November 12, 2004

Carolina in the News

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

International Coverage

Immune system 'stops conception'
BBC News
Men could one day use a contraceptive which uses the body's immune system to prevent conception, say researchers....Scientists, from the University of North Carolina, immunised male monkeys with a protein found in the testes which made them infertile.

Male birth control test succeeds
The Guardian (U.K.)
Scientists could be on the trail of a reversible male contraceptive that works through the immune system....Researchers have considered immunising women to prevent conception. But the experiment by scientists from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, reported in Science today, is, they say, the first successful trial based on the male immune system.

National Coverage

Study gives male contraceptive a shot
USA Today
Scientists trying to develop a birth-control pill for men have long been thwarted by two major obstacles: the wiliness of sperm and the unwillingness of women to trust their partners with such a weighty responsibility....Seven out of nine animals developed an immune response, indicating that the vaccine was working, says M.G. O'Rand, a professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill School of Medicine.

Shot Shows Promise As Male Contraceptive
The Associated Press (National)
Developing a new contraceptive for men may involve prompting an immune reaction to a protein that is produced in the male reproductive system...."Immunocontraception for males is a possibility and hopefully will be developed for human use over the next several years," said Dr. Michael O'Rand of the University of North Carolina.

Related local link:
Vaccine may offer male birth control
The News & Observer
Note: This research also was featured in stories today by the following media outlets: Science magazine, WebMD and HealthDay news service.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov04/orand110904.html

Hysterectomy Can Help Pelvic Pain, Depression
WebMD
A woman who suffers from pelvic pain and depression at the time of her hysterectomy may experience improvement in depression, pelvic pain, quality of life, and sexual function after surgery, according to a new study....The new study was conducted by experts including Katherine Hartmann, MD, PhD, of the obstetrics and gynecology department of the University of North Carolina.
UNC news release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/nov04/pelvic111004.html

Tablet Splitting Can Save You a Bundle
WebMD
A Florida pharmacist has hit upon an antidote to the skyrocketing cost of some prescription drugs: splitting the tablets in half....Sidney C. Smith Jr., MD, past president of the American Heart Association and director of the Center for Cardiovascular Science and Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, tells WebMD that he thinks tablet splitting is one innovative way to slash the cost of prescription drugs.

How Opportunity Knocks at UNC
Business Week
Mindy Storrie, Career-Services Director at Kenan-Flagler, advises MBAs to use creative ways to get recruiters to hire them.

A Wave of Spending to Try to Restore Aging Brands
The New York Times
In deciding yesterday to increase significantly its spending on marketing for the foreseeable future, by $350 million to $400 million a year, Coca-Cola is joining a growing number of blue-chip companies that are reversing years of cutbacks to not only defend the market shares they have but to finally start stimulating growth...."It's not going to be easy," said Paul Bloom, professor of marketing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina.

State & Local Coverage

UNC board to get 3 tuition-hike options
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
Hoping to avoid a repeat of last year's extended tuition deliberations, a campus task force has sent three tuition-increase options to UNC's Board of Trustees.
Related link:
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/1821542p-8131035c.html

Group presents 3 tuition schemes
The Daily Tar Heel
Tuition at the University would see moderate increases under a proposal finalized Thursday night by the Tuition Task Force - but many steps still remain in the process.

Possible donation creates UNC stir
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
The prospect of a multimillion-dollar donation to beef up UNC's Western studies offerings has some faculty and students skittish about the benefactor: a foundation with ties to a watchdog group that routinely criticizes the university.

Events honor veterans' service
The News & Observer
As American soldiers fought in Fallujah, Veterans Day events in the Triangle on Thursday drew modest, muted crowds....On a green lawn at UNC-Chapel Hill, students chatted on cell phones and two young men played Frisbee near a sparsely attended Veterans Day service.

Dell draws perks from other cities
The News & Record (Greensboro)
Cities across the nation have chased Dell with money and other perks with the same fervor that the New York Yankees chased third baseman Alex Rodriguez, another Texas export...."If you look at the history of tax incentives ... we haven't been that generous in going after big projects like this," said Michael Luger, a professor of public policy, business and planning at UNC-Chapel Hill and director of the UNC Center for Competitive Economies.

Progress ends stock options
The News & Observer
Progress Energy has stopped handing out stock options to avoid having to treat the controversial form of compensation as an expense....Wayne Landsman and Mark Lang, accounting professors at UNC-Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler School of Business, said Progress Energy apparently decided other forms of incentives would be more valuable to employees, particularly because it is a utility, which attracts investors mostly because of a healthy dividend instead of share-price growth.

Protest or protection?
The Charlotte Observer
While ABC affiliates counted complaints Thursday from viewers about pulling "Saving Private Ryan" because of locker-room language, some industry observers said the move was more about protesting the federal crackdown on broadcast indecency...."Broadcasters know full well that the FCC is not going to impose penalties or call `Saving Private Ryan' indecent," said Ruth Walden, associate dean and professor at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

UNC Student Recovering From Meningitis Speaks Out
WRAL-TV (CBS, Raleigh)
A freshman at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill who survived meningitis breaks his silence....The Davises credit their son's medical care and the power of prayer.

Oh, the pain of election loss
The News & Observer
It's Election Day plus 10. If your side lost and you are still feeling angry, sad or bewildered, take heart: You have lots of company....Do something, anything, constructive, said Dr. Linda Nicholas, a UNC-Chapel Hill psychiatrist.

City's junkyards are targeted
The Daily Dispatch (Henderson/Vance Counties)
On Monday night the Henderson City Council is expected to authorize the city's Planning Board to draft an amendment allowing the city to use the process of amortization to eliminate junkyards inside the city limits....The council and Planning Board met Wednesday with Richard Ducker, a professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Institute of Government, to get some insight on how best to proceed.

Issues & Trends

Foreign student enrollment declines at U.S. universities
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
For the first time in more than three decades the number of foreign students studying at U.S. colleges and universities declined in the last school year....The University
of Missouri at Columbia, with 1,427, was second in the state and tied with the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for 104th place nationally.

U.Va. plans executive MBA degree for 2006
The Virginian-Pilot
After offering a master's degree for almost 50 years, the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration is studying whether to add an
MBA for aspiring executives who would have difficulty leaving their jobs....Darden's program, she said, probably would draw from a pool of students who apply to
executive MBA programs at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, University of North Carolina's Kenan-Flagler School in Chapel Hill, N.C., the
College of William & Mary and Georgetown University.

 

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/newsserv/clipsindex.htm.

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