Mercury and selenium binding biomolecules in terrestrial mammals (Cervus elaphus and Sus scrofa) from a mercury exposed area

Acknowledgements The authors are grateful to Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha (PCC-05-004-2, PAI06-0094, PCI-08-0096, PEII09-0032-5329) and the Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (CTQ2013-48411-P) for financial support. M.J. Patiño Ropero acknowledges the Junta de Comunidades de Castilla-La Mancha for her PhD. fellowship.Peer reviewedPostprin

Evidencia empírica de la adquisición de la competencia de resolución de problemas

La formación en la competencia de resolución de problemas es ampliamente demandada por el ámbito laboral. Este hecho hace necesario un examen preciso de la contribución de los estudios universitarios en la adquisición de dicha competencia. En el presente trabajo se mide y analiza el nivel de adquisición de la competencia de resolución de problemas de 742 alumnos del Grado en Administración y Dirección de Empresas (GADE), en dos universidades españolas, a lo largo de los cuatro cursos que conforman la carrera, empleando como instrumento de medida el Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised (SPSI-R). Los resultados muestran que los estudiantes tienen un nivel medio de destreza en todos los cursos. Se advierte, además, un aumento de su adquisición a lo largo de la carrera, aunque sin diferencias significativas entre los cursos. Tomados en conjunto, los resultados revelan que la formación proporcionada no contribuye lo necesario al proceso de formación de los futuros profesionales en esta habilidad.Training in problem solving is in high demand in the job market. This in turn necessitates a close examination of the contribution of university studies in the acquisition of such skills. In this article we assess and analyze the level of acquisition of problem-solving skills in 742 students in the Degree Program in Business Administration and Management (Spanish acronym GADE), through the four courses in the curriculum, using the Social Problem-Solving Inventory-Revised (SPSI-R) as measuring instrument. The results show that students have a medium skill level in all the courses. Also, we observe an increase in acquisition as they progress through the program, although without significant differences between courses. Taken together, the results show that the training provided fails to make the necessary contribution to the process of preparing future professionals in this area

Pulsational frequencies of the eclipsing delta-Scuti star HD 172189

The eclipsing delta-Scuti star HD 172189 is a probable member of the open cluster IC 4756 and a promising candidate target for the CoRoT mission. The detection of pulsation modes is the first step in the asteroseismological study of the star. Further, the calculation of the orbital parameters of the binary system allows us to make a dynamical determination of the mass of the star, which works as an important constraint to test and calibrate the asteroseismological models. From a detailed frequency analysis of 210 hours of photometric data of HD 172189 obtained from the STEPHI XIII campaign we have identified six pulsation frequencies with a confidence level of 99% and a seventh with a 65% confidence level in the range between 100-300 uHz. In addiction, three eclipses were observed during the campaign, allowing us to improve the determination of the orbital period of the system.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figure

Gender differences in GPs' strategies for coping with the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic in Catalonia: A cross-sectional study

The Covid-19 pandemic has increased stress levels in GPs, who have resorted to different coping strategies to deal with this crisis. Gender differences in coping styles may be contributing factors in the development of psychological distress.To identify differences by gender and by stress level in coping strategies of GPs during the Covid-19 pandemic.A cross-sectional, web-based survey conducted with GPs in Catalonia (Spain), in June-July 2021. via the institution's email distribution list, all GPs members of the Catalan Society of Family and Community Medicine were invited to complete a survey assessing sociodemographic, health and work-related characteristics, experienced stress (Stress scale of the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales-DASS 21) and the frequency of use of a range of coping strategies (Brief-COPE) classified as problem-focused, emotion-focused and avoidant strategies, some of which are adaptive and others maladaptive. We compared the scores of each strategy by gender and stress level using Student's t-test.Of 4739 members, 522 GPs participated in the study (response rate 11%; 79.1% women; mean age = 46.9?years, SD?=?10.5). Of these, 41.9% reported moderate-severe stress levels. The most common coping strategies were acceptance, active coping, planning, positive reframing and venting. More frequently than men, women resorted to emotional and instrumental support, venting, distraction and self-blame, whereas men used acceptance and humour more commonly than women. Moderate-severe stress levels were associated with non-adaptive coping, with increased use of avoidance strategies, self-blame, religion and venting, and decreased use of positive reframing and acceptance.The most common coping strategies were adaptive and differed by gender. However, highly stressful situations caused maladaptive strategies to emerge

Orientational transitions in a nematic confined by competing surfaces

The effect of confinement on the orientational structure of a nematic liquid crystal model has been investigated by using a version of density-functional theory (DFT). We have focused on the case of a nematic confined by opposing flat surfaces, in slab geometry (slit pore), which favor planar molecular alignment (parallel to the surface) and homeotropic alignment (perpendicular to the surface), respectively. The spatial dependence of the tilt angle of the director with respect to the surface normal has been studied, as well as the tensorial order parameter describing the molecular order around the director. For a pore of given width, we find that, for weak surface fields, the alignment of the nematic director is perpendicular to the surface in a region next to the surface favoring homeotropic alignment, and parallel along the rest of the pore, with a interface separating these regions (S phase). For strong surface fields, the director is distorted uniformly, the tilt angle exhibiting a linear dependence with the distance normal to the surface (L phase). Our calculations reveal the existence of a first-order transition between the two director configurations, which is driven by changes in the surface field strength, and also by changes in the pore width. In the latter case the transition occurs, for a given surface field, between the S phase for narrow pores and the L phase for wider pores. A link between the L-S transition and the anchoring transition observed for the semi-infinite case is proposed. We also provide calculations with a phenomenological approach that yields the same main result that DFT in the scale length where this is valid.Comment: submitted to PR

Raman phonons as a probe of disorder, fluctuations and local structure in doped and undoped orthorhombic and rhombohedral manganites

We present a rationalization of the Raman spectra of orthorhombic and rhombohedral, stoichiometric and doped, manganese perovskites. In particular we study RMnO3 (R= La, Pr, Nd, Tb, Ho, Er, Y and Ca) and the different phases of Ca or Sr doped RMnO3 compounds as well as cation deficient RMnO3. The spectra of manganites can be understood as combinations of two kinds of spectra corresponding to two structural configurations of MnO6 octahedra and independently of the average structure obtained by diffraction techniques. The main peaks of compounds with regular MnO6 octahedra, as CaMnO3, highly Ca doped LaMnO3 or the metallic phases of Ca or Sr doped LaMnO3, are bending and tilt MnO6 octahedra modes which correlate to R-O(1) bonds and Mn-O-Mn angles respectively. In low and optimally doped manganites, the intensity and width of the broad bands are related to the amplitude of the dynamic fluctuations produced by polaron hopping in the paramagnetic insulating regime. The activation energy, which is proportional to the polaron binding energy, is the measure of this amplitude. This study permits to detect and confirm the coexistence, in several compounds, of a paramagnetic matrix with lattice polaron together with regions without dynamic or static octahedron distortions, identical to the ferromagnetic metallic phase. We show that Raman spectroscopy is an excellent tool to obtain information on the local structure of the different micro or macro-phases present simultaneously in many manganites.Comment: Submitted to PR

Editorial: Rising stars in biofilms 2022

[Excerpt] The emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, including globally-disseminated multidrug-resistant strains, has become one of the most alarming threats for human health. Fundamentally originated by an inadequate use of antibiotics in clinical and nonclinical settings, infections caused by multidrug-resistant bacteria are currently responsible for around two million deaths each year and are estimated to be the cause of death of as many as 10 million people yearly by 2050 (O'Neill, 2016).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Large scale grain mantle disruption in the Galactic Center

We present observations of C2H5OH toward molecular clouds in Sgr A, Sgr B2 and associated with thermal and non-thermal features in the Galactic center. C2H5OH emission in Sgr A and Sgr B2 is widespread, but not uniform. C2H5OH emission is much weaker or it is not detected in some molecular clouds in both complexes, in particular those with radial velocities between 70 and 120 km/s. While most of the clouds associated with the thermal features do not show C2H5OH emission, that associated with the Non-Thermal Radio Arc shows emission. The fractional abundance of C2H5OH in most of the clouds with radial velocities between 0 and 70 km/s in Sgr A and Sgr B2 is relatively high, of few 1e-8. The C2H5OH abundance decreases by more than one order of magnitude (aprox. 1e-9) in the clouds associated with the thermal features. The large abundance of C2H5OH in the gas-phase indicates that C2H5OH has formed in grains and released to gas-phase by shocks in the last aprox. 1e5 years.Comment: In press in Astrophysical Journal Letters 7 pages, 1 table, 1 figur