Sept. 6, 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

Don't Feed the People (Opinion)
The St. Petersburg Times (Russia)
Technologically, this is a triumph. In the early days of our species, even the rich starved. Barry Popkin, a nutritional epidemiologist at the University of North Carolina, divides history into several epochs. In the hunter-gatherer era, if we didn’t find food, we died. In the agricultural era, if our crops failed, we died. In the industrial era, famine receded, but infectious diseases killed us. Now we’ve achieved such control over nature that we’re dying not of starvation or infection, but of abundance. Nature isn’t killing us. We’re killing ourselves.

Maltreatment common for U.S. children
Reuters
Though studies have been investigating child abuse and neglect for years, the true scope of the problem, including its long-term consequences, has not been fully clear, the lead author of the new report told Reuters Health. "It's a hard thing to measure well," said Dr. Jon M. Hussey of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Data based on cases reported to child welfare services, for example, capture only a portion of the problem, he explained.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/child090106.html

Efficacy and safety of Sunitinib in previously treated, advanced non-small cell lung cancer
Xagena Medicine (Italy)
“This is the first clinical trial to evaluate Sunitinib alone in advanced lung cancer patients for whom prior therapy has failed,” said lead author Mark A. Socinski, at the University of North Carolina. “Our findings suggest that Sunitinib may have a place in the treatment of lung cancer, alone or in combination with other agents.”

Analysis: Drug-coated stents' downside?
United Press International
Sid Smith, professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a spokesperson for the World Heart Federation, wanted to know why it was that patients seemed to think that undergoing angioplasty was curative of heart disease. "Do the patients not listen? Do doctors not tell them?" he said.

National Coverage

9/11 Leaves Its Mark on History Classes
The New York Times
Since late 2004, a half-dozen books on aspects of America as an empire have been published. Amy Kaplan, a former president of the American Studies Association, said American imperialism, once seen as a preoccupation of the left, has become a subject across the political spectrum. “Are we an empire? If we are, in what sense?” said Michael H. Hunt, a professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, describing the debate. “Is it comparable to other empires? Is it like Rome?

Many angioplasties performed at hospitals without sufficient staff
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Although national medical guidelines call for "immediately available onsite cardiac surgery," two cardiologists who helped draft the guidelines said there is no definition of what on-site means....In such cases, heart surgeons should be able to get into the operating room promptly, ideally within 15 or 20 minutes, said Sidney Smith, a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and chairman of the guidelines writing committee.

Regional Coverage

Integrative way: Are diet soft drinks bad for my health?
The Sacramento Bee
A timely question! What should we be drinking for optimal health? The Beverage Guidance Panel is a group of nutrition experts who recently came out with recommendations for beverage consumption in the United States. The panel's leader, Barry Popkin, Ph.D., at the University of North Carolina School of Public Health, was inspired to educate Americans about how beverage consumption has contributed to our obesity epidemic.

Millions don’t eat meat
The Marietta Times (Marietta, Ohio)
People who eat a low-fat vegan diet may lower their blood sugar more and lose more weight than people on a standard American Diabetes Association diet, according to a study by researchers at George Washington University, the University of Toronto and the University of North Carolina published in July.

Women News Managers Rise — and Shine
Bay Area Business Woman (San Francisco, Calif.)
But gender impacts more than news decisions, according to a new report. It also impacts the hiring and promoting of women. A recent University of North Carolina study showed that when women reach the ranks of management, other women benefit by earning promotions and more money. That, in turn, results in the narrowing of the workplace gender gap.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/aug06/genderwage081006.htm

Star Search
The Albany Times-Union (N.Y.)
Today, in an effort to lessen shoppers' confusion over nutritional information, Hannaford Bros. supermarkets unveils a rating system for food products in its 158 stores in the Northeast...The company enlisted a panel of seven nutrition experts, including scientists from the University of North Carolina, the University of California at Davis, and Tufts and Harvard universities in the Boston area.

State and Local

Moeser readies annual address
The Daily Tar Heel
Six years ago Chancellor James Moeser started a tradition when he issued the first State of the University address, and today he still pens it himself. "It certainly helps me to focus where I want to lead this University over the year," Moeser said. The sixth annual address, to be held at 3 p.m. today in the Great Hall of the Student Union, will give Moeser a way to engage the community and detail University projects. Some of the topics he will cover are graduation rates, research, state engagement and globalization.
Coverage from the News & Observer: http://www.newsobserver.com/722/story/482970.html
UNC Media Advisory: http://www.unc.edu/news/media/2006/State06082906.html

Oscar nominee heads reading
The Chapel Hill News
Oscar nominee David Strathairn will head an ensemble cast in a concert reading of Studs Terkel's "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" at UNC's Memorial Hall at 8 p.m. Thursday and Friday...The reading is adapted by Derek Goldman from Pulitzer Prize-winning oral historian Terkel's book "Will the Circle Be Unbroken: Reflections on Death, Rebirth, and Hunger for a Faith." It is presented by UNC's StreetSigns Center for Literature and Performance, in collaboration with PlayMakers Repertory Company, the departments of dramatic art and communication studies, and the Carolina Performing Arts Series, in association with the department of music.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/aug06/circle081106.htm

PlayMakers to present Pulitzer, Tony winner 'I Am My Own Wife'
The Chapel Hill News
PlayMakers Repertory Company will present Doug Wright's provocative one-person play, "I Am My Own Wife," Sept. 13-17 at UNC. Showtimes will be 8 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays and 2 p.m. Sunday; performances will be in the Elizabeth Price Kenan Theatre in the Center for Dramatic Art on Country Club Road.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/aug06/PMwife082906.html

'Creative Class' idea debated
The News and Record (Greensboro)
Creativity may make cities more fun, but it won't pay the bills, a new UNC study says. Cities that spend time and money recruiting "the creative class" to build the economy would do better to concentrate on education, training workers and developing new business, according to the report from the Center for the Study of the American South.

Business invited to apply for free help from MBA students at UNC
Triangle Business Journal (Raleigh)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is offering up free consulting services from MBA students at its Kenan-Flagler Business School, university officials announced Tuesday. North Carolina companies and nonprofits can apply for free business consulting from the students under UNC's Student Teams Achieving Results program. The STAR program is designed to help managers improve the performance of the businesses and provide leadership experience for students. Faculty advisors guide the STAR teams as they work with company management.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/STAR090106.html

Cleanup expert's new venture: rail
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Tom Darden has prospered by cleaning up polluted sites and converting them into valuable properties. Now he wants to transform the land around 12 proposed commuter train stations across the Triangle into homes, stores and offices...Cherokee's redevelopment efforts manage to "not only improve environmental conditions, but bring the economic opportunity these areas need," said Doug Crawford-Brown, director of the Carolina Environmental Program at UNC-Chapel Hill.

Crisis in care for N.C.'s mentally ill
The Charlotte Observer
For years, experts have warned that North Carolina and other states create a dangerous mix by allowing people with mental illness, some as young as 18, to live in rest homes with frail, elderly residents..."It's putting people in great jeopardy," said Florence Soltys, a UNC Chapel Hill professor of geriatrics. "You don't have staff trained. They don't know about psychotropic drugs. And it's not their fault."

Rockingham rivers show excessive bacteria levels
The News and Record (Greensboro)
Mark Sobsey, a UNC-Chapel Hill professor of environmental science, says he wouldn't jump in any impaired waterway. "And especially for high-risk groups — the young, elderly, others with underlying health risks, people with impaired immune systems like cancer patients and people with HIV/AIDS —the prudent thing would be to stay away from that water," he said.

Issues and Trends

Strategies for the struggle against terror (Opinion)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
In the five years since President Bush launched a "global war on terror" the United States and its allies have sufficiently damaged the terrorist infrastructure to prevent additional large-scale attacks. That's the good news. Unfortunately, we have made no progress, and in fact may have lost ground, in the ideological conflict that is fueling jihadist violence around the globe...(David H. Schanzer is director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security at Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill.)

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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