University of Rhode Island

A group of defense companies and local universities have announced a new partnership aimed at creating a hub for undersea technology. Dubbed the Undersea Technology Innovation Center, the project is still in the early stages. 

It will be organized by the Southeastern New England Defense Industry Alliance, which has announced partners including the University of Rhode Island, the Navy and Salve Regina University. SENEDIA spokeswoman Molly Magee says the center would provide a hub for marine and defense technology.

Starting in 2018, state colleges and universities will have to meet specific performance goals to receive increases in state funding, under a state law signed by Governor Gina Raimondo on Thursday.

The goals include increasing the number of students graduating on-time and adding graduates in fields that employers need. 

Here’s what’s happening in health in Rhode Island (for 7/19/16 - 7/26/16): federal drug czar visits, a new college at URI, community health grants, Zika funding, addiction treatment, a sports program for disabled veterans, and a health system merger proceeds, but not as quickly as the parties would like.

The Rhode Island Foundation has seeded some of the state’s institutions of higher education with nearly half a million dollars in medical research funding. The money goes toward 20 research projects that range from studying heart failure in obese people to using mindfulness-based stress reduction techniques to help prevent pre-term births. 

Caterpillars feasting on oak and other hardwood trees are defoliating wooded areas and backyards across the state.

Heather Faubert, a plant specialist at the University of Rhode Island, attributes this year’s infestation to a drought last May. She said diseases usually keep caterpillar numbers low.

“But when we had the driest May on record, those diseases weren’t spread until it really started to rain. And by that time, the caterpillars had advanced, matured, and then those females laid eggs,” said Faubert.

Those eggs survived over the winter.

Dan Doyle, who faces a September trial on 18 counts related to the Institute for International Sport, held a news conference Thursday to say he's been unfairly maligned by the media and to assert that he'll be vindicated by his trial.

Doyle's lawyer, Chip Muller, began the discussion by recounting the work of the institute, which was founded in 1986 "to use sport and the arts as mediums to forge meaningful ties on a global scale and to address critical social issues."

The University of Rhode Island has taken a rare step to create a new college focused on health care. They're calling it the College of Health Sciences and say it will join together programs like physical therapy, sports science, gerontology and psychology.

The university plans to hire a new dean to lead the new College of Health Sciences,  which will join the colleges of Pharmacy and Nursing under the umbrella of an Academic Health Collaborative.

 Update:  The University of Rhode Island says it is in regular contact with study abroad programs to monitor the situation in Paris following a string of apparent terrorist attacks and maintain the safety of students. A total of 14 URI students were in Paris or other regions of France during the attacks on Friday night.

A tick researcher at the University of Rhode Island will use $2 million in federal grant funding to study tick repellent clothing. Professor Tom Mather plans to test garments that have been treated with a chemical called permethrin. If it’s effective, Mather said it could have serious public health benefits.

“Ticks up here transmit multiple diseases,” said Mather. “Lyme disease is of course what everyone hears about, but just as dangerous probably more dangerous are some of the infections that black legged ticks in our area carry.”

The Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, in a continuing crackdown on workplace wage fraud, has announced that it has ordered an East Providence construction company to pay more than $300,000 in civil penalties, back wages and interest for fraudulently filling out weekly payroll records and wrongly classifying workers as independent contractors.