.
A Better Read on Cancer Teomics was recognized among the Rice Alliance 10 Most Promising Life Science Companies at the 2016 Texas Life Science Venture Forum. The company aims to provide more accurate detection of diseases, particularly those more prone to “false negative” results.
THE SPUR UH’s developing innovation campus at the Energy Research Park is home to office and industrial space devoted to bringing UH technologies to market. Just south of Downtown Houston, the Spur – UH’s Innovation Center and Labs – provides resources and facilities to support developing startups through the valley of death to a successful launch.
For more on UH Innovation, check out uh.edu/innovation. SUMMER 2017
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MEDIA MENTIONS
AT UH, WE’RE DOING SOME PRETTY AMAZING RESEARCH – AND INNOVATION. But don’t take our word for it. Check out some of the places UH has been highlighted around the nation.
Read more about these fascinating articles by visiting: PhonlamaiPhoto/iStock/Getty
www.uh.edu/research/news/magazine/2017/
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MEDIA MENTIONS
Reinventing Houston Arch Daily featured a collaborative research project between Pritzker Prize-winning architect Thom Mayne and the UH Gerald D. Hines College of Architecture and Design. The goal was to understand Houston’s urban development in the future. Houston’s lack of zoning and unregulated industry growth has created several unique challenges, including rethinking the energy infrastructure, changing real estate and density, and the ways in which the city’s lack of zoning can generate new ideas. “Houston is the only major city in the United States without zoning and form-based codes,” said Jason Logan, a faculty member involved in the project. “Surprisingly, we found a lack of zoning can generate exceptional forms of urbanism and architecture.” UH students and faculty collaborated with Mayne over three semesters and a summer in Los Angeles to study Houston’s urban development. The final studio work went on exhibition last November and will be published in a book this fall.
Splitting Water to Make Clean Energy UH physicists have discovered a catalyst that can split water into hydrogen and oxygen, composed of easily available, low-cost materials and operating far more efficiently than previous catalysts.
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“Hydrogen is the cleanest primary energy source we have on earth,” said Paul C. W. Chu, TLL Temple Chair of Science and founding director and chief scientist of the Texas Center for Superconductivity at UH. “Water could be the most abundant source of hydrogen if one could separate the hydrogen from its strong bond with oxygen in the water by using a catalyst.”
Will a Robot Take Your Job? Not if you have a personality. CNBC featured a UH study that found that creative and social intelligence, along with a healthy interest in arts and sciences during adolescent years, led people to choose less “computerizable” jobs down the road. Though more and more routine jobs are now being filled by robots and computers, lead author Rodica Damian, assistant professor of social and personality psychology, said jobs requiring a high level of complexity or creativity were less likely to be automated. “Perhaps we should consider training personality characteristics that will help prepare people for future jobs,” she said. The findings were published in the May issue of the European Journal of Personality.
Highlighted by Fast Company, the discovery may give a boost to the fuel cell car market by reducing cost associated with the production of hydrogen. Current methods of water splitting depend on expensive precious metals to speed the chemical reaction, but researchers found a way to use ferrous metaphosphate grown on a commercially available nickel foam. “Cost-wise, it is much lower and performance-wise, much better,” said Zhifeng Ren, M.D. Anderson professor of physics and lead author on the paper.
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MEDIA MENTIONS
Two Billion Years of Volcanoes on Mars Analysis of a Martian meteorite found in Africa in 2012 has uncovered evidence of at least two billion years of volcanic activity on Mars. This confirms that some of the longest-lived volcanoes in the solar system may be found on the Red Planet. Tom Lapen, UH geologist in the UH College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics and lead author on a paper describing the work in Science Advances, said the findings offer new clues to how the planet evolved and insight into its history of volcanic activity. As outlined in Popular Mechanics, the meteorite was composed of a Martian volcanic element known as shergottite. It is widely speculated that meteors composed of shergottite may be connected to a single event, when an unknown object slammed into Mars, sending pieces of shergottite into space and, in some cases, to land on earth. “We see that they came from a similar volcanic source,” Lapen said. “Given that they also have the same ejection time, we can conclude that these come from the same location on Mars.” Previously analyzed meteorites range in age from 327 million to 600 million years old. In contrast, the meteorite analyzed by Lapen’s research team was formed 2.4 billion years ago and suggests that it was ejected from one of the longest-lived volcanic centers in the solar system.
Is the Two-Hour Marathon Possible? Mathematically, it may be. A team of researchers from UH and the University of Colorado Boulder have found a series of mathematical calculations that could shave time from the current world record of 2:00:24, set in May by Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge. The study, highlighted by Science Magazine, points to lighter shoes, the ideal course and collaborating drafting as factors contributing to such a feat. “Our calculations show that a sub-two-hour marathon time could happen right now, but it would require the right course and a lot of organization,” said CU postdoctoral researcher Wouter Hoogkamer, who led the new study, published in the journal Sports Medicine. First, to shave 57 seconds off a marathon time, the athletes would need shoes about the weight of a deck of cards. Next, the runner would need to run the first 13 miles as a loop behind a wedge of marathon “pacemakers,” drafting behind them on a route that blocks the wind. The second half of the race should be slightly downhill but still within regulations, with four top runners in single file. Runners would need to shift positions every three minutes, reducing the metabolic cost of the drafting runners by about 5.9 percent, saving time. “It’s fun to think about the limits of human performance and now the math and science are telling us it’s very possible to run a marathon in less than two hours,” said study co-author Christopher Arellano, assistant professor at the Department of Health and Human Performance at UH.
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MEDIA MENTIONS
The Importance of Polling Polling has come under fire in recent years after failing to predict election results, as during the 2016 U.S. presidential election. However, a UH study published in Science found that polling data is still the winner when it comes to predicting election outcomes. Highlighted by Quartz, a predictive model designed by UH political science researchers was able to correctly predict winners of 10 out of 11 elections, a 90 percent accuracy rate. The researchers took polling data from past elections to develop the algorithm used in the study. “This study suggests polling data can be utilized not just in the United States but globally to predict election outcomes,” said political scientist Ryan Kennedy of the UH Center for International and Comparative Studies and lead author on the paper. “It would be a mistake to abandon the enterprise. The future really is in trying to make better quantitative predictions.”
