Pitahaya or dragon fruit is an exotic fruit native to Mesoamerica and is cultivated in several regions of the world. In recent years, pitahaya has become increasingly in demand, firstly, for its good nutritional and organoleptic qualities and, secondly, for its richness in antioxidants and bioactive compounds. Spain has opted for new tropical crops, and among them, pitahaya is one of the most planted in recent years.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe have (i) little knowledge about where the fastest professional IRONMAN triathletes originate from and where the fastest races take place and (ii) we have no knowledge of the optimal weather conditions for an IRONMAN triathlon. The aims of the present study were, therefore, (i) to investigate the origin and the fastest IRONMAN race courses for professional triathletes and (ii) to evaluate the best environmental conditions (i.e.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt is well known that elite athletes of specific ethnicities and/or nationalities dominate certain sports disciplines (e.g., East Africans in marathon running).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Ultra-marathon running races are held as distance-limited or time-limited events, ranging from 6 h to 10 days. Only a few runners compete in 10-day events, and so far, we have little knowledge about the athletes' origins, performance, and event characteristics. The aim of the present study was to investigate the origin and performance of these runners and the fastest race locations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The IRONMAN® (IM) triathlon is a popular multi-sport, where age group athletes often strive to qualify for the IM World Championship in Hawaii. The aim of the present study was to investigate the location of the fastest IM racecourses for age group IM triathletes. This knowledge will help IM age group triathletes find the best racecourse, considering their strengths and weaknesses, to qualify.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDepression is an important public health issue. In the general adult population, about 6.7% are affected.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBrassinosteroids (BRs), a new family of plant hormones, have been used in a range of food staples, oil crops, and cereals. However, the scientific literature pertaining to their use in fleshy fruits remains scarce. This review presents, for the first time, the knowledge developed over the last decade on the role of BR preharvest treatments in crop yield and fruit quality properties at harvest and during storage, although information about the effects of BR postharvest treatments is also addressed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFExtensive research has delved into the impact of environmental circumstances on the pacing and performance of professional marathon runners. However, the effects of environmental conditions on the pacing strategies employed by marathon participants in general remain relatively unexplored. This study aimed to examine the potential associations between various environmental factors, encompassing temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, precipitation, sunshine, cloud cover, wind speed, and dew point, and the pacing behavior of men and women.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The sex difference in athletic performance has been thoroughly investigated in single sport disciplines such as swimming, cycling, and running. In contrast, only small samples of long-distance triathlons, such as the IRONMAN® triathlon, have been investigated so far.
Aim: The aim of the study was to examine potential sex differences in the three split disciplines by age groups in 5-year intervals in a very large data set of IRONMAN® age group triathletes.
Background: While water availability is important for quality at harvest, it also continues to influence the quality of pomegranates during storage. Reducing the amount of irrigation, in addition to water saving has different effects on bioactive compounds of pomegranate during storage time. This study was conducted to determine the influence of irrigation level on fruit quality changes during storage period of two commercial Iranian pomegranate cultivars ('Shishecap' and 'Malas-Yazdi').
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLemon fruit ( (L.) Burm.) is highly appreciated by consumers due to its antioxidant properties and health benefits.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe majority of participants in Ironman triathlon races are age group athletes. We have extensive knowledge about recreational athletes' training and competition participation. Nonetheless, Ironman age group triathletes must achieve fast race times to qualify for the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAvocado ( Mill.) is a subtropical climacteric fruit with a limited shelf life due to its high sensitivity to low temperatures. Chilling injury (CI) produced by cold storage displays symptoms in avocado fruit such as irregular ripening, darkening of the mesocarp, hardening of vascular strands, lipid oxidation with "off flavors", and pitting and darkening of the skin, increasing weight loss.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study intended to determine the nationality of the fastest 100-mile ultra-marathoners and the country/events where the fastest 100-mile races are held. A machine learning model based on the XG Boost algorithm was built to predict the running speed from the athlete's age (Age group), gender (Gender), country of origin (Athlete country) and where the race occurred (Event country). Model explainability tools were then used to investigate how each independent variable influenced the predicted running speed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFScientific evidence has shown that Social Work has frequently been considered a second-level discipline in the traditional sexist hierarchy, because pioneers and most social workers are women. The twofold objective of this article is to analyze the dynamics that overcome this consideration and to put forward actions to go further in the near future. The factors that limit these actions and those that make them possible are studied.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFYellow pitahaya is a tropical fruit that has gained popularity in recent years. Natural elicitors are compounds that can stimulate the resistance and quality of fruits. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of natural elicitors, methyl salicylate (MeSa), methyl jasmonate (JaMe), salicylic acid (SA) and oxalic acid (OA) at concentrations of 0.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFLemon is a fruit rich in antioxidant properties and has several health benefits, namely the reduction of skin edema and anticarcinogenic properties, which are due to its high content of bioactive compounds. Melatonin can improve and preserve the properties of lemon for longer and also has health benefits. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of oral administration of lemon juice after melatonin treatment on murinometric parameters of wild-type (WT) mice and transgenic mice carrying human papillomavirus (HPV).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe 50-km ultra-marathon is a popular race distance, slightly longer than the classic marathon distance. However, little is known about the country of affiliation and age of the fastest 50-km ultra-marathon runners and where the fastest races are typically held. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate a large dataset of race records for the 50-km distance race to identify the country of affiliation and the age of the fastest runners as well as the locations of the fastest races.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDespite their catastrophic implications in flood events, the mobilization and transport of large, loose objects -termed Urban Flood Drifters (UFDs)- are often overlooked in flood management. These objects are inherent to anthropogenic activities, but are not designed to remain stable under flooding conditions, nor are usually considered in flood risk studies. This oversight stems from our limited understanding of how flowing water interacts with these heterogeneous objects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPlastic pollution is overflowing in rivers. A limited understanding of the physics of plastic transport in rivers hinders monitoring, the prediction of plastic fate and restricts the implementation of effective mitigation strategies. This study investigates two unexplored aspects of plastic transport dynamics across the near-surface, suspended and bed load layers: (i) the complex settling behaviour of plastics and (ii) their influence on plastic transport in river-like flows.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIntroduction: Our study examined 16,611 records of professional triathletes from 163 Ironman® 70.3 races across 97 countries (2004-2020). The aim was to identify the most predictive discipline-swim, bike, or run-for overall race time.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFγ-Aminobutyric acid (GABA) plays important roles in plant development, including the maintenance of fruit quality when applied as postharvest treatment. However, little information is available about the effects of preharvest GABA treatments. Thus, GABA (10, 50 and 100 mM) was applied as foliar spray at key points of fruit development in three sweet cherry cultivars and over two years.
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December 2023
Spain is one of the main contributors to global pomegranate production. Pomegranate presents a challenge for preservation at suboptimal temperatures. Preserving this fruit for an extended period is challenging due to its susceptibility to chilling injury (CI).
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