Better Than Ever kicks off with Lute Olson tonight

The Arizona Cancer Center invites the university community to participate in the sixth annual Better Than Ever three-month fitness and fundraising program as a precursor to the Bobbi Olson Half Marathon on Dec. 4.

The Better Than Ever Kick-Off with Lute Olson will be held tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 at the Arizona Cancer Center, 1515 N. Campbell Ave., in the Kiewit Auditorium.

Participants can register for the Better Than Ever events, pick up a training packet, browse the expo and listen to Cancer Center speakers and various supporters.

The three-month fitness and fund-raising program provides guidance and the camaraderie of being part of a team through the training.

This supportive outreach program from the Arizona Cancer Center focuses on fun and health, not on speed or competition. Walkers and runners of all ages, sizes and fitness levels are welcome, and beginners are especially encouraged.

A separate information session will be held Sept. 1, at noon at the Arizona Cancer Center, Room 4978.

In memoriam: Noted plant pathologist John Niederhauser

John S. Niederhauser, an internationally renowned scientist and University of Arizona adjunct professor of plant pathology since 1985, died Aug. 12. He was 88.

Niederhauser was a pioneer in championing international cooperation to improve of agricultural productivity. He earned the nickname "Mr. Potato" for developing potato varieties resistant to late blight disease, and his work has affected agricultural production in more than 60 countries.

Niederhauser won the prestigious World Food Prize, the agricultural equivalent of the Nobel Prize.

In 1946, Niederhauser joined the newly formed Rockefeller Foundation Mexican Agricultural Program and spent 15 years working in Mexico on corn, wheat and bean production. There he began to study potato production. During the next several decades he focused on improving potato production in developing countries.

He helped start the International Potato Center in Lima, Peru, in 1971. In 1978, Niederhauser established the Regional Cooperative Potato Program in Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. This cooperative program has since grown to 12 countries.

Among Niederhauser's most important scientific contributions was creating potato varieties resistance to late blight disease. This fungus is responsible for many potato disease outbreaks around the world, including that of the Irish potato famine of the 1840s.

Niederhauser also discovered that the fungus responsible for Ireland's famine came from Mexico. More importantly, he discovered many wild inedible potato species in Mexico possessed a durable field resistance to late blight fungus. His breeding work with these resistant lines resulted in a collection of commercially useful potato varieties. These new varieties allowed subsistence farmers around the world to grow potatoes for the first time with little or no chemical fungicides. This made the potato the fourth-leading food crop in the world. Potato production in Mexico alone increased nearly tenfold from 1948 to 1982.

Niederhauser also trained more than 100 international scientists in his Mexican field plots.

Psychology dept. sponsoring insomnia treatment research

Individuals with insomnia may be eligible to receive treatment by participating in a research study funded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research providing behavioral treatments for people with insomnia problems.

About 30 percent of adults experience some type of insomnia. People with insomnia may have trouble falling asleep or may wake up during the night, or they may experience a combination of these problems. No sleep medication is used in the study.

Participants in the study will gain knowledge about sleep and about general strategies to improve sleep. In addition, they will learn specific skills to manage insomnia. The goal of the treatments is to help the person with insomnia to fall asleep and stay asleep during the night. The behavioral treatments used in this research study are designed so that persons with insomnia can learn to manage their sleep difficulty and gain control of their sleep-wake pattern.

Eligible participants must be 21 years old or older, be able to read and write English, live in the community and not in a health care or other institution, have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep at night or both, and have had the problem at least three nights a week for at least three months.

The treatments are provided free to participants, as part of a research grant awarded by the National Institutes of Health/National Institute of Nursing Research to the University of Toronto. The study involves four sites across North America, Toronto, Denver, Phoenix and Tucson.