There is evidence that perceived health status is relevant for older adults' wellbeing, and at the same time perceived health status can be influenced by self-perceptions of ageing. There is a lack of studies on the relationship between these variables. The aim of this study was to explore attitudes towards ageing and self-perceptions of ageing among Spanish middle-aged and older people, and to identify possible mediators in the relationship between self-perceptions of ageing on perceived health status. The sample comprised 1,124 individuals from 50 to 98 years old (mean = 64.84, standard deviation = 10.12) from the Ageing in Spain Longitudinal Study database, Pilot Survey (ELES-PS). Almost 70 per cent of the participants stated that old age begins at a specific chronological age and half of them considered that society treats older people with indifference. Self-perceptions of ageing, physical activity, cognitive functioning and age were significant predictors, and together these variables explained 15.9 per cent in the variance of perceived health status. The multiple mediation analysis revealed that self-perceptions of ageing predicted cognitive functioning (B = 0.848, p < 0.01) and physical activity (B = 2.9046, p < 0.001), and mediated the association between self-perceptions of ageing and perceived health status (B = 0.1144, standard error = 0.0147, p < 0.01). Results from this study highlight the importance of perceptions and attitudes towards ageing for older adults' health and wellbeing, thus this study contributes to a better understanding of how these variables are related. In this sense, results from this study can be useful for designing interventions for fostering wellbeing. Addressing negative self-perceptions of ageing and negative attitudes towards ageing can be particularly useful because they are associated with more pessimistic expectancies about the ageing process.

Recent research undertaken as part of the Iliturgi Project has located the remains of an Early Imperial building complex linked to the Via Augusta. They include the foundations of an arch and a monumental platform whose size and characteristics allow it to be identified as the Ianus Augustus, a monumental complex near the River Baetis that marked the limit between the Roman provinces of Baetica and Tarraconensis. Its location makes it a reference point for our knowledge of the ancient geography of Hispania and for understanding Roman interprovincial frontiers. Geophysical prospections in its surroundings have also revealed the possible remains of a bridge across the river.

Phytoliths can be an important source of information related to environmental and climatic change, as well as to ancient plant use by humans, particularly within the disciplines of paleoecology and archaeology. Currently, phytolith identification and categorization is performed manually by researchers, a time-consuming task liable to misclassifications. The automated classification of phytoliths would allow the standardization of identification processes, avoiding possible biases related to the classification capability of researchers. This paper presents a comparative analysis of six classification methods, using digitized microscopic images to examine the efficacy of different quantitative approaches for characterizing phytoliths. A comprehensive experiment performed on images of 429 phytoliths demonstrated that the automatic phytolith classification is a promising area of research that will help researchers to invest time more efficiently and improve their recognition accuracy rate.

An oblique shock impinging on a shear layer that separates two uniform supersonic streams, of Mach numbers $M_{1}$ and $M_{2}$, at an incident angle $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}_{i}$ can produce regular and irregular interactions with the interface. The region of existence of regular shock refractions with stable flow structures is delineated in the parametric space $(M_{1},M_{2},\unicode[STIX]{x1D70E}_{i})$ considering oblique-shock impingement on a supersonic vortex sheet of infinitesimal thickness. It is found that under supercritical conditions, the oblique shock fails to deflect both streams consistently and to provide balanced flow properties downstream. In this circumstance, the flow renders irregular configurations which, in the absence of characteristic length scales, exhibit self-similar pseudosteady behaviours. These cases involve shocks moving upstream at constant speed and increasing their intensity to comply with equilibrium requirements. Differences in the variation of propagation speed among the flows yield pseudosteady configurations that grow linearly with time. Supercritical conditions are described theoretically and reproduced numerically using highly resolved inviscid simulation.

PA6 and PMMA polymers with different MWCNTs addition (5, 7 and 9 wt %) were synthetized through casting solution, resulting in improvement properties in contrast to pristine polymers. SEM images showed the MWCNTs embedded into polymeric matrices. D, G and G´ bands of MWCNTs were confirmed by Raman spectroscopy and functional groups observed in both nanocomposites by FTIR demonstrated a strong interaction. A significant increasing in electrical conductivity and microhardness was observed in all the nanocomposites. Major microhardness values were obtained in MWCNTs/PA6 (50 HV) however the MWCNTs/PMMA nanocomposites showed the highest electrical conductivity value (6.4×10-4 S/cm).

The diet and habitat of Leptomeryx sp. from the Late Uintan Yolomécatl Formation of NW Oaxaca, SE Mexico were inferred using dental enamel carbon and oxygen isotopic relationships, and compared with those of congeneric species from temperate North America. Results show that Leptomeryx sp. fed on C3 plants and lived in open forest or forest/savanna ecotone. The palynoflora and co-occurrence of perissodactyls and artiodactyls that live in an environment like that of Leptomeryx support this interpretation. Further, both records disclose that in NW Oaxaca (southern North America) tropical conditions prevailed at that time, unlike that of temperate North America.

Here we present a new site in the Sierra de Atapuerca (Burgos, Spain): Galería de las Estatuas (GE), which provides new information about Mousterian occupations in the Iberian Plateau. The GE was an ancient entrance to the cave system, which is currently closed and sealed by a stalagmitic crust, below which a detritic sedimentary sequence of more than 2 m is found. This has been divided into five litostratigraphic units with a rich assemblage of faunal and lithic remains of clear Mousterian affinity. Radiocarbon dates provide minimum ages and suggest occupations older than 45 14C ka BP. The palynological analysis detected a landscape change to increased tree coverage, which suggests that the sequence recorded a warming episode. The macromammal assemblage is composed of both ungulates (mainly red deer and equids) and carnivores. Taphonomic analysis reveals both anthropic, and to a lesser extent, carnivore activities. The GE was occupied by Neanderthals and also sporadically by carnivores. This new site broadens the information available regarding different human occupations at the Sierra de Atapuerca, which emphasizes the importance of this site-complex for understanding human evolution in Western Europe.

It is likely that the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) may mitigate the adverse effects of obesity on the incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). We assessed this hypothesis in a cohort of 18 225 participants initially free of diabetes (mean age: 38 years, 61 % women). A validated semi-quantitative 136-item FFQ was used to assess dietary intake and to build a 0–9 score of adherence to MedDiet. After a median of 9·5-year follow-up, 136 incident cases of T2DM were confirmed during 173 591 person-years follow-up. When MedDiet adherence was low (≤4 points), the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HR) were 4·07 (95 % CI 1·58, 10·50) for participants with BMI 25–29·99 kg/m2 and 17·70 (95 % CI 6·29, 49·78) kg/m2 for participants with BMI≥30 kg/m2, (v.<25 kg/m2). In the group with better adherence to the MedDiet (>4 points), these multivariable-adjusted HR were 3·13 (95 % CI 1·63, 6·01) and 10·70 (95 % CI 4·98, 22·99) for BMI 25–30 and ≥30 kg/m2, respectively. The P value for the interaction was statistically significant (P=0·002). When we assessed both variables (BMI and MedDiet) as continuous, the P value for their interaction product-term was marginally significant (P=0·051) in fully adjusted models. This effect modification was not explained by weight changes during follow-up. Our results suggest that the MedDiet may attenuate the adverse effects of obesity on the risk of T2DM.

Glyphosate behavior was examined in Italian ryegrass plants from Chile that were sensitive (S) and resistant (R) to this herbicide. In order to explain the resistance to glyphosate, contact angles, spray retention, foliar uptake, herbicide translocation, and target enzyme activity were studied. Contact angles of glyphosate solutions at a field concentration were 40° to 45° on the abaxial surface of R leaves as compared to 70° on S. Glyphosate spray retention by R plants was 35% lower than by S plants. Glyphosate uptake by the abaxial leaf surface of R plants was about 40% lower than that of S plants. In addition, in the R plants more glyphosate migrated to the tip of the treated leaves. The target enzyme in R and S plants was sensitive to the herbicide. Based on these and previous results, it is concluded that resistance in this Italian ryegrass biotype results from lower spray retention, lower foliar uptake from the abaxial leaf surface, and altered translocation pattern. The decreases in spray retention and foliar uptake constitute new mechanisms of glyphosate resistance.

Mental health research funding priorities in high-income countries must balance longer-term investment in identifying neurobiological mechanisms of disease with shorter-term funding of novel prevention and treatment strategies to alleviate the current burden of mental illness. Prioritising one area of science over others risks reduced returns on the entire scientific portfolio.