From a personal to a more social view of students' academic performance: the importance of peer selection at university

[EN] Students' academic performance has traditionally been linked to aspects centred on their personal abilities, such as cognitive skills, hours spent studying or personal motivation. However, in recent years, some research in the literature have begun to highlight the role that students' social interactions play in their performance (Johnson and Johnson 1993; Baldwin et al. 1997). These interactions create informal trust-based networks that facilitate knowledge exchange between students and enhance their learning (Gaševi¿ et al. 2013). A number a of contributions have recently found a direct relationship between students' position in these knowledge networks and their academic performance (Cho et al. 2007; Smith and Peterson 2007; Hommes et al. 2012). On the other hand, this position has also been linked to opportunities to obtain new knowledge from external sources and to creative skills. (Tomás-Miquel et al., 2016). However, in this paper, far from this static vision, we delve deeper into the dynamic view of knowledge networks among students in order to understand the academic influence exerted in university environments by students on their peers. Specifically, this paper aims to answer the following research question: do the peers of higher-achieving students improve their performance over time? To answer this question, this paper applies a stochastic actor-oriented model (SAOM) to a sample of 50 students of the Business Administration and Management bachelor¿s degree at the Campus of Alcoy of the Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain. The results obtained confirm the positive influence of higher-achieving students on their lower-graded peers. Thus, lower-achieving students perform better over time as they increase their academic relationships with higher-achieving students. These results highlight the importance for universities of attracting higher-ability students, as well as mixing students into heterogeneous work groups in terms of academic performance. This would make it easier to improve the performance of less proficient students, thus preventing them from dropping out of the university. Therefore, these findings may have relevant implications for both university policy and classroom learning management.Tomas Miquel, JV.; Capó I Vicedo, J.; Capó-Vicedo, J. (2022). From a personal to a more social view of students' academic performance: the importance of peer selection at university. ICERI Proceedings. 1522-1526. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2022.03971522152

Exaptation and vulnerability to introduced mammal herbivores on Balearic endemic flora

Aim: Introduced mammal herbivores are predicted to negatively affect insular flora. However, disentangling which particular traits (1) developed from exaptations and (2) are functional to avoid herbivory remains mainly unknown. This study aims to assess if the flora of continental islands with historic native herbivores are exapted to the introduction of new mammal herbivores and to predict the potential vulnerability of endemic species from islands where mammal herbivores have not been introduced. Location: Balearic Islands. Taxon: 96 Balearic endemic plant species. Methods: We investigated whether the endemic flora on continental islands maintains functional traits that resist introduced mammal herbivores by analysing the chemical and morphological traits related to plant resistance of five individuals for each of 98 species. Also, we measured plant-size variables to assess plant escape strategies. Overall, we combined these traits with the accessibility to goats. Predictive models were generated for species that inhabit islands where goats have not been introduced to assess their potential vulnerability. Results: Endemic species may defend against new herbivores (e.g. goats) if they contain highly toxic compounds (alkaloids, glycosides, coumarins), spinescent and urticating structures, or specific plant architecture (low plant size, high specific leaf area). If such traits are absent, the species may become extinct—unless they inhabit areas inaccessible to goats. On continental islands, some endemic species are expected to resist the introduction of herbivores, while others may be significantly affected. Main Conclusions: From the ancient connection with the mainland, exaptations may allow the plants to resist the presence of introduced herbivores. However, non-exapted species could be threatened by the introduction of non-native ungulatesDireccio General de Politica Universitaria i Recerca (Govern de les Illes Balears) FPI/1925/2016Spanish Government CGL2015-70449-REuropean Union (NextGenerationEU

Helosciadium × clandestinum un nuevo híbrido aparecido en Menorca (Islas Baleares)

Se describe el nuevo híbrido Helosciadium × clandestinum Rita, Capó & Cursach nothosp. nova (H. bermejoi × H. nodiflorum) que se ha encontrado en la naturaleza en una población producto de una traslocación (Mongofre Vell, Menorca, Islas Baleares) y también en el Jardín Botánico de Sóller.Helosciadium × clandestinum a new hybrid found in Minorca (Balearic Islands). The new hybrid Helosciadium × clandestinum Rita, Capó & Cursach nothosp. nova (H. bermejoi × H. nodiflorum) is described. It was found in the wild in a locality where H. bermejoi´s population was originated with a translocation (Mongofre Vell, Menorca, Balearic Islands). It was found in the Botanical Garden of Soller as well

