University Communications · 147 Wallis Hall · P.O. Box 270033 · Rochester, New York 14627-0033 585.275.4118 · www.rochester.edu/news/ NEWS Selected Coverage December 2012 National New York Daily News (December 7) ABC News Quit Smoking for Less Back Pain Armed Forces International ArsTechnica University of Rochester researcher Dr. Glenn Rechtine, whose Bloomberg Business Week findings are published in the Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, said: Boston.com Chicago Tribune ‘We know that nicotine increases pain. ‘In this study, if you quit smoking Christian Science Monitor during treatment, you got better. If you continued to smoke, there was CNN.com statistically no improvement, regardless of the treatment you had.’ (Also Dallas Morning News Education Week Reported in: Boston.com , Science Daily, Dallas Morning News, Engadget and Orthopedics Today) England daily mail Fortune Fox News Huffington Post (December 4) Fresno Bee Your Next Phone Will Know What You’re Feeling Gizmag Gizmodo University of Rochester graduate student Na Yang, who co-authored the Huffington Post research paper, has already developed a Windows Phone smartphone app, MSNBC NBC Listen-n-Feel, that functions as a “mobile emotion sensor” and allows New Scientist the phone to detect a speaker’s feeling, showing a smiley face or frown-y New York Daily News face depending on the speaker’s tone. “We actually used recordings New York Newsday NPR of actors reading out the date of the month -- it really doesn’t matter PBS Newshour what they say, it’s how they’re saying it that we’re interested in,” said PhysOrg.com Wendi Heinzelman, a professor of electrical and computer engineering Red Orbit Reuters at the University of Rochester, according to a press release issued by Science Daily the university. (Also Reported in: New York Daily News, Yahoo! The New York Times USA Today News, MSNBC, Gizmag, Gizmodo, 8WROC-TV, 10WHEC-TV, USA Today Computerworld New Zealand, Science Daily, Red Orbit, Winnipeg Wall Street Journal Washington Post Sun, Topnews.in, ZeeNews.com, Northumberland Today, KSFA Winnipeg Sun 860 and others) Yahoo! Canada Yahoo! News New Scientist (December 17, 2012) Local Warning, Speedsters: You Can’t Fool Quantum Radar 8WROC-TV Radar and lidar systems bounce radio or light signals off an object and 10WHEC-TV 13WHAM-TV measure how long they take to return. That information can be used to Brighton Pittsford Post determine the object’s position and shape - identifying it as a war plane, Rochester Business Journal say - or to calculate its speed. But both military and police systems can Rochester City Newspaper Rochester Democrat and Chronicle be fooled by devices that generate photons of the same frequency as in WHAM AM 1180 the outgoing beam. This is how the speed gun jammers installed in some WXXI YNN cars work. To reveal when returning photons have been faked, Mehul Malik and colleagues at the University of Rochester, New York, borrowed a trick from quantum cryptography, polarizing each outgoing photon in one of two ways according to a sequence. (Also Reported in: Gizmodo, Engadget, England Daily Mail, NetIndia123.com, Armed Forces International, PhysOrg.com, TruthDive) 1 Huffington Post (December 12) job growth,” the co-chairs said. (Also Reported Study Details Brain Damage Triggered by Mini- in: Wall Street Journal, New York Newsday, Strokes Rochester Business Journal, Rochester A new study appearing December 12 in the Journal City Newspaper, 13WHAM-TV 12-19-12, of Neuroscience details for the first time how 13WHAM-TV 12-20-12, YNN, 8WROC-TV, “mini-strokes” cause prolonged periods of brain 10WHEC-TV, WHAM AM 1180, and Ithaca damage and result in cognitive impairment. “Our research indicates that neurons are being lost as Journal) a result of delayed processes following a mini- strokes that may differ fundamentally from those of ABC News (December 14) acute ischemic events,” said Maiken Nedergaard, Mystery Rash Leads to Cure of Deadly Cancer M.D., D.M.Sc., the lead author of the study and “The skin has an amazing ability to tell the story of professor of Neurosurgery at the University of a person,” said Dr. Brian Poligone, 40, an assistant Rochester Medical Center (URMC). “This professor at Rochester and an attending physician observation suggests that the therapeutic window to at its James P. Wilmot Cancer Center, who protect cells after these tiny strokes may extend to treated Williams. “I know if they like the sun, or days and weeks after the initial injury.” if they smoke, if they are scarred from war, if they are jaundiced with alcoholism -- or what color they WXXI (December 20, 2012) painted their porch last weekend,” he said. “It can Could A Mobile App Beat The Flu? give you a glimpse inside sometimes even telling Imagine using your smart phone to avoid getting you that they have cancer, before they know it.” the flu. A new mobile app