Didactic video as an alternative to in vivo assays in practical lessons of pharmacology

La Farmacología es una ciencia eminentemente práctica, en la que tiene gran relevancia la investigación "in vivo" con animales de experimentación. Los conocimientos impartidos en las clases teóricas, seminarios y tutorías, se completan con la enseñanza en las sesiones prácticas. Sin embargo, algunos aspectos importantes de esta enseñanza práctica, que incluyen la realización de ensayos “in vivo”, resulta problemático impartirlos correctamente con la normativa actual sobre la utilización de animales de laboratorio. Por ello, nos planteamos la realización de unos vídeos demostrativos de las técnicas experimentales utilizadas en algunas de las sesiones prácticas de las asignaturasde Farmacologia I y II del Grado en Farmacia. En cada sesión el profesor realiza una breve introducción del modelo experimental, indicando los objetivos que se plantea el investigador asi como las posibilidades de dicha técnica. A continuación en los vídeos, los estudiantes ven el desarrollo completo del experimento, los materiales necesarios y las condiciones experimentales adecuadas para su realización, asi como los diferentes parámetros y variables que se pueden medir. Al finalizar la proyección del vídeo se plantean dos tipos de tareas a los estudiantes: - diseño de un protocolo de evaluación de un fármaco con la metodología descrita - análisis, presentación y discusión de resultados, tras proporcionarles ejemplos de datos obtenidos en el ensayo. El procedimiento seguido para la elaboración de los vídeos es: 1) Diseño del ensayo de laboratorio. 2) Preparación del material necesario y las condiciones para una correcta grabación. 3) Grabación. Montaje de las imágenes (incluye fotografías, esquemas) y del sonido. 4) Edición del material filmado (una versión para Video- DVD y otra para incluirla en el Servidor Multimedia de la plataforma de la Universitat de València).Pharmacology is a primarily practical science, in which “in vivo” research using experimental animal models plays a relevant role. The topics covered in the theoretical classes, seminars and tutorials are complemented with learning in practical sessions. However, certain important aspects of the practical learning, which include performing “in vivo” assays, represents a challenge given the actual regulations regarding laboratory animal utilization. Therefore, we proposed to produce didactic videos for various practical sessions. The teacher gives a brief introduction of the selected experimental animal model, indicating the intended objectives to be achieved. The students can see in the video the complete experiment progression, necessary materials and the proper experimental conditions to perform the assay, as well as the different parameters and variables to be measured. - a protocol design to evaluate a drug with the described methodology - analysis, result presentation and discussion of given example data obtained with the assay. The procedure used for the video elaboration was: 1) Design of the laboratory assay. 2) Preparation of the necessary materials and conditions for a correct recording. 3) Recording. Image (including photographs, schemes, figures) and sound download. 4) Editing of the filmed material (one version for Video- DVD and another one to be included in the virtual platform Multimedia Server of the University of Valencia)

Pharmacinema: teaching resource in the learning of Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy

Introducción: El objetivo prioritario de la actividad Farmacinema es favorecer el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje de los estudiantes de Farmacología (Licenciatura o Grado en Farmacia), con una metodología complementaria a la empleada en la enseñanza tradicional, utilizando películas comerciales para reforzar aspectos terapéuticos y bioéticos. Los estudiantes.Metodología: Los estudiantes pueden asistir a 3 sesiones distintas durante el curso: 2 en grupo amplio (80-100 estudiantes) y una sesión en grupos reducidos (16), que se realiza en las prácticas de Farmacia Clínica. Las películas seleccionadas han sido: El aceite de la vida y Despertares en las sesiones generales, en el primer y segundo trimestre de curso, respectivamente; Los chicos de la señorita Evers y El jardinero fiel en las sesiones en prácticas. En cada sesión el procedimiento utilizado es similar: breve introducción sobre las características técnicas más importantes de la película así como los puntos fuertes, aspectos a destacar para enfocar el interés de los estudiantes a lo que creemos más útil para conseguir los objetivos propuestos; visualización de la película y debate. Para motivar la atención del alumno hacia estos “puntos fuertes”, se les entrega un tríptico con la información básica sobre la película y con una serie de cuestiones que tienen que ir contestando a lo largo de la sesión o bien al acabar ésta. Estas cuestiones sirven de base para plantear y suscitar el debate. Resultados y conclusión: La asistencia es voluntaria y ha ido aumentando en los tres años que se ha ofertado esta actividad. Los estudiantes valoran muy positivamente el Farmacinema.Introduction: The main objective of Pharmacinema is to favour the teaching-learning process of Pharmacology students of the School of Pharmacy, as a complementary method to the conventionally used one, using commercial movies to reinforce therapeutic and bioethical aspects. Methodology: Students may assist to 3 different sessions throughout the school year: 2 in big groups (80-100 students) and one in small groups (16 students) to be performed during the practical lessons of Clinical Pharmacy. The selected movies were: Lorenzo’s oil and Awakenings for the general sessions of the first and second trimesters respectively, Mrs Evers’ boys and The constant gardener for the practical lessons sessions. The procedure used for each session was similar: a brief introduction stating the major technical characteristics of the movie ant the strong points, aspects to be pointed out in order to address the students’ interest towards what we consider most relevant to achieve the proposed objectives; movie visualization and debate. To motivate the student’s attention towards these strong points, the students received a flyer with the basic information about the movie and a series of questions that they have to answer during or at the end of the session. These questions also are used as a start point for the debate. Results and conclusion: Assistance to the general sessions is voluntary, and has increased over the three years in which this activity has been offered. Students have evaluated Pharmacinema as a very positive activity

