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Simon Fraser University s International CyberCrime Research Centre (ICCRC) is engaged in a new project to develop artificial intelligence tools to fight COVID-19-related misinformation campaigns on social media.
Throughout the pandemic, anti-science theories on social media that portray COVID-19 as a hoax or downplay the risk of infection have contributed to unnecessary transmission and death. Some research suggests that one-in-three people have encountered false or misleading information about COVID-19 on social media. And while COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out, misinformation on social media still fuels vaccine hesitancy in Canada and resistance to public health measures such as mask wearing.
Spiders avoid building webs near European fire ants, their natural predators, by sensing the chemicals they give off in the environment, Simon Fraser University researchers have found.
The findings, published recently in Royal Society Open Science, give us a peek inside the enduring struggle between spiders and ants, and could lead to the development of natural repellents for homeowners worried about unwanted eight-legged guests.
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An international study has found that four out of five women in prison in Scotland have a history of head injury, mostly sustained through domestic violence. Published recently in
The Lancet, researchers, including SFU psychology graduate student Hira Aslam, say the study has important implications for the female prison population more broadly and could help to inform mental health and criminal justice policy development. The findings are incredibly sobering, says Aslam. While we anticipated that the incidence of head injuries among women who are involved in the criminal justice system would be high, these estimates exceeded our expectations.
Researchers also found that violent criminal behaviour was three times more likely among women who had a history of significant head injury, while women who sustained such injuries generally had prison sentences that were three times longer. Two-thirds were found to have suffered repeated head injuries, and nearly all reported
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Simon Fraser University researchers have designed a remarkably fast engine that taps into a new kind of fuel information.
The development of this engine, which converts the random jiggling of a microscopic particle into stored energy, is outlined in research published this week in the
SFU physics professor and senior author John Bechhoefer says researchers understanding of how to rapidly and efficiently convert information into work may inform the design and creation of real-world information engines.?? We wanted to find out how fast an information engine can go and how much energy it can extract, so we made one, says Bechhoefer, whose experimental group collaborated with theorists led by SFU physics professor David Sivak.