In a paper in Optica, the lab of William Renninger, assistant professor of optics, describes the first demonstration of highly chirped laser pulses created by a using a spectral filter in a Kerr resonator—a type of simple optical cavity that operates without amplification. These cavities have stirred wide interest among researchers because they can support “a wealth of complicated behaviors including useful broadband bursts of light,” says Renninger. With the new approach, “we’re showing chirped pulses that remain stable even with more than 90 percent energy loss, which really challenges the conventional wisdom.”

The new technique works even with relatively low-quality, inexpensive equipment.

This could pave the way for better high-capacity telecommunication systems, improved astrophysical calibrations used to find exoplanets, even more accurate atomic clocks, and precise devices for measuring chemical contaminants in the atmosphere.

The new work is related to the approach used by Nobel Laureates Donna Strickland ’89 (PhD) and Gerard Mourou, who helped usher in a revolution in the use of laser technology when they pioneered chirped pulse amplification while doing research at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Read more.

New research shows that people in nursing homes with higher concentrations of Black and Latino residents were more than 50% more likely to be infected with COVID and twice as likely to die in the first months of the pandemic, compared to those in homes with predominately white populations.

The study, which appears in the journal Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology, was led by Yue Li, a professor of public health sciences.  In previous studies, Li and his colleagues have shown that older residents from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds and their caregivers bore the severest brunt from COVID, and linked the COVID toll in nursing homes to staffing levels and quality scores.  The new study examines what unfolded in nursing homes in the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic.

“The widened across-facility disparities in COVID-19 morbidity and mortality during the early pandemic period are just another manifestation of the structural inequalities in nursing home care that have existed for decades,” says Li.

Researchers analyzed cases and death reports for a 10-week period between April 13 and June 19, 2020 in nursing homes in Connecticut, one of the few states to provide weekly counts early in the pandemic. The case and death reports were analyzed for nursing home characteristics, such as number of beds, ownership, percent of Medicare residents, and staffing levels, as well as county COVID case and death data.

The researchers found immediate disparities in nursing home infections and deaths, which increased as the pandemic progressed.

By week 10 of the study data, the infection rate was 54% higher and the death rate was 117% higher in nursing homes with larger proportions of underrepresented residents compared to those with a whiter population.  The disparities persisted even after accounting for differences in the local infection rate and other nursing home characteristics.

The authors acknowledge that the state and federal response to the pandemic helped mitigate the challenges that many nursing homes faced, including PPE shortages, access to improved testing, and financial support.  However, while lowering infection and death rates overall, these measures have not reduced disparities in care and outcomes. Read more.

• Kara Finnigan, professor of education policy at the Warner School of Education, who has been named the new editor-in-chief of AERA Open for 2022-24 by the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Warner School alumna Cecilia Rios-Aguilar ‘03W (MS), ’07W (PhD), professor of education and associate dean of equity, diversity, and inclusion at the School of Education and Information Studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, has also been appointed to the editorial team, serving as co-editor with five other scholars.  AERA launched the publication in 2014 as one of the first open access journals published by social and behavioral science associations. In 2019, AERA Open was named the “Best New Journal in Social Sciences” by the Association of American Publishers.  Read more.
• Radha Bahukutumbi, distinguished scientist in the Theory Division at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, who has been selected as a recipient of the Fusion Power Associates (FPA) 2021 Leadership Award. This prestigious award is presented to individuals demonstrating outstanding leadership qualities in accelerating the development of fusion as a commercial power source. Bahukutumbi is being recognized for her decades of outstanding contributions to the direct-drive physics program at OMEGA and the National Ignition Facility. The award also notes that she has been a vocal early leader and champion for young scientists and students with an emphasis on women and underrepresented minorities. The award will be presented at the Fusion Power Associates 42nd Annual Meeting and Symposium, Washington, D.C., in December.
• David Fraser, assistant professor of dentistry, who has been awarded the prestigious Joan Wright Goodman Dissertation Fellowship for 2021-2022. This fellowship, endowed by Joan Wright Goodman ’52 PhD supports doctoral students across disciplines in the sciences. It is one of the University’s most competitive dissertation fellowships and is given to students who display exceptional ability and promise. Fraser is a rising fifth-year trainee in the translational biomedical science PhD program at the University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute (UR CTSI).
• Jeff Bazarian, professor of emergency medicine, who is among the top 10 authors in the world who have contributed more than two top-cited publications on mild traumatic brain injury, according to a bibliometric analysis published in Frontiers in Neurology. Bazarian’s research focuses on developing neuroimaging and blood-based biomarkers of brain injury after concussion and repetitive head hits, and understanding the mechanisms of recovery.

Registration for the Behavioral Health Integration 6th Annual Symposium is now open. Between September 17 and October 8, speakers will hold virtual talks every Friday on substance use, suicide prevention, and public health. Find the full list of talks and register for the free symposium here.

At one time you may have referred to the University of Rochester Libraries’ search and discovery function as “Articles, Books, and More,” “Summon,” or maybe “the catalog.” Now, it’s simply DiscoverUR, a new and more robust platform that promises improved overall functionality. However, the staff is still actively working to fully integrate the software, so please be prepared for minor and temporary disruptions. Find more information and updates on DiscoverUR here.

Are you a trainee, postdoc or early-career researcher from a group that is underrepresented in health research? Or are you restarting your research career after a hiatus to care for family or to pursue non-research endeavors, like military service? The University’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute can help you get your research career off the ground with a National Institutes of Health (NIH) Diversity or Re-Entry Supplement to our UL1 grant. Both supplement grants provide up to two years of salary support and fringe benefits for candidates to conduct research that aligns with UR CTSI priorities. Learn more and apply by our extended deadline: Monday, August 2.