BALTIMORE, MD, May 24, 2025 – Most anti-human trafficking efforts focus on breaking up sex sales; however, new research in the INFORMS journal Manufacturing & Service Operations Management is turning its attention to where trafficking truly begins – recruitment. Using machine learning to analyze millions of online ads, researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have uncovered patterns that link deceptive job offers to sex trafficking networks. By mapping the connections between recruitment and sales locations, the study reveals a hidden supply chain – one that can now be exposed and interrupted earlier in the trafficking process.
Drugs being explicitly developed to treat rare diseases are getting more expensive.
Old technology is behind the recent ongoing delays and cancellations at Newark Liberty International Airport, but newer technology will be an important part of the solution.
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Benefits of Super Bowl ads linger in the months following the annual game, with sales boosts during other major sporting events like NCAA March Madness, NBA playoffs and MLB games, according to a study in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science.
A study recently published in the INFORMS journal Management Science finds lower rates of within-industry entrepreneurship in states with strong noncompete enforcement. Using data on about 5.5 million new firms in 30 states, the researchers found that strongly bound workers were significantly less likely to build new companies within the same industry.
Bros don't know. In a new study in the INFORMS journal Management Science, individuals and groups of three were given general-knowledge and forecasting questions. All-male groups had worse discussion dynamics than groups with at least one woman. As a result, their judgments were more poorly calibrated than the other groups’ — and even compared to individual men or women.
We’ve all heard the story of Vincent van Gogh cutting his ear off and of Jackson Pollock’s alcoholism and depression. The struggles facing the creative “genius” are so ingrained in our culture that it has its own moniker: “tortured artists.” Some of the greatest creators of all time are synonymous with depression. But a new study in the INFORMS journal Management Science finds that work created by artists when they are unhappy is valued less than their other works.
In the next three weeks, SEC fans will ponder, debate, agonize and pray over which school their most-coveted recruits will choose on National Signing Day. But a mathematical model has already made the call for all of them – sort of. The model, designed by Iowa Ph.D. candidate Kristina Bigsby, relies on social media posts and “basic biographical information” – presumably including publicly available data like hometown and school. Her work was published in the journal Decision Analysis, from INFORMS.
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