By Alistair Jones SMU Office of Research - If you dread public speaking you are not alone. It is a leading social phobia, one that can cause a state of anxiety that reduces otherwise articulate people to nervous incoherence.  A strong fear of public speaking is known as glossophobia. Academic studies estimate it affects 20 per cent of the population, but depending on the sample and methodology, the figure could be as high as 40 per cent.  As American writer and humourist Mark Twain said, ...

By Jovina Ang SMU Office of Research – “Giving students immediate and frequent feedback makes online learning more effective,” Associate Professor Ouh Eng Lieh told the Office of Research. However, based on how most online lessons are designed, questions could not be answered nor doubts clarified until students meet their instructor in the following face-to-face class. The time delay of a few days to a few weeks can impede student learning as it might make it difficult for students to catch up and understand the subsequent topics in the course. Learning also ...

Ishikawa, Japan -- Physical inactivity and sitting for prolonged hours are highly prevalent among office-based workers, known to be resulting in various health risks and economic constraints. However, to reduce sedentary time and increase physical activity, health promotion interventions alone are insufficient. The design of workplaces should also be considered to promote interactive behavior among workers. Many models, such as the socio-ecological model, show how multiple factors interact to influence workers' active and sedentary behaviors. These models specifically magnify the impact of workplace environments in shaping these behaviors. Several studies ...

Professor Seung-Woo Lee and PhD candidate Kun-Joo Lee from the Department of Life Sciences at Pohang University of Science and Technology (POSTECH), in collaboration with NeoImmuneTech Director Donghoon Choi and Professors Dae Hee Kim and Sun Shim Choi from Kangwon National University, have revealed a groundbreaking method to significantly enhance the efficacy of bispecific antibody therapies in treating solid tumors. Their findings were published on May 13 in “Cell Reports Medicine”, an international journal of healthcare research.   Bispecific antibodies, which can simultaneously bind to two different ...

The fjords on Sweden’s west coast act as effective carbon traps regardless of whether the bottom water is oxygen-rich or not. This is the conclusion of a new study with researchers from the University of Gothenburg. Large quantities of plant parts sink to the bottom of fjords on the Swedish west coast where they form sediment. This buries organic carbon, which would otherwise contribute to ocean acidification and the greenhouse effect. When the plant parts are exposed to oxygen and other substances, the organic carbon begins to decompose into inorganic carbon, which can be dissolved into carbonic acid in the water. Research ...

Korea University College of Medicine’s Team Predict Hearing Conditions in Vestibular Schwannoma Patients Using Radiomics A recent study demonstrates that radiomics imaging analysis can effectively forecast the hearing status of patients with vestibular schwannoma patients. Since treatment methods, such as surgery or active surveillance, vary for these patients based on tumor size and hearing condition, predicting hearing status is crucial in planning and determining the appropriate treatment.   The research team led by Professor June Choi from the Department ...

HOUSTON – (May 31, 2024) – For his “exceptional contributions to the field of dynamics,” Pol Spanos, the Lewis B. Ryon Professor of Mechanical and Civil Engineering at Rice University, has been awarded the 2024 Blaise Pascal Medal in Engineering by the European Academy of Sciences. Spanos, who joined the Rice faculty in 1984, was recognized for his “theoretical insights, ranging from equivalent linearization to statistical quadratization, which have significantly advanced our understanding of structural behavior. These insights have not only led to more accurate predictions but have also empowered engineers ...

HOUSTON – (May 31, 2024) – Jamie Padgett, the Stanley C. Moore Professor in Engineering and chair of civil and environmental engineering at Rice University, has received the 2024 Charles Martin Duke Lifeline Earthquake Engineering Award from the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE). Padgett was recognized for her “contributions to fragility, risk and resilience modeling of multimodal transportation systems and their infrastructure components when subjected to earthquakes and other hazards.” Her ...

DARIEN, IL – A new study to be presented at the SLEEP 2024 annual meeting found that sleep duration significantly moderates the association between bullying and suicide attempts among adolescents in the U.S. The study revealed that 15% of adolescents reported they were bullied at school, and 16% were bullied electronically; 10.2% reported they had attempted suicide during the past year; and 77.3% did not adhere to sleep duration recommendations. Adolescents who reported 4 hours of sleep or less per night were two times as likely to attempt suicide, and sleep duration significantly moderated the association between bullying ...

As more and more people drive electric cars, congestion and queues can occur when many people need to charge at the same time. A new study from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden shows how AI-controlled charging stations, through smart algorithms, can offer electric vehicle users personalised prices, and thus minimise both price and waiting time for customers. But the researchers point to the importance of taking the ethical issues seriously, as there is a risk that the artificial intelligence exploits information from motorists. Today's commercial ...

Scientists have discovered that the most widely-used class of antifungals in the world cause pathogens to self-destruct. The University of Exeter-led research could help improve ways to protect food security and human lives. Fungal diseases account for the loss of up to a quarter of the world’s crops. They also pose a risk to humans and can be fatal for those with weakened immune systems. Our strongest "weapon" against fungal plant diseases are azole fungicides. These chemical products account for to a quarter of the world agricultural ...

The world-famous Roman Baths are home to a diverse range of microorganisms which could be critical in the global fight against antimicrobial resistance, a new study suggests. The research, published in the journal The Microbe, is the first to provide a detailed examination of the bacterial and archaeal communities found within the waters of the popular tourist attraction in the city of Bath (UK). Scientists collected samples of water, sediment and biofilm from locations within the Roman Baths complex including the King’s Spring (where the waters reach around 45°C) and the Great Bath, where the temperatures ...

A research team led by Dr. Choi Jeong Hee at the Korea Electrotechnology Research Institute (KERI) Battery Materials and Process Research Center, in cooperation with a Hanyang University team mentored by Professor Lee Jong-Won and a Kyunghee University team mentored by Professor Park Min-Sik, developed a core technology to ensure the charging/discharging stability and long-life of lithium-ion batteries under fast-charging conditions. A crucial prerequisite for the widespread adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is the enhancement of lithium-ion battery performance in terms of driving ...

Ikoma, Japan – Pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) are a type of stem cells capable of developing into various cell types. Over the past few decades, scientists have been working towards the development of therapies using PSCs. Thanks to their unique ability to self-renew and differentiate (mature) into virtually any given type of tissue, PSCs could be used to repair organs that have been irreversibly damaged by age, trauma, or disease. However, despite extensive efforts, regenerative therapies involving PSCs still have many hurdles to overcome. One being the formation of tumors (via ...

Materials that can maintain a magnetized state by themselves without an external magnetic field (i.e., permanent magnets) are called ferromagnets. Ferroelectrics can be thought of as the electric counterpart to ferromagnets, as they maintain a polarized state without an external electric field. It is well-known that ferromagnets lose their magnetic properties when reduced to nano sizes below a certain threshold. What happens when ferroelectrics are similarly made extremely small in all directions (i.e., into a zero-dimensional structure such as nanoparticles) has been a topic of controversy for a long time. The research team led by Dr. Yongsoo ...

Little is known about the genetics and biology of chordoma, a rare and aggressive bone tumor. Chordomas occur in approximately one in a million people in the U.S. a year and only five percent of these are in children. These tumors can arise anywhere along the spine in adults. However, in children these tumors occur mostly at the base of the skull, making complete surgical removal challenging or impossible. Any tumor remnants are treated with high doses of radiation—which can cause significant damage to the developing brain. A team of researchers led by Xiaowu Gai, PhD and Jaclyn Biegel, PhD, FACMG, at the Center for Personalized Medicine ...

