The cloud hovering over the virtual campus

The Virtual Campus has been around for about 20 years. It provides an online environment that mimics the processes and services of the physical campuses and classrooms. Its adoption is almost complete in countries where Internet access has become ubiquitous. For a time seemed like the innovation in education was happening in the Virtual Campus, but this is no more. Personal Learning Environments, Life Long Learning, MOOCS, Open Educational Resources, Mobile Apps, Gamification, Social Networks, free Cloud based services... al of the above and even more hint that not all the learning today is happening at school or in the Virtual Campus.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author’s final draft

Application of ISTOF-II system in non anglosaxon context

Este estudio evalúa la eficacia escolar y del docente. Se administró el Sistema Internacional de Observación y Feedback Docente (ISTOF II), por primera vez en un contexto no anglosajón. Se observaron a 21 profesionales impartir lengua (castellana, catalana e inglesa) y matemáticas, en 15 centros de educación primaria, durante el curso 2010-2011. Se combina el uso de técnicas de investigación de carácter cualitativo (entrevistas al profesorado y directores de los centros seleccionados) y cuantitativo (protocolo de observación). Los resultados muestran asociaciones negativas entre la edad y experiencia del profesorado y sus prácticas, y entre el porcentaje de estudiantes de bajo nivel socioeconómico y la calidad de enseñanza que reciben. El estudio evidencia que un sistema de observación válido internacionalmente tal como el ISTOF-II resulta necesario para mejorar la calidad de la educaciónThis study evaluates school and teacher effectiveness. The International Teaching Observation and Feedback System (ISTOF II) was administered for the first time in a non-Anglo-Saxon context. Twenty-one professionals were observed to teach Spanish (Catalan and English) and mathematics in 15 primary education centers during the 2010- 2011 academic year. It combines the use of qualitative research techniques (interviews with teachers and directors of selected centers) and quantitative (observation protocol). The results show negative associations between the age and experience of teachers and their practices, and between the percentage of students with low socioeconomic status and the quality of education they receive. The study shows that an internationally valid observational system such as ISTOF-II is necessary to improve the quality of educatio

Application of ISTOF-II system in no-anglo-saxon educational context

El objetivo de este estudio es identificar qué escuelas y qué docentes podemos considerar que son eficaces, basándonos en un instrumento de observación que evalúa la eficacia escolar y del docente. Con este propósito, se administró por primera vez en un contexto educativo no-anglosajón el Sistema Internacional de Observación y Feedback Docente (ISTOF-II). Se combinaron el uso de técnicas de investigación de carácter cualitativo (entrevistas al profesorado y directores de los centros seleccionados) y cuantitativo (protocolo de observación). Se observó a 21 profesionales impartir lengua (castellana, catalana e inglesa) y matemáticas, en 15 centros de educación primaria. Los resultados muestran asociaciones negativas entre la edad y experiencia del profesorado y sus prácticas, y entre el porcentaje de estudiantes de bajo nivel socioeconómico y la calidad de enseñanza que reciben. A su vez, el estudio evidencia que el ISTOF-II, un sistema de observación válido internacionalmente, resulta útil para mejorar la calidad de la educación. La discusión versa sobre la importancia de la identificación y difusión de prácticas y centros eficaces a partir de instrumentos que se compartan a nivel internacionalThe objective of this study is to identify which schools and which teachers can be considered effective, based on an observation tool that evaluates the effectiveness of the school and the teacher. The International System for Teacher Observation and Feedback (ISTOF-II) was used in a non-Anglo Saxon educational context for the first time. Research techniques were used that combine qualitative (interviews with teachers and head teachers in the selected schools) and quantitative (observation protocol) analysis. Twenty-one teachers were observed teaching languages (Spanish, Catalan and English) and mathematics in 15 primary schools. The results showed negative links between the age and experience of the teachers and their practices and between the percentage of students at a low socio-economic level and the quality of teaching they receive. The study proves that an internationally valid observation system, such as the ISTOF-II, is a useful tool in in identifying effective practices and schools. Discussion concerns the importance of identifying and spreading effective centers and practices through international systems of assessmen

Can the wrf model characterize atmospheric stability for wind energy purposes?

To foster energy transition, renewable energies need to achieve their full potential. One phenomena greatly impacting power production in wind energy is the wake production behind each wind turbine or entire farms. These wake regions are strongly modulated by low-layer atmospheric stability. In this work, the capability of the WRF mesoscale model to characterize the stability in the Rawson Wind Farm location is addressed. Through a dynamical downscaling from ERA5 data, the WRF outcomes are used to estimate the stability parameter RiB, which is compared to the one computed from measurements. A great similarity emerges from the analysis, in statistical terms, between the stability conditions estimated from the observations and those resulting from the simulations. These results encourage the use of mesoscale models to obtain a more detailed description of the low-layer flow and therefore reduce the uncertainties linked to the environmental conditions that affect a wind farm.Fil: Mayol, María Laura. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos; ArgentinaFil: Saulo, Andrea Celeste. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Ciencias de la Atmósfera y los Océanos; Argentina. Ministerio de Defensa. Secretaria de Planeamiento. Servicio Meteorológico Nacional; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Otero, Alejandro Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Centro de Simulación Computacional para Aplicaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaXIV Congreso Argentino de MeteorologíaBuenos AiresArgentinaCentro Argentino de Meteorólogo

Análisis de los factores socio-demográficos y clínicos asociados a la variabilidad de la gasometría arterial y la acidosis fetal al nacimiento.

Estimaciones globales sugieren que 2,6 millones de muertes fetales y 2,5 millones de muertes neonatales ocurren anualmente en todo el mundo. Alrededor de un millón de muertes al año se atribuyen a la asfixia perinatal a nivel mundial, y se estima que la forma más grave de afectación cerebral se produce en 1%o de recién nacidos vivos a término. Objetivos: Investigar las posibles relaciones existentes entre los factores socio-demográficos y clínicos asociados al parto y las cifras de la gasometría arterial al nacimento. Método: Estudio observacional longitudinal retrospectivo con una muestra de 312 partos con valores validados de pH de sangre del cordón umbilical al nacimiento. Los instrumentos de medida utilizados fueron: el análisis bioquímico de gases de sangre de cordón umbilical y el test de Apgar. Resultados y discusión: El análisis bivariable muestra asociación estadísticamente significativa entre la disminución de pH de arteria umbilical al nacimiento y factores como primiparidad (OR:1,322-IC: 1,043-1,677; p: 0,013), inicio de parto inducido (OR:1,757-IC: 1,042-2,962; p: 0,034), parto por vía vaginal (OR:2,056-IC:1,131-3,740);p: 0,017) y tiempos de dilatación (OR:2,632-IC: 1,549-4,440; p: 0,0002), expulsivo (OR:1,736-IC: 1,007-2,992; p: 0,046) y totales del parto (OR:2,338-IC: 1,428-3,995;p: 0,001) superiores a la media. Tras el análisis multivariante de regresión logística, solo encontramos tres factores asociados con acidosis de arteria umbilical al nacimiento, inicio de parto inducido (OR: 1,749[IC 95%: 0,986-3,101]; p: 0,046) finalización del parto por vía vaginal (OR: 2,099 [IC95%: 0,954-4,616]; p: 0,048) y duración total del parto por encima de la media (OR: 2,062[IC 95%: 1,188-3,579]; p: 0,010). Conclusión: Existe una correlación entre el test de Apgar y la gasometría arterial al nacimiento. Estableciéndose una relación estadísticamente significativa entre la disminución de los valores de pH al nacimiento y factores socio-demográficos y clínicos como la edad gestacional, la primiparidad, la inducción de parto, el parto vaginal y los tiempos de dilatación, expulsivo y totales de parto superiores a la media. Pese a ello, solo la inducción del parto, el descenso vía vaginal y la duración total del parto por encima de la media se relacionan con un mayor riesgo de acidosis, como consecuencia de un mayor estrés fetal intraparto.Enfermerí

First evidence on the growth of hatchery-reared juvenile meagre Argyrosomus regius released in the Balearic Islands coastal region

