Madrid Region Research Articles

Dilemas y tensiones de la práctica docente con alumnado migrante

En este texto abordaremos los dilemas y tensiones a los que se enfrenta el profesorado de un programa dirigido al alumnado migrante recién llegado a la Comunidad de Madrid (España). El análisis surge de la oportunidad de enlazar nuestros trabajos de campo etnográficos, que han sido llevados a cabo en dos momentos diferentes de la historia del mencionado programa. El diálogo entre ambas investigaciones nos ha permitido una comprensión más compleja de las prácticas docentes. Especialmente, aquellas que orientan al alumnado migrante hacia itinerarios formativos que no son los regulares para acceder a la universidad, siendo contradictorio con las altas expectativas que tienen dichos estudiantes. Podemos concluir que los argumentos y estrategias utilizadas por el profesorado deben entenderse en el marco de una escuela con serias limitaciones para producir la igualdad de oportunidades que dice preferir.

Determinants of successful revenue management

PurposeThe aim of this paper is to define which characteristics of a hotel and staff organization determine successful revenue management (RM) implementation in urban hotels.Design/methodology/approachMultiple linear regression analysis was used to determine whether the characteristics of the hotel and the staff member in charge of RM are explanatory variables for the degree of RM implementation.FindingsThe findings show that hotel category, chain affiliation and the existence of qualified full-time staff are the determinants for successful RM implementation. The creation of the revenue manager position alone is not determinant in the degree of RM implementation, but his/her qualification and dedication are fundamental variables.Research limitations/implicationsGiven that this survey was confined to the region of Madrid, it would be interesting to carry out similar research nationwide.Practical implicationsThis study provides researchers and professionals guidance for the satisfactory implementation and use of RM, tailored to the characteristics of any given establishment. Therefore, this paper states that the creation of a qualified, on-site, full-time revenue manager position is crucial.Originality/valueTo the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first paper to conduct a formal statistical analysis of the relationship between hotel characteristics, staff organization and the degree of RM implementation. The greatest contribution of this research is the empirical demonstration that having a qualified full-time staff in charge of RM leads to better results in terms of RM implementation as opposed to not having one, having one part-time or having one at the corporate level. Therefore, this paper states that the creation of the professional revenue manager position within hotels is fundamental. Thus, the reported results provide a significant contribution to the literature related to the characteristics and organization of RM in hotels.

Designing Protected Areas for Social–Ecological Sustainability: Effectiveness of Management Guidelines for Preserving Cultural Landscapes

Rural cultural landscapes are social–ecological systems that have been shaped by traditional human land uses in a co-evolution process between nature and culture. Protected areas should be an effective way to protect cultural landscapes and support the way of life and the economy of the local population. However, nature conservation policymaking processes and management guidelines frequently do not take culturalness into account. Through a new quantitative approach, this paper analyzes the regulatory framework of two protected areas under different management categories, located in an ancient cultural landscape of the Madrid Region (Central Spain), to identify the similarities in their conservation commitments and the effectiveness of their zoning schemes. The results show some arbitrariness in the design and management of these parks, highlighting the importance of prohibited measures in their zoning schemes that encourage uses and activities more related to naturalness than to culturalness. The recognition of protected areas as cultural landscapes and their management considering both naturalness and culturalness issues are important methods of better achieving sustainable management objectives from a social–ecological approach. This methodological approach has proven useful to unravel various legislative content, and its application on a larger scale could reveal important information for the sound management of protected areas (PAs) in cultural landscapes.

Exploring sense of place across cultivated lands through public participatory mapping

Cultivated lands have undergone a shift towards intensification and increased productivity, favoring provisioning services at the expense of regulating and cultural services. Cultivated lands have rarely been researched as a provider of cultural services. The overarching goal of this study is to assess sense of place across cultivated lands. To do so, we used participatory mapping to elicit public knowledge of the past and present coverage of agricultural areas, as well as to reveal the public sense of place attached to cultivated lands and perceptions about future land-use pathways. This study was conducted in an agrarian and rural region of SE Madrid (Spain), where we did ecosystem service participatory mapping workshops with key stakeholders related to the agrarian sector: farming professionals, land-use decision-makers and planners and other local actors. We identified linkages between cultivated lands and sense of place as a key cultural service. The locations most pinpointed for its sense of place overlapped with cultivated lands. The future land-use pathways that showed the highest agreement between the likelihood and interest in their promotion were the increases in green and/or protected areas and orchards. Extensive crops and urban areas the land-use pathways with the highest dissonance. The results encourage land planners and researchers to approach landscape values in relation to the sense of place. We concluded that cultivated lands present a sense of place, and this link has the possible to root society in agricultural landscape through the establishment of belongingness, stewardship and care connections.

