Effects of sex and menstrual cycle phase on cardiac response and alpha- amylase levels in psychosocial stress.

The impact of sex and the menstrual cycle phase on the autonomic response to psychosocial stress remains controversial. This study explored autonomic nervous system activity through salivary alpha-amylase, heart rate, and heart rate variability responses to the Trier Social Stress Test (TSST) in healthy young people. The sample was composed of 25 men, 26 women in the luteal phase, and 25 women in the follicular phase, from 18 to 25 years of age.

Ecotoxicoproteomics: A decade of progress in our understanding of anthropogenic impact on the environment.

Anthropogenic pollutants are found worldwide. Their fate and effects on human and ecosystem health must be appropriately monitored. Today, ecotoxicology is focused on the development of new methods to assess the impact of pollutant toxicity on living organisms and ecosystems.

Toxic corneal reaction due to exposure to palytoxin.

A case is presented of corneal toxicity after exposure to palytoxin. A 42 year-old man came with symptoms of pain and blurred vision in his right eye. He reported that a zoanthid coral from a saltwater aquarium had squirted into his eye.

Acute psychosocial stress effects on memory performance: Relevance of age and sex.

In recent decades, there has been a growing interest in investigating the effects of chronic and acute stress on cognitive processes, especially memory performance. However, research focusing on acute stress effects has reported contradictory findings, probably due to the many factors that can moderate this relationship. In addition to factors related to the individual, such as sex and age, other factors, such as the type of memory assessed, can play a critical role in the direction of these effects.

Inhibition Studies with 2-Bromoethanesulfonate Reveal a Novel Syntrophic Relationship in Anaerobic Oleate Degradation.

Degradation of long-chain fatty acids (LCFAs) in methanogenic environments is a syntrophic process involving the activity of LCFA-degrading bacteria and hydrogen-utilizing methanogens. If methanogens are inhibited, other hydrogen scavengers are needed to achieve complete LCFA degradation. In this work, we developed two different oleate (C LCFA)-degrading anaerobic enrichment cultures, one methanogenic (ME) and another in which methanogenesis was inhibited (IE).

CNS lymphatic drainage and neuroinflammation are regulated by meningeal lymphatic vasculature.

Neuroinflammatory diseases, such as multiple sclerosis, are characterized by invasion of the brain by autoreactive T cells. The mechanism for how T cells acquire their encephalitogenic phenotype and trigger disease remains, however, unclear. The existence of lymphatic vessels in the meninges indicates a relevant link between the CNS and peripheral immune system, perhaps affecting autoimmunity.

Differences in Visual Attention Patterns to Sexually Mature and Immature Stimuli Between Heterosexual Sexual Offenders, Nonsexual Offenders, and Nonoffending Men.

Men, whether gynephilic or androphilic, show both early and late attention toward adults and not toward children. We examined early and late visual attention to sexually mature versus immature stimuli in four groups of heterosexual men: sexual offenders against children (SOAC = 18), sexual offenders against adults (SOAA = 16), nonsexual offenders (NSO = 18), and nonoffending men (NOM = 19). We simultaneously presented adult and child stimuli and measured time to first fixation, number of first fixations, total duration of fixation, and fixation count to four areas of interest: entire body, then face, chest, and pelvis.

Current trends on the determination of organic UV filters in environmental water samples based on microextraction techniques - A review.

UV filters are a group of cosmetic ingredients commonly used in a wide variety of cosmetic products to protect users from UV solar radiation. They belong to different chemical families, such as benzophenones, p-aminobenzoates, salicylates, cinnamates, benzotriazoles, benzimidazoles, camphor derivatives, triazines, etc. These cosmetic ingredients are considered as emerging contaminants since they easily reach the aquatic environment, where they are accumulated causing harmful effects in the flora and fauna despite being present at the ng L level.

The relationship between cortisol and cognitive function in healthy older people: The moderating role of Apolipoprotein E polymorphism.

The Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE-ε4) allele has been suggested as the main risk factor for late onset Alzheimer's disease (AD), whereas the ApoE-ε2 allele has been proposed as a protective factor. These proposals have increased the interest in the effect of the ApoE genotype in healthy people. Additionally, high cortisol levels have been related to negative effects on cognition.

Methane Production and Conductive Materials: A Critical Review.

Conductive materials (CM) have been extensively reported to enhance methane production in anaerobic digestion processes. The occurrence of direct interspecies electron transfer (DIET) in microbial communities, as an alternative or complementary to indirect electron transfer (via hydrogen or formate), is the main explanation given to justify the improvement of methane production. Not disregarding that DIET can be promoted in the presence of certain CM, it surely does not explain all the reported observations.

Unconscious memory suppression.

Recent evidence suggests that high-level executive control can occur unconsciously. In this study, we tested whether unconscious executive control extends to memory retrieval and forgetting. In a first experiment, participants learned word-word associations and were trained to either actively recall or forget theses associations in response to conscious visual cues (Think/No-Think paradigm).

Barriers to and facilitators for using a risk assessment tool to prevent violent behaviour in patients with mental health conditions: Perspectives of health care providers.

Unlabelled: Regular assessment of risk of violence is shown to be effective in reducing violence in mental health services.

Purpose: To evaluate health care providers' use of a violence risk assessment tool on a mental health unit and the facilitators for and barriers to its use.

Methods: A descriptive study using the Dillman approach and informed by the Knowledge to Action framework was conducted.

Family Management of Pediatric Cancer: Links with Parenting Satisfaction and Psychological Distress.

Research has long acknowledged the disruptions posed by pediatric cancer diagnosis and treatment to family life. Nonetheless, the mechanisms through which the family response influences parents' mental health in this adverse context are not fully understood. The main goal of the present study was to examine the direct and indirect links, via parenting satisfaction, between family condition management and psychological distress of parents of children with cancer.

Good decision-making is associated with an adaptive cardiovascular response to social competitive stress.

Competition elicits different psychological and cardiovascular responses depending on a person's skills. Decision-making has been considered a distal factor that influences competition, but there are no studies analyzing this relationship. Our objective was to analyze whether decision-making affects the response to competition.

Expanding the application of stir bar sorptive-dispersive microextraction approach to solid matrices: Determination of ultraviolet filters in coastal sand samples.

This work describes a new method for the determination of organic compounds in solid samples based on the equilibrium desorption of the analytes in an aqueous phase followed by stir bar sorptive-dispersive microextraction (SBSDME). Sand samples, contaminated with UV filters due to bathing and recreational activities, were dispersed in an aqueous medium by using a coated stir bar with CoFeO@oleic acid magnetic nanoparticles. The UV filters were physically desorbed from the surface of the sand particles and rapidly adsorbed on the hydrophobic coating of the nanoparticles, which were retrieved by means of their magnetism after stopping the stirring.

Determination of N-nitrosamines in cosmetic products by vortex-assisted reversed-phase dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction and liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry.

A new analytical method for the simultaneous determination of trace levels of seven prohibited N-nitrosamines (N-nitrosodimethylamine, N-nitrosoethylmethylamine, N-nitrosopyrrolidine, N-nitrosodiethylamine, N-nitrosopiperidine, N-nitrosomorpholine, and N-nitrosodiethanolamine) in cosmetic products has been developed. The method is based on vortex-assisted reversed-phase dispersive liquid-liquid microextraction, which allows the extraction of highly polar compounds, followed by liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry. The variables involved in the extraction process were studied to obtain the highest enrichment factor.

Quantitative Assessment of Methods Used To Obtain Rate Constants from Molecular Dynamics Simulations-Translocation of Cholesterol across Lipid Bilayers.

Accurately calculating rate constants of macroscopic chemical processes from molecular dynamics simulations is a long-sought but elusive goal. The problem is particularly relevant for processes occurring in biological systems, as is the case for ligand-protein and ligand-membrane interactions. Several formalisms to determine rate constants from easily accessible free-energy profiles [Δ G( z)] of a molecule along a coordinate of interest have been proposed.

