Unbridled Imaginations: The Ethical Power of Creativity in Michael Chabon's The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Este trabajo de fin de grado se propone examinar la novela de Michael Chabon Las Asombrosas Aventuras de Kavalier y Clay en su relación con la tendencia, dentro de la narrativa estadounidense judía, a replantearse las ideas de tradición e identidad como respuesta al trágico período histórico que alcanzó su punto de inflexión tras el Holocausto. En este contexto, el autor contempla una intersección entre la reflexión sobre la propia escritura, propia del postmodernismo, y las posibilidades éticas de la narrativa. Teniendo en cuenta todas estas cuestiones, el objetivo de esta disertación es argumentar la posición de la novela con respecto al papel que juega la narrativa en la articulación del discurso de la alteridad. Con este fin, el trabajo se centra en analizar el uso de estrategias metaficcionales, así como el efecto que ejerce la lectura y la escritura sobre el plano ontológico de los protagonistas

"Notes from the Cracks: Histories, Trauma and the Ethics of Fiction in Michael Chabon’s Moonglow"

Este trabajo de fin de máster se propone analizar novela Moonglow, de Michael Chabon, como representativa del paso de la actitud escéptica tan poco constructiva de la cultura postmodernista a una motivación ética por la figura del Otro. Dicha transición tuvo lugar en las últimas décadas del siglo XX en el campo de la filosofía y la cultura. El énfasis que hace postmodernismo en la imposibilidad de separar la realidad de sus representaciones trajo consigo el cuestionamiento de las narrativas dominantes que gobiernan la sociedad y la identidad, de este modo favoreciendo las historias de aquellos individuos marginados por la Historia. Sin embargo, esta práctica culminó en un punto de no retorno, sin poder ofrecer una solución ética para el conflicto global por el poder de representarse a uno mismo y al otro. Aunque consciente de la dificultad de erradicar por completo las jerarquías impuestas por las grandes narrativas, la novela de Chabon expresa una esperanza en el carácter reconciliador de la narrativa y de la imaginación, en la manera en que transmite emociones comunes a la experiencia humana. El uso frecuente de juegos metaficcionales, así como formas y motivos propios de la ficción de género, por parte de Chabon, sirve a su narrador homodiegético, llamado igual que el autor, en la reconstrucción de la vida de su abuelo a partir de las historias que este último le contó antes de morir. El narrador transforma dicha colección de recuerdos en una historia en la que la verdad emerge desde múltiples voces, en respuesta al marco dominante de la Historia. La primera parte de mi disertación se centra en los mecanismos metaficcionales empleados en la novela y en el estilo fabulístico de la narración a fin de sentar las bases de la siguiente argumentación en la presencia del elemento ficcional en la manera en la que los seres humanos recuerdan, interpretan y representan el pasado. No obstante, esta percepción posestructuralista se pone en duda a la hora de abordar hechos trágicos. Es en estos casos donde la transparencia, la coherencia y la verosimilitud se imponen como las reglas básicas para una narración ética. En la segunda sección, hago una introducción a la dimensión socio-cultural de los estudios de trauma para examinar las diferentes formas en las que los personajes se aproximan al pasado, o bien al de sus antepasados. Argumento que algunas respuestas al trauma, alternativas a la forma testimonial que se impone como norma, pueden desafiar las estructuras sociales dentro de las que el trauma se transmite, de esta forma revelando casos de desigualdad que privilegian una perspectiva sobre otra. De acuerdo con ese planteamiento, en la última sección exploro las zonas de conflicto entre las narrativas hegemónicas y contra-hegemónicas. La novela interroga el mito nacionalista de la Frontera americana en el contexto de la “carrera espacial”, motivada por la búsqueda de la hegemonía mundial durante la guerra fría. Chabon critica esta narrativa mediante la caracterización del protagonista como una parodia del nuevo héroe de la Frontera y su revelación sobre el papel del científico nazi Wernher von Braun en la misión espacial. Desde esta perspectiva, la figura de la luna se presenta como una Frontera que divide. Sin embargo, la novela finalmente propone una visión del la luna como un borde simbólico que separa, y finalmente reúne a las personas más allá de diferencias nacionales, culturales y sexuales

