La variación estilística en una situación de contacto de lenguas castellano-catalán: un estudio exploratorio

This paper explores stylistic variation in a Spanish-Catalan language contact situation with the aim of testing if these transfer phenomena are more frequent in colloquial texts. To do so, I have analysed three features that are characteristic of Majorcan Spanish in documents from the 18th and 19th centuries: hacer 'do/make' collocations, the use of the verb pedir 'ask for something' with the semantic and syntactic structure of preguntar 'ask a question' and the preponderance of haber de over tener que as an obligation periphrasis. The analysis reveals that these three features are attested similarly in the two types of texts in our corpus. Only the most formal fragments of legal documents seem resistant to Catalan transfers.Este estudio explora la variación estilística en una situación de contacto de lenguas castellano-catalán con el objetivo de ver si los fenómenos de transferencia se dan más frecuentemente en textos más informales. Para ello, analizo tres rasgos característicos del castellano de Mallorca en documentos escritos entre los siglos XVIII y XIX: las colocaciones con el verbo hacer, el uso de pedir con la estructura semántica y sintáctica de preguntar y el mantenimiento de haber de frente a tener que como perífrasis de obligación. El análisis revela que los tres rasgos se documentan de forma similar en las dos tipologías textuales del corpus. Únicamente los fragmentos más formulísticos de la documentación judicial se muestran impermeables ante las transferencias del catalán

La variación estilística en una situación de contacto de lenguas castellano-catalán : un estudio exploratorio

Este estudio explora la variación estilística en una situación de contacto de lenguas castellano-catalán con el objetivo de ver si los fenómenos de transferencia se dan más frecuentemente en textos más informales. Para ello, analizo tres rasgos característicos del castellano de Mallorca en documentos escritos entre los siglos XVIII y XIX: las colocaciones con el verbo hacer, el uso de pedir con la estructura semántica y sintáctica de preguntar y el mantenimiento de haber de frente a tener que como perífrasis de obligación. El análisis revela que los tres rasgos se documentan de forma similar en las dos tipologías textuales del corpus. Únicamente los fragmentos más formulísticos de la documentación judicial se muestran impermeables ante las transferencias del catalán.This paper explores stylistic variation in a Spanish-Catalan language contact situation with the aim of testing if these transfer phenomena are more frequent in colloquial texts. To do so, I have analysed three features that are characteristic of Majorcan Spanish in documents from the 18th and 19th centuries: hacer 'do/make' collocations, the use of the verb pedir 'ask for something' with the semantic and syntactic structure of preguntar 'ask a question' and the preponderance of haber de over tener que as an obligation periphrasis. The analysis reveals that these three features are attested similarly in the two types of texts in our corpus. Only the most formal fragments of legal documents seem resistant to Catalan transfers

Los cuentos populares como medio de aprendizaje de los animales del bosque

Suele decirse que los cuentos son para los niños, relegándolos a la mayor de las simplezas, al infantilismo y a la menor relevancia. Pero, ¿sobre qué pilares se sustenta un cuento? A través de este trabajo se indagará en las entrañas de estas historias y descubriremos todo un universo fantástico lleno de significado que se podrá utilizar como herramienta de aprendizaje. Con el presente trabajo se pretende profundizar en el aprendizaje de los animales del bosque en la etapa de Educación Infantil gracias a dos cuentos populares, “La zorra y el sapo” y “El lobo y los siete cabritillos”. De este modo, el cuento popular no solo se entenderá como un transmisor de una historia de ficción y animación sino también como un medio de adquisición de nuevos contenidos. El trabajo se estructura, en primer lugar, en la presentación de los aspectos y bases teóricas sobre los cuentos populares en general. En segundo lugar, se expone una propuesta didáctica en la que el cuento es el hilo conductor y por tanto una herramienta de aprendizaje de contenidos. Esta idea puede ampliarse a otros cuentos populares y por tanto al aprendizaje de otros contenidos.Grado en Educación Infanti

