Intervención educativa para la prevención del alcoholismo en adolescentes en colegio ecuatoriano

Introduction: adolescence is considered the stage of life from childhood to the adulthood of the human being and constitutes a transitional period, where they are vulnerable to risky behaviors such as alcoholism.Objective: to determine the consumption of alcohol in adolescents  at Manuel Daza School from Bolívar Junín de Agua Fría municipality, Manabí province, and its relationship with family functioning, in order to design an educational strategy of prevention through health promotion.Methods: a descriptive and longitudinal research was carried out in three stages: diagnosis, analysis of results, design of the educational strategy and evaluation.Results: the results showed that 59.7% of the adolescents reported drinking alcoholic beverages regularly, male sex was the most affected with 45.1% and ages between 15-18 years in both sexes, family functioning only 23.1% of the adolescents pointed out being part of functional homes and 76.8 % reported that their families have some degree of dysfunction, in the pattern of alcohol consumption 76.9 % of male adolescents and 25.5 % of women had low-risk of consumption, 73.1 % had an inadequate level of knowledge  that changed after the application of the educational program, reaching 95.1 %.Conclusions: the application of the educational strategy increased the level of knowledge of adolescents at-risk, showing the effectiveness of the educational program.Introducción: la adolescencia es considerada la etapa de transición de la infancia a la edad adulta del ser humano y constituye un período transicional, donde son vulnerables a la adopción de conductas de riesgo, como el alcoholismo.Objetivo: determinar el consumo de alcohol en adolescentes del colegio Manuel Daza del Cantón Bolívar Junín, de Agua Fría en la provincia de Manabí, y su relación con el funcionamiento familiar, para diseñar una estrategia educativa de prevención desde la promoción de salud.Métodos: se realizó una investigación de tipo descriptiva longitudinal, en tres etapas, diagnóstico, análisis de resultados y diseño de la estrategia educativa y evaluación.Resultados: el  59,7 % de los adolescentes refieren consumir bebidas alcohólicas con regularidad, el sexo masculino fue el más afectado con 45,1 % y las edades entre 15-18 años en ambos sexos, solo el 23,1 % de los adolescentes formaban parte de hogares funcionales y el 76, 8 % refieren que sus familias tienen algún grado de disfuncionalidad,  en el patrón de consumo de alcohol el 76,9 % de los adolescentes es hombre y el 25,5 % de las mujeres tienen un consumo de bajo riesgo, el 73,1 % tenían un nivel de conocimiento inadecuado lo cual cambió después de aplicar el programa educativo para un 95,1 %.Conclusiones: la aplicación de la estrategia educativa logró elevar el nivel de conocimiento de los adolescentes de riesgo, por lo que demostró la efectividad del programa educativo

Roadmap to the study of gene and protein phylogeny and evolution—A practical guide

Developments in sequencing technologies and the sequencing of an ever-increasing number of genomes have revolutionised studies of biodiversity and organismal evolution. This accumulation of data has been paralleled by the creation of numerous public biological databases through which the scientific community can mine the sequences and annotations of genomes, transcriptomes, and proteomes of multiple species. However, to find the appropriate databases and bioinformatic tools for respective inquiries and aims can be challenging. Here, we present a compilation of DNA and protein databases, as well as bioinformatic tools for phylogenetic reconstruction and a wide range of studies on molecular evolution. We provide a protocol for information extraction from biological databases and simple phylogenetic reconstruction using probabilistic and distance methods, facilitating the study of biodiversity and evolution at the molecular level for the broad scientific community

GC-biased gene conversion conceals the prediction of the nearly neutral theory in avian genomes

Background: The nearly neutral theory of molecular evolution predicts that the efficacy of natural selection increases with the effective population size. This prediction has been verified by independent observations in diverse taxa, which show that life-history traits are strongly correlated with measures of the efficacy of selection, such as the d(N)/d(S) ratio. Surprisingly, avian taxa are an exception to this theory because correlations between life-history traits and d(N)/d(S) are apparently absent. Here we explore the role of GC-biased gene conversion on estimates of substitution rates as a potential driver of these unexpected observations. Results: We analyze the relationship between d(N)/d(S) estimated from alignments of 47 avian genomes and several proxies for effective population size. To distinguish the impact of GC-biased gene conversion from selection, we use an approach that accounts for non-stationary base composition and estimate d(N)/d(S) separately for changes affected or unaffected by GC-biased gene conversion. This analysis shows that the impact of GC-biased gene conversion on substitution rates can explain the lack of correlations between life-history traits and d(N)/d(S). Strong correlations between life-history traits and d(N)/d(S) are recovered after accounting for GC-biased gene conversion. The correlations are robust to variation in base composition and genomic location. Conclusions: Our study shows that gene sequence evolution across a wide range of avian lineages meets the prediction of the nearly neutral theory,the efficacy of selection increases with effective population size. Moreover, our study illustrates that accounting for GC-biased gene conversion is important to correctly estimate the strength of selection

