edge magazine spring 2009

1 n Spring 2009 n

East Carolina UniversityResearch and creative activity SPRING 2009

Harvestof HealthAlso in this issue:

Studying Southern symbolsMedical family therapyReal-world math

M e S S a g e f r o M t h e V i c e c h a n c e l l o r

Innovation is strong at East Carolina University, where, despite the economy, researchers brought in a record $44.6 million in external grants and contracts in fiscal year 2007-2008. The number of awards, 396, also topped all previous years.

That spirit is what will keep research at ECU strong while our national economy recovers. But all is not rosy. As a result of the state budget crisis and ECU’s subsequent and proposed cuts, we have had to suspend our Research Development Award program. For the past four years, this program provided seed funds for faculty members to develop preliminary data for major research grant applications to external sponsors. When the budget situation improves, we hope to reinstate this important program.

While we have had to curtail that program, the federal National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and Department of Energy are distributing a total of $15.4 billion as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Under this program, ECU researchers have already submitted 85 grant applications totaling more than $41.3 million. We have already been awarded $598,916 with additional awards anticipated and more proposals pending.

Though the state budget crisis looms large in our planning, we are not letting it divert us from our strategic plan that calls for more researchers, more research and more research funding. And we are continuing our focus on our region, not only in research but also in engagement and community and economic development.

As an example, ECU has partnered with the town of Aurora to pilot a new municipal management and innovation project that leverages the resources and expertise of our faculty, staff and students on behalf of small, low-wealth, limited-resource and limited-capacity municipalities in eastern North Carolina. Aurora is the first MMI community under this venture.

Projects such as this one help cement ECU’s reputation in the region and state as a go-to partner in improving the region’s economic vitality and quality of life while also improving education, research and innovation, and scholarship across the campus.

While our faculty is working hard to innovate and engage, students are also active. Our third annual Research and Creative Achievement Week held in late March-early April of this year showcased student research. A total of 190 students made either oral or poster presentations. The week also recognized three faculty members for their contributions to the arts and research.

You may read about these researchers and many other researchers and innovative projects in this issue of Edge. And please keep in touch with your university.

Deirdre M. Mageean, Ph.D.Vice ChancellorResearch and Graduate Studies

EAST CAROLINA UNIVERSITYSpring 2009

www.ecu.edu

PUBLISHERDr. Deirdre M. Mageean

Vice chancellor, research and graduate Studies

EDITORDoug Boyd

WRITERSchristine neffcrystal Baity

Jeannine Manning hutsonerica plouffe lazure

ART DIRECTORMichael litwin

PHOTOGRAPHERcliff hollis

Edge is published by the Division of research and graduate Studies at east carolina University.

any written portion of this publication may be reprinted with appropriate credit.

COMMENTS OR [email protected]

© 2009 by east carolina University

U.p. 09-374

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ta B l e o f c o n t e n t S

features 8 Harvest of health

Farmers receive health services through AgriSafe-NC

16 ‘Why do I need to know this?’TechMath answers common question for math, science students

20 When illness strikesECU doctoral students study the effect on families

profile 12 Symbols of the South

Geographer Derek Alderman studies memorials and more

2 abstracts Researchers study climate’s effect on

state tourism 2007-2008 a good year for research

grants at ECU Shared resources benefit researchers Students design Wounded Warrior

barracks FoodMASTER integrates food with

math, science Coping with prostate cancer subject

of study ECU awarded Carnegie distinction Research sheds light on origin of

type 2 diabetes Chemist receives NIH grant Research could lead to new blood

pressure treatment ECU launches Outreach Scholars

Academy Faculty members honored for

excellence Culver named Harriot College

distinguished professor

24 explorations Music can play key role in aging well, researcher says

RNA research takes aim at bacteria

ECU filmmakers document eastern North Carolina struggles

Stinky cheese aids simulation education

Scientist eyes an end to pox

28 in print A look at recent publications by ECU faculty members

on the cover Agricultural workers risk injury and illness on the job often with little access to care or insurance. Read about a new program involving ECU that aims to address agricultural health issues beginning on page 8.

12 20

abstractr e s e a r c h b r i e f s

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Researchers study climate’s effect on state tourism

An economy that depends on tourism often depends on the weather.

This relationship and its impact on one of North Carolina’s most important industries is being studied by East Carolina University researchers involved with the Center for Sustainable Tourism.

Last November, the center hosted a workshop on campus where faculty members and students joined policymakers, business leaders and scientists from around the region to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the tourism industry here.

“Weather and climate events are critical in shaping the natural environment and social structures of our world,” Dr. Scott Curtis, a climatologist in ECU’s geography department, told the crowd. He gave the example of New Orleans, saying the city “would be a very different place now if not for Hurricane Katrina.”

Like New Orleans, North Carolina is susceptible to weather disasters, such as hurricanes, freezing rain, heat waves and droughts. “Each of these poses a unique challenge to tourism operations,” Curtis said.

Tourism is a major economic driver for the state. From the ski resorts of western

North Carolina to the beaches of the Outer Banks, the industry accounts for $1.7 billion in travel expenditures and $4.2 billion in payroll. Almost 200,000 residents depend on tourism for employment.

Dr. Patrick Long, director of the Center for Sustainable Tourism, said without tourism many community amenities, such as restaurants, convenience stores, retail shopping, cultural, educational and historic offerings, special events and outdoor recreation opportunities would decline or disappear.

Long said researchers also know climate and weather impact tourism in the type of activities offered and the consistency and length of the tourism season. For instance, climate changes that prompt an earlier spring could shorten the season at the state’s ski resorts, and rising sea levels along the Atlantic Coast could hurt beach resorts.

Shared resources benefit researchers

East Carolina University has a number of resources and facilities available to researchers. The problem is not many people know about them.

To remedy that situation, officials from the main and health sciences campuses are working to increase awareness of the tools that are available for research.

From greenhouses to DNA labs to the field station at Lake Mattamuskeet, these resources are available for campus-wide use. One example is the PhIFI lab at the Brody School of Medicine.

“Life science and medical research often rely on fluorescent or radioactive molecules, such as proteins, DNA or RNA, to track their activities and chemical reactions in living and diseased cells,” said Dr. Brett Keiper, an assistant professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the medical school. “Scientists, therefore, need a means to visualize and quantify the ‘labeled’ molecules re-isolated from those cells, tissues or lab animals.”

That’s where the lab for phosphor-imaging and fluorescence imaging of molecular gels transfer blots and microarrays comes in. It opened on the fifth floor of the Brody Medical Sciences Building in 2005. Scientists studying cancer, infections, heart disease, asthma and more use the lab. Grants from the N.C. Biotechnology Center and the Division of Research and Graduate Studies at ECU helped buy the GE Healthcare Typhoon 9410 scanner used in the lab.

Use of the PhIFI lab and some other facilities requires a small annual fee to support their upkeep. Detailed information about resources and facilities on the health sciences campus is online at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-dhs/bsomresearchgradstudies/CoreFacilities.cfm. Information about resources on main campus is at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-acad/rgs/rgsfacilities.cfm.

East Carolina University researchers brought in a record $44.6 million in external grants and contracts during fiscal year 2007-2008, according to the university’s Division of Research and Graduate Studies

Faculty members at the Brody School of Medicine led the university with $28.4 million in grants and contracts from the state and federal governments, pharmaceutical firms and other sources.

The previous high was in 2003-2004, when researchers brought in $39.1 million.

Researchers also received grants from the university. The Division of Research and Graduate Studies made 19 research development awards for 2008-2009 totaling

nearly $447,000. Twenty-four ECU faculty members representing seven ECU colleges and schools received the one-year awards aimed at supporting future grant applications to federal agencies and other research sponsors.

In the first two years of the RDA program, approximately $1.1 million in funding led to about $4 million in external research grants. Due to budget cuts, however, no award applications are being accepted for fiscal year 2009-2010.

The Faculty Senate also awarded nearly $225,000 in research and creative activity grants to 12 faculty members.

Since 2005, this program has awarded approximately $1.3 million in awards.

