Auditoría universitaria y calidad

Consultable des del TDXTítol obtingut de la portada digitalitzadaLa Universidad española tiene en estos momentos ante sí uno de los retos más apasionantes que jamás esta Institución se haya planteado. En primer lugar, la adaptación a los grandes cambios socioeconómicos ocurridos en las últimas décadas que interaccionan desarrollo económico y calidad universitaria. En segundo lugar, como consecuencia de ello, a la búsqueda de la excelencia académica, profesional y científica, que se convierte en un tema clave para la competitividad y la calidad de un país. En tercer lugar, al cambio significativo que ha supuesto la implantación de una armonización universitaria europea a través de la integración y desarrollo en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. Por último, resaltar que el cambio europeo ha quedado sobrepasado por un reto mayor como es la globalización y que ha puesto a las Universidades ya no sólo ante una calidad y competencia europea sino mundial. La calidad y la competitividad de un país no depende solo de la calidad y productividad de sus empresas sino que vendrá determinado en gran parte por la calidad, productividad y competitividad de las Universidades y de sus miembros, tanto en su aspecto investigador como docente. Igualmente el desarrollo económico y del conocimiento de un país tiene mucho que ver con la calidad de la enseñanza de sus universidades. Éstas, al tomar decisiones dentro del ámbito de sus competencias, deberán considerar seriamente su posición competitiva. La Declaración de Bolonia marca las directrices de lo que debe ser la Universidad Europea, de ella se desprende la necesidad de hacer competitiva y atractiva la enseñanza universitaria europea a escala mundial, enfocada a contactar con las necesidades sociales y a hacer más comparables los distintos sistemas educativos. Los Sistemas de Garantía de Calidad son los instrumentos de reforma social y progreso más efectivos que podemos ofrecer en el ámbito universitario, así como una herramienta fundamental para la competitividad y rendición de cuentas. De esta forma se pretende romper con el estereotipo dominante de confundir estos instrumentos con técnicas inherentes y provenientes de la empresa privada en sus manifestaciones más liberales y mercantilistas. En dicho espacio debemos tener en cuenta que el eje mas vertebrado de la armonización van a ser los Sistemas de Garantía de Calidad Universitaria. No podemos olvidar que el cambio europeo ha quedado sobrepasado por un reto mayor, la globalización y que ha situado a las universidades ante una calidad y competencia mundial. No debemos desaprovechar el espacio de educación superior natural, que es Latinoamérica. España tendrá mucho más peso en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior si sabe construir rápidamente el Espacio Iberoamericano de Educación Superior. No somos conscientes de que nuestra calidad en Europa depende de que aceleremos el Espacio Iberoamericano dirigido por nosotros mismos con un sistema de evaluación y unos estándares establecidos en ese ámbito Iberoamericano de más de quinientos millones de habitantes de habla española y portuguesa. Esta visión estratégica de acelerar el Espacio Iberoamericano de Educación Superior no es excluyente sino que nos va a reforzar en el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior y además nos va a servir, como ha sucedido con la experiencia empresarial, para situarnos en la competencia universitaria mundial. Auditoria y evaluación, como a menudo equivocadamente se piensa no es un puro tecnicismo, sino que es un instrumento indispensable para introducir nuevos valores en la sociedad, en el Estado, en la universidad, en la empresa a través de nuevos estándares e indicadores, como son por ejemplo los de calidad ambiental, los de diversidad lingüística y racial en la Universidad, etc. Por tanto la auditoria y evaluación es un sistema muy efectivo de introducir nuevos derechos y valores.The Spanish University has in these moments one of the challenges more exciting that this Institution has never appeared. First, the adjustment to the big socioeconomic changes happened in the last decades that interconnect economic development and university quality. Secondly, as consequence of it, to the search of the academic, professional and scientific excellence, this turns into a key topic for the competitiveness and the quality of a country. Thirdly, to the significant change that has supposed the implantation of a European university harmonization across the integration and development in the European Space of High Education. Finally, to highlight that the European change has remained exceeded by a major challenge as is the globalization and that it has put to the Universities already not only before a quality and European but world competition. The quality and the competitiveness of a country does not depend only on the quality and productivity of its companies but it will come determined largely by the quality, productivity and competitiveness of the Universities and of its members, so much in its investigative as educational aspect. Equally the economic development and of the knowledge of a country there has much that to see with the quality of the education of its universities. These, on having taken decisions inside the area of its competitions, will have to consider seriously its competitive position. The Declaration of Bologna marks the directives what must be the European University, with it there parts the need to make competitive and attractive the university European education on a worldwide scale, focused to contacting with the social needs and to making the different educational systems more comparable. The Systems of guarantee of Quality are the instruments of social reform and progress more workforce that we can offer in the university area, as well as a fundamental tool for the competitiveness and account surrender. Of this form one tries to break with the dominant stereotype of confusing these instruments with technologies inherent and from the private company in its more liberal manifestations and mercantilists. In the above mentioned space we must bear in mind that the axis more vertebrate of the harmonization they are going to be the Systems of Guarantee of University Quality. We cannot forget that the European change has remained exceeded by a major challenge, the globalization and that it has placed to the universities before a quality and world competition. We must not fail to take advantage of the space of top natural education, which is Latin America. Spain will have much more weight in the European Space of High Education if it can construct rapidly the Latin-American Space of High Education. We are not conscious that our quality in Europe depends of that we accelerate the Latin-American Space directed by us themselves with a system of evaluation and a few standards established in this Latin-American area of more than five hundred million inhabitants of Spanish and Portuguese speech. This strategic vision of accelerating the Latin-American Space of High Education is not exclusive but it is going to reinforce us in the European Space of High Education and in addition it is going to serve us, since it has happened with the managerial experience, to place in the university world competition. Audit and evaluation, since often wrongly it is thought is not a pure technicality, but it is an indispensable instrument to introduce new values in the society, in the State, in the university, in the company across new standards and indicators, since they are for example those of environmental quality, those of linguistic and racial diversity in the University, etc. Therefore the audit and evaluation is a very effective system of introducing new rights and values

