From top: Betty Ruth and Bill Hewit have a closer look at "Horse Thief" by artist Carl Korba, following dedication ceremonies of the Hewit Place Oct. 21. Velma Lentz visits with a guest following the ceremony.

Hewit Place Latest Arts Venue for University

By Robb Crouch, NU Foundation

The opening Oct. 21of Hewit Place makes downtown Lincoln home for two world­class art collections and respected research programs at the University of Nebraska: The Center for Great Plains Studies, Great Plains Art Collection, and Lentz Center for Asian Culture. University representatives, donors and the community celebrated the opening of the new facility located at 1155 Q St. across the street from the Lied Center for Performing Arts.

Interim Chancellor Harvey Perlman said Hewit Place offers greater accessibility and increased public programming in its downtown location.

"The location of both the Great Plains Art Collection and Lentz Center for Asian Culture closer to the arts core of campus provides tremendous synergy," said Perlman. "And it offers the citizens of Lincoln and Nebraska opportunities for arts enrichment that have not been easily available before."

The building is named in honor of Bill and Betty Ruth Hewit, longtime supporters and alumni of the University of Nebraska. In addition to many important areas of support, the Hewits created two professorships: the Earl Dunlap Law Professorship and the James K. Ludwickson Distinguished Professorship in Mechanical Engineering.

"UNL is justifiably proud of its history of scholarship in the arts as well as its collections of art objects," said L. Dennis Smith, University of Nebraska president. "But collections are more valuable to both scholars and citizens when they are presented in an accessible and attractive setting. It is because the Hewits understand this that we have this wonderful new addition to the UNL campus."

The Center for Great Plains Studies is the oldest and largest interdisciplinary, intercollegiate, regional research and teaching center in the United States. It was created in 1976 by the University of Nebraska to study people and the environment of the Great Plains.

With its new home in Hewit Place, it's now able to house all personnel and offices under one roof - a dream for over 25 years. The employees of the center were located in several spots on campus, including Love Library and Oldfather Hall.

"With plenty of room and office space, this world­class center of scholarship will surely surpass its own formidable reputation for excellence," said Perlman.

The Great Plains Art Collection formed in 1980 when John M. and Elizabeth Christlieb donated their collection of western art and western Americana library to the Center for Great Plains Studies. They also provided an endowment for the care and maintenance of the collection.

Now valued at more than $10 million, the 1,400­piece collection features masterworks by Frederick Remington, Charles Russell, Albert Bierstadt and Karl Bodmer. Acquisitions of works by artists including Keith Jacobshagen, Hal Holoun and others have augmented its value and stature.

The Lentz Center for Asian Culture opened in 1986 as Nebraska's only museum dedicated solely to works of Asian origin. Don and Velma Lentz, motivated by their many years of work and study throughout Asia, donated their collection to the University in 1983 and established an endowment to care for and grow the collection. Don Lentz was the director of University of Nebraska Bands from 1937-1973 and a professor of woodwind instruments at UNL.

A 40 percent increase in gallery space, increased space for collection storage and larger offices will help this center attract traveling national and international exhibitions, attract exhibitions or donations of works held by local community members, and solve work space problems.

"We are grateful for the support of so many individuals who have made this wonderful new building possible," said Terry Fairfield, University of Nebraska Foundation president and chief executive officer. "This building, and the beautiful new galleries, house important collections that will be even more accessible to the entire community in this new location. This project is truly a testament to the altruistic intentions of these outstanding individuals."

The contributions of many individuals have made the Hewit Place project possible. In addition to the Hewits, the Christliebs and the Lentzes, Paul and Florence Schorr and Harold and Jane Hines have also made a difference in the lives of students, faculty and staff at the University of Nebraska­Lincoln.

Paul and Florence Schorr have made gifts to support the needs of the NU president and the UNL chancellor. Through their plans, the Hewit Place project continues this effort. The Schorr President's Suite in Hewit Place will serve as a perfect location for the president and chancellor's meeting needs.

Harold and Jane Hines always had an interest in education, Nebraska and the Great Plains, ranging from music to the history of the Great Plains. Their plans for the university were crucial in making Hewit Place a reality.

USDA Grant Aids NU Research to Identify On-Farm E. coli Controls

By Vicki Miller, IANR science writer

NU agricultural scientists have received a $950,000 grant to develop better ways to measure E. coli 0157:H7's prevalence in pens of cattle and to identify control strategies.

The three-year grant from U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Research Initiative competitive grants program was awarded to an NU Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources team. The team includes IANR Veterinary Scientists David Smith, Laura Hungerford and Rod Moxley, Animal Scientists Terry Klopfenstein and Todd Milton, and Jeff Gray, former NU veterinary scientist now with the USDA-Agricultural Research Service in Georgia.

At the heart of this research is a simple test that the IANR team developed to determine the prevalence of E. coli 0157:H7 in groups, or pens, of feedlot cattle. The test worked effectively in tests so far.

"Besides knowing whether the organism's there in a pen of cattle, this technique is how we're going to be able to test E. coli interventions," explained Smith, who headed the test's development. "It becomes a critical component of the rest of our effort to look at risk factors and how we're going to manage this pathogen in feedlots."

The pen test grew from the team's ongoing on-farm animal production food safety research aimed at controlling E. coli on farms, ranches and feedlots - to keep it from reaching processing plants. From the start, scientists recognized the need for a simple way to test pens of cattle without handling individual animals, which is expensive and impractical.

"The pen is really the unit we're interested in because cattle generally get marketed as pens or groups," Smith said.

After trying high- and low-tech possibilities, researchers found a simple technique was most effective. Capitalizing on cattle's natural propensity to chew and lick everything in sight, they hang pieces of rope around a pen in the evening. Within two hours, over half the cattle - plenty for a representative sample - chew the ropes and deposit traces of the organisms they're carrying. Ropes are removed and specialized tests at the NU's Veterinary Diagnostic Center determine E. coli's prevalence in that pen.

Previous studies showed rope tests are more sensitive than manure samples. Manure samples accurately identify only high prevalence pens where more than 40 percent of cattle are shedding E. coli. Rope tests detect these pens plus medium prevalence pens where at least 16 percent of cattle are shedding the bacteria. Researchers classify pens as high, medium or low prevalence. Pens where no E. coli is recovered are considered low prevalence; scientists assume it's present at some level.

IANR scientists used rope tests as their main sampling tool for the first time in a feedlot study this summer. The rope test allowed researchers to test pens weekly and follow cattle throughout their feedlot period. This study is now wrapping up. Results will be available this winter.

The next phase of research involves using the test to more extensively compare conditions in high, medium and low prevalence pens and to determine environmental or management differences. Researchers aim to identify potential E. coli risk factors such as time on feed, temperatures and pen conditions. Eventually, they'll use the test to evaluate the effectiveness of control strategies designed to address these risks.

The rope test was devised as a research tool, Smith said, but eventually could help producers match E. coli intervention strategies to specific pens of cattle. The test hasn't been commercialized.

This project is part of a wider ongoing research effort involving scientists from several UNL departments and the NU Medical Center.

This research is conducted in cooperation with IANR's Agricultural Research Division. Nebraska Legislative Bill 1206, which provides $250,000 annually for five years for NU's E. coli research, and the Nebraska Beef Council also help fund these studies.

Campbell McConnell Honored by McGraw-Hill

By Tom Simons, Public Relations

Campbell McConnell, Carl Happold professor emeritus of economics, was honored at an Oct. 26 luncheon by the McGraw-Hill/ Irwin Co. on the

occasion of the 40th anniversary of the first publication of McConnell's textbook, Economics: Principles, Problems and Policies.

McGraw­Hill has published Economics starting with its first edition in 1960 and will publish the 15th edition of the textbook next year. According to John Paul Lenney, president and chief executive officer of McGraw-Hill/Irwin, sales of the first edition were 71,743, but the book quickly gained wide acceptance. Its second edition sold nearly 200,000 copies, its fourth nearly 400,000 and its sixth nearly 500,000. Lenney said sales of the 14th edition are also approaching the half-million mark.

McGraw-Hill estimates that Economics has been used by more than 12 million students worldwide, including users of 11 international adaptations and translations.

In remarks at the Oct. 26 luncheon at the Embassy Suites in Lincoln, Lenney recalled that To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee topped the best-seller charts in 1960 and noted that initially, it sold more copies than McConnell's text.

"Mac's book has sold so well because the demand for clarity is strong, especially when it's about how and how well we live," Lenney said. "If you ask how do you write an economics text that manages all of the changes of last 40 years, the answer is do it just like Campbell McConnell did it."

