news

The results of a major criminology experiment in Peterborough suggest that investing in proactive PCSO foot patrols targeting crime 'hot spots' could yield a more than five-to-one return: with every £10 spent saving £56 in prison costs.

MPs have expressed an overwhelming willingness to use a proposed new service to swiftly link them with academics in relevant areas, to help ensure policy is based on the latest evidence. The government is pursuing a drive towards evidence-based policy, yet policy makers still struggle to incorporate evidence into their decisions.

Online poker offers new insights into the mind-set of scheming Machiavellians, researchers have found. Researchers from Lancaster University and the University of Helsinki show that the card betting game can be used as a novel way to better understand the psychology of strategic deception. Before now, the trait has rarely been studied in natural settings outside laboratories.

Peer to peer support or mentoring is an effective way of boosting disabled people's employment prospects, and should have a stronger role in government work programmes - two studies published today by Disability Rights UK (DRUK) and The Work Foundation suggest. Disabled people say peer support offers hope, self-belief, encouragement and good role models.

People power crucial for low-carbon future, new research shows Policy makers must harness the power of ordinary people if society is to transition to a low-carbon energy future, argues a leading technology historian. New research by Johan Schot , Director of SPRU (Science Policy Research Unit) at the University of Sussex, shows that viewing people as mere energy consumers means we risk losing a vast amount of potential in altering society and bringing about the substantive change we need to our existing energy system.

Children who suffer traumatic brain injuries can face a difficult road to recovery, requiring services such as physical therapy and mental health treatment for months or years to get their young lives back on track. When those children come from low-income households with limited English proficiency, there can be significant barriers in getting them the care they need.

A small scale study into treating depression, using psilocybin, the psychedelic compound of magic mushrooms, has found it can be safely administered. The team, from Imperial College London, say this could pave the way for future randomised-controlled trials to establish the efficacy of the compound in treating this form of depression.

Body-worn cameras associated with increased assaults against police, and increase in use-of-force if officers choose when to activate cameras Preliminary results from eight UK and US police forces reveal rates of assault against officers are 15% higher when they use body-worn cameras.

Research news Up to now, research into pollen allergies has largely focused on allergens - those components of pollen that trigger hypersensitivity reactions. When it comes into with the nasal mucous membrane, however, pollen releases a host of other substances in addition to allergens. In a pilot study, a team of researchers from the Technical University of Munich (TUM) and the Helmholtz Zentrum München investigated for the first time the effects of these substances on allergy sufferers.

Oxford University research has suggested that the 'weekend effect', the suggestion that patients admitted to hospital at the weekend are more likely to die, may in fact be the result of the way medical records are coded for data returns. The study of more than 90,000 stroke patients, by Dr Linxin Li and Professor Peter M Rothwell from the Oxford Vascular Study, has not yet been published, but has been the subject of media reporting.

Researchers from Imperial are investigating whether reducing the number of antibiotics prescribed to patients could increase serious infections. In a bid to combat the growing number of bacteria resistant to our most commonly used treatments, medical staff and patients have recently been urged to reduce antibiotic use.

People who have had the painful and serious skin infection 'cellulitis' are being asked to help scientists design new medical research to improve treatment of the condition. Cellulitis is a common condition. It can affect some groups of people more than others. There has been little research to improve the lives of sufferers.

A University of Queensland researcher has made a big step toward the holy grail of biomedical science — a new form of effective pain relief. School of Biomedical Sciences researcher Dr Richard Clark said marine snail venom was a well-known and promising source of new pain drugs, but substantial hurdles had restrained progress.

When large-scale economic struggles hit a region, a country, or even a continent, the explanations tend to be big in nature as well. Macroeconomists - who study large economic phenomena - often look for sweeping explanations of what has gone wrong, such as declines in productivity, consumer demand, or investor confidence, or significant changes in monetary policy.

One theory is that they were used to decompose the bodies. Later, after the flesh was removed the remains may have been buried around the jars. Archaeologists from The Australian National University (ANU) have unearthed an ancient burial ground at one of Asia's most mysterious sites - the Plain of Jars in Laos.

Researchers from the University of Oxford and Cornell University have measured how ranking workers affects later levels of performance. A total of 18 experimental sessions took place in a laboratory study involving 300 students, who were divided into groups made up of 17 people for the various tasks.

Stanford researcher Joseph Felter found that direct cash assistance to households in the Philippines decreased insurgent-led conflicts and weakened their influence in those villages. How people receive aid in countries wracked by civil wars can have a major impact on both the level of insurgent violence and insurgents' influence in those communities, new Stanford research shows.

Developed cities are spending significantly more than developing cities on measures to adapt to the impacts of climate change - with spending seemingly linked to wealth rather than number of vulnerable people - finds UCL research. The paper, published today , analysed the amount that ten megacities (cities with a population greater than three million, or GDP ranking amongst the top 25 of cities, or both) across the globe spent on climate adaptation measures, such as better drainage systems, coastal defences and more resilient infrastructure.

Heidelberg biologist Dr. Sylvia Erhardt is receiving a highly endowed grant from the European Research Council (ERC), an ERC Consolidator Grant for excellent young researchers.

New research suggests smoking bans across the UK have reduced the uptake of smoking by teenagers by roughly a fifth. While smoke-free legislation has been a great success for tobacco control, its impact on the smoking habits of adolescents was poorly understood. Researchers at the University of Glasgow's MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit along with colleagues at the Welsh Government and the University of Stirling, looked at school-based surveys to see what effect comprehensive smoke-free policies has had on smoking uptake in adolescents.