Valoración de la aptitud psicomotora y la inteligencia requerida para conducir en los Centros de Reconocimiento de Conductores / Assessment of the psychomotor aptitude and intelligence required in driving in the Drivers evaluation centres

Objetivos, análisis de los aspectos considerados en la valoración de las aptitudes perceptivo-motoras y la inteligencia según el Modelo Español de reconocimiento de conductores. Material y Métodos, mediante la observación de variables analizadas en las normativas aplicadas desde que se inicia la locomoción en España y los protocolos actuales de valoración recomendados por la Dirección General de Tráfico y El Ministerio de Sanidad. Conclusiones, las variables consideradas han servido a los modelos preventivos de cada época, actualmente pretenden atender a las necesidades de prevención de los hábitos sociales actuales. Los aspectos valorados, apenas han sufrido variaciones, en los últimos años. El sistema de evaluación y registro de datos evolucionó con la normalización de los aparatos psicotécnicos en 1988, permaneciendo sin modificaciones hasta la actualidad. La actuación protocolizada es sin duda un sistema eficaz para determinar la actitud para conducir (AU)

Goals, analysis of the aspects on intelligence and perceptive-motor aptitudes according to the Spanish Driver model test. Material and methods, through observation of the analysed variables of the applied norm since locomotion started in Spain and the current protocols of evaluation recommended by the Direction General of Traffic and The Ministry of Health. Conclusions, the considerated variables have served the preventive models of each time period, currently their goal is to attend the prevention needs of the current social habits. The evaluated aspects have hardly changed in the last few years. The evaluation system and data collection have being developed with the standardization of psycotechnical devices in 1988. Remaining unchanged until the present. The protocolized intervention is without question an effective system to determine the driving attitude (AU)

Los Centros de Reconocimiento de Conductores veinte años después / The Assessment of Drivers Centres twenty years later

Si bien existe una tradición española en la aplicación de los conocimientos psicológicos a la prevención de accidentes de circulación, que arranca desde la década de 1920, no se convirtió en un fenómeno de masas hasta mediados de los años 80 cuando, al extenderse desde los conductores profesionales a todos los conductores, llegó a un número creciente de españolas y españoles. Esta acción preventiva, que fue el primer rol profesional de intervención psicológica legalmente regulado en España, definido incluso antes de la existencia formal de una auténtica práctica académica en Psicología, es hoy una destacada fuente de empleo para los titulados en psicología y goza de plena actualidad, como demuestra su reciente inclusión dentro del sistema de permiso por puntos. Los protagonistas de la historia fueron, primero, los psicotécnicos en Centros públicos evaluando conductores profesionales, y luego los psicólogos en Centros privados explorando a todos los aspirantes a obtener o renovar los permisos. La selección ha sido el hilo conector de lo que ha dado en llamarse el "Modelo Español" de Seguridad Vial. Se puede establecer varias etapas en el desarrollo del mencionado modelo, coincidentes en una gran parte con el desarrollo y consolidación de una Ciencia Psicológica española autónoma y con los cambios de paradigmas y tecnologías. El actual Reglamento General de Conductores mantiene el mismo patrón preventivo legalizado en 1934. Tras casi 100 años de vida y 25 de acción sobre masas, cabía preguntarse por su validez y utilidad, y eso es precisamente, apoyándose en datos empíricos, lo que pretende contestar este artículo (AU)

It is appropriate to talk about a Spanish tradition in the application of psychology to traffic accidents prevention, dating back to the 1920s. It was the first professional area of psychological intervention to be legally regulated in Spain, even before the formal existence of an epistemic practice in psychology. From the 1930s on, without any interruption, there has been a prevailing preventive model, in spite of the different political regimes that have governed in Spain. First the psychotechnicians in public centres assessing professional drivers, and later the psychologists in private centres with all drivers have been the protagonists in the story, the connecting thread being what has been called the Spanish Model of drivers assessment. We can establish various different steps in the development of the Spanish Model in Psychological Assessment of Drivers, in a big part coincident with the evolution of the Psychological Science and the Spanish psychology. The current "Reglamento General de Conductores", who regulate driving licence, required from all of candidates to obtain/renewal driving licence submitted to physical and psychological examination in private centres to obtain driving licence. Also, this examination is required to those drivers who have lost their licence as a consequence of the penalty point system and are trying to recover it. The "Reglamento General de Conductores" maintained psychological test and a preventive pattern, legalized at 1934. We offered an empirical analysis of its activity and the validity of the professional intervention in its different dimensions. The selection of drivers has played a key role in the building of Modern professional Spanish psychology, and is today the oldest living representative role in the field (AU)

