Ambivalence du tourisme vidéoludique: Quelles dynamiques pour les voyages au coeur des sociétés virtuelles ?

International audienceRésumé : Voyager au cœur des sociétés virtuelles relève d’une activité touristique ambivalente conditionnée par les sous-genres vidéoludiques. Si le level-design des GTA-like (pour Grand Theft Auto) transforme la ville en monde ouvert où le joueur peut vivre par procuration et interagir avec ses habitants, celui de la série horrifique Silent Hill oblige à s’orienter dans des zones-mortes dénuées de tissu social. Avec cette ambivalence, le tourisme des GTA-like se transforme dans Silent Hill en dark tourism et modifie dès lors les usages qu’il est possible d’adopter dans ces mondes virtuels. Ces expériences vidéoludiques singulières liées aux pratiques touristiques mettent en lumière l’importance de la relation que joueurs et joueuses tissent au fil des parties avec l’espace de jeu. De manière plus globale, elles permettent de délimiter les contours des pratiques spatiales vidéoludiques articulées autour des notions d’immersion et/ou de parcours.Abstract:Traveling into the heart of virtual societies is an ambivalent tourist activity conditioned by gaming subgenera. If GTA-like level-design transforms the city into an open world where the player can live and interact with inhabitants, the horror series Silent Hill forces players to move into dead zones deprived of any social life. With this ambivalence, Silent Hill transforms tourism in GTA-like (for Grand Theft Auto) into dark tourism and modifies the possible uses in these virtual worlds. These specific gaming experiences linked to a touristic approach shine a light on the relationship that gamers build with the playgrounds (and the game space) while they play. On a larger scale, these experiences give the opportunity to set the boundaries of videogame space practices related to the notions of immersion and/or journey

Ambivalence du tourisme vidéoludique

Traveling into the heart of virtual societies is an ambivalent tourist activity conditioned by gaming subgenera. If GTA-like (for Grand Theft Auto) level-design transforms the city into an open world where the player can live and interact with inhabitants, the horror series Silent Hill forces players to move into dead zones deprived of any social life. With this ambivalence, Silent Hill transforms tourism in GTA-like into dark tourism and modifies the possible uses in these virtual worlds. These specific gaming experiences linked to a touristic approach shine a light on the relationship that gamers build with the playgrounds (and the game space) while they play. On a larger scale, these experiences give the opportunity to set the boundaries of videogame space practices related to the notions of immersion and/or journey.Voyager au cœur des sociétés virtuelles relève d’une activité touristique ambivalente conditionnée par les sous-genres vidéoludiques. Si le level-design des GTA-like (pour Grand Theft Auto) transforme la ville en monde ouvert où le joueur peut vivre par procuration et interagir avec ses habitants, celui de la série horrifique Silent Hill oblige à s’orienter dans des zones-mortes dénuées de tissu social. Avec cette ambivalence, le tourisme des GTA-like se transforme dans Silent Hill en dark tourism et modifie dès lors les usages qu’il est possible d’adopter dans ces mondes virtuels. Ces expériences vidéoludiques singulières liées aux pratiques touristiques mettent en lumière l’importance de la relation que joueurs et joueuses tissent au fil des parties avec l’espace de jeu. De manière plus globale, elles permettent de délimiter les contours des pratiques spatiales vidéoludiques articulées autour des notions d’immersion et/ou de parcours

Metodología de clase inversa con aprendizaje entre pares en una asignatura de programación orientada a objetos de primer curso. Resultados preliminares

La asignatura Programación Orientada a Objetos en nuestra universidad ha venido presentando indicadores académicos con un nivel por debajo de lo esperado, lo que ha suscitado la preocupación del profesorado por implementar mejoras para corregirlos. El curso pasado se introdujo una metodología de clase inversa con aprendizaje entre pares, y este trabajo presenta los resultados preliminares de su implantación. Las clases de teoría de la asignatura se han realizado mediante clase inversa, apoyada en cuestionarios previos de trabajo autónomo, y utilizando aprendizaje entre pares asistido por el software Socrative. Los principales resultados académicos, indicadores de participación en las actividades y opinión de los estudiantes han sido recopilados y comparados con los cursos previos. Todos los indicadores estudiados han mejorado respecto a los valores obtenidos en los cursos anteriores. Se han encontrado diferencias significativas en los conocimientos adquiridos con la nueva metodología respecto de los valores obtenidos en los cursos previos donde se utilizaban metodologías más tradicionales. Estos resultados sugieren que la nueva metodología implantada favorece el estudio autónomo del estudiante, la participación y seguimiento de las clases y por tanto la adquisición de conocimientos. Este análisis preliminar debe ser ampliado y contrastado con los resultados de los próximos cursos académicos.For many years, the values of the academic indicators for the course Object-Oriented Programming taught at our university have been below the expectations. This provoked an increasing concern in the course teachers to implement new strategies to improve these results. The combination of flipped-classroom and peer instruction methodologies was implemented last academic year, and this study presents the preliminary results that have been obtained. Theory lectures were delivered using a flipped-classroom methodology, based on previous homework questionnaires and peer instruction in the classroom, assisted by the Socrative application. The values of the main academic indicators, the degree of involvement in the course activities and the students’ feedback were collected and compared with the data from previous academic years. We have found significant differences in the students’ academic results with respect to previous academic years (when traditional teaching methodologies were used). These preliminary results suggest that the application of the new methodology results in an improvement of the quality of the autonomous work of the students, as well as their involvement in the lectures, and therefore their level of knowledge acquisition regarding the course. This preliminary analysis is to be extended with further comparison with the results of forthcoming academic years.Este trabajo ha sido parcialmente financiado por la Universidad de Jaén a través del Proyecto de Innovación Docente de código PID22_201617

