The Johns Hopkins Gazette: January 26, 1998

Jan. 26, 1998
VOL. 27, NO. 19

  

In Brief

Johns Hopkins Gazette Online Edition

Anti-virus tool now available for Hopkins computers

The Johns Hopkins University and the Johns Hopkins Health System have obtained an institution-wide site license for the highly regarded anti-virus product Dr. Solomon's Anti-Virus Toolkit, which is available for DOS, Windows 3.x, Windows 95, Windows NT, Macintosh, Netware and SCO UNIX operating systems, at no charge to university and health system faculty, staff and students.

The software may be used on campus computers owned by the university or health system. Eligible users may also use the software on their home computers but may not continue to use the software after leaving the university or health system. This software will be updated approximately monthly.

In general, the AVTK consists of a memory resident virus scanner (VirusGuard, WinGuard or MacGuard, depending on operating system) that continually monitors for virus infections while the computer is in use, plus an on-demand scanner (FindVirus) that can be run at any time to check, and remove or repair, virus infections on hard drives or diskettes. Some platforms include a Scheduler and other management utilities.

Information about the software, including downloading and installation instructions, may be found on Homewood Academic Computing's JHUniverse Web page, www.jhu.edu/drsol/drsol.html.


Grant to School of Nursing benefits Kidsgo program

More than 4,000 at-risk children residing in Baltimore City will be the beneficiaries of a $146,328 grant from the Hasbro Children's Foundation to the School of Nursing.

The funding, which will be distributed over three years, allows for expansion of the School of Nursing's Kidsgo program, an effort to address unmet health-care needs of disadvantaged children by providing services such as physical examinations, immunizations and health screenings.

The grant will be used for stipends for nursing students working in the community, for supplies and equipment, and for van service so that students and faculty can bring health care to needy neighborhoods.

The Kidsgo program began at the Lillian D. Wald Community Nursing Center in East Baltimore and is staffed by faculty and students of the School of Nursing. The mission of the Wald Center is to bring quality health care to Baltimore's disadvantaged populations and to prepare nursing students for leadership roles by helping them to develop skills in managing the challenging health and social problems facing the poor. The Hasbro grant enables Kidsgo services to be transported to an additional three community sites throughout Baltimore to serve approximately 4,368 children ranging from infancy to 12 years.


Foreign nationals at JHMI can find help on Web site

The Office of International Student, Faculty & Staff Services at The Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions has established an Internet home page that provides a variety of information relating to U.S. immigration law. The Web address is www.med.jhu.edu/intlsvcs/.

Topics addressed include maintaining legal F-1, J-1 and H-1B1 statuses; F-1 and J-1 student employment options; J-1 scholar employment options; J-2 employment authorization; obtaining a Social Security number; and travel issues of non-immigrants seeking readmission to the United States. Other issues are covered as well.

In addition, the site offers links to related Internet sites including those of the U.S. Immigration & Naturalization Service, the U.S. Information Agency, the U.S. Department of State and other agencies, associations and organizations dealing with U.S. immigration law and international educational exchange.

Queries or comments can be sent to David Clubb, Web site designer/manager, at dclubb@welchlink.welch.jhu.edu.


'Chicago Hope' viewers will receive Hopkins expertise

All CBS-owned and -operated stations will soon be running "Living with Hope" segments following every Chicago Hope episode, including reruns, aired by CBS in 1998.

Produced by JHMI's Office of Communications and Public Affairs in cooperation with Baltimore's WJZ-TV, "Living With Hope" segments utilize Hopkins physicians, patients and staff to address subject matter relating to each Chicago Hope episode. The segments will be run by all CBS-owned and -operated stations, including those in major markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Chicago; in addition, CBS's Affiliate Relations Division will offer and promote the medical follow-up to its affiliate stations nationwide.

The segments have secured a national sponsorship from Phrma, the umbrella organization representing research drug companies. This is the first time Phrma has sponsored a national television series.

InteliHealth will operate the Chicago Hope Web site and will develop links for all episode-specific content.


Peabody's state-of-the-art organ arrives at North Hall

After six months of construction by the Holtkamp Organ Company in Cleveland, Peabody's new state-of-the-art organ arrived Jan. 18 in a United Van Lines tractor trailer. The three-story organ, which required 7,000 hours of work by a team of 21 people, was built at a cost of $668,000. A donation of $600,000 from Lyman and Nancy Woodson Spire made the purchase possible.

At 7 a.m., six movers began carrying the nearly 3,000 pipes and other parts of the organ through Peabody's main entrance at 1 E. Mount Vernon Place to its renovated North Hall on the second floor. Because the building has no freight elevator, the pieces were carried up Peabody's famous winding stairway.

It will take the construction team about three weeks to install the organ. A demonstration will be held over the weekend of March 7 for Peabody faculty, students, alumni and invited guests. Because space-specific fine-tuning takes several months, the first recitals on the new organ will be scheduled for fall.


APL-built NEAR completes flawless swingby of Earth

The NEAR Earth Asteroid Rendezvous spacecraft, built by the Applied Physics Laboratory, became the first interplanetary spacecraft to be seen by the naked eye when it swung by the Earth Jan. 22-23.

"It was right on schedule and right on target," said Thomas Coughlin, APL space programs manager.

The southern United States from east to west, and especially Hawaii, got the best view because of clear skies and darkness that made it easier to see sunglints off the spacecraft's four solar panels.

The first sighting of NEAR was made in Caussols, France, at about 1:30 p.m. EST, as the spacecraft approached the Earth far above the Middle East. When sighted NEAR was 580,000 miles from Earth and within a half-mile of its expected location.

All subsystems worked flawlessly as NEAR swooped around the Earth for a two-hour visit that put the spacecraft into the correct trajectory for a Jan. 10, 1999, encounter with the asteroid 433 Eros. Scientists at APL Missions Operations Center in Laurel expect to release the first images from the swingby today.

As NEAR pulled away from the Earth on Friday, it began to take a series of images of Asia, Africa and Antarctica. The images will be combined to make a "movie" documenting the spacecraft's visit. For the next week NEAR's Multi-Spectral Imager and its Near-Infrared Spectrograph will be taking Earth and moon calibration images. On Feb. 6 the last of the instruments will be turned off. Over the next year, as NEAR closes in on Eros, scientists and engineers will be developing and testing flight and ground software for the spacecraft and finalizing procedures for the yearlong encounter with the asteroid.

NEAR's study of Eros will be the first in-depth study of an asteroid and is expected to yield information that will help scientists better understand the evolution of our solar system. NEAR is the first mission in NASA's Discovery Series and is managed by APL. Tracking of NEAR is being done by NASA's Deep Space Network.
--Helen Worth


GO TO JANUARY 26, 1998 TABLE OF CONTENTS.
GO TO THE GAZETTE HOMEPAGE.