Does grade retention affect achievement? Some evidence from PISA

Grade retention practices are at the forefront of the educational debate. In this paper, we use PISA 2009 data for Spain to measure the effect of grade retention on students achievement. One important problem when analyzing this question is that school outcomes and the propensity to repeat a grade are likely to be determined simultaneously. We address this problem by estimating a Switching Regression Model. We …find that grade retention has a negative impact on educational outcomes, but we confi…rm the importance of endogenous selection, which makes observed differences between repeaters and non-repeaters appear 14.6% lower than they actually are. The effect on PISA scores of repeating is much smaller (-10% of non-repeaters average) than the counterfactual reduction that non-repeaters would suffer had they been retained as repeaters (-24% of their average). Furthermore, those who repeated a grade during primary education suffered more than those who repeated a grade of secondary school, although the effect of repeating at both times is, as expected, much larger.Grade retention, educational scores, PISA

Does grade retention affect achievement? Some evidence from Pisa

Grade retention practices are at the forefront of the educational debate. In this paper, we use PISA 2009 data for Spain to measure the effect of grade retention on students’achievement. One important problem when analyzing this question is that school outcomes and the propensity to repeat a grade are likely to be determined simultaneously. We address this problem by estimating a Switching Regression Model. We find that grade retention has a negative impact on educational outcomes, but we confirm the importance of endogenous selection, which makes observed differences between repeaters and non-repeaters appear 14.6% lower than they actually are. The effect on PISA scores of repeating is much smaller (-10% of non-repeaters’average) than the counterfactual reduction that non-repeaters would suffer had they been retained as repeaters (-24% of their average). Furthermore, those who repeated a grade during primary education suffered more than those who repeated a grade of secondary school, although the effect of repeating at both times is, as expected, much larger.Grade retention, educational scores, PISA

Las Ayudas a la Extensión de Patentes Españolas como Mecanismos de Apoyo a la Internacionalización de la Tecnología.

Un factor importante en la competitividad de la economía de una región o un país se basa en la medida que éste sea capaz de estimular la innovación y el desarrollo tecnológico. Las patentes constituyen unos indicadores del output de la organización y su análisis aporta información relevante sobre el conjunto del proceso de innovación tecnológica tratando de ofrecer una visión global de las capacidades tecnológicas disponibles por la organización. Si bien los estudios existentes se esfuerzan en identificar en qué medida esta innovación es de origen nacional o transferida mediante licencias de patentes, importaciones, imitaciones o inversiones extranjeras directas, también resulta de interés conocer en qué medida nuestras organizaciones llevan a cabo esfuerzos para internacionalizar la tecnología desarrollada y protegida a través de una patente. En este trabajo se estudia el impacto de las ayudas que concede la Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas para apoyar la extensión de las patentes de origen nacional, a través del análisis de diferentes variables de carácter genérico (tipo de solicitante, ubicación geográfica, tamaño de empresa, CNAE y CIP), de carácter económico (costes de extensión) y de calidad (reivindicaciones afectadas)

Effectiveness of structural-strategic family therapy in the treatment of adolescents with mental health problems and their families

Mental health problems during adolescence constitute a major public health concern today for both families and stakeholders. Accordingly, different family-based interventions have emerged as an effective treatment for adolescents with certain disorders. Specifically, there is evidence of the effectiveness of concrete approaches of systemic family therapy on the symptoms of adolescents and family functioning in general. However, few studies have examined the effectiveness of other relevant approaches, such as structural and strategic family therapy, incorporating parent–child or parental dyadic measurement. The purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of a structural–strategic family therapy with adolescents involved in mental health services and their families. For this purpose, 41 parents and adolescents who participated in this treatment were interviewed at pre-test and post-test, providing information on adolescent behavior problems, parental sense of competence, parental practices, parenting alliance, and family functioning. Regardless of participants’ gender, adolescents exhibited fewer internalizing and externalizing problems after the treatment. Parents reported higher family cohesion, higher satisfaction and perceived efficacy as a parent, and healthier parental practices (less authoritarian and permissive practices, as well as more authoritative ones). An interaction effect between parenting alliance and gender was found, with more favorable results for the mothers. In conclusion, this paper provides evidence of the usefulness of structural–strategic family therapy for improving family, dyadic, and individual facets in families with adolescents exhibiting mental health problems

