Improving argumentative text writing throught the use of self-regulated strategies

El desarrollo de estrategias autorreguladas (DEAR) trata de mejorar la habilidad de los alumnos para una tarea compleja por medio del modelado, las autoinstrucciones, la práctica guiada y el uso de recursos que faciliten la tarea. Se valoró la eficacia de una intervención para la mejora de la escritura de textos argumentativos basada en el DEAR. La intervención fue aplicada por una profesora de Lengua a 51 alumnos de 4º de Primaria, que fueron comparados con un grupo de 26 alumnos que realizaba las actividades ordinarias de clase. Se valoraron dos textos escritos antes y después de la intervención, considerando la calificación de un profesor, su extensión, riqueza léxica y contenido. Los alumnos que recibieron el tratamiento mejoraron significativamente en todos los aspectos valorados, mientras que los del grupo de control solo lo hicieron en número de oraciones, de verbos y de palabrasSelf-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is a method designed to improve abilities in copying with complex tasks. SRSD uses modelling, self-instruction, guided practice and other resources that facilitate the focused task. We tested the efficiency of a SRSD intervention constructed for improving argumentative text writing. A Spanish Language teacher conducted the intervention for fifty-one 4th grade elementary school students. Those students were compared to a group of 26 students who continued with their ordinary class activities. We evaluated both written texts which were done before and after the intervention. We assessed the teacher’s score, length, lexical richness and text content. The students who were involved in the SRSD program improved significantly in all the assessed variables, however the students in the control group only improved in the number of written sentences, verbs and word

Association between Caries, Obesity and Insulin Resistance in Mexican Adolescents

Aim: To determine the association among dental caries, obesity and insulin resistance in Mexican adolescents. Methods: Body Mass Index, obesity (OB) blood pressure, insulin level, insulin resistance (IR), triglycerides level, serum HDL-cholesterol (cHDL), DMFT index and salivary flow were measured. Results: Anthropometric measures showed a significant statistical difference (p \u3c 0.05). Insulin level was 8.98 for healthy subjects, whereas for OB-IR group was 25.35, there was a statistical significant difference (p \u3c 0.05). Triglycerides level was 88.50 for healthy subjects and 169.40 mg/dL for OB-IR; cHDL was 52.88 for healthy and 41.82 mg/dL for OB-IR group, both showed a statistically significant difference (p \u3c 0.05). Salivary flow was 4.30 for healthy and for OB-IR group was 5.48 ml/min showed a significant statistical difference (p \u3c 0.05). DMFT index was 3.02 for healthy and for OB-IR adolescents was 4.78, showed a significant statistical difference (p \u3c 0.05). The caries component of DMFT index was 1.84 for healthy and was 3.52 for OB-IR adolescents, showed a significant statistical difference (p \u3c 0.05). According to the multivariate analysis, DMFT (OR=3.10; IC95%=0.20-1.02, p=0.042) and decay (OR=3.30; IC95%=0.19-1.0, p=0.011) were associated with subjects with OB-IR. Conclusion: OB-IR Mexican adolescents showed a positive association with DMFT

Analysis of Magnetoencephalography Signals from Alzheimer’s Disease Patients Using Granger Causality

Producción CientíficaThe aim of this study was to analyze resting-state magnetoencephalography (MEG) activity in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by means of Granger Causality (GC), an effective connectivity measure that provides an estimation of the information flow between brain regions. For this task, five minutes of MEG recordings were acquired with a 148-channel whole-head magnetometer from 36 AD patients and 26 healthy controls. Abnormalities in AD connectivity were found in the five typical frequency bands: delta (δ, 1-4 Hz), theta (θ, 4-8 Hz), alpha (α, 8-13 Hz), beta (β, 13-30 Hz), and gamma (γ, 30-65 Hz). Noteworthy increments in delta band and decrements in beta and gamma bands revealed disrupted connections in AD brain activity. Our analyses suggest that GC may be useful to characterize the brain impairment in AD.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (TEC2014-53196-R)Junta de Castilla y León (VA059U13 y BIO/VA08/15

Improving argumentative text writing throught the use of self-regulated strategies

