June 19, 2013Previous pages
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A partir de viejas imágenes, investigadores aplicaron un procedimiento que permitió conocer cómo fue la creciente del río Salado en 1914. Los especialistas perfeccionaron un método de fotogrametría que permite obtener información métrica de los objetos registrados en las fotos, a partir de un software que genera modelos en 3D. El procedimiento servirá para analizar otros casos.
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Los nuevos sistemas de labranza aumentaron el escurrimiento del agua y la compactación del suelo. Es por esto que un grupo de especialistas elaboró un informe que propone estrategias en la programación de los sistemas de producción. El estudio, que fue retomado por instituciones de otros países, incluye consideraciones sobre políticas agropecuarias orientadas al desarrollo de una estructura agraria donde se vincule a los propietarios de los recursos con los productores.
Científicos del Balseiro trabajan con esta tecnología para extenderla al tratamiento del cáncer, a técnicas odontológicas y a mejorar la eficiencia energética. Entre los nuevos materiales desarrollados por los investigadores ya se cuentan microesferas vítreas para el tratamiento de tumores, superficies cerámicas con mejor adherencia a cementos dentales, microesferas para el transporte de medicamentos y cerámicos para la construcción de celdas de combustible.
Ranches, railway stations and public works are some of the buildings which talk about the development and history of Buenos Aires’ northwest. An investigation analyzes the works which represent different styles and times of the country’s architecture, but which also go beyond the building’s value and talk about cultural, social, touristic, economic, political and productive development of this part of the province.
An investigation analyzes peer violence in school, also called bullying, and highlights the role of adults as mediators and support for young students involved. The work considers violence from a social point of view and covers physical as well as symbolic aspects. The researchers carried out workshops to raise awareness about the topic and make violence unnatural for young people.
It is apparently many-sided, restless within the vegetal cell and it is possible to see it with avant-garde microscopes. It is a protein called ASR, which provides resistance to drought. Its efficiency was already proved by being introduced in plants like corn and rice. According to the researchers, this “star” protein emerges when the plant is in extreme drought and threatens its survival.
The causes of the floods which affected mainly La Plata and the City of Buenos Aires, the uncontrolled growth in cities, fragmentary public policies and the role of urban planner, are some of the topics dealt with by the interview of the architect and specialist in urban planning Eduardo Reese to Argentina Investiga.
The researchers’ objective is to replace a petroleum derivative with vegetal oil which presents the same electric isolation and heat dissipation characteristics. Unlike traditional ones, it doesn’t require dangerous additives and it is elaborated based in soy oil. Besides, the researchers work in the design of a pilot plant to process different types of vegetal oil.
The advance of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT’s) as a political-administrative tool, the digitalization of economic and social processes and the civil organizations which, in Argentina, assume as an axis the social development of ICT’s, are some of the topics dealt with by the recently published book of the teacher Luis Sandoval. The text has its origin in the post-graduate thesis work done in the National University of La Plata.
The biologist Julián Lescano waits for summer rains to go to the lakes to study the species of amphibians which live in them. In the nights after the rain, the species adults are reproduced and they do it singing. Lescano can, then, watch them or recognize them for their singing and know what species it is. His research remarks that, due to environmental deterioration, in some lakes where there should be ten species of amphibians, there are currently three.
Doctor Alejandro Curino supports this idea. He is the director of the Laboratory of Cancer Biology of the Conicet in Bahía Blanca. “Cancer is not a disease, but many diseases with a common mechanism: the uncontrolled proliferation of cells. That is why, whereas some are curable, we are very far from finding the cure for others”. The researchers analyze different molecules in carcinogenic cells to know if the deregulation caused by the pathologies called cancer is their cause or effect.
Researchers warn that, due to the impact of agricultural expansion, in just three decades the rising of groundwater in the east of Salta might cause floods, soil salinization and unproductive soils. The problem is already present in San Luis and affects other countries, such as Australia and the United States. The team of scientists seeks alternatives for soil management which, without stopping the current productive tendencies, neutralize the effects of salinization.
Researchers carried out a survey of the public policies applied to the agricultural sector and their impact during the last 100 years. The study, which includes data about the country and the world situations, estimates that the national policies have not emerged from an exhaustive analysis of reality, but that they are linked to the exigencies of political and social groups and the impact of the international situation in the market.
It is a unique experience at world level; researchers developed a biotechnological treatment for sewage effluents which permits to increase biomass and purify water. The project seeks to generate lactic acid, which is the main material in the production of biodegradable plastics, which might turn Rosario in the first seat of a biomass factory.
In times of prolonged working stress, combined with demands which exceed the individuals’ answer capacity, gender violence, employment instability or work precarity, a team of extension of the University works in pursuit of the mental health of public employees of the city of La Plata.
Dr. Sandra J. Bucci is part of an international team of 24 scientists called by a German university with the aim of creating a global synthesis about the resistance to drought cavitations in plants belonging to wooded ecosystems, including bushes and savannahs around the world. The research was initiated at the end of 2009 and the results showed that most trees, even those in tropical rainforests, work very close to their hydraulic safety threshold, which leaves them vulnerable to extreme drought.
Eduardo Depetris and Saul Coria, students of Computing Sciences created an application for mobile phones and tablets with useful information about the National University of Río Cuarto which can be used without Internet connection. From bus schedules to curriculum are part of the information present in the application which permits to have the University “in our hands”.
Bees, beetles, flies, butterflies, birds and bats are fundamental in the development of crops and regional economies as they offer a way for sustainable agriculture. This was proved by an investigation carried out in 19 countries, where they reached the conclusion that heterogeneity in crops and the use of pollinators provide considerable economic yields.
The University participates of an interuniversity project devoted to investigate and spread in kindergartens of the province of Buenos Aires how Escherichia coli are transmitted. This bacterium causes Hemolytic-uremic Syndrome which can be fatal in children under five years old. By means of the project, the researchers offer training presentations to prevent the disease and collect blood, water and food samples.
Young people perceive them as a fundamental tool to acquire knowledge. By means of a study in which information about the expectations of the students who start university was collected, professionals confirmed the demand of teaching which incorporates “technological language”. For the specialists, the traditional class format does not adapt to the new student profile.
Researchers designed and built equipment which will permit to study the function of photovoltaic modules and then infer if the installation works well. Although this equipment exists in the international market, its cost is usually high. The device developed will permit to detect in a practical way the deficiencies in the generation of energy.
Allergies, severe dry eye, cornea erosions, infectious and non-infectious corneal ulcers and other diseases could be treated with stem cells implants. A team of researchers works to extract adult stem cells from the mouth mucus to implant them in the ill eye and in the development of a serum elaborated with the patient’s blood to treat different vision diseases.
Two biodigestors, aimed at advancing in the research and development of technologies for rural families and industrial activities, were installed in the School of Agronomy. The studies carried out are oriented to enable rural families and schools to turn, using the biodigestor, their domestic waste into fuel for different uses and to get biogas for industries from effluents. Some of these technologies are exposed in Technopolis (Tecnópolis).
The teacher analyzes, together with a group of researchers, the relation between Information and Communication Technologies and the school. In an interview with Argentina Investiga she states that “technology and the media question the school” and that “as there is a necessary and urgent introduction of new technologies in the processes of teaching and learning, great resistance and suspicion is verified towards their use”.
Researchers carry out alimentary audits about the food delivered by means of an assistance program in 36 schools in the city. Harmless food is that which doesn’t damage, as it doesn’t impose risks from the microbiological point of view. To achieve this quality, some parameters are controlled, such as cooking temperature and the level of protection of the people who serve the food.
According to an investigation, the introduction of innovation technological as well as knowledge development activities, permits small and middle enterprises to achieve better results. The contracting of consultancy, acquisition of technology and opening of orientation towards external market constitute some of the innovation activities which position the companies.
Teachers seek to incorporate the algae Phorphila colombina to dry pasta, a massively consumed food. It is a renewable resource of the Patagonic coast with a high percentage of proteins, minerals, fibers and vitamins. The objective of the project is to favor the popularity of the algae among non-consumers, incorporating them to pasta, which constitutes an important dish from a nutritional and gastronomic point of view. The work was awarded a prize by the Foundation Arcor.
The genome of two of the most widely used rhizobacteria for the formulation of inoculants to treat extensive and intensive crops was sequenced by a team of researchers. This information might have a great impact on the compression of mechanisms which operate in the interaction plant-rhizobacteria and explain foundations of the success of these microorganisms as the most important active principles of biological products used in agriculture in the last 30 years in Argentina.
Reading on the PC or e-book implies transformations in the ways of understanding and thinking. There is also a tendency towards fragmented reading: an author’s work loses the unity it previously had. The researcher Oscar Traversa analyzes the transformations in the modalities of cultural consumption and remarks that to face this kind of complex phenomena the prevailing view is that which gives preference to the determination of technical support over cultural processes.
After 17 years of the disaster, researchers carried out one of the only epidemiologic studies done in Argentina about the population exposed to the catastrophe unleashed in that city on the 3rd of November, 1995, when the ammunitions dump of the Military Factory exploded. The specialists from the School of Psychology followed it since 2001.
A procedure developed by researchers from different universities could simplify the stage of human erythropoietin purification (EPO rh). Its use took patients to require fewer transfusions and consequently to be less exposed to the inconvenient implied in receiving blood from donors.
Researchers from Rosario developed a model which permits to predict with higher certainty the performance of the asphalt layer and incorporates the possibility of adjusting it to local conditions. It contemplates traffic variations, weather and the behavior of the different materials based on their working condition and tension history.
In the current teaching context, where students work and require flexible time, E-learning is presented as a didactic proposal which adapts to the time and abilities of students and which, at the same time challenges traditional teaching modalities. In an interview with Argentina Investiga, Marcela Chiarani, specialist in Computing Sciences oriented to education, states that “virtual environments facilitate to make a follow up of students”.
The main economic activity of the province of La Pampa comes from the agricultural-stockbreeding sector. That is why, teachers and researchers study the application of a group of geospatial tools to precision agriculture which includes from satellite images to GPS maps. Their use will imply economic benefits for the producer and for the environment, given that it permits the rational use of the land and water.
Excessive speed or carelessness during driving a car cause accidents and Justice has to determine the responsibility of the parties in cases in which the accident caused the loss of human lives, serious health consequences or material damages. In order to do that, it resorts to experts in physical sciences which contribute data to reconstruct the moment of the accident and facilitate to the judges the determination of the responsibilities of the people involved.
A team of researchers analyzed more than 1,000 manuscript files of the judicial forum which date from the nineteenth century and which show how modern discourse is structured regarding what is punished and how it is punished. In this interview to Argentina Investiga, Laura Naput, director of the project talks about the tension between what normative practices say and justice practices really do, among other topics dealt with by the research.
Weather specialists warned that the strong climatic events which devastated many cities and caused floods in Buenos Aires and La Plata are not a coincidence and will happen more often.
The processing includes the washing of the drums and decontamination of effluents through the use of hydrogen peroxide and ultraviolet radiation. Researchers worked in the design of the processes. It is a pioneering experience which will pay attention to the demands of Santa Fé’s central region. The procedure design will be implemented in the industrial scale treatment plant of agrochemical containers which will be built in the city of Rafaela.
Specialists analyze through diverse laboratory techniques the properties of certain unusual lipids found in mammals’ reproductive system, even humans, to know their function in reproduction. The analysis’ results might be applied to solve animal reproduction problems and the scientists do not dismiss the possibility of applying them to solve fertility and infertility problems in humans as well.
The specialist Adriana Poletto investigates the relation of facial asymmetries with joint dysfunctions and clarifies that Odontology has to treat them in time, during childhood in order to avoid permanent and irreversible damages. Through the study carried out by the researcher it is seek to elaborate integral diagnostic protocols and establish the adequate treatment to deal with the pathologies in an interdisciplinary way.
A team of researchers from the School of Social Sciences works in the surveying of reading promotion programs in the region with the aim of collaborating in the development of educational policies. The work, which has been carried out for two years in non formal spaces such as jails, clubs or squares, is developed by means of the investigation of participative action which implies meetings, interviews and observation records.
The increment of tourism and real estate projects generate in the Andean Region new consumption habits which advance on the agricultural and stockbreeding economy of that paradisiacal place. The increase in the value of the land and the landscapes are an engine for tourism and leave in the background the traditional territorial productive logics.
In order to improve the performance of crops and solve the environmental problem of intensive cattle productions, a study confirmed the possibility of replacing inorganic fertilization in extensive crops by the manure generated in bovine corrals. The results of the first treatment tests showed a performance 160% higher than control crops.
Researchers study the aggressor justification mechanisms in the oral and written discourse of women who suffer gender violence. In the study it is remarked the idea existent in society of female roles’ determination as complementary of male roles’ determination. These assumptions influence the justification of male maltreatment on the part of his victims. It is expected that the results of the analysis are useful to make contributions to public policies.
An anatomic-functional basis was discovered for the existence of psychopathy. The methods emerged in the last years opened the possibility of knowing better some aspects of human nature. This means that the contributions of neurosciences can affect the theoretical basis of the legal order and influence the evolution of what is understood as punishment in modern societies. In a dialogue with Argentina Investiga, the Mexican specialist in Criminal Law and Doctor Honoris Cause of the UNC, Cancio Meliá, explains this new paradigm.
A team formed by scientists from diverse academic national and foreign institutions concluded that America’s Colossus is 6,960.8 meters high above sea level. Before carrying out these measurements, the only antecedent registered was an investigation carried out by the University of Buenos Aires which dates from 1956. The results which revealed the height are the product of two years of GPS and gravity measurements.
In Bahía Blanca, researchers and advanced students developed a small cardiographer which can be connected to a mobile phone and send the medical exam by Internet. Due to its low cost, simplicity to use and economy, it is ideal for health rooms, schools, sport clubs, permanent monitoring of outpatients and it might replace expensive and sophisticated non-portable medical equipment.
It is cheap, environment friendly and it has a great behavior in drought conditions and it doesn’t have substitutes in the world market of inoculants. The development consists in a concentrate of bacteria with specificity on the cultivation of sunflower and the first results of its application showed increments in the performance of grains per hectare of up to the 21.50%.
The detection of alimentary transmission bacteria through the development of quick techniques is the work carried out by researchers from different national universities. They have already achieved the simultaneous detection of two of the three pathogenic agents studied -Salmonella, Campylobacter and Escherichia coli O157-, which have a great incidence in diseases of Argentina’s northeast.
The need to replace fossil fuels led a group of researchers to create a tool which can be applied to diverse plants to produce biofuels. The biotechnological tool is low cost and can be applied in vegetal species which do not compete with alimentary uses.
A research group from the Academic Unit Río Gallegos of the UNPA wants to know if the inhabitants between 20 and 40 years of the capital of the province of Santa Cruz are seriously affected by long winter nights, constant cold, cloudiness and strong winds.
Research proposes the election of environments with higher potential, controlled shepherding and fertilization for the management of the Pampa’s pasturelands. The technique consists in carrying out very intense shepherding at the end of the summer and leaving the lots rest at the beginning of autumn to promote the growth of pasturelands in winter. Then, the cows are taken to that place when calving starts.
The data emerges from the research of a multidisciplinary team. Regarding the exportable remainder, they calculate that it would be of 378,251 tons and the income of currency of 2,712 million dollars for the same year. The study was carried out for the Strategic Participative and Federal Agro alimentary and Agro industrial Plan, by means of which they seek to define the orientation of this sector for the next years.
The GEM (Global Earthquake Model) started in 2009 with the objective of gathering world information about active faults and seismic sources. After years of work, its objectives were redefined privileging the study of the vulnerability of the most densely populated zones. “Great losses will occur, because these cities have grown without planning and because they have done it without seismic resistant buildings”, explained Carlos Costa, one of the researchers of the project.
The political expert Sebastián Barros gave a conference in which he analyzed, with a social and political bias, petroleum works in the city of Comodoro Rivadavia, as well as workers and wage inequality. The recovery of the energetic sovereignty, according to the specialist, is not reflected in the social integration and to do that he urges to activate the role of the universities as generators of identification and commitment opportunities.
A group of researchers could reveal what up to now appeared as one of the best preserved secrets in the history of tango. Based in interviews, old documents, antique scores and worn pictures which remained hidden for years, they confirmed scientifically the black influence in the origin of the most representative musical genre in Argentina.
The exponential growth of the sowing surface and the opening of forage barley exports to new markets are changing the logics of a crop whose historical destination had been the production of beer. The requirements to achieve the maximum performance seem to be less than for wheat. Researchers developed a series of fertilizing experiments in the province which had an important impact on the crops.
Although Argentina historically attracted an important number of immigrants from Peru, from the nineties this immigration flow grew a lot. Córdoba was and is a preferential destination for Peruvians. A study reveals that in that city, Peruvians are heading towards constituting a real transnational community, where social bonds’ networks play a key role to sustain the migratory process.
A research analyzes the damaging effects of mal nutrition in sperm producing tissues. According to the studies, spermatozoids are affected in different levels: their shape and function is altered, among others, due to the fact that the tissues which produce them can accumulate fat.
An experience carried out in the School of Agricultural Sciences puts the emphasis on the active participation of the students in the development and exposure of different theoretical topics. According to the survey, through new educational strategies, the students acquire better capacities to make decisions for their careers. They expand their cognitive capital and social values, which permits them to acquire a solid tool for professional training.
The School of Engineering presented the partial results of a study of pymes (small and middle-sized enterprises) of the metal-mechanic sector of the city of Comodoro Rivadavia. The report revealed that almost half of the enterprises polled are in charge of the production and services of petroleum operators and that the sector occupies almost 3,000 highly trained workers. Safety and environment indexes are the highest in average and the lowest are innovation and market opening.
The device designed will help to diagnose and analyze the evolution of certain diseases and create appropriate medication. The designs existent before the creation of this new instrument are complex and expensive. The new device built in our country with national materials will not only facilitate its use, but also its subsequent maintenance.
The percentage emerges from a work carried out by researchers and advanced students of Pharmacy and Biochemistry. They surveyed 4,000 high school students in the city and created prevention workshops in the schools to contribute arguments which orient Young people towards a free and conscious choice regarding this topic, due to the fact that they represent one of the main risk groups facing the addiction.
The electric tricycle developed by researchers in La Plata travelled at the beginning of December along Ruta 2 towards Mar del Plata. It was the first long-distance trip and a fundamental test to evaluate its performance and autonomy. It is the first vehicle in Latin America which works with lithium batteries, a mineral which constitutes a clean energy source and which can become an energetic alternative for Argentina.
Researchers analyze the utility of electric cars. To do that, they designed and built a prototype vehicle as a measurement and experimentation platform. This car has autonomy of 80 kilometers and reaches a maximum speed of 50 kilometers per hour. The research is framed in a sustainable urban mobility plan.
When does childhood finish is one of the questions which appear behind important current debates, such as the reduction in the age of penal responsibility or the law which entitles vote at 16 years old. In this interview with Argentina Investiga, the historian María Carolina Zapiola states that childhood is a social, historic and variable construction which is in permanent bidding.
Hemolytic uremic syndrome, toxoplasmosis, rabies, trichinosis and Chagas disease are some of the most common zoonotic diseases. Specialists ensure that some simple routines and practices are enough to combat them with high chances of success. Researchers carry out a diffusion project in schools, by means of which they recommend hygiene habits and the responsible care of animals, among the keys.
Researchers work in a project to associate the production of rice with native fish farming in moments in which the producer has to leave the earth to rest. They estimate that good breeding results could be obtained and at the same time to nourish the soils for the future productive campaigns. The development of fish farming might favor the use of fertilizers and agrochemicals, which might help to get organic rice.
A work carried out by teachers shows the articulation between the State and NGO which deal with topics such as sports, culture, gender and ecology in the district of La Matanza. The scenarios and actors which encourage local development are analyzed, give place to the district’s growth and point to improve the inhabitants’ life quality.
The extensive use of drugs spread by the media represents a danger which can cause serious consequences such as disability and even in extreme cases, death. This was indicated by Doctor Caterina Milone, specialist in pharmaco-epidemiology, who gave a lecture in the University where she developed the concept of pharmacy surveillance, which implies the follow up of the possible side effects of drugs.
A research work on cultural astronomy reflects the relations that the European immigrants who settled in the north of Santa Fe established with the sky. Besides, it shows the configurations they created with the stars and the uses they gave them in the area of agriculture and meteorology.
Scientists of the Center of Research and Technological Innovation (CENIIT) develop a program of olive crop management by means of biological controllers. In this way, they pretend to reduce the use of insecticides to achieve an ecologic olive grove, with added value in the production. The research is oriented to protect and enrich local olive culture, one of the productive activities characteristics of the province.
The lack of zinc in the diet during fetal life and breastfeeding period, even when it is moderate, causes heart damage, induces to the increase of blood pressure and alters the kidneys function in adulthood. This is shown by the results of experimental studies carried out in rats by a team of researchers.
Researchers of Exact Sciences built a sensor which measures the energetic efficiency of solar heaters without taking it from their place. The development permits to monitor solar heaters in the distance, by means of GPS and save the time and money implied to uninstall and later reinstall to carry out controls. They presented it in Tecnópolis.
A project carried out by researchers from the School of Social Sciences seeks to introduce digital tools and competences in educational environments. The experience enables schools to go beyond the room frontiers. Through the creation of a digital journalism project, the work applies Internet resources to the educational environment and introduces its participants in the new multimedia languages.
Archeologists carried out a key study for trials against oppressors when they confirmed the location of a clandestine detention center. The works covered the survey of testimonies included in the lawsuit against ex-militaries, geoelectric and topographic studies and the archeological field and laboratory tasks.
The cadmium present in the soil might reach peanut crops and bring, in the long term, economic consequences which might affect the performance of the production of peanut crops as well as health problems, as they might cause diseases in people or animals which consume peanuts or their derivatives.
Single crop farming generates loss of biodiversity, that is why the insects which adapt better are those which survive and turn into plagues. But plants defend themselves liberating odors which attract the enemies of those insects. These “natural enemies” can help to decrease the use of pesticides. In a website, researchers created a register to identify the ones which are beneficial for this region.
At the end of 2011 the Mortality Atlas of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires was printed. It was made by researchers, technicians and statisticians. It covers a period which goes from 1990 to 2008 and analyzes the distribution and death causes and its distribution in the temporal tendency. The Atlas is very useful to develop public policies and new investigations in the area.
A group of researchers analyzes the communicational Exchange between dancers and people who were not trained in this artistic discipline. Through the application of new compositional methods in dance, the professionals study the effects of the integration of people foreign to the world of dance at the moment of artistic creation. The reflective capacity of dance to “open doors” to other spheres of life and its connection with every day social practices.
Doctor Ezequiel Ander Egg is an Argentinean sociologist, economist, political expert, pedagogue and planner. In this interview with Argentina Investiga the specialist talks about the capacity of resilience, accounts for the capabilities which must have those who are devoted to volunteering work and analyzes the most frequent difficulties encountered by social workers, among other topics.
Vote, relations between political parties and citizens, patronage practices and the system of unique ballot constitute the object of study of a research which, since 2005, observes scientifically electoral acts. To make politics clearer for the citizens will be one of the contributions of the research.
Geological capture of carbon dioxide has arguments in favor and against and it is in experimental stage. It might permit to capture the CO2 generated in electric power stations and industrial sources and inject it, for example, in deep saline aquifers. A group of scientists studies the interaction of this gas with the water present in aquifers.
Researchers developed a system to use waste which otherwise constitute pollution points. By means of its application, they obtained more abundant harvest and more porous soils thanks to the irrigation of them with dairy effluents. Apart from mitigating pollution, the use of this waste permits lower cost fertilization.
In a short time, nutrigenomics, which is a science which studies the relation of the genes with nutrition and incorporates the concept of metabolism, might permit to make important contributions to the quality of milk and meat of the different animal species we consume. Researchers carry out different experiences through this new discipline whose main aim is to improve nutrition and health and offer a more personalized nutrition.
The project is boosted by scientists from the Institute of Theoretical and Experimental Astronomy in Salta’s Puna, in the Cerro Macón, one of the places which in 2010, was the candidate for the installation of the biggest telescope in the world of the European Southern Observatory. Although the place was not selected, the astronomers took advantage of the knowledge generated and the infrastructure installed to mount an observatory which already has projects from Brazil and the United States.
Little times a scientific project was so important worldwide as it happened with the finding of “God’s particle” or “Higgs boson”. We were faced with the key which would permit to know the origin of nature and all it meant. In an interview with Argentina Investiga, one of the Argentinean Scientists who participated in the project “God’s Machine” he explains how the researches continue.
A research determined that emotional factors influence in a decisive way drivers when they drive, as they include or suppress risk conducts. The results of the study, which included the analysis of cognitive, emotional and socio-cultural aspects, will be a contribution for the design of preventive and educational strategies for the problem of road safety.
Scientists analyze the almost unknown characteristics of the pichiciego, a strange specimen of armadillo found by chance in a rural road. It is of the same family than the tatú carreta, the mulita, the peludo, the Patagonic pichi and the pichi llorón. Among others, the pichiciego is a mystery for scientists because it is an endangered species with night habits, it lives in caves under the earth and it hardly ever comes out.
To analyze the population’s diet through a poll and then study its adequacy to the dietary and sanitary standards of the region is the objective of the project. Besides, the chemical composition of the food will be analyzed and calculation processes of the amount of nutrients taken by a person per day will be elaborated.
The Mexican Sociologist and specialist in Didactics, Ángel Díaz Barriga, headed a conference in the School of Social Sciences. There, he criticized the advance of Saxon authors in Latin America: “The United States have taken a hegemonic role and more active in the region” he said and remarked that the adoption of an educational system with foreign scientific characteristics permitted pedagogic models to adapt to the industrial logics.
The molecules are studied, in general, in an “isolated” way to know their properties. However, their behavior can vary in their interaction with other elements, so a group of professionals from the UNNE, the UBA and Brazil works in new methodologies in which the molecules are considered in relation to their environment. The results of the study will contribute basic knowledge which will be useful in different applications.
“Omega 3”, “More proteins”, “More calcium” are some of the promises made by packed food companies. Researchers remark that the beneficial properties of some ingredients in food have to be certified by medical and epidemiological studies. Advertising tricks and the convenience of paying attention to nutritional labels.
Scientists developed a technology which permits to take a biopsy of an embryo of only seven days and determine its sex before implanting it into the mother, whereas the embryos which are not of the desired sex are frozen to be sold or can be used in the production of mother cells. The first Argentinean filly was born, daughter of a champion and conceived by this technique.
Professionals and advanced students of Pharmacy and Biochemistry work in rural schools were they identify and treat skin affections and diseases caused by parasites. The distances which separate villages from health centers and the lack of hygiene as a consequence of the difficulty of having access to fresh water are the causes of diseases such as Chagas disease and hydatidosis which the professionals treated in school communities.
Researchers analyze the relation of teachers and media workers with their work subjects and define a new category called “immaterial work”. The research is new in the topic, as it not only analyzes immaterial subjects, but also the work conditions.
A team of scientists received an international award by a new project in the field of assisted fertilization which, through a non-invasive and low-cost methodology, might increase the rate of pregnancies and decrease the percentage of multiple pregnancies. The technique, which consists in identifying and selecting in a group of embryos the most viable and prone to develop, is quick and easy to implement.
Mate is a well rooted Argentinean and Uruguayan custom. The way to prepare it is so diverse as there are regions in Argentina, but everywhere the common factor is the high temperature of the water. This detail led two Faculties of Odontology in Argentina and Uruguay to investigate if the thermal action of mate is a risk factor which predisposes to mouth cancer.
In an economic growth context, different ecologist sectors look for ideas which balance the development and conservation of spaces. The amount of protected areas for the conservation of biodiversity has increased significantly in recent times. The researcher Alberto de Magistris analyzes the situation and remarks the activities aimed at the protection of the flora and fauna.
The BS Oscar Pérez de la Torre, specialist in Biological Sciences wrote the book “Lichens of the province of Chubut”, which won the first place of the competition of the Editorial Fund of Chubut in 2009 and is in edition stage. The book, where there are included images and information about the variety of plants of the autochthonous landscape, will be very useful for the different levels of the educational system.
A group of researchers created a mobile robot which by means of software applications can work independently. The robot, which is prepared to carry out tasks such as the cleaning of dangerous areas and which could be used in the factories in La Matanza, goes back to its base to be charged when it finishes its work.
Obesity is not only a social and aesthetic problem, but a disease which constitutes a high risk factor for other diseases. That is why researchers carried out a study to know the nutritional conditions and the psychological and psychopathological aspects of obesity in bariatric surgery pre-surgical patients. The relation with mood determined that most patients presented depressive characteristics and antecedents.
With yacon, a plant grown in the Andes used by pre-Columbian societies and spread by the Inca’s culture, researchers elaborated a diet bar with a high content of fibers, low carbohydrates and good taste. Regarding cereal commercial bars, the new product has lower content of carbohydrates and a higher proportion of dietary fiber.
The formula permits a higher performance and prolonged release of medicines in the application place to treat otitis in dogs. For its development Poloxamer was used, a copolymer which has thermo-reversible properties, that is, which is presented in liquid state at room temperature and facilitates its administration and gel states at the body temperature. The new compound is a cheap and practical choice for veterinary therapy.
It is diabrotica virgifera, a worm which eats corn and which in each campaign causes losses of a thousand million dollars in the United States. In the last years the problem also involved soy and spread to Europe with the possibility of reaching Argentina.
The innovation income is the additional income or cost reduction obtained by those who adopt transgenic seeds compared to those who don’t. In an interview with Argentina Investiga, the economist Sebastián Sztulwark analyzed through two cases, soy and corn, the conflict for the appropriation of the innovation income which emerges with the spread of transgenic seeds in the country.
The ideal or “desirable”, long-lasting and hemocompatible cardiac valve has been developed by a team of researchers and scientists from diverse disciplines. The valves currently used present problems which go from the need to replace them in a certain time, up to the generation of blood clots. The development is overcoming, as it decreases the possibility of clots formation and it is made of a new hemocompatible material.
River Nuevo is born in the prairie of the top of Cerro El Morro up to River V, extending in a wide zone of the province of San Luis. It is a group of various courses which grew a lot during the eighties. Now the basin is connected and presents a salty water continuous fluvial course. Researchers have studied its behavior, the water characteristics and the consequences this brought to the people and agricultures of the zone.
A teacher developed a new multidisciplinary application through the use of a System of Geographical Information, remote sensors and high precision GPS to know the causes and possible solutions for floods. The data gathered can constitute the basis for future hydraulic projects, as management strategies were elaborated to solve in integral way the basin’s problems.
Researchers from the Institute of High Agro-Industrial Technology (ITA in Spanish) develop a project by means of which seeks to improve the nutritional conditions of bakery products using as main raw material carob flour. In this way, it is hoped to incorporate this flour of high nutritional value and which constitutes waste raw material in the usual diet of the region’s population.
Professor Dominique Maingueneau, author of fundamental texts for Semiotics, Rhetoric and Discourse Analysis visited Buenos Aires to give a conference. The Area of Art Critic had a meeting with the prestigious author to revise his career in the intellectual field, the role of arts’ criticism in society, the media and the crisis of university teaching.
The analysis of the effects that the extraction of dead carob wood has in Mendoza’s northeast was the object of a research by means of which it was detected a decrease of the presence of pollinator insects (bees). The lowest frequency of bee’s visits affects carob trees which need them to be able to complete the fructification cycle.
The software was created by a multinational research group in which there are scientists from the UNSL. It was presented in an international competition which seeks to improve the quality of Wikipedia contents and won the first place. The system predicts automatically if a website has flaws, which enables a better performance of Wikipedia stable editors.
A research group develops a Project to identify and describe the kinds of practices and web tools which students from second and third EGB (General Basic Education) cycles use in Santa Cruz. They expect to generate “early alert” mechanisms for new ways of violence through the Internet among school children aimed at parents and educators and to incorporate this knowledge in the teachers’ training.
Due to their beauty, color and in some cases strange flower structure, orchids are one of the most admired and collected flowers around the world since antiquity. However, many times their features can be damaged by agents which might cause the death of the plant. Researchers detected the presence in these flowers of a pathogenic fungus which usually affected poaceae.
The work of a group of researchers from the University and the Conicet is to understand how the defense system of the body avoids fertilization. They could identify the action of antibodies in some cases of infertility classified as “without apparent cause”. The scientists say that the routine techniques to detect infertility leave many possibilities out and that the immunological causes of infertility haven’t been taken into account appropriately.
Our country might satisfy the electricity demand through the energy released by vegetation fires. This was shown by a study which encourages the design of sustainable productive systems, which decrease the deforestation carried out today to expand the agricultural frontier in Chaco’s region. And it proposes to use the wood’s biomass which is eventually burnt in natural vegetation fires to produce electricity.
The University develops in Esquel the program Paider Forestal by means of which researchers seek to encourage the conditions which favor investments in the forest sector and promote the generation of employment and the economic activity in the Andes. After ten years of producing seedlings by means of the program, the researchers state that the growing demand of foresters indicates that the method is ideal for the region.
Researchers analyze document sources related to the speeches of European travelers who came to what nowadays constitutes the territory of Argentina and their influence in the processes of configuration of the national scientific and pedagogic field. The analysis of how alterity and discourses about science were given at the time, permits to re think current problems in our country.
A project which develops new luminescent methods to detect the presence of environmentally contaminating chemicals is carried out by two scientists from the School of Biochemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences. By means of these methods they analyze the presence of contaminating agents, such as agrochemicals, antibiotics, steroid hormones and medicines used in chronic diseases in fresh water and contaminated water samples.
Researchers carry out a project which will inject energy coming from photovoltaic systems (solar) to the conventional electric energy distribution grid with the objective of decreasing the overload of the electric system in high consumption moments. The project goes in line with the purpose of the national law which plans, for 2016, to supply the 8% of the country’s energetic demand through the use of renewable energy.
Researchers developed original mathematical models for epidemics propagation. These models consider spatial aspects of disease propagation dynamics, given that they evaluate the individuals’ movement. The importance of the population’s displacement, the incidence of their distribution and the results produced by control measures constitute some of the contributions of the models developed.
The objective of a project carried out by Conicet researchers is to find a way to increase the reproductive capacity and form elite genetic nuclei in bovines, which could give an answer to the current commercial market exigencies. The new knowledge will impact in a positive way in the biomedical field, taking into account the current peak of assisted reproduction.
The progress of science will permit, to those who like hot dogs, to savor them without guilt and risk for the health: a formula developed in the National University of La Plata excludes this food -which is the children’s favorite- of the category “junk food”. By means of the new formula the fatty content was reduced a 15% in a food which will permit to minimize the risks to develop chronic diseases.
Spider crabs, which grow and develop in the subtidal rocky bottoms of the coast of Gulf San Jorge is the object of analysis of researchers. The species can represent a regional resource which can contribute to the development of local fishing industries; that is why specialists study the flora and fauna of the subtidal rocky bottoms inhabited by the species and the distribution of young spider crabs in the gulf, among other topics.
This is clarified by Lewis Pyenson, well known science historian, who contradicts the deeply rooted belief in the popular imaginary that Sarmiento, creator of the Academia Nacional de Ciencias and the Observatorio Astronómico de Córdoba (National Academy of Sciences and Astronomic Observatory of Córdoba) was also the precursor of the teaching of scientific disciplines in Casa de Trejo. Through the research he carries out, the researcher said that the level of the training in physics and mathematics was the same than that of the North American universities in 1850.
A group of scientists showed how the soil invertebrate communities change -earthworms and arthropods- according to the amount of agrochemicals used or the kind of management: agricultural, stockbreeding or naturalized environment. The researchers’ purpose is to determine the changes in the soils with a greater sensitivity tan the physical and chemical analysis.
The new bioformula fights fumonisins, toxins which are accumulated during the harvest and produce health problems for humans and animals which can generate carcinogenic effects. It is formulated based in an autochthonous soil bacterium and it will give value to the corn grain to export it and it will contribute to the environmental responsibility in the use of fungicides.
A team of researchers developed a system of high technology collars to follow vicunas. They were endangered and they are now considered as “vulnerable”, so it is fundamental to take care of them and preserve them through a study of their behavior and habitat. The production of ponchos and blankets with vicuna fibers is one of the main economic activities in the region.
The objective of researchers from the Laboratory of Palynological Analysis is to study the types of pollen in the air in the city of Santa Rosa, at what time of the year they prevail and their concentration. Through the data collected during years of monitoring they will be able to establish a pollen calendar. The study will be key for the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of allergies.
Researchers from Villa María analyze how the State questions the neoliberal thinking, guaranteeing social and universal rights. However, they detect that the popular sectors go on incorporating a view about poverty linked to focus in the resolution of their problems, whereas the new national plans propose a citizenship place.
Computing attacks are more and more frequent. They put at risk companies and public government organisms’ security. Through specialized malicious programs, these attacks cause serious problems which go from the access to secret State information to the interruption of a country’s bank system. In a study about Computing Security, specialists recommend to assume technological challenges to prevent the risks.
Scientists carry out investigations to preserve yerba mate and other similar species seeds, with the aim of preserving their genetic diversity for future improvement plans. Up to now, the research showed optimum results through cryopreservation methods, a simple and cheap technique which does not use additive agents or preservatives.
Three new fish species which were not officially registered as part of the wild ichthyofauna of Córdoba have been discovered in lakes and pools in this province by a team of researchers. The presence of big exemplars of grass carp, Parapimelodus valenciennesi and a catfish known as “guitar” was proved.
Two semi face-to-face teaching projects were implemented in the School of Engineering. Apart from making the learning process more dynamic and improving the interaction between students and teachers, the introduction of the virtual platform contributes to solve the conditioning factors generated to the students when they have to combine work with academic obligations.
The environmental and geological conditions of the Puna Catamarqueña can offer clues of what were the sedimentary systems of the primitive Earth and Mars. The geologist Fernándo Gómez analyzes the Black Lake, a modern analogous environment which permits to understand the processes which gave origin to life in the distant past of the Earth and which might be common to other planets.
An interdisciplinary team worked in the communities of the desert in the North east of the province and found that dental care is a serious deficit in the region. The sporadic character of the care system, the lack of instruments in health centers and the distance are some of the obstacles which contribute to this deficit. Apart from the treatment of oral diseases, the professionals carried out preventive activities through conferences about dental health.
A chemical analysis, carried out in different water sources belonging to different farms of the horticultural area of Corrientes, evidenced a high concentration of nitrates, which are damaging for the health and can be lethal for children. By means of the study it was determined that water contamination occurs due to the use of fertilizers in agriculture.
Mate plant harvest workers from Misiones undergo illegal and slave employment, precarious houses, lack of access to basic services, infantile work and other problems. For the first time this hard reality is proved through statistic data obtained in the “First provincial surveying of tareferos”.
In the terminal installed in the UNL, researchers study the behavior of the water fallen in urban and rural basins. Through radar images, more realistic rain spatial distribution models are developed. The analysis of the evolution of storms permits to forecast in a few hours and get strategic information for decision-making.
The teacher Mauro García Pupo is enrolled in the specialists who question the traditional teaching of mathematics. He uses “reverse didactic” -which consists in cutting the problem to look for the concept - as a tool which might replace the tedious magisterial classes, little participatory and in which the solution of exercises is repeated mechanically.
In the Center for Sanitary Engineering of the School of Engineering and Surveying, two research lines are followed: fresh water and the disposal of wastewater or treatment of residual liquids. The results of the studies carried out generated two systems of water treatment which are patented and registered. One of them permits to remove arsenic and fluorides, and the other is used to remove iron and manganese from subterranean water.
An international research project, which focuses in local genus and species, determined that in less than 70 years, the 20 percent of the wall lizard species of the planets will become extinct. In order to carry out the study, an artificial lizard model with microchips was used, as well as a mathematical extinction risk model. The loss of diversity of wall lizards will have consequences for all the food chain.
It is a project which allows to optimize the production of wood through a change in the deforestation way. This transformation has an impact on the cattle’s nutrition, which is also favored. Through this combination of ranger production with cattle production, the project will contribute to the regional development through an improvement of their resources and the expansion of agricultural activity.
A team of researchers made an important paleontological finding in the hills of Sierra Grande in Río Negro. Archeoceti fossil remains were found in calcareous blocks in the formation El Jagüelito. The discovery is one of the most important of the decade, because it confirms that 500 million years ago the Patagonia was thousands of kilometers away from America and near eastern Antarctica.
It is known as “tractor” by its crowing and it was found by a group of researchers in the department of Garay. It is the first time that an exemplar of this specie is found outside some points in Corrientes. The finding extends the geographical distribution area of the specie in the country, as it extends the biodiversity of the province of Santa Fe.
The Argentinean philosopher Néstor García Canclini, who currently lives in Mexico, visited the University to receive the University Culture Award 400 years. In this interview he deepens the modern concept of citizenship, the role of social networks and gives his opinion about SOPA law, “it is the culminating point of an ignorance will”, he says.
Estudio de caso: Clarín y El Litoral.
The production of renewable energies in Argentina is incipient; although there are important technological developments, there aren’t any alternative energy policies. This is analyzed by an expert in renewable energy, who states that the current critical energetic situation requires urgent actions and innovative policies which consider options which permit to modify the present scenario. “We might have one of the most important eolian energy fields in the world” he says.
This is stated by Dr. Miguel Pedro Angela, one of the most experienced general practitioners in Argentina. He has just published a book of her specialty, in which he describes the “art” of the clinical diagnosis of a disease though the simple observation of the patient. Nowadays, “the physician doesn’t have a long time to talk to the patient to get information, because he has to do a lot of things to survive” says the specialist in an interview with Argentina Investiga.
In an interdisciplinary research, experts from the University and the Conicet look for natural “enemies” of the popular pampas grass. The plant is native of Argentina’s pampas and was taken to New Zealand, ten thousand kilometers away from here, with decorative purposes. It became a plague in the island, impossible of fight it with natural methods.
The objective of a group of researchers is to detect the presence of pesticide active groups in superficial and subterranean water in the center-south agricultural area of the province of Córdoba. Besides, they carry out laboratory tests to remove these contaminating agents from the aquatic ecosystems.
The teacher and mathematician Gabriel Soto carries out a titanic, but fascinating task: spreading that mathematics is a social science par excellence, which is part of the culture and is useful to build citizenship. In order to do that, we have to change the way we teach students and future teachers and reformulate the presentation of the contents in a way to evidence the link between science and current problems.
The objectives of a team of researchers was to test different strategies to fight one of the most common pathogenic agents in dairy farms, to improve the animals’ health and reduce the use of antibiotics which leave residues in the milk and meat. In order to do that, they work in the formulation of a prophylactic vaccine against mastitis composed of regional isolated bacteria extract.
“Tras un manto de neblina” is the title of the dissertation that María Esperanza Sánchez presented to get her diploma in Communication Sciences. The pictures of the war, the known ones and those which were hidden and disappeared are the topic of this work. In this interview to Argentina Investiga, the author talks about the rescue sense that her work goes through: not only of the images as objects, but also the rescue of the meanings these objects carry.
With the arrival of new generations to the work market, the organizations around the world have had to redefine their organizational models based in one reality: be sure to keep the employees considered “a critical talent”. In order to achieve it a new way was created to ensure the permanence of this kind of employees: idiosyncratic agreements.
Misiones in one of the most affected provinces by the advance of the agricultural frontier which replaces big extensions of woods. In order to conserve the diversity of the native exemplars and keeping quality seeds as long as possible, a team of researchers carries out the project of the Active Bank of Seeds and Bank of Germplasm, which will supply seeds to producers, researchers, gardeners, schools and other interested sectors.
The objective of Quimicuentos (Chemical-tales), which is a project carried out by researchers, teachers and students is to show Chemistry in another way to the students through tales, video clips, e-books and works in Braille. The idea is to incorporate knowledge linked to Chemistry in the learning process so that they can be transmitted and are useful in everyday life.
The law project to legalize abortion in Argentina, brought up the topic and opened the discussion about a practice which, carried out in clandestine conditions, causes thousands of deaths per year. Argentina Investiga talked about it with the Chilean specialist Aníbal Faúndes, for whom the background discussion is gender equality rights and the equity between different socio economic sectors women.
In the last years, the use of genetically modified organisms grew in a vertiginous way. To those who say that their adequate use does not cause damage and offers advantages, such as greater cultivation performance and the possibility of cultivate in extreme conditions, there are people who state that their use might affect the agricultural biodiversity and might displace wild varieties. In this article we present the opinion of specialists about a debate which does not have answers.
Researchers studied the prevalence of cases in the region of Valle de Uco, Mendoza and concluded that the environmental, climatic and topographic conditions of the area contributed to the propagation of the disease. Infant botulism is currently the most frequent clinical way of human botulism in the world. Argentina, with 507 registered cases between March, 1982 and December, 2008, is the second country in the world after the United States.
In a zone of the suburbs, where poverty coexists with environmental degradation, researchers studied autochthonous microorganisms and aquatic plants with the capacity to dissolve contaminating agents. The results of the monitoring, in which the neighbors will participate, permit to carry out a model of the neighborhood’s environmental function which will be able to plan actions to mitigate contamination.
At national level, the growth of industrial commerce influences the interaction with the neighboring country. That is why a research team analyzes this relation and investigates a possible replacement of the traditional international market of agro-nutritional products. Through the study it will be possible to determine in what way the national industrial development is promoted and how it can be applied to other areas of the economy.
The green crab (carcinus maenas) is a crustacean predator introduced in the Patagonia’s coasts. It is estimated that it came from Europe and settled in the coasts of Chubut. Its presence might have consequences which are still being studied, as it might cause a modification in the biological community’s nutritional chains and the reduction of invertebrates’ populations.
The work of a group of researchers is to turn cellulose waste materials into high value-added products. The products obtained have potential uses in pharmaceutical, agrochemical, essence, scents and flavor industry. The research is based in green chemistry principles, which points to energy saving, avoiding the generation of waste and the use of renewable raw material sources.
Researchers from San Luis and Brazil measured the concentrations of radon, a radioactive gas with carcinogenic effects in the interior of the antique gold mine La Carolina. The results show that the concentration, in average, exceeds three times the limit recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Protection. They recommend preventive measures for tourist guides, who remain longer time inside the mine.
Researchers from the School of Agronomy and the Conicet elaborated a risk map of the appearance of weeds resistant to the herbicide glyphosate in Argentina, according to which the North provinces are not the only ones affected by this problem, because there are conditions for this phenomenon to extend to other regions in the country, even of the Nuclei Zone. The map measures the presence of Johnson grass (Sorghum halepense), but it can estimate the situation with any other weed.
Dr. Rosanna Costaguta is specialized in the customization of systems through intelligent agents. She is convinced that creativeness doesn’t have a limit; consequently, she investigates the way for university students to get higher academic performance, but in virtual platforms. In this interview to Argentina Investiga she explains what is Artificial Intelligence, analyzes the increase of e-learning and describes the progress of Robotics.
In the Germplasm Bank for Argentina’s Litoral, oregano with antimicrobial properties was selected to be cultivated. It could replace some antibiotics in the diet of farm animals. The specie selected for its preservation has a high content of essential oil which has anti fungi and antiseptic properties and can be replaced as insecticide and herbicide.
In order to mitigate the blockade of fishes’ movement, Yacyretá dams have installations to facilitate their passage. Professionals carried out a study about the specific composition of fishes’ transferences in these installations, since 1999 to 2006. They recognized a total of 103 species which used the dam’s lifts and which were transferred from low water to Yacyretá Reservoir.
A research project pretends to integrate artificial intelligence technologies in a new electronic government platform which permits to process in an intelligent way the citizens’ opinion offered in some social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter. Through data mining the researchers filter information significant patterns which can work as a reference tool of the citizens’ opinion for the authorities.
In a sampling of prepared salads commercialized in stores there were found levels of pathogenic microorganisms which surpass the established limits. Raw food, especially vegetables, can transmit common pathogenic agents, such as Escherichia coli and salmonella, among others. Scientists recommend not to break the cold chain and using season vegetables.
In the UNLP researchers develop a pioneering work about a social problem which doesn’t have the visibility it has in other countries: mobbing. It is a practice exerted in the working environment manifested in a humiliating and degrading treatment towards a person. The changes in the work organization evidence harassment in the workplace, among whose causes we can find unemployment, flexibilization of the working relations and precarious employment.
This was said by the specialist in youth movements Mario Sandoval, who was in the UNC and talked about the situation of young students in his country, the history of the dictatorship and the neoliberal economic model applied to the privatization of social development areas. In this interview with Argentina Investiga he recovers some keys to understand the on going process in Chile.
A new function of the protein Chk 1 might permit to control the tolerance of cells to their DNA damage, because it verifies the non occurrence of mutations during the replication of mother cells in daughter cells. This finding is very important to reformulate and redirect the research to find alternative therapies against malignant tumors.
The researcher Vivien Pentreath studies the resistance of native plants to oil to use them in the revegetation of soils contaminated with hydrocarbons. The analysis is carried out on three autochthonous species, due to the fact that the restoration has to keep the natural landscape of the Patagonia steppe and to start it with the restoration of plants permits the latter establishment of the animals and the environment recovery.
A study will research in depth the current situation of subterranean water in the areas of Argentina affected by the presence of arsenic, where millions of people live. The research will provide a data base to the provinces and will permit a better management of the resource. The excess of arsenic in the water causes health problems, limits its consumption and extraction volume.
In the design stage of a house, one of the most important instances is to establish the pretended thermal behavior. A study of this kind is currently carried out using simulation programs, which are later validated through a monitoring of thermal variables in witness houses. The results of the study will be useful to optimize comfort and energy saving in future houses.
They are considered a plague and it was demonstrated that the higher the room temperature, the more they eat, change their food and walk faster. That is why they might generate serious consequences on many human activities. Researchers state that, due to the increase in the temperature, black ants, as well as other plagues might be favored and invade new areas or increase their populations alarmingly.
Researchers took part in an international scientific development which will permit to reach new advances in the fight against Chagas disease. The studies identified the genome of vinchucas, which will permit to develop new insect control techniques, apart from investigating their interaction with the parasite which causes this disease which, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Health, it causes in Argentina more than ten deaths per week.
The volcanic ashes fallen last year from the volcanic complex Puyehue - Cordón Caulle also has a positive objective in the north extreme of the Patagonia region. A team of researchers designed special bricks which permit to build resistant and efficient structures whereas another group carries out tests to substitute cement with fine volcanic ashes in the building mixture. They evaluate the use of these materials in the building of houses.
A society which looks for safety, protection and safeguard for their material goods coexists with those who cannot be included and calls them dangerous. This study investigates the shaping of neighborhoods in the historical processes which form our urban and social geographies and in the notion of social and civil safety/unsafety as a construction of meaning.
Researchers systematized information about the different diseases which affect natural pasturelands. This work includes Poaceae pathologies in San Luis and diverse agro ecological regions in the country and the world and lays the foundations to determine preventive actions which avoid their expansion. Given the impossibility of applying chemical products as it is done in cultivated species, the researchers recommend establishing adequate management systems.
The researcher Bárbara Rueter ensures that it is possible to predict the phenomena El Niño and La Niña and against the belief that they are generated as a consequence of climate change, she states that scientific tests show that both have been alternated cyclically along thousands of years. The data about these phenomena are obtained during autumn and might permit to adopt preventive planning measures and management of Patagonic fields.
The physicist Andrés Aceña explains the importance of the discovery announced by the scientists who work in the Large Hadron Collider, known as "God machine". Although it has to be confirmed, the finding might be Higgs boson, which corroborates the theory of the Standard Model of Particles and might revolutionize modern physics. "What has been found is within the searched range of energies, it is likely to be Higgs boson", states the scientist.
Just an image was enough for a group of engineers to create a machine for tests almost unique in the country. It is used to study the wearing of materials between themselves and also to verify conditions in failure analysis. With the new equipment they do works for different companies and the funds collected are used to set new equipment which graduate and post graduate students use.
Researchers carried out a surveying in different cities in the province of Córdoba, all of them near urban or industrial centers. In many cases, there were detected higher concentrations of metals to the permitted by the World Health Organization (WHO), which can cause serious damage to human health; they can go from vomits to heart and liver alterations and environmental damage.
The proposal of a group of researchers is to debate with the different actors of the University the signs which identify it. The design of the proposal, which points to build identity signs, will show all the institutional voices and will consider its recent creation and the commitment to the region. Besides, it will reflect its quality of modern university, in terms of the offer of new careers and its objective to contribute to the regional development.
The laboratory of Animal Biotechnology develops cloning techniques to protect endangered species. The scientists work with cheetah and tiger embryos, among other species, and exchange knowledge with researchers from Australia and India, where it is planned to set up a frozen zoo, aimed at preserving the genetic material of felines, rhinos, elephants and black bears and perform assisted reproduction.
With the use of satellite images, meteorologists from the University of Buenos Aires elaborated a model which calculates the amount of water available in the soil for cultivations. The information is updated every 10 days in a “hydric satisfaction map” and permits to estimate the performance of corn, for example, three months before harvest.
Through the use of CAD programs and videogames, university students created virtual images to go over the Fortaleza Protectora Argentina, the fort of Bahía Blanca which was created in 1828 and gave origin to the city. The initiative will be available to be downloaded for free from the Internet and it is part of a project to spread the regional culture with new technologies.
Scientists from Institute Balseiro developed a prototype of rechargeable battery through the use of hydrogen as energy source. It can be used to develop an electric supply source for portable devices, such as mobile phones. The specialists go for national or international companies to materialize the studies to permit that national origin batteries with avant-garde technology can be used by Argentineans.
Researcher found health damaging fungi in squares, parks, sandboxes, beaches and esplanades in the city of Corrientes. The scientific work proved the presence of keratinophylic geofungi in the most important parks in the city. The species found can cause serious infections in people and animals, which go from skin and cornea affections to blood infections.
In order to understand the current geographical configuration of the region, researchers study the origins, characteristics and area in which there were deposits of the Neogene period in the central area of the country. The sediments were accumulated during a delimited interval of geologic time, after 12 million years and before 3 million years. Among other data, the researchers found big geologic fractures in the west of La Pampa, which changes the vision of the pampa’s prairie as just a plain terrain.
After a deep research work, a team of professionals formulated bread made of tapioca flour and gluten free, aimed at the celiac community of the province of Misiones. Unlike traditional bread for celiac elaborated with rice flour, this new bread can be cut in slices or spread. The researcher covered more than 16 cities and other North-east provinces to socialize the recipe and teach how to elaborate the product in workshops and health centers.
The development of models to understand the deformation and breaking mechanisms of materials, design new materials with specific properties, optimize production processes and even describe natural phenomena is carried out by Dr. Martín Ignacio Idiart, from the School of Engineering. The development has multiple applications, given that it can be used to make metallic sheets for planes and even to analyze the glaciers’ movement.
In the different research fields there are problems which require specific methodologies to be solved. The slipping of the research “about” arts towards a perspective “in” arts, the determination and reach of this disciplinary field, the resulting artistic productions and the generation of new knowledge were some of the debates given during a meeting of researchers organized by the IUNA.
Scientists experiment a freezing technique to try to rescue the specimens infested with viruses. It is called cryoconservation; by means of this technique the cells or tissues are frozen at very low temperatures to decrease vital functions and keep life conditions suspended for a long time. The objective is to produce healthy plants for the national market, which is nowadays exclusively supplied by imported bulbs.
Some maternal oral infections, such as periodontitis constitute a true risk factor for prematurity and early membrane rupture. This was determined by a study of the UNC, carried out in 257 pregnant women in two hospitals of the city of Córdoba. The researchers highlight the importance of the consultation and the odontological follow up during pregnancy.
It already weights 290 kilos and it is the first bitransgenic veal in the world, as it has two human genes and it is capable of producing milk similar to breast milk. It was born a year ago, its name is ISA and it was cloned by the UNSAM and the INTA Balcarce. The researchers who took part in the project highlight the importance of the achievement in the fight against infantile mortality and they are already working in a similar cloning project applied to goats.
The current situation of the basin Matanza-Riachuelo is worrying and affects the Río de la Plata which supplies fresh water to Buenos Aires. This was revealed by a research from the School of Agronomy which found in a water sample organic matter and heavy metals. The teacher in charge of the work talked to Argentina Investiga about the project and proposed some solutions.
Experiments and models to evaluate contaminating agents processes released to the atmosphere by the industries and other urban sources which emit gases are developed in the laboratory of Aerodynamics of the School of Engineering. Through small scale simulation the researchers analyze the winds influence in the diffusion of contaminating agents to the superficial atmospheric layer and the urban comfort problems caused by the winds.
Every year, Mariano Sironi studies southern right whales, which arrive at Valdés Peninsula. His is an observation and patience job, which implies to look at the animals for hours in their natural environment. This detailed work has permitted him to understand the behavior and social development of young southern right whales and to observe phenomena, such as the increase of the deaths and a greater interval between calving.
“The world has to go towards an environmental adjustment; with this lifestyle, it is impossible that humanity has any chance”, ensures the agricultural engineer Walter Pengue. In this interview to Argentina Investiga, the specialist in Ecology says that even incorporating scientific and technological components in productive activities which help improve the conditions, the environment is one and the resources have to be used in a more rational way.
The restriction in the sheep’s pasture time reduces their weight during gestation, as well as the weight of lambs at birth. This was determined by a study carried out by researchers from the School of Agronomy, who besides, analyze the strategic supplementation of flocks at critical moments to inform sheep producers about management practices.
Spiny lobsters are fishing discarding and since four years ago it proliferates in Gulf San Jorge. The lack of hake, which eats spiny lobster, is the reason for its explosion. To start using it as a resource, researchers analyze their biological characteristics and evaluate the possibility of using it as cocktail shrimps, to extract chitin or as a coloring for feed mill.
This bush fruits contain oil and other subproducts to get renewable energy and, as it is non edible, it doesn’t compete with food. Researchers from the UNL study their potential and determined that the biodiesel obtained is apt for cars and that the fruits’ peel and seeds are used as solid combustible. They analyze biodigestion as an alternative to treat glycerin and flours.
It is a new immune electrochemical sensor produced jointly with professionals from the Republic University in Montevideo, Uruguay. By means of the development the amount of many substances can be measured, such as herbicides and toxins in water, food, natural antioxidants, among others. The researchers carried out a test to measure the herbicide molinate, used in rice cultivations in water samples.
Mathematicians and researchers from the UNGS, Antonio Cafure and Gabriel Larotonda, promote a different view of the discipline “in an academic system worried about following productivity measurement logics”. The third position involves an overcoming view of the formative and didactic paradigms and combines the research, teaching and applications through the recognition that mathematics has ideology.
Researchers from the UTN Santa Fe work in the production of panels based in a residue coming from cotton production and ginning. During the elaboration of the panels there is no production of health harmful emissions and besides, they are very cheap. The possibility of recycling the waste and producing alternative materials for building are the premises which encourage research.
The first step of the project was based in questions to educational system agents. The objective is to include parents’ and children’s opinions to be able to understand the differences and similarities. The idealized view of the “boy from yesterday” and the presence of technology appear as two aspects to be considered in the school in order to “favor critical thinking processes”.
Cattle generate greenhouse effect gases and particularly ruminants are the main methane gas emitters, a gas which has a global warming power 25 times greater than carbon dioxide. Researchers from the School of Agronomy evaluate how to decrease these gases through modifications in the animals’ diet, responsible for the 75% of the 80 million tons of methane cattle generates per year in the world.
Specialists in earthquakes study the case of Mendoza, the geographical environment with the highest seismic activity in the country and state that the damages depend on the soil’s stiffness and the structures on it. The researchers analyze the “effects of the site” in earthquakes, which implies to know the composition of the soil and its degree of stiffness, among other variables. They warn about the need to update building regulations.
Through a mathematical model, a researcher works in the solution of the schedules’ efficiency, so that the teachers don’t have free time during their class hours. To make schedules is a very low and tiring task and when it is done, only a group of probabilities is analyzed. The mathematical model takes into account all the criteria considered in the assignment of timetables to achieve the most convenient solution.
Many years of extractive agriculture, that is, of taking out the nutrients of the soils without replacing them, lead to a deep impoverishment of the earth’s fertility. A research project points to achieve a better performance of fertilizers avoiding toxicity, given that if fertilization is not carried out correctly, it can be damaging and cause the death of the seedlings.
The work of researchers from the Laboratory BioMEMS was the design, simulation and production of nano and micro devices with ophthalmology applications. The particular development of this chip permits to miniaturize tests which are in general carried out in biochemical laboratories, apart from offering greater speed and precision in the results, energy saving, lower costs and an outpatient diagnosis of eye diseases, such as keratoconus.
The data base, created to investigate biodiversity and climate change, contains around 3 million individual data about 69 thousand plant species. Its creation was possible thanks to the international contribution of scientists from 106 institutions. The initiative, which is new due to the amount of information, as well as due to its global collaborative style, is managed by a coordinating committee formed by Sandra Díaz, researcher from the UNC.
Chagas – Mazza disease kills around 50 thousand people annually. Besides, the incidence of pregnant women with Chagas who transmit the infection to their babies reaches the 7%. That is why scientists work in the possibility of quantifying the morphological manifestations of the renewal of the cellular membranes which cover the embryo departing from the analysis of the placentas of pregnant women with Chagas who transmitted or not Chagas disease to the new born.
A research project deals with the use of new technologies in rural environments linked to the offer of touristic services. The relation between Rural Tourism and ICT shows the need to use new tools to accompany social and territorial transformations in the rural environment, a space where tourism starts to form part of its dynamics and new organization.
Specialists in Chemical Engineering develop a mathematic model which analyzes the cardio respiratory system in a virtual way which might permit to make remote diagnosis contemplating great amounts of information. In the development there are included, apart from a systemic and pulmonary cardiovascular circuit, representations of the human organism variables, such as arterial pressure, among others.
The objective of a group of researchers from the School of Exact and Natural Sciences and Surveying was to measure the resistance of the ground (PAT in Spanish) in a simple and effective way for different kinds of installations which can include high tension systems in order to keep human beings and animals’ safety. In order to do that they elaborated a “telurimeter” based in a microcontroller.
The mechanism by which the plants’ roots adapt to saline soils was worked out by a young researcher from the Conicet. The results of the study, which was awarded a prize as the best thesis work in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in Latin America, might permit to select the leguminous varieties which tolerate these conditions or to generate transgenic agents to recover soils.
A new chemical entity, constituted by antibiotic molecules currently used, fluorquinolone ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin, might have an antibiotic effect higher than that of the individual constituents to face some kinds of bacteria. The research about this compound is developed in the School of Natural Sciences and the first tests indicate that its effect is appropriate to treat in a more effective way urinary, skin and eye infections, among others.
Susana Pesis, coordinator of the free lecture about the environment stated that education has a strategic role in the adoption of friendly practices to the planet. Besides, she indicated that the care of the environment has to cover all the areas of knowledge, becoming a multidisciplinary knowledge. In order to achieve that, training has to start early, since kindergarten.
Between 1995 and 2010, the level of total cholesterol and fat consumption was reduced and exercise increased between the students of the School of Biochemistry and Biological Sciences. However, overweight also increased a 4%, cigarette smoking raised almost a 10% and heart diseases’ direct family history increased an 11%. The specialists insist in the importance of the promotion of healthy lifestyles for prevention.
By means of laboratory practices, researchers analyze to generate and purify this gas to use it in combustible cells, an alternative electric energy source, as it is used for diverse things and it could be applied to vehicles. The specialists state that hydrogen cells could replace, in the future, internal combustion engines in cars, buses, trucks and even ships and locomotives.
It is a system which works through the measurement and processing of brain signals. Its purpose is to measure in a preventive way the loss of alert in the drivers of any vehicle in order to avoid road accidents. The development of software, which was successfully proved, will be installed in a cap or hair band so that the signals can be processes in the calculations’ system.
In order to avoid the monocultivation of the specie Ponderosa Pine, the Agricultural Engineer Juan Andrés Enricci studies the behavior of pines coming from Spain. Although they do not grow very quickly, they are adequate because they are resistant to drought conditions, as it happens in the Patagonia’s summer. They work with five species and up to now good results have been obtained.
Hyaluronic acid (HA), which is very popular by being used in anti-age skin treatments, might have a great potential as biomarker for diagnosis, as well as for following patients with lung interstitial diseases. The analysis is carried out by researchers from the School of Pharmacy and Biochemistry, together with specialists from the Respiratory Rehabilitation Hospital “María Ferrer”, in the city of Buenos Aires.
The research of a team formed by anthropologists, biologists, biochemists and archeologists proves that the autochthonous contribution in Argentina’s population might be of a 30%. The results of the work, emerged from an analysis of blood donors in diverse regions of our country, indicate that there is a 65% of European component, a 30% Amerindian and a 5% African. Amerindian lineage is mainly maternal, decreases as we come close to the city of Buenos Aires and increases towards the north and the south.
A group of researchers heads a new project in the country which promises to revolutionize the automotive market. Through the use of lithium batteries, scientists from the School of Exact Sciences developed this unprecedented vehicle in a Chinese vehicle. The researchers’ objective is to impose the idea that lithium can be transformed in the near future into an energetic alternative for Argentina.
As every region in the planet, Mendoza presents particular characteristics which expose it to numerous climatic risks. With the objective of having for the first time a tool to mitigate the risk, researchers charted the most vulnerable zones and population areas in the province. Through this work it will be possible to know the frequency, intensity and vulnerability of the population and what areas of the territory are prone to suffer risk phenomena.
Dr. Clara López Pasquali de Araya, researcher and teacher, works in a problem which affects people in the interior of the country: the presence of arsenic in fresh water. In this interview to InfoUniversidades the researcher states that in Argentina arsenic contamination is serious and tells us about the diverse forms in which she, together with an interdisciplinary team, carries out a plan to raise public awareness for the zone’s population.
A research proved sugar’s capability to attack the bacterium which causes gangrenes. It was genetically characterized why and how sugar prevents the tissues’ contamination and accelerates the healing, as it avoids the development of microbes which enter through the skin and produce toxins which degrade tissues. The researchers project the development of an antibiotic which prevents this kind of infections.
The announcement reached the whole country: new transgenic corn, wheat and soy seeds are capable of tolerating drought and salinity and increase the production up to 100%. Now, researcher from the UNL are analyzing the molecular mechanisms which give place to the increase in productivity, as investigating this topic is one of the keys to go on improving the results and generating new patents.
A project studies the viability of the exploitation of agro-forest waste to generate electric energy by means of small stations distributed in productive zones. The intention is to supply productive poles and besides to contribute to the State’s electric system. Among other benefits, the use of this waste to generate energy contributes to decrease contaminating gases in the atmosphere and the risk of forest fires and the presence of plagues.
A recently published report analyzes the situation of endangered species in Argentina’s fauna. Its aim was to determine in an integral way the state of conservation region by region of amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals in the country. For most species, hunting of mammals and the transformation of the habitat are the threats which affect them more seriously. In a lower order, there is the introduction of exotic fauna and commercial trafficking, among others.
It is a platform which can be installed in rivers, lakes and oceans and offers temperature, sediment and wind measurements, among others. Apart from meteorological data, the buoy permits to have access to information about water quality. It is ten times cheaper than those in the international market and they were already sold to three neighboring countries. They will be installed in different lakes in order to build the first monitoring network in order to analyze the climatic variability and its effects on the population.
The researcher Lidia Blanco analyzes the level of ability developed by the relative during the time he takes care of the adult with a disabling chronic disease. The study proved that most are women between 36 and 65 years old. The role of carer relatives requires, among others, physical and emotional effort and that is why they need Nursery personal support.
Specialists hold that this technique is relegated to maternal kindergartens, but that it is the key to stimulate the children’s senses up to three years old. The psychopedagogical theories have shown that musical education has to start towards the sixth gestation month, whereas the beneficial effect of music in a child’s life since birth is proved.
The University makes soaps, essential oils and liqueur with species of the zone. In the Unit of Development and Laboratory of Essential Oils, teachers and students make these products and point to diversity with the objective of achieving continuous work and productive development. The articles are sold under the brand “Productos del Sol”.
Behavioral Finance is a new research area and emerges as an answer to the predominating paradigm of the so called ‘Traditional Financial Theory’. It is based in the Homo Economicus paradigm, which supposes a market lead by rational agents, which make impartial decisions and maximize their own interest. The new theory proposes a change in the paradigm as it supposes a more realistic economic agent, lead by the interaction between rationality and emotions.
In the Biomembranes laboratory, researchers develop strategies in order to increase the arrival of drugs to the brain, through nanotechnology applied to generalized development disorders. The studies in vivo with mice showed that the animals which were given complexes instead of the commercial drug used to treat autism show less anxiety, less territorial fights and less dominant behavior.
Specialists explain how to control ants without damaging the environment and human health. The insects are generators of contamination when they circulate around the houses and besides, they are attracted by pathological waste. Due to the particular characteristics of the specie and to the fact that the insecticides used to combat them are usually damaging for the human health, they recommend prevention as the most adequate method to control them.
A research carried out in eight municipalities of Córdoba shows the strong inequalities suffered by women in the world of work. The study explains how the working plans are not oriented to actions which revert the inequality suffered by women, but to facilitate the access to work to poor women with children in activities which are extensions of the productive role historically attributed to them and which confines them to the house.
A biological technique to control vinchucas in the north of the province of Salta has shown optimal results in the elimination of the vector which transmits Chagas disease. It is a development for which it is used an endopathogenic fungus stump which is innocuous for the human population. In this zone, the vinchucas are resistant to traditional insecticides used to combat it and which besides, are damaging for the environment and the people.
Through the project “Reconstruction of sound recording antique technologies”, researchers could reproduce an original for photoliptophone, a sound register system patented in Argentina towards the thirties, whose objective was the massive diffusion of music. Although it was internationally recognized, the invention was forgotten. The researchers plan the construction of a photoliptophone and the recording of sounds in pages to reproduce them.
Researchers from the School of Engineering carry out final studies to prove the resistance of the region’s soils stabilized with tannin resins. To determine the resistance of the organic natural soils after the process of stabilization with the resin is the last step towards the transference of this method to the environment. The objective is to make it an alternative to the conventional materials used in the elaboration of house components, such as shingles, blocks and floor tiles, among others.
Researchers presented a drug which attacks directly the lesions caused by endometriosis, a chronic disease which affects one of every 10 women in reproductive age. This disease can cause infertility and usually causes painful and recurring long evolution symptoms. It is estimated that around the world there are more than 100 million women who suffer it, although this number could be greater, given that not all the women who suffer the disease present symptoms.
The Institute for Linguistic and Philological Research will digitalize a valuable linguistic and folkloric material, result of polls carried out between the forties and the sixties in the last century in public schools of the country. The study of this material will permit an exhaustive knowledge of the history of the national language, as well as the cultural patrimony. The documents were bequeathed by their mentor, Berta Vidal de Battini.
The presence of cattle or their feces in places near streams or water reservoirs means a risk of contagious with this bacterium, which causes Uremic Hemolytic Syndrome. This was determined by a study carried out in the water courses of Sierra de la Ventana, one of the main touristic destinations of the province of Buenos Aires. The disease caused by this bacterium produces gastroenteritis and serious damage to the kidneys.
A team of researcher from the School of Agricultural Sciences showed that the combination of herbicides (glyphosate and saflufenacil) has a greater control effect on mallow, a summer weed which competes with soy cultivations. The tests, carried out in the city of Zavalla, Santa Fe, showed positive results even if it rains after the application.
Researchers from the School of Natural Sciences formed the team which contributed in the development of the vaccine against hydatidosis. After 25 years of research, the vaccine, called EG95, has one hundred percent of efficiency in the protection of cattle and sheep against this disease. Nowadays, scientists look for an antigen which immunizes people against hydatidosis.
Old trees have to be kept standing in order to protect more than one thousand species of animals which nest in them. This was revealed by a study of Azara Foundation and Maimonides University commented by the prestigious magazine Science. In the trees’ holes, created by woodpeckers or degradation, there are animals, such as birds, small mammals and insects which find safe places to sleep, reproduce and raise their babies.
The setting out of problems as a learning method takes into account the value of those things which a priori are avoided in every day life for intellectual progress. That is why teachers from the School of Exact Sciences carry out a project by which we intervene in teaching practices with the aim of setting out problematic situations which permit the development of diverse competences in the students. In this way, we try to train critical professionals with social commitment.
Researchers from the Institute of Physics Arroyo Seco work in diverse nanoscopic structure appliances. One of them is oriented to the construction of photovoltaic cells with metallic nanoparticles. The specialists state that in this way the cost of solar panels would be dramatically reduced, and at the same time it might contribute to the rational use of energy.
It is the first study which could determine the anti-oxidant capacity and content of the main bioactive compounds present in guava, blackberry and guayibu fruits, three wild fruits of Cuyo’s region whose consumption might be favorable to prevent chronic diseases. We expect that the work is useful as a basis to advance in the knowledge of these fruits’ potential, so that they can be massively consumed and used in the industry to take advantage from products derived from them.
Professionals in the field of Odontology elaborated a scale to measure the levels of fear of the patients to treatment. The most frequent emotions in the odontological practice are fear, anxiety, anguish and anger. The researchers carried out polls in which the patients manifested that feeling pain or receiving a wrong diagnosis are some of the causes of fear. They notice that this is one of the reasons why the initial consult is delayed and this makes worse mouth diseases.
A team of researchers from the Instituto de Automática developed humidity sensors which permit to save water and energy. The group of electronic elements and specific software makes up a system of intelligent irrigation control which is being applied. Between the uses of the new system there is the possibility of extending the area to cultivations and to regulate humidity, the optimization of the final properties of the agricultural product.
The reagent will permit, in a very short time, to detect up to five different pathogenic agents which cause infantile diarrhea. In this way we will advance in the field of early detection of pathologies which can derive in Uremic Hemolytic Syndrome, among others. Besides, the quick identification of the bacteria will permit to avoid the neurological and kidney long-term effects which these microorganisms can cause.
Caio Gómez, a student of Naval Architecture decided to manufacture, sail and enjoy the traditional Mediterranean boat. It is a sailboat, a competition catamaran which has more than five meters long which was created in the twenties in Barcelona. It can be adapted to many types of water as it sails with only 30 cm depth, apart from being comfortable to be carried, because it has handles which permit to move it easily.
Federico Langer analyzes the interaction of mental images and emotions in the brain regarding literary aesthetics. That is, how in absence of a real perception we build an image and experience emotional answers; for example, when we read a book. In this interview to InfoUniversidades, Langer tells us about his job and imagines future experiments which permit to know with a greater precision how mental images are built and how a person is moved.
In a preliminary experiment researchers took out more than the half of the dangerous chemical present in the liquid. They made it using nanotubes which retain different metal, among them, arsenic. They plan to use them in filters for perforations, as the arsenic is present in at least 15 provinces, most of all in areas where there isn’t fresh water, so it affects the most vulnerable populations.
According to the data obtained by Argentinean scientists, the finding of fossil remains indicates that the current elephants have a remote relationship with some extinct mammals of South America. Millions of years ago, the continents of Africa and South America were joined by a vast surface of emerged land and there might have existed a common ancestor between the elephants and their African relatives and the ungulate South American mammals.
A team of researchers carries out the first study in Patagonia about water vapor fluxes at the ecosystems’ level. This kind of analysis is linked in a direct way with desertification problems at local and regional level and with the growing worries to understand the Patagonia’s destiny in the context of the extensive anthropic activities and global climate changes.
After a year of the earthquake occurred at Port Prince, the BS in Restoration and Conservation Viviana Domínguez directed a team in charge of restoring three murals of religious topics which survived to the catastrophe. The specialist trained local artists and carpenters in order to make conservation tasks on the murals, considered as a landmark for representing Haiti’s pictorial culture, which gathers characteristics of African and Creole art of the Latin American Caribbean.
Argentina has one of the bigger sown areas with direct sow in the world. This agricultural system emits low levels of nitrous oxide to the atmosphere. The emission volume of this kind of gases was estimated up to nowadays only by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Researchers from the School of Agronomy carry out a surveying of this data and the first results show that the levels might be inferior to those established by the IPCC.
A vehicle propelled by human and solar energy, developed in the Regional School of Santa Fe of the National Technological University got the second prize in the first Latin American competence of vehicles propelled with solar energy -Atacama Solar Challenge- carried out in Atacama Desert, in the north of Chile. It has a torpedo-like shape and three clean energy sources and it completed the 1,060 kilometers of the race with excellent results.
One every of five professionals suffered at least a serious accident at work, whereas more than the 28% suffers or has suffered any zoonotic disease, such as brucellosis. Besides, veterinaries are exposed to suffer injuries, such as punctures, hematomas and bruises. The data, generated by a research work done in the UNL, evidenced that around the 75% of the physicians haven’t received any training about work dangers.
A study about the population in Mendoza proved that the majority of them do not make an optimal use of the energy. Besides, there is a relation between the socio-economic level and the consumption of energy in the social groups analyzed. It also revealed the lack of information of the citizens about the impact of the excessive use of non-renewable energy in the environment and ignorance about the level of consumption of the electrical appliances.
By means of the project “DidacTIC’s of multi-textuality”, we try to explain how is redefined the teaching of Literature in the frame of the implementation of the model 1:1 (one computer per student). According to the researchers who carry out the work, the training of the Professorship in Language in competences related to IT’s for the work with multi-texts “is a fundamental training need and relevant for professor programs in the XXI century”.
Solar energy is one of the increasing renewable sources, due to its great potential. Teachers from the UNLaM developed a project which seeks to take advantage of solar radiation to generate energy using solar panels. The construction of these panels is based in recycled raw materials and they have a long lasting useful life, the advantages of the low ecologic impact and the possible application of these devices to every day life.
Researchers from the Department of engineering improved the design of the traditional coulters of soy harvesters, turning them into a cheaper and more efficient model. The new device has the same performance in terms of wearing than the original coulters, with the difference that those developed in the UNS are lighter and easy to change. The improvement could be applied in a global way, as these coulters are used all over the world.
The use of laboratory animals for research constitutes a scientific and ethical matter, because it implies researchers, as well as technicians and students who work with experimentation animals, who are capable and trained in their adequate management and care. Facing the lack of law regarding this topic, some professionals are working in a law Project which already in the National Senate.
Houses, shops and industries might inject solar energy in conventional grids of electric distribution. To create a community which generates energy is the aim of a pilot test carried out in Caucete, department of the province of San Juan. The project points to the energetic saving, as when solar energy is used we manage without the electric grid, combining in this way both energies.
Scientists investigate how to treat this disease. They carried out a clinical trial in 120 patients and proved the effectiveness of the combination of the drugs alpha lipoic acid and gabapentin for the treatment of the pathology. The Burning Mouth Syndrome is characterized by burning in the oral mucosa without injuries which justify it and it affects mostly to women older than 60 years old.
Researchers from the Institute Balseiro and the Atomic Center Bariloche work in the laboratory to “capture” hydrogen and use it as a source of energy, in order to generate heat, as well as electricity. Hydrogen has become relevant in the light of the production of biocombustibles, as it is one of the most abundant in nature and it has the capacity to generate clean energies. By means of this project the researchers work to store it and optimize the design of the containers.