Análisis territorial del desempleo por género en la Comunidad de Madrid durante la crisis (2008-2014)

Desde hace décadas la problemática de género ha cobrado un notable protagonismo, pero hay una escasez de estudios que aborden la cuestión del género en el ámbito territorial, y más en el contexto temporal actual de profunda crisis económica. En esta contribución se estudian las características y evolución del desempleo según género en La Comunidad de Madrid en el periodo 2008-2014. El trabajo se divide en dos partes: en la primera se estudia la caracterización del desempleo según género en relación con algunas variables sociodemográficas. En la segunda se adopta una perspectiva espacial: se reconocen las diferencias intermunicipales en el ritmo de crecimiento del paro de hombres y mujeres durante los últimos años y también los patrones de distribución espacial por género en la Comunidad de Madrid. Por último, se aplican técnicas de análisis estadístico espacial que permiten detectar estructuras espaciales del desempleo femenino y su comparación con el caso de los hombres. Los resultados confirman que, a pesar de haber descendido la brecha de género en el desempleo, persisten grandes diferencias espaciales.

Explaining links from the past: material distribution in Charco Hondo 2 Acheulian archeological site (Madrid, Spain)

The study of the lithic assemblage from Charco Hondo 2 (Madrid, Spain) indicates the existence of intense activities related to the quarrying of Miocene flint outcrops, within a drainage context inside the interfluvial plateau of the Manzanares and Jarama rivers (Madrid region). This lithic production was oriented to produce the first stages of large flake bifacial shaping, with an important collection of refitted materials of the Lower/Middle Paleolithic. The sedimentological circumstances and the presence of refitted items initially suggest the existence of good preservation conditions for an open-air site. In this contribution, we present a brief analysis of the geoarchaeological sequence with special attention to depositional and post-depositional processes, in order to determine the extent to which tool distribution and the lithic refitting connections were the consequence of human activity or, on the contrary, the combination of different human and natural agents. This site provides us with a good example to discuss the relevance and significance of particular refitted distributions in open-air quarrying contexts.

Reinfection by hepatitis C virus following effective all-oral direct-acting antiviral drug therapy in HIV/hepatitis C virus coinfected individuals.

We analysed hepatitis C virus (HCV) reinfection among participants in a prospective registry of HIV/HCV-coinfected patients treated with all-oral direct-acting antiretroviral (DAA)-based therapy in the region of Madrid. An observational cohort study. The study period started on the date sustained viral response (SVR) was confirmed. The censoring date was 31 December 2017. SVR was defined as negative HCV-RNA 12 weeks after completion of treatment. Reinfection was defined as a positive HCV-RNA test result after achievement of SVR. Reinfections were detected in 17 of 2359 HIV/HCV-coinfected patients (0.72%) overall, in 12 out of 177 (6.78%) MSM and in five out of 1459 (0.34%) people who inject drugs (PWID). The incidence of reinfection [95% confidence interval (95% CI)] per 100 person-years was 0.48 (0.30-0.77) overall, 5.93 (3.37-10.44) for MSM and 0.21 (0.09-0.52) for PWID. Reinfections were detected a median of 15 weeks (interquartile range 13-26) after SVR. In 10 (58.82%) patients, the reinfection was caused by a different HCV genotype. All 12 MSM with reinfection acknowledged unprotected anal intercourse with several partners, seven used chemsex, six reported fisting and four practiced slamming. A concomitant STI was detected in five patients. Four IDU with reinfection reported injecting drugs following SVR. HCV reinfection is a matter of concern in HIV-positive MSM treated with all-oral DAA therapy in the region of Madrid. Our data suggest that prevention strategies and frequent testing with HCV-RNA should be applied following SVR in MSM who engage in high-risk practices.

Cannabis resin in the region of Madrid: Adulteration and contamination

The aim of this study is to analyze the adulteration and contamination of cannabis resin obtained on the streets of Madrid, in order to establish whether it is suitable for human consumption. A total of 90 samples obtained through street vending in the Region of Madrid (CAM) were analyzed. Our results showed a direct relationship between the shape of the samples (acorn or ingot) and the presence of foreign elements, adulterants and microbiological contamination. Foreign elements were found in 64.7% of the ingot-shaped samples and in 30.2% of the acorn-shaped samples (p < 0.01); 25% of the samples were deliberately adulterated, 66.7% of which had an ingot shape. With regard to microbiological contamination, 93% of acorns were contaminated by E. coli, compared to 29.4% of ingots (p < 0.0001). In addition, all samples with fecal odor were acorns and were contaminated by E. coli. Ten per cent of the samples were contaminated by Aspergillus; of these, 66.7% had the shape of an acorn. Overall, our results showed that most (88.3%) of the hashish samples were not suitable for consumption. This percentage was significantly higher (p < 0.0001) in acorn than in ingot samples (100% vs. 58.8%). Hence, illegal street vending of hashish constitutes a public health issue.

