Anthropology: A credit memo for the social and educational role in the area of History

La docencia sobre el saber de la Historia amerita ser revisada a la luz del balance de los resultados académicos que los organismos competentes arrojan, y que de manera objetiva no complacen. Esta área necesita de la cooperación del saber antropológico para que su función social recupere dicho crédito. Eliminar o, como mínimo, impedir el mal uso y abuso de la Historia en el alumnado se hace imperativo para generar en ellos el sentido y formación crítica que cualquier sociedad avanzada demanda de sus ciudadanos. La Antropología puede desplegar sobre la Historia un utillaje óptimo para hacer frente a los males apuntados con los que ayudar a cimentar en su camino constructivo una disciplina respetable y eficiente a la que no le sea cuestionada su utilidad y pueda volver a seducir. Esta investigación tiene por objeto mejorar la calidad del ejercicio docente de la Historia en la etapa de Bachillerato en la ciudad de Granada con el aporte de la Antropología Social, para contribuir a la formación del alumnado de manera integral y desarrollar la capacidad de generar un criterio crítico y emancipador. Hemos diseñado un trabajo ecléctico, empleando instrumentos cualitativos y cuantitativos. En relación a los datos cuantitativos obtenidos mediante el cuestionario empleado, pretendemos mostrar la situación actual de los aspectos formativos, curriculares y de desarrollo profesional que los docentes de Historia expresan con relación a los contenidos antropológicos.Teaching about knowledge of history deserves to be revised in light of balance of academic results that the competent bodies shed, and objectively not pleased. This area needs the cooperation of anthropological knowledge for its social function recover that credit. Eliminate or at least prevent the misuse and abuse of history in students it becomes imperative to generate their sense and critical training that any advanced society demands of its citizens. Anthropology can deploy on the History optimal tool to deal with the evils targeted to help build in a constructive way a respectable and efficient discipline that is not questioned its usefulness and you can return to seduce. This research aims to improve the quality of teaching practice of history at the stage of high school in the city of Granada with the contribution of social anthropology to contribute to the training of students holistically and develop the ability to generate criteria critical and emancipatory. We have designed an eclectic work, using qualitative and quantitative tools. Regarding quantitative data obtained through the questionnaire used, we intend to show the current status of training, curriculum and professional development for teachers of history expressed in relation to the contents anthropological aspects

The Lamprey Pallium Provides a Blueprint of the Mammalian Motor Projections from Cortex

SummaryBackgroundThe frontal lobe control of movement in mammals has been thought to be a specific function primarily related to the layered neocortex with its efferent connections. In contrast, we now show that the same basic organization is present even in one of the phylogenetically oldest vertebrates, the lamprey.ResultsStimulation of specific sites in the pallium/cortex evokes eye, trunk, locomotor, or oral movements. The pallial projection neurons target brainstem motor centers and basal ganglia subnuclei and have prominent dendrites extending into the outer molecular layer. They exhibit the characteristic features of pyramidal neurons and elicit monosynaptic glutamatergic excitatory postsynaptic potentials in output neurons of the optic tectum, reticulospinal neurons, and, as shown earlier, basal ganglia neurons.ConclusionsOur results demonstrate marked similarities in the efferent functional connectivity and control of motor behavior between the lamprey pallium and mammalian neocortex. Thus, the lamprey motor pallium/cortex represents an evolutionary blueprint of the corresponding mammalian system

Snail blocks the cell cycle and confers resistance to cell death

The Snail zinc-finger transcription factors trigger epithelial-mesenchymal transitions (EMTs), endowing epithelial cells with migratory and invasive properties during both embryonic development and tumor progression. During EMT, Snail provokes the loss of epithelial markers, as well as changes in cell shape and the expression of mesenchymal markers. Here, we show that in addition to inducing dramatic phenotypic alterations, Snail attenuates the cell cycle and confers resistance to cell death induced by the withdrawal of survival factors and by pro-apoptotic signals. Hence, Snail favors changes in cell shape versus cell division, indicating that with respect to oncogenesis, although a deregulation/increase in proliferation is crucial for tumor formation and growth, this may not be so for tumor malignization. Finally, the resistance to cell death conferred by Snail provides a selective advantage to embryonic cells to migrate and colonize distant territories, and to malignant cells to separate from the primary tumor, invade, and form metastasis

