Behavior Effect of Hint Selection Penalties and Availability in an Intelligent Tutoring System

Proceedings of: Tenth International Confererence on Intelligent Tutoring Systems: Bridges to Learning (ITS 2010). Pittsburg, USA, June 14-18, 2010.his paper presents empirical results about the behavior effect of two different hinting strategies applied on exercises within an ITS: having some penalty on the scoring for viewing hints or not having any effect on the scoring; and hints directly available or only available as a result to an incorrect attempt. We analyze the students' behavior differences when these hinting techniques changed, taking into account the type and difficulty of the presented exercises.Work partially funded by the Learn3 project TIN2008-05163/TSI within the Spanish “Plan Nacional de I+D+I”, and the Madrid regional community project eMadrid S2009/TIC-1650.Publicad

La plataforma siette una herramienta para el aprendizaje de la botánica forestal

El avance tecnológico está incorporando nuevas herramientas de aprendizaje para complementar el estudio y realizar prácticas de autoevaluación de valor formativo, ya que mediante el ejercicio de evaluación el estudiante puede reflexionar sobre su progreso y dirigir mejor su esfuerzo en el estudio. En este marco la plataforma SIETTE es un sistema web que permite la creación y mantenimiento de bancos de preguntas, y realización de tests, que implementa la Teoría Clásica de Test (CTT), Teoría de Respuesta al Ítem (TRI), permite realizar Tests Adaptativos Informatizados (TAI), y puede usarse como herramienta para el aprendizaje colaborativo. Siette puede usarse como módulo de evaluación de un Sistema Tutor Inteligente (STI) o conectado a una Plataforma de Teleeducación (LMS) como Moodle. Siette implementa muchas otras opciones para la realización de prácticas de reconocimiento, repaso, y evaluación. Esta comunicación presenta los resultados de varios años de trabajo con esta herramienta, las diversas experiencias de formación y evaluación de conocimientos sobre Botánica Forestal. Se han definido más de 2500 preguntas, la mayoría basadas en imágenes y realizado mas de 4300 sesiones de evaluación en la Escuela Universitaria de Ingeniería Técnica Forestal de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid en colaboración con la Universidad de Málaga

A role for the chemokine receptor CCR6 in mammalian sperm motility and chemotaxis

Although recent evidence indicates that several chemokines and defensins, well-known as inflammatory mediators, are expressed in the male and female reproductive tracts, the location and functional significance of chemokine networks in sperm physiology and sperm reproductive tract interactions are poorly understood. To address this deficiency in our knowledge, we examined the expression and function in sperm of CCR6, a receptor common to several chemoattractant peptides, and screened several reproductive tract fluids for the presence of specific ligands. CCR6 protein is present in mouse and human sperm and mainly localized in the sperm tail with other minor patterns in sperm from mice (neck and acrosomal region) and men (neck and midpiece regions). As expected from the protein immunoblotting and immunofluorescence results, mouse Ccr6 mRNA is expressed in the testis. Furthermore, the Defb29 mRNA encoding the CCR6 ligand, β-defensin DEFB29, is expressed at high levels in the epididymis. As determined by protein chip analysis, several chemokines (including some that act through CCR6, such as CCL20/MIP-3α (formerly macrophage inflammatory protein 3α) and protein hormones were present in human follicular fluid, endometrial secretions, and seminal plasma. In functional chemotaxis assays, capacitated human sperm exhibited a directional movement towards CCL20, and displayed modifications in motility parameters. Our data indicate that chemokine ligand/receptor interactions in the male and female genital tracts promote sperm motility and chemotaxis under non-inflammatory conditions. Therefore, some of the physiological reactions mediated by CCR6 ligands in male reproduction extend beyond a pro-inflammatory response and might find application in clinical reproduction and/or contraception.Fil: Caballero Campo, Pedro. Clínica Tambre. Unidad de Reproducción Humana; España. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Buffone, Mariano Gabriel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental (i); ArgentinaFil: Benencia, Fabián. Ohio University; Estados UnidosFil: Conejo García, José R.. The Wistar Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Rinaudo, Paolo F.. University of California; Estados UnidosFil: Gerton, George L.. University of Pennsylvania; Estados Unido

Towards the Prediction of User Actions on Exercises with Hints Based on Survey Results

Proceedings of: 6th European Conference of Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2011, Palermo, Italy, September 20-23, 2011.The actions a user performs on exercises depending on the different hinting techniques applied, can be used to adapt future exercises. In this paper, we propose a survey for users in order to know their different actions depending on different conditions. The analysis of preliminary results for some questions of the model shows that there is a correlation between some survey questions and the real student actions, but there is a case in which there is not such correlation. For the cases where that correlation exists, this correlation leads to think that some prediction of users actions based on survey results is possible.Work partially funded by the Learn3 project TIN2008-05163/TSI within the Spanish “Plan Nacional de I+D+I”, and the Madrid regional community project eMadrid S2009/TIC-1650

