The case is a good reminder of the importance of working across disciplines and administrative barriers using the One Health strategy to more fully understand and address the links between animal, human and plant health and the environment, says Wondwossen Gebreyes, executive director of The Ohio State University’s Global One Health initiative (GOHi). One Health is a massive global undertaking characterized by widespread collaboration, and its relevance to individuals can be hard to explain.

Describing an E. coli outbreak from the point of view of those affected is an effective way to communicate to the public about how human, animal and environmental interactions can lead to disease, according to Barbara Kowalcyk, assistant professor of food science and technology at Ohio State.

Presenting at the One Health Day Symposium held at Ohio State earlier this month, Kowalcyk was part of a panel of experts discussing strategies for how to explain the implications of One Health to lay audiences at home and abroad.

“A tool I use a lot is storytelling. It’s effective for communicating science,” Kowalcyk told attendees.

Food safety is among the significant world problems that the One Health movement is trying to solve, along with antimicrobial resistance, zoonotic diseases that spread between animals and humans, climate change and environmental toxins.

GOHi leaders held the symposium to bring the local and global community together for an update on the initiative’s research, training and outreach efforts and in recognition of One Health Day, observed annually on Nov. 3.

Presentations made by representatives from Ohio State, state and federal agencies, and international partners reflected the various threats posed to human health and the environment as well as the university’s reach beyond U.S. borders to conduct training, field research and outreach seeking solutions to those concerns.

Liva Rakotondraibe, an assistant professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy at Ohio State, reported on his development of a plant-based compound designed to control mosquitoes that transmit the Zika virus. This is the kind of research that has broad appeal globally and particularly in developing regions such as sub-Saharan Africa and Brazil, where biodiversity is high and herbal medicines are commonly used, but shortages in infrastructure and personnel with drug discovery expertise hinder production of medications.

“Why do we still struggle in the 21st century to make medicine available for Africans? It requires human capacity,” said Abebaw Fekadu, head of the Center for Drug Development & Therapeutics for Africa. “We have medical experts but not technicians to run the work in pharmaceutical companies. We have universities but no one to transfer discoveries to the market.”

One of GOHi’s major objectives is capacity-building to increase the number of professionals in partner nations with the skills to train new health-care practitioners, drug and vaccine developers, educators and leaders. In these mutually beneficial collaborations, Ohio State faculty and students conduct highly relevant research, gain clinical skills and enhance their own training capabilities.

The symposium highlighted Connect and Collaborate, an Ohio State initiative that funds and advises teams of university and community representatives to develop partnerships that provide sustainable benefits to the community while advancing strategic and scholarly priorities of teaching, research and service.

Connect and Collaborate grant recipient Barbara Piperata, associate professor of anthropology at Ohio State, has partnered with faculty colleagues Jiyoung Lee in environmental health and Rebecca Garabed in veterinary preventive medicine to lead a study in a rural Nicaraguan community. The team is analyzing how poor water quality and regular contact with livestock affect the balance of bacteria in children’s guts, hoping to determine whether these conditions contribute to diarrheal diseases that cause infant deaths in developing countries. The goal is to put the findings into practice in rural populations around the world.

“What we really try to do through Connect and Collaborate is plug in people who hadn’t thought to connect with each other,” said Stephen Myers, associate vice provost for outreach and engagement. “We bring together a huge group of funding partners on the front end and work with teams to build meaningful partnerships around the premise that we can’t operate in a silo if we’re going to be relevant and innovative and have great impact.”

GOHi, in fact, grew out of an Ohio State grant-funded partnership launched in 2010 with academic institutions, government organizations and service agencies in Eastern Africa to create sustainable collaborations in teaching, research and outreach aligned around the One Health approach. In addition to its campuswide office at Ohio State, GOHi is now a registered nongovernmental organization with a regional office in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and is advised by an external board of 14 global leaders.

“The most powerful thing about GOHi is that it is built on relationships between people and organizations across the globe driven to make the world a better place for everyone,” Gebreyes said. “Connecting at this symposium gives us the opportunity to share information, celebrate successes and network to develop even more impactful partnerships.”

Growing these shrubs side-by-side with the food crop millet increased millet production by more than 900 percent, according to a new study published in the journal Frontiers in Environmental Science.

A couple of decades have passed since Richard Dick, a soil scientist now at Ohio State, was traveling through rural Senegal in West Africa and noticed low-lying shrubs that seemed to be doing fine despite arid conditions that had wiped out most other vegetation in farmers’ fields.

“I said, ‘Wow, there’s some biomass! What’s that?’” he said, referring to his team’s initial interest in finding organic matter to improve soil in the area. Since then, Dick and long-term lead collaborator Ibrahima Diedhiou of Senegal have discovered many ways in which the shrubs benefit soil and crops.

But the most profound discovery came recently, Dick said.

A newly published study shows that those same shrubs – when planted adjacent to millet – can share the precious water they draw in and boost production of one of the primary grains that provide nutrition to West Africans.

“People in this part of Africa rely on locally grown crops to survive. Finding ways to increase food production, especially during times of severe drought, is critical,” said Dick, a professor of soil microbial ecology at Ohio State.

“As things stand now, the population is continuing to climb, there’s no more land and yields are staying flat.”

The new study has found that certain woody shrubs – notably one called Guiera, after the Latin name Guiera senegalensis – can effectively share their water with millet plants below the surface of the soil. Millet, a grain crop, along with sorghum, is an essential food source in Senegal.

Farmers there and in other parts of the African region called the Sahel have been allowing these shrubs to grow alongside crops to varying degrees – likely for thousands of years, Dick said.

Some cut them back or rip them out and burn them and they’ve been largely unrecognized as a resource for crops, he said.

Dick and his research team have developed an innovative crop management system that they call the “optimized shrub system” that takes advantage of these readily available shrubs. Their approach involves the dramatic increase of shrub density in farmers’ fields from fewer than 300 shrubs per hectare (about 2.5 acres) to 1,500 shrubs on that same plot of land. Their system also includes fertilizing the ground with the shrub leaves and stems rather than burning this organic matter.

Along with a dramatic increase in yields, this system improves soil quality, boosts nutrients in the crops and reduces the time to harvest by about 15 days, which is important in an area plagued by low rainfall, Dick said.

The newly published research details one of the ways in which the plants benefit their neighbors.

The shrubs’ roots grow deep into the soil, searching for moisture 30 to 40 feet beneath the ground surface. That obviously better equips the shrubs themselves to survive tough, dry conditions.

But how do they share the liquid wealth? Dick and his collaborators created an experiment in which they were able to track water that moved from deep tap roots into adjacent pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum.)

They found that, at night – when the shrubs weren’t busy with sunlight-dependent photosynthesis – the water drawn from deep underground leaks out through surface roots into the surrounding soil rather than exiting through the leaves.

The stomata – the “pores” on the leaves of a plant – close in the dark, when photosynthesis stops, Dick explained.

And that meant the millet plants’ roots near the surface are able to take up water delivered to the surface by the shrubs.

The researchers confirmed this by tracking water from its initial entry into the shrubs’ roots to its eventual presence in the millet leaves during a scientifically imposed drought experiment that included a comparison shrub-free field.