Professionals in laparoscopic and mini-invasive surgery will teach forensic surgeons this surgical technique so that it can be done on the necropsies which deserve it. It is estimated that if its applicability is proved, laparoscopic surgery will present advantages compared to the traditional technique of the autopsy and that they will be able to save time in the opening and closing of the body, samples for biopsies will be taken and whereas the traditional method takes three hours, the laparoscopy will take twenty minutes.
Researchers tried to improve the design of a trap to attract, infect and kill vinchucas, the vector insect for Chagas-Mazza disease, the most important parasitic disease in Latin America, which in Argentina, according to the data provided by the Ministry of Health, causes more than 10 deaths per week. The trap is an effective alternative to eliminate the vectors resistant to chemical insecticides and besides, it requires a low production and application cost.
Scientists from different universities took soil samples in the country’s most productive areas’ soils. In order to do that they selected areas in which there are carried out good and bad agricultural practices. The researchers also take samples of natural environments’ lots which they use as a reference to build quality indicators which permit to differentiate practices. The study points to achieve productivity through a sustainable management of the soil.
The device designed by researchers of the UNL and the Conicet permits to control and synchronize the cows’ hormonal cycles. It is a more efficient way of cattle production, as it might achieve genetic improvement and minimize the cost, apart from increasing the production of meat. The project was awarded by the Bolsa de Comercio of Santa Fe in the contest “A bet to the Tricentenary”.
By means of a research project from the Multimedia Arts of the Transdepartamental area of the IUNA, researchers created a table which permits the users to create music scores through an interactive phase to generate, transform and interpret sound structures. It is expected that this prototype, which will be very cheap and will use free software will contribute to the understanding of music and the development and creative capacity of the students.
The excessive use of pesticides in agricultural-stock breeding systems to the detriment of other plague control alternatives is one of the major sources of environmental contamination and loss of biological diversity in the last decades. Besides, the abuse of pesticides generated resistant plagues. That is why the aim of this research project tries to identify the natural enemies which eat plagues and reduce them in order to minimize the use of pesticides in cultivations.
“It is always necessary to create a balance between the institutional and the popular, but the mobilization element has to be always present” said the Argentinean political scientist Ernesto Laclau and stated that in Latin America “in the last years we have for the first time the possibility to establish a definite articulation between the liberal democracy and the national popular democracy”. He said that when he headed the conference “Latin America: Between institutionalism and populism”.
Cress or peppermint is an aromatic plant typical from the region which is disappearing in the North-east zone of the province of San Luis. The reason is the excessive and inadequate extraction which pickers do to sell it to tourists and dry herbs’ collectors. Teachers and students work in a conservation program which pints to revalue aromatic plants from a folkloric and productive point of view.
Researchers from the Institute of Agro-industrial Technology analyze the performance of biodiesel production through edible and non-edible oils in La Rioja. The production of renewable combustibles for vehicles, the protection of the environment and the improvement of self-supply of rural zones renewable energies form part of the objectives of this research.
Scientists from Bahía Blanca integrate a pioneering group in the world of the argumentation in artificial intelligence. They developed a system which has been used for a Facebook intelligent application, the social web which gathers 700 million users around the world. Artificial intelligence is present in almost all the processes used nowadays in computers. The research group has turned into a national center of relevance for this topic.
Traditional medicines can articulate their therapy with alternative medicines. A research project examines the aspects which intervene in the processes of selection and therapeutic combination in the metropolitan areas of Cuyo and the NOA according to the different social sectors and cultural and ethnic differences. A field work was carried out in rural and urban fields which analyzed the relation between the social and the processes of disease and therapy.
After a decade of field work, researchers from the UNL and the Conicet collected and analyzed 71 amphibians with abnormalities. These are the first data about a compilation like this of this kind of phenomena in Latin America. Frogs with extra limbs and individuals which didn’t have the lower jaw formed part of these specialists’ findings, who indicated that the malformations can be due to diverse factors such as the loss of habitats and contamination.
Tortoises are a very particular kind of reptiles, which have the head, legs and tails included in a dorsal shell and ventral plastron. Through Paleontology, a team of researchers described the anatomy of earth giant tortoises which lived in Corrientes in the Pleistocene. The research could contribute to the knowledge of how was the environment in that geological moment and what natural changes were produced which concluded in the disappearance of the megafauna.
Demonstrations organized through Facebook, news spread via Twitter, audiovisual material shared in Youtube, and countless multimedia text messages gave place to new values to which the new generations have adapted. A project belonging to some teachers asks about the social interactions created in the last decade. Collaboration, trust and the new rules at stake.
A group of researchers from the UBA could increase significantly the capacity of mother cells to reproduce during a long time. To do that they used a culture medium created in the laboratory of the School of Exact and Natural Sciences. This medium permits that the cells are kept without differentiating and in a pluripotential state during a longer period of time without the need of adding other substances. The methods developed up to now are expensive and complicated.
“It contradicts the Theory of Relativity, but it is just an experiment”, this was stated by the physicist Andrés Aceña, who in an interview to InfoUniversidades explains the phenomenon described by the project Opera. If the results are proved, according to which neutrinos would travel faster than light, one of the central postulates of the Theory of Relativity would be questioned. For Aceña, as for all the world science, it is still early to determine that Einstein was not right.
The heaters used in the 80% of Argentina’s houses with natural gas connections are three times less efficient than those used in Nordic countries, due to design deficits. Among other causes, the researchers probed that the color of the paint used in combustion chambers does not permit the adequate radiation. Besides, they developed a prototype with simple modifications which decreases the liberation of contaminating gases and increases the heat radiation.
In the frame of a worldwide project, Argentinean and Japanese scientists installed in Bahía Blanca an antenna which receives the cosmic rays. They integrate an international web which evaluates the effects of a great magnetic hole which exists in the South Atlantic in which there is a greater dimension than in other places, given that the magnetic field in smaller than in the rest of the planet.
Nanotechnology is an interdisciplinary science like none previously known and it seeps through almost all the technological branches of human activities. Its diffusion in the scientific field and its applications permit to discern a promising future as due to the great number of possible new products there are opened numerous opportunities for small and medium-sized industries. In an interview to InfoUniversidades Dr. Julio Raba analyzes the reach and future of the discipline.
The works of authors such as Marx, Engels, Martí, Freire and Lukacs, among others, were burnt during the last military dictatorship. The genocide also carried out a systematic plan of bibliographical persecution and destruction. The work “Libraries and Military Dictatorship. Córdoba, 1976 -1983”, deals with the performance of Córdoba’s libraries during the last military dictatorship and besides, remembers the burnt of books in the High School Escuela Superior de Comercio Manuel Belgrano.
Through mathematics and computing sciences a group of researchers looks for the optimal solution to problems related to decision making. The technique used called lineal programming, permitted the specialists to design the fixture of the volleyball league, to plan the route of the census takers of the province of Buenos Aires in 2010 and to analyze the possibilities of TC racing drivers to qualify for the Gold Cup.
A new project in Argentina intends to understand in depth the characteristics of our society. It will give us the opportunity to know the current society structurally with a view which reflects its diversity and heterogeneity. Besides, the results will be transferred to competent organisms to design and implement public policies related to the topics dealt with in the research.
It is proved that by the use of microorganisms it can be boosted the performance of cultivations, such as soy. Besides, this practice contributes to the development of an environment friendlier agriculture. Another task of microbiology is to investigate the use of microorganisms to control plagues, diseases and weeds. This was explained by the Agricultural Engineer Gustavo González Anta during the Microbiology workshop developed at the University.
A study of economic science analyzed the impact of the income’s distribution in the country’s sanitary quality. Among other results, the measurement departing from different kinds of indexes showed that in the Northwest and Cuyo there are perceived more health problems than in the rest of the regions and that the region which shows the greatest inequality regarding medical cover is the Northeast. Cuyo, the Patagonia and the Northeast would be the most unequal areas.
A new ordering for ferroelectrical materials in the nanoscale was discovered by researchers from the Institute of Physics of Rosario. The finding results important in the field of nanoelectronics, as the difficulty of these materials to be used in the development of devices with nanometric components was overcame. The possibility that they generate electric energy is analyzed, which will permit for example to charge the cell phone battery while we run or dance.
A research made by scientists from the Conicet and the University says that climate change was not produced cyclically during thousands of years and that its main cause is solar radiation. According to the researchers’ hypothesis, global warming won’t be prevented by the human action and its highest peak will be reached in 600 years. Some traces were obtained in Bahía Blanca’s estuary. They will look for others in an expedition to Tierra del Fuego.
The perception of time is not the same for everyone, given that the so called “subjective time” is modified in emotional and stress situations. A group of researchers from the Laboratory of Chronobiology analyzes by means of a poll how the fans perceive time during a football match. It is expected that the experiment contributes to understand the alteration of the time perception which is manifested in mental, psychiatric and even neurological diseases.
Wild mushrooms are organic food which can constitute an excellent non-conventional and productive alternative and besides are used as nutrients’ fixers for vegetal species. In order to contribute knowledge about their social and commercial value, a study carried out in the Institute of Botany of the North-east identified mushrooms’ edible species, as well as two toxic species which can be confused with the edible ones.
They are bio-inoculating which, apart from contributing to the absorption of nutrients and protecting cultivations from pathogenic agents with substantial improvements, they develop resistance to diseases. The evaluation already permitted to generate an income of 16 percent in the performance of corn and, as it is forecasted, in the future it might reach the market with innovative technologies. It was also effective its application in other cultivations such as rice, tomato and blueberries.
Researchers calculated the electric answer of graphene, the thinnest material in the world, faced with the incidence of an infra-red laser light. They concluded that the light beam interrupts the electric conductivity of the material, an effect which the scientific community has searched for for a long time. If this is proved, the discovery would have a great technological impact, as it would open new perspectives for optoelectronic devices, such as plasma screens.
Universities from Italy and Argentina work together to carry out an audiovisual archive through the collection of stories of people who arrived at the country from the old continent. The national identity and the political rights of Italians living abroad underlie in the study’s approach. By means of interviews the researchers rescue Italian traditions which persist in Argentina but in Italy have stopped existing, among other aspects.
The biological control of peanut plants’ diseases through bacteria permits to reduce and even avoid the use of fungicides. This was determined by a research which analyzed isolated bacteria and the diseases which limit the growth of the cultivation in the province of Córdoba. From the economic point of view the finding covers relevance whereas Argentina is a world-wide qualified peanut exporter.
Researchers are working in the implementation of a plant generator of biogas through the fermentation of organic matter. It will be used for heating greenhouses where vegetables are produced aimed at human consumption. The use of this biocombustible represents a sustainable alternative in rural zones of the province of La Rioja which, at the same time, will contribute to an improvement in the producers’ life quality.
A group or archeologists determined that the current inhabitants of Paraná Delta continue to face the floods of the river with aboriginal techniques which are a thousand years old. The strategy of space occupation, which consists in elevating the surface’s level with earth’s mounds, is still functional for the Delta populations, which shows the validity of the cultural link with native populations.
The French journalist Hervé Kempf visited the Campus Miguelete of the UNSAM and stated the need to reduce the consumption, narrow the inequality gap and give a deeper sense to social justice as a common wealth related to the care of the environment. The specialist highlighted as a current characteristic of Capitalism the fact that “oligarchy blocks the solution of the society’s economic crisis, because it exerts power over politics, the media and the economy ".
These bacteria are responsible of diseases, such as meningitis, pneumonia, sinusitis and otitis. Researchers of the UNC discovered that the pneumococci which circulate in Argentina have a mechanism which facilitates the spread of the stumps resistant to penicillin. With the finding, the interest of infectious disease specialists, epidemiologists and the pharmaceutical industry it is open the possibility of designing the most effective antibiotics to fight the infections caused by these bacteria.
Engineers from the UBA are improving the classic steam engine of locomotives to turn it into a generator of distributed energy of around 500 kilowatts, applicable to the work of small and middle industry and to the provision of light to villages of the south of the country and of the Litoral which provide residual biomass and water. With the development it is achieved the elimination of residues and the generation of useful and sustainable energy.
A group of scientists found regions of the proteins involved in the processes which cause cellular death and, as a direct consequence, the development of the neurodegenerative diseases Parkinson and Alzheimer. With the information obtained it is opened the possibility of designing drugs and treatments to prevent these pathologies and other related neurodegenerative processes.
A study about the drawings made by 175 children between 2 and 12 years old revealed that middle class children overcome the expected middle levels of graphic expression for their age; they use more color and incorporate actions to their works. Although their mates of marginal areas have a more adequate representation of the human figure, their works are less creative. Scientists recommend the early access to school to facilitate the academic performance and acquisition of abilities.
It is equipment which uses ultraviolet and infrared radiations to destroy the 2,4-D, a widely used agrochemical. The reactor processes in a short time the water contaminated with the active principle of the herbicide, and through a chemical reaction called photo-Fenton, it inhibits the toxicity of the liquid. The development won the award “Innovar a la vinculación tecnológica 2010”.
The province of Mendoza has been included as a high risk group for the transmission of Chagas. The 57% of the population of the urban areas analyzed (children from 6 to 12 years old) live in epidemiologically risk conditions. There is a warning about the need of preventing departing from early detection, implementation of medication plans on time to guarantee the recovery of the diseased and raising awareness in the population.
It is unknown the cause by which metals, such as iron and copper are accumulated in the brain of people with Parkinson and Alzheimer. That is why a group of researchers of the Conicet analyzes the causes for this accumulation and makes enquiries in their link to the neuronal function. The results of the project could contribute to the comprehension of the mechanisms which operate in neurodegenerative diseases.
Agricultural ecosystems are submitted to the continuous changes of their components in order to improve production. The advance of these agricultural ecosystems causes lethal effects in amphibians, which are species that due to their sensitivity function as bioindicators of the status of an ecosystem. A study of the biodiversity of frogs and toads showed the high level of environmental deterioration in the central region of the province of Córdoba.
Of 375 adolescents from Tucumán consulted, the 27% has risky nutritional habits because they want to loose weight and the 17% present body dissatisfaction. This was evidenced by an interdisciplinary study and concluded that shyness and anxiety are the main consequences in the social behavior. The researchers carried out training tasks in school in social vulnerability contexts to promote from the institution healthy nutritional habits.
Patricia Ávila is a plastic artist which runs a research project about the topic of the extraordinary in the contemporary art. In a dialogue with InfoUniversidades, the teacher and researcher of the Arts’ School defines her object of study and recovers a working experience in the penitentiary of San Martín in the city of Córdoba. By means of the recount of this work she explains how the unexpected emerges, the breaking in a strongly homogeneized context from the institutional.
It permits to simulate strategies and represent the algae dynamics, of the nutrients and other components to preserve the water quality. The algae proliferation can cause harmful effects in humans, as well as in animals. That is why in the studied case -a reservoir which provides water to various cities in Buenos Aires- they propose, among other strategies, to take out fishes to keep the balance. The model is a system applicable to any source of water.
Researchers and architects designed an energetically efficient thermal building through the application of building strategies and the use of simulation software. The objective is to decrease the consumption of conventional energy used in the heating of the maternal-infantile hospital by means of the use of solar energy in Susques, a city in Jujuy’s Puna. It is the only hospital with these characteristics in a height of more than 3,600 meters above the sea level.
Researchers from the Department of Economic Sciences carried out an analysis which makes enquiries about the different paradigms which prevail along the history until the current model during the nineties. The teachers analyzed the changes that the rules and “what should be” present in the economic conception of a system, as well as the rationality and political and social thought of an epoch.
To promote the restoration of the biodiversity in Misiones’ rainforest, researchers are working in the implantation of the most consumed species. To carry it out they analyze a system of native germoplasm cloning to use it in recovering programs of forest species. According to the official data, the deterioration of Misiones’ rainforest woods is a reflection of what happens in the whole country, as in less than a century there were lost two third parts of the forest patrimony.
