An error based mathematical module to enhance learning in signals and systems

During the last years, the lecturers at the Circuits and Systems Engineering Department at the E.U.I.T. de Telecomunicación at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid are observing more and more serious mathematical errors in the different exams and exercises taken by the students. Although some of these mistakes can be considered unacceptable in engineering disciplines, it is possible for a student to pass the final exam regardless of these mistakes. In this scenario, and aware that results were getting worse and worse year after year, it was considered convenient, and almost indispensable, to develop math exercises that students must practice if they want to progress following a continuous and formative assessment method along their engineering studies. The first part of this work is to analyze basic mathematical errors in final exam exercises of the course “Signals and Systems”. We present and illustrate the most relevant errors detected during the last two years final exams of that course. The information obtained permits us to identify the main lacks, difficulties and defaults of the students. The second part of this work is to develop a training module in order to the students can practice as many times as they want with simple exercises dealing with the topics where frequent errors are detected. After practicing they must pass an initial test to make sure that students have acquired the adequate basic mathematical background and skills to progress successfully in the mentioned course. The questions and exercises have been written using different formats, most of them to be compatible with Moodle platform requirements

Relevamiento del espesor de ozono estratosférico en la provincia de Santa Cruz a partir de imágenes satelitales

A pesar de que la provincia de Santa Cruz se ve afectada periódicamente por el “agujero de ozono”, se han realizado escasas mediciones sistemáticas de espesores totales de ozono desde tierra. Es por ello que se lleva a cabo en la UNPA un proyecto cuyo objetivo es el relevamiento de espesores de ozono tomados de imágenes satelitales del TOMS, publicados en la página web de la NASA, para diferentes regiones de la provincia, durante el período 1978/2005. En este trabajo se presenta la sistematización realizada para las localidades de Caleta Olivia, San Julián y Calafate y la correlación con las mediciones en tierra para Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut), Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego) y San Julián. Se observa que Calafate es la más afectada, San Julián lo es en menor medida y Caleta Olivia lo ha sido esporádicamente, sólo en los últimos años. Ha aumentado la frecuencia anual de espesores entre 220 y 300 UD, siendo más pronunciado el aumento en la zona sur. La validación con los datos en tierra muestra buena correlación.Though Santa Cruz province lies some days every year under the “ozone hole”, there are few systematic ground measurements of ozone total column. There is a project at UNPA whose aim is to analyse satellite images data from TOMS published on NASA website, for different reagions of this province., for the period 1978 to 2005. This paper presents the results obtained for three towns from different regions of Santa Cruz: Caleta Olivia, San Julián and Calatafe,. and a validation with ground measurements for Comodoro Rivavia, Ushuaia and San Julián. Statistical results show that Calafate and San Julián, which are at the centre and south of the province, have higher year frequencies of low total ozone amount, Caleta Olivia, which is at the northern part of the province, was affected only for the last three years. The frequency of thickness between 220 and 300 UD increases for every town, especially at the south. There is high correlation factors with ground measurements.Asociación Argentina de Energías Renovables y Medio Ambiente (ASADES

Relevamiento del espesor de ozono estratosférico en la provincia de Santa Cruz a partir de imágenes satelitales