“We proved that ‘bioirrigation’ by these shrubs is happening and it’s the first time this has been shown for crop production,” Dick said. “This is a native plant and it’s free and easy to grow – everything about this is positive.”

Now the team still wants to run pilot tests of their growing system with farmers throughout the Sahel and make any adjustments needed to foster more widespread adoption of the practice.

Finding natural, easy-to-employ solutions to feed a growing population has great potential in West Africa, Dick said. In other areas of the world, including Southeast Asia and South America, farmers have adapted to population growth by extensive use of fertilizer and pesticides. But in Senegal and neighboring countries, agriculture is dependent on what nature provides – growers do not typically use fertilizer or pesticides, and do not have the resources to irrigate dry crops.

“This is a semi-arid region, where it rains only part of the year. Some years, there are major droughts and people go hungry,” Dick said, adding that between 60 and 90 percent of the Senegalese live in small, agricultural villages.

“The ultimate solution is going to be whatever is locally available, and finding these answers and working with the local farmers to consider potential agricultural techniques is paramount,” Dick said.

The National Science Foundation supported this research.

Dick worked with scientists from Senegal, France, and the University of California, Merced and Riverside.

Three Ohio State Area Studies Centers have been awarded more than $6.67 million in U.S. Department of Education funding for the next four years. These awards support language and area studies learning and provide grant opportunities for undergraduate, graduate and professional school students.

The Center for Latin American Studies, the Center for Slavic and East European Studies and the East Asian Studies Center, all affiliated with the Office of International Affairs and the College of Arts and Sciences, have been selected to receive Comprehensive National Resource Center and Foreign Language and Area Studies (FLAS) fellowship grants for the 2018 – 2022 award period. The grants will be used by the Area Studies Centers to sponsor a wide range of academic activities, provide training for secondary school teachers, expand instructional initiatives and conduct outreach activities with community colleges and minority-serving institutions.

“We are thrilled to be able to secure Title VI funding again to promote East Asian studies on campus and beyond,” said Etsuyo Yuasa, associate professor in the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures and director of the East Asian Studies Center. “With this funding, we can support close to 100 student fellowships, about 200 lectures and conferences, numerous courses, and other activities over the next four years.”

Title VI National Resource Center grants are awarded to Area Studies Centers around the country to support foreign language, area, and international studies infrastructure. The support of these programs is an effort to ensure a steady supply of graduates with expertise in less commonly taught languages, world areas and transnational trends.

“It's such a privilege to be able to provide enhanced opportunities for students at all levels, as well as for Ohio State faculty, K-12 teachers, and our other partners here and around the country,” said Terrell Morgan, professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese and director of the Center for Latin American Studies. “We're particularly excited about expanding instruction in less commonly taught languages, such as Portuguese and Quechua, as we focus students’ attention on Latin America, a region that is enormously relevant to their future.”

These grants are some of the only federal funding available that enables recipients to invest resources at both the secondary and post-secondary levels to maintain a strong foundation in area studies expertise and less commonly taught languages across disciplines and regions.

“The application process is extremely competitive and we are grateful for the many faculty, students, administrators and community partners who worked with us to develop these exciting projects that will come to fruition in the years to come,” Yuasa said.

FLAS fellowship funding, coupled with matching funds in the form of tuition awards from the Graduate School, allows the centers to provide academic year- and summer-long fellowships to undergraduate, graduate and professional school students undergoing training in less commonly taught languages and related area or international studies.

Annual National Resource Center and FLAS fellowship grants are as follows:

• Center for Latin American Studies
  • National Resource Center funding: $218,017
  • FLAS funding: $303,000

• Center for Slavic and East European Studies
  • National Resource Center funding: $250,000
  • FLAS funding: $349,500

• East Asian Studies Center
  • National Resource Center funding: $233,300
  • FLAS funding: $313,500

The findings, reported in the journal Science, have surprising and positive implications for the survival of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS), which scientists had previously thought could be doomed because of the effects of climate change.

The unexpectedly fast rate of the rising earth may markedly increase the stability of the ice sheet against catastrophic collapse due to ice loss, scientists say.

Moreover, the rapid rise of the earth in this area also affects gravity measurements, which implies that up to 10 percent more ice has disappeared in this part of Antarctica than previously assumed.

Researchers led by scientists at The Ohio State University used a series of six GPS stations (part of the POLENET-ANET array) attached to bedrock around the Amundsen Sea Embayment to measure its rise in response to thinning ice.

The “uplift rate” was measured at up to 41 millimeters (1.6 inches) a year, said Terry Wilson, one of the leaders of the study and a professor emeritus of earth sciences at Ohio State.

In contrast, places like Iceland and Alaska, which have what are considered rapid uplift rates, generally are measured rising 20 to 30 millimeters a year.

“The rate of uplift we found is unusual and very surprising. It’s a game changer,” Wilson said.

And it is only going to get faster. The researchers estimate that in 100 years, uplift rates at the GPS sites will be 2.5 to 3.5 times more rapid than currently observed.

“These results provide an important contribution to our understanding of the dynamics of the Earth’s bedrock, along with the thinning of ice in Antarctica. The large amount of water stored in Antarctica has implications for the whole planet,” said lead study author Valentina R. Barletta, who started this work at Ohio State and now is a postdoctoral researcher at the National Space Institute (DTU Space) at the Technical University of Denmark.

“The new findings raise the need to improve ice models to get a more precise picture of what will happen in the future.”

While modeling studies have shown that bedrock uplift could theoretically protect WAIS from collapse, it was believed that the process would take too long to have practical effects.

“We previously thought uplift would occur over thousands of years at a very slow rate, not enough to have a stabilizing effect on the ice sheet. Our results suggest the stabilizing effect may only take decades,” Wilson said.

Wilson said the rapid rise of the bedrock in this part of Antarctica suggests that the geology underneath Antarctica is different from what scientists had previously believed.

Underneath the solid upper layer of Earth is a hotter and more fluid layer of rock called the mantle. Exactly how hot and fluid the mantle is varies across the planet.

The rapid uplift around the Amundsen Sea Embayment suggests that the mantle in this area is hotter and more fluid (or, as scientists say, it has lower viscosity) than expected, according to Barletta.

Barletta ran a variety of computer models using scenarios of ice loss through time in the area to explain how such rapid uplift could be occurring today.

The results of Barletta’s models showed that the GPS findings today could best be explained by having a low-viscosity mantle, Wilson said.

That would mean the bedrock reacts more quickly when the weight of ice is removed – which is exactly what the GPS results showed.

These new measurements of Glacial Isostatic Adjustment (GIA), the scientific term for uplift due to ice sheet unloading, are an important part of a wider story about the fate of the Antarctic ice sheets, said Doug Kowalewski, the Antarctic Earth Sciences program director in the National Science Foundation’s Office of Polar Programs (OPP).

“The observed GIA response captured by the POLENET array is an order of magnitude greater than previously thought. The upcoming challenge is to couple the GIA observations with ice-sheet models,” Kowalewski said.

“These data will be of great value to the modeling community who examine the complex relationships between GIA, sub-ice shelf ocean circulation, and ultimately, ice sheet stability.”

The biggest practical effect of the uplift may be a rare bit of good news for what is happening in this part of Antarctica as a result of climate change, Wilson said.

The West Antarctic Ice Sheet plays a key role in sea level rise. Estimates suggest this ice sheet alone accounts for one-fourth of global sea level rise that can be attributed to disappearing snow and ice.

Some scientists suggest that WAIS may have passed a tipping point in which ice loss can no longer be stopped, which could be catastrophic, Wilson said. The glaciers there contain enough water to raise global sea levels up to four feet.

The problem is that much of this area of Antarctica is below sea level. Relatively warm ocean water has flowed in underneath the bottom of the ice sheet, causing thinning and moving the grounding line – where the water, ice and solid earth meet – further inland.

The process seemed unstoppable, Wilson said. “But we found feedbacks that could slow or even stop the process.”

One important feedback involves “pinning points” – elevated features of the earth rising from the surface below the grounding line that pin the ice sheet to solid earth. These pinning points are going up in response to the uplift of the earth and could prevent further retreat of the ice sheet.

Another feedback is lowering sea levels. Massive ice sheets along the ocean have their own gravitational pull and raise the sea level near them. But as the ice thins and retreats, the gravitational pull lessens and the sea level near the coast goes down.

“The lowering of the sea level, the rising of pinning points and the decrease of the inland slope due to the uplift of the bedrock are all feedbacks that can stabilize the ice sheet,” Wilson said.

Other researchers had estimated how much the earth would have to rise to protect WAIS given a range of future climate warming scenarios.

Results of this study estimate that the bedrock at the Pine Island Glacier grounding line (which is part of WAIS) will have risen about 8 meters in 100 years. That is about three times higher than values shown by others to reduce run-away retreat in this area.

“Under many realistic climate models, this should be enough to stabilize the ice sheet,” Wilson said.

She said while this study delivers some potentially good news for the Amundsen Sea Embayment, that doesn’t mean all is well in Antarctica.

“The physical geography of Antarctica is very complex. We found some potentially positive feedbacks in this area, but other areas could be different and have negative feedbacks instead,” she said. Regardless of feedbacks, models suggest that the WAIS will collapse if future global warming is large.

Researchers from the University of Washington, University of Colorado-Boulder, TU Delft in the Netherlands, University of Texas, University of Memphis, Colorado State University, Penn State University and Washington University in St. Louis were also involved in the study.

This research was supported by the European Space Agency project GOCE + Antarctica, the NSF Office of Polar Programs Antarctic Earth Sciences Program and the U.S. Antarctic Program.

GOHi and FAHRP will play a lead role in research and training activities focused specifically on Environmental Enteric Dysfunction (EED), a diarrheal disease that is a major cause of childhood death in resource-stricken countries. The $3.2 million research project will identify ways to help improve the nutrition and growth of children who live in rural Ethiopia, many of whom have suffered from malnutrition and stunted growth as a result of chronic digestive issues related to exposure to chicken droppings associated with EED.

“GOHi and OARDC are pleased to be part of this major initiative,” said Wondwossen Gebreyes, executive director of GOHi and a professor of molecular epidemiology in the College of Veterinary Medicine. “This project is of very high significance from several points of view. Most importantly, it addresses a major global issue of EED. While EED has been known for a few decades in humans, its connection with animal-based nutrition and foodborne bacteria has come to surface more recently. 

“In addition, it is important to build the capacity of our strategic partners to establish strong, skilled manpower and laboratory so they can in the future address EED and other important problems at the interface of humans, animals and the environment.”

The research, referred to as the CAGED project, will be a cluster randomized community-based trial, testing whether improvements in a child’s growth pattern can be attained by providing access to quality protein sources and improved health. To achieve overall health and wellness, trainings will be conducted on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) practices, and information and materials will be disseminated on the proper ways to raise chickens in a clean and safe environment. Studies also will be conducted on the foodborne pathogen Campylobacter, and its genetic makeup, to better understand the bacteria, how it spreads and its connection to EED.

The goal will be improved growth among children in the intervention group by reducing infections from food contaminated with Campylobacter, which can be found in infected animals such as chickens. Eliminating the bacteria would decrease the prevalence of recurrent diarrhea and in combination with increased access to eggs, children participating in the study would have reduced rates of stunting and malnutrition.

GOHi and the FAHRP have been involved in the development of the project and will be key to the research’s coordination, oversight of molecular epidemiology and training of a PhD fellow in capacity-building components.

Learn more about the University of Florida’s research project.

Ohio State ranks 5th among the nation’s colleges and universities and 1st in the Big Ten with 2,886 students studying abroad in 2015-16, a 6.5 percent increase over the previous year. Ohio State ranks 2nd in the nation for the number of students participating in short-term programs with 2,774 studying abroad for one to eight weeks during the academic year.

Ohio State ranks 17th in the nation with 7,684* international students enrolled in 2016, an 8 percent increase in enrollment from the previous year.

These findings were issued as part of the 2017 Open Doors Report, an annual survey published by the Institute of International Education in partnership with the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Participation in education abroad at Ohio State has demonstrated steady growth over the last few years. The percentage increase in study abroad participation in 2015-2016 can primarily be attributed to more than 230 students with the Ohio State Marching Band traveling on a short-term program to London. Other factors that contribute to more students studying abroad include: programming geared toward first and second year students, the Second Year Transformational Experiences Program, a university-wide commitment to make international opportunities more accessible to diverse student populations, involvement of more than 100 Ohio State faculty leading programs, and offering close to 60 study abroad opportunities during the month of May. Of the 2,886 students that studied abroad in 2015-16, close to 800 took advantage of the four-week programs in May.

“May and summer programming provides students with an opportune moment in their college career to study abroad and gain international experience in their field of study or complete General Education requirements,” said Gifty Ako-Adounvo, assistant vice provost for global strategies and international affairs. “We have made a concerted effort to develop programs that focus on the history, culture and environment of particular regions that has made studying abroad more accessible to a variety of student populations.”

International student enrollment experienced an increase of more than 550 students; Ohio State enrolled 7,117 international students in 2015.

“Our goal is to ensure that international student enrollment levels remain in tandem with enhanced programming efforts to help our students adapt to a new cultural environment, while also supporting their academic success at Ohio State,” Ako-Adounvo said.

International students at Ohio State hail from more than 100 countries, including China (4,810); India (813); South Korea (437); Malaysia (298); and Taiwan (166). Nationally, the leading home countries for international students are China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

The top fields of study at Ohio State for international students include business, engineering, social sciences, biomedical and biological sciences, and mathematics and statistics, similar to the national trend.

The most popular destinations for Ohio State students to study abroad include the United Kingdom, Spain, China, Australia and Honduras. Nationally, the leading destinations for studying abroad are the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France and China.

The top fields of study for Ohio State students studying abroad are business, health professions, engineering, biological and biomedical sciences, social sciences and agriculture, whereas the national trend includes science, technology, engineering and mathematics, business, social sciences, and foreign language and international studies.

The 2017 Open Doors Report is released as part of the nationwide observance of International Education Week (November 13-17), a joint initiative established by the U.S. Departments of Education and State.

