Aproximación empírica al análisis del absentismo de los estudiantes universitarios. Estudio del caso de la Facultad de Economía y Empresa (UB)

Los trabajos alrededor del absentismo de los estudiantes en las aulas universitarias no han sido uno de los objetivos preferentes de los autores en materia de investigación educativa. Habitualmente se ha hecho una aproximación a los datos disponibles de absentismo como una variable interviniente o como una variable propia del proceso educativo, pero no como una variable dependiente en el sentido estricto del término

Informational Literacy And Information And Communication Technologies Use By Secondary Education Students In Spain: A Descriptive Study

Informational literacy and the use of technologies by Secondary Education students in Spain: A descriptive study. The development of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs), together with their application to research carried out on educational areas, are factors which contribute to the promotion of a new educative model constructed on literacy-based competences and skills, and which sets technologies as essential tools for a life-long learning process (Unesco, 2005). This is the framework where we can insert the research that we are currently carrying out, funded by the research Program I+D+I of the Spanish Ministry of Education, and in the frame of which we are developing a diagnostic assessment of informational literacy competence in students between 14 and 16 years (Secondary Education), based on the fact that one of the main aspects in knowledge generation and acquisition is the capacity to use information extracted from documents and electronic resources, available in informational networks in a correct way. In this paper we present the results obtained from evidences on the contrast existing between the level of use of technologies (videogames, social networks...) and the level of informational literacy shown by students. The data were gathered from a sample of more than 1000 Secondary Education students who are around 15 years old

Linking Spanish wine farmers to international markets: Is direct export better than indirect export in improving farm performance?

Selecting an appropriate export channel is one of farmers’ most important strategic decisions as it determines farm performance. Although direct and indirect exports are two important channels linking farmers to international markets, little is known about whether direct export is better than indirect export in improving farm performance. This study addresses this research gap by analyzing the impact of export channel choice on wine export farm performance, utilizing data collected from 479 wine-exporting farmers from Spain. An inverse probability-weighted regression adjustment estimator addresses the selection bias issue of export channel choice. The results show that the wine export price received by the direct exporters is significantly lower than that received by the indirect exports. Using domestic intermediaries for exportation (i.e. indirect export) can reduce information asymmetry and transaction costs, which enable indirect wine exporters to sell their products at higher prices. However, there are no significant differences between direct and indirect exporters in export volume, value, diversity, and satisfaction. The findings highlight that direct and indirect exports do not generate differentiated profits, and wine farmers should choose one of them that can facilitate their access to international markets

Ethical conflict in critical care nursing: correlation between exposure and types

Background: Ethical conflicts in nursing have generally been studied in terms of temporal frequency and the degree of conflict. This study presents a new perspective for examining ethical conflict in terms of the degree of exposure to conflict and its typology. Objectives: The aim was to examine the level of exposure to ethical conflict for professional nurses in critical care units and to analyze the relation between this level and the types of ethical conflict and moral states. Research design: This was a descriptive correlational study. Central and dispersion, normality tests, and analysis of variance were carried out. Participants and research context: A total of 203 nurses were from two third-level teaching hospitals in Spain. Both centers are part of the University of Barcelona Health Network. Participants filled out the Ethical Conflict in Nursing Questionnaire. Critical Care Version. Ethical considerations: This investigation received the approval of the ethical committees for clinical investigation of the two participating hospitals. Participants were informed of the authorship and aims of the study. Findings: The index of exposure to ethical conflict was x ¼ 182:35. The situations involving analgesic treatment and end-of-life care were shown to be frequent sources of conflict. The types of ethical conflict and moral states generally arranged themselves from lesser to greater levels of index of exposure to ethical conflict. Discussion: The moderate level of exposure to ethical conflict was consistent with other international studies. However, the situations related with family are infrequent, and this presents differences with previous research. The results suggest that there is a logical relationship between types of conflict and levels of exposure to ethical conflict. Conclusion: The types of ethical conflict and moral states were related with the levels of exposure to ethical conflict. The new perspective was shown to be useful for analyzing the phenomenon of ethical conflict in the nurse

Validation of the CAchexia SCOre (CASCO). Staging Cancer Patients: The Use of miniCASCO as a Simplified Tool

The CAchexia SCOre (CASCO) was described as a tool for the staging of cachectic cancer patients. The aim of this study is to show the metric properties of CASCO in order to classify cachectic cancer patients into three different groups, which are associated with a numerical scoring. The final aim was to clinically validate CASCO for its use in the classification of cachectic cancer patients in clinical practice. We carried out a case -control study that enrolled prospectively 186 cancer patients and 95 age-matched controls. The score includes five components: (1) body weight loss and composition, (2) inflammation/metabolic disturbances/immunosuppression, (3) physical performance, (4) anorexia, and (5) quality of life. The present study provides clinical validation for the use of the score. In order to show the metric properties of CASCO, three different groups of cachectic cancer patients were established according to the results obtained with the statistical approach used: mild cachexia (15 ≤ × ≤ 28), moderate cachexia (29 ≤ × ≤ 46), and severe cachexia (47 ≤ × ≤ 100). In addition, a simplified version of CASCO, MiniCASCO (MCASCO), was also presented and it contributes as a valid and easy-to-use tool for cachexia staging. Significant statistically correlations were found between CASCO and other validated indexes such as Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) and the subjective diagnosis of cachexia by specialized oncologists. A very significant estimated correlation between CASCO and MCASCO was found that suggests that MCASCO might constitute an easy and valid tool for the staging of the cachectic cancer patients. CASCO and MCASCO provide a new tool for the quantitative staging of cachectic cancer patients with a clear advantage over previous classifications

Educational leadership in Europe: A transcultural approach

Leadership in education is one of the factors relevant to the study of educational capital of a country and a fundamental variable in the analysis of academic performance is especially distributive leadership and instructional leadership. The aim of this paper is to analyze the relationship of some fundamental factors, derived from TALIS report (human resource structure in each center, training needs, level of collaboration and cooperation among faculty for academic activities and professional involvement of teachers) with leadership styles (instructional or distributive) in some European countries. For each school we have obtained a series of global indicators to characterize each of those factors. Thus, data have been derived for a total sample of 3,835 centers 21 countries. Using the factor scores from a confirmatory factor analysis model a whole cluster was estimated using the Mahalanobis distance finding similarities between European countries and analyzed using regression coefficients were estimated variables that are related to leadership styles. The results indicate that the impact of exogenous factors between the two types of leadership styles are not the same as the geographical area under consideration and, specifically, the Spanish centers show an intermediate behavior between more developed educational models such as North Europe and the more diffuse areas of southern and central Europe

A novel method for combating dispersion induced power fading in dispersion compensating fiber

\u3cp\u3eWe experimentally investigate the performance of 60 GHz double sideband (DSB) radio over fiber (RoF) links that employ dispersion compensating fiber (DCF). Error free transmission of 3 Gbps signals over 1 m of wireless distance is reported. In order to overcome experimentally observed chromatic dispersion (CD) induced power fading of radio frequency (RF) signal, we propose a method for improvement of RF carrierto- noise (C/N) ratio through introduction of a degree of RF frequency tunability. Overall results improve important aspects of directly modulated RoF systems and demonstrate the feasibility of high carrier frequency and wide bandwidth RF signals delivery in RoF links including DCF fiber. Error free performance that we obtain for 3 Gbps amplitude shift-keying (ASK) signals enables uncompressed high-definition 1080p video delivery.\u3c/p\u3

Cumplimiento, conocimiento y automedicación como factores asociados a los resultados clínicos negativos de la farmacoterapia

The patient plays a fundamental role in the attainment of good results in pharmacotherapy. Noncompliance,self-medication, or insufficient knowledge of the therapy being employed may provide asource for the causes of these negative clinical outcomes, otherwise known as medicine related problems(MRP). he Dader method was used in the evaluation, identification and classification of MRP. Theassociation of variables was established through the statistical Chi square test. Patient knowledge of themedicine, degree of compliance to therapy and self-medication were studied as causes of the negativeoutcomes encountered. 2556 patients were interviewed throughout the year that the study took place,giving a total of 2261 of valid cases. 33% presented an MRP as the cause of his/her visit to the hospitalemergency ward. Knowledge of the medicine, compliance and self-medication were only studied in thepopulation that presented an MRP and in this work it is demonstrated that these are aspects that areassociated with different dimensions of MRP. It is not possible to establish an association between theexistence or not of negative clinical outcomes in patients with the factors of knowledge of medication,compliance and self-medication. This is due to the fact that these variables are not attributable to thepatient himself, but rather are associated with the characteristics of each medicine.El paciente juega un papel primordial en la consecución de los resultados terapéuticos. El incumplimiento,la automedicación, o la falta de conocimiento del la farmacoterapia pueden ser causas de esosresultados clínicos negativos, denominados en ocasiones problemas relacionados con medicamentos(PRM). El método Dáder se utilizó para la evaluación, identificación y clasificación de PRM. Laasociación de variables se estableció mediante el estadístico chi cuadrado. El conocimiento de la medicación,el cumplimiento y la automedicación fueron estudiados como causa de estos resultados negativosde la medicación. Fueron entrevistados 2556 pacientes durante el año de estudio, resultando 2261 casosválidos. El 33 % presentaron un PRM como causa de visita a urgencias. El conocimiento de la medicación,el cumplimiento y la automedicación fueron estudiados solo en la población que presentó unPRM y se demuestra que son aspectos asociados a las distintas dimensiones de PRM. No es posibleestablecer asociación entre la existencia o no de resultados clínicos negativos en los pacientes con elconocimiento de la medicación, el cumplimiento y la automedicación, debido a que estas variables noson atributos del paciente sino que están asociadas a cada medicamento

Non-equilibrium universality in the dynamics of dissipative cold atomic gases

The theory of continuous phase transitions predicts the universal collective properties of a physical system near a critical point, which for instance manifest in characteristic power-law behaviours of physical observables. The well-established concept at or near equilibrium, universality, can also characterize the physics of systems out of equilibrium. The most fundamental instance of a genuine non-equilibrium phase transition is the directed percolation universality class, where a system switches from an absorbing inactive to a fluctuating active phase. Despite being known for several decades it has been challenging to find experimental systems that manifest this transition. Here we show theoretically that signatures of the directed percolation universality class can be observed in an atomic system with long range interactions. Moreover, we demonstrate that even mesoscopic ensembles — which are currently studied experimentally — are sufficient to observe traces of this non-equilibrium phase transition in one, two and three dimensions

Better Societal Impact Evaluation of Research. ENRESSH Brief: Societal Impact

Societal impact has not often been systematically included in research evaluation procedures. Where societal impact is included in research evaluation, it is often defined in a restrictive way relating exclusively to directly measurable economic returns. This limitation is especially important for research, which does not aim to generate direct profits but interacts with, adds value to, and makes sense of, society. This policy brief presents ten recommendations for the evaluation of societal impact with a special focus on how its evaluation can better facilitate research. These recommendations are based on the findings of a long-term multi-country project examining the interactions and roles of research and society across Europe with a special focus on the social sciences and humanities (SSH). Country case studies, conceptual analyses, and policy perspectives are presented in the edited volume “Accountability in Academic Life: European Perspectives on Societal Impact Evaluation” (Edward Elgar, 2023)