Biblioviva: la dinamización de la biblioteca escolar

La biblioteca es una excelente herramienta educativa, pero no basta con que funcione bien, sino que hay que darla a conocer a la comunidad escolar por todos los medios posibles. Los responsables de la biblioteca escolar deben procurar que sea cada vez más visible, conocida, abierta y participativa. Para empezar, resulta esencial una adecuada señalización externa e interna, así como una sólida presencia virtual. Otro factor determinante para publicitar nuestra biblioteca escolar es sacar todo el partido posible a los puntos de interés más habituales, como son las celebraciones o efemérides, novedades, selecciones temáticas, autores o libros destacados, premios literarios y temas locales. Para que la biblioteca escolar sea participativa, debemos formar a los usuarios para que sean autónomos y conozcan bien el espacio, los fondos, la organización, las normas y las actividades. Toda la comunidad educativa debe participar (profesorado y familia) y para ellos podemos proponer actividades iniciales (creación de la biblioteca), actividades lectoras (como clubes de lectura, cuentacuentos, escritura creativa, encuentros con autor), actividades formativas (proyectos documentales, derechos de autor, talleres) y otras actividades (como concursos, mercados, exposiciones, etc.).

Tthe right to effective judicial protection and disability: the convention on the rights of persons with disabilities

On 13 December 2006, the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD). It is the first comprehensive human rights treaty of the 21st century. The Convention is intended as a human rights instrument with an explicit, social development dimension. It adopts a broad categorization of persons with disabilities and reaffirms that all persons with all types of disabilities must enjoy all human rights and fundamental freedoms. Precisely, the Convention marks a 'paradigm shift' in attitudes and approaches to persons with disabilities The Convention contains two articles directly connected with judicial effective protection, one more than the other, but on the other hand, one cannot be understood without the other. Both articles are Article 12 –Equal recognition before the law- and Article 13 –access to justice- As a scholar in Procedural Law, my contribution to the International Scientific Congress on Private Law of the Philippines and Spain aims to enshrine the relevant importance of the both provisions that guarantee effective judicial protection for persons with disabilities in order to analyze, subsequently, the implementation of them in Spanish legislation

Implication of GluR2 subunit of AMPA receptor in RGS14(414)-mediated memory enhancement

Ongoing quest for finding treatment against memory loss seen in aging and in many neurological and neurodegenerative diseases, so far has been unsuccessful and memory enhancers are seen as a potential remedy against this brain dysfunction. Recently, we showed that gene corresponding to a protein called regulator of G-protein signaling 14 of 414 amino acids (RGS14414) is a robust memory enhancer (Lopez-Aranda et al. 2009: Science). RGS14414-treatment in area V2 of visual cortex caused memory enhancement to such extent that it converted short-term object recognition memory (ORM) of 45min into long lasting long-term memory that could be traced even after many months. Now, through targeting of multiple receptors and molecules known to be involved in memory processing, we found that GluR2 subunit of AMPA receptor might be key to memory enhancement in RGS-animals. RGS14-animals showed a progressive increase in GluR2 protein expression while processing an object information which reached to highest level after 60min of object exposure, a time period required for conversion of short-term ORM into long-term memory in our laboratory set up. Normal rats could retain an object information in brain for 45min (short-term) and not for 60min. However, RGS-treated rats are able to retain the same information for 24h or longer (long-term). Therefore, highest expression of GluR2 subunit seen at 60min suggests that this protein might be key in memory enhancement and conversion to long-term memory in RGS-animals. In addition, we will also discuss the implication of Hebbian plasticity and interaction of brain circuits in memory enhancement.

Discrimination in the Private Sphere. A subjective Right or a Legal Abuse. An European North American Legal Comparative Study

En el presente trabajo se estudian los límites de la autonomía privada desde la perspectiva del derecho a la igualdad y del principio de no discriminación tanto en el derecho norteamericano como en el europeo, con especial incidencia a la doctrina española. Por un lado se plantea si la piedra angular a la hora de establecer límites a la autonomía privada debe ser el concepto de dignidad o el de igualdad, por otro superando dicho debate se propone un acercamiento al problema entendido como una colisión entre derechos fundamentales en la que en cada concreto supuesto ha de estudiarse cual debe prevalecer. Finalmente se estima conveniente seguir el modelo de la Constitución de Sudáfrica y entender que los derechos fundamentales afectan directamente tanto a las relaciones horizontales como verticales, es decir tanto al ámbito público como privado.

Applications of synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction in hydrated cements: high-resolution and high-pressure studies

The main aim of this study is to apply synchrotron radiation techniques for the study of hydrated cement pastes. In particular, the tetracalcium aluminoferrite phase, C4AF in cement nomenclature, is the major iron-containing phase in Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) and in iron rich belite calcium sulfoaluminate cements. In a first study, the hydration mechanism of pure tetracalcium aluminoferrite phase with water-to-solid ratio of 1.0 has been investigated by HR-SXRPD (high resolution synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction). C4AF in the presence of water hydrates to form mainly an iron-containing hydrogarnet-type (katoite) phase, C3A0.84F0.16H6, as single crystalline phase. Its crystal structure and stoichiometry were determined by the Rietveld method and the final disagreement factors were RWP=8.1% and RF=4.8% [1]. As the iron content in the product is lower than that in C4AF, it is assumed that part of the iron also goes to an amorphous iron rich gel, like the hydrated alumina-type gel, as hydration proceeds. Further results from the high-resolution study will be discussed. In a second study, the behavior of pure and iron-containing katoites (C3AH6 and C3A0.84F0.16H6) under pressure have been analyzed by SXRPD using a diamond anvil cell (DAC) and then their bulk moduli were determined. The role of the pressure transmitting medium (PTM) has also been studied. In this case, silicone oil as well as methanol/ethanol mixtures have been used as PTM. Some “new peaks” were detected in the pattern for C3A0.84F0.16H6 as pressure increases, when using ethanol/methanol as PTM. These new peaks were still present at ambient pressure after releasing the applied pressure. They may correspond to crystalline nordstrandite or doyleite from the crystallization of amorphous aluminium hydroxide. The results from the high-pressure study will also be discussed.

Análisis y percepción de la participación en Nicaragua desde la visión de los participantes y no participantes

Conocer los espacios de participación de los jóvenes nicaragüenses, su incidencia en las políticas públicas, la calidad de la participación y los efectos sobre el fortalecimiento psicológico son los objetivos del presente estudio. Para ello se han recogido 893 cuestionarios a estudiantes de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua, 350 a participantes y 600 a no participantes. En el cuestionario hay preguntas abiertas y cerradas mediante las cuales se mide: el grado y la trayectoria participativa, la motivación por participar, la percepción de la calidad de los procesos en los que participan, posicionamiento ideológico y el empowerment psicológico (medido mediante la Sociopolitical Control Scale de Zimmerman & Zahniser 1991 y la escala de empowerment de Speer & Peterson 2000). Los datos muestran una gran diversidad de espacios de participación donde destacan las brigadas mediambientales y las juventudes sandinistas, la primera por su alto número de participantes y las segunda por su potencial de influencia en el diseño de políticas. Los jóvenes tienden a participar para ayudar a los demás y consideran que la calidad de los procesos participativos es alta. Igualmente se confirma la hipótesis de partida: los participantes poseen un mayor fortalecimiento psicológico que los no participantes.

Reflexiones metodológicas sobre los presupuestos participativos

República Dominica es uno de los pocos países que realiza presupuestos parti-cipativos bajo el paraguas de una Ley que así lo “obliga”. En esta investigación se analizan los procesos dominicanos en general y se seleccionan algunos estu-dios de casos con el objetivo de conocer su impacto sobre: el género, el me-dioambiente, la diversidad cultural y el fortalecimiento institucional. Para ello se ha trabajado con fuentes primarias y fuentes secundarias (información de los procesos y estudios publicados sobre los mismos). Los resultados muestran: que los procesos son una puerta de entrada para la participación política de las mujeres, como las iniciativas medioambientales son fuertemente promovidas por la ciudadanía, leves pero importantes cambios en la relación entre ciudada-nía e institución, así como el potencial de incorporación de la población inmi-grante, todo ello si se han dado ciertas características metodológicas en los pre-supuestos participativos.

