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The present study focuses on email communication in the multilingual university setting. Previous studies dealing with similar settings point to the lack of politeness markers in students' email messages [Bjorge, A. (2007). Power distance in English lingua franca email communication. "International Journal of Applied Linguistics", 17(1), 60-80], requests tend to be more direct and they may not match with the degree of imposition or social distance involved. Students' lack of netiquette and the lack of physical presence on the Internet may influence their pragmatic behaviour. In addition to that, other studies [Barón, J., & Ortega, M. (2018). Investigating age differences in e-mail pragmatic performance. "System", 78, 148-178] point to age effects and further confirm the preference for direct pragmatic forms. Nevertheless, very few studies have adopted a multilingual perspective. For this reason, we have examined 250 email requests to faculty. Openings and requests produced in Catalan, Spanish or English were analysed. Our main goal was to confirm whether students' requests would devoid politeness markers and whether openings would show a lack of netiquette. We were also interested in identifying age and gender effects and in finding out if the pragmatic forms chosen would be in line with the politeness orientation of the language involved. Results are in line with previous studies but they also contradict them adding interesting information on the way multilingualism is displayed in email interaction.

Interactions between instructors and students at distance learning universities are crucial in motivating students and enhancing learning outcomes. Although prior empirical studies have examined email messages at distance learning universities from different perspectives, this is the first study, to the best of our knowledge, to explore the effectiveness of emails considering the students' profiles and their behavior on learning platforms. Specifically, we differentiate between students who are "active" in virtual courses (called "active" students) and students who are "nonactive' in virtual courses (called "inactive" students) in order to design email content and motivate students. Focusing on this differentiation and a control group, we investigate in a Managerial Accounting for Tourism course the effectiveness of motivational emails to: (1) engage students in the virtual course; (2) detect similar behaviors according to sociodemographic characteristics; and (3) affect learning outcomes.

Research on pragmatic awareness of language learners has mainly focused on the target language. As argued by some scholars, a multilingual perspective should also be adopted in the analysis of pragmatic awareness. In fact, existing findings point to the peculiar characteristics of multilingual pragmatic comprehension and awareness. Bearing these aspects in mind, this paper focuses on the pragmatic awareness of multilingual learners while they are performing a collaborative writing task in three different languages, namely those of Catalan, Spanish, and English. The corpus consists of recordings from 30 university students' oral interactions while working in pairs to write three email request messages. In an attempt to provide a holistic and ecological account of learners' performance, pragmatic-related episodes were identified by considering Brown and Levinson's politeness features (1987) and Leech's (1983) approach to pragmatic competence. Results are in line with previous studies tackling multilingual learners of English and they provide us with interesting insights about the mechanisms that multilingual students activate when planning and performing pragmatic production tasks during collaborative work.

Email communication is pervasive in faculty interaction. As there exists status imbalance between students and professors in this type of context, emails are expected to cater for the uneven power relationships by means of using appropriate polite features. Previous research (e.g., Eslami, 2013; Salazar-Campillo & Codina-Espurz, in press) has pointed out the pragmatically deficient use of openings and closings in requestive emails sent by non-native students in educational contexts, revealing a lack of the expected deference and respect to the professor. In this paper, we firstly explore this topic further by looking at different groups of emails written by CLIL students to ascertain whether this variable affects students' pragmalinguistic and sociopragmatic ability when writing their emails. Secondly, a proposal for the teaching of openings and closings is suggested, which aims to help second and/or foreign language learners behave in a more target-like manner thus avoiding pragmatic failure.

This study used a pre-test post-test research design to investigate the role of explicit strategy instruction on Spanish English as a foreign language (EFL) learners' ability to write authentic email requests to faculty. Drawing on Taguchi's (2018) classification of pragmatics learning strategies, the instructional intervention followed a strategy-based approach to help learners understand the form-function-context mapping of email requests in the academic context. A total of 110 naturally occurring email requests for action addressed to three faculty members were collected at two different times: as a pre-test (i.e. before engaging learners in the instructional period), and as a post-test (i.e. after learners' participation in the treatment sessions). Learners' email messages were analysed considering both their appropriateness of use as well the frequency of utilization of different structural (i.e. subject line, openings and closings) and content components (i.e. request strategies and internal request modifiers). Results showed that strategy instruction helped learners write more appropriate email requests after the instructional period. The findings suggest that arming learners with a variety of strategic tools may lead to pragmatic development in actual language use.

This paper shares the work and observations from a task-based 6-week email exchange project between participants in Spain and the US. Though small in scale, the study offers insights for those interested in telecollaboration but face constraints on multiple fronts. Close examination of the exchanges reveal participants' engagement on multiple levels, including reflection on one's own culture.

