1,267 research outputs found
Datos preliminares de los análisis polínicos de las tollas ubicadas en Galve de Sorbe (Guadalajara)
Se presentan los datos palinológicos obtenidos de l as t u•'beras localizadas en Gal ve de Sorbe 1 Guadalajara) . Dichos da tos constituyen una aportación al conocimiento del cl:!.:na y de la vegetaci6n durante el Cuaternario reciente en el Sis'tema Centralwe disp:ay palinolo&ic data obtained froc11 swnc peal sited i n Galve de Sorbe (Guadalajara) . It is a contribuüon 1n order to know clima te ond ve¡¡elalíon during :ate Ouaternary in Sistema Centra
The Irie Classroom Toolbox, a universal violence-prevention teacher-training programme, in Jamaican preschools: a single-blind, cluster-randomised controlled trial
BACKGROUND: Violence is a leading global public health problem, and interventions in early childhood are important in the primary prevention of violence. We tested whether the Irie Classroom Toolbox, a violence-prevention teacher-training programme reduced violence against children by teachers and reduced class-wide child aggression in Jamaican preschools (catering to children aged 3-6 years). METHODS: We did a single-blind, cluster-randomised controlled trial in 76 preschools in Kingston and St Andrew, randomly selected, using simple randomisation, from 120 eligible preschools. Inclusion criteria were two to four classes of children; at least ten children per class; and located in an urban area. We randomly assigned preschools (1:1) to either the Irie Classroom Toolbox intervention or waiting-list control that received no intervention, using a computer-generated randomisation sequence by an independent statistician masked to school identity. The Toolbox involved training teachers in classroom behaviour management and promoting child social-emotional competence. All assessors were masked to group assignment. All teachers and classrooms in the selected schools participated in the study. Within each school, we used simple randomisation to randomly select up to 12 children aged 4 years for evaluation of child outcomes. The Toolbox intervention was implemented from August to April the following year. Teacher and classroom measures were done at baseline (the summer school term; ie, May to June), post-intervention (after 8 months of intervention; ie, May to June of the following year), and 1-year follow-up (ie, May to June 2 years later). The primary outcomes were observations of violence against children (including physical violence and psychological aggression) by teachers occurring across one full school day, and class-wide child aggression occurring over five 20-min intervals on another school day, all measured at post-intervention and 1-year follow-up and analysed by intention to treat. This trial is registered with ISRCTN, number ISRCTN11968472. FINDINGS: Between June 22, 2015, and April 29, 2016, (after baseline measurements were completed), we assigned 38 preschools (with 119 teachers) to the Toolbox intervention and 38 preschools (with 110 teachers) to control. 441 children in the intervention schools and 424 in the control schools were included in the evaluation. All schools were included in the post-intervention and follow-up analyses. There were fewer counts of violence against children by teachers in the intervention schools compared with control schools at post-intervention (median counts 3 [IQR 0-11] vs 15 [3-35]; effect size -67·12%, 95% CI -80·71 to -53·52, p<0·0001) and 1-year follow-up (median counts 3 [IQR 0-9] vs 6 [1-16]; effect size -53·86, 95% CI -71·08 to -36·65, p<0·0001). No differences between groups were found for class-wide child aggression at post-intervention (effect size 0·07, 95% CI -0·16 to 0·29, p=0·72) or 1-year follow-up (-0·14, -0·42 to 0·16, p=0·72). INTERPRETATION: In Jamaican preschools, the Irie Classroom Toolbox effectively reduced violence against children by teachers. The Toolbox was designed for use with undertrained teachers working in low-resource settings and should be effective with early childhood practitioners in other LMICs. Additional research is needed to further develop the Toolbox to reduce class-wide child aggression. FUNDING: Medical Research Council, Wellcome Trust, UK Aid, and the National Institute of Health Research
A good gesture: exploring nonverbal communication for robust SLDSs
Actas de las IV Jornadas de Tecnología del Habla (JTH 2006)In this paper we propose a research framework to explore the possibilities that state-of-the-art embodied conversational agents (ECAs) technology can offer to overcome typical
robustness problems in spoken language dialogue systems (SLDSs), such as error detection and recovery, changes of turn and clarification requests, that occur in many human-machine dialogue situations in real applications. Our goal is to study the effects of nonverbal communication throughout the dialogue, and find out to what extent ECAs can help overcome user frustration in critical situations. In particular, we have created a gestural repertoire that we will test and continue to refine and expand, to fit as closely as possible the users’ expectations and intuitions, and to favour a more efficient and
pleasant dialogue flow for the users. We also describe the test environment we have designed, simulating a realistic mobile application, as well as the evaluation methodology for the assessment, in forthcoming tests, of the potential benefits of
adding nonverbal communication in complex dialogue situations.This work has been possible thanks to the support grant received from project TIC2003-09068-C02-02 of the Spanish Plan Nacional de I+D
Novel LIPA mutations in Mexican siblings with lysosomal acid lipase deficiency
We would like to thank Radhika Tripuraneni, MD, MPH, for critical reading of the manuscript, Angelica TorizOrtiz, MD, for ultrasound imaging, and the medical staff of the Endoscopy and Pathology Department of CMN “20 de Noviembre”, along with all the personnel involved in the care of the patients. This work was presented in abstract form at 2013’s National Week of Gastroenterology (Semana Nacional de Gastroenterologia de la AMG) in Veracruz, Mexico and at Ⅸ Congress of SLEIMPN in Medellín, Colombia.Peer reviewedPublisher PD
