Encuentros y devenires en el espacio híbrido para nuestra formación

En la sociedad del siglo XXI emerge un planteamiento de recursión organizativa como producto y productor de y en la institución-sociedad-mundo, y que influye directamente en la formación del profesorado. El entorno analizado parte de los encuentros y devenires generados en el espacio híbrido entre la escuela Príncep de Viana, la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación, el Centro de Arte la Panera y otros recursos comunitarios para la formación de los profesionales implicados: maestros, profesionales de centros de arte y museos, profesores de la universidad, estudiantes futuros maestros y otros profesionales de la educación. Nuestro objetivo es mostrar cómo a partir de los encuentros y los devenires en el espacio híbrido tomamos decisiones para reconstruir las actividades de enseñanza-aprendizaje del Proyecto Àlber en el marco del Educ-arte – Educa (r) t y contribuir a la formación de los implicado

Data science, analytics and artificial intelligence in e-health : trends, applications and challenges

Acknowledgments. This work has been partially supported by the Divina Pastora Seguros company.More than ever, healthcare systems can use data, predictive models, and intelligent algorithms to optimize their operations and the service they provide. This paper reviews the existing literature regarding the use of data science/analytics methods and artificial intelligence algorithms in healthcare. The paper also discusses how healthcare organizations can benefit from these tools to efficiently deal with a myriad of new possibilities and strategies. Examples of real applications are discussed to illustrate the potential of these methods. Finally, the paper highlights the main challenges regarding the use of these methods in healthcare, as well as some open research lines

Design of mimotopes of a conserved epitope in dengue and Zika viruses for the obtention of broadly neutralizing antibodies

Zika and dengue viruses are members of the Flavivirus genus that share many structural and pathological characteristics. They cause mild fever, rash and general body pain but can cause severe reactions, as hemorrhages (dengue virus), congenital syndrome (Zika virus), or even death. After an infection, virus-specific antibodies are generated by the immune system; however, because of the structural similarity between these viruses, some antibodies can cross-react with different members of the flavivirus family. After a secondary infection, the cross-reactive antibodies can lead to the more severe forms of the disease, through a mechanism named antibody-dependent enhancement of infection (ADE). Recently, some broadly neutralizing antibodies (antibodies that neutralize both, dengue and Zika, viruses), have been isolated and it has been demonstrated that they do not induce ADE. These antibodies are directed to a discontinuous quaternary epitope named the Envelope Dimer Epitope (EDE)1, located in the envelope (E) protein of both viruses. To obtain EDE, it is necessary to express the complete E protein, which contains other epitopes that induce ADE. This study aims to generate peptides that emulate the EDE epitope structure (mimotopes) without inducing ADE, and study its capacity to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies against dengue and Zika viruses, to obtain a vaccine candidate for both viruses. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

Design of mimotopes of a conserved epitope in dengue and Zika viruses for the obtention of broadly neutralizing antibodies

Zika and dengue viruses are members of the Flavivirus genus that share many structural and pathological characteristics. They cause mild fever, rash and general body pain but can cause severe reactions, as hemorrhages (dengue virus), congenital syndrome (Zika virus), or even death. After an infection, virus-specific antibodies are generated by the immune system; however, because of the structural similarity between these viruses, some antibodies can cross-react with different members of the flavivirus family. After a secondary infection, the cross-reactive antibodies can lead to the more severe forms of the disease, through a mechanism named antibody-dependent enhancement of infection (ADE). Recently, some broadly neutralizing antibodies (antibodies that neutralize both, dengue and Zika, viruses), have been isolated and it has been demonstrated that they do not induce ADE. These antibodies are directed to a discontinuous quaternary epitope named the Envelope Dimer Epitope (EDE)1, located in the envelope (E) protein of both viruses. To obtain EDE, it is necessary to express the complete E protein, which contains other epitopes that induce ADE. This study aims to generate peptides that emulate the EDE epitope structure (mimotopes) without inducing ADE, and study its capacity to elicit broadly neutralizing antibodies against dengue and Zika viruses, to obtain a vaccine candidate for both viruses. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

Radiant ignition of a reactive solid with in-depth absorption

An asymptotic analysis of the limit of large activation energy is presented for radiant ignition of a solid that experiences a one-step Arrhenius reaction in the condensed phase. Both constant and time-dependent radiant-energy fluxes arc considered, and the complete range of values is covered for the absorption coefficient ji. It is shown that as » increases, the structure of the transition stage, which follows the inert heat-conduction stage, passes from a thermal explosion without heat conduction, to a single transient heat-conduction zone with distributed chemical heat release, to a two-zone structure composed of a reactive-diffusive-absorptive zone near the surface and a transient-diffusive zone in the interior. For very high values of u, the reactive-diffusive-absorptive zone further splits into a surface absorption zone and an interior reactive-diffusive zone, thereby reproducing results obtained previously for ignition by a surface-applied energy flux. The analysis shows that contrary to earlier expectation, the nondimensional absorption coefficient must be at least as large as the nondimensional activation energy for in-depth absorption to affect the ignition time negligibly

Design of a vaccine against dengue and Zika viruses based on a mimotope of the envelope dimer epitope

Zika and dengue viruses are members of the Flavivirus genus that cause mild fever, rash and general body pain; but can cause severe reactions, as hemorrhages (dengue virus), congenital syndrome (Zika virus), or even death. Because of the structural similarity between these viruses, some antibodies generated after an infection can cross-react with different members of the flavivirus family. After a secondary infection, the cross-reactive antibodies can lead to more severe forms of the disease, through a mechanism named antibody-dependent enhancement of infection (ADE). Broadly neutralizing antibodies are antibodies that neutralize both, dengue and Zika viruses; and it has been demonstrated that they do not induce ADE. These antibodies are directed to a discontinuous quaternary epitope named the Envelope Dimer Epitope (EDE)1, located in the envelope (E) protein. To obtain the EDE, it is necessary to express the complete E protein, which contains other epitopes that induce ADE. This study aims to generate a peptide that emulates the EDE epitope structure (mimotope) in order to be used as a dual vaccine against dengue and Zika viruses; without causing ADE. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

Rotavirus VP6 nanotubes show an antigen form-dependent adjuvant activity: Zika virus envelope protein monomer vs Zika virus-like particles

The structural protein of rotavirus (RV) VP6 can self-assemble into tubular polymeric structures under specific conditions of pH and ionic strength when expressed in recombinant systems. Previous studies have shown that RV VP6 nanotubes (VP6NT) have an adjuvant effect on the immunogenicity of norovirus virus-like particles (VLPs) in mice (Blazevic et al., 2011; Malm et al., 2016). The present study focused on the determination of adjuvant activity of VP6NT on the immunogenicity of monomers of the viral envelope (E) protein or of Zika virus (ZikV) VLPs. ZikV infection can cause congenital malformations in fetuses and the Guillain-Barré syndrome in adults, as the most severe consequences. To date, there is no treatment or vaccine available against ZikV. Several vaccine candidates against this virus have been reported and E protein has been selected as the primary antigenic determinant. Please click Download on the upper right corner to see the full abstract

Themed project case study: Quadruple tanks control with PLCs^†

A themed project based on the control of a quadruple tank rig using PLCs has been successfully carried out as part of the MSc in Advanced Control and Systems Engineering at the University of Manchester. The themed project involves ten students who address a single multivariable control challenge under the supervision of two academics and four PhD students. As every student is required to write their own MSc dissertation, the key point is the possibility of using different control techniques to be implemented on different hardware platforms. </jats:p

Quail eggs in artificial nests change their coloration when exposed to ambient conditions: implication for studies on nest predation

Quail eggs have been widely used in field experiments, mainly to study factors associated with the risk of nest predation. Some shortcomings of using quail eggs in this type of study have been previously addressed (e.g., these eggs might be too big for some predators of eggs of small birds). Here, we show experimental evidence of another shortcoming of the use of these eggs in field experiments. Quail eggs exposed to sunlight rapidly faded in colour after three days, both in the visible and UV spectra, and this change was related to the amount of solar radiation received. This caused changes in the camouflage of the eggs, which may be perceived by predators with different visual systems (dichromatic, trichromatic, and tetrachromatic (for both violet- and UV-sensitive species)). Therefore, the results of field studies of nest predation using quail eggs might be questioned in those cases in which the camouflage has been altered due to the rapid changes in coloration, as this can affect the resulting predation rates. We recommend that researchers planning to use quail eggs should perform a prospective assessment of changes in coloration of eggs exposed to environmental conditions in the nest sites used by the target species.This study was funded by grant CGL2017-83518-P from Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Spain, with EU-ERDF financial support. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript