Revaluation of underutilized lemon fruits of southeastern Spain as a potential source of bioactive compounds and to be used in creative cuisine

In the present research colour, weight, morphological parameters and total antioxidant activity (TAA) of the edible tissues of three underutilised cultivars of lemon fruits was quantified. In addition, other fruit quality properties, such as organics acids and sugars concentrations in the lemon juices were analysed. Also, the evaluation of organoleptic attributes, such as sweetness, aroma, firmness, lack of bitterness, overall impression and notable feature of fruits was performed by a sensory panel. Results show significant differences on the analysed parameters among lemon cultivars. The relative proportion of each fruit tissue was similar for the three cultivars. 'Fino' and 'Sanguino' lemons showed the highest TAA, while the most appreciated by consumers according to the sensory panel results was 'Sanguino' lemon which could be due to their original colour. These traditional cultivars of lemon fruits could be used as ingredients in creative cuisine due to their attractive properties providing also nutritional and antioxidant compounds

High-Temperature Short-Time and Holder Pasteurization of Donor Milk: Impact on Milk Composition

Holder pasteurization (HoP; 62.5 °C, 30 min) is commonly used to ensure the microbiological safety of donor human milk (DHM) but diminishes its nutritional properties. A high-temperature short-time (HTST) system was designed as an alternative for human milk banks. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of this HTST system on different nutrients and the bile salt stimulated lipase (BSSL) activity of DHM. DHM was processed in the HTST system and by standard HoP. Macronutrients were measured with a mid-infrared analyzer. Lactose, glucose, myo-inositol, vitamins and lipids were assayed using chromatographic techniques. BSSL activity was determined using a kit. The duration of HTST treatment had a greater influence on the nutrient composition of DHM than did the tested temperature. The lactose concentration and the percentage of phospholipids and PUFAs were higher in HTST-treated than in raw DHM, while the fat concentration and the percentage of monoacylglycerides and SFAs were lower. Other nutrients did not change after HTST processing. The retained BSSL activity was higher after short HTST treatment than that following HoP. Overall, HTST treatment resulted in better preservation of the nutritional quality of DHM than HoP because relevant thermosensitive components (phospholipids, PUFAs, and BSSL) were less affected.This research was funded by grants from the Spanish Research Projects in Health funded by ISCIII-the state plan for scientific and technical research and innovation and European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (ref. PI12/02128 and PI15/00995) and by ALG2016-75476-R project from the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Spain). Moreover, this work has received a grant from the Hero Institute for Infant Nutrition (Alcantarilla, Murcia, España; 2012). Additionally, this study was supported by RETICS “Maternal and Child Health and Development Network” (SAMID Network), funded by the PN I+D+i 2008-2011 (Spain), ISCIII-Sub-Directorate General for Research Assessment and Promotion and the ERDF (ref. RD12/0026)

Validation of a method to estimate direct normal irradiance of UVA and PAR bands from global horizontal measurements for cloudless sky conditions in Valencia, Spain, by a measurement campaign

A method is proposed to provide measurement of direct normal solar irradiance of bands with wavelength ranges (315-400 nm, 400-700 nm) from measurements of global horizontal band irradiance for cloudless sky conditions in Valencia. Global and normal direct irradiance data for every air mass were obtained by applying the SMART2 model to the atmosphere of Valencia. The direct normal to global irradiance ratio was parameterized versus the relative optical air mass. A measurement campaign of global horizontal and diffuse irradiance of UVA and PAR bands was carried out in Valencia, after which, the inferred direct normal irradiance was compared with those provided by the method. The result of the comparison shows that the method is acceptably accurate. The proposed model tends to underestimate the direct normal irradiance of the UVA band by 6%, although for values below 25 W/m2 the model overestimates the direct irradiance by 6%, while for values above 25 W/m2 the model underestimates it by 10%. The other two error estimators used ranging from 11% to 15% are similar in the defined interval measurements in relation to the whole UVA band. Regarding the PAR band, the model overestimates the direct normal irradiance of the PAR band by only 2.2%. With this, the results of the PAR band are more conclusive, as it has been found that for direct normal irradiance values higher than 280 W/m2 the MBE error is almost zero and the other two estimator errors are small, about 5%. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.This work was supported by the Spanish Government through MEC grant MAT2009-14625-C03-03, and is a part of the activities of the Grup d'Optoelectronica i Semiconductors of the Polytechnic University of Valencia. The translation of this paper was funded by the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia, Spain.Serrano Jareño, MA.; Boscá Berga, JV. (2011). Validation of a method to estimate direct normal irradiance of UVA and PAR bands from global horizontal measurements for cloudless sky conditions in Valencia, Spain, by a measurement campaign. Theoretical and Applied Climatology. 103(1):95-101. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-010-0284-9S951011031Barth J, Cadet J, Césarini JP, Fitzpatrick TB, McKinlay A, Mutzhas M, Pathak M, Peak M, Sliney D, Urbach F (1999) TC 6-26 report: Standardization of the terms UV-A1, UV-A2 and UV-B, CIE 134-1999 ISBN 3-900-734-94-1Batlles FJ, Olmo FJ, Alados-Arboledas L (1995) On shadowband correction methods for diffuse irradiance measurements. Solar Energy 54(5):105–114Drummond AJ (1956) On the measurement of sky radiation. Arch 602 Meteor Geophys Bioklim B 7:413–436Gueymard C (1995) SMARTS2: a simple model of the atmospheric radiative transfer of sunshine: algorithms and performance assessment. FSEC-PF-270-95, Florida Solar Energy CenterGueymard C (2003) SMARTS2 code, versión 2.9.2. User’s Manual, Solar Consulting Services Bailey CO. Available from http://rredc.nrel.gov/solar/models/SMARTS/smarts_index.htmlGueymard C (2004) The sun’s total and spectral irradiance for solar energy applications and solar radiation models. Solar Energy 76:423–453Häder DP, Lebert M, Marangoni R, Colombetti G (1999) ELDONET-European light dosimeter network hardware and software. J Photochem Photobiol B: Biol 52:51–58Häder DP, Lebert M, Colombetti G, Figueroa F (2001) European light dosimeter network (ELDONET). Helgol Mar Res 55:35–44Iqbal M (1983) An introduction to solar radiation. Academic, TorontoKudish AI, Evseev EG (2008) The assessment of four different correction models applied to the diffuse radiation measured with a shadow ring using global and normal beam radiation measurements for Beer Sheva, Israel. Solar Energy 82(2):144–156LeBaron BA, Michalsky JJ, Perez R (1990) A simple procedure for correcting shadowband data for all sky conditions. Solar Energy 44:249–256Marín Fernández MJ (2007) Estudio de la irradiancia solar ultravioleta y eritemática en la Comunidad Valenciana. Doctoral Thesis University of Valencia (Spain)Perez R, Ineichen P, Seals R, Michalsky JJ, Stewart R (1990) Modelling daylight availability and irradiance components from direct and global irradiance. Sol Energy 44:271–289Pinazo JM, Cañada J, Bosca JV (1995) A new method to determine Ångström's turbidity coefficient: its application for Valencia. Solar Energy 54:219–226Serrano MA, Boscá JV, Cañada J (2008) The determination of a band factor to express irradiance of UV and PAR wavelength ranges in a clean and dry atmosphere at Valencia (Spain). Int J Ambient Energy 29(4):171–180Utrillas MP, Boscà JV, Martinez-Lozano JA, Cañada J, Tena F, Pinazo JM (1998) A comparative study of Spectral2, and Smarts2 parameterised models based on spectral irradiance measurements at Valencia, Spain. Solar Energy 63:161–171Utrillas MP, Marín MJ, Esteve AR, Tena F, Cañada J, Estellés V, Martínez Lozano JA (2007) Diffuse UV erythemal radiation experimental values. J Geophy Res 112:387–39

