May 25, 2013Previous pages
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La doctora Sandra J. Bucci integró un equipo internacional de 24 científicos reunidos por una universidad alemana, con el fin de crear una síntesis global sobre la resistencia a la cavitación por sequía en plantas de ecosistemas boscosos, incluyendo los arbustales y las sabanas alrededor del mundo. La investigación se inició a fines de 2009 y los resultados arrojaron que la mayoría de los árboles, incluso aquellos en las selvas tropicales, funcionan muy cerca de su umbral de seguridad hidráulica, lo cual los deja muy vulnerables a las sequías extremas.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
A multidisciplinary team of researchers works to bring people closer to the chance of using umbilical cord stem cells in therapies. This kind of cells can only be obtained after birth and a reduced amount is extracted; that is why the creation in vitro of the conditions for their multiplication is one of the aspects dealt with by the researchers’ work.
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.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Many factors influence the assignment of value to the urban soil: the circulation of the capital, the real estate market logics and the State’s mechanisms of intervention. However, researchers from the Institute of Geography study one more aspect: the hedonic value. They seek to establish how the representations and symbolisms of those who demand lands play a fundamental role in the fixation of the price of urban or building lands.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The increase is a result of the country’s macroeconomic reality and it was registered through a survey carried out in the School of Economic Sciences. The study, carried out with students from the School, showed that the greatest percentage of the works is concentrated in the city of Buenos Aires and that in general, the employers are from the private sector.
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.
Green roofs and vertical gardens which permit to bring nature to the downtown and generate new green spaces in building facades and terraces. Among other benefits, these alternatives improve air quality, reduce the building’s temperature in the summer and contribute to decrease electric consumption. The School of Agronomy of the UBA boosts some of the first initiatives generated in the country.
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.
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.
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.
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.
An interdisciplinary team of researchers identified a monoclonal antibody which prevents the entering of the virus which causes Argentine Hemorrhagic Fever (FHA in Spanish) and other South American hemorrhagic fevers in human cells. The antibody developed is a protein which has a human part and a mouse part and whose presence inhibits the hemorrhagic fever virus’ capacity of infecting human cells.
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.
Although in the last years the characteristics have changed, the housing deficit in the province of Buenos Aires is historical. To face this problem, a team of professionals elaborated the draft bill for the Promotion of Popular Habitat, which seeks to boost the right to a house and a decent habitat in Buenos Aires, the province which concentrates the 39% of the total population in the country.
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.
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.
In a study carried out in schools in risk contexts caused by extreme poverty, researchers developed a program to promote positive emotions in children, training teachers so that they could include it as part of the curricula. The children who experience positive emotions (such as happiness, calmness, gratitude, self-esteem and satisfaction) show greater respect for the others, greater cooperation, personal value, self trust, greater self control and capacity to enjoy.
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.
A report done by a team of teachers highlights the role of family pymes (small and middle-sized enterprises) within the economic circuit of the district of La Matanza. Apart from generating labor, family pymes permit to set working circuits for trades and tasks. The creation of small enterprises and businesses as a starting point to overcome crisis is another point included in the report.
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 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.
It is the biggest rodent in the world; it can weight more than 80 kg and live up to 10 years in captivity. Capybaras can be considered a significant natural resource, due to their meat, which is an important protein alternative, as well as for their delicate leather, used to produce leather goods and in upholstery. That is why a team of researchers analyzes the specie in its natural habit to evaluate captivity breeding.
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 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.
“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.
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.
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.
New cars already have catalytic converters to eliminate some substances. However, cold start is still a problem. A team of researchers studies a new method to eliminate all the contaminating elements using active metals’ nanoparticles.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
The Patagonia’s high mountain is changing. This is determined by a research which investigates the impact of intense touristic activity in the landscape. The entry of all-terrain vehicles, as it is useful to try to satisfy the spirit of adventure of many visitors, it also generates side effects on the high mountain natural spaces, even in the so called ‘protected areas’.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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 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.
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 phrase belongs to Pabla Olsina, neighbor of the city La Garganta. She is one of the 60 people who contributed with the biologist Gustavo Martínez in his research. The work gave origin to the book “Las plantas en la medicina tradicional de las sierras de Córdoba. Un recorrido por la cultura campesina de Paravachasca y Calamuchita” (“Plants in the traditional medicine of Cordoba’s hills. A path through the rural culture of Paravachasca and Calamuchita”). The research in ethnobotanics which preceded the book documented the use of medicinal plants in the hills’ culture and surveyed more than 180 medicinal species and around 700 different applications.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 Rosario work in a 3D head model which is activated by the human voice. The development will permit that any person can communicate with a computer in the same way they do it with another person. The reach of the model’s possibilities includes a wide range which goes from the development of techniques for the film and videogames industry to the assistance in clinical treatments.
Diversity, inclusive conception and visibility are the keys to universal access. That is why it is being carried out a research project which understands disability from the social point of view. By means of the Project, a team of researchers pledge their commitment to the inclusion of people with different capacities through the spread of the concept of diversity. The professionals understand that the disability falls mainly on the barriers generated by the environment.
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.
A group of work from the School of Law investigates the situation of the Patronato de Liberados of the province of Buenos Aires. The objective is to establish the connection between the resources of each delegation and the rate of repetition of crimes. The difference in the availability of resources in the delegation of the patronatos implies differences in the capacity to answer to the demands. The researchers try to make an integral surveying of the province.
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.
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 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.
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.
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.
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.
Differently to the vaccine, human milk has significant concentrations of proteins and antioxidants which protect unweaned babies of diverse diseases. But this milk requires special conditions for long term conservation. A group of researchers worked with raw and pasteurized samples and showed that in aspects as acidity, the pasteurization method is the most appropriate for the conservation of human milk.
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.
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.
