Performance, academic context and self-reported health in psychology students before and after of the EHEA

[EN] The European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has involved a number of structural and methodological changes whose results on academic performance and student health have not been sufficiently studied. The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the performance, perceived context and self-reported health of a sample of undergraduate and graduate Psychology students to see how these variables relate to and influence their academic achievement and welfare. Methodology. The sample consisted of 811 students (487 pre-Bologna system and 324 bacherlor ́s degree). For the evaluation of the indicated variables, the following instruments were used: the Academic Context questionnaire, to evaluate the educational environment; the GHQ-28 questionnaire to evaluate the self-reported health; and the CHAS (Cuestionario de Hábitos de Sueño, in Spanish, Sleeping Habits Questionnaire), in addition, the academic performance was collected. Results. EHEA students perform better than students pre-Bologna, although the difference is not very high. They are also more dissatisfied with the results obtained, they have worse psychological health, worse quality of sleep, greater anxiety and insomnia, greater social dysfunction, in addition, they need more medical leave due to stress and anxiety. Conclusions. Adaptation to the EHEA does not seem to achieve its objectives of improving the quality of education and having a negative impact on the health and physical and psychological well-being of students.[ES] El Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES) ha implicado una serie de modificaciones a nivel estructural y metodológico cuyos resultados sobre el rendimiento académico y la salud de los estudiantes no se han estudiado suficientemente. El objetivo de este trabajo es evaluar el rendimiento, el contexto percibido y la salud auto informada de una muestra de estudiantes de Psicología de licenciatura y grado, para ver cómo se relacionan estas variables e influyen en sus resultados académicos y bienestar. Metodología. La muestra estuvo compuesta por 811 estudiantes (487 de licenciatura y 324 de grado). Para la evaluación de las variables indicadas se utilizaron los siguientes instrumentos: cuestionario de Contexto Académico, el cuestionario GHQ-28 para evaluar la salud percibida, y el Cuestionario de hábitos de sueño CHAS, además se recabó el rendimiento académico. Resultados. Los estudiantes del EEES obtienen un mejor rendimiento que los de licenciatura, aunque la diferencia no es muy elevada. Así mismo muestran estar más insatisfechos con los resultados obtenidos, tienen peor salud psicológica, peor calidad de sueño, mayor ansiedad e insomnio, mayor disfunción social y más bajas médicas por estrés y ansiedad. Conclusiones. La adaptación al EEES parece que no cumple con sus objetivos de mejora de la calidad de la enseñanza además de tener un impacto negativo en la salud y bienestar físico y psicológico de los estudiantes.López-Núñez, M.; Rubio-Valdehita, S.; Díaz Ramiro, E. (2018). Rendimiento, contexto académico y salud percibida en estudiantes de psicología antes y después del EEES. 211-226. doi:10.4995/redu.2018.8961SWORD21122

Evidence for a mixed mass composition at the `ankle' in the cosmic-ray spectrum

We report a first measurement for ultra-high energy cosmic rays of the correlation between the depth of shower maximum and the signal in the water Cherenkov stations of air-showers registered simultaneously by the fluorescence and the surface detectors of the Pierre Auger Observatory. Such a correlation measurement is a unique feature of a hybrid air-shower observatory with sensitivity to both the electromagnetic and muonic components. It allows an accurate determination of the spread of primary masses in the cosmic-ray flux. Up till now, constraints on the spread of primary masses have been dominated by systematic uncertainties. The present correlation measurement is not affected by systematics in the measurement of the depth of shower maximum or the signal in the water Cherenkov stations. The analysis relies on general characteristics of air showers and is thus robust also with respect to uncertainties in hadronic event generators. The observed correlation in the energy range around the `ankle' at $\lg(E/{\rm eV})=18.5-19.0$ differs significantly from expectations for pure primary cosmic-ray compositions. A light composition made up of proton and helium only is equally inconsistent with observations. The data are explained well by a mixed composition including nuclei with mass $A > 4$. Scenarios such as the proton dip model, with almost pure compositions, are thus disfavoured as the sole explanation of the ultrahigh-energy cosmic-ray flux at Earth.Comment: Published version. Added journal reference and DOI. Added Report Numbe

Deep-sequencing reveals broad subtype-specific HCV resistance mutations associated with treatment failure

A percentage of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients fail direct acting antiviral (DAA)-based treatment regimens, often because of drug resistance-associated substitutions (RAS). The aim of this study was to characterize the resistance profile of a large cohort of patients failing DAA-based treatments, and investigate the relationship between HCV subtype and failure, as an aid to optimizing management of these patients. A new, standardized HCV-RAS testing protocol based on deep sequencing was designed and applied to 220 previously subtyped samples from patients failing DAA treatment, collected in 39 Spanish hospitals. The majority had received DAA-based interferon (IFN) a-free regimens; 79% had failed sofosbuvir-containing therapy. Genomic regions encoding the nonstructural protein (NS) 3, NS5A, and NS5B (DAA target regions) were analyzed using subtype-specific primers. Viral subtype distribution was as follows: genotype (G) 1, 62.7%; G3a, 21.4%; G4d, 12.3%; G2, 1.8%; and mixed infections 1.8%. Overall, 88.6% of patients carried at least 1 RAS, and 19% carried RAS at frequencies below 20% in the mutant spectrum. There were no differences in RAS selection between treatments with and without ribavirin. Regardless of the treatment received, each HCV subtype showed specific types of RAS. Of note, no RAS were detected in the target proteins of 18.6% of patients failing treatment, and 30.4% of patients had RAS in proteins that were not targets of the inhibitors they received. HCV patients failing DAA therapy showed a high diversity of RAS. Ribavirin use did not influence the type or number of RAS at failure. The subtype-specific pattern of RAS emergence underscores the importance of accurate HCV subtyping. The frequency of “extra-target” RAS suggests the need for RAS screening in all three DAA target regions

7th Drug hypersensitivity meeting: part two

No abstract availabl

Astrophysical Interpretation Of Pierre Auger Observatory Measurements Of The Uhecr Energy Spectrum And Mass Composition

13

The Pierre Auger Observatory Status And Latest Results

13

Evidence For A Mixed Mass Composition At The ‘ankle’ In The Cosmic-ray Spectrum

76228829

Reconstruction of events recorded with the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory

Cosmic rays arriving at Earth collide with the upper parts of the atmosphere, thereby inducing extensive air showers. When secondary particles from the cascade arrive at the ground, they are measured by surface detector arrays. We describe the methods applied to the measurements of the surface detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory to reconstruct events with zenith angles less than 60o using the timing and signal information recorded using the water-Cherenkov detector stations. In addition, we assess the accuracy of these methods in reconstructing the arrival directions of the primary cosmic ray particles and the sizes of the induced showers

Consistent patterns of common species across tropical tree communities

Trees structure the Earth’s most biodiverse ecosystem, tropical forests. The vast number of tree species presents a formidable challenge to understanding these forests, including their response to environmental change, as very little is known about most tropical tree species. A focus on the common species may circumvent this challenge. Here we investigate abundance patterns of common tree species using inventory data on 1,003,805 trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm across 1,568 locations1,2,3,4,5,6 in closed-canopy, structurally intact old-growth tropical forests in Africa, Amazonia and Southeast Asia. We estimate that 2.2%, 2.2% and 2.3% of species comprise 50% of the tropical trees in these regions, respectively. Extrapolating across all closed-canopy tropical forests, we estimate that just 1,053 species comprise half of Earth’s 800 billion tropical trees with trunk diameters of at least 10 cm. Despite differing biogeographic, climatic and anthropogenic histories7, we find notably consistent patterns of common species and species abundance distributions across the continents. This suggests that fundamental mechanisms of tree community assembly may apply to all tropical forests. Resampling analyses show that the most common species are likely to belong to a manageable list of known species, enabling targeted efforts to understand their ecology. Although they do not detract from the importance of rare species, our results open new opportunities to understand the world’s most diverse forests, including modelling their response to environmental change, by focusing on the common species that constitute the majority of their trees