Package ecespa

Documentation for the R-package "ecespa

“Education Network” a new way to teach Chemistry

The complexity of chemistry has implications for the teaching of chemistry. That chemistry is a very complex subject. The majority of the students at University think that chemistry is a difficult discipline and they have difficulty in understanding the concepts. Moreover, students' interest in chemistry decreases the first year at university. The reason for this decrease might be that the contents of chemistry laboratory classes are boring, out of date and lacking of dynamism that students experience through visual media tools. For these reasons, new programs and methodologies should be developed. Those are based on making chemistry relevant through problem solving and collaborative learning hold promise for reforming chemistry education. It is about an education according to circumstances, which is adapted to context and virtual behaviour of people. It's time to CRUSH boredom by transforming your classroom into an Escape Room adventure. School-based escape games are a great teaching tool. The students while playing, learn. The most important point is that they won’t realize they’re doing both at the same time. In this work, an educational gamification experience based on the escape room concept was developed. The first (Do It Yourself) DIY Escape Room was built the year before at Mechanical Engineer Degree started, that took more than three weeks of work. It was presented to other professors to the same subject at different degrees. That DIY Escape Room was modified and adapted to each group. Each professor changed the clues, problems and so on in order to orientate the topic as much as possible to their students.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

The invasive species Asparagopsis taxiformis (Bonnemaisoniales, Rhodophyta) on Andalusian coast (Southern Spain): reproductive stages, new records and invaded communities

The invasive species Asparagopsis taxiformis (Bonnemaisoniales, Rhodophyta) on Andalusian coasts (Southern Spain): reproductive stages, new records and invaded communities.The present study provides new records from Andalusian coasts of the exotic invasive seaweed Asparagopsis taxiformis (Delile) Trevisan. These records demonstrate that A. taxiformis has rapidly and widely expanded its distribution range in this region, from Almería to Cádiz (Strait of Gibraltar).The latter locality may represent the western geographical limit of the species in the Mediterranean Sea. Spermatangial heads and cystocarps were observed in the collected gametophytes. Additionally, we report the first record of the tetrasporophytic stage, Falkenbergia hillebrandii (Bornet) Falkenberg from the Andalusian coast, although tetraspores were not encountered in these samples. Consequently, information on the affected communities and arguments for considering A. taxiformis as an invasive species in the Andalusian coast are provided.La especie invasora Asparagopsis taxiformis (Bonnemaisoniales, Rhodophyta) en las costas andaluzas (Sur de España): fases reproductivas, nuevas citas y comunidades invadidas. El presente trabajo aporta nuevas citas para las costas andaluzas de la especie exótica invasora de macroalga Asparagopsis taxiformis (Delile) Trevisan. Estas citas muestran que la especie ha aumentado ampliamente su área de distribución de manera rápida en esta región, desde Almería hasta Cádiz (Estrecho de Gibraltar). Esta última localidad representaría el límite occidental de la especie en el mar Mediterráneo. En las muestras recogidas de gametofitos se pudieron observar ramas espermatangiales y cistocarpos. Se aporta la primera cita del estadio tetrasporofítico, Falkenbergia hillebrandii (Bornet) Falkenberg en las costas andaluzas, aunque no se observaron tetrásporas en estas muestras. Se informa sobre las comunidades afectadas y se dan argumentos para considerar a A.taxiformis invasora en las costas andaluzas

Lamivudine plus a boosted-protease inhibitor as simplification strategy in HIV-infected patients with toxicity to nucleoside analogues

Purpose of the study: Dual therapy with lamivudine plus a PI boosted with ritonavir (PI/r) could be an alternative to standard triple therapy or PI/r monotherapy as a simplification strategy in patients with toxicity to nucleoside analogues (NA). Methods: Retrospective cohort study of 44 HIV-infected patients on suppressive HAART, with no chronic HBV, who simplified to this dual therapy since 2008. Virological and immunological outcome, lipids and renal changes were evaluated. Summary of results: Mean age was 50 years (38-70), 66% were male, and the median time of HIV infection was 18.6 years. The median nadir CD4+ count was 150 cells/ml (2–407). At inclusion, patients were receiving therapy with lamivudine plus atazanavir/r in 5 cases, lopinavir/r in 12, and darunavir/r in 27, and they had an HIV RNA level<50 copies/ml for a median time of 794 days (129–2344, 90% >6 months). The NA discontinued was tenofovir (27), didanosine (12), AZT (3), and d4T (2). The reasons for changing were toxicity in 76% of cases, especially renal impairment. They had received a mean of 8 regimens before (2–20), and 55% were in CDC-stage C. In 11 cases, history of resistance was available (to NA in 7 cases, including the 210W mutation in four). The mutations 184V was not observed, but four patients (9%) had a previous failure to therapy including 3tC. Mutations in the protease gene were observed in 8 patients (2 to 7 mutations, the most frequent 77I and 93L), without resistance to the current PI/r. During 62.8 patient-years of follow-up (median, 802 days), only 2 patients failed (4.5%), due to incomplete adherence, at 27 and 141 days. Of note, these two patients had no previous failed with 3tC or PI. Overall, CD4+ count increased for 55 cells/ml. No new adverse events were observed, but total cholesterol (from 180 to 246 mg/dl, p=0.007) and triglycerides (from 166 to 195, p=0.01) increased during the first 24 weeks with improvement at 48 weeks. On the other hand, estimated glomerular filtration rate improved during follow up (from 74.2 ml/min to 83.08 ml/min after 48 weeks, p=0.1). Conclusions: Dual therapy with lamivudine plus a boosted PI is safe and effective as simplification strategy in patients with toxicity to NA. This combination could be an alternative to mono or triple therapy in hard to treat patients, although an initial increase in lipid parameters could be observed

