UPI
Exercise drops risk of colon cancer death
01/03/2010
Consistent physical activity can help lower the risk of death from colon cancer, according to a study conducted by researchers at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. The study showed that those who exercised consistently for at least 10 years had the lowest risk of death from colon cancer. Link to Article See also Becker’s ASC Review, Smart Planet, St. Louis Globe Democrat
msnbc
Risks of obesity, alcoholism linked
12/30/10
A risk for alcoholism also may put individuals at risk for obesity, addiction researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis say. “In addiction research, we often look at what we call cross-heritability, which addresses the question of whether the predisposition to one condition also might contribute to other conditions,” says study author Richard A. Grucza. Link to Article
See also Reuters, UPI, Cleveland Leader, TopNews.US, Newsmax, BiomedMe.com, Niagra Fall Review
Alaska Magazine
Cultivating innovation
January 2011
Universities seeking ways to commercialize their academic work are creating new businesses, jobs and revenue streams. Includes comments by Chancellor Mark S. Wrighton. “There’s much more to technology transfer and the development of ideas that come from the university than licensing a patent to generate revenue,” he says. Link to Article (See page 44 of PDF version of magazine.)
Chronicle of Higher Education
Biggest gifts to charity in 2010 went primarily to colleges
12/31/10
Eight out of the 10 largest gifts to charity by individual Americans in 2010 went to colleges and universities, according to an end-of-year tally compiled by The Chronicle of Philanthropy. Higher-education recipients in the top 10 were Oxford University, Columbia University, Cornell University, Oklahoma State University, Pennsylvania State University, Washington University in St. Louis, and the University of California’s campuses in San Diego and San Francisco. Link to Article
Richmond News (British Columbia, Canada)
Study: Many elderly in U.S. will face poverty
01/03/2011
Nearly half of elderly Americans will face a future with at least one year below or close to the poverty line, according to a new study that showed a huge racial divide in prospects for the elderly. Mark R. Rank, a professor at Washington University in St. Louis, said the results of his research contradict popular beliefs about the economic stability of America’s elderly population. “We have an image of the elderly as doing pretty well,” he said, adding that data spanning 35 years does not support that assumption. Link to Article
eScience
A toast to history: 500 years of wine-drinking cups mark social shifts in ancient Greece
01/03/2011
How commonly used items — like wine drinking cups — change through time can tell us a lot about those times, according to University of Cincinnati research to be presented Jan. 7 by Kathleen Lynch, UC associate professor of classics, at the annual meeting of the Archaeological Institute of America. Lynch will present the research at the event’s Gold Medal Session, when archaeology’s most distinguished honor will be bestowed on her mentor, Susan Rotroff of Washington University. Link to Article See also R & D magazine, Science blog
Xconomy (San Francisco, CA)
Top five biotech surprises & innovations of 2010, and five trends to watch for in 2011
12/30/10
Among the biotech surprises for 2010, is increased collaboration between pharma and academic research centers, indicating a shift to go beyond biotech to fill pipelines. Examples include Pfizer’s collaborations with UC San Francisco and Washington University in St. Louis, and Sanofi’s collaborations with The Scripps Research Institute, Harvard University, and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. Link to Article
Fort Worth Star-Telegram (Fort Worth, TX)
Gender specifics: Major health problems present different symptoms in women and men
01/03/2011
Medical problems in women are often overlooked and left untreated because the symptoms are different from men’s. For example, women are more than twice as likely as men to tear the anterior cruciate ligament in their knees, according to The American Journal of Sports Medicine. Dr. Robert H. Brophy, an orthopedic surgeon, study author and assistant professor of orthopedics at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, found that male players use muscles that move the thigh away from the body at the hip more than females do, which may contribute to the difference,” Brophy says. Read Full Text
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Construction of new Shriners hospital delayed until 2012
12/31/10
The still-shaky economy is pushing back to 2012 the construction of the $145 million Shriners Hospital for Children planned for a site near the Washington University medical complex. Hospital officials said in April that they were going ahead with the project in 2010 after postponing it in 2009 because the economic downturn had hurt the Shriners’ endowment fund. Link to Article
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Key commercial real estate projects were mixed in 2010
12/31/10
Commercial construction remained largely in a funk this year, but the St. Louis area had more hits than misses among developments the Post-Dispatch described in January as 10 projects to watch in 2010, including a fashion design incubator supported by the Partnership for Downtown St. Louis and Washington University’s Skandalaris Center for Entrepreneurial Studies. Link to Article
News in Higher Education
Wall Street Journal
Delaying college to fill in the gaps
12/29/2010
College admission letters are starting to roll in, but a growing number of students will decide instead to take a year off to try out potential careers or broaden their horizons. Gap-year activities range from doing volunteer work or taking classes, to working for pay, traveling or tackling outdoor adventures. Gap years have long been common in England, but organized programs are gaining traction in the U.S. Link to Article
New York Times
12/30/10
Academic economists to consider ethics code
Academic economists, particularly those active in policy debates in Washington and on Wall Street, are facing greater scrutiny of their outside activities these days. Faced with a run of criticism, including a popular movie, leaders of the American Economic Association, the world’s largest professional society for economists, founded in 1885, are considering a step that most other professions took a long time ago — adopting a code of ethical standards. Link to Article
New York Times
Universities are challenged as demographics shift
01/01/2011
In August, 60 years after the University of Texas admitted its first black student, the school welcomed the first freshman class in which white students were in the minority. The state’s flagship university passed the demographic milestone earlier than some had anticipated, reflecting a similar shift that is rapidly taking place at other top-level educational institutions across the country. Link to Article
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Colleges find area freshmen unready
01/02/2011
More than 40 percent of area public high school graduates in 2009 entered Missouri colleges and universities so far behind in reading and math that they took at least one remedial course once they arrived on campus, data show. Of the 7,067 area graduates who enrolled that year as freshmen in state-funded schools, 3,029 of them landed in academic purgatory, taking catch-up classes that didn’t count toward a college degree, according to the Missouri Department of Higher Education. Link to Article See also related story on best/worse high schools for college prep.
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