2007-2008 a good year for research grants at ECU

Dr. Patrick Long

n Spring 2009 n 3

Students design Wounded Warrior barracks

Interior design students at East Carolina University are designing “barracks of the future” that can accommodate the needs of wounded, injured and ill Marines in the U.S. Marine Corps Wounded Warrior Battalion.

The barracks – or bachelor enlisted quarters – are to provide assisted living for Marines as they rehabilitate. Ideas generated by this class project are being used in a new facility at Camp Lejeune or in future Wounded Warrior projects.

“This is a way for students to use their skills and realize that social engagement is part of being a designer,” said Hunt McKinnon, professor of interior design. “They realize that this project can make a difference in somebody’s life, and that has made a huge difference in how they approach it.”

Students have complemented their academic research with accounts of Marine life from wounded Marines and battalion representatives.

Their plans incorporate such elements as public areas for Marines who do not like to be alone, furniture specially crafted for wheelchair users and storage space designed to hold military gear.

Science at StarlightDr. Joseph Chalovich, professor of biochemistry at the Brody School of Medicine, was a featured speaker in February at Science at Starlight. The East Carolina University Division of Research and Graduate Studies, in collaboration with the N.C. Biotechnology Center and the ECU Chapter of Sigma Xi, sponsors this research seminar series to showcase faculty research. Its goal is to promote scientific communication and collaboration among ECU scientists and those from local industries. Seminars are held at the Starlight Café in downtown Greenville.

Food. It’s something we interact with every day. We prepare it. We eat it. We know we’re not supposed to play with it. But can we learn from it?

Developers of East Carolina University’s FoodMASTER program think so. Without realizing it, they said, people are exposed to math and science concepts each time they use food, making it a very good teaching tool.

“For children, we’re finding, it serves as a bridge between something very common and something that can be overwhelming, like math and science concepts,” said Virginia Carraway-Stage, registered dietician and coordinator of the FoodMASTER project at ECU. “When you throw food in the mix, learning these concepts no longer seems like a difficult thing to accomplish.”

The food-based curriculum is designed for students in kindergarten through college. The program uses hands-on, inquiry-based learning activities to help students learn science, math and nutrition concepts.

“Children love anything to do with food and food preparation,” said Melani Duffrin, faculty member in ECU’s Department of Nutrition and Dietetics. “We’ve been watching enthusiastic young students engage in scientific processes such as measurement, data collection, critical thinking and comparative analysis in very natural, self-

directed ways, and it’s exciting.”Duffrin developed the FoodMASTER

program at Ohio University in 2005 with elementary school teacher Sharon Phillips.

Last fall, the National Center for Research Resources, a part of the National Institutes of Health, awarded the project a 2008 Science Education Partnership Award worth $504,000. The grant will fund researching the effects of the multimedia materials and investigating the best ways to disseminate the curriculum.

The project received a second grant in November. The U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded a $150,000 Higher Education Challenge Grant to support a college-level component of the FoodMASTER program. With the USDA grant, researchers in ECU’s Department of Nutrition and Dietetics and the Department of Child Development and Family Relations will develop college courses that use food to engage students.

An on-campus gateway foods course will be offered to nutrition students and family and consumer sciences education students. An online course will be open to all. Seniors in nutrition and family and consumer sciences will complete a capstone, service-learning course to gain practical experience working in the community.


n Spring 2009 n 3

FoodMASTER integrates food with math, science


Camp Lejeune return to civilian life. The Tillery Wellness Program, which is a

10-year collaboration between ECU occupational therapy faculty and students and residents of Tillery, a community in Halifax County that focuses on implementing and evaluating health services and identifies best practices for community-driven health services.

The ECU Center for Sustainable Tourism and the North Carolina Division of Tourism, Film and Sports Development, which hope to find practical and applicable solutions to industry problems created by rising energy prices and adverse weather and climate patterns as well as other obstacles in implementing sustainable practices.

to serve as a national model for public service and regional transformation.”

Dr. Deirdre Mageean, vice chancellor for research and graduate studies, cited four projects as examples of ECU’s engagement, or partnerships that respond to community needs by sharing skills, knowledge and resources:

ARISE, or “A Real Integrated Sports Experience,” which provides community members, ECU students, faculty/staff and alumni the opportunity to participate in a variety of unique sports, fitness and recreational activities modified specifically for individuals with disabilities;

The ECU Psychophysiology Lab and Biofeedback Clinic, which is helping Marines of the Wounded Warrior Battalion East at

East Carolina University has become one of 195 institutions nationwide to receive the “community engagement” classification from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

The foundation, widely known for assessments of colleges and universities, has announced that 119 campuses received the engaged distinction for 2008, joining 76 that were identified in 2006.

“Receiving this classification confirms what we at ECU already know – that the commitment and practice of engagement are woven throughout our teaching, research, service and outreach enterprises,” said Chancellor Steve Ballard. “This is our history and a core strength as we pursue our mission

A discovery by East Carolina University researchers could change the way people understand and treat conditions leading to type 2 diabetes.

The study, according to Dr. Darrell Neufer, research contributor and professor in ECU’s Department of Exercise and Sport Science and the Department of Physiology, provides evidence that insulin resistance, a precondition that leads to diabetes, is caused by a disruption in the cell’s metabolic balance.

“We have found that the elevated production of hydrogen peroxide is a primary event that leads to insulin resistance in muscle,” he said.

To explain, Neufer compared the inner workings of a cell to an engine. Every cell has engines or mitochondria that are responsible for breaking down food to provide the energy consumed by the cell. However, when too much food is in the cell relative to need, the engine releases hydrogen peroxide. This signals to the cell that it is out of balance and leads to insulin resistance.

The researchers showed that by either blocking the production or preventing the release of hydrogen peroxide from the

Research sheds light on origin of type 2 diabetes

mitochondria, they were able to prevent the development of insulin resistance in rodents fed a high-fat diet. They also showed that after five days of a high-fat diet, lean, college-aged men experienced the same dramatic increase in the production of mitochondrial hydrogen peroxide.

“Our hypothesis is that insulin resistance

may not be a chronic disease state, but a state that the cell moves into because of the nutritional overload it is under,” Neufer said. “If you relieve the overload by reducing caloric intake or by increasing physical activity, the insulin resistance will quickly reverse.”

Dr. Ethan Anderson, lead author on the paper and research associate in ECU’s Department of Cardiovascular Sciences, said: “This paper represents somewhat of a paradigm shift in the way that the etiology of insulin resistance is viewed. We hope that it prompts rigorous follow-on studies to provide more information as to how mitochondrial hydrogen peroxide is connected to insulin signaling in skeletal muscle.”

A paper based on the research appeared in the March issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Researchers from ECU’s Metabolic Institute for the Study of Diabetes and Obesity and other ECU departments, the Department of Molecular Physiology and Biophysics at Vanderbilt University, the Department of Pathology at University of Washington and the Department of Pharmacology at Weill Medical College of Cornell University contributed to the study.

Dr. Darrell Neufer

ECU awarded Carnegie distinction

4 n Spring 2009 n


Carolina died at nearly three times the rate of white men, 73 per 100,000 compared to 25 per 100,000, Campbell said.

In the Procare study, 189 early stage African-American prostate cancer survivors and their intimate partners will be randomized to one of three conditions: a six-session partner-assisted coping skills training intervention; a cancer education intervention of equal duration; or usual care. The study will measure quality of life, depression and relationship quality pre-and post-treatment among survivors and partners.

According to the State Center for Health Statistics, nine of the state’s top 10 counties for prostate cancer mortality are in the east: Hertford, Northampton, Tyrrell, Martin, Perquimans, Sampson, Robeson, Gates and Edgecombe.

The prostate is a reproductive system gland, slightly larger than a walnut, near the rectum that produces part of the fluid contained in semen. Sexual and urinary symptoms – such as impotence and incontinence – and bowel symptoms are common after surgeons remove a cancerous prostate and often persist well beyond the acute treatment and recovery period. Reducing symptom distress and increasing quality of life are important goals.

