Universidad Catolica De Valparaiso Research Articles

Análisis de los determinantes del rendimiento académico. El caso de Contador Auditor de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso

This article proposes an econometric model that allows to determine the number of semesters a student in the Accountant Auditor career of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso (Chile) invests in completing his university degree. In addition, it is about identifying the factors, related to academic performance or not, that determine this duration. The results obtained show how variables of both types affect the duration of university studies. In relation to the variables associated with academic performance, the average grades in the subject areas of finance and mathematics are the most influential in the duration of the career of Auditor Accountant. In addition, the age, the type of establishment where the previous studies were conducted, and the sex of the students have been identified as valid predictors of the academic performance of the graduates.

What have we done in 20 years? Where are we headed today? Interview with Roberto Martínez Kraushaar

Roberto Martinez Kraushaar was born in Osorno, Chile. He graduated from the German Institute of Osorno and later obtained his degree in architecture from Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. In 1986, he moved to Dusseldorf, Germany, where he takes postgraduate studies in Advanced Architectural Design at Dusseldorf Arts Academy, with professors Ernst Kasper, Laurids Ortner, James Stirling, Oswald M. Ungers, and Elia Zenghelis. During his stay in Germany, he worked for the project division of architecture firms Schiel & Possekel, Overdiek Petzinka & Partner, and Ortner & Ortner – Baukunst, and was the director of the projects and contest division of architecture firm Giese & Bohne Architekten. With his team, in 1991 he was awarded at the EUROPAN II European Contest (Living in the City). In 1994, he founded the Architecture School at Universidad de Los Lagos together with architect Eduardo Vargas Herrera, of which he is the director until 2000. In 1996, he established the architecture office Biskupovic y Martinez Arquitectos Ltda. and in 2005, the architecture office “ARKSUR”. In 2000, he founded the School of Architecture and the Institute of Architecture and Urban Development at Universidad Austral de Chile, where he was the director of both the school and the institute. In 2014, he founded the School of Architecture and Arts at Universidad Austral de Chile, of which he was dean until August 2020.

OPÓR NATURALNY. AMEREIDA JAKO NIEHEROICZNA WYPRAWA I UNIWERSYTET BEZWARUNKOWY

Przez metaforyczne wyrażenie „opór naturalny” autorka wskazuje na wciąż aktualne przekonanie o konieczności odkrywania „morza wewnętrznego” Ameryki Łacińskiej, nieustającego wysiłku „obmyślania Ameryki na nowo” (M.L. Pratt). Przypomina złożone, ambiwalentne, konsekwencje opisów natury A. von Humboldta dla tożsamości i historii Nowego Świata (wzmożenie kulturowych efektów kolonizacji a zarazem wpływ na polityczną dekolonizację kontynentu). Ten historyczny kontekst jest istotny dla rozumienia projektu dekolonizacyjnego zwanego Amereida, w którym wykorzystano „słabe”, tj. poetyckie, artystyczne narzędzia oporu. Barbaruk przedstawia zrealizowaną w 1965 r. przez architektów, poetów i artystów związanych z Universidad Católica de Valparaíso wyprawę (travesía) z Ziemi Ognistej do Santa Cruz de la Sierra (Boliwia) oraz założone przez nich Miasto Otwarte (1970), w którym połączyli pracę, życie i edukację studentów. Podporządkowanie architektury poezji stanowi według autorki praktykę dekonstrukcyjną, która ma na celu realizację przypisanego uniwersytetowi oporu wobec świata zewnętrznego. Miasto Otwarte stanowić może model „uniwersytetu bezwarunkowego” (J. Derrida), ale też latourowskiego „przedmiotu opornego” (problem odcięcia się grupy od rzeczywistości społeczno politycznej za czasów dyktatury A. Pinocheta).

Dissipative structures in matter out of equilibrium: from chemistry, photonics and biology, the legacy of Ilya Prigogine (part 1)

The idea of this theme issue emerged during the XIV international Workshop on Instabilities and Non-equilibrium Structures , which took place on 4–7 December 2017 in Valparaiso, Chile. This workshop, organized by the University of Chile and the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso, was dedicated to the memory of Ilya Prigogine, who stimulated the development of research in the areas of nonlinear physics, non-equilibrium thermodynamics and statistical mechanics in South America, especially in Chile. There are two reasons to pay tribute to Ilya Prigogine in 2017. This year corresponds both to the centenary of his birth and to the 50th anniversary of his theory of dissipative structures . It was indeed in 1967, on the occasion of an important scientific meeting, that for the first time he explained this concept. The resounding progress he reported has been described as marking the end of the tyranny of equilibrium in thermodynamics. He not only increased our knowledge of the fundamental …

