Homecoming Weekend Is Oct. 1-2

The University of Iowa Homecoming weekend is just around the corner, so make plans to head back to campus Oct. 1-2 for an exciting weekend of football and fun. Homecoming Reunion honors the classes of 1994, 1984, and 1979 from all colleges, plus medicine classes of 1969 and 1974, law classes of 1969 and 1974, and the pharmacy class of 1999. All will be invited back for this special weekend. In addition, the UI Scottish Highlanders will be gathering for their reunion. If you wish to participate in Homecoming and Scottish Highlander Reunion activities http://www.iowalum.com/reunions/hrw, play with other former members of the Hawkeye Marching Band http://www.iowalum.com/band, or catch the game with family and friends, make sure to mark your calendars for Oct. 1 and 2 and return to Iowa City for Homecoming 2004.

UI Professor Says Election Too Close To Call, 2000 Replay Possible

The November presidential election could bring an eerie replay of the 2000 election, with one party winning the popular vote and the other winning the presidency with an Electoral College victory. That's the prediction from the University of Iowa 2004 Presidential Election Forecast. The statistical forecasting model created by Michael Lewis-Beck, UI professor and chair of political science, and Charles Tien of Hunter College, shows President George W. Bush and Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) in a virtual dead heat. The formula forecasts a final two-party popular vote split of 51 percent for Bush and 49 percent for Kerry. More>>
UI Political Experts: http://www.uiowa.edu/~ournews/election2004/

UI External Support Totals $333.9 Million For 2003-2004

University of Iowa faculty, together with staff and students, generated $333.9 million in grants and contracts for UI research, education, and service during fiscal 2004. The total is the third-highest in UI history and surpasses the one-third-billion dollar mark for the third consecutive year. More>>
UI Division of Sponsored Programs: http://research.uiowa.edu/dsp/

UI Brings Saturn, Other Spectacles To Iowa State Fair

The University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences' Department of Physics and Astronomy is featuring two projects — the Cassini-Huygens mission to Saturn, and the Mars Express Mission — at the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines Aug. 12-22. The displays are just a just a small sample of the many presentations, activities, and personalities the UI is showcasing in its booth as it continues its theme, "Iowa: Your University." More>>
Department of Physics and Astronomy: http://www.physics.uiowa.edu/

Hawkeye Throwback Replica Jerseys Are Available

At a special Throwback Game in celebration of the 75th Anniversary of Kinnick Stadium against Kent State Sept. 4, the University of Iowa football team will wear 1939 replica jerseys, similar to those worn by Iowa Heisman Trophy winner Nile Kinnick. The 120 uniforms—to be worn by the Hawkeyes and then offered to fans—were sold out in less than two weeks for $500 each. For those friends and fans who missed out, an official replica jersey can be purchased for $150. More>>
John Pappajohn Entrepreneurial Center: http://www.iowajpec.org/

Genetic Finding Has Significant Implications For Preventing Blindness

A genetic finding reported in the New England Journal of Medicine has broad implications for stopping an impending epidemic of blindness in the United States and other developed nations. More>>
Department of Opthalmology and Visual Sciences: http://webeye.ophth.uiowa.edu/

UI Hospitals And Clinics Exceeds Organ Donation Goal

The transplant team at University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics is exceeding the goals established by the organizers of a national project designed to improve the rate of organ donation. More>>
UI Health: http://www.uiowa.edu/homepage/health/

UI Offers Dual Degree In Pharmacy, Public Health

The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy and the UI College of Public Health have teamed up to offer a new dual degree program that enables students to earn a doctorate in pharmacy (Pharm.D.) and a Master of Public Health (M.P.H.) degree. The Pharm.D./M.P.H. program will allow students in the College of Pharmacy to receive formal education and training in public health as it relates to pharmacotherapy and health promotion, disease prevention, and medication safety. More>>
College of Pharmacy: http://pharmacy.uiowa.edu/
College of Public Health: http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/

University Of Iowa, Englert Civic Theatre Reach Use Agreement

An agreement between the University of Iowa and the Englert Civic Theatre, Inc., will bring performances by the UI Division of Performing Arts into downtown Iowa City starting in December. More>>
Division of Performing Arts: http://www.uiowa.edu/~dpa/

Kurth Comments on Cassini Mission
(Columbus Ledger-Enquirer, July 13)

