Articles Archives

Health & Medicine

Dry needling could hold the key to relieving lower back pain

Lower back pain is a common health issue in adults. Many treatments, both conventional and alternative, are available. Dry needling is an alternative medicine technique that is gaining popularity among physical therapists and their patients. In an upcoming study, Dr Ulrike Mitchell of Brigham Young University, Provo, USA and her team will investigate the potential of dry needling to relieve […]

Earth & Environment

Enfrentándonos a la gestión de los riesgos climáticos en Colombia

Con el cambio climático alterando las variables climáticas en el corto y largo plazo, las comunidades agrícolas se están volviendo muy susceptibles a los riesgos climáticos. Sin embargo, con la ayuda del Programa de Investigación de CGIAR en Cambio Climático, Agricultura y Seguridad Alimentaria (CCAFS), se ha adoptado un enfoque participativo para la gestión de los riesgos climáticos. Como resultado […]

Physical Sciences

On Hadron Deformation
Shaping our understanding of the proton

The proton is the smallest particle known to science that can exist in isolation and has a size but, until now, the shape of the proton has been little more than a guessing game. Professor C.N. Papanicolas, Academician and President of the Cyprus Institute and his team have helped to change that—and provided us with a new understanding of this most important […]

Health & Medicine

Gestational diabetes: A novel detection strategy

Gestational diabetes is a complication arising in pregnancy that can lead to serious and lifelong health concerns for the mother and child. Currently all pregnant women undergo screening for gestational diabetes, a time-consuming and demanding procedure. However, diagnosis often comes late in pregnancy, leaving limited time for intervention. Dr Jonatan Dereke and his fellow researchers at Lund University, Sweden are […]

Physical Sciences

The mystery of the Victorian purple dye

William Henry Perkin, a young London chemist, patented a synthesis in 1856 for a purple dye he created by accident whilst trying to synthesise quinine, a Victorian anti-malarial. This discovery brought purple, a colour so expensive it had previously only been afforded by royalty and the church, to the mass-market. But there is an unsolved mystery: using Perkin’s patented method, […]

Behavioural Sciences

The effects of workplace norms on women’s work behaviour in Japan

Professor Eriko Teramura from the Meikai University Faculty of Economics is a Japanese social scientist who specialises in human resource management and gender theory. Her current research centres around the workplace culture of Japan and the practices specific to Japanese companies that may be affecting the employment of women and their decisions to start a family. Using empirical analysis, Professor […]

Health & Medicine

Therapeutic drug monitoring of methotrexate in disease

Professor Dr Robert de Jonge, Dr Gerrit Jansen, Ittai Muller MSc and Helen Gosselt MSc, Amsterdam University Medical Center, are pioneering analytical approaches which can be used to understand why patients respond differently to the anchor drug used to manage rheumatoid arthritis, called methotrexate. Their work has begun to unravel the key factors behind the mechanism of action of methotrexate, […]

Education & Training

Recurrent education aiding women in engineering careers

The Department of Civil Engineering at the National Institute of Technology, Gunma recently published a survey showing that their female graduates are less likely to progress in civil engineering careers than their male counterparts. Ritsuo Sakimura, a professor at the college, wanted to tackle this problem head-on. By collaborating with a female graduate who had found employment at a surveying […]

Education & Training

Engineering capstone courses help students transition from school to work

Capstone design courses offer students the opportunity to work in teams on authentic engineering projects to prepare for the transition from school to work. However, few studies have examined that transition to understand new graduates’ experiences as they become working engineers. The Capstone To Work project addresses the gap by following graduates from four institutions through their first year of […]

Earth & Environment

Facing climate risk management together in Colombia

With climate change altering the short-term weather and causing long-term climatic fluctuations, farming communities are becoming increasingly susceptible to climatic risk. However, with the help of the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS), a participatory approach is being taken to climate risk management. As a result of south-south collaboration, Local Technical Agro-climatic Committees (LTACs) have […]