Promotion of scientific careers: the Aquí STEAM-UPC programme

Postprint (published version

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Treball presentat a la Facultat de Veterinària de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona.Treball presentat a l'assignatura de Deontologia i Veterinària Legal (21223

Les creences del professorat sobre l'ensenyament de la gramàtica a primària, secundària i en l'ensenyament d'adults

L’article s’insereix en la tradició d’estudis sobre els sabers i les creences del professorat que indaguen en les concepcions sobre l’ensenyament i l’aprenentatge com a punt de referència per a la planificació de la millora dels criteris d’intervenció a les aules. Recull dos estudis paral·lels que pretenen conèixer la cognició i les pràctiques dels docents en relació amb l’ensenyament de la gramàtica, un sobre una mostra de professorat de primària i de secundaria encarregat de l’ensenyament del català i el castellà, i un altre sobre una mostra de professorat de català com a segona llengua en l’àmbit de l’ensenyament d’adults. En tots dos casos, les respostes a un qüestionari sobre el paper de la gramàtica en l’ensenyament de la llengua i sobre les pràctiques habituals permeten establir una tipologia en què es distingeixen perfils docents diferenciats

Simple sugar intake and hepatocellular carcinoma: epidemiological and mechanistic insight

Sugar intake has dramatically increased during the last few decades. Specifically, there has been a clear trend towards higher consumption of fructose and high fructose corn syrup, which are the most common added sugars in processed food, soft drinks and other sweetened beverages. Although still controversial, this rising trend in simple sugar consumption has been positively associated with weight gain and obesity, insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus and non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Interestingly, all of these metabolic alterations have also been related to the development of hepatocellular carcinoma. The purpose of this review is to discuss the evidence coming from epidemiological studies and data from animal models relating the consumption of simple sugars, and specifically fructose, with an increased risk of hepatocellular carcinoma and to gain insight into the putative molecular mechanisms involved

Propuesta innovadora en el marco de la formación del profesorado para la enseñanza secundaria en la especialidad biologia geologia

Strategies to train students in cooperative work through leadership are developed in the Máster de Formación del Profesorado. Aims are to motivate learning within a working team with a leader and leader assistant. The leader will encourage team work, accept responsibilities and organize commands properly by planning the study personally and collectively. The leader assistant's should execute jobs commanded by the leader. The teacher will never be its main source of information

Urinary Porphyrin Excretion in Children is Associated with Exposure to Organochlorine Compounds

4 pages, 4 tables.-- 18941586 [PubMed].-- PMCID: PMC2569103.-- Printed version published Oct 2008.Background Hexachlorobenzene (HCB) and other organochlorines induce porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) in animal studies. Evidence in humans, however, is contradictory. In neonates and adults from a population historically highly exposed to HCB (Flix, Catalonia, Spain), no relation with PCT or with porphyrin excretion was found.Objectives We aimed to analyze the association between urinary porphyrin excretion and exposure to HCB and other organochlorinated compounds in children 4 years of age.Methods Our birth cohort included all newborns from Flix and the five surrounding towns (where no airborne pollution occurred). Among the 68 children with porphyrins we measured in cord blood, 52 children 4 years of age provided blood to measure organochlorine compounds, hair for methylmercury, and urine for porphyrin excretion pattern.Results Quantitative porphyrin excretion was within the normal values. However, total porphyrins, coproporphyrin I (CPI), and coproporphyrin III (CPIII) adjusted to creatinine excretion increased with increasing levels of HCB, 1,1-dichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethylene (p,p′-DDE), 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(4-chlorophenyl)ethane (p,p′-DDT), and polychlorinated biphenyl congener 153 (PCB-153). We found no association with methylmercury. When we fitted multiple pollutant models, p,p′-DDE had the strongest association. We found these associations in children from both Flix and other towns, and they were independent of breast-feeding and of organochlorine and porphyrin levels at birth.Conclusion HCB at current levels did not induce porphyria or increase uroporphyrins. However, the increase of urinary coproporphyrins suggests an incipient toxic effect of the organochlorines, especially for p,p′-DDE, on the hepatic heme-synthesis pathway that differs from the major effects seen in PCT.This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS-97/1102, FIS-PI041436, Red INMA G03/176, and CB06/02/0041), “Fundació La Caixa” (97/009-00 and 00/077-00), and Generalitat de Catalunya-CIRIT 1999SGR 00241.Peer reviewe

Deciphering the principles that govern mutually exclusive expression of Plasmodium falciparum clag3 genes

The product of the Plasmodium falciparum genes clag3.1 and clag3.2 plays a fundamental role in malaria parasite biology by determining solute transport into infected erythrocytes. Expression of the two clag3 genes is mutually exclusive, such that a single parasite expresses only one of the two genes at a time. Here we investigated the properties and mechanisms of clag3 mutual exclusion using transgenic parasite lines with extra copies of clag3 promoters located either in stable episomes or integrated in the parasite genome. We found that the additional clag3 promoters in these transgenic lines are silenced by default, but under strong selective pressure parasites with more than one clag3 promoter simultaneously active are observed, demonstrating that clag3 mutual exclusion is strongly favored but it is not strict. We show that silencing of clag3 genes is associated with the repressive histone mark H3K9me3 even in parasites with unusual clag3 expression patterns, and we provide direct evidence for heterochromatin spreading in P. falciparum. We also found that expression of a neighbor ncRNA correlates with clag3.1 expression. Altogether, our results reveal a scenario where fitness costs and non-deterministic molecular processes that favor mutual exclusion shape the expression patterns of this important gene family