El desarrollo de estrategias autorreguladas (DEAR) trata de mejorar la habilidad de los alumnos para una tarea compleja por medio del modelado, las autoinstrucciones, la práctica guiada y el uso de recursos que faciliten la tarea. Se valoró la eficacia de una intervención para la mejora de la escritura de textos argumentativos basada en el DEAR. La intervención fue aplicada por una profesora de Lengua a 51 alumnos de 4º de Primaria, que fueron comparados con un grupo de 26 alumnos que realizaba las actividades ordinarias de clase. Se valoraron dos textos escritos antes y después de la intervención, considerando la calificación de un profesor, su extensión, riqueza léxica y contenido. Los alumnos que recibieron el tratamiento mejoraron significativamente en todos los aspectos valorados, mientras que los del grupo de control solo lo hicieron en número de oraciones, de verbos y de palabrasSelf-regulated strategy development (SRSD) is a method designed to improve abilities in copying with complex tasks. SRSD uses modelling, self-instruction, guided practice and other resources that facilitate the focused task. We tested the efficiency of a SRSD intervention constructed for improving argumentative text writing. A Spanish Language teacher conducted the intervention for fifty-one 4th grade elementary school students. Those students were compared to a group of 26 students who continued with their ordinary class activities. We evaluated both written texts which were done before and after the intervention. We assessed the teacher’s score, length, lexical richness and text content. The students who were involved in the SRSD program improved significantly in all the assessed variables, however the students in the control group only improved in the number of written sentences, verbs and word

Alterations of Effective Connectivity Patterns in Mild Cognitive Impairment: An MEG Study

Producción CientíficaNeuroimaging techniques have demonstrated over the years their ability to characterize the brain abnormalities associated with different neurodegenerative diseases. Among all these techniques, magnetoencephalography (MEG) stands out by its high temporal resolution and noninvasiveness. The aim of the present study is to explore the coupling patterns of resting-state MEG activity in subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). To achieve this goal, five minutes of spontaneous MEG activity were acquired with a 148- channel whole-head magnetometer from 18 MCI patients and 26 healthy controls. Interchannel relationships were investigated by means of two complementary coupling measures: coherence and Granger causality. Coherence is a classical method of functional connectivity, while Granger causality quantifies effective (or causal) connectivity. Both measures were calculated in the five conventional frequency bands: delta (d, 1-4 Hz), theta (q, 4-8 Hz), alpha (a, 8-13 Hz), beta (b, 13-30 Hz), and gamma (g, 30-45Hz). Our results showed that connectivity values were lower for MCI patients than for controls in all frequency bands. However, only Granger causality revealed statistically significant differences between groups (p-values < 0.05, FDR corrected Mann-Whitney U-test), mainly in the beta band. Our results support the role of MCI as a disconnection syndrome, which elicits early alterations in effective connectivity patterns. These findings can be helpful to identify the neural substrates involved in prodromal stages of dementia.This research was supported by ‘Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad’ and ‘European Regional Development Fund’ under project TEC2014-53196-R, by ‘European Commission’ and ‘European Regional Development Fund’ under project ‘Análisis y correlación entre el genoma completo y la actividad cerebral para la ayuda en el diagnóstico de la enfermedad de Alzheimer’ (‘Cooperation Programme Interreg V-A Spain-Portugal POCTEP 2014-2020’), and by ‘Consejería de Educación de la Junta de Castilla y León’ under project VA037U16. Pablo Núñez was in receipt of a ‘Promoción de empleo joven e implantación de la Garantía Juvenil en I+D+i’ grant from ‘Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad’ and University of Valladolid

Analysis of Spontaneous EEG Activity in Alzheimer’s Disease Using Cross-Sample Entropy and Graph Theory

Producción CientíficaThe aim of this pilot study was to analyze spontaneous electroencephalography (EEG) activity in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) by means of Cross-Sample Entropy (Cross-SampEn) and two local measures derived from graph theory: clustering coefficient (CC) and characteristic path length (PL). Five minutes of EEG activity were recorded from 37 patients with dementia due to AD and 29 elderly controls. Our results showed that Cross-SampEn values were lower in the AD group than in the control one for all the interactions among EEG channels. This finding indicates that EEG activity in AD is characterized by a lower statistical dissimilarity among channels. Significant differences were found mainly for fronto-central interactions (p < 0.01, permutation test). Additionally, the application of graph theory measures revealed diverse neural network changes, i.e. lower CC and higher PL values in AD group, leading to a less efficient brain organization. This study suggests the usefulness of our approach to provide further insights into the underlying brain dynamics associated with AD.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (TEC2014-53196-R)Junta de Castilla y León (proyecto VA037U16 y BIO/VA08/15

Clogging transition of many-particle systems flowing through bottlenecks

When a large set of discrete bodies passes through a bottleneck, the flow may become intermittent due to the development of clogs that obstruct the constriction. Clogging is observed, for instance, in colloidal suspensions, granular materials and crowd swarming, where consequences may be dramatic. Despite its ubiquity, a general framework embracing research in such a wide variety of scenarios is still lacking. We show that in systems of very different nature and scale -including sheep herds, pedestrian crowds, assemblies of grains, and colloids- the probability distribution of time lapses between the passages of consecutive bodies exhibits a power-law tail with an exponent that depends on the system condition. Consequently, we identify the transition to clogging in terms of the divergence of the average time lapse. Such a unified description allows us to put forward a qualitative clogging state diagram whose most conspicuous feature is the presence of a length scale qualitatively related to the presence of a finite size orifice. This approach helps to understand paradoxical phenomena, such as the faster-is-slower effect predicted for pedestrians evacuating a room and might become a starting point for researchers working in a wide variety of situations where clogging represents a hindrance.Fil: Zuriguel, Iker. Universidad de Navarra; EspañaFil: Parisi, Daniel Ricardo. Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Hidalgo, Raúl Cruz. Universidad de Navarra; EspañaFil: Lozano, Celia. Universidad de Navarra; EspañaFil: Janda, Álvaro. University of Edinburgh; Reino UnidoFil: Gago, Paula Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional La Plata. Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica; ArgentinaFil: Peralta, Juan Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional La Plata. Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica; ArgentinaFil: Ferrer, Luis Miguel. Universidad de Zaragoza; EspañaFil: Pugnaloni, Luis Ariel. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional La Plata. Departamento de Ingeniería Mecánica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Clément, Eric. Universite Pierre et Marie Curie; Francia. Université Paris Diderot - Paris 7; FranciaFil: Maza, Diego. Universidad de Navarra; EspañaFil: Pagonabarraga, Ignacio. Universidad de Barcelona; EspañaFil: Garcimartín, Angel. Universidad de Navarra; Españ

RESISTENCIA A LA INSULINA Y SU CORRELACIÓN CON INTERLEUCINA-6 (IL-6) EN NIÑOS Y ADOLESCENTES DE SAN LUIS POTOSÍ (MEXICO)

La resistencia a la insulina parece ser consecuencia de un estado de inflamación sistémica de bajo grado presente en la obesidad y en diabetes tipo 2. Actualmente se ha observado un incremento de obesidad y diabetes tipo 2 en población infantil y adolescente. El objetivo es conocer si existe asociación de resistencia a la insulina con niveles de IL-6 en población infantil seleccionada de manera aleatoria. Se incluyeron 184 niños (100 niñas) entre 6-12 años de edad, elegidos al azar de Escuelas de Educación Pública de la Ciudad de San Luís Potosí, México. Se evaluaron las medidas antropométricas: edad, peso, talla, IMC e ICC. Se tomaron muestras de sangre venosa, previo ayuno de 12 horas, para las determinaciones de glucosa, colesterol total, triglicéridos, lipoproteínas de alta y baja densidad (HDL-C) y (LDL-C). Las concentraciones de insulina se evaluaron por radioinmunoanálisis, se calculó el índice de resistencia a la insulina por el modelo homeostático HOMA-IR. Las concentraciones de IL-6 se realizaron por quimioluminiscencia. Los valores de IL-6 se encuentran asociados con los niveles de insulina (r = 0.144, p&lt;0.051), colesterol (r = 0.145, p&lt;0.052), IMC (r = 0.170, p&lt;0.021), HDL-C (r = -0.180, p&lt;0.01) y el HOMA-IR (r = 0.142, p&lt;0.055). La cuantificación de IL-6 enniños es útil para conocer desde edades tempranas el grado de inflamación asociado a la resistencia a la insulina en población mexicana.Palabras clave: niños, obesidad, inflamación, interleucina 6obesity, children, inflammation, interleukin 6

Influencia de la inteligencia emocional en los resultados académicos de estudiantes de las Ciencias Médicas

