UO E-Clips is a daily report prepared by the Office of Communications (http://comm.uoregon.edu) summarizing current news coverage of the University of Oregon.
Media mentions for March 9
How journalism educators can use Coursekit to enhance classroom learning
Poynter.org: Coursekit is a new learning management system aimed at professors who want something more than the traditional Blackboard experience. Some journalism professors call the free site -- which integrates social media and course content -- a Facebook for academia. Students like it, too. ... Carol Stabile, a professor in the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication, agrees. "A Facebook generation is not going to be interested or engaged with Blackboard," she said in a phone interview. "If we're going to be teaching social media we need to find a way to incorporate social media into out classes, and Coursekit facilitates that," she said. Stabile, who is also the director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society, found it hard to use Facebook in class. "It was great for dialog but it was too messy for organizing content. It wasn't a productive messiness." Stabile's lecture classes can hold 200 students and she says Coursekit significantly cuts down the typical traffic to her inbox.
Pakistani women fall prey to cultural tradition of 'honor' killings
The China Post: The concept of honor killings, commonly known as Karo-Kari in Pakistan, is part of a cultural tradition prevalent in almost all provinces. It's a custom that is primarily committed against women who are thought to have brought dishonor to their family by engaging in illicit pre-marital or extra-marital relations. In order to restore this honor, a family member then kills the female in question in order to revive family honor. Majority of these victims are females, however, there is a fair amount of men who are murdered in the name of sanctity. The practice of honor killings has not declined. Even after five years of the law's implementation, people continue refusing to file a report. "People charged with the law claimed they didn't know about it, even the police, lawyers and judges said that they never knew," said Anita Weiss, Professor and Head, Department of International Studies University of Oregon at the Karachi Literature Festival that was held last month. She further said that the people who commit the crime do not consider it a crime because to them it's a religious act merely based on the safeguard of religious deviation.
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Media mentions for March 8
1. MASCOT DEBATE
Register-Guard: When the Oregon Board of Education meets today to consider banning Native American mascot names at Oregon public schools, Brenda Brainard won't be holding her breath. ... For decades, many Native Americans have said that names such as Redskins, Savages, Indians and Warriors demean them and promote stereotyping, while many white community members and sports fans have argued that the names celebrate and honor Native American culture. ... Tom Ball, assistant vice president in the University of Oregon's Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, said research suggests that Native Americans often support Indian mascots because it's better than being completely invisible in the larger culture. Stephanie Fryberg, an associate professor of social and cultural psychology at the University of Arizona who conducted that research, also found that such mascots lower the self-esteem while raising anxiety and depression among many Native American youth. For Ball, the board decision is a no-brainer. "They have to ban it," he said. "They ban (offensive language) for everybody else.")
Fly research gives insight into human stem cell development and cancer
Science Codex: Stem cells provide a recurring topic among the scientific presentations at the Genetics Society of America's 53rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference, March 7-11 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. Specifically, researchers are trying to determine how, within organs, cells specialize while stem cells maintain tissues and enable them to repair damage and respond to stress or aging. Four talks, one on Thursday morning and three on Sunday morning, present variations on this theme. For a fertilized egg to give rise to an organism made up of billions or trillions of cells, a precise program of cell divisions must unfold. Some divisions are "asymmetric": one of the two daughter cells specializes, yet the other retains the ability to divide. Chris Q. Doe, Ph.D., professor of biology at the University of Oregon, compares this asymmetric cell division to splitting a sundae so that only one half gets the cherry. The "cherries" in cells are the proteins and RNA molecules that make the two cells that descend from one cell different from each other. This collecting of different molecules in different regions of the initial cell before it divides is termed "cell polarity."
'Nixon in China' is more than opera
Register-Guard: A Eugene production is the reason for a series of events that marks "the week that changed the world" -- The Register-Guard (Like advance men for a high-powered political entourage, University of Oregon officials are rolling out a series of attention-getting events prior to the presentation of the opera "Nixon in China" at the Hult Center on March 16 and 18. The UO's monthlong celebration of the 40-year anniversary of the 1972 trip to the People's Republic of China by President Richard Nixon and national security adviser Henry Kissinger continues this weekend with a "Ping Pong Diplomacy Tournament" and a talk by Nicholas Platt, a participant in the Nixon-Kissinger entourage who later served as U.S. ambassador to Zambia, the Philippines and Pakistan. This afternoon, Peter Sellars, who conceived the "Nixon in China" opera and directed a production at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, will discuss "Nixon in China Then and Now" on the UO campus.
Report: Oregon economy picking up steam
KVAL News (video available online): Ginny Real lost her home to foreclosure recently. She said Oregon's economic recovery can't come soon enough. "I don't want other people to go through the months of antagonism of not knowing the devastation and having to say 'I've been foreclosed on,'" Real said. A new report shows that the Oregon economy is looking up. According to latest Index of Economic Indicators, Oregon's economic growth rate surpassed the state's 20-year historic average. "Economic activity improved at the end of last year and into the beginning of this year," economist Tim Duy at the University of Oregon said. He compiles and maintains the index. Duy said statewide the manufacturing sector is certainly doing well across the board. However, Duy said the construction and housing sectors are still struggling.
Will Manning remain an Indianapolis icon? It's his call
Indianapolis Business Journal: For much of the nation, Peyton Manning was the personification of Indianapolis, the most visible face of what many see as a faceless city. But no more. While Manning will likely always be remembered as an Indianapolis Colt, his time as informal city representative is over, according to sports marketing experts. And it will be up to Manning whether he resumes that role after his retirement. ... "If he plays a short amount of years somewhere else, and is not entirely successful there, and comes back and does sort of the Roger Staubach model, maybe his legend grows," said Whitney Wagoner, a former marketing exeutive for the NFL who is now a sports marketing instructor at the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. "That stuff could potentially even become stronger." The key, Wagoner said, is where Manning's heart is. "It needs to seem authentic. That's the piece that makes marketing and endorsements and connection to markets work," she said. "I wouldn't want him to try to stay connected to the city just because he felt there would be some future marketing benefit to him."