This term was used for the first time during 2001 elections. After a decade, the main media retake it to analyze the primary elections’ results of August, 24th this year. The Media Observatory of the School of Social Sciences made a follow-up to show that transformation. With this surveying they try to offer tools for the analysis of the media behavior regarding the presidential elections of 2011.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Like probiotics, but without bacteria: it is an additive in the form of dust which permits to turn any food into beneficial for the health. Researchers got it from butter serum. The product, unique in the world fulfills the characteristics of the probiotics and has advantages over them, as they can be incorporated to a great variety of food. Dairy companies might be ready to initiate the production.
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.
For more than three thousand years chocolate has been attributed beneficial properties for the health and there are more and more evidences from science about its virtues. Substances present in this food act over the regulation of arterial pressure. Cocoa has a high content of polyphenols, called flavanols, which would improve the vascular function contributing to lessen the development of hypertension and decrease the risk of heart disease.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Axel Nielsen, Argentinean specialist in restoration of monuments who lives in Genoa, Italy, where he has a restoration laboratory. He was in Córdoba and talked to InfoUniversidades about his profession’s implications, the nature of his interventions, the role of the State and the University in the protection of artistic and architecture patrimony and the social function of restoration.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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 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.
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.
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.
According to a research, the areas south and center of the province of Santa Fe present a major percentage of people older than 65 years old than the northern area. The demographic ageing of the population has an impact on social, economic and political processes, that is why the researchers consider fundamental their analysis for planning health, work, retirement and life quality policies.
A study done on wild mice concluded that the infection with a pathogen has a great influence on the risk of having another infection. Scientists proved that the parasites of a specie are capable of setting a net in which they interact and influence each other altering the dynamics and distribution of diseases. So, the cause which explains the variability in the risk of infection with a parasite is the previous infection with another.
Scientists from the National University of Córdoba developed a mathematical method which permits to describe precisely and unprecedentedly the optical properties of the irregular gold particles whose size is barely of a millionth millimeters. The work opens new perspectives in the design of applications for medicine and biology and it was published in “Nanoletters”, the Nanotechnology journal with the major impact worldwide.
The cultivation of mushrooms requires a scarce initial inversion and a few people in order to support production. Departing from a very low cost method, researchers of the UNS and the Conicet cultivate species called “specialty mushrooms”, which include edible and medicinal types. The specialists offer advice and training to producers who live in prison in order to encourage the activity and offering the necessary knowledge about the techniques for mushrooms production.
The method will permit to monitor the 24 hours, during six months the use of time and space made by grey and red foxes and to understand the mechanisms which facilitate the coexistence of both species. The researchers try to know why the red fox, which is three times bigger than the grey one is not excluded from the different habitats they share. The research will be made in the Bosque Petrificado in Santa Cruz and there will take part Spanish professionals.
Researchers from the National University of the South developed a study about the so called “poverty traps”, where the most vulnerable part of the society is trapped. The study analyzes the difficulties to get out of that social situation and sustains the necessity of complement human and physical capitals. The investment in education and health must be permanent, say the researchers.
In Santa Cruz, the area where the biggest production of cherries in Argentina is concentrated, researchers are analyzing the harmful effects of the pear tree slug, an insect which attacks cultivations after the harvest and whose potential dangerousness isn’t considered yet. The scientists collect useful information for producers at the moment of designing control practices in the plantations.
An interdisciplinary research shows that the cause of chronic pains, those which last more than six months, lies in brain affections. There exist brain connection failures which favor the permanence of the pain even when the physical damage has disappeared. The study, made by a doctor and three physicists wants to establish what are the different alterations in the balance of the brain system which cause chronic pains as it is waist or back ache.
Since many years ago in the University of the Merchant Navy there have been carried out studies related to clean technologies. The researchers develop an electrostatic filter which will permit to control the particles which transport contaminated gases emitted by the engines. From the use of electric discharges (Plasma Physics), suspended particles are filtered so there is a decrease in the harmfulness of the substances.
Departing from two new techniques some professionals identified inside the Nature Reserve of Iberá, the areas with the major diversity of reptiles and amphibians and determined the distribution patterns of these animals. The general results evidenced that the areas with the major diversity are not necessarily the most protected. The methodology used is useful to ensure protection, not only of amphibians and reptiles, but also of any taxonomic group.
Social scientists of the National University of Villa María analyzed why some companies reach a quick growth when other similar ones achieve just surviving in the market. The hypothesis which guided the work put the focus on the management of the social capital and knowledge as superior differentiating factor. Family companies and recent companies are the major difficulties to face.
Researchers work in a project to improve stainless steel 316L, used to produce surgical prostheses. The main challenge is that they present a similar or higher resistance than bones. Since the paradigm of Biomedicine the working team is also analyzing other materials to overcome problems such as the infections that the prosthesis can cause to the patient and to optimize the adaptation of the body to them.
Departing from the simplicity of reproducing a drawing without going past twice by the same place, up to the oriental challenge of re-locating a bunch of numbers in the Sudoku’s cells, geometry not only expands to entertaining pages, but also finds solutions to real complex problems with a centenary dynamics: tracing lines and linking points.
A research group of the School of Engineering analyzes how to treat Volatile Organic Compounds, which contaminate the air and are emitted to the atmosphere and have an own damaging chemical action, so they generate diseases such as cancer and respiratory and neuronal affections. To do that, the scientists work with a catalyst of national origin with which they treat the VOCs by means of catalytic oxidation, which represent an effective and low cost process.
Claudia Guerrido, scholarship holder of the National University of the Southern Patagonia initiated a research in the Patagonic woods to know the answers of vegetation to this phenomenon which affects the coasts of the Lakes Argentino and Roca of the province of Santa Cruz. The researcher carries out samples of the reading of the trees’ growing rings settled in the affected area to analyze in what measure the dynamics of the vegetation reflects the impacts of the flooding.
Researchers work on biodiesel distillation to temperatures higher than 300 degrees, which avoids the use of catalysts, the loss of raw material and the formation of residues. They proved the technical and economic feasibility of the process and they estimate that it must imply a cultural change on the part of the different industrial areas regarding traditional management. Besides, they built a pilot reactor which is already functioning with very good results.
Since 1975, there is a study about the impact generated by the deforestation in the Department of Moreno, province of Santiago del Estero and neighboring areas. The desertification of fertile lands is caused by various factors, among them, the increment in the demand of food which led to the exploitation of bigger extensions of land from agriculture. Researchers state that the use of bulldozers for the clearing of woods caused irretrievable damage to the soil.
The intervention of the protein PMRT5 in the regulation of the biological clock of living creatures by the use of molecular biology techniques was the finding of some researchers of the UBA. By its relevance, the finding was published in the scientific journal “Nature”. The scientists state that the knowledge of the pieces of the biological clock will contribute to improve the synchrony of the growth of important agricultural cultivations and will have an impact on aspects of the human health.
In the School of Architecture and Urban Planning there’s an analysis of recommendations for the environmental design of houses for the native populations of Chaco. There are spatial and formal approximations in which they incorporate cultural modes and architectural forms belonging to the original aboriginal habitat. In order to do that they take into account their perspectives, necessities and priorities, a vision which in the conventional design of houses is not always considered.
The desert in la Puna presents so unusual conditions that some elements are only compared to those of the surface of Mars. Among the secrets hidden in Catamarca’s territory we can find the key of the Pampa’s fertile soils. Scientists from different universities explore the area to analyze these phenomena in a place where, as they say, there are extreme conditions in the planet, what would permit to analyze extra-planetary qualities as well.
The variations in the growth and productivity rates of the patagonic plants caused by the wind action, the effect of a plague in cherries -cultivation which represents one of the main alternative economies in Santa Cruz- and the more apt varieties of olive trees in Comodoro Rivadavia to determine their economic viability constitute the new research lines carried out by the group on Biophysical and Ecophysiological studies of the School of Natural Sciences.
A research carried out by specialists from the School of Law states that the globalization of Law and the dissolution of the State generated the creation of a new biopolitical space. The work goes deep into the role of bioethics in the current globalization scenario and, among other key points, analyzes the advance of the international law over the local law, the corporative control over biodiversity and the conversion of social value development into economic and strategic values.
Economistas, sociólogos, politólogos y comunicadores analizan uno de los hechos políticos más importantes del último lustro: el conflicto entre el Gobierno y las corporaciones agropecuarias desatado por la resolución 125. El rol de los medios de comunicación, la preocupación social por el peso de actores privados para incidir en decisiones colectivas y la reaparición de fuerzas sociales, entre otros aspectos, son investigados desde una perspectiva multidisciplinaria.
This low power device uses solar energy to generate more electric energy. It was developed by a research team of the School of Engineering and the external combustion engine is useful as refrigerator for low temperatures and heat pump without the necessity of coolers which contaminate the environment. The development is a test for a future industrial production, as it constitutes a possible engine for environment friendly air-conditioning equipment.
Researchers from the Hospital de Clínicas of the University of Buenos Aires and Institute Leloir developed a cheaper vaccine to fight Human papilloma virus which causes cervical cancer. In Argentina there are 5,000 new cases of cervical cancer per year, of which 2,500 are fatal. The development entails the future possibility of generating the necessary therapy to cure pre-cancer injuries or warts without the necessity of having an operation.
Researchers from the School of Agricultural Sciences work on the composting of waste rich in carbon, result of agro-industries, such as sawmills and rice mills. In the Mesopotamia there are great quantities of this waste which are not usable, so they constitute an environmental problem. After measuring indicators of quality and maturity of composting, the specialists point to achieve a stabilized organic matter in order to use it in agriculture.
The analysis of the consequences that money emergencies cause in Central Banks is the main objective of a research carried out in the National University of Villa María. According to the specialists, physical money will lose prominence, so the banks will decrease their capacity to regulate money availability. The results of the study will permit to elaborate proposals for the money market agents in relation to future regulations.
They are resistant to water, fire, with seismic and insulating characteristics which represent an innovation in the field of dry construction. Compatible with other materials, the blocks are light and resistant, apt for the construction of any kind of quick construction and low cost, and they are built with wood waste. The researchers test its design at laboratory scale.
A research goes deep into the possession of the land belonging to native populations and tries to figure out the legal figure which corresponds to the inhabitants. Departing from the rights already recognized by the Constitution and the meaning of the land for these communities, the researchers propose to frame a new real right of constitutional source which benefits them. Good decisions, current legislation and a new way of calling those who, through their ancestors, live in the Argentinean territory.
A group of researchers from Tucumán carried out a work which contributed new data about the molecular basis of the neurodegenerative diseases Alzheimer and Parkinson. The scientists analyzed the protein called Glyceraldehydes 3-phosphate dehydrogenated, involved in both diseases which causes cells death when it becomes insoluble. The research was awarded a Price for the second time by the Argentinean Society of Biophysics.
The morphological, physical and chemical properties of the Andean-Patagonic Region soils are systematized and available in a new data base. Accessible for a great variety of applications, the base permits the search of basic data to define subsidies policies according to the forest, irrigation and agricultural aptitude and the access to information about vegetal sanity, among other uses.
A genetic research of populations established the contribution of native populations to Mendoza’s society. Through the analysis of genetic markers and due to the fact that the province was a place of slaves’ selling to Chile and the North of America, it is estimated that no more than the 50% of Mendoza’s population is of European descent, whereas the other half is divided into a 40% for natives and 10% for Africans.
The Mexican sociologist and specialist in rural development Armando Bartra talked about the necessity of thinking about agricultural activity again in order to satisfy the internal market in the export agricultural business. In this interview to InfoUniversidades, Bartra analyzes the causes and consequences of a crisis which covers the economic and energetic up to the environment and nutritional habits, among other diverse factors.
