Does student proactivity guarantee positive academic results?

This paper analyzes the impact of students’ proactivity on academic performance based on a sample from students enrolled in an introductory course of Political Economy at the University of Seville (Spain) in three consecutive courses (2014–2015, 2015–2016 and 2016–2017). Proactivity is measured by several indicators, such as class attendance, case-study oral presentation and its delivery in a foreign language, all of them being non-mandatory activities for students who have participated in the experiment. Specifically, this study aims to assess the impact of a student’s proactivity on two academic outcomes: (i) to pass or fail the exam; and (ii) the score obtained. Impact assessment has been performed using a probit and ordered multinomial logit models. The results show that a student’s proactivity measured by class attendance and case-study presentation significantly increases the probability of passing the exam, while the impact of using a foreign language seems to be non-significant. In relation to the score obtained, the proactivity measured through the case presentation raises the probability of obtaining a higher mark more than regular class attendance.Junta de Andalucía proyecto SEJ-132Universidad Autónoma de ChileUniversidad de Sevilla. Departamento de Análisis Económico y Política Económic

“Sin opinión no hay transformación”: Sistematización de una secuencia didáctica de enfoque comunicativo para la producción de textos argumentativos, con estudiantes de grado séptimo

El presente informe expone los resultados de la sistematización de una propuesta basada en la implementación de una secuencia didáctica de enfoque comunicativo, para la enseñanza de la producción textual de textos argumentativos tipo artículos de opinión, con estudiantes del grado 7° de educación básica secundaria de la institución educativa Centro de Integración Popular de Riohacha, La Guajira. Este trabajo hace parte del Macroproyecto de la línea en didáctica del lenguaje de la Maestría en Educación de la Universidad Tecnológica de Pereira. Para sistematizar la experiencia se siguió un proceso que tuvo en cuenta: evaluación del nivel inicial de producción de los estudiantes a partir de las dimensiones (situación de comunicación, superestructura y lingüística textual), posteriormente se realizó la implementación de la secuencia didáctica y a su vez las reflexiones de la práctica pedagógica de las investigadoras; finalmente se realizó la evaluación final del nivel de producción de textos argumentativos, con el fin de evidenciar trasformaciones en los aprendizajes de los estudiantes y en las prácticas docentes. De acuerdo con los resultados obtenidos, es preciso concluir que hubo mejoría en las producciones de los estudiantes a partir de la implementación de una secuencia didáctica de enfoque comunicativo, además las profesoras lograron reflexionar y transformar sus prácticas de enseñanza del lenguaje

Estudio multicéntrico sobre la evaluación de los usos fuera de ficha técnica y usos compasivos de medicamentos

Se trata de un estudio transversal, multicéntrico, sobre las solicitudes de usos fuera de ficha técnica y usos compasivos de medicamentos, realizadas durante el año 2010 en 7 centros hospitalarios de la Comunidad Autónoma Andaluza. Objetivos: Analizar el nivel de evidencia científica en el que sustentan las indicaciones de usos off-label. Describir la magnitud y perfil de las solicitudes de uso compasivo. Valorar la actividad investigadora a través de los ensayos clínicos en marcha para cada una de las indicaciones off-label. Analizar el nivel de evidencia para cada indicación off-label después de 5 años y valorar los cambios. Conocer los grupos farmacológicos, áreas clínicas y procesos patológicos que con mayor frecuencia se asocian a estos usos. Resultados: Se analizaron un total de 1043 solicitudes de usos fuera de ficha técnica, que implicaron a 101 medicamentos distintos para 256 indicaciones diferentes. Alguno de estos medicamentos son de uso extendido y común entre los centros, como es el caso de adalimumab, bevacizumab, micofenolato y rituximab. El mayor número de indicaciones distintas fueron solicitadas desde los servicios de Onco-Hematología. Los servicios que mayor volumen de solicitudes solicitaron fueron Oftalmología, Onco-Hematología y Neumología. La mitad de estos usos (49,2%) se sustentaban en al menos un ensayo clínico, para el 41% se disponía de casos, series de casos y estudios observacionales, y para el 9,8% restante no había ninguna evidencia científica o información disponible. Tras 5 años de seguimiento, el 32% de estas indicaciones han incrementado su evidencia. Tras la revisión de las fichas técnicas e informes mensuales de la AEMPS, sólo 22 de las 256 indicaciones solicitadas han sido objeto de ampliación en las fichas técnicas de los fármacos correspondientes. Encontramos que para el 60% de los usos off-label hay al menos un ensayo clínico en marcha registrado en Clinicaltrials.gov. Las áreas clínicas que presentan mayor actividad investigadora son Oncología y Hematología, seguidas por Nefrología. También se recogieron 185 solicitudes de uso compasivo, correspondientes a 30 fármacos para 48 indicaciones distintas. La mayoría de los fármacos (n=22) se emplearon para una única indicación, si bien el resto fue solicitado hasta para 6 usos diferentes, como es el caso de talidomida. Conclusiones: Las solicitudes de usos fuera de ficha técnica son frecuentes y con una gran variabilidad entre los distintos centros. Oncohematología es el área clínica donde mayor variedad de fármacos e indicaciones distintas se solicitan. Predominan los agentes antineoplásicos e inmunomoduladores. Aunque el 32% de estos usos han incrementado su evidencia, sólo el 8,5% ha conseguido la ampliación de la indicación en ficha técnica. Persisten sin ampliación algunos usos bien sustentados. De los usos compasivos solicitados, un 40% tuvo designación como huérfano. Tras 5 años, el 70% de estos fármacos han conseguido autorización de comercialización. Hubo algunos medicamento comunes entre los centros, como idebenona para ataxia de Friedreich, gemtuzumab para leucemia mieloide aguda y treprostinil para hipertensión pulmonar idiopática

