Thermal reference points as an index for monitoring body temperature in marine mammals

BACKGROUND Monitoring body temperature is essential in veterinary care as minor variations may indicate dysfunction. Rectal temperature is widely used as a proxy for body temperature, but measuring it requires special equipment, training or restraining, and it potentially stresses animals. Infrared thermography is an alternative that reduces handling stress, is safer for technicians and works well for untrained animals. This study analysed thermal reference points in five marine mammal species: bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus); beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas); Patagonian sea lion (Otaria flavescens); harbour seal (Phoca vitulina); and Pacific walrus (Odobenus rosmarus divergens). RESULTS The thermogram analysis revealed that the internal blowhole mucosa temperature is the most reliable indicator of body temperature in cetaceans. The temperatures taken during voluntary breathing with a camera held perpendicularly were practically identical to the rectal temperature in bottlenose dolphins and were only 1 °C lower than the rectal temperature in beluga whales. In pinnipeds, eye temperature appears the best parameter for temperature control. In these animals, the average times required for temperatures to stabilise after hauling out, and the average steady-state temperature values, differed according to species: Patagonian sea lions, 10 min, 31.13 °C; harbour seals, 10 min, 32.27 °C; Pacific walruses, 5 min, 29.93 °C. CONCLUSIONS The best thermographic and most stable reference points for monitoring body temperature in marine mammals are open blowhole in cetaceans and eyes in pinnipeds

Un recurso virtual de apoyo al profesorado universitario para la evaluación de competencias

La evaluación de los aprendizajes dentro del contexto del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior exige desarrollar competencias docentes nuevas porque los planteamientos formativos son diferentes así como los escenarios profesionales donde se desarrollará una parte importante de la docencia. En consecuencia la continuidad de la evaluación tradicional a base de pruebas de papel y lápiz va a ser parcialmente inviable. Sobre ese problema de la evaluación y sobre el resto de los elementos docentes implicados se ha llevado a cabo una investigación en 5 universidades españolas para determinar primeramente y mediante procedimientos de acuerdo social (grupos de discusión) y de encuesta las competencias docentes clave percibidas por el profesorado como imprescindibles para dar respuesta a este desafío; entre ellas se describieron 11 competencias para la evaluación. En un segundo momento se ha realizado on-line una valoración de las necesidades de formación que el profesorado encuestado entendía tener respecto a las competencias antes identificadas. Los datos obtenidos permiten afirmar que el profesorado encuestado percibe un bloque mayoritario de competencias clave relacionadas con el manejo de los diferentes elementos del sistema de evaluación del alumnado; el resto del bagaje competencial evaluador se relaciona con el aprovechamiento de la información obtenida en el proceso para la mejora de la propia práctica docente. Las necesidades de formación detectadas señalan la evaluación en contextos nuevos de enseñanza aprendizaje y la elaboración de instrumentos de evaluación como ámbitos preferentes para la formación continua así como la necesidad de particularizar en centros y titulaciones dicha oferta de formación.Educational assessment in the teaching context of European Higher Education Area demands specific assessment competencies to university lecturers; main reason is because educational background as well as the learning arenas is going to change substantially in the higher education system of Europe along de next decades. Subsequently traditional pen-and-pencil assessment practices will be of scarce utility for the feature teaching-and-learning processes. A research project has been conducted to identify teaching competencies perceived by lecturers as key-competencies for the new situation. Managing focus-group and survey technics eleven assessment competencies were firstly identified; a need training assessment process on such evaluation competencies have been executed afterward. Research data point out to a majority handful of competencies related with the management of strategies to assess student learning process and outcomes; the minority group speaks on competencies to integrate global assessment information on improving teaching practice. Finally some training need have been stated as assessment strategies in new learning environments, assessment technics, as well as the need of planning context-related (in-service) training offers

Electrochemical sensor for rapid determination of fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 in raw cancer cell lysates

