Tuesday, April 16, 2024

US to grant Samsung up to $6.4 bn for chip plants

ALL CAPITALI$M IS STATE CAPITALI$M

South Korean semiconductor giant Samsung will build a new chip facility in Texas and expand its existing one, according the agreement.

The United States announced on Monday grants of up to $6.4 billion to South Korean semiconductor giant Samsung to produce cutting-edge chips in Texas.

The award is the latest from the US government as it looks to cement its lead in the chip industry—especially for chips needed for the development of AI—both on national security grounds and also in the face of competition with China.

President Joe Biden's administration has previously approved billions in grants to US titan Intel and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) as it tries to avoid the prospect of shortages of semiconductors—the lifeblood of the modern global economy.

"The U.S. Department of Commerce and Samsung Electronics (Samsung) have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms (PMT) to provide up to $6.4 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act," said a statement published by the Department of Commerce.

Samsung "is expected to invest more than $40 billion in the region in the coming years, and the proposed investment would support the creation of over 20,000 jobs," it said.

Chips are crucial in powering everything from smartphones to fighter jets.

They are also increasingly in demand by automakers, especially for electric vehicles, adding to the pressure to raise production.

The global chip industry is currently dominated by just a few firms, including TSMC and US-based NVIDIA.

That means the United States is highly dependent on Asia for chips and is vulnerable to shocks to semiconductor supply chains, especially during geopolitical crises that affect places such as Taiwan.

This has fueled a US push to strengthen production.

The Chips and Science Act, passed in 2022, calls for tens of billions of dollars in funding to overhaul the US semiconductor industry, with the idea that making public money available for this purpose will lure private investment.

The Samsung agreement will "cement central Texas's role as a state-of-the-art semiconductor ecosystem," Biden said in a statement.

"These facilities will support the production of some of the most powerful chips in the world, which are essential to advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and will bolster U.S. national security."

Under the latest agreement, Samsung will not only build a new facility to produce advanced chips but also expand its existing facility in Texas, according to the Department of Commerce.

"We're not just expanding production facilities; we're strengthening the local semiconductor ecosystem and positioning the U.S. as a global semiconductor manufacturing destination," Samsung's Kye Hyun Kyung said in the Commerce Department statement.

US officials revealed this month that a preliminary agreement with TSMC would see the company receive up to $6.6 billion in direct funding and up to another $5 billion in loans under the CHIPS Act.

In March, Biden unveiled almost $20 billion in grants and loans for Intel's domestic chip-making plants, his administration's biggest investment yet in the sector.

The United States has also awarded funding to GlobalFoundries, BAE Systems Electronic Systems and Microchip Technology under the 2022 law.

In February, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo expressed confidence that the United States could house the entire silicon supply chain for making advanced chips.

"The brutal fact is, the United States cannot lead the world as a technology and innovation leader on such a shaky foundation," she said during a speech in Washington.

"We need to make these chips in America."

Biden lands another big Taiwan chip investment

More adults are being diagnosed as neurodivergent—here's how employers

AND UNIONS can help in the workplace

by Dougal Sutherland, The Conversation

There has been a rise in the number of people diagnosed with "neurodivergence" in adulthood over the past decade. This trend has been noted both internationally and in New Zealand. But exact rates of diagnoses in this country are difficult to quantify.

As many as 8% of adults globally could have some form of neurodivergence.

Neurodivergence is an umbrella term that typically includes autistic spectrum disorder (ASD), attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and specific learning disorders (SLD)—sometimes referred to as dyslexia.

The rise in these diagnoses when people are already in the workforce presents a challenge for employers. Business owners can be left wondering how they can support neurodivergent employees without causing issues for the wider business.

'Childhood' diagnoses now part of adulthood

Historically, diagnoses were predominantly made in children , with the view that people "grew out" of them as they developed into adults

But research over the past decade indicates the majority of people with these conditions continue to experience symptoms throughout their adult life, albeit in different ways to childhood.

Understanding neurodivergence is underpinned by the view that ASD, ADHD, and SLD reflect differences in how a person's brain is "wired" rather than being an underlying "disorder".

This changing view appears to have increased awareness of neurodivergence. It has also reduced the stigma associated with it, leading more people to seek support as adults.

A limited understanding of gender differences in the way neurodivergence is expressed, as well as limited access to psychological and psychiatric assessments in the public sector, have likely contributed to significant numbers of people missing out on childhood diagnoses. Many are now seeking assistance in adulthood.

Neurodivergence in the workplace

This rising tide of adults seeking to better understand their differences—and potentially seek treatment—has presented challenges for businesses and employers.

But employers need not fear hiring those who are neurodivergent. Viewing neurodivergence as a difference rather than a disability contributes to an inclusive workplace where people's strengths are recognized and celebrated.

Some people with ADHD, for example, work very effectively in a fast-paced environment with tight deadlines and rapidly changing content, such as journalism. People with ASD often have very specialized areas of interest that, if matched to the right work environment, can lead them to be experts in their fields.

But it would be naive to say neurodivergence doesn't bring with it some challenges for individuals and their workplaces. A person with ADHD may appear quite disorganized to others (and to themselves), and at times "put their foot in their mouth" through impulsively saying something they haven't fully thought through.

Those with ASD often report challenges in navigating social relationships at work, or may have particular sensory sensitivities (finding the general hubbub of open-plan offices anxiety-provoking, for example). They may struggle to process large amounts of written or verbal information, resulting in confusion and anxiety.

Businesses need awareness

Businesses and organizations looking to support neurodivergence in the workplace should initially focus on increasing awareness and understanding among leaders and managers.

Managers need to work with individual staff who have self-identified as neurodivergent to understand and implement what is needed to support them.

There may be some very practical steps that can be taken, such as having designated low-stimulus areas, providing noise-cancelling headphones, or understanding how best to communicate clearly and simply with an individual. Some staff may wish to take up psychological support via their workplace to help them develop skills in areas they find difficult.

Technically, neurodivergence is likely to fall under the Employment Relations Act, which prohibits businesses from discriminating against people with these conditions. Indeed, the legislation requires an employer to make reasonable allowances in the workplace.

Perhaps the worst thing an employer can do is overlook neurodivergence as being present in the workplace. Ignorance, whether wilful or not, will lead to inaction.

That said, it would also be a mistake for an employer to unilaterally refer a staff member for an assessment of suspected neurodivergence. To suggest someone is neurodivergent and requires a psychological assessment may lead to personal distress and potentially breach employment law.

Employers should also be aware of the lengthy and complicated pathway to an adult diagnosis, due to factors such as lack of clear adult diagnostic criteria and shortage of trained clinicians. Employers can support staff in this process by allowing flexibility in work hours to attend specialist appointments, or even funding access to assessments in the private sector.

The rise of awareness about neurodivergence mirrors the rise in awareness of mental health conditions in the workplace generally.

Although this increased visibility can be confusing for some staff and organizations, recognition and understanding of neurodivergence can only be good for businesses in the long term.

Helping people operate to their full potential by understanding their strengths and challenges will ultimately lead to thriving and productive workplaces.

Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Three-quarters of autistic children also have other types of neurodivergence, finds study

Researcher finds first arrival of Shakespeare's plays in Portugal

by University of Barcelona

John Stone, a professor at the University of Barcelona, has found the request for two copies of Shakespeare's Othello to be sent to Lisbon in 1765, in the correspondence of the English scholar John Preston, a professor at the English College in Lisbon, addressed to the college's London agent, John Sheppard. Stone found this reference in the Ushaw College, in Durham (United Kingdom), where all the documents from the English College in Lisbon are now kept, after it closed its doors in 1973, after more than three hundred years of activity.

Although partial translations—sometimes from French editions—of Shakespeare's plays had been known to exist in Portugal since the late eighteenth century, this is the first time that the arrival of Shakespeare's plays in their original language in Lisbon and, by extension, in the Lusophone world can be documented.

This finding confirms that Shakespeare's plays circulated among binational and bilingual or multilingual family and commercial networks, as well as among readers for whom English was neither their language nor the language of origin.

The copies were sent by sea, along with many other volumes in a larger order. Preston and the College regularly requested and received books and goods from England. These shipments provide the immediate context in which Othello's presence in Portugal in the sixties of the 18th century is understood. Moreover, this fact points to a wider phenomenon, both of British and Irish expatriates and of a local community that read widely in English throughout the eighteenth century.

