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UH RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS:

July 21, 1997

Contact: Cheryl Ernst, (808) 956-5941

Preliminary 1996­97 Tally: a Record Year for UH Research

The University of Hawai'i Board of Regents on Friday accepted more than $19 million in contracts, grants and awards for 169 research and training projects, bringing the preliminary year-end total for extramural funding to $160 million-an apparent 19 percent increase over 1995­96 and a 12 percent increase over the previous high of $143 million in 1993­94.

Among the largest federal grants received during the past month were $779,345 from the National Cancer Institute for the University's Cancer Research Center of Hawai'i, $533,404 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources' Agricultural Development in the American Pacific project and $355,000 from NASA for Global Assessment of Active Volcanism from the Earth Observing System.

UH also received $411,000 from the Research Development Corporation of Japan for evolutionary biologist Kenneth Kaneshiro's work on Yamamoto Behavior Genes and $322,352 from the City and County of Honolulu for monitoring marine communities near the city's ocean sewer outfalls. Highlights from additional research projects follow.

 

Psychological Growth in Women Living with HIV Infection
$87,059, National Institute of Mental Health (first year of a five-year grant)
Charles Mueller, School of Social Work, 956-9613

Among the questions Mueller and three students in the UH master of social work program asked while conducting interviews with Hawai'i women infected with HIV was how the infection had changed the women's lives. Surprisingly often, the women talked about positive aspects-recapturing the meaning of life, improving in their role as parents and so on.

Mueller decided to explore the issue. He will soon recruit women with HIV to participate in a longitudinal tracking study. The women will be interviewed about every four months over the course of four years to assess their psychological status. Child care will be provided to assist women in participating in the interviews and their identities will be kept confidential. The study is the first Mueller is aware of that focuses on psychological growth related to HIV infection.

In the earlier study, funded by Hawai'i Community Foundation, students Heather Dunbar, Cynthia Medina and Tamra Wolf asked 33 women with HIV about their medical needs, health care, family and social support, stresses, coping strategies, etc. The often emotional interviews revealed unexpected strength, resilience and heroic adjustments by many of the women who came from troubled or abusive backgrounds. "People in health care bring their prejudices about women involved in the sex industry or IV drug use," reflects Mueller. "It is important for providers to realize that they should give a clean slate to some of their perceptions."

 

How Plants Cope with UV Radiation
Understanding a Gene that Helps Plants Regulate Photosynthesis
$88,079, U.S. Department of Energy (first year of a three-year $240,000 grant)
David Christopher, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, 956-8550

Plants, like people, are injured by UV radiation, which occurs in particularly high levels in the tropics. Plants can't move into the shade or lather on the sunscreen when the sun gets too intense, but they are genetically armed with the ability to make a protein that controls the rate of photosynthesis and repair UV damage.

Christopher, a plant molecular physiologist, is studying the gene known to scientists as psbD. The gene is activated only in blue light, which means that plants can perceive the color of light and use it to their advantage. Understanding how the gene works could suggest practical applications in solar energy and agriculture since photosynthesis is a basic process of converting energy from light into a form useful to humans as food or fuel.

The gene is present in all plants and some forms of green algae. Christopher uses Arabidopsis, a weed in the mustard family, as a model system in his studies. The plant is considered to be the flora equivalent of Drosophila, the fly popular for genetic and biologic studies. Like Drosophila, Arabidopsis has simple DNA structure (about a twentieth the amount of DNA as corn), matures and reproduces quickly and requires little laboratory space-thousands of newly germinated plants fit on a small petri dish.

Studies involving Arabidopsis have advanced the frontier of plant biology worldwide, says Christopher. Thus research involving the plant has another advantage in a teaching university-providing students with laboratory exposure that will be valuable in jobs and graduate school.

 

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