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE CULLEN COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING
Tiny Robots for Targeted Treatment The future is promising when it comes to technology for drug delivery and minimally-invasive surgeries. Two UH robotics researchers have teamed up with a Texas Medical Center cardiologist to develop millimeter-sized robots that can delivery drugs or surgically break up masses and growths by traveling through the body’s venous system. The team uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to image and steer the large numbers of millimeter-sized robots through the body. While MRI has traditionally been used for noninvasive diagnosis, the next frontier is its use as a tool to offer noninvasive or minimally invasive treatment. Highlighted by TMC News, Aaron Becker, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, and Nikolaos Tsekos, associate professor of computer science and director of the UH Medical Robotics Laboratory, work with Dipan J. Shah, director of cardiovascular MRI at Houston Methodist Hospital, to develop prototypes for testing.
Just Say No Saying “no” is important when it comes to protecting your time, energy and finances. A study by Vanessa Patrick, UH marketing associate professor, and Henrik Hagtvedt from Boston College, was recently highlighted by the New York Times. The article brings to light the importance of a refusal strategy in helping people avoid overcommitting out of social obligation. “The ability to communicate ‘no’ really reflects that you are in the driver’s seat of your own life,” said Patrick. “It gives you a sense of empowerment.”
“Targeting delivery with dozens of microsurgeons is my goal,” Becker said. In this case, those “microsurgeons” would be robots, guided by a physician. The project is funded by a $608,000 Synergy Award from the National Science Foundation.
SUMMER 2017
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FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK
FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK
It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Humidity.
Yes, it’s time for another edition of“Funny You Should Ask,” the feature that encourages researchers and scholars to set scientific method on the shelf for a moment and take a more light-hearted approach. We present four University of Houston professors with a commonplace observation – last time, we wondered if breakfast is really the most important meal of the day – and invite them to respond. This time, we’re considering whether … It’s Not the Heat, It’s the Humidity. Here are their responses – hot off the press, you might say. — Eric Gerber
The Humid Condition By Marty Melosi Humidity. Humility. It’s the Humidity, not the Heat. You can hide from the sun in the shade. Shiner beer or lemonade. Jump in a pool. A great big hat, a cotton shirt, cool sunglasses. Indoors use a fan – or AC. Humidity. Humility. Outdoors and humidity don’t seem to mix. Walk a block in the heat, but only a few steps in high humidity. Wet is wet. Damp is damp. Moist is moist. Sweat is sweat. No such thing as drip dry.
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RESEARCH & INNOVATION
Mold and humidity – a lethal duo. Yet.
FUNNY YOU SHOULD ASK
The tropics have their charms. Pina coladas and coastal breezes clearly are better than northern freezes. What’s so bad about saunas and steam baths? Try to keep curly hair curly in the baking sun. Heat stroke, but no humidity stroke. Skin cancer, but no humidity cancer. And you can’t get a sunburn from humidity. Melosi is Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor and Director of the Center for Public History at UH. Occasionally, he finds himself overcome with the poetic impulse.
No Sweat
By Michael Harold It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity? Yeah, I’ve heard that and know it all too well because I’m a runner. But I’m also a chemical engineer. And as a chemical engineer we “know” about heat and mass transfer, and thermodynamics. There’s no better way to learn about heat and mass transfer than to go out and run a couple of miles in Houston during our “six” (and counting) months of summer. Sweat can be a wonderful thing as the evaporation process cools the skin and makes exercise bearable. But the problem with Houston humidity is that the sweat doesn’t evaporate as easily when there is a high level of moisture already in the air. Those liquid sweat molecules aren’t as likely to jump into the air if there’s too many of them there already! It’s called vapor-liquid equilibrium. Now some people say that running in the “steam bath” of Houston is a lot harder than running in the “dry heat” of Phoenix. Guess what? They’re right. And you don’t have to be a chemical engineer to know that! Now you just know why. So, keep running. And may I suggest you sweat profusely because, yes, it IS the humidity! (And the heat doesn’t help!) Harold is M.D. Anderson Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering and serves as chair of that department. As founding director of the Texas Center for Clean Engines, Emissions & Fuels, he knows a lot about running hot.
Mumbai vs. Houston By Vanessa Patrick
It’s not the heat, it’s the humidity? When I read that, my brain screams, “Wait a minute – it IS the heat!!!!” I don’t know about the humidity, but I know – possibly way too
much – about the heat. When I was an Assistant Professor, I published a paper with a dear friend and co-author on the impact of temperature (warm vs. cool) on cognitive processing. In our painstakingly-run studies, we had to create experimental rooms that were temperature controlled to assess the impact of small changes of temperature on consumer performance on difficult and risky (vs. easy and benign) tasks. We found that warm temperatures are depleting – in other words, it saps our mental and physical energy – and that makes us less able to perform difficult and risky tasks. Admittedly, our studies kept humidity constant, so I cannot speak to humidity from a scientific perspective. But from a personal perspective, since I grew up in Mumbai, India, in my book it is the heat, not the humidity, that really gets me! By the way, my fellow Houstonians, even though your weatherperson reports similar levels of heat and humidity in Houston and Mumbai, believe me – you definitely “feel” hotter in Mumbai! Homes are not centrally air-conditioned, walking to take a train or bus in the afternoon sun is a given, and the pools and waterparks that we find so refreshing here are virtually non-existent. Patrick is a professor of marketing in the Bauer College of Business and Director of Bauer Ph.D. Programs. Prior to her academic career, she worked in advertising and branding, serving as a consultant to companies like Coca-Cola, CNN and Hallmark.
Dry Up?
By Steven Pennings Life began in the ocean, and our bodies remember. Nothing is better than when there is so much water in the air that they can’t even measure it, you have drops on your eyelashes, your clothes are sticking to your skin, and you’re not sure if you’re breathing or drinking something that Rosie made and served with pieces of fruit and a little umbrella. Go to Arizona and see for yourself what happens without humidity. The ground is brown and their skin is leathery. They spend hundreds, maybe thousands, of dollars a year on skin lotions, and it doesn’t help. Is that what you want? To dry up and shrivel? Some people pay money to sweat in hot yoga classes. My lab team gets the same benefits working in mangroves and grasslands. As the day warms, water rises out of the ground and you submerge. Sunscreen drips into your eyes and they burn. You might be swimming in the ocean. You know you’re working. Some volunteers can’t take it. They run to their car, crank the AC, drive to the mall where the cold air is bone dry, and we never see them again. But they’re making a terrible mistake. Sweat is sweet. It reminds you of the ocean; of the womb. Humidity reminds you that it is good to be alive. Pennings, a Moores Professor in the department of biology and biochemistry, is director of the UH Texas Institute for Coastal Prairie Research and Education.
