news 2022

Large terrestrial mammals are vulnerable to the acoustic sounds of drones, technological systems which are increasingly used to study the wildlife in open habitats such as the savanna and marshes.

An investigation of the Interdisciplinary Research Structure (ERI) of Reading of the University of Valencia (UV) affirms that, for the learning of sciences in university students, it is more efficient to integrate the questions in the development of the text than to accumulate them at the end. Applying this method, as the researcher Alba Rubio did for this study published in the journal Instructional Science , has resulted in more focused and careful learning, and helps to better remember what has been learned.

Global climate change and, in particular, the warming of the oceans has caused the frequency and severity of marine heatwaves to increase every year, with serious consequences for the stability and resilience of coral populations. Researchers at the Biodiversity Research Institute ( IRBio ) of the University of Barcelona have analysed the impact of the sudden increase in temperatures on the early life stages of two key species in the Mediterranean: the red coral ( Corallium rubrum ) and the white gorgonian ( Eunicella singularis ).

A new study led by UB researchers shows that wasteosomes —structures that act as containers for brain waste products— indicate a malfunction of the glymphatic system, a recently discovered system that is an important brain-cleaning mechanism. The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), was carried out by a research team from the UB Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences, the UB Institute of Neurosciences (UBNeuro) and the Network Center for Biomedical Research in Neurodegenerative Diseases (CIBERNED).

The ALARM research team, a European scientific project coordinated by Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), has developed a new prototype early warning system to monitor natural phenomena that threaten the safety and efficiency of aviation. This system, currently capable of predicting the dispersion of volcanic ash or the progress of certain thunderstorms, also identifies the areas where the passage of aircraft has the greatest impact on climate change.

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.

An international research team in which the Institute of Materials Science of the University of Valencia (ICMUV) participates has managed to control individual photons integrated into a chip with great precision aiming at applications in quantum acoustic technologies or integrated photonic networks.

More than 50% of the world's river network is made of temporary or intermittent rivers: those which, during a certain time of the year, mainly summer, present dry riverbeds or some isolated ponds. These rivers show high variability, both spatially and temporally, which makes it impossible for the same tools used to gauge the state of health of permanent rivers to be applied to them.

The CADENUSA project (Awareness Campaign on Misinformation and Hoaxes in Nutrition and Food Safety), funded by the UNESCO Chair and directed by three researchers from the ScienceFlows group of the Un

The University of Barcelona is the institution with the most publications and number of bibliometric citations worldwide in research on liver cirrhosis, followed by the Virginia Commonwealth University (United States), the University College London (United Kingdom), the Mayo Clinic (United States) and the University of Padova (Italy).

Parkinson's disease affects 3% of population over 65 years old, and the average age of onset is 60. Regarding juvenile Parkinson, which represents the of all Parkison's cases, the disease begins before 40 years old. Now, a group of researchers of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences , the Institute of Neurosciences of the UB ( UBNeuro ) and the Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute ( IDIBELL ), has deciphered, for the first time, the molecular mechanism by which a mutation of the adenosine type 1 receptor gene is associated with juvenile Parkinson's.

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.

Globally, the coastal lagoons of Lagos (Nigeria), Sakumo (Ghana) and Bizerte (Tunisia) —close to large urban centres and without waste and sewage treatment systems— are among the most affected water ecosystems of this nature by microplastic pollution. However, the highest concentrations of microplastics have been detected in Barnes Sound and other small lagoons in a protected area in the north of Florida Bay (USA), a particular case that can be explained by the transport of microplastics carried by hurricanes from polluted areas.

A study by Marina Cuquerella and Ana M. García, researchers from the Department of Preventive Medicine and Public Health of the University of Valencia, investigates the profile of people treat

In the field of molecular magnetism, the design of devices with technological applications at the nanoscale —quantum computing, molecular spintronics, magnetic cooling, nanomedicine, high-density information storage, etc.— requires those magnetic molecules that are placed on the surface to preserve their structure, functionality and properties.

The evolutionary clade and biodiversity of green lizards of the genera Lacerta and Timon —reptiles common in the Mediterranean basin and surrounding areas of the European continent, North Africa and Asia— have never been studied in detail from the perspective of historical biogeography. Now, a paper published in the Journal of Biogeography presents a new scenario for deciphering the potential evolutionary processes that have acted —separately or together— to give rise to the biodiversity of species in this group in Mediterranean ecosystems.

An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) has created a mathematical model which makes it possible to explain, according to different sociopolitical variables, certain advanced cyberattacks that are usually carried out by States. This is a first step towards the ambitious goal of predicting the occurrence of these cyberattacks.

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.

Domingo Carlos Salazar, molecular archaeologist and researcher at the University of Valencia, has participated in the first analysis of zinc isotope ratios (atoms of different masses of the same chemical element) in the dental enamel of a Neanderthal to determine his position in the food chain. The study, published in the journal PNAS, and led by a researcher from the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) in France, has determined that the Neanderthal to which the tooth belonged probably had an almost carnivorous diet.

Improving knowledge of the Schaaf-Yang syndrome (SYS) -an ultrarare disease caused by mutations in the MAGEL2 geneis the aim of the first clinical guideline aimed at healthcare professionals and families of children affected by this pathology. The article, published in the Journal of Medical Genetics , has revealed the effects of the truncated MAGEL2 protein on cell physiology.