Com ensenyem a parlar el nostre alumnat? Formació des de la metodologia conversacional

El desenvolupament de la competència oral comunicativa, no depèn tant d'introduir unes activitats d'expressió oral - de vegades de manera forçada - com de pensar en una metodologia que treballi els continguts des de l'oralitat. Aleshores, hem pensat que donar a les iniciatives de formació dels docents un format coherent amb els principis que es volen posar en pràctica és una manera eficaç que hi hagi transferència del coneixement. Tanmateix, conscients que en el resultat de les activitats de formació intervenen un bon número de variables, hem pensat en un instrument d'avaluació que ens ajudés a identificar i relacionar aquests processos que, de vegades, passen inadvertits. The development of the oral communicative competence does not depend so much introducing few activities of oral expression - sometimes in a forced way - as thinking about a methodology that works the contents from the orality. This way, we have thought that to give to the initiatives of training the teachers, a coherent format with the principles that are wanted to put into practice is an effective way in order that the transfer of knowledge takes place. At the same way, conscious that in the result of the training activities take part a great number of variables, we have designed a tool of evaluation to help us to identify and match those processes that, sometimes, remain hidden

A comparison of high-order time integrators for thermal convection in rotating spherical shells

A numerical study of several time integration methods for solving the threedimensional Boussinesq thermal convection equations in rotating spherical shells is presented. Implicit and semi-implicit time integration techniques based on backward differentiation and extrapolation formulae are considered. The use of Krylov techniques allows the implicit treatment of the Coriolis term with low storage requirements. The codes are validated with a known benchmark, and their efficiency is studied. The results show that the use of high order methods, especially those with time step and order control, increase the efficiency of the time integration, and allows to obtain more accurate solutions.Postprint (author’s final draft

Locomotor activating effects and addiction-like features of MDPV as assessed in preclinical studies: a review.

Introducción: La 3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (mdpv) es un componente de las denominadas sales de baño, aparecidas en el mercado a final de la década del 2000 debido a la falta de precursores de síntesis de mdma, y su uso va en aumento. El ob- jetivo de este trabajo es clarificar sus características farmacológicas y potencialidades adictivas. Método: Mediante búsquedas en PubMed, 21 estudios relacionados con la química, farmacología o potencial adictivo del mdpv fueron seleccionados. Resulta- dos: El mdpv muestra ser capaz de inducir una potente hiperlocomoción, preferencias condicionadas, sensibilización conductual, autoadministración y altos puntos de corte en pruebas de razón progresiva. Conclusión: Los estudios revisados apuntan a que el mdpv es un potente psicoestimulante con un potencial adictivo similar al de la cocaí- na o la metanfetamina. Su abuso continuado podría llevar a una epidemia de adictos al mdpv.Introduction: 3,4-Methylenedioxypyrovalerone (mdpv) is a major component of the new psychoactive substances termed “bath salts”. These substances appeared on the drug market at the end of the last century given the lack of mdma precursors, caused by its worldwide prosecution by governments and police agencies, and its growing use. The goal of this work was to clarify its pharmacological features and addiction-like potentiali- ties. Methods: By PubMed searches, 21 studies related to mdpv chemistry, pharmaco logy or addictive features were selected. Results: mdpv is seen to be able to induce potent hyperlocomotion, conditioned place preference, behavioural sensitisation, self- administration and high breakpoints in progressive ratio schedules. Conclusion: The reviewed studies indicate that mdpv is a powerful psychostimulant with a similar addictive potential to that of cocaine or methamphetamine. Its abuse can lead to an epidemic of mdpv addicts

Nitric Oxide prevents aortic neointimal hyperplasia by controlling macrophage polarization.

Objective— Nitric oxide synthase 3 (NOS3) prevents neointima hyperplasia by still unknown mechanisms. To demonstrate the significance of endothelial nitric oxide in the polarization of infiltrated macrophages through the expression of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-13 in neointima formation. Approach and Results— After aortic endothelial denudation, NOS3 null mice show elevated neointima formation, detecting increased mobilization of LSK (lineage-negative [Lin]-stem-cell antigen 1 [SCA1]+KIT+) progenitor cells, and high ratios of M1 (proinflammatory) to M2 (resolving) macrophages, accompanied by high expression of interleukin-5, interleukin-6, MCP-1 (monocyte chemoattractant protein), VEGF (vascular endothelial growth factor), GM-CSF (granulocyte-macrophage colony stimulating factor), interleukin-1β, and interferon-γ. In conditional c-Myc knockout mice, in which M2 polarization is defective, denuded aortas showed extensive wall thickening as well. Conditioned medium from NOS3-deficient endothelium induced extensive repolarization of M2 macrophages to an M1 phenotype, and vascular smooth muscle cells proliferated and migrated faster in conditioned medium from M1 macrophages. Among the different proteins participating in cell migration, MMP-13 was preferentially expressed by M1 macrophages. M1-mediated vascular smooth muscle cell migration was inhibited when macrophages were isolated from MMP-13–deficient mice, whereas exogenous administration of MMP-13 to vascular smooth muscle cell fully restored migration. Excess vessel wall thickening in mice lacking NOS3 was partially reversed by simultaneous deletion of MMP-13, indicating that NOS3 prevents neointimal hyperplasia by preventing MMP-13 activity. An excess of M1-polarized macrophages that coexpress MMP-13 was also detected in human carotid samples from endarterectomized patients. Conclusions— These findings indicate that at least M1 macrophage-mediated expression of MMP-13 in NOS3 null mice induces neointima formation after vascular injury, suggesting that MMP-13 may represent a new promising target in vascular disease.pre-print262 K

