A research team led by Dr Claudio Vásquez Guzmán, professor at the Department of Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, proved that Antarctic bacteria are able to resist tellurium when they are exposed to oxidative stress.

Dr Claudio Vásquez, professor at the Department of Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, together with his research team, proved that Antarctic bacteria are able to resist tellurium when they are exposed to oxidative stress. 

Tellurium (Te) is one of the many elements in the Periodic Table. It belongs to the same chemical family as oxygen, sulfur, and selenium, which are considered essential to life. However, until now, we still do not know if this element has any biological function. For this reason, the research team of the Laboratory of Molecular Microbiology of the Faculty of Chemistry and Biology of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, led by Dr Claudio Vásquez, has studied this element for years, trying to understand the molecular basis of its toxicity.

Since 2013, Dr Vásquez and Dr José Manuel Pérez, of Universidad Andrés Bello, have worked together in the Regular Fondecyt Project N° 1130362 “Tellurite-resistant Antarctic bacteria: Unveiling new toxicant resistance mechanisms,” which was recently completed.

“The hypothesis of our project was the following: As bacteria living in the Antarctica are resistant and adapted to oxidative stress, they should be resistant to tellurite. The idea was to find super-resistant bacteria that could help to establish the usefulness of tellurium to the cell,” Dr Vásquez explained.

The idea of the project came from the observation of isolated samples collected from different places in the Chilean Antarctica. They visited the Prat and Escudero Antarctic Bases, Deception Island and Fildes Peninsula and travelled on the Almirante Óscar Viel ice-breaker of the Chilean Army, where they were able to find, isolate and describe microorganisms resistant to oxidative stress and tellurite.

Tellurium is primarily used in the manufacturing of solar cells. According to Dr Vásquez, “It is an essential part of photoelectric cells that capture sunlight and transform it into electricity.” This is the reason why this element is a potential source of energy. “Now we need to create a system to remove tellurium from the environment, because it is very scarce,” he added.

In Chile, tellurium is produced as a byproduct of the copper refining process. It settles as anode slime and it is not recovered. “If we store it and control it well, we could contribute to prevent its potentially toxic effect on the flora and fauna,” he said.

Dr Vásquez concluded by saying that Universidad de Santiago has been really important during the conduct of this study for its support and constant collaboration.

• The National Institute of Industrial Property recognized Universidad de Santiago as the third Chilean university with the highest number of invention patent requests that seek to contribute to the country development in fields like chemistry and biology, engineering and technology. Maximiliano Santa Cruz, Inapi’s National Director and Óscar Bustos, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation of Universidad de Santiago,   encouraged the University community to continue constantly producing industrial innovations to contribute to society.

On April 25th, in the context of the World Intellectual Property Day, our University was recognized as the third best national institution in requesting invention patents during 2013.

The National Institute of Industrial Property (Inapi, in Spanish)- an agency responsible to the Ministry of Economy in charge of registering, managing and promoting industrial property rights in Chile- granted our University an award in a ceremony led by Maximiliano Santa Cruz, Inapi´s National Director.

During the activity that took place at Inapi’s building, Santa Cruz highlighted the important role played by our University in producing creative innovations that contribute to our country’s development.

“Universidad de Santiago de Chile is absolutely essential to our patenting system. It has always been in the highest positions at the patent request ranking and this is not a coincidence: it is the result of serious intellectual property policies,” Inapi’s director said.

For Maximiliano Santa Cruz, our University’s interest in industrial property “is a powerful signal to its researchers, professors and innovators, in general.”

“I ask Universidad de Santiago’s innovators to continue creating new things and using the patenting system for it is a powerful tool to protect intellectual property,” he added.

Dr. Óscar Bustos, Vice President of Research, Development and Innovation (Vridei, in Spanish) of our University, who received Inapi´s award, showed himself very pleased with the position in the ranking at a national level.

“We are very satisfied with our exceptional position among the institutions that request for invention patents (…) We would have been happy to keep the second place like we did last year, but being among the main institutions that file patents requests in Chile is excellent news indeed,” Dr. Bustos said.

Pontifica Universidad Católica was at the first place in the patent request ranking while Universidad de Concepción was at the second place.

Finally, Vice President Bustos said that the high position of our University in the ranking reflects that “our researchers have become aware that not only scientific publications are important for our country: developing specific technological projects in key areas for Chile is important too.”

