El Portfolio como estrategia de evaluación compartida de la comprensión lectora

El Portfolio, como estrategia de evaluación compartida de la comprensión lectora en el aula de Educación Primaria, motiva al alumno a seleccionar y justificar aquellos trabajos que muestran su esfuerzo y logro en tareas de comprensión, antes, durante o después de la lectura. Se trata de un instrumento de diagnóstico que puede ser usado por los estudiantes para reflexionar sobre cómo construyen significado fortaleciendo de ese modo su desarrollo metacognitivo como lectores. El presente trabajo es una contribución al proceso de implantación en nuestro Instituto del Portfolio Europeo de las Lenguas (PEL), durante el curso 2006/2007, y tiene como objetivos: 1) identificar los fundamentos teóricos que sustentan el uso del Portfolio en el ámbito del desarrollo de la comprensión lectora; 2) concebir el Portfolio como un instrumento de cambio en los procesos de evaluación tradicional, que asumen que evaluar exige casi con exclusividad que el estudiante se limite a memorizar y “re-citar” fragmentos de un texto cualquiera y 3) aportar orientaciones prácticas sobre cómo trabajar con este instrumento de desarrollo de la capacidad lectora. La escasa o nula aplicación de esta estrategia de autoevaluación en la Etapa de Primaria sugiere la necesidad de difundir y promover el uso de este instrumento que suscita en los estudiantes, la responsabilidad y el control sobre su propio proceso de construcción de significado lector.A portfolio approach to collaborative reading assessment in Primary Education is a collection of students’ work gathered by the student across different situations before, during or after reading, showing their effort, progress and achievement in reading comprehension. The portfolio is a diagnostic tool that students use to reflect upon their process of learning to strengthen their metacognitive awareness as readers. As a contribution to the implementation of the European Language Portfolio (ELP), during the academic year 2006-2007 in our School*, the purposes of this article are: (1) to identify the theoretical rationale supporting the use of portfolio in reading comprehension development; (2) to understand the Portfolio as an agent of change and an alternative to traditional ways of assessing reading comprehension that only requires the student factual recall of information, re-citing parts of the text; (3) to provide procedural guidelines for the use of this diagnostic tool in reading comprehension development. The meager application of this strategy in our Primary Schools suggests the need for the promotion of this assessment tool in order for the students to develop a metacognitive and reflective stance, self-assessment, responsibility and control of their own meaning making process of reading.Le Portfolio, utilisé comme stratégie de collaboration dans l’apprentissage de la lectura compréhension à l’école primaire, est source de motivation pour l’élève. Cet outil permet de sélectionner et de justifier plusieurs tâches de compréhension réussies aussi bien avant, que pendant et après la lecture, mettant ainsi en avant les succès accomplis par l’élève. Il s’agit d’un outil de diagnostique pouvant être utilisé par les élèves, afin de réfléchir à leur niveau de compréhension tout en renforçant leur développement métacognitif en tant que lecteurs. Ce document prétend raconter le processus d’implantation au sein de notre Lycée du Portfolio Européen des Langues (PEL), au cours de l’année scolaire 2006/07. Il a pour objectifs : 1) mettre l’accent sur les fondements théoriques sur lesquels s’appuie l’utilisation du Portfolio dans la perspective du développement de la lecture compréhension ; 2) concevoir le Portfolio comme un outil de changement capable de se substituer aux méthodes traditionnelles d’évaluation qui demandent uniquement à l’élève de mémoriser et ré-citer des extraits d’un texte, et 3) fournir des informations pratiques sur la manière d’utiliser cet outil pour développer les capacités de compréhension du texte écrit. L’application de cette stratégie dans nos écoles primaires étant nulle ou rare, cela implique le besoin de promouvoir cet outil, pour que les élèves puissent développer une approche de réflexion métacognitive, l’auto évaluation de leur progression, la prise en responsabilité et le contrôle du processus de construction du sens en tant que lecteurs

Aerodynamic shape optimization of a 3D wing via volumetric B-Splines

This paper shows a gradient-based aerodynamic shape optimization of a threedimensional wing using volumetric B-Splines. The wing is enclosed in a volumetric parallelepiped, commonly referred as control box, which can be seen as a rubber box that deforms the enclosed space. The deformation of the wing is provided by the manipulation of the control points, where the gradients are calculated using the continuous adjoint solution. This technique can be applied to arbitrary three dimensional complex designs and provides some advantages over other traditional geometry parameterization methods, such as deformation locality and the ability to handle some geometric constraints

Chloroplast damage induced by the inhibition of fatty acid synthesis triggers autophagy in chlamydomonas