Nucleotides-Induced Changes in the Mechanical Properties of Living Endothelial Cells and Astrocytes, Analyzed by Atomic Force Microscopy

Endothelial cells and astrocytes preferentially express metabotropic P2Y nucleotide receptors, which are involved in the maintenance of vascular and neural function. Among these, P2Y1 and P2Y2 receptors appear as main actors, since their stimulation induces intracellular calcium mobilization and activates signaling cascades linked to cytoskeletal reorganization. In the present work, we have analyzed, by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) in force spectroscopy mode, the mechanical response of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) and astrocytes upon 2MeSADP and UTP stimulation. This approach allows for simultaneous measurement of variations in factors such as Young’s modulus, maximum adhesion force and rupture event formation, which reflect the potential changes in both the stiffness and adhesiveness of the plasma membrane. The largest effect was observed in both endothelial cells and astrocytes after P2Y2 receptor stimulation with UTP. Such exposure to UTP doubled the Young’s modulus and reduced both the adhesion force and the number of rupture events. In astrocytes, 2MeSADP stimulation also had a remarkable effect on AFM parameters. Additional studies performed with the selective P2Y1 and P2Y13 receptor antagonists revealed that the 2MeSADP-induced mechanical changes were mediated by the P2Y13 receptor, although they were negatively modulated by P2Y1 receptor stimulation. Hence, our results demonstrate that AFM can be a very useful tool to evaluate functional native nucleotide receptors in living cells

Integrating stakeholders' inputs to co-design climate resilience adaptation measures in Mediterranean areas with conflicts between wetland conservation and intensive agriculture

[EN] Designing sustainable management strategies in groundwater-dependent socio-economic systems in areas with scarce water resources and protected wetlands is a challenging issue. The high vulnerability of these systems to droughts will be exacerbated even further under future climate change (CC) and socio-economic scenarios. A novel integrated bottom-up/top-down approach is used to identify “climate resilient pathways”, from which to co-design adaptation strategies to reduce the impact of potential future CC and socio-economic scenarios. The approach followed two steps (1) the generation of local CC and socio-economic scenarios by downscaling global/regional climate models and (2) the identification and assessment of potential adaptation strategies through an iterative bottom-up/top-down approach. Top-down assessments of the impact of CC have been undertaken by propagating local scenarios within a chain of mathematical models based on expert criteria/assumptions. This allowed us to analyse of the physical vulnerability of the system under different potential CC and socio-economic scenarios by simulating them with a sequential modelling of rainfall–recharge, agriculture, and hydrological processes through a distributed groundwater finite difference model. These model results were discussed with the stakeholders at a first workshop, which aimed to identify potential adaptation strategies. The influence of the adaptation strategies on the future hydrological status was assessed by simulating them through the chain of models. These results were the inputs into the discussions at a second workshop, which aimed to validate and/or improve the results of the first workshop. The methodology was applied in the Upper Guadiana River Basin, where there is a long-standing conflict between wetland conservation and groundwater overexploitation for intensive agriculture. The future horizon 2016–2045 is analysed with the scenarios compatible with the emission scenario RCP4.5. The research has allowed us to conclude that groundwater pumping reduction would be the most robust and effective measure to reduce the impact of CC in the area.This research was partially supported by the research projects SIGLO-AN (RTI2018-101397-B-I00) and SIGLO-PRO (PID2021-128021OB-I00) from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Programa Estatal de ICDCI orientado a los Retos de la Sociedad), the GeoE.171.008-TACTIC Project funded by European Union's Horizon 2020 - Research and Innovation Framework Programme, and the NextGenerationEU Fund through the programme “Fondos de Recuperación”.Peer reviewe

