Revive the map: 4D building reconstruction with machine learning

SKOLKOVO INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY (SKOLTECH)

Research News

 

IMAGE: REVIVE THE MAP view more 

CREDIT: FARELLA E.M, ET AL./ MDPI APPLIED SCIENCES

A research team from Skoltech and FBK (Italy) presented a methodology to derive 4D building models using historical maps and machine learning. The implemented method relies on the geometric, neighbourhood, and categorical attributes to predict building heights. The method is useful for understanding urban phenomena and changes contributing to defining our cities' actual shapes. The results were published in the MDPI Applied Sciences journal.

Historical maps are the most powerful source used to analyze changes in urban development. Nevertheless, maps represent the 3D world in the 2D space, which describes the main features of the urban environment but fails to incorporate other spatial information, such as building heights. In 3D/4D city modeling applications based on historical data, the lack of building heights is a major obstacle for accurate space representation, analysis, visualization, or simulations.

Scientists from Skoltech and 3DOM research unit of FBK Trento explored machine learning solutions for inferring building heights from historical maps.

Their method tested on four historical maps of Trento (years 1851, 1887, 1908, and 1936) and Bologna (years 1884 and 1945), reflecting the biggest changes in the urban structures over the last centuries, helped reconstruct multi-temporal (4D) versions of these cities.

"The implemented learning and predictive procedures tested on historical data have proven to be effective and promising for many other applications. Based on a few attributes for the prediction, it will soon be expanded to diverse real-life contexts with missing elevation data. The resulting models will be a great help in bridging the geospatial knowledge gap in past or remote situations," Emre Ozdemir, a Skoltech and FBK Trento PhD student, explains.

CAPTION

Revive the map

CREDIT

Farella E.M, et al./ MDPI Applied Sciences

Ancient skeletal hand could reveal evolutionary secrets

A 4.4 million-year-old skeleton could show how early humans moved and began to walk upright, according to new research led by a Texas A&M anthropology professor

TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Evolutionary expert Charles Darwin and others recognized a close evolutionary relationship between humans, chimps and gorillas based on their shared anatomies, raising some big questions: how are humans related to other primates, and exactly how did early humans move around? Research by a Texas A&M University professor may provide some answers.

Thomas Cody Prang, assistant professor of anthropology, and colleagues examined the skeletal remains of Ardipithecus ramidus ("Ardi"), dated to 4.4 million years old and found in Ethiopia. One of Ardi's hands was exceptionally well-preserved.

The researchers compared the shape of Ardi's hand to hundreds of other hand specimens representing recent humans, apes and monkeys (measured from bones in museum collections around the world) to make comparisons about the kind of locomotor behavior used by the earliest hominins (fossil human relatives).

The results provide clues about how early humans began to walk upright and make similar movements that all humans perform today.

This discovery is described in a study published in the current issue of Science Advances.

"Bone shape reflects adaptation to particular habits or lifestyles - for example the movement of primates - and by drawing connections between bone shape and behavior among living forms, we can make inferences about the behavior of extinct species, such as Ardi, that we can't directly observe, Prang said.

"Additionally, we found evidence for a big evolutionary 'jump' between the kind of hand represented by Ardi and all later hominin hands, including that of Lucy's species (a famous 3.2 million-year-old well-preserved skeleton found in the same area in the 1970s). This 'evolutionary jump' happens at a critical time when hominins are evolving adaptations to a more human-like form of upright walking, and the earliest evidence for hominin stone-tool manufacture and stone-tool use, such as cut-marks on animal fossils, are discovered."

Prang said the fact that Ardi represents an earlier phase of human evolutionary history is important because it potentially shines light on the kind of ancestor from which humans and chimpanzees evolved.

"Our study supports a classic idea first proposed by Charles Darwin in 1871, when he had no fossils or understanding of genetics, that the use of the hands and upper limbs for manipulation appeared in early human relatives in connection with upright walking," he said. "The evolution of human hands and feet probably happened in a correlated fashion."

Since Ardi is such an ancient species, it might retain skeletal features that were present in the last common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees. If this is true, it could help researchers place the origin of the human lineage - in addition to upright walking - into a clearer light.

"It potentially brings us one step closer to an explanation for how and why humans evolved our form of upright walking," Prang said.

