Ilegalidades urbanísticas: de la nulidad del contrato a la nulidad del préstamo hipotecario. Responsabilidad bancaria. Imprescriptibilidad de la acción

Argumentación a través de la jurisprudencia, la responsabilidad de las distintas entidades bancarias que intervinieron en el proces

Efectividad y seguridad derivados del empleo de balones intragástricos en el tratamiento de la obesidad

La obesidad es una enfermedad crónica multifactorial fruto de la interacción entre genes y ambiente. Dado que afecta a un alto porcentaje de la población de los paises desarrollados y a que su prevalencia aumenta progresivamente, la Organización Mundial de la Salud ha llegado a considerarla como “una epidemia global”. El indicador más ampliamente utilizado para su medida es el índice de Quetelet o índice de masa corporal (I.M.C.), que se define como IMC=peso (en Kg.)/ talla2 (en m.). De acuerdo con ese índice, se considera como obeso todo sujeto con un IMC>30 Kg/m2. La obesidad aumenta sustancialmente el riesgo de padecer diabetes, hipertensión arterial, dislipemia y enfermedad cardiovascular, así como ciertos tipos de cáncer. Los sujetos obesos presentan por tanto un aumento de la mortalidad, tienen una esperanza y una calidad de vida reducidas y requieren la utilización de recursos sanitarios con mayor frecuencia que las personas no obesas. El objetivo del tratamiento médico empleado en la obesidad es conseguir una reducción razonable de peso y su mantenimiento a largo plazo. Se considera que una reducción de entre el 5 y 10% del peso corporal inicial cumple estos objetivos, determinando una mejora de las comorbilidades asociadas a la obesidad que se puede objetivar en la reducción de las cifras de hipertensión arterial, y de los niveles analíticos de dislipemia y diabetes. La utilización temporal de balones gástricos en el tratamiento de los pacientes obesos se fundamenta en los efectos que estos dispositivos producen sobre la regulación gástrica del apetito, ya sea enlenteciendo el vaciamiento gástrico o modificando la liberación de hormonas que se producen en el tracto digestivo (como ghrelina o colecistoquinina), y que intervienen en la regulación neuroendocrina del apetito y de la saciedad. De esta manera, la sensación de saciedad que producen estos dispositivos permite a los pacientes mantener una ingesta reducida, posibilitando el aprendizaje de unos hábitos alimentarios adecuados que deben mantenerse tras su retirada

A Rule-Based Expert System for Teachers’ Certification in the Use of Learning Management Systems

In recent years and accelerated by the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic, Learning Management Systems (LMS) are increasingly used as a complement to university teaching. LMS provide an important number of resources and activities that teachers can freely select to complement their teaching, which means courses with different usage patterns difficult to characterize. This study proposes an expert system to automatically classify courses and certify teachers’ LMS competence from LMS logs. The proposed system uses clustering to stablish the classification scheme. From the output of this algorithm, it defines the rules used to classify courses. Data registered from a university virtual campus with 3,303 courses and two million interactive events have been used to obtain the classification scheme and rules. The system has been validated against a group of experts. Results show that it performs successfully. Therefore, it can be concluded that the system can automatically and satisfactorily evaluate and certify the teachers’ LMS competence evidenced in their courses

Advanced Genetic Studies on Powdery Mildew Resistance in TGR-1551

[EN] Cucurbits powdery mildew (CPM) is one of the main limiting factors of melon cultivation worldwide. Resistance to races 1, 2, and 5 has been reported in the African accession TGR-1551, whose resistance is controlled by a dominant-recessive epistasis. The dominant and recessive quantitative trail loci (QTL) have previously been located in chromosomes 5 and 12, respectively. We used several densely genotyped BC3 families derived from the cross between TGR-1551 and the susceptible cultivar 'Bola de Oro' to finely map these resistance regions. The further phenotyping and genotyping of the selected BC5, BC5S1, BC5S2, BC4S1, BC(4)xPS, and (BC(4)xPS) S-1 offspring allowed for the narrowing of the candidate intervals to a 250 and 381 kb region in chromosomes 5 and 12, respectively. Moreover, the temperature effect over the resistance provided by the dominant gene has been confirmed. High resolution melting markers (HRM) were tightly linked to both resistance regions and will be useful in marker-assisted selection programs. Candidate R genes with variants between parents that caused a potential modifier impact on the protein function were identified within both intervals. These candidate genes provide targets for future functional analyses to better understand the resistance to powdery mildew in melons.This research was funded by the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion (MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033), grant number PID2020-116055RB (C21 and C22), and by the Conselleria d'Educacio, Investigacio, Cultura i Esports de la Generalitat Valenciana, grant number PROMETEO/2021/072 (to promote excellence groups, cofinanced with FEDER funds). M.L. is a recipient of a predoctoral fellowship (PRE2018-083466) of the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion y Universidades co-financed with FSE funds.López-Martín, M.; Pérez De Castro, AM.; Picó Sirvent, MB.; Gómez-Guillamon, ML. (2022). Advanced Genetic Studies on Powdery Mildew Resistance in TGR-1551. International Journal of Molecular Sciences. 23(20):1-19. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms232012553119232

Interest groups and environmental pressure

Uno de los motivos de mayor peso que inducen a las organizaciones a la implantación de sistemas de gestión medioambiental es la presión ejercida por los grupos de interés. La investigación aporta resultados sobre cuál es la infl uencia de los grupos de interés sobre la gestión medioambiental. Con este fi n hemos analizado 142 centros de negocio españoles, poseedores de los certifi cados ISO 14000 y/o EMAS, estableciendo la relación de los grupos de interés y su infl uencia con el modo en que se realiza en dichas organizaciones la gestión medioambiental. Se ha podido probar empíricamente la existencia de una relación signifi cativa y positiva entre los grupos de interés y la gestión medioambiental. El análisis ha permitido concretar el efecto de tres conjuntos (normativo, organizacional y social) de grupos de interés sobre los componentes de la gestión medioambiental. A tenor de los resultados, no todos los grupos de interés ejercen su infl uencia de igual forma sobre la gestión medioambiental y sus variables signifi cativasThe pressure exerted by interest groups is one of the main reasons that have led organizations to introduce Environmental Management Systems. Research provides evidence on the existing relationship between Stakeholders ´ pressure and their infl uence on business environmental management. The aim of this paper is to analyze 142 Spanish business centers, holders of ISO 14000 and /or EMAS certifi cates, in order to empirically probe the relationship between different kind of stakeholders and environmental management. We found a signifi cant and positive relationship between stakeholders and environmental management within organizations. Additionally, the analysis clarifi ed the individual infl uence of stakeholders (normative, organizational and social) on different aspects of environmental management. According to our analysis, this infl uence varies depending on each type of stakeholde

Clustering of LMS Use Strategies with Autoencoders

Learning Management Systems provide teachers with many functionalities to offer materials to students, interact with them and manage their courses. Recognizing teachers’ instructing styles from their course designs would allow recommendations and best practices to be made. We propose a method that determines teaching style in an unsupervised way from the course structure and use patterns. We define a course classification approach based on deep learning and clustering. We first use an autoencoder to reduce the dimensionality of the input data, while extracting the most important characteristics; thus, we obtain a latent representation of the courses. We then apply clustering techniques to the latent data to group courses based on their use patterns. The results show that this technique improves the clustering performance while avoiding the manual data pre-processing work. Furthermore, the obtained model defines seven course typologies that are clearly related to different use patterns of Learning Management Systems

Guidismo: cem anos educando para a paz

O Guidismo celebra o segundo ano dos três convencionados para festejar o primeiro centenário de sua história. A coincidência com o décimo aniversário do ataque terrorista às torres gêmeas ajuda a recordar os esforços que por meio desta entidade foram realizados ao longo de muitos anos para cumprir com o compromisso de lutar pela paz. Numa data que convida à reflexão sobre o valor da paz e da influência da educação nesta, queremos ressaltar a condição do Guidismo de propagador da fraternidade universal. Ao mesmo tempo em que admiramos a tenacidade e a valentia de quem trabalhou para instaura-la e mantê-la, felicitamo-nos por ter a sorte de viver este momento histórico que tantas mentes, mãos e corações souberam propiciar. Sentimo-nos responsáveis pela continuação da tarefa empreendida e, para consegui-lo, cremos que é necessário começar pela exposição de suas principais mensagens. Conhecer-lhes melhor é a intenção da busca que aqui abordamos

Follicular adenomatoid odontogenic tumor : immunohistochemical study

Adenomatoid odontogenic tumor (AOT) is an uncommon benign odontogenic lesion that affects young patients, with female predominance, mainly in second decade, showing a radiolucent unilocular image associated with an unerupted tooth, usually a canine. In spite of previous and confusing denominations, such as adenoameloblastoma or adenomatoid ameloblastic tumor, AOT is a benign tumor with a very low rate of recurrence, that show a peculiar morphological picture (basaloid appearance with glandular-like structures, calcifying areas, and amiloid-like material) that allow its histopathological recognition. We present a clinicopathological analysis of a case of follicular AOT affecting the mandible in a 9 years-old female patient associated with unerupted lower left canine. Immunohistochemical study showed some data previously unrecognised. All cellular types that composed AOT showed nuclear positivity for p63 indicating a basal characterization in the different cellular components. According to its benign character and low potential for recurrence, AOT revealed a scant proliferative activity (2-3% nuclei showed Ki-67 positivity) limited to some epithelial nodules (AE1-3 +) of fusiform appearance. Absence of reactivity for hormonal receptors (RE and RPg) excluded a possible hormonodependence in AOT that could explain the observed female predominance

Time-series proteomic study of the response of HK-2 cells to hyperglycemic, hypoxic diabetic-like milieu

During diabetes, renal proximal tubular cells (PTC) are exposed to a combination of high glucose and hypoxic conditions, which plays a relevant role in the development of diabetic kidney disease (DKD). In this work, a time-series proteomic study was performed to analyse the effect of a diabetic-like microenvironment induced changes on HK-2 cells, a human cell line derived from normal proximal tubular epithelial cells. Cells simultaneously exposed to high glucose (25 mM) and hypoxia (1% O-2) were compared to cells in control conditions for up to 48 h. Diabetic conditions increased the percentage of death cells after 24 and 48 h, but no differences in the protein/cell ratio were found. The relative protein quantification using dimethyl-labeling and UHPLC-MS/MS analysis allowed the identification of 317, 296 and 259 proteins at 5, 24 and 48 h, respectively. The combination of statistical and time expression profile analyses indicated an increased expression of proteins involved in glycolysis, and a decrease of cytoskeletal-related proteins. The exposure of HK-2 cells to high glucose and hypoxia reproduces some of the effects of diabetes on PTC and, with the limitations inherent toin vitrostudies, propose new mechanisms and targets to be considered in the management of DKD