Sulfur-doped carbon/TiO2 composites for ethylene photo-oxidation. Enhanced performance by doping TiO2 phases with sulfur by mobile species inserted on the carbon support

The performance of carbon xerogel/TiO2 composites in ethylene photo-oxidation was analyzed under dynamic conditions considering various parameters, namely sulfur doping, dry vs. humid conditions and type of radiation (ultraviolet, UV, vs. visible light, Vis). The catalysts were synthesized using an acid-catalyzed sol-gel process and characterized with complementary techniques, including SEM/EDX, XRD, XPS and physical adsorption of N2 and CO2, among others. The performance of samples in ethylene removal by adsorption and photo-oxidation under dynamic flow was discussed and related with their physicochemical properties and the experimental conditions. Although ethylene adsorption was hindered by doping and humidity, both factors were found to enhance photoactivity by promoting the formation of highly oxidant hydroxyl radicals (HO•). The composites showed an improved catalytic performance compared to bare TiO2, with sulfur improving the activity by approximately 8 %. The presence of the carbon material also enhanced the performance under Vis radiation by nearly 25 %. It was suggested that sulfur species could migrate from the carbon support to the TiO2 nanoparticles during carbonization, forming Ti-O-S bonds. This finding constitutes a novel, cost-effective, sustainable and scalable method for the preparation of supported and doped TiO2 nanocomposites

Gamification in the natural science curriculum in basic education: empirical evidence of effectiveness in learning

https://www.mlsjournals.com/Educational-Research-Journal/article/view/2796Esta investigación ofrece a la comunidad educativa un diseño de propuesta de actuación en el currículo de ciencias naturales, que implicó el aprendizaje del concepto de la energía mediante la gamificación. La intervención se desarrolló en el Colegio José Martí en Bogotá, con una muestra de 32 estudiantes de quinto grado de educación básica primaria. La intención es abordar el problema científico planteado: ¿qué elementos debe contener una propuesta de actuación en el currículo del colegio José Martí que involucre la construcción del concepto de energía a través de la gamificación? Los interrogantes propuestos conducen a la formulación de varias hipótesis, entre ellas, si las estrategias de aprendizaje que utilizan la gamificación como un recurso educativo enriquecen el currículo en ciencias naturales y facilitan la construcción significativa del concepto de energía por parte los estudiantes. Esta investigación adopta un enfoque mixto, que combina métodos descriptivos, explicativos e interpretativos. Para el análisis cuantitativo, se emplearon algoritmos estadísticos como la prueba de Shapiro-Wilk y la prueba t de student, mientras que la parte cualitativa se usó el software maxqda. Este estudio aporta a la comunidad educativa una estrategia de aprendizaje innovadora para enseñar el concepto de la energía a través de la gamificación, generando cambios significativos en el currículo. Además de verificar que la utilización de herramientas tecnológicas y gamificadas, específicamente el juego “un recorrido energético: la magia de la energía” promovió un aprendizaje significativo del concepto en los estudiantes de quinto grado de básica primaria del colegio José Martí.This research offers the educational community a design proposal for action within the natural sciences curriculum, involving the learning of the concept of energy through gamification. The intervention took place José Martí School in Bogotá, with a sample of 32 fifth grade elementary students. The intention is to address the scientific problem posed: what elements should a proposal for action contain in the José Martí school curriculum that involves the construction of the concept of energy through gamification? The proposed questions lead to the formulation of several hypotheses, among them, whether learning strategies that use gamification as an educational resource enrich the natural sciences curriculum and facilitate the meaningful construction of the concept of energy by students. This research adopts a mixed approach, combining descriptive, explanatory and interpretive methods; For the quantitative analysis, statistical algorithms such as the Shapiro-Wilk test and the student t test were used, while the qualitative part was used maxqda software. This study provides the educational community with an innovative learning strategy to teach the concept of energy through gamification, generating significant changes in the curriculum. In addition to verifying that the use of technological and gamified tools, specifically the game “an energy journey: the magic of energy” promoted significant learning of the concept in fifth grade primary school students at the José Martí school

A statistical and modeling study on the effects of radiation on Au/Ta/ ZrO2(Y)/Pt/Ti memristive devices

In this study we have investigated the impact of the changes induced by ion irradiation on the performance and reliability of Au/Ta/ZrO2(Y)/Pt/Ti memristive devices. A comprehensive experimental approach was employed, involving irradiation with various ion species, including H+, Ne+, O+, and Kr+ to simulate different radiation environments. Thus, advanced statistical and modeling techniques to analyze the effects of irradiation on the resistive switching (RS) characteristics of the devices have been employed. Results revealed alterations in the post-irradiation RS parameters, including set and reset voltages and currents. These changes were found to depend on the ion species and dosage, with heavier ions such as Kr+ causing more pronounced effects. The findings are supported by detailed Monte Carlo simulations, which provided insights into the distribution of vacancies within the memristive devices under neutron irradiation. The experimental data, combined with the modeling results, indicate that RS is generally tolerant to radiation, although ion irradiation can lead to the formation of defect structures that affect the switching parameters of memristive devices