Fetal sex modulates developmental response to maternal malnutrition

The incidence of obesity and metabolic diseases is dramatically high in rapidly developing countries. Causes have been related to intrinsic ethnic features with development of a thrifty genotype for adapting to food scarcity, prenatal programming by undernutrition, and postnatal exposure to obesogenic lifestyle. Observational studies in humans and experimental studies in animal models evidence that the adaptive responses of the offspring may be modulated by their sex. In the contemporary context of world globalization, the new question arising is the existence and extent of sex-related differences in developmental and metabolic traits in case of mixed-race. Hence, in the current study, using a swine model, we compared male and female fetuses that were crossbred from mothers with thrifty genotype and fathers without thrifty genotype. Female conceptuses evidence stronger protective strategies for their adequate growth and postnatal survival. In brief, both male and female fetuses developed a brain-sparing effect but female fetuses were still able to maintain the development of other viscerae than the brain (mainly liver, intestine and kidneys) at the expense of carcass development. Furthermore, these morphometric differences were reinforced by differences in nutrient availability (glucose and cholesterol) favoring female fetuses with severe developmental predicament. These findings set the basis for further studies aiming to increase the knowledge on the interaction between genetic and environmental factors in the determination of adult phenotype

The efficacy of chemotherapy is limited by intratumoral senescent cells expressing PD-L2

Chemotherapy; Intratumoral senescent cellsQuimioterapia; Células senescentes intratumoralesQuimioteràpia; Cèl·lules senescents intratumoralsChemotherapy often generates intratumoral senescent cancer cells that strongly modify the tumor microenvironment, favoring immunosuppression and tumor growth. We discovered, through an unbiased proteomics screen, that the immune checkpoint inhibitor programmed cell death 1 ligand 2 (PD-L2) is highly upregulated upon induction of senescence in different types of cancer cells. PD-L2 is not required for cells to undergo senescence, but it is critical for senescent cells to evade the immune system and persist intratumorally. Indeed, after chemotherapy, PD-L2-deficient senescent cancer cells are rapidly eliminated and tumors do not produce the senescence-associated chemokines CXCL1 and CXCL2. Accordingly, PD-L2-deficient pancreatic tumors fail to recruit myeloid-derived suppressor cells and undergo regression driven by CD8 T cells after chemotherapy. Finally, antibody-mediated blockade of PD-L2 strongly synergizes with chemotherapy causing remission of mammary tumors in mice. The combination of chemotherapy with anti-PD-L2 provides a therapeutic strategy that exploits vulnerabilities arising from therapy-induced senescence.We thank the IRB Core Facilities (Functional Genomics Core, Biostatistics/Bioinformatics and Histopathology), the Parc Científic de Barcelona Animal Facility and the University of Barcelona/Centros Científicos y Tecnológicos de la Universidad de Barcelona Flow Cytometry Facility for their contribution to this work. J.A.L-D. was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Science through a Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación fellowship and by the Asociación Española Contra el Cáncer (AECC) through an AECC Investigador fellowship. I.M. was funded by an FPI fellowship from the Spanish Ministry of Science. Work in the laboratory of M.S. was funded by the IRB and ‘la Caixa’ Foundation, and by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science cofunded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) (no. SAF2017-82613-R), European Research Council (no. ERC-2014-AdG/669622) and Secretaria d’Universitats i Recerca del Departament d’Empresa i Coneixement of Catalonia (Grup de Recerca consolidat 2017 SGR 282). J.L.K., T.T. and S.C. were supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant nos. R37AG13925, R33AG61456, R01AG072301, R01AG61414, P01AG62413 and UH3AG56933), the Connor Fund, Robert J. and Theresa W. Ryan and the Noaber Foundation. A.G. received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science cofunded by the ERDF (no. RTC-2017-6123-1), from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (no. MS15/00058) and from CAIMI-II (grant no. 53/2021) supported by the BBVA Foundation. A.G.-G. was the recipient of a PERIS grant (no. SLT017/20/000131) from the Generalitat de Catalunya. The laboratory of M. Abad received funding from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (nos. RTI2018-102046-B-I00A and RTC-2017-6123-1) and the AECC (no. PRYCO211023SERR). M.A. was the recipient of a Ramón y Cajal contract from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (no. RYC-2013-14747). O.B. was the recipient of a FPIAGAUR fellowship from Generalitat de Catalunya. Work in the laboratory of J.A. is supported by the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (no. BCRF-21-008), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (project refs. AC15/00062, CB16/12/00449 and PI19/01181) and the European Commission (under the Framework of the ERA-NET TRANSCAN-2 initiative cofinanced by FEDER), AECC and Fundació La Caixa (no. HR22-00776)

