https://medicalxpress.com/ en-us provides the latest news from Asociacion RUVID Researchers at the Institute for Advanced Materials at the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló have created a method for synthesizing organic-inorganic tin halide perovskites and generating thin films or coatings from them, which, when deposited on substrates, have optoelectronic properties that are useful for the creation of devices such as perovskite-based LEDs (PeLEDs). https://phys.org/news/2023-12-method-production-organicinorganic-tin-halide.html Mon, 11 Dec 2023 16:01:03 EST news621532861 Carbon dioxide is the main contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, which are responsible for global warming and climate change. Direct capture of CO2 in the air is one of the solutions proposed to reduce its concentration in the atmosphere, but combining this process with its recovery and transformation into value-added products is highly complex and requires a finely balanced interaction between this element and the adsorbents that allow its capture and conversion into value-added products. https://phys.org/news/2023-12-captured-greenhouse-gases-cyclic-carbonates.html Mon, 11 Dec 2023 10:43:03 EST news621513781 The lack of knowledge about the molecular mechanisms that make biocatalysis possible is an obstacle to developing biotechnological processes that allow the recycling of plastics. A research project led by a team from the Universitat Jaume I has made it possible to degrade widely used PET plastics through a natural enzyme, CALB, by modifying the pH of the medium. This opens up a new way to recycle PET, which is present, for example, in containers, bottles or textiles of all kinds, and generates harmless compounds that are useful in subsequent synthesis processes. https://phys.org/news/2023-11-team-biotechnological-degrade-plastics.html Mon, 06 Nov 2023 11:23:42 EST news618492220 The challenges of motherhood often lead women to leave academia after their first child. In fact, studies in the United States suggest that about 50% of women scientists in the U.S. leave science after motherhood. To address this problem, a group of Spanish women scientists, who are themselves mothers, propose 10 urgent measures that academic institutions should adapt in order to create a friendlier environment to prevent women from leaving academia after motherhood. https://phys.org/news/2023-09-scientists-women-abandoning-academic-careers.html Tue, 05 Sep 2023 15:49:07 EDT news613147745 Central and systemic inflammation is increasingly recognized by the international scientific community as a common denominator for neurological and psychiatric disorders. This characteristic is shared by conditions such as the metabolic syndrome that induces insulin resistance, Alzheimer's disease (AD), Parkinson's disease or psychiatric disorders such as depression or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Yet, the reasons why a neuroinflammatory process leads to specific psychiatric or neurological symptoms remain unknown. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-07-neuroinflammation-underlying-neurological-psychiatric-disorders.html Wed, 19 Jul 2023 11:51:57 EDT news608986314 Researchers from the Holography and Optical Processing Group (GHPO) have succeeded in printing tunable materials for the first time using high-precision laser techniques. This development has been published in the journal Optics Express and demonstrates that it is possible to print a polymer doped with liquid crystal, which opens the door to using this fast, high-precision and environmentally friendly technique in the manufacture of tunable devices. https://phys.org/news/2023-06-first-ever-materials-laser-techniques-voltage.html Wed, 14 Jun 2023 15:49:32 EDT news605976562 The University of Alicante Applied Biochemistry research group⁠—in collaboration with researchers from the Alicante University Hospital Dr. Balmis (HGUDB) and the Alicante Health and Biomedical Research Institute (ISABIAL)⁠—has identified the anti-cancer capacity of a pigment present in the Santa Pola salt flats. This pigment is produced by certain microorganisms, the "halophilic archaea," in order to protect themselves from the sun, and its anti-tumor capacity has been tested in several types of breast cancer. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-pigment-santa-pola-salt-flats.html Thu, 18 May 2023 09:45:40 EDT news603621936 A study published in the journal Bird Conservation International warns of a decline of more than 66% in the population of the Dupont's lark (Chersophilus duponti) after the storm Filomena. This meteorological phenomenon was the biggest snowstorm to hit Spain in the last 50 years and was preceded by a week of extreme cold that left temperatures of between -5ºC and -15ºC in the affected areas and records below -33ºC in some localities. The Dupont's lark has recently been listed as an endangered species in Spain. https://phys.org/news/2023-05-endangered-dupont-lark-population-declined.html Mon, 08 May 2023 15:07:04 EDT news602777222 An international study shows that soil in urban green spaces and natural areas share similar levels of multiple contaminants such as metals, pesticides, microplastics and antibiotic resistance genes around the world. Soil contamination is one of the main threats to the health and sustainability of ecosystems. https://phys.org/news/2023-04-soil-pollution-urban-green-spaces.html Wed, 05 Apr 2023 09:16:04 EDT news599904961 Technological evolution poses challenges in all sectors, which is why, in the case of the educational community, it is not surprising that more and more studies are interested in the integration of STEM disciplines (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) for the acquisition of skills in the classroom. Precisely, one of the most critical challenges in the education sector is the integration of educational robotics. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-intervention-robotics-early-childhood-lexical.html Fri, 31 Mar 2023 13:38:03 EDT news599488681 The University of Alicante Waste, Energy, Environment and Nanotechnology (REMAN) research group has developed a process for obtaining a water-soluble plastic material based on potato starch, which will soon be introduced on the market through the UA technology-Based Company Solublion, linked to the Alicante Science Park. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-patent-water-soluble-plastic-material-based.html Mon, 13 Mar 2023 13:30:02 EDT news597933001 The Laboratory of Molecular Nanotechnology (NANOMOL) of the University of Alicante (UA) has developed a new family of materials as a state-of-the-art opportunity for the chemical industry, renewables, and the reduction of pollutants. The finding, published in the journal Nature Communications, opens up numerous possibilities for sectors such as energy and pharmaceuticals. https://phys.org/news/2023-03-tunable-hybrid-zeolites-partial-interconversion.html Thu, 09 Mar 2023 10:54:21 EST news597581658 The University of Alicante (UA) Robotics and Three-Dimensional Vision Group (RoViT) has designed the first application capable of recognizing and interpreting the Spanish sign language alphabet (known by the acronym LSE) in real time. https://techxplore.com/news/2023-02-application-capable-spanish-language-alphabet.html Thu, 16 Feb 2023 15:25:12 EST news595783509 One out of every four women suffered obstetric violence in Spain between March 2020 and April 2021, according to the conclusions of a study on breastfeeding carried out on more than six thousand Spanish patients by the Nursing Department of the Universitat Jaume I of Castelló in collaboration with the Obstetrics Department of the Hospital do Salnés in Vilagarcía de Arousa, Pontevedra, although the research team believe the figure could be higher. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-02-women-obstetric-violence-spain-pandemic.html Tue, 07 Feb 2023 16:30:38 EST news595009835 Global warming is an increasingly worrying problem. Although the greenhouse effect is a necessary process to maintain living conditions on Earth, our current societies are increasing the emission of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere and increasing its temperature by retaining more heat than necessary. Nature is trying to counteract this situation: plants are able to capture energy from sunlight and convert CO2 into chemical energy and organic matter. https://phys.org/news/2023-01-catalyst-carbon-dioxide-added-value-chemical.html Tue, 31 Jan 2023 17:00:25 EST news594406822 Javier Atalah and Pablo Sánchez have carried out a study on eating habits in Spain in relation to fish and bivalves https://phys.org/news/2022-12-awareness-consumption-environmentally-friendly-aquaculture.html Thu, 22 Dec 2022 13:30:03 EST news590938201 Researchers from the Bioengineering and Biomaterials Laboratory of Universidad Católica de Valencia (UCV) have developed a new porous material capable of regenerating bones and preventing infections at the same time. Tailor-made for each case using 3D printing, this biotechnological creation contains a bioactive alginate coating that manages to induce bone regeneration and destroys the bacteria that sometimes prevent bone formation from being completed. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-12-biomaterial-capable-regenerating-bones-infections.html Mon, 12 Dec 2022 09:46:31 EST news590060789 The University of Alicante Quantum Chemistry group has predicted and published the existence of a new natural phenomenon in matter-radiation interaction, which has recently been experimentally confirmed. This finding is the subject of the review that the group's researcher Juan Carlos Sancho García has submitted to the journal Nature, having been invited to publish in its "News & Views" section. https://phys.org/news/2022-10-team-theory-energy-efficiency-electronic.html Thu, 13 Oct 2022 16:23:57 EDT news584897034 University of Alicante Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health María Teresa Ruiz Cantero has prepared a study based on COVID-19 and gender biases in health care and the inequalities revealing sex differences, recently presented as part of the 2022 Gender and Health Report of the Spanish Ministry of Health, through the Women's Health Observatory (OSM is its acronym in Spanish). https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-06-women-covid-pandemic.html Thu, 16 Jun 2022 09:19:36 EDT news574589974 Retinitis pigmentosa is a degenerative disease affecting the photoreceptor cells in the retina, known as cones and rods. Of genetic origin, this disease first affects vision in low light conditions, and progressively peripheral vision and the central field of vision until total sight loss occurs, as the photoreceptor cells gradually die. Noting recent research into the role of hormones, particularly progesterone, in preventing cell death due to oxidative stress, the CEU UCH Drug Delivery Systems (DDS) research group has successfully developed and tested a range of methods of delivery of this hormone into the eye to slow the degenerative process characteristic of retinitis pigmentosa. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-05-progesterone-based-treatment-retinitis-pigmentosa.html Tue, 31 May 2022 10:58:54 EDT news573213532 Stars tend to form in clusters or groups of between ten and several thousand stars that share the same age and composition, although in different evolutionary phases. Among the clusters in the Milky Way, the very young Westerlund 1 (Wd 1) cluster stands out in its inner regions. With an age of less than ten million years—for comparison, the sun is five billion years old—it is considered the most massive cluster in our galaxy. Its population is an ideal laboratory for studying massive stars, yet hidden behind a dusty region that makes it difficult to study. Now, a team of scientists has broken through this "darkness" to estimate the cluster's distance with high precision, and analyze the surrounding stellar population. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-westerlund-cluster-giant-stellar-nursery.html Wed, 25 May 2022 09:32:46 EDT news572689962 A study carried out in the area around the Pego-Oliva Marshland Natural Park, between Valencia and Alicante, reveals how the rise in sea level impacted the human groups that inhabited this area of the Mediterranean coast during the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-impact-sea-human-groups-mesolithic.html Thu, 19 May 2022 11:12:40 EDT news572177556 Listeriosis is a zoonotic disease of food origin that can cause, both in the human species and in animals, symptoms of gastroenteritis, meningitis, bacteremia and miscarriages. The pathogen that causes this infection is the Listeria bacteria. Juan José Quereda, researcher with a Ramón y Cajal contract and professor at the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH), where he leads the research group on Intracellular Pathogens, has been conducting research in this field since 2011. https://phys.org/news/2022-05-bacteria-listeriosis.html Mon, 02 May 2022 09:27:57 EDT news570702474 Researchers from the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH), the CSIC Institute of Biomedicine and the IIS-La Fe Health Research Institute, who belong to the DeCo MICOF-CEU Department for the study of cognitive impairment, have developed a new scale of drugs with anticholinergic activity that affects cognitive impairment. This new scale updates and increases to 217 the drugs included in previous scales. Opioid analgesics, benzodiazepines or antidepressants, among other drugs, have been classified according to their high, medium or low anticholinergic action. In this way, practitioners can identify in a personalized way the anticholinergic load that a polymedicated patient accumulates in their treatments for different pathologies, replacing the drugs with a higher load with safer ones. The new scale would also make it possible to avoid prescribing these drugs to people with some type of already diagnosed dementia. This research is the cover of the latest issue of the Journal of Personalized Medicine, published in February. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-scale-drugs-anticholinergic-effects-cognitive.html Wed, 27 Apr 2022 12:54:57 EDT news570282894 Researchers at the CEU Cardenal Herrera University (CEU UCH) in Valencia, the Institute of Biomedicine of Valencia (CSIC) and the Autonomous University of Barcelona have detected the first case of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus in a European river otter in Spain. It is a specimen of Eurasian river otter (Lutra lutra), whose remains were found near a reservoir in the Valencian Community. The finding, which is the first case detected of the virus in this species in the country, and the first case in the world in this wild species, has just been accepted in the international scientific journal Frontiers in Veterinary Science. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-world-wild-river-otter-coronavirus.html Wed, 13 Apr 2022 10:24:20 EDT news569064258 A group of researchers from the University of Alicante Department of Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition and Food Sciences has been working, since the end of 2021, on a project on development of natural bioaromas to increase the shelf life of fresh food and reduce food waste. The goal is to achieve new sustainable plastic materials of natural origin that, obtained from pineapple waste, both from the core and the rind, have synergistic natural active systems with dual action. https://phys.org/news/2022-04-bioactive-sustainable-plastic-material-reusing.html Mon, 11 Apr 2022 14:07:22 EDT news568904839 A research team led by Professor Iván Mora Seró from the Institute of Advanced Materials (INAM) of the Universitat Jaume I of Castelló has managed to improve the efficiency and durability of tin perovskite solar cells. Specifically, they have exceeded 1,300 hours of operational stability, the highest known to date, thanks to the incorporation of additives in the preparation of the devices. The study was published this week in the sustainable energy journal Joule. https://techxplore.com/news/2022-03-tin-perovskite-solar-cells-hours.html Fri, 18 Mar 2022 06:59:51 EDT news566805585 The University of Alicante Molecular Nanotechnology Lab (NANOMOL) has developed a new family of catalysts with tailor-made properties that can be manufactured with the ideal features for every chemical process. Not only have these catalysts shown considerable improvements in the production of fuels and pharmaceutical intermediates, but their preparation is simpler and more sustainable than current alternatives. Moreover, their characteristics can be modified with great precision to suit the needs of each process. https://phys.org/news/2022-03-family-catalysts-significantly-chemical.html Tue, 15 Mar 2022 10:27:30 EDT news566558848 Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is an adverse reaction to ingesting a drug, which can appear both in developmental stages, in their clinical use and even after being approved as a drug. It is the main cause of acute liver failure in Europe and the United States, and its incidence has increased as a result of the polypharmacy that goes hand in hand with the increased lifespan of the population, and from the prolonged use of parapharmacy or herbal products. https://medicalxpress.com/news/2021-12-clearer-visual-pattern-drug-induced-liver.html Thu, 30 Dec 2021 08:27:57 EST news560075270 The publishing of several articles that reveal the vulnerability of farmed fish to the anisakis parasite has prompted the research group in Marine Zoology of the University of Valencia to experimentally assess the infective susceptibility of fish. The results from the ANITEST project, which just ended, show that in the improbable case that the parasite reaches farms, fish are not very susceptible to being infected. https://phys.org/news/2021-12-natural-antiparasitic-hinder-anisakis-infection.html Thu, 30 Dec 2021 08:26:47 EST news560075202