Without cables and electrodes, a system designed by researchers from the UNL detects interruptions in breathing when we sleep. The team can be used by non-experts and besides it is cheap and non-invasive. It is easy to collocate and use, and the device will permit to simplify the diagnosis of sleep apnea, a disease which affects one of every 25 Argentineans.
A study carried out by the UNGS reflects that most of the enterprises of the sector is devoted to the development of applications or customized software. An 89% has university employees and the 70% was trained during the last few years. In general, the enterprises are small and their creation dates from a short time ago, however, most of them export their products. There is a strong link to carry out joint commercial actions, offer or receive technical assistance and training in HHRR.
Researchers are working in the development of a method to remove the arsenic present in natural aquifers and turn water in apt for human consumption. The technique is simple and cheap and it is based in the use of metallic iron. Only in the province of Buenos Aires the water in the 80% of the territory is contaminated with arsenic. Long term consumption of this contaminating agent can cause the disease Chronic Endemic Regional Hydroarsenicism and diverse oncological pathologies.
Cotinine is one of the alkaloids present in tobacco and it is also a metabolite of nicotine. Experimental studies in rats showed that in the long term, cotinine might be responsible for hyperglycemia and vasculitis developed by smokers. The data are the result of a research work carried out in the UBA, by means of which it was also developed a method which permits to isolate cotinine and quantify the compound in the blood and urine.
Whereas in the eighties the prevalent problem or pathology was children malnutrition, after the nineties and nowadays the problem is overweight and obesity in children. An analysis of the nutritional status of children population in Catamarca determined that, in keeping with the global transition of the traditional eating habits and the changes in lifestyle there is a new nutritional paradigm in the children of the province.
People migrations, promoted by the new transport means or due to working reasons, not only permit humans’ transfer, but also the transmission of parasite diseases from one region to another and from one country to another. Dr. Sixto Raúl Costamagna, Professor of Clinical Parasitology of the Universidad Nacional del Sur talked about this phenomenon called “Parasitic disease Globalization”.
Due to the uncontrolled re-entries and “space collisions” of objects launched by men, the study of space debris covers relevance at world level. A researcher from the UNC monitors the satellites which re-enter the Earth’s surface, which is called “space junk” and developed a mathematical model to carry out diagnostics of the objects which can come back to the Earth. Argentina has the “record” of being one of the countries where it has been registered the greatest number of re-entries.
In Argentina the agro-exports productive model has been for a long time the great favored by the State’s policies. Family agriculture, which is in the condition of guaranteeing the nutritional sovereignty of the country have always suffered economic difficulties. Since 2004 onwards, there have been changes registered in the system which point to the rural development departing from a territorial approach which outs the emphasis in the promotion of family agriculture.
In a globalized society, the university is a key piece in the processes of economic and social modernization, an active agent with the mission of generating and transferring knowledge. This was indicated by Dr. Rogelio Conde Pumpido, director of management and assessment of Research and Development by the University of Santiago de Compostela, who offered a workshop in the IUNA and stated the necessity of re-thinking the role of universities.
Researchers are developing an effective method to fight the bacterium Escherichia coli. This microorganism causes the disease Hemolytic-uremic Syndrome, one of the same causes for acute kidney failure in children younger than five years old. The method uses acid lactic bacteria and their “bacteriocins”, antimicrobial substances which function as biopreservators of food, so they are considered innocuous for men.
Differently from cement and common asphalt, draining pavement contributes with more safety to the circulation of vehicles because it permits to drain water. Besides, it decreases sound contamination and permits to increase visibility, among other benefits. Researchers from the school of Engineering study the viability of using stone from quarries in Corrientes, Chaco and Misiones to elaborate this kind of pavement.
The development will permit to detect the viral agent in the absence of antibodies, that is, in the window period of the viruses. The test uses a technique of molecular detection which, differently from the traditional methods which alert about the anti-bodies, identifies the genetic material of the viruses. The technique revealed the regional stumps of Hepatitis C and HIV, so it will permit to improve the treatments, apart from contributing to reduce the transfusion risk in public hospitals.
Potato genome was deciphered by researchers from 16 countries which formed part of the International Potato Genome Sequencing Consortium. Luis Diambra, Dr. in Physics and specialist in biocomputing forms part of the group in charge of the scientific development, which promises to revolutionize the production of one of the most consumed nourishment in the world. They ensure that the advance will permit the development of new varieties resistant to diseases and with a better nutritional value.
Grapes’ vinification process leaves residues which, far from being discarded are usually re-used in a series of activities such as cosmetology, pharmaceutical industry, apart from food conservation. Researchers from the School of Agricultural Sciences analyze the benefits for the human health of orujos, sediments and stalks and organic solid materials discarded in wine’s production.
Although the burrowing parrot is considered a plague for agriculture, a research from the Master studies in Wild Life Management of the National University of Córdoba proved that the damage it causes to cultivations is very low and highlighted the need of deepening studies to make a sustainable management of the native species erroneously judged as damaging for agriculture.
It is second generation cultivation with a great performance and oil quality, whose production might be integrated to cattle breeding. This perennial specie of subtropical and tropical environments has raised great interest through the sustained growth of biodiesel global demand and because it doesn’t compete with food. A team of researchers works in diverse studies to increase its performance in an experimental plantation in Formosa.
Lake El Doce, in Santa Fe, might be the most antique place of the current territory. This was evidenced by the finding of 8,000 year old human bone remains. A team of anthropologists goes on excavating in the south of the province and analyzes settlement hypothesis. The researchers state that the remains found correspond to the early and middle Holocene period, that is, the stage of extinction of megafauna, the final period of big mammals.
Proterochampsa were reptiles which lived in Argentina and Brazil more than 220 million years ago, during the Triassic period. They are the remotest ancestors of crocodiles and modern birds whose relationships were unknown. A research carried out in San Luis permitted to establish that the endemic specie lived in the area and their ancestors came from South Africa and their descendents were North American.
A Patagonic bacterium of the genre Rhodococcus accumulates oils departing from organic waste and it is capable of degrading hydrocarbons. This was determined by a team of researchers, after that in INDEAR, the first genomic platform of the country, its genetic material was decoded. The information obtained will permit to develop bioremediation methods of contaminated soils, apart from the production of biodiesel at great scale and other products of biotechnological use.
A new therapeutic approach, complementary to conventional medicine is used to cure and improve the life quality of oncological patients and it has even reverted the disease. That is why a team of researchers will analyze what are the biochemical mechanisms caused by some emotions and the genetic change to be healthy again. To carry out the analysis we will apply technology capable of identifying the genes and proteins which intervene in this reversion.
The ideological currents of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries state lines of continuity which are kept through the different periods of politic and ideological fights in Argentina. The analysis of the citizens’ rights, social problems and evolution of political ideas shows a polarization between the ideas of liberalism and nationalism which emerge after May Revolution and are re-signified nowadays.
Researchers created a computing model capable of establishing precise equivalences between the measurements of height given by GPS and the traditional National Altimeter System. Through the combination of both techniques the development permits a new exactness in the measurement, as the GPS has an error margin of up to 40 m. and the altimeter system, elaborated decades ago with manual measurement instruments takes too much time. It will be vital for the development of hydric and road works.
Some oleaginous bacteria autochthonous of the Patagonia have the capacity of transforming urban waste into oils to produce biodiesel. The biochemical phenomenon of this transformation is analyzed by a team of researchers from the School of Natural Sciences, which looks for new sources for generating biocombustibles and, particularly, the widening of the oil production scale through these bacteria.
The team of Molecular Oncology will produce monoclonal antibodies to treat immune diseases. It will be in charge of pre-clinic research with oncologic bio-generic medicines which will be produced at industrial scale to be exported to different countries. The project is in the line of other works of the laboratory team which develops vaccines to treat melanoma and other cancer variant.
A control mechanism to achieve the inactivation of microorganisms which are damaging for the health such as the bacterium Escherichia coli, present in semi-elaborated meat products was developed by researchers of the School of Exact Sciences. The work, which was carried out through the analysis of blood sausages is applicable to any kind of precooked meat. The coliform bacterium present in food can cause the development of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome, a lethal disease.
The deficient status of the public transport system in Mendoza was analyzed by social scientists who elaborated a detailed institutional analysis of the involved organisms. The objective is to get proposals which contribute with solutions through a development project which takes into account the uses of the urban soil, the improvement of the roads and the re-education of the users to orient them to the use of public transport, among other diverse aspects.
The advent of reality shows produced a cult of the trivial. The genesis of this phenomenon can be traced in the burst of every day life in Art during the twentieth century and in the blurred limits between the media and Art. In a conference offered in the IUNA, the well-known researcher of the media François Jost, analyzed the possible links between TV-reality and artists such as Warhol and Duchamp, the redefinition of “the real” on TV and the role of politicians as “heroes of the reality show”.
Almost two centuries after its creation, Stirling engine caught the attention of the scientific community again for being apt to generate electric energy from the sun’s heat. A group of researchers from the Institute of Industry recycled the idea and is now working in the design of a device which will function with a satellite antenna and Stirling engine. The procedure will permit to turn thermal energy into mechanic energy to produce electric energy with a generator.
The genetic improvement of native pastures opens the possibility of generating productive cultivations with good nutritional value. There work in this topic researchers of the UNE, who point to increase the production of meat and milk in the northeast through the production of natural pastures. In the region there are multiple poaceae species (grass) and leguminous with forage potential.
An analysis about the urbanization possibilities in Mendoza’s foothills was carried out by a group of researchers in that province. In the report there are detailed criteria to take into account to build, as there exist dangerous areas which require measures which consider seismic risk. Besides, there are included indexes which reveal factors to avoid water to filter and flood the urban area, a common problem of that zone.
The new website contains data about the weather in 16 cities and offers major precision because it works at a minor scale than other similar sites. The information offered goes from humidity and wind-chill factor to the behavior of El Niño, seasonal tendencies and digital animations about possible emanations of Puyehue Volcano. The data is up-dated every 5 minutes, so it constitutes a new scientific development in the weather forecast of Buenos Aires’ southwest.
Nowadays, small Argentinean businessmen will be able to modernize their tool machines without the necessity of buying expensive new technologies. Researchers designed a way of automate antique machines which permits to maximize the precision of the cuts and to reduce production time and costs, because the discarding of pieces is eliminated. The new development implements a numerical control system and does not replace the workers, as they must control the machines.
One of the quality attributes which differentiates yerba mate is the content of stems. A new method by means of image analysis permits to determine the content of stems in elaborated and packed yerba mate. Regarding the procedure established by the Argentinean Alimentary Code which nowadays results deficient, the new development permits the determination in a precise, quick and low cost way.
The deforestation of native woods due to the advance of soy cultivations will have a progressive impact in different weather variables of the region of Gran Chaco. This was the conclusion drawn by a study which used climate models to analyze the relation soil-atmosphere and which simulated the ideal status of the regional soils without deforestation and the state submitted to the advance of agriculture.
The contribution of nitrogen to the soil on the part of some leguminous species represents a promising alternative for the development of techniques of sustainable management of agricultural activities. That is the reason why the engineer Pablo Mayo looks to specify the knowledge about the contribution of nitrogen to white cloves in the production of forage and the variables generated from the scarce availability of light and water of the Patagonic-Andean Woods.
This biocombustible, which is adapted to function at temperatures lower than 47 degrees below zero, is based on castor oil plant and was successfully tested in an experimental ecological vehicle in the Argentinean base Marambio, in Antarctica. Given that castor oil plant is a non-eatable cultivation and it is benign for the environment, among other qualities, the development contributes to the diversification of the energetic matrix aimed at overcoming the antinomy combustibles - food.
To eat healthy food not always means that the substances fulfill their beneficial effects in the body. A group of researchers designed “nanovehicles” capable of keeping, transporting and liberating bioactive agents such as probiotic bacteria, vitamins and other beneficial substances. The innovation of the group of researchers, internationally recognized, is valuable for the food industry, as well as for the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries.
A study analyzed pregnant animals submitted to chronic stress and determined that the neurochemical and behavioral effects it causes in the babies are irreversible. Besides, it was established that the stress during gestation generates a depressive syndrome and that the depth of the alterations in the babies, such as for example the deterioration in the motor activity is directly related with the degree of intensity of the stress during the pre-natal period.
Researchers developed productive models of eatable lignocellulosic fungi aimed at family consumption and commercialization. The inclusion of these fungi to the diet of the populations where the project is implemented is a reality already and their commercialization means a contribution to family income. The creation of a market where there are products free of agrochemicals and produced from a supportive economy was one of the boosters of the project.
It is a more efficient and cheaper procedure than those currently available to get the enzyme lumbrokinase, coming from common earthworms. It is a proteolytic enzyme, useful to treat heart attacks and thrombosis. It is also used as preventive strategy. Among its advantages, it can be administrated orally. The patent to develop it was already asked in Argentina.
More than 7,000 hectares of native woods in the province of Santa Cruz have been devastated as a consequence of fires. That is why a research Project, which points to the restoration of original woods, permitted to generate special nurseries for the production of seedlings of Lenga and Ñire, two autochthonous species. The information generated will be vital for the application of the national law for woods in the region, as the initiative represents an activity of conservation which will be beneficial in the future.
The genre of cactus Opuntia, very common specie in many regions of our country, has the property of reducing cholesterol and glycemia. This was evidenced by a series of studies carries out by researchers from Bahía Blanca, who stated that the specie appears as a promising alternative for the treatment of diabetes. The cactus is already used for the treatment of arteriosclerosis and its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, analgesic and antiulcerous effects are proved.
Towards 1853 a European war left an excess of uniforms. Shortly after, those trousers arrived at our country and became the typical gauchos’ clothes. Baggy trousers replaced chiripá, widely used by the village men. They are practical and comfortable, made of cotton gabardine which makes them appropriate to work due to their great resistance. These clothes have resisted time and are still worn after 160 years.
The high incidence of urban flooding in the region of the North West of Argentina is due to the lack of maintenance of the existent structures, the existence of great loads of rubbish, sediments in the obstruction of draining and the growth of the impermeability of the surfaces by the advance of buildings. This was determined by the researchers who since 2007 have been working in the design of models about the behavior of water in regional urban basins.
The incorporation of ITC's -information technologies- in the teaching of technological careers is analyzed in the School of Engineering. The researchers highlight that the experience of Blending Learning, also called mixed or semi-present model is positively valued by the students because they can have a complement for presence which improves the quality of teaching through the use of forums, wikis and digital archives.
During the last few months flooding in Sierra de la Ventana caused serious problems to the inhabitants. An analysis of the basin of the River Sauce Grande carried out by researchers in Geography and Tourism permits to know the effects of the flooding and points to become a tool to prevent the contingencies in the touristic center, given that there are no official plans which contemplate the management of the risk.
The 25th of March, 2011 died Hugo Midón. Actor, author and director, he was the founder of a new theatre for children which turned him into a referent of the infantile scenario. He worked with every day objects to which he gave the magic of turning them into works of art. The creator of the school of theatre Río Plateado and source of inspiration of the awards “Hugo” to music hall leaves a prodigious legacy.
At the beginning of the twenty-first century and as a result of the advances experimented by technology applied to medicine it is not necessary to reduce a nuclear submarine to sail the human bloodstream as it was told in “Amazing Trip”, the science fiction team released in 1966. In the Center of Electronic Microscopy there functions a microscope which permits to see in the first place the cells and constitutes a fundamental tool for the diagnosis of diverse pathologies.
A group of researchers from Balseiro develops a mobile plant which can be moved to batteries’ stores, reducing costs and contamination risks for the environment. The device, unique in its type avoids the environmental risks implied by the movement of this waste, neutralizes the heavy metals they contain, at the same time as it raises awareness about taking care of the environment.
In the diverse parties we can find the keys of some ways of resistance to social regulations. Researchers from Villa María determined that in low resources areas collective bonds are reinforced in the construction and enjoyment of the party, whereas in those of major income there exists a growing and sustained mercantilization of celebrations. The project is developed through interviews to people of different ages and social belonging.
