Universitat De Barcelona Research Articles

Self-learning by Using Code-Based Games: An Easy Way to Learn Biomolecule’s Nomenclature

The Montessori method was an educational model devised at the beginning of the 20th century by the Italian pedagogue, physician, psychologist, and psychiatrist María Montessori (1870-1952). She observed that her students activated their intelligence and developed their personality by carrying out manual activities. In recent years, one of the activities that she used, gamification, is currently booming in teaching. Games based in words or letters are often used in language learning, either in presential lessons or in mobile applications. In our teaching innovation group (GINDOC-UB/180), we proposed to adapt those word games using codes so that students could achieve a self-learning on the nomenclature of biomolecules, thus improving their knowledge in metabolism. These code-based games were proposed to Biochemistry students at the Chemistry degree of the Universitat de Barcelona. Games were posted on the Virtual Campus using Moodle. A code is part of a communicative system, and it is defined as a set of elements that allows a message to be decoded. In biochemistry, the best-known code is the genetic code that translates 3 nucleotides to an amino acid. The code allows the students to see that it is a degenerated code, and it was the first code-based game used. Nevertheless, only 20 amino acids are involved, and some letters are missing. Thus, we also used other codes such as numeric codes, Morse code, Braille system code, or codes from other alphabets (Japanese katakana or hiragana, Cyrillic alphabet, Arabic alphabet, or runic alphabet). In this work some examples of the games that can be proposed to the students are shown. Proposed games were highly valued by students and allowed a self-learning on the proposed biomolecules. Games based on the genetic code were easier and more enjoyable for the students to solve, and they provided them with additional biochemical knowledge of protein translation.

Cluster Preface: Special Issue Honoring Masahiro Murakami’s Contributions to Science

Abstract Ruben Martin (left) was born in Barcelona in 1976. After receiving his PhD at the Universitat de Barcelona with Prof. Antoni Riera, he moved in January 2004 to the Max-Planck-Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim, as a Humboldt postdoctoral fellow with Prof. Alois Fürstner, where he worked on iron cross-coupling reactions. In May 2005, he undertook further postdoctoral studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with Prof. Stephen L. Buchwald where he developed new metal-catalyzed C–C and C–N bond-forming reactions. In September 2008, he initiated his independent career as an Assistant Professor at ICIQ (Tarragona). In July 2013, he was promoted to Associate Professor and subsequently to ICREA Research Professor. His research interests concern the discovery and development of synthetically useful organo­metallic methodologies. Masahiro Murakami (right) studied chemistry at the University of ­Tokyo under the supervision of Professor Mukaiyama, receiving his doctoral degree in science in 1984. He started his career with a research assistant position to Professor Mukaiyama at the same place. In 1987, he moved to Kyoto University to take a research assistant position to the late Professor Yoshihiko Ito (1937–2006). He took a leave from May in 1991 to March in 1992 to work for Professor Albert Eschenmoser at ETH Zürich as a post-doctoral fellow. He then returned to Kyoto, being promoted to Associate Professor in 1993 and Professor in 2002. In March 2022, he retired from Kyoto University. His research interests include the development of synthetically useful, yet mechanistically interesting, organic sections, and the utilization of photo-energy for organic synthesis.

Becoming Molecular as a Condition for Creating New Spaces of Freedom

This volume includes texts by authors who are explicitly inspired by the ecosophical pragmatics of Félix Guattari or who resonate with it. Published in a blend of English and Spanish, the thirteen articles were written by researchers, artists, art historians, philosophers, and schizoanalysts from Asia, America, and Europe. Their methods, ideas, and approaches highlight the ability of creative practice to map and engender complex, relational, singularized, transversal, and constitutive forms of life. Departing from bold analyses of capitalism’s mechanisms of subjection, their contributions describe how art is able to resist the repressive politics of dominant representations and mobilize processes of existential heterogenesis through molecular becomings. The origin of this publication is the IV International Symposium Mutant ecologies in contemporary art: machinic capitalism, molecular beings, and subsistence territories that took place online on November 25-26, 2020, which had as special guest the philosopher and art theorist Gerald Raunig. This special issue of the Journal of Global Studies and Contemporary Art builds on the project started with the book Mutating Ecologies in Contemporary Art (Edicions de la Universitat de Barcelona) which investigated the conjunction of the ecological turn in contemporary art and Guattarian ecosophy to inquire about the role of art in light of the challenges posed by the environmental degradation and the socio-political crises of today. Thirty years after Guattari’s death and the publication of Chaosmosis (1992), this collection of texts testifies that Guattari’s clinical and critical analyses continue to infuse artistic, ecological, and political practice with a revolutionary potential.

SOBRE MANUSCRITS I INCUNABLES, DELS TROBADORS AL MÓN WIKI: HOMENATGE A GEMMA AVENOZA

This article introduces the monograph “On manuscripts and incunabula, from troubadours to the wiki word: Homage to Gemma Avenoza”, which includes eight studies from various authors dealing with these subjects, as a festschrift for the late Prof. Gemma Avenoza (Universitat de Barcelona).

Assessment strategies in mixed learning applied in IT engineering and mathematics studies

During the past COVID pandemical crisis, teachers at any level must to adapt their teaching methodologies to online learning environment. One of the fear most aspects was the course assessment. Nonetheless, a lot of teachers were attracted to use news tools, that previously exists in their online platforms. In Universitat de Barcelona learning was developed in a mixed form after the first COVID crisis, doing some activities online and others, like final semester exams, in person. During this phase, we have carried out a questionnaire among students and teachers to know their opinion about assessment tasks during these semesters where online learning was more important than any time before. The results we have recollected shows that professors and students not always share the same point of view about usefulness of different assessment strategies or how they are linked to competence and skills achievements.

Learning by engaging

The Universitat de Barcelona research group in teaching innovation GIDTAAVE organized the 2nd International Conference in Experiences in Active Learning in Higher Education, which was held online on 5 November, 2021. The aim of the conference was to provide a forum for high-quality research in teaching innovation in higher education, focusing on active learning methodologies. The event provided an excellent opportunity for lecturers from different universities to discuss their work in a relaxed atmosphere and to develop long-term collaborative relationships. Specifically, twelve papers were presented by authors from different Spanish Universities (Universidad de Salamanca, Universidad de Cantabria, Universidad de Navarra, Universidad Juan Carlos I and Universidad Carlos III, to name a few), who had the opportunity to share their experiences with other colleagues. Each session was followed by fruitful discussions among the participants. The keynote speech of the conference was given by Steven Proud, who is currently the Director of Undergraduate Studies and a Reader in Economics Education in the School of Economics at the University of Bristol. Steven Proud gave a very interesting talk entitled “What are the barriers to active learning in economics?”.

Histone H4 acetylation is dysregulated in active seminiferous tubules adjacent to testicular tumours.