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Late mentions for March 7
State workers raise $890,000 for local causes
Statesman Journal (short mention also in the Oregonian): State workers and university employees raised nearly $900,000 for Oregon charities in their annual fund drive, organizers reported Wednesday. The 2011 Employees' Charitable Fund Drive amassed $890,741 from 2,772 donors in the state workforce and the Oregon University System, fund drive chairman Fred Lord said. The money raised will benefit nearly 900 state and local charities throughout 2012. The University of Oregon boasted the largest number of individual donors, 763, and also raised the most cash for charity, $236,318. "The University of Oregon folks have a tremendous campaign system," Lord said. "They feel this is important. There's a lot of involvement there."
U.S. consumers equate cost with quality
dalje.com via UPI , similar story on Health Affairs blog: If American consumers are asked to choose a healthcare provider based only on cost, they choose the more expensive option, U.S. health officials said. Study leader Judith H. Hibbard of the University of Oregon in Eugene said consumers equate cost with quality and worry lower cost means lower-quality care. However, higher costs may indicate unnecessary services or inefficiencies, so cost information alone does not help consumers get the best value for their healthcare dollar, the researchers said. Hibbard and colleagues studied 1,400 employees in a randomized experiment to find out how they responded to different presentations of quality and cost information. The study published in Health Affairs found that when consumers were shown both cost and quality information, they were better able to choose high-value healthcare providers -- defined as those who deliver high-quality care at a lower cost.
Oregon's Amanda Johnson a student-athlete in the truest sense
Sports Illustrated: The beauty of America's smartest basketball player isn't in a layup or a fadeaway jumper or a no-look pass. It isn't in a classroom, or in a dorm room, or even in the numbers of a near-perfect GPA. No, the beauty is more pure. More poetic. More ideal. Simply put, the beauty of Amanda Johnson is that, in a world of confusion, she gets it. ... "You know, it's weird," she says. "As a student-athlete, it's really great to have so much at our disposal. And yet, were I not a student-athlete, I'd probably feel differently. A professor allows one absence before your grade drops, and that's the rule. But, as an athlete, I'm going to miss several classes, and it'll be excused. How is that fair? How is that not fair? I debate these things with myself all the time." As Johnson knows well, in 2012 the term "student-athlete" is loaded and, quite often, inane. An ever-increasing number of Division I men's programs shuttle players in and out as if they were mufflers at an auto plant. Grades seem to matter, but only in the context of eligibility, not enlightenment. When a star sticks around for two years, he is lauded. When a star sticks around for three years, he is knighted. And when he sticks around for four years, well, scratch that. It hardly ever happens.
Oregon memorial service for former OHSU/UO leader Allan Price set for March 23 in Portland
The Lund Report: Family, friends and colleagues will celebrate the life of the late Allan Price, former OHSU Foundation president and OHSU senior vice president for advancement, at a public memorial at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, March 23, at the Portland Art Museum, 1219 S.W. Park Ave. Price, who was 56, drowned Feb. 17 while vacationing with his wife in Mexico. ... Prior to joining the foundation and OHSU, Price served as vice president for university advancement at the University of Oregon, where he led Campaign Oregon, the largest philanthropic drive in state history. Price helped raise $853 million for the university from 2001 to 2008.
Curator Helen Molesworth to lecture Thursday in Portland
The Oregonian (brief follows in its entirety): Thursday night, curator Helen Molesworth will be giving a talk at the University of Oregon's Portland campus in Old Town. Molesworth is the chief curator of the influential contemporary art venue, Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston. Before arriving at ICA in 2010, she was in charge of the modern and contemporary art departments at the Harvard Art Museums. Molesworth received her doctorate from Cornell University. Molesworth has chronicled the AIDS crisis of the 1980s and by extension how politics and art have intersected in contemporary art. She's by all accounts a passionate intellectual and been described as one of the greatest curators of our time in the Boston Globe. The lecture Thursday starts at 5:30 p.m. and will be followed by a reception. The University of Oregon in Portland is at 70 N.W. Couch St.
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Media mentions for March 9
How journalism educators can use Coursekit to enhance classroom learning
by Kelly FinchamCoursekit is a new learning management system aimed at professors who want something more than the traditional Blackboard experience. Some journalism professors call the free site -- which integrates social media and course content -- a Facebook for academia. Students like it, too.
CEO and Co-founder Joseph Cohen, 20, said in a phone interview that the site was designed with students in mind because "we were students ourselves until last year." Cohen has postponed his studies in the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania to concentrate on his new business.
Coursekit, which was launched out of beta two months ago, enables professors to email students, post content, grade assignments, post notes, comments, Q&As etc. The syllabus can be posted as text, a standalone document or into the calendar section so students (and professors) can see exactly what is coming up. Oh, and it also includes a social media stream.
It's that all-in-one solution that appeals to associate professor Chris Harper at Temple University in Philadelphia.
"Coursekit is like a one-stop-shop for academics," he said in a phone interview. "It's simple and easy to navigate and allows me to have very quick and accurate conversations with students."
Harper, who is co-director of Temple's multimedia reporting lab that produces PhiladelphiaNeighborhoods.comuses the tool to keep his students informed.
"Two [of my classes] are co-taught and two are separate, but we can all cross-post on Coursekit, which means that all of us are up-to-date with what's going on with the students and with PN.com," he said.
