To evaluate the environmental effects of hedgerows on crops is the aim of the project being undertaken by researchers at the Public University of Navarre, within the framework of the Agenda Local 21 of Noáin municipal council in Navarre.
A hedgerow may be defined as a line of hedges, sometimes with trees, along the roadside or surrounding estates, farms or naturally-occurring enclosures.
Various studies agree that it is a good thing to have hedges surrounding crops and alongside
In West Africa, matters involving development and security are affected to a considerable extent by domestic, traditional knowledge of the occult. This knowledge is safeguarded by so-called secret societies, which play a major role in society.
This anthropological study from Göteborg University in Sweden, deals with two such societies among the Sénoufo people of northern Ivory Coast and southern Mali.
One of the societies, Poro, initiates local adolescents in this knowle
Repeating mantrams can help control the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, have a calming effect in traffic and even ease the boredom of exercise, according to a study published in the latest issue of the UK-based Journal of Advanced Nursing.
83 per cent of veterans and hospital staff surveyed after a five-week mantram course told researchers from the US Department of Veterans Affairs that they found the technique – which involves silently and continuously repeating calmin
The University of Kent is launching a unique cross-disciplinary degree course that explores artificial intelligence (AI) from the combined perspectives of computer science, philosophy, psychology, biology and electronics.
Championed by technology experts and visionaries ranging from Bill Gates to film-maker George Lucas, AI is about making computers behave intelligently – for instance, by performing tasks requiring the ability to learn, to reason and to cope with unpredicted si
Since its launch in 2002, Envisat, the world’s largest and most sophisticated satellite ever built, has been providing scientists and operational users with invaluable data for global monitoring and forecasting – and the future looks even brighter.
“The Envisat mission has reached its full maturity with the services provided by the satellite now well established, and the scientific results based on its data being increasing published,” Envisat Mission Manager Henri Laur said. (For m
Teenage boys being treated for cancer should be encouraged to bank their sperm so they might enjoy a family life in the future, say researchers at the University of Manchester.
Dr Guy Makin, at the School of Medicine’s Division of Human Development and Reproductive Health, suggests giving better quality information on sperm banking to patients as young as 13, as well as training medical professionals to discuss the issue with them.
Several types of chemotherapy can damag
“Obesity increases the risk of contracting cancer”, states Dr. Javier Salvador, Director of the Department of Endocrinology and Nutrition at the University Hospital of the University of Navarra.
Overweight has become a worldwide epidemic, not only in industrialised countries, but also in developing ones where problems of malnutrition go hand in glove with high percentages of obesity. The rates are currently rising at an alarming pace. In Spain some 15% of the population suffer f
Interferometry Helps Discover Envelopes Around Supergiant Stars
Using ESO’s Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) at Cerro Paranal, Chile, and the CHARA Interferometer at Mount Wilson, California, a team of French and North American astronomers has discovered envelopes around three Cepheids, including the Pole star. This is the first time that matter is found surrounding members of this important class of rare and very luminous stars whose luminosity varies in a very regu
The MRSA ‘superbug’ evades many of the measures introduced to combat its spread by infecting a common single-celled organism found almost everywhere in hospital wards, according to new research published in the journal Environmental Microbiology.
Scientists from the University of Bath have shown that MRSA infects and replicates in a species of amoeba, called Acanthamoeba polyphaga, which is ubiquitous in the environment and can be found on inanimate objects such as vases, sinks an
Aston University’s Bio-Energy Research Group is part of a European team that will help expand renewable energy, including electrification, to rural communities in Latin America.
The team will set up two training platforms that can deliver knowledge and skills in bioenergy technology to enable rural communities in Peru, Ecuador and Brazil to generate renewable energy from existing resources more efficiently.
Led by CIRAD in Montpellier, France, European partners will co-operat
Astronomers have witnessed a never-seen-before event in observations by ESA’s XMM-Newton spacecraft – a collision between a pulsar and a ring of gas around a neighbouring star.
The rare passage, which took the pulsar plunging into and through this ring, illuminated the sky in gamma- and X-rays. It has revealed a remarkable new insight into the origin and content of ‘pulsar winds’, which has been a long-standing mystery. The scientists described the event as a natural but ‘scaled-
Chemicals that mimic the body’s natural hormone oestrogen are known to affect a woman’s risk of breast cancer. Evidence is mounting that the aluminium-based compound, which often makes up quarter of the volume of some antiperspirant agents, can break through the skin and that once in the body it could mimic oestrogen. A review just published in the Journal of Applied Toxicology calls for further research to evaluate the potential that this could increase the risk of getting breast cancer.
Researchers at MIT have devised a new method for examining how radiation damages normal tissue in the body. The knowledge may make it possible to reduce side effects for cancer patients or to develop treatments for radiation exposure.
About 50 percent of all cancer patients are treated with radiation therapy, either alone or in combination with some other type of treatment. Radiation can be very effective in killing tumor cells, but it also kills normal tissues nearby. In the gas
The failure of programming that sparks the death of dendritic cells – those that activate the immune system – can initiate autoimmune disease, said researchers from Baylor College of Medicine in a report that appears in the current issue of the journal Science.
The problem begins with a process called programmed cell death or apoptosis, said Dr. Jin Wang, assistant professor of immunology at Baylor College of Medicine. Mice bred to have a defect in apoptosis of their dendritic cells we
Tagging program records ‘longest movement’ — Double previous distance
While a bonefish catch is always gratifying for the avid angler, one caught in the Bahamian flats off southwestern Andros Island in December proved even more satisfying for the researchers who study bonefish migration at Bonefish and Tarpon Unlimited (BTU) and the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Science. The fish was a record catch, representing the longest movement by a bonefi
A new study shows that patients whose colorectal cancer has spread to the liver who received an approach called hepatic arterial infusion (HAI)– the administration of chemotherapy directly to the liver through a pump in the abdomen–fare better than those who received traditional, intravenous chemotherapy. Researchers found that the patients on the HAI therapy lived longer and had better quality of life than those receiving systemic therapy. The study will be published online February 27 in the Jou
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