SUMMER 2017
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FEATURE
IMPROVING
HEALTH IMPROVING LIVES 16
RESEARCH & INNOVATION
FEATURE
From community health fairs to molecular research, urban universities are working to improve public health By Jeannie Kever and Ericka Mellon
SUMMER 2017
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FEATURE
T
he future of health care is unfolding in a small exam room at the Vecino Health Center clinic in Houston’s Denver Harbor neighborhood.
Katherine Smith, a pharmacist with the University of Houston, scans a 52-year-old woman’s record of her blood glucose readings as they talk about her diet and how often she tests her sugar levels. “You’ve been doing a great job with your diet, so we’re going to change your medications,” Smith tells her, noting that the readings are still too high. She writes a prescription to adjust the insulin dosage, slipping out of the exam room to talk about the new symptoms with her patient’s primary care doctor. It’s a seamless collaboration intended to better serve their patients. In the nation’s fourth-largest city, Denver Harbor is one of too many neighborhoods where public health problems proliferate among the social and economic issues that exacerbate them. Forward-thinking urban universities are increasingly tackling these health challenges head on, working to find solutions to the problems that beset their neighbors and delivering the care residents need – all while preparing the health care workforce of the future. The impact of urban universities can be great, said Dr. Donald Briscoe, medical director of Vecino Health Centers and program director of the Family Medicine Residency at Houston Methodist Hospital. “They can train the next generation of practitioners who will eventually work in the community,” he said. “They can perform research to improve the quality or delivery of care, or they can put their expertise in the field to directly impact the community around them.” That’s all happening at UH, from optometry students and faculty working at neighborhood eye clinics in Houston and around the state to research teams seeking to explain the physiology of obesity and addiction. Students train to become clinical psychologists, optometrists, pharmacists, nurses, audiologists, dietitians, social workers, biomedical engineers and health educators.
More than two of every three Texans are overweight or obese, putting them at heightened risk for everything from high blood pressure to cancer. Behavioral health and lifestyle issues take a toll, too: Across Texas, nearly half a million people are projected to die prematurely from tobacco use or second-hand smoke, and an estimated 4 million have an alcohol use disorder. They need help, and many need it close to home. “It needs to be in walking distance,” says 64-year-old Debra Dixon, who has Type 2 diabetes. She has health insurance but often relies on community health screenings and other services offered in her Third Ward neighborhood near UH. “A lot of us don’t drive.”
Urban universities can train the next generation of practitioners who will eventually work in the community, they can perform research to improve the quality or delivery of care, or they can put their expertise in the field to directly impact the community around them.
Students, as well as faculty, are at work on the ground, in classrooms and in laboratories. The challenges are enormous. More than 10 percent of adults in Texas have diabetes, mostly Type 2 diabetes, a metabolic disorder caused by the body’s resistance to insulin. It is the sixth leading cause of death in Harris County, ranking fourth and fifth respectively for African American and Hispanic residents.
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Dr. Donald Briscoe Medical Director, Vecino Health Centers
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T
ry to walk through many urban neighborhoods, and you’ll notice something missing. Sidewalks. Or parks. Or public spaces to exercise.
Rosenda Murillo, an assistant professor at the University of Houston College of Education, spots such obstacles to maintaining good health as she travels around the city. She saw the same situation in the predominantly minority neighborhood where she grew up in the Dallas-Fort Worth area. Murillo, who researches health disparities, particularly affecting Latino adults, understands the seriousness of the challenges from a personal and academic perspective. Several of her family members have died from heart attacks, strokes or other complications from heart disease – a huge public health threat that can be addressed in part by better access to recreation and physical activity.
A study she published in 2015 found that as foreign-born Mexican Americans lived longer inthe U.S., the amount of time they spent sitting was a significant factor in an increased likelihood of obesity. In the health classes she teaches on campus, Murillo said she talks to students about the link between culture and diet. She wants to help them relate. Murillo had her own revelation as a college student more than a decade ago, when a professor talked about health disparities. “I thought, ‘Oh my gosh, this is what is happening in my community,’” she said “Individuals in these communities really do want to learn how to improve their health. Sometimes they just don’t have the resources,or there are barriers.” Removing barriers is what UH and other urban universities are working to do.
PHOTO BY TODD SPOTH
Assistant Professor Rosenda Murillo, walking near the UH campus, hopes to encourage people to be more physically active, despite poor neighborhood conditions.
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Did you know?
42.6% Ezemenari Obasi, director of the UH HEALTH Research Institute, conducted blood pressure screenings in May at a community health fair at Blackshear Elementary School near campus.
0f Third Ward residents live below the poverty level
PHOTO BY TODD SPOTH
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Getting Health Care in the Community The University’s work to improve health outcomes, particularly in marginalized communities, received a $2 million boost this spring with a grant from United Health Foundation. The partnership officially kicked off with a health fair at a city building in the Third Ward, less than two miles from campus. Egillespie Olasumba Sinayoko, a 69-year-old retiree, made the trip from Pasadena, an hour-long ride on public transportation. Using a walker, she had her blood pressure, blood glucose and body mass index checked by associates with the HEALTH Research Institute and the Texas Obesity Research Center (TORC), a multidisciplinary research group at UH.
The idea is to look at how chronic stress – think living in poverty or continuously facing racism or discrimination – affects health and vulnerability toward substance abuse. The latest phase of the study sends participants into a simulated bar environment, neon lights and all, to assess whether alcohol eases or exacerbates their response to stress. More broadly, Obasi explains, if researchers understand the science behind addiction, they can influence ways to help. “We’re using bench science and geographic data to get of sense of what’s happening on the addiction side. And that can inform public policy,” said Obasi. “If you can’t think about how this is going to affect people’s real lives, we’re not interested.”
PHOTO BY TIM HOLT
Sinayoko said doctor’s visits and prescriptions add up on a fixed income. “Getting health care in the community – that is paramount.” The three-year grant from United Health Foundation will fuel additional health screenings and prevention efforts in Houston’s underserved neighborhoods. Ezemenari Obasi, associate dean of research for the UH College of Education, and Dan O’Connor, chair of the UH Department of Health and Human Performance, serve as co-principal investigators.
