Strengthening Web Based Learning through Software Quality Analysis

The Web is changing the way people access & exchange information. Specifically in the teaching & learning environment, we are witnessing that the traditional model of presence based magisterial classes is shifting towards Web Based Learning. This new model draws on remote access systems, knowledge sharing, and student mobility. In this context, pedagogical strategies are also changing, and for instance, Project- Based Learning (PBL) is seen as a potential driver for growth and development in this arena. This study is focused on a PBL oriented course with a Distributed Remote ACcess (DRAC) system. The objective is to analyze how quantitative methods can be leveraged to design and evaluate automatic diagnosis and feedback tools to assist students on quality-related pedagogical issues in DRAC enabled PBL courses. Main conclusions derived from this study are correlation-based and reveal that the development of automatic quality assessment and feedback requires further research

Structure of Fat Jets at the Tevatron and Beyond

Boosted resonances is a highly probable and enthusiastic scenario in any process probing the electroweak scale. Such objects when decaying into jets can easily blend with the cornucopia of jets from hard relative light QCD states. We review jet observables and algorithms that can contribute to the identification of highly boosted heavy jets and the possible searches that can make use of such substructure information. We also review previous studies by CDF on boosted jets and its measurements on specific jet shapes.Comment: invited review for a special "Top and flavour physics in the LHC era" issue of The European Physical Journal C, we invite comments regarding contents of the review; v2 added references and institutional preprint number

Pharmacologic regimens for knee osteoarthritis prevention: can they be cost-effective?

We sought to determine the target populations and drug efficacy, toxicity, cost, and initiation age thresholds under which a pharmacologic regimen for knee osteoarthritis (OA) prevention could be cost-effective

New insights into the genetic etiology of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias

Characterization of the genetic landscape of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias (ADD) provides a unique opportunity for a better understanding of the associated pathophysiological processes. We performed a two-stage genome-wide association study totaling 111,326 clinically diagnosed/'proxy' AD cases and 677,663 controls. We found 75 risk loci, of which 42 were new at the time of analysis. Pathway enrichment analyses confirmed the involvement of amyloid/tau pathways and highlighted microglia implication. Gene prioritization in the new loci identified 31 genes that were suggestive of new genetically associated processes, including the tumor necrosis factor alpha pathway through the linear ubiquitin chain assembly complex. We also built a new genetic risk score associated with the risk of future AD/dementia or progression from mild cognitive impairment to AD/dementia. The improvement in prediction led to a 1.6- to 1.9-fold increase in AD risk from the lowest to the highest decile, in addition to effects of age and the APOE ε4 allele