07.02.08
Posted in The Oscar Show at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, written by Karen Doss Bowman is a freelance writer living in Bridgewater, VA, we look at Rachael Beaton, a first year grad student at the University of Virginia, whose galactic discoveries have earned her international attention.
First-year graduate students aren’t usually given historic research assignments. But after years of waiting for the opportunity to make their first observation on the Large Binocular Telescope or LBT, in Tucson, Ariz., UVa’s astronomy faculty voted last fall to bestow the honor on first-year graduate student Rachael Beaton (Astronomy-Physics, Mathematics ’07, MS Astronomy ’10).
A Rising Star in Astronomy [5:42m]:
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Beaton used the LBT, whose construction was completed last fall and is the world’s largest optical telescope in which the University shares ownership, to take images of one of the breakthrough discoveries she had made before receiving her undergraduate degree, a dwarf galaxy she had discovered in 2006.
Beaton, a Jefferson Scholars Graduate Fellow said, “I was very flattered to be the first astronomer from UVa to receive data from the LBT. While realizing how significant it is to have the first UVa observations taken with the LBT, I suppose my main excitement is having the potential to learn so much more about the galaxy itself.”
Beaton found the unusual dwarf galaxy, dubbed Andromeda XIV, while conducting a survey of the large Andromeda galaxy, which scientists call “M31”, a Milky-Way neighbor about 2.5 million light-years from Earth and thought to be the largest of the “Local Group” of galaxies.
While most nearby dwarf galaxies appear to be satellites bound by gravity to larger, Local Group galaxies such as M31 or the Milky Way, Andromeda XIV seems to be moving too fast to be bound to either system.
Beaton said, “Andromeda XIV may be falling into the Local Group for the first time or even just passing through, making Andromeda XIV an “intergalactic rogue” with a unique life story compared to nearby star systems.” She added, “…another possibility is that M31 may be more massive and exert a much stronger gravitational pull than astronomers thought.
Her adviser Steven Majewski, professor of astronomy said, “either result would be interesting, because of what scientists might learn about the nature of dwarf galaxies and the evolution of galaxy systems in the Local Group. Beaton’s data from the LBT may help resolve the mystery.”
Finding Andromeda XIV isn’t Beaton’s only contribution to the field. In the 1990s, M31’s status as a twin and research model for the Milky Way was shaken when astronomers, including Professor of Astronomy Michael Skrutskie, discovered that our home galaxy contained a bar-shaped formation of stars in the center.
Beaton settled the debate in 2005 when she found a similar bar in M31 using data from a large infrared survey of the sky led by Professor Skrutskie. As a result, in March 2006 Beaton was invited to Marseilles, France, to work with world-renowned astronomer Lia Athanassoula, an expert in galactic bars. Beaton also presented her work at the Universitas 21 Undergraduate Research Conference in Brisbane, Australia.
Described by Majewski as a “phenomenal student” with enviable organizational skills, Beaton is committed to mentoring young scientists at the high school and college levels. She also a well rounded person who has been active in the Cavalier Marching Band and the University’s chapter of Kappa Kappa Psi, a national music fraternity.
With at least four years of graduate studies ahead, Beaton is not making firm career plans but will continue studying M31 and Andromeda XIV. She loves doing research, and her discoveries have only fueled her scientific curiosity.
Beaton said, “Discoveries like these often pose more questions than they answer. So, what I felt at the initial moment of discovery was an overwhelming sense of the potential these could have in my field—a sort of wide-eyed awe at what these discoveries could do.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will well look at a recent Center for Politics event, “Reconsidering the Presidency” held at the University of Virginia in April 2008.
For more information about scholarship, creativity and research, please visit www.oscar.virginia.edu. Did you miss a show? Then go to www.wtju.net and click on “blogs & pods” or visit www.cvillepodcast.com. Question about this program; please call WTJU at 434-924-0885 or email at wtju@virginia.edu.
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06.25.08
Posted in The Oscar Show at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, written by Matt Kelly, Writer for the UVa News Department, we look at Philander D. Chase, who recently retired as senior editor of the Papers of George Washington, housed at the University of Virginia’s Alderman Library.
Philander D. Chase has spent 35 years in George Washington’s world — and he’s not done yet. “Being a documentary editor is a life, not a career,” Chase said.
Never Ending Chase [6:16m]:
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Chase, 65, recently retired as senior editor of the Papers of George Washington, housed at the University of Virginia’s Alderman Library. Chase said he will miss the “research, writing, collaboration and interacting with the public.
But he does not lack for work. He plans to use some of the Washington archive to write a book about Baron Friedrich von Steuben, a Prussian drillmaster who molded Washington’s army at Valley Forge. He is also continuing to work on the 19th volume of the Washington Papers’ Revolutionary War series.
