Science magazine has awarded a prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction to a Case Western Reserve University class that melds biology, computer modeling, mathematical analysis and writing. “Dynamics of Biological Systems,†taught by Biology Professor Hillel Chiel and three graduate assistants, abandons traditional lectures altogether in favor of learning by doing. The teachers call the class an example of the use of the continual improvement model in education. In it, Chiel pairs biology majors with engineering, physics or math majors, and has them concentrate on building academic and collaborative skills as they apply math to biological questions. Teachers provide guidance, not answers, often working one-on-one through class time. Chiel, and doctoral students Jeffery P. Gill, Jeffrey M. McManus and Kendrick M. Shaw, describe “Dynamics†and the philosophy behind the course in this week’s issue of Science. The story is embargoed until 2 p.m. U.S. Eastern Time Thursday, May 24. The Science Prize for Inquiry-Based Instruction was established to encourage innovation and excellence in education by recognizing outstanding, inquiry-based science and design-based engineering education. Winners are selected by the editors of Science with the assistance of a judging panel composed of teachers and researchers in relevant science and engineering fields. Each month, Science publishes an essay by a recipient of the award, which explains the winning project. Only 20 percent of submitted entries go on to become winners. “The vast majority of biologists hate math and usually don’t like programming,†Chiel said. “Many engineers have been forced to take biology and hate it because of the memorization.†The prevalence of these attitudes is reflected in questionnaires the students complete at the beginning of the semester. This class, however, puts the two disciplines firmly in students’ hands, to explore and build proficiency, and, eventually, to replicate and build on recent math models used in the biological sciences. The course is cross-listed as both a biology and biomedical engineering class. “I’ve previously taken regular calculus classes with engineers and wondered what would the classes ever be useful for,†said Kate Coyle, a biology major who completed the Dynamics class and graduated this semester. “Labs I’ve had in biology and physics show you the protocol and the expected result. “This is not the same, at all. We were solving real problems every day.†Students work through problems using an online interactive textbook, Dynamics of Biological Systems: A Modeling Manual Chiel wrote and the computer programming language Mathematica, which scientists worldwide rely on to build mathematical models of complex systems. Chiel’s book is available free to students as well as teachers who may want to use it as is or as a model for their own classes. When teams become stuck on a problem, ,Chiel or a teaching assistant makes suggestions, gives clues and tries to coax out the answer. After success, teachers quiz individuals about how they found the solution and what they’d learned. The class of 30 is spread out among hexagonal tables. Teams power up their laptops and go to work. Each day the teachers rotate to a different group of students, and after each class they compare notes on who has mastered the skills and who needs extra help, Gill said. When the second half of the semester begins, teams choose a mathematical model that was recently published in a scientific journal, begin reconstructing and analyzing it and then writing in detail what they learn. The students then extend the model to answer new questions that they ask themselves, and write up results as if they were writing for a scientific journal. Coyle and her teammates Valencia Williams and Joshua DeRivera focused on a paper that used math models to describe HIV’s effects on the body, based on T-cell and free virus populations in the blood. Coyle, Williams and DeRivera found the model worked well in early stages of the disease, but was not as accurate for the late stages. The team varied one parameter over time to simulate an exponential increase in the replication rate of the virus as it mutates from a slow-growing to a fast-growing strain, Coyle explained. This allowed them to preserve the original model's accuracy during early behavior and also reach a realistic end-stage value. Chiel has developed the class over a decade, based on feedback from students and evidence that individuals learned and retained skills and understood concepts of biology, math and programming better under this process. “What I find so cool is that by the last few weeks of the module, we’re having really professional discussions with students,†Chiel said. By the end of the course, biology majors feel more competent in computer programming and the engineers more competent in biology and programming, according to end-of-semester questionnaires. Since abandoning lectures for hands-on, continual development and reinforcement, overall class scores are higher on the final, conceptual exam and final grades, on average, have increased by slightly more than one letter grade. It is much more challenging to teach the class in this way, Chiel concludes, but on the whole much more fun and effective for both students and teachers.

Work resulted in more than 30 research memos for tribunal’s prosecutors

News Release: Thursday, May 3, 2012

CLEVELAND – Over the past 10 years, Case Western Reserve law professors, students and alumni have played several key roles in the historic war crimes case against Liberia’s former president, Charles Taylor. Last week the Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted Taylor on 11 counts of aiding and abetting war crimes and crimes against humanity in Liberia’s neighboring Sierra Leone. It was the first time in history that an international tribunal has convicted a head of state. Shortly after his appointment in 2002, the Special Court for Sierra Leone's Founding Chief Prosecutor David Crane reached out to Case Western Reserve's War Crimes Research Office, directed by Professor Michael Scharf, and the Public International Law and Policy Group, a non-governmental organization Scharf co-founded, for assistance on complicated legal issues facing that tribunal. Since then, Scharf, Visiting Associate Professor Carol Fox and Adjunct Professors Christopher Rassi and Christopher McLaughlin, supported by a dozen students each year, have provided 32 lengthy research memos to the chief prosecutor and his successors. A Case Western Reserve law memo provided the research for the Taylor prosecution to argue that head of state immunity did not apply to the Special Court for Sierra Leone despite the fact that it was a hybrid tribunal created jointly by Sierra Leone and the United Nations rather than a traditional international court. Scharf said this legal work laid the foundation for the prosecution to obtain the indictment of Taylor while he was still a sitting head of state in 2003. "The Case memos dealt with just about every issue in the trial, from the authority of the Sierra Leone Tribunal to prosecute leaders in Liberia, to the legal contours of aiding and abetting, to the definitions of crimes against humanity, terrorism, pillage and war crimes," Scharf said. Ultimately, the Special Court for Sierra Leone convicted Taylor of aiding and abetting crimes against humanity and war crimes for providing weapons to rebel groups in neighboring Sierra Leone. The court found he that knew those rebel groups were engaging in mass atrocities in return for blood diamonds. “Taylor was convicted of being enabler in chief — a theory our work helped support," Scharf said. Case Western Reserve's contributions to the tribunal were so significant that in 2005, Crane nominated Scharf, the Public International Law and Policy Group and the Case Western Reserve-based war crimes program for the Nobel Peace Prize. Crane received an honorary doctorate from Case Western Reserve, and the current chief prosecutor of the tribunal, Brenda Hollis, will receive an honorary doctorate from the university at commencement on May 20. Ten years ago, Case Western Reserve provided the very first legal intern, Lesley Murray, now a human rights lawyer, to the Special Court for Sierra Leone's office in Freetown. Twenty other CWRU interns followed in Murray's footsteps — more than from any other law school in the world. In 2007, the Case Western Reserve law faculty established an international tribunal externship program, so that students could earn a full semester's worth of credit for interning at the tribunal's offices in Freetown and The Hague. At the high point of the Taylor trial in 2010, when model Naomi Campbell testified about receiving blood diamonds from the defendant, Case Western Reserve intern Jacqueline Green sat at the prosecution table just behind the witness. Two of Case Western Reserve’s interns for the tribunal, Ruth Mary Hackler (LAW ’05) and Nathan Quick (LAW ’09), were hired after graduation to be part of the 10-person prosecution team that tried Taylor. Quick recently went on to be legal adviser to the judges of the Cambodia Tribunal, while Hackler plans to stay with the Taylor prosecution team until they wrap up in the fall. Case Western Reserve Law School doesn't just teach international law, it engages faculty and students in international law at the highest levels. Its War Crimes Research Office is supported by an annual grant from the Open Society Institute. The War Crimes Research Office currently provides research assistance to the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, where alum Christopher Rassi (LAW ’02) serves as a legal adviser to the prosecutor; to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, where alum Andres Perez (LAW ’05) serves as legal adviser to the judges; and to the Cambodia Genocide Tribunal, as well as to several regional courts prosecuting Somali pirates. For additional comment, Michael Scharf can be contacted any time at 216.534.7796 or Michael.scharf@case.edu.

