Search Results (101)

In the Hispanic world, the analysis of discourse particles from a microdiachronic perspective has emerged as a relatively recent area of research that has already demonstrated its efficacy, particularly in the context of Spain. However, in the case of Mexico, this type of study is still marginal. The objective of this paper is to analyze hacer de cuenta in Mexican Spanish during the 20th and 21st centuries to illustrate its processes of grammaticalization and pragmatization. To this end, a comprehensive analysis of the CREA and CORDE corpora, as well as six corpora of Mexican Spanish, was conducted. This methodological approach was proposed for three reasons. Firstly, it facilitated the acquisition of a diverse sample of examples. Secondly, it ensured the inclusion of corpora from different decades. Thirdly, it obtained examples that approximate orality. The findings suggest that during this period, hacer de cuenta was undergoing a process of pragmatization. Consequently, it can be regarded as a discourse particle that primarily encodes an intersubjective value, through which the speaker attempts to share with the interlocutor the way she/he conceptualizes a particular event. Full article

This article presents a comparative analysis of digital manufacturing laboratories (DMLs) in Mexico and Spain. It is argued that DMLs, also known as makerspaces or FabLabs, play a key role in innovation and experimentation, but that their success depends on the relationships they establish with social actors, such as local governments, universities, and firms. Key concepts of the transformative innovation approach such as “protective space” and “embeddedness” are introduced, which allow us to understand how DMLs operate within a complex system. The comparative analysis of a DML in Mexico City (Mexico) and a DML in Valencia (Spain) allows us to identify similarities and differences in their operational contexts. While the Mexican DML faces a lack of government support and dependence on the private sector, the Spanish one benefits from strong institutional support and public policies that facilitate its development. This results in greater stability and capacity for action for the Valencian FabLab VLC compared to the Mexican FabLab Finally, we reflect on how the embeddedness received from different social actors affects the autonomy and transformative capacity of DMLs, suggesting that while both labs have the potential to innovate, their contexts and relationships determine their effectiveness and sustainability in the digital sociotechnical system. Full article

Readability formulas are mathematical functions that assess the ‘difficulty’ level of a given text. They play a crucial role in aligning educational texts with student reading abilities; however, existing models are often not tailored to specific linguistic or regional contexts. This study aims to develop and evaluate two novel readability formulas specifically designed for the Mexican Spanish language, targeting elementary education levels. The formulas were trained on a corpus of 540 texts drawn from official elementary-level textbooks issued by the Mexican public education system. The first formula was constructed using multiple linear regression, emulating the structure of traditional readability models. The second was derived through genetic programming (GP), a machine learning technique that evolves symbolic expressions based on training data. Both approaches prioritize interpretability and use standard textual features, such as sentence length, word length, and lexical and syntactic complexity. Experimental results show that the proposed formulas outperform several well-established Spanish and non-Spanish readability formulas in distinguishing between grade levels, particularly for early and intermediate stages of elementary education. The GP-based formula achieved the highest alignment with target grade levels while maintaining a clear analytical form. These findings underscore the potential of combining machine learning with interpretable modeling techniques and highlight the importance of linguistic and curricular adaptation in readability assessment tools. Full article

Research in Loanword Phonology has extensively examined the adaptation processes of Anglicisms into recipient languages. In the Tijuana–San Diego border region, where English and Spanish have reciprocally existed, Anglicisms exhibit two main phonetic patterns: some structures exhibit Spanish phonetic properties, while others preserve English phonetic features. This study analyzes 131 vowel tokens drawn from spontaneous conversations with 28 bilingual speakers in Tijuana, recruited via the sociolinguistic ‘friend-of-a-friend’ approach. Specifically, it focuses on monosyllabic Anglicisms with monophthongs by examining the F1 and F2 values using Praat. The results were compared with theoretical vowel targets in English and Spanish through Euclidean distance analysis. Dispersion plots generated in R further illustrate the acoustic distribution of vowel realizations. The results reveal that some vowels closely match Spanish targets, others align with English, and several occupy intermediate acoustic spaces. Based on these patterns, the study proposes two phonetically based corpora—Phonetically Adapted Anglicisms (PAA) and Phonetically Non-Adapted Anglicisms (PNAA)—to capture the nature of Anglicisms in this contact setting. This research offers an empirically grounded basis for cross-dialectal comparison and language contact studies from a phonetically based approach. Full article

