Latest news with #UniversityofNorthCarolina
USA Today
an hour ago
- Business
- USA Today
10 things to know about Ben Griffin, including his stint as a mortgage loan officer
10 things to know about Ben Griffin, including his stint as a mortgage loan officer Ben Griffin is on a serious heater. Unless you're a golf fan that has been living under a rock for the last month, you probably know that he's won twice – Zurich Classic of New Orleans with Andrew Novak and the Charles Schwab Challenge – and finished T-8 at the PGA Championship, his best result In a major. He enters the final round of the Memorial in Dublin, Ohio, one stroke back of Scottie Scheffler and suddenly he is looking like a serious contender for the U.S. Ryder Cup team. That's one of the many good reasons why it's about time you get to know Griffin. Mortgage-loan officer stint Griffin, 28, is best known for stepping away from his career as a professional golfer to become a mortgage loan officer in his native North Carolina. 'I'd lost my motivation and love for golf. The stress of playing with $15,000 of credit-card debt was agony, so I quit,' he told Golf Digest. But he resurrected his career in 2021 and has banked more than $11 million in 94 Tour starts. 'It provided me with a reset button,' Griffin tellsGolfweek. 'Doing something completely different is good for getting a fresh headspace.' Traveled the junior golf circuit solo Griffin grew up playing golf with his dad and grandpa. By the time he was 16, he was driving to tournaments solo and staying in hotels because both of his parents were working. 'I'd tell the front desk, 'Look, my dad is coming to check us in, don't worry. He's on a call and running behind. I just need a room key.' It worked every time.' Bleeds Tarheel Blue Both his parents went to the University of North Carolina and he grew up in Chapel Hill, practicing at the University of North Carolina Finley Golf Course. Once he started going to college there, his teammates complained that qualifying wasn't fair. 'I knew every break on those greens,' he said. 'It was a very easy transition for me.' Get rid of the yardage book Griffin suggests an unique solution for slow play – allow rangefinders (which the Tour is currently testing) but ban the yardage book. 'I think it would actually speed up play. Play the course how it looks. I know it's old school but do that and make it new school with a rangefinder,' he said. Maxfli Man A year ago, Griffin was testing golf balls. His caddie suggested he try Maxfli, the once popular brand in the 1970s and '80s, which has become a Dick's Sporting Goods house brand. He'd never used it before. 'I was shocked by the ball speed numbers,' he said. Griffin said he gained 2 miles per hour off the tee without sacrificing anything from a spin standpoint. He began using it in Tour events before he negotiated a deal to represent the brand. The story behind his Aviator-style sunglasses Like Corey Hart in the '80s classic song, Griffin doesn't wear his sunglasses at night but he's been wearing sunglasses on the course since the 2024 RBC Canadian Open last June, where he finished second, due to seeing floaters. Since that first week with a designer knockoff brand he happened to have in his bag, he's relied on U Swing sunglasses. 'It hasn't affected my vision – I still see floaters – but they darken things and make the floaters less defined,' he said. 'I think they also help me with reading greens and seeing slopes better.' For the full story on why he Venmo-ed $20 to pro CT Pan for the pair he wears, click here. The genesis of his lethal short game After winning the Charles Schwab Challenge in May thanks to an assortment of tidy up and downs, Griffin was asked how he developed such a reliable short game. His eyes watered and his voice cracked as he explained how his parents endured some tough times financially during the 2008 recession. Griffin's family had to downsize their home and give up the country club membership. There wasn't much money to spend on golf, let alone range balls. But his parents made sure there was a public golf course for him to use. "I would chip and putt all day," he said. "I would hit maybe a half bucket of balls for $5 or whatever it was, and my parents, they always considered themselves middle to upper class, but I knew there for a little bit when we lost our house, when we lost everything. I know they sacrificed a lot for me." The silver lining for Griffin? He became a short-game magician. He appreciates a good lawn Griffin moved last month from St. Simons Island, Ga., to Jupiter, Florida, and one of the benefits will be having a lawn in his backyard, where as a kid he liked to do some chipping. Griffin has a sponsorship deal with TruGreen, an official PGA Tour partner, and participated in the brand's marketing campaign alongside Patton Kizzire and Jason Day. "It was a very Hollywood experience," said Griffin, who is looking forward to getting the full TruGreen experience at his new pad. "I trust myself on a course, I've got to trust them with my lawn." Lifestyle change Griffin stopped drinking alcohol during the season and adopted a vegan diet at the suggestion of his girlfriend. 'Some people treat food like entertainment, but food is fuel. I eat for energy. Research says veganism helps with inflammation. I've never felt better,' he told Golf Digest. 'I needed to stop drinking during the season. I didn't have a drinking problem, but I was drinking like I was still in college. When you drink consistently, you think you feel good, but you don't. Now I feel incredible.' Distance gain is for real Griffin not only dropped the booze but started taking creatine. 'You still got to work really hard. I'm doing it more from the standpoint of muscle recovery, gaining muscle mass. You still have to work out if you're going to gain strength. It's not like the supplement is going to fix everything,' he said. 'But I would say on Tour probably 60 or 70 percent of guys are taking that substance." It's working. He's averaging 176 mph ball speed this year, up from 172 in 2024, and has gained about 17 yards off the tee. "The last three, four months, I really kind of locked in on that, trying to gain speed -- trying to still maintain flexibility and mobility. I mean, it's important. I'm on the road every week, I'm flying, I'm driving cars, none of it is good for my body. "My kind of goal has been to swing harder, get, like, a mile-per-hour faster or so every week or two. And I've just been on this nice trajectory right now. I'm trying not to push it too much, but definitely conscious of trying to hit it a little bit further. And I think I swing better when I hit it harder. It's weird, I feel like when I'm swinging hard I'm actually like hitting it kind of straighter. It's funky. Golf's a weird sport, but here I am. I guess I'm an athlete now," he said. Griffin pointed out that it was his hard work in the gym and not creatine, which has keyed his new-found length off the tee. 'I'm taking a bunch of different things. I passed my last drug test. I'm not doing anything illegal here from two weeks ago. I'm just trying to do the right things to take care of my body," he said. "I'm working out harder than I ever have, so I got to make sure I'm consuming a lot of protein. And, yeah, I feel like I'm doing the right things, just got to keep plugging along, and I'll keep taking creatine.'
Montreal Gazette
8 hours ago
- Health
- Montreal Gazette
Fitness: Fight back against Alzheimer's with exercise
It's never too early to lower the risk of Alzheimer's, which is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by memory loss and cognitive decline, and accounts for 60-80 per cent of dementia cases. With no cure in sight, the immediate focus is on prevention and delaying the disease's progression. Most preventative efforts centre around lifestyle changes relating to several modifiable risk factors, including diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity, smoking and inactivity. And since physical activity has an effect on all these risk factors, it's considered an important element in the fight against Alzheimer's, with studies reporting regular exercise reduces the risk of the disease by as much as 45 per cent. Exercise has long been associated with better mental acuity, largely because of the increase in blood flow to the brain. So even those who show no signs of memory deficit can experience a cognitive boost from a bout of exercise, though its effects largely dissipate within an hour or two post workout. As welcoming as those results are, it's the effects of years of regular exercise that can really make it a difference when it comes to Alzheimer's prevention. Habitual exercisers demonstrate less brain atrophy when compared with their sedentary age-matched peers, especially in the regions of the brain linked to learning and memory. As we age, brain volume naturally decreases as does blood flow to the brain, so any intervention that mitigates its shrinking and improves circulation through all areas of the brain potentially reduces memory loss. This is especially important during midlife when many of the neurological changes associated with Alzheimer's begin. Several studies have shown active older adults have more stable cerebral blood flow compared with their less active peers. But like most studies on the effect of exercise on health, information about the type, intensity and volume of exercise it takes to realize any benefits are the next logical steps in learning more about its efficacy. Yet, as the progression from when the disease first begins developing, to symptoms and then diagnosis can take decades, studying the effect of exercise on Alzheimer's isn't easy — or quick. But there are brain markers that signal physiological changes related to Alzheimer's and tests of cognitive performance that can suggest a predisposition to the disease, both of which can be used when testing the effect of exercise on brain health. Hoping to shed more light on Alzheimer's prevention and treatment, a team of researchers from the department of Kinesiology at the University of North Carolina analyzed the latest studies exploring the effect aerobic exercise and strength training have on brain function and structure. Much of the research on the effects exercise has on memory and brain health has focused on aerobic exercise, largely because of its ability to increase the delivery of oxygenated blood to the brain. A five-month exercise intervention reported significant improvements in cognitive skills and working memory in a group of older adults who went swimming twice a week when compared with those who participated in a stretching program. Similar results have been reported in adults already showing signs of memory loss, which suggests even in those already exhibiting symptoms of cognitive decline, aerobic exercise can offer marked improvement. The benefits of cardio on brain health have also been validated by sophisticated imaging. MRIs (magnetic resonance imaging) performed on 59 sedentary older adults assigned to an aerobic exercise group showed significant increases in brain volume (gray and white mass and hippocampal volume), which researchers suggest is enough to protect against 'one or two years of age-related atrophy.' 