La relación entre progreso y moral desde Walter Benjamin

El problema del progreso y su relación con la moral es el problema del optimismo de Cándido. Dicho con otras palabras, es la aceptación ciega de éste y de sus costes materiales, de los cadáveres y los escombros que los entierran si fuera necesario a favor del objetivo de conseguir unas aparentes mejores condiciones de vida personales, unas promesas reveladas desde la Ilustración pero esencialmente mal planteadas. Se trata, pues, de una relación aporética que debe ser analizada. En este trabajo se atiende, desde la Teoría Crítica y más concretamente desde Walter Benjamin, deudor en parte del materialismo histórico de Karl Marx, al proceso por el cual se ha impuesto esta idea de progreso que está incluida, por supuesto, en el concepto de historia. Una idea que forma parte de la columna de las filosofías ilustradas aunque también de las posiciones críticas frente a ellas. La Teoría Crítica, de la que es miembro Benjamin, contiene una crítica inmanente a las formas de sociedad que legitiman la idea de progreso con una visión histórica que es aliada de la configuración dominadora que culmina en la Ilustración y es puesta en práctica en el sistema capitalist

The Development of Methods to Improve In Vitro Embryo Production in Pigs and Cattle

The global livestock industry is continually tasked with developing innovative solutions to meet rising food demand. In both economically developed and developing countries, sustainable supplies are essential for the continuous advances in productivity through genetic selection to improve feed conversion efficiency, disease resistance, and fertility. The interval between conception and birth, however, limits the rate at which these enhancements can be implemented. Furthermore, companies often export breeding animals to developing countries to boost genetic quality, but this comes with production, environmental, and logistical costs, as well as ethical issues. In vitro embryo production (IVP) is an emergent technology that is progressively being applied to livestock breeding. IVP could bring incredible economic and environmental benefits, serving to increase selection intensity and facilitate the transport of genetically favourable livestock in a highly assistive, inexpensive, and bio-secure manner. Therefore, the main purpose of this thesis was to improve the efficiency of IVP procedures. IVP offers attractive benefits to breeders, such as increasing the offspring numbers derived from high genetic value animals, in less time, and at a cheaper cost than those produced in vivo. Moreover, it facilitates the study of the genetic constitution of the embryos to transfer only those carrying commercially desirable traits to improve genetic selection. IVP is key to reducing the transportation of live animals as the transport of embryos decreases the costs and reduces the risk of pathogen or disease transmission, favouring biosecurity. With this in mind, this thesis had five specific aims: The first was to improve embryo quality with the addition of cytokines to porcine IVM media. This was successfully achieved as improvements were observed in oocyte maturation and developmental competence to produce higher quality embryos than those produced without cytokine supplementation. The second aim was to assess the effect of different sperm selection methods on basic boar sperm parameters and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) outcomes. This aim was partly successful in that it identified a microfluidic chip-based system as a selection method that produces similar parameters and IVF outcomes to density gradient selection, but with less morphological abnormalities. The third was to compare the slow freezing of boar sperm against modified vitrification protocols. The development of a suitable vitrification protocol was successful in preserving basic sperm parameters, but further work is needed to improve the efficiency compared to slow freezing, the "gold standard" in the breeding industry. The fourth aim was to use preimplantation genetic testing for aneuploidies (PGT A) and SNP chip data from genomic estimated breeding values to screen in vitro produced bovine embryos. This allowed for the identification of chromosomal abnormalities and their origin, which when applied to embryo selection can yield improved pregnancy and live birth rates. The final aim was to use PGT-A to screen the inner-cell mass and trophectoderm of in vivo and IVP bovine embryos to identify and analyse chromosomal abnormalities. A comparison of the data between the inner-cell mass and trophectoderm revealed that trophectoderm biopsies reflect the true ploidy status of the embryo and demonstrate a reliable mean for screening embryos. Taken together, these results have improved the efficiency of porcine and cattle IVP procedures, furthering the development of techniques used for livestock animals

Gastric duplication cyst: A rare congenital anomaly

Gastrointestinal (GI) duplication is defined as a spherical structure, with a muscular coat lined by a mucous membrane in the alimentary tract is a rare congenital anomaly. In this report, we present a case of a 14-year-old male child with complaints of epigastric pain for 1 month. Computed tomography scan of the abdomen was suggestive of two cystic lesions in the stomach. Exploratory laparotomy was performed with excision of cysts. Histopathology of both cysts was suggestive of gastric duplication cyst

Supplementation of porcin in vitro maturation medium with FGF2, LIF, and IGF1 enhances cytoplasmic maturation in prepubertal gilts oocytes and improves embryo quality

