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ITHACA, N.Y. -- Don't bother with the hot new diet pill Redux -- the benefits don't outweigh the risks, according to a Cornell University nutritionist who has examined the 40 studies on long-term use of the diet pill. "People do lose weight more easily with Redux (d-fenfluramine) than with a placebo, but the advantage of taking the medication over a placebo after a year is less than 5-and-a-half pounds," said David Levitsky, professor of nutritional sciences and of psychology in the Division of Nutritional Sciences and Department of Psychology at Cornell and a nationally known expert on the control of obesity. That amount of weight lost after one year of taking the drug daily rather than a placebo is equivalent to a 62-calorie difference a day, roughly the amount of calories in a medium-sized cookie or apple, or the amount burned by walking for a half-hour and making other small changes in daily motor activity. After one year, there is no indication that any further weight loss can be achieved by the medication alone, Levitsky said. diet.drugs.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- It's official for 1996: The 12-state Northeast was sopping, soggy, soaked and sodden as the region sloshed its way to the wettest year in more than a century -- 102 years of official records -- with 53.89 inches of precipitation. This easily broke the old record set in 1972 by 2.55 inches, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Pennsylvania and West Virginia -- half the 12-state region -- all set precipitation records. Maine and Rhode Island stood out as the two most-relatively dry states in the region for 1996: Rhode Island endured its ninth wettest year, and Maine endured its 12th wettest year. NRCC.Wet.1996.bpf.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Concerned that raccoon rabies could infect wildlife and humans, Canadian authorities are reaching across the border to help support oral vaccination programs in Northeastern states by veterinarians and wildlife biologists from the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine. Now, the province of Quebec is joining Ontario to assist programs that distribute vaccine-filled baits for raccoons in northern counties of New York, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine. rabies.quebec.hrs.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Men and women taking selenium supplements for 10 years had 41 percent less total cancer than those taking a placebo, a new study by Cornell University and the University of Arizona shows. "Although more than a hundred of animal and dozens of epidemiological studies have linked high selenium status and cancer risk, this is the first double-blind, placebo-controlled cancer prevention study with humans that directly supports the thesis that a nutritional supplement of selenium, as a single agent, can reduce the risk of cancer," said Gerald F. Combs Jr., a nutritional biochemist and Cornell professor of nutritional sciences. Combs and a group of co-authors reported their findings in the Jan. 1, 1997 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association. The senior author is epidemiologist Larry Clark, who was at Cornell at the onset of the study and is now at the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of Arizona School of Medicine. selenium.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Sitting patiently in museum insect collections for at least 85 years, this Ithaca bog beetle waited to be discovered. Now, thanks to Cornell University entomologists, not only has it been 'discovered,' but this bog beetle now has an official name: Platynus indecentis. In August 1995, Kipling W. Will, a graduate student in entomology from Columbus, Ohio, and James K. Liebherr, Cornell professor of entomology and curator of the Cornell insect collection, were working through the university's insect collection when they stumbled upon a species that looked familiar but which they could not immediately identify. "Kip and I were sorting through the Cornell insect collection and I made a species identification key and he was testing the key on a variety of specimens," Liebherr said. "Kip found that one of the specimens just didn't fit the key. We suspected we had something new. This species had somehow remained mixed into the Cornell collection along with another extremely common beetle species that's been known to science since 1823." bogbeetle2.bpf.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The New York Sustainable Agriculture Working Group is sponsoring an all-day conference, "Making it in the Northeast: Small-scale food processing on the rise," on Tuesday, Jan. 21, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Four Points Sheraton, 441 Electronic Parkway, Syracuse, N.Y. The number of small-scale food processing enterprises -- more than 5,000 in New York alone -- is growing, experts say. "Small-scale processing is exploding," said Duncan Hilchey, the agricultural development specialist with Cornell University's Farming Alternatives Program. "While much of the food processing industry is consolidating, home-based and farm-based micro-enterprises and cottage industries are experiencing robust growth." SmallScale.bpf.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Returning to campus from expeditions in the forests of South and Central America, a team of Cornell University undergraduate science students is applying modern analytical techniques to learn the chemistry behind the nature-based medicinals that work for native peoples -- and which someday may find a place on our druggists' shelves, too. "We haven't identified these plants with their scientific names yet, so we're labeling them with the Piaroa Indian names -- like tŸŸ dau, their plant to treat inflammation from ant bites, or cuo mariche, for bloody diarrhea," explained Patricia Luckeroth. "One of their plants is prescribed both for lice and dandruff." ethnobotany.hrs.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- What educators can teach young parents about becoming good parents is the topic of a new and revised curriculum from Cornell University. Teens as Parents of Babies and Toddlers: A Resource Guide for Educators is a 220-page curriculum full of worksheets, diagrams, lists, illustrations, discussion questions, fact sheets and resources for educators to use in developing classes and workshops with teen parents to try to prevent the potential negative effects of adolescent parenthood. teen.parents.