The Duke Digest - July 30, 2010

In Today's Issue:

  • Duke Alum to Serve as Acting Director of OMB
  • Study Finds Solar Energy Costs to be Lower Than Nuclear
  • Study Finds Mother's Affection at Infancy Predicts Emotional Distress in Adulthood
  • Law Clinic Students Prevail in DC Circuit Case Against TSA


DUKE ALUM TO SERVE AS ACTING DIRECTOR OF OMB
Duke alum Jeffrey Zients will be acting director of the White House Office of Management and Budget for several weeks while Jack Lew awaits confirmation as successor to OMB Director Peter Orszag.  Zients is currently OMB’s deputy director for management and the first federal chief performance officer.  Rob Nabors, who earlier was Orszag’s deputy and has been senior adviser to Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, will return to OMB as acting deputy director.

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Jeffrey Zients will be acting Office of Management and Budget chief (Politico)


STUDY FINDS SOLAR ENERGY COSTS TO BE LOWER THAN NUCLEAR
Solar photovoltaic systems have long been painted as a clean way to generate electricity, but expensive compared with other alternatives to oil, like nuclear power. No longer. In a “historic crossover,” the costs of solar photovoltaic systems have declined to the point where they are lower than the rising projected costs of new nuclear plants, according to a paper published this month.  “Solar photovoltaics have joined the ranks of lower-cost alternatives to new nuclear plants,” John O. Blackburn, a professor of economics at Duke University, and Sam Cunningham, a graduate student, wrote in the paper, “Solar and Nuclear Costs — The Historic Crossover.”

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Nuclear Energy Loses Cost Advantage (The New York Times)


STUDY FINDS MOTHER’S AFFECTION AT INFANCY PREDICTS EMOTIONAL DISTRESS IN ADULTHOOD
In a study funded by the National Institute of Mental Health, Duke Global Health Institute member Joanna (Asia) Maselko found that infants who are shown motherly affection are better able to cope with life stressors as adults. Published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, these findings suggest that early nurturing and warmth have long-lasting positive effects on mental health well into adulthood.

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Study Finds Mother's Affection at Infancy Predicts Emotional Distress in Adulthood (DukeNews)


LAW CLINIC STUDENTS PREVAIL IN DC CIRCUIT CASE AGAINST TSA
A three-judge panel on the United States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed with students and faculty from Duke’s Appellate Litigation Clinic that the Transportation Security Administration acted capriciously in barring a commercial truck driver from obtaining a hazardous materials endorsement for his commercial driver’s license in an opinion issued Friday.  The opinion and concurring opinion in Boniface v. Department of Homeland Security, both authored by Judge Douglas Ginsburg, ordered the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to reconsider clinic client Lewis Boniface’s application for an HME.

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Clinic students prevail in D.C. Circuit (DukeNews)