UB in the News

An article in the Baltimore Sun on the predicament that a handful of the most famous companies face when their names, once synonymous with business success, becomes shorthand for misbehavior quotes Arun Jain, professor and chair of marketing, who said the segment of the market that patronizes companies such as Wal-Mart and McDonald's don't care about reputation, but the companies "don't like the image of being attacked. They would like to expand and they're afraid this type of thing will hurt them."

An article on Inside Higher Ed looks at the unprecedented increase in the study of Chinese language, history, economics and society, and reports that UB is among many institutions that are hiring more China specialists. The article quotes Thomas Burkman, director of Asian studies.

An Associated Press article on the radical and illogical steps that some Latin American nations are taking, such as banning rice imports, to stop bird flu before it even shows up quotes Richard Lee, professor of medicine and an expert on bird flu, who said such measures are "definitely not justified." The article appeared in more than 110 news outlets throughout the world, including The New York Times.

An article on United Press International news service on efforts by the U.S. government to computerize health information in order to deal more effectively with a bioterrorist attack or a pandemic reports the Calspan-UB Research Center has been awarded a $297,000 Health IT Implementation Grant to identify and support the planning of regional data-sharing and inter-operability activities that could collect and analyze data to discover bioterrorism threats.

A segment filmed recently by Medstar TV on a new, minimally invasive spinal surgery technique being used to help patients with lower back pain get relief faster features the work of Elad Levy, associate professor of neurosurgery, who says patients who receive this type of spinal fusion recover faster and with less discomfort that with conventional spinal-fusion surgery. The segment aired on WIS-TV in Columbia, S.C., among others.

The lead item in the Vital Signs column in The New York Times reports on UB research that shows that men who smoke are less likely to make a woman pregnant than nonsmokers, and the more they smoke the worse their chances are of conceiving. The article quotes Lani Burkman, associate professor and head of the Section on Andrology, Department of Gynecology and Obstetrics, who says "we don't have the answer yet" to whether quitting smoking helps fertility.

An article by Health Day news service reports on UB research that shows that smoking can reduce fertility in men and the more one smokes, the more the ability of sperm to bind to an egg is diminished.

An article in the San Luis Obispo Tribune on people's fascination with celebrity quotes Elayne Rapping, professor of American studies, who says the stars have become our surrogate friends and neighbors, and studies have shown many people spend more time with television and computers than with friends and family.

Research conducted by David Sandberg, associate professor of psychiatry and pediatrics, on height and a child's social standing among schoolmates and the controversy over the use of human growth hormone to make children taller is the subject of an article that appeared in The New York Times Magazine.

An article in the Chicago Tribune on the subsidy dispute between Boeing and Airbus quotes David Pritchard, research associate at the Canada-United States Trade Center within the Department of Geography, who called predictions of a settlement of the trade dispute "just posturing."