Browse Articles

Researching the research enthusiasts: examining their motivation and the impact of a successful role model

Jubair et al. | Sep 18, 2024

Researching the research enthusiasts: examining their motivation and the impact of a successful role model
Image credit: The authors

High school and university students have various motivations for participating in research, ranging from strengthening their applications for university to building skills for a research career. Jubair and Islam survey Bangladeshi high school and university students to uncover their motivations and inspirations for participating in research.

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The gender gap in STEM at top U.S. Universities: change over time and relationship with ranking

Kruus et al. | Jun 25, 2024

The gender gap in STEM at top U.S. Universities: change over time and relationship with ranking

Authors address the gender disparity in STEM fields, examining changes in gender diversity across male-dominated undergraduate programs over 19 years at 24 top universities. Analyzing data from NCES IPEDS, it identifies STEM as persistently male-dominated but notes increasing gender diversity in many disciplines, particularly in recent years. Results indicate that higher-ranked universities in disciplines like computer science and mechanical engineering show a weak correlation with improved gender diversity, suggesting effective initiatives can mitigate the gender gap in STEM, despite ongoing challenges.

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Statistically Analyzing the Effect of Various Factors on the Absorbency of Paper Towels

Tao et al. | Dec 04, 2020

Statistically Analyzing the Effect of Various Factors on the Absorbency of Paper Towels

In this study, the authors investigate just how effectively paper towels can absorb different types of liquid and whether changing the properties of the towel (such as folding it) affects absorbance. Using variables of either different liquid types or the folded state of the paper towels, they used thorough approaches to make some important and very useful conclusions about optimal ways to use paper towels. This has important implications as we as a society continue to use more and more paper towels.

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Innovative fake health news detection: Integrating emotional features into graph neural networks

Wang et al. | Jul 03, 2026

Innovative fake health news detection: Integrating emotional features into graph neural networks
Image credit: Wang and Wang

This manuscript tackles a major social issue in the health news sector, with social media being one of the primary sources of information and a prime spot to propagate fake news. The author proposes X-HND , which is a unique architecture that combines emotional and contextual analysis in a Graph Neural Network to accurately detect fake news. This was a multi-step process which involved the creation of a custom health news dataset (HNDataset), and an emotional variant that uses RoBERTa to extract emotion. These dataset were then used to prove the hypothesis that accuracy increases when the custom dataset is used to train the model and that with the integration of emotion capture, the detection accuracy increases further.

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Assessing Spanish interpretation in community healthcare: a study of patient satisfaction

Yon et al. | Jun 22, 2026

Assessing Spanish interpretation in community healthcare: a study of patient satisfaction
Image credit: Yon and Jones

This manuscript explores the use of Spanish language translators in an outpatient clinic in New Jersey. The authors surveyed patients before and after in person, video, and telephone appointments to determine which modality was most acceptable to the patients. The authors found that the three modalities did not differ in patient satisfaction, but that patients were grateful for translations services and that patient trust may be expanded by the use of these services and by focuses of translator soft skills.

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Innovative use of recycled textile fibers in building materials: A circular economy approach

Gupta et al. | Feb 19, 2026

Innovative use of recycled textile fibers in building materials: A circular economy approach
Image credit: Gupta and Gupta

Textile waste from the fashion industry is a major environmental pollutant, but recycling waste into novel building material is a strategy to reduce the negative effects. This manuscript characterized five different binders that can be used to repurpose textile waste into bricks for construction purposes. Water-based glue, cement, white cement, plaster of Paris, and epoxy resin were mixed with shredded textile waste, and the mechanical characteristics and thermal insulation of each brick type were measured. Bricks with increased mechanical strength had the poorest thermal resistance, and the contrasting properties would suit different building purposes. This work provides a first step in generating recycled textile bricks for construction in a circular economy framework.

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