The role of source and site effects on structural failures due to Azores earthquakes

The existing building stock in Azores islands (Portugal) was severely damaged during 1980 and 1998 earthquakes. Structural failure was probably caused by a combination of factors that are not yet well understood. Earthquake source characteristics, site effects and structural vulnerability may be some of those factors. However, it is very difficult to assess the influence of each factor on structural failure, mainly because recorded accelerograms used in nonlinear structural analysis are influenced by both source characteristics and site conditions. The only way to overcome this problem is to control each factor individually which can be done by using simulated accelerograms. In our previous work, stochastic ground motion simulations results were compared with earthquake records. Results seem to indicate that simulated accelerograms can match recorded accelerograms if proper source characteristics and geological site conditions are selected. In this work, simulated accelerograms were used for seismic nonlinear structural analysis. Simulations were carried out considering several 1980 Azores earthquake possible sources and for different geological site conditions. Simulated accelerograms were then used to evaluate the structural nonlinear behaviour of a reinforced concrete structure and of two masonry structures. The results of this work highlight the importance of site conditions and earthquake source characteristics to the determination of the design seismic actions of Azores islands. This work was performed in the scope of “Strong ground motion for Azores – SiGMA” project, financed by the Portuguese Science and Technology Foundation (PTDC/CTE-GIX/121957/2010)

Influencia de la concentración de oxígeno en el agua de riego en la producción de tomate de industria

Póster presentado al XXXVII Congreso Nacional de Riegos, celebrado en Don Benito del 4 al 6 de Junio de 2019 y organizada por la Asociación Española de Riegos y Drenajes y la Universidad de ExtremaduraObjetivo: Análisis de la influencia de la concentración de oxígeno disuelto en agua (ODA) de riego en la producción y en la calidad del fruto en plantaciones de tomate de industria inyectado mediante dispositivos venturi en redes de riego por goteo

Stability and collapse of localized solutions of the controlled three-dimensional Gross-Pitaevskii equation

On the basis of recent investigations, a newly developed analytical procedure is used for constructing a wide class of localized solutions of the controlled three-dimensional (3D) Gross-Pitaevskii equation (GPE) that governs the dynamics of Bose-Einstein condensates (BECs). The controlled 3D GPE is decomposed into a two-dimensional (2D) linear Schr\"{o}dinger equation and a one-dimensional (1D) nonlinear Schr\"{o}dinger equation, constrained by a variational condition for the controlling potential. Then, the above class of localized solutions are constructed as the product of the solutions of the transverse and longitudinal equations. On the basis of these exact 3D analytical solutions, a stability analysis is carried out, focusing our attention on the physical conditions for having collapsing or non-collapsing solutions.Comment: 21 pages, 14 figure

Modeling the Subsurface Structure of Sunspots

While sunspots are easily observed at the solar surface, determining their subsurface structure is not trivial. There are two main hypotheses for the subsurface structure of sunspots: the monolithic model and the cluster model. Local helioseismology is the only means by which we can investigate subphotospheric structure. However, as current linear inversion techniques do not yet allow helioseismology to probe the internal structure with sufficient confidence to distinguish between the monolith and cluster models, the development of physically realistic sunspot models are a priority for helioseismologists. This is because they are not only important indicators of the variety of physical effects that may influence helioseismic inferences in active regions, but they also enable detailed assessments of the validity of helioseismic interpretations through numerical forward modeling. In this paper, we provide a critical review of the existing sunspot models and an overview of numerical methods employed to model wave propagation through model sunspots. We then carry out an helioseismic analysis of the sunspot in Active Region 9787 and address the serious inconsistencies uncovered by \citeauthor{gizonetal2009}~(\citeyear{gizonetal2009,gizonetal2009a}). We find that this sunspot is most probably associated with a shallow, positive wave-speed perturbation (unlike the traditional two-layer model) and that travel-time measurements are consistent with a horizontal outflow in the surrounding moat.Comment: 73 pages, 19 figures, accepted by Solar Physic

Antimicrobial potential of LEGUMES extracts against foodborne pathogens: A review

[EN] Background: Alternative protein sources are being investigated in response to increasing consumer demand for innovative and healthy food products of vegetable origin to replace non-sustainable animal exploitation. The Leguminosae family includes a wide variety of plants and nutritious seeds, very rich in protein with a high biological value, carbohydrates, vitamins and minerals. Not only the seeds but also the aerial parts, pods, hulls and roots have proved to be natural sources of antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial compounds. Scope and approach: The present article overviews the antimicrobial potential of the most popular legumes worldwide against foodborne pathogens. Key findings and conclusions: According to the literature reviewed, soybean and chickpea are the two consumed legumes with the highest antimicrobial activity. Long-chain soy peptides (IKAFKEATKVDKVVVLWTA) have a high antimicrobial potential against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria at a concentration level of 37.2 ¿M. Also, a wide spectrum of proteins and peptides in raw chickpeas and processed extracts have exerted antimicrobial activity against foodborne pathogens when applied in the range 8¿64 ¿g/ml. These results open a new research line with good prospects regarding the development of a new generation of natural preservative ingredients and extracts to be included in novel formulated products. However, critical aspects, such as (i) the stability of antimicrobial activity during the shelf-life of newly formulated food products, and (ii) the microbial inactivation kinetics generated in novel matrices, should be covered prior to exploitation of legumes as sources of novel technological ingredients with antimicrobial potential.The present research work has been supported by funds provided by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO) as the HELICOFOOD project, with reference AGL2014-53875-R. The post-doctoral contract of M.C. Pina-Pérez as Juan de la Cierva-Incorporación granted by the MINECO is also acknowledged.Pina Pérez, MC.; Ferrús Pérez, MA. (2018). Antimicrobial potential of LEGUMES extracts against foodborne pathogens: A review. Trends in Food Science & Technology. 72:114-124. doi:10.1016/j.tifs.2017.12.007S1141247

Does the presence of planets affect the frequency and properties of extrasolar Kuiper belts? Results from the Herschel DEBRIS and DUNES surveys

G.K. and M.C.W.'s work was supported by the European Union through ERC Grant 279973. C.E. and B.M. are partially supported by Spanish Ministry of Economy Grant AYA 2011-26202. D.R.R. acknowledges support from Chilean FONDECYT Grant 3130520. M.B. acknowledges support from a FONDECYT Postdoctoral Fellowship, Project 3140479.The study of the planet-debris disk connection can shed light on the formation and evolution of planetary systemsand may help "predict" the presence of planets around stars with certain disk characteristics. In preliminary analyses of subsamples of the Herschel DEBRIS and DUNES surveys, Wyatt et al. and Marshall et al. identified a tentative correlation between debris and the presence of low-mass planets. Here we use the cleanest possible sample out of these Herschel surveys to assess the presence of such a correlation, discarding stars without known ages, with ages Gyr, and with binary companions AUto rule out possible correlations due to effects other than planet presence. In our resulting subsample of 204 FGK stars, we do not find evidence that debris disks are more common or more dusty around stars harboring high-mass or low-mass planets compared to a control sample without identified planets. There is no evidence either that the characteristic dust temperature of the debris disks around planet-bearing stars is any different from that in debris disks without identified planets, nor that debris disks are more or less common (or more or less dusty) around stars harboring multiple planets compared to single-planet systems. Diverse dynamical histories may account for the lack of correlations. The data show a correlation between the presence of high-mass planets and stellar metallicity, but no correlation between the presence of low-mass planets or debris and stellar metallicity. Comparing the observed cumulative distribution of fractional luminosity to those expected from a Gaussian distribution in logarithmic scale, we find that a distribution centered on the solar system's value fits the data well, while one centered at 10 times this value can be rejected. This is of interest in the context of future terrestrial planet detection and characterization because it indicates that there are good prospects for finding a large number of debris disk systems (i.e., with evidence of harboring planetesimals, the building blocks of planets) with exozodiacal emission low enough to be appropriate targets for an ATLAST-type mission to search for biosignatures.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe