ResearchPod

• Quantum-like modeling: cognition, decision making, and rationality (2020) : https://doi.org/10.1007/s11299-020-00240-6
• Quantum Mechanical Pragmatic Rules and Social Science (2019): https://doi.org/10.1007/s41470-019-00036-1  
• Introduction to quantum probability theory and its economic applications (2018): https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmateco.2018.08.004
• Statistical and subjective interpretations of probability in quantum-like models of cognition and decision making  (2016): http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jmp.2016.02.005 
• ‘Social Laser’: action  amplification by stimulated emission of social energy (2015): http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2015.0094
• An Application of the Theory of Open Quantum Systems to Model the Dynamics of Party Governance in the US Political System (2013): https://doi.org/10.1007/s10773-013-1931-6  

Global temperature rises and climate change will not only bring disruption to the planet’s ecosystems, weather systems, and sea levels – they will also have an impact on current and future human societies through economic turmoil. 

Dr Patrick Brown, of San José State University, finds out when the benefits of meeting the Paris Agreement targets will begin to outweigh the costs.

Read more:

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239520  

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0071-9  

News coverage of the drug overdose crisis gripping America has, for a large part, focused on opioid drug deaths. However, this represents a small part of the ever-shifting landscape of drug use. Away from the mainstream, stimulants - both prescribed and illicit - continue to claim lives at an increasing rate.

Joshua Black and Janetta Iwanicki from Rocky Mountain Poison and Drug Safety discuss their institutes role in tracking deaths, informing policy, and attempting to stem the tide of drug related deaths in America.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.1001/jamainternmed.2020.7850

Delayed sleep-wake phase disorder (DSWPD) is characterised by an inability to fall asleep at a socially acceptable time,  and an inability to wake up at conventional early times for school or work.

Dr Gregory Carter from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas, is conducting research into  'night owl preference', and what can be done to realign ones circadian rhythm.

Read more: https://doi.org/10.5664/jcsm.5100

Prof Wiley investigates the emergence of new brain viral infections and their link to dementia.

Read more about his work in Research Outreach, and find his original articles below: 

• Emergent Viral Infections of the CNS:  https://doi.org/10.1093/jnen/nlaa054 
• H1N1, but not H3N2, influenza A virus infection protects ferrets from H5N1 encephalitis:  https://doi.org/10.1128/JVI.01840-13 
• Emerging Infections of CNS: Avian Influenza A Virus, Rift Valley Fever Virus and Human Parechovirus:  https://doi.org/10.1111/bpa.12281 
• Human Parechovirus 3 Meningitis and Fatal Leukoencephalopathy : https://doi.org/10.1097/NEN.0000000000000215 
•  Human Zika and West Nile virus neurological infections: What is the difference?:  https://doi.org/10.1111/neup.12385 
• Systemic distribution of West Nile virus infection: postmortem immunohistochemical study of six cases.:  https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1750-3639.2007.00080.x 

Over the last 50 years, advances in surgical procedures, clinical understandings and targeted treatments have changed the prospects of many cancer diagnoses from terminal to treatable. However, this progress is not evenly distributed across the many different types of cancer, and nowhere is that more keenly felt than in cancers affecting children.  How might the advances and insights in treating blood cancers benefit patients with brain tumours?

To answer that question, I am speaking today with Dr David Walker and Dr Chris Halsey about their research connecting trials and treatments across disease types, for the benefit of all patients.

Read more: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(19)30333-5

It has been well established that mental health problems increase vulnerability to corona virus, COVID-19, and those contracting the virus are at higher risk of nervous system disorders and mental illness.  The Mom2B study, led by Prof Alkistis Skalkidou and colleagues,  explores the mental health of pregnant women and those who have recently given birth.  

Read their paper here: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.12.18.20248466

Download the Mom2B app here:

Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=se.mom2b.app2&gl=SE

iOS: https://apps.apple.com/se/app/mom2b/id1447365749

Huntington's Disease is characterised by a clear line of heritability within families, and an early onset of disease towards the middle of ones life. As such, the more knowledge researchers gain about development of the disease, the earlier interventions may be developed, and the longer their benefits felt.

Dr Jessica Cao is researching the onset of Huntington's Disease in a mouse model, how the sex-dependent differences may reflect in humans, and prospects for therapies to improve the wellbeing of patients facing the disease.

Read the original paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbd.2019.104607

Climate change is real, happening now, and happening the world over.  However, it is not an evenly distributed problem - coastal areas are the most susceptible to rising sea levels, and there is one coast that most people in the world will never get to see .

The response of Antarctica to climate change is one of the big research questions facing the British Antarctic Survey.   David Barnes, marine ecologist and lecturer, talks about life on the ice, life under it, and what the future may hold for polar regions.

Read his recent blog ahead of the COP26 Expo here.

Read their past papers at:
https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15617
https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15392
https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15055
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsta.2017.0176

Modelling human decisions under uncertainty has become a crucial issue in the field of Artificial Intelligence over recent years. Mathematical models of decision making under risk provide the user with an ‘optimal’ solution. These rational decision models, however, are not always able to describe the typical human approach to making decisions.

Dr Serena Doria, from The Gabriele d'Annunzio University in Italy, presents a new mathematical  updating model that can represent the awareness process of the unconscious and conscious thought.

Read her paper here:  https://doi.org/10.1007/s11238-019-09699-3