Human Rights-Based Approach to Disaster Management: Valparaiso, Chile

An overview of the devastating April 2014 wildfire that destroyed a large number of homes and killed 15 people in the communities surrounding Valparaiso, Chile, is provided. Utilizing a human rights-based framework, a qualitative study was conducted 6 months after the disaster to examine the community’s response. Interviews were held with formal and informal community leaders, as well as community organizers and members of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso (PUCV). These interviews depicted a number of interrelated variables and, most notably, a strong sense of community emerged, which was consistent with the informal system in place among the residents of the Upper Hills. This informal support system emerged over the years due to a lack of capacity in place by the local government. The findings of this study could be held as an example for other communities who find little support or resources from their local governments. Findings from the research provide direction and steps to enhance preparedness and build capacity for communities, especially in times of both man-made and natural disasters.

Pasantía en Chile: una ampliación de saberes y conocimientos sobre la educación infantil

El presente artículo pretende hacer una reflexión a partir de las visitas a los programas de formación parvularia de las universidades Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile y Universidad de Valparaíso (Facultad de Medicina); lo cual fue posible por la modalidad de pasantía que ofrece el Tecnológico de Antioquia a los estudiantes a través de la oficina de internacionalización. Éste se desarrollará en tres momentos: inicialmente abordaremos la relación entre los programas de formación universitaria (Tecnológico de Antioquia y las Universidades visitadas en Chile); en seguida, indicaremos las concordancias y discrepancias entre los programas de Buen Comienzo y Chile Crece Contigo, así como, las condiciones de los docentes en Chile y Colombia y, finalmente, se darán algunas sugerencias.

Redes de colaboración académica: el caso de las coautorías de artículos presentados en la Conferencia Académica Permanente de Investigación Contable –Capic– (1993-2015)

En la actualidad, el fomento a la producción científica universitaria se centra en la creación de redes de colaboración. En este sentido, en el año 1990 se creó la sociedad científica Capic –Conferencia Académica Permanente de Investigación Contable–, institución que alberga, principalmente, a académicos adscritos a universidades chilenas, tanto públicas como privadas. Bajo este contexto, el propósito de esta investigación se relaciona con identificar en qué medida la participación de investigadores en la Capic, durante el período 1992-2015, ha generado redes de colaboración, así como identificar los principales atributos y las estructuras internas de dichas redes. Los hallazgos demuestran que la macro red generada durante dos décadas posee baja cohesión, con alta fragmentación, y un predominio del género masculino. Desde una perspectiva micro, el análisis de las ocho principales redes evidencia un predominio de ciertas universidades, siendo la micro red con mayor integrantes la configurada principalmente, por académicos de la Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.
 Además, se observa que posiciones relevantes en torno a la conexión y la cercanía con otros investigadores son asumidas por mujeres; aun cuando en la mayoría de las redes predomina el género masculino. Por último, otro resultado se asocia a la existencia de una micro red conectada internacionalmente, en concreto con investigadores de Colombia, Argentina, y Chile. Futuras investigaciones deben profundizar en identificar los capitales de las redes con la finalidad de visualizar y gestionar dichos recursos –económicos, intelectuales, culturales, sociales–; para fomentar la conectividad entre investigadores con intereses comunes, facilitando la localización de redes con ventajas estructurales que fomenten una mayor productividad entre los académicos que participan en la Capic.

Isolation of the intracellular and extracellular polysaccharides of Ganoderma neojaponicum (Imazeki) and characterization of their immunomodulatory properties

abstract Article history:Received 16 July 2014Accepted 20 February 2015Available online 1 April 2015Keywords:β-GlucanAcute oral toxicityMacrophage cell linePhagocytosisStirred tank reactorTotal carbohydrate Background: The role of polysaccharides isolated from the Ganoderma species of fungi in innate immunity hasrecently become a topic of research. Although some work has been conducted concerning Ganoderma lucidum,the characteristics of polysaccharides isolated from Ganoderma neojaponicum (Imazeki) as immunomodulatoryagents are largely unknown. The aims for this study were to isolate and characterize the intracellularpolysaccharides (IPSs) and extracellular polysaccharides (EPSs) of G. neojaponicum from STR reactor.Results:TheproductionofEPSandIPSwasoptimizedonday4ofthecultivationtimein2LSTRreactorbasedontheamountof biomass yield,total carbohydrate, β-glucan and α-glucancontent. Further analysis, both theEPSsand IPSs showed the enhancement on proliferation and increment of phagocytosis activities of macrophage(RAW264.7) cell lines. Using an oral toxicity test, we also observed that 2000 mg/kg body weight/day dosageof dried G. neojaponicum mycelium does not cause any significant toxic effects on Sprague–Dawley rats in 14 dof administration.Conclusion: The findingsof this study indicate that the IPSs and EPSs of G. neojaponicum have the potential to beused as immunomodulating agents to stimulate the innate immune system for fighting infectious diseases. Thepolysaccharides from G. neojaponicum have to be further commercially explored as an alternative formedicinal Ganoderma variety of G. lucidum production.©2015Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Talleres de Obra en Ciudad Abierta de Amereida

This experience takes place in the Workshop of the School of Architecture and Design of the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso (EAD-PUCV) develope...

