news

Social Sciences - Politics - 02.11.2022

Long-term loss of significance causes voter frustration
It is primarily the inhabitants of economically isolated places and regions who vote for right-wing populist parties - this is a common thesis explaining the electoral successes of AfD & Co. in Europe. A research team at Friedrich Schiller University in Jena has now found that high AfD vote shares in the last two federal elections can apparently be explained by a long-term decline in a region's relative prosperity.

Psychology - Social Sciences - 01.11.2022

Bedtime routines and sleep strategies help autistic kids sleep
Sleep strategies and simple bedtime routines can improve sleep in autistic children, reducing anxiety and enhancing family wellbeing, a new study reveals. The largest study of its kind into sleep problems in children on the autism spectrum, led by Monash University's Professor Nicole Rinehart , found clinician-led behavioural interventions helped kids get a better night's sleep.

Social Sciences - Sport - 29.10.2022

Privacy in sports apps often substandard
Sports fitness apps, such as Strava, are gaining popularity year after year. They have also often become true social networks. You share very personal data there, and sometimes unknowingly also your home or work location as the starting point of your sports activities. The apps usually allow you to hide those locations, but researchers from the imec-DistriNet research group at KU Leuven discovered that in many cases that option gives a false sense of security.

Social Sciences - Health - 28.10.2022

Vacant lot greening can reduce community crime, violence
Communities that are engaged in cleaning, mowing and repurposing vacant spaces are likely to experience greater reductions in violence and crime than neighborhoods that do not participate in these activities, according to new research led by the University of Michigan.

Health - Social Sciences - 28.10.2022

Current Recommended Treatment against Whipworm Shows Better Results than New Drug Combination
Swiss TPH researchers tested two different drug combinations against the parasitic worm Trichuris trichiura on Pemba Island, Tanzania. Findings show that a new treatment combination (moxidectin and albendazole) is inferior compared to the current recommended treatment combination (ivermectin and albendazole).

Mathematics - Social Sciences - 27.10.2022

A new method enables the determination of the dimensionality of complex networks through hyperbolic geometry
Reducing redundant information to find simplifying patterns in data sets and complex networks is a scientific challenge in many knowledge fields. Moreover, detecting the dimensionality of the data is still a hard-to-solve problem. An article published in the journal Nature Communications presents a method to infer the dimensionality of complex networks through the application of hyperbolic geometrics, which capture the complexity of relational structures of the real world in many diverse domains.

Pharmacology - Social Sciences - 27.10.2022

Vodka, Benzodiazepines & Co: A Dangerous Mix for Young People
At least 33 young people have died from polydrug use in Switzerland since 2018. Polydrug use refers to taking two or more psychoactive substances at the same time. The young adults are often unaware of the associated risks and rarely use the available services to minimize the risks, the initial results of a study by the Swiss Research Institute for Public Health and Addiction (IGSF) and the University of Zurich have shown.

Social Sciences - 27.10.2022

Perceived corruption causes distrust and selfish behavior
Dishonesty and corrupt behavior by institutional representatives undermines trust and cooperation among people who have witnessed this kind of violation of norms. This is the conclusion of social psychologists Giuliana Spadaro and Paul van Lange (Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam) in collaboration with the University of Turin.

Social Sciences - 25.10.2022

Majority of public don’t want use of their personal data to result in harm or corporate profit
Clear communication about how people's data is used won't necessarily alleviate their concerns about it, new research from the University of Sheffield has found.

Health - Social Sciences - 25.10.2022

Study to look at impact of bushfires and COVID on families
A new study from The Australian National University (ANU) will shed light on the full impact of the 2019/20 bushfires and outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic on young families. The study follows the ANU research team's 2020 Mother and Child survey (MC2020) but will focus on the partners of women who were pregnant or gave birth between November 2019 and December 2020.

Social Sciences - Health - 24.10.2022

Likelihood of receiving an autism diagnosis may depend on where you live
New autism diagnoses tend to be clustered within specific NHS service regions, suggesting that where an individual lives may influence whether they receive an autism diagnosis and access to special education needs support.

Social Sciences - 21.10.2022

Disadvantaged children missing out on meals in childcare
Researchers at The University of Queensland have found children in disadvantaged communities often go hungry when they attend early education and childcare centres. UQ Laureate Fellow Professor Karen Thorpe from the Queensland Brain Institute led a study of more than 900 childcare centres across Queensland that showed those in disadvantaged communities, where food insecurity was highest, were less likely to provide meals to children than those in more affluent areas.

Social Sciences - 20.10.2022

Scientific evidence on migrant integration closer to practitioners
Recently, a new one-stop point for information on migrant integration in Europe is launched. The  SprINg evidence repository  helps policymakers, service providers and advocates work with migrants to make their policies and practices more evidence-based. The repository is created under the leadership of Peter Scholten , dr. Asya Pisarevskaya and Alex Webb from the Erasmus University Rotterdam (EUR).

Social Sciences - 20.10.2022

Dark personality traits make susceptible to fake news
People who deny the existence of facts believe in fake news more often. Particularly often affected are people with dark personality traits - those who always put their own benefit first. These are the findings of a new study at the Institute for Human-Computer Media at the University of Würzburg. Some people believe fake news even when the scientific facts clearly speak against it," says psychologist Jan Philipp Rudloff.

Life Sciences - Social Sciences - 19.10.2022

Meet the first Neandertal family
Ancient genomes of thirteen Neandertals provide a rare snapshot of their community and social organization For the first time, an international team led by researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology have managed to sequence multiple individuals from a remote Neandertal community in Siberia.

Social Sciences - 19.10.2022

Income, segregated schools drive Black-white education gaps
Given the same levels of family, school and neighborhood hardship, Black students would be more likely than their white classmates to complete high school and attend college-reversing current disparities, according to new research from the University of Michigan and Cornell University.

Law - Social Sciences - 18.10.2022

New report uncovers ’institutional racism’ in the justice system
A new report by experts from The University of Manchester and barrister Keir Monteith KC has raised urgent questions about racial attitudes and practices in the justice system in England and Wales. Although the judiciary wields enormous power over individuals, its operations are alarmingly underscrutinised, and one area that has remained largely beyond examination is judicial racial bias.

Social Sciences - Criminology / Forensics - 17.10.2022

Community service or prison sentence; which punishment prevents youngsters from relapsing into crime?
In the Netherlands, community service was introduced in the Criminal Code in 1989 as an alternative to imprisonment. In the juvenile justice system, community service is the most imposed punishment for perpetrators. Even though community service is most often imposed in the juvenile justice system, few large-scale, reliable studies have been conducted on its effectiveness since the 1990s.

Health - Social Sciences - 17.10.2022

Some screen time better than none during children’s concussion recovery
Arts & Humanities Erik Rolfsen (Dr. Noah Silverberg) Too much screen time can slow children's recovery from concussions, but new research from UBC and the University of Calgary suggests that banning screen time is not the answer. The researchers looked for links between the self-reported screen time of more than 700 children aged 8-16 in the first 7-10 days following an injury, and symptoms reported by them and their caregivers over the following six months.

Social Sciences - 17.10.2022

University of Toronto researcher sheds new light on accusations against medieval poet Chaucer: New York Times
Long-held assumption about 14 -century English poet Geoffrey Chaucer are being challenged by new research co-led by the University of Toronto's Sebastian Sobecki and covered by The New York Times .