'These findings suggest that aerobic exercise preserves memory-related structures and maintains brain health and cognitive resilience in aging populations,' the researchers said. But it's not just cardio that increases brain function. Weight training, particularly workouts that build lower body strength, has also shown positive improvements in working memory and brain structures. As for exercise intensity and volume, workouts need to be at a moderate to high intensity and performed several times a week for brain function to improve. There's also some evidence physical activity that demands decision making (like sports) and/or a social element offers additional benefits. Interestingly, not all improvements to memory happen immediately post exercise. Studies that used extended follow-ups noted some results showed up only after 12 months of regular exercise. The propensity of evidence on the positive effects exercise has on the brain makes its role in brain health indisputable. But don't wait until you notice memory lapses to gear up your exercise routine. Given Alzheimer's can begin developing as early as 20 years prior to the onset of symptoms, the protective effects of exercise can be reaped well in advance of your golden years. Think of every workout as insurance against memory loss and the progressive decline in brain size that occurs with aging. 'Given the recognition that preclinical changes occur decades prior to the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and the lack of effective pharmacological treatments to prevent Alzheimer's disease, early intervention through lifestyle behaviours may be critical for preventing Alzheimer's disease in the growing population of older adults,' the researchers said.
Miami Herald
2 days ago
- Health
- Miami Herald
Five-decade study: Black girls build on preschool success, while Black boys struggle in some measures
Decades before the Trump administration forbade using federal funding for research into the topic, Craig Ramey wondered if high-quality early education for Black children in North Carolina might improve their life outcomes. Armed with a grant from the National Institutes of Health, Ramey established the Abecedarian Project at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. The study assigned infants, most of them Black, who had been born into low-income families between 1972 and 1977, to an intervention group that received full-time, high-quality child care from infancy through age 5. (The project name was drawn from an old-fashioned term meaning someone who is just learning their ABCs.) In the 1960s and '70s, researchers lacked a full understanding of why children from disadvantaged backgrounds had developmental delays compared to their more advantaged peers, said Ramey, now 81 and a professor and researcher at Virginia Tech. "What I wanted to address is whether we could prevent that delay from occurring in the first place," he said. The children in the intervention group received individualized prescriptions of educational activities and games that focused on social, emotional and cognitive areas of development, withe particular emphasis on language. Researchers tracked the participants well into their mid-40s, comparing them to a control group that did not receive the services. Their latest findings, published last year in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, found different results for Black boys and Black girls who were enrolled in the program. Both boys and girls in the early education intervention group showed significant gains through their elementary, middle and high school years. That finding matches that of other long-running early education research programs, such as the Perry Preschool Project, which tracked subjects in Ypsilanti, Michigan, from their toddler years into their 50s. Related: Young children have unique needs and providing the right care can be a challenge. Our free early childhood education newsletter tracks the issues. But the study also showed that while Black women continued to build on those cognitive gains into adulthood, the progress of Black men stalled out. By their mid-40s, the students' cognitive outcomes were significantly different, with Black women continuing to gain in IQ, reading and math skills while Black males wound up scoring the same as those in the control group - their gains virtually erased. "When boys hit adolescence they face some rocks in the road that are maybe different from what girls face," Ramey said. The latest research looked only at results on cognitive measures; other research into the Abecedarian participants found long-lasting positive outcomes in other areas, such as health and social development. What the Abecedarian Project showed, Ramey says, is that at-risk children don't have to enter the education system already further behind. "We can change that and we can change it much more dramatically with much bigger and with longer-lasting results than anyone would have bet 30 years ago," he said. "In part that's due to a lot of our findings, and I'm proud of that." But few, if any, programs have been able to successfully bridge that gender gap in long-term results. And now, many efforts to figure out how to support Black boys - or young Black