UMBC Researcher Todd Eberly Wins National Dissertation Award

The Maryland Medicaid managed care program has had a positive impact on the receipt of preventive health services by black, white, and Hispanic children and adolescents, as well as black and Hispanic adults, according to a new study from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.

Following a nationwide trend, Maryland implemented the HealthChoice managed care program in 1998 as a means to control Medicaid costs. Under managed care, the state contracts with private insurers to provide preventative health care services to Medicaid enrollees, such as well child visits, immunizations, and physicals. However, there had been conflicting research on whether managed care meets the needs of socially vulnerable populations, particularly minorities.

Medicaid currently covers 600,000 Maryland residents, including 30 percent of the state’s children. Studies have shown that a significantly larger percentage of black and Hispanic Americans are covered by Medicaid than white Americans, but these populations make less use of routine health procedures and services. These disparities in the use of health care services are significant because studies have shown that a lack of preventive care puts disadvantaged populations at greater risk of serious health problems later in life.

Todd Eberly, a researcher at the Center for Health Program Development and Management at UMBC, analyzed health care data for Medicaid clients in Maryland before and after the adoption of managed care to determine whether the program has had any impact on the preventive care use.

He found that Maryland’s managed care program has had a positive impact on the receipt of primary preventive care by black, white, and Hispanic children and adolescents, as well as black and Hispanic adults. All children and adolescents experienced increases in the use of preventative health services, but increases for black and Hispanic youths were significantly greater than for their white peers.

“The improvements for minority youth were particularly noteworthy,” said Eberly, “because children are especially vulnerable. Access to preventive care is key to the promotion of good heath and quality of life.”

Eberly, who received his Ph.D. in Public Policy at UMBC in 2006, conducted the research for his dissertation, which has been selected for the 2006 Annual Dissertation Award from the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA). He will receive his award this week in Minneapolis at the NASPAA Annual Conference.

Photo Caption: CRESST, a new NASA center at UMBC, will expand astrophysics research and education on black holes and other high-energy phenomena of the universe.

The team of UMBC, the University of Maryland, College Park and the Universities Space Research Association has been selected by the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center to establish and operate the Center for Research and Exploration in Space Science and Technology (CRESST).

CRESST will bring together NASA Goddard researchers and scientists from the Maryland campuses and USRA to build upon the many capabilities and strengths in space science of the participating organizations. CRESST research will initially focus on the study of neutron stars, black holes, and extremely hot gas throughout the universe. The Center also will work to increase the involvement of minority and women scientists in space science research and to facilitate university student participation in such research.

The Center will be supported through a five-year cooperative agreement from NASA with funding anticipated to be $7.5 million per year. A five-year extension is possible. The university partnership group will operate and provide funding for a management/scientist support office.

"This is a great day for Maryland,” said Maryland Senator Barbara A. Mikulski. “The creation of CRESST is the kind of collaboration between our universities and government laboratories that fosters discovery, innovation, creates new technologies, new ideas and helps Maryland remain a world class center for space science and exploration. As the Senator that funds NASA and our other great federal science agencies, I applaud the creation of this institute and hope to expand cooperation among our universities and government laboratories to keep Maryland competitive."

"This is a fitting reward for UMBC's investment in astrophysics, and a great opportunity to expand the research and educational activities performed here,” said Ian George, director of the Joint Center for Astrophysics and associate professor of physics at UMBC. “This award further bolsters UMBC's position in only its 40th year as one of the leading research universities in the mid-Atlantic region,” George said.

In support of NASA strategic science mission objectives, CRESST will carry out observational, experimental, and theoretical research in three general areas:

-- The Sun and Solar System, stars, galaxies, and the universe at large;

-- The informational and computational sciences related to the unique needs of data systems required to interpret space science data;

-- The development of technology required to achieve these scientific challenges.

CRESST is the latest addition to UMBC’s relationship with NASA. UMBC is ranked 13th nationally among all universities in research funding received from NASA. UMBC is already home to several other multimillion-dollar NASA research centers in collaboration with the Goddard Space Flight Center, including the Goddard Earth Sciences and Technology (GEST) Center, the Joint Center for Earth Systems and Technology (JCET), the Center for the Advanced Study of Photonics Research (CASPR) and the JCA.

According to George, NASA partnerships like CRESST will help bring more internationally-recognized space scientists to UMBC. “UMBC scientists are making major contributions to currently flying NASA high-energy astrophysics missions like the International Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL), and the forthcoming Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST) mission, scheduled to launch in August 2007,” George said.

Photo Caption: CRESST will help UMBC attract more world-class faculty like Joint Center for Astrophysics researchers Jane Turner (left) and Ian George.

George noted that UMBC scientists were also involved in the NASA Swift and Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) missions. “What’s really exciting is the impact CRESST will have on students, “said George. “UMBC has recently started both undergraduate and graduate-level astrophysics courses, so CRESST will help us to expand astrophysics education and research.”

eBiquity Group's Research Part of Article on Spam Blogs

Research on detecting "splogs" by UMBC Computer Science and Electrical Engineering Professors Tim Finin, Anupam Joshi and Tim Oates and PhD students Pranam Kolari and Akshay Java was cited in an article in the September issue of Wired Magazine.

Splogs are spam weblogs that are automatically generated to host advertisements or to raise the rank or affiliated web sites. The UMBC eBiquity Group recently published a study showing that more than half of the active English language blogs were actually splogs and has a number of ongoing blog related research projects.

Powerful Instrument to Be Shared by Other UMBC Labs Studying Retroviruses

Dan Fabris, associate professor of chemistry at UMBC, is one of just 14 researchers nationally to receive a NIH National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) High-End Instrumentation grant announced today.

The $1.5 million grant will fund the purchase of an extremely powerful, high-resolution, mass spectrometer that greatly boosts UMBC's capabilities to analyze nucleic acids for research on drug resistance by HIV, other retroviruses and cancer.

The Fabris lab was the only one in Maryland to receive the NIH NCCR instrumentation grant this year, making UMBC one of just a handful of U.S. institutions to have such a powerful mass spectrometer.

The custom built instrument, a hybrid, 12 Tesla quadrupole-Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance (Q-FTICR) mass spectrometer, won't arrive at UMBC for another six months or so. It will be shared by several other labs at the University working on research that could lead to new and more effective inhibitor drugs for AIDS therapy.

"This is extremely exciting for many of us at UMBC," said Fabris, who has studied the nucleic acid structure of HIV since joining the faculty of the Chemistry and Biochemistry department in 1999. "We are particularly happy that this grant will not only expand our lab's capabilities, but will also benefit the work of other researchers in UMBC's departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry and Biological Sciences and possibly other labs in the Baltimore area."

"The High-End Instrumentation program provides numerous investigators access to essential equipment, often benefiting entire research communities and dramatically advancing their research projects," said Barbara M. Alving, M.D., Acting Director of NCRR, in an NIH press release. "These awards spur the kind of scientific discoveries necessary for the development of treatments for a broad spectrum of diseases."

Other NIH NCCR High-End Instrumentation grants went to hospital labs in Boston and university labs at Purdue, Stanford, UCLA, U. Cal Santa Barbara, U. Penn., Yale and others.

When UMBC history professor Sandra Herbert first saw the Charles Darwin Archives at Christ’s College, Cambridge as a graduate student, “It was like finding out Shakespeare had left unpublished plays behind,” she said.

This fall, Christ College will welcoming Herbert as a Distinguished Visiting Scholar for the 2006-2007 academic year, an international honor recognizing her expertise on the University’s most famous and controversial alumnus, Charles Darwin.

Herbert travels to Cambridge in September, where she will help with plans for the 2009 celebration of Darwin’s 200th birthday and 150th anniversary of his seminal work “On the Origin of Species” while continuing her studies of Darwin’s geological specimens from the 1831-1836 voyage of the H.M.S. “Beagle.”

Like most students, Herbert, an expert on the history of science, first studied Darwin in high school. “Back then his work was buried in our textbooks,” she said. “I became interested in how evolution affects all things, especially human nature.”

While writing a graduate school paper, she came across one of Darwin’s notebooks. Her curiosity grew, leading to a Ph.D. dissertation and finally a trip to Cambridge to see other Darwin manuscripts.

Along the way she was surprised to find that the naturalist often most associated with biology was actually more of a geologist as a young man. This discovery led to Herbert’s recent book “Charles Darwin, Geologist,” which was well reviewed by the Times Literary Supplement and many other publications. In November, the Geological Society of America will give Herbert the 2006 Mary C. Rabbitt Award, bestowed annually for outstanding contributions in geological sciences history.

“Sandra is simply one of the world’s leading authorities on Darwin and one of UMBC’s preeminent scholars,” said John Jeffries, Dean of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences at UMBC.

Herbert is excited at her upcoming stay at Cambridge, where she will give one of the Lady Margaret Beaufort lectures. “It’s an honor to be invited, especially since I’m an American,” she said. “Darwin is a source of national pride for the British, so it’s a wonderful feeling to be welcomed to a place where he did so much remarkable work.”

When asked her thoughts on Darwin’s lasting legacy and the ongoing challenges to his theories across the globe, Herbert referred to one of her favorite Darwin writings from his 1838 “Notebook B.” In it, Darwin refers to animals as “our fellow brethren” and muses that “we may be all netted together.”

“Darwin is seen as a hero and a villain,” she said. “The reason we react so strongly is because of the profound implications of his work on our understanding of human nature. I agree with his sentiment that we are all netted together. We are closer to animals than we sometimes think.”

UMBC Public Policy, Information Technology Experts Team Up With State Board of Elections for Voter Info Site

A new web site at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County uses state-of-the-art technology to help voters in Maryland access information that will help them make decisions about voting in the upcoming 2006 Primary and General Elections. The web site, called the Maryland Voter Information Clearinghouse (mdelections.umbc.edu), is a joint project of the Maryland State Board of Elections and UMBC’s National Center for the Study of Elections (NCSE). SBE asked researchers at UMBC to design new publicly accessible, easily searchable databases for voter information.

“It’s where, who, and how,” said NCSE Director and Professor of Public Policy Donald F. Norris. “The site is actually three separate databases that each give Maryland voters information to help them learn where to vote, who is running for office, and how candidates are financing campaigns.”

“We initiated the Center last summer with the goal of using the academic and research capabilities of UMBC to apply expert analysis, study, and educational techniques to the various programs at the State Board of Elections,” said Linda Lamone, State Administrator of Elections. “This project is a good example of how well that partnership is working. UMBC’s multi-disciplinary approach to this project has lead to a terrific outcome for all Maryland citizens.”

Visitors to the site can look up information on candidates for federal and state offices, and search the state’s campaign finance database, which includes publicly available reports on campaign finance activity for all candidates, political action committees (PACs), and parties. Registered voters, after entering required information, can verify their voter registration information, learn their voting districts, and find their polling places.

"These web-based tools leverage departmental expertise in the areas of database design and implementation, human-centered computing, and accessibility, providing a great opportunity for Information Systems faculty and students to apply what we teach in the classroom to develop important tools for the citizens of Maryland,” said Andrew Sears, Chair and Professor of Information Systems. Dr. Sears is Associate Director of NCSE.

The National Center for the Study of Elections is a center within the UMBC Maryland Institute for Policy Analysis & Research (MIPAR), in partnership with UMBC’s Department of Information Systems, the Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering, and the State Board of Elections. The Center provides technical assistance and research support to the State Board of Elections, and also conducts studies about voting technologies, election administration, and other issues related to voting and elections. For more information, visit www.umbc.edu/mipar/ncse.

Former National Science Foundation Official to Pursue Business Partnerships, Innovation

The University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) announced today the appointment of Warren R. DeVries, former National Science Foundation official and department chair of mechanical engineering at Iowa State University, as its new Dean of Engineering and Information Technology (IT).

DeVries is a leader in the national drive for excellence in engineering education and is also well known in his field for his pioneering research in manufacturing processes and systems. Since 2002, he has served as Division Director for the NSF’s Division of Design and Manufacturing Innovation, where he led a staff of 15 and managed an annual budget of $65 million. DeVries came to the NSF on assignment from Iowa State University, where he was a Professor and Chair of the Department of Mechanical Engineering.

DeVries said he believes that UMBC’s College of Engineering and Information Technology will thrive in the 21st century by developing: diverse knowledge-enabled graduates, faculty and staff who advance the frontiers of scholarship and innovation to benefit society, and partnerships with government and industry to create new opportunities that have an impact beyond the bounds of the campus.

DeVries, whose initial responsibilities at the NSF included work with the Small Business Innovation Research program, said that he would like to use his experience to spur innovation through education, research and industry partnerships, especially with small or startup technology-based firms.

DeVries said he first became acquainted with UMBC programs and faculty during a visit to the campus over a decade ago. “I saw that exciting things were really starting to happen here,” he said. Another strong impression was that “When you come into UMBC’s campus, the Research and Technology Park is right at the front door. I think that’s very interesting and an important opportunity,” DeVries said.

“I’d like to work with faculty and staff building on UMBC’s reputation for integration of education and research covering the whole spectrum of innovation, from discovery of new knowledge and creativity to that first commercial step of a small technology businesses,” DeVries said.

“This isn’t only important for the economic vitality of Maryland and the nation, but because knowledge and people are key to the research-education-innovation cycle its part of the University’s mission," said DeVries. "Students benefit too, since according to NSF data, the largest fraction of science and engineering graduates today, about 36 percent, are employed by small technology-based firms.”

Another of DeVries’ priorities will be giving students a multidisciplinary education that prepares them to be competitive in today’s global economy. He pointed out that the College of Engineering and Information Technology’s name is indicative of the multidisciplinary opportunities in the College at UMBC.

“In order for our students to have a good life and career, we first need to provide a relevant and solid education,” DeVries said. “We’ll need a truly global view so that our graduates not only have good career opportunities, but also aspire to be leaders in their chosen fields.”

In addition to being a member of the Iowa State faculty, DeVries has also held faculty positions at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, University of Michigan and University of Wisconsin-Madison. DeVries has supervised 11 Ph.D. students and nearly 40 M.S. students, and he has overseen more than $4 million in total research and educational contracts and grants.

He has authored or co-authored numerous technical papers, as well as two textbooks, and taught graduate and undergraduate courses. He received his Ph.D., M.S. and B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and also received a B.S. in Letters and Engineering from Calvin College.

DeVries has served on the Board of Governors and as Senior Vice President for Engineering for the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) and on the Board of Directors and as President for the North American Manufacturing Research Institution of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME). He is a Fellow of both the ASME and the SME.

DeVries replaces Dr. Shlomo Carmi, who served as Dean of the College of Engineering and Information Technology and Professor of mechanical engineering since 1996. Carmi, who was the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ Senior Vice President for Engineering Education from 2003 to 2006, will continue to serve UMBC as a member of the mechanical engineering faculty. DeVries begins his appointment at UMBC August 1.

UMBC Astrophysicist, International Team, Searching X-Ray Sky

Scientists on a quest to find hidden black holes in the local universe have found surprisingly few.

The observation implies that if these hidden black holes exist - and most scientists are convinced they do - they must be from the more distant, earlier universe, a concept that has interesting implications for galaxy evolution.

This work constitutes the first census of the highest-energy part of the X-ray sky, where the most dust-enshrouded black holes are thought to shine. A team from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., conducted the census, comprised of nearly two years of continuous data from the European Space Agency's International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, or INTEGRAL, satellite.

"Naturally it is difficult to find something we know is hiding well and which has eluded detection so far," said Volker Beckmann of Goddard and the Joint Center for Astrophysics at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, lead author on a report in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal. "INTEGRAL is a telescope that should see nearby hidden black holes, but we have come up short." Beckmann, a research assistant professor in UMBC's physics department, will teach "Extragalactic Astronomy and Cosmology" there this fall.

The X-ray sky is thousands to millions of times more energetic than the visible sky familiar to our eyes. Much of the X-ray activity is from black holes violently sucking in gas from their surroundings.

Recent breakthroughs in X-ray astronomy, including a thorough black hole census with NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory and Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer, have all dealt with lower-energy X-rays. The energy range is roughly 2,000 to 20,000 electron-volts. Optical light, in comparison, is about 2 electron volts.

The INTEGRAL survey is the first of its kind to glimpse into the largely unexplored higher-energy, or "hard," X-ray regime of 20,000 to 40,000 electron-volts.

"The X-ray background, this pervasive blanket of X-ray light we see everywhere in the universe, peaks at about 30,000 electron volts, yet we really know next to nothing about what produces this radiation," said co-author Neil Gehrels of Goddard.

The theory is that hidden black holes, which scientists call Compton-thick objects, are responsible for the peak at 30,000 electron volts. These X-rays are so energetic that they would penetrate even the most dust-enshrouded black holes yet remain beyond the range of powerful lower-energy X-ray observatories such as Chandra.

High-energy light in general is harder to focus than optical and lower-energy (longer-wavelength) forms of light. As a result, INTEGRAL doesn't have the resolution to make sharp images like Chandra and Hubble can.

"Basically, the higher you go in energy, the harder it is to detect faint sources," said Chris Shrader of Goddard, another co-author. "This is why no hard X-ray mission has been able to study many individual objects in the distant universe. That would require a next-generation telescope. But INTEGRAL is now the first to resolve the local universe."

INTEGRAL can obtain an unbiased count of black holes in the local universe by virtue of seeing even those that are hidden. Of all the black hole galaxies that INTEGRAL detected---that is, galaxies with supermassive black holes in their cores actively accreting gas---about 40 percent were unobscured black hole galaxies, called Seyfert 1 galaxies. About 50 percent were somewhat obscured black hole galaxies called Seyfert 2 galaxies. And less than 10 percent were the heavily shrouded "Compton thick" variety.

This implies that if hidden black holes make up the bulk of the X-ray background, they aren't local. Why? One reason could be that, in the modern local universe, these black holes have had time to blow away the gas and dust that once enshrouded them, leaving them unobscured. This liberation of gas and dust would have its consequences; it would blow away to influence star and galaxy formation elsewhere.

"This is just the tip of the iceberg," Beckmann said. "In a few more months we will have a larger survey completed with the Swift mission. Our goal is to push this kind of observation deeper and deeper into the universe to see black hole activity at early epochs. That's the next great challenge for X-ray and gamma-ray astronomers."

Simona Soldi and Nicolas Produit of the INTEGRAL Science Data Centre near Geneva, Switzerland, also participated in this result.

This story courtesy of NASA Goddard News.

For images, visit:

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/starsgalaxies/integral_blackholes.html

Rachel M. Brewster Among Just 3 U.S. Biologists Nominated by NSF to Receive Presidential Early Career Award

UMBC biologist Rachel M. Brewster received the nation’s top honor for promising young scientists, the Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers (PECASE), which were announced at a White House ceremony today.

The PECASE provides up to five years of financial support to the honored scientists for research and community outreach. Awardees must be nominated by a participating federal agency or department. Brewster was one of just three U.S. biologists nominated by the National Science Foundation (NSF) who were selected for the PECASE.

Rachel Brewster credits her student researchers with helping her win the PECASE award. Left to right: graduate students Michael Harrington (also a Meyerhoff Scholar), Pradeepa Jayachandran, Elim Hong, and Kavita Chalasani, Brewster, undergraduate student Nel Trasybule and high school student summer intern Stephen Maouyo.

Brewster will use her PECASE funding to involve high school, undergraduate and graduate students from diverse backgrounds in her lab’s research. Brewster’s specialty is genetic analysis of zebrafish embryos to better understand the causes of birth defects of the brain and central nervous system, the most common of which is spina bifida, the leading cause of childhood paralysis in the United States.

“It's certainly an amazing honor to receive this award,” said Brewster. In her acceptance speech, Brewster thanked UMBC President Freeman Hrabowski as the catalyst for the University’s Meyerhoff Scholarship Program. The Meyerhoff Program has become known as a national model for drawing talented minority students into research careers that often begin under the mentorship of UMBC professors.

“I have been very fortunate to work with some of these students in my lab,” said Brewster. She singled out UMBC alumna and former Meyerhoff Scholar Keisha John, who now attends the Watson Graduate School of Biological Sciences, as instrumental in producing some key data that made the award nomination possible.

“This is a great honor for Rachel and the department,” said Lasse Lindahl, professor and chair of UMBC’s biological sciences department. “The award will make officials in the White House’s Office of Science and Technology and colleagues around the country more familiar with the quality of research at UMBC. We are very proud of Dr. Brewster and her accomplishments.”

“Rachel Brewster is a wonderful colleague, an inspiring role model and a dedicated mentor to many students at UMBC,” said Lynn Zimmerman, professor of biology and vice provost for academic initiatives at UMBC. “She is a tremendous asset to UMBC's biological sciences department and we are delighted to see her receive this well deserved recognition.”

Brewster, an assistant professor of biological sciences at UMBC, received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan and did postdoctoral work at the New York University’s Skirball Institute of Biomolecular Medicine and the Department of Embryology at the Carnegie Institution of Washington.

The PECASE program recognizes outstanding scientists and engineers who show exceptional potential for leadership at the frontiers of knowledge early in their careers. President Bush honored a total of 60 young scientists for their extensive research accomplishments and for their noteworthy educational contributions at the ceremony.

Grant to Provide Multidisciplinary Training for 20 PhD Students Over 5 Years

The National Science Foundation (NSF) has awarded UMBC a $2.9 million grant to establish a new doctoral student training program in “Water in the Urban Environment.”

The NSF funding, part of a highly competitive and nationally prestigious Integrated Graduate Education and Research Traineeship (IGERT) program, will provide 20 Ph.D. students with annual stipends plus assistance with tuition and fees as UMBC recruits and trains teams of graduate students in the ecology, economics, engineering, public health and policy impacts of urbanization on the Chesapeake Bay region’s water resources.

The “Water in the Urban Environment” Ph.D. training program will involve 32 faculty members from nine UMBC departments and six partner institutions. Like all IGERT programs, the UMBC training will emphasize an interdisciplinary team approach for Ph.D. students. The program includes internships in industry, government, and non-governmental organizations.

“The NSF IGERT program is nationally recognized as a mark of academic excellence,” said Claire Welty, director of the Center for Urban Environmental Research and Education at UMBC. “This grant puts UMBC’s environmental programs on the national map in graduate environmental education and offers Marylanders a superb environmental educational opportunity right in their own back yard.”

According to Welty, “We’ve already recruited four outstanding students for the Fall 2006 semester– from North Carolina, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Virginia -- and will recruit an additional five for fall 2007,”

The program takes advantage of UMBC’s longtime research partnerships with public agencies, nonprofits, and private consultants in the field of urban environmental and hydrology studies, as well as the proximity of Baltimore to the Chesapeake Bay. UMBC is home of the field headquarters of the Baltimore Ecosystem Study, one of two urban sites in the NSF Long-Term Ecological Research network. In June, UMBC broke ground for the US Geological Survey’s Maryland/Delaware/District of Columbia Water Science Center new home at bwtech@UMBC, the university’s on-campus research and technology park.

The UMBC program is one of approximately 20 new IGERT awards granted this year by the NSF. For more information on the NSF’s IGERT programs, visit www.igert.org.