Actividades para promover la gestión crítica de la información de Internet aplicadas a estudiantes de farmacia / Activities to promote critical information management over Internet in pharmacy students

Con el fin de promover la adquisición de habilidades y destrezas que permitan al estudiante de Farmaciadesarrollar una actitud activa y crítica frente a la información disponible en Internet, así como saberseleccionar las fuentes de información de Internet adecuadas para su formación, se ha llevado a cabo unproyecto de innovación docente (2008PID-UB/115) cuyo objetivo final es fomentar la gestión crítica de lainformación. Para ello se han diseñado una serie de ejercicios integrados en una actividad basada en casosclínicos, que forma parte de la evaluación continuada de la asignatura de Fisiopatología de la Licenciaturade Farmacia (UB). Se ha evaluado el proyecto a través de las calificaciones obtenidas en las actividades ylas encuestas de opinión de un total de 379 estudiantes. Los resultados evidencian que la mayoría deestudiantes (90%) valoran muy positivamente las actividades planteadas, considerando que favorecen suaprendizaje y formación personal, y les aportan criterios útiles y provechosos para el análisis y selecciónde información biomédica a través de Internet. Por último, cabe destacar que el proyecto planteado hademostrado ser aplicable a un grupo numeroso de estudiantes de Grado y constituye una estrategia válidapara fomentar competencias transversales relacionadas con la gestión de la información, de granrelevancia para el futuro profesional farmacéutico(AU)

It has been carried out an educational innovation project (2008PID-UB/115) whose ultimate goal was topromote critical management information. Its specific objectives were to promote the acquisition of skillsand abilities to allow the student of Pharmacy, on the one hand, to develop active and critical attitudetowards the information available on Internet and, on the other hand, to select the Internet informationsources suitable for their formation. For these purposes, we set up some activities based on a clinical caseas a part of the continuous assessment of the subject of Pathophysiology of the Bachelor of Pharmacy(UB). The project was assessed by the scores on the activities and the opinion surveys of a total of 379students. The results show that most students (90%) highly value the activities planned and they considerthat these kinds of activities promoted their learning and their professional training. The students also statethat the exercises provided them useful and helpful criteria for the analysis and selection of biomedicalinformation over Internet. Finally, it is noteworthy that the proposed project has proved to be applicable toa large group of undergraduate students. Moreover, it is a valid strategy to promote cross-curricularcompetencies related to management of information, which is of great relevance for the future pharmacist(AU)

Molecular cloning and expression analysis of the mevalonate kinase gene from Arabidopsis thaliana.

Mevalonate kinase (MVK), the enzyme that catalyzes the phosphorylation of mevalonate to produce mevalonate 5-phosphate, is considered as a potential regulatory enzyme of the isoprenoid biosynthetic pathway. The Arabidopsis thaliana MVK gene corresponding to the MVK cDNA previously isolated has been cloned and characterized. RNAse protection analysis indicated that the expression of the MVK gene generates three mRNA populations with 5' ends mapping 203, 254 and 355 nt upstream of the MVK ATG start codon. Northern blot analysis showed that the MVK mRNA accumulates preferentially in roots and influorescences. Histochemical analysis, with transgenic A. thaliana plants containing a translational fusion of a 1.8 kb fragment of the 5' region of the MVK gene to the beta-glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene, indicated that the MVK 5'-flanking region directs widespread expression of the GUS gene throughout development, although the highest levels of GUS activity are detected in roots (meristematic region) and flowers (sepals, petals, anthers, style and stigmatic papillae). The expression pattern of the MVK gene suggests that the role of the encoded MVK is the production of a general pool of mevalonate-5-phosphate for the synthesis of different classes of isoprenoids involved in both basic and specialized plant cell functions. Functional promoter deletion analysis in transfected A. thaliana protoplasts indicated that regulatory elements between positions -295 and -194 of the MVK 5'-flanking region are crucial for high-level MVK gene expression.