Research

August 17, 2011

A Seattle accent? Study looks at ‘perceptual dialectology — accents we think we have

“What people say about language has nothing to do with language,” says Betsy Evans, assistant professor of linguistics. “It has to do with what they believe about the people who use that language.” Shes started studying those beliefs in the Northwest.

August 16, 2011

Poverty rates the same as in mid-1960s, but far more kids are poor

Fewer seniors but more children are poor since the War on Poverty began more than 40 years ago. Also, despite persistent efforts in both the public and private sectors, poverty rates in the U.S. have remained stubbornly the same since the mid-1960s.

August 15, 2011

UW Medicine study finds caffeine guards against certain ultraviolet-induced skin cancers at molecular level

Caffeine guards against certain skin cancers at the molecular level, according to a study appearing online August 15, 2011, in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Younger siblings of children with autism have one in five chance of autism diagnosis

Parents of a child with an autism spectrum disorder face a 19 percent chance of having additional children diagnosed with the disorder, according to a new study co-authored by the UW Autism Center.

August 10, 2011

TB antibody detection tests fail to diagnose tuberculosis accurately

Misdiagnosis remains a major obstacle for control of the TB epidemic. Findings from UW and related studies prompt a World Health Organization policy asking health officials not to use these tests.

A new study co-authored by a UW sociologist shows that unions have as much a role as education level in equalizing earnings between low- and high-paid workers, and that balancing force influences pay for nonunion workers.

Greater flexibility with federal dollars would help state education agencies boost school improvement

State education agencies could do more to help their local school districts improve under-performing schools, according to a new study at the UWs Center on Reinventing Public Education.

August 9, 2011

Study of abalone spawning could have implications for human reproduction

A UW biologist is among scientists who for the first time have been able to study interactions between individual sperm and eggs of red abalone in conditions similar to its ocean surroundings, work that could have implications for improving fertilization in humans.

August 8, 2011

An abnormally warm decade is part of the new ‘normal’

On July 1, the 30-year average temperatures used to determine “normal” changed, dropping the decade of the 1970s and adding the decade of 2001 through 2010. As a result, normal temperatures are now a bit warmer.

August 4, 2011

Consumers who follow federal nutrition guidelines may have higher food costs, UW researchers say

If you try to eat healthier these days, and follow federal Dietary Guidelines for Americans, its likely that youre eating more vegetables, fruits, whole grains and low-fat dairy products. It also means that your grocery bill is increasing, according to University of Washington researchers from the Center for Public Health Nutrition.

August 3, 2011

Web search is ready for a shakeup, says UW computer scientist

On the 20-year anniversary of the World Wide Web, computer scientist Oren Etzioni has written a two-page commentary in the journal Nature that calls on the international academic and business communities to take a bolder approach when designing how people find information online.

August 2, 2011

Digital photos can animate a face so it ages and moves before your eyes

Computer scientists have created a way to take images from the web or personal photos collections and in seconds create an animation of a persons face. The tool can make a face appear to age over time, or gradually change the expression from a smile to a frown.

August 1, 2011

Did you think it was a cold spring? Now you have the proof

A University of Washington researcher has found that, at least by one measure, this spring was the coldest on record for the state and that Seattle’s last two springs have been the cloudiest since cloud-cover records started 50 years ago.

Kids anxiety, depression halved when parenting styled to personality

When it comes to rearing children, just about any parent will say that what works with one kid might not work with another. But which parenting styles work best with which kids? A study by UW psychologists provides advice about tailoring parenting to childrens personalities.

July 26, 2011

College-educated undocumented young adults face same narrow range of jobs as their parents

A new survey of life trajectories of 150 undocumented young adults raised and educated in America shows that they end up with the same labor jobs as their parents, working in construction, restaurants, cleaning and childcare services.

July 22, 2011

New target found for nitric oxide's attack on Salmonella bacteria

Nitric oxide, which is naturally produced in the nose and gut, disrupts the energy sources of many types of bacteria. Learning how it does this may lead to new antimicrobials or ways to promote the body’s own defenses against infection.

Submarine cables for the nations first regional cabled ocean observatory, a project led by the University of Washington, made landfall last week on the Oregon coast.

July 20, 2011

Battle of the bugs: Pseudomonas breaches cell walls of rival bacteria without hurting itself

Microbiologists have uncovered a sneaky trick by the bacterium Pseudomonas aeruginosa to oust rivals. It deploys a toxin delivery machine to breach cell walls of competitors without hurting itself. Its means of attack helps it survive in the outside environment and may even help it cause infection.

