Health Solution for Developing World Wins Entrepreneurship Cup
Office of the VP for Research
Four student teams divvied up $40,000 in prize money Friday at the University of Virginia Entrepreneurship Cup – three of them for plans that could improve the health of millions of people. The $20,000 first-place check went to the “Chitenges 4 Change” team for its plan to tackle a public health issue affecting almost half a billion women in the developing world who have incomes of less than $1.25 per day. For these women at the bottom of the global income pyramid, disposable sanitary pads or tampons are far too costly to use regularly, team member Jennifer Casto said. Casto and her four teammates are all students in the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy’s master of public policy program. CONTINUE READING

World’s First Research Center for Automata Computing With Support from Micron Technology Inc.
School of Engineering and Applied Science
To pursue new research and application possibilities for a promising new computational technology – automata computing – the new Center for Automata Computing has been established, with seed funding from, and close collaboration with, the technology’s inventor, Micron Technology Inc. Micron Technology, one of the world’s leading providers of advanced semiconductor solutions, Monday also announced the development of a fundamentally new computer architecture based on massively parallel automata technology. CONTINUE READING

Graduate Collaboration Through ‘Big Data’ Research
School of Architecture, Virginia Integrative Data Institute, Office of the VP for Research
“’Big data’ is characterized not only by large quantities of data, but by interrelated, interconnected and sometimes self-referential data,” explained Will Green, a graduate student in the School of Architecture. With such far-reaching scope, it comes as little surprise that he and fellow architecture students are working with biomedical engineering students to create a way to visualize large data sets, funded by a grant provided by the UVa Alumni Association’s Jefferson Trust. Through this fellowship, Green said he has developed skills and techniques that “would otherwise have been uneconomical as a graduate architecture student.” CONTINUE READING

Researchers Make Potential Cancer Breakthrough
School of Medicine
Chances are, you know someone right now, who is battling cancer. The disease, in all its forms, takes millions of lives each year. Which is why we turn your attention to a hopeful new discovery from researchers. Alone in her lab, filled with vials of her research, Neveen Said is in that slow race against cancer's quick ticking clock. Science is her job, but it's also a passion. She's discovered that a mysterious protein, found in most organs, can actually prevent cancer cells from growing and expanding. The protein is called SPARC (secreted protein acidic and rich in cysteine) and she's studied it in bladder cancer. CONTINUE READING

OpenGrounds Selects Three Art and Environmental Action Student Scholars
OpenGrounds

Study Tests Shoppers’ Reactions to Skin Color in Ads
Frank Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy
Skin color creates discriminating shoppers according to a study. Public policy professor Jennifer Doleac and her research partner just published the findings of their year-long study "The Visible Hand." They posted online classified ads in 300 communities showing either a black or white hand displaying an iPod for sale. The study finds the black seller got fewer and lower offers. Potential buyers were also more leery of sending online payments to the black seller. CONTINUE READING

Researchers Using New Device to Treat Heart Valves
School of Medicine
Researchers participate in a new, minimally invasive procedure to treat patients with leaking heart valves. The new procedure repairs the mitral valve, which regulates blood flow between chambers of the heart. Degenerative mitral valves cause severe mitral regurgitation, which occurs when blood flows backward into the heart. Left untreated, severe mitral regurgitation can lead to heart failure and death. UVa Health System is among the first hospitals in the country to use Abbott’s MitraClip® device to repair the mitral valve in patients with severe degenerative mitral regurgitation. CONTINUE READING

Student Wins ‘Next Sneaker Design Star’ Competition
School of Architecture
In true Jeffersonian fashion, graduate student Oliver Vranesh blended his love for architecture and design to produce the winning entry in an international shoe design competition. The prize: a week at Reebok World Headquarters. CONTINUE READING

Rural Communities Growing Older Through Migration
Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service
Virginia’s rural communities are growing older through a combination of out-migration of the young and in-migration of retirees, according to researchers in the Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service’s Demographics Research Group. This finding and others related to migration patterns across Virginia are reported in a Census Brief  – the first in a series of short publications depicting trends in census and other data of interest to the commonwealth. While out-migration from rural localities of younger college- and working-age residents has been noted for some time, analysis done for the Census Brief shows a significant impact as well made by retirees and pre-retirees moving into these areas. CONTINUE READING

Why You Don't Want to Live Next to a Democrat (or a Republican)
College and Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Americans aren't just dividing by region, state, and cities anymore. They are increasingly choosing to live in bright red or blue neighborhoods — and, according to Pacific Standard, they are feeling happier because of it. "When people feel like their values match their environment, they experience greater subjective well-being and increased self-esteem," researchers from wrote. "Without fear of reprisal for expressing one’s values, one may be able to more easily form strong interpersonal bonds and accumulate social capital." CONTINUE READING

These Smells, Colors, and Sounds Help Unleash Your Creativity at Work
McIntire School of Commerce
The distractions and obstacles at work hardly make it the most conducive environment to be creative. But researchers have found some ways you can take better control. Research participants were more creative when they were exposed to background noise of 70 decibels, comparable to the sound of a moving car 10 meters away, than when they were in a low-noise environment, according to research by Ravi Mehta of the University of Illinois, Rui (Juliet) Zhu of the University of British Columbia and Amar Cheema of the University of Virginia. The noise makes mental processing more difficult, which activates abstract cognition and thus enhances creative performance. CONTINUE READING

A Modern Understanding of a Long Ago Confession and a Boy’s Execution
School of Law
Why did Misskelley confess? He was “borderline mentally retarded, with an IQ of 72, yet police persisted with his lengthy interrogation,” wrote Brandon L. Garrett, a professor at the School of Law, in a post on the Harvard Press Blog. “The few recorded pieces of the interrogations showed police using leading questions to try to tell him what had happened, something that interrogators are trained not to do because it contaminates a confession. We do not know what threats or other techniques were used to secure that confession.” CONTINUE READING

Smart Shoes Could Help Runners Hit Their Stride
School of Medicine
Max Prokopy, director of the SPEED Clinic has studied the techniques of elite runners. He said he agreed that the data from the feet alone isn't always complete. "You need more detail than foot insoles could give," Prokopy said. "You need a full biomechanical exam." Still, the new wearable technology is good for getting feedback quickly, and allowing the runner to try different postures, styles or strides, he said. CONTINUE READING