Feb. 2, 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

Brain bleeding noted in some natural births' (Column)
The Globe and Mail (Toronto, Canada)
When U.S. researchers used a high-tech MRI machine to scan inside the skulls of 88 newborns, they got a bit of a surprise: They discovered signs of recent bleeding in and around the brains of 26 per cent of the babies born vaginally. ...John Gilmore, who led the study at the University of North Carolina school of medicine, believes the bleeding likely resulted from the pressure exerted on the skull as the child passed through the birth canal.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan07/neonates013007.html

Analysis: Fibroid therapy queries answered
United Press International
Researchers suggested Thursday that lingering questions over the general safety of the procedure known as uterine fibroid embolization have been answered -- and the answer is that the minimally invasive treatment is safe and effective. ...In a patient registry that includes more than 3,000 women who have undergone the embolization treatment in the United States, the rate of complications that occurred in the hospital was less than 1 percent -- "There were 20 incidents in 18 patients," said Matt Mauro, professor of radiology and surgery at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.

National Coverage

Designers Face a Weighty Problem
The Washington Post
In the lobby of 275 W. 39th St., in the heart of the Garment District, a clutch of towering teenagers stand waiting for the elevator. ..."What we know is there are people out there who are more or less predisposed to eating disorders. People who are more predisposed are more sensitive to their environment," says Cynthia M. Bulik, a psychologist and eating-disorder expert in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Survey: 3% Of Americans Are Binge Eaters
WebMD
Binge eating disrupts the lives of 3.5 percent of U.S. women and 2 percent of U.S. men, for an average of eight years, a new survey shows. ...Food beckons like an irresistible neon sign to a person with binge eating disorder, says Cynthia M. Bulik, Ph.D., director of the eating disorders program at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Bulik was not involved in the survey but participated in the news conference.

Study Spotlights Eating Disorder
"Here and Now," WBUR-FM/Public Radio International (Boston)
This new study shows that frequent and uncontrollable binge eating is the common eating disorder in the U.S. And the study counters the impression that eating disorders only affect women. We speak to the lead author of the study, James Hudson, Director of the Psychiatric Epidemiology Research Program at Maclean Hospital. We also speak to Cynthia Bulik, who is the director of the eating disorders program at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine about body image and other factors that play into obesity and eating disorders such as anorexia and bulemia.

Probing the Roots of Race and Cancer
Scientific Magazine
The breast cancer patients Olufunmilayo Olopade saw as a resident at Cook County Hospital in Chicago reminded her of home. .."The question is how much is nature, how much is nurture, how much is something else?" says Lisa Carey, a breast oncologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who helped conduct the study.

Developing a Different Perspective on Disease (Book Review)
Scientific Magazine
For many decades, efforts to prevent chronic disease focused on modifying aspects of adult life-style that contribute to nutritional excesses--too much energy intake relative to too little energy expenditure. Paradoxically, a rapidly growing body of evidence from animal experiments and human epidemiologic research suggests that chronic diseases have early life origins related to inadequate nutrition. ...(Linda Adair) is in the Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Students Track the Inspiration for 'Robinson Crusoe'
The Chronicle of Higher Education
It’s widely believed that Alexander Selkirk, the 18th-century Scottish sailor who spent four years marooned on an island near Chile, was the inspiration for Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe. ...The site — an unusual collaboration between students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and visiting students from the University of the Andes, in Santiago, Chile — is a bilingual travelogue mixing maps, multimedia, and even a fairly lengthy game.

Regional Coverage

Eating and exercise for weight loss is a numbers game
Los Alamos Monitor (New Mexico)
It's now February, which means it's possible those New Year's resolutions set in January - including the one to lose weight - are out the window. ..."Heavier people burn more calories than lighter people, particularly with activities like walking or stair climbing where they have to carry their own weight," said Robert McMurray, professor of exercise and sports science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Voting rights trial recesses for judge's decision
The Commercial Dispatch (Columbus, Miss.)
The Noxubee County voting-rights trial nearly reached an end Wednesday, but it recessed to let lawyers prepare for a battle of experts helping a federal judge decide whether black Democrats use bias and fraud to trample over the county's white minority. ...Engstrom is a consultant at the University of North Carolina School of Law's Center for Civil Rights in Chapel Hill.

