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Aston University experts look at what it takes to win... and lose, as part of EURO 2020 podcast series

"Our brains will drive us to avoid activities associated with failure. We have what's called an 'error evaluate' system, which works like traffics lights. When we did something in the past that works, we're likely to do it again - and vice versa" Professor Gina Rippon, Aston University

Aston University cybersecurity experts hold key to vaccine passport rollout

Vaccine passports are certificates to establish proof of vaccination linked to the identity of the holder Renowned expert, Koji Fusa, visiting professor at the Cyber Security Innovation Research Centre (CSI), on the project to develop a global database for citizens to use in real-time. The CSI Centre at Aston University say creating a clear framework of rules for digital identities is achievable Leading cybersecurity industry expert, Koji Fusa, has made progress towards developing a framework for the world’s citizens to store their digital identities and access them in real-time. Koji is a Visiting Professor at the Cyber Security Innovation Research Centre (CSI) at Aston University. The idea would see a platform that has the capability to distribute over 200 individual keys to each of the world’s eight billion people. Each key could be assigned to personal information such as vaccine passports. It will work by vaccine administrators sending the vaccination details of each individual to a dedicated server. That server will issue a QR code which will be passed to the vaccinated person as the digital key for access. The passport holder will keep the QR code which enables access to the server to check their own record at any time. The framework would segment private data in a separate database, which can only be accessed with the individual key along with fingerprint, face and voice recognition technology, making it extremely hard for cyber attackers and scammers to hack. Koji Fusa, a visiting professor at the CSI Centre, said: “The current EU Green Pass initiative and World Health Organisation's initiative have struggled to find the solution for private data protection and counterfeit prevention. This proposed system would solve these two challenges. We have a solution that is secure, something that others have failed to achieve so far. “By having a cloud security server which gives unique reference numbers to all devices, technology issues pointed out by The Royal Society* have been solved. “This will be a huge step forwards for digital identification globally. Not only for vaccine passports, but for people’s personal information too. The framework would make everyday life more secure and simpler. Professor Vladlena Benson, an industry-recognised expert in cybersecurity risk management and director of CSI Centre at Aston Business School, said: “I am delighted to be working on this project with Koji Fusa. With his experience, I’m confident this could become the first such system where the authenticity of the vaccine certification instantly can be checked globally, something that can’t be done currently. "This work is aligned to the trusted identities framework proposed by the UK Government and addresses the issues of data sovereignty and individual information privacy."

Aston University experts discuss 'psychology of penalties' for EURO 2020 podcast series

"I know from my research that when a penalty is taken is key, but there are so many other factors at play... However, the data suggests we can predict the outcome - especially if there's a miss at a crucial time" Dr Shehzad Naroo, Aston University

Is Herschel Walker game-ready for the gridiron of Georgia politics?

He once dominated the NFL and is still considered the greatest college running back of all time. But Herschel Walker is now suiting up for a different game and as the original GOAT gets ready to enter the political arena, Joshua Kennedy, Ph.D., an associate professor of political science at Georgia Southern University, is being contacted by media for what he thinks the former superstar needs to do to get across the electoral goal line. In a recent interview with WJCL, Kennedy said, "When it comes to a potential candidate like Herschel Walker who has the celebrity factor in the state of Georgia, who helped bring UGA their national title in 1980, who won the Heisman trophy, is still very well-beloved by the people of Georgia, it could make for an interesting race." At this point, Kennedy believes Warnock would be more likely to win the race. "I think Sen. Warnock has an engaged base and if I were prognosticating at this point, I would say he is a little likelier than not to win," he said. However, Kennedy believes the former president's endorsement of Walker would help the Georgia Bulldog secure a significant number of votes. "The fact that he has the endorsement and support of the former president would carry a lot of weight with Republican voters in the state," he said. In order for someone like Walker to win, Kennedy said he would have to appeal to both the Republican base and independents. "I think that Walker needs to energize the base first and foremost, then focus on finding particular issues that speak to the concerns of Georgians including those non-affiliated voters who could be gettable for a Republican," Kennedy said. He would also need to instill a sense of reliance and competence in Georgians. "Voters want politicians who are oriented towards solving problems," Kennedy said. "He’s going to have demonstrate that he is able to do that, that he has that level of competence, which will be difficult considering he has not been in political office before. That will give Raphael Warnock a bit of that incumbent advantage by virtue of being in office, he can point to things he's worked on that Herschel Walker can’t." Kennedy said if Walker were to win, it would make it difficult for Democrats to maintain control of the senate. June 30 – ABC News If you are a reporter looking to cover this subject – then let our experts help. Contact Georgia Southern Director of Communications Jennifer Wise at jwise@georgiasouthern.edu for an interview with Joshua Kennedy.

Covering Cosby? Connect with UMW psychological trauma expert Laura Wilson

It’s news that has everyone shocked. Bill Cosby is getting out of jail and will be a free man. Pennsylvania's Supreme Court vacated the sexual assault conviction of Bill Cosby on Wednesday and ordered his release from prison after finding that he was denied protection against self-incrimination. The court said that a prosecutor's decision not to charge Cosby, 83, opened the door for him to speak freely in a lawsuit against him — and that testimony was key in his conviction years later by another prosecutor. Cosby was convicted in 2018 of drugging and sexually assaulting a woman in 2004, and was serving a three- to 10-year sentence. He has served two years of the sentence. The state Supreme Court said Cosby cannot be retried on the same charges. June 30 – NBC News This is a story that will be dominating the news cycle for some time – and if you are a reporter covering this story, then let our expert help. University of Mary Washington Associate Professor of Psychological Science Laura C. Wilson has provided sought-after commentary to The Washington Post, NPR, Reuters, Huffington Post, NBC, The Atlantic and more on the psychological trauma experienced by survivors of rape and sexual assault, as well as mass shootings. Dr. Wilson is available to speak with media, simply click on her icon to arrange an interview today.

Psychologists tackle childhood obesity by studying avid eating behaviour

• Psychologists at Aston University, Loughborough University, University College London and Kings College London to collaborate on childhood obesity study • £1-million project awarded by the Economic and Social Research Council • Three-year project to develop practical interventions to tackle obesity in early childhood A team of psychologists are to start work on a three-year project that will assist parents to address over-eating in pre-school children who have large appetites. The group, which specialises in childhood eating behaviour is led by Aston University, and includes researchers from Loughborough University, University College London and Kings College London. It is a result of a long-standing collaboration between the team members. The team have been awarded almost £1-million pounds, by the Economic and Social Research Council. The project aims to help support parents whose children are very focused on and motivated by food and the project will produce guidelines based on the findings that can be used to develop interventions. Childhood obesity is one of the most serious public health challenges of the 21st century and of major societal concern. It places children at high risk of diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease and some cancers in adulthood. According to the charity World Obesity, in just 40 years the number of school-age children and adolescents with obesity has risen more than 10-fold, from 11 million to 124 million (2016 estimates). Professor Jackie Blissett, Aston University and lead academic on the study said: “Childhood obesity usually begins in infancy and early childhood, with up to 90% of children who have obesity at 3 years continuing to have overweight or obesity in adolescence. Some children however, are more vulnerable to the development of obesity than others, due to their genetic susceptibility. “A better understanding of the factors which may help to prevent or reduce the risk of childhood obesity, and applying this understanding to develop effective interventions, is of key importance to solving this complex policy and practice challenge.” The team will use existing longitudinal data from the Gemini study to monitor trends in children’s eating and examine the development of the relationship between children’s appetite and parents’ feeding practices across early childhood. In the second phase of the project, which will be lab-based, the team at Aston University are set to recruit two members of research staff to support the study. In the lab, around 120 children will be observed whilst taking part in various food related tasks, to assess which feeding practices change their eating behaviour and help the researchers find the best way of regulating their food intake. The team intend to test the effectiveness of certain feeding practices and plan to recruit around 2000 new families who will take part in an online survey to assess children’s appetite traits. Professor Claire Farrow, Aston University, and collaborator on the study said: “At present, public health advice regarding children's eating and weight is generic, ineffective, and does not tackle variability in children's appetite avidity, which makes behaviour change even more challenging for parents who struggle to manage their child's eating behaviour.” “Using current theory to inform complex intervention development, our research will examine how parents interact with their pre-school children with avid appetites in the food context, evaluate how these interactions predict short and long-term effects on eating behaviour and develop recommendations for interventions in the future.”

