Researchers propose a new inspection method to improve online collaboration platforms

North Carolina State University

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Remote collaboration software tools, such as Zoom or Google Docs, have become essential for teamwork – but they often overlook the fact that people do not all approach collaboration in the same way. Researchers have now developed a new human-computer interaction (HCI) method called RemoteCollabEval (RCE) to identify barriers to collaboration and inclusivity, allowing designers and developers to build software features that better support diverse teamwork styles.

The work is part of the broader HCI field, which examines how people use digital systems and how interfaces can be optimized for clarity and ease of use.

“At present, most remote collaboration platforms are evaluated by designers and developers using established HCI inspection methods,” says Sandeep Kuttal, the principal investigator behind the work and an associate professor of computer science at North Carolina State University. “One of the most widely used inspection methods is a ‘groupware walkthrough,’ where designers essentially play out how a collaborative effort might unfold between two or three hypothetical users. However, these methods typically assume all users behave in similar ways.”

“It’s well-established that people from various backgrounds often have different collaboration and communication styles,” says Kuttal, who is senior author of a paper on the work. “Existing HCI inspection methods don’t account for these differences, which limits how inclusive and effective these tools can be. That’s what we set out to address.”

As a first step, the researchers drew on established social science and software engineering research to identify six key personality facets that influence collaborative behavior:

• Leadership style: Does the individual take a democratic or authoritative approach?
• Interruption style: Does the individual interrupt others or wait for cues?
• Non-verbal cues: Is the individual expressive or reserved in digital spaces?
• Relationship-seeking: Does the individual focus on building rapport or primarily on achieving goals?
• Social awareness: Is the individual attentive to or unaware of what their teammates are doing?
• Collaborative self-efficacy: How confident is the individual in the group’s ability to perform?

The researchers then created hypothetical users called “personas,” which are detailed representations of different types of users that incorporate descriptions of each of the six facets. These personas allow designers to simulate interpersonal friction and uncover “inclusivity bugs” that might otherwise go unnoticed during standard testing.
“Because we have descriptions of all six facets for each persona, we can incorporate those key characteristics into our assessment of how well a given platform allows for effective collaboration between people of different backgrounds,” says Kuttal.

The researchers then modified existing groupware walkthrough methods, requiring designers and developers to explicitly consider these six facets as part of the process and created a specialized walkthrough. This combination of personas that account for personality facets and the specialized walkthrough forms the RCE method.

As a proof-of-concept study, the researchers recruited 29 undergraduate and graduate students and split them into 10 teams. Five teams inspected an existing remote collaboration platform using the conventional Groupware Walkthrough method; the other five teams inspected the same platform using RCE.

“The teams who used the RCE method identified six times more inclusivity issues than the conventional method,” says Kuttal. “Essentially, RCE did a better job of identifying when conflicting styles would make collaboration between personas difficult.

“This is important, because identifying these challenges gives designers and developers an opportunity to modify features and user interfaces to improve these remote collaborative platforms,” says Kuttal. “And, ultimately, to improve collaboration itself.

“Because RCE is a standardized, systematic method, it can be used by designers and developers anywhere. It doesn’t require a huge budget, or an expensive research effort. It’s a method that can easily be used to make these platforms better.”

The paper, “Equity by Design: A New HCI Method for Surfacing Inclusivity Issues in Remote Collaboration Software,” will be presented at the ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS 2026), being held June 13-17 in Singapore. First author of the paper is Shandler Mason, a Ph.D. student at NC State.

This work was done with support from the National Science Foundation under grant 2313890.

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Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Equity by Design: A New HCI Method for Surfacing Inclusivity Issues in Remote Collaboration Software

Article Publication Date

15-Jun-2026

 

New study shows cranberry juice may boost UTI antibiotics

American Society for Microbiology

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Key Points:

• More than 400 million people get urinary tract infections every year, and the rise of antibiotic resistance makes the infection more difficult to treat.

• Researchers recently exposed lab-grown strains of pathogenic Escherichia coli to cranberry juice.

• New findings suggest that compounds in the juice re-sensitize resistant strains to antibiotic treatment.

• The researchers caution that their results are preliminary, and whether cranberry juice offers an antibiotic boost in people requires further study.

Washington, D.C. — More than 400 million people experience a urinary tract infection every year, and some epidemiological studies estimate that more than half of all women will develop at least one in their lifetime. Most UTIs are caused by pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli bacteria, and the antibiotic fosfomycin is often prescribed as the first line of treatment. However, increasing resistance to antibiotics is driving a search for alternative approaches to treatment.

New findings suggest that cranberry juice may lend a helping hand to antibiotics—at least on lab-grown strains. This week in Applied and Environmental Microbiology, researchers report that in 72% of uropathogenic E. coli strains tested, cranberry juice both boosted the antibiotic activity of fosfomycin and suppressed the emergence of mutations related to resistance. The work is promising but preliminary, noted lead author and microbiologist Eric Déziel, Ph.D, at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique in Montreal, Canada. 

The study doesn’t show, for example, if cranberry juice confers the same benefits after consumption. “We don’t know if the metabolites will reach the infection,” he said. But if they could, he said, then juice may increase the efficacy of antibiotic treatment. Future studies would be needed to determine how much cranberry juice would confer any benefit. 

Cranberry juice has long been regarded as a kind of folk remedy for preventing and treating urinary tract infections, said Déziel, but scientists originally attributed the benefit to the high acidity of the juice. More recent studies have linked its effect to compounds in the juice that can block bacteria from attaching to cells lining the urethra. Until now, however, researchers hadn’t examined its interactions with antibiotics. 

In the paper, the researchers describe how cranberry juice interacts with fosfomycin and bacteria. Fosfomycin enters bacterial cells through the same entry channels used by the microbes to acquire some sugars. Something in the cranberry juice—Déziel says the scientists aren’t yet sure what, exactly—induces the bacteria to increase its uptake of sugars within one of those channels, which means it also absorbs more fosfomycin. Resistance to antibiotics often results from mutations in genes associated with other nutrient channels. 

Déziel’s lab focuses on understanding communication between bacteria, and on identifying natural compounds that might disrupt that communication and point to new ways to treat dangerous infections. In previous lab studies, he and his collaborators found that cranberry extracts had a synergistic effect on the potency of antibiotics against resistant bacterial strains. 

Those findings caught the attention of the Cranberry Institute, which funds research aimed at understanding connections between cranberries and health, and funded the new study. They wanted to know whether cranberry juice had the same effect on bacteria as cranberry extracts. “It’s a very good question. People actually drink juice,” Déziel said. “They don't consume these very specific extracts.” 

Déziel noted that the new study doesn’t establish a connection between drinking juice and antibiotic potency, but it is promising enough to warrant more research. More importantly, he said, it supports the idea that natural compounds may be a useful frontier in fighting antibiotic resistance. Adjuvants that can bolster the efficacy of existing antibiotics are very promising because they don’t require the development of new drugs. “With the challenge of the multi-drug resistance," Déziel said, "we need to work from many different directions.” 
 

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The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences and is composed of over 38,000 scientists and health practitioners. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences.   
   
ASM advances the microbial sciences through conferences, publications, certifications, educational opportunities and advocacy efforts. It enhances laboratory capacity around the globe through training and resources. It provides a network for scientists in academia, industry and clinical settings. Additionally, ASM promotes a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to all audiences.

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Journal

Applied and Environmental Microbiology

 

Pennington Biomedical convenes global experts to advance understanding of ultra-processed foods and health

Pennington Biomedical Research Center

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University of Auckland’s Dr. Boyd Swinburn and Pennington Biomedical's Dr. Eric Ravussin

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Credit: Ernie Ballard/PBRC

LSU’s Pennington Biomedical Research Center recently hosted a two-day scientific symposium, “Ultra-Processed Food and Health: From Mechanisms to Actions,” bringing together many of the world’s leading experts to examine one of the most pressing topics in nutrition science.

The symposium convened an international group of researchers, clinicians and policy experts to explore the rapidly evolving science surrounding ultra-processed foods and their impact on human health. Discussions spanned the biological mechanisms linking ultra-processed foods to chronic disease, the gaps in available research, the role of the food environment and industry practices, and opportunities for policy and public health action.

Among the distinguished participants was Dr. Carlos Monteiro, professor emeritus at the University of São Paulo, who first coined the term “ultra-processed food” and has been instrumental in shaping the global conversation on the topic. The meeting represented one of the largest gatherings of ultra-processed food experts to date, creating a unique forum for cross-disciplinary collaboration and knowledge exchange.

The symposium was co-chaired by LSU Boyd Professor Dr. Eric Ravussin and University of Auckland’s Dr. Boyd Swinburn, both internationally recognized leaders in metabolism and public health nutrition.

“This symposium brought together an exceptional group of scientists to critically examine the evidence and identify where the field needs to go next,” said Dr. Ravussin. “By integrating perspectives from basic science to population health, we are moving closer to understanding how ultra-processed foods negatively affect human biology and how we can translate that knowledge into meaningful health solutions.”

Over the course of the event, participants examined how ultra-processing may influence overeating, metabolic health, the gut microbiome and long-term disease risk. The program also addressed broader system-level drivers, including food policy, packaging concerns and economic incentives that shape dietary patterns worldwide.

Dr. Swinburn, who was among the authors of The Lancet series on “Ultra-Processed Foods and Human Health,” emphasized the importance of global collaboration and policy engagement. “Ultra-processed foods are now a dominant part of the global food supply, and addressing their impact requires coordinated efforts across science, policy and public health,” he said. “This meeting created a valuable space to align on the evidence, debate key issues and identify steps that need to be taken as we move forward.”

As part of Pennington Biomedical’s ongoing commitment to addressing complex health challenges, the symposium will contribute to a summary publication capturing key insights and future research priorities.

As national attention continues to focus on improving diet quality, the symposium comes at a pivotal moment. Emerging federal dietary guidance is placing greater emphasis on whole foods and overall dietary patterns, while broader movements are encouraging a more integrated approach to nutrition, health care and prevention – including a recently released NIH Common Fund proposal that emphasizes priority for a new program, “Ultra-Processed Food: Investigating Mechanisms, Prevention and Action for Chronic Disease and Transformation  (UPF-IMPACT).” Within this context, the concept of “food as medicine” is gaining traction as a strategy to address chronic disease and improve population health.

“At Pennington Biomedical, we are committed to leading and shaping global conversations around the most pressing challenges in health and nutrition,” said Dr. Jennifer Rood, Interim Senior Vice Chancellor and Executive Director of Pennington Biomedical. “Bringing together world-renowned experts for this symposium is a powerful example of that leadership – creating a space to drive meaningful progress on ultra-processed foods and their impact on health.”

By advancing the science on ultra-processed foods and their role in health, Pennington Biomedical and its partners are helping inform evidence-based conversations that can guide individuals, health systems and policymakers toward more effective, sustainable solutions.

 

About the Pennington Biomedical Research Center

The Pennington Biomedical Research Center is at the forefront of medical discovery as it relates to understanding the triggers of obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer and dementia. Pennington Biomedical has the vision to lead the world in promoting nutrition and metabolic health and eliminating metabolic disease through scientific discoveries that create solutions from cells to society. The Center conducts basic, clinical and population research, and is a campus in the LSU System.

The research enterprise at Pennington Biomedical includes over 600 employees within a network of 44 clinics and research laboratories, and 16 highly specialized core service facilities. Its scientists and physician/scientists are supported by research trainees, lab technicians, nurses, dietitians and other support personnel. Pennington Biomedical is a globally recognized state-of-the-art research institution in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. For more information, see www.pbrc.edu.

 

Study finds benefits in being older college student while working

Being older than 25, working, commuting, having dependents sound like challenges, but often predicted key academic successes

University of Kansas

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LAWRENCE — The number of students in higher education who don’t come straight from high school is rapidly increasing across the country. Yet little research has addressed how the characteristics of post-traditional students affect key academic outcomes. New findings from the University of Kansas show there are some advantages to students who are older and working while studying.

Researchers analyzed characteristics of post-traditional students, often referred to as nontraditional students, in a highly competitive engineering program at a Hispanic-serving Research 1 institution in the southeastern United States. Authors wanted to better understand how factors like being older than 25, working full-time while attending school, having a GED, having dependents or commuting influenced factors like cumulative grade-point average, enrollment the following semester and if students graduated in six years.

Key findings included one variable, being a part-time student, negatively predicted cumulative GPA, enrollment the next semester and six-year graduation rates. However, being older than 25, a commuter and working full time positively predicted six-year graduation rates, while being older and commuting negatively predicted retention.

The sample included more than 7,000 students in undergraduate and computing programs. Haiying Long, professor of educational psychology at KU and one of the study’s authors, said the research team wanted to focus on the program as it has traditionally served underrepresented populations.

“This institution has a large number of post-traditional students. We use data to understand the needs of this unique group of students,” Long said. “If we include the characteristics of post-traditional students, the amount who fit in that classification is more than 90%. The factors we are looking at are key measures not only in engineering, but throughout higher education.”

The findings that being an older student and working full time was not a disadvantage for student success was something Long described as “exciting news.” It shows older students can bring advantages like self-discipline and life experience to their academic work and that they can also often financially support themselves. The fact that being a part-time student negatively predicted three measures of student success shows that more attention needs to be paid to supporting those students, the researchers said.

