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#Expert Insight: Price Image Formation: When is HILO low?

When consumers choose where to shop, they often consider a store’s price image —does the store have a reputation for having lower or higher prices than its competitors? A store’s reputation for lower prices doesn’t happen by chance. Choosing a pricing strategy is one of the biggest pricing decisions a retailer makes. In “When is HILO Low? Price Image Formation Based on Frequency versus Depth Pricing Strategies,” a recently published paper in the Journal of Consumer Research, co-authors Ryan Hamilton, associate professor of marketing, Ramnath Chellappa, associate dean and Goizueta term professor of information systems and operations management, and Daniel Sheehan, associate professor of marketing and supply chain at the University of Kentucky’s Gatton College of Business and Economics, explore a gap in existing pricing strategy research. “Our research doesn’t threaten the validity of the previous research,” said Hamilton, “but what it does do is point to the limited generalizability of the previous research.” This is because previous pricing strategy research used the same research paradigm: It emphasized consumers’ perspectives as they compared prices simultaneously across multiple stores. Hamilton, Chellappa, and Sheehan wondered what would happen if they studied consumers as they compared prices of products within a store, instead of across stores. When they did so, the authors found that “many of the prominent findings of previous research are reversed,” they wrote. “We propose that when stores’ prices are evaluated one at a time, or in isolation, consumers will rely on the most salient contextual clues available—within-category price information—when forming a price image.” For example, rather than research the price of peanut butter across multiple grocery stores, shoppers often evaluate the price of peanut butter by comparing the prices of the brands on the shelf in front of them. To illustrate their point, the authors explore two basic pricing strategies: a frequency pricing strategy and a depth pricing strategy. Every Day Low Pricing (EDLP) is a frequency strategy where stores offer small price advantages over their competitors on many items. Walmart employs an EDLP strategy. A common depth strategy is a high-low (HILO) pricing strategy. HILO offers infrequent, but deep, price advantages over competitors. Macy’s utilizes this strategy. “The conventional wisdom is that EDLP equals low price,” explained Hamilton. But he and his co-authors argue that in a non-theoretical environment, the effectiveness of EDLP strategies is less clear. The trio hypothesized that the context in which consumers encounter prices has important implications. Specifically, that the frequency advantage of EDLP identified in earlier research was limited to those scenarios where customers were able to simultaneously compare prices across multiple stores. In contrast, they argue that a depth advantage, one resulting from HILO pricing, will be more likely when consumers evaluate store prices separately. “Without simultaneous comparisons across stores, consumers shift from using across-store prices as reference points to using within-category reference prices. As a result of this shift, deep price advantages are easier to evaluate than frequent price advantages and therefore more influential on customers’ formation of price image,” they write. “Because our theoretical account is based on within-category external reference prices, we predict that a depth store is likely to be evaluated as having a lower price image than a frequency store even when consumers are exposed to the prices of just one store,” they write. The authors tested their hypothesis using six separate experiments. All but one of the experiments studied national brands commonly found in grocery stores. (The other experiment used televisions.) In the experiments where participants saw store prices simultaneously, the experiment replicated the frequency advantage noted in previous research. But when participants did not have simultaneous price information across stores, the previous findings didn’t hold “What we found is that if you distance those prices comparisons even a little bit -showing a price on one webpage and then seeing a price on another webpage - that’s enough to completely reverse the findings,” explained Hamilton. In an isolated setting, “a couple of really low prices” will better communicate a store’s low-price image, said Hamilton. “That’s the big story.” While excited about the findings of their research, Hamilton is quick to point out the limits of their hypothesis, such as when pricing information isn’t readily available or when the consumer isn’t familiar with the brands of the product they wish to buy. “People want a simple answer that works everywhere, but it’s more nuanced than that,” said Hamilton. “This [hypothesis] is going to work better under certain set of circumstances than others because people process price information differently.” The insights aren’t only useful for retailers. While using a store’s price image to shop can be efficient from a consumer standpoint, assuming that the prices are low solely because the store has a reputation for low prices isn’t always the case. A retailer’s price image has vulnerabilities. Not everything at Costco is cheaper than it is at Whole Foods. Southwest Airlines may not always be cheaper than Delta Air Lines. “If you’re shopping for things you really care about,” advised Hamilton, “it might be worth doing more across-store price comparisons.” Chellappa is excited about how the paper addresses gaps in traditional economic models of pricing. “While much research in economics and information systems focuses on the availability of information for price comparison, the cognitive aspect of ‘how’ consumers compare and process such information is only explicated by studies such as ours. Looking at pricing through a behavioral lens, capturing consumers’ real shopping behavior reveals great insights that will be useful for firms,” he said. Interested in learning more about consumer behavior and Price Image Formation Based on Frequency versus Depth Pricing Strategies? Then let us help with your coverage and questions. Ryan Hamilton and Ramnath Chellappa are both available to speak regarding this important topic - simply click on either expert's icon now to arrange an interview today.