Is histone H4 acetylation (H4ac) altered in the seminiferous tubules of patients affected by testicular tumours? A considerable dysregulation of H4ac was detected in the cells of the seminiferous tubules adjacent to testicular tumours of different aetiology and prior to any treatment, while no comparable alterations were observed in patients with disrupted spermatogenesis. Altered H4ac levels have been associated with a variety of testicular pathological conditions. However, no information has been available regarding potential alterations in the spermatogenic cells adjacent to the neoplasia in testicular tumour patients. A retrospective analysis using testicular sections from 33 men aged between 21 and 74 years old was performed. Three study groups were defined and subjected to double-blind evaluation: a control group with normal spermatogenesis (n = 6), patients with testicular tumours (n = 18) and patients with spermatogenic impairments (n = 8). One additional sample with normal spermatogenesis was used as a technical internal control in all evaluations. Immunohistochemistry against H4ac and, when needed, Placental-like alkaline phosphatase and CD117, was performed on testicular sections. The H4ac H-score, based on the percentage of detection and signal intensity, was used as the scoring method for statistical analyses. Protein expression data from the Human Protein Atlas were used to compare the expression levels of predicted secreted proteins from testicular tumours with those present in the normal tissue. We revealed, for the first time, a dramatic disruption of the spermatogenic H4ac pattern in unaffected seminiferous tubule cells from different testicular tumour patients prior to any antineoplastic treatment, as compared to controls (P < 0.05). Since no similar alterations were associated with spermatogenic impairments and the in silico analysis revealed proteins potentially secreted by the tumour to the testicular stroma, we propose a potential paracrine effect of the neoplasia as a mechanistic hypothesis for this dysregulation. Statistical analyses were not performed on the hypospermatogenesis and Leydig cell tumour groups due to limited availability of samples. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report showing an epigenetic alteration in cells from active seminiferous tubules adjacent to tumour cells in testicular tumour patients. Our results suggest that, despite presenting spermatogenic activity, the global epigenetic dysregulation found in the testicular tumour patients could lead to molecular alterations of the male germ cells. Since testicular tumours are normally diagnosed in men at reproductive age, H4ac alterations might have an impact when these testicular tumour patients express a desire for fatherhood. This work was supported by the European Union Marie Curie European Training Network actions and by grants to R.O. from the 'Ministerio de Economía y Competividad (Spain)' (fondos FEDER 'una manera de hacer Europa', PI13/00699, PI16/00346 and PI20/00936) and from EU-FP7-PEOPLE-2011-ITN289880. J.C. was supported by the Sara Borrell Postdoctoral Fellowship, Acción Estratégica en Salud, CD17/00109. J.C. is a Serra Húnter fellow (Universitat de Barcelona, Generalitat de Catalunya). F.B. has received grants from the Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte para la Formación de Profesorado Universitario (Spain) (FPU15/02306). A.d.l.I. is supported by a fellowship of the Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad (Spain) (PFIS, FI17/00224). M.J. is supported by the Government of Catalonia (Generalitat de Catalunya, pla estratègic de recerca i innovació en salut, PERIS 2016-2020, SLT002/16/00337). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare. N/A.

Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Higher Education: Characterizing the Psychosocial Context of the Positive and Negative Affective States Using Classification and Regression Trees.

Our aim is to analyze the extent to which the psychosocial aspects can characterize the affective states of the teachers, administrative staff, and undergraduate and postgraduate students during the quarantine. A questionnaire was answered by 1,328 people from the community of the Universitat de Barcelona (UB), Spain. The survey was partially designed ad hoc, collecting indicators related to sociodemographic variables, the impact of COVID on the subjects or in their personal context, the psychosocial context of coexistence and perceived social support, characteristics related to the physical context during the quarantine, and labor conditions. Additionally, it included two validated instruments: the Survey Work-Home Interaction–Nijmegen for Spanish Speaking Countries (SWING-SSC) validated in Spanish and PANAS, the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule. Classification and Regression Trees (CART) were performed to identify which variables better characterize the participants' level of positive and negative affective states. Results according to groups showed that students are the ones who have suffered the most as a result of this situation (temporary employment regulation, higher scores in negative work-home and home-work interaction, lower scores in positive home-work interaction, and negative effects of teleworking). Additionally, they reported a higher mean score in interpersonal conflict and worse scores with regard to negative affective states. Based on sex, women were the ones whose environment was shown to be more frequently affected by the pandemic and who exhibited more negative effects of teleworking. In general terms, participants with the highest scores in negative affective states were those who perceived an increase in conflict and a high negative effect from work spilling over into their personal lives. On the contrary, participants with the highest levels of positive affective states were those with medium to low levels of negative home-work interaction, over 42.5 years old, and with medium to high levels of positive work-home interaction. Our results aim to help higher education to reflect on the need to adapt to this new reality, since the institutions that keep pace with evolving trends will be able to better attract, retain, and engage all the members of the university community in the years ahead.

Cerebral perfusion responses to active standing are attenuated in patients with vasovagal syncope

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Irish Research Council (IRC): Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme 2018, Dublin, Ireland Fundació Universitària Agustí Pedro i Pons, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain Background Syncope is a transient loss of consciousness due to cerebral hypoperfusion. While traditionally peripheral haemodynamics are monitored during clinical assessment of syncope, relatively little is known about cerebrovascular haemodynamics during orthostasis in patients with syncope. Purpose Here we investigated whether young patients with syncope present an altered cerebral perfusion when compared to healthy controls. Given potential hyper-reactivity of the autonomic nervous system previously reported in these patients, we hypothesise that an overly active cerebral autoregulation will be present in patients with syncope. Methods Consecutive patients were prospectively recruited from a National Falls and Syncope Unit, and a convenience sample of young healthy community dwelling adults was recruited from a local university (16-30 years). Participants performed a 3 minute active stand test with continuous measurement of beat-to-beat peripheral haemodynamics (blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR)) and changes in concentration of oxygenated Δ[O2Hb] and deoxygenated Δ[HHb] haemoglobin were derived from a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) monitor. Baseline, steady state and other time domain features were derived for Δ[O2Hb] (nadir, overshoot, overshoot-to-nadir, overshoot-to-nadir recovery rate) and Δ[HHb] (peak, trough, peak-to-trough, peak-to-trough recovery rate) and multiple linear regression was used to compare differences between the two groups correcting for covariates (p &amp;lt; 0.05 significant). Results Patients (n = 40) were younger (20(5.5) vs 23(1) years, p = 0.003) than controls (n = 17) and were well matched in gender, weight, height, BMI and resting haemodynamics. Patients had a smaller Δ[O2Hb] overshoot-to-nadir difference (β: -0.749, CI:(-1.593 0.094), p = 0.08), a slower Δ[O2Hb] recovery rate (β: -0.186, CI:(-0.388 0.016), p = 0.071), and smaller Δ[HHb] peak-to-trough difference (β: -0.530, CI:( -0.921 0.138), p = 0.018) and slower Δ[HHb] recovery rate (β: -0.151, CI: (0.244 0.057), p = 0.008). Conclusion Patients with syncope had signs of an attenuated cerebral oxygenation response to an AS when compared to controls. We hypothesise that this is due to hyper-reactive cerebral autoregulation mechanism, which might be related to a hyper-sensitive autonomic system. Furthering our understanding of vasovagal syncope physiology can help inform future interventions and treatments. This study shows the clinical value of measuring cerebral perfusion using NIRS, an easy to use and readily applicable tool, in the assessment of syncope. Abstract Figure. Cerebral oxygenation upon standing

Do patients with syncope have a hyper-reactive autonomic nervous system?

Abstract Funding Acknowledgements Type of funding sources: Public grant(s) – National budget only. Main funding source(s): Irish Research Council (IRC): Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme 2018, Dublin, Ireland Fundació Universitària Agustí Pedro i Pons, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain. Background The origin of syncope, a transient loss of consciousness due to cerebral hypoperfusion, remains unclear. Recent studies suggest that a hypersensitive autonomic nervous system might be involved in the pathophysiology of vasovagal syncope (VVS). Purpose Here we test the hypothesis that patients with VVS have a hyper-reactive autonomic nervous system by investigating the peripheral haemodynamic responses during a standing (AS) test in a group of young VVS patients vs a control group. Methods A prospective sample of consecutive patients from a National Falls and Syncope Unit was recruited, and a convenience sample of young healthy community dwelling adults was recruited from a local university (16-30 years). Participants performed a 3 minute AS with continuous measurement of beat-to-beat blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and cerebral oxygenation measured with near infrared spectroscopy. Baseline, steady-state and other time domain features were obtained for systolic BP (SBP) (i.e. nadir, overshoot, overshoot-to-nadir, overshoot-to-nadir recovery rate) and for HR (i.e. peak, trough, peak-to-trough, peak-to-trough recovery rate). Multiple linear regression was used to compare these features between patients and controls while correcting for covariates (p &amp;lt; 0.05 significant). Results Forty patients and 17 controls were included, the former group being younger ((20(5.5) vs 23(1) years, p = 0.003). During steady-state standing SBP was higher as compared to controls (β: 6.853, CI: (0.713 12.993), p = 0.029). Patient data trended toward lower steady-state HR (β: -5.262, CI:(-11.201 0.677), p = 0.081), together with a larger peak-to-trough difference (β: 7.212, CI:(1.329 -15.754), p = 0.096). Conclusion These results tend to support the hypothesis and previous literature suggesting the presence of autonomic hyper-reactivity in patients with syncope, presenting as an exaggerated peripheral circulatory response to standing. Understanding the pathophysiology of VVS can help us improve its assessment and develop better treatment pathways for these patients. Abstract Figure.

