To upgrade apps, listen to users

When adding features to software applications, developers should balance user feedback with their own instincts

University of Texas at Austin

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How do apps improve? For some of today’s most popular applications, it’s by listening to their customers.

• Instagram responded to requests for in-app editing tools by offering filters, brightness, and contrast adjustments.
• Offline maps, by Google Maps, answered users who wanted to use the tool when they couldn’t get online.

But listening to user feedback isn’t an easy task. The Apple App Store alone offers 3.8 million appswith as many as 1.8 million reviews apiece.

New research from Texas McCombs offers insight into whom and what to listen to. It uses artificial intelligence to analyze user reviews and their influence on app updates. The results suggest when developers should rely on users for adding new features and when it’s better to follow their own ideas.

“Firms can obtain product feature ideas from customers, who may have a better understanding of their own needs,” says Anitesh Barua, a professor and chair of the Department of Information, Risk, and Operations management (IROM). “However, the effectiveness of user-suggested features has not been studied in the literature.”

Such features generally fall into two categories, he says: imitations of features from competing apps and innovations of features competitors don’t offer.

With Ashish Agarwal, associate professor of IROM, and  former doctoral student Aditya Karanam of the National University of Singapore, Barua looked at innovations and imitations that were initiated by developers and those proposed by users.

Using a sample of 853 top-rated Apple apps from 2012 to 2016, they used AI to sift out suggestions from 7 million reviews. They adapted a language model called BERT to extract features, based on sequences of words used to describe features in version release notes and user reviews.

In trial runs, their model outperformed the better-known GPT-4 in identifying user-suggested and developer-initiated features, especially with limited data.

The researchers then analyzed each app and its updates to sort out which feature ideas came from users and which from developers, and whether these features were imitations of other apps. Finally, they estimated which new features had the biggest effects on demand for apps, as measured by consumer rankings and demand for apps.

They found that the value of user suggestions depended on the kind of feature:

• For innovations — features that don’t imitate other apps — those that came from developers boosted demand. Those that came from customers reduced it.

• For imitations, on the other hand, the effects were reversed. User-suggested features increased demand, while developer-initiated features did not.

Why the difference? The researchers suggest that customers may be better at describing features they’ve seen elsewhere than ones they’ve never seen.

App developers, Barua says, can use the results to help determine when to heed their customers — and when not to.

“For adding innovative features, developers should follow their own instincts,” he says, “unless they are able to fully comprehend user suggestions, which are often ambiguous, and which can do more harm than good.”

When it comes to imitating other apps, however, the customer is more often right, he adds. “In such cases, they should listen to users instead of their own inclinations.”

“Follow Your Heart or Listen to Users? The Case of Mobile App Design” is forthcoming in Information Systems Research.

 

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Journal

Information Systems Research

DOI

10.1287/isre.2023.0060 

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Follow Your Heart or Listen to Users? The Case of Mobile App Design

Article Publication Date

10-Apr-2025

 

The green past of the Saharo-Arabian Desert

Isotope analyses of limestone cave deposits reveal recurrent humid intervals in the Saharo-Arabian Desert over the last eight million years

Max Planck Institute for Chemistry

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Speleothems, or dripstones, are excellent climate archives because the chemical composition of the calcium carbonate in speleothems changes with the climatic conditions above the cave. The picture shows a cave in the north of Saudi Arabia.

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Credit: Hubert Vonhof, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry

• The Saharo-Arabian Desert experienced repeated wetter periods over the past eight million years.
• Wetter conditions favoured the exchange of mammals between Africa and Eurasia.
• Fossilised rain water reveals monsoon rains reached Arabia in such wet periods.

The Saharo-Arabian Desert is one of the largest biogeographic barriers on Earth, hindering the dispersal of animals between Africa and Eurasia, and is at least eleven million years old. How did water-dependent mammals, including our early ancestors, manage to cross this inhospitable desert in the past?

