Mixed-methods research: a new approach to evaluating the motivation and satisfaction of university students using advanced visual technologies

The final publication is available at link.springer.comA mixed-methods study evaluating the motivation and satisfaction of Architecture degree students using interactive visualization methods is presented in this paper. New technology implementations in the teaching field have been largely extended to all types of levels and educational frameworks. However, these innovations require approval validation and evaluation by the final users, the students. In this paper, the advantages and disadvantages of applying mixed evaluation technology are discussed in a case study of the use of interactive and collaborative tools for the visualization of 3D architectonical models. The main objective was to evaluate Architecture and Building Science students’ the motivation to use and satisfaction with this type of technology and to obtain adequate feedback that allows for the optimization of this type of experiment in future iterations.Postprint (author’s final draft

Circular economy through plastic recycling process into 3D printed products: A frugal solution for schools

Frugal Innovation Plastic has a great number of benefits that have made itan essential material in our life,being one of the most used and produced materials around the world,over the past decades. In addition, its manufacturing is even going to increasein the next years. Consequentially, the fact of such a huge production is connected toanenormous waste generation. For this reason, it is important to takecare of the environment through a green concept, circularity and recycling besides alerting the population in order to become awareof this problemand to change bad habits. Circular Economy has emerged as one of the main conceptsthat can bringsolutions on this matterenabling the reduction of the environmental damage. Therefore, 3D printing has emerged as one of the most scalable technologies to implement the concept of circular economy. On the other hand, a successful solution must be affordable in order to encourage to develop these new practices. Within this context, it has emerged Frugal Innovation which intends to provide good results facing financial or operative restraints. The goal of this Master dissertationis based on circular economy concept through plastic recycling(PET bottles)into 3D printed productsin a scholar demonstration. Methodologies are employed with frugal concept as reference, trying to offer an inexpensive solution. Most of the difficulties come from extrusion and filament quality while some of the main results obtained are: avoid glue, take into account the appropriate parameters of the extruder or add a cooling syste

Large eddy simulation and laboratory experiments on the decay of grid wakes in strongly stratified flows

A detailed analysis of the flow structure resulting from the combination of turbulence and internal waves is carried out and visualized by means of the Schlieren method on waves in a strongly stratified fluid at the Laboratory of the IPM in Moscow. The joint appearance of the more regular internal wave oscillations and the small-scale turbulence that is confined vertically to the Ozmidov length scale favours the use of a simple geometrical analysis to investigate their time-space span and evolution. This provides useful information on the collapse of internal wave breaking processes in the ocean and the atmosphere. The measurements were performed under a variety of linear stratifications and different grid forcing scales, combining the grid wake and velocity shear. A numerical simulation using LES on the passage of a single bar in a linearly stratified fluid medium has been compared with the experiments identifying the different influences of the environmental agents on the actual effective vertical diffusion of the wakes. The equation of state, which connects the density and salinity, is assumed to be linear, with the coefficient of the salt contraction being included into the definition of salinity or heat. The characteristic internal waves as well as the entire beam width are related to the diameter of the bar, the Richardson number and the peak-to-peak value of oscillations. The ultimate frequency of the infinitesimal periodic internal waves is limited by the maximum buoyancy frequency relating the decrease in the vertical scale with the anisotropy of the velocity turbulent r.m.s. velocity.Peer ReviewedPreprin

Nou analitzador on-line de residus contaminants en biogas

Investigadors del Grup de Tractament de Residus Gasosos del Departament d'Enginyeria Química de la UAB han desenvolupat un analitzador per a la detecció d'ió sulfur en líquid i sulfur d'hidrogen en gas, especialment dissenyat per ser utilitzat en el control de biofiltres per al tractament de biogas amb alta càrrega de sulfur d'hidrogen.Investigadores del Grupo de tratamiento de resíduos gaseosos del Departamento de Ingeniería Química de la UAB han desarrollado un analizador para la detección de ion sulfuro en líquido y sulfuro de hidrógeno en gas, especialmente diseñado para ser utilizado en el control de biofiltros para el tratamiento de biogás con alta carga de sulfuro de hidrógeno.Researchers of the Group of Waste Gas Treatment at the Department of Chemical Engineering of the UAB have developed an analyser for the detection of sulfide ion in liquid and hydrogen sulfide in gas samples, especially designed to be used in the control of biofílters for the treatment of biogas with high loads of hydrogen sulfide

The relation between the implementation of learning objects and the listening skills in students of BA in Spanish and English

Learning objects (LOs) are materials designed to be self-contained digital instructional units that can be combined to create a variety of learning experiences. However, very few Higher education institutions in Colombia are using LOs for teaching purposes. Universidad Popular del Cesar is one of those educational institutions where LOs had been implemented without knowing how meaningful or inadequate its use is. Hence, the aim of this study is to establish the relation between the implementation of LOs and the development of listening skills in a group of students at this university. This qualitative investigation is nourished by case study methodology where 18 BA in Spanish and English students had an active role in using LOs to enhance their listening skills. The results of this research reveal that since English lab teacher mediation was accurate to the target lesson, the chosen group of students derived benefit from using LOs. Nonetheless, learners also experienced some difficulties in implementing LOs such as the low quality of Internet connection among other technical trouble. It is worth stating that the results of this research will be integrated to the curriculum of the BA in Spanish and English program at Universidad Popular del Cesar in order to enhance the academic processes by improving the communicative competence as well as the coherence regarding the way these target subjects work.MaestríaMagister en la Enseñanza del Ingle

