The meaning of BDSM. A qualitative study of the BDSM community in Spain

A lo largo de la historia, el BDSM ha sido patologizado, rechazado y prejuzgado por la mayor parte de la sociedad. Para fomentar la despatologización del BDSM, este estudio tuvo tres objetivos: En primer lugar, explorar las opiniones sobre el concepto de BDSM. En segundo lugar, conocer las experiencias y opiniones sobre la comunidad BDSMera de España. En tercer lugar, explorar y conocer las experiencias y opiniones sobre los efectos que tiene el BDSM en la sexualidad y la psicología de los miembros de esta comunidad. Para ello, se diseñó un estudio cualitativo basado en la fenomenología hermenéutica. Se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas a 16 personas que practicaban BDSM en España. El análisis de datos se realizó mediante ATLAS.ti y de este análisis surgieron tres temas principales: “Concepto de BDSM y relaciones D/s”, que incluye el concepto de BDSM, los roles asociados y las claves para formar una relación D/s sana, segura y consensuada, “Conociendo en detalle a la comunidad BDSM española”, que aborda las formas de iniciación, la importancia de la comunidad y el acceso y, por último, “Aportación psicológica y sexual del BDSM”. La evidencia que se presenta en este estudio muestra que el BDSM es una dinámica de cesión de control y cada uno lo contruye y lo crea a su manera, la afectividad y la comunicación explícita conforman un papel fundamental en las relaciones D/s, el aumento de la educación sexual en sexualidades no normativas brinda una oportunidad para romper el rechazo y los prejuicios sobre el BDSM y, por último, el BDSM puede aportar beneficios psicológicos como la disminución de la ansiedad, el aumento de la autoestima, romper con patrones de masculinidad-feminidad, ayudar a sobrellevar enfermedades y producir una mejora de la vida social. Throughout history, BDSM has been pathologised, rejected and prejudiced by most of society. In order to promote the depathologisation of BDSM, this study had three objectives: Firstly, to explore opinions about the concept of BDSM. Secondly, to find out about experiences and opinions about the BDSM community in Spain. And thirdly, to explore and learn about the experiences and opinions about the effects of BDSM on the sexuality and psychology of the members of this community. To this end, a qualitative study was designed based on hermeneutic phenomenology. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 16 people who practised BDSM in Spain. Data analysis was carried out using ATLAS.ti and three main themes emerged from this analysis: "Concept of BDSM and D/s relationships", which includes the concept of BDSM, the associated roles and the keys to forming a healthy, safe and consensual D/s relationship, "Getting to know the Spanish BDSM community in detail", which addresses the forms of initiation, the importance of community and access and, finally, "Psychological and sexual contribution of BDSM". The evidence presented in this study shows that BDSM is something that is built and created in its own way. Affectivity and explicit communication play a fundamental role in D/s relationships. Increasing sex education on non-normative sexualities provides an opportunity to break down rejection and prejudices about BDSM. Finally, BDSM can bring psychological benefits such as decreasing anxiety, increasing self-esteem, breaking masculinity-femininity patterns, helping to cope with illness and increasing social life

Early stimulation program in a girl with warning signs related to Autism Spectrum Disorder

Durante los últimos años se ha producido un auge en el número de publicaciones sobre las intervenciones de la Atención Temprana en los trastornos del neurodesarrollo. La Atención Temprana es un dispositivo de Salud que tiene como objetivo promover el adecuado desarrollo de los niños de 0 a 6 años, teniendo en cuenta a la familia y al entorno. Uno de los trastornos del neurodesarrollo que está adquiriendo especial importancia es el Trastorno del Espectro Autista (TEA), ya que su detección e intervención temprana aporta una multitud de beneficios que mejoran la calidad de vida del niño y la de su entorno. Para su adecuada intervención han surgido una serie de modelos diferentes, basados en los mismos principios generales. Todos ellos, persiguen proporcionar calidad de vida a los niños y a sus familias. El objetivo de ese trabajo es la creación y puesta en marcha de un programa de estimulación basado en el modelo Denver de Atención Temprana (ESDM) y la metodología TEACCH, para mejorar los signos de alerta de TEA que presenta una niña de tres años. Con ello, vamos a poder ver los avances progresivos en gran parte de los objetivos específicos propuestos

Assessment Scores in Morphological Competitions of Pura Raza Español Horse

The aim of this work was to establish the external factors affecting morphological scores in competitions of Pura Raza Español (PRE – Spanish Purebred) horses. The dataset included 8633 participations, in 69 different morphological competitions of 5097 horses, belonging to 1113 studs. In total, the dataset had 21,760 records (each with eight partial morphological scores) with a balanced frequency of males and females. Our results showed that there are several external factors that influence the judges’ scores. Morphological competition (15.70% of the total variance), judge (9.65%), judge*morphological competition (7.45%) and judge*type (2.41%) were the most important external factors in the analyzed traits. The reliability of judgements was evaluated by the index of disagreement, and results showed that it might be necessary to train judges to get more agreement in these scores. Moreover, for a breeding program it is very important that judges use all the range of scores in order to collect the maximum level of variation. The analyses showed that competitions with three judges were the most appropriate. © 2014 Friends Science Publisher