The dynamic ethylene adsorption on carbon xerogels as a three-way game between porosity, surface chemistry and humidity

Novel carbon xerogels doped with heteroatoms (O, N, S) were prepared by sol–gel polymerization of resorcinol with heterocyclic aldehydes containing them. All doped materials presented higher O-contents than the reference material prepared with formaldehyde, and significant S- or N-loadings in the corresponding samples. Carbon xerogels were micro-mesoporous and N-doping favoured the formation of mesopores. Their efficiency in the dynamic ethylene adsorption is presented as an interplay between porosity, surface chemistry and humidity. The surface hydrophilicity was also studied by water adsorption assays, a quick adsorption being favoured in microporous samples with hydrophilic O-groups. Breakthrough curves for ethylene adsorption were recorded in both dry and humid conditions and analysed according to the mass transference zone (MTZ). The material behaviour was correlated with the physicochemical properties, elucitating the mechanism of the simultaneous water/ethylene adsorption. The adsorption capacity depended linearly on the microporous characteristics of samples; however, MTZ parameters (efficiency of the column) varied linearly with the electronegativity of the dopant element. Both doping and humidity in the stream hindered the ethylene adsorption kinetic and capacity (up to 33% for N-doped material under humidity compared to undoped-material under dry conditions), due to reduced adsorbate-adsorbent interactions and the accessibility into narrow pores.Project PCI2020-112045 from MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and European Union Next Generation EU/PRTR, as part of the PRIMA Programme (Nano4Fresh project).MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and FSE “El FSE invierte en tu futuro” for a Ramon y Cajal research contract (RYC-2019-026634-I

El español de Colombia y Venezuela

El presente capítulo revisa las características más destacadas el español de Colombia y de Venezuela. Tras presentar los rasgos diferenciadores de cada país y ofrecer una descripción específica de la pronunciación, la gramática y el léxico, se ofrecen unos ejercicios de aplicación y unas preguntas de ampliación y reflexión, con la finalidad de consolidar el conocimiento sobre estas variedades y las fuentes de estudio.This chapter reviews the most salient features of Colombian and Venezuelan Spanish. After presenting the differentiating features of each country and offering a specific description of pronunciation, grammar and lexicon, some application exercises and extension and reflection questions are offered, with the aim of o consolidate knowledge about these varieties and study sources

Exogenous spatial attention selects associated novel bindings in working memory

Real-world environments are complex, demanding a diverse set of cognitive functions such as attention and working memory (WM) to perform adaptive behaviors. However, exogenous attention, characterized as automatic and involuntary, has primarily been studied by focusing on spatial perception. In particular, the ability of pure exogenous retro-cues to select and prioritize not only spatial locations, but also novel stimulus–response (S-R) bindings held in WM remains largely unexplored. Here, in two experimental series, we provide evidence that pure exogenous non-predictive retro-cues can select not only space, but also associated S-R bindings held in WM. Additional evidence from a drift–diffusion model hinted at the possibility that the mechanisms through which exogenous attention selects and prioritizes WM contents depend, at least partially, on the hierarchical relevance of the different dimensions encoded within a specific representation. These results highlight the relationship between pure exogenous attention and complex WM contents and shed light on current theoretical debates about the interaction of attention, memory, and action

Estudio sobre el uso de anotaciones multimedia y etiquetado social aplicado al campo del Prácticum

