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Using artificial intelligence, a team from the UNIGE has developed a device for the early detection of autism spectrum disorder in children. Individuals affected by autism spectrum disorder often present communication issues and difficulties in social interactions. Although very frequent, this disorder is challenging to diagnose before the age of five.

Indigenous peoples pass on their knowledge of medicinal plants orally. If their languages go extinct, valuable medical knowledge will be lost. A study by the University of Zurich estimates that 75 percent of the world's medicinal plant applications are only known in one language. Language is one of our species' most important skills, as it has enabled us to occupy nearly every corner of the planet.

An international team led by UNIGE demonstrates that the characteristics of bilingualism allow autistic children to compensate for certain fundamental deficits. Affecting more than one in a hundred children, autism spectrum disorder is one of the most common neurodevelopmental disorders. It has a particular impact on social interaction, including difficulties in understanding other people's perspectives, beliefs, desires and emotions, known as 'theory of mind'.

One-third of children and adolescents experienced mental health problems during the first COVID-19 lockdown in Switzerland. Parents and young adults also perceived considerable stress, yet the perceived stresses differed from those of children and adolescents, the first Switzerland-wide representative study by the University of Zurich and La Source School of Nursing Lausanne has shown.

The risk of people being forced from their homes by flooding increases by half for each additional degree of global warming, as an international research team led by the Weather and Climate Risks Group at ETH Zurich demonstrate. Every year, millions of people around the world are displaced from their homes due to severe weather caused by climate change.

Motivated by the goal of reducing the polarization of opinions online, new EPFL/UNIL research indicates that this may be far more difficult than expected, even when using liked or respected celebrities as spokespeople. Celebrities, thanks to their level of fame, are often considered to be influential and many have used their status to campaign for issues they believe to be important - consider Beyoncé's feminist activism or Leonardo DiCaprio's outspokenness on Climate Change.

An international team of scientists has drawn up a report on the resilience capacity needed by our societies to prevent, react to and recover from the COVID-19 crisis. The authors propose a path forward to shape resilient, inclusive, and sustainable societies. The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global systemic crisis.

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic caused a sharp decline in living standards and rising food insecurity in lowand middle-income countries across the globe, according to a new study by an international team of economists including from Swiss TPH. The study, published today Advances, provides novel insights into the collateral damage of the pandemic, and urges the international community to take action to mitigate the impact on hunger and poverty.

Marmoset monkeys perceive the vocal interactions between their conspecifics not just as a string of calls, but as coherent conversations. They also evaluate their content. These are the findings of a study by researchers at the University of Zurich which combined thermography methods with behavioral preference measures.

Scientists from the University of Geneva and UPF have analysed the skeletons of several Bronze Age communities that lived in Western Switzerland in order to reconstruct the evolution of their diet. The Bronze Age (2200 to 800 BC) marked a decisive step in the technological and economic development of ancient societies.

Scientists at ETH Zurich have leveraged big data from recruitment platforms and machine learning to study hiring discrimination. They show that discrimination against immigrants depends, among other things, on the time of day; and that both men and women face discrimination. Education, professional skills and experience are the essential criteria for filling a position - or at least that is the expectation.

Contrary to earlier concerns, a UNIGE study has shown that people who met their partners on dating applications have often stronger long-term relationship goals, and that these new ways of meeting people encourage socio-educational and geographical mixing. Mobile apps have revolutionised the way people meet in Switzerland and elsewhere in recent years.

TIGER is an project between France, Germany and Switzerland to support the cross-border monitoring and control of the Asian tiger mosquito in the Upper Rhine region. On 13 November, Swiss TPH hosted a one-day virtual symposium, where the project team, consisting of Swiss TPH and partners, presented on the current situation of the spread of the tiger mosquito in the region, as well as the project results from the past three years.

Bronze Age pastoralists in what is now southern Russia apparently covered shorter distances than previously thought. It is believed that the Indo-European languages may have originated from this region, and these findings raise new questions about how technical and agricultural innovations spread to Europe.

If both camps take a more empathetic approach when there's an argument, it generally makes it easier to listen to what the other side is saying and alleviate tension. This isn't the case, however, when the conflict is about immigration. Discussions about immigration are heated, even antagonistic. But what happens when supporters and opponents undertake to show more empathy and engage in perspective taking, two types of behaviour that can ease tension?

Despite significant progress in prevention and therapy, millions of people still get infected with HIV every year. The main burden of HIV/AIDS falls on Africa. To contain the epidemic, innovative methods are needed to enable early diagnosis of all those affected. A Basel research group has now been able to significantly improve the success of "door-to-door" testing campaigns thanks to HIV self-tests.

HIV continues to be a major global health issue, with 1.7 million new infections in 2019 alone. In Africa, a part of the world that shoulders most of the HIV burden, home-based HIV testing is a promising solution to address the HIV epidemic. In two recent studies published in The Lancet HIV and the Journal of International AIDS Society, Swiss TPH and partners found that HIV self-tests during home-based testing campaigns significantly increased people's awareness of their HIV status, particularly in the most remote regions.

The psychosocial profile of people who resist adopting suitable protective behaviours against the transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 virus provides valuable information about preventing epidemics. Preventive measures are spontaneously adopted by a large section of the population, but pockets of resistance do exist.

The University of Zurich tested 2,500 schoolchildren in the Canton of Zurich to determine if they were infected during the period between the onset of the novel coronavirus and early June 2020. The preliminary results show that in the first stage of testing prior to the summer break, there was no clustering of coronavirus infections in schools in the Canton of Zurich.

Traces of violence on 1700 year old skeletons allow researchers to reconstruct warfare and sacrifices of nomads in Siberia. An international and interdisciplinary team of anthropologists, archaeologists and specialists in forensics sciences led by Marco Milella from the University of Bern performed a detailed and revealing analysis of the traumas found on the skeletal remains.