At Ohio State, International Education Week is celebrated with a number of activities supported by the Office of International Affairs, which oversees Ohio State’s education abroad programs and international student and scholar services. The office also advances high quality international education programs, scholarships and service activities to promote global opportunities for Ohio State, its faculty, staff and students. For more information, visit http://oia.osu.edu/.

* The IIE’s collection of enrollment data for international students includes two categories of students who are not currently enrolled at Ohio State in classes for credit. They include “Optional Practical Training” students who are not taking classes, but are continuing their education through practical training in their field of study, and exchange students who are pursuing continuing (non-degree) education. 

Following a late October Global Innovation workshop in Paraiba, Brazil, Ohio State representatives are leading an international global health congress in Doha, Qatar, this week and preparing to celebrate life-saving partnerships culminating in the registration of Ohio State’s Eastern Africa regional office as a nongovernmental organization in Ethiopia.

The timing of events has coincided with the observance of One Health Day on Nov. 3. One Health is a strategy to more fully understand and address the links between animal health, human health and the environment.

International congress

Scientists and policymakers from more than 30 countries are attending the 4th International Congress on Pathogens at the Human-Animal Interface (ICOPHAI) in Doha, focusing on how environmental change affects global health.

Wondwossen Gebreyes, executive director of Ohio State’s Global One Health initiative (GOHi), helped found the biennial congress in 2009 as a way to unite professionals who are dedicated to the One Health mission.

“The founding principle of ICOPHAI is to bring scientists and policymakers from around the world – and especially scientists from developing countries with scientists from the developed and industrialized world – to share knowledge and share experiences in an effort to address high-priority disease threats,” Gebreyes said.

Recent outbreaks have demonstrated that these threats are not confined to developing countries. Since the last ICOPHAI convened in Thailand in 2015, the spread of the Zika virus to southern American states heightened awareness of a disease previously associated with tropical Africa, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. After reported symptomatic cases in the United States increased from 61 in 2015 to 5,102 in 2016, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s participation in a global cooperative response helped reduce the number of U.S. cases to date in 2017 to 331.

“As a mosquito-borne infection, Zika is a clear example of what we are talking about at ICOPHAI this year: It is a disease emerging on a global basis that is connected to the environment,” said Gebreyes, also chair of ICOPHAI 2017. “Climate change is also highly important to what’s happening in terms of disease ecology and transmission.

“The future of One Health is becoming more and more critical because of current global dynamics. The human population is projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, and that is associated with increased urbanization and deforestation,” he said. “All of those factors have potential to increase the devastating impact of disease.”

Zika captures headlines, but the daily challenges in the developing world to prevent staph infections or raise food animals safely have a far greater impact on everyday life and pose dangers to community health. Among the presenters from 34 countries at ICOPHAI, Ohio State scientists and their collaborators are reporting on their work addressing those kinds of concerns, such as:

• Management and prevention of beef cattle diseases including bovine tuberculosis, brucellosis and antimicrobial-resistant salmonella strains.
• Dairy farm sanitation practices to prevent low milk productivity and milk-borne diseases that can spread from cattle to humans.
• Treatment strategies to prevent opportunistic infections in people with HIV/AIDS working in food production facilities.

Additional broad topics discussed at the 2017 international congress are:

• antimicrobial resistance and drug-related issues
• biosecurity, biodefense and disaster response
• identifying disease origins and developing vaccines using new technologies
• food-borne and water-borne diseases
• parasitic and environmental disease transmission from animals to humans
• capacity building, e-learning and outreach

Eastern Africa

What exactly is capacity building? Ohio State’s partnerships across Eastern Africa, and in Ethiopia in particular, are a good example of how it works and why it’s important.

Gebreyes spearheaded an initial partnership in 2010 between Ohio State and academic institutions, government organizations and service agencies in Eastern Africa to create sustainable collaborations in teaching, research and outreach aligned around the One Health approach. Ethiopia was primed for this kind of initiative at that time – the country had invested heavily in education infrastructure but experienced a major shortage of professionals with the proper skills to train a new pool of health-care practitioners. As the second-largest nation in Africa with the largest number of livestock, Ethiopia also presents valuable opportunities for the Ohio State community.

GOHi team: Getnet Yimer, Ashley Bersani, Tigist Endashaw, Emia Oppenheim, Kayleigh Gallagher, Wondwossen Gebreyes

At ICOPHAI 2017, the GOHi team reported on Ohio State’s progress in this massive One Health pursuit.

Three critical issues topped the initial agenda in Ethiopia: on-the-ground field work to improve screening and treatment for cervical cancer, develop a roadmap for the prevention and control of rabies as a model for the One Health platform, and make improvements in environmental health, food safety and food security.

Simultaneous activities focused on sustaining and extending the impact of those efforts by building research, training and outreach capacity to improve management of acute biological hazards like zoonotic diseases as well as chronic issues and chemical hazards that affect the human, animal and environment interface. Broad technical areas of focus include surveillance and monitoring, disease prevention and control in humans and animals, and education and advocacy.

One Health Summer Institutes consisting of training, projects and workshops led by Ohio State faculty from 13 different disciplines have been a mainstay of the initiative and have been supplemented by additional successes that GOHi has logged along the way. Ohio State has secured funding from several federal health agencies to support a TB clinical trial, leadership training for Ethiopian public health officials, and the extension of workshops on ethics, rabies prevention and antimicrobial resistance to the neighboring countries of Kenya and Tanzania.

From the very beginning, the benefits of the partnerships were designed to go both ways – the dozens of participating Ohio State faculty and students conduct highly relevant research, gain valuable clinical skills, enhance their own training capabilities and carry the lessons of once-in-a-lifetime experiential learning with them for the rest of their careers, Gebreyes notes: “A key part of our goal is to teach Ohio State students to be ready for anything they might encounter in their professional lives.”

Ohio State opened a regional office in Addis Ababa in November 2016 to manage activities throughout the region. On Saturday, Nov. 11, several university leaders and Ohio State contributors to the One Health work in Eastern Africa will join the GOHi team for a ceremony officially christening the new office and celebrating its registration as an NGO by the Ethiopian Charities and Societies Agency.

“This in itself is an example of our own capacity building,” Gebreyes said. “By pursuing NGO registration we have demonstrated our lasting commitment to the One Health mission in Eastern Africa, enabling our engagement with the citizens of Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania and others to take on a whole new dimension while providing sustainable opportunities for scholarly activities by the Ohio State community.”

Welcome to the Ohio State National Security Crisis Simulation. The simulation is a two-day exercise at The Ohio State University that immerses students from law, policy, intelligence and media in real-world roles as they confront a seemingly never-ending series of crises.

Rudesill, a law professor at the Moritz College of Law, is the simulation’s architect, instructor and puppet master. He and a control team operated behind closed doors, injecting chaos at every turn to challenge the students to work through problems.

And the problems are legion. Over the course of the simulation last week, the crises included terror attacks, natural disasters and cyber warfare. The examples are often drawn from real life.

“If while we’re working through the issues we are coming up with today, we come up with a brilliant policy response or legal response to something, that’s wonderful,” Rudesill said. “But what this is really about is professional skills development.”