Harper uses the social media stream to deal with questions about libel, grading and assignments. "Why not facilitate learning by simply answering a question?" he said. "For example, a student asked a question about grading policy. I could immediately respond to it and the ensuing Q&A was available to the class."
"The questions might be as small as checking telephone numbers or tips for stories but the point is that we can respond much more quickly. That quick exchange among faculty and students works really well."
Harper had used Facebook to engage with students in the past but has found Coursekit to be more effective. It's difficult for instructors and students to find older or specific posts on Facebook, he said, noting that "with Coursekit you can search posts by time, terms and other filters."
He also found that students didn't view Facebook as an academic tool, "whereas with Coursekit, they know that's where the course information is."
Carol Stabile, a professor in the University of Oregon's School of Journalism and Communication, agrees.
"A Facebook generation is not going to be interested or engaged with Blackboard," she said in a phone interview. "If we're going to be teaching social media we need to find a way to incorporate social media into out classes, and Coursekit facilitates that," she said.
Stabile, who is also the director of the Center for the Study of Women in Society, found it hard to use Facebook in class. "It was great for dialog but it was too messy for organizing content. It wasn't a productive messiness."
Stabile's lecture classes can hold 200 students and she says Coursekit significantly cuts down the typical traffic to her inbox.
"I used to receive a ton of emails from students sharing links and now they post them all on Coursekit," she said. "Within a week of the class starting, students were creating their own profiles, posting content and sharing interesting pieces of information online."
Unlike Blackboard, Stabile said, the design of Coursekit has encouraged participation and interaction among students and professors.
"Interaction is incredibly important in this contemporary media environment, and if you are not paying attention to interaction, you're missing the boat," she said. "We all spend a lot of time creating content for our blogs and Twitter, and we need to be able to use this in our pedagogical practice."
Simplicity and ease of use are big attractions for Jeremy Caplan, who directs the education program at the Tow-Knight Center for Entrepreneurial Journalism at CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism and teaches interactive and entrepreneurial journalism.
Caplan, who is also a Ford Fellow in Entrepreneurial Journalism at Poynter, likes Coursekit's simple design.
"We use so much technology in our journalism tools that I don't want to overwhelm students by the means of transmission. This tool has to be simple," he said by phone. "With Coursekit, I can tag class sessions and items across the course so links and resources can be associated with a particular reading and class session. Everything is then easy to find." He hopes that at some point, Coursekit will enable users to integrate Google docs into the system.
Caplan, who is developing a distance-learning course in entrepreneurial journalism that will serve students across the globe, hopes to use Coursekit as part of this effort.
"Coursekit seems like a very good solution for this kind of remote teaching project because of the interactive element," he said. "We are looking at this as a way of testing whether we can serve them in some way, working on creating some sort of short course initially over a couple of weeks."
He sees Coursekit as a way of facilitating cross-border participation and a simple, single place to post ideas, links questions and feedback. He describes his current crop of Tow Knight fellows as "very active" in discussion and dialog on the site and said he expects this will only increase in a remote environment.
CEO Cohen didn't share the number of professors who have signed up for the service, but said he he's happy with the company's growth. He views his site as an effort at re-imagining the learning experience and organizing it around groups and social networks.
"People naturally form groups and there are social networks throughout academia, and we wanted to represent those networks," he said. "It's about people and connections."
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Pakistani women fall prey to cultural tradition of 'honor' killings
ISLAMABAD -- The concept of honor killings, commonly known as Karo-Kari in Pakistan, is part of a cultural tradition prevalent in almost all provinces.
It's a custom that is primarily committed against women who are thought to have brought dishonor to their family by engaging in illicit pre-marital or extra-marital relations.
In order to restore this honor, a family member then kills the female in question in order to revive family honor.
Majority of these victims are females, however, there is a fair amount of men who are murdered in the name of sanctity.
The practice of honor killings has not declined. Even after five years of the law's implementation, people continue refusing to file a report.
"People charged with the law claimed they didn't know about it, even the police, lawyers and judges said that they never knew," said Anita Weiss, Professor and Head, Department of International Studies University of Oregon at the Karachi Literature Festival that was held last month.
She further said that the people who commit the crime do not consider it a crime because to them it's a religious act merely based on the safeguard of religious deviation.
The reason for this, panelists at the discussion said, is a pervasive culture of violence and a lack of knowledge of women's' rights. A much denied fact remains that domestic violence is not only restricted to the lower class.
An added reason put forward for women being victimized this way is because of their vulnerability or lack of contribution in terms of money. Also, the school of thought that women are a commodity and are "owned" by men, leads to such practices.
Having said that, Weiss added, "Honor killings are only a form of murder and cannot be justified."
Karo kari or any articulation of it, is considered a private family matter and therefore goes unreported in most cases. A cousin kills another and thus they believe that family matters can be resolved without legal intervention because it's strictly within the family.
"If we speak of the state, come 80's come General Zia ul Haq era, the Shariah or any other law in the name of Islam regards murder as a private offense, which means you can settle it by paying a fine," said Nafisa Shah, Chairperson of Pakistan's National Commission for Human Development.
"What is interesting is that your so-called local tribesmen are killing for honor but your state is also allowing those type of mediations to take place,? she said.
There are several legal provisions that are compensated to the victimized party, provided it's a mutual agreement.
At hand, there are interrelated marriages and murdering amongst them which require settlements provided the law fights the same cause. But what remains evident is that there is a gap or a space in the laws defined.
In the original case of law for honor killings, the victims' heir had the power to forgive or forego.
Presently, the victims do not have the right to speak in the case of religious honor, but they have such powers in case of any other form of murder.
