Social and behavioral determinants of consistent condom use among female commercial sex workers (FCSWs) in Ghana

This study aims at investigating the social and behavioral predictors of consistent condom use among female commercial sex workers (FCSWs) in Ghana. Street commercial sex workers were interviewed in Accra, Kumasi and Techiman. Whereas respondents had attained certain accurate knowledge about HIV transmission routes, misconceptions were still commonly reported. The level of condom education was very low (14%), however consistent condom use (all the time) with clients was relatively high (49.6%), 38.89% reported using condom sometimes and 11.56% reported never using condoms. ^ 277 of the respondent ants did not use condoms all the time. 163 of them reported not using condoms due to refusal by their clients, the remaining 64 respondents did not even request their clients to use condom due to cultural perception of power, lack of authority and the fear of loosing clients. ^ Significant predictive factors associated with consistency of condom use among FCSWs in a multivariate analysis were; age, level of education, religion, and number of customers. Some of the major obstacles to condom use by the FCSWs were refusal by clients, availability of free condoms, trying to communicate trust to their clients, and the lack of empowerment to negotiate safer sex with clients. Some of the respondents may have developed a false sense of safety by subjectively assessing whether their clients were well and do not look sick, but they were unaware that HIV carriers may show no obvious symptoms of illness at all. ^ In summary, this study points to an urgent need for reestablishing effective prevention intervention and some insights of what is required of such program in Ghana. ^

The construction of aging and health in older African American women

Persistence of racial and ethnic health disparities and governmental policies based on outdated ideas of aging call for inclusive approaches to the study of elder African Americans. The lived experiences of aging among urban, poor African American women, who comprise a vulnerable population, are not well known, as most studies focus on mainstream populations. Gerontological studies have tended to employ methods that collapse contextual information for ease of analysis, thus failing to capture nuanced information critically relevant to health of marginalized groups. Few researchers have been successful highlighting the importance of local knowledge, resilience, and resources for health by using participatory methods with older Black women. This study utilizes participatory principles to gather discursive data from nine older African American women, engaged in three generational cohorts: those born around World War II, women born after the great depression, and those born before the great depression. Videotaped and transcribed conversations of cohorts were analyzed in search of contextual factors that influence their experience of aging and health. As women responded to general themes that provoked their talk about their lives, they helped answer the study's questions: How do older African American women make sense of their aging experience? What are some of the important social and cultural influences that shape the construction of aging and health by these women? Are generational discourse groups an effective tool for exploring changes in the experiences of aging? A key finding demonstrated rich heterogeneity of experiences with strong generational influences on the construction of aging and health. The participants' moral orders comprised of traditional values of family, reinforced by personal experiences and the church, have guided their lives through oppression and stress but appear to be failing younger women who have greater exposure to new environmental pressures. Limited time and the size of the study were weaknesses although the women's interest in the study and their participation were gratifying. The participants served to highlight the importance of recognizing generational and other contextual factors in formation of ideas of aging and likelihood of additional challenges to the experience of old age among older, poorer, African Americans. ^

Spirituality of Thai Buddhists with chronic cardiovascular disease

Background. Advances in medical technology contribute to the survival rate of a growing number of persons with chronic illnesses. Individuals with chronic cardiovascular disease (chronic CVD) are among other chronically ill persons who add to the need for healthcare services. They need to cope and live with the chronic conditions and find a new balance to make sense of their lives. Thai Buddhists with chronic CVD may use their religious resources to cope with their illnesses because religious beliefs are reflected in patterns of living. The aims of the study were to: (a) explore how Thai Buddhists with chronic CVD construct the spiritual aspects of the illness experience, (b) explore how Thai Buddhists with chronic CVD may use their spiritual/religious resources as a means of coping with the illness, and (c) explore the impacts of spiritual/religious beliefs and/or practices on the daily lives of Thai Buddhists with chronic CVD. ^ Methods. Ethnography was employed and data were collected from December 1, 2007 to May 31, 2008 using in-depth interviews with 20 participants. Field notes were also recorded. ^ Findings. Three categories emerged from the study data: set of spiritual and biomedical beliefs and practices, integrated meanings, and positive consequences of the integration of spiritual and biomedical beliefs and practices. ^ Conclusions. The findings of the study suggest the importance of understanding and integrating spiritual needs into care of patients with chronic CVD. The findings revealed that the participants constructed ideas of their illness and meanings for living and coping with the illness, and integrated spiritual and biomedical beliefs and practices, resulting in positive outcomes. Further research could test interventions which facilitate such coping; for example, using reflective thinking and group support. Other studies might explore how age affects Buddhist views of the illness. ^

