SKKU reveals how international aid fragmentation affects corruption in developing countries

Sungkyunkwan University External Affairs Division (PR team)

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SKKU research team led by Professor Travers B. Child of the SKK Graduate School of Business (SKK GSB) has become the first in the world to use micro-level data to demonstrate that "Aid Fragmentation"—the phenomenon in which numerous international aid agencies operate simultaneously in a single region—can deepen administrative corruption in developing countries. The study was conducted jointly with Professor Austin L. Wright of the University of Chicago and Professor Yun Xiao of the University of Gothenburg.

Aid fragmentation refers to a situation in which numerous aid agencies and organizations enter a single developing-country region at the same time, each carrying out its own projects. While there has long been concern in the international community that such overlap would undermine the effectiveness of aid, no study had previously provided concrete statistical evidence of how this phenomenon is actually linked to corruption at the local level.

Professor Child's research team conducted a rigorous analysis by combining data on more than 30,000 aid projects carried out across 330 districts in Afghanistan with large-scale household survey data collected by NATO (the North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The analysis found that when a single aid agency provided concentrated support, local corruption decreased significantly—a clearly positive effect. However, when too many aid agencies became entangled in the same region, the resulting lapses in mutual oversight and diffusion of accountability allowed aid to become a channel for corruption instead.

Notably, the research team found that the effect of aid varies entirely depending on the "volume of aid" and the "type of project." When the scale of aid provided was moderate, multiple agencies operating together tended to play a positive role, sharing innovative ideas with one another. By contrast, when aid funding poured in at overwhelming levels, the negative effects of fragmentation were magnified, driving a sharp rise in corruption. The team also demonstrated that this corruption occurs overwhelmingly more often in visible "physical infrastructure projects"—such as road and bridge construction and supply delivery—than in non-physical services such as education or welfare.

The findings were formally published in the May 2026 issue of The Review of Economics and Statistics (REStat), a globally prestigious journal in the field of economics.

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Journal

The Review of Economics and Statistics

DOI

10.1162/rest_a_01458 

 

US National Poll: Many young adults may not be ready to manage their own healthcare

One in six parents say their 18-to-25-year-old doesn’t independently handle any of the basic healthcare tasks needed to navigate the healthcare system

Michigan Medicine - University of Michigan

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Parents polled said they’re more concerned about their young adult’s everyday lifestyle habits than chronic health conditions. 

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Credit: Sara Schultz, Michigan Medicine

ANN ARBOR, Mich. – Many young adults may be entering adulthood without the practical skills needed to manage their own healthcare, suggests a new national poll.

Nearly one in six parents said their young adult child aged 18-25 doesn’t handle any basic healthcare responsibilities on their own – from scheduling appointments to providing family history – according to the University of Michigan Health C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health.

“Our report highlights an important transition that many families may not be fully preparing for,” said Mott Poll Co-Director Sarah Clark, M.P.H.

"Turning 18 changes who is legally responsible for healthcare decisions, but healthcare independence doesn't happen overnight. Young people need practice talking to providers, setting up appointments, learning about insurance and managing their own care.”

While most young adults communicate with healthcare providers during appointments and follow medical instructions, far fewer independently schedule appointments, determine when they need medical care or manage key aspects of navigating the healthcare system.

Parents most often attributed the gap to a lack of knowledge about what to do and not enough experience. Fewer said their child wasn’t mature enough or didn’t want to take responsibility.  

“Parents don't have to hand over responsibility all at once,” Clark said. "The goal is to gradually shift routine healthcare tasks to teens so they gain confidence, make informed decisions and build these skills over time.”

Still, more than half of parents rated themselves highly for preparing their child to take responsibility for their health, according to the nationally representative report based on responses from 1,550 parents with at least one child ages 18-25 surveyed in February.

Parents who rated themselves as less successful in preparing their child for healthcare independence were substantially more likely to report that their young adult didn’t handle any of the basic healthcare tasks and to identify unhealthy lifestyle habits as a concern.

