Sistema de recomendación de matrícula de cursos electivos para estudiantes de Ingeniería Electrónica e Ingeniería de Telecomunicaciones de la UNAD

Los cambios en entornos competitivos de las organizaciones y las sociedades, generados por la irrupción de las TICs en diversos ámbitos de la sociedad; la globalización de las economías; la internacionalización de los mercados; y los desarrollos científicos y tecnológicos que han posibilitado y potencializado la libre movilidad de mercancías, personas y conocimientos a nivel mundial, han generado nuevos desafíos para la formación de las personas. Es importante resaltar que los cambios tecnológicos constituyen el motor que impulsa la exploración y búsqueda de nuevas opciones que posibiliten la educación de personas y la generación de condiciones para facilitar los procesos de aprendizaje en la llamada sociedad del conocimiento, dando respuesta a las necesidades de formación de comunidades y personas con dificultades para acceder a la formación tradicional con la educación a distancia, que ha evolucionado hacia la educación virtual soportado en formación E-learning (Castillo et al., 2017). E-learning usa tecnologías digitales para la generación de aprendizajes, conocida también como aprendizaje en medios electrónicos, basado en computadores, a través de internet o, basado en la web. La Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD centra su formación en el modelo establecido por E-Learning, haciendo énfasis en que su misión es contribuir a la educación para todos a través de la modalidad abierta y a distancia utilizando como eje central lo que se conoce actualmente como ambientes virtuales de aprendizaje utilizando las tecnologías de la información y las comunicaciones para fomentar y acompañar el aprendizaje autónomo (Cardenas et al., 2017). De esta forma, el Modelo Pedagógico Unadista reconoce en su acción e-learning por su amplio potencial comunicativo e interactivo, y por la posibilidad de promover la construcción de sentidos y significados mediante el manejo de la información mediada por diferentes tipos de tecnologías. 6 Actualmente, para el procedimiento de matrícula, se han implementado filtros que le limitan los cursos a seleccionar cuando se trata de un estudiante nuevo y que no ingresa por convenio de homologación, pero en caso contrario, cuando el estudiante ingresa por convenio de homologación con el SENA, se presenta el inconveniente que no se ven relacionados los cursos homologados en el aplicativo de Registro y Control, y por lo tanto, en la plataforma de matrícula le presenta al estudiante una oferta completa llevando a que, en la mayoría de los casos, el estudiante matricule cursos homologados por acuerdos de convenio institucional. Adicional a esto, estudiantes de últimos periodos de matrícula deben seleccionar los cursos electivos disciplinares y de profundización y se requiere de mayor acompañamiento de parte de la universidad aumentando así la atención in situ para asesoría de matrícula, con el fin de apoyar al estudiante para que seleccione cursos de acuerdo con su perfil académico y con el enfoque laboral en el cual se ve inmerso el estudiante. Dentro del procedimiento de matrícula en periodos de 16 semanas se tiene la posibilidad de solicitar cambios de cursos, aplazamientos y/o cancelación de cursos, lo que se conoce en la UNAD como Solicitud de Novedades, estos procedimientos en los diferentes centros de la universidad generan un amplio número de solicitudes radicadas ante Registro y Control, siendo uno de los principales puntos críticos de atención en esta dependencia. Por otra parte, la Cadena de formación en Electrónica Telecomunicaciones y Redes (ETR) no cuenta con un sistema de recomendación de matrícula de cursos electivos que facilite al estudiante la selección de cursos electivos para dar cumplimiento con su respectiva malla curricular y de esta forma aportar en la disminución de los índices de novedades registradas en los diferentes centros a nivel nacional, donde solicitan cancelación, aplazamiento o cambio de cursos debido a matrícula errónea por causas diferentes, resaltando el desconocimiento de prerrequisitos, ya que actualmente la oferta de matrícula no tiene en cuenta todos los prerrequisitos de los cursos electivos. Por lo antes expuesto, vale la pena evaluar qué grado de impacto se puede generar en estudiantes y docentes de los programas académicos mencionados de la Univer7 sidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD y, a su vez, en los indicadores de registros de novedades de matrícula en los centros, con la implementación de un sistema basado en inteligencia artificial que genere recomendaciones de cursos electivos a los usuarios para generar matrículas oportunas de acuerdo a su avance en el programa de formación y gustos académicos, de esta manera se logra una propuesta que integre la tecnología con el sector académico que forma en ciencias de ingeniería, en concordancia con los nuevos enfoques tecnológicos, así como generar el beneficio de los futuros profesionales en ramas afines. Este sistema propuesto le entrega al usuario una relación de cursos electivos a matricular teniendo en cuenta el historial académico de varios estudiantes que conforman la base de datos y con esta información, el sistema selecciona los que tendrían mayor afinidad de acuerdo con el perfil del estudiante usuario. Estos cursos corresponden a los que presentan un valor de métricas de medición con mejores características respecto a la matriz de Usuarios/Ítems que conforman el sistema. Esta matriz está conformada por 222 Usuarios (Estudiantes) y 104 Ítems (Cursos), información resultante de una base de datos inicial que contiene información de 253 estudiantes con un total de 11610 datos de cursos en su historial académico en un documento cuyo tamaño inicial era de 417 KB. Como se evidencia, dicha información es organizada y seleccionada teniendo en cuenta que contiene estudiantes matriculados por convenio institucional y eso genera calificaciones vacías en algunos de los ítems relacionados en la base de datos de Cursos. Por lo tanto, se evidencia la necesidad de optimizar la información de la base de datos para la creación del dataframe que comprende el sistema. Adicional, en el desarrollo de la propuesta se generan dos algoritmos de sistemas de recomendación que aplican la técnica de filtrado colaborativo utilizando dos metodologías enfocadas en la factorización matricial, obteniendo así que el primer modelo se enfoca en la factorización matricial no negativa, mientras el segundo modelo propuesto se enfoca en la aplicación de la factorización matricial por SVD; siendo éste último el sistema que genera los mejores resultados en métricas de medición, optimización de tiempo y recursos de máquina y precisión en la recomendación a entregar al usuario del 8 sistema. Es importante resaltar que la evaluación de los modelos propuestos