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Union dissolution and children’s educational achievement: separating effects of school and non-school environments
No full textWe study whether the educational disadvantage of children from households where parents have dissolved their union is due to selection or deteriorating non-school environments and whether exposure to school environments compensates or exacerbates such disadvantage. We apply a differential exposure approach (DEA) to Danish population data collecting public-school reading comprehension tests. The approach exploits variation in children’s birth dates and test administration dates to decompose children’s learning as the product of joint exposure to school and non-school environments. We find that children experiencing parental separation have 5–7 per cent lower test scores, with lower learning returns to non-school environments, and diminishing learning outcomes proportional to time spent in separated households. Critically, school appears to neither mitigate nor exacerbate these achievement gaps, suggesting that degrading of non-school environment post-separation primarily impacts children’s learning
Relevant treatment outcomes for individuals aged 60 and older with massive rotator cuff tears: a qualitative study with 16 patients
No full textBackground and purpose: Qualitative research on individuals with massive rotator cuff tears (MRCT) is scarce. This study aims to identify the perceptions, concerns, and treatment outcomes relevant to individuals with MRCT of the shoulder, as expected before treatment or experienced afterward. Methods: A qualitative study was designed using a hermeneutic phenomenological methodology. Purposive sampling was employed to identify potentially eligible patients (diagnosed with MRCT and aged 60-85 years) in the trauma and orthopedic outpatient clinics of 3 hospitals in Spain. The study employed 2 segmentation criteria: type of treatment and timing (before/after treatment). 16 interviews were conducted to capture the patients' perspective: 9 were semi-structured and 7 were in-depth. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was used, and triangulation was performed by 3 researchers with diverse backgrounds. Results: The mean age of participants (10 women and 6 men) was 71 years, with most having their dominant limb affected. The analysis revealed 4 themes (13 subthemes): MRCT impact on daily living (shoulder-derived functional limitation, pain, and emotional disturbance); treatment outcomes (recovering independence, pain relief, and social participation); clinical management (communication with health professionals, duration of the diagnostic/therapeutic process, and participation in decision-making); and characteristics of the individual (sex, work, and comorbidity). Special unmet needs were identified for women, with more prolonged diagnostic and therapeutic processes while bearing most household responsibilities. Conclusion: Recovering independence and pain relief were the principal outcomes from the perspective of patients with MRCT, and social participation and emotional well-being were closely linked. Measuring these outcomes could improve shared decision-making, while addressing systemic barriers to enhance patient participation
In vitro reconstitution of a minimal human centrosome scaffold capable of forming and clustering microtubule asters
No full textCDK5RAP2 (also known as CEP215) is a key pericentriolar material (PCM) protein that recruits microtubule-nucleating factors at human centrosomes. Here, using an in vitro reconstitution system, we show that CDK5RAP2 is sufficient to form micron-scale scaffolds using nanometer-scale nucleators in a PLK-1-regulated manner. CDK5RAP2 assemblies recruited and activated γ-tubulin ring complexes (γ-TuRCs) which, in the presence of α/β-tubulin, generated microtubule asters. We found that amino acid F75 in CDK5RAP2 helps to recruit γ-TuRC and is indispensable for γ-TuRC activation. Furthermore, our system recapitulated key features of centrosome-amplified cancer cells. CDK5RAP2 scaffolds recruited the molecular motor HSET (also known as KifC1), which enhanced concentration of α/β-tubulin, microtubule polymerization and clustering of the assemblies. Our results highlight the specificity and selectivity of in vitro-generated CDK5RAP2 scaffolds, and identify a minimal set of components required for human PCM assembly and function. This minimal model offers a powerful tool for studying centrosome biology and dysfunction in human health and disease.J.B. Woodruff is supported by a Welch Foundation grant (V-I-0004-20230731), an R35 grant from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences (1R35GM142522), and the Endowed Scholars program at UT Southwestern. T. Surrey acknowledges the support of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation through the Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa (CEX2020-001049-S, MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) and the Generalitat de Catalunya through the CERCA program; the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 951430); and from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (grant PID2022-142927NB-I00/AEI/10.13039/501100011033/FEDER, EU). C.B. was supported by a European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) long-term fellowship ALTF-883-2020 and Marie Curie fellowship TuRCReg. M.U.R. was supported by a National Research Service Award T32 (GM007062). Open Access funding provided by UT Southwestern Medical Center. Deposited in PMC for immediate release
