Leucemia cutis. No todos los edemas son insuficiencia cardíaca

Leukemia cutis is a very rare infiltration of leukemic cells into the skin. Its clinical presentation is very variable and usually, appears after peripheral blood involvement. It is most often associated with monocytic or myelomonocytic leukemias and is a sign of disseminated disease. It can be a marker of recurrence, conditioning a poor prognosis and a decrease in short- and long-term survival. Skin biopsy presents dermal perivascular/periadnexal infiltrate of small monotonous lymphocytes with typical chronic lymphocytic leukemia immunophenotype (CD20+, CD5+, CD23+, CD43+, CD10-, cyclin D1-). La leucemia cutis es una infiltración muy poco frecuente de células leucémicas de la piel. Su presentación clínica es muy variable y, en general, aparece posteriormente al compromiso de sangre periférica. Se asocia más frecuentemente con las leucemias monocíticas o mielomonocíticas y constituye un signo de enfermedad diseminada. Puede ser un marcador de recidiva condicionando un mal pronóstico y una disminución de la supervivencia a corto y a largo plazo. La biopsia cutánea muestra infiltrados dérmicos perivasculares/perianexiales de linfocitos pequeños y monótonos, con inmunofenotipo característico de leucemia linfática crónica (CD20+, CD5+, CD23+, CD43+, CD10-, ciclina D1-)

GDF15 and ACE2 stratify COVID-19 patients according to severity while ACE2 mutations increase infection susceptibility

Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) is a persistent global pandemic with a very heterogeneous disease presentation ranging from a mild disease to dismal prognosis. Early detection of sensitivity and severity of COVID-19 is essential for the development of new treatments. In the present study, we measured the levels of circulating growth differentiation factor 15 (GDF15) and angiotensin-converting enzyme 2 (ACE2) in plasma of severity-stratified COVID-19 patients and uninfected control patients and characterized the in vitro effects and cohort frequency of ACE2 SNPs. Our results show that while circulating GDF15 and ACE2 stratify COVID-19 patients according to disease severity, ACE2 missense SNPs constitute a risk factor linked to infection susceptibility

Host factor PLAC8 is required for pancreas infection by SARS-CoV-2

Although mounting evidence demonstrated that pancreas is infected by SARS-CoV-2 the severity and pathophysiology of pancreatic COVID-19 disease are still unclear. Here we investigated the consequences of SARS-CoV-2 infection of the pancreas and the role of Placenta-associated protein-8 (PLAC8). Our data showed pancreatic damage in patients who died from COVID-19. Notably, circulating pancreatic enzymes stratified patients according to COVID-19 severity and outcome. PLAC8 expression was associated with SARS-CoV-2 infection in postmortem analysis of COVID-19 patients and functional assays demonstrated the requirement of PLAC8 in SARS-CoV-2 pancreatic infection. Full SARS-CoV-2 infectious virus revealed a requirement of PLAC8 for efficient viral infection of pancreatic cell lines. Finally, we observed colocalization of PLAC8 and SARS-CoV-2 in the pancreas of deceased patients. In conclusion, our data confirm the human pancreas as a SARS-CoV-2 target and demonstrate the requirement of PLAC8 for SARS-CoV-2 pancreatic infection thereby opening new target opportunities for COVID-19-associated pancreatic pathogenesis.N

Developing EFL students’ writing skills through the writing process approach and collaborative Llearning

[eng] The product approach to writing seems to prevail over the process approach in the English subject in secondary education (ESO). The lack of time to cover all the contents of the curriculum make teachers take writing for granted. Therefore, not much attention is paid to the development of students’ writing skills. It is important to bear in mind that writing a text does not only involve using the language accurately, but it also demands the writer to focus on the way he or she expresses his or her ideas. If the text is not well-structured and the ideas are not well-connected; then, the reader will not be able to understand the message the writer intended to convey with his or her composition. For this reason, the teaching of writing in ESO should not only centre on writing a composition free of errors, but also on teaching students to express their ideas properly taking different aspects such as the audience, the purpose or the structure of the text into consideration. In this sense, the process approach to writing is the best tool to develop this ability in students since they learn that to achieve an appropriate product, they need to go through the pre-writing, writing and rewriting stages. Moreover, if the process approach is combined with collaborative learning, the benefits can increase greatly. In this regard, in the present dissertation, a study is conducted in order to know the opinion of students regarding the teaching of writing in Spain’s secondary education and the process they follow to write a composition in English. The results show that students do not tend to go through all the stages involved in writing. Consequently, a didactic proposal based on the results of the study and the literature review is presented. It is based on a project in which the process approach and collaborative learning are used together to cover the weaknesses of the teaching of writing in ESO and to improve students’ writing skills

El bilingüisme a l’etapa 0-3 anys

[cat] Els infants que acudeixen a l’escoleta i tenen una llengua materna diferent a la vehicular del centre esdevindran bilingües i s’hauran d’adaptar a la immersió lingüística. Això suposa que per part de l’escola hi ha d’haver una intervenció per a afavorir aquest procés. Com a resposta, s’elabora un ambient d’aprenentatge per a treballar el llenguatge de forma estructurada i continuada, de manera que capti l’interès de l’infant així com la curiositat per la llengua.[eng] Children who speak a different language than that spoken in the nursery will become bilingual and will have to adjust to the language immersion. Schools have to take part to favor this process by creating a learning environment made for working on language in a structured and continuous way. It should captate the child's interest and also curiosity for the language

C3 Promotes Clearance of Klebsiella pneumoniae by A549 Epithelial Cells

The airway epithelium represents a primary site for contact between microbes and their hosts. To assess the role of complement in this event, we studied the interaction between the A549 cell line derived from human alveolar epithelial cells and a major nosocomial pathogen, Klebsiella pneumoniae, in the presence of serum. In vitro, we found that C3 opsonization of poorly encapsulated K. pneumoniae clinical isolates and an unencapsulated mutant enhanced dramatically bacterial internalization by A549 epithelial cells compared to highly encapsulated clinical isolates. Local complement components (either present in the human bronchoalveolar lavage or produced by A549 epithelial cells) were sufficient to opsonize K. pneumoniae. CD46 could competitively inhibit the internalization of K. pneumoniae by the epithelial cells, suggesting that CD46 is a receptor for the binding of complement-opsonized K. pneumoniae to these cells. We observed that poorly encapsulated strains appeared into the alveolar epithelial cells in vivo but that (by contrast) they were completely avirulent in a mouse model of pneumonia compared to the highly encapsulated strains. Our results show that bacterial opsonization by complement enhances the internalization of the avirulent microorganisms by nonphagocytic cells such as A549 epithelial cells and allows an efficient innate defense

Didàctica de la natura a les Balears

Este material está pensado para proporcionar al maestro una orientación didáctica para el estudio de la naturaleza desde una perspectiva ambientalista. La obra, que consta de dos volúmenes, se divide en cuatro partes: en el primer volumen encontramos las unidades didácticas; en el segundo, las técnicas de trabajo, los puntos de itinerario y la bibliografía. La referencia básica de la obra está constituida por doce unidades didácticas, cada una de las cuales se refiere a un ecosistema de las Islas Baleares, un núcleo de interés ambiental o un aspecto global del medio.BalearesES