Symptom-management efforts have traditionally focused on the patient; however, symptoms also affect partners and the relationship. Among African-American men and their partners, the burden may be even greater. Black men have a 60 percent higher incidence rate of prostate cancer, more advanced disease at diagnosis and higher mortality than white men. Research also indicates that African-American men recover more slowly after treatment for prostate cancer.

Researchers at East Carolina University are looking at whether providing coping skills training or comprehensive disease education to African-American prostate cancer survivors and their partners will help them better manage side-effects and improve their quality of life.

ECU’s Procare study will evaluate a telephone-based coping skills training program tailored to black prostate cancer survivors and their intimate partners. The study is funded by a four-year, $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Researchers at Duke University are also participating in the study.

“The Procare study is an effort to address the needs of African-American prostate cancer survivors in a couples context,” said Dr. Lisa Campbell, a psychologist and associate director of the ECU Center for Health Disparities Research. Campbell described how prostate cancer affects couples by quoting a survivor: “‘If I’ve got it, she’s got it.’”

In North Carolina last year, an estimated 6,543 people were diagnosed with prostate cancer, and more than 800 died from the disease, according to the North Carolina State Center for Health Statistics. From 2001-2004, black men with prostate cancer in North

Coping with prostate cancer subject of study

Dr. Lisa Campbell

Dr. Colin S. Burns, assistant professor of biochemistry and biophysics at East Carolina University, has received an Academic Research Enhancement Award from the National Institutes of Health to support research on a protein responsible for mad cow disease.

The grant is worth $199,000. It’s the first time ECU’s Department of Chemistry has received this particular award.

Burns said one purpose of the grant is to involve students, particularly undergraduates, in meritorious research to encourage them to continue studies in the biomedical sciences. “AREA grants allow faculty to provide a hands-on research experience for students, exposing them to issues at the

Chemist receives NIH grant

forefront of the biomedical field,” he said.With the NIH funds, Burns is investigating

the molecular aspects of copper and zinc promoted prion-prion interactions. A prion is a protein found in the central nervous system of birds and mammals, including humans. According to Burns, this protein plays a role in many neurodegenerative diseases, including mad cow disease.

Learning about the protein’s interactions with copper and zinc will help clarify the role of the prion in the body, Burns said. That may lead researchers to a better understanding of the development of many diseases caused by the protein and how to treat or prevent them.

n Spring 2009 n 5

Dr. Colin S. Burns

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Funded by a $1.6 million grant, an East Carolina University researcher is studying a protein that might hold a key to reducing high blood pressure and improving kidney function in people with kidney disease.

Dr. Yan-Hua Chen, an associate professor of anatomy and cell biology at the Brody School of Medicine at ECU, received a five-year grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health, to study the function of claudin-7, a protein that makes up part of the barrier that controls the flow of molecules between cells.

Chen’s preliminary research has shown that claudin-7 interacts with an enzyme called WNK4 kinase and forms a pathway for chloride ions to enter the bloodstream. Interaction of claudin-7 with a mutated version of WNK-4 may lead to high blood pressure.

Understanding the role of claudin-7 in these intercellular barriers and pathways could lead to medicines that could help people with high blood pressure as well as

kidney disease, Chen said. It could also help people whose blood pressure is too low.

“We need to find out the mechanism of this claudin-7 in the control of ionic balance in the body,” Chen said. “The next five years will be very exciting for us.”

Chen began her research with grants from the ECU Division of Research and Graduate Studies and the N.C. Biotechnology Center, which allowed her to collect necessary data to revise and resubmit her federal grant request.

Chen is working with fellow ECU scientists Dr. Qun Lu of the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology and Dr. Abdel Abdel-Rahman of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology on the claudin-7 study. In another study involving the protein, she is working with Dr. Kathryn Verbanac, a scientist in the ECU Department of Surgery, to discover how claudin-7 might suppress tumors in lung cancer. That research is funded by a $143,271 grant from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences of NIH.

Research could lead to new blood pressure treatment

ECU launches Outreach Scholars AcademyDr. Beth Velde, professor of occupational

therapy and assistant dean in the College of Allied Health Sciences, knows the importance of community engagement in scholarly work.

For 11 years, she has partnered with the small North Carolina community of Tillery on research, health services, grants and

publications. The benefits, she said, have flowed both ways.

Now, Velde is encouraging other ECU faculty members to pursue scholarship related to community outreach, partnership and curricular engagement as the director of ECU’s new Engagement and Outreach Scholars Academy.

The first group of 10 scholars was inducted Feb. 2. They are Jeannie Golden, assistant professor of psychology; Dr. Jane Painter, associate professor of occupational therapy; Dr. Michael Harris, assistant professor of management; Kylie Dotson-Blake, assistant professor of counselor and adult education; Dr. Rebecca Dumlao, associate professor of communication; Dr. Sharon Rogers, assistant professor of health education and promotion; Kim Larson, assistant professor of nursing; Dr. Paige Averett, assistant professor of social work; Dr.

Gene Dixon, assistant professor of engineering; and Dr. David Collier, assistant professor of pediatrics.

They spent the spring attending workshops to learn about community-based research and the resources available to them on campus. They also worked with a coach to develop their own research plans. In the fall, scholars who complete the program will receive a seed grant to help launch their studies.

Housed within the Office of Engagement, Innovation and Economic Development, the academy’s purpose is to cultivate scholars who can be leaders in their professions while working with communities to improve quality of life and foster economic prosperity.

Research can involve global projects, though organizers encourage studies focused on eastern North Carolina.

The next set of scholars will enter the academy in the fall.

Dr. Yen-Hua Chen, shown with research specialist Rodney Tatum, is studying the protein

claudin-7 and the role it plays in hypertension with help from a five-year, $1.6 million grant

Drs. Sharon Rogers and Jane Painter

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collections on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City, and the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock. Her work has been featured in numerous books, including “The Art of Enameling,” which she wrote, and in more than 160 exhibits around the world.

During her tenure at ECU she has received eight teaching or research grants and been awarded the ECU School of Art’s Scholar Teacher Award. In 2003, she received The Lifetime Achievement Award from The International Enamelist Society, commending her for her contributions to the field.

Lu has a doctorate in cell biology and

neuroscience from Emory University School of Medicine and has been on the ECU faculty since 2000. His area of research is cancer, and he has published 25 papers since joining ECU. He has been a primary or co-investigator on grants totaling $2.9 million. He has spoken at national and international conferences and helped establish the Harriet and John Wooten Laboratory for Alzheimer’s Disease and Neurodegenerative Research at ECU.

Roop has bachelor’s and doctoral degrees from Virginia Polytechnic Institute. He came to ECU in 2001. Roop’s research focus is the bacteria Brucella, which causes gastrointestinal illness and is a potential bioweapon. He has spoken on numerous panels, received several research awards and has been lead or co-author on more than 25 scholarly articles. Roop has been primary or co-investigator on grants totaling more than $6.5 million.

Dr. Deirdre Mageean, vice chancellor for research and graduate studies, selected the awardees upon recommendation by the Faculty Senate Academic Awards Committee. Recipients received a cash award and conducted seminars on their work during Research and Creative Achievement Week, March 30 to April 3.

Three faculty members from East Carolina University received research and Creative Activity awards in February.

Linda Darty, professor of metalworking and enameling in ECU’s School of Art and Design, received the Lifetime Achievement Award for accomplishments made across the span of her professional career.

Dr. Qun Lu, associate professor in the Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, and Dr. R. Martin Roop, professor in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, both part of the Brody School of Medicine, received Five-Year Achievement Awards.

Darty has contributed to permanent art

Dr. R. Martin RoopLinda Darty Dr. Qun Lu

Faculty members honored for excellence


Dr. Stephen J. Culver, chair of the Department of Geological Sciences, was named the 2008 Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Professor.

An East Carolina University professor since 1999, Culver received the award at the university’s annual convocation last August.

Culver is a graduate of the University of Wales, where he received his bachelor’s degree in geology, his doctorate in marine micropaleontology and geology and an honorary doctorate in biological sciences. After serving on the faculty of Old

Dominion University and working at the Natural History Museum of London, Culver joined the faculty of ECU in 1999 as a professor and chair of the Department of Geology, later renamed.

