Stylized Facts of the Gross National Product of Argentina: 1875 - 1999

The stylized facts of macroeconomic time series can be presented by fitting structural time series models. Within this framework, we study the behaviour of the gross national product of Argentina in the long run and provide a method for modelling this behaviour, which in turn is equivalent to establishing the stylized facts associated with these time series. We analyse the annual data of the gross national product and the gross national product per capita of Argentina from 1875 to 1999. The study of these variables allows, among other things, to know the changes that have been taking place in the economy. The evolution of these variables in time tells us, roughly, if there was progress or not.Fil: Abril, Juan Carlos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Tucumán; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Estadísticas; ArgentinaFil: Blanco, Maria Beatriz. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán. Facultad de Ciencias Económicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Estadísticas; Argentin

An analysis of the returns from the North Central Railway of Argentina for the period 1889-1920

Paso a paso los Ferrocarriles del Estado se convirtieron a finales del siglo XIX y principios del XX en la empresa más importante de la Argentina, por su importancia política y económica de la red. En conjunto, la longitud de vías era mayor que la de cualquiera otra empresa ferroviaria argentina y alcanzaba para 1918 a 6.135 kilómetros en explotación. Nuestro objetivo es analizar el comportamiento económico de la línea del Ferrocarril Central Norte de la Argentina. Para ello se trabajará con las series anuales de kilómetros de vías, pasajeros transportados, cargas en toneladas transportadas y rendimiento del capital invertido en tanto por uno que lo denominamos retorno. A fin de eliminar la influencia de los kilómetros de vías en las series de pasajeros y cargas, se trabaja definitivamente con los pasajeros por kilómetro de vía y cargas en toneladas por kilómetro de vías. Para el análisis se usa los modelos de espacio de estado y los modelos de volatilidad estocástica. Se encuentra que la volatilidad es la dominante en sus explicaciones, lo que muestra que efectivamente no hubo una política empresarial en el manejo de los ferrocarriles del Estado. Muy por el contrario, todo se hacía con un fuerte sentido de fomento y estaba sujeto a las disponibilidades financieras junto con el crédito externo existente en cada momento de tiempo.By the very end of the XIX century and the beginning of the XX century, the state funded railways slowly became the most important argentine enterprise mainly because of the political and economical importance of this network. Overall, we can say that the track length was higher than any other private railway company and by the end of 1918 was about 6135 kilometres long. Our goal is to analyze the economic performance of the Central Norte line of Argentina. In order to do so, we will use the annual series of track kilometres, carried passengers, transported loads and a measure of the capital invested. But we will take away the influence of the track length and obtain two new series, namely, transported loads by track kilometres and carried passengers by track kilometres. We will analyze all these series using state space models and stochastic volatility models. We will find that the volatility is the feature that dominates the behavior in everything we see. This fact corroborates that there was not and efficient entrepreneurial policy in the administration of this state line. On the contrary, everything was done with a strong sense of promotion and it was related to the financial availability of the time together with the external credit.Fil: Abril, María de Las Mercedes. Universidad Nacional de Tucuman. Facultad de Cs.economicas. Instituto de Investigaciones Estadisticas; Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina;Fil: Blanco, Maria Beatriz. Universidad Nacional de Tucuman. Facultad de Cs.economicas; Universidad Nacional de Tucuman. Facultad de Cs.economicas. Instituto de Estudios Socio-economicos

The enzymatic determination of glucose in carbonated beverages: a useful tool for the undergraduate students to learn the basis of enzymatic analysis and the comparison of two analytical methods

