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Van Gogh is coming to Augusta. Are you ready to immerse yourself in 300 of the artist's works?

Beyond Van Gogh — The Immersive Experience is coming to Augusta later this month. The exhibit has been getting rave reviews and has wowed more than 5 million art lovers interested in the famous Dutch painter since it began touring in 2017. It has been named 2021's best immersive experience by USA Today and was ranked among the 12 best immersive experiences in the world by CNN. But before it arrives, hear from Scott Thorp, chair of the Augusta University Pamplin College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Department of Art and Design, for an expert's perspective before the exhibit opens locally. Why do you think an exhibit like this has exceeded expectations nationwide for those who've come to see it? I believe these types of exhibitions exceed expectations because they are so stimulating. They include a new type of interactive media that entirely surrounds the viewer. You are more of a participant than a viewer in these situations. It’s like Disney is coming to your hometown. People are used to craning their necks to view static art on a wall. With this, you have to keep looking around to ensure you are getting everything. The technology here is relatively novel. Plus, it’s all around you. Sometimes museums feel intimidating, stuffy, or exclusive, so not everyone feels comfortable in those environments. However, blockbuster shows for Van Gogh or Monet have historically done exceptionally well. I look back to an exhibition at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in 2003 as a precursor to exhibits that use the work of established artists to create new and interesting environments. A sculptor named Seward Johnson exhibited his sculptural interpretations of impressionist paintings at the Corcoran Gallery of Art. It was called “Beyond the Frame.” And it was a huge success. You could walk into Van Gogh’s bedroom or Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party.” Do you think we'll see more exhibits like this in the future with other artists? Yes, this is only the beginning. There are several companies like Meow Wolf that do this all the time. Meow Wolf started back in 2008 and has been creating all kinds of engaging, high-tech installations. This will spread to more permanent venues such as the Illuminarium in Atlanta. The Illuminarium currently has a Georgia O’Keefe exhibition up. Could you see permanent exhibits like this in museums to give visitors a unique experience?  I actually see these popping up all over the place. As they move forward, I’m sure artists will use this medium as their own. So it won’t be just about an artist of the past; the experience will be the actual work of contemporary artists. One thing that’s also interesting is there are applications for interactive spaces in many fields. Augusta University has an interactive wall in radiology. Thorp is also associate vice president for research at Augusta University and has worked for more than a decade as an exhibiting artist. His research interests include user-centered design, design thinking, and the psychology of creativity. Scott is available to speak about Beyond Van Gogh — The Immersive Experience. Simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.

Aston University offers emergency interpreter training for Ukrainian speakers to support refugees

Dr Emmanuelle Labeau and Dr Yvonne Fowler are running Emergency Interpreting Training for Ukrainian Speakers to introduce them to the basics of interpreting The 10-hour training (10 x one hour) will take place on Tuesday and Thursday evenings online for five weeks It is part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project with support from Aston University’s College of Business and Social Sciences. Aston University has kicked off a five-week introduction to interpreting course for Ukrainian speakers to enable emergency interpreters to support Ukrainian refugees arriving in the UK. It is part of an Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) project called BRUM (Birmingham Research for Upholding Multilingualism) with support from Aston University’s College of Business and Social Sciences. Dr Emmanuelle Labeau (AHRC fellow for the Future of Language Research) and Dr Yvonne Fowler are running Emergency Interpreting Training for Ukrainian Speakers. The 10-hour training scheme (10 one-hour sessions) started on 28 April 2022 and will take place every Tuesday and Thursday evening online for five weeks. It has been devised to enable emergency interpreters to deliver a better service to traumatised Ukrainian refugees whose English is limited and who may require interpreting help in every aspect of their lives to access housing, physical and mental healthcare, educational facilities and welfare benefits. Dr Emmanuelle Labeau, co-director of Aston Centre for Applied Linguistics (ACAL) at Aston University, said: “Ukrainian refugees are arriving in the UK and there are few trained qualified Ukrainian interpreters to support those refugees with limited or no English in their dealings with public services. “We have had a fantastic response to our offer of free emergency training in interpreting for Ukrainian speakers in the West Midlands, as part of the AHRC-funded BRUM project. “I am thrilled that we have been able to pull this together and I am really pleased with how the first session went. We have people of all walks of life such as social services, healthcare, education and even a refugee who are so committed to help in any way they can, and it is lovely to empower them to do so!” Dr Yvonne Fowler said: “I am really proud to see this project get off the ground and help people in need. “I have been a public service interpreter trainer for the last 25 years. “My work has mostly involved preparing interpreters for the Diploma In Public Service, Interpreting Law and Healthcare options. “But during this period, I delivered emergency interpreter training to support various waves of refugees who have come to Birmingham over the last 20 years: the Vietnamese boat refugees, the Bosnian refugees in the aftermath of the Bosnian war, and a month in Kosovo after the war there to train Albanian and Serbian interpreters at the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.”

