Competitor Magazine
Researchers at Appalachian State University have proven that a natural antioxidant derived from plants is able to reduce illness and maintain mental performance in physically stressed test subjects. Read full story

Collegiate Newswire
Today at Digital Music Forum East, Ruckus Network, Inc., the provider of the premier college-only multimedia service, released data that demonstrates the rapid and significant proliferation of its free and legal music downloading service, Ruckus(R), on colleges and university campuses across the United States, where both administrators and students are realizing the many benefits the service provides.

The Ruckus community now comprises several hundred thousand members and has grown by more than 33 percent in the past six weeks alone. The Ruckus service also continues to expand, giving Ruckus members easy and immediate access to the library of more than 2.5 million high fidelity, virus-free music tracks from every major label, as well as an impressive and expansive list of independent labels. An analysis of current member activity reveals that in the last thirty days, 22.7 million tracks have been legally downloaded through Ruckus.

At Appalachian State University, 7,100 students have become Ruckus members and have legally downloaded more than 2.3 million songs. Read full story

Chronicle of Higher Education
Poor Narcissus: He could only gaze into a pool. Today’s college students can watch themselves endlessly on Flickr, MySpace, and YouTube on their 27-inch, flat-screen LCD monitors.

But does that make them narcissists?

Jean M. Twenge, an associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, says gadgets and online social-networking sites have stoked the self-loving tendencies of modern students, known as “Millennials.” On Tuesday, Ms. Twenge unveiled her findings from a new study that describes this wired and coddled generation as the most narcissistic in recent history.

David P. Haney, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at Appalachian State University, believes that students are not as easily defined as Ms. Twenge’s study suggests.

“There are a lot more opportunities for students to display their narcissism publicly, but that doesn’t mean they’re more narcissistic,” Mr. Haney says. “Technology’s not all that they’re doing: They go and do their homework, they have friends, they play sports.”

He describes the current generation, like its Baby Boomer parents, as a bundle of contradictions. Read full story

Asheville Citizen-Times

Appalachian State University will offer a degree in actuarial sciences beginning in August. The bachelor of science degree will be based in the Department of Mathematical Sciences.

In addition to courses offered in the math department, students also will take courses from the Department of Finance, Banking and Insurance.

“We have built this major from the ground up, following guidelines of the Society of Actuaries,” said Mark Ginn, chairman of Appalachian’s Department of Mathematical Sciences. “Currently, it’s the only one of its kind at any of the UNC system schools. Several have what we had in the past, where students who wanted to be actuaries majored in math and took business electives.” Read full story

Drug Newswire
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., Feb. 15 /PRNewswire/ — A study funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and recently released by researchers at Appalachian State University showed that the natural, plant-based flavonoid antioxidant quercetin reduced illness and helped maintain mental performance in physically-stressed test subjects. The clinical study was double-blind and placebo-controlled, and involved 40 test subjects who were subjected to extreme physical stress situations during a five week period.   Read full story