Foreign migrations and new couples in Spain. Nuptiality and Gender Imbalance in the new century

Nuptiality is not a central item in Migration Research now. In the past, especially for American countries, many scholars were really interested in marriages of immigrants, specially knowing the exchanges between different communities; that is, mixed marriages. Here is the Spanish case in nuptiality between foreign and local people.

Effect of age and gender on citalopram and desmethylcitalopram steady-state plasma concentrations in adults and elderly depressed patients.

The effect of aging on steady-state plasma concentrations of citalopram (CIT) and desmethylcitalopram (DCIT) was investigated in 128 depressive patients treated with 10-80 mg/day CIT. They were separated into three groups, with age up to 64 years (mean age+/-S.D.: 47+/-12 years; n=48), between 65 and 79 years (72+/-1 years; n=57), and from 80 years or older (84+/-1 years; n=23). Body mass index (BMI), renal and hepatic functions were similar in the three groups. A large interindividual variability of plasma levels of CIT (16-fold) and DCIT (12-fold) was measured for a given dose. The mean plasma levels of CIT corrected for a 20 mg daily dose were 55% higher in the very elderly (>=80 years) patients (65+/-30 ng/ml; p<0.001) and 38% higher in the elderly (65-79 years) patients (58+/-24 ng/ml; p<0.001) when compared to the adult patients (42+/-17 ng/ml). DCIT mean plasma level was 38% higher (p<0.05) in the group of very elderly patients (22+/-10 ng/ml) when compared to the adult patients (16+/-9 ng/ml). As a consequence, the mean plasma concentration of CIT+DCIT was 48% higher in the very elderly patients (86+/-36 ng/ml; p<0.001) and 33% higher in the elderly patients (77+/-28 ng/ml; p<0.001) when compared to the adult patients (58+/-21 ng/ml). Age correlated significantly with CIT (r=0.43, p<0.001), DCIT (r=0.28, p<0.01), and CIT+DCIT plasma levels (r=0.44, p<0.001), and thus accounts for 18% of the variability of CIT plasma levels, with no influence of gender. The recommended dose reduction of CIT in elderly patients seems therefore justified.

The Poetics and Politics of the American Gothic : Gender and Slavery in Nineteenth-Century American Literature

Taking as its point of departure recent insights about the performative¦nature of genre, The Poetics and Politics of the American Gothic¦challenges the critical tendency to accept at face value that gothic¦literature is mainly about fear. Instead, Agnieszka Soltysik Monnet¦argues that the American Gothic, and gothic literature in general,¦is also about judgment: how to judge and what happens when¦judgment is confronted with situations that defy its limits.¦Poe, Hawthorne, Melville, Gilman, and James all shared a concern¦with the political and ideological debates of their time, but tended¦to approach these debates indirectly. Thus, Monnet suggests, while¦slavery and race are not the explicit subject matter of antebellum¦works by Poe and Hawthorne, they nevertheless permeate it through¦suggestive analogies and tacit references. Similarly, Melville, Gilman,¦and James use the gothic to explore the categories of gender and¦sexuality that were being renegotiated during the latter half of the¦century. Focusing on The Fall of the House of Usher, The Marble¦Faun, Pierre, The Turn of the Screw, and The Yellow Wallpaper,¦Monnet brings to bear minor texts by the same authors that further¦enrich her innovative readings of these canonical works. At the same¦time, her study persuasively argues that the Gothic's endurance¦and ubiquity are in large part related to its being uniquely adapted¦to rehearse questions about judgment and justice that continue to¦fascinate and disturb.

Gender, age, and body surface area are the major determinants of ascending aorta dimensions in subjects with apparently normal echocardiograms.

BACKGROUND: Limited data have been published on the normal size of the ascending aorta (AA) measured using transthoracic echocardiography (TTE). METHODS: AA diameters were measured in 1799 patients with normal cardiac findings on TTE and compared with the diameters of the sinus of Valsalva (SoV). RESULTS: Mean diameters in men and women, respectively, were 3.4 and 3.1 cm for the SoV and 3.2 and 3.0 cm for the AA. The sizes of the SoV and the AA showed strong correlations with age, age squared, and body surface area. The 5th and 95th percentile curves for the SoV and AA showed faster growth of diameters in early adulthood compared with old age. The dimensions of the SoV were larger than those of the AA (mean differences, 0.19 cm in men and 0.08 cm in women), and the difference between the SoV and AA was negatively correlated with age. CONCLUSION: The findings of this study stress the importance of indexing dimensions of the SoV and the AA to age and body surface area separately for men and women.

Violencia doméstica: sexo y género en las teorías psicosociales sobre la violencia. Hacia otras propuestas de comprensión e intervención = Domestic violence: sex and gender in psychosocial theories about violence. New approach to it comprehension and intervention

En el artículo se presenta la violencia doméstica como violencia política de género masculino. Se señalan el individualismo, la naturalización y el sexismo en el tratamiento de la violencia y la agresión así como de la identidad, por parte de la psicología tradicional, como factores que dificultan las intervenciones en la violencia doméstica. Los prejuicios, valores y estrategias de la sociedad patriarcal continúan influyendo en ellas. Desde la psicología crítica feminista se propone: a) una comprensión de la subjetividad, la diferencia sexo-género y la violencia como construcciones sociales; b) intervenciones menos autoritarias y que no participen en la reproducción del orden social; c) la incorporación de las resistencias desarrolladas; d) un análisis basado en las relaciones de poder y las prácticas discursivas