Solidarity in the classroom. Characterizing helpful students and supportive relationships in the university context

[EN] Helpful students in the university play an important role in the learning process. In addition to disseminating knowledge within the classroom, they are a central element of motivation for those students who need more support. Current research in this topic has especially focused on the students' motivations and attitudes towards solidarity as a general ethical concept. However, despite its importance, less attention has been paid to the specific study of the solidarity inside the classroom. In this research, we especially focus on the personal traits that represent helpful students within the university's classrooms and the role that homophily plays in the establishment of these supportive relationships. On this basis, in this research we try to contribute to this area by answering two main questions: what personal traits, if any, characterize the most helpful students? And, on the other hand, what characteristics, if any, do helpful students share with the students to whom they provide academic support? By addressing a sample of students of the bachelor's degree of Business Administration at Universitat Politecnica de Valencia in Spain and by means of Social Network Analysis techniques, this research provide evidence that most helpful students possess specific personal and behavioural traits. In addition, they also develop preferential supportive behaviours toward certain students with whom they share diverse characteristics. These results may have relevant consequences for the educational community. In this sense the results help lecturers to broaden their knowledge about the behaviour of students at university, allowing a better organisation of working groups and teaching activities.Tomas Miquel, JV.; Capó I Vicedo, J. (2019). Solidarity in the classroom. Characterizing helpful students and supportive relationships in the university context. ICERI Proceedings. 3814-3822. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2019.0970S3814382

The effect of gender in the establishment of relationships in higher education

[EN] The beginning of higher education is a very important moment in the life of students, in which the relationships established between peers can be crucial and determining for the development of their studies. Among other things, the help and support they receive, both academically and personally, may depend on these relationships. In this study we will analyse the importance that certain variables acquire in the establishment of these relationships, with special emphasis on the effect that gender can have. We will study the relationships established at the beginning of higher education, in the specific case of students of the Bachelor's Degree of Business Administration at the Alcoi campus of the Universitat Politecnica de Valencia in Spain. We will study the relations that are established at the beginning of their studies and we will verify if there is a tendency to group and to establish relations between the peers of the same gender and if this tendency is maintained throughout the following courses, or if with the passage of time it tends to break this tendency and to establish new relations independently of the gender. The results obtained can have important consequences in the organization of the learning processes of university students, thanks to a better knowledge of their behavior in the classroom and to the improvement in the establishment and definition of work groups and learning activities.Capó I Vicedo, J.; Tomas Miquel, JV. (2019). The effect of gender in the establishment of relationships in higher education. ICERI Proceedings. 3823-3828. https://doi.org/10.21125/iceri.2019.0971S3823382

El camino hacia el desarrollo sostenible de los clusters industriales: Un estudio entre los futuros líderes del cluster textil valenciano