Flexible Fuzzy Rule Bases Evolution with Swarm Intelligence for Meta-Scheduling in Grid Computing

Fuzzy rule-based systems are expert systems whose performance is strongly related to the quality of their knowledge and the associated knowledge acquisition processes and thus, the design of effective learning techniques is considered a critical and major problem of these systems. Knowledge acquisition with a swarm intelligence approach is a recent learning strategy for the evolution of fuzzy rule bases founded on swarm intelligence showing improvement over classical knowledge acquisition strategies in fuzzy rule based systems such as Pittsburgh and Michigan approaches in terms of convergence behaviour and accuracy. In this work, a generalization of this method is proposed to allow the simultaneous consideration of diversely configured knowledge bases and this way to accelerate the learning process of the original algorithm. In order to test the suggested strategy, a problem of practical importance nowadays, the design of expert meta-schedulers systems for grid computing is considered. Simulations results show the fact that the suggested adaptation improves the functionality of knowledge acquisition with a swarm intelligence approach and it reduces computational effort; at the same time it keeps the quality of the canonical strategy

Consumption of Substances in Nightlife Settings: A Qualitative Approach in Young Andalusians (Spain)

Adolescence and youth are stages of exploration and experimentation, when the consumption of psychoactive substances for recreational or experimental purposes often begins. The general objective of this study was to explore youth consumption habits in nightlife settings and associated factors in Andalusia (Spain). To this end, we took into account young people’s perceptions about patterns of drug polyconsumption in nightlife settings and the perceptions and actions of health and teaching professionals towards this issue. We carried out a qualitative methodology with 24 in-depth interviews and 3 discussion groups with Andalusian girls and boys aged between 16 and 22 (n = 45) and 13 in-depth interviews with social agents (health and teaching professionals). We performed narrative discourse analysis and triangulation of identified categories and measured the units of analysis. The results show information relating to gender, age of initiation, most commonly consumed substances, motivation and effects, peer group pressure and how they obtained the substances, and the perceptions held and main activities carried out in the educational institutions and health centers

La iniciativa Urbana en España (2007-2013): Diseño e implementación de políticas públicas de regeneración urbana en Alicante, Cádiz, Córdoba, y Coslada

This paper carries out an in-depth analysis of four Spanish cities (Alicante, Cádiz, Córdoba and Coslada). These municipalities implement urban initiatives co-financed with European funds in the 2007-2013 call. The aim of this work is to clarify the gap between the design and the implementation of public policies. In this sense, the paper tries to identify the factors that would introduce inconsistencies between both phases of the public policy in each case. Starting from an extensive methodology the paper analyzes the design and implementation of urban regeneration policies in four Spanish cities through the development of in-depth interviews.El presente trabajo realiza un análisis en profundidad de cuatro ciudades españolas (Alicante, Cádiz, Córdoba y Coslada) que desarrollan iniciativas urbanas cofinanciadas con fondos europeos en la convocatoria 2007-2013. El objetivo fundamental de este trabajo es el de arrojar luz sobre el complejo proceso que tiene lugar desde el momento en el que se diseñan las políticas hasta que finalmente se ejecutan. En este sentido, se analizan las diferencias que se producen entre el diseño y la implementación de los programas, tratando de identificar en cada caso los factores que estarían contribuyendo a introducir incoherencias entre ambas fases de la política pública. Para ello, partiendo de una metodología extensiva, obtenida de la aplicación de un cuestionario, se procede a analizar el diseño y la implementación de las políticas de regeneración urbana en cuatro ciudades españolas mediante el desarrollo de entrevistas en profundidad

