The Florida Museum of Natural History is hosting “Ask a Paleontologist” events from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. Feb. 12, March 4, April 15 and May 6.

Florida Museum vertebrate paleontology collections manager Richard Hulbert and Florida Museum invertebrate paleontology collections manager Roger Portell will identify fossils for visitors and share information about paleontology March 4 and May 6. Hulbert is also scheduled for Feb. 12 and Portell for April 15.

“The best way for people to learn is to communicate with those doing the research,” said Florida Museum education assistant Amanda Erickson Harvey. “This is a great opportunity for kids and adults alike to learn about our state’s prehistoric life. Florida is rich with fossils, and research by museum paleontologists continues to expand our knowledge about the animals and plants that lived here millions of years ago. ”

Some fossils commonly found in Florida include bones of large animals, such as 15- to 20-foot-tall giant ground sloths and glyptodonts, 10-foot-long relatives of the armadillo, as well as shark teeth and numerous aquatic invertebrates.

The Outstanding Sports Facility award recognizes the collaboration between architects and the university staff to create state-of-the-art environments that attract and motivate people to be active.

“RDG Planning & Design has partnered with UF and Charles Perry Partners Inc. to create, build and open a magnificent facility that will impact the UF community for years to come,” said David Bowles, director of the department of recreational sports, also known as RecSports, which operates the center.

In 1988, the NIRSA began presenting the annual Outstanding Sports Facilities awards for creative, innovative designs of new or expanded facilities. Each winner is considered a standard or model by which other collegiate recreational facilities should be measured and from which others can benefit. The association selects and publishes information on these facilities as a resource for campus master planners, recreational sports directors, designers, architects, contractors and recreational sports students.

The Southwest Recreation Center expansion project opened in August 2010 with 40,755 gross square feet of new space and 45,700 gross square feet of renovated space. The new space features a two-story cardio room, administrative office suite and an activity room. The existing space was renovated to create a training center and a student marketing suite. In addition, corridors, activity rooms, locker rooms, a social lounge, restrooms and the weight room were renovated. Digital signage was installed throughout the facility, enhancing the department’s marketing efforts introducing state-of-the-art graphics that are dynamic and interactive along with reducing the amount of paper usage and clutter throughout the building.

“These exceptional facilities continue to prove that campus recreation facilities are more to students than just a place to work out. They are about finding friends and fun that make the college experience memorable,” said Lexi Chaput, chair of the NIRSA committee that oversees the award process.

Any association member institution with construction projects no more than 2 years old, with a facility with more than 20,000 square feet, and with total construction costs (excluding design and land fees) of at least $2 million is eligible for an Outstanding Sports Facility Award. Each facility is evaluated based on the construction project’s correlation to the campus master plan and mission, the relationship between facility design and staffing, innovative use of construction materials or methods, sustainable features and technological benefits for the customer, staff or budget.

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Twenty-seven international artists defy the limits of painting by applying it to large-scale canvases, sculptures and found objects. These works combine to create a rich and exciting visual experience. Vanishing Points opens February 7 and will be on view through April 29.

“ ‘Vanishing Points’ reflects a world transformed by contemporary science, technology and media,” said Kerry Oliver-Smith, Harn Curator of Contemporary Art. “Artists expand on historical notions of perspective and spatial orientation opening up multiple and interesting ways of viewing the world.”

Artists in the exhibition incorporate the strategies of technology and media in the texture of their work including urban architecture, graphic and automotive design, comics, mapping, sculpture, photography and film.

The collectors, Debra and Dennis Scholl, have been collecting contemporary art for 33 years. They loaned the works for this exhibition, which represents established and emerging artists who work across the boundaries of specific media, providing proactive and new perspectives on art and culture.

“Vanishing Points” is a collaboration between the Scholls, the Bass Museum of Art in Miami and the Harn Museum of Art and was co-curated by Kerry Oliver-Smith from the Harn Museum of Art and Gean Moreno from the Bass Museum of Art. The exhibition is made possible by the Sidney Knight Endowment and the Exhibition Circle. The exhibition catalogue is available in the Museum Store.

For more information, call 352-392-9826 or visit www.harn.ufl.edu.

The museum is offering a number of related programs for audiences of all ages.

Museum Nights, Thursday, Feb. 9, 6 to 9 p.m., free and open to the public

Join us for an engaging after-hours experience celebrating African and African American art and culture. Browse the galleries and enjoy works from the Harn’s African collection as well as works by African American artists in “Vanishing Points” and “Open Engagement.” Guests will also enjoy free food, art making activities, poetry readings, a performance by “Pazeni Sauti” the UF African Choir, storytelling, dance performances and a gallery talk. The Camellia Court Café will be open until 8:45 p.m. on this evening.