UConn Expert Weighs In On 'What Drives a Black Mass Shooter?'

“We would be missing a critical moment," says Dr. Wizdom Powell, "for us to look at the systems that we have set up and ask ourselves, are we serving every person who has a mental health need well, and if we’re not, what are we going to do about it?” Director of the Health Disparities Institute and associate professor of psychiatry at UConn Health, Dr. Powell studies the impact of modern racism and gender norms on African American male health outcomes and healthcare inequities. In a recent interview with the Amsterdam News following a mass shooting incident involving an alleged Black suspect, Dr. Powell weighed in the ways in which implicit racism can frame how law enforcement classifies shootings, the importance of deconstructing harmful racial and gender stereotypes, and the delivery of mental health services to communities and individuals in need: “When you call something gang violence, I think people’s empathy goes down to zero because they think those people are killing themselves,” said Powell. “You know, it’s their problem. Nevermind the victims.” Powell said that in the event of a mass shooting incident there is usually a “sympathy” conveyed for a person as a “complicated human” as opposed to a person of color who was involved in a gang shooting. “When do you get a full picture of that person? Who they were as a child, all of the traumas they experienced, their lack of resources,” said Powell. Powell thinks there’s a conflation in general between individuals who are mentally ill and those who commit mass shootings. She said mass shootings are a massive public health crisis with many factors contributing, with mental illness being one of many. ********** Powell said that the emotionality or interior lives of Black men are always spoken about with an undue amount of concentrated attention on their anger. She strives to deconstruct the stereotype of the ‘angry Black male.’ She said that there is a prevailing presumption that anger is somehow bad or pathological when it’s actually a legitimate response to emotional suffering and injustice. So when an incident that fits the stereotype of the ‘angry Black male’ occurs, people hyper focus on it because it confirms their bias. “I think there is a disproportionality in our reporting about these incidents by race,” said Powell, “we also tend to paint the picture of these shooters more sympathetically, when the shooters are non-Hispanic white males as opposed to males from other socially marginalized groups.” In the 1960s, said Powell, there was a shift in the way that the field of psychology and psychiatry viewed Black men and their symptomatology while civil rights protests were erupting around the country. Prior to the ’60s “middle class, white housewives” were diagnosed with schizophrenia more often, but there was a sharp uptick among Black males afterwards. “Again, reminiscent of an earlier time where Black people’s quest for liberation was pathologized,” said Powell. Powell said that health and science is still at the “tip of the iceberg” in identifying symptoms of depression in Black men. She said her studies have found that societal racism or experiencing racism or secondary traumas of racial reckoning is definitively at the root of Black and Brown male depression. Dr. Powell is available to speak with media – simply click on her icon now to arrange an interview today.

'A Fundamental Part of Being Human' - UConn Expert on the Ritual of Caring for the Dead

The War in Ukraine has brought images of death and mourning onto screens across the globe and directly into public consciousness.  Funerary rights, explains UConn expert Dimitris Xygalatas, are among the traits that archeologists find distinguishing between humans and other species. While those rituals are ostensibly about the dead, their importance, he writes in a new essay published in The Conversation, lies in the roles they play for those still living: They allow them to grieve, seek comfort, face the reality of death and find the strength to move on. They are deeply human acts, which is why being deprived of them can feel devastating and dehumanizing. This is what is happening in Ukraine. In besieged cities, people cannot retrieve the bodies of their loves ones from the streets out of fear of being killed. In other cases, Ukrainian officials have accused the Russian army of burying victims in mass graves to hide war crimes. Even when they are retrieved, many of the corpses have been mutilated, making them difficult to identify. To people who have lost their loved ones, the lack of a proper send-off can feel like a second loss. The need for closure is widely recognized to be indispensable – not only by anthropologists and psychologists, but also first responders, governments and international organizations. This is why armies go to great lengths to return the remains of fallen soldiers to their families, even if that takes decades. The right to a burial is acknowledged even for one’s foes. The Geneva Convention stipulates that belligerents must ensure that the bodies of enemies are “honorably interred” and that their graves are respected and “properly maintained and marked so that they may always be found.” Given the importance of those rites, it is also striking that the Russian defense ministry has reportedly been reluctant to bring their own dead back home, because they are concerned with covering up the scale of the losses. This seeming indifference to the suffering of Russia’s own people and their need for closure may be yet another act of dehumanization. Professor Xygalatas is an anthropologist and cognitive scientist at the University of Connecticut who specializes in some of the things that make us human, including ritual, music, cooperation, and the interaction between cognition and culture. He is available to speak with media, simply click on his icon to arrange an interview today.

