Cornell University News Service Releases

August 2002

Index to all months

For the full text of any story, click on the headline. Electronic queries may be made to cunews@cornell.edu.

Verbal jabs and stabs from bullies can hurt, and even kill
N.Y. -- "Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words can never hurt me." Wrong, say two Cornell University experts in a new book. Emotional violence is not harmless but potentially devastating, if not lethal, they say. Bullying, harassment, intimidation, humiliation and stalking are pervasive, not only in today's urban schools but all over the country in suburban and even small-town schools, write co-authors James Garbarino, professor of human development, and Ellen deLara, a visiting fellow in the Family Life Development Center (FLDC) at Cornell. In one of the few books to focus exclusively on all forms of bullying, And Words Can Hurt Forever: How to Protect Adolescents From Bullying, Harassment, and Emotional Violence (The Free Press), the two authors report that up to 77 percent of middle- and high-school students in small Midwestern towns have been bullied; and up to one-third of children in grades six through 10 are involved in serious, frequent bullying, either as bullies themselves or as victims. They describe the extent to which such emotional violence damages today's youth and what to do about it. (August 30, 2002)

Union leadership training for Chinese home-care workers
NEW YORK -- Like many U.S. immigrants from China, Qian Ya Luo, a home-care aide in New York City, is literate in Chinese, with its thousands of characters, but is still learning English since coming to the United States several years ago. After training to become a home-care worker, she joined the Service Employees International Union's (SEIU) Local 1199 and wanted to become more active in the union right away, but the language barrier kept her from the valuable leadership training lessons it offered its English-speaking members. Enrolled in English language and citizenship classes through the union local, she decided she didn't want to wait until she fully mastered the language of her adopted country before volunteering with the union. So she and other Chinese-speaking members of Local 1199 who are still learning English petitioned for leadership training in their native language. Local 1199, which has 220,000 members, a large percent of them immigrants, then turned to the New York City extension office of the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations for assistance, and lessons are now offered in Chinese. (August 29, 2002)

Public Seed Initiative Field Day to be held Sept. 5
The Public Seed Initiative (PSI), an agricultural outreach program based at Cornell University's Department of Plant Breeding, will hold its annual Field Day Thursday, Sept. 5, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on two Tompkins County, N.Y., research plots near Cornell. The locations will be the Thompson Vegetable Research Farm in Freeville and the Varna research farm, located off Route 366, both part of the plant breeding department. (August 29, 2002)

A week of discussions and remembrances at Cornell
Cornell University will commemorate the tragic attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, with a week of discussions and remembrances titled "Reflections on 9/11," Susan H. Murphy, vice president for student and academic services, announced today (Aug. 29). "A year ago the Cornell community came together to grieve and to begin the process of recovering from this national tragedy," Murphy said. "Now, a year later, our hope is to engage a wide spectrum of the campus community in thoughtful discussion of the impact of the attacks, not only on the international political scene but also on American culture and society. It is also a time for us to come together to remember those who were lost and to renew our commitment to our common humanity." (August 29, 2002)

Profits rise when managers mean what they say
Managers whose words match their deeds have a positive effect not only on morale but on their company's bottom line, according to a study by a Cornell University researcher and his colleague. Conversely, managers who lack such integrity lower profits, the researchers found. Tony Simons, an associate professor at Cornell's School of Hotel Administration, and Judi McLean Parks, a former Cornell instructor who is now a faculty member at Washington University's Olin School of Business, surveyed more than 6,500 employees at 76 U.S. and Canadian Holiday Inn hotels to come up with their findings, which are being published in the September 2002 issue of Harvard Business Review (August 28, 2002).

