Recent Decisions

Comments on recent decisions by Franklin A. Morse, Joseph Freitas, J. Russell Bley, David C. Petre, Robert C. Findlay, Robert B. Cash, and Robert E. Frost

Editorial: A new direction for ALT‐J

The Association for Learning Technology celebrated its tenth anniversary this year and it can now be said that learning technology is a recognized research field, with a growing body of researchers and associated conferences and journals. Over the past two years as an editorial team we have undertaken a review of the position of ALT-J in relation to other journals in the area and considered the nature and scope of the papers we publish. We continue to expand our list of referees and have provided them with more detailed review forms to help guide them when considering recommendations on submissions and to encourage detailed, critical (and hopefully!) helpful feedback to authors. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all the referees for their involvement and commitment to the journal and for their continued work on refereeing papers. As part of the review process we will be moving to a new publisher, Taylor and Francis, commencing with Volume 12; this is, in part, driven by a desire to increase our international profile and readership, as well as seeking to have a better online presence including electronic access to all papers. We are, after all, a research journal on learning technologies! We are looking forward to taking the journal forward with Taylor and Francis but would also like to take this opportunity to thank our current publisher, University of Wales Press, for all their support and professional work over the years; it has been very good working with them

Using GA4 measurements to characterize the use of biostatistics online support documentation

An Online Support Documentation has been built, since 2019, for a course of Biostatistics at University of Aveiro. It has been done to better support student study by complementing traditional slide presentations and a book of exercises. This course targets more than 180 students from the first year of the degrees of Biology, Geology and Biology, and Marine Sciences. Last year, 28 students, out of 180, replied to an anonymous inquiry and a complementary interview was conducted with 5 chosen students. We could conclude that the development of the online support documentation should continue but improvements are needed (for instance, increasing the level of details in online texts). To get a complementary view on how the Biostatistics online support documentation is used by students, a new approach is carried out. In 2020/2021 academic year we have automatically collected data usage using "Google Analytics 4" (GA4). The website, holding the support documentation, is a tree-like structure with chapters and sections. Each section is a webpage that can be of two types: a "concept" section or an individual "exercise" section. GA4 collects for each webpage: (1) the webpage title; (2) the number of interactions; (3) the mean time spent in all interactions with a webpage. An interaction (also called "User engagement") is issued by GA4 when a user has the webpage in focus for at least one second. Manually, two more columns were added to data: (4) the type of the webpage: concept or exercise; (5) the chapter number (1 to 6). We present statistical insights about how the online support documentation was used in 2022/June when students had two formal tests about Chapters 4 and then Chapters 5 and 6. Briefly, our findings is summarized as follow: (1) as expected by the common sense, usage of webpages increased before assessments; (2) in Chapters 4 and 5, the "number of interactions", obtained for a webpage, and the "mean time spent", obtained for the same webpage, are positively correlated suggesting there are some pages more important in the learning process; (3) Concerning the mean time spent, its distribution is more skewed to the right for exercise webpages than for conceptual webpages. It could mean that the mean time spent on exercise webpages shows high variability because students look more for suggestions on the "how to do it" or to “confirm their solution” to a certain exercise.publishe

The impact of the oil spill of the tanker “Aragon” on the littoral fish fauna of Porto Santo (NE Atlantic Ocean) in 1991 and ten years later

Bocagiana, 217: 1-8Em Janeiro de 1990, a Ilha de Porto Santo (Arquipélago da Madeira), foi atingida por uma maré negra proveniente de um derrame do navio petroleiro “Aragon”. Um ano depois, avaliou-se a ictiofauna costeira. Dez anos depois da maré negra, uma nova amostragem foi realizada com a mesma metodologia, de forma a comparar com os dados recolhidos anteriormente. A análise dos resultados obtidos parece revelar que os efeitos da maré negra nos peixes litorais foram reduzidos. Este trabalho constitui a primeira contribuição para a “check-list” da ictiofauna costeira da Ilha de Porto Santo.In January 1990, the tanker “Aragon” oil spill reached Porto Santo Island (Madeira Archipelago). One year later, in 1991 the littoral fish fauna was evaluated. Ten years after the “Aragon” oil spill, a new survey was made using the same methods, to compare data. From the results it seems that the effects of the oil were rather small. As a result of this work, as a check-list of the littoral fish fauna of this Island is presented

Exploring RNA-targeted gene therapy approaches for hypertrophic cardiomyopathy

Relatório de projeto no âmbito do Programa de Bolsas Universidade de Lisboa/Fundação Amadeu Dias (2011/2012). Universidade de Lisboa. Faculdade de Medicin

Manejo integrado de plantas daninhas.

Editado por: Francisco Claúdio Lopes de Freitas; Décio Karam; Odaci Fernandes de Oliveira; Sergio de Oliveira Procópio

Luís de Freitas Branco: 14 Prelúdios para Piano

O presente trabalho consiste numa edição crítica, acompanhado de nota histórica e analítica, de 14 Prelúdios para Piano de Luís de Freitas Branco (Dez Prelúdios dedicados a José Vianna da Motta e Quatro Prelúdios dedicados a Isabel Manso). O comentário crítico encontra-se disponível em Português, Inglês e Francês