In this paper we propose adapting role-play teaching methodology to engineering studies. The role of a maintenance technician, a relevant job profile for engineering graduates is has chosen. The interaction is based on email exchange, with the instructor included in the simulation to help guide the activity and achieve learning objectives. In this paper, we present experience with this methodology, its implementation, results, and student feedback.

The main objective of this study is to explore how students who participate in virtual intercultural exchanges use evaluative language to build rapport and encourage collaboration. Data were gathered from 211 email messages sent by 40 Spanish and American university students and were tagged following Martin and White's Appraisal model. Quantitative and qualitative analyses of the lexico-grammatical tokens revealed that the participants used mostly Affect tokens in their interaction. This suggests that the students preferred expressing their own feelings and emotions rather than judging their partners' behaviour or evaluating phenomena as a strategy to construct a positive and appealing personal identity.

Considering the potential and popularity of social media it is important to inquire into its use in learning. In this study the implementation of the activity carried out in Twitter with higher education students was analysed. The research was conducted following a mixed methodology, based on virtual ethnography complemented by quantitative analysis of the tweets produced. A sample of 3,026 tweets was taken for such purpose. By way of conclusion, it is worth noting that student participation in the education process via Twitter progressively increases as their technical knowledge of this tool improves and they feel more motivated. Interaction and learning within a community is underpinned by gratifying experiences. Thus, the use of Twitter in the learning process of university students is feasible and perceived as a motivating experience by them. However, teachers play an essential role as dynamisers in the formal incorporation of Twitter in the teaching process, as well as in enhancing interaction between the participants.

This qualitative study engaged five international graduate students from four different countries (the U.S., Colombia, Cape Verde Island, and Spain) who were studying at a Chinese university in Shanghai. The researcher investigated their personal and academic lives in China, their interaction with local people and integration into the local context. Their sense of belonging was also explored. Data were drawn from a questionnaire, email correspondence, face-to-face interviews, and follow-up emails during the period of 1 year. In light of the data, I discussed factors such as language proficiency, engagement with culture, and the power of native language in relation to sense of belonging. I conceptualized a "mediated space," one incorporating these students' multiple cultures, and created through negotiation with themselves and the host culture. Implications for China's international education are discussed.

This study performs a content analysis of the communication that develops in online educational situations. It focuses on two aspects of communication in a context in which we observe instructional leadership: how leadership is seen in the virtual classroom and how teachers view their role. The study attempts to answer the question of how teachers lead this methodological change, that is, instructional leadership at the service of distributed leadership. The study analyses the online interaction and teachers' reflections on the communication between teachers and students in the process of virtual teaching, specifically in post-compulsory secondary education in Spain.

The study deals with the effect of instruction and study abroad (SA) on pragmatic knowledge. More specifically, the focus is on gains in explicit knowledge of request mitigators, and whether learners draw on this knowledge when they perform email requests. Email requests produced by 60 Spanish students staying abroad (30 treatment/30 control group) were analysed as regards the frequency of internal mitigators on four separate occasions. Findings from the present study show that as length of SA increases participants compare explicit knowledge gained from pragmatic instruction with what happens in real email communication. As a result, although individual variation is observed, we notice a general pattern towards a decrease in the use of request mitigators and towards accepted patterns of email interaction in the community in which students find themselves.

This article reports on an exploratory study aimed to identify which ways of marking required and optional fields help older people fill in web forms correctly. Drawing on a pilot study and selective attention research in ageing, modified versions of widely used forms were created, in which standard asterisks were replaced with one of three alternatives: large asterisks (double standard size), textual labels and a simple binary classification of fields. Older novice computer users participated in this study (N = 88). The quantitative results were independent of the type of form and showed that the method of denoting required fields had a significant effect on the number of errors (measured as required fields not being filled (p less than 0.05)). The participants made fewer errors in the binary classification than in the others (p less than 0.05), while the differences between standard asterisks, large asterisks and labels were not significant (p greater than 0.05). The qualitative findings revealed that the participants felt overloaded with information when using every method except the binary classification. These results challenge widespread design solutions for older people (e.g. enlarging elements) and suggest that reducing selective attention demands can help us meet their accessibility needs. (Contains 9 figures, 3 tables and 14 notes.)

Since the rise of the Internet, the act of border crossing has become a pursuit that must necessarily be conceptualized in both real and virtual terms. By using theories connected to virtual communities, new technologies, fan cultures and tourism, this paper seeks to show that the culturally productive activities of a transnational virtual community of Spaghetti Western fans resulted in some of their number crossing real borders and meeting each other face-to-face. My findings are in part supported by evidence collected via a participant observation exercise and e-mail interviews.