Modelling barrier beaches under storms with XBEACH: The case of the Trabucador bar

Postprint (updated version

Clubs de lectura como estrategia para aumentar el conocimiento sobre nutrición entre la población general: Estudio piloto

Introduction: The spread of false news related to nutrition shows the need to provide general public validated information on food and health, inducing them to follow healthy dietary habits. Objective: To assess whether attendance to book clubs devoted to scientific disseminations books is a useful strategy for improving nutritional knowledge among the population. Methodology: 65 adults participated in a reading club, attending a research center once a month for 4 months to talk about informative scientific books on food/nutrition. The knowledge of the participants was monitored through a survey performed in all the sessions of the club. Results: Participants were mostly female with university studies. Attendance to the book clubs caused a significant increase (P < 0.05) in the number of correct answers on a questionnaire about common misbeliefs on the topics covered in the discussed books. Participants showed a high degree of satisfaction with the activity and willingness to read more scientific dissemination books, even when most of them were not previously usual readers. Conclusions: Book clubs based on popular science books and led by scientists with expertise in the field could increase nutritional knowledge among general population, which should be further explored in different socioeconomic contexts.Introducción: La difusión de noticias falsas relacionadas con la nutrición muestra la necesidad de proporcionar al público general información validada sobre alimentación y salud, induciendo a llevar hábitos dietéticos saludables. Objetivo: Evaluar si la asistencia a clubs de lectura dedicados a libros de divulgación científica es una estrategia útil para mejorar el conocimiento nutricional entre la población. Metodología: 65 adultos participaron en un club de lectura, asistiendo una vez al mes, durante 4 meses a un centro de investigación para conversar sobre libros científicos divulgativos de alimentación/nutrición. Se llevó a cabo un seguimiento de los conocimientos de los participantes a través de una encuesta realizada en todas las sesiones del club de lectura. Resultados: Los participantes fueron en su mayoría mujeres con estudios universitarios. La asistencia a los clubs de lectura provocó un aumento significativo (P < 0,05) en el número de respuestas correctas en un cuestionario sobre las creencias erróneas comunes en los temas tratados en los libros discutidos. Conclusiones: Los clubs de lectura basados en libros de divulgación científica y dirigidos por científicos con experiencia en el campo pueden aumentar el conocimiento nutricional entre la población en general, debiéndose explorar más a fondo en diferentes contextos socioeconómicos

El cambio conceptual de dos maestras en relación con la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la lengua oral a través de un asesoramiento: un estudio de casos

Resumen En este trabajo presentamos los resultados de una investigación en la que han participado 4 maestras: 2 de educación infantil y 2 de educación primaria. Se ha llevado a cabo un asesoramiento utilizando la metodología conversacional a una maestra de cada nivel educativo con el objetivo de promover un cambio conceptual en relación con la representación sobre los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje de la lengua oral. Durante un periodo de 4 meses las 2 maestras del grupo experimental participaron en 4 reuniones de asesoramiento con algunos de los investigadores. Además se realizó un grupo de discusión con las 2 maestras del grupo experimental y del grupo control antes del asesoramiento y otro una vez finalizado este. Se elaboró un instrumento ad hoc para analizar las reuniones de asesoramiento y los grupos de discusión. Los resultados indican que las maestras del grupo experimental progresan desde una visión de la lengua oral centrada en aspectos de forma y contenido, y desde la consideración de los factores madurativos como principales responsables del aprendizaje de la lengua oral, hacia una conceptualización que otorga una importancia fundamental a los aspectos de uso del lenguaje, a la interacción social y a las estrategias que utilizan las maestras en clase como factores explicativos de la competencia oral de los alumnos. Abstract We present the results of a research project in which 4 teachers (2 kindergarten and 2 primary school teachers) took part. A counselling process using conversational methodology was carried out with one teacher from each setting to promote a conceptual change in the teachers' representation of oral language teaching and learning processes. During a 4-month period, the 2 teachers in the experimental group participated in 2 counselling meetings with some of the researchers. We also carried out a focus group with all four teachers before and after the meetings. An ad hoc instrument was designed to analyze the meetings and the focus groups. The results show that teachers in the experimental group progressed from a conception focused on formal and content-based aspects of oral language to a conception that stresses language use, social interaction, and the strategies employed by teachers in class as explanatory factors for pupils' oral language competence