"There is still a very thin space between what constitutes an honor crime and what doesn't, and obviously the space for mediation is still there and it is enormous," said Shah.
Prior to the law the conviction rate for honor killings was three percent, and she said she has looked into 1,600 cases in the past 10 years where the murderers have not been convicted.
"The law needs to be implicated," said Shah.
"As a nazim, every day I experienced women approaching me about their daughters being killed and that the police refused to file a report. In return I would ask them to promise me that they will not mediate and over a period of months it eventually ended up in compromise between families thus leading to mediation."
She further informed the people that the general stereotype pertaining to Karo Kari claims that men kill women for honor, but in reality one third of the victims are men.
A fascinating development in rural Sindh is that Sindhi newspapers now publish stories of women coming out and giving statements in front of the court in favor of love marriages.
"Often wars took place over these when I was nazim," Shah said. "I used to deal with 14 to 20 murders that had taken place over one elopement."
Recent instances, however, have shown that women are now taking a stand for their rights and coming forward with affidavits of free will despite the fear of getting killed.
"There are many women who get killed but there are many more who survive and fight for their rights, even by challenging local practices of murder," said Shah.
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Media mentions for March 8
MASCOT DEBATE
The state education board revisits a possible ban on the use of American Indian school mascots
By Susan Palmer -- The Register-GuardWhen the Oregon Board of Education meets today to consider banning Native American mascot names at Oregon public schools, Brenda Brainard won't be holding her breath.
Brainard, who directs the Eugene School District's native students program and is a member of the Confederated Tribes of Coos, Lower Umpqua and Siuslaw Indians, says she's been watching education officials take no action on the matter for the past six years.
"They bow to the pressure of the majority and refuse to protect the minority," Brainard said. "I would like to believe they'll do something different, but you can only hope for so long."
For decades, many Native Americans have said that names such as Redskins, Savages, Indians and Warriors demean them and promote stereotyping, while many white community members and sports fans have argued that the names celebrate and honor Native American culture.
However, Native Americans fall on either side of the debate.
The education board, whose chairwoman, Brenda Frank, is a member of the Klamath Tribe, will review the issue today and could make a decision next month.
There are 15 schools in Oregon that use such mascots, including in the Oakridge, Marcola, Lebanon, Reedsport, Roseburg and North Douglas school districts.
The education board first considered banning American Indian mascots in 2006, when Lincoln City high school student Che Butler, a member of the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, presented arguments against the practice.
Board members convened an advisory committee that, in 2007, recommended the elimination of Native American mascots, but nothing changed, in part because of the outcry among communities that didn't want to give them up.
The state board will take up the matter again today at 10 a.m. in the 251A Public Service Building in Salem. While the reason the board is revisiting the issue now is unclear, Department of Education spokeswoman Christine Miles said it's partly in response to recent research that suggests such mascots promote discrimination against Native Americans.
"There is new information that this is an old practice causing harm to our students," Miles said. "It's about safety and equity."
The debate about the mascots goes back more than two decades, and has led many college and university teams, and even some minor league professional teams, to change their names and logos.
In 1998, for example, Chemeketa Community College in Salem replaced its "Chiefs" mascot with the word "Storm." Stanford University in California dropped its Indian mascot in 1972 to become the Cardinal with a tree for an image.
Some Oregon schools have made the switch already. Enterprise High School in 2005 swapped its Savages moniker for the word Outlaw.
But it's a touchy subject for community members who feel a connection with a long-standing mascot, said Joel Bradford, superintendent for the Marcola School District, where Mohawk High School has an Indian mascot complete with an elaborate painting on the school's gym floor.
Bradford is well aware of the sensitivity around Indian mascots, and the district doesn't allow anyone to dress up as an Indian at games, he said. He does not use the Native American logo on district correspondence.
But Marcola residents like the mascot, in part because of its historical connection. The Mohawk River was so named by white immigrants who saw a resemblance to a river in New York and gave it the same name. "It's an important part of the community," Bradford said.
Bradford, who has been superintendent since 2009, has heard from others that when the gym floor needed to be replaced after flooding in 2000, the district consulted with the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde to make sure a new Indian image they planned to paint on the floor would not be offensive.
Grand Ronde spokesman Justin Martin said that's the kind of local solution that tribal members would prefer. But Martin said not all Native Americans feel the same about Indian mascots.
"What may be offensive to a Siletz tribal person might not offend some from the Warm Springs. ... We've got many differences, culturally and geographically," he said.
Rather than have the state provide a one-size-fits-all solution, Martin said he would like to see more flexibility given to tribes and school officials seeking to work it out.
"The key is being respectful of another's culture, and I think Oregon's got a pretty good track record when it comes to that," he said.
Several years ago the state replaced all of its geographic place names that used the derogatory word "squaw," he noted.
But Brainard reminds that Oregon has some particularly chilling Native American history, and not all of it is from the dim distant 1800s. The state's indigenous people lost their lands and rights to negotiate with the federal government in the 1950s.
Back then, the U.S. Interior Secretary -- former Oregon Gov. Douglas McKay -- was among the proponents of a process known as termination in which Western Oregon tribes lost what remaining rights they had. They lost valuable timberlands that had been set aside for them in long-standing agreements. They had to petition to Congress for separate tribal recognition.
Esther Stutzman, an elder and member of the Kalapuya tribe who works with Native American students, remembers that episode of Oregon history. "I'm almost 70, and I remember those things, the absolute overt prejudice against us," she said.
Stutzman said she regularly talks with Native American students who tell her they feel very demeaned by the stereotyping that accompanies mascot names. "They're tired of someone saying, 'Hey, chief,' " she said. "It would not happen with any other race of people."
