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A year in the spotlight: University of Delaware’s most notable media mentions of 2025
In 2025, the University of Delaware had many exceptional media mentions. Here are some of the most notable. Science coverage dominated Where will the next big hurricane hit? Ask the sharks. (The Washington Post) – Aaron Carlisle, a marine ecologist, was featured for his revolutionary work using sharks to predict major weather events. Scientists could soon lose a key tool for studying Antarctica's melting ice sheets as climate risks grow (NBC News) – Carlos Moffat, an associate professor and oceanographer, spoke about the national budget and how it's impacting climate research. These Katrina Survivors Feel Overlooked. Now, They’re Using TikTok to Tell Their Stories (Rolling Stone) – Jennifer Trivedi, a disaster researcher, spoke about why Hurricane Katrina was such a major story. Malala Yousafzai, Migration and Sustainability (Forbes) – Saleem Ali, a professor of energy and environment, contributed regularly to Forbes on environmental topics. Scientists went hunting for freshwater deep beneath the Atlantic Ocean. What they found could have global implications (CNN) – Holly Michael, a professor of Earth sciences and civil and environmental engineering, spoke about the history of freshwater. Engineering Professor Answers Electric Car Questions (WIRED) – Willett Kempton, a professor of engineering, joined WIRED to answer the internet's most interesting questions about electric cars. Plastic shopping bag policies are actually working, a new study suggests (CNN) – Kimberly Oremus, associate professor of marine science and policy, was featured in several major outlets on the effectiveness of plastic bag bans. Insects are dying: here are 25 easy and effective ways you can help protect them (The Guardian) – Douglas Tallamy, an entomologist, was featured in dozens of outlets for his expertise. Political news coverage was front and center U.S. Chamber of Commerce sues Trump administration over $100,000 H-1B visa fees (NPR) – Daniel Kinderman, a political science professor, was interviewed for his expertise on a lawsuit involving changes in work visas. The government shutdown is over, but expect more fights and higher insurance prices to come (Delaware Public Media) – David Redlawsk, a political psychologist, discussed the recent government shutdown and what an end to it signals. Wrestling Over Charlie Kirk’s Legacy and the Divide in America (The New York Times) – Dannagal Young, a communications professor, commented on how media reacted to the death of Charlie Kirk. Consequences for colleges whose students carry mountains of debt? Republicans say yes (NPR) – Dominique Baker, associate professor of education, was quoted in multiple national outlets for her education expertise. General expertise came in clutch Why the U.S. struggles with passenger service despite having the most rail lines (NPR) – Allan Zarembski, a professor of railroad engineering, was featured in dozens of national publications for his expertise. From folklore to your front porch: The history of the jack-o'-lantern (NPR) – Cindy Ott, an associate professor of history, detailed the history of this autumn staple in multiple outlets. Nexstar Media Group buying Tegna in deal worth $6.2 billion (AP) – Danilo Yanich, professor of public policy, noted the ways the media giant duplicates work across networks. Warren Buffett hired Todd Combs to take over Berkshire's portfolio one day. Here's what close watchers say about his surprise exit. (Business Insider) – Lawrence Cunningham, director of UD's Weinberg Center, was featured throughout the year for his business and economic expertise. Enlighten Me: How to make your holidays truly happy (Delaware Public Media) – Amit Kumar, a professor of marketing, discussed strategies for finding happiness during the holidays throughout the winter season. Students and their stories shined throughout the year Networking: Is it what you know or who you know? (The Chronicle of Higher Education) – UD's career-development office, which assists students on their job journeys, was featured. U of Delaware Creates Yearlong Co-Ops for Business Students (Inside Higher Ed) – A new partnership with the state of Delaware connects business students to local employers, with the goal of reducing brain drain in the region was featured. Wilmington’s 'STEM Queen' earns national Obama–Chesky honor (The News Journal/Delaware Online) – Jacqueline Means, a management information systems major, was featured for earning a national recognition. Vita Nova Restaurant Gives Culinary Students Hands-on Training (Delaware Today) – The student-staffed restaurant, Vita Nova, was featured. Delaware professor transforms writing class by teaching students to use AI as the technology reshapes the workforce (WHYY) – Matt Kinservik, a professor of English, was featured for teaching students to use AI responsibly, exploring its capabilities and fact-checking tools. Pop culture experts weighed in 'Stranger Things' expert at UD chats about Netflix show's appeal (The News Journal/Delaware Online) – Siobhan Carroll, an associate English professor, sat down with a reporter to discuss the latest season and how the horror genre is often a mirror of our real world. “Horrendous And Insulting”: Backlash Erupts Over “Misrepresentation” In 2026 Wuthering Heights (Bored Panda) – Thomas Leitch, an English professor, said that “literal adaptations of classic novels are exceedingly rare, maybe impossible.” Major changes at UD highlighted University of Delaware appoints interim president to the permanent post (The Philadelphia Inquirer) – News of UD's new president, Laura A. Carlson, was covered throughout the region. Retiree learning center gets boost with $1M gift for downstate OLLI classes (Spotlight Delaware) – a large donation to the southern Delaware chapter of the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, was featured. To speak with any of these experts in 2026 on these stories or others, please reach out to MediaRelations@udel.edu. Happy holidays and cheers for a bright and healthy new year!
