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Georgia Southern University President Kyle Marrero delivered a virtual State of the University fall 2020 address to faculty and staff, broadcast live from the Performing Arts Center on the Statesboro Campus on Aug. 12. Maxing out with 1,507 viewers at one point, University members tuned in from remote locations to hear the president discuss how Georgia Southern is successfully adapting during extraordinarily difficult times and will continue to be nimble during the fall semester. “We are being asked to be innovative, flexible, nimble and willing to adapt and change,” Marrero said after welcoming all back to the three campuses. “And I want to thank you. You all have been tremendous, remarkable, heroic even, as we made it through these times and as we navigate through these uncertain times.” Marrero touted the herculean efforts of faculty and staff, who maintained the integrity of the University’s five pillars — student success, teaching and research, inclusive excellence, operational efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability, and community engagement, in the midst of a pandemic that caused the University to move fully online in March. He cited specific examples of performance excellence since March with the following collective efforts: Moved more than 5,000 classes to fully online to complete the Spring 2020 Semester; Delivered summer term fully online while seeing credit-hour generation move up by more than 4%, compared to the Summer 2019 Semester; Moved 4,600 students out of housing and provided support for more than 100 students who remained on campus; Refunded almost $11 million in housing, dining and fees to students; Held virtual Spring 2020 Commencement, viewed by more than 100,000 worldwide; Provided more than $11 million in CARES Act grant funding directly to students; Developed and began implementation of Initial Return to Campus and Return to Campus Plans, based on input from more than 130 faculty staff across campus and public health guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Georgia Department of Public Health; Modeled a 14% state budget reduction for FY21, then completed a 10% realized reduction, totaling $14.2 million; Developed and implemented flexible and remote work processes; Assessed and modified almost 5,000 courses for fall 2020; Prepared campus with signage, cloth face coverings, face shields, PPE, hand sanitizer stations; Formed and implemented the CARES Service Center; Continued communication, coordination and monitoring of community health care providers, public/private schools, municipalities and agencies. Marrero also presented August figures showing that fall 2020 enrollment looks strong compared to this same time last year, however, he was quick to note that the figures may fluctuate based on various factors throughout the semester. Final fall enrollment figures will be released in October. “We can continue to move forward,” he said. “We can continue to elevate and live our mission and our vision and our values even in these times. We will adapt, we’ll be nimble and we’ll ensure that every day that the public health and safety of our faculty, staff, students and our community is of paramount importance. “I am confident that we are ready as we can be and together we’ll assess and navigate the entirety of the fall semester with the goal and outcome of our students being successful. As a whole Georgia Southern University can make it through this together.” If you are journalist and would like to know more about Georgia Southern university and how it is succeeding during COVID-19, simply reach out to Georgia Southern Director of Communications Jennifer Wise at jwise@georgiasouthern.edu to arrange an interview today.
Environment-Friendly Compound Shows Promise for Solar Cell Use
A widespread transition to solar energy will depend heavily on reliable, safe, and affordable technology like batteries for energy storage and solar cells for energy conversion. Nikhil Koratkar, an endowed professor of mechanical, aerospace, and nuclear engineering at Rensselaer, has dedicated much of his research to exploring ways to make a wide-range of batteries more efficient, affordable, and safe. In research published in Advanced Functional Materials, Koratkar and a team of engineers, material scientists, and physicists demonstrated how a new material — a lead-free chalcogenide perovskite — that hadn’t previously been considered for use in solar cells could provide a safer and more effective option than others that are commonly considered. “The National Academy of Engineering has defined 14 grand challenges; one of those is to make harvesting energy from the sun cheaper and more widespread,” Koratkar said. "That’s the motivation of this work, to come up with new materials that could rival the efficiency of silicon, but bring down the cost of manufacturing solar cells, and that is the key to achieving this goal.” Koratkar is available to talk about this recent discovery, and his broader expertise and research in energy storage.