A new study published in the journal Nature shows that Arabia repeatedly experienced time periods of higher precipitation during the last eight million years and was presumably vegetated. According to the study, these wetter periods probably supported migrations of water-dependent animals, including our ancestors. Wetter conditions were likely sustained by monsoonal precipitation, coming from the South, a source of rainfall which gradually weakened over millions of years.

This was revealed by an international team of researchers led by the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry in Mainz, with the support of the Saudi Heritage Commission and the Saudi Ministry of Culture, and with the participation of the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and the Goethe University in Frankfurt.

On the basis of isotope analyses of stalactites and stalagmites (speleothems) from seven Saudi Arabian caves, the team identified multiple past intervals during which the climate of Arabia repeatedly was much wetter than it is today. Such wetter phases may have spanned thousands of years each, and transformed the Arabian landscape from a dry desert to habitable landscape.

Short humid intervals favoured the exchange of mammals between Africa and Eurasia

Hubert Vonhof, group leader at the Max Planck Institute in Mainz and co-author on the new study, said: “The repetitive recurrence of wetter conditions on the Arabian peninsula is not only of climatological importance. As the aridification of the Saharo-Arabian desert intensified over the past eight million years, these short intervals of wetter conditions became increasingly important for enabling mammalian exchange between Africa and Eurasia, likely including dispersals of our human ancestors.”

Faisal al-Jibrin, lead Saudi archaeologist of the Heritage Commission, said “Arabia has traditionally been overlooked in Africa-Eurasia dispersals, but studies like ours increasingly reveal its central place in mammalian and hominin migrations.”

“Although it was clear already from fossil finds that water-dependent animals like crocodiles and hippos lived on the Arabian Peninsula in the past, longer Saudi Arabian paleoclimate records such as speleothems were simply not available until now. We were able to study the hydroclimate of the Arabian Peninsula more comprehensively than ever before and found that during the last eight million years, a southward displacement of Monsoon rains gradually decreased rainfall during the wetter intervals. As a whole, the Arabian peninsula became increasingly drier,” says Monika Markowska. The first author of the paper worked as Postdoc at the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry and is now a Senior Research Fellow of the Royal Society at the University of Northumbria in England. According to the geochemist, the loss of monsoonal rains over Arabia was ultimately caused by cooling of the Northern hemisphere, which displaced the monsoonal rain belt to the South.

BACKGROUND

Speleothems document temperature and precipitation of the past

Limestone caves are excellent climate archives because the chemical composition of the calcium carbonate in the speleothems changes with climate above the cave. By analysing the deposits, researchers can directly determine past climate with temperature and precipitation patterns at the time the speleothem was formed. Speleothems only form when sufficient rainwater permeates the soil, dissolving calcium carbonate from limestone rock. This water then enters the underlying cave, where calcium carbonate crystallizes again, depositing layer by layer on the ceiling or floor.

In collaboration with specialists from the Johannes Gutenberg University in Mainz and the Goethe University in Frankfurt, the researchers successfully determined the age of the limestones through radiometric dating. This technique relies on the radioactive decay of naturally occurring uranium isotopes that were carried into the caves by water and subsequently deposited in the limestones. By identifying both the original and decay isotopes, the age of the calcification can be established.

Fossilised water indicates monsoon rainfall

Tiny rainwater inclusions within the speleothems enabled palaeoclimate researchers to ascertain that the rainfall likely originated from the monsoon, specifically from the south. The isotopic composition of oxygen and hydrogen in the water reveals the geographical region of its origin.

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Journal

Nature

DOI

10.1038/s41586-025-08859-6 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Article Title

Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years

Article Publication Date

9-Apr-2025

 

Financial well-being varies across generations

Millennials reported lower financial well-being compared to Gen Xers and boomers

University of Georgia

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Generations are already seen as unique in terms of values and beliefs. These differences may stretch into the realm of finance, according to a new study from the University of Georgia.

Financial well-being reflects a person’s ability to hold out against financial troubles and achieve their goals. If financial well-being is low, there can be negative impacts on a person’s mental health.

The researchers looked at data from the 2016 Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s National Financial Well-Being Survey. It focused on the financial knowledge, skills and behaviors of three generations: baby boomers, Generation X and millennials.

“We focused on the differences in the relationships between financial knowledge, skill, and behavior and financial well-being of these three generations. This is to give us a broader understanding of how people learn things and use their knowledge and skills differently by generation,” said Lu Fan, lead author and associate professor for UGA’s College of Family and Consumer Sciences. “They have different life goals and priorities at different ages.”

Based on responses to the survey, millennials showed lower levels of financial well-being and knowledge while boomers had the highest. Financial knowledge and money management skills also tended to increase with age.

Insights from this study could help in developing programs to improve financial well-being across generations.

Lived experience may play a role in financial well-being

The researchers looked at a variety of factors to assess financial well-being, including personal financial knowledge. This includes both subjective knowledge, what someone believes they know, and objective knowledge, what they actually know.

Financial skills, day-to-day money management, commitment to financial goals and saving regularly are also key. Even so, millennials often showed less financial knowledge and money management skills, which may be damaging their overall financial well-being.

“Millennials reported lower knowledge mostly because they’re younger, and they’re still learning,” Fan said. “Boomers reported higher financial knowledge, probably because they’ve learned through their life and through their experiences.”

These experiences can vary; not only could boomers be learning from their daily lives but also major national or world events that can shape the values of an entire generation.

Programs could help improve financial well-being for each generation

Even with this overlap, however, Fan said that certain factors are more impactful to a generation’s financial well-being than others. Millennials could benefit more from increasing their objective financial knowledge compared to boomers, while boomers could improve financial well-being from better money management behavior and goal commitment.

Being able to set and follow through with long-term financial goals was also tied to increased financial well-being. Sticking to goals was important for all generations, but especially crucial for Gen Xers, as they need to plan their spending leading up to and during retirement.

Because of these varying relationships, the study found it may be best for financial advisors and educators to tailor their programs for different generations.

“Millennials are faced with various mid-life financial choices and long-term planning decisions, and therefore need to improve their financial knowledge, skills and behaviors in order to reach better financial well-being,” Fan said. “Most boomers are now in retirement, so it’s important to understand their financial needs and management behaviors during this life stage.”

The study was published in the International Journal of Consumer Studies and co-authored by Robin Henager.

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Journal

International Journal of Consumer Studies

DOI

10.1111/ijcs.70011 

Article Title

Generational Differences in Financial Well-Being: Understanding Financial Knowledge, Skill, and Behavior

 

What links cannabis use and psychosis? Researchers point to the brain’s dopamine system

‘Our findings could help doctors and mental health professionals better educate patients about the potential risks of frequent cannabis use’

McGill University

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A McGill University-led study found that people with cannabis use disorder (CUD) had elevated dopamine levels in a brain region associated with psychosis.

“This could help explain why cannabis use increases the risk of hallucinations and delusions, key symptoms of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders,” said first author Jessica Ahrens, a PhD student in McGill’s Integrated Program in Neuroscience.

Dopamine is a neurotransmitter that helps regulate mood and motivation, and an excess is associated with psychosis. While it was known that cannabis influences dopamine, this study clarifies where in the brain these changes occur. Cannabis use disorder is when someone has trouble controlling their cannabis use, continues despite negative effects, and may experience cravings or withdrawal.

“For a long time, clinical researchers across the world have been searching for a link showing that cannabis affects the brain mechanism behind psychosis. We now show that a shared dopamine pathway could be the answer,” Ahrens said.

The study involved 61 people, including those with and without cannabis use disorder, as well as individuals with early-stage schizophrenia, some of whom also had CUD. Using a specialized brain scan called neuromelanin-MRI, researchers at Western University measured their neuromelanin signal, which reflects dopamine activity.

People with CUD had an abnormally high neuromelanin signal, and the elevation was tied to the severity of their cannabis use. In contrast, those without schizophrenia or CUD did not show this increase. Larger studies are needed to confirm these findings.

Educating youth about cannabis risks

About one-in-five youth in Canada are cannabis users, consuming it daily or almost daily. Understanding the drug’s impact on mental health remains a pressing question.

