Psychophysiological response to social stressors : relevance of sex and age

Understanding the factors involved in the psychophysiological response of people in acute stressful situations is crucial to the prevention and treatment of stress-related health problems. We aim to integrate the results of studies investigating the role of sex and age in the inter-individual variability in several biomarkers of the stress response Methods: We summarize the main findings of our research group and other laboratories regarding sex and age-related differences in the psychophysiological response to psychosocial stress. Results: Sexrelated differences in the stress response are observed in blood pressure and cortisol, but not in heart rate, heart rate variability, or salivary alphaamylase. Additionally, age may explain differences in cortisol levels and basal sympathetic nervous system activity. Conclusions: The results highlight the importance of taking sex and age into account in order to understand the stress response and its possible negative effects on health. Antecedentes: entender los factores involucrados en la respuesta psicofisiológica ante situaciones de estrés agudo es crucial para prevenir y tratar problemas de salud relacionados con el estrés. El objetivo es integrar los resultados de estudios en humanos relacionados con el papel del sexo y la edad en las diferencias individuales en la respuesta de estrés en diferentes biomarcadores. Metodología: se integran los principales resultados de nuestro grupo de investigación y de otros laboratorios centrados en las diferencias debidas al sexo y la edad en la respuesta psicofisiológica a situaciones de estrés psicosocial. Resultados: se observan diferencias en la respuesta de estrés entre hombres y mujeres en presión sanguínea y en niveles de cortisol, pero no en frecuencia cardíaca, variabilidad de la frecuencia cardíaca y alfa-amilasa. Además, la edad influye en los niveles de cortisol y en la actividad basal del sistema nervioso simpático. Conclusiones: los resultados ponen de manifiesto la importancia de tener en cuenta el sexo y la edad de los participantes para poder entender la respuesta de estrés y sus posibles efectos en salud

Factors affecting rind pitting in the mandarin hybrids "fortune" and "nova". The influence of exogenous growth regulators

The commercialization of the mandarin hybrids "Fortune" and "Nova" is hindered by the development of cold-induced pitting in the fruit rind which may develop either in the orchard or during storage and transport. In the late cropping cultivar "Fortune", the pitting develops on tree during the winter months and affects mainly the exposed fruit from the north-west quadrant of the tree. The induction of symptoms under uniform conditions in the cold-room reveals differences in the susceptibility to chilling injury among the fruits and the fruit sides. The green fruit is not susceptible. Susceptibility develops as pigmentation progresses, and it is higher for the exposed than for the non-exposed (covered by the foliage) fruits. The application of GA3 at colour-break delays pigmentation and retards the development of susceptibility. The waxing of the fruit offers some protection to cold in the cold-room. However, the incidence of pitting is not related to the wax content of the fruit rind and the application of a wax coverage on tree had only a marginal protective effect. No pitting is usually found on tree in the fruit of the early ripening "Nova" cultivar, which is usually harvested before the winter chilling. The pitting develops during cold storage (8-10 C), and is reduced by GA3 application at colour break, an effect related to the delay in rind pigmentation.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Decision-Making Aid Tool to Support Renovation of Buildings with Industrialised All-in-One Technology Solutions

[EN] Unlike other interventions for the improvement of energy efficiency, in the case of the application of prefabricated elements in deep renovations, there is a certain lack of knowledge on the part of potential clients or even technical staff. This article arises from this need, and its objective and main result is the development and presentation of a tool to help in making decisions on whether the industrialized building envelope kits in general and those of the H2020 INFINITE project are applicable in each specific case.Serrano Lanzarote, AB.; Jareño Escudero, CI.; Sanz Almela, D.; Romero Clausell, J. (2021). Decision-Making Aid Tool to Support Renovation of Buildings with Industrialised All-in-One Technology Solutions. Environmental Sciences Proceedings. 11(1):1-5. https://doi.org/10.3390/environsciproc2021011004S1511

Staphylococcus aureus bloodstream infection: A pooled analysis of five prospective, observational studies

Objectives: Staphylococcus aureus bacteraemia is a common, often fatal infection. Our aim was to describe how its clinical presentation varies between populations and to identify common determinants of outcome. Methods: We conducted a pooled analysis on 3395 consecutive adult patients with S. aureus bacteraemia. Patients were enrolled between 2006 and 2011 in five prospective studies in 20 tertiary care centres in Germany, Spain, United Kingdom, and United States. Results: The median age of participants was 64 years (interquartile range 50–75 years) and 63.8% were male. 25.4% of infections were associated with diabetes mellitus, 40.7% were nosocomial, 20.6% were caused by methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA), although these proportions varied significantly across studies. Intravenous catheters were the commonest identified infective focus (27.7%); 8.3% had endocarditis. Crude 14 and 90-day mortality was 14.6% and 29.2%, respectively. Age, MRSA bacteraemia, nosocomial acquisition, endocarditis, and pneumonia were independently associated with death, but a strong association was with an unidentified infective focus (adjusted hazard ratio for 90-day mortality 2.92; 95% confidence interval 2.33 to 3.67, p < 0.0001). Conclusion: The baseline demographic and clinical features of S. aureus bacteraemia vary significantly between populations. Mortality could be reduced by assiduous MRSA control and early identification of the infective focus.Junta de Andalucía PI 0185/201

