Hopkins Center

If ringing in the new usually means ringing in your ears, a free set of earplugs might lessen the risk of permanent hearing loss.The Johns Hopkins Center for Hearing and Balance is mailing free earplugs to anyone who wants them.Music concerts and dance parties can produce sounds as high as 120 decibels. Under such conditions, doctors warn, hearing damage can occur in as little as seven to 10 minutes. If ringing persists in the ears after such occasions, doctors say, that indicates minute hair cells in the inner ear, which transmit sounds to the brain, might be dying.

Edward L. "Mac" McDill, former chairman of the Johns Hopkins University's sociology department who was also the founding director of the Hopkins Center for Social Organization of Schools, died April 25 of prostate cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The Mays Chapel resident was 82. "Mac was a friend and a mentor. He was the pillar of the department and held it together when we went through some pretty rough times," said Karl Alexander, who succeeded Dr. McDill as department chair.

While Dr. Donald A. Henderson, the man who led the worldwide campaign against smallpox, taped an interview yesterday with the BBC and fielded calls from countless newspapers, Dr. Tara O'Toole testified before the House Intelligence Committee. Reporters, doctors, hospital officials and worried citizens have been calling for days, and the e-mails keep pouring in. Everyone, it seems, is thinking about bioterrorism, and the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies is a place with answers.

During the Tower Federal Credit Union's annual Have A Heart fundraiser in February, employees and members raised $32,000 to help care for critically ill children receiving treatment at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, in Baltimore. TFCU members and employees also held raffles and sales to add to the fundraising effort. Since 1998, Tower, which is headquartered in Laurel, has raised more than $475,000 for the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, which is a member hospital of the Children's Miracle Network, an organization dedicated to helping raise fund for 170 children's hospital throughout North America.

Decked out in the blue and white skin-tight shorts that will be her primary clothing for the next two months, Kaylin Beck strapped on her helmet, mounted her bicycle and set off yesterday from the Inner Harbor with 26 other students on a cross-country ride to raise money for cancer patients. Never having ridden more than 15 miles at a time, the Johns Hopkins University sophomore from New York City admitted to moments of trepidation as she envisioned the heat and the hills that awaited her. Beck, however, was able to draw strength from the success of others.

COVENTRY, England - In this old manufacturing city that helped forge Britain's auto and airplane industries, Warwick University is embarking on a project to broaden the minds of Britain's brightest kids by borrowing an idea from Baltimore. England's National Academy for Gifted and Talented Youth has been unveiled, with Warwick University administrators and British government officials putting out an all-call for England's elite students ages 11 to 16. The program to enrich talented kids, many of whom might otherwise fall through the cracks, is modeled on the Center for Talented Youth at the Johns Hopkins University.

Borrowing a page from the hospitality industry, Johns Hopkins Hospital opens a new $140 million outpatient center Monday as much designed to provide customer satisfaction as medical care.The new one-stop center aims to woo patients attracted by the Hopkins name but put off by the prospect of parking problems, long waits, a massive complex and red tape.The eight-story outpatient center at 601 N. Caroline St., one of the largest in the Northeast, is an effort by Hopkins to capture a significant share of what it sees as the main area of growth in medicine over the next decade.

Edward L. "Mac" McDill, former chairman of the Johns Hopkins University's sociology department who was also the founding director of the Hopkins Center for Social Organization of Schools, died April 25 of prostate cancer at Gilchrist Hospice Care in Towson. The Mays Chapel resident was 82. "Mac was a friend and a mentor. He was the pillar of the department and held it together when we went through some pretty rough times," said Karl Alexander, who succeeded Dr. McDill as department chair.

Dr. Donald A. Henderson, founder of the Johns Hopkins Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies, was named yesterday to oversee the federal government's response to public health emergencies, including the recent anthrax attacks. His appointment as director of the newly created Office of Public Health Preparedness was announced yesterday by Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson. "Dr. Henderson brings a lifetime of preparation for the demands of this job, and we are fortunate to have him join the department on a full-time basis," Thompson said.

Urban farming guru Will Allen will be in B'more Wednesday (3/7) to speak about sustainable agriculture and the challenges ahead.  Allen, son of a sharecropper and a former professional basketball player with the Baltimore Bullets (now the Wizards), is founder and CEO of Growing Power  Inc., a farm and community food center in Milwaukee.  His efforts have earned him numerous awards and recognition, including a MacArthur "genius" grant in 2008. His lecture and signing of a new book, On the Nature of Food , will be at 12:15 p.m. at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St.  His appearance is sponsored by Hopkins' Center for a Livable Future .

