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'In the Headlines' Archive

Scientific American (April 28, 2013)
How to Be a Better Friend
#2 Treat him like a grown-up. When a pal is struggling, it can be awfully tempting to grab him by the scruff of his neck and just tell him exactly what he should do. After all, isn't giving good advice part of being a good friend? Perhaps not, according to researchers who study self-determination. Edward Deci, a psychology professor at the University of Rochester, has found that supporting a friend's autonomy - that is, making him feel as if he can make his own choices - creates a better relationship and may even improve his mental health. In one study, Deci and his colleagues did in-depth interviews with pairs of friends and found that the more of this type of support there was from a friend, the more satisfied the partner was with the friendship and the higher self-esteem the person had. "When people are relating to you and acknowledging your sense of importance, your sense of competence, you feel better about yourself," Deci adds. In other words, treating a friend like he's got his act together could actually help him get there.

Inside Higher Ed (April 25, 2013)
New study links student motivations for going to college to their success
Why did you decide to go to college?

Asking that question of new students in a more formal way might help colleges find ways to encourage more students to complete their programs, according to a new study from University of Rochester education researchers published in The Journal of College Student Development.

Doug Guiffrida, associate professor of counseling and human development at Rochester, said that this finding suggests that those advising low-income students should be encouraged to reinforce -- for those who place a high priority on economic advancement -- the relationship between their studies and their later likely economic success. (Also Reported in: 13WHAM-TV)

Fox News (April 25, 2013)
Mom's anxiety may suppress baby's immune system
"It's not as if the experience of stress is going to be more powerful than an immunization," said study researcher Tom O'Connor, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. "At non-optimal levels of protection from immunization, we do see the effect of prenatal anxiety."

Anxiety and the immune system

Thus, anxious moms need not fear that their vaccinated babies are more prone to infectious disease. What the study does show, O'Connor told LiveScience, is that the human immune system is similar to other animals in its response to prenatal stress.

"Both in rat and in monkey studies, stress in pregnancy is associated in the offspring with reduced immune competence," O'Connor said.

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (April 25, 2013)
University of Rochester rings out songs for Boston
At 2:30 p.m. Thursday, the bells in the tower atop the University of Rochester's Rush Rhees Library rang 10 times, followed by tunes on the carillon close to any Bostonian's heart.

"We are playing memorial songs and strong Boston pride songs," said Kara Morse, a University of Rochester music student from the Boston area. "Boston is about yelling about how proud we are to be from Boston, that's why we love loud music that you can sing to." (Also reported by Rochester City Newspaper)

Parenting.com (April 25, 2013)
Study: Pregnancy Stress Could Weaken Baby's Immune System
Stressed out and expecting? Better schedule a spa day � or two or three!

New research out of the University of Rochester Medical Center shows that babies born to moms who were highly anxious while pregnant had suppressed immune system responses to vaccinations at 6 months old.

Don't panic more if you're already worrying your way through your 40 weeks, says study researcher Tom O'Connor, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Once the high-stress babies received their full dosage, the immune system effect disappeared. "It's not as if the experience of stress is going to be more powerful than an immunization," O'Connor told LiveScience. (Also Reported in: Psych Central)

CNBC (April 24, 2013)
Stealth Sequester? Where It's Really Being Felt
So, people are feeling the sequester, but it may be that the impact on them is not making its way through the halls of Congress, said Mark Zupan, dean of the Simon School of Business at the University of Rochester.

"Their voice hasn't been sufficient enough to get Washington to the bargaining table," Zupan said. "It's very muted right now. Until everyone gets heard, I doubt anything will get done in Congress on reaching a budget settlement. Even then, I'm not sure a deal will be reached."

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (April 23, 2013)
UR revamping research commercialization
Each stage of Scott Catlin's career has taken him in a slightly different direction, but, as a whole, it amounts to an ideal path leading to his new role as vice president for innovation and technology commercialization at the University of Rochester.

"Even though I did it originally for financial reasons, I got so much out of it from a leadership and management perspective. If I had known then what I know now, I probably would have done it even if they didn't pay for school," said Catlin, who earned a bachelor's degree in optical engineering at UR in 1992. (Also Reported in: )

Fox News (April 23, 2013)
5 Questions Every Patient Should Ask When Getting a New Prescription
Just because you've received doctor's orders, that doesn't mean you can't ask follow-up questions. When receiving a new prescription, experts urge patients to start a discussion with their physician to make sure the treatment is the best option.

"Many studies have shown that compliance with medications is tightly tied to the relationship between the patient and the physician," says Paul Griner, an internist and professor of medicine emeritus at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. "Patients need to relate easily with their doctor in terms of what medication they are taking and why."

BBC Radio (April 22, 2013)
Higgs boson: Call to rename particle to acknowledge other scientists
Carl Hagen believes the name should acknowledge the work of others - not just UK physicist Peter Higgs.

American Prof Hagen told BBC News: "I have always thought that the name was not a proper one.

"To single out one individual marginalises the contribution of others involved in the work. Although I did not start this campaign to change the name, I welcome it."

Prof Hagen, who is affiliated to the University of Rochester, New York, suggests that it be called the Standard Model Scalar Meson, or SM Squared. (Also Reported in: NetIndia123.com)

Huffington Post (April 21, 2013)
Reframing Stress Could Help People Overcome Public Speaking Phobia, Study Suggests
Overcoming stress experienced from common phobias could be as simple as reframing it, according to a new study.

"Those feelings just mean that our body is preparing to address a demanding situation," study researcher Jeremy Jamieson, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rochester, said in a statement. "The body is marshaling resources, pumping more blood to our major muscle groups and delivering more oxygen to our brains." (Also Reported in: NBCNews.com, Men's Health News)

The New York Times (April 20, 2013)
An Instant Path to an Online Army
VizWiz, a free iPhone app developed by Jeffrey P. Bigham of the University of Rochester and colleagues in its Human Computer Interaction program, gives real-time help to blind users.

VizWiz users take a photograph as best as they can - it may take several tries before the desired object is properly framed - and then record one question about it ("What is on the label of the can?"). Besides needing help identifying food labels, they may want to know the denomination of paper currency, say, or whether a baby's head shows signs of a rash. (Also Reported in: Pittsburgh Post Gazette)

New York Times (April 20, 2013)
The Tangle of the Sexes
By BOBBI CAROTHERS and HARRY REIS

MEN and women are so different they might as well be from separate planets, so says the theory of the sexes famously explicated in John Gray�s 1992 best seller, "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus."

Bobbi Carothers is a senior data analyst at Washington University in St. Louis. Harry Reis is a professor of psychology at the University of Rochester.

Womens Health Magazine (April 18, 2013)
How to Be a Great Public Speaker
Pre-presentation butterflies might make you want to heave... but that might actually be a good thing, if you think about it the right way. Reframing stress as something positive can help boost your performance, according to a new study published in Clinical Psychological Science.

"Simply changing your mindset about what stress is can improve your stress response," says lead author Jeremy Jamieson, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Rochester. If you think you have the resources to cope with a demanding situation, your body will see it as a challenge instead of a threat. This triggers the release of hormones that tell your heart to pump more blood to your body and brain, where it can help boost your performance, he says.

WXXI (April 17, 2013)
The New Generation of Asteroid Hunters is Here
A new sensor developed by researchers at the University of Rochester could help detect asteroids close to Earth. The infrared-light detector is designed to improve the performance of space-based telescopes, and it could increase our ability to see hazardous objects in outer space.

Judy Pipher is a professor of astronomy and one of the team that developed the sensor.

She says asteroids aren't easy to spot because they don't emit visible light. But, they do emit infrared radiation and that's what their sensor picks up. (Also Reported in: Science Daily, ZeeNews.com, Geek.com, PhysOrg.com, Red Orbit, AZoOptics.com)

WHEC TV-10 (April 17, 2013)
Mom knows best
We've all heard the saying, "Listen to your mother." Eastman School of Music junior Keenan McKoy is glad he did. Her advice propelled him into the spotlight.