We are facing a paradigm shift in which the need to take sustainability into account in each andevery area of society is becoming increasingly evident. In this context, industrial clusters mustbe able to face this challenge with great solvency, and for this, the predisposition shown byfuture business leaders and managers is essential.The aim of this research was to shed light on the perception that university students,as future members of the management area of companies in industrial clusters, have aboutsustainability and the incorporation of more sustainable strategies in these companies. Basedon the information collected from a sample of 300 university students of the Alcoy Campus ofthe Universitat Politècnica de València in Spain, which is located in the area of influence of theValencian textile cluster, the results obtained in this research reveal a significant general interestin aspects linked to sustainability, although with different intensities depending on the gender ofthe students and the type, year and level of studies undertaken. In addition, university studentsshow a greater preference for strategies aimed at the development of more energy-efficientand sustainable infrastructures, the greater incorporation of renewable energies and sustainableinnovation processes, among others. The results also highlight the significant influence that theinclusion of training in sustainability and environmental ethics in university curricula can haveon these processes. All these findings may have relevant implications for educational research,as well as for cluster policies and business strategies.Estamos ante un cambio de paradigma en el que la necesidad de tener en cuenta la sostenibilidaden todos y cada uno de los ámbitos de la sociedad se hace cada vez más patente. En este contexto,los clusters industriales deben ser capaces de afrontar este reto con solvencia y, para ello, lapredisposición que muestren los futuros líderes y dirigentes empresariales se antoja imprescindible.Este trabajo ha pretendido arrojar luz sobre la percepción que los estudiantesuniversitarios, como futuros integrantes de las áreas de dirección y gestión de las empresas delos clusters industriales, tienen acerca de la sostenibilidad y de la incorporación de estrategiasmás sostenibles en las mismas. A partir de la información recogida en una muestra de 300estudiantes universitarios del Campus de Alcoy de la Universitat Politècnica de València enEspaña, el cual se encuentra ubicado en el área de influencia del cluster textil valenciano,los resultados obtenidos en esta investigación revelan un importante interés general por losaspectos vinculados a la sostenibilidad, aunque con intensidades diferenciadas según el génerode los estudiantes y la tipología, curso y nivel de los estudios cursados. Adicionalmente, losestudiantes universitarios muestran una mayor preferencia por estrategias encaminadas haciael desarrollo de infraestructuras más eficientes energéticamente y sostenibles, a la mayorincorporación de energías renovables y a procesos de innovación sostenible, entre otras. Losresultados también revelan la influencia que en estos procesos puede tener la inclusión deformación en sostenibilidad y ética medioambiental en los planes de estudio universitarios.Todas estas conclusiones pueden tener implicaciones relevantes para la investigación educativa,así como para las políticas y estrategias empresariales del cluster

A comprehensive study on fidelity metrics for XAI

The use of eXplainable Artificial Intelligence (XAI) systems has introduced a set of challenges that need resolution. Herein, we focus on how to correctly select an XAI method, an open questions within the field. The inherent difficulty of this task is due to the lack of a ground truth. Several authors have proposed metrics to approximate the fidelity of different XAI methods. These metrics lack verification and have concerning disagreements. In this study, we proposed a novel methodology to verify fidelity metrics, using a well-known transparent model, namely a decision tree. This model allowed us to obtain explanations with perfect fidelity. Our proposal constitutes the first objective benchmark for these metrics, facilitating a comparison of existing proposals, and surpassing existing methods. We applied our benchmark to assess the existing fidelity metrics in two different experiments, each using public datasets comprising 52,000 images. The images from these datasets had a size a 128 by 128 pixels and were synthetic data that simplified the training process. All metric values, indicated a lack of fidelity, with the best one showing a 30 \% deviation from the expected values for perfect explanation. Our experimentation led us to conclude that the current fidelity metrics are not reliable enough to be used in real scenarios. From this finding, we deemed it necessary to development new metrics, to avoid the detected problems, and we recommend the usage of our proposal as a benchmark within the scientific community to address these limitations

Un modelo de ubicación de microaerogeneradores para el diseño de proyectos de electrificación rural con energía eólica

Postprint (published version

Variables Sociodemográficas y niveles de salud en población general: Un estudio en la isla de Formentera

Se presentan los resultados de la primera fase de un estudio epidemiológico descriptivo transversal realizado en la isla de Formentera. Se ha utilizado el General Health Questionnaire (GHQ), en su versión de 28 items, en una muestra de población general constituida por 697 personas. El GHQ es una escala que evalúa síntomas somáticos de origen psicológico, angustia o ansiedad, disfunción social en las actividades diarias y depresión y suele utilizarse como instrumento de screening. Los resultados indican que un 20% de los entrevistados puede ser considerado como probable caso, dándose un porcentaje mayor de probables casos positivos entre las mujeres, las personas más jóvenes y las mayores y entre quienes carecen de ocupación laboral. Concretamente, las mujeres puntúan significativamente más alto en las escalas que evalúan los síntomas somáticos de origen psicológico y las personas sin trabajo en aquellas que evalúan angustia/ ansiedad, disfunción social en las actividades diarias y depresión. No existen diferencias estadísticamente significativas entre los grupos diferenciados según estado civil, nivel de estudios o nivel económico