A Sampling of Clips for August 10, 2011

* UCSD faculty and staff may obtain a copy of an article by e-mailing the University Communications Office

Mom's Asthma Linked to Premature Babies: Study
NBC Bay Area, Aug. 9––Mothers who don’t carefully manage their asthma are at greater risk of premature birth and preeclampsia according to results of a new study.
A team of researchers, including a professor at UCSD, studied data from more than one million pregnancies between 1975 and 2009.
Mothers with poorly-controlled asthma were at a 25% increased risk of pre-term birth and 50% increased risk of developing preeclampsia, a condition in which high blood pressure develops during pregnancy.
"The findings are significant and call for women with asthma to be more closely-monitored during pregnancy," said Christina Chambers, PhD, MPH, a professor of pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego. More

Tijuana Clinic Trains New Generation of Border Doctors
KPBS, Aug. 10––There’s a new clinic in Tijuana that offers free care to anyone who walks in the door. Medical students from both sides of the border staff it. A medical student at UCSD came up with the idea.
The clinic is housed in a nondescript, two-story building just blocks away from the U.S. Mexico border. Inside the building, fourth year UCSD medical student Amy Eppstein greeted her counterparts from UABC, the med school in Tijuana. More

New Green Housing at UCSD
San Diego Metro, Aug. 10––Opening their doors this fall are newly completed apartments at Revelle and John Muir College, two of UCSD's six undergraduate colleges, and the second phase of the transfer housing complex called the Village. Revelle's Charles David Keeling apartments are aimed to be Leadership in Energy Efficient Design (LEED) platinum certified, a first for any structure on campus. The Keeling apartments' sustainable features pay homage to their namesake, the discoverer of the Keeling Curve –– the first recording of the rise of carbon dioxide in the Earth's atmosphere. The energy efficient apartments house 510 beds and feature solar panels that allow residents to bathe with water heated by sunlight instead of gas or electricity, heat control through shading and naturally assisted kitchen and bathroom exhausts. More

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Unique Calit2 Broadcast Invites Viewer Input via the Web in August
La Jolla Light, Aug. 9––Although you can occasionally see history in the making on television, you can’t make history by watching television. However, the University of California San Diego is attempting just that with airings of “Kamza and Bar Kamza” this month on UCSD-TV. Two years in the making, the broadcasts of the previously staged performance will be synchronized with live Web content to allow interactive viewer participation as the musical drama progresses. More

Resistance Training Can Help Smokers Kick the Habit, According to Study
Science Daily, Aug. 9––Resistance training, or weight lifting, can do more than just build muscle: it may also help smokers kick the habit, say researchers from The Miriam Hospital's Centers for Behavioral and Preventive Medicine.
Although exercise has been shown to reduce many of the negative experiences that accompany quitting, such as cigarette cravings, withdrawal symptoms and weight gain, the majority of these studies have focused only on women and only on aerobic exercise. The Miriam study, published online by the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, is the first to examine resistance training as an aid for smoking cessation. (Mentions UC San Diego). More

Schizophrenia Study Finds Cognitive
Deficits Significantly Impair Decision-Making Capacity
Science Daily, Aug. 9––Concern about the capacity of individuals with schizophrenia to consent to clinical research studies has largely focused on impairment due to psychotic symptoms associated with the disorder. Less attention has been given to the cognitive errors that prospective participants make when undergoing a formal assessment of decisional capacity. (Mentions UC San Diego) More

SDSU Receives National "five-star" LGBT-Friendly Campus Rating Again
San Diego Gay and Lesbian News, Aug. 9––San Diego State University (SDSU) continues to shine as a safe haven for LGBT students, receiving a five-star rating for the second year in a row from Campus Pride.
The region's oldest, largest university joined 32 other schools from across the nation that received the highest "gay-friendly" rating the index offers.
Each year, Campus Pride ranks colleges and universities based on eight "LGBT-Friendly" factors after reviewing responses to 50 or so self-assessment questions that representatives from the individual schools complete. Using a methodology set up by researchers, a significant amount of testing and analysis goes into determining the weighted scores, Campus Pride officials said. (Mentions UC San Diego) More

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