FILOSOFÍA DE LAS PRÁCTICAS EXPERIMENTALES Y ENSEÑANZA DE LAS CIENCIAS

This article recognizes the contributions of the philosophy of experimental practices into the debate theory-practice and stresses its infuence in the role of the experiment in the teaching science, particularly in the use of textbooks, taken as an example a case into electricity.En este artículo se reconocen los aportes de la flosofía de las prácticas experimentales en torno al debate teoría – práctica  y se destaca su infuencia en el papel del experimento en la enseñanza de las ciencias, particularmente en el uso por parte de los libros de texto, tomando como ejemplo un caso en electricidad

Genetic variants related to nicotine dependence

Large-scale population studies have proved that genetic factors contribute to individual differences in smoking behavior. Genes responsible for nicotine's pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics seem mainly involved, although a significant fraction of variance remains unexplained. In this study we examined 10 SNPs from 8 candidate genes with positive previous reports of association with smoking. A total of 454 Italian unrelated subjects were genotyped by a multiplex minisequencing assay through the SNaPShot kit. Cases were chosen as current and former nicotine dependent (FTND. >. 4 and SQ. >. 15), while controls were smoking-exposed but non-dependent and never smoker individuals (FTND = 0 and SQ < 10 and FTND = 0 and SQ = 0, respectively). Preliminary results shows that the SNPs CHRNA5-rs16969968 and CHRNA3-rs1051730 could be associated with risk of developing nicotine dependence. Factors as age, sex, and exposition to smoke were also found as possible factors of risk of nicotine addiction. The identification of susceptibility loci for individual response to substance abuse is particularly motivating for medicine for the global epidemic dimension of addictions and the urgent need of effective preventive and therapeutic strategies. 2011 Elsevier Ireland Ltd

Directional alignment of MG63 cells on polymer surfaces containing point microstructures

MG63 cells cultured on regular arrays of point microstructures (posts and holes) are shown to preferentially align at certain angles to the pattern of the structures, at 08, 308, and 458 in particular. The effect is found to be more pronounced for post rather than hole structures(although no significant difference is found for the angles the cells make to the holes or posts) and is thought to be due to the fact that the cells use the posts as anchorage points to hold themselves to the surface. It is also shown that cells preferentially align with the structures depending on the dimensions of the structures and the distance between neighboring structures. This is important when designing structured surfaces for cell–surface interaction studies for materials to be used in, for example, drug delivery or tissue engineering.Postprint (published version

Comportamiento a la corrosión de implantes de titanio granallados

Se ha demostrado que realizar el tratamiento de granallado sobre implantes mejora la fijación de los mismos, debido a la rugosidad superficial que adquieren. Variando el tamaño de las partículas de proyección del granallado, se varía el valor de rugosidad. Por otra parte, siempre quedan partículas adheridas en la superficie del implante, lo cual puede tener influencia en distintas propiedades, entre las cuales cabe destacar su resistencia a la corrosión. Este estudio determina el comportamiento a la corrosión, mediante mediciones potenciodinámicas, del titanio comercialmente puro granallado con diferentes materiales de partículas de proyección (Al2O3 y SiC) y con diferentes tamaños de partícula (200, 600 y 900 mm). La rugosidad no tuvo influencia significativa en los resultados de corrosión, pero sí la tuvo la naturaleza de las partículas de proyección. Así, los discos tratados con SiC, debido a la oxidación de estas partículas adheridas en la superficie del titanio, presentaron densidades de corriente un orden de magnitud mayores que los discos tratados con Al2O3, lo que les confiere peores características de resistencia a la corrosión. No obstante, todos los discos presentaron un adecuado comportamiento frente a la corrosión.Peer Reviewe

High-carotenoid maize: development of plant biotechnology prototypes for human and animal health and nutrition

Carolight (R) is a transgenic maize variety that accumulates extraordinary levels of carotenoids, including those with vitamin A activity. The development of Carolight (R) maize involved the technical implementation of a novel combinatorial transformation method, followed by rigorous testing for transgene expression and the accumulation of different carotenoid molecules. Carolight (R) was envisaged as a way to improve the nutritional health of human populations that cannot access a diverse diet, but this ultimate humanitarian application can only be achieved after extensive testing for safety, agronomic performance and nutritional sufficiency. In this article, we chart the history of Carolight (R) maize focusing on its development, extensive field testing for agronomic performance and resistance to pests and pathogens, and feeding trials to analyze its impact on farm animals (and their meat/dairy products) as well as animal models of human diseases. We also describe more advanced versions of Carolight (R) endowed with pest-resistance traits, and other carotenoid-enhanced maize varieties originating from the same series of initial transformation experiments. Finally we discuss the further steps required before Carolight (R) can fulfil its humanitarian objectives, including the intellectual property and regulatory constraints that lie in its path

