La problemática actual de la Física y de la Química.

Conferencia pronunciada en el Instituto Nacional de Enseñanza Media Milá y Fontanals (4 febrero 1966)

Conocimientos, habilidades y destreza de las ocupaciones del sector industrial. Estudio de tres puestos de trabajo.

Se ha acometido la investigación de tres puestos de trabajo, seleccionados, con vistas a averiguar qué formación se precisa para dotar a las personas de los conocimientos, habilidades y destrezas necesarias para desarrollarlos. Se han elegido tres puestos de trabajo concretos en tres empresas: operador de cuadro de alimentación de subestaciones; instalador de líneas aéreas de media tensión; instalador de redes subterráneas. En cada empresa se han estudiado los trabajos. Se han descrito minuciosamente, en su posición genérica dentro de la organización, tareas que las componen, material empleado, características peculiares del puesto y de la persona que hubiera de ocuparlo con eficacia, tanto en el aspecto somático como psíquico. Han merecido especial atención consideraciones sobre rasgos de personalidad, directamente relacionados con la eficacia del servicio y la seguridad con el hacer. Se ha dado el desarrollo conveniente a los conocimientos a adquirir, tanto en el terreno teórico como en el de los hábitos a desarrollar mediante ejercicios prácticos correspondientes. A partir de los datos obtenidos se han revisado los actuales planes de educación. Observación directa y muy detallada de los puestos de trabajo. Encuestas y entrevistas a operarios, mandos intermedios y técnicos. Datos documentales sobre el tema. Además de un cuestionario sobre el contenido del trabajo se utilizó un quien auxiliar para facilitar las respuestas de los entrevistados. Análisis de los trabajos desde el punto de vista psicosomático. Para el puesto de operador de cuadro se consideran innecesarios los tres cursos clásicos de oficialia, bastando dos cursos o uno de enseñanza acelerada. Son necesarios más conocimientos de alta tensión y de seguridad en el trabajo. Para el puesto de instalador de líneas aéreas de media tensión, basta con dos cursos regulares para su formación si se trata de aprendices con cinco cursos de EGB, y un curso normal de FP acelerada si se trata de un adulto sin otro oficio o procedentes de otra profesión. Para el puesto de instalador de redes subterráneas, por su mucha especialización, en general, puede afirmarse que con un curso de electricidad general a nivel de oficialía, y otro curso dedicado a la especialidad, resultaría tiempo suficiente de enseñanza. Para adultos bastaría con un curso de FP acelerada. En anexos se añaden unos programas indicativos de las materias que pueden constituir los mencionados cursos. Se llega, contrariamente a lo que sería compatible con un planteamiento educativo estático tradicional, a la conclusión de la inutilidad de una programación demasiado detallada de la formación profesional, después de apreciar la dinámica de la evolución de estas profesiones, y la relativa variedad de su ejecución concreta en los diversos ambientes.

Marginación y delincuencia de menores.

Defender al niño es ponerlo en el origen, en el centro y en la meta de la acción social encaminada a la irradición de las conductas personales y socialmente desajustadas. Si esto no es así, si la acción social frente a la inadaptación de menores no es una defensa de la vida, sino simple reactividad primitiva a la conducta socialmente desviada, lo único que conseguiremos será anular vidas y asesinar niños. A esto hay que añadir la lenta reforma del marco jurídico al menor y la inexistencia de un marco administrativo que coordine las actuaciones referentes al menor. Hasta ahora los intereses culturales y los contenidos educativos de los centros de reforma no han respondido a los de la clase trabajadora de que fundamentalmente provienen los inadaptados, con lo que han ido paulatinamente eliminando su conciencia de clase, logrando su desvinculación con su medio, imposibilitando una crítica social en la que integrar y proyectar su agresividad conscientemente. Así se debe ir hacia planteamientos críticos que incluyen en su perspectiva la conciencia de la situación de marginación e injusticia social en el que emerge el fenómeno de la marginación y delincuencia del menor, apoyando la democratización interna en los centros en cuya gestión y orientación también deberían participar todas las fuerzas sociales del entorno. Incumbe a toda la sociedad el tomar parte activa en la tarea de recuperar para sí mismo y para el grupo al menor de conducta desviada. Pero esta inquietud educativa no se improvisa. Es necesario mentalizar y sensibilizar a la opinión pública sobre la realidad profunda y personal del marginado, del inadaptado, del futuro delincuente habitual, haciéndole ver que, en la mayoría de los casos, es víctima de condiciones negativas en el aspecto psicosocial y económico, y sólo mediante la potenciación de medidas y condiciones positivas se conseguirá su cambio de conducta y de actitudes. Del mismo modo, las negativas condiciones educacionales que originan, suscitan y mantienen la conducta inadaptada, están asociadas a situaciones de injusticia social que requieren soluciones políticas más que educativas y psicológicas. Sólo desde una política de desarrollo humano y desde un modelo de sociedad donde el hombre, y no los criterios económicos, sea el centro real y la medida del progreso, se darán las bases para construir una sociedad mejor, más justa, igualitaria y no violenta.

