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MONDAY, OCT. 27 – SUNDAY, NOV. 2, 2014

TODAY’S EVENTS

MORAL FORUM DEBATE TONIGHT – Two pairs of University Honors 101 Moral Forum students at The University of Alabama will compete for $10,000 in scholarships in the final round of the ninth annual James P. Hayes Jr. Moral Forum debate tournament at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct.  27, in UA’s Ferguson Theatre. The event is free and open to the public. Moral Forum is an annual dialogue and debate program that involves extensive research as students prepare value-based case studies representing positions on each side of an issue. This year, students will argue in support of and opposition to the statement: To be a more moral society, the U.S. government should continue the use of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (drones) in lethal engagement with foreign targets. Contact: Richard LeComte, UA Media Relations, rllecomte@ur.ua.edu, 205/348-3782 or Stephen Black, UA Center for Ethics & Social Responsibility, stephen.black@ua.edu, 205/348-6490

TRICK OR TREAT TONIGHT – The University of Alabama’s Panhellenic Association will host the annual Sorority Row Trick-or-Treat from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 27. Children from the Tuscaloosa area ages 12 and younger are invited to dress up in Halloween costumes without masks and visit the lawns of the campus sorority houses on Magnolia and Colonial drives for candy and activities. Tutwiler and Harris residence halls will also host trick-or-treaters. Contact: Richard LeComte, UA Media Relations, rllecomte@ur.ua.edu, 205/348-3782

UA CRIMINAL JUSTICE DEPARTMENT TO HOST INTERACTIVE DISCUSSION ON EVENTS IN FERGUSON, MISSOURI – A panel of community and law enforcement experts, including Officer Charles Hayes of the Birmingham Police SWAT Department and Tuscaloosa Police Chief Steven Anderson, will take part in “From the Station to the Sidewalks: An Informed Discussion of Police and Community Relations in Light of Ferguson” at 6 p.m., Oct. 27 in Room 120 of Farrah Hall on the UA campus. The program will include community representatives, academic scholars, and law enforcement reps discussing the events that transpired in Ferguson, Missouri following the death of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, and place the discussion in the larger context of police-community relations. Admission is free to the public. For more information, contact David Miller, UA media relations, at 205/348-0825 or dcmiller2@ur.ua.edu.

MINT CENTER HOSTS RESEARCH REVIEW MEETING – Eighteen scientists from UA’s Center for Materials for Information Technology will give research presentations today during the Center’s annual meeting held on campus. The Center, known as MINT, is an interdisciplinary research center focusing on developing new materials to advance data storage. Today’s meeting in the Bevill Building, room 1000, concludes about 4:30 p.m. For more information, contact Chris Bryant in media relations, 205/348-8323 or cbryant@ur.ua.edu.

CURRENT COMMENT

UA’S GUIDE TO WHAT TO WATCH FOR IN 2014 MIDTERM ELECTIONS – The GOP has a chance to control both houses of Congress in the 2014 midterm elections, and the race boils down to a very few key Senate races. Dr. George Hawley breaks down the GOP’s chances and what it could mean for the 2016 presidential races as well in UA’s guide to the midterm elections, http://uanews.ua.edu/2014/10/uas-guide-to-what-to-watch-for-in-2014-midterm-elections/. Contact Bobby Mathews, UA Media Relations, 205/348-4956 or bwmathews1@ur.ua.edu

UA RESEARCH

UA STUDENTS SELECTED FOR ENVIRONMENTAL CONTEST – A team of University of Alabama students were selected for a national competition held by the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The students from the UA College of Engineering will explore a new method of disinfecting water. Contact: Adam Jones, UA Engineering Media Relations, 205/348-6444 or acjones12@eng.ua.edu.

UA RESEARCHER DISCOVERS LINKS BETWEEN ARTHRITIC PAIN, DEPRESSION AND SLEEP – Dr. Patricia Parmelee, director for the Center for Mental Health & Aging at The University of Alabama, has discovered links between high levels of pain and symptoms of depression exacerbated by a combination of sleep disturbances due to pain. Parmelee’s four-year study of 367 people in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania showed participants with greater symptoms of depression had experienced more pain and worsened sleep problems. Additionally, the study showed, a combination of sleep disturbance and high pain at baseline led to much greater depression. Parmelee also found that sleep disturbance alone at baseline predicted functional decline over the one-year period. For more information, contact David Miller, UA media relations, at 205/348-0825 or dcmiller2@ur.ua.edu.

LOCHMAN, BOXMEYER TO EXPAND, ENHANCE COPING POWER CURRICULUM – Interventions to curb or prevent aggressive behavior in adolescents are difficult due to the turbulent nature of puberty and how they handle environmental stressors. The answer, though, could be in a successful program used to treat younger children. Drs. John Lochman and Caroline Boxmeyer of The University of Alabama and the UA Center for Prevention of Youth Behavior Problems recently received a pair of grants totaling more than $2.2 million to expand Coping Power, a children’s behavioral therapy program co-designed by Lochman. Lochman will serve as principal investigator on a four-year, $1.5 million grant to test the efficacy of his Early Adolescent Coping Power program, tested extensively with elementary school-aged children, with 720 at-risk seventh-grade youth and their caretakers in Virginia and Alabama. Boxmeyer, who received a $700,000 grant from the National Institute on Drug abuse, will incorporate mindfulness training elements, like meditation and yoga, in Coping Power strategies to reduce aggression and future drug abuse in youths. For more information, contact David Miller, UA media relations, at 205/348-0825 or dcmiller2@ur.ua.edu.

VIRTUAL REALITY A KEY TO HELPING STEM ADOLESCENT MARIJUANA USE? – Dr. Amy Traylor, assistant professor of social work at The University of Alabama, will lead a two-year study of adolescents’ reactions to contextual cues, like environments and interactions, related to their marijuana use. Traylor was recently awarded a $275,000 grant from the National Institutes of Health to create and test virtual environments to identify common cannabis-related proximal and contextual cues adolescents encounter. The study will include focus groups at The Bridge, a Tuscaloosa-area juvenile rehab facility. “Further down the road, we could look at using it in treatment situations,” Traylor said. For more information, contact David Miller, UA media relations, at 205/348-0825 or dcmiller2@ur.ua.edu.

UA EXPERT TIPS

UA MATTERS: HOW TO HELP THOSE TAKING CARE OF SICK LOVED ONES – As of 2012, almost half of all U.S. adults had one or more chronic illnesses, and approximately 34 million individuals care for someone with a chronic illness or disability, according to published research. It is difficult at times to know how to “care” for the caregivers. The University of Alabama’s Dr. Amy Beasley, assistant professor in the Capstone College of Nursing, offers some helpful tips to help reduce strain from caregivers in this week’s UA Matters. Contact: UA Media Relations, 205/348-5320

UA MATTERS: WATCHING FOR SIGNS OF LANGUAGE DELAY IN YOUR CHILD – One of the wonderful and thrilling parts of being a parent comes in witnessing a child’s firsts: their first smile, their first laugh, their first step, their first word. Knowing when to expect developmental milestones or how to recognize developmental milestones matters since the late onset of these firsts can be an early sign of other, sometimes more pervasive problems. Perhaps no set of milestones is more important to know than those related to early language development. The University of Alabama’s Dr. Jason Scofield, associate professor in UA’s department of human development and family studies in the College of Human Environmental Sciences, shares a few of those milestones in this week’s UA Matters. UA Matters. Contact: UA Media Relations, 205/348-5320