Liberation of hope: An ethnographic study of community-based initiatives in Houston, Texas

This is an ethnographic study about the worldview of community-based initiatives in Houston, Texas, and the people who work in them. People who participated in this study recognize that their direct constructive action is at the heart of authentic social change in their minority communities. Through qualitative data analysis, a constellation of relationships and process patterns were found to constitute themselves into the system of the community-based initiative. The predominant patterns identified from the findings in this study are: the pervasiveness of place, the importance of people, unique initiatory patterns, the concrete local sustainability, the ever-present action orientation, the resourceful use of networks and inter-relationships, the significance of church influence, the core sense of spirituality and the essence of hope. These patterns emerged out of the local knowledge, which is acutely sensitive to the elements of history and lived experience, embedded in the distinctive moral and visionary patterns of meaning and expression. Findings from the research reveal that these community-based initiatives are not programs--they are people--people who keep hope alive in their communities and who, by their daily practice, liberate others. ^

THE RECOVERY OF ENTEROPATHOGENS FROM CONTAMINATED COOKED FOODS AT HOLDING TEMPERATURES

Hot foods served in foodservice establishments, institutions and homes, have always been regarded as safe, since cooking temperatures are more likely to kill the bacterial agents that may cause foodborne diseases. However, foods that are otherwise served hot have been epidemiologically incriminated for causing foodborne diseases. This situation arises due to the possible post-cooking food contamination. Post-cooking contamination of hot-held food is most threatening for it gives the contaminating agents the possibility of proliferation. On one hand, post-cooking contamination is least understood and on the other, hot-holding of food gives the consumer a false sense of freedom from foodborne diseases. In this study, the dynamics of food contamination before or after cooking and during hot-holding are discussed and a food contamination dynamics model is presented.^ The literature on foodborne cholera, cholera-like diarrhea, shigellosis and E. coli gastroenteritis together with the literature on the occurrence and growth of the causative enteropathogens; 01 V. cholerae, non-01 V. cholerae, S. sonnei, S. flexneri and E. coli were reviewed. The literature on the infective doses of these organisms were also cited.^ In the study, four cooked food types held hot at 40-60(DEGREES)C were deliberately contaminated with 01 V. cholerae, non-01 V. cholerae, S. sonnei, S. flexneri and E. coli, one at a time at each of the hot-holding temperatures. Tested food samples for the recovery of these enteropathogens were withdrawn at various time intervals of hot holding.^ The results showed bacterial recovery to decline with increasing temperature and with increasing hot-holding time within each holding temperature. All the bacterial types except V. cholerae were recovered even after holding the food at 60(DEGREES)C for one hour. V. cholerae was not recovered after hot-holding the food at 50-60(DEGREES)C at certain holding periods. After 48 hrs incubation, V. cholerae was recovered on TCBS agar plates that read negative after the initial 24 hrs of incubation. Effective hot-holding temperatures were determined for each of the food types contaminated by each of the bacterial types.^ Statistical analysis of the collected data showed temperature, bacterial type and their interaction to be significant in enteropathogen recovery. Food type and its interactions with temperature and bacterial type were found not significant. ^

Energy, Complexity and Strategies of Evolution. En: Avá, nº 14

Cultural evolution has long been among the themes of anthropology but it has never ranked high. It is left mainly to archaeologists because they have to make sense of how society works and survives through time–a concern that has pretty much been abandoned by many cultural anthropologists. Anthropologists today seem little motivated to find out how society works, but rather to make the world a better place to live in for a particular population. The challenges of atmospheric change, nuclear proliferation, environmental degradation and resource exhaustion, the emergence of life threatening species–these challenges of contemporary evolution have awakened less interest in anthropology. The concern with cultural evolution seems to be of greater interest to non-anthropologists, such as in the work of Jarrod Diamond (2005), a biologist, and the genre that as emerged as Big History, with the works of David Christian (2005) and others. Among the few contemporary anthropologists who have sought the dynamics of cultural evolution, the work of Joseph Tainter (1996) stands out.

Un elixir de la palabra : Heterogeneidad interlingüe en la narrativa de Sandra Cisneros

Esta tesis doctoral explora la construcción de algunos aspectos enunciativos relacionados con la heterogeneidad lingüístico-cultural presentes en la narrativa de la escritora chicana Sandra Cisneros [n. 1954]. Más específicamente, esta investigación tiene como objetivo principal explicar el fenómeno de la desterritorialización de la lengua a partir del examen de la conformación de espacios lingüístico-culturales intersticiales a lo largo del desarrollo de la obra de Cisneros [1984, 1991, 2002], que conforma el corpus de nuestro trabajo. Nuestra hipótesis rectora indica que en la escritura de Cisneros. La constitución de la heterogeneidad y la gesta del sentido son ineludiblemente interlingües. Así, proponemos que la heterogeneidad interlingüe es la categoría que permite explicar la complejidad discursivo-enunciativa característica de nuestro corpus. A partir del concepto de heterogeneidad[es] enunciativa[s] elaborado por Authier-Revuz [1984]. Definimos la heterogeneidad interlingüe como un fenómeno enunciativo que se inscribe en el ámbito del dialogismo interdiscursivo [Bajtin [1952-3] 1982] y que se manifiesta a través de las marcas y formas que surgen en el discurso a través de los procesos de negociación y traducción Iingüistico-culturales actualizados en el encuentro constante y constitutivo de distintas lenguas. Según entendemos, la heterogeneidad interlingüe se articula a partir de tres dimensiones que se encuentran en permanente interacción: la conformación de una imagen discursiva o ethos [Ducrot, [1984] 1986; Amossy, 1999] asociado al responsable de la enunciación de la totalidad de los textos narrativos [Iocutor-Autor], la institución de sitios -formas y marcas- que se presentan como heterogéneos desde un punto de vista lingüístico-cultural y la configuración de una practica de lectura particular que exige una competencia discursivo-cultural de parte del lector que debe completar el sentido del texto y también del discurso. En atención alas dimensiones aludidas, esta tesis otorga atención específica a los siguientes aspectos: la constitución interlingüe de la paratextualidad, la alternancia de lenguas, los distintos modos de presencia de la traducción, los enunciados paremiológicos y la dimensión reflexiva de la enunciación. Entre los objetivos centrales de nuestra investigación, se cuentan: 1. la elaboración de un andamiaje teórico-metodológico pluridisciplinario que permita dar cuenta de las particularidades discursivas de nuestro corpus y ser referencia para el análisis de otras escrituras de minorías y narrativas de frontera; 2. la contribución al desarrollo de los estudios del discurso [Authier-Revuz, 1984, 1995; Ducrot. [1984] 1986, 2004] a través de la incorporación de la noción de interlingüismo a la discusión de la constitución de la heterogeneidad y de la gesta del sentido discursivo; 3. la articulación del concepto de desterritorializacion [Deleuze y Guattari, [1975] 1998] con algunas nociones originadas en los modelos provenientes de la teoría de la Frontera [Hicks, 1991; Arteaga, 1997] y de la teoría discursiva de Authier-Revuz [1984, 1995]. En cuanto a los objetivos particulares, este trabajo de tesis se propone examinar las distintas formas y marcas de la heterogeneidad interlingüe presentes en la narrativa de Cisneros y ofrecer un panorama analítico que pondere la evolución de la obra de la escritora chicana en relación con la construcción del responsable de la enunciación, los sitios de la heterogeneidad y la practica de lectura singular que impone esta escritura

Un elixir de la palabra : Heterogeneidad interlingüe en la narrativa de Sandra Cisneros

Esta tesis doctoral explora la construcción de algunos aspectos enunciativos relacionados con la heterogeneidad lingüístico-cultural presentes en la narrativa de la escritora chicana Sandra Cisneros [n. 1954]. Más específicamente, esta investigación tiene como objetivo principal explicar el fenómeno de la desterritorialización de la lengua a partir del examen de la conformación de espacios lingüístico-culturales intersticiales a lo largo del desarrollo de la obra de Cisneros [1984, 1991, 2002], que conforma el corpus de nuestro trabajo. Nuestra hipótesis rectora indica que en la escritura de Cisneros. La constitución de la heterogeneidad y la gesta del sentido son ineludiblemente interlingües. Así, proponemos que la heterogeneidad interlingüe es la categoría que permite explicar la complejidad discursivo-enunciativa característica de nuestro corpus. A partir del concepto de heterogeneidad[es] enunciativa[s] elaborado por Authier-Revuz [1984]. Definimos la heterogeneidad interlingüe como un fenómeno enunciativo que se inscribe en el ámbito del dialogismo interdiscursivo [Bajtin [1952-3] 1982] y que se manifiesta a través de las marcas y formas que surgen en el discurso a través de los procesos de negociación y traducción Iingüistico-culturales actualizados en el encuentro constante y constitutivo de distintas lenguas. Según entendemos, la heterogeneidad interlingüe se articula a partir de tres dimensiones que se encuentran en permanente interacción: la conformación de una imagen discursiva o ethos [Ducrot, [1984] 1986; Amossy, 1999] asociado al responsable de la enunciación de la totalidad de los textos narrativos [Iocutor-Autor], la institución de sitios -formas y marcas- que se presentan como heterogéneos desde un punto de vista lingüístico-cultural y la configuración de una practica de lectura particular que exige una competencia discursivo-cultural de parte del lector que debe completar el sentido del texto y también del discurso. En atención alas dimensiones aludidas, esta tesis otorga atención específica a los siguientes aspectos: la constitución interlingüe de la paratextualidad, la alternancia de lenguas, los distintos modos de presencia de la traducción, los enunciados paremiológicos y la dimensión reflexiva de la enunciación. Entre los objetivos centrales de nuestra investigación, se cuentan: 1. la elaboración de un andamiaje teórico-metodológico pluridisciplinario que permita dar cuenta de las particularidades discursivas de nuestro corpus y ser referencia para el análisis de otras escrituras de minorías y narrativas de frontera; 2. la contribución al desarrollo de los estudios del discurso [Authier-Revuz, 1984, 1995; Ducrot. [1984] 1986, 2004] a través de la incorporación de la noción de interlingüismo a la discusión de la constitución de la heterogeneidad y de la gesta del sentido discursivo; 3. la articulación del concepto de desterritorializacion [Deleuze y Guattari, [1975] 1998] con algunas nociones originadas en los modelos provenientes de la teoría de la Frontera [Hicks, 1991; Arteaga, 1997] y de la teoría discursiva de Authier-Revuz [1984, 1995]. En cuanto a los objetivos particulares, este trabajo de tesis se propone examinar las distintas formas y marcas de la heterogeneidad interlingüe presentes en la narrativa de Cisneros y ofrecer un panorama analítico que pondere la evolución de la obra de la escritora chicana en relación con la construcción del responsable de la enunciación, los sitios de la heterogeneidad y la practica de lectura singular que impone esta escritura

Un elixir de la palabra : Heterogeneidad interlingüe en la narrativa de Sandra Cisneros

