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Siempre fue joven y anciano a la vez. Joven en la manera de razonar y en el modo de tratar a las personas, correcto pero desenfadado, con una sempiterna timidez que mostraba en persona con un afecto sincero candorosamente huidizo, observando siempre las reacciones de su interlocutor, a quien por encima de todo deseaba escuchar, eso tan infrecuente, por desgracia, pero que él hacía a la perfección. Era anciano venerable, en cambio, en una parte de sus modos, pero sobre todo en la experiencia profunda que mostraba en sus conversaciones, que solía cargar de referencias culturales de la erudición propia de aquel que lee queriendo aprender. Era una mezcla de compañero y hermano mayor. Jamás pretendió ser el padre de ninguno de nosotros, sino un colega más que en todas las ocasiones pretendía aportar, nunca recibir. Y es que nunca pedía nada, sino que regalaba generosamente afecto y ciencia a la vez...

En el ámbito de la comunicación política, los partidos intentan apropiarse en el discurso público de los temas con los que se les asocia positivamente, aprovechando su supuesta competencia en la resolución de determinados problemas. El fenómeno de la desinformación puede erosionar los ejes en que se vertebran las soluciones a estas problemáticas e influir negativamente en la toma de decisiones políticas de la ciudadanía al distorsionar la realidad. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar las desinformaciones provenientes de los actores políticos españoles, para comprobar en qué asuntos de la agenda política se centran y si existe un sesgo ideológico en la difusión de información falsa. Desde una perspectiva cuantitativa, se analizan todos los fact-checks realizados por Newtral y Maldita sobre declaraciones falsas o engañosas de políticos desde octubre de 2018 hasta marzo de 2023 (n = 1415). Los resultados revelan una mayor desinformación en los partidos mayoritarios, de la oposición y de derechas. Los picos más altos se observan durante periodos electorales, especialmente en elecciones generales. Los políticos desinforman negativamente sobre sus rivales cuando están en la oposición y positivamente sobre sí mismos cuando gobiernan. Cada bloque ideológico se centra en apuntalar los temas con los que la gente les identifica, difundiendo información falsa sobre la gestión de estos temas por parte de sus oponentes. Estos hallazgos apuntan a una consolidación del uso de la desinformación en la estrategia de comunicación política de todos los partidos.

Reusing reclaimed water for crop irrigation can mitigate water scarcity in agriculture; however, contaminants such as pharmaceuticals and pesticides in wastewater pose risks. This study investigated the impact of a coupled bio-solar photocatalytic treatment on the reclamation of water polluted with seven pharmaceuticals and seven pesticides for irrigation of two tomato crop cycles. Pollutant residues were removed using natural sunlight and TiO2/Na2S2O8 in a pilot plant located in Murcia, Spain. Efficient removal (> 96 %) of all target pollutants was achieved in the effluent after coupled treatment. Reclaimed water was then used to irrigate the tomato crops, and several yield and quality parameters were analysed to evaluate the effects on the harvested tomatoes. No significant differences were observed in the total yield, number and mean fruit weight, size, pericarp firmness, external colour, and nutritional data between the crops irrigated with reclaimed, control, and polluted water. However, differences in the degree of ripeness were observed. None of the investigated pollutants was detected above the limit of quantification in tomato samples irrigated with reclaimed water, except for venlafaxine (0.028 µg kg−1) in the second crop cycle. When the crop was irrigated with polluted water, different pollutant residues were detected in soil (10) and tomato (4) samples. The results suggest that coupled bio-solar photocatalytic treatment is an effective method for reclaiming water polluted with pharmaceutical and pesticide residues, and the reclaimed water can be safely used for tomato irrigation without compromising crop yield and quality.

Economic, social, and health crises have shaken and polarized contemporary politics. An element fueling this polarization is the dissemination of divisive topics on social media platforms. While these polarizing social media tendencies are increasingly studied, research exploring digital political communication in South America remains scarce. This study aims to analyze the electoral campaigns in Brazil, Colombia, Chile, and Peru to define the features that trigger polarized emotional reactions on Facebook. The corpus comprises a sample of 2,930 posts published by candidates and political parties during the first round of the presidential elections held in these countries between 2021 and 2022. We hypothesize that users are more likely to react in a polarized way to content focused on divisive issues. In addition, we examine how these patterns differ across countries and the influence of the level of political polarization. Finally, the role played by party-level characteristics in the emotional reactions of users is also analyzed. By means of quantitative content analysis, these questions are addressed using multilevel negative binomial regressions to identify what predicts Love and Angry reactions. The bandwagon effect seems to work positively on users’ moods since the most popular political actors receive significantly more Love reactions, irrespective of the post’s subject. In more polarized countries, there is a tendency to react more negatively to certain divisive issues, generating greater visibility of these issues on social networks and thus promoting more polarization. These findings expand knowledge about the dynamics of digital political communication in the Global South.