New book from Aston University academic shows that Christmas tasks mostly fall on women
New book by Dr Emily Christopher shows differences in how household tasks are divided by men and women Book highlights that women tend to buy the Christmas presents and send cards Men often see women as being more thoughtful or having better knowledge of what people would like. A new book from Aston University’s Dr Emily Christopher reveals that when it comes to sending Christmas cards and buying Christmas presents, women are still mostly doing the work as they are perceived to have better knowledge of what people would like. Dr Emily Christopher, a lecturer in sociology and policy at Aston School of Law and Social Sciences, has recently published her book Couples at Work: Negotiating Paid Employment, Housework and Childcare, which look at how household tasks are divided by men and women and the reasons behind these divisions. The data for the book has been collated over an eight-year period with couples being interviewed twice to provide a robust set of results. It looks at how different sex parent couples combined paid work, housework and childcare. The research revealed how gender norms continue to shape how certain daily household jobs are divided. Women were more likely than men to clean the house, especially bathrooms, wash clothes and put clothes away. Men still tend to do tasks like mowing the lawn and DIY but now are also more likely to do the cooking and the grocery shopping. The research shows that the key to understanding how household tasks are divided lies in the meaning they hold for partners. With the festive season upon us, the book reveals that woman are largely responsible for the Christmas present buying and sending cards with 100% of those taking part in the research saying that women mostly carried out these tasks. This also included buying for the male partner's relatives. In instances where men had a 'helping' role in these tasks, this included being involved in the discussion or consulting on choice of presents, especially for children, with only a small minority buying presents for their own family. The data revealed that where women didn't choose and buy presents for their partners family, they were still involved in reminding their partners that this needed to be done or advising on choice of gifts, showing that women were still taking on the mental load of planning for the festive season. The book reveals that when men were questioned about why they didn't get involved in present buying, they drew on gender norms. Women were often described, by the men, as being more thoughtful or having better knowledge of what people would like. Men often described how family members wouldn’t receive presents at all if it relied on them. Although much of the gift giving and organising represented love and affection for the women, which many found enjoyable, many still saw it as work and expressed that they would like their partners' to be more involved. Dr Christopher said: “This book takes an in-depth look at the way in which everyday roles around the household are divided between men and women. “The research shows that over a period of eight years fathers increased their role in childcare tasks but this did not always extend to housework. “The pandemic was an opportunity to change how couples share housework but women were still more likely to carry out tasks like cleaning, washing clothes and putting clothes away and overwhelmingly remained responsible for the mental orchestration of family work.”