Airing commercials after political ads actually helps sell nonpolitical products
About $7 billion reportedly will be spent this fall on television and digital commercials from political campaigns and political action committees, filling the airwaves with political ads many viewers dislike. Companies running ads immediately afterward have been concerned about the potential of a negative spillover effect on how they and their products and services are perceived. But new research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business finds that the opposite is true. Contrary to mainstream thought, political ads instead yield positive spillover effects for nonpolitical advertisers. And this happens regardless of whether the political ad is an attack ad or not, who the ad supports, and whether it's sponsored by a candidate, political party or PAC. Political advertising accounts for nearly 10 percent of all U.S. television ad revenue. The findings are in the article "Impact of Political Television Advertisements on Viewers' Response to Subsequent Advertisements" -- accepted for publication in Marketing Science -- by Beth Fossen, assistant professor of marketing; Girish Mallapragada, associate professor of marketing and Weimer Faculty Fellow; and doctoral candidate Anwesha De, all from the Kelley School of Business. "Our investigations provide insights into the previously unexplored ad-to-ad spillover effects and, more broadly, provides insights into how political messages influence consumers," Fossen said. "Nonpolitical ads that follow political ads benefit through a reduction in audience decline and an increase in positive post-ad chatter." Using data for 849 national prime-time ads during the 2016 U.S. general election, the researchers found that ads airing after a political commercial saw an 89 percent reduction in audience decline and a 3 percent increase in post-ad chatter online. Their findings remained consistent when examining the effect by TV network and political party affiliation. "It seems reasonable to assume that Fox News viewers are more likely to be positively stimulated by pro-Republican ads than viewers of other channels," researchers wrote. "However, evidence from our data suggests that the positive spillover from pro-Republican ads is not higher and is nearly lower on Fox News viewership decline than when pro-Republican ads air on other channels." They found a similar trend when it came to advertising on MSNBC, whose viewers frequently identify with the Democratic Party and progressive causes. Mallapragada said the findings show that television networks and stations can leverage the positive spillover effects on subsequent ads by implementing differential pricing and systematic ad sequencing. Prevailing belief in the business industry has suggested that political ads on television hurt the effectiveness of subsequent ads. To illustrate this concern, during the 2020 Super Bowl, game broadcaster Fox isolated political ads from other paying advertisers in their own ad breaks, a decision that cost the network millions in ad revenue, because it ran nonpaid show promos alongside the political ads instead of commercials from paying advertisers. "The insights from this research enable advertisers to advocate for the inclusion of ad positioning in ad buys and, specifically, negotiate that their ads follow political ads," he said. "Our results may also encourage advertisers outside of the television context to experiment with advertising next to political content, an experimentation that may be especially beneficial for online advertisers given that they commonly blacklist political topics to avoid having their ads appear near political content." Editors: Contact George Vlahakis at vlahakis@iu.edu for a copy of the paper.
A New Way to Fight Pandemics: Use Decoys to Trap the Viruses that Cause Them
With a vaccine for SARS-CoV-2 still months into the future, it’s clear that we need better antivirals to hold COVID-19 and future pandemics at bay. One strategy uses a decoy to block viruses at the point where they latch onto human cells, stopping infection before it can begin. To infect a cell, a virus must first latch onto a specific target on the cell surface, slice through the cell membrane, and insert its own genetic instructions, hijacking the cellular machinery within to produce replicas of the virus. But the virus could just as easily be persuaded to lock onto a decoy molecule, provided that molecule offers the same fit as the cellular target. Once bound to a decoy, the virus would be neutralized, unable to infect a cell or free itself, and would eventually degrade. This decoy strategy has shown promise in combating a number of viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, dengue, Zika, and influenza A. Two prominent researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute — Jonathan Dordick, a chemical engineer, and Robert Linhardt, internationally recognized for his creation of synthetic heparin — focus on viruses that use glycoproteins to latch onto human cells, a trait common to many viruses including coronaviruses. Their work studies how viruses gain entry into human cells at the molecular level and identifies safe, effective compounds to offer as a decoy. In their most recent test of this viral decoy strategy on mammalian cells, Dordick and Linhardt demonstrated that a compound derived from edible seaweeds substantially outperforms remdesivir, the current standard antiviral used to combat COVID-19. Heparin, a common blood thinner, and a heparin variant stripped of its anticoagulant properties, performed on par with remdesivir in inhibiting SARS-CoV-2 infection in mammalian cells. Both compounds bind tightly to the spike protein on the surface of SARS-CoV-2, the same strategy the team employed in their previous viral work. In 2019, the team created a trap for dengue virus, attaching specific aptamers — molecules the viral latches will bind to — precisely to the tips and vertices of a five-pointed star made of folded DNA. Floating in the bloodstream, the trap lights up when sprung, creating the world’s most sensitive test for mosquito-borne diseases. Dordick and Linhardt are available to speak on the viral decoy strategy, similar antiviral research efforts, and the need for more effective antivirals in future pandemic control.
With Hurricane Season Underway, What Have Engineers Learned from Previous Storms?
With hurricane season already underway and projected to be active, communities need to make sure they have learned the lessons from previous major storms so that they are prepared for the next one. As the technical director for the Network for Earth Engineering Facility at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an expert in centrifuge modeling, Tarek Abdoun can provide that insight. Abdoun led a research team that used physical models within the Rensselaer centrifuge to determine how some of the levees in New Orleans failed during Hurricane Katrina. Those findings have provided engineers with a better understanding of how levees respond to extreme floods. Abdoun is available to talk about what engineers have been able to learn since Katrina, and how that makes levees and dams safer.
Back to school anxiety - How can parents prepare kids as the time to go back to school gets closer?
The new school year is usually an exciting time for kids and a time to celebrate for parents who have been keeping busy all summer long. A new grade and new adventures at school await. But this year, with children heading back to class in just a few short weeks, anticipation has been replaced by anxiety as a lot of kids are stressed about the idea of returning during COVID-19. For most children, predictability can play a major part in being comfortable and feeling secure. As well, with children seeing the news, having spent months in lockdown and knowing that they’ll likely be wearing a mask all day, the pressure of the ‘unknown’ may be enormous. “It is normal for kids to feel nervous about returning to school, especially if they have been learning from home for months,” said Dr. Meredith Rausch, a leading counselor education expert and associate professor in the Department of Advanced Studies and Innovation in the College of Education at Augusta University. “To help ease their anxiety, I encourage parents to reassure their children about the safety measures in place to keep them safe and remind them about the positives, such as being able to see their friends and teachers.” Rausch also recommends the following tactics parents can do at home to help ease the back-to-school anxiety. Wear a mask at home: Wear one while playing a game, reading a book or having some screen time. Normalizing life in a mask may be the new normal. Share how you feel: Parents who can share their feelings will likely prompt children to share their own. Let kids know that adults are nervous and are sometimes afraid too, and encourage young ones to open up and express any lingering or pent up emotions. This coming school year will be like no other in memory, and as parents get kids ready to head back into the classrooms – there are still a lot of questions remaining. If you’re a journalist covering this topic – then let our experts help. Dr. Meredith Rausch is a leading expert in counselor education, and her research focuses on underserved populations, particularly LGBTQ+ individuals and women. Rausch is available to speak with media regarding this important subject. Simply click on her name to arrange an interview today.
