Efectos del confinamiento debido al COVID-19 en el bienestar personal: Un estudio longitudinal en población española

The main objective of this longitudinal study, with two mea-surements, one before the lockdown (M1: March 2-8), and the other du-ring the lockdown (M2: April 20-26), using the same participants, is to determine the evolution of the hedonic and eudaimonic aspects of well-being and the effect of compulsory confinement due to the COVID-19 pande-mic in Spain. The study was conducted online, participants completed the domains of the PERMA-Profiler well-being measure at both measurement times (M1 and M2) and the Life Orientation Test-Revised (LOT-sR) measure of dispositional optimism at the first measurement (M1). The results show significant relationships between all the well-being domains and the Overall Well-being (PERMA) score, similar at both measurements (M1 and M2). The comparison of the well-being domains score between the two measurements shows significant differences in Positive Emotion, Engagement, Meaning, and the Overall Well-being score; the score is higher at the first measurement (M1) than at the second measurement (M2). For the Negative Emotion domain, the score is higher during the lockdown (M2). Dispositional optimism has a moderation effect during the lockdown on the Accomplishment domain: the more optimistic the person is, the more their Accomplishment score increases. Gender also has a moderation effect during the lockdown on the Happiness domain: in men, the Happiness score increases during the lockdown and, in women, it decreases, when comparing both genders with their previous non-confinement levels.El principal objetivo de este estudio longitudinal con dos mediciones, una antes del período de confinamiento M1 (del 2 al 8 de marzo), y otra durante el confinamiento M2 (del 20 al 26 de abril), realizadas a los mismos participantes, es conocer la evolución de los aspectos hedónicos y eudaimónicos del bienestar y el efecto que sobre ellos ha supuesto el confinamiento obligatorio debido a la pandemia por COVID-19 en España. El estudio se realizó online, los participantes completaron los dominios de la medida de bienestar “The PERMA-Profiler” en ambas mediciones (M1 y M2) y la medida de optimismo disposicional “Life Orientation Test-Revised” (LOT-R) en la primera medición (M1). Los resultados muestran una relación significativa entre todos los dominios de bienestar y con la puntuación PERMA Global Bienestar, similares en ambas mediciones (M1 y M2). La comparación de las puntuaciones medias de los dominios de bienestar entre ambas mediciones muestra diferencias significativas en Emociones Positivas, Compromiso, Significado y en la puntuación de PERMA Global Bienestar; la puntuación es más elevada en la primera medición (M1) que en la segunda medición (M2). En el dominio Emociones Negativas, la puntuación es más alta en el período de confinamiento (M2). El optimismo disposicional ejerce un efecto de moderación durante el confinamiento en el dominio de Logros: cuánto más optimista es la persona más aumenta su puntuación en este dominio. El género también ejerce un efecto de moderación durante el confinamiento en el dominio de Felicidad: en los hombres aumenta la puntuación de Felicidad durante el período de confinamiento y en las mujeres disminuye, comparados ambos con sus niveles previos de no confinamiento

Cyclodextrins: Past and Present

Cyclodextrins (CDs) are cyclic oligosaccharides produced by enzymatic degradation of starch. The most common CDs are the main natural ones, α, β and γ, which are constituted of 6, 7 and 8 glucopyranose units, respectively. The CD structure forms a torus or doughnut ring and the molecule actually exists as a truncated cone. The outer side of the toroid is hydrophilic in nature due to the hydroxyl groups of the glucopyranose units while the internal cavity is relatively apolar. Thus, CDs have a high potential to entrap entirely or partially a wide variety of compounds in a process known as complexation. This gives them new physico-chemical properties and characteristics. The main applications of CDs in drug formulation rely on CD complexation and include the protection of easily oxidizable molecules or the improvement of aqueous solubility. The use of CDs in analytical chemistry is based on his host-guest recognition property, known as supramolecular complex formation. Currently, CDs are successfully used in molecular recognition-based methods like chromatographic separations, spectroscopic and electroanalyses. Quiral analytical separations are a CD area of special relevance. In this work, attention is paid to more recent references, especially to selected reviews

Boundary Integral Formulation of Frictionless Contact Problems Based on an Energetic Approach and Its Numerical Implementation by the Collocation BEM

