Of Women, Bitches, Chickens and Vixens: Animal Metaphors for Women in English and Spanish

Speakers of English and Spanish often understand gender differences in terms of animal imagery. It is quite common in both languages to come across metaphors presenting women in the guise of chickens, bitches or vixens. Given the cognitive and social force of metaphor in our understanding of the world and of ourselves, such animal images offer a window on the role given to women in our society. In fact, whether in the form of pets, livestock or wild animals, women tend to be seen as inferior and subordinated to men.Los hablantes de lengua inglesa y española usan a menudo la imaginería animal con el fin de comprender diferencias de género. En ambas lenguas es bastante frecuente encontrar metáforas que presentan a la mujer en la forma de pollitos, perras y zorras. Dada la fuerza social y cognitiva de la metáfora en nuestro entendimiento del mundo y de los seres humanos, dichas imágenes animales reflejan el papel otorgado a la mujer en nuestra sociedad. De hecho, ya sea bajo la apariencia de mascotas, ganado o animales salvajes, existe una tendencia a representar a las mujeres como inferiores y subordinadas al hombre

Feeding women with animal metaphors that promote eating disorders in the written media

This paper looks at animal-based metaphors used by the written media in order to convey negative messages about the relationship of women with food. By analyzing a corpus of met-aphors extracted from different sorts of publications, which include newspapers and maga-zines, this article tries to shed some light on how such figurative usages together with their visual representation may contribute to women's body dissatisfaction, thin ideal internalization and disordered eating

Are We What We Eat? Food Metaphors in the Conceptualization of Ethnic Groups

Speakers of English often understand ethnic and racial differences in terms of food imagery. It is quite common in this language to encounter metaphors presenting different groups of people in terms of beans, rice, bread, cheese, apples or chocolate. Given the cognitive and social force of metaphor in our understanding of the world and of ourselves as well as the important role language plays as a channel through which ideas and beliefs are transmitted and perpetuated, such food images may offer a window on the (de)construction of ethnic identi-ties and, ultimately, hide racist views against others who are different because of their skin color, physical features, languages and, obviously, diets

The entry of Vox in the Spanish political institutions and its effect on citizens’ attitudes towards immigration

Treballs finals del Màster en Anàlisi Política i Assessoria Institucional, Facultat de Dret, Universitat de Barcelona. Curs: 2020-2021. Tutor: Falcó Gimeno, Alber

¿Cómo vive el alumnado la evaluación en formación inicial del profesorado?

La finalidad de este trabajo es conocer cómo vive el alumnado de último curso de universidad los procesos de evaluación experimentados durante toda su carrera. El estudio se lleva a cabo en la formación inicial del profesorado, concretamente en cuarto curso de grado de educación infantil, con una muestra de 86 estudiantes. La metodología utilizada ha sido: entrevistas en profundidad, grupos focales y entrevistas individuales. Los resultados indican, por un lado, que gran parte del alumnado parece no saber que está realizando una evaluación formativa y compartida, sienten una gran preocupación ante estos procesos, no entienden para que sirven muchos de los instrumentos de evaluación que utilizan y parece que no encuentran relaciones entre estos procesos y sus competencias docentes. Por otro, valoran positivamente estos sistemas en relación a su aprendizaje, el papel del profesorado, la organización y el reparto equilibrado del trabajo a lo largo del cuatrimestre.   The purpose of this research was to determine how university students live assessment processes experienced throughout all their university years. The study was carried out in the Pre-service Teacher Education, particularly in the fourth year of the degree of Master in Early Childhood Education, with a sample of 86 students. The methodology used was in-depth interviews, focus groups and informal interviews. Results indicate that most of the students seems not to know who is doing a formative and shared assessment, have great concern with these processes, don’t understand many of the assessment instruments used and seems to found no relationship between these processes and their teaching skills. Furthermore, they welcome these systems in relation to their learning, the role of teachers, the organization of work and the balanced distribution of work throughout the semester

Carbon-based nanomaterials for gold (III) recovery: kinetics and loading investigations

Currently, the development of different smart technology to recover or eliminate strategic or toxic metals from liquid effluent is constant. Among the different process developed to the treatment of liquid effluents bearing these types of metallic elements, include chemical or electrochemical precipitation, membrane based technology, ion exchange and adsorption. Adsorption is a high efficiency, cost-effectiveness and easily handing method to recover pollutants or strategic metals. Nowadays a research challenge is the development of new adsorbents. Among nanomaterials, carbon nanomaterials have adequate properties to be used as metal adsorbent. On the other hand gold is one of the most precious elements in the world. The price in 2015 of this strategic metal is 1.376 $/kg. Besides its uses in jewellery it is highly used in different industries, so it is important the gold recovery from liquid effluents generated from these various industries. The adsorption method is a way to treat these types of effluents, characterized for their low gold concentration. The aim of this research was to optimize various operational parameters, and thus obtain efficient carbon nanotubes processing for gold (III)-bearing effluents. The adsorption of gold (III) by carbon nanofibers (CNF), carbon multiwalled (MWCN) and carbon multiwalled with carboxyl group (MWCN_ox) systems were investigated. The experimental parameters which may influence gold adsorption were investigated, i.e. stirring speed of the aqueous solutions, adsorbent dosage, acid concentration, temperature etc. Figure 1 shows the effect of the acid concentration on the Au(III) adsorption to the three adsorbent. It can be seen that the adsorption Au(III) decreases with the increase of HCl concentration. Probalby it is due the existence of other gold species, such as HAuCl4, at the higher hydrochloric solution against the presence of the predominant AuCl4- species in the more dilute HCl solutions which are more adsorbable than the gold-acid form. SEM studies of gold loaded carbon nanomaterials show on the surface dark particles, Figure 2. The EDS of the dark particles show two peaks for Lα(9.7 keV) and Mα (2.1 keV) characteristic of metallic gold. Probably this reduction occurs on the carbon surface, related with the metal reduction. The isotherm and kinetic studies of the carbon nanomaterial-Au(III) system show a different behavior in function of the carbon nanomaterial used as adsorbent. The experimental data obtained using the MWCNT and CNF fit better to a pseudo second order equation and an isotherm Freundlich model. The three carbon nanomaterials, appeared to be a promising material for recovery of Au(III) from this type of acid solutions in the optimal experimental for each one of them condition.Peer reviewe

Towards a new proposal to assess educational success

Solemos utilizar el concepto de éxito como antagónico de fracaso considerando solamente indicadores de fácil cuantificación, con la escasa autocrítica al reduccionismo que supone esta opción. Entonces, nos preguntamos ¿qué significa tener éxito escolar? El artículo pretende profundizar en la comprensión de éste fenómeno en nuestro contexto. En primer lugar, se analizan cuáles son los fines comunes de la educación expresados en los preámbulos de las diversas leyes de educación desarrolladas en el período democrático en nuestro país desde la Constitución española de 1978. En segundo lugar, centrándonos en trabajos de investigación sobre esta temática en nuestro territorio, identificamos las diferentes representaciones de los conceptos de éxito y fracaso escolar y cómo se llega a un criterio de medida para valorarlos. A partir de este doble análisis se pone de relieve que mayoritariamente los indicadores que se manejan para evaluar el éxito o el fracaso escolar se centran preferentemente en las calificaciones académicas o evaluaciones estandarizadas de diagnóstico de competencias, dejando en segundo término el resto de fines expresados en las leyes de educación, como pueden ser la adquisición de otras calidades personales y sociales. Por esta razón, concluimos el artículo con una propuesta metodológica para el análisis del fenómeno que enfatiza una aproximación multimétodo, para encontrar evidencias de los elementos-causa – en términos de indicadores – que contribuyen al éxito educativo teniendo en cuenta todos los objetivos explícitos en las leyes de educaciónOften educational success is understood as opposed to the concept of school failure. Usually quantifiable indicators are used to measure the phenomena, with little criticism of the reductionism this option poses. In this article we query about how we could assess educational success from a wider perspective in our context. First of all, this study analyses the common principles that appear in the forewords of the different Spanish Education Laws that have been in force during the democratic period in our country since 1978. Secondly, through several research articles about this subject, we identify the different conceptualizations and approaches to measure the phenomena in our territory. The analysis highlights that educational success or failure is mainly measured through indicators that use academic grades or standardized diagnostic tests. Our main finding is that there is a preference to link school success and failure to academic achievement, whereas other goals expressed in the Educational Laws are considered secondary. Therefore, we conclude the article with a methodological proposal to assess educational success from a multi-method approach that takes into account the different objectives explicit in the Educational Law

Long-term clinical and functional course of Borderline Personality Disorder: A meta-analysis of prospective studies

Background: This meta-analytic review is the first to synthesize findings from prospective research on the long-term course of borderline personality disorder in adult clinical populations. Methods: Systematic searches were conducted in Medline, PsycINFO, PsycArticles, PubMed, and Scopus within the period 1990-2017. Inclusion criteria were: (1) adult BPD sample diagnosed by a validated, semi-structured interview; (2) at least two prospective assessments of outcomes; and (3) follow-up period ≥ 5 years. Quality of evidence was rated with the Systematic Assessment of Quality in Observational Research (SAQOR). Four outcomes were meta-analysed using mixed-effect methods: remission from BPD diagnosis, completed suicide, depressive symptoms, and functioning. Potential moderators regarding the natural course and the initial treatment received were studied. Results: Eleven studies met the inclusion criteria, with 837 participants from nine countries being followed. Between 50% and 70% of the BPD patients achieved remission in the long-term. Significant reductions in depression and functional impairment were also found. Mean suicide rate ranged from 2% to 5%. Younger age was associated with a higher likelihood of remission. Being female was correlated with lower functional improvement. Despite some positive trends, there were no significant associations between treatment moderators and the long-term outcome. Conclusions: Findings suggest that the course of BPD is characterized by symptomatic amelioration and a slight functional improvement in the long-term. Age and gender modulate the long-term prognosis and should be considered to adapt treatment resources. Further research is required to draw robust conclusions on the long-term effects of psychotherapeutic interventions