The surface urban heat island (SUHI) effect is defined as the increased surface temperatures in urban areas in contrast to cooler surrounding rural areas. In this article, the evaluation of the SUHI effect in the city of Madrid (Spain) from thermal infrared (TIR) remote-sensing data is presented. The data were obtained from the framework of the Dual-use European Security IR Experiment (DESIREX) campaign that was carried out during June and July 2008 in Madrid. The campaign combined the collection of airborne hyperspectral and in situ measurements. Thirty spectral and spatial high-resolution images were acquired with the Airborne Hyperspectral Scanner (AHS) sensor in a 11, 21, and 4 h UTC scheme. The imagery was used to retrieve the SUHI effect by applying the temperature and emissivity separation (TES) algorithm. The results show a nocturnal SUHI effect with a highest value of 5 K. This maximum value agrees within 1 K with the highest value of the urban heat island (UHI) observed using air temperature data (AT). During the daytime, this situation is reversed and the city becomes a negative heat island.

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Accepted for publication in Neurobiology of Learning and Memory*Note: This is an uncorrected version of an author's manuscript accepted for publication.*Copyediting, typesetting, and review of the resulting proofs will be undertaken on this manuscript before final publication. During production and prepress, errors may be discovered that could affect the content.

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Stress has been identified as a main factor involved in the cognitive changes that occur during the aging process. This study investigated sex differences in the relationship between the magnitude of the acute stress-induced salivary cortisol response and memory performance among middle-aged people. To this end, 16 men and 16 women (aged 54-72 years) were exposed to the Trier Social Stress Test and a control condition in a crossover design. Afterwards their memory performance was measured using a standardized memory test (Rey's Auditory Verbal Learning Test). Only among women, there was an acute impact of stress on memory performance and a significant relationship between a higher cortisol response to the stressor and poorer memory performance in both the stress and control conditions. Additionally, a poorer memory performance was related to earlier timing of sexual maturation (age at menarche), which was also marginally related to higher cortisol reactivity to stress. These results confirm that sex is a critical factor in the relationship between cortisol and poor memory performance. Furthermore, the findings emphasize a strong link between the individual cortisol response to stress and memory functioning among postmenopausal women.

This field study investigated the release of testosterone and cortisol of a vicarious winning experience in Spanish fans watching the finals between Spain and the Netherlands in the 2010 FIFA World Cup Soccer. Spanish fans (n = 50) watched the match with friends or family in a public place or at home and also participated in a control condition. Consistent with hypotheses, results revealed that testosterone and cortisol levels were higher when watching the match than on a control day. However, neither testosterone nor cortisol levels increased after the victory of the Spanish team. Moreover, the increase in testosterone secretion was not related to participants' sex, age or soccer fandom, but the increase in total cortisol secretion during the match was higher among men than among women and among fans that were younger. Also, increases in cortisol secretion were greater to the degree that people were a stronger fan of soccer. Level of fandom further appeared to account for the sex effect, but not for the age effect. Generally, the testosterone data from this study are in line with the challenge hypothesis, as testosterone levels of watchers increased to prepare their organism to defend or enhance their social status. The cortisol data from this study are in line with social self-preservation theory, as higher cortisol secretion among young and greater soccer fans suggests that especially they perceived that a negative outcome of the match would threaten their own social esteem.

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