Assessing the ecotoxicological effects of long-term contaminated mine soils on plants and earthworms. Relevance of soil (total and available) and body concentrations

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10646-014-1262-2The interactions and relevance of the soil (total and available) concentrations, accumulation, and acute toxicity of several essential and non-essential trace elements were investigated to determine their importance in environmental soil assessment. Three plant species (T. aestivum, R. sativum, and V. sativa) and E. fetida were simultaneously exposed for 21 days to long-term contaminated soils collected from the surroundings of an abandoned pyrite mine. The soils presented different levels of As and metals, mainly Zn and Cu, and were tested at different soil concentrations [12.5, 25, 50, and 100 % of contaminated soil/soil (w/w)] to increase the range of total and available soil concentrations necessary for the study. The total concentrations in the soils (of both As and metals) were better predictors of earthworm uptake than were the available concentrations. In plants, the accumulation of metals was related to the available concentrations of Zn and Cu, which could indicate that plants and earthworms.accumulate elements from different pools of soil contaminants. Moreover, Zn and Cu, which are essential elements, showed controlled uptake at low concentrations. The external metal concentrations predicted earthworm mortality, whereas in plants, the effects on growth were correlated to the As and metal contents in the plants. In general, the bioaccumulation factors were lower at higher exposure levels, which implies the existence of auto-regulation in the uptake of both essential and non-essential elements by plants and earthwormsThis work was financed by the Community of Madrid through the EIADES Project (S-2009/AMB/1478) ) and by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science project CTM2010-21922-C02-0

Protective actions of α-tocopherol on cell membrane lipids of paraquat-stressed human astrocytes using microarray technology, MALDI-MS and lipidomic analysis

Producción CientíficaCellular senescence is one of the main contributors to some neurodegenerative disorders. The early detection of senescent cells or their related effects is a key aspect in treating disease progression. In this functional deterioration, oxidative stress and lipid peroxidation play an important role. Endogenous antioxidant compounds, such as α-tocopherol (vitamin E), can mitigate these undesirable effects, particularly lipid peroxidation, by blocking the reaction between free radicals and unsaturated fatty acid. While the antioxidant actions of α-tocopherol have been studied in various systems, monitoring the specific effects on cell membrane lipids at scales compatible with large screenings has not yet been accomplished. Understanding the changes responsible for this protection against one of the consequences of senescence is therefore necessary. Thus, the goal of this study was to determinate the changes in the lipid environment of a Paraquat-treated human astrocytic cell line, as a cellular oxidative stress model, and the specific actions of the antioxidant, α-tocopherol, using cell membrane microarray technology, MALDI-MS and lipidomic analysis. The stress induced by Paraquat exposure significantly decreased cell viability and triggered membrane lipid changes, such as an increase in certain species of ceramides that are lipid mediators of apoptotic pathways. The pre-treatment of cells with α-tocopherol mitigated these effects, enhancing cell viability and modulating the lipid profile in Paraquat-treated astrocytes. These results demonstrate the lipid modulation effects of α-tocopherol against Paraquat-promoted oxidative stress and validate a novel analytical high-throughput method combining cell cultures, microarray technology, MALDI-MS and multivariate analysis to study antioxidant compounds against cellular senescence.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad - (grants DIN2019-010902 y PTQ 17-09409)Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades/Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI)/10.13039/501100011033 - (grant PID2019-110911RB-I00

Estudio sobre variables emocionales en estudiantes del ámbito de ciencias de la salud

Nuestra investigación pretende plasmar, por un lado, el estudio de la evaluación que los estudiantes de Enfermería y Fisioterapia poseen de las competencias emocionales, de la importancia que les atribuyen en el ejercicio profesional sanitario, y por el otro de la percepción evaluativa que tienen respecto a la formación competencial social adquirida a lo largo de su currículum universitario.Our research exposes the evaluation study that students possess Nursing and Physiotherapy of emotional competencies, the importance attributed to them in the medical practice, and perceptions regarding social competence building achieved along their university curriculum

Does sediment composition sort kinorhynch communities?. An ecomorphological approach through geometric morphometrics

