Physical Activity Levels for Girls and Young Adult Women versus Boys and Young Adult Men in Spain: A Gender Gap Analysis

Despite that the health benefits of physical activity (PA) are clear, during the last years, a noticeable plateau or slight increase in physical inactivity levels in Spanish adolescents and young adults has been reported. In addition, there seems to be a progressive reduction of the total PA performed with age in both adolescent and young women as well as adult men. We aimed to analyze these changes with age in moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) in a sample of Spanish adolescents and young adults within the age range of 15−24 years old (n = 7827), considering the gender and using the short form of the International Physical Activity Questionnaire. For that, we implemented a two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) considering both the gender and the age group surveyed. Generally, our findings showed a reduction in the daily MVPA performed from adolescence to young adulthood in Spaniards. Within these reductions, girls reduce their PA levels at a different age and pace in adolescence and young adulthood in comparison to boys. Though girls were less active than boys in the 15−18 year age range, these differences were no longer significant at older ages. Our results point out the necessity of implementing different policy approaches based on gender (i.e., for girls and young women), since reductions in the MVPA performed occur at particular ages and paces in comparison to boys and young men. This difference indicates that the traditional approach during adolescence and young adulthood is inadequate for tackling physical inactivity without considering the population’s gender

Transmedia Context and Twitter As Conditioning the Ecuadorian Government’s Action. The Case of the “Guayaquil Emergency” During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Communication ecosystems have multiplexed and increased their capacity to act, distort, and fight. COVID-19 pandemic and the response of the Ecuadorian Government to it are clear examples of the power of media to erode, to influence, and also to produce fake news. In this context, Twitter has become more than just a social platform, as it helped spread catastrophic pictures of the country, especially of Guayaquil. This article analyzes the tweets posted by the main domestic and global media and by the Ecuadorian government accounts since the outbreak of the pandemic in Ecuador, as well as the interrelations among them and their polarity score. The aim is to show how the government changed its action plan by focusing on exogenous elements that had been excluded from its (pre)established strategy, which consisted in neglecting and deliberately minimizing a situation that turned out to be more serious than officially deemed and that was exposed by unofficial global media

The Role of Exercise-Induced Arousal and Exposure to Blue-Enriched Lighting on Vigilance

It is currently assumed that exposure to an artificial blue-enriched light enhances human alertness and task performance, but recent research has suggested that behavioral effects are influenced by the basal state of arousal. Here, we tested whether the effect of blue-enriched lighting on vigilance performance depends on participants’ arousal level. Twenty-four participants completed four sessions (blue-enriched vs. dim light × low vs. high arousal) at 10 pm on four consecutive days, following a repeated-measures design. Participants’ arousal was manipulated parametrically through the execution of a cycling task at two intensities (low vs. moderate), and was checked by monitoring their heart rate. On each session, distal and proximal skin temperatures were recorded as a neuroergonomic index of vigilance, while participants performed a 20-min psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) under either blue-enriched light or dim light conditions. The Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS), Karolinska Sleepiness Scale (KSS), and Borg Rating of Perceived Exertion Scale (RPE) were used to measure subjective psychological state. The results showed that the exercise-induced manipulation of arousal produced robust alerting effects in most measures, while the lighting manipulation only attenuated subjective sleepiness and enhanced positive affect, but it did not influence behavior or physiology. Acute exposure to a blue-enriched light was practically ineffective when the arousal level was over baseline. The present research favored the use of acute physical exercise over acute exposure to blue-enriched lighting in order to boost humans’ alertness when necessary, as in work settings where maintaining optimal levels of attention is difficult (shift work, night-work, vigilance tasks) and necessary to prevent human error and accidents

Aplicación del programa de Reducción del Estrés Basado en la Atención Plena (REBAP) en pacientes con enfermedad orgánica atendidos en el Programa de Enlace e Interconsultas de Salud Mental. Un estudio piloto

El Programa de Enlace e Interconsultas de Salud Mental del Hospital Universitario “Virgen del Rocío” de Sevilla atiende a pacientes hospitalizados que presentan alteraciones emocionales que repercuten negativamente en su enfermedad (cáncer, dolor crónico, trasplante de órganos, enfermedades crónicas, etc.) e interfieren en su proceso de recuperación. Algunos/as de estos/as pacientes precisan atención psicoterapéutica tras el alta hospitalaria y una posible alternativa eficaz sería la aplicación del programa REBAP (Reducción del estrés basado en la Atención Plena). El principal objetivo del uso de este programa de tratamiento sería que los/as pacientes tomasen una respuesta emocional adaptativa ante la enfermedad orgánica que padecen, de modo que las alteraciones emocionales disminuyeran y dejaran de interferir en el curso de la enfermedad. El presente trabajo recoge los datos de un estudio piloto realizado con un grupo de pacientes a quienes se les aplicó el programa a lo largo de ocho sesiones usando un formato grupal. Los resultados obtenidos apuntan a que el programa REBAP es un instrumento útil para lograr que la sintomatología afectiva de los/as pacientes disminuya, puesto que consiguen preservar su autoestima y aceptar de forma más adaptativa las limitaciones derivadas de su enfermedad física.The Consultation-Liaison Mental Health program of the University Hospital “Virgen del Rocío”, in Seville, assists to patients with emotional disturbances that negatively impact their illness (cancer, chronic pain, organ transplantation, chronic diseases, etc.) and interfere with their recovery process. Some patients require psychotherapeutic care after hospital discharge and a possible effective alternative would be the implementation of the MBSR (Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction) program. The main purpose of this treatment program would be that patients took an adaptive emotional response to the organic disease causing the reduction of the emotional disturbance and stopping the interference in the course of the disease. This paper provides data from a pilot study of a group of patients who were administered the program over eight group sessions. The results indicate that the program is useful to make affective symptomatology decrease, since patients get to preserve their self-esteem and accept in a more adaptively way the limitations imposed by his physical illness

Does Partisan Bias Modulate Neural Processing of Political Information? An Analysis of the Neural Correlates of Corruption and Positive Messages

Daily worldwide newspapers print articles exposing government corruption. Yet these messages do not lead to a loss of votes for the corrupt parties. Sympathizers’ partisan bias, which respectively minimizes and maximizes corruption and positive messages of their own parties respectively, is widely considered the main cause of the loss of effectiveness of political communications. Despite the well-established existence of such bias when processing political information, little is known as to its psychological origin. Through the use of neuroscience (fMRI), this study explores the underlying brain mechanisms of negative (corruption) and positive political messages related to a conservative and a socialist Spanish political party, as well as the differences between their sympathizers. The findings reveal that negative (vs. positive) political messages exert the greatest neuroimaging impact on the electorate, as shown in aversive, risk, and disappointment-related brain regions. Interestingly, we show that there exists a main partisan bias against opposite parties (and not a positive bias toward one’s own party) that stems from a higher risk, ambiguity, and disbelief provoked by both positive and negative information about rival parties. Furthermore, this bias was more pronounced among conservative supporters. The current findings provide valuable insights for political parties to improve their communication campaigns.2018-1

Giant and reversible inverse barocaloric effects near room temperature in ferromagnetic MnCoGeB0.03

Hydrostatic pressure represents an inexpensive and practical method of driving caloric effects in brittle magnetocaloric materials, which display first-order magnetostructural phase transitions whose large latent heats are traditionally accessed using applied magnetic fields. Here, moderate changes of hydrostatic pressure are used to drive giant and reversible inverse barocaloric effects near room temperature in the notoriously brittle magnetocaloric material MnCoGeB0.03. The barocaloric effects compare favorably with those observed in barocaloric materials that are magnetic. The inevitable fragmentation provides a large surface for heat exchange with pressure-transmitting media, permitting good access to barocaloric effects in cooling devices.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Melting of orientational degrees of freedom

We use calorimetry and dilatometry under hydrostatic pressure, X-ray powder diffraction and available literature data in a series of composition-related orientationally disordered (plastic) crystals to characterize both the plastic and melting transitions and investigate relationships between associated thermodynamic properties. First, general common trends are identified: (i) The temperature range of stability of the plastic phase Tm-Tt (where Tt and Tm are the plastic and melting transition temperatures, respectively) increases with increasing pressure and (ii) both the rate of this increase, d(Tm-Tt)/dp, and the entropy change across the plastic transition analyzed as function of the ratio Tt/Tm are quite independent of the particular compound. However, the dependence of the entropy change at the melting transition on Tt/Tm at high pressures deviates from the behavior observed at normal pressure for these and other plastic crystals. Second, we find that the usual errors associated with the estimations of second-order contributions in the Clausius-Clapeyron equation are high and thus these terms can be disregarded in practice. Instead, we successfully test the validity of the Clausius-Clapeyron equation at high pressure from direct measurements. ReferencesPeer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Arquitectura por horas