Over the past three decades, Culver has received 31 research grants totaling more than $1.4 million. He has published more than 200 books, book chapters and book reviews, peer-reviewed journal articles, reports and conference abstracts. He has also served in several leadership roles at ECU.

Culver named Harriot College distinguished professor

Dr. Stephen J. Culver

8 n Spring 2009 n

Harvestof Health

8 n Spring 2009 n

Farmers receive health services through agrisaFe-N.c.

It was almost lunchtime at an agricultural meeting, and about

the only sound one might have heard when a call went out for

subjects to do a respirator fit-test was stomachs growling.

“I’m hungry,” said Walton Aycock as he stood up to volunteer

and move the morning along.

By Doug Boyd and Christine Neff

continued on page 10

n Spring 2009 n 9 n Spring 2009 n 9

10 n Spring 2009 n

The meeting at the Duplin County Cooperative Extension Service building in Kenansville was for farmers, agribusiness workers and others involved in turkey production. Robin Tutor, interim director of the N.C. Agromedicine Institute, was there talking about respiratory health and its importance in a business where avian flu could strike at any moment.

“It’s your health you’re protecting or not protecting,” Tutor told the crowd.

Tutor’s presentation was part of a new institute program called AgriSafe-North Carolina. Its focus is occupational health, primary care and preventive care among the state’s agricultural workers.

“We all enjoy farmers’ products every day. We eat them; we wear them. These people provide us with so much, so we need to serve our farmers in return,” Tutor said.

The Agromedicine Institute, established in 1999 by the UNC Board of Governors, is a partnership of East Carolina University, N.C. State University and N.C. A&T State

University. Through AgriSafe, the institute partners with Tri-County Community Health Council, based in Newton Grove, to provide health screenings and follow-up

services for farmers, their families and non-migrant farm workers. AgriSafe provides services at the Carolina Oaks Health Center in Four Oaks or at other spots convenient

for the individual such as a farm, agribusiness or extension office.

Carolina Oaks is open five days a week. Evening and weekend appointments at the clinic or in the community are also available. Fees vary depending on services received and where services are rendered. AgriSafe provides many services free or at reduced cost.

“We want to be as accessible as possible,” Tutor said.

Approximately 27 percent of the state’s agricultural families do not have health insurance, according to research by the Agromedicine Institute and the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Many farmers must choose between paying for farm operations and paying for health insurance, which can cost as much as $500 to $1,200 each. If farmers do visit a doctor’s office, physicians may not consider the unique occupational hazards they face, such as

Jimmy Collie gets his blood pressure checked by AgriSafe’s Karen Sirucek. Previous page: Walton Aycock takes a respirator fit test.

‘We want to look at the farm

family’s total well-being,

not just their physical well-

being. We want to address

the whole person.’

— robin tutor, interim director

agriSafe-n.c.

skin cancer, respiratory illness, arthritis and occupational stress, Tutor said.

AgriSafe is staffed by a family nurse practitioner, community outreach worker and family advocate. Services include health care with an emphasis on agricultural exposures, as well as education to prevent illness and injury on the farm. Staff can help identify resources for affordable dental care, medications, diabetic supplies and dealing with family challenges. Farmers can also select and be fitted with personal protective equipment such as respirators, safety glasses, hearing protection and chemical-resistant clothing to prevent injury and illness.

To help get the word out, Tutor and others staffed AgriSafe booths at September’s Peanut Festival in Dublin, Coats’ Farmers Day in October and the Touchstone Cotton Festival in Dunn in November. Following the turkey producers meeting, Tutor returned to Kenansville in March for a chicken producers meeting.

AgriSafe is a “one-stop shop,” Tutor said. “We want to look at the farm family’s total well-being, not just their physical well-being. We want to address the whole person. And we recognize that farmers have unique demands on their time and resources.”

Tutor grew up dressing chickens and doing other chores on a family farm in Orange County. Family members farm in Wake and Johnston counties, and her son and daughter-in-law live on a farm in Duplin County. She’s trained as an occupational therapist and has a master’s of public health degree. Before joining the Agromedicine Institute in 2007, her career included working with health programs for migrant farm worker children and families.

“It’s very much a part of me,” she said of agriculture.

The AgriSafe Network started in Iowa, where it has been successful in reducing health insurance claims costs for farmers. A $100,000 grant from the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust funded the one-year pilot program in eastern North Carolina, targeting Bladen, Columbus, Cumberland, Duplin, Harnett, Johnston, Pender, Robeson, Sampson and Wayne counties. Tutor has applied for a $1.9 million grant from the N.C. Tobacco Trust Fund in collaboration with the N.C. Cooperative Extension Service and N.C. Agricultural Foundation and plans to apply for matching funds from other foundations and agribusinesses to keep the program going.

In Kenansville, government workers and people who serve or work in the turkey industry were the primary audience for Tutor’s presentation on avian flu. Getting people at that level involved is important for spreading information about the

disease, health and safety in general, and about AgriSafe, said James Parsons, poultry specialist with Duplin County Cooperative Extension.

“I think of lot of them take things for granted,” said Parsons, who admitted that in his 30-plus years in the industry he hasn’t always worn a respirator when

walking inside a poultry house. “They say, ‘It’s never bothered me, so I’m going to keep on doing like I’m doing.’”

Aycock, who works for Goldsboro Milling, a turkey processing company, said he wears a respirator every day at work, and having it fit properly and getting reminders of the importance of protecting one’s health are important.

“I think it’s good for growers in keeping healthy, staying healthy,” he said.

Nearby, medical assistant and community outreach worker Karen Sirucek stayed busy performing blood pressure and blood sugar tests at the Kenansville meeting. She said unbalanced diets with lots of fat and cholesterol contribute to high blood pressure, diabetes and other health problems among farmers and farm workers.

“They have bacon for breakfast, pork chops for supper and a ham sandwich for lunch,” she said, as caterers across the room took the cover off a tray of inch-thick barbecued chops. But the AgriSafe message is getting across.

“They’re starting to warm up to us,” Sirucek said of farmers and agribusinesses in the region. “They’re calling us and asking, ‘Hey, can you come do this for us?’ We’re here to serve them and their needs.”

Joe Apple helps demonstrate different types of respirators at the Kenansville meeting.

agriSafe is staffed by a family

nurse practitioner, community

outreach worker and family

advocate. Services include

health care with an emphasis

on agricultural exposures, as

well as education to prevent

illness and injury on the farm.

n Spring 2009 n 11

12 n Spring 2009 n

Dr. Derek alderman depends

on “three p’s” to understand

the changing landscape of

the South.

an interest in “place” comes

naturally to this east carolina

University geographer, and his

unique “perspective” in studying

the region developed from a

lifetime spent observing and

questioning it.

Symbols of thesouthgeographer studiesmemorials aNd moreBy Christine Neff


n Spring 2009 n 13

14 n Spring 2008 n Alderman and former student Rachel Campbell.

n Spring 2009 n 15

But it’s the last “P” – “passion” – that really sets him apart as a researcher and faculty member.

“His passion is unsurpassed. It’s genuine,” said Dr. Ronald Mitchelson, chair of ECU’s geography department. “He has a really strong sense of place – that’s his passion. When he sees places, he sees them in ways most of us don’t.”

Alderman had that ability from a young age.

He spent parts of his 1970s and ’80s childhood in Florida, South Carolina, Virginia and Georgia. The son of liberal-minded parents, he saw racial segregation, if not by law, then by practice, in public schools and neighborhoods. He noticed the Confederate statues in the courthouse yards and a disregard for African-American history.

“I think a lot of my research interest comes from who I am,” said Alderman, an associate professor of geography at ECU. “I grew up in the South. I grew up as a white southerner. In many ways, I could see very closely certain patterns of privilege that occurred in the region on the basis of race.”

But he also saw change happening and felt a need to study those changes.

The drive to rename streets

He pursued the interest in college, earning a bachelor’s degree in history with a minor in geography from Georgia Southern University. He entered a graduate program in geography at the University of Georgia, intending to study Confederate monuments. But a drive down a rural Georgia road changed the direction of his academic career.

