ICT use for learning and students' outcomes: Does the country's development level matter?

The use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in educational systems has become a policy priority over the last decades. However, empirical evidence is inconclusive on whether there is a positive relationship between ICT use and students' outcomes. The literature has largely ignored the role that the country context, and in particular the country's development level, may play in shaping this relationship. This paper empirically addresses whether the relationship between ICT use for learning at school and students' outcomes differs from developed to developing countries. We employ data for 236,540 students attending 10,193 schools in 44 countries, obtained from the OECD Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA 2018). We use two alternative measures to classify the countries by their development level: The Gross National Income (GNI) per capita and the Human Development Index (HDI). The estimations, based on a Hierarchical Linear Model, show a negative relationship between ICT use for learning at school and students' outcomes. This negative relationship is more intense for students from developing countries than for those from developed countries. These findings imply that policymakers should be cautious about replicating interventions and technological applications from developed to developing countries (and vice versa)

The Role of Underlayers and Overlayers in Thin Film BiVO4 Photoanodes for Solar Water Splitting

This is the pre-peer reviewed version of the following article: The Role of Underlayers and Overlayers in Thin Film BiVO4 Photoanodes for Solar Water Splitting, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/admi.201900299. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.Light‐driven water splitting with metal oxide semiconductor materials to produce H2 constitutes one of the most promising energy conversion technologies built on solar power. BiVO4 stands out as one of the most attractive metal oxides with reported photocurrents close to its theoretical maximum of 7.5 mA cm−2 at 1 sun illumination. The present work addresses the state‐of‐the‐art strategies to enhance the performance of this material for water oxidation by heterostructuring with different underlayer (SnO2 and WO3) and overlayer (NiOOH/FeOOH, Co–Pi, Co–Fe Prussian Blue derivative) materials, with particular emphasis on the physico‐chemical mechanisms responsible for the reported enhancements

The bacterial effector HopX1 targets JAZ transcriptional repressors to activate jasmonate signaling and promote infection in Arabidopsis

Pathogenicity of Pseudomonas syringae is dependent on a type III secretion system, which secretes a suite of virulence effector proteins into the host cytoplasm, and the production of a number of toxins such as coronatine (COR), which is a mimic of the plant hormone jasmonate-isoleuce (JA-Ile). Inside the plant cell, effectors target host molecules to subvert the host cell physiology and disrupt defenses. However, despite the fact that elucidating effector action is essential to understanding bacterial pathogenesis, the molecular function and host targets of the vast majority of effectors remain largely unknown. Here, we found that effector HopX1 from Pseudomonas syringae pv. tabaci (Pta) 11528, a strain that does not produce COR, interacts with and promotes the degradation of JAZ proteins, a key family of JA-repressors. We show that hopX1 encodes a cysteine protease, activity that is required for degradation of JAZs by HopX1. HopX1 associates with JAZ proteins through its central ZIM domain and degradation occurs in a COI1-independent manner. Moreover, ectopic expression of HopX1 in Arabidopsis induces the expression of JA-dependent genes, represses salicylic acid (SA)-induced markers, and complements the growth of a COR-deficient P. syringae pv. tomato (Pto) DC3000 strain during natural bacterial infections. Furthermore, HopX1 promoted susceptibility when delivered by the natural type III secretion system, to a similar extent as the addition of COR, and this effect was dependent on its catalytic activity. Altogether, our results indicate that JAZ proteins are direct targets of bacterial effectors to promote activation of JA-induced defenses and susceptibility in Arabidopsis. HopX1 illustrates a paradigm of an alternative evolutionary solution to COR with similar physiological outcome.S.G-I was supported by a ‘‘Juan de la Cierva’’ fellowship from the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation. This work was funded by the Spanish Ministry for Science and Innovation grants BIO2010-21739, CSD2007-00057 and EUI2008- 03666 to R.S. J.P.R is an Australian Research Council Future Fellow (FT0992129)

Dialogando sobre emociones con niños en riesgo de exclusión social: un estudio preliminar

