Kansas State University

Research, Scholarly and Creative Activities, and Discovery (RSCAD) News

August 25, 2016

The weekly RSCAD newsletter provides the latest research news, funding opportunities, and academic trends.

Announcements from the Office of the Vice President for Research

Required Training for New K-State Researchers

All K-State researchers are required to complete Responsible Conduct of Research Training. Online, self-paced training modules are designed to ensure that all new researchers, from undergraduate students or faculty members, have instruction in how to conduct research. If you're new to campus, please complete these now. If you direct others in research, please ensure that they have completed the modules. Additional project-specific training is available as needed. Contact the University Research Compliance Office if you have questions. Interested in other support for new researchers? Check the Faculty Resources section of our website.  

Postdoctoral Appreciation Week

Mark your calendar to celebrate National Postdoctoral Appreciation Week September 19-23. Read about the events and register to attend as we celebrate the contributions of these vital research colleagues. Encourage your postdocs to attend! 

New Funding Opportunities

The Funding Connection

The Funding Connection is a weekly publication of the Office of Research & Sponsored Programs. For more information about individual programs and for applications, please e-mail research@k-state.edu or call 785 532-6195.

Highlights from this week's Funding Connection: The National Science Foundation’s (NSF) Major Research Instrumentation Program (MRI) serves to increase access to shared scientific and engineering instruments for research and research training. Specifically, the MRI program assists with the acquisition or development of a shared research instrument that is, in general, too costly and/or not appropriate for support through other NSF programs. The instrumentation should support an institution’s research and training goals and may be used by other researchers regionally or nationally. This is a limited submission with notification of an intended submission due to the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs by September 9 via orsplimitedsubs@ksu.edu. 

K-State in the News

K-State's A.J. Tarpon to Share Biosecurity Tips and Strategies Oct. 14 in Dodge City

8/18/16 The Hutchinson News
K-State Research and Extension, the Ford County Extension Office, Ford County Emergency Management and the 3i Show have teamed up to offer farmers, ranchers, emergency personnel and the general public the opportunity to learn more about keeping an important part of the food supply, livestock, safe in Southwest Kansas. During the 3i Show, Dr. A.J. Tarpoff, K-State Extension Beef Veterinarian, will present the program “Protecting Livestock from Disease: Basics of Biosecurity” on Friday Oct. 14 at 11 a.m. and again at 4 p.m.

Navigating Landlord-Tenant Agreements

8/20/16 High Plains Journal
Moving can often be a tedious, stressful event. The decisions made along the way will affect your next year — maybe longer, so it’s important to be well informed at every step in the process, said Elizabeth Kiss, K-State Research and Extension family resource management specialist. She shared tips to aid the hunt for your next rental home.

Sugarcane Aphid Field Day Set for Aug. 22

8/16/16 The Hays Daily News
J.P. Michaud, K-State Research & Extension entomologist, will be on-hand at the field day to show and discuss the SCA, which is a new pest to grain sorghum in the Great Plains that can cause significant yield loss when it reaches economic threshold levels.

Awards for Campuswide Assessment

8/22/16 Inside Higher Ed
Kansas State University, one of the designees, has made significant changes in its curriculum in response to strengths and shortcomings identified through faculty-driven assessment efforts, said Frederick Burrack, director of the assessment office and professor of music at Kansas State.

Wheat Olympics: A Test of Endurance

8/22/16 Minnesota Ag Connection
Finding a wheat variety that performs well in terms of both quality and protein becomes a survival-of-the-fittest to see which varieties outlast the others under hot and dry conditions. If wheat is the athlete, then Kansas State University associate professor in agronomy, Krishna Jagadish is the coach. Jagadish and his team impose heat and drought stress on post-flowering plants to determine which ones will cave under pressure and which ones will overcome the odds.

From Our Peers

The World’s Most Popular Pesticide Probably Killed England’s Wild Bees

8/17/16 Yahoo! Finance
In Europe, 9.2% of the continent’s almost 2,000 bee species are facing extinction, according to one assessment. But until now, it’s been hard to quantify how seriously chemicals have impacted bees. “Pesticides and beekeeping have been butting heads for 50-plus years,” David R. Tarpy, a professor at North Carolina State University’s department of entomology, told Quartz.

How Women Politicians Are Becoming Just Like the Guys

8/22/16 Yahoo! News
The lower corruption rates for women stem, in part, from how females are raised. “Women have been socialized to be more risk averse than men, and so that’s one thing that operates among women political candidates,” says Dianne Bystrom, director of the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics at Iowa State University.

