POTATO BOY. DIVULGACIÓN CIENTÍFICA A PARTIR DE UN CUENTO INFANTIL ILUSTRADO

[EN] Could a potato change the world? Of course not! Nevertheless, this tuber that spends a big part of its development period underground, is a staple diet in many of the world’s countries. How many countries include the potato as one of their main ingredients? In Belgium, France, Spain, the UK and Ireland to mention just a few, the potato appears as one main ingredient in their most typical dishes: Fish & Chips, Gratin Dauphinois, Tortilla, Mosselen Met Frieten, Bouillabaisse… But far from being only a constant ingredient on our tables, the potato could be the object of artistic, scientific and social research. Such is our objective with this propossal. We are working on the idea of how a small tuber, shaped by a particular process and its on metabolic phases, interacts with light to germinate and bring to the surface the only visible part of its maturity. We will use that same process to inspire our creativity and as a vehicle for scientific education. This research could be understood as a metaphor for the art/science synergies, in which the findings of interdisciplinary cooperation become clear after a whole previous process not visible at the start. We will use equally illustration, narrative, and scientific methodology.[ES] ¿Puede una patata cambiar el mundo? Por supuesto que no. Sin embargo, este tubérculo que pasa toda o gran parte de su etapa de gestación bajo tierra, es uno de los sustentos básicos en las dietas de todo el mundo. ¿Cuantas culturas incorporan la patata como alimento principal? Particularmente en Europa la patata destaca como uno de los complementos alimentarios en menús de Bélgica, Inglaterra, Francia o España, por ejemplo. Un producto que además, elaborado de una u otra forma, se convierte en representante identitario: Fish& Chips, Tortilla Española, Patatas Bravas, Gratin Dauphinois, Mosselen Met Frieten, Bouillabaisse… Sin embargo, la patata, lejos de ser solo un complemento recurrente en las mesas de nuestras casas, también puede ser objeto de investigación artística, científica y social. Este es el objetivo que perseguimos con nuestra propuesta. Queremos estudiar cómo un pequeño tubérculo, durante sus fases metabólicas, interacciona con la luz, para brotar y hacer salir de la oscuridad del subsuelo las partes visibles de su propia maduración. Usaremos el mismo proceso para inspirar nuestra creatividad como vía para la educación científica. Una investigación que puede ser entendida como metáfora de las sinergias arte y ciencia, donde los resultados de la colaboración interdisciplinar salen a la luz después de todo un proceso anterior menos visible, donde queremos visualizar distintas estrategias educativas para potenciar la innovación dentro de la intersección entre ilustración, narrativa, método científico y divulgación.Muñoz, M.; Pastor Serra, E. (2015). POTATO BOY. DIVULGACIÓN CIENTÍFICA A PARTIR DE UN CUENTO INFANTIL ILUSTRADO. En Actas Segundo Congreso Internacional Arte Ciencia Ciudad ACC2015. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 274-278. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/85539OCS27427

Divulgando la cultura científica en la ciudad. Asociación cultural "Piratas de la Ciencia"

El movimiento asociativo y las plataformas ciudadanas han sido y continúan siendo uno de los grandes bloques de consolidación del activismo social. Laraña y Gusfield (1994) hablan de un cambio de contexto de los movimientos sociales, desde un ámbito relacionado con el binomio capital-trabajo hacia una movilización por la pluralidad de valores culturales y simbólicos. Este es el caso, por ejemplo, del activismo ecológico, plataformas de defensores de consumidores, pacifistas, entre otros, que buscan formas alternativas para la participación y decisión en asuntos de interés. Sin embargo, no es tan fácil determinar si existe un movimiento social directo originado desde los propios colectivos científicos. El movimiento Open, el 'escéptico' entre periodistas, científicos y divulgadores o las asociaciones en pro de la I+D, podrían entenderse como ejemplos de activismo o de movimiento social. El colectivo Piratas de la Ciencia es una asociación cultural independiente que viene trabajando en el campo de la comunicación de la ciencia en el entorno local e internacional. Las actividades que se proponen en la asociación se entienden como acciones de grupo, colectivas, con un interés social dirigido a promover el contacto entre especialistas, en los distintos escenarios ciudadanos. Particularmente, entendemos al científico como uno más de los actores involucrados en la consolidación de la cultura en los distintos entornos sociales y ciudadanos. Presentaremos un resumen de las actividades realizadas por nuestra asociación en este contexto en los últimos años

