Beatriz Romanos Hernando, Foodtech. La gran revolución de la industria alimentaria

Resume

El impacto del Sahara sobre la desertificación de los países del mediterráneo. Soluciones y Oportunidades. ¿Por qué no obtener la energía donde sobra y construir un escudo térmico que contribuiría al desarrollo de África?

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The Educational Situation Quality Model: A New Tool to Explain and Improve Academic Achievement and Course Satisfaction

Students’ academic achievement is a major concern among countries. Governments spent a lot of money on education to improve students’ competences at all levels of education. Despite the enormous amount of money invested and the reforms made to curricula in many countries in recent years, these measures are not generally producing the desired results according to the data of International Performance Measurement programs for students (e.g., Program for International Student Assessment-PISA by OECD). Given the importance of this issue, this article presents an instructionalmotivational model developed in the last decade to explain and improve students’ learning outcomes, e.g., academic achievement and course satisfaction, entitled the “The Educational Situation Quality Model” (MOCSE, acronym in Spanish). Unlike other educational models, MOCSE offers an integrative teaching-learning approach to explain learning outcomes. By taking the educational setting as a unit of analysis, this proposal introduces a new perspective into the existing literature to predict students’ achievement and course satisfaction by combining contributions from relevant psycho-educational theories, such as: “The Job Demands-Resources Model,” “The Expectancy-Value Theory,” and “The Achievement Goal Theory.” Besides being a conceptual framework to guide research, it also provides a methodological way to improve teacher practice and learning outcomes. In this article we first briefly explain the main model’s characteristics and functioning from the student perspective and, second, based on the MOCSE, we offer some keys for teachers to improve academic achievement and students’ course satisfaction for a specific curricular subject. Finally, future proposals and challenges are discussed. Questionnaires are provided in the Annex

Self-Efficacy, Satisfaction, and Academic Achievement: The Mediator Role of Students' Expectancy-Value Beliefs.

Although there is considerable evidence to support the direct effects of self-efficacy beliefs on academic achievement, very few studies have explored the motivational mechanism that mediates the self-efficacy-achievement relationship, and they are necessary to understand how and why self-efficacy affects students' academic achievement. Based on a socio-cognitive perspective of motivation, this study examines the relationships among academic self-efficacy, students' expectancy-value beliefs,teaching process satisfaction, and academic achievement. Its main aim is to identify some motivational-underlying processes through which students' academic self-efficacy affects student achievement and satisfaction. Student achievement and satisfaction are two of the most important learning outcomes, and are considered key indicators ofeducation quality. The sample comprises 797 Spanish secondary education students from 36 educational settings and three schools. The scales that referred to self-efficacy and expectancy-value beliefs were administered at the beginning of the course, while student satisfaction and achievement were measured at the end of the course. The data analysis was conducted by structural equation modeling (SEM). The results revealed that students' expectancy-value beliefs (Subject value, Process expectancy, Achievement expectancy, Cost expectancy) played a mediator role between academic self-efficacy and the achievement/satisfaction relationship. These results provided empirical evidence to better understand the mechanism that mediates self-efficacy-achievement and efficacy-course satisfaction relationships. The implications of these findings for teaching and learning in secondary education are discussed

El papel facilitador de las TIC en un proceso de aprendizaje colaborativo.