Emotional Intelligence, Sense of Coherence, Engagement and Coping: A Cross-Sectional Study of University Students’ Health

11 páginasIt is important to consider university settings as sustainable environments that promote student well-being. Our aim in this study was to determine how the variables of engagement, emotional intelligence, sense of coherence, and coping influence the health of students at a Spanish university. This was a descriptive, cross-sectional study. The instruments of measures administered were: The General Health Questionnaire, Trait Meta-Mood Scale, UterchWork Engagement Scale, sense of coherence and brief coping scale to 463 students. The results showed that better-perceived health was associated with higher scores for dedication, vigor, clarity, repair, sense of coherence, active coping, positive reframing, and humor. Conversely, poorer perceived health was associated with higher scores for attention, instrumental support, self-distraction, venting, religion, denial, self-blaming, emotional support, and behavioral disengagement. In addition, the variables analyzed presented di erences by sex. Our proposed predictive model of health and the associations between variables indicate the need to cultivate emotional skills, such as mood repair, a sense of coherence, and coping strategies, in order to promote student health. Facilitating students’ acquisition of knowledge and resources by analyzing these and other variables can contribute to individual well-being and help university students to cope with present and future academic challenges.S

Effectiveness of dry needling in improving pain and function in comparison with other techniques in patients with chronic neck pain: a systematic review and meta-analysis

The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to assess the short-, mid-, and long-term effectiveness of dry needling in improving pain and functional capacity of patients with chronic neck pain. Search strategy was performed on PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PEDro, and Cochrane Library Plus biomedical databases. The risk of bias was assessed using the RoB2 tool. Randomised controlled clinical trials in which at least 1 of the groups received dry needling were included. 662 studies were found; 14 clinical trials were selected for qualitative analysis and 13 for quantitative analysis. The quality of most of the studies included was “high.” All the studies reported improvements in cervical pain and/or disability, regardless of the protocol followed and the muscles targeted. No serious adverse effects were reported. Dry needling showed to be more effective when compared with other therapies in both women and men, without differences by sex. When the analysis was carried out by age, patients over 40 years old benefitted more than those below 40 years old. Our meta-analysis supports the use of dry needling to improve pain and functional capacity in patients with chronic neck pain at short- and mid-term intervals

Manual therapy as a management of cervical radiculopathy: a systematic review

Background. Cervical radiculopathy is defined as a disorder involving dysfunction of the cervical nerve roots characterised by pain radiating and/or loss of motor and sensory function towards the root affected. There is no consensus on a good definition of the term. In addition, the evidence regarding the effectiveness of manual therapy in radiculopathy is contradictory. Objective. To assess the effectiveness of manual therapy in improving pain, functional capacity, and range of motion in treating cervical radiculopathy with and without confirmation of altered nerve conduction. Methods. Systematic review of randomised clinical trials on cervical radiculopathy and manual therapy, in PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, PEDro, and Cochrane Library Plus databases. The PRISMA checklist was followed. Methodological quality was evaluated using the PEDro scale and RoB 2.0. tool. Results. 17 clinical trials published in the past 10 years were selected. Manual therapy was effective in the treatment of symptoms related to cervical radiculopathy in all studies, regardless of the type of technique and dose applied. Conclusions. This systematic review did not establish which manual therapy techniques are the most effective for cervical radiculopathy with electrophysiological confirmation of altered nerve conduction. Without this confirmation, the application of manual therapy, regardless of the protocol applied and the manual therapy technique selected, appears to be effective in reducing chronic cervical pain and decreasing the index of cervical disability in cervical radiculopathy in the short term. However, it would be necessary to agree on a definition and diagnostic criteria of radiculopathy, as well as the definition and standardisation of manual techniques, to analyse the effectiveness of manual therapy in cervical radiculopathy in depth

Examining the immune signatures of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy and the impact on neurodevelopment: Protocol of the SIGNATURE longitudinal study.