He added that the big change in hand anatomy between Ardi and all later hominins occurs at a time, roughly between 4.4 and 3.3 million years ago, coinciding with the earliest evidence of the loss of a grasping big toe in human evolution. This also coincides with the earliest known stone tools and stone cut-marked animal fossils.

He said it appears to mark a major change in the lifestyle and behavior of human relatives within this timeframe.

"We propose that it involves the evolution of more advanced upright walking, which enabled human hands to be modified by the evolutionary process for enhanced manual manipulation, possibly involving stone tools," Prang said

###

This research was funded by the Wenner Gren Foundatio

Paleontologists discover new insect group after solving 150-year-old mystery

SFU-led research team uncovers how fossil dragonfly relatives have been misclassified due to their striking similarity

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Research News

    SHARE

 PRINT  E-MAIL

IMAGE: WING OF THE NEW SPECIES OKANAGRION HOBANI, FROM THE MCABEE FOSSIL SITE IN BRITISH COLUMBIA, A DAMSELFLY-LIKE INSECT OF THE NEW SUBORDER CEPHALOZYGOPTERA. view more 

CREDIT: COPYRIGHT ZOOTAXA, USED BY PERMISSION.

For more than 150 years, scientists have been incorrectly classifying a group of fossil insects as damselflies, the familiar cousins of dragonflies that flit around wetlands eating mosquitoes. While they are strikingly similar, these fossils have oddly shaped heads, which researchers have always attributed to distortion resulting from the fossilization process.

Now, however, a team of researchers led by Simon Fraser University (SFU) paleontologist Bruce Archibald has discovered they aren't damselflies at all, but represent a major new insect group closely related to them.

The findings, published today in Zootaxa, show that the distinctive shape of the insect's non-protruding, rounded eyes, set close to the head, are the defining features of a suborder related to damselflies and dragonflies that the researchers have named Cephalozygoptera.

"When we began finding these fossils in British Columbia and Washington State, we also thought at first they must be damselflies," says Archibald.

But on closer inspection, the team noticed they resembled a fossil that German paleontologist Hermann Hagen wrote about in 1858. Hagen set the precedent of linking the fossil to the damselfly suborder despite its different head shape, which didn't fit with damselflies at all.

Damselflies have short and wide heads with eyes distinctively protruding far to each side. Hagen's fossil, however, had an oddly rounded head and eyes. But he assumed this difference was false, caused by distortion during fossilization.

"Paleontologists since Hagen had written that these were damselflies with distorted heads," Archibald says. "A few hesitated, but still assigned them to the damselfly suborder."

The SFU-led team, including Robert Cannings of the Royal British Columbia Museum, Robert Erickson and Seth Bybee of Brigham Young University and SFU's Rolf Mathewes, sifted through 162 years of scientific papers and discovered that many similar specimens have been found since Hagen's time.

They experienced a eureka moment when they realized the odd heads of their new fossils were, in fact, their true shape.

The researchers used the fossil's defining head shape to name the new suborder Cephalozygoptera, meaning "head damselfly".

The oldest known species of Cephalozygoptera lived among dinosaurs in the Cretaceous age in China, and were last known to exist about 10 million years ago in France and Spain.

"They were important elements in food webs of wetlands in ancient British Columbia and Washington about 50 million years ago, after the extinction of the dinosaurs," says Archibald. "Why they declined and went extinct remains a mystery."

The team named 16 new species of Cephalozygoptera. Some of the fossils were found on the traditional land of the Colville Indian tribe of northern Washington, and so Archibald and his coauthors collaborated with tribal elders to name a new family of them. They called the family "Whetwhetaksidae", from the word "whetwhetaks", meaning dragonfly-like insects in the Colville people's language.

Archibald has spent 30 years combing the fossil-rich deposits of southern British Columbia and northern interior Washington. To date, in collaboration with others, he has discovered and named more than 80 new species from the area.

CAPTION

Wings of the new species Okanagrion threadgillae, from the Republic fossil site in northern Washington, a damselfly-like insect of the new suborder Cephalozygoptera.

CREDIT

Copyright Zootaxa, used by permission.

