04/10/19
K-State Current - April 10, 2019
K-State Current is a weekly news update for the Kansas Board of Regents to apprise the Regents on a few of the many successes and achievements made by K-State faculty, staff and students. 
K-State News
Kansas Forest Service assists with Wildland Fire Task Forces response exercise
The Marion County and Johnson County Wildland Fire Task Forces were ordered on Tuesday, March 26, 2019, to the Kansas Forest Service Hazardous Fuels Mitigation Project.
The mitigation project reduced the risk of wildfire on the Quivira Scout Ranch while providing training to wildland firefighters and the county task forces.
“The exercise gave us an opportunity to test the response system and discover any potential weaknesses before we have a true wildland fire emergency response,” said Incident Command Trainee and Hutchinson Fire Department Captain Troy Mueller.
Dispatching these resources is a process administered through the Kansas Division of Emergency Management.
Both county task forces were called to the mitigation project on Tuesday with the intent of them integrating into the existing operational plan on Wednesday. As part of the operational plan, the task forces received training in wildland firefighting tactics including mop-up procedures to secure the prescribed burns conducted on Monday and Tuesday.
A total of 35 firefighters joined the mitigation project: 14 from Marion County and 21 from Johnson County. The counties represent two highly trained groups of firefighters in the state with two different staffing structures. The Marion County Wildland Task Force is entirely made up of volunteers, while the Johnson County Wildland Task Force is fully staffed by career firefighters.
“We were able to further our partnerships and integrate rural and urban task forces with the Kansas Forest Service Incident Management Team on a pre-planned incident,” said KFS State Fire Management Officer Mark Neely.
KFS is tasked with training, equipping, providing financial assistance for local fire departments on wildland fire. KFS also supports programs in fuel mitigation and public education. The annual mitigation project and integration of the task force activation is one of the ways KFS meets those objectives.
K-State Faculty Highlights
Researchers target cattle disease with USDA grant
A research grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for nearly $1.2 million is supporting work at Kansas State University toward combating a disease that affects cattle in the U.S. and globally.
Kathryn Reif, assistant professor in the diagnostic medicine and pathobiology department in the Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine, said the project focuses on optimizing antimicrobial use to control active infection of the hemoparasitic pathogen, Anaplasma marginale, the causative agent of bovine anaplasmosis.
"Different strains of the pathogen are actively circulating in the U.S.," Reif said. "We are using a combination of A. marginale strains, some of which we recently isolated from Kansas cattle herds, to help determine how strains differ in their susceptibility to tetracycline antimicrobials, specifically chlortetracycline, the most common antimicrobial used to control anaplasmosis. We hope that by looking at three different chlortetracycline treatment protocols for cattle, we can provide practical recommendations for the Food and Drug Administration and ultimately for cattle producers toward controlling this disease."
Reif said that treatment policies should be based on a firm understanding of how antimicrobial therapeutic effect can be maximized while minimizing risk of resistance development.
"Cattle producers in Kansas and beyond are concerned that the current FDA-approved anaplasmosis treatment regimens are not sufficiently controlling diseases," Reif said. "Also, there is no fully USDA-approved vaccine for anaplasmosis, and the experimental vaccine, available in some states, does not prevent infection. Efficacy concerns over the current anaplasmosis control measures underscore the need for updated science-based recommendations to help cattle producers manage this disease."
While Reif specializes in vector-borne disease research, her research team at Kansas State University consists of experts in many other disciplines, including molecular biologists, clinical pharmacologists, an antimicrobial resistance specialist, extension agents, livestock veterinarians and experts in the development and delivery of innovative decision support tools.
"With these combined skill sets, our team is uniquely qualified to conduct the proposed program of research," Reif said. "Together, we have the capability to answer these innovative research questions and communicate the outcomes effectively to the scientific community and stakeholders in the livestock industry."
Toward the latter effort, Reif said her group will host an anaplasmosis outreach event on May 20 at the Hilton Garden Inn in Manhattan, which will include a number of invited speakers and a producer panel to discuss strategies and best practices for managing anaplasmosis. Producers and other individuals interested in learning more about anaplasmosis can register for at vet.k-state.edu/education/continuing/conferences/Bovine-Symposium/index.html.
Louise Benjamin awarded 2019 Broadcast Education Association Distinguished Education Service Award
Louise Benjamin, College of Arts and Sciences' Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and professor in the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications, has been named the 2019 Broadcast Education Association's Distinguished Education Service Award, or DESA, winner.
The award is presented to an individual who has made a significant and lasting contribution to the American system of electronic media education.
"BEA has been a major home for my academic endeavors, and it is so flattering to be recognized by my peers with this award," Benjamin said when she received the award during association's annual convention awards ceremony in Las Vegas on Sunday, April 7.
Benjamin has been a Broadcast Education Association member since 1981 and has served with the association's Research Committee and Festival Committee, and as an officer in both the History Division and the Law Division. She has served on the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media's editorial board since 1989 and on the Publications Committee from 1989 to 1997. Between 2008 and 2011, she was the journal's book review editor. She continues to serve as the association's Electronic Media Series, editor, with the Routledge/Taylor Francis Group. In 2015, she was invited to make a Broadcast Education Association Podium Presentation to showcase her research in history and regulation of electronic media, especially early broadcast radio.