Fatty acids are synthesized in the stroma of plant and algal chloroplasts by the fatty acid synthase complex. Newly synthesized fatty acids are then used to generate plastidial lipids that are essential for chloroplast structure and function. Here, we show that inhibition of fatty acid synthesis in the model alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii activates autophagy, a highly conserved catabolic process by which cells degrade intracellular material under adverse conditions to maintain cell homeostasis. Treatment of Chlamydomonas cells with cerulenin, a specific fatty acid synthase inhibitor, stimulated lipidation of the autophagosome protein ATG8 and enhanced autophagic flux. We found that inhibition of fatty acid synthesis decreased monogalactosyldiacylglycerol abundance, increased lutein content, down-regulated photosynthesis, and increased the production of reactive oxygen species. Electron microscopy revealed a high degree of thylakoid membrane stacking in cerulenin-treated cells. Moreover, global transcriptomic analysis of these cells showed an up-regulation of genes encoding chloroplast proteins involved in protein folding and oxidative stress and the induction of major catabolic processes, including autophagy and proteasome pathways. Thus, our results uncovered a link between lipid metabolism, chloroplast integrity, and autophagy through a mechanism that involves the activation of a chloroplast quality control system.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2015-68216-PJunta de Andalucía CVI-7336, BIO2015-74432-JI

New strategies for the aerodynamic design optimization of aeronautical configurations through soft-computing techniques

Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado de la UAH en 2013Lozano Rodríguez, Carlos, codir.This thesis deals with the improvement of the optimization process in the aerodynamic design of aeronautical configurations. Nowadays, this topic is of great importance in order to allow the European aeronautical industry to reduce their development and operational costs, decrease the time-to-market for new aircraft, improve the quality of their products and therefore maintain their competitiveness. Within this thesis, a study of the state-of-the-art of the aerodynamic optimization tools has been performed, and several contributions have been proposed at different levels: -One of the main drawbacks for an industrial application of aerodynamic optimization tools is the huge requirement of computational resources, in particular, for complex optimization problems, current methodological approaches would need more than a year to obtain an optimized aircraft. For this reason, one proposed contribution of this work is focused on reducing the computational cost by the use of different techniques as surrogate modelling, control theory, as well as other more software-related techniques as code optimization and proper domain parallelization, all with the goal of decreasing the cost of the aerodynamic design process. -Other contribution is related to the consideration of the design process as a global optimization problem, and, more specifically, the use of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to perform a preliminary broad exploration of the design space, due to their ability to obtain global optima. Regarding this, EAs have been hybridized with metamodels (or surrogate models), in order to substitute expensive CFD simulations. In this thesis, an innovative approach for the global aerodynamic optimization of aeronautical configurations is proposed, consisting of an Evolutionary Programming algorithm hybridized with a Support Vector regression algorithm (SVMr) as a metamodel. Specific issues as precision, dataset training size, geometry parameterization sensitivity and techniques for design of experiments are discussed and the potential of the proposed approach to achieve innovative shapes that would not be achieved with traditional methods is assessed. -Then, after a broad exploration of the design space, the optimization process is continued with local gradient-based optimization techniques for a finer improvement of the geometry. Here, an automated optimization framework is presented to address aerodynamic shape design problems. Key aspects of this framework include the use of the adjoint methodology to make the computational requirements independent of the number of design variables, and Computer Aided Design (CAD)-based shape parameterization, which uses the flexibility of Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) to handle complex configurations. The mentioned approach is applied to the optimization of several test cases and the improvements of the proposed strategy and its ability to achieve efficient shapes will complete this study

New strategies for the aerodynamic design optimization of aeronautical configurations through soft-computing techniques

Premio Extraordinario de Doctorado de la UAH en 2013Lozano Rodríguez, Carlos, codir.This thesis deals with the improvement of the optimization process in the aerodynamic design of aeronautical configurations. Nowadays, this topic is of great importance in order to allow the European aeronautical industry to reduce their development and operational costs, decrease the time-to-market for new aircraft, improve the quality of their products and therefore maintain their competitiveness. Within this thesis, a study of the state-of-the-art of the aerodynamic optimization tools has been performed, and several contributions have been proposed at different levels: -One of the main drawbacks for an industrial application of aerodynamic optimization tools is the huge requirement of computational resources, in particular, for complex optimization problems, current methodological approaches would need more than a year to obtain an optimized aircraft. For this reason, one proposed contribution of this work is focused on reducing the computational cost by the use of different techniques as surrogate modelling, control theory, as well as other more software-related techniques as code optimization and proper domain parallelization, all with the goal of decreasing the cost of the aerodynamic design process. -Other contribution is related to the consideration of the design process as a global optimization problem, and, more specifically, the use of evolutionary algorithms (EAs) to perform a preliminary broad exploration of the design space, due to their ability to obtain global optima. Regarding this, EAs have been hybridized with metamodels (or surrogate models), in order to substitute expensive CFD simulations. In this thesis, an innovative approach for the global aerodynamic optimization of aeronautical configurations is proposed, consisting of an Evolutionary Programming algorithm hybridized with a Support Vector regression algorithm (SVMr) as a metamodel. Specific issues as precision, dataset training size, geometry parameterization sensitivity and techniques for design of experiments are discussed and the potential of the proposed approach to achieve innovative shapes that would not be achieved with traditional methods is assessed. -Then, after a broad exploration of the design space, the optimization process is continued with local gradient-based optimization techniques for a finer improvement of the geometry. Here, an automated optimization framework is presented to address aerodynamic shape design problems. Key aspects of this framework include the use of the adjoint methodology to make the computational requirements independent of the number of design variables, and Computer Aided Design (CAD)-based shape parameterization, which uses the flexibility of Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines (NURBS) to handle complex configurations. The mentioned approach is applied to the optimization of several test cases and the improvements of the proposed strategy and its ability to achieve efficient shapes will complete this study