Scientists describe earliest primate fossils

UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON

Research News 

IMAGE: SHORTLY AFTER THE EXTINCTION OF THE DINOSAURS, THE EARLIEST KNOWN ARCHAIC PRIMATES, SUCH AS THE NEWLY DESCRIBED SPECIES PURGATORIUS MCKEEVERI SHOWN IN THE FOREGROUND, QUICKLY SET THEMSELVES APART FROM THEIR... view more 

CREDIT: ANDREY ATUCHIN

A new study published Feb. 24 in the journal Royal Society Open Science documents the earliest-known fossil evidence of primates.

A team of 10 researchers from across the U.S. analyzed several fossils of Purgatorius, the oldest genus in a group of the earliest-known primates called plesiadapiforms. These ancient mammals were small-bodied and ate specialized diets of insects and fruits that varied by species. These newly described specimens are central to understanding primate ancestry and paint a picture of how life on land recovered after the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago that wiped out all dinosaurs -- except for birds -- and led to the rise of mammals.

Gregory Wilson Mantilla, a University of Washington professor of biology and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the UW's Burke Museum of Natural History & Culture, co-led the study with Stephen Chester of Brooklyn College and the City University of New York. The team analyzed fossilized teeth found in the Hell Creek area of northeastern Montana. The fossils, which are now part of the collections at the University of California Museum of Paleontology, are estimated to be 65.9 million years old, about 105,000 to 139,000 years after the mass extinction event. Based on the age of the fossils, the team estimates that the ancestor of all primates --including plesiadapiforms and today's primates such as lemurs, monkeys and apes -- likely emerged by the Late Cretaceous and lived alongside large dinosaurs.

"It's mind blowing to think of our earliest archaic primate ancestors," said Wilson Mantilla. "They were some of the first mammals to diversify in this new post-mass extinction world, taking advantage of the fruits and insects up in the forest canopy."

The fossils include two species of Purgatorius: Purgatorius janisae and a new species described by the team named Purgatorius mckeeveri. Three of the teeth found have distinct features compared to any previously known Purgatorius species and led to the description of the new species.

Purgatorius mckeeveri is named after Frank McKeever, who was among the first residents of the area where the fossils were discovered, and also the family of John and Cathy McKeever, who have since supported the field work where the oldest specimen of this new species was discovered.

"This was a really cool study to be a part of, particularly because it provides further evidence that the earliest primates originated before the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs," said co-author Brody Hovatter, a UW graduate student in Earth and space sciences. "They became highly abundant within a million years after that extinction."

"This discovery is exciting because it represents the oldest dated occurrence of archaic primates in the fossil record," said Chester. "It adds to our understanding of how the earliest primates separated themselves from their competitors following the demise of the dinosaurs."

CAPTION

High resolution CT scans of an assortment of fossilized teeth and jaw bones of Purgatorius.

CREDIT

Gregory Wilson Mantilla/Stephen Chester

Co-author on the study was the late William Clemens who was a professor emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley and former director of the UC Museum of Paleontology. Additional co-authors are Jason Moore and Wade Mans of the University of New Mexico; Courtney Sprain of the University of Florida; William Mitchell of Minnesota IT Services; Roland Mundil of the Berkeley Geochronology Center; and Paul Renne of UC Berkeley and the Berkeley Geochronology Center. The research was funded by the National Science Foundation, the UC Museum of Paleontology, the Myhrvold and Havranek Charitable Family Fund, the UW, the CUNY and the Leakey Foundation.

For high resolution images and interviews, contact burkepr@uw.edu.

Link to full release with images:

https://www.washington.edu/news/2021/02/24/earliest-primate-fossils/

Data transfer system connects silicon chips with a hair's-width cable

The advance could improve energy efficiency of data centers and lighten the load for electronics-rich vehicles

MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

Research News

 

Researchers have developed a data transfer system that can transmit information 10 times faster than a USB. The new link pairs high-frequency silicon chips with a polymer cable as thin a strand of hair. The system may one day boost energy efficiency in data centers and lighten the loads of electronics-rich spacecraft.

The research was presented at this month's IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. The lead author is Jack Holloway '03, MNG '04, who completed his PhD in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS) last fall and currently works for Raytheon. Co-authors include Ruonan Han, associate professor and Holloway's PhD adviser in EECS, and Georgios Dogiamis, a senior researcher at Intel.