It was the early 1990s when Alderman happened on a street named for the civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. He wondered how the road came to be renamed, given the history of discrimination in the region.

“Even though it is a very minor part of our landscape, I saw it as a very symbolic indicator of the changes that were happening,” Alderman said. “I started noticing more streets named after King. I started hearing more people talking about the civil rights movement. I knew something more was going on with southern symbols.”

His interests shifted to African-American history and how it is commemorated in the geography of the South. After receiving his doctorate from the University of Georgia, Alderman became a nationally known expert

on the politics of naming streets and other public places after King. Much of his research now examines how and where Americans remember the civil rights movement and black history.

“The ‘where’ question is probably the most important,” he said. “While monuments celebrate the victory of the civil rights movement, in some cases they also signify the limitations of that victory. They signify how much the movement is still socially and geographically marginalized.”

Recently, Alderman co-wrote a book on the subject with Owen Dwyer of Indiana University. In “Civil Rights Memorials and the Geography of Memory,” published in late 2008 by the Center for American Places at Columbia College Chicago and distributed by the University of Georgia Press, the authors carry out the first critical examination of the monuments, museums, parks and streets dedicated to the African-American struggle for civil rights.

Dwyer said Alderman’s research contributes to the study of everyday public spaces by showing how traditional, geographic concerns need not preclude an investigation of the politics that shape a place. “His scholarship gives witness time and again that cultural geography’s traditional and contemporary concerns are not mutually exclusive. In fact, in Derek’s hands they’ve become mutually constitutive,” Dwyer said.

Communities commonly remember civil rights activists by renaming public streets in their honor. But, Alderman has found, in many places, some residents react strongly against proposals to rename streets for figures like King. “Building memorials to the movement can be controversial, particularly when they challenge long-standing boundaries within a community,” he said.

In an effort to inform public debate on the issue, Alderman travels to towns and cities around the country to advise and speaks frequently with media about the issue. “I offer perspectives for understanding the significance of the civil rights movement and try to clear up false conceptions about what streets named for King mean,” he said.

Whether examining MLK streets or some of his other favorite topics, NASCAR, Elvis and kudzu among them, Alderman injects southern flavor to his research. His current projects look at the extent that southern travel brochures and tourism Web sites depict black history and

how tattoos on Katrina survivors communicate their plight.

He places his work under the heading of new southern studies, an academic field that seeks to find common themes and tensions running through the South rather than focus on why the region is different or distinctive, the subject of more traditional southern studies.

Academic accolades

Respected by colleagues in his field, Alderman serves as president of the Southeastern Division of the Association of American Geographers and has been recognized by SEDAAG as a distinguished researcher. He has also received, from ECU, the Five-Year Research Achievement Award and Scholar-Teacher Award in addition to other honors. He engages students in research activities and has written more than a dozen peer-reviewed papers with them.

“His work is highly recognized,” Mitchelson, chair of ECU’s geography department, said. “He is having the kind of impact someone has after 20 or 30 years in their career, and he hasn’t been doing this for that long. He is an outstanding teacher and does significant outreach activity. He just does it all.”

And, to think, it all started from a young desire to interpret the world around him. “Being a child of the South, I realized you could be critical of the South and critical of what you see and still believe in the region,” Alderman said. “I actually think there is a responsibility on the part of white southerners to be critical of their region and be that voice while maintaining their love for it.”

He has studied changes in the landscape as the South evolves to reflect a new remembrance and retelling of the region’s history. More changes are on the way, he imagines, with the influx of Latino immigrants and the recent election of President Barack Obama.

“There is discussion about Obama’s election as an extension, if not a fulfillment, of the civil rights movement. No doubt, it is on people’s minds, and we will probably see more memorials come from it,” he said. “But we need to resist a tendency to think that since Obama’s election the civil rights movement is complete. This is something we need to keep talking about.”

Alderman surely will, with his “three Ps” to guide him.

16 n Spring 2009 n

n Spring 2009 n 17

By Christine Neff

‘Why do i need to know this?’

techmath aNswers commoN questioN For math, scieNce studeNts


rhiannon holloman, a math teacher at Nash central

high school in rocky mount, hears it from her students

all the time: “why do i need to know this?”

too often, she said, students don’t understand how the

concepts they learn in the classroom apply to real-life

situations. But she and other eastern North carolina math

and science teachers are changing that with the help of

the techmath program at east carolina university.

Front to back, Beth Eckstein, Marshburn and Ron Preston helped develop the TechMath program to help public school teachers better prepare students for careers in science and technology.

18 n Spring 2009 n

Now in its third year, TechMath helps public school teachers prepare lesson plans that focus on business-related science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, skills. The program is funded by a $1.2 million grant from the National Science Foundation.

Its goal is to help the region’s school systems better prepare students to meet the growing demand for technologically-skilled workers in the state, said Ernie Marshburn, principal investigator for TechMath and director of strategic initiatives in ECU’s Division of Research and Graduate Studies. “We wanted ECU to be a stronger partner in the region on this issue,” Marshburn said.

He and other developers of the TechMath project, including Beth Eckstein, director of ECU’s Center for Economic Education in the College of Business, and Drs. Ron Preston and Rose Sinicrope from the College of Education, realized that many high school graduates are under-qualified for the

technology-oriented jobs available to them in the region. By introducing students to careers and business role models in the field, they hope to boost students’ interest in math and science studies.

“Students understand athletics. They understand the process of working with a coach to develop certain skills, and they have role models in people like Michael

Jordan. We want to do the same thing for math and science. We want to help students understand how they can apply what they learn in the classroom to real-life jobs, right in this community,” Marshburn said.

The lesson starts with the teachers. More than 30 high school and middle school teachers from around the region have completed the TechMath program, and about 30 more are enrolled this year.

They begin with tours of local businesses. This fall, teachers visited the Metrics pharmaceutical laboratory, the ASMO manufacturing facility, NACCO Materials Handling Group, the Roberts Company and CMI Plastics. More than 30 businesses have partnered with the program.

At these companies, teachers get a behind-the-scenes look at operations, paying special attention to the math and technology used to make the business run. At the ASMO facility, for instance, they saw the mathematical calculations used to produce automotive windshield systems and

Yoshihiro Oyobe, president of automotive part supplier ASMO, stresses the importance of math and science education to TechMath participants.

‘we want to help students

understand how they can

apply what they learn in the

classroom to real-life jobs,

right in this community.’

— ernie marshburn

techmath developer

n Spring 2009 n 19

radiator motors. At Metrics, they saw how math and science go into the making of a pharmaceutical product.

From the tours, Holloman said she learned about the skills people need to work in the technology field. She was surprised that most companies require new employees to have only a basic understanding of math. “They need to know fractions, decimals, percents and ratios to start, and then they learn the rest on the job” she said. “You think of that as basic, but some kids can’t add without a calculator.”

Business leaders spoke frankly about the need for their employees to have a sound background in STEM skills.

“Manufacturing is math and science,” Yoshihiro Oyobe, president of ASMO Greenville, said, asking teachers to “Please, do your best.”

Phil Hodges, president and chief executive of Metrics, said, “Everything we do here relates to applied mathematics,” from the statistical analysis of a medicine tablet to the assessment of the quality of a batch.

Hodges called it a “pet passion” to get young students excited by science and math, which is why he eagerly assists with the TechMath project. “We need to show kids that science and math are fun things, interesting things,” he said.

Teachers take what they learn from businesses and turn it into lesson plans that introduce students to real-life applications of STEM skills. They work with a business partner and a student to develop their lessons and receive guidance from fellow TechMath participants during Saturday workshops and a two-week summer institute.

Though the lessons must satisfy all curriculum requirements, teachers are encouraged to be creative, said Eckstein. “Our hope is that teachers can veer away from the textbook a little and teach these concepts in a format that kids will find exciting,” Eckstein said.

Janice Clark’s students at Jamesville High School responded enthusiastically to her interactive lesson plans based on operations at Domtar, a paper mill in Plymouth.

Clark encouraged her students to make a box out of paper and calculate the volume and surface area of the container. Then, they calculated how many reams of paper would fit in the box and how to stack the boxes for storage and shipment.