Scalable Inference of Gene Regulatory Networks with the Spark Distributed Computing Platform Cristo

Inference of Gene Regulatory Networks (GRNs) remains an important open challenge in computational biology. The goal of bio-model inference is to, based on time-series of gene expression data, obtain the sparse topological structure and the parameters that quantitatively understand and reproduce the dynamics of biological system. Nevertheless, the inference of a GRN is a complex optimization problem that involve processing S-System models, which include large amount of gene expression data from hundreds (even thousands) of genes in multiple time-series (essays). This complexity, along with the amount of data managed, make the inference of GRNs to be a computationally expensive task. Therefore, the genera- tion of parallel algorithmic proposals that operate efficiently on distributed processing platforms is a must in current reconstruction of GRNs. In this paper, a parallel multi-objective approach is proposed for the optimal inference of GRNs, since min- imizing the Mean Squared Error using S-System model and Topology Regularization value. A flexible and robust multi-objective cellular evolutionary algorithm is adapted to deploy parallel tasks, in form of Spark jobs. The proposed approach has been developed using the framework jMetal, so in order to perform parallel computation, we use Spark on a cluster of distributed nodes to evaluate candidate solutions modeling the interactions of genes in biological networks.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Does grade retention affect achievement? Some evidence from Pisa

Grade retention practices are at the forefront of the educational debate. In this paper, we use PISA 2009 data for Spain to measure the effect of grade retention on students’achievement. One important problem when analyzing this question is that school outcomes and the propensity to repeat a grade are likely to be determined simultaneously. We address this problem by estimating a Switching Regression Model. We find that grade retention has a negative impact on educational outcomes, but we confirm the importance of endogenous selection, which makes observed differences between repeaters and non-repeaters appear 14.6% lower than they actually are. The effect on PISA scores of repeating is much smaller (-10% of non-repeaters’average) than the counterfactual reduction that non-repeaters would suffer had they been retained as repeaters (-24% of their average). Furthermore, those who repeated a grade during primary education suffered more than those who repeated a grade of secondary school, although the effect of repeating at both times is, as expected, much larger

Estudio teórico aplicado al tratamiento del sonido en saltos de planos visuales en el estilo naturalista: continuidad y elipsis

Este estudio se centra en el concepto del naturalismo en el diseño de sonido, y especialmente en la continuidad/discontinuidad del ambiente sonoro. El autor analiza el proceso de postproducción que realizó en el cortometraje naturalista Albert (2013). Una revisión de la bibliografía y filmografía naturalista relevante aclara los conceptos de sonido ambiente, continuidad/discontinuidad y elipsis temporal, y cómo el diseño de sonido interactúa con el montaje. La revisión destaca que se necesitan más estudios para comprender esta interacción. Para comprender si la continuidad del sonido influye en la percepción del tiempo narrativo, se diseña un experimento perceptivo usando tres secuencias de Albert, con tres opciones de sonido (continuidad/discontinuidad/música) con un total de 9 combinaciones. 52 participantes evaluaron el tiempo transcurrido en cada escena. Los resultados muestran que los participantes utilizan la información visual para evaluar los lapsos de tiempo, pero no se encontró ninguna influencia significativa del diseño de sonido. Se concluye que el diseñador de sonido tiene decisiones importantes que tomar cuando se crea una postproducción de audio naturalista, ya que hay una necesidad de una teoría global. En particular, el sonido ambiental se utiliza para mejorar o suavizar la discontinuidad del montaje visual.This study focuses on the concept of naturalism in sound design, and especially the continuity/ discontinuity of ambient sound. The author analyzes the audio postproduction process he did for the naturalist short-film Albert (2013). A review of the bibliography and relevant naturalist filmography allows to clarify the concepts of ambient sound, continuity/discontinuity and temporal ellipsis, and how the sound design interacts with editing. It shows also that more studies are needed to comprehend this interaction. In order to understand whether audio continuity influences the perception of the elapsed narrative time, we design a perception experiment using 3 scenes from Albert, with 3 sound options (continuity/discontinuity/music) with a total of 9 combinations. 52 participants were asked to rate the elapsed time in each scene. Results show that participants used visual information to rate time lapses, but no significant influence of sound design was found. We conclude that the sound designer has important decisions to take when creating a naturalist audio postproduction, as there is a need of a global theory. In particular ambient sound is used to enhance or smooth the discontinuity of visual editingHidalgo García, A. (2014). Estudio teórico aplicado al tratamiento del sonido en saltos de planos visuales en el estilo naturalista: continuidad y elipsis. Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/45160Archivo delegad

Rehabilitación IES Númancia

El presente proyecto trata de la rehabilitación del instituto de educación secundaria y bachillerato IES Numancia, situado en la calle Prat de la Riba nº118 de la localidad de Santa Coloma de Gramenet (Barcelona)

Theoretical study of mechanisms for the hydrolytic deamination of cytosine via steered molecular dynamic simulations

Se obtuvieron perfiles de energía libre de Gibbs de la deaminación de la citosina asistida por una molécula de agua en un medio acuoso discreto mediante la aplicación de simulaciones de la dinámica molecular dirigida (SMD). Se consideraron dos vías para explicar el mecanismo de este proceso, en el que la molécula de agua ataca el enlace C-N para dar un intermedio (una estructura amino-hidroxi-oxo en la vía A, y una hidroxi-oxo en la vía B) como paso determinante de la reacción. Las estructuras estacionarias a lo largo de ambos perfiles de energía se analizaron a nivel de la dinámica molecular, obteniendo estados con energías libres más altas que las de los cálculos electrónicos en la fase gaseosa y en la solución descrita como medio continuo. A partir de los resultados obtenidos, la vía A más compleja, con cinco pasos, fue cinéticamente la más favorable (con una energía de reacción endergónica de 7,41 kcal mol-1, una barrera alta de 67,53 kcal mol-1, y una pequeña constante de velocidad k2 = 1,80 × 10-37 s-1), concluyendo que la base uracilo puede participar en una mutación genética espontánea ya que el complejo uracilo-amónico tiene una larga vida útil de 6. 10 × 1027 s. Este proceso resulta exergónico y más rápido cuando se lleva a cabo en simulación de la fase gaseosa o en cálculo electrónico con un medio continuo, debido a la desaparición de las moléculas de agua explícitas que pueden competir con la molécula auxiliar.Gibbs free energy profiles of the cytosine deamination assisted by a water molecule in a discrete aqueous medium were obtained by the application of Steered Molecular Dynamic (SMD) simulations. Two pathways were considered to explain the mechanism of this process, where the water molecule attacks the C–N bond to give an intermediate (an amino–hydroxy–oxo structure in the A-path, and a hydroxy–oxo in the B-path) as the determinant step of reaction. Stationary structures along both energy profiles were analyzed at molecular dynamics level, obtaining states with higher free energies than those from electronic calculations in the gas phase and in solution described as a continuous medium. From the results obtained, the more complex A-pathway, with five steps, was kinetically the most favorable (with an endergonic reaction energy of 7.41 kcal mol−1, a high barrier of 67.53 kcal mol−1, and a small velocity constant k2 = 1.80 × 10−37 s−1), concluding that the uracil base can participate in a spontaneous genetic mutation since the uracil–ammonia complex has a long lifetime of 6.10 × 1027 s. This process turns out exergonic and faster when carried out in gas phase simulation or electronic calculation with a continuous medium, due to the disappearance of explicit water molecules that can compete with the assistant molecule.peerReviewe