Life satisfaction and health related quality of life during pregnancy and puerperium

Poster submitted to the 22nd International Conference Stress and Anxiety Research Society (STAR), Palma de Mallorca, July, 12-14, 2001.

Diffraction-managed superlensing using metallodielectric heterostructures

We show that subwavelength diffracted wave fields may be managed inside multilayered plasmonic devices to achieve ultra-resolving lensing. For that purpose we first transform both homogeneous waves and a broad band of evanescent waves into propagating Bloch modes by means of a metal/dielectric (MD) superlattice. Beam spreading is subsequently compensated by means of negative refraction in a plasmon-induced anisotropic effective-medium that is cemented behind. A precise design of the superlens doublet may lead to nearly aberration-free images with subwavelength resolution in spite of using optical paths longer than a wavelength.

Substantial enlargement of angular existence range for Dyakonov-like surface waves at semi-infinite metal-dielectric superlattice

We investigated surface waves guided by the boundary of a semi-infinite layered metal-dielectric nanostructure cut normally to the layers and a semi-infinite dielectric material. Using the Floquet-Bloch formalism, we found that Dyakonov-like surface waves with hybrid polarization can propagate in dramatically enhanced angular range compared to conventional birefringent materials. Our numerical simulations for an Ag-GaAs stack in contact with glass show a low to moderate influence of losses.

Carybdea marsupialis (Cubozoa) in the Mediterranean Sea: The first case of a sting causing cutaneous and systemic manifestations

A woman stung by the box jellyfish Carybdea marsupialis (Cnidaria, Cubozoa) at a Spanish Mediterranean beach, showed systemic manifestations over several months (pain far from the inoculation point, arthralgia, paresthesia, hyperesthesia, increase of eosinophils and IgE) in addition to the skin condition.

Humour in colloquial conversation

Researchers from the GRIALE group (Irony and Humour Research Group) have developed a theoretical method that can be applied to humorous ironic utterances in different textual genres, depending on the degree of the violation of conversational principles in conversation. In addition to this, the General Theory of Verbal Humor (Attardo and Raskin, 1991) will be taken into account in the analysis. Therefore, I will study irony and humour in conversational utterances in real examples of Peninsular Spanish obtained from the COVJA, (Corpus de conversaciones coloquiales [Corpus of Colloquial Conversations]) and CREA, (Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual [Reference Corpus of Present-Day Spanish]). The focus of this paper is then the application of the aforementioned theories to humorous ironic statements which arise in conversation. I will also examine the positive or negative effects caused by them, which will additionally verify if irony and humour coexist in the same conversational exchange, and if this has a communicative goal.

From community approaches to single-cell genomics: the discovery of ubiquitous hyperhalophilic Bacteroidetes generalists

The microbiota of multi-pond solar salterns around the world has been analyzed using a variety of culture-dependent and molecular techniques. However, studies addressing the dynamic nature of these systems are very scarce. Here we have characterized the temporal variation during 1 year of the microbiota of five ponds with increasing salinity (from 18% to >40%), by means of CARD-FISH and DGGE. Microbial community structure was statistically correlated with several environmental parameters, including ionic composition and meteorological factors, indicating that the microbial community was dynamic as specific phylotypes appeared only at certain times of the year. In addition to total salinity, microbial composition was strongly influenced by temperature and specific ionic composition. Remarkably, DGGE analyses unveiled the presence of most phylotypes previously detected in hypersaline systems using metagenomics and other molecular techniques, such as the very abundant Haloquadratum and Salinibacter representatives or the recently described low GC Actinobacteria and Nanohaloarchaeota. In addition, an uncultured group of Bacteroidetes was present along the whole range of salinity. Database searches indicated a previously unrecognized widespread distribution of this phylotype. Single-cell genome analysis of five members of this group suggested a set of metabolic characteristics that could provide competitive advantages in hypersaline environments, such as polymer degradation capabilities, the presence of retinal-binding light-activated proton pumps and arsenate reduction potential. In addition, the fairly high metagenomic fragment recruitment obtained for these single cells in both the intermediate and hypersaline ponds further confirm the DGGE data and point to the generalist lifestyle of this new Bacteroidetes group.