Investigaciones
Molecular mechanism of heavy metals phytoremediation using tropical plants
Juan A. Negrón-Berríos, Ph.D.
Inter American University of Puerto Rico
Barranquitas Campus
Heavy metals pollution is a worldwide problem that has deteriorated environment and has placed human health into risk. Heavy metals can disturb metabolism by binding non-specifically to biomolecules and by inducing oxidative damage to cell structures and to DNA. Heavy metals represent a challenge, since metals in their elemental state cannot be decomposed further. Available alternatives to clean contaminated soils and water resources are tedious, not very effective and highly expensive. Some plant species can hyperaccumulate toxic heavy metals, and are therefore, potential phytoremediators. Phytoremediation involves the removal of toxic heavy metals from contaminated soils and waters, or rendering them harmless by accumulating, chelating, or transforming these contaminants into biologically inactive forms through green plants. The development of effective phytoremediation technologies has been limited, due to the lack of understanding of the mechanism involved in metal accumulation. Key components of this mechanism, such as the detailed intracellular and molecular events associated to heavy metal mobilization and toxicity in animals and plants have not been fully established. In this work, atomic absorption spectroscopy has been used to demonstrate hyperaccumulation capacity of tropical plants propagated in vitro. Molecular genetics and biochemical studies have been used to elucidate the homeostasis of heavy metals in plants. Genes involved in heavy metals resistance and accumulation in plants has been identified. This work is geared to elucidate heavy metal homeostasis at the cellular level, with emphasis on metal binding proteins and the possible role of the plant cytoskeleton.
The Ethnolinguistic Identity of the University Of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus’ First Year College Students: Its Implications in Their Attitudes towards the Learning of English as a Second Language
Autor: Vilma Pizarro Santiago Ed.D.
The purpose of this study was to explore the attitudes of 1st year Puerto Rican college students towards the learning of the English language in relation to their ethnolinguistic identity. The importance of studying attitudes can be traced back to studies such as Thogmartin’s (1971, December), who believes that attitudes will either inhibit or promote the learning of a language.
El antillanismo de hostos en su epistolario
Autor: Dr. Orlando Santiago Díaz
Hace ya algún tiempo nos habíamos
aproximado al tema del antillanismo del prócer
a través de las páginas de su novela-diario
La peregrinación de Bayoán.1 Muy joven
(tenía 24 años de edad) Hostos publica
esa obra, de alientos plenamente antillanos, incluso
con nombres indígenas, para resaltar más
claramente el compromiso americanista y caribeño
que persigue. Cuenta en sus páginas los sinsabores
y tormentos de un puertorriqueño llamado
Bayoán, quien peregrina por tempestuosos
mares en busca de la libertad, alojando dos propósitos
dentro de su ser: por un lado, el ideario de la
redención de la patria y, por otro, si seguimos
el hilo de la trama, el sentimiento amoroso hacia una mujer, la
muy delicada Marién, nacida en Cuba, y sumado
a esto, en el contexto de la ficción, Guarionex,
quisquellano, todo como expresión simbólica
de su sueño grande: la unión
de las tres grandes Antillas.