She was among the founders of the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts in the mid-to-late 1990s. She served on the Broadcast Education Association Board-appointed small exploratory committee during the festival's formative years that developed the foundations of the festival organization and helped launch the actual festival. She chaired the Festival Committee from 2004-2008. In those early years, the festival grew substantially and became a fixture of the association. One lasting contribution of the Festival of Media Arts has been the establishment of tenure and promotion standards.
Benjamin has authored numerous conference presentations, published articles and book chapters on media law and history as well as two books, "The NBC Advisory Council and Radio Program Development, 1926-1945" and "Freedom of the Air and the Public Interest: First Amendment Rights in Broadcasting to 1935," which received the National Communication Association's Franklyn S. Haiman Award for Distinguished Scholarship in Freedom of Expression. Her "Sarnoff Radio Music Box Memo" research has been a lasting landmark for scholars and students, helping them understand the medium of radio as a new technology.
The Broadcast Education Association is the premier international academic media organization, driving insights, excellence in media production, and career advancement for educators, students, and professionals. Visit www.beaweb.org for more information.
K-State Student News
APDesign education abroad students exhibit at Italian Embassy
The work of current and former Kansas State University graduate students in the College of Architecture, Planning & Design, APDesign, who participated in the Education Abroad program in Orvieto, Italy, is displayed in the "Return from Italy" exhibit at the Italian Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Work from the exhibit may be viewed at apdesign.k-state.edu/italianstudies/italianexhibit2019.html.
The work chosen for the exhibit was made by students studying in Orvieto, spring 2017 from two courses during the study semester: an interdisciplinary design studio and a drawing seminar. The interdisciplinary design studio in Orvieto was led by Vibhahari Jani, associate professor of interior architecture & product design, and Katie Kingery-Page, associate professor of landscape architecture. The drawing seminar was led by Kingery-Page.
All the works are made by hand, using locally available fine art papers, inks and natural pigments. Drawing by hand with the use of natural pigments allowed the students to experience the pride of craft in the handmade that is characteristic of Orvieto. Students augmented their formal studies and field visits across Italy with extensive workshops led by local Umbrian producers of regional foods, leather goods, and other artisan products.
"K-State Italian studies in Orvieto is honored to be included in the Italian Embassy in Washington D.C. 'Return from Italy' exhibit 2019," said Lynn Ewanow, associate dean and director of APDesign international programs and Serena Croce, Italian studies director in Italy. "The questions posed in the exhibit brief frame the significance of immersive study abroad in Italy. Our APDesign students' work reflects the influence of Italian architecture, urban history, landscape, agronomic and culinary culture, design across scales, and the joy in rituals and pleasures of everyday Italian life."
The APDesign Italian studies program has been in Italy since 1991 and in Orvieto, Umbria since 2006. The Italian studies program is an interdisciplinary program serving K-State graduate students from departments of architecture, interior architecture & product design, landscape architecture and regional & community planning. The program has sent more than 500 students and 28 faculty members in 13 years to Orvieto for semesterlong study.
Graduate student wins regional Three Minute Thesis competition
Chris Omni, Kansas State University master’s student in public health, Topeka, is the winner of the 2019 Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools' Three Minute Thesis competition. Omni is the first Kansas State University student to win the regional competition.
Omni received a $750 award for her presentation "Black Butterflyz: Making Black Women's Health a Capital Concern." Omni’s major professor is Emily Mailey, associate professor of kinesiology.
The Midwestern Association of Graduate Schools, or MAGS, began hosting a Three Minute Thesis, or 3MT, competition, in 2016. The 2019 competition was March 22 in St. Louis and included 47 participants representing all 14 member states of the association.
Omni said it was an experience of her professional goals becoming a reality.
"Speaking intentions serve as an amazingly powerful tool for living," Omni said. "In December 2017, my husband and I traveled to Charlotte, North Carolina, and walked into an Omni hotel. We asked the front desk worker if we could see one of the conference rooms because I was scouting potential spaces to host a motivational speaking event. I stood in front of this vacant room and recorded my intentions about one day commanding a room that size or larger. Because of the MAGS 3MT victory, that intention will become a reality two years later when I stand onstage at the Omni hotel in Nashville, Tennessee, and continue my mission of making black women’s health a capital concern."
Sunanda Dissanayake, associate dean of the university's Graduate School, attended the MAGS conference and observed Omni's winning presentation.
"All participants were excellent," Dissanayake said. "However, when Chris presented, she was really able to capture the audience and pass her research message in an exceptional manner. It was clear who the winner was going to be. It was a proud moment to see how well K-State is represented at the regional level."
As winner of the MAGS 3MT, Omni is invited to give her presentation at the national level at the 2019 Council of Graduate Schools' annual meeting, December 4-7 in Nashville, Tennessee. Along with winners of 3MT competitions hosted by other regional affiliates of the Council of Graduate Schools, Omni will compete for a People’s Choice award.
The Three Minute Thesis is an academic competition first developed by the University of Queensland of Australia. Competitions are conducted at more than 600 universities in 66 countries.
Learn more about the Three Minute Thesis competition hosted by the Kansas State University Graduate School.