Learning Economics by Servicing: a Mexican Experience of Service-Learning in Microenterprises

This paper presents an experience of a service learning program in underprivileged Microenterprises. An aspect that turns out to be original as compared to other contributions in literature is the explicit assessment of the impact of the program on the enterprises, since most of the related studies focus on evaluating the students experience and impact on learning derived from participation. The paper suggests that service learning programs with the participation of college students can play an important role both in supporting disadvantaged microenterprises and in providing meaningful learning experiences to students.

Efficacy of capacitive resistive monopolar radiofrequency in the physiotherapeutic treatment of chronic pelvic pain syndrome : study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

Chronic pelvic pain syndrome (CPPS) is a multifactorial disorder that affects 5.7% to 26.6% of women and 2.2% to 9.7% of men, characterized by hypersensitivity of the central and peripheral nervous system affecting bladder and genital function. People with CPPS have much higher rates of psychological disorders (anxiety, depression, and catastrophizing) that increase the severity of chronic pain and worsen quality of life. Myofascial therapy, manual therapy, and treatment of trigger points are proven therapeutic options for this syndrome. This study aims to evaluate the efficacy of capacitive resistive monopolar radiofrequency (CRMRF) at 448kHz as an adjunct treatment to other physiotherapeutic techniques for reducing pain and improving the quality of life of patients with CPPS. This triple-blind (1:1) randomized controlled trial will include 80 women and men with CPPS. Participants will be randomized into a CRMRF activated group or a CRMRF deactivated group and receive physiotherapeutic techniques and pain education. The groups will undergo treatment for 10 consecutive weeks. At the beginning of the trial there will be an evaluation of pain intensity (using VAS), quality of life (using the SF-12), kinesiophobia (using the TSK-11), and catastrophism (using the PCS), as well as at the sixth and tenth sessions. The results of this study will show that CRMRF benefits the treatment of patients with CPPS, together with physiotherapeutic techniques and pain education. These results could offer an alternative conservative treatment option for these patients. ClinicalTrials.gov . Registered on 8 January 2019. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s13063-021-05321-6

Stochastic partial differential equation based modelling of large space-time data sets

Increasingly larger data sets of processes in space and time ask for statistical models and methods that can cope with such data. We show that the solution of a stochastic advection-diffusion partial differential equation provides a flexible model class for spatio-temporal processes which is computationally feasible also for large data sets. The Gaussian process defined through the stochastic partial differential equation has in general a nonseparable covariance structure. Furthermore, its parameters can be physically interpreted as explicitly modeling phenomena such as transport and diffusion that occur in many natural processes in diverse fields ranging from environmental sciences to ecology. In order to obtain computationally efficient statistical algorithms we use spectral methods to solve the stochastic partial differential equation. This has the advantage that approximation errors do not accumulate over time, and that in the spectral space the computational cost grows linearly with the dimension, the total computational costs of Bayesian or frequentist inference being dominated by the fast Fourier transform. The proposed model is applied to postprocessing of precipitation forecasts from a numerical weather prediction model for northern Switzerland. In contrast to the raw forecasts from the numerical model, the postprocessed forecasts are calibrated and quantify prediction uncertainty. Moreover, they outperform the raw forecasts, in the sense that they have a lower mean absolute error

Influence of the characteristics of the house and place of residence in the daily educational activities of children during the period of COVID-19’ confinement

The period of confinement motivated by the COVID-19 pandemic and established by the governments of different countries has influenced the lifestyle of millions of children, not being able to continue carrying out multiple educational activities as they did until confinement. The objective of this research was to determine and analyze whether the living conditions of children during the period of confinement caused by COVID-19 influenced their daily educational activities. A descriptive, comparative and cross- sectional quantitative study with a non-experimental design was carried out, with a single measurement in a single group. Factors associate with living conditions were analyzed, such as the place of residence and the type of house in which Spanish children have been confined, as well as the number and use of technological devices. The parents' perception of the children's state of fatigue, happiness, energy and tiredness was also analyzed. We have worked with a sample of 837 Spanish children. As a data collection instrument, the validated questionnaire on Equipment and Use of Information and Communication Technologies in Households (TIC-H2019) of the National Statistics Institute (INE) was used, following the recommendations of the Statistical Office of the European Union (EUROSTAT). The results confirm some statistically significant influence of the conditions of the house and place of residence on the daily time dedicated to different educational activities such as reading, physical activity, free play or use of technological devices between children residing in small flats and those residing in large flats or houses with garden and those residing in urban and rural settings

Transition from fireball to Poynting-flux-dominated outflow in the three-episode GRB 160625B

© 2017 The Author(s). The ejecta composition is an open question in gamma-ray burst (GRB) physics 1 . Some GRBs possess a quasi-thermal spectral component in the time-resolved spectral analysis 2, suggesting a hot fireball origin. Others show a featureless non-thermal spectrum known as the Band function 3-5, consistent with a synchrotron radiation origin 5,6 and suggesting that the jet is Poynting-flux dominated at the central engine and probably in the emission region as well 7,8 . There are also bursts showing a sub-dominant thermal component and a dominant synchrotron component 9, suggesting a probable hybrid jet composition 10 . Here, we report an extraordinarily bright GRB 160625B, simultaneously observed in gamma-ray and optical wavelengths, whose prompt emission consists of three isolated episodes separated by long quiescent intervals, with the durations of each sub-burst being approximately 0.8 s, 35 s and 212 s, respectively. Its high brightness (with isotropic peak luminosity L p,iso ≈ 4 × 1053 erg s-1) allows us to conduct detailed time-resolved spectral analysis in each episode, from precursor to main burst and to extended emission. The spectral properties of the first two sub-bursts are distinctly different, allowing us to observe the transition from thermal to non-thermal radiation between well-separated emission episodes within a single GRB. Such a transition is a clear indication of the change of jet composition from a fireball to a Poynting-flux-dominated jet

The 16th Data Release of the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys: First Release from the APOGEE-2 Southern Survey and Full Release of eBOSS Spectra

This paper documents the 16th data release (DR16) from the Sloan Digital Sky Surveys (SDSS), the fourth and penultimate from the fourth phase (SDSS-IV). This is the first release of data from the Southern Hemisphere survey of the Apache Point Observatory Galactic Evolution Experiment 2 (APOGEE-2); new data from APOGEE-2 North are also included. DR16 is also notable as the final data release for the main cosmological program of the Extended Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey (eBOSS), and all raw and reduced spectra from that project are released here. DR16 also includes all the data from the Time Domain Spectroscopic Survey and new data from the SPectroscopic IDentification of ERosita Survey programs, both of which were co-observed on eBOSS plates. DR16 has no new data from the Mapping Nearby Galaxies at Apache Point Observatory (MaNGA) survey (or the MaNGA Stellar Library "MaStar"). We also preview future SDSS-V operations (due to start in 2020), and summarize plans for the final SDSS-IV data release (DR17)