ResearchPod

Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) represent around 90% of businesses and more than 50% of worldwide employment. Despite their economic relevance, most insolvency jurisdictions fail to provide an adequate response for MSMEs in insolvency.   Professor Gurrea Martínez of Singapore Management University is an expert in insolvency and business restructuring and his recent work looks at...

Estuaries are incredibly variable environments, which can make fish monitoring using traditional sampling gear difficult. Dr Joseph Merz has developed a new non-invasive sampling system, The Platform, to monitor fish communities and their habitat interactions with fewer potential impacts to sensitive species.  Read more in Research Outreach: https://researchoutreach.org/articles/platform-novel-non...

Chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS or ME) is a complex, long-term, and highly debilitating condition whose causes and mechanisms have been poorly understood until now.  The research of Professor Sonya Marshall-Gradisnik sheds new light on the pathological processes underlying ME/CFS – paving the way for future treatments.   Read the original research: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12967-021-02974-4  Read mo...

Across history, people have developed multiple ways of occupying their free time through a host of leisure activities. Professor Robert Stebbins at the University of Calgary has provided a seminal framework – called the Serious Leisure Perspective – which synthesises the science of leisure activities, and looks at ways for society to facilitate pursuing optimal lifestyles. Read more in Research Ou...

Proton therapy is an effective technique for fighting cancer. In order to optimise treatment, it is clear that each patient must be carefully assessed each time and radiation plans must be adapted based on the results.  The daily adaptive proton therapy workflow proposed by the Paul Scherrer Institute is an excellent start on the path to achieving this, and there are many more opportunities to imp...

Dr Jan Czyzyk explores the biomolecules serpins, and how serpin activity can affect the inflammation and tissue regeneration of cells in the pancreas. Their research opens the possibility for anti-serpin activity to be used as both a biomarker and an active mechanism of protection for individuals with type 1 diabetes. Read more in Research Outreach Read the original article: https://www.doi.org/10...

The field of psycho-neuroimmunology – the study of relationships between the nervous and immune systems – has pioneered significant discoveries in areas like stress, mindfulness, ancient exercise and dietary interventions.   The Psycho-neuroimmunology Research Society (PNIRS) formed a Chinese branch in 2012, and following its success, expanded to include all of Asia-Oceania. Keith W. Kelley of the...

Breast cancer on the African continent, and in Nigeria especially, is notable for being biologically distinct from those predominantly diagnosed among White populations in the United States and Europe, where most scientific research has occurred to date.   Dr. Tomi Akinyemiju at Duke University School of Medicine examines the factors that contribute to especially aggressive breast cancers in Niger...

Before the development of antibiotics, even a small cut could have fatal results if a bacterial infection took hold. Today, the world faces a the return of untreatable diseases due to antibiotic resistance.  Prof Raymond J. Turner at the University of Calgary is working to solve the problem of bacterial resistance to these medicines through revisiting and developing metal-containing antimicrobials...

Tilapia is one of the most popular seafood dishes, with annual production topping top 6 million tonnes globally. However, fish is a highly perishable food, and large quantities of fish meat is discarded due to loss of quality between capture and final consumption. This raises concerns for both the consumer’s health and finances of seafood producers.  Dr Maria Lucia Guerra Monteiro at the Federal U...

Tackling global challenges in sustainable energy production calls for the rational design of new generations of clean materials, coupling efficiency with low environmental impact.    Professor Rajan has established a research center at the Department of Materials Design and Innovation, University at Buffalo, New York that explores how to develop ‘quantum signatures’ at a fundamental molecular scal...

Toxic pollutants in the air are not a new phenomenon.  But what exactly are the toxic pollutants that can cause severe health issues when present in the air? Professor Guo-Ping Chang-Chien, director of the Super Micro Mass Research and Technology Center at Cheng Shiu University in Taiwan, studies different emission reduction approaches relating to toxic pollutants. Their teams work has massively i...

