Future doctors: Do they know more about influenza after the pandemic?

IInfluenza is a universal but greatly preventable disease with vast consequences due to its yearly epidemics and sporadic pandemics. Therefore it is important to estimate the theoretical and practical skills of future doctors concerning influenza. The study aims the evaluation of the knowledge level of graduating students of Medicine about influenza before and during the recent A(H1N1) pandemic and intends to indicate any change observed. A total of 224 students attending the last year of Medical School in the beginnings of 2009 and 2010, answered anonymous questionnaires concerning viral and clinical aspects of influenza, sources of information and self-awareness. The two periods’ data were analyzed and compared in order to estimate the role of the pandemic in students’ knowledge level. The students generally seem to have sufficient theoretical and practical knowledge about influenza. Their knowledge level appears somehow affected in 2010, presenting either amelioration or confusion due to the particularities of the pandemic. The media have had an important contribution to the students’ information about influenza during the pandemic. It might be useful the basic medical education to be revised during the whole duration of medical studies, so that future doc­tors continuously renovate and complete their knowledge by proper sources

Building the Plane as We Fly It: Experimenting with GenAI for Scholarly Writing

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic that forced universities to shift to online learning, the need for proper training and support for faculty to ensure effective online teaching and positive student outcomes has resurfaced and gathered momentum. This paper experimented with a GenAI tool (Perplexity) toward generating content on the effects of a lack of online teacher training on teaching, cognitive, and social presence in online university courses, specifically discussing how each presence is affected according to the Community of Inquiry extant literature. The authors’ reflection on the adopted process and GenAI content yielded mixed results and proposed future strategies for improved outcomes of similar research endeavors. Implications for education stakeholders and the field at large were discussed culminating in a shared perception of the value of Critical AI Literacy skill development while thoughtfully leveraging the vast capabilities of GenAI to bring about a profound transformation of teaching, learning, and scholarship

Μεταφορά ευπαθών τροφίμων (ATP)

Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο--Μεταπτυχιακή Εργασία. Διεπιστημονικό-Διατμηματικό Πρόγραμμα Μεταπτυχιακών Σπουδών (Δ.Π.Μ.Σ.) “Συστήματα Αυτοματισμού

Modeling the distress of offshore high pressure pipelines due to earthquake deformations of the triggered slopw instabilities and the consequent permanent deformations of the seabed

Εθνικό Μετσόβιο Πολυτεχνείο--Μεταπτυχιακή Εργασία. Διεπιστημονικό-Διατμηματικό Πρόγραμμα Μεταπτυχιακών Σπουδών (Δ.Π.Μ.Σ.) “Ναυτική και Θαλάσσια Τεχνολογία και Επιστήμη

Trends in data centre energy consumption under the European Code of Conduct for data centre energy efficiency

Climate change is recognised as one of the key challenges humankind is facing. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector including data centres generates up to 2% of the global CO2 emissions, a number on par to the aviation sector contribution, and data centres are estimated to have the fastest growing carbon footprint from across the whole ICT sector, mainly due to technological advances such as the cloud computing and the rapid growth of the use of Internet services. There are no recent estimations of the total energy consumption of the European data centre and of their energy efficiency. The aim of this paper is to evaluate, analyse and present the current trends in energy consumption and efficiency in data centres in the European Union using the data submitted by companies participating in the European Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency programme, a voluntary initiative created in 2008 in response to the increasing energy consumption in data centres and the need to reduce the related environmental, economic and energy supply security impacts. The analysis shows that the average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of the facilities participating in the programme is declining year after year. This confirms that voluntary approaches could be effective in addressing climate and energy issue.JRC.C.2-Energy Efficiency and Renewable

Trends in Data Centre Energy Consumption under the European Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency

Climate change is recognised as one of the key challenges humankind is facing. The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector including data centres generates up to 2% of the global CO2 emissions, a number on par to the aviation sector contribution, and data centres are estimated to have the fastest growing carbon footprint from across the whole ICT sector, mainly due to technological advances such as the cloud computing and the rapid growth of the use of Internet services. There are no recent estimations of the total energy consumption of the European data centre and of their energy efficiency. The aim of this paper is to evaluate, analyse and present the current trends in energy consumption and efficiency in data centres in the European Union using the data submitted by companies participating in the European Code of Conduct for Data Centre Energy Efficiency programme, a voluntary initiative created in 2008 in response to the increasing energy consumption in data centres and the need to reduce the related environmental, economic and energy supply security impacts. The analysis shows that the average Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) of the facilities participating in the programme is declining year after year. This confirms that voluntary approaches could be effective in addressing climate and energy issue

The effects of technology on the Community of Inquiry and satisfaction with online courses

This paper extends the research on the Community of Inquiry (CoI) framework of understanding features of successful online learning to include the effects of the software used to support and facilitate it. This study examines how the Learning Management System (LMS) affords people the ability to take actions in an online course. A model is proposed to explain the effect of LMS affordances on the Community of Inquiry and on course satisfaction, and propose and test several hypotheses about their relationships. A pilot study found that while two common Learning Management Systems had different tools, faculty varied widely in their use and perception of the affordances of the tools. In the subsequent quantitative study, surveys were administered to 605 online students in a large Midwestern university. Regression analysis found that perceived LMS affordances predicted teaching, cognitive and social presence among students; in addition, satisfaction with the LMS predicted course satisfaction

The effect of learning management systems on student and faculty outcomes

This study examines the effects of interactive and learning structures enabled by different Learning Management Systems (LMS) on satisfaction and learner engagement in online courses. An LMS can support or hinder active engagement, meaningful connections between segments of the course, easy communication, and formative feedback by making it easier or more difficult for faculty to communicate course requirements, provide open-ended feedback, and place course elements that are used together contiguous to one another. This study compares sections of the same course, offered by the same instructors using the same course materials in at least two different LMSs. It examines whether the LMS in which the course is taught affects faculty and student communication behaviors, satisfaction, and social presence, teaching presence and cognitive presence as measured by the Community of Inquiry (COI) survey. Approximately twelve courses, taught in four different schools at DePaul University, will be studied