Only one line of code separates a method created by Duke Statistical Science Professor Fan Li from another methodology commonly used in assessing the relative effectiveness of medical treatments. But her approach has proved to be a powerful new tool for doctors trying to navigate complex treatment challenges for patients with COVID-19. Li began her work with overlap weights – the name of her methodology – years before the pandemic struck. Her initial paper on the topic was published in the Journal of the American… read more » about Duke-Developed Statistical Method Helps Physicians Weigh COVID-19 Treatments
The fall 2021 cohort at the Duke Canine Cognition Center’s Puppy Kindergarten sat -- and stood, and laid down -- for their class portrait Wednesday. Fearless, Dunn, Ethel, Gilda and Gloria are part of a long-term study at the Duke Canine Cognition Center funded by the National Institutes of Health on the cognitive development of potential service dogs. The puppies come from Canine Companions in California, which raises puppies to be trained as service dogs for people who need help with mobility, hearing and other… read more » about They're Puppies Now, But They're the Service Dogs of the Future
The roots of Duke’s Center for Combinatorial Gene Regulation go back to the second floor of the Fitzpatrick Center for Interdisciplinary Engineering, Medicine and Applied Sciences. That’s where Associate Professor of Biostatistics and Bioinformatics Tim Reddy, Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics Greg Crawford, and Professor of Biomedical Engineering Charles Gersbach have workspaces near each other. With all three harboring intense curiosity – albeit different approaches – about unlocking the human genetic… read more » about Spirit of Faculty Collaboration Endures
Twenty-four million. That’s how many students worldwide could drop out of school because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a paper published by the United Nations last year. The data are still coming in for fall back-to-school in North America. But parents and teachers in Kenya worried the U.N. prediction was proving all too true when the 2021 school year started there. About 250,000 girls and 125,000 boys who were in school at the start of the pandemic didn’t come back to the classroom. For girls in particular,… read more » about Duke-Founded Initiative Is Helping At-Risk Girls Defy the Odds in Kenya
read more » about Duke Joins $25M NSF Quantum Leap Challenge Institute for Robust Quantum Simulation
Unemployment benefits aimed at helping people during the pandemic expire Sept. 6, which could lead to a surge in job seekers as $300 per week supplemental unemployment payments end. Connel Fullenkamp, a professor of the practice of economics at Duke, says there’s good reason to believe this scenario. “Economists have estimated that nearly half of those unemployed during the pandemic recession earned a higher effective wage from their unemployment benefits than they did on the job,” says Fullenkamp, who is also director of… read more » about Pandemic Unemployment Benefits End Sept. 6. It's Not Simple as to What This Will Do to the Labor Market
DURHAM, N.C. – Trickling down over rocks, surrounded by wildflowers and ferns, Appalachian mountain streams are chock-full of life. They hold some of the world’s greatest diversity of freshwater animals, including many species that can’t be found anywhere else in the world. But this biological diversity is severely threatened by mountaintop coal mining, whose downstream pollution impacts many of these species, according to a study in the September 2021 issue of the journal Ecological Applications. Researchers found … read more » about Mountaintop Mining Causes 40 Percent Loss of Aquatic Biodiversity
The National Science Foundation has awarded a five-year, $20 million grant to Duke University researchers to explore and optimize the chemical structure and physical properties of individual molecules in a polymer network. “The long-term potential of this research includes cost- and time-efficient optimization of the polymers used in products like biomedical implants, building materials and even automobile tires,” said principal investigator Stephen Craig, the William T. Miller distinguished professor of chemistry at Duke… read more » about NSF Creates Polymer Chemistry Optimization Center at Duke for Future Materials
Tuesday marks the first day in Afghanistan without United States troops after 20 years, and the country is now under Taliban rule. But the work is just beginning for the thousands of refugees who have fled the Taliban; more than 100 of them are expected to arrive in Durham soon. Among those greeting them will be Duke faculty and students, who traditionally have played an important role in assisting the two refugee resettlement agencies in Durham assist with the refugees’ transition to life in Durham. The transition is… read more » about The Challenges Ahead for Afghan Refugees, and How Duke and Durham Will Help them
Sociology and health policy scholar Tyson Brown has been named the inaugural Presidential Fellow by Duke President Vincent E. Price. The one-year, part-time fellowship is designed to prepare promising mid-career faculty members for future leadership roles and to engage them in the administration of the university. Brown is associate professor of sociology and director of the Center on Health & Society. His research explores connections between social and health inequities. Most recently he has focused on identifying… read more » about Tyson Brown Named First Presidential Fellow at Duke
DURHAM, N.C. – What do frog eggs have in common with anti-aging creams? Their success depends on a group of chemical compounds called retinoids, which are capable of generating and re-generating tissues. A new study in plants shows that retinoids’ tissue-generating capacities are also responsible for the appropriate development of roots. If you’ve ever planted a radish seed, you know that the first thing it does is develop a long vertical root. Give it a bit more time, and it will get smaller roots that run… read more » about Growth-Promoting, Anti-Aging Retinal at the Root of Plant Growth Too
DURHAM, N.C. -- If you’ve ever suffered from a sore jaw that popped or clicked when you chewed gum or crunched hard foods, you may be able to blame it on your extinct ancestors. That’s according to a Duke University-led study of the chewing mechanics of an ancient human relative called Homo floresiensis, which inhabited the Indonesian island of Flores before our species arrived there some 50,000 years ago. Not much more than three feet tall, the hominin’s diminutive size earned it the nickname “the Hobbit,” after… read more » about The Hobbit’s Bite Gets a Stress Test
Duke Today presents seven Duke-authored books pertinent to students’, teachers’ and parents’ back-to-school experiences. These explore factors related to the classroom, home, primary and secondary school, learning, teaching and more. These books, along with many others, are available at Duke University Libraries, the Gothic Bookshop or the Regulator Bookshop. From Isolation to Conversation by Leslie Babinski Professor Leslie Babinski, director of the … read more » about Six Duke-Penned Books to Prep for Back-to-School
