New Teaching Strategies to Improve Student Performance in Fundamentals of Biotechnology

<p>Fundamentals in Biotechnology is part of the Chemical Engineering curriculum at the National University at Salta, in northwest Argentina. This course, given for four months in the fourth year of a five-year program of study, includes concepts of general microbiology, biochemistry, and industrial microbiology and is the first contact by the students with biological issues. Probably due to the long content of the course and to the lack of previous knowledge of biological and microbiological concepts, students have a lot of difficulty passing this course. In order to reach a better understanding of the concepts, to encourage students to learn biotechnology, and to develop critical thinking skills with the ultimate aim of improving performance, two new strategies were adopted, which consisted of including “Complementary Activities” and an “Integration Seminar.”</p

Parasitosis intestinales en Argentina: Principales agentes causales encontrados en la población y/o en el ambiente

Las parasitosis intestinales se encuentran ampliamente distribuidas en el mundo, con mayor prevalencia en los países en desarrollo. Principalmente afectan a los niños en los que además provocan disminución del desarrollo físico y mental; situación que puede potenciarse enormemente cuando se suma a un estado nutricional deficiente. La Organización Mundial de la Salud las considera una de las principales causas de morbilidad, estrechamente ligada a la pobreza y relacionada con inadecuada higiene personal, incorrecta manipulación de los alimentos crudos, falta de servicios sanitarios, falta de provisión de agua potable y contaminación fecal del ambiente. Algunas enfermedades parasitarias poseen condiciones de transmisión que existen universalmente, por lo que son cosmopolitas, mientras que otras tienen distribución geográfica variable. En los últimos años, debido a la globalización, el movimiento de personas de zonas endémicas a regiones no endémicas ha permitido la diseminación de ciertas parasitosis. Y aunque también influyen en la frecuencia de algunas de estas enfermedades las costumbres de los pueblos, las condiciones ambientales son un factor determinante para la supervivencia de los parásitos. En nuestro país, debido a la variedad de suelos y condiciones climáticas que posee, es posible hallar variedad de agentes causales de estas parasitosis. El objetivo de este trabajo es realizar una revisión bibliográfica de los agentes parasitarios causantes de enfermedades entéricas encontrados en la República Argentina tanto en materia fecal de personas como en el ambiente, ya que la contaminación parasitaria de este último constituye un indicador directo del riesgo de infección por parásitos intestinales.Fil: Juarez, Maria Mercedes. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Salta. Instituto de Invest.para la Industria Quimica (i); Argentina;Fil: Rajal, Verónica Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico - CONICET - Salta. Instituto de Invest.para la Industria Quimica (i); Argentina

Net growth rate of continuum heterogeneous biofilms with inhibition kinetics

Biofilm systems can be modeled using a variety of analytical and numerical approaches, usually by making simplifying assumptions regarding biofilm heterogeneity and activity as well as effective diffusivity. Inhibition kinetics, albeit common in experimental systems, are rarely considered and analytical approaches are either lacking or consider effective diffusivity of the substrate and the biofilm density to remain constant. To address this obvious knowledge gap an analytical procedure to estimate the effectiveness factor (dimensionless substrate mass flux at the biofilm-fluid interface) was developed for a continuum heterogeneous biofilm with multiple limiting-substrate Monod kinetics to different types of inhibition kinetics. The simple perturbation technique, previously validated to quantify biofilm activity, was applied to systems where either the substrate or the inhibitor is the limiting component, and cases where the inhibitor is a reaction product or the substrate also acts as the inhibitor. Explicit analytical equations are presented for the effectiveness factor estimation and, therefore, the calculation of biomass growth rate or limiting substrate/inhibitor consumption rate, for a given biofilm thickness. The robustness of the new biofilm model was tested using kinetic parameters experimentally determined for the growth of Pseudomonas putida CCRC 14365 on phenol. Several additional cases have been analyzed, including examples where the effectiveness factor can reach values greater than unity, characteristic of systems with inhibition kinetics. Criteria to establish when the effectiveness factor can reach values greater than unity in each of the cases studied are also presented.Fil: Gonzo, Elio Emilio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Investigaciones para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Investigaciones para la Industria Química; ArgentinaFil: Wuertz, Stefan. Nanyang Technological University; SingapurFil: Rajal, Verónica Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Salta. Instituto de Investigaciones para la Industria Química. Universidad Nacional de Salta. Facultad de Ingeniería. Instituto de Investigaciones para la Industria Química; Argentina. Nanyang Technological University; Singapu

Under-nutrition among adolescents: a survey in five secondary schools in rural Goa.

