Las adopciones y su contexto sociológico

El newsletter recoge los primeros hallazgos de la encuesta 'Las familias adoptivas y sus estilos de vida' (I+d+i, 2008-2011). Expecíficamente se exponen algunas conclusiones sobre la percepción que las madres y padres adoptivos tienen sobre el estatus social de su modelo de familia en relación a la norma social.

El desplazamiento forzado: una cuestión de desarrollo con elementos humanitarios

El trabajo con el desplazamiento forzado provocado por el conflicto se encuentra en un momento crucial, en un punto de inflexión. Ahora es el momento de consolidar el reconocimiento global de que el reto del desplazamiento forzado también es una parte integral de los planes de desarrollo.

Conflictos ambientales derivados de la urbanización turístico-residencial. Un caso aplicado al litoral alicantino

La actividad turística desarrollada en el Mediterráneo español, en general, y en el litoral valenciano, en particular, está vinculada a la demanda de segundas residencias y, con ella, al desarrollo urbanístico. Se trata de un modelo que incide negativamente sobre el territorio y genera fuertes impactos, especialmente medioambientales, apenas frenados por las medidas conservacionistas llevadas a cabo en las últimas décadas. Para comprobar tales afirmaciones, el presente artículo se centra en un territorio concreto como el litoral de la provincia de Alicante, donde los parques naturales mantienen una estrecha relación con algunos de los principales destinos de sol y playa.

A reassessment of traditional lexicographical tools in the light of new corpora: sports Anglicisms in Spanish

There is no question nowadays as to the international and powerful status of English at a global scale and, consequently, as to its presence in non-English speaking countries at different levels. Linguistically speaking, English is one of the languages which have mostly influenced Spanish throughout its history and especially from the late 1960s. In this study, the impact of English on Spanish is considered in the language of sports; particularly, sports Anglicisms and false Anglicisms are analysed. Due attention is paid to the different forms that an Anglicism may adopt and to which of those forms are more widely accepted or rejected by prescriptivists and speakers at large, in the light of a contrastive analysis of their appearance in the Nuevo diccionario de anglicismos, the Diccionario de la Real Academia Española and the Corpus de Referencia del Español Actual.

False anglicisms in the Spanish language of fashion and beauty

Many works have already dealt with anglicisms in Spanish, especially in science and information technologies. However, despite the high and growing number of English terms incorporated daily by the language of fashion, it has received comparative less attention in lexicographic and terminological studies than that of other areas, such as science or business. For several reasons, which include prestige or peer pressure, Spanish has not only adopted English words with new meanings and usage, but also contains other forms based on English patterns which users seem to consider more accurate or expressive. This paper concentrates on false anglicisms as indicators of some of the special relationships and influences between languages arising from the pervasive presence of English. We shall look at the Spanish language of fashion, which, in addition to genuine anglicisms, has for some time been using English words with different meanings, or even created items of its own (or imported them from other languages) with the appearance of English words. These false anglicisms, which have proven extremely popular in receiving languages (not only in Spanish) have frequently been disseminated by youth magazines and the new digital media, both in general spheres and in fashion-specific contexts.

When Spanish owns English words

The English language and the Internet, both separately and taken together, are nowadays well-acknowledged as powerful forces which influence and affect the lexico-grammatical characteristics of other languages world-wide. In fact, many authors like Crystal (2004) have pointed out the emergence of the so-called Netspeak, that is, the language used in the Net or World Wide Web; as Crystal himself (2004: 19) puts it, ‘a type of language displaying features that are unique to the Internet […] arising out of its character as a medium which is electronic, global and interactive’. This ‘language’, however, may be differently understood: either as an adaptation of the English language proper to internet requirements and purposes, or as a new and rapidly-changing and developing language as a result of a rapid evolution or adaptation to Internet requirements of almost all world languages, for whom English is a trendsetter. If the second and probably most plausible interpretation is adopted, there are three salient features of ‘Netspeak’: (a) the rapid expansion of all its new linguistic developments thanks to the Internet itself, which may lead to the generalization and widespread acceptance of new words, coinages, or meanings, hundreds of times faster than was the case with the printed media. As said above, (b) the visible influence of English, the most prevalent language on the Internet. Consequently, (c) this new language tends to reduce the ‘distance’ between English and other languages as well as the ignorance of the former by speakers of other languages, since the ‘Netspeak’ version of the latter adopts grammatical, syntactic and lexical features of English. Thus, linguistic differences may even disappear when code-switching and/or borrowing occurs, as whole fragments of English appear in other language contexts. As a consequence of the new situation, an ideal context appears for interlanguage or multilingual word formation to thrive: puns, blends, compounds and word creativity in general find in the web the ideal place to gain rapid acceptance world-wide, as a result of fashion, coincidence, or sheer merit of the new linguistic proposals.

