March 23, 2006

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

When one anti-depressant fails, another may work
Reuters
A new study shows that when patients with major depression fail to respond to a course of Celexa (citalopram) or cannot tolerate its side effects, approximately one third of those whose treatment is augmented with either bupropion (Wellbutrin) or Buspar (buspirone) will experience a remission of their depression. ...In an editorial, Dr. David R. Rubinow, from the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, comments that "these 'practical trials' or 'effectiveness trials,' sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health, provide real-world data on real-world outcomes (functional impairment) in real-world patients (including their coexisting illnesses)."

Study shows how cells recover from stress
United Press International
Scientists at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill say they've determined how cells recover from heat, cold and other stressful conditions. The researchers in the university's school of medicine say their findings could hold implications for the development of new therapies for cardiovascular diseases, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's and Huntington's in which faulty stress responses have already been implicated.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/chip031706.htm

Inerventional Cardiology and Cholesterol Screening
"36.9°", Télévision suisse romande
Nortin Hadler, professor of medicine and microbiology/immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel, was featured on the March 15 edition of "36.9", an analysis of health issues emanating from Geneva and subsequently broadcast across the francophone world by Canal 5. The discussion focused on the tenuous nature of the rationale for cholesterol screening, and such procedures as coronary artery bypass grafts and stents.
Note: To access video click on "emissions" and in the upper left, scroll down "visionez les emissions" and click on 36.9. Then choose the "affaris de coeur 1ere" clip.

National Coverage

Treatment Strategies after SSRI Failure — Good News and Bad News
The New England Journal of Medicine
My recent use of that august medical search engine, Google, revealed a publication that identified sin as the cause of depression. Initial amusement quickly gave way to the sobering recognition that this simplistic formulation conveyed a prevalent, if generally unarticulated, belief that depression is not a real illness but, rather, the result of a personal failing — moral, spiritual, or adaptational. How did depression come to be viewed in so pejorative a manner? ...David R. Rubinow, M.D.

Study: Changing Medicines May Help Depressed
The Associated Press (National)
The largest study ever done on treating depression has found that patients who didn't get well with the first medicine they tried had a good chance of succeeding the second time around. ...In an editorial in the New England journal, Dr. David Rubinow of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill wrote that the study is encouraging, because half got well on drugs, but discouraging, because half did not.
Related Link: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/03/22/AR2006032202450.html

Major study of common malady finds persistence, secondary strategies pay off
The Los Angeles Times
In the long and frustrating battle against depression, persistence does pay. ...Although the study showed that patients who do not respond well to one drug could be helped by another, the results were "discouraging for several reasons," David Rubinow wrote in an editorial in the New England Journal of Medicine, which also published the study. For example, it was troubling that large numbers of patients continued to have problems, wrote Rubinow, a professor and chairman of the psychiatry department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Related Link: http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/
stories/032306dnmetdepression.c0fb309.html

Study: Patients shouldn't give up on banishing depression
USA Today
People with depression who don't get relief after taking one medication should switch or add another antidepressant, a study reports today. ..."This is a devastating illness with enormous public health implications," says psychiatrist David Rubinow of the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill.
Related Link: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06082/675071.stm

Government Panel Raises Concern About Fluoride
The Wall Street Journal
A panel of the National Academy of Sciences concluded yesterday that the maximum amount of fluoride currently allowed in the nation's drinking water can cause health problems and "should be lowered." ...The thoroughness of the report impressed even advocates of fluoridation. "It's an excellent piece of research," says John Stamm of the University of North Carolina School of Dentistry, a spokesman for the American Dental Association. "A number of jurisdictions have been waiting for this report." But Dr. Stamm said fluoride should be used "for reducing tooth decay," and its "accumulated safety and benefits level is quite remarkable."

Report Judges Allowable Fluoride Levels in Water
"All Things Considered," National Public Radio
A group that advises the government wants tighter limits on the amount of fluoride allowed in drinking water. ... Charles Poole, a committee member from the University of North Carolina, says the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) could virtually eliminate severe enamel fluorosis by using a fluoride limit lower than four parts per million. "Once it gets below two," he says, "the prevalence would drop from 10 percent to essentially zero."

Too Much Fluoride on Tap?
ScienceNOW Daily News
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should lower the maximum amount of fluoride it allows in drinking water, according to a National Academies of Sciences (NAS) report released here today. ...And when panel member Charles Poole, an epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, plotted the prevalence of severe enamel fluorosis in 94 studies, he found that the prevalence dropped to near zero when water fluoride levels were below 2 ppm. This and other evidence is enough to justify a new standard, Poole says.
Related Link: http://www.forbes.com/lifestyle/health/feeds/hscout/2006/03/22/hscout531720.html

First default, then despair
The Kansas City Star
More first-time and lower-income homebuyers are losing the American dream to foreclosures on the courthouse steps. ...A recent study by the Kenan Institute for Private Enterprise at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill found that a predatory loan can increase the chances of a foreclosure by as much as 50 percent.

Almost No Black Economists at the Nation's Highest-Ranked Universities
Journal of Blacks in Higher Education
A dozen years ago a JBHE survey counted 11 black economists teaching at the nation's 25 highest-ranked universities. Today there are 13 black economists at these 25 leading universities. ...Professor William A. Darity Jr., a highly published economist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, says there are two main reasons for the small numbers of black faculty in economics departments. "First, the presumption remains stronger among economists than other social scientists that blacks are genetically or culturally deficient," Darity says.

Money Isn’t Everything
Inside Higher Ed
Academic research is often big business these days. But the Association of University Technology Managers wants the world to know that it’s about helping people, too. ...“This is an initiative to build a better understanding of the results of academic research,” said W. Mark Crowell, past president of AUTM and associate vice chancellor for economic development and technology transfer at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Dean of Admission Deans to Leave UNC for USC
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Jerome A. Lucido, one of the nation’s leading admissions minds, is headed west. Mr. Lucido, vice provost for enrollment policy and management at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, has accepted a new post at the University of Southern California. He plans to become Southern Cal’s vice provost for enrollment policy and management on August 1.

State & Local Coverage

Broun says he won't meet any panelist
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The head of a committee formed to help guide planning for UNC-Chapel Hill's Carolina North research campus has agreed not to meet privately with any committee member.

UNC to honor radio mogul Curtis
The Triangle Business Journal (Raleigh)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill will dedicate the auditorium in its newly renovated Memorial Hall to two broadcast media executives with ties to the Triangle. The university announced Wednesday it will name the auditorium after Raleigh's Don Curtis, founder of Curtis Media Group, and George Beasley, a Mount Airy native and chief financial officer of Naples, Fla.-based Beasley Broadcast Group, Inc.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/beasleycurtis032206.htm

Campaign yields educated Heels
The Daily Tar Heel
University police officers were out in force at major campus crosswalks Wednesday, but they weren't giving out jaywalking tickets. ..."The fatalities that occurred really pushed it up in our attention," said Katy Jones, Highway Safety Research Center spokeswoman.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/pedsafety032006.htm

Push for Pedestrian Safety at UNC
WTVD-TV (ABC, Durham)
A series of pedestrian deaths in Chapel Hill is adding new emphasis to UNC's regular pedestrian safety campaign. ...The university regularly sponsors a "Yield to Heels" program on campus, handing out informational flyers, glowing wristbands and lights to improve safety at night. "It's important for people to understand that they're virtually invisible to motorists at night," said Katy Jones, of the Highway Safety Research Center.
Related Link: http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=494

Fight for West House continues
The Chapel Hill Herald
Preservationists hoping to save West House asked UNC trustees on Wednesday to reconsider their decision to tear down the small and cozy building that is in the way of development plans for the university's Arts Common.

Scholarship for UNC law students established
The Greensboro News & Record
A Greensboro couple announced today the creation of a scholarship for students attending the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Law. The Daniel Lyndon and Dawne Talbert Deuterman Scholarship will be awarded annually to students ranked in the top third of their college class.

Everyday history to be recorded
The Chapel Hill Herald
StoryCorps, a national initiative to document everyday history and the unique stories of America, will be in Chapel Hill and Durham in April, collecting the stories of North Carolina's residents as part of the program's cross-country tour. ...The StoryCorps mobile recording booth, contained in an Airstream trailer, will be parked and accessible to pedestrian traffic in the parking lot of the Morehead Planetarium on the UNC campus from April 25-30. The booth will be open from 11:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. weekdays, and 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 pm on weekends.

Linking Iraq and the Gulf Coast
The Independent Weekly
Fayetteville native Michael McPhearson wasn't in New Orleans for Hurricane Katrina, but the Gulf War veteran--who now has a son serving in Iraq--says he feels the same uncertainty and anger with political leaders that many on the Gulf Coast feel. ...Eleven organizations at UNC-Chapel Hill received $1,000 grants from the Carolina Center for Public Service for service trips to New Orleans. Volunteers from UNC's nursing program and law school are also volunteering on the Gulf Coast.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/helpothers030806.htm

An interruption in programming
The Independent Weekly
It's one of the routines of daily life: You sit for a moment--over breakfast, over coffee, at the end of the day. You read the paper; you either listen to or watch the news. ...It's the heart of what's explored in Still Life with Commentator,a multimedia merge of music, spoken word, theater and video whose world premiere this Friday night at UNC-Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall predates its scheduled December production during Brooklyn Academy of Music's 2006 Next Wave Festival.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/vijayplus030806.htm

Universities see renewed interest from foreign graduate students
The Winston-Salem Journal
International students are showing more interest in coming to the United States for graduate studies after a post-Sept. 11 attacks drop-off, a welcome development for American universities and policymakers. ...According to Open Doors, an annual report of international enrollment in U.S. universities and colleges, 1,427 international students were enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill during the 2003-04 school year. By the next school year, that number had increased to 1,497, yet a 2006 UNC report indicates that the number of international graduate students there decreased 11 percent between 2004 and 2005.

Capitol Broadcasting to partner with Que Pasa
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Raleigh-based Capitol Broadcasting is tapping into the growing Hispanic market with an expansive deal that includes long-term plans to launch a Spanish-language TV station with its new partner. ...A UNC-Chapel Hill study released earlier this year estimated that Hispanics pump $9 billion a year into the state’s economy and that the Hispanic population has risen by roughly one-third since 2000.
Related Link: http://www.wral.com/news/8196499/detail.html
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/jan06/economicimpact010306.htm

Panel Establishes Beverage Guide For Weight Control
WNCN-TV (NBC, Raleigh)
Some of the nation's top nutritionists have created a beverage guide to help Americans count their calories. "We're getting heavier and heavier and more and more unhealthy, we have to be concerned about these calories from beverages," said Barry Popkin, a nutrition researcher at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/healthybeverage030806.htm

Scant funding to prevent injuries (Opinion-editorial column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Traumatic injuries, U.S. Surgeon General Richard Carmona noted on a recent visit to UNC-Chapel Hill, are an enormous public health issue -- yet they get much less visibility and attention than they deserve. ...Carol W. Runyan, Ph.D., is director of the UNC Injury Prevention Research Center.

Sex trafficking to be discussed
The Chapel Hill Herald
Policy-makers, law enforcement officials, scholars and social service providers will gather April 7-8 for "Sexual Trafficking: Breaking the Crisis of Silence," a conference hosted by UNC's Carolina Women's Center.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/straffic031606.htm

Early diagnosis key to treatment of psychosis (Commentary)
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Schizophrenia, characterized by disturbances in perception, thought process and emotion, most often emerges in late adolescence or early adulthood. Symptoms often emerge gradually over weeks to months and may come and go during the early, prodromal stages of illness. ... Diana O. Perkins, MD, MPH, is a professor of psychiatry in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Issues & Trends

SAT Problems Even Larger Than Reported
The New York Times
The College Board disclosed yesterday that the problems resulting from the misscoring of its October SAT examination were larger than it had previously reported.

Recruiters Are Holding M.B.A.s To Higher Standards of Integrity
The Wall Street Journal
CEOs aren't the only ones being held to higher standards of integrity these days. So are M.B.A. applicants and graduates. They are being scrutinized more closely than ever by both business-school admissions officers and corporate recruiters.

Towns, UNC differ on road aims
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
At the end of "Back to the Future," Doc Brown utters the immortal line: "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads." ...At a meeting Monday, Carolyn Elfland, associate vice chancellor for campus services, asked that a transportation consultant the towns and university are hiring study road widening as well as transit improvements.

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.

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