SciPod

Phase 3 clinical trials are the most expensive part of drug development, and the most important hurdle to regulatory approval. More than 95% of phase 3 trials in Alzheimer’s disease fail. The main reason is a poor foundation, namely, inadequate or misleading phase 2 trials. Dr. Donald Berry, Founder of Berry Consultants and Founder and Professor of the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, along with his son Dr. Scott Berry, President of Berry Consultants, are committed to turning the tide. Their revolutionary methodology involves adaptive clinical trial design within a Bayesian statistical approach.

An innovative study reveals how US tariffs on Chinese goods have disproportionately affected low-income American households, challenging the effectiveness of protectionist trade policies. Research from an international team of scholars, Professors Mingzhi Xu at Peking University, Hong Ma at Tsinghua University, Jingxin Ning at UIBE, and Luca Macedoni at Aarhus University, provides compelling evidence for the benefits of free trade and the often-overlooked costs of trade barriers.

Phase 3 clinical trials are the most expensive part of drug development, and the most important hurdle to regulatory approval. More than 95% of phase 3 trials in Alzheimer’s disease fail. The main reason is a poor foundation, namely, inadequate or misleading phase 2 trials. Dr. Donald Berry, Founder of Berry Consultants and Founder and Professor of the Department of Biostatistics at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, along with his son Dr. Scott Berry, President of Berry Consultants, are committed to turning the tide. Their revolutionary methodology involves adaptive clinical trial design within a Bayesian statistical approach.

An innovative study reveals how US tariffs on Chinese goods have disproportionately affected low-income American households, challenging the effectiveness of protectionist trade policies. Research from an international team of scholars, Professors Mingzhi Xu at Peking University, Hong Ma at Tsinghua University, Jingxin Ning at UIBE, and Luca Macedoni at Aarhus University, provides compelling evidence for the benefits of free trade and the often-overlooked costs of trade barriers.

Darwin identified fire and language as the key elements of human progress. Professor Elliot Berry, of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, argues that nutrition and food security are equally vital for cultural evolution. He is a Specialty Chief Editor of Frontiers in Nutrition – Nutrition and Sustainable Diets, and an Editor of the three volume Encyclopaedia of Food Security and Sustainability. Berry explains that food security supports the development of sociotypes, which describe how individuals interact within society, and emphasizes their importance, especially amid global crises, for sustainable development and public health. He advocates that we recognize food security as a fundamental human right and incorporate sociotype concepts in medicine and public health.

Early adversity, such as family violence, parental depression and low income, puts children at risk for maltreatment and negatively impacts their development. A team of researchers led by Nicole Letourneau at the University of Calgary has evaluated a promising intervention called ATTACH™ (which is short for Attachment and Child Health) that aims to improve outcomes for vulnerable families by enhancing parental reflective functioning.

Inventory management is a key activity in many organizations. Its performance is often measured by the inventory turnover ratio metric, or ITR for short. This is a key performance indicator that managers are incentivised to improve. However, improper measurement of the ITR metric can cause problems in terms of reliability, comparison, and bias. Professor Benjamin Melamed of Rutgers University has proposed novel formulations of Little’s Law. The traditional Little’s Law is used an as approximation of real-life measurement, whereas Melamed’s versions are exact and robust.

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the European Union faced a crisis that demanded a swift and unified response. A new study by Professor Elena Baracani from the University of Bologna examines how Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, used her leadership role to shape the EU's reaction during the crucial first 10 weeks of the conflict.

The full extent of the labour and resources which go into creating a modern house is hidden deeply within the buildings we call home. Professor Mark Jarzombek of MIT and Professor Vikramaditya Prakash of the University of Washington are co-founders of the Office of Uncertainty Research, a research collaboration that is dedicated to rethinking architecture in a modern context. Through their research, Jarzombek and Prakash investigate these hidden stories by exploring the history of a recently built modern house in Seattle. Their findings reveal that the presumed transparency of modern architecture conceals deep ethical and environmental challenges, inspiring a call for a critical reassessment of how our current construction practices should be understood and approached.

Ever wondered why letters look the way they do? Dr Hana Jee at York St John University in the UK investigates intriguing connections between how languages sound and how they are written. Using a number of methodologies, she has conducted innovative research to quantify these relationships. Her work began with Korean Hangul, a writing system intentionally designed to be highly logical and systematic. Dr Jee has since expanded her research to include diverse scripts like Arabic, English, Hebrew and many others. Her findings suggest unexpected patterns across writing systems, opening several fascinating future research avenues.