BACKGROUND: This study was done in 2008-09 to assess the nutritional status among adolescents (10-19 years of age, Classes V-XII) in 5 schools in rural Goa to inform the content of a health promotion intervention in these schools. METHODS: Three methods were used. First, nutritional status was measured by assessing body mass index among 1015 students during a health camp in each school. Second, a diet analysis was done to measure energy and protein Intake of 76 randomly selected underweight students. Third, a self-report questionnaire survey measured the prevalence of hunger among 684 students. RESULTS: One-third of students (338; 37.8% boys and 27.5% girls) who attended the health camps were underweight and 59.2% of the 684 students who completed the survey reported experiencing hunger due to inadequate food consumption. More boys were underweight than girls (p<0.001) and under-nutrition was uniform across all the years of schooling. Energy intake of underweight students was significantly lower than the recommended daily allowance. The results were shared with the School Health Promotion Advisory Boards to generate information on the stakeholders' perception about the issue and ways to address it. CONCLUSION: There is an immediate need to address the high burden of hunger and under-nutrition in adolescents of both sexes in schools by instituting routine annual monitoring of nutritional status, extending the mid-day meal programme to all school-going adolescents, providing nutritional counselling for underweight adolescents and expanding research on the causes and impact of under-nutrition and evaluation of the impact of the enhanced mid-day meal programme

Erlang Code Evolution Control

During the software lifecycle, a program can evolve several times for different reasons such as the optimisation of a bottle-neck, the refactoring of an obscure function, etc. These code changes often involve several functions or modules, so it can be difficult to know whether the correct behaviour of the previous releases has been preserved in the new release. Most developers rely on a previously defined test suite to check this behaviour preservation. We propose here an alternative approach to automatically obtain a test suite that specifically focusses on comparing the old and new versions of the code. Our test case generation is directed by a sophisticated combination of several already existing tools such as TypEr, CutEr, and PropEr; and other ideas such as allowing the programmer to chose an expression of interest that must preserve the behaviour, or the recording of the sequences of values to which this expression is evaluated. All the presented work has been implemented in an open-source tool that is publicly available on GitHub.Comment: Pre-proceedings paper presented at the 27th International Symposium on Logic-Based Program Synthesis and Transformation (LOPSTR 2017), Namur, Belgium, 10-12 October 2017 (arXiv:1708.07854

Pregnancy outcome in patients with fibroid

Background: Fibroids are benign smooth muscle cell tumour of the uterus. In some patients of pregnancy associated with fibroid, it does not affect the outcome of pregnancy. On the other hand, various complications have been reported. Objective of current study was to assess the prevalence and obstetric complications of fibroid during pregnancy and it management. Methods: This was a prospective study. The study was conducted at tertiary care centre, obstertrics & gynecology department over a period of nine months September 2013 to May 2014. Total 17 pregnant patients with >3 cm fibroid were included in the study. They were followed during antenatal period. Maternal age, parity, size of fibroid, complications during pregnancy, labour, and delivery, mode of delivery and indications of cesarean section were noted.  Results: Incidence of fibroid during pregnancy was 0.4%. Out of 17 patients, majority 9 (52.9%) were between 26-30 years of age group, majority 7 (41.1%) were diagnosed between 21-28 weeks and 14 (82.3%) were multigravidas. Normal vaginal delivery occurred in 3 (20%), while 12 (80%) delivered by cesarean section. There were 8 (47%) patients who had no complication whereas 9 (52.9%) had some complication. Pain was present in 7 (41.1%). PROM and preterm labour was present in 3 (17.6%) and 2 (11.7%) respectively. Abortion and IUD occurred in 2 (11.7%) and in 1 (5.8%) respectively. LBW and IUGR was present in 5 (29.4%) and 3 (17.6%) respectively. PPH was present in 6 (35.2%). Antenatal myomectomy performed in 1 (5.8%) and myomectomy at cesarean section performed in 2 (11.7%). Blood transfusion was given to 8 (47%) patients.Conclusions: Pregnant patients who have fibroids are to be carefully screened in the antenatal period, so as to have a regular follow up. The wide spread use of ultrasonography has facilitated diagnosis and management of fibroids in pregnancy. The site and size of fibroid is very important to predict its effect on the pregnancy. In selected patients, myomectomy during antenatal period and at cesarean section can give good results and better pregnancy outcome.

