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wednesday, september 2, 2009
Tired of fighting for that elliptical?
Texas Tech connection
Former Red Raider football coaches make move to the Tucson desert
Check out a photo gallery of the construction on the new Student Rec Center at
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DW opinions
tucson, arizona
The debate rages
Two Wildcat columnists sound off on the Israeli/Palestinian conflict
Arizona Daily Wildcat
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Study hard or this could be your next house
UA Law works through economic downturn
College cultivates career counseling for soon-to-be lawyers By Devlin Houser Arizona Daily Wildcat
Tim Galaz/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Jonathon Confer, 25, studies outside of the new James E. Rogers College of Law Library on Aug. 31. Jonathon is a second-year law student and hopes to enter into litigation and commercial law.
As law schools across the country feel the economic pinch, the UA’s James E. Rogers College of Law is working hard to insulate its graduates from the economic downturn. Law firms nationwide are hiring fewer new graduates than in the past, said Nancy Stanley, assistant director of development and external relations at the UA College of Law. But while many firms are instating hiring freezes or even releasing employees, officials at the UA College of Law say their students are weathering the global economic downturn fairly well. Part of the reason for this is that UA law students search for jobs in a more diverse pool of employers, Stanley said. Graduates from top law schools such as Harvard often only apply within the
top echelon of law firms, she said. Nonetheless, the economic slump has the UA College of Law examining how to best prepare its students. Career services staff at the College of Law attended a series of workshops on how to help students stay competitive, and held a special series of workshop meetings to talk with students about marketplace issues, staying focused, and taking a broad view of employment prospects, she said. Stanley said she has been working with other staff, especially in professional development and career placement, to prepare law students for the current job market. “One of the things they did over the summer is that they worked out a system of internships and volunteer activities for anyone at the law school who wanted it,” she said. The UA is playing a more proactive role in job placement for its students, said Paula Nailon, assistant
dean for professional development at the College of Law. The UA has had to step up its involvement so students can “hit the ground running,” because law firms aren’t recruiting as aggressively as they have in years past, she said. There are fewer law firms recruiting on campus this year than there were several years ago, Nailon said. “Larger law firms (are) uncertain as to their needs next summer,” she said. “Employers always hire on an annual basis, but they are being much more cautious now.” But despite the economy’s impact on larger firms, the government and firms of other sizes are still a good source of jobs, and areas such as intellectual property and the environment remain strong, Nailon said. Nailon also recommended law students be more flexible when looking LAW, page A3
Research could explain Alzheimer’s Campus UA scientists study brain aging process, search for clues to memory loss By Rikki Mitchell Arizona Daily Wildcat Memory loss in old age might seem unavoidable, but not to UA researchers who are studying the brain for ways to prevent diseases like Alzheimer’s. Carol Barnes, associate director of UA’s BIO5 Institute, as well as a Regent’s professor in psychology and neurology, has been researching the brain at the UA for 19 years. In order to understand how Alzheimer’s occurs, Barnes said she focuses on how the brain ages normally. “We don’t understand how to avoid it but we do understand a number of things to do to postpone it,”she said.“Even if you can have five more years of your memory and yourself, that would be good.” Barnes and her lab study the cells in the hippocampus, a structure in the temporal lobe that is critical for good memory. In normal aging, there is no cell loss in the hippocampus, but in a brain with Alzheimer’s disease, the cells die, Barnes said. “Here at the University of Arizona, we’ve developed methodologies that allow us to record simultaneously from more cells in the brain than almost anybody else in the world,” she said. “We can record the activity of many individual brain cells and separate them and look at how the circuits in the aging brain are altered.” Barnes’ lab works on studies with humans as well as with rats to compare normally aging brains with abnormal ones. She says they’ve developed a method that allows them to look at all of the active memory cells at one time while the animal is having certain experiences. “We’ve found a gene marker for experience in the brain so now what we’re trying to do is to see if those animals that successfully age are using those circuits for the different experiences,”she said. Barnes hopes that her research can help optimize memory. There are methods that help slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, such as consuming antioxidants and even taking ibuprofen, she said. “There’s some random evidence out there that another good predictor for having Alzheimer’s disease occur later or never getting it at all is the amount of education you have,” she said.“Is it because you’re curious and you use your brain more? Now that’s the million dollar question.” Barnes and her colleagues have also been developing therapeutic ways of dealing with mild memory loss in old age using a drug called memantine, which is already approved for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease. “We think that that’s quite exciting because we now know that we can specifically affect memory in the aging brain,” she said. “It’s not approved for just old everyday memory loss but we’re thinking that perhaps if it’s safe to use, it could be more widely used for people with mild memory loss that you would have during normal aging.” Randal Scott, an instructional specialist at the
Health won’t test for H1N1 By Marissa Hopkins Arizona Daily Wildcat
Lisa Earle/Arizona Daily Wildcat
Carol Barnes, Regents’ professor of psychology and neurology at the university, uses innovative research to better understand how the brain ages and what normal aging does to our memories. She learns more about human brains by conducting animal behavioral studies on animals like rats.
Arizona Center on Aging at the UA College of Medicine, said Alzheimer’s disease is a major issue affecting older generations and research is important. “We have to find solutions,” he said. “Watching someone with Alzheimer’s, it’s like minute by minute they disintegrate right before your eyes and there’s nothing you can do about it.” Charles Wylie, a licensed practional nurse at Devon Gables Health Care Center in Tucson, works with residents that have Alzheimer’s disease and thinks more advances are necessary to try and prevent it.
“They start out forgetting little things and it increasingly gets worse,” he said. “Towards the end, they even forget how to eat.” He also said the residents can get combative or agitated because they’ve forgotten something. Barnes knows that her research has helped, but she wants to make the next leap. “I’m not interested in extending life span,” she said.“To me, you are your memory, and there’s nothing worse than seeing someone with Alzheimer’s disease who’s completely robbed of their memory; they’re robbed of themselves.”
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The UA is no longer testing students for the H1N1 virus, also known as swine flu, UA Campus Health Services officials said Tuesday. Terri West, an administrative assistant at Campus Health, said that though students are coming in daily with flu symptoms, Campus Health Services is no longer sending in tests for swine flu. Since there has already been a confirmed case on campus, they are simply treating each patient for their flu symptoms, she said. Campus Health officials had been testing symptomatic students for the H1N1 virus so they would know when swine flu had appeared on campus, West said. Once the UA’s first case was confirmed, however, health officials knew it would spread and that it would be a waste of time and resources to continue tracking the virus. The actual number of cases is meaningless at this point because Campus Health cannot test every flu case to see whether or not it is swine flu, said Dr. Michelle McDonald, chief medical officer for the Pima County Health Department. Dr. Fred Miller, chief medical director of the Pima County Health Department added the spread of H1N1 will get worse before it gets better. People experiencing flu symptoms are advised to go to their primary care physician before seeking emergency treatment. The health department is stressing prevention and enlisted the help of the media on Tuesday, asking members of the local press what they could do to get the word out to people about swine flu and how to prevent the spread of the virus. Now that flu season is rapidly approaching, officials want people to be more careful about washing hands, staying away from sick people and staying home when they are sick. When looking at the effect that swine flu has on the community, many things besides the number of cases are taken into consideration, including drug sales, school absences and employee sick days, McDonald said. People also need to be prepared to handle a high volume of employees calling in sick to work during flu season, said Daniels. Daniels said information about prevention changes daily, and therefore it is difficult to keep the public informed.