Five projects from the University of Barcelona, awarded in the seventh call for RecerCaixa grants

In particular, Professor Josep M. Serra Grabulosa, from the Department of Psychiatry and Clinical Psychobiology, presented his project Plasticitat cerebral associada a la intervenció reeducadora intensive en infants amb dificultats matemàtiques. Evidència per ressonància magnètica cerebral. The project, corresponding to the 2014 edition, aims to re-teach math difficulties to children who suffer from dyscalculia, also known as math dyslexia. The most important innovation he presents consists on using an online method (Nummerus) to create cerebral changes in the areas that hold the numerical and calculus processes, so that changes in mathematical performance are seen in the mechanisms of brain plasticity -the nervous system capacity to change its structure and activity- and modify the brain of children with dyscalculia. The study, which started with twenty children with math difficulties, has ended with fifteen children, assessed to quantify neurophysiological changes created by applying the re-teaching method. There has been an improvement in several variables related to math skills. The quantification and analysis of brain structure changes, which will bring consistent results on the study of this method, will be set up during the coming months.

Another UB project was the one by Professor Josefina Goberna, from the Department of Public Health, Mental Health and Perinatal Nursing: Prevenció i detecció de les violències de gènere durant lʼembaràs: de la violència masclista a la violència obstètrica. The project has two aims: to sensitize health professionals in identifying and tackling cases of gender violence during the pregnancy, and to focus on the identification of patriarchal behaviors and symbolic violence in birth care. In Spain, the amount of women who admit having suffered from gender violence has gone from 5,1% (in 1999) to 12,5% (2015). The dramatic consequences for womenʼs health worsen when violence occurs during the pregnancy, since it can also affect the fetus. It is estimated that between 7,7 and 21% of pregnant women suffer from this violence but it is not usually detected.

 

The health environment can also be a generator of violence towards women. This leads to an unknown concept: obstetrical violence. This project aims to improve the detection and tackling of gender violence during pregnancy together with health professionals, through a research-action procedure, willing to design and validate a training program to treat the detection and action towards gender violence on women, as well as the prevention and identification of patriarchal behaviors in the health environment, so as to improve health care.

 

This edition has also awarded the project SCRIBA. Anar a cal notary a la Catalunya medieval, by Professor Daniel Piñol, from the Department of History and Archaeology. The aim of this project is to bring the medieval notarial Catalan institution and its documentation closer to both the international scientific community and society. This objective will be materialized by creating online tools (databases, virtual spaces, space with educational games and virtual exhibition) gathered in the online platform SCRIBA, allowing a historical reconstruction. The transfer of the results will bring this historical reality closer to the young ones, mostly. This research is essential to show society the importance of social groups which are the basis of our culture and that, thanks to the analysis of notarial documentation, we can discover in depth.

 

Also, the project Límits a la corrupció política: mitjans de comunicació, sistema de partits polítics, societat civil I ciutadans, by Pilar Sorribas-Navarro, from the Faculty of Economics and Business, received another RecerCaixa grant. After several years of research and different institutional reforms aiming to control corruption, researchers conclude that this fight needs the interaction of a wide range of institutions. LIMCOR uses this view to analyze the role a set of different socio-political institutions (voters, civil society, media and party systems) play in relation to political corruption. The project is built with different aims: requesting information on corruption scandal features that increase or regulate the (in)tolerance of citizens; discovering if social capital has an influencing role on corruption; treating how the media reports this subject; studying how parties change their selection patterns for candidates after political scandals, and analyzing consequences of corruption in the use of the land in territory distribution for electoral support in certain parties. The obtained results can have a potential impact on the social and politic debate about the way to fight corruption.

 

Also, the UB project El repte del canvi climatic: polítiques per a la transició energètica, by José García-Quevedo, was also awarded. Climate change is one of the main challenges young generations will face in order to reach a sustainable development. Energetic efficiency is one of the main ways to fight it, reducing emissions and improving companiesʼ competitiveness. This research project wants to improve our knowledge on the barriers industrial companies have to cross in order to be more energetically efficient, and also, evaluating the results of the policies applied in Catalonia and Spain to improve energetic efficiency in the industrial sector. The final aim is to have enough evidence to implement effective actions to reduce the environmental impact of energy uses.

 

Last, the project Aproximació holística i interdisciplinària als matrimonis forçats a Catalunya: diagnosi I propostes dʼintervenció comunitària per a una ciutadania inclusiva, by the researchers Sònia Parella (UAB) and David Moya (UB) was also awarded. The main objective of this project is to identify the vulnerability factors in people at risk of entering into a forced marriage, in order to design preventing strategies. This diagnose will establish the profiles that are in disadvantaged situations and preventing and integrating protocols will be proposed. The methodology combines the analysis of primary and secondary resources, with a qualitative design, covering focus groups and in-depth interviews with people from three specific groups from Southern Asia who live in Catalonia. The innovating character of this project remains in the transforming capacity and its impact, which are set out of the creation of an intervention protocol and its uses and assessment in a pilot trial.