Equal access to education was an essential facet of the civil rights movement of the 1960s, and has since come to be enshrined in law internationally. However, that is not the whole story of equality in education.
Jen Neitzel, executive director of the Educational Equity Institute, is committed to improving educational experiences for students and practice for teachers, through tackling injustices built into the systems and architecture of state education. We spoke in early December 2020 about her work and her hopes for building a more just and equal education system.
Cod liver has long reputation of health benefits, but manufacturers of fermented cod liver oils claim that their product contains more antioxidants, meaning the fatty acids like omega-3 keep better over time.
A team at De Montfort University in Leicester led by Professor Martin Grootveld has tested these claims using a variety of techniques to determine the molecular differences between fermented and unfermented cod liver oils.
Read more about this research in Research Outreach, or find the original paper at: https://doi.org/10.3390/nu1203075
William Louis Abbott, a medical doctor sent to East Africa to gather artefacts for the Smithsonian in 1887, collected hundreds of pieces of art, craft and culture from across the region. Professor Amy Stambach of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has undertaken extensive research on this collections history, and just how these items came to Washington D.C..
Read more about Prof Stambachs work in the following articles:
Ethnology Unboxed: The Making of Culture Through Its Performative (Un)doing. Ethnologies, https://doi.org/10.1080/00076791.2019.1687687
Sourcing and shipping museum objects from East Africa to the Smithsonian, 1887–1891, Business History,
https://doi.org/10.7202/1056386ar
Researchers are investigating several novel approaches, including gene and stem cell therapy, to meet the challenges of diseases like muscular dystrophy. Recently, Dr Yoshitsugu Aoki of the National Center of Neurology and Psychiatry, Tokyo and colleagues have summarised the current state of research into using urine-derived stem cells as models and prospective treatments, which may offer hope for patients with these potentially life-limiting conditions.
Read more about their work in Research Outreach.
Find the original paper this episode is based on at: https://doi.org/10.3390/cells8091066
Chris Vincent and colleagues have developed a specialist interest in the impacts of serious illness on couples and family life.
This gap between available services and their demand is especially important as the major emotional and financial burdens of long term illnesses fall on the family and, in particular, on adult partners.
For more on the counselling options available, find a list of services and practitioners at Tavistock Relationships , or through the Tavistock and Portman Trust.
For further resources, contact Liz Salter at The Harbour, Bristol, and the charity Relate.
Chris Vincent can be reached directly via email.
Mutations that affect the mitochondrial DNA may play a key role in cancers. However, the exact mutations that are involved in cancer are still unknown. Dr Fatimata Mbaye and collaborators, from the University of Dakar in Senegal examined the sequences of two regions of the mitochondrial genome to identify mutations that might serve as biomarkers for early disease diagnosis.
Read more about this work in Research Outreach, or find the original paper at: doi.org/10.31557/APJCP.2019.20.7.2203
Our DNA holds our deepest cellular secrets, from markers of our health the keys to our family tree. But if that information is stored in online databases, it can end up traveling further than we could ever imagine.
The global nature of online data is exactly why the “Your DNA, Your Say” study was developed. Conducted in over 15 languages across 5 continents, the survey is designed to gather public perceptions on DNA, Big Data, concerns around privacy and who people trust.
Read more about Your DNA, Your Say at the Wellcome Genome Campus site.
Read the latest paper from the project at doi.org/10.1016/j.ajhg.2020.08.023
Plastic pollution is an environmental catastrophe in progress. 32% of the plastic we use escapes into the environment, and only 9% currently gets recycled.
British company Polymateria have developed additives for conventional plastics which facilitate biodegradation if they escape the waste stream. Their proposal has now been taken up by the American Society for Testing and Materials, as well as the British Standards Institute, as the preferred way to assess plastic transformation.
Read more about their work in Research Outreach, or in the journal e-Polymers: doi.org/10.1515/epoly-2020-0041
Darwins theory of evolution underpins much of our current understanding of biology, and its concepts have even come to be applied in other disciplines. Ideas like ’Survival of the fittest’ and ‘mutations’ are part of common language today. Applying those concepts to the dog-eat-dog world of business, Professor Gino Cattani of the Stern School, NYU, works on uncovering what gives successful companies the edge over others; how innovation and creativity can be fostered to come up with new products and solutions, and how existing products can come to fit into market niche.
Read more about his research here: https://doi.org/10.1093/icc/dty077
Do prisoners with religious beliefs and behaviours experience their incarceration differently? How does their emotional state affect the likelihood of rehabilitation, or repeat offences? Professors Sung Joon Jang and Byron R. Johnson at the Institute for Studies of Religion at Baylor University, examine the effects of religion on offenders in the South African correctional system.
Read more about their work in Research Outreach, or read the original paper: https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2019.1689286
How exactly do birds ‘talk’ to one another? And might research into how birds listen to birdsong help us understand communication both in humans and birds? Dr Robert Dooling and his team, based at the University of Maryland, USA, showed that – for zebra finches at least – the subtle nuances in sound texture or timbre are more important than the sequence of repeated sounds.
Find more on their work in Research Outreach, or read the original paper : https://doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2019.0044
A millisecond may seem a short time to you, but for molecules, this may be longer than their entire lifetime. Dr Sergio Carbajo and his team at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory capture these high speed changes using a laser that is several kilometres long, known as a free-electron laser (FEL).