Theodore Crackel, editor-in-chief of the Papers of George Washington, described Chase as the institutional memory of the project. He also said, “one of the most remarkable things about Phil was his readiness to help anybody. He would work with historian and author, David McCullough, or a high school student with equal enthusiasm.
Crackel said, “Chase launched the Revolutionary War series of the Washington Papers and has trained just about every editor since 1983. He has also developed into a leading expert on the Revolutionary War, as well as an expert on Steuben and Henry ‘Light Horse Harry’ Lee. His retirement will be a great loss to us in that way.”
Having earned a Ph.D. in history at Duke University, Chase came to Charlottesville in 1973 for a one-year fellowship at the Papers of George Washington as a documentary editor, a job he said requires “academic training and hands-on experience.
Chase said, “Then I stayed on for another year with funding from the University and from the Mount Vernon Ladies Association of the Union. I’ve been ’staying for another year’ for 35 years.”
Chase’s work involves stories, transcribing the writings of Washington and the people around him, interpreting damaged or smudged words and determining a document’s meaning through background and context. While describing documentary editing as “technical and tedious,” he said the reward is “getting to know historical figures as people. Aside from affairs of state, Chase said Washington’s writings range from cryptic to mundane to deeply personal.
Washington could be cryptic to be “deliberately restrained and tactful, not divulging his full feelings on matters,” Chase said. Other entries dealt with the weather, what crops were planted where and who had visited. “These are mundane, but they offer a look at the rhythm of Washington’s life,” Chase said. Washington also detailed the life and death of his stepdaughter, Patsy, an epileptic who died from a seizure in 1773. Washington kept a record of her “fits” on his calendar, and noted when they got worse.
You learn how much human nature is the same and that their reactions are not unique,” Chase said. “They had difficulties they endured and got through. You get a more realistic feel about them.”
Even people more than 200 years dead can still surprise, as new documents surface and old ones are re-interpreted. “It never fails,” Chase said. “By the time you understand a document, it turns out to be something else.
Editors are attracted to specific writings, and Chase said he has cherished documents in each of the volumes of the Washington Papers. He specifically cited a passage, “There is no restraining the pens or tongues of men when they are charged with a little vanity,” an observation of Washington’s from 1775.
Chase said the 18th century is “an ideal time in which to work,” because of the amount of written material available. The men and women who played leading roles in forming the union were dedicated to communicating their thoughts and ideas. “They had a sense of what was important,” he said.
By contrast, future historians examining this era may suffer; current electronic archives will be hard to maintain over the years, he said, and much correspondence by e-mail is simply eliminated and telephone conversations are not recorded.
Chase said, We may not have access to a lot of documents. This is the information age, but we may end up knowing less than from the era of the quill pen.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will well look at we look at Rachael Beaton, a first year grad student at the University of Virginia, whose galactic discoveries have earned her international attention.
For more information about scholarship, creativity and research, please visit www.oscar.virginia.edu. Did you miss a show? Then go to www.wtju.net and click on “blogs & pods” or visit www.cvillepodcast.com. Question about this program; please call WTJU at 434-924-0885 or email at wtju@virginia.edu.
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06.18.08
Posted in The Oscar Show at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, adapted from an article written by Fariss Samarrai, Senior News Officer for the UVa News Department, we look at a University of Virginia study, which indicates that air pollution from power plants and automobiles is destroying the fragrance of flowers and thereby possibly inhibiting the ability of pollinating insects to locate flowers, and may partially explain why certain populations of these pollinators are on the decline.
Of the five senses, smell is one that is sometimes taken for granted in our everyday lives. For most animals, the ability to distinguish scents is a large part of their everyday survival function, as has been attested to in an earlier broadcast entitled, “Inside the brain of crayfish.” For insects, the same is true.
Flowers Fragrance Diminished by Air Pollution [5:20m]:
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A study by Jose D. Fuentes, a professor of environmental sciences at the University of Virginia, and his team of U.Va. researchers, including Quinn McFrederick and James Kathilankal, indicates that air pollution from power plants and automobiles is diminishing the scents of flowers and reducing the distance that flower scents can travel with the wind. They believe that this may be a factor in the declining populations of some wild pollinators, particularly bees – which need nectar for food –in several areas of the world, including California and the Netherlands.
Their study is funded by the National Science Foundation, and appears online in the journal Atmospheric Environment.
Fuentes said, “The scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment, such as in the 1800s, could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 meters; but in today’s polluted environment downwind of major cites, they may travel only 200 to 300 meters. This makes it increasingly difficult for pollinators to locate the flowers.”
The result, potentially, is a vicious cycle where pollinators struggle to find enough food to sustain their populations, and populations of flowering plants, in turn, do not get pollinated sufficiently to proliferate and diversify.
Other studies, as well as the actual experience of farmers, have shown that populations of bees, particularly bumblebees, and butterflies have declined greatly in recent years. To investigate this, the U.Va. scientists created a mathematical model of how the scents of flowers travel with the wind. The scent molecules produced by flowers are very volatile and they quickly bond with pollutants such as ozone, hydroxyl and nitrate radicals, which destroy the aromas they produce.
This means that instead of traveling intact for long distances with the wind, the scents are chemically altered and the flowers, in a sense, no longer smell like flowers. This forces pollinators to search farther and longer and possibly to rely more on sight and less on smell.
The scientists calculated scent levels and distances that scents can travel under different conditions, from relatively unpolluted pre-industrial revolution levels, to the conditions now existing in rural areas downwind from large cities.
Fuentes said, “It quickly became apparent that air pollution destroys the aroma of flowers, by as much as 90 percent from periods before automobiles and heavy industry. And the more air pollution there is in a region, the greater the destruction of the flower scents.”
So as the industrial age continues, and emerging economies such as China and its reliance on coal fired power plants proliferate; the ecological balance, so precious to the sustainability of the earth will be under attack.
The question remains, will the industrialized nations of the world recognized the impact we have on the world and develop technologies to protect the environment? Or, will we ebb even closer to an ecological doomsday?
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will well look at Philander D. Chase, who recently retired as senior editor of the Papers of George Washington, housed at the University of Virginia’s Alderman Library.
For more information about scholarship, creativity and research, please visit www.oscar.virginia.edu. Did you miss a show? Then go to www.wtju.net and click on “blogs & pods” or visit www.cvillepodcast.com. Question about this program; please call WTJU at 434-924-0885 or email at wtju@virginia.edu.
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06.11.08
Posted in Jacob Canon, Skinner, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, history, restoration at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, written by Jane Ford, Senior News Officer for the UVa News Department, we celebrate the one hundred-year anniversary of the E.M. Skinner Organ, which was installed in UVa’s Cabell Hall in 1907.
Skinner Organ [6:39m]:
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AUDIO SLIDE SHOW: E.M. Skinner Organ Celebrates 100 Years
On March 29th, 2008, UVa celebrated the 100th anniversary of the E.M. Skinner Organ, an iconic fixture of the University of Virginia since its installation at Cabell Hall in 1907. At the turn of the 20th century, pipe organs were models of cutting-edge technology and American engineering, an organ expert told an audience celebrating the 100th anniversary of the E.M. Skinner organ.
Laurence Libin, research curator emeritus of musical instruments at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, said, “I have come to congratulate the University of Virginia… This is really a monument. The organ here is a benchmark of American taste and ingenuity.” He added that there could be no better place to have the instrument than at a University, where engineering, architecture, music and other disciplines could play a role in the “wider scope of inquiry” and “create benchmarks for future evaluation of the state of the organ. At 100 years it has a lot to teach us.”
The March 29 tribute included organ historian Barbara Owen, who said, “The organ was a gift to the University from Andrew Carnegie, the man who built a steel empire and spent his later years as a philanthropist. Valued at $7,000 at the time, it is estimated that to replace it today with an organ of that complexity and workmanship would cost in excess of $600,000.”
The session was concluded with U.Va. associate professor emeritus of music Donald Loach presenting a history of Skinner’s organ at the University. Loach shared details about the 1907 dedication recitals, at which University President Edwin A. Alderman and Skinner gave brief remarks before Samuel L. Baldwin, organist of the Church of the Holy Trinity in Brooklyn, N.Y. performed musical selections chosen to highlight the organ’s special features. Loach delighted the audience with recordings from the rededication concert held in 1983 and from a second rededication concert in 2000.
Following the symposium, evening concertgoers were entertained with a recital by organist Ken Cowan of Westminster Choir College, who played music contemporary with the time of its installation that showcased the instrument’s unique features.
Paul Walker, who teaches organ at the university said, “Ken Cowan’s recital was amazing. The music he played was most appropriate to the organ and the time when it was installed, and his program brought out the organ’s obvious strengths: a deep, rich tone and colorful solo stops. Most impressive to me was Cowan’s own transcription of the Mephisto Waltz #1 of Franz Liszt, a technical tour-de-force which made dazzling use of the organ’s resources. The audience particularly responded to Cowan’s encore, a piece by George Thalben-Ball played almost entirely by the feet.”