Parents worry most about everyday health habits

Parents polled said they’re more concerned about their young adult’s lifestyle habits than chronic health conditions. More than half identified excessive screen time as a current or potential health problem for their young adult, while roughly four in 10 cited stress, insufficient sleep, unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical activity.

Two in five parents also view the cost of maintaining a healthy lifestyle as a problem for their young adult child.

Clark says parents have many opportunities to prepare teens and young adults to manage their health, such as involving their child in grocery shopping and meal planning, encouraging exercise and limiting screen time.

“Teaching teens and young adults to make healthy choices is key to setting them up for a healthier future,” she said.

The Mott Poll findings also suggest that parents have had the most success preparing their young adult children to take an active role during health care visits.

This could include encouraging teens and young adults to schedule appointments, complete their own medical forms, understand their health insurance and communicate directly with providers.

Eventually, Clark notes, parents won’t be able to access their child’s medical record or necessarily have the ability to talk with the provider without the teen's permission.  

Some parents polled also cited their young adult child’s mental health or chronic medical conditions as a cause of current or potential health problems.  

For these parents, Clark says, it’s particularly important to ensure that their child understands the nature of their condition, the names of their medications and how to obtain their prescriptions, the frequency of visits to monitor their condition and what alleviates or triggers their symptoms.

“Starting this education early is the best way to help kids be prepared to manage their own health once they become adults,” Clark said.

 

 

Engineering dynamic electrolyte microenvironments via double‑shell hosts for practical lithium–sulfur batteries

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Journal Center

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• The efficient preparation of sulfur hosts derived from Prussian blue analogues with double-shell hollow structure was achieved through ion exchange with precisely controlled elemental ratios.
• The double-shell structure alters the microenvironment of sulfur redox reaction through self-driven dynamic migration of electrolyte, preventing the local enrichment of lithium polysulfides around catalysts.
• The double-shell sulfur cathode enhances the cycling stability and practical application of lithium–sulfur batteries, enabling an Ah-level pouch cell with an energy density of 454.7 Wh kg–1.

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Credit: Ziqing Yao, Yulu Zou, Shuqi Zhang, Wei Xie, Yujie Li, Shuangke Liu, Xingyu Chen, Kun Zhang, Chunman Zheng*, Weiwei Sun*.

As the global pursuit of next-generation energy storage intensifies, lithium–sulfur (Li–S) batteries have long tantalized researchers with their exceptional theoretical specific energy of 2600 Wh kg-1 and the natural abundance of sulfur. Yet the journey from laboratory promise to commercial reality has been persistently blocked by the notorious shuttle effect of soluble lithium polysulfides (LiPSs) and sluggish sulfur redox reaction kinetics. Now, researchers from the National University of Defense Technology, Changsha University of Science and Technology, and National University of Singapore, led by Professor Chunman Zheng and Professor Weiwei Sun, have unveiled a paradigm-shifting strategy that challenges the conventional obsession with maximizing catalyst activity alone.

Why This Host Architecture Matters

Prevailing research has overwhelmingly concentrated on engineering highly active electrocatalysts—from metallic compounds and complex heterojunctions to single-atom sites—operating under the implicit assumption that the conductive host matrix merely provides electron pathways and physical confinement. However, this catalyst-centric approach neglects a critical electrochemical reality: within a confined nanoreactor, accelerated reaction kinetics near a highly active catalyst inevitably cause rapid local consumption of reactants and generation of high-concentration LiPSs, creating severe spatial heterogeneity analogous to "local concentration polarization." Under practical lean electrolyte conditions, this leads to electrolyte depletion, LiPSs accumulation, and ultimately the passivation of catalytic sites and formation of inactive "dead sulfur." The full potential of even intrinsically superior catalysts may never be realized as their local microenvironment becomes progressively poisoned.

The novel double-shell hollow Prussian blue analogue derivative (Co2.5Fe/NC) overcomes this fundamental limitation by shifting the design paradigm from solely pursuing catalytic activity to intelligently managing the electrochemical microenvironment through host architecture engineering.

