Google encroaches on Apple in wearable-based clinical research: A study in partnership with the University of Oregon hopes to learn how smartphone use impacts wellbeing. We detail how it helps Google make inroads into health studies.

US consumer sentiment hit a three-month high in early April as positive job and wage trends appeared to outweigh inflation concerns, per the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index. Corporate results: Corporate profits are strong, which suggests that companies have not been hindered by the inflationary environment.

Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. The Washington Post. Tinuiti. YouGov.

The news: Researchers at Stanford University have invented a breakthrough solar panel that can generate electricity at night. It’s based on radiative cooling, in which Earth’s surface rapidly loses heat after the sun sets—a phenomenon that could be game-changing for sustainability.

That’s why Harvard and Boston University partnered with Lightmatter to apply its electro-photonic computing solutions to the AV problem. What’s the catch? Following two years of supply chain disruptions from the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine is another foe for the semiconductor industry.

And they’re willing to spend an additional 10% (or more) on those items, per a survey conducted by First Insight and the Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. Younger consumers are driving the trend, as 75% of Gen Z said sustainability is more important to them than brand.

Brand DEI initiatives can positively influence consumers’ attitudes toward companies, per researchers at Rice University and the University of Miami. DEI gone awry: While true commitment to DEI is a net positive, brands have taken missteps with some misguided attempts to curry consumer favor.

The news: Switzerland-based University of Auckland and digital therapeutics (DTx) company MindMaze announced a new interventional study (ESPRESSo). The study will evaluate the effectiveness of MindMaze’s MindPod solution in helping stroke patients recover movement. The trial will also test the effectiveness of MindMaze’s tool that makes predictions about stroke recovery.

The situation helped drive down US consumer sentiment in early June to the lowest on record, according to The University of Michigan’s preliminary June sentiment index.

That’s affecting consumers’ economic outlook: 83% of respondents described the state of the US economy as poor or not so good, per a May 2022 survey conducted by the Wall Street Journal and the University of Chicago’s National Opinion Research Center.

In 2021, about 9,660 papers on AI were co-authored by researchers from US and Chinese institutions, down from over 10,000 the year before, according to a Stanford University report. The decrease is attributed to rising geopolitical tensions and accusations of intellectual property theft leveled at US-based Chinese researchers, per the South China Morning Post.