A research carried out by teacher, students and graduates from the School of Social Sciences details the prejudices of the media towards Young people and the treatments of the news which involve them. Journalistic reports present a model of poor adolescence linked to marginality, addictions and crime, through a view of facts which coincides in the construction of a negative image of these people, presented as a stereotype.
A new kind of simple analysis to identify future neurologic and growth disorders in newborns was designed by researchers from the UNL. The method, which does not use reactive agents and is unique in the world, analyzes the presence of substances in the blood which are indicators of diseases called Metabolism Congenital Mistakes. The early detection of these substances permits to avoid severe pathologies such as congenital hypothyroidism, phenylketonuria and Cystic Fibrosis, among others.
Scientists analyze by means of capillary electrophoresis the amount of glucose, fructose and sucrose in pulp and rosehip jams produced in Bariloche. The results of the research contribute specific data in order to label these jams, such as the presence of the sugar component sucrose which is used to preserve the final product.
Researchers from the UNNE are working on a low cost technique which permits to typify the compatibility of between patients and possible bone marrow donors. The method currently used is very expensive due to the Molecular Biology techniques which need a great amount of the enzyme Polymerase. The preliminary results show the technological feasibility of this methodology which implies a much lower cost and the same safety than the techniques used.
Drs. Simonetta Pancaldi and Laura Pantaleoni, from the University of Ferrara, Italy, visited the Microalgae Laboratory of the School of Natural Sciences in Trelew, of the UNPSJB, in the frame of an Italian- Argentinean research Project which points to the generation of biofuel from the use of microalgae, as an alternative to fossil fuels which are more expensive and produce high levels of pollution.
A research analyzes the information presented by the news in four TV private channels of our country and their reproduction by other media. More than the 90 percent are news about the City of Buenos Aires and that province. For the so called “interior of the country” the news are about curious cases or timeless news and the presence of this information is even less than that referred to the international level.
Ana Lúcia Gazzola, ex director of Iesalc-Unesco and specialist in higher education was in Córdoba to speak about the supportive internationalization of higher education in the frame of the cycle “The University thinks the Bicentenary”. “It would be necessary to create a university administrative committee which plans systemically the cooperation between countries” she said in this interview to InfoUniversidades.
A group of researchers recognizes that the teaching and learning of the mother tongue is in crisis. As an answer to the problem, they train teachers to promote in children the acquisition and development of language for the early detection of possible linguistic difficulties. With this aim they propose new ways of carrying out activities in the classroom which stimulate in children the most powerful communication instrument.
Teachers and students are transcribing and translating 400 years old manuscripts. They are discourses, letters and introductory short writings to other works, mainly in Latin. The texts talk about the competitive character of education, in which a university career was compared to Olympic Games and students with athletes. The research asks about the origins of the illustrated movement of the central region of the country and projects bilingual publications for modern readers.
Adaptation is a technique of methodological parameters to measure the presence of aerial fungi in closed environments. Finding protocols to control these agents was the achievement of a group of researchers from the UNNE. The advance in the technique points to the possibility of monitoring periodically possible changes in fungi’s biota or the presence of them which entails a sanitary risk in critical places, such as hospitalization centers.
Scientists from the National Institute for Biochemical Research of Bahía Blanca (INIBIBB) treat visual diseases through the use of stem cells’ potential. These cells with the capacity of auto-renewing spread as response to cells damage and treatments which use the ill patient’s own cells could be designed. Up to now, there have been carried out tests on rats and scientists don’t discard that in the near future they could be successfully applied to human beings.
Initiator of scientific research in the School of Medicine and founder of the Institute for Biochemical Research in La Plata, his work about lipids metabolism permitted to make important discoveries to treat diseases such as diabetes. Dr. Rodolfo Brenner received the Houssay award for his career and it was precisely this Nobel Prize, which gave its name to the award, who proposed in 1956 to come to the UNLP.
A study permitted to evaluate a bacterium which will be used to promote wheat’s growth and performance, as well as to reduce the use of chemical fertilizers. Thanks to the result of the research it will be launched to the market a product which has this bacterium capable of promoting the growth of the cultivation and which is also biocontroller. The new product will be used by the agricultural sector to protect and improve their cultivations.
To analyze and potentiate the function of water heaters and solar cookers which they have been working with, a group of researchers from the School of Engineering decided to build a solar clock. It will permit to understand how it is produced the energy delivery to these equipments’ collectors and it will be useful as didactic element through which it will be appreciated the sun’s movement, stations, the Earth’s position and the inclination of its orbit. The Engineer Pablo Martina explained that the clock “can give ideas and examples to Engineering, Humanities, Exact Sciences and other academic units’ students, as well as for high school and primary school students who want to study the movements of the Earth and Sun”.
With the aim of rescuing ancient expressions and getting to know the particularities of Mendoza’s language variant, teachers started an investigation which describes the characteristics of the province’s language which covers sayings and proverbs, the agro- economical activities expressed in the language of Mendoza’s people, even phonic and morphosyntactic features. Besides, they project a dictionary to show the results of the study.
Different types of parasites, such as helminthes are present in fishes. Many of them, due to their sensitivity to contaminating agents’ impact -heavy metals, hydrocarbons or organic contamination- can indicate earlier and more precise environmental alterations than other more complex organisms. In Bahía Blanca, a group of researchers investigates these parasites in fishes as bioindicators of eutrophication.
Thanks to a development carried out by scientists from the National University of La Plata, adults and children will be able to enjoy the pleasure of eating ice-cream “without regrets”. Departing from an interdisciplinary approach the researchers could design and produce healthy ice-creams, enriched with phytosterols and fatty acids omega 3; two efficient compounds to reduce the levels of cholesterol and prevent heart diseases.
Departing from the craniofacial morphology of samples of populations which lived in different regions in Argentina, a work carried out in the Museum of Anthropology found similarities between the pre- Hispanic populations which lived in the current territories of Córdoba and San Luis and the natives from Patagonia and the North-east of the Pampa. This discovery contradicts the traditional vision which related the Big Hills’ inhabitants with groups located in the North-west of the country.
Researchers from the UNLaM are surveying enterprises which emerged after the social and economic crisis in 2001. The work wants to show the different initiatives and highlights the new type of organization to which the workers adapted to solve the problems. In this line, it is evident that the people, in group and with a new horizontal organization developed their potential to make decisions about the importance of their jobs.
In the academic shipyard of the UNQ there are designed and developed boats for a NGO which sails and cleans up contaminated streams in Quilmes. There were already built a catamaran made of plastic and reinforced with glass fiber and basic materials which is designed to sail in shallow water. The students are working on another which will permit to fight the sandbanks formed in the middle of the streams.
An interdisciplinary approach of the UNNOBA is working on computing methods and mathematical applications to simulate the effects of pesticides and resistance mechanisms. By means of representational models we point to facilitate the learning of students from Agrarian and Genetic careers. The phenomena described from these models are very complex and can give rise to serious consequences for the environment.
A group of researchers from the School of Veterinary Sciences created a garlic-based extract effective to treat wounds in animals and similar to other commercial products with a considerably lower cost. The researchers obtained the extract and incorporated it to a pharmaceutical formula in spray which favored the application in the injured skin, notably reduced the inflammatory process and accelerated healing.
A survey carried out in Bahía Blanca by university researchers showed that almost half of the plants present in those institutions represent a danger for the health of children and adults. Among other pathologies, the intake or skin contact with these species can cause cardiac and nervous system alterations, dermatitis and even respiratory depression.
In Villa María an exploratory research revealed the list of difficulties faced by students from Córdoba to finish their course of studies. The sensation of abandonment, pressure and lack of motivation adds anguish and stress. The phenomenon by which there are many freshmen and a few graduates happens worldwide and in some English speaking countries it has its own name: “All but dissertation”.
The irrigation area of the río Dulce in Santiago del Estero would be apt for mint cultivation, an aromatic specie which is expanding and very demanded in the world market. A project from the school of Agronomy and Agro-industries is investigating the performance and plagues which affect mint with the objective of diversifying agricultural production in the region and benefit the producers of local intensive cultivations.
A group of researchers is studying the use of extracts and essential oils from plants of the region for the treatment of snakes’ bites. They ensure that there are many regional plants which have demonstrated in vitro activity and they have to be further studied, as this opens a possibility to use them as phytomedicine. These analyses corroborate the action of species which were used by the natives of the region.
From a research project there were built packing boxes with multiple uses which consider the current standards for conservation, exhibition and transport of valuable objects and art pieces. The designed boxes have a humidity indicator which permits to control the ideal conditions, displays to observe the conditions of the works’ contents and removable trays for carrying them to the place where the material will be consulted.
Researchers carry out a project which analyzes the ergonomic design conditions of the classrooms’ equipment to obtain models which permit a healthy posture and better school performance. The work has as its main objectives to avoid posture defects such as the spine curves’ ciphosis in children in developing age and bone growth at the same time as rising conscience and train parents, teachers, students, furniture manufacturers and government organisms.
Researchers were able to avoid the decrease in liver function called detoxification whereas it regenerates. After administrating antioxidant substances with the capacity of impeding the damage in the cells’ membranes, such as Vitamin E and melatonin, researchers avoided the “negative” alterations in the organ which occur after surgeries such as transplants.
The first study in the country about earthquakes in the Atlantic area was carried out by researchers of the UNPSJB, who detected seismic evidences in Gulf San Jorge’s basin. They would have occurred 50 million years ago with a magnitude of 5 to 5.5 in Richter scale. The geologists established a great activity of the faults in the geologic past.
To know in detail the region’s reality researchers have analyzed the life conditions in José C. Paz, Moreno, Morón and San Miguel. They surveyed information about the habitat, educational situation, working situation, income, use of the time and workers mobility with the objective of generating a contribution to urban policies which contribute to equity in Buenos Aires’ suburbs.
A research project from the School of Pharmaceutical and Biochemical Sciences is working on the problem of infertility. The main objective is to create a sequential protocol to study the couple in order to achieve a quick, safe and cheaper diagnosis. The tests also study the immunological cause of infertility which, although it is one of the most important ones, it is very little studied.
Specialists in solar energy elaborated a wind power map which shows the potentiality of San Luis’ territory to install wind farms. Facing the energetic world crisis, wind power is an alternative which implies an intense and efficient, accessible and endless source which can substitute the use of contaminating resources. The measures evidenced that the strength of the wind in the area is comparable to that registered in the biggest wind power park.
Researchers are analyzing the possibility of cultivate fresh water macro crustaceans in the area of the southern big rivers of the Argentinean Litoral aimed at human consumption. The first results of the research proved the advantages of these shrimps: their taste is soft, they have a protein value near to 70% and present a very low cholesterol index. The decapods also showed to be an important bond of the biotic symptom of which they form part.
“To do shopping was never easier”, could be the big commercial slogan of this product designed by five computing Engineers. Departing from a combination of a supermarket cart and a portable computer they created a system which enables a greater interaction between client and sellers. The contribution, unique in the country permits to buy products, see offers and make a shopping list, among other benefits for the consumer and the businessmen who want to implement it in shops.
The result of an investigation carried out in Córdoba was to counteract the strong bitter taste and the low solubility of the antibiotics of the family fluoroquinolones -used to treat urinary and respiratory tract infections-. A pharmacist from the School of Chemical Sciences added saccharin to the original drug, which made easier the oral consumption of the medicine in animals, as well as in humans and favored the intestinal absorption of the drug.