The need for snappy data exchange is clear, especially in an era of remote work. "There's an explosion in the amount of information being shared between computer chips -- cloud computing, the internet, big data. And a lot of this happens over conventional copper wire," says Holloway. But copper wires, like those found in USB or HDMI cables, are power-hungry -- especially when dealing with heavy data loads. "There's a fundamental tradeoff between the amount of energy burned and the rate of information exchanged." Despite a growing demand for fast data transmission (beyond 100 gigabits per second) through conduits longer than a meter, Holloway says the typical solution has been "increasingly bulky and costly" copper cables.

One alternative to copper wire is fiber-optic cable, though that has its own problems. Whereas copper wires use electrical signaling, fiber-optics use photons. That allows fiber-optics to transmit data quickly and with little energy dissipation. But silicon computer chips generally don't play well with photons, making interconnections between fiber-optic cables and computers a challenge. "There's currently no way to efficiently generate, amplify, or detect photons in silicon," says Holloway. "There are all kinds of expensive and complex integration schemes, but from an economics perspective, it's not a great solution." So, the researchers developed their own.

The team's new link draws on benefits of both copper and fiber optic conduits, while ditching their drawbacks. "It's a great example of a complementary solution," says Dogiamis. Their conduit is made of plastic polymer, so it's lighter and potentially cheaper to manufacture than traditional copper cables. But when the polymer link is operated with sub-terahertz electromagnetic signals, it's far more energy-efficient than copper in transmitting a high data load. The new link's efficiency rivals that of fiber-optic, but has a key advantage: "It's compatible directly with silicon chips, without any special manufacturing," says Holloway.

The team engineered such low-cost chips to pair with the polymer conduit. Typically, silicon chips struggle to operate at sub-terahertz frequencies. Yet the team's new chips generate those high-frequency signals with enough power to transmit data directly into the conduit. That clean connection from the silicon chips to the conduit means the overall system can be manufactured with standard, cost-effective methods, the researchers say.

The new link also beats out copper and fiber optic in terms of size. "The cross-sectional area of our cable is 0.4 millimeters by a quarter millimeter," says Han. "So, it's super tiny, like a strand of hair." Despite its slim size, it can carry a hefty load of data, since it sends signals over three different parallel channels, separated by frequency. The link's total bandwidth is 105 gigabits per second, nearly an order of magnitude faster than a copper-based USB cable. Dogiamis says the cable could "address the bandwidth challenges as we see this megatrend toward more and more data."

In future work, Han hopes to make the polymer conduits even faster by bundling them together. "Then the data rate will be off the charts," he says. "It could be one terabit per second, still at low cost."

The researchers suggest "data-dense" applications, like server farms, could be early adopters of the new links, since they could dramatically cut data centers' high energy demands. The link could also be a key solution for the aerospace and automotive industries, which place a premium on small, light devices. And one day, the link could replace the consumer electronic cables in homes and offices, thanks to the link's simplicity and speed. "It's far less costly than [copper or fiber optic] approaches, with significantly wider bandwidth and lower loss than conventional copper solutions," says Holloway. "So, high fives all round."

###

This research was funded, in part, by Intel, Raytheon, the Naval Research Laboratory, and the Office of Naval Research.

Written by Daniel Ackerman, MIT News Office

New research at UH Rainbow studies the impact of face masks on heart rate

The study compared participants at rest and during physical activity

UNIVERSITY HOSPITALS CLEVELAND MEDICAL CENTER

Research News

 

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Researchers at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital (UH Rainbow) published new findings today that wearing a face mask - either a cloth mask or a surgical mask - did not impair the ability of subjects to get air in and out of their bodies.

The study measured heart rate, transcutaneous carbon dioxide tension, and oxygen levels in 50 adult volunteers at the conclusion of six 10-minute phases: Sitting quietly and then walking briskly without a mask; sitting quietly and then walking briskly while wearing a cloth mask; and sitting quietly and then walking briskly while wearing a surgical mask. The median age of participation was 33 years and 32 percent of participants indicated they have a chronic health condition such as asthma.

