Preservice sciencie teacher education : Inquiry into professional practical problems

We present a proposal for preservice science teacher education entitled “Aprendiendo a Enseñar Ciencias en Primaria -Learning to Teach Primary Science- (APENCIP Workbook)" (Rivero et al., 2012). We take as referents for this workbook: inquiry-based science education; teacher education by inquiry into professional practical problems; the interaction with innovative teaching practices through audiovisuals. In the first part, the students prepare a plan to teach some specific content. The discussion and analysis of their proposals will serve as an initial contrast between the different teams, and an introduction to the professional problems they will have to address during the course (the intention being to clearly relate these problems with elements of the curriculum). In the second part, each curricular element and the problems it raises will be worked on sequentially. We shall begin by analysing the first version, and then compare and contrast it with various documents. The process culminates with work on a script for reflection aimed at setting out each team's position relative to the curricular element being analysed, and the team members' responses to the problems addressed. After analysing all the curricular elements selected, a second version of the teaching plan will be elaborated. In the third part, how inquiry-based science education is actually put into practice in the classroom will be visualized from video material and analysed, and a third version of the plan will be elaborated. The final activity is to compare the three versions, and to evaluate the entire process. Our intention is to investigate the prospective teachers' progression of knowledge in this process, and the possible influence that the course, especially the use of videos, may have had on that progression. Cur

An evaluation of SMOS L-band vegetation optical depth (L-VOD) data sets:high sensitivity of L-VOD to above-ground biomass in Africa

The vegetation optical depth (VOD) measured at microwave frequencies is related to the vegetation water content and provides information complementary to visible/infrared vegetation indices. This study is devoted to the characterization of a new VOD data set obtained from SMOS (Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity) satellite observations at L-band (1.4 GHz). Three different SMOS L-band VOD (LVOD) data sets (SMOS level 2, level 3 and SMOS-IC) were compared with data sets on tree height, visible/infrared indexes (NDVI, EVI), mean annual precipitation and above-ground biomass (AGB) for the African continent. For all relationships, SMOS-IC showed the lowest dispersion and highest correlation. Overall, we found a strong (R > 0.85) correlation with no clear sign of saturation between L-VOD and four AGB data sets. The relationships between L-VOD and the AGB data sets were linear per land cover class but with a changing slope depending on the class type, which makes it a global non-linear relationship. In contrast, the relationship linking L-VOD to tree height (R = 0.87) was close to linear. For vegetation classes other than evergreen broadleaf forest, the annual mean of L-VOD spans a range from 0 to 0.7 and it is linearly correlated with the average annual precipitation. SMOS L-VOD showed higher sensitivity to AGB compared to NDVI and K/X/C-VOD (VOD measured at 19, 10.7 and 6.9 GHz). The results showed that, although the spatial resolution of L-VOD is coarse (similar to 40 km), the high temporal frequency and sensitivity to AGB makes SMOS L-VOD a very promising indicator for large-scale monitoring of the vegetation status, in particular biomass

Moonlighting of Haemophilus influenzae heme acquisition systems contributes to the host airway-pathogen interplay in a coordinated manner

Nutrient iron sequestration is the most significant form of nutritional immunity and causes bacterial pathogens to evolve strategies of host iron scavenging. Cigarette smoking contains iron particulates altering lung and systemic iron homeostasis, which may enhance colonization in the lungs of patients suffering chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) by opportunistic pathogens such as nontypeable. NTHi is a heme auxotroph, and the NTHi genome contains multiple heme acquisition systems whose role in pulmonary infection requires a global understanding. In this study, we determined the relative contribution to NTHi airway infection of the four heme-acquisition systems HxuCBA, PE, SapABCDFZ, and HbpA-DppBCDF that are located at the bacterial outer membrane or the periplasm. Our computational studies provided plausible 3D models for HbpA, SapA, PE, and HxuA interactions with heme. Generation and characterization of single mutants in the hxuCBA, hpe, sapA, and hbpA genes provided evidence for participation in heme binding-storage and inter-bacterial donation. The hxuA, sapA, hbpA, and hpe genes showed differential expression and responded to heme. Moreover, HxuCBA, PE, SapABCDFZ, and HbpA-DppBCDF presented moonlighting properties related to resistance to antimicrobial peptides or glutathione import, together likely contributing to the NTHi-host airway interplay, as observed upon cultured airway epithelia and in vivo lung infection. The observed multi-functionality was shown to be system-specific, thus limiting redundancy. Together, we provide evidence for heme uptake systems as bacterial factors that act in a coordinated and multi-functional manner to subvert nutritional- and other sources of host innate immunity during NTHi airway infection

Antecedents of energy consumption intention to usage by home energy management system: a case study of Galicia's homes in Spain

The residential sector is a substantial consumer of energy in Spain. A new electricity tariff was applied in Spain to make home consumers manage their energy consumption based on the variation of electricity price during the day, which contributes to energy security, increases the penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RES) into the grid, maintains grid stability, and reduce CO2 emissions. To ensure the successful implementation of the new Demand Response (DR) program, it is necessary to investigate the factors that might affect home energy consumers to use the Home Energy Management System (HEMS). This work aims to examine the factors that affect the Spanish home energy consumers' acceptance to participate in DR, which have not been studied yet after the new electricity tariff. In addition, highlighting the role of economic benefits and environmental awareness factors in the acceptance of participating in DR using HEMS. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is used in this work with four independent factors, attitude toward use as a mediating effect, and one dependent variable of intention to use, then hypotheses were set for each. The selected research method was a diagnostic survey technique through a standardized survey questionnaire distributed in person and online, that Galicia, Northwest Spain was taken as a case study. In terms of the statistical results of Probability value (P-value) and Critical Ratio (C.R.), it was found that the family's economic benefits and environmental awareness affect the attitude toward using HEMS after the new electricity tariff in Spain and attitude toward using HEMS has a significant impact on the intention to use HEMS. However, the usefulness and ease of using HEMS for managing energy consumption do not influence the consumers' attitudes toward adopting HEMS. The direct effect of usefulness on the intention of using HEMS is higher than the indirect effect through attitude. Thus, the mediating effect of the attitude to the relationships between usefulness and intention to use is not significant. The results help the Spanish policymakers to draw up policies to effectively disseminate strategies to encourage home consumers to contribute to energy security and assist energy management researchers in incorporating key factors that impact energy consumers into their proposed models. By doing so, these models can clarify the financial and environmental advantages of effective energy consumption management, thereby encouraging energy consumers to adopt more sustainable practices

La formación inicial de maestros de primaria: qué hacer y cómo en didáctica de las ciencias

Nuestro equipo de investigación ha diseñado una propuesta formativa para la asignatura Didáctica de las Ciencias Experimentales del Grado de Maestro de Educación Primaria, titulada Aprender a enseñar ciencias en Primaria (Cuaderno APENCIP). Esta propuesta pretende ser coherente con tres principios básicos para la Formación Inicial: Investigación de Problemas Prácticos Profesionales, Socioconstructivismo e Interacción con la Práctica Docente Innovadora. Un grupo de seis expertos ha valorado el grado de coherencia entre el cuaderno APENCIP y los principios formativos enunciados. Los resultados han permitido mejorar el cuaderno y proponer líneas de debate sobre las aportaciones que puede y debe realizar la Didáctica de las Ciencias a la Formación Inicial de los Maestros y Maestras de Primaria

PanDrugs2: prioritizing cancer therapies using integrated individual multi-omics data

Genomics studies routinely confront researchers with long lists of tumor alterations detected in patients. Such lists are difficult to interpret since only a minority of the alterations are relevant biomarkers for diagnosis and for designing therapeutic strategies. PanDrugs is a methodology that facilitates the interpretation of tumor molecular alterations and guides the selection of personalized treatments. To do so, PanDrugs scores gene actionability and drug feasibility to provide a prioritized evidence-based list of drugs. Here, we introduce PanDrugs2, a major upgrade of PanDrugs that, in addition to somatic variant analysis, supports a new integrated multi-omics analysis which simultaneously combines somatic and germline variants, copy number variation and gene expression data. Moreover, PanDrugs2 now considers cancer genetic dependencies to extend tumor vulnerabilities providing therapeutic options for untargetable genes. Importantly, a novel intuitive report to support clinical decision-making is generated. PanDrugs database has been updated, integrating 23 primary sources that support >74K drug–gene associations obtained from 4642 genes and 14 659 unique compounds. The database has also been reimplemented to allow semi-automatic updates to facilitate maintenance and release of future versions. PanDrugs2 does not require login and is freely available at https://www.pandrugs.org/.Instituto de Salud Carlos III | Ref. IMP/00019Agencia Estatal de Investigacion | Ref. PID2021-124188NB-I00Xunta de Galicia | Ref. | Ref. ED431C2018/55Xunta de Galicia | Ref. | Ref. ED431C2022/0

Vagal afferents contribute to sympathoexcitation-driven metabolic dysfunctions

[EN] Multiple crosstalk between peripheral organs and the nervous system are required to maintain physiological and metabolic homeostasis. Using Vav3–deficient mice as a model for chronic sympathoexcitation–associated disorders, we report here that afferent fibers of the hepatic branch of the vagus nerve are needed for the development of the peripheral sympathoexcitation, tachycardia, tachypnea, insulin resistance, liver steatosis, and adipose tissue thermogenesis present in those mice. This neuronal pathway contributes to proper activity of the rostral ventrolateral medulla, a sympathoregulatory brainstem center hyperactive in Vav3 –/– mice. Vagal afferent inputs are also required for the development of additional pathophysiological conditions associated with deregulated rostral ventrolateral medulla activity. By contrast, they are dispensable for other peripheral sympathoexcitation–associated disorders sparing metabolic alterations in liver

Soil moisture deficit estimation using satellite multi-angle brightness temperature

Accurate soil moisture information is critically important for hydrological modelling. Although remote sensing soil moisture measurement has become an important data source, it cannot be used directly in hydrological modelling. A novel study based on nonlinear techniques (a local linear regression (LLR) and two feedforward artificial neural networks (ANNs)) is carried out to estimate soil moisture deficit (SMD), using the Soil Moisture and Ocean Salinity (SMOS) multi-angle brightness temperatures (Tbs) with both horizontal (H) and vertical (V) polarisations. The gamma test is used for the first time to determine the optimum number of Tbs required to construct a reliable smooth model for SMD estimation, and the relationship between model input and output is achieved through error variance estimation. The simulated SMD time series in the study area is from the Xinanjiang hydrological model. The results have shown that LLR model is better at capturing the interrelations between SMD and Tbs than ANNs, with outstanding statistical performances obtained during both training (NSE = 0.88, r = 0.94, RMSE = 0.008 m) and testing phases (NSE = 0.85, r = 0.93, RMSE = 0.009 m). Nevertheless, both ANN training algorithms (radial BFGS and conjugate gradient) have performed well in estimating the SMD data and showed excellent performances compared with those derived directly from the SMOS soil moisture products. This study has also demonstrated the informative capability of the gamma test in the input data selection for model development. These results provide interesting perspectives for data-assimilation in flood-forecasting

Kras oncogene ablation prevents resistance in advanced lung adenocarcinomas

KRASG12C inhibitors have revolutionized the clinical management of patients with KRASG12C-mutant lung adenocarcinoma. However, patient exposure to these inhibitors leads to the rapid onset of resistance. In this study, we have used genetically engineered mice to compare the therapeutic efficacy and the emergence of tumor resistance between genetic ablation of mutant Kras expression and pharmacological inhibition of oncogenic KRAS activity. Whereas Kras ablation induces massive tumor regression and prevents the appearance of resistant cells in vivo, treatment of KrasG12C/Trp53-driven lung adenocarcinomas with sotorasib, a selective KRASG12C inhibitor, caused a limited antitumor response similar to that observed in the clinic, including the rapid onset of resistance. Unlike in human tumors, we did not observe mutations in components of the RAS-signaling pathways. Instead, sotorasib-resistant tumors displayed amplification of the mutant Kras allele and activation of xenobiotic metabolism pathways, suggesting that reduction of the on-target activity of KRASG12C inhibitors is the main mechanism responsible for the onset of resistance. In sum, our results suggest that resistance to KRAS inhibitors could be prevented by achieving a more robust inhibition of KRAS signaling mimicking the results obtained upon Kras ablation.This work was supported by grants from the European Research Council (ERC-GA 695566, THERACAN); the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033) (grant RTC2017-6576-1), cofunded by ERDF “A way of making Europe”; the Autonomous Community of Madrid (B2017/BMD-3884 iLung-CM), cofunded by FSE and ERDF “A way of making Europe”; the CRIS Cancer Foundation, the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (GC166173694BARB); an ERA PerMed grant, funded by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (AC20/00114), the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (PERME20707BARB) and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 program (779282) to MB; and the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (grant RTI2018-094664-B-I00), cofunded by ERDF “A way of making Europe” to MM and MB. Additional funding included grants from the Spanish National Research and Development Plan, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, ERDF “A way of making Europe” (PI20/01837 and DTS19/00111); the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (LABAE20049RODR) to SRP; the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (PI19/00514), cofunded by ERDF “A way of making Europe” to CG; the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (grant PID2020-116705RB-I00); and the Scientific Foundation of the Spanish Association Against Cancer (LABAE211678DROS) to MD. MB is a recipient of an endowed chair from the AXA Research Fund. M Salmón was supported by a predoctoral contract “Severo Ochoa” (BES-2016-079096) from the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. OB is a recipient of a fellowship from the Formación de Personal Investigador (FPI) program of the Agencia Estatal de Investigación, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación. FFG was supported by a Formación de Profesorado Universitario (FPU) fellowship from the Ministerio de Universidades