Toward a comprehensive care of HIV patients: Finding a strategy to detect depression in a Spanish HIV cohort

Depression is a common but frequently undiagnosed feature in individuals with HIV infection. To find a strategy to detect depression in a non-specialized clinical setting, the overall performance of the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the depression identification questions proposed by the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS) guidelines were assessed in a descriptive cross-sectional study of 113 patients with HIV infection. The clinician asked the two screening questions that were proposed under the EACS guidelines and requested patients to complete the HADS. A psychiatrist or psychologist administered semi-structured clinical interviews to yield psychiatric diagnoses of depression (gold standard). A receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for the HADS-Depression (HADS-D) subscale indicated that the best sensitivity and specificity were obtained between the cut-off points of 5 and 8, and the ROC curve for the HADS-Total (HADS-T) indicated that the best cut-off points were between 12 and 14. There were no statistically significant differences in the correlations of the EACS (considering positive responses to one [A] or both questions [B]), the HADS-D ≥ 8 or the HADS-T ≥ 12 with the gold standard. The study concludes that both approaches (the two EACS questions and the HADS-D subscale) are appropriate depression-screening methods in HIV population. We believe that using the EACS-B and the HADS-D subscale in a two-step approach allows for rapid, assumable and accurate clinical diagnosis in non-psychiatric hospital settings.

Tectonics Inversions & Emerald Deposits

In spite of the great amount of emerald deposits throughout the world, the priorities in quality and volume of extracted rough material are the sites of Colombia (Muzo and Chivor emerald belts). This sites are know even before the Spanish conquistadores. Emeralds were extracted from Somondoco mine (today Chivor) since 1537 and from Muzo in 1567. Contrariwise to the majority of the emerald deposits of the world, which are associated with granitic rocks, the Colombian emerald deposits are associated with hydrofracturing (the main factor controlling emerald mineralization) and hydrothermal fluids, rich in beryl, chrome and vanadium, induced by a tectonic inversion of the deep Mesozoic backarc basin, which is also responsible of the majority of the petroleum systems of the foredeep and foldbelt areas (maturation of the source-rocks andcreation of structural traps). The host rocks of the emeralds are carbonaceous calsiltites (calcareous schists) rich in organic matter of Lower Cretaceous age, which are cut by calcite veins, which, often, contain emeralds, particularly when they are folded. Indeed, since long time (Cheilletz, A. and Giulliani, G., 1996) suggested a two-stage model for the formation of the Colombian emeralds : (i) Stage I is characterized by décollement planes (early compressional tectonic regime) within the carbonaceous calsiltites, hydrothermal fluid infiltration and wall-rock metasomatic alteration ; (ii) Stage II (late tectonic regime) deforms the previous veins by thrust-related folds (development of stratiform and hydraulic breccia), which are synchronous of the emerald mineralization. The resulting tectonic structures are complex fold patterns characterized by propagation anticlines with emerald veins and emerald hydraulic breccia in the apexes, as in Quipama, Tendenquema and Chivor mines. Otherwise stated, since all emerald exploitations are, presently underground, exhaustive geological and particularly structural studies are required to reduce the probability of disappointments. The color of emeralds is from light green to thick green with obvious pleochroism. They appears with different colors when observed at different angles, especially with polarized light. The emeralds from Coscuez deposits have a homogeneous intensive color and bluish tone. At Muzo deposit, the emeralds have middle or dark green color with yellowish tone. At the Chivor deposits, the emeralds have less intensive green color with slight bluish tone. The typical inclusions are albite and pyrite, as well as long bubbles with three phase-inclusions according the zones of growth and along the crystal shapes.

The mission as a frontier institution in the Spanish american colonies, by Herbert E. Bolton.

http://www.archive.org/details/missionasfrontie00boltrich

The Spanish pioneers and the California missions.

http://www.archive.org/details/spanishpioneersa009682mbp

A corpus-driven error analysis of the oral and written production of Leaving Certificate Spanish learners

The Leaving Certificate (LC) is the national, standardised state examination in Ireland necessary for entry to third level education – this presents a massive, raw corpus of data with the potential to yield invaluable insight into the phenomena of learner interlanguage. With samples of official LC Spanish examination data, this project has compiled a digitised corpus of learner Spanish comprised of the written and oral production of 100 candidates. This corpus was then analysed using a specific investigative corpus technique, Computer-aided Error Analysis (CEA, Dagneaux et al, 1998). CEA is a powerful apparatus in that it greatly facilitates the quantification and analysis of a large learner corpus in digital format. The corpus was both compiled and analysed with the use of UAM Corpus Tool (O’Donnell 2013). This Tool allows for the recording of candidate-specific variables such as grade, examination level, task type and gender, therefore allowing for critical analysis of the corpus as one unit, as separate written and oral sub corpora and also of performance per task, level and gender. This is an interdisciplinary work combining aspects of Applied Linguistics, Learner Corpus Research and Foreign Language (FL) Learning. Beginning with a review of the context of FL learning in Ireland and Europe, I go on to discuss the disciplinary context and theoretical framework for this work and outline the methodology applied. I then perform detailed quantitative and qualitative analyses before going on to combine all research findings outlining principal conclusions. This investigation does not make a priori assumptions about the data set, the LC Spanish examination, the context of FLs or of any aspect of learner competence. It undertakes to provide the linguistic research community and the domain of Spanish language learning and pedagogy in Ireland with an empirical, descriptive profile of real learner performance, characterising learner difficulty.