Implicaciones pedagógicas de los Estilos de Aprendizaje

El objetivo del presente trabajo es contribuir a la difusión de la inclusión y puesta en marcha de la asignatura Implicaciones pedagógicas de los estilos de aprendizaje en el plan de estudios del Grado de Pedagogía en la Universidad de Málaga (España). La asignatura al estar ubicada en el tercer curso, y en el segundo semestre, sólo se ha podido implementar en los tres últimos años académicos, es decir, 2012‐13, 2013‐14 y 2014‐15. No obstante, creemos que puede ser interesante nuestra aportación en cuanto al diseño curricular de la misma y también con respecto a su desarrollo o puesta en práctica durante las tres experiencias realizadas. Hemos de indicar que los resultados de la evaluación del alumnado en la asignatura durante los tres cursos académicos son bastante satisfactorios. Es una asignatura que consideramos indispensable en un plan de estudios no sólo de Pedagogía, sino de todos los grados de Educación.

Morphological traits of surveillant/activated microglia during an experimentally induced acute neuroinflammatory process

Several studies show that morphological changes of microglia over the course of inflammation are tightly coupled to function. However the progressive transformation into activated microglia is poorly characterized. AIMS: This study aimed to establish a spatiotemporal correlation between quantifiable morphological parameters of microglia and the spread of an acute ventricular inflammatory process. METHODS: Inflammation was induced by a single injection of the enzyme neuraminidase within the lateral ventricle of rats. Animals were sacrificed 2, 4 and 12 hours after injection. Coronal slices were immunostained with Iba1 to label microglia and with IL1β to delimit the spread of inflammation. Digital images were obtained by scanning the labelled sections. Single microglia images were randomly selected from periventricular areas of caudate putamen, hippocampus and hypothalamus. FracLac for ImageJ software was used to measure the following morphological parameters: fractal dimension, lacunarity, area, perimeter and density. RESULTS: Significant differences were found in fractal dimension, lacunarity, perimeter and density of microglia cells of neuraminidase injected rats compared to sham animals. However no differences were found in the parameter “area”. In hipoccampus there was a delay in the significant change of the measured parameters. These morphological changes correlated with IL1β-expression in the same areas. CONCLUSIONS: Ventricular inflammation induced by neuraminidase provokes quantifiable morphological changes in microglia restricted to areas labelled with IL1β. Morphological parameters of microglia such as fractal dimension, lacunarity, perimeter and density are sensitive and valuable tools to quantify activation. However, the extensively used parameter “area” did not change upon microglia activation.

A model of increased impulsivity in rats with bilateral parkinsonism treated with Pramipexole

Impulse control disorders (ICD) is a common side effect of the dopaminergic treatment in patients with Parkinson's disease, which is more associated with dopamine agonists than with levodopa. To understand its pathophysiology, reliable animal models are essential. Using the variable delay-to-signal (VDS) paradigm, impulsivity was evaluated in bilateral parkinsonian rats treated with pramipexole (PPX). In this test, rats have to introduce the snout into a nose poke that is signaled by a light (presented at variable delays) triggering the delivery of a food reward after a correct response. Reaching a stable baseline performance, a partial bilateral dopaminergic lesion with 6-OHDA was induced in the dorsolateral striatum (AP: +1mm, L: ±3.4mm, V:-4.7 mm, Bregma). Rats undertook the VDS test under 5 conditions: basal state, 6-OHDA-induced lesion, the effect of two doses of PPX (0,25mg/kg and 3mg/kg; Latin-square design), and the day after the last dose of PPX. Only the acute administration of 3 mg/kg of PPX significantly rised the number of premature responses, indicating an increase of impulsive behavior, in parkinsonian but not in sham rats. Both doses of PPX significantly decreased the accuracy of responding (correct/total number of responses) and increased the incorrect and perseverative (compulsive behavior) responses in both parkinsonian and sham treated groups when compared with saline-treated groups. In conclusion, PPX induced attention deficit (lack of accuracy) as well as compulsive behavior in control and parkinsonian rats, but increased impulsivity only in the parkinsonian animals. This model could constitute a valid tool to investigate the pathophysiology of ICD.

