Integrative pedagogy and foreign language learning

This presentation explores different opportunities outside of the classroom setting that enhance the learning and practice of a second language (L2), as well as the intercultural competency of learners of L2. The use of academic technology available at CSBSJU and of interactive online platforms allow for students to practice their language skills with native speakers from around the globe, respond to aural and written cues, discuss readings, view films, and take tests and quizzes outside of the classroom. As a consequence, instructors can delve into more nuanced language and cultural topics as language proficiency is achieved. We address strategies currently used at our institutions that enrich students\u27 learning experience, confidence in L2 production and cultural awareness

Predicting visual context for unsupervised event segmentation in continuous photo-streams

Segmenting video content into events provides semantic structures for indexing, retrieval, and summarization. Since motion cues are not available in continuous photo-streams, and annotations in lifelogging are scarce and costly, the frames are usually clustered into events by comparing the visual features between them in an unsupervised way. However, such methodologies are ineffective to deal with heterogeneous events, e.g. taking a walk, and temporary changes in the sight direction, e.g. at a meeting. To address these limitations, we propose Contextual Event Segmentation (CES), a novel segmentation paradigm that uses an LSTM-based generative network to model the photo-stream sequences, predict their visual context, and track their evolution. CES decides whether a frame is an event boundary by comparing the visual context generated from the frames in the past, to the visual context predicted from the future. We implemented CES on a new and massive lifelogging dataset consisting of more than 1.5 million images spanning over 1,723 days. Experiments on the popular EDUB-Seg dataset show that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art by over 16% in f-measure. Furthermore, CES' performance is only 3 points below that of human annotators.Comment: Accepted for publication at the 2018 ACM Multimedia Conference (MM '18

Polyunsaturated fatty acid metabolism in three fish species with different trophic level

Reducing the dependency of fishfeed for marine ingredients and species diversification are both considered crucial factors for the sustainable development of aquaculture. The substitution of fish oil (FO) by vegetable oils (VO) in aquafeeds is an economically feasible solution. However, such substitution may compromise the fish flesh content of essential n-3 long chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 LC-PUFA) and, therefore, its nutritional value for human consumption. Likewise, there is a wide range of strategies to select new target species for sector diversification, among which, the capacity to biosynthesize n-3 LC-PUFA from their C18 precursors abundant in VO might be considered as a fair preliminary strategy. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to analyze the metabolic fate of [1-14C] labeled 18:2n-6, 18:3n-3, 20:5n-3 and 22:6n-3 in isolated hepatocytes and enterocytes from wild individuals of three fish species with different trophic level: the marine herbivorous salema (Sarpa salpa), the strict carnivorous sand sole (Pegusa lascaris) and the omnivorous thicklip grey mullet (Chelon labrosus). These species were selected for their phylogenetic proximity to consolidated farmed species such as gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata), senegalese sole (Solea senegalensis), and golden grey mullet (Liza aurata), respectively. The study also assessed the molecular cloning, functional characterization and tissue distribution of the fatty acyl elongase (Elovl) gene, elovl5, involved in the biosynthetic metabolism of n-3 LC-PUFA. The three species were able to biosynthesize docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3). S. salpa seems to have similar biosynthetic capacity than S. aurata, with a fatty acyl desaturase 2 (Fads2), with 6, 8 and 5 activities. P. lascaris showed a wider Fads2 activity repertory than S. senegalensis, including 4 and residual 6/5 activities. In C. labrosus, both 8 and 5 activities but not the 6 described for L. aurata were detected in the incubated cells. Elongation from C18 and C20 precursors to C20 and C22 products occurred in hepatocytes and enterocytes as well as in the functional characterization of Elovl5 by heterologous expression in yeast. Elovl5 showed a species specific expression pattern, with the highest rates observed in the liver, gut and brain in S. salpa and P. lascaris, and in the brain for C. labrosus. In summary, the LC-PUFA biosynthesis capacity from S. salpa, P. lascaris and C. labrosus greatly resembled that of their phylogenetic closer species. The three studied species could be further explored as candidates for the aquaculture diversification from their potential ability to biosynthesize LC-PUFA

Impact of cooking method on phenolic composition and antioxidant potential of four varieties of Phaseolus vulgaris L. and Glycine max L.

The present study aimed to investigate the effects of different cooking conditions - atmospheric (100°C) and pressure cooking (115°C) - on the phenolic composition and antioxidant activity of methanolic extracts of four Phaseolus vulgaris varieties and soy (Glycine max). Contrary to soy, in P. vulgaris varieties both cooking methods increased drastically the total phenolic, flavonoid, and ortho-diphenol content, as well as antioxidant capacity. These results were corroborated by HPLC analysis, where an overall increase of phenolic acids and flavonoids was detected in processed samples. However, draining the cooking water significantly decreased phenolic acids, flavonoids and antioxidant activity in all P. vulgaris varieties and as well as soy. The hypothesis that cooking increases the compound accessibility and nutritional value through increased release of phytochemicals was verified in the present study for P. vulgaris varieties. Keeping the cooking water is crucial to the increased nutritional value of all Phaseolus varieties. Overall, compared with the tested varieties of Phaseolus, soy, to which many health benefits are attributed, is not the best legume source of antioxidants.The author Catarina I. Teixeira-Guedes acknowledges the financial support provided FCT-Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/52544/2014), under the Doctoral Program “Agricultural Production Chains – from fork to farm” (PD/00122/ 2012). This work was supported by the European Investment Funds FEDER/COMPETE/POCI– Operational Competitiveness and Internationalization Programme [POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006958] and Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) [UID/AGR/ 04033/2019]; Project I&D Interact - Integrative Research in Environment, Agro-Chain and Technology [NORTE-01-0145-FEDER000017], co-financed by European Regional Development Fund (FEDER) through NORTE 2020 (Programa Operacional Regional do Norte 2014/2020).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Irrigation deficit turns almond by-products into a valuable source of antimicrobial (poly)phenols

[EN] Almond (Prunus dulcis (Mill.) D. A. Webb) production keeps an increasing trend worldwide, leading to augment in generation of harmful by-products that should be valorized as a source of bioactive phytochemicals with application in the development of new added-value products. The assessment of almond hulls and skins on their (poly)phenolic composition was developed upon two seasons, under five irrigation regimes, regarding total phenolics, flavonoids, and ortho-diphenols, as well as individual phenolic compounds analyzed by High Performance Liquid Chromatography with Diode-Array Detection (HPLC-DAD). As functional tests, extracts were assessed on their radical scavenging activity in vitro and reducing power, and screened on their antimicrobial activity against multidrug resistant bacterial pathogens. The phenolic profile and antioxidant activities were evaluated in blanching water as well. Naringenin-7-O-glucoside and isorhamnetin-3-O-rutinoside were the most abundant phenolics in almond hulls and skins. Influence of irrigation treatments and season on phenolic content differed among by-products; hulls being more influenced by irrigation and skins by the agro-climatic conditions. The synthesis of individual phenolics was more influenced by season than treatment. According to the chemical and biological correlations, the presence of (poly)phenols seems to be responsible for the antioxidant and antimicrobial properties revealed. The knowledge generated upon the present work contributes to understand the variability of almond by-products composition attributable to seasonal and irrigation conditions, and to envisage valorization alternatives for these under explored residues and blanching water.IP acknowledges the financial support provided by the FCT-Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (SFRH/BD/52539/2014), under the Doctoral Programme Agricultural Production Chains from fork to farm (PD/00122/2012). This work was also supported by National Funds by FCT - Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, under the project UID/AGR/04033/2019. RDP was supported by a Postdoctoral Contract (Juan de la Cierva de Incorporación ICJI-2015-25373) from the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness of Spain.Prgomet, I.; Gonçalves, B.; Domínguez-Perles, R.; Santos, R.; Saavedra, MJ.; Aires, A.; Pascual-Seva, N.... (2019). Irrigation deficit turns almond by-products into a valuable source of antimicrobial (poly)phenols. Industrial Crops and Products. 132:186-196. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indcrop.2019.02.024S18619613

Non-productive angiogenesis disassembles Aß plaque-associated blood vessels

The human Alzheimer’s disease (AD) brain accumulates angiogenic markers but paradoxically, the cerebral microvasculature is reduced around Aß plaques. Here we demonstrate that angiogenesis is started near Aß plaques in both AD mouse models and human AD samples. However, endothelial cells express the molecular signature of non-productive angiogenesis (NPA) and accumulate, around Aß plaques, a tip cell marker and IB4 reactive vascular anomalies with reduced NOTCH activity. Notably, NPA induction by endothelial loss of presenilin, whose mutations cause familial AD and which activity has been shown to decrease with age, produced a similar vascular phenotype in the absence of Aß pathology. We also show that Aß plaque-associated NPA locally disassembles blood vessels, leaving behind vascular scars, and that microglial phagocytosis contributes to the local loss of endothelial cells. These results define the role of NPA and microglia in local blood vessel disassembly and highlight the vascular component of presenilin loss of function in AD

A collaboratively derived environmental research agenda for Galapagos

Galápagos is one of the most pristine archipelagos in the world and its conservation relies upon research and sensible management. In recent decades both the interest in, and the needs of, the islands have increased, yet the funds and capacity for necessary research have remained limited. It has become, therefore, increasingly important to identify areas of priority research to assist decision-making in Galápagos conservation. This study identified 50 questions considered priorities for future research and management. The exercise involved the collaboration of policy makers, practitioners and researchers from more than 30 different organisations. Initially, 360 people were consulted to generate 781 questions. An established process of preworkshop voting and three rounds to reduce and reword the questions, followed by a two-day workshop, was used to produce the final 50 questions. The most common issues raised by this list of questions were human population growth, climate change and the impact of invasive alien species. These results have already been used by a range of organisations and politicians and are expected to provide the basis for future research on the islands so that its sustainability may be enhanced. </jats:p

Impact of opioid-free analgesia on pain severity and patient satisfaction after discharge from surgery: multispecialty, prospective cohort study in 25 countries

