Detailed and GlobalAnalysis of a Remedial Course's Impact on Incoming Students' Marks

Engineering incoming students are facing great difficulties to overcome first course subjects. To tackle that situation and increase the students’ success a Remedial course in Mathematics was offered to Informatics Engineering freshmen. This study presents a statistical analysis of their results comparing the marks obtained by those joining the course (studio group) versus those who did not participate (control group). ANOVA tests are performed over the students’ marks averages as well as over each subject students marks. These tests show statistically significant differences between both groups, with the studio group consistently outperforming the control group at 99% confidence level in most cases and at more than 92% confidence level in every case

Remittances and banking sector breadth and depth : evidence from Mexico

Despite the rising volume of remittances flowing to developing countries, their impact on banking sector breadth and depth in recipient countries has been largely unexplored. The authors examine this topic using municipio-level data on the fraction of households that receive remittances and on measures of banking breadth and depth for Mexico. They find that remittances are strongly associated with greater banking breadth and depth, increasing the number of branches and accounts per capita and the ratio of deposits to gross domestic product. These effects are significant both statistically and economically, even after conducting robustness tests and addressing the potential endogeneity of remittances.Access to Finance,Banks&Banking Reform,Population Policies,Debt Markets,

Street and dwelling: relationship between public space and community life

The public space is basic and complementary to dwelling, because of the activities that are done there, so, this space is considered as a physical, functional and sociocultural extension of what occurs within houses. In order to understand this relationship, it is important to know the historical fact through their recent expression, because it is an opportunity to rethink the proper and consistency of our public spaces as well as their scales, fields and complementary relationships with the aim to create an external and holistic habitat of dwelling but at the same time interdependent with it, fundamental basis for defining its quality and livability. The methodology is mixed: observation of the buildings as well as inhabitant and user survey.El espacio público es fundamental como ámbito complementario a la vivienda debido a que en él ocurren las actividades que no tienen cabida en ésta. El espacio público es extensión física funcional y sociocultural de lo que ocurre al interior del hogar. Para comprender esta relación, es vital conocer desde una perspectiva histórica sus manifestaciones aún presentes como la oportunidad para repensar sobre lo oportuno y consistente que tienen nuestros espacios públicos, sus escalas, sus ámbitos y sus relaciones complementarias para conformar el todo del hábitat externo a la vivienda, pero interdependiente con ella, y base fundamental para definir la calidad de éste y su habitabilidad. La metodología es mixta de observación de lo construido e interrogación al habitante y usuario

High risk serotypes of the human papillomavirus (hpv) in patients With exofitic lesions in the oral cavity

Introduction: Oral squamous cell carcinoma has been associated with risk factors such as: tobacco consumption, alcohol and human papillomavirus, the authors determined the prevalence of high-risk serotypes of human papillomavirus infection in exofitic lesions of the oral cavity in a Cartagena hospital during the year 2014-2015. Material and Methods: an observational, descriptive, prospective and cross-sectional study was performed on 73 patients with verrucous lesions in the oral cavity, in which socio- demographic characteristics and the clinical and histopathological diagnosis were determined, and high-risk HPV was identified. The study complied with legal and ethical standards. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics with the Stata v13.2 program. Results: The prevalence of HPV in the study population during the period 2014-2015 was 9.59% (n: 7). in none of the positive HPV cases in the histopathological study, any high-risk genotype was identified by the real-time multiplex PCR assay. HPV infection was more prevalent in patients in the third decade of life (29.5 years, DS ± 10.60), mean age was 62.8 years SD ± 17.74. The population came mainly from the rural area. The most common site was the labial mucosa. There was a relationship between smoking and the presence of HPV. Discussions: In the present study, no relationship of high risk HPV genotypes was found in the evaluated samples

Automatic adaptation decision making in the MPEG-21 framework: mechanisms and complementary description tools

This paper explains an effective mechanism to make automatic multimedia adaptation decisions within the MPEG-21 framework. The paper analyzes some difficulties for the implementation of automatic decision with the current MPEG-21 description schema. Subsequently, the paper proposes some improvements to the MPEG-21 description schema to address these difficulties. To demonstrate these improvements, the current implementation of the CAIN-21 framework is explained and several experiments are reporte

