Learning to collaboration: can integrated learning improve students perceptions and outcomes?

[EN] The introduction of the so-called Student Outcomes (SOs) in curricula is a main objective for the Universitat Politècnica de València (UPV). SOs are adaptive dimensions of students to the labour world and to lifelong learning. They are a complementary reference to academic marks, but they also grow to be academic skills in themselves. However, the integration of these SOs in the methodology and dynamic of traditional subjects and the obtaining of objective evidence of their achievement and results is a big challenge. UPV details in its Strategy Plan 2015-2020 the significance of these SOs, and integrates actions to promote initiatives to help meet the challenge, such as Educational Innovation and Improvement Projects (PIME). The present work explains an activity carried out within this framework. This contribution describes an experience carried out with the collaboration of lecturers of three different subjects taught in the third year of the degree of Tourism and double degree Tourism and Business Management: Catering Production Management, New Technologies Applied to Tourism, and Business English. The actions completed were designed to simultaneously develop and assess different SOs: Comprehension and integration (CT-01) , Team work and leadership (CT-06), and effective communication (CT-08). Project based learning methodologies were used. Different groups of students, created using the Belbin Team Role Method, developed a catering business project. For it, they used content learnt in the subject Catering Production Management, created a website (contents based on New Technologies Applied to Tourism), and presented their work in English (related to Business English). The contents, techniques and knowledge were developed in parallel in the three subjects and integrated in the project. Specific assessment actions were designed for each subject, the project was considered for the final mark of all three subjects. Thus, the greatest possible amount of synergies among the subjects was created. The final result of the project was presented both in written form and in oral form in English. The three lecturers jointly evaluated the works presented, considering knowledge, content and outcomes accomplished. Two surveys were used to measure the project; one half-way, to assess its development, and another at the end, to assess the results. Then, there was a comparison of individual results vs group results. Student feedback about the adequacy of the methodology, class dynamism and learning outcomes was satisfactory, as was collaboration between lecturers. As the main limiting factor of the project, we can mention the small size of the group, which did not allow a parallel investigation with experimental and control groups, and the difficulty to include part-time teachers of other subjects to the project due to their lack of availability, as well as the existing syllabus and class distribution, which do not allow much flexibility outside the usual activities.This work is supported by the projects PIME B-05/2017 & PIME B-22/2016 from UPV.Osorio Acosta, E.; Mestre-Mestre, EM.; Palomares Chust, A. (2019). Learning to collaboration: can integrated learning improve students perceptions and outcomes?. IATED. 1541-1549. https://doi.org/10.21125/inted.2019.0467S1541154

Mare Incognitum: A Glimpse into Future Plankton Diversity and Ecology Research

Chust, Guillem ... et al.-- 9 pages, 1 figure.-- Corrigendum: Mare Incognitum: A Glimpse into Future Plankton Diversity and Ecology Research, Frontiers in Marine Science 4: 122 (2017) https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2017.00122With global climate change altering marine ecosystems, research on plankton ecology is likely to navigate uncharted seas. Yet, a staggering wealth of new plankton observations, integrated with recent advances in marine ecosystem modeling, may shed light on marine ecosystem structure and functioning. A EuroMarine foresight workshop on the “Impact of climate change on the distribution of plankton functional and phylogenetic diversity” (PlankDiv) identified five grand challenges for future plankton diversity and macroecology research: (1) What can we learn about plankton communities from the new wealth of high-throughput “omics” data? (2) What is the link between plankton diversity and ecosystem function? (3) How can species distribution models be adapted to represent plankton biogeography? (4) How will plankton biogeography be altered due to anthropogenic climate change? and (5) Can a new unifying theory of macroecology be developed based on plankton ecology studies? In this review, we discuss potential future avenues to address these questions, and challenges that need to be tackled along the wayThis research was funded by the EuroMarine Network (http://www.euromarinenetwork.eu), through the organization of the PlankDiv EuroMarine Foresight workshop, held at the Observatoire Océanographique de Villefranche-sur-mer, Villefranche-sur-mer, France, in March 2016, and cofounded by the Basque Government (Department Deputy of Agriculture, Fishing and Food Policy). The PlankDiv workshop was also supported by the Laboratoire d'Océanographie de Villefranche-sur-mer (LOV, UPMC/CNRS), the PlankMed action of WP5 MERMEX/MISTRAL, and by the French national programme EC2CO-LEFE (FunOmics project).Peer Reviewe

Relación entre el estilo de aprendizaje y la elección de una carrera en estudiantes de la UJI

Setzenes Jornades de Foment de la Investigació (Any 2011)En esta investigación se estudia si existe relación entre los Estilos de Aprendizaje y la elección de una determinada carrera en la Universidad Jaume I de Castellón. Las carreras que fueron escogidas son los segundos cursos de Administración y Dirección de Empresas, Humanidades, Ingeniería Industrial y Psicología. Se les administró el Cuestionario CHAEA (Cuestionario Honey-Alonso de Estilos de Aprendizaje), a las cuatro carreras escogidas. Los cuatro Estilos de Aprendizaje que se midieron fueron el Activo, Reflexivo, Teórico y Pragmático. Los resultados muestran una gran tendencia en las cuatro titulaciones por el Estilo de Aprendizaje Reflexivo. Los resultados estadísticos indican que no existen diferencias significativas entre los Estilos de Aprendizaje en los alumnos de la Universidad Jaume I

Modelling species presence–absence in the ecological niche theory framework using shape-constrained generalized additive models

According to ecological niche theory, species response curves are unimodal with respect to environmental gradients. A variety of statistical methods have been developed for species distribution modelling. A general problem with most of these habitat modelling approaches is that the estimated response curves can display biologically implausible shapes which do not respect ecological niche theory. This work proposes using shapeconstrained generalized additive models (SC-GAMs) to build species distribution models under the ecological niche theory framework, imposing concavity constraints in the linear predictor scale. Based on a simulation study and a real data application, we compared performance with respect to other regression models without shape-constraints (such as standard GLMs and GAMs with varying degrees of freedom) and also to models based on so-called “Plateau” climate-envelopes. The imposition of concavity for response curves resulted in a good balance between the goodness of fit (GOF) and agreement with ecological niche theory. The approach has been applied to fit distribution models for three fish species given several environmental variables

Connectivity, neutral theories and the assessment of species vulnerability to global change in temperate estuaries

One of the main adaptation strategies to global change scenarios, aiming to preserve ecosystem functioning and biodiversity, is to maximise ecosystem resilience. The resilience of a species metapopulation can be improved by facilitating connectivity between local populations, which will prevent demographic stochasticity and inbreeding. The objective of this investigation is to estimate the degree of connectivity among estuarine species along the north-eastern Iberian coast, in order to assess community vulnerability to global change scenarios. To address this objective, two connectivity proxy types have been used based upon genetic and ecological drift processes: 1) DNA markers for the bivalve cockle (Cerastoderma edule) and seagrass Zostera noltei, and 2) the decrease in the number of species shared between two sites with geographic distance; neutral biodiversity theory predicts that dispersal limitation modulates this decrease, and this has been explored in estuarine plants and macroinvertebrates. Results indicate dispersal limitation for both saltmarsh plants and seagrass beds community and Z. noltei populations; this suggests they are especially vulnerable to expected climate changes on their habitats. In contrast, unstructured spatial pattern found in macroinvertebrate communities and in C. edule genetic populations in the area suggests that estuarine soft-bottom macroinvertebrates with planktonic larval dispersal strategies may have a high resilience capacity to moderate changes within their habitats. Our findings can help environmental managers to prioritise the most vulnerable species and habitats to be restored

