Engineering & Technology

Developing the Geneva Solar Cadaster: A decision support tool for sustainable energy management in urban areas

Gilles Desthieux, Associate Professor at the Geneva Institute of Landscape, Engineering and Architecture and a Consultant in Urban Energy Planning with Amstein+Walthert Geneva, leads a team of researchers who have developed the Geneva Solar Cadaster, a tool for modelling solar radiation and energy production from building rooftops and facades. Recent urban studies have shown that our cities play a significant role in […]

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Behavioural Sciences

Gender inequality: occupational devaluation and pay gaps

The comparative research of long-term trends of gender inequality largely neglects structural mechanisms. As more women reach positions of power, structural elements will become more significant. Despite the growing body of literature in this area, the long-term effect of the changing gender composition of occupations on their relative pay has been largely neglected. Hadas Mandel, an Associate Professor in the […]

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Physical Sciences

Laser ablation in liquid: A powerful route to new nanoparticle catalysts

Dr Katharine Tibbetts (Virginia Commonwealth University) has been developing a novel approach for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles, based on a reactive laser ablation in liquid technique. She uses ultra-short laser pulses to ionise water molecules and generate a highly energetic plasma of electrons capable of reducing soluble metal ions to neutral atoms, which then coalesce to generate a nanoparticle […]

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Biology

The biology of ageing

What causes ageing? Is it inevitable? Could it be slowed or even reversed? Humans have wanted to know the answer to these questions ever since we became aware of our own mortality. Despite the tremendous advances that have been made in our scientific understanding over the past century, ageing remains one of the greatest mysteries in biological science. But scientists, […]

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Engineering & Technology

Assessing performances of Computer-Aided Diagnosis of breast cancer

In under two decades, the techniques used to image, classify and diagnose breast cancer have significantly improved with the help of rapidly advancing computer-based digital image processing and machine learning technologies. Since the early days of developing Computer-Aided Diagnosis technology in the 1990s, Professor Bin Zheng at the University of Pittsburgh and then the University of Oklahoma has dedicated his […]

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Physical Sciences

Evaluating students’ perceptions of the roles of mathematics in society

Toshikazu Ikeda, Professor of Mathematics Education at Yokohama National University, has found that while mathematical modelling is often evaluated with respect to mathematical attributes, little academic consideration has been given to the non-mathematical viewpoint. To fill this knowledge void, he has developed an analytical tool to evaluate the changes in students’ perceptions of the roles of mathematics in society following […]

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Health & Medicine

New innovations in traumatic brain injury research

Lynne Ann Barker is a pioneer in the field of traumatic brain injury (TBI). Her work aims to understand how trauma to the brain leads to changes in behaviour and cognitive ability in those affected. She has also worked to develop new experimental methods for assessing cognitive ability, including computerised simulations that incorporate real-world tasks such as cooking, with the aim of increasing the speed […]

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Health & Medicine

How data is improving driving policies for epilepsy patients

Until recently, UK epilepsy patients’ quality of life and the public’s safety rested on driving policies informed by neurologists’ ‘expert opinions’. However, Dr Laura Bonnett of the University of Liverpool and her team have found hard evidence to back up and improve these policies. By determining the risk of recurring seizures in first-time seizure patients, those on antiepileptic drug withdrawal […]

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Behavioural Sciences

The dawn of memory modulation and self-prescribed forgetting – a moral dilemma

Human memory is an incredible feat of the brain, storing all of our fondest memories, and all of our greatest heartaches, nightmares and frankly memories we would maybe rather do without. What was once considered an idea bound to science fiction may be a possibility, at least theoretically. Advances in Neuroscience and Psychology have allowed the idea of physically and […]

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