Use of group records of feed intake to select for feed efficiency in rabbit

Models for genetic evaluation of feed efficiency (FE) for animals housed in groups when they are either fed ad libitum (F) or on restricted (R) feeding were implemented. Definitions of FE on F included group records of feed intake (¯FI_F) and individual records of growth rate (GF) and metabolic weight (MF). Growth rate (GR) as FE measurement on R was used. Data corresponded to 5,336 kits from a rabbit sire line, from 1,255 litters in 14 batches and 667 cages. A five-trait mixed model (also with metabolic weight on R, MR) was implemented including, for each trait, the systematic effects of batch, body weight at weaning, parity order and litter size; and the random effects of litter, additive genetic and individual. A Bayesian analysis was performed. Conditional traits such as ¯FI_F |M_F,G_F and G_F |M_F,¯FI_F were obtained from elements of additive genetics ( ( ¯FI_F |M_F,G_F )_g and ( G_F |M_F,¯FI_F )_g ) or phenotypic (( ¯FI_F |M_F,G_F )_p and ( G_F |M_F,¯FI_F )_p ) (co)variance matrices. In the first case, heritabilities were low (0.07 and 0.06 for ( ¯FI_F |M_F,G_F )_g and ( G_F |M_F,¯FI_F )_g, respectively) but null genetic correlation between the conditional and conditioning traits is guaranteed. In the second case, heritabilities were higher (0.22 and 0.16 for ( ¯FI_F |M_F,G_F )_p and ( G_F |M_F,¯FI_F )_p, respectively) but the genetic correlation between ( ¯FI_F |M_F,G_F )_p and G_F was moderate (0.58). Heritability of GR was low (0.08). This trait was negatively correlated with ( G_F |M_F,¯FI_F )_p and ( G_F |M_F,¯FI_F )_gof animals on F, which indicate a different genetic background. The correlation between GR and GF was also low to moderate (0.48) and the additive variance of GF was almost 4 times that of GR, suggesting the presence of a substantial genotype by feeding regimen interaction.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Genome-Wide Association Study Singles Out SCD and LEPR as the Two Main Loci Influencing Intramuscular Fat Content and Fatty Acid Composition in Duroc Pigs

