Analysis of Activities with ICT in Secondary Education Classrooms

MetNum es punto de encuentro en el campus virtual Moodle, para los alumnos de Métodos Numéricos de la I.T.Informática de la Universidad de Málaga. Como herramientas básicas de Moodle nos planteamos en este campus virtual la utilización de cuestionarios, lecciones, glosarios, tareas, wikis, libros y foros como medio de incentivar y encauzar el trabajo diario de los alumnos. Destacamos que se ha desarrollado PDTeXInT: un entorno para el diseño de tutoriales interactivos para la presentación de material matemático. PDTeXInT permite acercar de forma amistosa y formato portable los contenidos teóricos junto con ejercicios de autoevaluación, como método para mejorar el proceso de aprendizaje.An cases study has made in two Secondary Education Centres of Tenerife, integrated into the Project Medusa of the Canary Government (http://www.gobiernodecanarias.org/educacion/ medusa). The results obtained from the observations of many classrooms developed teaching activities supported in the use of digital resources are presented here. The central objective was to identify what kind of activities have been developed in the pedagogical use of ICT, to what extent these activities are favoring informational and digital skills in students, and how they organized and developed them

Critical state theory for nonparallel flux line lattices in type-II superconductors

Coarse-grained flux density profiles in type-II superconductors with non-parallel vortex configurations are obtained by a proposed phenomenological least action principle. We introduce a functional $C[H(x)]$, which is minimized under a constraint of the kind $J$ belongs to $Delta$ for the current density vector, where $Delta$ is a bounded set. This generalizes the concept of critical current density introduced by C. P. Bean for parallel vortex configurations. In particular, we choose the isotropic case ($Delta$ is a circle), for which the field penetration profiles $H(x,t)$ are derived when a changing external excitation is applied. Faraday's law, and the principle of minimum entropy production rate for stationary thermodynamic processes dictate the evolution of the system. Calculations based on the model can reproduce the physical phenomena of flux transport and consumption, and the striking effect of magnetization collapse in crossed field measurements.Comment: The compiled TeX document length is 10 pages. Two figures (one page each) are also included The paper is accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let

Does elite European match-play affect salivary immunoglobulin- a and cortisol in soccer players? The influence of playing status and match outcome

Introduction: The aims of this study were to: a) investigate salivary immunoglobulin A (s-IgA) and cortisol (s-Cort) responses to nine competitive fixtures in starting and non- starting soccer players; and b) compare s-IgA and s Cort responses of starters and non-starters considering match outcome. Methods: Saliva from 19 male outfield players from an elite soccer team (mean ± SD, age 26 ± 4 years; weight 80.5 ± 8.1 kg; height 1.83 ± 0.07 m; body-fat 10.8% ± 0.7%) was collected. Saliva samples were taken on the day before each match (MD-1), 60-min before kick-off (MDpre), 30-min post-match (MDpost), and 72-h post-match (MD+3). There were five wins, one draw and three losses. Results: The mean s-IgA value was found to be significantly lower at MD+3 compared to MDpre and MDpost. s-Cort was significantly higher at MDpost compared to MD-1 and MDpre. When compared to MDpre, a statistically significant decrease in s-Cort was observed at MD+3 compared to MDpost. Starters displayed higher s-Cort values across the nine matches. There was a significant group-by-time interaction for s-Cort. There was a significant increase in s-Cort levels at MDpost compared to MD-1 and from MDpre to MDpost in starting players. At MDpost, starters had significantly higher s-Cort values. s-IgA values of starting and non- starting players following successful and unsuccessful matches did not reveal a significant difference. However, similar analysis of s-Cort in successful matches showed a significant difference between starters and non starters. s-IgA values at MD-1, MDpre, MDpost and MD+3 in starters and non starters following successful and unsuccessful matches revealed significant differences at MDpre and MDpost in starters, respectively. Furthermore, s-Cort values at MD-1, MDpre, MDpost and MD+3 in starters and non-starters in successful and unsuccessful matches revealed significant differences at MD+3 in starting players.Discussion: The present study suggests that in elite level soccer players, both starting status and match outcome influence s-IgA and s-Cort responses, particularly starters. Specifically, s-IgA was lower for starters before and after the match following successful outcomes. Moreover, higher s-Cort values were found before the match while lower values occurred after the match for starters in successful matches.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Local Victory: Assessing Interspecific Competition in Seagrass From a Trait-Based Perspective