The U.Va. organ, although built in the early years of Skinner’s long career of organ-building, incorporates unique innovations that he continued to pursue throughout his career. It boasts a movable console of the rare “batwing type” as well as more than 1,500 pipes, ranging from three-quarters of an inch to 16 feet in length; a piston system with combinations set by Skinner and features one of the first examples of his famous “Erzahler” stops, said Owen. The Erzahler is his first foray into creating tonal color by adding the sounds of orchestral instruments, such as French and English horns, oboes, clarinets, strings and flutes.
Loach, who played a major role in preserving the Skinner organ, noted that while it was primarily used at ceremonial occasions such as baccalaureate ceremonies, it was included in several musical performances and served as a practice instrument for budding student organists. Occasionally, after a full rehearsal of the Glee Club in the auditorium, he would play a few pieces on the organ which “the boys seemed to really enjoy,” he said.
Only a few years later, one of those students, William R. Piper, class of 1977, offered funds to restore it. The two-year project was completed in 1983. Loach oversaw the work conducted by the A. Thompson-Allen Organ Company of New Haven, Conn. The goal was “not to improve or alter the tonal or mechanical character of the instrument.” Leather membranes were replaced, new valves were installed and springs and pipes were cleaned and refinished.
After a remodeling of Cabell Hall in the 1990s a new restoration was instigated by Marita McClymonds, acting chairman of the Music Department, and begun in 1998 by Xaver A. Wilhelmy of Satunton, Va. A second rededication on Sept. 15, 2000 featured organist Peggy Kelley Reinburg. The organ continues to be played occasionally for concerts.
Libin said, “The organ here is irreplaceable and historical. Skinner’s vision was in the vanguard a century ago. Organs like this just aren’t built any more.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when we look at a University of Virginia study, which indicates that air pollution from power plants and automobiles is destroying the fragrance of flowers and thereby possibly inhibiting the ability of pollinating insects to locate flowers, and may partially explain why certain populations of these pollinators are on the decline.
For more information about scholarship, creativity and research, please visit www.oscar.virginia.edu. Did you miss a show? Then go to www.wtju.net and click on “blogs & pods” or visit www.cvillepodcast.com. Question about this program; please call WTJU at 434-924-0885 or email at wtju@virginia.edu.
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06.04.08
Posted in Jacob Canon, Nursing, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, written by Jane Ford, Senior News Officer for the UVa News Department, we look at Dorrie K. Fontaine, recently named Dean of UVa’s School of Nursing, and her career advocating better care for critically ill patients.
Dorrie K. Fontaine, who has dedicated much of her 36-year nursing career to advocating for better care for critically ill patients, will become dean of the University of Virginia’s School of Nursing on Aug. 1. Fontaine currently serves as associate dean for academic programs at the University of California-San Francisco School of Nursing.
Dorrie Fontaine [6:05m]:
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Fontaine succeeds Jeanette Lancaster, UVa’s legendary, and longest-serving dean, who UVa President, John Casteen credited “for helping to attract a robust pool of applicants vying to succeed her. In selecting Dorrie Fontaine, the University has chosen a most worthy successor. She is an accomplished scholar, dedicated clinician, and collaborative and innovative administrator who has succeeded in her every endeavor.”
Casteen added that Fontaine’s recent work at UCSF aligns closely with the themes of the UVa’s Commission on the Future of the University. He said, “Dorrie led UCSF’s efforts to promote inter-professional education across the schools of medicine, dentistry, nursing and pharmacy, while keeping a close eye on her own scholarly research interests.”
Fontaine, a career registered nurse received her first degree in 1972 from Villanova University. She then earned her master’s degree in nursing at the University of Maryland at Baltimore (1977) and Ph.D. at The Catholic University (1987). In 2006, she attended the Harvard Graduate Institute of Higher Education, Management and Leadership in Education Program. She was inducted as a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in 1995.
In laying out Fontaine’s goals for the next five years, Dr. Arthur Garson Jr., the University’s executive vice president and provost, said “Given Dorrie’s track record and her passion for the subject, I feel confident that she will solidify the University of Virginia’s position as a national model for interaction of health professionals in practice, teaching and development of new knowledge.”
Fontaine’s research focuses on comfort for critically ill patients, pain relief and family presence at end of life. Another key interest is promoting healthy work environments for nurses and hospital colleagues. A leader in developing the national Standards for a Healthy Work Environment with the American Association of Critical Care Nurses in 2005, she believes that one of her great strengths will be to bring those values to the academic setting of the University. Fontaine served as president of AACN, the largest specialty nursing organization in the world, in 2003-04.
Fontaine said, “I was first attracted to the University of Virginia because it is a world-class university, but what really excites me is its strong reputation for and success in bringing together undergraduate education and research.”
Fontaine cites the challenges of the nursing shortage as an area on which she plans to focus. She said, “The health care crisis is currently fueled by a chronic shortage of nurses. Being at such a high-profile institution with such an outstanding School of Medicine and medical center, I believe that we will have the opportunity to work together to do great things in nursing for Virginia, the nation and the world.”
