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SMU In The News

SB Nation: Can speed save Ben Simmons?

DALLAS (SMU) – As SB Nation’s Michael Pina points out, Philadelphia 76ers’ Ben Simmons might be the fastest player in the NBA, not to mention the other physical advantages he has.  But Pina asks the question: is any of that enough?

For the article, Pina interviewed coaches, players and Southern Methodist University professor Peter Weyand, who leads the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory.

Weyand explained what it is about Simmons, listed as 6’10 and 240 pounds, that makes him such a wonder on the basketball court, biologically speaking.

“Being really large, it’s hard to be fast … Anything where you’re trying to move body mass in space, it’s an advantage to be small,” says Dr. Peter Weyand, a biomechanist and physiologist who’s spent decades conducting performance related research. “It’s just basic biology, how muscular strength relates to body size. Bigger people are weaker.”

He makes a comparison to sprinters: “The quick and dirty is that if you’re smaller, shorter, and less massive, it’s easier to accelerate,” Weyand says. “So if you look at the difference between 400- vs. 200- vs. 100-meter specialists, the shorter the race is the shorter they get, because more of that race is accelerating. And then if you go to the indoor competitions, where typically the standard race distance is 60 meters, the guys that excel at that rate tend to be even shorter, because more of that race is accelerating.”

Read the full article.

About SMU

SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU’s alumni, faculty and nearly 12,000 students in seven degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world.

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Is blinded review enough? How gendered outcomes arise even under anonymous evaluation, SMU study shows

DALLAS (SMU) – Even when a scientist’s gender wasn’t revealed, female scientists got a lower score than males for grant proposals they submitted for review, according to a working paper led by Southern Methodist University professor Julian Kolev.

The study found that female scientists were more likely to use narrower, more topic-specific language than male applicants for grant research proposals they sent to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.  Men, on the other hand, tended to use less precise terms, which reviewers gave higher scores for.

The findings suggest that different communication styles are a key driver of the gender score gap, Kolev told Science Magazine in a recent interview.

“Broad words are something that reviewers and evaluators may be swayed by, but they’re not really reflecting a truly valuable underlying idea,” said Kolev, an assistant professor of strategy and entrepreneurship at Southern Methodist University’s Cox School of Business and the lead author of the study. It’s “more about style and presentation than the underlying substance.”

Read more about the study in two recent articles done by Science and Nature.

About SMU

SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU’s alumni, faculty and nearly 12,000 students in seven degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world.

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NPR asks Peter Weyand “how do pro sprinters run so fast?”

DALLAS (SMU) – If you’ve ever watched any races with the Olympic champion sprinter Usain Bolt, you may have wondered just how he was able to run so fast.

Southern Methodist University professor Peter Weyand, who leads the SMU Locomotor Performance Laboratory, explained the science behind high-speed running for professional sprinters in an interview with NPR’s WNPR/Connecticut Public Radio. You can listen to the podcast here.

Weyand is well-versed on the topic, having recently co-authored a study that analyzed the way Bolt and other elite athletes ran by using a new motion-based method to assess the patterns of ground-force application.

Weyand is Glenn Simmons Professor of Applied Physiology and professor of biomechanics in the Department of Applied Physiology & Wellness in SMU’s Annette Caldwell Simmons School of Education & Human Development.

About SMU

SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU’s alumni, faculty and nearly 12,000 students in seven degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world.

 

 

 

 

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Project Support program makes its way to Sweden

Renee McDonald, who helped create Project Support [second to the left standing] and SMU psychology students trained Swedish socials workers on the program.

DALLAS (SMU) – Project Support, an intervention program designed to help improve the parent-child relationship and mental health outcomes for children in families in which intimate partner violence has occurred, is being implemented through social services agencies across Sweden. After a multi-year study, the National Swedish Health Technology Assessment in 2018 designated Project Support, originally developed by SMU Department of Psychology professors Renee McDonald and Ernest Jouriles, as one of two programs with a sufficient evidence base for helping children in domestically violent families.

“Project Support has been demonstrated to ameliorate child adjustment problems and improve family functioning,” says Dr. McDonald. “The program has been evaluated in the U.S. with support from the National Institute of Mental Health and we are delighted that it is now being adopted and utilized in Sweden.”

Project Support is an intensive, one-on-one program in which mental health service providers meet with families weekly in their homes for up to 6 months. During that time, parents are taught specific skills, including how to pay attention and play with their children, how to listen and comfort them, how to offer praise and positive attention, how to give appropriate instructions, and how to respond to misbehavior. Service providers also provide mothers with emotional support and help them access needed materials and resources through community agencies, such as food banks.

McDonald and Jouriles launched Project Support in the United States in 1996 to address the mental health problems of maltreated children and children exposed to domestic violence and child abuse. Those factors in childhood often lead to considerable problems for children later in life, such as substance abuse, interpersonal violence and criminal activity, say the SMU psychologists.

Both federal and state databases list Project Support as an intervention for children in violent families that is supported by research evidence.

Researchers funded by the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare, worked with Drs. McDonald and Jouriles to adapt and evaluate the feasibility of providing Project Support to families receiving assistance from the Swedish child welfare agencies.

In early April, SMU hosted six of the original cohort of service providers in Uppsala, Sweden, who were trained to provide Project Support, so that they can share their experiences with Project Support and learn more about programs and services in the U.S. for families in which violence occurs. They visited SMU’s Family Research Center, the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center, The Family Place, and Momentous Institute.

U.S. child welfare agencies received more than 4 million reports of child abuse and neglect involving more than 7 million children in 2017, the most recent year data is available, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reported. Approximately 13 percent of children in the U.S. are exposed to severe acts of inter-parent violence.

In Sweden, approximately 5 percent of that nation’s children are exposed to severe acts of inter-parent violence, according to Swedish statistics. 

About SMU

SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU’s alumni, faculty and nearly 12,000 students in seven degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world.

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SMU In The News

Preston Hollow People: What did scientists learn from first black hole photo?

DALLAS (SMU) – Park Cities People and Preston Hollow People journalist Bianca R. Montes interviewed Joel Meyers, an assistant professor of physics at SMU, to make sense of what scientists learned from the first-ever image of a black hole, which was revealed by the Event Horizon Telescope last Wednesday.

Meyers is a theoretical astrophysicist who studies a variety of pressing topics, including phenomena in the early universe and observations of the cosmic microwave background.  He said the image of the black hole was “the most direct visualization” we’ve ever had of what these fascinating objects in space actually look like.

“It’s a really dramatic step forward in our ability to say here is a black hole and it cast a shadow,” Meyers said.

Meyers said the image also backs up Albert Einstein’s theory of gravity, which was made more than 100 years ago.

“The fact that the image is so close to what we predicted was really a striking confirmation that scientists know what they are doing,” he said.

Read more of what Meyers told the Preston Hollow People on April 10.

About SMU

SMU is the nationally ranked global research university in the dynamic city of Dallas. SMU’s alumni, faculty and nearly 12,000 students in seven degree-granting schools demonstrate an entrepreneurial spirit as they lead change in their professions, communities and the world.