The impact of technologies on early childhood leisure

Resumen: En los últimos años, se advierte un incremento considerable en la importancia que toman las Tecnologías de la Información y de la Comunicación (TIC) dentro del tiempo de ocio de la primera infancia. En este contexto, es fundamental atender al papel de las familias a la hora de regular su uso, convirtiéndose así en las responsables últimas de orientar a los menores para prevenir sus riesgos y beneficiarse de sus potencialidades. El objetivo de esta investigación es reconocer el impacto de las TIC en las actividades de ocio durante el tiempo libre de los menores de 3-6 años de una localidad de Cantabria. Para ello, se emplea un cuestionario diseñado ad hoc, el cual ha sido aplicado a 149 familias seleccionadas mediante muestreo no probabilístico de tipo incidental. Los resultados señalan que las actividades que recurren al soporte tecnológico se configuran como un pilar fundamental del tiempo de ocio de los más pequeños, constituyendo la diversión y el aprendizaje recreativo las principales intenciones que se plantean las familias a la hora de exponer a los niños a las TIC. Las conclusiones apuntan a la necesidad de concienciar a los progenitores de su importancia como modeladores del uso tecnológico desarrollado por sus hijos, dotándoles de algunas claves para emprender esta labor de manera eficaz.Abstract: In recent years, a great increase in the importance of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) during early childhood leisure time has been noted. In this context, it is necessary to pay attention to the role of families in order to regulate their use, becoming the main responsible for guiding children to prevent their risks and benefit from their potential. This project aims to recognize the impact of ICT in leisure activities during 3-6 years old children?s free time in a town of Cantabria. According to this aim, an ad hoc questionnaire is used to collect the information provided by 149 families selected through a non-probabilistic sampling of an incidental type. The results show that activities which use the technological support are configured as a fundamental pillar of children?s leisure time, being enjoyment and recreational learning the main purposes considered by families when exposing their children to ICT. The conclusions point to the need of making parents aware of their importance as modelers of the technological use developed by their children, providing them with some keys to undertake this task effectively

Connecting the Dots in Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence: From AI Principles, Ethics, and Key Requirements to Responsible AI Systems and Regulation

Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) is based on seven technical requirements sustained over three main pillars that should be met throughout the system's entire life cycle: it should be (1) lawful, (2) ethical, and (3) robust, both from a technical and a social perspective. However, attaining truly trustworthy AI concerns a wider vision that comprises the trustworthiness of all processes and actors that are part of the system's life cycle, and considers previous aspects from different lenses. A more holistic vision contemplates four essential axes: the global principles for ethical use and development of AI-based systems, a philosophical take on AI ethics, a risk-based approach to AI regulation, and the mentioned pillars and requirements. The seven requirements (human agency and oversight; robustness and safety; privacy and data governance; transparency; diversity, non-discrimination and fairness; societal and environmental wellbeing; and accountability) are analyzed from a triple perspective: What each requirement for trustworthy AI is, Why it is needed, and How each requirement can be implemented in practice. On the other hand, a practical approach to implement trustworthy AI systems allows defining the concept of responsibility of AI-based systems facing the law, through a given auditing process. Therefore, a responsible AI system is the resulting notion we introduce in this work, and a concept of utmost necessity that can be realized through auditing processes, subject to the challenges posed by the use of regulatory sandboxes. Our multidisciplinary vision of trustworthy AI culminates in a debate on the diverging views published lately about the future of AI. Our reflections in this matter conclude that regulation is a key for reaching a consensus among these views, and that trustworthy and responsible AI systems will be crucial for the present and future of our society.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures, under second revie

Surface plasmon resonance sensors based on uniform-waist tapered fibers in a reflective configuration

We present a configuration for surface plasmon resonance sensors based on uniform-waist tapered optical fibers and reflective elements. Once the fiber is tapered fulfilling the adiabatic criterion, a multilayer including a metallic medium is asymmetrically deposited on the uniform waist of the fiber. This feature provides the resonant excitation of multiple surface plasma waves. In addition, a mirror is produced at the fiber tip by a chemical Tollens reaction. In this way, the sensor operates in a reflective mode, more convenient for dip probes. When these sensors are spectrally interrogated, a high sensitivity of 10^4 refractive index units per nanometer is attained. These devices can be advantageously used for any kind of chemical sensing and biosensing

