The link between water access and subjective well-being: some methods and proposals.

The study of happiness or subjective well-being has traditionally been studied within the disciplines of psychology or sociology. Although economics has contemplated happiness in research terms, it has only recently been studied in any depth. In this paper we offer several proposals in order to investigate the relationship between water access and happiness, suggesting some situations that would merit further research. Moreover, we have included some methodological notes in order to achieve this objective. This relationship can be useful in two ways. Firstly, it can favour the contemplation of water access as a human right. Secondly, it can serve as a framework for the decision-making process carried out by Governments and NGOs in developing countries.

Refining predictions of iberian plant distribution: lessons from p. nigra and p. sylvestris palaeoecological-based habitat suitability models

In recent years, challenged by the climate scenarios put forward by the IPCC and its potential impact on plant distribution, numerous predictive techniques -including the so called habitat suitability models (HSM)- have been developed. Yet, as the output of the different methods produces different distribution areas, developing validation tools are strong needs to reduce uncertainties. Focused in the Iberian Peninsula, we propose a palaeo-based method to increase the robustness of the HSM, by developing an ecological approach to understand the mismatches between the palaeoecological information and the projections of the HSMs. Here, we present the result of (1) investigating causal relationships between environmental variables and presence of Pinus sylvestris L. and P. nigra Arn. available from the 3rd Spanish Forest Inventory, (2) developing present and past presence-predictions through the MaxEnt model for 6 and 21 kyr BP, and (3) assessing these models through comparisons with biomized palaeoecological data available from the European Pollen Database for the Iberian Peninsula

Nurses' sleep quality, work environment and quality of care in the Spanish National Health System: observational study among different shifts

OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to determine the relationship between the characteristics of nurses' work environments in hospitals in the Spanish National Health System (SNHS) with nurse reported quality of care, and how care was provided by using different shifts schemes. The study also examined the relationship between job satisfaction, burnout, sleep quality and daytime drowsiness of nurses and shift work. METHODS: This was a multicentre, observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study, centred on a self-administered questionnaire. The study was conducted in seven SNHS hospitals of different sizes. We recruited 635 registered nurses who worked on day, night and rotational shifts on surgical, medical and critical care units. Their average age was 41.1 years, their average work experience was 16.4 years and 90% worked full time. A descriptive and bivariate analysis was carried out to study the relationship between work environment, quality and safety care, and sleep quality of nurses working different shift patterns. RESULTS: 65.4% (410) of nurses worked on a rotating shift. The Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index classification ranked 20% (95) as favourable, showing differences in nurse manager ability, leadership and support between shifts (p=0.003). 46.6% (286) were sure that patients could manage their self-care after discharge, but there were differences between shifts (p=0.035). 33.1% (201) agreed with information being lost in the shift change, showing differences between shifts (p=0.002). The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index reflected an average of 6.8 (SD 3.39), with differences between shifts (p=0.017). CONCLUSIONS: Nursing requires shift work, and the results showed that the rotating shift was the most common. Rotating shift nurses reported worse perception in organisational and work environmental factors. Rotating and night shift nurses were less confident about patients' competence of self-care after discharge. The most common nursing care omissions reported were related to nursing care plans. For the Global Sleep Quality score, difference were found between day and night shift workers.This study was carried out as part of a project entitled ‘Functioning of the circadian system, working environment, and the organisation of nursing care of hospitals of the National Health System’, financed by the Spanish Health Research Fund (PI 11/00646, Health Ministry), the Ministry of Science and Innovation (SAF2013-49132-C2-1-R) and the Institute of Health Carlos III (RETICEF, RD12/0043/0011, RD12/0043/0006). The project was approved by the Spanish Health Research Fund (Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias PI11/00646).S

Can the Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale (SRRS) Be Used as a Suicide Risk Scale? An Exploratory Study

The objective of this research was to examine whether the Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale, a life event scale, can be used to identify suicide attempters. The Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale\u27s ability to identify suicide attempters was tested in 1183 subjects (478 suicide attempters, 197 psychiatric inpatients, and 508 healthy controls) using the Fisher Linear Discriminant Analysis and traditional psychometric methods. The Fisher Linear Discriminant Analysis outperformed traditional psychometric approaches (area under the curve: 0.85 vs. 0.78; p \u3c 0.05) and indicated that this scale may be used to identify suicide attempters. The life events that better characterized suicide attempters were change in frequency of arguments, marital separation, and personal injury. The Holmes-Rahe Social Readjustment Rating Scale may help identify suicide attempters

Agua-suelo en la agricultura familiar de alta montaña

Producto colegiado entre la investigadora (Dra. Tizbe Arteaga) y mis tesistas de Doctorado en Ciencias Agropecuarias y Recursos Naturales.Consideraciones finales. Debido a que la concepción que se tiene de AF en algunos casos no es aplicable las situaciones actuales, es necesario replantear una definición que se adapte a éstas. La AF en alta montaña se encuentra amenazada principalmente por factores climáticos, condiciones de marginación y falta de infraestructura, ocasionando que los productores busquen alternativas de producción como la rotación y diversificación de cultivos que a su vez está limitada principalmente por dichas condiciones climáticas. Las características físicas y químicas del suelo se han modificado por el uso de agroquímicos en la AF; por lo tanto, es necesario generar opciones productivas que eviten o reduzcan el uso excesivo de agroquímicos sin comprometer la producción para autoconsumo. El recurso agua, al igual que el suelo, es indispensable para la AF en la alta montaña. Un factor de éxito para la distribución de dicho recurso ha sido la capacidad autogestora de las poblaciones que se organizan para su suministro desde el siglo pasado sin la intervención del gobierno; no obstante, existen diferencias en el grado de organización entre las comunidades. A pesar de que la AF de montaña a escala global ha alimentado y sustentado tradicionalmente a las familias, en la actualidad han comenzado a expandirse hacia los mercados mundiales, reduciendo su finalidad de autoconsumo y reconociendo su papel en la protección de la diversidad de la agricultura, el rescate de alimentos tradicionales, la contribución para una dieta equilibrada y la seguridad alimentaria.Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Méxic

Activation of amino acid metabolic program in cardiac HIF1-alpha-deficient mice.

HIF1-alpha expression defines metabolic compartments in the developing heart, promoting glycolytic program in the compact myocardium and mitochondrial enrichment in the trabeculae. Nonetheless, its role in cardiogenesis is debated. To assess the importance of HIF1-alpha during heart development and the influence of glycolysis in ventricular chamber formation, herein we generated conditional knockout models of Hif1a in Nkx2.5 cardiac progenitors and cardiomyocytes. Deletion of Hif1a impairs embryonic glycolysis without influencing cardiomyocyte proliferation and results in increased mitochondrial number and transient activation of amino acid catabolism together with HIF2α and ATF4 upregulation by E12.5. Hif1a mutants display normal fatty acid oxidation program and do not show cardiac dysfunction in the adulthood. Our results demonstrate that cardiac HIF1 signaling and glycolysis are dispensable for mouse heart development and reveal the metabolic flexibility of the embryonic myocardium to consume amino acids, raising the potential use of alternative metabolic substrates as therapeutic interventions during ischemic events.This project has been supported by Fundación Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares Carlos III (CNIC), Spain and by grants to S.M.-P. from the European Research Council, European Union, FP7-PEOPLE-2010-RG_276891; Fundación TV3 La Marató, Spain, 201507.30.31; Comunidad de Madrid (CAM); Spain and European Union (EU), B2017/BMD-3875; Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain, PI17/01817; Universidad Francisco de Vitoria (UFV), Spain and LeDucq Foundation, France, 17CVD04. I.M.-M. was supported by La Caixa-CNIC and Fundacion Alfonso Martín Escudero fellowships, Spain. T.A.-G. was supported by a predoctoral award granted by CAM/EU and UFV, Spain, PEJD-2018-PRE/SAL-9529 and SM-P by a Contrato de Investigadores Miguel Servet (CPII16/00050) and UFV, Spain.S

Shoc2/Sur8 protein regulates neurite outgrowth

This is an openaccess article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License.-- et al.The Shoc2 protein has been implicated in the positive regulation of the Ras-ERK pathway by increasing the functional binding interaction between Ras and Raf, leading to increased ERK activity. Here we found that Shoc2 overexpression induced sustained ERK phosphorylation, notably in the case of EGF stimulation, and Shoc2 knockdown inhibited ERK activation. We demonstrate that ectopic overexpression of human Shoc2 in PC12 cells significantly promotes neurite extension in the presence of EGF, a stimulus that induces proliferation rather than differentiation in these cells. Finally, Shoc2 depletion reduces both NGF-induced neurite outgrowth and ERK activation in PC12 cells. Our data indicate that Shoc2 is essential to modulate the Ras-ERK signaling outcome in cell differentiation processes involved in neurite outgrowth.GL, TG and LMD were recipients of fellowships from the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia (MEC) (to GL, TG), and Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias (FIS) (to LMD). LSR held a postdoctoral research contract from CIBERNED. This work was supported by FIS grant (PI10/00815) to JLO; CIBERNED to MC; SAF2008-01951, Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid (CAM) SSAL-0202-2006-01 and Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red sobre Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CIBERNED) to TI; FIS grant PI12/00775 and ISCIII-RETIC (Red Temática de Investigación Cooperativa en Cáncer) RD12/0036/0027 from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III to PSG; and FIS grants (PI09/0562 and PI13/00703), ISCIIIRETIC (RD06/0020/0003 and RD12/0036/0021), and the Spanish Association Against Cancer (AECC) to JMR.Peer Reviewe