John Preston (1712-1780) was a priest and professor of theology, tutor to the crown prince of the Portuguese throne, and was in charge of the developing policy to fit the English College into Portuguese civil life. This college was a modest establishment for about twenty-five students, and it was part of an informal but extensive network of diasporic institutions serving English, Scottish and Irish Catholics.

Stone wonders why Preston ordered precisely two copies of Othello, rather than works such as King Lear, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet or Antony and Cleopatra. He notes that perhaps this "should be associated with a long Portuguese theatrical tradition featuring African characters—linguistically marked comics—or, more generally, with the fact that the play is itself an expatriate drama in a maritime culture."

The findings are published in the journal Notes and Queries.

More information: John Stone, Othello Goes to Lisbon, 1765, Notes and Queries (2024). DOI: 10.1093/notesj/gjae022

Provided by University of Barcelona New 'verbal treasure trove' dictionary captures nuances and uses of Shakespeare's words

Research revives 1800s photos

by Greg Basky, University of Western Ontario

Researchers from Western University developed techniques for creating images from old, badly tarnished photographs. These techniques could also be used to study other historic artifacts and fossils and prevent corrosion in modern materials.

Chemistry professor Tson-Kong (T.K.) Sham and his colleagues recently confirmed a new synchrotron imaging technique they developed is just as effective for retrieving corroded daguerreotypes—the earliest form of photographs—as a strategy they first reported in 2018 and can also be used no matter how badly damaged the image surface is from natural corrosion or cleaning attempts.

The new research, which used beamlines at the Canadian Light Source (CLS) at the University of Saskatchewan, is published in the Journal of Cultural Heritage.

"This technique can be used widely in all walks of science, from looking at tissues to materials science," Sham said.

"You could determine whether or how a metal may be corrosion-resistant. Or in the case of an already corroded material, you can learn what the product of that corrosion is and its distribution on the surface, and then you can work back and think about how to prevent that corrosion from happening."

Sham said many applications are possible because synchrotron X-ray is very tunable, which means it can pick out any element and find out what its chemical surroundings are and where it is placed in the sample, even imaging it layer by layer.

When it comes to the conservation of antiques, Sham's research could be a game changer, especially for studying artifacts or fossils that have severe surface deterioration.

Credit: University of Western Ontario

As part of his new research, he uncovered images of a man and woman fashionably dressed in mid-1850s garments and one of a baby wrapped in covers. All of these daguerreotypes, belonging to private collectors and the National Gallery of Canada, were badly damaged—slow deterioration mixed with cleaning attempts may have caused the tarnish.

Sham proved this synchrotron technique is always effective as long as the image particles underneath the tarnish remain intact, a discovery advancing his 2018 study in Scientific Reports. This research was done using the VESPERS and the SXRMB beamlines at the CLS and at the Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago.

"Revealing images that seemed lost forever is what's most exciting," Sham said. "We get a glimpse of people living in the 19th century that we wouldn't have otherwise and learn about their history and culture."

Each daguerreotype is unique—there are no negatives. Invented in 1839 and only popular for about 25 years, daguerreotypes are silver-coated copper plates treated with specific chemicals such as bromine gas to make them light-sensitive. Once placed in a camera, the cap would be removed to "impress" the image on the plates—a time-consuming process. Then, the plates would be treated with mercury vapor to fix the images permanently.

Sham's new research also showed the same X-rays that can help researchers "see" through the corrosion on the surface of daguerreotypes can also—indirectly—lead to damaging the plates.

"X-ray usually doesn't damage metals visibly, so I didn't think it would affect the plates, but perhaps chemical impurities or the corrosion itself on the daguerreotype got heated and left a small mark where the X-ray beam light went through," he said.

Sham recently returned to CLS for a follow-up study to learn how to preserve the plates. This ongoing research will investigate the chemical composition of the tarnish, and how glass covers and frames that store daguerreotypes could affect deterioration.