A New Multi-Objective Approach for Molecular Docking Based on RMSD and Binding Energy

Ligand-protein docking is an optimization problem based on predicting the position of a ligand with the lowest binding energy in the active site of the receptor. Molecular docking problems are traditionally tackled with single-objective, as well as with multi-objective approaches, to minimize the binding energy. In this paper, we propose a novel multi-objective formulation that considers: the Root Mean Square Deviation (RMSD) difference in the coordinates of ligands and the binding (intermolecular) energy, as two objectives to evaluate the quality of the ligand-protein interactions. To determine the kind of Pareto front approximations that can be obtained, we have selected a set of representative multi-objective algorithms such as NSGA-II, SMPSO, GDE3, and MOEA/D. Their performances have been assessed by applying two main quality indicators intended to measure convergence and diversity of the fronts. In addition, a comparison with LGA, a reference single-objective evolutionary algorithm for molecular docking (AutoDock) is carried out. In general, SMPSO shows the best overall results in terms of energy and RMSD (value lower than 2A for successful docking results). This new multi-objective approach shows an improvement over the ligand-protein docking predictions that could be promising in in silico docking studies to select new anticancer compounds for therapeutic targets that are multidrug resistant.

Determinación de puntuaciones cuantitativas para la entrevista conducta estructurada en selección personas

La toma de decisiones de selección en organizaciones públicas se debe regir por procedimientos que garanticen la fiabilidad y validez de las herramientas utilizadas, así como se debe aplicar metodologías que permitan determinar la diferencia ente los diferentes candidatos de una manera objetiva (Salgado, Moscoso y Gorriti, 2004)) Esta investigación tiene dos objetivos relacionados. En primer lugar, identificar y ponderar aquellos comportamientos significativos del perfil de enfermería incluidos en 5 competencias básicas, consideradas imprescindibles para trabajar en un ambiente sanitario. En segundo lugar establecer, con base en los comportamientos anteriores, anclajes conductuales asociados a calificaciones cuantitativas que proporcione una puntuación numérica y objetiva en la entrevista de selección. Para la consecución de estos objetivos se han llevado a cabo distintas metodologías. En la primera fase se utilizó el panel de expertos para identificar las conductas y competencias claves del perfil de enfermería asociadas a los valores, la misión y las líneas estratégicas de la organización (ASCS). En segundo lugar se elaboró un cuestionario que siguiendo la metodología de Pereda y Berrocal (2005) fue valorado por 217 profesionales, conocedores del puesto y con más de 4 años de antigüedad en el mismo. Por último, en el diseño de la entrevista conductual estructurada se emplea la técnica de incidentes críticos (Flanagan, 1954)y además se aplica el porcentaje de puntuación obtenido por cada comportamiento en el proceso anterior a una escala de valoración con anclajes conductuales (EVAS)(Smith y Kendall, 1963; Quijano, 1992). Así. puede obtenerse un calificación numérica diferente para cada candidato/a. Utilidad. La utilización de metodologías que permitan discriminar a los candidatos de manera cuantitativa, posiciona la labor del psicólogo, profesionaliza la evaluación, facilita la toma de decisiones y nos permite abordar la selección con base en criterios de fiabilidad y validez.

