In the 21th Century tuberculosis is still a very important cause of many deaths every year. There are vaccines, but their efficacy is not very high. UAB researchers have collaborated in a research for improving the treatment based in the study of Toll-like receptors. The trials with animal models have demonstrated a role for Toll-like receptors in...
The porcine species is much more variable than was once thought. Researchers have found a genetic variability for the gene FABP4 (which is involved in the quantity of fat that the animal deposits) ten times greater than that found in humans and similar to...
Mobile genes are DNA sequences able to move and insert into the genome. They constitute more than 50% of the human genome and 28% of that of Drosophila (Fruit fly). They are an important source of mutations because they promote chromosomal arrangements and insert into genes and regulatory regions. This work is based in one of these transposable...
The Bellingshausen Sea is a remote part of the ocean surrounding the Antarctic, isolated, inhospitable and almost unexplored. A Hespérides expedition has managed to study the fauna which inhabit this region. Examples of 23 species of fish have been studied and at present we are in the process of...
The study of drug interactions is very important for the dessign of new therapeutic strategies. The combination of drugs can enhance their therapeutic action and/or minimize the adverse effects. The authors have established the interaction between a painkiller and two antiemetics widely used in the treatment of postoperative pain and nausea and...
Cultural anthropologists find that the Darwinist explanation of sexual behavior have a lot of undesirable ideological slants. Machoism is an example. They are right, but only partly. Ambrosio Loyal Garcia exposes in his thesis how to detect these distorted visions about the adaptationist program. According to its conclusions we have to review...
The evolution of large brains in vertebrates, such as primates or parrots, poses a paradox for scientists: if the possession of a large brain carries with it great production and maintenance costs, then why have some animals developed such large brains? A classical...
Prognosis of survival of patients affected by melanoma malignant depends on the presence or absence of tumoral cells in sentinel lymph nodes. Scientists of the Germans Trias i Pujol Hospital have studied the effectiveness of the analysis techniques used s to detect them.
Islands are specially vulnerable spaces to the invasions of exotic plants. UAB researchers have validated this hypothesis in the case of the Oxalis pes-caprae plant species. They have studied its presence in the Balearic Islands. The results show that Oxalis reproduces much more in the islands than in other Spanish continental zones.
The history of radioactivity, traditionally considered a mere antecedent of nuclear physics, in has in recent years been subject to a through a deeply historographical review. This new perspective takes into account the social, cultural and industrial implications of this science and serves as narrative framework in Néstor Herran?s thesis. In this...