Pain and anxiety are some of the most common and distressing symptoms experienced by patients in all clinical settings.   Research by Dr Elvira Lang and colleagues found that their self-hypnotic relaxation app, Comfort Talk® , is effective in reducing pain and anxiety in patients through short listening times in the waiting room.    Read their original article: https://doi.org/10.1097/01.RVI.00001...

Money plays an essential social role, and its distribution is linked to that of justice. Unfortunately, bias has corroded the mechanisms that govern money creation, resulting in injustices that benefit the wealthy at the expense of the poor.  Peter Dietsch, a philosophy professor at the University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada , says it’s time to re-evaluate the system and consider alterna...

Dr Yukiko Washio at RTI International and her colleagues at Temple University and Christiana Care have undertaken intervention research to increase breastfeeding in low-income women in the United States. Based on this and two pilot studies in the US and UK, they set up a research project using their new BOOST protocol: using financial incentives to increase breastfeeding among women registered on...

How society can adapt to climate change is an urgent challenge for the global community. Yet what exactly is that challenge? How can we imagine new ways to respond? Climate change adaptation has long been defined as society’s response to an external, changing environment. Dr Andrea Nightingale at the University of Oslo, however, argues that the global community should be debating key political que...

Dr Tanya Evans, Dr Mike Thomas and Dr Sergiy Klymchuk have designed an intervention to examine whether employability prospects for STEM students studying mathematics could be improved. Read their original paper: https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2020.1818061 Read more in Research Outreach: https://researchoutreach.org/articles/self-efficacy-non-routine-problem-solving-stem-education/

Managing addiction and supporting recovery takes time, training, and legal processes that few can afford alone. Dr Jennifer Potter, Professor of Psychiatry and Associate Dean for Research at UT Health, San Antonio discusses the ' Be Well Texas’ programme of training and technical assistance, and what she sees as the next steps to remedy the drug addiction problems facing the people, and the s...

The Earth is a dynamic system. The cold rigid surface (or crust) on which we live is broken into many rigid plates that all move relative to one another in a process known as plate tectonics.  At the China University of Geosciences, Wuhan , Professor Timothy Kusky is studying the evolution of tectonic plates through Earth history. Along with his colleagues, he has found that a devastating 2020 ear...

With the rising desire for a cosy and comfortable life full of 'hygge' has come a rising demand for the warm glow of a household fire to gather around. But, at what price does this idyll come at for our health? Dr Mikko Savolahti, senior research scientist at the Finnish Environment Institute , and colleagues published detailed research investigating the emissions from residential wood c...

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a neurologic autoimmune disease that is a lifelong condition with high medical costs.  As a result, many patients do not adhere to treatment plan, which further reduces their quality of life. There are also non-medical costs to consider, such as loss of productivity at work and early retirement. Research led by Professor Carl Asche, at the University of Illinois , explor...

Brains, blood and beating heart are top of the list when it comes to thinking about your body, and your health. Understanding blood flow to and around the brain is part of research into brain ageing, and part of the work of Dr Lucy Beishon and Dr Jatinder Minhas at the Cerebral Haemodynamics in Ageing and Stroke Medicine , or CHIASM, lab in Leicester Royal Infirmary . Today, we’re chatting about s...

Alcohol is widely considered to be the most popular, most harmful drug, often leading to psychological or physical harm to the user and those around them. and with a strong association between alcohol consumption and crime. With a high rate of alcohol intoxication in witnesses, suspects, and even victims of crime, it is critical to understand how police officers perceive and interact with intoxica...

Blockchain technology and smart contracts, the backbone of cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, Doge and more, is a method of recording and storing electronic information, such as financial transactions, in a way that they are either impossible or difficult to alter. In short, a digital permanent record. But if a smart contract has mistakes or bugs in its code that can be exploited, it can...

What is behind phenomena such as the sudden extinction of species in population dynamics? What generates the spiral patterns that appear in density profiles or travelling waves? Professor Meyer-Ortmanns studies complex systems with methods from nonlinear dynamics and statistical physics. One current research topic is heteroclinic dynamics, another one is the impact of stochastic fluctuations. Read...