Optimal placement of pressure sensors using fuzzy DEMATEL-based sensor influence

[EN] Nowadays, optimal sensor placement (OSP) for leakage detection in water distribution networks is a lively field of research, and a challenge for water utilities in terms of network control, management, and maintenance. How many sensors to install and where to install them are crucial decisions to make for those utilities to reach a trade-off between efficiency and economy. In this paper, we address the where-to-install-them part of the OSP through the following elements: nodes' sensitivity to leakage, uncertainty of information, and redundancy through conditional entropy maximisation. We evaluate relationships among candidate sensors in a network to get a picture of the mutual influence among the nodes. This analysis is performed within a multi-criteria decision-making approach: specifically, a herein proposed variant of DEMATEL, which uses fuzzy logic and builds comparison matrices derived from information obtained through leakage simulations of the network. We apply the proposal first to a toy example to show how the approach works, and then to a real-world case study.This research has been partially supported by the CNPq grant with number 156213/2018-4.Frances-Chust, J.; Brentan, BM.; Carpitella, S.; Izquierdo Sebastián, J.; Montalvo, I. (2020). Optimal placement of pressure sensors using fuzzy DEMATEL-based sensor influence. Water. 12(2):1-18. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020493S118122Li, J., Wang, C., Qian, Z., & Lu, C. (2019). Optimal sensor placement for leak localization in water distribution networks based on a novel semi-supervised strategy. Journal of Process Control, 82, 13-21. doi:10.1016/j.jprocont.2019.08.001Pérez, R., Puig, V., Pascual, J., Quevedo, J., Landeros, E., & Peralta, A. (2011). Methodology for leakage isolation using pressure sensitivity analysis in water distribution networks. Control Engineering Practice, 19(10), 1157-1167. doi:10.1016/j.conengprac.2011.06.004Boatwright, S., Romano, M., Mounce, S., Woodward, K., & Boxall, J. (s. f.). Optimal Sensor Placement and Leak/Burst Localisation in a Water Distribution System Using Spatially-Constrained Inverse-Distance Weighted Interpolation. doi:10.29007/37cpBlesa, J., Nejjari, F., & Sarrate, R. (2015). Robust sensor placement for leak location: analysis and design. Journal of Hydroinformatics, 18(1), 136-148. doi:10.2166/hydro.2015.021Steffelbauer, D. B., & Fuchs-Hanusch, D. (2016). Efficient Sensor Placement for Leak Localization Considering Uncertainties. Water Resources Management, 30(14), 5517-5533. doi:10.1007/s11269-016-1504-6Yoo, D., Chang, D., Song, Y., & Lee, J. (2018). Optimal Placement of Pressure Gauges for Water Distribution Networks Using Entropy Theory Based on Pressure Dependent Hydraulic Simulation. Entropy, 20(8), 576. doi:10.3390/e20080576De Schaetzen, W. B. ., Walters, G. ., & Savic, D. . (2000). Optimal sampling design for model calibration using shortest path, genetic and entropy algorithms. Urban Water, 2(2), 141-152. doi:10.1016/s1462-0758(00)00052-2Cugueró-Escofet, M. À., Puig, V., & Quevedo, J. (2017). Optimal pressure sensor placement and assessment for leak location using a relaxed isolation index: Application to the Barcelona water network. Control Engineering Practice, 63, 1-12. doi:10.1016/j.conengprac.2017.03.003Sela Perelman, L., Abbas, W., Koutsoukos, X., & Amin, S. (2016). Sensor placement for fault location identification in water networks: A minimum test cover approach. Automatica, 72, 166-176. doi:10.1016/j.automatica.2016.06.005Carpitella, S., Carpitella, F., Certa, A., Benítez, J., & Izquierdo, J. (2018). Managing Human Factors to Reduce Organisational Risk in Industry. Mathematical and Computational Applications, 23(4), 67. doi:10.3390/mca23040067Addae, B. A., Zhang, L., Zhou, P., & Wang, F. (2019). Analyzing barriers of Smart Energy City in Accra with two-step fuzzy DEMATEL. Cities, 89, 218-227. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2019.01.043Dalvi-Esfahani, M., Niknafs, A., Kuss, D. J., Nilashi, M., & Afrough, S. (2019). Social media addiction: Applying the DEMATEL approach. Telematics and Informatics, 43, 101250. doi:10.1016/j.tele.2019.101250Quezada, L. E., López-Ospina, H. A., Palominos, P. I., & Oddershede, A. M. (2018). Identifying causal relationships in strategy maps using ANP and DEMATEL. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 118, 170-179. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2018.02.020Nilashi, M., Samad, S., Manaf, A. A., Ahmadi, H., Rashid, T. A., Munshi, A., … Hassan Ahmed, O. (2019). Factors influencing medical tourism adoption in Malaysia: A DEMATEL-Fuzzy TOPSIS approach. Computers & Industrial Engineering, 137, 106005. doi:10.1016/j.cie.2019.106005Zhang, L., Sun, X., & Xue, H. (2019). Identifying critical risks in Sponge City PPP projects using DEMATEL method: A case study of China. Journal of Cleaner Production, 226, 949-958. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.067Du, Y.-W., & Zhou, W. (2019). New improved DEMATEL method based on both subjective experience and objective data. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence, 83, 57-71. doi:10.1016/j.engappai.2019.05.001Yazdi, M., Nedjati, A., Zarei, E., & Abbassi, R. (2020). A novel extension of DEMATEL approach for probabilistic safety analysis in process systems. Safety Science, 121, 119-136. doi:10.1016/j.ssci.2019.09.006Chen, Z., Ming, X., Zhang, X., Yin, D., & Sun, Z. (2019). A rough-fuzzy DEMATEL-ANP method for evaluating sustainable value requirement of product service system. Journal of Cleaner Production, 228, 485-508. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.145Wu, W.-W., & Lee, Y.-T. (2007). Developing global managers’ competencies using the fuzzy DEMATEL method. Expert Systems with Applications, 32(2), 499-507. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2005.12.005Zadeh, L. A. (1965). Fuzzy sets. Information and Control, 8(3), 338-353. doi:10.1016/s0019-9958(65)90241-xMahmoudi, S., Jalali, A., Ahmadi, M., Abasi, P., & Salari, N. (2019). Identifying critical success factors in Heart Failure Self-Care using fuzzy DEMATEL method. Applied Soft Computing, 84, 105729. doi:10.1016/j.asoc.2019.105729Lin, K.-P., Tseng, M.-L., & Pai, P.-F. (2018). Sustainable supply chain management using approximate fuzzy DEMATEL method. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 128, 134-142. doi:10.1016/j.resconrec.2016.11.017Vardopoulos, I. (2019). Critical sustainable development factors in the adaptive reuse of urban industrial buildings. A fuzzy DEMATEL approach. Sustainable Cities and Society, 50, 101684. doi:10.1016/j.scs.2019.101684Mirmousa, S., & Dehnavi, H. D. (2016). Development of Criteria of Selecting the Supplier by Using the Fuzzy DEMATEL Method. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 230, 281-289. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2016.09.036Acuña-Carvajal, F., Pinto-Tarazona, L., López-Ospina, H., Barros-Castro, R., Quezada, L., & Palacio, K. (2019). An integrated method to plan, structure and validate a business strategy using fuzzy DEMATEL and the balanced scorecard. Expert Systems with Applications, 122, 351-368. doi:10.1016/j.eswa.2019.01.030Chou, J.-S., & Ongkowijoyo, C. S. (2019). Hybrid decision-making method for assessing interdependency and priority of critical infrastructure. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction, 39, 101134. doi:10.1016/j.ijdrr.2019.101134Winter, C. de, Palleti, V. R., Worm, D., & Kooij, R. (2019). Optimal placement of imperfect water quality sensors in water distribution networks. Computers & Chemical Engineering, 121, 200-211. doi:10.1016/j.compchemeng.2018.10.021Schwaller, J., & van Zyl, J. E. (2015). Modeling the Pressure-Leakage Response of Water Distribution Systems Based on Individual Leak Behavior. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 141(5), 04014089. doi:10.1061/(asce)hy.1943-7900.0000984Giustolisi, O., Savic, D., & Kapelan, Z. (2008). Pressure-Driven Demand and Leakage Simulation for Water Distribution Networks. Journal of Hydraulic Engineering, 134(5), 626-635. doi:10.1061/(asce)0733-9429(2008)134:5(626)EPANET 2: Users Manualhttps://epanet.es/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/EPANET_User_Guide.pdfChristodoulou, S. E., Gagatsis, A., Xanthos, S., Kranioti, S., Agathokleous, A., & Fragiadakis, M. (2013). Entropy-Based Sensor Placement Optimization for Waterloss Detection in Water Distribution Networks. Water Resources Management, 27(13), 4443-4468. doi:10.1007/s11269-013-0419-8Falatoonitoosi, E., Leman, Z., Sorooshian, S., & Salimi, M. (2013). Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory. Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology, 5(13), 3476-3480. doi:10.19026/rjaset.5.4475OPRICOVIC, S., & TZENG, G.-H. (2003). DEFUZZIFICATION WITHIN A MULTICRITERIA DECISION MODEL. International Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowledge-Based Systems, 11(05), 635-652. doi:10.1142/s0218488503002387Sara, J., Stikkelman, R. M., & Herder, P. M. (2015). Assessing relative importance and mutual influence of barriers for CCS deployment of the ROAD project using AHP and DEMATEL methods. International Journal of Greenhouse Gas Control, 41, 336-357. doi:10.1016/j.ijggc.2015.07.008Alperovits, E., & Shamir, U. (1977). Design of optimal water distribution systems. Water Resources Research, 13(6), 885-900. doi:10.1029/wr013i006p00885Walski, T., Bezts, W., Posluszny, E. T., Weir, M., & Whitman, B. E. (2006). Modeling leakage reduction through pressure control. Journal - American Water Works Association, 98(4), 147-155. doi:10.1002/j.1551-8833.2006.tb07642.xZheng, F., Du, J., Diao, K., Zhang, T., Yu, T., & Shao, Y. (2018). Investigating Effectiveness of Sensor Placement Strategies in Contamination Detection within Water Distribution Systems. Journal of Water Resources Planning and Management, 144(4), 06018003. doi:10.1061/(asce)wr.1943-5452.0000919Montalvo, I., Izquierdo, J., Pérez-García, R., & Herrera, M. (2014). Water Distribution System Computer-Aided Design by Agent Swarm Optimization. Computer-Aided Civil and Infrastructure Engineering, 29(6), 433-448. doi:10.1111/mice.1206