Background: MSLQ is a self-report instrument that measures motivational orientations and learning strategies of college students and is widely used to measure self-regulated learning. MSLQ has not been translated into Spanish and validated in the Spanish-speaking Latin American population. Objective: The objective of the study is to adapt, validate, and perform a factorial reduction of 9 out of 15 scales of the MSLQ instrument and correlate the scales with the grade point average (GPA) of a sample of health sciences university students. Methods: Nine scales (48 items) of the MSLQ were translated into Spanish and adapted to the Mexican population. Students were invited directly in their classrooms and filled out an electronic questionnaire with personal variables and these nine scales of the MSLQ instrument. We performed exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis (EFA and CFA) and based on the EFA a reduced version of the instrument was proposed. Results: A total of 439 students were included. The CFA showed unacceptable fit parameters with the original scale, therefore an item reduction and rearrangement were performed according to the EFA, and this yielded a reduced version with six scales and 25 items which showed acceptable fit parameters. This new reduced version rearranged the items of the effort regulation scale (ERE) into two different scales newly created in this version: time regulation (TRE) and self-regulation (SRE). The scales that disappeared in the reduced version were: intrinsic goal orientation (IGO), meta-cognitive self-regulation (MSR), and elaboration (ELA). Conclusions: The reduced version showed acceptable fit parameters that included the creation of two new scales (TRE and SRE). In addition, two scales were reduced (TVA and CTH), three scales were modified (MSE, TSE and ERE), two were unmodified (RHE and ORG), and two scales were eliminated (IGO and ELA). Full article

Corn is a globally important crop, requiring extensive soils and intensive practices to meet the growing human and animal consumption demand. However, intensive agriculture has caused soil deterioration and fertility loss. In response, the Mexican government established the National Soil Strategy for Sustainable Agriculture (ENASAS, acronym in Spanish) to ensure food security and maintain soil fertility. This study develops “Soil Quality Indexes” ($SQI$) to monitor soil quality under corn cultivation using four methodologies (additive ($SQ{I}_a$), weighted ($SQ{I}_w$), unified weighted ($SQ{I}_u$), and Nemoro ($SQ{I}_n$)) in the Bajio region of Guanajuato, Mexico. Twenty-four physicochemical indicators were analyzed, with four (CLY, WHC, Na, and C/N) identified as key indicators of soil quality and fertility through principal component analysis. Among these, $SQ{I}_a$ was the most sensitive and efficient (SI = 2.32, ER = 50) in assessing soil quality, showing values from very low to low ($SQ{I}_a=0.13$ and $SQ{I}_a=0.39$ respectively). Aligned with the ENASAS program, $SQ{I}_a$ can help monitor and improve soil quality under corn cultivation, supporting food security through soil conservation. Moreover, $SQ{I}_a$ performed similarly to the globally recognized Soil Management Assessment Framework (SMAF), making it a valuable tool for managing and improving agricultural soil quality under similar conditions in both Mexico and worldwide. Full article

Gender-based violence is recognized as both a violation of human rights and a significant public health problem due to its widespread prevalence. Gender-based violence has also been shown to be associated with sexist beliefs. Furthermore, cultural background significantly influences how individuals develop attitudes toward gender roles. This study aims to examine the recurrence of dating violence among young couples in relation to their cultural context. The study involved 9759 participants (40.85% women and 59.15% men) with an age range between 13 and 26 years (M = 18.1, SD = 2.32) residing in either Spain (67.28%) or Mexico (32.72%). Participants completed two questionnaires: the Dating Violence Questionnaire (CUVINO) and the Role Attitudes Scale of Gender (GRAS). Gender-based violence was more recurrent in the Spanish context, especially among women. Spanish participants also held more stereotypical gender role attitudes than Mexican participants, with evidence linking these attitudes to higher rates of gender violence. It is confirmed that an issue as complex as gender violence in dating relationships is influenced by multiple determining factors, including cultural context. Full article

This Special Issue brings the Indigenous American lacquer community together, building bridges and overcoming the existing geographical and language obstacles. With dual-language (English and Spanish) articles focusing on barniz de Pasto and mopa mopa, Mexican lacquer (or maque) and cumatê, this collection includes contributions covering a number of disciplines. This volume is a ‘go-to’ research resource encompassing scientific and historical reviews, case studies, articles focusing on sociological and anthropological perspectives, and on cross-cultural contact and exchanges between Asia, Europe and the ‘New World’. The approach used to compile this Special Issue goes beyond European and North American perspectives, and includes voices that represent the genesis and context of Indigenous American lacquer objects more faithfully and objectively. Full article

