Green innovation and circular economy: The case of the B-Corp platform

Treball Final de Grau en Administració d'Empreses. Codi: AE1049. Curs 2019/202

Semiquantitative RT-PCR measurement of gene expression in rat tissues including a correction for varying cell size and number

Background: Current methodology of gene expression analysis limits the possibilities of comparison between cells/tissues of organs in which cell size and/or number changes as a consequence of the study (e.g. starvation). A method relating the abundance of specific mRNA copies per cell may allow direct comparison or different organs and/or changing physiological conditions. Methods: With a number of selected genes, we analysed the relationship of the number of bases and the fluorescence recorded at a present level using cDNA standards. A lineal relationship was found between the final number of bases and the length of the transcript. The constants of this equation and those of the relationship between fluorescence and number of bases in cDNA were determined and a general equation linking the length of the transcript and the initial number of copies of mRNA was deduced for a given pre-established fluorescence setting. This allowed the calculation of the concentration of the corresponding mRNAs per g of tissue. The inclusion of tissue RNA and the DNA content per cell, allowed the calculation of the mRNA copies per cell. Results: The application of this procedure to six genes: Arbp, cyclophilin, ChREBP, T4 deiodinase 2, acetyl-CoA carboxylase 1 and IRS-1, in liver and retroperitoneal adipose tissue of food-restricted rats allowed precise measures of their changes irrespective of the shrinking of the tissue, the loss of cells or changes in cell size, factors that deeply complicate the comparison between changing tissue conditions. The percentage results obtained with the present methods were essentially the same obtained with the delta-delta procedure and with individual cDNA standard curve quantitative RT-PCR estimation. Conclusion: The method presented allows the comparison (i.e. as copies of mRNA per cell) between different genes and tissues, establishing the degree of abundance of the different molecular species tested

“Zombie attack” a new way to teach Chemistry

The Higher Education requires new models which allow training people able to adapt and survive in changing environments. It is based on the use of technologies and the adaptation of knowledge to people. It is about an education according to circumstances, which is adapted to context and virtual behaviour of people. One of the main difficulties that lecturers find in the classroom is how to maintain students' attention and interest in their subject, especially when students also think that the subject is not important for their training. In order to motivate these students, innovation in educational techniques and methodologies, such as experiential learning, are progressively being imposed to and/or coordinated with the traditional ones. Escape Room is a very modern concept in education, based on the development of mental skills for the solution of enigmas and problems. It is a tool to develop the cooperative, cognitive, deductive and logical reasoning skills of the students. In this work, an educational gamification experience based on the escape room concept is presented. The students have 1 hour and 30 minutes to carry out this activity. They will have to solve four puzzles and enigmas that will give them the key to open a treasure chest and finally let them escape from the classroom. Logic, ingenuity and teamwork will allow participants to develop not only chemical competence, but also other basic skills. The story that is told throughout the escape room is a zombie attack: the city has been infected (with a virus) and only the occupants of the room where the activity takes place have not been infected. In addition, they can all protect themselves if they are able to open the chest where the antidote is located. The aim of this activity is to enhance the knowledge acquired throughout the semester as well as the development of skills.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Análisis y discusión sobre la atención al paciente gran quemado

El paciente gran quemado es, para muchos profesionales de la salud, un reto difícil al que enfrentarse actualmente, por el gran número de complicaciones que presenta durante el proceso de enfermedad y periodo de recuperación. Otra de las causas por las que es un reto difícil, es por la alta mortalidad de estos pacientes. Objetivos: Nuestro objetivo es conocer y comparar los diferentes planes de cuidados, guías de práctica clínica, protocolos y artículos existentes sobre el paciente gran quemado. Metodología: La metodología a seguir ha sido una revisión bibliográfica en las diferentes bases de datos biosanitarias (como Scielo, Pubmed, Cochrane Plus, Cuiden, Medline, Dialnet), analizando tanto artículos como protocolos de actuación, así como guías de práctica clínica (GPC) de Hospitales especializados en la atención al Paciente Gran Quemado (H.U. Carlos Haya de Málaga y H.U.Virgen del Rocío de Sevilla). Resultados: Al comparar los diferentes planes de cuidados y guías existentes sobre el paciente gran quemado y la actuación de los equipos de Cuidados Críticos, se ha comprobado que la unificación de criterios de actuación es casi total por parte de los profesionales sanitarios ante este tipo de patologías coinciden en la importancia del “ABC”, en lo necesario que es una actuación rápida y coordinada que aumente la supervivencia del afectado, y en el trato del paciente gran quemado como un paciente politraumatizado. Además coinciden en que el tratamiento local de las quemaduras debe posponerse hasta la estabilización del paciente y traslado del mismo a una unidad especializada. Conclusiones: Las líneas de actuación ante un paciente gran quemado son similares en los diferentes Servicios de Salud; además, los cuidados al paciente gran quemado por parte de los profesionales sanitarios del servicio de Urgencias y Emergencias, son de alta calidad por la especialidad de los profesionales y su rápida actuación ante esta patología

Alternativas de futuro al sector residencial

[CASTELLÀ] La materia prima del carpintero no es otra que la madera, la del cantero la piedra, la del alfarero el barro, la del herrero el hierro y así ha sido durante siglos y así seguirá siendo. Pero a pesar de que la materia prima sigue inalterablemente siendo la misma a lo largo del tiempo, no ha sucedido lo mismo con los innumerables frutos que han realizado los artesanos. La variedad de los productos ha sido, es y seguirá siendo infinita. Eso mismo puede suceder con un solar (terreno urbanizado apto para la construcción), lo podemos transformar en innumerables productos inmobiliarios. Su definición, transformación, comercialización, viabilidad económica, y financiación son algunos de los aspectos que valoraremos en este trabajo con mayor detenimiento. Éste pretende ser un ejercicio que sirva de inspiración a los promotores ávidos de nuevos proyectos y con ganas de plantearse nuevos negocios.[ANGLÈS] The raw material of the carpenter is none other than the wood, the stonemason’s is the Stone, the potter’s is the clay, the blacksmith’s is the iron and so has been for centuries and will continue to be. But in spite of the fact that the raw material remains unalterable over time, it has not happened the same with the countless fruits that thr craftsmen have made. The variety of the products has been, is and will continue to be infinite. The same thing can happen with a plot (serviced land suitable for construction), we can transform it in countless real state products. It is definition, processing, marketing, economic viability, and financing are some of the aspects that will assess this work with greater detail. It aims to be an exercise that serves as an inspiration to the avoid promoters of new projects and with a desire to look for a new business

An end-to-end framework for intima media measurement and atherosclerotic plaque detection in the carotid artery

Background and objectives: The detection and delineation of atherosclerotic plaque are usually manually performed by medical experts on the carotid artery. Evidence suggests that this manual process is subject to errors and has a large variability between experts, equipment, and datasets. This paper proposes a robust end-to-end framework for automatic atherosclerotic plaque detection. Methods: The proposed framework is composed of: (1) a semantic segmentation model based on U-Net, with EfficientNet as the backbone, that obtains a segmentation mask with the carotid intima-media region; and (2) a convolutional neural network designed using Bayesian optimization that simultaneously performs a regression to get the average and maximum carotid intima media thickness, and a classification to determine the presence of plaque. Results: Our approach improves the state-of-the-art in both co and bulb territories in the REGICOR database, with more than 8000 images, while providing predictions in real-time. The correlation coefficient was 0.89 in the common carotid artery and 0.74 for bulb region, and the F1 score for atherosclerotic plaque detecting was 0.60 and 0.59, respectively. The experimentation carried out includes a comparison with other fully automatic methods for carotid intima media thickness estimation found in the literature. Additionally, we present an extensive experimental study to evaluate the robustness of our proposal, as well as its suitability and efficiency compared to different versions of the framework. Conclusions: The proposed end-to-end framework significantly improves the automatic characterization of atherosclerotic plaque. The generation of the segmented mask can be helpful for practitioners since it allows them to evaluate and interpret the model's results by visual inspection. Furthermore, the proposed framework overcomes the limitations of previous research based on ad-hoc post-processing, which could lead to overestimations in the case of oblique forms of the carotid artery

In rats, oral oleoyl-DHEA is rapidly hydrolysed and converted to DHEA-sulphate

BACKGROUND: Dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA) released by adrenal glands may be converted to androgens and estrogens mainly in the gonadal, adipose, mammary, hepatic and nervous tissue. DHEA is also a key neurosteroid and has antiglucocorticoid activity. DHEA has been used for the treatment of a number of diseases, including obesity; its pharmacological effects depend on large oral doses, which effect rapidly wanes in part because of its short half-life in plasma. Since steroid hormone esters circulate for longer periods, we have studied here whether the administration of DHEA oleoyl ester may extend its pharmacologic availability by keeping high circulating levels. RESULTS: Tritium-labelled oleoyl-DHEA was given to Wistar male and female rats by gastric tube. The kinetics of appearance of the label in plasma was unrelated to sex; the pattern being largely coincident with the levels of DHEA-sulfate only in females, and after 2 h undistinguishable from the results obtained using labelled DHEA gavages; in the short term, practically no lipophilic DHEA label was found in plasma. After 24 h only a small fraction of the label remained in the rat organs, with a different sex-related distribution pattern coincident for oleoyl- and free- DHEA gavages. The rapid conversion of oleoyl-DHEA into circulating DHEA-sulfate was investigated using stomach, liver and intestine homogenates; which hydrolysed oleoyl-DHEA optimally near pH 8. Duodenum and ileum contained the highest esterase activities. Pure hog pancreas cholesterol-esterase broke down oleoyl-DHEA at rates similar to those of oleoyl-cholesterol. The intestinal and liver esterases were differently activated by taurocholate and showed different pH-activity patterns than cholesterol esterase, suggesting that oleoyl-DHEA can be hydrolysed by a number of esterases in the lumen (e.g. cholesterol-esterase), in the intestinal wall and the liver. CONCLUSION: The esterase activities found may condition the pharmacological availability (and depot effect) of orally administered steroid hormone fatty acid esters such as oleoyl-DHEA. The oral administration of oleoyl-DHEA in order to extend DHEA plasma availability has not been proved effective, since the ester is rapidly hydrolysed, probably in the intestine itself, and mainly converted to DHEA-sulfate at least in females