Racial and LGBT bias persists in ridesharing drivers despite mitigation efforts
Despite efforts by ridesharing companies to eliminate or reduce discrimination, research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business finds that racial and LGBT bias persists among drivers. Platforms such as Uber, Lyft and Via responded to drivers' biased behavior by removing information that could indicate a rider's gender and race from initial ride requests. However, researchers still found that biases against underrepresented groups and those who indicate support for the LGBT community continued to exist after drivers accepted a ride request -- when the rider's picture would then be displayed. In other words, their efforts shifted some of the biased behavior until after the ride was confirmed, resulting in higher cancellation rates. Understanding whether bias has been removed also is important for ridesharing companies as they not only compete against each other but also with traditional transportation options. "Our results confirm that bias at the ride request stage has been removed. However, after ride acceptance, racial and LGBT biases are persistent, while we found no evidence of gender biases," said Jorge Mejia, assistant professor of operations and decision technologies. "We show that signaling support for a social cause -- in our case, the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community -- can also impact service provision. Riders who show support for the LGBT community, regardless of race or gender, also experience significantly higher cancelation rates." Mejia and co-author Chris Parker, assistant professor in the information technology and analytics department at American University in Washington, believe they are the first to use support for social causes as a bias-enabling characteristic. Their article, "When Transparency Fails: Bias and Financial Incentives in Ridesharing Platforms," is published in Management Science. They performed a field experiment on a ridesharing platform in fall 2018 in Washington, D.C. They randomly manipulated rider names, using those traditionally perceived to be white or Black, as well as profile pictures to observe drivers' behavior patterns in accepting and canceling rides. To illustrate support for LGBT rights, the authors overlaid a rainbow filter on the rider's picture profile. "We found that underrepresented minorities are more than twice as likely to have a ride canceled than Caucasians; that's about 3 percent versus 8 percent," Mejia said. "There was no evidence of gender bias." Mejia and Parker also varied times of ride requests to study whether peak price periods affected bias. They found that higher prices associated with peak times alleviated some of the bias against riders from the underrepresented group, but not against those who signal support for the LGBT community. They believe that ridesharing companies should use other data-driven solutions to take note of rider characteristics when a driver cancels and penalize the driver for biased behavior. One possible way to punish drivers is to move them down the priority list when they exhibit biased cancellation behavior, so they have fewer ride requests. Alternatively, less-punitive measures may provide "badges" for drivers who exhibit especially low cancellation rates for minority riders. But, ultimately, policymakers may need to intervene, Mejia said. "Investments in reducing bias may not occur organically, as ridesharing platforms are trying to maximize the number of participants in the platform -- they want to attract both riders and drivers," he said. "As a result, it may be necessary for policymakers to mandate what information can be provided to a driver to ensure an unbiased experience, while maintaining the safety of everyone involved, or to create policies that require ridesharing platforms to monitor and remove drivers based on biased behavior. "Careful attention should be paid to these policies both before and after implementation, as unintended consequences are almost sure to follow any simple fix."
MEDIA RELEASE: CAA study reveals a majority of Ontario drivers favour provincial towing oversight
A recent study conducted on behalf of CAA South Central Ontario (CAA SCO) indicates that 90 per cent of Ontario drivers agree with regulations such as tow truck licensing, certification and provincial oversight. The study, commissioned in April 2020, revealed that only 1 out of 5 Ontario drivers feel “very protected” under the current system. “Consumers should have the confidence that they will be protected regardless of where in the province they are and what kind of towing services they may require,” says Teresa Di Felice, assistant vice-president of government and community relations. The study also showed that half of Ontario drivers believe that tow trucks in Ontario are licensed. This is not the case. A lack of provincial oversight in the towing industry has led to a municipal patchwork of bylaws, which includes inconsistent towing rates, processes, and standards. It has also left motorists unsure on what the rules are, and how to protect themselves from fraudulent activities particularly when it comes to collision tow services. At present, only 18 of Ontario’s 444 municipalities have bylaws regulating towing. That is less than five percent of all communities across the province. “Provincial oversight should provide consistent levels of training for operators, ensure the vitality of an important service on Ontario roads, establish penalties for those that do not follow the rules and recognize people drive outside of cities boundaries.” Some other interesting facts from the study are: An overwhelming majority (91%) of the respondents oppose the idea of anyone driving a tow truck without specific tow truck driver education or training. More than 4 out of 5 respondents agree that the cost of towing and related fees can be misleading. In June, the Ontario government announced its commitment to assemble a task force to review and reform the towing industry. For over a decade, CAA has been advocating for changes to the towing industry. The announcement of a provincial task force is a strong step in the right direction. As part of the journey toward a fair towing framework, please join CAA, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) and the Provincial Towing Association of Ontario (PTAO) for a virtual discussion on the challenges of the towing industry and an overview of what the future of towing could entail. The virtual townhall will take place on Wednesday, August 12, 2020 from noon to 1:30 p.m. To register and for more information, visit: https://www.caasco.com/blog/News/government-focuses-on-the-towing-industry-have-your-say The statistically representative study, commissioned by CAA SCO and conducted by Campaign Research between April 21st to 24th, 2020, surveyed 5,003 Ontarians that hold a valid driver’s license. The study was conducted through online surveys. A probabilistic sample of a similar size would have a margin of error of plus or minus 1.4%, 19 times out of 20.