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Potential presidential candidates in the year 2000 may want to adopt a cat, suggests one educator who has made an informal study of America's "first pets." "Cat owners will probably find better success at the polls than dog owners, just as President Clinton defeated George Bush and Senator Dole, both of whom are dog owners," said Franklin M. Loew, dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine at Cornell University. firstpets.hrs.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The scientific battle against the devastating fungal strain Phytophthora infestans -- commonly known as potato late blight -- has been elevated on international fronts, according to a report released this month by the Cornell-Eastern Europe-Mexico (CEEM) International Collaborative Project in Potato Late Blight Control. P. infestans, the fungus blamed for the Irish potato famine of the 1840s, is currently staging a resurgence in which, scientists agree, the new strains are far more aggressive than the original outbreak 150 years ago. LateBlight.Jan97.bpf.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Knowing why the groundhog comes out of hibernation in early February may have more import than predicting winter's end, Cornell University researchers have found. Groundhogs have more dramatic annual biological rhythms than nearly all other mammals and are a perfect animal model for studying them. In fact, groundhogs, also known as woodchucks, may provide key clues into better understanding cancer and cancer treatment, blood cell functions, brain activity and mental health. groundhog.day.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Unless the world's food-growing nations improve their resource-management practices, life in the 21st century will be as tough as it is now in the 80 countries that already suffer serious water shortages, a new Cornell University study warns. As a start, governments should end irrigation subsidies that encourage inefficient use of water and instead reward conservation, according the report, "Water Resources: Agriculture, the Environment and Society," published in the February 1997 issue of the journal, BioScience. water.hrs.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The one place in the Northeast most likely to have a white Christmas -- Caribou, Maine -- officially had but an inch of snow on the ground. It started the holiday at midnight with a high temperature of 44 degrees, not surprising since this was also Caribou's warmest December since the start of official records there in 1939, according to the Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University. Throughout the 12-state Northeast region, temperatures were well above normal during December. The region reported an average temperature departure of 6 degrees above normal, which was warm enough to make it the fourth warmest December on record, according to Keith Eggleston, climatologist at the center. The normal average temperature for the region is 27.5 degrees, while weather observers measured 33.5 degrees this year. NRCC.Dec96.bpf.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University researchers, using non-linear laser-microscope technology developed at Cornell, have produced images displaying the neurotransmitter serotonin in live cells in real time, and they have for the first time measured the concentration of serotonin in secretory granules. The microscope, which uses pulsed lasers for excitation, can record ultraviolet (UV) fluorescence images of live cells without using UV illumination to detect and image cellular activity. Serotonin2.lb.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Children who benefit from child support payments seem to fare better than those who obtain the same amount of money from welfare, according to a Cornell University study. And when child support stems from an agreement between parents rather than a court-ordered one, the children do even better. "We now have evidence that money from child support may have a direct positive effect on children's cognitive development and educational attainment," said Elizabeth Peters, Cornell professor of consumer economics and housing. education.pred.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Parents of adopted children in New York are overwhelmingly in favor of laws that allow adult adoptees access to information in their birth certificates about their birth parents, according to a new Cornell University study. "One major argument for keeping records sealed is to protect adoptive parents who might feel threatened if their adopted children knew more about their birth parents," said Rosemary Avery, Cornell associate professor of consumer economics and housing and a specialist in family policy and foster care. "Yet, these results indicate there is no justification for keeping such information from adult adoptees, especially non-identifying information. And there is no reason to believe that New York state adoptive parents are any different from those in other states: they are overwhelmingly supportive of opening sealed adoption records," Avery said. adoptionrecord.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The resentment public officials feared would prevent a watershed agreement between New York City and municipalities along the Hudson River watershed was not very deep, a Cornell University study has found. Without a watershed agreement with rural towns upstate, New York City would have been forced to build a multi-billion-dollar water filtration plant it could not afford. The Cornell study reveals that toward the height of the controversy -- just before the watershed preliminary agreement was signed in November 1995 -- upstate residents appeared committed to keeping discussions open. The willingness to find a mutually agreed-upon solution contrasts with the often fiery anti-New York City rhetoric of local officials from upstate communities. Watershed97.bpf.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- What educators can teach young parents about becoming good parents is the topic of a new and revised curriculum from Cornell University. Teens as Parents of Babies and Toddlers: A Resource Guide for Educators is a 220-page curriculum full of worksheets, diagrams, lists, illustrations, discussion questions, fact sheets and resources for educators to use in developing classes and workshops with teen parents to try to prevent the potential negative effects of adolescent parenthood. teen.parents.ssl.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The seventh Cornell Council for the Arts (CCA) Individual Grants exhibition opens Jan. 11 at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art on the Cornell University campus. The exhibition features the work of nine artists who were awarded CCA grants in either 1992, 1993 or 1994. ccaexhibition.dg.html

