news 2014

17 December 2014 Researchers at the universities of Bristol and Cardiff have shown how the process of defining and measuring poverty in low-income countries can be made more democratic. In a paper published this month in the journal Social Indicators Research , the team's study (funded by the Economic and Social Research Council) demonstrates how methods developed to assess poverty in high-income countries can also be used successfully in low-income countries, where poverty is more deeply entrenched.

Oxford's Rugby Union Blues have thrashed Cambridge 43-6 to record the biggest win in the 133-year history of the Varsity match.

Tim Bale, Professor of Politics at Queen Mary University of London, delivers a warning to the Conservative Party about the likely effects of an increasingly reactive policy on immigration. A day or two before David Cameron made his long-awaited ' big speech ' on immigration, Nick Clegg warned him not to float plans that would see 'the British people..plunged into a cycle of wild overpromising and inevitable disappointment, their scepticism confirmed.' That Clegg had a point should surprise no-one.

Our structure (research) Impact of our research Postgraduate research 09 Dec 2014 New research from the British Election Study has revealed that contrary to the popular view, Ukip is no more successful at winning over the politically disengaged than the other parties. Professor Jane Green from The University of Manchester and a Co-Director of the BES, says only the Greens are set to gain more in 2015 from people who didn't vote in either the 2005 and 2010 elections.

Our structure (research) Impact of our research Postgraduate research 09 Dec 2014 The British Election Study is today launching a 12-minute film showcasing its essential task of throwing light on politics in a crucial period for British democracy. The film, T he British Election Study: Understanding British Democracy , features two of the nation's leading journalists Michael Crick and Alastair Stewart.

Related links: Dr Ingrid Young researcher profile Prof Paul Flowers researcher profile MRC/CSO SPHSU TasP research PrEP research New research findings recommend further measures should be put in place to make the best use of two new HIV prevention options. Research published by the MRC/CSO Social and Public Health Sciences Unit offers new insights into the barriers to effective uptake and use of two new HIV prevention options that use antiretrovirals (ARVs), currently used in existing HIV treatment.

One outcome of the IOE and UCL merger coming into effect today will be that all five of the UK's national birth cohort studies will be housed at the same institution for the first time, forming the largest concentration of birth cohort expertise in the world. Cohort studies are a type of longitudinal research that follow the same group of people throughout their lives, charting health and social changes and untangling the reasons behind them.

Muslim communities may not be as victimised by violent crime, or as dissatisfied with the police as is widely suggested and believed, according to new research by a Cambridge academic. The findings suggest a growing need to move beyond misleading and potentially damaging generalisations which seek to cast British Muslim communities only as the victims of violent crime and police discrimination.

New biological methods used to trace the evolutionary history of kinship patterns shed new light on how societies developed as farming spread across the globe during the Neolithic, according to new research by a UCL-led international team. Kinship is the web of social relationships that underlie human society, with lines of descent determining how wealth, land and position are inherited across the generations.

Scientists have proven definitively that climate change could not have been responsible for a huge population collapse in Europe at the end of the Bronze Age. Archaeologists and environmental scientists from the University of Leeds, the University of Bradford, University College Cork and Queen’s University Belfast have shown that the changes in climate that scientists believed to coincide with the fall in population in fact occurred at least two generations later.

Neuroscientists have discovered an unexpected benefit of getting older - a more nuanced understanding of social signals, such as the age of others. In a new study published today (Friday 14 November) in the journal Current Biology , University of Glasgow researchers show that older people have richer mental representations of the ageing process.

Latest research shows the females of some mammal species will have many mates to ensure unclear paternity, so that males can't resort to killing their rival's offspring for fear of killing their own. This forces males to evolve to compete through sperm quantity, leading to ever-larger testicles. Scientists find that as testis size increases, infanticide disappears.

Our structure (research) Impact of our research Postgraduate research 12 Nov 2014 Research on the 2011 Census, carried out by the Centre on Dynamics and Ethnicity at Manchester, found that 47% of mixed ethnicity groups in Wales claimed a Welsh only identity, compared to 37% of Scots counterparts. New research on the 2011 Census reveals that people from 'mixed' ethnic groups in Wales are more likely to claim their national identity than counterparts in Scotland.

Research shows that children who speak more than one language have an advantage over their monolingual playmates when it comes to communication, understanding and social interaction. But the benefits go even further if children can be encouraged to take a formal qualification, such as a GCSE, as this short film describes.

A study led by Oxford University shows that, contrary to what is widely supposed, there has been no decline in social mobility in Britain over recent decades but rather than going up as in the past, more of us are moving down the social ladder. The study by Oxford University, with the London School of Economics and Political Sciences, is published in the early online issue of the British Journal of Sociology .

New study shows that - even after controlling for subject, degree class, alma mater and occupation - graduates who attended private schools earn on average 6% more than those who attended state schools. If higher education is to be a route to social mobility then the link between family background and adult outcomes must be broken Anna Vignoles New research shows that graduates who went to private schools earn substantially more than those who went to state schools.

A new study suggests the aspirations of women in Mongolia have rapidly shifted.  Before the rapid economic transition of the 1990s, the wealthiest women in the Communist-style era had big families. However, women today are less interested in babies and driven more by money and status. The research by Oxford University and Sheffield University was based on interviews with 9,000 women in Mongolia, a country that underwent a sudden transition from a Soviet-style state to mass privatisation.

New research shows that chimpanzees search for the right tools from a key plant species when preparing to 'ant dip' - a crafty technique enabling them to feast on army ants without getting bitten. The study shows that army ants are not a poor substitute for preferred foods, but a staple part of chimpanzee diets.

Engineers from Lancaster University have helped explorers discover the world's biggest cave. The exciting discovery of the giant Miao Room cavern, in China, was featured by National Geographic News and in the July issue of National Geographic magazine The cavern was scanned as part of a 2013 expedition into the cave, which was co-led by Richard Walters from Penrith-based company Commendium Ltd. The scan data was provided to engineers at Lancaster University, who used this raw data to make calculations on the area, volume and other values of the underground spaces.

Members of the British Muslim community who are most at risk of radicalisation are more likely to have depression and be socially isolated, a pioneering research study led by Queen Mary University of London has found. The research found those most resistant to radicalisation were more likely to be migrants not born in the UK, have poor physical health and have a higher number of friends and family.