Superfoods are nutrient powerhouses that pack large doses of antioxidants, polyphenols, vitamins, and minerals that are good for your heart and your overall health.  

Check out our featured superfood recipe each week!

Dr. Can Ataca joins the UMBC Physics faculty in the fall of 2017. As a condensed matter physicist, his research focuses on theoretical investigation of materials based on Quantum Mechanical methods for next generation device and energy applications.

Helena Mentis, assistant professor of information systems and 2016 recipient of a prestigious NSF CAREER Award, is seeing results in new research using activity trackers and other motion sensors to assess movement and inform treatment for patients with Parkinson’s disease, based in the finding that daily walking has been shown to benefit such patients.

Mentis, Lisa M. Shulman, director of the University of Maryland Parkinson Disease and Movement Disorders Center, and their collaborators have recently shared their findings through articles in notable research publications as well as presentations at the Conference of Human Factors in Computing Systems in Denver, CO.

In “Co-Interpreting Movement with Sensors and Assessing Parkinson’s Patients’ Deep Brain Stimulation Programming,” published in Human-Computing Interaction, Mentis, Shulman and their co-authors explain how they designed and developed a sensor using Leap Motion devices to track and assess the movement of patients with Parkinson’s disease during Deep Brain Stimulation. They noted the movement in their upper limbs during follow-up appointments. They found that the sensors can help assess movement, but sometimes the sensors can interfere with how physicians assess movement by the patient. Mentis and her collaborators found that the way the sensor data is presented can impact how the data is interpreted and used to make decisions regarding treatment.

“Crafting a View of Self-Tracking Data in the Clinical Visit,” published in the Journal of the Association for Computing Machinery details what happened when Mentis and her collaborators provided Fitbit activity trackers to Parkinson’s patients for a month prior to a follow-up meeting with a neurologist. The study found that the Fitbit provided clear activity data and easy to read charts that could inform patient-physician conversations during follow-up visits, leading to an active shared decision-making process about the role of exercise in treatment plans. Anita Komlodi, associate professor of information systems, Shulman and other collaborators co-authored the paper.

In Jesus’ ministry, he always gave people an opportunity to respond. Fill in the blanks and check your answers by looking up the references:

“Come and ___________” (John 1.38-39); “___________ me” (Matt 9.9); ”Do you want to get ___________?” (John 5.6); “What do you __________ me to do for you?” (Mark 10.51); “___________ do you say I am?” (Luke 9.20); “Take up your __________ and __________” (John 5.8); “I must _________ at your house today” (Luke 19.5); “________ all your possessions” (Luke 12.33); ”Why do you ______________?” (Luke 12.26); “Why did you ___________? (Matt 14.31); “Why are you _________________ such things in your ___________? (Luke 5.22); “Are you also going to __________? (John 6.67); “Do you realize what I have ________ for you? (John 13.7); “Do you _________ ______? (Johm 21.17); “If you __________ me, ________ _____ ______________” (John 14.15).

Ministry time is about responding to the Lord and receiving blessing from the church. This is how we receive care from the Lord and from His body. Are you eager to respond to the Lord and receive His care?

-JP