Media coverage of top UCI stories: Nov. 5, 2007

1. Ivanhoe Newswire, Nov. 2, 2007
Stem cells may restore memory after brain damage
UCI MENTIONED:     Stem cells may help reverse a persons memory loss after they’ve had a brain injury. A new study from the University of California Irvine looked at mice with brain injuries. It finds the memory of the mice was restored to a similar level found in healthy mice after they got a stem cell treatment for up to three months. Researchers believe the stem cells secrete proteins called neurotrophins that protect vulnerable cells from dying, thereby saving the memory.

Second Paragraph:     Scientists injected mice with about 200,000 neural stems cells engineered to look green under ultraviolet light so they could track the stem cells inside the brains of the mice.

2. MedPage Today (Little Falls, N.J.), Oct. 31, 2007
Stem cells spark murine memory recovery
UCI MENTIONED:     Neural stem cells transplanted into the brains of mice with varying degrees of memory loss migrated and differentiated into various mature brain cell types, resulting in improvements in memory three months later, reported Frank M. LaFerla, Ph.D., of the University of California at Irvine, and colleagues.

First Paragraph:     Stem cell transplants have been shown to improve memory in mice with induced loss of neurons in the hippocampus, researchers here found.

3. Associated Content, Nov. 3, 2007
Researchers discover a way to restore memories
UCI MENTIONED:     Researchers at the University of California Irvine were able to demonstrate that neural stem cells may be able to restore memories after brain damage.

Second Paragraph:     According to Frank LaFerla, a professor of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California, Irvine, their research proves that stem cells can reverse memory loss and thus give hope that stem cells could someday restore brain function in persons suffering from diseases and injuries that damage memories.

4. Lifenews.com, Nov. 1, 2007
Adult stem cell research may lead to treatments for brain injuries, disease
UCI MENTIONED:     A new study by researchers at the University of California, Irvine finds another advance in the use of adult stem cells. In this case, researchers used the stem cells from the brain of a mouse to restore memory following a brain injury.

Second Paragraph:     The team used the neural stem cells to protect existing cells that were still healthy following the injury and to restore neuronal connections that had been damaged. Scientists were able to restore the brain to pre-damaged levels three months following the treatment.

5. WSJV (South Bend, Ind.), Oct. 30, 2007
New stem cell research (brief)
FULL TEXT:     Researchers possibly found a way to restore memory to people with brain damage. New research from the University of California uses neural stem cells the type that come from the brain. They say they helped mice with brain injuries. After three months their memory worked on the same level as the healthy mice. Researchers think the stem cells secreted a certain protein to help the damaged cells heal.

6. The New York Times, Nov. 4, 2007
As hybrids evolve, gains grow elusive
UCI MENTIONED:     Toyota is also concerned that plug-in owners might tire of connecting their cars every day. Some answers on consumer expectations and daily performance should come out of evaluations of the prototypes to be conducted at the Irvine and Berkeley campuses of the University of California that will begin later this month.

First Paragraph:     Hybrid cars made immediate headlines nearly a decade ago, when Honda and then Toyota introduced models that offered drivers moon-shot improvements in fuel economy and exhaust emissions.

7. The Washington Post, Nov. 4, 2007
A story punctuated by death (column)
UCI MENTIONED:     Procurement experts I talked to differed on the arrangement and context. Frank Camm, a Rand Corp. economist and an expert on government contracting, said such arrangements were not unusual, but he raised a good question: To whom was Riechers accountable – CRI or the Air Force? Deborah D. Avant, a professor of political science at the University of California at Irvine who focuses on the privatization of security, said, “Lots of jobs are used for interim purposes until a person is on a payroll.”

First Paragraph:     On Oct. 1, The Post ran a Page 1 story about a temporary Pentagon assignment given a retired Air Force officer by a defense contractor. On Oct. 14, the officer, Lt. Col. Charles Riechers, was found dead, apparently a suicide. On Oct. 17, the Air Force complained to me about the story.

8. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 9, 2007
Foreign-language departments bring everyday texts to teaching
UCI MENTIONED:     As other universities consider this major shift to a more-cultural approach to teaching languages, Glenn S. Levine, an associate professor and director of the German-language program at the University of California at Irvine, says Georgetown’s German program “showed it could be done.”

First Paragraph:     In a second-semester German class at Georgetown University, students each present a favorite omelet recipe. They will soon use German to write postcards to friends and prepare the horoscopes of ideal partners.

9. The Chronicle of Higher Education, Nov. 9, 2007
The Chronicle index of for-profit higher education
UCI MENTIONED:     An arrangement under which Capella Education Company had been paying the University of California at Irvine $500 for each UC student who transferred to Capella was abruptly halted in October, two weeks after it was made public in a Chronicle news story. The UC system said, in a written statement, that it was ending the five-year relationship because outsiders were “misconstruing this as somehow being, if not illegal, unethical.”

First Paragraph:     This Index tracks the performance of eight publicly traded higher-education companies. The index was developed for The Chronicle by the Center for Research in Security Prices at the University of Chicago’s Graduate School of Business.

10. TomDispatch.com, Nov. 1, 2007
Who really set the California fires?
UCI MENTIONED:     [About the author:] Mike Davis, who teaches urban history at UC Irvine, grew up in the now incinerated backcountry of San Diego County. His other articles about the recent fires will soon appear in the Nation and the London Review of Books. His most recent book is In Praise of Barbarians: Essays Against Empire (Haymarket 2007).

First Paragraph:     This August, just as the first Santa Ana winds bent the boughs of the eucalyptus trees in San Diego’s Balboa Park, 500 wealthy business people and Republican Party donors raised their champagne glasses to salute “Mr. San Diego,” Pete Wilson, as he unveiled a bronze statue of himself in downtown’s Horton Plaza.

11. Topeka Capital-Journal (Kan.), Nov. 5, 2007
Loss doesn’t deter pickets (Originally published by the Associated Press)
UCI MENTIONED:     Westboro has been effective in getting its name and message out, but most people will not be able to make a logical connection between homosexuality and soldiers’ deaths, said David Meyer, a sociology professor at the University of California, Irvine. “Sometimes you actually want to provoke a fury, because the action of protest is meant to be polarizing,” he said. “But you hope when you do that more people break on your side than the other side.”

First Paragraph:     The fiery message of the Westboro Baptist Church has led its followers into a fight for what they say are their First Amendment rights.

12. Arizona Daily Star (Tucson, Ariz.), Nov. 2, 2007
As fancy pet foods proliferate, we grill experts to find out what dogs and cats really need for nutrition (Originally published by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram)
UCI MENTIONED:     Our dogs may benefit from studies aimed at humans. A series of studies by Norton Milgram, a behavioral neuroscientist at the University of Toronto, and Carl Cotman, a neurochemist with the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at the University of California, Irvine, have studied older beagles as models of human aging. They’ve found that antioxidant supplements such as vitamins E and C may slow cognitive decline in older dogs.

First Paragraph:     If you really want to start a heated debate up at the dog park, don’t bring up Iraq or the presidential election: Ask the dog owners what kind of dog food they use.

13. Long Beach Press-Telegram, Nov. 3, 2007
Sober living, somber problems
UCI MENTIONED:     Tom Boellstorff, a UC Irvine anthropology professor who lives in Craftsman Village, says sober-living houses sometimes cluster in his area. He supports helping people in recovery but would like the city to “space them out” in the interest of quality of life and property values.

First Paragraph:     Step into the “sober-living” home on West Eighth Street and you may leave needing a drink. Wires crawl from walls like arthritic fingers. Extension cords snake through windows so units can share power.

14. Daily Pilot, Nov. 4, 2007
UCI celebrates diversity at 3-day Rainbow Festival (brief)
UCI MENTIONED:     UC Irvine’s 25th annual Rainbow Festival Tuesday through Thursday will celebrate the school’s diversity.

Second Paragraph:     The three-day event features panel discussions, workshops and a two-day cultural fair with ethnic artifacts, artwork, food and dance performances. This year’s theme, “Global Citizens: Celebrating U.” explores diversity in a global context and is sponsored by the Cross-Cultural Center.

15. Daily Pilot, Nov. 4, 2007
Duke professor discusses juxtaposition, inspiration
UCI MENTIONED:     When can something as small as a toothpick carry the same weight as a newly built tower? According to Duke University professor Henry Petroski, when it’s influencing future engineering projects. Petroski will discuss “Towers and Toothpicks: Engineering Large and Small” on Monday at UC Irvine as part of the engineering dean’s distinguished lecturer series.

Second Paragraph:     He will present how seemingly unrelated engineering designs and productions, from consumer products such as toothpicks to record-setting towers, can influence form and functions of new engineering enterprises.

Nov. 9, 2007
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