University of Alcalá

About: University of Alcalá is a education organization based out in Alcalá de Henares, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 10795 authors who have published 20718 publications receiving 410089 citations. The organization is also known as: University of Alcala & University of Alcala de Henares.

A pluriliteracies approach to content and language integrated learning – mapping learner progressions in knowledge construction and meaning-making

Abstract: Over the past decades content and language integrated learning (CLIL) research has predominantly focused on the language proficiency of CLIL learners. The results are very promising and show that working language skills in learners, especially reading and listening skills, can be improved through a CLIL programme. Studies focusing on subject learners are still few but they indicate that learners maintain or under certain conditions can improve their subject learning when compared to learners learning in L1. However, more recent studies have raised challenging questions concerning academic language competence which indicate that CLIL instruction may not be reaching its full potential. Unravelling the integrated approach and the inherent interrelationship of using language for progressing knowledge construction and meaning-making needs to be addressed, drawing together linguistic and pedagogic theoretical underpinnings. This article posits that CLIL can pragmatically address the growing educational malaise ...

Competition for fluctuating nutrient

Abstract: A model of the competition of n species for a single essential periodically fluctuating nutrient is considered. Instead of the familiar Michaelis-Menten kinetics for nutrient uptake, we assume only that the uptake rate functions are positive, increasing and bounded above. Sufficient conditions for extinction are given. The existence of a nutrient threshold under which the Principle of Competitive Exclusion holds, is proven. For two species systems the following very general result is proven: All solutions of a τ-periodic, dissipative, competitive system are either τ-periodic or approach a τ-periodic solution. A complete description of the geometry of the Poincare operator of the two species system is given.

Catalytic electrooxidation of NADH for dehydrogenase amperometric biosensors

Abstract: The developments in the techniques of NADH catalytic oxidation relevant for incorporation in amperometric biosensors with dehydrogenase enzymes are reviewed with special emphasis in the years following 1990. The review stresses the direct electro-catalytic methods of NAD+ recycling as opposed to enzymatic regeneration of the coenzyme. These developments are viewed and evaluated from a mechanistic perspective of recycling of NADH to enzymatically active NAD+, and from the point of view of development of technologically useful reagentless dehydrogenase biosensors. An effort is made to propose a method for the standardization of evaluation of new mediating and direct coenzyme recycling schemes. A perspective is given for the requirements that have to be met for successful biosensor development incorporating dehydrogenase enzymes that open the analytical possibilities to a number of new analytes. The intrinsic limitations of the system are finally discussed and a view of the future of the field is presented.

Autophagy promotes survival of retinal ganglion cells after optic nerve axotomy in mice

Abstract: Autophagy is an essential recycling pathway implicated in neurodegeneration either as a pro-survival or a pro-death mechanism. Its role after axonal injury is still uncertain. Axotomy of the optic nerve is a classical model of neurodegeneration. It induces retinal ganglion cell death, a process also occurring in glaucoma and other optic neuropathies. We analyzed autophagy induction and cell survival following optic nerve transection (ONT) in mice. Our results demonstrate activation of autophagy shortly after axotomy with autophagosome formation, upregulation of the autophagy regulator Atg5 and apoptotic death of 50% of the retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) after 5 days. Genetic downregulation of autophagy using knockout mice for Atg4B (another regulator of autophagy) or with specific deletion of Atg5 in retinal ganglion cells, using the Atg5flox/flox mice reduces cell survival after ONT, whereas pharmacological induction of autophagy in vivo increases the number of surviving cells. In conclusion, our data support that autophagy has a cytoprotective role in RGCs after traumatic injury and may provide a new therapeutic strategy to ameliorate retinal diseases.