University of Alabama student teams on path to start own businesses
Tuscaloosa News – April 25
A team of engineering students won first place in the University of Alabama’s third annual Edward K. Aldag Jr. Business Plan Competition held earlier this month. The team has a start-up company called SYNSkin, which has a patented synthetic skin material for use by the health care industry. The initial focus of SYNSkin is to use the product in diabetic pressure ulcer care. Team members are Arnab Chanda, an aerospace engineering major from Noida, India; Kaitlyn Curry, a chemical and biological engineering major from Louisville, Kentucky; and Christian Callaway, a mechanical engineering major from Tybee Island, Georgia. Food Drop, an application-based, grocery delivery company targeting college towns, won second. Its team members are Ethan Mergen, a finance and hospitality management major from Birmingham; Ryan Keelin, a finance major from Birmingham; Trey Byers, a finance major from Birmingham; and Jake Jackson, a mathematics and accounting major from Wildwood, Missouri.
UA engineering students competing against 22 other schools in NASA competition
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – April 23
Imagine if you could design a tool that NASA astronauts would use in space. University of Alabama engineering students have the chance to do this beginning Sunday. Two teams of engineering students are working together at UA for one “out of this world” NASA competition against 22 other schools national nationwide. “It’s really exciting because we get to go up to Houston and go to the Johnson Space Center and test our tool at neutral buoyancy lab. And possibly NASA can use our tool for further development,” said Alex Mitchell, a UA student. Mitchell’s team is working on a tool to collect samples from asteroids in space while Stephen Peter Rowe’s team has a bright name. “Our team is called Strahl, and it’s German for “Beam of Light,” Rowe explained.
WAFF-NBC 48 (Huntsville) – April 24
WSFA-NBC 12 (Montgomery) – April 24, 2016
Fox 6 (Birmingham) – April 24 (video report)
Tornado survivors stand together 5 years later
Tuscaloosa News – April 24
In April five years ago, walls came down. Fences fell, splintered and sprawled. Canopied urban forests blew away in jagged moments; even trees sunk deep in ravines snapped. Growth-marks carved on a wall, names in family Bibles, photographs where memories were stored for safe-keeping, were lost. Our sky opened, and we saw differently. . . . Laura Myers, director and senior research scientist at the Center for Advanced Public Safety at the University of Alabama, became involved with weather research following the storm, studying the national weather service, emergency managers, media and other partners in the weather warning process, and how the public reacts to the information provided. “That gets into the whole psychology of people and how they perceive weather and how their perceive risk,” Myers said. In the after-effects, it’s not unusual for children or adults to still jump at the first signs of severe weather. “It is something I call the 9/11 effect,” she said. “There is a heightened sensitivity for a while. After 9/11, it was about two years there was a heightened sensitivity. After Hurricane Katrina, there was four to five years of heightened sensitivity.”
Rick Bragg reflects on how Harper Lee, John Wayne and Merle Haggard shaped his life
AL.com – April 22
There’s power in art. Regardless of the medium, art offers a way to express emotions and experiences that can transcend words. That’s a belief I hold dearly, as do my colleagues John Hammontree and Edward Bowser. We also think the art a person holds closest can offer clues to how they’ve developed. We’re taking that notion as a jumping-off point for Triple Take, a podcast that will explore how favorite books, films and albums shape the people we’ve become. We’ll pay special attention to voices of Alabamians, but you may also hear guests whose work has brought them to the state, however briefly. In the debut episode we speak to Pulitzer Prize-winning writer Rick Bragg. Bragg received that career-defining prize for work in The New York Times, but his books have ricocheted him to bestseller lists. Bragg, a native of Piedmont, now teaches writing at the University of Alabama.
UA Living History Festival is Saturday
Tuscaloosa News – April 23
On any given day, the possibility of coming in contact with history on the University of Alabama campus is near certain. Saturday, the public will have a chance to learn about this history in detail during the second annual Living History Festival, which starts at 10 a.m. The festival will include walking and bus tours of the historical aspects of the campus. Lydia Ellington Joffray, director of the Gorgas House Museum, said one new addition to this year’s festival will be tours of the campus’ history as it related to slavery. One site that will be explored is the Little Round House located next to Gorgas Library, where three slaves were stationed at one point during the Civil War in 1865. “They let the cadets know they needed to wake up and the (Union) army was near,” Joffray said.
