News and Announcements

List of news articles from 2018 that reference ISER studies or researchers.

Since the start of the most recent recession, driven by the decline in oil prices and consequent contraction of government and private sector spending, the state has lost upwards of 13,000 jobs. But these losses have not been felt equally. ISER’s Mouhcine Guettabi uses employment data between June 2015 and June 2018, to show how each of Alaska’s 19 boroughs and 10 census areas have fared in this recent report.

Wednesday, January 9, 2019
12 noon – 1p.m.
UAA/APU Consortium Library, Lew Haines Conference Room 307

Alaska economists discuss where our economy is headed and the opportunities and risks on the horizon. Bring your questions.

ISER Contact: Pam Cravez, Communications Director, 907-786-5425, pcravez@alaska.edu

For more than 30 years Linda Leask edited, researched, and developed hundreds of ISER publications. At UAA’s Fall Commencement next weekend, she will be honored with staff emerita status in recognition of her outstanding service to the university and ISER.

Becky Porter and Bridget Hanson, researchers at ISER’s Center for Behavioral Health Research and Services (CBHRS), collected information from providers of prenatal care in Hawaii on the challenges of delivering SBIRT, an evidenced-based practice to identify patients who misuse alcohol and help them reduce their drinking. The practice can both help prevent alcohol use during pregnancy and prevent fetal alcohol spectrum disorders.

ISER’s Jennifer Schmidt, Assistant Professor of Natural Resources Management, attended Understanding Northern Latitude Vegetation Greening and Browning, a National Academies workshop in Washington DC, as a guest speaker. The workshop’s focus was to assess current knowledge and upcoming research about patterns and shifts in tundra and boreal vegetation. The two-day workshop covered topics such as identifying patterns in Arctic tundra and boreal forests, developing tools and methods for evaluation, and determining implications from changes in Arctic vegetation. Schmidt’s presentation on socioeconomic implications of vegetation change is available for download.

Jessica Passini, ISER researcher, shared work being done at ISER and its Center for Behavioral Health Research at the American Public Health Association’s Annual Meeting in San Diego. Passini presented a poster developed with co-authors Rosyland Frasier and Diane King, on how health care practitioners’ use of data in Electronic Health Records is important to the successful implementation of SBIRT - an evidence-based practice to identify patients who misuse alcohol and help them reduce their drinking.

Before building a center in Denmark for testing large wind turbines, an environmental impact assessment cautioned that noise from the turbines and the plan to cut down an old forest would need to be addressed. What the assessment didn’t adequately predict was that a light constantly flashing on top of the testing masts would be the greatest nuisance to residents of the remote community.

“The end of the recession is potentially approaching,” Mouhcine Guettabi said on a recent Talk of Alaska on Alaska Public Radio. Guettabi and Neal Fried, senior economist with the State of Alaska’s Department of Labor, agreed that the recession may be ending in the next few months, with the forecast for 2019 being positive, but with little job growth.