Rapid Magnetic Dispersive solid phase extraction to preconcentration/determination of Cd and Pb in aqueous samples

A new magnetic dispersive solid phase extraction (MDSPE) method and graphite furnace atomic absorption spectrometry (GFAAS) have been combined for the analysis of Cd and Pb in environmental samples. For the preconcentration, a shell structured Fe3O4@graphene oxide nanospheres was synthetized and characterized. The material was suspended in the ionic liquid 1-n-butyl-3-metilimidazolium tetrafluoroborate [BMIM][BF4], the obtained stable colloidal suspension is named ferrofluid. GO presents excellent adsorbent properties for organic species due to the presence of the electronic π system. For this reason, the organic ligand [1,5-bis-(2-dipyridyl) methylene] thiocarbonohydrazide (DPTH) was used in order to form organic complexes of Cd and Pb. Once the DPTH ligand has been added to sample, the ferrofluid was injected and finely dispersed in the sample solution in order to extract the formed chelates. The complete adsorption of the chelates took place within few seconds then, the solid was separated from the solution with the aid of a strong magnet. Cd and Pb ions were desorbed from the material with 1 mL of acid nitric 5% solution and quantified by GFAAS. All experimental and instrumental variables were optimized. The analytical performances of the optimized method were: EF (Enrichment factor): 200 with LODs (detection limit): 0.005 and 0.004 µg L-1 and LOQs (determination limit): 0.017 and 0.013 µg L-1, for Cd and Pb, respectively. The reliability of the developed procedure was tested by relative standard deviation (% RSD), which was found to be < 5%. The accuracy of the proposed method was verified using certified reference materials (SLRS-5, SPS-SW2, and BCR-723) and by determining the analyte content in spiked aqueous samples. Sea waters and tap water samples collected from Málaga (Spain) were also analysed. The determined values were in good agreement with the certified values and the recoveries for the spiked samples were around 100% in all cases.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Implications for Social Impact of Dialogic Teaching and Learning

The science of dialogic teaching and learning has especially flourished over the last four decades across age-groups, cultures, and contexts. A wide array of studies has examined the uniqueness of dialogue as a powerful tool to lead effective instructional practices, transform the socio-cultural context and people's mindsets, among many others. However, despite the efforts to extend the benefits of this approach, certain difficulties exist which have hindered the consolidation of dialogic pedagogies in the classroom. This review discusses the implications for social impact of the scientific developments on dialogic teaching and learning. Particularly, an overview of the state of the art on dialogic education is presented. Social improvements in academic attainment and social cohesion are some of the fundamental issues discussed. Those are especially relevant to address crucial needs in education and solve some of the most pressing social problems. A communicative mix-methods approach emerges as one of the critical aspects of this field of research in educational psychology to achieve social impact. Some limitations, such as teachers sustaining different forms of monologic discourse, and challenges for a broader impact are discussed in this review

PBL based on chemistry laboratories at engineering degree

Until now, the didactics used in the teaching of experimental chemistry contradicts its objective by continuing with a traditional approach and with passive didactic methods for students. Even, in virtual environments, working in the laboratory practices is basically "following a recipe" where the student does not have the opportunity to ask, make decisions or apply to their daily life. In addition to this, it happens that the "recipes" of the laboratories, in general, are repeated frequently, sometimes semester after semester. The recipes have been tested, being known to give good results, and offer no major difficulties, but the recipes do not present uncertainty for the student. On the other hand, we find the problem of the use of ICT in laboratories, which needs a change of focus. It also requires a change of environment, it is convenient to incorporate measurement processes, analyze data in real time and treat what is observed It should be remembered that Chemistry is an experimental science, therefore, laboratory works are essential and provide an enrichment for procedures and research that cannot be replaced by virtual laboratories. For all these reasons, this work focuses on the usefulness of the laboratory as a space with a problem-solving approach, which is, contextualizing problems and fulfilling a series of purposes. According to Zambrano (2007), these purposes are: ability to internalize general and specific knowledge (to know), to acquire technical and procedural skills (to know how), to develop attitudes (to know how to be) and social skills (to know how to live together). The intention of this article is to show that, including chemistry laboratories self-managed by the students themselves, generates one of the fundamental competences in our changing society, such as self-learning (learning to learn).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec