Teaching of the Conical Perspective. Method in the Real Space, and their Simulation in the Virtual Space

Para la enseñanza de la perspectiva, los autores utilizan materiales y métodos didácticos usando maquetas reales y tangibles con rendimientos muy satisfactorios, pero conllevan determinadas dificultades de tipo físico y operativo. Se ha confeccionado un software infográfico con el objetivo de emular en 3D virtual los materiales utilizados en el espacio real, aprovechando las características de la imagen digital. Con este material se ha realizado un estudio comparativo entre ambos métodos (en el espacio real y en el 3D virtual) participando alumnos de segundo ciclo de Bellas Artes en el que se han obtenido interesantes datos para el desarrollo y utilización de estos materiales en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje.In order to teach perspective in a Fine Arts degree, the authors use materials and didactic methods which include real and tangible models with very satisfactory yields, but they bear certain physical and operative problem. Digital graphic software has been developed in order to model materials in 3D before being used in the real space, taking advantage of the characteristics of the digital image. A comparative study with graduate students of Fine Arts has been made between the two methods (in the real space and in the 3D virtual) where interesting data have been obtained on the usage and development of virtual modelling

Sistema diédrico. Técnicas educativas con ayuda 3D en el espacio real y su simulación en el espacio virutual

Hay una importante oferta de software educativo con gran variedad en sus características formales y metodológicas; pero a pesar de esta potencialidad se pueden desaprovechar sus posibilidades pedagógicas si, ante esta diversidad, no se selecciona, no se configura o no se aplica, adecuadamente. Se ha realizado un estudio contrastado de distintas técnicas didácticas con diferentes muestras de alumnos, en donde se han utilizado espacios tridimensionales reales y tangibles, con un material didáctico especialmente diseñado para la enseñanza del sistema diédrico. Se han seleccionado sus cualidades más relevantes, vistos los resultados obtenidos, para ofrecer modelos en el diseño, la configuración o la elección del software.There is an important offer of educational software with great variety in its formal and methodological characteristics; but in spite of this potential, its pedagogic possibilities can be wasted if, in the face of this diversity, they are not selected, not configured, or not applied, appropriately. A study has been carried out contrasting the different didactics techniques with different samples of students, wherein real and tangible three-dimensional spaces have been used with a specially designed didactic material for the teaching of the European diedric system. Its most relevant qualities have been selected based on the obtained result to offer models in its design and the configuration or election of the software

Socioeconomic correlates of global mammalian conservation status

The main causes of biodiversity decline are related to human use of resources, which is ultimately triggered by the socioeconomic decisions made by individuals and nations. Characterizing the socioeconomic attributes of areas in which biodiversity is most threatened can help us identify decisions and conditions that promote the presence or absence of threats and potentially suggest more sustainable strategies. In this study we explored how diverse indicators of social and economic development correlate with the conservation status of terrestrial mammals within countries explicitly exploring hypothesized linear and quadratic relationships. First, comparing countries with and without threatened mammals we found that those without threatened species are a disparate group formed by European countries and Small Island Developing States (SIDS) with little in common besides their slow population growth and a past of human impacts. Second, focusing on countries with threatened mammals we found that those with a more threatened mammalian biota have mainly rural populations, are predominantly exporters of goods and services, receive low to intermediate economic benefits from international tourism, and have medium to high human life expectancy. Overall, these results provide a comprehensive characterization of the socioeconomic profiles linked to mammalian conservation status of the world's nations, highlighting the importance of transborder impacts reflected by the international flux of goods, services and people. Further studies would be necessary to unravel the actual mechanisms and threats that link these socioeconomic profiles and indicators with mammalian conservation. Nevertheless, this study presents a broad and complete characterization that offers testable hypotheses regarding how socioeconomic development associates with biodiversity

Efectividad del tratamiento inmunomodulador con leucocitos alogénicos, en aborto involuntario recurrente. Revisión sistemática y metaanálisis