ITHACA, -- N.Y. The Middle States Association Commission on Higher Education (MSA/CHE) has accepted Cornell University's Periodic Review Report and reaffirmed without condition the university's accreditation. The commission, at its November 1996 meeting, deemed no follow-up to be necessary and set the next regular evaluation visit for 2000-2001. accreditation.jp.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A community program to celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. will be held at the Greater Ithaca Activities Center, 318 N. Albany St., on Monday, Jan. 20, from 11:15 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. The event, which is free and open to all, is co-sponsored by the Multicultural Resource Center, the Greater Ithaca Activities Center (GIAC), the Cornell Public Service Center, the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP) at Cornell, members of the Baha' i community and the city of Ithaca. MLKday.sfm.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- For a research project in one of her courses last semester, Cornell University graduate student Vera Palmer drove a total of 1,000 miles on 10 Friday evenings to lead a workshop on Native American literature and culture for inmates at Auburn State Prison. But Palmer prefers that you don't call it fieldwork. Instead, suggests this student of English and Native American studies, call it "cultural engagement," as does Ben Olgu’n, her professor for "Writing Resistance: Minority and Third World Prisoner Discourse." He taught the graduate seminar (open to some undergraduates) this past fall for the first time through the Department of English and the Latino Studies Program. prison.jg.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Donald F. Smith, professor of surgery and associate dean for academic programs, has been named acting dean of the College of Veterinary Medicine while a search is conducted for a successor to Dean Franklin M. Loew. Loew, who has held dean's post since 1995, will leave Jan. 31 to become president and chief executive officer of Medical Foods Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. Announcing the appointment, University Provost Don M. Randel said Smith "knows the college well from his long and able service in a variety of capacities" and is "ideally suited to carrying on." Smith became associate dean in 1990 and first joined the veterinary faculty at Cornell in 1977. interim.dean.hrs.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University community will gather in tribute to the memory of Carl Sagan, the late David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies, at a service Monday, Feb. 3, at 2 p.m. in Bailey Hall. The program is open to the public. Sagan, 62, died of pneumonia on Dec. 20, in Seattle, Wash., after a two-year battle with a bone marrow disease. The memorial will begin with a 15-minute video of highlights from Sagan's PBS 13-part series, Cosmos, the Emmy- and Peabody-award-winning show that became the most watched series in public-television history. Several faculty members, former students and friends, including President Hunter Rawlings and President Emeritus Frank H.T. Rhodes, will speak at the event. The undergraduate class that Sagan was scheduled to teach this semester, Astronomy 202: "Our Home in the Solar System," is being co-taught by Yervant Terzian, the James A. Weeks Professor of Physical Sciences and chair of the department, and James Cordes, professor of astronomy, in Sagan's honor. One of the texts the professors will use is Sagan's 1995 book, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space. saganmemorial.ltb.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- To help advance the careers of women in academia, the President's Council of Cornell Women (PCCW) is offering grants to support the completion of dissertations and research leading to tenure and promotion. The deadline for application for the grants, which can be in any subject, is Feb. 28. Eligible applicants include Cornell women who are either Ph.D. students or assistant or associate professors. pccwgrants97.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Board of Trustees will hold its first meeting of 1997 at the Cornell University Medical College in New York City, Jan. 23 through Jan. 25. The full board will meet in open session on Saturday, Jan. 25, from 9 to 11:30 a.m. in the Joan and Sanford I. Weill Education Center in the Medical College's Harkness Medical Research Building, 1300 York Ave. Topics of discussion will include tuition recommendations for the statutory colleges and the annual report on research. trustadvance197.jp.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A $20 million gift to Cornell University from an alumnus will launch major new instructional and research initiatives in science and engineering and provide state-of-the-art facilities in growing technologies for electronic and photonic devices, biotechnology and advanced materials processing. Cornell President Hunter R. Rawlings will announce the gift from David A. Duffield, president, chief executive officer, chairman and founder of PeopleSoft Inc. of Pleasanton, Calif., a leading developer of software for manufacturing, distribution, financial and human resource management and for higher education, at the annual Cornell President's Circle Dinner in New York City, this evening (Jan. 22). Duffield has a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering (1963) and a master's degree in business administration (1964) from Cornell. duffield.hnd.akm.