Buenas prácticas de innovación docente en la Universidad de Córdoba

El proyecto muestra el proceso de trabajo de coordinación, que comenzó hace dos años y aún sigue vigente, en la introducción de los nuevos planes de estudio en la asignatura La Orientación Educativa. Escuela, Familia y Comunidad, que se imparte en el primer curso del grado de Educación Infantil de la Universidad de Córdob

What am I capable? Self-Assessment of Basic Competences

Los objetivos de esta investigación se centran en evaluar las competencias en comunicación lingüística y matemática del alumnado de sexto de educación primaria desde su reflexión personal y elaborar un cuestionario válido y fiable que pueda medir dicha autoevaluación. La metodología que se siguió es de carácter cuantitativo, descriptivo y correlacional. En el estudio participaron 1,424 alumnos de 46 centros educativos de Córdoba (España) y su provincia. Los resultados obtenidos muestran que variables como el género, la edad, el número de hermanos y la titularidad del centro influyen en una mejor o peor autoevaluación del alumnado, pero son las actividades extraescolares realizadas –y el mayor tiempo semanal dedicado a las mismas– las que provocan una mayor valoración de cada competencia. En contrapartida, un menor uso diario de la televisión, la computadora y los dispositivos portátiles de videojuegos posibilita que el alumnado se autoevalúe más capaz para diferentes aspectos de ambas competencias.The aims of this research are focus in evaluate linguistic communication and mathematics competences of students in sixth grade of primary education from their perception, and to develop a valid and reliable questionnaire in order to perform a self-assessment. The methodology has quantitative, descriptive and correlational character. In this research 1424 students from 46 schools in Cordova and its province participated. The results show that variables such as gender, age, number of siblings and type of center have influence for a better or worse self-assessment of students; but extracurricular activities undertaken by students and the increased weekly time devoted are those which cause a greater appreciation of each competence. On the other hand, a lower daily use of television, computer and games console allows that students make a self-assess more capeble to different aspects of both competences

Chronic ethanol induces morpohological changes on hippocampal microglia, which are reverted by pharmacological blockade of faah with urb597

Tipo de presentación: PósterHere, we evaluated the pharmacological effects of fatty-acid amide-hydrolase (FAAH) inhibitor URB597 (0.3 mg/kg), oleoylethanolamide (OEA, 10 mg/kg), arachidonoylethanolamide (AEA, 10 mg/kg), the CB1 receptor agonist ACEA (3 mg/kg) and the CB2 receptor agonist JWH133 (0.2 mg/kg) administered for 5 days in a rat model of sub-chronic (2 weeks) ethanol diet (11% v/v) exposure. As a result of these trials, URB597 turned to be the most effective treatment. Contrary to ethanol, URB597 reduced the mRNA levels of Iba-1, Tnfα, IL-6 and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1/CCL2), as well as the number of cells expressing GFAP or iNOS. Moreover, URB597 effects on hippocampal immune system were accompanied by changes in short and long-term visual recognition memory. Microglial morphometric analysis pointed out significant changes after ethanol exposure, suggesting that microglial cell morphology is closely related to ethanol-induced neuroinflammation. Ethanol provoked changes in fractal dimension, lacunarity, density, roughness, cell area and cell perimeter, which explain a decreased complexity of branches and increased cell surface irregularities. Such changes may represent a chronic activation state of microglia. In addition, ethanol effects on the microglial morphological parameters density and fractal dimension were reverted by URB597. Thus, this FAAH inhibitor was able to counteract the sub-chronic ethanol-induced morphological changes of microglia, resulting in a more compact and increased branch complexity, which apparently relate to a less activated state. Therefore, these morphometric parameters are sensitive and valuable tools to evaluate the chronic activation of microglia by ethanol and its pharmacological blockade.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. RETICS Red de Trastornos Adictivos, ISCIII, MINECO, ERDF-EU (RD16/0017/0001; PI17/02026; SAF2017-83645R). Plan Nacional sobre Drogas, MSCBS (PNSD2015/047; PND2017/043). Proyectos de investigación de excelencia, Junta de Andalucía (P11-CVI-07637)

