uncnews.unc.edu

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

International Coverage

Scientists tout momentum in race to solve AIDS
Agence France Presse (Wire Service)
The race to end AIDS has picked up momentum in the past two years as scientific advances offer new hope of halting the spread of the disease nearly three decades after the epidemic surfaced. ..."The idea is if we could identify a strategy for the human host to be tricked into making broadly neutralizing antibodies, that is a huge step toward making a vaccine," said Myron Cohen, a leading AIDS researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Cohen.

US and India: the squeeze on small business
The Financial Times
...A study on the impact of the 1991 reforms on India’s economy by Laura Alfaro and Anusha Chari, economics professors at Harvard Business School and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, respectively, showed that companies present before the liberalisation continued to control a larger portion of the economy than those that came post-1991.

MSG linked to weight gain
Reuters (Wire Service)
...Researchers found that people who eat more MSG are more likely to be overweight or obese. And the increased risk wasn't simply because people were stuffing themselves with MSG-rich foods. The link between high MSG intake and being overweight held even after accounting for the total number of calories people ate. Ka He, a nutrition expert at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, who led the study, said that although the risk of weight gain attributable to MSG was modest, the implications for public health are substantial. "Everybody eats it," He told Reuters Health.
Related Link:
http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/wellbeing/msg-linked-to-weight-gain-20110530-1fbwt.html

National Coverage

Why They Move
Inside Higher Ed
When times get tough, top talent goes elsewhere. That truism, while perhaps too simplistic to be applied widely, seems to be increasingly confronting many public universities, especially flagships, that have seen state support slashed or the political environment grow more tense and unpredictable. And, some say, the situation threatens to get worse. The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill is grappling with the departure of 78 faculty members this year (out of 110 who were wooed) -- more than 2.5 times the number who left the previous year. Perhaps not coincidentally, Chapel Hill is also facing its third straight year of declining state appropriations, a trend that has led to a pay freeze for faculty during the same period, said Holden Thorp, Chapel Hill’s chancellor.

Risks: Hypertension Lurking in Young Adults
The New York Times
A new study finds that nearly one in five young adults has high blood pressure, a startling estimate much higher than any previously reported. Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill analyzed data on more than 14,000 adults, ages 24 to 32, who have been followed since 1995 in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, known as Add Health. The researchers found that 19 percent of the young adults had blood pressure readings of 140/90 millimeters of mercury or higher, which is defined as high blood pressure.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4559/71/

No fair! Hip bones really do widen with age
HealthDay News
...Even though most people stop growing in height by the time they hit age 20, researchers have found evidence that the hip bones can keep growing even as people enter their 70s. "I think it's a fairly common human experience that people find themselves to be wider at the age of 40 or 60 then they were at 20," study researcher Dr. Laurence E. Dahners, a professor in the orthopedics department at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, said in a statement.
UNC Release:
http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2011/may/pelvic-growth/

Science Diction: The Origin Of The Word 'Syphilis'
"Talk of the Nation" National Public Radio
In a 1530 epic poem, Italian physician and poet Hieronymus Fracastorius coined 'Syphilis' as the name of his poem's protagonist, a shepherd afflicted with the dreaded disease. Medical historian Dr. Howard Markel and STD expert Dr. Peter Leone discuss the disease's history and its resurgence today. (Dr. Peter Leone is a professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill.)

Structure of a recession, part 1 (Blog)
The Washington Post
Economists debate whether we’re headed for a true recovery or whether the financial crisis was the beginning of a lost decade for the United States. I’ll have more on that later. (Karl Smith is an assistant professor of economics and government at the University of North Carolina School of Government and a blogger at ModeledBehavior.com.)

Republicans brace for tough 2012 fight against Obama in unlikely place — N.C.
The Washington Post
...The Hispanic population has grown in North Carolina, opening another potentially fruitful group of voters to Obama and his recruitment operation. “The state that Jesse Helms won five times — Obama carried it,” said Ferrel Guillory, a public policy professor at the University of North Carolina. “That is huge. Jesse Helms almost certainly could not win an election today in this state, were he here.”

Gen. Cartwright, poised to lead Joint Chiefs, had his shot derailed by critics
The Washington Post
...Richard H. Kohn, an expert on military-civilian relations and a professor emeritus of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, said the Afghan review heightened Obama’s wariness of military commanders because he suspected that those pushing for the larger expansion of the war were trying to box him in to approving their plan.

Is buried skeleton what remains of real Mona Lisa?
CBS News
...But some outside researchers are skeptical about the validity of the project. Writing for the archaeology website Past Horizons, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill anthropologist Kristina Killgrove pointed out that facial reconstruction is an unreliable art. Many attempts at facial reconstruction have been done on famous specimens, from King Tut to the paleo-Indian Kennewick Man to a bog woman named Moora, Killgrove wrote.

Art of the tech deal in Chicago needs more movers, shakers
The Chicago Tribune
Ted Zoller admits being unfamiliar with Chicago. But he is confident he has diagnosed a problem within its tech community: a shortage of dealmakers. Chicago trails Austin, Salt Lake City, Denver and Minneapolis in the ratio of dealmakers per capita, according to Zoller, an associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Regional Coverage

Review of ‘It Happened on the Way to War’ by Rye Barcott
The Miami Herald (Florida)
...He cofounded Carolina for Kibera while a student at the University of North Carolina, becoming its chief fund-raiser. He worked with several Kibera residents who launched a successful health clinic and a growing soccer program that required each team to have players from different tribes.

State and Local Coverage

Attracting art and supporting our creative class (Opinion-Editorial Column)
The Chapel Hill Herald
Back in the day, the southeast corner of Franklin and Columbia streets was occupied by a gas, Nabs and beverage vendor known as the Happy Store. But that corner, at street level, hasn't been a happy one for many years following the closure of the bank branch that used to occupy it. That's why I'm glad the vacancy has finally been filled with the opening of the new Ackland Museum Store on May 5. (Holden Thorp is chancellor of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.)

'Generosity of self' leads health care researcher (Tar Heel Of The Week)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Tom Ricketts has always had a pickup truck. He lives on a dirt road, gets his water from a well and doesn't have cable TV. Yet despite his "rural credentials," the University of North Carolina professor is as worldly as they come. Whether he is biking across the state, visiting rural community clinics or teaching his students in Chapel Hill and France, the locally, nationally and internationally engaged scholar is a leading force in the field of health care workforce research and an inspiration for those who know him.

Carolina invites blood drive donors (Letter to the Editor)
The Chapel Hill Herald
This year, start the summer by giving the gift of life to someone in need in our area. Faculty, staff, students and members of the community are all invited to the 23rd annual Carolina Blood Drive with the American Red Cross, from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. June 7 in the Dean Smith Center in Chapel Hill. Donors will have access to free parking by the Dean Dome. The drive goal is 1,000 units. (Patti Thorp, Chapel Hill. The writer is First Lady of the University of North Carolina.)
Related Link:
http://www.chapelboro.com/UNC-Blood-Drive-Signups-Down--More-Needed/10002178

'Throw it into the ocean'
The Chapel Hill Herald
..."Mr. Kadoura is one of many vendors supporting the American Red Cross and university community," said Katrina Coble, the chairwoman of the UNC Blood Drive Committee. "Blood donors eagerly anticipate choosing from a wide variety of refreshments after donating. Local business persons such as Mr. Kadoura make these two blood drives very special, festive events."

Welcome ... all (Editorial)
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Sometimes, it's the small things that make a big difference. Deb Rosenstein, a therapist at the N.C. Jaycee Burn Center, had an idea in 1982, to start a weekend camp for children who were burn victims. Such kids, she discovered, were not always accepted by regular summer camps. Many suffered from disfiguring scars, which could make them uncomfortable around other children.
Related Link:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/29/1234563/burn-survivors-see-camp-as-a-balm.html#storylink=misearch

Wide load theory
WNCN-TV (NBC/Raleigh)
Most people stop growing taller by the time they reach their twenties, but new research suggests your hips keep widening for decades. A new study out of UNC Chapel Hill looked at C.T. scans of over two hundred men and women aged twenty to seventy-nine. They found most reached skeletal maturity at age twenty but their pelvis continued to expand throughout their life.
UNC Release:
http://news.unchealthcare.org/news/2011/may/pelvic-growth/

Young and at risk
The News & Record (Greensboro)
Then again, better hold those Krispy Kremes. A new study by UNC-Chapel Hill researchers finds that 1 in 5 young American adults suffer from high blood pressure, a significant jump from past rates. More bad news: When the study began in 1995, 11 percent of the 14,000 participants were obese. By 2008, 37 percent were obese and 60 percent were overweight.
UNC News Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4559/71/

Duke, UNC select Robertson Scholars
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Duke University and UNC-Chapel Hill have announced their latest batch of Robertson Scholars, who receive full, four-year scholarships to study at both schools. Recipients of the scholarship, which is a leadership development program, enroll in and graduate from one of the schools, but they take courses at both universities and spend a semester in residence in the one they are not enrolled in as part of the program.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4529/75/

UNC Senior Named Gilder Lehrman History Scholar
WCHL 1360-AM (Chapel Hill)
A rising senior at UNC, Kristen Maye, has been chosen for a five-week history research program in New York City this summer. Maye is among 10 Gilder Lehrman History Scholars selected in a national competition. The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History is a nonprofit organization that seeks to improve and enrich American history education.
UNC Release:
http://uncnews.unc.edu/content/view/4555/75/

UNC awards honor excellence in public service
The Chapel Hill News
UNC honored staff, faculty, students and organizations for their public service projects at the Carolina Center for Public Service's annual Public Service Awards Celebration and Showcase.

Why do our bodies make icky mucus?
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
With its sticky icky grossness, you may wonder why mucus exists in the first place. But this annoyance of cold and allergy season plays a very important role in keeping our bodies healthy. Dr. Michael R. Knowles, professor of pulmonary and critical care medicine at UNC Chapel Hill, explains the many attributes of this slick substance.

Gaston County getting older
The Gaston Gazette
...In North Carolina, counties with a higher median age are predominantly white and situated in coastal and rural areas where young people are leaving, said Ferrel Guillory, director of UNC Chapel Hill’s Program on Public Life. Counties that show a younger median age have more blacks and Latinos, he said.

Bills for stiffer crime penalties on legislature's table
The Star News (Wilmington)
State lawmakers are considering stiffer penalties for defendants accused of crimes ranging from second-degree murder to misdemeanor larceny. ..."Some of it is just tweaking stuff for consistency's sake," said Jamie Markham, an assistant professor at the University of North Carolina School of Government who studies sentencing.

Rex purchase might not hurt bond rating
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
Two debt-rating analysts who follow bonds issued by WakeMed and Rex Healthcare say that they won't automatically reduce WakeMed's rating if the hospital borrows millions more to pay for its proposed $750 million purchase of Rex. ...Officials with the UNC Health Care System, which bought Rex in 2000, have said they're not interested in selling, but will form a committee to consider a formal offer from WakeMed.
Related Links:
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/28/1230962/mentally-ill-chips.html#storylink=misearch
http://www.newsobserver.com/2011/05/31/1231104/hospital-revenue-debt.html#storylink=misearch

Issues and Trends

Perdue says proposed budget still harms education
The Associated Press
...The potential deal would spend $300 million more for public schools than the House budget plan approved earlier this month, according to the budget document. The new version restores funding for 13,000 teaching assistant positions in grades 1-3 that had been eliminated in an earlier Senate plan. The House had eliminated assistants in grades 1-2. The University of North Carolina System also would receive $100 million more than the House budget proposed.

College Endowments Are Poised for Another Year of Growth, Survey Finds
The Chronicle of Higher Education
College and university endowments are on track for their second straight year of solid investment gains, according to a new survey by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Sixteen college and university endowments reported their year-to-date performance, and they have earned a median return of 15 percent so far in their 2011 fiscal year, the survey found. The vast majority of college and university endowments have fiscal years that end in June, and most of those that provided 2011 updates gave performance figures through February or March.

Etchings of N.C. inspire the travels of father-daughter history buffs
The News & Observer (Raleigh)
When my parents got married in August 1965, my father gave my mother a pearl necklace. My mother gave my father five etchings of North Carolina scenes: the Old Well and Old East at UNC-CH, a Menhaden fishing fleet in Beaufort, the state capitol in Raleigh, the Orange County Courthouse and the Biltmore Estate.