Esta tesis doctoral explora la construcción de algunos aspectos enunciativos relacionados con la heterogeneidad lingüístico-cultural presentes en la narrativa de la escritora chicana Sandra Cisneros [n. 1954]. Más específicamente, esta investigación tiene como objetivo principal explicar el fenómeno de la desterritorialización de la lengua a partir del examen de la conformación de espacios lingüístico-culturales intersticiales a lo largo del desarrollo de la obra de Cisneros [1984, 1991, 2002], que conforma el corpus de nuestro trabajo. Nuestra hipótesis rectora indica que en la escritura de Cisneros. La constitución de la heterogeneidad y la gesta del sentido son ineludiblemente interlingües. Así, proponemos que la heterogeneidad interlingüe es la categoría que permite explicar la complejidad discursivo-enunciativa característica de nuestro corpus. A partir del concepto de heterogeneidad[es] enunciativa[s] elaborado por Authier-Revuz [1984]. Definimos la heterogeneidad interlingüe como un fenómeno enunciativo que se inscribe en el ámbito del dialogismo interdiscursivo [Bajtin [1952-3] 1982] y que se manifiesta a través de las marcas y formas que surgen en el discurso a través de los procesos de negociación y traducción Iingüistico-culturales actualizados en el encuentro constante y constitutivo de distintas lenguas. Según entendemos, la heterogeneidad interlingüe se articula a partir de tres dimensiones que se encuentran en permanente interacción: la conformación de una imagen discursiva o ethos [Ducrot, [1984] 1986; Amossy, 1999] asociado al responsable de la enunciación de la totalidad de los textos narrativos [Iocutor-Autor], la institución de sitios -formas y marcas- que se presentan como heterogéneos desde un punto de vista lingüístico-cultural y la configuración de una practica de lectura particular que exige una competencia discursivo-cultural de parte del lector que debe completar el sentido del texto y también del discurso. En atención alas dimensiones aludidas, esta tesis otorga atención específica a los siguientes aspectos: la constitución interlingüe de la paratextualidad, la alternancia de lenguas, los distintos modos de presencia de la traducción, los enunciados paremiológicos y la dimensión reflexiva de la enunciación. Entre los objetivos centrales de nuestra investigación, se cuentan: 1. la elaboración de un andamiaje teórico-metodológico pluridisciplinario que permita dar cuenta de las particularidades discursivas de nuestro corpus y ser referencia para el análisis de otras escrituras de minorías y narrativas de frontera; 2. la contribución al desarrollo de los estudios del discurso [Authier-Revuz, 1984, 1995; Ducrot. [1984] 1986, 2004] a través de la incorporación de la noción de interlingüismo a la discusión de la constitución de la heterogeneidad y de la gesta del sentido discursivo; 3. la articulación del concepto de desterritorializacion [Deleuze y Guattari, [1975] 1998] con algunas nociones originadas en los modelos provenientes de la teoría de la Frontera [Hicks, 1991; Arteaga, 1997] y de la teoría discursiva de Authier-Revuz [1984, 1995]. En cuanto a los objetivos particulares, este trabajo de tesis se propone examinar las distintas formas y marcas de la heterogeneidad interlingüe presentes en la narrativa de Cisneros y ofrecer un panorama analítico que pondere la evolución de la obra de la escritora chicana en relación con la construcción del responsable de la enunciación, los sitios de la heterogeneidad y la practica de lectura singular que impone esta escritura

Un elixir de la palabra : Heterogeneidad interlingüe en la narrativa de Sandra Cisneros