Molecular cloning and expression analysis of the MaASR1 gene in banana and functional characterization under salt stress

abstract Article history:Received 7 June 2014Accepted 13 August 2014Available online 18 September 2014Keywords:ASRBananaExpression patternsSalt resistance Background:Abscisicacid(ABA)-,stress-andripenin g-inducedprotein(ASR)isplant-speci fichydrophilictranscriptionalregulatorsinvolvedinsucrosestr essandwoundinginbanana.However,itisnotknownwhetherbanana ASR genesconfersalt stress tolerance. The contexts of the study was to analysis the sequence characterization of banana ASR1,andidentifyits expression patterns and function under salt stress using quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) and overexpression inArabidopsis . The purpose was to evaluate the role of banana ASR1 to salt stress tolerance employed by plants.Results: Afull-lengthcDNAisolatedfrombananafruitwasnamed MaASR1,andithada432bpopenreadingframe(ORF)encoding 143 amino acids. MaASR1 was preferential expression in roots and leaves compared to low expression in fruits,rhizomes and flowers. Under salt stress, the expression of MaASR1 quickly increased and highest expression level wasdetected in roots and leaves at 4 h, and then gradually decreased. These results suggested that MaASR1 expression wasinduced under salt stress. MaASR1 protein was localized in the nucleus and plasma membrane. MaASR1 wastransformed to Arabidopsis and veri fied by southern and northern analysis, tran sgenic lines L14 and L38 integrated oneand two copies of MaASR1, respectively, while overexpression in tran sgenic lines provided evidence for the role ofMaASR1 to salt stress tolerance.Conclusions: This study demonstrated that overexpression of MaASR1 in Arabidopsis confers salt stress tolerance byreducing the expression of ABA/stress -responsive genes, but does not affect the expression of the ABA-independentpathway and biosynth esis pathway genes.©2014Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Callus culture development of two varieties of Tagetes erecta and carotenoid production

abstract Article history:Received 8 January 2013Accepted 17 January 2014Available online 9 May 2014Keywords:2,4-DBACell developmentLuteinMarigold Background:Thepropertiesofnaturalpigments,suchasantioxidants,functional,medical,andnutraceutical,havedemonstratedtheadvantagesofthesenaturalcompoundsoversyntheticones.Someproductsareacceptedonlywhen they are pigmented with natural, food-quality colorants: for example poultry products (manly marigoldflower extracts). Carotenoids such as β-carotene, β-criptoxanthin and lutein are very attractive as natural foodcolorants due to their antioxidant and pro-vitamin activities which provide additional value to the targetproducts.Marigold (Tagetes erecta)isan Asteraceous ornamentalplantnativetoMexico,anditisalsoimportantasa carotenoid source for industrial and medicinalpurposesbut nowadays its production isdestined mainlyforornamental purposes.Results: Friable callus of T. erecta yellow flower (YF) and white flower (WF) varieties was induced from leafexplants on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium supplemented with 9.0 μM 4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid(2,4-D) and 8.8 μM benzyladenine (BA). Calluses developed from both varieties were different in pigmentation.Extract characterization from callus cultures was carried out by high-performance liquid chromatography(HPLC). This analytical process detected several carotenoids; the main pigments in extracts from YF calluswereluteinandzeaxanthin,whereasintheextractsoftheWFcallusthemainpigmentswerelutein,zeaxanthin,β-cryptoxanthin and β-carotene. Callus cultures of T. erecta accumulated pigments even after several rounds ofsubculture.Conclusions:WFcallusappearedtobeasuitablecandidateasasou rceofdifferentcarotenoids,andtestedvarietiescould represent an alternative for further studies about in vitro pigment production.© 2014 Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

A simple negative selection method to identify adenovirus recombinants using colony PCR