Neuronal background of positioning of the posterior tentacles in the snail Helix pomatia

The location of cerebral neurons innervating the three recently described flexor muscles involved in the orientation of the posterior tentacles as well as their innervation patterns were investigated, applying parallel retrograde Co- and Ni-lysine as well as anterograde neurobiotin tracings via the olfactory and the peritentacular nerves. The neurons are clustered in eight groups in the cerebral ganglion and they send a common innervation pathway via the olfactory nerve to the flexor and the tegumental muscles as well as the tentacular retractor muscle and distinct pathways via the internal and the external peritentacular nerves to these muscles except the retractor muscle. The three anchoring points of the three flexor muscles at the base of the tentacle outline the directions of three force vectors generated by the contraction of the muscles along which they can pull or move the protracted tentacle which enable the protracted tentacle to bend around a basal pivot. In the light of earlier physiological and the present anatomical findings we suggest that the common innervation pathway to the muscles is required to the tentacle withdrawal mechanism whereas the distinct pathways serve first of all the bending of the protracted posterior tentacles during foraging

The search for the ideal biocatalyst

While the use of enzymes as biocatalysts to assist in the industrial manufacture of fine chemicals and pharmaceuticals has enormous potential, application is frequently limited by evolution-led catalyst traits. The advent of designer biocatalysts, produced by informed selection and mutation through recombinant DNA technology, enables production of process-compatible enzymes. However, to fully realize the potential of designer enzymes in industrial applications, it will be necessary to tailor catalyst properties so that they are optimal not only for a given reaction but also in the context of the industrial process in which the enzyme is applied

Subcellular peptide localization in single identified neurons by capillary microsampling mass spectrometry

