750 research outputs found

    Aprendizaje significativo y dimensiones del aprendizaje en la asignatura de grandes escritores universales

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    El presenta trabajo es un modelo de intervención sobre mi práctica docente desarrollado durante mis estudios de Maestría en la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (UAEM) y es una muestra de la intención del programa por generar profesionistas mejor preparados en su área específica de trabajo. El presente proyecto tiene como intención mejorar el proceso de enseñanza – aprendizaje, obtener un conocimiento para actuar en la práctica profesional y que sirva como marco de referencia para aquellos que tienen la misma intención.El presente proyecto trata sobre la optimización del proceso de enseñanza – aprendizaje en la asignatura de Grandes Escritores Universales de la Preparatoria Tecmilenio. Se utilizó el modelo en espiral de investigación –acción, propuesto por Elliot y se desarrolló una investigación sistemática con base en los procesos de diagnóstico, planeación, aplicación y evaluación sobre la enseñanza para mejorar el modelo que hasta el momento había utilizado en la impartición de la asignatura Grandes Escritores Universales. Se realizó un diagnóstico para identificar la situación problemática en la cual, intervenir, diseñar un plan de intervención, aplicarlo y evaluar los resultados. El modelo de intervención consistió en el diseño de dos sesiones didácticas basadas en los modelos de Aprendizaje Significativo y Dimensiones de Aprendizaje, así como en las Reformas Educativas de Nivel Medio Superior que garantizaran las competencias educativas que los alumnos deben lograr en el actual sistema mexicano, con la finalidad de que los estudiantes sean los constructores de su propio conocimient

    Bullous Allergic Hypersensitivity to Bed Bug Bites Mediated by IgE against Salivary Nitrophorin

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    In Central Europe, bites from the common bed bug (Cimex lectularius) are nowadays rather uncommon. Nevertheless, infestations are sometimes observed in old framehouses and by immigration due to international travel and migration. The clinical picture of bug bites substantially varies between individuals, depending upon previous exposure and the degree of an immune response. The host immune response and potential protein antigens present in the saliva of C. lectularius or specific antibodies have not been characterized thus far. We describe a patient with bullous bite reactions after sequential contact with C. lectularius over a period of 1 year. In skin tests, we observed immediate reactions to the salivary gland solution of C. lectularius, which were followed by a pronounced partially blistering late-phase response. Immunoblot analysis of the patient's serum with salivary gland extracts and recombinant C. lectularius saliva proteins revealed specific IgE antibodies against the 32kDa C. lectularius nitrophorin, but not to 37kDa C. lectularius apyrase. Our data demonstrate that bullous cimicosis may be the late-phase response of an allergic IgE-mediated hypersensitivity to C. lectularius nitrophorin

    Exploring the mialome of ticks: an annotated catalogue of midgut transcripts from the hard tick, Dermacentor variabilis (Acari: Ixodidae)

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Ticks are obligate blood feeders. The midgut is the first major region of the body where blood and microbes ingested with the blood meal come in contact with the tick's internal tissues. Little is known about protein expression in the digestive tract of ticks. In this study, for analysis of global gene expression during tick attachment and feeding, we generated and sequenced 1,679 random transcripts (ESTs) from cDNA libraries from the midguts of female ticks at varying stages of feeding.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Sequence analysis of the 1,679 ESTs resulted in the identification of 835 distinct transcripts, from these, a total of 82 transcripts were identified as proteins putatively directly involved in blood meal digestion, including enzymes involved in oxidative stress reduction/antimicrobial activity/detoxification, peptidase inhibitors, protein digestion (cysteine-, aspartic-, serine-, and metallo-peptidases), cell, protein and lipid binding including mucins and iron/heme metabolism and transport. A lectin-like protein with a high match to lectins in other tick species, allergen-like proteins and surface antigens important in pathogen recognition and/or antimicrobial activity were also found. Furthermore, midguts collected from the 6-day-fed ticks expressed twice as many transcripts involved in bloodmeal processing as midguts from unfed/2-day-fed ticks.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This tissue-specific transcriptome analysis provides an opportunity to examine the global expression of transcripts in the tick midgut and to compare the gut response to host attachment versus blood feeding and digestion. In contrast to those in salivary glands of other Ixodid ticks, most proteins in the <it>D. variabilis </it>midgut cDNA library were intracellular. Of the total ESTs associated with a function, an unusually large number of transcripts were associated with peptidases, cell, lipid and protein binding, and oxidative stress or detoxification. Presumably, this is consistent with their role in intracellular processing of the blood meal and response to microbial infections. The presence of many proteins with similar functions is consistent with the hypothesis that gene duplication contributed to the successful adaptation of ticks to hematophagy. Furthermore, these transcripts may be useful to scientists investigating the role of the tick midgut in blood-meal digestion, antimicrobial activity or the transmission of tick-borne pathogens.</p

