Penn School of Social Policy & Practice’s Ortner Center Pairs With Avon to Go ‘Beyond Brochures’
PHILADELPHIA –- A grant from the Avon Foundation will allow researchers at the University of Pennsylvania to take an in-depth look at how the Internet plays a role in preventing violence against women.
The study is entitled Beyond Brochures: Internet Use by Agencies Addressing Violence Against Women.
Sorenson and a team of three doctoral students from Social Policy & Practice and Penn’s Annenberg School for Communication will study how agencies use the Internet and social-media venues like Facebook and Twitter to share information and communicate with victims, donors and the general public. They will analyze Web-site content, visual appeal, placement and social-media presence.
“Of particular importance to agencies serving abused and assaulted women is the knowledge that Internet use can be and is monitored by abusers as a way to control and limit access to information and social supports,” Sorenson said.
Sharing the findings from Beyond Brochures with practitioners and advocates is a key component of the project; researchers say the results will be directly relevant to agencies’ practices.
Sorenson and her team expect to finish the analysis by June 2013.
On the move: Water quality and antimicrobial resistance testing goes mobile
Penn researchers have developed a mobile field laboratory allowing them to test water quality and track antimicrobial resistance in and around San Cristóbal in the Galápagos.
Penn researchers Vanessa and Alexis North are studying one of the largest collections of Egyptian blue objects ever found in the ancient Near East, shedding new light on how the world’s first synthetic pigment may have traveled far beyond Egypt.
A new role for dental providers? Rethinking where vaccines are given
Vaccinations have traditionally been administered in primary care settings or pharmacies. However, for about a decade, some states have authorized dentists to administer vaccines, and many others did so during the COVID-19 pandemic. The effectiveness of this approach has led some countries and states to expand or consider expanding the role of dental providers in delivering routine vaccines, including those against COVID-19 and the human papillomavirus (HPV), and in providing vaccine education.
Penn student develops a way for computer chips to run more efficiently
Fluid Silicon, a platform from President’s Sustainability Prize winner Nhlanhla Mavuso, allows computer chips to continuously monitor their health and self-tune as their characteristics change. The technology has the potential to reduce energy usage in data centers and improve reliability in mission-critical applications.
