Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality (TEEM'15) Porto (Portugal), October 7 9 2015

Presentación (pdf) llevada al congresoThe use of mobile devices in teaching and learning follows and increasing trend. In physics teaching, smartphones and tablets can be used not only as knowledge facilitators, but also as powerfull experimental tools thanks to their sensors: accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, sound, light, ... Students can use their own smartphones either in teaching laboratories or in daily activities

Benchmarking scientific performance by decomposing leadership of Cuban and Latin American institutions in Public Health

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Scientometrics. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11192-015-1831-z”.Comparative benchmarking with bibliometric indicators can be an aid in decision-making with regard to research management. This study aims to characterize scientific performance in a domain (Public Health) by the institutions of a country (Cuba), taking as reference world output and regional output (other Latin American centers) during the period 2003–2012. A new approach is used here to assess to what extent the leadership of a specific institution can change its citation impact. Cuba was found to have a high level of specialization and scientific leadership that does not match the low international visibility of Cuban institutions. This leading output appears mainly in non-collaborative papers, in national journals; publication in English is very scarce and the rate of international collaboration is very low. The Instituto de Medicina Tropical Pedro Kouri stands out, alone, as a national reference. Meanwhile, at the regional level, Latin American institutions deserving mention for their high autonomy in normalized citation would include Universidad de Buenos Aires (ARG), Universidade Federal de Pelotas (BRA), Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Cientı´ficas y Te´cnicas (ARG), Instituto Oswaldo Cruz (BRA) and the Centro de Pesquisas Rene Rachou (BRA). We identify a crucial aspect that can give rise to misinterpretations of data: a high share of leadership cannot be considered positive for institutions when it is mainly associated with a high proportion of non-collaborative papers and a very low level of performance. Because leadership might be questionable in some cases, we propose future studies to ensure a better interpretation of findings.This work was made possible through financing by the scholarship funds for international mobility between Andalusian and IberoAmerican Universities and the SCImago GroupPeer reviewe

Remoción de contaminantes emergentes en los sistemas de potabilización de la Ciudad de México

Remoción de contaminantes emergentes en los sistemas de potabilización de la Ciudad de Méxic

Technological Ecosystems for Enhancing Multiculturality TEEM'15

Physics is a subject that for a complete teaching and learning requires both theoretical discussions and practical experimentation. In this work we describe how mobile applications can turn smartphones into versatile measurement devices for broad fields of physics. Different physics experiments performed using our own developed applications, both in the teaching laboratory and profiting from everyday activities, are described. The use of smartphones’ applications opens the possibility of developing low-cost laboratories as well as international teaching collaborations

Scientific output of the emerging Cuban biopharmaceutical industry: a scientometric approach

"This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Scientometrics. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11192-016-2023-1"Cuba has developed a biopharmaceutical sector that involves some of the country’s most relevant scientific institutions. Despite the severe constraints on resources resulting from the U.S. embargo, the results achieved by this sector have contributed to put the country’s health indicators at the same level of high-income nations. Recently, the creation of BioCubaFarma as a cluster of high-technology enterprises organized around a closed cycle model becomes one of the most relevant efforts of the Island in order to make biopharmaceuticals one of the country’s leading export earners. The main aim of the current paper was to characterize BioCubaFarma through a battery of Scopus-based bibliometric indicators. A comparison with the most productive multinational pharmaceutical companies was made. Regression analysis of annual productivity, number of citations, scientific talent pool, innovative knowledge and other citation-based indicators was performed. Differences and similarities between BioCubaFarma and multinational companies in four Scopus subject categories related to this sector were identified. The most productive and visible institutions from BioCubaFarma were also characterized. Qualified human resources, innovative knowledge, leadership, high specialization in the field of vaccines development and non-dependence of international collaboration are strengths of the organization. However, it is still necessary to increase the number of articles published in highly visible journals with the aim to achieve a better citation-based performance. Moreover, to increase the contributions from less-productive institutions, more clinical research published in medical journals and more collaboration with universities and health institutions could also have positive benefits for BioCubaFarma’s pipelines and portfolios.This research was supported by 2015 Postdoctoral Short Visiting Program of the Spanish Instituto de Bienes y Políticas Públicas (IPP) from Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC).Peer reviewe