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Barr Fellowship Fosters Important Work

To Rebekah Kent and Scott Shone, mosquitoes are more than pesky creatures that swarm about on a warm summer evening; they are the vectors of pathogens that cause many harmful diseases, such as malaria, West Nile virus, and equine encephalitis. Following in the path of the late Allan Ralph Barr, ScD '52 (Parasitology), both Kent and Shone are involved in research that takes them into the field to study the organisms in their natural habitat.

Kent, a first-year PhD student in the School’s W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology (MMI), worked in operational mosquito control projects and West Nile surveillance in Arkansas before joining the School. She recalls many hours of setting traps to capture and study mosquitoes.

Shone, a fourth-year PhD student in MMI, is examining the effects of climate on mosquito populations by comparing meteorological data with numbers of mosquito species in a specific area. The information could be helpful in predicting when disease-carrying mosquitoes would be in greatest numbers. He is also evaluating different means of trapping mosquitoes using mosquito traps of varying heights, with some as high as 20 feet.

To assist students like Kent and Shone, Dr. Ralph Barr’s wife Sylvia endowed a fellowship in 1998 for doctoral or post-doctoral students working in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology who are working with vectors of infectious diseases in their natural habitats. To honor the memory of her late husband, she stipulated that the recipients must have "commitment to the importance of investigating vectors of infectious disease at the level of the organism and its natural habitat."

During his extensive career in public health, Dr. Barr made many significant and original contributions to the field of medical entomology and tropical medicine. He often worked closely with his wife, who was a Hopkins-trained medical illustrator. At the time of his death in 1995, Ralph Barr was professor emeritus in the Department of Epidemiology at the UCLA School of Public Health and the world’s foremost authority on the genetics of the Culex mosquito. Over the years of research, Barr often used field observations to enhance and or confirm results of laboratory studies.

Some of the work that extended to the field occurred on one of Barr’s most celebrated laboratory demonstrations—that a supposed “cytoplasmic incompatibility” in the common house mosquito was due not to a genetic mechanism, but rather to infection in the insect by a rickettsial organism, Wohlbachia—took place in his own backyard.

Working in the field is something Kent and Shone both enjoy, even when they have to wear protective gear or brave extreme temperatures. At the height of mosquito season, Shone says he catches and analyzes nearly 10,000 mosquitoes a week and as many as 50,000 in a year. The work may seem tedious, but they both agree it can be very satisfying.

"Lab work is important, but it is also important to get out into the field to learn how things are working in the environment,” Kent said.

Center for a Livable Future Hosts Research Day 2002

On December 4, 2002, the Center for a Livable Future held its third Research Day to highlight work done in the previous year by the recipients of the Faculty and Student Research Fund . The purpose of the research grants is to support innovative, interdisciplinary study by Johns Hopkins University faculty, fellows, and students on the complex interactions among diet, health, food production and food security, equity, and the world’s resources. The fund also seeks to assist faculty, fellows, and students to develop successful careers in the investigation of topics on sustainability or in policy development for sustainability. Here are their progress reports.

Soil Food Webs in Agro-Ecosystems: The Effects of Different Management Practices
Katalin Szlavecz , PhD, senior lecturer and associate research scientist in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences' Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, sampled soils from tilled, non-tilled, and organically farmed plots throughout the year to determine whether farming practices have a short-term and/or long-term effect on the diversity and abundance of soil fauna. High biodiversity and abundance of organisms are major components in maintaining long-term soil fertility. Tilling and cultivation are major disturbances for soil organisms. Dr. Szlavecz found that overall biodiversity was highest in untilled plots. In addition, detritus on the soil provides cover and food for many decomposers, important elements in an agro-ecosystem. Szlavecz found that organic plots harbor the greatest variety of arthropods.