    Activity of (2060) Chiron possibly caused by impacts?

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    The centaur 95P/(2060) Chiron is showing comet-like activity since its discovery, but the mass-loss mechanisms triggering its activity remained unexplained. Although the collision rates in the centaur region are expected to be very low, and impacts are thought not to be responsible for the mass-loss, since the recent indications that Chiron might possess a ring similar to Chariklo's, and assuming that there is debris orbiting around, the impact triggered mass-loss mechanism should not be excluded as a possible cause of its activity. From time series observations collected on Calar Alto Observatory in Spain between 2014 and 2016, we found that the photometric scatter in Chiron's data is larger than a control star's scatter, indicating a possible microactivity, possibly caused by debris falling back to Chiron's surface and lifting small clouds of material. We also present rotational light curves, and measurements of Chiron's absolute magnitudes, that are consistent with the models supporting the presumption that Chiron possesses rings. By co-adding the images acquired in 2015, we have detected a \sim 5 arcsec long tail, showing a surface brightness of 25.3 mag(V)/arcsec2^{2}.Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society (MNRAS) on 2017 December 2

    Immunity to Distinct Sand Fly Salivary Proteins Primes the Anti-Leishmania Immune Response towards Protection or Exacerbation of Disease

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    In vector-borne diseases, the role of vectors has been overlooked in the search for vaccines. Nonetheless, there is a body of evidence showing the importance of salivary proteins of vectors in pathogen transmission. Leishmaniasis is a neglected vector-borne disease transmitted by sand flies. Pre-exposure to sand fly saliva or immunization with a salivary protein protected mice against cutaneous leishmaniasis. Using DNA immunization we investigated the immune response induced by abundant proteins within the saliva of the sand fly Phlebotomus papatasi. We found that one salivary protein protected while another exacerbated L. major infection, suggesting that the type of immune response induced by specific salivary proteins can prime and direct anti-Leishmania immunity. This stresses the importance of the proper selection of vector-based vaccine candidates. This work validates the powerful protection that can be acquired through vaccination with the appropriate salivary molecule and more importantly, shows that this protective immune response is efficiently recalled by sand fly bites, the natural route of transmission

    Mental health among children and adolescents: Construct validity, reliability, and parent-adolescent agreement on the 'Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire' in Chile.

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    The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) is a screening tool used to measure psychological functioning among children and adolescents. It has been extensively used worldwide, but its psychometric properties, such as internal structure and reliability, seem to vary across countries. This is the first study exploring the construct validity and reliability of the Spanish version of SDQ among early adolescents (self-reported) and their parents in Latin America. A total of 1,284 early adolescents (9-15 years) and their parents answered the SDQ. We also collected demographic variables. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to assess the latent structure of the SDQ. We also used the multitrait-multimethod analysis to separate the true variance on the constructs from variance resulting from measurement methods (self-report vs. parent report), and evaluated the agreement between adolescents and their parents. We found that the original five-factor model was a good solution and the resulting sub-scales had good internal consistency. We also found that the self-reported and parental versions of SDQ provide different information, which are complementary and provide a better picture of the emotional, social, and conduct problems of adolescents. We have added evidence for the construct validity and reliability of the Spanish self-reported and parental SDQ versions in a Chilean sample

    Comparative Evolution of Sand Fly Salivary Protein Families and Implications for Biomarkers of Vector Exposure and Salivary Vaccine Candidates