A unified methodology to solve problems of frictionless unilateral contact as well as adhesive contact between linear elastic solids is presented. This methodology is based on energetic principles and is casted to a minimization problem of the total potential energy. Appropriate boundary integral forms of the energy are defined and the quadratic problem form of the contact problem is proposed. The problem is solved by the collocation boundary element method (BEM). To solve the quadratic problem two algorithms are developed, both being variants of the well-known conjugate gradient algorithm. The difference between them is given by the explicit construction or not of the quadratic-problem matrix. This matrix has the same physical meaning as the stiffness matrix commonly used in the context of the finite element method (FEM). Both symmetric and non-symmetric formulations of this matrix are presented and discussed, showing that the non-symmetric one provides more accurate results. The present procedure, in addition to its interest by itself, can also be extended to problems where dissipative phenomena take place such as friction, damage and plasticity. Essential steps of the numerical implementation are briefly presented and the numerical solutions of some standard problemsof frictionless contact are given and compared to those obtained by other well-known BEM and FEM procedures for contact problems.Junta de Andalucía TEP-4051European Social Fund TEP-4051Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation MAT2009-14022Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness MAT2012-37387 MAT2015-71036-PEuropean Regional Development Fund MAT2012-37387 MAT2015-71036-PSpanish Ministry of Education AP2009-3968Stavros Niarchos Foundatio

Functional Segregation of Resource-Use Strategies of Native and Invasive Plants Across Mediterranean Biome Communities

Functional segregation among species in a community depends on their mean trait values (i.e. functional distinctiveness), and the range of trait attributes exhibited by each species (i.e. functional diversity). Previous evidence suggests that invasive plants tend to display traits related to a more acquisitive resource-use strategy than natives. However, the contribution of intraspecific trait variation to functional diversity has received little attention in community ecology, and might provide interesting information about community processes. In this study, we used eight plant traits related to carbon and nutrient acquisition of coexisting dominant native and invasive plants in eight communities across the Mediterranean-climate biome to determine sources of functional segregation between native and invasive species. We found three major axes of functional variation, related to leaf economics, resource-use efficiency, and plant height. Invasive species across communities had leaf traits related to an acquisitive resource-use strategy in contrast to native species, whereas differences in the second and third axes were community dependent. Invasive species were more functionally diverse than native species across the dataset and in four out of the eight communities. Intraspecific variance accounted for 11%–27% of total trait variation and was on average greater in invasive species, and especially important in the axis related to resource use efficiency. These results, although dependent on the trait and community considered, offer interesting insights to the sources of functional trait diversity of native and invasive species within communities, indicating that intraspecific variation might not be equally distributed between native and invasive species

Functional assembly of grassland plant species in native communities in Spain and recipient communities in California

[EN] A major aim in invasion ecology is to understand the role of exotic species in plant communities. Whereas most studies have explored the traits of exotic species in the context of the introduced community, functional comparisons of entire assemblages of species in their native and introduced communities have rarely been analysed. Taking advantage of the unidirectional invasion of plant species of European origin (i.e. colonizers) into California, this study aims to investigate the relative importance of plant traits, environmental factors and invasion status in biological invasions. We compared the functional structure (i.e. trait composition and diversity) along resource availability gradients in recipient and native Mediterranean grassland communities in California and Spain, respectively. Traits were related to resource use in above-ground and below-ground organs and reproductive strategy. We also investigated how niche differences vary along environmental gradients between coexisting colonizer and native species assemblages within communities. There were clear differences in the functional structure of Mediterranean grassland communities between regions, which were associated with the resource availability gradient. Paradoxically, the most acquisitive communities occurred in resource-poor sites, highlighting that rapid acquisition and use of resources permit species to cope with environmental stress through stress avoidance. In Spain, colonizer species had greater specific leaf area than non-colonizers. Yet, differences between colonizer and non-colonizer species in Spain for other traits were mostly absent and did not change along the gradient. This might be a result of the greater native species richness as a consequence of the agricultural practices that have taken place in Europe for millennia and reflect that the entire species pool of grasslands is adapted to agricultural landscapes. In comparison, in California, colonizer species were more acquisitive in their use of resources than natives under favourable conditions, but functionally converged in resource-limited sites. Synthesis. These results underscore that the importance of niche differences between native and colonizer species as a community assembly mechanism is strongly subjected to the influence of habitat filtering. Trait comparisons are context dependent, and a correct interpretation of filtering processes in community assembly requires a regional perspective.S

The Evolution of the Kinematics of Nebular Shells in Planetary Nebulae in the Milky Way Bulge

We study the line widths in the [\ion{O}{3}]$\lambda$5007 and H$\alpha$ lines for two groups of planetary nebulae in the Milky Way bulge based upon spectroscopy obtained at the Observatorio Astron\'omico Nacional in the Sierra San Pedro M\'artir (OAN-SPM) using the Manchester Echelle Spectrograph. The first sample includes objects early in their evolution, having high H$\beta$ luminosities, but [\ion{O}{3}]$\lambda 5007/\mathrm H\beta < 3$. The second sample comprises objects late in their evolution, with \ion{He}{2} $\lambda 4686/\mathrm H\beta > 0.5$. These planetary nebulae represent evolutionary phases preceeding and following those of the objects studied by Richer et al. (2008). Our sample of planetary nebulae with weak [\ion{O}{3}]$\lambda$5007 has a line width distribution similar to that of the expansion velocities of the envelopes of AGB stars, and shifted to systematically lower values as compared to the less evolved objects studied by Richer et al. (2008). The sample with strong \ion{He}{2} $\lambda 4686$ has a line width distribution indistinguishable from that of the more evolved objects from Richer et al. (2008), but a distribution in angular size that is systematically larger and so they are clearly more evolved. These data and those of Richer et al. (2008) form a homogeneous sample from a single Galactic population of planetary nebulae, from the earliest evolutionary stages until the cessation of nuclear burning in the central star. They confirm the long-standing predictions of hydrodynamical models of planetary nebulae, where the kinematics of the nebular shell are driven by the evolution of the central star.Comment: accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

Timed Automata Semantics for Visual e-Contracts

C-O Diagrams have been introduced as a means to have a more visual representation of electronic contracts, where it is possible to represent the obligations, permissions and prohibitions of the different signatories, as well as what are the penalties in case of not fulfillment of their obligations and prohibitions. In such diagrams we are also able to represent absolute and relative timing constraints. In this paper we present a formal semantics for C-O Diagrams based on timed automata extended with an ordering of states and edges in order to represent different deontic modalities.Comment: In Proceedings FLACOS 2011, arXiv:1109.239

Relations Between Dimensions of Emotional Intelligence, Specific Aspects of Empathy, and Non-verbal Sensitivity

In this work, on the one hand, we examined the relationship between emotional intelligence (EI) and empathy and, on the other, the relationship between EI and non-verbal sensitivity, through two independent studies. The first study analyzed the relationship between dimensions of EI and aspects of empathy, in a sample of 856 participants who completed two measures of EI, the trait meta-mood scale (TMMS) and the trait emotional intelligence questionnaire (TEIQue), and a measure of empathy, the interpersonal reactivity index (IRI). The results showed a similar pattern of significant positive relations in all the EI domains with empathic perspective-taking (PT), and significant negative relationships with empathic personal distress (PD), except for the EI domain of attention, which had a positive relationship. Stepwise multiple regression analyses showed that the dimension that best predicted empathic PT and empathic concern (EC) was the emotionality factor; whereas attention best predicted empathic fantasy; and the self-control factor best predicted PD, although negatively. Gender emerged as a predictor of three empathic aspects, fantasy, EC, and PD, with women obtaining higher scores than men in all of them. Age was the only predictor of fantasy, with a negative relationship. The second study involved 646 people who completed the same measures of EI as the participants of the first study and the mini-profile of non-verbal sensitivity (Mini-PONS). The results showed some significant relationships between EI dimensions and the channels and quadrants of the MiniPONS. Stepwise multiple regression analyses showed that very few EI dimensions predicted non-verbal sensitivity, with attention obtaining the best result. Both gender and age emerged as predictors, some in unique cases, of channels, quadrants, and of the total score of non-verbal sensitivity; age had a negative relationship, and women obtained higher scores than men

Combinatorics of the SU(2) black hole entropy in loop quantum gravity

We use the combinatorial and number-theoretical methods developed in previous works by the authors to study black hole entropy in the new proposal put forth by Engle, Noui, and Pérez. Specifically, we give the generating functions relevant for the computation of the entropy and use them to derive its asymptotic behavior, including the value of the Immirzi parameter and the coefficient of the logarithmic correction.The authors want to thank Alejandro Pérez for interesting discussions on this subject. The work was partially supported by the Spanish MICINN research grants FIS2008-01980, FIS2008-03221, FIS2008-06078-C03-02 and ESP2007-66542-C04-01, and the Consolider-Ingenio 2010 Program CPAN (CSD2007-00042). I.A. has been partially supported by RGI founds of the Center of Gravitation and Cosmology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee

Plant community assembly in invaded recipient californian grasslands and putative donor grasslands in Spain

The introduction of exotic species to new regions offers opportunities to test fundamental questions in ecology, such as the context-dependency of community structure and assembly. Annual grasslands provide a model system of a major unidirectional introduction of plant species from Europe to North America. We compared the community structure of grasslands in two Mediterranean regions by surveying plots in Spain and in California with similar environmental and management conditions. All species found in Spanish grasslands were native to Spain, and over half of them (74 of 139 species) are known to have colonized California. In contrast, in California, over half of the species (52 of 95 species) were exotic species, all of them native to Spain. Nineteen species were found in multiple plots in both regions (i.e., shared species). The abundance of shared species in California was either similar to (13 species) or greater than (6 species) in Spain. In California, plants considered pests were more likely than non-pest species to have higher abundance. Co-occurring shared species tended to maintain their relative abundance in native and introduced communities, which indicates that pools of exotic species might assemble similarly at home and away. These findings provide interesting insights into community assembly in novel ecosystems. They also highlight an example of startling global and local floristic homogenization.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades PCI2018-09293