La orientación educativa en red.

Resumen basado en el de la publicación

Methods for hearing aid selection and fitting

This paper is a review of hearing aid practices in Mexico.

Adaptive constraints for feature tracking

In this paper extensions to an existing tracking algorithm are described. These extensions implement adaptive tracking constraints in the form of regional upper-bound displacements and an adaptive track smoothness constraint. Together, these constraints make the tracking algorithm more flexible than the original algorithm (which used fixed tracking parameters) and provide greater confidence in the tracking results. The result of applying the new algorithm to high-resolution ECMWF reanalysis data is shown as an example of its effectiveness.

Peptides generated ex vivo from serum proteins by tumor-specific exopeptidases are not useful biomarkers in ovarian cancer

BACKGROUND: The serum peptidome may be a valuable source of diagnostic cancer biomarkers. Previous mass spectrometry (MS) studies have suggested that groups of related peptides discriminatory for different cancer types are generated ex vivo from abundant serum proteins by tumor-specific exopeptidases. We tested 2 complementary serum profiling strategies to see if similar peptides could be found that discriminate ovarian cancer from benign cases and healthy controls. METHODS: We subjected identically collected and processed serum samples from healthy volunteers and patients to automated polypeptide extraction on octadecylsilane-coated magnetic beads and separately on ZipTips before MALDI-TOF MS profiling at 2 centers. The 2 platforms were compared and case control profiling data analyzed to find altered MS peak intensities. We tested models built from training datasets for both methods for their ability to classify a blinded test set. RESULTS: Both profiling platforms had CVs of approximately 15% and could be applied for high-throughput analysis of clinical samples. The 2 methods generated overlapping peptide profiles, with some differences in peak intensity in different mass regions. In cross-validation, models from training data gave diagnostic accuracies up to 87% for discriminating malignant ovarian cancer from healthy controls and up to 81% for discriminating malignant from benign samples. Diagnostic accuracies up to 71% (malignant vs healthy) and up to 65% (malignant vs benign) were obtained when the models were validated on the blinded test set. CONCLUSIONS: For ovarian cancer, altered MALDI-TOF MS peptide profiles alone cannot be used for accurate diagnoses.

Characterization of an escherichia coli elaC deletion mutant

The elaC gene of Escherichia coli encodes a binuclear zinc phosphodiesterase (ZiPD). ZiPD homologs from various species act as 3' tRNA processing endoribonucleases, and although the homologous gene in Bacillus subtilis is essential for viability [EMBO J. 22 (2003) 4534], the physiological function of E. coli ZiPD has remained enigmatic. In order to investigate the function of E. coli ZiPD we generated and characterized an E. coli elaC deletion mutant. Surprisingly, the E. coli elaC deletion mutant was viable and had wild-type like growth properties. Micro array-based transcriptional analysis indicated expression of the E. coli elaC gene at basal levels during aerobic growth. The elaC gene deletion had no effect on the expression of genes coding for RNases or amino-acyl tRNA synthetases or any other gene among a total of > 1300 genes probed. 2D-PAGE analysis showed that the elaC mutation, likewise, had no effect on the proteome. These results strengthen doubts about the involvement of E. coli ZiPD in tRNA maturation and suggest functional diversity within the ZiPD/ElaCl protein family. In addition to these unexpected features of the E. coli elaC deletion mutant, a sequence comparison of ZiPD (ElaCl) proteins revealed specific regions for either enterobacterial or mammalian ZiPD (ElaCl) proteins. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Lack of association between central adiposity and lipaemia in UK Sikh men