Esta tesis doctoral explora la construcción de algunos aspectos enunciativos relacionados con la heterogeneidad lingüístico-cultural presentes en la narrativa de la escritora chicana Sandra Cisneros [n. 1954]. Más específicamente, esta investigación tiene como objetivo principal explicar el fenómeno de la desterritorialización de la lengua a partir del examen de la conformación de espacios lingüístico-culturales intersticiales a lo largo del desarrollo de la obra de Cisneros [1984, 1991, 2002], que conforma el corpus de nuestro trabajo. Nuestra hipótesis rectora indica que en la escritura de Cisneros. La constitución de la heterogeneidad y la gesta del sentido son ineludiblemente interlingües. Así, proponemos que la heterogeneidad interlingüe es la categoría que permite explicar la complejidad discursivo-enunciativa característica de nuestro corpus. A partir del concepto de heterogeneidad[es] enunciativa[s] elaborado por Authier-Revuz [1984]. Definimos la heterogeneidad interlingüe como un fenómeno enunciativo que se inscribe en el ámbito del dialogismo interdiscursivo [Bajtin [1952-3] 1982] y que se manifiesta a través de las marcas y formas que surgen en el discurso a través de los procesos de negociación y traducción Iingüistico-culturales actualizados en el encuentro constante y constitutivo de distintas lenguas. Según entendemos, la heterogeneidad interlingüe se articula a partir de tres dimensiones que se encuentran en permanente interacción: la conformación de una imagen discursiva o ethos [Ducrot, [1984] 1986; Amossy, 1999] asociado al responsable de la enunciación de la totalidad de los textos narrativos [Iocutor-Autor], la institución de sitios -formas y marcas- que se presentan como heterogéneos desde un punto de vista lingüístico-cultural y la configuración de una practica de lectura particular que exige una competencia discursivo-cultural de parte del lector que debe completar el sentido del texto y también del discurso. En atención alas dimensiones aludidas, esta tesis otorga atención específica a los siguientes aspectos: la constitución interlingüe de la paratextualidad, la alternancia de lenguas, los distintos modos de presencia de la traducción, los enunciados paremiológicos y la dimensión reflexiva de la enunciación. Entre los objetivos centrales de nuestra investigación, se cuentan: 1. la elaboración de un andamiaje teórico-metodológico pluridisciplinario que permita dar cuenta de las particularidades discursivas de nuestro corpus y ser referencia para el análisis de otras escrituras de minorías y narrativas de frontera; 2. la contribución al desarrollo de los estudios del discurso [Authier-Revuz, 1984, 1995; Ducrot. [1984] 1986, 2004] a través de la incorporación de la noción de interlingüismo a la discusión de la constitución de la heterogeneidad y de la gesta del sentido discursivo; 3. la articulación del concepto de desterritorializacion [Deleuze y Guattari, [1975] 1998] con algunas nociones originadas en los modelos provenientes de la teoría de la Frontera [Hicks, 1991; Arteaga, 1997] y de la teoría discursiva de Authier-Revuz [1984, 1995]. En cuanto a los objetivos particulares, este trabajo de tesis se propone examinar las distintas formas y marcas de la heterogeneidad interlingüe presentes en la narrativa de Cisneros y ofrecer un panorama analítico que pondere la evolución de la obra de la escritora chicana en relación con la construcción del responsable de la enunciación, los sitios de la heterogeneidad y la practica de lectura singular que impone esta escritura

Survey of living conditions of Arctic indigenous peoples

Major findings of the Survey of Living Conditions in the Arctic (SLiCA) are: (1) A combination of traditional activities and cash employment is the prevailing lifestyle of Arctic indigenous peoples; (2) family ties, social support of each other, and traditional activities have a lot to do with why indigenous people choose to remain in Arctic communities; (3) well-being is closely related to job opportunities, locally available fish and game, and a sense of local control. Well-being and depression (and related problems like suicide) are flip sides of the same coin. Improving well-being may reduce social problems; and, (4) health conditions vary widely in the Arctic: three-in-four Greenlandic Inuit self-rate their health as at least very good compared with one-in-two Canadian and Alaska Inuit and one-in-five Chukotka indigenous people. Findings are based on 7,200 interviews in a probability sample of Inupiat settlement regions of Alaska, the four Inuit settlement regions of Canada, all of Greenland, and the Anadyrskij, Anadyr, Shmidtovs, Beringovskij, Chukotskij, Iujl'tinskij, Bilibinskij, Chaunskij, Providenskij, Uel'Kal' districts of Chukotka. Indigenous people and researchers from Greenland, Russia, Canada, the United States, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland collaborated on all phases of the study.

Paleomagnetic of ODP Hole 130-807C basalts

Characteristic remanent magnetizations derived from detailed thermal and alternating-field demagnetization of basalts recovered at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 807 on the Ontong Java Plateau reveal constant normal polarity consistent with paleontological ages from overlying sediments, suggesting deposition in early Aptian times at the beginning of the Cretaceous Normal Polarity Superchron (K-N). The paleomagnetic data can be divided into 14 distinct inclination groups, which together define a paleolatitude of 18°S, some 16° shallower than expected from a Pacific apparent polar wander path (APWP) based on nonsedimentary data. The data display a trend in paleomagnetic inclination, showing shallower values with increasing depth. We conclude that this trend is a result of local tectonic tilting during the waning phases of volcanism on the plateau. Hotspot-based plate reconstructions for the Early Cretaceous place the Ontong Java Plateau on the Louisville hotspot, presently located at 51°S, whereas the paleolatitude for Site 807 based on the Pacific APWP is 34°S. Because the nominal mean inclination from Site 807 and values derived from Deep Sea Drilling Project (DSDP) sediments of other sites predict shallower paleolatitudes for the Ontong Java Plateau, values from the Pacific APWP provide lower bounds on true polar wander. Considering mantle plume sources on the southern and northern portions of the plateau (DSDP Site 288 and ODP Site 807, respectively), the Louisville hotspot appears to have moved 9°-17° to the south relative to the spin axis since the Early Cretaceous. This sense of motion is consistent with previous results for the Suiko Seamount (65 Ma) of the Hawaiian-Emperor Chain.

