Science in Quarantine: Academic Physics in Spain (1750–1900)

The incorporation of Physics as a subject matter in secondary school and universities was a long and controversial process. First, because of religious tensions; later, due to political tensions that, in some way, also had to do with religious belief. In 1857 the Faculties of Sciences were created in Spain. From that time onward the problems for the teaching of physics diminished considerably. At the same time, the first steps were taken toward the development of research in the physical sciences.     

Differences in field dependence-independence cognitive style as a function of socioeconomic status,sex, and cognitive competence

This study analyzes the field dependence-independence (FDI) cognitive style—ascertained and measured by means of the Children's Embedded Figures Test (CEFT) — as a function of socioeconomic status, sex, and cognitive competence — measured on the McCarthy Scales—in 7-year-old children. The tests were administered to 117 subjects, of whom 79 were of low socioeconomic status (50 girls and 29 boys) and 38 were of upper-middle socioeconomic status (20 girls and 18 boys). All subjects were in their second year of primary education. Subjects of upper-middle socioeconomic status achieved significantly higher scores than did subjects of low socioeconomic status on the five McCarthy Scales and on the FDI variable. The sex variable produced differences only in the FDI variable, where boys scored higher than girls. Perceptual ability explains 22.84% of the FDI variance; verbal ability is excluded from the regression equation that analyzes such dependence. Finally, the interpretation of FDI as a stylistic or cognitive variable is discussed.     

Fixing a Misbegotten Biography: Ziryāb in the Mediterranean World

The generally accepted biography of the famous Cordovan musician and composer, Alī b. Nāfi? Ziryāb (d. 242/857), contains evident problems of chronology and content and is based almost entirely upon one source, al-Maqqarī's Naf[hdot] al- ?īb min ghu?n al-Andalus al-ratīb, written in the eleventh/seventeenth century. Modern scholarship generally has overlooked the fifth/eleventh-century source for this late version of his biography and has not taken other, earlier, sources into account. The result is a misbegotten biography that distorts both its subject and the Mediterranean world in which Ziryāb lived. This article refines the biography of Ziryāb by using the earliest available Arabic sources, including works by Ibn ?Abd Rabbih (d. 328/940), Ibn al-Qūtiyya (d. 365/977), Ibn [Hdot]ayyān (d. 469/1076), A[hdot]mad al-Tīfāshī (d. 651/1253) and Ibn Khaldūn (d. 803/1402). By comparing these accounts and attempting to reconcile their inconsistencies, the paper proposes a more logical chronology for Ziryāb's career that not only resolves obvious problems with the standard biography, but also portrays this important artist in relation to the network of political and economic institutions that united the eastern and western ends of the Islamic Mediterranean world in the early third/ninth century.     

Focusing of visual attention at rest and during physical exercise in soccer players

In this study, we investigated the focus of visual attention in expert soccer players together with the effects of acute bouts of physical exercise on performance. In two discriminative reaction time experiments, which were performed both at rest and under submaximal physical workload, visual attention was cued by means of spatial cues of different size followed by compound stimuli with local and global target features. Soccer players were slower than non-athletes in reacting to local compared with global targets, but were faster in switching from local to global attending. Thus, soccer players appear to be less skilled in local attending, but better able than non-athletes to rapidly "zoom out" the focus of attention. Non-athletes generally showed faster performance under physical load, as expected according to the hypothesis of exercise-induced increases in arousal and/or activation and in resource allocation. In contrast, soccer players showed a more differentiated pattern of exercise-induced facilitation that selectively affects specific components of the attentional performance and is interpreted by referring to the role played by individual expertise and cognitive effort.     

Delayed preconditioning-mimetic actions of exercise or nitroglycerin do not affect haemodynamics and exercise performance in trained or sedentary individuals

Nitroglycerin induces the so-called second window of protection (SWOP), which alleviates myocardial damage and stunning after ischaemia/reperfusion. To determine whether myocardial performance during exercise is improved in the second window of protection, we studied the haemodynamic responses of 12 trained and 11 sedentary individuals during a sequence of maximal tests on a cycle ergometer. A baseline test (basal test) was followed by a second effort performed during the second window of protection (exercise-SWOP test). Haemodynamics was also evaluated after pharmacologically induced SWOP 48 h after transdermal administration of 10 mg of nitroglycerin (pharmacologically induced SWOP test). The exercise-SWOP and pharmacologically induced SWOP tests were separated by a 1-week washout period. Endothelial-dependent vasodilatation after nitroglycerin pre-treatment was also assessed in five sedentary individuals to determine whether nitrate donors could affect vascular function. We found that nitroglycerin pre-treatment did not induce any improvement in haemodynamics in either trained or sedentary individuals, since maximum values of workload, heart rate, stroke volume, cardiac output, myocardial contractility, and double product were similar between the exercise-SWOP and pharmacologically induced SWOP tests in both groups. Furthermore, nitroglycerin pre-treatment did not alter flow-mediated dilation during pharmacologically induced SWOP. Although nitroglycerin pre-treatment alleviates post-ischaemic myocardial stunning, our results suggest that it does not affect the myocardial performance of healthy individuals during exercise performed in the second window of protection, independently of the training status of the individuals. Moreover, nitroglycerin pre-treatment does not ameliorate endothelial function.     

Metabolic impact of a soccer match on female players

The aim of this study was to examine the metabolic effect of a female soccer match in elite and sub-elite teams. Blood samples were taken (24 h before, immediately after and 18 h after official soccer matches) to determine haematological, electrolytic and hormonal variables, as well as the levels of cell damage and oxidative stress in 14 elite and 14 sub-elite players. Our results show increases in white blood cell count (P < 0.001) and the percentage of neutrophils (P < 0.001), and decreases in the percentage of lymphocytes (P < 0.05), eosinophils (P < 0.001), monocytes (P < 0.001) and basophils (P < 0.05) immediately post-match. Increases were also found in lactate dehydrogenase activity (P < 0.001), uric acid (P < 0.001), albumin (P < 0.001), total antioxidant status (P < 0.001) and free testosterone levels (P < 0.01). Creatine kinase activity significantly increased 18 h post-match (P < 0.01) and the concentrations of several ions, glucose and proteins were found to be altered immediately post-match. Overall, our results show that playing a soccer match exerts specific metabolic effects on female players, resulting in muscle damage, oxidative stress and biochemical and hormonal variations. On the basis of some interesting correlations, we also suggest that exercise-induced cell breakdown may enhance antioxidant capacity of the soccer players.     

Im perfect tools for a difficult job: colposcopy, 'colpocytology' and screening for cervical cancer in Brazil

The quasi-totality of social scientists who studied screening for cervical tumours identified such screening with a single method: the Pap smear (exfoliative cytology). This article explains that this method was not valid everywhere. The history of screening for cervical cancer in Brazil displays an alternative method for detecting cervical malignancies: a direct observation of the cervix with a specific instrument--the colposcope. The development of this method in Brazil in the 1940s and 1950s reflected a complex mixture of professional interests, government policies, and regional, local and charitable initiatives. While the use of colposcopy for cervical tumour screening was phased out in the 1970s and 1980s, the long lifespan and widespread diffusion of this method illuminates the irreducible contingency of specific developments in science, technology and medicine. Seen from the vantage point of Brazil, the Western model for preventing cervical malignancies no longer appears self-evident Alternative choices might have led to the development of different material and visual cultures of medicine, stimulated different patterns of medical specialization and division of medical labour, produced different links between malignancies, women, gynaecologists, epidemiologists and public health experts, and shaped different health policies.