Propuesta de evaluación como proceso de revisión metodológica del aprendizaje. Uso de la rúbrica

Fil: Mansilla, Lilyán del V. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Cátedra de Geomorfología & Cátedra de Ambiente Físico; Argentina.Fil: Regis, Liliana B. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Cátedra de Geomorfología & Cátedra de Ambiente Físico; Argentina.El aprendizaje es el núcleo fundamental de la acción educativa. Valorar el aprendizaje del alumno en el proceso y en las competencias alcanzadas constituye uno de los aspectos más relevantes de la enseñanza. Desde la perspectiva de la evaluación formadora, multicultural, participativa y consensuada, centrada en el aprendizaje, se consideran diferentes técnicas e instrumentos. Estas herramientas de evaluación se definen como procedimientos y actividades realizadas por los alumnos con el fin de recoger información y medir el logro de los aprendizajes esperados en una determinada área del conocimiento. La rúbrica o matriz es un instrumento de evaluación que consiste en una tabla de doble entrada donde se establecen niveles de desempeños, logros de los objetivos y competencias de los estudiantes, sobre aspectos determinados y con criterios específicos. Las rúbricas son guías precisas que valoran los aprendizajes y productos realizados. El presente trabajo permite conocer la experiencia del uso de la rúbrica como instrumento de evaluación en el trabajo práctico de campo de la asignatura Geomorfología, de la carrera de Geología de la Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, República Argentina. El ajuste de la metodología se llevó a cabo durante el primer y segundo año de su aplicación, con resultados muy satisfactorios a lo largo de nueve años.La importancia en el uso de este instrumento de evaluación, ha sido eje fundamental en nuestra experiencia, consistió en constituir un elemento patrón y de normalización cuando son varios los docentes involucrados en las acciones de evaluación de una determinada materia o actividad práctica. La rúbrica permitió a los docentes consensuar y establecer criterios y parámetros de evaluación, y alcanzar un valor mínimo de subjetividad personal en una tarea colectiva.La importancia de esta propuesta de evaluación radica en la coincidencia de los resultados obtenidos cuando esaplicada por distintos docentes. Se reconoce la utilidad y el potencial de la rúbrica, no sólo como instrumento de evaluación sino también como proceso de revisión metodológica del aprendizaje.Considerando la trascendencia de evaluar los conocimientos y habilidades desarrollados en un trabajo Prácticode Campo, se pretende mediante la presente publicación, difundir una herramienta que agiliza y optimiza la tarea de evaluación de una actividad habitual en la carrera.Fil: Mansilla, Lilyán del V. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Cátedra de Geomorfología & Cátedra de Ambiente Físico; Argentina.Fil: Regis, Liliana B. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales. Cátedra de Geomorfología & Cátedra de Ambiente Físico; Argentina.Otras Ciencias de la Educació

pSESYNTH project: Community mobilization for a multi-disciplinary paleo database of the Global South

How to enhance paleoscientific research, collaboration and application in the Global South? The INQUA-funded multi-year pSESYNTH project envisions the first multi-disciplinary Holocene paleo database through a collaborative vision for past human-environmental systems in the Global South, and their future sustainability

Understanding the agreements and controversies surrounding childhood psychopharmacology

The number of children in the US taking prescription drugs for emotional and behavioral disturbances is growing dramatically. This growth in the use of psychotropic drugs in pediatric populations has given rise to multiple controversies, ranging from concerns over off-label use and long-term safety to debates about the societal value and cultural meaning of pharmacological treatment of childhood behavioral and emotional disorders. This commentary summarizes the authors' eight main findings from the first of five workshops that seek to understand and produce descriptions of these controversies. The workshop series is convened by The Hastings Center, a bioethics research institute located in Garrison, New York, U.S.A

Antimicrobial activity of sesquiterpene lactones isolated from traditional medicinal plant, Costus speciosus (Koen ex.Retz.) Sm

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Costus speciosus </it>(Koen ex.Retz.) Sm (Costaceae) is an Indian ornamental plant which has long been used medicinally in traditional systems of medicine. The plant has been found to possess diverse pharmacological activities. Rhizomes are used to treat pneumonia, rheumatism, dropsy, urinary diseases, jaundice, skin diseases and leaves are used<b/>to treat mental disorders.</p> <p>Method</p> <p>Antibacterial and antifungal activities were tested using Disc diffusion method and Minimum Inhibitory <b>Concentration </b>(MIC). Column chromatography was used to isolate compounds from hexane extract. X-ray crystallography technique and GC-MS analysis were used to identify the compounds</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Antibacterial and antifungal activities were observed in hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and methanol extracts. Hexane extract of <it>C.speciosus </it>showed good activity against tested fungi also. Two sesquiterpenoid compounds were isolated (costunolide and eremanthin) from the hexane extract. Both the compounds did not inhibit the growth of tested bacteria. But, both the compounds inhibited the tested fungi. The compound costunolide showed significant antifungal activity. The MIC values of costunolide were; 62.5 μg/ml against <it>Trichophyton mentagrophytes</it>, 62. μg/ml against <it>T. simii</it>, 31.25 μg/ml against <it>T. rubrum </it>296, 62.5 μg/ml against <it>T. rubrum </it>57, 125 μg/ml against <it>Epidermophyton floccosum</it>, 250 μg/ml against <it>Scopulariopsis </it>sp, 250 μg/ml against <it>Aspergillus niger</it>, 125 μg/ml against <it>Curvulari lunata</it>, 250 μg/ml against <it>Magnaporthe grisea</it>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Hexane extract showed promising antibacterial and antifungal activity. The isolated compound costunolide showed good antifungal activity.</p

Behavioral and Immune Responses to Infection Require Gαq- RhoA Signaling in C. elegans

Following pathogen infection the hosts' nervous and immune systems react with coordinated responses to the danger. A key question is how the neuronal and immune responses to pathogens are coordinated, are there common signaling pathways used by both responses? Using C. elegans we show that infection by pathogenic strains of M. nematophilum, but not exposure to avirulent strains, triggers behavioral and immune responses both of which require a conserved Gαq-RhoGEF Trio-Rho signaling pathway. Upon infection signaling by the Gαq pathway within cholinergic motorneurons is necessary and sufficient to increase release of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine and increase locomotion rates and these behavioral changes result in C. elegans leaving lawns of M. nematophilum. In the immune response to infection signaling by the Gαq pathway within rectal epithelial cells is necessary and sufficient to cause changes in cell morphology resulting in tail swelling that limits the infection. These Gαq mediated behavioral and immune responses to infection are separate, act in a cell autonomous fashion and activation of this pathway in the appropriate cells can trigger these responses in the absence of infection. Within the rectal epithelium the Gαq signaling pathway cooperates with a Ras signaling pathway to activate a Raf-ERK-MAPK pathway to trigger the cell morphology changes, whereas in motorneurons Gαq signaling triggers behavioral responses independent of Ras signaling. Thus, a conserved Gαq pathway cooperates with cell specific factors in the nervous and immune systems to produce appropriate responses to pathogen. Thus, our data suggests that ligands for Gq coupled receptors are likely to be part of the signals generated in response to M. nematophilum infection

A Family of Plasmodesmal Proteins with Receptor-Like Properties for Plant Viral Movement Proteins

Plasmodesmata (PD) are essential but poorly understood structures in plant cell walls that provide symplastic continuity and intercellular communication pathways between adjacent cells and thus play fundamental roles in development and pathogenesis. Viruses encode movement proteins (MPs) that modify these tightly regulated pores to facilitate their spread from cell to cell. The most striking of these modifications is observed for groups of viruses whose MPs form tubules that assemble in PDs and through which virions are transported to neighbouring cells. The nature of the molecular interactions between viral MPs and PD components and their role in viral movement has remained essentially unknown. Here, we show that the family of PD-located proteins (PDLPs) promotes the movement of viruses that use tubule-guided movement by interacting redundantly with tubule-forming MPs within PDs. Genetic disruption of this interaction leads to reduced tubule formation, delayed infection and attenuated symptoms. Our results implicate PDLPs as PD proteins with receptor-like properties involved the assembly of viral MPs into tubules to promote viral movement

Absence of Aquaporin-4 in Skeletal Muscle Alters Proteins Involved in Bioenergetic Pathways and Calcium Handling

Aquaporin-4 (AQP4) is a water channel expressed at the sarcolemma of fast-twitch skeletal muscle fibers, whose expression is altered in several forms of muscular dystrophies. However, little is known concerning the physiological role of AQP4 in skeletal muscle and its functional and structural interaction with skeletal muscle proteome. Using AQP4-null mice, we analyzed the effect of the absence of AQP4 on the morphology and protein composition of sarcolemma as well as on the whole skeletal muscle proteome. Immunofluorescence analysis showed that the absence of AQP4 did not perturb the expression and cellular localization of the dystrophin-glycoprotein complex proteins, aside from those belonging to the extracellular matrix, and no alteration was found in sarcolemma integrity by dye extravasation assay. With the use of a 2DE-approach (BN/SDS-PAGE), protein maps revealed that in quadriceps, out of 300 Coomassie-blue detected and matched spots, 19 proteins exhibited changed expression in AQP4−/− compared to WT mice. In particular, comparison of the protein profiles revealed 12 up- and 7 down-regulated protein spots in AQP4−/− muscle. Protein identification by MS revealed that the perturbed expression pattern belongs to proteins involved in energy metabolism (i.e. GAPDH, creatine kinase), as well as in Ca2+ handling (i.e. parvalbumin, SERCA1). Western blot analysis, performed on some significantly changed proteins, validated the 2D results. Together these findings suggest AQP4 as a novel determinant in the regulation of skeletal muscle metabolism and better define the role of this water channel in skeletal muscle physiology

Exchange of functional domains between a bacterial conjugative relaxase and the integrase of the human adeno-associated virus

Endonucleases of the HUH family are specialized in processing single-stranded DNA in a variety of evolutionarily highly conserved biological processes related to mobile genetic elements. They share a structurally defined catalytic domain for site-specific nicking and strand-transfer reactions, which is often linked to the activities of additional functional domains, contributing to their overall versatility. To assess if these HUH domains could be interchanged, we created a chimeric protein from two distantly related HUH endonucleases, containing the N-terminal HUH domain of the bacterial conjugative relaxase TrwC and the C-terminal DNA helicase domain of the human adeno-associated virus (AAV) replicase and site-specific integrase. The purified chimeric protein retained oligomerization properties and DNA helicase activities similar to Rep68, while its DNA binding specificity and cleaving-joining activity at oriT was similar to TrwC. Interestingly, the chimeric protein could catalyse site-specific integration in bacteria with an efficiency comparable to that of TrwC, while the HUH domain of TrwC alone was unable to catalyze this reaction, implying that the Rep68 C-terminal helicase domain is complementing the TrwC HUH domain to achieve site-specific integration into TrwC targets in bacteria. Our results illustrate how HUH domains could have acquired through evolution other domains in order to attain new roles, contributing to the functional flexibility observed in this protein superfamily.This work was supported by the Medical Research Council (MRC) grant MR/N022890/1 to EH and grant 1001764 to RML; National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant RO1-GM09285 to CRE; Spanish Ministry of Economy and competitiveness (MINECO) grant BIO2013-46414-P to ML and AFM is supported by a Doc.Mobility fellowship from the Swiss National Science Foundation. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript