ResearchPod

 Students without adequate understanding of basic mathematical concepts and skills after completing kindergarten go on to struggle throughout their maths education. So how can the teaching of maths be improved to enable children to learn best?

Dr Jonathan Brendefur and colleagues at the Developing Mathematical Thinking Institute, USA  have developed the five dimensions of the Developing Mathematical Thinking framework, a professional development programme for teachers and other educators.

Read more in Research Outreach

Read some of their latest work  here: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-021-10184-z

Most international success indices rank countries according to how they perform against various measures and include happiness as a key value, but fail to include the cost, especially to others.

Emeritus Professor Yew-Kwang Ng of Monash University in Australia suggests that a happiness ranking that considers environmental costs – the Environmentally Responsible Happy Nation Index – would be a more appropriate barometer of success

Read more in Research Outreach

Read some of their latest work here: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-33-4972-8

In the USA, Black  and Hispanic ovarian cancer patients experience much poorer outcomes than White patients, suggesting they have less access to quality care.  But why does this disparity exist, and what can be done to bridge this gap?

Dr Akinyemiju, Associate Professor in Population Health Sciences at Duke University School of Medicine and Duke Cancer Institute, USA, is tackling these questions and  more in the Ovarian Cancer Epidemiology, Healthcare Access, and Disparities Study, or simply, ORCHiD.

Read some of their latest work here:  http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2021-052808

'Sustainable development’ has become a familiar term, but with over 300 definitions it can mean different things to different people, and is proving difficult to achieve globally.  

Dr Pekka Peura at the Vaasa Energy Business Innovation Center at the University of Vaasa and his colleagues, Dr Olli Voutilainen and Professor Jussi Kantola, trace the emergence and development of an innovative waste management system implemented in the Vaasa region of Finland.

Read more in Research Outreach

Read some of their latest work here: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2022.01.025

If there is to be any hope of resolving the racial disparities that mark society, the healing of racial inequity needs to begin early enough to prevent old biases reinforcing themselves any further.

In this episode, we are joined again by Dr Neitzel, along with the President of the Educational Equity Institute, Dr Ebonyse Mead, to discuss their upcoming book ; The Handbook of Racial Equity in Early Childhood Education , and the challenges facing educators in a time of social uncertainty.

Find more from the Educational Equity Institute here.

Listen to their past podcasts here.

To tackle the challenge of monitoring air quality and assessing personal pollutant exposure in urban settings, low-cost sensors have become increasingly available.  However, most of these commercial devices suffer from limitations in the treatment of the data collected.

Fabian Lenartz at the Scientific Institute of Public Service (ISSeP) in Liège, Belgium, has developed a low-cost versatile monitoring device – Antilope – that is suitable for fixed and itinerant measurements, both indoor and outdoor.

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Read some of their latest work here: https://doi.org/10.3389/fsens.2021.679908

Facial recognition technology establishes a person’s identity from a single digital image of their face. This technology to identify criminals and prevent crime, but also in a range of other commercial settings. However, issues including trust, consent and bias, limits its use in some regions.

Research conducted by Gary Chan, Professor of Law at Singapore Management University, investigates how to build trust in facial recognition technology via technological measures, ethnical guidelines, and legislation.

 Read some of their latest work here:  https://doi.org/10.1093/ijlit/eaab011

Lifes challenges can become lasting burdens if we don’t have the psychological resources to meet them.  So how can we build up a psychological toolbox containing powerful inner strengths that are readily accessible when we need them? 

Dr Rick Hanson, of UC Berkeley’s Greater Good Science Center US, and colleagues have developed new model of emotional and mental growth, which actively engages people's experiences with neurologically informed methods that heighten the conversion of passing states of mind, such as resilience,  self-worth, and positive emotions, into lasting beneficial traits embedded in the brain.
 
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Read some of their latest work here: https://doi.org/10.1080/17439760.2021.2006759

Understanding the function of time and space when an ecosystem is disturbed is essential for devising sustainable conservation and management policies, further complicated by anthropogenic disturbances. To understand and predict the response of ecological systems to these disturbances, researchers must develop new theoretical and experimental approaches.

The research team at the Theoretical and Experimental Ecology Station (SETE) founded by Jean Clobert and Michel Loreau, aims to provide both theory and experimental methodologies to understand and predict the responses of ecological systems to environmental changes.

Read more in Research Features

Read some of their latest work here: https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2018.00043

Clinical electrophysiology, the application of electricity to monitor or produce a physiological effect, seems such a core part of any modern hospital stay that it's surprising how new it really is. Today, devices and techniques are more accurate and less invasive, making these lifesaving technologies  practically commonplace.

We spoke with Benjamin Scherlag, Professor of Medicine at the University of Oklahoma, USA, about his role in this part of medical history and why his dual roles in both clinical cardiology and basic science, have been so valuable.

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Read the original article: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrthm.2019.02.014