Brainard shares that sentiment. No sports team could get away with calling themselves the Slaves, so why is it OK to use Savages, she asked.
"If I called a team at this school the Gimps because we have a lot of special needs students, they'd want to lynch me," she said.
The argument that Native Americans should not feel hurt by mascots that are intended to honor their heritage is further proof that Native Americans' needs don't matter, Brainard said.
"You only reinforce to Native people and Native children: 'We cannot see you. We cannot hear you,' " she said.
Tom Ball, assistant vice president in the University of Oregon's Office of Institutional Equity and Diversity, said research suggests that Native Americans often support Indian mascots because it's better than being completely invisible in the larger culture.
Stephanie Fryberg, an associate professor of social and cultural psychology at the University of Arizona who conducted that research, also found that such mascots lower the self-esteem while raising anxiety and depression among many Native American youth.
For Ball, the board decision is a no-brainer. "They have to ban it," he said. "They ban (offensive language) for everybody else."
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Fly research gives insight into human stem cell development and cancer
CHICAGO, IL – March 8, 2012 -- Stem cells provide a recurring topic among the scientific presentations at the Genetics Society of America's 53rd Annual Drosophila Research Conference, March 7-11 at the Sheraton Chicago Hotel & Towers. Specifically, researchers are trying to determine how, within organs, cells specialize while stem cells maintain tissues and enable them to repair damage and respond to stress or aging. Four talks, one on Thursday morning and three on Sunday morning, present variations on this theme.
For a fertilized egg to give rise to an organism made up of billions or trillions of cells, a precise program of cell divisions must unfold. Some divisions are "asymmetric": one of the two daughter cells specializes, yet the other retains the ability to divide. Chris Q. Doe, Ph.D., professor of biology at the University of Oregon, compares this asymmetric cell division to splitting a sundae so that only one half gets the cherry. The "cherries" in cells are the proteins and RNA molecules that make the two cells that descend from one cell different from each other. This collecting of different molecules in different regions of the initial cell before it divides is termed "cell polarity."
Dr. Doe and his team are tracing the cell divisions that form a fly's nervous system. "Producing the right cells at the right time is essential for normal development, yet it's not well understood how an embryonic precursor cell or stem cell generates a characteristic sequence of different cell types," he says. Dr. Doe and his team traced the cell lineages of 30 neuroblasts (stem cell-like neural precursors), each cell division generating a daughter cell bound for specialization as well as a self-renewing neuroblast. The dance of development is a matter of balance. Self-renew too much, and a tumor results; not enough, and the brain shrinks.
Tracing a cell lineage is a little like sketching a family tree of cousins who share a great-grandparent – except that the great-grandparent (the neuroblast) continually produces more cousins. "The offspring will change due to the different environments they are born into," says Dr. Doe.
Julie A. Brill, Ph.D., a principal investigator at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, investigates cell polarity in sperm cells. These highly specialized elongated cells begin as more spherical precursor cells. Groups of developing sperm elongate, align, condense their DNA into tight packages, expose enzyme-containing bumps on their tips that will burrow through an egg's outer layers, form moving tails, then detach and swim away.
The Brill lab studies a membrane lipid called PIP2 (phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate) that establishes polarity in developing male germ cells in Drosophila. "Reducing levels of PIP2 leads to defects in cell polarity and failure to form mature, motile sperm," Dr. Brill says. These experiments show that localization of the enzyme responsible for PIP2 production in the growing end of elongating sperm tails likely sets up cell polarity. Since loss of this polarity is implicated in the origin and spread of cancer, defects in the regulation of PIP2 distribution may contribute to human cancer progression, she adds.
Stephen DiNardo, Ph.D., professor of cell and developmental biology at the Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, is investigating how different varieties of stem cells in the developing fly testis give rise to germ cells and epithelial cells that ensheathe the germ cells, as well as being able to self-renew. For each of these roles, stem cells are guided by their environment, known as their "niche."
In the fly testis, we know not only the locations of the two types of stem cells whose actions maintain fertility, but of neighboring cells. "We study how these niche cells are first specified during development, how they assemble, and what signals they use. Elements of what we and others learn about this niche may well apply to more complex niches in our tissues," Dr. DiNardo explains.
Denise J. Montell, Ph.D., professor of biological chemistry at Johns Hopkins University, will report on the female counterpart to the testis, the fly ovary. She and her co-workers use live imaging and fluorescent biomarkers to observe how the contractile proteins actin and myosin assemble, disassemble, and interact, elongating tissues in ways that construct the egg chamber. These approaches are particularly valuable for observing the response of the developing ovary to environmental changes. "Starvation, for example, slows the rate of stem cell division and induces some egg chambers to undergo apoptosis (die) while others arrest until conditions improve," she says.
Her group has discovered that, surprisingly, following starvation and re-feeding, some of the cells that got far along the cell death pathway actually reversed that process and survived. The group has documented this "reversal of apoptosis" in a variety of mammalian cell types including primary heart cells. These observations have many intriguing implications. This may represent a previously unrecognized mechanism that saves cells that are difficult to replace, and therefore, may have implications for treating degenerative diseases.
Source: Genetics Society of America
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'Nixon in China' is more than opera
A Eugene production is the reason for a series of events that marks "the week that changed the world"
Like advance men for a high-powered political entourage, University of Oregon officials are rolling out a series of attention-getting events prior to the presentation of the opera "Nixon in China" at the Hult Center on March 16 and 18.
The UO's monthlong celebration of the 40-year anniversary of the 1972 trip to the People's Republic of China by President Richard Nixon and national security adviser Henry Kissinger continues this weekend with a "Ping Pong Diplomacy Tournament" and a talk by Nicholas Platt, a participant in the Nixon-Kissinger entourage who later served as U.S. ambassador to Zambia, the Philippines and Pakistan.
This afternoon, Peter Sellars, who conceived the "Nixon in China" opera and directed a production at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, will discuss "Nixon in China Then and Now" on the UO campus.
There are at least two events, meanwhile, that you can't attend. That's because the Gam Bei Dinners -- prepared by Marché chef Stephanie Pearl Kimmel, to be served March 15 and 17 at Inn at the 5th -- have sold out, even at $100 a plate. The five-course dinners will re-imagine the ceremonial banquet served to Nixon and Chairman Mao Zedong in the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.
The Nixon-Kissinger trip, which produced the Shanghai Communiqué signed by Nixon and Premier Zhou Enlai, is known in popular history as "the week that changed the world." According to Bryna Goodman, professor of Chinese history and executive director of the UO Confucius Institute, the transformative moment realigned global power relations and created a basis for communication and understanding between the people of the two countries.
Saturday's "Ping Pong Diplomacy Tournament," organized by the UO School of Law's Competition Not Conflict Club, will commemorate the Chinese invitation to the U.S. Table Tennis Team in 1971, and will be attended by a delegation from East China Normal University, a UO partner university in Shanghai.
On Sunday, Platt will talk about his diplomatic experiences in China, show home movies from 1970s Beijing, and read from his memoir, "China Boys." Chinese Consul General Gao Zhansheng, based in San Francisco, and other dignitaries planning to attend will be greeted by Eugene Mayor Kitty Piercy.
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Report: Oregon economy picking up steam
By Crystal Price KVAL NewsEUGENE, Ore. - Ginny Real lost her home to foreclosure recently. She said Oregon's economic recovery can't come soon enough.
"I don't want other people to go through the months of antagonism of not knowing the devastation and having to say 'I've been foreclosed on,'" Real said.
A new report shows that the Oregon economy is looking up.
According to latest Index of Economic Indicators, Oregon's economic growth rate surpassed the state's 20-year historic average.
"Economic activity improved at the end of last year and into the beginning of this year," economist Tim Duy at the University of Oregon said. He compiles and maintains the index.
Duy said statewide the manufacturing sector is certainly doing well across the board.
However, Duy said the construction and housing sectors are still struggling.
Portland is seeing the fastest growth in the state. The recent growth is fueled by gains in employment and the financial industry.
The report also shows that the Eugene area is trailing behind in growth.
"We haven't seen a lot of solid growth emerge yet," Duy said.
The economist said the lack of growth is largely because of the housing slump.
When the recession first hit Chambers Construction in Eugene a few years ago, the usual construction projects were not rolling in.
"When it hit, we probably saw 30 to 40 percent decline," said Dave Bakke, senior project manager for Chambers Construction.
The decline caused several people in the field to lose their jobs.
"We had some cutbacks," Bakke said.
However, Bakke said recently Chambers Construction has seen more local projects come on-line for 2012.
Job openings are expected to open up as a result of projects piling up.
"We are hiring a few carpenters that we had laid off," Bakke said. "So things are looking better."
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Will Manning remain an Indianapolis icon? It's his call
J.K. Wall , Kathleen McLaughlinFor much of the nation, Peyton Manning was the personification of Indianapolis, the most visible face of what many see as a faceless city.
But no more.
While Manning will likely always be remembered as an Indianapolis Colt, his time as informal city representative is over, according to sports marketing experts. And it will be up to Manning whether he resumes that role after his retirement.
Manning, who became one of the top 10 most recognizable pro athletes in the country during his days with the Colts, lent his name, image and voice to numerous civic and philanthropic efforts in the Indianapolis area. But his strong association with the city is likely to fade when he puts on another National Football League uniform.
"I'm not leaving Indianapolis. I just won't be with the Colts," Manning said Wednesday during a press conference in which he and Indianapolis Colts owner Jim Irsay announced his release from the team. "This city's been so great to me and it's still a big part of my life. It's a departure from the Colts, but certainly not from the great city of Indianapolis."
The Colts are likely to draft Stanford University quarterback Andrew Luck with the first pick of the NFL draft to replace Manning.
"It's not fair to Peyton to try to hold on [to that association with Indianapolis], and it's even more unfair to Andrew Luck or whoever the quarterback will be," said David Morton, president of Sunrise Sports Group, which does sports marketing.
The Indianapolis Convention & Visitors Association got Manning to narrate a promotional video about the city, which it has used the past two years. Chris Gahl, the ICVA's vice president of marketing, said ICVA planned to retire the video after Indianapolis hosted the Super Bowl in February.
"Once Peyton Manning dons another team's jersey, and those iconic pictures of him wearing a Colts No. 18 go away, and are replaced by a new shot, certainly, from a pure marketing standpoint, he's not as big of an asset [for Indianapolis]," Gahl said. But, he added, "He is still so pro-Indianapolis, and always will be, that regardless for what team he plays for, he will always be an influencer. ... And his community involvement is so longstanding that that doesn't go away overnight."
St. Vincent Health operates the Peyton Manning Children's Hospital, and Manning and his wife Ashley invite their famous friends to the city every year for a fundraising gala. Manning's PeyBack Foundation stages a football game each year, which also serves as a fundraising event.
Those organizations will continue to operate in Indiana, even after Manning is playing for a football team in another city.
But Morton isn't so sure about other ties to the city. He noted that Manning has no extended family in Indianapolis (he's a native of Louisiana and attended college at the University of Tennessee). While Peyton has homes in Indianapolis, he also has a home in Miami.
Besides, Morton said, Manning would be prudent to lessen his public association with Indianapolis in order to further cultivate himself as a national-level spokesman for corporate brands.