Objective: This mixed methods study explores gender differences in, and reasons for, toothbrushing and flossing among Mexican-origin adults. Methods: Interviews and surveys about oral hygiene behaviors were collected from 72 adults (ages 21–40) living on the California–Mexico border. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed in their original language (English/Spanish), then coded. Survey responses were linked to coded transcripts in Dedoose. Qualitative reports were thematically analyzed for each behavior, stratified into four groups by gender and whether or not participants met American Dental Association (ADA) weekly guidelines (brushing ≥ 14/week; flossing ≥ 7/week). Self-reported weekly frequencies of brushing and flossing were collected continuously, and then dichotomized as meeting guidelines or not. Kruskal–Wallis and chi-square tests assessed differences in hygiene behavior frequency by gender. Negative binomial and logistic regressions were performed, accounting for socio-demographic characteristics. Results: Overall, 76% and 40% of adults met ADA guidelines for brushing and flossing, respectively. There were no differences in meeting ADA guidelines by gender. When brushing was examined continuously, women brushed 1.24 (1.05–1.47; p = 0.0099) times the rate of weekly brushing than men in the full model; flossing frequency differences were not found. Men and women, whether ADA guidelines were met or not, identified similar brushing and flossing facilitators (health concerns, aesthetics), and barriers (lack of time, not being home). Some women (mothers) were motivated to brush to be role models for their children. Self-efficacy, or confidence in ability to brush or floss, was described differently by adults who met ADA guidelines (high self-efficacy) compared to the adults not meeting guidelines (low self-efficacy). Conclusions: Integrating quantitative and qualitative data obtained from Mexican-origin adults identified few differences in both oral hygiene behaviors and the factors that influence their enactment. Full article

Background/Objectives: A favorable attitude towards suicidal behavior is associated with an increased risk of suicidal behavior in youth populations. Hence, the aim of the present study was to analyze attitudinal beliefs about suicidal behavior among Mexican medical and nursing students. We also compared attitudinal beliefs about suicidal behavior according to the religious affiliation of the participants. Methods: This is a cross-sectional observational study. Attitudinal beliefs about suicidal behavior were assessed using the Attitudinal Beliefs Questionnaire about Suicide Behavior (CCCS-18). We evaluated personal and family histories of suicide using the Spanish version of the MINI International Neuropsychiatric Interview. Comparative analysis between nursing and medical students was performed, using Chi-square tests for categorical variables and Student t-tests for continuous variables. Results: A total of 195 (52.2%) medical students and 178 (47.8%) nursing students participated. Medicine students reported a higher prevalence of a family history of suicide attempts and knowing someone who had tried to die by suicide compared to nursing students (p = 0.001). Regarding attitudinal beliefs—specifically, suicide in terminal patients—medical students reported higher scores than nursing students (9.50 ± 5.91 vs. 11.23 ± 6.38, p < 0.001), while the latter exhibited higher scores in attitudinal beliefs related to suicide itself (9.55 ± 4.45 vs. 7.28 ± 4.09, p < 0.001). Both groups display similar scores when compared by religious affiliation. Conclusions: Our findings show differences in attitudinal beliefs about suicidal behavior between medical and nursing students. Medical students exhibited more positive responses toward suicide in terminal patients, while nursing students had higher values for attitudinal beliefs related to suicide itself. These results could be considered in the planning of health sciences curricula in order to positively impact future suicide prevention efforts. This study was retrospectively registered at the Universidad Juarez Autónoma de Tabasco, with the registration number 20240063 on 8 June 2024. Full article

The Mexican deaf community primarily uses Mexican Sign Language (MSL) for communication, but significant barriers arise when interacting with hearing individuals unfamiliar with the language. Learning MSL requires a substantial commitment of at least 18 months, which is often impractical for many hearing people. To address this gap, we present an MSL-to-Spanish translation system that facilitates communication through a spelling-based approach, enabling deaf individuals to convey any idea while simplifying the AI’s task by limiting the number of signs to be recognized. Unlike previous systems that focus exclusively on static signs for individual letters, our solution incorporates dynamic signs, such as “k”, “rr”, and “ll”, to better capture the nuances of MSL and enhance expressiveness. The proposed Hybrid Neural Network-based algorithm integrates these dynamic elements effectively, achieving an F1 score of 90.91%, precision of 91.25%, recall of 91.05%, and accuracy of 91.09% in the extended alphabet classification. These results demonstrate the system’s potential to improve accessibility and inclusivity for the Mexican deaf community. Full article

