Integrating intelligent methodological and tutoring assistance in a CASE platform: The PANDORA experience

Database Design discipline involves so different aspects as conceptual and logical modelling knowledge or domain understanding. That implies a great effort to carry out the real world abstraction task and represent it through a data model. CASE tools emerge in order to automating the database development process. These platforms try to help to the database designer in different database design phases. Nevertheless, this tools are frequently mere diagrammers and do not carry completely out the design methodology that they are supposed to support; furthermore, they do not offer intelligent methodological advice to novice designers. This paper introduces the PANDORA tool (acronym of Platform for Database Development and Learning via Internet) that is being developed in a research project which tries to mitigate some of the deficiencies observed in several CASE tools, defining methods and techniques for database development which are useful for students and practitioners. Specifically, this work is focused on two PANDORA components: Conceptual Modelling and Learning Support subsystems

Educational experiences detecting, using, and representing ternary relationships in database design

Conceptual models are applied as the first step in software design methodologies for collecting the semantics involved in the universe of discourse. Nevertheless, the abstraction process creates some misunderstandings for novice designers, such as difficulties in modeling some constructs and in understanding the semantics that they represent. This paper presents a thorough study of errors detected among Database Design students in Computer Science Engineering when they apply the abstraction process to generate a conceptual schema using a specific model. Specifically, the paper focuses on errors made in the design of ternary relationships. Some heuristics are proposed in order to help novice designers avoid these common errors, and an experimental study is presented to compare the number of errors made by the students before and after applying these heuristics. (Contains 10 figures, 2 tables, and 3 footnotes.)This work was supported in part by the Software Process Management platform project Modeling, Reuse and Measurement (TIN2004/07083), by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation, and by the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, which supports the APEINTA research and innovation project.Publicad

Phytotherapy in pregnancy and lactation: benefit or risk? Review of the literature

INTRODUCCIÓN: Durante el embarazo el organismo de la mujer sufre cambios temporales con aparición de estructuras orgánicas nuevas como la placenta. Cualquier sustancia, natural o sintética, que pueda producir una alteración de los procesos fisiológicos propios de esta etapa están contraindicados. OBJETIVO: Dar a conocer los productos de origen vegetal utilizados habitualmente en el embarazo y la lactancia y evaluar su eficacia y seguridad. MATERIAL Y MÉTODOS: Revisión integradora de la literatura en las bases de datos Cochrane Library, Cinahl, Medline, Cuiden, Cuidatge, Bireme, Enfispo y buscadores de la red. Tras la lectura de los artículos, se realizó una valoración crítica, síntesis e interpretación para llegar a conclusiones de todos los estudios seleccionados. RESULTADOS: El uso de plantas medicinales en el embarazo es habitual, encontrándose el jengibre y la equinácea entre las más utilizadas. En cuanto a la etapa del embarazo de mayor consumo, se identifica el primer trimestre. El mayor porcentaje de las gestantes utiliza las plantas sin indicación médica. En cuanto a la eficacia: la equinácea es eficaz para el resfriado común e infecciones vaginales, el arándano rojo para la infección urinaria, la raíz de jengibre y la ipecacuana tienen acción antiemética, la hierba de San Juan es eficaz en la depresión postparto, la valeriana para combatir el nerviosismo y el aceite de onagra para inducir el parto. El nivel de seguridad varía según la planta por lo que se recomienda un control por parte del profesional sanitario. DISCUSIÓN Y CONCLUSIONES: De forma general las mujeres no están educadas en cuanto a la influencia que ejerce el estilo de vida en las primeras células embrionarias. El uso de productos fitoterápicos puede ser eficaz para ayudar a solucionar muchos de los problemas del embarazo pero es necesario ver la relación riesgo-efectividad. Por eso, antes, durante y después del embarazo o lactancia materna las mujeres que desean tomar preparados herbarios, deben consultar con su matrona u otro profesional sanitario bien informado al respecto, porque muchos de los efectos de las plantas sobre los fetos y la leche materna son desconocidos.INTRODUCTION: During pregnancy, women´s body suffers from temporary changes with new organic structures such as placenta. Any subtance, natural or sintetic which may alter physiological proceses on this own state are contraindicated. OBJECTIVE: Dara know the plant products commonly used in pregnancy and lactation and assess their effectiveness and safety. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Integrative review of literature in the databases Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Medline, Cuiden, Cuidatge, Medicine , ENFISPO and Web searches. After reading the articles, critical appraisal, synthesis and interpretation was performed to reach conclusions of all selected studies. RESULTS: The use of medicinal plants during pregnancy is frequent, being ginger and echinace some of the most used ones. Regarding the stage of pregnancy with higher consumption, it is the first term. The highest percentage of pregnant women use plants without any medical advices. As for effectiveness: Echinacea is effective for the common cold and vaginal infections, cranberry for urinary infection, ginger root and ipecac have antiemetic action, St. John's wort is effective in postpartum depression, valerian to combat nervousness and evening primrose oil to induce labor. The security level varies depending on the plant so a control by the health care professional is recommended. DISCUSION AND CONCLUSIONS: Generally, women are not aware of the influence of their life style on the first embryonic cells. The use of herbal products can be effective in helping to solve many of the problems of pregnancy but you need to see the risk-effectiveness. Because of that, previously, during an after pregnancy or breastfeeding, those women who want to take herbalist products, should first consult a midwife or another medical professional who is well-informed about it, because many of the effect of plants on fetus and breastmilk are still unknown

Guidelines for representing complex cardinality constraints in binary and ternary relationships