Practical Characterization of Cell-Electrode Electrical Models in Bio-Impedance Assays

This paper presents the fitting process followed to adjust the parameters of the electrical model associated to a cell-electrode system in Electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Spectroscopy (ECIS) technique, to the experimental results from cell-culture assays. A new parameter matching procedure is proposed, under the basis of both, mismatching between electrodes and time-evolution observed in the system response, as consequence of electrode fabrication processes and electrochemical performance of electrode-solution interface, respectively. The obtained results agree with experimental performance, and enable the evaluation of the cell number in a culture, by using the electrical measurements observed at the oscillation parameters in the test circuits employed.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2013-46242-C3-1-

Sensing Cell-Culture Assays with Low-Cost Circuitry

An alternative approach for cell-culture end-point protocols is proposed herein. This new technique is suitable for real-time remote sensing. It is based on Electrical Cell-substrate Impedance Spectroscopy (ECIS) and employs the Oscillation-Based Test (OBT) method. Simple and straightforward circuit blocks form the basis of the proposed measurement system. Oscillation parameters – frequency and amplitude – constitute the outcome, directly correlated with the culture status. A user can remotely track the evolution of cell cultures in real time over the complete experiment through a web tool continuously displaying the acquired data. Experiments carried out with commercial electrodes and a well-established cell line (AA8) are described, obtaining the cell number in real time from growth assays. The electrodes have been electrically characterized along the design flow in order to predict the system performance and the sensitivity curves. Curves for 1-week cell growth are reported. The obtained experimental results validate the proposed OBT for cell-culture characterization. Furthermore, the proposed electrode model provides a good approximation for the cell number and the time evolution of the studied cultures.España, Feder TEC2013-46242-C3-1-

Decreased glycogen synthase kinase-3 levels and activity contribute to Huntington's disease

© The Author 2015. Huntington's disease (HD) is a hereditary neurodegenerative disorder characterized by brain atrophy particularly in striatum leading to personality changes, chorea and dementia. Glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK-3) is a serine/threonine kinase in the crossroad of many signaling pathways that is highly pleiotropic as it phosphorylates more than hundred substrates including structural, metabolic, and signaling proteins. Increased GSK-3 activity is believed to contribute to the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease and GSK-3 inhibitors have been postulated as therapeutic agents for neurodegeneration. Regarding HD, GSK-3 inhibitors have shown beneficial effects in cell and invertebrate animal models but no evident efficacy in mouse models. Intriguingly, those studies were performed without interrogating GSK-3 level and activity in HD brain. Herewe aim to explore the level and also the enzymatic activity of GSK-3 in the striatum and other less affected brain regions of HD patients and of the R6/1 mouse model to then elucidate the possible contribution of its alteration to HD pathogenesis by genetic manipulation in mice.We report a dramatic decrease in GSK-3 levels and activity in striatum and cortex of HD patients with similar results in the mouse model. Correction of the GSK-3 deficit inHDmice, by combining with transgenic mice with conditional GSK-3 expression, resulted in amelioration of their brain atrophy and behavioral motor and learning deficits. Thus, our results demonstrate that decreased brain GSK-3 contributes to HD neurological phenotype and open new therapeutic opportunities based on increasing GSK-3 activity or attenuating the harmful consequences of its decrease.This work was supported by Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Neurodegenerativas (CiberNed-Instituto de salud Carlos III) and by grants from Ministerio de Ciencia (MEC, MICINN, MINECO), Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid and Fundación Ramón Areces. A.M.Peer Reviewe

An Empirical-Mathematical Approach for Calibration and Fitting Cell-Electrode Electrical Models in Bioimpedance Tests

This paper proposes a new yet efficient method allowing a significant improvement in the on-line analysis of biological cell growing and evolution. The procedure is based on an empirical-mathematical approach for calibration and fitting of any cell-electrode electrical model. It is valid and can be extrapolated for any type of cellular line used in electrical cell-substrate impedance spectroscopy (ECIS) tests. Parameters of the bioimpedance model, acquired from ECIS experiments, vary for each cell line, which makes obtaining results difficult and—to some extent-renders them inaccurate. We propose a fitting method based on the cell line initial characterization,and carry out subsequent experiments with the same line to approach the percentage of well filling and the cell density (or cell number in the well). To perform our calibration technique, the so-called oscillation-based test (OBT) approach is employed for each cell density. Calibration results are validated by performing other experiments with different concentrations on the same cell line with the same measurement technique. Accordingly, a bioimpedance electrical model of each cell line is determined, which is valid for any further experiment and leading to a more precise electrical model of the electrode-cell system. Furthermore, the model parameters calculated can be also used by any other measurement techniques. Promising experimental outcomes for three different cell-lines have been achieved, supporting the usefulness of this technique