Innovative Design and Mechanism

The material is synthesized through a facile, one-step ion-exchange strategy by precisely controlling the Co/Fe molar ratio at 2.5, strictly avoiding complex and corrosive template-etching processes. Finite element simulations and in situ diagnostics reveal that the double-shell structure uniquely orchestrates a self-propelled convective electrolyte flow within its nanoreactor cavity during operation. This dynamic flow actively transports polysulfides away from the catalyst surface, effectively mitigating spatial concentration heterogeneity of LiPSs—especially near the catalysts—thereby preventing active material passivation and ensuring sustained high catalytic efficiency. The double-shell architecture establishes higher overall reaction potential and current density, with particularly elevated reactivity at edges and apexes, accelerating reaction kinetics while firmly confining LiPSs within the framework.

Outstanding Performance

Remarkably, even with a catalyst of only moderate intrinsic activity, the Co2.5Fe/NC cathode dramatically outperforms its more active single-shell counterpart (Co2Fe/NC). It achieves exceptional cycling stability with merely 0.016% capacity decay per cycle over 1000 cycles at 2C under lean electrolyte conditions (E/S ratio ≈ 12), delivering 84.4% capacity retention. The cathode exhibits a high specific capacity of 1294.25 mAh g-1 at 0.2C and maintains 676.42 mAh g-1 even at 4C, demonstrating substantially augmented rate performance. In situ Raman spectroscopy confirms significantly suppressed LiPSs shuttle signals, while in situ EIS and DRT analysis reveal virtually no discernible LiPSs diffusion impedance in the double-shell structure. Li2S nucleation evolves from 2D to 3D instantaneous growth patterns, promoting uniform, dense deposits. Under high areal sulfur loadings (3.1–7.8 mg cm-2) with depleted electrolyte, the material delivers areal capacities exceeding conventional intercalation cathodes.

Applications and Future Outlook

Most critically, an Ah-level pouch cell assembled with the Co2.5Fe/NC cathode achieves a groundbreaking energy density of 454.7 Wh kg-1 (380.5 Wh kg-1 including all packaging components) under demanding conditions (E/S = 3.1 μL mg-1, N/P = 1.34), with stable cycling for nearly 20 cycles at 40 mA g-1. This performance significantly surpasses previously reported Li–S pouch cells across all key metrics including sulfur content, E/S ratio, areal loading, and N/P ratio. This work establishes "host-structure-induced microenvironment regulation" as a powerful design principle, opening promising avenues for practical high-energy-density Li–S batteries by reconceptualizing the sulfur host from a passive scaffold to an active microenvironment regulator.

Stay tuned for more groundbreaking research from this collaborative team at the National University of Defense Technology, Changsha University of Science and Technology, and National University of Singapore!

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Journal

Nano-Micro Letters

DOI

10.1007/s40820-026-02260-2 

Method of Research

News article

Article Title

Engineering Dynamic Electrolyte Microenvironments via Double-Shell Hosts for Practical Lithium–Sulfur Batteries

 

Diet reveals what life was like 2,700 years ago in a local community: Gender inequality, social status, and migration

Biological and archaeological analysis of human remains from a 2,700-year-old Italian necropolis reveals, through what the people ate, how they lived, how they moved, and how they organized their society

University of Córdoba

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Zita Laffranchi, researcher of the Universyity of Cordoba

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Credit: Zita Laffranchi, researcher of the Universyity of Cordoba

An international study led by the Universities of Córdoba and Pisa used isotopic analysis to reconstruct the dietary traces left in the human remains found in an Italian necropolis, revealing what daily life was like in that community 2,700 years ago. Despite the passage of time, certain patterns of behavior recur: diet, human mobility, gender differences, and the role of funerary symbolism to signify social status.

The study focused on the Novilara necropolis, one of the largest burial grounds of the Picene culture (a pre-Roman culture in central Italy that was contemporaneous with the Tartessian societies on the Iberian Peninsula, among others), and combined bioarchaeological and multi-isotopic analyses.

