55 research outputs found

    Early Years Staff Experiences in a “Culture of Learning” Regarding Inclusion in a Nursery Class in a British School: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis.

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    Less than 20% of the early childhood education and care (ECEC) staff members working in British early childhood centres agree that the inclusion of all children is an essential part of their working agenda, as they feel unqualified to take care of children with complex SEN or disabilities. This study makes a novel contribution by drawing on data compiled from a one-year ethnographic study which addressed the in-service learning experiences of seven teaching staff members that work inclusively. The participants included 2 classroom teachers, 1 SENCo (Special Educational Needs Coordinator), and 4 teaching assistants from a preschool class that teaches 92 children between the ages of 3 and 4, located in a primary school in England. We explore what professional learning means for the participants’ role, which professional learning opportunities are meaningful to them, and under which circumstances had been offered. This study not only does consider their opportunities for professional development on the job but also outside of work. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews, artifact analysis, and ongoing participant observation over one academic year. Data were analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The results demonstrate that this case study offers a unique perspective of a microsystem that could be at risk due to a lack of awareness by leaders and administration. The study is divided into four themes that directly impact inclusive professional service-development practices: (1) challenges posed to continuous professional development by differing professional roles, (2) motives for in-service training: combining career, school, and authorities’ interests, (3) promotion of meaningful professional development experiences by school, and (4) self-determined classroom motivated by respect and recognition.Partial funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málag

    Antiviral and Antiproliferative Potential of Marine Organisms from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico

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    [Abstract] Viral infections are one of the main human health problems in recent decades and the cancer remains one of the most lethal diseases worldwide. The development of new antiviral drugs for the treatment of human adenovirus (HAdV) infections continues to be a challenging goal for medicinal chemistry. There is no specific antiviral drug approved to treat infections caused by HAdV so far and the off-label treatments currently available show great variability in their effectiveness. In relation to cancer, most of the available drugs are designed to act on specific targets by altering the activity of involved transporters and genes. Taking into account the high antiviral and antiproliferative activity against tumor cell lines displayed by some marine natural products reported in the literature, sixty five marine organisms were selected: 51 sponges (Porifera), 13 ascidians (Chordata), and 1 gorgonian (Cnidaria), collected from Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, to evaluate their antiviral activity against human adenovirus type 5 (HAdV5) and their anticancer properties against five human tumor cell lines, namely human lung carcinoma (A549), human skin melanoma (A2058), hepatocyte carcinoma (HepG2), breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7), and pancreas carcinoma (MiaPaca-2). Eleven extracts displayed anti-HAdV activity being the organic extracts of Dysidea sp., Agelas citrina, Chondrilla sp., Spongia tubulifera, and Monanchora arbuscula the five most active ones. On the other hand, 24 extracts showed antiproliferative activity against at least one tumor cell line, being the extracts of the ascidian Eudistoma amanitum and the sponge Haliclona (Rhizoniera) curacaoensis the most active ones. This work constitutes the first wide antiviral and antiproliferative screening report of extracts from the marine sponges, ascidians, and a gorgonian collected from the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.This work was supported by Grants RTI2018-093634-B-C22 and RTC-2016-4611-1 (AEI/FEDER, EU) from the State Agency for Research (AEI) of Spain, both co-funded by the FEDER Programme from the European Union, BLUEBIOLAB (0474_BLUEBIOLAB_1_E), Programme INTERREG V A of Spain-Portugal (POCTEP). The study was also funded by projects GRC2018/039 and Agrupación Estratégica CICA-INIBIC ED431E 2018/03 (Consejería de Educación, Universidad y Formación Profesional de la Junta de Galicia) from the Xunta de Galicia (autonomous government of the region). DP-P received a fellowship from the program National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT) of Mexico and the Secretariat of Research, Innovation and Higher Education (SIIES) of Yucatan (Mexico). Also supported by Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad, Spanish Network for Research in Infectious Diseases (REIPI RD16/0016/0009) – co-financed by “A way to achieve Europe” ERDF, the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Proyectos de Desarrollo Tecnológico en Salud (DTS17/00130 and PI18/01191), and the Spanish Adenovirus Network (AdenoNet, BIO2015/68990-REDT). JS-C is a researcher belonging to the program “Nicolás Monardes” (C-0059-2018), Servicio Andaluz de Salud, Junta de Andalucía, Spain. The antiproliferative studies were financed with internal funds from Fundación MEDINAXunta de Galicia; 0474_BLUEBIOLAB_1_EXunta de Galicia; GRC2018/039Xunta de Galicia; ED431E 2018/03Junta de Andalucía; C-0059-201

    COVIDGR Dataset and COVID-SDNet Methodology for Predicting COVID-19 Based on Chest X-Ray Images

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    Currently, Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), one of the most infectious diseases in the 21st century, is diagnosed using RT-PCR testing, CT scans and/or Chest X-Ray (CXR) images. CT (Computed Tomography) scanners and RT-PCR testing are not available in most medical centers and hence in many cases CXR images become the most time/cost effective tool for assisting clinicians in making decisions. Deep learning neural networks have a great potential for building COVID-19 triage systems and detecting COVID-19 patients, especially patients with low severity. Unfortunately, current databases do not allow building such systems as they are highly heterogeneous and biased towards severe cases. This article is three-fold: (i) we demystify the high sensitivities achieved by most recent COVID-19 classification models, (ii) under a close collaboration with Hospital Universitario Clínico San Cecilio, Granada, Spain, we built COVIDGR-1.0, a homogeneous and balanced database that includes all levels of severity, from normal with Positive RT-PCR, Mild, Moderate to Severe. COVIDGR-1.0 contains 426 positive and 426 negative PA (PosteroAnterior) CXR views and (iii) we propose COVID Smart Data based Network (COVID-SDNet) methodology for improving the generalization capacity of COVID-classification models. Our approach reaches good and stable results with an accuracy of 97.72%±0.95% , 86.90%±3.20% , 61.80%±5.49% in severe, moderate and mild COVID-19 severity levels. Our approach could help in the early detection of COVID-19. COVIDGR-1.0 along with the severity level labels are available to the scientific community through this link https://dasci.es/es/transferencia/open-data/covidgr/This work was supported by the project DeepSCOP-Ayudas Fundación BBVA a Equipos de Investigación Científica en Big Data 2018, COVID19_RX-Ayudas Fundación BBVA a Equipos de Investigación Científica SARS-CoV-2 y COVID-19 2020, and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology under the project TIN2017-89517-P. S. Tabik was supported by the Ramon y Cajal Programme (RYC-2015-18136). A. Gómez-Ríos was supported by the FPU Programme FPU16/04765. D. Charte was supported by the FPU Programme FPU17/04069. J. Suárez was supported by the FPU Programme FPU18/05989. E.G was supported by the European Research Council (ERC Grant agreement 647038 [BIODESERT])

    Immune defects associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine response in aged people

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    The immune factors associated with impaired SARS-CoV-2 vaccine response in elderly people are mostly unknown. We studied individuals older than 60 and younger than 60 years, who had been vaccinated with SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 mRNA, before and after the first and second dose. Aging was associated with a lower anti–RBD IgG levels and a decreased magnitude and polyfunctionality of SARS-CoV-2–specific T cell response. The dramatic decrease in thymic function in people > 60 years, which fueled alteration in T cell homeostasis, and their lower CD161+ T cell levels were associated with decreased T cell response 2 months after vaccination. Additionally, deficient DC homing, activation, and TLR-mediated function, along with a proinflammatory functional profile in monocytes, were observed in the > 60-year-old group, which was also related to lower specific T cell response after vaccination. These findings might be relevant for the improvement of the current vaccination strategies and for the development of new vaccine prototypes.This work was supported by the Consejería de Transformación Económica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades, Junta de Andalucía grants CV20-85418 and P20_00906 and by research contracts DOC-01659 and DOC-00963, as well as by Consejería de Salud, Junta de Andalucía research contract RH-0037-2020 and Instituto de Salud Carlos III CP19/00159, FI17/00186, FI19/00083, PI19/01127, and CM20/00243 from Fondos FEDER. ERM was supported by the Spanish Research Council (CSIC). We thank all the community volunteers, participants from the IBiS, Chema Niño, and the nursing staff from Virgen del Rocío University Hospital who have taken part in this project. We also thank Alicia Gutierrez and Esperanza Muñoz for reviewing the manuscript. In memoriam Silvio Manuel Pérez Martín.Peer reviewe

    Red de seguimiento del Grado en Criminología on line

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    La red tenía por objeto llevar a cabo un especial seguimiento del grupo on line del Grado en Criminología que se imparte en la titulación y para el que son necesarios esfuerzos de coordinación adicionales y métodos docentes específicos a la docencia no presencial. Así, la red ha constituido un espacio de reflexión sobre docencia no presencial, que ha dado como resultado la adopción e implementación de acciones de mejora

    Innate and adaptive immune defects associated with lower SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 mRNA vaccine response in elderly people

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    The immune factors associated with impaired SARS-CoV-2 vaccine response in the elderly are mostly unknown. We studied old and young people vaccinated with SARS-CoV-2 BNT162b2 mRNA before and after the first and second dose. Aging was associated with a lower anti-RBD IgG levels and a decreased magnitude and polyfunctionality of SARS-CoV-2 specific T cell response. The dramatic decrease in thymic function in the elderly, which fueled alteration in T cell homeostasis, and lower CD161+ T cell levels were associated with decreased T cell response two months after vaccination. Additionally, a deficient dendritic cell (DC) homing, activation and Toll like receptor (TLR)-mediated function, along with a proinflammatory functional profile in monocytes, were observed in the elderly, which was also related to lower specific T cell response after vaccination. These findings might be relevant for the improvement of the current vaccination strategies and for the development of new vaccine prototypes.This study was funded by Consejeria de Transformacion Economica, Industria, Conocimiento y Universidades, Junta de Andalucia (CV20-85418 and P20_00906, DOC-01659 and DOC-00963); Consejeria de Salud, Junta de Andalucia (RH-0037-2020), Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CP19/00159, FI17/00186, FI19/00083, PI19/01172, CM20/00243) Fondos FEDER, and National Spanish Research Council (CSIC).N
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