“My students thought this was neat. They were doing something different than taking notes. It was fun to see students who are not usually excited about a class excited by this lesson,” she said.

Their interest may have something to do with a personal connection to the company. Many of the students have parents or

relatives who work at the paper mill. “This was something local that they can relate to,” Clark said.

Marshburn noted the need to complement textbook lessons with new and relevant examples of math and science applications. “I believe the examples used, historically, in the classrooms are not current with today’s real-world examples. If we don’t establish that link, we have a hard time capturing students’ interest,” he said.

Tricia Briley, who works with academically gifted students at E.B. Aycock Middle School in Greenville, agreed students need to link classroom concepts to real-life

situations. “Reading is something students know they will have to use. That’s something they don’t question. But with higher-level math and science, they don’t see of lot of use for that in their day-to-day lives,” she said.

Briley said the lesson plans she develops through TechMath will increase students’ awareness. “Even as an adult, my eyes were

opened. On the surface, you don’t see all the math, science and technology that go into these businesses. But once we saw how math and science are so deeply embedded in their operations, we could go back to the classroom and share it with our students,” she said.

Holloman thinks the hands-on lessons and early exposure to career paths will keep her students interested and may combat the question every teacher hates to hear, “Why do I need to know this?”

“Now, I have an answer,” Holloman said. “I can say, if you want to get a job at the business down the street, you need to know how to do this.”

On a tour of CMI Plastics in Ayden, President Steve Hasselbach Jr. shows TechMath participants a machine that converts plastic sheeting into plastic molds. Photo by Runnan Sun.

20 n Spring 2009 n 20 n Spring 2009 n

Dr. Angela Lamson, seated, directs the medical family therapy program at ECU. Dr. Jennifer

Hodgson, left, serves as professional advancement coordinator. Also pictured are doctoral students

Lisa Tyndall and Kenneth Phelps.

n Spring 2009 n 21

whenillnessstrikesecu doctoral studeNts study the eFFect oN Families


By Christine Neff

WWhen Lisa Tyndall’s stepfather suffered a stroke, he wasn’t

the only one affected.

The whole family was changed by the experience, she said,

even though her stepfather recovered nicely from the

medical condition.

“Illness can play such a large role in the family, it becomes

almost like another family member in and of itself,”

Tyndall said.

22 n Spring 2009 n

Kenneth Phelps has seen the same phenomenon in the families of diabetes patients – only he uses a different term for the presence of chronic disease. “It’s as if a stranger has come into their homes, and they need to adjust their lifestyle to it,” he said.

As doctoral students in an innovative program at East Carolina University, Tyndall, Phelps and their peers study how patients and families experience medical illness, wellness, trauma, health and death and look at ways to bridge the gap between medical and mental health services.

The ECU program is called medical family therapy, or MedFT, part of the Department of Child Development and Family Relations in the College of Human Ecology. It began in August 2005 and

graduated its first three doctoral students in May 2008.

This January, the ECU program became the first doctoral program in medical family therapy in the country to be accredited through the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education.

Dr. Angela Lamson, director of the program, said the relatively new field of medical family therapy has strong roots in the field of family therapy. “The concept is that illness, loss and trauma all happen in the context of a larger system,” she said. “When one individual experiences a trauma, loss or diagnosis, it doesn’t just influence them. It influences the entire family, coworkers, even the medical system.”

To address mental and emotional health concerns that may arise from medical conditions, these therapists advocate the

integration of medical and mental health care. “We provide what is called bio-psycho-social-spiritual care,” Lamson said. “We don’t just look at your physical health, but at how a medical diagnosis may influence your mental health, your emotional health, your social relationships and your spirituality.”

Students who enter the program at ECU typically have a background in marriage and family therapy and are then immersed in learning medical family therapy. Through coursework, clinical work and research, they learn additional skills that prepare them to be ambassadors for MedFT in mental health and/or medical settings. To prepare for a career in an educational setting, they have opportunities to teach at the

undergraduate and graduate levels within the Department of Child Development and Family Relations and at the Brody School of Medicine with first- and second-year medical students and residents. MedFT students must finish a research dissertation and a yearlong internship to complete their degrees.

As students, they put theory to practice and study the effects in local clinics.

Tyndall, a third-year doctoral student, works alongside physicians at the Bernstein Community Health Center in Greenville, assessing patients’ mental health. She looks for signs of depression, anxiety and stress – conditions that many of her patients experience.

“Medical providers want to have the fullest picture of a patient and their life because it sometimes has an effect on how they treat them,” she said. “While the doctor treats the condition with

medication, I can assess patients’ mental health and refer them to other services.”

Evidence exists that treating the whole person can improve a patient’s medical condition.

Phelps, a second-year doctoral student, has seen decreases in the blood glucose levels – as measured by hemoglobin-A1C test – of diabetes patients he assisted. He thinks the collaboration between physicians, dieticians and other professionals has resulted in patients being able to better understand and adhere to their treatments.

A main purpose of the ECU program is to train students to produce research like Phelps’ that furthers the field.

Dr. Jennifer Hodgson, associate professor and professional advancement coordinator for the program, said: “We hope our students become the trainers and lead researchers who will carry on this work. We look for students who are passionate about medical family therapy and are willing to get out there and educate people about what they do,” she said.

The ECU program has been successful in receiving grants and publishing research results in the areas of cancer care, childhood obesity, diabetes and other fields. Two grants worth more than $199,000 from Greene County Health Care provide integrated care for rural diabetic patients. A recent grant through the ICARE Partnership for $183,880 has been awarded to help bring substance abuse screening and services to primary care settings. A project on childhood obesity won a 2008 award from the National Initiative for Children’s Healthcare Quality.

Through this experience, ECU students are poised to become leaders in the field of medical family therapy as the health care system evolves to promote an integrated approach. “Our students will be among the most well-trained to provide, teach and research its effectiveness and efficacy,” Hodgson said.

“Our program is primed to train the next generation of providers who understand the concept of the medical home and who can provide quality, integrated care services. This is a wonderful time for our students to step into that medical environment,” she said.

For those involved with the ECU

‘the concept is that illness, loss and trauma all

happen in the context of a larger system...when one

individual experiences a trauma, loss or diagnosis, it

doesn’t just influence them. it influences the entire

family, coworkers, even the medical system.’

— Dr. angela lamson, director

program, the evidence is clear: The integration of medical and mental health in the care of patients and their families can be a big benefit.

“It takes the stigma out of seeking mental health care when a therapist comes into the room with a doctor,” said Tyndall. “Even for folks who don’t need long-term therapy, this can be a preventative measure.”

Phelps called family medical therapy “the missing component.”

“It can provide a lot of benefit because it highlights the issues patients and families are struggling with that may be overlooked in regular medical care.”

He shared the story of one couple he counseled successfully. The husband with

diabetes and his wife met with Phelps to discuss exercise and food control when issues of trust and communication within the marriage surfaced.

“I got a phone call a few months after they had ended therapy, and they said, ‘Thank you. Without your services, we would probably be

divorced now,’” Phelps said. Lamson credits the support of the

department, college and university with the success of ECU’s MedFT program. “When it comes to innovative research and training in MedFT, tomorrow really does start here,” she said.

n Spring 2009 n 23

‘it can provide a lot of benefit because it highlights

the issues patients and families are struggling with

that may be overlooked in regular medical care.’

— Kenneth phelps, student

At the James D. Bernstein Community Health Center in Greenville, MedFT doctoral student Kenneth Phelps works alongside pharmacist Christy Whitley.

exploree x p l o r a t i o n s

24 n Spring 2009 n

One researcher at East Carolina University might be on his way to finding a key to fighting bacteria and adding to the arsenal of drugs for treating bacterial infections.

Dr. Ronald Johnson, a professor of biochemistry and molecular biology at the Brody School of Medicine, is studying the way bacteria work with the goal of disrupting the chain of events in their life cycle.

“Most bacteria are harmless to humans, but there are some that are not,” said Johnson, who’s been at ECU for more than 20 years.

“The key is to selectively kill the pathogenic bacteria without harming the patient.”

