Society

From the 1st of September a new parking payment system will be introduced in Barcelona that allows customers to pay via their mobile devices. The Councillor responsible for Economy, Enterprise and Employment, Sònia Recasens, stated that it illustrates Barcelona’s “commitment to being a Smart City”. According to Recasens, the function of the application, called ApparkB, is to make it more convenient, cheaper and quicker for the public to park their vehicles. The service is completely free, and lets users to pay for the exact time they are parked. It will be available on Android and iPhone devices.

The archaeological site known as Abric Romaní is currently being excavated for the 31^st year in order to continue documenting and understanding how Neanderthals lived and organised communities in the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula. The archaeologist, palaeontologist and Director of excavations, Eudald Carbonell, has explained to the CNA that this campaign will be “very interesting” as the dig will be in the level corresponding to the time when the Neanderthals lived “their maximum expansion period”. Carbonell, who is one of the directors of Atapuerca site (where the Homo Antecessor was discovered), leads a team of 20 including research staff and doctoral students. The site is located some 50 kilometres west of Barcelona city and is open for the public to visit.

Last week, the Catalan Ombudsman issued a report stating that 4% of children in Catalonia under the age of 16 suffer from food deprivation (50,000 children) and he linked it to the current economic crisis. The Primary Care section of the Catalan Society of Paediatrics refutes the Ombudsman’s report warning that the known cases of undernourished children in Catalonia are due to illness and not to financial problems. They stated there are 750 children with food deprivation and most of whom have chronic diseases that cause malnutrition, such as metabolic disorders, neoplasia or anorexia nervosa. They emphasise that nowadays it is incorrect to talk about children with food deprivation in Catalonia for economic reasons, but they are concerned about the future.

The Catalan Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO), based in Greater Barcelona, is the highest ranked centre in the world in the fields of physics and astronomy, according to a survey carried out by Excellence Mapping. This ranking sorts the world’s leading research centres according to 17 different areas of academia. The ICFO was ranked first in physics and astronomy, while the Catalan Institute for Research and Advanced Studies (ICREA) was placed third in this category. Other Catalonia-based institutions that were included in the list were: the Institute for High Energy Physics, IFAE (18^th place), the Universitat Autònoma of Barcelona (UAB) and the Polytechnic University of Barcelona (UPC). The Director of the ICFO, Lluís Torner, told the CNA that the Catalan model of research is “highly competitive”.

The Catalan Ombudsman, Rafael Ribó, announced on Monday that 4% of children under the age of 16 suffer from food deprivation. Almost 50,000 children are not eating meat or fish at least once every two days, meaning they do not have a sufficient intake of protein. However, Ribó rejected there was a structural problem of malnutrition and linked the phenomenon to the economic crisis’ effects. Ribó asked the Catalan Government to act immediately to ensure that all children have access to enough food. The Ombudsman proposed 33 recommendations to reduce the child poverty rate, which currently stands at 28%, with approximately 345,000 children under the age of 16 living in poverty. The rate of extreme poverty has also increased in recent years and affects a tenth of Catalan children (130,000).

Christian Brander is a researcher at the IrsiCaixa AIDS Research Institute and Scientific Director of HIVACAT, the programme for the development of a HIV vaccine. He graduated from the University of Bern in 1994 with a PhD in Immunology and has spent 13 years at Harvard University focusing on cellular immunity to viral infections.

The family of Montserrat Serra has confirmed to CNA the release of the two aid workers. The Catalan Montserrat Serra and Blanca Thiebaut, from Madrid, were working for Doctors Without Borders (MSF) and they were captured in the Ifo2 refugee camp of Dadaab in Kenya on the 13^th of October 2011. MSF has ensured the two workers are “in good health conditions and they are waiting to join their loved ones as soon as possible”. An MSF team is already assisting the two aid workers. It is believed that immediately after the capture Serra and Thiebault were moved to Somalia, where they have been kept prisoners since. During the 645-day ordeal, silence and caution has been imposed by the negotiators.

