Les institucions catalanes durant la guerra de Successió, les corts de 1705-1706

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Les institucions catalanes durant la guerra de Successió, les corts de 1705-1706

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La formación docente del profesorado de la Universidad de Barcelona: satisfacción, transferencia e impacto

Este estudio analiza el efecto que los programas de formación del Instituto de Ciencias de la Educación (ICE) de la Universidad de Barcelona (UB) tiene sobre la acción docente del profesorado que recibe esta formación. Se ha valorado la satisfacción del profesorado sobre los cursos recibidos, el nivel de transferencia de los conocimientos adquiridos a la docencia y su repercusión en el rendimiento académico, en la motivación y en la participación de los estudiantes. También se analizan las dificultades para transferir a la práctica los conocimientos y las habilidades adquiridas en la formación. Los indicadores utilizados para la recogida y el análisis de datos forman parte del Sistema Interno de Garantía de Calidad (SIGC) de los programas de formación del ICE de la UB. Los datos muestran una alta satisfacción del profesorado con la formación recibida. Indican que los programas diseñados favorecen la adquisición de competencias docentes y proporcionan a los profesores una mayor capacidad para introducir cambios en su docencia Dichos cambios repercuten en la mejora del rendimiento académico, así como en la participación y motivación de los estudiantes. La percepción de que algunos aspectos organizativos de la institución obstaculizan la transferencia es mayor en el profesorado que ha recibido más formación. Así mismo se pone de manifiesto que el SIGC es una buena herramienta para el seguimiento y la evaluación de los programas de formación, para su acreditarlos, y en consecuencia, para acreditar también el desarrollo docente del profesorado. This study analyses the effect that the training programs of the Institute of Education (ICE) of the University of Barcelona (UB) has on the teaching of the trainees who received this training. The satisfaction of the teaching staff about the courses, the level of transfer of the knowledge acquired to their teaching and its impact on the academic performance, motivation and participation of the trainees have been evaluated. Besides, the difficulties in transferring knowledge and skills acquired in the training to the teaching practice have been analysed. The indicators used for the collection and analysis of data are part of the Internal Quality Assurance System (IACS) of the ICE’s training programs. The data show a high satisfaction of the teacher trainees with the training received. They indicate that the programs designed favour the acquisition of teaching competences and provide teachers with a greater capacity to introduce changes in their teaching. These changes affect the improvement of academic performance as well as the participation and motivation of their students. The perception that some organizational aspects of the institution hamper the transference to their teaching is greater in the trainees who have received more training. Moreover, it shows that IACS is a good tool for monitoring and evaluating the training programs, to accredit them, and therefore also to accredit the professional development of teacher trainees.

Study of corrosion by Dynamic Gravimetric Analysis (DGA) methodology. Influence of chloride content in solar salt

When a system for thermal energy storage (TES) is designed, many factors must be considered: storage time, dimensions, material to store heat, etc. Usually, molten salts are selected as TES materials because of their great thermal properties at high temperatures. When the whole TES system is going to be built, the material to be used for containing the thermal storage material becomes an important issue. It must have proper mechanical properties, withstand high temperatures and, above all, resist corrosion due to storage material, being in most of the cases, highly corrosive molten salt mixtures. To determine the corrosion on a metal plate, ASTM Standard-G1-03 procedure is usually applied, in which the corroded metal sample is submitted to several cycles including: attack by a chemical solution, washing, cleaning, drying, and weighing. In order to minimise the handling of the sample, a new methodology (Dynamic Gravimetric Analysis, DGA) has been developed and used to determine the corrosion produced in carbon steel A516Gr70 samples induced by different salt mixtures commonly used as molten salts containing different amounts of chloride, at working temperatures conditions. The results show that the higher is the content of chloride in molten salts the greater is the steel loss produced by corrosion and makes the corrosive kinetics to be highly increased when it is overtaken. (C) 2016 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Corrosion of AISI316 as containment material for latent heat thermal energy storage systems based on carbonates

Considerable effort has been devoted to the characterization of thermal properties of the different types of materials that can be used as thermal energy storage (TES) media, but scarce literature exists concerning the materials to manufacture the tanks that can be used to contain these storage media. One of the main concerns when selecting the most suitable material for these tanks is its resistance to corrosion due to molten salts that constitute the TES system. Dynamic gravimetric analysis is a newly proposed method for the study of corrosion on metals, which optimizes the standard procedure described by ASTM G1-03. The new technique avoids the direct handling of samples, so more accurate values can be obtained. In this work, the resistance to corrosion of AISI 316 stainless steel samples in contact with commercial grade molten salts of the Li2CO3-Na2CO3-K2CO3 system, at 600 °C for different exposure times, has been determined by using this new methodology. The results show that the initial corrosion rate is lower at higher amounts of lithium carbonate present in the molten salts mixture

A multidisciplinary approach to sexual behavior profiles: The SEX360 model

The diversity of sexual behaviors is driven by multiple determinants, including physiological, cultural, educational, and sociological factors. However, the definition of sexual behavior profiles has been barely addressed from a comprehensive point of view. We aimed to develop a multidisciplinary questionnaire for defining individual sexual behavior profiles. The questionnaire was developed by a panel of experts with research experience in the fields of urology, gynecology, psychology, anthropology, and sexology. The list of items was defined in a focus group session and was based on four categories—family-oriented, loving, recreational, and functional—resulting from the combination of two axes: traditional versus non-traditional and sexual benefit versus extra-sexual benefit. Real-time Delphi dynamics was used to assign a weight to each question and a bias to the corresponding responses. The final questionnaire included 50 items considered relevant for describing sexual profiles; the final questionnaire was named SEX360. Of the 50 items included in SEX360, 14 were considered essential for computing the final score; 9 of them were associated with 2 categories, 4 of them with 4 categories, and 1 of them with 3. Nine items referred to the category “family-oriented”, 10 to “loving”, 8 to “recreational”, and 9 to “functional”. The weights assigned to each question ranged from 3.00 to 4.33, and the centers of gravity ranged from 1 to 4. The questionnaire proposed shows the existence of a vast diversity of sexual behavior profiles and may serve as a tool for sexual behavior research.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Association between serum ferritin and osteocalcin as a potential mechanism explaining the iron-induced insulin resistance

Background Increased iron stores are associated with increased risk of type 2 diabetes, however, the mechanisms underlying these associations are poorly understood. Because a reduction of circulating osteocalcin levels after iron overload have been demonstrated in cell cultures, and osteocalcin is related to glucose and insulin metabolism, the iron-induced osteocalcin reductions could contribute to explain the role of iron metabolism in the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus. Objective To analyzed the associations between serum total and uncarboxylated osteocalcin and adiponectin concentrations with serum ferritin and soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) in elderly subjects. Design We evaluated a total of 423 subjects from the PREDIMED cohort in a population-based cross-sectional analysis. Extensive clinical, nutritional and laboratory measurements, including total and uncarboxylated osteocalcin, adiponectin, ferritin and sTfR were recorded. Results Serum ferritin was positively correlated with increased glucose and insulin circulating levels but also with HOMA-IR, and was inversely associated with total osteocalcin and adiponectin. A regression analysis revealed that serum ferritin and transferrin receptor levels were significantly associated with a decrease in total and uncarboxylated osteocalcin. Serum sTfR levels were associated with lower uncarboxylated osteocalcin levels in the whole-study subjects and remained significant only in the IFG (impaired fasting glucose) individuals. Conclusions We described, for the first time, an inverse association between serum ferritin and sTfR with osteocalcin and extend previous results on adiponectin, thus supporting that factors related to iron metabolism could contribute to the insulin resistance and the development of type 2 diabetes mellitus