#ExpertPerspective: Did the Covid-19 Pandemic Change Perspectives on Inequality?

Did the COVID-19 pandemic have a silver lining? According to Professor Andrea Dittmann and an interdisciplinary team of researchers, the answer is, “Yes.” In 2020, when it became clear that the COVID-19 pandemic would upend daily life, Andrea Dittmann decided the research she’d been doing could wait. Typically, Dittmann, Assistant Professor of Organization & Management, studies the sources of—and solutions to—inequality in the workplace. “The pandemic is a very distressing thing, but from a research standpoint it’s fascinating to study,” Dittmann said. “The pandemic laid bare all of the inequalities that I’ve been studying for years.” Dittmann, along with colleagues Ellen Reinhart and Hazel Rose Markus from the Department of Psychology, Stanford University; Rebecca Carey, Department of Psychology, Princeton University; Nicole Stephens, Management and Organizations, Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management; and Hannah Birnbaum, Organizational Behavior Area, Olin Business School at Washington University in St. Louis, decided to study how experiencing personal harm as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic influenced people’s attitudes and behaviors towards equality. In their paper, “Personal Harm from the Covid-19 pandemic predicts advocacy for equality,” published in the January 2023 issue of Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the researchers write that experiencing greater personal harm in the early stages of the pandemic was “associated with increased advocacy for equality one year later.” These findings are noteworthy. For decades, psychologists have studied Americans’ tendency to rationalize existing inequality as a consequence of individual or “internal” attributes (e.g. differences in work ethic) rather than as a product of larger structural, external, and uncontrollable factors such as bad luck, discrimination, or differences in educational opportunities. “Americans tend to explain people’s life outcomes as free from the constraints of history, other people, and social systems. Instead, life outcomes are seen as a product of individuals’ personal preferences, choices, or enduring characteristics,” they write. Lessons from Firsthand Experience While previous studies have shown that increasing a person’s exposure to inequality—for instance, working in an under-served school or participating in a poverty simulation—can increase people’s endorsement of external attributions for inequality, the COVID-19 pandemic presented the researchers with a real life opportunity to test their hypothesis: that an individual’s firsthand experience of personal harm due to an external force beyond his or her control “will be associated with an increase in their advocacy for equality over time,” they write. Firsthand exposure to inequality confronts people with information contrary to the dominant narrative; it demonstrates how forces beyond individuals’ control can shape people’s opportunities. To conduct their study, the authors recruited a balanced sample (in terms of gender and educational level) of approximately 1500 U.S. citizens between the ages of 18-70. Over the course of a year, they surveyed the participants three times—in May 2020, October 2020 and May 2021. Participants were asked whether they had experienced personal harm as a result of the pandemic (such as disruptions to sleep, poor mental health, financial difficulties, contracting the disease, or having a friend/family member die from the disease) and whether or not experiencing such harm was associated with greater endorsement of external attributions for inequality. Increased Advocacy: A Silver Lining To measure attitudinal and behavioral advocacy for equality, the study included questions about whether there should be universal healthcare, whether the government should provide stimulus checks to help people meet basic needs, and whether or not participants had done anything to combat inequality as a result of the personal harm they had experienced. Had they contacted a public official to express support for reducing social or economic inequality? Had they posted or shared content online that related to reducing social or economic inequality? Even when we ran the most conservative statistical tests, we were still seeing this meaningful relationship between experiencing personal harm and changing your attitude towards inequality and being more willing to stand up and do something about inequality. It speaks to the importance of having direct experience with something that has a disproportionate effect on your life. Dittmann doesn’t know if these attitudinal shifts will be permanent, but she believes the results of the study suggest that research interventions, like asking people to think about people they know who are affected by “large, external shocks” such as climate change or a natural disaster, “could be a way, experimentally, to get more people to see the link, to make these external attributions,” she explained. “While it’s of course awful that so many people experienced this harm due to the pandemic, if there is one good thing that came of it, people were able to shift their attitudes towards inequality. And very importantly, as someone who has done a lot of social psychological research, you don’t expect these effects to persist this long over time. They tend to be more transient. But this study suggests that these could be relatively long term effects.” Looking to know more? Then let us help with your media coverage or research. Andrea is an Assistant Professor of Organization & Management at Emory University's Goizueta Business School. She studies diversity and inequality, particularly employees' social class backgrounds, aiming to promote equity and inclusion at work. Andrea is available to speak with media - simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.

