News by Subject Social & Behavior

More and more processes are being automated and digitised. Self-driving delivery vehicles, such as forklifts, are finding their way into many areas -- and companies are reporting potential time and cost savings. However, an interdisciplinary research team from the universities of Göttingen, Duisburg-Essen and Trier has observed that cooperation between humans and machines can work much better than just human or just robot teams alone. The results were published in the International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technologies.

Researchers at Trinity College have found that socioeconomic inequalities in children's body mass index (BMI) emerge during the preschool years and widen across childhood and into early adolescence. By analyzing data on height and weight (BMI) they found that lower maternal education was associated with faster gains in child body weight but lower height growth leading to a higher risk of overweight and obesity.

A commentary by researchers addresses the specter of clinical, ethical, public health and legal concerns that have been raised because of the recent measles outbreaks in New York. So far, the outbreaks seem to have emanated from ultra-Orthodox Jewish residents whose affected children were never vaccinated. Their commentary is motivated in part by the availability of important and relevant data from a small case series of interviews conducted with ultra-Orthodox Jewish mothers in Williamsburg and Rockland counties.

The number of asylum seekers on wait lists in Mexican border cities or those waiting to get on these lists has grown to 18,700, according to a new report. It reveals the number of asylum-seekers has grown by more than 14,000 in just over the last three months. In addition, wait times are longer than ever before, averaging about one month, and asylum seekers are arriving to an increasing number of cities.

Belief in the 'Prosperity Gospel' -- that God financially blesses faithful followers -- does not turn individuals into successful entrepreneurs. But prosperity beliefs can fuel values linked to entrepreneurial thinking, such as power and achievement, according to a Baylor University study.

A new USC study found that women performed better on math and verbal tasks at higher temperatures, while the opposite was true for men. The study suggests that gender is an important factor not only in determining the impact of temperature on comfort but also on productivity and cognitive performance.

Through research by a political scientist at The University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), there is potential to see diplomacy between nations improve through the use of Twitter. UTSA researcher, Matthias Hofferberth, is exploring how the United Nations (UN), uses Twitter as a diplomacy tool, an approach that has been discussed as Twiplomacy.