Increasing Incidence of Pediatric Eosinophilic Esophagitis in the Southwest of Madrid, Spain.

The incidence of eosinophilic esophagitis is unknown in our area. The aim of our study was to determine the incidence of eosinophilic esophagitis and its possible association with the most frequent absolute annual pollen counts. A descriptive retrospective multicenter observational study was designed to calculate the incidence of eosinophilic esophagitis in children aged under 15 years in the southwest region of Madrid, Spain in 2002-2013 (data were provided by the Statistics Institute of Madrid). We collected data on age, sex, clinical presentation, and date of endoscopic diagnosis. Relative risk (RR) was estimated (Stata v.11) using negative binomial regression models to assess the association between incidence and pollen counts (provided by Subiza Clinic). The study population comprised 254 patients (192 male [75.6%], aged 0.5-14.99 years). The clinical presentation was esophageal impaction in 23.6%, dysphagia in 22%, gastroesophageal reflux-like symptoms in 44.9%, and other findings in 9.4%. The annual incidence from 2002 to 2013 per 100 000 children aged <15 years per year was, respectively, 0.81, 1.5, 0.37, 3.17, 3.07, 4.36, 6.87, 7.19, 8.38, 9.05, 9.14, and 9.68. The incidence of eosinophilic esophagitis increased by an average of 19% annually (RR, 1.19; 95%CI, 1.14-1.25; P<.001). In the overall analysis, the relationship between incidence and absolute annual and monthly counts during the pollen seasons of the respective pollen types was analyzed only for Platanus species, which had an RR >1 (1.17 and 1.06, respectively) (P<.05). The incidence of diagnosis of pediatric eosinophilic esophagitis increased by an average of 19% annually. No significant association was found between incidence and pollen counts, except for a weak association with Platanus species.

Statistical Tools for Air Pollution Assessment: Multivariate and Spatial Analysis Studies in the Madrid Region.

The present work reports the distribution of pollutants in the Madrid city and province from 22 monitoring stations during 2010 to 2017. Statistical tools were used to interpret and model air pollution data. The data include the annual average concentrations of nitrogen oxides, ozone, and particulate matter (PM10), collected in Madrid and its suburbs, which is one of the largest metropolitan places in Europe, and its air quality has not been studied sufficiently. A mapping of the distribution of these pollutants was done, in order to reveal the relationship between them and also with the demography of the region. The multivariate analysis employing correlation analysis, principal component analysis (PCA), and cluster analysis (CA) resulted in establishing a correlation between different pollutants. The results obtained allowed classification of different monitoring stations on the basis of each of the four pollutants, revealing information about their sources and mechanisms, visualizing their spatial distribution, and monitoring their levels according to the average annual limits established in the legislation. The elaboration of contour maps by the geostatistical method, ordinary kriging, also supported the interpretation derived from the multivariate analysis demonstrating the levels of NO2 exceeding the annual limit in the centre, south, and east of the Madrid province.

Differences in the impact of heat waves according to urban and peri-urban factors in Madrid.

Aside from climatic factors, the impact of heat waves on mortality depends on the demographic and socio-economic structure of the population as well as variables relating to local housing. Hence, this study's main aim was to ascertain whether there might be a differential impact of heat waves on daily mortality by area of residence. The study is a time-series analysis (2000-2009) of daily mortality and minimum and maximum daily temperatures (°C) in five geographical areas of the Madrid region. The impact of such waves on heat-related mortality due to natural causes (ICD-10: A00- R99), circulatory causes (ICD-10: I00-I99) and respiratory causes (ICD-10: J00-J99) was obtained by calculating the relative risk (RR) and attributable risk (AR), using GLM models with the Poisson link and controlling for trend, seasonalities and the autoregressive nature of the series. Furthermore, we also evaluated other external variables, such as the percentage of the population aged over 65years and the percentage of old housing. No heat-related mortality threshold temperature with statistical significance was detected in the northern and eastern areas. While the threshold temperatures in the central and southern areas were very similar and close to the 90th percentile, the threshold in the western area corresponded to the 97th percentile. Attributable mortality proved to be highest in the central area with 85 heat wave-related deaths per annum. External factors found to influence the impact of heat on mortality in Madrid were the size of the population aged over 65years and the age of residential housing. Demographic structure and the percentage of old housing play a key role in modulating the impact of heat waves. This study concludes that the areas in which heat acts earliest are those having a higher degree of population ageing.