[EN] Intramuscular fat (IMF) content and fatty acid composition affect the organoleptic quality and nutritional value of pork. A genome-wide association study was performed on 138 Duroc pigs genotyped with a 60k SNP chip to detect biologically relevant genomic variants influencing fat content and composition. Despite the limited sample size, the genome-wide association study was powerful enough to detect the association between fatty acid composition and a known haplotypic variant in SCD (SSC14) and to reveal an association of IMF and fatty acid composition in the LEPR region (SSC6). The association of LEPR was later validated with an independent set of 853 pigs using a candidate quantitative trait nucleotide. The SCD gene is responsible for the biosynthesis of oleic acid (C18:1) from stearic acid. This locus affected the stearic to oleic desaturation index (C18:1/C18:0), C18: 1, and saturated (SFA) and monounsaturated (MUFA) fatty acids content. These effects were consistently detected in gluteus medius, longissimus dorsi, and subcutaneous fat. The association of LEPR with fatty acid composition was detected only in muscle and was, at least in part, a consequence of its effect on IMF content, with increased IMF resulting in more SFA, less polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), and greater SFA/PUFA ratio. Marker substitution effects estimated with a subset of 65 animals were used to predict the genomic estimated breeding values of 70 animals born 7 years later. Although predictions with the whole SNP chip information were in relatively high correlation with observed SFA, MUFA, and C18: 1/C18: 0 (0.48-0.60), IMF content and composition were in general better predicted by using only SNPs at the SCD and LEPR loci, in which case the correlation between predicted and observed values was in the range of 0.36 to 0.54 for all traits. Results indicate that markers in the SCD and LEPR genes can be useful to select for optimum fatty acid profiles of pork.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO; grants AGL2012-33529 and AGL2015-65846-R).Ros-Freixedes, R.; Gol, S.; Pena, R.; Tor, M.; Ibañez Escriche, N.; Dekkers, J.; Estany, J. (2016). Genome-Wide Association Study Singles Out SCD and LEPR as the Two Main Loci Influencing Intramuscular Fat Content and Fatty Acid Composition in Duroc Pigs. PLoS ONE. 11(3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0152496S113Cameron, N. ., Enser, M., Nute, G. ., Whittington, F. ., Penman, J. ., Fisken, A. ., … Wood, J. . (2000). Genotype with nutrition interaction on fatty acid composition of intramuscular fat and the relationship with flavour of pig meat. Meat Science, 55(2), 187-195. doi:10.1016/s0309-1740(99)00142-4Christophersen, O. A., & Haug, A. (2011). Animal products, diseases and drugs: a plea for better integration between agricultural sciences, human nutrition and human pharmacology. Lipids in Health and Disease, 10(1), 16. doi:10.1186/1476-511x-10-16Ntawubizi, M., Colman, E., Janssens, S., Raes, K., Buys, N., & De Smet, S. (2010). Genetic parameters for intramuscular fatty acid composition and metabolism in pigs1. Journal of Animal Science, 88(4), 1286-1294. doi:10.2527/jas.2009-2355Ros-Freixedes, R., Reixach, J., Tor, M., & Estany, J. (2012). Expected genetic response for oleic acid content in pork1. Journal of Animal Science, 90(12), 4230-4238. doi:10.2527/jas.2011-5063Clop, A., Ovilo, C., Perez-Enciso, M., Cercos, A., Tomas, A., Fernandez, A., … Noguera, J. L. (2003). Detection of QTL affecting fatty acid composition in the pig. Mammalian Genome, 14(9), 650-656. doi:10.1007/s00335-002-2210-7Kim, Y., Kong, M., Nam, Y. J., & Lee, C. (2006). A Quantitative Trait Locus for Oleic Fatty Acid Content on Sus scrofa Chromosome 7. Journal of Heredity, 97(5), 535-537. doi:10.1093/jhered/esl026Sanchez, M.-P., Iannuccelli, N., Basso, B., Bidanel, J.-P., Billon, Y., Gandemer, G., … Le Roy, P. (2007). Identification of QTL with effects on intramuscular fat content and fatty acid composition in a Duroc × Large White cross. BMC Genetics, 8(1), 55. doi:10.1186/1471-2156-8-55Guo, T., Ren, J., Yang, K., Ma, J., Zhang, Z., & Huang, L. (2009). Quantitative trait loci for fatty acid composition in longissimus dorsi and abdominal fat: results from a White Duroc × Erhualian intercross F2population. Animal Genetics, 40(2), 185-191. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2052.2008.01819.xC.M. Dekkers, J. (2012). Application of Genomics Tools to Animal Breeding. Current Genomics, 13(3), 207-212. doi:10.2174/138920212800543057Uemoto, Y., Nakano, H., Kikuchi, T., Sato, S., Ishida, M., Shibata, T., … Suzuki, K. (2011). Fine mapping of porcine SSC14 QTL and SCD gene effects on fatty acid composition and melting point of fat in a Duroc purebred population. Animal Genetics, 43(2), 225-228. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2052.2011.02236.xUemoto, Y., Soma, Y., Sato, S., Ishida, M., Shibata, T., Kadowaki, H., … Suzuki, K. (2011). Genome-wide mapping for fatty acid composition and melting point of fat in a purebred Duroc pig population. Animal Genetics, 43(1), 27-34. doi:10.1111/j.1365-2052.2011.02218.xEstany, J., Ros-Freixedes, R., Tor, M., & Pena, R. N. (2014). A Functional Variant in the Stearoyl-CoA Desaturase Gene Promoter Enhances Fatty Acid Desaturation in Pork. PLoS ONE, 9(1), e86177. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0086177Ramayo-Caldas, Y., Mercadé, A., Castelló, A., Yang, B., Rodríguez, C., Alves, E., … Folch, J. M. (2012). Genome-wide association study for intramuscular fatty acid composition in an Iberian × Landrace cross1. Journal of Animal Science, 90(9), 2883-2893. doi:10.2527/jas.2011-4900Muñoz, M., Rodríguez, M. C., Alves, E., Folch, J. M., Ibañez-Escriche, N., Silió, L., & Fernández, A. I. (2013). Genome-wide analysis of porcine backfat and intramuscular fat fatty acid composition using high-density genotyping and expression data. BMC Genomics, 14(1), 845. doi:10.1186/1471-2164-14-845Yang, B., Zhang, W., Zhang, Z., Fan, Y., Xie, X., Ai, H., … Ren, J. (2013). Genome-Wide Association Analyses for Fatty Acid Composition in Porcine Muscle and Abdominal Fat Tissues. PLoS ONE, 8(6), e65554. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0065554Zhang, W., Zhang, J., Cui, L., Ma, J., Chen, C., Ai, H., … Yang, B. (2016). Genetic architecture of fatty acid composition in the longissimus dorsi muscle revealed by genome-wide association studies on diverse pig populations. Genetics Selection Evolution, 48(1). doi:10.1186/s12711-016-0184-2Kim, E.-S., Ros-Freixedes, R., Pena, R. N., Baas, T. J., Estany, J., & Rothschild, M. F. (2015). Identification of signatures of selection for intramuscular fat and backfat thickness in two Duroc populations1. Journal of Animal Science, 93(7), 3292-3302. doi:10.2527/jas.2015-8879Bosch, L., Tor, M., Reixach, J., & Estany, J. (2009). Estimating intramuscular fat content and fatty acid composition in live and post-mortem samples in pigs. Meat Science, 82(4), 432-437. doi:10.1016/j.meatsci.2009.02.013AOAC. 1997. Supplement to AOAC Official Method 996.06: Fat (total, saturated, and monounsaturated) in foods hydrolytic extraction gas chromatographic method. Page 18 in Official Methods of Analysis (16th ed). Association of Official Analytical Chemists, Arlington, VA.ÓVILO, C., FERNÁNDEZ, A., NOGUERA, J. L., BARRAGÁN, C., LETÓN, R., RODRÍGUEZ, C., … TORO, M. (2005). Fine mapping of porcine chromosome 6 QTL and LEPR effects on body composition in multiple generations of an Iberian by Landrace intercross. Genetical Research, 85(1), 57-67. doi:10.1017/s0016672305007330Amills, M., Villalba, D., Tor, M., Mercad, A., Gallardo, D., Cabrera, B., … Estany, J. (2008). Plasma leptin levels in pigs with different leptin and leptin receptor genotypes. Journal of Animal Breeding and Genetics, 125(4), 228-233. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0388.2007.00715.xPurcell, S., Neale, B., Todd-Brown, K., Thomas, L., Ferreira, M. A. R., Bender, D., … Sham, P. C. (2007). PLINK: A Tool Set for Whole-Genome Association and Population-Based Linkage Analyses. The American Journal of Human Genetics, 81(3), 559-575. doi:10.1086/519795Bouwman, A. C., Janss, L. L., & Heuven, H. C. (2011). A Bayesian approach to detect QTL affecting a simulated binary and quantitative trait. BMC Proceedings, 5(S3). doi:10.1186/1753-6561-5-s3-s4Legarra, A., Croiseau, P., Sanchez, M., Teyssèdre, S., Sallé, G., Allais, S., … Elsen, J.-M. (2015). A comparison of methods for whole-genome QTL mapping using dense markers in four livestock species. 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(2012). The effects of leptin receptor (LEPR) and melanocortin-4 receptor (MC4R) polymorphisms on fat content, fat distribution and fat composition in a Duroc×Landrace/Large White cross. Livestock Science, 145(1-3), 145-152. doi:10.1016/j.livsci.2012.01.010UEMOTO, Y., KIKUCHI, T., NAKANO, H., SATO, S., SHIBATA, T., KADOWAKI, H., … SUZUKI, K. (2011). Effects of porcine leptin receptor gene polymorphisms on backfat thickness, fat area ratios by image analysis, and serum leptin concentrations in a Duroc purebred population. Animal Science Journal, 83(5), 375-385. doi:10.1111/j.1740-0929.2011.00963.xHirose, K., Ito, T., Fukawa, K., Arakawa, A., Mikawa, S., Hayashi, Y., & Tanaka, K. (2013). Evaluation of effects of multiple candidate genes (LEP,LEPR,MC4R,PIK3C3, andVRTN) on production traits in Duroc pigs. Animal Science Journal, 85(3), 198-206. doi:10.1111/asj.12134López-Buesa, P., Burgos, C., Galve, A., & Varona, L. (2013). 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Technology as 'Applied Science': a Serious Misconception that Reinforces Distorted and Impoverished Views of Science

