07.09.08
Posted in Jacob Canon, Politics, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, history at 11:04 am by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, written by Brevy Cannon, General Assignments writer for University of Virginia Media Relations, we look at a recent Center for Politics event, “Reconsidering the Presidency” held at the University of Virginia in April 2008.
“The vast and ever-increasing amounts of money spent on U.S. political campaigns are a detriment to our democracy. And, contrary to public opinion, the Electoral College is a quirk of American politics that should not be tampered with…”
Reconsidering the Presidency [6:45m]:
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Those two opinions were shared by three former governors, John Sununu of New Hampshire, Lowell Weicker of Connecticut and Virginia’s Doug Wilder, during the Center for Politics event, “Reconsidering the Presidency” in April 2008.
Center director and event host Larry Sabato noted in his introduction that he expected a lively debate from these three political veterans from across the political spectrum, and the trio did not disappoint, offering many diverging suggestions on how to reform U.S. politics and the presidential nomination process.
Sununu, a former three-term governor of New Hampshire, White House chief of staff and co-host of CNN’s “Crossfire” political news show, defended the widely criticized tradition of his home state being the first to hold presidential primaries.
Critics contend that being first gives New Hampshire an outsized influence; that the predominately white population isn’t reflective of the nation; and that voters there get the opportunity to personally meet with each candidate several times, while voters in other states may not even be visited.
Doug Wilder, former governor of Virginia, recalled his own run for president in 1992 and complained that recent presidential candidates haven’t campaigned enough in Virginia. He said, “It’s not right for certain areas of the country to be constantly courted to the degree that the residents there expect it … and others are surprised just to get a handshake or a chance even to be in the room with a presidential candidate.”
Sununu went on to say, “I think people don’t understand that the nominating process should demand from our citizens an equal commitment to the election process as the general election.” If another state goes first instead of New Hampshire, contended Sununu, that state should have some of the same merits as his state: a voter turnout rate near 75 percent, engaged citizens who ask serious questions and a place that doesn’t require lots of money to start being noticed by the public.
Wilder, who became the first African-American governor in U.S. history when elected in 1989, suggested that primary election rules could be “modernized” by having a longer timeframe, such as two weeks, in which to cast ballots, rather than just one day.
Weicker was elected governor of Connecticut in 1990 as an independent after serving three terms in the U.S. Senate as a Republican. He drew attention to the “extra hoops” that those outside the “two-party duopoly” must contend with in order to run for office. He proposed a constitutional amendment that would standardize the requirements for a presidential candidate to qualify to be on the ballot in any given state, replacing the widely varying requirements that inhibit independent candidates.
According to opinion polls cited by Sabato, contrary to the view of 70 percent of Americans who would like to do away with the Electoral College, all three governors felt it should stay. Weicker and Sununu both said that the current system (wherein a candidate wins all or none of the electors representing each state) makes candidates campaign in all 50 states.
All three panelists condemned what they all termed the “obscene” amounts of money involved in today’s politics, with Weicker going so far as to declare, “I think money is destroying politics in the United States.”
Only Wilder offered a substantive suggestion of how to address that issue. He said, “Copy a little bit from the British system, shortening it and saying the campaign will start on such and such a date and end on such and such a date… rather than as soon as George Bush took his hand down from swearing… taking his oath as president, this campaign started. That doesn’t make any sense at all, we got to shorten that.”
Sununu also decried how today’s media have “poisoned the minds of the public” with flawed coverage of political issues like the Florida recounts in the 2000 presidential election. While one questioner defended the role of the media as “the fourth branch of government,” no participants even entertained the idea that political advertising might benefit the political process, such as by increasing voter knowledge and participation, as recent research from U.Va. politics professor Paul Freedman has found.
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when we look at the annual Walter A. Ridley Distinguished Lecture at the University of Virginia, held recently in the Rotunda’s Dome Room.
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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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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04.09.08
Posted in Business, Jacob Canon, Relationships, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, sociology at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In last week’s show we examined the research of University of Virginia politics professor Paul Freedman that suggests that the ever-growing barrage of political ads actually contributes to citizen education and engagement, and only rarely have negative impacts.
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 Rob Cross, associate professor in the McIntire School of Commerce, and his work helping businesses discover potential bottlenecks or disconnects in their network — providing information that is critical for businesses to improve.
One of the secrets to running a business, and getting the highest productivity is understanding how a company is structured to maximize efficiency. In the past, companies have used formal organizational charts that delineate chains of command, oversight and work flow.
But Rob Cross, associate professor in the McIntire School of Commerce, doesn’t put much stock in these formal organizational charts. His research has proven them largely irrelevant in understanding how businesses actually operate on a day-to-day basis.
Cross, an expert in social network analysis, works with companies to determine the intricate, but largely invisible connections that people form in order to get their work done.
In order to illustrate and understand these relationships, Cross interviews and surveys employees about topics such as whom they rely on for information and who helps them to accomplish tasks. “It’s like taking an X-ray to see who’s important in an organization,” he says. “A lot of the times, it’s not who leaders think it is.”
Rather than a hierarchy, the results of Cross’ mapping more closely resemble a web, graphically demonstrating countless interconnections. The diagrams Cross constructs help him to understand who is central to getting things done as well as to visualize bottlenecks or disconnects in the network — providing information that is critical for businesses to improve.
For instance, at the edges of these maps, Cross often finds people with important expertise who are underutilized by their organization. Finding ways to connect these outliers and their resources back to the organization can dramatically improve business performance.
In his analysis, Cross also looks closely at the notion of enthusiasm or what he terms “energy” and its role in an organization. He has found that people who have the ability to create enthusiasm around them establish more connections and ultimately perform better than others. Cross can pinpoint areas of a company with high and low levels of energy and give managers suggestions for fostering energy, and thus new ideas.
Cross said, “Energy is hugely predictive of where innovation starts to occur deep within an organization.”
In 2004, Cross published The Hidden Power of Social Networks: Understanding How Work Really Gets Done in Organizations. This book incorporated his research into a practical tool for executives.
He plans to release another book in 2009 that will feature more business ideas and diagnostics. It will be geared towards not only executives but also business students. Partnering with the Batten Institute, at the Darden School of Business, Cross is developing stories about company experiences, using social network analysis, into multimedia case examples that will accompany the book.
Cross founded and directs the “Network Roundtable”, a consortium of 80 member organizations who work with McIntire faculty to apply network techniques to critical business issues. The Roundtable tests new business ideas and measures their impact. Findings are available to members, as is faculty expertise.
Cross said, “The intent of the Roundtable is to be a conversation between McIntire and the broader commercial world. The real focus for me is how we, as a business school, can show impact.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will be the research of John C. Herr, director of U.Va.’s Center for Research in Contraceptive and Reproductive Health, and his development of the FDA approved “SpermCheck Vasectomy”, a home test that confirms men’s post-vasectomy sterility.
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03.05.08
Posted in Business, Jacob Canon, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, Uncategorized, University of Virginia, ethics, happiness at 12:04 pm by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, adapted from an article published this month on the Oscar Web site written by Anne Bromley, a senior editor/writer for UVa Media Relations, we look at a recent study by University of Virginia Sociologist Elizabeth Gorman which said, no matter how the data was sliced or certain variables controlled: women say they have to work harder than men.
The statement, “Whatever women do, they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good,” may not be totally off the mark in the workplace states a recent study by University of Virginia Sociologist Elizabeth Gorman and Julie Kmec of Washington State University.
The study analyzed five surveys of men and women in Britain and the US, given in 1977, 1992, two in 1997, and 2001. They concentrated their analysis on the two surveys conducted in 1997, both comprising cross-sectional interviews of about 3,500 workers in the US and almost 2,500 in the UK. To yield comparable answers, they evaluated results from the following survey question: “My job requires that I work very hard.” And, according to the results, a gender gap persisted in ratings of the statement. Women were significantly more likely to say they strongly agreed or agreed, than men.
Gorman noted, “The statement in the survey about required work effort is not one in which employees are comparing themselves to the opposite sex, it’s also not asking for a perception of how hard the work is or how much effort they actually exerted. Our focus is on required work effort, the effort that an employee is expected to exert in order to perform her or his job at a level that is satisfactory to the employer. It is important to distinguish required effort from an employee’s actual exerted effort.”
The researchers analyzed the survey data to see if, in fact, women did have more difficult jobs, but that was not the case. Even when the jobs were almost identical, women still were significantly more likely to say they had to work very hard. And, while controlling for physical and mental demands of a particular job, Gorman and Kmec found that neither group of factors explained the different findings about work effort.