se sustenta en la hipótesis que indica que la eficiencia de los algoritmos para los sistemas de recomendación por filtrado colaborativo toma como base la información relacionada en la matriz de de Usuarios/Ítems y la función de similitud utilizada para la creación del vecindario conformado por los vecinos más cercanos.The changes in competitive environments of organizations and societies, generated by the emergence of ICTs in various areas of society; the globalization of economies; the internationalization of markets; and the scientific and technological developments that have made possible and potentiated the free mobility of goods, people and knowledge worldwide, have generated new challenges for the training of people. It is important to highlight that technological changes constitute the engine that drives the exploration and search for new options that make possible the education of people and the generation of conditions to facilitate learning processes in the so-called knowledge society, responding to training needs of communities and people with difficulties in accessing traditional training with distance education, which has evolved towards virtual education supported by E-learning training. E-learning uses digital technologies for the generation of learning, also known as learning in electronic media, based on computers, through the Internet or based on the web. The Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD focuses its training on the model established by E-Learning, emphasizing that its mission is to contribute to education for all through the open and distance modality using as a central axis what is currently known as virtual learning environments using information and communication technologies to promote and accompany autonomous learning. In this way, the Modelo Pedagógico Unadista recognizes in its e-learning action for its wide communicative and interactive potential, and for the possibility of promoting the construction of senses and meanings through the management of information mediated by different types of technologies. Currently, for the enrollment procedure, filters have been implemented that limit the courses to be selected when it is a new student who does not en10 ter by homologation agreement, but otherwise, when the student enters by homologation agreement with the SENA, the drawback is that the approved courses in the Registro y Control application are not related, and therefore, in the enrollment platform it presents the student with a complete offer, leading to the fact that, in most cases, the student enrolls courses approved by institutional agreement agreements. Additionally, students who are in the last periods of enrollment must select the disciplinary electives and deepening courses and more support is required from the university, thus increasing the attention on site for enrollment advice, in order to support the student. to select courses according to their academic profile and the work approach in which the student is immersed. Within the enrollment procedure in periods of 16 weeks, there is the possibility of requesting changes of courses, postponements and/or cancellation of courses, which is known at the UNAD as Request for News, these procedures in the different centers of the university generate a large number of applications filed with the Registry and Control, being one of the main critical points of attention in this agency. On the other hand, the Cadena de formación en Electrónica Telecomunicaciones y Redes (ETR) does not have a system for recommending the enrollment of elective courses that facilitates the student’s selection of elective courses to comply with their respective curricular mesh and thus contribute in the decrease in the indexes of novelties registered in the different centers nationwide, where they request cancellation, postponement or change of courses due to wrong enrollment for different reasons, highlighting the ignorance of prerequisites, since currently the enrollment offer does not have in counts all prerequisites for elective courses. Due to the aforementioned, it is worth evaluating what degree of impact can be generated in students and teachers of the academic programs referred of the Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia UNAD and, in turn, in the indicators of registration new enrollment in the centers, with the implementation of a system based on artificial intelligence that generates recommendations for elective courses to users to generate timely enrollments according to their progress in the training program and academic tastes, in this way a proposal that integrates technology is achieved with the aca11 demic sector that trains in engineering sciences, in accordance with the new technological approaches, as well as generating the benefit of future professionals in related fields. This proposed system provides the user with a list of elective courses to enroll taking into account the academic history of several students that make up the database and with this information, the system selects those that would have the greatest affinity according to the profile of the user student. . These courses correspond to those that present a value of measurement metrics with better characteristics with respect to the matrix of Users/Items that make up the system. This matrix is made up of 222 Users (Students) and 104 Items (Courses), information resulting from an initial database that contains information on 253 students with a total of 11,610 course data in their academic history in a document whose initial size was of 417 KB. As evidenced, said information is organized and selected taking into account that it contains students enrolled by institutional agreement and that generates empty grades in some of the related items in the Courses database. Therefore, the need to optimize the information in the database for the creation of the dataframe that comprises the system is evident. Additionally, in the development of the proposal, two algorithms of recommendation systems are generated that apply the collaborative filtering technique using two methodologies focused on matrix factorization, thus obtaining that the first model focuses on non-negative matrix factorization, while the second proposed model focuses on the application of matrix factorization by SVD; The latter being the system that generates the best results in measurement metrics, optimization of time and machine resources, and precision in the recommendation to be delivered to the user of the system. It is important to highlight that the evaluation of the proposed models is based on the hypothesis that the efficiency of the algorithms for the collaborative filtering recommendation systems is based on the information related in the Users/Items matrix and the similarity function. Used for the creation of the neighborhood made up of the closest neighbors

