Comments by UC Davis community members and references to the campus regularly appear in a wide variety of media outlets around the country. Among the recent citings in prominent publications:

A quote from the UC Davis Medical Center's Richard Kravitz appeared in a story about medical specialists seeking medical board certification in the Feb. 11 New York Times. Kravitz, director of the Center for Health Services Research in Primary Care, pointed out that although medical boards are powerful, their certifications don't necessarily gauge a doctor's skill. "Board certification per se hasn't been associated with any measure of quality," he said. …

Kathy Green, also of the medical center, contributed to a Feb. 9 Maryland Gazette story on men becoming nurses. "The image of nursing is changing," said Green, nurse manager of patient-care recruitment. "Nurses no longer are viewed as handmaidens to doctors." …

Clinical director of infection control and epidemiology Stuart Cohen commented on a novel way to fight flu in a Feb. 15 front page Sacramento Bee article. The proposed strategy, called "herd immunity," suggests vaccinating school-aged children to prevent flu transmission to the elderly. "Given that some elderly people who need vaccine have no enthusiasm for getting it," Cohen said, "I think it is legitimate to try and help those elderly patients indirectly by vaccinating children who might catch the flu and pass it on." …

Nutrition department chair Carl Keen was quoted on chocolate's health benefits in both the Feb. 9 Washington Post and the Feb. 11 Chicago Tribune. He explained that antioxidants called flavanols in chocolate can reduce oxidative damage and improve blood flow. "I think you could make the case that some cocoa can contribute to a healthy diet," Keen said in the Post. "The data look pretty good right now." …

Nutrition professor Louis Grivetti cautioned chocolate lovers not to get too excited though. In the Feb. 7 Denver Post, he warned that the healthy antioxidants in raw cocoa beans are drastically reduced during the fermenting and roasting of most chocolate products. "As far as I know," Grivetti said, "only one type of cocoa powder maintains these compounds: CocoaPro, manufactured by Mars, Inc." …

The Houston Chronicle quoted neonatal expert Jay Milstein in a Feb. 9 story on the ethics of dealing with babies facing fatal conditions. The debate of whether to discontinue treatment aside, Milstein said, the bereavement process can be difficult for parents. "Celebrating the life, not the death -- it's a good place to get if you can get there," he said. "But it's not simple." …

M.I.N.D. Institute researchers and spouses Paul and Randi Hagerman were mentioned for their work on Fragile X Syndrome and autism in the United Arab Emirates newspaper The Khaleej Times on Feb. 5. The pair will participate in a conference on neuro-developmental disorders to be held in the Middle Eastern country next month. Paul Hagerman said the conference is "an important opportunity for further collaboration in a combined effort to find more effective treatments and even cures for neuro-developmental disorders such as Autism and Fragile X Syndrome." …

Law professor Lisa Pruitt appeared on National Public Radio: Morning Edition on Feb. 10 to comment on the origin of slander laws. According to Pruitt, the ordinances enacted 100 years ago to protect women from "words which impair the reputation of any female for virtue or chastity" were not motivated by male chivalry. "The people who really benefited from sexual slander laws were the men in the lives of the women whose reputations were slandered," she said. "And it was concern for the marketability in marriage of young women or it was concern for the reputation of the husband of a woman who was sexually slandered."…

Dean Cliver of veterinary medicine was quoted in a Feb. 14 Los Angeles Times story about a study suggesting gloves worn by restaurant workers may not be as sanitary as they appear. The study's authors suggested gloves are only effective if brand new and they often lull food preparers into complacency about hand washing. Cliver, a food safety specialist, said the results did not surprise him. "The main purpose of gloves is they look good to customers and inspectors," he said. "Gloves are more a matter of keeping up appearances." …

Feline genetics expert Leslie Lyons contributed to a story in the Feb. 7 Daily News of Los Angeles on the practice of creating hypoallergic cats. The procedure, which would involve altering a cat's genetic structure to suppress a specific protein, would prevent the cat from triggering allergies. But the modification could have unknown side effects, Lyons warned. "I don't think anyone knows what else the protein does," she said. "It probably has some other function in the cat's body… we really don't know until they actually come out with the cats."…

Graduate School of Management professor Robert Smiley was mentioned in a wine industry story appearing Feb. 10 by the Associated Press. The article suggests that wine grapes are no longer exceeding demand, as they were several years ago. "We're getting back to an equilibrium," Smiley said. "We're not in a big oversupply or a big shortage." -- By Mike Sintetos