Dynamics of CaCdc10, a septin of Candida albicans, in living cells and during infection

The morphogenetic program in the pathogenic fungus Candida albicans , including the dimorphic transition, is an interesting field of study, not only because it is absent in the commonly used model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but because of the close relationship between hyphal development and virulence of C. albicans. We studied one of the most important aspects of fungal morphogenesis-the septin ring–in C. albicans. By using a fusion construct to green fluorescent protein (GFP), the subcellular localization and dynamics of C. albicans Cdc10 in the different morphologies that this fungus is able to adopt was identified. The localization features reached were contrasted and compared with the results obtained from Candida cells directly extracted from an animal infection model under environmental conditions as similar as possible to the physiological conditions encountered by C. albicans during host infection. [Int Microbiol 2004; 7(2):105–112

Physical crosslinking of pea protein-based bioplastics: Effect of heat and UV treatments

Climate change and the enhancement of ecology have generated the need to create packaging that is biodegradable and, at the same time, allows food to be preserved efficiently in order to avoid the accumulation of plastic and minimize food waste. In this sense, protein-based bioplastics are a promising alternative, but due to their limited properties they need additional crosslinking in order to compete with conventional plastics. Among them, physical crosslinking is of special interest in the food industry, as it does not generate toxicity problems. In this way, the overall objective of this work was to develop pea protein-based bioplastics by injection moulding, using two different physical crosslinking methods: heat treatment (50ºC-24 h, 120 ºC-4 h and 120 ºC-24 h) and ultraviolet (UV) treatment (50, 120 and 500 mJ/cm2). Thus, different bioplastics were compared based on their mechanical, functional and antimicrobial properties. The relevance of this study is based on the improvement of certain aspects of the mechanical and functional properties of bioplastics by the addition of an extra physical crosslinking stage to the fabrication process. In fact, UV treatment improves the antimicrobial activity of bioplastics, which gives it a significant improvement to compete with conventional plastics in the food sector.This work is part of a research project sponsored by “Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovaci´on-Agencia Estatal de Investigaci´on” (MCI/AEI/ FEDER, EU) from the Spanish Government (Ref. RTI2018–097100-BC21). The authors gratefully acknowledge their financial support. This work is also possible thanks to the postdoctoral contract of Víctor M. P´erez Puyana from the “Contrataci´on de Personal Investigador Doctor” supported by the European Social Fund and Junta de Andalucía (PAIDI DOCTOR – Convocatoria 2019–2020, DOC_00586) and for the predoctoral grant of Mercedes Jim´enez Rosado from "Ministerio de Educaci´on y Formaci´on Profesional" (FPU17/01718)

Influence of the Aliphatic Chain Length on the Crosslinking Properties of Aldehydes on Sustainable Bioplastics Obtained from Pea Protein

Conventional plastics can be substituted for protein-based bioplastics due to their natural origin and their biodegradability. Nevertheless, their properties are inferior to those obtained for synthetic plastics. The chemical crosslinking of these bioplastics with aldehydes could improve their properties to compete in the actual market. Thus, the main goal of this article was to assess the influence of the incorporation of aldehydes with different aliphatic chain length on the physicochemical (crosslinking degree, colour and transparency), mechanical (flexural and tensile behaviour) and functional (water uptake capacity and biodegradability) properties of protein-based bioplastics. In this sense, pea protein, a by-product of food industry, was used as raw material, processing it by injection moulding to obtain the bioplastics. Formaldehyde, glyoxal and glutaraldehyde were the aldehydes used as crosslinking agents. The results show the rise of the mechanical properties with the incorporation of the aldehydes, depending on the degree of crosslinking they generate. All this also causes a consequent loss of the water uptake capacity and an increase in biodegradability time. In conclusion, this work opens a new alternative to develop sustainable bioplastics that can be used in the market.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación- Agencia Estatal de Investigación (MCI/AEI/FEDER, EU) from the Spanish Government (Ref. PID2021-124294OB-C21). Junta de Andalucía and European Social Fund (Ref. PAIDI DOCTOR – Convocatoria 2019/2020, DOC_00586). Ministerio de Educación y Formación Profesional (Ref. FPU17/01718)

GiGAn: evolutionary mutation testing for C++ object-oriented systems

The reduction of the expenses of mutation testing should be based on well-studied cost reduction techniques to avoid biased results. Evolutionary Mutation Testing (EMT) aims at generating a reduced set of mutants by means of an evolutionary algorithm, which searches for potentially equivalent and difficult to kill mutants to help improve the test suite. However, there is little evidence of its applicability to other contexts beyond WS-BPEL compositions. This study explores its performance when applied to C++ object-oriented programs thanks to a newly developed system, GiGAn. The conducted experiments reveal that EMT shows stable behavior in all the case studies, where the best results are obtained when a low percentage of the mutants is generated. They also support previous studies of EMT when compared to random mutant selection, reinforcing its use for the goal of improving the fault detection capability of the test suite

Class mutation operators for C++ object-oriented systems

Mutation testing is a fault injection testing technique around which a great variety of studies and tools for different programming languages have been developed. Nevertheless, the mutation testing research with respect to C++ is pending. This paper proposes a set of class mutation operators related to this language and its particular object-oriented (OO) features. In addition, an implementation technique to apply mutation testing based on the traversal of the abstract syntax tree (AST) is presented. Finally, an experiment is conducted to study the operator behaviour with different C++ programs, suggesting their usefulness in the creation of complete test suites. The analysis includes a Web service (WS) library, one of the domains where this technique can prove useful, considering its challenging testing phase and that C++ is still a reference language for critical distributed systems WS

To live with an implantable cardioverter defribrillator: A qualitative study on patients'experiences

Objetivo principal: Conocer la experiencia de los pacientes portadores de Desfibrilador Automático Implantable (DAI) de la Unidad de Electrofisiología y Arritmias del Hospital Universitario Virgen del Rocío de Sevilla. Metodología: Estudio cualitativo mediante entrevistas semiestructuradas a 11 personas con DAI implantado. Se realizó un análisis de contenido teniendo en cuenta el objetivo de la investigación, las categorías de análisis creadas y las emergentes. Resultados principales: Los temas identificados fueron: la experiencia de vivir con un DAI, las descargas, las estrategias de adaptación, los cambios físicos, emocionales y en el estilo de vida, la vida sexual y la prohibición de conducir. Conclusión principal: Aunque la mayoría de los pacientes aceptan el dispositivo identificando las variables que influyen en la adaptación, existen limitaciones derivadas de cambios físicos, emocionales y en el estilo de vida. Los profesionales sanitarios han de valorar potenciales dificultades de adaptación o alteraciones psicológicas con el fin de facilitar las intervenciones necesarias.Objective: To know the experiences of patients with an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator in the Electrophysiology and Arrhytmia Unit (“Virgen del Rocio” University Hospital Seville). Methods: A qualitative study by using semi-structured interviews with 11 people with ICDs. A content analysis considering research objectives, analytical categories, and those possibly emerging was carried out. Results: The identified issues were: the experience of living with an ICD, discharges, adaptation strategies, physical and emotional changes, as well as those affecting lifestyles, sex life, and driving ban. Conclusions: Although most of patients accept the device,identifying the variables affecting their adaptation, there are still some limitations resulting from physical, emotional, and lifestyle changes. Health professionals should assess potential adaptation difficulties or psychological disorders in order to provide necessary interventions

Compliance with the 2018 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research Cancer Prevention Recommendations and Prostate Cancer

We thank all subjects who participated in the study and all CAPLIFE collaborators and the Ingrid de Ruiter, MBChB, for English language and editing support. The results of this study are part of the doctoral thesis of Macarena Lozano-Lorca.The etiology of prostate cancer (PCa) remains largely unknown. Compliance with the 2018 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRC/AICR) cancer prevention recommendations and its relationship to PCa was evaluated. A total of 398 incident PCa cases and 302 controls were included. The selection criteria for both cases and controls were: (i) age between 40–80 years; and (ii) residence in the coverage area of the reference hospitals for 6 months or more prior to recruitment. A score to measure the compliance with the recommendations of 2018 WCRC/AICR criteria was built. The level of compliance was used as a continuous variable and categorized in terciles. The aggressiveness of PCa was determined according to the ISUP classification. Adjusted odds ratios (aOR) and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) were estimated using multivariable logistic regression models. A slight protective tendency was observed between the level of compliance with the preventive recommendations and PCa risk, aOR = 0.81 (95% CI 0.69–0.96) for the total cases of PCa. This association also was observed when the aggressiveness was considered. In addition, limiting consumption of “fast foods”, sugar-sweetened drinks, and alcohol were independently associated with lower risk of PCa.This research was funded by Regional Ministry of Health of Andalusia/Consejería de Salud of the Junta de Andalucía (PI-0514-2016) and Instituto de Salud Carlos III-FEDER (PI15/00914)