Recent Evolution of Logistic Spatial Patterns in Metropolitan Contexts: The Case of Madrilenian Urban Region

The logistic activity has been analysed by different approaches, but with a lack of attention to its impacts in the urban and spatial configuration. This work studies the logistic expansion in the Urban Region of Madrid, considering the geographical polarization and its preferential location in suburban and rural zones in the metropolitan area. The methodology considers three variables enlightening the spatial and temporal diffusion: workers and companies by municipality, logistic land use by province and different types of logistic land use. The results confirm the dissemination of logistics in metropolitan areas according to suburbanization and spread processes, at the same time appears new urban centralities as a consequence of the capitalist integration of the economy at different scales.

Bilingual Education and School Choice: A Case Study of Public Secondary Schools in the Spanish Region of Madrid

In the academic year of 2004-2005 the Spanish region of Madrid began to implement a bilingual educational programme in public schools. Currently, 45% of the public educational system (primary and secondary) participates in the bilingual programme of the Community of Madrid (hereinafter MBP). One of the objectives sought by this programme, but not the only one, is to make the study of a foreign language accessible to students from economically less favoured families (who have greater difficulty in meeting the cost of private language tutoring). Consequently, our study aims to analyse whether, as proposed, students from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds effectively participate in the MBP. To comply with this objective, we estimate a model directed at identifying which factors influence the selection of a bilingual public school by families. The results obtained reveal that the MBP has led to the sorting of students by socioeconomic and cultural status, causing cream skimming within the public education sector in Madrid. This is due to the influence in the choice of a bilingual public school of factors such as the educational level and the mother’s immigrant status, the occupational level of the parents and the cultural capital of the household.

Chemie im Kontext: The Students´ View on its Adaption in Spain and Argentina – Two Case Studies

One of the main problems in science education nowadays, and especially in chemical education, is that the students usually cannot perceive the relevance of what they learn in their classes. There have been some efforts to improve the student interest and motivation without diminishing the understanding of the chemistry concepts. The context-based methodologies allow the students to see the relevance and applicability of what they learn in the chemistry classes, connecting the canonical science with their lives, interests and previous knowledge. One of these methodologies, Chemie im Kontext (Chemistry in Context in German), was developed in Germany to improve chemistry teaching in secondary education. Its main features include the use of contexts throughout the whole teaching unit and the effort to foster student self-learning. At present, there is an ongoing project, supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD), to assess the use of a German context-based methodology, Chemie im Kontext (ChiK in the following) in four secondary schools in the Madrid region (Spain). Based on a collaboration with the University of Buenos Aires (Argentina) this case study has been accompanied by a secondone carried out in Buenos Aires during 2015 and 2016. The main goal of this project is to identify which changes students and teachers perceive when comparing a ChiK teaching unit to the traditional teaching approach. This article focuses on the students’ opinions concerning the use of a ChiK methodology in chemistry classes in Spain and Argentina and therefore allows a first insight into possible effects of this teaching approach.

Violence in dating relationships: Validation of the Dominating and Jealous Tactics Scale in Spanish youth

The Dominant and Jealous Tactics Scale (Kasian &amp; Painter, 1992) is one of the most extensively used instruments to measure dominance and jealousy in dating relationships of young adults and adolescents. The goal of this study is to analyze the psychometric properties of this scale and validate its adequacy for young Spanish population. the sample was made up of 8105 youths from the Region of Madrid, aged between 14 and 26 years. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicate two correlated factors: Dominant Tactics and Jealous Tactics, along the lines of the original study. The reliability of the scale was good. With regard to convergent validity, positive and significant correlations were observed with the modified version of the Conflicts Tactics Scale (M-CTS; Neidig, 1986), which measures physical and verbal violence in dating relationships. With regard to known groups validity, we observed significant differences in dominant and jealous tactics as a function of age and gender, in the expected direction. This scale is a reliable and valid instrument to assess dominant and jealous tactics in dating relationships of youth and adolescents in Spain.