Single cell mass spectrometry (MS) is uniquely positioned for the sequencing and identification of peptides in rare cells. Small peptides can take on different roles in subcellular compartments. Whereas some peptides serve as neurotransmitters in the cytoplasm, they can also function as transcription factors in the nucleus. Thus, there is a need to analyze the subcellular peptide compositions in identified single cells. Here, we apply capillary microsampling MS with ion mobility separation for the sequencing of peptides in single neurons of the mollusk Lymnaea stagnalis, and the analysis of peptide distributions between the cytoplasm and nucleus of identified single neurons that are known to express cardioactive Phe-Met-Arg-Phe amide-like (FMRFamide-like) neuropeptides. Nuclei and cytoplasm of Type 1 and Type 2 F group (Fgp) neurons were analyzed for neuropeptides cleaved from the protein precursors encoded by alternative splicing products of the FMRFamide gene. Relative abundances of nine neuropeptides were determined in the cytoplasm. The nuclei contained six of these peptides at different abundances. Enabled by its relative enrichment in Fgp neurons, a new 28-residue neuropeptide was sequenced by tandem MS

Thermal Evolution of the Proton Irradiated Structure in Tungsten–5 wt% Tantalum

We have monitored the thermal evolution of the proton irradiated structure of W–5 wt% Ta alloy by in-situ annealing in a transmission electron microscope at fusion reactor temperatures of 500–1300 °C. The interstitial-type a/2 dislocation loops emit self-interstitial atoms and glide to the free sample surface during the early stages of annealing. The resultant vacancy excess in the matrix originates vacancy-type a/2 dislocation loops that grow by loop and vacancy absorption in the temperature range of 600–900 °C. Voids form at 1000 °C, by either vacancy absorption or loop collapse, and grow progressively up to 1300 °C. Tantalum delays void formation by a vacancy-solute trapping mechanism

The evolution and storage of primitive melts in the Eastern Volcanic Zone of Iceland: the 10 ka Grímsvötn tephra series (i.e. the Saksunarvatn ash)

Major, trace and volatile elements were measured in a suite of primitive macrocrysts and melt inclusions from the thickest layer of the 10 ka Grímsvötn tephra series (i.e. Saksunarvatn ash) at Lake Hvítárvatn in central Iceland. In the absence of primitive tholeiitic eruptions (MgO > 7 wt.%) within the Eastern Volcanic Zone (EVZ) of Iceland, these crystal and inclusion compositions provide an important insight into magmatic processes in this volcanically productive region. Matrix glass compositions show strong similarities with glass compositions from the AD 1783–84 Laki eruption, confirming the affinity of the tephra series with the Grímsvötn volcanic system. Macrocrysts can be divided into a primitive assemblage of zoned macrocryst cores (An_78–An_92, Mg#_cpx = 82–87, Fo_79.5–Fo_87) and an evolved assemblage consisting of unzoned macrocrysts and the rims of zoned macrocrysts (An_60–An_68, Mg#_cpx = 71–78, Fo_70–Fo_76). Although the evolved assemblage is close to being in equilibrium with the matrix glass, trace element disequilibrium between primitive and evolved assemblages indicates that they were derived from different distributions of mantle melt compositions. Juxtaposition of disequilibrium assemblages probably occurred during disaggregation of incompatible trace element-depleted mushes (mean La/Yb_melt = 2.1) into aphyric and incompatible trace element-enriched liquids (La/Yb_melt = 3.6) shortly before the growth of the evolved macrocryst assemblage. Post-entrapment modification of plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions has been minimal and high-Mg# inclusions record differentiation and mixing of compositionally variable mantle melts that are amongst the most primitive liquids known from the EVZ. Coupled high field strength element (HFSE) depletion and incompatible trace element enrichment in a subset of primitive plagioclase-hosted melt inclusions can be accounted for by inclusion formation following plagioclase dissolution driven by interaction with plagioclase-undersaturated melts. Thermobarometric calculations indicate that final crystal-melt equilibration within the evolved assemblage occurred at ~1140°C and 0.0–1.5 kbar. Considering the large volume of the erupted tephra and textural evidence for rapid crystallisation of the evolved assemblage, 0.0–1.5 kbar is considered unlikely to represent a pressure of long-term magma accumulation and storage. Multiple thermometers indicate that the primitive assemblage crystallised at high temperatures of 1240–1300°C. Different barometers, however, return markedly different crystallisation depth estimates. Raw clinopyroxene-melt pressures of 5.5–7.5 kbar conflict with apparent melt inclusion entrapment pressures of 1.4 kbar. After applying a correction derived from published experimental data, clinopyroxene-melt equilibria return mid-crustal pressures of 4±1.5 kbar, which are consistent with pressures estimated from the major element content of primitive melt inclusions. Long-term storage of primitive magmas in the mid-crust implies that low CO_2 concentrations measured in primitive plagioclase-hosted inclusions (262–800 ppm) result from post-entrapment CO_2 loss during transport through the shallow crust. In order to reconstruct basaltic plumbing system geometries from petrological data with greater confidence, mineral-melt equilibrium models require refinement at pressures of magma storage in Iceland. Further basalt phase equilibria experiments are thus needed within the crucial 1–7 kbar range.D.A.N. was supported by a Natural Environment Research Council studentship (NE/1528277/1) at the start of this project. SIMS analyses were supported by Natural Environment Research Council Ion Microprobe Facility award (IMF508/1013).This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00410-015-1170-

