This project aims for a regional comparison concerning the current state of affairs and the strategies and policies that exist in recruiting and retaining foreign (‘global’) talent for innovation and growth in the two German regions (‘Laender’) of Berlin and Thuringia. Since the 2000s, Germany and many of its ‘Laender’ have developed various initiatives to […]

There is some evidence that people’s beliefs about how someone is ‘supposed to sound’ may affect how they perceive someone’s speech –to the extent of them hearing an accent that isn’t there. This response time study investigates in what ways “expected” and “unexpected” combinations of speaker ethnicity and accent can affect how speech is processed […]

Hyperplanes can be thought of as codimension 1 affine subspaces of a given Euclidean space. Given an arrangement A of hyperplanes in R^d, the set of intersections of hyperplanes define a partially ordered set called intersection poset. The characteristic polynomial of A can then be defined using Mobius function of the intersection poset. One can […]

Microplastics (Mps) are usually defined as plastic particles

With the advent of fuel cell technology, people began to believe implementation of a zero-emission energy system through the construction of a hydrogen-based energy infrastructure. The conventional system for hydrogen production is water electrolysis; however, the production cost is far too expensive for widespread adoption due to the usage of noble metals required as electrocatalysts. […]

In photoacoustic (PA) imaging, pulsed light irradiates a sample. Light-absorbing molecules experience a pressure rise and generate an ultrasound wave, from which, an image of the sample is obtained. If the image contrast is insufficient, contrast enhancement is applied by locally introducing stronger light absorbers. In ultrasound imaging (US), shelled gas bubbles are used to […]

Down syndrome (DS) is caused by the presence of three copies of chromosome 21, leading to dementia in later life of the patients. DS patients develop characteristic Alzheimer’s pathologies, including the amyloid-beta plaque formation, tau hyperphosphorylationto form neurofibrillary tangles and abnormal synaptic function and plasticity. Growing evidence has shown that impaired insulin signaling plays a […]

This study will examine the relationship between language and communication in newborn infants. In the past, it has been found that newborns are able to imitate the facial expressions of adults. It has also been found that newborns generally prefer the sound of their mother’s native language(s). This study proposes to explore the connection between […]

There is little known about the extent to which native bees can incorporate non-native plants into their diets, and the costs or benefits associated with their use. Many wild bees are dietary specialists, collecting pollen exclusively from certain plant families, and many specialists prefer pollen from the daisy (Asteraceae) family. In our high-elevation study system […]

The harmful effects of smoking on fetal development, child health, and maternal wellbeing are well described, making smoking cessation during pregnancy and the postpartum period a global health priority. Although a large proportion of expecting mothers will spontaneously quit smoking during pregnancy, the majority will restart smoking within 6 months post-pregnancy. Efforts to reduce smoking […]

As part of my doctoral studies at McGill, I will conduct archival research on the formation of bhakti (devotional) communities in North India. I will focus on the Ramanandi Sampraday, which formed around the fourteenth-century Hindu guru Ramananda and is still one of the largest ascetic sects in Hinduism today. There are many stories written […]

Collision avoidance can be described as a whole-body movement control problem in which visual information is used to elicit accurate movement adaptations. Age-related visuomotor degradation is a potential factor contributing to mobility difficulties in older adults. However, there remains a gap in understanding what age-related visuomotor changes are causing older adults to be more susceptible […]