Factors such as race and gender also play a role, but the researchers controlled for those variables to focus on the influence of age, enrollment status, having dependents and working on success in an engineering program.

Researchers examined an engineering program as the discipline has long had underrepresentation of post-traditional students and populations like women and underrepresented communities reaching the higher levels of education and representation in the professional field as well. 

The field is also understood to be in high demand, and when more graduates are needed to fill positions in the workforce — while more students are simultaneously post-traditional — further research is necessary to help ensure those students’ success, Long said.

The findings are key to both policymakers and institutional leaders, given demographic changes in society.

“Especially right now, every university is talking about an enrollment cliff,” Long said of declining numbers of high school graduates. “That means we need to have strategies to support the unique needs of post-traditional students. Whoever can figure out how to support them will be in good position for the future.”

Co-written by Bruk Berhane, Jingjing Liu and Julian Sosa Molano of Florida International University and Su Gao of the University of Central Florida, it was published in The Journal of Continuing Higher Education.

The findings indicate the importance of not only supporting post-traditional students but doing so from an assets-based approach, the researchers said. Focusing on the positive attributes such students bring and offering supports based on what they do well, such as offering alternate office hours or virtual support for those who can’t make it to campus during traditional times due to job obligations would be a start, they write.

Research often focuses on GPA when studying student retention. But the study’s results indicate that focusing more on six-year graduation rates could be more effective for measuring success of post-traditional students, because along with next semester enrollment, the outcome was significantly predicted by post-traditional characteristics.

Engineering traditionally encourages full-time enrollment to both keep students engaged and promote on-time graduation. However, the struggles of part-time students show that more support for the population, such as hybrid in-person and virtual courses could lead to better outcomes for part-time, post-traditional students, according to the authors.

Long is conducting further research comparing the success rates of older students to part-time students to further understand what factors lead to their retention and success. She is also conducting research with colleagues to analyze longitudinal data from post-traditional students in similar settings to understand their cumulative GPA, retention and graduation rates over a longer period, as well as to better understand their on-campus experiences.

“We want to help get this understudied population in the spotlight and tell policymakers how important this group is and about their unique needs,” Long said. “It’s not always the case that older students take longer to graduate or that they are less likely to finish. There are advantages to being an older student.”

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Journal

The Journal of Continuing Higher Education

DOI

10.1080/07377363.2026.2646771 

Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Examining the Relationships Between Post-Traditional Student Characteristics and Academic Performance, Retention, and Graduation Rate: A Case in an Undergraduate Engineering Program

 

Providing food baskets to people with tuberculosis is cost-effective and could avert over 100,000 deaths annually in India

Boston Medical Center

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Undernutrition is the single greatest modifiable risk factor for tuberculosis (TB), contributing to immune suppression, treatment failure, and death. Despite this, nutritional support has not traditionally been a part of standard TB treatment. Researchers from Boston University (BU) and Boston Medical Center (BMC), in close collaboration with India’s National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), found that providing food baskets to people with TB and their households may not only be cost-effective, but may also save tens of thousands of lives annually in India if implemented at scale.

“Undernutrition isn’t just a complication of TB—it’s one of its root causes,” said Urvashi Singh, MD, former Deputy Director General of the NTEP. “While we wait for effective vaccines for TB, food is the vaccine we already have, and providing food baskets to households affected by TB could be one of the most impactful things we do for TB elimination.”

The researchers found that for every 10,000 patients, food supplementation was estimated to prevent 10,470 years of poor health or early death. It would cost an estimated $141 to achieve each of these health gains, which is well below India’s benchmark of $550 and suggests that the intervention could be a good investment. In fact, in 94% of the study’s simulations, food support was found to be a cost-effective way to improve health outcomes for people with TB. When scaled to India’s 2.8 million annual TB cases, universal coverage could avert approximately 120,000 TB deaths per year nationwide.

“What this study shows is that scaling up in-kind nutritional support in India isn’t just the right thing to do—it’s also an excellent investment,” said senior author Pranay Sinha, MD, assistant professor of medicine at BU Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine and infectious disease physician at BMC. “For less than the cost of many biomedical interventions, we could prevent over 100,000 TB deaths a year.”

“This work bridges the gap between clinical evidence and policy,” said first author Julia Gallini, a doctoral candidate in biostatistics at BU. “We wanted to give NTEP and global health policymakers a clear, quantitative picture of what nutritional support could achieve nationally. The numbers make a compelling case.”

