Optimizar el desarrollo: unas nociones teóricas y prácticas

RESUMEN

La optimización del desarrollo es un problema central de la Psicología hoy en día. La finalidad del desarrollo es la efectividad. Todos tenemos las potencialidades necesarias para desarrollarnos hasta un nivel de efectividad, aunque para unas personas será más fácil que para otras. Esta efectividad relativa es lo que hay que optimizar. Altamente relacionados con esta efectividad personal están los conceptos de consonancia y disonancia con el medio. La probabilidad de un desarrollo óptimo será mayor cuando haya consonancia, por lo que es aconsejable que el psicólogo optimice la efectividad de las personas que rodean al niño mediante el asesoramiento adecuado. Este asesoramiento será también necesario cuando las exigencias de los adultos sobrepasen las competencias y recursos del niño, provocando así la disonancia.     

Trinucleotide repeats and neuropsychiatric disorders

Expansions of trinucleotide repeats at the level of genomic DNA are increasingly recognized as a cause of a number of neuropsychiatric disorders. Triplet repeat disorders are commonly classified into two groups, those with moderate CAG expansions that result in a polyglutamine stretch in the gene products and those with very long expansions, usually non-CAG, that are not translated. The triplet repeat intergeneration and intra-generational instability, and genetic anticipation characterize disorders. Most of the diseases caused by expanded CAG repeat share common features, which include neurodegeneration, a dominant pattern of inheritance and widespread expression of the gene products with neuronal loss restricted to distinct subset of neurons. Neurodegenerative changes associated of CAG expansion disorders is explained in terms of intra and extra cellular aggregation of mutant gene products, the insoluble nature of the protein(s) being attributed to the presence of polyglutamine stretches, hence their neurotoxic effects. methods based on poymerase chain reaction have become handy in the diagnosis of these genetic disorders. Progress in transgenic animal models for these disorders will be critical for understanding the progress of these disorders and for testing new therapeutic strategies.     

The Ancient Mariner and the transit of Venus

The achievements of William Wales FRS – astronomer, classical scholar, demographer, editor, mathematician, meteorologist and humane teacher – have been overshadowed by the fame of Cook's extraordinary voyages, and overlooked as a significant influence on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's early development. The Royal Society sent Wales to Hudson Bay, Canada, and James Cook to Tahiti, both to observe the 1769 transit of Venus as part of an international project to calculate solar parallax, and hence the distance to the Sun. Wales later taught mathematics and navigation science at Christ's Hospital School to a precocious Coleridge, whose creative mind translated tales of polar adventures into memorable poetry.