uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Benefits of exercise differ by sex and race
Reuters (Wire Service)
How much health benefit you get from physical exercise might depend on your gender, and your race, new research suggests. The work is based on data from more than 15,000 middle-aged African American and Caucasian men and women who have been participating since the late 1980s in the large Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities Study. ...The research team, led by Dr. Keri Monda at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, also found that increased exercise generally produced significant decreases in harmful triglycerides, but only in Caucasians.

Race affects patient-doctor communication
United Press International
Communication between doctors and patients with high blood pressure is worse for blacks than for whites, researchers at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore say. "This is an important finding because poorer communication is associated with worse patient satisfaction, adherence to therapy and blood pressure control, which in turn may lead to worse disease outcomes for black patients compared to white patients," Dr. Crystal Wiley Cene, now of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Medicine, said in a statement.
UNC Release:
http://www.unchealthcare.org/site/newsroom/news/2009/September/cene

National Coverage

Who Was First at the North Pole? (Blog)
The New York Times
Who got to the North Pole first, Frederick A. Cook or Robert E. Peary? In my Findings column, I suggest that the answer is neither. We can debate their claims and consider other candidates here. ...And why have their claims been believed by so many for so long? For an explanation of “motivated reasoning,” check out the article in the current Sociological Quarterly (cited in my column) by Monica Prasad of Northwestern University and her colleagues, including Andrew J. Perrin and Kim Manturuk of the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill...

The Daughter Deficit (Letter to the Editor)
The New York Times
Tina Rosenberg, quoting Monica Das Gupta, portrays “development” as a unitary concept. But there are different kinds of development with varied consequences within the same society. In China, the most comprehensive studies of female infanticide and the neglect of girls show that excess female mortality fell precipitously from the 1930s through the 1960s before rising again with the “development” that started in the late 1970s. (Philip N. Cohen, Associate Professor of Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, N.C.)

Crime more than 'public safety challenges' for Rio 2016 bid (Blog)
The Los Angeles Times
About 24 hours before the International Olympic Committee's release on Wednesday of its evaluation commission report on the four finalists to host the 2016 Summer Games, a shootout between police and robbers described as drug traffickers forced the authorities to shut down a main artery near Rio de Janeiro's international airport for five to 15 minutes until gunfire stopped, depending on which newspaper report you read. ..."When I was living here [Rio] in 2004, I was assaulted three times,'' said University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill professor Chris Gaffney in an e-mail from Rio, where he is spending six months on a Fulbright research grant. "It eventually happens to everyone in the city, regardless of neighborhood.''

Regional Coverage

Hispanic Influx Causes Tensions with Blacks
The Chicago Tribune
In a region where race relations traditionally have been defined in terms of Black and White, an influx of immigrants to the Deep South in the last decade has upset the delicate cultural balance and created tensions among longtime residents and new ethnic groups. ..."There are tensions between whites and Blacks, between whites and Hispanics, and between Blacks and Hispanics," said Walter Farrell Jr., associate director of the Urban Investment Strategy Center at the University of North Carolina.

Does football make you stupid ? (Blog)
The Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Mo.)
...A study at the University of North Carolina, reported that nearly a quarter of retired professional football players (American football) reported that they had had 3 or more concussions. Retired players who sustained 3 or more concussions were three times as likely to have memory problems and 5 times more likely to be diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment.

State and Local Coverage

UNC grad to aid Hillside, Southern students
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
As a new member of the Carolina College Advising Corps, UNC graduate Shamelle Ingram will work at Hillside and Southern high schools in Durham County this school year to help low-income, first-generation and underrepresented students apply for college and financial aid. The Carolina Advising Corps, based in the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at UNC Chapel Hill, is one of 13 partnerships in the National College Advising Corps headquartered at UNC. The corps places recent Chapel Hill graduates — many of them first-generation college students themselves — as college advisers in low-income high schools across the state.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2838/68/

Simple test IDs peripheral artery disease
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
A simple test that measures blood flow through the ankle helps identify people with peripheral artery disease (PAD) before they start showing symptoms, a study led by UNC researchers has found. ...The study shows that the test, called an ankle brachial index (ABI), may be useful in screening people who have already suffered a stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA), said Souvik Sen, director of the UNC Stroke Center and the study's principal investigator.

Allan Gurganus to join others at Literary Fest
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Allan Gurganus may live in present-day Hillsborough but these days he also time travels to another small North Carolina town. ...Gurganus will, no doubt, talk about Cheever when he and Elizabeth Spencer appear at the North Carolina Literary Festival’s “Influences and Inspirations” session at 12:20 p.m. Sunday in Hamilton Hall. The free festival begins Thursday and continues through Sept. 13 at UNC Chapel Hill.
Related Links:
http://www.wwaytv3.com/node/18101
http://www.salisburypost.com/Opinion/090609-lit-fest
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2816/73/

Education Center blossoms at Garden
The Chapel Hill News
Knock another jewel in our local crown. The new Education Center at the North Carolina Botanical Garden is finished. ...In addition to the founding donor, students donated through UNC's Renewable Energy Special Projects Funds, and more than 400 individuals gave to cover the $12 million budget. The 31,2000-square foot building center, located at 100 Old Mason Farm Road, was designed by architect Frank Harmon of Raleigh. It is a green building, designed to receive a Leadership in Energy & Environmental Design (LEED) platinum certification.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2849/68/

Aldwyth
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
The artist Aldwyth lives and works in relative seclusion on an island off the coast of South Carolina. She's been making collages and installation pieces for decades, but now, at 73, her first major retrospective is on display at the Ackland Museum in Chapel Hill. She speaks with host Frank Stasio about the process of raising children, collecting life's odds and ends and gestating large scale pieces over long periods of time.