Gina Rippon, professor emeritus of cognitive neuroimaging at Aston University, has won an award for her book, The Lost Girls of Autism The book won the 2025 British Psychological Society Popular Science Award It explores the emerging science of female autism, and examines why it has been systematically ignored and misunderstood for so long. The Lost Girls of Autism, the latest book from Gina Rippon, professor emeritus of cognitive neuroimaging at Aston University Institute of Health and Neurodevelopment (IHN), has won the 2025 British Psychological Society (BPS) Popular Science Award. The annual BPS Book Awards recognise exceptional published works in the field of psychology. There are four categories – popular science, textbook, academic monograph and practitioner text. With the subtitle ‘How Science Failed Autistic Women and the New Research that’s Changing the Story’, The Lost Girls of Autism explores the emerging science of female autism, and examines why it has been systematically ignored and misunderstood for so long. Historically, clinicians believed that autism was a male condition, and simply did not look for it in girls and women. This has meant that autistic girls visiting a doctor have been misdiagnosed with anxiety, depression or personality disorders, or are missed altogether. Many women only discover they have the condition when they are much older. Professor Rippon said: “It's such a pleasure and an honour to receive this award from the BPS. It’s obviously flattering to join the great company of previous winners, but I’m also extremely grateful for the attention drawn to the issues raised in the book. “Over many decades, due to autism’s ‘male spotlight’ problem, autistic girls and women have been overlooked, deprived of the help they needed, and even denied access to the very research studies that could widen our understanding of autism. This book tells the stories of these girls and women, and I’m thrilled to accept this prize on their behalf.”
Artificial intelligence is a resource-intensive technology. A paper recently published in Nano Letters by collaborators at the Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) College of Engineering and Georgetown University hopes to improve AI’s ability to parse the vast amounts of information it creates by applying magneto-ionics to the established concept of physical reservoir computing (PRC). “Demonstrating we can make solid-state devices with magneto-ionic materials is an important step into further energy-efficient computing research, and this Nano Letters publication reinforces that,” said Muhammad (Md.) Mahadi Rajib, Ph.D., a postdoc with Jayasimha Atulasimha, Ph.D., Engineering Foundation Professor in the Department of Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering. What makes a decision? Our brains make countless complex decisions everyday. Input comes in, we weigh options and decide what to do. Within that simple path are countless identical loops of input, consideration and output as neurons fire in a chain that takes you from cause to effect. For artificial intelligence, nodes within a neural network receive inputs and provide output, much like the neurons in our brains. These outputs can be sent to other nodes for continued processing, but those outputs need weight to have value. For AI, weight signifies one input or connection is more important than another. Traditional neural networks have multiple layers consisting of countless nodes like this. Each node requires training in order to weigh things properly. Training consumes processing power, and processing power takes time and energy. Making tasks like analysis and prediction more efficient is how to continuously improve AI technology. Less training, more efficiency. Physical reservoir computing reduces the number of nodes an AI needs to train. Only the final output layer needs training in PRC, using a simple method for classification or prediction tasks. A physical “black box” replaces neural network nodes and synapses, like the ones used for AI inference, in PRC and processes inputs by implementing a nonlinear mathematical function with temporal memory. To explain the inner workings of the black box, imagine two stones thrown into still water. One stone is thrown with high force and the other with low force, creating big and small ripples respectively. If the stones are thrown so the second stone lands before the previous ripples have dissipated, the new ripple is affected by the earlier one. This illustrates the concept of temporal memory. In this analogy, if multiple stones are thrown one after another into still water according to some complex trend, observing the ripples over time allows you to understand the trend and train a simple set of weights to predict the force of the next stone throw from the ripple pattern. Repeatedly performing this cycle of input, interaction and observation is PRC. It reveals patterns over time that can predict chaotic systems, like market trends or the weather, using techniques like linear regression modeling to plot each output as a single point. The magneto-ionic approach. Using this same example above, the “water” in a magneto-ionic PRC is represented by a positive and negative electrode with solid-state electrolyte between them through which ions move when voltage is applied. The application of voltage is equivalent to throwing a stone and the ripple effect is comparable to the movement of oxygen ions in the system. “In addition to its energy efficiency, a useful feature of the magnetoionic system is that time scales for ion diffusion can be controlled from microseconds to minutes,” Atulasimha said. “This leads to simple experimental demonstration, as no megahertz and gigahertz measurements are needed. One can work at the natural time scales of the target application in practical systems and remove the need for complex frequency conversion, which takes both energy and space due to complex electronics.” Atulasimha imagines these energy-efficient reservoir systems have applications in edge computing devices like drones, automated vehicles and surveillance cameras. Tasks such as household energy load forecasting, weather prediction or processing hourly readings from wearable devices, which operate on hour-scale data, can also be performed using magneto-ionic PRC without additional preprocessing. “We showed that the magneto-ionic physical reservoir has both memory and nonlinear behavior, two important properties necessary for using it as a reservoir block,” Rajib said. “Our system stands out because voltage-controlled ion migration is a highly energy efficient method of manipulating magnetization. We demonstrated the required reservoir properties in a physical system and did so using a very energy efficient approach.” Two labs came together in order to pursue this research. Virginia Commonwealth University collaborators included Atulasimha, Rajib, and VCU Ph.D. students Fahim Chowdhury and Shouvik Sarker. The Georgetown University team included Kai Liu, Ph.D., Professor and McDevitt Chair in Physics, Dhritiman Bhattacharya, Ph.D., Christopher Jensen, Ph.D. and Gong Chen, Ph.D. Atulasimha’s group illustrated physical reservoir computing using numerical models of spintronic devices and sought a material system to experimentally demonstrate PRC. Liu’s team worked with magneto-ionic materials and was intrigued by the possibility of using them for computing applications.
At Texas Christian University, Dr. Andrew Ledbetter, Chair of the Communication Studies Department, is turning his scholarly attention to one of pop culture’s biggest phenomena: Taylor Swift. His research uses data-driven analysis to reveal how Swift’s albums and songs build an interconnected narrative universe — what he calls her “Taylorverse.” Ledbetter ran lyrics across ten albums through semantic-network software to show how certain songs act as linchpins connecting themes of fame, womanhood, love and storytelling. “I was interested in interconnections among the song lyrics,” says Ledbetter. “The songs that are most central have a lot of overlap with other songs, might tend to be songs that are the most popular.” November 03 0 NBC News The work stands out not just for its pop-culture relevance, but for its academic innovation: combining computational text-analysis with narrative theory to unlock why certain tracks resonate more deeply than others. For journalists, cultural commentators or anyone covering the evolving intersection of music, identity and media, Dr. Ledbetter is a go-to expert. He can speak to how storytelling in music shapes audience engagement, how media fandom becomes scholarship, and why Swift’s songwriting continues to spark new research just as much as chart-topping hits. Andrew Ledbetter is available for interviews - Simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.
The holiday season is a whirlwind of joy, lights, and laughter, but sometimes it can also sneak in some added stress. Experts from the University of Delaware are here to remind us that our mental wellness shouldn’t take a backseat during these festive times. By weaving mindfulness into our holiday plans, we can maximize the joy and peace we experience. Prioritizing presence over presents Let's face it: the holiday rush often translates to an avalanche of consumerism. But Amit Kumar, a marketing professor who focuses on the scientific study of happiness, suggests focusing on being present rather than the presents. Carving out mindful time The holidays can stir up complex emotions as families come together. Psychology professors Franssy Zablah and Zachary Meehan offer strategies to support mental well-being this season. Valerie Earnshaw and Raphael Travis, professors who study health and wellbeing, can share guidance for supporting family members with substance use disorders this holiday season. Gifting intentionally this year Education professors Myae Han and Roberta Golinkoff can talk about gifts for children that promote reading or positive play. Keeping the spirts bright year after year Debra Hess Norris offers tips on how to preserve decorations and make them look brand new every year. To contact any of these experts, click on their expert profiles or email MediaRelations@udel.edu.
Reviving the Christmas Spirit: Forgotten Christmas Traditions to Reclaim the Christmas Season
Christmas is just around the corner and many families have already decorated their homes and started celebrating their Christmas traditions – but many stores have had their Christmas products out for months. This early bombardment of holiday advertisements and adornments often takes away from the excitement. So how do you recapture the true spirit of Christmas? Baylor University Honors College professor Michael Foley, Ph.D., who teaches in the Great Texts Program, has researched the history of common Christmas traditions and uncovered forgotten customs. “Christmas is indeed the most wonderful time of year, and that wonder is increased when we understand why we do the things we do,” Foley said. “Our delight in the season becomes greater when we appreciate the history and symbolism of the Christmas tree or why we kiss under the mistletoe.” Foley shares three practices to recapture the essence of Christmas and bring more joy to the season for your family. Enjoy the 12 Days of Christmas Historically, the season of Advent during the weeks leading up to Christmas was a period of joyful restraint and preparation. During the Twelve Days of Christmas, from Christmas Day on Dec. 25 to the Feast of the Epiphany on Jan. 6, people would celebrate a release with a continuous period of leisure and merriment. “Today, the Christmas season seems to start earlier and earlier each year. In the 20th century, the commercial season began the day after Thanksgiving, but now stores inundate the market with Christmas decorations much earlier,” Foley said. “The problem with this arrangement is that by the time Christmas finally comes, you’re tired of it. The older model has an organic build-up to the big day and then a great, 12-day release.” Returning to a slower-paced season full of cheerful spirits in the 12 days following Christmas is a way to recenter, refocus and reignite your Christmas spirit, Foley said. Capture the Joy of Incarnation It’s easy to get caught up in the festivities and pressure of the holiday, but it is also important to return to the reason behind Christmas, Foley said, and take time to understand the meaning behind what seem like meaningless customs. “The best traditions capture the fact that God became man in order to redeem us from our sins out of sheer love for us,” he said. Practices like caroling and gathering with family for food and drink are all acts of gratitude and joy that can remind us of God’s love. What may seem like typical holiday decorations, the holly wreath and the Christmas tree, are actually symbols of Christ bringing new life, Foley said. Embrace the Bizarre Today, Christmas is surrounded by a light, cheery feeling. But history tells us that there has always been a certain “dark side” of Christmas. “There is a reason why Ebenezer Scrooge was visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve,” Foley said. “All of winter was the season of fiends, and they were not happy that the winter solstice around Christmas Day marked the beginning of the end of the long dark nights and that Jesus Christ was born and triumphed over evil.” Other traditions involve swapping places with someone such as a parent and child, abbots and novices, or men and women. “At one time, this custom of inverted social roles played an important role in gaining clarity and releasing tension in a hierarchical society,” Foley said. While this might seem useless, impractical, or even pointless today, it can still offer value to the Christmas joy. “These inversion customs are a giddy imitation of the ultimate inversion in all of history,” Foley said. “That Almighty God chose to become a little baby in a measly manger.” Although some forgotten customs might seem odd to us today, there can be a certain kind of wisdom behind them – a wisdom that leads us back to the true spirit of Christmas, Foley said. After all, even Ebenezer Scrooge was able to find joy in Christmas again. Michael Foley is a Professor of Patristics in the Honors College at Baylor University and the author of 17 books, including Why We Kiss under the Mistletoe: Christmas Traditions Explained. Looking to know more or arrange an interview? Simply contact: Shelby Cefaratti-Bertin today.
Study: Lessons learned from 20 years of snakebites
The best way to avoid getting bitten by a venomous snake is to not go looking for one in the first place. Like eating well and exercising to feel better, the avoidance approach is fully backed by science. A new study from University of Florida Health researchers analyzed 20 years of snakebites cases seen at UF Health Shands Hospital in Gainesville. “This is the first time we’ve evaluated two decades of venomous snakebites here,” said senior author and assistant professor of medicine Norman L. Beatty, M.D., FACP. Researchers analyzed 546 de-identified patient records from 2002 to 2022 and highlighted notable conclusions — for instance, that a third of the snakebites analyzed were preventable and caused by people intentionally engaging with wild snakes. “Typically, people’s experiences with getting bitten are due to an interaction that was inadvertent — they stumble upon a snake or reach for something without seeing one camouflaged,” Beatty said. “In this case, people were seeking them out. There were a few individuals who were bitten on more than one occasion.” Most (77.8%) of the snakebites occurred in adult men while they were handling wild snakes, and most of the bites were perpetrated by the diminutive pygmy rattlesnake and the cottonmouth. The latter is named for the white lining of its mouth, which it displays when threatened. “I was less surprised to see those species emerge as some of the most common ones people were bitten by, but the robust presence of other, less common species in the data — like the eastern coral snake, southern copperhead, timber rattlesnake and the eastern diamondback rattlesnake, was interesting,” Beatty said. The eastern diamondback rattlesnake is one of the most venomous snakes in North America. Most patients were bitten on their hands and fingers and around 10% of them attempted outdated self-treatments no longer recommended by doctors — like sucking out the venom. Initially, the study began as a medical student research project, thanks to a handful of medical students who worked with Beatty to review the cases. The intention was to dive deep into the circumstances of each encounter and learn more about the treatment given, as well as the outcomes. Fourth-year medical student River Grace, the paper’s first author, said the work struck a personal note. “My dad is a reptile biologist, so I’ve grown up around snakes my whole life,” Grace said. “He was bitten by a venomous snake many years ago and ended up hospitalized for multiple weeks, so it was interesting to keep that experience in mind while going over the data.” Grace noted that it typically took those bitten over an hour on average to travel from where the bite occurred to the hospital. “It seems like the reason for that was people not knowing exactly what to do once they’d been bitten, or underestimating the severity of the bite,” he said. “Some would just sit at home for hours.” Floridians share their home with a variety of scaly neighbors who don’t always welcome visitors — accidental or not. Ultimately, thanks to the timely care of providers, only three snake bites were fatal. However, antivenom is no panacea. Those who are lucky enough to receive it in time can still incur complications from the original snake bites, like tissue damage, or even a fatal allergic reaction to the antivenom itself. Consequently, researchers look toward improving the processes used to triage snake bites in the emergency room, ensuring that providers are equipped with the knowledge and the know-how to shorten time to treatment. “In the future, we think we’d love to get involved in enhancing provider education so everyone in the health care setting is confident in being able to identify and administer antivenom as quickly and safely as possible,” Grace said.
UF team develops AI tool to make genetic research more comprehensive
University of Florida researchers are addressing a critical gap in medical genetic research — ensuring it better represents and benefits people of all backgrounds. Their work, led by Kiley Graim, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering, focuses on improving human health by addressing "ancestral bias" in genetic data, a problem that arises when most research is based on data from a single ancestral group. This bias limits advancements in precision medicine, Graim said, and leaves large portions of the global population underserved when it comes to disease treatment and prevention. To solve this, the team developed PhyloFrame, a machine-learning tool that uses artificial intelligence to account for ancestral diversity in genetic data. With funding support from the National Institutes of Health, the goal is to improve how diseases are predicted, diagnosed, and treated for everyone, regardless of their ancestry. A paper describing the PhyloFrame method and how it showed marked improvements in precision medicine outcomes was published Monday in Nature Communications. Graim, a member of the UF Health Cancer Center, said her inspiration to focus on ancestral bias in genomic data evolved from a conversation with a doctor who was frustrated by a study's limited relevance to his diverse patient population. This encounter led her to explore how AI could help bridge the gap in genetic research. “If our training data doesn’t match our real-world data, we have ways to deal with that using machine learning. They’re not perfect, but they can do a lot to address the issue.” —Kiley Graim, Ph.D., an assistant professor in the Department of Computer & Information Science & Engineering and a member of the UF Health Cancer Center “I thought to myself, ‘I can fix that problem,’” said Graim, whose research centers around machine learning and precision medicine and who is trained in population genomics. “If our training data doesn’t match our real-world data, we have ways to deal with that using machine learning. They’re not perfect, but they can do a lot to address the issue.” By leveraging data from population genomics database gnomAD, PhyloFrame integrates massive databases of healthy human genomes with the smaller datasets specific to diseases used to train precision medicine models. The models it creates are better equipped to handle diverse genetic backgrounds. For example, it can predict the differences between subtypes of diseases like breast cancer and suggest the best treatment for each patient, regardless of patient ancestry. Processing such massive amounts of data is no small feat. The team uses UF’s HiPerGator, one of the most powerful supercomputers in the country, to analyze genomic information from millions of people. For each person, that means processing 3 billion base pairs of DNA. “I didn’t think it would work as well as it did,” said Graim, noting that her doctoral student, Leslie Smith, contributed significantly to the study. “What started as a small project using a simple model to demonstrate the impact of incorporating population genomics data has evolved into securing funds to develop more sophisticated models and to refine how populations are defined.” What sets PhyloFrame apart is its ability to ensure predictions remain accurate across populations by considering genetic differences linked to ancestry. This is crucial because most current models are built using data that does not fully represent the world’s population. Much of the existing data comes from research hospitals and patients who trust the health care system. This means populations in small towns or those who distrust medical systems are often left out, making it harder to develop treatments that work well for everyone. She also estimated 97% of the sequenced samples are from people of European ancestry, due, largely, to national and state level funding and priorities, but also due to socioeconomic factors that snowball at different levels – insurance impacts whether people get treated, for example, which impacts how likely they are to be sequenced. “Some other countries, notably China and Japan, have recently been trying to close this gap, and so there is more data from these countries than there had been previously but still nothing like the European data," she said. “Poorer populations are generally excluded entirely.” Thus, diversity in training data is essential, Graim said. "We want these models to work for any patient, not just the ones in our studies," she said. “Having diverse training data makes models better for Europeans, too. Having the population genomics data helps prevent models from overfitting, which means that they'll work better for everyone, including Europeans.” Graim believes tools like PhyloFrame will eventually be used in the clinical setting, replacing traditional models to develop treatment plans tailored to individuals based on their genetic makeup. The team’s next steps include refining PhyloFrame and expanding its applications to more diseases. “My dream is to help advance precision medicine through this kind of machine learning method, so people can get diagnosed early and are treated with what works specifically for them and with the fewest side effects,” she said. “Getting the right treatment to the right person at the right time is what we’re striving for.” Graim’s project received funding from the UF College of Medicine Office of Research’s AI2 Datathon grant award, which is designed to help researchers and clinicians harness AI tools to improve human health.