Cornell bars pets from Varna research farmland
Beginning Sept. 15 Cornell University will bar all pets from the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences' research farmland in Varna to reduce damage to crops and to improve health and safety for workers at the farm, pet owners and pets themselves. The farmland, which extends from Route 366 to the south side of Fall Creek, is accessed by an unpaved road about halfway between the Freese Road intersection of Route 366 and the railroad bridge over that highway. Local police will increase patrols in the area and, at first, will issue warnings and then tickets to repeat offenders when the pet ban takes effect Sept. 15. (August 28, 2002)

Two dairies tie for best milk in New York state
Cornell University's Department of Food Science has announced that Crowley Foods, Albany, and Upstate Farms Cooperative, Rochester, have tied as the producers of the highest quality milk in New York state for 2002. The selection is part of the New York State Milk Quality Improvement Program and is sponsored by the New York Milk Promotion Order. The analytical tests are run at Cornell. (August 26, 2002)

Cornell prevails in discrimination suit
After deliberating for only 40 minutes, a jury unanimously exonerated Cornell University today (Aug. 23) of all charges in a discrimination suit heard in federal district court in Syracuse. The case, Patricia O'Neill vs. Cornell University, was heard before the Hon. Neal McCurn, senior U.S. District Court judge. (August 23, 2002)

Gift will enable engineering faculty to change research direction
To help midcareer faculty in Cornell's Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering who want to change their research direction, the family of the late Howard N. McManus Jr. has established an endowed faculty research award and graduate fellowship fund. The fund honors McManus (1921-1974), who was a Sibley School professor from 1957 until his death. (August 23, 2002)

Karin Ash is director of career management at Johnson School
Karin Ash is the new director of the Career Management Center at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management. "Karin will be taking over the career services activities at the Johnson School at a time when we are making a major change in our approach," said Richard Shafer, associate dean for corporate relations at the school and director of its career services office during the 2001-02 academic year. "Starting this fall, we are rolling out a new, comprehensive, modularized career management program for all first-year MBA students." (August 22, 2002)

Presidential Search Committee outlines ideal candidate qualifications and challenges
Cornell University's Presidential Search Committee has issued a document outlining the challenges and opportunities for its next president, as well as qualifications the ideal candidate should demonstrate. The eight-page document, "The Cornell Opportunity," was developed based on input from Cornell faculty, students, staff and alumni over the past several months, as well as input from other friends of the university and community leaders in Ithaca and beyond, according to Edwin H. Morgens, chair of the Presidential Search Committee. The complete text of "The Cornell Opportunity" is available electronically at . (August 21, 2002)

Orientation Week begins Friday for newcomers and parents
Cornell University is a welcoming community with a place for everyone. That's the Orientation Week message to new arrivals and their families: some 3,046 freshmen, 283 transfer students and 2,240 new graduate and professional students who will arrive on campus starting this Friday, Aug. 23. This Friday also is the day that residence halls open and orientation officially begins. The program for newcomers -- a full agenda of activities, from intellectually stimulating to entertaining to just plain fun -- is a collaboration between the student-led Orientation Steering Committee (OSC) and the Office of the Dean of Students. (August 21, 2002)

AFL-CIO's Ron Blackwell is pre-Labor Day speaker Aug. 29
Ron Blackwell, director of corporate affairs at the AFL-CIO, is this year's pre-Labor Day speaker at Cornell University Thursday, Aug. 29. The labor leader is also a former economist and academic dean at the New School for Social Research in New York City. Blackwell's public lecture is titled "No More Business as Usual: A Union Perspective on Corporate Accountability." It will take place from noon to 1 p.m. in 105 Ives Hall on Cornell's campus. The talk, which is sponsored by the School of Industrial and Labor Relations (ILR), is free and open to the public. (August 20, 2002)

U.S. aid agency awards $10 million to group to aid poverty in Ethiopia
The U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded $10 million to a four-institution consortium that includes Cornell University to build agricultural research and extension services in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia to alleviate the nation's chronic hunger, poverty and disease. Over the next five years, the consortium plans to build institutional research and extension capacity in agriculture, natural-resource management, micro-finance and micro-enterprise development in the country's Amhara region. Officially, the program is called Assisting the Shift in Paradigms in Agricultural Research and Extension in Ethiopia (ASPIRE). (August 19, 2002)

Shuttle between campus and downtown has expanded hours
TCAT riders who catch the popular No. 10 weekday shuttle between the Cornell University campus and downtown Ithaca now have a wider window for the trip. Service has been expanded by two hours a day, with the shuttle now running every 10 minutes from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. The shuttle departs from Seneca Street at Tioga Street, making stops at Tioga and Buffalo streets and at Stewart Avenue and Williams Street before reaching Cornell's West Campus and Sage Hall. On the return trip downtown, there is a stop at College and Mitchell avenues. (August 19, 2002)

Cornell Plantations' Wednesday lecture series starts Sept. 4
Botanical art, insect vision, lawn laments and arboreal architecture are among the topics for speakers in Cornell Plantations' Fall 2002 series of 10 Wednesday lectures. The series, which is free and open to the public, begins Sept. 4 at 5:30 p.m. in Warren Hall Auditorium (B-45 Warren Hall) with the sixth annual William H. and Jane Torrence Harder Lecture by Withrop Wetherbee. The Avalon Foundation Professor in Humanities and in English, Wetherbee will speak on "The Spirit of Landscape in Medieval Poetry," and a garden gala reception will follow to kick off the series. (August 16, 2002)

Jane Mt. Pleasant appointed director of American Indian Program for second time
Jane Mt. Pleasant, Cornell University associate professor of crop and soil sciences, has been appointed director of the university's American Indian Program, which provides educational opportunities for Native American students and outreach activities. She previously directed the program from 1995 to 1999. Mt. Pleasant, who took over the position July 1, succeeds Daniel Usner, who has joined the faculty of Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. (August 15, 2002)

Songbird population declines linked to acid rain
A large-scale study has for the first time shown a clear link in North America between acid rain and widespread declines across the breeding range of a songbird, the wood thrush. Calcium depletion affecting the birds' food is a possible cause, Cornell University ecologists say. Using data collected by thousands of volunteer citizen-scientists in the Birds in Forested Landscapes project, scientists at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology showed that the wood thrush is less likely to attempt to breed in regions that receive high levels of acid rain. The finding is reported in the current Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS Vol.99 No. 16) by Ralph S. Hames, a postdoctoral associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who conducted the research with colleagues Kenneth V. Rosenberg, James D. Lowe, Sara E. Barker and André A. Dhondt. (August 15, 2002)

Higher intake of calories and fat may be associated with higher risk of alzheimer's disease
NEW YORK, NY (August 14, 2002)Researchers at Columbia University and the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital suggest that a higher consumption of calories and fat may translate into an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease (AD) for some people.The results of their study, reported in the August issue of Archives of Neurology, suggest that this risk may arise in individuals who have a variant of apolipoprotein E, known as apo E4. Apolipoprotein E (apo E) is a cholesterol-processing protein responsible for transporting cholesterol in and out of cells. There are different variants of apo E, designated by numbers. People inherit one form of apo E from each parent. Studies have shown that those with one copy of the variant apo E4 are at greater risk of developing AD, while those who inherit 2 copies are at even greater risk.

Pivotal brain processor decreased in schizophrenia
New York, NY (August 13, 2002) -- Levels of a pivotal signal processor in the brain are reduced significantly in people with schizophrenia, a study by scientists at Weill Cornell Medical College, The Rockefeller University, and University of California at Irvine (UCI) has found.The findings suggest that the processor, which helps regulate key neurotransmitters in an area of the brain linked to schizophrenia, could eventually play a key role in reversing the brain dysfunctions associated with the disease. The study appears in the August issue of "Archives of General Psychiatry."

Freshman book project spurs Frankenstein fever
Forget the flat-topped, rheumy-eyed giant with the zombie shuffle and the rigor-mortis grin. That's kid stuff. This is the real thing: Frankenstein, the book, written by an 18-year-old Englishwoman named Mary Shelley. And Cornell University and the entire Ithaca community are in on it. More than 3,500 new students at Cornell, as well as many faculty, staff and continuing students, are delving into Mary Shelley's Gothic horror story in preparation for what promises to be a compelling academic rite of passage. Monster panels, talks, seminars and sermons, monster book groups, monster plays, movies and maybe even a monster ball have all spun out of Cornell's First Year Book Project, overseen by Provost Biddy Martin and Isaac Kramnick, vice provost for undergraduate education, and sponsored by the Provost's Office. (August 14, 2002)

Cornell's Burkhauser invited to participate in President Bush's Economic Forum Aug. 13
Richard Burkhauser, Cornell University professor of policy analysis and management, has been invited to speak at President Bush's Economic Forum at Baylor University, Waco, Texas, next Tuesday, Aug. 13. The forum will be attended by government policy-makers, small investors, business owners, industry experts, workers, business ethicists, union members, corporate executives, economists and business students. They are expected to discuss current economic issues as well as the president's plans to achieve economic growth. (August 9, 2002)

Interfacing organic semiconductors to metal
A team of Cornell University researchers has received $1.6 million in grants to develop technology that could lead to computers that are not only smaller and cheaper, but more flexible -- literally. Officially, the project is to investigate "inorganic-organic interfaces." In simpler language, the problem is: How do you connect wires to organic transistors? (August 8, 2002)

Cooking sweet corn boosts disease-fighting nutrients
Hurrah for hominy. Cooking sweet corn, whether you cream it, steam it or keep it on the cob, unleashes beneficial nutrients that can substantially reduce the chance of heart disease and cancer, according to Cornell University food scientists. Writing in the Aug. 14 issue of Journal of Agriculture and Food Chemistry, published by the American Chemical Society, the Cornell researchers say that cooking sweet corn significantly boosts the grain's health-giving antioxidant activity. (August 8, 2002)

"Good" cholesterol could also be beneficial for the lungs
Keeping your "good" cholesterol (HDL) high -- with plenty of exercise and a healthy body weight -- is not only important for cardiovascular health, but could also benefit lung health, according to a new study at Cornell University. Nutritional epidemiologists here find that HDL is linked to healthy lungs, though they stress that more research is needed to understand if this is a cause-and-effect relation. "Previous studies that have looked at cholesterol and pulmonary disease reported inconsistent findings, but they all looked at total cholesterol, which may confuse the issue," says Patricia Cassano, an epidemiologist and assistant professor in the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Cornell. "Our study, unlike any others we know of, examined the association of the high-density and low-density lipoproteins [HDL and LDL] with lung function." The study is published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Epidemiology (Vol. 155, No. 9, 2002). (August 5, 2002)

Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium to be held on Cornell campus, Nov. 7-9
The eighth Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium will be held on the Cornell University campus, Nov. 7-9. The charter meeting of the Dairy Sheep Association of North (DSANA) will be held concurrently. As demand for sheep milk and cheeses increases, dairy sheep breeds are becoming better established in North America and are improving rural economies. "The Great Lakes Dairy Sheep Symposium is the unique annual event for transmitting information among dairy-sheep farmers and sheep-cheese makers," says Michael Thonney, Cornell professor of animal science. "Because there are many other avenues to learn about general sheep management, we're keeping the focus on information about sheep dairying." (August 5, 2002)

Moving high-performance computing to Main Street
Cornell Theory Center (CTC) has announced an agreement with Dell, Intel and Microsoft that secures $60 million worth of resources to provide a suite of Windows-based, high-performance computing solutions and services to business, government and academic clients. CTC operates the world's largest Windows/Intel/Dell computing complex. CTC is a pioneer in the use of "clusters" of computers operating in parallel to achieve supercomputer speeds. The latest clusters at Cornell consist of Dell PowerEdge 7150 and 2650 servers with Intel Xeon processors and running the Microsoft Windows operating system. The grant will greatly expand CTC's outreach efforts to help the private sector apply this technology to integrate intensive computer simulation and analysis tools into the workplace. (August 5, 2002)

