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Ideal for Booming Mating Calls, Certain Fish Muscles Have Evolved So Fully That They're Unfit for Much Else
PHILADELPHIA - Evolution has so precisely honed certain specialized muscles involved in fish mating calls that the muscles are now physically incapable of much else, including any significant locomotion, biologists at the University of Pennsylvania have found. The finding, made in studies of the toadfish Opsanus tau, is the cover story in the Oct. 7 issue of the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society. It the first demonstration of different skeletal muscles in the same species diverging so thoroughly through evolution that theye now mutually exclusive.
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Penn President Judith Rodin To Receive Beacon Award
PHILADELPHIA - Judith Rodin, president of the University of Pennsylvania, will be recognized for her outstanding accomplishments in the area of women progress when she receives The Beacon Award during the 125th-anniversary celebration of the admission of women students to Penn. The celebration will be Nov. 1-2.
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Workplace Essential Skills Helps Adult Learners
PHILADELPHIA - As an educator in the Center for Literacy in Philadelphia, Jane McGovern knows first hand how the use of computers can motivate an adult learner.In the past, adult learners gathered in a classroom for orientation and listened to information pertaining to the program. At the end of the session, they were introduced to computers. Few individuals returned. McGovern discovered that if the adult learners were introduced to the computers at the beginning and were able to utilize them throughout the orientation, they were more likely to return.
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'Heart-Sense' Game Passes Early Test: Players Prove More Likely To Seek Prompt Help For Heart Attack Symptoms
PHILADELPHIA A computer game developed at the University of Pennsylvania to encourage prompt medical attention in the wake of a heart attack appears to have passed its first test: A preliminary study has shown that the game rendered its players more likely to respond to symptoms by calling 911 or reporting to the emergency room in a timely manner.Professor Barry G. Silverman, the creator of the Heart-Sense game, reports the promising finding in the September issue of the INFORMS Journal of Health Care Management Science.
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That streetwalker might be the kid next door
As a man traveling alone, Professor of Social Work Richard Estes has been approached by his share of prostitutes. But none of this prepared the child-welfare advocate for what he encountered while at a conference for child advocates in Jakarta, Indonesia, a few years ago. “There was this intersection with 15 to 30 [child] prostitutes on each corner, all managed by a pimp. And the pimps pursued me, trying to ply their wares. “Can you imagine crossing the street to get something from the store and the pimps descend on you? It really made me angry.”
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College Houses get new staff
Along with a host of new freshmen at the College Houses this fall, there are some new faces among the staff. Faculty masters Dennis DeTurck, Ph.D., chair of the Math Department, will serve as interim faculty master of Stouffer College House for one year while Philip Nicols, Ph.D. is on academic leave. DeTurck’s research interests include partial differential equations and differential geometry as well as improving the teaching of math in high school.
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A man—and a nation—in denial
As the official version of events has it, for most of this century Emperor Hirohito of Japan was merely a figurehead, serving as a symbol of the nation while a militarist elite led the country down a path of aggression that ended in humiliating defeat.
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Learn IT for less
The College of General Studies’ non-credit information-technology program, IT@Penn, is now being offered at a substantial discount for faculty, staff and students enrolled in degree programs. The discounts mean that Penn affiliates wishing to enroll in one of IT@Penn’s tracks or take single courses can do so for 20 to 25 percent off the full listed tuition.
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Through the eyes of the researched
Cooperation between researchers and their subjects isn’t always a given, as Julia Paley learned during her 1990s ethnographic studies of Santiago, Chile. She found town inhabitants, who were just emerging from a period of great social and economic instability, unreceptive to the usual study methods. In a recent discussion, Paley joined members of a Chilean grassroots health group to discuss how these tensions were overcome. The following are excerpts of remarks from Paley, assistant professor of anthropology, and Valeria García, a Santiago, Chile, health promoter:
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“It’s just a knack that you have…a different way of thinking.”
Looking at the devices strewn about Terry Kientz’s office, it soon becomes obvious why he won this year’s School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) staff recognition award.