Measuring online teaching service quality in higher education in the COVID-19 environment

The use of the Internet to develop new technologies has generated a considerable change in teaching and student learning in higher education. The pandemic caused by COVID-19 has forced universities to switch from face-to-face to online instruction. Furthermore, this transfer process was planned and executed quickly, with urgent redesigns of courses originally conceived for live teaching. The aim of this work is to measure the service quality of online teaching delivered during the COVID- 19 period. The methodology was based on an importance-performance analysis using a structural equations model. The data were obtained from a sample of 467 students attending a university in southern Spain. The results reveal five priority attributes of online teaching that need to be improved in order to enhance the service quality of the virtual instruction provided to students. Universities need to redefine their online format by integrating methodological and technological decisions and involving collaboration between teachers, students and administration staff and services. The results do not apply to educational institutions that exclusively teach courses online, but to those institutions that had to rapidly adapt, and shift course material originally designed for face-to-face training

Model mjerenja učinkovitosti učenja i zadovoljstva studenata tijekom pandemije bolesti COVID-19

The aim of this research was to assess the learning efficacy and level of satisfaction of university students as they adapted to the online teaching model amid the restrictions imposed as a result of COVID-19. The sample consisted of 467 students attending a public University of Spain. The study applied a structural equations methodology with a triangulated approach. The results show that the most influential factor in student online learning satisfaction is teacher-student interaction. On the other hand, student learning efficacy mainly depends on their attitude towards the use of technology; this makes it essential to understand which elements of the online learning system facilitate and incentivize the creation of a good learning environment. Moreover, the design quality of the system and the tools that make it function, and how they link to content and competences, all directly influence perceived ease-of-use and student satisfaction with online teaching.Cilj ovoga istraživanja bio je procijeniti učinkovitost učenja i razinu zadovoljstva studenata tijekom privikavanja na online nastavu uslijed ograničenja nametnutih zbog pandemije bolesti COVID-19. Uzorak ispitanika sastojao se od 467 studenata državnoga sveučilišta u Španjolskoj. U istraživanju je primijenjena metodologija strukturnih jednadžbi i pristup triangulacije. Rezultati pokazuju da je najutjecajniji faktor zadovoljstva učenjem u online okružju interakcija između studenta i nastavnika. S druge strane, učinkovitost učenja najviše ovisi o njihovim stavovima prema korištenju tehnologije. Zbog toga je nužno razumjeti koji elementi učenja u online okružju pomažu i potiču stvaranje dobroga okružja za učenje. Štoviše, kvaliteta dizajna sustava, alati koji im omogućuju rad te kako se oni povezuju sa sadržajem i kompetencijama zajedno izravno utječu na percepciju lakoće korištenja i na zadovoljstvo studenata online nastavom

Adaptación a los nuevos Grados de las metodologías docentes empleadas en una asignatura de Estadística Económico-Empresarial

Durante el presente curso 2009/2010 la Universidad Pablo de Olavide (UPO), de Sevilla, ha puesto en marcha el nuevo mapa de titulaciones adaptado al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES), el cual está compuesto por 16 grados y 6 dobles grados. Hasta llegar a este punto la UPO trabajó duro durante más de 6 años en la adaptación de su docencia al nuevo marco establecido por dicho EEES. Con tal objetivo, se puso en marcha en la Facultad de Empresariales, entre otras, una Experiencia Piloto de implantación del sistema de créditos europeos pretendiendo, fundamentalmente, renovar la metodología docente, incrementar la calidad de la docencia y de hacerla más cercana al alumno, siempre atendiendo a los planes de estudio actualmente vigentes. En el presente trabajo mostramos la adaptación que se realizó en la asignatura de Estadística e Introducción a la Econometría de la extinta Licenciatura en Administración y Dirección de Empresas en el marco de la Experiencia Piloto y los cambios que se acometieron posteriormente para su implantación en el nuevo Grado en Administración y Dirección de Empresas bajo el nombre: Estadística Empresarial I. Haremos hincapié en aquellos aspectos más destacados relativos al nuevo sistema de evaluación basado en evaluación continua.Artículo revisado por pare

Complement component C4 structural variation and quantitative traits contribute to sex-biased vulnerability in systemic sclerosis