Background: Balancing opioid stewardship and the need for adequate analgesia following discharge after surgery is challenging. This study aimed to compare the outcomes for patients discharged with opioid versus opioid-free analgesia after common surgical procedures.Methods: This international, multicentre, prospective cohort study collected data from patients undergoing common acute and elective general surgical, urological, gynaecological, and orthopaedic procedures. The primary outcomes were patient-reported time in severe pain measured on a numerical analogue scale from 0 to 100% and patient-reported satisfaction with pain relief during the first week following discharge. Data were collected by in-hospital chart review and patient telephone interview 1 week after discharge.Results: The study recruited 4273 patients from 144 centres in 25 countries; 1311 patients (30.7%) were prescribed opioid analgesia at discharge. Patients reported being in severe pain for 10 (i.q.r. 1-30)% of the first week after discharge and rated satisfaction with analgesia as 90 (i.q.r. 80-100) of 100. After adjustment for confounders, opioid analgesia on discharge was independently associated with increased pain severity (risk ratio 1.52, 95% c.i. 1.31 to 1.76; P &lt; 0.001) and re-presentation to healthcare providers owing to side-effects of medication (OR 2.38, 95% c.i. 1.36 to 4.17; P = 0.004), but not with satisfaction with analgesia (beta coefficient 0.92, 95% c.i. -1.52 to 3.36; P = 0.468) compared with opioid-free analgesia. Although opioid prescribing varied greatly between high-income and low- and middle-income countries, patient-reported outcomes did not.Conclusion: Opioid analgesia prescription on surgical discharge is associated with a higher risk of re-presentation owing to side-effects of medication and increased patient-reported pain, but not with changes in patient-reported satisfaction. Opioid-free discharge analgesia should be adopted routinely

Dietary LC-PUFA and environmental salinity modulate the fatty acid biosynthesis capacity of the euryhaline teleost thicklip grey mullet (Chelon labrosus)

The capacity to biosynthesise long-chain (≥C20) polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC-PUFA) depends upon the complement and function of key enzymes commonly known as fatty acyl desaturases and elongases. The presence of a Δ5/Δ6 desaturase enabling the biosynthesis of docosahexaenoic acid (22:6n-3, DHA) through the “Sprecher pathway” has been reported in Chelon labrosus. Research in other teleosts have demonstrated that LC-PUFA biosynthesis can be modulated by diet and ambient salinity. The present study aimed to assess the combined effects of partial dietary replacement of fish oil (FO) by vegetable oil (VO) and reduced ambient salinity (35 ppt vs 20 ppt) on the fatty acid composition of muscle, enterocytes and hepatocytes of C. labrosus juveniles. Moreover, the enzymatic activity over radiolabelled [1-14C] 18:3n-3 (α-linolenic acid, ALA) and [1-14C] 20:5n-3 (eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA) to biosynthesise n-3 LC-PUFA in hepatocytes and enterocytes, and the gene regulation of the C. labrosus fatty acid desaturase-2 (fads2) and elongation of very long chain fatty acids protein 5 (elovl5) in liver and intestine was also investigated. Recovery of radiolabelled products including stearidonic acid (18:4n-3, SDA), 20:5n-3, tetracosahexaenoic acid (24:6n-3, THA) and 22:6n-3 in all treatments except FO35-fish, provided compelling evidence that a complete pathway enabling the biosynthesis of EPA and DHA from ALA is present and active in C. labrosus. Low salinity conditions upregulated fads2 in hepatocytes and elovl5 in both cell types, regardless of dietary composition. Interestingly, FO20-fish showed the highest amount of n-3 LC-PUFA in muscle, while no differences in VO-fish reared at both salinities were found. These results demonstrate a compensatory capacity of C. labrosus to biosynthesise n-3 LC-PUFA under reduced dietary supply, and emphasise the potential of low salinity conditions to stimulate this pathway in euryhaline fish

Novel 1,2,3-triazole epicinchonas: Transitioning from organocatalysis to biological activities

A small family of novel modular monofunctional epicinchonidine- 1,2,3-triazole compounds was prepared in very good overall yield (3 steps from cinchonidine, 49–87% yield) using simple Cu(I) catalyzed click-chemistry. The objective of this study was to access their hitherto unknown catalytic role in some key organic reactions like: ketimine hydrosilylation, Michael-addition and the Biginelli reaction. This is the first report on the application of cinchonidine derived 1,2,3-triazoles in organocatalysis, and includes catalytic screening and preliminary Density Functional Theory (DFT) mechanistic studies. The new com- pounds were screened for antimalarial activity against Plasmodium fal- ciparum (W2 strain), exhibiting IC50 values in the range 2.0–6.8mM; and cholinesterase inhibition, showing activity against eqBuChE, but their main potential is for tumor anti-proliferation (showing a lowest GI50 of 8.1 mM). Gratifyingly, all our compounds were non-cytotoxic against the non-tumor healthy cell line, BJ-hTERT and they presented excellent simulated pharmacological properties