In this way defined Marta Rovira her work at the Conicet. In an interview to InfoUniversidades, the official -first woman who reaches Houssay’s coach- commented on the job and perspectives of this organism. She states that Argentina has excellent researchers who compete with the most important researchers all over the world and that one of the institution’s policies is to avoid the concentration of researchers in urban centers.
There’s a study about the toxicity of the fungi stumps developed in the salami’s gut covers. In the hand made elaboration of these products the traditional source of fungi which colonize their surface is usually the same as the environmental flora. To select the adequate stumps would guarantee the harmlessness for consumption and it would contribute to standardize the production process of the regional meat industry sector respecting the particularities of each producer.
A new antidepressant method was tested on animals. The combination of Omega 3 acids with antidepressants boosts the effect against the pathology, reduces the side effects and avoids the recidivism. Although it is basic science, the patent of the product is being dealt with in the United States to advance in its clinical research.
More than 200 researchers and specialists analyzed in the “White Book of the prospective of IT and Communications” (ICT) the necessities of the sectors and the lines to consolidate it, with the horizon posed in 2020. The work was carried out in on site and virtual forums and searches to go on with the “White and Blue Book”, which had traced the action lines for the sector during the decade 2004 - 2014. The analysis points to positioning the country as one of the protagonists of the region in the area development.
The Pissodes castaneus is an ordinary weevil from the North of Africa and Europe which attacks coniferous of the genres Abies and Pinus Pseudotsuga. In our country, this plague was identified for the first time in 1998 in the province of Jujuy, and since 2006 it is found in Chubut. That is why a group of researchers of the UNPSJB carries out a soil analysis to characterize the pine’s affected plantations with the objective of making management plans and risk maps.
The website www.glaciares.org.ar functions since the end of 2009 to spread projects, news and investigations about the Argentinean glaciers along the Andes. Thought to be a dynamic space to Access to a great variety of information, the website offers data about the role of the environmental indicators of Argentinean glaciers, historic and inventory materials and related topics.
In an interview to InfoUniversidades, the director of the Regional Institute for Planning and Habitat, Mirta Romero, warned about a change of paradigm in the preparation for a seism, which includes the concepts of functional and social and organizational vulnerability. When asked about the conclusions of what happened in Chile she stated: “It is a warning, because we will have an earthquake, we don’t know when, but it is going to happen and we have to be prepared to act”.
Tasty and easy to digest, the bull frog’s meat has a high protein and mineral salts content, low fat and calories and an excellent biological value. By these qualities and its use in the control of hypertension, as well as other diseases is that researchers from the School of Veterinary Sciences evaluated the percentage of different kinds of fatty acids in this meat with the aim of analyzing the potential for its commercial exploitation.
A researcher from the Anthropology Museum analyzes the classification systems and the moral values which are put into play when a young person dies in violent contexts. The research deals with topics such as transformation in the concept of death and its diverse causes. It is an ethnographic study carried out for two years in the shantytowns called El Libertador and El Nailon, in the city of Córdoba.
In Comodoro Rivadavia, province of Chubut, a group of mathematicians from the School of Engineering experimented with the Mathematics Experimental Classroom, a space where different learning strategies are set out for secondary school students. The excellent response from the students surprised the teachers who plan to adopt the proposal to apply it in classrooms.
In Córdoba, a study showed that the use of bio-control agents, alone or combined with chemical fungicides permits the integral management of wheat cultivations and prevents Fusarium Head Blight, one of the most common and dangerous diseases for the performance and quality of the grain. The researchers isolated bacteria and yeasts to analyze them and improved them according to their capacity to reduce the toxin which causes the disease.
A group of biologists of the UBA received the award from the UNESCO “Dr. Michel Batisse” by their work on conservation, sustainable management and productive alternatives’ generation within the island community in the Biosphere Reservation Delta del Paraná which covers more than 87,000 hectares. The territory belongs to the Buenos Aires Municipality of San Fernando and the project is a new strategy of forest production to offer social and working inclusion to the island population.
“Quinquela did not paint La Boca as La Boca was, but as he wanted it to be. Later, La Boca looked like Quinquela” this is how Professor Julio Flores describes the artist who trespassed his work to the walls of the neighborhood which saw his growth. Expert on Quinquela’s work, the Dean of the Department of Visual Arts of the IUNA analyzes the artistic project of the unforgettable painter after 120 years of his birth.
Departing from an interdisciplinary investigation, we search to formulate a more healthy and tasty bread. Given that bakery products are a key in the Argentinean population’s diet, we try to elaborate them with higher protein content flours, such as soy flour. The tendency of the project is to incorporate high nutritional value ingredients at the same time as maintaining the adequate sensory characteristics.
A project from the UNQ is investigating by numerical simulation the way of improving the performance of solar cells which feed satellite’s electronic equipment. By means of especially designed simulation codes the researchers can evaluate a priori the effects of radiation in the functioning of these devices, foresee their useful life and improve the design to make them more resistant to damages.
In La Plata, teachers from the School of Economic Sciences carried out a research in more than a dozen public and private schools of the area and concluded that school violence increased during the last years. The violent episodes which involve students, teachers or members of the educational community have public impact and are repeated in the schools of the region.
The lack of information about autochthonous marsupials, such as the patagonic weasel and the little mountain monkey boosted the work of the Biologist Gabriel Martin to know the adaptation and localization of these and other marsupials in the Patagonia. With the aim of tracking the habitat and distribution of these animals the researcher uses traps for specimens and analyzes bone remains regurgitated by owls, barn owls and eagles.
Philosophy is considered the original discipline; able to explain the essential problems of all times, but those first thoughts are known today by translations and interpretations which combine different languages. This is why a group of teachers and researchers edited an anthology of philosophical texts in Greek, Latin and Spanish and advances in the production of a trilingual philosophical dictionary.
