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Active and healthy ageing, affordable social tourism and sustainable urban development, intelligent cities

Ageing and the promotion of personal autonomy. Reorientation of the tourism sector towards new consumers of products with special needs. Economic, environmental and social challenges of urban areas and their interrelationship, from an integrated and multidisciplinary approach.

Evaluation and Treatment of Personality Disorders: Clinical Implications

The research group aims at the application and validation of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (Linehan, 1993) in: borderline personality disorder, cluster B personality disorders, and other psychological disorders with problems in the regulation of affect.

Research Group on Scientific Culture

Research group on the perception, understanding and dissemination of science and technology in today's society.

3D Microscopy

In this line of research, new non-invasive microscopy techniques with high optical sectioning are developed, such as confocal microscopy, structured illumination microscopy (SIM) or digital holographic microscopy (DHM).

 

3D image and 3D display

Development in the implementation of 3D image capture techniques based on taking multiple images with different perspectives. This multi-perspective information allows both the reconstruction of the original 3D scene and the development of new 3D digital processing techniques.

Assessment of emotional, family and social characteristics in childhood and adolescence

The longitudinal assessment of the characteristics associated with childhood and adolescence allows the identification of healthy psychosocial profiles.

Augmented reality

Research in the field of Augmented Reality, where real world information is increased with synthetic information. Augmented Reality systems require position locators, creation of synthetic information (usually 3D environments), and systems that integrate the real world with the synthetic one.

Body and psychopathology

This line argues that the body is essential in the configuration of identity and in the understanding of psychological processes. The main objective is to analyse the bodily processes involved in psychopathological alterations, as well as the psychological effect of the manipulation of the body.

Cognitive endophenotypes and biomarkers in schizophrenic / bipolar patients and their first-degree relatives

Molecular and genetic basis of neurocognitive alterations in patients with SMI, in order to develop biomarkers, diagnostic assessment tools and therapeutic interventions helping to improve the functional prognosis, the autonomy and the life quality of these people.

Communication flows and political mobilisation processes

Analysis of the process of information dissemination, interaction and effects on the public conveyed through NICTs in processes of social and political mobilisation, both formalised (elections, for example) and non-formalised (protest concentrations).

Data protection and privacy on the Internet, in the face of open government and transparency

Administrative information on the Internet, transparency, active advertising, right of access and its limits, especially with regard to data protection and privacy.

Development of emotional competencies in childhood and adolescence

Research in emotional education focuses on the knowledge and skills (competences), which children and adolescents have and which allow them to identify their own and other people's emotions, as well as to express and regulate pleasant and unpleasant emotions.

Diffractive lenses

Diffractive lenses are very interesting elements because they are compact, lightweight and economical optical components. In this line of research, new designs are being developed for application in ophthalmology in the form of both intraocular (IOL) lenses and contact lenses.

Diffractive optics and pulse optics

Optical devices for manipulating pulses of tens of femtoseconds by using diffractive optical elements allowing spatial control of the wavefront of the pulsed beam, as well as the shaping of the temporal envelope of the ultra-short pulses.

Digital culture

Analysis of the changes caused in the cultural industry as a result of the impact of new technologies and the process of digitising content.

Direct and inverse multimorbidity in patients with complex diseases like CNS disorders, cancer or metabolic diseases.

Comprehend the unexpected associations between apparently different diseases, like cancer and certain diseases of the central nervous system.

Education

Current developments in the connection between the education system and the labour market make it necessary to pay attention to some effects that are already visible on the condition of young people. The first question that will be analysed in this line concerns the concept of human capital and its capacity to create new youth subjectivities that respond to the idea of the entrepreneur of oneself. This idea has been developed by political philosophy in recent decades. Human capital is a machine for activating subjects, which entrepreneurialises social relationships and introduce us the other as a competitor. This is a disturbing scenario for social and human relationships that hovers over today's youth. Human capital is connected to a series of notions such as employability or entrepreneurial spirit that guide the educational and labour conceptions of young people. The second issue studied in this line is the brain drain of Spanish young people as a result of the economic crisis of 2007. The third question refers to free work (internships, scholarships) which is increasingly becoming a compulsory requirement for young university students and opens up a whole field for possible exploitative, abusive and arbitrary practices.

Fragility prevention

Prevention of fragility signs in populations at risk by assessing human functions (functional and neurocognitive assessment) and by incorporating nutritional medicine studies on Omega 3.

Freedom of expression and information on the internet and hate speech

Analysis of the projection of freedoms on the net and social networks, judicial guarantees, limits, special focus on hate speech.

Gender Violence

Concept of gender violence, legal perspective: study of the impact of the Law on Comprehensive Protection Measures against Gender Violence, public policies against gender violence Psychological perspective of gender violence. Feminicide.

Gender and Labour Relations

Women and the labour market. Socio-economic situation of women. Equality policies. Labour insertion and unpaid work. Wage gap, labour segregation and glass ceiling. Co-responsibility. Budgets with a gender perspective. Gender, social sustainability and ICTs.

