Regulation of bistability in the std fimbrial operon of Salmonella enterica by DNA adenine methylation and transcription factors HdfR, StdE and StdF

Bistable expression of the Salmonella enterica std operon is controlled by an AND logic gate involving three transcriptional activators: the LysR-type factor HdfR and the StdE and StdF regulators encoded by the std operon itself. StdE activates transcription of the hdfR gene, and StdF activates std transcription together with HdfR. Binding of HdfR upstream of the std promoter is hindered by methylation of GATC sites located within the upstream activating sequence (UAS). Epigenetic control by Dam methylation thus antagonizes formation of the StdE-StdF-HdfR loop and tilts the std switch toward the StdOFF state. In turn, HdfR binding hinders methylation of the UAS, permitting activation of the StdE-StdF-HdfR loop and concomitant formation of StdON cells. Bistability is thus the outcome of competition between DNA adenine methylation and the StdE-StdF-HdfR activator loop.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades [BIO2016–75235-P

Articulación de la educación media con la superior en el manejo integrado de cultivos hortícolas

Este proyecto de articulación tiene como finalidad capacitar estudiantes de bachillerato de colegios departamentales de la zona, que se encuentren cursando décimo y/o undécimo grado, en temas de importancia para el sector hortícola, como son el riego, la fertilización y la sanidad vegetal. Comprende la asociación de los municipios de Cajicá donde se encuentra ubicada la sede de la Facultad de Ciencias de la Universidad Militar Nueva Granada y Chía específicamente la vereda Fagua con la empresa de flores MG. Consultores y el Colegio Departamental Fagua. Esta zona se encuentra inmersa en un área mucho mayor que se conoce como la Asociación de Municipios de la Provincia de Sabana Centro (Asocentro), creada en la década de los ochenta y conformada por 11 municipios (Cajicá, Chía, Cogua, Cota, Gachancipá, Nemocón, Sopo, Tabio, Tenjo, Tocancipá, Zipaquira) de vocación agropecuaria, enfocada a la solución de problemas como lo son el de mejorar la calidad de vida y el bienestar social de los habitantes de la región, la toma de decisiones de impacto regional relacionadas con el agro, la creación de un área agropolitana que funcione como fuente de productos agrícolas para la capital y el fortalecimiento del desarrollo de actividades agrícolas como el cultivo de flores. De esta forma se busca aplicar los avances y resultados obtenidos de las investigaciones en la universidad a la comunidad de su área de impacto directo (ASOCENTRO).Pregrad

Politización y pericia financiera en las cajas de ahorros españolas: Patrones en la configuración de sus consejos

This study examines the politicization and financial knowledge-experience of the boards of directors of Spanish savings banks. To do this, we build a database with the biographic information of directors during the period 2004-2010. The results of the cluster analysis show the existence of four types of boards, depending on the politicization and the financial expertise of its members. Furthermore, we find that savings banks with higher financial expertise in their boards have higher levels of financial solvencyEsta investigación profundiza en la politización y conocimientos-experiencia financiera de los consejos de administración de las cajas de ahorros españolas. Para ello, construimos una base de datos con la información biográfica de sus consejeros del período 2004-2010. Los resultados del análisis clúster revelan la existencia de cuatro tipos de consejos en función de la politización y la pericia financiera de sus miembros. Asimismo, encontramos que las cajas con mayor pericia financiera en su consejo presentan mayores niveles de solvencia financier

Programa de prevención de Trastornos de la Conducta Alimentaria con alumnos de secundaria desde Terapia Ocupacional

