Living longer with obesity means heavier burden for hospitals

Living longer with obesity can lead to both longer hospital stays and more avoidable trips to the hospital, according to two new studies from Purdue.

Ken Ferraro and
Markus Schafer

"Americans are overweight, and there are numerous studies that cite the problems of obesity," said Ken Ferraro, a professor of Sociology and director of the Center on Aging and the Life Course. "However, as the age at which people become obese continues to get younger, we wanted to know how living longer with obesity affects people."

"These findings could motivate young people to reverse the trend with healthy eating and activity and, if so, they may be able to avoid the consequences of chronic obesity."

Ferraro, along with graduate student Markus Schafer, studied how obesity influences hospitalizations using 20 years of personal health data based on surveys linked to hospital records of more than 4,000 people ages 25-77. The data, from 1971-1992, was part of a federally-funded national health and nutrition survey. More

Researchers create primer to help policy-makers

Members of the Purdue Climate Change Research Center have created a policy brief to aid decision-makers in weighing the options and consequences of different approaches to deal with climate change issues.

Leigh Raymond

Numerous proposals have been drafted promoting policies to limit emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, a primary contributor to climate change, said Leigh Raymond, the center's associate director.

"Carbon dioxide emissions have increased 18 percent nationally since 1990 and 13 percent in Indiana," said Raymond, who also is co-author of the brief and an associate professor of Political Science. "In order to have the widest set of tools available to deal with emerging policy challenges like climate change, it is important to be clear about the advantages and disadvantages of both a potential cap and trade program, as well as carbon taxes, and to consider them as part of a larger portfolio of policy strategies in this area." More

Expert offers gift tips sure to 'move' children

There are a number of gift ideas to get sedentary children of all ages active, says a childhood fitness expert.

"The key is to find gifts that also motivate the entire family to move," says Carole DeHaven, a continuing lecturer in the Department of Health and Kinesiology. "Parents are the gatekeepers for healthy living. By providing activities that children enjoy, along with healthy food choices, we can help reverse the number of children who are overweight or obese."

"If the trend is not reversed, then obese children grow up to be obese adolescents who grow in to obese adults."

Gift ideas that promote activity include:

Expert helps parents understand world of video, computer games

Adults who are not familiar with video and computer games should be cautious about what they buy children this holiday season, says a video-game expert.

"In a perfect world, video games would be rated in terms of content and complexity," says Samantha Blackmon, an associate professor of English who studies representations of race and gender in video games. "But the content of video games can be surprising."

Here are some other buying tips:

Now showing: Christmas films are darker, more depressing

The 21st century Christmas movie is moving away from Scrooge and Tiny Tim to scrutinizing Santa Claus and addressing other modern realities of the holiday season, says a film and Charles Dickens expert.

"The Christmas films of the new millennium have taken two forms," says William J. Palmer, a professor of English. "The first is a very dark form, almost a black humor approach about Christmas ideals and the joyful season. Some examples are the recent films Bad Santa, Deck the Halls and Surviving Christmas."

The second type focuses on the deconstruction of Santa Claus, as seen in movies like Elf, The Santa Clause and Fred Claus.

"These take a very postmodernist view of Santa Claus by showing that every story has two sides," Palmer says. "The holiday hero really has a dark side. Plus, Christmas for some people is a time of utter despair and loneliness, and that depression can be exacerbated by the season that focuses on love and families." More

International enrollment ranks among highest

A report released Nov. 12 by the Institute of International Education ranked Purdue second in the nation among U.S. public institutions in international student enrollment for the 2006-07 academic year.

Purdue had 4,824 international students from 123 countries enrolled in 2006-07, only seven fewer than the previous year, said Michael Brzezinski, director of Purdue's Office of International Students and Scholars. Among all public and private universities, the University of Southern California enrolled the largest number of international students at 7,115. The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign ranked first among U.S. public institutions.

Nationally, business is the leading field of study for international students, with 18 percent of the total, followed by engineering with 15 percent. At Purdue, engineering ranks No. 1 among international students. Science, management, liberal arts, and agriculture round out the university's top areas of study selected by international students. More

Celebrating Native Americans means honoring hundreds of cultures

When recognizing November's Native American Heritage Month, it is important to remember the hundreds of nations that are part of the Native American culture, says a History professor.

"One of the biggest misconceptions is that all Native Americans are the same, and there is some general way of talking about a single Native American response to anything," said Dawn Marsh Riggs, an assistant professor in the Department of History. "We are talking about more than 600 nations with unique cultural foundations."

Marsh Riggs, who studies Native American history, says this assumption is often the result of how Native Americans are portrayed in entertainment. More

FACULTY & CLA HONORS

– Janet Afary, an associate professor of History and Women's studies, received the Keddie/Balzan Fellowship, which is awarded by the International Balzan Prize Foundation. This fellowship is awarded by invitation only and includes the opportunity to spend the 2008-2009 academic year at UCLA (University of California, Los Angeles). Afary is known for her work in Iranian studies and she is past president of the International Society for Iranian Studies.

–The first runner-up 2007 Biennial Association for Humanist Sociology Book Award was received in October by Janet Afary, associate professor of History and Women's Studies, and Kevin B. Anderson, professor of political science, for their book Foucault and the Iranian Revolution: Gender and the Seductions of Islamism. The book was published in 2005 by the University of Chicago Press.

Alumni Honors

Young liberal arts alumni recognized with award

Three College of Liberal Arts' graduates were honored with a new award to recognize the achievements of young alumni.

Amanda Brown Lopez, Aram Goudsouzian, and Emily Rosko were the recipients of the 2007 Emerging Voice Award, given by the College of Liberal Arts Alumni Board.

Amanda Brown
Lopez

"This is the first year for such an award, which is directed to Purdue liberal arts alumni who are 40 years old and younger and are making great strides toward accomplishing their goals and dreams," said Chris Sharp, director of alumni relations and special events for the College of Liberal Arts. "The alumni board is honoring people who have shown true potential and initiative in their respective fields."

Aram Goudsouzian

Brown Lopez earned her bachelor's degree in law and society from Purdue in 2001 and a master's degree from the University of Michigan in 2004. She is the child welfare policy director for the Association of Community Human Service Agencies in Los Angeles.

Emily Rosko

Goudsouzian earned his doctorate in history from Purdue in 2002. He earned a bachelor's degree from Colby College in 1994 and a master's degree from the University of Massachusetts at Boston in 1997. Goudsouzian is an assistant professor at the University of Memphis.

Rosko earned her bachelor's degree in English in 2001 from Purdue and a master's degree in 2003 from Cornell University. She is in the doctoral program at the University of Missouri-Columbia. More

Other Alumni Honors

– Tom Scholl, who earned a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1970, and Charles L. Jones, who earned a bachelor's degree in industrial design in 1981, have been appointed to the College of Liberal Arts Dean's Advisory Council. Their appointments are effective April 11. Scholl of Bethesda, Md., is a general partner for Novak, Biddle Venture Partners, which is a venture capital firm providing equity financing and assistance to the management of early-stage information technology companies principally located in the Mid-Atlantic region. Jones of Stevensville, Mich., is vice president for global product consumer design at Whirlpool Corp., a worldwide manufacturer and marketer of major home appliances.

EXPERTS IN THE NEWS

Wall Street Journal –
Evangelicals and evil empires
(Darren Dochuk, Department of History)

History Channel –
Mega disaster: Drought
(Doug Hurt, Department of History)

WRTV 6, WLFI TV18, Lafayette Journal & Courier, Northwest Times of Indiana and the McGill Tribune in Montreal Canada –
Did Santa steal Christmas? Screening a new set of values in the holiday film
(William "Joe" Palmer, Department of English)

Indianapolis Star –
Obesity increases hospital time: Purdue researchers report longer stays, more admissions for seriously overweight
(Ken Ferraro, Department of Sociology)

Chronicle of Higher Education –
Video report: Teaching history in virtual reality
(Sorin Matei, Department of Communication)

WebMD –
Why we love scary movies
(Glenn Sparks, Department of Communication)

The Globe and Mail, Toronto, Canada –
Why all-work Jill is a dull girl
(Howard Weiss, Department of Psychological Sciences)

RRR FM, radio in Melbourne, Australia –
Sports for thought; Run like you stole something
(Randy Roberts, Department of History)

Times of Northwest Indiana –
The power of the written word
(John Duvall, Department of English)

Lafayette Journal & Courier and WLFI TV18 –
Ex-CIA head looks at U.S. problems and Former CIA Director Speaks at Purdue
(Department of Political Science)

Lafayette Journal & Courier –
Get your game on: Resurgence of board games offers something for every taste
(Glenn Sparks, Department of Communication)

Lafayette Journal & Courier –
Parents, politicians at odds over game ratings
(Samantha Blackmon, Department of English)

Lafayette Journal & Courier –
Purdue graduate student's circle of friends spans ages
(College of Liberal Arts and Center on Aging and the Life Course)