Ecomorphology studies the relationship between organisms’ morphology and environment features. To better understand whether the shape of the body and the appendages involved in the movement is correlated to sediment composition in meiofaunal organisms, we study the evolved morphological adaptations to environment in selected taxa of the phylum Kinorhyncha: the allomalorhagid families Dracoderidae and Pycnophyidae, and the cyclorhagid genus Echinoderes. The selected taxa include the most diverse groups of Kinorhyncha worldwide, representing the 75.5% of the total phylum diversity. Widened, plump bodies and lateral terminal spines may be adaptive for species living in coarse, more heterogeneous sediments, as they could maintain a more powerful musculature to actively displace the sediment grains applying a greater force. Conversely, slender, vermiform bodies and lateral terminal spines would represent an adaptation of species inhabiting fne, more homogeneous sediments where there would not be much need to exert a high force to displace the sediment particles, and a more vermiform shape would even favour the burrowing of the animal through the smaller interstices. The studied kinorhynch taxa would also be adapted to the higher velocity of the sea-water and the intense erosion and transportation of heterogeneous sediments by possessing more robust bodies, avoiding getting laid of substratum under these conditions. These fndings provide evolutionary evidence that body shape in the studied kinorhynch groups is adapted to environment

Risk assessment of an abandoned pyrite mine in Spain based on direct toxicity assays

This is the author’s version of a work that was accepted for publication in Science of the Total Environment. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such as peer review, editing, corrections, structural formatting, and other quality control mechanisms may not be reflected in this document. Changes may have been made to this work since it was submitted for publication. A definitive version was subsequently published in [SCIENCE OF THE TOTAL ENVIRONMENT 470-471 (2014)] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2013.09.101This research reports the risk assessment of an abandoned pyrite mine using direct toxicity assays of soil and groundwater samples taken at the site. The toxicity of As and heavy metals from mining soils to soil and aquatic organisms was studied using the Multispecies Soil System (MS-3) in soil columns. Ecotoxicological assessment was performed with soil samples diluted with a control soil at concentrations of 12.5, 25, 50 and 100% test soil/ soil (w/w). In this way, changes in the mobility and bioavailability of soil contaminants due to changes in geochemical soil properties via soil dilution were studied. The toxicity of water samples was tested on algae and Daphnia magna. The assessment of the mining area indicated that the current presence of As and heavy metals at the site may cause injuries to soil and aquatic organisms in the entire research area. Moreover, this investigation demonstrated that changes in geochemical conditions can increase the availability of arsenic and, consequently, the environmental risk of these soils. A good correlation was not found between toxicity parameters and the concentrations of soil contaminants based on total and extracted element concentrations. This finding reinforces the usefulness of direct toxicity assays for evaluating environmental riskThis work has been financed by the Community of Madrid through EIADES Project S-2009/AMB/1478 and by the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science, project CTM-2007-66401-CO2/ TECNO and CTM2010-21922-C02-0

Characterization of serpentinites to define their appropriate use as dimension stone

Abstract: Many questions arise when considering the appropriate use of building stones such as serpentinites. The commercial names of these rocks, collectively grouped as Green marbles ,have no correspondence to their actual mineralogy, geochemistry and/or physical characteristics. Serpentinite being the hydrated product of an ultramafic parent rock and not a metamorphicproduct of limestone as implied by the term marble . However, the serpentinites most widely used for ornamental purposes come from India (e.g. Rajasthan Green, Emerald Green) and in these the original mineralogy has been almost completely converted into carbonates. By contrast,serpentinites from elsewhere (e.g. Vermont Verde Antique from the USA and Verde Pirineos from Spain) do preserve some of their original mineralogy. The different physical and chemicalbehaviour of carbonates and serpentine minerals can result in significantly different behaviour of commercial building stones. Thus, carbonates are resistant to weathering but suffer fromacidic cleaning agents in interior use; whereas serpentinites, with a high content of talc, used on external faces undergo an increase in volume and a consequent rapid degradation. Accurate and precise characterization of serpentinites, including information on their mineralogyand geochemistry (including major, trace and volatile elements together with oxygenisotopes), in conjunction with their physical properties, would enable architects to select the appropriate interior or exterior use of these handsome building stones

Production of Cellulosic Pulp from Reed (Phragmites australis) to Produce Paper and Paperboard

Due to the global increase in the demand for paper and cardboard, and depletion in some areas of wood resources (main raw material in the paper industry), it has been necessary to investigate new raw materials to substitute the conventional ones. In this work, Phragmites australis, commonly known as reed, has been studied. It has been characterized the chemical composition of the raw material by determining the ash content, α-cellulose, holocellulose, lignin and their extractables in ethanol, 1% soda and hot water. Subsequently three pulping processes have been conducted, using the “soda method" under three different operating conditions. The cellulosic pulps and the papersheets made from the pulps were analysed in order to determine the chemical and physical properties following the relevant TAPPI, UNE and ISO standards. Comparing the results obtained, it can be possible to conclude that the pulp obtained under the following operating conditions: 175°, 90 minutes and 14% of NaOH, presents the best results