Raman Spectroscopy and DFT calculations for the Electronic Structure Characterization of Conjugated Polymers

In the last three decades, there has been a broad academic and industrial interest in conjugated polymers as semiconducting materials for organic electronics. Their applications in polymer light-emitting diodes (PLEDs), polymer solar cells (PSCs), and organic field-effect transistors (OFETs) offer opportunities for the resolution of energy issues as well as the development of display and information technologies1. Conjugated polymers provide several advantages including low cost, light weight, good flexibility, as well as solubility which make them readily processed and easily printed, removing the conventional photolithography for patterning2. A large library of polymer semiconductors have been synthesized and investigated with different building blocks, such as acenes or thiophene and derivatives, which have been employed to design new materials according to individual demands for specific applications. To design ideal conjugated polymers for specific applications, some general principles should be taken into account, including (i) side chains (ii) molecular weights, (iii) band gap and HOMO and LUMO energy levels, and (iv) suited morphology.3-6 The aim of this study is to elucidate the impact that substitution exerts on the molecular and electronic structure of π-conjugated polymers with outstanding performances in organic electronic devices. Different configurations of the π-conjugated backbones are analyzed: (i) donor-acceptor configuration, (ii) 1D lineal or 2D branched conjugated backbones, and (iii) encapsulated polymers (see Figure 1). Our combined vibrational spectroscopy and DFT study shows that small changes in the substitution pattern and in the molecular configuration have a strong impact on the electronic characteristics of these polymers. We hope this study can advance useful structure-property relationships of conjugated polymers and guide the design of new materials for organic electronic applications.

Behavioral traits predicting cocaine-conditioned place reference in mice: role of anxiety adn the basolateral amygdala

Aims. The individual susceptibility to cocaine addiction, a factor of interest in the understanding and prevention of this disorder, may be predicted by certain behavioral traits. However, these are not usually taken into account in research, making it difficult to identify whether they are a cause or a consequence of drug use. Methods. Male C57BL/6J mice underwent a battery of behavioral tests (elevated plus maze, hole-board, novelty preference in the Y maze, episodic-like object recognition memory and forced swimming test), followed by a cocaine-conditioned place preference (CPP) training to assess the reinforcing effect of the drug. In a second study, we aimed to determine the existence of neurobiological differences between the mice expressing high or low CPP by studying the number of neurons in certain addiction-related structures: the medial prefrontal cortex, the basolateral amygdala and the ventral tegmental area. Results. Anxiety-like behaviors in the elevated plus maze successfully predicted the cocaine-CPP behavior, so that the most anxious mice were also more likely to search for cocaine in a CPP paradigm. In addition, these mice exhibited an increased number of neurons in the basolateral amygdala, a key structure in emotional response including anxiety expression, without differences in the others regions analyzed. Conclusions. Our results suggest a relevant role of anxiety as a psychological risk factor for cocaine vulnerability, with the basolateral amygdala as potential common neural center for both anxiety and addiction.

Effects of palmitoylethanolamide in cocaine-induced behaviours

Aims. Cocaine addiction is a chronically relapsing disorder characterized by the compulsion to seek and take the drug. Previous investigations have demonstrated that several drugs of abuse, as cocaine, can alter the levels of lipid-based signalling molecules such as the N-acylethanolamines (NAEs). In addition, NAEs levels in the brain are sensitive to cocaine self-administration and extinction training. In this context, this study aimed to investigate the effect of repeated and acute palmitoylethanolamide (PEA), an endogenous NAE, on the behavioural effects of cocaine using mouse models of conditioned reward and psychomotor activation. Methods. Using male C57BL/6J mice, the ability of repeated PEA injections (1 or 10 mg/kg i.p) to modulate the development of a conditioned place preference (CPP) and behavioural sensitization (BS) induced by cocaine (20 mg/kg i.p.) was evaluated. In addition, the expression of cocaine-induced CPP and BS after acute PEA administration was also studied. Results. PEA (1 and 10 mg/kg i.p) significantly reduced the development of cocaine-induced BS, but did not modify the acquisition of cocaine-induced CPP. Furthermore, both doses of PEA were able to reduce the expression of BS and CPP. Conclusions. Altogether, these findings show that exogenous administration of PEA attenuated psychomotor activation and impaired the expression of CPP induced by cocaine. Our results may be relevant in order to understand the role of NAEs in the development and treatment of cocaine addiction.