In porcine production (IVP) systems, the use of oocytes derived from prepubertal gilts, whilst being commercially attractive, remains challenging due to their poor developmental competence following maturation (IVM). Follicular fluid contains important growth factors and plays a key role during oocyte maturation; therefore, it is a common supplementation for porcine IVM medium. However, follicular fluid contains many poorly characterized components, is batch variable, and its use raises biosecurity concerns. In an effort to design a defined IVM system, growth factors such as cytokines have been previously tested. These include leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF), fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2), and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1), the combination of which is termed 'FLI'. Here, using abattoir-derived oocytes in a well established porcine IVP system, we compared follicular fluid and FLI supplementation during both IVM and embryo culture to test the hypothesis that FLI can substitute for follicular fluid without compromising oocyte nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation. We demonstrate that in oocytes derived from prepubertal gilts, FLI supplementation enhances oocyte meiotic maturation and has a positive effect on the quality and developmental competence of embryos. Moreover, for the first time, we studied the effects of follicular fluid and FLI combined showing no synergistic effects

Successful recovery of motile and viable boar sperm after vitrification with different methods (pearls and mini straws) using sucrose as a cryoprotectant

Vitrification of sperm by direct contact with liquid nitrogen is increasing in popularity as an alternative to conventional (slow) freezing. Although slow freezing is very challenging in boar sperm cryopreservation, this is currently the standard method used. We compared vitrification in “pearls” and in “mini straws” using the in vitro fertilization media Porcine Gamete Media with 0.3 M sucrose with the standard (slow) method used to preserve boar sperm. Both vitrification methods reduced the viability of the sperm sample more than slow freezing (42.2 ± 4.3% total motility and 71.4 ± 2.3% alive), however, both protocols allowed for the successful recovery of the sperm samples. By comparing two different methods of vitrification and two different methods of post-thaw preparation we were able to determine the optimal vitrification-thaw protocol for boar sperm. When comparing pearls and mini-straws, the smaller liquid volume associated with pearls had a positive effect on the survivability of the samples, reducing sperm DNA damage (1.2 ± 0.2% vs. 5.1 ± 0.1.7%) and preserving motility (26.15 ± 2.8% vs 9.39 ± 0.9%) after thawing. In conclusion, the pearl method was the most suitable of the vitrification techniques for use with boar sperm

Analysis of bovine blastocysts indicates ovarian stimulation does not induce chromosome errors, nor discordance between inner-cell mass and trophectoderm lineages

Contemporary systems for oocyte retrieval and culture of both cattle and human embryos are suboptimal with respect to pregnancy outcomes following transfer. In humans, chromosome abnormalities are the leading cause of early pregnancy loss in assisted reproduction. Consequently, pre-implantation genetic testing for aneuploidy (PGT-A) is widespread and there is considerable interest in its application to identify suitable cattle IVP embryos for transfer. Here we report on the nature and extent of chromosomal abnormalities following transvaginal follicular aspiration (OPU) and IVP in cattle. Nine sexually mature Holstein heifers underwent nine sequential cycles of OPU-IVP (six non-stimulated and three stimulated cycles), generating 459 blastocysts from 783 oocytes. We adopted a SNP-array approach normally employed in genomic evaluations but reanalysed (Turner et al., 2019; Theriogenology 125: 249) to detect levels of meiotic aneuploidy. Specifically, we asked whether ovarian stimulation increased the level of aneuploidy in either trophectoderm (TE) or inner-cell mass (ICM) lineages of blastocysts generated from OPU-IVP cycles. The proportion of Day 8 blastocysts of inseminated was greater (P < 0.001) for stimulated than non-stimulated cycles (0.712 ± 0.0288 vs. 0.466 ± 0.0360), but the overall proportion aneuploidy was similar for both groups (0.241 ± 0.0231). Most abnormalities consisted of meiotic trisomies. Twenty in vivo derived blastocysts recovered from the same donors were all euploid, thus indicating that 24 h of maturation is primarily responsible for aneuploidy induction. Chromosomal errors in OPU-IVP blastocysts decreased (P < 0.001) proportionately as stage/grade improved (from 0.373 for expanded Grade 2 to 0.128 for hatching Grade 1 blastocysts). Importantly, there was a high degree of concordance in the incidence of aneuploidy between TE and ICM lineages. Proportionately, 0.94 were “perfectly concordant” (i.e. identical result in both); 0.01 were imperfectly concordant (differing abnormalities detected); 0.05 were discordant; of which 0.03 detected a potentially lethal TE abnormality (false positives), leaving only 0.02 false negatives. These data support the use of TE biopsies for PGT-A in embryos undergoing genomic evaluation in cattle breeding. Finally, we report chromosome-specific errors and a high degree of variability in the incidence of aneuploidy between donors, suggesting a genetic contribution that merits further investigation