The Jefferson Area Board for Aging (JABA) held a special film screening Thursday night to share some secrets to aging well. The documentary "Landscapes of Longevity" looks at how the places around us affect our health and well-being. Two filmmakers from Charlottesville visited communities called "blue zones" that have the highest life expectancies to figure out what they have in common. “They're all oriented for human beings and pedestrians, not cars, not trucks, not suburban shopping malls. These are places where people can easily connect with friends a...
(By Dr. Anita H. Clayton, the interim chair of the department of psychiatry & neurobehavioral sciences, and the David C. Wilson professor of psychiatry and professor of clinical obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine) Every seven seconds. That's how often men supposedly think about sex, according to conventional wisdom. And women, you ask? Well, if you believe that same conventional wisdom, not nearly as much. In fact, one sensational claim out there in the media right now takes that a step further by arguing that women, in fact, have no sex drive at...
Between 2000 and 2014, the population of the District of Columbia grew by more than 15 percent to 658,893. That influx of people has raised, and continues to raise, concerns of various kinds inside the city. But one thing nobody says is that the newcomers are "taking jobs" from longtime residents. That's because it's pretty obvious that the influx of new people is in fact increasing the number of jobs in the city. That logic is pretty obvious when we talk about movement within the United States of America, but as Gihoon Hong from Indiana University and John McLaren of the Uni...
The President of the University of Virginia briefed lawmakers Thursday on a plan designed to make the school more affordable for low- and middle-income students by raising tuition across the board and using the money to provide them with grants.
Florence Kling Harding was a trailblazing first lady, being one of the first presidents’ wives to speak openly to the press. While Kling Harding was actively involved in much of her husband’s work, she championed two main causes: women’s rights and wounded soldiers. According to the University of Virginia's Miller Center, Kling Harding often encouraged her husband to appoint women to different positions in government and host female visitors to encourage women's knowledge of government. She also advocated heavily for exercise, throwing several events, such a...
University of Virginia's Darden School of Business has had an incubation activity for a dozen years, but about three years ago it was time to expand, so a number of alumni donated money to renovate a space on grounds and turn it into the i.Lab Incubator. There is an admissions process to be in the incubator. It takes place each January and ventures are chosen by a diverse selection committee. On Wednesday, the 2015 companies will begin the 10-week intense course that runs each summer.
The Charlottesville Salvation Army is holding a sidewalk sale this Saturday to unload hundreds of chairs, tables, couches and mattresses it gathered from students moving away for the summer. Captain Bob Mullins said some couches will sell for as little as $10. For the past couple weeks, the Salvation Army gathered four truckloads full of furniture as part of the University of Virginia's Chuck it for Charity program.
Boosting international trade may not be the best way to improve food security, as it makes many countries vulnerable to food shortages caused by market fluctuations, according to new research. "It challenges the idea that all trade is good," says Paolo D'Odorico, environmental scientist at the University of Virginia in the United States, and one of the study’s authors. "We depend on trade but at the same time we need to be aware that it makes the whole food system vulnerable to crisis."
Diana Cihak founded Women Elect a few years ago to hasten the progress by helping local women understand the process of running for office. “There is quantifiable evidence that more women in office get more done,” Cihak said. For instance, University of Virginia researcher Craig Volden cites a study of Congress that he and others did, finding that “on average, women are more effective lawmakers than are men” because of their greater tendency to compromise and build consensus to get things done. That’s particularly true of women in the minority party, where their m...
Social-science and climate-change research would take hits under legislation approved today (20 May) by the US House of Representatives. Known as the America COMPETES Act, the sweeping measure sets priorities for research programmes at the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Department of Energy and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The bill differs radically from the original America COMPETES Act that was enacted in 2007 and reauthorized in 2010, says Anita Jones, a computer scientist at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville. The first law sought to double ...
The marriage rate in America has hit a record low and is expected to drop even further next year, according to a company that specializes in wedding and fertility trend forecasts. But some experts speculate that the headline-grabbing recent retreat from marriage may be bottoming out. “I would say that for children, marriage provides a unique level of emotional security and stability,” said W. Bradford Wilcox, director of the National Marriage Project at the University of Virginia. “That means they’re more likely to flourish.” That fewer children will be “rea...
(By Jacob Marthaller is a graduate student in Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and Coordinator of the Religion and Film Project for the Virginia Center for the Study of Religion) Much has been made of Hillary Clinton’s presidential run since she announced last month. However you feel about it, there’s fervor to be had. On one side of the spectrum, various conservatives denounce Clinton more than almost any other candidate in recent memory. On the other side, scores of progressives are nothing less than exhilarated by Hillary’s announcement video,...
Is ovulation related to higher racial bias? Though recent research, from Michigan State University, suggested that there was a link, new research from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business was unable to replicate those findings. In four studies, documented in their paper "In Search of an Association Between Conception Risk and Prejudice," Carlee Beth Hawkins, a doctoral student, and her co-authors were unable to find any evidence that there is an increase in racial bias related to conception risk. Hawkins, along with Cailey Fitzgerald of the University of ...
This week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that felons have the right to sell guns the government confiscated after they were convicted. The decision is thanks, in part, to a team of University of Virginia law students who helped build the case.
Researchers at the University of Virginia say they've developed a way to detect if your car's electronic system is being hacked. Information engineering researchers at UVA say computer hacking is no longer confined to your desktop or smart phones. Automobiles with advanced electronic systems are now at a much higher risk to be taken out of a driver's control. The university is partnering with Virginia State Police to test researchers' detection software inside patrol cars.
Dr. Robert O’Neil is the former president of the University of Virginia, a former director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression, and a he’s currently a fellow with the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. He joined us to discuss the tradition of honorary degrees and what goes into the selection process.
The University of Virginia Board of Visitors has extended the contract of President Teresa Sullivan for another two years. The board will have the option to replace her in October 2017, or give her another extension to October 2019.
Neither people nor water are distributed evenly around the globe, leading to unequal access to freshwater. "Access to water for drinking and growing food is a human right," Joel Carr of the University of Virginia, US, told environmentalresearchweb. "Because water is a finite resource and the human population is growing, reduced inequality in access to water may be necessary so that the water needs of everyone are met in the future."
How Much School Is Too Much School? Chloe Gibbs, a researcher at the University of Virginia, says this question launched her career. “I really thought it was an open question, do five-year olds really get benefit from being in a classroom for that many hours or are we really keeping them too long past a certain point?” says Gibbs. But after more than a decade of asking that question, Gibbs says the answer is clear: kids who go to full-day kindergarten do better on tests for years afterward, though other students tend to begin to catch up by fourth grade.
A team of political scientists at the University of Virginia’s Center for Politics released its initial takes on the solid blue or red to the toss-up swing states, and there’s no real surprise. The lead that Democrats have in the solid or likely blue states gives them an edge in Electoral College votes over the GOP, with a total (by the team’s analysis) of 85 votes as “toss-ups.” These are many of the same states we have seen over three presidential campaign cycles.