Capitulo 2. Ciencias Naturales y Ciencias Básicas, Ingeniería y Tecnología

La diseminación de la Levitación Magnética, a pesar de lo antiguo de su tecnología, ha sido limitada. Debido a sus inconvenientes prácticos de implementación, su uso es bastante restringido, comparado con otras tecnologías (SCMaglev japonés, Transrapid alemán, o productos comerciales para ocio y entretenimiento). Con el boom de las tecnologías limpias y amigables con el medio ambiente y en concordancia con los objetivos del milenio, es pertinente plantearse el objetivo de optimizar el proceso de Levitación Magnética para generar un aprovechamiento de las ventajas de esta tecnología a nivel mecánico, eléctrico, y ambiental.  Actualmente la UNAD adelanta un proyecto de investigación cuyo objetivo es generar un modelo físico matemático de levitación magnética para aplicaciones en ingeniería. De este proyecto se ha derivado una primera revisión sistemática de los principios físicos y los modelos vigentes en Levitación Magnética

Clinical manifestations of intermediate allele carriers in Huntington disease

Objective: There is controversy about the clinical consequences of intermediate alleles (IAs) in Huntington disease (HD). The main objective of this study was to establish the clinical manifestations of IA carriers for a prospective, international, European HD registry. Methods: We assessed a cohort of participants at risk with <36 CAG repeats of the huntingtin (HTT) gene. Outcome measures were the Unified Huntington's Disease Rating Scale (UHDRS) motor, cognitive, and behavior domains, Total Functional Capacity (TFC), and quality of life (Short Form-36 [SF-36]). This cohort was subdivided into IA carriers (27-35 CAG) and controls (<27 CAG) and younger vs older participants. IA carriers and controls were compared for sociodemographic, environmental, and outcome measures. We used regression analysis to estimate the association of age and CAG repeats on the UHDRS scores. Results: Of 12,190 participants, 657 (5.38%) with <36 CAG repeats were identified: 76 IA carriers (11.56%) and 581 controls (88.44%). After correcting for multiple comparisons, at baseline, we found no significant differences between IA carriers and controls for total UHDRS motor, SF-36, behavioral, cognitive, or TFC scores. However, older participants with IAs had higher chorea scores compared to controls (p 0.001). Linear regression analysis showed that aging was the most contributing factor to increased UHDRS motor scores (p 0.002). On the other hand, 1-year follow-up data analysis showed IA carriers had greater cognitive decline compared to controls (p 0.002). Conclusions: Although aging worsened the UHDRS scores independently of the genetic status, IAs might confer a late-onset abnormal motor and cognitive phenotype. These results might have important implications for genetic counseling. ClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT01590589

Optimization of adsorptive removal of α-toluic acid by CaO2 nanoparticles using response surface methodology

The present work addresses the optimization of process parameters for adsorptive removal of α-toluic acid by calcium peroxide (CaO2) nanoparticles using response surface methodology (RSM). CaO2 nanoparticles were synthesized by chemical precipitation method and confirmed by Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and high-resolution TEM (HRTEM) analysis which shows the CaO2 nanoparticles size range of 5–15 nm. A series of batch adsorption experiments were performed using CaO2 nanoparticles to remove α-toluic acid from the aqueous solution. Further, an experimental based central composite design (CCD) was developed to study the interactive effect of CaO2 adsorbent dosage, initial concentration of α-toluic acid, and contact time on α-toluic acid removal efficiency (response) and optimization of the process. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to determine the significance of the individual and the interactive effects of variables on the response. The model predicted response showed a good agreement with the experimental response, and the coefficient of determination, (R2) was 0.92. Among the variables, the interactive effect of adsorbent dosage and the initial α-toluic acid concentration was found to have more influence on the response than the contact time. Numerical optimization of process by RSM showed the optimal adsorbent dosage, initial concentration of α-toluic acid, and contact time as 0.03 g, 7.06 g/L, and 34 min respectively. The predicted removal efficiency was 99.50%. The experiments performed under these conditions showed α-toluic acid removal efficiency up to 98.05%, which confirmed the adequacy of the model prediction

Clinical and genetic characteristics of late-onset Huntington's disease

Background: The frequency of late-onset Huntington's disease (&gt;59 years) is assumed to be low and the clinical course milder. However, previous literature on late-onset disease is scarce and inconclusive. Objective: Our aim is to study clinical characteristics of late-onset compared to common-onset HD patients in a large cohort of HD patients from the Registry database. Methods: Participants with late- and common-onset (30–50 years)were compared for first clinical symptoms, disease progression, CAG repeat size and family history. Participants with a missing CAG repeat size, a repeat size of ≤35 or a UHDRS motor score of ≤5 were excluded. Results: Of 6007 eligible participants, 687 had late-onset (11.4%) and 3216 (53.5%) common-onset HD. Late-onset (n = 577) had significantly more gait and balance problems as first symptom compared to common-onset (n = 2408) (P &lt;.001). Overall motor and cognitive performance (P &lt;.001) were worse, however only disease motor progression was slower (coefficient, −0.58; SE 0.16; P &lt;.001) compared to the common-onset group. Repeat size was significantly lower in the late-onset (n = 40.8; SD 1.6) compared to common-onset (n = 44.4; SD 2.8) (P &lt;.001). Fewer late-onset patients (n = 451) had a positive family history compared to common-onset (n = 2940) (P &lt;.001). Conclusions: Late-onset patients present more frequently with gait and balance problems as first symptom, and disease progression is not milder compared to common-onset HD patients apart from motor progression. The family history is likely to be negative, which might make diagnosing HD more difficult in this population. However, the balance and gait problems might be helpful in diagnosing HD in elderly patients

Reduced Cancer Incidence in Huntington's Disease: Analysis in the Registry Study

Background: People with Huntington's disease (HD) have been observed to have lower rates of cancers. Objective: To investigate the relationship between age of onset of HD, CAG repeat length, and cancer diagnosis. Methods: Data were obtained from the European Huntington's disease network REGISTRY study for 6540 subjects. Population cancer incidence was ascertained from the GLOBOCAN database to obtain standardised incidence ratios of cancers in the REGISTRY subjects. Results: 173/6528 HD REGISTRY subjects had had a cancer diagnosis. The age-standardised incidence rate of all cancers in the REGISTRY HD population was 0.26 (CI 0.22-0.30). Individual cancers showed a lower age-standardised incidence rate compared with the control population with prostate and colorectal cancers showing the lowest rates. There was no effect of CAG length on the likelihood of cancer, but a cancer diagnosis within the last year was associated with a greatly increased rate of HD onset (Hazard Ratio 18.94, p < 0.001). Conclusions: Cancer is less common than expected in the HD population, confirming previous reports. However, this does not appear to be related to CAG length in HTT. A recent diagnosis of cancer increases the risk of HD onset at any age, likely due to increased investigation following a cancer diagnosis