Self-access centres are sometimes portrayed as being at the forefront of pedagogical innovation. They are also said to be technology-rich language learning environments. In practice, however, the application of technology in a self-access environment has proven to be a challenge. This article focuses on 10 self-access centres that were found to be the most intensive users of technology out of a total of 45 centres investigated worldwide. The article describes the range of technologies used by these centres and the types of administrative procedures and student learning supported. It also compares these centres with the other 35 in the study to identify how they differ in the way they make use of technology. (Contains 6 tables.)

Within teletherapy, email interventions have been studied scarcely. For this reason, this exploratory study aims to characterize the assistance provided by email in a university telepsychology service and to compare the data with the assistance provided by telephone in the same service and period. For this purpose, the records of 81 users assisted via email during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in Spain were analyzed. The data were compared with those of the 338 users assisted by telephone in the same period. Despite its many limitations, results indicate high satisfaction with the email modality. Users express that they prefer a preference for using email when they do not feel safe in other ways. We found a lot of variation between the number of emails exchanged and the days that each case was active. Additionally, differences were found with telephone users in aspects such as age (email users being younger) and in a depression screening (email users scoring more positively). This study concludes on the high potential of this channel for the application of certain techniques (e.g., psychoeducation) or for people with certain characteristics.

Background: Intensive interventions on smoking cessation increase abstinence rates. However, few electronic mail (E-mail) based intensive interventions have been tested in smokers and none in primary care (PC) setting. The aim of the present study is to evaluate the effectiveness of an intensive E-mail based intervention in smokers attending PC services. Methods/design: Randomized Controlled Multicentric Trial. Study population: 1060 smokers aged between 18-70 years from Catalonia, Salamanca and Aragón (Spain) who have and check regularly an E-mail account. Patients will be randomly assigned to control or intervention group. Intervention: Six phase intensive intervention with two face to face interviews and four automatically created and personal E-mail patients tracking, if needed other E-mail contacts will be made. Control group will receive a brief advice on smoking cessation. Outcome measures: Will be measured at 6 and 12 months after intervention: self reported continuous abstinence (confirmed by cooximetry), point prevalence abstinence, tobacco consumption, evolution of stage according to Prochaska and DiClemente's Stages of Change Model, length of visit, costs for the patient to access Primary Care Center. Statistical analysis: Descriptive and logistic and Poisson regression analysis under the intention to treat basis using SPSS v.17. Discussion: The proposed intervention is an E-mail based intensive intervention in smokers attending primary care. Positive results could be useful to demonstrate a higher percentage of short and long-term abstinence among smokers attended in PC in Spain who regularly use E-mail. Furthermore, this intervention could be helpful in all health services to help smokers to quit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper shows the results of a survey performed in Spain on the different functionalities of e-learning platforms. This survey was filled in by a group of teachers, experts in engineering education from across Spain, within the scope of the Spanish Chapter of the IEEE Education Society. This paper presents their opinions on several aspects of e-learning functionalities, such as knowledge levels, levels of use, and usefulness, as well as describing the most commonly used platforms. One of the objectives of this work is to create a debate in the international community about the use of e-learning platforms and their main functionalities, the most frequently used standards, the implications for and the levels of support by institutions in their use of e-learning platforms, and in general, their advantages and disadvantages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: To assess the barriers that make it difficult for the health care professionals (physicians, nurses and health care managers) to achieve a better control for dyslipidemia in Spain., Methods: The study has an observational design and was performed using the modified Delphi technique. One hundred and forty-nine panel members from medicine, nursing and health care management fields and from different Spanish regions were selected randomly and were invited to participate. Individual and anonymous opinions were asked by answering a 42-items questionnaire via e-mail (two rounds were done). Level of agreement was assessed using measures of central tendency and dispersion. We analysed commonalities/differences between the three groups (Kappa index and McNemar chi-square)., Results: Response rate: 81%. The agreement index was 33.3 (95% CI: 18.9-47.7). Regarding the non-compliance with therapy, it improves with patient education degree in dyslipidemia, patient motivation, the agreement on decisions with the patient and with the use of cardiovascular risk measure and it gets worse with lack of information on the objectives to achieve. Clinical inertia improves with professional's motivation, cardiovascular risk calculation, training on objectives and the use of indicators and it gets worse with lack of treatment goals., Conclusion: Different perceptions and attitudes between medicine, nursing and health care management were found. An agreement in interventions in non-compliance and clinical inertia to improve dyslipidemia control was reached., (© The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.)

Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of a nurse intervention aimed at helping college student smokers quit smoking., Design: Single-blind, pragmatic randomized controlled trial which compares a multi-component intervention, tailored specifically to college students, with a brief advice session with a 6-month follow-up., Settings: This study was conducted at the University of Navarra, Spain., Participants: A total of 255 college student smokers (age range = 18-24 years) were randomized to an intervention group (n = 133) or to a control group (n = 122)., Intervention: A multi-component intervention based on the Theory of Triadic Influence of Flay was developed. The intervention consisted of a 50-minute motivational interview conducted by a nurse and online self-help material. The follow-up included a reinforcing e-mail and group therapy., Measurements: The primary outcome was self-reported abstinence, with biochemical verification at 6 months. The secondary outcomes consisted of the mean number of cigarettes smoked per day, self-reported attempts to quit smoking and stage of change at 6 months., Findings: At the 6-month follow-up, the smoking cessation incidence was 21.1% in the intervention group compared with 6.6% in the control group (difference = 14.5 confidence interval = 6.1-22.8; relative risk = 3.41, 95% confidence interval = 1.62-7.20). The difference in the mean number of cigarettes at 6 months was significantly different (difference = -2.2, confidence interval = -3.6 to -0.9)., Conclusions: A multi-component intervention tailored to college students and managed by a nurse is effective in increasing smoking cessation among college students., (© 2015 Society for the Study of Addiction.)

Introduction: Despite the importance of spirometry, its use and quality are limited in the Primary Care setting. There are few accredited training programs that have demonstrated improvement in the quality of spirometric studies. In this paper, we analyze the short- and long-term effectiveness of a supervised training program for performing and interpreting spirometries., Methodology: Ours is an intervention study with before and after measurements. The target population included teams of physicians and nursing staff at 26 health-care centers in the area of Vigo (Galicia, Spain). The structured training program involved 2 theoretical and practical training sessions (that were 2months apart), an intermediate period of 30 supervised spirometries performed in the respective centers and weekly e-mail exercises. Effectiveness was evaluated using exercises at the beginning (test 1) and the end (test 2) of the 1st day, 2nd day (test 3) and one year later (test 4), as well as the analysis of spirometries done in month1, month2 and one year later. Participants also completed a survey about their satisfaction., Results: 74 participants initiated the program; 72 completed the program, but only 45 participated in the one-year evaluation. Mean test scores were: 4.1±1.9 on test 1; 7.5±1.6 on test 2; 8.9±1.3 on test 3, and 8.8±1.4 on test 4. During month1, the percentage of correctly done/interpreted tests was 71%, in month two it was 91% and after one year it was 83% (P<.05)., Conclusions: A training program based on theoretical and practical workshops and a supervised follow-up of spirometries significantly improved the ability of Primary Care professionals to carry out and interpret spirometric testing, although the quality of the tests diminished over time., (Copyright © 2012 SEPAR. Published by Elsevier Espana. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: To determine the impact of implementing a joint action protocol on prostatic disease on the referrals to Urology from Primary Care in a health care area., Methods: We drafted a protocol for managing patients consulting for clinical signs and symptoms associated to benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and to test PSA in asymptomatic males. At the same time, three e-mail addresses were opened for consultations generated from Primary Care, and joint sessions were carried out in the primary health care centers. We measured the impact of the protocol by assessing the adequacy of prostatic disease referrals to Urology, as well as by determining the course of the total number of referrals in three peripheral specialized health care centers (PSHCC)., Results: From January 2011, a better compliance to the referrals to Urology protocol for prostatic disease has been produced, going from 47% (assessment prior to implementing the protocol) to 64%. These results are especially good when we consider referrals associated to PSA, which went from a compliance of 33% to 84%. Regarding the course of the referrals to Urology, the referral rate (referrals per 1000 inhabitants) has decreased by 15% (from 13,8 to 11,7)., Conclusions: The collaboration between Urology and Primary health care, by means of implementing joint protocols, and also by establishing new communication channels (e-mail, joint sessions), achieves a better adequacy of patients referred for prostatic disease, as well as a reduction in the total number of referrals.

