Experiencias de innovación educativa en Ciclo Inicial : grupos flexibles en un centro de integración.

Proyecto de organización de grupos flexibles que propone facilitar al alumnado de integración y con necesidades educativas especiales el desarrollo de sus capacidades cognitivas y sociales y respetar sus diferentes ritmos de aprendizaje. Los objetivos son: potenciar las capacidades individuales de cada niño como sujeto activo de la educación; adquirir hábitos, conceptos y habilidades que permitan interiorizar los niveles básicos propios de cada nivel; favorecer actitudes positivas a partir de la convivencia escolar; crear una atmósfera distendida y tolerante de aprendizaje en el grupo; y alcanzar los objetivos específicos programados en función de sus propios intereses y necesidades. La experiencia consiste en la organización en el centro de grupos flexibles (se agrupan niveles de un mismo ciclo) para las áreas de Matemáticas y Lengua a los que asiste el alumnado que no pueda seguir el ritmo normal de la clase, tras una selección que determine el agrupamiento más acorde a sus necesidades. Para el resto de las áreas estos alumnos se incorporan a sus niveles y grupos correspondientes. El trabajo en cada grupo gira en torno a los centros de interés diseñados y en actividades de ampliación y de refuerzo. El procedimiento seguido en el desarrollo de las mismas es: observación, manipulación, experimentación, representación gráfica, verbal y numérica, y asimilación. La valoración de la experiencia ha sido positiva ya que ha permitido al alumnado con dificultades de aprendizaje avanzar más rápidamente de lo que pudiera haberlo hecho en su grupo base. Se propone, por lo tanto, continuar la experiencia el curso próximo tal y como se había programado.

DNA damage in cytologically normal urothelial cells of patients with a history of urothelial cell carcinoma

In order to determine if patients with a history of previous urothelial cell carcinoma (UCC) but with current normal urinary cytology have DNA damage in urothelial cells, the single-cell gel electrophoresis (comet) assay was conducted with cells obtained by urinary bladder washings from 44 patients (28 with a history of previous UCC). Increased DNA damage was observed in cytologically normal urothelial cells of patients with a history of UCC when compared with referents with no similar history and after correcting the data for smoking status and age (P < 0.018). Increased DNA damage also correlated with the highest tumor grade, irrespective of time or course of the disease after clinical intervention (Kendall tau correlation, 0.37, P = 0.016). Moreover, aneuploidy, as assessed by DNA content ratio (DCR; 75th/25th percentile of total DNA fluorescence of 50 comets/patient) was unaltered by smoking status, but increased with UCC grade: 1.39 +/- 0.12 (median +/- 95% confidence interval; referents); 1.43 +/- 0.11 (Grade I UCC; P = 0.264, against referents); 1.49 +/- 0.16 (Grade II UCC; P = 0.057); 1.57 +/- 0.16 (Grade III UCC; P = 0.003). Micronucleated urothelial cells (MNC) were also scored on Giemsa-stained routine cytological smears and were found not to correlate with DNA damage or DCR. MNC frequencies were higher for patients with a history of UCC and/or smoking than referents with neither history, but there was no statistical difference between groups. Taken together, these results suggest that the normal-appearing urothelium of patients resected for UCC still harbor genetically unstable cells. (C) 2002 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

Detection histories for eight species of Amazona parrots in Venezuela during the NeoMaps bird surveys in 2010

Documenting changes in distribution is necessary for understanding species' response to environmental changes, but data on species distributions are heterogeneous in accuracy and resolution. Combining different data sources and methodological approaches can fill gaps in knowledge about the dynamic processes driving changes in species-rich, but data-poor regions. We combined recent bird survey data from the Neotropical Biodiversity Mapping Initiative (NeoMaps) with historical distribution records to estimate potential changes in the distribution of eight species of Amazon parrots in Venezuela. Using environmental covariates and presence-only data from museum collections and the literature, we first used maximum likelihood to fit a species distribution model (SDM) estimating a historical maximum probability of occurrence for each species. We then used recent, NeoMaps survey data to build single-season occupancy models (OM) with the same environmental covariates, as well as with time- and effort-dependent detectability, resulting in estimates of the current probability of occurrence. We finally calculated the disagreement between predictions as a matrix of probability of change in the state of occurrence. Our results suggested negative changes for the only restricted, threatened species, Amazona barbadensis, which has been independently confirmed with field studies. Two of the three remaining widespread species that were detected, Amazona amazonica, Amazona ochrocephala, also had a high probability of negative changes in northern Venezuela, but results were not conclusive for Amazona farinosa. The four remaining species were undetected in recent field surveys; three of these were most probably absent from the survey locations (Amazona autumnalis, Amazona mercenaria and Amazona festiva), while a fourth (Amazona dufresniana) requires more intensive targeted sampling to estimate its current status. Our approach is unique in taking full advantage of available, but limited data, and in detecting a high probability of change even for rare and patchily-distributed species. However, it is presently limited to species meeting the strong assumptions required for maximum-likelihood estimation with presence-only data, including very high detectability and representative sampling of its historical distribution.