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The ever-increasing demand for immediate access to information means interpreters and translators are increasingly using, and relying on, digital technology in their work. In the migratory context, machine translation (MT) and post-editing (PE) have the potential to greatly increase the efficiency of public service interpreting and translation (PSIT), which is currently experiencing huge demand. This article describes and evaluates the implementation of a module focused on MT and PE within a postgraduate PSIT programme at a Spanish university. A mixed-methods methodology was used to collect both quantitative data (via a questionnaire) and qualitative data (via a reflective essay) from a group of 42 students during the 2020-2021 academic year. The results show that students were satisfied overall with both the content of the module and its implementation. However, they also felt that the module needed to be better integrated within the postgraduate PSIT programme as a whole in order to fully prepare them for their professional careers.

The use of machine translation in the field of migrations seems to be very limited and, in view of the latest developments, it is only natural to explore its usefulness in the migratory context. In an attempt to introduce this technology into this particular area, this article reports on a qualitative study on translators’ perceptions towards machine translation and post-editing tasks. The findings of the study indicate that both are not widely developed within the migratory context and further work is required. Based on our findings, we believe that this study can contribute to opening the way for machine translation and post-editing tasks to be included into the field of migrations.

Recent migratory flow patterns in our country involves several linguistic and cultural challenges. In this line, the different public administrations join efforts to help migrants to overcome the possible barriers that may hinder effective communication. This article examines a guide designed to explain public services resources to immigrants in the region of Madrid, and describes the main findings of a linguistic analysis carried out to evaluate the degree of comprehensibility and clarity. The first part of the article focuses on the theoretical framework of the study. The following section gives details of the methodology and the linguistic simplified version. The results show that public administrations make an enormous effort to provide linguistic resources adapted to migrant population. However, textual material needs to be adapted to the specific needs of this population. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the processing steps followed to build a bilingual parallel corpus (English-Spanish) as a resource for legal translation. The corpus, being in its initial stage of development, is made up of 127 and 145 aligned judgments referring to English and Spanish courts respectively. The corpus was aligned by using InterText alignment software, accounting for a total number of 29983 aligned sentence pairs. The paper describes the different design stages and the technical issues related to the compilation process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this work, we explore the processes involving food in contact with food contact materials (FCMs), and the subsequent changes in these materials. We delve into the historical context of "economic poisons", the development of food safety concerns, the regulation of food additives, and the rise of harmful chemicals in food. The focus is placed on mass spectrometry-based analyses of FCMs. We have examined substances, like bisphenols, and the chemical migration from various materials into food, highlighting the difficulty in identifying and managing these substances, especially unknown ones. This work further cements the inadequacy of current regulations in effectively controlling FCMs and mitigating associated risks. We conclude that despite the information provided by mass spectrometry, challenges persist in fully comprehending and regulating the interplay between FCMs and food under actual cooking conditions, emphasising the need for ongoing research and improved regulations to protect consumer health from these evolving chemical threats. • Historical context of food safety and "economic poisons". • Role of mass spectrometry in identifying chemicals in food contact materials. • Limitations of current regulations associated with food contact materials. • High-resolution mass spectrometry is a potent tool in food evaluations. • This technology has allowed to identify new substances of potential concern. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The aim of this study was to present the results obtained in the Newborn Screening Program (NSP) for sickle cell disease (SCD) in western Andalusia and the autonomous city of Ceuta in the first 3 years of implementation, and to describe the discrepancies found in the diagnosis of hemoglobinopathies between the screening method and the confirmatory tests., Study Design: A descriptive and retrospective study was carried out, and the findings obtained in the newborns included in the NSP between November 2018 and December 2021 were analyzed., Results: A total of 111,205 samples were screened by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The birth prevalence of SCD, sickle cell trait, hemoglobin C carriers, and the compound heterozygosity Hb C/β-thalassemia was 1/12,356, 1/467, 1/1,278, and 1/55,602 newborns, respectively. Although there was a correlation between the first-line HPLC screening technique (VARIANTnbs HPLC analyzer, Bio-Rad) and the confirmatory tests in most cases, major discrepancies were found in detecting carriers of G-Philadelphia, D, E, and O-Arab hemoglobin variants, with the former having an incidence of 1/10,110 and the others 1/22,241. The carrier status of Hb G-Philadelphia produced an FAD pattern on the screening method that could be mistaken as Hb D, while Hb O-Arab was identified as an FA5 pattern. Hb D was initially recognized as Hb D in two cases., Conclusion: An NSP requires at least two different combined methods in order to identify the hemoglobin variant with sufficient certainty. Furthermore, even though software solutions for HPLC suggest a pattern, it must be confirmed with another technique to obtain a correct interpretation of the chromatograms., Key Points: · The NSPs are an essential activity in preventive medicine.. · At least two different combined methods are required to correctly identify hemoglobin variants.. · Different variants can produce a similar or identical pattern by a single method.., Competing Interests: None declared., (Thieme. All rights reserved.)

Treated wastewater is currently used in the agricultural sector to solve the lack of availability of freshwater in many regions. However, reclaimed water can contain multiclass of organic contaminants. Therefore, the soil can become a reservoir of agricultural (e.g. pesticides) and urban (e.g. pharmaceuticals) contaminants. Consequently, the evaluation of this contamination process is necessary for assessing its potential human and environmental negative effects. Due to the low concentration levels, different chemical properties and the complexity of the matrix, an efficient sample preparation step for achieving adequate sensitivity and robust analysis in the soil is needed. The aim of this study was to develop a quick and easy extraction method based on a QuEChERS procedure for the determination of 27 organic contaminants in agricultural soil samples. The procedure was based on a salting-out extraction with acidified acetonitrile, followed by a dispersive solid-phase extraction (d-SPE). A liquid chromatography-tandem mass-spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) system was applied for the determination and quantification of the selected target analytes. The main benefits of this analytical approach are:•Reduction/elimination of majority of the interferences improving the sensitivity of the method.•Robust simultaneous determination of a multiclass of organic contaminants with very different physicochemical properties., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2021 The Authors.)

In the last decade, the consumption trend of organic food has increased dramatically worldwide. Since only a few pesticides are authorized in organic crops, concentrations are expected to range at zero or ultra-trace levels. In this context, the aim of the present study was to investigate the need for an improvement in the residue controls at very low concentrations (<0.010 mg kg -1 ) and to assess the impact of the scope of the analytical methods for this type of crops. For that purpose, a monitoring study for fruit and vegetable samples covering a wide range of pesticides (3 2 8) at low LOQs (0.002-0.005 mg kg -1 ) was developed. The results showed that the impact of applying analytical methods with low LOQs was not very relevant in the majority of the cases. However, a wide scope presented a high influence on this evaluation, especially regarding the inclusion of very polar compounds and metabolites., Competing Interests: The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (© 2020 The Authors.)