According to data provided by the Department of Technology Transfer of our University, during 2013, this state and public institution filed 11 invention patent requests in Chile, and at the same time, it filed other 42 requests with foreign agencies in charge of registering industrial inventions.

Translated by Marcela Contreras
 

• Academics at the Department of Physics, led by Dr. Raúl Cordero, were part of the scientific expedition made in November by the Chilean Antarctic Institute to Unión Glacier and they contributed with valuable measurements of the optical properties of snow.
   

• The scientific committee of the V Latin American Congress of Mathematicians recognized professor Navas for his scientific contribution to the region in areas like geometry, dynamical systems, algebra and group theory. The activity was organized by the Unión Matemática de América Latina y el Caribe (UMALCA) and it was held in Barranquilla, Colombia.

Dr Andrés Navas, professor at the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, was awarded the UMALCA 2016 Prize during a ceremony in the V Latin American Congress of Mathematicians (CLAM, in Spanish) organized by the Colombian Society of Mathematics (SCM, in Spanish) and Universidad del Norte de Barranquilla, Colombia.

The prize was created in 2000 to honor young mathematicians working in Latin America and to recognize and promote their scientific contributions. After receiving the award, Dr Navas gave a presentation in a plenary session of the congress, which is considered the most important meeting of mathematicians in the region. The 40-year-old professor gave the presentation “Propiedades asintóticas de redes del plano”.

Henrique Bursztyn (IMPA, Brasil), Pablo Shmerkin (Universidad Torcuato di Tella, Argentina) y Robert Morris (IMPA, Brasil) were also awarded prizes for their contributions.

Recognition for scientific research

Dr Navas, who is currently the president of the Mathematics Society of Chile (SOMACHI, in Spanish), said that this award is a recognition for his scientific work; it is the highest recognition that a mathematician working in Latin America may expect.

He thinks that the prize will contribute to the positioning of Universidad de Santiago and the Department of Mathematics in the local and Latin American context.

“It is a significant step for the University and the Department, which has grown very much in the past few years. It will make us more visible at a Latin American level,” he said.

He thinks that another factor that contributed to him being awarded the prize was the publication of his doctoral dissertation “Groups of Circle Diffeomorphisms” (2011) in USA.

 “The University of Chicago Press published my doctoral dissertation as a book, a milestone in the Latin American context, because it was translated from a former publication in Peru and Brazil,” Dr Navas explained.

Promoting Mathematics

In the national context, Dr Navas expects his prize becomes a turning point so that the State creates an institute devoted to fundamental Mathematics.

“We do not have an institute like this in Chile and it would be similar to the National Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA) of Brazil. I think we already have all the human potential to do it, but we need the relevant policy making,” he said. “We really need something like this in our country.”

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• Paula Núñez, a professor at the School of Obstetrics and Child Care of Universidad de Santiago has effectively contributed to midwifery students training: she learned to make vinyl-based reborn babies which are so real that it is difficult to distinguish them from real newborn babies and which help students to develop professional and soft skills.

Paula Núñez, professor at the School of Obstetrics and Child Care, has pioneered the “reborning” technique to make vinyl dolls with realistic features in our country. These dolls are used by the Faculty of Medical Sciences’ students to facilitate their practice and their approach to neonatology and pediatrics.

“Having these baby simulators will allow our students to become more reliable and empathic professionals in the future,” she says. She thinks that the experience allows the students to approach the reality that they will face every day when delivering babies.

“These dolls have all the features to resemble a real newborn baby: nerve endings, the color of veins, and even their weight is similar to the one of a baby, what makes the students to be as careful as if they were handling a real baby and develop more skills,” she explains.

Students at the Obstetrics and Child Care program have benefited the most from these baby simulators; however, Núñez makes dolls for other institutions too.

She has been making these reborn dolls for four years. She learned about the technique on the Internet, when almost nobody knew about it, but then someone who had learned it in Spain taught her how to make them.

Núñez felt that learning the reborning method involved much more than only learning this German artcraft: she could create more real simulators that would be useful to train professionals whose work required getting familiar with babies and little children.

Making simulators more human

Together with a business partner, Núñez created the company Pequeñas Maravillas (Little Wonders), where they make customized dolls for different purposes. “People believe that dolls are only for girls, but they can also be used for academic purposes. For me, learning this technique gave me the possibility of making simulators more human and, at the same time, contributing to students training,” she says.

In the future, Núñez intends to continue improving her technique to make these dolls. Now she is working to create with dolls with different conditions like cleft palate and other inherited disorders. “These simulators will allow our students to acquire specific skills to work with babies with congenital conditions and to get used to the specific care that they need,” she concludes.

Translated by Marcela Contreras
 

• Alonso Arellano, an expert in geophysics and geology, explains that, due to the type of lava, the potential following events should not be catastrophic. “We may expect stronger eruptions to last for weeks or months.” 
• He says that most of the gas column will pass to the Argentinean territory, just like on other occasions.
• “The alert actions taken for warning people have been adequate,” he says. He suggests people to be alert, because “there is always the possibility of fissures in the volcanic cone and lava could flow in other directions.”

 

After the Villarrica volcano’s eruption early in the morning on March 03rd, an area of 10 kilometre radius around the mountain was restricted. The area includes the Pucón, Villarrica and Panguipulli communities, where the red alert prevailed until yesterday evening. In the areas outside this radius, the Onemi national emergency office issued yellow alert.

Alonso Arellano, professor at the Department of Metallurgical Engineering and an expert in geophysics and geology, considers the actions taken as adequate. Dr Arellano has worked on the study and analysis of predictive models for volcanoes.

“The actions taken are in the scope of what is expected in alert situations and they should not lead to complications,” he says.

He says that the places over which lava flows have been studied and identified, “however, there is always the possibility of fissures in the volcanic cone and lava could flow in other directions,” so he asks people to be alert.

“We have to live with volcanoes and some of their properties are unpredictable. We cannot say that everything is under control, but the alert actions have been suitable, because the country has enough experience,” he explains.

Known behaviour

The expert explains that the basaltic magma typical of the Villarrica volcano is made up of dark- to- intermediate-coloured minerals like pyroxene, olivine, some iron and amphiboles, which are rocks with higher melting points. This means that gases can flow more easily in comparison with other thicker or less liquid types of magma, avoiding gas accumulation and pressure build-up inside the volcanic cone.

“Due to the type of lava, the volcano’s behaviour should be similar to the one in previous eruptions, with a constantly increasing and decreasing activity. If the magma flows over the volcano slopes, it will depend on its pressure and on how it goes up the vent,” he said.

Professor Arellano says that these events could continue. “We may expect stronger eruptions for weeks or months.” 

With regards to the risks to people, professor Arellano explains that besides the risk posed by lava itself, ashes could be harmful. However, he says that most of the gas column will pass to the Argentinean territory, just like on other occasions. 

Professor Arellano holds a PhD in Engineering Sciences with a major in geophysics, geology and geothermal science.

 

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• His work includes publications in national and international books and journals, in relation to the conformation of the Chilean State, the development of the workers’ popular movement and the social- political crises of the XX century.

On August 22^nd, Dr Julio Pinto Vallejos, professor at Universidad de Santiago de Chile, was awarded the National Prize of History 2016.

The renowned historian and Doctor in History from Yale University began to work at Universidad de Santiago when he was 24 years old, in the 80’s. Since then, he has made a major contribution to this discipline as a professor and a researcher.

His work includes publications in national and international books and journals, in relation to the conformation of the Chilean State, the development of the workers’ popular movement and the social- political crises of the XX century, as well as studies on Latin America. Likewise, he has trained several generations of historians and has continuously collaborated with the Ministry of Education.

Dr Pinto expressed that he did not expect this recognition, because there were other very solid candidates. “It was a very gratifying surprise, from which I am still trying to recover. I thank Universidad de Santiago, my university, for supporting my nomination as candidate for this prize and I thank my colleagues and students for their massive and generous support,” he said. “I dedicate this prize to all people who have been by my side throughout these years. They have made me feel that my work has been worthy.

The Minister of Education, Adriana Delpiano, explained that the jury based its decision on the notable historiographical production of Dr Pinto in different fields of the discipline, particularly, in social history and history of the Chilean Republic.

Dr Juan Manuel Zolezzi, President of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, congratulated Dr Pinto and highlighted his great contribution to the university reflected by his commitment to public education and strengthening state universities.

