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Dec. 20, 2007

 

Carolina in the News

Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:

International Coverage

Discontinued drug helps ulcerative colitis
Reuters (Wire Service)

A genetically engineered protein can help close to half of patients with painful ulcerative colitis, U.S. researchers reported on Wednesday. But California-based PDL BioPharma Inc, which makes the protein under the name called Nuvion, said later tests showed the drug did not work well. The phase 1 safety study showed Nuvion helped 45 percent of patients with a severe version of the condition avoid surgery, a team at the University of North Carolina reported.
UNC Health Care Release: http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2007/Dec/visilizumab

High hopes for wired helmet
Now Magazine (Canada)

The National Football League has banned hits on the head, but that hasn’t kept the athletes from getting hurt. It’s a fact of life. Players, however, don’t always have to endure their pain in silence, which is where a new geekified helmet comes in. … Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill used Simbex’s system on 8 of the school’s players from 2004 to 2006 and published some intriguing conclusions.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec07/gutskconcussions120607.html

National Coverage

Very Obese Wait Longer for Transplant
The Associated Press

Very obese people who need a kidney transplant are far less likely to get one than normal weight people, and when they do, their wait is an average of a year to 18 months longer, a new study found. … Also clouding the issue is the fact the database maintained by the United Network for Organ Sharing does not capture all details on patient condition, said Dr. Kenneth Andreoni of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, vice chairman of the UNOS kidney transplantation committee.

Leading Legal Educators Call for a Shakeup in How the Law Is Taught
The Chronicle of Higher Education

Years of frustration over a system of legal education that has changed little in more than a century is boiling over in a series of meetings designed to shake up the profession. … "People who are trying to make changes at different law schools are isolated from each other, and that can result in a lot of inertia. We're trying to bridge that isolation," said Judith Welch Wegner, a former president of the Association of American Law Schools, who is one of the authors of a report this year from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching that recommended sweeping changes in legal education. Ms. Wegner, who is also a professor and former dean of the University of North Carolina School of Law, said she had been asked to speak at several law schools since the report was published.

Regional Coverage

HEAD INJURIES: Football hits inconclusive
The Detroit Free Press (Detroit)

Researchers who outfitted college football players' helmets with devices to measure the speed, direction and force with which they hit their heads have found there is no way to know for sure which blows will lead to a concussion. Writing in the December issue of Neurosurgery, researchers from the University of North Carolina presented their findings in three different reports looking at how hard players were hit, what position they played and whether they were playing in a practice or a game, among other things.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec07/gutskconcussions120607.html

Polk County schools to study how to boost achievement of minority boys
The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando)

Polk County has been selected to participate in a national study aimed at combating academic underachievement for minority boys. Beginning next year, initiatives will be implemented at eight Polk County elementary schools — including Alta Vista in Haines City and Palmetto in Poinciana — as part of the Promoting Academic Success of Boys of Color project. … The project is organized through the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and is funded by a grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation.

State & Local Coverage

Investors Focus on InnerOptic, Provide Up to $370,000
WRAL-TV (CBS Raleigh)

Medical device startup InnerOptic Technology has secured as much as $370,000 in financing, the company said Wednesday. CatoBioVentures has agreed to invest as much as $270,000 and an unidentified angel investor added another $100,000…. The company is developing technology licensed from the University of North Carolina that provides surgeons with a 3-D view of a patient’s body during minimally invasive surgery.
Related Link: http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/840353.html

UNC tests new emergency alert system
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)

We’ve been telling you about the new emergency alert system on the UNC-Chapel Hill campus. Early Wednesday afternoon … the system went through a test-run. … The sirens are located in four different spots around campus and will sound during an immediate life threatening situation … such as an armed or dangerous person in the area, a major chemical spill, or a tornado. … Jeff Mccracken is the public safety director … and says assessing the sound and loudness of the sirens was part of Wednesday’s test-run. Mccracken also says the system is only one element of the university’s emergency warning system.
UNC link: http://www.unc.edu/news/alert121907.html

A latte can add a lot of calories (Commentary)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

Looking for a jolt from that cup of coffee? Take a look at its calorie count. Extras added to whiten and sweeten coffee and tea sold in coffee shops can add a surprising number of calories to what would otherwise be zero-calorie drinks.
(Suzanne Havala Hobbs is a licensed, registered dietitian and author. She holds a doctorate in health policy and administration from UNC-Chapel Hill, where she is a clinical assistant professor in the School of Public Health.)

Lectures slated on Jewish music, ideology, history
The Herald-Sun (Durham)

Jewish music, Zionist ideology and Jewish merchants in the post-Civil War South are among topics to be explored in a spring lecture series at UNC. The university's Carolina Center for Jewish Studies will present the free public lectures, all at 7:30 p.m. in the theater of the Sonja Haynes Stone Center for Black Culture and History.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/dec07/jewishstudies121807.html

Spanish spoken here
The Chapel Hill News

… At the Spanish for Fun Academy, owner Martinez says she has seen impressive results as well, especially with early starters. Students who began learning Spanish while still in the cradle are now confident speakers. "All the toddlers speak Spanish very well," she said. "They're fluent …" Still, researchers warn to keep the gains in perspective. "It can be misleading to say the younger the child is, the easier the learning," said Dina Castro, a scientist at UNC's Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute who specializes in young second-language learners.

Notable
The Chapel Hill News

Da-Zhi Wang, an assistant professor in the UNC School of Medicine, has been selected to receive a National Established Investigator Award from the American Heart Association. The award provides $500,000 in funding over a five-year period for a research project headed by Wang that will investigate molecular regulation of cardiac gene expression and cardiomyocyte development.

Issues & Trends

Let's not leave any student behind (Editorial)
La Noticia (Charlotte)

There’s hope once again for the college prospects of the children of undocumented immigrants. When the DREAM Act failed to pass in Congress a few weeks ago, the future for our Latino undocumented high school graduates looked bleak. … Now there is some good news here in North Carolina. The UNC Tomorrow Commission, a group of state business, education, government, and nonprofit leaders, was convened earlier this year to determine how the University can best meet the state’s economic and societal needs in the future.

Drought tolerance (Opinion)
The Independent Weekly

It'll rain in the next nine months. But probably not a lot. Those pesky climatologists and meteorologists keep telling North Carolina politicians and citizens what they would rather not hear. … But, as Hunt noted, there are models out there, towns doing it right: Greensboro's tiered system is one of the best in the state, although water rate expert Jeff Hughes, director of the Environmental Finance Center at UNC-Chapel Hill, warns that tiering isn't the automatic answer for every municipality, and needs careful consideration. Cary has wonderful water reclamation projects.

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