Space Chile  CHILE 15/04/2020

Event Horizon Telescope Images of a Black-Hole Powered Jet

The collaboration has extracted new information from the EHT data on the distant quasar 3C 279

Something is Lurking in the Heart of Quasar 3C 279. One year ago, the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) Collaboration published the first image of a black hole in the nearby radio galaxy M 87. Now the collaboration has extracted new information from the EHT data on the distant quasar 3C 279: they observed the finest detail ever seen in a jet produced by a supermassive black hole. New analyses, led by Jae-Young Kim from the Max Planck Institute for Radio Astronomy in Bonn, enabled the collaboration to trace the jet back to its launch point, close to where violently variable radiation from across the electromagnetic spectrum arises.

 
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Technology Spain  MADRID 14/04/2020

Research into a new high-precision radiology system for the coronavirus

Radiology constitutes a key element in the management of patients suffering from COVID-19

Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) is participating in a research project together with the Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón (HGUGM), the Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria San Carlos and the company Sedecal Molecular Imaging (SMI), project coordinator, to develop a new high-precision radiology system for coronavirus pulmonary involvement.

 
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Nutrition Bolivia  BOLIVIA 09/04/2020

Amazonian crops domesticated 10,000 years ago

Earliest humans in the Amazon created thousands of 'forest islands' as they tamed wild plants

The earliest human inhabitants of the Amazon created thousands of artificial forest islands as they tamed wild plants to grow food, a new study shows. The discovery of the mounds is the latest evidence to show the extensive impact people had on the area. From their arrival 10,000 years ago they transformed the landscape when they began cultivating manioc and squash.

 
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Environment Brazil  BRASIL 09/04/2020

New fossil from Brazil hints at the origins of the mysterious tanystropheid reptiles

New species named after Tolkien's Aragorn hints at early southern evolution for these reptiles

A new species of Triassic reptile from Brazil is a close cousin of a mysterious group called tanystropheids, according to a study published April 8, 2020 in the open-access journal PLOS ONE by Tiane De-Oliviera of the Federal University of Santa Maria, Brazil and colleagues.

 
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Environment Brazil  BRASIL 08/04/2020

How does habitat fragmentation affect Amazonian birds?

Four decades of research provide some answers

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Health Mexico  MÉXICO 07/04/2020

Indigenous American ancestry may be associated with HER2-positive breast cancer

According to a study published in 'Cancer Research'

An increased proportion of Indigenous American (IA) ancestry was associated with a greater incidence of HER2-positive breast cancer, according to a study published in Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

 
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Technology Panama  PANAMÁ 06/04/2020

A next-generation sensor network for tracking small animals

A newly developed wireless biologging network could close an important gap in biologging: the fully automated tracking and proximity-sensing of small animals

A newly developed wireless biologging network (WBN) enables high-resolution tracking of small animals, according to a study published April 2 in the open-access journal PLOS Biology by Simon Ripperger of the Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, and colleagues. As noted by the authors, WBNs could close an important gap in biologging: the fully automated tracking and proximity-sensing of small animals, even in closed habitats, at high spatial and temporal resolution.

 
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Health Spain  ESPAÑA 03/04/2020

Researchers develop a computer simulator that recreates the spread of COVID-19 in Europe

Based on parameters such as climate, social distancing policies and transportation

A team of Spanish researchers have designed and validated a simulator to enable study of the evolution of the COVID-19 illness in Spain and in all Europe, based on parameters such as climate, social distancing policies and transportation. This research work has been carried out by scientists and technologists from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the Centro Nacional de Epidemiología (CNE) and the Consorcio Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red (CIBER) from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), in conjunction with the Barcelona Supercomputing Center - Centro Nacional de Supercomputación (BSC-CNS).

 
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Technology Spain  ESPAÑA 03/04/2020

An international team counts more than two million current symptomatic cases of Covid-19 in Spain

Researcher Antonio Fernández Anta has launched a study to estimate the actual incidence of the pandemic in eleven countries

In order to properly manage the Covid-19 pandemic, governments and the scientists who advise them need the most accurate data possible on the situation. The problem is that such data do not exist. The only data they have are those provided by laboratory tests. In other words, governments know how many people have tested positive, how many are in hospitals and how many are being treated over the phone. But by now it is more than evident that these are not the real data of the pandemic. Scientists around the world are now devising formulas to estimate figures that are more realistic. An international team led by researcher Antonio Fernández Anta of the IMDEA Networks institute is one of them.

 
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Social Sciences Spain  MADRID 30/03/2020

A research looks at the effects of the "based on true events" formula

This formula is used in audiovisual fiction, among other things, to short-circuit the critical and interpretative distance with the story being told, to generate a false sense of discursive transparency

The formula "based on true events" and similar ones are used in audiovisual fiction, among other things, to short-circuit the critical and interpretative distance with the story being told, to generate a false sense of discursive transparency and to create simulations of factuality in the rhetorical and stereotyped space of an audiovisual discourse that hides its political dimension by appealing to "facts". These are the conclusions of a study carried out by a researcher from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) that analyses the political dimension of this kind of expression used massively in TV series and fiction films.

 
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Environment Perú  PERú 27/03/2020

Coral tells own tale about El Niño's past

Rice, Georgia Tech study in Science reveals Pacific temperatures over a millennium

There is no longer a need to guess what ocean temperatures were like in the remote tropical Pacific hundreds of years ago. The ancient coral that lived there know all. A study in Science led by Rice University and Georgia Tech researchers parses the record archived by ancient tropical Pacific coral over the past millennium. That record could help scientists refine their models of how changing conditions in the Pacific, particularly from volcanic eruptions, influence the occurrence of El Niño events, which are major drivers of global climate.

 
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Health Spain  MADRID 25/03/2020

The effectiveness of social distancing strategies in the face of an epidemic has been analysed

An international study based on census and real-world mobility flow

The complete isolation of the population in the face of an epidemic such as COVID-19 is a strategy that requires subsequently adopting active measures in order to maximise its effectiveness, such as conducting large scale diagnostic tests, isolating people with symptoms and identifying those with whom they have had contact. This is one of the main conclusions from a study conducted by a team of researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M), the University of Zaragoza, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the ISI Foundation in Italy.

 
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Environment Colombia  COLOMBIA 23/03/2020

Pablo Escobar's hippos may help counteract a legacy of extinctions

Study from international team of researchers including UMass Amherst biologist John Rowan shows introduced species can restore a lost world

When cocaine kingpin Pablo Escobar was shot dead in 1993, the four hippos he brought to his private zoo in Colombia were left behind in a pond on his ranch. Since then, their numbers have grown to an estimated 80-100, and the giant herbivores have made their way into the country's rivers. Scientists and the public alike have viewed Escobar's hippos as invasive pests that by no rights should run wild on the South American continent.

 
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Technology Spain  MADRID 19/03/2020

Julien Gamba, awarded with the 2020 Norton LifeLock/Symantec Fellowship

This is one of the most selective world Fellowships in the area of cybersecurity

Julien Gamba, predoctoral researcher at IMDEA Networks Institute, has been awarded with one of the 2020 NortonLifeLock Research Group Graduate Fellowship. This is one of the most selective world Fellowships in the area of cybersecurity. As in previous editions (the first one was in 2007), there have been three winning candidates, including Gamba. Each of them will be bestowed with a prize which consists of 20,000 US dollars.

 
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Environment Argentina  ARGENTINA 11/03/2020

Remote South American kelp forests surveyed for first time since 1973

Kelp forest ecosystems at Tierra del Fuego remain relatively unchanged over 45 years

In the kelp forests of Tierra del Fuego, at the southernmost tip of South America, the relative abundance of kelp, sea urchins, and sea stars has not changed significantly since 1973. Alan Friedlander of the National Geographic Society's Pristine Seas project and colleagues present these findings in the open-access journal PLOS ONE on March 11, 2020.

 
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Environment Brazil  BRASIL 05/03/2020

Tropical forests' carbon sink is already rapidly weakening

The ability of the world's tropical forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere is decreasing

The ability of the world's tropical forests to remove carbon from the atmosphere is decreasing, according to a study tracking 300,000 trees over 30 years, published today in Nature. The global scientific collaboration, led by the University of Leeds, reveals that a feared switch of the world's undisturbed tropical forests from a carbon sink to a carbon source has begun.

 
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Technology Argentina  ARGENTINA 04/03/2020

New lithium batteries from used cell phones

A research project at the University of Cordoba (Spain) and San Luis University (Argentina) was able to manufacture new lithium batteries from used cell phones, devices with a low recycling rate

Lithium-ion batteries are used around the world and though over the last few years they have had some competition, such as sodium and magnesium, they continue to be indispensable due to their high density and capacity. The issue is this: this metal has major availability and concentration problems. Almost 85% of its reserves are located in what is known as the Lithium Triangle, a geographical area found on the borders of Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. In addition, it seems that demand will rocket over the next few decades because of the implementation of electric vehicles. Each car equals about 7.000 cell phone batteries, so reusing their different components has become an issue of utmost importance.

 
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Environment Panama  PANAMÁ 25/02/2020

Microplastics are new homes for microbes in the Caribbean

Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) looked at how marine microbial communities colonize microplastics in Panama

With 5 trillion pieces of plastic in the oceans, the dynamics of marine environments are shifting in ways that are yet to be discovered. Over time discarded plastics, such as sandwich bags and flip-flops, have degraded into small particles, called microplastics, which are less than 5 mm long. Kassandra Dudek, a former Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) fellow and doctoral student at Arizona State University, looked at how marine microbial communities colonize microplastics in Panama.

 
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Social Sciences Mexico  MÉXICO 25/02/2020

Modern technology reveals old secrets about the great, white Maya road

Using lidar technology to peer through thick vegetation, researchers are learning more about the longest road from ancient Maya civilization

Did a powerful queen of Cobá, one of the greatest cities of the ancient Maya world, build the longest Maya road to invade a smaller, isolated neighbor and gain a foothold against the emerging Chichén Itzá empire? The question has long intrigued Traci Ardren, archaeologist and University of Miami professor of anthropology. Now, she and fellow scholars may be a step closer to an answer, after conducting the first lidar study of the 100-kilometer stone highway that connected the ancient cities of Cobá and Yaxuná on the Yucatan Peninsula 13 centuries ago.

 
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Social Sciences Spain  MADRID 24/02/2020

A study of economic compensation for victims of sexual violence in Europe

FAIRCOM project lead by UC3M

A study carried out by researchers from the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (UC3M) analyses the efficiency of the Spanish system of economically compensating the victims of sexual violence. This work has been undertaken within the framework of FAIRCOM, a European project coordinated by the UC3M.

 
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