Una aproximación empírica a la revista ansiedad y estrés en su decimo aniversario / An empirical approach to the journal Ansiedad y Estrés (Anxiety and Stress) in its 10th anniversary

Las revistas científicas definen el "research front" de cualquier disciplina académica. Existe una interacción característica entre nivel de desarrollo institucional e implantación social y número y diversidad de revistas. Esto es especialmente claro en el caso de la psicología española. En este trabajo se presenta una revisión del estado actual de la investigación en ansiedad y estrés, revisando el contenido de los artículos publicados en la revista "Ansiedad y Estrés". Esta publicación multidisciplinar pretende dar cobertura a la investigación sobre la ansiedad y el estrés, así como a otros temas relacionados (por ejemplo las emociones, la personalidad, y la salud). Esta revista es el órgano oficial de una sociedad científica, que pretende delimitar y definir un campo de investigación y aplicación. En este sentido, proporciona, utilizando técnicas bibliométricas, una revisión sobre el pasado, el presente y el futuro de este ámbito de investigación, que ocupa a numerosos autores y grupos de investigación; además, revisa los autores, trabajos, instituciones, revistas y libros más influyentes en este ámbito. Nuestros resultados permiten construir una imagen global sobre las principales tendencias existentes en la revista "Ansiedad y Estrés", y permite conocer el "estado del arte" de la investigación en esta relevante área de conocimiento y aplicación. (AU)

Structural analysis of WW domains and design of a WW prototype.

Two new NMR structures of WW domains, the mouse formin binding protein and a putative 84.5 kDa protein from Saccharomyces cerevisiae, show that this domain, only 35 amino acids in length, defines the smallest monomeric triple-stranded antiparallel beta-sheet protein domain that is stable in the absence of disulfide bonds, tightly bound ions or ligands. The structural roles of conserved residues have been studied using site-directed mutagenesis of both wild type domains. Crucial interactions responsible for the stability of the WW structure have been identified. Based on a network of highly conserved long range interactions across the beta-sheet structure that supports the WW fold and on a systematic analysis of conserved residues in the WW family, we have designed a folded prototype WW sequence.

A tale of two secondary structure elements: when a beta-hairpin becomes an alpha-helix.

In this work, we have analyzed the relative importance of secondary versus tertiary interactions in stabilizing and guiding protein folding. For this purpose, we have designed four different mutants to replace the alpha-helix of the GB1 domain by a sequence with strong beta-hairpin propensity in isolation. In particular, we have chosen the sequence of the second beta-hairpin of the GB1 domain, which populates the native conformation in aqueous solution to a significant extent. The resulting protein has roughly 30 % of its sequence duplicated and maintains the 3D-structure of the wild-type protein, but with lower stability (up to -5 kcal/mol). The loss of intrinsic helix stability accounts for about 80 % of the decrease in free energy, illustrating the importance of local interactions in protein stability. Interestingly enough, all the mutant proteins, included the one with the duplicated beta-hairpin sequence, fold with similar rates as the GB1 domain. Essentially, it is the nature of the rate-limiting step in the folding reaction that determines whether a particular interaction will speed up, or not, the folding rates. While local contacts are important in determining protein stability, residues involved in tertiary contacts in combination with the topology of the native fold, seem to be responsible for the specificity of protein structures. Proteins with non-native secondary structure tendencies can adopt stable folds and be as efficient in folding as those proteins with native-like propensities.

Solution structure determination by two-dimensional 1H NMR of omega-conotoxin MVIID, a calcium channel blocker peptide.