Tropical seagrass meadows are formed by an array of seagrass species that share the same space. Species sharing the same plot are competing for resources, namely light and inorganic nutrients, which results in the capacity of some species to preempt space from others. However, the drivers behind seagrass species competition are not completely understood. In this work, we studied the competitive interactions among tropical seagrass species of Unguja Island (Zanzibar, Tanzania) using a trait-based approach. We quantified the abundance of eight seagrass species under different trophic states, and selected nine traits related to light and inorganic nutrient preemption to characterize the functional strategy of the species (leaf maximum length and width, leaves per shoot, leaf mass area, vertical rhizome length, shoots per meter of ramet, rhizome diameter, roots per meter of ramet, and root maximum length). From the seagrass abundance we calculated the probability of space preemption between pairs of seagrass species and for each individual seagrass species under the different trophic states. Species had different probabilities of space preemption, with the climax species Thalassodendron ciliatum, Enhalus acoroides, Thalassia hemprichii, and the opportunistic Cymodocea serrulata having the highest probability of preemption, while the pioneer and opportunistic species Halophila ovalis, Syringodium isoetifolium, Halodule uninervis, and Cymodocea rotundata had the lowest. Traits determining the functional strategy showed that there was a size gradient across species. For two co-occurring seagrass species, probability of preemption was the highest for the larger species, it increased as the size difference between species increased and was unaffected by the trophic state. Competitive interactions among seagrass species were asymmetrical, i.e., negative effects were not reciprocal, and the driver behind space preemption was determined by plant size. Seagrass space preemption is a consequence of resource competition, and the probability of a species to exert preemption can be calculated using a trait-based approach

Voice Conversion Using K-Histograms and Residual Averaging

The main goal of a voice conversion system is to modify the voice of a source speaker, in order to be perceived as if it had been uttered by another specific speaker.   Many approaches found in the literature convert only the features related to the vocal tract of the speaker. Our proposal is to convert those characteristics of the vocal tract, and also to process the signal passing through the vocal chords. Thus, the goal of this work is to obtain better scores in the voice conversion results.Fil: Uriz, Alejandro José. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingenieria. Departamento de Electronica. Laboratorio de Comunicaciones; ArgentinaFil: Pablo D. Agüero. Consejo Nacional de Invest.cientif.y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnol.conicet - Mar del Plata;Fil: Castiñeira Moreira; Jorge. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingenieria. Departamento de Electronica. Laboratorio de Comunicaciones;Fil: Tulli, J. C.. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingenieria. Departamento de Electronica. Laboratorio de Comunicaciones; ArgentinaFil: González, Esteban Lucio. Consejo Nacional de Invest.cientif.y Tecnicas. Centro Cientifico Tecnol.conicet - Mar del Plata; ArgentinaFil: Bonafonte, A.. Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata. Facultad de Ingenieria. Departamento de Electronica. Laboratorio de Comunicaciones; Argentin

Sexual and genotypic variation in terpene quantitative and qualitative profiles in the dioecious shrub Baccharis salicifolia.

Terpenoids are secondary metabolites produced in most plant tissues and are often considered toxic or repellent to plant enemies. Previous work has typically reported on intra-specific variation in terpene profiles, but the effects of plant sex, an important axis of genetic variation, have been less studied for chemical defences in general, and terpenes in particular. In a prior study, we found strong genetic variation (but not sexual dimorphism) in terpene amounts in leaves of the dioecious shrub Baccharis salicifolia. Here we build on these findings and provide a more in-depth analysis of terpene chemistry on these same plants from an experiment consisting of a common garden with male (N = 19) and female (N = 20) genotypes sourced from a single population. Our goal in the present study was to investigate quantitative and qualitative differences in terpene profiles associated with plant sex and genotypic variation. For this, we quantified leaf mono- and sesquiterpene amount, richness, and diversity (quantitative profile), as well as the composition of compounds (qualitative profile). We found no evidence of sexual dimorphism in monoterpene or sesquiterpene profiles. We did, however, find significant genotypic variation in amount, diversity, and composition of monoterpenes, but no effects on sesquiterpenes. These findings indicated that genotypic variation in terpene profiles largely surpassed variation due to sexual dimorphism for the studied population of this species

Impact of contact lens materials on the mfERG response of the human retina

Purpose To investigate the effect of different hydrophilic and rigid gas-permeable contact lens (CL) materials on multifocal electroretinography (mfERG). Methods The mfERG was recorded in 18 healthy subjects with RETI-port/scan21 (TM): 11 subjects underwent mfERG recording wearing two different hydrophilic CLs with different water contents in a randomized order (1 silicone hydrogel-Comfilcon A, 48%EWC, and 1 hydrogel-Omafilcon A, 62% EWC) and 7 other subjects wore a hydrophobic rigid gas-permeable scleral lens (SL)-Hexafocon A. Control measures were recorded without CL in both groups. mfERG recordings were performed with a stimulus array pattern of 103-scaled hexagons displayed on a 19-inch RGB monitor at 28 cm distance at a frame rate of 60 Hz. The amplitude (nV), implicit time and response density (nV/deg(2)) of the first-order kernel components N1, P1 and N2 were evaluated for the total mfERG response and for the response averages of 4 quadrants and of 6 successive concentric rings. Subjects were optically corrected for the working distance of ERG display. Results Hydrophobic material significantly decreased the P1 amplitude of the total mfERG response, at Rings 3, 4 and 6 and Quadrant 4 (> 53.77 +/- 43.2 nV; P <= 0.050), as well as the total (- 71.59 +/- 50.68 nV) and Ring 6 (- 104.76 +/- 79.88 nV) N2 amplitude (P <= 0.043). N1, P1 and N2 peak times suffered significant changes with both hydrophilic CL (P <= 0.050). Omafilcon A significantly increased P1 amplitude of Ring 5 and N2 amplitude of Ring 4, when compared to baseline (52.40 +/- 71.87 nV; P = 0.036) and to Comfilcon A (39.51 +/- 48.63 nV; P = 0.023), respectively. Conclusions Hydrophobic CL slightly attenuated the strength of the mfERG signal, especially at the middle to peripheral retinal areas, while hydrophilic CL slightly changed the implicit time of the response. Different hydrophilic CL materials might affect the mfERG response differently. When considering the measurement of mfERG obtained with a CL in place, researchers should bear in mind thThis project was supported by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT) in the framework of projects PTDC/FIS-OPT/0677/2014 and the FCT Strategic Funding UID/FIS/04650/2013, FCT- SFRH/BPD/92365/2013 and SFRH/BD/136684/2018

