Implementation of activities for the evaluation of the specific instrumental transversal competence in subjects in the area of mechanical engineering

[EN] Most of the higher education frameworks work and evaluate transversal competences, to achieve the excellence of graduates, not only academically but also integrating social aspects, ethics, communication, teamwork, etc. To this end, the present work studies a common methodology both in the activities, to improve the acquisition of the ¿Specific Instrumental¿ transversal competence, as well as in its evaluation. In the practical sessions, the student uses a detailed tutorial with the procedure to obtain the numerical result. The evaluation of the ¿Specific Instrumental¿ transversal competence is deficient following this structure, since it does not show whether the student acquires autonomy to solve similar problems. Therefore, an unguided alternative activity was proposed at the end of each session, which allows to see the evolution of the student in the face of a different problem without guidelines. Experience shows that it is rash to expect the student to handle the program autonomously in the first session. For this reason, the delivery deadline for tasks will be extended by a few weeks. Obviously, guarantee of authenticity is lost, but responsibility for learning is transferred to the student. Allowing the student to spend the time necessary for deep learning, without the pressure of ending the session.Authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Vicerrectorado de Estudios, Calidad y Acreditación and the Vicerrectorado de Recursos Digitales y Documentación of the Universitat Politècnica de València (project PIME B/19-20/165) and the Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación of the Universitat Politècnica de València (EICE INTEGRAL).Pedrosa, AM.; Sánchez Orgaz, EM.; Lozano-Mínguez, E.; Martinez-Sanchis, S. (2020). Implementation of activities for the evaluation of the specific instrumental transversal competence in subjects in the area of mechanical engineering. IATED Academy. 597-602. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2020.0197S59760

Effect of vanadium carbide on dry sliding wear behavior of powder metallurgy AISI M2 high speed steel processed by concentrated solar energy

Mixtures of AISI M2 high speed steel and vanadium carbide (3, 6 or 10 wt.%) were prepared by powder metallurgy and sintered by concentrated solar energy (CSE). Two different powerful solar furnaces were employed to sinter the parts and the results were compared with those obtained by conventional powder metallurgy using a tubular electric furnace. CSE allowed significant reduction of processing times and high heating rates. The wear resistance of compacts was studied by using rotating pin-on-disk and linearly reciprocating ball-on-flat methods. Wear mechanisms were investigated by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations and chemical inspections of the microstructures of the samples. Better wear properties than those obtained by conventional powder metallurgy were achieved. The refinement of the microstructure and the formation of carbonitrides were the reasons for this.JCCM in the Spanish National Programme (Project PPIC10-0052-5968

Recurrence of floor of the mouth dysontogenic cyst in childhood

The dysontogenic cysts of the floor of the mouth, which probably derive from pluripotent ectodermal cells entrapped during midline fusion of the branchial arches, include three histological subtypes: epidermoid, dermoid, and teratoid. The teratoid cyst, composed of ectodermal, endodermal, and mesodermal structures, is rare, with 26 cases reported in the English literature, most of them detected during childhood. We present a case of a teratoid cyst of the floor of the mouth in an 8-month-old boy, which was initially operated on the suspicion of ranula. A year after the operation a recurrent teratoid cyst was detected, with a sinus tract to the floor of the mouth. A recurrent dysontogenic cyst is very rare, with only five cases reported, and only one during childhood. The presence of tracts or adhesions not identified during the primary excision could explain the recurrence.Keywords: children, dysontogenic cyst, floor of the mouth, recurrence, teratoid cys

Microglial angiotensin type 2 receptors mediate sex-specific expression of inflammatory cytokines independently of circulating estrogen

Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria, Xunta de Galicia, Grant/Award Numbers: XUGA, ED431C 2018/10, ED431G/05; Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Grant/Award Numbers: PI20/00385, RD16/0011/0016, CIBERNED; Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, Grant/Award Number: RTI2018-098830-B-I00; Regional European Development Fund (FEDER)There are sex differences in microglia, which can maintain sex-related gene expression and functional differences in the absence of circulating sex steroids. The angiotensin type 2 (AT2) receptors mediate anti-inflammatory actions in different tissues, including brain. In mice, we performed RT-PCR analysis of microglia isolated from adult brains and RNA scope in situ hybridization from males, females, ovariectomized females, orchiectomized males and brain masculinized females. We also compared wild type and AT2 knockout mice. The expression of AT2 receptors in microglial cells showed sex differences with much higher AT2 mRNA expression in females than in males, and this was not dependent on circulating gonadal hormones, as observed using ovariectomized females, brain masculinized females and orchiectomized males. These results suggest genomic reasons, possibly related to sex chromosome complement, for sex differences in AT2 expression in microglia, as the AT2 receptor gene is located in the X chromosome. Furthermore, sex differences in expression of AT2 receptors were associated to sex differences in microglial expression of key anti-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-10 and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1β and interleukin-6. In conclusion, sex differences in microglial AT2 receptor expression appear as a major factor contributing to sex differences in the neuroinflammatory responses beyond the effects of circulating steroidsThere are sex differences in microglia, which can maintain sex-related gene expression and functional differences in the absence of circulating sex steroids. The angiotensin type 2 (AT2) receptors mediate anti-inflammatory actions in different tissues, including brain. In mice, we performed RT-PCR analysis of microglia isolated from adult brains and RNA scope in situ hybridization from males, females, ovariectomized females, orchiectomized males and brain masculinized females. We also compared wild type and AT2 knockout mice. The expression of AT2 receptors in microglial cells showed sex differences with much higher AT2 mRNA expression in females than in males, and this was not dependent on circulating gonadal hormones, as observed using ovariectomized females, brain masculinized females and orchiectomized males. These results suggest genomic reasons, possibly related to sex chromosome complement, for sex differences in AT2 expression in microglia, as the AT2 receptor gene is located in the X chromosome. Furthermore, sex differences in expression of AT2 receptors were associated to sex differences in microglial expression of key anti-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-10 and pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1β and interleukin-6. In conclusion, sex differences in microglial AT2 receptor expression appear as a major factor contributing to sex differences in the neuroinflammatory responses beyond the effects of circulating steroidsS

Long-Term Care Facilities and Nursing Homes during the First Wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review of the Perspectives of Professionals, Families and Residents

The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant repercussions for nursing home residents, their families, and professionals. The objective was to describe the perspectives of residents, their families, and nursing home employees during the COVID-19 pandemic. A scoping review was carried out using the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews. The inclusion criteria were: qualitative and/or mixed methods studies in English, French, Portuguese, and Spanish. The review covers studies published from 11 March 2020 to 15 February 2021. CINAHL, PubMed, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Scopus, British Nursing Index, Proquest, PsycInfo, and Google Scholar databases were used. We conducted a systematic narrative synthesis, presenting the results narratively and showing descriptive statistics on the studies reviewed. Sixteen documents were obtained from 175 results. Two studies focused on residents and one on their families. The remaining studies looked at professionals. Nursing homes had great difficulty managing resources, which was exacerbated by emotional exhaustion among residents, employees, and family members. In nursing homes, creative initiatives and new forms of leadership appeared to meet emerging needs during the pandemic. The results of the study show the impact of the pandemic on nursing homes and the response capacity present among residents, family members, and professionals

AT1 receptor autoantibodies mediate effects of metabolic syndrome on dopaminergic vulnerability

The metabolic syndrome has been associated to chronic peripheral inflammation and related with neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration, including Parkinson’s disease. However, the responsible mechanisms are unclear. Previous studies have involved the brain renin-angiotensin system in progression of Parkinson’s disease and the angiotensin receptor type 1 (AT1) has been recently revealed as a major marker of dopaminergic vulnerability in humans. Dysregulation of tissue renin-angiotensin system is a key common mechanism for all major components of metabolic syndrome. Circulating AT1 agonistic autoantibodies have been observed in several inflammation-related peripheral processes, and activation of AT1 receptors of endothelial cells, dopaminergic neurons and glial cells have been observed to disrupt endothelial blood -brain barrier and induce neurodegeneration, respectively. Using a rat model, we observed that metabolic syndrome induces overactivity of nigral pro-inflammatory renin-angiotensin system axis, leading to increase in oxidative stress and neuroinflammation and enhancing dopaminergic neurodegeneration, which was inhibited by treatment with AT1 receptor blockers (ARBs)S

Autoantibodies against ACE2 and angiotensin type-1 receptors increase severity of COVID-19

The renin-angiotensin system (RAS) plays a major role in COVID-19. Severity of several inflammation-related diseases has been associated with autoantibodies against RAS, particularly agonistic autoantibodies for angiotensin type-1 receptors (AA-AT1) and autoantibodies against ACE2 (AA-ACE2). Disease severity of COVID-19 patients was defined as mild, moderate or severe following the WHO Clinical Progression Scale and determined at medical discharge. Serum AA-AT1 and AA-ACE2 were measured in COVID-19 patients (n = 119) and non-infected controls (n = 23) using specific solid-phase, sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Serum LIGHT (TNFSF14; tumor necrosis factor ligand superfamily member 14) levels were measured with the corresponding assay kit. At diagnosis, AA-AT1 and AA-ACE2 levels were significantly higher in the COVID-19 group relative to controls, and we observed significant association between disease outcome and serum AA-AT1 and AA-ACE2 levels. Mild disease patients had significantly lower levels of AA-AT1 (p < 0.01) and AA-ACE2 (p < 0.001) than moderate and severe patients. No significant differences were detected between males and females. The increase in autoantibodies was not related to comorbidities potentially affecting COVID-19 severity. There was significant positive correlation between serum levels of AA-AT1 and LIGHT (TNFSF14; rPearson = 0.70, p < 0.001). Both AA-AT1 (by agonistic stimulation of AT1 receptors) and AA-ACE2 (by reducing conversion of Angiotensin II into Angiotensin 1-7) may lead to increase in AT1 receptor activity, enhance proinflammatory responses and severity of COVID-19 outcome. Patients with high levels of autoantibodies require more cautious control after diagnosis. Additionally, the results encourage further studies on the possible protective treatment with AT1 receptor blockers in COVID-19Axencia Galega de Innovación (IN845D 2020/20). Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (RTI2018-098830-B-I00). Spanish Ministry of Health (PI17/00828, RD16/0011/0016 and CIBERNED). Galician Government (XUGA, ED431C 2018/10, ED431G/05). FEDER (Regional European Development Fund)S

Evaluation activities performance of the specific instrumental transversal competence in subjects of the mechanical engineering area

[Otros] Nowadays, the European higher education space is concerned, not only about the transmission of theoretical knowledge, but also about the acquisition of soft-skills, which are increasingly demanded in the professional profiles of graduates. Therefore, the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV) has elaborated its own program aiming to develop these generic capabilities, which are embedded in 13 Transversal Competences (CT in Spanish). All of them are worked on and evaluated in all UPV degrees, whether undergraduate or graduate. Specifically, the "Specific Instrumental" transversal competence has been working for two years by a team of lecturers from the Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering (DIMM in Spanish). Their objective is to develop an effective methodology to work on the acquisition and evaluation of this competence. The tool chosen to work with is ANSYS®, which is widely used in the field of mechanical engineering. This commercial software provides numerical solutions to complex problems using the Finite Element Method (FEM). The proposed methodology has been implemented during this year in three different subjects with a total of 335 students and is based on previous experience carried out in small groups last year. The objective is also to consolidate a procedure suitable for large groups without increasing lecturer's dedication time. After analysing the characteristics that were not entirely satisfactory, the new proposal seeks to improve them while maintaining the correct actions of the previous experience. Thus, laboratory training sessions and a different timed exercise for each student are kept. The most important changes affect the distribution of the worktime of the student and the assessable exercises. The number of evaluable exercises has been reduced to one, as well as the content and the test score. The proposed exercise consists of modelling a mechanical component and carrying out several tasks related to the mechanical study of a component. The correct completion of the different sections allows a numerical evaluation of the laboratory sessions and the suitability of the methodology. At the same time, the justification of the steps followed, and the adequacy of the strategies followed give the level reached in the ¿Specific Instrumental¿ transversal competence. The results reveal that students have achieved a greater degree of autonomy in managing the software. Furthermore, the new evaluation system discriminates the mastery with greater rigor, in the past there were no intermediate marks, the capability was achieved or not. Additionally, all the practical sessions have been adapted to the sanitary situation following an online format. This adaptation to the COVID scenario has provided the opportunity to introduce changes in the lecturing material that will be maintained in the next courses.Authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Vicerrectorado de Estudios, Calidad y Acreditación, the Vicerrectorado de Recursos Digitales y Documentación of the Universitat Politècnica de València (Project PIME B/19-20/165 and Project PIME C/20-21/201) and the Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación of the Universitat Politècnica de València (EICE INTEGRAL).Pedrosa, AM.; Lozano-Mínguez, E.; Besa Gonzálvez, AJ.; Vila Tortosa, MP.; Martinez-Sanchis, S.; Sánchez Orgaz, EM. (2021). Evaluation activities performance of the specific instrumental transversal competence in subjects of the mechanical engineering area. IATED Academy. 4347-4354. https://doi.org/10.21125/edulearn.2021.0915S4347435

Preclinical studies with glioblastoma brain organoid co-cultures show efficient 5-ALA photodynamic therapy

Abstract: Background: The high recurrence of glioblastoma (GB) that occurs adjacent to the resection cavity within two years of diagnosis urges an improvement of therapies oriented to GB local control. Photodynamic therapy (PDT) has been proposed to cleanse infiltrating tumor cells from parenchyma to ameliorate short long-term progression-free survival. We examined 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA)- mediated PDT effects as therapeutical treatment and determined optimal conditions for PDT efficacy without causing phototoxic injury to the normal brain tissue. Methods: We used a platform of Glioma Initiation Cells (GICs) infiltrating cerebral organoids with two different glioblastoma cells, GIC7 and PG88. We measured GICs-5-ALA uptake and PDT/5-ALA activity in dose-response curves and the efficacy of the treatment by measuring proliferative activity and apoptosis. Results: 5-ALA (50 and 100  g/mL) was applied, and the release of protoporphyrin IX (PpIX) fluorescence measures demonstrated that the emission of PpIX increases progressively until its stabilization at 24 h. Moreover, decreased proliferation and increased apoptosis corroborated the effect of 5-ALA/PDT on cancer cells without altering normal cells. Conclusions: We provide evidence about the effectiveness of PDT to treat high proliferative GB cells in a complex in vitro system, which combines normal and cancer cells and is a useful tool to standardize new strategic therapies

Free triiodothyronine levels and age influences the metabolic profile and COVID-19 severity parameters in euthyroid and levothyroxine-treated patients

Metabolic reprogramming is required to fight infections and thyroid hormones are key regulators of metabolism. We have analyzed in hospitalized COVID-19 patients: 40 euthyroid and 39 levothyroxine (LT4)-treated patients in the ward and 29 euthyroid and 9 LT4-treated patients in the intensive care unit (ICU), the baseline characteristics, laboratory data, thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH), free thyroxine (FT4), free triiodothyronine (FT3), the FT3/FT4 ratio, 11 antiviral cytokines and 74 metabolomic parameters. No evidence for significant differences between euthyroid and LT4-treated patients were found in the biochemical, metabolomic and cytokines parameters analyzed. Only TSH (p=0.009) and ferritin (p=0.031) showed significant differences between euthyroid and LT4-treated patients in the ward, and TSH (p=0.044) and FT4 (p=0.012) in the ICU. Accordingly, severity and mortality were similar in euthyroid and LT4-treated patients. On the other hand, FT3 was negatively related to age (p=0.012), independently of sex and body mass index in hospitalized COVID-19 patients. Patients with low FT3 and older age showed a worse prognosis and higher levels of the COVID-19 severity markers IL-6 and IL-10 than patients with high FT3. IL-6 negatively correlated with FT3 (p=0.023) independently of age, body mass index and sex, whereas IL-10 positively associated with age (p=0.035) independently of FT3, body mass index and sex. A metabolomic cluster of 6 parameters defined low FT3 ward patients. Two parameters, esterified cholesterol (p=4.1x10) and small HDL particles (p=6.0x10) correlated with FT3 independently of age, body mass index and sex, whereas 3-hydroxybutyrate (p=0.010), acetone (p=0.076), creatinine (p=0.017) and high-density-lipoprotein (HDL) diameter (p=8.3x10) were associated to FT3 and also to age, with p-values of 0.030, 0.026, 0.017 and 8.3x10, respectively. In conclusion, no significant differences in FT3, cytokines, and metabolomic profile, or in severity and outcome of COVID-19, were found during hospitalization between euthyroid patients and hypothyroid patients treated with LT4. In addition, FT3 and age negatively correlate in COVID-19 patients and parameters that predict poor prognosis were associated with low FT3, and/or with age. A metabolomic cluster indicative of a high ketogenic profile defines non-critical hospitalized patients with low FT3 levels.PID2020-116146RB-I00 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación with European Regional Development Funds (FEDER), BMD-3724 from the Comunidad de Madrid, 202020E169 from the CSIC, 2020PANDE00082 from the Generalitad de Cataluña and Fundación Hay Esperanza