National Institutes

Catholic schools are hooked on phonics.Over the decades -- as fads in reading instruction have come and gone -- Baltimore-area Catholic schools, like many other parochial schools across the nation, have held to teaching children to read by first focusing on the sounds that make up words and sound-letter relationships.In stark contrast to most public schools, which in the 1980s tended to forsake teaching sounds for an early focus on reading stories, virtually all of the 70 elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore teach phonics as a separate subject in the early grades.

Mission: To provide instruction in the visual and performing arts, including dance, voice, piano, theater, and arts and crafts; to provide space for local and traveling exhibits that are of interest to the community; to serve as the home of the Eubie Blake Museum - a repository of memorabilia of the ragtime and musical theater composer and other jazz greats born in Baltimore, including Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Chick Webb and Avon Long; and to preserve...

Gliknik Inc., a biopharmaceutical company based at the University of Maryland's BioPark in downtown Baltimore, said Monday it had won a $1.5 million contract from the National Cancer Institute to continue development of its cancer-fighting technology. The grant places the company on a path that could lead to clinical trials in two years, said David S. Block, Gliknik's chief executive. Since its formation in 2007, Gliknik has raised $10 million from investors, largely with the help of Maryland's biotechnology tax credit.

BETHESDA -- The National Institutes of Health used to feel like a bucolic college campus. Now it is a giant construction project, with cranes and bulldozers erecting new laboratories, a new research hospital and a new center for vaccine research.The activity here is the tangible symbol of a huge new federal investment in biomedical research. Congress is providing far more money than President Clinton requested because congressional leaders of both parties have vowed to double the agency's budget over five years -- a process that began with the 1999 appropriations bill, which just became law.The institutes have always enjoyed respect on Capitol Hill.

For the first time, the National Institute for Metalworking Skills has accredited an Army program, allowing the development of civilian employment credentials for soldiers. At a ceremony last week at Aberdeen Proving Ground, the institute gave the Army Ordnance Mechanical Maintenance School its stamp of approval for the metalworking skills training program. "I think this is [the] crossing of a threshold and represents stepping into a new era in the military," said Sgt. Maj. James Herrell, the Army Ordnance Corps' chief of enlisted career management.

Walk down a pharmacy aisle and you'll see these words on almost every home pregnancy kit -- "ready to use first day of missed period" and "more than 99 percent accurate." But it turns out the vast majority of brands detect only 16 percent or fewer of pregnancies if they are used as early as recommended, according to new research. Only one test is sensitive enough to detect 95 percent or more of pregnancies when used so early. "There is no incentive for the manufacturers to make them more accurate," said Lawrence Cole, professor of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of New Mexico at Albuquerque and author of the study, which appeared in the American Journal of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

NationsBank said yesterday that it would try to control health-care costs with a new system of managed care that includes negotiating directly with doctors and hospitals for discounted rates in some areas.The plan will allow many of its 55,000 employees nationwide, including 3,400 in Baltimore, to choose either a health maintenance organization or a preferred-provider organization.Employees who choose the HMO would receive medical care for a flat monthly rate. Workers who join the PPO and go to doctors and hospitals on the NationsBank plan's list would receive 80 percent reimbursement.

Purslane sprouts from sidewalk cracks, invades gardens and earns contempt from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which classifies it as a "noxious weed." It also happens to be a "superfood" high in heart-healthy Omega-3 fatty acids and beta carotene, one tasty enough to spread, like the weed it is, to farmers' markets and fancy restaurants. "We have all this sitting in our front yard, and we can eat it, and it's cheaper than salmon," said Joan Norman, owner of One Straw Farm in White Hall.

Lady Hazel S. Whittle, a registered nurse who had worked at the National Institutes of Health and was the widow of Sir Frank Whittle, who is considered one of the fathers of jet propulsion, died Monday from complications of Parkinson disease at her Columbia home. She was 91. Hazel Steenberg was born and raised in West St. Paul, Minn., and received her nursing diploma in 1937 from the Kahler School of Nursing, which is affiliated with the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. After working as a private-duty and hospital nurse, she attended the Patricia Stevens School of Modeling in Chicago.

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. -- Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System have received a grant of $5.1 million over five years from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Disease, part of the National Institutes of Health. The grant will fund a multidisciplinary Program Project to begin to develop a cure for Crohn's disease by isolating new treatment targets. "To date, no one has been able to determine exactly what causes Crohn's disease, and this has limited the ability of researchers to develop successful treatments.