La evaluación de programas en el marco de la educación de calidad

El artículo presenta una concepción de la evaluación caracterizada como integral, Integrada e Integradora, orientada por dos principios básicos: un enfoque radicalmente pedagógico, educativo, y un planteamiento unitario, armónico y coherente, tanto entre la evaluación de los diferentes objetos como entre ésta y el conjunto de elementos que integran los procesos educativos de calidad.____________________________________ This article shows a conception of the evaluation characterised as Integral, integrated and integrator, guided for two basic principles: a radical, pedagogical and educational approach and a harmonic, coherent and unitary approach, of the evaluation of the different objects and the elements that take part in the quality educational processes

Phenotypic and Genotypic Antimicrobial Resistance Profiles of Campylobacter jejuni Isolated from Cattle, Sheep, and Free-Range Poultry Faeces

Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of 13 antimicrobial agents were determined by broth microdilution for 72 Campylobacter jejuni strains from livestock. Twenty-three (31.9%) isolates were fully susceptible; all isolates were susceptible to erythromycin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, gentamicin, sulfamethoxazole, and meropenem, and all but one to kanamycin. Resistance to quinolones was highest (52.8%), reaching similar values among poultry, dairy cattle, and sheep, but lower in beef cattle. Resistance to tetracyclines (48.6%) was mainly associated to dairy cattle and β-lactams (26.4%) to poultry. Multidrug resistance was mainly detected in dairy cattle (28.6%) and poultry (21.0%), whereas beef cattle had the highest percentage of fully susceptible isolates. Two real-time PCR assays to detect point mutations associated to quinolone (C257T in the gyrA gene) and macrolide (A2075G in the 23S rRNA genes) resistance were developed and validated on these strains. The analysis of a further set of 88 isolates by real-time PCR confirmed the absence of macrolide resistance and demonstrated the reproducibility and processability of the assay

Selection of ovine housekeeping genes for normalisation by real-time RT-PCR; analysis of PrP gene expression and genetic susceptibility to scrapie

BACKGROUND: Cellular prion protein expression is essential for the development of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs), and in sheep, genetic susceptibility to scrapie has been associated to PrP gene polymorphisms. To test the hypothetical linkage between PrP gene expression and genetic susceptibility, PrP mRNA levels were measured by real-time RT-PCR in six ovine tissues of animals with different genotypes. RESULTS: Previous to the PrP gene expression analysis the stability of several housekeeping (HK) genes was assessed in order to select the best ones for relative quantification. The normalisation of gene expression was carried out using a minimum of three HK genes in order to detect small expression differences more accurately than using a single control gene. The expression stability analysis of six HK genes showed a large tissue-associated variation reflecting the existence of tissue-specific factors. Thereby, a specific set of HK genes was required for an accurate normalisation of the PrP gene expression within each tissue. Statistical differences in the normalised PrP mRNA levels were found among the tissues, obtaining the highest expression level in obex, followed by ileum, lymph node, spleen, cerebellum and cerebrum. A tendency towards increased PrP mRNA levels and genetic susceptibility was observed in central nervous system. However, the results did not support the hypothesis that PrP mRNA levels vary between genotypes. CONCLUSION: The results on PrP gene expression presented here provide valuable baseline data for future studies on scrapie pathogenesis. On the other hand, the results on stability data of several HK genes reported in this study could prove very useful in other gene expression studies carried out in these relevant ovine tissues

¿Quo vadis, evaluación? Reflexiones pedagógicas en torno a un tema tan manido como relevante

This paper introduces some reflections on evaluation from truly pedagogical points of view, with a special focus on the implications which a particular view may have on the quality of education. The author stands for a unified, harmonious, coherent approach of evaluation of learning and teaching, as well as of programme evaluation and institutional evaluation, which may be applicable to other bodies such as university curricula and educationl systems. The latter, however, may have other implications which will not be addressed in the text.Keywords: quality of education, well-rounded education, conception of evaluation, integrated evaluation. En este artículo se presentan una serie de reflexiones sobre la evaluación desde perspectivas radicalmente pedagógicas en las que el autor pretende analizar las implicaciones que una determinada concepción de la misma, concretada en unos principios básicos, representan para un buen hacer al servicio de la calidad de la educación. El autor defiende un enfoque unitario, armónico y coherente de la evaluación del aprendizaje y de la enseñanza, de los programas y de los centros educativos, extensible a otras manifestaciones como pueden ser los currículos universitarios y los sistemas educativos, aunque estos últimos tengan otro tipo de implicaciones que aquí no corresponde abordar

La evaluación externa y sus implicaciones. Aspectos técnicos, prácticos y éticos

By Ramón Pérez Juste, Professor at the National University for Non-Attendant Students and President of the Spanish Society of Pedagogy. The present article, focused on external evaluation, has been written on special request of the magazine Managing Board. The author's outlook upon evaluation in pedagogical contexts regards evaluation as an essentially formative procedure, and, consequently, a type of permanent formation, focused on the improvement of every human segment with a part to play in Education, such as teachers, managing boards, families, staff at school and even students themselves as they realize their personal concern in their own qualification process. External evaluation must facilitate functions of control, accountability and permanent educational benefits to people with responsibility in educational systems or educational organizations. When so, external evaluation gains importance and defines itself as a kind of evaluation carried out by highly-experienced professionals whose duties must start by checking out the fulfilment of professional ethics and technical requirements which, in most cases are included in evaluation quality standards. The author suggests the convenience of setting a frame for external evaluation, with the aim of producing in the first place organizations committed to a permanent learning process, secondly, a tendency to unify external models, whenever it is possible, and finally, an approach between the latter and evaluating frames of educational organizations. According to him, this would facilitate an optimisation of funds and human resources, which would eventually contribute to the improvement of people, institutions and the educational system.El presente artículo, centrado en la evaluación externa, se escribe por invitación de los responsables de la revista. Para el autor, la evaluación en contextos pedagógicos debe ser eminentemente formativa y, por tanto, continua, y orientada a la mejora de los destinatarios de todos los esfuerzos que realizan los poderes públicos, los profesionales de la educación (directivos, profesores y especialistas) las familias, el personal de los centros y hasta los propios educandos a partir del momento en que toman conciencia de su necesaria implicación en la propia formación. Sin embargo, la evaluación debe servir, también, a funciones de control, de rendición de cuentas y de servicio a los responsables de los sistemas educativos y de las organizaciones educativas. Ahí cobra protagonismo la evaluación externa, en principio una evaluación realizada por profesionales expertos, cuyo hacer debe estar presidido por el cumplimiento de determinadas exigencias técnicas y éticas, muchas de las cuales están contenidas en los estándares de calidad de las evaluaciones. El autor pasa revista a la problemática apuntada, sugiriendo la conveniencia de formativizar, en lo posible, la evaluación externa, de orientarla a lograr organizaciones que aprenden, de buscar, hasta donde sea posible, la convergencia de los modelos externos y, todavía más, de estos con los modelos evaluativos de organizaciones educativas, facilitando así la optimización de medios y recursos y el logro de contribuciones relevantes a la mejora de las personas, de las instituciones y del sistema educativo

Differences in the design and management of the integral water cycle in coastal cities, inland cities, cold climates and warm climates

En el presente estudio se muestran 12 ejemplos (Casablanca, Marruecos; Dallas, Estados Unidos; Helsinki, Finlandia; Lahti, Finlandia; C.D. México, México; Moscú, Rusia; Oslo, Noruega; Riyad, Arabia Saudita; Sta. Cruz de Tenerife, España; Tallin, Estonia y Vilna, Lituania) de diseño y gestión del ciclo integral urbano del agua en el Mundo. Se pretende dar a conocer su estado actual y cuáles son las líneas de trabajo que se van imponiendo para afrontar el reto del abastecimiento humano de agua en un contexto de cambio climático de consecuencias impredecibles.Máster Universitario en Hidrología y Gestión de Recursos Hídricos (M174

Molecular diagnosis of Theileria and Babesia species infecting cattle in Northern Spain using reverse line blot macroarrays

BACKGROUND: Piroplasmosis in cattle is caused by tick-borne haemoprotozoan parasites of the genera Theileria and Babesia. Molecular detection techniques offer higher sensitivity and specificity than microscopy examination methods and serological tests. A reverse line blot (RLB) macroarray that included generic and species-specific probes for Theileria annulata, Theileria buffeli, Babesia bovis, Babesia bigemina, Babesia divergens and Babesia major was used to study the presence and identity of the piroplasm species infecting 263 bovine blood samples from 79 farms, most of them in Northern Spain. Microscopy examination of blood smears and haematology were also performed whenever possible to identify animals with parasitaemia. RESULTS: RLB hybridisation identified infection in 54.0% of the samples, whereas only 28.8% were positive by microscopy examination. The most frequently found species was T. buffeli, present in 42.6% of the samples. T. annulata was found in 22 samples (8.4%) from 12 farms, including 9 farms (14 samples) located in Northern Spain where presence of the vector is not very common. Babesia infections were less frequently detected: B. major was found in 3.0% of the samples, B. bigemina in 2.7%, B. bovis in 2.3% and B. divergens in 1.1%. Mixed infections were detected in 14 samples, accounting for six different combinations of species. CONCLUSION: This is the first report in which B. major and B. divergens have been detected in Spain using molecular identification techniques and the first time that B. bovis has been detected in Northern Spain. The detection of T. annulata in Northern Spain suggests that the distribution of Mediterranean theileriosis might be changing. Samples with positive RLB hybridisation but negative microscopy had haematology values within the normal ranges suggesting that they corresponded to chronic carriers that may serve as reservoirs of the infection. In this sense, sensitive and specific laboratorial tests like RLB that clearly identify the parasite and can detect subclinical infections are essential to establish good control measures

Diet induced changes in the microbiota and cell composition of rabbit gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT)

[EN] The gut associated lymphoid tissue (GALT) is the largest immune organ of the body. Although the gut transient and mucosa-associated microbiota have been largely studied, the microbiota that colonizes the GALT has received less attention. The gut microbiome plays an important role in competitive exclusion of pathogens and in development and maturation of immunity. Diet is a key factor affecting the microbiota composition in the digestive tract. To investigate the relation between diet, microbiota and GALT, microbial and cell composition of vermiform appendix (VA) and sacculus rotundus (SR) were studied in two groups of New Zealand white rabbits on different diets. Diet shifted the lymphoid tissue microbiota affecting the presence and/or absence of certain taxa and their abundances. Immunohistochemistry revealed that a higher fibre content diet resulted in M cell hyperplasia and an increase of recently recruited macrophages, whereas T-cell levels remained unaltered in animals on both high fibre and standard diets. These findings indicate that diet has an impact on the microbiota and cell composition of the GALT, which could act as an important microbial recognition site where interactions with beneficial bacteria can take place favouring microbiota replacement after digestive dysregulationsSIAuthors thank Félix Blanco, Sergio Ayuso and Fidel Goiri for animal care and handling. The research was funded by grant (AGL2012-39818-C02-02) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competiveness (MINECO), and by the Department of Economy and Infrastructures (DEI) of the Basque Government. RA held a pre-doctoral fellowship (BFI-2012-237) and a visiting fellowship (EP_2015_1_53) from the Department of Education, Universities and Research of the Basque Governmen