Online training shows that child tragedies can be covered with sensitivity, balance, compassion and caring

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - Journalists have a new tool from the University of Maryland to help them do the best possible job when reporting a tragic event - the death of a child. Whether it's by abuse or neglect, preventable accidents, gun violence and drugs or alcohol, insensitive coverage can start a drumbeat that leads to sensationalism or reactionary media coverage that never seems to end.

"Covering child deaths is perhaps the most emotionally challenging story a journalist will tell in their careers," says Julie Drizin, director for the Journalism Center on Children & Families (JCCF) at the University of Maryland's Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

It's clear, she says, that there's a need to help reporters do a better job of reporting the tragedy of a child's death that is "ethical, balanced, compassionate and caring." That need has led to a new tool for journalists – a free in-depth interactive training module – called "When a Child Dies" that was created with funding provided by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The new module is available now on the JCCF website.

Telling Stories with Sensitivity, Timing and Correctness
The new module uses interviews, examples from top reporters, lessons, tips, sources and more to help reporters deal with such issues as:

• What is the best way to interview a child witness?
• What is the best way to interview a grieving family?
• What is the best way to craft an obituary?
• How do you judge which images are exploitative?
• How close can/should journalists get to the families they cover?
• How does a reporter deal with legal issues reporting juvenile death cases?

The module also provides examples of inadequate and troubling coverage that reporters can learn from. It is designed to be a "living document" that can grow and change with time to become a better resource for reporters.

Future Impact
Drizin says, "High profile stories often lead policy makers to weigh in with new laws and regulations. Sometimes these efforts do protect children, but sometimes they undermine the institutions that work in the best interests of children by promoting stereotypes of corrupt, failed, wasteful, uncaring individuals, leaders and systems." Unfortunately, Drizin says, "Sometimes nothing happens at all."

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – U.S. beekeepers lost nearly one in every three honey bee colonies over the winter of 2012-2013, according to an annual survey conducted by the Bee Informed Partnership and the Apiary Inspectors of America.

This winter's losses of 31.1 percent represent a steep increase from the 22 percent losses of 2011-2012, when a mild winter gave bees and beekeepers a respite. The new survey, conducted from October 2012 through April 2013, shows the respite is over, with losses running slightly higher than the 30.5 percent average over the past six years.

University of Maryland entomologist Dennis vanEngelsdorp, who directs the Bee Informed Partnership, led a team of eleven researchers in the survey.

The 2012-2013 loss rate is more than double the 15 percent loss that beekeepers say is "acceptable" for their businesses to remain viable. Seventy percent of beekeepers surveyed sustained losses higher than 15 percent.

The high losses are changing commercial bee keeping, vanEngelsdorp says. Beekeepers used to have two ways to turn a profit, he explains. They could sell honey from their hives, or rent out their colonies to growers whose crops are pollinated by bees. But with losses so high, "All the money you're going to make in honey goes to replacing dead colonies and keeping your colonies alive," van Engelsdorp says. "Any money you make will be from pollination."

Many fruit and nut crops, such as California almonds, depend on managed hives of honey bees trucked in from all over the country. Beekeepers who take their hives to California in February, when almond trees bloom, tend to have the most, and the most intensively managed bee colonies, van Engelsdorp says. Among that subset of beekeepers, losses were especially high. Nearly one in five beekeepers who pollinated almond trees this spring did so in spite of losing 50 percent or more of their colonies over the winter.

There appear to be multiple causes for increased bee colony losses in recent years, says vanEngelsdorp, an expert on honey bee health. A report issued last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency also suggested honey bees are affected by a complex mix of problems.

VanEngelsdorp thinks one reason for the high losses in 2012-2013 may be last fall's Midwestern drought. Bees probably gathered most of their nectar from flowering crops, which were irrigated, instead of from wildflowers. The crops' nectar may have had unusually high concentrations of pesticides because of the drought, or there may not have been enough nectar and pollen to go around, leading to malnourishment, he says

Honey bees also lost habitat as high corn prices caused farmers to replace prairie and shrubs with cornfields, vanEngelsdorp says. And for part of the year, beekeepers lacked an effective treatment for Varroa mites, which can kill bees, because the mites had become resistant to old miticides and a replacement product was not yet available.

The survey did not show evidence of colony collapse disorder (CCD), the still-unexplained phenomenon that causes the sudden death of all the bees in a colony. Although CCD appears to be on the wane, the overall rate of honey bee colony loss is still about the same as it was when CCD was at its peak in 2006-2007.

In 2012-2013 most colonies "dwindled away rather than suffering from the sudden onset of CCD," says Jeff Pettis, a U.S. Department of Agriculture bee expert who worked on the survey. The survey stopped tracking the colonies at the end of April, so "the 31 percent figure likely under-represents the losses, as we saw many weak colonies that were not actually dead," Pettis says.

The survey was funded by the USDA. The 6,287 U.S. beekeepers who responded to the survey managed nearly 600,000 bee colonies at the start of the survey period, or about 23 percent of the country's estimated 2.6 million colonies.

The abstract for the survey can be found at
http://beeinformed.org/2013/05/winter-loss-survey-2012-2013. A complete analysis of the survey data will be published later this year.

Media Registration and Credentials Required

COLLEGE PARK, Md. - The University of Maryland will host His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama on Tuesday May 7, 2013 for two separate events – delivery of the prestigious Sadat Lecture and a dialogue with scholars of Sufism, a mystical Islamic tradition.

Media space is limited; credentialed media only; advance media registration required.

WHAT:

Sadat Lecture: "Peace Through Compassion: Connecting a Multi-Faith World"
In the morning, the Dalai Lama will join a long list of world leaders to deliver the Sadat Lecture. Before an audience of 15,000, he will speak in English for about 45 minutes, answering questions submitted by the audience. Tickets for the event were snapped up by the public in a matter of minutes. The UMD Sadat Chair for Peace and Development arranged for the visit.

Roshan Dialogue: "A Meeting of Two Oceans: Dialogue on Sufism and Buddhism"
In the afternoon, His Holiness will meet in a smaller venue for dialogue on two religious traditions: Islam's Sufi tradition and Tibetan Buddhism. UMD's Roshan Institute of Persian Studies organized the event. Note: We have reached capacity and are no longer accepting media requests to cover the dialogue event.

WHO:

His Holiness, the 14th Dalai Lama calls himself "a simple Buddhist monk." He is a Nobel Peace Prize-winner and an international figure with a devoted following of millions. His web site describes him as "the spiritual leader of the Tibetan people." He actively seeks out both interfaith and scientific dialogues, writing in one of his many books, "If scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims."

WHEN:

Tuesday May 7, 2013

Sadat Lecture: 10 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

• State Department security requires that all media with video cameras, still cameras, laptops and iPads must arrive for check-in at 6:30 a.m. and be in place for a 7 a.m. security sweep. There will be no late entry.
• All additional media must be in place 45 minutes prior to the start of the event.

Roshan Dialogue: 1:45 p.m. – 3 p.m.
**Only for media who have been pre-confirmed to attend this event

• Check in for the Roshan Dialogue is between 11:45 a.m. and 12:30 p.m. All media with video cameras, still cameras, laptops and iPads must be in place for a 12:30 p.m. security sweep. There will be no late entry.
• All additional media (without video equipment or large electronics) must be in place 45 minutes prior to the start of the event.

WHERE:

Both events will take place on the campus of the University of Maryland, College Park 20742

Sadat Lecture: Comcast Center arena, campus of the University of Maryland, College Park 20742

• Directions: http://www.umterps.com/travel/comcast-directions.html
• Parking: All media should park in the Terrapin Trail Garage (TTG): http://www.transportation.umd.edu/parking/maps/map_campus.pdf. You must present your credentials for entry into the garage.
• Entry: Media must enter the Comcast Center through Gate C (ground level, lower right-hand side of the main outdoor staircase).

Roshan Dialogue: Ina and Jack Kay Theater, Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, campus of the University of Maryland, College Park 20742
**Only for media who have been pre-confirmed to attend this event

• Directions: http://claricesmithcenter.umd.edu/parking-directions#driving-directions
• Parking: All media should park in Lot 1: http://www.transportation.umd.edu/parking/maps/map_campus.pdf
• Entry: Media must enter through the main entrance of the Clarice Smith Center.

MEDIA REGISTRATION: Media space is limited and restricted to credentialed media who have pre-registered. Media badges will be distributed on site. To register, media representatives should send email requests to: dalailamamedia@umd.edu. Please indicate: name(s) and position(s), media affiliation, credentials possessed [these will be required at check-in] and full contact information so we can confirm your request. We will email you a confirmation of your registration, along with and parking and check-in details.

MEDIA CHECK-IN AND CREDENTIALING:
Sadat Lecture: Media badges will be distributed on site during check in at Gate C. Please bring identification and credentials to the check-in table.
Roshan Dialogue: Media must check in through the main entrance of the Clarice Smith Center to receive their tickets. Please bring identification and credentials to the check-in table. (**Only for media who have been pre-confirmed to attend this event)

PHOTOGRAPHY RESTRICTIONS:
Sadat Lecture & Roshan Dialogue: Absolutely no flashbulbs or additional lighting may be used by media (at the Dalai Lama’s request). The stage will be pre-lit for video.
Sadat Lecture Only: Photographers should expect a throw of 100 feet. There will be limited opportunities for escorted close-ups. 

AUDIO: Mult-box audio feeds will be available at both events.

STREAMING: Both the lecture and the dialogue will be streamed via the Internet. Details will be available at http://www.umd.edu on the day of the event.

For media registration email dalailamamedia@umd.edu

First independently controllable wings make more realistic flight possible

COLLEGE PARK, Md. — In this age of advanced technology, how hard could it be to develop a robotic bird that flies by flapping its wings? Despite the apparent simplicity of the idea, it's very hard—if you want the bird to actually fly. And how hard could it be to make a robot bird whose wings can flap independently of each other? So hard that it's been a breakthrough that's been out of reach for engineers—until now.

University of Maryland professors S. K. Gupta and Hugh Bruck and their students have developed and demonstrated a new robotic bird, "Robo Raven," whose wings flap completely independently of each other, and also can be programmed to perform any desired motion, enabling the bird to perform aerobatic maneuvers. This is the first time a robotic bird with these capabilities has been built and successfully flown.

What makes building robotic birds so difficult? Not only is there a long trial and error process, but every error leads to a crash, often one that is fatal to the robot. This makes design iterations painfully slow.

Gupta, a professor in Mechanical Engineering and the Institute for Systems Research in the A. James Clark School of Engineering, has been working on flapping-wing robotic birds for the better part of a decade. He and his graduate students, along with Mechanical Engineering Professor Hugh Bruck, first successfully demonstrated a flapping-wing bird in 2007. This bird used one motor to flap both wings together in simple motions. By 2010 the design had evolved over four successive models. The final bird in the series was able to carry a tiny video camera, could be launched from a ground robot, and could fly in winds up to 10 mph—important breakthroughs for robotic micro air vehicles that one day could be used for reconnaissance and surveillance. It even fooled a local hawk, which attacked the robot in mid-flight on more than one occasion.

But the limitation of simultaneous wing flapping restricted how well the robotic bird could fly. So Gupta decided to tackle the much thornier problem of creating a more versatile bird with wings that operated independently, just like real birds. An unsuccessful attempt in 2008 led to the project being shelved for a while. Then, in 2012, Gupta partnered with Bruck and their graduate students to try again.

"Our new robot, Robo Raven, is based on a fundamentally new design concept," Gupta says. "It uses two programmable motors that can be synchronized electronically to coordinate motion between the wings."

The challenge was that the two actuators required a bigger battery and an on-board micro controller, which initially made Robo Raven too heavy to fly.

"How did we get Robo Raven to 'diet' and lose weight?" Gupta asks. "We used advanced manufacturing processes such as 3D printing and laser cutting to create lightweight polymer parts."

But smarter manufacturing and lighter parts were only part of the solution.

So the team did three more things to get Robo Raven airborne. They programmed motion profiles that ensured wings maintained optimal velocity while flapping to achieve the right balance between lift and thrust. They developed a way to measure aerodynamic forces generated during the flapping cycle, enabling them to evaluate a range of wing designs and quickly select the best one. Finally, the team performed system-level optimization to make sure all components worked well together and provided peak performance as an integrated system.

"We can now program any desired motion patterns for the wings," Gupta says. "This allows us to try new in-flight aerobatics—like diving and rolling—that would have not been possible before, and brings us a big step closer to faithfully reproducing the way real birds fly."

COLLEGE PARK, Md. – Fewer Americans describe their lives as "always rushed," according to a new study by a University of Maryland researcher – this during a period when smart phones and electronic tablets made work and social life more time-intensive and ever- present.  Between 2004 and 2010, significantly fewer (about 8 percent of survey respondents) considered themselves so intensely rushed.

At the same time, that less hectic lifestyle did not translate to increased happiness. While feelings of being rushed have been associated with lower levels of feeling "very happy," during this period, Americans' reports of happiness also declined significantly.

"The result was almost the opposite of what I expected" says University of Maryland sociologist and time-use researcher John P. Robinson, who conducted the study.  "Until this 2010 survey, feelings of being rushed had continually increased or stayed at the same level." Robinson has been tracking responses to time survey questions since 1965, when he directed the first national time survey at the University of Michigan.

Robinson reported the findings in a February 2013 report in Scientific American, and more fully in the January 2013 issue of Social Indicators Research.

Digging deeper, Robinson also found a decline in how often Americans felt they "had time on their hands they didn't know what to do with." Nearly half of people who reported "almost never" being rushed and "almost never" having excess time on their hands said they were "very happy" in their lives -- compared to only about 25 percent of the rest of the population. 

"This small slice of the population – perhaps less than 10 percent of the public – seems to have found a way to organize their lives in a way to resist the rat race and hurry sickness than afflicts the rest of us," Robinson concludes.

The drop in feeling rushed does not appear connected to increases in joblessness during this period, as more declines were found among those who were employed. Nor were there any age groups that felt less rushed.
 
The data come from the 2010 General Social Survey of the University of Chicago, and various other national surveys by the University of Maryland, the University of Michigan and the University of North Florida.