Uso de las plataformas LEGO y Arduino en la enseñanza de la programación

Cada vez es más común que los grados de ingeniería y ciencia incluyan la enseñanza de la programación en sus planes de estudio. Estas asignaturas suponen un auténtico desafío para los profesores encargados ya que muchos estudiantes encuentran bastantes dificultades en su primer encuentro con la programación. En la actualidad existen enfoques docentes innovadores que pueden ayudar en esta tarea, la computación física es uno de los más prometedores. Ésta introduce los conceptos de la programación en el mundo real para que el alumno interaccione con ellos. Utilizando este paradigma hemos desarrollado un conjunto de recursos docentes para la enseñanza de la programación en ciencias e ingeniería. Se han preparado un conjunto de demostraciones para ser utilizadas en clase de teoría y varios módulos para ser utilizados por los alumnos en el laboratorio. Las experiencias de teoría y de laboratorio se apoyan en las plataformas Arduino -una microcontroladora open hardware- y LEGO -una plataforma robótica educativa. El material desarrollado ha sido evaluado en un curso de programación dentro del grado de Biología y con estudiantes voluntarios de primero de Matemáticas. Los resultados han sido positivos: se ha incrementado el número de estudiantes que aprenden a programar satisfactoriamente y disfrutan programando. Estos resultados indican que el uso de este recurso docente como complemento a la docencia tradicional mejora el aprendizaje de los estudiantes facilitando la labor del profesor.SUMMARY -- Engineers and scientists increasingly rely on computers for their work. As a consequence most science and engineering degrees have introduced a computer programming course in their curricula. However, lecturers face a complex task when teaching this subject: students consider the subject to be unrelated to their core interests and often feel uncomfortable when learning to program for the first time. Several studies have proposed the use of the physical computing paradigm. This paradigm takes the computational concepts “out of the screen” and into the real world so that the student can interact with them. Using this paradigm we have designed and implemented several introductory programming learning modules for an introductory programming course in science and engineering. These modules are to be used in lectures and laboratory sessions. We selected the Arduino board –an electronic board- and LEGO –a robotic platform- as the hardware platform. The effectiveness of the modules was assessed by comparing two programming courses: in one the teacher used traditional methods; in the other he complemented these with the modules. We evaluated the modules in a programming course for Biology students and found that they were highly effective: more students learned to program and more students enjoyed programming. These results suggest that the physical computing paradigm involves the student more effectively in the learning process

Uso de las plataformas LEGO y Arduino en la enseñanza de la programación

Cada vez es más común que los grados de ingeniería y ciencia incluyan la enseñanza de la programación en sus planes de estudio. Estas asignaturas suponen un auténtico desafío para los profesores encargados ya que muchos estudiantes encuentran bastantes dificultades en su primer encuentro con la programación. En la actualidad existen enfoques docentes innovadores que pueden ayudar en esta tarea, la computación física es uno de los más prometedores. Ésta introduce los conceptos de la programación en el mundo real para que el alumno interaccione con ellos. Utilizando este paradigma hemos desarrollado un conjunto de recursos docentes para la enseñanza de la programación en ciencias e ingeniería. Se han preparado un conjunto de demostraciones para ser utilizadas en clase de teoría y varios módulos para ser utilizados por los alumnos en el laboratorio. Las experiencias de teoría y de laboratorio se apoyan en las plataformas Arduino -una microcontroladora open hardware- y LEGO -una plataforma robótica educativa. El material desarrollado ha sido evaluado en un curso de programación dentro del grado de Biología y con estudiantes voluntarios de primero de Matemáticas. Los resultados han sido positivos: se ha incrementado el número de estudiantes que aprenden a programar satisfactoriamente y disfrutan programando. Estos resultados indican que el uso de este recurso docente como complemento a la docencia tradicional mejora el aprendizaje de los estudiantes facilitando la labor del profesor.Engineers and scientists increasingly rely on computers for their work. As a consequence most science and engineering degrees have introduced a computer programming course in their curricula. However, lecturers face a complex task when teaching this subject: students consider the subject to be unrelated to their core interests and often feel uncomfortable when learning to program for the first time. Several studies have proposed the use of the physical computing paradigm. This paradigm takes the computational concepts “out of the screen” and into the real world so that the student can interact with them. Using this paradigm we have designed and implemented several introductory programming learning modules for an introductory programming course in science and engineering. These modules are to be used in lectures and laboratory sessions. We selected the Arduino board –an electronic board- and LEGO –a robotic platform- as the hardware platform. The effectiveness of the modules was assessed by comparing two programming courses: in one the teacher used traditional methods; in the other he complemented these with the modules. We evaluated the modules in a programming course for Biology students and found that they were highly effective: more students learned to program and more students enjoyed programming. These results suggest that the physical computing paradigm involves the student more effectively in the learning process.Este trabajo ha contado con el apoyo de la Universidad de Granada a través del proyecto PID/13-54