Tuning Magnetic Relaxation in Square-Pyramidal Dysprosium Single-Molecule Magnets Using Apical Alkoxide Ligands

Tuning Magnetic Relaxation in Square-Pyramidal Dysprosium Single-Molecule Magnets Using Apical Alkoxide Ligands

Correction to ‘AMPA receptor auxiliary subunits emerged during early vertebrate evolution by neo/subfunctionalization of unrelated proteins’

Open AccessMoreSectionsView PDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditEmail Cite this article Ramos-Vicente D. and Bayés À. 2020Correction to ‘AMPA receptor auxiliary subunits emerged during early vertebrate evolution by neo/subfunctionalization of unrelated proteins’Open Biol.10200374200374http://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200374SectionOpen AccessCorrectionsCorrection to ‘AMPA receptor auxiliary subunits emerged during early vertebrate evolution by neo/subfunctionalization of unrelated proteins’ D. Ramos-Vicente D. Ramos-Vicente Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author and À. Bayés À. Bayés http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5265-6306 Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author D. Ramos-Vicente D. Ramos-Vicente Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author and À. Bayés À. Bayés http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5265-6306 Google Scholar Find this author on PubMed Search for more papers by this author Published:16 December 2020https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200374This article corrects the followingAMPA receptor auxiliary subunits emerged during early vertebrate evolution by neo/subfunctionalization of unrelated proteins Review history Review history is available via Publons at https://publons.com/publon/10.1098/rsob.200374 Open Biol.10, 200234 (Published Online 28 October 2020) (doi:10.1098/rsob.200234)AcknowledgementsD.R.V. and A.B. financial support was provided by: BFU2012-34398, BFU2015-69717-P and RTI2018-097037-B-100 (MINECO/MCI/AEI/FEDER, EU), Career Integration Grant (ref. 304111), Ramón y Cajal Fellowship (RYC-2011-08391p), IEDI-2017-00822 and AGAUR (SGR14-297 and 2017 SGR 1776). Our gratitude to Dr David Soto (Universitat de Barcelona) who provided useful advice on this research.Footnotes© 2020 The Authors.Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. Previous Article FiguresRelatedReferencesDetailsRelated articlesAMPA receptor auxiliary subunits emerged during early vertebrate evolution by neo/subfunctionalization of unrelated proteinsOct 28, 2020, 12:00:00 AMOpen Biology This IssueDecember 2020Volume 10Issue 12 Article InformationDOI:https://doi.org/10.1098/rsob.200374PubMed:33321062Published by:Royal SocietyOnline ISSN:2046-2441History: Published online16/12/2020 License:© 2020 The Authors.Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/, which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. Citations and impact PDF Download Subjectsneuroscience

Improving the university teaching-learning process with ECO methodology: Teachers' perceptions.

This study presents the results of research focused on university teachers' perceptions of the implementation of ECO (Explore, Create, and Offer) methodology. Through teachers´ responses, the objective was to learn about the impact ECO has on both teaching and learning. The sample consists of 22 teachers from four academic fields; they implemented ECO methodology during the 2018-19 academic year with 1,350 undergraduate students and 175 Master's-level students. The participating teachers belong to five universities: Universidad de Sevilla (Spain), Universitat de Barcelona (Spain), Universidade de Vigo (Spain), Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Spain) and Universidad Nacional de La Plata (Argentina). An exploratory and descriptive study was carried out, and the data were gathered from an online survey filled in by the teachers. Twenty-eight cases were obtained, one for each course that was involved in the project. The mean values were analysed by running a Kruskal-Wallis H test and ER2 for the effect size. In addition, the thematic analysis method was used to analyse the teachers' perceptions while representing their opinions faithfully. The results showed that ECO methodology has a very positive effect on the personal development of the teachers. ECO is a methodology that comes to have revolutionary effects, improving the relationship between teachers and students, who strengthen their commitment to their own learning. It is also an excellent means for connecting students with the social and professional world outside of academia.

P0664CKDSENS, A NOVEL HEALTHCARE PLATFORM FOR CHRONIC KIDNEY DISEASE

Abstract Background and Aims The 10% of the global adult population, more than 730 million people, suffers from some degree of chronic kidney disease (CKD). From that population, a 30% is suffering from an advanced stage of the disease. Approximately 38 million of the European population is affected by an advanced stage renal disease with 1 million of new cases every year. These patients require close monitoring, which increase the burden of the disease. New tools and methods are required to improve the patients’ well-being, the perception and management of their disease, decrease the impact of the complications, as well as to delay of the progression of the disease. Method Seven partners have joined in the CKDSens consortium and are contributing to the project with different expertise and technical resources (medical, technological, educational, business and management): CreatSens Health SL, Hospital Clínic de Barcelona – Fundació Privada Clínic per a la Recerca Biomèdica, Genesis Biomed, Eurecat, Universitat de Barcelona, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, and Madopa. This consortium is a novel and unique technological platform, combining in vitro diagnostic devices and software components, that connects patients with CKD and healthcare professionals to improve the well-being of people and the efficiency of the healthcare system by monitoring relevant biomarkers out of the hospital in a simple and cost- effective connected paper-based sensors. The proposal aims to increase the quality of life of CKD patients through early diagnostics, real time monitoring and personalization of therapies. Results The CKDSens consortium is developing a novel technological platform for real-time and low-cost diagnostics for two key biomarkers in renal diseases (creatinine and potassium), which include a new point-of-care device that allows monitoring by remote control these biomarkers. The technology has been patented for both biomarkers, and it has been transferred to CreatSens, a spinoff from Universitat Rovira i Virgili. The product integrates paper-based sensors in a drop of blood analysis, wireless connectivity and a digital platform as data analytics. The aim of the consortium is to validate the use of a new medical device as a product that can fit and truly generate value and business. Through that perspective, the optimization, manufacturing and validation of the tool and the business case will be performed as a first step, while usability, end user interaction and regulatory pathway will be developed in the second step. CKDSens will afford a novel approach to embed healthcare in daily life and routine. This new strategy implies production and commercialization for prevention and diagnose where markets are well known and validated. The aim is to mimic a well-known business model such as glucometer, translating this one into renal diseases. CKDSens has risen funding for this purpose through a grant of the European Institute of Innovation and Technology (EIT Health, ID Project 19579), and it is working to have validated this device at the end of the year. This requires also a clinical validation, which will be performed in a clinical trial in the second half of the year. Conclusion CKDSens consortium has been created as a novel technological platform to develop and validate a new medical device for a remote control of patients with CKD, in order to increase the quality of life of CKD patients through early diagnostics, real time monitoring and personalization of therapies. It is expected to have this device designed and validated by the end of the year 2020 and ready for further commercialization.

The Open Access Observatory

Open Access seems to have reached a flipping point and become a real option when researchers decide where to publish. However the figures provided when someone gives percentages are not clear because there is a lack of coincidence when defining open access. In this paper we would like to explain the project initiated by two Catalan universities, the Universitat de Barcelona (UB) and the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), which decided to use a common methodology to measure the different levels of open access in their institution. A methodology that can be used by any institution around the world to make visible their evolution and trends in the Open Access movement. Moreover, we also share a methodology to estimate the expenditure on fees to publish open access. In these two research institutions there is not a central system for processing those payments and therefore we need to make estimations in order to know how much we pay each year. Again, we think this methodology can be used worldwide. Both initiatives configure the initial work of what we called the Open Access Observatory, a project that was created aimed at providing and sharing evidences, methodologies and data in relation to open access publications.

