Culture
SMU Office of Research and Tech Transfer - In response to the rapidly evolving COVID-19 pandemic, the Psychological Science Accelerator (PSA) issued a call on March 13th for rapid and impactful proposals to understand the psychological and behavioural aspects of the pandemic. Singapore Management University (SMU) Assistant Professor of Psychology (Education) Andree Hartanto was invited to participate in the project.
In 19th-century Sweden, workers' wages rose faster than in other European countries. By 1900, they were among the highest in Europe, and the steepest rise of all had been for those who earned least. This is shown by new research at Uppsala University: a study published in he Journal of Economic History.
People may report a reduced feeling of responsibility when they comply with orders in situations of asymmetric power, such as hierarchies. Previous research has shown that complying with orders reduces the sense of agency, that is, the feeling that you are the author of your own actions and thus responsible for the outcomes. Obeying orders also reduces the brain's processing of the outcomes of actions, compared to outcomes that are chosen freely. These results could help to explain why people can commit atrocious acts under coercion.
Researchers at the Smart-Aging Research Center (IDAC) at Tohoku University have developed an innovative training protocol that, utilizing immersive virtual reality (IVR), leads to real physical and cognitive benefits.
We all know that physical exercise is crucial for overall well-being and helps postpone aging-related disorders; what is more surprising is that physical exercise can have beneficial effects not only on the body but on cognitive functions too. Unfortunately, physical activities are not always possible for people suffering or recovering from long-term diseases.
Ultraviolet B (UVB) is used as an effective therapy for individuals with psoriasis and atopic dermatitis because it has an immunosuppressive effect. The immune system develops to protect the body from infection or cancer. Its activation affects many physiological functions. Regulatory T (Treg) cells, expressing CD25 and Foxp3, constitute about 5-10% of peripheral CD4+T cells and work as brake on the immune system through the suppression of various immune responses.
A new study has shed light on the link between the consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) and the shortening of telomeres; sections of chromosomes that can be used as a marker of biological age. The work was conducted by Lucia Alonso-Pedrero and colleagues with the supervision of Professor Maira Bes-Rastrollo and Professor Amelia Marti, University of Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
From October 2022, the European Union (EU) will impose new nutritional requirements for total diet replacement (TDR) products which could make them unviable to produce and sell, according to new research being presented at The European and International Congress on Obesity (ECOICO 2020), held online this year from 1-4 September.
AURORA, Colo. (Aug. 31, 2020) - A little understood region of the cerebellum plays a critical role in making split-second `go-no go' decisions, according to a new study from researchers at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.
"We wanted to know how this kind of decision making takes place," said the study's senior author Diego Restrepo, PhD, professor of cell and developmental biology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "How, for example, do you decide to swing or not swing at a fast ball in baseball?"
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. — As COVID-19 continues to spread, bottlenecks in supplies and laboratory personnel have led to long waiting times for results in some areas. In a new study, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign researchers have demonstrated a prototype of a rapid COVID-19 molecular test and a simple-to-use, portable instrument for reading the results with a smartphone in 30 minutes, which could enable point-of-care diagnosis without needing to send samples to a lab.
Cognitive flexibility refers to the ability to readily switch between mental processes in response to external stimuli and different task demands. For example, when our brains are processing one task, an external stimulus is present, requiring us to switch our mental processes to attend to this external stimulus. This ability of switching from one to another mental task is the cognitive flexibility. Such flexibility can predict reading ability, academic success, resilience to stress, creativity, and lower risk of various neurological and psychiatric disorders.
A team led by a biomedical scientist at the University of California, Riverside has found a new mechanism responsible for the abnormal development of neuronal connections in the mouse brain that leads to seizures and abnormal social behaviors.
The researchers focused on the area of the brain called hippocampus, which plays an important role in learning and social interactions; and synapses, which are specialized contacts between neurons.
A new study published in the journal Pediatrics found that young adults aged 18-26 who used legal performance-enhancing substances were significantly more likely to report several problematic alcohol use and drinking-related risk behaviors seven years later. This relationship was especially strong among men.
The study, which analyzed a sample of over 12,000 U.S. participants from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), highlights the need for more research and government oversight and regulation of legal performance-enhancing substances.
In a study published in PNAS, researchers used conservation biology and genomics to discover that the New Guinea singing dog, thought to be extinct for 50 years, still thrives. Scientists found that the ancestral dog population still stealthily wanders in the Highlands of New Guinea. This finding opens new doors for protecting a remarkable creature that can teach biologists about human vocal learning. The New Guinea singing dog can also be utilized as a valuable and unique animal model for studying how human vocal disorders arise and finding potential treatment opportunities.
MEDFORD/SOMERVILLE, Mass. (August 31, 2020)--Warning witnesses about the threat of misinformation--before or after an event--significantly reduces the negative impact of misinformation on memory, according to new research performed at Tufts University.
ATLANTA - AUGUST 31, 2020 - A new American Cancer Society study finds health insurance coverage disruptions in the prior year led to issues with healthcare access and affordability for currently insured cancer survivors. The study appears in the Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.