The aim of the present study was to analyse the neuroendocrine stress response, psychological anxiety response, and perceived match importance (PMI) between expert and non-expert control gamers in an official competitive context. We analyzed, in 25 expert esports players and 20 control participants, modifications in their somatic anxiety, cognitive anxiety, self-confidence, PMI, and cortisol in a League of Legends competition. We found how expert esports players presented higher cortisol concentrations (Z = 155.5; p = 0.03; Cohen’s d = −0.66), cognitive anxiety (Z = 99.5; p = 0.001), and PMI (Z = 50.5; p < 0.001) before the competition than non-experts participants. We found a greater statistical weight in the cognitive variables than in the physiological ones. The results obtained suggest that real competitive context and player’s expertise were factors associated with an anticipatory stress response. The PMI proved to be a differentiating variable between both groups, highlighting the necessity to include subjective variables that contrast objective measurements.

According to the Challenge Hypothesis, high levels of testosterone (T) are associated with status-seeking behaviors, especially in competitive situations. However, there have not been many studies about rivals’ social status and pre-competition neuroendocrine responses. The aim of this study was to analyze whether the participants in a chess tournament showed different pre-match testosterone and cortisol levels depending on differences in ELO (i.e., the International Chess Federation rating to rank the competitive potential and social status between players). The sample was six male participants (mean ± SD) aged 25.5 ± 8.4 years with experience in official tournaments of 16.33 ± 5.72 years and an average ELO rating of 2217.67 ± 112.67. Saliva samples were collected before each round for hormonal determination when participants competed against a rival with a different ELO rating. After five competition rounds per participant, higher rival pre-competition T concentrations were shown when playing against the best-rated participant, but there were no differences in cortisol (C). The multilevel model confirmed rises in rivals’ precompetitive T levels modulated by the difference in the opponent’s ELO rating. No significant changes were observed in C. The results suggest that the rival’s status can determine the opponent’s anticipatory neuroendocrine responses to an official chess tournament.

Two category 5 hurricanes, Irma and Maria, arrived in the Caribbean in September 2017 in rapid succession. On September 6, Irma devastated the islands of St. Thomas and St. John, in the Virgin Islands of the United States (USVI). Most medical infrastructure was damaged, including hemodialysis facilities, paralyzing dialysis operations. After Irma’s landfall, Puerto Rico served as a safehaven for thousands of displaced and repatriated persons from the impacted islands. These included a cohort of 129 hemodialysis patients evacuated from St. Thomas, USVI to San Juan, Puerto Rico from September 9−11, 2017. The hemodialysis patients arrived first at hotels in San Juan and were then transferred to a Special Needs Shelter, run by the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico and located in the Puerto Rico Convention Center. With the imminent arrival of Hurricane Maria, most patients were evacuated on September 19 to a special needs shelter on the campus of the Florida International University, in Miami, Florida. While in San Juan, hemodialysis treatments were provided by local nephrologists working with local hemodialysis centers. Here, we describe the challenges and the emergency management actions taken to ensure continuity of care, including providing dialysis, general medical care, shelter, food and transportation for USVI dialysis patients during their stay in San Juan, Puerto Rico. We describe here the experiences of federal and host state/territorial officials in the special needs shelter, in the context of the state/territorial and federal response to disasters, in order to provide ideas about challenges, solutions, and approaches to coordinating care for dialysis patients evacuated from a disaster.

Dance is a high demanding discipline that involves physiological and psychological pressures. The pressure increases when dancers perform in front of an audience that, on a physiological level, can generate hormonal responses similar to those of an athlete before a competition for social status. Low levels of testosterone (T) and high levels of cortisol (C) are related to a decrease in performance and an increase in the risk of injury. Therefore, this study sets out to analyse hormone response patterns in professional flamenco dance performances depending on whether the performances are completed successfully and whether there are differences by sex and professional category. Saliva specimens (2–5 ml) were taken from the participants before and after the performance. Samples were immunoassayed by duplicate to analyze momentary fluctuations in two hormones regularly used in studies with professional athletes. The results showed significant differences in solo dancers’ T responses before and after the performance (p < 0.01), suggesting that the dancing role in the show (soloist or corps the ballet) and responsibility over the performance were important modulators to the hormone responses observed.