Digest — U.Va. News Daily

Researchers designing wearable devices
To analyze how and why older people fall, U.Va. researchers want as much information as possible about how they walk. But studying someone in a lab filled with video cameras and motion sensors is hardly a natural setting. So Jim Aylor, left, and John Lach are looking for ways to take the lab to the study subjects, designing portable, wearable devices to collect data as people go about their normal lives.
(Feb. 17)
Jim Aylor, left, and John Lach are studying how and why the elderly fall.
Tom Cogill

Study: Married couples’ real income dropped in 2001
After six consecutive years of gains, median adjusted gross income for married couples took a dip in 2001. A new report by U.Va.’s Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service shows that a 1.9 percent income growth rate could not keep pace with a 2.8 percent annual inflation rate, causing a loss. “The main reason for the drop was the reversal of fortune for persons who had previously benefited from the stock market boom,” said John L. Knapp, the center’s director of business and economics research.
(Feb. 19)

Scientists make model of Parkinson’s disease
As many as 1 million Americans suffer from Parkinson’s disease. Scientists at U.Va.’s Health System for the first time have engineered cells that replicate features of the disease, including Lewy bodies — tiny balls of damaged protein — found in the brain cells of all patients with Parkinson’s. Scientists plan to use the cellular model to study the development and function of Lewy bodies.
(Feb. 16)