Sobre la formación del profesorado de Geografia en Bachillerato

Han transcurrido no pocos años desde que me disponía a comenzar el quehacer profesional como profesor de Geografia en ((Gaztelueta)), colegio que se inauguraba en Las Arenas (Vizcaya). En ese centro se concibió, desde un principio, esta enseñanza como materia separada de la Historia: con profesorado distinto y horarios independientes. Pero antes de emprender esa labor me dediqué, durante varios meses, a una preparación del material pedagógico. Con este fin conseguí cuantos trabajos se podían hallar sobre metodología de nuestra disciplina, tanto españoles como extranjeros. Se trataba, ante todo, de seguir las  huellas de esa tradición didáctica de la Geografía española en la que figuran nombres como Beltrán y Rózpide, Pedreira Taibo,  allester y Castell, Santaló Parvorell, Doporto Marchori, Chico y Rello, Reverte Salinas, el mismo Dantin Cereceda, y otros más. Pensé enseguida que continuarla era un deber, y que ello haría un camino. De ahí que, a lo largo de los años, me afanara por recoger sus frutos y experiencias. Fue entonces cuando en la biblioteca del Laboratorio de Geomorfología de la Facultad  e Ciencias de Barcelona, con sede en el pequeño pabellón contiguo a la calle de Anbau, di con un breve trabajo publicado el  iio 1934. Su titulo: Atlas escolars i lectures cartografiques. El autor era Luis Solé Sabans, en aquella fecha catedrático de Ciencias Naturales, incorporado como profesor de Geografía al Instituto Escuela  barcelonés. Su lectura me resultó  reveladora: «Si al enseñar Geografía debemos huir de la rigidez memorística, de las estadísticas enojosas y de las  descripciones inorgánicas propias de una Geografía arcaica, hay que escoger instrumentos de trabajo que reduzcan a límites adecuados la explicación del profesor y la sustituyan, en parte, por el trabajo de investigación del alumno. Estos instrumentos de trabajo pueden ser de muy diversa naturaleza, pero no cabe duda que el instrumento geográfico por excelencia es el mapa en cualquiera de sus  aspectos ... Sin embargo, el uso de la carta geográfica no se ha de limitar a la localización de los  fenómenos ... sino que debe servir precisamente para obtener la interpretación de estos hechos ... Con una cierta preparación inicial, y mediante el diálogo socrático hábilmente dirigido por el profesor, puede llegarse a extraer de la carta geográfica de un país totalmente desconocido las principales características fisiográficas y humanas.. . » En párrafos como los transcritos percibí el latido de una experiencia viva, y de tina admirable vocación por la enseñanza geográfica. Puedo afirmar que esos criterios del Dr. Solé, formulados en 1934, constituyeron siempre referencia clara y segura en medio de una ilusionada actividad docente que habían de prolongarse muchos años.

I feel it in my finger: Measurement device affects cardiac interoceptive accuracy

This is the final version. Available on open access from Elsevier via the DOI in this recordIn recent years, measures of cardiac interoceptive accuracy have been heavily scrutinised. The focus has been on potentially confounding physiological and psychological factors; little research has examined whether the device used to record objective heartbeats may influence cardiac interoceptive accuracy. The present studies assessed whether the device employed influences heartbeat counting (HCT) accuracy and the location from which heartbeats are perceived. In Study One, participants completed the HCT using a hard-clip finger pulse oximeter, electrocardiogram (ECG) and a smartphone application. In Study Two, an ECG, hard-clip and soft-clip oximeter were compared. Moderate-strong correlations were observed across devices, however, mean HCT accuracy and confidence varied as a function of device. Increased sensation in the finger when using a hard-clip pulse oximeter was related to increased accuracy relative to ECG. Results suggest that the device employed can influence HCT performance, and argue against comparing, or combining, scores obtained using different devices.Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Baily Thomas TrustFonds de Recherche Québec – Sant

Azithromycin to Prevent Pertussis in Household Contacts, Catalonia and Navarre, Spain, 2012-2013

