Articles
Accents of the Caribbean: How vowel pronunciations pivot, shift and merge
Prof James Walker of the Department of Languages and Linguistics at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, is a sociolinguistic expert who has conducted extensive research on the English language in various parts of the world, including North America and the Caribbean. Together with Prof Miriam Meyerhoff at the University of Oxford, UK, their research focuses on different vowel pronunciations […]
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Reducing risks, improving outcomes: The benefits of Patient Blood Management
While blood transfusions are generally very safe and have saved millions of lives, they carry a small risk of serious side effects. These risks can be lessened through the use of Patient Blood Management (PBM), a series of interventions that seek to minimise blood loss, prevent anaemia and reduce the need for a transfusion before, during and after major surgery. […]
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The 30,000-year ceramics comeback
Despite the ubiquity of metals in machinery, ceramic tools and systems can perform better under the most extreme conditions. M2 Laboratory are a group of scientists at Tianjin University in China with an interest in ceramic materials. Amongst their ranks is Bin Lin, a professor, doctoral supervisor and deputy director of the key laboratory of Advanced Ceramics and Processing Technology. […]
Physics of degradation: the difference between reliability engineering and reliability science
Quality and reliability are key factors for a product’s commercial success. Reliability testing usually occurs at the final product, using destructive methods. This implies that there might be added costs and delays if reliability tests fail. Looking at reliability sciences from the physics of degradation and the identification of degradation mechanisms, Prof Cher Ming Tan from the Research Center on […]
A focus on beta cell mass could help prevent type 2 diabetes
Diabetes is a global health problem expected to affect nearly seven percent of the world’s population by 2035. Treatment broadly focuses on regulating glucose levels, and an increase in the range of pharmacological options means that it is usually possible to manage the condition. However, diabetes cannot be cured. Professor Yoshifumi Saisho from Keio University, Japan, advocates moving the focus […]
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Monitoring photonic crystal fibre fabrication in real-time
Photonic crystal fibres (PCFs) were first explored in the 1990s, and as conventional optical fibres have revealed their limits, interest in PCFs has only increased further. PCFs use a specific pattern of air-holes which stretch the length of the fibre to guide light. These delicate microstructures are functionally essential, but currently there is no way to monitor their production in […]
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ENACTS: Risk, Resilience, and the Revitalisation of Climate Services in the Developing World
To build resilience and national capacity to manage climate variability and adapt to change, governments and other bodies need robust and decision-relevant climate information at different levels. In many places, however, including most African countries, collection of climate data has been seriously inadequate, and even when available, poorly accessible. The Enhancing National Climate Services (ENACTS) initiative, led by Dr Tufa […]
Spectroscopic standard could help revolutionise the analysis of plastics
Plastic pollution is an environmental catastrophe in progress. 32 percent of the plastic we use escapes into the environment and only nine percent currently gets recycled. Fugitive plastic products often undergo various forms of environmental degradation, which lead to the formation of microplastics. British company Polymateria have developed additives for conventional plastics which facilitate biodegradation if they escape the waste stream. […]
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How joyful dialogic reading jumpstarts early learning
The role of family engagement in children’s early learning is crucial to their future educational prospects. Alice Letvin and Carolyn Saper, who are based in Chicago, USA, developed the ReadAskChat dialogic reading app for families with babies, toddlers, and prereaders. The ReadAskChat app includes a library of short, content-rich stories and prompts for adult readers to stimulate brain-building “serve-and-return” conversations. […]
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The periphery: Where radical innovation occurs
Gino Cattani is Professor of Management and Organization at the Stern School of Business, and Simone Ferriani is Professor of Entrepreneurship at the University of Bologna. Both professors have researched creativity and entrepreneurship independently but they’ve come together for a common goal: to solve the Core-Periphery Conundrum. Why is it that resources are concentrated among those who conform, when the […]
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