The intestinal microbiota plays a key role in the pathogenesis of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), with its composition varying based on geographic location and dietary factors. This study was performed to examine and compare the bacterial composition of the gut microbiota in Mexican and Spanish individuals with IBD and healthy controls, while also considering the nutritional aspects. This study involved 79 individuals with IBD and healthy controls from Mexico and Spain. The fecal microbiota composition was analyzed using 16S rRNA gene sequencing, and the dietary intake and anthropometric measurements were collected. Alpha diversity analysis revealed a lower Chao1 index of the bacterial genera in the IBD groups. Beta diversity analysis showed significant differences in the bacterial composition, suggesting inter-individual variability within the healthy and IBD groups. Additionally, the relative abundance of the bacterial genera varied across the four groups. Faecalibacterium was more abundant in the IBD groups; Prevotella was found exclusively in the Mexican groups, and Akkermansia was found only in the Spanish groups. Akkermansia was positively correlated with meat and protein intake, Prevotella with lean mass, and Bacteroides with calorie intake. These findings highlight the importance of considering geographic and nutritional factors in future research on the gut microbiome’s role in IBD pathogenesis. Full article

This study examined different degrees of awareness regarding the stigmatization of Southern California (SoCal) Spanish across four groups of Spanish–English bilinguals from Southern California (n = 87). The participants were presented with Spanish sentences and asked to decide which profile of speaker would likely express that sentence, given six options, such as: “someone living in Los Angeles/SoCal who grew up in Mexico” or “a Spanish-English bilingual who grew up in Los Angeles/SoCal”. Experimental stimuli included seven different linguistic categories of stigmatization, including English contact forms. The participants tended to attribute the stigmatized forms to bilinguals who grew up in Southern California. Central Colloquial and Taboo categories were more salient and perceived as forms used by people in Mexico. In contrast, English borrowings and redundancies seemed to be recognized by the participants, particularly for simultaneous bilinguals who grew up in Southern California, as salient forms of an identified Southern California Spanish variety. The results are interpreted within Exemplar Theory, with certain stigmatized forms indexing “Mexican Spanish” exemplars, and English borrowings identified as exemplars of SoCal Spanish. We advocate for usage-based approaches to understanding language perceptions and critical approaches to interrogating academic discourses. Full article

In Mexico, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a serious public health concern. As experts in drug therapy, pharmacists are essential additions to multidisciplinary diabetes patient care teams. There have been no systematic reviews or meta-analyses performed on pharmacist-led interventions (PIs) in Mexico; therefore, the impact of PIs on patients remains poorly explored. An electronic search of the PubMed, SciELO and BVS databases and certain institutional repositories was conducted in English and Spanish through 24 August 2021 with a subsequent update through June 2024. A total of 1302 potentially relevant studies were identified in the initial search, of which nine met the eligibility criteria and were included in this systematic review. The results suggest that PIs, such as pharmacotherapeutic follow-up and patient education, may have positive effects on outcomes in Mexican patients with T2DM. PIs led to significant reductions in glycosylated hemoglobin, fasting blood glucose, triglycerides, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol and arterial blood pressure levels, general reductions in body mass index and negative outcomes associated with medication, as well as significant improvements in therapeutic adherence and patient knowledge in the intervention group during follow-up periods of 3–12 months. Further well-designed research, including controlled studies with adequate sample sizes and standardized tools, is essential to fully understand the effects of PIs regarding patients with T2DM in Mexico. Full article

This article examines the first Spanish American lacquerwares produced by Indigenous artisans in the seventeenth century, barniz de Pasto in Colombia and Peribán lacquer in Mexico, and discusses how the evolution of the decorative motifs, techniques, and forms of these lacquerwares can establish an initial dating chronology. Over the last thirty years, a sufficient number of examples of seventeenth-century Spanish American lacquerware have come to light that are datable, whether through provenance, historical references, or radiocarbon dating, and that make possible tentative chronologies for their production. The Hispanic Society of America in New York City holds at present the most significant collection of datable pieces of barniz de Pasto and Peribán lacquerware that now provide the key dates that can serve as the basis for establishing dating chronologies. Full article