WVU Models
Automated Litigation Support System
Being able to rely on a safe and secure online system is essential
when it comes to sharing sensitive legal documents and litigation
information among professionals.
That's why a group from the Executive Office of the U.S. Attorneys
at the Department of Justice visited the WVU campus in May to
view presentations from University professors and private industry
representatives for an Automated Litigation Support (ALS) System
that could be used for large cases—such as the Unibomber
case or the O.J. Simpson trial.
The model addresses all aspects of performing and supporting
the ALS process, including a concept of operations and business
model for a facility and information technology infrastructure,
systems, and communications required to accomplish the work.
The $1 million study is being coordinated through WVU's Office
of Research and Economic Development under the direction of Vice
President for Research and Economic Development John D. Weete.
The research team includes law professor Marjorie McDiarmid,
who provided litigating insight and developed a source document
that will serve as an online help system for litigation specialists
using the system; and College of Business and Economics Professors
Virginia Kleist and Richard Riley, who conducted a cost-benefit
study showing how the new business process will result in significant
cost savings.
Conducting
Research on Welfare Reform
The West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources has
awarded a research team at WVU a $40,000 grant to study the effects
of welfare reform in the state.
The interdisciplinary team of faculty members from WVU's Institute
for Public Affairs, Department of Political Science, and School
of Applied Social Sciences will examine the lives and prospects
of former West Virginia welfare recipients who have exhausted
their 60 months of program eligibility.
The grant will be used to survey former welfare recipients about
their perspectives and experiences when they were on and then
when they went off WV WORKS, West Virginia's version of welfare.
The state Department of Health and Human Resources will use the
survey results and information gathered from four in-depth focus
group sessions with former WV WORKS recipients to improve the
administration of its current programs and to shape the direction
of future programs.
WVU Press Releases CD of African American
Recordings from West Virginia
West Virginia University Press has released its fourth addition
to the Sound Archive series.
Work and Pray: Historic Negro Spirituals and Work Songs from
West Virginia is a collection of songs gathered over 50 years
ago and only now made available to the public.
Musicologist Cortez Reece, a professor at Bluefield State College,
gathered these songs between 1949 and 1953 as part of the research
for his PhD dissertation. These treasures have been preserved
in the West Virginia and Regional History Collection of the WVU
Libraries until this release of 37 of Reece's more than 200 songs.
The CD is comprised of railroad work chants, ancient spirituals,
hammer songs, slave-era songs, and more. The performers are everyday
people taking part in singing traditions that had been largely
ignored by musicologists came to the area in the early twentieth
century and concentrated on the musical traditions imported from
Europe.
Faculty
Member Releases CD
Soprano Janis-Rozena Peri, a member of the WVU music faculty,
has released a CD titled Music of Zenobia Powell Perry, Volume
I, Art Songs and Piano, in conjunction with Jaygayle Music
and Cambria Master Recordings of Lomita, California.
The CD features compositions written by Peri's mother, the noted
composer Zenobia Powell Perry, and also features WVU faculty
members John Crotty, piano, and Joyce Catalfano, flute. It is
the first recording devoted to the works of Zenobia Perry.
Songs include Perry's "Homage to William L. Dawson on His
90th Birthday," "Promenade," "Rhapsody,"
and "Flight" for solo piano, "O the Angels Done
Bowed Down," "Threnody Song Cycle," "Heritage
and Life Song Cycle," "How Charming Is the Place,"
for soprano and piano, and "The Hidden Worlds of Bahaullah,"
for soprano, flute, and piano.
Electron Beam
Can Decontaminate Meat and Fish
The phrase electron beam probably conjures images of 1950's
science fiction more than modern food safety, but a WVU researcher
believes in the technology's ability to bring quality meat and
fish to consumers.
Jacek Jaczynski, an assistant professor of animal nutrition in
WVU's Davis College of Agriculture, Forestry, and Consumer Sciences,
has been studying the efficiency of the electron beam in food
processing and has found much to admire. His research, published
in the Journal of Food Science, finds the beam is effective
against virtually all bacterial contaminants—E. coli, Salmonella,
Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria, Campolobacter, and others.
Another benefit of the procedure is increased quality of the
final product.
"The electron beam doesn't change the temperature of the
food as it's decontaminated," he said. In fact, Jaczynski's
doctoral research compared the outcomes of decontamination by
electron beam with the application of heat to meat products.
"With heat, the meat suffered discoloration, softening of
texture, and a general degradation of quality," he said.
"Samples processed with the electron beam were as fresh
as they were prior to treatment, and they actually had an improved
texture and a more desirable color." Most of Jaczynski's
work has been done with the fish surimi, popular with the seafood
industry as a crab substitute.
Right
Brain + Left Brain = Research Award for WVU Student
A love of higher math and a knack for self-expression have added
up to a major research award for a WVU student.
Gabriel Sean "Gabe" Tapia combined both hemispheres
of his brain—the right side that controls creativity and
the left side where verbal skills reside—to claim EPSCoR's
West Virginia 2003 Undergraduate Researcher of the Year Award.
EPSCoR, which stands for Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive
Research, supports academic research in West Virginia, 22 other
states, and Puerto Rico.
"I found that my broad education at WVU helped me to win
this award," said Tapia, a 21-year-old junior from Morgantown
majoring in math and psychology. "Not only did I have to
use my skills in math, but the skills I've learned in writing,
speaking, and psychology."
The award recognizes Tapia's work in number theory to improve
public key encryption, a system of hard-to-break codes and ciphers
that protect online data for public institutions, banks, and
businesses.
Encryption relies on algorithms—mathematical procedures
that involve several slow steps—Tapia explained. Cryptographers
often take shortcuts to get the security in place in a timely
manner, making the codes vulnerable to hackers, he added.
Tapia is conducting his research under the McNair Scholars Program.
Established by Congress, the McNair Scholars Program provides
support and graduate study preparation to minority, low-income,
or first-generation students. It is named for Ronald McNair,
a NASA astronaut who died when the space shuttle Challenger
exploded after takeoff January 28, 1986.
Forensic
ID Program Restructured
Tremendous growth in WVU's Forensic ID Program, coupled with
a change in leadership, have prompted University officials to
make changes within the baccalaureate program.
The program's two majors—forensic and investigative science
and biometric systems—will now be offered as two separate
bachelor of science degrees under new directors, WVU Provost
Gerald Lang said.
The forensic and investigative science degree program will be
part of the curricula offered by the Eberly College of Arts and
Sciences under the direction of Clifton Bishop. The biometric
systems degree will be offered by the Lane Department of Computer
Science and Electrical Engineering within WVU's College of Engineering
and Mineral Resources, under the direction of George Trapp and
Larry Hornak.
Biometrics
Experts Gather in Morgantown
Fifty-four of the world's leading experts in biometrics gathered
in Morgantown in May to define a research agenda for the future
of the industry. On the table were discussions on effective human
identification technologies already in use and others under development
or yet to be deployed, methods for measuring the effectiveness
of those technologies, privacy and civil liberties vs. personal
and national security issues, and creating a workforce to sustain
the industry's growth as it becomes more mainstream.
Edwin Rood, director of the Biometric Knowledge Center and cohost
of the three-day National Science Foundation-sponsored workshops,
likened it to "a meeting of the joint chiefs of staff"
from the industry.
Rockefeller
Leads Forum
In
June, Senator Jay Rockefeller led a day-long program of presentations
and discussions with preeminent biometric scientists from government,
industry, and academia at WVU.
"Biometric technologies have an important role to play in
issues of personal and national security, and West Virginia is
playing an important role in biometrics," Rockefeller said.
"With the significant work being done here at WVU and along
our high-tech corridor, West Virginia is well poised to become
a leader in the industry."
Biometrics, which blends new technologies and biological traits
like fingerprints, retinal or iris scans, and face recognition,
is expected to play an increasing role in developing homeland
security measures.