McKoy said, "She said learn how to play the saxophone then you can learn to play other instruments because the fingering is similar. I am not sure how she knew because she is not musically inclined, but mama knows best!"

Lately, he has been putting in extra hours of study with Professor Chien-Kwan Lin and for good reason. McKoy is the 2013 Search for Excellence Scholarship winner. For more than a quarter of a century, the Rochester NY Chapter of The Links, Inc. has given tens of thousands of dollars in scholarship monies to Eastman students for artistic excellence and presents the winner in recital. This year, it is McKoy.

Rochester City Newspaper (April 17, 2013)
ART EVENT | ArtAwake
Fifteen local musicians. More than 150 works of art. A drag show, a dance show, and a crafts table. All in just 10 hours. Plan your day accordingly, because ArtAwake has returned.

The festival, organized by University of Rochester students and now in its sixth year, will commandeer the Sibley Tower Building (25 Franklin St.) on Saturday, April 20, for a plethora of Rochester art, music, and culture. From 2 p.m. to midnight, there will be a slew of local musicians to hear, local art to see, and locally made hors d'oeuvres to munch on (courtesy of Aladdin's Natural Eatery, Java's Caf�, Shanghai Chinese Restaurant, and Tasteful Connection). There will also be special performances throughout the day, including a drag show from UR's Pride Network, and a 15- to 20-minute performance by the dance troupe One Dance Co. (performances times to be announced).

Environmental News Network (April 16, 2013)
How Can You Find and Track Asteroids Near Earth?
It seems that every now and then we are surprised to learn that an asteroid is passing near the earth. Sometimes these are asteroids that NASA and others have been tracking for some time, but in other cases, they are newly discovered. The consequences of an asteroid hitting our planet range from relatively insignificant to catastrophic. At the University of Rochester, a team has developed a special type of camera that is capable of detecting and tracking asteroids.

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (April 12, 2013)
Civil rights lawyer discusses diversity at UR
The keynote speaker at the University of Rochester's annual diversity conference on Friday expressed concerns about whether an upcoming Supreme Court decision would continue to permit race to be a factor in college admissions.

Lani Guinier, a prominent civil rights lawyer who is the first African-American woman to hold a tenured position at Harvard Law School, said that the Supreme Court does not seem eager to have race in the equation for achieving diversity.

UR President Joel Seligman, who previously was a law professor and law school dean, said in his introductory remarks that diversity is a fundamental value for a university.

"We meet, however, at a time of enormous anxiety," said Seligman about the concerns he shared with Guinier about the upcoming Supreme Court ruling.

Broadway World (April 11, 2013)
Theatre for a New Audience's OPEN BOOK SERIES to Begin with Kenneth Gross, 4/25
Kenneth Gross - Thursday, April 25, at 6:00pm

In the first offering of the series, Kenneth Gross discusses the fascination of the puppet, its power to tap into the child's imagination and to find out and release instincts often hidden in adults; he explores how the puppet asks us to accept the dangerous and restorative gift of finding life and voice in objects, and to allow the puppet to awaken play in all of us. Mr. Gross's work takes up traditional and experimental puppet theatres from many cultures, as well as the puppet's place in our literature. Mr. Gross will read from Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life.

Kenneth Gross is professor of English at the University of Rochester. He is the author of five books, including The Dream of the Moving Statue, Shakespeare's Noise, and Shylock is Shakespeare. Mr. Gross was awarded the prestigious George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism - the highest award one can receive in the field of theatrical criticism - for Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life.

BBC (April 11, 2013)
Airport tech reveals hidden artwork
A technique based on the same kind of technology used in airport scanners has revealed images beneath a fresco held at the Louvre museum in Paris.