Mixing in convective thermal fluxes in unsteady nonhomogeneous flows generating complex three dimensional vorticity patterns

Diffusion and scaling of the velocity and vorticity in a thermoelectric driven heating and cooling experimental device is presented in order to map the different patterns and transitions between two and three dimensional convection in an enclosure with complex driven flows. The size of the water tank is of 0.2 x 0.2 x 0.1 m and the heat sources or sinks can be regulated both in power and sign [1-3]. The thermal convective driven flows are generated by means of Peltier effects in 4 wall extended positions of 0.05 x 0.05 cm each. The parameter range of convective cell array varies strongly with the Topology of the boundary conditions. Side heat and momentum fluxes are a function of Rayleigh, Peclet and Nusselt numbers, [4-6] Visualizations are performed by PIV, Particle tracking and shadowgraph. The structure of the flow is shown by setting up a convective flow generated by buoyant heat fluxes. The experiments described here investigate high Prandtl number mixing using brine and fresh water in order to form a density interface and low Prandtl number mixing with temperature gradients. The evolution of the mixing fronts are compared and the topological characteristics of the merging of the convective structures are examined for different configurations. Based on two dimensional Vorticity spectral analysis, new techniques can be very useful to determine the evolution of scales considering the multi-fractal structure of the convective flows.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Building LABDRIVE, a Petabyte Scale, OAIS/ISO 16363 Conformant, Environmentally Sustainable Archive, Tested by Large Scientific Organisations to Preserve their Raw and Processed Data, Software and Documents

Vast amounts of scientific, cultural, social, business and government, and other, information is being created every day. There are billions of objects, in a multitude of formats, semantics and associated software. Much, perhaps the majority, of this information is transitory but there is still an immense amount which should be preserved for the medium and long term – perhaps even indefinitely. Preservation requires that the information continues to be usable, not simply to be printed or displayed. Of course, the digital objects (the bits) must be preserved, as must the “metadata” which enables the bits to the understood which includes the software. Before LABDRIVE no system could adequately preserve such information, especially in such gigantic volume and variety.  In this paper we describe the development of LABDRIVE and its ability to preserve tens or hundreds of petabytes in a way which is conformant to the OAIS Reference Model and capable of being ISO 16363 certified

Protecting from Malware Obfuscation Attacks through Adversarial Risk Analysis

Malware constitutes a major global risk affecting millions of users each year. Standard algorithms in detection systems perform insufficiently when dealing with malware passed through obfuscation tools. We illustrate this studying in detail an open source metamorphic software, making use of a hybrid framework to obtain the relevant features from binaries. We then provide an improved alternative solution based on adversarial risk analysis which we illustrate describe with an example

Los museos etnológicos como instrumentos de formación ciudadana para la sostenibilidad

Los museos etnológicos y antropológicos persiguen fundamentalmente mostrar los variados aspectos de la vida de los grupos humanos y las relaciones que entre ellos se establecen; constituyen, pues, una ocasión idónea para poner de manifiesto la vinculación de los problemas locales que afectan a un grupo humano concreto con los globales a los que ha de hacer frente la humanidad en su conjunto. La investigación que presentamos ha estado orientada a analizar en qué medida estos museos están prestando atención a los problemas que amenazan la conservación de nuestro planeta y a las medidas a adoptar para que una determinada región contribuya a lograr un desarrollo sostenible

Pied flycatcher nestlings incur immunological but not growth begging costs

Many theoretical models on the evolution of nestling begging assume this behavior is costly, so that only nestlings in real need of food would profit from giving intensive signals to parents. However, evidence accumulated for the last 2 decades is either contradictory (growth costs) or scant (immunological cost). Here, we experimentally test the existence of both costs in pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) nestlings, a species in which parents appropriately respond to honest begging signals. Nestlings were paired by nest of origin and similar body mass. In each pair, a nestling was forced to beg for 51s/meal, whereas the other begged for only 3.4s/meal, both receiving the same amount of food. Simultaneously, the nestling immune response to an antigen (phytohemagglutinin) was measured. Experimental nestlings showed reduced immunocompetence compared with control chicks, which in this species could be regarded as a genuine direct cost. High-begging nestlings also gained less mass during the daylight activity hours. However, they lost less mass while resting at night, resulting in similar mass gains for both groups across the whole daily cycle. This suggests that negative effects of excess begging on mass gain can be compensated for by nestlings, thus avoiding the negative fitness consequences (i.e., cost) of a retarded growth. Mixed results found in previous studies may reflect interspecific differences in compensatory changes in mass gain. But if such differences do not map into fitness consequences, they may be of little help to answer the question of whether begging entails direct growth costs.Peer reviewe