UO E-clips, Feb. 13

UO reaches lucrative advertising agreement (Register-Guard): The University of Oregon has signed a new marketing deal for Duck athletics that will boost revenue by millions of dollars and help meet income projections for its proposed new basketball arena. The 10-year contract with IMG College will earn the university a total of $67.1 million from local broadcast rights, advertising, signage, sponsorships and promotions. Included in that amount is $4 million for video boards in the new basketball arena and a guaranteed $2.5 million for the naming rights to the UO’s new baseball field. UO Athletic Director Pat Kilkenny said the deal shows that the work that has gone into building Oregon athletics into a recognized program is paying off.

Females dominate domestic partnership rolls (Register-Guard): Jet Harris admits she noticed the discrepancy as she and Katherine Swem waited in line with dozens of others to register as domestic partners a week ago Monday: so many women, so few men. “It seemed par for the course for Eugene,” said Harris, an attorney. “There are just a lot more lesbians than gay men here.” … Judith Raiskin, associate professor in the Women’s and Gender Studies program at the University of Oregon, said every lesbian couple she knows who has registered as partners has children.

Approve UO arena bonds (Register-Guard editorial): The University of Oregon shot itself in the foot by failing to disclose until last week the existence of a less-than-rosy analysis of revenue-generating projections for a proposed new basketball arena. But the wound shouldn’t prove fatal to the UO’s request that the Oregon Legislature approve $200 million in state-backed bonds to replace 81-year-old Mac Court. The UO should have made public the EcoNorthwest analysis of UO arena revenues when it was completed in 2004, or, at a minimum, before taking its bonding request to the Legislative Fiscal Office and the Joint Ways & Means Committee earlier this year.

UO's $12 million offer (The Oregonian): University of Oregon officials have offered to build a $12 million reserve fund to help repay bonds for a new basketball arena if ticket sales don't meet expectations. The offer, made by UO President Dave Frohnmayer in a letter to lawmakers, is aimed at allaying concerns that state taxpayers could be on the hook for the arena's construction cost, estimated at $200 million. It came after reports in The Oregonian about conflicting economic reports on how much money the university could expect from sales of tickets to games, concerts and other events.

We're No.5 (Register-Guard): Eugene’s green cred got a PR boost this week on another best-places list in a national magazine. The city came in fifth (behind Oakland, Calif., ahead of Austin, Texas, and Boulder, Colo.) in a top 50 green cities ranking published by Popular Science in its March edition. The magazine is available on news stands this week. … The listing is a specific compliment to the Eugene Water & Electric Board, the local public utility, said Bob Doppelt, director of Resource Innovations and the Climate Leadership Initiative at the University of Oregon.

Public hears about growth boundary (Durango, Colo., Herald): The Durango City Council and the La Plata County Board of Commissioners met Tuesday to explore the possibility of a designated urban-growth boundary some time in the county's future. Consultant Terry Moore, a professor of planning at the University of Oregon, gave a presentation to the elected officials and a crowd of about 25. He gave a similar presentation to the public Monday night. Moore said his home state has about 250 urban-growth boundary municipalities, but the policy is a state law in Oregon. The process could be much more difficult in Colorado, which Moore described as "voluntary regionalism."

Shhh! The scope is on the job (The Oregonian): In his provocative style, physicist Richard Feynman gave a lecture in 1959 confidently predicting the day when people would build microscopes powerful enough to see individual atoms. "It is not impossible," Feynman said. "It is not against the laws of diffraction of the electron." … Next week, the University of Oregon will unveil a $16 million laboratory painstakingly built to provide an ultra-quiet, vibration-free environment for imaging atoms and exploring materials at the nano scale.

Zebrafish study helps explain muscle development (Daily Emerald): University researchers recently came closer to understanding how a tissue necessary for survival develops. It turns out that cells have to be in the right place at the right time. University researchers found the link between what was known about the regulation of the initial steps of muscle formation and the actual differentiation of muscle cells, said Monte Westerfield, the lead author of the study. Researchers discovered how the timing of development is regulated by using zebrafish embryos.

U.S. researchers find mechanism tied to cleft palate (China View): By creating a genetic mutation in zebrafish, University of Oregon scientists discovered a previously unknown mechanism for cleft palate, a common birth defect in humans. Many molecular pathways in zebrafish are present in humans and other vertebrates. By studying the induced mutation in zebrafish, the research team isolated a disruption in early developmental signaling involving Pdgf, a platelet-derived growth-factor protein, and a microRNA known as Mirn140, scientists said in an on-line paper of journal Nature Genetics on Tuesday.