Dentro del marco del aborto involuntario recurrente (AIR), se han propuesto causas autoinmunes y alogénicas, e implementación de terapias como la inmunización activa con leucocitos alogénicos de la pareja o de donantes. La evidencia disponible en cuanto a la efectividad de estos tratamientos es contradictoria, por lo que se desea realizar una revisión sistemática para evaluar la efectividad de la inmunización activa con leucocitos alogénicos de la pareja o de donantes para esta condición. Se realizó un estudio tipo revisión sistemática de la literatura, usando las siguientes bases de datos: Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library y Scielo. Se realizó una búsqueda a través del registro de ensayos clínicos del Instituto Nacional de Salud de los Estados Unidos (www.clinicaltrials.gov) y, una búsqueda manual a través de las referencias de los estudios seleccionados siguiendo la estrategia de bola de nieve. Se seleccionaron ensayos clínicos y estudios de cohorte analítica, en idioma inglés y español. Se realizó un análisis cuantitativo de la información por medio de un metaanálisis. El tratamiento inmunomodulador con linfocitos puede considerarse como una terapia efectiva para mantener la gestación y lograr recién nacido vivo según resultados estadísticos; sin embargo la calidad de los estudios incluidos es baja, por lo que no se aconseja para la práctica rutinaria. Se sugiere la realización de estudios con metodologías robustas y que apoyen los resultados presentados en esta investigación.Involuntary recurrent abortion (IRA) is defined as the history of three or more abortions before 20 weeks of gestation. Within its etiology has been proposed and allogeneic or autoimmune causes, with the implementation of therapies that try to immunize women against "foreign" cells of a future pregnancy like the trophoblast membrane immunization, active immunization with allogeneic leukocytes partner or donor and the use of intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG). The available evidence regarding their effectiveness is scarce and contradictory, which is why we want to conduct a systematic review to assess the effectiveness of this treatment, measured by the rate of live births in women with AIR, who were treted by immunomodulator, and the adverse events presented in the mother and child. Asystematic review of the literature will be conducted. First, a search will be make through the following databases: Medline, Embase, Cochrane Library and Scielo. Also a search made through the registration of clinical trials at the National Institute of Health in the United States (www.clinicaltrials. gov) and finally manual search will be made through the references of the selected studies following the snowball strategy. The following search terms will be used: Human, pregnancy, involuntary recurrent abortion, prevention, control, immunotherapy, immunization, allogeneic leukocytes, trophoblast, newborn, controlled clinical trials, cohort, in different combinations. If the studies allow a quantitative analysis of the information will be made. This systematic review will provide evidence about the effectiveness of immunomodulatory treatments to achieve pregnancy and live birth and assess gestational week at birth and complications in the newborn. The results will serve to discuss the use of inmunomodulator treatment in cases of IRA. It will serve as a starting point for the implementation of a treatment strategy that is beneficial to patients and complement existing clinical practice protocols

Evaluation process, relegation and weeding in the Maimonides library, University of Córdoba

La gestión de la colección necesita actualmente de herramientas y acciones que contribuyan a su evaluación constante. El objetivo es el de conseguir una colección relevante adaptándose a las necesidades de los usuarios. Entre aquéllas destaca el expurgo. Se analizan aquí los procesos de evaluación, relegación y expurgo de la Biblioteca Maimónides de la Universidad de Córdoba, los factores que determinaron su implantación, su periodicidad, la intervención secuencial de los servicios implicados, calendario y objetivos. Todas las acciones se enmarcan en un proceso de autorregulación de la colección y evaluación constante de la misma. Se exponen las características de la colección de la biblioteca, su origen, evolución, el fondo bibliográfico sometido al proceso y las excepciones contempladas. Se analizan asimismo las acciones previas a la sistematización del proceso, realizadas mediante la donación de duplicados, implementadas en la biblioteca desde su creación. Los resultados obtenidos son considerados un instrumento básico en la gestión de la colección: actualización de la colección de Libre Acceso, liberación de espacios, reestructuración de los mismos, así como de secciones, y mejora de reubicación de los fondos bibliográficos.Currently, the collection management needs a set of tools and actions that contribute to its ongoing evaluation. Its aim is to achieve a significant collection adapted to the users needs. Among the highlighted actions we emphasize the weeding. We analyze the evaluation process, relegation and weeding in the Maimonides Library, University of Córdoba, the factors that determine their location, their periodicity, sequential intervention, services involved, timing and objectives. All actions are part of a self-regulatory process of the collection and ongoing evaluation of it. We expose the characteristics of Maimonides library’s collections, their origin, their evolution, the library holdings under the weeding and the considered exceptions. Furthermore, we develop an analysis of the previous actions, to the implementation of the process, which consisted in the duplicated book’s donations. These actions were put into practice since the library creation. The results are considered a basic tool in management collection, such as the update of the collection of free access, freedom of space, restructuring them, as well as sections, recolocation and improvement of library collections

Structural Dissection of the Active Site of Thermotoga maritima β-Galactosidase Identifies Key Residues for Transglycosylating Activity

