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Michele Berger

Articles from Michele W. Berger
Learning nursing care in a different type of classroom
Nursing student Aman Uppal assists a student from the HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy during art class. She holds up a painting, and painting supplies are all around.

Nursing student Aman Uppal (standing) with one of the students at the HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy, where she did a clinical rotation this summer. (Image: Courtesy of HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy)

Learning nursing care in a different type of classroom

Penn Nursing students Aman Uppal and Michelle Tran spent the summer before their final semesters in a clinical rotation at the HMS School for Children with Cerebral Palsy.

Marilyn Perkins Michele W. Berger , Ed Federico

TV news top driver of political echo chambers in U.S.
An illustration of an old television with a person in sunglasses on it. On top sits a laptop computer with an arm reaching out past the screen, holding a rolled up newspaper. Another newspaper lays flat on top of the screen.

TV news top driver of political echo chambers in U.S.

Duncan Watts and colleagues found that 17% of Americans consume television news from partisan left- or right-leaning sources compared to just 4% online. For TV news viewers, this audience segregation tends to last month over month.

Michele W. Berger

Can nature-inspired designs affect cognition and mood?
Farhan Jivraj sits at a desk and looks at the topographic rug in the biophilic room

Can nature-inspired designs affect cognition and mood?

A team from the Center for Neuroaesthetics created a biophilic room to test the idea. Preliminary findings from a small pilot show promise, but also spur many questions about how to best use such a space.

Michele W. Berger, Kelsey Geesler , Michael Grant

Solving the mystery of migration into Micronesia
A map of the Pacific Ocean. Australia is in the bottom-left corner, with Indonesia and New Guinea to the north. Also pinpointed are Polynesia, Melanesia, and Micronesia, with arrows signifying five migration paths designated M1, M2, M3, M4, and M5. M1, M2, and M4 originate in East Asia. M3 originates around New Guinea, and M5 originates between Polynesia and Melanesia.

Map of five inferred streams of migration into Micronesia. (Image: Liu et al., 2022, “Ancient DNA reveals five streams of migration into Micronesia and matrilocality in early Pacific seafarers,” Science, Vol 377, Issue 6601, pp. 72-79, DOI: 10.1126/science.abm6536)

Solving the mystery of migration into Micronesia

Penn anthropologist Theodore Schurr explains how the use of both ancient DNA and modern genetic materials revealed five paths into this western Pacific region of Oceania, and uncovered subtleties about the society’s marital customs.

Michele W. Berger

Overturning Roe disproportionately burdens marginalized groups
A person tearing up in a crowd of people. The person, who is holding a green bandana, wears a shirt that says "We Won't Back Down." Other people hold up signs in the crowd, including "Keep Abortion Legal."

Abortion-rights activists demonstrate in Washington, D.C. on June 30, 2022. (Image: AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Overturning Roe disproportionately burdens marginalized groups

For low-income people and people of color, lack of access to safe abortions in the U.S. will have a range of health and financial ramifications, compounding factors like poverty and systemic racism.

Michele W. Berger

What the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade means
Administrator working in a reproductive health clinic with a sign on their desk that reads BANS OFF OUR BODIES.

Image: AP Photo/Martha Irvine

What the decision to overturn Roe v. Wade means

Marci Hamilton, a Penn Professor of Practice and founder and CEO of the nonprofit think tank CHILD USA, offers thoughts as this news unfolds.

Michele W. Berger

Children younger than 5 eligible for COVID-19 vaccines
An adult wearing a mask squatting next to a child wearing a mask at the end of a slide on an outdoor playground.

Children younger than 5 eligible for COVID-19 vaccines

In a Q&A, Lori Handy of Penn Medicine and CHOP discusses what it means now that this final group can get protection, plus offers recommendations for families with concerns about doing so.

Michele W. Berger

How historical racism influences modern poverty and racial inequality
Regina Baker.

Penn sociologist Regina Baker.

How historical racism influences modern poverty and racial inequality

Sociologist Regina Baker finds that Black people in southern U.S. states with significant institutionalized historical racial practices experience worse poverty today. These states also have a wider poverty gap between Black and white populations.

Michele W. Berger

Parental nicotine use and addiction risk for children
A put-out cigarette standing on its end, next to half of another crumpled cigarette. In the background are two whole cigarettes.

Parental nicotine use and addiction risk for children

In research done using rats, Penn Nursing’s Heath Schmidt and colleagues found that males that engaged in voluntary nicotine use had offspring more likely to do so, too. Some offspring also developed impaired memory and anxiety-like behavior.

Michele W. Berger

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