La docencia universitaria no siempre responde a las demandas que la sociedad impondrá a los ahora estudiantes de enseñanza suprior. En numerosas ocasiones el afán por dar respuesta al mayor número posible de contenidos conceptuales hace que se disperse la atnción, tanto de la enseñanza como del aprendizaje, de formas de hacer y actitudes. En el presente artículo exponemos una experiencia de aprendizaje colaborativo que en buena medida trata de paliar estos ʺefectos secundariosʺ, propios de los tradicionales métodos de enseñanza universitaria. Nos centraremos aquí en las innovaciones en las que el docente puede incidir de manera más directa, las relacionadas con el proceso de enseñanza, puesto que sobre los procesos de aprendizaje quien mejor puede hacerlo es el alumnado (Bartolomé, 2004). Desarrollamos la innovación propuesta en la asignatura Organización y Desarrollo de Instituciones Educativas de quinto curso dl plan de estudios de la licenciatura en Psicopedagogía. La citada asignatura representa un claro ejemplo de lo que podría ser una materia teórica dentro de cualquier plan de estudios superiores de nuestro país. Apoyándonos en el aprendizaje por proyectos (Thomas,2000) y en el aprendizaje colaborativo apoyado por ordenador (Computer Supported collaborative learning),(Koschmann,1994) pretendemos generar una dinámica de cambio en el estilo docente, que acerque al alumnado a las tareas que en su futuro profesional deberá asumir, a la vez que facilitamos la adquisición de un amplio abanico de contenidos, necesarios para su formación como psicopedagogos/as. Como discusión final aportamos algunas consecuencias, positivas y negativas, que se desprenden de los procesos formativos de estas características; nos centraremos esencialmente en los perfiles del alumno y del profesorado implicados en procesos de innovación educativotecnológica.University teaching not always responds to the requests that the society will impose to the present‐day students. Nowadays the enthusiasm to give answer to the bigger possible number of conceptual contentses makes that attention scatter of procedures and attitudes. In the present article we display a learning collaborative experience that tries to palliate these side effects of traditional university teaching methods. We develop the innovation proposed in the subject ʺOrganización y Desarrollo de Instituciones Educativaʺ of the fifth course of bachelorʹs degree in Psicopedagogist. Aforementioned subject represents an example of a theoretic matter within any superior curriculum in our country. Starting from the Project Based Lerning methods ( Thomas, 2000 ) and in the Computer Supported collaborative learning ones ,we intend to generate a dynamics of change in the teaching style, to bring near the students to the tasks than in their professional future will have to assume

Terapia de Comportamiento y Dieta Mediterránea en el Tratamiento de la Obesidad. El Método Garaulet.

La terapia conductual (TC) se basa en los principios clásicos de “condicionamiento”, que indican que el consumo se asocia frecuentemente con sucesos externos que están estrechamente vinculados a la ingestión. El uso de técnicas de comportamiento es la intención de ayudar al paciente a identificar las señales que desencadenan un comportamiento inapropiado, tanto en relación con la alimentación y ejercicio físico. Diferentes dietas de estilo mediterráneo, se ha demostrado como una estrategia segura para el tratamiento de la obesidad, el síndrome metabólico, y para ayudar a reducir el riesgo cardiovascular asociada. De hecho, una mayor adherencia a la dieta mediterránea se ha asociado con un menor prevalencia de obesidad abdominal, y recientemente se ha propuesto que la dieta mediterránea es particularmente eficaz para el control glucémico. La aplicación de “dieta mediterránea” las recomendaciones, un método de terapia del comportamiento y la educación nutricional (llamado el “Método Garaulet”) fue desarrollado en 1994, su eficacia se evaluó en primer lugar en 1999 en una muestra de 100 individuos, y de nuevo en 2009 en una proporción mucho mayor muestra de 1.400 sujetos. Los resultados muy similares de estos dos estudios, realizados con una diferencia de diez años, demuestran que la terapia de comportamiento asociados con una educación nutricional, la reducción de la ingesta calórica y una distribución equilibrada de nutrientes sobre la base de la “dieta mediterránea” es útil para la reducción de peso y de la mejora de una serie de alteraciones asociadas a la obesidad. Sin embargo, se necesitan más investigaciones para corroborar estas afirmaciones. En este sentido, durante los últimos dos años hemos iniciado un nuevo proyecto de investigación con el fin de aumentar la eficacia del tratamiento y en marcha y decidir si la incorporación de nuevos nutrigenética y / o herramientas de cronobiología puede ser útil para el cuidado de la salud y la nutrición personalizada basado en una combinación de genotipos y la caracterización psicológica-conductual. En un futuro próximo, nuestro principal objetivo es aplicar todo este nuevo conocimiento obtenido de la investigación en la práctica clínica. Sin embargo, debemos tener precaución al introducir todas estas herramientas de diagnóstico para no distorsionar el concepto del Método Garaulet. En este sentido, primero debemos diseñar un protocolo completo y útil capaz de ser aplicable en los centros de nutrición. Para ello, y antes de introducir todas estas ideas, necesitamos a) continuar en el estudio de factores nutrigenéticos para poder seleccionar de un gran rango de polimorfismos estudiados aquellos que pudieran ser útiles para predecir el éxito del tratamiento; b) diseñar nuevas herramientas en la caracterización psico-conductual de los pacientes; c) seleccionar las mejores herramientas para la caracterización cronobiológica de los sujetos en la práctica clínica. Todo ello con un propósito final de conseguir un tratamiento personalizado basado en la combinación del genotipo, cronotipo y la caracterización psico-conductual sin olvidar los principios de la Dieta Mediterránea. Una vez diseñado un protocolo final nuestra intención es expandir este programa actualizado a otras regiones de España y si es posible a otros países europeos