Escala Breve de Ansiedad ante la Evaluación Académica (EBAEA-3): Brief Scale of Anxiety of the Academic Evaluation (EBAEA-3)

Resumen: Los objetivos: analizar las propiedades psicométricas de una escala breve de ansiedad ante la evaluación académica y comprobar si hay diferencias entre los alumnos que cursan una materia del área de metodología o de otras áreas. La muestra está formada por 404 alumnos de Psicología (M = 21.03 años, DT = 5.45). El 56.4% reciben formación en metodología y el 43.6% en otras áreas. Los resultados señalan que los estudiantes que reciben formación en materias metodológicas informan de un mayor grado de ansiedad ante la evaluación y perciben que tienen menor autoeficacia. Las implicaciones de los hallazgos están vinculadas con la enseñanza de los contenidos de metodología y alerta a los docentes sobre la necesidad de actuar para controlar esas percepciones. Palabras clave: ansiedad en educación; ansiedad ante la evaluación; medida, fiabilidad; validez   Abstract: The objectives: to analyze the psychometric properties of a brief scale of pre-test anxiety and discover whether there are differences between students taking subjects in the area of methodology or in other areas. The sample is composed of 404 Psychology students (M = 21.03 years, SD = 5.45). Of them, 56.4% receive training in methodology and 43.6% in other areas. The results show that the students who receive training in methodological subjects report a greater degree of pre-test anxiety and perceive themselves as having less self-efficacy. The implications of the findings are linked to the teaching of the methodology contents, and they warn professors about the need to take steps to control these perceptions.  Keywords: anxiety in education, pre-test anxiety, assessment, reliability, validity

Negative symptoms and sex differences in first episode schizophrenia: What's their role in the functional outcome? A longitudinal study

Introduction: Negative symptoms (NS) include asociality, avolition, anhedonia, alogia, and blunted affect and are linked to poor prognosis. It has been suggested that they reflect two different factors: diminished expression (EXP) (blunted affect and alogia) and amotivation/pleasure (MAP) (anhedonia, avolition, asociality). The aim of this article was to examine potential sex differences among first-episode schizophrenia (FES) patients and analyze sex-related predictors of two NS symptoms factors (EXP and MAP) and functional outcome. Material and methods: Two hundred and twenty-three FES (71 females and 152 males) were included and evaluated at baseline, six-months and one-year. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to examine the effects of time and sex on NS and a multiple linear regression backward elimination was performed to predict NS factors (MAP-EXP) and functioning. Results: Females showed fewer NS (p = 0.031; Cohen's d = −0.312), especially those related to EXP (p = 0.024; Cohen's d = −0.326) rather than MAP (p = 0.086), than males. In both male and female group, worse premorbid adjustment and higher depressive symptoms made a significant contribution to the presence of higher deficits in EXP at one-year follow-up, while positive and depressive symptoms predicted alterations in MAP. Finally, in females, lower deficits in MAP and better premorbid adjustment predicted better functioning at one-year follow-up (R2 = 0.494; p < 0.001), while only higher deficits in MAP predicted worse functioning in males (R2 = 0.088; p = 0.012). Conclusions: Slightly sex differences have been found in this study. Our results lead us to consider that early interventions of NS, especially those focusing on motivation and pleasure symptoms, could improve functional outcomes

Dietary intake of polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and furans, adiposity and obesity status