The first electrochemical immunosensor for the determination of fibroblast growth factor receptor 4 (FGFR4) biomarker is reported in this work. The biosensor involves a sandwich configuration with covalent immobilization of a specific capture antibody onto activated carboxylic-modified magnetic microcarriers (HOOC-MBs) and amperometric detection at disposable carbon screen-printed electrodes (SPCEs). The biosensor exhibits a great analytical performance regarding selectivity for the target protein and a low LOD of 48.2 pg mL-1. The electrochemical platform was successfully applied for the determination of FGFR4 in different cancer cell lysates without any apparent matrix effect after a simple sample dilution and using only 2.5 μg of the raw lysate. Comparison of the results with those provided by a commercial ELISA kit shows competitive advantages by using the developed immunosensor in terms of simplicity, analysis time, and portability and cost-affordability of the required instrumentation for the accurate determination of FGFR4 in cell lysates

First bioelectronic immunoplatform for quantitative secretomic analysis of total and metastasis-driven glycosylated haptoglobin

The glycosylation status of proteins is increasingly used as biomarker to improve the reliability in the diagnosis and prognosis of diseases as relevant as cancer. This feeds the need for tools that allow its simple and reliable analysis and are compatible with applicability in the clinic. With this objective in mind, this work reports the first bioelectronic immunoplatforms described to date for the determination of glycosylated haptoglobin (Hp) and the simultaneous determination of total and glycosylated Hp. The bioelectronic immunoplatform is based on the implementation of non-competitive bioassays using two different antibodies or an antibody and a lectin on the surface of commercial magnetic microcarriers. The resulting bioconjugates are labeled with the horseradish peroxidase (HRP) enzyme, and after their magnetic capture on disposable electroplatforms, the amperometric transduction using the H2O2/hydroquinone (HQ) system allows the single or multiple detection. The developed immunoplatform achieves limits of detection (LODs) of 0.07 and 0.46 ng mL-1 for total and glycosylated Hp in buffer solution, respectively. The immunoplatform allows accurate determination using simple and relatively short protocols (approx. 75 min) of total and glycosylated Hp in the secretomes of in vitro-cultured colorectal cancer (CRC) cells with different metastatic potentials, which is not feasible, due to lack of sensitivity, by means of some commercial ELISA kits and Western blot methodology.Funding Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (PID2019-103899RB-I00 and RTI2018-095756-B-I00), AES-ISCIII Program co-founded by FEDER funds (PI17CIII/00045 and PI20CIII/00019 grants), TRANSNANOAVANSENS-CM Program from the Comunidad de Madrid (Grant S2018/NMT-4349).S

The Traspena meteorite: heliocentric orbit, atmospheric trajectory, strewn field, and petrography of a new L5 ordinary chondrite

The Traspena meteorite fell on 2021 January 18 about 20 km south-east of the city of Lugo (Galiza, Spain), shortly after a huge and bright fireball crossed the sky for 4.84 s. Astrometric measurements obtained from the fireball cameras of the Universidade de Santiago de Compostela (USC) as well as from many casual videos were used to determine the atmospheric trajectory of this meteoroid which penetrated the atmosphere and generated sound waves that were detected at three seismic stations. The original meteoroid had a diameter of about 1.15 m and a mass around 2620 kg. It impacted the Earth’s atmosphere with a steep entry angle of about 76∘.7 from a height of 75.10 km until fading away at 15.75 km with a velocity of 2.38 km s−1. Before the impact, this small asteroid was orbiting the Sun with a semimajor axis of 1.125 au, a moderate eccentricity of 0.386, and a low inclination of 4∘.55. A weak evidence of dynamic link with the PHA (Potential Hazardous Asteroid) Minos was investigated. During the atmospheric entry, two major fragmentation events occurred between heights of 35 and 29 km at aerodynamic pressures between 1 and 5 MPa. The strewn field was computed after calculating the individual dark flights of the main body along with two smaller fragments. Fortunately, 2 month after the superbolide, a 527-g meteorite was found. It was examined using several geochemical and petrographic analyses which allowed us to classify it as a moderately shocked (S3) L5 ordinary chondrite with a bulk density of 3.25 g cm−3This paper was supported by the Xunta de Galicia (Spain) under the ED431B 2020/38 grantS