27 Royster Fellows begin year at UNC
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Twenty-seven new graduate students from around the world are beginning their first semester at UNC Chapel Hill with five-year fellowships in the Royster Society of Fellows. ...For the first time this year, 11 students were recruited with Chancellor’s Fellowships, awarded by the graduate school as part of the Royster Society of Fellows program. “We are extremely appreciative of Chancellor Holden Thorp’s recognition that we need to attract the best and brightest graduate students to Carolina. The quality of this university depends on it,” said Steve Matson, dean of the graduate school.

Doctors use other instruments for cancer CD
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
John Boggess and John Soper, two cancer surgeons at UNC-Chapel Hill School of Medicine, have created a medical record of a different sort. The gynecological oncologists and their doctor bandmates are releasing a rock CD today that culminates a lightning journey from one-night wonders to an original artist group signed by a small New York label. Their album, eponymously titled "N.E.D. No Evidence of Disease," features songs written and recorded by the band of six surgeons, all of whom work to battle cancers that attack women's reproductive organs.
Related Link:
http://abclocal.go.com/wtvd/story?section=news/local&id=6999612

Depression-era projects became tourist draws
The Citizen-Times (Asheville)
Tourism did not pull the city out of the Great Depression, but efforts to attract more visitors that began during that era shaped the leisure travel industry in the area for years to come. ...Lobbying for the Blue Ridge Parkway to be routed through Western North Carolina kept local business leaders busy for part of the 1930s, but neither construction of the road nor its visitors made much of a local impact until after World War II, says Anne Whisnant, a history professor at UNC Chapel Hill who has written a history of the road.

No truce in feud of Indian Trail's mayor, council
The Charlotte Observer
...The restrictions on the mayor are “probably legal,” says a UNC Chapel Hill expert on local government. But a conflict like Indian Trail's “certainly is unusual,” said David Lawrence of the university's School of Government. “It doesn't sound very functional.”

An effective tool for U.S. workers (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
The Employee Free Choice Act (known as EFCA), being considered by Congress offers a real possibility of restoring the right to unionize to American workers. This prospect has encountered stiff opposition from many employers, lobbyists and the GOP, along with a number of moderate Democrats. The opposition to EFCA is especially strong in North Carolina, the state with the lowest percentage of workers belonging to unions. (Arne L. Kalleberg is Kenan distinguished professor of sociology at UNC-Chapel Hill.)

UNC gets $2.7M for HIV study
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
UNC has been awarded a $2.7 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health to study if monetary incentives and community mobilization can help prevent young South African women from becoming infected with HIV. Audrey Pettifor, an assistant professor of epidemiology at UNC's Gillings School of Global Public Health, is the study's principal investigator and a faculty fellow at the Carolina Population Center, where the study is based.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2834/71/

Malaria vaccine trial begins
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The phase III trial of the potential malaria vaccine known as RTS,S has begun in Malawi with the help of researchers from UNC's Institute for Global Health and Infectious Diseases. ...Francis Martinson, country director of UNC Project-Malawi and principal investigator on the study, said developing a vaccine against malaria is critical to defeating the disease.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/2819/71/

Issues and Trends

Staying put? (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Erskine Bowles, president of the University of North Carolina system, turns 65 next year (Aug. 8, if you're a card person or a relative who's forgotten). It's customary for those in his position to retire at or around that age. But Bowles, a former Wall Streeter and White House chief of staff under President Bill Clinton, isn't inclined to shut the door at the end of the day with unfinished business on his desk. ...Bowles has done a good job. Sounds like it's not time for the sandals and black socks for the beach just yet.
Related Links:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/local/story/930541.html?q=%22unc%22

Translucency, at least? (Under the Dome)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
UNC system President Erskine Bowles says he's a big believer in transparency. ...Bowles, who has been open about recent problems at the university, said recently, "It's my responsibility to make sure we get the best candidates possible to run N.C. State, or any of the campuses." During the last search for a UNC-Chapel Hill chancellor, Bowles said, several candidates would not have participated if their identities had been released.
Related Link:
http://www.charlotteobserver.com/408/story/933098.html?q=%22unc%22

UNC cuts lead to crowding
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
When history professor Don Raleigh last taught a first-year seminar at UNC Chapel Hill two years ago, he had 18 students. That was too many, he thought, for a seminar course intended to provoke lively discussion.
Related Link:
http://blogs.newsobserver.com/campusnotes/unc-budget-cuts-hit-the-classroom

Offshore winds promise power
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...Wind energy is not science fiction, already having been developed in Europe for years, with at least 13 countries operating or developing their own projects. ...A UNC study commissioned by the legislature and issued in June found 2,800 square miles suitable for wind development off North Carolina. It said tapping 15 percent of the state's offshore wind reserves could provide 20 percent of North Carolina's energy needs.

In North Carolina, the pigskin wins
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
...That's true even in North Carolina, which might be the regional exception to the Southern and national bloodlust for football because of the state's mania for college basketball. After all, UNC-Chapel Hill has won two basketball titles in the last five years, the most recent coming in April. But with the arrival of veteran football coach Butch Davis three years ago, and the Tar Heels' subsequent turnaround, the gridiron program has attracted more season ticket buyers than at any other time in the program's history, says spokesman Kevin Best.