Mobile devices as assistive technologies for ASD: experiences in the classroom

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Lecture Notes in Computer Science. The final authenticated version is available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40355-7_18Information and Communication Technologies offer new opportunities to people with disabilities to develop their autonomy and independence in their daily life activities. However, more research should be done in order to comprehend how technology affects this collective of people. This paper presents two experiences where participants with cognitive disabilities and Autism Spectrum Disorder used AssisT-Task to perform job related activities and DEDOS to perform educational activities. Their performance is improved along the sessions using both tools. Combining visual and textual information help students with cognitive disabilities and ASD to focus on the contents presented, avoiding usability and accessibility issues, and therefore improving their learning process while they are having fun interacting with new technologiesThis work has been funded in part by the Spanish Economy and Competitiveness Ministry under project “e-Integra: e-Training y e-Coaching para la integración socio-laboral” (TIN2013-44586-R) and by the Region of Madrid under pro-ject “eMadrid – Investigación y Desarrollo de tecnologías para el e-learning en la Comunidad de Madrid (S2013/ICE-2715

Espacio escolar y docentes: la estética como lugar de encuentro formativo

¿Repensar y modificar el espacio educativo alimenta el desarrollo del pensamiento práctico docente? La investigación que se presenta trata de dar respuesta a esta pregunta a través de un estudio de caso donde se reflexiona sobre el proceso vivido por un grupo de maestras de Educación Infantil, analizando sus principios declarados, así como el aspecto de los espacios que habitan como muestra de sus guiones de acción más automáticos. Los resultados obtenidos constatan que, para estas docentes, el encuentro de la teoría habitada en el espacio escolar y la experiencia informada en él estimulan la transformación de sus propias concepciones, ideas y actuaciones educativas, valorándose así la modificación espacial como un eje de especial relevancia en la formación docente.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Harmonize space, harmonize education. The new challenges of an active education

To consider the design of an active teaching and learning process also means attending to the context or scenario in which it develops, that is, understanding the organization and aesthetics of the school space not only as a structure but also as interlocutor of learning. This research, financed by the University of Malaga and an FPU contract (04/17106) granted by the Ministry of Education of Spain, tries to describe the dialogue established between the educational model and the conception of the spaces developed in a unique experience of early childhood education in the C.E.I.P. Frida Kahlo (Malaga). We try to acquaint how the teachers of this centre have attended the different aesthetic factors of the space by transforming classrooms that were initially arranged for traditional and transmissive teaching into classrooms that progressively promote an active, autonomous and creative education. The research is part of the qualitative research, through the case study, covering various data collection techniques such as: the documentation of the physical reality of the learning environments and the performance of teachers in them; the realization of a discussion group with these teachers; and file research. The conclusions offer two perspectives in relation to the aesthetic organization of space: a pedagogical and an architectural one, collecting some open guidelines for future projects, but above all opening a space for reflection for the consideration of spatial aesthetics as part of that set of factors that condition the educational process and, consequently, as part of the responsibilities of any teacher.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Highly efficient construction of infectious viroid-derived clones