Obasi also directs the HEALTH – Helping Everyone Achieve a Lifetime of Health – Research Institute at UH, where O’Connor is a research fellow. Forming meaningful relationships and partnerships is key, Obasi said, to improving the physical and mental health of those in need. “You can’t just come in, wave your flag and say, ‘Poverty be gone,’” he said. “It’s hard to understand what it involves if you’ve never lived it.” Obasi’s research focuses on eliminating disparities in health, using innovative science to better understand conditions that disproportionately affect low-income and minority populations.
With a $2.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health and the National Institute on Drug Abuse, Obasi and his team are delving into the connection between stress and drug and alcohol addictions, particularly in African Americans. The work begins in people’s homes, studying the production of cortisol – the primary stress hormone – as soon as they wake up. Later, in a 1,700-square foot lab on campus, the team evaluates their response to stressors, taking readings from electrodes strapped on their hands and chest, along with saliva samples.
Dan O’Connor, chair of Health and Human Performance, has partnered with Ezemenari Obasi to provide health screenings in Houston’s Third Ward and East End communities.
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PHOTO BY TODD SPOTH
A Type 2 diabetes patient named Lloyd knew his diagnosis, but until he met with Davinder Mand at the Texas Obesity Research Center, he didn’t understand the impact his own actions could have on his health.
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Solutions that Work for Everyone
“Type 2 diabetes is the most costly disease in Texas and the United States,” he says. “It was unheard of 50 years ago. It’s something we’ve done to ourselves, not caused by some mosquito in a far-off country.”
TORC Director Marc Hamilton knows people are overwhelmed with the latest health news, much of it promising a cure for obesity and other diseases linked to sedentary lifestyles. “We can tell you 1,001 reasons you can’t sustain weight loss,” he said. “That’s not a solution.”
But his work isn’t about diabetes alone. It and other diseases – high blood pressure, cardiovascular problems, dementia and some cancers – combine to affect people in ways too complicated to be solved with one, or even a handful of medications. Physicians constrained by insurance reimbursement rates may not have time to focus on the unique interplay of multiple conditions.
People don’t know what to believe, or they assume technology will offer a quick fix. “So they become cynical, apathetic,” said Hamilton, professor of health and human performance. “Or they get angry at the system.”
Did you know?
Inside his lab in Garrison Gymnasium, the search is on for solutions, combining a molecular understanding of the body with behavioral approaches to find inexpensive treatments. Community health workers recruit people who are overweight or obese, with a laundry list of related health problems; Hamilton meets with them in their homes, learning the stories behind the statistics.
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10.6%
of adult Texans have diabetes
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Meeting with people in their homes gives Hamilton insight into his subjects’ lives. Once they arrive at his lab, he can return the favor, employing high-tech equipment to show them in real time how their bodies respond to food, movement and other stimuli. “People get to see their numbers, what happens when they get up and move around,” he said. “That’s very motivating.” Hamilton came to UH last year from the Pennington Biomedical Research Center at Louisiana State University, where he conducted seminal research linking excessive sedentary time – sitting all day at an office job, for example – with a host of unhealthy outcomes, even for people who exercise. Standing desks, Fitbits and other gadgets aren’t a public health solution, he said. TORC’s mission is to move from the micro to the macro, creating real-world therapies built upon basic science, which can be expanded to treat a wider population. Hamilton said he is confident TORC can find a way to help people live healthfully across the entire lifespan. “If we can’t develop a solution that works with all people,” he said, “public health is not served.”
Targeting Children and Their Parents By the time someone gets to Hamilton’s lab, obesity and inactivity are often a family legacy reaching back for generations. Halfway across the UH campus, Norma Olvera works to break the cycle. Olvera, professor of health education, health and learning sciences in the College of Education, started the Latino Health Disparities Lab in 2013, almost 10 years after launching her best-known project, a program that targets overweight adolescent children, usually girls, with an accompanying program for parents.
Olvera had worked with internationally known obesity researcher John Foreyt as a graduate student at the Baylor College of Medicine; once she joined the UH faculty, she taught a class on childhood obesity, re-kindling her interest in the role parents play in the issue. BOUNCE, or Behavior Opportunities Uniting Nutrition, Counseling and Exercise, focuses on developing healthy lifestyles at an early age, with year-round, summer and after-school programs for black or Hispanic youth. The programs include parents with events to teach healthy cooking, grocery shopping, exercise and other skills. Programs offered in the Houston and Pasadena school districts extend the concept, focusing on healthy food choices for fourth and fifth graders. This year’s programs, funded through the United Health Foundation grant, involve 125 African-American children between 9 and 14 and their families. Most children lose between four and 16 pounds over the four-week program. That’s plenty, Olvera said, because they are still growing. Some don’t lose any weight. A few gain. Olvera, a fellow of The Obesity Society, is after long-term results, and her research has shown that childhood obesity is about much more than food. A 2015 study published in the Journal of Early Adolescence reported that obese adolescent girls developed unhealthy eating habits in response to teasing and bullying – 12 percent of girls said they engaged in binge eating, followed by forced vomiting, in the quest to lose weight. “It’s not just the food,” she said. “There is a lot of psychology involved.”
Rates of childhood obesity were rising, with the largest gains among Hispanic children. About 17 percent of school-age children are considered obese, but that rises to 22 percent for Hispanics and 19.5 percent for African-American children. People who move to the United States from Mexico or other countries quickly adopt the eating habits of their new homes, along with the accompanying weight gain.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
The BOUNCE program at UH helps adolescents get involved in fun runs and other physical activity to support healthy living.
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Smoking cessation efforts are similar – it’s not just about cigarettes. Lorraine Reitzel, an associate professor in the UH College of Education who co-directs the HEALTH Research Institute, laments that far too many people dismiss smoking as a minor health concern. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, smoking is the leading preventable cause of death in the United States, responsible for more than 480,000 deaths a year – or 1,300 a day. One of Reitzel’s major projects focuses on tobacco use among people with mental illness or intellectual disabilities – and the workers who assist them. Reitzel and her team have joined with Bill Wilson, director of clinical research at Integral Care of Travis County, for an initiative called Taking Texas Tobacco Free. They work with mental health agencies across the state to become tobacco-free workplaces, providing training on effective strategies for implementing no-smoking policies and helping people quit. A grant from the Cancer Prevention & Research Institute of Texas funds the work. Reitzel, a clinical psychologist who also directs the Social Determinants and Health Disparities Lab at UH, instructs providers on motivational interviewing, a technique used to spur behavioral changes. Since the start of the project in 2013, 4,600 staff members have been trained and more than 118,000 tobacco-use assessments have been conducted, with effective treatments provided to clients willing to quit. “We’ve been able to bridge that research-to-practice gap,” said Reitzel, whose parents both died from smoking-related diseases. Deborah Shedric, a supervisor at Spindletop Center, a participating agency in Beaumont, 85 miles east of Houston, recalled several clients who quit smoking thanks to the initiative. “We didn’t take their cigarettes away. We gave them an option,” Shedric said. Then they celebrated their successes, buying bicycles or going to the beauty shop with money saved by not buying cigarettes.
Learning to Take Charge Brian Nwokorie created the Open Airways project as a third-year pharmacy student, helping children learn to control their asthma.
Kids at Walnut Bend Elementary School on Houston’s far west side learned something else about cigarettes last spring – cigarette smoke can be a potent trigger for asthma. A dozen kids, from pre-kindergarten through fourth grade, filed into a conference room after lunch, and the questions began. “What did we learn last week?” asked Brian Nwokorie, a third-year UH pharmacy student who created the Open Airway project with the American Lung Association. “Triggers,” a third grader called out.
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The children listed potential causes of an asthma attack: flowers, dogs, cats, dust, running, pushups.
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What do they do when an asthma episode begins? asked Gifty Gyebi, another third-year pharmacy student who worked with Nwokorie on the program, which has spread to a second elementary school and also involves pharmacy students from Texas Southern University.
The program targets children with uncontrolled asthma. Although school nurse Cynthia Tanner already had an active education program for children and their families, she said the UH program has made children more independent.
The Walnut Bend students demonstrated how to use an inhaler. “Breathe in. Breathe out.” The UH College of Pharmacy requires students to work in the community, building their comfort in working with patients. But no one made Nwokorie join with the American Lung Association and the public schools to target a serious public health risk. That came after a trip to Nigeria, where his family is from. He was struck by how the pollution there worsened children’s respiratory symptoms. “Here, we can do something about it,” he said. “You see a lot about cardiovascular issues, hypertension, diabetes. I don’t really see much about asthma. Asthma mainly affects children.” More than 617,000 Texas children have asthma, with low-income and minority children far more likely to suffer from the chronic respiratory disease. Even as childhood asthma rates appear to be flat nationally — or maybe even declining — large racial and ethnic disparities still exist. People living in poverty are also more likely to be diagnosed with asthma. In a study funded by the Houston Endowment, researchers found that children in the Houston area with public insurance, often used as a proxy for poverty, were 21 percent more likely to have asthma than children with private insurance.
“It has made the children much more aware, and their parents more aware, of how important it is to pay attention to their symptoms,” she said. Students aren’t coming to the office as often, struggling to breathe. “And when they do, they can tell me what is going on.”
Did you know?
500,000
Texans in the 2012 youth cohort are expected to die early from tobacco use or second-hand smoke
Associate Professor Lorraine Reitzel offered smoking-cessation tips at a community health center in May. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COLLEGE OF EDUCATION
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Pharmacists on the Frontline School nurses are the front line of public health for many children. For the rest of us, it is often a pharmacist. There are pharmacies on seemingly every corner, and the pharmacist behind the counter doesn’t require an appointment. Advice is free. For Smith and Bernadette Asias-Dinh, both clinical assistant professors of pharmacy at UH, the partnership with Vecino Health Centers allows their students to help patients in need while working with medical students and residents.
Pharmacists can make recommendations reflecting a patient’s ability, motivation and resources, she said. “But it’s ultimately up to the patient,” she said. “It only works if you have buy-in.” Pharmacists, along with students and other researchers across the span of the health-related disciplines, are on the front lines of community health. Their targets are different, from understanding the molecular impact of chronic stress to teaching students to properly use an inhaler. All however, serve a common goal, harnessing the power of an urban university to better serve the neighborhood in which it sits.
All pharmacists are trained to identify potential interactions between medications or between medications and food, as well as how to counsel patients on their medications. But some clinical pharmacists, like Asias-Dinh and Smith, work one-on-one with patients under a collaborative agreement between the Texas regulatory boards governing both pharmacists and medical doctors, counseling them on diet and exercise and prescribing medications for diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, smoking cessation programs and blood clotting disorders. They work closely with the clinic’s doctors. When a patient complained of a yeast infection and neuropathy – a common problem for people with diabetes – Smith collaborated with Briscoe, the woman’s primary care doctor, on those acute problems. But after seeing the woman’s record of her glucose levels, she also took action on her own.
UH Pharm.D. student Bajes Zayed observes Julia Dong, M.D., Houston Methodist Hospital Family Medicine resident physician, reviewing a patient’s electronic health record at the clinic.
Part of their work is helping patients become better at both testing their blood levels and taking their medications. As many as 80 percent of patients admit to at least occasionally forgetting to take their medicine, Asias-Dinh said, and some aren’t actually taking what is written in their medical records. Pharmacists can bridge that gap, both recommending strategies to remember to take a medication and updating the files and explaining the patients’ current prescription regimens. Asias-Dinh and Smith also talk with patients about a common problem – the cost of drugs. The best drug on the market is no good if a patient can’t afford it, Asias-Dinh said. They are collecting data on patient outcomes to determine if such intensive intervention improves their patients’ health. Ultimately, Asias-Dinh said, it’s about the movement of medicine to a more patient-centered approach.
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PHOTO COURTESY OF THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY
FEATURE
Elsewhere on campus and around the state ‌ These pages offer a look at some of the community health efforts happening at the University of Houston, but they are far from the only work in the field. A selection of other efforts:
Optometry The College of Optometry offers an annual Vision Expo, offering exhibits and workshops for Houston’s visually impaired community. In addition, faculty and students work in eye clinics on the UH campus and around the city and state: University Eye Institute: Located on campus, it offers a wide range of diagnostic and specialty services. Mobile Eye Institute: A mobile clinic equipped with the latest ophthalmic technology, it brings comprehensive vision services to patients who do not have access to a traditional clinic. La Nueva Casa de Amigos Health Center: In partnership with the city of Houston, just north of downtown
Psychology The UH Psychology Research and Services Center general clinic treats adults, including college students, for anxiety, depression, adjustment problems, relationship problems and other psychological concerns. Specialty clinics include: Adolescent Diagnosis Assessment Prevention Treatment Center (ADAPT): Assessment and therapy clinic for adolescents ages 12-17 with emotional and relationship difficulties. Sleep and Anxiety Clinic of Houston: Assessment and therapy clinic for children and adults with anxiety disorders and/or sleep problems. Learning Disabilities Clinic: Assessment clinic for children (elementary through high school age) with academic concerns and/or attentional problems. Academic Skills Clinic: An assessment clinic for children and college students with primarily academic concerns. Broader in scope than the Learning Disabilities Clinic, the ASC accepts children as young as preschool age, as well as adults with academic needs. Also deals with complex cases, such as multiple diagnoses, genetic disorders and Autism Spectrum Disorder.
Communication Sciences and Disorders University Speech, Language, and Hearing Clinic: A United Way agency, offers services to infants, children and adults with speech, language, and/or hearing impairments, including testing and treatment.
Good Neighbor Eye Clinic: Located in the Heights HOPE Clinic: Located in Alief Community Eye Clinic: Located in Fort Worth Cedar Springs Eye Clinic: Located in Dallas SUMMER 2017
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Q&A
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By Lindsay Lewis | Photos by Michael Starghill
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s NASA prepares for missions to Mars and places in our galaxy far, far away, researchers are working to understand how humans behave in confinement and isolation over extended periods of time. In 2014, NASA launched its Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) project, a three-story habitat at Johnson Space Center that allows researchers to study subjects while participating in mission-like scenarios. UH alumna Patrice O. Yarbough, Ph.D. (Biochemistry ’80, ’85), principal investigator for the project, gives some insight into the HERA missions and what we’re learning from them.
What is the purpose of HERA? HERA is one of NASA’s ground analogs funded by the NASA Human Research Program. It’s a controlled study environment that allows us to understand how people respond to the stress of being in confinement. NASA is preparing for some very long missions – and we don’t quite know how being confined or isolated for extended periods of time will affect our astronauts. So we create missions for our HERA habitat to explore the various physiological and psychological stressors that develop during the mission and we use this data to inform our astronaut corps. Because the subjects inside HERA perform operational tasks similar to what the astronauts do on the International Space Station, this allows us to monitor and collect data that is directly applicable to our astronauts. Doing studies in a ground-based analog is cost and time efficient.
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After we select our four subjects, we prepare them for their upcoming mission. Our subjects arrive at JSC two weeks before mission start for training. The mission will include outbound transit, on location at an asteroid and return transit phases, so they learn the details of the flight simulation and communication delays, they are trained on equipment, and they provide the baseline data for the various physiological measurements that will be monitored for the duration of the study. Each subject will be randomly assigned their role in the mission as commander, flight engineer, mission specialist 1 or mission specialist 2. Yarbough was named a Distinguished Alumna of the UH College of Natural Sciences and M a t h e m a t i c s t h i s y e a r.
How does a study work? Every complete study is called a campaign. Since the project’s launch in 2014, we have completed three campaigns and are currently in our fourth. Each campaign consists of four missions with four subjects each, giving our investigators 16 data sets that are needed for statistical significance. So far, we’ve completed a 7-day, 14-day and 30-day campaign. We are now doing a 45-day study. The campaign is named for the duration inside the HERA; the mission duration includes transit to target, days on target and return transit. That means our subjects will be inside the HERA habitat for 45 days participating in a pre-planned spaceflight mission. While they are in the habitat, our HERA team and researchers monitor them from the outside. We collect an array of data on the physiological and psychological effects of isolation and confinement. As we prepare for an upcoming HERA mission, we put out a call for subjects to find the right people for the study. We look for subjects who are U.S. citizens, 30 to 55 years old, have work experience or a master’s degree in a STEM field, and are in excellent health. Nobody really knows the makeup of the perfect astronaut. They can be from any culture, background, gender, educational background and life experience. So we’re really looking for someone who meets these general requirements who can complete the study. Candidates that meet these requirements will then undergo a medical examination and a battery of lab tests to confirm health status. We need really healthy subjects for the study because our astronauts are very healthy. Even though it is a controlled research study, everything we do is designed to have as much mission fidelity as possible, so finding people who reflect our astronaut corps is critical. After candidates pass the medical exam, they come to NASA for additional screenings and an informed consent briefing. Since we are doing a virtual reality study, we screen for tolerance to the virtual reality simulations. All of our subjects are also screened by a clinical psychologist, who looks for emotional stability and indicators that the subject can complete an isolation and confinement study.
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We do some ice breaker activities that allow the subjects to interact with each other and begin the process of teamwork. Our subjects come from a small community of people who have been committed to the mission of NASA. Some of them find us through some social communities online, while others wanted to be an astronaut in the past or are hoping to become an astronaut in the future. Some subjects come to us very prepared and committed to carrying out the HERA mission in order to provide the data that will inform the best practices for the health of the future astronauts. Once the pre-mission training period is completed, the subjects are briefed for the mission, and we host a ceremony to kick off the start of the mission. Then they enter the habitat and the door is closed for 45 days.
What is a HERA mission like? HERA missions are like real-life NASA missions, except that you on are Earth and onsite at JSC. Every mission is tediously planned, including what our subjects will do every hour of the day for 45 days. Everything is scheduled, from the time they wake up in the morning – including how much time they get for general hygiene, all of their housekeeping duties, all of their mission duties such as testing hardware and each of their science experiments – to the time they go to sleep at night. During the mission, the crew only have routine contact with each other and the HERA Mission Control. Because these studies are like real missions, we want our subjects to enter the habitat and carry out the flight simulation as if they are really in outer space. To do that, our subjects have to mentally prepare for confined habitation, which means getting into the mindset of being on an actual mission. That means ‘staying in the moment’ and getting beyond the fact that they are in a chamber in a hanger at JSC with a team of people monitoring their activities right outside the door. Our subjects follow a timeline like the International Space Station crew and they’re engaged in meaningful work. The crew wear devices that capture data such as voice recorders, actigraphy watches and heart rate sensors. There are eight cameras in the habitat, giving our team the ability to monitor and record every interaction from HERA mission control. Our study investigators rely on our science and operational teams to record everything that happens. Because the HERA Campaign 4 is a behavioral study, our investigators need to know if the subject had a toothache or a headache that affected their behavior that particular day. Ultimately all this data will be used to develop countermeasures to the human response to stress often faced on NASA long duration missions.
Q&A
How many teams are involved in each study? We have three teams that manage and monitor every detail of the mission: an operations team, a medical team and a science team. Our operations team designs the mission and all activities for our subjects during the 45-day study. If something goes wrong inside the habitat (real or simulated), our operations team troubleshoots and coaches our subjects to mitigate the situation, as mission control would do for NASA missions. Our medical team meets weekly with each subject during a private health video conference to observe their mental and physical health. We have three NASA physicians who do the medical monitoring of our subjects and one clinical psychologist who monitors behavior. Although we are committed to capturing all the data needed to complete the study, we are first dedicated to our subjects and their safety, so we take monitoring very seriously. For overall well-being and for mission fidelity to International Space Station, our HERA subjects have one private family video conference weekly. Our science team ensures that a reasonable amount of science is performed during the study. This is the team I am on as the the HERA Campaign Complement Scientist. We not only assess the feasibility of the science, but we work with the operations team to make sure that each of the ongoing investigations do not interfere with other investigations. There are 18 investigators in our current study, so that’s a daunting task. If we can’t integrate a study on a non-interfering basis, then it will not be part of the mission. As the principal investigator for the collective group of studies, I routinely interface with the investigators to ensure study compliance. Each investigation has to go through IRB approval, so I work to ensure those studies meet our compliance requirements for human subjects research.
What are you hoping to What is your favorite learn from these studies? part of the job? One of the goals for the astronaut corps is to be part of a strong and sustainable team, so our investigators are interested in how individuals morph into stronger team members over time. Our subjects only have two weeks to interact with each other before going inside HERA, so even though the preparation for the mission is much more condensed than what astronauts experience, it allows us to see what the adaptation process is. We are asking the big question of ‘what influences team function?’ Much of the research is studying teamwork and team cohesion and the impact of sleep reduction, on overall physical fitness and performance. At this point, we don’t know what discrete changes happen over time in confinement because we haven’t done a lot of confinement studies. Traveling outside of low Earth orbit will take a long time, so investigators want to know how soon they can detect psychological changes that may impact behavioral performance. They want to know how well subjects will perform when they’re tired and stressed, and how that impacts the duties they would have to perform as an astronaut under those conditions.
The subjects. I’ve been a research scientist for almost 30 years and I’ve been involved in many studies on the molecular level to understand human immune systems and viral infections. But here, I’m working directly with people as test subjects in studies on the human response to stress. When I was in graduate school, I knew I wanted to be involved in translational research. In my opinion, the NASA Human Research Program HERA project is one of the best examples of translational research. Everything we learn in HERA will be directly applied to the astronaut corps for the purpose of sustaining astronaut health and performance on long duration space explorations. This is very important work and I feel very fortunate to be involved in it!
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DISCUSSION BOARD
CHANGE OF PLANS
New and sometimes contradictory rules force academic research divisions to juggle competing demands by Lindsay Lewis | Illustrations by Miguel Tovar
Challenge 1: When Uniform Guidance Isn’t Uniform When the U.S. Office of Management and Budget released Uniform Guidance a couple of years ago, the goal was to provide a more structured and standardized approach to grants management within institutional research operations. The guidelines provide research offices with rules and regulations for the process of proposing and managing research sponsored by federal funds. As with any major change, however, there are always new problems that develop – and new loopholes. Uniform Guidance is no different. Take cost sharing.
The world of academic research is tough. Not only is today’s funding environment highly-competitive, but there is increasing administrative burden on university research divisions to manage applications and awards. Most offices find themselves trying to balance the needs of their principal investigators AND the requirements set by the funding agencies – a tricky tug-of-war where, many times, nobody wins. Let’s take a look at some of these challenges and what leaders are doing about it.
Under the revised guidelines, voluntary cost sharing should not influence the outcome of a grant competition, essentially leveling the playing field for principal investigators whose institutions may not be able to support research programs via cost-sharing. Yet many grant programs hint that cost-sharing ability may make submissions more competitive. It’s not a requirement, per se, but certainly factors into the funding decision. “This creates a real problem between principal investigators and their institutions,” said Beverly Rymer, executive director of the Office of Contracts and Grants at the University of Houston. “Many investigators request cost sharing for these grants because they fear they’ll not be able to compete for the funding without it.” Sara Bible, associate vice provost for research at Stanford University, said that when funding agencies operate outside the guidelines, especially on matters such as cost sharing, it may create tension between faculty and the department, dean’s office or university officials who are asked to fund the cost sharing that was not supposed to required. “Any time we see agencies deviate from Uniform Guidance, we call the policy office and point out that a specific program announcement is not consistent with the guidelines. Our experience is that the policy offices appreciate that we have made them aware of the issue and they contact the specific program officer to remedy the inconsistency.”
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Otherwise, says Bible, investigators get mixed messages from the agency and their research administrators. And in the heat of the moment when the deadline is approaching, this could cause unnecessary stress among research teams – and ultimately can threaten a successful submission. “Universities have to pay careful attention to the guidelines,” Bible said. “When agencies operate outside those guidelines, there are consequences for universities. We need the Uniform Guidance to be uniform.”
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DISCUSSION BOARD
Challenge 2: When the Business of Research Costs Too Much Beyond expanding research administration to keep up with the growing requirements of Uniform Guidance and the internal controls of collaborating institutions, leaders also face an uncertain funding future and diminishing cost recovery. “Institutions invest heavily in research infrastructure,” said Susan Sedwick, a consultant at Attain. She acknowledges research offices have always dealt with the ebb and flow of budgets and indirect cost issues. “There’s great concern about our funding future – it’s not the first time, though, and it won’t be the last.” Melinda Cotten, assistant vice president for Sponsored Programs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, agrees that institutions will likely take a big hit if indirect cost rates – now widely referred to as Facilities and Administrative (F&A) costs – continue to drop. This means institutional research offices may have to pass some of the administrative buck and become more creative in their approach to supporting operations. But that will come at a cost. “We’re already seeing more principal investigators taking on a more active role in administering their research programs,” Cotten said. “But the more time they devote to administration, the more time is taken away from research.”
In fact, a study conducted by the Federal Demonstration Partnership found that more than 40 percent of a federally-funded principal investigator’s time is now spent doing administrative work – a number that has doubled over the past two decades and doesn’t include writing proposals. Most of this burden comes from increased guidance for the use of federal funds and increased requirements for human and animal research. And while principal investigators are taking on more work to meet these requirements, research offices have to manage it all. Diminishing cost recovery from federal grants is also forcing research offices to explore more non-traditional avenues of funding. “Institutions are increasingly looking toward industry to fill the funding gap,” Sedwick said. “To do that, many are taking a more comprehensive, corporate approach.” She said some research offices have been beefing up operations for years to better market partnership opportunities to industry. That requires far more investment in administrative resources, she said, beyond what’s needed on the grant management end. “Many research divisions now have marketing offices – just for industry,” said Sedwick. “We’re having to invest in grant development, in industry engagement and in marketing just to remain competitive for those funds.”
