The University and the East China New University (ECNU) of Shanghai inaugurated a joint Shanghai-Haifa research center in a festive ceremony. This is the first center of its kind in Shanghai for Israeli and Chinese academia, and it will enable researchers from both countries to submit research proposals to Chinese research funds. The Chinese government, who finances these funds, invests an estimated 40 billion dollars in grants each year.

An impressive achievement for Dr. Shlomo Wagner from the Department of Neurobiology who, along with three other research partners from universities in Germany, the USA, and France, has been awarded a prestigious grant awarded by the Human Frontier Science Program (HFSP), a EU-funded organization which encourages ground-breaking research in science. The aim of their study: deciphering the action mechanism in the brain of the hormone oxytocin which is responsible for social communication. The research grant awarded to the four is in the sum of $1.3 million.

One in three patients aged 70 and older who are independent in their daily functioning and are admitted for acute conditions, like pneumonia, are discharged from the hospital with functional decline and around one in two report a decline in functioning a month after their discharge, according to a new study conducted by the University of Haifa. “A patient who is admitted for a serious illness, like complications from pneumonia or exacerbation of a heart condition, expects to leave the hospital in a better state than the one s/he entered, but in practice this isn’t always the case,” say Dr. Anna Zisberg and Dr. Efrat Shadmi from the Cheryl Spencer Department of Nursing, who conducted the study, which was recently published in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society. 

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Just as they did during the latest war in Gaza in 2014, cyber renegades at Anonymous are once again threatening Israel with an electronic Holocaust. Although they are virtual attacks, the danger and subsequent harm are very real. Exposure to cyber-attacks, warn researchers from the University in a recent study, causes significant stress and aggressive behavior, alongside calls for protection and retaliation. In light of Anonymous’ recurring threats against Israel, it is important to know that cyber terror causes more than inconvenience. “There are, more importantly, grave physiological effects upon a person’s mind and body,” says the lead investigator, Prof. Daphna Canetti of the School of Political Science.

A large bronze mask of the god Pan, the only of its kind, was uncovered at the University of Haifa’s excavation at Hippos-Sussita National Park. According to Dr. Michael Eisenberg, bronze masks of this size are extremely rare and usually do not depict Pan or any of the other Greek or Roman mythological images. “Most of the known bronze masks from the Hellenistic and Roman periods are minature".

  University news and updates at a glance

 A rare copy of the Tanakh (Old Testament) that reached Israel in a circuitous fashion and was donated to the University by the late film producer and director Micha Shagrir, was reunited with its “twin,” a copy of the same edition that was already in the Rare Books Department of the Younes and Soraya Nazarian Library.

University news and updates at a glance  

It is possible to detect when we provide false information regarding our health conditions through our handwriting, according to a new study conducted at the University of Haifa. The study used a computerized system, which was developed by Prof. Sara Rosenblum from the University of Haifa and that was patented recently, to analyze the handwriting process. “Our findings can provide the health care system and insurance companies with a fairly simple tool with which to discover medical fraud, without the need for intrusive devices such as the polygraph that tries to detect physiological changes,” said Dr. Gil Luria, one of the study’s conductors.