Estrategia didáctica para la enseñanza de las ciencias en contexto de producción social

En las últimas décadas es un clamor mundial acercar el conocimiento científico al ciudadano, con la finalidad de que éste pueda apropiarse de él y lo utilice para su beneficio en su entorno socio-natural. Entre las tendencias que se han propuesto para que el conocimiento científico forme parte de la cultura de la población se reconoce la popularización de las ciencias.Esta investigación adoptó de esta tendencia la postura referida al diálogo de saberes entre científicos y población, en un contexto pertinente para el que aprende. Entre el conocimiento construido y empleado por la comunidad productora y el conocimiento de la comunidad científica se establecieron interacciones para derivar metas de aprendizaje dela ciencia y diseñar una propuesta didácticapara la enseñanza formal e informal

Wanted: specific nutritional biomarkers for food consumption for the study of its protective role in health.

Nutritional epidemiology focuses on an understanding of the relationship between diet and disease risk. The assessment of dietary and nutritional exposure is a complex methodological challenge. Traditionally, diet evaluations have been made by means of dietary data, such as 24-h recalls and food frequency or diet history questionnaires. However, all of these methods have some inherent weaknesses or limitations due to the limited accuracy in measuring the intake of food, nutrients or phytochemicals. Nowadays, nutritional biomarkers have become an attractive alternative approach. According to conventional definition..

Food Intake Biomarkers for Increasing the Efficiency of Dietary Pattern Assessment through the Use of Metabolomics: Unforeseen Research Requirements for Addressing Current Gaps

Current research on nutritional sciences depends upon the precise measurement of food intake. Despite being the most widely used dietary measurement tools, self-reported surveys are not exempt from already recognized limitations.(1, 2) Low dietary assessment accuracy contributes to the inconsistency of results already observed in many instances when trying to understand the connections between diet and healthiness or disease risk, thereby weakening their potential translation to clinical and public health applications.(1) The drawbacks of conventional instruments have encouraged research on food intake biomarkers (FIBs) as a complementary or alternative measure of dietary intake, being one of the cornerstones of nutritional epidemiology.(1) FIBs are those food compounds or food-derived metabolites that allow for recent or average intakes of specific food groups, foods, or food components to be objectively and accurately measured in a biological specimen.(3) They are assumed to be a more accurate measurement of dietary exposure than self-reported consumption because they cover the bioavailability of dietary compounds and allow for the drawbacks of composition tables, portion estimation, and subjectivity, among other things, to be handled. However, there are still some gaps that have to be addressed for such biomarkers to reach their full potential for the community. These are related to their specificity, interindividual variation, validation, and quantification. These aspects will be outlined in the following paragraphs

Resveratrol, a new biomarker of moderate wine intake?

In a recent study published in the British Journal of Nutrition, Spencer et al. (1) reviewed the strengths and the limitations of the biomarkers of dietary polyphenol intake, since nutritional biomarkers may be a better measure of dietary exposure than self-reported dietary data. These authors identified the criteria that must be considered in the development of such biomarkers as the following..

An R package to analyse LC/MS metabolomic data: MAIT (Metabolite Automatic Identification Toolkit)

Current tools for liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry for metabolomic data cover a limited number of processing steps, whereas online tools are hard to use in a programmable fashion. This article introduces the Metabolite Automatic Identification Toolkit (MAIT) package, which makes it possible for users to perform metabolomic end-to-end liquid chromatography and mass spectrometry data analysis. MAIT is focused on improving the peak annotation stage and provides essential tools to validate statistical analysis results. MAIT generates output files with the statistical results, peak annotation and metabolite identification. AVAILABILITY AND IMPLEMENTATION: http://b2slab.upc.edu/software-and-downloads/metabolite-automatic-identification-toolkit/

Contaminación de suelos y aguas subterráneas por vertidos industriales

En los países industrializados, la contaminación de suelos y aguas subterráneas por el vertido incontrolado de residuos industriales es uno de los problemas más preocupantes que se plantean, ya que su eliminación no es fácil ni barata de realizar, y sus efectos persisten durante muchos años. En España este problema es especialmente notorio a causa de una gestión inadecuada derivada de la descoordinación existente entre los diferentes sectores involucrados: administración, empresas, técnicos y científicos. La ausencia de instalaciones suficientes para su tratamiento, ha llevado a la práctica de vertidos en los cauces de ríos y en el subsuelo o a su almacenamiento en vertederos incontrolados..

