news 2018

Should a wind farm be built in a particular region, or is the integrity of the landscape a more important consideration? How should the wastewater infrastructure be designed in the future? Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) is a recognised tool for weighing up such environmental questions, and an important stage of the methodology is to ascertain the preferences of those involved: What is important to them when making their decision? What g

A study reveals that over the course of their evolution, frogs of the family Ranidae have changed their sex chromosomes at least thirteen times. This is the highest documented turnover among vertebrates. Unlike humans and other mammals, ranids use at least five different pairs of sex chromosomes. In the red frog, the most common amphibian in Switzerland, the main gene that determines the sex of an individual - male or female - is located on chromosome pair 1.

Men who exhibit high social dominance make faster decisions than low-dominance men even outside a social context, finds a large behavioral study from EPFL. Hierarchies exist across all human and animal societies, organized by what behavioral scientists refer to as dominance. Dominant individuals tend to climb higher up the hierarchy ladder of their particular society, earning priority access to resources.

Radiofrequency electromagnetic fields may have adverse effects on the development of memory performance of specific brain regions exposed during mobile phone use. These are the findings of a study involving nearly 700 adolescents in Switzerland. The investigation, led by the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH), will be published on Monday, 23 July 2018 in the peer-reviewed journal Environmental Health Perspectives.

The way people view the social exclusion of others varies - depending on how much they think the excluded person is to blame. However, this is heavily influenced by how similar the group members are to each other, as a research team from the University of Basel writes in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Male bottlenose dolphins retain their individual 'names' well into adulthood. Similar to humans, this plays a central role in forming and maintaining complex social relationships, recent findings carried out by researchers at the universities of Zurich and Western Australia suggest. Dolphins form long-lasting alliances in which they give each other mutual support.

Social species engage in a number of cooperative activities including hunting, raising offspring, defending the group against predators, and fighting with neighboring groups.

Being spoilt for choice can be a burden or a blessing: People value their freedom of choice differently. Whereas some people happily let others make decisions for them, others might rebel against restrictions of their freedom of choice. Scientists from the University of Bern have now been able to explain the individual attitude toward freedom of choice based on brain activations.

Parenting groups in rural communities can improve early childhood development in low-resource settings. These are the findings of a study conducted by Swiss TPH in collaboration with the Boston University and partners in Zambia. The study Many children in lowand middle-income countries do not reach their developmental potential due to malnutrition, infectious diseases and a lack of appropriate stimulation and learning opportunities in their home environment.

What is the contribution of upstream areas to micropollutant loads in the Rhine at Basel and Düsseldorf? How effectively do authorities and water suppliers collaborate on management and regulation across national boundaries' An interdisciplinary approach developed by Eawag scientists can help to identify deficiencies.

Tobacco smoking, but not marijuana use over time, was associated with plaque build-up in heart arteries in a study that followed men and women for over 25 years, according to a study led by the University of Bern. "We knew the effect of tobacco smoke, but not of marijuana smoke on subclinical plaque build-up in heart arteries (a marker of future heart attacks).

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can sometimes occur in a particularly severe form, known as complex post-traumatic stress disorder.