In recent years, Brazil, as the world’s fourth-largest democracy, witnessed the dominance of polarized and symbolically charged electoral campaigns on social media, culminating in the election of a populist political figure in 2018 and his subsequent defeat in 2022. Extensive research has indicated that political campaigns often sidelined substantive policy proposals in favor of negative and divisive issues. However, a critical gap remains in the absence of temporal investigations contrasting the prevalence of negativity and acclaim campaigns on social media platforms during elections. This study addresses this gap by examining associations between political issues and negative and acclaim campaigns across two Brazilian electoral campaigns. Drawing upon a sample of messages posted on Twitter (n = 1,191) during the presidential elections of 2018 and 2022, our study reveals associations between substantive political issues, such as education and health, and acclaim campaign strategies, while the divisive issues of Covid-19 and corruption are associated with negative campaign strategies. Moreover, the results suggest that gender policy is related to both acclaim and negative messages since it is a polarizing issue in Brazilian politics. Our study also shows an increased negativity trend, with the 2022 presidential election campaign more likely to be negative than in 2018. By conducting a temporal analysis of Brazil’s political context, our study sheds light on the evolving dynamics of political communication in the age of social media, contributing substantially to the literature on negativity in political campaigns.

Las redes sociales ofrecen un espacio digital de comunicación que ayuda a diseminar los mensajes de los actores políticos. El estudio de las estrategias utilizadas en estos canales puede ayudar a comprender las dinámicas sociales, especialmente las relacionadas con procesos electorales. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las investigaciones sobre comunicación política se centran en democracias del hemisferio norte. Para superar esta falencia, este estudio examina las cuentas de Facebook de los actores políticos chilenos durante la campaña de la primera vuelta de las elecciones presidenciales de 2021. Desde una perspectiva cuantitativa, se analiza el contenido de las publicaciones de los siete principales partidos y candidatos. El corpus está compuesto por una muestra de 909 publicaciones, codificadas manualmente según las categorías tema, populismo y campaña negativa. A nivel partido, se comprueban las diferencias según ideología y novedad institucional. Los resultados revelan un uso de retórica populista y temas divisivos por parte de las formaciones políticas opositoras más nuevas y radicales. No obstante, el nivel de populismo durante esta campaña es inferior al detectado en otras latitudes y destaca la ausencia de ataques contra minorías étnicas o culturales. El análisis de la participación de los usuarios revela que los partidos más nuevos son los que generan una mayor interacción con sus contenidos, que obtienen así mayor visibilidad. Estos hallazgos proporcionan una visión detallada de las estrategias de comunicación digital utilizadas durante la campaña electoral en Chile y contribuyen a ampliar el foco de los estudios de comunicación política al ámbito sudamericano.

(1) Background: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a clinical challenge, with limited success from current therapeutic strategies. This study aimed to assess the impact of combined exercise (CE) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on key biomechanical parameters during the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) in HFpEF patients. (2) Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 76 sedentary HFpEF patients, divided into three groups as follows: the CE, HIIT, and control groups. CE involves aerobic and strength training, whereas HIIT includes high-intensity intervals. Cadence (steps per minute), distance, maximum heart rate (HRmax), and exercise intensity were measured pre- and postintervention. (3) Results: The results revealed significant improvements in cadence in the CE group compared with the control group (p = 0.009) for intention-to-treat analysis, and in the control and HIIT groups (p = 0.002) for per-protocol analysis. CE also significantly improved HRmax and exercise intensity, suggesting an enhanced cardiovascular response. In contrast, HIIT did not significantly affect these parameters. The correlation between cadence and distance covered during the 6MWT was strong in the overall group (r = 0.762, p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: These findings suggest that CE is an effective intervention to improve gait efficiency, cardiovascular response, and functional capacity in HFpEF patients, whereas HIIT may require further investigation in this population.

Abstract Background/Objectives Several studies have shown a relationship between vitamin D and migraine, including the association between decreased serum 25‐hydroxyvitamin D in patients with migraine and the positive effects of vitamin D supplementations in the therapy of this disease. Two single‐nucleotide variants (SNVs) vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene, VDR rs2228570, and VDR rs731236 have shown an association with migraine risk in a previous case–control association study, while an exome sequencing study identified a rare variant in GC vitamin D binding protein gene. This study aims to look for the association between several common variants in these two genes and the risk for migraine. Methods We genotyped 290 patients diagnosed with migraine and 300 age‐matched controls using specific TaqMan assays for VDR rs2228570, VDR rs731236, VDR rs7975232, VDR rs739837, VDR rs78783628, GC rs7041, and GC rs4588 SNVs. Results We did not find an association between these SNVs and the risk for migraine. None of these SNVs were related to the positivity of a family history of migraine or with the presence of aura. The VDR rs731236A allele showed a significant association with the triggering of migraine attacks by ethanol (Pc = 0.007). Conclusions In summary, the results of the current study suggest a lack of association between common SNVs in the VDR and GC gene and the risk of developing migraine. The possible relationship between VDR rs731236 and the triggering of migraine episodes with ethanol deserves future studies.

Abstract In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic followed a two-wave pattern in most countries. Hospital admission for COVID-19 in one wave or another could have affected mortality, especially among the older persons. The objective of this study was to evaluate whether the admission of older patients during the different waves, before SARS-CoV-2 vaccination was available, was associated with a different mortality. We compared the mortality rates of patients hospitalized during 2020 before (first wave) and after (second wave) July 7, 2020, included in the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry, a large, multicenter, retrospective cohort of patients admitted to 126 Spanish hospitals for COVID-19. A multivariate logistic regression analysis was performed to control for changes in either the patient or disease profile. As of December 26, 2022, 22,494 patients had been included (17,784 from the first wave and 4710 from the second one). Overall mortality was 20.4% in the first wave and 17.2% in the second wave (risk difference (RD) − 3.2%; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) − 4.4 to − 2.0). Only patients aged 70 and older (10,973 patients: 8571 in the first wave and 2386 in the second wave) had a significant reduction in mortality (RD − 7.6%; 95% CI − 9.7 to − 5.5) (unadjusted relative risk reduction: 21.6%). After adjusting for age, comorbidities, variables related to the severity of the disease, and treatment received, admission during the second wave remained a protective factor. In Spain, patients aged 70 years and older admitted during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic had a significantly lower risk of mortality, except in severely dependent persons in need of corticosteroid treatment. This effect is independent of patient characteristics, disease severity, or treatment received. This suggests a protective effect of a better standard of care, greater clinical expertise, or a lesser degree of healthcare system overload.

The high genetic diversity of the tomato and its high micronutrient content make this fruit very interesting from an economic and nutritional point of view. The genetic erosion suffered by this crop, due to breeding objectives based on yield and marketing, makes it necessary to return to the origins in search of the nutritional and organoleptic quality lost in traditional varieties. In this study, the agronomic, physical, organoleptic, and nutritional characteristics of eighteen F1 hybrids, obtained by crossing fourteen traditional varieties, previously selected for their quality, were studied in order to select genotypes of superior quality that could be candidates for new varieties. All the parameters studied were strongly influenced by genotype, with a wide range between varieties. Most of the experimental hybrids showed higher quality scores than the commercial hybrids used as controls, due to the extensive selection process carried out on the parents in previous work. Principal component analysis revealed the characteristics of each hybrid that distinguished it from the others. Some hybrids (H1, H2, and H4) stood out for their high concentration of active compounds, others (H14, H13, H8, H15, H7, and H9) for their agronomic performance and high β-carotene content, and H3 was the only one to contain chlorophyll in its ripe fruits. Finally, the evaluation index allowed the selection of five hybrids with interesting characteristics, combining good yield performance and high quality. The results of this work have allowed for the selection of a group of hybrids with high organoleptic and nutritional quality which will be used as parents in a breeding programme, in which their characteristics will be fixed and their resilience will be increased through the introduction of virus resistance.

Recent scholarship demonstrated that Facebook is a fertile space for populist political communication as its unmediated and viral nature make populist appeals highly efficient in mobilizing voters. However, less attention has been paid to the way these populist messages appear through political actors' Facebook communication, and what post- and page-level factors they are associated with. We investigate these questions in the context of the 2019 European Parliament election based on a unique cross-national dataset covering twelve European countries. In this study, we categorized 8,074 Facebook posts published on the main Facebook pages of sixty-seven parties. Our findings show that different populist appeals are used in specific ways. For example, at the post level, anti-elitism is frequently used in relation to economy, labor and social policy, and immigration; people-centric appeals are associated with labor and social policy and used when parties call for action, while out-group messages are not related to other topics beyond immigration. "Ideational populist" communication is more frequently articulated in European level and related to the topics of economy and labor and social policy. At the party level, it seems that there are still sharp differences between populist and non-populist parties in their communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

(1) Background: Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a clinical challenge, with limited success from current therapeutic strategies. This study aimed to assess the impact of combined exercise (CE) and high-intensity interval training (HIIT) on key biomechanical parameters during the 6-minute walk test (6MWT) in HFpEF patients. (2) Methods: A randomized controlled trial was conducted in 76 sedentary HFpEF patients, divided into three groups as follows: the CE, HIIT, and control groups. CE involves aerobic and strength training, whereas HIIT includes high-intensity intervals. Cadence (steps per minute), distance, maximum heart rate (HRmax), and exercise intensity were measured pre- and postintervention. (3) Results: The results revealed significant improvements in cadence in the CE group compared with the control group (p = 0.009) for intention-to-treat analysis, and in the control and HIIT groups (p = 0.002) for per-protocol analysis. CE also significantly improved HRmax and exercise intensity, suggesting an enhanced cardiovascular response. In contrast, HIIT did not significantly affect these parameters. The correlation between cadence and distance covered during the 6MWT was strong in the overall group (r = 0.762, p < 0.001). (4) Conclusions: These findings suggest that CE is an effective intervention to improve gait efficiency, cardiovascular response, and functional capacity in HFpEF patients, whereas HIIT may require further investigation in this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]