Gender, Women's Human Rights and Citizenship. Gender, interculturality, migration and development

Policies for gender equality, against poverty and promotion of social participation at local, national and international levels. Gender and international cooperation, humanitarian action, awareness raising and education for development. Exclusion and marginalisation from a gender perspective.

Global burden of disease

Networking on the burden of disease.

Health psychology

Analysis of health-related psychosocial factors that have an impact on people's quality of life. Prevention and treatment protocol for chronic patients. Especially in the areas of oncology, infertility and ageing.

Health technology evaluation

All types of health technology evaluation, taking into account the broad concept of health technology ranging from medicines and procedures to health technology and techniques.

Intelligent Tutoring Systems

We are currently working on forms of knowledge representation that allow the supervision of the students tasks resolution, as well as the incorporation of affective support through the detection of emotions by means of typical techniques within the field of computer vision

International cooperation for development. Participation and democracy. Social Security

Cooperation for the improvement of human development rates and social cohesion. Methodologies for carrying out participative citizen diagnoses, their systematisation and the elaboration of public policies from the citizen's proposal. Analysis of Social Security Systems.Cooperación para la mejora de los índices de desarrollo humano y la cohesión social. Metodologías para la realización de diagnósticos ciudadanos participativos, su sistematización y la elaboración de políticas públicas desde la propuesta ciudadana. Análisis de los Sistemas de Seguridad Social.

Job insecurity and youth. Occupational health. Sport and integration

Access of young people to the labour market. Barriers and difficulties in worker participation and ways to improve working conditions. Sport as an instrument of integration in degraded urban contexts or with socially disadvantaged groups - immigrants, young people, women.

Leadership in organisations

It investigates the background and consequences of leadership in organisations and their units.

Membrane Protein assembly

Our goal is to explore the mechanistic principles of membrane protein insertion, folding and assembly into lipid membranes and to investigate the factors that determine membrane protein stability.

Membrane Protein proteomics

Overexpression of membrane proteins is often essential for structural and functional studies, but yields are frequently too low. Therefore, we investigate the consequences of overexpression of different membrane proteins in search for new components to improve such yields.

Mindfulness and compassion

Psychological interventions based on mindfulness and compassion have strongly burst into the field of psychological treatments. This line of research aims to investigate the effects of their practice on different psychological aspects, such as attention, emotional regulation or values.

Modelling and design of photonic devices

Modelling and design of waveguides and other photonic devices, such as photonic-crystal fibers, integrated semiconductor and dielectric guides and resonators, fibre optic lasers, or metamaterials.

Multimodal interaction systems

Development of human-computer interaction technologies making use of different communication channels between user and computer.

Networks and Telecommunication Systems

This line of research focuses on the development of new network architectures and protocols, as well as on the creation of advanced telecommunication systems to improve communications between users. This work includes the development and implementation of our new services, technologies and network architectures centred on enhancing the quality of the final user’s experience.

Organisational climate and culture

It investigates the processes of formation of the climate and culture of the organisations, as well as the effects of the climate and culture on the functioning, results, and quality of working life of the organisations and their units.

Parallel computing and Distributed systems

The line focuses on the application of high performance computing techniques, and the development and optimisation of distributed platforms within the cloud computing paradigm, for Big Data, multimedia applications and intelligent systems problem solving.

Pattern Recognition and Computer Vision

Recognition and machine learning techniques applied to linear and nonlinear models. Continuous Distance Learning. Heterogeneous and multi-dimensional data mining, with special emphasis on image analysis and recovery and the processing of audio and video signals.

Pensions and social protection

Financial-actuarial analysis of the pension systems and main contingencies: retirement, disability, widowhood, orphanage, family member, unemployment and dependency. It also studies the financial and insurance products that are best suited to the needs of individuals.

Positive Psychology for the promotion of well-being and health

Positive Psychology defends the importance of studying the well-being of individuals. In the research group we aim to investigate in this field, developing Positive Interventions applied through ICTs and studying the processes involved in well-being.

Promoting healthy lifestyles

The way of living has an impact on the physical and mental health of individuals. The research group aims to investigate and provide strategies to achieve a better quality of life in people, developing interventions applied through ICTs.

Psychological interventions through ICTS

The use of ICTs is growing exponentially in the field of Clinical Psychology. Our aim is to design applications (web platforms, virtual reality, mobile systems) that serve as therapeutic tools in the assessment and treatment of psychological disorders.

Signal processing (Sound)

Advanced methods for the capture, analysis and synthesis of acoustic signals, including musical and voice processes, acoustic simulation of rooms, 3D reproduction methods and intelligent monitoring of acoustic environments.

Study on the quality of legislation

Research is carried out on the instruments of legislative quality as a mechanism to improve legal certainty and thus enhance democratic quality, especially in the field of private law.

Sustainability, ICT and social innovation in health care systems

The socio-technical processes applied to the sustainability of integrated social and health systems are investigated, based on the principles of user satisfaction and system efficiency.

The right to political participation from a gender perspective

Electoral regulations, parity, political parties. Study on the behaviour of political parties in the design of electoral lists. Positions held by women in politics, parties and institutions.

Third sector and social economy: social innovation and socio-economic reengineering. CSR and entrepreneurship

Social Economy: strategies for sustainable economy and social cohesion. Design of indicators. Design, evaluation and promotion for the implementation of CSR strategies. Dissemination and consolidation of social entrepreneurship. Generation of motivation for entrepreneurship and employment M 3.0.

Valencian cybermedia

Analysis of the characteristics, composition and evolution of the digital communication ecosystem in the Valencian Community.

Virtual communities, social innovation and knowledge management

To study virtual communities and networks as a mechanism for social innovation and a way of managing and sharing knowledge.  On the one hand, organisational management strategies (facilitating conditions, existing rules for sharing or support from the community manager) are analysed, as well as structural factors (leadership and prestige of the community) and their influence on the results for users and professionals (sense of community, quality of knowledge, proactive participation, satisfaction, innovation...). In addition, the influence that technological (navigation, interactivity), personal (expectations of results, self-efficacy) and/or motivational (identification, reciprocity and confidence) factors may have on efficient functioning is also studied. To this end, the perceptions of users or professionals of virtual communities of practice in relation to the aforementioned variables are analysed. The results allow us to outline a set of guidelines oriented towards the efficient design and optimal management of these virtual communities.

Virtual reality

Research in the interaction paradigm based on immersive virtual environments where the user is isolated from the environment and introduced in a synthetic environment in order to perform a training or live a different experience. Includes use of specific devices.

Welfare education and students with special educational needs

Research is conducted on: the improvement of the quality of life of people with disabilities (intellectual, brain damage, illness, autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit and hyperactivity), the educational response to their special needs, and on the psychosocial impact on families.

Well-being and performance in virtual teams: subgroups and emotional competencies

The general objective of this line of research is to analyse the individual and collective well-being of the VTs, as well as the impact that the creation of subgroups and the development of the group's emotional management can have on both their well-being and their effectiveness. To do so, a longitudinal experimental study is developed, where four different experimental conditions are considered, as a result of the combination of the two central variables: creation or not of subgroups and training or not in emotional management.  An interactive platform is used with different applications created ad-hoc for this purpose. All the groups are made up of four people and work over five working sessions solving tasks of an individual and collective nature. The results will contribute to the design of healthy virtual teams, with members with high well-being and at the same time effective. As well as the design of specific training programmes in emotional management for virtual collaborative contexts.

Work and its new forms

This line of research aims to research the emerging forms of work both in terms of their material insecurity and in terms of the new configuration of subjectivities that are taking shape. The recent changes in the world of work linked to cognitive work, digital work, platform capitalism and new forms of work organisation that particularly affect young people - project work, the rise of independent forms of work and freelances- are giving room to new precariousness. The aim is to research the effects of jobs in which: 1) The frontier between work and personal life is narrowing; 2) Cognitive, creative and emotional skills are expanding; those that take advantage of personal qualities and open up a whole new scenario of cognitive exploitation; 3) New business demands are being made for involvement, vocation and dedication in these jobs, which call for a "psychological contract", for the identification with the company; 4) Work is recently identified as a space for recognition, reputation, the brand of the corresponding individualisation; 5) Autonomy is glorified as a competence and as an employment situation, which leads us towards the predominance of the entrepreneurial and the independent worker figures; 6) The capacity for negotiation on wages and working conditions is low and increases precarious situations. The weakness of the trade union movement and the protective family framework - which provides support for young people in precarious situations - strengthen the negotiating power of the company, which establishes precarious material conditions with little resistance. Initially, the qualitative approach will guide the research methodologically.

Youth response to the crisis

The latest economic recession that has hit the Western countries has revealed not only the fragility of the capitalist system and the social guarantees that have been associated for some years to Fordism, but also the existence of a deep systemic crisis of a structural rather than a conjunctural nature. Those who are young today have grown up immersed in this crisis and in the uncertainty that the ineffectiveness of social structures produces. In the face of the challenge of "growing up" in this context, young people are adopting the most diverse strategies. This line of research aims precisely to analyse what these strategies are by trying to identify the existence of patterns and construct some new theoretical categorisations.  Starting with Hirshman's famous "exit, voice or loyalty", protest or conformity, the studies carried out in this line analyse the phenomenology of these reactions: processes such as emigration, protest and participation that are manifested in the new social movements, innovation as the construction of new paths, are the central phenomena of this line. The destructuring of Western societies and their organisation is generating, on the one hand, a lack of univocal orientation in the processes of socialisation in favour of the pluralisation of life paths and, on the other hand, an urgent need to build new "solutions" in the life of the community in all areas. From the models of coexistence and the pluralisation of family models, to the ways in which work is organised, including training processes, the life of young people is characterised by a very interesting mixture of conservation and innovation, of ruptures and the emergence of new identities, where subjective processes and interpersonal relations take on great importance. Hence the key use of qualitative research methodologies.