When it comes to holiday shopping for her father, Lilah Sidle has developed the perfect angle. Not only can she come through with the tried and true necktie, but for the past two years, the 11-year-old's father and grandfather have received Jos. A Bank ties that the young Cockeysville resident has designed herself. This year, through a partnership with the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, Lilah has yet another tie in her portfolio - and maybe, just maybe, in her dad's closet come late December.

Ten people were injured when an MTA bus collided with a car in Glen Burnie on Saturday night, according to Anne Arundel County fire officials. Responders were dispatched to the scene at Crain Highway and 8th Avenue at 9:45 p.m., officials said. One child was taken to Johns Hopkins Children's Center, and another was transported to Baltimore Washington Medical Center. Eight people involved in the crash were taken to Harbor Hospital. No further details were immediately available.

Urban farming guru Will Allen will be in B'more Wednesday (3/7) to speak about sustainable agriculture and the challenges ahead.  Allen, son of a sharecropper and a former professional basketball player with the Baltimore Bullets (now the Wizards), is founder and CEO of Growing Power  Inc., a farm and community food center in Milwaukee.  His efforts have earned him numerous awards and recognition, including a MacArthur "genius" grant in 2008. His lecture and signing of a new book, On the Nature of Food , will be at 12:15 p.m. at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, 615 N. Wolfe St.  His appearance is sponsored by Hopkins' Center for a Livable Future .

Elaine Tuttle Hansen will never forget stepping into her first college class after years of feeling out of place as a smart kid in her small Massachusetts hometown. "It was like, 'Oh my God, there are people out there like me,'" she says. It's a sentiment often expressed by students who arrive at the Johns Hopkins Center for Talented Youth, where Hansen recently took over as executive director. After years of feeling misunderstood or unchallenged at their regular schools, these precocious elementary and middle schoolers say they finally feel "at home.

Candy canes, pumpkin pie, mashed potatoes, oh my. Holiday treats can wreak havoc on anyone's diet plan, but for the approximately 23.6 million Americans with diabetes who are trying to maintain good glucose control, the festive season can be particularly difficult to navigate. Nonetheless, this doesn't mean that diabetics can't join in the festivities, says Michelle Bravo, a dietitian and certified diabetes educator at the Johns Hopkins Diabetes Center. There are steps that can be taken to help maintain good health.

Although estimates vary, about 28 million American adults - or about 13 percent of the adult U.S. population - suffer from migraines, says Dr. Jason Rosenberg, director of the Johns Hopkins Headache Center at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. The chronic disorder affects more women than men and can vary from occasional symptoms to frequently occurring, debilitating pain. How is a migraine defined? We now think of migraines as a chronic disorder of a hyper-excitable brain, and the symptom of this brain hyper-excitability is intermittent sickness, including headache.

The Johns Hopkins School of Medicine has received a four-year, $24 million grant to establish a center for the study of sudden cardiac death, school officials said yesterday. The grant was made by the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, a Las Vegas-based philanthropy founded in 1954 by the media entrepreneur for whom it is named. At the time of his death in 1993, Reynolds owned 75 newspapers as well as cable television and outdoor advertising companies. The Hopkins center will pursue therapies that include using stem cells to prevent sudden deaths and use modern imaging techniques to identify the abnormalities that put people at risk.

About 34,000 Baltimore children are injured in home and traffic accidents and require medical attention each year -- a figure that has sparked Johns Hopkins health officials to launch a mobile safety center to illustrate potential hazards and preventative measures. The center is mounted on a 40-foot trailer, and its interior simulates a typical house with a kitchen, bedroom, bathroom and stairway. It will be staffed by instructors from Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health and the city Fire Department.

Ali Barbieri occupies just a sliver of her grown-up bed at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center, her 5-month-old legs suspended in a miniature traction rig that holds in place the hips she dislocated at birth. Most days Ali's mother, Natalia, sits with her all day, caressing her, distracting her with the toys that share her bed, trying to introduce her to solid foods. Barbieri knows just how well her daughter is sleeping, eating and feeling. So it makes sense to involve her in Ali's care - and to have her on hand when the doctors do their early-morning rounds.