Rising Temperature Is a More Important Driver Than Increasing Carbon Dioxide Concentrations in the Trait Responses of Enhalus acoroides Seedlings

Postprin

Bone and Cytokine Markers Associated With Bone Disease in Systemic Mastocytosis

Background Mastocytosis encompasses a heterogeneous group of diseases characterized by tissue accumulation of clonal mast cells, which frequently includes bone involvement. Several cytokines have been shown to play a role in the pathogenesis of bone mass loss in systemic mastocytosis (SM), but their role in SM-associated osteosclerosis remains unknown. Objective To investigate the potential association between cytokine and bone remodeling markers with bone disease in SM, aiming at identifying biomarker profiles associated with bone loss and/or osteosclerosis. Methods A total of 120 adult patients with SM, divided into 3 age and sex-matched groups according to their bone status were studied: (1) healthy bone (n = 46), (2) significant bone loss (n = 47), and (3) diffuse bone sclerosis (n = 27). Plasma levels of cytokines and serum baseline tryptase and bone turnover marker levels were measured at diagnosis. Results Bone loss was associated with significantly higher levels of serum baseline tryptase (P = .01), IFN-γ (P = .05), IL-1β (P = .05), and IL-6 (P = .05) versus those found in patients with healthy bone. In contrast, patients with diffuse bone sclerosis showed significantly higher levels of serum baseline tryptase (P < .001), C-terminal telopeptide (P < .001), amino-terminal propeptide of type I procollagen (P < .001), osteocalcin (P < .001), bone alkaline phosphatase (P < .001), osteopontin (P < .01), and the C-C Motif Chemokine Ligand 5/RANTES chemokine (P = .01), together with lower IFN-γ (P = .03) and RANK-ligand (P = .04) plasma levels versus healthy bone cases. Conclusions SM with bone mass loss is associated with a proinflammatory cytokine profile in plasma, whereas diffuse bone sclerosis shows increased serum/plasma levels of biomarkers related to bone formation and turnover, in association with an immunosuppressive cytokine secretion profile.This study was supported by grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII, Spain) (PI19/01166, CIBERONC: CB16/12/00400) and Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER) (EQC2019-005419-P), within the Subprograma Estatal de Infraestructuras de Investigación y Equipamiento Científico Técnico de 2019 del Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Fundación Española de Mastocitosis (FEM, Madrid, Spain ref.: FEM2019-MAGPIX and FEM2021-SAM); Asociación Española de Mastocitosis y Enfermedades Relacionadas (AEDM-CTMC-2019). We also thank the Biobank at the Hospital Virgen de la Salud (BioB-HVS) No. B.0000520, Toledo, Spain. TAR was supported by the 2019 European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology Research Fellowship award. We thank our patients for their willingness to participate in this study

Factors affecting post-fire crown regeneration in cork oak (Quercus suber L.) trees

Cork oak (Quercus suber) forests are acknowledged for their biodiversity and economic (mainly cork production) values. WildWres are one of the main threats contributing to cork oak decline in the Mediterranean Basin, and one major question that managers face after Wre in cork oak stands is whether the burned trees should be coppiced or not. This decision can be based on the degree of expected crown regeneration assessed immediately after Wre. In this study we carried out a post-Wre assessment of the degree of crown recovery in 858 trees being exploited for cork production in southern Portugal, 1.5 years after a wildWre. Using logistic regression, we modelled good or poor crown recovery probability as a function of tree and stand variables. The main variables inXuencing the likelihood of good or poor crown regeneration were bark thickness, charring height, aspect and tree diameter. We also developed management models, including simpler but easier to measure variables, which had a lower predictive power but can be used to help managers to identify, immediately after Wre, trees that will likely show good crown regeneration, and trees that will likely die or show poor regeneration (and thus, potential candidates for trunk coppicin