News Release: Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Think like a planet—and reorganize society to reflect it, says Case Western Reserve University’s environmental ethicist Jeremy Bendik-Keymer. That’s a new way of thinking about reversing the tide of climate change. “Don’t obsess over your individual actions: counting carbon emissions, changing light bulbs or even developing new technologies for personal use. The only international cure-all for climate change is societal, born of civic protest against the injustice we are visiting on future children,†Bendik-Keymer says. That’s also the message from Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change: Human Virtues of the Future’s editors Bendik-Keymer and Allen Thompson from Oregon State University. Thompson and Bendik-Keymer met in Colorado in 2004 through Thompson’s dissertation advisor at University of Washington, William Talbott. When the 2007 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on climate change appeared, both became anxious about the predictions and asked what they could do as philosophy professors to contribute to society on the issue. The result was a conference, headlined by Martha Nussbaum in 2008, and it became the idea for their volume. Internationally respected environmental political theorist Andrew Dobson calls the book one of the “most original†works on climate change to appear in a while. “The standard definition of adaptation is about coping to protect our business as usual model of development. We take that a step further and think adaptation requires ethics –a new frame for development. We should change our form of life to assume responsibility keyed to a planetary scale,†said Bendik-Keymer, the Elmer G. Beimer-Hubert H. Schneider Professor in Ethics at Case Western Reserve. The volume, aimed at both theorists and practitioners working on the emerging international architecture of climate regulation and climate philosophy, starts at the global level. Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change (MIT Press) is a call for reorganizing both our conception of good character and our understanding of institutions to allow humans to flourish in the climate we have substantially affected for the next thousands of years. High praise for the book as “a vision of human flourishing in a brave new world†came from Holmes Rolston, III, who is the Distinguished Professor of Philosophy from the Colorado State University and considered the father of environmental ethics. This new world vision is described by environmental ethicists in 17 essays focused on four areas: adapting ecological restoration to new climates, integrating ecology into justice, changing human character to be responsible for our effects on the climate, and reorganizing a globally just world where people can act in virtuous ways, as opposed to remaining individually impotent. Without these pathways for change, Bendik-Keymer sees future generations paying a dire price for inheriting our ecological mess. “This book argues that we need to rethink ourselves and our characters to take account of the institutional and global nature of the problems to be addressed,†writes Susan Neiman, director of the Einstein Forum and author of the New York Times notable book, Moral Clarity: A Guide for Grownup Idealists (2008). Several key words emerge in this conversation’s vocabulary: human flourishing, ethical adaptation, responsibility, civic engagement, restoration, character and justice. One of the first concepts explored is restoration by conservation biologists. The idea is now archaic, according to the contributors. Climate changes have produced conditions that humans cannot restore those environments. “They don’t or won’t exist because of climate change,†Bendik-Keymer says. Second, surviving is no longer just an egocentric or individual’s race for valuable resources. Ethical adaptation is about collectively understanding ecology from a global perspective such that the conditions for human dignity and humane relationships with other species on Earth are maintained. Third, at the heart of living a flourishing or “good†life requires humans to have character. The center of character is responsibility for our effects on the climate system as these affect future generations, the global poor and other species. Classic vices such as greed must be re-conceptualized at the global and intergenerational scales. Worldwide governments must take responsibility for the climate and create a new Kyoto agreement that reflects justice in their grasp of human flourishing. It’s a new way of thinking. Reflecting on human history, no cultures have ever thought that they themselves ought to be responsible for the course of the sky. But we have to be now, since the course of the sky is within our power, Bendik-Keymer says. “Talk about adaptation must take us beyond mere coping strategies to full human flourishing,†he says and thus, the book’s subtitle of “human virtues of the future.†Responsible and virtuous actions by individuals alone are no longer enough to divert climate change. “Only changes to the patterns in society can do it,†Bendik-Keymer says. This change calls for corporate virtues and responses by communities through collective engagement, or the mass of us working together to change the system at the global level. “There is no hail Mary pass at the end of the day,†Bendik-Keymer says, “only sustained, civic engagement by people around the world to create a society that thinks like a planet.â€

News Release: Wednesday, April 27, 2012

Nathan Buckner, of Hunter, Utah, sits in the Case Western Reserve University dental clinic, turning pages of a photo book from a mission that he took to Lamay, Peru with 16 Case Western Reserve students and faculty. He’s a bit nostalgic as he closes this chapter on his life with graduation approaching on Sunday, May 20, to start a career as an Army dentist. Establishing the mission is a legacy he leaves dental students who want to use their skills to care for people who lack access to dental services—some in remote regions of this world. But looking forward, his next step in life is to move his wife, Kellie, and their four small children (ages 7, 5, 3 and 1) to Fort Sill in Lawton, Okla., where he will report for duty in the U.S. Army on July 2 to fulfill a four-year obligation to repay his dental school tuition. Besides caring for the dental needs of Army personnel, he will also learn how to survive bad weather in “tornado alleyâ€â€”a type of storm he has not experienced living in Utah or Ohio. Buckner will begin the profession he has wanted since his eighth-grade gifted and talented classes where had to shadow a professional for one hour a week for almost three months. Sad that his original choice—his pediatrician—was not available, his mother drove a “disappointed†Buckner to the family dentist, Todd Bowman. “That’s where a light bulb went on,†Buckner said. “I always liked arts and crafts as a Cub Scout and wanted to work with people. I saw how my dentist was an artist in sculpting and recreating teeth.†Beside his artistic talents with his dental patients, the dental faculty appreciated Buckner’s fluency in Spanish. As part of his first and second-year dental education at Case Western Reserve, Buckner participated in the Healthy Smiles sealant program. This collaboration with the Cleveland schools gives children access to dental services and lessons on good oral health while giving eager dental students a chance to begin seeing patients. It came to the attention of Healthy Smiles Director and Chair of the Department of Community Dentistry James Lalumandier that Buckner was communicating in Spanish with some school children during dental exams and sealants. Lalumandier asked Buckner if he would like work on the El Salvador dental mission. He jumped at the opportunity to use the Spanish he’d learned during two years as a Mormon missionary in El Salvador between his first and second years at Utah State University, where he earned his bachelor degree in engineering. Returning to school in 2010, and ready to plan the El Salvador trip, he learned that the university’s School of Medicine wanted the dental school to collaborate on their Peru mission. The medical students noticed people from Lamay needed dental care. Buckner didn’t hesitate to dig in and start planning the mission with his classmate Ben Cope. The two dental students traveled to Lamay, getting permissions and scouting lodging for the August 2011 mission. The trip was a success. Buckner and Cope also had so many second-year dental students who wanted to go but still did not have enough experience to treat patients. Those students will have their chance to participate later this year. Buckner said the experience made him realize “how good we have things in the United States.†“We take so much for granted, including the quality of our healthcare. Even relatively good dentistry in Peru may be of questionable quality compared to the American standard of care,†Buckner said. This trip solidified Buckner’s understanding of the crucial role modern dentistry plays in our society. He says that “by continuously striving to improve myself as a dentist, I will have the skills necessary to provide excellent care for my patients. Most patients may not realize how good they have it, but I’ve seen what a lack of adequate dental care does to individuals and an entire community. I am motivated to aid my community by providing the best care I can offer.†Buckner says he won’t forget Lamay and hopes to stay connected in years to come. These days, Buckner is saying goodbye to his patients he has treated in the past years at the dental school clinics in Cleveland, Ohio. As he hands over patients, he also transfers duties as one of the founders of the Peru mission to Cope. Buckner looks to the future and gaining some advanced education in dental medicine in the Army where he eventually hopes to specialize in endodontics. Leaving the university, he has mixed feelings of sadness and happiness with his accomplishments, but anticipates entering the Army where he will reach his goal and fulfill his long-held dream of a practicing dentist.

