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Researchers at Tohoku University's School of Medicine have found an explanation for the correlation between eating fish during pregnancy, and the health of the baby's brain.

Dietary lipid contains fatty acids such as omega-6 and omega-3, which are essential nutrients for many animals and humans. The research group, led by Professor Noriko Osumi, found that a balanced intake of lipids by pregnant women is necessary for the normal brain formation of the unborn child.

Scientists have shown that a process known as oxidative stress is at work during encounters between certain nanoparticles and immune cells, selectively modifying proteins on macrophages, a type of immune cell. The findings, by researchers at the Department of Energy's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, were published in the journal ACS Nano.

While oxidative stress is a common way for cell damage to occur, the findings were a surprise in some ways.

"Oxidative stress is occurring selectively even at low levels of exposure to nanoparticles," said Brian Thrall, a nanotoxicology expert at PNNL and a corresponding author of the study. "We've demonstrated an approach that is sensitive enough to detect effects of nanoparticles on macrophages long before those cells die. This gives us the opportunity to understand the most sensitive cellular targets of oxidative stress and the pathways involved more completely than before.

"This is important information for understanding how nanoparticles can alter cell function and for beginning to identify functions that allow cells to adapt versus those that are potentially involved in adverse effects," Thrall added.

Last week, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) said “no deal” to Volkswagen’s proposal to buy back some of the vehicles that were outfitted with cheat devices. According to CARB, the plan, which would see the recall of only a fraction of the 600,000 U.S. cars affected in the latest VW scandal, does “not adequately address overall impacts on vehicle performance, emissions and safety,” and would not fix the cars’ pollution problems quickly enough.

Durante los últimos seis años, los investigadores de la Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (UPV) han estado estudiando el rendimiento de doce variedades de pino carrasco (especie arbórea de la familia de las pináceas, género Pinus, NT) nativas de diferentes regiones de España en campañas de reforestación a través de tres áreas forestales nacionales. Las diferentes variedades o genotipos tienen diferentes niveles de resistencia al frío y la sequía, que influyen en lo bien que subsisten en una región geográfica determinada y los investigadores querían saber qué variedades funcionaban mejor y dónde.

Durante los últimos años una incipiente cantidad de coches ecológicos se ha incorporado al mercado mexicano, pero la tendencia es que cada año más y más modelos vayan apareciendo, lo que resulta en un reto para la selección del mejor auto para los objetivos de la empresa. Optar por una flota de coches verdes es ahora una opción más común para las empresas. Muchas razones justifican esta elección:

• Cumplir con los objetivos de emisiones: México (junto con muchos países desarrollados: EE.UU., Unión Europea, Japón, etc.) ha creado objetivos para lograr el reducir la dependencia de los combustibles fósiles (gasolina, diésel y gas natural) y por lo tanto de las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero, el gobierno federal tuvo que adherirse a estos convenios y poco a poco va a ir coordinando para que las empresas y los usuarios le ayuden o nos ayuden a minimizar las emisiones a la atmósfera...