Oxidative stress status in an institutionalised elderly group after the intake of a phenolic-rich dessert

The present study was supported by a grant from Hero España S.A. M. C. R.-T. and J. L. Q. are recipients of a ‘Ramón y Cajal’ contract from the Ministry of Science and Technology and the University of Granada, Spain. We also thank the Fundacio´n Se´neca of the C.A.R.M. (Murcia, Spain) for the fellowship of J. G.-A.The elderly population undergoes a series of physiological and sociological changes common to old age with a high probability of suffering degenerative illness and malnutrition. A dessert rich in phenolic compounds has been designed by using concentrated juices of grape, cherry, blackberry, blackcurrant and raspberry with the aim of it being used as a complementary food in adulthood. In the present study, we investigated the effect of the intake of this dessert (a jar of 200 g daily for a period of 2 weeks), with an antioxidant activity equivalent to ten servings of fruits and vegetables, on several markers of oxidative and antioxidant status in DNA and plasma in a group of elderly individuals. Non-smoking institutionalised elderly subjects were recruited from a pool of volunteers in an old-age home in Murcia (Spain). Twenty-two subjects (six men and sixteen women) participated in the study. The study was designed as a randomised intervention trial with a period of 2 weeks. At days 1 and 15, blood samples were collected to analyse total antioxidant capacity, biochemical parameters, antioxidant vitamins, LDL peroxidation, and DNA damage in peripheral blood lymphocytes. The conclusion of the present study is that a 2-week intervention with our dessert enriched with natural polyphenol compounds in elderly individuals does not give enough time to find changes in the antioxidant and oxidative status. Also, the view that the marked antioxidant ability of polyphenols in vitro does not translate to analogous effects in vivo was confirmed. Moreover, a highly oxidative stress status during ageing was confirmed, together with the need to perform follow-up nutritional studies to improve this situation

Post-Franco Theatre

In the multiple realms and layers that comprise the contemporary Spanish theatrical landscape, “crisis” would seem to be the word that most often lingers in the air, as though it were a common mantra, ready to roll off the tongue of so many theatre professionals with such enormous ease, and even enthusiasm, that one is prompted to wonder whether it might indeed be a miracle that the contemporary technological revolution – coupled with perpetual quandaries concerning public and private funding for the arts – had not by now brought an end to the evolution of the oldest of live arts, or, at the very least, an end to drama as we know it

La Academia del Buen Gusto : estudio y textos

Reducción altaEl presente trabajo consta de dos volúmenes. El primero se inicia con un capitulo introductorio sobre las academias en el siglo XVIII antes de centrarnos en las mismas realizamos un estudio de las academias italianas del renacimiento haciendo un análisis previo de la forma academia analizando la recuperación del termino clásico y el nacimiento del fenómeno moderno. Partiendo de este modelo hacemos un estudio de las academias renacentistas y barrocas españolas incluyendo el de las francesas de este mismo periodo hasta llegar al siglo XVIII. En este siglo Francia con su academia real de ciencias será el modelo seguido por las demás iniciativas europeas. Una vez explicado el proceso de centralización de las academias francesas, analizamos las españolas del XVIII. Dentro de las academias españolas de este siglo XVIII dedicamos un amplio estudio a la academia del buen gusto cuyas actas y papeles se encuentran recogidos en el INS. 18.476 de la biblioteca nacional. Haciendo un análisis del numeroso material hemos podido reconstruir sus constituciones que están perdidas explicando el desarrollo y funcionamiento; su historia interna su vigencia temporal sus fundadores componentes asistentes etc., completamos la historia con la transcripción de las actas de las sesiones y el contenido de las 26 carpetas de que consta el INS. El segundo volumen recoge los textos contenidos en dicho INS. Hemos antepuesto unos criterios y observaciones generales incluyendo textos impresos en 1761 que fueron compuestos para esta academia. ordenamos el material haciendo una clasificación por autores dedicando un apartado a los textos de autor desconocido y otro a los autores ajenos a la academiaUniv. de Granada, Departamento de Filología Española. Leída el 01-07-8

Benito Pérez Galdós

In Galdós\u27 time, the tensions between such diverse phenomena as coins and credit, free trade and protectionist tariffs, factory work and domestic economy, masculine and feminine, and private and public exacerbated friction among peoples—those of pueblo and rural origins, whose voices rasped and whose bright colors raked the eye, and a nascent, insecure bourgeosie who, fearful of the masses, strove to imitate the aristocracy. Old and new converged also with the question of suffrage and citizenship to aggravate social malaise and political upheavals—Carlist wars, palace intrigues, the Revolution of 1868 and overthrow of Queen Isabel, the brief reign of Amadeo of Savoy, the aborted First Republic and the Bourbon Restoration (1875-1885), which reached Spain from England in the imported person of Alfonso XII. These turbulent events undergird the cultural, historical, and political events of the novels by Benito Pérez Galdós (1843–1920) to be discussed in this chapter. Galdós is the author of seventy-seven novels, twenty-six original plays, and numerous occasional pieces, written between 1867 and 1920. These divide into two main categories: the historical and the contemporary social novels, now more appropriately described as novels of modernity The forty-six historical novels, called Episodios nacionales, make up five series, each consisting of ten interconnected novels, except the fifth series, left unfinished. The thirty-one novels of modernity, published between 1870 and 1915, also divide into two groups: Novelas de la primera época ( Novels of the Early Period, 1870–1879) and Las novelas de la serie contemporánea ( The Contemporary Social Novels, 1881–1915). The novels of the early period comprise Galdós\u27 first attempts at novel writing, as well as four so-called thesis novels : Doña Perfecta (1876), the sequel Gloria (1876–1877), Marianela (1878), and La familia de León Roch ( The Family of León Roch, 1878–1879). The next group of novels represents what Galdós called his segunda manera —his second style, a different kind of writing ... a more sophisticated and varied mode of narrative presentation