The aim of this work was to pilot the efficacy of an intervention programme to enhance emotional com­petences in children aged 9 and 10 living in poverty and risk of social exclusion. The programme focuses on specific components of emotion knowledge and emotion regulation. A one group pre-experimental design with pre and posttest measures was used (N = 14). Children attended weekly sessions during four months. Results showed a significant improve­ment in emotion managing, adaptability and emo­tional instability. Children also showed a more effi­cient use of emotion regulation strategies. No differ­ences were found among Spanish children and chil­dren from other countries. In the discussion section we point out the convenience of this kind of pro­grammes to prevent mental health problems in this population.ResumenEste trabajo tiene como objetivo principal probar de forma preliminar el funcionamiento de un programa de intervención para mejorar las competencias emocionales en niños de entre 9 y 10 años en situación de riesgo de exclusión social. El programa se centra en la mejora de algunos componentes del conocimiento y la regulación emocional. Para ello, se utilizó un diseño pre-experimental de un solo grupo con pretest y postest (N=14). Los niños asistieron a las sesiones una vez por semana durante cuatro meses. Los resultados mostraron una mejora estadísticamente significativa en manejo de emociones, adaptabilidad e inestabilidad emocional, además de una utilización más efectiva de estrategias de regulación emocional. No se encontraron diferencias significativas entre niños de familias españolas e inmigrantes. En la discusión se señala la utilidad de estos programas para prevenir problemas de salud mental en este tipo de población.AbstractThe aim of this work was to pilot the efficacy of an intervention programme to enhance emotional com­petences in children aged 9 and 10 living in poverty and risk of social exclusion. The programme focuses on specific components of emotion knowledge and emotion regulation. A one group pre-experimental design with pre and posttest measures was used (N = 14). Children attended weekly sessions during four months. Results showed a significant improve­ment in emotion managing, adaptability and emo­tional instability. Children also showed a more effi­cient use of emotion regulation strategies. No differ­ences were found among Spanish children and chil­dren from other countries. In the discussion section we point out the convenience of this kind of pro­grammes to prevent mental health problems in this population

Adsorption Kinetics of a Cationic Surfactant Bearing a Two-Charged Head at the Air-Water Interface

We studied the dynamics of adsorption at the air-water interface of a cationic surfactant bearing two charges, Gemini 12-2-12, at concentrations below and above the critical micelle concentration (cmc). We used maximum bubble pressure and Wilhelmy plate techniques in order to access all time scales in the adsorption process. We found that the adsorption dynamics are controlled by diffusion at the initial stage of the adsorption process (milliseconds) and it is kinetically controlled by an electrostatic barrier (minute) approaching the equilibrium surfactant surface concentration. Between these two extremes, we found several relaxation phenomena, all following exponential decays with characteristic times spanning from one to hundreds of seconds. By means of time-resolved surface potential measurements, we show that these processes involve charge redistribution within the interfacial region. The surface tension data are analyzed and interpreted in the framework of the free energy approach.Fil: Fernández Leyes, Marcos Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Gimenez Reyes, Santiago Alberto. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Cuenca, Victor Ezequiel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Sánchez Morales, Jhon Freddy. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; ArgentinaFil: Ritacco, Hernán Alejandro. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto de Física del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Física. Instituto de Física del Sur; Argentin

Longitudinal Effects of the Pandemic and Confinement on the Anxiety Levels of a Sample of Spanish Children in Primary Education

(1) Background: The psychological effects of confinement due to the SARS-CoV-2 virus pandemic on children are only partially known. In Madrid, Spain, children suffered a strict confinement for 10 weeks and they returned to school under conditions that were far from normal. This work assesses the effects of the pandemic on the anxiety levels of a group of children living in Madrid. (2) Methods: Children were aged 6 to 11 years (N = 215). A self-report measure of anxiety was completed by participants at two time-points: (1) a few months before the beginning of the pandemic and (2) 1 year later. A smaller subgroup of participants also completed the measure during the confinement period (n = 60). (3) Results: A comparison of these three measures shows that the children’s anxiety was reduced during confinement, and that one year later these levels continue below those registered before the start of the pandemic. (4) Conclusions: These results contradict some previous studies, which found an increase in children’s anxiety as a result of confinement and the pandemic. The discussion considers protective and vulnerability factors in the context of the pandemic, which may affect children’s levels of anxiety

Unisolvency for Multivariate Polynomial Interpolation in Coatmèlec Configurations of Nodes