Genetic information in most organisms flows from DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) to RNA (ribonucleic acid) and then to proteins. The proteins carry out the various processes within the cell such as catalyzing reactions that are necessary for the survival of the organism.

The first step in gene expression is transcription. In this step, genetic information in the form of DNA is

converted to RNA. Although there are various proteins involved in this process, the key one is the enzyme RNA polymerase. The second step in gene expression is translation, in which the genetic information now in the form of RNA is translated to produce proteins.

The approach Johnson is taking is to target the process of transcription as catalyzed by RNA polymerase.

“By blocking the ability of bacteria to synthesize RNA, their ability to produce proteins is also blocked,” Johnson said.

RNA research takes aim at bacteria

One East Carolina University faculty member is studying whether music education can improve coordination, cognitive skills, creativity and more among older adults.

Dr. Jennifer Bugos, an associate professor of music education, led classes this spring in which approximately 35 participants 60 and older learned to play the piano and another 35 received music listening instruction.

“This particular project examines the effects of music instruction on successful aging,” said Bugos, who minored in gerontology in college. “Our underlying rationale is that music instruction contains all the necessary components to promote successful aging as part of a cognitive training

program due to the novelty, levels of progressive difficulty, practice requirements and the ability to enhance self-efficacy.”

Bugos was inspired during her doctoral studies to examine the effects of music instruction on aging.

“As a secondary caregiver to both of my grandparents, one with Alzheimer’s disease and one with dementia, I noticed that playing the piano stimulated responses,” she said. “My grandfather with dementia would sing along, despite the inability to communicate spoken complete sentences, and my grandmother in a vegetative state would tap her toes. These responses led me to believe that music instruction may have the capacity to prevent

By Doug Boyd

Music can play key role in aging well, researcher says

or mitigate age-related cognitive decline.”The goal of the project, funded by a

$115,206 grant from the Retirement Research Founda tion of Chicago, is to examine how effective three new music programs — piano instruction, music appreciation and percussion ensemble — would be in promoting successful aging through better bimanual coordination, lifelong learning, indi vidual creativity, self-efficacy and social skills.

In one class one February afternoon, about a dozen women practiced beginning piano drills. “It’s confusing but amusing,” said Curlie Green.

Another student was Nancy Melvin of Havelock. She hopes to be able to play along with her husband once she finishes the class.

“It’s demanding, but it’s enjoyable,” said Melvin, 73. “To get the right brain functioning with the left hand, it’s challenging.”

Bugos, who’s been at ECU for four years, partnered with the Pitt County Council on Aging on the project.

“Participants have been extremely enthusiastic,” she said. One spouse called to thank her for teaching her husband to play piano. “Many have indicated that they plan to play for grandchildren or have played Valentine’s songs for their special someone. Students in the music listening class have developed an appreciation for different musical styles and a comprehensive understanding of various genres.”Dr. Jennifer Bugos works with student Curlie Green.


n Spring 2007 n 25

By christine neff

“Without proteins to catalyze reactions within the cell, the bacteria will eventually die.”

The process of transcription can be divided into three phases: initiation, elongation and termination of RNA synthesis. It’s during the elongation phase, as RNA polymerase is adding nucleotides to the growing RNA chain, that Johnson thinks gene expression can be disrupted. To accomplish this, one must first understand the process of elongation at the molecular level. His research is aimed at studying this process in order to gain information that

will better allow the development drugs that can inhibit elongation, thereby leading to the death of the bacteria.

Johnson’s research is funded by a two-year, $175,000 grant from the National Science Foundation. He published an article about the research in the July 2008 issue of the Journal of Molecular Biology. He also has presented the research at several scientific meetings during the past year.

“We’ve had a lot of positive results so far,” Johnson said “Things look very promising.”

Dr. Ronald Johnson

ECU filmmakers document eastern North Carolina struggles

As storytellers and filmmakers, Erick Yates Green and Dr. Bernard Timberg know a good film depends on a good story and a strong main character.

The colleagues, who joined the East Carolina University School of Communication in 2006, didn’t have to look far for those elements when they collaborated on two recent documentaries. The dynamic stories told by their films originate in rural eastern North Carolina.

“In just getting off this campus, a whole world opens up,” said Timberg, an associate professor at ECU who co-wrote and served as associate producer on the documentaries. “We use the term ‘under-the-radar.’ These stories are unknown, and they’re wonderful, rich human stories.”

Their first film, “The New Country Doctor,” features Dr. Mott Blair, a North Carolina Family Physician of the Year, who practices medicine in Wallace. By showing Blair’s and his patients’ experiences, the film sheds light on the health disparities that exist in rural North Carolina counties.

The film received $13,478 from the ECU Faculty Senate Research and Creative Activity Grant in 2007. Green and Timberg started production with the help of a media production student, James Gould, who graduated last fall. Experts on

rural medicine and health disparities from ECU served as advisors.

The documentary plays out, on a small scale, the issues of health care affordability and availability, said Green, an assistant professor at ECU who directed and produced the films.

The filmmakers interviewed more than a half-dozen physicians before discovering their main character, a fourth-generation family doctor and ECU medical graduate. “As soon as we met Mott Blair, we thought, ‘This is the physician who can best tell this story.’ He is a southern gentleman, but he is also a devoted idealist who doesn’t mind expressing his opinions,” Green said.

The struggles of rural communities formed the basis of Green and Timberg’s next documentary, a film called “Bunny Saunders: The Mayor Who Stood Up.”

The idea came from a public hearing about the Outlying Landing Field, the Navy’s controversial proposal to install a concrete landing strip in eastern North Carolina. At the hearing, Green discovered an “amazing personality” in an outspoken resident who opposed the project, Bunny Estelle Saunders, mayor of Roper.

Saunders, they learned, had a rich history in public service. Her father had served as mayor; her grandfather worked with the NAACP. Her mission was to unite

communities in the grassroots fight against the OLF, which was eventually abandoned in the wake of widespread opposition.

“We knew again that we had a strong character and a topic affecting a rural community,” Green said. “This was another story we just had to pursue.”

The filmmakers received a $6,957 College of Fine Arts and Communication Faculty Grant to complete the film.

From left, student James Gould and School ofCommunication faculty members Erick Green and Dr. Bernard Timberg collaborated on documentaries that tell stories about rural communities in North Carolina.


26 n Spring 2009 n

Stinky cheese aids simulation education

By crystal Baity

East Carolina University nursing student Carmelia Pate of High Point was better prepared for her first infected wound by participating in a unique research project that adds smell to a pretend wound on a life-like patient.

When Pate dressed a stage three wound during a clinical rotation at Pitt County Memorial Hospital, she thought back to that simulated scenario in the nursing lab. “When I did my wound dressing, I said ‘I can do this,’” said Pate, 22.

That’s just what nurse faculty hoped would happen.

Drs. Janice Neil and Donna Roberson have developed a realistic wound care simulation and have determined that malodors improve student confidence and coping strategies. The source of the realistic odor? Cheese.

Limburger was the most pungent. Petit Livarot and Epoisses Berthaut also were used.

“The longer it was at room temperature, the more it smelled,” said Roberson, assistant professor of nursing. “It would get more liquefied the longer it was out. The wounds appeared to have drained.”

The students’ senses were tested as they pulled off the old dressing set up by instructors before cleaning, irrigating and re-dressing the wound.

Neil, associate professor and chair of the junior division of undergraduate nursing science, had the idea to duplicate the smell of an infected wound as she thought of ways to make simulation more realistic. One challenge was finding a non-toxic malodorous substance that could be added.

“Smell is only 3.5 percent of a sensory experience. They already had sight and hearing,” said Neil, an expert in perioperative nursing.

Wound management and care often is challenging for health care providers and patients with draining or malodorous wounds. Students said it was important to stay composed out of concern for the patient’s feelings.

“They maintained their nursing ‘poker faces’ very well,” Roberson said.

Working on a simulated patient gives students the chance to perform all types of clinical procedures in a risk-free environment before caring for actual patients.

