Blog@Case Topics: Authors

Water, Water Everywhere for 2010 Year of Water Celebration

2010-07-13T13:05:20Z

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink...is this the fate humans face in the future as oil leaks, pollution and other environmental changes impact clean drinking water?

From Fall Convocation on Aug. 25 with the free, public talk by Elizabeth Royte, the author of Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It, to events on and off campus, the university will celebrate the Year of Water.

Sponsoring Year of Water, the exploration of one of earthâ€™s most important resources, are the Division of Student Affairs, CWRU Climate Action Plan, CWRU Plant and Facilities Services, Engineers Without Borders, Squire Valleevue Farm, Student Sustainability Council and the Sustainability Alliance.

Art Historian Earns Lifetime Achievement Award, Reflects on Various Stages of Career

2010-06-29T22:44:51Z

Henry Adams

Henry Adams, American art historian at Case Western Reserve University, was recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Cleveland Arts Prize.

Despite the achievement, Adams has no plans to slow down anytime soon. â€œI would hope that my best work is in front of me,â€ he said shortly before receiving the recognition last Saturday.

According to the Cleveland Arts Prize program, the recognition â€œhonors individuals who have expanded the communityâ€™s participation in the arts and helped make the region more hospitable to creative artistic expression.â€ Itâ€™s the oldest award of its kind in the United States.

Nurse Educators Changing the World Highlighted in New Book

2010-06-02T14:09:38Z

The quiet actions of unsung heroes from the rainforest of Guatemala to the city streets of Harlem will be celebrated during the 2010 International Year of the Nurse in the new book, Giving through Teaching: How Nurse Educators are Changing the World (Springer Publishing).

Patterned after former President Bill Clintonâ€™s book, Giving, which told the stories of individuals making a difference in their communities, Giving through Teaching provides a perspective on contributions made by nurses.

â€œOne nurse taking a small step to change health conditions here and abroad can have a lasting impression,â€ said Joyce J. Fitzpatrick, the Elizabeth Brooks Ford Professor of Nursing at Case Western Reserve Universityâ€™s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing and one of the bookâ€™s editors. â€œThe educators featured in this book are examples of the meaningful work nurses are doing around the world.â€

New Resin Tested to Stop Dental Decay Before Drilling and Filling

2010-04-29T13:17:49Z

Researchers from the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine are testing a new noninvasive resin polymer material to infiltrate tooth enamel to seal and stop the spread of dental decay.

The noninvasive dental resin could be a new product in the dentist's medicine cabinet — along with fluoride varnish, dental sealants and the tooth brushes and dental floss for oral hygiene — to ward off and stop tooth decay from spreading and destroying the tooth's surface.

Dental researchers Jin-Ho Phark and Silas Duarte are interested in a resin material produced by DMG (Dental-Material Gesellschaft), a German dental products company. They discussed the new product in the article, "Caries Infiltration with Resins: A Novel Treatment Option for Interproximal Caries," in the journal Compendium of Continuing Education in Dentistry.

Kenyan Writer Mukoma wa Ngugi Enters New Terrain
with His First Novel, Nairobi Heat

2010-04-28T13:53:44Z

Mukoma wa Ngugi

Until recently, Kenyan writer Mukoma wa Ngugi was best known as a poet and as a commentator on African politics. But with the publication of his first novel, Nairobi Heat (Penguin Books), Mukoma, a SAGES fellow at Case Western Reserve University, has entered very different literary terrain.

Nairobi Heat is a detective story by an author hoping to bridge the gap between "serious" literature and popular fiction. Mukoma wanted to write a novel that was "fun to read," a book that made readers feel they were "on an exciting journey." But he also wanted to explore themes of race and identity, conscience and justice.

