health

May 16, 2012

Global Health Project Gets Funding

NC State is a winner in the Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. 

May 10, 2012

Efforts to Help Homeless Kids Gaining Traction

Homeless children are at higher risk for mental health problems than other kids, but one researcher from NC State is taking action to give these kids a better chance for a healthy life. Last year, we told you about Mary Haskett’s work with a program called Project CATCH, which aims to provide homeless children with the… 

May 7, 2012

Cytauxzoonosis on the “Up-Tick”

You may not have heard of Cytauxzoonosis (pronounced Sight-Oh-zO-un-Osis) before, but if you’re a cat owner, you should definitely pay attention now. Cytauxzoonosis is a tick-borne, malaria-like illness that, if left untreated, has an almost 100 percent mortality rate in cats. It is caused by the parasite Cytauxzoon felis, found in ticks carried by host… 

Apr 5, 2012

Easter Eggs, Baby Chicks…and Pathogens

Editor’s Note: This is a guest piece written by Dr. Ben Chapman, an assistant professor and food safety expert at NC State. Easter has been on my 3-year-old’s radar since Christmas. Jack has succumbed to the eggs/bunnies/chicks hype at retail stores, and is now really interested in colored eggs (because he thinks they all contain chocolate).… 

Mar 30, 2012

Ticks and Mosquitoes: What the Mild Winter Really Means

There has been a lot of discussion about how a mild winter, an early spring and a bumper crop of acorns might affect the number of mosquitoes and ticks we’ll see this spring and summer. Will there be more blood suckers out there? Will we be at higher risk of Lyme disease? Like many things… 

Mar 8, 2012

Getting Organized To Fight Wildfires

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post from Lauren Williams, a communication intern in NC State’s College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Think fighting wildfires is just a job for forest rangers armed with water? Think again. Research in communication practices is improving the ways in which wildfires are handled. On the front lines of this… 

Mar 6, 2012

Dealing With Trauma And Its Aftermath

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Karen Bullock, associate department head in NC State’s Department of Social Work, which is hosting a symposium on trauma for social workers and those in related fields. At a time when many families are adjusting to soldiers returning from combat, significant job layoffs, foreclosures on home mortgages, high… 

Feb 3, 2012

Norovirus: What It Is, How We’re Fighting It

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Lee-Ann Jaykus, a professor in NC State’s Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences, and lead investigator of a $25 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) to study human noroviruses. If you have spent a day or two… 

Jan 5, 2012

Help Yourself to Health

Determined to start 2012 on a healthier note? Sign up for new faculty and staff programs that serve up advice from a registered dietitian. 

Dec 16, 2011

Trivial Pursuits: The Abstract’s 2011 Quiz

The Abstract staff will be taking off for a couple of weeks to prepare for 2012. In an attempt to amuse and entertain ourselves you, we’ve pulled together a quick quiz on some of the research we’ve written about over the past year. See how you do! Questions: 1). Until recently, researchers thought Greece was… 

Dec 6, 2011

The Way We Learned: Educational Films In The United States (Part I)

Editor’s Note: This is a guest post by Devin Orgeron, an associate professor of film studies at NC State and co-editor of “Learning With The Lights Off: Educational Film In The United States.” This is the first of three posts in a series on educational films. I regularly teach a course on documentary film here at… 

Nov 21, 2011

How To Spend Thanksgiving Not Barfing

Editor’s Note: This is a guest piece written by Dr. Ben Chapman, an assistant professor and food safety expert at NC State. My parents are coming to visit Raleigh this week – their first trek to the U.S. for Thanksgiving. I’m Canadian and, while Canada has its own festivities in October, there’s something different about the… 

Nov 18, 2011

Why Thanksgiving Might Make You Sleepy

Well folks, it’s almost Turkey Day again. Last year I tackled some questions about tryptophan, and why Thanksgiving dinner can make you pass out on the floor in front of the football game. Super-short version: tryptophan isn’t the culprit, gluttony is. When you gorge yourself, your body diverts blood away from your brain to help… 

Nov 15, 2011

A New Solution To An Age-Old Problem: Human Waste

Conventional sewage treatment is not available in many parts of the world, and disposing of human waste can be both difficult  and hazardous in developing nations. So a team of researchers from NC State, with support from Grand Challenges Explorations, an initiative of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, are pursuing a new approach to an… 

Oct 27, 2011

Flu Version 2.0

Every year, it seems the CDC warns us about a new flu variety, bandying about names that seem more like grid locations in a game of Battleship than actual descriptions:  H1N1, H2N1, and now H5N1 – or technically, H5N1 2.3.2.1. This new form of so-called “bird flu” is a highly pathogenic and dangerous strain of…