El análisis de libros de texto: una estrategia metodológica en la formación de los profesionales de la educación

A pesar de la progresiva introducción de nuevos recursos en las aulas fruto del desarrollo de las TICs, el libro de texto sigue siendo uno de los materiales más utilizado y cuyo protagonismo en la configuración de la práctica escolar ha sido decisivo, por lo que debe ocupar nuestra atención en la formación inicial de los profesionales de la educación. Durante los cursos académicos 2012-13 y 13-14, hemos realizado en el marco de la asignatura de Análisis y diseño de materiales para la educación y la formación del tercer curso del grado de Pedagogía de la Universidad de Oviedo una práctica formativa de análisis de libros de texto escolares que nos ha permitido analizar contextualizadamente y desde una perspectiva teórico-práctica, cuestiones tales como: papel del profesorado en el desarrollo e innovación del currículum, papel de las editoriales en la interpretación del currículum oficial, análisis de tareas y mensajes en los manuales escolares, criterios para juzgar la calidad didáctica de los materiales, etc. El análisis cualitativo de treinta informes desarrollados por 120 estudiantes sobre diferentes libros de texto nos ha permitido identificar sus principales fortalezas y debilidades en varias dimensiones (aspectos formales, metodología, mensajes, implicaciones para la profesionalidad docente) y nos permite concluir que se trata de una experiencia formativa relevante en la formación inicial de cualquier profesional de la educación.

Are they adicctied to college students social networks?

The development of the Internet and in particular of social networks has supposedly given a new view to the different aspects that surround human behavior. It includes those associated with addictions, but specifically the ones that have to do with technologies. Following a correlational descriptive design we present the results of a study, which involved university students from Social and Legal Sciences as participants, about their addiction to the Internet and in particular to social networks. The sample was conformed of 373 participants from the cities of Granada, Sevilla, Málaga, and Córdoba. To gather the data a questionnaire that was design by Young was translated to Spanish. The main research objective was to determine if university students could be considered social network addicts. The most prominent result was that the participants don’t consider themselves to be addicted to the Internet or to social networks; in particular women reflected a major distance from the social networks. It’s important to know that the results differ from those found in the literature review, which opens the question, are the participants in a phase of denial towards the addiction?

Social networks applied to training

In this article, we address the importance and relevance that social networks exhibit in their use as an educational resource.  This relevance relies in the possibility of implementing new learning resources or increasing the level of the participant's connectivity, as well as developing learning communities.  Also, the risk entailed from their use is discussed, especially for the students that have a low technological education or those having excessive confidence on the media.  It is important to highlight that the educational use of social networks is not a simple extension or translation of the student's habitual, recreational use, but that it implies an important change in the roles given to teachers as well as learners; from accommodative learning environments that only encourage memorization to other environments that demand an active, reflective, collaborative and proactive attitude, that require the development/acquisition of technological as well as social abilities, aptitudes and values.  It is also important to highlight that a correct implementation and adequate use will not only foment formal learning, but also informal and non-formal learning.

Operation of a free-electron laser from the extreme ultraviolet to the water window

We report results on the performance of a free-electron laser operating at a wavelength of 13.7 nm where unprecedented peak and average powers for a coherent extreme-ultraviolet radiation source have been measured. In the saturation regime, the peak energy approached 170 J for individual pulses, and the average energy per pulse reached 70 J. The pulse duration was in the region of 10 fs, and peak powers of 10 GW were achieved. At a pulse repetition frequency of 700 pulses per second, the average extreme-ultraviolet power reached 20 mW. The output beam also contained a significant contribution from odd harmonics of approximately 0.6% and 0.03% for the 3rd (4.6 nm) and the 5th (2.75 nm) harmonics, respectively. At 2.75 nm the 5th harmonic of the radiation reaches deep into the water window, a wavelength range that is crucially important for the investigation of biological samples.

The structural organization of aurein precursor cDNAs from the skin secretion of the Australian green and golden bell frog, Litoria aurea.

Aureins are a family of peptides (13-25 residues), some of which possess potent antimicrobial and anti-cancer properties, which have been classified into 5 subgroups based upon primary structural similarities. They were originally isolated from the defensive skin secretions of the closely related Australian bell frogs, Litoria aurea and Litoria raniformis, and of the 23 aurein peptides identified, 10 are common to both species. Using a recently developed technique, we have constructed a cDNA library from the defensive secretion of the green and golden bell frog, L. aurea, and successfully cloned a range of aurein precursor transcripts containing entire open-reading frames. All open-reading frames consisted of a putative signal peptide and an acidic pro-region followed by a single copy of aurein. The deduced precursor structures for the most active aureins (2.2 and 3.1) confirmed the presence of a C-terminal amidation motif whereas that of aurein 5.3 did not. Processed peptides corresponding in molecular mass to aureins 2.2, 2.3, 2.5, 3.1 and 5.3 were identified in the same secretion sample using LC/MS. The application of this technique thus permits parallel peptidomic and transcriptomic analyses on the same lyophilized skin secretion sample circumventing sacrifice of specimens of endangered herpetofauna.

Testing the possible negative association of type 1 diabetes and atopic disease by analysis of the interleukin 4 receptor gene

Variations in the interleukin 4 receptor A (IL4RA) gene have been reported to be associated with atopy, asthma, and allergy, which may occur less frequently in subjects with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Since atopy shows a humoral immune reactivity pattern, and T1D results from a cellular (T lymphocyte) response, we hypothesised that alleles predisposing to atopy could be protective for T1D and transmitted less often than the expected 50% from heterozygous parents to offspring with T1D. We genotyped seven exonic single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and the -3223 C>T SNP in the putative promoter region of IL4RA in up to 3475 T1D families, including 1244 Finnish T1D families. Only the -3223 C>T SNP showed evidence of negative association (P=0.014). There was some evidence for an interaction between -3233 C>T and the T1D locus IDDM2 in the insulin gene region (P=0.001 in the combined and P=0.02 in the Finnish data set). We, therefore, cannot rule out a genetic effect of IL4RA in T1D, but it is not a major one.

Whitney's type theorems for infinite dimensional spaces

It is proved that for any $f$ is an element of $C^k(L,R)$, where k is a natural number and L is a closed linear subspace of a nuclear Frechet space $X$, the function $f$ can be extended to a function of class $C^{k-1}$ defined on the entire space $X$. It is also proved that for any $f$ is an element of $C^k(L, R)$, where $k$ is a natural number of infinity and L is a closed linear subspace of a dual $X$ of a nuclear Frechet space, the function $f$ can be extended to a function of class $C^k$ defined on the entire space $X$. In addition, it is proved that under these conditions, the existence of a linear extension operator is equivalent to the complementability of the subspace.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction analysis of naphthalene dioxygenase from Rhodococcus sp strain NCIMB 12038

The three-component naphthalene dioxygenase (NDO) enzyme system carries out the first step in the aerobic degradation of naphthalene to (+)-cis-(1R,2S)-dihydroxy-1,2-dihydronaphthalene by Rhodococcus sp. strain NCIMB 12038. The terminal oxygenase component (naphthalene 1,2-dioxygenase) that catalyzes this reaction belongs to the aromatic ring hydroxylating dioxygenase family and has been crystallized. These enzymes utilize a mononuclear nonheme iron centre to catalyze the addition of dioxygen to their respective substrates. In this reaction, two electrons, two protons and a dioxygen molecule are consumed. The Rhodococcus enzyme has only 33 and 29% sequence identity to the corresponding alpha- and beta-subunits of the NDO system of Pseudomonas putida NCIMB 9816-4, for which the tertiary structure has been reported. In order to determine the three-dimensional structure of the Rhodococcus NDO, diffraction-quality crystals have been prepared by the hanging-drop method. The crystals belongs to space group P2(1)2(1)2(1), with unit-cell parameters a = 87.5, b = 144, c = 185.6 Angstrom, alpha = beta = gamma = 90degrees, and diffract to 2.3 Angstrom resolution.

Development of an ELISA screening test for nitroimidazoles in egg and chicken muscle

An antibody was generated that can bind metronidazole (MNZ), a nitroimidazole drug used in veterinary medicine to treat poultry for coccidiosis and histomoniasis. A direct competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) is described. It was used to characterise binding of this antibody to a number of nitroimidazole drugs. It displayed cross-reactivity with dimetridazole (DMZ), ronidazole (RNZ), hydroxydimetridazole (DMZOH), and ipronidazole (IPZ).