The importance of enzymatic analysis in biochemistry, clinical chemistry and food chemistry is undoubted. The course "Applied Biochemistry" in our Faculty is aimed to undergraduate students of Chemistry and Biochemistry. In this subject, the principles and applications of enzymatic analysis are presented to the students, who receive a theoretical introductory lecture in the classroom before they carry out an experiment that should be feasible to be solved in a short laboratory period. The experimental protocol here presented, based on the enzymatic determination of glucose in carbonated beverages, has been implemented at the University of Málaga and it has been optimized according to the students’ results and commentaries along the last years. It aims to illustrate basic issues relating enzymatic analysis, including its potential application to food chemistry. Although there are several enzymatic methods that can be used for the determination of glucose, we selected the one based on the coupled reactions of glucose oxidase (GOD; EC 1.1.3.4.) and peroxidase (POD; EC 1.11.1.7.) because the kinetic constants of glucose oxidase allow the mentioned enzymatic reactions to be used in both, the end point and the kinetic enzymatic analysis methods. In this way, data for two different protocols for the determination of glucose concentration are obtained by the students from a single reaction mixture. Students construct a calibration curve for each method using a glucose standard solution, and use them to determine the glucose concentration in the problem solutions. The inclusion of replicate samples in the determination of the glucose concentration of an “ideal problem” (glucose in purified water) is used to illustrate the principles of statistics in the lab, and comparison with the “real value” allows an estimation of the accuracy of each method. The evaluation of glucose concentration in four carbonated beverages: coloured coke and uncoloured tonic sodas (regular or sugarless in both cases) makes student to recognise the appearance of interferences that should be either avoided or eliminated. Since all samples are analysed by means of end-point and kinetic methods, students can discuss the applicability of each method to these specific analytical problems. They are also encouraged to compare both analytical methods in terms of sensitivity, selectivity, accuracy, and time consumed. Chemistry and Biochemistry undergraduate students having performed this experiment in our laboratories have found it formative, interesting and challenging.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A practice project to prevent the cookbook model as modus operandi for biochemistry laboratory learning

Laboratory learning is a crucial component of chemistry and biochemistry instruction and should be conceived as a way to develop students’ reasoning, technical or practical skills, introducing them into the scientific method principles. Nevertheless, the heavily criticized “expository instruction style”, characterized by a cookbook nature, is still the most widespread style of laboratory instruction in our universities. Alternative learning styles based in the inquiry, discovery and problem-based pedagogical approaches, have been reported to promote students’ problem solving skills, critical thought and self-confidence development. We are currently involved in the Educative Innovation Project PIE17-065, funded by University of Malaga, aimed to improve the teaching practice of Biochemistry laboratory to undergraduate students. Based on an enzymatic analysis of glucose in soft-drinks we have developed a laboratory protocol as a part of a full practice project where students must work before and after the lab session, in order to prevent the cookbook model as modus operandi, therefore preventing the situation where the students get a first glimpse of the experiment protocol whereas they put on their lab coat. The learning activities have been designed to move our students from the passive role that characterizes the step-by-step procedures, to an active and critical attitude that starts before and remains after their laboratory session, also minimizing time, space, and equipment resources. Our results have shown that this experiment has improved the learning of both, future biochemists and chemists, which showed a very positive perception of the whole practical project.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. PIE 17-06

Learning contract, co-operative and flipped learning as useful tools for studying metabolism

Es el Abstract de una comunicación a un congreso internacional sobre educaciónUndergraduate students in Biology identify Metabolic Biochemistry as a particularly difficult subject. This is due to the fact that students need to interconnect properly all the contents of its syllabus throughout their study of the subject in order to get a global insight of the complex regulatory features controlling metabolic pathways within the metabolic network under different physiologic and pathologic conditions, as well as metabolism as a whole. Due to these objective difficulties, a high percentage of our students face the study of this subject as a very hard task beyond their forces and capacities. This perception leads to high rates of premature dropout. In previous years, less than 40% of all the registered students attended the examinations of Metabolic Biochemistry (a subject in the second year of the Degree of Biology at our University). Even worse, less than 25% of our students passed the exams. From the academic year 2015/16 on, we are developing innovative teaching projects (PIE15-163 and PIE17-145, funded by University of Malaga) aimed to increase our student loyalty to the subject (and hence to increase their attendance to exams) and to help them to learn more effectively metabolism and its regulation. These innovative teaching projects are based on the use of several powerful tools: a learning contract and problem-based learning within the framework of group tasks promoting an actual collaborative learning in a flipped classroom. The present communication will show the implementation of the PIE15-163 and PIE17-145 projects and some results obtained from them.This work was supported by Malaga University funds granted to the educational innovation project PIE17-145. The attendance to the END2018 International Conference on Education and New Developments (June 2018, Budapest, Hungary) has received a grant from "I Plan Propio Integral de Docencia. Universidad de Málaga"]

