Israel Archives

Predictive Analytics in the world of big data with application for targeting decisions

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Zahavi and collaborators review the methods involved in building and validating large-scale predictive analytics processes for big data applications.

Predictive Analytics (PA) models are an increasingly important method for predicting future events in big data applications based on past observations for which the response values are known. One of the most popular applications is targeting decisions, which is commonly used in many domains, such as marketing and banking. The leading prediction models still belong to the realm of regression. […]

From lipids to life: Cracking the puzzle about the origin of life

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The quest to understand life’s origin has long intrigued scientists seeking to unravel the mysteries of existence. Traditional approaches to this question have their own limitations. Professor Doron Lancet and his team from the Weizmann Institute of Science, Israel, offer a fresh perspective and a more feasible pathway for understanding how life emerged on Earth. Their work introduces a paradigm […]

The origin of hair: The evolution of the trichocyte

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The researchers trace the origin and evolution of the hair follicle, which may predate the evolution of mammals.

Hair is a defining feature of mammals and was essential for their adaptation to a range of ecological niches. To shine a light on the evolution of hair, Professor Thomas Litman of the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, and Professor Wilfred D Stein of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, investigate the ancient origins of the proteins which interact structurally with […]

Shedding light on liver metastasis in pancreatic cancer

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Research into liver metastasis in pancreatic cancer, and how genes can influence tumour growth

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is an aggressive and lethal malignancy, largely as a result of its early spread, or ‘metastasis’, to the liver. Dr Tami Rubinek and Professor Ido Wolf, of the Oncology Division of Tel Aviv Medical Center, Israel, have extensively studied the molecular mechanisms behind liver metastasis in patient tumour samples. They revealed that the absence of certain […]

Sustainable urban mobility: Data-based insights for a future with only seamless public transport

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Illustrative future automated transit (non-private) vehicle for urban mobility.

Research being carried out by Professor Avishai (Avi) Ceder from the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology offers a fresh global perspective of the current situation of urban transport. He examines opportunities for us to move towards sustainable urban mobility that could substantially reduce road traffic damages and its global impact. Using data from 19 countries and 17 major cities, Ceder measures […]

Protecting Israel’s freshwater: Phosphorous outsourcing in Lake Kinneret

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Dr Moshe Gophen studies the impact of the watershed sources of phosphorous in Lake Kinneret, assessing the potential for eco-tourism and how seasonality affects phosphorous levels in the freshwater lake

Freshwater is such a scarce commodity in Israel that taking the salt out of seawater is routinely used as a way of supplying the population with drinking water. Lake Kinneret is the only natural freshwater lake in the whole country. Dr Moshe Gophen and his collaborators at MIGAL Galilee Research Institute have assessed the importance of different potential sources of […]

Digital Assyriology: Using artificial intelligence to unlock an ancient lingua franca

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The ancient writing system of cuneiform was used to record millennia of human history, but relatively few of the hundreds of thousands of known cuneiform texts have yet been translated and made available to researchers and the public alike. The Babylonian Engine project, led by Dr Shai Gordin of Ariel University, Israel, has developed two tools – Atrahasis and Akkademia […]

Discovering when the first early modern humans left Africa

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Previous evidence suggested that early modern humans left Africa 90,000 to 120,000 years ago, but new evidence has shown this event may have occurred much earlier. Professor Mina Weinstein-Evron (University of Haifa, Israel) and Professor Israel Hershkovitz (Tel Aviv University, Israel), together with their colleagues, have found a modern human fossil at Misliya cave in Israel, which dates to between […]

Reactive oxygen species are at the heart of innate immunity

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Our innate immune system is our first line of defence against disease. At the heart of this response is an enzyme complex, called NADPH oxidase, which produces a form of reactive oxygen molecule to destroy invading pathogens. Professor Edgar Pick of Tel Aviv University, has made a huge contribution to this field of research, enhancing our understanding of the foundations […]

Phones down, eyes up: Tackling media misbehaviour in the classroom

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The research team investigates the effectiveness of different leadership styles in keeping students off their phones.

In the age of smartphones, teachers must compete for the attention of students against a world they possess in their pockets. And the stakes are high for educational outcomes. When pupils are glued to their phones in class, they disrupt their own learning as well as that of others, while increasing the teacher’s stress and risk of burnout. So how […]