Collector Lecture, Friday, Feb. 10, 3 p.m., free and open to the public
Dennis Scholl will speak about work from his and his wife’s collection included in the exhibition.

Harn Member pARTy, Friday, Feb. 10, 6 to 8:30 p.m.
Become a member and enjoy a pARTy celebrating the opening. There will be an opportunity to join at the door. Visit the membership section of the Harn’s website for a list of additional benefits and information about joining: www.harn.ufl.edu/membership.

Museum Nights, Thursday, March 8, 6 to 9 p.m., free and open to the public
Join us for an interactive after-hours museum experience celebrating the works on view in Vanishing Points. This is also our annual Community Arts Showcase where we celebrate local arts organizations. Offerings will include art making activities and performances.

Gallery Talk, Sunday, March 18, 3 p.m.
Kerry Oliver-Smith, Curator of Contemporary Art.
Come to this gallery talk to hear Oliver-Smith’s insights on Vanishing Points.

Docent Led Tours Saturdays and Sundays at 2 p.m.

Physicians have long prescribed a B-vitamin called nicotinic acid to help keep good cholesterol levels high. Early studies suggest that niacin prevents the removal of good cholesterol — known as high-density lipoprotein or HDL — from the body, and in so doing, raises the concentration of the substance. But the new results from studies of human cells suggest that niacin plays an even greater role, not just preventing removal, but actually boosting production of good cholesterol in the liver and small intestine.

“We’ve known the value of nicotinic acid for years, but this shows there could be even more benefits than we thought,” said the study’s lead author Michael Haas, a research associate professor of medicine.

A person’s cholesterol reading is made up of two major parts: HDL and low-density lipoprotein, also called LDL or “bad” cholesterol. HDL is responsible for moving cholesterol out of various tissues and into the liver so it can be flushed from the body. Doctors recommend keeping good cholesterol levels high and bad cholesterol levels low.

The body uses nicotinic acid to convert carbohydrates into energy. It is found in many over-the-counter multivitamin formulations and is sometimes prescribed on its own to lower triglycerides and increase good cholesterol.

But until now, researchers weren’t quite sure whether niacin could actually increase good cholesterol levels.

To find definitive evidence, the UF researchers tested human liver and intestine cells in the first study of its kind. They found that nicotinic acid increased the activity of a gene that produces a protein called apolipoprotein A-1, which is the major component of good cholesterol in the blood. Not only that, the researchers were able to identify the specific region of the gene that was responsible for making new HDL.

The work was funded by a $20,000 grant from the Endocrine Fellows Association to former UF fellow Dr. Abdul-Razzak Alamir.

“We have hoped for a long time that we would develop a medicine to raise the good cholesterol. Unfortunately many people do not tolerate the side effect of the drug nicotinic acid,” said Dr. Stewart G. Albert, a professor of internal medicine at the St. Louis University School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research. “What Dr. Haas and his group have done is demonstrate how nicotinic acid can increase the body’s ability to make the good cholesterol. This may enable researchers to find other medications that will accomplish the same benefit with a lower rate of side effects.”

The other authors of the study are Dr. Arshag D. Mooradian, professor and chairman of the UF College of Medicine-Jacksonville department of medicine; Dr. Joe M. Chehade, a UF associate professor of internal medicine; Dr. Senan Sultan, a former UF fellow; and Dr. Norman C.W. Wong, a professor of medicine, biochemistry and molecular biology at the University of Calgary.

In “The Green Leap: A Primer for Conserving Biodiversity in Subdivision Development,” author Mark Hostetler writes for audiences ranging from policy makers and land developers to potential homeowners.

The book offers detailed information about building green developments, but it also can be used to retrofit existing communities.

Part of his aim in writing the book was to help cities and developers avoid potential pitfalls when attempting to conserve biodiversity when land is subdivided, he said. The trick is to address design issues while paying attention to construction and post-construction issues.

For instance, a developer may set aside a common area as a natural preserve. But if there are no management plans for both the built and conserved areas, much can go wrong. During construction, heavy equipment can dramatically impact conserved areas. After construction, a well-meaning landscaper or resident might bring in an invasive plant that takes over, or free-roaming pets may prey upon local wildlife.

Hostetler said he’s happy to see increasing interest from cities, developers and the public in green developments.

“Every time you can build a model green community, it makes it easier for the next person who comes through,” he said. “One thing I’ve learned, it’s not easy. But for all of those steps that have to be taken, it makes the planning process just a little bit easier for the next person.”

The book discusses the dynamic relationship among residents, developers, and policy makers and what each stakeholder must do to build functional green communities. Specific design and management strategies are discussed and topics range from tree and natural area protection to community engagement and wildlife-friendly transportation systems.