designed by researchers at the University of Rochester could make it Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (December 4, possible. The Germ Tracker app is the brain 2012) child of Adam Sadilek, a post-doctoral fellow UR Scientist Helping the World See Better at the University of Rochester who has taught a It was a career moment for a University of computer program to ‘read’ twitter messages, and Rochester scientist. In September, David use GPS tracking to predict where infection may Williams, 59, traveled to the Champalimaud occur. “There is really no product like this that Foundation in Lisbon, Portugal, to receive one of enables you to understand how these millions of the highest honors in the field of vision science and people feel every second, because they self-report ophthalmology, Antonio Champalimaud Vision on their activities and they self-report on their Award. “The president of Portugal presented (the health,” Sadilek says. (Also Reported in: 8WROC- award) as the sun set gloriously into the ocean TV) behind us. My wife Inger was with me. It was a magical moment that you can’t imagine you would Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (December be lucky enough to experience even once in an 19, 2012) entire lifetime,” said Williams, who is a faculty Finger Lakes Region Receives $96.2M in member of UR’s Institute of Optics, director of Economic Development Council Funding the school’s center for visual science and dean for Finger Lakes Regional Economic Development research of arts, science and engineering. Council co-chairs Joel Seligman and Danny Wegman said in a joint statement after PBS Newshour (November 30) Wednesday’s award ceremony that the awards Promoting Safe Sex with Posters on World AIDS represent a major boost to local progress. Seligman Day is president of the University of Rochester and Originally developed for public health campaigns Wegman is CEO of Wegmans Food Markets Inc. to promote HIV testing, safe sex, and better “We are proud of what we have achieved to date. knowledge of the virus and disease, Dr. Atwater The Finger Lakes region continues to outperform began collecting the posters for their social and the rest of the state and much of the country in cultural importance. After years of collecting from 2 all over the world, he donated all the posters to the Christian Science Monitor (December 23, 2012) University of Rochester. (Also Reported in: YNN, Video Games And Shooting: Is The NRA Right? NET Website) Joan Saab, director of the visual and cultural studies program at the University of Rochester in MSNBC (December 4) New York, says the gaming industry should share Most Teens with Mental Disorders Not on Meds in the blame for promoting military weaponry to “The concern regarding the overtreatment versus young people, but adds that the popularity of such undertreatment of mental health conditions is games reflect the “larger culture we live in, which really a difficult problem to answer,” saidDr. is heavily militarized,” in the midst of lengthy Robert Fortuna from the University of Rochester combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Ms. Medical Center in New York, who has studied Saab says that the NRA’s call for armed guards in psychiatric drug prescribing to youth but wasn’t schools would make that kind of military culture involved in the new study. more pervasive for children. “If there are more “It really requires a more nuanced view that we are armed guards in schools, kids are exposed to possibly overprescribing in some situations and more guns. That’s when fantasy and reality aren’t missing opportunities to treat in other situations,” blurred. When there are guns in schools, it becomes he told Reuters Health. (Also Reported in: Fox real life and the day-to-day environment becomes News, NBC, Reuters, Chicago Tribune, GMA News, more dangerous than the game,” she says. (Also and Yahoo! News) Reported in: Yahoo! News, Alaska Dispatch) MSNBC (December 4, 2012) Fox News (December 5) Want Happy Workers? Pour On the Praise Genetic Test Could Better Reveal Fetal When it comes to rallying the troops, bonuses Abnormalities aren’t always the best way to go -- or the cheapest. Some doctors have held back on using microarrays Others agree. Using money to motivate people for prenatal testing because it’s not always clear doesn’t work, especially if they anticipate the how a genetic disease will manifest, said Dr. reward before they’ve finished the task,Edward Monique Ho, an obstetrician and prenatal Deci, a University of Rochester human motivation geneticist at the psychologist, says in this Entrepreneur.com blog University of Rochester Medical Center, who post. was not involved in the study. One child with a particular Fox News (December 5) genetic mutation may be disabled, while another Genetic Test Could Better Reveal Fetal with the same mutation may appear healthy.