News Release: Wednesday, April 27, 2012

Michael Knight is a student who makes people shake their heads and ask, “how do you do it?†He led the Student National Medical Association (SNMA), gave vocal coaching to members of Doc Opera and volunteered in Cleveland’s neighborhoods. That’s just a few of activities that Knight, a 2012 graduate of the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University, undertook as a medical student. “When you have a passion, you work long hours and give up watching television or other things to get it done,†says Knight. Knight’s medical school experience included research on cancer and other projects at the Cleveland Clinic and a National Institutes of Health Clinical Research Training Program in Washington, D.C., in diabetes research. He advocated for and mentored minority youths in Cleveland and at the national level in his role as the immediate past president of SNMA. “I let them know they can have a career in medicine, law, or another field even if they don’t see these people in their neighborhoods,†said Knight, who grew up in the Bronx in New York City. He did his undergraduate work at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Ala., where he majored in biomedical sciences with a minor in vocal performance music. While in medical school, Knight also championed those facing medical issues because of health disparities. He fought for HIV/AIDS awareness and spearheaded a national outreach effort with SNMA’s 6,000 members and made a public service announcement that ran online and in social media. He also researched a number of medical issues, including diabetes, which particularly impacts African-American women. He had the opportunity to testify as SNMA’s spokesperson about health disparities before members of the U.S. Senate. he will attend Commencement on Sunday, May 20, in Veale Convocation Center, and later in at Severance Hall, to receive his diploma to the cheers of 40 relatives who welcome and honor the family’s first medical doctor. This is the 10th year of the unique research-based medical program for students at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine at Case Western Reserve University, who pursue research and medical careers. Knight is in the fifth graduating class in the five-year program for their M.D. degree. Knight credits the great support he received from his mentor, Dr. John Glazer, a psychiatrist at the Cleveland Clinic whom Knight said, “was there for me day or night.†Upon graduation, Knight carries with him the valuable lesson “that you can dispense all the medicines a person needs, but if they go home to a place without electricity or worry about the children’s education and safety that medicine isn’t enough.†Knight says his goal is to work both in a hospital and to make changes in the neighborhood happen or all those social conditions can keep a person sick. “We need a holistic approach to medicine,†he says. He wants to close the gap in health disparities. On Match Day, a national event when medical students across the country learn where they will intern, Knight says he may have just outshouted his classmates for joy when he opened the envelope (http://player.delvenetworks.com/preview/?m=52032ae47930426bac56f83773c4c4e3) and saw he’ll begin his internship, and later residency, at New York Presbyterian Hospital--Weill Cornell Medical Center in New York City. It was his first choice, because he wants to give back to the city. He is already on the way to doing just that.

Magnetic nanochain detonates chemo barrage inside tumors

Medicine-toting nanochains slip into tumors and explode a chemotherapy drug into hard-to-reach cores of cancer, engineers and scientists at Case Western Reserve University report. In tests on rats and mice, the technology took out far more cancer cells, inhibited tumor growth better and extended life longer than traditional chemotherapy delivery. All the while, the targeted delivery system used far less of the drug doxorubicin than the amount used in traditional chemotherapy, saving healthy tissue from toxic exposure. The new delivery system and results are described in the online edition of The American Chemical Society journal ACS Nano at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/nn300652p. “Other nanotechnology has been used to get a drug inside a tumor, but once the drug gets in the door, it stays by the door, missing most of the building,†said Efstathios Karathanasis, a biomedical engineering professor and leader of the research team. “We used a different kind of nanotechnology to smuggle the drug inside the tumor and to explode the bomb, releasing the drug in its free form to spread throughout the entire tumor.†The key to the new delivery system is the tail on the doxorubicin bomb. Karathanasis’ team took magnetic nanoparticles made of iron oxide and modified the surfaces so that one would link to the next, much like Lego building blocks. They linked three together and chemically linked a liposome sphere filled with the drug. They then injected rat and mouse models with the nanochains, which carried only 5 to 10 percent of doxorubicin used in standard chemotherapy. The two rodents are models of two different strains of what is called triple-negative breast cancer, a highly-aggressive form of cancer treatable only with harsh chemotherapy. The researchers started with an aggressive form, believing if the technology works on the least treatable cancers, it is likely to work with other drugs on other forms of cancers. A day later, after nanochains had slipped from the blood stream and congregated in the tumor, the researchers placed a wire coil, called a solenoid, outside the animal models, near the tumor. Electricity passed through the solenoid creates a radiofrequency field. The field caused the magnetic tails to vibrate, breaking open the liposome spheres. Two weeks after treatment, tumor growth in rats that received the new drug delivery was less than half that of rats treated traditionally. In rats that received two of the new treatments, tumor growth was reduced to one-tenth that of rats treated traditionally (for example clinically used doxorubicin or liposomal doxorubicin). Rats that received one new treatment survived an average of 25 days and those treated twice, 46 days, compared to 15 days for traditionally treated rats. Cell death, called apoptosis, within the tumor was at least 10 times greater after one treatment with the new delivery system compared to traditional treatment. The researchers tested only for apoptosis in mice with a different triple-negative cell line. The new treatment caused nearly a 4-fold increase in cell death within the tumor. In both the mice and rats, the drug and resulting cell death was far more widely distributed throughout the tumors with the nanochain delivery. “There are probably different mechanisms of growth in the different models, which indicates this technology will probably work in different types of cancer,†said Ruth Keri, associate professor and vice chair of the Department of Pharmacology at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine. Keri, who is also associate director for basic research at Case Comprehensive Cancer Center, assisted in the investigation. “This is a really clever and novel approach to targeted delivery. But, we need much more testing.†During their experimenting, the team found they could control the rate of drug release by adjusting the radiofrequency used to vibrate the chain. They plan to further explore this capability and test whether the system can block the ability of the tumor to metastasize, which is the most common cause of cancer deaths. They will also optimize the system to provide more efficient and rapid drug release, and further evaluate the effect of size and shape of the nanochains on blood circulation and tumor penetration. Other authors include biomedical engineering graduate researcher Randall Toy; biomedical engineering undergraduate researchers Emily Tran, Jenna Pansky, Elizabeth Doolittle, Erik Schmidt, Elliott Hayden and Aaron Mayer; Mark Griswold, a professor of radiology at Case Western Reserve School of Medicine; Pubudu Peiris, a research associate at the Case Center for Imaging Research; and physics graduate researcher Lisa Bauer.