A pesar de que la provincia de Santa Cruz se ve afectada periódicamente por el “agujero de ozono”, se han realizado escasas mediciones sistemáticas de espesores totales de ozono desde tierra. Es por ello que se lleva a cabo en la UNPA un proyecto cuyo objetivo es el relevamiento de espesores de ozono tomados de imágenes satelitales del TOMS, publicados en la página web de la NASA, para diferentes regiones de la provincia, durante el período 1978/2005. En este trabajo se presenta la sistematización realizada para las localidades de Caleta Olivia, San Julián y Calafate y la correlación con las mediciones en tierra para Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut), Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego) y San Julián. Se observa que Calafate es la más afectada, San Julián lo es en menor medida y Caleta Olivia lo ha sido esporádicamente, sólo en los últimos años. Ha aumentado la frecuencia anual de espesores entre 220 y 300 UD, siendo más pronunciado el aumento en la zona sur. La validación con los datos en tierra muestra buena correlación.Though Santa Cruz province lies some days every year under the “ozone hole”, there are few systematic ground measurements of ozone total column. There is a project at UNPA whose aim is to analyse satellite images data from TOMS published on NASA website, for different reagions of this province., for the period 1978 to 2005. This paper presents the results obtained for three towns from different regions of Santa Cruz: Caleta Olivia, San Julián and Calatafe,. and a validation with ground measurements for Comodoro Rivavia, Ushuaia and San Julián. Statistical results show that Calafate and San Julián, which are at the centre and south of the province, have higher year frequencies of low total ozone amount, Caleta Olivia, which is at the northern part of the province, was affected only for the last three years. The frequency of thickness between 220 and 300 UD increases for every town, especially at the south. There is high correlation factors with ground measurements.Asociación Argentina de Energías Renovables y Medio Ambiente (ASADES

Relevamiento del espesor de ozono estratosférico en la provincia de Santa Cruz a partir de imágenes satelitales

A pesar de que la provincia de Santa Cruz se ve afectada periódicamente por el “agujero de ozono”, se han realizado escasas mediciones sistemáticas de espesores totales de ozono desde tierra. Es por ello que se lleva a cabo en la UNPA un proyecto cuyo objetivo es el relevamiento de espesores de ozono tomados de imágenes satelitales del TOMS, publicados en la página web de la NASA, para diferentes regiones de la provincia, durante el período 1978/2005. En este trabajo se presenta la sistematización realizada para las localidades de Caleta Olivia, San Julián y Calafate y la correlación con las mediciones en tierra para Comodoro Rivadavia (Chubut), Ushuaia (Tierra del Fuego) y San Julián. Se observa que Calafate es la más afectada, San Julián lo es en menor medida y Caleta Olivia lo ha sido esporádicamente, sólo en los últimos años. Ha aumentado la frecuencia anual de espesores entre 220 y 300 UD, siendo más pronunciado el aumento en la zona sur. La validación con los datos en tierra muestra buena correlación.Though Santa Cruz province lies some days every year under the “ozone hole”, there are few systematic ground measurements of ozone total column. There is a project at UNPA whose aim is to analyse satellite images data from TOMS published on NASA website, for different reagions of this province., for the period 1978 to 2005. This paper presents the results obtained for three towns from different regions of Santa Cruz: Caleta Olivia, San Julián and Calatafe,. and a validation with ground measurements for Comodoro Rivavia, Ushuaia and San Julián. Statistical results show that Calafate and San Julián, which are at the centre and south of the province, have higher year frequencies of low total ozone amount, Caleta Olivia, which is at the northern part of the province, was affected only for the last three years. The frequency of thickness between 220 and 300 UD increases for every town, especially at the south. There is high correlation factors with ground measurements.Asociación Argentina de Energías Renovables y Medio Ambiente (ASADES

Cheating and learning through web based tests

The use of web-based tests delivered through learning management systems has grown at university level in the last years. One of their key advantages is the possibility of creating tests with some degree of randomness that are automatically assessed in real time. Although the access to the learning management system resources is controlled for each student by means of personal username and password, the cheating among students when doing the tests cannot be avoided. However, if the students finally learn, in spite of cheating, the process could still be considered to be successful. In this work, the date, the required time to solve the test and the grades of quizzes undertaken by students through a web based learning management system are analyzed and they are compared to the grades obtained by the same students in a written test solved in an examination classroom under the supervision of the teacher. The course in which this study has been developed (Signals and Systems for Electrical and Electronics Engineering undergraduate students) is organized in 5 subjects and the students make a quiz on the web for each subject. At the end of the course the students make a final written exam that includes a true/false test. Around 50 questions for each subject of the course have been created. The questions are organized in 5 to 8 categories for each subject. The learning management system generates quizzes by arbitrarily selecting 1 or 2 items from the 5 to 8 categories in a given subject to complete a 10-item quiz. Due to the reduced number of items for each category and the large number of students that attend the course, several questions are repeated in quizzes generated for different students. The authors have noticed that some students work in groups to solve the quizzes. Some of them answer all the questions in a quiz in few minutes (less than 20 % of the time used by the most of their mates) and obtain high scores. When the scores of the same students in the final exam are analyzed, it is found that they also obtain good results. Then, it could be concluded that although they have found a way of cheating to solve the web quizzes, this is still pedagogically valid because they have learnt about the subject (they also obtain good results in the written test)