An Empathy training for sensitizing adolescents for cyberbullying on social media: a cross‐national study
No full textData de publicació electrònica: 07-02-2025Young people worldwide use social media. Besides the benefits, such as communication, entertainment, or social support, users also have to deal with negative incidents, such as cyberbullying and its serious consequences. One key factor in mitigating cyberbullying is empathy. Therefore, we developed an empathy training for adolescents, which is led by a virtual learning companion in a social media-like environment and includes direct conversations between the user and the virtual learning companion as well as a video explicating the concept of empathy. This empathy training shall contribute to decreasing users’ bullying intentions and increasing their empathy. Since previous research shows that social media use and cyberbullying are linked to country-specific factors, we evaluated the empathy training in a cross-national experimental study with N = 332 participants from Brazil, Germany, Italy, and Spain. Data were collected via surveys during workshops in schools. Among others, participants answered questions regarding their cyberbullying intentions, levels of cognitive and affective empathy, intentions to help a victim of cyberbullying, and perceived support of the measure. Results show neither decreased bullying intentions nor increased empathy after empathy training. However, cross-national differences were found. Participants’ intentions to bully were significantly higher in Spain and Brazil than in Germany. Furthermore, in the current study, cognitive and affective empathy was significantly higher in the Italian sample than in the German sample. Possibilities for improving the empathy training and the role of cross-national differences are discussed.Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. The research leading to these results received funding from the Volkswagen Foundation under Grant Agreement Ref. 95 566. The UPF authors also acknowledge funding from the Spanish Ministry MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 (PID2020-112584RB-C33) and the Government of Catalonia (SGR 00930). DHL (Serra Hunter) was supported by ICREA under the ICREA Academia program
Learning and teaching biological data science in the Bioconductor community
No full textModern biological research is increasingly data-intensive, leading to a growing demand for effective training in biological data science. In this article, we provide an overview of key resources and best practices available within the Bioconductor project-an open-source software community focused on omics data analysis. This guide serves as a valuable reference for both learners and educators in the field.This project has been made possible in part by grants 2021-237919 (to ACC), 2022-311145 (to RC), and 2024-342820 (to ACC) from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative DAF, an advised fund of Silicon Valley Community Foundation. LL acknowledges funding from the Research Council of Finland (decision 330887) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 952914. SD acknowledges funding from NCI grant 1U24CA289073. AM acknowledges funding from NIH grant 2U24HG004059-17. CS is supported by the Novartis Research Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript
AI, stock photography, and image banks: gender biases and stereotypes
No full textPurpose. This study explores the prevalence of gender biases, stereotypes, and representational disparities in stock image banks, contrasting traditional photography platforms with AI-generated visual content. The research aims to assess whether AI mitigates or perpetuates existing biases and stereotypes in visual representation.
Methodology. A case study approach was adopted, analyzing 600 images from four platforms: Shutterstock, Getty Images (traditional stock), Lexica (Stable Diffusion), and Adobe Stock (AI-generated). Standardized prompts, such as “Photography of a smiling person in [location],” were used to ensure comparability. A systematic framework evaluated parameters like gender, age, ethnicity, and the presence of stereotypical elements, revealing trends across platforms.
Findings. The findings confirm persistent biases in both traditional and AI-generated platforms. Traditional stock banks overrepresent women, while AI platforms achieve closer gender balance. Ethnic representation remains heavily skewed toward Eurocentric and Caucasian archetypes, with AI showing slight improvements in Afro-American representation. Age portrayals vary, with AI favoring younger demographics and traditional platforms emphasizing adults. Notably, no images depict individuals with disabilities, highli-ghting a significant gap in diversity. Stereotypes related to beauty standards, such as the use of makeup and accessories, and leisure activities dominate, with minimal representation of professional or diverse cultural roles.