Gender inequalities in occupational health related to the unequal distribution of working and employment conditions: a systematic review

Gender inequalities exist in work life, but little is known about their presence in relation to factors examined in occupation health settings. The aim of this study was to identify and summarize the working and employment conditions described as determinants of gender inequalities in occupational health in studies related to occupational health published between 1999 and 2010. A systematic literature review was undertaken of studies available in MEDLINE, EMBASE, Sociological Abstracts, LILACS, EconLit and CINAHL between 1999 and 2010. Epidemiologic studies were selected by applying a set of inclusion criteria to the title, abstract, and complete text. The quality of the studies was also assessed. Selected studies were qualitatively analysed, resulting in a compilation of all differences between women and men in the prevalence of exposure to working and employment conditions and work-related health problems as outcomes. Most of the 30 studies included were conducted in Europe (n=19) and had a cross-sectional design (n=24). The most common topic analysed was related to the exposure to work-related psychosocial hazards (n=8). Employed women had more job insecurity, lower control, worse contractual working conditions and poorer self-perceived physical and mental health than men did. Conversely, employed men had a higher degree of physically demanding work, lower support, higher levels of effort-reward imbalance, higher job status, were more exposed to noise and worked longer hours than women did. This systematic review has identified a set of working and employment conditions as determinants of gender inequalities in occupational health from the occupational health literature. These results may be useful to policy makers seeking to reduce gender inequalities in occupational health, and to researchers wishing to analyse these determinants in greater depth.

Apprendre ensemble pourtravailler ensemble: l'education interprofessionnelle, un mythe ou une réalité [Learning together to work together: interprofessional education, a myth or reality?].

This article offers a review of the literature on interprofessional education (EIP), a form of education which brings together members of two or more professions in a joint training. In this course, participants gain knowledge through other professionals and about them. The goal of EIP is to improve collaboration between health professionals and the quality of patient care. The EIP is booming worldwide and seems for from a mere fad. This expansion can be explained by several factors: the increasing importance attributed to the quality of care and patient safety, care changes (aging population and increasing chronic diseases) and the shortage of health professionals. The expectations of the EIP are large, while the evidence supporting its effectiveness is being built.

Patriarchal Hauntings: Re-reading Villainy and Gender in Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca

Criticism of Daphne du Maurier’s popular classic Rebecca (1938) can be divided into two mainstream interpretations. On the one hand, it was traditionally marketed as a gothic romance where the hero and the heroine conquered the evil women that separated them. On the other, certain feminist critics have recently provided a very diff erent view of the story, aligning it with gothic narratives that deal with the dangers women suff er under the patriarchal control of their husbands. Th is would imply that du Maurier’s novel should not be read as a traditional romance that promotes patriarchy, as the former interpretation suggested. In this article, I propose, through a Gothic Studies and a Gender Studies reading, that villainy in this novel is not exclusively linked to gender and, therefore, the victim and abuser statuses cannot be equated to femininity and masculinity, respectively. Instead, I argue that villainy in the novel is inextricably connected to being in a powerful position within patriarchy, and that it is the desire to maintain this position and perpetuate the patriarchal system that leads the main characters (men and women) to commit acts of villainy.

The effect of obesity, age, puberty and gender on resting metabolic rate in children and adolescents.

During puberty fat-free mass (FFM) and fat mass (FM) change quickly and these changes are influenced by sex and obesity. Since it is not completely known how these changes affect resting metabolic rate (RMR), the aim of the present study was to investigate the effect of body composition, age, sex and pubertal development of postabsorptive RMR in 9.5- to 16.5- year-old obese and non-obese children. Postabsorptive RMR was measured in a sample of 371 pre- and postpubertal children comprising 193 males (116 non-obese and 77 obese) and 178 females (119 non-obese and 59 obese). RMR was assessed by indirect calorimetry using a ventilated hood system for 45 min after an overnight fast. Body composition (FFM and FM) was estimated from skinfold measurements. The mean (+/- SD) RMR was significantly (P < 0.001) lower in non-obese (males: 5600 +/- 972 kJ/24 h; females: 5112 +/- 632 kJ/24 h) than in obese (males: 7223 +/- 1220 kJ/24 h; females: 6665 +/- 1106 kJ/24 h) children. This difference became non-significant when RMR was adjusted for body composition (FFM+FM). However, the difference between the genders still remained significant (control male: 6118 +/- 507, control female: 5652 +/- 507, P < 0.001; obese male: 6256 +/- 507, obese female: 5818 +/- 507 kJ/24 h, P < 0.001). The main determinant of RMR was FFM. In the whole cohort. FFM explained 79.8% of the variation in RMR, followed by age, gender and FM adding further 3.8%, 1.1% and 0.8% to the predictability of RMR, respectively. No significant contribution for study group (obese, non-obese), pubertal stage, or fat distribution was found in the regression for RMR. The adjusted value of RMR (for FFM and FM) slightly, but significantly (P < 0.01) decreased between the age of 10-16 years, demonstrating the important effect of age on RMR. CONCLUSIONS: The resting metabolic rate of obese and control children is not different when adjusted for body composition. The main determinant of RMR is the fat-free mass, however, age, gender and fat mass are also significant factors. Pubertal development and fat distribution do not influence RMR independently from the changes in body composition.