uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Breast cancer: how to reduce your risk
The Independent (United Kingdom)
The fear of breast cancer is a source of persistent anxiety for many women alongside a fatalistic feeling that, short of radical surgery, there's little if anything that can be done to reduce the risk of this frightening disease. ..."This reduction in risk is comparable to that found in high-risk women who take hormonal treatments such as tamoxifen," said lead researcher, Dr Alison Stuebe of the University of North Carolina.

Swine flu jitters hit MBA courses
Financial Times
Flu season is an inevitable fact of the academic calendar, much like midterm exams. Every year at about this time, health centres and infirmaries at business schools fill up with students feeling run-down, achy, and just plain unwell. ..."We are already in discussions with companies to deal with [this]," says C. Michael Stepanek, MBA director at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School. "If there were an outbreak, we may have to change our approach."

National Coverage

Scrooges' Holiday Deals: Bankrupt Firms
Forbes
Shopping malls are already garnished with greenery and have begun piping holiday tunes throughout their stores. But for many companies, this early holiday season is greeted with less excitement and more worry. ..."Most companies file Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which allows the firm to reorganize, as opposed to Chapter 7, which liquidates the firm," said Adam Reed, a finance professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

U.S. Efforts In Iraq, Afghanistan Stumble On Elections
National Public Radio
The conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq might be in very different stages, but the United States is facing a serious challenge in both places from a common obstacle — election woes. ..."The level of investment — in the election commission, in the structures of observation, in all the things you have to do to prevent fraud — was nonexistent," says Andrew Reynolds, a political scientist at the University of North Carolina who has advised the United Nations on elections in Iraq and Afghanistan.

N.F.L.’s Dementia Study Has Flaws, Experts Say
The New York Times
The N.F.L. and its doctors have consistently dismissed independent studies showing unusual cognitive decline in former players. They insist that a long-term study by the league’s committee on concussions, expected to be published in several years, will be the authoritative analysis. ...As repeated outside studies from the University of North Carolina and elsewhere have claimed to find strong links, (Dr. Ira) Casson has focused only on the shortcomings of their methods and how his study is the only proper approach.

Bowel Disease Treatment May Raise Skin Cancer Risk
HealthDay News
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients who are being treated with immunosuppressive medications may be at increased risk for non-melanoma skin cancer, a new U.S. study says. ..."The increased risk of [non-melanoma skin cancer] in patients with IBD is likely related to the immunosuppressive medications used to treat the disease, although we can't rule out changes to the immune system itself as a result of IBD as contributing to this risk," said study leader Dr. Millie Long, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Indian Higher-Education Minister to Court Top U.S. Universities
The Chronicle of Higher Education
India's minister in charge of higher education will meet next week with the heads of at least six top American universities that he hopes to persuade to set up campuses in India, The Telegraph reported. ...In addition, The Telegraph said, citing unnamed sources, that the minister also planned to meet with officials of the University of North Carolina and the University of Pennsylvania.

Top U.S. Producers of Fulbright Students, by Type of Institutions, 2009-10
The Chronicle of Higher Education
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill tied for 12th among research institutions in production of student Fulbright winners for 2009-10, with 11 students receiving grants this year in the Fulbright U.S. Student Program.

Regional Coverage

Knight Commission calls NCAA spending unsustainable
The Miami Herald (Florida)
While university presidents are frustrated and flabbergasted by the spiraling, unsustainable cost of running big-time college sports teams, they are struggling to find solutions, especially in dire economic times. ...Commission member Hodding Carter III said the overheated college sports market is a ``microcosm'' of what happened when the U.S. economy imploded last year. ``It's the same kind of market that drove us over a cliff,'' said Carter, professor of leadership and public policy at the University of North Carolina.

State and Local Coverage

UNC to test new flu drug
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
A small number of patients at UNC Hospitals will be asked to test a new flu drug that has shown promise in treating severe cases but is still under investigation. Even as the clinical trial is about to launch, the anti-viral drug, Peramivir, was given emergency clearance last week by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for hospitalized patients who cannot take approved flu-fighters such as Tamiflu and Relenza. ...Only about six patients will be enrolled in the trial at UNC, said Dr. Christopher Hurt, an infectious disease doctor and the site's principal investigator.

Money Talks: African-American Economic Summit
"The State of Things" WUNC-FM
This weekend, scholars from around the country will gather at UNC-Chapel Hill and Duke universities to talk about the current recession and its impact on African-Americans. In advance of the summit, guest host Janet Babin unpacks why the current economic contraction has deepened long-standing racial gaps in income and wealth.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3011/73/

UNC study: Disability rates similar for internationally, domestically adopted children
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Children adopted from overseas have disability rates similar to those adopted from within the United States, according to new research from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. ...The study's authors are Philip N. Cohen, Ph.D., associate professor of sociology in UNC's College of Arts and Sciences and a fellow of the Carolina Population Center, and Rose M. Kreider, Ph.D. of the U.S. Census Bureau.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3047/73/

Institute receives award
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The service and outreach arm of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Gillings School of Global Public Health has received an award in recognition of its "significant contributions" to public health in the state. The North Carolina Institute for Public Health was presented with the Partners in Public Health Distinguished Group Award at the N.C. Public Health Association's annual conference in Asheville earlier this month.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3013/107/

Federal library internships
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
Students to continue valued internships at federal libraries. Library science students at UNC will be able to intern at two federal libraries for another five years under terms of a new agreement. UNC's School of Information and Library Science recently signed a new contract with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Library that extends a 35-year internship agreement.

NIH awards UNC grant
The Herald-Sun (Durham)
The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has been awarded $2.5 million from the National Institutes of Health to establish a new cooperative research center for studies of sexually transmitted infections (STIs). The new Southeastern STI Cooperative Research Center will be based at UNC and directed by Fred Sparling, M.D., professor of medicine and microbiology and immunology in the School of Medicine.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/3037/71/

This cancer too often sneaks in to kill
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Tammy Allred, an oncology nurse at UNC Hospitals who works with lung cancer patients, sums up the difference in a single word: Stigma. The first question every person with lung cancer hears: Did you smoke? "People think that everyone who gets lung cancer was a smoker, so they deserve it," she said, noting that some of her patients whose cancer has spread to other organs prefer to say they have liver cancer or lymphoma rather than lung cancer.

Doctor Charged In Fatal DWI Accident In Rehab
WNCN-TV (NBC/Raleigh)
A former UNC doctor accused of killing a ballerina while driving drunk did not show up to a court appearance because he is in rehab, according to his lawyer. Attorney Roger Smith said his client Raymond Cook is undergoing voluntary alcohol rehab at an in-patient facility that is located outside of North Carolina.

Issues and Trends

Campuses Largely Unhurt by Recession, but Officials Are Fearful About the Future (Blog)
The New York Times
The economy may be on the mend, but the chief finance officers of colleges are far from upbeat about the near future, according to a survey conducted by The Chronicle of Higher Education. The survey found that 62 percent of the officers think the financial pressures on their colleges will get worse, and almost two thirds fear that 2010-2012 will be even more difficult.