Loving to Straighten Out Development: Sexuality and ‘Ethnodevelopment’ in the World Bank’s Ecuadorian Lending

Gender staff in the World Bank -- the world's largest and most influential development institution -- have a policy problem. Having prioritised efforts to get women into paid employment as the "cure-all" for gender inequality they must deal with the work that women already do -- the unpaid labour of caring, socialisation, and human needs fulfilment. This article explores the most prominent policy solution enacted by the Bank to this tension between paid and unpaid work: the restructuring of normative heterosexuality to encourage a two-partner model of love and labour wherein women work more and men care better. Through a case study of Bank gender lending in Ecuador I argue that staff are trying to (re)forge normative arrangements of intimacy, a policy preference that remains invisible unless sexuality is taken seriously as a category of analysis in development studies. Specifically, I focus on four themes that emerge from the attempt to restructure heteronormativity in the loan: (1) the definition of good gender analysis as requiring complementary sharing and dichotomous sex; (2) the Bank's attempt to inculcate limited rationality in women such that they operate as better workers while retaining altruistic attachments to loved ones; (3) the Bank's attempt to inculcate better loving in men, such that they pick up the slack of caring labour when their (partially) rational wives move into productive work, and; (4) the invocation of a racialised hierarchy resting on the extent to which communities approximate ideals of sharing monogamous partnership. Aside from providing clear evidence that the world's largest development institution is involved in micro-processes of sexuality adjustment alongside macro-processes of economic restructuring, I also critique the Bank's sexualised policy interventions and suggest that they warrant contestation

Medición de parámetros fisicos, biológicos y químicos en el tramo estuarino del río Ebro

En este artículo se describen las campañas de campo CYTMAR I y II realizadas en la primavera y el verano de 1997, con el fin de estudiar los procesos y los flujos físicos, biológicos y químicos en la zona del Delta del Ebro, tanto en el tramo estuarino del río como en la pluma de agua dulce que se forma en las cercanías de la desembocadura. Aquí el estudio se ha centrado en la zona estuarina, presentando algunos resultados preliminares y analizando las diferencias estacionales observadas

Harnessing the Effect of Adoptively Transferred Tumor-Reactive T Cells on Endogenous (Host-Derived) Antitumor Immunity

Adoptive T cell transfer therapy, the ex vivo activation, expansion, and subsequent administration of tumor-reactive T cells, is already the most effective therapy against certain types of cancer. However, recent evidence in animal models and clinical trials suggests that host conditioning interventions tailored for some of the most aggressive and frequent epithelial cancers will be needed to maximize the benefit of this approach. Similarly, the subsets, stage of differentiation, and ex vivo expansion procedure of tumor-reactive T cells to be adoptively transferred influence their in vivo effectiveness and may need to be adapted for different types of cancer and host conditioning interventions. The effects of adoptively transferred tumor-reactive T cells on the mechanisms of endogenous (host-derived) antitumor immunity, and how to maximize their combined effects, are further discussed

Shaping the Immune Landscape in Cancer by Galectin-Driven Regulatory Pathways

Along with the discovery of tumor-driven inflammatory pathways, there has been a considerable progress over the past 10 years in understanding the mechanisms leading to cancer immunosurveillance and immunoediting. Several regulatory pathways, typically involved in immune cell homeostasis, are co-opted by cancer cells to thwart the development of effective antitumor responses. These regulatory circuits include the engagement of inhibitory checkpoint pathways (CTLA-4, PD-1/PD-L1, LAG-3 and TIM-3), secretion of immunosuppressive cytokines (TGF-β, IL-10), and expansion and/or recruitment of myeloid or lymphoid regulatory cell populations. Elucidation of these pathways has inspired the design and implementation of novel immunotherapeutic modalities, which have already generated clinical benefits in an important number of cancer patients. Galectins, a family of glycan-binding proteins widely expressed in the tumor microenvironment (TME), have emerged as key players in immune evasion programs that differentially control the fate of effector and regulatory lymphoid and myeloid cell populations. How do galectins translate glycan-containing information into cellular programs that control immune regulatory cancer networks? Here, we uncover the selective roles of individual members of the galectin family in cancer-promoting inflammation, immunosuppression, and angiogenesis. Moreover, we highlight the relevance of corresponding glycosylated ligands and counter-receptors and the emerging function of these lectins as biological liaisons connecting commensal microbiota, systemic inflammation, and distal tumor growth. Understanding the molecular and cellular components of galectin-driven regulatory circuits, the implications of different glycosylation pathways in their functions and their clinical relevance in human cancer might lead to the development of new therapeutic approaches in a broad range of tumor types.Fil: Rabinovich, Gabriel Adrián. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; Argentina. Universidad de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Conejo García, José R.. The Wistar Institute; Estados Unido