Introducción: El número de casos de Trastornos de la Conducta Alimentaria se ha disparado y la edad de inicio es cada vez más temprana. Por tanto, resulta urgente poner en marcha estrategias que ayuden a frenar esta situación y el ámbito educativo es el lugar más idóneo para ello.Objetivos: Diseñar un programa de prevención de TCA en adolescentesdentro del ámbito escolar, basado en una intervención grupal y orientado a reforzar su volición, habituación y capacidad de desempeño. Metodología: Se llevó a cabo una revisión de la bibliografía consultandoPubMed, Dialnet, SciELO, Elsevier y Google Académico, además de laBiblioteca de la Universidad de Zaragoza y asociaciones de TCA. La intervención se diseña a partir de guías de práctica clínica y en base al Modelo de Ocupación Humana. Desarrollo: Se plantea una intervención con ochos sesiones de dos horas, dentro del aula, dirigidas a alumnos del la E.S.O que presenten factores de riesgo. Para el cribado se utilizará el Test de Actitudes Alimentarias (EAT-26), el Cuestionario de Satisfacción Corporal (BSQ), la Escala de Depresión y Ansiedad de Goldberg y un cuestionario ocupacional de elaboración propia.Para la evaluación, herramientas propias del MOHO.Conclusiones: La terapia ocupacional puede contribuir a la prevención de TCA, no solo desde la alimentación o la actividad física, sino también desde la identidad, el equilibrio ocupacional y el uso adecuado de redes sociales. Palabras clave: "terapia ocupacional”, “prevención”, “trastornos de la conducta alimentaria”, “anorexia nerviosa”, “bulimia nerviosa”, “trastorno por atracón”, “adolescentes”.<br /

Mejora de las habilidades sociales a través del juego en niños con síndrome de Down

El juego es la ocupación más importante en la infancia debido al tiempo que los niños invierten en ella. A medida que los niños van creciendo el juego va evolucionando, pasando por diferentes etapas. Los niños con Síndrome de Down presentan unas capacidades diferentes que hacen que la adquisición de las capacidades de juego sea más lenta, por lo que es necesario un mayor estímulo. El objetivo principal de la intervención es conseguir el juego social en un grupo de tres niños con Síndrome de Down de entre siete y diez años. Método: tras un período de evaluación realizado a través de escalas observacionales se planificó una sesión grupal a la semana de 90 minutos de duración a lo largo de siete semanas, en las que se han realizado diversas actividades grupales para trabajar las habilidades sociales. Resultados: las mejoras de los niños fueron analizadas a través de una observación subjetiva durante la que se encontraron avances en la participación de los niños y una mejora significativa en el juego cooperativo y en la comunicación. Conclusiones: El trabajo conjunto de profesionales de Terapia Ocupacional y Pedagogía Terapéutica, así como la intervención de las familias de manera indirecta pueden resultar una aportación interesante para programas futuros. Sin embargo, hay que tener en cuenta las limitaciones de tiempo, espacio y diferencias en las edades de juego para que el programa resulte igual de beneficioso para todos los participantes. <br /

PUE attack detection in CWSN using collaboration and learning behavior

Cognitive Wireless Sensor Network (CWSN) is a new paradigm which integrates cognitive features in traditional Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) to mitigate important problems such as spectrum occupancy. Security in Cognitive Wireless Sensor Networks is an important problem because these kinds of networks manage critical applications and data. Moreover, the specific constraints of WSN make the problem even more critical. However, effective solutions have not been implemented yet. Among the specific attacks derived from new cognitive features, the one most studied is the Primary User Emulation (PUE) attack. This paper discusses a new approach, based on anomaly behavior detection and collaboration, to detect the PUE attack in CWSN scenarios. A nonparametric CUSUM algorithm, suitable for low resource networks like CWSN, has been used in this work. The algorithm has been tested using a cognitive simulator that brings important results in this area. For example, the result shows that the number of collaborative nodes is the most important parameter in order to improve the PUE attack detection rates. If the 20% of the nodes collaborates, the PUE detection reaches the 98% with less than 1% of false positives

A game theory based strategy for reducing energy consumption in cognitive WSN

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are one of the most important users of wireless communication technologies in the coming years and some challenges in this area must be addressed for their complete development. Energy consumption and spectrum availability are two of the most severe constraints of WSNs due to their intrinsic nature. The introduction of cognitive capabilities into these networks has arisen to face the issue of spectrum scarcity but could be used to face energy challenges too due to their new range of communication possibilities. In this paper a new strategy based on game theory for cognitive WSNs is discussed. The presented strategy improves energy consumption by taking advantage of the new change-communication-channel capability. Based on game theory, the strategy decides when to change the transmission channel depending on the behavior of the rest of the network nodes. The strategy presented is lightweight but still has higher energy saving rates as compared to noncognitive networks and even to other strategies based on scheduled spectrum sensing. Simulations are presented for several scenarios that demonstrate energy saving rates of around 65% as compared to WSNs without cognitive techniques

Evaluation, energy optimization, and spectrum analysis of an artificial noise technique to improve CWSN security

This paper presents the security evaluation, energy consumption optimization, and spectrum scarcity analysis of artificial noise techniques to increase physical-layer security in Cognitive Wireless Sensor Networks (CWSNs). These techniques introduce noise into the spectrum in order to hide real information. Nevertheless, they directly affect two important parameters in Cognitive Wireless Sensor Networks (CWSNs), energy consumption and spectrum utilization. Both are affected because the number of packets transmitted by the network and the active period of the nodes increase. Security evaluation demonstrates that these techniques are effective against eavesdropper attacks, but also optimization allows for the implementation of these approaches in low-resource networks such as Cognitive Wireless Sensor Networks. In this work, the scenario is formally modeled and the optimization according to the simulation results and the impact analysis over the frequency spectrum are presented

Worldwide prevalence of inadequate work ability among hospital nursing personnel: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose: To estimate the worldwide pooled prevalence of inadequate work ability among hospital nursing personnel using the Work Ability Index (WAI). Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Methods: A systematic search was conducted on Medline/PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, Scielo, PsychInfo, CINAHL, Nursing and Allied Health, LILACS, and Google Scholar from inception to July 2021 to identify observational studies on work abil ity among hospital nursing personnel using the WAI. Two researchers independently completed the study selection, quality assessments, and data extraction on the preva lence of inadequate work ability that was pooled using the random effects model. Finally, subgroup analyses were performed to explore sources of heterogeneity. Findings: A total of 42 studies were included, consisting of 24,728 subjects worldwide from 14 countries. Of these, 35 studies were included in the meta-analytical analyses. The world wide pooled prevalence of inadequate work ability among hospital nursing personnel was 24.7% (95% CI = 20.2%–29.4%). High levels of heterogeneity were detected in all studies. Prevalence was higher in studies where samples were composed of nurses and nursing as sistive personnel (26.8%; 95% CI=22.4%–31.5%) than in those of nurses alone (22.2%; 95% CI = 13.1%–32.9%) and in studies where the sample was over 40 (28.1%; 95% CI = 19.5%– 37.5%) than in those with a sample under that age (22.4%; 95% CI = 15.8%–29.7%). Conclusions: Almost one in four members of hospital nursing staff in the world has inadequate work ability and therefore are at risk of several negative outcomes dur ing their working life. These prevalence data correspond to the pre-pandemic pe riod, so new studies should also be especially useful in quantifying the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on work ability in the hospital nursing workforce. Clinical relevance: The above findings justify the launch of initiatives that include an nual assessment for the early identification of inadequate work ability, offering the possibility of anticipated corrective measures. Nursing workforce older than 40 years and those belonging to the professional category of nursing assistive personnel should be priority target groups for screening and intervention to improve work ability

Political directors and corporate social responsibility: Are political ideology and regional identity relevant?

This study analyzes the infuence of directors with political connections on corpo‑ rate social responsibility (CSR). Using a sample of Spanish savings banks (cajas) during the period 2004–2013, we analyze the infuence of political directors on the CSR of these entities, focusing on their ideology and regional identity. Our results indicate that the higher the proportion of directors with political ties on the board, the greater the allocation of resources to CSR activities. In addition to this positive efect of board politicization, we fnd that political directors’ liberal ideology posi‑ tively afects CSR, both directly and in moderating the relationship between political directors and CSR. Our results also validate that political directors’ regional iden‑ tity boosts the positive efect they have on CSR. Finally, we encounter various dif‑ ferences depending on the nature of the projects funded through CSR. Therefore, our study demonstrates the importance of delving into the characteristics of political directors to elucidate their efects on corporate policies.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This study was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (Grant ECO201785356), the UAM - Comunidad de Madrid (SI3-PJI-2021-00276) and it benefted from the Professorship Excellence Program in accordance with the multi-year agreement signed by the Government of Madrid and the Autonomous University of Madrid (Line #3)