Design techniques to enhance e-Learning strategies for primary science: the case study of EDUciencias smartbook

Esta disertación trata sobre cómo mejorar con técnicas de diseño los aprendizajes en ambientes de e-learning, particularmente para ciencias naturales en niños de edad escolar. Para ello se hace una revisión bibliográfica de sobre como aprendemos, sobre las recomendaciones para mejorar la instrucción de las ciencias de la educación (las ciencias cognitivas, comportacionales y la psicología) y la bibliografía de diseño, sintetizando qué técnicas de diseño apoyan a las recomendaciones de las ciencias de la educación. Se encontró que: la instrucción en eLearning es multimodal, que el objetivo de las ciencias de la educación es similar al diseño de información y que las técnicas de diseño pueden ser aplicadas a distintos niveles (micro, macro y meta nivel) educación. Como caso de estudio se tomaron los smartbooks uruguayos: EDUciencas. Este estudio recomienda utilizar el conocimiento generado por las ciencias de la educación para diseñar efectivamente productos de eLearning.Agencia Nacional de Investigación e InnovaciónChevening FC

An economic evaluation of salt reduction policies to reduce coronary heart disease in England: a policy modeling study

AbstractObjectivesDietary salt intake has been causally linked to high blood pressure and increased risk of cardiovascular events. Cardiovascular disease causes approximately 35% of total UK deaths, at an estimated annual cost of £30 billion. The World Health Organization and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence have recommended a reduction in the intake of salt in people's diets. This study evaluated the cost-effectiveness of four population health policies to reduce dietary salt intake on an English population to prevent coronary heart disease (CHD).MethodsThe validated IMPACT CHD model was used to quantify and compare four policies: 1) Change4Life health promotion campaign, 2) front-of-pack traffic light labeling to display salt content, 3) Food Standards Agency working with the food industry to reduce salt (voluntary), and 4) mandatory reformulation to reduce salt in processed foods. The effectiveness of these policies in reducing salt intake, and hence blood pressure, was determined by systematic literature review. The model calculated the reduction in mortality associated with each policy, quantified as life-years gained over 10 years. Policy costs were calculated using evidence from published sources. Health care costs for specific CHD patient groups were estimated. Costs were compared against a “do nothing” baseline.ResultsAll policies resulted in a life-year gain over the baseline. Change4life and labeling each gained approximately 1960 life-years, voluntary reformulation 14,560 life-years, and mandatory reformulation 19,320 life-years. Each policy appeared cost saving, with mandatory reformulation offering the largest cost saving, more than £660 million.ConclusionsAll policies to reduce dietary salt intake could gain life-years and reduce health care expenditure on coronary heart disease

Using mobility information to perform a feasibility study and the evaluation of spatio-temporal energy demanded by an electric taxi fleet

Half of the global population already lives in urban areas, facing to the problem of air pollution mainly caused by the transportation system. The recently worsening of urban air quality has a direct impact on the human health. Replacing today’s internal combustion engine vehicles with electric ones in public fleets could provide a deep impact on the air quality in the cities. In this paper, real mobility information is used as decision support for the taxi fleet manager to promote the adoption of electric taxi cabs in the city of San Francisco, USA. Firstly, mobility characteristics and energy requirements of a single taxi are analyzed. Then, the results are generalized to all vehicles from the taxi fleet. An electrificability rate of the taxi fleet is generated, providing information about the number of current trips that could be performed by electric taxis without modifying the current driver mobility patterns. The analysis results reveal that 75.2% of the current taxis could be replaced by electric vehicles, considering a current standard battery capacity (24–30 kWh). This value can increase significantly (to 100%), taking into account the evolution of the price and capacity of the batteries installed in the last models of electric vehicles that are coming to the market. The economic analysis shows that the purchasing costs of an electric taxi are bigger than conventional one. However, fuel, maintenance and repair costs are much lower. Using the expected energy consumption information evaluated in this study, the total spatio-temporal demand of electric energy required to recharge the electric fleet is also calculated, allowing identifying optimal location of charging infrastructure based on realistic routing patterns. This information could also be used by the distribution system operator to identify possible reinforcement actions in the electric grid in order to promote introducing electric vehicles

Adsorption and Desorption of Bile Salts at Air–Water and Oil–Water Interfaces

Bile Salts (BS) adsorb onto emulsified oil droplets to promote lipolysis and then desorb, solubilizing lipolytic products, a process which plays a crucial role in lipid digestion. Hence, investigating the mechanism of adsorption and desorption of BS onto the oil–water interface is of major importance to understand and control BS functionality. This can have implications in the rational design of products with tailored digestibility. This study shows the adsorption and desorption curves of BS at air–water and oil–water interfaces obtained by pendant drop tensiometry. Three BS have been chosen with different conjugation and hydroxyl groups: Sodium Taurocholate (NaTC), Glycodeoxycholate (NaGDC) and Sodium Glycochenodeoxycholate (NaGCDC). Experimental results show important differences between the type of BS and the nature of the interface (air/oil–water). At the air–water interface, Glycine conjugates (NaGDC and NaGCDC) are more surface active than Taurine (NaTC), and they also display lower surface tension of saturated films. The position of hydroxyl groups in Glycine conjugates, possibly favors a more vertical orientation of BS at the surface and an improved lateral packing. These differences diminish at the oil–water interface owing to hydrophobic interactions of BS with the oil, preventing intermolecular associations. Desorption studies reveal the presence of irreversibly adsorbed layers at the oil–water interface in all cases, while at the air–water interface, the reversibility of adsorption depends strongly on the type of BS. Finally, dilatational rheology shows that the dilatational response of BS is again influenced by hydrophobic interactions of BS with the oil; thus, adsorbed films of different BS at the oil–water interface are very similar, while larger differences arise between BS adsorbed at the air–water interface. Results presented here highlight new features of the characteristics of adsorption layers of BS on the oil–water interface, which are more relevant to lipid digestion than characteristics of BS adsorbed at air–water interfaces.MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033Project PID2020-116615RAI00Biocolloid and Fluid Physics Group (ref. PAIFQM115) of the University of Granada (Spain)MDPI and University of Granada

Microbial production of scleroglucan and downstream processing

Synthetic petroleum-based polymers and natural plant polymers have the disadvantage of restricted sources, in addition to the non-Biodegradability of the former ones. In contrast, eco-sustainable microbial polysaccharides, of low-cost and standardized production, represent an alternative to address this situation. With a strong globalmarket, they attracted worldwide attention because of their novel and unique physico-chemical properties as well as varied industrial applications, and many of them are promptly becoming economically competitive. Scleroglucan, a β-1,3-β-1,6- glucan secreted by Sclerotium fungi, exhibits high potential for commercialization and may show different branching frequency, side-chain length, and/or molecular weightdepending on the producing strain or culture conditions. Water-solubility, viscosifying ability and wide stability over temperature, pH and salinity make scleroglucan useful for different biotechnological (enhanced oil recovery, food additives, drug delivery,cosmetic and pharmaceutical products, biocompatible materials, etc.), and biomedical(immunoceutical, antitumor, etc.) applications. It can be copiously produced at bioreactor scale under standardized conditions, where a high exopolysaccharide concentration normally governs the process optimization. Operative and nutritional conditions, as well as the incidence of scleroglucan downstream processing will be discussed in this chapter. The relevance of using standardized inocula from selectedstrains and experiences concerning the intricate scleroglucan scaling-up will be also herein outlined.Fil: Castillo, Natalia Alejandra. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Valdez, Alejandra Leonor. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Tucumán; ArgentinaFil: Fariña, Julia Inés. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Tucumán. Planta Piloto de Procesos Industriales Microbiológicos (i); Argentina. Universidad Nacional de Catamarca; Argentin

Voz, música y logopedia

Dentro de la formación académica del logopeda, destacan diversos temas tales como trastornos del lenguaje y la comunicación, enfermedades neurodegenerativas, trastornos del neurodesarrollo y trastornos de la deglución, entre otros. Sin embargo, la voz en todas sus dimensiones parece no ser un tópico muy importante y completo que se imparta en la carrera. Ese es el principal motivo de la creación de este trabajo, para que muchos otros logopedas lo encuentren interesante y aplicable en sus casos de cantantes que quieran sonar mejor y sentirse mejor en el desempeño de su trabajo. La optimización de la voz es un enfoque clínico diseñado para profesionales de la voz como locutores de radio, profesores y cantantes para mejorar sus técnicas en su carrera con el fin de prevenir daños vocales graves. Por tanto, el punto de partida es un conocimiento básico del aparato bucofonatorio y el objetivo de las sesiones será desarrollar una serie de ejercicios logopédicos para prevenir daños y mejorar su voz. En este trabajo, se pretenden alcanzar estos objetivos a partir del análisis de diferentes técnicas vocales utilizadas por algunos de los cantantes más reconocidos de la música moderna con la correspondiente adaptación utilizando técnicas logopédicas al alcance de los cantantes no profesionales que visiten la consulta.Within the speech therapist academic training, there are many topics that should be highlighted; such as language and communication disorders, neurodegenerative diseases, neurodevelopmental disorders and swallowing disorders among others. However, the voice in all its dimensions seems to be not much of an important and complete subject taught in the degree. That is the main reason for the creation of this optimization program, so that many others speech therapists find it interesting and applicable in their cases of singers that want to sound better and feel better when they do their job. The optimization of the voice is a clinical approach designed for professionals of the voice like radio hosts, teachers and singers to improve their techniques in their career in order to prevent serious vocal damage. Therefore, the starting point is a basic knowledge of the buccophonatory apparatus and the aim of the sessions will be to develop a series of speech therapy exercises to prevent damage and improve the voice. In this project, the aim of prevention and improvement of vocal use is intended to be achieved from the analysis of different vocal techniques used by some of the most renowned singers of modern music with the corresponding adaptation using approachable speech therapy techniques to non-professional singers who visit the query