Analyzing the role of periplasmic folding factors in the biogenesis of OMPs and members of the type V secretion system

The outer membrane (OM) of gram-negative bacteria is highly packed with OM proteins (OMPs) and the trafficking and assembly of OMPs in gram-negative bacteria is a subject of intense research. Structurally, OMPs vary in the number of β-strands and in the size and complexity of extra-membrane domains, with extreme examples being the members of the type V protein secretion system (T5SS), such as the autotrans- porter (AT) and intimin/invasin families of secreted proteins, in which a large extracellular “passenger” domain is linked to a β-barrel that inserts in the OM. Despite their structural and functional diversity, OMPs interact in the periplasm with a relatively small set of protein chaperones that facilitate their trans- port from the inner membrane (IM) to the β-barrel assembly machinery (BAM complex), preventing aggregation and assisting their folding in various aspects including disulfide bond formation. This chapter is focused on the periplasmic folding factors involved in the biogenesis of integral OMPs and members of T5SS in E. coli, which are used as a model system in this field. Background information on these periplas- mic folding factors is provided along with genetic methods to generate conditional mutants that deplete these factors from E. coli and biochemical methods to analyze the folding, surface display, disulfide forma- tion and oligomerization state of OMPs/T5SS in these mutant.Spanish “Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad” (MINECO) (BIO2011-26689)Comunidad Autónoma de Madrid” (S2010-BMD- 2312),“La Caixa” FoundationEuropean Research Council (ERC-2012-ADG_20120314)Peer reviewe

Estudio comparativo de los dominios transportadores de los sistemas de secreción tipo V de protobacterias y su aplicación en la presentación de anticuerpos en la superficie de E. coli

Tesis doctoral inédita. Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Biología Molecular. Fecha de lectura: 01-12-200

Análisis cienciométrico de tesis doctorales españolas en Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales (1976-2012)

Universidad de Granada. Departamento de Métodos de Investigación y Diagnóstico en Educación. Máster en Intervención Psicopedagógica, curso 2012-201

Use of Mobile Technologies in Personal Learning Environments of Intercultural Contexts: Individual and Group Tasks

This paper presents the results of the analysis of the personal learning environments (PLE) used individually and in groups by fifth grade primary education students. The main objective was to determine if the use of mobile technologies in the students’ PLEs encouraged their school integration and learning in intercultural communities. For this, a content analysis of the students’ responses to an ad hoc interview was carried out, with a content validity index of 0.89. The students represented their answers using 41 concept maps in the individual tasks and 5 in the group tasks, which were analyzed with the Nvivo software in its latest version. The results show the categorization of the students’ responses in three dimensions: read, make/reflection and relationship. Among the main conclusions, it was obtained that, in both types of tasks, the strategies and tools that fostered intercultural relationships, intercultural education and communication between the students, and therefore school integration, are mostly linked to the use of mobile technologies applications, such as Wikipedia, the internet, Word, PowerPoint, social networks and YouTube, although it is essential to develop more studies to have more data to understand the phenomenon in depth.Unidad de Calidad, Innovacion Docente y Prospectiva, Universidad de Granada 19-2

Effects of drought and water pulses on microbial functionality and the role of Cyanoprokaryota in the rhizospheres of gypsophytes

In the rhizospheres of three gypsophytes and in non-rhizospheric soil, two samplings were carried out - the first during a summer drought and the second during spring - to detect the responses to the availability of water in the soil. Urease and protease showed higher values after the drought whereas β-glucosidase was highest in the spring. This pattern was the same for all the rhizospheres tested. However, the arylsulfatase and alkaline phosphatase did not change. Surprising results were obtained when water retention and water loss were studied, with the highest values being obtained for the dry season due to the association of Cyanoprokaryota with the rhizospheres. The results are also explained by two water pulses that occurred before the samplings. Several parameters, whose values changed markedly due to the microbiological activation just after the drought and water pulses, are proposed as indicators of this activation: microbial biomass carbon and basal respiration rate, together with urease and protease. However, it was the dehydrogenase activity in spring that best reflected the microbiology associated with the carbon cycle, together with β-glucosidase. The interrelationships between carbon and nitrogen were shown through the indices: water soluble nitrogen and water soluble carbon. We propose three functional adaptation mechanisms of these plants associated with the Cyanoprokaryota in their rhizospheres and related to the water availability as determined by drought and water pulse effects. Herniaria fruticosa is a pioneer with the greatest diversity of Cyanoprokaryota, in both summer and spring (10 species and 11 species, respectively), and with high-medium abundance (5–30%). Teucrium balthazaris exhibits an intermediate strategy, with greater diversity of Cyanoprokaryota in spring (7 species) and predominance of high-medium abundance (5–30%). Finally, Helianthemum squamatum has lower diversity, with one species in summer (with low abundance, <5%) and no species in spring

