Indagació basada en la modelització : un marc per al treball pràctic

Malgrat la rellevància que la recerca en didàctica de les ciències sembla donar a l'ensenyament de les ciències basat en la indagació, molts autors afirmen que aquest ti-pus de pràctica educativa no ha arribat a uns nivells de qualitat acceptable en la seva im-plementació a l'aula. La gran varietat d'interpretacions que se li dóna al terme indagació i la desconnexió d'aquestes amb altres aspectes rellevants de la didàctica de les ciències com la modelització són algunes de les causes que explicarien aquest fet. El present arti-cle pretén introduir un marc específic per a la indagació, el de la indagació basada en la modelització, per tal d'orientar el treball pràctic a l'aula de ciències.Despite the importance that research in science education seems to give to inquiry-based science education, many authors claim that this type of educational practice has not reached acceptable levels of quality in its classroom implementation. The variety of inter-pretations given to the term inquiry and their disconnetion with other relevant aspects of science education such as modeling are some of the reasons that explain this situation. This article aims to introduce a specific framework for inquiry, the inquiry-based modeling to guide the practical work in the science classroom

Interacció llum-matèria i efecte hivernacle : seqüència didàctica per a l'estudi de l'espectroscòpia

Treball que correspon a les pràctiques que es fan als tallers REVIR organitzats pel CRECIM de la UAB. La seqüència pretén que l'alumnat de 1r i 2n de Batxillerat assoleixi una major comprensió de la interacció entre la radiació electromagnètica i la matèria. El punt de partida és un fenomen tan conegut com és l'efecte hivernacle, que porta a plantejar la pregunta: Com es pot explicar, des d'un punt de vista químic, la diferència entre els gasos que provoquen efecte hivernacle i els que no

Generació d'electricitat en plaques fotovoltaiques : seqüència didàctica per a l'estudi de les plaques fotovoltaiques

Treball que correspon a les pràctiques que es fan als tallers REVIR organitzats pel CRECIM de la UAB. La seqüència pretén que l'alumnat de segon a quart d'ESO assoleixi una major comprensió del fenomen de la generació d'electricitat a partir de plaques fotovoltaiques

Effectiveness of a 10-day melarsoprol schedule for the treatment of late-stage human African trypanosomiasis: confirmation from a multinational study (IMPAMEL II).

BACKGROUND: Treatment of late-stage human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) with melarsoprol can be improved by shortening the regimen. A previous trial demonstrated the safety and efficacy of a 10-day treatment schedule. We demonstrate the effectiveness of this schedule in a noncontrolled, multinational drug-utilization study. METHODS: A total of 2020 patients with late-stage HAT were treated with the 10-day melarsoprol schedule in 16 centers in 7 African countries. We assessed outcome on the basis of major adverse events and the cure rate after treatment and during 2 years of follow-up. RESULTS: The cure rate 24 h after treatment was 93.9%; 2 years later, it was 86.2%. However, 49.3% of patients were lost to follow-up. The overall fatality rate was 5.9%. Of treated patients, 8.7% had an encephalopathic syndrome that was fatal 45.5% of the time. The rate of severe bullous and maculopapular eruptions was 0.8% and 6.8%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The 10-day treatment schedule was well implemented in the field and was effective. It reduces treatment duration, drug amount, and hospitalization costs per patient, and it increases treatment-center capacity. The shorter protocol has been recommended by the International Scientific Council for Trypanosomiasis Research and Control for the treatment of late-stage HAT caused by Trypanosoma brucei gambiense

Incorporating scale dependence in disease burden estimates:the case of human African trypanosomiasis in Uganda

