RESUMEN
Microplastics (MPs) are long-lasting anthropogenic pollutants, observed in all types of natural environments. The MPs abundance and their temporal variability in beach sands, surface waters (manta trawl), and suspended sediments (sediment trap) were assessed in Mazatlán, Mexico, a tourism destination on the northern Pacific coast, under the hypothesis that MP contamination is influenced by rainfall and population density. The MP concentrations in beach sands from urban and rural areas nearby Mazatlán (4-36 MPs m-2) and in surface waters (1.7-2.0 MPs m-3) were comparable between type of sampling sites; whereas the MP fluxes in sediment trap samples varied widely (40-782 MPs m-2 day-1) with highest values during the rainfall season. The MPs recovered were mostly white/clear (48-54%), and the prevailing shapes were fragments in beach sands and surface waters (59-80%), and fibers (75%) in suspended sediments. The synthetic polymers polypropylene, polyethylene, and polyethylene terephthalate were the most abundant in the study area.
Asunto(s)
Microplásticos , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua , Monitoreo del Ambiente , Sedimentos Geológicos , Plásticos , Contaminantes Químicos del Agua/análisisRESUMEN
Few studies have focused on the specific subtype of gamblers who present lotteries as their main gambling problem. This study aimed to explore empirical subgroups of treatment-seeking patients who endorsed lotteries as their preferred form of gambling. The sample included n = 342 patients who were included in two-step cluster analysis procedures using sociodemographic and clinical measures as indicator variables. Three clusters were identified: (a) Cluster 1 (labeled as "severely impaired young men", n = 108, 31.6%) included mainly single young men that were employed, with short disorder duration, high gambling severity and high levels of comorbid psychopathology; (b) Cluster 2 (labeled as "moderate severity and highly functional", n = 120, 35.1%) included patients that were middle-aged, highly educated, married, employed, with high socioeconomic position indexes and functional personality traits; and (c) Cluster 3 (labeled as "older, moderately impaired patients", n = 114, 33.3%) included older patients, the highest percentage of separated or divorced subjects, high unemployment, low socioeconomic status and low levels of education. This study indicates that gambling disorder profiles characterized by lotteries as a preferred form of gambling constitute a heterogeneous group in which distinct, empirically based phenotypes can be identified. These factors should be taken into account for the development of reliable assessment instruments and for the design of effective prevention and treatment programs.