In Brief

'Time' ranks SPH research first in 2007 medical
breakthroughs
When Time magazine named its Top 10 Medical
Breakthroughs for 2007, the No. 1 spot went to
the work of researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg
School of Public Health that showed
definitively that male circumcision is a powerful HIV
prevention tool. Principal investigator Ronald
Gray and Maria Wawer, both professors in
Population, Family and Reproductive Health, oversaw a
randomized clinical trial in Rakai, Uganda, demonstrating
that surgical circumcision reduced by more
than 50 percent a man's chances of acquiring the HIV virus
through sexual contact with women.
The dramatic findings led the National Institute of
Allergy and Infectious Diseases to halt the
Uganda research and another clinical trial in Kenya so
circumcision surgery could be offered to men in
the control groups. The World Health Organization and
UNAIDS now endorse the procedure as part
of a comprehensive prevention package for HIV-negative
men.

Awards recognize mosquitoes engineered to beat
malaria
Marcelo Jacobs-Lorena, a professor with the Johns Hopkins Malaria
Research Institute, was
honored as one of Scientific American magazine's
SciAm 50 for his work toward developing genetically
modified mosquitoes resistant to malaria. The annual award
recognizes 50 individuals, teams and
organizations whose accomplishments in research, business
or policymaking demonstrate outstanding
technological leadership.
In March 2007, Jacobs-Lorena and his JHMRI colleagues
published a study in Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences that demonstrated that
modified mosquitoes, resistant to malaria,
could thrive in the laboratory when fed malaria-infected
blood. These genetically engineered
mosquitoes lived longer and produced more eggs compared to
wild-type mosquitoes. Theoretically,
mosquitoes resistant to malaria could be introduced into
nature to replace malaria-carrying mosquitoes
as one piece of a broader strategy to control the spread of
malaria.

JHU Press partners with Maryland Historical
Society
The Johns Hopkins
University Press announced last week that it will
provide promotion,
marketing, warehousing and order fulfillment services for
books published by the Maryland Historical
Society, effective Jan. 1. MdHS Press will retain editorial
autonomy and production control.
There is a natural affinity between America's oldest
university press and Maryland's oldest
continuously operating cultural institution, said JHUP
Director Kathleen Keane. "In many ways our lists
complement each other," she said. "Both presses are
committed to scholarship and substance, and
both presses publish in history and the Chesapeake Bay
region."
In welcoming the agreement, MdHS Director Robert W.
Rogers said, "While the MdHS Press
has consistently produced books that have made significant
scholarly and cultural contributions to the
study of Maryland history, we have lacked the ability to
market our books as widely as they deserve.
This agreement will put the powerful marketing expertise of
JHUP behind our publications, thereby
bringing them to the attention of a much wider
audience."

2007 issue of 'SAISPHERE' explores worldwide
elections
For the 2007 issue of the School of Advanced
International Studies' annual magazine,
SAISPHERE, its editors asked faculty and others to explore
the theme "The Power of Elections."
Articles include "Democracy or Development: Which
Comes First?" by Francis Fukuyama; "In the
U.S., It's Iraq," by Robert Guttman; "Putinism Without
Putin?" by Andrew Kuchins; "Who Will Help the
Iranian People?" by Azar Nafisi; "Latin America and the
United States in a Year of Elections," by
Riordan Roett; and "Elections Are No Cure-All," by Ruth
Wedgwood.
An online version of this issue is available at
www.sais-jhu.edu/pubaffairs/publications/saisphere/winter07
/index.html.
To request a printed copy, contact Felisa Neuringer Klubes
at fklubes@jhu.edu or
202-663-5626.

APL technical lead for Japan's first ballistic missile
flight test
Japan, the first U.S. ally to procure an Aegis
Ballistic Missile Defense weapon system and
several Standard Missile-3s, successfully conducted its
first flight test last month from the Hawaii-
based Pacific Missile Range Facility. Behind the scenes of
this historic flight test, Johns Hopkins'
Applied Physics
Laboratory, as the Aegis BMD program's technical
direction agent, performed a wide
range of activities that contributed to the event's
success.
APL helped the Japanese Navy prepare for the test by
planning the mission scenario and
conducting preflight predictions of the missile and weapon
system's performance through hundreds of
simulations. APL also helped determine the launch window
and conducted debris analyses to ensure
safety on the test range. A close-up look at intercept was
captured by an APL-developed sensor
package placed on the target, and the sensors collected
video and infrared imagery of the ignition and
burnout of the target's booster motors, and the booster's
separation.
APL engineers are now analyzing the data and will
update simulation models that could enhance
the accuracy of future Japanese missile flight tests.
This was APL's 17th Aegis-based flight test since the
series began in 1997.
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