Thursday, January 24, 2013 // Issue 64, Volume 78
THE DAILY COUGAR
T H E
O F F I C I A L
S T U D E N T
N E W S PA P E R
O F
T H E
U N I V E R S I T Y
O F
H O U S T O N
S I N C E
1 9 3 4
OPINION
UH-SYSTEM
UH vice president tranfers to UH-D Kathleen Murrill Assistant sports editor
UH’s associate vice president of Planning and Outreach, Edward Hugetz, began the semester on a new campus as the interim senior vice president for Academic Affairs and provost for the UH-Downtown. Although Hugetz does not intend on fulfilling UH-D’s vacancy permanently, he is excited for this new role. “My focus on student success during the years I’ve spent with the University of Houston-System
is a good fit for current needs at the University of Houston-Downtown. I know many of the UH-D faculty and administrators from my work with them on UH System initiaHugetz was estives over the sential in setting years,” Hugetz up the UH-Sugar said. Land center “Together, I’m convinced that we can make some great strides in the short
period of time I plan to spend here.” While in this position, Hugetz will be in charge of the overall academic direction of the university — a job that is a little familiar to him. In 1978, Hugetz joined the UHClear Lake staff as an assistant professor. Through the years, Hugetz moved up the ranks, becoming a tenured professor in the College of Humanities and Fine Arts. After spending one term as chair of the Faculty Senate, Hugetz served as the interim senior vice president
and provost for UH-Clear Lake where he facilitated the University’s reaccreditation process with the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools. As a UH-System administrator, Hugetz helped develop UH-System at Sugarland into a system center. He led the transition of the UHCinco Ranch into the system center and strived to create a UH -System presence in the Lone Star CollegeSystem. During his time as associate vice
Put a cork in bottled insanity LIFE+ARTS
HUGETZ continues on page 3
SCIENCE
Grant propels research into Alzheimer’s Julie Heffler Staff writer
Organizing a symphony has a lot more to do with brain function than many believe, and like the musical performance, a loud disruption can cause confusion and disorder. Alzheimer’s disease is a neurodegenerative disease in humans that causes loss of short-term and longterm memory, difficulty performing simple tasks, personality changes and confusion. Biology and biochemistry assistant professor Jokubas Ziburkus was awarded a $100,000 grant from the
Alzheimer’s Association for the next two years for his study on the neuronlevel for Alzheimer’s disease. “Very little is known about when and where the initial ‘breakdown’ of neural network function occurs,” Ziburkus said in an email. “The brain networks are very complex and are uniquely comprised of the variety of neuronal subtypes that fall under the umbrella of the major classification of neurons – inhibitory and excitatory. Neurons communicate with each other via electrochemical means, where a release of a chemical neurotransmitter is
initiated by the changes in neuronal electrical potentials.” “These changes in electrical activity work in wave pattern or via oscillation,” Ziburkus said. Plaques, or protein aggregates, occur in certain regions of the brain and are correlated with increased short-term memory loss in the mouse models used in this research, said Jason Erikson, assistant professor of pharmacology and a collaborator in Ziburkus’ research. “The question is ‘Why does this happen?’ And so we think this work explains some of the memory,”
Erikson said. These plaques may cause a disruption in the carefully conducted electrical symphony, Erikson said. The work that Ziburkus and Erikson did shows a correlation between plaques and overly sensitive neural activity. “The theory was that this formation of plaques disorders this symphony. We had thought that it damages or disrupts this activity. How do we tell that? We can’t talk to the mouse. We know from behavior
Staff writer
Ohonba aims to use his drive about medicine to make pharmacy something for his peers to be knowledgeable on. | Courtesy of Osagie Ohonba
A student-run political action committee is a rare occurrence, but UH College of Pharmacy student
Sullivan, team walk in stride GET SOME DAILY
thedailycougar.com
One Cougar makes his voice heard
Demetrious Mahone
SPORTS
GRANT continues on page 11
PHARMACY
Graduate student creates political action committee to get more involved with the University
Moores makes Moscow music
and class president, Osagie Ohonba is as serious as anyone else about being heard. Ohonba aims to use his drive about medicine to make UH’s Pharmacy program something for his peers to become knowledgeable on. “Health care and pharmacy is changing every day and students need to know what is going on,” Ohonba said. “Students get bogged down, so I want to make it easy for them to stay informed and get PHARMACY continues on page 11
CORRECTION Wednesday’s article about transfer students cited the Texas Tribune, but the original report was compiled by a nonprofit corporation called TG.
COUNTDOWN
6
Days until the last day to drop a class without a W. Okay, come on. You’re supposed to register for classes before school starts.