Discurso sócio-emocional e construção de conhecimento compartilhado em tarefas colaborativas on-line

The socioemotional discourse of students plays a fundamental role in online collaborative learning. Therefore, they must build a climate of mutual trust that allows them to hold deep, critical, and constructive discussions about the task’s contents, to improve their construction of knowledge. The research was carried out in a Mexican public university where asynchronous collaborative processes developed by three groups of students were analyzed online. The socio-emotional discourse that groups of students use in different phases of the process of shared knowledge construction is explored through the technique of content analysis. The results highlight, on the one hand, seven different types of social-emotional discourse that groups of students frequently use during their collaboration process. On the other hand, it seems that the frequency has an important impact on the construction of knowledge. It is concluded that a dense, frequent, and heterogeneous socio-emotional discourse, in terms of its typology, provides the necessary bases for student groups to develop successful collaborative processes and achieve high levels of shared knowledge construction.El discurso socioemocional del estudiantado tiene un papel fundamental en el aprendizaje colaborativo en línea, por lo que es necesario que se construya un clima de confianza mutua que permita sostener discusiones profundas, críticas y constructivas sobre los contenidos de la tarea para avanzar en su conocimiento grupal. El objetivo del presente trabajo de investigación fue explorar el discurso socioemocional que los grupos de estudiantes utilizan en distintas fases del proceso de construcción compartida del conocimiento. La investigación se llevó a cabo en una universidad pública mexicana en la que se analizaron procesos colaborativos asíncronos en línea, desarrollados por tres grupos de estudiantes. Mediante la técnica de análisis de contenido se codificaron las contribuciones realizadas por estudiantes en los foros asíncronos de trabajo grupal. Los resultados destacan siete diferentes tipos de discurso socioemocional que los grupos de estudiantes emplean de manera recurrente durante su colaboración y que inciden de manera importante en la construcción del conocimiento. Se concluye que un discurso socioemocional denso, frecuente y heterogéneo, en cuanto a su tipología, sienta las bases necesarias para que los grupos de estudiantes desarrollen procesos colaborativos exitosos y logren altos niveles de construcción compartida del conocimiento.O discurso sócio emocional de estudantes tem um papel fundamental na aprendizagem colaborativa on-line, por isso é necessário construir um clima de confiança mútua que permita discussões profundas, críticas e construtivas sobre os conteúdos da tarefa para avançar o conhecimento do grupo. O objetivo desta pesquisa foi explorar o discurso sócio emocional que os grupos de estudantes utilizam em diferentes fases do processo de construção do conhecimento compartilhado. A pesquisa foi realizada em uma universidade pública mexicana, onde foram analisados processos colaborativos assíncronos on-line, desenvolvidos por três grupos de estudantes. Usando a técnica de análise de conteúdo, as contribuições feitas pelos alunos nos fóruns assíncronos de trabalho em grupo foram codificadas. Os resultados destacam sete tipos diferentes de discurso sócio emocional que os grupos de estudantes utilizam de forma recorrente durante sua colaboração e que têm um impacto importante na construção do conhecimento. Conclui-se que um discurso sócio emocional denso, frequente e heterogêneo, em termos de sua tipologia, lança as bases necessárias para que grupos de estudantes desenvolvam processos colaborativos bem-sucedidos e alcancem altos níveis de construção de conhecimento compartilhado

Cuestionarios online como herramienta de aprendizaje: comparación de resultados con diversos modelos de cuestionarios.

En este trabajo se comparan dos estrategias de evaluación a través de cuestionarios online: i) realizar un cuestionario de evaluación sumativa al final de cada bloque temático del curso o ii) permitir que, para cada bloque temático, el alumno pueda repetir varias veces un test (con realimentación de las respuestas correctas) y realizar un test similar después de esta fase de aprendizaje. Los resultados muestran varios beneficios de la segunda estrategia: una mayor participación de los alumnos hasta el final del semestre, una menor tasa de abandono de la asignatura y una mejor nota en los test. Sin embargo, para que el aprendizaje sea efectivo en el caso de repetir varias veces un test, se necesita un banco de preguntas suficientemente amplio para que exista una probabilidad baja de que las preguntas no se repitan. Este problema se ha resuelto utilizando la posibilidad que presentan algunas plataformas de gestión del aprendizaje de generar automáticamente variantes numéricas de una misma pregunta. Por último se observa un grado de acuerdo muy elevado por parte de los alumnos con el peso que los resultados de los tests tienen en la nota final del curso, en el caso bajo estudio. Abstract: This work compares two different assessment strategies through online tests: i) summative assessment tests at the end of each part of the course or ii) the students can do selfassessment tests (with feedback) prior to a summative assessment test at the end of each part of the course. Results show that the second strategy yields several benefits: an increment in student participation till the end of the semester, a reduction in the drop-out rate and an increase in the mean test marks. However, a large item bank is necessary to effectively implement this second strategy. This problem has been addressed by using the automatic item generation facility offered by several learning management systems. Finally, a high proportion of the students agree with the weight proposed for these tests in the final course mark

A case study: Final exam versus continuous assessment marks for electrical and electronic engineering students

In this work we analyze the final marks obtained by the students of the course “Signals and Systems” of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering degree at the E.U.I.T. de Telecomunicación in the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Students within this course are assessed by two different methods: the first one consists of only a final exam while the second one implies students following a continuous and formative assessment method in which they are required to solve some open exercises almost every week and to fulfil a self-evaluation test every two weeks all along the whole semester. During the academic year 07/08, all the students of the course were assessed by both methods. Herein, we analyze the final marks (in a 0-10 scale) obtained by the students and compare the pass and fail rates obtained with both assessment methods when the minimum mark for passing is set to 5. This work was done with a sample of 210 students that were divided in 7 different groups with different lecturers. We have found that more than 70 % of the students where classified in the same group, either pass or fail, with both assessment methods. As for the rest, 15 % of the students failed with the continuous assessment method but succeeded in the final exam and the remaining 15% passed in the continuous assessment and failed in the finals. For these two groups, observations indicate that the first one corresponds to students that either deliberately chose to be evaluated only with a final exam, thus not presenting the required coursework, or presented medium quality works (marks around 4) and did a greater effort for preparing the exam. As for the last group, it should be highlighted that their effort during the course allowed the majority of them to obtain marks above 3.5 points in the final exam. Based on these results, we made simulations so as to have an insight in what would be the student’s final marks when both assessment methods were combined with different weightings. Nowadays, this kind of combination is a common practice in many Universities, but usually the final exam has a higher weight (60 to 80 %) in the final student’s marks. We found that even if the final exam’s weight was only 25% and the continuous assessment’s weight was 75%, only 3% of the students that had final exam marks lower than 3.5 would obtain a weighted mark over 5.0. Consequently, we conclude that continuous assessment gives practically the same pass/fail rates as the final exam

