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Sept. 15, 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
Gates: $21.3M grant for neglected diseases
United Press International
The Gates Foundation has given a $21.3 million grant to an U.S. university to develop new drugs for two neglected diseases. The funds will go to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for research in the development of effective, inexpensive drugs to treat late-stage African sleeping sickness and visceral leishmaniasis, both of which are diseases that infect and kill hundreds of thousands of people in developing countries.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/gates091406.htmGates Foundation Commits Nearly $70 Million To Help Fight Neglected Tropical Diseases
Medical News Today (UK)
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation today announced four grants totaling $68.2 million to help accelerate research on neglected tropical diseases, including hookworm, leishmaniasis, and trypanosomiasis, which kill or disable millions of people in the world's poorest countries every year...University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC), to develop drugs to treat trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis - $21.3 million: UNC will work to develop effective, inexpensive drugs to treat the late stages of leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis. Trypanosomiasis, or "sleeping sickness," kills 300,000 people every year in sub-Saharan Africa, and 65 million people are at risk of becoming infected.
Discovery could aid childless
The Sun (UK)
Researchers at America’s University of North Carolina discovered the link between a faulty AM and infertility after carrying out tests on mice. They found the faulty gene produced less of a protein vital for the placenta to develop normally. They believe the gene works the same way in humans but study leader Dr Kathleen Caron says more research is needed to confirm this. She told the US Journal of Clinical Investigation: “This is the first genetic evidence that a reduction in human AM expression may have an unfavourable impact on reproduction.”
National Coverage
Four grants by Gates target tropical diseases
The Associated Press (National)
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced Thursday four grants totaling more than $68.2 million to fight three tropical diseases that affect hundreds of millions of people each year in Africa, Asia and Latin America...The other grants announced Thursday include: $13.8 million to the Sabin Vaccine Institute of Washington, D.C., to develop a vaccine to prevent hookworm; $21.3 million to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to develop new drugs to treat the late stages of leishmaniasis and trypanosomiasis; and $1.1 million to the Public Library of Science to launch a new medical journal on neglected diseases.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/gates091406.htmMarketers Look Past Jelly Stains and See a Mom Who Has Needs
The New York Times
She often looks sleep-deprived, she may have jelly stains on her skirt and spit-up on her blouse, and she usually has a child in tow. And, yes, she probably spends most of her time catering to her children. But lately she is starring in commercials that focus on her needs, not theirs...In a sense, the trend was inevitable, marketing experts say. “We used to stereotype women as sex objects, and then we stereotyped them as superwomen: career woman, homemaker, mom and mate,’’ said Gary Armstrong, professor of marketing at the Kenan-Flagler Business School of the University of North Carolina. “But now we are recognizing that anyone who has been out in the world as a smart, beautiful woman will not give that up because she’s a mom.”
Note: This article is available through subscription only.Why childhood places seem so small when you return
McClatchy News
What made the flagpole shrink? Several things, says memory expert Steven Reznick of the UNC Chapel Hill Psychology Department. One key is context: I hadn't seen many flagpoles back when I was 6. So this one seemed big. And my awed early impression of that flagpole was "etched into my memory like a scene illuminated with a flashbulb," Reznick says. Over time, I played the memory over again and again because of its emotional significance. This caused the flagpole to sort of grow, symbolically.Accentuate the positive
The Gannett News Service
Studies have shown people who adopt an optimistic viewpoint might be better equipped to deal with traumatic situations. In a study begun months before the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Barbara Fredrickson, a professor of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, found people identified as being resilient and optimistic before the tragedy were half as likely to suffer depression afterward as those more pessimistic by nature.
Gene May Affect Female Fertility
WebMD Medical News
Female fertility may be affected by a gene that makes a protein called adrenomedullin. Female mice with only one copy of the gene have "significantly reduced fertility” compared with those with two copies of the gene, say researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. The researchers included Manyu Li, PhD, and Kathleen Caron, PhD. They studied female mice with either one or two copies of the gene. The researchers let the mice mate with male mice, which also had either one or two copies of the gene.
Regional Coverage
Diversity in the dorm (Editorial)
San Jose Mercury News (Calif.)
``The college admissions process has become too pressured, too complex and too vulnerable to public cynicism,'' said Harvard interim President Derek Bok. ``We hope that doing away with early admission will improve the process and make it simpler and fairer.''...Because of Harvard's prestige, the move may prompt a debate on equity and economic diversity, but it's not likely to create a stampede. Equity concerns prompted the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to abandon early admissions four years ago; no colleges followed suit except for the University of Delaware, which made its decision earlier this year.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/apr02/eardec042502.htm
Eating our way to early graves
The Spokesman Review (Spokane Valley, Wash.)
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 perished, 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.
State and Local Coverage
Gates grants go to UNC, others
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will give UNC-Chapel Hill $21.3 million to create drugs to treat African sleeping sickness and another parasitic disease that afflict hundreds of thousands of people in the developing world. The grant will go to an international group of scientists led by Dr. Richard Tidwell, a professor at UNC-CH's medical and pharmacy schools. Researchers will team up to develop cheap, effective drugs for African sleeping sickness, spread through tsetse fly bites, and visceral leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease spread by the bites of sand flies. Both diseases can be fatal.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/gates091406.htmGates group gives UNC $21.3M to combat African sleeping illnesses
The Herald-Sun (Durham)/The Chapel Hill Herald
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is giving UNC $21.3 million to develop new drugs for African sleeping sickness and the tropical disease leishmaniasis, officials announced Thursday.