Epigenetic linkage of systemic lupus erythematosus and nutrition

The term “epigenetics” refers to a series of meiotically/mitotically inheritable alterations in gene expression, related to environmental factors, without disruption on DNA sequences of bases. Recently, the pathophysiology of autoimmune diseases (ADs) has been closely linked to epigenetic modifications. Actually, epigenetic mechanisms can modulate gene expression or repression of targeted cells and tissues involved in autoimmune/inflammatory conditions acting as keys effectors in regulation of adaptive and innate responses. ADs, as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a rare disease that still lacks effective treatment, is characterized by epigenetic marks in affected cells. Taking into account that epigenetic mechanisms have been proposed as a winning strategy in the search of new more specific and personalized therapeutics agents. Thus, pharmacology and pharmacoepigenetic studies about epigenetic regulations of ADs may provide novel individualized therapies. Focussing in possible implicated factors on development and predisposition of SLE, diet is feasibly one of the most important factors since it is linked directly to epigenetic alterations and these epigenetic changes may augment or diminish the risk of SLE. Nevertheless, several studies have guaranteed that dietary therapy could be a promise to SLE patients via prophylactic actions deprived of side effects of pharmacology, decreasing comorbidities and improving lifestyle of SLE sufferers. Herein, we review and discuss the cross-link between epigenetic mechanisms on SLE predisposition and development, as well as the influence of dietary factors on regulation epigenetic modifications that would eventually make a positive impact on SLE patients.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad AG2017-89342-

Super-structured Fiber Bragg Gratings with improved features for Coherent Direct Sequence OCDMA

[EN] This paper reports different proposals in the field of the Super-structured Fiber Bragg Gratings for Coherent Direct Sequence OCDMA applications providing enhanced fea- tures in terms of available spectral bandwidth, spectral efficiency and inter-channel rejection suitable for WDM and OCDMA combined applications. The reported de- vices cover the multiband en-decoders covering different bands on the same device, the almost rectangular envelope en-decoders demonstrated for both 1 and 5 ITU- 100GHz bands providing flat response and a roll-off better than 5 dB/GHz, and finally a multidimensional WDM/CODE/SPACE multiplexing proposal based on the concatenation of rectangular SSFBGs.This work was supported by the Spanish Government project TEC 2009-12169, and the Valencian Government under the project ACOMP/2010/023.Baños López, R.; Pastor Abellán, D.; García Muñoz, V.; Amaya Ocampo, WA. (2013). Super-structured Fiber Bragg Gratings with improved features for Coherent Direct Sequence OCDMA. Waves. 5(1):5-12. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/57917S5125

Randomised clinical trial of a manual therapy programme to reduce the evolution time of axillary web syndrome in women affected by breast cancer: study protocol

Introduction Breast cancer is the most common malignant tumour in women, with more than 2 million new cases annually worldwide. One of the most frequent and well-known surgical and post-actinic sequelae is post-mastectomy lymphoedema. The axillary web syndrome is another sequela that limits the functionality of the patient and delays the protocol time of administering cancer treatments; and in many cases, this sequela is misdiagnosed. This surgical sequela usually disappears spontaneously after the third month of appearance, but this implies a long period of discomfort and limitations for the patient, at the same time, it may delay the application of radiotherapy within the indicated protocol deadline (due to a need for body posture). Methods and analysis With the present quasi-experimental study, we intend to show the application of physiotherapy and stretching from the beginning of the appearance of the axillary cord, in a controlled and scheduled way by the physiotherapist. It is possible to reduce the time in which the lymphatic thrombus is present and, therefore, recover functionality and mobility, reduce pain and be able to apply treatments within the established deadline. We intend to apply this therapy into the intervention group and compare thrombus evolution time with the control group. Ethics and dissemination This trial has the approval of the Andalucia Ethics Committee (PEIBA code 1909-N1-21, reg. number 171.21)

Technology development as a tool towards circularity: a research agenda

New technological development enables to implement circular economy (CE) practices. This phenomenon is taking particular interest for the Academy. The aim of this study is to analyse the cognitive and intellectual structure of the relationship between CE and technology. The proposed research questions seek to answer how the evolution of the number of publications per year, the main authors, journals, institutions and countries in this field, and the most relevant topics and papers in the research area are. It is used a bibliometric approach of co-word analysis of 996 articles published on Web of Science. In addition, it is proposed a research agenda after reviewing the most cited articles and points the research trend topics. There is a need to include topics associated with the social sphere, since most of the research is focused on environmental aspects and economic effects. In recent years, research has been polarised towards the blockchain, Big Data and biorefinery technologies. Although these technologies are in demand, it should not ignore other emerging technologies that could be key to circularity, such as those related to product redesign or changes in production infrastructures