More information: Tsun-Kong Sham et al, Retrieving images from tarnished daguerreotypes using X-ray fluorescence imaging with an X-ray micro beam with tunable energy, Journal of Cultural Heritage (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.culher.2024.02.003

Journal information: Scientific Reports

Provided by University of Western Ontario

Research team uncovers lost images from the 19th century

Study sheds light on 11th-century Arab-Muslim optical scientist whose work laid foundation for modern-day physics

by University of Sharjah

Study sheds light on 11th century Arab-Muslim optical scientist whose work laid ground for modern-day physics — Ibn al-Haytham ("Alhasen") on the left pedestal of reason [while Galileo is on the right pedestal of the senses] as shown on the frontispiece of the Selenographia (Science of the Moon; 1647) of Johannes Hevelius. Credit: Public domain provided by the author

Scientists from the University of Sharjah and the Warburg Institute are poring over the writings of an 11th-century Arab-Muslim polymath to demonstrate their impact on the development of optical sciences and how they have fundamentally transformed the history of physics from the Middle Ages up to modern times in Europe.

Their research focuses on the legacy of al-Ḥasan Ibn al-Haytham known in Latin as "Alhazen" and particularly his most influential work titled "Book of Optics," reputed in Arabic as "Kitab al-Manazir" and first circulated in Europe via its Latin translation dubbed "Perspectiva." Ibn al-Haytham was born in the southern Iraqi city of Basra in 965 during the Abbasid Caliphate.

The divisions IV–V of this authoritative book have been recently translated into English from Arabic and published by the Warburg Institute under the title "The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, Books IV–V: On Reflection and Images Seen by Reflection." Having already rendered divisions I–III into English, the Warburg Institute is bringing together a wide-ranging network of scientists "for a collaborative humanities-science investigation of [Ibn] al-Haytham and the questions his work provokes.

"The role of Alhazen [Ibn al-Haytham] in these processes is simultaneously well-known, but limited; only half of his scientific works have English translation and a quarter are not yet edited."

Introducing the new translation, the Warburg Institute describes Ibn al-Haytham as "perhaps the greatest mathematician and physicist of the medieval Arabic/Islamic world. His reputation is based not only on the vast amount of material he was able to process, but also on his rigorous scientific methodology.

"He (Ibn al-Haytham) deals with both the mathematics of rays of light and the physical aspects of the eye in seven comprehensive books. His reinstatement of the entire science of optics sets the scene for the whole of the subsequent development of the subject … influencing figures such as William of Ockham, Kepler, Descartes, and Christaan Huygens."

Professor Nader El-Bizri of Sharjah University's College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences has just published an academic review of the Warburg Institute's translation of Ibh al-Haytham. The article, printed in the International Journal of the Classical Tradition, highlights the strong influence the Arab-Muslim optical scientist has exerted over the ages up to the present day.

Ibn al-Haytham's "Book of Optics," Prof. El-Bizri writes, "constituted a monumental foundational opus in the history of science and the visual arts from the Middle Ages to the early modern period in the European milieu and the Islamicate context ... The reception of Ibn al-Haytham's "Optics" in the European milieu took place from the High Middle Ages via Gerard of Cremona's Toledo circle in terms of its Latinate translations, and subsequent influence on Franciscan, Dominican, and Jesuit opticians across Europe.

"It influenced François d'Aguilon's 'Opticorum libri sex' within the Antwerp Jesuit mathematical school and had a direct impact on Johannes Hevelius's 'Selenographia.' The 'Optics' was also consulted by Girard Desargues, René Descartes, Johannes Kepler and Christaan Huygens."

Prof. El-Bizri works closely with the Warburg Institute assisting its attempts to reintroduce Ibn al-Haytham to the west. "A remarkable thinker, not only did Ibn al-Haytham revolutionize optical thought by mathematizing its study, [but] his thinking also went on to have similar revolutionary effects in medieval Europe."

The Warburg Institute is investing in rendering the writings of Ibn al-Haytham on optics into English, which Prof. El-Bizri describes as "voluminous." "Ibn al-Haytham's 'Book of Optics' indicates with evidence the impact of Arabic sciences and philosophy on the history of science and the architectural and visual arts in Europe, as well as demonstrating how science and the arts influence each other in the manner the studies of optics in their mathematized physics inspired the invention of projective geometric constructions of perspective as a novel Renaissance method of painting and architectural design."

Prof. El-Bizri adds, "The impact of this book is fundamental not only in the history of science from the High Middle Ages till the early-modern period in Europe, but it was also foundational for architecture and the visual arts in the Italian Renaissance and up till the late Baroque era. Moreover, it has further significance in modern conceptions of the mathematization of physics, the reliance on experimentation in science, and the philosophical analysis of perception."