Trois Hommes Armes de Lances was known to be a fresco forged by Giampetro Campana on a wall from Roman times. The new research suggests that under that forgery lies a real Roman fresco.

The discovery was announced at the American Chemical Society meeting by Bianca Jackson of the University of Rochester in the US.

"It's very desirable for cultural heritage conservation because with a lot of other techniques like X-ray or ultraviolet, there is some molecular breakdown in the materials," Dr Jackson told the meeting. "So even though you're using the equipment to get information to conserve it, you're at the same time risking some deterioration of the object." (Also reported by LiveScience.com, French Tribune, Scientific Computing)
(Also Reported in: French Tribune, Live Science, Scientific Computing)

ABC News (April 10, 2013)
Nominees Announced for English Translation Prize
Ten fiction works and six poetry books were announced Wednesday by Three Percent, a center for international literature that's based at the University of Rochester in New York. Winning authors and translators each receive $5,000, prize money donated by Amazon.com. Winners will be announced next month. (Also Reported in: NPR, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Newsday, Winnipeg Free Press, Racine Journal Times, Seymour Tribune, WNYT, WHEC-TV)

Webster Post (April 10, 2013)
'It really is a privilege to be here - and to be alive'
Maggie Maloy walks around with three bullets in her body. A fan of Rice Krispies as a kid, she calls them "Snap," "Crackle" and "Pop" after the three elf characters used in their advertisements. She's made peace with the bullets - acknowledging their presence, acknowledging the attack that led to them - and shares her story both to give others hope, and to help herself heal.

Maloy addressed a group of about 80 people during the University of Rochester's two-day Survivor to Thriver: Confronting Sexual Assault on Campus conference.

The conference came out of a conversation between Morgan Levy, the university's equal opportunity compliance officer, and Harriette Royer, its intercessor. "We thought it imperative to create a space where members of the UR and Rochester could come together to have transparent conversations about the impact of gender violence and the resources available to those who have been impacted by it," Levy said.

Red Orbit (April 9, 2013)
Overcome Stage Fright Just By Thinking About It
Rewiring how you think about public speaking may be the key to overcoming your fear of it, according to research published in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.

Researchers found learning to rethink the way you see your shaky hands, pounding heart and sweaty palms can help you perform better mentally and physically. Encouraging yourself to reframe the meaning behind these signs of stress could be an effective way of helping many people cope with and even master stage fright.

Participants who received no stress preparation literature experienced a threat response that was captured and recorded by cardiovascular measures. Physiological responses of the group that was prepped, however, displayed evidence they were able to cope better with their public speaking task.

"The problem is that we think all stress is bad," explains Jeremy Jamieson, lead author on the study and an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Rochester. "We see headlines about 'Killer Stress' and talk about being 'stressed out." (Also Reported in: ThirdAge, Counsel & Heal, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

Innovation Trail (April 8, 2013)
Afraid of public speaking? Your problem may be solved
A new study from the University of Rochester has found a way to help people perform better both mentally and physically when faced with public speaking.

The research shows that learning to rethink our body's stress signals, and view a pounding heart and sweaty palms as good signs and not omens, can increase performance and ability to cope.

"The problem is that we think all stress is bad," explains Jeremy Jamieson, lead author on the study.

He says that people interpret feelings of stress before speaking in public, like butterflies in the stomach, as a sign that something bad is about to happen. It is this interpretation that needs to change, says Jamieson. (Also Reported in: Science Daily, Medical Xpress)

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (April 8, 2013)
Students protest outside Landsburg's class
Holding signs with such statements as "Rape is not Hypothetical," about 25 University of Rochester students protested Monday outside the building where economics professor Steven Landsburg was teaching a course.

The peaceful protest was the latest criticism against Landsburg for comments he wrote on his blog about a rape case in Steubenville, Ohio, where two high school students were convicted of raping a female acquaintance who was unconscious, incapacitated by alcohol.