Plans have been made by the Catalan Ministry of Education that will adjust the curricula of primary, secondary and vocational training schools to provide part of them in English. In addition, pupils will be taught a second foreign language, prioritising the mother tongues of new-comers. The changes will prioritise the improvement and expanding of foreign language learning by Catalan pupils. A pilot program will be run by 50 schools starting next September and by 2018 all Catalan schools should follow the plan. The new model will ensure that by the end of their studies students will have mastered both Catalan and Spanish, be proficient in English, and 75% of them will understand a second foreign language.

Gervasio Deferr is a two-time pommel horse Olympic champion. The former Catalan gymnast won gold in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004) and one silver medal in Beijing (2008) in the Floor category. He retired in 2011 after more than twenty years in the world of gymnastics. He currently trains gymnasts at the High Performance Centre (Centre d'alt Rendiment, CAR) in Sant Cugat del Vallès and instructs children and teenagers at the Gervasio Deferr La Mina Club in the La Mina suburb of Barcelona. CNA interviewed him.

The Catalan research centre has unveiled a new 625-square-metre space where the Academic Research Organisation (ARO) will be based. The ARO will provide support for clinical trials developed throughout the world regarding quality control, methodological, regulatory, statistical and management aspects. Furthermore, the new space has 7 medical boxes, nursery support and a lab to process the samples, which will provide an integral service for clinical trials. The new facilities will be able to host between 750 and 1,100 patients per year and work on 350 trials. It cost €1.2 million, which came from public funds.

50% of tumours are related to mutations of this gene, according to the researchers. A study developed by the Bellvitge Institute of Biomedical Research (IBIDELL), based in Greater Barcelona, and the University of Cincinnati have discovered the role of the noncoding 5S rRNA molecule. This molecule regulates the P53 Tumour Suppressor Gene, which protects healthy cells from turning into cancerous cells. When the cell functions correctly, the levels of P53 are low and stable, but when something wrong is detected, the levels increase and cause the cell’s death, avoiding the development of a tumour. The director of the study, George Thomas, explained that understanding how the P53 works and regulates itself is extremely important since “more than half of the tumours present mutations of this gene”.

The exposure to music during in vitro fertilisation has a positive impact on the fecundity rate of egg cells according to a study developed by the assisted reproduction centre Institut Marquès, based in Barcelona. The study concludes that the micro vibrations in the music shake the culture liquid in which the ovum swims and this improves the distribution of nutrients and also avoids the accumulation of toxic products. As a result, the fertilisation of the ovum is facilitated and the success rate is improved by 4.8%. Three styles of music were tested (pop, heavy metal and classical) but no significant differences were observed in relation to the different frequencies.

France will not allow High-Speed Trains from Barcelona to Central and Northern Europe to run at their maximum velocity since it refuses to build the 156 kilometre high-speed railway stretch between Perpignan and Montpellier. This infrastructure has been declared to be one of the European Union’s strategic transport priorities, since it connects the Iberian Peninsula with the rest of the continent via the Mediterranean Railway Corridor. Many years ago, the French Government promised to build this stretch before 2020, an engagement reconfirmed by Sarkozy’s executive. However, the current Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault has paused work on the project and delayed it until after 2030.

Many of the 300 people evacuated in the Val d’Aran County will have to spend a second night out of their homes to rule out any risk. The task of verifying that houses do not have structural damage is slow and the people’s return will be gradual, starting on Thursday. After rivers in the Western Catalan Pyrenees overflowed on Tuesday, by Wednesday water levels had considerably lowered showing the damage created by the floods. Three bridges had been destroyed and some road stretches had collapsed since the ground beneath them was swept away by the water. In addition, many houses and shops had been flooded. Water supply has been interrupted in some areas since some pipes broke. Partial power and gas supply interruptions also occurred but the service was almost entirely restored by Wednesday evening.

The ice melting from the mountain tops and the heavy rain episodes of the last 24 hours have caused flooding of the Garonne, Noguera Pallaresa, Noguera de Cardós and other rivers in the mountain counties of the Val d’Aran, Pallars Sobirà, Alta Ribagorça and north of Pallars Jussà. More than 300 people have been evacuated from their homes in flooded or at risk areas. No victims or missing people have been reported, but material damage is considerable. Bridges have been swallowed by the waters and some roads have partially collapsed since the land beneath them has been swept away by the flood. Road access to the Val d’Aran County was closed as a precaution. Rain is expected to continue during the night and the reservoirs are overflowing because they have reached their maximum capacity.