News highlights for November 23, 2010

International Business Times Australia
Sound, light And gold can see inside the body
11/23/2010
Various imaging techniques can see inside the body, but most lack detail necessary for looking at anything smaller than a few millimeters across. The only way to get a really good look is with a biopsy. Dipanjan Pan, a medical researcher at Washington University in St. Louis, thinks he and his collaborators have found an answer to that problem, which could reduce the need for biopsies and detect diseases such as cancer much earlier than before, using a combination of light from a laser, sonic waves and tiny pieces of gold. The technique is called photoacoustic tomography, or PAT. Link to Article

The Independent (UK)
Top ten signs you’re stressed out
11/22/2010
Occasional stress is a fact of life, but suffering chronic stress can wreak havoc on your health. US-based consumer health magazine Prevention published an article on November 21 on the top ten stress signs to watch out for. Weekend headaches–a sudden drop in stress can prompt migraines, said Todd Schwedt, MD, director of the Washington University Headache Center in the US, in an interview with Prevention. Link to Article

CBS MoneyWatch
Social media: New ways to pick the best college
11/22/2010
Social media sites are dramatically changing the way teens and colleges connect with each other to find the perfect match. Cappex has assembled information on roughly 79,000 merit scholarships offered by particular colleges. A search for “Washington University in St. Louis” returns a list of 21 scholarships from the school (nearly all renewable) ranging from $2,500 for dance majors to more than $37,000 for humanities, architecture and science majors. Link to Article

National Public Radio / NPR’s Health Blog
Researchers say common test For prostate cancer may not work
11/22/2010
A widely used “clinical staging” test that’s supposed to help doctors and patients predict the outcome of most prostate cancers is basically worthless, according to a study just published in the journal CANCER. Dr. Gerald Andriole of Washington University says urologists “have begun to realize these criteria are not adequate. But this is the first study that quantifies the magnitude of the inadequacy.” Even so, Andriole says, the findings may not make too much difference in the real world since most doctors also consider other tests before making treatment decisions. Link to Article See also Kaiser Health News

C-SPAN
Federalist Society panel discussion on financial regulation
11/19/2010
Prof. Ronald Levin, a professor of law at Washington University in St. Louis, joins a CSPAN-broadcast Nov. 19 Federalist Society panel discussion on the constitutionality of the Dodd-Frank Financial Regulations Reform Act. Topics included the non-delegation doctrine/separation of powers, the role of the Financial Stability Oversight Council, and the power of the Federal Reserve. Panel discussion runs one hour, 28 minutes. Link to Broadcast
View panel discussion online at CSPAN

StarTribune.com
Two paths lead from Roseville to Rhodes
11/22/2010
Priya Sury and Prerna Nadathur used to pass each other in the halls at Roseville Area High School in the suburbs of Minneapolis – St. Paul. Now, both have been named 2011 Rhodes Scholars — a prestigious honor bestowed on just 30 other Americans and no other Minnesotans this year. “It’s incredible,” said Sury, who graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and is now a first-year medical student at the University of Minnesota. Link to Article See also Minnesota Public Radio

The Chicago Reporter
An unclear connection
11/22/2010
Although Illinois Department of Children and Family Services policies have unambiguous language stating that poverty should not play a role in determining whether child sex abuse has occurred, a paper written by Melissa Jonson-Reid, a social work professor at Washington University in St. Louis, paints a different picture. Jonson-Reid wrote in a 2009 that the over-representation of poor children in child welfare systems is driven more by the presence of risk for harm to the children. “The problems confronting poor families must be taken seriously and not be cast aside as simple expressions of class bias in the reporting system,” she wrote. Link to Article

Missourinet
Higher education gets more international flavor (audio)
11/23/2010
Missouri’s college campuses are becoming substantially more international. Washington University is among the most popular Missouri institutions for foreign students, the Institute for International Education says. Missouri’s international enrollment jumped by 18 percent during 2009-2010. More than one-fourth of those students came from China. Department of Higher Education researcher Heather MacCleoud says foreign students generally concentrate in certain fields such as engineering and business although she says there have been more inquiries about programs in the arts. Link to Article

Listen to MacCleoud’s Interview

St. Louis Public Radio
St. Louis shows mixed results for STD prevention
11/22/2010
St. Louis has seen rates of Chlamydia increase from year to year, with more than 14,500 cases reported in 2009. Washington University infectious disease expert Dr. Bradley Stoner attributed some of that trend to an increase in routine screening. “We’re going to see increases in Chlamydia because we’re doing amore effective job of screening,” Stoner said, “Chlamydia’s a disease where the more you look for it, the more you find it.” Link to Article

Riverfront Times (blog)
Wash. U. students set Guinness World Record for biggest Nerf gun battle
11/22/2010
Let it not be said that students at Washington University are not overachievers. Over the weekend, recent graduate Priya Sury was named a Rhodes Scholar. Also, 468 current students shot at each other with Nerf guns to set a Guinness world record for the largest toy pistol fight ever. This is Wash. U.’s second Guinness record this year. In May, the graduating seniors banded together to make the world’s longest massage chain. Link to Article

News in higher education

New Jersey Star-Ledger /NJ.com
Fervor around Seton Hall gay marriage course has died down
11/21/2010
The controversy over Seton Hall’s (South Orange, NJ) course on gay marriage provoked death threats to the professor and the placement of a security guard outside the classroom. Among the controversial choices the Catholic university has made around the course: no press coverage in the classroom. Link to Article

STLToday.com
UM approves bonds for new construction
The University of Missouri system on Monday agreed to take on up to $265 million in new debt to pay for a variety of building projects. The bond issue, approved by the UM Board of Curators, targets projects that have the ability to pay for themselves—through rents, fees or cost savings.

The system is trying to take advantage of low interest rates to tackle several needs that have little hope of state support, given Missouri’s budget crisis. Link to Article

For additional higher education news (subscription may be required):
The Chronicle of Higher Education
Inside Higher Ed
University Business