Evaluación de una metodología docente innovadora para ingeniería, involucrando empresas y TIC en una flipped classroom

Título del ejemplar: X Congreso Internacional de Evaluación Formativa y Compartida – “Buenas prácticas docentes”[EN] This work presents an innovative education experience for engineering students, with the objective of connecting students to labor market, in the context of the regular subject practices, with the analysis of real cases of companies, and using as tools the ICTs and the flipped learning methodology. The assessment of the impact of this innovation education action consisted on the creation of data bases, and the organization of lecturers´ panels, and surveys for students and teachers. The most outstanding drawback raised by teachers was the lack of alignment between the companies’ needs and the curricula of the students. The students appreciated this kind of activity in the subject practices. The students also considered positive the use of ICTs as part of this innovative teaching-learning process, which are familiar technologies for them. According to the teachers, the action contributed to improve autonomous and collaborative teaching in Higher Education.[ES]Este trabajo presenta una experiencia de innovación docente para los estudiantes de ingeniería, con objeto de acercarlos al mercado laboral, mediante las prácticas de las asignaturas, analizando casos reales de empresas con las que entrarán en contacto directo, utilizando como herramientas TIC y la metodología flipped learning. Para evaluar el impacto de la acción se crearon bases de datos con los casos reales resueltos, se desarrollaron paneles de docentes y se realizaron encuestas a los docentes y alumnos involucrados. El mayor inconveniente destacado por los docentes fue la falta de alineamiento entre las necesidades de las empresas y los curricula de los estudiantes. Los estudiantes valoraron positivamente la actividad y el uso de TIC como parte importante del proceso innovador de enseñanza-aprendizaje. De acuerdo con la opinión de los profesores, la acción contribuyó a mejorar el aprendizaje autónomo y colaborativo en la Enseñanza Superior.[PT] Este trabalho apresenta uma experiência de inovação docente para os estudantes de engenharia com alvo de aproximá-los ao mercado laboral, por meio das práticas das disciplinas, analisando casos reais de empresas através das cuais entrarão em contato direto, usando como ferramentas as TICs e a metodologia “flipped learning”. Para avaliar o impacto da ação, foram criadas umas bases de dados com os casos reais resolvidos, se desenvolveram panéis de docentes e se realizaram inquéritos aos docentes e alunos implicados. A principal desvantagem para os docentes foi a falta de alinhameinto entre as necessidades das empresas e os currículos dos estudantes. Os estudantes valoraram positivamente a atividade e o uso das TICs como uma parte importante do processo inovador do ensino-aprendizagem. De acordo com a opinião dos professores, a ação ajudou a melhorar a aprendizagem autônoma e colaborativa no Ensino Superior.SIThis work has been financially supported by the project INVIERTE-PRACTIC, belonging to the PAGID-2016 call, from the University of León (Spain)

Valorización energética de residuos: análisis de la combustión conjunta de biogás y gases de pirólisis (piro-BIOGÁS)

Pyro-BIOGAS is a project that proposes combined waste management applying anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis processes for recove-ring energy. This project aims to encourage the use of renewable resources that are currently considered as waste for energy production. In order to attain the main objectives proposed, it was performed an evaluation of biogas production yields of different waste materials, along with the analysis of thermal and kinetic properties during pyrolysis of digested material. With this information, energy efficiency and economic feasibility of a combined process of anaerobic digestion of swine manure and pyrolysis of the digestate with lignocellulosic material was studied. On the other hand, burning characteristics of the gas thus obtained were evaluated. Through the combined use of biogas and pyrolysis gases, self-sufficient systems can be achieved, with extra energy production to be used for other purposes in the installation. It was observed, that burning characteristics, such us flame speed and temperature were affected by H2 and CO2 content.En el proyecto piro-BIOGÁS se ha planteado el estudio del aprovechamiento energético de los gases combustibles generados en un proceso conjunto de digestión anaerobia y pirólisis del material digerido. Con esta propuesta se pretende incentivar el uso de recursos renovables, que en la actualidad se consideran residuos, para la producción de energía. Con la finalidad de cumplir los objetivos propuestos, se han evaluado los rendimientos de producción de biogás de diferentes residuos, junto con las propiedades térmicas y cinéticas de la pirólisis del material digerido. A partir de los datos obtenidos, se ha planteado el balance energético y el estudio de viabilidad económica en una planta de digestión anaerobia para el tratamiento de purín, integrando una unidad de pirólisis para el digerido, mezclado con material lignocelulósico. Por otro lado, también se ha estudiado el comportamiento durante la combustión de diferentes mezclas biogás-gas pirólisis. Mediante el análisis de los rendimientos energéticos y la evaluación económica, se observó que el uso combinado del biogás y de los gases de pirólisis permite plantear instalaciones autosostenibles energéticamente, con un excedente de energía que puede cubrir otro tipo de necesidades térmicas en la planta. Se ha comprobado que el comportamiento de la combustión de las mezclas biogás-gas pirólisis está condicionado por el contenido de CO2 y H2, afectando tanto a la velocidad de propagación como a la temperatura de la llama