The Canadian Philosopher and Paulo Freire’s disciple Peter Mclaren gave a lecture in the School of Social Sciences about critical Pedagogy as knowledge generator outside the value structure. The specialist remarked that we have to generate the conditions so that people can learn that “teaching has to be relevant in order to be critical, without silencing the students’ voices”.
The presence of veterinary drug residues in products such as milk or meat is a risk for public health. In La Plata, Dr. in Veterinary Jorge Errecalde works on the study of bacteria resistant to antibiotics to improve their quality.
Men as main responsible for climate change, its causes and consequences, the lack of means from the nations to adapt and a new ecologic production model are some of the topics dealt with in this interview to InfoUniversidades by Ana Carolina Herrero, coordinator of the Urban Ecology BS of the UNGS. “We cannot mitigate climate change when the message is to consume, consume and consume” states the specialist.
“The sports success of a football club does not depend on its legal figure”, this is stated by a research from the UNS who carried out an economic, administrative and sports analysis in clubs from America and Europe. His objective was to know why in the 90’s it was said that the clubs which in Argentina were historically non-profit aims civil associations would function better if they were turned into public limited companies.
By the use of biodegradable solvents a group of scientists developed a technique to detect bromine based fire retardants, a toxic compound very common in the environment used in numerous products such as computer cases and carpets, among others. Given that these toxics are present in nature, analyses to measure their presence are common, but in order to do it other contaminating solvents are used. In the new technique these solvents are replaced by ecologic products.
In Río Cuarto a study carried out by researchers from the school of Exact Sciences contributed the first data about bacterial agents which reduce infections in corn cultivations caused by Fusarium verticillioides, a pathogen which affects the performance and quality of the cultivation and the content of fumonisin in grains, a fungus very harmful for human health. In this way the pathogen can be destroyed and the indiscriminate use of agrochemicals which affect the environment is avoided.
The experiences show a higher growth and a better use of balanced food. It is about a natural alternative which the researchers of the UNL study to compensate the intestinal problems which calves suffer when they are artificially raised. The specialists designed inoculants with beneficial bovine origin lactic-acid bacteria to prevent diseases.
The Center for Applied Zoology identified the neighborhoods of the provincial capital where there where found the highest number of scorpions. Since 1994, this research university environment analyzed more than 1,100 species coming from different areas of the mediterranean city and some other cities of the interior. Some years ago, the volume of venom extracted from the species collaborated with the production of anti-venom doses necessary for all the country.
12,000 years ago men left their first life traces in the Patagonia. In an inhospitable environment, guanacos and rheas were their food source; however, researchers are analyzing the possibility that the first inhabitants had incorporated other resources for their survival, such as fishes. With this aim, they identified more than 75 archeological sites were they analyze the characteristics of the elements found such as clay objects and spearheads.
Stella Maris Martínez, member of the Investigation’s Ethics Committee developed the main analysis axes in the current relation between ethics and scientific advances. She stated that science needs more external control and research must be carried out only in those cases where there are concrete conditions which show that the population where it is carried out will be favored.
The most important scientific experiment of all times, known as “God’s machine” generated a great expectation in the scientific world, controversies and a lot of curiosity by the international society. Although up to know there have only been made the first tests in this Large Hadron Collider, there exist great expectations about the possibility of discovering the Universe origin enigmas from the finding of the so called “God’s particle”.
Called by the Argentine Embassy in Chile, a team of researchers from the UNSJ collaborated with that country’s authorities in the evaluation of the damages caused by the 27th of February earthquake. The results constitute a series if things to consider for the Argentinean neighboring provinces located in seismic zones. The specialists remarked the importance of three key factors for seismic prevention: safe construction, preparation of the population for an emergency situation and a contingency plan.
In La Plata, a group of researchers discovered a procedure which prevents Rosiglitazone’s side effects, an effective medicine to treat diabetes as well as Metabolic Syndrome, which usually damages the bones. The scientists found a combination with another drug which stimulates the formation and recovering of the bones with optimal results. The project was recognized as one of the most important in Latin America.
Due to the technological transformations, the productive efficiency improvement and the costs’ reduction and to the strong push which meant the rising in domestic consumption and exports, during the last years the poultry area grew significantly at a national level, particularly in the province of Entre Ríos. A group of researchers of the UNER, after a detailed study which covers the last decade analyzed thoroughly this process and showed it in an investigation which describes the phenomenon at a province, national and global level.
Teachers from the National University of Villa María carry out an investigation about older adults’ experiences. Departing from the increase of longevity and the global population’s ageing, the concept of productivity in this stage in life is analyzed. The first results show their positive view, the wish to do what they want and their willpower to overcome adversity.
An institute located at Tandil’s mountains achieved revolutionary advances. Besides exploring how to produce energy through nuclear fusion, among other things, they model flooding, implement Internet devices for electric cooperatives and integrate computing sciences with agricultural production.
A group of researchers from the Laboratory of Paleovertebrates of the School of Natural Sciences of the UNPSJB discovered a dinosaur in a paleontological site near River Chico in Chubut. The specialists estimate that the remains found correspond to a period next to the dinosaurs’ extinction and despite a priori they suppose it is a big sauropodous, they do not discard the fact that it could be a new huge mammals’ genre.
It is what scientists from all over the world try to do. Among them there are physicists from the UBA which work on the protons’ accelerator LHC. The “Large Hadrons Collider” is a colossal machine which has a circumference of 27 km., buried at 100 m depth, under the French-Swiss frontier. Its construction took 20 years and cost 6,000 million dollars. After one year and a half of delay by damage, the accelerator produced the collision of protons’ haces which will achieve 40 million particles per second.
A research concluded that rises of the sea level during the Cenozoic -end of the Tertiary and beginning of the Quaternary- in the last 3 million years covered big part of the Amazon’s basin, except for the lands over 100 meters above the sea level. In these islands, also called speciation centers, it merged the fauna diversity that the Amazon rainforest actually has. This hypothesis is the most accepted by the international scientific community.
In Río Cuarto, Dr. José Natera together with a research group from the Department of Chemistry of the School of Exact Sciences designed new materials and devices to convert solar energy into electric energy. There are organic cells of very low cost which do not contaminate the environment, contrary to silicon cells which are used to make energy conversion.
In the city of Bahía Blanca a group of scientists developed an algorism that eliminates the difference between images taken with various cameras. In this way we obtain high quality panoramic images that permit to enjoy landscapes and touristic shows. Diverse touristic attractions in Argentina are already projected to the world through this new technology.
For the first time and thanks to GPS technology the modification of the position of a point in the map could be measured. An Argentinean specialist who participated in the experience explains the system and the reason of the displacements of up to 15 centimeters of cities such as Mendoza and Buenos Aires.
Researchers of the UNSL developed solar distillers. The thermal conversion of solar energy at small and large scale was the departure point of the project, which researchers consider the most viable alternative to make the resource massive. The developments will allow to produce hot water, hot air, distilled water, house heating and natural lighting saving 800 thousand liters of fresh water.
A research project of the IUNA relates socio-political realities of different countries of the world by means of an interactive interface which works with magnified reality patterns. Each country contains specific information which can be accessed to through sliding a cube on its surface. The project’s designers are planning to implement it in the teaching of music in primary school.
The UNLP manufactured three purifiers of water contaminated with arsenic to install them in rural schools of General Viamonte, Carlos Casares and Villarino. The purifier designed, developed and elaborated by a team of researchers of the University, is already functioning in an educative institution of Punta Indio and according to school authorities there were obtained “excellent practical and useful results, even to the teaching of our students”.
Faced with the sustained growth of the chicken sector in our country and the excellent perspectives for the next years, researchers of the UNER are studying technological processes to raise the industrial plants production’s speed, without loosing the quality of the chicken meat. The province of Entre Ríos is the main producer of chicken meat at a national level.
In the province of Cordoba there are around 200 species of nocturnal butterflies, mostly little ones. Although they are mostly widespread between southern spring and autumn, during last summer’s months the capital city had an unusual increase of these insects. Specialists of the UNC explain the causes of the phenomenon.
A data base which will store information about natural environments of the North of the country has been created. It will be based on researches and scientific studies about biodiversity in the zone of Argentine Chaco. The software contains a lot of information about nature and numerous tools which permit to access reports and draw maps of biodiversity variables.
Ovine shepherding lead to the reduction of the vegetation and the replacement of native species by xerophytic plants which have more chemical and physical defense to face sheep. This was demonstrated by a group of researchers from Chubut which put collars with GPS to sheep in order to know their route by satellite images, among other working methods. It was determined that the disappearance of soft grass and its replacement by hard grass as a consequence of the shepherding habits make the ecosystem dryer.
It is a research which points to the growth and angiogenic factors which produce the development of new blood vessels which cause the tumor’s growth. Although hypophysis tumors are usually benign and grow slowly, they cause considerable morbidity and mortality. With this study about angiogenic factors it is initiated a path towards the knowledge of mother tumor cells.
In the province of Santa Fe some teachers are working on the design, normalization and production of portable maps for blind people to be able to get around in a safe and independent way. The interdisciplinary working group wants to create reliable and functional maps that fulfill the international technical cartographic requirements. There is a plan to create portable maps of the areas surrounding schools, downtown and strategic places, such as Universities.
A group of researchers developed and patented computing software for the auto evaluation of job positions in order to discover problems in the employees’ positions and to recommend preventive actions. The three basic indicators considered to develop the software were the characteristics of the chairs, desks and possible accessories.
It is a plague “imported” from the Far East and it threatens to complicate the purification process of the plants that provide water to the main urban centers of the province of Buenos Aires. A team of specialists advises public organisms, governments and private enterprises and controls this mussel specie that multiplies geometrically in dams and constructions that treat the water consumed by the population.
In November of 2008 it was inaugurated in Mendoza the cosmic ray’s observatory Pierre Auger, the biggest astrophysics Project in the world. In an interview to InfoUniversidades, the physicist Javier Tiffenberg, member of one of the research teams that works on the endeavor gives details about this initiative and explains what are these particles that come from outer space and permanently bomb the planet and why he they chose Argentina to carry out the project.
A work team of the School of Social Sciences is carrying out an investigation about identities and Argentinean imaginaries facing the Bicentenary. In a way which goes from Sarmiento, going through the neoliberal concepts of the ‘90s, until the country conflict, among others, the work approaches the process of identities’’ construction in a critical way. They consider “necessary” the inclusion of marginal sectors in a cultural and identity context at a national level.
Researchers registered more than 1,800 species and the number was recognized by the National Secretariat of Environment and Sustained Development. The objective is to help planning conservation actions and promoting the interest in their protection. Among other endangered species, “Pinus Bungeana”, a typical tree from the province of Buenos Aires, was qualified as grade 5 and the “Prosopis Caldenia”, another known specie was considered vulnerable with a grade 2 qualification.
In Rosario, researchers of the School of Biochemical and Pharmacy Sciences are working on the creation of reactive strips that permits to diagnose early pregnancy in cows. Detection by this method aims at enhancing the production of milk and meat from a simple, cheap and practical procedure that can be made by any person without previous training and in the country.
The overpopulation of kelp gulls made them include in their diet southern right whales which reproduce in San José Gulf and in New Gulf in Valdes Peninsula. The southern right whale is the only specie attacked by these gulls which hurt its back and produce deep ulcerations that many times are infected and generate great risks.
“Tobacco and agrotoxics. A study about producers in Misiones”, that is the title of the book published by the UNaM. It is about studies th
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