Publications by authors named "Ana Maria Fernandez"

Evidence is abundant that evolution by selection has produced sex differences in the design of adaptations to solve the problems surrounding reproduction. A prime example is the design of human jealousy, which research suggests is triggered by distinct evoking acts that are specific challenges for women and men in their exclusive reproductive bond. It follows that jealousy would be directed toward driving away interlopers who could potentially threaten the bond with the romantic partner or increase mate retention efforts in response to sex-specific threats.

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Ettringite is an important mineral that contributes to the overall performance of cementitious materials. Knowledge of the surface charge behaviour of a solid is necessary for a mechanistic description of surface processes such as adsorption or particle-particle interactions. The objective of this study was to develop a model capable of reproducing ettringite surface charge as a function of calcium, sulphate, and pH.

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The effects of biodiversity on ecological processes have been experimentally evaluated mainly at the local scale under homogeneous conditions. To scale up experimentally based biodiversity-functioning relationships, there is an urgent need to understand how such relationships are affected by the environmental heterogeneity that characterizes larger spatial scales. Here, we tested the effects of an 800-m elevation gradient (a large-scale environmental factor) and forest habitat (a fine-scale factor) on litter diversity-decomposition relationships.

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Romantic love and jealousy seem antagonistic, but the expression of both emotions have evolutionary functions that can go in the same direction of maintaining a relationship. Considering natural selection designed adaptations to solve the problems surrounding reproduction, then love and romantic jealousy are emotions aimed at staying cooperative for a period of time, where love solves the adaptive challenges of promoting pair bonding, cooperation, and protecting offspring; and jealousy is triggered by a threat or the loss of a valuable cooperative relationship, either on behalf of descendants in need of resources, or a close romantic bond. Consequently, understanding love and romantic jealousy points in the same adaptive functional domain of protecting a romantic pair bond.

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Mate value is an important concept in mate choice research although its operationalization and understanding are limited. Here, we reviewed and evaluated previously established conceptual and methodological approaches measuring mate value and presented original research using individual differences in how people view themselves as a face-valid proxy for mate value in long- and short-term contexts. In data from 41 nations (N = 3895, M = 24.

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People vary both in their embrace of their society's traditions, and in their perception of hazards as salient and necessitating a response. Over evolutionary time, traditions have offered avenues for addressing hazards, plausibly resulting in linkages between orientations toward tradition and orientations toward danger. Emerging research documents connections between traditionalism and threat responsivity, including pathogen-avoidance motivations.

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The COVID-19 pandemic caused drastic social changes for many people, including separation from friends and coworkers, enforced close contact with family, and reductions in mobility. Here we assess the extent to which people's evolutionarily-relevant basic motivations and goals-fundamental social motives such as Affiliation and Kin Care-might have been affected. To address this question, we gathered data on fundamental social motives in 42 countries ( = 15,915) across two waves, including 19 countries (  10,907) for which data were gathered both before and during the pandemic (pre-pandemic wave: 32 countries,  = 8998; 3302 male, 5585 female;   24.

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Differences in attitudes on social issues such as abortion, immigration and sex are hugely divisive, and understanding their origins is among the most important tasks facing human behavioural sciences. Despite the clear psychological importance of parenthood and the motivation to provide care for children, researchers have only recently begun investigating their influence on social and political attitudes. Because socially conservative values ostensibly prioritize safety, stability and family values, we hypothesized that being more invested in parental care might make socially conservative policies more appealing.

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How does psychology vary across human societies? The fundamental social motives framework adopts an evolutionary approach to capture the broad range of human social goals within a taxonomy of ancestrally recurring threats and opportunities. These motives-self-protection, disease avoidance, affiliation, status, mate acquisition, mate retention, and kin care-are high in fitness relevance and everyday salience, yet understudied cross-culturally. Here, we gathered data on these motives in 42 countries (N = 15,915) in two cross-sectional waves, including 19 countries (N = 10,907) for which data were gathered in both waves.

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Jealousy is an affective state activated by a perceived threat to a valued relationship by a third party. On average, males report higher distress about their partner's sexual extra-pair involvement, while females show higher emotional jealousy. These sex differences are specific to heterosexuals and to contexts with potential reproductive costs.

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Jealousy protests have been linked to the intrusion of social rivals challenging infants' exclusive access to maternal care and resources that typically accompany attachment. Previous studies revealed that the experimental presentation of social rivals evokes protest in as early as 6 months old infants. This study replicated research on jealousy protests in a novel language and sociocultural context with 10-20 months old infants.

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Sleep disturbances are common during aging. Compared to young animals, old mice show altered sleep structure, with changes in both slow and fast electrocorticographic (ECoG) activity and fewer transitions between sleep and wake stages. Insulin-like growth factor I (IGF-I), which is involved in adaptive changes during aging, was previously shown to increase ECoG activity in young mice and monkeys.

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Alexithymia is a trait composed of difficulties identifying feelings (DIF), difficulties describing feelings (DDF), and externally orientated thinking (EOT). It is an important transdiagnostic risk factor for psychosomatic disorders and other types of emotion-based psychopathologies, and can reduce the efficacy of some treatment approaches. Alexithymia assessments are therefore important in psychiatric and research settings.

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Article Synopsis
  • - This study investigates how natural antimicrobial peptides in saliva can damage the bacteria Enterococcus faecalis and Streptococcus mutans, which are important in dental infections and tooth decay.
  • - Researchers used transmission electron microscopy to analyze what happens to these bacteria when exposed to specific salivary peptides, finding significant morphological damage and reduced bacterial numbers.
  • - The findings suggest that understanding the effects of these peptides could lead to new treatments to help eliminate harmful bacteria in the mouth.
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We evaluated the psychometric properties of the empathy quotient (EQ) scale translated to Spanish in Chile. We estimated its structural validity, and its construct validity with other convergent measures of empathy and attachment, as well an inversely associated construct such as aggression. We used a general sample of students and community individuals (n = 336).

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Over the past 10 years, Oosterhof and Todorov's valence-dominance model has emerged as the most prominent account of how people evaluate faces on social dimensions. In this model, two dimensions (valence and dominance) underpin social judgements of faces. Because this model has primarily been developed and tested in Western regions, it is unclear whether these findings apply to other regions.

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Article Synopsis
  • The purpose of the study was to create a model that improves the clinical management of diabetic macular edema (DME) patients in real-world scenarios by establishing a set of excellence guidelines.
  • A multidisciplinary team developed and validated these guidelines based on input from clinical activities at 8 hospitals and discussions with DME patients, with a scoring system to measure adherence.
  • Results showed a mean score of 51.5 out of 100 across hospitals, with strong performance in clinical guidelines and services but weaker scores in areas like strategic alliances and staffing, highlighting where improvements are needed for future implementation.
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Concerns have been growing about the veracity of psychological research. Many findings in psychological science are based on studies with insufficient statistical power and nonrepresentative samples, or may otherwise be limited to specific, ungeneralizable settings or populations. Crowdsourced research, a type of large-scale collaboration in which one or more research projects are conducted across multiple lab sites, offers a pragmatic solution to these and other current methodological challenges.

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We investigated the mechanisms of interactions between divalent aqueous Hg and rock samples originating from an outcropping rock formation, the Albian Tégulines Clay (France, Aube). Two solid samples collected at two different depths (7.7 and 21.

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The full crystal structure of the copper-uranyl tetrahydroxide mineral (vandenbrandeite), including the positions of the hydrogen atoms, is established by the first time from X-ray diffraction data taken from a natural crystal sample from the Musonoi Mine, Katanga Province, Democratic Republic of Congo. The structure is verified using first-principles solid-state methods. From the optimized structure, the mechanical and dynamical stability of vandenbrandeite is studied and a rich set of mechanical properties are determined.

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Peat layers within alluvial sediments are considered effective arsenic (As) sinks under reducing conditions due to the binding of As(III) to thiol groups in natural organic matter (NOM) and the formation of As-bearing sulfide phases. However, their possible role as sources of As for anoxic groundwaters remains unexplored. Here, we perform laboratory experiments to provide evidence for the role of a sediment peat layer in releasing As.

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Romantic mouth-to-mouth kissing is culturally widespread, although not a human universal, and may play a functional role in assessing partner health and maintaining long-term pair bonds. Use and appreciation of kissing may therefore vary according to whether the environment places a premium on good health and partner investment. Here, we test for cultural variation (13 countries from six continents) in these behaviours/attitudes according to national health (historical pathogen prevalence) and both absolute (GDP) and relative wealth (GINI).

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The growing use of antidepressants in recent years has led to their increasing presence in forensic analyses. In this work, microextraction by packed sorbent followed by ultra-performance liquid chromatography with photodiode array detection provided a fast method for determining the antidepressants mirtazapine, venlafaxine, escitalopram, fluoxetine, fluvoxamine, and sertraline in human urine. The microextraction conditions (viz.

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The structure, thermodynamic and mechanical properties of becquerelite mineral, Ca(UO)O(OH)·8HO, were studied by means of theoretical solid-state calculations based on density functional theory using plane waves and pseudopotentials. The positions of the hydrogen atoms in the unit cell of becquerelite mineral were optimized theoretically since it was not possible to determine them from X-ray diffraction data by structure refinement. The structural results, including the lattice parameters, bond lengths and X-ray powder pattern, were found to be in excellent agreement with their experimental counterparts.

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