Extrinsic primary afferent signalling in the gut

Visceral sensory neurons activate reflex pathways that control gut function and also give rise to important sensations, such as fullness, bloating, nausea, discomfort, urgency and pain. Sensory neurons are organised into three distinct anatomical pathways to the central nervous system (vagal, thoracolumbar and lumbosacral). Although remarkable progress has been made in characterizing the roles of many ion channels, receptors and second messengers in visceral sensory neurons, the basic aim of understanding how many classes there are, and how they differ, has proven difficult to achieve. We suggest that just five structurally distinct types of sensory endings are present in the gut wall that account for essentially all of the primary afferent neurons in the three pathways. Each of these five major structural types of endings seems to show distinctive combinations of physiological responses. These types are: 'intraganglionic laminar' endings in myenteric ganglia; 'mucosal' endings located in the subepithelial layer; 'muscular–mucosal' afferents, with mechanosensitive endings close to the muscularis mucosae; 'intramuscular' endings, with endings within the smooth muscle layers; and 'vascular' afferents, with sensitive endings primarily on blood vessels. 'Silent' afferents might be a subset of inexcitable 'vascular' afferents, which can be switched on by inflammatory mediators. Extrinsic sensory neurons comprise an attractive focus for targeted therapeutic intervention in a range of gastrointestinal disorders.Australian National Health and Medical Research Counci