A roster of real-world experts advise the students throughout the simulation. Senate President Larry Obhof, former Congresswoman Mary Jo Kilroy and journalist Philip Bump were some of the professionals guiding the students from crisis to crisis.

Bump, national correspondent for the Washington Post, mentored student journalists working to report on all of the events occurring in the simulation. The School of Communication has had dozens of students participate in the simulation since its creation.

“I didn’t have to adopt a persona. My job was to have a team of folks figure out what the news stories were,” he said.

Mato Vunak, a fourth-year communications major, spent the two days of the simulation working with Bump. He said the experience boosted his confidence.

“I think confidence was the biggest take-away. Having Philip Bump there to push you to ask questions and not take any excuses meant a lot,” Vunak said.

Katie Grammenidis, a second-year law student, played counsel for the governor of California.

“I think this was a good lesson in staying calm and learning to talk to different actors. I think on the first day there was a very heightened sense of emotions,” Grammenidis said. Working through those emotions at a fast pace was a learning experience.

At one point, the students charged with role-playing the legislative branch failed to get a bill out of committee. Rudesill, who in his career has advised senior leaders in all three branches of the federal government, compared it to a prizefighter who is knocked out in training.

“It’s not good, but it’s learning,” he said.

“It really exposes all of us to how complicated the national security decision-making process is,” said Jeff Rogg, a graduate student who helps Rudesill manage the planning and implementation of the simulation.

Rogg has participated in simulations similar to the one run at Ohio State. He said it compared favorably to other universities and events run by the military when he served.

Students and participants immersed themselves in their roles and often executed very challenging assignments. By the end of the second day, students averted nuclear war, passed a congressional spending bill and halted an armed insurrection. And learned some valuable lessons.

“You can’t learn here without taking it seriously,” Rudesill said.

A new study from The Ohio State University has found that policies called “community forest concessions” have proven effective in preserving Guatemalan rainforests.

While giving forest property and management rights to residents doesn’t eliminate deforestation, it appears to lower it as much as almost 8 percent compared to areas without community oversight and ownership.

Brent Sohngen

“Globally, there’s a huge debate about how to conserve these rainforests and this work shows that these policies slow down aggressive deforestation that harms the environment,” said study co-author Brent Sohngen, a professor of agricultural, environmental and developmental economics at Ohio State.

“Most government-protected zones are protected in name only, so it’s important to find new ways of slowing deforestation.”

This study, which appeared in the journal Land Economics, looked at community concessions in the Maya Biosphere Reserve, a protected area in northern Guatemala. In some cases, the government allocated property rights to longtime residents of the area. In other cases, the property was put in the hands of recent settlers or given to those who live a distance away, in a larger metropolitan area.

The research team used satellite land-use data to estimate the impact of community management on avoiding deforestation. And they compared tree loss in those areas to deforestation in similar, unmanaged areas.

The researchers also assessed “leakage,” or the shifting of deforestation from managed areas to nearby unmanaged areas – a problem that could render the community management policies worthless.

In all cases, the programs slowed the cutting down of trees in the rainforest, a resource that is vital in lowering carbon levels in the atmosphere.

The impact of community management was greatest in recently settled areas. The researchers found an almost 8 percent reduction compared to similar non-managed areas. There was evidence of leakage in those areas as well, though not enough to eclipse the benefits of deforestation.

The smallest impact – a 4.3 percent reduction – was seen in areas where nonresidents managed the land.

“This study’s worldwide implications are tremendous,” said Douglas Southgate, study co-author and emeritus professor of agricultural, environmental and development economics at Ohio State.

“There are millions upon millions of hectares of tropical forests – far more than will ever be set aside as parks and reserves and nearly all of that land is inhabited. This study suggeststhat empowering local communities is the best way to conserve resources in many places,” he said.

In the arrangements in Guatemala, significant responsibility is handed over to the residents involved, Sohngen said.

“What happens is you allocate property rights to groups of people – from 30 residents to hundreds of people – and they organize themselves and manage the land,” he said.

Though the timber industry doesn’t disappear in these rainforests, fast and indiscriminate removal of trees subsides while sustainable forestry increases. These arrangements in Guatemala also have led to a rise in non-timber business, including ecotourism and harvesting, and sales of plants including palm fronds used in floral arrangements, Sohngen said.

“Deforestation is still going on – it’s not like it’s gone to zero – but this arrangement preserves biodiversity, history and culture. And it reduces carbon at the same time,” he said.

“If we can preserve some of these spaces through concessions, we’ve saved them for another day,” Sohngen said.

Lea Fortmann, now an assistant professor of economics at the University of Puget Sound, worked on this study as an Ohio State graduate student.

A graduate of The Ohio State University, and now deputy chief of staff for the office that manages resources for the Army, Murray was back to see the game Saturday and was asked about the score.

“I’m hoping for a tie,” he said.

Murray was commissioned as an infantry officer after graduation from Ohio State in 1982 and has served in the Army ever since. The lieutenant general is the university’s highest-ranking alumnus.

Murray spoke to Army ROTC cadets and joined a panel at the Buckeye Advocates fall event before attending the football game.

He said his time at Ohio State prepared him for life in the Army. The lessons he learned on campus have carried over into his military career.

“Anything worth having is worth working for. Nothing good comes easy in life,” Murray said. “If you set your goals fairly high and continue to strive for them, it’s amazing what you can accomplish.”

He noted the competition for graduates from Ohio State is fierce. Murray said the Army is competing with companies like Google and Cisco to find the leaders of tomorrow.

“This is not the Army you see in the movies. It’s not the Army you see on nightly news. It’s so much more,” he said. “The army is lawyers, it’s doctors, it’s spatial engineers, it’s mechanical engineers. The Army is leading a lot of research efforts now in autonomous air and ground vehicles, in artificial intelligence.”

Universities like Ohio State are critical to the future of the U.S. military, he said.

“It’s that strong science, technology, engineering and math, and medical background that we seek,” he said. “But it’s also young men and women of character. That have solid ethical standards, that know what it means to be part of a small team, that know what it means to put your team above yourself and to make those sacrifices to enable the team.”

He sees that character reflected in students he met while on campus.

“The kids that come into the Army today, the young men and the young women are just amazing young people and I’m sure the students here at Ohio State are exactly the same way,” Murray said. “It’s all a matter of figuring out what you want to do in life and never saying no and continuing to work until you achieve it.”

Aweng was the guest speaker at a celebration of Black History Month at the Wexner Medical Center Wednesday. He is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, forced to flee military conflict in the 1980s from his village in what is now South Sudan.

“So many people ask me how I did it. I had hope. I had faith,” Aweng told a crowded auditorium at the Ross Heart Hospital.

As a 6-year-old, Aweng was separated from his family and made a dangerous trek across the war-torn African nation of Sudan. He and thousands of children fled on foot to seek refuge first in Ethiopia and later in Kenya.

Along the 1,500-mile journey, Aweng lost friends to starvation, violence and animal attacks. He spoke of fending off lions and how they claimed the lives of fellow refugees. Exhaustion took a toll as well.

“You only had the choice to sit down or keep walking,” he said. “When my friends would sit down, that was the end of their life. They did not get up.”