Manuscript of the article published in print 13 April 2016. The Supporting Information is available free of charge on the ACS Publications website at DOI:10.1021/acs.jafc.6b00222 .Glycoside hydrolases, specifically β-galactosidases, can be used to synthesize galacto-oligosaccharides (GOS) due to the transglycosylating (secondary) activity of these enzymes. Site-directed mutagenesis of a thermoresistant β-galactosidase from Thermotoga maritima has been carried out to study the structural basis of transgalactosylation and to obtain enzymatic variants with better performance for GOS biosynthesis. Rational design of mutations was based on homologous sequence analysis and structural modeling. Analysis of mutant enzymes indicated that residue W959, or an alternative aromatic residue at this position, is critical for the synthesis of β-3′-galactosyl-lactose, the major GOS obtained with the wild-type enzyme. Mutants W959A and W959C, but not W959F, showed an 80% reduced synthesis of this GOS. Other substitutions, N574S, N574A, and F571L, increased the synthesis of β-3′-galactosyl-lactose about 40%. Double mutants F571L/N574S and F571L/N574A showed an increase of about 2-fold.This work was funded by grant BIO2013-48779-C4-3-R, from Spain's 'Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación'. D T-P was supported by a FPU fellowship from 'Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad'.Peer reviewe

Combinatorial Saturation Mutagenesis by in vivo Overlap Extension for the Engineering of Fungal Laccases

Combinatorial saturation mutagenesis -CSM- is a valuable tool for improving enzymatic properties from hot-spot residues discovered by directed enzyme evolution or performing semi-rational studies. CSM coupled to a reliable high-throughput screening assay -CV below 10 %- has been used to enhance turnover rates in the fungal laccase variant T2 from Myceliophthora thermophila. The influence of the highly conserved pentapeptide 509-513 on the redox potential of blue-copper containing enzymes is well described. We focused combinatorial saturation mutagenesis in residues Ser510 and Leu513. Libraries were constructed in Saccharomyces cerevisiae by in vivo overlap extension -IVOE- of the PCR products. This methodology provides a simple manner to build CSM libraries avoiding extra PCR reactions, by-products formation and in vitro ligation steps. After exploring more than 1,700 clones, mutant (7E1) with 3-fold better kinetics than parent type was found. 7E1 showed one synonymous mutation (L513L, CGT/TTG) and beneficial mutation S510G (TCG/GGG) which can not be achieved by conventional error-prone PCR techniques. Mutation S510G seems to affect the C-terminal plug, which modulates the transit of water and oxygen to the trinuclear copper cluster.This material is based upon work founded by Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (project VEM2004-08559), Comunidad de Madrid/CSIC (project 20058M121) and Ramón y Cajal Research Program. MZ thanks Gobierno Vasco for fellowship.Peer reviewe

Underprediction of extirpation and colonisation following climate and land-use change using species distribution models

AimTo evaluate the performance of species distribution models in predicting observed colonisations, persistences and extirpations in response to changes in climate and land use over a multi-decadal period.LocationSweden.MethodsWe use historical (early 20th century) land use and climate data to build species distribution models for 84 plant species across three provinces of Sweden. Model performance was then evaluated internally using a subset of the historical data for cross-validation, as well as by using the models to project occurrences to the modern day and validating them with observed occurrences from 1990 to 2020. We then analysed predicted and observed occurrences in the modern period in terms of persistence, extirpation (local extinction) and colonisation in relation to species' habitat and climate associations.ResultsWe found overall high agreement between evaluation methods, although internal evaluation gave consistently higher values for model performance (using true skill statistic, TSS). Overall, extirpations were worst predicted, with on average fewer than one-third of each species' extirpations being foreseen by the models. Colonisations were better predicted, while persistences were relatively well-predicted. Predictive accuracy of colonisations was higher for species with relatively warmer temperature associations (climate-driven expansion), while extirpations were better predicted in cool-related species (retractions at cool edges). Colonisations of forest-associated species were more common than predicted (underpredicted), despite widespread patterns of afforestation. Assessing grid-cell level turnover, we found that in grid cells that experienced the largest changes in terms of climate and land use, predicted extirpations were less likely to have happened.Main ConclusionsWe found that commonly applied modelling approaches have limited ability to predict observed changes in species occurrences, especially extirpations. This suggests that we should take predictions of future biodiversity loss very seriously. However, the ability for species to (at least temporarily) persist in unsuitable conditions could be an opportunity for biodiversity conservation

La celebración litúrgica es también 'fuente' de la vida cristiana: un valor fundamental y un interrogante en pie después del XXX aniversario de la 'Sacrosanctum concilium'

La liturgia, fuente de la vida cristiana (Vaticano II). Nuevos retos posconciliares: acentuación de lo antropológico; divorcio entre liturgia y praxis; el secularismo; la privatización de lo religioso y la pérdida del lenguaje simbólico. El misterio de Cristo, centro de la liturgia