In the study, not a single participant developed a low level of oxygen or high level of carbon dioxide in the blood while wearing a cloth or surgical mask either at rest or during exercise. According to the study's principal investigator, Steven L. Shein, MD, Division Chief of Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, the risk to the general adult population of having significantly abnormal levels of oxygen or carbon dioxide when wearing a cloth or surgical mask is near-zero.

"We know face masks help to prevent the spread of COVID-19, but we also know people have concerns of discomfort or impaired breathing while wearing them," says Dr. Shein, who is also the Linsalata Chair in Pediatric Critical Care and Emergency Medicine, and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "Our hope is these findings will reassure people that their body is able to adequately get oxygen in and carbon dioxide out while wearing a face covering."

###

The new study titled "The effects of wearing facemasks on oxygenation and ventilation at rest and during physical activity" published in PLOS ONE journal is under embargo until 2 p.m. ET on Feb. 24: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0247414

This study was financially supported by the UH Rainbow Department of Pediatrics.

About University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital

Internationally renowned, UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital is a full-service children's hospital and pediatric academic medical center with experts in 16 medical divisions and 11 surgical specialties who offer nationally ranked care not available at other institutions in the region, including a center dedicated to adolescent and young adult cancer treatment and Northeast Ohio's only single-site provider of advanced maternal fetal medicine and neonatology services. As an affiliate of Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and the only Level I Pediatric Trauma Center in the region, UH Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital offers access to novel therapies, advanced technologies and clinical discoveries long before they are available nationwide. Rainbow pediatric specialists - all of whom also serve on the faculty at the School of Medicine - are engaged in today's most advanced clinical research and are widely regarded as the best in the nation - and in some specialties, the best in the world. Learn more at UHRainbow.org.

Scientists suggested using 'defective' diamonds in x-ray optics

Scientists confirmed the applicability of nitrogen-bearing diamond crystals for the manufacture of X-ray optical devices

IMMANUEL KANT BALTIC FEDERAL UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

X-rays are used to study the atomic and microstructure properties of matter. Such studies are conducted with special accelerator complexes called synchrotrons. A synchrotron source generates powerful electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength equal to fractions of a nanometer. Some X-rays are reflected from the atomic planes of a crystal and some go through the crystal plane that plays the role of a beam-splitter (or the so-called semitransparent mirror). If the radiation passes through monochromators-optical devices that consist of two or more ideal crystals - its optimal exit wavelength can be regulated. The parameters of electromagnetic radiation depend on the material that the optical element is made of. By improving the properties of optical devices one can increase the quality and efficiency of X-ray research methods and use modern scientific unique megascience facility to their full potential.

Most modern-day X-ray optical elements are based on silicon and germanium crystals. However, they get heated under the X-ray radiation from a synchrotron source, and high temperatures cause their crystal lattice to change leading to the distortion of the reflected beam. Optical elements made of artificial diamonds provide better beam quality, as their coefficient of thermal expansion and thermal conductivity are higher than in silicon elements. However, lab-grown diamonds contain not only carbon but also nitrogen. This inconsistency creates tension in the crystal and leads to uneven distances between the atoms. The cut of a crystal mainly depends on its internal structure, and the distribution of growth sectors (the areas that are formed when layers of substance grow on top of each other) correlates with the placement of nitrogen atoms. On the borders of these growth sectors, stress fields are formed. When a crystal is grown artificially, it is extremely difficult to control nitrogen level and distribution. Therefore, historically, the quality of plates made of nitrogen-bearing diamonds had been considered low for them to be used in optical elements. A team from BFU, together with their foreign colleagues, managed to disproof this belief and to obtain plates with sufficient defectless areas.

The team used BARS, a unique device for the manufacture of ultrahard materials, to grow two synthetic diamond crystals at 1,500°? and under the pressure of over 50 thousand atmospheres. The obtained crystals had almost perfect atomic grids. Then, small bits were chipped off from the crystals, and thin plates were made from them. First, their quality was assessed using X-ray examination, and after that, the plates were studied using the high-resolution diffractometry method on a synchrotron source. After scanning the plates, the team obtained high-resolution rocking curves--the charts that helped them evaluate the structural perfection of the crystals.

