University Leadership of Professional Development Schools

This study investigated the roles and responsibilities of University-Based Administrators (UBAs) in relation to their oversight of Professional Development Schools PDSs. UBAs refer to college administrators such as department chairs, program coordinators, directors, assistant deans, associate deans, and deans. The participants were 36 UBAs ranging from mid-level administrators to faculty chairpersons. They represented universities of various sizes and Carnegie classifications from across the United States. The UBAs responded through email or by telephone to nine semi-structured interview questions related to their PDS work. The majority of UBAs were tenure-track or clinical faculty, who spent less than 50% of their time on PDS work. Forty-six percent of the UBAs’ Institutions of Higher Education (IHEs) partnered with between one to ten PDSs. The majority of the IHEs had been doing PDS work for 11-19 years. Findings revealed significant variation in UBA’s roles and responsibilities. There is no standardized leadership title, set of responsibilities or qualifications, or structure for the oversight of PDS activities and networks. Three major administrative responsibilities related to PDS work emerged: personnel, programs, and documents. UBAs reported the greatest challenges were time, sustainability, resources/support

Monitoring and Assisting Maternity-Infant Care in Rural Areas (Mamicare)

We present our project called MAMICare that is motivated by the alarming number of maternity and infant deaths in rural areas due mainly to a poor monitoring of pregnancy progress and lack of appropriate alerting mechanism in case of abnormal gestation evolution. We are proposing an information technology solution based on mobile devices, and health sensors such as ECG (electrocardiogram), stethoscope, pulse-oximeter, and blood-glucose meter to automatically collect relevant health data for a better monitoring of pregnant women. In this paper we address the current status of the maternity infant death problem especially in rural areas of Mexico. We review some applications of IT in health systems (known also as Electronic Health or simply e-Health) and discuss how these are related to our proposal and how they differ. In the paper we present our proposed solution and discuss the current status of our work

Effects of intake of different concentrations of carbohydrate on performance cycle ergometer: preliminary study

Resumen basado en el de la publicaciónDe acuerdo al papel de los carbohidratos en el ejercicio físico prolongado e intenso, se investigan los efectos en la ingesta de soluciones de baja y alta concentración en carbohidratos comprobando si pueden proveer de más energía para mejorar el rendimiento. Se utilizaron tres tipos de soluciones en las mismas condiciones: placebo, baja y alta concentración de carbohidratos en tres sujetos con una prueba de intensidad máxima de 45 minutos en cicloergómetro. Los resultados mostraron que la suplementación de carbohidratos no mejora el rendimiento en un ejercicio durante 45 minutos de intensidad moderada-alta en cicloergómetro. No se encontraron cambios en el rendimiento durante los primeros diez minutos de ejercicio intenso, aunque sí se encontraron mejoras en algunas variables que influyen en el rendimiento, como el ritmo cardiaco, el mantenimiento de altos niveles de glucosa en sangre, una menor producción de lactato y una menor percepción del esfuerzo durante la actividad.AndalucíaES

Physics of interdependent dynamical processes.

La emergencia de fenómenos colectivos a escalas macroscópicas no observados en escalas microscópicas cuestiona la validez de las teorías reduccionistas. Para explicar estos fenómenos se necesitan enfoques sistémicos que den cuenta de los patrones de interacción no triviales existentes entre los constituyentes de los sistemas sociales, biológicos o económicos, lo que ha dado lugar al nacimiento de la disciplina conocida como ciencia de los sistemas complejos. Una vía habitual para caracterizar los sistemas complejos ha sido la búsqueda de la conexión entre la estructura de interacciones y el comportamiento colectivo observado en sistemas reales mediante el estudio individual de dinámicas aisladas. No obstante, los sistemas complejos no son inmutables y se encuentran constantemente intercambiando información mediante estímulos internos y externos. Esta tesis se centra en la adaptación de modelos sobre diferentes dinámicas en el campo de los sistemas complejos para caracterizar el impacto de este flujo de información, ya sea entre escalas microscópicas y macroscópicas de un mismo sistema o mediante la existencia de interdependencias entre procesos dinámicos que se propagan de forma simultánea.La primera parte de la tesis aborda el estudio dinámicas acopladas en redes de contacto estáticas. Adaptando los modelos compartimentales introducidos en el siglo XX a la naturaleza de cada dinámica, caracterizamos cuatro problemas diferentes: la propagación de patógenos que interactúan, cuya coexistencia puede ser beneficiosa o perjudicial para su evolución, el control de brotes epidémicos con el uso del rastreo de contactos digital, la aparición de movimientos sociales desencadenados por pequeñas minorías sociales bien coordinadas y la competencia entre honestidad y la corrupción en las sociedades modernas. En todas estas dinámicas, encontramos que el flujo de información cambia las propiedades críticas del sistema así como algunas de las conclusiones extraídas sobre el papel de la estructura de contactos al estudiar cada dinámica de forma individual.La segunda parte de la tesis se centra en el impacto de la movilidad recurrente en la propagación de epidemias en entornos urbanos. Derivamos un modelo sencillo que permite incorporar fácilmente la distribución de la población en las ciudades reales y sus patrones habituales de desplazamiento sin ninguna pérdida de información. Demostramos que los efectos de las políticas de contención basadas en la reducción de la movilidad no son universales y dependen en gran medida de las características estructurales de las ciudades y los parámetros epidemiológicos del virus circulante en la población. En particular, descubrimos y caracterizamos un nuevo fenómeno, el detrimento epidémico, que refleja el efecto beneficioso de la movilidad en algunos escenarios para contener un brote epidémico. Por último, exploramos tres casos de estudio reales, mostrando que nuestro modelo permite capturar algunos de los mecanismos que han convertido a los núcleos urbanos en importantes focos de contagio en recientes epidemias y que el modelo desarrollado puede servir como base para desarrollar marcos teóricos más realistas que reproducen la evolución de distintas enfermedades como la COVID-19 o el dengue.<br /

