The photo shows an infected wooden pole that is ultimately destroyed by a copper-tolerant fungus.

The St. Gallen-based Empa biotech spin-off, MycoSolutions AG, has developed a new fungal product that improves the soil and controls pest fungi in an environmentally friendly way. Wooden poles remain in use much longer, leading to cost savings of millions for operators. A "Proof-of-Concept" is now available for the integrated wood preservation method. In Europe, some 30 million wooden poles are used by telecommunications companies and electricity utilities. Every year, hundreds of thousands of these poles have to be replaced due to the occurrence of copper-tolerant, wood-destroying fungi. This results in millions in terms of costs. The problem is likely to worsen in the future, since the copper fixation agent chromium, (which is carcinogenic in a certain chemical form), and the wood preservative boron, are restricted by law. In addition, the authorisation for Switzerland will expire in 2019. In Germany, even stricter regulations have already been put in place. Since the use of boron has largely been discontinued, in certain regions the defects appear early, after only six to eight years and the wooden poles have to be replaced for safety reasons.

Pierpaolo Battigalli

In una nota su Econometrica Battigalli, Cerreia-Vioglio, Maccheroni e Marinacci dimostrano che l'avversione all'incertezza, in una situazione di interazione strategica tra attori, ha l'effetto controintuitivo di rendere gli esiti più difficili da prevedere . In A Note on Comparative Ambiguity Aversion and Justifiability (in Econometrica, Vol 84, Issue 5, 1903-1916, DOI: 10.3982/ECTA14429), Pierpaolo Battigalli, Simone Cerreia-Vioglio, Fabio Maccheroni e Massimo Marinacci del Dipartimento di Scienze delle decisioni della Bocconi tornano ad analizzare gli effetti dell’avversione all’incertezza sui processi decisionali, come avevano già fatto di recente in un articolo sull’American Economic Review.

Girls with autism have relatively good social skills, which means that their autism is often not recognised. Autism manifests itself in girls differently from in boys. Psychologist Carolien Rieffe and colleagues from the Autism Centre and INTER-PSY (Groningen) report their findings in scientific journal Autism. Information about autism in girls is scarce. What we know about autism is mainly based on research among boys and men. That can be a problem, says Leiden Professor of Development Psychology Rieffe: ‘If we take the clinical picture for boys with autism as the standard, there's a good chance that autism in girls won't be picked up.' To change this, Rieffe and her colleagues examined how autism manifests itself in girls.

Scientists at Ruhr-Universität Bochum have established a process for identifying biomarkers for the diagnosis of different types of cancer. With the aid of a specific type of infrared (IR) spectroscopy, the researchers applied an automated and label-free approach to detect tumour tissue in a biopsy or tissue sample. Unlike with label-based processes, such as are currently deployed by pathologists, the tissue remains unmodified. This, in turn, facilitates detailed protein analyses in the next step. Studying tissue samples from patients who suffered from lung or pleural cancer, the researchers identified protein biomarkers that are typical of the respective subtype of cancer. The team of the research consortium “Protein Research Unit Ruhr within Europe” (PURE) has published their report in the journal “Scientific Reports”.

Il disco di polvere che circonda la giovane stella HD 169142 ripreso da ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) dell’ESO

Un team di ricercatori guidati da Davide Fedele, dell’Istituto nazionale di astrofisica di Firenze, ha individuato la traccia della presenza di due pianeti in formazione attorno alla giovane stella HD 169142, distante da noi circa 470 anni luce. I due pianeti avrebbero masse paragonabili a quella del nostro Giove. Il disco di polvere che circonda la giovane stella HD 169142 ripreso da ALMA (Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array) dell’ESO. Gli anelli vividi sono ampie strisce di polvere, separate da profondi spazi vuoti. Crediti: ALMA (ESO / NAOJ / NRAO)/ Fedele et al Grazie alle dettagliate riprese del telescopio Alma (Atacama Large Millimeter-submillimeter Array) dell’Eso, un team internazionale di ricercatori guidati da Davide Fedele, dell’Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica di Firenze, ha individuato la traccia della presenza di due pianeti in formazione attorno alla giovane stella Hd 169142, distante da noi circa 470 anni luce e situata in direzione della costellazione del Sagittario. I due pianeti avrebbero masse paragonabili a quella del nostro Giove.

Aerial view from WADI first test flights

The first test phase of the WADI project has been successfully completed. During the month of February 2017 WADI partners ONERA and SCP tested the innovative airborne water leak detection surveillance service developed by the project. A Busard airplain equipped with hyper-spectral and infrared cameras flew over the facilities of Canal de Provence (SCP), in the South-East of France, and recorded images of the irrigation network including buried ductile iron pipes in three locations: Rians (close to Aix en Provence), Valtrède (Martingues) and Cabardelle (Salon de Provence). The three flights provided high quality images in the spectrum of IR (band III, between 8000 and 12000 nm), SWIR (between 1400 and 3000 nm) and VNIR (between 400 and 1400 nm). ONERA, scientific coordinator of the WADI project, is currently processing the images in order to define the most efficient wavelength among the 416 collected for the detection of soil humidity. This test will lead to the design of a measurement strategy for future campaigns. In the next few weeks, SCP will release controlled leaks in view to a second test phase (WADI -2), scheduled for the end April 2017.

http://www.waditech.eu/NewsEvents/A-New-Leak-Detection-Surveillance-System-Tested-In-France.kl

Isobio Panel discussion

The use of bio-based materials is often met with scepticism from architects, insurers and contractors in the construction industry, which has led to slow market uptake. This scepticism generally results from a lack of adequate training and support with regard to regulatory frameworks. This was the backdrop of the ISOBIO workshop, held 22 March in Brussels where the project team met with representatives from Earth Building UK and Ireland, BC architects & studies, the ECO-SEE project and the German Association for Building with Earth. The aim was to identify the levers for faster adoption of bio-based material in the construction sector.

Bloccare l’infiammazione per ridurre le disabilità cognitive

Per la prima volta uno studio pubblicato sulla prestigiosa rivista eLife dimostra la relazione diretta tra le disabilità cognitive che caratterizzano i disturbi dello sviluppo del cervello infantile e l’infiammazione che colpisce le sinapsi, cioè le strutture cerebrali di smistamento di informazioni e segnali a tutto il corpo. Questa importante scoperta potrebbe aprire la strada al trattamento con antinfiammatori E’ nota da diversi anni la relazione tra i difetti genetici nella produzione di proteine che operano a livello delle sinapsi nel cervello e i disturbi del neurosviluppo caratterizzati da deficit cognitivi. Tuttavia, una percentuale di tali patologie non ha chiare cause genetiche. Uno studio realizzato da Humanitas e Istituto di neuroscienze del Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche (In-Cnr), in collaborazione con l’Universidad Miguel Hernández lnstituto de Neurociencias, per la prima volta identifica la relazione tra alti livelli di infiammazione e aumentata espressione della proteina MeCP2.

The researcher Oscar Barambones behind a solar panel at the University of the Basque Country (Nuria González / UPV/EHU)

Researchers at the UPV/EHU-University of the Basque Country have managed to maintain the maximum power point of solar panels despite changes in irradiation and load. The Advanced Control Group of the UPV/EHU’s Department of Systems Engineering and Automation has developed a control system designed to ensure that photovoltaic generators always work at their maximum power point by adapting them in terms of the level of irradiance received from the sun and the load connected to the system. This constitutes an improvement in the efficiency of photovoltaic generators with respect to current control systems, although it also requires the use of more powerful processors and elements and therefore more expensive ones.

Palmer amaranth infestation

Palmer amaranth is a nightmare of a weed, causing yield losses up to 80 percent in severely infested soybean fields. It scoffs at farmers’ attempts at control, having evolved resistance to six classes of herbicides since its discovery in the United States 100 years ago. And now, scientists have discovered it has two new tricks up its sleeve. About a year ago, a group of researchers discovered Palmer is resistant to the herbicide class known as PPO-inhibitors, due to a mutation—known as the glycine 210 deletion—on the PPX2 gene. “We were using a quick test that we originally developed for waterhemp to determine PPO-resistance based on that mutation. A lot of times, the test worked. But people were bringing in samples that they were fairly confident were resistant, and the mutation wasn’t showing up. We started to suspect there was another mechanism out there,” says University of Illinois molecular weed scientist Patrick Tranel.