Long runs of homozygosity are associated with Alzheimer's disease

Altres ajuts: The Genome Research at Fundació ACE project (GR@ACE) is supported by Fundación bancaria "La Caixa," Grifols SA and Fundació ACE. L.M.R. is supported by Consejería de Salud de la Junta de Andalucía (Grant PI-0001/2017).Long runs of homozygosity (ROH) are contiguous stretches of homozygous genotypes, which are a footprint of inbreeding and recessive inheritance. The presence of recessive loci is suggested for Alzheimer's disease (AD); however, their search has been poorly assessed to date. To investigate homozygosity in AD, here we performed a fine-scale ROH analysis using 10 independent cohorts of European ancestry (11,919 AD cases and 9181 controls.) We detected an increase of homozygosity in AD cases compared to controls [ β (CI 95%) = 0.070 (0.037-0.104); P = 3.91 × 10 −5 ; β (CI95%) = 0.043 (0.009-0.076); P = 0.013]. ROHs increasing the risk of AD (OR > 1) were significantly overrepresented compared to ROHs increasing protection (p < 2.20 × 10 −16). A significant ROH association with AD risk was detected upstream the HS3ST1 locus (chr4:11,189,482‒11,305,456), (β (CI 95%) = 1.09 (0.48 ‒ 1.48), p value = 9.03 × 10 −4), previously related to AD. Next, to search for recessive candidate variants in ROHs, we constructed a homozygosity map of inbred AD cases extracted from an outbred population and explored ROH regions in whole-exome sequencing data (N = 1449). We detected a candidate marker, rs117458494, mapped in the SPON1 locus, which has been previously associated with amyloid metabolism. Here, we provide a research framework to look for recessive variants in AD using outbred populations. Our results showed that AD cases have enriched homozygosity, suggesting that recessive effects may explain a proportion of AD heritability

Genome-wide association analysis of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes reveal novel loci associated with Alzheimer's disease and three causality networks : The GR@ACE project

Introduction: Large variability among Alzheimer's disease (AD) cases might impact genetic discoveries and complicate dissection of underlying biological pathways. Methods: Genome Research at Fundacio ACE (GR@ACE) is a genome-wide study of dementia and its clinical endophenotypes, defined based on AD's clinical certainty and vascular burden. We assessed the impact of known AD loci across endophenotypes to generate loci categories. We incorporated gene coexpression data and conducted pathway analysis per category. Finally, to evaluate the effect of heterogeneity in genetic studies, GR@ACE series were meta-analyzed with additional genome-wide association study data sets. Results: We classified known AD loci into three categories, which might reflect the disease clinical heterogeneity. Vascular processes were only detected as a causal mechanism in probable AD. The meta-analysis strategy revealed the ANKRD31-rs4704171 and NDUFAF6-rs10098778 and confirmed SCIMP-rs7225151 and CD33-rs3865444. Discussion: The regulation of vasculature is a prominent causal component of probable AD. GR@ACE meta-analysis revealed novel AD genetic signals, strongly driven by the presence of clinical heterogeneity in the AD series

Uso de las plataformas LEGO y Arduino en la enseñanza de la programación

Cada vez es más común que los grados de ingeniería y ciencia incluyan la enseñanza de la programación en sus planes de estudio. Estas asignaturas suponen un auténtico desafío para los profesores encargados ya que muchos estudiantes encuentran bastantes dificultades en su primer encuentro con la programación. En la actualidad existen enfoques docentes innovadores que pueden ayudar en esta tarea, la computación física es uno de los más prometedores. Ésta introduce los conceptos de la programación en el mundo real para que el alumno interaccione con ellos. Utilizando este paradigma hemos desarrollado un conjunto de recursos docentes para la enseñanza de la programación en ciencias e ingeniería. Se han preparado un conjunto de demostraciones para ser utilizadas en clase de teoría y varios módulos para ser utilizados por los alumnos en el laboratorio. Las experiencias de teoría y de laboratorio se apoyan en las plataformas Arduino -una microcontroladora open hardware- y LEGO -una plataforma robótica educativa. El material desarrollado ha sido evaluado en un curso de programación dentro del grado de Biología y con estudiantes voluntarios de primero de Matemáticas. Los resultados han sido positivos: se ha incrementado el número de estudiantes que aprenden a programar satisfactoriamente y disfrutan programando. Estos resultados indican que el uso de este recurso docente como complemento a la docencia tradicional mejora el aprendizaje de los estudiantes facilitando la labor del profesor.SUMMARY -- Engineers and scientists increasingly rely on computers for their work. As a consequence most science and engineering degrees have introduced a computer programming course in their curricula. However, lecturers face a complex task when teaching this subject: students consider the subject to be unrelated to their core interests and often feel uncomfortable when learning to program for the first time. Several studies have proposed the use of the physical computing paradigm. This paradigm takes the computational concepts “out of the screen” and into the real world so that the student can interact with them. Using this paradigm we have designed and implemented several introductory programming learning modules for an introductory programming course in science and engineering. These modules are to be used in lectures and laboratory sessions. We selected the Arduino board –an electronic board- and LEGO –a robotic platform- as the hardware platform. The effectiveness of the modules was assessed by comparing two programming courses: in one the teacher used traditional methods; in the other he complemented these with the modules. We evaluated the modules in a programming course for Biology students and found that they were highly effective: more students learned to program and more students enjoyed programming. These results suggest that the physical computing paradigm involves the student more effectively in the learning process

Development of an Inexpensive Sensor Network for Recognition of Sitting Posture

The aim of this work is the development of a network of wireless devices to determine, along with a time-stamp, postural changes of users that are to be used in personalized learning environments. For this purpose, we have designed a basic low-cost pressure sensor that can be built from components easily available. Several of these basic sensors (of sizes and shapes chosen specifically for the task) are integrated into a posture sensor cushion, which is electronically controlled by an Arduino microcontroller board. This accounts for experiments involving either a single cushion to be used by an individual end-user setting approach or classroom approaches where several of these cushions make up a sensor network via ZigBee wireless connections. The system thus formed is an excellent alternative to other more expensive commercial systems and provides a low-cost, easy-to-use, portable, scalable, autonomous, flexible solution with free hardware and software, which can be integrated with other sensing devices into a larger affect detection system, customizable to cope with postural changes at required time intervals and support single and collective oriented experimentation approaches

Prediction of long-term outcomes of HIV-infected patients developing non-AIDS events using a multistate approach

Outcomes of people living with HIV (PLWH) developing non-AIDS events (NAEs) remain poorly defined. We aimed to classify NAEs according to severity, and to describe clinical outcomes and prognostic factors after NAE occurrence using data from CoRIS, a large Spanish HIV cohort from 2004 to 2013. Prospective multicenter cohort study. Using a multistate approach we estimated 3 transition probabilities: from alive and NAE-free to alive and NAE-experienced ("NAE development"); from alive and NAE-experienced to death ("Death after NAE"); and from alive and NAE-free to death ("Death without NAE"). We analyzed the effect of different covariates, including demographic, immunologic and virologic data, on death or NAE development, based on estimates of hazard ratios (HR). We focused on the transition "Death after NAE". 8,789 PLWH were followed-up until death, cohort censoring or loss to follow-up. 792 first incident NAEs occurred in 9.01% PLWH (incidence rate 28.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 26.80-30.84, per 1000 patient-years). 112 (14.14%) NAE-experienced PLWH and 240 (2.73%) NAE-free PLWH died. Adjusted HR for the transition "Death after NAE" was 12.1 (95%CI, 4.90-29.89). There was a graded increase in the adjusted HRs for mortality according to NAE severity category: HR (95%CI), 4.02 (2.45-6.57) for intermediate-severity; and 9.85 (5.45-17.81) for serious NAEs compared to low-severity NAEs. Male sex (HR 2.04; 95% CI, 1.11-3.84), ag