Environment Panama  PANAMÁ 21/11/2019

Butterflies take different paths to arrive at the same color pattern

Is evolution predictable? Unrelated butterflies may have the same wing patterns. These patterns warn off predators and help suitors find the right mate

An international team of scientists working with Heliconius butterflies at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama was faced with a mystery: How do pairs of unrelated butterflies from Peru to Costa Rica evolve nearly the same wing-color patterns over and over again? The answer, published in Current Biology, forever changes the way evolution is understood.

 
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Technology Spain  MADRID 18/11/2019

Measuring online behavioural advertising: one more step to protect users

Dr. Nikolaos Laoutaris has developed two methods to detect ad targeting

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Environment Panama  PANAMÁ 15/11/2019

Vampire bats form friendship-like social bonds

Vampire bat bonding persists from the lab to the wild

Friendships are a key source of human happiness, health and well-being. Increasing evidence shows that similar relationships are important in many other animal species, including the blood-feeding vampire bat. According to a new study in Current Biology by researchers at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), vampire bats form friendship-like social bonds that persist across a dramatic shift from the lab to the wild.

 
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Space Chile  ATACAMA 15/11/2019

Two cosmic peacocks show violent history of the Magellanic Clouds

A team of astronomers found several massive baby stars in the complex filamentary clouds, which agrees well with computer simulations of giant collisions of gas clouds

Two peacock-shaped gas clouds were revealed in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC) by observations with the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA). A team of astronomers found several massive baby stars in the complex filamentary clouds, which agrees well with computer simulations of giant collisions of gas clouds. The researchers interpret this to mean that the filaments and young stars are telltale evidence of violent interactions between the LMC and the Small Magellanic Cloud (SMC) 200 million years ago.

 
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Environment Brazil  BRASIL 12/11/2019

Study measures impact of agriculture on diet of wild mammals

In an article published in 'PNAS', Brazilian researchers stress the need for agricultural management that favors the maintenance of wildlife

Margays (Leopardus wiedii), small wild cats living in forest areas fragmented by agriculture near Campinas and Botucatu in São Paulo State, Brazil, prey on animals inhabiting nearby sugarcane plantations, such as birds and small rodents.

 
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Social Sciences Spain  MADRID 11/11/2019

RIVERS analyses the relationship between water and the human rights of indigenous people

ERC Grant H2020 Research project of the UC3M

To produce innovative knowledge of human rights in relation to the different indigenous ways of conceiving water. This is the objective of RIVERS, a Starting Grant scientific project by the European Research Council (ERC) that has been presented today at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) which intends to analyse the following issue: To what extent can the international law of human rights tackle the plurilegal realities of water?

 
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Environment Panama  PANAMÁ 05/11/2019

Are bats spying on their prey in the canopy?

Eavesdropping behavior in the canopy may answer questions about how acoustic interplay among animals has developed over millions of years in the forest

It’s nearly dusk when Amanda Savage starts hiking up a trail in the forest on Barro Colorado Island (BCI). She is a bat biologist and short-term fellow in Rachel Page’s Lab at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), curious about the interactions between bats and their prey in the canopy. In particular, she wants to understand how bats take advantage of the sexual sounds their potential prey emit at different heights.

 
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Technology Spain  MADRID 04/11/2019

Joerg Widmer named Distinguished Member by the ACM

Dr. Joerg Widmer, Research Professor and Research Director of IMDEA Networks, has received this appointment for his outstanding scientific contributions to the field of computing

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Technology Spain  MADRID 29/10/2019

A new type of acoustic insulation enables sound to be concentrated in corners

This line of research could have applications in industrial ultrasound technologies

A group of researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), in collaboration with Chinese scientists from the University of Nanjing (NJU), have designed a new type of acoustic insulation that enables sound waves to be concentrated in corners. This line of research could have applications in industrial ultrasound technologies or in the improvement of certain medical diagnostic tests such as ultrasound.

 
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Technology Spain  MADRID 18/10/2019

Ralf Steinmetz new member of the Academy of Europaea

This appointment recognizes Steinmetz’s role as one of the world leaders in the research and development of adaptive seamless multimedia communications

Professor Dr. Ralf Steinmetz, President of IMDEA Networks’ Board of Trustees and Full Professor at the Multimedia Communications Lab (KOM) of the Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), has been appointed member of the prestigious Academy of Europe. This appointment recognizes Steinmetz’s role as one of the world leaders in the research and development of adaptive seamless multimedia communications.

 
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Social Sciences Brazil  BRASIL 17/10/2019

Brazilian capuchin monkeys stone use may show similarities with earlier hominin activities

An international team investigate primates looking for clues about hominin technological development and to learn more about the use of pounding stones by Homo antecessor

Fossils and stone tools are key findings unearthed at any archaeological site focused on human evolution studies, however, behavior does not fossilize, and it is not possible to observe hominins using their tools. Thus, primatology plays an important role, as the study of modern primates can help us to understand the behavior of the earliest human populations. In this context, an international research team is focused on the analysis of capuchin monkeys from Serra da Capivara, in Brazil. The main goal is to investigate the use-wear marks developed on the stone tools used by these monkeys and build a theoretical model that could help to understand the emergence of hominin behavior.