Fontaine, who has written and spoken extensively on health care issues, currently is the primary investigator on a $9.7 million grant to implement an accelerated doctoral program in nursing. She also has continued to teach a course on leadership and for the past four years has delivered classroom lectures on the importance of family to patients near death.
Throughout her career she has been active in numerous professional organizations as well as public service and diversity initiatives at the institutions she has served. She has been a member of the UCSF School of Nursing’s Diversity Task Force for five years, during that time researching the curriculum to address diversity.
Fontaine said, “We are currently implementing a series of modules on curriculum and diversity to be taught in a teaching seminar series over the academic year. I am surrounded by diversity in every way and use these perspectives on a daily basis.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will well we celebrate the one hundred-year anniversary of the E.M. Skinner Organ, which was installed in UVa’s Cabell Hall in 1907.
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05.28.08
Posted in Biology at the University of Virginia, Jacob Canon, The Oscar Show, U.Va. Patent Foundation, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, pharmaceutical, physical health, technology at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, written by Morgan Ellen Estabrook, outreach and communications manager for the U.Va. Patent Foundation, we look at Dr. George T. Rodeheaver and PluroGel™, his patented gel which reduces suffering and improves the recovery of burn victims and patients with chronic wounds.
The Edlich-Henderson Inventor of the Year award, the highest honor bestowed by the U.Va. Patent Foundation, recognizes an inventor or team of inventors each year whose technology has proven to be of notable value to society. This year, Dr. George T. Rodeheaver was honored May 19th at the UVa Patent Foundation’s annual awards banquet at the Boar’s Head Inn in Charlottesville.
Rodeheaver and PluraGel [5:09m]:
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Robert S. MacWright, executive director of the UVa Patent Foundation, said, “…Dr. Rodeheaver was chosen for this top honor because of his work to reduce the suffering and improve the recovery of burn victims and patients with chronic wounds. This work has made a big difference for patients at the U.Va. Health System, and Dr. Rodeheaver’s continued efforts will bring its benefits to patients everywhere.”
Dr. Rodeheaver, the Richard F. Edlich Professor of Biomedical Research, said he is especially thrilled to have been selected as the winner of an award named in part for his friend and long-time collaborator. “This award is not only an honor for me but also a tribute to Dr. Edlich, who has made so many contributions to emergency medicine over the years.”
Dr. Rodeheaver’s most notable invention is an ahead-of-its-time antimicrobial gel that has proven significantly more effective than existing therapies in treating severe burns and chronic wounds, such as diabetic ulcers, pressure ulcers and venous leg ulcers.
Trade-named PluroGel™, the topical treatment is unique in that it thickens at high temperatures (such as body temperature) and liquefies at cooler temperatures. As a result, PluroGel effectively delivers healing medication when applied to the body but is easily removed by cool water, making it much less painful to remove than existing therapies.
Dr. Rodeheaver’s innovative technology, for which he received a full U.S. patent in 1997, has been used to treat patients throughout the U.Va. Health System. More than 2,000 patients — some referred from up to 400 miles away to receive the treatment — have benefited from the invention.
Rodeheaver said, “The technology has had a dramatic impact so far. The fact is that in our burn center, we have been able to eliminate infection, which was the leading cause of death 15 years ago. And we have had great success in healing chronic wounds, many of which, with traditional remedies, had not healed for numerous years.”
Because of the level of success achieved within the U.Va. Health System, Rodeheaver has worked diligently to commercialize the technology through a start-up company, PluroGen Therapeutics Inc., which he founded with associate professor Adam J. Katz, M.D., also of the Department of Plastic Surgery. PluroGen is currently seeking Federal Drug Administration approval on the product so that it can be made available commercially to the public, beyond the University hospital.
After 36 years at the University and over 200 journal articles, Rodeheaver, who was filling out a grant application when he received word of his award said, he continues to enjoy pushing forward on the frontiers of science. According to the faculty member-cum-inventor and now entrepreneur, who considers himself to be “old-school. It is a new paradigm for me; it’s unique and exciting. Entrepreneurship in particular is something I see as a brand-new adventure.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will well look at Dorrie K. Fontaine, recently named Dean of UVa’s School of Nursing, and her career advocating better care for critically ill patients.
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05.21.08
Posted in Jacob Canon, Psychology, Social Psychology, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, anxiety, pharmaceutical, physical health, sociology, stress at 11:04 am by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, adapted from an article published on the Oscar Web site written by Amber Davis, we look at UVA psychologist Amori Yee Mikami, her research of ADHD, and how intervening factors have made this disorder more complex and detrimental for young females.