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Journal

BMJ Global Health

Article Title

Cost-effectiveness of in-kind nutritional support for impoverished persons with tuberculosis to reduce mortality and disengagement from care in India: a modeling study

Article Publication Date

4-May-2026

 

JMIR news: Diversity under threat as clinical trials face disruptions

Clinical trial diversity under threat: JMIR Publications highlights the high cost of research disruptions and the path forward

JMIR Publications

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Virginia Gewin, JMIR Correspondent

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Credit: JMIR Publications

 

(Toronto, May 4, 2026) JMIR Publications today featured a critical new story in its News and Perspectives section examining the recent waves of disruption to inclusive clinical trials and the emerging strategies to keep health equity on track. The article, "Keeping Clinical Trials on an Inclusive Track," authored by Virginia Gewin, details how recent shifts in federal policy and funding have impacted hundreds of trials designed to study disease burdens in underrepresented populations.

The report highlights the harrowing case of Dr. Dinushika Mohottige, whose NIH-funded study on kidney disease in Black individuals was abruptly terminated in early 2025 following a White House Executive Order targeting DEI programs. While funding was eventually restored after a lawsuit, the 10-month delay in recruitment resulted in potential participants falling seriously ill or passing away.

The Human and Economic Cost of Underrepresentation

The feature underscores a systemic crisis in medical research:

• Disruption at Scale: In 2025 alone, 383 clinical trials were disrupted, affecting more than 74,000 participants. Trials focusing on infectious diseases, prevention, and behavioral interventions were hit the hardest.

• The Diversity Gap: Research shows that fewer than 20% of drug trials conducted between 2014 and 2021 had data relevant to the specific benefits or side effects for Black patients.

• A Multi-Billion Dollar Problem: Experts warn that failing to characterize drug efficacy across diverse ethnic groups could cost hundreds of billions of dollars in reduced life expectancy and disabilities over the next 25 years.

Bridging the Gap: Digital Tools and Patient Advocacy

To counter these structural barriers, the report explores two primary avenues for maintaining inclusive recruitment:

• Digital Innovation: Clinicians are increasingly using AI and machine learning to mine electronic health records (EHRs) for ideal participants and utilizing social media for culturally tailored outreach. However, experts like Dr. Sonia Anand warn that a digital literacy gap and a lack of trust in data privacy among non-White individuals could inadvertently widen the health equity gap if not managed carefully.

• Community-Centered Design: The article advocates for participation-to-prevalence ratios and the inclusion of patient advocates from day one. Robert Sanchez, a patient advocate working with Dr. Mohottige, emphasizes the need for a human-centered approach to data, stating, "Numbers need to have a soul."

A Call for Long-Term Investment

The report concludes that while reaching diverse populations involves higher up-front costs, the long-term impact on public health and economic stability is undeniable. By leveraging community partnerships and refining digital tools, the medical community can move toward trials that accurately reflect real-world populations.

 

Please cite as:

Gewin V. Keeping Clinical Trials on an Inclusive Track. J Med Internet Res 2026;28:e99011

URL: https://www.jmir.org/2026/1/e99011

DOI: 10.2196/99011

 

About JMIR Publications News and Perspectives

JMIR Publications is a leading open access publisher of digital health research. The News and Perspectives section is the newest addition to its portfolio, established to bring the rigor and integrity of academic publishing to scientific journalism. The section features well-researched, expert-driven content from the Scientific News Editor, Kayleigh-Ann Clegg, PhD, and a network of specialist JMIR Publications Correspondents to keep the digital health community informed, inspired, and ahead of the curve.

 

About JMIR Publications

JMIR Publications is a leading open access publisher of digital health research and a champion of open science. With a focus on author advocacy and research amplification, JMIR Publications partners with researchers to advance their careers and maximize the impact of their work. As a technology organization with publishing at its core, we provide innovative tools and resources that go beyond traditional publishing, supporting researchers at every step of the dissemination process. Our portfolio features a range of peer-reviewed journals, including the renowned Journal of Medical Internet Research. 

To find out more about JMIR Publications, visit jmirpublications.com or connect with them on Bluesky, X, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram.

 

Media Contact:

Dennis O’Brien, Vice President, Communications & Partnerships, JMIR Publications

communications@jmir.org, +1 416-583-2040

The content of this communication is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work, published by JMIR Publications, is properly cited.

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Journal

Journal of Medical Internet Research

DOI

10.2196/99011 

Method of Research

Commentary/editorial

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Keeping Clinical Trials on an Inclusive Track