Articles Archives

Thought Leaders

The troubling allure of predatory publishing

Predatory publishing has become increasingly ubiquitous across the sciences and beyond. Importantly, Dr Nicola Alberto Valente, Adjunct Assistant Professor at the State University of New York at Buffalo, compiled and studied the barrage of invitations he received over the course of an academic year. He then attempted to quantitatively assess the impact these invitations had on him and his work. […]

Education & Training

Training a new generation of problem solvers: Innovation in STEM education

Humankind faces unprecedented environmental, social, and economic challenges. There is a critical need for STEM education to foster both science learning and the application of learning to problem solving. At the University of Utah, Professor Nancy Butler Songer and her collaborators have developed a suite of interdisciplinary instructional and field-based data collection resources offering elementary and secondary students the chance […]

Business & Economics

Piggy in the middle: Backing the right horse in China vs USA

The focus of global geo-political power sits squarely within the Asia-Pacific region, but China’s rise has resulted in face-off with the United States. Canadian foreign policy has three main options in light of China’s rise to dominance: pivot to China, place itself equidistance between Beijing and Washington, or align with the US strategy. Professor Kenneth Holland of O.P. Jindal Global […]

Earth & Environment

African (tectonic) retreat (seismically) shakes Greece and Turkey

The Earth’s surface is divided into rigid plates that move with respect to each other in response to heat loss from the interior. At the China University of Geosciences, Wuhan, Professor Timothy Kusky is studying the evolution of tectonic plates through Earth history. Along with his colleagues, he has found that a devastating 2020 earthquake in the Aegean Sea resulted […]

Education & Training

Online laboratories and Cross-Reality in engineering education

COVID-19 has compelled educators to rapidly transition to online learning methods. This shift is particularly challenging for instructors whose courses involve hands-on laboratory instruction. In his research, Dr Dominik May, an Assistant Professor in the Engineering Education Transformations Institute at the University of Georgia, has been focusing on online laboratories and Cross-Reality learning spaces in engineering education for over a […]

Physical Sciences

Synchronisation in symmetrically and asymmetrically coupled oscillators

Complex networks are systems composed of several components which may interact with each other. Examples range from laser arrays to the human brain, global climate, and digital communication forms. The behaviour of complex systems depends upon the internal dynamics of the individual unit, communication among cells, type of coupling between them, and symmetry. Dr Antonio Palacios from San Diego State […]

Biology

Integrative plant responses: How seagrasses adjust to light

The shallow coastal waters that house tropical seagrass meadows are often highly illuminated. In the Caribbean, the main habitat builder is the species Thalassia testudinum, characterised by a leaf physiology adapted to shade. Dense canopies allow the seagrass to survive in such environments, but depth colonisation requires canopy and underground mass adjustments. These integrative plant responses are essential to adjusting […]

Education & Training

How to use exemplars and rubrics to improve student outcomes

Associate Professors in the Faculty of Education and Social Work at the University of Auckland, Eleanor Hawe and Helen Dixon, specialise in evaluating and improving learning assessments. Eleanor is interested in goal setting, feedback, and peer review. Helen focuses on teachers’ beliefs and their effect on learning. In their study, ‘Using rubrics and exemplars to develop students’ evaluative and productive […]

Behavioural Sciences

Regulating emotions in young adulthood

Young adults with complex mental health needs often find it difficult to regulate their emotions and manage impulsive behaviour. Dr Kate Hall and her collaborators from Deakin University, Australia, have developed and evaluated an intervention that has applicability across diagnostic categories of mental health and substance use needs, and can be delivered alongside existing treatments. This intervention teaches young people […]

Arts & Humanities

Is the Corona pandemic a gateway to global surveillance?

For the first time in human history, digital surveillance technologies have allowed governments around the world to monitor almost everyone, almost everywhere, almost all the time. The public has largely accepted such measures as necessary in the fight against the Coronavirus. But are we right to passively accept the abandonment of our right to privacy – a fundamental human right […]