Researchers use computer models and simulations to predict satellite resilience

Computational physics is a field of nuance and detail. Using mathematics, researchers build computer models and simulations to test hypotheses within a digital environment. These numerical experiments are often used when practical testing is not feasible like when, for example, you must ascertain the durability of materials in a nuclear explosion. Gennady Miloshevsky, Ph.D., is an associate professor of mechanical and nuclear engineering who specializes in computational physics with an emphasis on plasma, lasers and particle beams. He works to predict the behavior and state of materials when under extreme pressure, temperature and radiation. With funding from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), Miloshevsky is studying the effect weapons of mass destruction have on satellites within Earth’s orbit. His work requires a distinct familiarity with our physical world and how different forms of energy interact with and within matter. “Any satellite close to the detonation point would be destroyed,” says Miloshevsky, “However, beyond that initial area, surviving satellites could be subject to X-ray induced blow-off, thermo-mechanical shock and warm dense plasma formation take place on material surfaces. This causes damage to exposed optics, sensors and solar cells on satellites. Particularly dense surface plasmas can couple the solar cells to each other in gaps between unshielded active elements and to dielectric structures causing them to be destroyed. It would all depend on the distance from the detonation point and the orientation of the satellite.” Part of Miloshevsky’s research involves developing methods to computationally simulate temperature, pressure and radiation in order to study the state known as “warm dense plasma,” which occurs between the solid and classical plasma states and exhibits the characteristics of both. A better understanding of this state of matter is a stepping stone to building more resilient materials. “Warm dense plasma is highly transient and short lived,” says Miloshevsky. “The state occurs in several nanoseconds, so isolating it in a laboratory setting in order to characterize it is very complicated. A nuclear burst irradiates materials with high-intensity X-rays, resulting in the transition to warm dense plasma. Our DTRA research seeks to understand the fundamental physics of warm dense plasma, including its physical and electrical properties. It’s currently unclear how this may affect the choice of future materials for satellite components.” A ban on nuclear testing means research into the effects of nuclear weapons is only possible through the use of computer codes to either model or simulate the many physics phenomena generated by a nuclear detonation. Miloshevsky’s first research area includes quantifying and reducing the uncertainty of computer model material properties, such as diamond, under the conditions of a nuclear blast using REODP (Radiative Emissivity and Opacity of Dense Plasmas) computer code he developed. This code is used to investigate the ionization state and ion abundances for equilibrium and transient-dense plasmas. It helps predict the equations of state, transport and optical properties of materials in the category of warm dense plasma. In a second research area, Miloshevsky works to understand and predict the interaction between X-rays and satellite surface materials (like silicon, germanium and other materials used to make solar panels) during a nuclear detonation in space. This uses MIRDIC (Modeling Ionizing Radiation Deep Insulator Charging) code developed in collaboration with NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center for its Europa Lander project. This code helps anticipate charge production by blackbody X-rays in dielectrics and insulators of DoD space systems. It can also predict electrostatic material breakdown. Also part of the second research area is work to understand X-ray-induced shock generation, material ablation and blow-off (when material is literally “blown off” the satellite in reaction to another force) within the vacuum of space. This is studied using MSM-LAMMPS (Momentum Scaling Model implemented within the Large-scale Atomic/Molecular Massively Parallel Simulator software package) code. It predicts material behavior at an atomic level within extreme environments, the nature and behavior of materials in highly non-equilibrium states, microscopic mechanisms of disintegration, blow-off, melting, ionization and warm dense plasma states. Practical experiments in a lab use lasers to replicate the heat and pressure generated by X-ray radiation, shock and other physical effects of a nuclear detonation. Miloshevsky’s colleagues at the John Hopkins Extreme Materials Institute heat carbide diamond and silica materials typically found in solar panels to temperatures between 11,600 and 1,160,000 Kelvin using lasers at the University of Rochester and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to observe this momentary transformation into warm dense plasma. Researchers use shadowgraphy, spectroscopy and other visual analytical methods to quantify the result. They can also investigate the depth, size and shape of the crater created by the laser within the material surface. “Experimental and computational research are closely interconnected and complement each other,” says Miloshevsky. “The laser-material interaction is a complicated process that occurs on multiple space (nanometers to millimeters) and time (femtoseconds to milliseconds) scales with evolving and changing physics. Data measured in these experiments usually need physics insights from a computer model to be correctly interpreted and understood. Models can provide fine details of physics processes that cannot be revealed in the practical experiments due to the incredibly minute space and time scales. Conversely, data from physical experimentation can feed into a computer model so it can be further developed and refined to enhance the understanding of the experiment’s measured data.” Miloshevsky’s recent topical review paper, Ultrafast laser matter interactions: modeling approaches, challenges, and prospects, details some of these advances in computational modeling and simulation development for laser-pulse interactions with solids and plasma.

