A Wake-Up Call: Lessons from Ebola for the World's Health Systems

The report ranks the world's poorest countries on the state of their public health systems, finding that 28 have weaker defenses in place than Sierra Leone where, alongside Liberia and Guinea, the current Ebola crisis has already claimed more than 9,500 lives. The report also advises that prevention is better than cure, finding that the international Ebola relief effort in West Africa has cost $4.3bn, whereas strengthening the health systems of those countries in the first place would have cost just$1.58bn. Ahead of an Ebola summit attended by world leaders in Brussels today, the charity warns that alongside immediate much needed support to Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea, lessons need to be learned and applied to other vulnerable countries around the world

The Lottery of Birth: Giving all Children an Equal Chance to Survive

Based on inaugural analysis of disaggregated data from 87 low and middle income countries around the world, this report reveals that in more than three quarters of these countries, inequalities in child survival rates are actually worsening, resulting in some groups of children making far slower progress than their better-off peers. In 78 percent of the countries covered in the report, at least one social or economic group has fallen behind and is therefore making slower progress in reducing child mortality, and in 16 percent of these countries, inequalities in child survival rates have increased across all social and economic groups. Save the Children's analysis suggests that, without a true step change in action, the lottery of birth will continue into the future, slowing progress towards the ultimate goal of ending preventable child deaths for generations to come. However, tackling this inequality is possible. Almost a fifth of the countries in the report, including Rwanda, Malawi, Mexico, and Bangladesh, have successfully combined rapid and inclusive reductions in child mortality, achieving faster progress than most countries, while at the same time ensuring that no groups of children are left behind.The agency calls for the international community to commit to ending preventable child deaths by 2030.The new development framework, which will replace the MDGs, will be agreed upon at the United Nations General Assembly in September 2015. This framework must set out ambitious child and maternal survival targets and commit to working towards universal health coverage

Un estudio interdisciplinar de intensificadores verbales en artículos de investigación de ingeniería, medicina y lingüística: Frecuencias y variaciones en el co-texto

[ES] Resumen El presente estudio analiza las variaciones de las frecuencias y las funciones pragmáticas de los marcadores metadiscursivos conocidos como intensificadores, y en particular de sus formas verbales. Se recopilaron tres corpus para este fin, que cubrían el campo de ingeniería, medicina y lingüística. Los corpus fueron anotados manualmente por un grupo de anotadores para identificar todos los marcadores discursivos, incluyendo los intensificadores. Un listado predeterminado de marcadores fue utilizado para la anotación. Dicho listado fue posteriormente completado durante el proceso de la anotación. La comparación de las frecuencias de los intensificadores verbales muestra claras diferencias entre los corpus, lo cual confirma estudios previos de este tipo. Sin embargo, el rango de verbos identificados fue muy similar indicando considerables coincidencias entre ellos. Asimismo, los tres verbos más frecuentes eran iguales en los corpus de ingeniería y medicina, pero diferentes en lingüística. Este estudio fue llevado a cabo dentro del proyecto de investigación financiado por el Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad del Gobierno de España (FFI2016-77941-P).[EN] The present study looks into the variations in the frequencies and pragmatic functions of the metadiscourse markers known as boosters, and in particular, with regard to their verb forms. Three corpora have been compiled to this end, covering the fields of Engineering, Medicine and Linguistics. The corpora were manually annotated for metadiscourse markers, boosters included, by a group of annotators. A predetermined list was used for annotation, but throughout the annotation process, the list was modified to better reflect the use of metadiscourse in the corpora. The raw count of the occurrences of verb boosters shows clear differences between the corpora, which in turn confirms previous studies of this type. However, the range of verbs identified was very similar, pointing to a large overlap among the three. The three top frequency verb boosters also showed a clear overlap for Engineering and Medicine, but revealed considerable differences with Linguistics. This study has been conducted within a research project financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (FFI2016-77941-P).Skorczynska Sznajder, HT.; Carrió-Pastor, ML. (2021). A cross-disciplinary study of verb boosters in research articles from Engineering, Medicine and Linguistics: Frequency and co-text variations. Revista Signos. Estudios de Lingüística (Online). 54(106):575-599. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-093420210002005755755995410

Collaborative learning and communication technologies in teaching business English

Peer-review under responsibility of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, Departamento de Lingüística Aplicada.Collaborative learning has acquired a new dimension with the widespread use of information and communication technologies (McCafferty, Jacobs and Dasilva Iddings, 2006). The main advantages of using technology for language learning are a greater exposure to authentic language, access to a wide range of sources of information and to different varieties of language, opportunities for interaction and communication and more intensive learner participation (Carrió Pastor, 2009a, 2009b). The practical case presented in this study shows the collaborative learning experience in two English for business subjects, taught at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The activity was intended to simulate a real-life situation, in which members of business organizations are required to collaborate on projects in geographically distant locations. It has provided many opportunities for written interaction through a chat, in which students had to refine their communicative skills in English in order to collaborate successfully in the assignment set. The survey conducted after the assignment revealed that students felt more motivated and found the online collaboration an enriching context in learning business English.Carrió Pastor, ML.; Skorczynska Sznajder, HT. (2015). Collaborative learning and communication technologies in teaching business English. Procedia Social and Behavioral Sciences. 178(1):32-37. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2015.03.142S3237178

Ecosystem services classification : A systems ecology perspective of the cascade framework