Records are going up in flames - is there any break to America's current heat wave?

To call it a heat wave may be an understatement. But as June ends and July rolls in, a blanket of hot and humid weather is covering most parts of America with temperatures not seen since the end of the Great Depression. The trend has scientists and meteorologists looking for answers. AccuWeather's team of expert forecasters were describing the then upcoming heat wave as "unprecedented," "life-threatening" and "historic" as early as the middle of last week, and these descriptions have been accurate in the first days of the Northwest scorcher. The weekend marked the beginning of the extended stretch of extreme temperatures. Portland, Oregon, a city that typically experiences temperatures in the middle to upper 70s in late June, soared to a staggering 112 degrees Fahrenheit on Sunday, breaking the all-time record high of 108 set just a day before. Prior to the current heat wave, the highest temperature ever recorded in the city was 107 set once in July of 1965 and twice in August of 1981. Portland is also expected to obliterate its daily record high of 100 on Monday and possibly set an all-time high temperature record for the third straight day. AccuWeather is predicting a high of 113 on Monday, which would make it the hottest day ever recorded in the city. The highest temperature ever recorded in the state of Oregon is 117, which was set in Umatilla on July 27, 1939.  June 28 - AccuWeather And as Americans keep an eye on the mercury that continues to rise, there’s a lot of questions to be asked: Is this a weather phenomenon? Has climate change showed its hand? Are these new temperatures the new normal for the summer months? How can cities and communities adapt to these drastic conditions? And is there any turning back these rising numbers? If you’re a journalist looking to learn more about this topic, then our experts are here to help. Dr. Pamela Grothe is an assistant professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences as the University of Mary Washington, who earned a Ph.D. in the Paleoclimatology Lab at the Earth and Atmospheric Sciences department at Georgia Institute of Technology. She’s also an #expert in climate change and specializes in how cities can cope and adapt to hotter temperatures and stay livable places. Dr. Pamela Grothe is available to speak with media – simply click on her icon to arrange an interview.

Is a four-day workweek on the horizon?

Is Thursday about to become the new Friday? UConn’s Robert Bird spoke with the Washington Post about the possibility of a four-day workweek and what might be the driving force behind it: New Zealand's and Finland's prime ministers have floated the idea of a four-day workweek. The U.K. Labour Party in 2019 campaigned on the idea that workweeks would be shortened in the next decade. A number of employers have also begun to move in that direction. On Tuesday, Kickstarter announced it would reduce employees' hours without reducing pay next year, reported the Atlantic. Microsoft in Japan instituted a temporary three-day weekend in August 2019 - which resulted in a reported 40% increase in productivity, according to the company, and reduced electricity consumption and paper printing. "A five-day workweek was never a given," Robert Bird, a professor of business law at the University of Connecticut, told The Washington Post, adding that unions fought hard to scrap the six-day workweek norm in the early 1900s. "A five-day workweek was never something that was unchangeable or immutable." "Younger people are demanding more out of their work environment than just a paycheck," he said. "They want to work with someone who believes in their values - and the expression of a four-day workweek sends a signal that the company cares about work-life balance in a significant and meaningful way." June 25 – Washington Post It’s an interesting concept, and one that will be getting a lot of attention. If you are a journalist looking to cover this topic, let our experts help with your stories. Robert Bird is an expert in the areas of corporate compliance, employment law, legal strategy, business ethics, and corporate governance. Professor Bird is available to speak with media – simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.

Free bioenergy tool launching at Aston University to accelerate bioenergy production in Global South

• Aston University team of bioenergy researchers set to launch free tool to calculate energy potential • The launch event on 1 July will allow participants to use the tool for themselves and is focused on bioenergy development in the Global South • The tool can calculate bioenergy output from waste materials including straw, nutshells and manure A simple tool which allows users to easily calculate how much bioenergy they can produce from biomass is being launched this week by researchers from the Energy and Biproducts Research Institute (EBRI) at Aston University. The easy-to-use tool, called the Bioenergy Mass-Energy Balance Model, allows the user to experiment virtually with different biomass materials in several industrial processes including cement production, tea production and food processing to understand the potential implementation. Developed with the focus on bioenergy development in the Global South, users can simply and easily calculate how much heat or electricity they can produce from the biomass. The EBRI team based at Aston University who developed the tool will be launching the model and summarising their methodologies at an online event on Thursday 1 July. Dr Katie Chong, lecturer in chemical engineering, who led the development team said they were looking forward to the launch. “This tool will be available to everyone for free and has been built in Excel to make it accessible for all. We wanted to keep it as simple as possible and we really think it will make a difference, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa,” she said. Mirjam Röder, associate professorial research fellow at EBRI, added: “The launch event will be a chance for us to introduce the Mass-Energy Balance Model, summarise the methodologies and give participants the opportunity to use the model and generate their own results in our guided walk-through during the workshop.” The tool was developed as part of a larger two-year research programme by the team at Aston University who are a core member of the consortium implementing the Bioenergy for Sustainable local energy services and Energy Access in Africa (BSEAA). Aston University partnered with NIRAS-LTS, E4Tech and AIGUASOL. The project was funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) as part of the Transforming Energy Access programme. To sign up for the free event which runs from 9.30am until 11.30am on Thursday 1 July, visit this link. For more details about the world-leading research taking place at EBRI, click here.

Black people are more likely to die in traffic accidents. COVID made it worse. Our expert weighed in on NBC News.

Even with a drastic reduction in driving due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Black Americans saw the largest increase in traffic-related deaths in 2020 when compared to other racial groups. An estimated 38,680 people died in motor vehicle traffic crashes in 2020 — the largest projected number of deaths since 2007  — and the number of Black people who died in such crashes was up 23 percent from 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. UConn’s Dr. Norman Garrick spoke with NBC News about the new report: Norman Garrick, a civil and environmental engineering professor at the University of Connecticut, said the numbers are saddening, but not surprising. “Black people tend to be overrepresented as walkers in this country,” Garrick said. “This is not by choice. In many cases, Black folks cannot afford motor vehicles. And people that walk in this country tend to experience a much, much higher rate of traffic fatality. We’re talking eight to 10 times more. It’s a perfect storm of a lot of horrible forces.” This most likely represents yet another way the health crisis has had an outsize effect on Black people. Even in the early days of the pandemic, the National Safety Council found that the emptier roads were proving to be more deadly, with a 14 percent jump in roadway deaths per miles driven in March. And Black people are more likely to face traffic injuries in general; from 2010-2019, Black pedestrians were 82 percent more likely to be hit by drivers, according to a 2021 report from Smart Growth America, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group focused on urban development.  June 22 - NBC News Dr. Garrick is a professor in the UConn School of Engineering's Department of Civil Engineering and is co-director of the Sustainable Cities Research Group. He is an expert in the areas of transportation behaviors, parking, public transit, and bicycle lanes. Dr. Garrick is available to speak with media – simply click on his icon now to arrange an interview today.