ChristianaCare Earns Transformational Leadership Award from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives and American Hospital Association

Award jointly given to President and CEO Dr. Janice Nevin and Chief Digital and Information Officer Randy Gaboriault ChristianaCare has earned the Transformational Leadership Award for excelling in its development and deployment of transformational information technology that improves the delivery of care and streamlines administrative services. Presented by the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME) and the American Hospital Association, the award is jointly bestowed to Janice Nevin, M.D., MPH, ChristianaCare’s president and CEO, and Randy Gaboriault, MS, MBA, ChristianaCare’s chief digital and information officer and senior vice president. “Their trailblazing commitment to rapid transformation has set an example for the entire industry in how to pursue a leadership vision with determination, brilliant planning and courage to overcome all challenges,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell. Under the leadership of Nevin and Gaboriault, ChristianaCare has created and deployed new organizational, digital capabilities for both patient and caregiver. Using voice-enabled technology, ChristianaCare HomeHealth patients can interact with an internally developed Alexa capability to guide them through their personalized daily therapy regimens. Similarly, ChristianaCare recently launched the ability for in-house postpartum patients to use an Amazon Echo device to ask questions, request help or communicate with their care team. Taking voice and digital capabilities further, in February 2022, ChristianaCare deployed an innovative tool called Moxi, a collaborative robot – or “cobot” – that can assist in the hospital by making deliveries and performing other non-clinical tasks so that nurses and other clinical caregivers can spend more time focused on what they do best: caring for patients. “Randy is a phenomenal leader, with a relentless focus on creating a culture of innovation for impact, solving for the most complex problems and delivering significantly improved outcomes,” Nevin said. “His work has made ChristianaCare a model for how transformative technology can help to create health so that every person can flourish.” ChristianaCare continues to be recognized for leading innovation in the health care industry. The organization was recently recognized by CHIME’s Most Wired program with Performance Excellence Awards in its acute and ambulatory categories. That level is reserved only for organizations that are considered leaders in health care technology who “actively push the industry forward” and are “realizing meaningful outcomes, including improved quality of care, improved patient experience, reduced costs and broader patient access to healthcare services.” “Under Dr. Nevin’s extraordinary leadership, we have made an intentional commitment to placing technology at the center of all our initiatives to enable our caregivers to best serve our patients,” Gaboriault said. “That commitment, reinforced by our organization’s core behavior to continuously look for new ways to innovate, means that we are able to introduce and leverage robotic nursing assistants in a way that drives meaningful value for both patients and providers. And because our caregivers embrace change, we are confident that we will be using our cobots to assume more tasks in the future, and enable our nurses to devote even more of their precious time to direct patient care.”

ChristianaCare Named a Most Wired Health Care Technology Leader for 7th Consecutive Year

For the seventh consecutive year, ChristianaCare has earned the “Most Wired” designation from the College of Healthcare Information Management Executives (CHIME), which assesses how effectively health care organizations apply core and advanced technologies to improve health and care in their communities. Among the more than 38,000 organizations surveyed by CHIME, ChristianaCare ranked above peers in categories such as analytics and data management, population health, infrastructure and patient engagement. The survey assessed the adoption, integration and impact of technologies in health care organizations at all stages of development, from early development to industry leading. “At ChristianaCare we are curious and continuously looking for ways to innovate,” said ChristianaCare President and CEO Janice E. Nevin, M.D., MPH. “Embedding that behavior in our organization has led to brilliant planning and extraordinary execution of new, technology-enabled models of care as our patients demand greater service and convenience, including greater access from home.” ChristianaCare was recognized with a Performance Excellence Award for Most Wired’s acute and ambulatory categories. That level is reserved only for organizations that are considered leaders in health care technology who “actively push the industry forward” and are “realizing meaningful outcomes, including improved quality of care, improved patient experience, reduced costs, and broader patient access to healthcare services.” “We are on the cutting edge of health care innovation, yet we have only scratched the surface of digital care,” said Randy Gaboriault, MS, MBA, chief digital and information officer at ChristianaCare. “We have embarked on building a digital distribution network of health care that strengthens every day. And we are guiding a digital thread that weaves together all the components in and outside the walls of the hospital and provider’s office to improve the health of every person we touch.” The Most Wired recognition highlights ChristianaCare’s success in the launch of the Hospital Care at Home program, which is transforming the very nature of how acute care is delivered, as well as the creation of digital platforms that radically improve the patient experience. Launched in December 2021, ChristianaCare’s Hospital Care at Home program offers the highest level of in-home acute care in Delaware. The program combines virtual and in-person care provided by a team of physicians, nurse practitioners, registered nurses and other providers, and has to date cared for more than 200 patients. These in-person and virtual visits from the health care team mean that a patient doesn’t need to leave home to get better. Virtual technology and home health equipment brought into the patient’s home ensure around-the-clock monitoring and care that mirror a traditional hospital setting. ChristianaCare’s digital patient engagement capabilities have streamlined nearly every aspect of the patient experience. Through these digital tools, the registration, check-in and intake of patients are becoming more streamlined, improving both patient experience and efficiency at ChristianaCare practices. The digital platform also enables patients to self-schedule appointments, easily complete their medical histories and check in to appointments by simply scanning a QR code with their digital device. “These digital offerings have placed our patients in the driver’s seat,” said Lynne McCone, MBA, chief applications officer and vice president of IT at ChristianaCare. “The benefits of a conducive, consistent patient journey and experience in turn improves practice operations and efficiency and dismantles administrative burdens for both patients and caregivers. It’s a huge win for consumers, patients and providers.” The Digital Health Most Wired survey and recognition program serves as a comprehensive “digital health check-up” for health care organizations across the world, according to CHIME. As success in digital health increasingly determines the quality of patient care, the scope of the CHIME Digital Health Most Wired survey reflects the progress of leading health systems, like ChristianaCare, as they reinvent health care for a new century. “We are proud to honor your team’s exceptional dedication to excellence in digital health,” said CHIME President and CEO Russell P. Branzell of ChristianaCare. “Your pioneering performance in the industry inspires other organizations by example. Patients in communities around the world receive better care when you drive change through digital transformation, as you have proven through your success in this rigorous program.”

Can you be hacked while using your mobile device? In a word, yes — here’s how to protect your data

October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month and being aware of all your devices is as important as ever before. Most people are online every day, which opens themselves up to a threat of being hacked. Whether it be a mobile device, laptop, or personal computer, everyone needs to have cyber awareness. Steven Weldon, director of the Cyber Institute at Augusta University’s School of Computer and Cyber Sciences said many straightforward things that can be done to protect devices, such as having lock screens, making sure operating systems are up to date and simply recognizing how, when and where devices are being used. “Smart phones today are probably the most capable computing device that we have and we have it on us all the time,” said Weldon. “The data that can be extracted from these devices can be put together to build a pattern of life on us: where we go, what we do and when we do it. All of this data is potentially at risk if we’re not being careful about who gets access to our smart phones. That’s a great reason to lock the screen and require at least a password or pin to unlock the phone.” Gokila Dorai, PhD, assistant professor in the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences, suggests using biometrics to enhance security. “I would strongly recommend for women, young adults even teenagers, if it’s possible for you to have biometrics as a way to unlock your device, then go for that. These unique ways of unlocking a device would add a layer of protection,” said Dorai. Dorai is one of the growing experts in the field of mobile forensics and her research projects are federally funded. In addition, several SCCS faculty are mentoring undergraduate and graduate students working on cutting edge research related to mobile device security and digital forensics. She also suggested adding a two-factor authentication or multi-factor authentication to add an extra layer of security. When out in the public, it’s easy to connect a mobile device to an unprotected Wi-Fi network. Doing so could open up sites you visit to a hacker. Weldon suggests people should be careful of what apps are used when on public Wi-Fi, since they may expose a lot of personally identifiable information. His suggestion is to use a virtual private network to help protect data that’s being transmitted and received. “We should recognize the data on our smart phones and protect them accordingly,” added Weldon. “Recognizing the value and sensitivity of the data on our smart phones can guide us in how we protect these devices. We may not think as much about the security and privacy of our smart phones as we do about our laptops and desktops. When we think about everything we use our smartphones for, how ubiquitous they are in our lives, we come to realize just how central they are to today’s lifestyle in the digital age.” It’s tough to identify when a mobile device has been hijacked, so both Weldon and Dorai suggest paying close attention to any unusual behavior, even small things such as a battery draining faster than usual. Both are indicators you may need to take corrective actions. Dorai added the government can do more to protect a person’s privacy. “With the introduction of more and more Internet of Things devices in the market, with several different manufacturers, there’s a lot of user data that’s actually getting exchanged. These days, the most valuable thing in the world is data. So stricter measures are required,” she said. She indicated it needs to be a collaborative effort between industry, academia, government, and practitioners to come together and work on ideas to strengthen security. “Yes we want security. We are willing to put up with a little bit of friction for additional security. We want it easy and we generally want it free,” said Weldon. “We don’t read licensing agreements, but we would generally be willing to take certain actions, make certain tradeoffs, to be more secure.” One other major concern are apps in general. While Google Play Store and Apple routinely remove some apps that may be out of date or have security vulnerabilities, they may still be running on a user’s device. “Mobile applications may also hide from you in plain sight in the sense the app icons may not be showing up on the screen, but still they are running in the background,” added Dorai. In essence, the device user is the first line of defense. Taking all the necessary steps to prevent a third party from getting your information is of the utmost importance in the digital age. “I believe a big part of it this discussion is about user awareness. We want that free app but that app is asking for a lot of permissions. There’s an old saying in cybersecurity: if you are not paying for the product, you are the product. There’s also another saying: if it’s smart, it’s vulnerable,” said Weldon. Are you a reporter covering Cybersecurity Awareness Month? If so - then let us help with your stories. Steven Weldon is the Director of  Cyber Institute at the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Augusta University and is an expert in the areas of cellular and mobile technology, ethics in computer science, scripting and scripting and automation. Gokila Dorai is an Assistant Professor in the School of Computer and Cyber Sciences at Augusta University and is an expert in the areas is mobile/IoT forensics research. Both experts are available for interviews - simply click on either icon to arrange a time today.

How will debates affect upcoming elections? Expert examines Walker-Warnock Senate matchup

Mid-term elections are nearly here and it is debate season for candidates. In Georgia, Sen. Raphael Warnock is set to debate Herschel Walker in Savannah on Oct. 14. This may be the only time the two candidates face off in a debate. But can these events sway a voter one way or another? Augusta University’s Mary-Kate Lizotte is an expert in political and voter behavior and said research shows debates do not have a substantial influence on election outcomes. “Most individuals who watch debates are well informed and therefore very likely to already have a party identification,” Lizotte said. “Sometimes debates do lead to a bump in the polls for a candidate if various news outlets agree that the candidate won. Most of the times, such bumps do not last that long.” But when it comes to a particular issue, she said there is some research that shows if it’s a newer topic, then it can influence public opinion. There has been a lot of attention on this particular debate since Warnock has unsuccessfully tried to engage Walker in other debates. Walker has said he’s not the polished speaker Warnock is and has downplayed the debate during recent speeches. “Walker is probably doing what others have done against a candidate with established oratory skills," adds Lizotte. "George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Mitt Romney, or their people, worked to lower expectations by conceding that their opponent was a fantastic debater/speaker; then the news media positively covered their debate performance when they performed moderately well or when their opponent does not trounce them.” “This could work in Walker’s favor if they only have one debate. If he gets positive coverage for doing better than expected, then he likely won’t agree to another debate.” With the mid-term elections inching closer and each Senate race crucial to determining the balance of power in Washington, these campaigns will get attention from state and national media. And if you're a reporter looking to cover the race in Georgia, then let us help. Dr. Mary-Kate Lizotte is an expert in political and voter behavior. She is available to talk about the upcoming midterm and gubernatorial elections in Georgia. Click on her name to schedule an interview.

Sharing photos of your kids online? Here's what you should consider.

By Emma Richards Today’s parents are the first to raise children alongside social media and in this era of likes, comments and shares, they must also decide when to post images of their children online and when to hold off to protect their privacy. The practice of “sharenting” – parents posting images of their children on social media platforms — has drawn attention to the intersection between the rights of parents and the rights of their children in the online world. Stacey Steinberg, a professor in UF’s Levin College of Law, author and mother of three, says parents need to weigh the right to post their child’s milestones and accomplishments online against the right of a child to dictate their own digital footprint and maintain their privacy. Steinberg, like many parents, avidly posted photographs of her children online to document their childhoods. When she left her job as a child welfare attorney to become a professor, Steinberg also began writing about her motherhood experiences. She also began rethinking posting about her children online, realizing that it could be doing more harm than good. And yet, there was little guidance for parents on to consider when posting images and how to do so with their children’s safety in mind. Among the problematic issues: Machine learning and artificial intelligence allow for the collection of information about people from online posts but there is little control over or understanding of how that stored information is being used or how it will future impact on the next generation. According to Steinberg, a Barclays study found that by the year 2030, nearly two-thirds of all identity theft cases will be related to sharenting. There are also concerns pedophiles may collect and save photographs of children shared online. For example, one article she reviewed reported that 50% of pedophile image-sharing sites had originated on family blogs and on social media. Steinberg says parents should model appropriate social media behavior for their children, such as asking permission before taking and posting an image and staying present in the moment rather than living life through a lens or being fixated with what’s online. “I think it’s a danger that we’re not staying in the moment, that we’re escaping to our newsfeed or that we’re constantly posting and seeing who’s liked our images and liked what we’ve said instead of focusing on real connections with the people in front of us,” Steinberg said in an episode of the From Florida Podcast. While parents serve as the primary gatekeepers for children’s access to the online world, tech companies and policymakers also have roles to play in setting parameters and adopting law that protect children’s safety. Numerous European countries have already moved in this direction with such concepts as the “right to be forgotten,” which allows people to get information that is no longer relevant or is inaccurate removed to protect their name or reputation on platforms such as Google. “The United States really would have a hard time creating a right to be forgotten because we have really strong free speech protections and we really value parental autonomy Steinberg said. Google has, however, created a form that allows older kids to request that old photographs and content about them be removed from the internet, which Steinberg says is a promising step. Steinberg would love to see other mechanisms adopted to minimize the amount of data that is collected about children and ensure artificial intelligence is used responsibly and ethically when collecting online data. In the meantime, parents can proactively make online privacy issues a topic of discussion with their children and take proactive steps to limit their digital footprints, such as deleting old childhood photos. “One thing that I really want to encourage families to do is not to fear the technology, but to try to learn about it,” Steinberg said.

What's next in Georgia's 2020 election saga?

All eyes are on Georgia once again, but this time it's not about an upcoming election. As we sort through the 2020 election aftermath that saw Georgia in a tug-of-war between lawyers, politicians and pundits, the actions a few important figures may now be coming to light. Rudy Giuliani, the former advisor to President Trump, may be in some serious trouble according to Augusta's leading political expert, Dr. Gregg Murray. "When politicians are involved, there are almost always political calculations," Murray said. "But there’s a lot of information suggesting there may be problematic behavior that he was heavily involved with. There are reports of investigations involving several possible Georgia law violations: solicitation of election fraud, making false statements to local officials, conspiracy, racketeering, violations of oath of office and involvement in violence or threats of violence, according to Voice of America." As for Sen. Lindsey Graham, he, too, has been summoned to appear and explain how he may or may not have attempted to influence the election outcome. A federal judge on Monday turned down Sen. Lindsey Graham’s bid to throw out a subpoena compelling him to testify before the Atlanta-area grand jury investigating Donald Trump’s effort to overturn the 2020 election. “[T]he Court finds that the District Attorney has shown extraordinary circumstances and a special need for Senator Graham’s testimony on issues relating to alleged attempts to influence or disrupt the lawful administration of Georgia’s 2022 elections,” U.S. District Court Judge Leigh Martin May wrote in a 22-page opinion rejecting Graham’s effort and sending the matter back to state courts for further proceedings. Politico, Aug. 15 According to Murray, defying the judge's request might be the likely choice for the senator. "It seems the Republican party is still clearly tied to Trump," Murray adds. "I don’t think he would be hurt politically by not showing up. It’s an interesting question if some people would hold it against him for showing up." This legal wrangling will be long and drawn out, so if you are covering this topic, let our expert help with your story. Dr. Gregg Murray is available to talk about the election audit and what it might mean for voters in Georgia and across the country. Murray’s research focuses on political behavior and psychology with specific interests in voter mobilization and turnout. He is also executive director of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences. Simply click on Murray's icon to arrange an interview today.