The success of restocking (releasing hatchery-reared juveniles in the wild) depends on the capacity of phenotypes that are already adapted to captivity to readapt to the natural environment. Changes in growth rate after release can be monitored to determine whether released fish are adapting well to the natural environment or failing to adjust to wild conditions. Nevertheless, it is not known whether released individual fish experience a shift in growth rate. Alternatively, the fish showing long-term survival could be those that were already larger before release. This question is relevant for the maximization of stocking success because certain phenotypes (those with a better probability of readapting) could be selected for release. This study compared the somatic growth of released and recaptured meagre, Argyrosomus regius, with control (captive) meagre belonging to the same cohort. Recaptures that had spent less than 3. months at liberty showed the same length-at-age as the control fish, but the length-at-age of many recaptured fish that had spent more than 3. months at liberty was greater than expected. The otolith radius of the growth mark corresponding to the first year of life (i.e., when all fish were still in captivity) was significantly greater for fish that had spent more than 3. months at liberty, indicating that these meagre were larger and had a higher growth rate when they were released. Moreover, the analysis of daily otolith growth before and after release showed that most of the recaptured meagre that had spent less than 3. months at liberty grew an equal or lesser amount in the wild than before release. In contrast, most of the recaptures that had spent more than 3. months at liberty showed a higher growth rate after release. Therefore, results are discussed in light of the combined effect of differential survival and increased growth, although the low sample size requires interpreting the results carefully. © 2014 Elsevier B.V.This work was financially supported by INIA projects RTA-2007 00033-C02-01 and RTA-2011 00056-C02-00Peer Reviewe

An induction-aware parameterization for wind farms in the WRF mesoscale model

With the aim of assessing the potential impacts of wind farms on weather and regional climate, in this work an induction-aware modified version of the Wind Farm Parameterization implemented in the WRF model is presented. It uses the undisturbed wind speed, instead of the grid cell velocity, as reference to compute the corresponding momentum sink, source of TKE and power output. The relation between the reference and grid velocity is obtained from a previous calibration process. The modified parameterization is verified by simulating one single wind turbine, showing that the power output becomes independent of the selected horizontal resolution. Finally, the performance of the new parameterization is tested over an utility-scale wind farm. It is applied to compute the wind farm efficiency for different wind directions, under several resolutions and its results compared with former parameterizations.Fil: Mayol, María Laura. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Centro de Simulación Computacional para Aplicaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Navarro Diaz, Gonzalo Pablo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Centro de Simulación Computacional para Aplicaciones Tecnológicas; ArgentinaFil: Saulo, AC. Ministerio de Defensa. Secretaria de Planeamiento. Servicio Meteorológico Nacional; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales; ArgentinaFil: Otero, Alejandro Daniel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Parque Centenario. Centro de Simulación Computacional para Aplicaciones Tecnológicas; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ingeniería; Argentin

Assessment of barriers for people with disability to enjoy national parks

[EN] There is increasing awareness of the importance of nature-based recreation to human wellbeing. Given its significant benefits, natural-protected area management has not always provided equitable access to all potential users. Limited research till now has been focused on how the outdoor barriers impact the equal enjoyment of people with mobility/motor disabilities (PwMDs) of nature when promoting sustainable nature-based tourism. This study intends to shed light on those aspects which constrain the PwMD¿s enjoyment of the great outdoors at national parks (NPs). The study was carried out in Canada and Spain through an online survey on amenities needed and accessibility barriers for PwMDs in parks. It was analyzed through log linear models for cross-frequency tables, which allow us to estimate the associations between questions/variables and, thus, ultimately, obtain insights into how the needs of amenities and accessibility barriers can affect and limit PwMDs¿ enjoyment of natural parks. The results show a predisposition on the part of participants to enjoy parks more frequently than they usually do, as well as a preference for forests and mountain landscapes. Information and communication technologies are the tools most chosen to prepare for their trip and visit to the park. PwMD finds barriers in NPs as impediments to benefit from nature-based recreation and adding to their wellbeing. NP managers should take into consideration that PwMD¿s visits to parks are related to the main obstacles they perceive such as slopes and pavement and that they require amenities such as recreation and signposting. They would also like to enjoy parks more often, with footpaths suitable for walkability/wheelability, e.g., compact pavement, low inclines, and adequate signposting. In addition to the physical barriers, managers should also consider intrapersonal and interpersonal constraints to provide outdoor activities in parks focused on PwMDs¿ needs.This research received partial support and external funding from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain (grant CD21/00186-Sara Borrell Postdoctoral Fellowship) and was co-funded by the European Union.Aguilar-Carrasco, MJ.; Gielen, E.; Vallés-Planells, M.; Galiana, F.; Riutort-Mayol, G. (2023). Assessment of barriers for people with disability to enjoy national parks. Frontiers in Psychology. 13:1-16. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.10586471161