news 2013

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.

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.

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.

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".

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.

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.

In it together: research reveals the joy of the crowd The rush-hour commute or Oxford Street at Christmas are rarely much fun, but for some the experience of a packed crowd can be highly enjoyable, a research project led by University of Sussex psychologist Dr John Drury has found. The findings, published today (Wednesday 13 November 2013) in the open access journal PLOS ONE , 1 explain why people actually seek out and find pleasure in dense, crowded areas.

12 Nov 2013 Members of the public would prefer to look at human hands or robotic hands rather than prosthetic hands which they view as eerie, a new study by The University of Manchester has shown. Researchers hope their study, published in the Journal Perception, and future work in this area will help improve designs for prosthetic limbs.

Oxford University researchers have conducted the first academic study into the hidden problem of adolescent to parent violence in the UK. Adolescent to parent violence is not a category currently flagged in police databases. Researchers analysed raw data from the London Metropolitan Police area, revealing that in one year (2009-2010) alone, there were 1,892 reported cases of 13-19-year-olds committing violent assaults against their own parents or other carers.

01 Nov 2013 A new study has found that higher levels of racism in white Americans is associated with having a gun in the home and greater opposition to gun control policies. The research, published in PLoS One, was led by Dr Kerry O'Brien from The University of Manchester and Monash University and used data from a large representative sample of white US voters.

Assessment of of fi cial suicide statistics found that between 1990 and 2005, the proportion of researcher-de fi ned suicides given a verdict of suicide by the 12 coroners studied decreased by almost seven per cent, largely because of the increased use of misadventure/accident verdicts for deaths thought, on clinical review, to be suicides.

31 Oct 2013 People who suffer from language difficulties as children may continue to suffer from various emotional and behavioural problems as adults, according to new research by The University of Manchester. Childhood language impairment used to be seen as an early years difficulty, with children catching up gradually as they got older.

Oxford researchers have found internet forums provide a support network for socially isolated young people. However, they also conclude that the internet is linked to an increased risk of suicide and self-harm among vulnerable adolescents. Following what is thought to be the biggest review of existing studies into internet use and young people, the researchers suggest that, in future, clinical assessments of such young people should include questions about the online content they have viewed.