Active methods in electricity and magnetism courses: Influence of degree, academic level and gender on student performance

[EN] The performance of first-year students in electromagnetism (E&M) courses of different engineering degrees at a Spanish public university was measured using the Brief Electricity and Magnetism Assessment (BEMA), a standard research-based instrument to assess students' understanding after attending introductory courses in electricity and magnetism. In all cases, Flipped classroom (FC) built on information and communications technology was used. The objective of this paper is to analyse if the gain in the BEMA pre and post-test results is influenced by several factors such as the degree, the students' academic grade, and gender. Moreover, as some studies have shown that the students' retention of the concepts was significantly stronger in active learning than in traditional approaches, a third BEMA test was performed by the students to analyse the long-term retention gain dependence on the same factors. Students from different engineering degree programs were asked to complete two BEMA tests during the course and a third one after a few months. ANOVA tests were used to analyse the existence of significant differences in gain between student degree programs, student academic level and student gender. Results have shown no differences in the BEMA performance by degree program, but significant differences were found by academic level and gender. Retention did not depend on the degree course but on the academic level. Mean gain value by academic level, and gender was obtained and concluded that the best students presented the best gain results and that gain depends on the students' gender: males outperformed females in the BEMA tests, although there were no significant differences in the course grades. It is thus necessary to understand these differences and to implement measures in daily teaching work to improve women's performance.Authors would like to thank the Instituto de Ciencias de la Educacion (ICE) in the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for their help, through the Innovation and Educational Quality Program and for supporting the team of the Innovacion en Metodologias Activas para el Aprendizaje de la Fisica (e-MACAFI) . This work has been supported by the UPV through the Project of Innovation and Educational Improvement Program (Projects PIME/18-19/76, PIME/18-19/88 and PIME/20-21/220 Convocatoria de Proyectos de Innovacion y Convergencia de la UPV) .Serrano, M.; Vidaurre, A.; Meseguer-Dueñas, JM.; Tort-Ausina, I.; Quiles Casado, SDLS.; Sabater I Serra, R.; García-Sanchez, T.... (2023). Active methods in electricity and magnetism courses: Influence of degree, academic level and gender on student performance. Heliyon. 9(10):1-15. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e2049011591

Effect of the use of videos in the pre-class preparation of laboratory sessions taught by flip teaching

[EN] Nowadays, it is well stablished the effectiveness of flip teaching in different areas. Video is widely used as a pre-class learning material and it is progressively replacing text-document materials. The students, 70 in total, are enrolled in the laboratory practice of the subject of Physics (Bachelor¿s Degree: Industrial Electronics and Automation Engineering) at the Universitat Politècnica de València. Student¿s perception data were collected from the results of a survey. Students were asked about the usefulness of the videos and the in-class work, paying special attention to the roll of the instructor in relation to the flip teaching methodology and the pre-class material. The students were divided into two groups. In one of them, the videos were recorded by the same instructor present at the lab session, whereas the other group, the videos used were recorded by instructors different from the instructor present at the lab. The results indicate that students feel that the videos are very useful, rather than the written documents. They attribute a high value to the instructor in the lab session as they feel more confident with their work and they can ask for help when needed. They value positively the possibility of work autonomously. Small differences have been found in the opinion of both groups being the higher in the question that concerns the preference of the videos respect to the text.This work has been supported by the Universitat Politècnica de València through the Project of Innovation and Educational Improvement Program (Projects PIME/2018/B26 and PIME/2018/B25 Convocatoria de Proyectos de Innovación y Convergencia).Meseguer Dueñas, JM.; Quiles Casado, SDLS.; Sabater I Serra, R.; Serrano, M.; Gómez-Tejedor, J.; García-Sánchez, TM.; Tort-Ausina, I.... (2020). Effect of the use of videos in the pre-class preparation of laboratory sessions taught by flip teaching. Iated. 6107-6112. https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2020.1654S6107611