Screening for Prognostic microRNAs Associated with Treatment Failure in Diffuse Large B Cell Lymphoma

Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) treatment with R-CHOP regimen produces 5-year progression-free survival and overall survival of around 60-70%. Our objective was to discover prognostic biomarkers allowing early detection of the remaining 30-40% with poor long-term outcome. For this purpose, we applied a novel strategy: from a cohort of DLBCL patients, treated with standard therapy, a discovery group of 12 patients with poor prognosis (advanced stage III-IV, R-IPI > 2) was formed, consisting of six chemoresistant (refractory/early relapse 3 years) subjects. By using microarray assays, the most differentially expressed miRNAs were defined as an initial set of prognostic miRNA candidates. Their expression was then analyzed in a validation cohort of 68 patients and the three miRNAs with the most significant impact on event-free and overall survival were selected. In the DLBCL cell line U-2932 the transfection with miR-1244 and miR-193b-5p, but not miR-1231, blocked the effect of CHOP on cell viability. A subsequent gene set enrichment analysis in patients revealed the implication of the first two miRNAs in cell cycle control and chemoresistance-related pathways, whereas the last one was involved in immunological processes. In conclusion, this novel strategy identified three promising prognostic markers for DLBCL patients at high risk of failure with standard therapy

Necesidades de formación del profesorado universitario para la adaptación de su docencia al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES)

En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de una investigación llevada a cabo en cinco universidades españolas para diagnosticar las necesidades de formación en competencias del profesorado universitario. Utilizando técnicas de encuesta, aplicadas a una amplia muestra d profesorado de las cinco áreas de conocimiento, se han detectado necesidades de formación en seis bloques de competencias: a) la Planificación de la Docencia;  b) el Desarrollo de la Docencia; c)  la Evaluación;  d) la Tutoría;  e) la Gestión;  f) la Formación Continua.  Se han hallado diferencias significativas en las necesidades en función del área de conocimiento y las categorías profesionales

Teachers’ needs for teaching in the European Higher Education area (EHEA)

En este trabajo se presentan los resultados de una investigación llevada a cabo en cinco universidades españolas para diagnosticar las necesidades de formación en competencias del profesorado universitario. Utilizando técnicas de encuesta, aplicadas a una amplia muestra d profesorado de las cinco áreas de conocimiento, se han detectado necesidades de formación en seis bloques de competencias: a) la Planificación de la Docencia; b) el Desarrollo de la Docencia; c) la Evaluación; d) la Tutoría; e) la Gestión; f) la Formación Continua. Se han hallado diferencias significativas en las necesidades en función del área de conocimiento y las categorías profesionales.This paper presents some findings of a research study conducted in five Spanish universities about teachers needs for teaching in the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). A survey procedure has been applied to a sample of teachers in the five university scientific areas. Aimed to establish teaching needs, data analysis of this research has poured a big amount of specific topics referring to six teaching blocks of competences: planning and developing teaching and conducting evaluation and tutoring, besides organizing teaching and lifelong learning. We have compared the result from the five scientific areas, and different teachers’ categories

Profiles of University Professors in Spain for the European Higher Education Area (EHEA)

This paper presents the findings of a research study of professors’ profiles for the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) conducted in five spanish universities. Through the application of qualitative methods of inquiry, the perceptions of several groups of university professors over the principal teaching qualifications necessary for the coordination of higher education throughout the European Union have been obtained. Data analysis indicates a significant discrepancy between actual Spanish professors and those required by EHEA. It has also made possible the detailed description of teaching competency profiles that professors believe to be fundamental for the new functions demanded of them in the present changing social and educational situation