Trends in Synthetic Diamond for Electrochemical Applications

Trends in Synthetic Diamond for Electrochemical Applications

Twenty Years Working with Neighbours. Citizen Participation, Is It Possible? What We Have Learned in 20 Years

In 1999, the Governing Council of the Universitat de Barcelona approved the creation of the POLIS Research Center. Later, in 2016, the Center was ratified after passing an assessment of the Catalan Accreditation Agency (AGAUR). The Centre has an interdisciplinary vocation and brings together researchers from different research groups at the University of Barcelona and cooperates with nine European and Ibero-American universities in the fields of Arts, Architecture and Human and Social Sciences. Academically, the Centre has promoted the doctoral program Public Space and Urban Regeneration (1998–2017) and the Master’s Degree in Urban Design: Art, City, Society (since 2007) and the publication of the journal On the w@terfront. The research object of the Centre is the city and its public space and, more specifically, the role of citizens in the production of Public Art and Urban Design. For this reason, the work of the Centre covers the topics related to Urban Regeneration, Sustainability, Urban Governance, Civic Remembrance, Heritage. Throughout its twenty-year history, the Centre has developed a series of projects for citizen participation in various areas of the periphery of Barcelona: River Besòs (municipality of Sant Adrià de Besòs) La Mina neighbourhood (municipality of Sant Adrià de Besòs) and the Barcelona’s neighbourhoods of Baró de Viver and Bon Pastor. A characteristic of the work of the centre has been, and is, the endorsement of citizen participation, through an innovative approach based on enabling the creative empowerment of the neighbours within the framework of Participatory Action Research. This approach is based on a project methodology, as it is understood in various project disciplines from Art to Architecture, from Design to Engineering. This article, associated with the itinerant exhibition “20 years working with neighbours,” reviews the founding project carried out by the Centre, “Social Uses of the River Besòs” (1997–1999), analysing the lessons learned, with the aim of clarifying the research criteria that the Centre follows for the development of citizen participation projects.

Synthesis of a New Family of Soluble Epoxide Hydrolase Inhibitors, in vitro Profiling and in vivo Evaluation in a Murine Model of Acute Pancreatitis

Acute pancreatitis (AP) is a serious and life‐threatening inflammatory disease and arises as one of the most common gastrointestinal disorders worldwide. Aside from palliative treatments (analgesics, hydration, antibiotics), there is no standard therapeutic strategy for reducing inflammation in AP.Epoxyeicosatrienoic acids (EETs) are endogenous chemical mediators derived from arachidonic acid that show anti‐inflammatory, antihypertensive, analgesic, angiogenic, and anti‐atherosclerotic effects. Soluble epoxide hydrolase (sEH) converts EETs to their corresponding dihydroxyeicosatrienoic acids, whereby the biological effects of EETs are diminished, eliminated, or altered. It has been proposed that inhibition of sEH may have therapeutic effects in various inflammatory diseases.Recently, it has been studied the effects of pharmacological inhibition of sEH using TPPU, a potent sEH inhibitor (sEHI), on cerulein‐ and arginine‐induced AP murine models. The results showed a reduction of circulating and pancreatic levels of mRNA of different inflammatory cytokines and diminution of the endoplasmic reticulum stress and cell death.Herein we report the synthesis and structure‐activity relationships of a series of novel sEHI with excellent drug‐like properties. Most of them were endowed with low nanomolar or even subnanomolar IC50 values against the human and murine sEH enzyme. They also inhibited the sEH in the rat pancreatic acinar cell line AR42J. Further in vitro profiling (human and mice microsomal stability, solubility, CYP inhibition, selectivity) and pharmacokinetic studies allowed us to select a candidate for an in vivo efficacy study in a mice model of cerulein‐induced AP.We found that our candidate, administered intraperitoneally (3 mg/Kg) after the induction of AP, significantly reduced pancreatic mRNA abundance of the inflammatory cytokines tumor necrosis factor‐α, interleukins Il‐1β, Il‐6 and Il‐10; the enzymes myeloperoxidase, pancreatic amylase and pancreatic trypsin, and the chemokines MCP‐1 and CXC1.In summary, these novel results and the previously reported studies using other sEHI, strongly suggest that sEH may be a target of interest for treating AP.Support or Funding InformationWe thank Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (Agencia Estatal de Investigación) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (MINECO‐FEDER) (SAF2017‐82771 and SAF2015‐64146‐R7), Generalitat de Catalunya (2017SGR106), Spain EIT Health (Proof of concept 2016) and Fundació Bosch i Gimpera, Universitat de Barcelona (F2I grant) for funding. S.C. thanks the Universitat de Barcelona for a PhD Grant (APIF program). This work was supported in part by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences grant R01‐ES002710, and Superfund Research Program P42 ES04699.This abstract is from the Experimental Biology 2019 Meeting. There is no full text article associated with this abstract published in The FASEB Journal.