Asked about the importance of translating Ibn al-Haytham into English despite the lapse of nearly 1,000 years, Prof. El-Bizri says the Arab-Muslim scientist's theories and methodologies specifically those dealing with optics are still considered "seminal" in the literature. Ibn al-Haytham has had a "foundational impact on the history of science and the arts in Europe."

The influence of Ibn al-Hytham's writings in the European milieu, according to Prof. El-Bizri, cannot be overlooked. The Arab-Muslim scientist had "a notable effect on Biagio Pelacani da Parma's 'Questiones super perspectiva communi,' Leon Battista Alberti's 'De pictura,' Lorenzo Ghiberti's 'Commentarii,' culminating in the first printed Latin version in the publication of Friedrich Risner's 'Opticae thesaurus' in the sixteenth century.

"Then, in the seventeenth century, it influenced François d'Aguilon's 'Opticorum libri sex' within the Antwerp Jesuit mathematical school and had a direct impact on Johannes Hevelius's 'Selenographia.' The Optics was also consulted by Girard Desargues, René Descartes, Johannes Kepler and Christaan Huygens."

In the "Book of Optics," notes Prof. El-Bizri, Ibn al-Haytham establishes an "inventive and precise scientific experimental method (al-iʿtibār al-muḥarrar) with its controlled verificative repeated testing, as framed by isomorphic compositions between physics and mathematics."

He adds that Ibn al-Haytham in his "Optics," "aims at elucidating the nature of visual perception through studies on the anatomy and physiology of the eyes, the optic nerves and the frontal part of the brain, along with cognitive psychology and the analysis of psychosomatic ocular motor kinesthetic acts."

More information: Nader El-Bizri, The Optics of Ibn al-Haytham, Books IV–V: On Reflection and Images Seen by Reflection, translated from the Arabic by Abdelhamid I. Sabra and prepared for publication by Jan P. Hogendijk International Journal of the Classical Tradition (2024). DOI: 10.1007/s12138-024-00654-4

Provided by University of Sharjah

A young Black (WOMAN)scientist discovered a pivotal leprosy treatment in the 1920s—but an older colleague took the credit

by Mark M. Lambert, The Conversation

A young Black scientist discovered a pivotal leprosy treatment in the 1920s—but an older colleague took the credit — **The island of Molokai, where the Ball Method successfully treated leprosy sufferers.**

Hansen's disease, also called leprosy, is treatable today—and that's partly thanks to a curious tree and the work of a pioneering young scientist in the 1920s. Centuries prior to her discovery, sufferers had no remedy for leprosy's debilitating symptoms or its social stigma.

This young scientist, Alice Ball, laid fundamental groundwork for the first effective leprosy treatment globally. But her legacy still prompts conversations about the marginalization of women and people of color in science today.

As a bioethicist and historian of medicine, I've studied Ball's contributions to medicine, and I'm pleased to see her receive increasing recognition for her work, especially on a disease that remains stigmatized.

Who was Alice Ball?

Alice Augusta Ball, born in Seattle, Washington, in 1892, became the first woman and first African American to earn a master's degree in science from the College of Hawaii in 1915, after completing her studies in pharmaceutical chemistry the year prior.

After she finished her master's degree, the college hired her as a research chemist and instructor, and she became the first African American with that title in the chemistry department.

Impressed by her master's thesis on the chemistry of the kava plant, Dr. Harry Hollmann with the Leprosy Investigation Station of the U.S. Public Health Service in Hawaii recruited Ball. At the time, leprosy was a major public health issue in Hawaii.

Doctors now understand that leprosy, also called Hansen's disease, is minimally contagious. But in 1865, the fear and stigma associated with leprosy led authorities in Hawaii to implement a mandatory segregation policy, which ultimately isolated those with the disease on a remote peninsula on the island of Molokai. In 1910, over 600 leprosy sufferers were living in Molokai.

This policy overwhelmingly affected Native Hawaiians, who accounted for over 90% of all those exiled to Molokai.

Doctors had attempted to use nearly every remedy imaginable to treat leprosy, even experimenting with dangerous substances such as arsenic and strychnine. But the lone consistently effective treatment was chaulmoogra oil.

Chaulmoogra oil is derived from the seeds of the chaulmoogra tree. Health practitioners in India and Burma had been using this oil for centuries as a treatment for various skin diseases. But there were limitations with the treatment, and it had only marginal effects on leprosy.

The oil is very thick and sticky, which makes it hard to rub into the skin. The drug is also notoriously bitter, and patients who ingested it would often start vomiting. Some physicians experimented with injections of the oil, but this produced painful pustules.

The Ball Method

The state of Hawaii honored Ball by declaring Feb. 28 Alice Augusta Ball Day.

If researchers could harness chaulmoogra's curative potential without the nasty side effects, the tree's seeds could revolutionize leprosy treatment. So, Hollmann turned to Ball. In a 1922 article, Hollmann documents how the 23-year-old Ball discovered how to chemically adapt chaulmoogra into an injection that had none of the side effects.

The Ball Method, as Hollmann called her discovery, transformed chaulmoogra oil into the most effective treatment for leprosy until the introduction of sulfones in the late 1940s.

In 1920, the Ball Method successfully treated 78 patients in Honolulu. A year later, it treated 94 more, with the Public Health Service noting that the morale of all the patients drastically improved. For the first time, there was hope for a cure.

Tragically, Ball did not have the opportunity to revel in this achievement, as she passed away within a year at only 24, likely from exposure to chlorine gas in the lab.

Ball's legacy, lost and found

Ball's death meant she didn't have the opportunity to publish her research. Arthur Dean, chair of the College of Hawaii's chemistry department, took over the project.

Dean mass-produced the treatment and published a series of articles on chaulmoogra oil. He renamed Ball's method the "Dean Method," and he never credited Ball for her work.

Ball's other colleagues did attempt to protect Ball's legacy. A 1920 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association praises the Ball Method, while Hollmann clearly credits Ball in his own 1922 article.

Ball is described at length in a 1922 article in volume 15, issue 5, of Current History, an academic publication on international affairs. That feature is excerpted in a June 1941 issue of Carter G. Woodson's "Negro History Bulletin," referring to Ball's achievement and untimely death.

Joseph Dutton, a well-regarded religious volunteer at the leprosy settlements on Molokai, further referenced Ball's work in a 1932 memoir broadly published for a popular audience.

Historians such as Paul Wermager later prompted a modern reckoning with Ball's poor treatment by Dean and others, ensuring that Ball received proper credit for her work. Following Wermager's and others' work, the University of Hawaii honored Ball in 2000 with a bronze plaque, affixed to the last remaining chaulmoogra tree on campus.

In 2019, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine added Ball's name to the outside of its building. Ball's story was even featured in a 2020 short film, "The Ball Method."

The Ball Method represents both a scientific achievement and a history of marginalization. A young woman of color pioneered a medical treatment for a highly stigmatizing disease that disproportionately affected an already disenfranchised Indigenous population.

In 2022, then-Gov. David Ige declared Feb. 28 Alice Augusta Ball Day in Hawaii. It was only fitting that the ceremony took place on the Mānoa campus in the shade of the chaulmoogra tree.

Provided by The Conversation

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Dung beetles found to work together to drag dung balls over objects in their path

Elite coaches migrating to Western countries to advance careers

by University of Birmingham

Nations battling for Olympic success in a global sporting 'arms race' has led to elite coaches migrating to Western countries as they bid to escape antiquated and restrictive coaching regimes in their home countries, reveals a new study.

National teams pursuing Olympic gold medals are increasingly recruiting foreign elite coaches from the leading countries as they try to close the gap between themselves and the top medal-winners in particular sports.

But elite coaches have their own reasons for moving—either heading for a destination where performance levels are lower, and they can add value or seizing a career development opportunity and leaving behind outdated coaching practices.

Researchers from the University of Birmingham and Loughborough University carried out in-depth interviews with elite coaches from Korea—a country renowned for success in taekwondo and short-track speed skating—who had moved to coach other national teams in these sports.

Publishing their findings in International Sport Coaching Journal, the experts reveal an underlying reason for the coaches' international mobility: 'dual imbalances' existing between the sending and receiving countries—both in levels of sporting performance and perceived levels of modernization in coaching cultures and sports systems.

Lead author Assistant Professor Yoon Jin Kim, from the University of Birmingham, commented, "Many Western countries have imported coaches from other nations, recognizing the world-best expertise in the respective sports, compared to their weaker performance levels.