Value. This study provides a comprehensive comparative analysis of traditional and AI-driven stock imagery, highlighting both the limitations and potential of AI to address biases. It contributes a systematic framework for evaluating diversity and representation, offering critical insights for fostering inclusivity in visual media
Positioning political texts with large language models by asking and averaging
No full textData de publicació electrònica: 27-01-2025We use instruction-tuned large language models (LLMs) like GPT-4, Llama 3, MiXtral, or Aya to position political texts within policy and ideological spaces. We ask an LLM where a tweet or a sentence of a political text stands on the focal dimension and take the average of the LLM responses to position political actors such as US Senators, or longer texts such as UK party manifestos or EU policy speeches given in 10 different languages. The correlations between the position estimates obtained with the best LLMs and benchmarks based on text coding by experts, crowdworkers, or roll call votes exceed.90. This approach is generally more accurate than the positions obtained with supervised classifiers trained on large amounts of research data. Using instruction-tuned LLMs to position texts in policy and ideological spaces is fast, cost-efficient, reliable, and reproducible (in the case of open LLMs) even if the texts are short and written in different languages. We conclude with cautionary notes about the need for empirical validation.This research was funded by ERC Consolidator Grant 772268 from the European Commission to G.L.M, ICREA Academia grants to A.G and G.L.M, grants PID2021-123111OB-I00 (A.G.) and PID2022-137908NB-I00 (G.L.M.) funded by MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by 'ERDF/UE A way of making Europe', and the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D (Barcelona School of Economics CEX2019-000915-S) funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033
New andalusianism: asserting Andalusia’s cultural uniqueness and visibility through folklore
No full textTreball de fi de Màster en Cultura Digital i Mitjans Emergents (DiCEM)Supervisor: Macarena García-GonzálezThe cultural movement of Nuevo Andalucismo [New Andalusianism] is predominantly youth-driven and closely tied to social media. Emerging from sentiments of geographical, political, and cultural periphery, the movement is rooted in anxieties about cultural assertion within a globalized society and in cultural settings shaped by hegemonic uniformity. These tensions are expressed through a turn towards traditional folklore, reimagined via a critical-creative process that produces a renewed version of local folklore in social media spaces, conceptualized as neofolklore. As the definition of Andalusian neofolklore is complex, this research employs digital ethnographic approaches to analyze its expressive practices on Instagram and TikTok shared by young artists and (micro-)influencers engaged in the rhetorics of New Andalusianism. The analysis is conducted through a multimodal and narrative approach inspired by new materialist theories, contributing to research on peripheral youth cultures in mediatized contexts
Palabras que venden e imágenes que atrapan : análisis comparativo de la retórica publicitaria y la multimodalidad en la mercadotecnia alimentaria
No full textTutora: Lourdes Díaz
Treball de fi de grau en Traducció i InterpretacióCada vez más, las marcas se ven obligadas a diseñar estrategias y campañas publicitarias más efectivas y originales que apelen a las emociones del consumidor. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar cómo se estructuran los mensajes publicitarios de VICIO, Lindt, Valor y Milka desde una perspectiva lingüística y mercadotécnica.
El trabajo combina un análisis comparativo y un estudio de campo de un corpus formado por carteles, vídeos publicitarios y anuncios televisivos. Se investiga la relación existente entre los recursos lingüísticos, los elementos visuales, la modalidad y la situación comunicativa, así como los mecanismos persuasivos, su adecuación a los valores sociales, los diferentes públicos objetivos y los canales de difusión.