The current consideration of technology as 'applied science', this is to say, as something that comes 'after' science, justifies the lack of attention paid to technology in science education. In our paper we question this simplistic view of the science-technology relationship, historically rooted in the unequal appreciation of intellectual and manual work, and we try to show how the absence of the technological dimension in science education contributes to a na¿ ve and distorted view of science which deeply affects the necessary scientific and technological literacy of all citizens

Knowledge and cognitive integration

Cognitive integration is a defining yet overlooked feature of our intellect that may nevertheless have substantial effects on the process of knowledge-acquisition. To bring those effects to the fore, I explore the topic of cognitive integration both from the perspective of virtue reliabilism within externalist epistemology and the perspective of extended cognition within externalist philosophy of mind and cognitive science. On the basis of this interdisciplinary focus, I argue that cognitive integration can provide a minimalist yet adequate epistemic norm of subjective justification: so long as the agent’s belief-forming process has been integrated in his cognitive character, the agent can be justified in holding the resulting beliefs merely by lacking any doubts there was something wrong in the way he arrived at them. Moreover, since both externalist philosophy of mind and externalist epistemology treat the process of cognitive integration in the same way, we can claim that epistemic cognitive characters may extend beyond our organismic cognitive capacities to the artifacts we employ or even to other agents we interact with. This move is not only necessary for accounting for advanced cases of knowledge that is the product of the operation of epistemic artifacts or the interactive activity of research teams, but it can further lead to interesting ramifications both for social epistemology and philosophy of scienc