Trends and Disparities in Mortality Among Spanish-Born and Foreign-Born Populations Residing in Spain, 1999–2008

Spain’s immigrant population has increased 380 % in the last decade, accounting for 13.1 % of the total population. This fact has led her to become during 2009 the eighth recipient country of international immigrants in the world. The aim of this article is to describe the evolution of mortality and the main causes of death among the Spanish-born and foreign-born populations residing in Spain between 1999 and 2008. Age-standardised mortality rates (ASRs), average age and comparative mortality ratios among foreign-born and Spanish-born populations residing in Spain were computed for every year and sub-period by sex, cause of death and place of birth as well as by the ASR percentage change. During 1999–2008 the ASR showed a progressive decrease in the risk of death in the Spanish-born population (−17.8 % for men and −16.6 % for women) as well as in the foreign-born one (−45.9 % for men and −35.7 % for women). ASR also showed a progressive decrease for practically all the causes of death, in both populations. It has been observed that the risk of death due to neoplasms and respiratory diseases among immigrants is lower than that of their Spanish-born counterparts, but risk due to external causes is higher. Places of birth with the greater decreases are Northern Europe, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Southern Europe, and Latin America and the Caribbean. The research shows the differences in the reduction of death risk between Spanish-born and immigrant inhabitants between 1999 and 2008. These results could contribute to the ability of central and local governments to create effective health policy. Further research is necessary to examine changes in mortality trends among immigrant populations as a consequence of the economic crisis and the reforms in the Spanish health system. Spanish data sources should incorporate into their records information that enables them to find out the immigrant duration of permanence and the possible impact of this on mortality indicators.

Longleat House MS 257: a description

From fresh examination of the manuscript, this paper presents a codicological description of Longleat House MS 257, a fifteenth-century codex in vellum that contains Lydgate’s Siege of Thebes, Chaucer’s Knight’s and Clerk’s Tale, and Ipomedon C, among other texts. First, the article discusses the date and place of production of this textual artifact, and after listing the contents of the volume, it examines the manuscript’s material circumstances, provides the collation and compilation, describes the morphology of the hands, and analyzes the decoration.

Benjamin, BitTorrent, Bootlegs: auratic piracy cultures?

Seventy-five years ago, Walter Benjamin showed us that the line between "production" and "reproduction" had begun to blur. Reproduction was no longer optional, consequential and degrading (the shredding of the original’s aura), but was instead being transformed into a principle of production itself: something was produced bearing in mind how it was to be reproduced. No longer did the original exist (in photography, film, music recordings), but instead diffusion, exhibition. The work existed precisely at the time and place of its enjoyment. Today, the cultural pirates of the new digital era take this principle to the extreme, with a certain characteristic also foreseen by Benjamin: a yearning to participate, to post-produce something captured in order to later return it to the Internet, modified in some way and made available to others. This postproduction is what is now often mixed up with reception, just as production and reproduction used to be in Benjamin’s day. Postproduction on the receiver’s side, which somehow augments and extends the received work, in other words creates an etymologically rigorous author-ization (auctor as the root of both author and augmentation). The cultural pirate only deserves redemption thanks to this creative augmentation.

Autopercepción del bienestar del cuidador familiar del adulto mayor y características sociodemográficas

Introducción: La autopercepción del bienestar dimensional se relaciona con características de cuidadoras. Objetivo: Establecer asociación de autopercepción en dimensiones de bienestar y características de cuidadores. Método: Estudio descriptivo, analítico y correlacional. Muestra 300 cuidadores. Matamoros Tamaulipas, México. Cuestionarios: Datos Sociodemográficos, Índice Barthel, Calidad Vida: dimensiones física, psicológica, social; y espiritual, éste con alpha de Cronbach 0.69. Pruebas chi-cuadrada y coeficiente correlación de Pearson. Resultados: Características mayoría mujeres, 42 años, casadas, hija, alfabetizadas, labores hogar, baja escolaridad, sin trabajo o ingresos limitados. Autopercepción con significancia en bienestar general, alfabetización y parentesco; dimensiones física, edad y género; psicológica, escolaridad; social, parentesco y espiritual alfabetización, situación laboral, ocupación y estado civil. Discusión: Características vulneran a cuidadoras a efectos adversos del cuidado y determinan mayor percepción de carga que altera su bienestar dimensional.

Hábitos alimenticios en alumnos y trabajadores de la Universidad Miguel Hernández

Objetivo: Describir los hábitos alimenticios de una comunidad universitaria. Material y métodos: Se llevó a cabo un estudio descriptivo transversal. El instrumento utilizado fue un cuestionario de frecuencias de consumo, administrado por entrevista personal a una muestra accidental de 147 personas. Constaba de cuatro secciones: 1) número de comidas y lugar donde se realizan, 2) patrones de consumo de los distintos grupos de alimentos, 3) modos de preparación de los alimentos, 4) datos de identificación y demográficos. Resultados: En comparación con el patrón de Vivanco y Palacios, nuestra muestra se caracteriza por: alto consumo de carnes (4 veces/semana), disminución del consumo de huevos (2v/sem.), incremento del consumo de hidratos de carbono complejos (5v/sem.), consumo ligeramente inferior de frutas (5v/sem.), ingesta insuficiente de verduras (4v/sem), legumbres (2v/sem) y pescados (2,5v/sem). Conclusiones y Recomendaciones: Atendiendo a los estudios referenciados, es conveniente disminuir el consumo de carnes, aumentando los aportes de pescados, verduras, hortalizas y legumbres, alimentos que, habiendo sido habituales en nuestra dieta mediterránea, parecen haber sido abandonados en beneficio de la conformación de una dieta que tiende a la homogeneización cultural.

Educación Mediática e InteRmetodología Relacional aplicada a los MOOC

En el contexto actual de innovación tecnológica aparecen nuevas necesidades de aprendizaje y cobran particular relevancia los procesos pedagógicos. Los MOOC se posicionan como una alternativa educacional disruptiva y como puntos de encuentro educomunicativos abiertos a todos, a través de los cuales podemos acceder a esa inteligencia distribuida y accesible en la Red en la que formar redes relacionales externas e internas y tejer una construcción de conocimiento, a partir de nuevas ideas y de la inteligencia colectiva que se produce. Desde una perspectiva teórica, abordamos la acción educomunicativa inherente a los MOOC, partiendo de la necesidad de implementar una inteRmetodología, en la que el Factor Relacional sea determinante, que disponga de estrategias y prácticas para englobar a los discentes en sus diversas dimensiones, con el objetivo de construir conocimiento común en relación y conexión, desde una reflexión encaminada a la acción y participación, para llegar a una praxis holística.