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    Sand fly salivary proteins that produce a specific antibody response in humans and animal reservoirs have been shown to be promising biomarkers of sand fly exposure. Furthermore, immunity to sand fly salivary proteins were shown to protect rodents and non-human primates against Leishmania infection. We are missing critical information regarding the divergence amongst sand fly salivary proteins from different sand fly vectors, a knowledge that will support the search of broad or specific salivary biomarkers of vector exposure and those for vaccines components against leishmaniasis. Here, we compare the molecular evolution of the salivary protein families in New World and Old World sand flies from 14 different sand fly vectors. We found that the protein families unique to OW sand flies are more conserved than those unique to NW sand flies regarding both sequence polymorphisms and copy number variation. In addition, the protein families unique to OW sand flies do not display as many conserved cysteine residues as the one unique to the NW group (28.5% in OW vs. 62.5% in NW). Moreover, the expression of specific protein families is restricted to the salivary glands of unique sand fly taxon. For instance, the ParSP15 family is unique to the Larroussius subgenus whereas phospholipase A2 is only expressed in member of Larroussius and Adlerius subgenera. The SP2.5-like family is only expressed in members of the Phlebotomus and Paraphlebotomus subgenera. The sequences shared between OW and NW sand flies have diverged at similar rates (38.7 and 45.3% amino acid divergence, respectively), yet differences in gene copy number were evident across protein families and sand fly species. Overall, this comparative analysis sheds light on the different modes of sand fly salivary protein family divergence. Also, it informs which protein families are unique and conserved within taxon for the choice of taxon-specific biomarkers of vector exposure, as well as those families more conserved across taxa to be used as pan-specific vaccines for leishmaniasis

    Insight into the sialome of the castor bean tick, Ixodes ricinus

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    <p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In recent years, there have been several sialome projects revealing transcripts expressed in the salivary glands of ticks, which are important vectors of several human diseases. Here, we focused on the sialome of the European vector of Lyme disease, <it>Ixodes ricinus</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the attempt to describe expressed genes and their dynamics throughout the feeding period, we constructed cDNA libraries from four different feeding stages of <it>Ixodes ricinus </it>females: unfed, 24 hours after attachment, four (partially fed) and seven days (fully engorged) after attachment. Approximately 600 randomly selected clones from each cDNA library were sequenced and analyzed. From a total 2304 sequenced clones, 1881 sequences forming 1274 clusters underwent subsequent functional analysis using customized bioinformatics software. Clusters were sorted according to their predicted function and quantitative comparison among the four libraries was made. We found several groups of over-expressed genes associated with feeding that posses a secretion signal and may be involved in tick attachment, feeding or evading the host immune system. Many transcripts clustered into families of related genes with stage-specific expression. Comparison to <it>Ixodes scapularis </it>and <it>I. pacificus </it>transcripts was made.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In addition to a large number of homologues of the known transcripts, we obtained several novel predicted protein sequences. Our work contributes to the growing list of proteins associated with tick feeding and sheds more light on the dynamics of the gene expression during tick feeding. Additionally, our results corroborate previous evidence of gene duplication in the evolution of ticks.</p

    Non-infectious environmental antigens as a trigger for the initiation of an autoimmune skin disease

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    Pemphigus represents a group of organ specific autoimmune blistering disorders of the skin mediated by pathogenic autoantibodies with well-defined antigenic targets. While most of these diseases are sporadic, endemic forms of disease do exist. The endemic form of pemphigus foliaceus (also known as fogo selvagem, FS) exhibits epidemiological features that suggest exposure to hematophagous insect bites are a possible precipitating factor of this autoimmune disease, and provides a unique opportunity to study how environmental factors contribute to autoimmune disease development. FS patients and healthy individuals from endemic regions show an autoreactive IgM response that starts in early childhood and becomes restricted to IgG4 autoantibodies in FS patients. In searching for triggering environmental antigens, we have found that IgG4 and IgE autoantibodies from FS patients cross-react with a salivary antigen from sand flies. The presence of these cross-reactive antibodies and antibody genetic analysis confirming that these antibodies evolve from the same naïve B cells provides compelling evidence that this non-infectious environmental antigen could be the initial target of the autoantibody response in FS. Consequently, FS serves as an ideal model to study the impact of environmental antigens in the development of autoimmune disease
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