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Northeast Regional Climate Center at Cornell University is getting bipartisan political support in its effort to ensure that funding for the nation's six regional climate centers is included in the next federal budget. U.S. Sen. Alfonse M. D'Amato (R-N.Y.) and U.S. Rep. Maurice D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.) have each sent letters of support for the regional climate center program, which received $2 million in funding in last year's federal budget, to Secretary of Commerce Mickey Kantor. nrccfunding.lgk.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Mini-grants worth up to $1,000 are available for Cornell University student groups, faculty and staff members to develop prevention-education programs addressing violence and substance abuse on campus. The mini-grants are part of a federal grant, known as Project Challenge, that was awarded in September. Administered by the university's Gannett Health Center and supported in part by the U.S. Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE), the mini-grants will be awarded for programs showing potential to change campus social and cultural norms by reducing all forms of violence and drug abuse. projectchallenge.hrs.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University President Hunter Rawlings today issued the following statement in response to news reports that a prominent Cornell alumnus, Charles F. Feeney, and his family were the principals in the formation, in the early 1980s, of two significant international philanthropies, The Atlantic Foundation and The Atlantic Trust. The organizations will be the recipients of substantial proceeds arising from the recently announced sale of Duty Free Shoppers to LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. Feeney received his degree from the Cornell School of Hotel Administration in 1956. rawlingsstatement.lgk.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Harold Tanner, a 1952 graduate of Cornell University and president of Tanner & Co. Inc. of New York, was unanimously elected chairman of the university's Board of Trustees at its first meeting of 1997 in New York City on Saturday, Jan. 25. Tanner's two-year term is effective July 1. He succeeds Stephen H. Weiss, a 1957 Cornell graduate who has served as chairman since 1989. tanner.hnd.akm.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- The Cornell University Board of Trustees, at its meeting in New York City Saturday, Jan. 25, approved a 1997-98 budget that calls for a 4.5 percent tuition increase for the endowed colleges. The board also reviewed a range of proposed tuition rates for the statutory colleges but delayed action on those rates because of uncertainty over state budget cuts and related tuition actions. The endowed increase is the same at last year's and the lowest since 1965-66, when there was no increase, said Henrik N. Dullea, vice president for university relations. The 4.5 percent increase sets tuition at Cornell's endowed colleges at $21,840 for the 1997-98 academic year. Currently, endowed tuition is $20,900. tuition.97.jp.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- A five-year, $5 million grant for the Parallel Processing Resource for Biomedical Scientists at the Cornell Theory Center has been renewed. The Parallel Resource, funded by the National Center for Research Resources (NCRR) at the National Institutes of Health, is an interdisciplinary, multi-institutional collaboration aimed at applying high-performance computing and communications to support advances in biomedical applications. CTCbiomed.lc.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University has received two grants totaling $1 million to expand the John S. Knight Writing Program, which seeks to improve student writing and the teaching of writing through a variety of innovative techniques and programs. A $750,000 grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation will establish a national center for writing in the disciplines. The grant will allow the Knight Writing Program to collaborate with institutions nationwide through a summer seminar, postdoctoral fellowships and other initiatives, and will expand the program's existing Writing in the Majors component, which is geared for advanced undergraduate and graduate students. Also bolstering the Knight Writing Program is a $250,000 grant from the Park Foundation, which will fund five new Writing in the Majors courses per year in the social sciences. Together, the Knight and Park grants make it possible to increase the number of teaching assistants in Writing in the Majors courses from the present level of approximately 20 to a minimum of 30 per year. knightwritingaward.jg.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Cornell University Choral Director Scott Tucker routinely teaches the works of Western classical artists like Brahms and Handel to his students in the Glee Club and Chorus. But lately he has been directing them in songs of African origin and in an African language. Tucker is warming them up for what promises to be a red-hot musical performance at Cornell on Sunday, Feb. 9, titled "One Voice: A Concert of African Songs by Samite of Uganda." The internationally acclaimed musician, singer and composer will perform at 3 p.m. in Cornell's Bailey Hall Auditorium, backed by the Cornell Glee Club and Chorus, as well as his own band. All proceeds will go to AIDS Work Inc. of Tompkins County. Samiteconcert.jg.html

ITHACA, N.Y. -- Artists, educators and authors will gather on the Cornell University campus next month for a public symposium to discuss the teaching of creativity and the presence and import of the arts and artistic intelligence across the disciplines of the university. The symposium, "Creating Minds," opens Friday, Feb. 28, at 4:30 p.m. in Statler Auditorium, with an introduction by Cornell President Hunter Rawlings and a presentation by Robert Fitzpatrick, dean of the School of the Arts at Columbia University and former president of the California Institute of the Arts. Fitzpatrick will address the relationship between education and arts policy on the federal and state level and explore ways to take the arts from being peripheral in a university education to being central. creatingminds.dg.html

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