Leisure in early childhood and parental influence

RESUMEN: El tiempo de ocio en la primera infancia se materializa en actividades muy diversas, siendo fundamental el papel de las familias a la hora de ofrecer diferentes propuestas a los más pequeños. El propósito de esta investigación ha sido identificar las características (tiempo, tipología y finalidad) de las actividades de ocio promovidas más frecuentemente por los progenitores para los menores de 3-6 años en una localidad de Cantabria. Además, se pretende reconocer la influencia de los ingresos económicos de las familias en las prácticas realizadas por los más pequeños, bajo la hipótesis inicial de que el nivel socioeconómico es una variable que repercute en las posibilidades recreativas de la infancia. Para ello, se ha empleado un cuestionario diseñado ad hoc como técnica cuantitativa, recogiendo los datos aportados por 149 familias con hijos de diferentes centros educativos de la localidad. Los principales resultados señalan que, a la hora de ofrecer propuestas, los progenitores se plantean como finalidad última la diversión de los menores. Sin embargo, no se observan evidencias de que el nivel socioeconómico de las familias dé lugar a diferencias significativas en el acceso al ocio de los más pequeños.ABSTRACT: A great variety of activities are done by early childhood during their leisure time. In this context, family?s role is fundamental to offer different leisure proposals to their children. The aim of this research was to identify the characteristics (time, typology and purpose) of the leisure activities most frequently promoted by parents for children aged 3-6 years in a town in Cantabria. In addition, the aim is to recognise the influence of family income on the practices carried out by the youngest children, under the initial hypothesis that socio-economic level is a variable that has an impact on the recreational possibilities of children. According to this aim, a questionnaire has been used as a quantitative technique, collecting the information provided by 149 families with children from different schools in the locality. The main results show that, when offering proposals, the main intention considered by parents is enjoyment. However, there is no evidence that families? socioeconomic level gives rise to differences in the access to leisure time of children

Critical Thinking in Primary School Teachers on the Use of Instagram and TikTok

RESUMEN: El objetivo de esta investigación es conocer las competencias de pensamiento crítico que muestran los docentes de Educación Primaria como usuarios de Instagram y/o TikTok, así como la forma en la que manifiestan trabajar dichas competencias con sus estudiantes en las aulas. Para ello, se opta por una metodología cualitativa, desde la que se recurre a la realización de un Focus Group con seis docentes de diferentes centros educativos de Cantabria (España). Los principales resultados esbozan una situación contradictoria en la que el profesorado, a pesar de manejar buena parte de las competencias claves en el pensamiento crítico, elude su trabajo sistemático en las aulas por falta de información y desconocimiento general. En esta línea, las conclusiones sugieren la necesidad de favorecer una formación docente en el campo del pensamiento crítico en la educación.ABSTRACT: This research aims to discover the critical thinking skills that primary school teachers show as users of Instagram and/or TikTok, as well as how they express that they work on these skills with their students in the classroom. A qualitative methodology was chosen for this purpose, using a Focus Group with six teachers from different schools in Cantabria (Spain). The main results outline a contradictory situation in which teachers, despite handling a good part of the key competencies in critical thinking, avoid working systematically in the classroom due to a lack of information and general ignorance. Along these lines, the conclusions suggest the need to promote teacher training in critical thinking in education

Configuración del servicio de IPTV sobre una red WAN MPLS

En las redes de nueva generación se da importancia a los servicios que requieren mayor ancho de banda, a esto se le denomina “Calidad de servicio” (Quality of Service, QoS) esta tecnología va encaminada a dar la mejor calidad posible en la prestación de estos servicios en las redes de nueva generación. La QoS da prioridad a través de la conmutación de etiquetas multiprotocolo (MPLS), a nivel de las redes WAN, enfatizando en las listas de acceso (ACL), privilegia con ello el tráfico a nivel de LAN, mediante la configuración de los Routers. Este proyecto pretende brindar solución de una manera práctica a dos solicitudes hechas por una determinada entidad educativa que necesita implementar servicios de telecomunicaciones, como lo son la transmisión de llamadas a través de VOIP y de video y streaming a través de IPTV. En lo que tiene que ver con la transmisión de video, se plantea la implementación del servicio mediante el protocolo multicast, en su modo disperso, habilitado en cada Router, yrealizando la respectiva configuración en los clientes que recibirán dicha señal, los cuales harán las partes las sedes de la entidad educativa. Palabras clave: IPTV, MPLS, Multicast, QoS, PIM, Transmisión.In new generation networks, importance is given to services that require greater bandwidth, this is called "Quality of Service" (QoS) this technology is aimed at providing the best possible quality in the provision of these services in next-generation networks. QoS gives priority through multiprotocol label switching (MPLS), at the level of WAN networks, emphasizing access lists (ACL), thereby privileging traffic at the LAN level, through the configuration of the Routers. This project aims to provide a solution in a practical way to two requests made by a specific educational entity that needs to implement telecommunications services, such as the transmission of calls through VOIP and video and streaming through IPTV. In what has to do with video transmission, the implementation of the service through the multicast protocol is proposed, in its dispersed mode, enabled in each Router, and making the respective configuration in the clients that will receive said signal, which the parties will do. the headquarters of the educational entity. Keywords: IPTV, MPLS, Multicast, QoS, PIM, Transmission