We retrospectively assessed the effectiveness of azithromycin in preventing transmission of pertussis to a patient's household contacts. We also considered the duration between symptom onset in the primary patient and azithromycin administration. We categorized contacts into 4 groups: those treated within 21 days after illness onset in the primary patient. We studied 476 primary index patients and their 1,975 household contacts, of whom 4.5% were later identified as having pertussis. When contacts started chemoprophylaxis within 14 days after primary patient's symptom onset was less effective. We recommend that contacts of persons with pertussis begin chemoprophylaxis within <14 days after primary patient's symptom onset

A Generic Platform for Cellular Screening Against Ubiquitin Ligases

Ubiquitin signalling regulates most aspects of cellular life, thus deregulation of ubiquitylation has been linked with a number of diseases. E3 ubiquitin ligases provide substrate selectivity in ubiquitylation cascades and are therefore considered to be attractive targets for developing therapeutic molecules. In contrast to established drug target classes, such as protein kinases, GPCRs, hormone receptors and ion channels, ubiquitin drug discovery is in its early stages. This is, in part, due to the complexity of the ubiquitylation pathways and the lack of robust quantitative technologies that allow high-throughput screening of inhibitors. Here we report the development of a Ubiquitin Ligase Profiling system, which is a novel and generic cellular technology designed to facilitate identification of selective inhibitors against RING type E3 ubiquitin ligases. Utilization of this system requires a single co-transfection of cells with assay vectors, thereby enabling readout of E3 ubiquitin ligase catalytic activity within the cellular environment. Therefore, our robust high-throughput screening platform offers novel opportunities for the development of inhibitors against this difficult-to-target E3 ligase enzyme class

Dislocations in graphene

We study the stability and evolution of various elastic defects in a flat graphene sheet and the electronic properties of the most stable configurations. Two types of dislocations are found to be stable: "glide" dislocations consisting of heptagon-pentagon pairs, and "shuffle" dislocations, an octagon with a dangling bond. Unlike the most studied case of carbon nanotubes, Stone Wales defects are unstable in the planar graphene sheet. Similar defects in which one of the pentagon-heptagon pairs is displaced vertically with respect to the other one are found to be dynamically stable. Shuffle dislocations will give rise to local magnetic moments that can provide an alternative route to magnetism in graphene

Everyday Diplomacy: UKUSA Intelligence Cooperation and Geopolitical Assemblages

This article offers an alternative to civilizational thinking in geopolitics and international relations predicated on assemblage theory. Building on literature in political geography and elsewhere about everyday practices that produce state effects, this article theorizes the existence of transnational geopolitical assemblages that incorporate foreign policy apparatuses of multiple states. Everyday material and discursive circulations make up these assemblages, serving as conduits of affect that produce an emergent agency. To demonstrate this claim, I outline a genealogy of the UKUSA alliance, an assemblage of intelligence communities in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. I then trace the circulation of materialities and affects—at the scales of individual subjects, technological systems of mediation, and transnational processes of foreign policy formation. In doing so, I offer a bottom-up process of assemblage that produces the emergent phenomena that proponents of civilizational thinking mistakenly attribute to macroscaled factors, such as culture

Nucleotide excision repair–induced H2A ubiquitination is dependent on MDC1 and RNF8 and reveals a universal DNA damage response

The epigenetic mark indicative of DNA UV damage or double-strand breaks is achieved via a common pathway regardless of the cause of damage

Expression and Localization of CLC Chloride Transport Proteins in the Avian Retina

Members of the ubiquitously expressed CLC protein family of chloride channels and transporters play important roles in regulating cellular chloride and pH. The CLCs that function as Cl−/H+ antiporters, ClCs 3–7, are essential in particular for the acidification of endosomal compartments and protein degradation. These proteins are broadly expressed in the nervous system, and mutations that disrupt their expression are responsible for several human genetic diseases. Furthermore, knock-out of ClC3 and ClC7 in the mouse result in the degeneration of the hippocampus and the retina. Despite this evidence of their importance in retinal function, the expression patterns of different CLC transporters in different retinal cell types are as yet undescribed. Previous work in our lab has shown that in chicken amacrine cells, internal Cl− can be dynamic. To determine whether CLCs have the potential to participate, we used PCR and immunohistochemical techniques to examine CLC transporter expression in the chicken retina. We observed a high level of variation in the retinal expression levels and patterns among the different CLC proteins examined. These findings, which represent the first systematic investigation of CLC transporter expression in the retina, support diverse functions for the different CLCs in this tissue