June 18, 2001
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Sunny Days at the Stock Exchange give lift to the stock market – When the sun is shining on Wall Street, it does more than put the brokers in a good mood – it also gives a lift to the stock market. A study by David Hirshleifer, the Kurtz Chair in Finance at Ohio State University’s Fisher College of Business finds that morning sunshine at the sites of 26 leading stock exchanges around the world, including the New York Stock Exchange, is linked to positive market returns that day. The results showed that the daily difference in expected market returns between a completely overcast day and a sunny day is nine basis points (0.088 percent), or an annualized excess return of 24.8 percent. Hirschleifer says “there’s a great deal of evidence from psychology that sunshine helps put people in a good mood, and people in good moods make more optimistic choices and judgments.” Contact: David Hirshleifer, (614) 292-5174. http://www.osu.edu/researchnews/archive/sunstock.htm
Ohio State researchers win major grant to study lupus – A multidisciplinary team of researchers at The Ohio State College of Medicine and Public Health has received a $4.6 million dollar grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study the causes and progression of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), better known as lupus. Lupus is an autoimmune disease, where the body’s own immune system attacks multiple organs. Dr. Lee Hebert, director of the division of nephrology and principal investigator of the grant, says the goals of the study include the identification of the genetic factors which affect whether a patient’s lupus will be mild or severe, the clinical and environmental factors that trigger lupus relapse and the best means to predict when a relapse will occur. The Ohio State team will be working closely with community-based physicians and hospitals across the state to recruit at least 500 patients and their families to the study. Contact: Michelle Gailiun, Medical Center Communications (614)293-3737.
James Cancer Hospital offers caregivers program – June 21-July 5. Caregivers of cancer patients can learn new skills, hear about community resources and share ideas with others during a three-part course offered by the Arthur G. James Cancer Hospital and Richard J. Solove Research Institute. Classes will be held at the Medical Center’s Battelle location from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. on three consecutive Thursday evenings, June 21, 28 and July 5. Oncology professionals will lead the sessions, which focus on planning, problem solving and hands-on skills. Contact: Susan Scritchfield, program coordinator, (614) 293-3259.
Campus hosts Special Olympics – June 22-24. More than 10,000 spectators are expected to descend on the Ohio State campus to watch 2,700 athletes compete in the 2001 Special Olympics Ohio State Summer Games. The athletes, along with 1,500 coaches, come from 122 organizations in Ohio. Special Olympics athletes will compete in 11 different sports during the weekend. Competition begins Friday afternoon and continues through Sunday at noon. Opening ceremonies take place at 6:30 p.m. on Friday at St. John Arena. The ceremonies feature a parade of athletes, entertainment and the culmination of the Law Enforcement Torch Run. Contact: Special Olympics Ohio, (614) 239-7050. A schedule is at http://www.ohiospoly.org/index.html
Live from OSU: What’d Ya Know? – June 23. What’d Ya Know?, a nationally syndicated radio comedy/quiz show, will broadcast live from Mershon Auditorium from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday (6/23). The weekly public radio program, carried by more than 300 public radio stations, features host and quizmaster Michael Feldman as he invites callers and audience members to compete for pink plastic lawn flamingos and other “useless prizes.” Mixed with musical elements, the program also includes “All the News that Isn’t,” “Thanks for the Memos” and other fun. The broadcast is a joint presentation of Columbus public broadcast stations WOSU-AM and WCBE-FM. Contact: Paul Anthony, WOSU, (614) 292-9678.
Helicopter drops golf balls to benefit cancer research – June 25. The 19th Annual Herbert J. Block Memorial Golf Tournament will be held on Monday (6/25) at the Winding Hollow Country Club in New Albany. The tournament features a ball drop at 6:15 p.m. Golf balls are sold for $20 and are dropped from a helicopter as players and guests gather for dinner. The owner of the ball that falls closest to the pin wins $2,000. OSU Head Football Coach Jim Tressel is this year’s honorary chair. The Block Memorial Tournament was established in 1983 in memory of Herbert J. Block, who died of cancer in 1981. Since it’s inception, the tournament has raised over $1.2 million for cancer research and education at The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research Institute. Contact: Michelle Gailiun, Medical Center Communications, (614) 293-3737.
The person listed as Contact will have the best information about the story. Call on our media relations staff for help with any Ohio State story – Elizabeth Conlisk, (614) 292-3040; Amy Murray, (614) 292-8385; Lesley Deaderick, (614) 292-0569; Karissa Shivley, (614) 292-8295, and Shannon Wingard, (614) 247-6821.
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