Aweng finally escaped to safety at a refugee camp in Kenya, where he learned English, math and science. He said he studied under a tree with tools made of cardboard or even dirt. His journey to freedom eventually took him from Kenya to the United States and finally to Ohio State.

“When I came to Ohio State University that’s when I knew that without the under-the-tree classroom, I could not make it here,” he said.

After getting his degree from Ohio State, Aweng settled into life in America. But eventually he felt a need to return home and see what had become of his village after the war. In 2007 he returned to Africa for the first time in 20 years.

Aweng found his village and his parents. Both had survived the conflict. Aweng also recognized the critical need for medical care in his former home and worked with central Ohio organizations to help set up the Buckeye Clinic in Piol Village. The clinic provides maternal and child care to village residents.

Dr. Michael Caligiuri, CEO of the James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute and director of the Comprehensive Cancer Center, commended Aweng for his efforts to bring better health care to his former country.

“We just marvel at what you’ve done in your very young life,” Caligiuri said.

To learn more about the Buckeye Clinic, visit its website and read about Aweng’s journey.

Secretary of the Army Eric Fanning is days away from leaving his post as head of the U.S. Army, but he believes others should answer the call to public service.

Fanning spoke Wednesday to a full theater at the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. He was a featured speaker for the Mershon Center for International Studies.

Fanning’s career path has led him to jobs in and out of Washington, D.C., and to leadership roles in three branches of the military.

“Do whatever you are asked to do as well as you can do it,” Fanning said.

His message to the audience: if you are too focused on following a career path, you may miss opportunities along the way.

“Seize opportunities as they come so you can learn that next thing,” Fanning said. “Work with someone you admire and it will lead to something else.”

Fanning, the first openly gay Secretary of the Army, spoke about the need for and value of diversity. He said he has worked to conscientiously pick diverse teams to get all points of view in his decision-making. Fanning said it is critical to have an Army that reflects the country it serves.

Fanning is a graduate of Dartmouth College but is no stranger to the Buckeye state. He went to Centerville High School, just outside of Dayton.

Zachary Mears, assistant vice president for national security and research programs at Ohio State, moderated the conversation. Mears and Fanning served in the Department of Defense together.

Zach McIntyre, a first-year public affairs and national security major, asked about a resurgent Taliban in Afghanistan and the threat they posed.

Fanning said the U.S. continues to train Afghan soldiers so they can take over the security of their own country.

“I think it’s going to take a little longer, but I’m not as concerned about some of the reports you might be hearing,” he said.

Fanning said the Army has issues to focus on beyond the conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. He said his priorities included funding mental health services for soldiers and civilians dealing with post-traumatic stress. He also said research and development is critical as well.

Fanning is an appointee of President Obama. President-elect Donald Trump has selected businessman and former Army major Vincent Viola to lead the Army.

“Ohio State’s motto, “Education for Citizenship,” has long since expanded to preparing our students for their place in, and their contributions to, the global community. We deeply appreciate being among the four national finalists of the APLU’s inaugural award for Global Learning, Research & Engagement,” said Executive Vice President and Provost Bruce A. McPheron.

The award recognizes a demonstrated commitment to and institutional evidence of a core set of criteria: empowering all students through global learning; addressing global problems through scientific and scholarly efforts; fostering an international culture throughout the campus including a broad range of internal and external stakeholders; and measuring progress and assessing impact across the institution.

“We are honored to be recognized for our internationalization efforts across all aspects of the institution,” said William Brustein, vice provost for global strategies and international affairs. “We are committed to providing our students with opportunities to become informed global citizens, and we remain immersed in the innovative research that address today’s global challenges.”

Over the last seven years, Ohio State created an institutional framework that has strengthened internationalization efforts and expanded the university’s global reach. The university launched the Global Option, a curriculum enhancement program that helps undergraduates acquire international knowledge through coursework integrated into their majors. Ohio State is ranked 7^th in the number of students studying abroad with participation increasing 51 percent in the last four years. Scholars are making discoveries and creating new technologies that address society’s critical issues, including identifying new and renewable energy sources, meeting the global demand for sufficient and secure food supplies, overcoming disease and maximizing health and well-being.

Ohio State also broadened its international connections with the opening of Global Gateways, liaison offices in Shanghai, Mumbai and São Paulo, as well as through partnerships with institutions abroad that have resulted in additional grant and funding opportunities, new research collaborations, and the development of dual degree programs. 

Gebreyes serves as the faculty lead on the One Health Ethiopia initiative, which connects Ohio State with Addis Ababa University, the University of Gondar and 19 Ethiopian and U.S. institutes to improve health, build capacity and provide learning opportunities for students. Initiated in 2009 by Gebreyes, One Health Ethiopia expanded in 2012 to include Ohio State’s seven health sciences colleges as well as the colleges of agriculture, business, engineering and social work. Today, countless Ohio State students, faculty and staff are involved in the project, addressing cervical cancer, maternal and child health, food safety, rabies prevention and control and sharing the information gained through innovative e-learning technology.

“Dr. Wondwossen Gebreyes truly represents the College of Veterinary Medicine’s vision of “Healthy Animals – Healthy People” at an international level through his research, education and academic contributions,” said Rustin Moore, Dean of Ohio State’s College of Veterinary Medicine. “Professor Gebreyes’ work throughout the world, especially with the bridges he has built connecting Ohio State with East Africa, stand as a testament to his vision, leadership and innovation in global health. This is an outstanding and well-deserved recognition,” added Moore.

One Health Ethiopia has brought together an integrated team of researchers, clinicians and students to address major emerging health threats in the East Africa region; implemented short-term training via the One Health Summer Institute providing faculty and students alike the opportunity to build capacity of current and future professionals through innovative education; along with partners in Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, established exchange programs to conduct cross-training of faculty, students and staff; and utilized state-of-the-art technology to develop online courses through iTunes U learning with 8,000 students enrolled in more than 90 countries in one course alone.

The initiative is a prime example of Ohio State’s commitment as a global institution and demonstrates the successful contributions by faculty and students to engage in meaningful and beneficial partnerships to gain and share knowledge, and find innovative solutions to the world’s most compelling issues.

“The Universitas 21 Award is a lasting tribute to Dr. Gebreyes’ passion and expertise in the field of global health,” said William Brustein, vice provost for global strategies and international affairs. “His dedication has helped Ohio State leverage its comprehensive health science campus to build capacity and he has created meaningful ways for students and faculty to gain and share knowledge on a global scale.”

Gebreyes will receive the award during a ceremony at U21’s Annual Presidential Meeting at the National University of Singapore on May 12.

Ohio State is a member of Universitas 21, a network of 27 research-led universities around the world. It aims to promote and achieve collaboration, co-operation and work of a comprehensive nature, inspiring a strong bond of collegiality among highly respected universities.

The massive open online course (MOOC) is funded through the U.S. Department of State’s Passport to India initiative, which is jointly managed by Ohio State and IndoGenius. Passport to India seeks to increase the number and diversity of American college and university students studying abroad and interning in India by 2020. The program was launched by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011 to create a hub for U.S.-India higher education partnerships and to develop a stronger bond between the youth of both countries by increasing American student mobility.

“With India’s growing economy it is critical for our future leaders to understand India’s cultural, historic and economic importance in world affairs,” said William Brustein, vice provost for global strategies and international affairs at Ohio State. “Engaging young Americans to experience the depth and breadth of India firsthand will only produce stronger U.S.-India relations. For Ohio State to take a leadership role in this transformative process is an exciting and important opportunity.”

The curriculum for the course was developed by Brian Joseph, a distinguished university professor of linguistics at Ohio State and Nick Booker, co-founder of IndoGenius, and implemented through the Office of Distance Education and eLearning. The course titled, The Importance of India, covers a broad range of topics, from India’s ancient trade relations with the Roman Empire, South East Asia and China to India’s rapidly growing startup ecosystem and its role in creatively solving global problems through technology. The course’s final lecture is dedicated to presenting study, startup and internship opportunities in India along with references and advice for those wishing to travel to India. By educating students about India through the online course, Ohio State and IndoGenius are hoping it will make a significant contribution toward meeting Passport to India’s goal of increasing the number of students studying abroad in India annually from its current, 4,583 to at least 10,000 in the next four years.

“India is relevant to American students of all backgrounds and interests,” said Booker of IndoGenius. “The Passport to India MOOC will demonstrate how India’s economic and civilizational re-emergence has renewed the importance of India. Take any of the grand challenges faced by the world today and if you can innovate a solution that works in India it can work anywhere.”

The course is free for anyone in the world and currently open for enrollment on coursera.org. Indian students are actively encouraged to join and learn alongside their American peers. Those interested in learning more about Passport to India and its directory of 60+ study abroad and paid internship opportunities in India can do so at www.passporttoindia.com.

Ohio State ranks 7th among the nation’s colleges and universities with 2,539 students studying abroad in 2013-14, a 12.5 percent increase over the previous year. Ohio State ranks 2nd in the nation for the number of students participating in short-term programs with 2,493 studying abroad for one to eight weeks during the academic year.

Ohio State ranks 14th in the nation with 7,121* international students enrolled in 2014, an increase of 4.7 percent.

These findings were issued as part of the 2015 Open Doors Report, an annual survey published by the Institute of International Education in partnership with the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.

Participation in study abroad at Ohio State continues to steadily grow as a result of a few key factors. Ohio State developed new and innovative programming geared toward first and second year students, instituted a university-wide commitment to make international opportunities more accessible to diverse student populations and offered close to 60 study abroad opportunities during May session. Close to 850 of the 2,359 students that studied abroad in 2013-14 took advantage of the four-week May session programs.

“May session provides students with an opportune moment in their college career to study abroad and gain international experience in their field of study or complete General Education requirements,” said William Brustein, vice provost for global strategies and international affairs. “Students can now more easily gain international knowledge and perspective and still have time over summer break to take advantage of internships and other types of professional experience that will prepare them for their future careers.”

The slight increase in international student enrollment follows the university’s strategy of steady growth to ensure the quality of its applicants continues to rise. Ohio State enrolled 6,800 international students in 2013.

“Our recruitment strategy is geared toward gradual growth in our international student population to ensure we have enhanced programming in place that will help our students adapt to a new cultural environment, while supporting their academic success at Ohio State,” Brustein said.

International students at Ohio State hail from 110 different countries including, China (4,352); India (774); South Korea (508); Malaysia (186) and Taiwan (169). Nationally, the leading home countries for international students are China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Canada.

The top fields of study at Ohio State for international students include engineering, business, social sciences, biomedical and biological sciences, and mathematics and statistics, similar to the national trend.

The most popular destinations for Ohio State students to study abroad include the United Kingdom, Honduras, China, Australia and Italy. Nationally, the leading destinations for studying abroad are the United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, France and China. Ohio State students studied abroad in 85 different countries during the 2013-14 academic year.

The top fields of study for Ohio State students studying abroad are business and management, health sciences, biological and biomedical sciences, agriculture and social sciences, whereas the national trend records science, technology, engineering and mathematics, business, social sciences, and foreign language and international studies.

The 2015 Open Doors Report is released as part of the nationwide observance of International Education Week (November 16-20), a joint initiative established by the U.S. Departments of Education and State.

At Ohio State, the week is celebrated with a number of activities supported by the Office of International Affairs, which oversees Ohio State’s study abroad programs and international student and scholar services. The office also advances high quality international education programs, scholarships and service activities to promote global opportunities for Ohio State, its faculty, staff and students. For more information, visit http://oia.osu.edu/

* The IIE’s collection of enrollment data for international students includes two categories of students who are not currently enrolled at Ohio State in classes for credit. They include “Optional Practical Training” students who are not taking classes, but are continuing their education through practical training in their field of study, and exchange students who are pursuing continuing (non-degree) education. 

COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State University Marching Band will lift off next fall for a trip to London, taking its groundbreaking field performances abroad for the first time.

The marching band will perform a pregame show on Sunday, Oct. 25, at the NFL matchup between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars in Wembley Stadium. It is the second of three games scheduled in London this fall as part of the NFL International Series.

Ohio State’s marching band routinely performs at Cincinnati Bengals and Cleveland Browns games and has received invitations to international sporting events in the past, but this is the first time the scheduling stars aligned to make travel abroad for the band possible, said Interim Director Christopher Hoch.

“We’re fortunate to have an international reputation thanks to shows that have gone viral on video or received widespread media attention,” Hoch said. “It will be a real thrill to have a chance to perform for the people of London.

“The NFL has requested a London-themed show, but left the creative elements up to us. We are planning a very special and exciting performance.”

The performance is a first for the NFL International Series, as well.

“We are very excited to be bringing the Ohio State University to Wembley and can’t wait to see what they have in store for our fans,” said NFLUK Managing Director Alistair Kirkwood. “This will be very different to anything we have done at the International Series games before and we know that the band is planning something spectacular to celebrate and commemorate being in the UK.”

Hoch was named interim director of the band in May. He has been pivotal in shaping the band’s global reputation for innovation as the lead designer of complex animated marching formations. Just one example: Hoch designed and orchestrated the 2012 Tribute to the Classic Video Games, which became the band’s first show to top 15 million hits on YouTube.

“We couldn’t be the world-class band that we’ve become without the tremendous dedication of our student musicians. They work incredibly hard preparing and performing each season, and I’m really pleased that they are being rewarded with this once-in-a-lifetime experience,” Hoch said.

The use of technology to enhance rehearsals and performances is one of many marching band innovations developed at Ohio State, and learning drills on iPads solidified its status as not just The Best Damn Band in the Land, but also the highest-tech band in the land. Other innovations include floating formations, measured-step marching and script writing – which originated with the incomparable Script Ohio formation.

Everyone in the band is ecstatic and thrilled about the opportunity to travel to London, said head drum major Nathan MacMaster, a graduate student from Reynoldsburg, Ohio.

“Our shows have been seen online around the world, but to actually perform in person on such a global stage will be the opportunity of a lifetime,” he said. “I can't wait for this amazing opportunity to represent The Ohio State University."

Ohio State’s marching band is one of a few collegiate all brass and percussion bands in the United States, and with 225 members, is commonly acknowledged as the largest of its type in the world.

The NFL will cover all of the band’s travel costs for the London trip.