Production sharing, demand spillovers and CO2 emissions : the case of Chinese regions in GVCs

This study adopts the perspective of demand spillovers to provide new insights regarding Chinese domestic-regions' production position in global value chains and their associated CO2 emissions. To this end, we constructed a new type of World Input-Output Database in which China's domestic interregional input-output table for 2007 is endogenously embedded. Then, the pattern of China's regional demand spillovers across both domestic regions and countries are revealed by employing this new database. These results were further connected to endowments theory, which help to make sense of the empirical results. It is found that China's regions locate relatively upstream in GVCs, and had CO2 emissions in net exports, which were entirely predicted by the environmental extended HOV model. Our study points to micro policy instruments to combat climate change, for example, the tax reform for energy inputs that helps to change the production pattern thus has impact on trade pattern and so forth.

A new way of teaching different subjects in a foreign language in the Building Engineering Degree at the Universidad Politécnica.

The European Union has been promoting linguistic diversity for many years as one of its main educational goals. This is an element that facilitates student mobility and student exchanges between different universities and countries and enriches the education of young undergraduates. In particular, a higher degree of competence in the English language is becoming essential for engineers, architects and researchers in general, as English has become the lingua franca that opens up horizons to internationalisation and the transfer of knowledge in today’s world. Many experts point to the Integrated Approach to Contents and Foreign Languages System as being an option that has certain benefits over the traditional method of teaching a second language that is exclusively based on specific subjects. This system advocates teaching the different subjects in the syllabus in a language other than one’s mother tongue, without prioritising knowledge of the language over the subject. This was the idea that in the 2009/10 academic year gave rise to the Second Language Integration Programme (SLI Programme) at the Escuela Arquitectura Técnica in the Universidad Politécnica Madrid (EUATM-UPM), just at the beginning of the tuition of the new Building Engineering Degree, which had been adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) model. This programme is an interdisciplinary initiative for the set of subjects taught during the semester and is coordinated through the Assistant Director Office for Educational Innovation. The SLI Programme has a dual goal; to familiarise students with the specific English terminology of the subject being taught, and at the same time improve their communication skills in English. A total of thirty lecturers are taking part in the teaching of eleven first year subjects and twelve in the second year, with around 120 students who have voluntarily enrolled in a special group in each semester. During the 2010/2011 academic year the degree of acceptance and the results of the SLI Programme have been monitored. Tools have been designed to aid interdisciplinary coordination and to analyse satisfaction, such as coordination records and surveys. The results currently available refer to the first and second year and are divided into specific aspects of the different subjects involved and into general aspects of the ongoing experience.

Subjective assessment of the impact of transmission errors in 3DTV compared to HDTV

Recently, broadcasted 3D video content has reached households with the first generation of 3DTV. However, few studies have been done to analyze the Quality of Experience (QoE) perceived by the end-users in this scenario. This paper studies the impact of trans- mission errors in 3DTV, considering that the video is delivered in side-by-side format over a conventional packet-based network. For this purpose, a novel evaluation methodology based on standard sin- gle stimulus methods and with the aim of keeping as close as pos- sible the home environment viewing conditions has been proposed. The effects of packet losses in monoscopic and stereoscopic videos are compared from the results of subjective assessment tests. Other aspects were also measured concerning 3D content as naturalness, sense of presence and visual fatigue. The results show that although the final perceived QoE is acceptable, some errors cause important binocular rivalry, and therefore, substantial visual discomfort.