September 2011 ABe-Notes — September, 2011

Alumni News for September

=Mitchell and Alice Robinson welcomed Libby Louise Robinson on May 25, 2011. Alice is now with Nestle in the frozen pizza division (DiGiorno, Tombstone, Jacks, and California Pizza Kitchen).

Breaking New Ground News for September

Author: Steve Swain

The Breaking New Ground/Indiana AgrAbility staff devoted much of its time during August to staffing displays at the Indiana State Fair.  This 17-day event provided opportunities to present AgrAbility services and information to a wide range of visitors.  Displays were located in the Our Land Pavilion, the FFA Pavilion, and the Young Farmers Building.  The National AgrAbility pop-up display and a grain safety display were in the Our Land Pavilion where many of the Purdue Extension exhibits were on display.  Another grain safety display was in the Young Farmers Building.  The Indiana AgrAbility tabletop display, the Arthritis and Agriculture tabletop display, a Bridging Horizons Community Service Contest display, and a John Deere tractor with a Life Essentials lift were all in the FFA Pavilion.  In addition, on Friday, August 12 -  which was designated as Purdue Day at the State Fair - Indiana AgrAbility staffed a display along Main Street of the fairgrounds.  This display highlighted our services and publication "Arthritis and Agriculture" and showed examples of assistive technology for the farm and garden.  Although total attendance for the fair was down this year due to the stage collapse tragedy, requests for follow-up assistance exceeded the requests from the last couple of years.  Requests were received from occupational therapists, farmers, and a philanthropist.

   

Breaking New Ground/Indiana AgrAbility and the National AgrAbility Project also staffed displays at the 2011 Farm Progress Show in Decatur, Illinois, on August 30, 31, and September 1, 2011.  Displays included brochures and publications and a John Deere tractor with a Life Essentials lift.  Attendance was reported to be record-breaking on the first two days of the show, then lower the last day due to heat.  Many show attendees learned about the resources available and where they could find more information.

Publications for September

The article "Shaping BMP Morphogen Gradients through Enzyme-Substrate Interactions Peluso, Carolyn E.; Umulis, David; Kim, Young-Jun; O'Connor, Michael B.; Serpe, Mihaela Developmental cell doi:10.1016/j.devcel.2011.06.025 (volume 21 issue 2 pp.375 - 383)" was selected as the  "Featured Article" for the August issue of Developmental Cell.  It is the #1 "Most Read" article for the month of August. The article has also been picked up for a note in Nature.

Two papers published by Dr. David Umulis and colleagues were highlighted in separate articles in the most recent edition of "Current Opinion in Genetics and Development," a publication that highlights contemporary questions in biology by experts in the field.  The top papers in the review are highlighted as "of special interest" or "of outstanding interest."

 Article 1 highlighted as "Of Special Interest:"   

 Umulis DM*. Analysis of dynamic morphogen scale-invariance. Journal of the Royal Society: Interface (2009). 6:1179-1191 (doi:10.1098/rsif.2009.0015).

 Article 2 highlighted as "of Outstanding Interest:"  Robin E. Harris, Michael Pargett, Catherine Sutcliffe, Umulis DM, Hilary L. Ashe. Brat promotes stem cell differentiation via control of a bistable switch that restricts BMP signaling. Developmental Cell (2011). 18:72-83.

 ASABE Presentations (presenter in bold)

Paper #   1110736   Uniformity of Total Mixed Rations
Citation:  Paper number  1110736,  2011 Louisville, Kentucky, August 7-10, 2011. @2011
Authors:   Dennis R Buckmaster, Defu Wang, Hongbo Wang

Paper #   1110740   Improved electro-hydraulic trainer stations Videos
Citation:  Paper number  1110740,  2011 Louisville, Kentucky, August 7-10, 2011. @2011
Authors:   Dennis R Buckmaster, John Michel

Paper #   1110742   Instrumented Infinitely Variable Transmission for Instruction
Citation:  Paper number  1110742,  2011 Louisville, Kentucky, August 7-10, 2011. @2011
Authors:   Josh J Heber, Dennis R Buckmaster

Paper #   1110792   Rice Straw Silage in Round Bales
Citation:  Paper number  1110792,  2011 Louisville, Kentucky, August 7-10, 2011. @2011
Authors:   Defu Wang, Dennis R Buckmaster, Yiyuan Jiang, Jinling Hua

Paper #   1110978   What Motivates Agricultural Students?
Citation:  Paper number  1110978,  2011 Louisville, Kentucky, August 7-10, 2011. @2011
Authors:   Natalie J Carroll, Dennis R Buckmaster, Neil A Knobloch

On August 30th, Nathan Mosier gave a plenary lecture titled “Biochemically Derived Liquid Biofuels from Plant Biomass” at the V Simposio Internacional de Biofábricas (5th International Symposium on Biomanufacture) at the National University of Colombia – Medellín.  While there he also presented two seminars titled “Lignocellulose Recalcitrance and Pretreatment” and “Challenges in Fermenting Cellulose-Derived Sugars.”

Undergraduate News for September

HannahJoy Pheasant presented her Cameroon Cooking Fuels Discovery Park Undergraduate Research Internship (DURI) project on July 28.

HannahJoy Pheasant presents her posterThe DURI program is designed to involve Purdue undergraduates in the interdisciplinary research environment of Discovery Park. The program provides opportunities for students to work with faculty affiliated with Discovery Park on cutting-edge research projects that involve combining two or more disciplinary strengths. Working closely with faculty, students experience the excitement, challenge, and power of truly interdisciplinary research in the fast-paced, entrepreneurial environment that is Purdue's Discovery Park.

DURI offers 50 part-time (6-10 hours/week) student internship slots per academic semester. A list of DURI internship opportunities is available on this website and students are invited to login and submit the simple online application form for a maximum of five projects. Past project descriptions can also be reviewed.  

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