News highlights for July 29, 2010

CisionPoint news monitoring provides this small sampling of the university's daily news coverage. Click headline to read full text via Cision or link directly to the online article where available. For questions or comments about this service, or to add or delete a name from the mailing list, please contact Gerry Everding.

Outlet: FOX2now St. Louis
Title/Program:
Eating Raw Crayfish Causes Mysterious Illness
Publication Date:
07/29/2010

Extract: ONLINE VIDEO. Over the past year, some Missouri stream floaters have found themselves hospitalized with an illness so strange, it is difficult to diagnose. Adam Brewer’s troubles began on a float trip when he pulled a live crayfish out of the Jack’s Fork River and swallowed it. It took seven agonizing months of tests before the Brewer’s finally ended up seeing a Washington University doctor who connected the dots. Adam had an infection called Paragonimiasis, meaning his lungs were under assault from a parasitic worm that lives in crayfish, so rare that in all of North America there have only ever been seven recorded cases. “We think there are more cases out there,” said Dr. Gary Weil, an infectious disease specialist at the School of Medicine.
Related news release:
http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/20808.aspx Link to Article

Outlet: MercuryNews.com
Title/Program:
Inman: NFL is concussion-aware, but players need to cooperate
Publication Date:
07/29/2010

Extract: The NFL wisely toughened its guidelines last season in terms of allowing players back on the gridiron after concussions. It also established a program to examine concussion issues involving former players, including, for example, those who think they have a memory problem. Five centers across the nation — at UCSF, USC, Mount Sinai (New York), Washington University (St. Louis) and Morehouse School of Medicine (Atlanta) — are set up for day-long exams entailing neurological, psychological and cognitive assessment. Related news release: http://news.wustl.edu/news/Pages/20480.aspx Link to Article

Outlet: Practical Bioethics
Title/Program:
Mental Health and the End of Life
Publication Date:
07/29/2010

Extract: Dying is hard enough work without depression and other mental health disorders interfering with achieving end of life goals. Washington University’s Brian Carpenter, PhD talks about it in this edition of the Bioethics Channel. (Podcast). Link to Article

Outlet: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Title/Program:
‘Excess of enthusiasm’: Our view • St. Louis’ bid for the 2010 Democratic convention is not so modest. OPINION
Publication Date:
07/29/2010

Extract: A clandestine team of technical advisers is in town to kick the tires on St. Louis’ bid to host the 2012 Democratic National Convention. St. Louis’ bid has become fodder for Politico, official Washington’s inside-the-beltway newspaper and website, which reported earlier this week that the St. Louis campaign is based on “a simple theory for how to win: nothing succeeds like an excess of enthusiasm.” Indeed, St. Louis’ bid has solid backing from officials and leaders across the region, including Washington University Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. Read Full Text

Outlet: e! Science News
Title/Program:
Ancient DNA identifies donkey ancestors, people who domesticated them | e! Science News
Publication Date:
07/28/2010

Extract: Genetic investigators say the partnership between people and the ancestors of today’s donkeys was sealed not by monarchs trying to establish kingdoms, but by mobile, pastoral people who had to recruit animals to help them survive the harsh Saharan landscape in northern Africa more than 5,000 years ago. The ancestors of the domestic donkey were considered vital for collecting water, moving desert households and creating the first land-based trade routes between the ancient Egyptians and the Sumerians, according to study co-author Fiona B. Marshall, PhD, a professor of anthropology at Washington University in St. Louis. Link to Article

Outlet: Applied Clinical Trials
Title/Program:
Will Asia Become the Global Hub for Oncology Trials?
Publication Date:
07/28/2010

Extract: “Shaping Future Cancer Medicine,” the 1st Samsung Comprehensive Cancer Center Symposium will take place Sept.10-11 in South Korea. The meeting will provide a platform to discuss the latest issues of clinical and scientific research. The opening session will focus on genomics to the clinic in the personalized medicine era, including discussion of Asia’s emerging role as a hub for trials and a keynote by Dr. Matthew Ellis from Washington University in St. Louis, MO. Link to Article

News in higher education

Outlet: St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Title/Program: Program aims to increase number of college grads in St. Louis area

Publication Date: July 29, 2010

Extract: Backers of a program that aims to boost the number of St. Louis-area residents with two- and four-year college degrees are stepping up efforts to get volunteers and raise money.

“Our work force is tied directly to our ability to educate people,” said organizer Ed Watkins at a news conference in St. Charles to promote the effort, called Graduate America Priority 1.

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