news 2022

The consumption of polyphenols in adolescents is associated with a better cardiovascular health, according to a collaborative research study which includes the participation of the University of Barcelona, the Physiopathology of Obesity and Nutrition Networking Biomedical Research Centre (CIBEROBN), the Spanish Cardiovascular Research Network (CIBERCV) and the SHE Foundation.

Antonio Camacho, professor at the Department of Microbiology and Ecology at the University of Valencia (UV), leads the European LIFE Wetlands4Climate project in Spain, together with the Global Nature Foundation (FGN). This proposal works so that the management of Mediterranean wetlands generates multiple alliances and creates opportunities for socioeconomic development in rural areas and represents an important advance in understanding the carbon balances of Mediterranean wetlands.

A team led by Professor Manuel Vázquez-Carrera, from the Faculty of Pharmacy and Food Sciences and the Institute of Biomedicine ( IBUB ) of the UB, has conducted a review study on the Growth Differentiation Factor 15 (GDF15) —a protein expressed under physiological stress conditions— and its potential impact on the treatment for type 2 diabetes.

During brain development, neurons have to migrate long distances through complex environments until they reach their final destination. In order to find guidance, they must establish several interactions —which are still hard to study— between their receptors and the surrounding molecules.

A research group from the Institute of Corpuscular Physics (IFIC, University of Valencia/CSIC) has carried out the first long-term measurement of ambient neutrons at the Canfranc Underground Laboratory (LSC). For this they have used the High Efficiency Neutron Spectrometry Array (HENSA) detector, developed with the participation of IFIC itself and now installed at the LSC.

Cultura Researchers Adelina Millet and Lluís Feliu, members of the Institute of Ancient Near East Studies (IPOA) of the University of Barcelona, have published a new edition of the Epic of Gilgamesh , the oldest literary epic and a classic in universal literature. Recent archaeological findings led to an update of the Epic, of which a first edition was published in Catalan in 2007.

Some studies reveal worrying numbers of young people with symptoms of depression. For this reason, a clinical trial coordinated by Guillem Feixas, professor at the Faculty of Psychology and the Institute of Neurosciences ( UBNeuro ) of the UB, and Adrián Montesano, lecturer and researcher at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences at the Open University of Catalonia , is trying to find new tools to improve psychological treatment for this population.

A study reveals how the Sigillaria brardii species —a fossil plant typical of peatlands and abundant in the flora of Europe and North America during the Upper Carboniferous— colonised new areas in the riverbeds of the great European mountain range known as the Variscan mountains, far from their natural habitat.

Despite its importance for speaking, breathing, and eating, we know relatively little about the genetic underpinnings of the human vocal tract, a system made up of cavities and organs such as the tongue, the larynx, and the lips.

Persistent lung infections, chronic wounds, and healthcare-associated infections are typically much more difficult to treat than other types of bacterial infections. This is because they are often caused by biofilms, that is, colonies of microbes —mainly bacteria— that grow together in a self-produced matrix that protects and isolate them from the external environment.

Researchers of the University of Barcelona, the August Pi i Sunyer Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBAPS) and Hospital Clínica have coordinated a study to identify the mechanisms that determine the evolution of leukaemia, its relapses following the treatment and, in some patients, the transformation into a very aggressive lymphoma in the final phase.

Groundwaters that circulate through the subsoil as a result of the melting permafrost can transport carbon dioxide and methane —gases with a strong greenhouse effect— to Arctic lakes and this increases the effects of climate change. This process of transporting gases to the lakes, which culminates with their emission into the atmosphere, is now quantified for the first time in a paper published in the journal Nature Communications .

A research by six scientific institutions in the Abric del Pastor of Alcoi, including the universities of Valencia (UV) and Alicante (UV), has managed, through an interdisciplinary approach, to characterise a moment in the life of a Neanderthal group. This research has reduced the palimpsest effect (superimposition of multiple occupation episodes on the same surface over a long period of time) to a time resolution very close to the life of said group.

An international research team has characterised, in the brain of foetuses, the cell populations responsible for the formation of blood vessels in the prenatal human brain. They are groups of endothelial and mural cells that line the cerebral vasculature in the second trimester of pregnancy. Led by the University of San Francisco, the work has the participation of the Cavanilles Institute of the University of Valencia-CIBERNED, as well as the collaboration of the Health Research Institute (IIS) and the La Fe Hospital in Valencia.

By analysing images obtained with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), UPF researchers have found that the measurements of turbulence in brain dynamics allow distinguishing one state from another far more precisely than using other existing techniques.

A study by the Autonomous University of Madrid (UAM) shows that improvements in technology, institutional quality and geographic endowment improve regional economic development and reduce the risk of poverty and social exclusion in Europe.

Researchers from the University of Valencia (UV), the INCLIVA Health Research Institute and the Clinical Hospital of Valencia, among other centres, have carried out a study to create a prediction model for the risk of developing Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus (DM2). This takes parameters present in any routine blood test (basal glucose and triglyceride levels) and others that are easily obtained (age, sex, weight and height of patients).

The intensity and rate of melt during the penultimate ice melting was much higher than previously thought, according to a study published in the journal Nature Communications . According to conclusions of the study, in this climate change scenario, the instability of marine-based ice sheets —those that flow directly into the ocean— was instrumental in accelerating global warming.

The COVID-19 pandemic generated a unique scenario to analyse the psychological impact of global and extreme situations on the population. Now, a study reveals the importance of the configuration of individual brain networks —before the COVID-19 outbreak— in people's ability of managing the impact of stress and coping strategies regarding the pandemic.

Cultura The manuscript is the collection of poems Pisando la dudosa luz del día , which Camilo José Cela wrote from November 1 to 11, 1936, driven by the death of his girlfriend in tragic circumstances, victim of the bombings of the first major siege of Franco's troops in Madrid, to which he would later enlist.