The researchers surveyed 23 protected areas in the West African nation between 2010 and 2013 and found that about three-quarters of the land in them had been transformed into cocoa production.

The Ivory Coast is the largest producer of cocoa beans, providing more than one-third of the world’s supply. Cocoa is the main ingredient in chocolate.

“The world’s demand for chocolate has been very hard on the endangered primates of Ivory Coast,” said W. Scott McGraw, co-author of the study and professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University.

McGraw said the original goal of this research was “just to do a census of the monkeys in these protected areas.”

“But when we started walking through these areas we were just stunned by the scale of illegal cocoa production. It is now the major cause of deforestation in these parks,” he said.

The study (available here) appears in the March 2015 issue of the journal Tropical Conservation Science.“There are parks in Ivory Coast with no forests and no primates, but a sea of cocoa plants.”

For the study, McGraw and his co-authors, all of whom work for Ivory Coast research institutions, spent a total of 208 days walking transects through nationally protected areas, most in the central and southern regions of the country. In each area, they noted the amount of forest that had been cut down or degraded and how much of this was replaced by cocoa or other types of farms. They also recorded the presence of 16 primate species, including monkeys and chimpanzees.

The results, McGraw said, were “depressing.”

Of the 23 protected areas, 16 of them had more than 65 percent of their forests degraded by farms, logging or other human disturbance. While a variety of agricultural products were grown illegally in the parks, cocoa constituted 93 percent of the total crops grown.

Unauthorized villages have sprung up within these parks, with one housing nearly 30,000 people.Overall, 20 of the areas had illegal cocoa plantations and approximately 74 percent of the total land in these areas was transformed into cocoa production.Of the 23 protected areas, 16 of them had more than 65 percent of their forests degraded by farms, logging or other human disturbance. While a variety of agricultural products were grown illegally in the parks, cocoa constituted 93 percent of the total crops grown.Overall, 20 of the areas had illegal cocoa plantations and approximately 74 percent of the total land in these areas was transformed into cocoa production.

“I’ve been doing survey work in these parks for 20 years, and it wasn’t nearly this bad when I started. This is a relatively recent development,” McGraw said.

The impact on primates has been dramatic.

Overall, 13 of the protected areas (57 percent) had lost their entire primate populations, while another five had lost half of their species.

One species of monkey - Miss Waldron's red colobus – was not seen during this survey and has not officially been sighted since 1978. It is probably extinct.

Two other monkeys – the Roloway monkey and the White-naped mangabey – were seen in only two reserves and are critically endangered, at least partially due to the habitat destruction caused by illegal cocoa farms.

“The Roloway monkey may be the next to go extinct,” McGraw said. “It is not able to live in the degraded habitats that are left in many of these protected areas.”

Many of the older, legal cocoa plantations in the country have been blighted by disease or otherwise haven’t produced at the same levels as previously, which has led some growers to establish new farms in the reserves. Moreover, migrants from outside the country have moved into Ivory Coast and turned to farming to survive.A variety of factors have led to these forest reserves being destroyed, he said. One has been the growing worldwide demand for chocolate. Ivory Coast produced a record 1.7 million metric tons of cocoa in the year that ended in September, according to the International Cocoa Organization in London.

At the same time, Ivory Coast has been in political turmoil in recent years and the government hasn’t been focused on monitoring these forest reserves.

“There is little, if any, real active protection given to these parks and reserves,” McGraw said. “People have moved in and settled with essentially no resistance, cut down the forest, and planted cocoa. It is incredibly blatant.”

McGraw said that while the results are disappointing, there is still time to halt the disappearance of more primates and other wildlife. First, the land within protected areas needs to be actually protected.

Outside these lands, growers should move toward shade-cocoa farming, which keeps some of the large existing trees, with cocoa plants interspersed among them. This would at least preserve some suitable habitat for monkeys that live in the country, he said.

In addition, there should be efforts to connect the many fragmented forest reserves in the country. “We need to view the protected areas not as individual islands, but as a matrix,” he said.

One promising development is the establishment of community-based bio-monitoring programs that involve foot patrols conducted by local villagers. McGraw said his co-authors on this paper established a patrol in the Dassioko Forest Reserve and it has succeeded in reducing illegal activity in the area. Encounter rates with primates has risen in the area as a result.

The co-authors on the study were E. Anderson Bitty, Sery Gonedele Bi, Jean-Claude Koffi Bene and Philippe K. Kouassi.

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The researchers are excavating the graveyard surrounding the abandoned Badia Pozzeveri church in the Tuscany region of Italy.

The site contains victims of the cholera epidemic that swept the world in the 1850s, said Clark Spencer Larsen, professor of anthropology at The Ohio State University and one of the leaders of the excavation team.

Archaeologists and their students have spent the past four summers painstakingly excavating remains in a special section of the cemetery used for cholera victims.

Finding traces of the pathogen that caused cholera among the human remains could reveal details about how people lived – and died – in this region of Europe.

“To our knowledge, these are the best preserved remains of cholera victims of this time period ever found,” Larsen said. “We’re very excited about what we may be able to learn.”

Larsen discussed the project on Feb. 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose.

Clark Spencer Larsen

The bodies of the cholera victims were hastily buried and covered in lime, which hardened like concrete around the bodies. Researchers suspect residents were trying to keep the disease from spreading.

“But the lime encasing is pretty amazing for bone preservation, too,” Larsen said.

Not just the bones were preserved. The lime trapped soil around the bodies that contains the ancient DNA of bacteria and other organisms that lived in the humans buried there.

One of Larsen’s colleagues, Hendrik Poinar, a professor at McMaster University in Hamilton, Canada, is an expert in ancient DNA and is scanning the soil samples for DNA from Virbrio cholera, the bacterium that causes cholera.

“We haven’t found it yet, but we are hopeful. We’ve found other DNA associated with humans so we’re continuing the search,” Larsen said.

“If we found the DNA we could see how cholera has evolved and compare it to what the bacteria is like today. That’s the first step to possibly finding a cure.”

The site provides much more than just information on the cholera epidemic. A monastery was founded on the site in 1056 and after it was abandoned in 1408, a church remained until about 50 years ago. Several different cemeteries from different time periods surround the ruins.

“We have a thousand-year window into the health of this village,” Larsen said. “It is a microcosm of what is happening in Italy and all of Europe during this time frame.”

Included in the cemeteries are people who died of the Black Death pandemic that ravaged Europe from 1346 to 1353. Many others died from less dramatic causes, but are still of great interest to the researchers.

“What we are trying to do is to reconstruct these populations as if they were alive, to get a glimpse about what their day-to-day lives were like and what their health was like, as well as how they died.”

The project began in 2010 when the local community, Ohio State and the University of Pisa joined forces to study the site.

They established The Field School in Medieval Archaeology and Bioarchaeology at Badia Pozzeveri. It is now an academic program aimed at training students in archaeological and bioarchaeological fields and laboratory methods.

About 20 to 30 skeletons have been excavated during each of the past four field seasons, Larsen said.

Co-authors of his presentation were Giuseppe Vercellotti, an adjunct professor at Ohio State, and Gino Fornaciari, a professor at the University of Pisa in Italy.

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