Al maestro de todos los ámbitos, comprometido y responsable de su misión mediadora, le corresponde buscar en la acción investigativa, los mejores caminos para conocer, comprender y transformar su propia práctica docente y, que aunque esta tarea es individual la fuerza de las concepciones, la reflexión y la efectividad de la investigación, se encuentra en el seno de una comunidad de investigadores unidos a través de redes de comunicación escrita y oral. Investigar en Enseñanza de las Ciencias es un reto muy importante para los docentes universitarios preocupados por lograr una mejor calidad del proceso educativo y en él un egresado formado integralmente. Significa unir la acción docente con la acción investigativa para conseguir la transformación deseada con la aplicación de los resultados obtenidos en la investigación, en este caso particular en la Didáctica de las Ciencias. Para ello, hemos propuesto como punto de partida tres interrogantes que nos han permitido aclarar las dificultades en el aprendizaje del Concepto de Equilibrio Químico, establecer sus relaciones con algunas carencias en la enseñanza y realizar experiencias con estrategias de investigación orientada para mejorar la calidad del aprendizaje en particular de este concepto. Éstos son: ¿Existen realmente las dificultades objeto de estudio en el proceso de aprendizaje del concepto de equilibrio químico? ¿En qué medida incide en el aprendizaje del concepto de equilibrio Químico el no tener en cuenta en la enseñanza los resultados de la investigación didáctica? ¿Es posible facilitar la construcción del concepto de equilibrio químico a través del aprendizaje por la implementación de estrategias didácticas innovadoras? Como respuesta tentativa se han propuesto las siguientes hipótesis: 1. Los estudiantes de Química General de la Universidad Industrial de Santander, UIS, tienen serias dificultades de aprendizaje (de tipo conceptual, epistemológico, metodológico y actitudinal) en los contenidos del tema de equilibrio químico debido, entre otras razones, a que en el proceso enseñanza de la Química no se tienen en cuenta los resultados de la investigación didáctica". 2. Es posible elaborar una alternativa didáctica para la enseñanza del concepto de equilibrio químico que tenga en cuenta los avances de la didáctica de las ciencias y que al implementarla en el aula aumente significativamente los logros del aprendizaje en los alumnos. Después de la observación y la intervención y de haber estudiado los resultados se puede afirmar entre otras cosas que:  Los modelos de enseñanza tradicionales no motivan a los estudiantes en el estudio del equilibrio químico porque no ofrecen oportunidad para construir un concepto que tenga significado, que sea duradero, que puedan explicar la realidad a través de él y que lo puedan utilizar en la percepción y solución de problemas.  La matemática como herramienta en el aprendizaje del concepto de equilibrio químico se convierte en el objeto de estudio y es frecuente que tanto el profesor como el estudiante midan la calidad del aprendizaje por la capacidad para realizar operaciones matemáticas en forma mecánica, desconociendo el significado del fenómeno.  La enseñanza del Equilibrio Químico presenta una concepción acumulativa lineal en la construcción de los conocimientos científicos al superponer (no diferenciar) la descripción del comportamiento macroscópico del sistema químico en el equilibrio con la explicación microscópica causal de que se alcance dicho estado.  En el contexto de la investigación orientada con el uso del programa guía de actividades se logra contrarrestar significativamente las dificultades de aprendizaje en el concepto de equilibrio químico porque se contextualizan los ejemplos desde el punto de vista científico y social y las explicaciones trascienden lo cotidiano para llegar a relacionar los conceptos previos y los nuevos que se presentan como objeto de aprendizaje. / To the teacher of all the areas, compromised and responsible for his mediating mission, it corresponds to him to look in the research action, the best ways to know, to understand and to transform his own educational practice and, that though this task is individual the force of the conceptions, the reflection and the efficiency of the research, is in the bosom of an investigators' community joined across networks of written and oral communication. To investigate in Education of the Sciences is a very important challenge for the university teachers worried for achieving a better quality of the educational process and in him, a formed graduated integrally. For these reasons the research on " The education of the concept of chemical equilibrium. Analysis of the difficulties and didactic strategies to overcome them ", realized with students of the second semester of the careers of engineering of the Industrial University of Santander of Colombia, had as intention study, understand and transform the relation of some difficulties into the learning with lacks into the education. For it was proceeded to answer to if do difficulties exist really object of study in the learning process of the concept of chemical equilibrium? In what measure does it affect in the learning of the concept of Chemical equilibrium not bear in mind in the education the results of the didactic research? Is it possible to facilitate the construction of the concept of chemical equilibrium across the learning for the implementation of didactic innovative strategies? To answer to the first question there were selected some particular difficulties of the learning of the concept of chemical equilibrium and there happened that they demonstrate when the learnings are not significant. On having asked the mediating teachers of the courses in which these difficulties were observed it was possible to check that there is a narrow relation among the conceptions of the teachers, the ignorance of the results of the investigation in didactics of the sciences and the mediation that they realize to his students. Finally, on having implemented a guide programm of activities of learning for orientated research it was achieved to improve substantially the learning and consequently a positive transformation was obtained in the educational mediation.

