PHOENIX -- As a professor at Northern Arizona University, Cathy Small was baffled by undergraduates. They seemed less engaged, less likely to do assigned reading and more likely to ask questions like, "Do you want it double-spaced?"\nSo she decided to study them as anthropologists research any foreign culture -- she lived among them.\nAfter moving into a dorm, eating cafeteria food and struggling with a five-course schedule, the 50-something Small said she empathized with students who struggle to balance chaotic class and work schedules.\n"I'm trying to get really to what student culture is doing and tailor my teaching," said Small, who wrote a book on her research under the pseudonym Rebekah Nathan called, "My Freshman Year: What a Professor Learned by Becoming a Student."\nSmall took a sabbatical and spent the 2002-2003 school year conducting her research. With approval from the university's research board, she used her high school transcript to get admitted and moved into a dorm -- though she did forgo the roommate experience by getting a single room.\nShe told students what she was doing if they asked, but found that most of them didn't, perhaps assuming she was just one of those who return to school at an older age.\nSmall said her generation wasn't as career-oriented in college.\n"It was an era of anti-materialism. It was kind of nerdy then to talk about careers," she said. "Now, different things are nerdy."\n
Report links weight gain to sleep deprivation
\nIOWA CITY, Iowa -- Late night trips to Panchero's, venti frappacinos from Starbucks, and large orders of Gumby's pokey sticks might no longer be to blame for the dreaded Freshman 15. \nWeight gain has now been linked to sleep deprivation, according to a report from the recent North American Association for the Study of Obesity conference. When a person is sleep-deprived, the level of the hormone leptin, which is involved in the regulation of appetite, is lowered. In turn, low leptin levels increase appetite. \nCollege students should get nine hours of sleep a night, James Clack, the retired Duke University psychological services director, said in a telephone interview Thursday. \nHowever, college students are among the most sleep-deprived Americans, averaging only six hours of sleep a night. \n"Sleep deprivation has numerous negative effects on students, and this is just one more thing," said University of Iowa Associate Professor Mark Dyken, the director of the university's Sleep Disorder Center. "It really doesn't surprise me at all."\n
Cornell study examines cancer cell reproduction
\nITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University professor Jun-Lin Guan, revealed one important aspect of basic mechanism behind the spreading of cancer in his latest study, published in the journal Developmental Cell. Cancer's ability to spread (metastasize) throughout the body is what makes it deadly; understanding the spreading process will aid researchers in developing therapies to interrupt metastasis. \nSince his post-doctoral at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology for cancer research, Guan has focused on basic mechanisms relevant to all different types of cancer. In his most recent study, he uncovered how connective tissue on the surface of a cancer cell degrades, allowing the malignant cell to spread to other parts of the body.\nTwo enzymes, FAK and SRC, appear to contribute to cancer spreading by regulating another enzyme that is only on the surface of cancer cells. \n"The importance is that this process is specific to cancer cells. Normal cells are not affected, so drugs to inhibit this process will not interfere with normal functioning," Guan said. \nThis discovery may alleviate side effects otherwise resulting from cancer drugs and radiation. Difficulty arises when cancer cells are cut out or radiated. In the process, both cancer cells and normal cells are destroyed. By using a molecular approach, Guan's goal is to develop specific steps to target only cancer cells and leave normal cells unharmed.
