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New individual of world’s rarest turtle found in Hanoi

Caren Goldberg
Caren Goldberg

The fourth known living Swinhoe’s Softshell Turtle (Rafetus swinhoei), the world’s most endangered turtle species, has been found at Xuan Khanh Lake on the outskirts of Hanoi, thanks to efforts of the Asian Turtle Programme (ATP) of Indo-Myanmar Conservation (IMC), a UK based conservation charity, and help from Washington State University environmental scientist Caren Goldberg.

The animals are secretive, surfacing and basking rarely, preferring to spend time in the depths of the lakes. This makes positive identification of the animals that are reported extremely difficult and time consuming.

To help with this the ATP/IMC has teamed up with Goldberg and the US Turtle Survival Alliance to explore the use of environmental DNA (eDNA) to find the species. eDNA is a relatively new technique for which Dr. Goldberg was an early pioneer, the technique relies on detecting the tiniest amounts of DNA in samples of water collected in the area of interest to confirm that the species is present. The technique has often been used for fish and amphibians but the methods have only recently been applied to endangered turtles.

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Nhan Dan

ECNS

VN Express

Business Beat: Education

Dean LuethiDean Luethi has been named director of Washington State University’s School of Music. Luethi is an associate professor and coordinator of music education at the school, teaches choral music methods and choral conducting classes and directs WSU’s tenor/bass choir and treble choir. He is currently working on a virtual choral conducting series for distribution to conductors in India.

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The Spokesman-Review

WSU researchers look to fish for insight on human skull development

Fish research at Washington State University could help scientists better understand some developmental disorders that cause facial deformities.

James CooperJim Cooper, a WSU Tri-Cities assistant professor of biological sciences, studies “jaw protrusion,” a biomechanical ability shared by many fish. For a fish, pushing its jaw out allows it to more easily catch prey, and is an evolutionary advantage comparable with the ability of most birds to fly, Cooper said. The difference is, there’s about twice as many fish with the ability as there are living bird species.

“If you’re talking about biomechanical abilities that have been useful in terms of promoting diversification of lots of species, jaw protrusion is a champ,” he said.

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The Spokesman-Review

WSU Tri-Cities: Future of WSU Tri-Cities includes housing, expanded educational offerings and growing world-class research

Washington State University Tri-Cities realized an average enrollment growth of 12 percent annually throughout the last four years. As that upward trend continues, so does our expansion of on-campus housing, program development, world-class faculty and specialization in research.

Among the many WSU Tri-Cities faculty accomplishments this year:

Paul Strand
Strand

Paul Strand, professor of psychology, is one of a team of WSU faculty leading the online implementation of a k-12 truancy prevention program that benefits schools statewide. WSULearning and Performance Research Center houses the online implementation of the Washington Assessment of the Risks and Needs of Students.

Peter Christenson
Christenson

Peter Christenson, assistant professor of fine arts and digital technology and culture, developed a scholar residency program at WSU Tri-Cities that welcomes artists, engineers, urban planners and more to campus, where students and community members learn first-hand from their expertise.

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Yasinitsky wins American Prize for jazz composition

Greg YasinitskyGregory W. Yasinitsky, Regents professor and director of the School of Music at Washington State University, is winner of the 2017-18 The American Prize in Composition in the pops/light music division.

Yasinitsky’s composition “Jazz Concerto for Piano and Orchestra” was selected over applications from across the United States. It is a “third stream work which blends classical music and jazz,” he said.

Yasinitsky wrote the concerto for Willis Delony, pianist and professor of jazz studies at Louisiana State University, who premiered it last year with the Baton Rouge Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Timothy Muffitt. Delony and Muffitt subsequently nominated the work for the 2017 Pulitzer Prize in Music.

The concerto “is a unique work in the American orchestral canon, and most deserving of recognition,” Muffitt said.

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WSU Insider