Looking for other potential reasons, the sociologists considered domestic responsibilities outside of work. They stated, “Marriage and parenthood had the same effect on reports of required effort for women and men. In the U.S. sample, the researchers matched the number of hours spent on childcare and housework. Between men and women who performed the same amount of time on these tasks, women were still more likely to say their jobs required them to work very hard.”
So what explains the difference between genders and perceived required effort in the work place?
In their paper, “We (Have to) Try Harder: Gender and Required Work Effort in Britain and the United States,” released in the December issue of the journal “Gender and Society” the researchers said, “We argue that the association between sex and reported required work effort is best interpreted as reflecting stricter performance standards imposed on women, even when women and men hold the same jobs.”
Gorman said, “A lot of experimental research has shown that people rate the same performance as better when told it was done by a man. People give lower marks to an essay, a painting or a résumé when it has a woman’s name on it. And when a man and a woman work together on a project, people assume the man contributed more than the woman did. Even when a woman’s work is indisputably excellent, people don’t believe she’s good — they think she got lucky.” It follows then, that women have to do better than a man in order to get the same evaluation.
Gorman then added, “This is what women are up against. They have to work harder… And in light of this previous research, it makes sense to conclude that women have to work harder to win their bosses’ approval.”
Some possible consequences of this “effort gap” in the workplace include: the quality of women’s work experience is likely to be lower than men’s; this difference in required effort could also have consequences for women’s careers, making it harder for them to be recognized and promoted. Also, the physical and emotional effects could, in turn, have negative repercussions for families.
Gorman went on to say, “It wouldn’t be fair to use this research to reinforce stereotypes.”
Kmec added, “Instead, employers should take into account women’s hard work when considering who to promote and reward. We do not want to insist that female workers shirk their job responsibilities to make this gap go away. Rather, we hope employers make job performance standards more transparent and be held accountable for their evaluations of women at work.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when we will look at the work of Maurie McInnis and her perspective of class politics, social structures and hierarchies of antebellum South through the examination 19th century art and material objects.
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02.27.08
Posted in Jacob Canon, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, University of Virginia, ethics, technology at 12:05 pm by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, adapted from an article published this month on the Oscar Web site written by Andrea Arco, marketing director for the School of Engineering and Applied Science we observe at the research of Adrienne Felt, a fourth-year computer science major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, concerning privacy issues surrounding social networking platforms.
Privacy & Facebook [5:44m]:
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Facebook, the social networking platform that has redefined communications, has millions of users. According to University of Virginia computer science major Adrienne Felt, all of these users should be concerned about security.
Felt, a fourth-year student in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at UVa, leads a research project on privacy issues surrounding social networking platforms and is investigating the information sharing that occurs when users download a Facebook application — a program that allows the user to interact with other users in interesting ways, from sharing music to playing games.
Although these applications add variety to a Facebook user’s profile page, they also increase the user’s vulnerability. Here’s how: anyone with an account on Facebook can create an application. Although this application appears as if it is part of Facebook’s platform, it is actually running on application developer’s server. When a user installs an application, that application’s developer is given the ability to see everything the user can see — name, address, friends’ profiles, photos, etc.
An experienced Facebook application developer, Felt said, “The Facebook privacy policy always seemed unsatisfactory to me.” It was this unsettling feeling that led her to investigate Facebook’s vulnerabilities. Working with David Evans, an associate professor in UVa’s Department of Computer Science and fourth-year physics major Andrew Spisak, Felt examined the 150 most popular Facebook applications.
She discovered that 8.7 percent of these applications needed no personal information to run, while 82 percent needed only the user’s public information: name, network, list of friends. Still, 9.3 percent require a user’s private information in order to function. Felt said, “since all applications receive access to private information, this means that 90.7 percent of Facebook’s most popular applications unnecessarily have access to private data.”
Felt said, “there are currently no restrictions on what applications, and their developers, can do with user data. And though the Facebook “Terms of Use” warn developers not to abuse the data they have access to, Facebook cannot enforce this rule. In fact, when a user installs an application, the user’s computer communicates with the Facebook servers and the Facebook servers then communicate with the application developer’s servers. Once users’ private data leave the Facebook servers, the company has no way of knowing what happens to it.
Evans said, “an application developer could easily acquire personal information for millions of users. There is a risk it could be used to launch targeted phishing attacks, exploited by identity thieves or sold to marketing companies.”
Felt’s goal is to make users more aware of how their private information is being used — and to close this privacy loophole.
Felt has developed and refined a privacy-by-proxy system and is building a prototype implementation — a way for Facebook to hide the user’s private information, while still maintaining the applications’ functionalities. Under Felt’s system, at the point at which the Facebook server is communicating with the application developer’s server, the Facebook server would provide the outside server with a random sequence of letters instead of the user’s name and other personal information.
Felt said, “this is the first step… Hopefully the research findings and proposed solution will trigger more responsible privacy and information management policies from social networking sites and will better inform users.”
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will be a recent study by University of Virginia sociologist Elizabeth Gorman whose work came to the same conclusion, no matter how the data was sliced or certain variables controlled: women say they have to work harder than men.
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02.20.08
Posted in Biology at the University of Virginia, Infectious Disease, Jacob Canon, Parasites, The Oscar Show, UVa College of Arts & Sciences, Uncategorized, University of Virginia, biology, biomedical engineering, immune, physical health at 12:10 pm by Jacob Canon
In today’s show, adapted from an article published this month on the Oscar Web site written by Mary Jane Gore, we look at the research of Dr. William Petri, chief of the UVa Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, and his study of a voracious parasite that is said to kill nearly 100, 000 people each year.
Pathogens & Parasites [5:40m]:
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If you have ever contemplated working as a biological researcher then you would probably have considered these questions: what happens when a cell’s life ends? And, what are the mechanisms that control decay?
Contemplating just these types questions during a recent study, a UVa-led research team, directed by Dr. William Petri, chief of the UVa Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health, made discoveries which are helping to stop one of the world’s most voracious parasites.
The team included Douglas Boettner (now completing postdoctoral work in Miami), U.Va. graduate students Alicia S. Linford and Sarah Buss and faculty colleagues Dr. Eric Houpt and Dr. Nicholas Sherman of UVa and Dr. Christopher D. Huston of the University of Vermont.
Their work revolved around the hypothesis that identifying molecules involved in the corpse ingestion would provide insight into how the amoebae cause colitis in children. These amoebae, properly known as entamoeba histolytica, cause colitis, or inflammation of the colon. They do this by attacking and killing human immune cells in mere seconds. It then it hides the evidence by eating the cells’ corpses.
In doing so, per data from Dr. Gerald Mandell of U.Va. Infectious Diseases and editor of Mandell, Douglas and Bennett’s Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases, 6th edition, this murderous marauder “on a global basis, affects approximately 50 million people each year, causing diarrhea, malnutrition and nearly 100,000 deaths.
Dr. Petri’s team identified a particular protein on the surface of the ameba called a kinase, PATMK. Their work, published in the Jan. 18 issue of PLoS Pathogens, a peer-reviewed, open-access journal from the Public Library of Science, outlined a special technique called RNA interference, which inhibits the actions of this kinase, thus preventing the amoebae from eating the dead cells.
Dr. Petri, said, “by blocking this kinase, we have for the first time prevented the ameba from colonizing and invading the gut. This means that we are a step closer to preventing this disease, which wreaks havoc among children worldwide.”
The first author of the paper, Douglas Boettner said, “infection and further invasion into the gut require the clearance of dead cells in order to prevent immune recognition of the damaged tissue. PATMK is the first individual member of a large family of proteins to be assigned a function related to the clearance of dying tissue during pathogenesis.”
Boettner added, “this protein may be a pivotal vaccination target because these preliminary studies show that alterations in PATMK function reduced progression of amoebiasis in mice, a vaccine that ultimately would prevent this ameba from clearing the damaged host may draw in helpful immune cells, and thus help to clear this infection.”
Their work has shown how infection depends upon the ameba’s consumption of dead cells. By identifying the molecule that controls this consumption, scientists are one step closer to the ultimate goal of preventing the diseases caused by this parasite.
You’ve been listening to the Oscar Show, I’m Jacob Canon. Join us next week when our topic will be the research of Adrienne Felt, a fourth-year computer science major in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, concerning privacy issues surrounding social networking platforms such as Facebook.
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