Applications of artificial intelligence in dentistry: A comprehensive review

This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Sciences, Innovation and Universities under Projects RTI2018-101674-B-I00 and PGC2018-101904-A-100, University of Granada project A.TEP. 280.UGR18, I+D+I Junta de Andalucia 2020 project P20-00200, and Fapergs/Capes do Brasil grant 19/25510000928-3. Funding for open-access charge: Universidad de Granada/CBUAObjective: To perform a comprehensive review of the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in dentistry, providing the community with a broad insight on the different advances that these technologies and tools have produced, paying special attention to the area of esthetic dentistry and color research. Materials and methods: The comprehensive review was conducted in MEDLINE/ PubMed, Web of Science, and Scopus databases, for papers published in English language in the last 20 years. Results: Out of 3871 eligible papers, 120 were included for final appraisal. Study methodologies included deep learning (DL; n = 76), fuzzy logic (FL; n = 12), and other ML techniques (n = 32), which were mainly applied to disease identification, image segmentation, image correction, and biomimetic color analysis and modeling. Conclusions: The insight provided by the present work has reported outstanding results in the design of high-performance decision support systems for the aforementioned areas. The future of digital dentistry goes through the design of integrated approaches providing personalized treatments to patients. In addition, esthetic dentistry can benefit from those advances by developing models allowing a complete characterization of tooth color, enhancing the accuracy of dental restorations. Clinical significance: The use of AI and ML has an increasing impact on the dental profession and is complementing the development of digital technologies and tools, with a wide application in treatment planning and esthetic dentistry procedures.Spanish Ministry of Sciences, Innovation and Universities RTI2018-101674-B-I00 PGC2018-101904-A-100University of Granada project A.TEP. 280.UGR18Junta de Andalucia P20-00200Fapergs/Capes do Brasil grant 19/25510000928-3Universidad de Granada/CBU

Perfil del cuidador de adulto mayor en situación de pandemia por SARS-COV-2, Lima-Perú

Objetive: To know the profile of the older adult caregiver in a SARS-COV-2 pandemic, Lima-Peru. Materials and methods: observational and cross-sectional study; population made up of 92 caregivers of older adults, non-relatives and who receive remuneration, both sexes, over 18 years of age, voluntary participation; older adults residing in districts of northern Lima, economic stratum C and D. Sociodemographic variables, education / training, vaccines, self-confidence or self-safety, and degree of anxiety or stress were evaluated in the caregiver; the older adult variables included were sociodemographic, vaccines, disabilities and disease. Questionnaire was completed virtually during the last week of March 2020. Results: caregiver profile, mean age 33.48 years, 95.7% female, 77.2% do not have training in hand washing, 96.7% without training in stress management in older adults. Self-confidence or self-confidence in caring for the elderly was 1.97 (scale from 0 to 5) and the degree of anxiety or stress during care 8.03 (scale from 0 to 10). Conclusions: deficiencies in the profile of the caregiver who oversees the elderly are evident, the development of strategies to reverse the problem is urgent, the prioritization of actions for the care of the elderly as a vulnerable person are urgent. Strategies should include caregiver training, stress self-management, and access to home care services, among others.Objetivo: Conocer el perfil del cuidador de adulto mayor en situación de pandemia por SARS-COV-2, Lima-Perú. Materiales y métodos: estudio observacional y transversal; población conformada por 92 cuidadores de adulto mayor, no familiares y que reciben remuneración, ambos sexos, mayores de 18 años, participación voluntaria; adultos mayores residentes en distritos de Lima norte, estrato económico C y D. Se evaluó en el cuidador variables sociodemográficas, formación/capacitación, vacunas, autoconfianza o autoseguridad y grado de angustia o estrés; las variables del adulto mayor fueron las sociodemográficas, vacunas, discapacidades y enfermedad. Se completó cuestionario de forma virtual durante la última semana de marzo de 2020. Resultados: perfil del cuidador, edad media 33,48 años, 95,7% sexo femenino, 77,2% no tienen capacitación en lavado de manos, 96,7% sin capacitación en el manejo de estrés en adulto mayor. La autoconfianza o autoseguridad para con el cuidado del adulto mayor fue 1,97 (escala de 0 a 5) y el grado de angustia o estrés durante el cuidado 8,03 (escala de 0 a 10). Conclusiones: se evidencia deficiencias en el perfil del cuidador que tiene a su cargo al adulto mayor, se hace urgente el desarrollo de estrategias para revertir el problema, la priorización de acciones para el cuidado del adulto mayor como persona vulnerable son urgentes. Las estrategias deben incluir capacitación del cuidador, automanejo de estrés y acceso a servicios de atención domiciliaria entre otras