OnTopic – VCU News Center

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VCU OnTopic highlights the expertise of VCU professors, showcasing their research and teaching interests in an analysis of real-world events and trends in the news. Each OnTopic segment includes video clips of an individual professor discussing a topic and a short article summarizing the professor’s view.

History

Professor Discusses Civil War Causes, Impact as the Nation Observes its Sesquicentennial

The American Civil War, which is the subject of a sesquicentennial anniversary this year, continues to influence the nation’s government, politics and race relations 150 years after it began, according to Virginia Commonwealth University history professor Ted Tunnel, Ph.D.

Statistics

VCU statistics professor discusses the improbability of the Rams’ Final Four Run

The VCU men’s basketball team’s run to the Final Four represents a highly unlikely statistical event, but Laura McLay, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research at VCU, cautions against taking the Rams’ odds-busting success as an argument against using statistical analysis to predict sports outcomes.

Health Care

Nationally Known VCU Hospital Epidemiologist Discusses This Year’s Flu Season

Michael Edmond, M.D., chair of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the VCU School of Medicine and hospital epidemiologist for the VCU Medical Center, said influenza’s unpredictability complicates health officials’ preparations each year.

Mental Health

VCU On Topic: Understanding Asperger’s Syndrome

Violence is not typical of individuals with Asperger’s Syndrome, according to Bela Sood, M.D., professor and chair of child and adolescent psychiatry at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine, and a nationally recognized expert in children and adolescents with mental health problems.

Pediatric Health

Childhood Obesity Represents a Growing – But Preventable – Problem

Childhood obesity is a growing epidemic with many potential long-term consequences, but it can be fought on a number of fronts, according to Daphne Bryan, M.D., assistant professor in Department of Family Medicine at VCU and medical director at Hayes E. Willis Health Center in Richmond.

Military Affairs

Moral injury among the issues facing combat veterans

Service members suffering from moral injury are feeling profound guilt and shame for things they may have done — or not done — in combat, or for events they may have witnessed.

Haiti Earthquake

VCU social work professor urges caution in providing humanitarian help to Haiti’s youngest earthquake survivors

Some of Haiti’s youngest earthquake survivors are at great risk for being permanently separated from their families, according to Karen Rotabi, Ph.D., assistant professor, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work

Politics

VCU Professor Scores Round Two to Obama

Jennifer Thompson, assistant professor of political science and director of external relations for the Wilder School of Government and Public Affairs in the College of Humanities and Sciences at VCU, believes President Barack Obama can claim a narrow victory in the second of his three debates with Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney.

Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness

Expert Recommends Multi-Pronged Cybersecurity Strategy

In the wake of a series of high-profile cyber-attacks, Gurpreet Dhillon, Ph.D., professor of information systems in the VCU School of Business, suggests companies use several levels of controls to protect against online intruders.

Economy

Overview and Forecast of the U.S. Labor Market

The United States Department of Labor released a report recently stating that American employers added 165,000 jobs in April, lowering the unemployment rate to 7.5 percent - a four-year low.

Health Care Policy

VCU Health System CEO Offers Insight on Supreme Court’s Affordable Care Act Ruling

Sheldon Retchin, M.D., CEO of Virginia Commonwealth University Health System and vice president for health sciences at VCU, is one of the country’s most qualified hospital administrators available to address the Supreme Court's ruling on the Affordable Care Act.

Transportation

High-Speed Rail Plans Gain Traction with Federal Stimulus Money

Federal stimulus money geared for high-speed rail projects should be viewed as an infrastructure project that can be expected to provide long-term benefits, though perhaps not the ones most touted by advocates, according to George Hoffer, professor of economics at VCU.

Media

“Sweeping Changes” to News Media Only the Beginning, Professor says

The traditional business models for the news industry are crumbling, and Jeff South, an associate professor in the School of Mass Communications at Virginia Commonwealth University, says that the future of news promises to encompass a variety of different financial strategies – many of which remain so far untested.

Fashion

Does the current embrace of 1950s-influenced fashion reflect broader cultural trends?

The current embrace of 1950s-influenced fashion reflects other broader cultural trends in the United States, according to Karen Videtic, chair of the Department of Fashion Design and Merchandising at VCU.

Swine Flu

Internationally Renowned Infectious Disease Expert Discusses Swine Flu

Richard P. Wenzel, M.D., internationally known expert on infectious disease, says that a federal declaration of a health emergency is a standard procedure that frees up resources and gets health care professionals focused to fight an infectious disease like swine flu.