Multi-Labeling of Complex, Multi-Behavioral Malware Samples

The use of malware samples is usually required to test cyber security solutions. For that, the correct typology of the samples is of interest to properly estimate the exhibited performance of the tools under evaluation. Although several malware datasets are publicly available at present, most of them are not labeled or, if so, only one class or tag is assigned to each malware sample. We defend that just one label is not enough to represent the usual complex behavior exhibited by most of current malware. With this hypothesis in mind, and based on the varied classification generally provided by automatic detection engines per sample, we introduce here a simple multi-labeling approach to automatically tag the usual multiple behavior of malware samples. In the paper, we first analyze the coherence between the behaviors exhibited by a specific number of well-known malware samples dissected in the literature and the multiple tags provided for them by our labeling proposal. After that, the automatic multi-labeling scheme is executed over four public Android malware datasets, the different results and statistics obtained regarding their composition and representativeness being discussed. We share in a GitHub repository the multi-labeling tool developed, for public usage

MOCSE centered on students: Validation of learning demands and teacher support scales

Based on The Educational Situation Quality Model (MOCSE, acronym in Spanish) framework, the primary objective of this study is to test the factorial validity and reliability of two MOCSE measure instruments referred to the preactional-decisional phase, specifically to learning demands and teacher supports perceived by students to overcome such demands in the classroom context. The participants were 357 Spanish undergraduate students. The data obtained by exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses revealed that the “Learning Demands Scale” (MOCSE-LDS) has a two-factor structure: perceived desirability and feasibility of demands. The data also revealed that the “Teacher Support Questionnaire” (MOCSE-TSQ) is composed of ten independent factors or subscales with good psychometric validity and reliability properties. Finally, the Student’s t-test generally indicated that the constructs considered in the instruments did not differ in gender terms. In short, the results obtained for the validity and reliability of the two tested instruments were good. Thus, the application of instruments MOCSELDS and MOCSE-TSQ is satisfactorily supported by empirical data. The resulting scales can be useful for researchers and teachers. On the one hand, this study provides researchers with two valid and reliable tools that may contribute to investigate students’ motivation in the university classroom context based on MOCSE postulates. On the other hand, the two tested instruments may provide teachers and school psychologists with important information to implement preventive or intervention actions to improve students’ intention to learn. Teachers may also use them to evaluate their own teaching and to research their own classrooms. The implications for education according to MOCSE postulates are discussed

Hill-climbing and branch-and-bound algorithms for exact and approximate inference in credal networks

This paper proposes two new algorithms for inference in credal networks. These algorithms enable probability intervals to be obtained for the states of a given query variable. The first algorithm is approximate and uses the hill-climbing technique in the Shenoy–Shafer architecture to propagate in join trees; the second is exact and is a modification of Rocha and Cozman’s branch-and-bound algorithm, but applied to general directed acyclic graphs.TIN2004-06204-C03-0