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This article analyses the advertisements inserted in search engines of Spanish academic services websites in 2018 and 2019. Content analysis of these advertisements, conducted through the use of Semrush (Search Engine Optimization SEO and Search Engine Marketing SEM audit platform), shows that a large number of platforms offer to write academic essays for students (mostly bachelor's and master's dissertations). This implies fraud in the evaluation and behaviour contrary to the principles of academic integrity. Law, psychology, economics, education and engineering are the degrees that appear in the advertisements of a great number of platforms. Slogans and information placed by these platforms primarily focus on extolling the quality and originality of the essays and pointing out the confidentiality, speed, professionalism and low cost of the service offered. The results provide evidence of the need to establish legal limits on advertising that implies a clear incitement to fraud in academic evaluations. In addition, the findings highlight the need to improve awareness among students that emphasises the dimension of the ethical use of information and opens a field of study to which more attention should be devoted from a research perspective and in academic policies.

This article looks at the differences and similarities between Spanish-born and immigrant students enrolled in the first year of Intermediate Vocational Education (IVET) programmes in Spain. We analyse and compare their sociodemographic and academic backgrounds, their reasons for choosing IVET courses, their dropout intention and, finally, their commitment and engagement with the IVET programs in which they are enrolled. Data were obtained from a sample of 1,119 students, aged between 16 and 18, enrolled in first year IVET courses in the regions of Balearic Islands and Catalonia (Spain). The sampling strategy adopted was convenience sampling. Among other conclusions, the results point to students with an immigrant background having greater financial difficulties and a higher likelihood of having unemployed parents when compared with native ones. Also, immigrant students, mostly chose the IVET programmes in which they are enrolled to improve their employability. Finally, students from an immigrant background reported poorer relationships with teachers and classmates, as well as lower family availability/assistance and higher levels of school/academic indiscipline. These results point out the need for ongoing implementation of interventions aimed at providing greater assistance to immigrant students both in school guidance and more support by their teachers. This intervention is vital in order to increase the family support in the educational pathways of the immigrant students.

Background: The EQ-5D-5 L is a quality-of-life questionnaire based on individuals' preferences that is widely employed for cost-effectiveness analysis. Given the current demand for mapping algorithms to directly assign "utilities", this study aimed to generate different mapping models for predicting EQ-5D-5 L utility values based on scores of the Oxford Hip Score (OHS) and Oxford Knee Score (OKS) questionnaires provided by patients suffering from hip and knee osteoarthritis (OA), respectively, and to assess the predictive capability of these functions.Methods: This was a prospective, observational study. Following the criteria of the American Rheumatism Association, 361 patients with hip OA and 397 with knee OA from three regions in Spain were included. Health-related quality of life (HRQoL) was assessed through the EQ-5D-5 L general questionnaire and the OHS and OKS specifically for lower limb OA. Based on the scores on the OHS and OKS questionnaires, EQ-5D-5 L utilities were estimated using 4 models: ordinary least squares (OLS), Tobit, generalized linear model (GLM), and beta regression (Breg). The models were validated on the same patients after 6 months: the mean absolute error (MAE) and mean squared error (MSE) with their 95% confidence intervals (CI), mean values of standard errors (SE), intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC), and Bland-Altman plots were obtained.Results: The lowest MAEs were obtained using GLM and Breg models, with values of 0.1103 (0.0993-0.1214) and 0.1229 (0.1102-0.1335) for hip OA, and values of 0.1127 (0.1014-0.1239) and 0.1141 (0.1031-0.1251) for knee OA. MSE values were also lower using GLM and Breg. ICCs between predicted and observed values were around or over the 0.8 cut-off point. Bland-Altman plots showed an acceptable correlation, but precision was lower for subjects with worse HRQoL, which was also evident when comparing MAEs of the bottom and top halves of the utilities scale. Predictive equations for utilities based on OHS/OKS scores were proposed.Conclusions: The OHS and OKS scores allow for estimating EQ-5D-5 L utility indexes for patients with hip and knee OA, respectively, with adequate validity and precision. GLM and Breg produce the best predictions. The predictive power of proposed equations is more consistent for subjects in better health condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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This article discusses a study of students at the University of the Balearic Islands in Spain to determine their use of library services and their effectiveness when searching for academic purposes. The authors note that based on a questionnaire, students tend to think their Internet competency is high, although other methods of academic research were used minimally. Suggestions are given on how instructors can best complement Internet research with other methods to enhance results.

The regular presence of the white shark, Carcharodon carcharias, off the Balearic Islands (western Mediterranean) is shown from 27 captures carried out with trap nets between the 1920s and 1970s and from eight attacks on cetaceans and marine turtles from the 1990s to the present. The geographic distribution, seasonality and population structure of the species in the area are analysed and discussed in relation to environmental conditions and to the proposed distribution of this species in the Mediterranean Sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

English- and Spanish-language abstracts are presented for the article "Dwindling olive tree groves in the Balearic Islands: a trend contrary to the general tendency in Spain (1800-1960)," by Antònia Morey Tous and Ramón Molina de Dios.

Investigates the prevalence and epidemiology of imported schistosomiasis in Mallorca, Spain. Determination of pathogenic microorganism associated with the imported infection among individuals; Clinical characteristics of the bacterial disease; Causative factor for the incidence of disease among the population.

This paper examines and discusses the rules and standards set by parents for their children on Internet usage at home. Data that supports the paper have been obtained by surveying a representative sample of children in the Balearic Islands aged between 6 and 16 years; the analysis dimensions are: access by minors to the Internet from home; location of the computer from which have online access; level of autonomy or accompaniment while surfing the Net; norms imposed by their parents; types of rules imposed; relationship between norms and gender; the minors' opinion and assessment of the knowledge and abilities of their parents on use of the Internet and, finally, the accompanying strategies of parents when their children access the Internet. The main results shows that just over 53% of minors between 6 and 14, and 62% of those between 15 and 16, surf the Internet without their parents' presence and free of any norms and/or limitations. Where standards are established, these are mainly to do with temporary restrictions. Therefore, it appears that parents are unaware of the dangers of the Internet or at least act irrationally. This shows the need for awareness and provision of skills, knowledge and abilities to enable parents to assume their responsibilities in the Internet usage of minors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Fish assemblages associated with Posidonia oceanica from three locations of the western Mediterranean (Mallorca, Formentera and Alacant, Spain) were sampled in order to assess their spatial variability at three different scales ranging from <1km to >100km. Sampling was carried out using a beam trawl. Simultaneous sampling at these three spatial scales with the appropriate number of replicates implies a huge effort which is rarely possible to achieve. Consequently, we propose an arrangement of data coming from different sampling programs, after testing and making sure the specificities of each program cannot be confounded with the spatial variability. The two preliminary experimental designs adopted in order to combine the datasets were: (1) differences between two consecutive years were tested by sampling the same meadow (Formentera) in June 2001 and June 2002; and (2) differences attributable to the meadow structure were evaluated by sampling two meadows (Mallorca 2000 and Formentera 2001). The absence of any significant correlation pattern for univariate community descriptors and multivariate species-specific densities (i.e. individuals per hour) related to both between-year and within-location structural differences of the meadows, allow us to combine data from the three locations (Formentera 2001, Mallorca 2000 and Alacant 2000) in a single analysis aimed at determining how much variability is explained by the three spatial scales considered. The between-location scale (>100km) is the most variable scale for species-specific densities (multivariate approach). Spatial variability at the smallest scale (<1km) is also considerable, but the variability corresponding to the intermediate scale (<10km) was found to be non-significant. This is an expected result for fishes given that the spatial scale of individual transects is not large compared to the high mobility of many of the species considered. The differences observed between the locations placed 100km apart are due to changes in the relative density of species rather than differences in species composition. Between-location variability in the univarite community descriptors was not significant. However, within-location (intermediate scale) differences were significant for density but not for biomass. This is related to the large number of small individuals found in one Formentera site. These results are consistent with the hypothesis that P. oceanica meadows from different locations in the western Mediterranean might display a similar carrying capacity although large-scale hydrodynamic conditions and meadow structure at the between-location level might lead to differently shaped fish communities (for example, the larger meadow complexity in Formentera might favour smaller sizes, since small species and/or individuals are known to find more shelter and food there), while differences at an intermediate spatial scale remain irrelevant. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Introduction: We present an epidemiological study focused on Non-melanoma skin cancers (NMSC), including squamous cell carcinoma (SCC), basal cell carcinoma (BCC), Merkel cell carcinoma (MCC), dermatofibrosarcoma protuberans (DFS) and adnexal and skin appendages neoplasm (ASAN), a neoplasm understudied in cancer registries.Material and Methods: We analyze trends of incidence and survival of NMSC registered with the Cancer Registry of Girona, Spain.Results: We found 14389 cases of NMSC, accounting 3,474 SCC, 10729 BCC, 33 MCC, 61 DFSP and 71 ASAN. Incidence increased significantly in SCC and BCC with annual percentage of change of 1.6 and 1.5, respectively, but not in MCC, DFS or ASAN. Five-year relative survival for both sexes was 90.1% in SCC, 99.8% in BCC, 44.2% in MCC, 93.7% in DFS and 84% in ASAN.Conclusions: Our study confirms the increasing incidence and good survival of SCC and BCC and enhances knowledge on the epidemiology of the less incidental NMSC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Everolimus (Eve) has shown good efficacy and safety profiles in clinical trials in combination with low doses of cyclosporine but there is limited experience in other modes, especially with calcineurin inhibitor elimination. We developed a retrospective study to analyze its clinical use after approval in Europe in 2005. Herein we have presented the results of a series of 272 patients followed for the first 6 months after Eve introduction. In 93.8% of cases Eve was introduced after the first month posttransplantation (conversion use), and 6 months after introduction, the CNI had been eliminated in 75% of cases. The main indication for Eve introduction was the diagnosis of a malignant neoplasm (42%), whereas the combined indication of prevention and/or treatment of toxicity, especially nephrotoxicity, accounted for 46.3% of cases. Initial doses were low (1.37 mg/d), but were progressively increased up to 2 mg/d at 6 months. Renal function remained unchanged during the follow-up period, whereas proteinuria moderately increased. Only 5 cases (2%) of acute rejection episodes were observed with excellent patient and graft survivals at 6 months after conversion. Further analysis of this extensive series of patients with a longer follow-up is needed.