Introduction: The principal source of exposure to Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-dioxins and polychlorinated dibenzo-p-furans (PCDD/Fs) in humans comes from food intake. PCDD/Fs, are a family of potential endocrine disruptors and have been associated with different chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. However, studies assessing the relationship between dietary exposure to PCDD/Fs and adiposity or obesity status in a middle-aged population are limited. Objective: To assess cross-sectionally and longitudinally the associations between estimated dietary intake (DI) of PCDD/Fs and body mass index (BMI), waist circumference, and the prevalence/incidence of obesity and abdominal obesity in a middle-aged population. Methods: In 5899 participants aged 55-75 years (48% women) living with overweight/obesity from the PREDIMED-plus cohort, PCDD/Fs DI was estimated using a 143-item validated food-frequency questionnaire, and the levels of food PCDD/F expressed as Toxic Equivalents (TEQ). Consequently, cross-sectional and prospective associations between baseline PCDD/Fs DI (in pgTEQ/week) and adiposity or obesity status were assessed at baseline and after 1-year follow-up using multivariable cox, logistic or linear regression models. Results: Compared to participants in the first PCDD/F DI tertile, those in the highest tertile presented a higher BMI (β-coefficient [confidence interval]) (0.43kg/m2 [0.22; 0.64]; P-trend <0.001), a higher waist circumference (1.11 cm [0.55; 1.66]; P-trend <0.001), and a higher prevalence of obesity and abdominal obesity (1.05 [1.01; 1.09] and 1.02 [1.00; 1.03]; P-trend = 0.09 and 0.027, respectively). In the prospective analysis, participants in the top PCDD/F DI baseline tertile showed an increase in waist circumference compared with those in the first tertile after 1-year of follow-up (β-coefficient 0.37 cm [0.06; 0.70]; P-trend = 0.015). Conclusion: Higher DI of PCDD/Fs was positively associated with adiposity parameters and obesity status at baseline and with changes in waist circumference after 1-year of follow-up in subjects living with overweight/obesity. Further large prospective studies using a different population with longer follow-up periods are warranted in the future to strengthen our results. Keywords: Abdominal obesity; Adiposity; Endocrine disrupting chemicals; Obesity; Polychlorinated dibenzo-p-furans (PCDD/F)

Spread of a SARS-CoV-2 variant through Europe in the summer of 2020

[EN] Following its emergence in late 2019, the spread of SARS-CoV-21,2 has been tracked by phylogenetic analysis of viral genome sequences in unprecedented detail3,4,5. Although the virus spread globally in early 2020 before borders closed, intercontinental travel has since been greatly reduced. However, travel within Europe resumed in the summer of 2020. Here we report on a SARS-CoV-2 variant, 20E (EU1), that was identified in Spain in early summer 2020 and subsequently spread across Europe. We find no evidence that this variant has increased transmissibility, but instead demonstrate how rising incidence in Spain, resumption of travel, and lack of effective screening and containment may explain the variant’s success. Despite travel restrictions, we estimate that 20E (EU1) was introduced hundreds of times to European countries by summertime travellers, which is likely to have undermined local efforts to minimize infection with SARS-CoV-2. Our results illustrate how a variant can rapidly become dominant even in the absence of a substantial transmission advantage in favourable epidemiological settings. Genomic surveillance is critical for understanding how travel can affect transmission of SARS-CoV-2, and thus for informing future containment strategies as travel resumes.S

Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use in early acute respiratory distress syndrome : Insights from the LUNG SAFE study

Publisher Copyright: © 2020 The Author(s). Copyright: Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.Background: Concerns exist regarding the prevalence and impact of unnecessary oxygen use in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). We examined this issue in patients with ARDS enrolled in the Large observational study to UNderstand the Global impact of Severe Acute respiratory FailurE (LUNG SAFE) study. Methods: In this secondary analysis of the LUNG SAFE study, we wished to determine the prevalence and the outcomes associated with hyperoxemia on day 1, sustained hyperoxemia, and excessive oxygen use in patients with early ARDS. Patients who fulfilled criteria of ARDS on day 1 and day 2 of acute hypoxemic respiratory failure were categorized based on the presence of hyperoxemia (PaO2 > 100 mmHg) on day 1, sustained (i.e., present on day 1 and day 2) hyperoxemia, or excessive oxygen use (FIO2 ≥ 0.60 during hyperoxemia). Results: Of 2005 patients that met the inclusion criteria, 131 (6.5%) were hypoxemic (PaO2 < 55 mmHg), 607 (30%) had hyperoxemia on day 1, and 250 (12%) had sustained hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use occurred in 400 (66%) out of 607 patients with hyperoxemia. Excess FIO2 use decreased from day 1 to day 2 of ARDS, with most hyperoxemic patients on day 2 receiving relatively low FIO2. Multivariate analyses found no independent relationship between day 1 hyperoxemia, sustained hyperoxemia, or excess FIO2 use and adverse clinical outcomes. Mortality was 42% in patients with excess FIO2 use, compared to 39% in a propensity-matched sample of normoxemic (PaO2 55-100 mmHg) patients (P = 0.47). Conclusions: Hyperoxemia and excess oxygen use are both prevalent in early ARDS but are most often non-sustained. No relationship was found between hyperoxemia or excessive oxygen use and patient outcome in this cohort. Trial registration: LUNG-SAFE is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02010073publishersversionPeer reviewe