According to research led by Prof. Varut Lohsiriwat, Professor of Surgery, Division of General Surgery (Section of Colorectal Surgery) of Siriraj Hospital, at Mahidol University, CRC is the third most common cancer in Thailand, accounting for 11% of the cancer burden. It is the only malignancy with an increased incidence in both genders in the country.   By 2040, the burden of CRC is projected to increase to 3.2 million new cases and 1.6 million deaths per year representing a 66% and 71% rise in new cases and deaths respectively relative ...

Speech and music are the dominant elements of an infant’s auditory environment. While past research has shown that speech plays a critical role in children’s language development, less is known about the music that infants hear. A new University of Washington study, published May 21 in Developmental Science, is the first to compare the amount of music and speech that children hear in infancy. Results showed that infants hear more spoken language than music, with the gap widening as the babies get older. “We wanted to get a snapshot of what’s happening in infants’ home environments,” said corresponding author ...

Research led by the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa Hawaiʻi Institute of Marine Biology (HIMB) has led to a new tool for forecasting coral disease that could help conservationists step in at the right times with key interventions. Ecological forecasts are critical tools for conserving and managing marine ecosystems, but few forecasting systems can account for the wide range of ecological complexities in near-real-time. Using ecological and marine environmental conditions, the Multi-Factor Coral Disease Risk product predicts the risk of two diseases across reefs in the central and western Pacific and along the east coast of Australia. An article ...

Tobacco-funded research is still appearing in highly-cited medical journals - despite attempts by some to cut ties altogether, finds an investigation by The Investigative Desk and The BMJ today. Although the tobacco industry has a long history of subverting science, most leading medical journals don’t have policies which ban research wholly or partly funded by the industry.  And even when publishers, authors and universities are willing to restrict tobacco industry ties, they struggle ...

Trout living in rivers polluted by metal from old mines across the British Isles are genetically “isolated” from other trout, new research shows. Researchers analysed brown trout at 71 sites in Britain and Ireland, where many rivers contain metal washed out from disused mines. While trout in metal-polluted rivers appear healthy, they are genetically distinct – and a lack of diversity in these populations makes them vulnerable to future threats. By comparing the DNA of trout in rivers with and without metal pollution, the researchers found that metal-tolerant trout ...

Trust is vital to the widespread acceptance of AI across industries, especially when safety is a concern. For example, people may be hesitant to ride in a self-driving car knowing that the AI running it can be hacked. One barrier to increasing trust is that the algorithms powering AI are vulnerable to such attacks.  Dr. Samson Zhou, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at Texas A&M University, and Dr. David P. Woodruff, professor in the Computer Science Department at Carnegie Mellon University, hope to strengthen algorithms used by big data AI models against attacks. Big data AI models are ...

Researchers of CIDIS at ESPOL Polytechnic University have developed a new method to enhance thermal image super-resolution by employing synthetic imagery. This novel approach utilizes high-resolution images  from the visible spectrum to guide the super-resolution of low-resolution thermal images, significantly  improving the detail and utility of thermal imaging across various applications. When visualizing thermal images, one typically imagines the blurry, less-detailed outputs common with  standard thermal ...

Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC scientists studying ultra-processed foods have created a new tool for assessing the rewarding and reinforcing properties of foods that make up 58 percent of calories consumed in the United States. The foods have been linked to a wide range of negative health outcomes. The research, which was published in April in the journal Appetite, provides a collection of carefully curated images of minimally processed and ultra-processed foods matched on 26 characteristics, including macronutrients, sodium, dietary fiber, calories, price, and visual characteristics such as a color and portion size. The work was based on the NOVA classification system ...

New images of Jupiter's volcano-studded moon Io, taken by the Large Binocular Telescope on Mount Graham in Arizona, offer the highest resolution of Io ever achieved with an Earth-based instrument. The observations were made possible by a new high-contrast optical imaging instrument, dubbed SHARK-VIS, and the telescope's adaptive optics system, which compensates for the blurring induced by atmospheric turbulence.  The images, to be published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, reveal surface features as small as 50 miles across, ...