Seroprevalence of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies in COVID-19 patients and healthy volunteers up to 6 months post disease onset

SARS-CoV-2 has emerged as a human pathogen, causing clinical signs, from fever to pneumonia—COVID-19—but may remain mild or asymptomatic. To understand the continuing spread of the virus, to detect those who are and were infected, and to follow the immune response longitudinally, reliable and robust assays for SARS-CoV-2 detection and immunological monitoring are needed. We quantified IgM, IgG, and IgA antibodies recognizing the SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain (RBD) or the Spike (S) protein over a period of 6 months following COVID-19 onset. We report the detailed setup to monitor the humoral immune response from over 300 COVID-19 hospital patients and healthcare workers, 2500 University staff, and 198 post-COVID-19 volunteers. Anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody responses follow a classic pattern with a rapid increase within the first three weeks after symptoms. Although titres reduce subsequently, the ability to detect anti-SARS-CoV-2 IgG antibodies remained robust with confirmed neutralization activity for up to 6 months in a large proportion of previously virus-positive screened subjects. Our work provides detailed information for the assays used, facilitating further and longitudinal analysis of protective immunity to SARS-CoV-2. Importantly, it highlights a continued level of circulating neutralising antibodies in most people with confirmed SARS-CoV-2.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Using surveillance data to estimate pandemic vaccine effectiveness against laboratory confirmed influenza A(H1N1)2009 infection : two case-control studies, Spain, season 2009-2010

Background: Physicians of the Spanish Influenza Sentinel Surveillance System report and systematically swab patients attended to their practices for influenza-like illness (ILI). Within the surveillance system, some Spanish regions also participated in an observational study aiming at estimating influenza vaccine effectiveness (cycEVA study). During the season 2009-2010, we estimated pandemic influenza vaccine effectiveness using both the influenza surveillance data and the cycEVA study. Methods: We conducted two case-control studies using the test-negative design, between weeks 48/2009 and 8/2010 of the pandemic season. The surveillance-based study included all swabbed patients in the sentinel surveillance system. The cycEVA study included swabbed patients from seven Spanish regions. Cases were laboratory-confirmed pandemic influenza A(H1N1)2009. Controls were ILI patients testing negative for any type of influenza. Variables collected in both studies included demographic data, vaccination status, laboratory results, chronic conditions, and pregnancy. Additionally, cycEVA questionnaire collected data on previous influenza vaccination, smoking, functional status, hospitalisations, visits to the general practitioners, and obesity. We used logistic regression to calculate adjusted odds ratios (OR), computing pandemic influenza vaccine effectiveness as (1-OR *100. Results: We included 331 cases and 995 controls in the surveillance-based study and 85 cases and 351 controls in the cycEVA study. We detected nine (2.7%) and two (2.4%) vaccine failures in the surveillance-based and cycEVA studies, respectively. Adjusting for variables collected in surveillance database and swabbing month, pandemic influenza vaccine effectiveness was 62% (95% confidence interval (CI): -5; 87). The cycEVA vaccine effectiveness was 64% (95%CI: -225; 96) when adjusting for common variables with the surveillance system and 75% (95%CI: -293; 98) adjusting for all variables collected. Conclusion: Point estimates of the pandemic influenza vaccine effectiveness suggested a protective effect of the pandemic vaccine against laboratory-confirmed influenza A(H1N1)2009 in the season 2009-2010. Both studies were limited by the low vaccine coverage and the late start of the vaccination campaign. Routine influenza surveillance provides reliable estimates and could be used for influenza vaccine effectiveness studies in future seasons taken into account the surveillance system limitations