news 2013

A social network designed in 2006 by a young Yale professor to link Hispanic scientists now boasts more than 6,500 members and has not only spurred research collaborations, but has increased interest in science among Hispanic students, particularly those of Puerto Rican descent, a new paper claims.

Video and computer games have seen a huge rise in popularity worldwide. The fact that such games provide an immersive virtual experience has led to public concerns, often articulated in the media, about a possible link between gaming and real world aggression. However, a new study by the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University has found that although the general population has a diverse set of attitudes towards gaming, our belief in whether there is a link between video and computer games and aggressive behaviour is often influenced by whether we have actual experience of gaming.

o Study by psychologists suggests that we're motivated to ignore our goals over the festive period o People intentionally bury their head in the sand and avoid information that can help them to monitor their progress o Ignorance is bliss and few people watch their weight, monitor household energy consumption or check bank balances It's the festive season, time for eating, drinking and being merry, and any thoughts of reaching goals like losing weight or keeping on top of finances go out of the window.

18 Dec 2013 New research on schoolchildren shows the more languages they speak, the better they can speak them. The School Language Survey, a new method developed at the University of Manchester, was carried out by the University's Multilingual Manchester project, led by Professor Yaron Matras. According to Professor Matras, the survey has a powerful potential to change our understanding of the role of heritage languages in schools and communities.

A 12-year study of massive stars has reaffirmed that our Galaxy has four spiral arms, following years of debate sparked by images taken by NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope that only showed two arms. The new research, which is published online today [17 December] in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, is part of the RMS Survey, which was launched by academics at the University of Leeds.

A Stanford study describes the roadblocks to obtaining accurate financial fraud estimates - victims are often reluctant to speak up - and suggests ways to improve the national tracking of such incidents. If you're visiting your elderly mom or dad and see an excessive amount of junk mail or hear a lot of telemarketing calls, take note: Your elderly parent might be a prime target for fraud.

As many as one in four women prisoners in England and Wales self-harm every year, with women in prison four times more likely to self-harm than men. The findings come from the largest ever study of self-harm in prisons led by Dr Seena Fazel and Professor Keith Hawton from the University of Oxford. The researchers examined the prevalence of self-harm in all prisoners in England and Wales between 2004 and 2009 and the results are published in the medical journal The Lancet .

Homeless women are not accessing the support of social services that they need to progress due to a lack of service coordination and the complex needs of the service users, a recent project has found. Researchers at the University of Bristol found that homeless women 'are used to making themselves invisible in order to survive' and are therefore a hard-to-reach group for social services to work with.

The G8 summit has announced today the launch of a £4 million research project about improving life with dementia. This new project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and National Institute for Health Research hopes to answer some key questions: How can people with dementia be supported to live well?  What affects their ability to do this and when should support be offered to help people live well with this challenging disease?

The University of Liverpool and a team of European experts will explore the role of the neighbourhood in the everyday lives of people with dementia in a new research project announced during the G8 dementia summit. The 'Neighbourhoods and Dementia' study, led by the University of Manchester, was one of six research projects announced by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) along with the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), as part of a £20 million funding boost which will significantly add to the understanding of dementia.

Young people serving time in youth detention or serving community-based orders have extremely high rates of substance dependence, poor mental health and engage in risky sexual behaviour, a new study has found. Researchers from Murdoch Childrens Research Institute and the University of Melbourne ed over 500 young people in custody or serving community based orders in Victoria between 2002 and 2003.

University of Washington Fewer high school students across the U.S. started drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes, committing crimes and engaging in violence before graduation when their towns used the Communities That Care prevention system during the teens' middle school years. A University of Washington study found that the positive influence of this community-led system was sustained through high school.

A new documentary to be broadcast on Channel 4 this weekend is largely based on research carried out by a team from the UCL Institute of Archaeology, in collaboration with colleagues at the Emperor Qin Shihuang's Mausoleum Site Museum in China. New Secrets of the Terracotta Warriors is the first public presentation of some of the work led by Dr Xiuzhen Janice Li, Dr Andrew Bevan, Professor Marcos Martinón-Torres and their team, which involves a number of innovative scientific methods and unexpected results.

Ever wondered why your otherwise brilliant friends always seem to partner up with less-than-ideal mates? A new University of Toronto study could help explain why. Led by Stephanie Spielmann , a postdoctoral researcher in the psychology department, the study found that the fear of being single is a meaningful predictor of settling for less in relationships among both men and women.

Study finds no correlation between violent crime and flexible alcohol licensing following the 2003 Licensing Act, with researchers describing the policy intervention as "built on weak evidence".

28 November 2013 Tens of millions of stars and galaxies, among them hundreds of thousands that are unexpectedly fading or brightening, have been catalogued properly for the first time. Professor Bryan Gaensler , Director of the ARC Centre of Excellence for All-sky Astrophysics ( CAASTRO ) based in the School of Physics at the University of Sydney, Australia, and Dr Greg Madsen at the University of Cambridge, undertook this formidable challenge by combining photographic and digital data from two major astronomical surveys of the sky, separated by sixty years.

Results published today in The Lancet give the most detailed picture yet of the British population's sex lives over the last 10 years, as part of the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) survey. Over 15,000 adults aged 16-74 participated in s between September 2010 and August 2012.

A new study, published in The Lancet as part of the third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles (Natsal) survey, systematically assesses the association between individuals' general health and their sex lives, finding that close to one in six (17%) of men and women in Britain say that their health affects their sex life.

University of Washington Posted under: News Releases , Politics and Government , Research , Social Science Digital activism is usually nonviolent and tends to work best when social media tools are combined with street-level organization, according to new research from the University of Washington. The findings come from a report released today (Nov.

EPICure, a series of longitudinal studies following the health of children who were born extremely prematurely, is announcing a new survey to assess the health of participants born 19 years ago. The EPICure studies are long term, population-based studies into the effect of extreme preterm birth on developmental outcomes across the lifespan and involve a national cohort of births.