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URV researchers have developed a mobile application for car sharing that protects users’ data. Co-car is an Android app that puts drivers who want to share their car in contact with other people who want to make similar journeys. People are able to arrange journeys anonymously and through mutual collaboration and without the involvement of any company. This means that users’ privacy is not compromised because data on individuals and their movements are not published or stored. Furthermore, the service is completely free

Consuming saturated animal fats is associated with a higher risk of Type 2 diabetes. In particular, the consumption of butter, which is rich in saturated fatty acids and trans fats, has been related to a high risk of suffering from this disease. In contrast, the consumption of whole fat yoghurt is associated with a lower risk. These are the findings of study on more than 3,000 men and women aged between 50 and 80 who are participating in the PREDIMED project, a clinical study into the effects of dietary intervention on patients with a high cardiovascular risk

Researchers at the URV have developed a pioneering method that will allow city authorities to levy fairer charges on vehicles that enter their city centres. The method analyses data in real time in order to identify congestion hot-spots at any given moment so that only drivers who pass through these hot-spots have to pay a charge rather than all drivers who take their vehicles into the city centre

Research by the URV has demonstrated, for the first time, that the polyphenols in grapes can re-establish the control mechanism that the brain has on appetite and which is altered in obesity. The study reports that adding these phenols to the diet of obese individuals, in conjunction with other therapies, would be a good strategy to reduce the appetite and the excess of body fat

As part of the Staff Shadowing programme of the International Network of Universities (INU), last October we were visited by Alejandro Gariglio, the Design and Image Coordinator of the Directorate of Institutional Communication of the National University of the Litoral (Argentina) and lecturer on the degree in Design of Visual Communication

This is the conclusion of a study conducted by URV researchers Manlio de Domenico and Àlex Arenas, who have analysed the mobility indicators of EU scientists, the capacity of countries to attract new researchers and to retain talent, and the correlation between these measures and GDP investment in research. The results have been published in Nature

The professor from the University of Michigan (76) is regarded as a towering figure in the world of chemical engineering for his outstanding career in teaching, research and technology transfer. His ideas have been a source of inspiration for the URV’s School of Chemical Engineering, which prompted the University to award him an honorary doctorate on 15 April in a ceremony at the Rector’s Offices

Researchers at the URV and the Pere Virgili Health Research Institute (IISPV) have discovered why people with obesity not only accumulate glycogen in their muscles and liver, like other people, but also store it in their adipocytes, the cells that make up body fat. These fat cells stop working properly, causing the individual to develop insulin resistance and, potentially, type 2 diabetes. This is the first time that this metabolic pathway has been described and it makes glycogen a new player within the pathology of obesity

In messages to be published on the social networks the system automatically protects the words that may infringe the privacy of the author by changing them for more general words. Depending on how well the readers know the author, they will be able to access a more or less detailed version of the message. Only the social network operator will have the most protected version of the message

The two recent studies were part of the PREDIMED (Prevenció amb Dieta Mediterrània) project. One of them, published in the journal Diabetis Care and coordinated by the URV, concludes that the Mediterranean diet supplemented with olive oil reduces the risk of diabetic patients suffering a retinopathy by 44%. The other study, published in the journal JAMA Internal Medicine, associates the Mediterranean diet with a reduction in the risk of suffering from breast cancer. This study was coordinated by the University of Navarre and the URV researchers who took part were led by Jordi Salas-Salvadó

This investigation was conducted as part of the PREDIMED study which was designed to examine the impact of consuming a Mediterranean-style diet on prevention of cardiovascular disease. A total of 1868 men and women between 55 and 80 years of age were followed for a median of 3 years during which time dietary analyses were conducted and clinical assessments evaluated

For the first time, these two Brazilian universities have participated in a conference with the URV to establish future cooperation. The Chilean University of Concepción, which already has ties to the URV, is also interested in expanding the cooperation. The visit took place on 6 July 2015 as part of the Hispano-Brazilian energy sustainability conference at the URV.

The Catalan Government gives out 30 of these awards every year to reward research excellence in the Catalan university system. To receive the award, individuals must have spent at least five years primarily engaged in research activities at a Catalan public university. Marsal is head of the Nanoelectronic and Photonic Systems research group (NePhoS) at the URV’s Department Of Electronic, Electrical and Automatic Engineering

A scientific article published in “Nature Scientific Reports” reveals that the oxidation of the amino acid methionine is a blood marker that indicates the oxidation of good cholesterol. This oxidation prevents the cholesterol from maturing and, therefore, from carrying out its protective function. This study -carried out by CIBERDEM/URV researchers jointly with researchers from the Sant Joan de Déu Hospital- has been carried out in a group of girls in the initial stages of polycystic ovary syndrome, which can lead to a high risk of anovulatory infertility, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome in adulthood.

Agustín Mihi, a researcher with the Nephos researcher group at the URV’s Department of Electronic, Electrical and Automatic Engineering, has been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). The grant is worth 1.5 million euros over a period of five years and is for a project to create photonic structures for controlling the propagation of light in emerging technologies such as solar cells, sensors and the next generation of LEDs