Un currículo para el estudio de la historia de la ciencia en Secundaria : la experiencia del Seminario Orotava de Historia de la Ciencia

The curricula of two disciplines on History of Science at the High School level have been elaborated as part of the activities of a singular experience, Seminario Orotava de Historia de la Ciencia. The philosophy of the design considers science as an essential part of culture and interdisciplinarity as the most fitted method of teaching and learnign in a significative way

Propuesta de modificación del Código Penal español en materia de delitos contra las personas y bienes protegidos en caso de conflicto armado

Fil: Rodríguez-Villasante y Prieto, José L. Cruz Roja Española. Centro de Estudios del Derecho Internacional Humanitario (CEIDH). Madrid, EspañaFil: Pérez González, Manuel. Universidad Compluetense de Madrid. Facultad de Derecho. Cátedra Derecho Internacional Público. Madrid, Españ

Análisis de las formaciones dunares activas de la flecha del Fangar (Delta del Ebro)

Este artículo muestra los trabajos realizados sobre los campos de dunas activas de la Flecha del Fangar al amparo del Proyecto de Investigación “Cuantificación y Contribución del Transporte Eólico en los Procesos Dinámicos y Ambientales en el Delta del Ebro. Aplicación a su Gestión Integrada y a la Conservación de los Ambientes Marginales” (AGITE), concedido por el Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia 473 dentro del Plan Nacional de I+D+i (2005-2008). En dicho proyecto se ha podido analizar cuál es la morfodinámica de dicho campo, cómo es su estructura interna, y cuáles son los mecanismos que gobiernan su dinámica, aspectos desarrollados en una Tesis Doctoral (Sánchez, 2008) defendida recientemente. En el marco del proyecto, también se han realizado otros trabajos globales de todo el delta, tendentes aumentar el conocimiento de la zona, y evaluar el interés y la percepción social que tiene la problemática actual del delta

PPARGC1A gene promoter methylation as a biomarker of insulin secretion and sensitivity in response to glucose challenges

Methylation in CpG sites of the PPARGC1A gene (encoding PGC1-α) has been associated with adiposity, insulin secretion/sensitivity indexes and type 2 diabetes. We assessed the association between the methylation profile of the PPARGC1A gene promoter gene in leukocytes with insulin secretion/sensitivity indexes in normoglycemic women. A standard oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) and an abbreviated version of the intravenous glucose tolerance test (IVGTT) were carried out in n = 57 Chilean nondiabetic women with measurements of plasma glucose, insulin, and C-peptide. Bisulfite-treated DNA from leukocytes was evaluated for methylation levels in six CpG sites of the proximal promoter of the PPARGC1A gene by pyrosequencing (positions -816, -783, -652, -617, -521 and -515). A strong correlation between the DNA methylation percentage of different CpG sites of the PPARGC1A promoter in leukocytes was found, suggesting an integrated epigenetic control of this region. We found a positive association between the methylation levels of the CpG site -783 with the insulin sensitivity Matsuda composite index (rho = 0.31; p = 0.02) derived from the OGTT. The CpG hypomethylation in the promoter position -783 of the PPARGC1A gene in leukocytes may represent a biomarker of reduced insulin sensitivity after the ingestion of glucose

Análisis de la morfometría ósea en ratas sometidas a diferentes situaciones de hipoxia

El hueso es uno de los tejidos metabólicamente más activos, metabolismo que requiere de un aporte suficiente de oxígeno. En este sentido, se han publicado resultados contradictorios de cómo la hipoxia podría modificar el remodelado óseo y con ello la estructura del hueso. El objetivo del estudio fue valorar el efecto de la hipoxia sobre la morfometría ósea y la densidad mineral ósea medidas por tomografía axil computarizada de alta resolución (HR-pQTc ). Se analizaron 61 ratas wistar a las que se les sometió a diferentes condiciones experimentales: ratas control (sometidas a condiciones de normoxia), ratas sometidas a hipoxia crónica constante y ratas sometidas a hipoxia crónica intermitente. Los animales se sacrificaron por una sobredosis cardiaca de fenobarbital. A continuación, se procedió a la extracción de los huesos, fémur y tibia. Posteriormente se fijaron en etanol al 70% para su posterior análisis. Se utilizó un micro-TAC modelo escáner SKYSCAN 1172 de la marca BRUKER y un software de captación de datos skyscan1172 µCT. La reconstrucción de las imágenes se realizó mediante un software Nrecon utilizándose posterio mente el software de análisis de imagen "CTAN". Se utilizó el SPSS v22 para el análisis estadístico. Nuestros resultados mostraron que las ratas sometidas a condiciones de hipoxia tenían una menor densidad mineral de tejido (TMD) en fémur cortical y un menor grosor trabecular de la tibia. Por otra parte, analizando las ratas sometidas a hipoxia crónica permanente en referencia a las ratas control, se observó que la hipoxia se asoció con un menor espesor cortical de la tibia, menor densidad mineral ósea (BMD) en fémur trabecular y con menor volumen óseo porcentual (BV/TV) del fémur trabecular. Diferenciando por sexos, las ratas hembras sometidas a hipoxia crónica permanente presentaron un menor espesor de la tibia cortical, menor grosor de las trabéculas de la tibia y el fémur y menores valores de BMD en las trabéculas de la tibia y el fémur. Las ratas macho sometidas a hipoxia crónica permanente, tenían un menor número de trabéculas en la tibia. También se observó como las ratas sometidas a hipoxia permanente intermitente, tenían un menor TMD que las ratas control. Nuestros resultados mostraron que en diferentes condiciones de hipoxia se observó un deterioro de la morfometría ósea, probablemente debido a que se produce una alteración del remodelado óseo promovido por la hipoxia tisular

Plasma Aβ42/40 ratio alone or combined with FDG-PET can accurately predict amyloid-PET positivity: a cross-sectional analysis from the AB255 Study

Background: To facilitate population screening and clinical trials of disease-modifying therapies for Alzheimer’s disease, supportive biomarker information is necessary. This study was aimed to investigate the association of plasma amyloid-beta (Aβ) levels with the presence of pathological accumulation of Aβ in the brain measured by amyloid-PET. Both plasma Aβ42/40 ratio alone or combined with an FDG-PET-based biomarker of neurodegeneration were assessed as potential AD biomarkers. Methods: We included 39 cognitively normal subjects and 20 patients with mild cognitive impairment from the AB255 Study who had undergone PiB-PET scans. Total Aβ40 and Aβ42 levels in plasma (TP42/40) were quantified using ABtest kits. Subjects were dichotomized as Aβ-PET positive or negative, and the ability of TP42/40 to detect Aβ-PET positivity was assessed by logistic regression and receiver operating characteristic analyses. Combination of plasma Aβ biomarkers and FDG-PET was further assessed as an improvement for brain amyloidosis detection and diagnosis classification. Results: Eighteen (30.5%) subjects were Aβ-PET positive. TP42/40 ratio alone identified Aβ-PET status with an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.881 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.779–0.982). Discriminating performance of TP42/40 to detect Aβ-PET-positive subjects yielded sensitivity and specificity values at Youden’s cutoff of 77.8% and 87.5%, respectively, with a positive predictive value of 0.732 and negative predictive value of 0.900. All these parameters improved after adjusting the model for significant covariates. Applying TP42/40 as the first screening tool in a sequential diagnostic work-up would reduce the number of Aβ-PET scans by 64%. Combination of both FDG-PET scores and plasma Aβ biomarkers was found to be the most accurate Aβ-PET predictor, with an AUC of 0.965 (95% CI = 0.913–0.100). Conclusions: Plasma TP42/40 ratio showed a relevant and significant potential as a screening tool to identify brain Aβ positivity in preclinical and prodromal stages of Alzheimer’s disease

e-Learning quality assessment in higher education: A mapping study

Quality assessment is today a success factor and a guarantee in the implementation and development of countless initiatives, programs and strategies in a very wide variety of fields. For this reason, in an educational field in a constant transformation, the evaluation of the quality of each process, phase and tool must be understood as an essential and basic part in teaching, betting on the implementation of quality evaluation processes in the virtual environment and also trying to adapt reality to new learning environments. In the present moment, in a society in which everything has to be evaluated, the establishment of evaluation standards for new instruments and the standardization of accepted and validated processes will also make virtual teaching-learning environments more reliable and effective. This research proposes a mapping study with the aim to find out the situation in which the research on quality evaluation in e-Learning in higher education finds itself. The criteria used for the selection of publications are concise and the complete process carried out is reflected in each of its phases. The results allow us to describe the current reality in a temporal perspective and the state of the art, in order to address the potential future lines of research in the field of quality assessment in virtual environments

Mapa de series, geoseries y geopermaseries de vegetación de España (Memoria del mapa de vegetación potencial de España). Parte II

Peer Reviewe

The Spanish Infrared Camera onboard the EUSO-BALLOON (CNES) flight on August 24, 2014

The EUSO-Balloon (CNES) campaign was held during Summer 2014 with a launch on August 24. In the gondola, next to the Photo Detector Module (PDM), a completely isolated Infrared camera was allocated. Also, a helicopter which shooted flashers flew below the balloon. We have retrieved the Cloud Top Height (CTH) with the IR camera, and also the optical depth of the nonclear atmosphere have been inferred with two approaches: The first one is with the comparison of the brightness temperature of the cloud and the real temperature obtained after the pertinent corrections. The second one is by measuring the detected signal from the helicopter flashers by the IR Camera, considering the energy of the flashers and the location of the helicopter

The atmospheric science of JEM-EUSO

An Atmospheric Monitoring System (AMS) is critical suite of instruments for JEM-EUSO whose aim is to detect Ultra-High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECR) and (EHECR) from Space. The AMS comprises an advanced space qualified infrared camera and a LIDAR with cross checks provided by a ground-based and airborne Global Light System Stations. Moreover the Slow Data Mode of JEM-EUSO has been proven crucial for the UV background analysis by comparing the UV and IR images. It will also contribute to the investigation of atmospheric effects seen in the data from the GLS or even to our understanding of Space Weather