Author: Neil Schoenherr

Observers long wondered what would become of Barack Obama after he left office. Young and healthy, still pondering social problems, he always seemed an unlikely candidate for the list of distant former presidents. He may well be transforming the post-presidency in ways no less profound than Trump’s efforts to change the presidency.

Private equity firms are more financially stable and pose less systemic risk to the global economy than the large investment banks that went defunct during the financial crisis of 2007-2009, finds a new analysis by a financial regulation expert at the School of Law.

A chief aim of “For the Sake of All” was always to describe disparities in health as more than just a matter of health care. In the hundreds of presentations I have given on our report since its release, I emphasize that health is about much more than doctors’ offices, hospitals, health insurance, and prescription drugs. Those resources are vital to treating illness, but health is also strongly determined by the quality of education, the availability of affordable housing, and the possibility of making a living wage.

Privately insured children and those with Medicaid at the time of a cancer diagnosis experience largely similar survival trends, with slight evidence for an increased risk of cancer death in children who were uninsured at diagnosis, finds a new study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Yesterday, it was announced that Allergan had transferred the ownership of the patents on its billion-dollar drug Restasis, used for the treatment of chronic dry eye, to the Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe. The Tribe then exclusively licensed the drug back to Allergan, in exchange for tens of millions of dollars in both licensing and royalty fees. Although it may not sound like it, this transfer is potentially huge news in the drug pricing world. It is also extremely complex, and its full implications have yet to be determined.

Sean Joe, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named to the national advisory committee of Forward Promise, a national grant-making program that supports the health of boys and young men of color.

The Trump administration on Sept. 4 announced plans to end DACA, which protects nearly 800,000 young undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. as children from deportation. The president’s decision is not only regrettable, it was entirely unnecessary, says Stephen Legomsky, the John S. Lehmann University Professor Emeritus and renowned expert on immigration law.

Fred Ssewamala, professor at the Brown School, has received a $3.4 million National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant to study the effectiveness of interventions in Uganda aimed at protecting adolescent girls against known HIV risk factors.

At the most basic level, prestige combat films, or PCFs, tell stories of U.S. soldiers fighting abroad in actual historical conflicts. Nearly every PCF presents the battlefield from the point of view of the individual soldier, frequently from the lowest rank: the grunt. Central characters in these films seldom rise above lieutenant. The PCF is generally not about officers and never about famous figures of military history—as were many war films made during the 1960s.

What’s the secret to unlocking artificial intelligence (AI) and making it ubiquitous in our everyday lives? The answer may lie with the most abundant animals on earth — insects. The behavioral adaptations of insects could help commercial organizations overcome a significant hurdle for AI adoption today: cost.