From Obama to Samara: What changes do the Spanish education system and the Roma movement have to make so that one day it will be possible for a Roma woman to be president?

The American civil rights movement was started by an African American woman who was a participant in a popular education centre. This centre played a key role in the social transformations that led us to elect an African American president in the primary great world power. The Spanish education system needs progressive transformations which will contribute to overcoming the segregation and school failure of female Roma children. Roma women, as the driving force behind transformation in their population, are active agents when deciding on the type of schooling they want for the future of their children. Through associations, and hand in hand with the educational theories and practices provided by the international scientific community, in this article we present the transformations which many schools in Spain are carrying out in order to overcome the social exclusion of the Roma population. In this article we provide the foundations to build a movement of female Roma university graduates who, by including the voices of all of the women in their community, continue to be the driving force behind social transformation. In this way one day education and society in this country will have improved to such an extent that it will be possible for a Roma woman to be president.El movimiento por los derechos civiles fue iniciado por una mujer afroamericana participante de un centro de educación popular cuyo papel ha sido clave en las transformaciones sociales que nos han llevado hasta contar con un presidente afroamericano de la primera potencia mundial. El sistema educativo español requiere de transformaciones progresistas que contribuyan a superar la segregación y el fracaso escolar de las niñas gitanas. Las mujeres gitanas como motor de la transformación de su pueblo son agentes activos para decidir qué sistema educativo quieren para el futuro de sus hijos e hijas. Desde el movimiento asociativo y de la mano de las teorías y prácticas educativas que propone la comunidad científica internacional, presentamos en este artículo las transformaciones que muchos centros educativos en España están realizando para superar la exclusión social del pueblo gitano. En este artículo planteamos las bases para constituir un movimiento de mujeres gitanas universitarias que incluyendo las voces de todas las mujeres de su pueblo, sigan siendo motor de transformación social para que algún día la educación y la sociedad de este país haya mejorado tanto como para que sea posible una presidenta gitana.The INCLUD-ED Strategies for inclusion and social cohesion in Europe from education (2006-2011) project is an integrated project from the European Commission’s VI Framework Programme

Using fuzzy numbers and OWA operators in the weighted average and its application in decision making

Se presenta un nuevo método para tratar situaciones de incertidumbre en los que se utiliza el operador OWAWA (media ponderada – media ponderada ordenada). A este operador se le denomina operador OWAWA borroso (FOWAWA). Su principal ventaja se encuentra en la posibilidad de representar la información incierta del problema mediante el uso de números borrosos los cuales permiten una mejor representación de la información ya que consideran el mínimo y el máximo resultado posible y la posibilidad de ocurrencia de los valores internos. Se estudian diferentes propiedades y casos particulares de este nuevo modelo. También se analiza la aplicabilidad de este operador y se desarrolla un ejemplo numérico sobre toma de decisiones en la selección de políticas fiscalesWe present a new approach for dealing with an uncertain environment when using the ordered weighted averaging – weighted averaging (OWAWA) operator. We call it the fuzzy OWAWA (FOWAWA) operator. The main advantage of this new aggregation operator is that it is able to represent the uncertain information with fuzzy numbers. Thus, we are able to give more complete information because we can consider the maximum and the minimum of the problem and the internal information between these two results. We study different properties and different particular cases of this approach. We also analyze the applicability of the new model and we develop a numerical example in a decision making problem about selection of fiscal policies

Nitrogen availability effects on gas exchange measurements in field-grown maize (Zea mays L.) under irrigated Mediterranean conditions

There are limited studies about the effect of nitrogen (N) deficiency on leaf growth, N status, and photosynthetic capacity of maize grown under field conditions in a Mediterranean climate. The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of different levels of mineral N availability on leaf gas exchange parameters of sprinkler irrigated maize. The experiment was conducted in a conventional maize field located in the central part of the Ebro valley (Spain) during two seasons. Using a portable LICOR-6400 equipment, instantaneous measurements and light response curves to gas exchange were conducted in plots with different levels of N supply ranging from deficient (no fertilized) to over-fertilized (300 kg N/ha). In addition to gas exchange measurements, mineral soil N content, chlorophyll meter readings (CMR), leaf N content, and grain yield were measured in the different plots. Results showed that grain yield reached a plateau (14.5 Mg/ha) when the mineral N available was about 179 kg/ha. CMR were linearly and highly related to total N in ear leaves. The relationship between light-saturated leaf photosynthesis measurements and CMR was significant but very weak (R2=0.13) at V8 and V14 stages but increased later in the growing season (R2=0.52). Plants with intermediate levels of N supply (48<CMR<54) tended to have slightly higher assimilation rates than plants with higher CMR readings. As the available N increased, the saturation point, the light compensation point and significant increases of dark respiration rate were observed. Under the conditions of the study, leaf N contents of 1.9% in the ear leaf were enough to maximize leaf assimilation rates with no need to over-fertilize the maize crop

RNA modified with acyclic threoninol nucleic acids for RNA interference

Upon the discovery of the RNA interference pathway, the development of nucleic acids derivatives for therapeutic purposes has soon caught the attention of biomedical researchers. Although synthetic small interfering RNA (siRNA) has been extensively used to downregulate any protein-coding mRNA, several key issues still remain unsolved. The acyclic threoninol nucleic acid (aTNA), placed at certain siRNA positions, is a useful modification to reduce the oligonucleotides vulnerability towards nucleases. In addition, it can be exploited to avoid several OFF-target effects that limit the biological safety of the RNAi-based agents.We thank the European Union (NMP4-LA-2011-262943, MULTIFUN), the Spanish MINECO (CTQ2014-52588-R and CTQ2014-61758-EXP), and the Generalitat de Catalunya for funding this research. CIBER-BBN is financed by the European Regional Development Fund and the Instituto de Salud Carlos III through an initiative funded during the VI Plan Nacional 2008-2011, the Ingenio 2010, the Consolider Program, and the CIBER Action.Peer reviewe

RNA/aTNA chimeras: RNAi effects and nucleases resistance of single and double stranded RNAs

The RNA interference pathway (RNAi) is a specific and powerful biological process, triggered by small non-coding RNA molecules and involved in gene expression regulation. In this work, we explored the possibility of increasing the biological stability of these RNA molecules by replacing their natural ribose ring with an acyclic L-threoninol backbone. In particular, this modification has been incorporated at certain positions of the oligonucleotide strands and its effects on the biological properties of the siRNA have been evaluated. In vitro cellular RNAi assays have demonstrated that the L-threoninol backbone is well tolerated by the RNAi machinery in both double and single-stranded fashion, with activities significantly higher than those evinced by the unmodified RNAs and comparable to the well-known phosphorothioate modification. Additionally, this modification conferred extremely strong resistance to serum and 3′/5′-exonucleases. In view of these results, we applied this modification to the knockdown of a therapeutically relevant human gene such as apolipoprotein B ( ApoB). Further studies on the activation of the innate immune system showed that L-threoninol-modified RNAs are slightly less stimulatory than unmodified RNAs.This study was supported by the European Union (MULTIFUN, NMP4-LA-2011-262943), the Spanish Ministry of Education (CTQ2010-20541), Generalitat de Catalunya (2009/SGR/208). CIBER-BBN is an initiative funded by the VI National R&D&i Plan 2008-2011, Iniciativa Ingenio 2010, Consolider Program, CIBER Actions and financed by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III with assistance from the European Regional Development Fund. We are indebted to Elisa Pedone for her helpful advice and for providing technical assistance.Peer reviewe

Hormigones de cal: nuevos viejos materiales

El objetivo de este articulo es reivindicar el hormigón de cal como un material de construcción que entronca pertectamente con la tradición constructiva mediterránea, da respuesta a las exigencias de compatibilidad en obras de restauración y, en determinadas condiciones, conlleva menor impacto ambiental que otras soluciones. Lo hacemos ante la hegemónica imposición del cemento que, a pesar de ser un excelente material, conlleva algunos problemas en el mundo de la restauración vinculados a la aparición de sales, a incompatibilidades con los módulos de deformación de las estructuras tradicionales o con la formación de compuestos expansivos.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Revision of Spanish course books for foreigners

En nuestro estudio analizamos un gran número de manuales de ELE vigentes en el mercado editorial con el objeto de señalar tanto sus fortalezas como sus carencias didácticas. Presenta dos partes: la primera consiste en la descripción de una muestra de manuales acompañada de una encuesta a profesores; en la segunda, observamos si la destreza oral,en su plano comunicativo, se ha reflejado en los manuales contemporáneos. Para ello examinamos una serie de aspectos que afectan a distintos planos metodológicos: modalidad oral, dinámica de grupos planteada, etc. Y extraemos las conclusiones oportunas. La base teórica en la que nos apoyamos parte de la corriente lingüística denominada Gramática funcional dikeana, ya que consideramos que es la que mejor se adapta a la indicación fundamental del MRE: la metodología enfocada a la acción.In our study we analyze a large number of ELE course books in the market at the moment with the aim of presenting both their strengths and weaknesses from a didactic point of view. Our work is divided into two parts: the first is the description of samples taken from different course books accompanied by a survey conducted to find out teachers’ opinions about these materials; in the second, we try to observe if the oral skills, concentrating on the communicative competence, are worked by those course books. To do this we examine a number of issues affecting different methodological levels --oral skills, group dynamics, etc.-- and draw the appropriate conclusions. The theoretical basis on which we rely comes from the so called Dik’s Functional Grammar, as we believe that it is the most suitable trend to understand the CEFR: methodology focused on action.peerReviewe

¿Reducción y reordenación del tiempo de trabajo? La percepción de los trabajadores sobre las estrategias de los empresarios y trabajadores

The aim of this article is the presentation of the results of a investigation about the posibilities in the present day for the homogenizing of workers strategies respect to the reduction of the labour time. Specifically, this article is about the perceptions that the representants of sindical unions have about the managerials strategies and about the workers strategies.En este artículo se presentan parte de los resultados de una investigación realizada sobre las posibilidades existentes en la actualidad para la homogeneización de estrategias entre y desde los asalariados respecto a la reducción del tiempo de trabajo, viendo el alcance de las percepciones que tienen los representantes sindicales de los trabajadores. En concreto, las percepciones en torno a las estrategias empresariales y de los trabajadores