The book is published by the University of California Press and available now.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Shark attacks in the U.S. declined in 2011, but worldwide fatalities reached a two-decade high, according to the University of Florida’s International Shark Attack File report released today.

While the U.S. and Florida saw a five-year downturn in the number of reported unprovoked attacks, the 12 fatalities — which all occurred outside the U.S. — may show tourists are venturing to more remote places, said ichthyologist George Burgess, director of the file housed at the Florida Museum of Natural History on the UF campus.

“We had a number of fatalities in essentially out-of the way places, where there’s not the same quantity and quality of medical attention readily available,” Burgess said. “They also don’t have histories of shark attacks in these regions, so there are not contingency plans in effect like there are in places such as Florida.”

Seventy-five attacks occurred worldwide, close to the decade average, but the number of fatalities doubled compared with 2010. Fatalities occurred in Australia (3), Reunion (2), the Seychelles (2) and South Africa (2), with one each in Costa Rica, Kenya and New Caledonia. The average global fatality rate for the last decade was just under 7 percent, and it rose to 16 percent last year. Excluding the U.S., which had 29 shark attacks but no deaths, the international fatality rate averaged 25 percent in 2011, Burgess said.

“We’ve had a decade-long decline in the number of attacks and a continued decline in the fatality rate in the U.S.,” Burgess said. “But last year’s slight increase in non-U.S. attacks resulted in a higher death rate. One in four people who were attacked outside the U.S. died.”

Florida led the U.S. with 11 of its 29 attacks. Other countries with multiple attacks include Australia (11), South Africa (5), Reunion (4), Indonesia (3) Mexico (3), Russia (3), Seychelles (2) and Brazil (2). While the higher number of fatalities worldwide came as a surprise, the drop in the number of U.S. attacks follows a 10-year decline, Burgess said.

“It’s more than coincidence that we’ve had this drop over this last decade,” Burgess said. “The fact is, that’s a downward trend, and there has to be a cause for that. People might argue there’s less sharks, but since the late 1990s, populations have begun a slow recovery. By contrast, the number of attacks in the United States and Florida suggests there’s been a reduced use of these waters.”

Florida’s attacks historically lead the U.S., and as a high aquatic recreation area, especially for surfers, Volusia County leads the state. In 2011, Volusia County again led the state with six attacks, but it was the lowest since 2004 (3).

“It’s a good news/bad news situation,” Burgess said. “From the U.S. perspective, things have never been better, our attack and fatality rates continue to decline. But if it’s a reflection of the downturn in the economy, it might suggest that other areas have made a real push to get into the tourism market.”

The next step to reducing the number of fatalities is creating emergency plans for these alternative areas in the future, said Burgess, who has been invited to work on developing a response plan in Reunion Island this spring.

“Ironically, in this very foreign environment that has animals and plants that can do us harm, we often don’t seem to exhibit any concern at all, we just jump in,” Burgess said.

Surfers were the most affected group, accounting for about 60 percent of unprovoked attacks, largely due to the provocative nature of the activity. Swimmers experienced 35 percent of attacks, followed by divers, with about 5 percent.

“When you’re inside the water, there’s much less chance of sharks making a mistake because both parties can see each other,” Burgess said. “Surfing involves a lot of swimming, kicking and splashing.”

Despite the number of deaths being higher than other years, people should remember how much of a threat humans are to sharks, Burgess said. With worldwide over-fishing, especially to meet demands for flesh and fins used in shark fin soup, an expensive Asian delicacy, humans pose a greater threat to elasmobranchs (sharks, skates and rays) than sharks do to humans.

“We’re killing 30 to 70 million sharks per year in fisheries — who’s killing who?” Burgess said. “The reality is that the sea is actually a pretty benign environment, or else we’d be measuring injuries in the thousands or millions per year.”

The 2011 Worldwide Shark Attack Summary may be viewed online at www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/sharks/isaf/isaf.htm.

This event provides a unique opportunity for participants to develop leadership skills, prepare for success in leadership roles, and take advantage of networking opportunities. Registration for the conference
is $15 and includes breakfast, keynote speaker, leadership workshops, lunch, conference materials, organization fair, speakers panel and gift bags.

Registration can be made at ufwsa.blogspot.com/p/registration.html. More information can be found at ufwsa.blogspot.com.

Karen DeYoung, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and associate editor of The Washington Post, is the keynote speaker.

The evening includes dinner, full bar, dancing and abundant entertainment from various UF ensembles and a guest performance by professor emeritus Gary Langford. Tickets can be purchased for $100 at www.arts.ufl.edu or at the door.