Sensory characterization of juice obtained via rehydration of freeze-dried and spray-dried grapefruit.

Background: The acceptability of grapefruit juice obtained from rehydrated freeze-dried and spray-dried fruit was studied and compared with that of natural freshly squeezed juice and that of a commercial juice. The rheological properties, colour and solute concentration were determined. A sensory evaluation was developed to evaluate juice acceptability.

Gluten-free biscuits based on composite rice-chickpea flour and xanthan gum.

A gluten-free biscuit for celiac children based on composite rice-chickpea flour was developed. Xanthan gum was used to overcome the handling difficulties associated with the absence of gluten in the rice-chickpea flour. The effect of different levels of xanthan gum incorporation (0.

Impact of ischaemia-reperfusion cycles during ischaemic preconditioning on 2000-m rowing ergometer performance.

Purpose: Although ischaemic preconditioning (IPC), induced by cycles of transient limb ischaemia and reperfusion, seems to improve exercise performance, the optimal duration of ischaemia-reperfusion cycles is not established. The present study investigated the effect of ischaemia-reperfusion duration within each IPC cycle on performance in a 2000-m rowing ergometer test.

Methods: After incremental and familiarization tests, 16 trained rowers (mean ± SD: age, 24 ± 11 years; weight, 74.

Insight into the Role of Facultative Bacteria Stimulated by Microaeration in Continuous Bioreactors Converting LCFA to Methane.

Conversion of unsaturated long chain fatty acids (LCFA) to methane in continuous bioreactors is not fully understood. Palmitate (C16:0) often accumulates during oleate (C18:1) biodegradation in methanogenic bioreactors, and the reason why this happens and which microorganisms catalyze this reaction remains unknown. Facultative anaerobic bacteria are frequently found in continuous reactors operated at high LCFA loads, but their function is unclear.

Psychophysiological response to social stressors: Relevance of sex and age.

Background: Understanding the factors involved in the psychophysiological response of people in acute stressful situations is crucial to the prevention and treatment of stress-related health problems. We aim to integrate the results of studies investigating the role of sex and age in the inter-individual variability in several biomarkers of the stress response.

Methods: We summarize the main findings of our research group and other laboratories regarding sex and age-related differences in the psychophysiological response to psychosocial stress.

Inhibiting Fibronectin Attenuates Fibrosis and Improves Cardiac Function in a Model of Heart Failure.

Background: Fibronectin (FN) polymerization is necessary for collagen matrix deposition and is a key contributor to increased abundance of cardiac myofibroblasts (MFs) after cardiac injury. We hypothesized that interfering with FN polymerization or its genetic ablation in fibroblasts would attenuate MF and fibrosis and improve cardiac function after ischemia/reperfusion (I/R) injury.

Methods: Mouse and human MFs were used to assess the impact of the FN polymerization inhibitor (pUR4) in attenuating pathological cellular features such as proliferation, migration, extracellular matrix deposition, and associated mechanisms.

Stoma reversal after surgery for complicated acute diverticulitis: A multicentre retrospective study.

Unlabelled: INTRODUCTION THE AIM: was to analyse the stoma reversal rate after surgery for complicated acute diverticulitis (CAD), and more specifically the end-stoma-reversal, as well as the delay, feasibility, complications and risk factors for stoma maintenance.

Methods: A multicentre retrospective study of patients who had undergone urgent surgery for CAD with stoma formation in ten hospitals during a period of 6 years. The frequency of reversal over time and the factors affecting the decision for reversal were analysed.

Assessing the antecedents and consequences of threat appraisal of an acute psychosocial stressor: the role of optimism, displacement behavior, and physiological responses.

The feeling of stress is increasing in today's societies, particularly in young adults subjected to social evaluative situations in highly competitive academic and work contexts. Threat appraisal is a primary and fundamental reaction when people face a stressful situation. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of dispositional optimism as an antecedent and displacement behavior as a consequence of threat appraisal of a social-evaluative situation of stress.