Staying Sober and on the Path to Recovery During the Holidays
The holidays can be a joyous time full of celebrations and they also can be a time of intense stress. Individuals with substance and alcohol use disorders can experience additional stress during the holidays, which can interfere with their recovery, and they may need additional support to abstain from substance use. What can people in recovery do to both abstain and enjoy the holidays? And what can loved ones do to support them? “Holidays can be difficult for anyone, but those with substance use and mental health disorders may have a more difficult time coping with those difficulties,” said Baylor University substance use disorder treatment expert Sara Dolan, Ph.D., professor of psychology and neuroscience. “The holidays can be – on one hand – a time rife with loneliness, and on the other hand, a time where family conflict might be more present,” Dolan said. “Both of these situations are hard for many of us to cope with, but we may want to be more sensitive to those who struggle more with these situations.” Dolan is a nationally known researcher on how neuropsychological dysfunction, including problems with memory and executive functions, affects how people cope with alcohol and substance use disorders and how these issues affect the treatment process and outcome. Dolan offers the following suggestions for individuals in recovery to help them get through the holidays and how family and friends can offer support. Stay active in recovery If the individual already has a recovery plan in place such as a 12-step program or Celebrate Recovery, make sure to continue attending meetings and appointments during the holiday season. “There are numerous virtual and in-person resources for people who are struggling, including mutual aid support groups like Alcoholics Anonymous, Narcotics Anonymous and Smart Recovery,” Dolan said. “People can also call the SAMHSA national helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.” Even when traveling, it is a good idea to know local meeting schedules, use virtual resources and consider attending extra meetings to stay on top of your recovery. Have a coping plan “It is important for people to have a solid coping plan before they go into potentially distressing situations,” Dolan said. Are there places or events to just stay away from? Dolan said it is “okay to keep yourself safe by leaving or even avoiding places that may be unsafe.” By having a plan to handle stressors ahead of time, you can manage it better in the moment. Preparation is key to feeling safe and enjoying the holidays. Avoid triggers and stressors Understanding personal triggers, which can be different for different people, can help us avoid them ahead of time. “For some people, it’s family conflict, for some, it’s loneliness, and for some it’s feelings of anxiety or depression,” Dolan said. “It’s important to know your own stress points before you go into situations that may trigger them.” Once you know what leads to urges to use alcohol or other substances, you can determine how to counteract those circumstances or avoid them if necessary. Reach out for support Reach out to family and friends who will most likely offer positive support. Letting your loved one know what you need – and how to support you in your recovery – can help you abstain from substance use during stressful situations. In fact, Dolan said you may even want to let them know ahead of time that you may need extra support. How to support someone with a substance use disorder Be as open, direct and caring as you can be. Dolan suggests talking to your loved one directly about what may – or may not be helpful – during the holidays. “Some people in recovery may feel more comfortable in alcohol-free environments,” she said, “but some may not want their loved ones altering their behavior. “Ask – don’t assume – and let your loved one tell you what might work best for them,” Dolan added. Using these suggestions can help both individuals with substance and alcohol use disorders and their families have a healthy and happy holiday season.