Intraguild Predation and Native Lady Beetle Decline

Coccinellid communities across North America have experienced significant changes in recent decades, with declines in several native species reported. One potential mechanism for these declines is interference competition via intraguild predation; specifically, increased predation of native coccinellid eggs and larvae following the introduction of exotic coccinellids. Our previous studies have shown that agricultural fields in Michigan support a higher diversity and abundance of exotic coccinellids than similar fields in Iowa, and that the landscape surrounding agricultural fields across the north central U.S. influences the abundance and activity of coccinellid species. The goal of this study was to quantify the amount of egg predation experienced by a native coccinellid within Michigan and Iowa soybean fields and explore the influence of local and large-scale landscape structure. Using the native lady beetle Coleomegilla maculata as a model, we found that sentinel egg masses were subject to intense predation within both Michigan and Iowa soybean fields, with 60.7% of egg masses attacked and 43.0% of available eggs consumed within 48 h. In Michigan, the exotic coccinellids Coccinella septempunctata and Harmonia axyridis were the most abundant predators found in soybean fields whereas in Iowa, native species including C. maculata, Hippodamia parenthesis and the soft-winged flower beetle Collops nigriceps dominated the predator community. Predator abundance was greater in soybean fields within diverse landscapes, yet variation in predator numbers did not influence the intensity of egg predation observed. In contrast, the strongest predictor of native coccinellid egg predation was the composition of edge habitats bordering specific fields. Field sites surrounded by semi-natural habitats including forests, restored prairies, old fields, and pasturelands experienced greater egg predation than fields surrounded by other croplands. This study shows that intraguild predation by both native and exotic predators may contribute to native coccinellid decline, and that landscape structure interacts with local predator communities to shape the specific outcomes of predator-predator interactions

Characterization of HMGA2 variants expands the spectrum of Silver-Russell syndrome.

Silver-Russell syndrome (SRS) is a heterogeneous disorder characterized by intrauterine and postnatal growth retardation. HMGA2 variants are a rare cause of SRS and its functional role in human linear growth is unclear. Patients with suspected SRS negative for 11p15LOM/mUPD7 underwent whole-exome and/or targeted-genome sequencing. Mutant HMGA2 protein expression and nuclear localization were assessed. Two Hmga2-knockin mouse models were generated. Five clinical SRS patients harbored HMGA2 variants with differing functional impacts: 2 stop-gain nonsense variants (c.49G>T, c.52C>T), c.166A>G missense variant, and 2 frameshift variants (c.144delC, c.145delA) leading to an identical, extended-length protein. Phenotypic features were highly variable. Nuclear localization was reduced/absent for all variants except c.166A>G. Homozygous knockin mice recapitulating the c.166A>G variant (Hmga2K56E) exhibited a growth-restricted phenotype. An Hmga2Ter76-knockin mouse model lacked detectable full-length Hmga2 protein, similarly to patient 3 and 5 variants. These mice were infertile, with a pygmy phenotype. We report a heterogeneous group of individuals with SRS harboring variants in HMGA2 and describe the first Hmga2 missense knockin mouse model (Hmga2K56E) to our knowledge causing a growth-restricted phenotype. In patients with clinical features of SRS but negative genetic screening, HMGA2 should be included in next-generation sequencing testing approaches

Prophylactic treatment of migraine; the patient's view, a qualitative study

Contains fulltext : 109202.pdf (publisher's version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Prophylactic treatment is an important but under-utilised option for the management of migraine. Patients and physicians appear to have reservations about initiating this treatment option. This paper explores the opinions, motives and expectations of patients regarding prophylactic migraine therapy. METHODS: A qualitative focus group study in general practice in the Netherlands with twenty patients recruited from urban and rural general practices. Three focus group meetings were held with 6-7 migraine patients per group (2 female and 1 male group). All participants were migraine patients according to the IHS (International Headache Society); 9 had experience with prophylactic medication. The focus group meetings were analysed using a general thematic analysis. RESULTS: For patients several distinguished factors count when making a decision on prophylactic treatment. The decision of a patient on prophylactic medication is depending on experience and perspectives, grouped into five categories, namely the context of being active or passive in taking the initiative to start prophylaxis; assessing the advantages and disadvantages of prophylaxis; satisfaction with current migraine treatment; the relationship with the physician and the feeling to be heard; and previous steps taken to prevent migraine. CONCLUSION: In addition to the functional impact of migraine, the decision to start prophylaxis is based on a complex of considerations from the patient's perspective (e.g. perceived burden of migraine, expected benefits or disadvantages, interaction with relatives, colleagues and physician). Therefore, when advising migraine patients about prophylaxis, their opinions should be taken into account. Patients need to be open to advice and information and intervention have to be offered at an appropriate moment in the course of migraine