Erziehung nach / über Auschwitz

Diese Diplomarbeit setzt sich mit der Vermittlung des Nationalsozialismus und seiner Verfolgungs- und Vernichtungspolitik an Schüler*innen auseinander. Holocaust Education ist der seit den 1980er-Jahren weltweit gebräuchliche Begriff für diese Praxis beziehungsweise den Diskurs darüber. Das mit dieser Arbeit verbundene Anliegen war es, das Wesen – Selbstverständnis, Inhalte und didaktische Zugänge – gegenwärtiger Holocaust Education in Österreich zu bestimmen und die Frage zu beantworten, ob diese Anknüpfungspunkte für die Herausbildung kritischer und mündiger Subjekte im Sinne der Kritischen Theorie Theodor W. Adornos bietet. Zu diesem Zweck wurden die kritisch-theoretischen Grundlagen einer Pädagogik nach Auschwitz erarbeitet und Kategorien für eine qualitative Inhaltsanalyse gewonnen, die an einem umfassenden Materialkorpus von qualitativen, leitfadengestützten, problemzentrierten Interviews mit in Österreich tätigen Akteur*innen von Holocaust Education (auf der Ebene des Bildungsministeriums, der Gedenkstätte Mauthausen sowie zivilgesellschaftlicher Vereine) durchgeführt wurde.This diploma thesis deals with the conveyance of the subject of National Socialism and the persecution and extinction of Jews and other groups to school pupils in Austria. Since the 1980s the term “Holocaust Education” is used worldwide for the educational work in this field as well as for the discourse about it. A central objective related to this thesis was to determine the character – self-conception, contents and didactic approaches – of Holocaust Education in Austria and to answer the question whether it represents a contribution to the development of critical and mature subjects in the understanding of Critical Theory as described by Adorno. For this purpose the critical-theoretical foundation of education after Auschwitz was outlined and categories for a qualitative content analysis were generated. Then the set of categories was adapted to a comprehensive scope of material, won through qualitative, semi-structured, problem-centered interviews with actors of Holocaust Education in Austria on the level of the Ministry of Education, the Mauthausen Memorial and several NGOs

Study of causes and complications of intra uterine fetal death (IUFD)

Background: Intra Uterine Fetal Death (IUFD) is tragic event for the parents and obstetrician. Identification of causes of IUFD will be helpful in counseling of parents as well as for formulating preventive measures. Objectives of current study were to study the causes of Intra Uterine Fetal Death (IUFD), associated complications and to suggest preventive measures.Methods: Study design: retrospective observational study. This study was carried out over a period of 3 months (April2014- June 2014) at a tertiary care hospital. Inclusion criteria was all IUFD >20 weeks of gestation.Results: Out of 1850 total births during the study period 80 IUFD occurred. Hence proportion of IUFD was 4.3%. In our study, Still Birth Rate (SBR) as per WHO criteria (28 weeks) was 22.1 per 1000. Registered patients were 24 (30%) whereas 56 (70%) were emergency admissions. Majority of cases, 48 (60%) were multigravidae with past obstetric history of abortion and IUFD in 13 (16.2%) and 9 (11.2%) respectively. In 31 (38.7%) no identifiable cause of IUFD was found whereas cause was identified in 49 (61.3%). IUFD occurred in 27 (33.7%) cases of PIH and eclampsia, out of them abruptio placenta was present in 10 (12.5%). Other causes of IUFD were anemia, oligoamnios, fever, congenital anomaly, cord accidents and jaundice in 9 (11.2%), 5 (6.2%), 3 (3.7%), 2 (2.5%), 2 (2.5%) and 1 (1.2%) respectively. Vaginal delivery occurred in 73 (91.2%) and 7 (8.7%) required surgical intervention. Most common complication associated with IUFD was Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation (DIC) in 18 (22.5%) followed by Sepsis in 8 (10%), Acute Renal Failure (ARF) in 3 (3.7%), Maternal mortality in 1 (1.2%).Conclusions: Anemia, PIH, accidental haemorrhage were leading causes of IUFD. Majority of women who had IUFD were emergency admission who had not received adequate antenatal care. A significant proportion of IUFD is preventable by health education to patients and community for regular antenatal care, about warning signs during antenatal period, hospital delivery and early referral.

Portable museums. An experience to deconstruct Art History and rethink the museum from the viewpoint of non-formal Art Education

Partiendo del arte y de la obra Boîte en valise de Marcel Duchamp, llevamos a cabo el taller de enriquecimiento O meu museo portátil con alumnos de la Asociación de Altas Capacidades de Galicia. Una propuesta que nos permitió construir nuestros propios museos a través del arte, y compartir opiniones sobre el papel de la institución museística en nuestras sociedades. Con el objetivo principal de convertir el arte en fuente de conocimiento y experiencias, el alumnado pudo construir sus propias narrativas partiendo de obras clave de la historia del arte. A través del análisis de la experiencia se puede observar como el grupo creó vínculos personales con las obras y generó sus propios debates desde una postura crítica y emancipadora. En el siguiente artículo analizamos el proyecto educativo partiendo de una metodología cualitativa y de la investigación narrativa, prestando una importante atención a los relatos construidos por el alumnado durante la experiencia.Based on Marcel Duchamp’s work Boîte en valise, we held the enrichment workshop O meu museo portátil with students at the High Capacities Association of Galicia. The proposal enabled us to build our own museums through art and to share views on the role of the museum institution in our societies. With the principal aim of transforming art into a source of knowledge and experiences, the students could build their own narratives using iconic pieces of art history. Through the analysis of the experience, we can see how the group created personal links with art works and generated their own debates from a critical and emancipating position. In the following article we analyse this educational project based on a qualitative methodology and social narrative research, emphasising the stories constructed by the students during the experience