Advances in current in vitro models on neurodegenerative diseases

Many neurodegenerative diseases are identified but their causes and cure are far from being well-known. The problem resides in the complexity of the neural tissue and its location which hinders its easy evaluation. Although necessary in the drug discovery process, in vivo animal models need to be reduced and show relevant differences with the human tissues that guide scientists to inquire about other possible options which lead to in vitro models being explored. From organoids to organ-on-a-chips, 3D models are considered the cutting-edge technology in cell culture. Cell choice is a big parameter to take into consideration when planning an in vitro model and cells capable of mimicking both healthy and diseased tissue, such as induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC), are recognized as good candidates. Hence, we present a critical review of the latest models used to study neurodegenerative disease, how these models have evolved introducing microfluidics platforms, 3D cell cultures, and the use of induced pluripotent cells to better mimic the neural tissue environment in pathological conditions

The efficacy of the attack and block in game phases on male FIVB and CEV beach volleyball

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy and differences of the attack, block, and reception in side out and counter-attack phases during beach volleyball games. A total of 80 games of FIVB World Tour and European Championships were analyzed. The technical skills analyzed were the type and efficacy of the attack, the type of block, and the efficacy of reception. The sample included 13.939 rallies, including attack (n=7.090), block (n=7.090), and serve reception (n=5.161). Descriptive statistics were applied in order to obtain frequencies and percentages. Inferential statistics were calculated (p<.05) through chi square tests. The results showed that the spikes were more frequent values than shots at both side out and counterattack phases. Attack errors and kills were the more frequent values in both phases. Perfect receptions showed a kill percentage similar to situations when the reception was limited. It was concluded that players should make fewer errors when spiking, and coaches should pay more attention to fake blocks during both side out and counter-attack phases

Resilience to the effects of social stress on vulnerability to developing drug addiction

We review the still scarce but growing literature on resilience to the effects of social stress on the rewarding properties of drugs of abuse. We define the concept of resilience and how it is applied to the field of drug addiction research. We also describe the internal and external protective factors associated with resilience, such as individual behavioral traits and social support. We then explain the physiological response to stress and how it is modulated by resilience factors. In the subsequent section, we describe the animal models commonly used in the study of resilience to social stress, and we focus on the effects of chronic social defeat (SD), a kind of stress induced by repeated experience of defeat in an agonistic encounter, on different animal behaviors (depression- and anxiety-like behavior, cognitive impairment and addiction-like symptoms). We then summarize the current knowledge on the neurobiological substrates of resilience derived from studies of resilience to the effects of chronic SD stress on depression- and anxiety-related behaviors in rodents. Finally, we focus on the limited studies carried out to explore resilience to the effects of SD stress on the rewarding properties of drugs of abuse, describing the current state of knowledge and suggesting future research directions

Novel saliva biomarkers for stress and infection in pigs : Changes in oxytocin and procalcitonin in pigs with tail-biting lesions

There is a need for feasible and reliable measures to improve and evaluate production animal health and welfare. Oxytocin is a promising novel stress-related biomarker and procalcitonin may be a measure of sepsis. Both have potential for use in pigs and can be measured from saliva, which allows on-farm sampling with minimal impact on the animals. The current study sought to further validate these measures using a spontaneous situation that causes both stress and an increased risk for infections in pigs, namely a tail-biting outbreak. Grower pigs on a commercial farm belonging to three different phenotype groups were selected: control pigs from control pens (CC, N = 30), control pigs (CTB, N = 10), and pigs with tail lesions from pens with a tail-biting outbreak (LTB, N = 27). A single sample of saliva was collected from each pig and analysed for a range of biomarkers related to stress, infection, inflammation, and immune activation. Oxytocin tended to be higher in CC pigs than in LTB pigs, while cortisol was higher in CTB than CC pigs. Procalcitonin tended to be higher, and haptoglobin was higher in LTB than in CC pigs. Adenosine-deaminase levels were similar between phenotypes. These results provide further evidence for the link between stress and tail biting, and indicate that tail-biting lesions are potential routes for systemic spread of bacteria. Further research into saliva oxytocin as a stress biomarker and saliva procalcitonin as a sepsis biomarker in pigs is warranted.Peer reviewe