uncnews.unc.edu

International Coverage

Epsom salt can prevent cerebral palsy: U.S. study
Reuters (wire service)
Giving a woman an infusion of Epsom salts when she goes into premature labor can help protect her baby from cerebral palsy, U.S. researchers reported on Thursday. Magnesium sulfate, popularly known as Epsom salts, cut the rate of cerebral palsy in half, Dr. John Thorp, a professor of obstetrics at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and colleagues reported.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/magnesium-sulfate-infusions
-reduce-cerebral-palsy-risk-in-preterm-births.html

National Coverage

As Heads Collide, Helmet Measures Impacts
Discovery News
This Superbowl Sunday, heads will knock. And new research using high-tech helmets is showing that even low-impact head hits can cause brain injuries. ...Players who look like they have been hit really hard aren't necessarily the ones who will sustain the most brain damage, said Kevin Guskiewicz, professor of exercise and sport science and director of the Sports Medicine Research Laboratory at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/high-tech-helmets-reveal-
new-information-about-the-impact-of-hard-hits-to-the -head.html

Sulfate shown to cut risk of cerebral palsy
The Associated Press
Doctors can cut the risk of cerebral palsy in half for very premature babies by giving their mothers magnesium sulfate just before they give birth, new research shows. The mineral compound, also known as Epsom salts, is already used to treat preganancy-related high blood pressure and to stop early labor. Doctors should consider giving it to women about to deliver an extremely preterm infant, said one of the researchers, Dr. John Thorp of the University of North Carolina.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/magnesium-sulfate-
infusions-reduce-cerebral-palsy-risk-in-preterm-births.html

Alito Stops Short of Thomas, Scalia in Abortion, Religion Cases
Bloomberg
By his own account, Justice Samuel Alito has slipped from the public mind since he was confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court. ...Alito is showing a ``propensity not to say more than he has to in given cases,'' said Michael Gerhardt, a law professor at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, who expressed concerns about Alito during his 2006 confirmation hearings.

Amazing Medical Miracles
The Oprah Winfrey Show
Jason Ray was a 21-year-old honor student at the University of North Carolina who was known around campus as the mascot for the school's basketball team.

Regional Coverage

Daily Dose: Experts say driver's ed isn't enough for teens
The Capital-Journal (Topeka, Kan.)
Jim Hanni, executive vice president of the Kansas Region of AAA, said he believes proposed changes to the state's driver's license laws may save the lives of dozens of teen drivers. ...As part of its research, the group enlisted the help of the Center for the Study of Young Drivers at the University of North Carolina.

State and Local Coverage

Carolina focus (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
It was called Carolina First, and by any measure the eight-year fund-raising effort by the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill was a stirring success. And then some. The university raised $2.38 billion, well past the original $1.8 billion goal.

Science bus delivers lesson on evolution
The Robseonian (Lumberton)
Tabitha Russ and her classmates at the Robeson Early College High School set out to research those questions and other fundamentals of evolution on Wednesday. ...Russ, who teamed up with Niageria Lusk, were tickled about conducting lab experiments aboard the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Traveling Science Laboratory.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/destiny-science-bus/unc-chapel-hills-destiny-
traveling-science-learning-program-stops-at-lumberton.html

Study finds way to avoid cerebral palsy
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Doctors were able to dramatically cut the rate of disabling brain damage among premature babies using a remedy that is safe, widely available and costs just pennies a dose. ...A study conducted at UNC Hospitals, Wake Forest Baptist University Medical Center and 18 other medical centers around the country found that giving women in early labor magnesium sulfate infusions reduced by nearly half the number of premature babies born with serious cases of cerebral palsy.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/news/health-and-medicine/magnesium-sulfate-infusions-
reduce-cerebral-palsy-risk-in-preterm-births.html

Health leaders from China, U.S. gather in Chapel Hill
WUNC-FM (Chapel Hill)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill this week is hosting health leaders from China and the U.S. who are discussing health care in both countries. The conference is the second in a series of meetings that began with a visit by UNC-Chapel Hill officials to China last year and are intended to strengthen ties between UNC and Chinese universities. Professor Myron Cohen directs global health research at the UNC School of Medicine. "Any thing you touch in China has a huge number," said Cohen. "If you say you wanted to study any disease... heart disease... when you're studying heart disease in one point three billion people, it's a lot different than studying it in 200 million people."
Note: No link available for this story, which aired during local news breaks in NPR's Morning Edition on Wednesday, Jan. 30, 2008.

UNC wants $239M in initial step to create more doctors
The Triangle Business Journal
Leaders of the University of North Carolina School of Medicine intend to ask the General Assembly for a one-time infusion of $239 million and recurring funds of $40 million annually so more doctors can be graduated. The school has developed detailed plans for increasing enrollment from 160 students admitted each year to 230.

Open, open, open (Editorial)
The Charlotte Observer
It's not surprising that Peter Gorman is less keen about being as public with the school system's business as he was when he stepped into his job as Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools superintendent in 2006. ...A media lawyer and a UNC Chapel Hill law professor have said that plan would violate state open-meetings law.

Raleigh council in bout on drought
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Three weeks after Mayor Charles Meeker introduced a flurry of water conservation proposals, another council member has taken an even more aggressive stance on the drought. ...Jeff Hughes, director of the UNC environmental finance center, said impact fees on water and sewer connections are quite common.

Look back at 1968: The Tet Offensive
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
William Boak remembers the Tet Offensive as a constant nightly bombardment of enemy fire at him and his fellow soldiers. ...Two UNC historians agree that the Tet Offensive stunned Johnson. "It gave the lie to all the happy talk that the Johnson administration was proffering on the chances of success in South Vietnam," said Richard Kohn, a professor with expertise in defense, peace and war. ...By the time of Tet, Johnson was so unpopular anyway he could not publicly go out, except to military bases, said Michael Hunt, who at Chapel Hill teaches a course on the Vietnam War.

Strayhorn was Duke Ellington's 'right-hand' man
The Chapel Hill Herald
Jazz great Duke Ellington called him "my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine." ..."Strayhorn is far more deserving of recognition as a major shaper of American music in the 20th century than first glimpse would reveal," said Jim Ketch, director of jazz studies at UNC.

Involuntary annexation, has its time come?
The Times-News (Burlington)
A House committee on Wednesday began studying the issue of whether the General Assembly should change the nearly half-century-old law that allows ...The committee heard from David M. Lawrence, a professor at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Government, who talked about how today’s law came about and some of the requirements that cities and towns must meet in order to annex an area.

Issues and Trends

Tips for building successful downtown
The Chapel Hill Herald
In discussing principles of economic development as they relate to a small town like Chapel Hill, Jason Jolley offered the Friends of Downtown a simple, catchy motto: "Shoot anything that flies, claim anything that falls." That piece of wisdom came from an old article on economic development, said Jolley, research director of the Center for Competitive Economies in UNC's Frank Hawkins Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise.

Penn tells top director: No moonlighting
The Philadelphia Inquirer (Pa.)
As an associate director of MBA admissions at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, Judith Hodara hosts a weekly podcast that dispenses tips for getting into business school. ...The others, Sherry Wallace, MBA admissions dean at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Donald Martin, associate dean for enrollment and student services at Teachers College of Columbia University, had approval to participate on AGOS's board, according to university spokespeople.