Personal data broker instead of blockchain for students’ data privacy assurance

Data logs about learning activities are being recorded at a growing pace due to the adoption and evolution of educational technologies (Edtech). Data analytics has entered the field of education under the name of learning analytics. Data analytics can provide insights that can be used to enhance learning activities for educational stakeholders, as well as helping online learning applications providers to enhance their services. However, despite the goodwill in the use of Edtech, some service providers use it as a means to collect private data about the students for their own interests and benefits. This is showcased in recent cases seen in media of bad use of students’ personal information. This growth in cases is due to the recent tightening in data privacy regulations, especially in the EU. The students or their parents should be the owners of the information about them and their learning activities online. Thus they should have the right tools to control how their information is accessed and for what purposes. Currently, there is no technological solution to prevent leaks or the misuse of data about the students or their activity. It seems appropriate to try to solve it from an automation technology perspective. In this paper, we consider the use of Blockchain technologies as a possible basis for a solution to this problem. Our analysis indicates that the Blockchain is not a suitable solution. Finally, we propose a cloud-based solution with a central personal point of management that we have called Personal Data Broker.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Bases estructurales del mecanismo de reconocimiento y fosfotransferencia en los sistemas de señalización de dos componentes

Póster original presentado XXVII Congreso de la SEBBM, Sociedad Española de Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, celebrado en Lleida, 12-15 de septiembre, 2004.Los sistemas de dos componentes son el mecanismo principal de transducción de señal en microorganismos. Un sistema paradigmático se compone de dos proteínas: una histidina quinasa (HK) y un regulador de la respuesta (RR). El mecanismo de transducción de señal implica al menos tres reacciones (ver esquema): 1) Autofosforilación: la llegada de un estímulo al dominio extracelular sensor de la HK, induce la fosforilación en un residuo de His conservado en el dominio de dimerización (DHp) por parte del dominio de unión de ATP (CA). 2) Fosfotransferencia: este grupo fosforilo es transferido desde la His a un residuo de Asp del dominio regulador del correspondiente RR. 3) Defosforilación: el RR pierde el grupo fosforilo espontáneamente o mediado por la HK. El estado de fosforilación del dominio regulador en RR regula la actividad de su dominio efector, que es habitualmente un factor de transcripción.Financiado por la ayuda BIO2002-03709 del Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología. P. casino es becaria FPI del Ministerio de ciencia y TecnologíaPeer reviewe

A PRELIMINARY STUDY TO MODEL CARRYING ANGLE VARIATIONS DURING FLEXION-EXTENSION OF THE ELBOW

The aim of this work was to identify an accurate method to evaluate the variability of the carrying angle during the flexion extension of the elbow and to define a mathematical description of this movement applicable in sport and rehabilitation field. In order to develop this objective, we marked the arm and the forearm by six reflective markers of six healthy subjects performing the flexion extension movement and acquired the coordinates using six infrared cameras (VICON Motion System). Five repeated measures were performed for each subject in order to verify the reliability of the measures. Our results demonstrated that this movement can be easily modelled as a linear variation of the carrying angle in function of the flexion angle. The reliability between repeated measures was high and adopting a linear fit the accuracy was more than 94% in all cases. This is the first study to compute the flexion-extension movement by a carrying angle evaluation

INFLUENCE OF AGE AND HAND GRIP STRENGTH ON FREESTYLE PERFORMANCES IN MASTER SWIMMERS

The aim of our work was to examine whether age and hand grip strength are correlated with 50m, 100m, 200m, 400m, 800m swimming performance times in Master swimmers and how correlation varies considering short, middle or long distances. The main finding of this work was that hand grip strength and age correlated significantly at each distance. Hand grip strength showed a relevant influence on performance time and explained 52% of variance of performance time in 50m race freestyle and only 15% in 800m race. Increasing age was a disadvantageous factor for performance time, and explained 45% of variance of performance time in 800m race freestyle and only 20% in 50 m race

Overexpression of lpxT Gene in Escherichia coli Inhibits Cell Division and Causes Envelope Defects without Changing the Overall Phosphorylation Level of Lipid A

LpxT is an inner membrane protein that transfers a phosphate group from the essential lipid undecaprenyl pyrophosphate (C-55PP) to the lipid A moiety of lipopolysaccharide, generating a lipid A tris-phosphorylated species. The protein is encoded by the non-essential lpxT gene, which is conserved in distantly related Gram-negative bacteria. In this work, we investigated the phenotypic effect of lpxT ectopic expression from a plasmid in Escherichia coli. We found that lpxT induction inhibited cell division and led to the formation of elongated cells, mostly with absent or altered septa. Moreover, the cells became sensitive to detergents and to hypo-osmotic shock, indicating that they had cell envelope defects. These effects were not due to lipid A hyperphosphorylation or C-55PP sequestering, but most likely to defective lipopolysaccharide transport. Indeed, lpxT overexpression in mutants lacking the L,D-transpeptidase LdtD and LdtE, which protect cells with outer membrane defects from osmotic lysis, caused cell envelope defects. Moreover, we found that pyrophosphorylated lipid A was also produced in a lpxT deletion mutant, indicating that LpxT is not the only protein able to perform such lipid A modification in E. coli

Addressing educational needs of teachers in the EU for inclusive education in a context of diversity Volume 3, Part 2: overview of 21 innovative cases for the development of intercultural and democratic competences in teacher education