Assessing Health Risks of Agricultural Antibiotic Use
Ellen Silbergeld , PhD, professor, Environmental Health Sciences, is developing a biologically based health risk assessment for antibiotics used in concentrated, high-volume animal production. Many antibiotics approved by the FDA for non-therapeutic use in animals are also used to treat human disease. All use of antibiotics inevitably selects for resistant organisms. People can be exposed to resistant pathogens via consumption of food or by working in food animal production. In addition, household contacts of farm workers may be exposed to these bacteria via person-to-person contact. Dr. Silbergeld and her group have found that environmental routes of exposure may be important. Until now, antibiotic resistance has been evaluated as a food problem. Dr. Silbergeld recommends working to understand the biology of microbes, including the impacts of antibiotics on microbial evolution and the horizontal gene transfer from resistant organisms to other potentially pathogenic organisms, and then improving surveillance methods accordingly to protect the public’s health.

Evaluation of a Method for Removal of Solids and Microorganisms from Animal Waste Lagoons
Alain Madec, PhD, postdoctoral fellow, Center for Water and Health, worked to develop and assess the potential of a low-pressure membrane filtration process to remove solids and microorganisms from liquid animal waste. Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) containing thousands of animals generate huge volumes of liquid waste that is currently stored, untreated, in large, open holding ponds called “animal waste lagoons.” Dr. Madec developed a pilot laboratory membrane filter system to treat liquid animal waste. Using this system, he was able to remove over 99 percent of suspended particles, a variety of bacteria including fecal coliforms, E. coli, and enterococci, to their detection limits (>99.999 percent reduction), and over 99.99 percent of male-specific and somatic bacteriophage indicator viruses. Future research will focus on developing a working membrane bioreactor that will further improve treatment of liquid animal waste by membrane filtration.

Development of Tissue Culture Methodology for the Rescue and Propagation of Endangered Moringa SP. Germplasm
Members of the genusMoringa are cultivated throughout the tropics because they are fast growing and are a valuable as a source of food, medicines, oils and industrial agents. Moringa oleifera is the most abundant and most widely cultivated species of this monogeneric family, having been cultivated by the ancient Romans, Greeks, and Egyptians. In addition to being a valuable source of food, it has numerous medicinal uses, long known to folk practitioners, some of which are now being supported by modern scientific methods. Many of the other 11 species, however, are highly endangered. In order to preserve the biological potential of these rare species, Jed Fahey, MS, research associate with the School of Medicine’s Department of Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, and Kitty Stephenson, also with Pharmacology and Molecular Sciences, successfully developed tissue culture methods of propagation using readily available species. These tissue culture protocols should now be transferable, with slight modifications, to the endangered species. In addition, collaborations with colleagues in St. Croix and Kenya will allow field testing of the propagated plantlets.

Assessment of the Air Pollution Source Strength of SUVs Relative to Sedans
Cars, trucks, buses, and other mobile sources are responsible for a large fraction of the air pollution in urban environments. Sung R. Kim, PhD candidate in Environmental Health Sciences , studied the amount of air pollution generated by SUVs compared to sedans, using time-resolved measurements of air pollution and traffic in a Baltimore parking garage. Kim found that the air pollution generated by SUVs was two to three times greater than that of sedans, depending on the pollutant. Pollutants in the included carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, or polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. This study provides some of the first objective measures of the actual impact of different vehicle types on air quality, and demonstrates the importance of consumer choice in reducing air pollution.

Paleoecological Profiles Where Pfiesteria Piscicida Has Been Present
With increased agriculture and nutrient enrichment, the dominant organisms in the Chesapeake Bay are planktonic diatoms and dinoflagellates. The increase in dinoflagellates is detrimental because they are not palatable for other organisms. Some of the species, such as Pfiesteria piscicida , are toxic. Grace Brush, PhD, professor in the Whiting School of Engineering Department of Geography and Environmental Engineering, has analyzed sediment core samples from the bay in collaboration with Angela Arnold, MSE, and PhD candidate in Geography and Environmental Engineering, and Holly Bowers, MS, University of Maryland Institute of Human Virology.

The sediment core samples, taken from areas where Pfiesteria piscicida has been found recently, are dated and analyzed for diatoms, dinoflagellates, pollen, and nutrients. With these data, Brush and her colleagues hope to determine whether Pfiesteria outbreaks are a recent phenomenon correlated with nutrient enrichment associated with agriculture, or if they are iterations of cycles dating back centuries, perhaps pre-dating European colonization and deforestation in the Chesapeake Bay watershed.

Corporate Humanitarianism in the Context of the Agricultural Biotechnology Industry
Although proponents of agricultural biotechnology, including the U.S. government, emphasize its potential global humanitarian and ecologic benefits, most genetically modified crops benefit large-scale farming in industrialized nations. There remain important ethical, social, and ecologic concerns about privatization of agricultural research, patenting of genetic material, and the role genetically modified crops should play in attaining a sustainable global food supply.

Susan M. Bernard, JD, DrPH, MPH '90, instructor in Environmental Health Sciences, investigated the legal and social climate in which agricultural biotechnology has developed and found that long-term food policy decisions are being made without effective public direction and oversight. Potential solutions include increasing public ownership and control of agricultural research and policy, re-examining patent policy, and developing financial incentives and statutory requirements to encourage the biotech industry to better address global food needs.

The Sustainability of Health in Families Under Stress
Veena Das, PhD, professor with the School of Arts and Sciences Department of Anthropology ; Ranendra Das, associate research scientist, School of Arts and Sciences Department of Anthropology; and Lori Leonard, PhD, assistant professor in International Health, are conducting a comparative study on how low-income families experience and manage illness.

In Delhi, for example, low-income families have easy access to health care providers, but little cash to purchase a full course of antibiotics. Meanwhile, in rural Chad, access to health care is so difficult that many ailments considered illnesses elsewhere are simply endured as facts of life. In Baltimore, on the other hand, the burden of chronic diseases is compounded by violence, lack of insurance, and high rates of incarceration. The investigators conclude from this comparative analysis that what at first might appear to be the erratic actions of irrational, uninformed, or irresponsible patients, are in fact responses determined by local environmental factors including the way health services are structured and the patterns of care.

The Watermark Project
The Watermark Project was organized in 2000 by Margaret Keck, PhD, professor with the School of Arts and Sciences' Department of Political Science, as a five-to-ten-year interdisciplinary study conducted in collaboration with newly emerging river basin management teams in Brazil. New laws in Brazil decentralized the management of water. This decentralization provided a unique opportunity to study different approaches to management on a watershed-specific basis by considering effects of different ecological conditions, variation in institutional rules, and involvement of non-governmental actors.

In the first stage of the project, researchers collected descriptive information on the watershed’s ecology, history, patterns of land use, and infrastructure. The results from the baseline studies have begun to produce a set of hypotheses on institutional development in settings of perennial uncertainty, which will influence the next phase of the project. The ultimate question is whether decentralized water management actually works, leading to a more rational and environmentally sound and just approach to water management.

Department Changes Name

Following a thorough self-evaluation, the Department of Mental Hygiene quietly changed its name to the Department of Mental Health. The change was made at the request of faculty, who felt the new name would better convey the department’s mission and programs. Their recommendation was approved by the School’’s Advisory Board, effective November 21, 2002.

"The name 'Mental Hygiene' has a strong intellectual and traditional meaning, which is very close to our faculty and alumni. It embodied the ideals we hold of public health and research on mental and behavioral disorders," said William Eaton, PhD, professor and interim chair of the Department. "But in today's world, hygiene doesn’t have the same meaning with the public and our name was confusing to some." Dr. Eaton says the faculty and alumni suggested dozens of names, but Mental Health was the one most agreed upon. He says the other top contender was "Public Mental Health."

Despite the name change, the department’’s mission remains the same: to advance understanding of the occurrence, causes, and consequences of mental health and mental and behavioral disorders, in order to improve health in the general population. The focus of the mission is the prevention and control of these mental disorders and their associated impairments, disabilities, and handicaps.

Alfred Sommer, MD, MHS '73, dean of the School said, "The Department of Mental Hygiene has a long and distinguished presence in the School and is the only department of public mental health in the world. It will continue to provide unique contributions to the School of Public Health’s research and educational programs."

The concept of mental hygiene originated with Adolph Meyer (1866-1950), MD, Johns Hopkins psychiatrist-in-chief from 1910 to 1941. He believed people with mental and behavioral disturbances should be treated humanely and as unique individuals in a social context, without departing from general principles of medicine and public health. The first course in Mental Hygiene was offered at the School in 1941, but the Department was not officially formed until 20 years later under the direction of Paul Lemkau, MD. Since then, the Department has made remarkable contributions to the study, prevention, and control of mental disorders.

The Department will formally celebrate its new name later this year with a distinguished lecture series. To retain the memory of its origins, the department plans to renovate its Hampton House conference room and name it the "Mental Hygiene Conference Room."

School Research Inspires New Gun Safety Laws

For the past 20 years, Stephen Teret, JD, MPH '79, former director and current professor at the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, has been telling anyone who would listen that many lives could be saved by requiring safer gun design. His vision of "personalized" guns that could not be fired by children or anyone other than authorized users helped spur life-saving technological innovations and recent policy changes.

On December 23, 2002, New Jersey became the first state to enact a law requiring all handguns to be designed with "personalized" gun technology. Gun violence prevention advocates in New Jersey credit the work of Professor Teret and the Center as the impetus for this landmark legislation. The Center also played a central role in advancing legislation that became effective in Maryland on January 1, 2003, requiring handguns to include "integrated mechanical safety" to prevent child and other unauthorized firearm access.

Since 1995, the work of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research has been bridging the gap between scientific research and gun violence prevention advocacy. The Center serves as an objective and credible resource for the media, policymakers, advocacy groups, attorneys, and academic researchers. With critical scientific and gun policy expertise, the Center promoted and evaluated an impressive number of national and local policy efforts.

The Center is currently led by co-directors Jon Vernick, JD, MPH '94, and Daniel Webster, ScD '91, MPH. It earned a national reputation as the premier academic center working to reframe the gun control debate in the United States as an issue of public health. The Center advocates for policy solutions to gun violence that incorporate a public health perspective and are informed by scientific research. The Center’’s priorities include the prevention of childhood gun violence, the regulation of guns as consumer products, and the prevention of illegal gun sales to youth and criminals. The Center also plans to embark on new projects focused on changing social norms related to firearm ownership, storage, carrying, and sales.

Gun violence remains one of the nation’’s most tenacious public health problems, causing almost 80 gun deaths a day in 2000. However, the work of the Center for Gun Policy and Research—and the entire gun violence prevention movement—currently faces sizeable economic obstacles. Much of the Center’’s funding has come from private foundations whose budgets have been curtailed by the downturn in the stock market.

Nonetheless, the Center's recent work has continued to have a widespread impact on local and national gun policy advancements. A study published last year in the American Journal of Epidemiology by Dr. Webster, Professor Vernick, and Lisa Hepburn, PhD '01, found that in the years following the 1988 Maryland ban on "Saturday night special" handguns, 40 more lives were saved from gun homicide than could have been saved in the absence of the law.

Over the summer, the Center helped Baltimore City Health Commissioner Peter Beilenson, MD, MPH '90, plan an innovative intervention that shut down illegal ammunition dealers in Baltimore. The effort gained national media attention as an example of how local public health officers can use their legal authority to remove sources of illegal guns and ammunition from their communities.

During the chilling October Washington, D.C.-area sniper attacks, the Center served as a daily resource to the national press. The Center also released a monograph entitled Comprehensive Ballistic Fingerprinting Policy of New Guns: A Tool for Solving and Preventing Violent Crime as this national policy issue suddenly moved to the forefront of the public's attention.

The Center for Gun Policy and Research hopes its work can continue to promote and inform efforts to prevent the unnecessary tragedy and significant costs of gun violence in the United States.