Burden of Mitral Regurgitation in Spain from 2016-2021: An Analysis by Aetiology and Sex.

: Mitral regurgitation (MR) is the second most common valve disease in Europe, and differences between men and women have been described in relation to aetiology or management, which might impact the decision for intervention and patients' clinical and economic outcomes. Thus, the objective was to analyse the burden of MR in Spain by aetiology and sex, and the management of all patients suffering from MR being admitted to hospital between 2016-2021. : An analysis was carried out with the Ministry of Health's database, including all patients in public and subsidised hospitals and defining two groups, general MR and those patients undergoing Transcatheter Edge-to-Edge repair (TEER), using a descriptive analysis of patients' characteristics, use of resources, and outcomes; standardised rates were calculated and observed outcomes were described.

Do sexual differences in life strategies make male lizards more susceptible to parasite infection?

Female and male hosts may maximise their fitness by evolving different strategies to compensate for the costs of parasite infections. The resulting sexual dimorphism might be apparent in differential relationships between parasite load and body condition, potentially reflecting differences in energy allocation to anti-parasitic defences. For example, male lacertids with high body condition may produce many offspring while being intensely parasitised.

Effect of Solar Pre-Drying and Yeast Starter Inoculation Treatments on the Chemical Composition of Cocoa ( L.) Beans from Southwestern Colombia.

In Southwestern Colombia, cocoa clones are cultivated in which productivity characteristics predominate over bean quality. In this study, cocoa beans of the CCN-51 clone harvested in the Tumaco region (Nariño, Colombia) were fermented following four different treatments: (1) spontaneously (at room temperature for 120 h) in traditional conditions (Control); (2) traditional processing with a pre-drying (sun-dried for 24 h) treatment (PD); (3) with fermentation (for 120 h) after inoculation of a yeast starter culture (YS); and (4) including both treatments, pre-drying and yeast inoculation (PD + YS). Chemical composition, fatty acids, total polyphenol, methylxanthines (theobromine and caffeine) and lactic acid content of cocoa beans were determined.

Coping with drought? The hidden microhabitat selection and underground movements of amphisbaenians under summer drought conditions.

Habitat selection is a dynamic process that depends on many environmental variables that can vary with weather conditions. This is important because, within a context of global change, extreme weather events, such as severe droughts, are predicted to become more frequent. We examined the patterns of microhabitat selection and underground movements (using PIT-tag telemetry) of a strictly fossorial reptile, the North African checkboard amphisbaenian , during the summer drought period.

Dispersive ππ→KK[over ¯] Amplitude and Giant CP Violation in B to Three Light-Meson Decays at LHCb.

The LHCb collaboration has recently reported the largest CP violation effect from a single amplitude, as well as other giant CP asymmetries in several B-meson decays into three charmless light mesons. It is also claimed that this is predominantly due to ππ→KK[over ¯] rescattering in the final state, particularly in the 1 to 1.5 GeV region.