Estudio preliminar de la activación neuromuscular corriendo descalzo y calzado = Preliminary study of the neuromuscular activation during barefoot and shod running.

El objetivo del presente estudio preliminar fue comparar la actividad muscular de los músculos tibial anterior, peroneo lateral largo, gastrocnemio medial y gastrocnemio lateral entre la carrera con y sin calzado, y la influencia de la fatiga. 7 participantes realizaron una carrera de fatiga de 20 minutos al 75% de su velocidad aeróbica máxima en cinta con 1% de pendiente. Se midió la actividad mioeléctrica de los músculos antes mencionados tanto antes como después de la prueba de fatiga en dos condiciones: con calzado y sin calzado. Los resultados mostraron una mayor actividad del tibial anterior durante la carrera en fatiga descalzo respecto a la carrera calzado y una mayor actividad del peroneo lateral largo durante la carrera sin fatiga descalzo. Por otra parte, también se encontró una menor actividad del gastrocnemio medial durante la carrera con zapatillas y en fatiga respecto a la carrera sin fatiga. ABSTRACT The aim of this preliminary study was to compare the influence of footwear and 13 the fatigue state on the muscle activity of the tibialis anterior, peroneus longus, gastrocnemius medialis and gastrocnemius lateralis. For this purpose, 7 participants ran a 20-min fatiguing run on a treadmill at 1% slope at 75% of their individual maximal aerobic speed. Muscle activation was measured twice during 30 seconds before and after the fatiguing run while running shod and barefoot. Before the fatiguing run, running barefoot led to a greater activation of the peroneus longus compared to running shod. When running fatigued, running barefoot also increased the activation of the tibialis anterior compared to running shod. Moreover, the fatigue state decreased the gastrocnemius medialis activity when running shod. The aim of this preliminary study was to compare the influence of footwear and the fatigue state on the muscle activity of the tibialis anterior, peroneus longus, gastrocnemius medialis and gastrocnemius lateralis. For this purpose, 7 participants ran a 20-min fatiguing run on a treadmill at 1% slope at 75% of their individual maximal aerobic speed. Muscle activation was measured twice during 30 seconds before and after the fatiguing run while running shod and barefoot. Before the fatiguing run, running barefoot led to a greater activation of the peroneus longus compared to running shod. When running fatigued, running barefoot also increased the activation of the tibialis anterior compared to running shod. Moreover, the fatigue state decreased the gastrocnemius medialis activity when running shod

Promoting Professional Development for Teachers Through a Scale of Competence Assessment

Competencies are a key factor in the professional development of teachers. Additionally, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in education are becoming increasingly important due to their potential in the field of education. The combination of both makes it easier to perform a comprehensive assessment of the level of competences of students in the Teacher Degree. The design of tasks and activities in order to promote their assessment enable classroom intervention. Indeed, this paper presents how ICTs have been used in university teaching. In order to respond to the evolution of training needs, we present a valid and reliable evaluation tool for professional competencies and learning results for prospective teachers (Pre-School and Primary Education). We applied for students from the Teacher Degree in their practicum period. Indeed, different learning and assessment tasks have been designed, some related to “correct” or “incorrect” teaching practices. This implies that the students have not only to do their tasks but to identify and to differentiate what is correct in their professional development. Finally, the instrument enables the assessment of the level of professional competencies acquired by prospective teachers during their training period

Anatomía comparada del aparato urinario de mamíferos domésticos. Herramienta de aprendizaje virtual para veterinarios, biólogos y médicos.

Esta aplicación es una herramienta útil para estudiantes, profesores y profesionales de diferentes campos. Permitirá conocer y estudiar el aparato urinario, señalando gráficamente la estructura a memorizar, ver su contenido teórico y autoevaluarse