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Workplace violence remains ‘extremely rare,’ say Vancouver-area experts

February 7, 2014

“This could be just a blip,” WSU sociologist Clay Mosher said after two workplace shootings and one drug-related shooting in two days in Vancouver left three people dead and three injured.

“You could see this many things in this many days…. Then you could see nothing for quite some time,” said Mosher, who analyzes crime trends and teaches criminology at WSU Vancouver. It’s possible that our society is growing accustomed to hearing about random gun violence breaking out anywhere and everywhere.

How Smart Tech Will Take Care of Grandma

February 6, 2014

The great hope for senior care is that smart technology will help older people live independently in their homes instead of moving into assisted living centers or nursing homes. What shape will that assistance take? Out-of-the-way, non-intrusive sensors or actual robots? Some tech companies have already begun to design systems of both kinds.

WSU psychology professor Maureen Schmitter-Edgecombe and computer science professor Diane Cook have developed what they call a smart home in a box.

Saving babies: first international collaboration to study infant health, culture, lactation connection

February 4, 2014

Michelle McGuire, left, and Courtney Meehan lead an international study to help babies thrive

Working with colleagues from 12 institutions around the globe, two Washington State University researchers are leading the first comprehensive international study of human lactation and milk composition.

“It’s all about saving babies,” said Michelle McGuire, associate professor of biology at WSU and principal investigator (PI) for a three-year $950,000 National Science Foundation grant funding the project.

Biological and anthropological data will be collected at 11 sites in eight countries across Europe, Africa and North and South America to better understand how diet, hygiene and cultural practices relate to human milk composition and infant health.

Despite six years of working on the same campus and their common research interest in infant health and breastfeeding, Michelle McGuire and co=PI Courtney Meehan, an assistant professor in anthropology at WSU, only learned about each other when a colleague suggested they have lunch together.

Feb. 3-March 7: German resistance is topic of exhibit, films, talks

January 29, 2014

They were college students with lives like WSU students might have today. Some studied medicine and did military service. One had a fiancé. One was a married father of three.

But for the unpardonable crime of speaking out, considered treason in Nazi Germany, the University of Munich students and a sympathetic professor were executed. Their story is the subject of a traveling exhibit, “Die Weisse Rose: The White Rose,” at WSU Libraries’ Terrell Atrium, Feb. 3-March 7, on the Pullman campus.

“Very normal people can undertake very major resistance,” said Rachel Halverson, associate professor of German and Marianna Merritt and Donald S. Matteson Distinguished Professor in Foreign Languages and Cultures. “It’s really ordinary people who can make change happen, believing in doing the right thing.”

Find out more about the White Rose movement educational events at WSU.

Research to help reduce criminal re-offense rates

January 28, 2014

Increasing public safety and controlling costs are among the benefits of three related research projects led by Zachary Hamilton, assistant professor of criminal justice at WSU Spokane.

With funding from the state Department of Corrections and the state Institute for Public Policy, Hamilton is helping officials predict criminal re-offense and determine the effectiveness of treatment programs. The projects are intended to enhance the state’s system for classifying and treating felony offenders and others who potentially pose a threat to society.

Learn more about this criminology research.