Les espaces des possibles dans le cinéma interactif. Un exemple de huis clos interactif : Until Dawn (Supermassive Games, 2015)

International audienc

Potentially toxic element bioaccumulation in consumed indoor shrimp farming associated with diet, water and sediment levels

Shrimp production is an important industry for many countries and shrimp consumption is increasing worldwide. Shrimps are a highly nutritional food, but can pose a risk for human health if subject to high levels of environmental contaminants. This work studies the presence of As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb and Zn in shrimps from Ecuador and compares them to such contents noted in other shrimp-production areas in the world to evaluate the possible risks associated with these elements for consumer health, and to relate them to potentially toxic element (PTE) contents in water, sediments and diets, and also to animal biometric parameters. The PTE levels (mg kg-1 DM) obtained are as follows: in the head-As (3.52-6.11), Cd (0.02-0.10), Co (0.14-0.49) Cr (0.23-4.89), Cu (99.9--233.0), Ni (0.52-1.86), Pb (0.24-1.09), Zn (51.8-100.5) and Hg (μg kg-1 DM) (10.00-66.81); in the tail-(0.91-3.21), Cd (0.01-0.02), Co (0.01-0.43) Cr (0.01-6.52), Cu (20.0-72.44), Ni (0.15-2.03), Pb (0.01-0.69), Zn (31.2-66.1) and Hg (μg kg-1 DM) (10.00-67.18). The concentration of all the PTEs is generally lower than the limits set for seafood by European regulations, except for As in the cephalothorax (4.63 mg kg-1). Different behaviours for PTE accumulation in shrimps were found, which preferentially tend to accumulate in the cephalothorax, except for Hg (40.13 μg kg-1 DM), which accumulates in muscle (body) and is associated with contents of proteins, lipids and total shrimp weight. Nonetheless, the target hazard quotient (THQ) values for PTEs indicate that the consumption of shrimp muscles from Ecuador does not pose a human health risk because the values of these indices are below 1 in all cases

Tissue-nonspecific Alkaline Phosphatase Regulates Purinergic Transmission in the Central Nervous System during Development and Disease

Tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) is one of the four isozymes in humans and mice that have the capacity to hydrolyze phosphate groups from a wide spectrum of physiological substrates. Among these, TNAP degrades substrates implicated in neurotransmission. Transgenic mice lacking TNAP activity display the characteristic skeletal and dental phenotype of infantile hypophosphatasia, as well as spontaneous epileptic seizures and die around 10 days after birth. This physiopathology, linked to the expression pattern of TNAP in the central nervous system (CNS) during embryonic stages, suggests an important role for TNAP in neuronal development and synaptic function, situating it as a good target to be explored for the treatment of neurological diseases. In this review, we will focus mainly on the role that TNAP plays as an ectonucleotidase in CNS regulating the levels of extracellular ATP and consequently purinergic signaling.Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciónPeer Reviewe

Tissue-nonspecific Alkaline Phosphatase Regulates Purinergic Transmission in the Central Nervous System During Development and Disease

Tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) is one of the four isozymes in humans and mice that have the capacity to hydrolyze phosphate groups from a wide spectrum of physiological substrates. Among these, TNAP degrades substrates implicated in neurotransmission. Transgenic mice lacking TNAP activity display the characteristic skeletal and dental phenotype of infantile hypophosphatasia, as well as spontaneous epileptic seizures and die around 10 days after birth. This physiopathology, linked to the expression pattern of TNAP in the central nervous system (CNS) during embryonic stages, suggests an important role for TNAP in neuronal development and synaptic function, situating it as a good target to be explored for the treatment of neurological diseases. In this review, we will focus mainly on the role that TNAP plays as an ectonucleotidase in CNS regulating the levels of extracellular ATP and consequently purinergic signaling

Tissue-nonspecific Alkaline Phosphatase Regulates Purinergic Transmission in the Central Nervous System During Development and Disease

Tissue-nonspecific alkaline phosphatase (TNAP) is one of the four isozymes in humans and mice that have the capacity to hydrolyze phosphate groups from a wide spectrum of physiological substrates. Among these, TNAP degrades substrates implicated in neurotransmission. Transgenic mice lacking TNAP activity display the characteristic skeletal and dental phenotype of infantile hypophosphatasia, as well as spontaneous epileptic seizures and die around 10 days after birth. This physiopathology, linked to the expression pattern of TNAP in the central nervous system (CNS) during embryonic stages, suggests an important role for TNAP in neuronal development and synaptic function, situating it as a good target to be explored for the treatment of neurological diseases. In this review, we will focus mainly on the role that TNAP plays as an ectonucleotidase in CNS regulating the levels of extracellular ATP and consequently purinergic signaling.Depto. de Bioquímica y Biología MolecularFac. de MedicinaTRUEpu