"If Peyton wants to be associated with Indianapolis, it is candidly more for the benefit of the people of Indianapolis," Morton said. "If he were my client, I would advise him that it's important to move on. Cut the umbilical cord."
That, indeed, is what former Indiana Pacers star Reggie Miller has done, after spending his entire 18-year career in Indianapolis. The California native returned to his home state after his retirement in 2005 and has made few public appearances here since then.
But not every sports star takes the same approach. Former Dallas Cowboys quarterbacks Roger Staubach and Troy Aikman have remained in Dallas. Staubach, especially, has been active in promoting the city.
"If he plays a short amount of years somewhere else, and is not entirely successful there, and comes back and does sort of the Roger Staubach model, maybe his legend grows," said Whitney Wagoner, a former marketing exeutive for the NFL who is now a sports marketing instructor at the University of Oregon's Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. "That stuff could potentially even become stronger."
The key, Wagoner said, is where Manning's heart is.
"It needs to seem authentic. That's the piece that makes marketing and endorsements and connection to markets work," she said. "I wouldn't want him to try to stay connected to the city just because he felt there would be some future marketing benefit to him."
Kevin Speer, chief strategy officer for St. Vincent Health, expects Manning to remain personally involved in Indianapolis for a long, long time to come.
"His presence off the field in Indianapolis will remain in perpetuity," Speer said Thursday after St. Vincent scrambled to arrange a news conference assuring the public that Peyton Manning Children's Hopsital would not become Andrew Luck Children's Hospital or anything else.
"His commitment to us is unwavering. Our relationship is unwavering and we'll continue to move forward together," Speer added.
Elizabeth Ellis, executive director of Manning's PeyBack Foundation, declined to answer a question about whether the annual PeyBack Classic--which pits high school football teams against each other at Lucas Oil Stadium--will continue after Manning's departure from the Colts.
Nor would she say if the level of grantmaking the Foundation does in Indiana would remain the same in future years. In 2011, the Foundation doled out $800,000 in Indiana, Louisiana and Tennessee, with $361,000 of it going to 71 organizations in Indiana.
She issued an e-mail statement, saying, "The Foundation will continue in Indianapolis and support youth-based organizations in Indiana, Tennessee and Louisiana. The grant distribution amount differs every year; we should be distributing the 2012 funds by the end of April."
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Late mentions for March 7
State workers raise $890,000 for local causes
Most contributions in 2011 came from university staffers
Written by Dennis Thompson Jr. Statesman JournalState workers and university employees raised nearly $900,000 for Oregon charities in their annual fund drive, organizers reported Wednesday.
The 2011 Employees' Charitable Fund Drive amassed $890,741 from 2,772 donors in the state workforce and the Oregon University System, fund drive chairman Fred Lord said.
The money raised will benefit nearly 900 state and local charities throughout 2012.
The University of Oregon boasted the largest number of individual donors, 763, and also raised the most cash for charity, $236,318.
"The University of Oregon folks have a tremendous campaign system," Lord said. "They feel this is important. There's a lot of involvement there."
The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality proved the most generous state agency, with 158 donors giving $49,612.
"The Department of Environmental Quality always seems to step up and dig deeper," Lord said. "It's a part of the culture there."
Donors in the annual fund drive are allowed to direct their dollars to favorite charities. The most popular recipients this year include the United Way of Lane County, the Equity Foundation, Earth Share of Oregon, Local Independent Charities and Community Health Charities of Oregon.
Since 1989, the fund drives have raised more than $22.5 million for Oregon charities.
Donations were lower this drive than in 2010, when employees donated more than $1 million.
Lord said the decline likely results from continuing economic pressure on state workers, who continue to take furlough days and now pay increased costs for their health insurance.
"Many of the employees we have polled said times are tough. They got hit this year with other expenses. It's not been good," Lord said. "Still, we're pleased with the way so many employees came up to the plate to help out."
Top Donors Top Recipients:
University of Oregon: $236,318
Oregon State University: $113,393
Oregon Department of Environmental Quality: $49,612
Oregon Department of Transportation: $43,704
Portland State University: $38,747
Oregon Department of Human Resources: $35,158
United Way of Lane County: $175,676
Equity Foundation: $98,189
Earth Share of Oregon: $84,502
Local Independent Charities: $73,107
Community Health Charities: $71,529
United Way of Benton County: $71,199
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U.S. consumers equate cost with quality
EUGENE, Ore., March 7 (UPI) -- If American consumers are asked to choose a healthcare provider based only on cost, they choose the more expensive option, U.S. health officials said.
Study leader Judith H. Hibbard of the University of Oregon in Eugene said consumers equate cost with quality and worry lower cost means lower-quality care.
However, higher costs may indicate unnecessary services or inefficiencies, so cost information alone does not help consumers get the best value for their healthcare dollar, the researchers said.
Hibbard and colleagues studied 1,400 employees in a randomized experiment to find out how they responded to different presentations of quality and cost information.
The study published in Health Affairs found that when consumers were shown both cost and quality information, they were better able to choose high-value healthcare providers -- defined as those who deliver high-quality care at a lower cost.
"This study has important implications for the more than 150 public reports on physician and hospital care," Dr. Carolyn M. Clancy, director of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement.
"It's not simply a question of providing information on cost, but providing it in a way that is integrated with quality scores."
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Oregon's Amanda Johnson a student-athlete in the truest sense
EUGENE, Ore. -- The beauty of America's smartest basketball player isn't in a layup or a fadeaway jumper or a no-look pass. It isn't in a classroom, or in a dorm room, or even in the numbers of a near-perfect GPA.
No, the beauty is more pure. More poetic. More ideal.
Simply put, the beauty of Amanda Johnson is that, in a world of confusion, she gets it.
By it, we mean, well, everything. College. College sports. The money and the craziness and the splendor and the ugliness and the wonder and the inanity. As Johnson, a senior forward at Oregon, sits down with a reporter for an interview, she wears a gray Ducks T-shirt and green shorts -- neither of which she had to pay for. She settles inside a room inside a building created specifically to meet the every need and whim of Oregon's athletes. After practice, she might retreat to the state-of-the-art weight room, to be used only by the school's jocks. Or she might meet with the academic adviser, whose job is to assist the school's jocks. There are seemingly dozens of perks at the university for those who play sports, and Johnson -- recipient of them all -- isn't sure how to take it.
"You know, it's weird," she says. "As a student-athlete, it's really great to have so much at our disposal. And yet, were I not a student-athlete, I'd probably feel differently. A professor allows one absence before your grade drops, and that's the rule. But, as an athlete, I'm going to miss several classes, and it'll be excused. How is that fair? How is that not fair? I debate these things with myself all the time."
As Johnson knows well, in 2012 the term "student-athlete" is loaded and, quite often, inane. An ever-increasing number of Division I men's programs shuttle players in and out as if they were mufflers at an auto plant. Grades seem to matter, but only in the context of eligibility, not enlightenment. When a star sticks around for two years, he is lauded. When a star sticks around for three years, he is knighted. And when he sticks around for four years, well, scratch that. It hardly ever happens.
Johnson, who leads the Ducks (14-14) with 19 points and 9.6 rebounds per game, never had the option of leaving Eugene for richer lands. She is, at best, a borderline WNBA prospect ("Too slow," says one Pac 12-coach). Yet even if she were Lisa Leslie or Diana Taurasi, Johnson's focus would most certainly be on her studies.
Upon arriving at Oregon four years ago from Maria Carrillo High in Santa Rosa, Calif., Johnson came armed with 67 AP credits -- four of which were earned via an Intro to Sports Psychology class at nearby Santa Rosa Junior College ("I thought it'd help my game," she says. "It introduced me to serious athletic reflection."). She earned her bachelor's degree from Oregon in 2 ½ years, graduating Summa Cum Laude with a double major in psychology and sociology, and is now completing her master's work in couples and family therapy. When she is not in a classroom or on a basketball court, she can be found at a local nonprofit agency, pursuing clinical work. Johnson is a three-time Academic All-America -- a first for Oregon women's hoops.
"The key thing is I put all I have into everything I do," Johnson says. "I expect results, and if I don't get them I'm hurt." This is hardly an exaggeration. As a fourth grader, Johnson's teacher gave her a B+ -- the first non-A of her life. "I didn't cry, but I was pretty devastated," she says. "A B+? No, no, no."
Paul Westhead, the Ducks' coach, says Johnson is unlike any player he has ever had and he has coached plenty of stars, including Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Hank Gathers, Bo Kimble and Taurasi. Earlier this year Johnson missed 11 games with a broken finger -- a final-season malady that would have led many to the brink of depression. Instead of sulking, however, Johnson insisted on traveling with the team and worked out feverishly as her teammates practiced. One day, while running the steps at Stanford, she slammed her skull into a long-hanging pipe. "So Amanda's got this big lump on her head," Westhead says. "But she never said a word. Most people break a finger and chill for three weeks.
"She's got something about her that's very unique and different," Westhead says. "She's driven. She's talented. But there's even more." For example, for the 2011-12 basketball media guide, each Duck was asked to list something under the heading MOST PEOPLE WOULD BE SURPRISED TO LEARN THAT I ...
Laura Stanulis, a junior guard, confesses she has "a small case of OCD." Senior guard Jasmin Holliday "snores only on Wednesdays." Sophomore guard Ariel Thomas loves "to read." For her part, Johnson is "currently exploring Buddhist philosophy."
Uh ... what?
"I'm fascinated by the way different people approach life," she says. "It tells you a lot about the world."
Yet it is her own world, here on campus, that continues to perplex. Johnson loves being an athlete, loves wearing her Oregon uniform, loves playing in front of 1,500-plus fans at most home games. But she still wonders -- openly and often -- "Sports probably play too important of a role on college campuses," she says. "But without them, where what would I be?"
The answer, truth be told, is obvious.
Amanda Johnson would be smart.
Very, very smart.
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Oregon memorial service for former OHSU/UO leader Allan Price set for March 23 in Portland
By: Oregon Health & Science UniversityMarch 7, 2012 -- Family, friends and colleagues will celebrate the life of the late Allan Price, former OHSU Foundation president and OHSU senior vice president for advancement, at a public memorial at 3:30 p.m. on Friday, March 23, at the Portland Art Museum, 1219 S.W. Park Ave.
Price, who was 56, drowned Feb. 17 while vacationing with his wife in Mexico.
Price assumed his jobs at OHSU and the OHSU Foundation, OHSU's nonprofit fundraising affiliate, in 2008.
At OHSU, Price led a significant expansion of the institution's fundraising efforts, helping secure some $400 million in private philanthropic support, a record achievement. Highlights of Price's leadership include his key role in securing unprecedented philanthropic support for medical student scholarships; unique research programs in cancer, nutrition, neuro-oncology and genomics; and major capital projects, including the new OHSU School of Dentistry facility now under construction on OHSU's Schnitzer Campus.
Prior to joining the foundation and OHSU, Price served as vice president for university advancement at the University of Oregon, where he led Campaign Oregon, the largest philanthropic drive in state history. Price helped raise $853 million for the university from 2001 to 2008.
Before coming to Oregon, Price served Arizona State University, his alma mater, as vice president for institutional advancement, where he was responsible for development operations and public affairs.
Price is survived by his wife and two sons.