Presence of other cultures and its incidence of loss of cultural identity in boys and girls of Shuar nationality

En el presente trabajo de investigación se analizó la presencia de otras culturas y su incidencia de perdida de la identidad cultural en niños de nacionalidad Shuar en el Centro Educativo Comunitario Bilingüe Murushi. Se empleó metodologías cualitativas y cuantitativas mediante el uso de herramientas como la encuesta a los niños de séptimo de educación básica. Para la encuesta se utilizó herramientas de creación de formularios de Forms Office y análisis de estadística. Los resultados arrojaron que muchos niños y niñas están olvidando las tradiciones de la nacionalidad Shuar y prefieren seguir las tradiciones de otras culturas como la Hispana, la presencia de otras culturas en conjunto con la falta de cultivo del amor a la nacionalidad Shuar por parte de los padres de familia inciden en la notable pérdida de las tradiciones Shuar. Es necesario mantener vivas las tradiciones sin menospreciar a otras culturas y esto inicia desde los niños.In the present research work, the presence of other cultures and their incidence of loss of cultural identity in children of Shuar nationality in the Murushi Bilingual Community Educational Center were analyzed. Qualitative and quantitative methodologies were used through the use of tools such as the survey of children in the seventh grade of basic education. For the survey, Forms Office form creation tools and statistical analysis were used. The results showed that many boys and girls are forgetting the traditions of the Shuar nationality and prefer to follow the traditions of other cultures such as the Hispanic, the presence of other cultures together with the lack of cultivation of love for the Shuar nationality by the family parents affect the notable loss of Shuar traditions. It is necessary to keep traditions alive without underestimating other cultures and this starts from children

Biased Inference of Selection Due to GC-Biased Gene Conversion and the Rate of Protein Evolution in Flycatchers When Accounting for It

The rate of recombination impacts on rates of protein evolution for at least two reasons: it affects the efficacy of selection due to linkage and influences sequence evolution through the process of GC-biased gene conversion (gBGC). We studied how recombination, via gBGC, affects inferences of selection in gene sequences using comparative genomic and population genomic data from the collared flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis). We separately analyzed different mutation categories ("strong"-to-"weak" "weak-to-strong," and GC-conservative changes) and found that gBGC impacts on the distribution of fitness effects of new mutations, and leads to that the rate of adaptive evolution and the proportion of adaptive mutations among nonsynonymous substitutions are underestimated by 22-33%. It also biases inferences of demographic history based on the site frequency spectrum. In light of this impact, we suggest that inferences of selection (and demography) in lineages with pronounced gBGC should be based on GC-conservative changes only. Doing so, we estimate that 10% of nonsynonymous mutations are effectively neutral and that 27% of nonsynonymous substitutions have been fixed by positive selection in the flycatcher lineage. We also find that gene expression level, sex-bias in expression, and the number of protein-protein interactions, but not Hill-Robertson interference (HRI), are strong determinants of selective constraint and rate of adaptation of collared flycatcher genes. This study therefore illustrates the importance of disentangling the effects of different evolutionary forces and genetic factors in interpretation of sequence data, and from that infer the role of natural selection in DNA sequence evolution

Genomic identification and characterization of the pseudoautosomal region in highly differentiated avian sex chromosomes

The molecular characteristics of the pseudoautosomal region (PAR) of sex chromosomes remain elusive. Despite significant genome-sequencing efforts, the PAR of highly differentiated avian sex chromosomes remains to be identified. Here we use linkage analysis together with whole-genome re-sequencing to uncover the 630-kb PAR of an ecological model species, the collared flycatcher. The PAR contains 22 protein-coding genes and is GC rich. The genetic length is 64cM in female meiosis, consistent with an obligate crossing-over event. Recombination is concentrated to a hotspot region, with an extreme rate of 4700cM/Mb in a 67-kb segment. We find no signatures of sexual antagonism and propose that sexual antagonism may have limited influence on PAR sequences when sex chromosomes are nearly fully differentiated and when a recombination hotspot region is located close to the PAR boundary. Our results demonstrate that a very small PAR suffices to ensure homologous recombination and proper segregation of sex chromosomes during meiosis

Evolutionary analysis of the female-specific avian W chromosome

The typically repetitive nature of the sex-limited chromosome means that it is often excluded from or poorly covered in genome assemblies, hindering studies of evolutionary and population genomic processes in non-recombining chromosomes. Here, we present a draft assembly of the non-recombining region of the collared flycatcher W chromosome, containing 46 genes without evidence of female-specific functional differentiation. Survival of genes during Wchromosome degeneration has been highly non-random and expression data suggest that this can be attributed to selection for maintaining gene dose and ancestral expression levels of essential genes. Re-sequencing of large population samples revealed dramatically reduced levels of within-species diversity and elevated rates of between-species differentiation (lineage sorting), consistent with low effective population size. Concordance between W chromosome and mitochondrial DNA phylogenetic trees demonstrates evolutionary stable matrilineal inheritance of this nuclear–cytonuclear pair of chromosomes. Our results show both commonalities and differences between W chromosome and Y chromosome evolution