Effect of trampling and digging from shell shing on Zostera noltei (Zosteraceae) intertidal seagrass beds

Seagrass beds are among the most valuable ecosystems in the world but they are also among the ones most affected by human activities, and they have decreased significantly in recent decades. In many areas, such as in the Basque Country (northern Spain), seagrass beds occupy areas that are also of interest for human activities such as recreation and shellfishing. They may therefore face a number of pressures that cause damage or irreversible states. Taking into account the limited distribution of seagrass beds in the Basque Country and the interest in their conservation, an eight-month field experiment focusing on the Zostera noltei growing season was carried out to evaluate the effect of shellfish gathering. We used generalized linear models to assess different intensities of trampling and digging, as the most important pressures of shellfishing applied to Zostera noltei beds. The results indicated that shoot density of Z. noltei was negatively altered by trampling treatments and positively affected (as a recovery) by digging treatments. This finding suggests that shellfishing adversely affects seagrass abundance and is potentially responsible for its low density in the Oka estuary. Our findings are important for management and should be taken into account in seagrass conservation and restoration programmes

Large-scale ocean connectivity and planktonic body size

Villarino, Ernesto ... et al.-- 13 pages, 5 figures, 5 tables, supplementary material https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-02535-8Global patterns of planktonic diversity are mainly determined by the dispersal of propagules with ocean currents. However, the role that abundance and body size play in determining spatial patterns of diversity remains unclear. Here we analyse spatial community structure - β-diversity - for several planktonic and nektonic organisms from prokaryotes to small mesopelagic fishes collected during the Malaspina 2010 Expedition. β-diversity was compared to surface ocean transit times derived from a global circulation model, revealing a significant negative relationship that is stronger than environmental differences. Estimated dispersal scales for different groups show a negative correlation with body size, where less abundant large-bodied communities have significantly shorter dispersal scales and larger species spatial turnover rates than more abundant small-bodied plankton. Our results confirm that the dispersal scale of planktonic and micro-nektonic organisms is determined by local abundance, which scales with body size, ultimately setting global spatial patterns of diversityThis research was funded by the project Malaspina 2010 Circumnavigation Expedition (Consolider-Ingenio 2010, CSD2008-00077) and cofounded by the Basque Government (Department Deputy of Agriculture, Fishing and Food Policy). [...] E.V. was supported by a PhD Scholarship granted by the Iñaki Goenaga−Technology Centres FoundationPeer Reviewe

Solar wind current sheets and deHoffmann-Teller analysis. First results from Solar Orbiter's DC electric field measurements

Context: Solar Orbiter was launched on 10 February 2020 with the purpose of investigating solar and heliospheric physics using a payload of instruments designed for both remote and in situ studies. Similar to the recently launched Parker Solar Probe, and unlike earlier missions, Solar Orbiter carries instruments designed to measure low-frequency DC electric fields. Aims: In this paper, we assess the quality of the low-frequency DC electric field measured by the Radio and Plasma Waves instrument (RPW) on Solar Orbiter. In particular, we investigate the possibility of using Solar Orbiter’s DC electric and magnetic field data to estimate the solar wind speed. Methods: We used a deHoffmann-Teller (HT) analysis, based on measurements of the electric and magnetic fields, to find the velocity of solar wind current sheets, which minimises a single component of the electric field. By comparing the HT velocity to the proton velocity measured by the Proton and Alpha particle Sensor (PAS), we have developed a simple model for the effective antenna length, Leff of the E-field probes. We then used the HT method to estimate the speed of the solar wind. Results: Using the HT method, we find that the observed variations in Ey are often in excellent agreement with the variations in the magnetic field. The magnitude of Ey , however, is uncertain due to the fact that the Leff depends on the plasma environment. Here, we derive an empirical model relating Leff to the Debye length, which we can use to improve the estimate of Ey and, consequently, the estimated solar wind speed. Conclusions: The low-frequency electric field provided by RPW is of high quality. Using the deHoffmann-Teller analysis, Solar Orbiter’s magnetic and electric field measurements can be used to estimate the solar wind speed when plasma data are unavailable