Livestreamed public lecture: How to help children develop healthier eating habits

Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment to host second in a series of livestreamed public lectures Molecules to Minds will explore Professor Jackie Blissett’s research into understanding and supporting children’s healthy eating behaviour The one-hour livestream will be followed by a Q&A and round table discussion Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment (IHN) will host its second livestreamed public lecture in the series Molecules to Minds on Aston University’s digital channel Aston Originals on Thursday 5 May 2022. Professor Jackie Blissett, the Institute’s co-director, will present her lecture: Understanding and supporting children's healthy eating behaviour. Jackie will discuss how ‘one size does not fit all’ when it comes to supporting children to develop healthier eating habits. Jackie and her team from the Aston University Psychology of Eating in Adults and Children (PEACh) group will explore how we can better understand and support children's healthy eating habits. The lecture will draw on the latest research undertaken by Jackie as part of the PEACh group. After the one-hour livestreamed lecture, Professor Blissett and members of the Aston University PEACh team, Dr Abigail Pickard and Dr Megan Jarman, will host a Q&A and round table discussion, where audience members can address researchers with their questions. Professor Blissett, co-director of IHN, said: “Why children eat what they eat, and why it is so difficult to change, is much more complicated than many people assume. Our goal is to better understand the complex factors which predict children’s eating so we can design interventions that are more likely to work.” With more than 20 years of experience working in this field, much of Jackie's research has focused on biological, affective and cognitive factors affecting eating and feeding in parents and their children. Jackie’s main interests are in children’s fussy eating, including fruit and vegetable acceptance, emotional eating and obesity. The livestream will take place at 16:00 – 17:00 BST on Thursday 5 May on the Aston Originals YouTube channel. To register for this event please visit our Eventbrite page. For more information about Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment (IHN) please visit our website.

Disney and other corporations are being pushed into social and political battles

At one time, corporations didn't get get in the middle of social and political battles, according to David Primo, professor of political science and business administration at the University of Rochester. The Disney Corporation recently came out in opposition to Florida's "Don't Say Gay" law, and Primo says it was "dramatic" how quickly the state responded by removing the company's self-governing special district status. As Primo sees it, increased political polarization across the country is leading employees, consumers, and activists to push corporations to take positions on issues like police brutality and LGBTQ rights. The irony, though, is that Americans are polarized over whether corporations ought to be doing this. "In general, Democrats are highly supportive of this, and Republicans are not," says Primo. "It's pretty straight forward to think that a corporation ought to be taking positions on issues related to its core business operations," says Primo. "The challenge for an executive, who has a fiduciary responsibility to the company, is knowing where to draw the line." So, if a company stakes out a position, Primo says it's just as likely to alienate a significant portion of its consumer base, as it is to gain the support of another portion of its base.

ChristianaCare Scientists Show for the First Time That Tumor Cells Can Manipulate the Body’s Natural Antibody Response to Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Findings point to potential new therapeutic targets for this highly aggressive, drug-resistant breast cancer subtype In breakthrough research at ChristianaCare’s Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute, scientists have discovered that a protein secreted by tumor cells can switch off the body’s natural defenses against triple negative breast cancer (TNBC). The study, led by Jennifer Sims-Mourtada, Ph.D., lead research scientist at the Cawley Center for Translational Cancer Research (CTCR), at the Graham Cancer Center, is reported in The Journal of Translational Medicine, available online. “What we found is that TNBC tumor cells can effectively shut down the body’s defense systems against the tumor by secreting a type of protein called IL-10,” Dr. Sims-Mourtada said. “The presence of this immune system protein forces the antibodies that would normally be created to attack the tumor to become non-reactive and not do what they are supposed to do.” The study was initiated in partnership with The Wistar Institute of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in collaboration with the late Raj “Shyam” Somasundaram, Ph.D., a cell biologist at the Melanoma Research Center. “Dr. Sims-Mourtada and her team have brought us tantalizingly close to understanding what drives the aggressive nature of triple negative breast cancer, a treatment-starved disease that disproportionately affects Delaware women,” said Nicholas J. Petrelli, M.D., Bank of America endowed medical director of the Helen F. Graham Cancer Center & Research Institute. “Their work underscores our belief that scientific collaborations such as this one between our Cawley CTCR clinicians and Wistar scientists can smooth the way for new findings to become effective therapies, especially for hard-to-treat and aggressive forms of cancer like TNBC.” Understanding the mechanism behind TNBC Delaware ranks highest in the nation for incidence of triple negative breast cancer. TNBC is an aggressive form that affects Black women at twice the rate of white women with poorer outcomes. Patients have higher rates of early recurrence than other breast cancer subtypes, particularly in the first five years after diagnosis. Currently there is no targeted therapy for TNBC. “One of our missions within the Cawley CTCR is to understand the mechanisms behind TNBC and find a treatment for it,” Dr. Sims-Mourtada said. “Our study sheds new light on what is prompting the body’s immune response to the cancer cells and offers clues to potential new therapeutic targets.” Normally it is the job of the B cells to regulate the immune response against foreign invaders like cancer. Among other jobs, they control inflammation at the site of an attack by releasing proteins including IL-10 to signal the defender cells to stand down. “Previously it was thought that the immune cells were the ones to express IL-10 to regulate themselves,” Dr. Sims-Mourtada said. “But our study shows that the tumor cells also release this protein, which means they are driving how the immune system behaves.” Within the tumor microenvironment, IgG4 is one of four antibody subclasses expressed and secreted by B cells. Whereas another type of antibody would urge the immune system to press on with the attack, activation of IgG4 signals the job is done. TNBC and activation of IgG4 “Our findings support that TNBC may create a tumor environment that supports activation of IgG4, and messaging from IL10 is triggering the switch,” Dr. Sims-Mourtada said. As previously reported with other cancers, such as melanoma, this study confirms that the presence of IgG4-positive B cells within the tumor associates with advanced disease increased recurrence and poor overall breast cancer survival. It is also possible that IL-10 expression by tumor cells may also be a cause of poor outcomes in TNBC, and this may be independent of IgG4+ B cells. “At this point, we don’t know what causes tumor cells to start secreting IL-10, but we know that B cell-tumor cell interactions are involved,” Dr. Sims-Mourtada said. “We still have to look at what is really going on in the B cell population to determine which subtypes of B cells are affected by this tumor crosstalk and why some forms of TNBC express IL-10 (the ones with poor outcomes) and others do not. “We think that the presence or absence of other immune cells in the microenvironment may affect how B cells interact with tumor cells to drive IL-10 expression,” she said. Resources for the study, including blood and tissue samples from consenting patients, were obtained through the Graham Cancer Center’s Tissue Procurement program. Interestingly, in a small subset of samples, the researchers found that IL-10 expression was significantly higher in Black patients than non-Hispanic white patients. These findings need to be confirmed in a larger more diverse population with different TNBC subtypes. Understanding tumor-infiltrating B cells “Our growing understanding of the contribution of IgG4+ cells to the immune microenvironment of TNBC and what drives IL-10 expression may reveal ways in which tumor-infiltrating B cells can contribute to tumor growth and provide new targets to increase the immune response to TNBC,” Dr. Sims-Mourtada said. As partners for more than a decade, Graham Cancer Center research clinicians and Wistar scientists collaborate across disciplines to translate cancer research into more effective therapies for patients everywhere. In addition to providing high-quality, viable tissue samples for Wistar research studies, Graham Cancer Center clinicians actively participate in concept development, sharing their unique understanding of the everyday patient experience.

Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment officially launches new £2.8m MRI scanner

A new £2.8 million MRI scanner has been unveiled at Aston University. The showcase took place in Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment on Monday 25 April. The event was attended by Aston University Interim Vice-Chancellor Saskia Loer Hansen and other members of the University executive team, together with academic researchers in the University’s College of Health and Life Sciences. After an official ribbon-cutting ceremony hosted by the Institute co-directors Professor Jackie Blissett and Professor Gavin Woodhall, guests were invited to take a tour of the new MRI scanner facilities where imaging researchers were on hand to showcase and discuss their research for which the new MRI scanner is a vital facility. Interim Vice-Chancellor Saskia Loer Hansen said: “I am delighted that Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment is home to this state-of-the-art facility. Having a new MRI scanner on our campus will not only enable our scientists to undertake their neuroimaging research, but will also benefit so many patients in the region who urgently need this facility as part of their medical treatment. “Our new MRI scanner further highlights the world-class research that our scientists are undertaking at Aston University.” The new Siemens MAGNETOM Prisma 3T MRI scanner was installed over a period of four months starting in November 2021, including the work undertaken to remove the old machine from the building. The scanner has been made ‘child friendly’ with suitable images and the room which hosts the scanner has a wall mural of cherry blossom trees. The new MRI scanner will enhance the world-class neuroimaging research facilities within the Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment and support the development of the next generation of researchers. Professor Jackie Blissett, co-director of Aston Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment, said: “The new MRI scanner will enhance the world-class neuroimaging research facilities within the Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment. It will allow us to answer the questions that matter to children and young people, their families and the services that support them.” Aston University researchers use advanced neuroimaging techniques to examine brain health in children with neurological diseases and developmental disorders and are developing a research programme focused on children and young people to deliver a new understanding of development, disorder and disease and the interventions that will make a difference. The new scanner will also enable the Institute to provide the most recent innovations in MRI for patients visiting through the clinical service Aston University Imaging. Patients visiting for MRI scans come through private referrals, as well as from local institutions such as the Birmingham Royal Ballet and Aston Villa Football Club.

Tyre Extinguishers: Activists are deflating SUV tyres in the latest pop up climate movement

A new direct action group calling itself the Tyre Extinguishers recently sabotaged hundreds of sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in various wealthy parts of London and other British cities. Under cover of darkness, activists unscrewed the valve caps on tyres, placed a bean or other pulse on the valve and then returned the cap. The tyres gently deflated. Why activists are targeting SUVs now can tell us as much about the failures of climate policy in the UK and elsewhere as it can about the shape of environmental protest in the wake of Extinction Rebellion and Insulate Britain. Graeme Hayes talks about the activism that's been going on since the mid 00s.

Aston University Students’ Union to host Birmingham City Council leaders’ hustings

Leaders from the Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and Green parties will take part in the event It will be held in the Students’ Union in front of an audience on 29 April Aston University alumnus, Charmaine Burton, will chair the hustings which is also being aired on New Style Radio and livestreamed on Instagram. Aston Students’ Union is set to host a Birmingham City Council leaders’ hustings ahead of the local elections on 5 May 2022. Local leaders from the Labour, Conservative, Lib Dem and Green parties will take part in the event that will be held in the Students’ Union in front of a live audience on the 29 April. There will be the opportunity for people in the room, and online, to ask questions directly to the party leaders. On 5 May, all 101 councillors’ seats will be contested in the Birmingham local elections. The leader of the party that wins the most seats will become the leader of Birmingham City Council. The leader and their cabinet will be responsible for which policies the Council should pursue in relation to provision of services and how the Council’s money is spent. Aston University alumnus, Charmaine Burton, will chair the hustings which is also being streamed online on her The Different Anglez show on New Style Radio and livestreamed via the Aston Students’ Union Instagram. Balraj Purewal, president of Aston Students’ Union, said: “It is great that Aston Students’ Union is hosting such an important political event. “This is a fantastic opportunity for the general public and students who’re studying politics or are engaged in it to come along and ask questions and get involved. “I am excited to welcome the four party leaders to our wonderful venue and am looking forward to holding other important events in it in the future.” Charmaine Burton, a former Aston University student who is chairing the hustings, said: “It is so important the citizens of Birmingham have the opportunity to ask about issues of concern to the leaders of the local parties. “It is an opportunity to question them about their manifestos which they and their candidates are battling for a seat on in the local elections and will be held accountable to if they gain power.” There are 100 places available, and you can book yours here. The event is a partnership between Aston Students’ Union and The Different Anglez Show.