The 2011 October Draconids outburst. I. Orbital elements, meteoroid fluxes and 21P/Giacobini-Zinner delivered mass to Earth

On October 8th, 2011 the Earth crossed the dust trails left by comet 21P/Giacobini-Zinner during its XIX and XX century perihelion approaches with the comet being close to perihelion. The geometric circumstances of that encounter were thus favorable to produce a meteor storm, but the trails were much older than in the 1933 and 1946 historical encounters. As a consequence the 2011 October Draconid display exhibited several activity peaks with Zenithal Hourly Rates of about 400 meteors per hour. In fact, if the display had been not forecasted, it could have passed almost unnoticed as was strongly attenuated for visual observers due to the Moon. This suggests that most meteor storms of a similar nature could have passed historically unnoticed under unfavorable weather and Moon observing conditions. The possibility of obtaining information on the physical properties of cometary meteoroids penetrating the atmosphere under low-geocentric velocity encounter circumstances motivated us to set up a special observing campaign. Added to the Spanish Fireball Network wide-field all-sky and CCD video monitoring, other high-sensitivity 1/2" black and white CCD video cameras were attached to modified medium-field lenses for obtaining high resolution orbital information. The trajectory, radiant, and orbital data of 16 October Draconid meteors observed at multiple stations are presented. The results show that the meteors appeared from a geocentric radiant located at R.A.=263.0+-0.4 deg. and Dec.=+55.3+-0.3 deg. that is in close agreement with the radiant predicted for the 1873-1894 and the 1900 dust trails. The estimated mass of material from 21P/Giacobini-Zinner delivered to Earth during the six-hours outburst was around 950+-150 kg.Comment: Manuscript in press in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society, submitted to MNRAS on November 16th, 2012 Accepted for publication in MNRAS on April 28th, 2013 Manuscript Pages: 21 Tables: 8 Figures: 4 Manuscript associated: "The 2011 October Draconids outburst. II. Meteoroid chemical abundances from fireball spectroscopy" by J.M. Madiedo is also in press in the same journa

Before and after EEES spirit in biometrics for pharmacy

Biometría es una asignatura troncal de primer curso del grado de Farmacia. Últimamente, los profesores tratan de adaptarla al espíritu del EEES. El mayor esfuerzo se enfoca hacia el desarrollo de la capacidad de auto-crítica, auto-aprendizaje y de una evaluación adecuada. Algunos métodos tradicionales ya lo pretendían, como la provisión de resúmenes teóricos, la discusión de problemas matemáticos del ámbito farmacéutico dados de antemano o el uso de un paquete informático estadístico. Además, actualmente los alumnos tienen acceso a una página web de la asignatura con esos materiales junto con ejemplos resueltos, presentaciones, etc. La mayor novedad es un curso inicial para repasar conceptos básicos previos y el acceso a tests de autoevaluación a lo largo del curso. La evaluación consistía en un examen final y ahora de cuatro exámenes cortos, otro de las capacidades de uso del paquete estadístico y uno final. El estudio estadístico de las calificaciones desde 2003 hasta 2008 muestran que: 1. Los turnos de la mañana y la tarde son comparables. 2. Las calificaciones de junio y septiembre no son comparables. 3. Las calificaciones son siempre bajas. 4. Las calificaciones son similares para ambos estilos de enseñanza. Por tanto, debemos reflexionar acerca de los resultados. Estudiando lo obtenido tras una encuesta a alumnos y profesores, concluimos lo siguiente: es necesario una mejora en los conocimientos previos de los alumnos, animar a alumnos y profesores a romper con la antigua forma de aprender y la disminución del ratio de alumnos por clase.Biometrics is a mandatory subject in the first course of the Pharmacy degree. In the last few years, its professors try to adapt it to the EEES spirit. The biggest effort is focused on developing the self-criticisim, self-learning competences and a suitable evaluation method. Some of the traditional teaching methods already aimed that, such us providing theory summaries and discussions about mathematical problems within the pharmacy framework proposed in advanced and the use of a statistical package. Nowadays, besides that, the students have a subject web page with the summaries, problems, solved examples, slide presentations, etc. The biggest novelties are an initial course to review preliminary basic concepts and self-evaluation multiple-choice tests provided along the whole term. The evaluation changed from one final exam to four short ones, an exam of their skills at using the statistics package and a final exam.The statistical analysis of the final marks from the 2003 to 2008 shows that: 1. Morning and afternoon shifts are comparable. 2. June and September marks are not comparable. 3. Final marks are always low. 4. Final marks are similar for both teaching styles. Therefore, we should reflect on the results carefully. Having studied the data of a survey among professors and students, we come to the following conclusions: it is necessary to ask for higher student’s knowledge basis, to encourage them and professors to break the chains of old ways of learning and to ask for a decrease in the ratio of students per class.Este trabajo ha sido parcialmente apoyado por los proyectos MTM2007-63793 del Plan Nacional I+D+I, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, y FQM-307 de la Consejería de Innovación de la Junta de Andalucía