Duffy-negative Blood Types No Longer Protected
from P. Vivax Malaria

2010-03-18T21:53:04Z

Study Proves Blood-stage Infection Due to Population Mixing and Disease Evolution

In a paradigm changing discovery, Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) malaria has been identified in a population historically thought to be resistant to the disease, those who do not express the Duffy blood group protein on their red blood cells, according to researchers from Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Pasteur Institute, and the Madagascar Ministry of Health. In a study of more than 600 individuals from eight communities covering the main malaria transmission areas of Madagascar, the researchers found that 10 percent of people experiencing clinical malaria were Duffy-negative and infected with P. vivax. These findings were published in an upcoming issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

Newer Cornea Transplant Surgery Shows Short- and Long-term Promise

2010-03-03T21:09:56Z

Initially High Cell Loss in Descemet's Stripping Automated Endothelial Keratoplasty (DSAEK) Tapers Quickly

One year post-surgery, patients who underwent Descemet's stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK) experienced greater cell loss overall compared to those who underwent penetrating keratoplasty (PKP), according to a new analysis of data collected from the Cornea Donor Study (CDS) Investigator Group's 2008 Specular Microscopy Ancillary Study (SMAS). However, the study, published in the March issue of Ophthalmology, showed that cell loss in DSAEK patients plateaued more quickly than in those who underwent PKP. The two procedures are alternative methods of corneal transplant surgery for diseases affecting the back cell layer of the cornea, the endothelium.

Both the operation and recovery time associated with DSAEK are shorter because the 360-degree PKP wound is larger, weaker and more prone to rupture. PKP, a procedure that has been actively performed for more than 50 years, involves replacing all the layers of the cornea with healthy donor tissue. DSAEK is a newer procedure, developed within the last five years, by which the diseased, endothelium—a layer of cells that maintains the cornea's clarity and thinness—is replaced with a piece of only healthy donor endothelial tissue. "There is no question of the immediate benefits of DSAEK," says senior author of the study Jonathan H. Lass, M.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology and Visual Sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals Eye Institute. These benefits include greater eye integrity due to a smaller wound; quicker recovery with less visual distortion; and decreased severity in postoperative surface problems, such as dry eye.

CWRU Author Finds Power in Depression Language
and Analyzes its Impact in "Black Dogs And Blue Words"

2010-03-01T16:19:15Z

Winston Churchill called his own depression his "black dog." Others simply suffer from "the blues." Borrowing from these words, Case Western Reserve University Associate Professor of English Kimberly Emmons found the title for her forthcoming book, "Black Dogs and Blue Words: Depression and Gender in the Age of Self-Care" (Rutgers University Press).

"Since no blood, imaging or X-ray tests exist to diagnose depression, it is an illness known primarily through the language people use to describe it," Emmons said.

Emmons specializes in understanding the meaning of words and is particularly interested in medical writing.

In "Black Dogs and Blue Words," she focuses on depression information in the public arena over the past 20 years.

Cleveland Clinic, CWRU Dental Researcher Finds Switch
That Turns on the Spread of Cancer

2010-02-15T14:16:46Z

Reporting in Nature Cell Biology , researchers describe the discovery of a specific protein called disabled-2 (Dab2) that switches on the process that releases cancer cells from the original tumor and allows the cells to spread and develop into new tumors in other parts of the body.

The process called epithelial-mesenchymal transdifferientiation (EMT) has been known to play a role in releasing cells (epithelial cells) on the surface of the solid tumor and transforming them into transient mesenchymal cell: cells with the ability to start to grow a new tumor.

This is often the fatal process in breast, ovarian, pancreatic and colon-rectal cancers.

Searching to understand how the EMT process begins, Ge Jin, who has joint appointments at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine and the Lerner Research Institute at the Cleveland Clinic, began by working backwards from EMT to find its trigger.

Bottlemania Selected for 2010 Common Reading Program

2010-02-11T17:47:42Z

With a constant supply of fresh water at their fingertips via fountains and faucets, why are so many American consumers hooked on bottled water?

In Bottlemania: How Water Went on Sale and Why We Bought It, this year's selection for the Common Reading Program, environmental journalist Elizabeth Royte explores the staggering popularity of bottled water, the multi-billion-dollar industry that supports it and the building backlash against it.

In the book, one of Entertainment Weekly's 10 "Must Read" nonfiction titles of 2008, Royte travels to Fryeburg, Maine, home of Poland Spring water. In this small town and other like it across the country, she finds the people, machines, economies and cultural trends that have made bottled water a $60-billion-a-year phenomenon, even as it threatens local control of natural resources and dumps tons of plastic waste into the country's landfills.

Moving beyond the environmental consequences of making, filling, transporting and landfilling those billions of bottles, Royte examines the state of tap water today and the social impact of corporations sinking ever more pumps into rural towns.

Older Female Cancer Survivors Have Added Health Issues Compared to Their Counterparts

2010-02-10T17:54:35Z

As cancer survivors live longer, questions arise about what kind of care long-term survivors require.

A recently published study from Case Western Reserve University's Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences found 245 older married women who survived cancer had more health problems as compared to a sample of 245 married women without cancer.

The article, "Health and Well-Being in Older Married Female Cancer Survivors," was published as part of a special supplement of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society , along with other articles that resulted from a conference at CWRU on geriatric oncology, said Aloen Townsend, the lead researcher and associate professor of social work.

"There is a pressing need to study older cancer survivors," Townsend said. "It is critical to disentangle the experiences that are unique to older cancer survivors from experiences that are common to aging individuals."

Cornea Cell Density Predictive of Graft Failure at Six Months Post Transplant

2010-01-19T17:59:28Z

Cornea Donor Study Investigator Group Finds Preoperative Cell Density Not a Factor in Success

A new predictor of cornea transplant success has been identified by the Cornea Donor Study (CDS) Investigator Group. New analysis of data from the 2008 Specular Microscopy Ancillary Study (SMAS), a subset of the CDS, found that the preoperative donor cell count of endothelial cells, previously considered to be an important predictor of a successful transplant, did not correlate with graft success. Instead the study found that a patientâ€™s endothelial cell count six months post-cornea transplant is a better indicator of subsequent failure of the graft rather than the donorâ€™s cell count. These results offer an additional, reliable indicator of success that surgeons can use for monitoring patients at the six-month milestone after transplantation.

Endothelial cells form the back layer of the cornea and keep the cornea clear and prevent it from swelling. Previously it was thought that the more endothelial cells/mm2 in the donor cornea, the better, which put pressure on the eye banks to have donors with the highest count possible to distribute to corneal surgeons. However, the SMAS findings show no correlation between it and a patientâ€™s graft success rate five-years post transplant, as long as the industry standard minimum of 2,000 cells/mm2 was met. The results of this study are published in the January issue of the Archives of Ophthalmology.

Political Strategist Donna Brazile to Speak on Dr. King's Legacy Jan. 22

2010-01-12T18:16:10Z

Donna Brazile, veteran political strategist, will speak about the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. as this year's featured speaker for Case Western Reserve University's Annual MLK Celebration Week, January 15-22.

Brazile will give the 2010 MLK Convocation, which begins at 12:30 p.m., on Friday, Jan. 22, in Amasa Stone Chapel. The event is free and open to the public.

The New Orleans native has risen to national prominence as an author of the bestselling memoir "Cooking with Grease: Stirring the Pots in American Politics"; syndicated columnist for United Media; an on-air political contributor to CNN, National Public Radio and ABC News' "This Week with George Stephanopoulos"; vice chair of voter registration at the Democratic National Committee; and former chair of the DNC's Voting Rights Institute.

Book Discussion: Michael Scharf and "Shaping Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis: The Role of International Law and the State Department Legal Adviser"

2010-01-12T13:48:49Z

Michael Scharf, professor of law and director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center at Case Western Reserve University, will lead a discussion about his new book, "Shaping Foreign Policy in Times of Crisis: The Role of International Law and the State Department Legal Adviser," at 7 p.m., Wednesday, Jan. 13, at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lyndhurst at Legacy Village.

According to publisher Cambridge University Press, the book, which was co-authored by Paul R. Williams, grew out of a series of meetings that Scharf convened with all 10 former U.S. State Department legal advisers - from the Carter Administration to that of George W. Bush.

C-SPAN Book TV is scheduled to cover this event.

Case Western Reserve Researchers Find Patients Discharged from Hospitals on Ventilators and With Cognitive Impairments Have Poor Outcomes

2010-01-04T16:50:52Z

Patients, discharged from hospitals on ventilator support and with cognitive impairments, fare poorly four months later. Researchers from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University report these findings in American Journal of Critical Care .

"Survival alone is not the only important outcome for patients," says Barbara Daly, the lead researcher on the study, "Composite Outcomes of Chronically Critically Ill Patients 4 Months after Hospital Discharge."

She adds that having a better quality of life by living at home, breathing free from the ventilator and having normal cognitive function are also important factors constituting a positive outcome in the aftermath of a hospital stay.

Entropy Alone Creates Complex Crystals from Simple Shapes, Study Shows

2009-12-22T15:12:17Z

In a study that elevates the role of entropy in creating order, research from the University of Michigan, Case Western Reserve University and Kent State University shows that certain pyramid shapes can spontaneously organize into complex quasicrystals.

A quasicrystal is a solid whose components exhibit long-range order, but without a single pattern or a unit cell that repeats.

Their findings, in a paper titled "Disordered, quasicrystalline and crystalline phases of densely packed tetrahedral,â€ were published in the Dec. 10 issue of Nature .

Theorists propose a new way to shine—and a new kind of star

2009-12-18T17:34:02Z

Dying, for stars, has just gotten more complicated.

For some stellar objects, the final phase before or instead of collapsing into a black hole may be what a group of physicists is calling an electroweak star.

Glenn Starkman, a professor of physics at Case Western Reserve University, together with former graduate students and post-docs De-Chang Dai and Dejan Stojkovic, now at the State University of New York in Buffalo, and Arthur Lue, at MIT's Lincoln Lab, offer a description of the structure of an electroweak star in a paper submitted to Physical Review Letters and posted online.

New England Journal of Medicine Publishes Case Western Reserve Review of the "Molecular Basis of Colorectal Cancer"

2009-12-17T17:28:55Z

Professor Dr. Sanford Markowitz details promising findings leading to reducing the burden of the disease

Every year in the United States, 160,000 cases of colorectal cancer are diagnosed, and 57,000 patients die of the disease, making it the second leading cause of death from cancer among adults, after lung cancer.

As researchers and clinicians fervently look for causes and cures for colorectal cancer--simultaneously generating thousands of studies producing more and more promising results â€“ Dr. Sanford Markowitz, professor and researcher of cancer and genetics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and oncologist at the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, today published his forward-looking view of the "Molecular Basis of Colorectal Cancer" in the Dec. 17, 2009 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine , with co-author, Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, from the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School.

"Today's challenges are to understand the molecular basis of individual susceptibility to colorectal cancer and to determine factors that initiate the development of the tumor, drive its progression, and determine its responsiveness or resistance to antitumor agents," wrote Dr. Markowitz.

Researchers Take the Inside Route to Halt Bleeding

2009-12-16T19:00:34Z

Synthetic platelets halve clotting time

Blood loss is a major cause of death from roadside bombs to freeway crashes. Traumatic injury, the leading cause of death for people age 4 to 44, often overwhelms the body's natural blood-clotting process.

In an effort to enhance the natural process, a team led by Erin Lavik, a new Case Western Reserve University biomedical engineeringprofessor, and her former doctoral student, James P. Bertram, built synthetic platelets that show promise in halting internal and external bleeding.

Their work is published in Science Translational Medicine.

Modeling Drug Use in a Virtual City Has Potential to Shape Policies

2009-12-09T18:21:26Z

New $1.6 million NIDA grant supports anthropologist's work

Anthropologist Lee Hoffer watches drug deals in a virtual city neighborhood on his computer at Case Western Reserve University.

But, what looks like a computer game are real drug activities constructed from research data Hoffer has collected from fieldwork with heroin dealers.

Hoffer's model has brought about innovative ways of thinking about heroin use and the illegal market distributing the drug.

He now turns to building computer models based on methamphetamine users and dealers from Cuyahoga and Summit Counties in Ohio. A recent award of a five-year, $1.6 million grant from the National Institute of Drug Abuse (NIDA) will expand his work.

He plans to recruit 204 participants, with help from Northeast Ohio social service agencies. The users and dealers, whose information will remain confidential, will contribute data that goes into the agent-based models he is constructing. These simulations use complexity theory and techniques from artificial intelligence to design what look like computer games.