children in general - are on the chopping block, as the Trump administration shuts down federal funding for research related to promoting educational equity. Related: Sending your boy to preschool is great for your grandson, new research shows Brian Wright, an associate professor and program coordinator for early education at the University of Memphis, said he has already had one research project canceled as a result of the Trump administration's sweeping elimination of federal grants and programs. That project, which would have been funded by the National Science Foundation, was to be a longitudinal study following kindergarteners through third grade to better understand, through a racial equity lens, their access and participation in STEM classes. In late April, the Trump administration told the National Science Foundation to stop awarding new grants and funding existing ones. In fact, few - if any - programs today provide low-income children of color with the level of support that the Abecedarian Project did. "I've been from the West Coast to the East Coast, I've interviewed teachers and families and children all over the nation," said Wright. "I get asked often this question of can I identify programs that are exemplars. I'm usually not able to do that." Wright's research has illuminated which elements are essential for such high-quality early education programs, starting with educators who have deep training in elevating and celebrating the culture, race and traditions of students of color, who create spaces for them to play, enjoy childhood and feel understood, and whose class libraries and lessons reflect students' own experiences and realities. Related: Behind the findings of the Tennessee pre-K study that found negative effects for graduates And for Black boys in particular, Wright said, these elements need to be paired with programs later in middle school and high school that preserve their childhood instead of rushing them through adolescence to prepare them for adulthood and the workforce. The question, however, is how much more of that work can be done under the current administration. Earlier this month, Wright and other policy experts and practitioners who focus on building high-quality education programs for students of color hosted a panel discussion at George Washington University to sound the alarm on the fact that not only is there a dearth of programs equipped to support Black boys, but federal officials are actively eliminating the best of those programs' practices. "There are pockets where these things exist, but there's certainly more work that needs to be done," Wright says. "The fact that we can't name programs that are exemplars is telling that we have a lot of work to do." This story about Black boys was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter. The post Five-decade study: Black girls build on preschool success, while Black boys struggle in some measures appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
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Business Standard
2 days ago
- Health
- Business Standard
AirPods Pro 3 could be Apple's next big health, fitness bet: What to expect
Recent research suggests, Apple could rely on acoustic-based sensors to offer heart rate monitoring feature on AirPods Pro 3 AirPods Pro 2 New Delhi Apple has published a new research paper in collaboration with the University of North Carolina, detailing how it is using an in-house artificial intelligence model—CLAP (Contrastive Language-Audio Pretraining)—to estimate heart rate using acoustic data, such as stethoscope recordings. Originally developed for automatic speech recognition, CLAP was retrained by Apple using publicly available phonocardiogram (PCG) datasets to classify heart-related sounds and output beats-per-minute (BPM) estimates. While Apple has not confirmed any commercial implementation, the technology could be applied to future wearable products, such as AirPods. Apple's earbuds already use in-ear microphones for features like Active Noise Cancellation, and these same mics could theoretically be leveraged to capture acoustic data for heart rate analysis. If brought to market, this would not be Apple's first foray into earbuds with health tracking features. Earlier this year, Apple-owned Beats launched the Powerbeats Pro 2, which includes heart-rate monitoring via optical sensors, similar to those found in smartwatches. However, if Apple integrates heart-rate tracking into its AirPods line-up, it could potentially rely on acoustic-based sensing instead of optical components. Apple's AirPods Pro are due for an upgrade, and heart-rate sensing may be just one of several new features. A Bloomberg report previously revealed that Apple is also working on integrating cameras into a future AirPods Pro model. These cameras could enable Apple's AI-driven Visual Intelligence system, designed to provide real-time assistance based on physical surroundings. Such technology could also offer accessibility benefits for visually impaired users—providing real-time navigation, object recognition, or contextual guidance. The current AirPods Pro 2 already offers several hearing health features. These include a software-based Hearing Aid function that supports users with mild to moderate hearing loss. This feature begins with a pure-tone audiometry-based Hearing Test to assess the user's hearing profile. It then adjusts audio playback in real time, enhancing voices, music, and calls based on the user's needs.