July 19, 2011

Race matters when recruiting, retaining undergraduate women engineers

A new study of female engineering students perceived challenges finds significant differences between black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian-American and white women. The findings could help institutions better attract and retain particular underrepresented student populations.

A one-dose method for delivering gene therapy into an arterial wall in rabbits effectively protects the artery from developing atherosclerosis despite ongoing high blood cholesterol. In the future, researchers hope to test whether this gene-delivery method works in heart bypass grafts.

July 14, 2011

UW will lead $18.5 million effort to create mind-machine interface

The National Science Foundation today announced an $18.5 million grant to establish an Engineering Research Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering based at the UW. The interdisciplinary center will combine neuroscience and robotics to develop new rehabilitation technologies.

July 13, 2011

Pivotal UW study in Africa finds HIV medications prevent HIV infection

Work in Africa conducted by the UW’s Clinical Research Center is bringing new hope that taking a daily AIDS drug might keep an uninfected person from getting the AIDS virus.

Office of Research introduces new ‘Required Training website

University researchers like those at the UW are often required to attend trainings, but they may not always be aware of it. Thats why the Required Training site was constructed in consultation with UW researchers and training providers to identify those courses directly applicable to the conduct of research.

Trees absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to grow, so forests have long been proposed as a way to offset climate change. But rather than just letting the forest sit there for a hundred or more years, the amount of carbon dioxide taken out of the atmosphere could be quadrupled in 100 years by harvesting regularly and using the wood in place of fossil-fuel intensive steel and concrete.

Sodium channels are pores in the membranes of excitable cells – such as brain nerve cells or beating heart cells – that emit electrical signals. Researchers have obtained a high-resolution crystal structure showing all the atoms of this complex protein molecule and how they relate in three-dimensions.

July 12, 2011

Wireless power could cut cord for patients with implanted heart pumps

A new system to send electricity over short distances has been shown to reliably power a mechanical heart pump. The system could free patients from being tethered to a battery or external power source, lowering their chance of infection and improving their quality of life.

July 7, 2011

Hubble makes one millionth science observation

Earlier this week, NASAs Hubble Space Telescope logged its one millionth science observation during a search for water in an exoplanets atmosphere 1,000 light years away, according to a UW faculty member conducts theoretical interpretation of data from the Hubble.

July 5, 2011

Rose-colored beer goggles: Social benefits of heavy drinking outweigh harms

A study by University of Washington psychologists shows some people continue to drink heavily because of perceived positive effects, suggesting a new direction for programs targeting binge drinking.

June 29, 2011

Genetic factor linked to long-term success of leg bypass surgery

Outcomes of bypass surgery to repair blocked arteries in the legs tend to be better in the roughly one-in-five people who have inherited a specific genetic variation from both parents, according to a study presented at the Vascular Annual Meeting in Chicago on June 18.

Evidence shows that urban school districts can help close the achievement gap by drawing upon the experiences of high-performing charter schools, according to a new white paper from the UWs Center on Reinventing Public Education.

June 27, 2011

Seattle survey: Block watches and individual cop recognition promote good opinions of police

A new survey shows that Seattle residents who know or recognize a police officer in their neighborhood and have participated in a block watch or similar program are more likely to regard police positively. And its especially true about people of color.

Brief, voluntary conversations with a health educator led to up to a 20 percent decrease in marijuana use for teenagers who frequently used the drug.

June 22, 2011

Historians team up for UW Press book ‘Atomic Frontier Days: Hanford and the American West

Bruce Hevly and John Findlay teamed up on this history of the Central Washington facility built by the federal government during World War II to manufacture plutonium for nuclear weapons.

New research suggests that, in the Athabasca Oil Sands in northern Alberta, human activity related to oil production and the timber industry could be more important than wolves in the decline of the caribou population.

June 21, 2011

Diabetic kidney disease on the rise in America, despite improved diabetes care

Better glucose, lipid and blood pressure control in the diabetic population over the past 20 years has not reduced the prevalence of diabetic kidney disease in the United States.

A recent report shows that building information modeling is challenging and changing the construction industry, including the ways mechanical contractors organize teams and technology.

With the launch earlier this month of NASAs satellite Aquarius, more than half a dozen University of Washington researchers are involved in projects to calibrate data from space with actual measurements of ocean salinity.

June 20, 2011