The thesis makes a constructivist criticism of neo-realism&rsquo / s particular conceptualization of state through a comparative analysis of Turkey&rsquo / s five motions (2003-2007) on military involvement in Iraq. Firstly, neo-realism and constructivism with regards to the concept of state are explored. Then, through the lights of the theoretical discussion, Turkey&rsquo / s five military motions are examined. In the case study, parliamentary minutes are used as the primary historical evidences. In the parliamentary discussions, three themes appeared significant-&ldquo / institutional identity&rdquo / , &ldquo / legitimacy&rdquo / and &ldquo / interest&rdquo / - which provided the ground for a constructivist criticism of neo-realist understanding of state. These three themes obtained from the discussions are tapped under four major topics which have been the main issues for the constructivists: &ldquo / agency&rdquo / , &ldquo / norms&rdquo / , &ldquo / identity&rdquo / and &ldquo / interest&rdquo / . Thesis argues that foreign policy behavior is a political product and &ldquo / state&rdquo / is a social actor whose behavior can only be understood from the social, cultural and historical context in which the state-society relations are embedded. Hence, for the purpose of making a structural analysis, separation of the domestic and the international realm of state is a fallacy with which neo-realism is badly plagued. Constructivism, on the other hand, has the potential to bridge this gap and understand the foreign policy behavior of states more accurately since it gives credence to the inner diversity of states through problematizing the ideational elements in foreign policy making and in international politics.

This thesis involves a class-based literary criticism of working-class women s writing. I particularly focus on a selection of novels by three working-class women writers - Livi Michael, Caeia March and Joan Riley. Their work emerged in the 1980s, the era of Thatcherism, which is a definitive period in British history that spawned a renaissance of working-class literature. In my readings of the novels I look at three specific aspects of identity: gender, sexuality and race with the intersection of social class, to examine how issues of economic positioning impinge further on the experience of respectively being a woman, a lesbian and a black woman in contemporary British society. I also appropriate various feminist theories to argue for the continued relevance of social class in structuring women s lives in late capitalism. Working-class writing in general, and working-class women s writing in particular, has historically been under-represented in academic study, so that by highlighting the work of these three lesser known writers, and by indicating that they are worthy of study, this thesis is also complicit in an act of feminist historiography.

This study specifically aimed to understand, through the lens of the participants, how a six-month transformative curriculum with a specific social justice agenda later shaped their relationship with social justice and prosocial activism. The Holocaust March of Remembrance and Hope Curriculum (MRHC) included a five-month preparatory course, a nine-day immersion in Holocaust history through the March of Remembrance and Hopes study tour in Poland, and a post-trip meeting to present student projects. This study is qualitative in nature and was primarily based on three, sixty-minute interview sessions for each participant. Participants were recruited from the eleven (Mid-western university) students who participated in the journey. Interview questions focused on participants life history relative to racism and discrimination, trip memories, and themes surrounding their current motivation to promote social justice. Each interview was transcribed verbatim by the principal investigator and was analyzed through a constant comparative method. Five major themes emerged across the data as a whole. First, participants definitions of what exactly makes up social justice demonstrated that participants frequently discredited microlevel actions such as addressing a racist joke by indicating this was not large enough to be considered a social action. A second theme which emerged was the powerful impact of one Holocaust survivor on participants life directions in terms of specifically feeling a strong sense of responsibility to promote social equality. Third, participants experiences of the trip mirrored transformative learning models. However, two additional components were needed within the adult learning models that could be tailored for a diversity course with a specific social justice agenda. These components included providing students with ongoing support as well as social activist role-training in order to further integrate the lessons from the journey. Fourth, participants awareness of their own social identities influenced which groups later gained the most attention in terms of advocacy.