Realización de un estudio de asociación genómica en el repositorio público ADNI

Los estudios de asociación del genoma completo (GWAS) pertenecen a un campo en desarollo muy explotado en los últimos años. En concreto, este método ha intentado asociar la enfermedad de ALzheimer con su base genética, especialmente con ciertos SNPs, mediante el uso fenotipos cuantitativos como el volumen de estructuras cerebrales (que se sabe disminuyen con el progreso de esta infermedad). Algunas iniciativas como ADNI (Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative) se establecieron para probar si marcadores anatómicos o biológicos (desde Imágenes de Resonancia Magnética (MRI) hasta Tomografı́as por emisión de positrones (PET)), la información genética, clı́nica o análisis neuropsicológicos se pueden combinar para medir la progresión del Alzheimer. En la última década, la base de datos de ADNI ha aumentado considerablemente, dando lugar a las cohortes ADNI1, ADNIGO y ADNI2. Aunque se han llevado a cabo algunos GWAS con subpoblaciones de ADNI1, que sepamos no se han realizado con todo el proyecto de ADNI1 ni el resto de cohortes. En esta tesis se trata de estudiar qué SNPs están preservados de forma consistente en los diferentes GWAS de las cohortes, de forma que se haga posible la reproducción de los resultados previos del estudio en ADNI Hippocampal Atrophy as a Quantitative Trait in a Genome-Wide Association Study Identifying Novel Susceptibility Genes for Alzheimer’s Disease (Potkin et al. 2009). También tiene por objetivo descubrir nuevos posibles genes que representen factores de riesgo de padecer Alzheimer. Estos objetivos han sido abordados mediante la realización de GWAS para las cohortes ADNI1 y ADNI2 por separado, para la población conjunta de ADNI1 y ADNI2, ası́ como para subpoblaciones randomizadas. Los resultados muestran en varios SNPs una asociación positiva con el volumen de hipocampo en el análisis de ADNI1 y en la población total. Se trata de dos SNPs ya relacionados con ALzheimer: rs429358 del gen APOE y rs2075650 del gen TOMM40. Sin embargo, esta relación no se encontró en ADNI2. Se podrı́a hipotetizar que la razón de este resultado reside en la variabilidad encontrada en la asociación dependiendo del tamaño muestral. Esta hipótesis estarı́a respaldada teniendo en cuenta los resultados que se obtienen para el 50% de la población randomizada (ADNI2 representa aproximadamente el 50% de la población total). Sin embargo, se necesitarı́a profundizar en este aspecto para poder confirmar la hipótesis. Además, en este estudio se encontró una leve asociación en dos SNPs ya relacionados con otros transtornos mentales

Análisis Cienciométrico de Tesis Doctorales Españolas en Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales (1976-2012)

This paper presents a scientometric analysis of Spanish doctoral theses in the area of Social Science teaching and indexed in the TESEO database during the period 1976-2012. We retrieved 151 doctoral theses. The main objective of this research is to describe the state of the field from the production of doctoral theses, developing time series and the stages of diachronic retrospective production, institutional production, production related to the language in which the theses were written, the most active supervisors of the area, and a content analysis of titles. The results highlight the need for consolidation of the area as well as an epistemological consensus within it, and the major role of universities in Barcelona as the greatest institutional producers.En este estudio se presenta un análisis cienciométrico de las tesis doctorales españolas en el área de Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales, indexadas en la Base de Datos TESEO para el periodo 1976-2012. Fueron recuperadas 151 tesis doctorales. El objetivo principal de esta investigación es la descripción cuantitativa de la situación de la disciplina a partir de su producción de tesis doctorales, elaborando la serie temporal y las etapas de producción diacrónica retrospectiva, la producción institucional, la producción en función de la lengua en que se elaboraron las tesis, los directores más activos en dirección de tesis del área y un análisis de contenido de los títulos. Los hallazgos destacan la necesidad de consolidación del área, así como de consenso epistemológico dentro de la misma y el rol como grandes productoras institucionales de las universidades barcelonesas

Interpelar La Convivencia…Un Desafío

Estamos asistiendo a un escenario donde la insoslayable crisis institucional nos invita a la reflexión, con el propósito de resignificar nuestras prácticas educativas, desde una mirada intencional a la temática que nos convoca. ¿Qué se entiende por convivencia? Ianni, Norberto Daniel y Pérez Elena (1998:11), sostienen que: “…con-vivir implica vivir la propia vida sujeta a con: la compañía, los otros, en términos generales la sociedad.” Nos invade la idea de emprender un registro, que permita inexorablemente analizar nuestras experiencias, a partir de ciertos signos que remitan a la noción de convivencia

Los mapas auto-organizados para la evaluación de la investigación de tesis doctorales : el caso de la Didáctica de las Ciencias Sociales en España

This paper has as main objective to demonstrate how the use of neural networks, self-organized maps type, is a potentially clarifying tool in the treatment, analysis and visualization of scientometric data, specifically, in the case of the analysis of the Spanish doctoral theses in teaching Social Sciences, indexed in TESEO database and defended between 1976 and 2014. A census of 301 doctoral theses has been recovered, analyzed according to autonomous communities (Andalusia and Catalonia), five-year term groups, thematic categories and educational stages. In Andalusia, research has concentrated its production in the stages of Primary and Secondary Education, and in the thematic of Didactics of Geography. The dissertations production is highest in the five-year period 1986-1990 and 2001-2005. In Catalonia, research deals mainly with the stages of Secondary and Higher Education, and the theme of Didactics of Social Sciences. The most productive five-year periods in Catalonia were 1991-1995, 1996-2000, 2001-2005 and 2006-2010