News Release: Wednesday, April 18, 2012

The culprit behind a failed hip or knee replacements might be found in the mouth. DNA testing of bacteria from the fluid that lubricates hip and knee joints had bacteria with the same DNA as the plaque from patients with gum disease and in need of a joint replacement. This study is one of many coming from the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine that have linked oral bacteria to health problems when they escape from the mouth and enter the blood. Working with University Hospitals Case Medical Center researchers, the dental, orthopedic and arthritis researchers suggest it might be the reason why aseptic loosening or prosthetic wear of the artificial joints fail within 10 years when no infection appears to be present. The pilot study’s findings were reported in the April issue of the Journal of Clinical Rheumatology. Dr. Nabil Bissada, chair of the Department of Periodontics at the dental school, said the objective of the study, “Identification of Oral Bacterial DNA in Synovial Fluid of Patients with Arthritis with Native and Failed Prosthetic Joints,†was to see if bacteria like Fusobacterium nucleatum and Serratia proteamaculans found in patients with gum disease were present in the fluid. “For a long time, we’ve suspected that these bacteria were causing problems in arthritis patients, but never had the scientific evidence to support it,†Bissada says. The researchers recruited and studied 36 patients seeking care at the University Hospitals Case Medical Center for osteoarthritis (the wearing of the joints) and rheumatoid arthritis (an autoimmune disease). These study participants had both natural and artificial joints. Researcher extracted samples of their synovial fluid, which is much like oil that keeps a door from squeaking. These patients also had signs of periodontitis or gum disease and undergone exams where dental plaque was obtained for the study. Plaque build-up from the bacteria, associated with gum disease, breaks down the walls of the pockets around the teeth. The inflammation process from the bacteria acts like a gate that gives bacteria access to the blood stream. Once in the blood, the oral bacteria have induced inflammation in remote sites where the bacteria has been linked to heart, kidney and cancer diseases and premature births and fetal deaths. Because these bacteria cannot be found with routine lab tests, detection of bacteria in the plaque and fluid was done through a process called polymerase chain reactions and DNA sequence analysis of specific genes (16S-23S rRNA). This is a sophisticated DNA tracking procedure. Five of the 36 patients (14%) showed direct DNA links between the bacteria in the fluid and plaque from the mouth. The breakdown in patients was: one from a rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patient with a failed natural joint and one RA patient with a failed replacement joint; two osteoarthritis (OA) patients with failed artificial joints and one OA patient with a failed natural joint. Bissada said researchers will continue exploring the oral health link in a larger study. “We have a link now and want to see just how much of a trend this is. We also will be able to see if treating the periodontal disease, can reduce the number of future costly joint replacements.†Collaborating with Bissada on the National Institutes of Health and Department of Periodontics-funded research were: Stephanie Temoin, Alia Chakaki, Ahmed El-Halaby, Yiping Han from the Case Western Reserve dental school, and Ali Askari, Steven Fitzgerald and Randall E. Marcus from University Hospitals Case Medical Center.

News Release: Tuesday, April 10, 2012

A new study from Case Western Reserve University finds mothers tend to be more critical of children with obsessive-compulsive disorder than they are of other children in the family. And, that parental criticism is linked to poorer outcomes for the child after treatment. Parent criticism has been associated with child anxiety in the past, however, researchers wanted to find out if this is a characteristic of the parent or something specific to the relationship between the anxious child and the parent. “This suggests that mothers of anxious children are not overly critical parents in general. Instead they seem to be more critical of a child with OCD than they are of other children in the home,†said Amy Przeworski, assistant professor of psychology. She is the lead author of the study, “Maternal and Child Expressed Emotion as Predictors of Treatment Response in Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder,†in the recent journal, Child Psychiatry & Human Development. OCD is found in one in 200 children, according to the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The psychological disorder overcomes individuals with repetitive thoughts that lead to anxiety, which is then acted out in exacting routines or behaviors that can range from foot tapping to eating rituals to school or bedtime preparations. This research evolved from other studies that found parental criticism is associated with less success in therapy and a relapse of behavior. “Parents’ criticism may be a reaction to the child’s anxiety. This research is not blaming the parent for the child’s OCD. But it does suggest that the relationship between parents and children with OCD is important and should be a focus of treatment. This means that parents can help children with OCD to get better.†Przeworski says. “OCD sneaks up on the kids and parents,†Przeworski says. The psychology professor, who specializes in anxiety disorders, says some parents become concerned when their children show some early warning signs for OCD: • Rigidity in a child, with things routinely done or said in exactly the same way or order. • Asking for reassurance many times in the day. • Repetition of a task from tapping the foot, checking on the stove, washing hands that the child cannot stop when asked. • Routines that have prescribed patterns or are excessive lengthy: An example is a two-hour shower or raw and chapped hands that look like the child is wearing red gloves. • Bedtime or dinner rituals, where there is a prescribed order for eating food, placement of food on the plate, etc. • Temper tantrums where the child goes beyond being stubborn but has anxiety associated with them. • Children want symmetry in appearance or things around them. Parents initially may think it is a phase, a habit or stubbornness. Over time, the behaviors become so exacting that the child and family members have to act in prescribed ways. Parents may end up criticizing the child in an effort to get them to drop obsessive-compulsive behaviors. The researchers videotaped interviews with 62 mother-child pairs just before the child’s OCD treatment began. Children either had medication, therapy, a combination of the two, or a placebo. The children were between the ages of 7 and 17. Because most mothers bring their children for treatment appointments, the researchers focused on the mother’s view of their children. Mothers were asked to give a five-minute description of their relationship with the child with OCD and the mother’s relationship with the sibling closest in age to the child with OCD. The researchers asked the children to describe their relationships with their mothers and fathers. The researchers examined the presence of criticism and emotional over-involvement (over-protection or excessive self-sacrificing) in these descriptions. The tone of the OCD child and parent tended toward criticism, they said. The other sibling received more loving expressions. Parent criticism was associated with poorer child functioning after treatment. Przeworski said treatment of OCD has good results, but many times parents misjudge these rigid routines as stubbornness or “just going through a phase†until the behavior takes over family life. Then parents realize the behavior requires therapy. Collaborating with Przeworski were: Lori Zoellner from University of Washington; Martin E. Franklin and Edna B. Foa, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine; and Abbe Garcia and Jennifer Freeman, Brown University. The study was supported with funds from the National Institute of Mental Health.

News Release: Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Case Western Reserve University and its partners have erected their third and largest research wind turbine — and begun the process of tying into the grid. The 1-megawatt turbine, which will sit 230 feet above William Sopko & Sons Co., near the I-90-Rt. 2 split in Euclid, is a utility-scale power generator. The company is one of the university’s industrial partners in wind research and made the property available. The mid-sized research turbine erected on the same parcel and the smallest, on the Case Western Reserve campus, are already providing power. After initial studies of their operation, all three will be used as working laboratories available to researchers at non-profit organizations and for-profit companies, eliminating the large expense of having to buy or build their own turbines. The overall goal is to develop better products, from nuts and bolts on up to new technologies to manage the turbines and improve efficiency and longevity, and thereby establish a wind-energy supply chain in Northeast Ohio. Researchers can gain access to the turbines through the Wind Energy Research and Commercialization (WERC) Center. The WERC Center is part of the Great Lakes Energy Institute (GLEI) at CWRU. “By having three different sized wind turbines, researchers and companies can 'right-size' their efforts, depending on what information the researchers are interested in and what market the companies are developing products for,†said David Matthiesen, professor of materials science and engineering at Case Western Reserve and faculty director of the WERC Center.

