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Dealing with malaria is a fact of life for more than 91 million Ethiopians. Each year four to five million contract malaria, one of the biggest health problems in this poor country. Through a five-year, $1.7 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, and Michael Wimberly of the Geographic Information Science Center of Excellence and an international team of scientists will combine environmental data gathered through earth-imaging satellites and surveillance data from public health professionals in the Amhara region of Ethiopia to anticipate malaria outbreaks.

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Parents of children with short bowel syndrome measure their outcomes by the centimeters of intestine that remain after surgery. Many of these children live on intravenous nutrients and fluids, in combination with formula by a gastric tube in and a strict diet. All face daily challenges—infections, diarrhea and liver disease. Through a collaborative project with clinical researchers and a microbiologist in Canada, assistant professor Crystal Levesque of the South Dakota State University Animal Science Department hopes to help in finding a treatment that will help grow their intestines. Beginning its second year, the project has been supported by an annual $25,000 Maurice Shils Grant from the Nestlé Nutrition Institute awarded through the American Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition Rhoads Research Foundation.

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Far-sighted data policy and cloud computing are leading to the “democratization of satellite mapping,” one expert says — and the payoff will be wider access to information about the earth via platforms such as the new Google Earth Engine, a planetary-scale platform for environmental data and analysis.

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Crafting oat varieties suitable for horses and other livestock is priority for plant breeders at South Dakota State University. But horses are having to make room at the trough for humans as scientists continue to learn more about the health benefits of oats in human diets.

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A fresh look at the safety systems for current and future nuclear power plants may be the silver lining in the current crisis involving nuclear reactors damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami that struck Japan. Physicist Robert J. McTaggart, the coordinator of nuclear education at South Dakota State University, is available to discuss the safety and future design considerations of nuclear power plants.