 
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Space Chile  CHILE 17/10/2019

ALMA observes counter-intuitive flows around black hole

The discovery could explain why supermassive black holes grew so rapidly in the early Universe

At the center of a galaxy called NGC 1068, a supermassive black hole hides within a thick doughnut-shaped cloud of dust and gas. When astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to study this cloud in more detail, they made an unexpected discovery that could explain why supermassive black holes grew so rapidly in the early Universe.

 
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Technology Spain  MADRID 16/10/2019

Europe prepares four 5G pilots in industrial applications

A European research project coordinated by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), named 5Growth, will implant 5G technology in four working environments on the continent

The 5G technology that will be implanted in the framework of this project will enable communications to run at ten times the speed of the current 4G network, and also decreases the latency (the delay in the propagation of information packages within a network) and increases communication reliability. All this allows applications, such as the autonomous car, augmented reality or the connection of numerous devices to the Internet a reality, into what is called the Internet of Things, explains the lead researcher on the project, Carlos J. Bernardos from the UC3M’s department of Telematic Engineering.

 
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Health Brazil  BRASIL 07/10/2019

Compounds extracted from Cerrado plant combat fungus that causes candidiasis

Four substances isolated from Mimosa caesalpiniifolia were found to be more effective against thrush and candida than was fluconazole, the drug usually prescribed to treat the disease. Brazilian researchers are developing an ointment

Fungi of the genus Candida cause thrush and candidiasis, a fairly common disease in humans. It can be lethal to individuals with low immunity, especially when they are hospitalized. Although the drug most widely used to combat the disease is effective in most cases, some varieties of the fungus are drug-resistant.

 
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Nutrition Spain  BARCELONA 01/10/2019

Redefining honey: a new process for the pretreatment of raw honey that does not affect quality or nutrients

Sonicat-Systems, a company located near Barcelona, has been selected from a pool of thousands of technology start-ups to receive 1.4 million euros of funding from the European Commission

The Catalan company has been working for over 8 years to develop breakthrough technology that let’s honey producers offer a higher quality product to consumers.

 
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Environment El Salvador  EL SALVADOR 27/09/2019

Restoring land in Latin America shows big potential for climate mitigation

First inventory of restoration projects across Latin America and the Caribbean shows where the potential lies for climate mitigation and provides a compass towards reaching the Bonn Challenge

Land restoration in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is picking up pace, but scaling up projects is critical if the region wants to meet its pledges under the Bonn Challenge, which aims to restore 350 million hectares of degraded and deforested land worldwide by 2030. A new study led by the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) and Wageningen University supplies a first map of restoration projects in Latin America and shows their potential to mitigate climate change through restoring forest cover.

 
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Environment Panama  PANAMÁ 20/09/2019

Invaders are lunch for local marine species

Native predators could contribute to controlling the abundance and expansion of invasive species

The climate is changing, and with it, ocean temperatures. On the other hand, global maritime traffic is increasing, provoking marine species to move towards new areas. Panama, in particular, is at greater risk. The heavy ship traffic could be transporting plants, animals or even parasites, from one ocean to another involuntarily. These ‘invasions’ could negatively affect the local fauna or human health, so Luis De Gracia has been interested in understanding them.

 
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Health Spain  MADRID 11/09/2019

Olfactory and auditory stimuli change the perception of our body

New knowledge in the field of cognitive neuroscience and human-computer interaction

A pioneering investigation developed by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) alongside the University of Sussex and University College London, shows that olfactory stimuli combined with auditory stimuli can change our perception of our body. These results provide new knowledge in the field of cognitive neuroscience and human-computer interaction.

 
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Social Sciences Panama  PANAMÁ 12/08/2019

White-tailed deer were predominant in pre-Columbian Panama feasts

An analysis of deer remains in refuse piles at the Sitio Sierra archaeological site revealed signs of “feasting behavior” associated with this animal

In pre-Columbian times, the white-tailed deer was among the most abundant and frequently consumed mammals in Panama. It was also an icon, represented on thousands of clay vessels. Through an analysis of deer remains in refuse piles at the Sitio Sierra archaeological site, researchers from the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) discovered signs of “feasting behavior” associated with this animal.

 
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Space Chile  ATACAMA 08/08/2019

ALMA identified dark ancestors of massive elliptical galaxies

The new results throw into question our understanding of the early Universe

Astronomers used the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) to identify 39 faint galaxies that are not seen with the Hubble Space Telescope’s most in-depth view of the Universe, 10 billion light-years away. They are ten times more numerous than similarly massive but optically–bright galaxies detected with Hubble. The research team assumes that these faint galaxies precede massive elliptical galaxies in the present Universe. However, no significant theories for the evolution of the Universe have predicted such an abundant population of star-forming, dark, massive galaxies. The new ALMA results throw into question our understanding of the early Universe. These results appear in the latest issue of the journal Nature.

 
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