Tolerance to air exposure of the New Zealand mudsnail Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Hydrobiidae, Mollusca) as a prerequisite to survival in overland translocations

Spreading throughout a new ecosystem is the last step of an exotic species to become invasive. In the case of invasive aquatic molluscs, tolerance to air exposure is one of the main mechanisms allowing overland translocation and spreading. The mudsnail Potamopyrgus antipodarum (Hydrobiidae, Mollusca) is native to New Zealand but it has spread worldwide, invading ecosystems in Europe, Australia, America and Asia. The aim of our study is to assess mudsnail tolerance to air exposure, which may contribute to the successful overland translocation of this species. We conducted a laboratory experiment with four levels of air exposure (9, 18, 24 and 36 hours in a controlled climatic chamber). Snails were placed for 60 seconds in a laboratory paper filter to remove surface snail water. Then they were placed back in empty vessels during the four periods of air exposure, except the control group, which was immediately returned to water. At the end of each period of air exposure all vessels were filled with water and the cumulative mortality was monitored after 24, 96, 168 and 264 hours of rehydration. The calculated Lethal Times (i.e. the time of air exposure (in hours) necessary to cause the death of 50% (LT50) or 99% (LT99) of the population) and their 95% confidence limits at 24, 96, 168 and 264 hours were 28.1 (25.2–31.9), 26.9 (24.2–30.1), 25.9 (23.4–28.9) and 25.9 (23.4–28.9) hours, respectively for LT50, and 49.6 (42.7–63.3), 45.6 (39.9–56.5), 43.2 (38.0–53.0) and 43.2 (38.0–53.0) hours, respectively for LT99. Therefore an air exposure time over 43 hours caused the death of all studied individuals during all monitoring periods. Extending the monitoring period beyond 24 hours did not significantly change lethal times. Therefore, we recommend exposing fishing tools or boats at open air during at least 53 hours as a low cost measure to control mudsnail spread in early stages of invasion

La formación en competencias del profesorado de Magisterio en la especialidad de Educación Física

La convergencia de las universidades españolas en un espacio común europeo supone cambios metodológicos y, por ello, es necesario realizar análisis de las competencias que adquierenlos alumnos en nuestras universidades. En este estudio, se analizan y se comparan las competencias profesionales que, según su propio juicio, deberían tener los estudiantes de primer y tercer curso de la titulación de Magisterio en la especialidad de Educación Física de la Universidad de Huelva, de acuerdo con lo que aparece en el libro blanco. Los resultados muestran un perfil «clásico» del docente con gran peso en competencias instrumentales, excesivamente centrado en su contexto próximo de trabajo y poco preocupado por el panorama cambiante de la educación.La convergència de les universitats espanyoles en un espai comú europeu comporta canvis metodològics i, per això, cal realitzar anàlisis de les competències que adquireixen els alumnes a les nostres universitats. En aquest estudi, s'hi analitzen i s'hi comparen les competències professionals que, segons el seu propi parer, haurien de tenir els estudiants de primer i tercer curs de la titulació de Magisteri en l'especialitat d'Educació Física de la Universitat de Huelva, d'acord amb el que apareix al llibre blanc. Els resultats mostren un perfil «clàssic» del docent amb un gran pes en competències instrumentals, excessivament centrat en el seu context proper de treball i poc preocupat pel panorama canviant de l'educació.The convergence of the Spanish Universities to a Space Common European supposes methodological changes and for it is necessary to carry out analysis of the competitions that the students acquire in our universities. In this study they are analyzed and the professional competitions are compared that should have, to the students of 1º trial and 3º course of Teaching's course in Physical Education of university of Huelva, with which you/they appear in the white book. The results show a «classic» profile of the educational one with great weight in instrumental competitions and excessively centered in their next context of work and not very concerned for the changing panorama of the education

Rethinking Lexical Cohexion: a case study of collocation through formal and conceptual integration in Media political discourse

This article contends that the collocation of words in a given textual situation is closely linked to the establishment of mental spaces and to the construction of mental models which are generated online as information is received and discourse is interpreted and processed (Fauconnier 1994, Fauconnier and Turner 2002). This connects with aspects of Hoey's theory of priming (2005), where collocation is seen as a textual cohesive phenomenon governed by the text producers' choice s of word combinations and by the text receivers' prospects of re-usage. The analysis of data from a small corpus of poli tic al discourse in the media supports the conceptual approach to collocation, and suggests considering this lexico-semantic cohesive function of words a cognitive property of linguistic expressions

Enseñanza de la evolución humana

En el presente trabajo, cabe destacar el desarrollo de una propuesta docente, incluida dentro de la unidad didáctica “Evolución y origen de la vida”, que consiste en la realización de una actividad grupal de investigación guiada. Se contextualizará en tiempo, contenidos y objetivos. Así como la metodología aplicada y el desarrollo de la actividad en el aula.Departamento de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular y FisiologíaMáster en Profesor de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanzas de Idioma

Comentario a una página sobre Grecia de Valle IncIán

Disertación leída en la Academia el día 31 de octubre de 1997

El perfil del buen docente universitario desde una perspectiva del alumnado

La adaptación al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) está suponiendo un gran cambio en el rol del docente universitario. Este estudio aporta información sobre la importancia que otorgan los estudiantes de tercer curso de las titulaciones de Magisterio (primaria), Educación Social, Psicología y Psicopedagogía a las cualidades personales, profesionales y metodología que consideran que debe tener un buen profesor de universidad. Para ello se pasó un cuestionario a 269 estudiantes pertenecientes a las cuatro titulaciones de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Educación. Los resultados muestran que los alumnos valoran especialmente que el profesor universitario sea respetuoso, claro en las explicaciones, con dominio de la materia, buen comunicador, que utilice ejemplos prácticos y reales, prepare las clases, con capacidad de escucha y empatía. Existen diferencias significativas, a nivel estadístico, entre las valoraciones realizadas en función del sexo y de la titulación a la que pertenecen. El profesorado universitario debe tener una formación psicopedagógica que le ayude a ser un buen docente y más en el caso de facultades donde se formarán a futuros maestros y aquellas profesiones relacionadas con el aprendizaje.Adapting to the European Higher Education Area has meant a significant shift in the role of university lecturers. This study considers the personal, professional and methodological attributes considered most important for a university lecturer by students in the third year of degrees in Primary Education, Social Education, Psychology and Educational Psychology. The data was gathered via a questionnaire completed by 269 students distributed across the four courses offered by the Education Faculty. The results show that the attributes rated highest were those of a respectful attitude towards students, the ability to give clear explanations, a good command of the subject, good communication skills, the use of practical and authentic examples, good preparation, being a good listener and empathy with the students. Significant statistical differences were found in the appraisals in terms of gender and degree subject. The study supports that view that university lecturers require specialist training in order to develop critical attributes, especially in the case of faculties responsible for training future primary teachers and other related professions

The lexico-structural/semantic progression in discourse topic construction: evidence from commento articles

In this article, Seuren’s notion of mod-proposition is taken as point of departure to address the question of discourse topic. Seuren distinguishes between the classic notion of proposition (flat-propositions) and modulated propositions (mod-propositions), and assigns to the latter a topic-comment modulated structure which becomes essential to decide on the information structure of discourse, especially in terms of incrementation. Drawing from this propositional modulated status, different theoretical approaches to the notion of topic at sentence level are reviewed and special attention is paid to the syntactic functions identified by these theoreticians as predominantly topical. Then the empirical analysis of a small corpus of comment articles in English is used to classify the linguistic strategies employed in the construction of a global discourse topic; this procedure makes it possible to focus on those topics which gradually acquire global projection by re-use, in opposition to those pieces of information which are topical only at the local level. Based on this evidence, our research shows the linguistic mechanisms which allow for re-used topical information to gradually acquire subject status as discourse progresses and proposes thinking in terms of intermediate information structures as subsumers of local information and builders of global topics