The WHO has established the disability-adjusted life year (DALY) as a metric for measuring the burden of human disease and injury globally. However, most DALY estimates have been calculated as national totals. We mapped spatial variation in the burden of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) in Uganda for the years 2000-2009. This represents the first geographically delimited estimation of HAT disease burden at the sub-country scale.Disability-adjusted life-year (DALY) totals for HAT were estimated based on modelled age and mortality distributions, mapped using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software, and summarised by parish and district. While the national total burden of HAT is low relative to other conditions, high-impact districts in Uganda had DALY rates comparable to the national burden rates for major infectious diseases. The calculated average national DALY rate for 2000-2009 was 486.3 DALYs/100 000 persons/year, whereas three districts afflicted by rhodesiense HAT in southeastern Uganda had burden rates above 5000 DALYs/100 000 persons/year, comparable to national GBD 2004 average burden rates for malaria and HIV/AIDS.These results provide updated and improved estimates of HAT burden across Uganda, taking into account sensitivity to under-reporting. Our results highlight the critical importance of spatial scale in disease burden analyses. National aggregations of disease burden have resulted in an implied bias against highly focal diseases for which geographically targeted interventions may be feasible and cost-effective. This has significant implications for the use of DALY estimates to prioritize disease interventions and inform cost-benefit analyses

The Highly Embryogenic Brassica napus DH4079 Line Is Recalcitrant to Agrobacterium-Mediated Genetic Transformation

[EN] Brassica napus is a species of high agronomic interest, used as a model to study different processes, including microspore embryogenesis. The DH4079 and DH12075 lines show high and low em-bryogenic response, respectively, which makes them ideal to study the basic mechanisms control-ling embryogenesis induction. Therefore, the availability of protocols for genetic transformation of these two backgrounds would help to generate tools to better understand this process. There are some reports in the literature showing the stable transformation of DH12075. However, no equivalent studies in DH4079 have been reported to date. We explored the ability of DH4079 plants to be genetically transformed. As a reference to compare with, we used the same protocols to transform DH12075. We used three different protocols previously reported as successful for B. napus stable transformation with Agrobacterium tumefaciens and analyzed the response of plants. Whereas DH12075 plants responded to genetic transformation, DH4079 plants were completely recalcitrant, not producing any single regenerant out of the 1784 explants transformed and cul-tured. Additionally, an Agrobacterium rhizogenes transient transformation assay was performed on both lines, and only DH12075, but no DH4079 seedlings, responded to A. rhizogenes infection. Therefore, we propose that the DH4079 line is recalcitrant to Agrobacterium-mediated transfor-mation.This research was funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, grant number PID2020-115763RB-I00 to JMSS and by Generalitat Valenciana, grant number CDEIGENT 2018/023 to RM. ACS is recipient of a PhD contract (FPU17/00715) from the Spanish Ministerio de Educacion.Calabuig-Serna, A.; Mir Moreno, R.; Porcel, R.; Seguí-Simarro, JM. (2023). The Highly Embryogenic Brassica napus DH4079 Line Is Recalcitrant to Agrobacterium-Mediated Genetic Transformation. Plants. 12(10). https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12102008121

Effects of growth conditions of donor plants and in vitro culture environment in the viability and the embryogenic response of microspores of different eggplant genotypes

[EN] Notwithstanding the importance of eggplant in global horticulture, doubled haploid production in this species is still far from being efficient. Although acknowledged to have a role in the efficiency of androgenesis induction, factors such as the growth conditions of donor plant or the in vitro culture environment have not been deeply explored or not explored at all in eggplant, which leaves room for further improvement. In this work, we investigated the effects of different in vivo and in vitro parameters on the androgenic performance of different eggplant genotypes, including two hybrids and a DH line. The in vivo parameters included the exposure of donor plants to different temperature and light conditions and to increased levels of boron. The in vitro parameters included the use of different concentrations of NLN medium components, sucrose and growth regulators, and the suspension of microspores at different densities. Our results showed that whereas greenhouse temperature variations or boron application did not to have a positive influence, greenhouse lighting influenced their viability, thereby conditioning the embryogenic response. Changes in different sucrose, salts and hormone levels had different effects in the genotypes studied, which correlated with their genetic constitution. Finally, we determined the best microspore density, different from that previously proposed. Our work shed light on the role of different factors involved in eggplant microspore cultures, some of them not yet studied, contributing to make microspore culture a more efficient tool in eggplant breeding.This work was supported by Grant AGL2017-88135-R to JMSS from Spanish MICINN, respectively, jointly funded by FEDER. ARS and CCF were supported by predoctoral fellowships from the FPI Programs of Universitat Politecnica de Valencia and Generalitat Valenciana, respectively.Rivas-Sendra, A.; Corral Martínez, P.; Camacho-Fernández, C.; Porcel, R.; Seguí-Simarro, JM. (2020). Effects of growth conditions of donor plants and in vitro culture environment in the viability and the embryogenic response of microspores of different eggplant genotypes. Euphytica. 216(11):1-15. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10681-020-02709-4S11521611Abdollahi MR, Corral-Martinez P, Mousavi A, Salmanian AH, Moieni A, Seguí-Simarro JM (2009) An efficient method for transformation of pre-androgenic, isolated Brassica napus microspores involving microprojectile bombardment and Agrobacterium-mediated transformation. Acta Physiol Plant 31:1313–1317Aulinger IE (2002) Combination of in vitro androgenesis and biolistic transformation: an approach for breeding transgenic maize (Zea mays L.) lines. 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Bulletin interne de la Station d’Amélioration des Plantes Maraichères d’Avignon-Montfavet, France, pp 1–10Corral-Martínez P, Seguí-Simarro JM (2012) Efficient production of callus-derived doubled haploids through isolated microspore culture in eggplant (Solanum melongena L.). Euphytica 187:47–61Corral-Martínez P, Seguí-Simarro JM (2014) Refining the method for eggplant microspore culture: effect of abscisic acid, epibrassinolide, polyethylene glycol, naphthaleneacetic acid, 6-benzylaminopurine and arabinogalactan proteins. Euphytica 195:369–382Custers J (2003) Microspore culture in rapeseed (Brassica napus L.). In: Maluszynski M, Kasha KJ, Forster BP, Szarejko I (eds) Doubled haploid production in crop plants. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp 185–193Dunwell JM (1976) A comparative study of environmental and developmental factors which influence embryo induction and growth in cultured anthers of Nicotiana tabacum. 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Optimizing the colour and fabric of targets for the control of the tsetse fly Glossina fuscipes fuscipes

Background: Most cases of human African trypanosomiasis (HAT) start with a bite from one of the subspecies of Glossina fuscipes. Tsetse use a range of olfactory and visual stimuli to locate their hosts and this response can be exploited to lure tsetse to insecticide-treated targets thereby reducing transmission. To provide a rational basis for cost-effective designs of target, we undertook studies to identify the optimal target colour. Methodology/Principal Findings: On the Chamaunga islands of Lake Victoria , Kenya, studies were made of the numbers of G. fuscipes fuscipes attracted to targets consisting of a panel (25 cm square) of various coloured fabrics flanked by a panel (also 25 cm square) of fine black netting. Both panels were covered with an electrocuting grid to catch tsetse as they contacted the target. The reflectances of the 37 different-coloured cloth panels utilised in the study were measured spectrophotometrically. Catch was positively correlated with percentage reflectance at the blue (460 nm) wavelength and negatively correlated with reflectance at UV (360 nm) and green (520 nm) wavelengths. The best target was subjectively blue, with percentage reflectances of 3%, 29%, and 20% at 360 nm, 460 nm and 520 nm respectively. The worst target was also, subjectively, blue, but with high reflectances at UV (35% reflectance at 360 nm) wavelengths as well as blue (36% reflectance at 460 nm); the best low UV-reflecting blue caught 3× more tsetse than the high UV-reflecting blue. Conclusions/Significance: Insecticide-treated targets to control G. f. fuscipes should be blue with low reflectance in both the UV and green bands of the spectrum. Targets that are subjectively blue will perform poorly if they also reflect UV strongly. The selection of fabrics for targets should be guided by spectral analysis of the cloth across both the spectrum visible to humans and the UV region