EXPLORING THE LINK BETWEEN VOLUNTEERING, WELLBEING, AND POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: THE ROLE OF NGOS AND WORK PLACEMENT PROGRAMS

This abstract summarizes recent research on the benefits of volunteering, particularly for students, and highlights its potential positive impact on personal development, skill improvement, and social and psychological well-being. The aim of the study is to show how volunteering can help students develop practical skills, a sense of commitment to social transformation, and a deeper understanding of social issues. The method involves collecting data from students, teachers, and social organizations to evaluate the learning process and the impact of volunteering. The results indicate that volunteering can provide individuals with a sense of purpose, meaning, and social connection, and contribute to their personal and professional growth. The important features of the study include the practical benefits of experiential learning, the value of applying knowledge in a real-world context, and the potential positive impact on personal and social well-being. The original value of the study lies in its emphasis on the potential benefits of volunteering, particularly for students, and its call for further research to obtain a more comprehensive understanding of the benefits of volunteering. The conclusion encourages incorporating learning programs linked to volunteering for promoting personal growth, social responsibility, and well-being

MAPPING THE EVOLUTION OF MENTAL HEALTH RESEARCH IN RELATION TO PHYSICAL ACTIVITY: PRE AND POST GLOBAL PANDEMIC PERSPECTIVES

The research highlights the significant impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health, leading to stress, anxiety, and depression. Physical activity is recognized as a preventive strategy for overall well-being and a beneficial factor for mental health, reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. The study uses a quantitative-bibliometric method based on keywords related to mental health, exercise, sport, social health, cognitive health, wellbeing, human development, and sports fan. The goal is to locate possible future directionalities and fields of study yet to be discovered and to study the evolution of scientific research on mental health in the social sciences in recent years. The results show that the key concepts have been evolving towards a worsening of mental health, and research linking mental health with physical activity has multiplied, particularly due to the negative effect of the readaptation to the new normality caused by the pandemic. The discussion also emphasizes the importance of social support and engagement in physical activity for mental health outcomes. The research states that group-based exercise programs and social connections are crucial for reducing symptoms of depression and anxiety. The future direction of research is also highlighted to identify effective strategies for promoting physical activity and social support during times of stress and uncertainty. Overall, understanding the relationship between physical activity and mental health can lead to improved coping skills and overall well-being

Physical and sporting activities that college students require

Resumen basado en el de la publicaciónSe analizan las características de la demanda de actividades físicas y deportivas de tiempo libre del alumnado universitario almeriense. Para ello se ha seleccionado una muestra de 1.843 sujetos, a los que se les administró un cuestionario para evaluar las actividades en modalidad, periodo temporal, tipo de oferta y finalidad de las mismas. Durante la semana destacan las actividades físicas para el mantenimiento y la mejora de la salud, mientras que en fines de semana son los deportes individuales y colectivos los más practicados, sin perseguir un carácter competitivo. Las actividades en el medio natural están adquiriendo cada vez un papel más relevante durante los periodos vacacionales. Finalmente, la mayoría del alumnado prefiere realizar la práctica físico-deportiva por cuenta propia, de forma libre y autoorganizada.AndalucíaES

Bibliometric Analysis Of The Evolution Of Educational Quality During A 10-Year Research Period (2012–2022)

This study consists of a quantitative bibliometric methodology, that was carried out to determine from what perspective the concept of educational quality is being approached in the scientific community using the following keywords: performance, indicators, curriculum, management team, and teaching. The evolution of scientific research on educational quality in the Social Sciences and Education has been studied in the last 10 years. To investigate the existing literature on this topic, the Web of Science database was used and the results obtained from the scientific literature were based on concepts such as quality assurance and improvement, evaluation, professional development, higher education, and learning outcomes, among others. This study revolves around four components: education, curriculum, educational quality, and health education

An Incremental Learning Method to Support the Annotation of Workflows with Data-to-Data Relations

Workflow formalisations are often focused on the representation of a process with the primary objective to support execution. However, there are scenarios where what needs to be represented is the effect of the process on the data artefacts involved, for example when reasoning over the corresponding data policies. This can be achieved by annotating the workflow with the semantic relations that occur between these data artefacts. However, manually producing such annotations is difficult and time consuming. In this paper we introduce a method based on recommendations to support users in this task. Our approach is centred on an incremental rule association mining technique that allows to compensate the cold start problem due to the lack of a training set of annotated workflows. We discuss the implementation of a tool relying on this approach and how its application on an existing repository of workflows effectively enable the generation of such annotations