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DISCUSSION BOARD
Challenge 3: When Preventing Waste Creates Waste
And that’s just the minimum federal requirements. Each individual grant management office has the ability to structure risk assessments and sub-recipient monitoring in whatever way they wish, as long as they meet the minimum requirements outlined by Uniform Guidance. Some choose to do more. “The 2016 National Research Council report cautioned institutions to resist the urge to exceed what is required. This is sometimes referred to as ‘compliance plus,’” said Sedwick.
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Uniform Guidance also upped the ante on risk assessment and sub-recipient monitoring requirements to address fraud and waste of government funding.
“It’s where institutions create requirements that exceed the federal requirements, contributing additional administrative burden for researchers and sub-awardees.”
And while that is both important and necessary, it added another administrative burden for research offices, another point of contention among administrative teams, faculty and their partners, and in the end, more costs for already strained research operations.
As grant requests call for more inter-institutional collaboration, the additional paperwork, reporting and staff required to juggle all of the demands can strain relationships.
“The sheer volume of what we’re being asked to do continues to grow,” said Cotten. “We’re being asked to do more with less.” Like many others, Cotten hired additional staff to handle the volume of work required for more thorough risk assessments for sub-awards. Although leaders, like Cotten, understand and support the need for greater scrutiny, there is a bottom line that is often not flexible. Her office has hired a cadre of specialists to track ever-changing policy and technology developments. “I don’t understand how smaller research offices do it,” she said.
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“Without a doubt, institutions need strong internal controls,” said Sedwick. “But we need to assess risk reasonably. Institutions that routinely administer federal funding and are annually audited should not be treated the same as a new startup or foreign recipient. We can choose how we implement the requirements.” Cotten agrees the extra burden now required – and the additional steps voluntarily taken by some grant offices – to monitor sub-awards not only causes tension between institutions but puts further strain between faculty and their administration. “Faculty are upset,” she said. “Having to do additional assessments before sub-awards are released takes time, and it delays the start of the research project. Faculty cannot afford to waste any time.”
DISCUSSION BOARD
Challenge 4: When Effective Leadership Means Effective Service
As institutional research offices juggle regulatory and financial challenges within a continually strained system, they still have to lead their respective enterprises and serve their research communities.
“We’ve had great results,” she said. “People want to engage and be part of the process, not just be expected to follow a rigid set of rules.”
“Service before leadership,” said Amr Elnashai, vice president for Research and Technology Transfer at the University of Houston. “We cannot miss this very important fact – we have to serve the needs of our research communities, first, before they will trust us to lead.”
Cotten has had similar success with the grant submission process. The University of Alabama at Birmingham worked with faculty, schools and departments to develop a “pre-deadline deadline” for proposals a full seven days before their due dates. This gives the office time to strengthen and fix proposals, increasing the likelihood of funding.
How to do that while tackling the many challenges faced by research divisions? The best way, according to Bible, is to continually engage the university community in the business of research.
“Within our School of Medicine, more than 80 percent of our proposals come in by our pre-deadline,” she said. “We work hard to communicate and advocate to faculty that we can serve them better by doing it this way, and it’s working for us.”
“You will have good results if you put in the time,” she said. “It’s really important to be flexible with faculty and staff on campus.” One way Bible has successfully engaged her research community is in policy development. Her office at Stanford implemented a research policy working group that may spend months testing policy language and effectiveness with university faculty and staff before it is launched.
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CONTEMPLATIONS
THREE THINGS ARE TRUE
BY JOHN LIENHARD Three things are true: (1) We are the only species that cannot live without technology. (2) All new technology brings about dangerous revenge effects. (3) Humankind cannot live without creating new technology.
Items 1 and 2 are pretty obvious. We can’t eat grain without planting and harvesting. We can’t survive the changing weather without making clothing and homes. No other species has to live by its technology. Yet automobiles and airplanes crash, pollute and redefine social structures. Sugarcane harvesting created the slave trade. Robots eliminate jobs. Item 3 is less obvious. But new technologies continually create new needs. People die in automobiles, so we work to invent driver-proof cars. The cycle of invention can never cease, nor will we ever find equilibrium. I tell my fundamentalist friends that I know the Genesis story is true: We really did eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Then, like no other species, we must continually live by that fruit. Sure, the story is allegory, but its truth is unassailable. So what does this mean for an engineer? We’re the spear tip of that state of affairs. We create, then try to manage the technologies we cannot live without, which we can never stop fixing and improving. The net effect is a general improvement of the human situation. But we always create mischief along the way. And each of us exhibits a bit of Victor Frankenstein’s obsessiveness. Once we’re involved with a technology, we want to protect it while its inevitable revenge effects draw attacks. The great engineer and inventor, Thomas Midgley,
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gave us tetraethyl lead – a gasoline antiknock agent which also protected engine valves. But revenge effects of the lead were so severe that we finally banned it. Midgely would publically wash his hands in the mixture – even inhale it – to prove how benign it was. He eventually had to take a year off to recover from lead poisoning; but he never wavered in defending tetraethyl lead. Robert Frost once wrote, Ah, when to the heart of man Was it ever less than a treason To go with the drift of things. To yield with a grace to reason ... Midgely was committed to his creation and could not commit the treason of yielding to its terrible effects. Three things are true. And the third is our ongoing repair of revenge effects, to create the next advance. And they incur the next set of revenge effects. Those of us who can yield as we go smooth the process along, but we find that so hard to do. We engineers carry out our reason-for-being – the improvement of life on Earth – by correcting and advancing. Too bad that it is so very, very hard to complete the process by yielding with grace to reason. Dr. John Lienhard is a retired professor of mechanical engineering and history at the University of Houston. He’s the founding author and voice of the nationally-aired radio program, “The Engines of our Ingenuity.” www.uh.edu/engines
Ah, when to the heart of man Was it ever less than a treason To go with the drift of things. To yield with a grace to reason ... ~ Robert Frost
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Leadership Competence, Character and Commitment
Dusya Vera has explored the many facets of leadership as a researcher in the Bauer College’s Department of Management, finding that leaders need an array of character dimensions to be effective in the workplace. For example, drive and accountability, she says, need to be balanced with temperance and humanity. “My research reminds managers that leadership is not only about competence, but also about character and commitment.”