Exploring engineering skills development through a comparison of institutional practices in Mexico and Scotland

The future of engineering education does not depend only on the curricula designed by universities, but increasingly on the needs of society and the complex requirements of Industry 4.0. Now there is an urgent need to work on an educational approach based on the close collaboration of three stakeholders: the university, which facilitates authentic learning opportunities for students and professionals and ensures the quality of learning outcomes; the industry, which establishes the skill sets and competencies it requires of its workforce; and finally, governments and professional associations, which can influence, provide global collaboration frameworks to support transformation and funding for reskilling, upskilling, as well as institutional responses. This study presents an analysis and comparison of the engineering skills "eco-system" that considers not only the technical education in response to the Fourth Industrial Revolution, but also the problem-solving needs of society and the human factors that shape the transition to the labour market in global contexts

Assessing the Effectiveness of Problem-Based Learning Across Two Concrete Construction Courses

The goal of this study is to assess the effectiveness of a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) pedagogy that was implemented in two different concrete construction courses. Both courses are a part of an industry focused four-year undergraduate concrete degree program. One of the classes focused on concrete problems, diagnosis, and repair of existing concrete, while the other class focused on handling and management methods of various concrete mixtures. In both courses, a PBL pedagogy was implemented such that students were self-learning and discovering the knowledge through an action-research case study. The action-research case study was specific to the course outcomes relevant to each course, but were assessed similarly. A total of eight different assessment methods were implemented across both courses’ multiple times from 2012 – 2019. The results showed that the students are highly benefiting from the PBL pedagogy, which was indicated across all assessment methods. Each assessment technique provided a unique insight into student comprehension or benefits of the PBL pedagogy. The most beneficial assessment techniques were; pre- and post-student assessment, level of understanding and confidence, pre- and post-objective student assessment, and report assessment. These four assessment techniques provide both direct (objective) and indirect (subjective) assessment, while only requiring four total surveys

Symmetric quivers, invariant theory, and saturation theorems for the classical groups

Let G denote either a special orthogonal group or a symplectic group defined over the complex numbers. We prove the following saturation result for G: given dominant weights \lambda^1, ..., \lambda^r such that the tensor product V_{N\lambda^1} \otimes ... \otimes V_{N\lambda^r} contains nonzero G-invariants for some N \ge 1, we show that the tensor product V_{2\lambda^1} \otimes ... \otimes V_{2\lambda^r} also contains nonzero G-invariants. This extends results of Kapovich-Millson and Belkale-Kumar and complements similar results for the general linear group due to Knutson-Tao and Derksen-Weyman. Our techniques involve the invariant theory of quivers equipped with an involution and the generic representation theory of certain quivers with relations.Comment: 29 pages, no figures; v2: updated Theorem 2.4 to odd characteristic, added Remark 3.9, added references, corrected some definitions and typo

The implementation of SDG12 in and from higher education institutions: universities as laboratories for generating sustainable cities

IntroductionIt is known that the world is facing and will face significant sustainability challenges. Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG12), responsible consumption and production, is one of the most relevant SDGs for building Sustainable Cities. This study is based on the analysis of the implementation of SDG12 in cities, starting from universities as laboratories or first examples of sustainability.MethodsThe study was carried out through a multilevel scale approach. A systematic review of the literature (global scale) of the last 5 years (2018–2022) was conducted. An analysis of the program and the initiatives of a Higher Education Institution (Tecnologico de Monterrey) is presented (local scale). Finally, a survey was applied to Faculty at this University (micro-scale).ResultsThe systematic review indicated that the main themes or aspects addressed in SDG12 by higher education institutions were sustainable food, supply chains, community, infrastructure, technology, policies, energy consumption, the collaborative economy, smart cities, and curricula. The local scale analysis highlighted the Distrito Tec project, 37 institutional initiatives, and 26 courses directly related to SDG12. The survey showed that 8% of Faculty considered SDG12 the most important of the SDGs and stated that this goal is necessary to reduce environmental impacts. As the most significant impact that Universities can have on SDG12, 52% of the Faculty consider that Universities should become living labs in the transition toward sustainable cities, followed by 36% who think it would be better to implement operational facilities.DiscussionThe diverse contributions of the HEIs at the three scales were classified into six categories: culture, mitigation, adaptation, education, research, and outreach. The study indicates that SDG 12 has been achieved by universities in different ways, which overlaps widely with the performance of other SDGs. Results demonstrate that following a multistakeholder approach, international collaborations between HEIs can foster technology-driven multi-disciplinary research projects to consolidate sustainable cities. Building capacity to accelerate the transition of universities into urban living labs will promote climate action among the students who enroll every year

