UB in the News

A story on the blog Dwell.com reports on the 14 plywood structures designed and built by 100 UB freshman architecture students in Griffis Sculpture Park as part of a project called The Living Wall.

William E. Pelham Jr., director of the Center for Children and Families, is quoted in an article on the parenting blog Babble about a mother who feared who marriage was coming apart because she had placed her son, who was diagnosed with ADHD, pervasive development disorder and psychosis, in a home for psychiatric patients because the family felt he needed round-the-clock care. Pelham noted that "parents of children with ADHD are nearly twice as likely to divorce by the time the child is 8 years old than parents of children without ADHD.

An article on Engineering News-Record reports that prefabricated bridge designs that have helped speed construction and save money in many parts of the country also may have a place in seismically active regions, according to tests conducted by UB and MCEER.

James Campbell, professor and chair of political science, is quoted in an article about the national census and the redrawing of congressional and state legislative districts that will result from the population count; the article appears on Free Republic, an online news site dedicated to independent, grass-roots conservatism on the web.

An op-ed by Makau Mutua, dean of the Law School, in AllAfrica.com suggests that the political future of Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga may be in danger.

An article in R&D Magazine about efforts by Esther Takeuchi, Greatbatch Professor in Power Sources Research in the School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, to develop new sources of energy storage and an electrical grid where renewable power is generated closer to where it's needed rather than in a central place and transmitted long distances, the way the current grid operates. Her research efforts received wide media attention, with articles (and a UB-produced slide show) appearing in a number of highly read science blogs and websites, include PhysOrg, Science Blog, Power Online, Tech News AM, Science Daily and Life Sciences World. An article on World News Network also reports on her research, and includes an hour-long video of a presentation she gave while at Wilson Greatbatch Ltd., on "The Bionic Human: Medical Devices and How they are Powered."

An article in The New York Times about the 35th anniversary of June in Buffalo says the festival has a sense of mission that has made it an important part of the new-music ecology, particularly because of the accomplished new-music performers who play works by established composers.

An article in the South Florida Sun Sentinel about a Florida high school student, James Potts, the son of a scrap collector who turned to academics and athletics to overcome a disadvantaged background and win a full athletic scholarship to UB, reports his future is in jeopardy because the private school he attended is threatening to withhold his transcript because of unpaid tuition. An additional story in the Sun Sentinel reports that despite an outpouring of public support, NCAA rules prohibit Potts from accepting outside contributions to pay off his tuition.

An article on Medical News Today about the role of relationships in substance use in young people quotes Kenneth Leonard, senior research scientist in the Research Institute on Addictions, who said the finding adds to existing research that has shown that marriages also reduces the risk of substance abuse. The article also appears on PhysOrg.com.

An article on Bio-Medicine.com reports that Thenkurussi "Kesh" Kesavadas, director of the Virtual Reality Laboratory, is one of two Buffalo scientists who have developed the first procedure-based, hands-on surgical training software to allow surgeons to practice their robot-assisted skills before they perform a surgical procedure on a patient. The article also appeared on the blogs BioScholar.com and PhysOrg.com.