The three-dimensional structure of omega-conotoxin MVIID has been determined in aqueous solution by two-dimensional 1H NMR techniques. A total of 267 relevant upper-bound distance restraints were used to obtain a family of convergent structures using molecular dynamics methods. A standard simulated annealing protocol using the XPLOR program included in ARIA provided a total of 18 final structures. The averaged RMSD between these structures and the mean atomic coordinates was 0.8 +/- 0.3 A for the backbone atoms. The highest mobility was observed in the segments between residues 10 to 13, comprising Tyr 13, one of the residues shown to be important for binding of omega-conotoxin GVIA and MVIIA to N-type calcium channels. The three-dimensional structure is stabilised by the three disulfide bonds and includes a short antiparallel beta-strand between residues 5-8, 23-25 and 19-21. The folding for this non-N-type calcium channel blocker is similar to that previously calculated for omega-conotoxins GVIA, MVIIA and MVIIC. This suggests the disulfide bond pattern fixes the structure. The reported three-dimensional information can be used to advantage in order to highlight the structural parameters involved in discrimination among calcium channel subtypes.

Interaction of Bovine Myelin Basic Protein with Cholesterol.

The interaction of myelin basic protein with cholesterol and the conformational changes occurring in the protein upon interaction with the lipid were investigated. The myelin basic protein (MBP) plays an important role in stabilizing the multilamellar structure of the myelin membrane. MBP interacts in a specific way with the lipids components of the membrane. The major lipid component is the cholesterol which comprises 40-44 mol% of the lipids. In order to understand the effect of the lipids in the protein conformation we have studied the interaction between MBP and cholesterol. The conformational changes induced in the protein upon interaction with different concentrations of cholesterol were characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and monolayer studies. Aqueous solution of MBP from bovine brain (obtained by the method of Cheifetz and Moscarello) exhibited a circular dichroism (CD) spectrum characteristic of random coil protein molecules. Upon addition of cholesterol, MBP-cholesterol complexes were observed by TEM. The monolayer compression experiments show plateaus in their surface pressure-area isotherms. The presence of these plateaus has previously been interpreted as alpha-helix conformation. By seeding the MBP onto the aqueous support, we have determined the compression work for the protein on the surface. Experimental areas of the mixtures MBP-cholesterol are smaller than the area calculated by adding the areas of the pure components, indicating that there are attractive forces between both components. The calculated entropy of compression indicates that the highest organization is reached when lipid and protein are almost in the same proportion. Copyright 1998 Academic Press.

The tryptophan/histidine interaction in alpha-helices.

Contacts between aromatic and charged residues are often found in proteins. Mutational studies have shown that a tryptophan/charged histidine pair can stabilise a protein by more than 1 kcal mol(-1). We have used circular dichroism and nuclear magnetic resonance to study the helical content of several peptides in which a tryptophan/histidine pair was placed at i, i + 3 or i, i + 4 in either the N to C or the C to N orientation. Our data indicate that the WH i, i + 4 geometry is the most stabilising one (when the histidine is protonated) and gives rise to the highest helical content. Little preference is observed among the three other orientations. The energy of the WH+ i, i + 4 interaction (calculated with AGADIR and SCINT) is about 1 kcal mol(-1). A statistical analysis of the occurrence of tryptophan/histidine pairs in alpha-helices of natural proteins reveals that, although the WH i, i + 4 pairs are not more abundant than the others, in most of the WH i, i + 4 pairs the two side-chains are in contact, but not in the other three orientations. These results suggest that the conformational stability of proteins could be increased by means of solvent-exposed intrahelical i, i + 4 tryptophan-histidine bridges and that these bridges could be useful to tailor the stability of helical peptides at physiological pH.

Structural changes of beta-lactoglobulin B induced by urea. Evidence of residual structure.

Several spectroscopic methods have been used to study the structure of beta-lactoglobulin B at pH 2.1 in the presence of 8M urea. Fluorescence and polarization of fluorescence spectroscopy measurements indicate that the two tryptophanyl residues of the protein are exposed to the solvent in the denatured state. CD in the far-UV indicates that the amount of secondary structure in the denatured state is comparable to that found in the native state, whereas the CD spectrum in the near-UV shows that the tertiary structure is not completely disordered. The results of one-dimensional 1H NMR spectroscopy show that some local non-random structure is maintained in the denatured state, but most of the polypeptide chain has an extended non-globular conformation under the conditions of the present experiments. This conclusion is reinforced by the results of two-dimensional 1H NMR conducted on denatured samples of beta-lactoglobulin B. The study of states with intermediate levels of order will aid the understanding of how the native structure of beta-lactoglobulin B is organised during the refolding pathways.