In The News

Steven Cohn Professor, Department of Medicine, Gastroenterology Human intestinal tissue grown in the lab Nature | Dec. 12 Fern Hauck A University of Virginia researcher Some parents at odds with experts about sharing beds with infants Las Vegas Review-Journal | Dec. 12 Frederick G. Hayden Professor of medicine, infectious diseases Emergence of dual-resistant influenza viruses poses public health concern Pediatric SuperSite - ‎Dec. 10‎ AE Dick Howard Professor of law Voting Rights Act bail-out 'not a priority' for Cuccinelli, spokesman says Washington Post | Dec. 10 Douglas Laycoc...

As a member of the University Police Department, his primary goal is to protect the community from explosive devices but after years on the job, Zander, the police dog is retiring.

Kudos also to all of you who were moved by 200th birthday celebrations for Schumann and Chopin and five-hour Beethoven salute to contribute to the station's Classical Marathon, which ended yesterday. I called this morning to see if the campaign reached its $40,000 goal, and the numbers weren't quite ready; but as of Saturday, they had raised an impresive $30,845, and were on track to face off against October's Jazz marathon—excuse me, Jazz-tober—which raised a record $42,000. More on this to come.

Two recent reports carry similar conclusions about the declining state of marriage among people of moderate means and education. The reports take different angles but basically say the same thing — that stable marriages are down and the ranks of children raised by single parents are up among middle-class and moderately educated Americans. ... The other study, “When Marriage Disappears,” is based on statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau and the General Social Survey, which measures long-term trends. The report was co-produced by the National Marriage Project at the University...

A 2005 study by the University of Virginia's Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service predicted that the heritage center would have a $43.2 million impact on on the region’s economy in its first five years of operation.

While debate rages in the education world about how to measure effective teaching - or whether it is even possible to do so - research funded by a prominent advocate of data-driven analysis has found that growth in annual student test scores is a reliable sign of a good teacher. The preliminary Gates findings are based on test data and student surveys from public school systems in New York, Dallas, Denver, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, N.C., and Hillsborough County, Fla. Also participating in the study are Memphis and Pittsburgh schools. Researchers were drawn from the Educational Testing Service and...

Researchers at the University of Virginia believe they have found a link between smoking during pregnancy and psychological disorders in children and young adults. Ming Li, professor in the UVa Department of Psychiatry and Neurobehavioral Sciences, said a yearlong study of lab mice has shown that exposure to nicotine during pregnancy affects genes important to brain development.

A group of University of Virginia researchers is leading a $1.5 million, three-year study in hopes of keeping all children in their preschool classrooms. “Preschool is a privilege and not a mandate,” said Tina Stanton-Chapman, one of the two UVa professors leading the study. “Schools typically expel children if their bad behavior is chronic and severe.” Stanton-Chapman and Marti Snell, both professors in UVa’s Curry School of Education, are working on a plan to teach positive behavior that will enable children to achieve lifelong academic success.

A team of University of Virginia astronomers is leading an international effort to take an unprecedented look at red giant stars some 25,000 light years away in the center of the Milky Way galaxy. If successful, the astronomers say, the project might provide new insight into the Big Bang, how planets formed and how life came to be.

Ed Fogels Earned a bachelor's degree in environmental sciences Inside Alaska business / Parnell appoints two to Natural Resources Anchorage Daily News | Dec. 10 Russell F. Folger Darden School alumnus Folger named Timken VP of quality advancement Canton Repository | Dec. 9

Mike Stark A law student

Linwood H. Rose, president of James Madison University, announced Wednesday that he will step down in June 2012. Rose has served since 1998, making him one of the longer-serving presidents in the area. He is -- amazingly -- only the fifth president at JMU since its founding in 1908.

Bruce Hillman Professor of radiology Studies Puncture Arguments About Benefits of Imaging Self-Referral Health Affairs (blog) | Dec. 6 James Savage Professor of politics Emptying the pork barrel would hit some states especially hard Stateline | Dec. 10 Ming Sun A research associate in the Department of Astronomy Intergalactic Weather Map Space Daily | Dec. 10 Vamık Djemal Volkan A Turkish Cypriot emeritus professor of psychiatry Peace prize nominee Volkan to brief Gül on Kurdish issue Today's Zaman | De. 9

One final point on the National Marriage Project report. I’ve been emphasizing the bad news, but I do think it’s genuinely good news that well-educated opinion — as opposed to just well-educated behavior — has been moving in a more conservative direction on divorce.

The definitive rebuttal to the myth of "grow or die." Professor Hess's examples in Smart Growth come mainly from public companies, but his insights, conclusions, and advice apply equally to privately owned businesses of all shapes and sizes.

Frederick G. Hayden Professor in the Department of Medicine, Infectious Disease Resistant flu cases underline need for new antivirals Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy | Dec. 8 and Dual resistance seen in seasonal flu Emerging Health Threats Forum | Dec. 8 Saikrishna Prakash Law Professor Debating the Legality of the Bailout Wall Street Journal | Dec. 7

Gainesville's top school administrator was recently recognized as one of more than 50 excellent female school leaders across the country by the American Association of School Administrators and Farmers Insurance Group. The Darden School of Business recognized Dyer, who is Gainesville's first female superintendent, for reorganizing the school system after a $6.5 million deficit came in 2008. The school conducted a case study on how the Gainesville district pulled through the budget crunch and maintained leadership.

Marriage among Americans who have graduated high school but not college is on the decline, and their religious attendance has dropped at the same time, a new report shows. "Middle Americans" ages 25 to 60 who were in their first marriages dropped from 73 percent in the 1970s to 45 percent in the 2000s, according to "The State of Our Unions," an annual report from the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia.

A new survey out this week from the National Marriage Project shows that marriage is an institution in decline in many parts of American society. This "retreat from marriage in Middle America" will have wide-ranging social and economic consequences, say the survey's authors.

Larry Sabato, the oft-quoted political scientist from the University of Virginia, plots out the gains for the Republicans and notes that many were due to the GOP regaining seats they have traditionally held but lost in 2006 and 2010.