Influencia de la infusión contínua de insulina subcutánea en el control de la diabetes tipo 1 en niños

Diabetes mellitus type 1 is the most frequent endocrinological chronic disease during childhood. Self-care and the knowledge about this disease are the facts that are directly related to the reduction of health costs as well as the improvement of the life quality. The continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion pump (CSII) emulates the normal physiology and eliminates the need of continuous injections, remaining to determinate if this treatment contributes positively to the self-control of the diabetes.Didactic Materials and Methods: Retrospective cohort study. The data collection is made by a survey based on the NOC’s “Conocimiento: control de la diabetes” (Knowledge: diabetes control) and “Autocontrol diabetes” (Diabetes self-care) of all the children with continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion pump (CSII) at the health area number 2 from the Region of Murcia, as well as to their homologous with multiple injection. To draw the results, the statistic program SPSS v21, was the one used.Results: The study subjects have an average age of 11 years, being the 60% male and 40% female. Statistical significance was not obtained concerning to the level of knowledge, self-control and HbA1c values between the exposed group (CSII) and nonexposed group (multiple injection), except for the diet monitoring, where there was obtained a connection with the CSII treatment  (p=0.037). The age was also related to a knowledge increasement (p=0.001).Conclusion: Households units with children under 7 years with multiple injections should have a more intense training in order to reduce the anxiety and doubts of the parents.La diabetes mellitus tipo 1 es la enfermedad crónica endocrinológica más frecuente en la edad pediátrica. El autocuidado y el conocimiento sobre la enfermedad  están relacionados con la reducción en costes en salud y con una mejora en la calidad de vida. La bomba de infusión s continua de insulina subcutánea (ICIS) imita la fisiología normal y elimina la necesidad de inyecciones repetidas, quedando por determinar si este tratamiento favorece el autocontrol de la diabetes. Material y Métodos: Estudio de Cohortes retrospectivo.La recogida de datos se realiza  a través de un cuestionario basado en los NOC “Conocimiento: control de la diabetes” y “Autocontrol diabetes” a todos los niños con ICIS del área II de salud de la Región de Murcia, así como a sus homólogos de inyecciones múltiples. Para la determinación de resultados se utilizó el programa estadístico SPSS v.21.Resultados: Los sujetos del estudio tienen una edad media de 11 años, siendo 60% hombres y el 40% mujeres. No se obtuvieron diferencias estadísticamente significativas con respecto al nivel de conocimientos, autocontrol  y valores de HbA1c entre el grupo de expuestos (ICIS) y no expuestos (inyecciones múltiples), excepto en el siguimiento de la dieta, donde si se obtuvo relación con el tratamiento con ICIS (p=0.037)  . La edad también  se relacionó con un aumento en los conocimientos (p=0.001).Conclusión: Las unidades familiares con menores de 7 años con inyecciones múltiples, deberán tener una formación más intensa sobre todo dirigida a disminuir la ansiedad y dudas de los padres.