Background: The AdEasy system is a fast-track system for generating recombinant adenoviruses using the efficient homologous recombination machinery between shuttle and adenovirus backbone plasmids in Escherichia coli BJ5183 cells. The key step is homologous recombination in BJ5183 cells, which is driven by RecA activity. However, culture time is stringently limited to reduce the damage to recombinant plasmids by RecA activity. Therefore, rapid identification of recombinant adenoviruses within the limited time-period is critical. Results: We developed a simple negative selection method to identify recombinant adenoviruses using colony PCR, which improves the efficiency of adenovirus recombination screening and packaging. Conclusions: The negative selection method to identify AdEasy adenovirus recombinants by colony PCR can identify the recombined colony within a short time-period, and maximally avoid damage to the recombinant plasmid by limiting recombination time, resulting in improved adenovirus packaging. © 2014 Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Comparison of different methods for total RNA extraction from sclerotia of Rhizoctonia solani

800x600 Normal 0 21 false false false ES-CL X-NONE X-NONE Background: Rhi zoctonia solani (teleomorph: Thanatephorus cucumeris ) is one of the most important pathogens of rice ( Oryza sativa L.) that causes severe yield losses in all rice-growing regions. Sclerotia, formed from the aggregation of hyphae, are important structures in the life cycles of R. solani and contain a large quantity of polysaccharides, lipids, proteins and pigments. In order to extract high-quality total RNA from the sclerotia of R. solani , five methods, including E.Z.N.A. TM Fungal RNA Kit, sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS)-sodium borate, SDS- polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP), guanidinium thiocyanate (GTC) and modified Trizol, were compared in this study. Results: The electrophoresis results showed that it failed to extract total RNA from the sclerotia using modified Trizol method, whereas it could extract total RNA from the sclerotia using other four methods. Further experiments confirmed that the total RNA extracted using SDS-sodium borate, SDS-PVP and E.Z.N.A. TM Fungal RNA Kit methods could be used for RT-PCR of the specific amplification of GAPDH gene fragments, and that extracted using GTC method did not fulfill the requirement for above-mentioned RT-PCR experiment. Conclusion : It is concluded that SDS-sodium borate and SDS-PVP methods were the better ones for the extraction of high-quality total RNA that could be used for future gene cloning and expression studies, whereas E.Z.N.A. TM Fungal RNA Kit was not taken into consideration when deal with a large quantity of samples because it is expensive and relatively low yield. © 2014 Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso. Production and hosting by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Diagnóstico de dificultades de la evaluación del aprendizaje en la universidad: un caso particular en Chile

The general features of learning assessment at the university level are associated with a traditional concept of individualistic assessment focused on the memorization of contents, primarily for the purpose of grading. The situation at the Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso (Chile) prompted a diagnosis of how teachers in different faculties assess student learning. This was done with questionnaires for students and teachers alike, and through educational workshops. Among the most important conclusions, it was found that teachers were able to identify clearly the technical features of the procedures that make assessments valid and reliable. In terms of evaluation criteria, one of the main difficulties they faced was explaining the kind of quality they expected students to show in their work. There was consensus on two processes teachers regard as highly important: feedback and self-evaluation/co-assessment. However, those processes have not been implemented owing to lack of knowledge about the appropriate strategies.

Improved sanitary landfill design using recirculation of anaerobically treated leachates: generation of advanced design criteria

Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol.13 No.3, Issue of May 15, 2010 © 2010 by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso -- Chile Received November 19, 2007 / Accepted November 3, 2009

Biocontrol capacity of wild and mutant Trichoderma harzianum (Rifai) strains on Rhizoctonia solani 618: effect of temperature and soil type during storage

Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol.12 No.4, Issue of October 15, 2009 © 2009 by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso -- Chile Received December 2, 2008 / Accepted June 29, 2009

Novel antimicrobial secondary metabolites from a Penicillium sp. isolated from Brazilian cerrado soil.

Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol.12 No.4, Issue of October 15, 2009 © 2009 by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso -- Chile Received May 25, 2008 / Accepted September 6, 2009

Analysis of diversity among six populations of Colombian mango (Mangifera indica L. cvar. Hilacha) using RAPDs markers

Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol.12 No.3, Issue of July 15, 2009 © 2009 by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso -- Chile Received September 26, 2008 / Accepted April 13, 2009

Gene expression and characterization of 2-keto-3-deoxy-gluconate kinase, a key enzyme in the modified Entner-Doudoroff pathway of Serratia marcescens KCTC 2172

Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol.12 No.3, Issue of July 15, 2009 © 2009 by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso -- Chile Received September 2, 2008 / Accepted April 29, 2009

PCR assembly of synthetic human erythropoietin gene

Electronic Journal of Biotechnology ISSN: 0717-3458 Vol.12 No.3, Issue of July 15, 2009 © 2009 by Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Valparaiso -- Chile Received June 4, 2008 / Accepted January 23, 2009