The three wind turbines also have a variety of technologies in them, Matthiesen explained. The 100-killowatt turbine has a direct drive system and no gearbox in its drive train. In addition to the swiveling nacelle, which houses the generator, the pitch of the blades can be changed on the 225-kilowatt turbine to control the angle to the wind. The 1-megawatt turbine has additional monitoring features to allow researchers to study how electricity generated by the turbine is integrated into the power grid. The larger turbines are in Euclid, where they complement the surrounding industry. The electricity from the 1-megawatt turbine will flow into the adjacent Stamco Industries plant. Inside the plant, mammoth presses generate up to 3,000 tons of pressure as they stamp truck wheel rings and other products out of heavy-gauge steel. Unused power will flow into the grid. As part of its commissioning tests, the intermediate turbine is already providing power to William Sopko & Sons’ light manufacturing business of making adapters, parts and accessories for precision grinders. The smallest turbine, a community-rated power generator, provides electricity to The Veale Convocation, Athletic and Recreation Center. During its first full year of operation, the turbine generated 58,500 KWH or about 5 percent of the total used by the center. The Ohio-WERC Center is funded with a $3 million Third Frontier Wright Project award from the Ohio Department of Development and $3 million in support from the inaugural industrial partners: Cleveland Electric Laboratories, The Lubrizol Corporation, Parker Hannifin Corporation, Azure Energy LLC, Rockwell Automation, Inc., Swiger Coil Systems LLC, and William Sopko & Sons Co.

News Release: Wednesday, April 3, 2012

Negative thinking is a red flag for clinical depression. Stopping such thoughts early on can save millions of people from mental illness, according research study from the Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing at Case Western Reserve University. Jaclene Zauszniewski, the Kate Hanna Harvey Professor in Community Health Nursing and associate dean for doctoral education at the school, has developed a brief 8-item survey to help healthcare providers identify depressive thinking patterns that may lead to serious depression if not identified and addressed early. Zauszniewski’s Depression Cognition Scale (DCS) asks individuals to respond to questions about helplessness, hopelessness, purposelessness, worthlessness, powerlessness, loneliness, emptiness and meaninglessness using a scale that ranges from “strongly agree†to “strongly disagree.†“Clinicians need guidelines and measures to know when negative thinking has reached a tipping point and has begun to spiral into clinical depression,†she said. The DCS has been used effectively to screen for more serious depressive symptoms in persons in the U.S. and around the world, but the researchers wanted to take it further and determine the point at which negative thinking establishes a pattern for the onset of clinical depression—even without other emotional expressions or body symptoms associated with depression. In a study of 629 healthy adults from 42 states who responded to questions through the Internet survey, they found the answer. Participants ranged in age from 21 to 84 years, and 70 percent were women; women make up the majority depression sufferers. The majority of the participants were college educated and had incomes greater than $40,000. For this study, the researchers compared DCS scores to the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), which is recognized as a “gold standard†measure for identifying clinically significant depressive symptoms. Their goal was to determine a cut score on the DCS that would represent the point at which individuals may benefit from learning ways to change negative thinking in order to prevent serious depression. They found that a score of 7 on the DCS would be that point at which individuals should begin initiating strategies to change negative thoughts into positive ones. The findings also showed that at this cut score, the DCS accurately differentiated between persons with and without clinical depressive symptoms as determined by the CES-D. Zauszniewski and Abir K. Bekhet, a researcher from Marquette University in Milwaukee, report their findings in Issue 34 of the Western Journal of Nursing Research article, “Screening Measure for Early Detection of Depressive Symptoms: The Depressive Cognition Scale.â€

Partnerships with prestigious schools will offer students new opportunities

News Release: March 29, 2012

CLEVELAND - Case Western Reserve University School of Law has forged two new partnerships with institutions in China, making the Cleveland-based school a national leader in U.S.-China legal education. Dean Lawrence Mitchell and Professor Jon Groetzinger recently visited China, where they reached agreements with Peking University (PKU) Law School and Renmin University of China (RUC) Law School. The signed agreements provide for faculty and student exchanges, visiting lecturers, and expanded law journals. The university now partners with six of China's most prestigious law schools. "The importance of our exposing U.S. law students to China is obvious," said Mitchell, a business law scholar. "This program allows us to bring prominent Chinese lawyers and scholars to our legal community as well." Mitchell adds that, while other law schools routinely offer summer study abroad, Case Western Reserve's program offers a rare opportunity for full-semester international study. Students at PKU and Renmin, each in Beijing, along with students at Case Western Reserve's other partner schools in China, will have the opportunity to enroll in special degree programs. Participating international students can obtain both LL.M. (Master of Laws) and JD (Juris Doctor) degrees in less time than it would take to earn each separately. Other law schools in China with previously established ties to Case Western Reserve include City University of Hong Kong, Fudan University, East China University of Political Science and Law, and Southwest University of Political Science and Law. Case Western Reserve and PKU law schools will build an online law journal together, and Case Western Reserve will provide support for the English edition of Peking University Law Journal. Deans Zhang Shouwen of PKU and Han DaYuan of RUC joined with Mitchell and Groetzinger during recent signing ceremonies at their law schools. "We're pleased to have forged partnerships with such high-caliber law schools in a nation whose importance in legal studies cannot be overstated," said Groetzinger. Peking University and Renmin University Law Schools are among the first in China to offer a legal education. Many faculty members and scholars at both schools are advisers to the central government, the NationalPeople's Congress, and to large Chinese and multinational corporations. For more information, visit law.case.edu/Academics/ChinaProgram.aspx.

Discovery of Foot Fossil Confirms Two Human Ancestor Species Co-Existed

A team of scientists has announced the discovery of a 3.4 million-year-old partial foot from the Woranso-Mille area of the Afar region of Ethiopia. The fossil foot did not belong to a member of “Lucy’s†species, Australopithecus afarensis, the famous early human ancestor. Research on this new specimen indicates that more than one species of early human ancestor existed between 3 and 4 million years ago with different methods of locomotion. The analysis will be published in the March 29, 2012 issue of the journal Nature. The partial foot was found in February 2009 in an area locally known as Burtele. “The Burtele partial foot clearly shows that at 3.4 million years ago, Lucy’s species, which walked upright on two legs, was not the only hominin species living in this region of Ethiopia,†said lead author and project leader Dr. Yohannes Haile-Selassie, curator of physical anthropology at The Cleveland Museum of Natural History. “Her species co-existed with close relatives who were more adept at climbing trees, like ‘Ardi’s’ species, Ardipithecus ramidus, which lived 4.4 million years ago.†The partial foot is the first evidence for the presence of at least two pre-human species with different modes of locomotion contemporaneously living in eastern Africa around 3.4 million years ago. While the big toe of the foot in Lucy’s species was aligned with the other four toes for human-like bipedal walking, the Burtele foot has an opposable big toe like the earlier Ardi. “This discovery was quite shocking,†said co-author and project co-leader Dr. Bruce Latimer of Case Western Reserve University. “These fossil elements represent bones we’ve never seen before. While the grasping big toe could move from side to side, there was no expansion on top of the joint that would allow for expanded range of movement required for pushing off the ground for upright walking. This individual would have likely had a somewhat awkward gait when on the ground.†The new partial foot specimen has not yet been assigned to a species due to the lack of associated skull or dental elements. The fossils were found below a sandstone layer. Using the argon-argon radioactive dating method, their age was determined to be younger than 3.46 million years, said co-author Dr. Beverly Saylor of Case Western Reserve University. “Nearby fossils of fish, crocodiles and turtles, and physical and chemical characteristics of sediments show the environment was a mosaic of river and delta channels adjacent to an open woodland of trees and bushes,†said Saylor. “This fits with the fossil, which strongly indicates a hominin adapted to living in trees, at the same time ‘Lucy’ was living on land.†Other major contributors to the research include: Alan Deino, of the Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, Calif.; Naomi E. Levin, of Johns Hopkins University; and Mulugeta Alene, of Addis Ababa University. Information and images at www.cmnh.org/site/burtele.aspx. A video can be seen at: http://www.youtube.com/user/NatureVideoChannel/featured.

