November 1999
How much exercise is too much for kids?
While exercise is crucial for childhood growth and development, too much physical exercise can lead to cell damage and injury. Dr. Dan Cooper, professor of pediatrics at UCI's College of Medicine, and his colleagues discovered that vigorous soccer practice among 10- to 12-year-olds triggered levels of cellular messengers in the blood called cytokines, which are usually seen in inflammation and other cell damage. "Brief high levels of these messengers may actually benefit development because the same cell processes in inflammation can actually help build blood vessels that children need to grow," Cooper said. "But if exercise is intense or prolonged so levels remain elevated after exercise, they could be detrimental to growth. Monitoring these cytokines could help identify how much exercise is too much." Cooper is now exploring why these cellular messengers appear in children, and what they can tell doctors about the right amount of exercise during development of both healthy children and those with chronic diseases.
Contact: Andrew Porterfield, (949) 824-3969, [email protected]
Exploring nature's role in animal-and human-birth defects
When frogs with gross deformities and extra limbs were found in seemingly pristine North American ponds three years ago, scientists scrambled to find reasons. UCI researchers soon found a cause: The receptor for chemicals related to vitamin A, called retinoids, had been inappropriately activated during development, leading to the deformities. While that helps explain the deformities, clues to why this is happening are much more elusive. Now, Bruce Blumberg and David Gardiner of UCI's Department of Developmental and Cell Biology are using a major grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to study how the retinoid receptors are being activated and by what chemicals. "We need to look into the role of the hormonal signaling that causes these deformities," Blumberg says. Retinoids are necessary for the development of all vertebrates, but retinoid excess or deficiency causes birth defects in all vertebrates, particularly in the central nervous system. This study of how retinoids are being activated, Blumberg says, will help scientists understand worldwide frog deformities and deaths. It also may provide vital data for the ongoing study of environmentally induced birth defects in both wildlife and humans.
Contact: Tom Vasich, (949) 824-6455, [email protected]
Environmental stress creates crisis, conflict in Pakistan
Between the volatile borders of Afghanistan and Kashmir, the people of Pakistan's Northwest Frontier Province suffer for want of many things-energy, land, jobs, health care and education. Increasingly, they also suffer for want of trees, contends Richard Matthew, a professor of urban and regional planning in UCI's School of Social Ecology. In his Pakistani government-sponsored study of the area, Matthew claims environmental scarcity has contributed to social instability. For more than 100 generations, dense Himalayan forests sustained a semi-nomadic way of life in the remote region. But the trees that provided shelter, fuel and protection for the fragile environment were cut down to propel economic development and to feed a rapidly growing population that still includes more than a million Afghan refugees. The resulting environmental degradation has contributed to rampant unemployment, poverty and illiteracy, opening the door to religious extremism and violence. Improved forest management, land tenure and hydroelectric power could turn the tide, Matthew suggests. But time is running out.
Contact: Karen Morris, (949) 824-7913, [email protected]
True or false: Technology will make teachers obsolete
In the 21st century, technology will become so advanced and ubiquitous that teachers will become obsolete as children independently access information through the Internet and other electronic resources. True or false? Oh so false, says Margaret Riel, associate director of UCI's Center for Collaborative Research in Education in the Department of Education, whose research explores how technology is changing America's classrooms-and how it will transform learning in the new millennium. Riel's research has convinced her that teachers will be even more vital as technology continues its dizzying progress. "More than ever, skillful teachers will be needed to help students learn how to evaluate information and information sources, and to place what they learn within the larger context of intellectual development," she says. That's not to say classrooms won't change as a result of technology. To be sure, Riel has a vision of the classroom of the future-and no one would confuse it with today's.
Contact: Tracy Childs, (949) 824-5484, [email protected]
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