Articles
Specialist services offer cost-effective treatment for anorexia nervosa
Anorexia nervosa is a potentially life-threatening eating disorder which appears to be increasing in children, although this could mean that services are getting better at identifying the condition. Sarah Byford, Professor of Health Economics at King’s College London, led a team that surveyed children and young people who were diagnosed with anorexia nervosa in 2015. They discovered that specialist eating […]
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Understanding farmers’ behaviour to better control avian influenza
Dr Alexis Delabouglise, based at the International Center of Agricultural Research for Development (CIRAD), France, and Dr Maciej Boni, at the Center for Infectious Disease Dynamics of the Pennsylvania State University, USA, want to understand how small-scale poultry farmers make management decisions involving their birds’ health. In case of an outbreak of avian influenza, for example, understanding the farmer’s views […]
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Collaborate to innovate: How the InSPIRE Center at UCLan Cyprus brings together academics and industry
The Center of Interdisciplinary Science Promotion & Innovation Research Exploration (InSPIRE) at UCLan Cyprus aims to enhance scientific research through a series of collaborative partnerships in diverse scientific disciplines between academia and industry, carrying this out through a series of projects, educational activities and community engagement. InSPIRE’s co-founder, Dr Panayiotis Andreou, believes it is essential that the two sides work […]
Energy futures: A new equilibrium model for resource extraction and investment decisions
Increasingly sophisticated technologies developed in the current century to extract natural resources from costlier fields have changed the current and expected futures prices of resources, with important consequences for energy self-sufficiency and economic growth stability. In a recent paper, Alexander David, Professor of Finance at the Haskayne School of Business, University of Calgary in Canada, develops a new model that […]
Heart valve disease: Improving patient care
The prevalence of heart valve disease is rising as life expectancy continues to increase. The management of heart valve disease is complex and several limitations in current clinic practice exist, such that better ways of organising care are needed. At Guy’s and St Thomas’ Hospitals, Consultant Cardiologists Prof John Chambers, Dr Ronak Rajani and Dr Julia Grapsa have pioneered a […]
The critical gap between management theory and technological reality:
Why many businesses are still failing to innovate effectively
Prof Hugo Tschirky is an academic at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and specialises in how companies innovate and embrace technology. In 2004, he initiated and co-authored a book called “Bringing technology and innovation into the boardroom” but many of the findings in this book have still yet to be fully embraced by executive boards. Worryingly, a critical gap […]
Biosimilars: An effective treatment at a lower cost
While most medications are both safe and effective, unfortunately many are also expensive. Biosimilars – new versions of a drug that are similar to the original in every meaningful way – offer a potentially less expensive alternative to costly original biological drugs. Professor Tore K. Kvien of the University of Oslo, Norway, and his colleagues have demonstrated that one biosimilar, […]
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Placental immune editing switches (PIES) and cancer progression
Exceptional mechanisms have evolved over millions of years to allow the foetus to grow directly inside the mother’s womb. These mechanisms, named placental immune editing switches, are orchestrated by the placenta and are responsible for locally switching off the mother’s immune system to protect the foetus. However, Dr Miguel Hernández-Bronchud from Clínica Corachan in Barcelona, suggests that the existence of […]
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Listening to the city: Architecture as soundscape
Sound is an integral part of many people’s daily life, and the architectural spaces that surround us shape and impact the quality of urban sound. Street performers, such as buskers, contribute to the city soundscape, and while in the past they may have been treated as a nuisance, now they are more readily accepted as contributing to the vitality of […]
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A long-awaited understanding of the Casimir torque
The Casimir force has been well researched by physicists for decades, but only recently has one particularly intriguing aspect of this effect been recreated in the lab. Through his research, Dr Wijnand Broer at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences has built upon these recent breakthroughs to explore the processes which cause the surfaces of some specialised materials to […]
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