Researchers in South Korea and CWRU devise new process

Mixing a little dry ice and a simple industrial process cheaply mass-produces high-quality graphene nanosheets, researchers in South Korea and Case Western Reserve University report. Graphene, which is made from graphite, the same stuff as “lead†in pencils, has been hailed as the most important synthetic material in a century. Sheets conduct electricity better than copper, heat better than any material known, are harder than diamonds yet stretch. Scientists worldwide speculate graphene will revolutionize computing, electronics and medicine but the inability to mass-produce sheets has blocked widespread use. A description of the new research will be published the week of March 26 in the online Early Edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The story is embargoed until Monday, March 26, 2012 at 3 p.m. U.S. Eastern time Jong-Beom Baek, professor and director of the Interdisciplinary School of Green Energy/Advanced Materials & Devices, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, South Korea, led the effort. “We have developed a low-cost, easier way to mass produce better graphene sheets than the current, widely-used method of acid oxidation, which requires the tedious application of toxic chemicals,†said Liming Dai, a Kent Hale Smith professor of macromolecular science and engineering at Case Western Reserve and a co-author of the paper. Here’s how: Researchers placed graphite and frozen carbon dioxide in a ball miller, which is a canister filled with stainless steel balls. The canister was turned for two days and the mechanical force produced flakes of graphite with edges essentially opened up to chemical interaction by carboxylic acid formed during the milling. The carboxylated edges make the graphite soluble in a class of solvents called protic solvents, which include water and methanol, and another class called polar aprotic solvents, which includes dimethyl sulfoxide. Once dispersed in a solvent, the flakes separate into graphene naonsheets of five or fewer layers. To test whether the material would work in direct formation of molded objects for electronic applications, samples were compressed into pellets. In a comparison, these pellets were 688 times better at conducting electricity than pellets yielded from the acid oxidation of graphite. After heating the pellets at 900 degrees Celsius for two hours, the edges of the ball-mill–derived sheets were decarboxylated, that is, the edges of the nanosheets became linked with strong hydrogen bonding to neighboring sheets, remaining cohesive. The compressed acid-oxidation pellet shattered during heating. To form large-area graphene nanosheet films, a solution of solvent and the edge-carboxylated graphene nanosheets was cast on silicon wafers 3.5 centimeters by 5 centimeters, and heated to 900 degrees Celsius. Again, the heat decarboxylated the edges, which then bonded with edges of neighboring pieces. The researchers say this process is limited only by the size of the wafer. The electrical conductivity of the resultant large-area films, even at a high optical transmittance, was still much higher than that of their counterparts from the acid oxidation. By using ammonia or sulfur trioxide as substitutes for dry ice and by using different solvents, “you can customize the edges for different applications,†Baek said. “You can customize for electronics, supercapacitors, metal-free catalysts to replace platinum in fuel cells. You can customize the edges to assemble in two-dimensional and three-dimensional structures.†US-Korea NBIT, World Class University and Basic Research Laboratory programs through the National Research Foundation of Korea and the U.S, Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded the research.

News Release: Wednesday, March 26, 2012

Is it OK to protest God’s actions—or inactions? This was the key question behind recent studies led by Case Western Reserve University psychologist Julie Exline. Many people report having a relationship with God, similar to those relationships in marriage, parenting or friendship. Exline and colleagues found that being assertive with God could actually strengthen that perceived bond and one’s faith. They report their findings in the journal Psychology of Religion and Spirituality’s article, “Anger, Exit and Assertion: Do People See Protest toward God as Morally Acceptable?†Using Internet surveys, the research focused on two groups: 358 undergraduates at a research university and 471 participants from a broad-based group of adults. Although a variety of faiths were represented, the analyses focused only on people with some belief in God. The researchers discovered if a person views God as cruel, then protest toward God is seen as more acceptable. “If God seems like a bully or a tyrant, standing up to God could be seen as an act of courage or even heroism,†says Exline. But when people see God as a kind and loving authority figure, then protest seems less acceptable. “In this case, protest could appear disrespectful to a good and fair leader,†says Exline. Exline suggests that it’s important to analyze different types of protest. The researchers found that many believers think that it’s morally OK to be assertive by asking God questions or complaining. But they’re less sure about whether anger toward God is acceptable. 
“The larger step of leaving the relationship is clearly seen as wrong by most people of faith,†Exline says. “Exiting the relationship can entail outright rejection of God, holding onto anger, questioning God’s authority, rebelling, or withdrawing from the relationship.†“We can think about the parallel to a human relationship,†says Exline. “Good relationships usually leave room for honest communications, including some complaint and disagreement. People tend to feel most close and happy with their partners when they have some sense of ‘voice’ in a relationship. This doesn’t mean yelling or screaming, but showing respect and honesty with each other about their feelings—including those of anger and frustration.†A related question was addressed in the recent Journal of Psychology and Theology’s article, “If I Tell Others about My Anger Toward God, How Will They Respond?†Drawing from the same Internet survey of adult believers, she focused only on those who felt some anger toward God. If people felt that it was morally OK to feel angry with God, they were more likely to reveal their feelings to others. Most people reported supportive responses, Exline says, but it was also common for people to receive unsupportive responses that made them feel judged, ashamed or guilty about their feelings. “When people saw others as supportive, they were more likely to report that they had approached God with their feelings—and they were more likely to report strengthened faith in response to the incident,†said Exline. “On the other hand, people who reported unsupportive responses from others were more likely to suppress their feelings toward God rather than dealing with them openly. They tended to stay angry with God and were more likely to exit the relationship. They also reported greater use of alcohol and drugs to cope with the problem.†Exline advises that if someone comes to you and tells you that they are mad at God, the type of response that you provide could be important in terms of shaping what happens. “Regardless of whether you think that anger toward God is right or wrong, it’s important to respond in a way that helps the other person feel supported rather than shamed,†Exline says. Any English-speaking person aged 18 or over can participate in an ongoing web study on these topics: (http://psychology.case.edu/research/god/index.html). Contributing to the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality article were Kalman Kaplan from the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Medicine and Joshua Grubbs from Case Western Reserve University. Grubbs also collaborated with Exline on the Journal of Psychology and Theology article.

News Release: Wednesday, March 12, 2012

The Kelvin Smith Library at Case Western Reserve University has acquired the archives of the Cleveland Play House, consisting of more than 1,000 boxes of materials. The collection includes letters, manuscripts, research documents, notes, legal and financial records, printed materials, photographs, video and audio tapes, CDs and DVDs, posters and flyers, and artifacts, dating from the formation of CPH to present day. The public can view a selection of items during a program and reception announcing the new home of the CPH archives collection at the Kelvin Smith Library on Monday, March 26, 2012, at 4 p.m.. For more information, call library administration at (216) 368-2992. "When one surveys the existing and available archival record of professional theatre, it would hard to find a comparable collection,†said Arnold Hirshon, associate provost and university librarian. “The Cleveland Play House archives are an unparalleled resource for researchers studying the emergence and development of the American regional theater movement, as well as a treasure trove of information about the general and cultural history of Cleveland." Founded in 1915, Cleveland Play House is America’s first professional regional theater. Some key items in the archive donated from CPH include:   • Thousands of letters to artistic directors—many from playwrights, including Tennessee Williams and George Bernard Shaw—and scripts with director notations • Original programs, artwork posters, stage drawings and costume sketches • The complete records of the organization, including board minutes, subscriber ledgers, charitable gifts, and notes and correspondence detailing productions • Photographs (including some negatives) of actors and artists such as Helen Hayes, Joel Grey, Margaret Hamilton and Paul Newman "This significant collection will provide our faculty and students with access to a rich historical record of the longest-running professional theater in the United States," said Cyrus C. Taylor, dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. "Housing the Cleveland Play House's archives will open new avenues for research and scholarship. It will also deepen our long-standing partnership, which already includes our nationally recognized Master of Fine Arts acting program, as well as undergraduate internship opportunities that develop valuable career experience."   In addition to programs and production photos, the Cleveland Play House archives are filled with letters from famed playwrights, personal memos, financial records, correspondence between board members and local politicians and businesses, press clippings from defunct newspapers, and a wealth of other items that chart the theater’s development since its founding. “The educational and humanistic value of the Cleveland Play House archives is simply astounding,†said Jeffrey Ullom, assistant professor of theater, who is currently writing a book that centers on the past, present and future of the CPH. “Not only does it detail the artistic achievements of Ohio’s most respected theater, but its documents and images allow for the people of Ohio to study its own cultural, social and economic past.†   “We’re very pleased that our collection has a new home with the university, with whom CPH has had an institutional partnership since the 1930s,†said Kevin Moore, managing director of Cleveland Play House. “There’s almost a sense of providence that our theater history will be preserved there.†Jill Tatem, the university archivist, will oversee the cataloging and organization. The remarkable collection will be available to researchers and the public as it is processed, which Tatem estimates will take at least two years. Inquiries can be directed to archives@case.edu. After the collection is organized and finding aids are created, Kelvin Smith Library will digitize portions of the collection to make the contents available internationally on the Web.   Founded in 1915, Cleveland Play House is America’s first professional regional theater. More than 11 million people have attended over 1,100 productions at Cleveland Play House – including more than 100 American and/or World Premieres. Today, under the leadership of Artistic Director Michael Bloom and Managing Director Kevin Moore, Cleveland Play House is an artist-driven theater that serves the community by holding true to its mission: To inspire, stimulate and entertain diverse audiences in Northeast Ohio by producing plays and theatre education programs of the highest professional standards. Cleveland Play House is funded through the generosity of Cuyahoga County residents through Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, and The Ohio Arts Council helps to fund Cleveland Play House with state tax dollars to encourage economic growth, educational excellence and cultural enrichment for all Ohioans. Media Contacts: For Cleveland Play House Lisa Craig (216) 400-7022 lcraig@clevelandplayhouse.com For Case Western Reserve University Susan Griffith (216) 368-6890 susan.griffith@case.edu

In today’s computer processors, much of the power put into running the processor is being wasted. A research team at Case Western Reserve University came up with a novel idea called fine-grained power gating, which saves power and money in a couple of ways: less energy would be used, and less heat produced. “Using less power produces less heat. Less heat means less cooling is needed,†said Swarup Bhunia, professor of electrical engineering and computer science and an author of the research. “That can avoid the need for a big fan to cool off the processor, which saves a lot of money.†Processors are used in a variety of products, from computers to cell phones. Operational costs could be cut by more than one-third, the researchers say. Bhunia, PhD student Lei Wang and PhD alumni Somnath Paul, whose work was funded by the Intel Corporation; presented their idea at the 25th International Conference on VLSI (Very-Large-Scale Integration) Design. They received the award for best paper at the conference, held in Hyderabad, India Jan 7-11. Bhunia explained that two parts of a processor consume power: the datapath and memory. The datapath performs computations and takes control decisions, while memory stores data. The waste is built-in. Computing rarely requires everything that a processor is capable of all the time, but all of the processor is fully powered just the same. For example, while the processor might not always be doing addition, the component that performs addition is still being powered. One attempt to improve power dissipation in processors is through something called coarse gating. It switches off an entire block of the processor that is not being used. In the previous example, the coarse gating solution would be to just simply turn off the addition block when it is not doing addition. The problem with this method is that most of the time, some part of every component is being used in a processor. Finding an entire block that is not being used at a given time is tough. The Case Western Reserve team’s fine-grained gating idea is to shut off only the parts of a component that are not being used at the time. While the addition component needs to be capable of adding extremely large numbers, it rarely needs to actually add large numbers. The processor might be using the addition block constantly, but the parts needed to add large numbers can be turned off most of the time. Memory works the same way. A processor needs to be capable of storing large numbers, but seldom actually stores them. This may not seem like much, but add everything up and it makes a big difference. The team calculated that the total power savings for a typical processor in a high-performance system, such as a desktop computer, would be about 40%. Bhunia explained that fine gating can’t be applied to current processors, but could be used by companies to build next generation processors. This new method does not only help corporations though. With fine-grained gating, a smart phone battery that lasted eight hours could now more than 11. That’s three more hours of Angry Birds and Words with Friends, which is a win for everyone. Release prepared by Andrew Gronski, a freshman electrical engineering major.

News Release: Tuesday, March 6, 2012

CLEVELAND – A team of law students from Case Western Reserve University has won a spot in the International Rounds of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, to be held in Washington, D.C., from March 25 through 31. In Chicago at the Jessup Super Regional Competition about a month ago, the Case Western Reserve Jessup team went 4-0 in the preliminary rounds, and then beat Valparaiso in the quarterfinals, Northwestern in the semifinals, and Duke in the final round. The two top teams out of the 24 competing in the Super Regional (Case Western Reserve and Duke) now advance to competition for the White & Case Jessup Cup against qualifying teams from about 120 countries. Case Western Reserve Jessup team members are Cameron MacLeod, Tyler Talbert, Katelyn Kraus, Hyder Syed, and Effy Folberg. MacLeod won the award for best speaker in the final round. Former Jessup regional champion Conor McLauglin, now with the Thompson Hine law firm, and Professor Michael Scharf, director of the Frederick K. Cox International Law Center, coached the team. The Case Western Reserve Jessup team has consistently been strong, winning regional competitions six out of the past eight years, the World Championship Round in 2008, and the Baxter Award for the World’s Best Brief in 2011. Now in its 53rd year, the Jessup is the world's largest moot court competition, with participants from over 500 law schools in more than 80 countries. The competition is administered by The International Law Students Association, a non-profit organization of students and lawyers who are dedicated to the promotion of international law. The competition is based on a simulation of a legal dispute before the International Court of Justice of the United Nations. This year's Jessup Problem focuses on issues of jurisdictional immunity, humanitarian intervention after a coup d'etat, and destruction of cultural property.