In studies conducted on the effects of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in young children, researchers often turn to the most likely exhibitors of the impulsive and aggressive behaviors associated with the ailment — young males. What University of Virginia psychologist Amori Yee Mikami sought to uncover in researching ADHD, however, were the intervening factors that made this disorder more complex and detrimental for young females.
Girls and ADHD [4:59m]:
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Mikami said, “We know a lot about boys with ADHD, partially because the disorder is three times more common in boys. Many research studies on ADHD have focused on how the disorder affects young boys. What I became interested in was how ADHD affected girls’ behaviors, particularly in adolescence.”
Since her original research at the University of California Berkley — where she found evidence supporting the hypothesis that ADHD contributes to social isolation — Mikami has focused on untangling the gender differences in children suffering with ADHD. Her most recent study, published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology, concludes that girls with ADHD are at a greater risk for the binge eating and purging behaviors associated with bulimia nervosa.
Mikami said, “We know that children with ADHD have increased risk for delinquency, aggressive behavior problems, drug use and depression in adolescence, and now this study suggests they may also be at risk for an eating disorder problem. Since eating disorders are 10 times more common in females, and the effects of ADHD on girls are not as widely understood, the link between eating disorders and ADHD may have gone unnoticed or untreated.”
According to Mikami, the impulsive behaviors common in ADHD can make it difficult to maintain healthy eating habits and a healthy weight, leading girls to become self-conscious about their body image. Meanwhile, current ADHD medications on the market such as Ritalin may actually exacerbate the problem.
Mikami, who is currently conducting research to determine potential effects of these medications on bulimia nervosa symptoms said, “These drugs tend to make youth a little thinner because a common side effect of stimulant medications is appetite suppression. What I’m testing is whether this medicine is something that might discourage or encourage eating disorder problems.”
Mikami’s research plans include studying whether young males with ADHD have similar potential to develop eating disorders.
In addition to her ongoing research, Mikami oversees the “Friendship Clinic” in Charlottesville, which offers children with ADHD and their parents an eight-week program in which both parents and children learn how to cope with the disorder together. The clinic allows Mikami to observe how children with ADHD interact with their peers while introducing them to an environment that encourages typical social behavior.
Mikami said, “Early intervention is one of the most effective ways to combat the negative effects of ADHD. Girls with ADHD are often teased and rejected by their peers. Childhood peer problems seem to predict eating disorder symptoms in adolescence. Getting parents and teachers involved might help prevent these instances.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will well look at Dr. George T. Rodeheaver and PluroGel™, his patented gel which reduces suffering and improves the recovery of burn victims and patients with chronic wounds.
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05.14.08
Posted in The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, history, sociology at 11:04 am by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, adapted from an article published on the Oscar Web site written by Margaret Grundy, we look at be the research of Richard Handler, UVa professor of anthropology, and how the popularized story of colonial Williamsburg, upon reexamination reveals different side of tale.
Is Candor Best [6:23m]:
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When Americans visit Colonial Williamsburg, they come to celebrate their nation’s history, to learn about the ways of the past and to experience firsthand the ideals and idealism of the Founding Fathers. They come to try on hoopskirts and three-cornered hats; to make their own candles and to take carriage rides down Duke of Gloucester Street. They come, in short, to have a good time.
Yet the story of Colonial Williamsburg is not entirely pleasant. While remembered for asserting the fundamental rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, colonial America was also a place of inequality, oppression and disenfranchisement. For Richard Handler, professor of anthropology and associate dean for undergraduate academic programs in the College of Arts & Sciences, Williamsburg was begging to be reexamined.
In 1989, Handler, alongside anthropologist Eric Gable, a PhD in Anthropology from the class of 1990, embarked on a major study of Colonial Williamsburg. They began their research guided by one overarching question: “How do you tell the story of the American revolution in a way that honors the founding fathers while still telling the story of slavery?
Although it was a complicated pursuit, Colonial Williamsburg seemed the perfect site for exploring this dispute. Handler said, “In history as a discipline, and academia generally, there’s been an ongoing argument about whether history is objective or relative. Different historians tell different stories about the same events; professional historians know that the facts are only the beginning. At a museum, this debate takes on a funny flavor, because museums are dedicated to objects, which are seen as straightforward facts.”
With this knowledge in mind, and using grants from the Spencer Foundation and the National Endowment for the Humanities, Handler got to work. During the next three years, he, Gable, and later Anna Lawson, a PhD in anthropology from class of 1995, conducted hundreds of interviews with Colonial Williamsburg staff; examined archival documents and in-house newspapers, and toured the buildings over and over again. Gable even enrolled in a docent-training course.Handler said, “We studied how a large corporation tells history to a large audience. At places like Colonial Williamsburg, there is a complicated hierarchy of historians, managers, trainers and front-line people. We were interested in exploring not just the story they were teaching but how that story changed as it worked its way through this complicated organization.”
Their exploration yielded interesting results. First of all, they recognized a palpable awareness of the tension between education and entertainment, as Colonial Williamsburg employees repeatedly emphasized that “this is not some historical Disneyland; it’s a serious place.” They also confirmed their initial suspicions that integrating candid discussion of slavery into a celebratory context was a delicate and difficult task.
Specifically, Handler noted the challenges facing African-American employees at Colonial Williamsburg. He said, “For African-Americans who work at these sites, it’s a really tough dilemma. On one hand, they want to talk about the oppression of the system, but they also want to portray their ancestors as strong survivors. And they have to deal with the psychological challenges of dressing up as slaves.”
For the most part, Handler’s research remained focused on Colonial Williamsburg employees, as visitors turned out to be challenging sources of information. He said, “Visitors are really hard to study. It’s very hard to get good answers from them. If you ask them why they’re there, they say it’s because they love history; if you ask them how they define history, they’ll tell you ‘telling the story of our nation’s past.’ It’s difficult to get beyond that. If you’re interviewing insiders, you have a lot of specifics to talk about; with visitors, it’s a lot harder.”
Overall, Handler’s investigation of Colonial Williamsburg illuminated the challenges of merging education and entertainment, fact and revision, celebration and candor. In addition to several scholarly articles, Handler and Gable used their research to write “The New History in an Old Museum: Creating the Past at Colonial Williamsburg.” Since its publication in 1997, the book has secured its position in a unique genre — that of the museum ethnography.
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will be University of Virginia psychologist Amori Yee Mikami, her research of ADHD, and how intervening factors have made this disorder more complex and detrimental for young females.
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05.07.08
Posted in The Oscar Show at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
With the results in from Indiana and North Carolina, the race for the democratic nomination is starting to see some resolution. Just last week, a noted super-delegate publicly pledge their support for one candidate, stating that part of his decision was made because of the negative campaign ads of the other candidate.
We here at The Oscar Show want to know what you think. The show that follows is a repeat concerning the effects of Negative Campaign ads. After listening to this show, we encourage our listeners to go on-line to WTJU.net and click on the Blogs and Pods link on the left hand side of the page. Follow that link to The Oscar Show site where you will be able to read the copy of the story as well as listen again. We want to hear your comments on this subject or the campaign in general. Enjoy the show and let us hear from you!!!
In today’s show, adapted from an article recently published on the Oscar Web site written by Brevy Cannon, we look at the research of University of Virginia politics professor Paul Freedman which suggests that the ever-growing barrage of political ads actually contributes to citizen education and engagement, and only rarely have negative impacts.
Repeat Negative Political Ads [6:06m]:
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Television viewers may instinctively reach for the remote control when yet another political ad airs during a commercial break, but those who stay tuned may reap some surprising benefits.
A new book, “Campaign Advertising and American Democracy”, suggests that the ever-growing barrage of political ads actually contributes to citizen education and engagement, and only rarely has negative impacts. And according to reviewer Darrell West of Brown University, is “the most comprehensive examination of political advertising that has been attempted to date.”
Written by University of Virginia politics professor Paul Freedman, Michael M. Franz, assistant professor at Bowdoin College; Kenneth M. Goldstein, professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and Travis N. Ridout, assistant professor at Washington State University in Pullman, the book examines the political advertising of the 2004 election season.
It has been estimated that more than 3 million political ads were televised leading up to the 2004 elections, and in the race for the White House more than $800 million dollars were spent alone. Presidential candidates, along with their parties and interest-group allies, broadcast over a million ads — more than twice the number aired before the 2000 elections.
But according to the authors’ research, being barraged by political ads turns out to be a good thing. Freedman said, he sees political TV ads as “frequently informative, often funny, usually clever, and just a whole lot of fun… Only in the rarest of circumstances do they have negative impacts.”
Political ads, especially negative ads, have a bad reputation. But Freedman and his co-authors found that negative ads, in particular those that draw contrasts between a candidate and his or her opponent’s positions on issues or past record, turn out to have the most measurable positive effects.
Freedman, an election analyst for ABC News in New York since 2000, said, “candidates realize the importance of responding to opponents’ ads that raise questions about their records, character or issue stances, so negative ads help hold candidates accountable.” He went on to say, “we found that the more ads that people are exposed to, the more likely they are to vote.”
Freedman said, “this does not show a direct cause-and-effect relationship, such as X dollars spent on TV advertising buys Y number of votes, but this is a stark example of how polling numbers track and mirror the strategic decisions by campaigns.” He went on to say, “Just as citizens and the polls respond to advertising, candidates respond to the polls. They make strategic decisions based on what the contest looks like at any point in time. The average American has an “impoverished diet of political information, and TV ads can be thought of as informational multi-vitamin, wrapped up in emotional coding, positive or negative, that makes it easier to swallow the substantive information, which is usually accurate and often backed up with footnotes or references to newspaper passages.”
While some pundits consider most political TV ads “nasty, brutish and short” — an annoyance at best, and at worst, corrosive to democratic citizenship and debasing to political discourse, according to their research, just the “sorts of ads most disliked by pundits, are the ones most likely to educate, engage and mobilize voters.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week as we resume regular programming of The Oscar show. And please visit the Oscar Show site by visiting WTJU.net and clicking on the blogs and pods link on the left hand side of the page. We want to hear from you.
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04.30.08
Posted in Consumer Culture, Jacob Canon, Psychology, Social Psychology, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, happiness, sociology at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In last week’s show we examined the research of we examined the works of Tobias Lear, secretary to George Washington and envoy to North Africa for President Thomas Jefferson.
Material World [6:21m]:
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In today’s show, adapted from an article recently published on the Oscar Web site written by Melissa Maki, research communications coordinator for the Office of the Vice President for Research and Graduate Studies, we look at the research of Allison Pugh, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, and her study of how families deal with the increasing demands of a consumer culture.
Parents in the U.S. have become all too familiar with the latest fashion trends, toys and electronic gadgets as children regularly plead for the next best thing. But how do parents — especially those with limited incomes — comply with their children’s demands?
Allison Pugh, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Virginia, began looking at parents’ buying habits as a doctoral student at the University of California at Berkeley. Based on her findings, and with the help of an Alfred P. Sloan Foundation grant, Pugh is currently completing a book, Longing and Belonging: Parents, Children and Consumer Culture, scheduled to be published by the University of California Press in the spring of 2009.
Pugh said, “I wanted to look at consumption and how the standards for an adequate childhood are ratcheting up, and how affluent and low-income parents are handling that.” She spent three years conducting ethnographic research: interviewing parents, volunteering and observing in three different California schools, including a private school and two public schools, one low-income and one affluent.
During this time, Pugh found common themes among the study’s economically and racially diverse participants. She said, “In all these schools, children feel the need to have certain things or experience certain things — like going to popular movies or local attractions — to be visible or to belong in their social groups.”
The need to belong transcends class boundaries, as does the parental tendency to comply with children’s desires. Pugh found that even those parents struggling to put food on the table and pay bills at the end of the month find ways to provide their kids with expensive, popular items so that their children achieve a sort of “dignity” among their peers.
Yet, Pugh did find differences in the specific buying habits of poor and wealthy families. She said, “Low-income and affluent families are all buying, and they are all buying in response to this need to belong on the part of their children. And in some cases they are even buying the exact same thing, like Game Boys, but the way they buy is different and the way they talk about buying is different.”
Affluent families engage in what Pugh terms “symbolic deprivation,” deemphasizing their spending, not wanting to appear materialistic, and focusing on specific items they don’t buy for their child, whether it be electronics or Barbie dolls. In contrast, she said, low-income families engage in “symbolic indulgence.” Since poor families can’t provide their child’s every desire, they focus on key items with the highest social value, like Sony PlayStations.
Much of the current literature in this area explains the growing culture of spending around kids in the past few decades as parents acting in a rational way in an increasingly materialistic society. The argument is that people are simply trying to get ahead and have more. Pugh’s research is unique in that it brings the significance of emotions into this equation.
Pugh explained, “The proliferation of commodities in childhood has changed what possessions mean. Now they mean belonging to children and they mean care to parents and to children.” She argues that buying for children has created a new dynamic in parent-child relationships. “It’s about recognition of desire, it’s about empathy, and about the parent realizing how difficult it is to be different in American culture.”
Pugh notes that parents today are confronted with two choices, neither of which is good. They can give in to the consumer culture, even if they can’t really afford to, or they can deprive their children of goods, putting kids at risk of being ostracized by their social groups.
Regulating how companies are allowed to market goods to children may be part of the solution to this dilemma, but Pugh asserts that items achieve social value not immediately after children are exposed to advertisements, but when kids get together in small groups and talk about them.
With this in mind, Pugh concludes her book with suggestions of how parents and schools can collectively organize around consumption issues in order to drain commodities of some of their social power. Some promising examples include a Michigan group that is fighting the escalation of party bags and other birthday phenomena, informal groups of parents agreeing to limit their children’s exposure to popular culture, and schools banning cell phones and iPods on their campuses.
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will be the research of Richard Handler, UVa professor of anthropology, and how the popularized story of colonial Williamsburg, upon reexamination reveals different side of tale.
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