[EN] Background Viroid research generally relies on infectious cDNA clones that consist of dimers of the entire viroid sequence. At present, those dimers are generated by self-ligation of monomeric cDNA, a strategy that presents several disadvantages: (i) low efficiency, (ii) it is a non-oriented reaction requiring tedious screenings and (iii) additional steps are required for cloning into a binary vector for agroinfiltration or for in vitro RNA production. Results We have developed a novel strategy for simultaneous construction of a viroid dimeric cDNA and cloning into a multipurpose binary vector ready for agroinfiltration or in vitro transcription. The assembly is based on IIs restriction enzymes and positive selection and supposes a universal procedure for obtaining infectious clones of a viroid independently of its sequence, with a high efficiency. Thus, infectious clones of one viroid of each family were obtained and its infectivity was analyzed by molecular hybridization. Conclusion This is a zero-background strategy for direct cloning into a binary vector, optimized for the generation of infectious viroids. As a result, this methodology constitutes a powerful tool for viroid research and exemplifies the applicability of type IIs restriction enzymes and the lethal gene ccdB to design efficient and affordable direct cloning approaches of PCR products into binary vectors.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (co-supported by FEDER) Grants BIO2017-88321-R (VP) and AGL2016-79825-R (GG). The funders had no role in the experiment design, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.Márquez-Molins, J.; Navarro Bohigues, JA.; Pallás Benet, V.; Gomez, GG. (2019). Highly efficient construction of infectious viroid-derived clones. Plant Methods. 15:1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13007-019-0470-4S1815Flores R, Minoia S, Carbonell A, Gisel A, Delgado S, López-Carrasco A, et al. Viroids, the simplest RNA replicons: how they manipulate their hosts for being propagated and how their hosts react for containing the infection. Virus Res. 2015;209:136–45.Flores R, Hernández C, de Alba AEM, Daròs J-A, Di Serio F. Viroids and viroid-host interactions. Annu Rev Phytopathol. 2005;43:117–39.Gómez G, Martínez G, Pallás V. Interplay between viroid-induced pathogenesis and RNA silencing pathways. Trends Plant Sci. 2009;14:264–9.Di Serio F, Flores R, Verhoeven JTJ, Li SF, Pallás V, Randles JW, et al. Current status of viroid taxonomy. Arch Virol. 2014;159:3467–78.Branch A, Robertson H. A replication cycle for viroids and other small infectious RNA’s. Science (80−). 1984;223:450–5.Daròs JA, Marcos JF, Hernández C, Flores R. Replication of avocado sunblotch viroid: evidence for a symmetric pathway with two rolling circles and hammerhead ribozyme processing. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 1994;91:12813–7.Gago S, Elena SF, Flores R, Sanjuán R. Extremely High Mutation Rate of a Hammerhead Viroid. Science (80-). 2009;323:1308–1308.Steger G, Riesner D. Viroid research and its significance for RNA technology and basic biochemistry. Nucleic Acids Res. 2018;46:10563–76.Gómez G, Torres H, Pallás V. Identification of translocatable RNA-binding phloem proteins from melon, potential components of the long-distance RNA transport system. Plant J. 2004;41:107–16.Takeda R, Petrov AI, Leontis NB, Ding B. A three-dimensional RNA motif in Potato spindle tuber viroid mediates trafficking from palisade mesophyll to spongy mesophyll in Nicotiana benthamiana. Plant Cell. 2011;23:258–72.Gómez G, Pallás V. Studies on subcellular compartmentalization of plant pathogenic noncoding RNAs give new insights into the intracellular RNA-traffic mechanisms. Plant Physiol. 2012;159:558–64.Wassenegger M, Heimes S, Riedel L, Sänger HL. RNA-directed de novo methylation of genomic sequences in plants. Cell. 1994;76:567–76.Martinez G, Castellano M, Tortosa M, Pallas V, Gomez G. A pathogenic non-coding RNA induces changes in dynamic DNA methylation of ribosomal RNA genes in host plants. Nucleic Acids Res. 2014;42:1553–62.Castellano M, Martinez G, Marques MC, Moreno-Romero J, Köhler C, Pallas V, et al. Changes in the DNA methylation pattern of the host male gametophyte of viroid-infected cucumber plants. J Exp Bot. 2016;67:5857–68.Cress DE, Kiefer MC, Owens RA. Construction of infectious potato spindle tuber viroid cDNA clones. Nucleic Acids Res. 1983;11:6821–35.Tabler M, Sänger HL. Infectivity studies on different potato spindle tuber viroid (PSTV) RNAs synthesized in vitro with the SP6 transcription system. EMBO J. 1985;4:2191–9.Visvader JE, Forster AC, Symons RH. Infectivity and in vitro mutagenesis of monomeric cDNA clones of citrus exocortis viroid indicates the site of processing of viroid precursors. Nucleic Acids Res. 1985;13:5843–56.Gardner RC, Chonoles KR, Owens RA. Potato spindle tuber viroid infections mediated by the Ti plasmid of Agrobacterium tumefaciens. Plant Mol Biol. 1986;6:221–8.Minoia S, Navarro B, Delgado S, Di Serio F, Flores R. Viroid RNA turnover: characterization of the subgenomic RNAs of potato spindle tuber viroid accumulating in infected tissues provides insights into decay pathways operating in vivo. Nucleic Acids Res. 2015;43:2313–25.López-Carrasco A, Ballesteros C, Sentandreu V, Delgado S, Gago-Zachert S, Flores R, et al. Different rates of spontaneous mutation of chloroplastic and nuclear viroids as determined by high-fidelity ultra-deep sequencing. PLoS Pathog. 2017;13:e1006547.Giguère T, Adkar-Purushothama CR, Perreault J-P. Comprehensive secondary structure elucidation of four genera of the family Pospiviroidae. PLoS ONE. 2014;9:e98655.Adkar-Purushothama CR, Brosseau C, Giguère T, Sano T, Moffett P, Perreault J-P. Small RNA derived from the virulence modulating region of the potato spindle tuber viroid silences callose synthase genes of tomato plants. Plant Cell. 2015;27:2178–94.Gibson DG, Young L, Chuang R-Y, Venter JC, Hutchison CA, Smith HO. Enzymatic assembly of DNA molecules up to several hundred kilobases. Nat Methods. 2009;6:343–5.Engler C, Gruetzner R, Kandzia R, Marillonnet S. Golden gate shuffling: a one-pot DNA shuffling method based on type IIs restriction enzymes. PLoS ONE. 2009;4:e5553.Carbonell A, Takeda A, Fahlgren N, Johnson SC, Cuperus JT, Carrington JC. New generation of artificial MicroRNA and synthetic trans-acting small interfering RNA vectors for efficient gene silencing in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 2014;165:15–29.Genovés A, Navarro JA, Pallás V. Functional analysis of the five melon necrotic spot virus genome-encoded proteins. J Gen Virol. 2006;87:2371–80.Gómez G, Pallás V. A long-distance translocatable phloem protein from cucumber forms a ribonucleoprotein complex in vivo with Hop stunt viroid RNA. J Virol. 2004;78:10104–10.Herranz MC, Sanchez-Navarro JA, Aparicio F, Pallás V. Simultaneous detection of six stone fruit viruses by non-isotopic molecular hybridization using a unique riboprobe or ‘polyprobe’. J Virol Methods. 2005;124:49–55.Daròs JA. Eggplant latent viroid: a friendly experimental system in the family Avsunviroidae. Mol Plant Pathol. 2016;17:1170–7.Lin D, O’Callaghan CA. MetClo: methylase-assisted hierarchical DNA assembly using a single type IIS restriction enzyme. Nucleic Acids Res. 2018;46:e113.Sanjuán R, Daròs J-A. One-step site-directed mutagenesis of viroid dimeric cDNA. J Virol Methods. 2007;145:71–5

El análisis y transformación del espacio educativo en la formación docente: un eje relevante para el desarrollo del pensamiento práctico

¿Qué agrega la reflexión y transformación espacial en la formación docente?, ¿qué tiene de especial y diferente el trabajo con el espacio con respecto a otros ejes formativos? Para dar respuesta a estas preguntas, el presente trabajo -financiado por la Universidad de Málaga y un contrato FPU (17/04106) otorgado por el Ministerio de Universidades de España- tiene como objetivo explorar y comprender la posible relación entre el diseño estético del espacio y el desarrollo del pensamiento práctico de un grupo de docentes. Es decir, analizar si el diseño espacial favorece la consciencia de sus acciones más automáticas, y si la reflexión, rediseño y vivencia de nuevos espacios puede estimular la reconstrucción de dichas acciones. Para ello, se desarrolla un estudio de caso extendido a lo largo de tres años donde se indaga sobre el proceso de formación y transformación llevado a cabo por el equipo docente de Educación Infantil del colegio público malagueño Nuestra Señora de Gracia. Los resultados del estudio muestran que la reflexión, diseño, reconfiguración y vivencia del espacio educativo se convierte en un eje formativo especialmente relevante para visibilizar su propio conocimiento práctico y, por consiguiente, reconstruirlo y generar nuevos guiones de acción informados. Un tránsito que se produce a través de dos movimientos clave: la teorización de la práctica y la experimentación de la teoría. Dos procesos que promueven una práctica reflexiva y vivenciada que no queda encorsetada a la actuación sin crítica teórica, ni a adoptar teorías fragmentarias independientes de los procesos de acción.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Might exogenous circular RNAs act as protein-coding transcripts in plants?