Innovative Tourism Clusters: Myth or Reality? Empirical Evidence from Benidorm

Paper submitted to TCVT3 Bozen/Bolzano, 10-12 April 2014, International workshop on Tourists as Consumers, Visitors, Travellers

Trends in Socioeconomic Inequalities in Ischemic Heart Disease Mortality in Small Areas of Nine Spanish Cities from 1996 to 2007 Using Smoothed ANOVA

The aim of this study was to analyze the evolution of socioeconomic inequalities in mortality due to ischemic heart diseases (IHD) in the census tracts of nine Spanish cities between the periods 1996–2001 and 2002–2007. Among women, there are socioeconomic inequalities in IHD mortality in the first period which tended to remain stable or even increase in the second period in most of the cities. Among men, in general, no socioeconomic inequalities have been detected for this cause in either of the periods. These results highlight the importance of intra-urban inequalities in mortality due to IHD and their evolution over time.

Cellular responses following retinal injuries and therapeutic approaches for neurodegenerative diseases

Retinal neurodegenerative diseases like age-related macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and retinitis pigmentosa each have a different etiology and pathogenesis. However, at the cellular and molecular level, the response to retinal injury is similar in all of them, and results in morphological and functional impairment of retinal cells. This retinal degeneration may be triggered by gene defects, increased intraocular pressure, high levels of blood glucose, other types of stress or aging, but they all frequently induce a set of cell signals that lead to well-established and similar morphological and functional changes, including controlled cell death and retinal remodeling. Interestingly, an inflammatory response, oxidative stress and activation of apoptotic pathways are common features in all these diseases. Furthermore, it is important to note the relevant role of glial cells, including astrocytes, Müller cells and microglia, because their response to injury is decisive for maintaining the health of the retina or its degeneration. Several therapeutic approaches have been developed to preserve retinal function or restore eyesight in pathological conditions. In this context, neuroprotective compounds, gene therapy, cell transplantation or artificial devices should be applied at the appropriate stage of retinal degeneration to obtain successful results. This review provides an overview of the common and distinctive features of retinal neurodegenerative diseases, including the molecular, anatomical and functional changes caused by the cellular response to damage, in order to establish appropriate treatments for these pathologies.

Cambios en la estructura metropolitana durante la última década. El caso del Área Metropolitana de Valencia

La realidad metropolitana de los países desarrollados está experimentando cambios importantes asociados a la creciente separación entre los espacios de residencia y trabajo. En las áreas metropolitanas se dan los procesos de este tipo más complejos cuyas consecuencias territoriales inmediatas son la potenciación de ciertas centralidades a la vez que crecen centros nuevos o tradicionales en sus áreas de influencia. La estructura territorial (la red urbana y de transportes, fundamentalmente) en el Área Metropolitana de Valencia (AMV) incide claramente en los problemas asociados a la equidad social y a la sostenibilidad ambiental. La comunicación que aquí se presenta se centra en el análisis de dichos cambios en la última década, a partir del comportamiento demográfico de los municipios, las pautas generales de movilidad y los cambios en la ocupación del suelo en el AMV.

Blending in English Charactoons

This article deals with both the word-formation mechanism of blending and the creative process involved in providing characters with proper names in cartoons or TV series for children in English. The study addresses the nature and features of proper and common names, two apparently well-distinguished categories, as well as, and basically fictional proper names, by suggesting differences between fictional proper names and other types of proper and common names. Furthermore, it discusses the presence of blending in fiction and in fictional proper names, with special reference to charactonyms. The main focus of this work is on blended charactonyms in cartoons addressed to children, which for the purposes of this study will be called cartoonyms or charactoons. Questions such as the following are addressed: the formation or creation of cartoonyms or charactoons from pre-existing material; the semantic motivations behind their formation; their resulting structural complexity; their particularly descriptive, expressive and meaningful nature; as well as how suitable they are to the genre in which they are used.

Régimen de incendios y crisis del sistema rural en la zona occidental del Sistema Central (provincia de Cáceres) (1940-1968)

Investigación realizada en el marco del proyecto de investigación Geografía histórica de los incendios forestales en España: viejos y nuevos territorios de riesgo (GEO-INFOR), 2011-2013. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. Plan Nacional de I+D+I 2008-2011. CSO2010-21788-C02-01.