A fibre-optic temperature sensor based on the deposition of a thermochromic material on an adiabatic taper

A fibre-optic sensor has been developed for the measurement of temperature, especially of liquids. The device is conceived as part of an all-optical CTD probe for the control of the physical parameters of a marine medium. The dependence on temperature of the optical properties (specifically, absorbance) of a thermochromic material, namely lophine (2,4,5-triphenylimidazole), is the basis of the sensor. The sensor presents some significant differences with respect to other similar sensors proposed in the literature: the use of adiabatic, long, tapered optical fibres with adjustable geometric parameters; the use of LED illumination in the 800 nm range; improvements in the deposition technique, etc. The sensors show a linear behaviour over the desired temperature range, and their sensitivity is high. Also, the dependence of the response of the sensor with variations of the geometry of the tapers is discussed. Specifically, we have performed measurements with different diameters of the taper waist, and we show the dependence of the slope of the response curve with that parameter

Surface plasmon resonance in the visible region in sensors based on tapered optical fibers

Doubly deposited uniform-waist tapered optical fibers (DLUWTs) have shown their versatility and good performance as basis for surface plasmon resonance (SPR) sensors for a variety of wavelength ranges. In this work we experimentally show how these devices can be employed to extend the technology of SPR fiber sensors to the visible region, down to about 530 nm, with remarkable results in terms of sensitivity, plasmon definition and the availability of multiple plasmon resonances for each configuration. In this way, DLUWTs can be used to cover a range of more than 1000 nm for aqueous media only by changing the thickness of the deposits. Also, it is shown how these results can be used with the so-called absorption method to make selective the response of the sensors and a study is made on the influence of the taper waist in the performance of the devices. The number of SPR fiber sensors working in the visible region, of great interest in biological research, that have been depicted in the literature is very small, and the sensors that we present here notably improve their performance

History of optics: a modern teaching tool

The history of optics is a very rich field of science and it is possible to find many simple and significant examples of the application and success of the experimental method and therefore is a very good tool to transmit to the student the way science proceeds and to introduce the right spirit of critical analysis, building and testing of models, etc. Optical phenomena are specially well suited for this because in fact optical observations and experiments have made science advance in a crucial way in many different periods of history, because they are in many cases quite visual, quite simple in concept and it is very easy to produce experimental setups in classrooms. Also, the intrinsic multidisciplinary character of Optics, which is a subject that has historically influenced in a notorious way fields as art, philosophy, religion and cultural and social studies in general, provide a very wide frame that permits to apply these examples to many different auditories. We present here some reflections about the role that history of optics can play in teaching and show some real examples of its application during the many years that we have been employing it in the context of the Optics School of the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain

Ellipsometric characterization of Bi and Al2O3 coatings for plasmon excitation in an optical fiber sensor

The authors present the results of the ellipsometric characterization of thin layers of bismuth and aluminum oxide deposited over the waist of a tapered optical fiber by pulsed laser deposition. The characteristics of the deposits are studied by spectroscopic ellipsometry. From the effective thicknesses determined by the ellipsometric characterization, it is shown by simulations that surface plasmon resonances (SPRs) can occur in the fiber device, and it is demonstrated experimentally. These results show the feasibility of employing bismuth as a plasmonic material in SPR fiber sensors based on doubly-deposited uniform-waist tapered optical fibers, which show excellent performance and versatility