Le diabète de type 1 (DT1) est une maladie auto-immune qui est caractérisée par la destruction des cellules R des îlots de pancréas. L'utilisation des modèles animaux comme la souris NOD a facilité la compréhension de la physiopathologie du DT1, car ces souris développent spontanément le diabète d'une façon similaire à l'homme. Les lymphocytes T auto-réactifs CD4 + et CD8+ jouent un rôle majeur dans le développement de cette maladie. Dans les conditions non pathologiques, les lymphocytes T auto-réactifs sont éliminés dans le thymus (tolérance centrale) ou maintenus en états d'anergie en périphérie (tolérance périphérique). En périphérie, les cellules dendritiques (CDs) de type tolérogènes induisent l'expansion et/ou la différenciation d'une population spécifique de lymphocyte T (Treg), qui contribue à la suppression de la prolifération et l'activation des lymphocytes T auto-réactifs. Certaines fonctions tolérogènes des CDs telle que la présentation d'antigènes est sous le contrôle de l'ubiquitine ligase MARCH I. MARCH I ubiquitine le CMH de classe II et les molécules de costimulation CD86 et prévient donc leurs expressions à la surface des cellules dendritiques, et ainsi l'inhibition de la stimulation de lymphocytes T. Le but de ce projet est: 1) de caractériser les niveaux d'expression de MARCH I dans les CDs tolérogènes générées en présence d'IL-10 en comparaison aux CDs immunogènes générées en absence d'IL-10, 2) de déterminer si la sur-expression de MARCH I chez CDs immunogènes de souris NOD rétablit leurs fonctions tolérogènes. Nos résultats montrent que les CDs de souris NOD générées en absence d'IL-10 expriment des niveaux très élevés de CMH de classe II et de molécules de costimulation (CD80 et CD86). Au contraire, les CDs générées en présence d'IL-10 résistent à la maturation, puisqu'une faible augmentation de l'expression du CMH II et des molécules de co-stimulation est observée suite à leur stimulation au LPS. Ces dernières produisent des quantités importantes d'IL-10 et des faibles quantités d'IL-12 et d'INF-y et expriment des niveaux très élèvés d'ARNm de MARCH I comparativement aux CDs générées en absence d'IL-10. Nous avons aussi montré que la transduction des CDs immunogènes par un lentivirus contenant le gène qui code pour MARCH I leur permet d'acquérir les propriétés des CDs tolérogènes. En effet, les CDs transduites par MARCH I expriment de faibles niveaux du CMH II, de CD80 et CD86 après stimulation au LPS. Nous avons aussi montré que les CDs transduites par le gène qui code pour MARCH I, dont la partie N-terminale 1 à 40 (? 1-40 ) ou 1 à 60 (?1-66 ) a été délétée, stabilisent l'expression de MARCH I tout en préservant leur capacité à diminuer l'expression du CMH de classe II et de CD86. Ainsi, ces conditions permettent d'obtenir des CDs tolérogènes qui pourront être utilisées comme thérapie cellulaire pour prévenir ou empêcher le développement du diabète chez la souris NOD. [Symboles non conformes]

This thesis looks at the public career of Walter March. A native of Massachusetts, March moved to Muncie, Indiana, in 1841. A lawyer, March would serve as a delegate to the state's Constitutional Convention of 1850-51 and would later recodify the laws of the state to comply with its newly drafted constitution. March's life mirrored the political turbulence of the 1850s in Indiana. Originally a Democrat, he would switch political affiliations in the mid 1850s and eventually serve as one of the founders of the Republican Party in Indiana. While this study looks at the entirety of March's life, its focus is one March's contributions to Indiana's political life from 1850-1864.Historian Richard Jensen's modernization theory as spelled out in Illinois:Bicentennial History is utilized to assess March's contributions to the state's political life. / Department of History