Orbits and emission spectra from the 2014 Camelopardalids

We have analyzed the meteor activity associated with meteoroids of fresh dust trails of Comet 209P/LINEAR, which produced an outburst of the Camelopardalid meteor shower (IAU code #451, CAM) in May 2014. With this aim, we have employed an array of high-sensitivity CCD video devices and spectrographs deployed at 10 meteor observing stations in Spain in the framework of the Spanish Meteor Network (SPMN). Additional meteoroid flux data were obtained by means of two forward-scatter radio systems. The observed peak zenithal hourly rate (ZHR) was much lower than expected, of around 20 meteors h-1. Despite of the small meteor flux in the optical range, we have obtained precise atmospheric trajectory, radiant and orbital information for 11 meteor and fireball events associated with this stream. The ablation behaviour and low tensile strength calculated for these particles reveal that Camelopardalid meteoroids are very fragile, mostly pristine aggregates with strength similar to that of the Orionids and the Leonids. The mineral grains seem to be glued together by a volatile phase. We also present and discuss two unique emission spectra produced by two Camelopardalid bright meteors. These suggest a non-chondritic nature for these particles, which exhibit Fe depletion in their composition.Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society on Sept. 22, 201

Estudio de las especies de nitrógeno reactivo en plantas durante el proceso de estrés biótico en la interacción girasol-mildiu

En hipocótilos de plántulas de girasol sensibles y resistentes a la infección por el hongo parásito Plasmopara halstedii, responsable del mildiu, los análisis mediante quimioluminiscencia de ozono revelaron una mayor producción de óxido nítrico en la variedad sensible frente a la resistente, tanto en plantas controles como en plantas inoculadas.La inmunolocalización mediante microscopía de fluorescencia y microscopía confocal láser mostró la localización extensiva de NOS (Óxido nítrico sintasa) y Snitrosoglutation (GSNO) en células parenquimáticas. La lozalización tisular preferente del GSNO en la zona de entrada del patógeno en el hipocótilo, evidencia la posible participación del óxido nítrico en los mecanismos de defensa celulares de respuesta inmediata frente a la invasión por patógenos y antes de la inducción de la producción de óxido nítrico por las proteínas responsables de su generación.El análisis de estos resultados evidencia la presencia en células de hipocótilos de girasol de proteínas tipo NOS y sugiere la participación de la NOS, del óxido nítrico (NO·) y del GSNO en la respuesta de la planta frente al estrés biótico por el hongo Plasmopara halstedii

Uso y difusión de la plataforma educativa SWAD / OpenSWAD en la Universidad de Granada y en el mundo

Este trabajo resume el uso y la difusión que ha tenido la plataforma de b-learning y gestión académica SWAD desde 1999 hasta 2018. SWAD ofrece herramientas de apoyo a la gestión docente y al aprendizaje, y ha sido utilizada durante 19 años por 180 000 usuarios en la Universidad de Granada (UGR). En los últimos 5 años se ofrece además de forma abierta y gratuita a través del portal OpenSWAD.org, donde ha sido utilizada por 23 000 usuarios procedentes de 1 500 instituciones educativas de todo el mundo.This work summarizes the use and dissemination of the SWAD blearning and academic management platform from 1999 to 2018. SWAD offers tools to support teaching management and learning, and has been used for 19 years by 180,000 users at the University of Granada (UGR). In the last 5 years it is also offered in an open and free way through the portal OpenSWAD.org, where it has been used by 23,000 users from 1,500 educational institutions around the world.Universidad de Granada: Departamento de Arquitectura y Tecnología de Computadore