Sculpture exhibit will feature 59 site specific pieces
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Beginning Saturday, "What's in Bloom" at the N.C. Botanical Garden will include new plantings of stone and wood, metals and ceramics, fiber and plastics, brought to life by North Carolina sculptors...While the sculptures will be in place at the garden through Nov. 17, most of the work is for sale. Keith noted that of last year's 20 purchases, most were sold on the first day. And patrons will want to return on Oct. 8 to meet the artists and celebrate the awarding of prizes. This year's judges will be drawn from UNC’s Department of Art.
Suit says bar got rid of records
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A lawsuit filed last week accuses a Franklin Street bar of getting rid of records about an employee who pleaded guilty to drunken driving after an accident that injured a blind woman and killed her guide dog...Such lawsuits are uncommon and can be difficult to prove, said Charles E. Daye, a law professor at UNC-Chapel Hill and co-author of the book "North Carolina Law of Torts." "It requires knowledge that both the person is intoxicated or becoming intoxicated, and knowledge that [the person is] going out in an automobile," Daye said.
Trash crews' records vague
The News and Observer (Raleigh)
he men who collect Raleigh's garbage and recycling log their hours using a crude system that relies on scribbles and loose pieces of paper..."One of the problems with comp time is that for some people in an organization, there's never a good time to take time off, because there's more to do than the hours to do it," said Diane Juffras, a professor at UNC-Chapel Hill's School of Government. "But you never lose comp time. It's like cash overtime. The employee has earned it, and it never goes away."
Home-schoolers getting better jobs
The Free Press (Kinston)
The number of home schools and children attending home schools continues to increase in North Carolina. And the head of an organization that provides support for parents teaching their kids at home said that colleges are becoming more and more likely to bring home-school graduates onto their campuses...Some public schools, such as UNC-Chapel Hill, have come on board in recent years, Hodges said. Steve Farmer, undergraduate admissions director at UNC-Chapel Hill, said that in the six years that he has headed the admissions office, he’s tried to treat home-school graduates fairly.UNC school to celebrate anniversary
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC's School of Information and Library Science will launch its 75th anniversary celebration Monday. "Illuminating the Past, Imagining the Future!" will be the theme of the anniversary year, starting with a free, public program from 2-4 p.m. Monday in Memorial Hall. The school will celebrate accomplishments and look toward future opportunities.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/silsanniv091206.htm
James Taylor sings with N.C. Symphony
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Chapel Hill favorite son James Taylor and the N.C. Symphony will share the stage next month, performing the Taylor classic "Carolina in My Mind" and receiving lifetime achievement awards from UNC-Chapel Hill. The performance, Oct. 1 at UNC's Memorial Hall, is a benefit for Carolina Performing Arts, which presents events at the refurbished auditorium. The program includes the symphony performance of Benjamin Britten's "Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra (Variations and Fugue on a Theme of Purcell)."
Related Link: http://www.wchl1360.com/details.html?id=1745
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/sep06/lifetime091406.htmCritic's picks - Bluegrass and country
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Tony Brown, the former head of Lyle Lovett's record label, once said that Lovett's personality was so magnetic that when he entered a room, every head in the place would turn to catch a glimpse. Well, Lovett's music is pretty cool, too, whether he's jazzing up a pop standard, such as Nat King Cole's "Straighten Up and Fly Right," or twanging a quirky country ditty, such as his own "If I Had a Boat." Expect Lovett to serve up a bit of both tonight when he takes the stage at UNC-Chapel Hill's Memorial Hall.
UNC News Release: http://www.unc.edu/news/archives/mar06/seas0607lineup.htm
Issues and TrendsState may raise bar on poor math scores
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
North Carolina's elementary and middle school students have been performing so well on state math exams that education leaders wonder whether it is time to raise the bar...In 2004-05, 12.5 percent of freshmen who went from state high schools to University of North Carolina system campuses were required to take remedial math courses, compared with 2.8 percent in remedial English. Some educators and policy experts say the state should do more than raise testing standards.Peeling the Orange
The Chapel Hill Herald
UNC President Erskine Bowles got his job in part because of his clear vision for the university. The same doesn't really apply to his actual eyesight. Meeting with the UNC Board of Governors last week, Bowles took the podium to give some opening remarks, but he had to remove his distinctive glasses to do so...Bowles got some laughs this week as well, at the conference on access to higher education hosted by UNC Chapel Hill. The president of the university system introduced himself to the crowd as a “terrible politician." Few people recognized him when he ran for office (twice unsuccessfully for the U.S. Senate), he said.Cabarrus County leaders focus on Hispanic issues
Kannapolis Independent Tribune
Community leaders from Cabarrus County will travel to Mexico next week to see the cultural, political, social and economic issues that lead immigrants to North Carolina...The trip is part of a yearlong course dubbed the "Latino Initiative," sponsored by the Center for International Understanding, a public service program of the University of North Carolina. The delegation, which will also consist of leaders from Rowan and Union counties, will meet with government, education and economic development leaders in Mexico City and Guanajuato.
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.
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