Since the 11th edition in 1990, McConnell has co-written Economics with his former student, Stanley Brue.

Abbott Assisting Zayed Univeristy in UAR

By Ayana Reed, Human Resources & Family Sciences

A personal interest in families from other cultures has led Douglas Abbott to Zayed University in the city of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Abbott, professor of family and consumer sciences, is on sabbatical leave from the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences for one year while at Zayed.

While there, Abbott plans to conduct a number of research projects about family life in UAE, which is a predominantly Islamic and Arabic nation.

Abbott said many of his students live in polygamous families with 10 to 20 siblings. He is thinking about developing a three­generation study of parenting practices of Muslim women. His students will interview their mothers, grandmothers and older married sisters to discover more about how they parent. The interviews will yield new information about parenting practices in the country and he will later be able to make comparisons to parenting practices in the United States.

Abbott is studying sibling relationships in polygamous families, to better understand how siblings related to each other and to their mothers and stepmothers. Another topic that Abbott also plans to study is the mate selection process of young educated women in the United Arab Emirates, how they find a marriage partner and the process of engagement and marriage.

Abbott is waiting on approval for conducting these studies and hopes to start collecting data with two to three months.

Abbott will return in August 2001. While at Zayed, Abbott is teaching two classes-family relations and research methods-in addition to working with new students who have lower level English and computer skills in order to prepare them for mainstream classes.

In addition to his teaching responsibilities, he serves as the assistant dean of Zayed's College of Family Sciences and works with students who are majoring in the department on special projects, advises students, and helps with registration.

He also is is involved in setting up a Family Resource Center, which will provide information on children and families for the local community while acting as a referral service to find help for troubled families. The center will also design and carry out research projects of interest to the UAE Nationals.

Another task he has taken on is to design curriculum for the new college of family sciences. The college has four major areas: child and family studies, nutrition and wellness, family science education, and consumer education and financial management. Some of these areas are similar to UNL's College of Human Resources and Family Sciences.

To carry out the curriculum, Zayed University will need to hire nine additional faculty by the summer of 2001.

Abbott is a 17­year veteran of UNL's Department of Family and Consumer Sciences. He has made numerous other trips abroad to countries such as China, India, Pakistan, Japan, and the Philippines.

Profs' Damper Device Helps Conserve Energy

By Constance Walter, Engineering & Technology

It was the mid­1970s and the country was in the midst of an energy crisis. Because of an oil embargo, heating fuel and gasoline prices soared. The focus turned to conserving energy. People bought smaller cars, reset their thermostats and sealed up their homes. But something happened on the way to in­home energy efficiency. People began to get sick.

"Houses began to sweat, because moisture couldn't escape," said Max Kirk, associate professor and interim chair of construction management in the College of Engineering and Technology. "This created a breeding ground for molds and other contaminants."

To alleviate the problem, contractors would cut a 4­inch hole in the basement wall of a home to run a duct to the furnace. When the furnace fan kicks in, fresh air circulates through the house, creating a healthier environment.

"It's great because outside air dilutes contaminants in the home," said Tim Wentz, assistant professor of construction management.

But there was another problem.

"When the fan is off, cold air flows into the furnace, wasting energy significantly and freezing pipes," Wentz said. Some people plug the holes, which only takes them back to where they started.

Kirk first heard about all this while a student at Washington State University. He was in a mechanical systems class discussing how to prevent heat loss when an idea began to form. A few years later he began working on a design. But it would be 20 years before he and Wentz made the concept a reality.

In 1993 the two began working on the MODAMP, a motorized damper that attaches to the furnace to control airflow into the home. Today they carry a patent on it, and with the University of Nebraska Technology Park, are seeking a manufacturer.

The small device - the model is only 12 inches long - attaches to the furnace fresh air intake. When the furnace kicks on, the damper opens and allows fresh air to circulate through the house. When the furnace is off, the damper closes, blocking outside air and preventing heat loss.

"It provides a healthy environment without the energy loss of the current system," Wentz said.

When applying for a patent on his invention, Kirk was told there probably were several such devices on the market. But research proved there were not, and the request for a patent moved forward.

"This device is so simple people missed it," he said. "It's like the paper clip - someone had to invent it."