Highlights from recent stories about Temple in the media.

Fox research in Wall Street Journal: How stock price relates to annual meetings
Corporate secretaries take note: Researchers have found a relationship between stock performance and the location of annual meetings. A study from New York University and Temple suggests that companies holding their annual meetings far from home tend to post a six-month stock performance that trails other companies by anywhere from 3 percent to nearly 12 percent. The paper was titled “Evasive Shareholder Meetings” and co-authored by Yuanzhi “Lily” Li, an assistant professor of finance in Temple’s Fox School of Business. It concludes that a distant meeting suggests management or the board would rather avoid awkward questions.

Wall Street Journal | March 24, 2014

Profile of Boyer’s Luis Biava, “one of Philadelphia’s musical giants”
After three decades of teaching, Temple University Symphony Orchestra (TUSO) maestro Luis Biava is stepping down. Biava played violin in the Philadelphia Orchestra for 26 years and taught it at Temple before the Philadelphia Orchestra asked if he would take the podium in 1994. By then, he was artistic director of TUSO, which he would ultimately lead to three Grammy nominations. Thousands of musicians have played under Biava’s baton, and many have gone on to successful musical careers. “Teaching is something so beautiful,” Biava said. “To give them secrets of the bow arm, the sound, the musicality. Music is—how do you say?—infinita in Spanish. It never ends.”

WHYY/NewsWorks | March 20, 2014

Temple sleep research on front page of Inquirer Sunday “Health” section
A new Temple study drives home the potential importance of getting enough sleep if you want to keep your brain healthy. Temple School of Medicine researcher Domenico Praticò used mice that develop Alzheimer’s at 14 to 15 months old. He exposed some of them to a schedule of increased light, which kept them unusually active. After the trial, the sleep-deprived mice did 40 to 50 percent worse on learning and memory tests than mice kept on a normal schedule. The Temple team also found significant changes in a brain protein that is a hallmark of Alzheimer’s and observed that brain cells were not communicating with each other normally.
Philadelphia Inquirer | March 24, 2014

SMC prof’s advice for kids’ networks: Children will watch the same show ad infinitum
How might kids’ viewing habits affect the number of new shows ordered by children’s TV networks? Evidence suggests that they are happy to watch the same episode again and again until they master its story line, said Sherri Hope Culver, assistant professor in Temple’s Department of Media Studies and Production and director of the Center for Media and Information Literacy. Repeated viewing is something educators want when kids watch educational programming. “It gives them a sense of mastery over the content and they enjoy being able to anticipate the story line and know what’s going to happen,” she said.
Variety | March 25, 2014

Temple biologist’s research demonstrates that deer help invasive plants
A new study has found that an invasive plant species is getting help from exploding deer populations. The invader in question is the garlic mustard plant, which has been making inroads since colonists brought it to Long Island in the 1860s. Scientists compared land plots where deer either roamed free or were blocked by fences in a woodland area near Pittsburgh. Temple biologist Rachel Spigler, one of the authors of the study, says the team tracked plant health for six years. “You can really visually see the difference when trillium, one of the main [native] species that we studied, is in bloom in these fenced areas,” she said. “It’s just beautiful.”
WHYY/NewsWorks | March 23, 2014

Why fashion industry use of non-runway models is “brilliant strategy”
On its website, Philadelphia-based boho-chic label Free People recently replaced some of the industry’s most-sought-after models with loyal shoppers showcasing the brand’s hottest spring looks. Using non-runway models is “a brilliant strategy for companies,” said Brooke Erin Duffy of Temple’s School of Media and Communication. “Even if I have no impulse to go to the Free People site, if my friends upload their latest pictures from it, I’ll look. Look at the potential sales.” In the case of Free People, the company and the young women—many of whom are fashion insiders and bloggers—benefit. “They are hoping to get discovered, and in return, the companies are getting free labor,” Duffy said.
Philadelphia Inquirer | March 26, 2014

Feinstein Center to provide fellowships for Jewish archives research
Temple’s Feinstein Center for American Jewish History announced the creation of the Frederic Fox Memorial Summer Fellowship that will support pre- and postdoctoral researchers’ use of the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center (PJAC), a “longstanding and much-cherished archive” housed at Temple University Libraries. The aim of the new fellowship “is to make the PJAC collection accessible to young researchers and historians who are engaged in the important work of understanding the American Jewish past,” said Temple historian Lila Corwin Berman, director of the Feinstein Center.
Jewish Exponent | March 25, 2014

New York Q&A with Lori Tharps, who “wrote the book on black hair”
Temple School of Media and Communication faculty member Lori Tharps, co-author of Hair Story: Untangling the Roots of Black Hair in America, was featured in a New York magazine interview. “I knew there was more to black hair than just style,” she said. “I wanted to figure out the economics, the politics, the culture of black hair in America … why it seemed like black people and white people were living in two completely different worlds when it came to hair… [My co-author and I] were both obsessed with the backstory of black hair and wanted to document it, so that’s why we [wrote the book]. We always say, ‘If black hair could talk, this would be its story.’”
New York | March 19, 2014

Fox researcher explores “smellizing”—making consumers imagine products’ smells
“Smellizing” could be an effective way of attracting consumers toward a product, Temple researcher Maureen Morrin reported in the Journal of Consumer Research. Smellizing means prompting people to imagine a smell. “Before we started this project, we looked for print ads that asked consumers to imagine the smell of the product, and we found none,” said Morrin, a professor of marketing in the Fox School of Business. “We think it’s because advertisers don’t think it’ll actually do anything.” But the team found that when consumers were asked to imagine the smell of a product such as a cookie or cake, it enhanced their desire to consume it—and purchase it.
Indo-Asian News Service, Asian News International, Business Standard, Market Business News, more | Feb. 19-21, 2014

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