Participation in organized Extracurricular Activities has contributed to improve academic achievement. However, this does not happen in the same way; it depends on sex, age, or parental educational level. Our objective is to know the importance of these factor interactions¿ in the explanation of academic achievement. The sample consisted of 1148 adolescents, aged between 12 and 18 years, 52% of whom were female. Participants completed the Extracurricular Activities questionnaire, and academic and sociodemographic data were collected. The results show that differences in academic achievement depend on the adolescent stage. In early adolescence, girls improve in academic achievement, as well as with better parental education, reading of books and activity duration. On the contrary, in the middle and late adolescence, academic achievement improves with not participating in collective sports and reduced activity breadth, although parental educational level follows the same trend as in the early adolescence. These results reinforce the evolutionary hypothesis of specialization in the choice of activities throughout adolescence. In this sense, some proposals for schools that advocate for greater integration of curricular and non-curricular elements are discussed.

Ohmic heating is a novel technique that, until the past two decades, had been underutilized in the industry, particularly because of limitations in the development of applied devices. In recent years, ohmic heating applications have been studied in different varieties of food processing (i.e.: pork, beef, turkey, rice). This technique potentially represents an innovative application for the gastronomic sector. In this research, the aim was to evaluate the application of ohmic cooking regarding water holding capacity, cooking loss and pork short shank colour. Ohmic cooking was used for 2, 2.5, and 3 min at an electric field strength of 21 +/- 1 V/cm, and the results were compared to pan cooking for 13 min. There were no significant differences between the cooking methods regarding cooking loss; however, significant differences concerning water holding capacity and change in colour (Delta E) were found for ohmic cooking treatments at 2 min and 2.5 min, respectively. It was found that for the ohmic cooking process of pork meat samples brined with saltwater concentrations below 2.1% (w/w NaCl), the electrical conductivity values are generally low, and are not sufficient for the cooking of meat samples at these conditions. Thus, ohmic heating of short shank compared to pan cooking represents an advantage with respect to cooking time for the gastronomic sector.

The anatomical location of adipose tissue might have direct implications for its functionality and risk of cardiovascular disease. Adipose tissue surrounding blood vessels may be thermogenically more active in specific areas of the body, releasing substances that regulate vascular metabolism. In humans, the phenotypic characteristics of adipose tissue surrounding the aorta and the cardiovascular disease risk that it might entail remain largely unknown. Here, we compared thermogenesis-related molecular features of human periaortic adipose tissue samples with those of subcutaneous adipose tissue, obtained by sternotomy from 42 patients undergoing cardiovascular surgery. To determine the expression of genes related to energy expenditure and the levels of some adipokines, histological examinations, quantitative PCR, and protein expression measurements in adipocyte precursor cells were performed. Periaortic adipocytes were smaller than those from subcutaneous tissue. Moreover, weight gain induced periaortic adipocyte hypertrophy (r = -0.91, p<0.01). Compared to subcutaneous tissue, adiponectin, FABP4, IL-4 and IL-6 was decreased in periaortic adipocytes, whereas FGF21, UCP-1, PGC-1a, CITED1, Omentin and TFAM (Mitochondrial protein) increased. Upon analyzing patients' clinical conditions, it emerged that the levels of PGC-1a both in male (r = -0.48 p<0.04) and female (r = -0.61, p<0.05) and TFAM in male (r = -0.72, p<0.0008) and female (r = -0.86, p<0.002) decreased significantly with progressive weight gain. However, no differences were observed in patients with diabetes mellitus 2 or Hyperlipidemia. Adipocytes surrounding the ascending aorta present markers of major thermogenic activity than those in subcutaneous tissue. Nevertheless, this characteristic might change, due to unfavorable metabolic conditions such as obesity, which is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease.

Cabbage clubroot is a major constraint for the production of cruciferous species. This research aim at exploring the effect of Trichoderma koningiopsis (as the wettable powder formulated product Tricotec®) and dolomite on the disease and crop growth of cabbage. This study was carried out in a field with a prolonged history of clubroot incidence. The trial was set up in a randomized complete block design with five repetitions. The following treatments were applied: 0) absolute control; 1 and 2) liming with dolomite at 1.0 and 2.1 t ha-1; 3) Tricotec® at 200 g ha-1; 4) combination of treatments 1 and 3; 5) combination of treatments 2 and 3. The treatment with just Tricotec® applications gave the lowest disease incidence and severity and the heaviest plant dry weight. Joint applications of Tricotec® and dolomite at 2.1 t ha-1 reduced the crop growth variables and had the highest disease intensity. The Trichoderma concentration in the soil was increased by a factor of 10 in the plots that received just Tricotec®, but not in the limed plots. These results showed that T. koningiopsis, in a Tricotec® formulation, is a promising candidate for the control of cabbage clubroot and that its biological activity is affected by dolomite when applied jointly at 2.1 t ha-1.

This article presents an overview of the main results obtained from research on oil palm bud rot. Aetiologic studies with biotic and abiotic approaches were explored, aiming for a model that would help in the understanding of the ethology of this disease. It also discusses how the results of the studies are contradictory and how the arguments for biological causes have not shown progress. Furthermore, the results of measuring the influence of abiotic factors, where there is greater consensus, are discussed; however, there is controversy due to the fact that different researchers placed different weight on the final model of this disease. This situation has led to controls being directed toward potential pathogens associated with the disease, as determined by circumstantial evidence, wherein the positive or negative response to the control may be confused with extrinsic factors such as disease escape or foci formation. Even the role played by the insect Rhynchophorus palmarum (L.) in the death of palms affected by this disease is in doubt. Finally, this paper shows how the process of general disease research has important biases arising from the risk aversion of palm producers or the lack of continuity in results obtained by different research groups.

Introducción. El síndrome metabólico se caracteriza por la aparición simultánea o secuencial de diversas alteraciones metabólicas e inflamatorias a nivel molecular, celular o hemodinámico, asociadas a resistencia a la insulina y adiposidad de predominio visceral. Diferentes grupos de expertos, como la International Diabetes Federation (IDF) y el National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP), hantratado de elaborar criterios para su diagnóstico. Objetivo. Establecer los niveles de concordancia de los criterios de diagnóstico para el síndrome metabólico. Material y métodos. El estudio incluyó 357 individuos. Se hizo el análisis descriptivo de variables cualitativas y de resultados de laboratorio y medición antropométrica para la determinación de la prevalencia de síndrome metabólico, según las definiciones de los dos grupos mencionados. Se utilizaron concordancia kappa y regresión logística, para la comparación de las metodologías. Resultados. Las prevalencia del síndrome metabólico, según la International Diabetes Federation, es de 19,9 % y por el Adult Treatment Panel (ATP) III fue de 10,4 %. La estimación de concordancia entre los criterios diagnósticos de la Federación y los del Panel fue escasa (fair agreement) (¿=0,3997;IC95%: 0,28-0,52). Conclusiones. En la población trabajadora que participó en este estudio, la prevalencia del síndrome metabólico se presentó en mayor porcentaje utilizando la definición de la International Diabetes Federation y fue más alta en los hombres que en las mujeres. Los criterios diagnósticos para el síndrome metabólico deben usarse teniendo en cuenta la población en estudio, así como el sexo y la edad.