news

Challenges of gender-based violence in rural settings include loss of income, isolation, absence of financial autonomy Blocked from pursuing their careers and left without any source of income. Isolated from friends, coworkers and community. Low credit scores or resumé gaps that dog them for years after the abuse.

Chemistry professor teams up with local startup company to pilot technology at safe consumption sites across the country Inside a nondescript black cube no bigger than two shoeboxes, there is sophisticated technology that can analyze the composition of street drugs in under fifteen minutes. The aim is to allow those who use drugs at safe consumption sites to understand what dangerous fillers and other drugs like fentanyl analogues might be in their sample, so they can make informed decisions about their use.

Response to health measures, COVID-19 news varied according to core beliefs, finds study co-edited by Amanda Friesen By Rob Rombouts, Special to Western News, March 29, 2023 By Rob Rombouts, Special to Western News, March 29, 2023 In 2020, as COVID-19 swept across the world, many churches closed their doors at the request of governments to slow the spread of the disease.

In one of the most comprehensive studies to date, the findings showed more than one in ten Americans used prescription opioids in the past 12 months By Western Communications , March 21, 2023 By Western Communications , March 21, 2023 More than 30 million Americans - roughly 12 per cent of the U.S. population - rely on prescription opioids.

Western study finds co-infection with 'superbug' bacteria increases SARS-CoV-2 replication  The study identifies a common protein from the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria boosts SARS-CoV-2 replication up to 15 times  By Prabhjot Sohal , March 20, 2023 By Prabhjot Sohal , March 20, 2023 Global data shows nearly 10 per cent of severe COVID-19 cases involve a secondary bacterial co-infection - with Staphylococcus aureus, also known as Staph A.

Despite the power of deep learning, computers have yet to master human calculations when it comes to visual recognition By Jeff Renaud , March 16, 2023 By Jeff Renaud , March 16, 2023 When a human spots a familiar face or an oncoming vehicle, it takes the brain a mere 100 milliseconds (about one-tenth of a second) to identify it and more importantly, place it in the right context so it can be understood, and the individual can react accordingly.

How Western researchers used remote sensing to better understand our cities By Justin Zadorsky , By Justin Zadorsky , March 16, 2023 When professor Diana Mok was completing her PhD, she had a chance encounter with a roommate that has since inspired novel research into housing more than 20 years later.

Decade-long research shows home feeders don't alter chickadee reproduction or behaviour By Megan Stacey , By Megan Stacey , March 09, 2023 Never throw bread to the neighbourhood ducks. Keep dogs and cats away from chocolate. There is a long list of rules for feeding animals. But when it comes to backyard songbirds, there is research to justify the bird feeder.

New research looks at national health data, community well-being and neighbourhood information to study effects of social environment on cardiovascular health By Prabhjot Sohal , February 23, 2023. While it can be debated whether good fences make good neighbours, a new study by Western researchers, Dr. Sarah S. Singh , Dr. Saverio Stranges and Stephanie J. Frisbee , shows that good neighbourhoods could indeed do a lot of good to your heart.

Researchers discover new way to understand and diagnose patients experiencing ringing in the ears. While it's especially common in older adults, tinnitus - a potentially devastating ringing in the ears - can affect people of all ages. Most often described as consistent buzzing, hissing or humming, tinnitus is usually caused by an underlying condition, like age-related hearing loss, an ear injury or heart disease and affects approximately one in five people in North America.

Study shows how personal stories of health risks got students to stop vaping Results could be useful for curbing other harmful behaviours among youth, says researcher  By Megan Stacey , January 27, 2023 By Megan Stacey , January 27, 2023 A new Western study shows that university students who were regularly vaping wanted to cut back after learning about the threat the habit could pose to their health.

Simulated study finds new robotic ultrasound system can optimize liver cancer ablation therapy By Lawson Health Research Institute, Special to Western News, January 25, 2023 By Lawson Health Research Institute, Special to Western News, January 25, 2023 A simulated study by researchers at Western University and Lawson Health Research Institute has found a new system that uses ultrasound to construct 3D-images could make treatment of liver cancer, using thermal ablation, more accurate.

When the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infects a person's body, it permanently inserts its genetic material into the genome where it often remains dormant and barely detectable for years. A major obstacle in finding a cure for HIV has been solving the mystery of how this dormant pool of HIV-infected cells, also called HIV latency, is established.

Artificial intelligence is the future. In fact, it's already here. One of the latest advancements is using it for automatically estimating age based on a person's face, a technology used for determining who can enter a bar or potentially view age-restricted content online. But are there biases in AI processing? Researchers from Western University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (Israel) tested a large sample of the prominent major AI technologies available today and found not only did they reproduce human biases in the recognition of facial age, but they exaggerated those biases.

Research finds chronic adolescent cannabis exposure may harm emotional and cognitive brain development through impact on separate brain regions   Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry researchers have shown that chronic exposure during adolescence to tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main psychoactive component of cannabis, may induce long-lasting memory impairments and increased anxiety levels.

Researchers at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry and Lawson Health Research Institute have shown that vaping has a negative effect on a critical layer in the lungs and may harm lung function. The study, published in the PLOS ONE Journal , shows that vaping affects pulmonary surfactant - a layer in the lungs made up of lipids and proteins that allows people to breathe with minimal effort by reducing surface tension.

A recent study by Western neuroscientists suggests that, unlike true reality, perception in virtual reality is more strongly influenced by our expectations than the visual information before our eyes. The researchers point to the challenge of online shopping, where customers sometimes mis-estimate the size of a product based on their expectations, discovering for example that a sweater purchased online is indeed lovely but sized for a doll not an adult.

Researchers from Western have shown that a fireball that originated at the edge of the Solar System was likely made of rock, not ice, challenging long-held beliefs about how the Solar System was formed. Just at the edge of our Solar System and halfway to the nearest stars is a collection of icy objects sailing through space, known as the Oort Cloud.

There's more to a strand of hair than meets the eye. This human tissue is a chronological record-keeper of the adversities endured by the human body and mind. A new study co-authored by researchers at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry's Drug Safety Lab analyzes the relationship between war exposure, current living conditions, hair cortisol concentrations (HCC) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms.

A new study co-authored by Western researcher Anna Zajacova shows that racial and ethnic disparities in pain prevalence in the U.S. are far larger than previously realized, with multiracial and Indigenous (Native American/Alaska Native) adults reporting the highest levels of pain. She says this finding is significant because pain can be used as a barometer of mental and physical health of a population.  "We aren't talking about one particular type of pain, we are looking at pain overall," said Zajacova, sociology professor at Western.