Botrydial confers Botrytis cinerea the ability to antagonize soil and phyllospheric bacteria

The role of the sesquiterpene botrydial in the interaction of the phytopathogenic fungus Botrytis cinerea and plant-associated bacteria was analyzed. From a collection of soil and phyllospheric bacteria, nine strains sensitive to growth -inhibition by B. cinerea were identified. B. cinerea mutants unable to produce botrydial caused no bacterial inhibition, thus demonstrating the inhibitory role of botrydial. A taxonomic analysis showed that these bacteria corresponded to different Bacillus species (six strains), Pseudomonas yamanorum (two strains) and Erwinia aphidicola (one strain). Inoculation of WT and botrydial non-producing mutants of B. cinerea along with Bacillus amyloliquefaciens strain MEP(2)18 in soil demonstrated that both microorganisms exert reciprocal inhibitory effects; the inhibition caused by B. cinerea being dependent on botrydial production. Moreover, botrydial production was modulated by the presence of B. amyloliquefaciens MEP(2)18 in confrontation assays in vitro. Purified botrydial in turn, inhibited growth of Bacillus strains in vitro and cyclic lipopeptide (surfactin) production by B. amyloliquefaciens MEP(2)18. As a whole, results demonstrate that botrydial confers B. cinerea the ability to inhibit potential biocontrol bacteria of the genus Bacillus. We propose that resistance to botrydial could be used as an additional criterion for the selection of biocontrol agents of plant diseases caused by B. cinerea. (C) 2019 British Mycological Society. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Divergence in gene expression within and between two closely related flycatcher species

Relatively little is known about the character of gene expression evolution as species diverge. It is for instance unclear if gene expression generally evolves in a clock-like manner (by stabilizing selection or neutral evolution) or if there are frequent episodes of directional selection. To gain insights into the evolutionary divergence of gene expression, we sequenced and compared the transcriptomes of multiple organs from population samples of collared (Ficedula albicollis) and pied flycatchers (F. hypoleuca), two species which diverged less than one million years ago. Ordination analysis separated samples by organ rather than by species. Organs differed in their degrees of expression variance within species and expression divergence between species. Variance was negatively correlated with expression breadth and protein interactivity, suggesting that pleiotropic constraints reduce gene expression variance within species. Variance was correlated with between-species divergence, consistent with a pattern expected from stabilizing selection and neutral evolution. Using an expression PST approach, we identified genes differentially expressed between species and found 16 genes uniquely expressed in one of the species. For one of these, DPP7, uniquely expressed in collared flycatcher, the absence of expression in pied flycatcher could be associated with a ≈ 20 kb deletion including 11 out of 13 exons. This study of a young vertebrate speciation model system expands our knowledge of how gene expression evolves as natural populations become reproductively isolated

Wege entstehen beim Gehen

Musicalarbeit in der Schule, vom Mini-Musical bis hin zu groß angelegten Schulmusicals, erfreut sich sowohl bei Schülerinnen und Schülern als auch bei Musiklehrkräften großer Beliebtheit und eines oftmals außerordentlichen, teils auch unterschätzten Engagements. Dessen ungeachtet gibt es nur wenig musikdidaktische Fachliteratur zu diesem Thema und es liegen bislang nur wenige Forschungsarbeiten vor, die wegweisend für die Umsetzung von Musicalprojekten an Schulen sind. Auch in der Musiklehrerbildung spielt Musicalarbeit nur eine marginale Rolle. Die vorliegende Publikation möchte dazu beitragen, diese Lücke zu verringern. Sie ist das Ergebnis des Masterseminars „Musicalarbeit in der Schule“ am Lehrstuhl für Musikpädagogik und Musikdidaktik der Universität Potsdam, das begleitend zur künstlerischen Erarbeitung des Musicals „Elion“ durch Studierende der Universität Potsdam im Sommersemester 2018 stattfand. Im Zentrum des Seminars standen pädagogische sowie methodisch-didaktische Fragestellungen in den Bereichen Gesang, Choreografie und Theaterarbeit. Des Weiteren wurden Möglichkeiten und pädagogische Potenziale fachübergreifenden und fächerverbindenden Arbeitens erörtert. Zu diesem Seminar wurden Musicalexperten aus verschiedenen schulischen Kontexten eingeladen, die den Studierenden Einblicke in ihre langjährigen Praxiserfahrungen gewährten und ihre Erfahrungen zur Diskussion stellten. Die vorliegende Publikation wurde abschließend von den Seminarteilnehmern selbst erarbeitet und stellt eine Zusammenfassung des Seminars dar. Sie versteht sich als Entscheidungshilfe für oder gegen Musicalarbeit in der Schule und als Leitfaden für den Einstieg in die Praxis