DAILY LOBO new mexico
The Independent Student Voice of UNM since 1895
SUMMER June 1-7, 2015 | Volume 119 | Issue 155
UNM groups raise Website honors law school Above the Law puts UNM School of Law in nation’s top 20 funds for Nepal By Matthew Reisen A collaboration between groups at UNM is finding ways to bring assistance to those affected by the recent earthquakes in Nepal, the most recent endeavor being Nepal Film Night, which aimed at raising money and awareness for the crisis. Nepal Film Night, presented by UNM4Nepal in collaboration with Nepal Study Center, is just one of the fundraising efforts put together by the student group, said Jen Van Osdel, President of UNM4Nepal. Van Osdel, who has been with the group since its beginning, said it was heartwarming to see the big turnout for Nepal Film Night, which showed the first Nepalese film to be nominated for an Academy Award, and to see “the way that the UNM community has rallied behind Nepali students and faculty in their time of grief.” About 50 students, along with their friends and family members, attended the event. Nepal Film Night raised $1,100, with all proceeds going to Bahunepati village in Sindhupalchowk, one of the hardest-hit districts, said Alok Bohara, founding director of the NSC. UNM4Nepal’s main collaborator is the Pratiman-Neema Memorial Foundation (PNMF) and others like the Nepal Engineering College and the Dhulikhel Hospital, which is a part of Kathmandu University, where NSC’s regional office is located. The partnership between Nepal and UNM has grown exponentially since about a year and half ago, Bohara said, when the NSC formed an interdisciplinary research group called the Himalayan Climate Change Impact Initiative that included Bohara (economics), Mark Stone (engineering) and Joe Galewsky (Earth and planetary sciences). The group was formed to look into climate issues occurring in
the Himalayas and in the HCCII’s infancy, before the earthquake devastated Nepal. “The three of us (awarded) a small grant for a research planning trip and went to Nepal in December 2014,” Bohara said. “The NSC facilitated contacts in Nepal, and helped forge collaborations between the UNM group and the Nepal group. After our return, this UNM interdisciplinary climate faculty group with students kept meeting to discuss research ideas for grant proposals.” One of those students was Van Osdel, who started with UNM4Nepal first as a fundraising lead. “Like so many others, I fell in love with the country and the people and was shocked to hear that an earthquake had happened so soon after we left,” Van Osdel said. “Going forward, our organization will be a platform for students to come together to undertake projects that will help Nepal both now and in the future.” The group also works with many scholars affiliated with the Lumbini Center for Sustainability, an initiative based out of Nepal created to improve the foundations of community sustainability. “We do have a good group of collaborators from the Nepal side,” Bohara said. Bohara said one of the next objectives for UNM4Nepal and the NSC is the design of a sustainable and affordable dwelling structure – the Project Himali Dream initiative. This project has been in the works since April, he said, when the earthquake hit, and was started by the PNMF and aided by the UNM4Nepal and the NSC. The challenge they face is making a dwelling that is both strong and affordable – around $2,000. “With Mark (Stone) and I as faculty mentors, and NSC as a
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Source: Above the Law
By Jyllian Roach The UNM School of Law has made its way onto a list of the top 20 law schools in the country. Above the Law ranked the top 50 law schools, looking specifically at the cost, amount of debt and quality law jobs graduates had after their time at each school, according to the legal trade website. “Forty percent of 2014 law graduates did not secure a job in the law,” surveyors said on abovethelaw.com. “We believe the ATL Top 50 gives prospective law students a way to analyze schools using metrics that actually matter.” The metrics that do not matter, according to the site, are things like LSAT scores, GPAs and scholarships. UNM’s No.18 ranking put it above renowned schools like
UCLA (19th), Georgetown (20th) and Notre Dame (23rd). One area where UNM outperformed those three universities was student debt. According to a study by U.S. News and World Report, students graduating from Georgetown walked away with $150,529 of debt on average, while grads from UCLA and Notre Dame incurred $121,066 and $111,310, respectively. Those who graduated from UNM’s School of Law had an average debt of $71,029. According to the American Bar Association, this was lower than the average debt for a law graduates from public sectors — their debt averages $84,000. A representative from UNM’s law school said the faculty and staff were delighted by the ranking, which was four places higher than last year’s ranking. “The ATL rankings recognize
what really matters to students,” Hannah Farrington, UNM School of Law assistant dean for advancement, said in a statement. “Our focus is on avoiding increased debt through the School’s concerted efforts to significantly increase our student support, job readiness through truly effective practical training, and a sharp focus on what is required to ensure strong employment outcomes.” The Above the Law rating is the latest honor given to the law school. It ranked 71st among 149 law schools in a U.S. News and World Report, and its Clinical Training Program was named ninth best nationally by the same publication. Jyllian Roach is the editorin-chief for the Daily Lobo. She can be reached at editorinchief @dailylobo.com or on Twitter @Jyllian_R.
Opthamologists look into diabetics’ blindness UNM researchers search for molecules behind damaged retinal vessels in diabetics By Sayyed Shah
Kanan Mammadli / Daily Lobo /@Kenan_Mammadly
Carolina Franco Nitta looks through the microscope at a rat retinal vascular preparation that was stained with Periodic-Acid Schiff Reagent and Hematoxylin which stains vessels and nuclei of the cells, counting cells and checking for abnormalities.
A UNM research team is working to find molecules that cause retinal damage in diabetic patients, and is developing ways to stop those molecules from entering the retina. Following experiments on diabetic mice, the researchers found there were a lot of white blood cells infiltrating the retinal vessels, said Arup Das, chief of the Division of Ophthalmology in the UNM Department of Surgery. The researchers think the molecules they found during their experiments on animals could also be found in humans. The drugs that are presently used for treatment of blood leakage
in the eyes are called anti-VEGF drugs that are directly injected into the eye, Das said. “We are finding that these drugs are not really effective and are targeting a particular molecule,” Das said. “We are trying to find out other molecules that are responsible for the disease and could be targeted.” Diabetes is a global issue. The number of cases is increasing throughout the world, according a World Health Organization report. The United States is third on the list of countries with the highest rates of diabetes, according to WHO officials. Twelve percent of new blindness cases reported every year in the United States are the result of
diabetes, Das said. New Mexico has 150,000 diabetics, and 50,000 of them may develop the eye disease, he said. “All these diabetic people have complications in the eyes. Their retinal vessels are damaged and leaked,” he said. “It is a leading cause of blindness in the middleaged people in this country.” The researchers are examining what causes inflammation and the breaking down of the blood, said Carolina Franco Nitta, a postdoctoral research scholar working under Das’ supervision “What we look at, actually, is patients that have diabetes,” she said. “What ultimately ends up happen-
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