Specifically, the research team analyzed the stable isotopes of carbon, nitrogen, and sulfur, "chemical footprints" of diets, recorded in bones, teeth, hair, and nails that can be preserved for thousands of years. "As they form, bones and teeth absorb the isotopic composition of the food and water consumed. As a result, analyzing them can provide information about diet, mobility, and the environment in which people lived," explained Zita Laffranchi, a researcher in the Prehistory Department at the University of Córdoba.

While isotopes provide information about diet, food offers clues about social behavior. In this regard, the study revealed a diet that differed by sex (men had greater access to animal protein compared to women), and a society in which between 1.4% and 6.4% of the people came from other areas, suggesting mobility and contact with other populations, including some that were even distant.

Their diet, primarily based on cereals and meat rather than fish — despite the proximity of the Adriatic Sea, just 6 kilometers away — suggests that the prestige reflected in some tombs wasn't always accompanied by noticeable differences in the living conditions of those who were buried.

"The study shows that social inequality cannot be interpreted solely based on the objects placed in graves," Laffranchi explained. Individuals buried with valuable objects, such as amber ornaments or weapons, showed no isotopic evidence of eating better than those buried more modestly. This suggests that the social status conveyed by the grave was a symbolic construct that did not necessarily reflect the deceased's position or living conditions. Instead, it likely stemmed, at least in part, from the decisions and traditions of the community's survivors.

The study, published in the Journal of Archaeological Science, provides new evidence about the lifestyles of pre-Roman Iron Age societies and helps us understand the extent to which social differences, gender, and mobility were reflected in daily life. "The study demonstrates the potential of bioarchaeological approaches to understand how people experienced identity, mobility, and social differences in the past," said Marco Milella, a researcher at the University of Pisa.

Reference

Laffranchi, Z., Beck De Lotto, M.A., Delpino, C., Lösch, S., Milella, M. (2026). Multi-isotopic insights into diet, mobility, and status in the Picene necropolis of Novilara, Italy (8th–7th centuries BCE). Journal of Archaeological Science 192, 106633. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2026.106633

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Journal

Journal of Archaeological Science

DOI

10.1016/j.jas.2026.106633 

Article Title

Multi-isotopic insights into diet, mobility, and status in the Picene necropolis of Novilara, Italy (8th–7th centuries BCE)

 

Monitoring of overwintering leaf age by integrating phenological, temporal, and thermal data: An indicator for assessing winter wheat seedling condition

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

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Fig. 1 – Workflow of the proposed method for monitoring winter wheat leaf age

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Credit: Zhenhai Li, et al.

The seedling condition of winter wheat before overwintering affects its safe overwintering and final yield, and leaf age is an important indicator for evaluating the seedling condition. However, traditional leaf age surveys primarily rely on manual observation, which is not only time-consuming and labor-intensive but also makes large-scale and simultaneous observations difficult. Existing methods based on image segmentation are constrained by issues such as unclear leaf boundaries, leaf overlapping, and high computational complexity, limiting their large-scale application.

Against this backdrop, a research team led by Dr. Zhenhai Li from Shandong University of Science and Technology has proposed a method for monitoring winter wheat leaf age that integrates remote sensing phenological information, temporal variations in vegetation indices, and GDD (Fig. 1). Their study, made available online on May 28, 2026 in The Crop Journal, integrates remote sensing and meteorological data, providing new technical support for the monitoring and precise management of winter wheat seedling condition on a regional scale and laying the foundation for cross-regional application and long-term monitoring.

Based on MODIS remote sensing data and ERA5-Land reanalysis temperature data, the research team first extracted the emergence date of winter wheat and then used the emergence date, GDD, and NDVI change rate (β) to construct a physiologically-based GDD leaf age model (LAGDD) and a random forest-based leaf age model (LARF) to estimate the leaf age of winter wheat before overwintering.

To evaluate model performance, the researchers used field-measured leaf age samples for validation and found that the LARF model, which integrates multi-source data, significantly improved the accuracy of leaf age monitoring. It achieved an R² of 0.67 and an RMSE of 0.56 leaves, which was significantly better than the LAGDD model that relied solely on GDD. “The model demonstrated good adaptability and stability in major winter wheat planting areas of Shandong Province, providing a new technical solution for regional-scale winter wheat seedling monitoring,” says corresponding author Dr. Zhenhai Li.

The researchers also found that the emergence date is a key factor affecting the leaf age of winter wheat before overwintering. Winter wheat that emerges earlier can accumulate more GDD before overwintering, thereby achieving a higher leaf age and a better seedling condition. “This phenomenon was particularly evident in 2021. The continuous rainfall in Shandong Province that year led to widespread delays in sowing and emergence, ultimately resulting in a generally lower leaf age across the province,” explains Li. “This further illustrates the important role of sowing and emergence dates in the development of seedling condition.”

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Contact Author:

Zhenhai Li

E-mail address: lizh323@126.com

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 200 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

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Journal

The Crop Journal

DOI

10.1016/j.cj.2026.05.002 

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Monitoring of overwintering leaf age by integrating phenological, temporal, and thermal data: An indicator for assessing winter wheat seedling condition

Pm72, a new powdery mildew resistance gene identified from wild einkorn wheat

KeAi Communications Co., Ltd.

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Characterization of the new powdery mildew resistance gene Pm72 from wild einkorn accession PI 427741

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Credit: Siyuan Zhou, et al.

Wheat powdery mildew, a prevalent foliar disease, severely threatens wheat yield and quality. Cultivating resistant wheat varieties is an effective way to control this disease.

Wild einkorn wheat (Triticum boeoticum) is a diploid species containing Ab genome close to A genome of modern wheat. Wild einkorn has abundant genetic diversity and possesses effective resistance to several wheat diseases, such as rusts and powdery mildew. Recently, researchers from Jiangsu University have identified a new powdery mildew resistance gene, Pm72, from wild einkorn that will be a useful gene resource for wheat breeding. They published their findings in The Crop Journal.

The researchers investigated a panel of wild einkorn accessions provided by international germplasm institutions and found that the Iraqi accession PI 427741 has effective resistance to wheat powdery mildew. Genetic analysis based on a bi-parent population suggested that PI 427741 has two dominant resistance genes.

“We found that PI 427741 possesses the powdery mildew resistance gene PmNCA6. To that end, we developed a diagnostic PmNCA6 marker to detect the F2 plants,” shares Professor Huagang He, corresponding author of the study. “We then used a segregating F3 family without PmNCA6 to map the unknown resistance gene in PI 427741.”

The team adopted bulked segregant exome capture sequencing (BSE-Seq) and molecular marker technologies to determine the chromosome position of the unknow resistance gene.

“The gene, officially cataloged as Pm72 now, was mapped to a 1.28-cM genetic interval on the long arm of chromosome 6A,” says first author Siyuan Zhou. “This region corresponds to a 940-kb physical region of the TA299 reference genome, where contains 21 NLR (nucleotide-binding leucine-rich repeat receptor)-like disease resistance genes — it poses a great challenge to clone Pm72.”

To assess the utilization value of Pm72, the team investigated its resistance spectrum. They found that Pm72 is resistant to all the ten pathogen isolates tested. “Through interspecific hybridization, we that Pm72 confers effective powdery mildew resistance in the hexaploid wheat background. “It means that this new gene has potential breeding value.” adds He. “Furthermore, the 253-bp bands generated by the co-segregating marker XTb6AL05 are highly specific to the Pm72 in wheat background.”

The researchers postulated this marker to be a powerful tool for marker-assisted selection of Pm72 in breeding program.

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Author contact:

Huagang He

Email address: hghe@ujs.edu.cn

The publisher KeAi was established by Elsevier and China Science Publishing & Media Ltd to unfold quality research globally. In 2013, our focus shifted to open access publishing. We now proudly publish more than 200 world-class, open access, English language journals, spanning all scientific disciplines. Many of these are titles we publish in partnership with prestigious societies and academic institutions, such as the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

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Journal

The Crop Journal

DOI

10.1016/j.cj.2026.05.008 

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Characterization of Pm72, a new powdery mildew resistance gene on chromosome 6AL of Triticum boeoticum accession PI 427741