news 2020

In the first few months of the corona pandemic, street patrol officers responded to new demands with a "medium stress level" although the individual experience of strain varied greatly. For example, factors leading to a high stress level were little work experience in the police force or feeling unprepared.

More local law enforcement agencies are using military equipment, such as tear gas, armored vehicles and rubber bullets, to handle social justice protests-calling into question police militarization. But if police no longer used weapons and tactics previously connected to the military, there is little evidence that this would impact violent crime or officer safety, according to a new University of Michigan study.

UofG-led new housing study says design quality of new homes across the UK remains "stubbornly low" The design quality of new homes and neighbourhoods across the UK remains stubbornly low, according to an in-depth study on the issue published today by a team led by the University of Glasgow. The report - Delivering design value: The housing design quality conundrum - which looked at all four UK nations, says new homes and neighbourhoods fail to meet the aspirations of the national planning policy statements in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Referendums on the future of the island of Ireland should only be held with a clear plan for what follows, according to an interim report from the Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland, set up by the UCL Constitution Unit. The report examines the legal rules for referendums north and south of the border, and assesses different ways of designing them based on criteria of procedural legitimacy, stability, simplicity, informed choice and inclusivity.

Referendums on the future of the island of Ireland should only be held with a clear plan for what follows, according to an interim report from the Working Group on Unification Referendums on the Island of Ireland, set up by the UCL Constitution Unit. The report examines the legal rules for referendums north and south of the border, and assesses different ways of designing them based on criteria of procedural legitimacy, stability, simplicity, informed choice and inclusivity.

Fishermen working on Lake Tanganyika in eastern Congo experience a lack of safety and want better enforcement of existing regulations. They also report a decline in the lake's fish stocks. These are some of the findings of a large international study led by KU Leuven based on 1018 interviews with stakeholders in the area.

Behavioural science should undergo rigorous testing and review before it informs public policy such as government responses to COVID-19, according to a paper in Nature Human Behaviour :  Use caution when applying behavioural science to policy . Professor  Andrew K. Przybyls ki, director of research at  Oxford's Internet Institute , is joint lead author of the paper, which recommends NASA's Technology Readiness levels be used to ensure new ideas are adequately tested before being adopted by governments and politicians.

Our ground breaking research has never been so critical during the Covid-19 pandemic. Amongst other things, we're helping to detect the virus, support people suffering from the effects of lockdown and understand how we could be better prepared if there was another pandemic. Here are five things our researchers have done to help prevent the spread of Covid-19.

National governments have a much greater responsibility for shipping emissions than previously estimated, finds new UCL-led research. Published today, the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)'s fourth Green House Gas (GHG) study found that, on average, GHG emissions of global shipping are increasing and are expected to continue to increase under current policy, with emissions hitting an all-time high in 2017.

COVID-19 has seen Australians become more trusting of organisations and governments when it comes to their personal data and privacy, according to new research. The Australian National University (ANU) study examined more than 3,200 Australians' attitudes toward data privacy and security before and during the coronavirus pandemic, including the use of the COVIDSafe app.

The Board of Governors of the 3rd of July 2020 has approved the new policy vision regarding military and dual-use research at Ghent University. This has big implications for research and development at Ghent University as well as research financing by the European Defense Fund in 2021. Research that can possibly be used militarily, is now possible.

A new study has found internet addiction in teenagers leads to difficulty regulating emotions. However there was no evidence that pre-existing emotional issues are a predictor of obsessive internet use. Published in the peer-reviewed journal Emotion , the paper is the first longitudinal study to examine the connection between internet addiction among teenagers and emotion regulation difficulties.

Two thirds of pavements in London are not wide enough for people to observe the government's advice to stay two metres apart, according to new UCL analysis. Looking at data for every street in Greater London, the researchers found that only 36% had pavements that were at least three metres wide - judged to be the minimum required for people to be able to keep their distance.

Researchers have modeled the effects of containment and social distancing measures implemented by the Italian government to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Their findings show that contagion transmission was reduced by 45% in March. The model will now be used to analyze possible future scenarios. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, mobility restrictions and social distancing measures implemented by the Italian government have avoided at least 200,000 hospitalizations and, over time, reduced contagion transmission by 45%.

Public support for increased police powers relies heavily on trust and legitimacy, according to a new study by UCL and the London School of Economics (LSE). In the new paper, published in the British Journal of Criminology , the authors assessed the factors that matter most to the public when deciding if they support the police's use of Live Facial Recognition (LFR) technology.

The Lighthouse Laboratory in Glasgow - a major new COVID-19 testing facility based in Scotland - is now operational. The Lighthouse Lab, which officially started testing samples for COVID-19 this week, is part of what will be the biggest network of diagnostic testing facilities in British history, alongside other Lighthouse Lab sites in Milton Keynes and Alderley Park, which were opened in recent days.

New international research has found that cutting corners on workplace safety to boost short-term financial gains may be rife among companies burdened with debt. The researchers anticipate the problem will only worsen as the COVID-19 crisis smashes the world's economies. Dr Di Fan from The Australian National University (ANU), who co-led the research, warned that Australian companies were susceptible to having a "myopic focus" at workers' expense.

Three Oxford-based COVID-19 projects are among the first to benefit from a share of £20 million in government investment. The three projects include work on an effective vaccine, enabling pre-clinical and clinical vaccine trials, as well as supporting researchers to develop manufacturing processes to produce a vaccine at a million-dose scale. Another project will examine how existing treatments could be repurposed to treat coronavirus.

Stanford psychologist Michael Frank and collaborators conducted the largest ever experimental study of baby talk and found that infants respond better to baby talk versus normal adult chatter. Babies love baby talk all over the world, says Michael Frank , the Stanford psychologist behind the largest study to date looking at how infants from across the world respond to the different ways adults speak.

An initial survey by researchers at EPFL has found that local and regional governments are increasingly turning to digital technology to understand the views of their citizens, especially on planning and development proposals. Governments across Switzerland are embracing civic technology. This is one of the headline findings of the first Civic Tech Barometer, a survey conducted by researchers from EPFL's Urban Sociology Laboratory (LaSUR) in partnership with Geneva Canton's Consultation and Communication Department.