The experience of going to university, participating in class and make contact with classmates affects in a positive way the psycho-physical health of people older than 60 years old. This is showed by a research carried out in the School of Social Sciences according to which, to focus their energy (which is not present any more in forming a family or getting a job) in studying influences the psychical and physical state.
The biochemist Nelson Hugo Ferrúa developed a method which permits to detect low quantities of mercury and arsenic of biological and environmental interest, non-defined by means of conventional techniques. The development will facilitate the carrying out of population studies in human groups exposed and not exposed to obtain information to take precautionary measures, taking into account that San Luis is considered Hacre Zone.
Electronic Engineers designed a device which permits the user to automate his house. The system enables the modification of the functions according to the necessities of the people who use it. In this way, from a standard mobile phone we can manage activities which go from turning lights on or activate an irrigation system to receiving information about doors’ movements or the activation of fire alarms.
Scientists work on the generation of plants resistant to adverse weather conditions which attempt against their development. By means of the analysis of the answer given to this kind of situations by the organisms preceding plants millions of years ago, the researchers found the key in the introduction of genes incorporated to their “DNA” and achieved to generate stress resistant plants.
Hydrogen is one of the great promises of clean energies, that is why researchers from the UNL optimize the process of its generation in pure state, necessary for the function of combustible cells. They also evaluate alternatives to obtain it from bioethanol, a renewable source. The research group achieved the development of membranes which could be successfully used at laboratory scale.
The legal responsibility of search engines and other platforms of the Web 2.0 by the slanderous content produced by third parties is a field of multiple discussions. The lack of clear regulations about the topic contributes to confusion. Researchers of the Center for Studies in Freedom of Speech and Access to Information analyze recent Argentinean jurisprudence in cases which included famous models such as Valeria Mazza, Facebook, Yahoo and Google.
After research it was found a way which permits to reduce pigs’ food contamination. The use of some biological adsorbents in nutritional additives makes possible to decrease mycotoxins present in these foods. The finding was collocated at the same level as diverse studies which are developed at world level aimed at boost pig’s production whose consumption has grown exponentially during the last 30 years.
Studies carried out by researchers from Argentina and Chile determined that the genotype 1b of hepatitis C virus predominates in both countries. The variant is one of the most resistant to the treatment and generates liver damage, such as cirrhosis and liver cancer. The VHC is an authentic world pandemic, with more than 200 million carriers. Alcoholics, intravenous drug addicts, patients with HIV and people older than 70 years are considered risk groups.
A group of researchers in Environmental Epidemiology elaborated scales which indicate that the 30% of pesticides applicators suffers accumulated exposure to agrochemicals and do not fulfill the basic protection requirements. The exposure to agrochemicals is one of the risk factors associated to the appearance of different kinds of cancer.
The pedagogical knowledge has been transformed from its incorporation to universities. The research about education constitutes a branch of science which finds its sense in reforming and improving the practice from which it is indivisible. The researcher Alicia Martínez analyzes its evolution, the professional role and the peculiarities of the educational phenomenon as object of study.
The historian Fernando Urquiza analyzes the network of the Argentinean Catholic Church during the nineties reforms. The teacher investigates about the support to Menem’s model and the deregulation opportunities the State offered to the institution. The variations in its relation to the government which ended in its critique to Menem when the social and economic crisis burst out are some of the aspects dealt with by the researcher in a recently published book.
The obtaining of raw material for the brick industry affects the environment negatively. That is why the researchers developed a new technique which permits to take advantage of building residues and sediments of lakes to produce hand made bricks. The discovery would permit to replace the traditional adobe bricks and in this way to minimize the environmental impact caused by soil mining industry.
Experts from Germany and Argentina work together with the objective of facing climate change and environmental protection. In Mendoza’s territory, the emission of toxic gasses and open dumps are some of the factors which increase contamination. To raise awareness in the population and make them participate, they carry out a Project which has children as its main addressee.
The preliminary results of an epidemiologic study revealed a prevalence of the 15% of cases of dyslexia in the children of the city. This learning alteration is a neuropsychological origin problem which can be compensated with adequate interventions. That is why, apart from the diagnosis the project through which the study was made includes the training to teachers to adjust the educational offer.
Guarani communities received training to preserve, produce and commercialize orchids of Misiones’ rainforest. The work carried out by the communities represents an income source which implies the decrease in the pressure over the resource. Among the activities carried out there are the rustification, transference to shade houses and in vitro sowing of the orchids.
In Santiago del Estero there are more than two million people at risk of consuming or who consume water with arsenic content above the permitted limit. Rural populations are the most affected because they drink subterranean water contaminated by this chemical element. Researchers work in the development of a method to filtrate water by means of which arsenic remains stacked and excluded from the liquid.
Researchers analyze the consequences that the management of corn causes in beneficial insects which control plagues. The effect that modified corn through bacteria generates is the protection of plagues such as butterflies and moths. But the inadequate use of this kind of cultivations would produce damaging alterations to the trophic chain. Departing from field studies and laboratory studies, scientists gathered information about the phenomenon.
This was stated by the Venezuelan Sociologist, assessor about parasitic diseases for the World Heal Organization. Briceño León had a dialogue with InfoUniversidades about the current situation of Chagas Disease. He stated that the evolution and transformation in time of the pathology has been influenced by social and environmental changes which at the same time generate epidemiological changes.
Scientists research the use of biodegradable materials, such as the residues of oil industry and soy proteins to produce ecologic packages. From the use of nano-compounds the project points to reduce environmental contamination at a low cost and bets on the development of technology with a greater added value for national agro-industrial resources.
The genetic variables of hepatitis viruses, which constitute a prolific family whose infections become chronic and cause very serious public health problems, are investigated to trace a map of their localization and displacements in Argentina. This pathology, a hundred times more infectious than HIV, leads very frequently to cirrhosis and hepatic cancers.
Patagonian rivers are being threatened by an algae coming from Europe, North America and Asia, which exposes regional ecosystems to extinction risk. This specie is known as Didymo. A team of researchers carried out the first analysis of this threat suffered by biodiversity.
To rebuild a path which joined two local touristic villages in the party of Tornquist at the beginning of the twentieth century is the objective of an interdisciplinary research project. The path would cover the route made by the train which formed part of the “wonder of the century”, as some personalities of the epoch called to the already disappeared Hotel Club Villa Ventana.
The cattle known as Patagonian Criollo, adapted to the low temperatures of the environment has a butcher performance similar to that of Aberdeen Angus and the cross of both, regarding the performance of the meat cuts with highest commercial value. This was the result of a research which analyzes these animals’ breeds found in the National Park Los Glaciares.
Rural workers from Mendoza and researchers have been working for years in a management plan which contributes to the conservation of guanacos, through its use as sustainable productive alternative. The project contemplates to do a biological pathway with the reserve Auca Mahuida of Neuquén, for which they got the financing of National Geographic.
By the System for Geodynamic Research Mount Aconcagua (SIGMA), a group of researchers from the UNCuyo distributed GPS stations on points located in the earth’s surface, through which there can be determined the movements of the area, including the follow-up of volcanoes and glaciers. The SIGMA program covers from Neuquén up to San Juan, and registers earth displacements such as the earthquake in Chile. The UNCuyo and channel Encuentro produced a documentary to show the research work in the highest peak of America.
Degenerative osteoarthritis is a degenerative disease which causes the loss of cartilage which covers the joints’ surfaces. Researchers developed a technique by means of which departing from the previous multiplication in cultivations and the latter auto-implant of bone marrow stem cells, called mesenchymal stem cells, the joints’ cartilages regenerate.
The rates of deforestation suffered by Córdoba’s woods have no comparison at world level. During the last 35 years agriculture has become the first cause for the disappearance and fragmentation of habitats and for the consequent loss of woods and biodiversity, as well as the main source of nitrogen and phosphorus deposition in the ecosystems. In this article, researchers from Córdoba analyze the magnitude of the problem at global and regional scale.
A controversial article published by the magazine “Science” about a bacterium which instead of using phosphorus uses arsenic to grow opened a debate in the scientific community. In this interview to InfoUniversidades, the Microbiologist Diana Vullo explains how the research was carried out, comments why the controversy emerged and analyzes the surprising strategy of bacterial survival.
Domestic pesticides, bleach or methyl alcohol are compounds found at any home. These products and the diverse uses given to them in a house environment entail a dangerousness which is not always taken into account in an adequate way. Teachers train other teachers and health agents about how to manipulate them and the correct use to avoid intoxications.
In economy, the standard view conceives language as empty words. However, there are speakers who are not willing to distort information. Besides, language is a social convention: if it is not used in its usual sense it can result impossible for the listener to decode it. Natural language provides a simple mechanism by which there can be generated consistent expectations between the participants of strategic interactions.
Researchers are analyzing sheep’s capacity to self-medicate. The animal behavior evidences that when they feel digestive discomfort caused by parasites, they select plants which contain tannins, which are beneficial for the health. Between the objectives of this research there are to obtain management guidelines to mix this kind of plants in the environment in order to optimize the productivity and animal welfare.
The unexpected and destructive in Japan was not the earthquake, but the tsunami. There existed a prediction of the scientists about an average recurrence of earthquakes every one thousand years. That is what the Geologist Carlos Costa remarks. He is a member of the Global Earthquake Model (GEM), and in an interview to InfoUniversidades talks about the disconnection between scientific information and politic decisions, the continuity of the aftershocks and the geologic theory of the “seismic gap”.
The difficult and traumatic process of learning Mathematics to which numerous generations were submitted is the origin of the natural divorce between discipline and daily life. It is looked at with respect, but sideways. In this interview with InfoUniversidades, the Dr. in Mathematics Juan Eduardo Nápoles Valdés demystifies the historical darkness of science and talks about the challenges for teaching it in the next years.
A team of scholarship holders and researchers carries out tests in vivo and in vitro of photosensitizing agents and their application in photodynamic therapy to treat colon and skin cancer. The tests point to the capacity of certain agents to cause the death of malign cells in combination with light, at the same time as they analyze the mechanisms of resistance which the cells develop against this kind of therapy.
An analysis of country people’s reality in Argentina reveals the invisibility of its diversity. The evaluation to which family agricultural groups are submitted oscillates, in general between the mythic thought and its consideration as a residual category facing the modern and urban. The analysis proposal lies in that the regional development must contemplate a new perspective about the different production styles.
In a culture where there dominate the images and the advance of technology is unavoidable the problem in relation to the people with visual disabilities does not lie in the disability, but in the awareness on the part of the society about accessibility. This is what teachers and researchers state and dictate a Braille course in which they deal with the accessibility and spread of tiflotechnology as the way for social integration.
Departing from the research project “Urban Contamination with dog’s stool”, there were developed tests to turn domestic animals stool into biogas. The use of a biodigestor permitted the specialists to carry out the trials which produced a considerable amount of the combustible. The results generate the possibility of expanding the tests, as the resource is abundant, free and besides, it reduces the contamination caused by the waste.
A recent research shows that the coasts of Comodoro Rivadavia present different levels of contamination by industrial and domestic waste. So is much so that one of the pathogenic agents responsible for the sewage microbial pollution in the sea is the sewage coliform bacterium (Escherichia coli), used as evidence of sewage contamination.
Since three years ago, scientists have been studying the preventive effects which the anti-inflammatory and antioxidant agents present in extra virgin olive oil can have on certain brain proteins. These proteins are affected by oxidative stress, one of the causes of Alzheimer, and intervene in cognitive functions such as memory and language. The results obtained at laboratory scale confirm the researchers’ hypothesis.
A group of researchers from AIGroup defined an alternative way so that machines “understand” the natural language. Differently from the usual techniques, this is based in morphosyntactic principles and doesn’t take into account semantics. The new method functions through mechanisms which could be compared to those used by the human brain in the speaking process.
Researchers simulated the conditions of harvest, packaging and transport to Europe to know the levels of pesticides present in tangerines Okitsu. To avoid post harvest diseases the producers use fungicides, such as carbendazim. The researchers proved that the fruits contained chemical residues below the maximum permitted.
Researchers from Mendoza analyzed data about collection, treatment and deposits of electronic trash generated by companies, institutions and users in general. This waste puts into risk the human health and the environment, given that it contains toxic substances which filter in the groundwater causing a high level of contamination. The researchers plan to elaborate a diagnosis and project the evolution of this waste and its management to avoid environmental impact.
A group of engineers, through the application of technologies for social development patented solar equipment to purify the water aimed at rural populations’ houses from the north of Argentina. The isolation situation requires a device which doesn’t need materials or maintenance and which, in case of needing it, it is simple to use for any person.
Based on an important statistic database with thermal and rain registers of up to 100 years ago the Professor María Emilia Pérez hold in an interview to InfoUniversidades that “there are not enough elements to talk about climate change in strict sense; but we could say that we are facing variations, fluctuations or climate oscillations which are within the normal parameters”.
Scientists from the Center for Applied Zoology research the migration of these birds in Argentinean territory, using a technology of satellite following. The specie suffers by the transformation in the rice fields of the natural marshlands, where they usually rest and eat. The project points to generating useful information to develop policies for conservation and sustainable use of the ducks’ fauna in the country and in neighboring countries.
Through a new methodology, for which it was used an automatic smoker designed in the laboratories of the University of San Luis, researchers analyzed the presence of nickel in diverse cigarettes’ brands. In high concentrations, this metal present in the cigarettes’ smoke can cause from rhinitis to lung cancer and affects active as well as passive smokers.
Dr. Roberto Yunes analyzes an article published in “PLoS Medicine” and states the credibility of the Random Clinical tests and the use of drugs for different diseases, with the only objective of achieving their profitability. There wouldn’t be diseases to treat, but drugs to which we would have to look for potential pathologies to be useful with the only purpose, many times, of increasing their sale.
Many fragrances used in cosmetic products are originated in chemical plants. Far from flowers and prairies, the industry synthesizes chemical compounds to elaborate perfumes and flavors. A team of scientists tried different alternatives to obtain the substances used in the production of fragrances with the same performance as the current technology, but reducing environmental pollution.
Teachers and students from different careers of the UNCuyo carry out a project together with social and state organizations which permit many families from rural areas to make their own houses from traditional knowledge incorporated to bioconstruction methods with thatch. To take care of the environment is priority, as well as anti-seismic methods in a line which combines tradition, identity and technical innovations.
Scientists from Bahía Blanca and the Conicet work on the development of biotechnological tools aimed at improving wheat’s value chain. Technologies based on DNA, like transgenesis and molecular markers are combined with others, such as phytopathology to obtain highly competitive wheat worldwide. The project is already part of the International Committee for Wheat Genome Sequencing.
Teachers and researchers of the UNLaR elaborate new agro-industrial products in the Technological Park. This time, it is a handmade beer flavored with white carob flour. The new drink called “Solar”, elaborated without preservatives and with a slightly superior alcoholic content keeps autochthonous characteristics and generates new productive enterprises. There will also be a honey flavored variety.
In the region of the Patagonic Andean Woods there live small bats which nest in trunks of trees or in antique and damaged buildings. These mammals fulfill their role in the ecosystem eating insects and avoiding them to become plagues. The biologist Analía Giménez could identify five species of flying mammals.
In the province of Jujuy, researchers found fossil samples of terrestrial plants belonging to the Inferior Ordovician Period. The data indicated that they are approximately 470 million years old, which turns them into the most antique register of terrestrial plants known up to the present. The work constitutes a significant contribution to the reconstruction of the history of evolution, given that it is about the terrestrial colonization on the part of living organisms.
An interdisciplinary team of the School of Agriculture could produce alternative energies with agricultural, agro-industrial and organic waste origin raw material, which do not imply the use of potentially consumable elements, such as grains or corn or soy oils. From used oils it was produced biodiesel, whereas with different origin waste there were generated combustibles such as bioethanol or biogas.
The National University of La Plata participates in an international research project in which new iron compounds are synthesized to fight against tuberculosis. The disease, caused by various species of the same bacterium mainly affects developing countries and it is currently considered a re-emergent illness. The iron compounds developed could be used in the future as therapeutic agents and hospital disinfectants.
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