Read more about their work in Research Outreach, or read the original research at https://arxiv.org/abs/2003.14400
Optical microscopes, with the help of cell-staining to colour cells, can help us peer into the invisible world of cells. However, they only show us a 2D image of a very thin slice of tissue. But how can we see what the cells and tissue actually look like in 3D?
Dr Madleen Busse from the Technical University of Munich has been developing X-ray stains that can be used to visualise cells and tissues in 3D using cutting-edge X-ray imaging techniques developed by her colleagues Prof Franz Pfeiffer and Simone Ferstl MSc.
Read more about their work in Research Outreach, or read the original research: https://doi.org/10.1109/TMI.2019.2952028
Dairy farming can have negative effects on the environment, polluting waterways with an excess of nitrogen that can have long-term impacts. Past work has addressed this problem by looking at ways to reduce the cow’s urinary urea nitrogen concentration, but this has involved mitigation techniques that paint the cow as the problem rather than the solution.
Cameron Marshall, a PhD student under Prof Pablo Gregorini at Lincoln University, New Zealand, investigates how cow genetics may hold the key to reducing the environmental impact of pastoral livestock production.
Read more about their work in Research Outreach, or read the original paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2020.139994
This year has proven a unique challenge to the mental health and resilience of many across the globe. Dr Christine Wekerle discusses how, for young people with mental health concerns, the challenges and opportunities of distanced society can be faced and embraced.
You can find more information about the app at youthresilience.net and the ResilienceInYouth YouTube Channel
Download the JoyPop app in the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/joypop/id1483835598?ign-mpt=uo%3D2
Dr Christine Wekerle discusses the MAP study on trauma resilience among youth, well-venture interventions, and the JoyPop mobile platform for well-being and recovery support among survivors.
You can find more information about the app at youthresilience.net and the ResilienceInYouth YouTube Channel
Download the JoyPop app in the Apple App Store: https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/joypop/id1483835598?ign-mpt=uo%3D2
While nicotine is perhaps the most notorious component of tobacco smoke, what can be said of its biological and chemical activity by itself? A recent paper by Dr Leonie Price and Dr Javier Martinez has dug into a century of scientific literature to find out.
Read their paper in F1000 Research: https://doi.org/10.12688/f1000research.20062.2
How can non-profit National Sport Organizations in Canada create effective brands, especially on social media, from which they can co-create value with stakeholders such as athletes, fans, sponsors, and the media? In a three-phase project funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, Marijke Taks, Benoit Séguin (University of Ottawa) and colleagues examined the challenges faced in managing and governing sports brands, and offer solutions to maximise benefits.
Read more about their research in Research Outreach and in the journal European Sport Management Quarterly: https://doi.org/10.1080/16184742.2019.1690538
Leo van Bergen is a medical historian who has spent his career chronicling the history of health and humanitarianism in warfare. In 2009 Van Bergen was awarded the J.A. Verdoorn-prize for his work, and his upcoming book A Cap of Horror will feature a collection of poems written on the First World War by nurses and carers.
For more of his books, articles and columns, visit www.leovanbergen.nl , or view his ResearchGate profile here
Prof Kazushige Yokoyama, State University of New York Geneseo College, investigates how peptide interactions lead to fibrillogenesis, the process in the brain responsible for some symptoms of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease.
Their research involves coating gold nanoparticles with peptides and using spectroscopic techniques to investigate how these peptides interactions lead to the onset of disease.
Read more about their work in Research Outreach, or find their original research article in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences: https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms20215354
Cannabis and its derivatives have been at the centre of whirlwind of social, legal and medical change, from criminalisation to commercialisation in a single decade. This comes of the back of generations of work, research and advocacy in the potential medical advances and social justice that could come about through its approval and study
Steve Goldner, perhaps most famous for inventing liquid dosage methadone, is CEO and founder of Pure Green Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a cannabis drug company at the forefront of research into the therapeutic qualities of cannabis. In this episode, we discuss Steves history in drug research and advocacy, the changing landscape of cannabis legality and usage, as well as the ongoing clinical trials that aim to uncover the potential of cannabis derived medicines for patients world wide.
“Global Quality of Democracy as an Innovation Enabler" by Dr David Campbell, University of Vienna, asks how can we conceptualise and measure democracy? Can we determine the quality of democracy in global comparison, and how does quality of democracy act and play in favour of enabling innovation?
Read the book through Palgrave Macmillan here: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72529-1
Professor Maria Pilar de Lara-Castells from the Institute of Fundamental Physics at the Spanish National Research Council is leading research in order to uncover the special properties of a new generation of materials: subnanometer-sized metal clusters, which could push the next generation of photocatalysts to a new level.
Read about the research in these three papers:
Prof Alexander David of the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary, has developed a new framework that demonstrates the strong link between the slope of the futures curve and long-run exploration and production decisions of energy companies.
Prof David’s model analyses the trends seen in the oil market by examining the impact of resource extraction through drilling, the effects of the amount of the commodity that the firms store, and the firms’ investment in exploration and development on current and future prices. In his paper, Prof David asks how oil futures prices affect exploration decisions.
Read his paper in the Review of Financial Studies here: https://doi.org/10.1093/rfs/hhy067
Religions across the world incorporate group prayer, dancing and devotions. Dr James Jones, clinical psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Religion at Rutgers University, explores how bodily behaviours, such as religious ritual, can affect a person’s perception of the world and their religious experience.
Read a summary of his work in Research Outreach: https://researchoutreach.org/articles/neuropsychology-how-ritual-creates-religion/
Read his original paper in the Archive for the Psychology of Religion: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0084672420903112
