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A test subject prepares to jump from a force plate while research assistants look on.

Study simulates pulling on athlete's jersey to predict noncontact ACL injuries

Forrest Pierce, standing in front of a stone wall.

KU composer creates choral music to match ‘mystical’ texts

An image of a baseball being thrown by a pitcher, shown in the background.

Study finds pitchers have thicker UCLs in elbows than other baseball players, factors that risk common injury

A University of Kansas study measured the thickness of the UCL in throwing and nonthrowing elbows of both pitchers and position players of a college baseball team. The study can showed arm slot is not correlated with UCL thickness, contradicting a common belief of throw angle contributing to the common injury.

Science and Technology

New digital tool provides satellite monitoring of crop health across US

The Sentinel GreenReport Plus, created at the University of Kansas with support from the KansasView and AmericaView programs, is a web-based app with free satellite monitoring and analysis of vegetation and crops for Kansas and the nation.

KU graduate student completes prestigious fellowship at Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Amrit Gautam, a KU graduate student in the physics doctoral program, was among just 62 doctoral students nationwide selected for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science Graduate Student Research Fellowship. Gautam spent the fellowship conducting his thesis research at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee.
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A helicopter connected to airborne electromagnetic survey instruments prepares to take off.

Airborne electromagnetic survey of aquifer conditions planned in west-central Kansas

Beginning in mid-June and continuing until early July, residents of west-central Kansas may see a low-flying helicopter towing a large hexagonal frame. This unusual arrangement is part of a project to map groundwater conditions in the Ogallala aquifer in Western Kansas Groundwater Management District No. 1.
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Health and Well-Being

KU scientists and center director among experts calling for revision of federal food and nutrition guidance during pregnancy

Should women stop eating fish while pregnant? While women often limit fish intake during pregnancy, experts warn this restricts nutrients vital for the developing fetus.

Study simulates pulling on athlete's jersey to predict noncontact ACL injuries

A KU study dropped a weighted ball attached to subjects while they jumped to simulate noncontact ACL injuries in sports. The results showed that pulling from behind was the most dangerous and that improving core strength is key in preventing such injuries.
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An image of a baseball being thrown by a pitcher, shown in the background.

Study finds pitchers have thicker UCLs in elbows than other baseball players, factors that risk common injury

A University of Kansas study measured the thickness of the UCL in throwing and nonthrowing elbows of both pitchers and position players of a college baseball team. The study can showed arm slot is not correlated with UCL thickness, contradicting a common belief of throw angle contributing to the common injury.
More Health and Well-Being

Teaching, Learning and Behavior

Podcast from KU’s FLITE Center helps teachers navigate classroom AI tools

KU researchers Lisa Dieker and Maggie Mosher have launched "AI Advocates," a short-form podcast that helps teachers navigate classroom artificial intelligence tools in five minutes or less. Each episode breaks down one tool’s uses, benefits and considerations, focusing on free and accessible options.

Funding to help expand program providing technology, career training to women leaving incarceration in Kansas, Missouri

KU has received funding from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation to team with Workforce Partnership and the Kansas City Public Library to expand a program that works with women leaving incarceration and those who have left to provide technology and career training and learn about online security. The program has also shown it reduces recidivism rates.
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An image of a classroom full of students raising their hands while a teacher watches from the front of the room.

Study finds teachers, students together can form own social constructions of thinking

A KU study working with an English language arts class found that in addition to helping students learn how to think through complex topics, teachers and students can work together to form their own social construction of thinking and how they think about topics in their classes.
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Arts, Architecture and Humanities

KU composer creates choral music to match ‘mystical’ texts

Kansas City's Te Deum choir will feature works by Forrest Pierce, professor of composition at the University of Kansas School of Music, in concerts May 31 and June 1 in the Greater Kansas City area.

KU contributor to new book lays out rules of 'The Rise of the K-Superzombie'

Paul Scott, University of Kansas professor of French, sees zombie television shows influencing the successful resistance to martial law in South Korea during a 2024 attempted coup. Scott has penned a chapter titled “Neither Human nor Monster: The Rise of the K-Superzombie” in the new book “The Post-Zombie: Essays on the Evolving Undead.”
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Aviator Charles Lindbergh wears a helmet with goggles up while sitting in the open cockpit of an airplane at Lambert Field in St. Louis.

Researchers sue New Jersey to obtain DNA evidence in Lindbergh baby kidnapping case

Jonathan Hagel, an assistant teaching professor of history at the University of Kansas, is a plaintiff in a case against the state of New Jersey about the handling of the Charles Lindbergh archive. The lawsuit seeks to force the state police to allow DNA testing on envelopes used to send a series of ransom notes in the infamous Lindbergh baby kidnapping case and trial.
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Business, Economics and Innovation

Study gauges what affects professional women soccer players' social media brands

Nataliya Bredikhina of the University of Kansas led a study analyzing how factors like team, media and market affect European professional women's soccer players' online brands and social media following. All factors played a part, but not equally.

Profit motivation of social media companies may compel them to inject bias and create polarization, study finds

Social media companies thrive on the subtle influencing of users’ behavior. “It is of interest to social media companies to nudge users in such a way that their engagement level increases, but as a result, echo chambers are created and the level of polarization increases,” said Debabrata Dey, a professor of business at the University of Kansas.
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Students walk up the steps to Capitol Federal Hall, home to the University of Kansas School of Business.

$10 million gift ensures construction of new entrepreneurship hub at KU

The University of Kansas School of Business received a $10 million gift commitment from an anonymous donor that ensures the construction of a new entrepreneurship hub building that benefits the greater KU community by teaching students to solve problems in meaningful ways. The new gift supplements the donor's lead gift of $50 million in 2023.
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Law, Politics and Society

Study finds engagement journalism training reduced 'horse race' political coverage, boosted more substantive content

A study co-led by the Universty of Kansas found that news outlets that took part in Democracy SOS engagement journalism training reduced the amount of false-binary "horse race" coverage of elections that focused solely who was winning, instead producing more substantive content. Researchers argue the training could help generate content for a less polarized, more engaged populace.

Partisan politics proved most significant factor for speed of corporate shutdowns during pandemic, study shows

In a new study, Shradha Bindal, assistant professor of finance at the University of Kansas, investigates the speed with which U.S. firms shut down their headquarters because of the COVID-19 pandemic. It finds that the political orientation of the firms and their CEOs proved the most significant factor.
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Silhouettes of two figures facing each other in busy nighttime cityscape; illustration.

KU to host international conference on civility, politics

A group of scholars will convene at the University of Kansas from July 19 to 21 to discuss the state of civility in contemporary politics. KU faculty are among the speakers at the free, in-person conference, which organizers hope will establish an international network of scholars working in this field.
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