In spite of policy impetus, research shows that teachers struggle to address the increasing diversity in classrooms, among others, due to the lack of competences to deal with it. The acquisition of Intercultural Competence (IC), which the ability to mobilise and deploy relevant attitudes, skills, knowledge and values in order to interact effectively and appropriately in different intercultural situations to be successful in their teaching. In this context, in 2019 the JRC launched the INNO4DIV project with the aim to support polices in the field of IC of teachers, through the analysis of literature and innovative good practices which have successfully addressed the existing barriers for teacher´s IC development. The initial project reports provide the conceptual framework of the project, Competence: Working definition and implications for teacher education (Shuali et al., 2020), and the results of the literature review, Volume 2. Literature review on competence development and their associated barriers (Simó et al., 2020). The methodology for the selection and assessment of innovative practices overcoming barriers in the development of intercultural and democratic competences was developed in the third report, Volume 3. Part 1: Assessment guidelines for teacher education and training practices on intercultural and democratic competence development. This report provides an overview of the 21 selected innovative cases for the development of intercultural and democratic competences in teacher education, which analysis has been the basis to extract lessons learnt in support of evidence based educational policy development. The results of this analysis and the recommendations provided will be published in INNO4DIV Volume 4, the final project report. This overview includes: the geographical scope of implementation, the sources of financial support, the diversity of stakeholders involved, the target groups addressed, the maturity of the cases in terms of duration, methodological alignment of the case with the Council of Europe Reference Framework for the Competence of Democratic Culture (CoE, 2016), the educational setting in which they take place (formal, non-formal education) and the number of participants (learners). Following the overview, the report provides a short description of each case including: the participating actors and countries, the project start/end dates and its implementation status, the geographical scope, the target audience, the different stakeholders involved, the background context, the case summary and the major findings with regards to the innovation carried out, the overcome barriers and the major case outcomes.Educació

Revisiting the pH-gated conformational switch on the activities of HisKA-family histidine kinases

Histidine is a versatile residue playing key roles in enzyme catalysis thanks to the chemistry of its imidazole group that can serve as nucleophile, general acid or base depending on its protonation state. In bacteria, signal transduction relies on two-component systems (TCS) which comprise a sensor histidine kinase (HK) containing a phosphorylatable catalytic His with phosphotransfer and phosphatase activities over an effector response regulator. Recently, a pH-gated model has been postulated to regulate the phosphatase activity of HisKA HKs based on the pH-dependent rotamer switch of the phosphorylatable His. Here, we have revisited this model from a structural and functional perspective on HK853-RR468 and EnvZ-OmpR TCS, the prototypical HisKA HKs. We have found that the rotamer of His is not influenced by the environmental pH, ruling out a pH-gated model and confirming that the chemistry of the His is responsible for the decrease in the phosphatase activity at acidic pH

Problem gambling: a suitable case for social work?

Problem gambling attracts little attention from health and social care agencies in the UK. Prevalence surveys suggest that 0.6% of the population are problem gamblers and it is suggested that for each of these individuals, 10–17 other people, including children and other family members, are affected. Problem gambling is linked to many individual and social problems including: depression, suicide, significant debt, bankruptcy, family conflict, domestic violence, neglect and maltreatment of children and offending. This makes the issue central to social work territory. Yet, the training of social workers in the UK has consistently neglected issues of addictive behaviour. Whilst some attention has been paid in recent years to substance abuse issues, there has remained a silence in relation to gambling problems. Social workers provide more help for problems relating to addictions than other helping professions. There is good evidence that treatment, and early intervention for gambling problems, including psycho-social and public health approaches, can be very effective. This paper argues that problem gambling should be moved onto the radar of the social work profession, via inclusion on qualifying and post-qualifying training programmes and via research and dissemination of good practice via institutions such as the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). Keywords: problem gambling; addictive behaviour; socia

Modulation of Antimalarial Activity at a Putative Bisquinoline Receptor in vivo Using Fluorinated Bisquinolines

Antimalarials can interact with heme covalently, by - interactions or hydrogen bonding. Consequently, the prototropy of 4-aminoquinolines and quinoline methanols was investigated using quantum mechanics. Calculations showed mefloquine protonated preferentially at the piperidine and was impeded at the endocyclic nitrogen due to electronic rather than steric factors. In gas phase calculations, 7-substituted mono- and bis-4-aminoquinolines were preferentially protonated at the endocyclic quinoline nitrogen. By contrast, compounds with a trifluoromethyl substituent on both the 2- and 8-positions, reversed the order of protonation which now favored the exocyclic secondary amine nitrogen at the 4-position. Loss of antimalarial efficacy by CF3 groups simultaneously occupying the 2- and 8-positions was recovered if the CF3 group occupied the 7-position. Hence, trifluromethyl groups buttressing quinolinyl nitrogen shifted binding of antimalarials to hematin, enabling switching from endocyclic to the exocyclic N. Both theoretical calculations (DFT calculations: B3LYP/6- 31+G*) and crystal structure of (±)-trans-N1,N2-bis-(2,8-ditrifluoromethylquinolin-4- yl)cyclohexane-1,2-diamine were used to reveal preferred mode(s) of interaction with hematin. The order of antimalarial activity in vivo followed the capacity for a redox change of the iron(III)state which has important implications for the future rational design of 4- aminoquinoline antimalarials

Integrated management of chronic kidney disease: Analysis of an innovative policy in Portugal

The implementation in Portugal of a model for integrated management of disease applied to the end-stage renal disease, from 2008 onwards, has completely restructured the way of providing care, as well as the payment and follow-up of patients under dialysis. This article describes the steps taken by the Ministry of Health, in terms of the planning, implementation and follow-up of the policy, with a particular focus on the importance of involving the various groups of interest, the leadership, as well as the capacity of negotiation and influence of the Government