Rutgers News Center

USDA cooperative agreement funds mosquito project at Rutgers

The Center for Vector Biology at Rutgers' New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station (NJAES) is a major partner in a recent USDA cooperative agreement aimed at using integrated pest management techniques to suppress the Asian tiger mosquito (Aedes albopictus) across the country. The $3.8 million, five-year proposal is funded by the Agricultural Research Service.

"The introduction of the Asian tiger mosquito into the U.S. was one of the most significant public health events of the past quarter-century," said Robert M. Goodman, executive dean of agriculture and natural resources at NJAES. "Health officers concerned with vector-borne disease recognize this mosquito as an efficient laboratory vector of more than thirty arboviruses, in particular dengue, chickungunya, and even yellow fever.”

The Center for Vector Biology, created in 2006 to address public health risks such as these, will be a partner with the USDA's Mosquito and Fly Research Unit in Gainesville, Florida, in its suppression of the mosquito. In addition, Rutgers scientists will collaborate with officers from Monmouth and Mercer Counties' mosquito control agencies to use education and community involvement, as well as mosquito surveillance and control, to systematically attack all life stages of this invasive pest. Brandeis University economists will analyze the costs and benefits at all stages of the project. The objective is to create a cost-effective program to control the Asian tiger mosquito. In the fifth year, the program will be extended to ten or more mosquito control programs across the country.

Introduced into the United States in 1985, the Asian tiger mosquito now infests 30 states and continues to spread. In addition to being a potential vector of debilitating epidemics, it is also regarded as the most significant nuisance mosquito across its range. Asian tiger mosquitoes are aggressive day-biters that cause skin problems and allergic reactions.

– Michele Hujber

NJ nurses near exhaustion due to heavier work loads, Rutgers survey finds

New Jersey registered nurses are teetering on the brink of exhaustion due to maintaining heavier work loads, feeling that they are not able to provide proper patient care, and receiving little support from management, according to a survey conducted by Rutgers College of Nursing faculty member Linda Flynn.

The 11-page survey, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was mailed to the homes of 44,343 New Jersey registered nurses, and more than 21,000 nurses responded to the survey. It was the largest and most comprehensive survey of New Jersey nurses ever conducted.

The survey report, “The State of the Nursing Workforce in New Jersey: Findings from a Statewide Survey of Registered Nurses,” indicated that nurses face frequent and chronic exposure to verbal abuse, complaints and work-related injuries and one in three nurses reported that their workloads are so heavy that they actually miss important changes in their patients’ conditions. More than 50 percent said that there was not enough staff to get the work done.

The report noted that New Jersey will need to replace a third of its nursing workforce over the next 10 years just to maintain the current nurse supply. This does not include the additional number of nurses needed to meet the demand of an increasing aging population. According to the report, even with a significant increase in nursing graduates, it is unlikely that the projected deficit in New Jersey between registered nurses supply and demand will be eliminated over the next decade and beyond.

Express Yourself! Announcing a Rutgers–Newark poetry contest

Express the poet in you, share your thoughts on what Rutgers–Newark means to you, and enter the Rutgers–Newark Poetry Contest [PDF] to become a winner.

The first place winner will receive $75, second place $50, and third place $25. Winning entries will be published in the winter edition of Connections and on the Rutgers–Newark website.

The rules are simple: Write either a short haiku or etheree about Rutgers–Newark on anything from your first impressions of the campus, to being a part of Newark, to descriptions of a campus setting. Submit it to occ@andromeda.rutgers.edu by December 12. Include your name and the best way to contact you. The contest is open to the entire Rutgers–Newark community, students, alumni, faculty, and staff. Contestants are limited to one entry each.

A haiku is a three-line poem consisting of 17 syllables in 5-7-5 format, with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second, and five again in the third line. Here is a sample:

The frog on the rock
Looking outward from his post
A fly unaware

An etheree consists of 10 lines, the first line of which has one syllable, with each succeeding line adding a syllable, for a total syllable count of fifty-five. Here is sample:

White
Winter
Gray tree limbs
Reach heavenward
Stars shine crisp and clear
Looking back to the past
Nighttime reaches into day
While daffodil and tulip bulbs
Buried deep below the frozen ground
Wait patiently for the first warmth of spring

The Rutgers–Newark Poetry Contest is sponsored by the Office of Communications in Newark.

– Carla Capizzi

Rutgers’ Center for Government Services awards Wyckoff Township with top honor at state League of Municipalities

Wyckoff Township in Bergen County earned “Best Overall” honor in the 46th annual Municipal Public Information Contest sponsored by the Center for Government Services (CGS) at Rutgers.

Selected as best among 57 entries, Wyckoff Township submitted an entry packet that included cable access programs; a Web site; municipal calendar; newsletters; library, recreation and police bulletins; and public service announcements.

CGS Director Stuart Meck presented Wyckoff Township Administrator Robert J. Shannon with a permanent plaque and a circulating one-year plaque at the Delegates Luncheon at the recent New Jersey State League of Municipalities annual conference in Atlantic City.

The Center for Government Services is a unit of Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. The center has been committed to serving New Jersey and local governments through continuing education, applied research and technical assistance for more than 55 years.

The New Jersey State League of Municipalities and the New Jersey Municipal Management Association were contest co-sponsors.

– Steve Manas

Five ‘good neighbors’ to be honored for contributions to Newark

Rutgers–Newark Provost Steven J. Diner will honor the partnerships that the Rutgers community has forged with the city of Newark and its neighbors with the creation this year of the Provost’s Awards for Community Engagement. At a ceremony on December 4 on the Newark Campus, the following five members of the Rutgers–Newark community and one external agency will receive awards:

Faculty/Staff Community Service Award: Patricia Bender, director, Faculty of Arts and Sciences–Newark Writing Center, Rutgers–Newark. Bender has directed the Writing Center at Rutgers–Newark since 1998. She is now in her second term as president of the Friends of the Newark Public Library, where she promotes literacy through outreach programs and events.

Student Community Service Award: Tynesha A. McHarris, a senior with a double major in political science and sociology, and a minor in urban studies and community development. McHarris uses her strong social, motivational, and speaking skills to foster the development of students and community members through participation in organizations that focus on education reform, voter registration, academic enrichment programs, and community activism.

Faculty Community Engagement in Research Award: Rachel Jones, assistant professor, Rutgers College of Nursing. Jones’ work creating video vignettes to reduce HIV sexual risk behavior in young urban women demonstrates ways to transform nursing knowledge into innovative approaches to serving public health needs in Newark and surrounding communities.

Community Engagement in Teaching and Learning Award: Jennifer Austin, assistant professor, Spanish and linguistics, Department of Classical and Modern Languages and Literatures. Austin’s concern for the integration of research in teaching and learning can be seen in her strong commitment to research that focuses on how the linguistic abilities of minority populations in New Jersey affect their access to educational opportunities.

Community Partner Award: Newark Public Schools. The award will be accepted by Newark Public Schools Superintendent Marion Bolden. The Newark Public Schools have been an outstanding partner in their ongoing collaboration with Rutgers–Newark to revitalize Newark by advancing mutually beneficial community and service-learning programs.

– Carla Capizzi

Rutgers physicists show how electrons ‘gain weight’ in metal compounds near absolute zero temperature

Rutgers physicists have performed computer simulations that show how electrons become one thousand times more massive in certain metal compounds when cooled to temperatures near absolute zero – the point where all motion ceases. The models may provide new clues as to how superconductivity works and lead the way to new superconducting materials.

In a paper posted to Science Express, a website of reports slated for print editions of Science, the researchers describe how electrons interact with other particles in these compounds to morph into what physicists call a fluid of “heavy quasiparticles” or a “heavy fermion fluid.” While this effect has been previously observed in some materials, the Rutgers work employs new materials to provide a level of detail that has eluded scientists so far.

“In this paper, we essentially track the fate of electrons as we lower the temperature,” said Gabi Kotliar, Board of Governors Professor of Physics in the School of Arts and Sciences. “Experimental physicists may have seen different aspects of this behavior, or they may have seen behaviors they did not understand. Our calculations reconcile what they’ve seen.”

The Rutgers researchers based their models on experiments using a new metallic crystalline compound made of the elements cerium, indium, and iridium. This and similar compounds that substitute cobalt and rhodium for iridium are excellent test beds for observing heavy electron behavior.

Earlier investigations used high-temperature superconducting materials called cuprates, which failed to give physicists a clear view of electron behavior because of disorders in the crystalline structure caused by doping. The new cerium-based compounds are simpler to study because they are free of dopants.

“The new compounds are for us what fruit flies are for genetics researchers,” said Kristjan Haule, assistant professor of physics and astronomy.

The work done by Haule and his colleagues is in a branch of physics known as condensed matter physics, which deals with the physical properties of solid and liquid matter. Collaborating with Haule and Kotliar was Ji-Hoon Shim, a postdoctoral fellow. The National Science Foundation’s Division of Materials Research and the Rutgers Center for Materials Theory supported their research. Shim received postdoctoral research funding from the Korean Research Foundation.

– Carl Blesch

Raydiance collaborates with Rutgers and nation’s largest tissue bank to develop innovative tissue processing approaches

Raydiance, Inc. has entered into a collaborative partnership with Rutgers and the Musculoskeletal Transplant Foundation (MTF), the nation’s largest tissue bank, to improve the science of dermal tissue processing.

In a first-of-its-kind test, world leading tissue engineers will utilize a new type of laser developed on the Raydiance Ultrashort Pulse (USP) laser platform to maximize the transplants processed from donated dermal tissue. As part of this process, the collaboration will explore new ways to use the transformational power and precision of the Raydiance laser, which can instantly vaporize material without heat or residual damage at very precise scales, down to a resolution of several microns.

The collaboration involves MTF as the project sponsor, Rutgers as the center for developing innovative tissue processing approaches, and Raydiance as the core laser technology provider. Experts from all three parties will work towards providing more advanced technologies that result in less expensive and faster solutions for those in need of skin transplants for burn, complicated hernia repair, and reconstructive procedures.

“Having worked with lasers for years, the Raydiance laser platform is one hundred times more powerful than anything I have ever used before,” said Zhixiong (James) Guo, associate professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering and principal investigator for Rutgers. “Not only can it separate skin more precisely and effectively, but also it has the unique capability to decontaminate the surface of soft tissue. If our tests prove successful, we will be able to disrupt and reinvent dermal tissue processing as we know it. This is great news for burn victims as well as those suffering from cancer, degenerative joint disease, arthritis, and other skin trauma.”

–  Carl Blesch