Los resultados obtenidos concluyen que las estrategias de la retórica clásica siguen siendo una importante herramienta publicitaria, que se adapta a los formatos digitales y a las tendencias del mercado. Asimismo, se observa una distinción en los recursos empleados según la naturaleza del producto, el destinatario y la modalidad del anuncio. Este análisis resulta útil tanto para sectores como la suplementación alimentaria, el ocio o el bienestar emocional, como para distintas ramas de la lengua.Cada vegada més, les marques es veuen obligades a disenyar estratègies i campanyes publicitàries més efectives i originals que apel·lin a les emocions del consunidor. Aquest treball té com a objectiu analitzar com s’estructuren els missatges publicitaris de VICIO, Lindt, Valor i Milka des d’una perspectiva lingüística i mercadotècnica.
El treball combina una anàlisi comparativa i un estudi de camp d’un corpus format per cartells, vídeos publicitaris i anuncis televisius. S’investiga la relació que hi ha entre els recursos lingüístics, els elements visuals, la modalitat i la situació comunicativa, així com els mecanismes persuasius, l’adequació als valors socials, els diferents públics objectius i els canals de difusió.
Els resultats obtinguts conclouen que les estratègies de la retòrica clàssica continuen sent una eina publicitària important, que s’adapta als formats digitals i a les tendències del mercat. A més, s’observa una distinció dels recursos emprats segons la naturalesa del producte, el destinatari i la modalitat de l’anunci. Aquesta anàlisi resulta de gran utilitat tant per a altres sectors com la suplementació alimentària, el lleure o el benestar emocional, com per a diferents disciplines de la llengua.Brands are constantly compelled to design advertising strategies and campaigns that are not only more effective and innovative but also appeal to consumer’s emotions. This paper aims to analyze how the advertising messages of VICIO, Lindt, Valor and Milka are structured from both a linguistic and marketing perspective.
This research combines a comparative analysis and a field study based on a corpus of posters, advertising videos and TV commercials. It explores the relationship between language resources, visual elements, modality and communicative situation, as well as persuasive mechanisms, their adequacy to social values, the different target audiences and the chosen media.
The findings conclude that classical rhetorical strategies remain an important tool in contemporary advertising, which is adapted to digital formats and ongoing market trends. Furthermore, a distinction is observed in the resources according to product characteristics, the target audiences and the modality of the advertisement. This paper turns out to be very useful for other sectors such as food supplementation, leisure or emotional well-being, as well as for different areas of language studies
Percepción de la inteligencia artificial y credibilidad informativa en los procesos periodísticos
No full textEste informe presenta los resultados de una encuesta diseñada para analizar la percepción de la inteligencia artificial (IA) y su influencia en la credibilidad informativa dentro de los procesos periodísticos en España. La investigación fue realizada por el Grup de recerca en Comunicació Política, Periodisme i Democràcia (POLCOM-GRP) de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra (UPF). Se realizó un cuestionario online con una muestra representativa de 2.004 individuos residentes en España en abril de 2025. Se aplicaron variables como el grado de familiaridad con la IA, el nivel de acuerdo sobre sus capacidades, su uso en el proceso de elaboración de noticias y el grado de credibilidad otorgado a la información verificada por IA versus la verificada por un periodista. Casi la mitad de la población se considera poco o nada familiarizada con la IA (46%), aunque un 77% es consciente de interactuar con ella cotidianamente. Las personas encuestadas apoyan la integración de la IA en las redacciones, no para la escritura directa de noticias, sino como herramienta de apoyo para tareas como traducción y mejora de textos. A pesar de que el factor humano es fundamental para la confianza —la credibilidad de una noticia verificada por un periodista (56%) es casi el doble que la de una verificada por IA (30%)—, las personas encuestadas perciben a la IA como un verificador más neutral (37% la considera “muy” o “bastante neutral”, frente al 21% correspondiente a los periodistas). Finalmente, el 80% de los residentes en España demandan transparencia a los medios sobre el uso de esta tecnología. Se observan correlaciones significativas entre la percepción de la IA y el nivel de estudios, la edad y la familiaridad con la herramienta.La encuesta ha sido financiada por los fondos SGR 2021 del Departament de Recerca i Universitats de la Generalitat de Catalunya (REF 2021 SGR 00486)