Here is a sampling of links and notes about Carolina people and programs cited recently in the media:
National Coverage
Autism science is moving 'stunningly fast'
USA Today
…Across the country, researchers are scanning the brains of hundreds of autistic children like Nicky, looking for insights into a condition that has proved frustratingly hard to understand. Autism, which now afflicts more than 1 million children in the USA, is associated with a spectrum of disabilities, including repetitive behaviors and problems socializing and communicating. …Structural changes in these fiber tracts are evident in the brains of children later diagnosed with autism, even as young as 6 months old. That's six months to a year before autistic children typically begin to show any outward signs of their condition, says Joseph Piven, a researcher at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Obesity Linked to Neighborhood Features: Do You Live in a Fat Neighborhood?
"Good Morning America" ABC News
Where you live may determine your child's weight, according to a series of new studies published this week. …GIS (geographic information systems) research still faces many challenges, wrote Janne Boone-Heinonen of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Penny Gordon-Larsen of Oregon Health and Sciences University, but it still holds a lot of promise for driving policies geared toward preventing and reducing childhood obesity.
Dental X-Rays Linked To Common Brain Tumor, Study Finds
The Huffington Post
…Dr. John B. Ludlow, a professor of oral and maxillofacial radiology at the University of North Carolina who was not associated with the study, said that it revealed a statistical association between a history of dental X-rays and meningiomas that he called "thought provoking, if not sobering." He cautioned, however, that dental techniques have changed over the years.
Slow Recovery
Inside Higher Ed
An annual survey of faculty salaries being released today by the American Association of University Professors paints a dismal picture, suggesting that a historic low period for compensation increases continues. This trend may go on for a while, the report says, and it questions whether the numbers will ever go back to where they were before the Great Recession. (The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is included on a graph of the Top Public Universities in Pay for Full Professors, 2011-12.)
As I Narrow My College Choices, the Indecision Increases (Blog)
The New York Times
…Along with Northeastern, my options are the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University of Georgia. I was wait-listed at U.N.C., but there’s still a slight possibility of being accepted, so I still want to consider it. It’s a fantastic school, and I would be so blessed to have the opportunity to go there. (Ms. Tiarsmith, a student at the Marist School in Atlanta, is one of eight seniors who will be blogging about their college searches for The Choice until May.)
Football and Swahili (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The New York Times
I was at the University of North Carolina when I heard the Swahili anecdote. It was at a luncheon organized by some faculty members who have become, like me, critics of the N.C.A.A. and the hypocrisy of college sports. Among those attending was a former Carolina football player named Deunta Williams.
Regional Coverage
Is there a connection between lunar phases and seizures in pets?
AnnArbor.com (Michigan)
…Laura Browand-Stainback, DVM, Donald Levesque, DVM, DACVIM of Veterinary Neurological Center in Las Vegas and Matthew McBee, PhD of Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute and University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill studied 211 cats and dogs with idiopathic epilepsy beginning in 2000. The findings, which were published in the Journal of the American Animal Hospital Association were to many, were not all that surprising: lunar phases seem to have no bearing on influencing a pet's seizures.
A new lovers’ lane for the linked in: College library at UNC (Blog)
The Atlanta Journal Constitution (Georgia)
A story in the student newspaper at UNC gives “study break” a whole new meaning. According to the University of North Carolina Daily Tar Heel, students looking for a brief sexual encounter amid the stacks at Davis Library are advertising for partners on the Raleigh Craigslist personals category.
State and Local Coverage
UNC Launches Two-Year Water Initiative
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
At the end of last month, UNC kicked off a campus-wide initiative to examine how water-related issues impact the world. "The idea of the initiative is to bring all the different diverse groups across UNC who tackle water issues in different ways," says UNC Water Institute Director Jamie Bartram, "and bring those energies together around what is one of the principal global challenges of the twenty-first century."
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5180/107/
UNC Plays Major Role In New Water Partnership
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
As part of UNC’s new two-year campus-wide focus on the theme of water, UNC’s Water Institute is taking the lead in cofounding the U.S. Water Partnership, a public-private venture aiming at solving various water problems around the world. Environmental sciences and engineering professor Jamie Bartram says many different agencies are working together to achieve these problems.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5188/107/
Some Would Lose Health Coverage Under Amendment One
WUNC-FM (Chapel Hill)
…Not everyone agrees on how feasible that kind of change would be. UNC law professor Maxine Eichner authored a study of the potential impact of the amendment. Maxine Eichner: The constitutionality of looking for a way around the amendment seems pretty dubious. Eichner says, based on the legal battles that have played out in other states with marriage amendments, it's impossible to say that rewritten benefits rules would pass legal muster.
Talented cast makes the most of Playmakers’ ‘Noises Off’
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Sex farces and comedies about bad actors are staples of the theater. Playwright Michael Frayn combines the two in his 1982 hit, “Noises Off.” The piece requires expert timing and great physical endurance, qualities that are in abundant supply for PlayMakers Repertory Company’s elaborate production.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/5166/66/
UNC journalism bails/bales on historic/historical spelling test
WRAL-TV (CBS/Raleigh)
For almost 40 years, journalism students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have had to pass a spelling and grammar test in order to get a degree. Now, in the age of spell check, the university is changing the test, which some say will make it even more difficult to pass.
N.C. law makers discuss future of Rex Hospital today
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A legislative committee will meet this morning to discuss an ongoing dispute between Wake County’s two largest hospitals: WakeMed and Rex. The committee has been examining the role of Rex as a state-owned hospital and whether it ought to be sold. UNC Health Care, the state’s public hospital anchored in Chapel Hill, bought Rex in 2000.
UNC students using website to meet up for sex in library
WNCN-TV (NBC/Raleigh)
Type in Davis Library on Craigslist.com, and you won't find someone selling books. …Carolina told NBC-17 that university staff from the library, Student Affairs and Public Safety looked into the matter. Public Safety officers who regularly patrol the library say they have not witnessed inappropriate sexual activity.