Aurora Saulo (Dept. of Tropical Plant and Soil Sciences) and co-authors recently published a peer-reviewed article, “Linking Food Endorsement Labels & Messaging to Perceived Price and Emotions: A Mind Genomics^® Exploration,” in the journal Advanced Nutrition and Food Science.

There’s a new agricultural pest in town, and Dan Rubinoff (Dept. of Plants and Environmental Protection Sciences) is ready to start investigating it. He was interviewed by KITV about the Australian longhorn beetle, which is threatening citrus, sago palm, cacao, breadfruit, and kukui trees. A local chocolate company said their cacao yield has dropped 20 percent since the beetle has infested their trees. It also affects native trees such as ‘ōhi‘a and lama.

Sadly, former CTAHR Ka Lei Hano awardee Ernest Tottori passed away on October 3 at the age of 85. Chairman of HPC Foods and its iconic Taro Brand, he was honored at the college’s 2016 Annual Awards Banquet. His memorial service will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, November 30, at Mililani Memorial Park and Mortuary’s Mauka Chapel. Visitation will be 5:00 p.m.

Clay Trauernicht (NREM) wrote a chilling article on a hot topic in Civil Beat. The wildland fire researcher and Extension faculty member discussed Central Maui fires that burned nearly 20,000 acres this summer (see image of burned area from the Sentinel-2 satellite). This “unprecedented” area reflects “dramatic increases in wildfires across the state,” he warns.

Birendra Mishra (HNFAS) co-authored a groundbreaking study, “Reproductive Hazards of Space Travel in Women and Men,” supported by NASA and published in the prestigious journal Nature Reviews Endocrinology. Extended travel in deep space poses potential hazards to the reproductive function of female and male astronauts, such as exposure to cosmic radiation, microgravity, increased gravity (hypergravity), psychological stress, physical stress, and circadian rhythm disruptions.