Los sitcoms como herramienta para el aprendizaje cultural en el aula de inglés

Con la llegada de la globalización y la consolidación definitiva del inglés como lengua internacional, el lugar de la cultura en el proceso de aprendizaje de esta lengua también ha cambiado. De este modo, focalizar la enseñanza en hechos culturales de países anglófonos resulta insuficiente en el mundo en el que vivimos, donde la amplia mayoría de las interacciones en inglés se producen entre hablantes no nativos. Desde un punto de vista culturalmente descentralizado (Holliday, 2009), el desarrollo de la competencia intercultural y la conciencia crítica deben constituir una parte esencial del aprendizaje de idiomas (Byram, 2014). Sin embargo, la mayoría de los libros de texto utilizados no promueven este aprendizaje (inter)cultural. En este trabajo, proponemos que la televisión sea un recurso pedagógico complementario para lograr este objetivo. Nos hemos centrado en “sitcoms” (comedias de situación) para elaborar una lista de episodios que pueden ser utilizados en el entorno de la Educación Superior para desarrollar esta competencia cultural.With the emergence of globalization and English becoming a lingua franca for international communication, the place for culture in the language learning process has shifted as well. Thus, concentrating on cultural facts about English-speaking countries is insufficient for today’s world, where the vast majority of interactions happen among non-native speakers. From a culturally decentered standpoint (Holliday, 2009), intercultural competence and critical awareness constitute an essential part of language learning (Byram, 2014). However, most ELT textbooks do not promote complete (inter) cultural learning. In this article, we argue that TV can be an additional pedagogical tool to help achieve this goal. We focus on sitcoms compiling a list of episodes that can be used at tertiary level to develop cultural competence

Experiences in porting mini-applications to OpenACC and OpenMP on heterogeneous systems

This article studies mini-applications—Minisweep, GenASiS, GPP, and FF—that use computational methods commonly encountered in HPC. We have ported these applications to develop OpenACC and OpenMP versions, and evaluated their performance on Titan (Cray XK7 with K20x GPUs), Cori (Cray XC40 with Intel KNL), Summit (IBM AC922 with Volta GPUs), and Cori-GPU (Cray CS-Storm 500NX with Intel Skylake and Volta GPUs). Our goals are for these new ports to be useful to both application and compiler developers, to document and describe the lessons learned and the methodology to create optimized OpenMP and OpenACC versions, and to provide a description of possible migration paths between the two specifications. Cases where specific directives or code patterns result in improved performance for a given architecture are highlighted. We also include discussions of the functionality and maturity of the latest compilers available on the above platforms with respect to OpenACC or OpenMP implementations

Lanthanides in granulometric fractions of Mediterranean soils. Can they be used as fingerprints of provenance?

Highlights Are lanthanides from fine sand and clay genetically related to the geological materials? Lanthanide concentrations of fine sand and clay fit chronofunctions Pearson's r of lanthanide couples decreases when separation increases in the periodic table Free forms of clay are scavengers of lanthanides and concentrate HREE and ceriumSample preparation and chemical analysis were conducted by Emma Humphreys-Williams and Stanislav Strekopytov (Imaging and Analysis Centre, Natural History Museum, London, UK). This work was supported by a grant from Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad de España (‘Tipologías de Suelos Mediterráneos versus Cuarzo. En la frontera del conocimiento edafogenético’; Ref. CGL2016-80308-P). The authors thank Professor Margaret A. Oliver, an anonymous editor and two anonymous reviewers for helpful comments and suggestions that improved the final manuscript. We also thank Robert Abrahams (Bsc) for revising the English language.There is geochemical interest in the lanthanides because they behave like a group that is closely related to the parent materials during surface processes, although they also undergo fractionation as a result of supergene dynamics. We analysed lanthanide concentrations (ICPms) in the granulometric fractions fine sand, clay and free forms of clay (FFclay‐CDB and FFclay‐Ox: extracted with citrate‐dithionite‐sodium bicarbonate and with ammonium oxalate, respectively) from a soil chronosequence of Mediterranean soils. There was a relative enrichment of heavy rare earth elements (HREE) in the clay fraction and its free forms with respect to fine sand. The clay free forms behaved as scavengers of lanthanides, and oxidative scavenging of cerium (Ce) in FFclay‐CDB was also detected. Lanthanide concentrations (lanthanum to gadolinium in fine sand; terbium to lutetium in clay) varied with soil age, and chronofunctions were established. There was a strong positive collinearity between most of the lanthanide concentrations. Furthermore, the value of the correlation index (Pearson's r ) of the concentrations between couples of lanthanides (r CLC) decreased significantly with increasing separation between the elements in the periodic table; this has never been described in soils. Several geochemical properties and indices in the fine sand and clay soil fractions and in the geological materials of the Guadalquivir catchment showed, on the one hand, a genetic relation between them all, enabling the lanthanides to be used as fingerprints of provenance; on the other hand, fractionation between fine sand and clay showed these are actively involved in soil lanthanide dynamics.Secretaría de Estado de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación. Grant Number: CGL2016‐80308‐

A Simple Technology for Generating Marker-Free Chloroplast Transformants of the Green Alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

The availability of routine methods for the genetic engineering of the chloroplast genome of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is allowing researchers to explore the use of this microalga as a phototrophic cell platform for synthesis of high value recombinant proteins and metabolites. However, the established method for delivering transforming DNA into the algal chloroplast involves microparticle bombardment using an expensive "gene gun". Furthermore, selection of transformant lines most commonly involves the use of a bacterial antibiotic resistance gene. In this chapter, we describe a simple and cheap delivery method in which cell-DNA suspensions are agitated with glass beads: a method that is more commonly used for nuclear transformation of Chlamydomonas. We also describe the use of plasmid expression vectors that target transgenes to a neutral site within the chloroplast genome between psbH and trnE2, and employ psbH as the selectable marker-thereby avoiding issues of unwanted antibiotic resistance genes in the resulting transgenic lines. Finally, we highlight a feature in our latest vectors in which the presence of a novel tRNA gene on the plasmid results in recognition within the chloroplast of UGA stop codons in transgenes as tryptophan codons. This feature simplifies the cloning of transgenes that are normally toxic to E. coli, serves as a biocontainment strategy restricting the functional escape of transgenes from the algal chloroplast to environmental microorganisms, and offers a simple system of temperature-regulated translation of transgenes

General and specific culture learning in EFL textbooks aimed at adult learners in Spain

Since language teaching in modern-day society is closely linked to cultural instruction, this study employs the model of a cultural learning analysis based on the earlier work of Paige and Lee. Using this model, the authors analysed the cultural content of six B1 and B2-level textbooks for teaching English to adults in Spain, and carried out a comparative study of the results, contrasting the two levels. Findings show that the subjective aspects of culture receive less coverage in textbooks, despite being fundamental to an understanding of the values of a society. Regarding the comparison between B1 and B2 levels, the data indicate that the number of big “C” Culture occurrences is similar for both levels, although there are differences in other cultural aspects. So, for example, culture in general is dealt with more at the B1 level, whereas small “c” culture is dealt with more at the B2 level

Semantic based visualization

Visualization is the process of mapping data into visual dimensions to create a visual representation to amplify cognition. A successful visualization allows the user to gain insight into the data in other words to communicate different aspect of the data in an effective way. Even with today’s visualization systems that give the user a considerable control over the visualization process, it can be difficult to produce an effective visualization. A strategy to improve this situation is to guide the user in the selection of the parameters involved in the visualization. Our system goal of the research describe in this work is to develop a visualization that can be adapted to all data domains. By considering the semantic of the data together with the semantic of the stages through the visualization process it is intended to determinate all the characteristics of an effective visualization. This will guide the user through the stages of the visualization pipeline.Eje: Computación gráfica, visualización e imágenesRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

A Semantics-based visualization building process

A successful visualization allows the user to gain insight into the data in an effective way. Even with today’s visualization systems that give the user a considerable control over the visualization process, it can be difficult to produce an effective visualization. This paper is a step forward to achieve a visualization system that assists the user in the configuration and preparation of the visualization by considering both the semantic of the data and the semantic of the stages, through all the visualization process. In this article we present a system for file hierarchies visualization where the color assignment and the configuration of the visualization technique are carried out by reasoning processes. This work sets the way forward for the integration of reasoning in the visualization process.Presentado en el VIII Workshop Computación Gráfica, Imágenes y Visualización (WCGIV)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Semantic Based Visualization

Visualization is the process of mapping data into visual dimensions to create a visual representation to amplify cognition. Visual representations are essential aids to human cognitive tasks and are valued to the extent that they provide stable and external reference points upon which dynamic activities and thought processes may be calibrated and upon which models and theories can be tested and confirmed. The active use and manipulation of visual representations makes many complex and intensive cognitive tasks feasible. A visual representation is able to convey relationships among many elements in parallel and provides an individual with directly observable memory. A successful visualization allows the user to gain insight into the data, in other words to communicate different aspect of the data in an effective way. Even with today’s visualization systems that give the user a considerable control over the visualization process, it can be difficult to produce an effective visualization. To obtain useful results, a user had to know which questions to pose. Problems had to be framed in very precise terms. A strategy to improve this situation is to guide the user in the selection of the parameters involved in the visualization. Our research goal is the design of a visualization system that assist the user to do the work, by considering the semantic of the data together with the semantic of the stages through all the visualization process.Eje: Computación Gráfica, Visualización e ImágenesRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Semantic based visualization: a first approach

Visualization is the process of mapping data into visual dimensions to create a visual representation to amplify cognition. Visual representations are essential aids to human cognitive tasks and are valued to the extent that they provide stable and external reference points upon which dynamic activities and thought processes may be calibrated and upon which models and theories can be tested and confirmed. The active use and manipulation of visual representations makes many complex and intensive cognitive tasks feasible. A visual representation is able to convey relationships among many elements in parallel and provides an individual with directly observable memory. A successful visualization allows the user to gain insight into the data, in other words to communicate different aspect of the data in an effective way. Even with today’s visualization systems that give the user a considerable control over the visualization process, it can be difficult to produce an effective visualization. To obtain useful results, a user had to know which questions to pose. Problems had to be framed in very precise terms. A strategy to improve this situation is to guide the user in the selection of the parameters involved in the visualization. Our research goal is the design of a visualization system that assist the user to do the work, by considering the semantic of the data together with the semantic of the stages through all the visualization process.Eje: Computación Gráfica, Visualización e ImágenesRed de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI

Distributed system load visualization

In this article we show how the interface design for the visualization of distributed system load can benefit from the combination of concepts and techniques from Information Visualization and Human Computer Interaction (HCI). The use of visual representations and interactions to accelerate the insight into complex data is what distinguishes visual analytic software form other types of analytical tools. Visual representations translate data into a visible form that highlights important data features, including commonalities and anomalies. These visual representations helps the users to quickly perceive salient aspects of their data. Every distributed systems administrator must handle a high volume of information and the exploration and analysis of this data is becoming increasingly difficult. We propose an entirely novel approach to visualize the parameters involved in the system load for a distributed system to obtain an effective visualization tool in order to reduce the user cognitive workload and help the user to make the right decisions in a productive way.IV Workshop de Computación Gráfica, Imágenes y Visualización (WCGIV)Red de Universidades con Carreras en Informática (RedUNCI