Late blight-resistant potato to help Russian farmers
Cornell University potato breeders are donating a disease-resistant potato to Russia in an effort to help combat aggressive strains of potato late blight that are threatening to devastate the nation's essential small farms. The Cornell-developed New York 121 potato, which also is able to fend off golden nematodes, scab and potato virus Y (PVY), will be given to Dokagene Technologies, a company specializing in producing pathogen-free seed in Russia, in a meeting and a field trip in Moscow on Aug. 20. (August 2, 2002)

Weill Cornell scientist wins award to unlock secrets of cell death and inflammation
New York, NY (Aug. 1, 2002) Dr. Hao Wu, a noted structural biologist and Associate Professor of Biochemistry at Weill Medical College and Graduate School of Medical Sciences of Cornell University, has added a Rita Allen Foundation Award to her honors. Dr. Wu, who was named one of 20 Pew Scholars in the Biomedical Sciences two years ago, will now also receive a Rita Allen Foundation Award of $50,000 a year for the next three years. The prestigious award, which is given to only four outstanding young scientists each year, will help support her research in "apoptotic and inflammatory signaling," or the mechanisms by which cells die or become inflamed. In one of the ongoing publications of her research, Dr. Wu and several colleagues report in the current issue of Nature their findings on the TRAF6 signaling protein. "TRAF6" stands for TNF (tumor necrosis factor) receptor-associated factor 6. The authors who studied the signaling of TRAF6 through genetic, biochemical, and crystallographic methods describe what they call “the universal structural mechanism for TRAF6 to participate in adaptive immunity, innate immunity, and bone homeostasis.” According to Dr. Wu, the study shows that inhibition of TRAF6 signaling may be used to treat osteolytic diseases that is, degenerative bone diseases.Dr. Wu’s special field of research is the TNF receptor super-family. (Receptors are the proteins on a cell’s surface by which it responds to the world.) This family of receptors is important in the genesis of many diseases, she says. For example, “Receptors in the TNF receptor super-family are highly involved in the pathogenesis of multiple sclerosis by potentiating inflammatory responses through TRAF2 and TRAF6.”

New York science teachers prepare to bring modern particle physics into high school classrooms
Move over Sir Isaac Newton and make way for quarks and leptons. A theory that has been part of the physics canon for more than 30 years is now making its way into New York state's high school science classrooms. But before they can introduce their students to the new material, high school teachers across the state must get a grasp on it themselves -- with help from Cornell University. (August 1, 2002)

President Rawlings accepts Arts dean's resignation
Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings announced today (July 31) that he has accepted a letter of resignation from the dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, Philip E. Lewis, effective June 30, 2003. Lewis will be on sabbatic leave in the year thereafter. Provost Biddy Martin will initiate a search process for his successor during the upcoming fall semester. Lewis sent the following message on July 30 to the faculty and staff of the College of Arts and Sciences: (August 1, 2002)

Brain tumor therapy needs longer treatment time
For nearly 20 years, a group of chemical biologists at Cornell University has been refining a technique for peering into the inner workings of cells to watch cancer-fighting drugs at work. Now, in three papers they report that their research has yielded critical insights into how the drug BPA, used as an experimental treatment for high-grade brain tumors, targets diseased cells. In two separate studies of the uptake of BPA (boronophenylalanine) by cancerous brain cells, a group led by Subhash Chandra, a senior research associate with Cornell's Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, has found that the dose currently favored by medical researchers is not high enough to target cancer cells effectively. While the standard length of time that a patient spends being infused with BPA is one to two hours, the Cornell group found that an infusion time of six hours was required to ensure that cancer cells take up the drug in adequate levels. Chandra's Cornell collaborators on the studies included researchers Duane R. Smith and Daniel R. Lorey. (August 1, 2002)