Carolina in the News: Wednesday, October 30

International Coverage

Harmful Algal Blooms Expected to Increase in Freshwater Lakes Around the World
TheFishSite.com (UK website for fishing industry)
Researchers from Oregon State University and the University of North Carolina in the US stated that as nutrient enrichment increases, so will the proportion of toxin-producing strains of cyanobacteria in harmful algal blooms.

National Coverage

Major Medical Trials Still Fly Under the Radar
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Five years after Congress required the open publication of the results of human medical trials, to help both patients and researchers, a comprehensive analysis has found widespread noncompliance. … Failure to publish in such cases also "violates an ethical obligation that investigators have toward study participants," Dr. Jones and his co-author, Timothy F. Platts-Mills, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, wrote in their report.
UNC News Release:
http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2013/october/results-from-many-large-clinical-trials-are-never-published

Bad vibrations? Truck drivers at risk for aggressive prostate cancer
The Los Angeles Times
Warning: Driving a truck for a living can be hazardous to your health — if you are diagnosed with prostate cancer, researchers said Tuesday. … The research team — from the NCI, the Louisiana State University School of Public Health, the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, N.Y. — looked at medical records and other data from 2,132 men who were part of the North Carolina-Louisiana Prostate Cancer Project. … When the researchers crunched the numbers, they found that men who said they spent more time driving a truck than doing anything else were nearly four times more likely than educators to be diagnosed with a prostate cancer considered highly aggressive.

N.C. Supreme Court to Decide on Pre-K Funding
EducationWeek
The North Carolina Supreme Court is weighing arguments in a case that will help decide if the state must pay for preschool to bridge achievement gaps—an obligation that some estimates suggest would require making room for more than 60,000 children at a cost of $300 million annually. … Both the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and researchers at Duke … studied the program and found positive effects of the [More at Four early childhood education] program lasting until third grade.

Branch-Like Dendrites Function As Mini-Computers In The Brain
Popular Science
A new paper in Nature suggests that we've been thinking about neurons all wrong. Namely, it suggests that dendrites, the tree-like branches of wiring that extend out from the soma, or cell body, aren't just passive information relayers, but are active "mini-computers" that process information. Researchers from University College London, the University of North Carolina School of Medicine found that in response to visual stimuli, dendrites fired electrical signals in the brains of mice.
UNC News Release:
http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2013/october/unc-neuroscientists-discover-new-2018mini-neural-computer2019-in-the-brain

State & Local Coverage

Joe DeSimone, director of Kenan Institute, to step down
The Triangle Business Journal
Prominent Triangle scientist Joseph DeSimone, director of the Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, is stepping down from his position at the end of the year. … “An interim director will be named shortly,” said DeSimone in an emailed statement. "We just completed a great strategic planning process to reposition the KI to be a partner for innovative entrepreneurship. That mission will continue and is greatly aligned with a similar focus at UNC-Chapel Hill and for the region.”
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2013/10/30/director-of-kenan-institute-to-step-down.html

Issues & Trends

$230,000 in governor's mansion repairs off list
The Daily Reflector (Greenville)
…A legislative panel signed off Tuesday on plans from … the University of North Carolina system to spend $150 million on scores of building renovations. … The $150 million was the most cash the legislature has set aside for repairs and renovations in at least six years, as state officials siphoned away dedicated funds during the Great Recession to balance budgets. The amount, however, still represents a small portion of the maintenance and upkeep needs of state buildings and infrastructure.

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Produced by News Services, Carolina in the News is a sampling of current news media coverage about Carolina people and programs, as well as issues and trends that affect the university. Stories usually will be online and available free for a limited time – often one to two weeks. Expiration dates before stories move to archives vary by media outlet. Some outlets require free user registration or a subscription.

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