NDTV
3 days ago
- Business
- NDTV
"Good Days Are Over": Chinese Students After Trump's Crackdown On Visas
Beijing: Chinese students with offers from US universities expressed despair after Washington promised to start "aggressively" revoking Chinese student visas and ordered US missions abroad to stop scheduling new student visa appointments. If applied to a broad segment of the 277,000 Chinese students already at US colleges, the move could disrupt a major source of income for universities and a crucial pipeline of talent for US technology companies as the Trump administration pursues its hardline immigration agenda. "It's pretty absurd. It doesn't seem like something that should happen these days. I scrolled social media and felt quite anxious seeing other people's reactions," said Chen, 22, who has a postgraduate offer to study a humanities subject from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. "Although my major is not sensitive, my visa application process hasn't started yet and my course begins in early August." Chen, who lives in the southwestern megacity of Chengdu, is prepared to defer her studies for a term if the visa doesn't come through in time. She preferred not to share her full name for privacy reasons. "If I really can't go to the US, I may take up an offer from the UK's London School of Economics," she said. Reuters reported that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asked his department to pause the scheduling of student visa appointments until the department issues updated guidance on social media vetting of applicants. The news set off a wave of confusion and despair on China's Instagram-like platform RedNote, as incoming students scrambled to book the last remaining visa interview slots and others complained that they could no longer book. Wu said she stayed up until 3 a.m. on Wednesday frantically refreshing the webpage until she managed to snag a precious mid-June interview slot at the US Consulate in Shanghai. "At nearly midnight I saw the news and immediately started booking, the page crashed several times," she told Reuters. The 29-year-old biology student, who preferred not to share her full name for privacy reasons, has an offer from the University of Minnesota Duluth and no back-up plan if her visa is rejected. The cable, signed by Rubio, said previously scheduled appointments may proceed but did not specify when the interview booking system would resume. Nor did Rubio specify when the visa revocations would begin. "The Department's scheduling of nonimmigrant visa interview appointments is dynamic," a State Department spokesperson said in response to Reuters' questions about the suspension of appointments. "Visa applicants may continue to submit applications. Consular sections constantly adjust their schedules to allow for sufficient time to fully vet the cases before them." The spokesperson added that the Trump administration was focused on "upholding the highest standards of national security and public safety through our visa process." Running out of time The announcement comes at a critical period in the international student application process, as many young people prepare to travel to the US in August to find accommodation and settle in before term starts. "I was super looking forward to starting my university life but then all this happened," said a Beijing high school senior with a media studies offer from Ohio State University, who declined to give her name for privacy reasons. "I still need 1-2 months to apply for my visa, term starts soon and I have no time left, it's really a disaster out of nowhere and really unfair to international students." In their posts on RedNote, a few Chinese social media users also reported additional scrutiny of their listed social media accounts from US consular officials during visa interviews this week. In Beijing, the foreign ministry condemned the measures against Chinese students and said it had lodged protests with the US "The US side, using ideology and national security as an excuse, irrationally revoked Chinese international student visas," Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a briefing on Thursday. "Its politically discriminatory practices pierce through the so-called freedom of speech it has always flaunted, this will only further damage its international image and reputation." China is also at the epicentre of Trump's global trade war that has roiled financial markets, upended supply chains and fuelled risks of a global economic downturn. The decision to cancel Chinese student visas is happening despite a recent pause in the US-China trade dispute. International students - 54% of them from India and China - contributed more than $50 billion to the US economy in 2023, according to the US Department of Commerce. "It is superpower suicide to stop the best foreign minds from coming to the United States and using their talents to propel American prosperity and technological advantage," Rush Doshi, a former Biden administration China official and assistant professor at Georgetown University, wrote on X on Wednesday. "The iron fist has come down," wrote an anonymous Chinese PhD student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison on RedNote on Thursday. "The good days are over and a new round of hard times will begin for international students."