Introduction: The high prevalence of chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the general population has created a need to coordinate specialised nephrology care and primary care. Although several systems have been developed to coordinate this process, published results are scarce and contradictory., Objective: To present the results of the application of a coordinated programme between nephrology care and primary care through consultations and a system of shared clinical information to facilitate communication and improve the criteria for referring patients., Methods: Elaboration of a coordinated care programme by the primary care management team and the nephrology department, based on the SEN-SEMFYC consensus document and a protocol for the study and management of arterial hypertension (AHT). Explanation and implementation in primary health care units. A directory of specialists’ consultations was created, both in-person and via e-mail. A continuous training programme in kidney disease and arterial hypertension was implemented in the in-person consultation sessions. The programme was progressively implemented over a three-year period (2007-2010) in an area of 426,000 inhabitants with 230 general practitioners. Use of a clinical information system named Salut en Xarxa that allows access to clinical reports, diagnoses, prescriptions, test results and clinical progression., Results: Improved referral criteria between primary care and specialised nephrology service. Improved prioritisation of visits. Progressive increase in referrals denied by specialists (28.5% in 2009), accompanied by an explanatory report including suggestions for patient management. Decrease in first nephrology outpatient visits that have been referred from primary care (15% in 2009). Family doctors were generally satisfied with the improvement in communication and the continuous training programme. The main causes for denying referral requests were: patients >70 years with stage 3 CKD (44.15%); patients <70 years with stage 3a CKD (19.15%); albumin/creatinine ratio <500 mg/g (12.23%); non-secondary, non-refractory, essential AHT (11.17%). The general practitioners included in the programme showed great interest and no complaints were registered., Conclusions: The consultations improve adequacy and prioritisation of nephrology visits, allow for better communication between different levels of the health system, and offer systematic training for general practitioners to improve the management of nephrology patients. This process allows for referring nephrology patients with the most complex profiles to nephrology outpatient clinics.

Objective: To analyse the opinions of physicians on the appropriateness of research into the relationships between doctors and pharmaceutical industry, and to evaluate the usefulness of email survey in this research., Material and Methods: Survey via email of 373 authors of papers published in Spanish medical journals in 2007. The relationships between doctors and the industry was measured by asking doctors what they had received from industry during last year, the value in euro, and the number of visits from industry representatives., Results: The response rate was 28.2%. Most physicians (90.5%) considered the study appropriate. Only 3.2% of doctors refused to take part in the study due to disagreeing with methodology. A total of 92.8% received something from industry during last year (62% cost associated with professional meetings, 60% material for continuing medical education). Mean value of gifts received was 900 euro (60-12,000 euro). By sex, women apparently received more drug samples, and men more payments for consulting or enrolling patients in trials. Doctors practicing in hospitals seemed to receive more gifts than primary care doctors, particularly trips or lunch. Number of visits of industry representatives (from 5 to 10 weekly) was associated with more gifts to doctors., Conclusions: The vast majority of doctors agree with the appropriateness of researching into the relationships between doctors and the pharmaceutical industry. Relationships between physicians and industry appear to be intensive, as seen in other studies. Response rate was low, but the simplicity and speed of the method are valuable advantages.

Background: Computerization of microbiological laboratories generates an enormous amount of data that has not been fully exploited due to the heterogeneity of the information systems used. The aim of this paper is to present the Microbiological Surveillance Network of the Valencian Community, which provides real-time detection of circulating microorganisms and resistance patterns, and enables microbiological surveillance in the public health setting., Methods and Results: We describe the Microbiological Surveillance Network of the Valencian Community, an information system that gathers, analyzes and disseminates the results of microbiological testing to health professionals in our setting., Conclusion: Development of the Microbiological Surveillance Network has made available a centralized system with the results from all the microbiological analyses performed in hospital laboratories of the Valencian Community. This effort provides valuable information for public health, and for studies in research and quality. In addition, it demonstrates the important role of microbiology within the field of medicine and public health.

The objective of this study was to analyse the mailing list RADIOLOGIA during its first 5 years of operation (from 1998 to 2003). A survey questionnaire was sent to evaluate the characteristics of subscribers and to score (from 0 to 9) the functionality, usefulness and quality of the mailing list. All messages sent to the list during the evaluated period were classified and quantified. A social network analysis was performed from all messages replied to during 2001 and 2002 with the option "reply to" included in the subject. One hundred and forty (36.8%) responses were collected from 380 subscribers, mainly radiologists (90.0%). 80% of responders were located in Spain, 16% in Latin America, and 4% in other places. The obtained scores (mean+/-standard deviation) were: functionality 7.4+/-1.3; usefulness 7.0+/-1.4; and quality of e-mail contents 6.0+/-1.4. During the evaluated period 2700 e-mail messages were sent to the list, with a monthly distribution of 44.3+/-26.0. The list functioning has been based on an active minority of subscribers that provided information and responses to the rest of the subscribers, a ring of active members that participated in discussions, and about 50% of passive members.