Literacy Action Week
The Reporter (Fond Du Lac, Wis.)
Funded by a $100 grant, the small local venture was being held in conjunction with National Literacy Action Week, Jan. 29 through Feb. 2. Promoted by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Student Coalition for Action in Literacy Education (SCALE), the nationwide event joins campus literacy programs together to raise awareness within communities about reading.

State and Local Coverage

NC Voices: Lessons from Carolina's Covenant
North Carolina Public Radio/WUNC-FM
As college tuition rises, some schools and states are increasing money they put into merit based scholarships faster than they are increasing need-based aid. It's one way schools, public and private, try to attract the best students and boost rankings. But the story in North Carolina is bit different. The legislature doesn't provide money for merit scholarships. While there was no state funding for need based grants ten years ago, North Carolina has made a major effort recently. State Government now spends $81 million a year on need based aid. That's up 143% increase since 1999. This increase made it possible for the state's flagship campus at Chapel Hill start a unique program for the lowest income students.

NC Voices: Measure for Measure
North Carolina Public Radio/WUNC-FM
A college education is the most expensive thing most families will ever buy for their children. And in North Carolina, where knowledge-based jobs are fast replacing  manufacturing jobs, that education may be more important than ever before. A recent federal report says colleges must do more - not just to equip students to compete in the global economy, but to prove that students are graduating with the skills they need. But how do you measure the quality of a college education? Donald Haggis, UNC professor of classical archaeology, discusses the idea of higher education as training for the job market. UNC junior Julius Tillery discusses his use of campus resources to improve his skills.

Concert, theater to intertwine on stage
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Saturday evening in Memorial Hall, faculty and students from UNC's departments of music and drama, along with faculty from Duke and Meredith, will redefine what it means to have a musical and a theatrical experience. In a production that asks tough questions and thwarts expectations, producer and UNC faculty violinist Richard Luby pairs Weill's gritty 1927 Mahagonny Songspiel with Stravinsky's 1918-19 L'histoire du Soldat Suite, along with 20th-century songs that dramatize the search for meaning in a fragmented, war-shocked world.
Upcoming Events @ Carolina: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan07/events@carolina.html

Holland likes to pick musicians, not just instruments
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
He's been a sideman for no less than Miles Davis and Thelonious Monk, but since the early 1970s, bassist and composer David Holland has made his mark in the jazz world leading small ensembles under his own name, chiefly his working quintet.
Note: No link available.
Related link: http://www.newsobserver.com/669/story/538629.html
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/feb07/holland0201007.htm

Critic's picks - Classical
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Tonight in UNC's Memorial Hall, the Carolina Performing Arts Series brings pianist Radu Lupu back to the Triangle. The Romanian Grammy winner has made many well-regarded recordings and is known for his highly individualized approach to piano masterworks.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan07/lupu012407.html

Kids can get free dental screenings
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Give Kids a Smile offers free dental screenings, exams and possible treatment to children in need locally. ...Also today, pediatric dental interns from UNC Chapel Hill, under the direction of Gary Hill, D.D.S., M.S., will treat pediatric patients at the Durham County Health Department.
UNC Media Advisory: http://www.unc.edu/news/media/2007/giveakidasmile013107.html

Private college goes smoke-free
The Daily Tar Heel
In a state once known for its sprawling tobacco fields, Gardner-Webb University will become the first N.C. university to ban all tobacco use on its campus. ...Peter Reinhardt, director of the UNC Department of Environment, Health and Safety, said a similar ban for a campus the size of UNC is not likely to come in the near future.
Related link: http://media.www.dailytarheel.com/media/storage/paper885/news
/2007/02/02/Opinion/Up.In.Smoke-2692929.shtml?sourcedomain=www.dailytarheel.com
&MIIHost=media.collegepublisher.com

Blogs are changing politics
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In 2003 and 2004, presidential candidate Howard Dean used the Internet to build an unprecedented online network of supporters. ..."It's a natural progression in the arena of communication from elected officials to constituents," said Ferrel Guillory, a former journalist who directs the Center on Public Life at UNC-Chapel Hill. "It really has added a new dimension to politics."

Visual screenings to target 'the silent blinder
The Chapel Hill Herald
The deterioration starts so slowly that the brain may not realize what is happening. Blind spots begin to shade out vision from the sides. Gradually, spots envelop vision until people sense they are looking through a dark tunnel. ..."Unless they're getting checked for it, they won't usually know they have it," said Annette Giangiacomo, associate professor of ophthalmology at UNC. So getting checked for glaucoma is important, she said.

City assessing progress after one year with strategic plan
Roxboro Courier Times
As of Tuesday afternoon, 11 citizens had agreed to take part in focus group meetings Saturday to review the strategic plan instituted by the City of Roxboro last year.
...Lydian Altman-Sauer and Margaret Henderson, who facilitated the city’s strategic plan for the University of North Carolina School of Government’s Public Intersection Project, will be present for Thursday’s meeting with council.

Peeling the Orange
The Chapel Hill Herald
The UNC trustees' audit and finance committee had some special guests at its meeting last week: about 20 students from the Memphis Academy of Science and Engineering. With a straight face, committee chair Karol Mason said she hoped the students would come to Carolina, and that she thought a visit with the finance committee was a good way to get them interested in the school.

Rally to support Palestinian students
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Dozens of UNC-Chapel Hill students are expected to gather at noon today at The Pit to show support for three Guilford College Palestinian students who said they were beaten and called ethnic slurs last month.
Related link: http://www.wral.com/news/local/story/1190597/

Students, parents have opportunities
The Chapel Hill News
In her Jan. 28 rebuttal concerning minority high school students in performing arts groups, Maria Palmer says "there is still lots of room for improvement." Most of the needed improvement lies with her proclivity to cast minority students as hapless victims, which blinds her to truth and facts. ...On March 6 come see our Symphonic and Concert bands perform music from four different cultures and a musical tribute to the life of Rosa Parks. Also come to the May 15 concert of the same ensembles that will feature "Lincoln Portrait," narrated by UNC professor emeritus of journalism Chuck Stone.

Issues and Trends

Bush to push Pell aid increase
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings said Thursday that President Bush intends to push for significant increases in the maximum federal Pell Grants available to students. ..."It's fabulous," said UNC President Erskine Bowles. "It's exactly what we need."

Many wary of ethics reforms
The Associated Press (N.C.)
After spending more than two hours yesterday learning about complicated new ethics laws, one legislator was so worried about knowing when it's OK to accept gifts he vowed to use one word: no. ...or example, the University of North Carolina system, its 16 campuses and their lobbyists are barred from giving UNC sporting-event tickets to legislators.

Dropout numbers should be a concern (Editorial)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Erskine Bowles, the UNC system president, likes to tell the statistical story about what happens to 100 eighth-graders in North Carolina today. Of that group, 58 will graduate from high school, according to current trends.

Vying for Murdock's cash
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The North Carolina Research Campus, the brainchild of billionaire David Murdock, is taking shape as the southern bookend of a 150-mile-long biotechnology corridor that would stretch from Charlotte to the Triangle. Rising on the 350-acre site of a former Kannapolis textile mill about 20 miles north of Charlotte, the research park has the backing of Duke, N.C. State and other colleges in the University of North Carolina system; the colleges plan to have scientists working there.

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Produced by News Services, Carolina in the News is an e-mail 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.

Carolina in the News is also posted daily to the News Services Web page, http://www.unc.edu/news/newsserv/clips/index.shtml

Please share any questions, comments or suggestions at news@unc.edu.

Produced by News Services, Carolina in the News is an e-mail 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.

Carolina in the News is also posted daily to the News Services Web page, http://www.unc.edu/news/clips/index.shtml.

Please share any questions, comments or suggestions at news@unc.edu.