Nascent Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy, Perceptions about Entrepreneurship and Observational Learning: Exploring the Link

The emerging relevance of Student Entrepreneurship (SE) as a growing phenomenon for research has developed from the international, national, and regional necessity for economic development and the demand placed on universities to contribute to creating an awareness of SE in students. This has led to research into the Entrepreneurial Activities (EA) of student entrepreneurs while actively engaging in academic studies at the undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) level at universities. To further the advancement of SE, this research therefore sought to investigate the entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE) of student entrepreneurs at undergraduate and postgraduate levels of study, their perception of entrepreneurial opportunities and capabilities while they carry out their entrepreneurial activities at the nascent (early-stage) level of entrepreneurship. The unique focus of this research on the nascent level of SE is driven by the correlation between the stage in life that the student entrepreneur is consciously engaging in academic study as part of career actions on their career journey and the stage of developing their entrepreneurial consciousness and entrepreneurial career while engaged in entrepreneurial activities. Therefore, to advance SE contextually through the lens of the entrepreneurial activities of the Nascent Student Entrepreneur (NSE), this research sought to identify the degree of impact that ESE, Perceived Opportunities (PO), and Perceived Capabilities (PC) have on UG and PG students in the UK while engaged in EA simultaneously. The research then sought to explore the presence of their Observed Learning while engaging in EA, though they may not be aware that such learning was taking place. To achieve the above, this research reviewed relevant literature (leading to developed hypothesis) and gained insight into existing understanding of SE, nascent student entrepreneurs, their perception to entrepreneurship (opportunities and capabilities) and observational learning (OL), which has formed the basis of this research and thus sought to advance current research in this field. Adopting mixed methodology, this research went further to administer online questionnaires, with 298 undergraduate and postgraduate students in UK universities eligible for analysis, with focus on those engaging in EA as the underlying factor for defining the student entrepreneurs required for this research while carrying out academic studies. This is a departure from previous research on university students engaged in entrepreneurial education, to ensure that data from student entrepreneurs are captured from student entrepreneurs engaged in EA as against the stereotype of gathering data from those engaged in entrepreneurial education. Additionally, this was complemented by forty-three semi-structured interviews, interviewing undergraduate and postgraduate student entrepreneurs engaged in entrepreneurial activities while studying at UK universities. Upon analysing the quantitative research data using regression analysis and the qualitative data using thematic analysis, it was discovered that, ESE, PO, PC had varying degrees of impact on the NSE, with varying moderating impact from their levels of education, years of EA, and gender. Another finding from this research was that nascent student entrepreneurs exhibited more entrepreneurial behaviours like seeking collaboration, joining networks & communities, looking for constructive feedback and referrals, as well as seeking to add value to their customers as they add value to themselves. These entrepreneurial behaviours are just a few discovered in the research (see Appendix IV for more). This research also found out that the degree of ESE, PO, and PC impact on the nascent male or female student entrepreneur, whether as an undergraduate or postgraduate varied depending on the years of entrepreneurial activity exhibited by the nascent student entrepreneur. This implies that years of entrepreneurial activities was having more moderating impact on the NSE when compared to the moderating impact of the level of education and gender. This research also discovered that perceived capabilities impacted differently on the nascent postgraduate and undergraduate student’s entrepreneurial self-efficacy depending on the moderating impact of the years of entrepreneurial activities involved. This was the outcome both in the female and male categories. Complementing findings from the quantitative analysis, the qualitative analysis discovered that the student entrepreneur was exhibiting attention, retention, reproduction, and motivation unknown to them, through observed learning, leading to the finding that knowledge relevant to their activities has been acquired. Accordingly, the conclusion points to the fact that if conscious attention is paid to SE and NSE within contexts of EA, ESE, PO, PC, and OL it will be of more benefit to the NSE and their EA going forward

Some Experiments on the Influence of Problem Hardness in Morphological Development Based Learning of Neural Controllers

This version of the conference paper has been accepted for publication, after peer review and is subject to Springer Nature’s AM terms of use (https://www.springernature.com/gp/open-science/policies/accepted-manuscript-terms), but is not the Version of Record and does not reflect post-acceptance improvements, or any corrections. The Version of Record is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-61705-9_30.Included in 'Hybrid Artificial Intelligent Systems', the 15th International Conference, HAIS 2020, Gijón, Spain, November 11-13, 2020, Proceedings.[Abstract]: Natural beings undergo a morphological development process of their bodies while they are learning and adapting to the environments they face from infancy to adulthood. In fact, this is the period where the most important learning processes, those that will support learning as adults, will take place. However, in artificial systems, this interaction between morphological development and learning, and its possible advantages, have seldom been considered. In this line, this paper seeks to provide some insights into how morphological development can be harnessed in order to facilitate learning in embodied systems facing tasks or domains that are hard to learn. In particular, here we will concentrate on whether morphological development can really provide any advantage when learning complex tasks and whether its relevance towards learning increases as tasks become harder. To this end, we present the results of some initial experiments on the application of morphological development to learning to walk in three cases, that of a quadruped, a hexapod and that of an octopod. These results seem to confirm that as task learning difficulty increases the application of morphological development to learning becomes more advantageous.This work has been partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of Spain/FEDER (grant RTI2018-101114-B-I00), Xunta de Galicia and FEDER (grant ED431C 2017/12) and M. Naya-Varela is very grateful for the support of the UDC-Inditex 2019 grant for international mobility. We also want to thank CESGA (Centro de Supercomputación de Galicia. https://www.cesga.es/) for the possibility of using its resources.Xunta de Galicia; ED431C 2017/1