Creative Commons License (CC BY 4.0)Ecosystem services research faces several challenges stemming from the plurality of interpretations of classifications and terminologies. In this paper we identify two main challenges with current ecosystem services classification systems: i) the inconsistency across concepts, terminology and definitions, and; ii) the mix up of processes and end-state benefits, or flows and assets. Although different ecosystem service definitions and interpretations can be valuable for enriching the research landscape, it is necessary to address the existing ambiguity to improve comparability among ecosystem-service-based approaches. Using the cascade framework as a reference, and Systems Ecology as a theoretical underpinning, we aim to address the ambiguity across typologies. The cascade framework links ecological processes with elements of human well-being following a pattern similar to a production chain. Systems Ecology is a long-established discipline which provides insight into complex relationships between people and the environment. We present a refreshed conceptualization of ecosystem services which can support ecosystem service assessment techniques and measurement. We combine the notions of biomass, information and interaction from system ecology, with the ecosystem services conceptualization to improve definitions and clarify terminology. We argue that ecosystem services should be defined as the interactions (i.e. processes) of the ecosystem that produce a change in human well-being, while ecosystem components or goods, i.e. countable as biomass units, are only proxies in the assessment of such changes. Furthermore, Systems Ecology can support a re-interpretation of the ecosystem services conceptualization and related applied research, where more emphasis is needed on the underpinning complexity of the ecological system.Peer reviewe

Langweilige Dystopien in fiktiven Geographien

Dieser Artikel untersucht das Verhältnis zwischen räumlichem Eingeschlossensein und dystopischem Alltag in fiktionalen Filmen. Unser empirischer Ausgangspunkt ist die Darstellung des Eingeschlossenseins in den Filmen Parasite (2019) und Dogtooth (2009). Beide Filme erzählen mit düsterem Humor verflochtene Geschichten über Erfahrungen des Einschlusses in sozialen Hierarchien (Parasite) und patriarchalischen Strukturen (Dogtooth) sowie über den unmöglichen Versuch, aus diesen Ordnungen auszubrechen. Wir lesen diese Erfahrungen als langweilige Dystopien, also als Dystopien, die in den Alltag eingeschrieben sind und eine grausame Realität normalisieren. Wir nutzen die fiktionalen Erzählungen von Dogtooth und Parasite für eine kulturgeographische Analyse, die das Eingeschlossensein neben seinen räumlichen und materiellen Bedingungen als eine affektive Atmosphäre (Anderson 2014) versteht. Aufbauend auf der zunehmenden Stadtforschung über Affekte und Emotionen vermittelt dieser Zugang, wie das Eingeschlossensein sich als alltägliche, dystopische Erfahrung normalisiert. Wir argumentieren, dass eine Analyse affektiver Atmosphären die unsichtbar gewordenen Gewalterfahrungen des Eingeschlossenseins greifbar machen kann

Del trabajo cooperativo al trabajo colaborativo: el rol del líder

[EN] The main objective of the activity presented in this paper is to practise the competence called effective communication. The learning results were analysed considering written and oral skills. This experimental approach made us consider the way in which students collaborate in teamworks and this is why in this paper we focus on the competences of teamwork and leadership. The activity that we describe has been carried out during the academic year 2015-16 in two faculties at Universitat Politècnica de València: Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Informática and Facultad de Administración y Dirección de Empresas, with the subjects: “Inglés intermedio-alto para la informática”, an optional subject that lasts 90 hours and is scheduled in the fourth year of the degree, and “Inglés para finanzas”, taught at Máster en Dirección Financiera y Fiscal. The activity presented has focused on preparing an oral presentation in English about a specific topic using the tools PoliformaT and Google Docs.[ES] El objetivo principal con el que esta actividad fue diseñada fue trabajar la competencia transversal que se denomina comunicación efectiva. Los resultados de aprendizaje se analizaron tanto a nivel escrito como oral. Esta experiencia nos ha llevado a reflexionar sobre la manera en que los alumnos trabajan en equipo, por lo que en este artículo nos centraremos en las competencias de trabajo en equipo y liderazgo. La actividad que presentamos se ha desarrollado durante el curso 2015-16 en dos centros de la Universitat Politècnica de València: la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Informática y la Facultad de Administración y Dirección de Empresas, en las asignaturas “Inglés intermedio-alto para la informática”, una asignatura optativa de grado con una duración de 90 horas para alumnos de 4º curso, e “Inglés para finanzas”, impartida en el Máster en Dirección Financiera y Fiscal. La actividad ha consistido en preparar una presentación/exposición formal en inglés sobre un tema de especialidad utilizando Tareas y Chat de PoliformaT y Google Docs.Carrió Pastor, ML.; Skorczynska Sznajder, HT.; Soler Monreal, C. (2016). Del trabajo cooperativo al trabajo colaborativo: el rol del líder. En In-Red 2016. II Congreso nacional de innovación educativa y docencia en red. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/INRED2016.2016.4297OC

The (In-)Consistency of Literary Concepts. Operationalising, Annotating and Detecting Literary Comment

This paper explores how both annotation procedures and automatic detection (i.e. classifiers) can be used to assess the consistency of textual literary concepts. We developed an annotation tagset for the ‘literary comment’ – a frequently used but rarely defined concept – and its subtypes (interpretative comment, attitude comment and metanarrative/metafictional comment) and trained a multi-output and a binary classifier. The multi-output classifier shows F-scores of 28% for attitude comment, 36% for interpretative comment and 48% for meta comment, whereas the binary classifier achieves F-scores up to 59%. Crucially, both our annotation and the automatic classification struggle with the same subtypes of comment, although annotation and classification follow completely different procedures. Our findings suggest an inconsistency in the overall literary concept ‘comment’ and most prominently the subtypes ‘attitude comment’ and ‘interpretative comment’. As a best-practice-example, our approach illustrates that the contribution of Digital Humanities to Literary Studies may go beyond the automatic recognition of literary phenomena