Unidad de Cultura Científica y de la Innovación

A University of Cordoba research group has developed a low cost sensor to custom measure the power quality of the structure in each device

More and more facilities are implementing management systems under the industry 4.0 paradigm based on smartness and efficient management. In particular, appliances come with an increasing amount of functions that make household chores easier: refrigerators that regulate their own temperatures or predict which foods need to go on the shopping list. But, what if, in addition to these features, appliances were able to measure the quality of the power they are supplied with? This would allow for self diagnoses, knowledge about what happened in the case of malfunction and the prevention of future malfunctions. 

A University of Cordoba research team, Cordoba’s Maimonides Institute of Biomedical Research and Queen Sofia University Hospital link phosphorus normalization in blood to a decrease in a hormone that damages the heart

The FGF23 (Fibroblast growth factor 23) hormone originates in bone to communicate with the kidney whose duty it is to excrete excess phosphorus that the bone detects. Its main function is bone-kidney communication to eliminate phosphorus, but what happens when the person has renal failure and kidneys that do not work in addition to an impaired excretion ability? What happens is that the failing kidney is unable to abide by FGF23. Nevertheless, the bone keeps producing this hormone because it does not detect that the kidney has stopped working, resulting in a build-up of FGF23 in the blood.

A University of Cordoba research project draws a genetic map of garden asparagus  and marks the chromosome determining gender

Garden asparagus is, from a financial perspective, the most important asparagus species of all. Its cultivation area is equal to that of garlic, carrots and eggplants, making it decisive for the asparagus sector. 

A research group at the University of Cordoba Genetics Department has analyzed gene variation in five Spanish sheep meat breeds as the first step to increase profitability in livestock

How could a sheep farmer’s job be made easier if they had a tool to choose the meat breed best suited to their needs beforehand? Much money and time would be saved by using a panel of markers to select a breed with genes associated with meat production. Finding an efficient and cost effective way to do so led the AGR-2018 “Improving and conserving genetic resources of domestic animals” research group to count sheep and above all, to analyze the genetic variability of their RNA (ribonucleic acid).

The University of Cordoba Mechanization and Rural Technology research group designed a harvester that improves the profitability of traditional olive farming

Productive traditional olive groves, which make up 70% of Andalusian olive farming, are in a complicated situation in terms of financial sustainability. The lack of mechanization so vital to picking olives has made new already-mechanized plantations such as intensive and superintensive olive groves surpass traditional olive groves, which still spend 40% of their harvesting budgets on picking. 

Researchers at the University of Cordoba assess the success or failure of installing remote control systems and data measuring in water users associations

From 2005 to 2010, in pursuing plans to modernize irrigation, the first telemetry and remote control watering systems were installed in Spain, in 260 water users associations. With a total area of around a million hectares, these systems began with the aim of facilitating life in the countryside, but have they really achieved their goal?

A University of Cordoba research team is able to stabilize different metallic nanostructures by encapsulating them in porous monocrystalline materials

Half metal, half organic structure, like Robocop himself, is the material known as MOF, short for Metal Organic Framework. MOF has been developed by scientists and applied to a myriad of products from sorbents to batteries for electronic devices. This material emerged from the nanotechnology revolution that turned material design upside down and facilitated the improvement of chemical processes. MOFs are a new organic and inorganic hybrid material made up of metallic nodes and organic links characterized by their porosity, that is to say, by the intermolecular spaces that it is comprised of. 

A study by the University of Córdoba shows how use of the social media by young people adversely affects their self-perception of body image, and links this phenomenon to eating disorders

The social media are part of our everyday lives, enabling new methods of communication, improved access to information and even the development of new working strategies, in a range of fields including education. Yet the use – or abuse – of social media has also given rise to a number of problems, particularly among the most exposed sectors of the population.

A study by researchers at the University of Córdoba shows how the arrival of African air masses at high altitudes affects olive-pollen transport in Andalusia

Olive pollen is amongst the most widespread airborne pollens in southern Europe; its frequency, coupled with an intense flowering regime,  gives rise to a high incidence of allergies.Research into the factors governing airborne pollen counts and their behaviour is increasingly playing a key role in improving the quality of life of those sensitive to olive -pollen allergens.

A study by researchers at the University of Córdoba has identified the olive varieties most resistant to an epidemic which could ruin the year’s harvest

Heavy rainfall in 1996 and 1997 provided the ideal conditions for the largest olive anthracnose epidemic recorded in recent decades, but at the same time prompted more intensive research into this pathogen.