Adaptive modulation of antibiotic resistance through intragenomic coevolution

Bacteria gain antibiotic resistance genes by horizontal acquisition of mobile genetic elements (MGEs) from other lineages. Newly acquired MGEs are often poorly adapted causing intragenomic conflicts; these are resolved by either compensatory adaptation - of the chromosome or the MGE - or reciprocal coadaptation. The footprints of such intragenomic coevolution are present in bacterial genomes, suggesting an important role promoting genomic integration of horizontally acquired genes, but direct experimental evidence of the process is limited. Here we show adaptive modulation of tetracycline resistance via intragenomic coevolution between Escherichia coli and the multidrug resistant plasmid RK2. Tetracycline treatments, including monotherapy or combination therapies with ampicillin, favoured de novo chromosomal resistance mutations coupled with mutations on RK2 impairing the plasmid-encoded tetracycline efflux pump. These mutations together provided increased tetracycline resistance at reduced cost. Additionally, the chromosomal resistance mutations conferred cross-resistance to chloramphenicol. Reciprocal coadaptation was not observed under ampicillin-only or no antibiotic selection. Intragenomic coevolution can create genomes comprising multiple replicons that together provide high-level, low-cost resistance, but the resulting co-dependence may limit the spread of coadapted MGEs to other lineages

Ética y estética de la violencia. Estudios críticos y entrevistas sobre la obra literaria de Mario Roberto Morales.

Ética y estética de la violencia. Estudios críticos y entrevistas sobre la obra literaria de Mario Roberto Morales es un libro indispensable para todo interesado en la lectura guatemalteca, especialmente para quienes buscan ampliar su comprensión sobre la ética y la estética de la violencia en Guatemala a partir de la segunda mitad del siglo veinte.Mario Roberto Morales es uno de los más importantes escritores guatemaltecos contemporáneos. Su obra ha sido objeto de análisis en diferentes países y, sin embargo, aún son escasos los acercamientos a su creación artística. Los trabajos reunidos en el presente libro que incluyen estudios críticos y entrevistas con el autor intentan cubrir la carencia de interpretaciones sobre su obra que, dicho sea de paso, es necesaria para comprender la historia reciente de un país como Guatemala, envuelto en una serie de vicisitudes de orden político, social y religioso.Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México

Sustainability: A Public Policy, a Concept, or a Competence? Efforts on the Implementation of Sustainability as a Transversal Competence throughout Higher Education Programs

The concept of sustainability emerged globally in the 1987 Brundtland Report. Initially, it comprised three dimensions: environmental, social, and economic. Over time, sustainability became a global necessity that led to the establishment in 2015 of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), so that sustainability became a public policy of extreme urgency. Thirty-four years later, there is an imperative need to expand the original concept not in a public policy but in a competence that graduates of higher education develop, regardless of their studied academic program. We propose sustainability as a transversal competence. Our work describes the path that a higher education institution in Mexico, Tecnologico de Monterrey, has followed to accomplish this task. The new educational model Tec21 based on challenge-based learning experiences has a focus on the development of sustainability competences and actions ownership towards solving the problems described in the 17 SDGs. Our proposed definition for the sustainability transversal competence is: “The student possesses the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for the successful performance of the task and the resolution of problems related to the challenges and opportunities for sustainability in today’s world”. Thus, education is both an objective and a means to achieve all the other SDGs

Genética molecular de las hemoglobinas bacterianas: estructura, regulación y función

Las hemoglobinas se definen como aquellas hemoproteínas que unen reversiblemente el oxígeno. Estas proteínas se encuentran distribuidas en plantas, protozoarios, hongos y bacterias. Las hemoglobinas presentes en los microorganismos se han dividido en tres grupos. En el primer grupo se encuentran aquellas hemoproteínas que presentan un solo dominio con el grupo hemo, por ejemplo la hemoglobina de Vitreoscilla. En el segundo se encuentran aquellas hemoglobinas que presentan dos diferentes dominios, el primer dominio con el grupo hemo el cual es homólogo a la hemoglobina de Vitreoscilla y un segundo dominio con actividad de reductasa el cual es homólogo a la familia de las proteínas ferrodoxín NADP- reductasas (FNR), a éstas hemoglobinas se les conoce como flavohemoglobinas, un ejemplo es Hmp, la flavohemoglobina de Escherichia coli, ésta fue la primera flavohemoglobina estudiada a nivel molecular. En el tercer grupo se encuentran las hemoglobinas truncadas, éstas son proteínas pequeñas de 20 a 30 aminoácidos en donde se encuentra el dominio hemo. Poco se sabe acerca de la función de estas hemoglobinas, pero se ha reportado su participación en la protección y destoxificación del óxido nítrico