Learning Analytics, the thorny issue of data gathering for MOOCs

One of the critical issues emerging from the scientific debate about MOOCs is related to what approach to learning analytics (LA) to adopt. Within the context of MOOCs, in fact, the issues araising from the floor concern the main purposes and challenges underlying tracking and data analysis as well as tools and methodology that best serve the “teaching by data” purpose. This paper seeks to relate our experience of trying to adapt and extend LA debate and tools to the Federica system, since the Federica Web Learning portal of the University Federico II, (http://www.federica.unina.it/) is now launching MOOC courses, complete with timeframe and assignments

The impact of the reform of the milk quota regime on the Italian dairy sector

This paper analyses the impact of the milk quota regime reform, actually under discussion, on the European countries with a detailed focus on the Italian milk and dairy sector. The dismantling of the milk quota regime is already on the EU agenda, but how and when to do it is still matter of debate. A possibility is to enlarge gradually the size of the national quotas, up to the full dismantling in 2015 (“soft landing”). Meanwhile, the discussion on Health Check of the CAP is under way. In this work we analyse the possible impacts of the reform of the milk quota regime on the basis of a Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) approach, using two models in sequence: the Global Trade Analysis Project (GTAP) model is used to evaluate the impacts of different scenarios of milk quota reform on the EU market and to compute the price changes outside Italy; these, in turn, are used as inputs for the MEG-D model, that focuses on the Italian milk and dairy market. The two models were run together with two specific objectives: the first was to avoid, in evaluating the impacts of reform of the milk sector regime in Italy, running the model with rough price estimates taken for secondary sources; the second, to have more specific results on the outcome at the national level. Particularly, the model takes in account the particular relevance of quality products (GDO) in Italian diary sector. In order to evaluate the impact of the “soft landing” reform scenario, we run a “comparison” scenario where the milk quotas are fully abolished in the 2009.Milk and dairy sector, Quota production, EU Agri-Food Market, PAC, Agricultural and Food Policy, Livestock Production/Industries,

EMMA: Towards multicultural learning

[EN] Interest on the part of European Institutions to explore the potential of MOOCs for providing the kind of inclusive and multicultural education that was needed for 21st century learners was confirmed by funding of projects such as EMMA (http://www.europeanmoocs.eu). The definition of “European” for the EMMA consortium was based on diversity - of culture, language and approach - and integration of the same. This paper looks at how EMMA is responding to the challenge of embracing diversity and integration in the same technological artefact through the use of embedded translation services, and an experimental PLE. We will also introduce the ad hoc evaluation services that are designed to test the impact of the EMMA concept.Kerr, R.; Merciai, I. (2016). EMMA: Towards multicultural learning. The EuroCALL Review. 24(1):1695-2618. doi:10.4995/eurocall.2016.5696.SWORD16952618241Alidou, H., Glanz, C., & Nikièma, N. (2011). Quality multilingual and multicultural education for lifelong learning. International Review of Education, 57(5-6), 529-539. doi:10.1007/s11159-011-9259-zBrouns, F., Serrano, N., Civera, J., Kalz, M. & Juan, A. (2015). Supporting language diversity of European MOOCs with the EMMA platform. In Proceedings of the European MOOC Stakeholder Summit 2015.UNESCO (2003). Education in a multilingual world. UNESCO position paper. Paris: UNESCO

Motus proprius confirmationis priuilegiorum iurisdictionis et gratiarum, per sanctiss. D.N.D. Pium diuina prouidentia papa 4. Vniuersitati Merciariorum vrbis concessus

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Clearance and persistence of Escherichia coli in the freshwater mussel Unio mancus

The excessive use of antibiotics has led to the emergence of resistant bacteria, mainly from the Enterobacterales group, with high pathogenic/zoonotic potentials that can lead to problems in public health. The increasing presence in freshwater ecosystems highlights the need to evaluate potential sentinel species as risk indicators for both ecosystem and human health. The freshwater mussels provide several ecosystem services, may represent potential sentinel species due to their ability to filter water and retain both organic and inorganic particles. We tested the capability of U. mancus to retain Escherichia coli as a model bacterial organism. Under experimental conditions, the mussels could clear suspended E. coli, facilitating its rapid elimination from water within the first 24 h after exposure. The species also presented a maximum retention time of 4 days. We also provide allometric equations correlating the filtering capacity with the length and the weight of mussel body parts often used in biometric studies. We provide a first assessment of the potential of the bivalve Unio mancus to act as a sentinel species for the detection of Enterobacterales and demonstrate the ability to act as a water cleaner.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

How do carbon footprints from LCA and EEIOA databases compare?: A comparison of ecoinvent and EXIOBASE

Life cycle assessment (LCA) and environmentally extended input output analysis (EEIOA) are two widely used approaches to assess the environmental impacts of products and services with the aim of providing decision support. Here, we compare carbon footprint (CF) results for products and services in the ecoinvent 3.4 cut-off and the hybrid version of EXIOBASE. While we find that there is good agreement for certain sectors, more than half of the matched products differ by more than a factor 2. Best fits are observed in the energy, manufacturing, and agricultural sectors, although deviations are substantial for renewable energy. Poorer fits are observed for waste treatment and mining sectors. Both databases have a limited differentiation in the service sector. Differences can, to some degree, be explained by methodological differences, such as system boundaries and approaches used to resolve multi-functionality, and data differences. The common finding that, due to incomplete economic coverage (truncation error), LCA-based CFs should be lower than EEIOA-based CFs, could not be confirmed. The comparison of CFs from LCA and EEIOA databases can provide additional insights into the uncertainties of CF results, which is important knowledge when guiding decision makers. An approach that uses the coefficient of variation to identify strategic database improvement potentials is also presented and highlights several product groups that could deserve additional attention in both databases. Further strategic database improvements are crucial to reduce uncertainties and increase the robustness of decision support that the industrial ecology community can provide for the economic transformations ahead of us.Industrial Ecolog