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Preparing for an online start to the winter term: for more information. Pre-existing socioeconomic vulnerability of Indigenous communities often due to colonial policies Indigenous communities are at higher risk of hardship from climate-change-caused flooding because of pre-existing socioeconomic vulnerability, a new study shows.

Preparing for an online start to the winter term: for more information. Trailblazing research is transforming the field of rehabilitation medicine by developing robotic exoskeleton legs capable of autonomous control and decision making  Brokoslaw Laschowski is using his interdisciplinary education - spanning four academic degrees - as a toolkit to integrate robotics technology with rehabilitation medicine.

Preparing for an online start to the winter term: for more information. Researchers at Waterloo are developing a technique to take MRI capabilities down to the atomic scale  Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) technology has changed the way we can look at muscles, ligaments and organs. New developments promise to take MRI technology down to the molecular level to help us better identify diseases that ravage the human body.

Preparing for an online start to the winter term: for more information. New program recognizes users' hands beside or near the keyboard and prompts operations based on different hand positions Researchers are developing a new technology that uses hand gestures to carry out commands on computers. The prototype, called "Typealike," works through a regular laptop webcam with a simple affixed mirror.

Preparing for an online start to the winter term: for more information. Wearables can provide insight into patterns of health-related behaviour and disease symptoms  Remote monitoring of health-related behaviour with wearable sensor technology is feasible for people with complex health conditions, shows a recent University of Waterloo study.

Frequent changes in safety guidelines caused people to judge experts negatively Officials could boost public trust in COVID-19 health recommendations by including reminders that changes to recommendations are expected as science evolves, a new study has found. The research team first predicted and found that reminders of the frequent changes in safety guidelines caused people to judge experts negatively.

AI can predict the necessity of ICU admission based on more than 200 clinical data points New technology could help doctors make the most of limited resources during the COVID-19 pandemic by identifying patients who require intensive care unit (ICU) treatment. The system, developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo and DarwinAI, an alumni-founded startup company, uses artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the necessity of ICU admission based on more than 200 clinical data points, including vital signs, blood test results and medical history.

AI-driven symptom checkers have the potential to reduce unnecessary medical visits More attention must be paid to improving perceptions of emerging technologies like AI-powered symptom checkers, which could ease the strain on health-care systems, according to a recent study. Symptom checkers are online platforms that help with self-triage based on a range of inputted symptoms and demographic details.

Caffeine found to increase alertness and detection accuracy for moving targets That morning coffee might be even more helpful than you think. In the first study of its kind to explore caffeine's effects on dynamic visual skills, researchers concluded that caffeine increases alertness and detection accuracy for moving targets.

Understanding bat's hibernation patterns can inform prevention and conservation efforts as white-nose syndrome spreads in North America When it comes to hibernation, conserving resources is key for an animal's survival. For bats of Western North America, water may be the key to assessing a bat species' ability to thrive during hibernation.

A significant majority of adult vapers of non-tobacco flavoured e-cigarettes, and who would be possibly impacted by flavour restrictions, oppose flavour bans, but the public health implications of possible flavour restrictions are not clear, according to a recent study.

Highly anticipated list identifies a "who's who" of influential researchers A major annual publication has recognized nine University of Waterloo faculty members as being among the most cited in the word. A list published by the global analytics firm Clarivate identifies researchers who demonstrated "significant influence in their chosen field or fields through the publication of multiple highly cited papers during the last decade." Their names are drawn from the publications that rank in the top one per cent by citations for field and publication year in the company's global citation index.

Researchers take step towards more complex quantum simulations  A team of researchers led by an Institute for Quantum Computing (IQC) faculty member performed the first-ever simulation of baryons-fundamental quantum particles-on a quantum computer. With their results, the team has taken a step towards more complex quantum simulations that will allow scientists to study neutron stars, learn more about the earliest moments of the universe, and realize the revolutionary potential of quantum computers.

New AI model enables computers to analyze text in African languages for many useful tasks Researchers have developed an AI model to help computers work more efficiently with a wider variety of languages. African languages have received little attention from computer scientists, so few natural language processing capabilities have been available to large swaths of the continent.

People are confusing the practice mindfulness with passive acceptance of problems Mindful awareness is about both accepting and engaging with life's challenges, and that's what popularized concepts of mindfulness tend to miss, new research has found. Studying popular concepts of mindfulness, the researchers found most laypeople are confusing the practice with passive acceptance of problems-a misconception scientists say ignores the important work of engaging with them.

Ontarians with chronic hepatitis C can lose up to 20 per cent of their overall income managing their condition Ontarians with chronic hepatitis C can lose up to 20 per cent of their overall income managing their condition, a new study has found. Using survey results from 275 patients, the study analyzed the financial burden of chronic hepatitis C (CHC) on patients treated in hospital and community clinics.

Scientists and medical practitioners now have a greater chance of discovering possible diseases through tissue sample analysis Researchers are developing a deep learning network capable of detecting disease biomarkers with a much higher degree of accuracy. Experts at the University of Waterloo's Cheriton School of Computer Science have created a deep neural network that achieves 98 per cent detection of peptide features in a dataset.

Mercury exposure in people may be low even when it is sometimes present in elevated levels in traditional foods. The benefits of consuming traditional foods tend to outweigh the risks of possible mercury contamination, according to a recent study. The research, which was part of a larger biomonitoring project to address community concerns about environmental contaminants in traditional foods, such as fish, also found that mercury exposure in people may be low even when it is sometimes present in elevated levels.

New technology can contribute to other medical treatments, such as cancer. Researchers have developed a new method that uses artificial intelligence to foresee the most likely mutations of pathogens like SARS-COV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. The new research has implications for the rapid development of vaccines, treatments and diagnostic tests that would be much less likely to be impacted by new or emerging variants of concern.