"Korean coaches' desire to work in the West is partly driven by their aversion to the coaching culture and practices in Korea—an authoritarian sporting environment and issues, such as inefficient administration, sectarianism, and favoritism."

"Rather than recycling the coaching practices they had experienced since their own athletic careers, our coaches hoped to explore other environments that they deemed more advanced than their own."

The authors highlight that the race for Olympic medals among Western countries has created a migration flow from non-Western countries with world-class performances to Western liberal democracies.

This includes gymnastics coaches from the former Soviet Union to Australia, the UK, and the US, archery coaches from South Korea to Australia, Italy and the US and diving coaches from China to Australia and the UK

Co-author Dr. Minhyeok Tak, from Loughborough University, commented, "Certain countries, have achieved top-level sporting performances through relatively harsh coaching methodologies emphasizing discipline and conformity. In contrast, many Western societies have increasingly prioritized athlete welfare, safeguarding and scientific evidence-based coaching methods.

"Future research would benefit from investigating transitions of coaches who have accumulated authoritarian values and practices within highly performance-oriented and state-controlled societies and subsequently moved to a more liberalized environment."

More information: Yoon Jin Kim et al, Coaching Transitions Across Borders: The Pursuit of Individuals Advancing Coaching Careers in the Competitive Global Landscape of Olympic Sports, International Sport Coaching Journal (2024). DOI: 10.1123/iscj.2023-0058

Provided by University of Birmingham

Research reveals why women don't coach

Research explores why we remember what we remember

by Amy McCaig, Rice University

We've all been in a similar situation—you lock your front door for the umpteenth time in a given week only to panic minutes later when you're driving to work as you struggle to remember if you actually locked the door.

If this sounds familiar, you're not alone, and you're also not losing your mind. A new study published in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory by Rice University psychologists found that certain experiences are better remembered by most people, while other experiences, like locking the door behind us, are more easily forgotten.

However, the story isn't quite that simple, according to researchers Fernanda Morales-Calva , a Rice graduate student, and Stephanie Leal , assistant professor of psychological sciences. They conducted the study to better understand just how human memory works. They said humans tend to focus on remembering certain aspects within an experience more than others such as the big picture of what happened rather than the details.

"Struggling to remember is one of those things we all experience," Morales-Calva said. "But when it comes to understanding memory, there's a lot to be discovered about how it actually works. And there's a new area of memory research that's trying to tap into why we remember certain things better than others."

For example, Morales-Calva said people looking back on the last year may recall doing a lot of different things, but only a few of them might really stand out in great detail.

"Previous research has found that these memorable experiences for one person are very likely memorable for another person, like birthday parties, deaths of a loved one and more," Leal said. "These are often positive or negative experiences. This knowledge has helped us design research studies looking at memory performance."

The researchers evaluated memory by showing pictures to their study participants. During a memory test, some of these images were repeated, some were brand new, while others were very similar and difficult to distinguish from one another. These similar images were meant to interfere with memory, kind of like the similar daily experiences such as trying to remember if the door is locked. Memorable images were identified as the ones participants were most likely to recall.

Morales-Calva and Leal found that while participants correctly remembered the most memorable images, this effect was lost after 24 hours. This was especially true when remembering positive experiences, suggesting these experiences are memorable at first but more prone to be forgotten.

"While we feel like we know what types of experiences are memorable, we really don't know what features of a memory are remembered best in the long term," Morales-Calva said. "We often think emotional memories are better remembered, but in fact gist versus detail trade-offs exist where the central features of the memory are enhanced while details may be forgotten."

So if you're one of the many people in the world who can't remember if five minutes ago you put down your garage door or swallowed your medicine, the researchers said you're not alone.

"Our brains can't possibly remember everything we experience, and so we have to do a bit of selective forgetting for information that isn't as important," Leal said. "This study helps us get closer to understanding why we remember what we remember."

Morales-Calva and Leal said they hope their findings will offer new insights into how memory works, and why some things are memorable and others are not. They hope future studies will consider the complexity of memory in everyday life, including consideration of the emotional content, time that has passed since the experience and perceptual features of memory that may have significant impacts on what we remember.

More information: Fernanda Morales-Calva et al, Emotional modulation of memorability in mnemonic discrimination, Neurobiology of Learning and Memory (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.nlm.2024.107904

Provided by Rice University

New research examines how we remember faces

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