Research team aims to enhance security of medical devices

Tamer Nadeem, Ph.D., the principal investigator of the VCU-based MedKnights project, explained that the project’s focus is on the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). Nadeem and co-PI Irfan Ahmed, Ph.D., both associate professors in the VCU College of Engineering Department of Computer Science, recently received $600,000 from the NSF’s Office of Advanced Cyberinfrastructure to put together a framework to improve IoMT security. IoMT devices are used in a range of diagnostic, monitoring and therapeutic applications. IoMT includes patient monitors, ventilators, MRI machines — even “smart beds.” Ahmed cited the internet-connected insulin pump is a good example of an IoMT device. Internet connectivity allows for both monitoring and adjusting the dosage remotely — functions that require a high degree of security for patient privacy as well as safety. All IoMT devices are potentially vulnerable to ransomware, denial of service and other malicious hacker attacks. Nadeem points out that IoMT devices have a higher security requirement than traditional IoT devices such as smart doorbells and smart thermostats in homes. “The most important thing in the medical domain is privacy,” Nadeem said. “For IoT devices in your home, you wouldn’t care that much about privacy, but for medical devices, it is an essential thing. You wouldn’t want anyone to know what your health conditions are, or what problems you might have had.” The work of the MedKnights group is important, as the IoMT domain is expanding; there is growth in terms of types of devices, number of patients using them and number of IoMT vendors. Nadeem added that the COVID pandemic and accompanying quarantine and stay-home orders increased the focus of medical-technology providers on the possibilities of IoMT. “Talking to some of the medical-device providers, I’ve learned that they are considering a line of products where they can remotely monitor patients on those devices, and they also can configure those devices remotely,” Nadeem said. Security is a large concern for the new generation of devices, because the current IoMT devices have been hit hard by hackers, he said. Security is an issue that extends from the individual patient to the institution. “Statistics show there are a lot of ransom attacks being done on the health sectors during the pandemic,” Nadeem said. “That motivated us.” The MedKnights team’s preparation for taking on the dragon of malicious IoMT attacks includes building a “test bed,” an isolated hardware/software assembly that Nadeem says will mimic the internet-enabled hospital setting. “In the hospital environment, there’s set of rooms. Each room has a lot of medical devices; they could be wired, or they could be wireless devices,” he said. “But there is no way that we can do what we want to do in a hospital.” The test bed will incorporate IoMT datasets based on typical device behavior, traffic and known malicious attacks. Nadeem explained that MedKnights will explore vulnerabilities of various IoMT hardware and software by subjecting the elements of the IoMT test bed to a range of attacks. “We will try to see in real time how efficient our technologies to monitor or detect these attacks, then try to intervene if we notice any change in the activities on the network,” he said. “Now, if the attacks manage to get into the device, we would like to also to start to see whether we can monitor these devices and observe abnormality or any misbehavior.” Nadeem said the next step is to isolate the source of fishy activity in the test bed network and begin to reverse-engineer the malware. He explained the group will work on understanding the question by looking for the “hole” that created the vulnerability. Ahmed said the MedKnights will bring undergraduates into the project through DURI, the Dean’s Undergraduate Research Initiative at the VCU College of Engineering. High school students will have an opportunity to join the team through a similar program known as the Dean’s Early Research Initiative, or DERI. DURI and DERI are just two ways of getting younger scientists and engineers involved in actual research. “For the last couple of years, I’ve been contacted by local high schools to host a couple of their students during the summer,” Nadeem added. “The students were really excited about it. We came up with some nice ideas about how to extend that work to their classrooms. As we continue this project, we will reach out to the schools, because we would love having a couple of their students involved.”