A Study of Growth Based Morphological Development in Neural Network Controlled Walkers

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG[Abstract] In nature, the physical development of the body that takes place in parallel to the cognitive development of the individual has been shown to facilitate learning. This opens up the question of whether the same principles could be applied to robots in order to accelerate the learning of controllers and, if so, how to apply them effectively. In this line, several authors have run experiments, usually quite complex and heterogeneous, with different levels of success. In some cases, morphological development seemed to provide an advantage and in others it was clearly irrelevant or even detrimental. Basically, morphological development seems to provide an advantage only under some specific conditions, which cannot be identified before running an experiment. This is due the fact that there is still no agreement on the underlying mechanisms that lead to success or on how to design morphological development processes for specific problems. In this paper, we address this issue through the execution of different experiments over a simple, replicable, and straightforward experimental setup that makes use of different neural network controlled walkers together with a morphological development strategy based on growth. The morphological development processes in these experiments are analyzed both in terms of the results obtained by the different walkers and in terms of how their fitness landscapes change as the morphologies develop. By comparing experiments where morphological development improves learning and where it does not, a series of initial insights have been extracted on how to design morphological development processes.This work has been partially funded by the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades of Spain/FEDER (grant RTI2018-101114-B-I00), Xunta de Galicia (EDC431C-2021/39) and the Centro de Investigación de Galicia “CITIC”, funded by Xunta de Galicia and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund- Galicia 2014-2020 Program), by grant ED431G 2019/01. Funding for open access charge: Universidade da Coruña/CISUG. We also want to thank CESGA (Centro de Supercomputación de Galicia. https://www.cesga.es/) for the possibility of using its resourcesXunta de Galicia; EDC431C-2021/39Xunta de Galicia; ED431G 2019/0

AI curriculum for european high schools: an embedded intelligence approach

Financiado para publicación en acceso aberto: Universidade da Coruña/CISUGXunta de Galicia ; ED431G 2019/0

Asymptotic expansions of the solutions of the Cauchy problem for nonlinear parabolic equations

Let $u$ be a solution of the Cauchy problem for the nonlinear parabolic equation $$\partial_t u=\Delta u+F(x,t,u,\nabla u) \quad in \quad{\bf R}^N\times(0,\infty), \quad u(x,0)=\varphi(x)\quad in \quad{\bf R}^N,$$ and assume that the solution $u$ behaves like the Gauss kernel as $t\to\infty$. In this paper, under suitable assumptions of the reaction term $F$ and the initial function $\varphi$, we establish the method of obtaining higher order asymptotic expansions of the solution $u$ as $t\to\infty$. This paper is a generalization of our previous paper, and our arguments are applicable to the large class of nonlinear parabolic equations

Discriminative capacity and construct validity of the Clock Drawing Test in Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's disease

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to analyze the psychometric and diagnostic properties of the Clock Drawing Test (CDT), scored according to the Babins, Rouleau, and Cahn scoring systems, for Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) screening, and develop corresponding cutoff scores. Additionally, we assessed the construct validity of the CDT through exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. METHODS: We developed a cross-sectional study of ambulatory MCI and AD patients, divided in two clinical groups (450 MCI and 250 mild AD patients) and a normal control group (N = 400). All participants were assessed with the CDT, Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) and Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) for convergent validity. RESULTS: The selected scoring systems presented adequate validity and reliability values. The proposed cutoff scores showed 60 to 65% sensitivity and 58 to 62% specificity to identify MCI patients. The corresponding values for AD were 84 to 90% sensitivity and 76 to 78% specificity. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis revealed that the Babins scoring system had good construct validity and allowed us to propose a three-factor model for this system. CONCLUSIONS: Our results confirmed the complexity of the CDT and support it as a cognitive screening instrument particularly sensitive to AD. The use of the CDT with MCI patients should be interpreted with more caution due to the lower sensitivity and specificity for milder forms of cognitive impairment.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Burning in the management of heathlands of Erica ciliaris and Erica tetralix: effects on structure and diversity

Can controlled burning be used as a management tool of Erica ciliaris and Erica tetralix wet heathlands? Two E. ciliaris and E. tetralix communities were selected and two 5 x 5 m plots were established in each. These were then characterised on the basis of frequency and cover values and plant species composition. They were subjected to experimental burning, after which the plots were sampled twice a year during the following four and a half years. The results show that the cover of woody species very quickly attained the values of the Control Plots. Diversity and species composition did not suffer notable changes during this period, however, temporal heterogeneity indicates that the main changes occur in the first 18 months of secondary succession. The multivariate analysis showed that the samples registered during this time were grouped as a function of the cover values of the species, which shows that stages exist in the vegetation recovery of these communities. The damage produced by fire in the community is minor, as a rapid recovery of the vegetation was observed, so controlled burning is a useful tool in the management of these heathlands

Hypoallergenic fragment of Par j 2 increases functional expression of Toll-like receptors in atopic children

Parietaria judaica (Par j) is one of the main causes of allergy in the Mediterranean countries. The activation of Toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) by lipopolysaccharide (LPS) inhibits nasal inflammation of atopic children