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – April 23
Multiple Tattoos Boost Health
New Indian Express – April 22
Scientists at the University of Alabama have found that tattoos boost health. The study, published in the American Journal of Human Biology, states that people with multiple tattoos have a stronger immune system than their un-inked or less-inked counterparts. Saliva samples of over 29 volunteers indicated a fall in immunoglobulin A, an infection-fighting antibody, after getting the first tattoo; but as the number of body art increased, the same antibody got stronger, strengthening the immune system over time.
Homes can be built to avoid wind damage, but no codes or inspectors in some rural counties
Chattanooga (Tennessee) Times Free Press – April 24 (Subscription)
After Moore, Okla., got hammered by its third monster tornado in 13 years, Mayor Glenn Lewis had had enough. He pushed to make Moore the first U.S. city to beef up its building code for tornadoes and require new homes to withstand 135 mph winds — in the same way California homes are built to ride out earthquakes and Florida homes must resist hurricanes. That came after an EF5 category tornado in 2013 killed two dozen residents in the Oklahoma City suburb, causing $2 billion in damage . . . Andrew Graettinger, a civil engineer at the University of Alabama, found that during the 2011 tornadoes in Tuscaloosa, Ala., (EF4) and Joplin, Mo., (EF5) about 85 percent of the damaged homes were in areas with winds ranked at or below EF2, or 111 to 135 mph. So, even facing those monster tornadoes, homes in Tuscaloosa and Joplin would have fared much better had they been built to withstand 135 mph winds. “All of those homes, 85 percent of the area, could have experienced much less damage,” Graettinger said.
Insurancenewsnet.com – April 24
Does April kick off a so-called killing season?
USA Today – April 25
The Killing Season isn’t just a B-rated Hollywood thriller. It’s also a term used by some experts on domestic terrorism to describe a spike in extremist violence that begins … right about now. This is not about the kind horrific shootings that unfolded in rural Ohio and eastern Georgia on Friday, leaving two families devastated and 13 people dead. Authorities in those two separate incidents are still searching for motives, but none of the killings appear to be inspired by extremist ideology. . . . But experts on American hate groups and domestic terrorism say that April often ushers in a spate of attacks related to right-wing or jihadist beliefs. “We know that some terrorists and school shooters and other mass shooters consider some symbolic dates to be important,” said Adam Lankford, a criminal justice professor at the University of Alabama.
COLLEGE NEWS: April 24
Tuscaloosa News – April 24
Students Ciara Malaugh of Huntsville and Dana Sweeney of Kingsland, Georgia have been named Truman Scholars for 2016. They are among 54 U.S. students to receive a Truman Scholarship this year. . . . Sara Kaylor, an assistant professor in the Capstone College of Nursing, was selected to participate in the Honor Society of Nursing, Sigma Theta Tau 2016-17 Nurse Faculty Leadership Academy. . . . Selina S. Lee was named the 2016 Outstanding Alumni Volunteer by the College of Engineering. She was elected in 2015 to a two-year term as chairperson of the Capstone Engineering Society board of directors and has been a member of the board since 2003. Lee earned an electrical engineering degree from UA in 1990 and is Alabama Power’s Eastern Division general manager. . . . The University of Alabama National Alumni Association has named Judy Bonner its 2016 Distinguished Alumna Award winner and Tim Parker its 2016 Distinguished Alumnus Award winner.
Can Changes to Your Diet Help You Sleep Better?
HealthCanal – April 23
A review of 21 studies that analyzed the effectiveness of modifying nutritional intake as a treatment for improving sleep found mixed results, as reported in the article “Systematic Review of Dietary Interventions Targeting Sleep Behavior” in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, a peer-reviewed publication from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. The article is available free on The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine website until May 21, 2016. In nearly half of the laboratory-based studies, a dietary intervention may have had a significant effect on a key sleep variable, according to the authors of the Review article Adam Paul Knowlden, MBA, PhD, The University of Alabama, Department of Health Science (Tuscaloosa, AL), Christine Hackman, PhD, California Polytechnic State University, Kinesiology Department (San Luis Obispo, CA), and Manoj Sharma, MBBS, PhD, Jackson State University, School of Public Health (Jackson, MS).
Medical News Today.com – April 23
Putting crime on the map
St. Joseph (Missouri) News-Press – April 23
Students learned how to put crime on the map Friday at Missouri Western State University. Dr. Steven Ericson from the University of Alabama shared his expertise on the use of geography in crime research as part of Western’s Interdisciplinary Nature of Geography Speaker Series. Ericson focused his talk on geographic information systems — known as GIS technology — and how social scientists or members of law enforcement use computer software to visualize trends in crime. For example, Ericson showed the group maps from a study he conducted of the crime that occurred from 2007-12 in a section of downtown Atlanta. Red dots indicated locations where crimes had been committed, with dark clusters covering areas such as a mass transit terminal and the dormitories of Georgia State University. While law enforcement could use the data to determine how and where to allocate resources, social scientists would sift through the information to try to discover why certain areas were more vulnerable to crime.
KNPN-Fox 26 (St. Joseph, Missouri) – April 22,
UA professor looking for research participants in childhood cancer study
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – April 22
According to the Childhood Cancer Organization, nearly 16,000 children will be diagnosed with cancer. Battling cancer is tough for adults, but parents say it’s even more difficult when your child is diagnosed. Dr. Sherwood Burns-Nader, an assistant professor at The University of Alabama, is conducting a story on parents whose children have been recently diagnosed with cancer. Dr. Burns-Nader says she’s passionate about the study and hopes to help parents find ways to cope with their child having cancer.
Army National Guard soldiers compete for southeast’s ‘Best Warrior’ at Fort Stewart
Savannah Morning News – April 23
Next year, Caleb Jernigan plans to try out for Nashville’s SWAT team. But on Wednesday morning, the 24-year-old Tennessee National Guard staff sergeant had a more immediate goal on his mind: making it through the week. Jernigan, a police officer, was one of this region’s “best of the best” National Guard soldiers facing off at Fort Stewart all week for a shot at the national Best Warrior title. “It was a busy day yesterday — busy day today, busy day tomorrow,” Jernigan said. “The whole week’s been absolutely packed.” . . . The “mystery event” surprised Spc. Brent Green of the Alabama National Guard. “They took apart a bunch of weapons, put them in a container, and said, ‘Here you go,’” said Green, 25, a graduate assistant at the University of Alabama. “We had no clue what was in there, and when we opened it up, they were all disassembled… I was able to put them all together as they should be in functioning order.”
Commentary: A Brooklyn girl with a southern charm
Crimson White – April 25
Alabama? And you’re from where? Why did you choose Alabama out of all places? Once people found out I was from New York, they were instantly fascinated by my decision to attend the Capstone. During my four years at the University, I was constantly asked why a girl from Brooklyn would leave the city to attend school in Alabama. My answer was simple: it is a great school, so why not? As cliché as it sounds, I was right. The University of Alabama is the top of its class whether it is in sports, academics or its strong reputation as one of the best. From the moment I took my first campus tour my senior year of high school, I knew that my search for the perfect college was over. I remember how green the grass was and how clean the air felt against my face as I strolled down the quad. It was in this moment that my parents and I knew this school was a perfect fit for me. I admit my journey here was not all rainbows and butterflies, I had my share of obstacles, but it molded me. It molded me into a driven, independent and fearless woman. . . .
UA students hold Glowfest
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – April 24
UA students held their first ever Glowfest on the Riverwalk today. Participants ran the 5K with glow paint and neon lights. All the money raised goes to the Miles-For-Moms Campaign.
Friends of Zach Koch raise money for scholarship
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – April 24
Friends of Zach Koch, a University of Alabama graduate, who died in a car crash last month are raising money to help honor his memory and help other students. It’s called the Zach Koch memorial scholarship fund.
Afro American Gospel Choir holds 45th Anniversary celebration
WVUA 23 (Tuscaloosa) – April 23
UA’s Afro American gospel choir celebrates its 45th anniversary. The concert was held at the Ferguson Center. The founding members also performed. The choir says they are proud they had a long life on campus.
School news: Little wins Elks scholarship
Columbus (Miss.) Dispatch—April 23
West Lowndes High School senior Jay Little has been named one of the Elks National Foundation’s 2016 Most Valuable Students of the Year. Each scholar will be awarded at least $20,000 to support their college education. Along with 19 other finalists from around the country, Little will interview with national judges in Chicago for top awards of $40,000 to $50,000. He is the only student selected from Mississippi. Martin Hegwood, Elks member of Lodges 458 in Canton, described Little as one of the most impressive applications he had ever seen submitted through the lodge. Little is class president at WLHS and also a Gates Millennium Scholars Finalist and a Ron Brown Captain. He will attend the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, in the fall to major in computer sciences and engineering.