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether the positive statistical associations between measures of total and regional adiposity and measures of glucose, insulin and triacylglycerol ( TAG) metabolism reported in Caucasian men, are also observed in UK Sikhs. DESIGN: A matched cross-sectional study in which each volunteer provided a blood sample after a 12-h overnight fast and had anthropometric measurements taken. SUBJECTS: A total of 55 healthy Caucasian and 55 healthy UK Sikh men were recruited. The Caucasian and Sikh men were matched for age ( 48.7 +/- 10.9 and 48.3 +/- 10.0 y, respectively) and body mass index (BMI) ( 26.1 +/- 2.8 and 26.3 +/- 3.2 kg/m(2), respectively). MEASUREMENTS: Anthropometric measurements were performed to assess total and regional fat depots. The concentrations of plasma total cholesterol, high-density cholesterol (HDL- C), low-density cholesterol (LDL-C) and small dense LDL (LDL3), TAG, glucose, fasting insulin (ins) and nonesterified fatty acids (NEFA) were analysed in fasted plasma. Surrogate measures of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) and insulin sensitivity (RQUICKI) were calculated from insulin and glucose (HOMA-IR) and insulin, glucose and NEFA ( RQUICKI) measurements. RESULTS: The Sikh men had significantly higher body fat, with the sum of the four skinfold measurements (Ssk) ( P = 0.0001) and subscapular skinfold value (P = 0.009) higher compared with the Caucasian men. The Sikh volunteers also had characteristics of the metabolic syndrome: lower HDL-C (P = 0.07), higher TAG (P = 0.004), higher % LDL3 (P = 0.0001) and insulin resistance (P = 0.05). Both ethnic groups demonstrated positive correlations between insulin and waist circumference (Caucasian: r = 0.661, P = 0.0001; Sikh: r = 0.477, P = 0.0001). The Caucasian men also demonstrated significant positive correlations between central adiposity (r = 0.275, P = 0.04), other measures of adiposity (BMI and suprailiac skinfold) and plasma TAG, whereas the Sikh men showed no correlation for central adiposity (r = 0.019, ns) and TAG with a trend to a negative relationship between other measures ( Ssk and suprailiac) which reached near significance for subscapular skinfold and TAG (r = - 0.246, P = 0.007). The expected positive association between insulin and TAG was observed in the Caucasian men (r = 0.318, P = 0.04) but not in the Sikh men (r = 0.011, ns). CONCLUSIONS: In the Caucasian men, the expected positive association between plasma TAG and centralized body fat was observed. However, a lack of association between centralized, or any other measure of adiposity, and plasma TAG was observed in the matched Sikh men, although both ethnic groups showed the positive association between centralized body fat and insulin resistance, which was less strong for Sikhs. These findings in the Sikh men were not consistent with the hypothesis that there is a clear causal relationship between body fat and its distribution, insulin resistance, and lipid abnormalities associated with the metabolic syndrome, in this ethnic group.

A role for Notch signaling in human corneal epithelial cell differentiation and proliferation

PURPOSE. To identify the role of Notch signaling in the human corneal epithelium. METHODS. Localization of Notch1, Notch2, Delta1, and Jagged1 in the human corneal epithelium was observed with the use of indirect immunofluorescence microscopy. Gene and protein expression of Notch receptors and ligands in human corneal epithelial cells was determined by RT-PCR and Western blot analysis, respectively. The effects of Notch inhibition (by {gamma}-secretase inhibition) and activation (by recombinant Jagged1) on epithelial cell proliferation (Ki67) and differentiation (CK3) were analyzed after Western blotting and immunocytochemistry. RESULTS. Immunofluorescent labeling localized Notch1 and Notch2 to suprabasal epithelial cell layers, whereas Delta1 and Jagged1 were observed throughout the corneal epithelium. Notch1, Notch2, Delta1, and Jagged1 genes and proteins were expressed in human corneal epithelial cells. {gamma}-Secretase inhibition resulted in decreased Notch1 and Notch2 expression, with an accompanying decrease in Ki67 and increased CK3 expression. The activation of Notch by Jagged1 resulted in the upregulation of active forms of Notch1 and 2 proteins (P < 0.05), with a concurrent increase in Ki67 (P < 0.05) and a decrease in CK3 (P < 0.05) expression. Interestingly, {gamma}-secretase inhibition in a three-dimensional, stratified corneal epithelium equivalent had no effect on Ki67 or CK3 expression. In contrast, Jagged1 activation resulted in decreased CK3 expression (P < 0.05), though neither Notch activation nor inhibition affected cell proliferation in the 3D tissue equivalent. CONCLUSIONS. Notch family members and ligands are expressed in the human corneal epithelium and appear to play pivotal roles in corneal epithelial cell differentiation.

The application of implant technology for cybernetic systems

Objective: To assess the usefulness, compatibility, and long-term operability of a microelectrode array into the median nerve of the left arm of a healthy volunteer, including perception of feedback stimulation and operation of an instrumented prosthetic hand. Setting: The study was carried out from March 14 through June 18, 2002, in England and the United States. Results: The blindfolded subject received feedback information, obtained from force and slip sensors on the prosthetic hand, and subsequently used the implanted device to control the hand by applying an appropriate force to g rip an unseen object. Operability was also demonstrated remotely via the Internet, with the subject in New York, NY, and the prosthetic hand in Reading, England. Finally, the subject was able to control an electric wheelchair, via decoded signals from the implant device, to select the direction of travel by opening and closing his hand. The implantation did not result in infection or any perceivable loss of hand sensation or motion control. The implant was finally extracted because of mechanical fatigue of the percutaneous connection. Further testing after extraction has not indicated any measurable long-term defects in the subject. Conclusions: This implant may allow recipients to have abilities they would otherwise not possess. The response to stimulation improved considerably during the trial, suggesting that the subject learned to process the incoming information more effectively.