Kentucky Wildcat Forward Transfers To Texas State

Texas State head basketball coach Doug Davalos announced Monday that 6-7, 225-pound forward A. J. Stewart has signed to play for the Bobcats after playing the past two years at the University of Kentucky. He will have to sit out next season season to meet NCAA transfer requirements and play for the Bobcats in 2010-11. Read more

The Practice Notes

As he watched his team go through their second practice in preparation for the 2009 season, Texas State head coach Brad Wright noticed that one of his veteran players has been unusually quiet this fall.

“Alex Luna is normally one of our most vocal players, but the past couple of days he has been unusually quiet,” Wright said. “He told me, ‘Coach I am going (concentrate) on doing rather than talking about things this year,’ and as a coach, that makes you feel good.”

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New Hours & New Jobs

Bobcats of the world unite! I am proud and happy to be a Bobcat. I want to welcome back those Bobcats who visited their home away from home this summer. While you were away a few things have changed, most notably the San Marcos bar hours. 190 new jobs in San Marcos also opened up due to a new manufacturer coming to our city.

I am sure you heard before you left that the San Marcos City Council passed an ordinance creating extended hours for the sale of alcohol between the hours of 12:00 AM to 2:00 AM.  Months before this passage the council put together a 2:00 AM implementation task force, which was charged with addressing problems that could impact the successful transition from 12:00 AM to 2:00 AM. The task force discussed several issues and presented a formal report to the city council, which encouraged the council to address issues related to transportation, police coverage, education and infrastructure. Read more

Rohde, students commended for clinical research

Rodney E. Rohde, associate professor in the Clinical Laboratory Science program at Texas State University-San Marcos, received a $5,000 renewable grant from the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Scientists for his research project Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus (MRSA): Knowledge, Learning and Adaptation.

Rohde’s university MRSA pilot prevalence study will be published this month in the journal Clinical Laboratory Science and is co-written by Aaron Brannon and Rebecca Denham, both of whom were undergraduates at the time of the study’s conduction.

The study will be the first publication from the Clinical Laboratory Science program to be co-authored by undergraduate students.

The grant will go towards Rohde’s completion of his doctorate in the work of MRSA, a vicious, more resistant form of what is commonly known as a Staph infection. A growing problem in the arena of healthcare, MRSA can be linked anywhere from normal skin infections to fatality.

Rhode described MRSA as a bacteria associated with infections in humans that can act as a colonizer of various skin and mucosal surfaces. “Colonization” refers to the ability for a subject to carry the organism but not be infected; however, the potential for the bacteria to be transmitted from one location to another still exists.

“One to three percent of the general population is known to carry MRSA,” Rohde said. “What I mean by ‘carry’ is that you can walk around with it and not show signs of sickness, but the potential is there to infect yourself and others.”

Rohde said that MRSA is spread predominantly by person-to-person contact, although it may be transmitted by contaminated surfaces and objects.

“The big areas you see this explode in are in areas of close living or poor hygiene, like prisons, athletic facilities and university dorms,” Rohde said. “Places where certain items are inevitably shared.”

The chief goal of his research, Rohde explained, is to help build public health policy and models on how to deal with MRSA, its infections and other problems surrounding the condition.

“Many of the people in the general community aren’t aware of what to do, where to go or who to see,” Rohde said. “All of these are critical questions that they need answers to, whether about themselves or loved ones. This bug has adapted to people taking antibiotics for decades and has developed ways to resist. I want to help people be able to adapt to this disease.”

Rohde lent his knowledge on the disease and acted as mentor to undergraduates Brannon and Denham throughout their MRSA research project, helping them to develop a study based on carriage rates and characterization of students at a university, using Texas State as their site.

“MRSA is a hot topic nowadays,” Denham said, “and there weren’t any other studies about it in dorms. The information is important because college healthcare personnel should be aware of the changing epidemiology of MRSA, how it is transmitted, and preventative measures needed to avoid outbreaks on campus.”

“We really wanted to go out and strive to do more,” Brannon said. “And it’s exciting to think that as undergrads, we were able to be recognized for what we’ve been working on since 2007. “

“It feels good to be published,” Denham agreed. “We worked very hard to get this done.”

Softball Ends Memorable Season at NCAA Regionals

The Texas State softball team ended its season at the NCAA Regionals this afternoon. The Bobcats fell to Lousiana-Lafeyette 5-0, in their third game of the Waco Regional. Texas State ends its season with a 40-18 record; the third best record by a Texas State softball team. The 2009 team won the Southland Conference Regular Season title and Tournament title for the first time in the same year since 2001. Read more

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