Affective and Experiential Influences on English Skills of Heritage Spanish Speakers

Gemstone Team GABS (Grammar Acquisition in Bilingual Students)

THE ART SONG OF SOUTH AMERICA: AN EXPLORATION THROUGH PERFORMANCE

The repertoire included in this dissertation was presented over the course of three recitals, The Songs of Argentina, The Songs of Brazil, Chile and Venezuela, and The Songs of Perú and Colombia. Each recital was supplemented by written program notes and English translations of the Spanish, Portuguese and Quechua texts. The selections presented in this study was chosen in an effort to pair the works of internationally renowned composers like Argentine composers Alberto Ginastera and Carlos Guastavino, and Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, with those of lesser-known composers, including Venezuelan composer Juan Bautista Plaza, Peruvian composers Edgar Valcárcel, Theodoro Valcárcel, and Rosa Mercedes Ayarza de Morales, and Colombian composer Jaime Léon. Each composer represents a milestone in the development of art song composition in South America. All three recitals were recorded and are available on compact discs in the Digital Repository at the University of Maryland (DRUM). This dissertation was completed in May, 2011.

A GOLDEN AGE: FRENCH AND SPANISH CELLO MUSIC FROM SAINT-SAENS TO CASSADO

Motivated by both the delicacy of French music, such as La Mer by Claude Debussy, and the exotic atmosphere of Spanish music, such as Zigeunerweisen by Pablo Sarasate, I decided to investigate the characteristics of French and Spanish cello music from Camille Saint-Saens to Gaspar Cassad6. French cello music flourished from the end ofthel9th to the middle of the 20th century because of the innovation of many unprecedented techniques and experimentation with a variety of sonorities. The Spanish were heavily influenced by the French due to the geographical connection. Cello virtuosi like Auguste Tolbecque, August Franchomme, Pierre Fournier, and Paul Tortelier inspired composers of their day, creating a "golden age" of cello music. This dissertation consisted of three recitals in Gildenhom Recital Hall. The first recital was held on May lOth, 2007 at 5:30pm with pianist David Ballena. The second recital was held on October 14th, 2007 at 2pm with collaborators Minna Han, piano and Jenny Wu, violin. The third recital was held on March 301 2008 at 5:30 with pianist Naoko Takao. Here is the program of the recitals: The first recital: Gabriel Faure(1856-1924): Sonate pour Violoncello et Piano Op.109(1917) Gaspar Cassad6 (1897-1966): Suite per Violoncello Solo (1926) Claude Debussy (1862-1918): Sonate pour Violoncelle et Piano (1915) The second recital: Manuel de Falla (1876-1946): Melodia (1897), Romanza (1898) Camille Saint-Saens (1835-1921): Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No.1 in A minor Op.33 (1873) Maurice Ravel (1875-1973): Sonata for Violin and Cello (1920-22) The third recital: Pablo Casals (1876-1973): Song of the Birds (1925) Edouard Lalo (1823-1892): Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in D Minor (1877) Franscis Poulenc (1899-1963): Sonata for Cello and Piano Op.l43(1940-48)

Doctoral programs and academic research: Mathematics education in the Spanish university

We have shown a description of the changes and innovations happened in Spain concerning the research on Mathematics Education during the last 25 years, highlighting specially the fast development of the last 10 years. Neither of these great and striking changes would have taken place if there was not been an evolution within the Spanish society, and particularly, within its educational system. Thanks to this, we have found the appropriate conditions for research development.

Optionality in L2 grammars: the acquisition of SV/VS contrast in Spanish

This study examines the L2 acquisition of word order variation in Spanish by three groups of L1 English learners in an instructed setting. The three groups represent learners at three different L2 proficiencies: beginners, intermediate and advanced. The aim of the study is to analyse the acquisition of word order variation in a situation where the target input is highly ambiguous, since two apparent optional forms exist in the target grammar, in order to examine how the optionality is disambiguated by learners from the earlier stages of learning to the more advanced. Our results support the hypothesis that an account based on a discourse-pragmatics deficit cannot satisfactorily explain learners’ non-targetlike representations in the contexts analysed in our study.