Usual energy and macronutrient intakes in 2-9-year-old European children

OBJECTIVE: Valid estimates of population intakes are essential for monitoring trends as well as for nutritional interventions, but such data are rare in young children. In particular, the problem of misreporting in dietary data is usually not accounted for. Therefore, this study aims to provide accurate estimates of intake distributions in European children. DESIGN: Cross-sectional setting-based multi-centre study. SUBJECTS: A total of 9560 children aged 2-9 years from eight European countries with at least one 24-h dietary recall (24-HDR). METHODS: The 24-HDRs were classified in three reporting groups based on age- and sex-specific Goldberg cutoffs (underreports, plausible reports, overreports). Only plausible reports were considered in the final analysis (N=8611 children). The National Cancer Institute (NCI)-Method was applied to estimate population distributions of usual intakes correcting for the variance inflation in short-term dietary data. RESULTS: The prevalence of underreporting (9.5%) was higher compared with overreporting (3.4%). Exclusion of misreports resulted in a shift of the energy and absolute macronutrient intake distributions to the right, and further led to the exclusion of extreme values, that is, mean values and lower percentiles increased, whereas upper percentiles decreased. The distributions of relative macronutrient intakes (% energy intake from fat/carbohydrates/proteins) remained almost unchanged when excluding misreports. Application of the NCI-Method resulted in markedly narrower intake distributions compared with estimates based on single 24-HDRs. Mean percentages of usual energy intake from fat, carbohydrates and proteins were 32.2, 52.1 and 15.7%, respectively, suggesting the majority of European children are complying with common macronutrient intake recommendations. In contrast, total water intake (mean: 1216.7 ml per day) lay below the recommended value for >90% of the children. CONCLUSION: This study provides recent estimates of intake distributions of European children correcting for misreporting as well as for the daily variation in dietary data. These data may help to assess the adequacy of young children's diets in Europe

La coordinación de las aproximaciones en la comprensión del concepto de límite cuando los estudiantes para profesor anticipan respuestas de estudiantes

El objetivo de este estudio es examinar en qué medida la identificación de la coordinación de las aproximaciones en el dominio y el rango de una función es considerado un avance conceptual (KDU en Simon, 2006) en la comprensión del concepto de límite de una función por futuros profesores. Veinticinco estudiantes para profesor de matemáticas anticiparon respuestas de estudiantesde bachillerato a problemas sobre el límite de una función que mostraban distintas características de la comprensión y propusieron problemas para apoyar el progreso conceptual de los estudiantes. Los resultados muestran que identificar la coordinación de las aproximaciones en el dominio y el rango como KDU permitió a los estudiantes para profesor considerar progresiones en el aprendizaje sobre las que apoyar sus propuestas de enseñanza.The aim of this study is to examine to what extent the identification of the coordination of approximations in the domain and in the range is considered a Key Developmental Understanding (KDU in Simon, 2006) by prospective teachers. 25 prospective secondary school mathematics teachers anticipated high school students’ answers to problems about the limit of a function showing different characteristics of understanding and proposed problems that would support students’ conceptual progress. Results show that identifying the coordination of the approximations in the domain and in the range as KDU allowed prospective teachers to consider progressions in students’ learning in order to support their teaching decisions.El objetivo de este estudio es examinar en qué medida la identificación de la coordinación de las aproximaciones en el dominio y el rango de una función es considerado un avance conceptual (KDU en Simon, 2006) en la comprensión del concepto de límite de una función por futuros profesores. Veinticinco estudiantes para profesor de matemáticas anticiparon respuestas de estudiantesde bachillerato a problemas sobre el límite de una función que mostraban distintas características de la comprensión y propusieron problemas para apoyar el progreso conceptual de los estudiantes. Los resultados muestran que identificar la coordinación de las aproximaciones en el dominio y el rango como KDU permitió a los estudiantes para profesor considerar progresiones en el aprendizaje sobre las que apoyar sus propuestas de enseñanza

Gromov hyperbolicity in strong product graphs

If X is a geodesic metric space and x1; x2; x3 2 X, a geodesic triangle T = fx1; x2; x3g is the union of the three geodesics [x1x2], [x2x3] and [x3x1] in X. The space X is -hyperbolic (in the Gromov sense) if any side of T is contained in a -neighborhood of the union of the two other sides, for every geodesic triangle T in X. If X is hyperbolic, we denote by (X) the sharp hyperbolicity constant of X, i.e. (X) = inff > 0 : X is -hyperbolic g : In this paper we characterize the strong product of two graphs G1 G2 which are hyperbolic, in terms of G1 and G2: the strong product graph G1 G2 is hyperbolic if and only if one of the factors is hyperbolic and the other one is bounded. We also prove some sharp relations between (G1 G2), (G1), (G2) and the diameters of G1 and G2 (and we nd families of graphs for which the inequalities are attained). Furthermore, we obtain the exact values of the hyperbolicity constant for many strong product graphs