Prediction of ‘Nules Clementine’ mandarin susceptibility to rind breakdown disorder using Vis/NIR spectroscopy

The use of diffuse reflectance visible and near infrared (Vis/NIR) spectroscopy was explored as a non-destructive technique to predict ‘Nules Clementine’ mandarin fruit susceptibility to rind breakdown (RBD) disorder by detecting rind physico-chemical properties of 80 intact fruit harvested from different canopy positions. Vis/NIR spectra were obtained using a LabSpec® spectrophotometer. Reference physico-chemical data of the fruit were obtained after 8 weeks of storage at 8 °C using conventional methods and included RBD, hue angle, colour index, mass loss, rind dry matter, as well as carbohydrates (sucrose, glucose, fructose, total carbohydrates), and total phenolic acid concentrations. Principal component analysis (PCA) was applied to analyse spectral data to identify clusters in the PCA score plots and outliers. Partial least squares (PLS) regression was applied to spectral data after PCA to develop prediction models for each quality attribute. The spectra were subjected to a test set validation by dividing the data into calibration (n = 48) and test validation (n = 32) sets. An extra set of 40 fruit harvested from a different part of the orchard was used for external validation. PLS-discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) models were developed to sort fruit based on canopy position and RBD susceptibility. Fruit position within the canopy had a significant influence on rind biochemical properties. Outside fruit had higher rind carbohydrates, phenolic acids and dry matter content and lower RBD index than inside fruit. The data distribution in the PCA and PLS-DA models displayed four clusters that could easily be identified. These clusters allowed distinction between fruit from different preharvest treatments. NIR calibration and validation results demonstrated that colour index, dry matter, total carbohydrates and mass loss were predicted with significant accuracy, with residual predictive deviation (RPD) for prediction of 3.83, 3.58, 3.15 and 2.61, respectively. The good correlation between spectral information and carbohydrate content demonstrated the potential of Vis/NIR as a non-destructive tool to predict fruit susceptibility to RBD

Changes in the juvenile fish assemblage of a Mediterranean shallow Posidonia oceanica seagrass nursery area after half a century

The within-year dynamics of the juvenile fish community in a shallow seagrass-dominated nursery habitat (Posidonia oceanica) in a Mediterranean bay were compared between two surveys separated by 50 years (1960 and 2012-2013). A nocturnal survey over depths ranging from 2 to 10 m over patchy seagrass meadows was conducted for one year (2012-2013) through 72 epibenthic tows spread fortnightly in 4 nearby stations, mimicking a survey conducted in 1960 in terms of sampling intensity, sampling zone, temporal coverage and sampling gear. Although a large proportion of the fish species were similar among surveys, remarkable and statistically significant differences were detected. A striking feature was that one of the most common and abundant Sparidae species currently, Diplodus annularis, did not appear in 1960. Other strong differences included the nonappearance of the European eel Anguilla anguilla in the recent survey. Furthermore, one of the most valuable species for artisanal fisheries in the area, the black scorpionfish Scorpaena porcus, was almost 10 times less abundant in 1960. A finer-scale study of the 2012-2013 survey allowed a quantitative analysis between species composition and potential environmental drivers through redundancy analysis that well described the current pattern of time-dependent recruitment pulses in nearshore meadows of the area throughout the year, with marked effects of surface temperature and photoperiod. The comparison between surveys suggests that some major differences between surveys are not likely to be attributable to interannual stochasticity in recruitment or environmental variability but may be related to i) unaccounted-for habitat transformation and/or ii) the strong decrease in juvenile fishing mortality in this shallow nursery area since the enforcement of bans on littoral epibenthic trawling activities characteristic of this area

The "Altos Colegios" in the Macarena Quarter (Seville): photographs by Almela

La transformación urbanística del emplazamiento donde se ubican los Altos Colegios de la Macarena sufrió grandes cambios a lo largo de la segunda mitad del siglo XIX que determinaron profundamente la estructuración de Sevilla por su zona noroeste. La evolución de esta trama urbana siguió un largo proceso de cambios entre los que se propusieron varios proyectos arquitectónicos y urbanísticos. Entre éstos se reservaba, por acuerdo municipal debido a la alta cota de analfabetismo en Sevilla, la construcción de unas escuelas públicas de las que los Altos Colegios de la Macarena fueron el ejemplo más sobresaliente. Parcialmente modificados y con la mayoría de su patrimonio mobiliario perdido, la labor de los fotógrafos Francisco y Ramón Almela, permite conocer el estado original de las escuelas públicas gracias a la elaboración de un magnífico álbum fotográfico del que se ha conservado un ejemplar en la Fototeca de la Universidad de Sevilla.The schools known as “Altos Colegios” were built in the neighbourhood of the Macarena, in the late nineteenth-century, at a time of great building developments in Seville. Those schools were later radically transformed, and most of their original furniture got lost. Francisco and Ramón Almela’s photographs, preserved at the University of Seville, allow us to figure out the original state of those buildings

Sensorialidad, cognición y afectividad en el lenguaje de promoción turística: un análisis de corpus de los verbos de percepción

El lenguaje del turismo se sirve de determinados elementos discursivos con notorio carácter promocional y una marcada función persuasiva. Entre estos elementos se encuentran los verbos de percepción, que desempeñan un papel fundamental en la representación discursiva anticipada de la experiencia turística. En este artículo, nos proponemos precisamente examinar los verbos de percepción sensorial, cognitiva y afectiva en el discurso turístico promocional. Para ello, se ha llevado a cabo un análisis discursivo basado en un corpus de sitios web institucionales de promoción turística escritos en español. En primer lugar, se realizó un análisis cuantitativo con la intención de identificar la categoría verbal perceptiva con la presencia más alta y, en segundo lugar, se analizó la preferencia semántica de las unidades verbales más frecuentes mediante el estudio de sus coocurrencias habituales. Los resultados apuntan a la cognición como la categoría más numerosa y muestran, además, que la percepción se representa principalmente a través de cinco lemas verbales que manifiestan un comportamiento colocacional concreto y una evidente preferencia semántica dentro de este tipo de discurso.Idioma

Network analysis identifies weak and strong links in a metapopulation system

The identification of key populations shaping the structure and connectivity of metapopulation systems is a major challenge in population ecology. The use of molecular markers in the theoretical framework of population genetics has allowed great advances in this field, but the prime question of quantifying the role of each population in the system remains unresolved. Furthermore, the use and interpretation of classical methods are still bounded by the need for a priori information and underlying assumptions that are seldom respected in natural systems. Network theory was applied to map the genetic structure in a metapopulation system by using microsatellite data from populations of a threatened seagrass, Posidonia oceanica, across its whole geographical range. The network approach, free from a priori assumptions and from the usual underlying hypotheses required for the interpretation of classical analyses, allows both the straightforward characterization of hierarchical population structure and the detection of populations acting as hubs critical for relaying gene flow or sustaining the metapopulation system. This development opens perspectives in ecology and evolution in general, particularly in areas such as conservation biology and epidemiology, where targeting specific populations is crucial

ブドウ‘マスカット・オブ・アレキサンドリア’に対する潅水制限が樹体の水分，葉温，果実温，果実の全フェノール含量，果皮色に及ぼす影響

　Effects of different deficit irrigation strategies on vine water status, canopy and cluster temperatures, fruit total phenolics, and the color of white table grapes (Vitis vinifera L., cv. Muscat of Alexandria) were compared to a well-irrigated control in 2004 from veraison to harvest at the Okayama University Experimental Vineyard, Japan. The treatments included: (1) well-irrigated control: re-irrigation when the soil moisture tension reached 15 kPa; (2) regulated deficit irrigation (RDI): re-irrigation 4 to 7 days after reaching a soil moisture tension of 15 kPa; (3) fixed partial root-zone wetting (FPRW): one part of the root system was re-irrigated when the soil moisture tension reached 15 kPa; and (4) alternate partial root-zone wetting (APRW): one part of the root system was re-irrigated when the soil moisture tension reached 15 kPa, and every week the irrigated part was switched. As the stress developed in RDI vines, leaf water potential and transpiration rate decreased and canopy and cluster temperatures increased as compared with the control. In contrast, both FPRW and APRW vines had similar leaf water potential and canopy and cluster temperatures, but less leaf transpiration rate as compared with the control. At harvest, fruits from all treatments had higher skin total phenolics and CIELAB a＊ values than the control. RDI fruit had higher total soluble solids (TSS), a similar acidity, and smaller size compared with the control. FPRW and APRW fruits had slightly higher TSS, lower acidity, and a similar size compared with the control.ベレゾーン期から収穫期までの潅水制限処理が‘マスカット・オブ・アレキサンドリア’ブドウ（Vitis vinifera L｡）の水分条件，葉温，果実温，果実の全フェノール，果皮色に及ぼす影響を，十分に潅水した樹と比較した．実験は2004年に岡山大学農学部内の実験圃場で行った．処理区は，１) 土壌水分張力が15kPa に達したときに潅水する対照区，２) 土壌水分張力が15kPa に達してから４～７日後に潅水する制限潅水区，３) 土壌水分張力が15kPa に達したときに根域の半分に潅水する片側潅水区，４) 片側潅水する根域部分を１週間ごとに変更する交互潅水区とした．制限潅水区では水分ストレスが強まるにつれて葉の水ポテンシャルと蒸散速度が対照区よりも低下し，果実温が高くなった．しかし，片側潅水区と交互潅水区では，葉の水ポテンシャルと葉温，果実温は対照区と同程度で，蒸散速度が低下した．収穫期の果皮の全フェノールと CIELAB a＊ 値は，潅水を制限した各区では標準区より高かった．制限潅水区の果実は，標準区より糖度が高く，酸度は低く，果粒は小さかった．片側潅水区，交互潅水区では糖度がやや高く，酸度は低く，果粒の大きさは同程度であった