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a valuable opportunity to carry out cohort studies that allow us to advance our knowledge on pathophysiological mechanisms of neuropsychiatric diseases. One of these opportunities is the study of the relationships between inflammation, brain development and an increased risk of suffering neuropsychiatric disorders. Based on the hypothesis that neuroinflammation during early stages of life is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and confers a greater risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders, we propose a cohort study of SARS-CoV-2-infected pregnant women and their newborns. The main objective of SIGNATURE project is to explore how the presence of prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection and other non-infectious stressors generates an abnormal inflammatory activity in the newborn. The cohort of women during the COVID-19 pandemic will be psychological and biological monitored during their pregnancy, delivery, childbirth and postpartum. The biological information of the umbilical cord (foetus blood) and peripheral blood from the mother will be obtained after childbirth. These samples and the clinical characterisation of the cohort of mothers and newborns, are tremendously valuable at this time. This is a protocol report and no analyses have been conducted yet, being currently at, our study is in the recruitment process step. At the time of this publication, we have identified 1,060 SARS-CoV-2 infected mothers and all have already given birth. From the total of identified mothers, we have recruited 537 SARS-COV-2 infected women and all of them have completed the mental health assessment during pregnancy. We have collected biological samples from 119 mothers and babies. Additionally, we have recruited 390 non-infected pregnant women

Examining the immune signatures of SARS-CoV-2 infection in pregnancy and the impact on neurodevelopment: Protocol of the SIGNATURE longitudinal study

The COVID-19 pandemic represents a valuable opportunity to carry out cohort studies that allow us to advance our knowledge on pathophysiological mechanisms of neuropsychiatric diseases. One of these opportunities is the study of the relationships between inflammation, brain development and an increased risk of suffering neuropsychiatric disorders. Based on the hypothesis that neuroinflammation during early stages of life is associated with neurodevelopmental disorders and confers a greater risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders, we propose a cohort study of SARS-CoV-2-infected pregnant women and their newborns. The main objective of SIGNATURE project is to explore how the presence of prenatal SARS-CoV-2 infection and other non-infectious stressors generates an abnormal inflammatory activity in the newborn. The cohort of women during the COVID-19 pandemic will be psychological and biological monitored during their pregnancy, delivery, childbirth and postpartum. The biological information of the umbilical cord (foetus blood) and peripheral blood from the mother will be obtained after childbirth. These samples and the clinical characterisation of the cohort of mothers and newborns, are tremendously valuable at this time. This is a protocol report and no analyses have been conducted yet, being currently at, our study is in the recruitment process step. At the time of this publication, we have identified 1,060 SARS-CoV-2 infected mothers and all have already given birth. From the total of identified mothers, we have recruited 537 SARS-COV-2 infected women and all of them have completed the mental health assessment during pregnancy. We have collected biological samples from 119 mothers and babies. Additionally, we have recruited 390 non-infected pregnant women.This work has received support from the Fundación Alicia Koplowitz to realize the epigenetic wide association study and to the clinical assessment to the children. This work has also received public support from the Consejería de Salud y Familias para la financiación de la investigación, desarrollo e innovación (i + d + i) biomédica y en ciencias de la salud en Andalucía (CSyF 2021 - FEDER). Grant Grant number PECOVID- 0195-2020. Convocatoria financiada con Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) al 80% dentro del Programa Operativo de Andalucía FEDER 2014-2020. Andalucía se mueve con Europa. NG-T received payment under Rio Hortega contract CM20-00015 with the Carlos III Health Institute.Peer reviewe

Glotopolítica latinoamericana : Tendencias y perspectivas

Glotopolítica latinoamericana: tendencias y perspectivas recoge el resultado de presentaciones y deliberaciones del IV Congreso Latinoamericano de Glotopolítica, realizado en la Universidad de San Pablo (Brasil) en septiembre de 2019, que convocó a numerosos y destacados especialistas en el área. Su inscripción en una serie (los anteriores se realizaron en Chile, Colombia y Alemania) nos permite apreciar los grandes ejes de los que da cuenta el cuidadoso e inteligente armado del libro decidido por los editores, y fundamentado en la Presentación. El tramo que hemos recorrido como especialistas, en el cual los eventos internacionales son hitos significativos, ha ido mostrando la amplitud de un campo que se construye apelando a tradiciones académicas variadas, que insiste en su carácter interdisciplinario y crítico y que no deja de tener una dimensión militante que se expone en las reflexiones teóricas, las investigaciones empíricas y las prácticas institucionales

Principales resultados del programa de cribado de cáncer colorrectal en el País Vasco

ResumenObjetivoDescribir la estrategia del Programa de Cribado de Cáncer Colorrectal en el País Vasco y los principales resultados de participación en la primera ronda (2009-2011).MétodoEstudio retrospectivo de las invitaciones realizadas en 2009-2011 y comparación de las tasas de participación y positividad de la prueba de sangre oculta en heces por sexo y grupos de edad.ResultadosSe obtuvieron 235.371 invitaciones válidas (personas correctamente localizadas), con una participación media del 64,3% (intervalo de confianza del 95% [IC95%]: 64,1-64,5) y con diferencias significativas (p<0,001) entre mujeres (67,1%; IC95%: 66,9-67,4) y hombres (61,4%; IC95%: 61,1-61,7). El porcentaje de positivos fue superior (p<0,001) en los hombres (9,1%; IC95%: 8,9-9,2) que en las mujeres (4,8%; IC95%: 4,7-4,9).ConclusionesLas tasas de participación en el programa se consideraron adecuadas en comparación con los estudios revisados. Estas tasas podrían estar relacionadas con la estrategia de invitación y con factores culturales y sociales.AbstractObjectiveTo describe the procedures of the colorectal cancer screening program in the Basque Country (Spain), and the main results of the first rounds in 2009-2011.MethodWe carried out a retrospective study of invitations to attend screening between 2009 and 2011. Participation rates and the number of positive results of the fecal occult blood test (FOBT) were analyzed by sex and age group.ResultsThere were 235.371 valid invitations (sent to the correct addresses), with an average participation rate of 64.3% (95%CI: 64.1-64.5%). Significant differences were found (p<0,001) between women (67.1%; 95%CI: 66.9-67.4) and men (61.4%; 95%CI: 61.1-61.7). The rate of positive FOBT results was higher (p<0,001) among men (9.1%; 95%CI: 8.9-9.2) than among women (4.8%; 95%CI: 4.7-4.9).ConclusionsParticipation rates were adequate compared with those in the reviewed literature. These rates were probably affected by the invitation strategy and by cultural and social factors

Physiotherapy students´ experiences about ethical situations encountered in their clinical practices : A qualitative study

Background: It is important to explore the ethical situations that physiotherapy students encountered in their clinical practices. (2) Methods: Qualitative, explorative, descriptive study. The participants included third-year physiotherapy students. They had to write five narratives about ethical situations encountered in their clinical practices. Krippendorff's method for qualitative content analysis was used to cluster units within the data to identify emergent themes. The study protocol was approved by the authors' University Ethic Committee of Human Research (H1515588244257). (3) Result: 280 narratives were reported by 64 students (23.34 ± 4.20 years, 59% women). Eight categories were identified from the qualitative analysis of the data: (a) professional responsibility, (b) professional competence, (c), beneficence, (d) equality and justice, (e) autonomy, (f) confidentiality, (g) respect for privacy, and (h) sincerity. All participants were informed and provided written informed consent. (4) Conclusions: Ethical principles were frequently violated in physiotherapy. Experiences of physiotherapy students must be examined to tailor educational interventions prior to their initiation into practice. Ethics education is needed in workplaces and should be increased in basic education. Facilitating the ethical awareness of future physiotherapists is a challenge for university teachers who provide ethical competence training