Grant funds SPIRIT study

CHAPEL HILL -- UNC researcher Mi-Kyung Song has been awarded a grant worth nearly $3.2 million from the National Institute of Nursing Research for a study to ease the burden of decision making for fatally ill kidney patients and their families.

Song, assistant professor in the School of Nursing, will conduct a randomized, controlled trial testing the effects of a program called SPIRIT (Sharing the Patient's Illness Representation to Increase Trust).

The intervention aims to improve preparedness for end-of-life decision making among patients with end-stage renal disease and their family members. The study also will test the effects of the intervention in reducing surrogates' conflict during decision making and their anxiety and depression.

The study will recruit 200 white and black patients with end-stage renal disease and their chosen decision makers from outpatient dialysis clinics.

HIV supplements study wins grant

CHAPEL HILL -- Researchers at UNC have received a $2.2 million grant to find out if simple nutritional supplements, fortified with micronutrients and essential fats, protect the health of HIV-positive women and their infants after weaning.

Funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the study will use data from the African nation of Malawi. It builds on a growing body of knowledge on the use of such supplements to prevent and treat malnutrition in breastfed children, but the study is the first to examine their use among HIV-infected mothers and their infants.

The low-cost, locally produced supplements contain ground peanuts, dried full cream, vegetable oil and sugar, and are fortified with micronutrients, including vitamins such as B6 and B12 and minerals like iron, selenium and zinc.

Margaret "Peggy" Bentley, professor of nutrition and associate dean for global health in the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health, said the Gates-funded project "gives us a unique opportunity to see how beneficial the supplements are when the infants are no longer breastfed. It's also the first time researchers have been able to assess whether the supplements help HIV-positive mothers stay healthy."

Bentley said findings from the study could have broad applications to other poor countries.

Geographer gets fellowship

CHAPEL HILL -- UNC geographer Martin Doyle has been named the inaugural recipient of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' Institute for Water Resources' Frederick J. Clarke Fellowship.

The institute created the fellowship to provide scholars with the opportunity to help advise the corps on policy issues related to its environmental mission. Doyle, an expert in river processes and policy, will advise the corps on ecosystem restoration, infrastructure decommissioning, and the definition of a river.

Doyle is director of the UNC Institute for the Environment's center for watershed science and management and an associate professor in the College of Arts and Sciences.

During the fellowship, he is based at Fort Belvoir, outside Washington, D.C. He will return to UNC next August.

Fund invests in condo project

CHAPEL HILL -- The Kenan-Flagler Business School Foundation Real Estate Investment Fund recently invested in a condominium project in Washington, D.C. This is the fund's fourth investment in the past two years and completes placement of the first half of the $2.1 million of capital committed to the fund.

UNC Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School formed the real estate fund in 2007 as the first student-run real estate fund in the United States. With help from friends of the university, the fund raised $2.1 million to invest in real estate development and redevelopment projects.

It operates through Kenan-Flagler's Center for Real Estate Development.

Master of business administration students act as fund managers and identify real estate-related investments on behalf of the fund.

The recent condominium investment was structured as part of a mezzanine loan to finance completion of a 39-unit condominium project in the historic Woodley Park neighborhood. The unique and complex nature of the mezzanine transaction provided learning experiences for the student managers.

Reclaimed water system honored

CHAPEL HILL -- UNC recently received a national award for the reclaimed water system that began serving the main campus in April and for its innovative reuse of rainwater in a second project. The WateReuse Association gave the university its 2009 Institution of the Year award at the association's annual symposium in Seattle. The awards recognize projects and individuals that advance the beneficial and efficient use of water resources.

The university partnered with the Orange Water and Sewer Authority to develop a new water reuse system that serves the university's chiller plant cooling towers, athletic fields and toilet flushing at certain facilities. The system began operating in April, after more than five years of extensive feasibility studies, pilot-scale and microbiological studies, and final design and construction. The award also recognized the Bell Tower project, in which the university developed an innovative water reuse system using blended reclaimed water and harvested roof water to supply nonpotable water needs on campus.

Children's Promise airs all day Nov. 19

CHAPEL HILL -- The 8th Annual N.C. Children's Promise Radiothon/Telethon will air from 5 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. Nov. 19. The event reaches more than 1 million North Carolinians and is the annual culmination of the N.C. Children's Promise fundraising effort.

Listeners and viewers can phone in their contributions at 1-866-9-NC-KIDS (1-866-962-5437) or make donations through the N.C. Children's Promise Web site at www.ncchildrenspromise.org. Gifts can also be made in advance at the Web site, which includes more information about the event. All proceeds fund programs at the N.C. Children's Hospital.