Ternary relationships represent the association among three entities whose constraints database designers do not always know how to manage. In other words, it is very difficult for the designer to detect, represent and add constraints in a ternary relationship according to the domain requirements. To remedy the shortcomings in capturing the semantics required for the representation of this kind of relationship, the present paper discusses a practical method to motivate the designer's use of ternary relationships in a methodological framework. The method shows how to calculate cardinality constraints in binary and ternary relationships and to preserve the associated semantics until the implementation phase of the database development method.This work forms part of the ‘Thuban: Natural Interaction Platform for Virtual Attending in Real Environments’ project (TIN2008-02711), the Spanish Ministry of Industry, Tourism and Trade through the project Semants (TSI-020100-2009-419) and also by the Spanish research projects: MA2VICMR: Improving the access, analysis and visibility of the multilingual and multimedia information in web for the Region of Madrid (S2009/TIC-1542).Publicad

Learning to teach database design by trial and error

Proceedings of: 4th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2002), Ciudad Real, Spain, April 3-6, 2002The definition of effective pedagogical strategies for coaching and tutoring students according to their needs in each moment is a high handicap in ITS design. In this paper we propose the use of a Reinforcement Learning (RL) model, that allows the system to learn how to teach to each student individually, only based on the acquired experience with other learners with similar characteristics, like a human tutor does. This technique avoids to define the teaching strategies by learning action policies that define what, when and how to teach. The model is applied to a database design ITS system, used as an example to illustrate all the concepts managed in the model

An orthogonal synthetic approach to nonsymmetrical bisazolyl 2,4,6-trisubstituted pyridines

A three-step synthetic route giving access to nonsymmetrical bisazolyl 2,4,6-trisubstituted pyridines with different substituents on the pyrazole, indazole, and pyridine heterocycles is described. From the readily available 4-bromo-2,6-difluoropyridine, both fluorine atoms allow for easy selective stepwise substitution, and the bromine atom provides easy access to additional functionalities through both Suzuki and Sonogashira Pd(0) cross-coupling reactions. These synthons represent optimal structures as building blocks in complexation and metalloorganic structures for the tuning of their chelating and photophysical propertie

Epidemiología básica. Material docente para prácticas en ciencias de la salud

Material docente teórico práctico para apoyar la enseñanza de la epidemiología. Consta de 4 unidades, cada una de ellas con una introducción teórica y unos ejercicios basados en artículos publicados en inglés en revistas científicas

Oral saliva swab reverse transcription PCR for Covid-19 in the paediatric population

8Pág. Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA)To evaluate the performance of oral saliva swab (OSS) reverse transcription PCR (RT-PCR) compared with RT-PCR and antigen rapid diagnostic test (Ag-RDT) on nasopharyngeal swabs (NPS) for SARS-CoV-2 in children.The study was funded by: Project PI20/00095, from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness) and cofounded by the European Regional Development Fund, by Infanta Sofia University Hospital and Henares University Hospital Foundation for Biomedical Research and Innovation (FIIB HUIS HHEN), and by SERMAS-Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital 12 de Octubre. EC-C is supported by the Spanish Society of Paediatrics (Asociación Española de Pediatría); Grant COVID-19 EPICO-AEP 2020. JMM is funded by SERMAS-Fundación para la Investigación Biomédica del Hospital Infanta Sofía y del Henares and by Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain. MdlS is funded by Grant Cantera de Investigación Santander, Fundación Universidad Europea de Madrid, Spain. ED is funded by the Juan de la Cierva–Incorporación granted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation. DB-G is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation—Instituto de Salud Carlos III and Fondos FEDER by ’Contratos para la intensificación de la actividad investigadora en el Sistema Nacional de Salud, 2020 (INT20/00086)’.Peer reviewe

re-habitar El Carmen : Un proyecto sobre patrimonio contemporáneo

El proyecto _re-HABITAR suponía para el propio proceder de la institución un avance más allá del reconocimiento, registro, inventario o protección patrimonial de la arquitectura del siglo XX y del Movimiento Moderno para posicionarse en la acción preventiva y conservativa de ese legado contemporáneo. Para ello, la praxis patrimonial se aferraba a un modelo: el de la vivienda social en España en la segunda mitad del siglo XX; a un caso concreto: el de la barriada de Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Recasens Méndez-Queipo de Llano, 1958); y a un requisito fundamental: analizar un objeto vivo y en uso, aún con la presencia de quienes lo vivieron y usaron desde su origen

To a paradigm shift to the evaluation of scientific activity into Higher Education

La evaluación actual de la actividad científica se lleva a cabo mediante un mismo patrón internacional. Esta circunstancia ha estimulado un notable número de investigaciones críticas. Sin embargo, la abundancia de críticas contrasta con la falta de propuestas alternativas. En este trabajo se presenta una síntesis de los inconvenientes observados en las prácticas de evaluación, identificando consecuencias negativas para la propia ciencia, sus miembros y su utilidad pública respecto a las Instituciones de Educación Superior. También se añade una revisión de voces alternativas. Finalmente, se propone un conjunto de ocho principios para ayudar a promover un cambio de paradigma.The current assessment of scientific activity is performed by the same international pattern. This has stimulated a remarkable number of critical researches. However, the abundance of critical publications contrasts with the lack of alternative proposals. This paper presents a synthesis of the drawbacks observed in assessment practices, identifying negative consequences for science itself, its members and its public utility, in reference to Higher Education Institutions. A review of alternative voices is also added. Finally, this paper proposes a set of eight principles to assist in promoting a paradigm shift