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History / Archeology - Social Sciences - 31.07.2023

The study of the prehistorical sambaqui community (eastern South America) shows their genetic diversity
An international research team lead by the University of Tübingen and the Brazilian University of São Paulo, with CIDEGENT researcher Domingo C. Salazar from the University of Valencia, compiled the largest genomic dataset from Brazil to demonstrate that sambaqui communities on the southern and southeastern coasts didn-t represent a genetically homogeneous population.

Social Sciences - 28.07.2023

The creation of new meanings of words has common reasons in 1,400 languages, according to a study led by UPF published in Science
Another of the conclusions of the study, conducted with the collaboration of the University of Toronto, is that the lexical creativity of children (when they are learning to speak) and that of the speakers of a language (which explains the historical evolution of the meanings of words) follow shared patterns.

Health - Social Sciences - 15.05.2023

Research is to compare the health and lifestyles of the population aged 70 to 79 in Lleida and Seville
Aïda Solé-Auró, a professor at the UPF Department of Political and Social Sciences, is joint principal investigator of the project.

Social Sciences - 01.03.2023

The elderly, those of a lower socioeconomic level and men, the ones using Valenbisi the longest
A study by the University of Valencia (UV) on the time spent using the shared bicycle system (SBC) in Valencia and its relationship with physical activity concludes that older people, those with a lower socioeconomic level and men are the ones who use the Valenbisi system the most. The work, on 6,946 users, has been published in the magazine Retos .

Social Sciences - 10.02.2023

Experts from the UV, the UPV, and the CSIC monitor the gender gap in the research centres in the Valencian Community
The research group INVISIBLES, consisting of researchers from the University of Valencia (UV), the Polytechnical University of Valencia (UPV) and the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), is working on a study to monitor the gender gap in the research centres of all three provinces in the Valencian Community The research team started this study in the beginning of 2022.

Social Sciences - Physics - 19.01.2023

Active matter theory explains fire-ant group behaviour
Recerca Ants are social insects and the Solenopsis invicta species —known as the fire ant— is no exception. The social interactions of this invasive insect, which comes from South America, are framed within the context of the theory of Active Matter, which would explain the ants' group behaviour as a reaction to the intrinsic mechanisms in the system.

Computer Science - Social Sciences - 23.11.2022

A research identifies gender biases in Internet algorithms and proposes specific training to eliminate them
A research led by the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) and with the participation of researchers from the University of Valencia (UV), the Polytechnic University of Valencia (UPV) and the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (UPC), among other centres, proposes measures to eliminate gender bias in Internet algorithms.

Social Sciences - Health - 08.11.2022

An analysis based on the social determinants of health allows a better understanding of the impact of covid-19 on children
The intersectional study, conducted by researchers from UPF, the UVic-UCC and the UAB, published in the journal Sociology of Health & Illness , considers the multiple axes of inequality and existing power relations.

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.

Campus - Social Sciences - 28.07.2022

University institutional communication improves the impact and visibility of scientific work and encourages innovation
The main benefits perceived by researchers after participating in an institutional communication campaign of their scientific work are that they increase both the visibility and the impact of the research, improve their prestige and foster innovation. These are some of the conclusions of a doctoral thesis presented at the University of Valencia (UV) by the communicator and scientific journalist Francisco Javier Alonso Flores, who analyses the social impact of institutional communication of R&D&i in Spanish universities.

Politics - Social Sciences - 13.05.2022

From political polarization to affective polarization. How did we get to the current situation?
Mariano Torcal and Josep Maria Comellas, researchers at the UPF Research and Expertise Centre for Survey Methodology (RECSM), are the authors of an introductory article for a special issue of the jou

Health - Social Sciences - 11.05.2022

Children with history of maltreatment could undergo an early maturation of the immune system
The acute psychosocial stress states stimulate the secretion of an antibody type protein which is decisive in the first immune defence against infection, but only after puberty. However, children with a history of maltreatment present a similar response to that of adolescents, which suggests there is an early maturation of the immune system in these cases.

Pedagogy - Social Sciences - 02.03.2022

Researchers from UPF are working with young people in the Raval district to boost audiovisual media as a tool for social transformation
The project SMOOTH gathers 11 European universities that will study whether -educational commons- can act as catalysts to reverse social inequalities among young people and children. UPF is to undertake the performance of two case studies in Barcelona on which work will be carried out with the entities AEI Raval and ElParlante.

Social Sciences - Innovation - 20.01.2022

A new digital gap in internet usage between rich and poor people has been detected
Social networks are used more often in poor neighbourhoods than in affluent neighbourhoods, while the latter tend to consume more information from traditional online media. This is one of the conclusions of a scientific study undertaken by researchers at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the IMDEA Networks Institute, and Orange Innovation which analyses the relationship between internet usage and variables such as education, income, or inequality in a specific area.

Social Sciences - 17.12.2021

Researchers write the first global report on sexual violence in Spain
UB researchers have written, required by the Spanish Ministry of Home Affairs, a report on sexual violence in Spain which gathers and analyses the existing data in order to provide a global view of the phenomenon. The authors of the study used official figures, such as the number of reports and sentences, and several published surveys and researches on this issue, among other sources.

Social Sciences - 04.11.2021

Excavations carried out by UPF researchers reveal an Iberian settlement in the heart of Emporion territory
A series of structures from the Iberian period excavated at Turó de Vilanera and at Muntanya Rodona (l'Escala, Alt Empordà) suggest that local groups managed and controlled this territory centuries after the establishment of a Greek community in the port of Emporion. A few weeks ago, the excavation campaign carried out by a research team from Pompeu Fabra University at Turó de Vilanera (l'Escala, Alt Empordà) came to an end.

Social Sciences - 13.10.2021

The influence collective risks have on the acceptance of social norms is being analysed
Faced with large collective risk, such as climate change or the COVID crisis, people may accept stronger or more restrictive social norms and may be more inclined to cooperate with them. However, when the perception of risk decreases, so does adherence to these norms. This is one of the conclusions of an experimental study conducted by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the Collegio Carlo Alberto in Turin, the Italian National Research Council, the Institute for Futures Studies in Stockholm, and Mälardalen University (Sweden).

Social Sciences - 02.06.2021

Children’s beat gestures predict the subsequent development of their oral skills
So reveals a study published on 21 May in Child Development , conducted by Ingrid Vilà-Giménez and Pilar Prieto (ICREA), members of the Prosodic Studies research group, together with researchers from the universities of Chicago and of Iowa.

Social Sciences - 31.05.2021

A new model enables the recreation of the family tree of complex networks
In a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), a research team of the Institute of Complex Systems of the UB ( UBICS ) analysed the time evolution of real complex networks and developed a model in which the emergence of new nodes can be related to pre-existing nodes, similarly to the evolution of species in biology.

Social Sciences - History / Archeology - 06.05.2021

Human burial from 78,000 years ago in Africa
Àfrica Pitarch, Beatriu de Pinós researcher in the Prehistoric Studies and Research Seminar of the UB (SERP-UB) 000 years ago. Researchers found remains of a child aged between 2.5 and 3, in a shallow grave in the site of Panga ya Saidi (Kenya). This burial joins other evidence of the first social complex behaviour seen in Homo Sapiens.