"We think that it is essential that we demonstrate our fundamental outrage at his blog post," said Amy Negley, 25, who is a graduate student in history. (Also Reported in: WHEC-TV, YNN)

Huffington Post (April 8, 2013)
Oladoyin Oladeru: Memoirs of a Mentor: A Call for Black Men in College to Come Back to School
by Oladoyin Oladeru
Clinton Global Initiative University 2013 Commitment-Maker; Epidemiology Major at University of Rochester.

Growing up in the Bronx, violence was inescapable, with age offering no immunity. When I was in sixth grade, Gang members shot and killed two of my closest friends as we walked home from school one day. We were only 20 minutes from home.

I am motivated by my backstory -- and my current success as an epidemiologist-in-the-making at the University of Rochester, a participant at Clinton Global University 2013 (CGI U), and a Gates Millennium Scholar -- to call other college-educated black men to action.

MPNnow.com (April 7, 2013)
Doctor
I'm so glad I'm not a doctor.

Now more than ever I'm utterly relieved I'm not the person who has to find bad things on an x-ray, read devastating results on a lab report, and take that chilling walk back to the exam room to deliver life-altering news. I'm profoundly grateful I'm not the one who has to look into the eyes of a patient and reveal a reality that will knock them to the ground and change their life forever.

I'm also deeply indebted to the doctors who are called to do what I will never have the guts to do. I am mightily impressed.

Recently I had the great fortune/misfortune/education of sitting in on an interview with Dr. Jeffrey Peters, Thoracic Surgeon and Chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center. (Yeah, he's an articulate genius who could expound until the end of time on subjects far, far beyond my reach. Even more remarkable is his calm, thoughtful, and humble demeanor.)

WHAM TV ABC 13 Rochester (April 6, 2013)
Yellowjackets Concert Helps In Fight Against Rare Disease
A University of Rochester student is calling on her school's famed A cappella group to help out with a cause dear to her heart.

Sarah Gelbard's best friend, Laura, lost her sister to a rare disease called Friedrich's Ataxia.

Laura herself is now battling the disease. (Also Reported in: Greece Post)

Fox News (April 6, 2013)
New York professor apologizes for 'hypothetical' questions about rape
A University of Rochester professor has apologized for a personal blog post in which he questions whether the rape of unconscious victims should be illegal.

"I am both sad and sorry that my recent blog post has distressed so many people so deeply, both on campus and off," economics professor Steven Landsburg said in a statement released Friday. "I am particularly sad because many readers got the impression that I was endorsing rape, while my intent was to say exactly the opposite - namely that the horror of rape is so great that we should rethink accepted principles of policy analysis that might sometimes minimize that horror." (Also Reported in: Chronicle of Higher Education, NPR, New York Daily News, Newsday, Yahoo! Voices, Steubenville Herald Star, Southern Pines Pilot, 1170 WWVA)

Rochester Democrat and Chronicle (April 6, 2013)
Erica Bryant: Other UR men's thoughts about rape
Consider three scenarios in which University of Rochester men turn their intellectual powers to the subject of rape.

If only more people had heard Professor David Bleich's lecture and read UR junior Adam Ondo's essays.

These should not be seen as isolated acts committed by disturbed individuals, but as a part of a global societal ill. "Every time a rape happens, the male perpetrator assumes he is in a collective situation that will protect him," Bleich said in a lecture that discussed how society and its institutions insulate perpetrators of sexual violence. It was delivered Wednesday, during UR's conference on preventing sexual assault.

WXXI (April 5, 2013)
University of Rochester River Campus Culture
What role do the arts play at a liberal arts college and research institution? What role does artistic creation and appreciation play in people's lives, even when it isn't one's career or college major?

Nigel Maister and Missy Pfohl Smith of the University of Rochester spoke with WXXI's Mona Seghatoleslami about arts initiatives at the University of Rochester and the broader role of arts in our lives and community. They were also joined by several callers as part of this midday talk show recorded live on April 5, 2013.

Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (April 4, 2013)
Conference at UR addresses sexual assaults
Maggie Maloy drew from her personal experience - a victim of a brutal sexual assault and her will to survive - as the keynote speaker at the University of Rochester's conference Wednesday on Confronting Sexual Assault on Campus.

In his introductory remarks, UR President Joel Seligman cited statistics from the Centers for Disease Control's 2010 National Intimate Partner and Sexual Survey, which reported that nearly one in five women and one in 71 men have been raped some time in their lives.

"The trauma that rape victims feel can affect their lives for decades in ways that can be emotionally devastating not only to the victim but to those who love her or him," Seligman said. (Also Reported in: WHEC-TV, YNN)

The Wall Street Journal (April 4, 2013)
Students: Censure NY college prof for rape blog
A University of Rochester professor's hypothetical question about whether the rape of an unconscious person should be illegal has led to demands he be censured or fired.

University President Joel Seligman indirectly referred to the outcry Wednesday while addressing a previously planned conference on confronting sexual assault.

"Academic freedom is a core value of our university and vital to provide assurance that one can hold unpopular or provocative views in safety," Seligman said, according to a transcript of his remarks. "This is not always an easy balance, but it is a balance vital to uphold in a university that both values respect for all of our students, faculty, staff and visitors and intellectual freedom." (Also Reported in: ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, NBCNews.com, England Daily Mail, USA Today, Washington Post, Chronicle of Higher Education)

Los Angeles Times (April 4, 2013)
Fast-food workers again protest for higher wages
It's true that wages have not always kept pace with inflation, and that cities such as New York are extremely expensive places to live. But economists such as Mark Zupan, dean of the University of Rochester's Simon School of Business, say that raising the pay of minimum wage workers isn't the way to help low-wage workers out of poverty.

In the first place, many of the people making minimum wage are high school students and others who don�t support families, and are just working at McDonald's while attending school. And secondly, wages should be determined by supply and demand, he argues, not by how much someone needs to survive. (Also Reported in: WSBT)

Rochester Business Journal (April 3, 2013)
URMC researcher named to national post
University of Rochester Medical Center pediatric researcher Kate Ackerman M.D. has been named secretary-treasurer-elect of the Society for Pediatric Research.

Ackerman's research concentrates on identifying genes involved with lung and diaphragm development. She is concerned with congenital diaphragmatic hernia, a birth defect that occurs in one of every 2,000 to 3,000 live births and results in death or illness in 40 percent to 62 percent of affected infants.

The Wall Street Journal (April 3, 2013)
Disclosure Rules Were a Long Time in Coming
For most of its history, the Securities and Exchange Commission had few if any rules on how companies can disclose information. Executives had to rely on decisions at the SEC and in the courts to know.

In practice, the rules meant corporate insiders couldn't trade until information had been widely disseminated, says Joel Seligman, president of the University of Rochester and a historian of the SEC. For thinly traded stocks, that sometimes meant waiting days before trading, Mr. Seligman says. (Subscription required)

Innovation Trail (April 3, 2013)
Images of the brain could unlock learning difficulties
Jessica Cantlon is a 2013 Sloan Research Fellow, and one of the lead researchers in a team of brain and cognitive scientists at the University of Rochester who are looking for answers in neural imaging.

She says the data they're able to collect from children�s brain scans could be used to determine the probability of children encountering problems with subjects like math later in life.

"It might be the case that brain scans from a four-year-old-child could reveal that they are going to, in the future, potentially have some mathematical difficulties, so that�s one advantage of having this neural imaging data," says Cantlon.

WXXI (April 1, 2013)
Students at the University of Rochester Design Tricycle for Disabled
Five students at the University of Rochester have designed a tricycle control system that allows some people with disabilities to steer, brake and shift gears with one hand.

The project is getting international recognition and is a finalist for a da Vinci Award this month. Martin Szeto is one of the students behind the MonoMano system. They worked under the guidance of Professors Laurel Carney and Amy Lerner at the U of R's Hajim School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.

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