Dr Pinto is a Bachelor of Arts with a major in History (1978), a Master of Arts with a specialization in Latin American History (1979), and a Master of Philosophy in History of the Southern Cone, Colonial Latina America and France between 1789 and 1914 (1983). Hi is also Doctor of Philosophy in History (1991) from Yale University.

Besides, he has been a professor at different national and international universities; he is part of the Scientific Committee of the Historia journal and a member of the editorial board of LOM publishing house, where he is in charge of the History Collection. He has been part of the editorial board of Duke University Press (2013) and Oxford University Press (2014) and he is currently a member of the Humanities Committee of the National Accreditation Commission since 2013.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• The Latin American Network of Educational Portals included the work done by Dr. Juan Silva, director of the Center for Research and Innovation in Education and ICT (CIIET, in Spanish), in a publication that gathers together renowned Latin American experts in this field.

Professor Juan Silva Quiroz’ work was selected by the Latin American Network of Educational Portals (Relpe, in Spanish) to be included in a recently published compendium that gathers several papers and reflections on the use of technologies in the educational process. The name of the book is “Mirada Relpe: Reflexiones iberoamericanas sobre TIC y Educación” (Relpe’s view: Latin American reflections on ICT and Education), and it started to be developed in 2011.

Dr. Silva reflects on the relation between Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and education policies, particularly in the incorporation of these ICT in the Early Teaching Training (FID, in Spanish) process, as he considers them a determining factor to improve the quality of education, by training professionals in this field and enabling them to understand these tools and implement them in the classroom.

Relpe’s initiative has the purpose of establishing a regional view on how technologies are understood in education.

In the same way, professor Silva highlights the international significance of this initiative, as it provides different points of view on this matter. “Two of us wrote about ICT in teacher training; other expert wrote about videogames and another one wrote on Personal Learning Environments (PLE), etc. It is then a wide variety of work subjects or problems about technology and education presented, referenced or argued by leaders in this field,” he said.

He also added that the book includes some subjects that should be addressed since university education, particularly, in teacher training.

Potential of ICT tools

Regarding the advantages of using collaborative tools like ICT, professor Silva said that most of the teachers, especially at university level, do not see the potential of ICT tools, in terms of having opportunities to share knowledge at a national and international level. Assignments and presentations, he explained, can be modified and improved and will always be available in Prezi, blogs and Wikis, for example, under the logic of Web 2.0.

He also said that these participative and collaborative models are very useful, especially in teaching, which is normally perceived as an individualistic work. “In the traditional model, the teacher presents knowledge and students receive it. On the other hand, in a collaborative model, the teacher acts as a facilitator, as a mediator, and students have an active role in their knowledge- building process,” he added

Nowadays, Dr. Silva is part of a commission set up by the Ministry of Education to address the inclusion of ICT in the training of future teachers, and soon he will publish a book about different experiences of using ICT in early teacher training in Latin American, thanks to a teaching innovation project of the Academic Vice Presidency and sponsored by the Ministry of Education’s Center of Education and Technology (CET, in Spanish).

Translated by Marcela Contreras
 

• Claudia Matus and Bárbara Ossandón, both professors at the Physics and Mathematics Teaching program of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, presented a novel initiative for the academic field at the International Educational Summit 2016: XII Conference on Higher Education Management.

Claudia Matus and Bárbara Ossandón, both professors at the Physics and Mathematics Teaching program of Universidad de Santiago, had a remarkable participation at the International Educational Summit 2016: XII Conference on Higher Education Management.

This activity has become one of the most important meetings for exchanging experiences at a management level among higher education institutions in Latin America, with the participation of renowned international experts.

The conference was held at the Casa Central of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and professors Matus and Ossandón presented their work “Comunidad Práctica de Aprendizaje como elemento clave de gestión en el rediseño curricular de una carrera de pedagogía.”

“We designed a new innovative curriculum that based its pedagogical principles on a spiral modular design that involves the integration of theory and practice and is focused on the classroom activity and the student,” professor Ossandón explained.

She highlighted “the need of understanding curriculum management through an interdisciplinary team work and professional management. This means to strengthen the role of the head of the program and
distribute his/her tasks in four coordinations: practice, teaching, laboratories, and outreach and engagement. This last coordination has the purpose of providing feedback on the curriculum.”