Langford retired from the School of Music in 2007 after more than 25 years of teaching and directing UF marching, concert and jazz bands. He has also been a featured artist of the Gainesville Friends of Jazz and directed the Alachua County Youth Orchestra.

UF ensembles such as the UF Jazz Combo, UF Opera Theatre, Pazeni Sauti Africa Choir, UF Piano Studios, Brazilian guitarist Welson Tremura and the Faculty Dance Band will entertain guests throughout the night.
The event is organized by UF Friends of Music and acclaimed event designer Kevin Watson, and sponsored by Fine, Farkash & Parlapiano, PA.

UF Friends of Music first formed to support the College of Fine Arts students and programs in 1974. Special events and membership drives support more than 35 scholarships for students and programming needs for concerts and productions, master classes, travel and other enhancements.

Upcoming programs include opera performances of “Die Fledermaus” this spring; an invitation for the Fightin’ Gator Marching Band to perform in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London; study abroad programs, including the first UF administration of Opera Festival di Roma in Rome; music historians and scholars giving public lectures sponsored by the UF Musicology Colloquium; the 2012 UF International Piano Festival in Gainesville, affiliated with the Chinese-American International Piano Institute; and the “Arts at the Whitney” public performance series at UF’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience in St. Augustine.

For more information, call 352-846-1218 or visit http://www.arts.ufl.edu/fom/events.

The university and its partners also will receive another $3.5 million in matching non-federal funds. Most of these will be from the state departments of transportation represented in the consortium. However, matching funds may also be obtained by transit agencies, local agencies and private firms.

The new consortium, named Southeast Transportation Research, Innovation and Education Center, or STRIDE, will advance transportation research and education in the southeastern U.S. and nationally. The team from UF joined other universities in the region to create a consortium. They are: Georgia Tech, Mississippi State, University of North Carolina, North Carolina State, Florida International University, University of Alabama Birmingham and Auburn University.

The research done by the consortium can help alleviate congestion, increase safety, and optimize the use of the transportation system. Working closely with public agencies will assure that research results can be implemented quickly. For example, improved algorithms for signal control can help reduce the travel time along an arterial street.

STRIDE’s theme focuses on three key areas: safety, livable communities and economic competitiveness. These areas were chosen because of their importance to the southeastern U.S. and the nation, according to the consortium principal investigator, Lily Elefteriadou, director of UF’s Transportation Research Center, part of the College of Engineering’s department of civil and coastal engineering.

The consortium will develop a strong interdisciplinary network of researchers and educators who will collaborate across the region, work closely with state departments of transportation, and the U.S. Department of Transportation. Further, it will “enhance collaboration between universities working on transportation research problems” and produce “an increase of the number of grads going into transportation, which is a major goal for the U.S. DOT,” Elefteriadou said.

For the future of transportation, it means there will be increased collaboration at the university level, state departments of transportation and other public agencies, she said.

“There will be an increased awareness of the research going on at the universities regarding transportation and the increasing abilities of research results to improve the transportation network in the region,” she said.

The $3.5 million is from the U.S. Department of Transportation and its Research and Innovative Technology Administration, known as RITA.

The program is being co-sponsored by the Bob Graham Center, the UF International Center, and The Isser and Rae Price Library of Judaica Endowment Fund, among others. The event is free and open to the public.

The daughter of two Holocaust survivors, Hass has been noted for her unparalleled reporting and courage in covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. As a foreign correspondent, she has literally lived “behind enemy lines” in covering the decade-old conflict between Palestinians and Jews. Hass has lived in Gaza and in the West Bank among Palestinians for years – something unheard of and seen by many as dangerous for a Jewish citizen of Israel.

“In doing so, Hass is celebrated by some Israelis as a national conscience and condemned by others as an ideologue or even a traitor,” the Los Angeles Times wrote in a profile of Hass.

Even at the height of the second intifada – the bloody uprising of Palestinians in 2001 — Hass openly worked as a lone Israeli journalist covering the conflict for Ha’aretz, Israel’s oldest and most liberal daily newspaper.

Describing why she does it, Hass has written that “my desire to live in Gaza stemmed neither from adventurism nor from insanity, but from that dread of being a bystander, from my need to understand, down to the last detail, a world that is, to the best of my political and historical comprehension, a profoundly Israeli creation. To me, Gaza embodies the entire saga of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; it represents the central contradiction of the state of Israel – democracy for some, dispossession for others; it is our exposed nerve.”

Hass is a recipient of the International Press Institute’s World Press Freedom Hero Prize, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, the International Women’s Media Foundation’s Lifetime Achievement Award and numerous other awards. She is the author of “Drinking the Sea at Gaza: Days and Nights in a Land under Siege,” and co-author of “Reporting from Ramallah: An Israeli Journalist in an Occupied Land.”