“The lack of clear biological evidence linking cannabis to psychosis has made it harder to persuade young people with psychotic symptoms to reduce their use,” said Dr. Lena Palaniyappan, Professor of Psychiatry at McGill and Psychiatrist at the Douglas Mental Health University Institute.

“Our findings could help doctors and mental health professionals better educate patients about the potential risks of frequent cannabis use, especially for those with a family history of psychosis,” he said.

Future research will explore whether long-term cannabis use leads to lasting dopamine changes and whether these effects reverse after quitting.

About the study

“Convergence of Cannabis and Psychosis on the Dopamine System” by Jessica Ahrens, Clifford Cassidy, and Lena Palaniyappan et al., was published in Jama Psychiatry.

The study was supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Schizophrenia Society of Canada Foundation, the Canadian Consortium for Early Intervention in Psychosis, the Fonds de Recherche du Québec—Santé, the Quebec Bio-Imaging Network, the Canada First Research Excellence Fund, the Canada Research Chairs program and the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

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Journal

JAMA Psychiatry

DOI

10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.0432 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Convergence of Cannabis and Psychosis on the Dopamine System

Article Publication Date

9-Apr-2025

New study reveals potential biological link between cannabis use and psychosis

Researchers from London, Ont. discover regular cannabis use is linked to signs of increased dopamine levels in the brain, a key factor in psychosis

University of Western Ontario

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Researchers found those with cannabis use disorder exhibited an increase of neuromelanin (blacker spots) in a particular region of the midbrain associated with psychosis –the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental areas.

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Credit: Scan provided by Jessica Ahrens; designed by Rob Potter/Western Communications

Although it's been six years since cannabis was legalized in Canada, further research is needed to fully understand its health effects. 

A new study published today in JAMA Psychiatry sheds light on how cannabis use disorder is linked to changes in the brain that are associated with psychosis. Using brain imaging techniques, researchers found individuals with cannabis use disorder, those who were using cannabis on a frequent basis over an extended period of time, exhibited signs of higher levels of dopamine in the same region of the brain that is tied to psychosis. This study was conducted in London, Ont., led by researchers from London Health Sciences Centre Research Institute (LHSCRI) and Western University’s Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry.   

Previous data has shown that in emergency departments across Canada, people have been presenting more often with psychosis after the legalization of cannabis. 

“We now have evidence that shows a straight line linking cannabis with dopamine and psychosis that has never been shown before, and it's crucial that clinicians, patients, and families work together to break this line,” said Lena Palaniyappan, adjunct professor at Schulich Medicine & Dentistry, former medical director for LHSC's Prevention and Early Intervention Program for Psychosis (PEPP) and the senior author of the study. 

Dopamine is an important neurotransmitter (a chemical messenger in the brain) that helps process motivation, mood, learning and motor control. 

“Excess levels of dopamine can disrupt normal brain processes and may increase the risk of psychosis, particularly in individuals who are already vulnerable,” said Betsy Schaefer, co-author of the study at LHSCRI and study coordinator at PEPP.  

Using a non-invasive brain imaging technique called neuromelanin-sensitive magnetic resonance imaging, researchers were able to look at a substance called neuromelanin – a black pigment left behind in the brain that accumulates over time if there is too much dopamine. The neuromelanin appears in the scans as black spots, acting as a marker to measure and identify areas with dopamine activity. 

“In people partaking in excess cannabis use, those spots are blacker than what they should be for their age compared to healthy individuals. This indicates they have high levels of dopamine, and in some cases are showing pigments someone 10 years older would have,” said Palaniyappan, who is also a professor at McGill University. 

Sixty-one participants aged 18- to 35-years-old were involved in this study. Researchers recruited individuals with and without cannabis use disorder, with some in each group also diagnosed with first-episode schizophrenia, who presented to PEPP at LHSC. 

"We saw an increase of blacker spots in a particular region of the midbrain associated with psychosis –the substantia nigra and ventral tegmental areas. This increase was seen in those with cannabis use disorder regardless of whether they have first-episode schizophrenia,” said Ali Khan, Schulich Medicine & Dentistry professor and scientist at Robarts Research Institute.  

“I think this research really helps to provide evidence, or the smoking gun, of what we're seeing clinically and provides clues as to why exposure to cannabis is causing brain changes linked to psychosis.” - Dr. Julie Richard, psychiatrist and physician lead of PEPP at LHSC. 

“In the last several years since legalization, we're seeing adolescents who have two or three brief cannabis-induced episodes of psychosis and then have a much more major episode. So, we're trying to counsel adolescents within that first episode that they're pushing their brain towards a major episode and show them the areas in the brain that are impacted,” said Richard. 

Shaefer explained the new research helps clarify the biological mechanisms connecting cannabis use and mental health risks. The findings underscore the need for awareness, especially as cannabis becomes more widely used since legalization. "We hope this study encourages further research and informs public health policies to support safe and informed cannabis use."  

“I hope these findings lead patients and health-care providers to better understand the implications and for the health-care providers to give patients resources for options other than cannabis to help them cope,” said first author Jessica Ahrens, PhD candidate at McGill University. 

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Journal

JAMA Psychiatry

DOI

10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2025.0432 

Article Title

Convergence of Cannabis and Psychosis on the Dopamine System

Article Publication 

9-Apr-2025

 

Potable water happy by-product of low-cost green hydrogen technology

Cornell University

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ITHACA, N.Y. – A Cornell University-led collaboration has hit the trifecta of sustainability technology: The group has developed a low-cost method to produce carbon-free “green” hydrogen via solar-powered electrolysis of seawater. A happy byproduct of the process? Potable water.

The team’s hybrid solar distillation-water electrolysis (HSD-WE) device, reported April 9 in Energy and Environmental Science, currently produces 200 milliliters of hydrogen per hour with 12.6% energy efficiency directly from seawater under natural sunlight.

The researchers estimate that within 15 years, the technology could reduce the cost of green hydrogen production to $1 per kilogram – a key step in achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.

“Water and energy are both critically needed for our everyday life, but typically, if you want to produce more energy, you have to consume more water,” said Lenan Zhang, assistant professor and project lead. “On the other hand, we need drinking water, because two-thirds of the global population are facing water scarcity. So, there is a bottleneck in green hydrogen production, and that is reflected in the cost.”

Green hydrogen is produced by splitting “high purity” – i.e., deionized – water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen through electrolysis. The high cost results from the massive amount of clean water that the process requires; the cost of manufacturing green hydrogen can be roughly 10 times higher than that of regular hydrogen.

“That’s why we came up with this technology,” Zhang said. “We thought, ‘OK, what is the most abundant resource on the Earth?’ Solar and seawater are basically infinite resources and also free resources.”

Working with researchers from MIT, Johns Hopkins University and Michigan State University, Zhang’s team devised a 10 centimeter by 10 centimeter prototype device that leverages one of the drawbacks of photovoltaics: their relatively low efficiency. Most PV cells can only convert up to approximately 30% of solar energy into electricity, and the rest dissipates as waste heat. But the team’s device is able to harness most of that waste heat and uses it to warm the seawater until it evaporates.

“Basically, the short-wavelength sunlight interacts with the solar cell to generate electricity, and the longer wavelength light generates the waste heat to power the seawater distillation,” Zhang said. “This way, all the solar energy can be fully used. Nothing is wasted.”

Once the seawater evaporates, the salt is left behind, and the desalinated vapor condenses into clean water, which passes through an electrolyzer that splits the water molecules into hydrogen and oxygen.

Zhang sees the potential of incorporating the technology into solar farms to cool PV panels, which would improve their efficiency and prolong their lifespan.

“We want to avoid carbon emission, avoid pollution. But meanwhile, we also care about the cost, because the lower cost we have, the higher market potential for large-scale adoption,” he said. “We believe there is a huge potential for future installation.”

The research was supported by the National Science Foundation.

For additional information, read this Cornell Chronicle story.

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Journal

Energy & Environmental Science