Teaching Psychobiology at a Distance

Psychobiology is an area of knowledge that deals with the biological basis of behaviour. Its concretion as a specific area of study originates in the confluence and development of other areas such as physiological psychology, experimental and comparative psychology, ethology, biology and the neurosciences. For some, psychobiology would be that part of the neurosciences that deals with the study of the processes of emotion, motivation, cognition and learning. Others are of the opinion that it covers a much wider area, and that its objective is rooted in the study of all biological mechanisms that govern behaviour — and these, undertaken from a philogenetic and ontogenetic perspective.

In the last decade, we have witnessed the creation of psychobiology departments throughout the world. These departments participate in the teaching of faculties of medicine, psychology, biology and zoology. In some universities, these departments even contribute to the teaching imparted by the faculties of philosophy and educational sciences. Sooner or later, the universities teaching at a distance had to consider the creation of departments of psychobiology to attend to the up‐dating of the curriculum of diversive faculties.

In the National University of Education at a Distance, U.N.E.D. (Madrid, Spain) the teaching of psychobiology is entrusted to a department of the same name which started during the academic year of 1982–83. Even though the experience is very short to be able to advance a complete evaluation, the difficulties encountered in the organization of the form and content of different courses imparted by the department of psychobiology (D.P.) could be useful to the reader. Therefore, these difficulties must be understood within the educational model of teaching at a distance at U.N.E.D.     

Effects of blood flow restriction without additional exercise on strength reductions and muscular atrophy following immobilization:A systematic review

Purpose:To investigate whether blood flow restriction(BFR) without concomitant exercise mitigated strength reduction and atrophy of thigh muscles in subjects under immobilization for lower limbs.Methods:The following databases were searched:PubMed,CINAHL,PEDro,Web of Science,Central,and Scopus.Results:The search identified 3 eligible studies,and the total sample in the identified studies consisted of 38 participants.Isokinetic and isometric torque of the knee flexors and extensors was examined in 2 studies.Cross-sectional area of thigh muscles was evaluated in 1 study,and thigh girth was measured in 2 studies.The BFR protocol was 5 sets of 5 min of occlusion and 3 min of free flow,twice daily for approximately 2 weeks.As a whole,the included studies indicate that BFR without exercise is able to minimize strength reduction and muscular atrophy after immobilization.It is crucial to emphasize,however,that the included studies showed a high risk of bias,especially regarding allocation concealment,blinding of outcome assessment,intention-to-treat analyses,and group similarity at baseline.Conclusion:Although potentially useful,the high risk of bias presented by original stodies limits the indication of BFR without concomitant exercise as an effective countermeasure against strength reduction and atrophy mediated by immobilization.     

Variable training: effects on velocity and accuracy in the tennis serve

Abstract

Variable practice has been shown to be an effective strategy to improve open motor skills. However, the usefulness of this procedure in closed motor skills remains controversial. The following study has the objective of analysing the effects of variability practice in the improvement of a closed skill. The skill studied has been the tennis serve. Thirty young tennis players (13 ± 1.52 years), divided in two groups, took part in this study. One group practiced in variable conditions and the other group in consistency conditions. Both groups performed 12 training sessions (60 serves/session). The variable practice group improved their accuracy significantly compared with the consistency group (F_3.25 = 3.078; P = 0.035). The velocity of serve increased after training in both groups (F_3.25 = 15.890; P = 0.001). The practice in variable conditions seems to be effective in improving the performance of the tennis serve.     

The interdependence of language and translational math skills among bilingual hispanic engineering students

The performance of 43 Hispanic engineering and science majors on a task that consists of reading a sentence describing a mathematical relationship between two variables, and then writing an equation describing the relationship, is investigated in both English and Spanish. Results are compared with grade point average and with language proficiency. Comparison of the bilingual group to a monolingual group consisting of 52 engineering and science students shows that performance, as measured by either the mathematical translation task or grade point average, is more strongly correlated with language proficiency for the bilingual group. Clinical interviews conducted with samples from each group reveal large differences in the interpretation of the mathematical task between Hispanics and monolinguals. Suggestions are made for the improvement of the technical education of Hispanics.     

A PI controller configuration for robust control of a class of nonlinear systems

The PI control configuration for stabilization and signal tracking of nonlinear systems is investigated. Semiglobal asymptotic stability and semiglobal practical signal tracking of the controlled system are proven using results from the theory of nonlinear singularly perturbed systems.     

Student-perceived organizational support and perceived employability in the marketing of higher education

In the current context, the need for marketing in institutions of higher education is undeniable. The specification of the student not merely as a ‘customer’ means that traditional marketing no longer has sufficient capacity to explain the behavior of the student body. In this study, a four-level relationship marketing model is tested to check the influence of perceived organizational support (POS) and perceived employability on identification with the institution and the perceived price-quality ratio and how these influence student satisfaction. In addition, the constructs prior to POS and perceived employability are identified, which are explicit enough to enable specific marketing actions to be carried out. As POS is a construct defined for the labor market, its use applied to relational marketing comes up as something innovative.

To this end, Likert scales have been designed and validated to measure these constructs. The results of this test show how the perception of organizational support depends on the relationship of the student body with the administration and management of the center. Likewise, the perception of employability depends on the perceived reputation and the perception of the promotion of employability. Furthermore, it is confirmed that satisfaction is positively related to identification and the perceived price-quality ratio, which in turn are positively related to organizational support and perceived employability.     

Telematics for Teacher Education: issues from a European conference

ABSTRACT

The world Information Superhighway is under discussion in many countries. Within Europe the discussion is also very active as is the promotion of the use of telematics for trans‐European communication and co‐operation in various areas. For education and training, representatives of European teacher trainers, teachers, students, parents, policy and decision makers discussed their needs and views on a trans‐European network at a conference held in May 1994 in Luxembourg. This paper presents a selection of various issues raised at the conference regarding the use of telematics for teacher education and illustrates the discussion and the method of discussion. It also describes and discusses the conference programme model, as it offered innovative on‐line activities to facilitate appreciation of telematics. The case is argued that teacher education can benefit greatly from telematics and some points are put forward for further discussion.     

Gene editing in plants: progress and challenges

The clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeat (CRISPR)-associated protein 9 (Cas9) genome editing system is a powerful tool for targeted gene modifications in a wide range of species, including plants. Over the last few years, this system has revolutionized the way scientists perform genetic studies and crop breeding, due to its simplicity, flexibility, consistency and high efficiency. Considerable progress has been made in optimizing CRISPR/Cas9 systems in plants, particularly for targeted gene mutagenesis. However, there are still a number of important challenges ahead, including methods for the efficient delivery of CRISPR and other editing tools to most plants, and more effective strategies for sequence knock-ins and replacements. We provide our viewpoint on the goals, potential concerns and future challenges for the development and application of plant genome editing tools.