[EN] Circular RNAs (circRNAs) are regulatory molecules involved in the modulation of gene expression. Although originally assumed as non-coding RNAs, recent studies have evidenced that animal circRNAs can act as translatable transcripts. The study of plant-circRNAs is incipient, and no autonomous coding plant-circRNA has been described yet. Viroids are the smallest plant-pathogenic circRNAs known to date. Since their discovery 50 years ago, viroids have been considered valuable systems for the study of the structure-function relationships in RNA, essentially because they have not been shown to have coding capacity. We used two pathogenic circRNAs (Hop stunt viroid and Eggplant latent viroid) as experimental tools to explore the coding potential of plant-circRNAs. Our work supports that the analysed viroids contain putative ORFs able to encode peptides carrying subcellular localization signals coincident with the corresponding replication-specific organelle. Bioassays in well-established hosts revealed that mutations in these ORFs diminish their biological efficiency. Interestingly, circular forms of HSVd and ELVd were found to co-sediment with polysomes, revealing their physical interaction with the translational machinery of the plant cell. Based on this evidence we hypothesize about the possibility that plant circRNAs in general, and viroids in particular, can act, under certain cellular conditions, as non-canonical translatable transcripts.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (co-supported by FEDER) PID2020-115571RB-I00VP) and AGL2016-79825-R (GG), and by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (co-supported by FEDER) Grant PID2019104126RB-I00 (GG). JMM was the recipient of a predoctoral contract supported by the Conselleria d ' Educacio, Investigacio, Cultura i Esport Generalitat Valenciana -ACIF Programme (ACIF-2017-114). The funders had no role in the experiment design, data analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript;Conselleria d'Educacio, Investigacio, Cultura i Esport [ACIF-2017-114];Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de Espana [AGL201679825-R];Ministerio de Econom?a, Industria y Competitividad, Gobierno de Espana [PID2020-115571RB-I00];Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades [PID2019-104126RB-I00].Márquez-Molins, J.; Navarro Bohigues, JA.; Cervera Seco, L.; Pallás Benet, V.; Gomez, GG. (2021). Might exogenous circular RNAs act as protein-coding transcripts in plants?. RNA Biology. 18:98-107. https://doi.org/10.1080/15476286.2021.1962670S981071

Infancia: una ciudadanía singular, compleja e ignorada. El necesario acercamiento documental a las relaciones entre cuerpo y espacio en la infancia

La infancia parece haber sido sentenciada a una constante infravaloración: a menudo se tiende a mirar a los niños y niñas desde una perspectiva que no los considera como sujetos, sino como meros proyectos incompletos de adultos. Su condición de ciudadanas y ciudadanos no solo no les es reconocida, sino que les es negada, silenciada, produciéndose relaciones de poder basadas en la domesticación y la infantilización (Delgado, 2013). Con esta experiencia práctica desarrollada en el segundo ciclo de Educación Infantil del C.E.I.P. Nuestra Señora de Gracia (Málaga), hemos pretendido aproximarnos a la forma en la que los niños y niñas construyen una sociedad singular y compleja. Una delicada aproximación, a través de un proceso de documentación pedagógica (Hoyuelos y Riera, 2015), que nos lleva a comprender sus relaciones más íntimas con el espacio. Se muestran así los resultados de una escucha atenta a cómo niñas y niños generan y regeneran cultura desde sus propias formas de interpretar y habitar los territorios físicos de la escuela. Esto es, narraciones sobre momentos concretos en los que niños y niñas, en su relación con el espacio, nos llevan a una movilización de nuestros esquemas más arraigados sobre la infancia. Niños y niñas que se funden y dialogan con las propiedades de los objetos, que aprecian la belleza de su entorno, y que aprenden en su interacción con él. Momentos de aprendizaje de niños y niñas que, de primera mano, nos acercan al mundo de la infancia. El complejo mundo de la infancia.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The import effects of the entry price system

The complexity of the trade policy environment in the European fruit and vegetables (F&Vs) market is mostly due to the Entry Price System (EPS), a non-tariff measure that regulates imports. We investigate the trade effects of the EPS by estimating a structural gravity model of trade flows from major European suppliers of apples, lemons, oranges, peaches, pears, table grapes and tomatoes. We assess how imports react to EPS overshoots, difference between import price and entry price threshold, and to level and volatility in Standard Import Values (SIVs). The EPS limits imports of F&Vs, but differences exist across products. While the efficacy of the EPS is valid for all products, its effectiveness is greater for less perishable F&Vs