Polarization dependence of angle-resolved photoemission with submicron spatial resolution reveals emerging one-dimensionality of electrons in NbSe3

The work at Lausanne and Geneva is supported by the Swiss NSF. M.A.V. acknowledges financial support from Spanish MICIN Postdoctoral Mobility Program. S.P. acknowledges C’NANO Ile-de-France, DIM NanoK, for the support of the Nanospecs project. Work in Spain was supported by a MINECO (Grants FIS2015-64886-C5-4-P and CTQ2015-64579-C3-3-P), Generalitat de Catalunya (2017SGR1506 and 2017SGR1289), and XRQTC. E.C. acknowledges support from MINECO through the Severo Ochoa Centers of Excellence Program under Grant No. SEV-2015-0496. ICN2 is funded by the CERCA Program/ Generalitat de Catalunya, and supported by the Severo Ochoa program from Spanish MINECO (Grant No. SEV- 2017-0706). P.A. acknowledges support from the Maria de Maeztu Units of Excellence Program under Grant MDM- 2017-0767. S.C. gratefully acknowledges the Becas Chile program (CONICYT PAI/INDUSTRIA 72090772) for a doctoral grant at the Universitat de Barcelona. Synchrotron SOLEIL is supported by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and the Commissariat a l’Energie Atomique et aux energies Alternatives (CEA).

A docência universitária e a experiência: o olhar sobre uma prática educativa desenvolvida pelo professor Jorge Larrosa

A experiência requer que aquele disposto a vivenciá-la esteja também propenso a abrir-se ao desconhecido e ao inusitado. É preciso correr riscos, pois ela é passional e, por isso, desencadeadora dos sentimentos e emoções os quais nem sempre dominamos. Possibilitar a vivência de experiências está cada vez mais difícil na atualidade visto que ela exige o silêncio, a parada, o olhar-se a fim de que algo aconteça naquele que a vive. Estamos quase sempre apressados e sem tempo para as experiências diárias que nos são oferecidas. Diante disso, pretendemos discutir nesse artigo a possibilidades de fazer da experiência uma prática educativa que possa ser adotada por educadores de distintas áreas e em diferentes níveis de educação. Para tanto, descrevemos uma atividade de leitura e discussão teórica acerca de alguns textos que compõem o corpus da disciplina ministrada pelo professor pesquisador Jorge Larrosa Bondia, da Universitat de Barcelona, com alunos do curso de Pedagogia Social dessa mesma universidade. A partir da prática proposta por Larrosa procuramos discutir conceitos acerca da leitura e da experiência como possibilidades para que o aluno leitor universitário seja tocado e movido ao seu interior por meio do texto e, assim, realmente possa, a partir dele, construir conhecimento, formar ou/e transformar-se, sendo, então, o agente de sua prática educativa.