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

National Coverage

Doctors 'Shocked' by Radiation Overexposure at Cedars-Sinai
"World News Tonight" ABC News

Doctors have expressed outrage and concern for the unsuspecting patients who received eight times the normal dose of radiation during a specific type of brain scan at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. …"It is the wild west out there," said Dr. Richard Semelka, vice chair of quality and safety in the department of radiology at UNC Hospitals. "No one has solved the issue of keeping track of the global exposure of individuals to medical radiation."
Video Link:
http://abcnews.go.com/Video/playerIndex?id=8822055
Note: Dr. Semelka was interviewed from the Carolina News Studio.

Shareholders Role in Executive Compensation
Fox Business News

Assistant professor of finance at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Ed Van Wesep breaks down what role shareholders should play in terms of executive pay and an executive compensation pay cap for leadership at banks who received TARP funds.
Note: Professor Van Wesep was interviewed live from the Carolina News Studio.

Imaging Away Pain
Ivanhoe (Newswire)

Children with functional abdominal pain who used audio recordings of guided imagery at home in addition to standard medical treatment were almost three times as likely to improve their pain problem, according to a study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Duke University. …"What is especially exciting about our study is that children can clearly reduce their abdominal pain a lot on their own with guidance from audio recordings, and they get much better results that way than from medical care alone," Miranda van Tilburg, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Division of Gastroenterology and Hepatology in the UNC School of Medicine was quoted as saying.
Note: Ivanhoe has a syndicated television series and its reports are broadcast in 250 markets reaching 80 million U.S. households.
UNC Release:
http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/October/guidedimagery/
Related Link:
http://health.usnews.com/articles/health/healthday/2009/10/13/soothing
-imagery-may-help-rid-some-kids-of.html

Why It’s Hard To Measure Spanking’s Effects (Blog)
The Wall Street Journal

…Adam Zolotor, an assistant professor of family medicine at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said that to control for sufficient variables such as genetics would require a complex research effort. “The best way to do this would be to get enough twins that were separated at birth,” he said. “Let’s say you need at least 500 twins separated at birth, and probably more. I don’t know if you could find that many.”

Offensive Play
The New Yorker

…Take the experience of a young defensive lineman for the University of North Carolina football team, who suffered two concussions during the 2004 season. His case is one of a number studied by Kevin Guskiewicz, who runs the university’s Sports Concussion Research Program. For the past five seasons, Guskiewicz and his team have tracked every one of the football team’s practices and games using a system called HITS, in which six sensors are placed inside the helmet of every player on the field, measuring the force and location of every blow he receives to the head. Using the HITS data, Guskiewicz was able to reconstruct precisely what happened each time the player was injured.

Regional Coverage

Cedars radiation error blamed on computer
KABC/TV (ABC/Los Angeles, Calif.)

Approximately 200 patients who got a test called a CT brain perfusion scan at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, between February 2008 and November 2009, received a higher than normal dose of radiation. … Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is calling it a misunderstanding. Medical experts are calling it something else. "I consider it a serious mistake to have made," said Richard Semelka from the University of North Carolina.

State and Local Coverage

Thorp praised at U-Day
The Chapel Hill News

UNC- Chancellor Holden Thorp is probably going to do well at his next annual work review. His boss, UNC system President Erskine Bowles, made that abundantly clear Monday during UNC's University Day ceremony, which celebrated the university's 216th birthday. "Holden Thorp is doing a phenomenal job," Bowles gushed. "He is, without a doubt, the single best decision I've made in my life."
Related Link:
http://www.wchl1360.com/detailswide.html?id=12078
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2960/1/

Joe Ferrell: Livening up Ceremonies Since 1996 (Blog)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

Joe Ferrell just can't help himself. He can't let you sit in the audience at some stuffy university event while he drones on and on about some wonderful person's wonderful background. …That's why, as the secretary of the faculty at UNC Chapel Hill, Ferrell tries to lighten the mood at commencement, when honorary degrees are bestowed upon notable folks with long resumes, and at University Day, when distinguished alumni awards are given to, um, notable folks with long resumes.