Objetivo: Determinar en qué grado los diferentes factores de la inteligencia emocional son importantes para el buen rendimiento académico en estudiantes de las ciencias médicas.  Diseño Metodológico: Se realizó un estudio observacional descriptivo longitudinal prospectivo en 150 estudiantes de Ciencias Médicas durante el periodo comprendido del 1ro septiembre de 2011 al 1ro de febrero 2012, basado en un estudio transversal realizada por los autores en una primera etapa. Para explorar las dimensiones de la IE se utilizó la escala Trait Meta Mood 24. Resultados: La media de edad fue de 19,51 años; el 76%  fueron del sexo femenino. El 55,4% obtuvieron un cociente emocional entre 84-103 puntos. Se observó una influencia significativa de los niveles de inteligencia emocional alto en un mejor rendimiento académico, a la vez que en aquellos con cociente emocional bajo se observaron una tendencia a resultados académicos negativos (X2= 3.87, Nivel de significación=5% o sea p˂ 0,05).  Conclusiones: Se encontró que en aquellos estudiantes con un cociente emocional alto predominaron los académicos positivos.Palabras clave: Inteligencia emocional, rendimiento académico, cociente emocional, estudiantes de ciencias médicas.ABSTRACTIntroduction:  Emotional Intelligence is consider crucial in order to get life success, now a days, EI is a very frequent topic on psychology and neurology studies, even dugout, there are not enough studies in our field of this matter and there are even less exploring the relationship between  the EI and the academic results of the medical science studies. Objective: To assess the influence of EI in the academic results of the medical science studies. Material and methods: A prospective longitudinal study was conducted from September 2011 through February 2012, in a cohort of 150 Medical Science students in order to explore the dimensions of EI the Trait Meta Mood 24 scale was asses.  Results: The average age was 19.5 years old; 76% were female and 55.4% present an emotional coefficient between 84 to 103 points. A high level of emotional intelligence was associated with better academic results at the same time in those with low emotional coefficient a tendency to negative academics results was observe (X2= 3.87, Signification Level=5% o sea p˂ 0,05). Conclusions: It was asses that those students with a high emotional coefficient tend to present positive academic results. Key words: Emotional Intelligence, academic results, emotional coefficient, medical science students.</p

Tolerancia a la salinidad aguda de gasterópodos dulceacuícolas nativos e introducidos en Tabasco, México

Background. The increase of salinity in continental ecosystems is a factor influencing organisms distribution, abundance, and development. Understanding how tolerance to environmental stress varies among populations helps to predict the effects of climate change on species locally adapted to their abiotic environment. Goals. Assess the effect of salinity on 4 native and 2 introduced gastropod species in Tabasco, by means of their LC50 and LC90, and LT50 and LT90. Methods. Salinity concentrations from 0-15 g/L were tested to determine LC50 and LC90 and tolerance ranges to acute salinity in 4 native and 2 introduced gastropods. Each concentration had 3 replicates with a control and 20 gastropods in each one. Mortality was quantified every hour up to 12 hours. The number of active mollusks was used as a salinity tolerance index. Results. Aroapyrgus clenchi ? 0.30 g/L and Pyrgophorus coronatus ? 1.00 g/L were the least tolerant species, while Pomacea flagellata, Tarebia granifera, and Melanoides tuberculata ? 5 g/L and Mexinauta impluviata ? 6 g/L were the most tolerant. Correlation between concentration and lethal time was inverse and significant. Conclusions. For the introduced species Tarebia granifera and Melanoides tuberculata, acute tolerance to salinity was not significantly different than Mexinauta impluviata and Pomacea flagellata; whereas all 4 were significantly different than Pyrgophorus coronatus and Aroapyrgus clenchi that are less tolerant to salinity.Antecedentes. El aumento de la salinidad en los ecosistemas continentales es uno de los factores que influye en la distribución, abundancia y desarrollo de los organismos. Entender cómo varía la tolerancia al estrés ambiental entre poblaciones sirve para predecir los efectos del cambio climático en especies localmente adaptadas a su ambiente abiótico. Objetivos. Evaluar el efecto de la salinidad en cuatro especies de gasterópodos nativos y dos introducidos por medio de su CL50 y CL90, y TL50 y TL90 en el estado de Tabasco. Métodos. A fin de calcular CL50, CL90 y los rangos de tolerancia aguda a la salinidad de dichas especies, se probaron concentraciones de 0 a 15 g/L. Se utilizaron tres réplicas y un testigo para cada una con 20 gasterópodos por réplica. La mortalidad se contabilizó cada hora hasta las 12 horas. Se utilizó el número de moluscos activos como un índice de tolerancia a la salinidad. Resultados. Las especies que registraron el menor rango de tolerancia fueron Aroapyrgus clenchi ? 0.30 g/L, Pyrgophorus coronatus ? 1.00 g/L y las de mayor rango fueron Pomacea flagellata, Tarebia granifera y Melanoides tuberculata ? 5 g/L Mexinauta impluviata ? 6 g/L. Se encontró una correlación inversa y significativa entre la concentración y el tiempo letal. Conclusiones. La tolerancia aguda a la salinidad entre las especies introducidas Tarebia granifera y Melanoides tuberculata no mostró diferencias importantes con Mexinauta impluviata y Pomacea flagellata, pero sí con Pyrgophorus coronatus y Aroapyrgus clenchi, que presentaron una tolerancia menor