Los alumnos de proyectos 2 [grupos 9+11] de la E.T.S.A.S. realizan como ejercicio final de curso la acción urbana denominada “arquitectura por horas”, que se muestra en un contexto muy concurrido, La Puerta de Jerez y los espacios de la Casa de la Moneda de Sevilla. Los estudiantes, con esa acción colectiva, persiguen que los habitantes de la calle interactúen con una performance de objetos y descubrir en las reacciones los mecanismos que producen interacciones. La acción convierte la calle en un laboratorio social donde convergen acciones y respuestas. La actividad, que se ha desarrollado bajo el lema 'Reducir, reciclar, reutilizar'. Cinco acciones de ámbito académico pensadas para un contexto urbano que se recicla: usamos su materialidad y añadimos otros materiales procedentes de reciclajes: plástico, papel, metal, neumáticos, embalajes,… Cinco colores concurren sobre el tablero de juego: Negro, rojo, (blanco – verde), (amarillo – ocre), azul. Un contexto, la Casa de la Moneda y su entorno inmediato, previamente analizado y conocido. Las propuestas intentan conjugar planteamientos conceptuales con un proceso metódico de alegorías visuales, que son extremadamente sencillas y no están exentas de humor e ironía. Cinco Instalaciones efímeras que en cinco horas, se montan, interactúan y desaparecen. Se diseña un foro de intercambio de experiencias entre profesores, alumnos, viandantes,... La arquitectura como objeto y descubrimiento que desvela, superado el objeto en sí, como actúa sobre los sujetos y cual es su capacidad de provocar situaciones. El paseante toma partido ante lo insólito, inusual, inesperado,... y la experiencia se convierte en celebración de los pobladores de la calle. Sabemos que lo inusual, en ocasiones pasa inadvertido y en otras se presenta como revulsivo o subversivo. Durante cinco horas registramos imágenes del tránsito para documentar las respuestas a las provocaciones, el comportamiento del espectador ante el objeto. Acciones de réplica o indiferencias.The E.T.S.A.S. students from the course Proyectos2 [groups 9 and 11] performed as final exercise the urban action called “Architecture per hours”, within a concurred context: La Puerta de Jerez and the spaces from la Casa de la Moneda de Sevilla. The students pursue through this collective action that the people on the street interact through a performance with objects so the students can find out by their reactions the motions that the interactions generate. This performance turns the streets into a social laboratory where actions and responses are being converged. In addition, this activity has been worked out by the theme “Reduce, recycle, reuse”. The result is five educational actions thought for a specific context where recycling is important: we use its materiality and we add different materials of recycling, such as plastic, paper, metal, tires, cardboards… Five different colors are being played on the game board: black, red, whitegreen, yellow-ocher and blue. One concrete context: la Casa de la Moneda and its closest surroundings, which we previously analyzed and studied. The proposals try to mix up conceptual ideas with an intentional visual game, whose intentions are extremely simple and not far from humor and irony. In conclusion, five ephemeral interventions which are built, used and disappeared in only five hours. It is designed an exchange forum of collective experiences between professors, students, people on the street… Architecture is like an object which once is overcome, it can find out how to interact with the subjects and how far it can get to provoke a situation. The walking person takes part confronting the unusual, the extraordinary, the unexpected… So this experience is turned into a celebration by its public. We all know that the unusual is rarely noticed except when it shows revulsion or subversive. For more than five hours we recorded images and videos of the public flux so we could document the diverse responses and reactions caused by the objects, even the revulsion actions or the indifferent behaviors

Giant barocaloric effect in all-d-metal Heusler shape memory alloys

We have studied the barocaloric properties associated with the martensitic transition of a shape memory Heulser alloy Ni50Mn31.5Ti18.5 which is composed of all-d-metal elements. The composition of the sample has been tailored to avoid long range ferromagnetic order in both ausenite and martensite. The lack of ferromagnetism results in a weak magnetic contribution to the total entropy change thereby leading to a large transition entropy change. The combination of such a large entropy change and a relatively large volume change at the martensitic transition gives rise to giant barocaloric properties in this alloy. When compared to other shape memory Heusler alloys, our material exhibits values for adiabatic temperature and isothermal entropy changes significantly larger than values reported so far for this class of materials. Furthermore, our Ni50Mn31.5Ti18.5 also compares favourably to the best state-of-the-art magnetic barocaloric materials.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Colossal barocaloric effects in adamantane derivatives for thermal management

Plastic crystals are currently attracting interest because their solid-state caloric functionality could be used to tackle climate change in two critical areas: (i) more environmentally friendly cooling and heating driven by pressure and (ii) passive waste heat management. Here, we suggest that plastic crystals could also be used for active pressure-assisted (i.e., barocaloric) waste heat management. In contrast to the barocaloric cooling/heating cycle, for active barocaloric waste heat management, the hysteresis may not be a constraint and transition temperatures above ambient are usually desired. In contrast to passive waste heat management, the application of pressure can be an advantage to actively control the absorption and delivery of heat by the plastic crystal. Here, we have investigated the pressure-induced caloric response at the first-order phase transitions occurring above room temperature of three plastic crystals derived from adamantane: 1-adamantanol, 2-adamantanol, and 2-methyl-2-adamantanol. Colossal barocaloric effects have been found for two of them under small pressure changes of 50 MPa. This behavior occurs thanks to a colossal transition entropy change and a large transition sensitivity to pressure, which can simultaneously take place due to enormous transition volume changes. The balance between configurational and volumic entropy changes at the transition has also been discussed. For 2-adamantanol, in addition to the transition to the plastic phase, the less energetic triclinic-to-monoclinic transition at lower temperatures has also been analyzed. The transition temperatures above ambient make these compounds suitable for waste heat management and, thanks to a small hysteresis, also for industrial cooling and heat pumping.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version