Altres ajuts: Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER), "A way of making Europe".Copy number (CN) polymorphisms of complement C4 play distinct roles in many conditions, including immune-mediated diseases. We investigated the association of C4 CN with systemic sclerosis (SSc) risk. Imputed total C4, C4A, C4B, and HERV-K CN were analyzed in 26,633 individuals and validated in an independent cohort. Our results showed that higher C4 CN confers protection to SSc, and deviations from CN parity of C4A and C4B augmented risk. The protection contributed per copy of C4A and C4B differed by sex. Stronger protection was afforded by C4A in men and by C4B in women. C4 CN correlated well with its gene expression and serum protein levels, and less C4 was detected for both in SSc patients. Conditioned analysis suggests that C4 genetics strongly contributes to the SSc association within the major histocompatibility complex locus and highlights classical alleles and amino acid variants of HLA-DRB1 and HLA-DPB1 as C4-independent signals

Dietary α‐Linolenic Acid, Marine ω‐3 Fatty Acids, and Mortality in a Population With High Fish Consumption: Findings From the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) Study

Background: Epidemiological evidence suggests a cardioprotective role of α‐linolenic acid (ALA), a plant‐derived ω‐3 fatty acid. It is unclear whether ALA is beneficial in a background of high marine ω‐3 fatty acids (long‐chain n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids) intake. In persons at high cardiovascular risk from Spain, a country in which fish consumption is customarily high, we investigated whether meeting the International Society for the Study of Fatty Acids and Lipids recommendation for dietary ALA (0.7% of total energy) at baseline was related to all‐cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. We also examined the effect of meeting the society's recommendation for long‐chain n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (≥500 mg/day). Methods and Results: We longitudinally evaluated 7202 participants in the PREvención con DIeta MEDiterránea (PREDIMED) trial. Multivariable‐adjusted Cox regression models were fitted to estimate hazard ratios. ALA intake correlated to walnut consumption (r=0.94). During a 5.9‐y follow‐up, 431 deaths occurred (104 cardiovascular disease, 55 coronary heart disease, 32 sudden cardiac death, 25 stroke). The hazard ratios for meeting ALA recommendation (n=1615, 22.4%) were 0.72 (95% CI 0.56–0.92) for all‐cause mortality and 0.95 (95% CI 0.58–1.57) for fatal cardiovascular disease. The hazard ratios for meeting the recommendation for long‐chain n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n=5452, 75.7%) were 0.84 (95% CI 0.67–1.05) for all‐cause mortality, 0.61 (95% CI 0.39–0.96) for fatal cardiovascular disease, 0.54 (95% CI 0.29–0.99) for fatal coronary heart disease, and 0.49 (95% CI 0.22–1.01) for sudden cardiac death. The highest reduction in all‐cause mortality occurred in participants meeting both recommendations (hazard ratio 0.63 [95% CI 0.45–0.87]). Conclusions: In participants without prior cardiovascular disease and high fish consumption, dietary ALA, supplied mainly by walnuts and olive oil, relates inversely to all‐cause mortality, whereas protection from cardiac mortality is limited to fish‐derived long‐chain n‐3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Clinical Trial Registration URL: http://www.Controlled-trials.com/. Unique identifier: ISRCTN35739639

Multiancestry analysis of the HLA locus in Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases uncovers a shared adaptive immune response mediated by HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes

Across multiancestry groups, we analyzed Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) associations in over 176,000 individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD) versus controls. We demonstrate that the two diseases share the same protective association at the HLA locus. HLA-specific fine-mapping showed that hierarchical protective effects of HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes best accounted for the association, strongest with HLA-DRB1*04:04 and HLA-DRB1*04:07, and intermediary with HLA-DRB1*04:01 and HLA-DRB1*04:03. The same signal was associated with decreased neurofibrillary tangles in postmortem brains and was associated with reduced tau levels in cerebrospinal fluid and to a lower extent with increased Aβ42. Protective HLA-DRB1*04 subtypes strongly bound the aggregation-prone tau PHF6 sequence, however only when acetylated at a lysine (K311), a common posttranslational modification central to tau aggregation. An HLA-DRB1*04-mediated adaptive immune response decreases PD and AD risks, potentially by acting against tau, offering the possibility of therapeutic avenues