Palaeoecological data indicates land-use changes across Europe linked to spatial heterogeneity in mortality during the Black Death pandemic.

The Black Death (1347-1352 CE) is the most renowned pandemic in human history, believed by many to have killed half of Europe's population. However, despite advances in ancient DNA research that conclusively identified the pandemic's causative agent (bacterium Yersinia pestis), our knowledge of the Black Death remains limited, based primarily on qualitative remarks in medieval written sources available for some areas of Western Europe. Here, we remedy this situation by applying a pioneering new approach, 'big data palaeoecology', which, starting from palynological data, evaluates the scale of the Black Death's mortality on a regional scale across Europe.

Brazilian montane rainforest expansion induced by Heinrich Stadial 1 event.

The origin of modern disjunct plant distributions in the Brazilian Highlands with strong floristic affinities to distant montane rainforests of isolated mountaintops in the northeast and northern Amazonia and the Guyana Shield remains unknown. We tested the hypothesis that these unexplained biogeographical patterns reflect former ecosystem rearrangements sustained by widespread plant migrations possibly due to climatic patterns that are very dissimilar from present-day conditions. To address this issue, we mapped the presence of the montane arboreal taxa Araucaria, Podocarpus, Drimys, Hedyosmum, Ilex, Myrsine, Symplocos, and Weinmannia, and cool-adapted plants in the families Myrtaceae, Ericaceae, and Arecaceae (palms) in 29 palynological records during Heinrich Stadial 1 Event, encompassing a latitudinal range of 30°S to 0°S.

Assisted diagnosis of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder through EEG bandpower clustering with self-organizing maps.

The electroencephalogram is an attractive clinical tool given its non-invasive nature, its ability to reflect real-time changes in local cortical activity, and the load of objective bioelectrical measurements that can be derived from it. For decades, the electroencephalogram has been successfully used for diagnosing epilepsy and schizophrenia, among other brain disorders. This paper focuses in the design and implementation of a computer-aided diagnostic tool for establishing the likelihood of presence of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder in children, out of routine electroencephalographic recordings obtained during a specific visual stimulation protocol.

[Contribution to the aeromycological study in the atmosphere of the city of Granada (South of Spain): seasonal and daily variations.].

The seasonal and daily variations in the concentrations of certain fungal spores in the atmosphere of the city of Granada (South of Spain) have been studied. Sampling was carried out in 1994 using a Hirst-type volumetric spore trap. The spores analysed correspond to the genera Alternaria, Cladosporium (Cladosporium cladosporioides and Cladosporium herbarum), Fusarium, Stemphylium and Ustilago.

[Aerobiological study of Alternaria and Cladosporium conidia in the atmosphere of Almeria (SE Spain)].

This study analysed the seasonal and intradiurnal behaviour of fungal spores from Alternaria and Cladosporium on air samples collected in the city of Almeria (SE Spain), as well as the influence that meteorological parameters have on the concentration of these type of spores. Aerobiological sampling was made during four years (1998-2001) using a Hirst-type volumetric spore trap. Spores of Alternaria and Cladosporium were detected throughout the year, reaching the highest concentrations from May to October.