‘Climate Change is Water Change’ — Why the Colorado River System is Headed for Major Trouble

8/19/16 The Washington Post
Such solutions will likely be all the more important in the face of future climate change, according to Brad Udall, senior water and climate research scientist at Colorado State University’s Colorado Water Institute. For the past 15 years, a combination of precipitation declines and unusually high temperatures have helped fuel the region’s ongoing drought. “Because you have these warmer temperatures, you then get a whole bunch of other processes at play,” Udall said. “You get a higher evaporative load from soil, you get plants that green up sooner and use more water, you get more evaporation out of reservoirs, you get a longer growing season on both the spring and the fall ends. All of that leads to declines in runoff.” 

In Rural Oregon People Can Have Trouble Getting Medication

8/18/16 SF Gate
As a result, Heppner is one of many towns across Oregon with limited access to prescription drugs. A recent analysis from Oregon State University suggests that the lack of pharmacy services may be boosting the rates of hospital readmissions among seniors, at great cost to both patients and the health care system.

What Do Women Leaders Have in Common?

8/17/16 The Atlantic
Which is why women are more likely to take a grassroots route to politics, says Farida Jalalzai of Oklahoma State University, and the author of Shattered, Cracked and Firmly Intact: Women and the Executive Glass Ceiling Worldwide and Women Presidents of Latin America: Beyond Family Ties? “Women are more likely to first get into public life through activism; sometimes it is through their identities as mothers to work on a particular problem,” she explained. 

RSCAD Trending Topics

Rethink How Chemical Hazards Are Tested

Putting the Power of Self-Knowledge to Work

Last week, and the week before, I reported on efforts over the past two decades to put more of this kind of knowledge into effect. Specifically, I examined how community-based networks were sharing research with professionals and residents in numerous communities, about how the effects of childhood trauma — so-called adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs — substantially increase risks for a range of negative outcomes, including dropping out of school, abusing drugs, becoming depressed, committing suicide, and being a victim of, or a perpetrator, of violence or abuse. (For information about ACEs, including the landmark ACE study and “ACE scores,” see these infographics and resources.) This research didn’t exist when Lessing gave her lectures in 1985, and it’s still largely unknown to Americans, much like cholesterol was before the 1980s. But social scientists now see it as a major factor behind an array of social ills and chronic diseases. And today, a growing network of health care professionals, educators, government officials, social service workers and community leaders are working to get knowledge about ACEs into public consciousness.

Zika Poised for Possible Spread Across U.S. Gulf

One of the top U.S. public health officials on Sunday warned that the mosquito-borne Zika virus could extend its reach across the U.S. Gulf Coast after officials last week confirmed it as active in the popular tourist destination of Miami Beach. The possibility of transmission in Gulf States such as Louisiana and Texas will likely fuel concerns that the virus, which has been shown to cause the severe birth defect known as microcephaly, could spread across the continental United States, even though officials have played down such an outcome.

Better Burgers, More Healthful Hotdogs: Could A Pinch Of Seaweed Be The Answer?

Next-generation hot dogs and hamburgers may come with an unusual ingredient: seaweed. That's the goal of a group of scientists trying to make these red-meat-rich, unhealthful foods more healthful by adding nutrient-packed seaweed, a staple in Japanese and other Asian cuisines. But it's still early days of research. The Madrid-based team has been exploring what happens to the taste, texture and smell of meat products when they replace some of the fat and salt content with dried and powdered seaweed. They summarize their progress in a report published last month in the journal Food Research International.

As Lab-Grown Meat and Milk Inch Closer to U.S. Market, Industry Wonders Who Will Regulate?

The first hamburger cooked with labmade meat didn’t get rave reviews for taste. But the test tube burger, rolled out to the press in 2013, has helped put a spotlight on the question of how the U.S. government will regulate the emerging field of cellular agriculture, which uses biotechnology instead of animals to make products such as meat, milk, and egg whites. So far, none of these synthetic foods has reached the marketplace. But a handful of startup companies in the United States and elsewhere are trying to scale up production. In the San Francisco Bay area in California, entrepreneurs at Memphis Meats hope to have their cell-cultured meatballs, hot dogs, and sausages on store shelves in about 5 years, and those at Perfect Day are targeting the end of 2017 to distribute cow-free dairy products. It’s not clear, however, which government agencies would oversee this potential new food supply.