Inquiry based learning: why buying a car with a tree included? Enhancing science and mathematic learning

International reports reveal a deficient situation in relation to science and mathematics learning, which can be considered as an obstacle for the education of literate and informed citizens and the qualification and the preparation of future scientists and engineers. This situation may be partly attributed to the way science and mathematics are taught at school. Research on effective teaching approaches shows that inquiry based learning (IBL) improves students’ engagement and motivation for science and mathematics learning and promotes the development of process skills, critical thinking and conceptual understanding of some science and mathematics topics. The present work describes the design and implementation of an instructional approach for enhancing science and mathematics learning through IBL. The instructional approach is based on the design of an interdisciplinary task which starts by challenging students through the analysis of an advertisement. The initial scenario engages students in an investigation process to look for evidence and understanding while acquiring meaningful learning of key science topics and mathematical tools. The task also takes advantage of current technological resources to facilitate and support the overall inquiry process. (Orig.

Multi-stage Biomarker Models for Progression Estimation in Alzheimer’s Disease

The estimation of disease progression in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) based on a vector of quantitative biomarkers is of high interest to clinicians, patients, and biomedical researchers alike. In this work, quantile regression is employed to learn statistical models describing the evolution of such biomarkers. Two separate models are constructed using (1) subjects that progress from a cognitively normal (CN) stage to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and (2) subjects that progress from MCI to AD during the observation window of a longitudinal study. These models are then automatically combined to develop a multi-stage disease progression model for the whole disease course. A probabilistic approach is derived to estimate the current disease progress (DP) and the disease progression rate (DPR) of a given individual by fitting any acquired biomarkers to these models. A particular strength of this method is that it is applicable even if individual biomarker measurements are missing for the subject. Employing cognitive scores and image-based biomarkers, the presented method is used to estimate DP and DPR for subjects from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI). Further, the potential use of these values as features for different classification tasks is demonstrated. For example, accuracy of 64% is reached for CN vs. MCI vs. AD classification

Enhanced Parallel Generation of Tree Structures for the Recognition of 3D Images

Segmentations of a digital object based on a connectivity criterion at n-xel or sub-n-xel level are useful tools in image topological analysis and recognition. Working with cell complex analogous of digital objects, an example of this kind of segmentation is that obtained from the combinatorial representation so called Homological Spanning Forest (HSF, for short) which, informally, classifies the cells of the complex as belonging to regions containing the maximal number of cells sharing the same homological (algebraic homology with coefficient in a field) information. We design here a parallel method for computing a HSF (using homology with coefficients in Z/2Z) of a 3D digital object. If this object is included in a 3D image of m1 × m2 × m3 voxels, its theoretical time complexity order is near O(log(m1 + m2 + m3)), under the assumption that a processing element is available for each voxel. A prototype implementation validating our results has been written and several synthetic, random and medical tridimensional images have been used for testing. The experiments allow us to assert that the number of iterations in which the homological information is found varies only to a small extent from the theoretical computational time.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad MTM2016-81030-

Social Eavesdropping in Zebrafish: Tuning of Attention to Social Interactions

Group living animals may eavesdrop on signalling interactions between conspecifics in order to collect adaptively relevant information obtained from others, without incurring in the costs of first-hand information acquisition. This ability (aka social eavesdropping) is expected to impact Darwinian fitness, and hence predicts the evolution of cognitive processes that enable social animals to use public information available in the environment. These adaptive specializations in cognition may have evolved both at the level of learning and memory mechanisms, and at the level of input mechanisms, such as attention, which select the information that is available for learning. Here we used zebrafish to test if attention in a social species is tuned to the exchange of information between conspecifics. Our results show that zebrafish are more attentive towards interacting (i.e. fighting) than towards non-interacting pairs of conspecifics, with the exposure to fighting not increasing activity or stress levels. Moreover, using video playbacks to manipulate form features of the fighting fish, we show that during the assessment phase of the fight, bystanders' attention is more driven by form features of the interacting opponents; whereas during the post-resolution phase, it is driven by biological movement features of the dominant fish chasing the subordinate fish.FCT fellowship: (SFRH/BD/33280/2007), Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme

Social dominance modulates eavesdropping in zebrafish

Group living animals may eavesdrop on signalling interactions between conspecifics and integrate it with their own past social experience in order to optimize the use of relevant information from others. However, little is known about this interplay between public (eavesdropped) and private social information. To investigate it, we first manipulated the dominance status of bystander zebrafish. Next, we either allowed or prevented bystanders from observing a fight. Finally, we assessed their behaviour towards the winners and losers of the interaction, using a custom-made video-tracking system and directional analysis. We found that only dominant bystanders who had seen the fight revealed a significant increase in directional focus (a measure of attention) towards the losers of the fights. Furthermore, our results indicate that information about the fighters' acquired status was collected from the signalling interaction itself and not from post-interaction status cues, which implies the existence of individual recognition in zebrafish. Thus, we show for the first time that zebrafish, a highly social model organism, eavesdrop on conspecific agonistic interactions and that this process is modulated by the eavesdroppers' dominance status. We suggest that this type of integration of public and private information may be ubiquitous in social learning processes.FCT PhD fellowship: (SFRH/BD/33280/2007), Champalimaud Neuroscience Programme

EU External Relations: Exclusive Competence Revisited

This Article will focus on the question of exclusive competence in the field of EU external relations, especially in the light of recent developments. After a brief discussion on the origins and development of exclusive competence, a distinction will be made between common commercial policy, which has traditionally been the most important area of an explicit “a priori” exclusive competence, and what is often called an implicit exclusive competence, which, as it is today based on some general criteria enshrined in TFEU Article 3(2), may be called “supervening” exclusive competence. With regard to both categories, the main focus will be on recent developments, notably the impact of the Treaty of Lisbon, which introduced the TFEU and its Articles 2 and 3, as well as the case law of the European Court of Justice (“ECJ” or the “Court”) following the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, on December 1, 2009

Novel parameters for evaluating the Spatial and Thematic accuracy of land cover maps.

Se proponen novedosas fórmulas para evaluar la certeza de la cartografí

Google Web Toolkit application solution for mild aphasia therapy

Aphasia is a disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that contain language. It typically occurs after a stroke, brain tumors, head injuries, infections or degenerative diseases leading to damage in areas of the brain cells. Aphasia causes problems with any or all of the following: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Thousands of people of all ages and gender suffer from this disease and the trend is growing with the longevity of population. This article describes the design and development of specific software that can be useful for treatment of mild aphasia. This software is based on a Google Web Toolkit (GWT) application. GWT is an open source framework that allows developing a user friendly interface. The web application can be accessible to speech and language therapists (SLT) professionals and patients at different contexts and learning situations.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ

Google Web Toolkit application solution for mild aphasia therapy

Aphasia is a disorder that results from damage to the parts of the brain that contain language. It typically occurs after a stroke, brain tumors, head injuries, infections or degenerative diseases leading to damage in areas of the brain cells. Aphasia causes problems with any or all of the following: speaking, listening, reading, and writing. Thousands of people of all ages and gender suffer from this disease and the trend is growing with the longevity of population. This article describes the design and development of specific software that can be useful for treatment of mild aphasia. This software is based on a Google Web Toolkit (GWT) application. GWT is an open source framework that allows developing a user friendly interface. The web application can be accessible to speech and language therapists (SLT) professionals and patients at different contexts and learning situations.Sociedad Argentina de Informática e Investigación Operativ