Evaluation of ECA Gesture strategies for robust Human-Computer Interaction
Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) offer us the possibility to design pleasant and efficient human-machine interaction. In this paper we present an evaluation scheme to compare dialogue-based speaker authentication and information retrieval systems with and without ECAs on the interface. We used gestures and other visual cues to improve fluency and robustness of interaction with these systems. Our tests results suggest that when an ECA is present users perceive fewer system errors, their frustration levels are lower, turn-changing goes more smoothly, the interaction experience is more enjoyable, and system capabilities are generally perceived more positively than when no ECA is present. However, the ECA seems to intensify the users' privacy concerns
Four millennia of Iberian biomolecular prehistory illustrate the impact of prehistoric migrations at the far end of Eurasia
Population genomic studies of ancient human remains have shown how modern-day European population structure has been shaped by a number of prehistoric migrations. The Neolithization of Europe has been associated with large-scale migrations from Anatolia, which was followed by migrations of herders from the Pontic steppe at the onset of the Bronze Age. Southwestern Europe was one of the last parts of the continent reached by these migrations, and modern-day populations from this region show intriguing similarities to the initial Neolithic migrants. Partly due to climatic conditions that are unfavorable for DNA preservation, regional studies on the Mediterranean remain challenging. Here, we present genome-wide sequence data from 13 individuals combined with stable isotope analysis from the north and south of Iberia covering a four-millennial temporal transect (7, 500–3, 500 BP). Early Iberian farmers and Early Central European farmers exhibit significant genetic differences, suggesting two independent fronts of the Neolithic expansion. The first Neolithic migrants that arrived in Iberia had low levels of genetic diversity, potentially reflecting a small number of individuals; this diversity gradually increased over time from mixing with local hunter-gatherers and potential population expansion. The impact of post-Neolithic migrations on Iberia was much smaller than for the rest of the continent, showing little external influence from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. Paleodietary reconstruction shows that these populations have a remarkable degree of dietary homogeneity across space and time, suggesting a strong reliance on terrestrial food resources despite changing culture and genetic make-up
The extremely sharp transition between molecular and ionized gas in the Horsehead nebula
(Abridged) Massive stars can determine the evolution of molecular clouds with
their strong ultraviolet (UV) radiation fields. Moreover, UV radiation is
relevant in setting the thermal gas pressure in star-forming clouds, whose
influence can extend from the rims of molecular clouds to entire star-forming
galaxies. Probing the fundamental structure of nearby molecular clouds is
therefore crucial to understand how massive stars shape their surrounding
medium and how fast molecular clouds are destroyed, specifically at their
UV-illuminated edges, where models predict an intermediate zone of neutral
atomic gas between the molecular cloud and the surrounding ionized gas whose
size is directly related to the exposed physical conditions. We present the
highest angular resolution (~", corresponding to au) and
velocity-resolved images of the molecular gas emission in the Horsehead nebula,
using CO J=3-2 and HCO J=4-3 observations with ALMA. We find that CO and
HCO are present at the edge of the cloud, very close to the ionization
(H/H) and dissociation fronts (H/H), suggesting a very thin layer of
neutral atomic gas (< au) and a small amount of CO-dark gas
( mag) for stellar UV illumination conditions typical of
molecular clouds in the Milky Way. The new ALMA observations reveal a web of
molecular gas filaments with an estimated thermal gas pressure of
K cm, and the presence of a
steep density gradient at the cloud edge that can be well explained by
stationary isobaric PDR models with pressures consistent with our estimations.
However, in the HII region and PDR interface, we find , suggesting the gas is slightly compressed. Therefore,
dynamical effects cannot be completely ruled out and even higher angular
observations will be needed to unveil their role.Comment: 15 pages, 1 table, 9 figures; Accepted for publication in A&
Do no harm: The know-do gap and quality of care for childhood diarrhea and pneumonia in Bihar, India
Open and Hidden Charm Production in 920 GeV Proton-Nucleus Collisions
The HERA-B collaboration has studied the production of charmonium and open
charm states in collisions of 920 GeV protons with wire targets of different
materials. The acceptance of the HERA-B spectrometer covers negative values of
xF up to xF=-0.3 and a broad range in transverse momentum from 0.0 to 4.8
GeV/c. The studies presented in this paper include J/psi differential
distributions and the suppression of J/psi production in nuclear media.
Furthermore, production cross sections and cross section ratios for open charm
mesons are discussed.Comment: 5 pages, 9 figures, to be published in the proceedings of the 6th
International Conference on Hyperons, Charm & Beauty Hadrons (BEACH04),
Chicago, IL, June 27 - July 3, 200
Search for the Flavor-Changing Neutral Current Decay with the HERA-B Detector
We report on a search for the flavor-changing neutral current decay using events recorded with a dimuon trigger in
interactions of 920 GeV protons with nuclei by the HERA-B experiment. We find
no evidence for such decays and set a 90% confidence level upper limit on the
branching fraction .Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures (of which 1 double), paper to be submitted to
Physics Letters
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