UTA In The News — Friday, July 16, 2021
Racial justice award winner
Aiming to address racial injustice and inequity through university-city partnerships, the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities today named The University of Texas at Arlington as its inaugural Racial Justice and Equity Program Award Winner, States News Service reported. UT Arlington will focus on improving health literacy to address inequities as part of its efforts to create a thriving community.
Helping students
Ashley Purgason, associate vice provost for student success at UT Arlington, told KXAS NBC 5 and KXTX Telemundo 39 that the University is offering programs to students to address learning loss that might have occurred during the pandemic. The program plugs students into peer mentors and coaches to help them catch up.
Photodynamic therapy
An international team led by physics researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington has published a paper in Bioactive Materials that describes a breakthrough method of photodynamic therapy, an emerging cancer treatment, Medical Xpress reported. Nil Kanatha Pandey, a doctoral student in physics Professor Wei Chen's lab, is the first author in the study.
Ransomware study
Kay-Yut Chen and Jingguo Wang, UT Arlington College of Business professors in the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management, and Yan Lang, UTA doctoral student, are authors of a new published study exploring how ransomware attacks sometimes pit organizations against the law enforcement agencies trying to protect them, Technology Business Daily reported.
Avatar marketing
Fred Miao, a UT Arlington associate professor of marketing, says digital avatars can replace a sales force and customer service employees at a fraction of the cost in a recently published paper, Knowledia.com, Scienmag, Phys.org, Science Daily and many other media outlets reported.
Diagnosing small tumors
Baohong Yuan, a UT Arlington bioengineering professor, is developing a technique to diagnose tiny breast tumors that could reduce the anxiety, uncertainty and high costs often faced by patients, News-Medical.net, 7thSpace and U.S. Fed News reported. His research is funded through the National Institutes of Health.
Protecting coasts
Michelle Hummel, a UT Arlington assistant professor of civil engineering, was lead author of a report showing that fixing some coastal flooding problems could make flooding worse for nearby communities, Scienmag and U.S. Fed News reported. The report was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Youth suicide discussion
KERANews.org conducted a roundtable discussion of youth suicide in marginalized communities. Jaya Davis a UT Arlington associate professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, participated in the discussion.
Smartphone medical apps
People who use smartphones and wearable devices are able to track key health metrics like heart rate and time asleep, Verywell Health reported. But it can be challenging to figure out how that information fits into checkups at the doctor’s office. With an update to the Apple Health app, doctors will now be able to merge the two to gain a more holistic view of a patient’s health. Liao Yue, a UT Arlington assistant professor of kinesiology, said the news could help older adults who had dementia or Alzheimer’s because family members could benefit from knowing honest information.
Surrogacy issue
Heather Jacobson, UT Arlington professor of sociology and anthropology, was featured on North Carolina’s WUNC 91.5 FM about the surrogacy industry. She was featured on North Carolina Public Radio’s “Embodied” show. Jacobson authored “Labor of Love: Gestational Surrogacy and the Work of Making Babies” as part of her research into the industry.
Social detachment help
James Campbell Quick, a UT Arlington and the University of Manchester in England professor emeritus, said, “There’s a sure measure of social detachment that happens as you ascend through an association,” The Chat Mogul reported in an article about how to arrange a work schedule to avoid stress. “You’re not pals with individuals working for you. You may have great associations with them, yet you’re answerable for them in an alternate manner,” Quick said.