Dr. Shiguang Yu, assistant professor of immunology, Arkansas Biosciences Institute, has received a $1.7 million research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The research project grant program, R01, is NIH's original and oldest grant mechanism, and is considered its most prestigious research award. To be distributed over five years, the grant will support Yu's research into finding novel therapeutic targets for intervention on auto-immune diseases such as multiple sclerosis. See details online.

Dr. Christina Akbari, assistant professor in communication disorders, presented her research at the Acoustical Society of America meeting in Pittsburgh.  She presented a poster titled "Persian speakers of English: Acoustics of vowel epenthesis," which is the process of inserting a vowel into a word. Because it serves to break up more complex syllable structures, it often is seen in the speech productions of different native language speakers when speaking English as a second language.

Dr. Amy R. Pearce, professor of psychology, is corresponding author with co-authors Dr. Swapnali Halder and Dr. Stan Trauth, professor of zoology, of a peer-reviewed article published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research. The article, "Oral Nicotine Alters Uterine Histo-Morphology but Does Not Disrupt the Estrous Cycle in Female Rats," highlights research conducted at Arkansas Biosciences Institute into the impact of oral nicotine consumption as a nicotine replacement therapy.

Dr. Barbara Warner, assistant professor of political science, has contributed public administration instructional resources to SAGE Publications for Dr. Peter Northouse's seventh edition of the textbook, "Leadership: Theory and Practice." Warner, who uses the book for the administrative leadership course, contributed web resources, multimedia resources, academic journal articles with discussion questions, class activities, suggested assignments, discussion questions and a sample syllabus. Her contributions may be reviewed online.

F. Tracy Farmer and Eric Dry, Dean B. Ellis Library, have earned Certified Information Security System Professionals certification from ICS2.  CISSP certification, a globally recognized standard, ensures information security leaders have a deep knowledge and understanding of new threats, technologies, regulations, standards and practices. Farmer and Dry undertook a week of intensive training before taking the CISSP certification exam. Information about the certification is online.

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