El espacio, la luz y lo santo. La arquitectura del templo cristiano

Es conciso y profundo el estudio que hace el autor de las variables religiosas que le cuadran, a pesar de aquella contradicción que también él registra (esta inevitable tensión entre la intemperie y la arquitectura religiosa), al diseño del templo cristiano. Con sentido pedagógico -y filosófico- parte de los conceptos previos a toda habitación -espacio, volumen, masa...- para luego aplicarse con brillante racionalidad técnica y religiosa, a proponer relaciones entre lo fijo y lo incontenible, entre lo construible y la liturgia que lo habitará. Accesible para profanos de uno y otro campo, el arquitectónico y el teológico, la obra que recomendamos con estas líneas, es un ejercicio, al que os invito, de contemplación e imaginación, que no otra cosa opera por debajo de los ritos, las palabras y los signos que hacen de los templos cristianos lugares de vida, esperanza y, ¡qué necesidad tenemos de ello...!, humanidad

Status and Trends of Physical Activity Surveillance, Policy, and Research in 164 Countries: Findings From the Global Observatory for Physical Activity—GoPA! 2015 and 2020 Surveys

Background: Physical activity (PA) surveillance, policy, and research efforts need to be periodically appraised to gain insight into national and global capacities for PA promotion. The aim of this paper was to assess the status and trends in PA surveillance, policy, and research in 164 countries. Methods: We used data from the Global Observatory for Physical Activity (GoPA!) 2015 and 2020 surveys. Comprehensive searches were performed for each country to determine the level of development of their PA surveillance, policy, and research, and the findings were verified by the GoPA! Country Contacts. Trends were analyzed based on the data available for both survey years. Results: The global 5-year progress in all 3 indicators was modest, with most countries either improving or staying at the same level. PA surveillance, policy, and research improved or remained at a high level in 48.1%, 40.6%, and 42.1% of the countries, respectively. PA surveillance, policy, and research scores decreased or remained at a low level in 8.3%, 15.8%, and 28.6% of the countries, respectively. The highest capacity for PA promotion was found in Europe, the lowest in Africa and low- and lower-middle-income countries. Although a large percentage of the world’s population benefit from at least some PA policy, surveillance, and research efforts in their countries, 49.6 million people are without PA surveillance, 629.4 million people are without PA policy, and 108.7 million live in countries without any PA research output. A total of 6.3 billion people or 88.2% of the world’s population live in countries where PA promotion capacity should be significantly improved. Conclusion: Despite PA is essential for health, there are large inequalities between countries and world regions in their capacity to promote PA. Coordinated efforts are needed to reduce the inequalities and improve the global capacity for PA promotion

Rollers smell the fear of nestlings

Received February 7, 2012; Accepted February 13, 2012..Many animals react to danger by producing chemical cues that can be smelled by others, which is called the smell of fear. Some bird species produce chemical compounds when threatened, such as nestlings of the Eurasian roller Coracias garrulus that vomit an odorous orange liquid when scared in their nests. Here, we experimentally explore the possibility that parents were informed about recent predation attempts at their nests through the olfaction of this vomit. Parents of nests treated with nestling vomit delayed their entrance to nests and decreased their provisioning rate in comparison with parents of nests treated with an odorous control. These results demonstrate that adult rollers are able to smell the fear of offspring and show for the first time in birds that a scent produced during an interspecific challenge has a role in an intraspecific communication scenario.Financial support was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science (projects CGL2008–00718 and CGL2011–27561) and by JdC programme to L.A.Peer reviewe

Are female starlings able to recognize the scent of their offspring?

© 2014 Amo et al. Background: Although there is growing evidence that birds may have individual chemical profiles that can function in several social contexts, offspring recognition based on olfactory cues has never been explored. This ability should be more likely evolved in colonial birds and/or species suffering brood parasitism, in which the risk of being engaged in costly misdirected parental care is high. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed a choice experiment to examine whether females of the spotless starling, Sturnus unicolor, a species that is colonial, and where a fraction of the population is exposed to intraspecific brood parasitism, can discriminate between the scent of their offspring and that of unrelated nestlings. We also explored whether the development of the uropygial gland secretion may play a role in such olfactory discrimination by performing the choice experiments to females rearing nestlings of two different ages, that is, without and with developed uropygial glands. Results showed that female starlings did not preferentially choose the scent of their offspring, independently of whether the gland of nestlings was developed or not. Conclusions/Significance: Our results suggest that female starlings do not have or do not show the ability to distinguish their offspring based on olfaction, at least up to 12-14 days of nestling age. Further research is needed to examine whether odour-based discrimination may function when fledgling starlings leave the nest and the risk of costly misidentification is likely to increase.LA and GT were supported by the Juan de la Cierva programme while performing the experiment and LA was supported by the Ramon y Cajal programme while writing. This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science/FEDER (CGL2008-00718 and CGL2011-27561/BOS) to JMA and DP and by CGL2010-19233-C03-01 to J. J. Soler.Peer Reviewe

The evolution of olfactory capabilities in wild birds: a comparative study

Modern birds possess an olfactory apparatus similar to that of other vertebrates, yet the major evolutionary forces that drove the evolution of diversity in olfactory capabilities in birds remain elusive. Several non-mutually exclusive evolutionary scenarios for the evolution of olfactory capability in birds have been proposed. Olfactory capability may have evolved due to its role in recognition in social contexts. In addition, olfactory capability may have evolved because it provides a selective advantage in foraging or navigation. Finally, olfactory capability could be favored whenever the ecological conditions of species hindered the use of other senses and/or favored olfaction. Here we evaluate predictions from these hypotheses in a comparative study using a species-level phylogeny of 142 bird species and considering the indirect effects of some predictors on others. We find an interactive effect of aquatic dependence and diet on the size of the olfactory bulb: vegetarian and omnivore birds living in aquatic environments have larger olfactory bulbs than terrestrial birds, whereas species with an animal diet, aquatic and terrestrial species have similar-sized olfactory bulbs. In addition, the size of the olfactory bulb was weakly related with social complexity, with colonial species having relatively larger olfactory bulb than solitary breeders or those forming small aggregations. Our results suggest that the role of foraging in driving enhancements in the avian olfactory apparatus is contingent on ecological conditions that may affect the transmission of odor-based signals. This provides evidence for the largely neglected possibility that the evolution of the olfactory apparatus of birds has been driven by the interaction between ecological and behavioral traits, rather than being solely due to main effects of these traits.Peer Reviewe

Sex recognition by odour and variation in the uropygial gland secretion in starlings

1. Although a growing body of evidence supports that olfaction based on chemical compounds emitted by birds may play a role in individual recognition, the possible role of chemical cues in sexual selection of birds has been only preliminarily studied.2. We investigated for the first time whether a passerine bird, the spotless starling Sturnus unicolor, was able to discriminate the sex of conspecifics by using olfactory cues and whether the size and secretion composition of the uropygial gland convey information on sex, age and reproductive status in this species.3. We performed a blind choice experiment during mating, and we found that starlings were able to discriminate the sex of conspecifics by using chemical cues alone. Both male and female starlings preferred male scents. Furthermore, the analysis of the chemical composition of the uropygial gland secretion by using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) revealed differences between sexes, ages and reproductive status.4. In conclusion, our study reveals for first time that a passerine species can discriminate the sex of conspecifics by relying on chemical cues and suggests that the uropygial gland secretion may potentially function as a chemical signal used in mate choice and/or intrasexual competition in this species.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science ⁄ FEDER (CGL2008-00718) and PIE 200930I029 to J. M. Avilés and D. Parejo.The study was conducted under licence of the Junta de Andalucía GC–MS analyses were performed by Dr. Rafael Núñez at the Scientific Instrumentation Service (EEZ, CSIC) (Granada, Spain).Peer reviewe

Number of females choosing their own or a foreign nestling scent.

<p>Number of female spotless starlings that chose the side of the chamber containing the scent of their own nestling or the scent of a foreign nestling (p = 1.00), when a) nestlings were 5–6 day old and have the uropygial gland closed or b) when nestlings were 12–14 day old and have the uropygial gland open.</p

Schematic representation of the olfactometric device used.

<p>A focal female was introduced into the central chamber and exposed to scent-carrying air flowing in (solid arrows) from the choice chambers. Odour donor nestlings were hidden from the focal female's view behind a dense plastic mesh (fine cross hatching). A choice was scored when the female entered one of the choice chambers after opening the doors (dotted arrows).</p