Study finds stresses high on Army wives during deployments
The Fayetteville Observer

Wives of active-duty soldiers are at risk for psychological problems such as loneliness, depression or burnout, according to a study released Tuesday by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. …Dennis Orthner, a UNC School of Social Work professor, and Roderick Rose, a research associate at the school's Jordan Institute for Families, co-wrote the study. It was commissioned by the U.S. Army Family, Morale, Welfare and Recreation Command.
Related Link:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=7063338
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2986/71/

UNC wins $6.2M Rare Diseases grant
The Triangle Business Journal

The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will continue its work with the National Institutes of Health’s Rare Diseases Clinical Research Network with the award of a five-year, $6.2 million grant. …"This additional funding will let us continue our discovery of rare disease-causing gene mutations, which has already culminated in a clinical genetic test, but which needs to be expanded and improved,” said Michael Knowles, a professor in the UNC School of Medicine's Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and principal investigator for the RDCRN.
UNC Release:
http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/October/rarediseases

AG calls for federal credit regulations
WTVD-TV (ABC/Raleigh)

North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper is fighting back against credit card companies on your behalf. He's calling for federal regulations that would get tough on banks and other businesses. …"Americans have had way too much credit card debt for a long time and if this gets us to reduce our reliance on credit card debt, that's actually a very good thing," said Edward Van Wesep, assistant professor of finance at UNC.

Boseman, Soles open wallets for Senate victories
The Star News (Wilmington)

More than $17 per vote. That’s how much the winning candidates in last year’s two local state Senate races spent during the 2007-08 election cycle for each vote they received in November. A review of campaign finance reports by the Program on Public Life at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill showed that the two state Senate races in Southeastern North Carolina last year were the most expensive General Assembly contests in North Carolina.

Women's data breach probed
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

A security breach involving patient data in a UNC-Chapel Hill medical school computer server has prompted an investigation by the state Attorney General's Office. By Tuesday, the consumer division of Attorney General Roy Cooper's office had received 25 calls from women whose personal data had been submitted to a UNC-CH mammography study. University officials recently discovered a hacker had infiltrated one of the study's computer servers.
Related Link:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/no-consent-needed-
for-unc-mammogram-study-that-was-hacked

Alcohol-related arrests up at UNC
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)

Alcohol-related arrests are up involving University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill students. …Dean Blackburn, assistant dean of students, said the university is seeing more students with an established drinking history prior to arriving at UNC. The average age of students first consuming an alcoholic beverage was 16, according to a recent UNC poll. Blackburn also said that alcohol-related incidents at UNC are lower than the national average. He said that the university is working to change the culture regarding underage and excessive alcohol use.

Ex-adviser says comment misunderstood (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill News

I appreciate Donald Holloway's comments about my involvement with Youth for Western Civilization (YWC). When I wrote "I have a Colt 45 and I know how to use it", I wasn't threatening anyone. Nikhil Patel was concerned for my safety and he took my response as humorously intended. On the other hand, I do believe in the right of self-defense for real threats. (Elliot M. Cramer, Chapel Hill)

Exclusivity's benefits (Letter to the Editor)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)

In her Oct. 7 Point of View article, Laura Musselwhite complained that 12 years of data exclusivity for biotech medicines is too long and costly. Note that data exclusivity refers to the Food and Drug Administration keeping private the data supplied to it when a firm applies for FDA approval. Why should biologics get 12 years when pharmaceuticals receive only five? (John A. Vernon. Professor, Department of Health Policy and Management, UNC-Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill)

Issues and Trends

UNC vows 'carbon neutrality' by 2050
The News & Record (Greensboro)

…One goal — achieving “carbon neutrality” by 2050 — requires the university system, state government’s biggest energy user, to either generate no carbon dioxide emissions or to offset emissions with carbon storage projects. The UNC Board of Governors approved the policy Friday. …As a result, 655 colleges and universities across the country — including UNC-Chapel Hill, N.C. State, Appalachian State and the N.C. community college system — have pledged carbon neutrality by signing the American College & University Presidents’ Climate Commitment.

Fortune/Kauffman Foundation study ranks Raleigh-Cary third best place to a start a business
The Triangle Business Journal

When it comes to the best places to launch a business, Raleigh-Cary ranks No. 3 among the nation’s largest metropolitan areas, while Durham stands No. 15 among midsize metros, according to a new study by Fortune Small Business magazine and the Kauffman Foundation. …The Fortune Small Business writeup on Raleigh-Cary also gives the area points for Research Triangle Park, a strong technology base and three major research universities – Duke, North Carolina and North Carolina State. …But while UNC-Chapel Hill is cited as a strength for Raleigh-Cary, the university is not mentioned in the Durham profile, though Chapel Hill is located in the Durham MSA and UNC.

SEANC on university hiring (Blog)
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)

The State Employees Association of North Carolina says the frequency with which UNC schools are skipping their normal hiring procedures is "disturbing." …Since 2007, UNC-Chapel Hill has made 386 permanent hires without searches and N.C. State University has made 337.

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