"The deflection angle of a crystal towards radiation changes depending on the energy of the incoming beam and the plane that it reflects from. This angle is called the Bragg angle. We incline a crystal at this angle, reflected radiation hits a detector, and then we start rocking it. The rocking curve that we get shows the correlation between the intensity of the reflected radiation and the deflection angle of the crystal. Then we compare the rocking curve with a pre-calculated theoretical curve of a perfect crystal," said Anatoly Snigirev, the head of the International Science and Research Center "Coherent X-ray Optics for Megascience facilities", BFU.

Having analyzed the charts, the team concluded, that although the crystal plates had many imperfections along the edges, there were large clear areas in their centers that accounted for over 50% of the total plate. Given that the defects usually become visible during the cutting and polishing of diamonds, the potential use of nitrogen-bearing diamonds in X-ray optics depends on improving these processes. Diamond crystals are needed for manufacturing of different optical elements, such as monochromators, beam-splitters, interferometers, and refractive lenses.

The study was carried out jointly with colleagues from the V.S. Sobolev Institute of Geology and Mineralogy SB RAS (Russia, Novosibirsk) and the German Electron Synchrotron DESY (Germany, Hamburg).

We are grateful to Nataliya Klimova, a scientific consultant and a junior researcher at the International Science and Research Center "Coherent X-ray Optics for Megascience facilities", BFU, for her assistance in preparing this article.

###

Diabetes patients use of mobile health app found to improve health outcomes, lower medical costs

CARNEGIE MELLON UNIVERSITY

Research News

 

Emerging smart mobile health (or mHealth) technologies are changing the way patients track information related to diagnosed conditions. A new study examined the health and economic impacts of mHealth technologies on the outcomes of diabetes patients in Asia. The study concluded that compared to patients who did not use mHealth applications, patients who used the apps had better health outcomes and were able to regulate their health behavior more effectively. They also had fewer hospital visits and lower medical costs.

The study was conducted by researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) and New York University (NYU). It has been accepted into publication and is forthcoming in MIS Quarterly, a publication of the Management Information Systems Research Center.

"Given the importance of health behaviors to well-being, health outcomes, and disease processes, mHealth technologies offer significant potential to facilitate patients' lifestyle and behavior modification through patient education, improved autonomous self-regulation, and perceived competence," explains Beibei Li, professor of information systems and management at CMU's Heinz College, who coauthored the study.

The relatively new area of mHealth includes mobile computing, medical sensor, and communications technologies used for health care services (e.g., managing chronic diseases). mHealth applications can operate on smart phones, tablets, sensors, and cloud-based computing systems, all of which collect health data on individuals. The global mHealth market was estimated to have reached $49 billion by the end of 2020. Yet few studies have assessed the technology's effectiveness in changing patients' behaviors and outcomes.

In this study, researchers sought to determine how mHealth applications persuade individuals to modify their behavior to comply with recommended approaches to obtain certain health goals. The researchers measured compliance by looking at detailed patient activities (e.g., daily walking steps, exercise time, sleeping pattern, food intake) as measured by the app, as well as general health outcomes, hospital visits, and medical expenses.

The researchers partnered with a top mHealth firm that provides one of the largest mobile health platforms in Asia specializing in diabetes care. The study randomly assigned 1,070 adult patients to different groups for three months: Some patients used the mHealth app, some did not, and some used a web-based version of the app. Among the patients in the group that used the mHealth app, some received personalized text message reminders, while others received non-personalized text messages. Researchers interviewed all participants before the study began and five months after it ended. Among the questions asked were those about demographics, medication and medical history, blood glucose and hemoglobin levels, frequency of hospital visits, and medical costs.

The study found that patients who used the mHealth app reduced their blood glucose and hemoglobin levels, even after controlling for individual-level fixed effects. Patients who used the app also exercised more, slept more, and ate healthier food. And they had fewer hospital visits and lower medical expenses.

The authors suggest that patients' adoption of and use of the mHealth app was associated with significant behavioral modifications toward a healthier diet and lifestyle. In this way, users became more autonomously self-regulated with their health behavior, and this increasing intrinsic motivation helped them become more engaged, persistent, and stable in their behavior, which led to improved health outcomes. The mHealth platform also facilitated an increased usage of telemedicine, which in turn led to reduced hospital visits and medical expenses for the patients.

The study also found that the mHealth platform was more effective in improving patients' health outcomes than a web-based (PC) version of the same app. And non-personalized text messages tended to be more effective in changing patients' behavior than personalized messages, possibly because personalized messages can be viewed as intrusive, coercive, and annoying.

Among the study's limitations, the authors note that this study focused mainly on participants with Type II diabetes which, different from Type I diabetes or Gestational diabetes, is directly tied to dietary or lifestyle self-management. Hence, the research is not necessarily applicable to patients with other types of diabetes.

"Our findings provide important insights on the design of mHealth apps through a better understanding of patients' health behavior and interactions with the platform," suggests Anindya Ghose, professor of business at NYU's Stern School of Business, who coauthored the study. "Such knowledge can be very valuable for health care mobile platform designers as well as policymakers to improve the design of smart and connected health infrastructures through sustained usage of the emerging technologies."

###

Micropopulism' may be turning education into a battlefield in the culture wars

A new analysis suggests that the education sector is being increasingly influenced by populism and the wider social media 'culture wars'.

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE

Research News

 

A new analysis of education debates on both social media and in traditional media outlets suggests that the education sector is being increasingly influenced by populism and the wider social media 'culture wars'.

The study also suggests that the type of populism in question is not quite the same as that used to explain large-scale political events, such as the UK's 'Brexit' from the European Union, or Donald Trump's recent presidency in the United States.

Instead, the researchers - from the University of Cambridge, UK, and Queensland University of Technology, Australia - identify a phenomenon called 'micropopulism': a localised populism which spotlights an aspect of public services, such as the education sector. Micropopulism is populist, they argue, in the sense that it expresses a fervent division between a disregarded 'people' and an unjust elite.

The paper, by Dr Steve Watson and Dr Naomi Barnes, sketches out how think tanks, among other organisations, propagate such controversies using both new media and old. They highlight how 'wedge' issues are being used to prompt bitter disputes on social media between those with traditional views of education, and those who are more progressive.

'Traditional' teachers, in this context, argue that their authority in the classroom has been undermined by a largely university-based and ideologically-progressive 'elite' which, they claim, has used its institutional power to force them to use student-centred teaching methods which are not supported by scientific evidence. The polarised debate that ensues disguises the complexity of real classrooms, which in practice can be neither purely traditional, nor purely progressive.

The authors argue that 'the claim that educational micropopulism is abroad in England and Australia is almost self-evident' and offer a theoretical analysis of how and why it is happening. As potential examples, they cite increasingly vitriolic and adversarial online standoffs over issues such as teaching methods, discipline, or free speech on university campuses. Many of these appear to be linked to, or directly involve, think thanks or other groups with an interest in shaping policy. The paper calls for more evidence-gathering to understand the conditions which precipitate increasingly bitter debates within the education community, and warns that some vested interests may be using micropopulist tactics to influence policy.

Dr Steve Watson, a lecturer at the Faculty of Education, University of Cambridge, said: "We've reached the stage where there is enough evidence to indicate this issue requires more analysis and attention than it has received to date. There is clearly a relationship between education, policy-making, think tanks, media, and micropopulism - but its extent and consequences have yet to be fully determined."

Dr Naomi Barnes, from the Faculty of Education, Queensland University of Technology, said: "One concern is that at present, teachers and educators who are actively involved in these online discussions may not be aware of how controversy is being perpetuated and how bitter discussions go viral to help achieve policy-making objectives. There is a need to understand this more."

The authors argue that controversies in the media and on social channels enable would-be reformers to position progressives in education (often abbreviated to 'progs') as an out-of-touch elite. Most obviously, this idea seems to match Michael Gove's infamous demonisation of progressive 'bureaucrats, academics and teachers' unions' as 'The Blob'. One reformist government advisor has similarly praised social media 'trads' for instigating 'a reformation of the church of education'.

They also suggest that this reductive version of the debate now defines many of the most toxic arguments about education online. Watson, in particular, identifies Twitter - especially the popular #EduTwitter - as the site of unpleasant confrontations about matters such as the #BanTheBooth debate on discipline in schools, or the use of phonics in primary education.

In higher education, the researchers document a similar pattern in which university leaders are demonised as lazy, careless, distant and heavy-handed. In Australia, this seems to parallel a recent upswing in efforts by the right-wing Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) and Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) to actively publicise their policy arguments as research 'findings'.

The paper highlights 10 recent examples of this activity, which prompted national media headlines such as: 'Our universities have caved in to lazy groupthink'; and 'Don't bail out bloated unis'. Similarly provocative articles are increasingly appearing in the UK media, concerning issues such as free speech on campus, or claims about infiltration by foreign governments.

Watson's own experiences suggest that some of the online confrontations, if not deliberately instigated, certainly involve strange forms of behaviour. Last year, he published a paper highlighting possible evidence of micropopulist strategies on #EduTwitter. Within hours, this had provoked multiple angry responses on Twitter accusing him of fabricating a conspiracy theory - although many teachers and academics also posted messages of agreement.

As a result, the paper scored unusually well on Altmetric.com: a tool that tracks engagement with scholarly content online. Once this became apparent, the Twitter attacks not only ceased, but disappeared, with several critics deleting their posts as if attempting to stifle its popularity. "Extraordinarily, the paper may have gone some way to proving its own theory through the backlash it created," Watson said.

The authors believe that, at the very least, further research is needed to understand how today's education debates have become so schismatic. They warn that reasoned discussion about the future of education is being compromised. "We would recommend considering a digital citizenship initiative for education professionals to counter this," Barnes added.

###

The paper, Online educational populism and New Right 2.0 in Australia and England, is published in the academic journal, Globalisation, Societies and Education. DOI: 10.1080/14767724.2021.1882292

Flu vaccination this season likely to be highest ever

UGA research also uncovers disparities in ethnic acceptance of vaccine

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA

Research News

 

More U.S. adults reported receiving or planning to receive an influenza vaccination during the 2020-2021 flu season than ever before, according to findings from a national survey.

The survey of 1,027 adults, conducted by the University of Georgia, found that 43.5% of respondents reported having already received a flu vaccination with an additional 13.5% stating they "definitely will get one" and 9.3% stating they "probably will get one." Combined, 66.3% have received or intend to receive an influenza vaccination.

By comparison, 48.4% of adults 18 and older received the vaccine during the 2019-2020 flu season, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an increase of 3.1 percentage points from 2018-2019.

The survey was led by professor Glen Nowak, director of UGA's Center for Health and Risk Communication in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication, and associate professor Michael Cacciatore, CHRC research director. The respondents came from the National Opinion Research Center's AmeriSpeak panel, which uses a prescreened, nationally representative pool of participants to obtain rapid and projectable survey findings.

"Our survey shows that most Americans have or planned to act on the advice to get a flu vaccination this season," said Nowak. "Further, these results strongly suggest the U.S. will be crossing an important threshold this flu season, which is over half of U.S. adults getting a flu vaccination."

The survey results indicate much of the increase in flu vaccine uptake is being driven by people 60 years old and older. A total of 61.5% said they had already received the influenza vaccine in December, with another 12% stating they "would definitely get it" and 5.8% stating they "would probably get it."

Demographic differences

The survey results also indicated many demographic differences when it came to having received a flu vaccination. Forty-eight percent of white respondents reported having a flu vaccination by December, compared to 35.1% of Hispanic respondents and 30.1% of Black respondents. Having already received a flu vaccination was also much higher for respondents with a college or higher education and those with annual household incomes of $75,000 a year or more.

Conversely, flu vaccination uptake and plans to get a flu vaccination were lowest for those 18-29 years old, those with some college or a high school education, and those with annual incomes less than $25,000. The survey found that 50.7% of those making more than $75,000 had already been vaccinated for the flu, while only 35% of those making less than $25,000 had been vaccinated.

"It was disappointing to see that significant differences by race, age, education and income persisted during a flu vaccination season that took place during a COVID pandemic," Cacciatore said. "It's important that we continue to learn more about why these disparities exist so we can take steps that will reduce them."

"Overall, it is good news to find that many people, particularly those at highest risk for serious flu or COVID-19 illness, followed the advice to get the flu vaccine. Hopefully, we can sustain that level of success in the years ahead," Nowak said. "It also remains worrisome to find much lower flu vaccination rates and intentions in so many groups. We continue to have much work to do among Hispanic and Black adults and those with lower income and years of formal education when it comes to flu vaccination."