Penn Integrates Knowledge professor George Demiris takes a two-pronged approach to research: One examines the family caregivers of hospice patients, their stress and anxiety levels, and their input into the decision-making process. The second relates to technology and aging, specifically smart homes and how passive-monitoring systems—sensors that track motion, for instance—can figure into someone’s life.
Technology, aging patients, and the people who care for them
In a quest to ease the care process for older adults and the very sick, as well as their family-member caregivers, PIK professor George Demiris is studying the intersection of smart-home technologies and health informatics.
A new book from Nursing professor Cynthia Connolly looks at “candy aspirin” and other case studies surrounding development, use, and marketing of children’s meds in the 20th century.
‘Candy aspirin,’ safety caps, and the history of children’s drugs
When St. Joseph Aspirin for Children was introduced in the 1940s, it was formulated to be attractive in taste and color to its young audience. Dubbed “candy aspirin,” the product became popular—fast. As a consequence, aspirin poisonings of children under five skyrocketed.
Melissa G. Hunt is the associate director of clinical training in the Department of Psychology in the School of Arts & Sciences. She is also author of the book “Reclaim Your Life from IBS: A Scientifically Proven Plan for Relief without Restrictive Diets.”
New ‘match’ streamlines clinical training experience for psych graduate students
A new “match” for clinical psychology graduate students connects trainees with potential externship sites. In its second year, the initiative successfully matched more than 250 trainees in the mid-Atlantic region.
Criminologist Charles Loeffler led a team of researchers that looked at wrongful convictions in the prison population as a whole. The results represent the first such estimate for crimes across the spectrum, from retail theft to murder.
Wrongful convictions reported for 6 percent of crimes
For capital crimes like rape and murder, wrongful convictions happen in about 3 to 5 percent of cases. Such an estimate had proved elusive for the prison population as a whole—until now, thanks to work from Penn criminologists.
Sociologist Steve Viscelli studies the trucking industry. A report publishing soon looks at what effect driverless trucks will have on the industry as a whole.
Science fiction or the future of trucking?
Driverless trucks seem like science fiction, part of a far-off world where robots and humans live and work side by side.
Quayshawn Spencer, an assistant professor in the philosophy department, studies the philosophy of science, biology, and race.
Race has a place in human genetics research, philosopher argues
New research out of the philosophy department argues that certain racial classifications have utility in medical genetics, particularly when considering those classifications as ancestry groups.
Joseph Turow, a researcher in the Annenberg School for Communication at Penn.
Political leanings dictate feelings about surveillance of low-income populations
New research led by Annenberg’s Joseph Turow reveals that political party and orientation matter when it comes to how Americans feel about everyday surveillance of low-income populations.
The green fluorescent ‘dots’ above show where Exendin-4, an FDA-approved drug used to treat diabetes and obesity, ends up in the brain. The drug activates receptors for glucagon-like peptide 1 or GLP-1, a hormone that reduces food intake. The blue and red coloring indicate neurons and astrocytes, respectively.
A potential new weapon in the battle against addiction
New research revealed that FDA-approved drugs to treat diabetes and obesity may reduce cocaine relapse and help addicts break the habit. Such medications work by targeting receptors for glucagon-like peptide 1, a hormone in the brain.
For the second consecutive year, Penn Campus Recreation brought a company called Aqua Vida to Sheerr Pool to run an hour-long floating yoga class—posing and breathing atop paddle boards.
Working the core without making a splash
Yoga requires balance, an engaged core, contorting the body into unusual positions, calculated breathing. Now imagine doing that while floating on a paddle board. That’s what several participants did at Sheerr Pool as part of “Spring into Wellness Week.”
Alaina Hall, one of the 2018 President’s Engagement Prize winners and a School of Nursing senior. She is beginning her initiative, “Healthy Pequeños,” or “Healthy Little Ones,” at one of the homes of Nuestros Pequeños Hermanos orphanage, but has hopes it will expand to all 15 others within the organization. If that happens, she’ll reach nearly 3,200 children.
Simple solutions help children in Mexican orphanage fight infectious disease
With the President’s Engagement Prize, senior Alaina Hall, is building a project she calls “Healthy Pequeños,” or “Healthy Little Ones,” which aims to help children in a Mexican orphanage fight infectious disease.