A new and straightforward proof of the unisolvability of the problem of multivariate polynomial interpolation based on Coatmèlec configurations of nodes, a class of properly posed set of nodes defined by hyperplanes, is presented. The proof generalizes a previous one for the bivariate case and is based on a recursive reduction of the problem to simpler ones following the so-called Radon–Bézout process.The authors thank to Drs. Mariano Gasca and Juan I. Ramos for pointing us some references and for their useful comments which have greatly improved the presentation. The authors also thank a reviewer for pointing out a mistake in the original Proof of Lemma 5. The research reported in this paper was partially supported by Project MTM2010-19969 from the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion of Spain and Grant PAID-06-09-2734 from the Universidad Politecnica de Valencia. M. A. G. M. acknowledges support from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (MEC), Fulbright Commission, and FECYT.García March, MÁ.; Gimenez Palomares, F.; Villatoro, FR.; Pérez Quiles, MJ.; Fernández De Córdoba Castellá, PJ. (2011). Unisolvency for Multivariate Polynomial Interpolation in Coatmèlec Configurations of Nodes. Applied Mathematics and Computation. 217(18):7427-7431. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amc.2011.02.034S742774312171

Teachers, students and academic works: Intellectual Property in conflict

[EN] The participation of the teaching staff in the direction of work in the university field raises several questions in relation to the protection of copyright. The orientation, lines to follow, as well as the dedication and involvement in the writing of the students' work are not considered as an object protected by intellectual property, neither in the applicable legislation nor in the internal regulations of Polytechnic University of Valencia. We propose in this work a reflection on the participation of teachers, a rethinking of the definition of direction, as well as the drafting of a contract between students and teachers to delimit the participation and protection of the work[ES] La participación del profesorado en la dirección de trabajos en el ámbito universitario plantea diversas cuestiones en relación con la protección de los derechos de autor. La orientación, líneas a seguir, así como la dedicación e implicación en la redacción del trabajo del alumnado no se contemplan como objeto protegido por la propiedad intelectual, ni en la legislación aplicable, ni en la normativa interna de la Universitat Politècnica de València. Proponemos en este trabajo una reflexión sobre la participación del profesorado, un replanteamiento de la definición de dirección, así como la redacción de un contrato entre alumnado y profesorado para delimitar la participación y protección de la obra.Trabajo realizado en el marco del Proyecto I+D+i «Retos investigación» del Programa estatal de I+D+i orientado a los Retos de la Sociedad del Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades: RTI2018-097354-B-100 (2019-2022), Proyecto de I+D+i Retos MICINN ¿Derechos y garantías frente a las decisiones automatizadas en entornos de inteligencia artificial, IoT, big data y robótica¿ (PID2019-108710RB-I00, 2020-2022). Investigador principal: Dr. D. Lorenzo Cotino Hueso. Catedrático de Derecho Constitucional. Universitat de València, y en el Proyecto de Innovación y Mejora Educativa (PIMEs) concedido por el Vicerrectorado de Estudios y Convergencia Europea de la Universitat Politècnica de València (2018-2020)Ramón Fernández, F.; Gimenez-Chornet, V.; Oltra Gutiérrez, JV. (2020). Docentes, discentes y trabajos académicos: Propiedad Intelectual en conflicto. Revista de Educación y Derecho (Online). (22):1-23. https://doi.org/10.1344/REYD2020.22.32352S1232

Formando investigadores a través de las prácticas docentes

El aprendizaje de la teoría, los métodos y técnicas utilizados en el proceso de investigación, requieren una visión global que en muchos casos el alumnado percibe como información aislada y dispersa entre las diferentes materias. Con el objeto de suplir esta carencia se han diseñado trabajos de investigación dirigidos, con el fin de iniciar a los alumnos y alumnas en su formación como investigadores, desde los primeros años del grado de Ciencias del Mar. Por ello, esta red pretende iniciar y afianzar las destrezas propias del método científico a través de prácticas docentes transversales, mediante la coordinación entre asignaturas complementarias y el trabajo en equipo. Este proceso de formación de los alumnos como investigadores, esta tutelado por una evaluación continua lo que sirve de retroalimentación del aprendizaje de cada uno de los pasos del proceso de investigación: planteamiento de hipótesis y objetivos, búsqueda de información, diseño experimental, interpretación de resultados y por último difusión de los mismos mediante informes o exposiciones públicas