En los últimos años, dentro del campo de la formación del profesorado, se ha producido un incremento en los estudios e investigaciones que se vienen realizando, a nivel nacional e internacional, sobre análisis de vídeos digitales a través de herramientas de etiquetado social. Las nuevas posibilidades que ofrecen las tecnologías emergentes de anotaciones multimedia, entre ellas, las anotaciones de vídeo, lo han hecho posible, atrayendo el interés de numerosos investigadores. La metodología de anotaciones multimedia (MAM) a través de plataformas tecnológicas se presenta hoy en día como una metodología emergente e innovadora que posibilita un uso más activo e interactivo de los vídeos educativos. El presente estudio se enmarca en esta reciente línea de trabajo. En concreto, se analiza MAM aplicada a un recurso generado dentro del proyecto de investigación titulado documentos personales: el e-diario de los actores del Prácticum y Prácticas externas, enmarcado en la RedTICPraxis y coordinado por la UnEd. El recurso digital es analizado por miembros de la Red mediante anotaciones y etiquetas utilizando una de las plataformas tecnológicas más potentes en la actualidad. El etiquetado social producido en torno a las vídeo anotaciones ha sido analizado cuantitativa y cualitativamente acorde a las recomendaciones de expertos en este tipo de análisis científico.In recent years, within the field of teacher training, there has been an increase in studies and research being carried out on the analysis of digital videos through social tagging tools at both national and international scales. new possibilities offered by emerging multimedia annotation technologies, including video annotation, have made this possible, attracting the interest of many researchers. The multimedia annotation methodology (MAM) through technological platforms is presented as an emerging and innovative methodology today. It enables a more active and interactive use of educational videos. This study is part of this recent line of work. Specifically, MAM is analyzed applied to a resource generated within the research project entitled Personal documents: the e-diary of the actors of the Practicum and External Practices, framed in the RedTICPraxis and coordinated by the UnEd. The video experience is analysed by members of the network through annotations and tags using one of the most powerful technological platforms today. The social tagging produced around the video annotations has been quantitatively and qualitatively analysed according to the recommendations of experts in this type of scientific analysis.Esta investigación se ha realizado dentro de la RedTICPraxis (REPPE) y en el marco del Proyecto de Innovación docente “Los documentos personales de los actores del Prácticum y Prácticas externas: e-diarios” (Convocatoria 2022-2023), financiado por el Vicerrectorado de Metodología e Innovación y el Instituto Universitario de Educación a Distancia de la Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED)

The effect of disruptive change on the spatial variation of commercial rental prices: The case of the COVID-19 pandemic

This study examines spatial variations in the rental price of commercial premises and the factors that explain these variations in the event of a disruptive change such as the COVID-19 pandemic. A novelty of this work is the methodology used to determine the form and radius of influence on these prices (monotonically decreasing buffer with threshold) of heritage monuments as tourist attractions. The methodology is applied to a case study of the city of Granada, Spain, although it could be extrapolated to other cities displaying similar characteristics. The results indicate that commercial rental prices varied in a non-uniform manner throughout the city during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the main streets and prime locations were the most affected. The proposed methodology can be used to guide political and business decision-making in other disruptive situations.Este estudio examina las variaciones espaciales en el precio de alquiler de los locales comerciales y en los factores que los explican cuando se produce un cambio disruptivo, como el causado por el COVID-19. Una novedad de este trabajo es la metodología utilizada para determinar la forma y el radio de influencia sobre estos precios (buffer monótonamente decreciente con umbral) de los monumentos patrimoniales, como atractivos turísticos. La metodología se ha aplicado al caso de estudio de la ciudad de Granada (Spain), si bien podría extrapolarse a otras ciudades con características similares. Los resultados indican que los precios de los alquileres comerciales variaron de forma no uniforme en toda la ciudad durante la pandemia de COVID-19 y que las calles principales y las ubicaciones privilegiadas fueron las más afectadas. La metodología propuesta puede utilizarse para orientar la toma de decisiones políticas y comerciales en otras situaciones disruptivas.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación PID2022-136235NB-I00, MICIU/AEI/ 10.13039/501100011033Departamento de Métodos Cuantitativos para la Economía y la Empresa, Universidad de GranadaFacultad de Ciencias Económicas y Empresariales, Universidad de GranadaGrupo de Investigación Modelos Probabilísticos Aplicados a las Ciencias Sociales, FQM-150Instituto Andaluz de Investigación e Innovación en Turismo de las Universidades de Granada, Málaga y Sevill

Advance Requests for Medical Assistance in Dying in the International Context: Some Legal Issues for the Canadian Case

This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and ESF+; INEDyTO II project: Bioethics and practices related to the end of life (PID2020‐118729RBI00), "ayudas para contratos predoctorales" (PRE2021‐098759), and Ariadna project PPJIB-2024-55 (University of Granada).An advance request for medical assistance in dying (ARM) is a document that allows individuals to request euthanasia if they lose their decision-making capacity. Currently, it is available in all countries where medical assistance in dying is permitted for individuals suffering from a serious and incurable illness whose natural death is not reasonably foreseeable, except in Canada. In this country, various citizen and parliamentary initiatives are considering the inclusion of this document in national legislation. This article presents for the first time a compilation of all ARM regulations worldwide. Analysis of the international framework suggests that the requirements for drafting an ARM could influence the effective implementation of patients' wishes.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, MICIU/AEI/10.13039/501100011033ESF+; INEDyTO II (PID2020‐118729RBI00)University of Granada PRE2021‐098759, PPJIB-2024-5