Resveratrol metabolite profiling in clinical nutrition research-from diet to uncovering disease risk biomarkers: epidemiological evidence

Resveratrol is a bioactive plant compound that has drawn scientific and media attention owing to its protective effects against a wide variety of illnesses, including cardiovascular diseases and cancer. In the last two decades, a plethora of preclinical studies have shown these beneficial effects, and some of them have been supported by clinical trials. However, there are few epidemiological studies assessing these relationships, showing mostly inconsistent results among them. This could be partially due to the difficulty of accurately estimating dietary resveratrol exposure. The development of Phenol-Explorer, a database containing resveratrol food-composition data, will facilitate the estimation of resveratrol intake. Moreover, the discovery and validation of a nutritional biomarker of this exposure, urinary resveratrol metabolite profile, will allow a more accurate assessment of dietary resveratrol exposure. Few epidemiological studies have assessed the potential health effects of resveratrol. Resveratrol was not associated with total mortality, cancer, or cardiovascular events, but it was associated with an improvement of serum glucose and triglyceride levels and a decrease in heart rate. Together, these findings suggest a potential cardioprotective effect of resveratrol in epidemiological studies, although the evidence is still scarce

Perceptual blindless in nutrition: We are in a critical time to be connected

Our health and well-being are affected by our food systems. The new nutrition reality has been linked to complex food systems, interrelated with several pathways and determinants, including physical, socioeconomic, environmental, and ecological, and lately, has been strongly associated with population health, the increase in chronic diseases, and climate change. We briefly comment on four pillars, namely food environments, food security, food supply, and safety and nutritional epidemiology, all of which are key determinants of food systems. We overview some highlights, challenges, and methodologies with a view to advancing food and nutrition science as an integrated field of research. By modifying food systems, we are able to improve the aging and well-being of populations and the health of the planet. Trusted science, nutritional education, new scientific-public communication, integrated policy, investment, food availability, and cultural strategies are all essential for creating better food systems. Perceptual blindness in nutrition must be transformed

Characterization of the human exposome by a comprehensive and quantitative large scale multi-analyte metabolomics platform

The exposome, defined as the cumulative measure of external exposures and associated biological responses throughout the lifespan, has emerged in recent years as a cornerstone in biomedical sciences. Metabolomics stands out here as one of the most powerful tools for investigating the interplay between the genetic background, exogenous, and endogenous factors within human health. However, to address the complexity of the exposome, novel methods are needed to characterize the human metabolome. In this work, we have optimized and validated a multianalyte metabolomics platform for large-scale quantitative exposome research in plasma and urine samples, based on the use of simple extraction methods and high-throughput metabolomic fingerprinting. The methodology enables, for the first time, the simultaneous characterization of the endogenous metabolome, food-related metabolites, pharmaceuticals, household chemicals, environmental pollutants, and microbiota derivatives, comprising more than 1000 metabolites in total. This comprehensive and quantitative investigation of the exposome is achieved in short run times, through simple extraction methods requiring small-sample volumes, and using integrated quality control procedures for ensuring data quality. This metabolomics approach was satisfactorily validated in terms of linearity, recovery, matrix effects, specificity, limits of quantification, intraday and interday precision, and carryover. Furthermore, the clinical potential of the methodology was demonstrated in a dietary intervention trial as a case study. In summary, this study describes the optimization, validation, and application of a multimetabolite platform for comprehensive and quantitative metabolomics-based exposome research with great utility in large-scale epidemiological studies