April

A consistent feature of Saul Bellow???s fiction is the protagonist???s encounter with one or more teaching figures. Dialogue with such individuals prompts the Bellovian protagonist to reject his current state of selfhood as inadequate and provokes him to re-form as a new person. The teacher figure offers a better self to which the protagonist is attracted; or, more frequently in Bellow, the protagonist is repelled by both his teacher and his own current state to form a new, previously unrepresented self. This thesis argues that Bellow???s self inherits and modifies the perfectionist philosophy of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau, in a literary reinterpretation that parallels Stanley Cavell???s philosophical revaluation of the American Transcendentalists. In Emerson and Thoreau, and in Cavell???s reading of perfectionism, the self is attracted onward only by a better representation of selfhood in another, while Bellow???s self may also be, and often is, provoked by a repellent other to inhabit a new form of selfhood. This thesis takes the evolution of selfhood in Bellow to be structured by travel. In The Adventures of Augie March, Augie???s movement between selves is impelled by conversation with teacher figures and paralleled by his unending journeys. In Herzog, Herzog???s self-transformations and travels are provoked by reading and writing, and by the ecstasy of loss revealed to him through apostrophic conversations with the dead and absent in a series of unsent and mental letters. Letter-writing, the provocation for Herzog???s self-perfection, becomes a form of travel in Herzog. This thesis further argues that Bellow???s travelling self is a critical response to two poles of modern subjectivity, structured by European mythologies of travel: Bellow???s fiction is critical, first, of a Hegelian, egoist mode of selfhood structured after the Odyssey; but equally critical of examples of Levinasian openness to the Other, patterned on Abraham???s exile. Bellow does not accept either the Odyssean or the Abrahamic mode of selfhood on its own, recognizing oppressive possibilities in both. Travelling selfhood in Bellow, initiated by conversation with others, both fuses and rereads Odyssean and Abrahamic constructs within a new, but perpetually unfinished American mode of selfperfection.

Thesis--Auburn University, 2009. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 50-52).

This thesis focuses primarily on the work of the Valencian poet, Ausias March (1398 - 1459), who was revered by the first two generations of Petrarquistas in Golden Age Spain, and in particular by Juan Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega. It has long been contended that the introduction of Ficinian Neoplatonism in Spain by Boscán's translation of Il Cortegiano, and Garcilaso's assimilation of Bembo's Petrarchism, represents a radical shift in sensibility, unprecedented in the Iberian peninsula. The object of this thesis is to demonstrate that because Ausias March is a Lullian poet who manifests an evangelical-Platonic sensibility, and is not a "troubadour attardé" as Amédée Pagès thought, the introduction of the Italianate fashion by Boscán and Garcilaso is not a radical departure from their earlier allegiance, but a development. The poetry of Ausias March is remarkable for its introspection. Consequently, the interpretation of his work must begin with an analysis of his use of the theory of imagination, which he inherited through the literary influence of the Chartrians and Victorines of the twelfth century, and, in particular, from Hughes de Saint Victor. The importance of introspection and imagination naturally entails the question of the extremes of melancholy, as it is understood in the mediaeval tradition of Aristotle's Problem XXX, i. After a survey of the role of melancholy imagination in Ausias March's poetry, the function of these two closely related concepts is analysed in Ficino's Commentarium in Convivium , Hebreo's Dialoghi, Bembo's Gli Asolani, and Castiglione's Il Cortegiano. This enables one to determine that the Florentine theory of love is not insulated from passion, as many literary critics imply. The dialectical relation of natural reason to Augustinian right reason evinces the extremes of imagination and melancholy, as either lunacy or divine rapture. These elements of Florentine Neoplatonism reveal a deep concern for the difficult relation of the body to the soul, and, ultimately, a conscious search for ascesis. These elements, which are common to Ausias March and the Florentine Neoplatonists, are an expression of the Augustinian doctrine of Charity. The common factor between Ausias March and the Florentines is the pseudo-Dionysian - Erigenian concept of beauty. The latter is fundamental to what M. D. Chenu has defined as the secular evangelical current in Europe. It is a sensibility based on a consciousness of the all-pervasive presence of grace in nature, which is articulated in the symbolic mentality of Christian Platonists. This aspect of Ausias March' Work is central to Chapter V. In order to avoid creating the impression that this interpretation of Ausias March's poetry is anachronical this chapter studies the significance of an important segment of this poet's imagery. This serves to contrast Ausias March's use of the pseudo- Dionysian - Erigenian concept of beauty and his consequent handling of the concepts of melancholy and imagination to that used by Andreas Capellanus. Finally, this analysis illustrates Ausias March's predominantly symbolic mentality, as well as his exceptional use of medical theory which distinguishes him from the vast majority of Spanish cancionero poets, and emphasizes his many points of affinity with the Florentine Neoplatonists.