“This interdisciplinary learning community that works collaboratively is made up of physics and mathematics teachers focused on didactics; an anthropologist, and other professionals,” she said. It is a group of committed people working in an environment where interdisciplinary collaborative work is usually understood as the sum of individual works,” she said.

“The strength of this initiative is the new design of the curriculum of the Physics and Mathematics Teaching program that allowed us to be accredited for seven years,” she added.

Conclusions

“What we want to share is the idea that, to achieve curriculum innovation, the line-up of collaborative interdisciplinary work teamsis very important in order to make the program management a profesional activity, as well as to encourage constant self-evaluation, what will result in constant improvement,” Professor Ossandón said.

The conference “helped us to validate the pedagogical principles of our program according to the different presentations given that addressed the latest trends in education that, in turn, allowed us to validate our own community, our team made up of the four coordinations. Besides, it enriched even more our pedagogical learning proposal,” she said.

“This activity is also an example of learning practice community,because on this occasion we learned about an education research network. This network is formed by universities in four continents and

it was created by the initiative of different communities, as the most advanced way of distributed leadership in the knowledge society, as Hargreaves said. This conference is a learning practice community
itself,” she added.

“We propose a professional, pro-active approach, where the head of the program can conduct research works with collaborative teams in the medium and long term,” she concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras

• After four weeks of work in the Antarctica, Dr Raúl Cordero and Dr Alessandro Damiani, both researchers at the Department of Physics of Universidad de Santiago de Chile, were able to confirm that the extension of the hole in the ozone layer over the Antarctica reached more than 10 million km² in December 2015, i.e. more than twice the average of that period in the past three decades.

​

The measurements were carried out during a campaign in the Antarctic Circle in the context of the Antarctic Scientific Expedition of the Chilean Antarctic Institute (Inach, in Spanish). Dr Raúl Cordero and Dr Alessandro Damiani, both professors at Universidad de Santiago de Chile, were part of the expedition.

The ozone measurement campaign at the Antarctica started on November 15^th and it continued until mid-December. Four researchers at Universidad de Santiago travelled to the heart of the White Continent, where about 600 kg of the best radiometric equipment available were sent.

The expedition was supported by Inach, what allowed the researchers to work at “Unión Glacier” Joint Polar Research Station located at 79 degrees South latitude, at about 1000 from the South Pole.

Constant monitoring

In spite of the negative results of this year, Dr Cordero expects that a process to recover the ozone layer starts in the short term, as a result of the actions taken worldwide to reduce the emissions of polluting gases. However, the information gathered highlights the need of adopting mitigation policies and conducting a constant monitoring of the area.

According to Dr Cordero, “the ozone layer depletion is mainly caused by the presence of ‘ozone destroying” chemicals in the polar stratosphere. These substances are generated by the industrial activity in mid-latitudes.”

Although these substances are everywhere in the planet, high latitudes are the most impacted areas by the layer depletion or destruction, particularly the Antarctica. During the southern spring, this area is affected by a massive destruction of the stratospheric ozone as a result of the particular weather conditions there.

According to the researcher, the ozone depletion process between September and December is favored by the low temperatures in the Antarctic stratosphere and by the Antarctic polar vortex that prevents the ozone from other latitudes from closing the hole.

“When temperatures increase at the end of spring, the ozone massive depletion stops and the weakening of the polar vortex allows the ozone from other latitudes to close the hole. The bad records this year are probably the result of unusually low stratospheric temperatures during last spring,” Dr Cordero said.

Recovery of the ozone layer

In spite of the negative results of this year, Dr Cordero expects that a process to recover the ozone layer continues until the middle of this century due to the actions taken worldwide to reduce the emissions of polluting gases. However, the information gathered highlights the need of adopting mitigation policies and conducting a constant monitoring of the area.

It is also worth to mention that this study included comparisons with databases of other months. According to this, the hole in the ozone layer reached 28 million km² in October, the fourth highest record since the satellite data is available. 

Dr Cordero also highlights the relation between ozone depletion and climate change. “The changes in the hole in the ozone layer could affect the energy balance of the Antarctica. Ozone depletion or exhaustion has affected the temperature of the stratosphere and it correlates with wind and surface temperature variations detected in the Antarctica in the past decades. Therefore, a better understanding of the relation between climate change and the hole in the ozone layer is required. This is the ultimate goal of our work,” he concluded.

Translated by Marcela Contreras