News by Subject Social & Behavior

Despite being criminalized in 2018, an estimated 77% of girls in mid-Western Nepal are still being forced to sleep outside in 'menstruation huts' during their period, according to a new study published today in Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters.

Music is an art, but it is also a science involving vibrating reeds and strings, sound waves and resonances. The study of acoustics can help scientists produce beautiful music even with musical instruments fashioned with high-tech methods, such as 3D printing. Researchers studied the sound quality of a 3D-printed ukulele and compared it to a standard wooden instrument, and will present the group's results at the 178th ASA Meeting.

The ancient Romans relied on long-distance timber trading to construct their empire, according to a study published Dec. 4, 2019, in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Mauro Bernabei from the National Research Council, Italy, and colleagues.

Reading in the presence of a pooch may be the page-turning motivation young children need, suggests a UBC researcher. Camille Rousseau, a doctoral student in UBC Okanagan's School of Education, recently completed a study examining the behavior of 17 children from Grades 1 to 3 while reading with and without a dog. The study was conducted with Christine Tardif-Williams, a professor at Brock University's department of child and youth studies.

Some community parks are square, a reflection of the city block where they're located -- but irregularly shaped parks reduce the mortality risk of residents who live near them, concluded a study by Huaquing Wang, a Ph.D. Urban and Regional Sciences student and Lou Tassinary, professor of visualization.

Researchers can track cultural changes across ancient Africa by tracking the sizes of ostrich eggshell beads, according to a study published Nov. 27, 2019 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Jennifer Miller of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History and Elizabeth Sawchuk of Stony Brook University.

In a new study published in PLOS ONE, researchers from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History's Department of Archaeology present an expanded analysis of African ostrich eggshell beads, testing the hypothesis that larger beads signal the arrival of herders. The data reveals a more nuanced interpretation that provides greater insight into the history of economic change and cultural contact.