Erin McGillicuddy, 27, of Greenville said the addition of odor to the simulated patient was beneficial. “With these patients, there is only so much of a reality factor. It’s a plastic wound, so you’re not really anticipating the smell. When the smell was applied and it looked purulent, it was a more realistic challenge,” she said.

McGillicuddy was the only one of the three students to have dressed a real wound – a sacral wound on a bedridden patient – before the simulation. “It was about as deep with a sloughy appearance and similar texture,” she said.

Neil and Roberson couldn’t find supporting literature on adding smell to simulation before their study. Roberson, Neil and faculty member Beth Bryant wrote an article discussing the research findings in a 2008 issue of Ostomy/Wound Management. Neil published an article in a 2008 issue of Perioperative Nursing Clinics. Roberson, Neil and Bryant also presented at a conference in Hilton Head, S.C., and have received inquiries from faculty around the country who are interested in improving wound care simulation.

Lastly, the successful study paired seasoned and inexperienced researchers and students, whose input was valuable.

“It was an opportunity to show the students that research can be fun,” Roberson said. “It doesn’t have to be dry-boned.”

Drs. Donna Roberson, left, and Janice Neil are pictured with some of the cheese they used to simulate wound malodors and help nursing students improve confidence and coping strategies.

n Spring 2009 n 27


Scientist eyes an end to pox

Dr. Rachel Roper is studying ways to stop the spread of monkeypox.

Roper, an assistant professor of microbiology and immunology at the Brody School of Medicine at East Carolina University, was among the first group of North Carolina scientists to receive a North Carolina Biotechnology Center Biotechnology Research Grant – in her case, $72,497.

By removing a specific gene that affects immunity, she is drawing attention for her approach that holds promise not only for improving the safety and effectiveness of poxvirus vaccines, but also for killing other viruses such as coronaviruses, which include the human severe acute respiratory syndrome virus. ECU has filed for a patent on her technique that deletes the gene.

“Ironically, it’s the success of the global smallpox eradication program that opened the door to today’s spread of monkeypox,” Roper said.

Roper has also received a $139,273 grant from the Southeast Regional Center for Excellence in Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Disease for monkeypox research.

Smallpox is the first disease to be eradicated worldwide, thanks to nearly 200 years of persistent vaccine use. The World Health Organization declared it defeated and stopped its vaccination program in 1980, three years after the last case had been registered in Somalia.

Even though the smallpox vaccination program was hugely successful in wiping out that specific scourge, smallpox is identified by the U.S. government as a primary bioterrorism/biowarfare threat. Also, the halting of the vaccine program has left humans without the “side effect” of increased immunity to the monkeypox virus – a “cousin” of smallpox – for almost 30 years. Now, monkeypox is spreading. In Africa, it’s causing fatality rates frighteningly similar to those once associated with smallpox. The first outbreak of monkeypox hit the United States five years ago in people who played with infected pet prairie dogs.

“The emergence of SARS represents an even more significant viral evolutionary event,” Roper said. “It may well be the biggest infectious disease event since HIV.”

Before SARS, coronaviruses had received little research attention and caused no significant human disease. But Roper was one of the scientists who sequenced and analyzed the SARS genome and, in 2003, published in Science that this virus belongs to a new, previously unrecognized group of coronaviruses. Roper is the former program director for the British Columbia SARS Accelerated Vaccine Initiative, is senior author on a just-published paper on SARS vaccines and has submitted a review of SARS vaccines for another publication.

Using the mega-number-crunching computer technologies of bioinformatics, Roper and her colleagues have been looking for clues as to why some of these viruses are meaner than others. And they’re turning up some interesting ones.

Roper’s biggest hope is in a vaccinia virus she weakened by removing a gene that surfaced above thousands of others as an

ideal target. Called A35R, the gene interested Roper because it seems to inhibit immune responses in mammals. With the help of the Biotechnology Center funding, she’s pursuing her hypothesis that removing the A35R gene from poxvirus vaccines will make vaccines safer and more effective against such threats as monkeypox.

Her gene deletion technique has promise for other diseases, too. She has submitted a grant application with Dr. Emmanuel Zervos, a cancer surgeon at ECU, to use this deletion mutant virus as a platform vaccine for pancreatic cancer. Beginning with laboratory mice, the goal is to clone a tumor gene into the virus and then use the virus to immunize patients against their tumor.

Roper’s monkeypox research is featured in a new campaign by the N.C. Biotechnology Center, which can be seen on its Web site, http://www.ncbiotech.org.

This article is an edited version of one written by Jim Shamp, N.C. Biotechnology Center news and publications editor.

Dr. Rachel Roper is working on vaccines for SARS, monkeypox and other diseases.

in printi n p r i n t

“Civil Rights Memorials and the Geography of Memory”(Center for American Places at Columbia College Chicago, 2008) by Dr. Derek H. Alderman

Alderman, associate professor of geography at ECU, and co-author Dr. Owen Dwyer of Indiana University at Indianapolis carry out the first critical examination of the monuments, museums, parks and streets dedicated to the African-American struggle for civil rights, paying close attention to which stories, people and places are remembered and which are forgotten. Alderman is a nationally recognized expert on the politics of naming streets and other public places after Martin Luther King Jr. The book received the 2008 AAG Globe Book Award for Public Understanding of Geography.

28 n Spring 2009 n

“Minority Victory: Gilded Age Politics and the Front Porch Campaign of 1888”(University Press of Kansas, 2008) by Dr. Charles W. Calhoun

Calhoun, a professor of history, chronicles the presidential race between Grover Cleveland and Benjamin Harrison, who, Calhoun writes, “conducted a brilliant and flawless front porch campaign” from his home in Indianapolis. The campaign focused on tariffs and the federal surplus they fueled, and 80 percent of eligible voters turned out.

n Spring 2009 n 29

“Puzzling the Reader: Riddles in Nineteenth-Century British Literature,”(Peter Lang, 2008)

and “Austen’s Emma: A Reader’s Guide”(Continuum, 2008), by Dr. Gregg Hecimovich

Hecimovich, an associate professor of English, unravels word puzzles from Victorian England in his new book. The Victorians created word puzzles, such as rebuses and acrostics, for entertainment in the evenings. Victorians’ love for rebuses, acrostics and charades led them to invent the double acrostic, a complex combination of all three – the steam engine of literary parlor games. Hecimovich also points out the important role of riddles in courtship games.

In his guide to “Emma,” Hecimovich leads the careful reader to render his or her own criticism of the last novel Austen published in her lifetime. He also explores the three main themes of the work: courtship, conduct and well-being and how each theme plays out under the broader rubric of word and social games.

in printi n p r i n t

“Health Informatics Research Methods: Principles and Practice”(American Health Information Management Association, 2009) by Dr. Elizabeth J. Layman

Layman, professor and chair of health information management, and co-author Dr. Valerie J. Watzlaf of the University of Pittsburgh cover practical applications of research in health informatics and health information management. Their book provides real-life examples of research with samples of survey instruments, step-by-step listings of methodology for several types of research designs, and examples of statistical analysis tables and explanations.

“The Professional Counselor’s Desk Reference”(Springer Publishing, 2009) edited by Dr. Mark A. Stebnicki

This reference guide, edited by Stebnicki, professor of rehabilitation studies, and Dr. Irmo Marini of the University of Texas Pan-American, serves as an authoritative resource for pre-professionals, counselor educators and supervisors as well as practitioners. It contains 81 chapters based on the core content training areas required of nationally accredited counselor education programs. It also includes a comprehensive 323-item multiple choice self-study exam. Contributors from the ECU faculty are Drs. Paul Alston, Martha Chapin, Lloyd Goodwin Jr., Michael Hartley, Nathalie Mizelle, Steve Sligar and Stephen Thomas.

East Carolina UniversityGreenville, NC 27858-4353

A “GREEN” kILNecU School of art graduate student Jeremy fineman is building a kiln fired with waste vegetable oil. Kilns normally use electricity, natural or propane gas, or wood to fire and, depending upon the surface that is desired, these different atmospheres will affect the final product. fineman’s kiln will use a sodium vapor process to achieve certain effects on the glazed surface. Waste vegetable oil typically comes from local restaurants.

edge magazine spring 2009

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