Chatbots can ease medical providers' burden, offer trusted guidance to those with COVID-19 symptoms
COVID-19 has placed tremendous pressure on health care systems, not only for critical care but also from an anxious public looking for answers. Research from the Indiana University Kelley School of Business found that chatbots -- software applications that conduct online chats via text or text-to-speech -- working for reputable organizations can ease the burden on medical providers and offer trusted guidance to those with symptoms. Researchers conducted an online experiment with 371 participants who viewed a COVID-19 screening session between a hotline agent -- chatbot or human -- and a user with mild or severe symptoms. They studied whether chatbots were seen as being persuasive, providing satisfying information that likely would be followed. Their results showed a slight negative bias against chatbots' ability, perhaps due to recent press reports. When the perceived ability is the same, however, participants reported that they viewed chatbots more positively than human agents, which is good news for health care organizations struggling to meet user demand for screening services. "The primary factor driving user response to screening hotlines -- human or chatbot -- is perceptions of the agent's ability," said Alan Dennis, the John T. Chambers Chair of Internet Systems at Kelley and corresponding author of the paper, "User reactions to COVID-19 screening chatbots from reputable providers." "When ability is the same, users view chatbots no differently or more positively than human agents." Other authors on the paper, forthcoming in the Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, are Antino Kim, assistant professor of operations and decision technologies at Kelley; and Sezgin Ayabakan, assistant professor of management information systems, and doctoral candidate Mohammad Rahimi, both at Temple University's Fox School of Business. Even before the pandemic, chatbots were identified as a technology that could speed up how people interact with researchers and find medical information online. "Chatbots are scalable, so they can meet an unexpected surge in demand when there is a shortage of qualified human agents," Dennis, Kim and their co-authors wrote, adding that chatbots "can provide round-the-clock service at a low operational cost. "This positive response may be because users feel more comfortable disclosing information to a chatbot, especially socially undesirable information, because a chatbot makes no judgment," researchers wrote. "The CDC, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and other health organizations caution that the COVID-19 outbreak has provoked social stigma and discriminatory behaviors against people of certain ethnic backgrounds, as well as those perceived to have been in contact with the virus. This is truly an unfortunate situation, and perhaps chatbots can assist those who are hesitant to seek help because of the stigma." The primary factor driving perceptions of ability was the user's trust in the provider of the screening hotline. "Proactively informing users of the chatbot's ability is important," the authors wrote. "Users need to understand that chatbots use the same up-to-date knowledge base and follow the same set of screening protocols as human agents. ... Because trust in the provider strongly influences perceptions of ability, building on the organization's reputation may also prove useful."
Is there a path to a successful and productive life after imprisonment?
On July 8, Savannah Mayor Van Johnson announced the formation of a new task force focused on helping those formerly incarcerated or with a criminal history seek productive futures when they return to society. The Advocates for Restorative Communities in Savannah (ARCS) will bring together experts, including formerly incarcerated people, who currently work with those in the justice system. The goal is pooling their collective experiences to best serve those returning to Savannah from prison and help them toward a path of success. Georgia Southern University's Maxine Bryant, Ph.D., senior lecturer, Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology, is playing a lead role in the task force. According to Bryant, about 4% of all those in Georgia’s prisons call Chatham County home. Bryant says last year Georgia’s Department of Corrections reported there were around 53,000 people inside their prisons. “Four percent, that’s about 2,000 people, people who are currently incarcerated are probably going to be returning back to Chatham County,” said Bryant. “You add that year after year after year, and then it becomes clear that if we don’t do something, we are a part of the problem, and not the solution.” Bryant added two out of every three people who are released are rearrested within three years. “Not all of those arrests are new crimes,” she said. “Some of them are technical difficulties, technical violations. They couldn’t pay a fine because they didn’t have a job.” June 08 - WTOC TV If you are a journalist and would like to learn more about this program or this topic – then let our experts help. Maxine Bryant’s research interest specifically focuses on factors contributing to the successful community reintegration of released prisons. Specifically, she has written and presented on transitional jobs for newly released prisoners, the role of the Black church in successful offender reintegration, the impact of unaddressed childhood trauma and barriers to successful offender reintegration. She is available to speak with media any time – simply click on her icon to arrange an interview today.