Developing tools for the e-learning platform mathE

MathE (mathe.pixel-online.org) is an e-learning platform for higher education developed and implemented by a consortium of seven institutional partners from five European countries. The aim of the project is to enhance the quality of teaching and improve pedagogies and assessment methods by facilitating the identification of students’ gaps in Math, providing appropriate digital tools and promoting self-evaluation with immediate feedback. The Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), in Portugal, is one of the consortium members: sixteen of its teachers collaborate in the development of this platform, being responsible for thirteen of the topics/subtopics in which the platform is structured. Such topics cover a wide range of contents, from linear transformations to integration, from graph theory to probabilities. The articulation of the topics of the MathE collection corresponds to the canonic mathematics content of engineering, business and education degrees. The MathE platform is organized into three main sections: Student´s Assessment, MathE Library and Community of Practice. So far, IPB has already developed a collection of around 800 questions for the student´s assessment section and is currently developing the MathE Library. More than 350 students from IPB are using the MathE platform; some offered as volunteers, whose role is testing the behavior of the platform as well as looking for bugs and other details that require improvement, while others are already using the platform in their study. The feedback received up until now is quite encouraging.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Cowpea symbiotic efficiency, pH and aluminum tolerance in nitrogen-fixing bacteria

Cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) cultivation in northern and northeastern Brazil provides an excellent source of nutrients and carbohydrates for the poor and underprivileged. Production surplus leads to its consumption in other regions of Brazil and also as an export commodity. Its capacity to establish relationships with atmospheric nitrogen-fixing bacteria is crucial to the reduction of production costs and the environmental impact of nitrogen fertilizers. This study assessed the symbiotic efficiency of new strains of symbiotic nitrogen-fixing bacteria with cowpea and their tolerance to pH and aluminum. Twenty-seven strains of bacteria from different soils were evaluated under axenic conditions. These strains were compared to the following inoculant strains: INPA03-11B, UFLA03-84 and BR3267 and two controls that were not inoculated (with and without mineral nitrogen). Six strains and the three strains approved as inoculants were selected to increase the dry weight production of the aerial part (DWAP) and were tested in pots with soil that had a high-density of nitrogen-fixing native rhizobia. In this experiment, three strains (UFLA03-164, UFLA03-153, and UFLA03-154) yielded higher DWAP values. These strains grow at pH levels of 5.0, 6.0, 6.8 and at high aluminum concentration levels, reaching 10(9) CFU mL-1. In particular UFLA03-84, UFLA03-153, and UFLA03-164 tolerate up to 20 mmol c dm-3 of Al+3. Inoculation with rhizobial strains, that had been carefully selected according to their ability to nodulate and fix N2, combined with their ability to compete in soils that are acidic and contain high levels of Al, is a cheaper and more sustainable alternative that can be made available to farmers than mineral fertilizers