Occurrence of tetrodotoxin in bivalves and gastropods from harvesting areas and other natural spaces in Spain

Tetrodotoxin (TTX) is a potent neurotoxin that is receiving increasing interest in the European Union because it has been found in different fishery products (fish, bivalves and gastropods) captured in European waters. Since available information is scarce, further analytical data regarding the incidence of this toxin in European fishery products is needed in order to perform an appropriate risk assessment devoted to protecting consumers’ health. Hence, samples of bivalves and gastropods were collected at different points of the Spanish coast and analyzed by high-performance hydrophilic interaction liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (HILIC-MS/MS) to evaluate the presence of TTX. None of the analyzed samples showed TTX above an internal threshold of 10 µg/kg or even showed a peak under it. Our results on TTX occurrence obtained in bivalve molluscs and gastropods did not show, at least in the studied areas, a risk for public health. However, taking into account previous positive results obtained by other research groups, and since we did not detect TTX in our samples, a more completed study increasing sampling frequency is needed to ensure proper risk evaluation towards the food safety of these products.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Medida de glucosa en refrescos: una útil herramienta para ilustrar el aprendizaje de los fundamentos del análisis enzimático

Es indudable la relevancia que el análisis enzimático tiene en el ámbito de la Bioquímica, la Química Clínica y la Química de la Alimentación, entre otras. En la asignatura “Bioquímica Aplicada” de cuarto curso del grado en Química de nuestra Universidad, los alumnos aprenden los fundamentos teóricos del análisis enzimático, que luego ponen en práctica en el laboratorio, en un contexto cotidiano, mediante la determinación de glucosa en diferentes refrescos carbonatados. Aunque existen diversos métodos enzimáticos para la valoración de la concentración de glucosa, hemos elegido para la sesión práctica el que se basa en las reacciones acopladas de la glucosa oxidasa (EC 1.1.3.4.) y la peroxidasa (EC 1.11.1.7.) por ser especialmente ilustrativo a la hora de afianzar los conceptos teóricos desarrollados en clase, así como para despertar su espíritu crítico al enfrentarles a la resolución de problemas “del mundo real” y hacerles elegir qué método analítico puede ser mejor para un caso concreto. Los alumnos usan dos protocolos distintos (métodos cinético y a punto final) para determinar la concentración de glucosa, inicialmente en una muestra de glucosa en agua, familiarizándose con ambos métodos y permitiéndoles construir las rectas de calibrado, mediante las que deberán establecer el rango de aplicación para cada método. La medida de las variaciones de absorbancia con el tiempo, que en el método cinético son proporcionales a la concentración de glucosa, permite ilustrar aspectos metodológicos de la estimación de la velocidad inicial de una reacción enzimática. Posteriormente los alumnos se enfrentan al problema de la medida de la concentración de glucosa en una serie de bebidas que incluyen refrescos de cola y tónicas, con o sin azúcar (refrescos “cero”), encontrándose con nuevas dificultades como son la necesidad de diluir en varios órdenes de magnitud las muestras (lo que les familiariza con el uso de las diluciones seriadas), y la aparición de interferencias debidas al color de la muestra, decantándose por uno u otro método en función de la naturaleza del problema analítico planteado.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Detoxification of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins in naturally contaminated mussels, clams and scallops by an industrial procedure

Paralytic shellfish poisoning (PSP) episodes cause important economic impacts due to closure of shellfish production areas in order to protect human health. These closures, if are frequent and persistent, can seriously affect shellfish producers and the seafood industry, among others. In this study, we have developed an alternative processing method for bivalves with PSP content above the legal limit, which allows reducing toxicity to acceptable levels. A modification of the PSP detoxifying procedure stablished by Decision 96/77/EC of the European Union in Acanthocardia tuberculatum, was developed and implemented for PSP elimination in other bivalves species. The procedure was applied to 6 batches of mussels, 2 batches of clams and 2 batches of scallops, achieving detoxification rates of around 85%. A viable industrial protocol which allows the transformation of a product at risk into a safe product was developed. Although a significant reduction was obtained, in a sample circa 9000 μg STX diHCl equiv/kg, the final toxin level in these highly toxic mussels did not fall below the European limit. The processing protocol described may be applied efficiently to mussels, clams and scallops and it may be a major solution to counteract the closure of shellfish harvesting areas, especially if persistent.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio