Contact:
Dinah Winnick
Communications Manager: Social Sciences
(410) 455-8117
dwinnick@umbc.edu
twitter.com/UMBCSocSci

The Hilltop Institute at UMBC is proud to announce the opening of its new Hospital Community Benefit Program. Made possible by the generous support of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Kresge Foundation, the program will be the first ever central resource created specifically for state and local policymakers to improve the reporting and evaluation of tax-exempt hospitals’ community benefit activities. The Hospital Community Benefit Program will be a resource to state and local health departments, hospital regulators, legislators, revenue collection and budgeting agencies, and hospitals, as each entity works to improve the transparency, comparability, fairness and effectiveness of the community benefits delivered by tax-exempt hospitals.

New federal health reform legislation, the Affordable Care Act (ACA), is projected to reduce the uninsured by 32 million, reduce the volume of charity care provided by tax-exempt hospitals, and shift the focus and investment of hospitals’ community benefit obligations. These obligations would shift increasingly toward community needs assessments, investments in population health and health promotion, and the measurement and evaluation of the effectiveness of interventions executed to address the needs identified in community needs assessments. Under the ACA, each tax-exempt hospital must conduct a community health needs assessment every three years and invest annually in meeting the identified community health needs. The Hospital Community Benefit Program, therefore, will serve as a resource for state and local policymakers to ensure that hospitals’ community benefits advance the health of communities.

Beyond the ACA, state and local governments increasingly are evaluating whether the tax revenue they forego is justified by the community benefits provided by tax-exempt hospitals. State and local governments recognize that tax-exempt hospitals receive not only significant tax exemptions from the federal government (in the form of income and FUTA exemptions), but also significant tax exemptions from state and local governments (in forms such as exemptions from real and personal property taxes, income taxes, and sales taxes). With insurance coverage expansions on the horizon and continuing budget constraints, state and local governments have an active stake in the community benefits provided by tax-exempt hospitals as the charity care burden diminishes. Moreover, in order to retain a nonprofit tax-exempt mission into the future, the hospitals themselves have a keen interest in this topic as they strive to demonstrate to all levels of government the value of the community benefits they provide. In this emerging area of health policy, Hilltop’s Hospital Community Benefit Program will be the essential resource to help measure, compare and evaluate whether the community benefits rendered by tax-exempt hospitals are appropriate and effective.

The Hospital Community Benefit Program will publish a series of issue briefs and will develop a website where best practices, new laws and regulations, and study findings will be disseminated broadly. The website will link to a broad array of resources, such as legislation, litigation, industry guidance, published research and materials from state and local associations. There also will be news alerts, to keep the website timely and essential.

The initial funding for the Hospital Community Benefit Program will cover three years. Charles Milligan, JD, MPH, Hilltop’s executive director, is the principal investigator. Donna Folkemer, MA, comes to Hilltop from the National Conference on State Legislatures to direct the program

The Hilltop Institute at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) is a nationally recognized research center dedicated to improving the health and social outcomes of vulnerable populations. Hilltop conducts research, analysis and evaluations on behalf of government agencies, foundations and other non-profit organizations at the national, state and local levels. Contact Hilltop at:

The Hilltop Institute
University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Sondheim Hall, 3rd Floor
1000 Hilltop Circle
Baltimore, Maryland 21250
410.455.6854
www.hilltopinstitute.org

Contact:
Anthony Lane
Communications Manager: Science, Technology and Environment
(410) 455-5793
alane@umbc.edu

Andrew Sears, professor and chair in the Department of Information Systems, and Constellation Professor of Information Technology and Engineering, has been named a Distinguished Scientist by the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).

Each year, ACM, an international organization for computing professionals, recognizes select members who have made distinguished contributions as educators, engineers or scientists. These distinguished members must have had at least 15 years of professional experience.

Sears’ research focuses on human-centered computing and information technology accessibility. He is editor-in-chief of ACM Transactions on Accessible Computing, a quarterly journal that publishes scholarly articles examining the impact of computing on the lives of people with disabilities, and he serves in an editorial role for four other scholarly journals.

Contact:
Dinah Winnick
Communications Manager: Social Sciences
(410) 455-8117
dwinnick@umbc.edu
twitter.com/UMBCSocSci

As we approach the November election, Maryland residents are turning to media to learn about the candidates’ perspectives on key public issues. UMBC researchers are available to provide insight into the election and a range of related topics, such as the voting process, campaigns, lobbying, the state budget, and gauging public opinion.

Donald F. Norris, professor and chair of the Department of Public Policy and director of the Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis and Research (MIPAR), is a specialist in urban politics, public management and e-government. Local, regional and national news media regularly contact him to provide commentary and analysis on Maryland government and politics; he has contributed to USA Today, The Washington Post, AP, local NBC and CBS news and MSNBC.com.

Thomas F. Schaller, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, is an expert on the American presidency, US Congress, interest groups and lobbying, and campaigns and elections. He is the author of the acclaimed "Whistling Past Dixie: How Democrats Can Win Without the South" and is a political columnist for The Baltimore Sun. He has written commentaries on federal and state electoral issues for The New York Times, Washington Post, LA Times, Boston Globe, American Prospect, Politico, Salon, The New Republic and others, and has appeared on ABC News, The Colbert Report, MSNBC, NPR, PBS and C-SPAN’s Washington Journal.

Laura Hussey, assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, can speak to public opinion on policy issues, US public policy on social welfare and moral/cultural issues, and the roles and functioning of government agencies.

Nicholas F. Miller, professor in the Department of Political Science and NSF-funded scholar, specializes in understanding voting processes as forms of collective decision-making. He has published research on logrolling, majority voting, power, social choice, information pooling, agenda control and spatial-voting models. His current research focuses on the properties of the US Electoral College as a vote-counting mechanism.

Roy T. Meyers, professor in the Department of Political Science and former Congressional Budget Office analyst, focuses on the reform of state and federal budgetary processes, priority-setting, attempts to limit earmarks and the roles of elected officials (such as the governor’s power). He recently produced the report “Budget Questions for the Maryland Election and Beyond” and wrote for The Baltimore Sun on how Maryland can avoid cuts by educating the public about vital services.

Contact:
Anthony Lane
Communications manager
Science, technology and environment
(410) 455-5793
alane@umbc.edu

UMBC’s Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry has been awarded a $200,000 grant from the Maryland Biotechnology Center to purchase a new mass spectrometer that will enable researchers to rapidly find the composition of chemical samples.

The new instrument is part of the department’s effort to upgrade its core research facilities for use by faculty and students at UMBC, and also by partners in the community. Among other uses, department chair William LaCourse says it will play a role in his research refining a test to detect blood biomarkers that can indicate alcohol consumption and abuse.

While the same tests can be performed with existing instruments at UMBC, LaCourse says, the new instrument will dramatically cut the time it takes to prepare samples, making it useful for blood testing and other uses where many samples must be run in sequence.

The Washington Post reported on the Maryland Biotechnology Center grants, which totaled $1.3 million and went to seven private companies and University System of Maryland departments.

A composite of NASA satellite imagery, prepared by Ana I. Prados of the Joint Center for Earth Systems Technology (JCET) [http://jcet.umbc.edu/about/] for the U.S. Air Quality Smog Blog [http://alg.umbc.edu/usaq/], shows the extent of the Gulf oil spill on May 1, 2010. Prados used NASA MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) Terra visible imagery. JCET is a partnership between the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) and the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

Contact:
Chelsea Haddaway
Communications Manager:
Humanities and Social Sciences
(410) 455-6380
chaddaway@umbc.edu

Anthony Lane
Communications Manager:
Science, Technology and Environment
(410) 455-5793
alane@umbc.edu

Though BP has halted the flow of oil from its Deepwater Horizons well into the Gulf of Mexico, questions about the spill’s long-term effects could take decades to fully answer. Several researchers at UMBC offer unique perspectives as the national conversation turns to this disaster’s political, regulatory and ecological impacts.

Tim Brennan, a professor in the Department of Public Policy, can talk about the regulatory impacts of the oil spill, drawing both on his research interests, and his experiences working as an economist for the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and the White House Council of Economic Advisers. He is currently assessing proposals for tighter regulations or new liability rules to determine who would pay the long-term costs and whether the outcomes would be desirable

Scott Farrow, chair of the Department of Economics, can give a historical perspective on offshore oil drilling. A former member of the Dept. of the Interior Scientific Advisory Committee for Offshore Leasing, Farrow is the author of the 1990 book “Managing the Outer Continental Shelf Lands,” which presents the issues, institutions and people associated with the energy and mineral resources of the outer continental shelf of the United States.

Tom Schaller, associate professor in the Department of Political Science, is an expert on the American presidency and national politics. He is interested in the ways that the spill and its aftermath potentially impact upcoming elections.

Kevin Sowers, a professor in the Department of Marine Biotechnology, is an expert on marine microbes and their role in bioremediation of ocean and coastal pollutants. He can talk about naturally occurring and artificially enhanced microbial process that remediate oils and other contaminants.

Yonathan Zohar, chair of the Department of Marine Biotechnology, has done groundbreaking research on fish reproductive physiology, endocrinology and marine hatchery technologies. He and his colleagues have developed a sustainable aquaculture system that allows marine fish species to be raised indoors without pollution. He can talk about the need for alternative sources of seafood given concerns about water quality and seafood safety that have heightened in the wake of the Gulf oil spill.

Contact:
Anthony Lane
Communications Manager
(410) 455-5793
alane@umbc.edu

A new analysis shows that humans had transformed most of earth’s land-based ecosystems by the early part of the 20th century, according to a paper by Erle Ellis, a professor in UMBC’s department of Geography and Environmental Systems, and collaborators in Canada and Europe.

The researchers classified ecosystems based on human residence and land-use in 1700, 1800, 1900 and 2000, finding in the most recent year that only 22 percent of earth’s ice-free land surface had living systems that were not directly influenced by human populations and activities such as agriculture and forestry.

“We can now point our finger at a time when earth was no longer a wild planet,” Ellis said. The findings, he continued, have clear implications for ecologists, land managers and the general public: “Once we accept that this is a used planet, we can move from discussion about ‘saving’ the planet to talk about the best ways to live on it.”

The research is described in the latest issue of the journal Global Ecology and Biogeography, published Aug. 5. The journal’s cover photo, taken by Ellis in 1999, shows terraced slopes near Pohkara, Nepal, that were shaped by centuries of rice production.

Ellis said the research stemmed from his attempt to answer a question posed by an audience member at his 2007 American Geophysical Union presentation on “anthromes” (a word Ellis developed to describe anthropogenic biomes, or ecosystems reshaped by human activities): “So how did the biosphere become anthropogenic anyway?”

Ellis’ answer is that it did so gradually prior to the Industrial Revolution, with changes accelerating in the 20th century as urbanization, agriculture and forestry activities spread to greater portions of the earth’s surface and intensified within areas used only lightly in the past.

According to his team’s analysis, 40 percent of all ice-free land in 2000 was being used directly for agriculture or urban settlements, with an additional 37 percent of the ice-free land area classified as “novel ecosystems” that had been reshaped by becoming embedded within these used landscapes.

Ellis said the research provides a clearer understanding that we are living in the Anthropocene, a geological epoch defined by an atmosphere and climate permanently altered by humans.

“Our findings,” he said, “demonstrate the extent to which we humans have permanently transformed the patterns of life on land.”

Ellis' blog post on the research, along with a link to maps showing anthrome classifications, can be found here.

Contact:
Chelsea Haddaway
Communications Manager
(410) 455-6380
chaddaway@gmail.com

Susan McDonough, assistant professor of history, has been awarded a Fellowship at the Newberry Library by the Audrey Lumsden Kouvel/Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow Fund. The fellowship provides funding for her to spend the 2010-2011 academic year at Chicago’s Newberry Library.

While at the Newberry, McDonough will continue work on her book, entitled Judging Your Neighbor: Making a Culture of Neighborliness in a Late Medieval Port Town. The book examines the fifteenth century civil court records from a small town in France.

“The witness testimony from Marseille’s court records offers a small window into the neighborhoods of Marseille, but more, the testimonies reveal how humble people, often women, used the role of witness to become the arbiters of their communities,” she said.

“The fellowship is a great recognition of her status as a promising young scholar,” said Kris Lindenmeyer, chair of the history department. McDonough has been teaching at UMBC since 2005, when she received her Ph.D. from Yale. Judging Your Neighbor is a continuation of her dissertation project.

McDonough is examining records of trials in which witnesses provided testimony.

“There's a magic to reading words spoken by a sailor's widow or a woman suing her cousin for control over a sizeable estate. Even if the words are translated [from the vernacular into Latin] by the notary, I think it's possible to get a sense of the person behind the words.”

In addition to giving McDonough time to focus on her research, the fellowship will provide McDonough with access to the Newberry’s extensive collection of medieval manuscripts. McDonough plans to use these sources to to contextualize the behavior that she has found in the witness testimony.

“It is also a place known for the generosity of the scholars in residence, so it will be a great place for me to work out my ideas in a community of folks who are able to focus on their research,” she said.

McDonough will head to Chicago in September, and be there until June. While in Chicago, McDonough will also be looking for a publisher for the book.

Contact:
Anthony Lane
Communications Manager
(410) 455-5793
alane@umbc.edu

University System of Maryland (USM) scientists have developed an environmentally sustainable and cost-efficient system to increase the world's supply of high-quality seafood. The new technology has formed the basis of a licensing agreement to Maryland Sustainable Mariculture (MSM) LLC, a biotechnology start-up company in Baltimore.

The technology, known as the Recirculating Marine Aquaculture System, was developed at the former University of Maryland Biotechnology Institute (UMBI) and its Center of Marine Biotechnology (COMB) by then-COMB Director Yonathan Zohar, Ph.D. , and his team. Zohar is now chair of the newly formed Department of Marine Biotechnology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC).

"As our oceans run out of fish, the world is in dire need of a consistent supply of high-quality seafood," Zohar said. "The development of this technology marks the culmination of a multi-disciplinary effort, spanning a decade, to develop the next wave of aquaculture technology that produces healthy and clean seafood while having no adverse effect on the marine or coastal environments."

Under the direction of Zohar and former UMBI Director of Technology Transfer Jon Gottlieb, M.B.A., Ph.D., several USM scientists - Harold Schreier, Ph.D., Kevin Sowers, Ph.D., Allen R. Place, Ph.D., Yossi Tal, Ph.D., and Keiko Saito, Ph.D. - developed during the past decade a new generation marine aquaculture system. The system is designed to solve many environmental and biological concerns of current practices.

The breakthrough relies on a recirculating marine aquaculture technology that is environmentally sustainable and protects species from disease. The system's core uses filtration units that incorporate naturally occurring microorganisms to clean the tank water using recurring processes already found in oceans. A byproduct of the manner in which the microbes remove waste products is methane, which is captured for use as a supplemental energy source.

The technology enables a marine aquaculture facility to be located in urban or rural locations or next to airports or markets, thus reducing the carbon footprint of seafood production.

"As a result, clean and healthy fish can be made available wherever there is a demand," Gottlieb said.

As part of a reorganization by the governing University System of Maryland Board of Regents that aligns UMBI centers with other USM institutions to increase technology transfer from research discoveries, the regents have formed a new center, the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology (IMET). IMET, a partnership of three USM research institutions with strengths in environmental and life sciences, will expand on the former COMB's assets.

UMBC will collaborate with the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science and the University of Maryland, Baltimore to advance discovery and technology commercialization in marine and environmental fields. IMET will be based in downtown Baltimore at the former COMB facility.

Unlike the current net-pen aquaculture practices, the USM technology enables the farming of any species of marine fish. It also provides optimal farming conditions that result in faster growth of the fish to market size. The technology was successfully tested at the former COMB facility for the production of the high-value Mediterranean fish seabream (orata) and seabass (bronzini).

Dawn Biehler, assistant professor of geography and environmental systems, was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Stipend for the summer of 2010. As a beneficiary of the award, Biehler received $6,000 to finance two months of full-time research and writing. The goal of the program is to “support individuals pursuing advanced research that is of value to humanities scholars, general audiences, or both.”

This summer, Biehler will continue research on her upcoming book, "Pests and the People: An Environmental History of Animals, Chemicals, and Health in the Home," which she expects will be published in early 2013. This project focuses on “the history of domestic pest control in US cities as a public health issue,” said Biehler.

“I hope this research can provide momentum for advocates trying to reduce pesticide use and empower low-income people to demand and achieve healthy living environments,” Biehler said. She hopes to promote the idea of the home as an ecosystem in which human bodies are deeply embedded.

Biehler’s historical investigations have inspired two other projects focusing on the present day, one studying diseases carried by mosquitoes, and the other addressing the healthy housing movement. In all her projects, Biehler maintains an interest in the roles of “race, class, gender, and urban space” in regards to nature in homes and cities.

Three UMBC professors have been chosen as summer faculty fellows by the Dresher Center for the Humanities. The fellowships support professors who are in the early stages of research.

“We’re trying to give them the chance to do some preliminary research so that they can work on their grant proposal in order to get funding,” said Rebecca Boehling, director of the Dresher Center.

The three professors chosen for this year’s awards are Gloria Chuku, associate professor of Africana studies; Nicole King, associate professor of American studies; and Piotr Gwiazda, associate professor of English.

The fellowship supports research projects that have the potential to be funded by outside organizations. The awardees will use their fellowships to complete the preliminary research needed for grant proposals.

“In some ways, the thing that people need most is time,” said Boehling, noting that the fellowship provides this time by easing the financial strain that would otherwise force faculty to teach summer classes.

Chuku will use the fellowship to work on her project, "Confronting the Silences: Gender, Ethnicity and the Biafra-Nigeria War.”

“None of the existing literature and studies has employed the dynamics of the intersection of gender and ethnicity in the narrative of the Biafra-Nigeria War,” she said. She will be applying for research fellowships and grants to continue her research, which she hopes to eventually publish as a book.

King's fellowship will go towards writing proposals to support the endeavors of the American studies department's Center for the Study of Place, Community, and Culture (CSPCC). The department is known for studying communities and working with community organizations. She is preparing a National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Interpreting America’s Historic Places Planning Grant for the Mapping Baybrook Project, which interprets the historic arc of American industrialization in the Brooklyn and Curtis Bay neighborhoods of Baltimore.

Gwiazda is embarking on a translation of “Kopenhaga,” the “little masterpiece” of Polish poet Grzegorz Wróblewski. By translating this work and placing it with an American publisher, Gwiazda hopes to make the work of one of the major contemporary Polish poets available to a wider audience.

“The fact that the depiction of migrant sensibility in ‘Kopenhaga’ parallels, to some extent, my own experiences as an immigrant in the United States, makes me, I believe, an ideal person to convey the volume’s intellectual and emotional content,” he said. He has already received a PEN American Center Translation Fund grant to begin work on the project, and plans to apply for more grants as he continues work on the project.