Bullying and depression: the moderating effect of social support, rejection and victimization profile

Peer relationships can be shaped as influential factors in the prevalence of bullying episodes. This research aims to analyze the effect of school bullying on the levels of depression of the victims and to what extent it is affected by social support and status in the group and by the profile of victimization. Several hierarchical linear regression analyses were calculated, in a sample of 1063 students aged 10 to 14 (47.8% of girls, M = 11.59 years, SD = 1.21 years), from 10 school of the Region of Madrid. The degree of influence of the studied variables was observed: lack of social support, peer rejection, withdrawal and impulsivity behaviors, and the relationship of all of them with victimization and depression. Findings revealed the influence of the lack of social support on the depression of victimized students. However, peer rejection did not show influence on the levels of depression of the victims. In addition, victimization associated with internalizing characteristics showed a greater association with depression than victimization associated with an externalizing profile.

Water demand management strategies for water-scarce cities: The case of Spain

This paper provides an overview of pricing and non-pricing measures to reduce domestic water consumption at the household levels in five urban areas in Spain. Analyses are based on questionnaires sent to water utilities that provide water services in the metropolitan areas of Barcelona and Seville, the cities of Malaga and Saragossa and the region of Madrid. Our main contribution is that, compared to studies that are based on estimates of the water demand function, we asked directly the managers of the utilities on the effectiveness of the measures implemented. We found that all areas studied have implemented pricing and non-pricing measures to encourage the efficient use of water and that reduction in per capita water consumption has been the result of periods of drought, accompanied in certain cases by water restrictions and pricing and non-pricing measures. In all five areas studied, the utilities believe that non-pricing measures have had a greater impact on water consumption decisions compared to pricing measures.

Comparison of AHP and a Utility-Based Theory Method for Selected Vertical and Horizontal Forest Structure Indicators in the Sustainability Assessment of Forest Management in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park, Madrid Region

This paper compares two pairwise comparison methods, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) and a utility theory based method (UTB method), for sustainability assessment in forest management at the local level. Six alternatives were ranked, corresponding to six different types of forest management in the Sierra de Guadarrama National Park in the Madrid Region in Spain. The methods were tested by postgraduate students enrolled in a “Decision Support Systems” course at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Three sustainability indicators were considered: structural diversity, timber yield, and amount of biomass. The utility theory based method was the first to be compared, which is implemented in the computer program SILVANET. For each pair of alternatives, the students were asked which one they considered to be more sustainable. In the case of the Analytic Hierarchy Process, the students compared the indicators and the alternatives for each indicator. The Spearman’s correlation coefficient indicated that there was no correlation between the rankings for most of the students. The results revealed that the convergence in opinion in the AHP method was higher than in the utility based method for a low number of participants, and distinguished the differences between the alternatives more accurately. However in the case of the UTB method, the participants considered sustainability as a whole and made a more context-based comparison.

Un Estudio sobre la Competencia Lectora en Adultos con Discapacidad Intelectual y del Desarrollo ante Textos con Contenidos de Clínica y Salud

The aim of this study was to analyze the level of reading competence in adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disability (AIDD) in Madrid Region. They read clinical texts of different lexical and semantic complexity. Sixty-one adults with intellectual disability and 31 undergraduate university students took part in this study. The results showed that AIDD improve their performance in reading comprehension tasks when the necessary time and supports are available. Thus, if a greater amount of time is available, the performance of a significant part of the AIDD improves considerably, in some cases getting close to the performance of university students. The education level of AIDD was decisive in their performance in the different tests.

USE OF GRAPHIC NARRATIVES WITH PRESERVICE TEACHERS AS A MEDIATED LEARNING TOOL

Despite the use of comics in education as a tool for reading or language learning, little is known about its potential as a mediated learning tool in Higher Education settings. This paper presents a preliminary study, part of a bigger project conducted as an action-research approach which aims to gain knowledge on the use of comics in higher education as a tool to develop comprehension and thinking skills. The study was carried out at one of the Spanish universities located in the Madrid region. The study involved 71 student teachers of an undergraduate course who were trained on how to read and create comics: use of diverse types of software, composition basis, communication elements and conventions of comics’ design. Students had the freedom to create their comics choosing the software they felt most comfortable with since the purpose of the study was to analyse the composition of their stories and the way they gave meaning to learning through them. Comics were analysed and categorised according to the story they told, feelings and emotions they showed, complexity and originality. Even the comics' design was well achieved, students were focused on their graphic composition rather than on the educational problems the comics should have conveyed. Findings suggest that even though comic’s creation encouraged students’ creativity and critical reflection, developing visual thinking skills takes time and needs to be practised as it is a scaffolding process. Future studies will be focused on developing preliminary visual thinking skills before asking students to express their subject knowledge creating their graphic narratives.