News Release: Wednesday, March 5, 2012

A new study from Case Western Reserve University’s Frances Payne Bolton School of Nursing emphasizes the importance of having discussions related to quality of life before becoming critically ill. Barbara Daly and Sara Douglas led a research team that observed, taped and analyzed discussions from 116 family meetings, which took place in five intensive care units (ICUs) at University Hospitals Case Medical Center and MetroHealth Medical Center. The family meetings were for patients who had long ICU stays greater than five days. “Patients who have long ICU stays (called “chronically critically illâ€) are usually unable to be involved in discussions of goals and treatment related to their care,†Douglas said. As a result, their family decision makers are left with the responsibility of making these decisions. Without information from the patient regarding what aspects of quality of life are important to them, it becomes difficult and stressful for their family decision makers to make these important decisions. Critical Care Medicine reported findings from this National Institute of Nursing Research-funded study in the article entitled, “Neglect of quality-of-life considerations in intensive care unit family meetings for long-stay intensive care unit patients.†In the study, Douglas and Daly found that patient treatment preferences and the kind of life the patient wants after a long stay in intensive care often are missing in many medical team and family discussions. “Don’t confuse quality-of-life discussions with end-of-life ones,†says Sara Douglas, associate professor at the nursing school and the lead author on a paper that examines quality-of-life issues for chronically critically ill patients. “This is about the kind of life a patient looks forward to when they leave the ICU, and whether aggressive medical treatments will give them that kind of life.†The researchers found that most meetings with family members were about 24 minutes long, with the majority of time devoted to non-emotional issues – and little on what the patient might want. They also found that deciding what was important in a patient’s life (such as being able to return to playing golf or visiting with family or friends), often was not discussed--even when professionals who were trained to bring these topics to the table were present at the meeting. According to Douglas and Daly, it is difficult for family decision makers as well as many health care providers to discuss quality of life issues because they often associate quality of life with end of life discussions. The authors concluded that every family decision maker should have the opportunity to discuss and reflect on the quality of life that the patient would want if that person recovered from this critical event. The best way to make appropriate treatment decisions is to have information about what goals are important to the patient. “Since many of these patients become critically ill very suddenly, it is important to know the wishes of the patient and what contributes the most to quality of life before the patient becomes ill. Just as we have living will discussions with our family members, we should also have quality of life discussions,†Douglas said.

Mass wins the race toward cool -- and leaves a clue to igneous rock formation

In the crash-car derby between heavy and light isotopes vying for the coolest spots as magma turns to solid rock, weightier isotopes have an edge, research led by Case Western Reserve University shows. This tiny detail may offer clues to how igneous rocks form. As molten rock cools along a gradient, atoms want to move towards the cool end. This happens because hotter atoms move faster than cooler atoms and, therefore, hotter atoms move to the cool region faster than the cooler atoms move to the hot region. Although all isotopes of the same element want to move towards the cool end, the big boys have more mass and, therefore, momentum, enabling them to keep moving on when they collide along the way. "It's as if you have a crowded, sealed room of sumo wrestlers and geologists and a fire breaks out at one side of the room," said Daniel Lacks, chemical engineering professor and lead author of the paper. "All will try to move to the cooler side of the room, but the sumo wrestlers are able to push their way through and take up space on the cool side, leaving the geologists on the hot side of the room." Lacks worked with former postdoctoral researcher Gaurav Goel and geology professor James A. Van Orman at Case Western Reserve; Charles J. Bopp IV and Craig C. Lundstrum, of University of Illinois, Urbana; and Charles E. Lesher of the University of California at Davis. They described their theory and confirming mathematics, computer modeling, and experiments in the current issue of Physical Review Letters. Lacks, Van Orman and Lesher also published a short piece in the current issue of Nature, showing how their findings overturn an explanation based on quantum mechanics, published in that journal last year. "The theoretical understanding of thermal isotope separation in gases was developed almost exactly 100 years ago by David Enskog, but there is as yet not a similar full understanding of this process in liquids," said Frank Richter, who is the Sewell Avery Distinguished Professor at the University of Chicago and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He was not involved in the research. "This work by Lacks et al. is an important step towards remedying this situation." This separation among isotopes of the same element is called fractionation. Scientists have been able to see fractionation of heavy elements in igneous rocks only since the 1990s, Van Orman said. More sensitive mass spectrometers showed that instead of a homogenous distribution, the concentration ratio of heavy isotopes to light isotopes in some igneous rocks was up to 0.1 percent higher than in other rocks. One way of producing this fractionation is by temperature. To understand how this happens, the team of researchers created a series of samples made of molten magnesium silicate infused with elements of different mass, from oxygen on up to heavy uranium. The samples, called silicate melts, were heated at one end in a standard lab furnace, creating temperature gradients in each. The melts were then allowed to cool and solidify. The scientists then sliced the samples along gradient lines and dissolved the slices in acid. Analysis showed that no matter the element, the heavier isotopes slightly outnumbered the lighter at the cool end of the gradient. Computer simulations of the atoms, using classical mechanics, agreed with the experimental results. "The process depends on temperature differences and can be seen whether the temperature change across the sample is rapid or gradual," Lacks said. Thermal diffusion through gases was one of the first methods used to separate isotopes, during the Manhattan Project. It turns out that isotope fractionation through silicate liquids is even more efficient than through gases. "Fractionation can occur inside the Earth wherever a sustained temperature gradient exists," Van Orman said. "One place this might happen is at the margin of a magma chamber, where hot magma rests against cold rock. Another is nearly 1,800 miles inside the Earth, at the boundary of the liquid core and the silicate mantle." The researchers are now adding pressure to the variables as they investigate further. This work was done at atmospheric pressure but where the Earth's core and mantle meet, the pressure is nearly 1.4 million atmospheres. Lacks and Van Orman are unsure whether high pressure will result in greater or lesser fractionation. They can see arguments in favor of either.

News Release: Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Watch out for that Super Bowl pass—that is the chips, chili or other party food. If you are a people-pleaser who strives to keep your social relationships smooth and comfortable, you might find yourself overeating in certain social situations like Super Bowl watch parties. A new study from Case Western Reserve University found that, hungry or not, some people eat in an attempt to keep others comfortable. “They don’t want to rock the boat or upset the sense of social harmony,†says Julie Exline, a Case Western Reserve psychologist and lead author of the study. Turning down cake or cookies when others are indulging is tough for everyone, but it poses a special problem for people-pleasers, Exline says. If people-pleasers feel a sense of social pressure to eat, they will often eat more in an attempt to match what others around them are eating. But even if people-pleasers overeat in order to keep others comfortable, they may pay an emotional price. “Those who overeat in order to please others tend to regret their choices later. It doesn’t feel good to give in to social pressures,†Exline says. The research findings were reported in the Journal of Social and Clinical Psychology article, “People-Pleasing through Eating: Sociotropy Presents Greater Eating in Response to Perceived Social Pressure.†This study looked at the eating habits, but, Exline says, the same behaviors that affect food consumption can surface in other areas of the individual’s life. For example, people-pleasers may feel anxious or guilty if they outperform others in areas such as academics, athletics or relationship success. People-pleasers have a strong desire to avoid posing a threat to others, so they often put a lot of energy into trying to keep others comfortable. Exline led a two-part study of 101 college students (41 men and 60 women) who completed a questionnaire that assessed characteristics for people-pleasing, also known as “sociotropy.†Students high in people-pleasing were those who tended to put others’ needs before their own, worried about hurting others, and were sensitive to criticism, among other behaviors. After answering these questions along with some other background measures, students were seated with a female actor who was posing as a second participant in the study. The experimenter handed a bowl of M&M candies to the actor, who took a small handful of candies (about 5) before offering the bowl to the participant. After taking the candies, participants reported how many they took and why. Researchers also assessed the number of candies taken. High sociotropy (people-pleasing) scores were associated with taking more candy, both in this laboratory experiment and in a second study involving recall of real-life eating situations. “People-pleasers feel more intense pressure to eat when they believe that their eating will help another person feel more comfortable,†Exline says. “Almost everyone has been in a situation in which they’ve felt this pressure, but people-pleasers seem especially sensitive to it.†Also contributing to the study are Ellen Bratslavsky, Cuyahoga Community College; Michelle Hamilton, Case Western Reserve University; Anne Swenson, University of Washington; and Anne L. Zell, Augustana College.