Researchers have been stripping away the secrets of Saturn's magnetic field, which envelops the planet and its rings, thanks to data returned by the Cassini spacecraft. Charged subatomic particles from the sun, known as the solar wind, slam into the magnetic field and create a bow shock like the sonic boom close up space that precedes a fast-flying aircraft. In late June, Cassini crossed the bow shock of Saturn's magnetic field far earlier than scientists had expected based on their experience with the Voyager probes, says WILLIAM KURTH of the University of Iowa. The paper is based in Columbus, Ga. The article, which originally appeared in the DALLAS MORNING NEWS, also appeared in the NEWS OBSERVER in North Carolina, TALLAHASSEE DEMOCRAT, LAKELAND LEDGER and BRADENTON HERALD in Florida, LEXINGTON (Ky.) HERALD-LEADER; the DULUTH NEWS TRIBUNE and ST. PAUL PIONEER PRESS in Minnesota; the SAN LUIS OBISPO TRIBUNE and MONTEREY COUNTY HERALD in California, GRAND FORKS (N.D.) HERALD; MACON (Ga.) TELEGRAPH; CENTER CITY (Pa.) TIMES; BILOXI (Miss.) SUN HERALD; KANSAS CITY STAR; MYRTLE BEACH (S.C.) SUN NEWS. More>>
UI Radio and Plasma Wave Group: http://www-pw.physics.uiowa.edu/plasma-wave/home.html/

Jones Says Absentee Ballots Not Flawless
(Palm Beach Post, July 23)

Thousands more Floridians are expected to cast absentee ballots this election cycle because they don't want their votes to potentially be lost as a result of malfunctioning touch-screen ballot boxes. But some experts, including DOUGLAS JONES, University of Iowa computer science professor, said that also presents difficulties. "Let me tell you what a Miami-Dade County elections official told me when I asked him how he would throw an election," said Jones. "He told me, 'I'd probably go at it through the absentee process.' That's where the vulnerabilities are." Not only can ballots be forged or entire boxes of ballots simply disappear, but the process is riddled with subjectivity. "In 2000, some counties had a forgiving approach and others enforced the postmark deadlines strictly," he said. "There was a concerted effort in the 12 counties that were leaning toward Bush for Bush people to say, count them. In other counties, where the voters were more favorable to Gore, they argued the other way. It may be unethical," he said, "but it's really hard to call it illegal." More>>
UI Computer Science: http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/

Davidson Comments On Gene Research
(Science Magazine, July 27)

The most common form of muscular dystrophy, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, is caused by a mutant protein called dystrophin. The protein smites every muscle in the body — including skeletal muscle, the heart and the diaphragm, which controls breathing — and the disease usually kills its victims in their 20s. Researchers have been trying to replace the gene for dystrophin for more than a decade. Although they've engineered a common-cold virus to carry a corrected version of the dystrophin gene, researchers have had difficulty delivering the fix to every muscle. To see if leaky capillaries might help, molecular geneticist Jeffrey Chamberlain and colleagues at the University of Washington, Seattle, first injected healthy mice with a test virus containing a protein that turns tissue blue, along with a compound called VEGF that causes blood vessels to grow and makes them leaky in the process. The more VEGF they used, the bluer the mice's muscles became, indicating higher levels of the virus. Nonmuscle organs took up the virus, but did not make the color-transforming protein. Encouraged, the team injected VEGF and the virus containing a functional copy of the dystrophin gene into mice lacking the gene. Eight weeks later, most of the muscles contained proper dystrophin, and the supplemented muscles resisted injury better. Just one injection could restore normal levels of dystrophin and prevent muscles from breaking down, the team reports online 25 July in Nature Medicine. The research has made a convert of neurobiologist BEVERLY DAVIDSON of the University of Iowa, Iowa City, who says she'd become skeptical that delivery to every muscle could be accomplished. "He proved me wrong," she says, but cautions that "the big hurdle will be how to translate that to a human patient." More>>
Davidson Laboratory: http://www.medicine.uiowa.edu/Davidsonlab/bio.htm
UI Department of Internal Medicine: http://www.int-med.uiowa.edu/

Damasio: Odd Behavior Can Be Brain-Based
(Indianapolis Star, July 24)

On an Internet site called the Autistic Adults Picture project (http://www.isn.net/~jypsy/AuSpin/a2p2.htm), dozens of people list their professions and obsessions next to a photograph. The idea is to show normal-looking people, whose peculiarities stem from their brain wiring — and who deserve compassion rather than exasperation. Experts say that overcoming the human suspicion of oddity will be hard, the more so because the biological basis of many brain disorders cannot be easily verified. Science is beginning to clear up such questions, said Dr. ANTONIO DAMASIO, a neurologist at the University of Iowa Medical Center, by identifying distinct brain patterns and connecting them to behavior. But, he added, only society can decide whether to accommodate the differences. "What all of our efforts in neuroscience are demonstrating is that you have many peculiar ways of arranging a human brain, and there are all sorts of varieties of creative, successful human beings," Damasio said. "For a while it is going to be a rather relentless process as there are more and more discoveries of people that have something that could be called a defect and yet have immense talents in one way or another." (This article originally appeared in The New York Times on March 9, 2004.) More>>
UI Department Of Neurology: http://www.uihealthcare.com/depts/med/neurology/welcome/

Gridiron Glory: 100+ Years of Iowa Football Reviewed

This timeline of more than 100 years of Hawkeye football is highlighted with audio and video clips. More>>

UI Instruments Capture “Sounds of Space”

Listen to the “sounds of space” captured by University of Iowa instruments on an array of spacecraft. More>>

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