Evaluation of Joint Management of Pine Wood Waste and Residual Microalgae for Agricultural Application

[EN] This work addresses the joint management of residual microalgae and pine wood waste through pyrolysis to obtain a solid product for its use as soil amendment and two other by-products (liquid and gaseous) that can be used for energy purposes. Two management routes have been followed. The first route is through the co-pyrolysis of mixtures of both residual materials in several proportions and the later use of their solid fraction for soil amendment. The second route is the pyrolysis of pine wood waste and its direct combination with dried residual microalgae, also using it as soil amendment. The solid fraction assessment shows that from seven solid products (biochar) three stand out for their positive applicability in agriculture as soil amendment. In addition, they also present the benefit of serving as carbon sink, giving a negative balance of CO2 emissions. However, caution is suggested due to biochar applicability being subject to soil characteristics. To ensure the sustainability of the overall process, the energy available in liquid and gaseous fractions has been assessed for covering the drying needs of the residual microalgae in both cases. These results suggest that the pyrolysis process is a sustainable way to manage specific evaluated residues and their products.S

Parametrization of a Modified Friedman Kinetic Method to Assess Vine Wood Pyrolysis Using Thermogravimetric Analysis

[EN] Common kinetic parameters were obtained for leached and non-leached samples of vine wood biomass. Both samples were considered to have different proportions of cellulose, hemicellulose, and lignin compositions as a result of the leaching process. The two samples were analyzed in terms of pyrolysis kinetic parameters using non-isothermal thermogravimetric analysis. Furthermore, the classic Friedman isoconversional method, a deconvolution procedure using the Fraser–Suzuki function, and a modified Friedman method from a previous study on the delay in conversion degree were satisfactorily applied. The observed difference when the deconvolution technique was applied suggests that the classic Friedman method is not adequate for studying the pyrolysis of individual vine wood biomass components. However, this issue was solved by studying the delay in conversion degree of both biomasses and calculating the kinetic parameters using the resulting information. This procedure was found to be useful for studying and comparing the kinetics of heterogeneous biomasses and has a sound scientific explanation, making this research a basis for future similar studies.S

Evaluation of an innovative teaching methodology for engineering involving companies and ICTs in a flipped classroom

This work presents an innovative education experience for engineering students, with the objective of connecting students to labor market, in the context of the regular subject practices, with the analysis of real cases of companies, and using as tools the ICTs and the flipped learning methodology. The assessment of the impact of this innovation education action consisted on the creation of data bases, and the organization of lecturers´ panels, and surveys for students and teachers. The most outstanding drawback raised by teachers was the lack of alignment between the companies’ needs and the curricula of the students. The students appreciated this kind of activity in the subject practices. The students also considered positive the use of ICTs as part of this innovative teaching-learning process, which are familiar technologies for them. According to the teachers, the action contributed to improve autonomous and collaborative teaching in Higher Education

El Problem Based Learning plus, PBL+, a examen, una metodología ecléctica y flexible, para competencias prácticas en ingeniería

[ES] Problem Based Learning Plus (PBL+) es una metodología docente para alcanzar las competencias prácticas en ingeniería, incluyendo a ingenieros químicos, ambientales y agrónomos, y también a biotecnólogos especializados en procesos de producción. PBL+ se basa en la metodología PBL tradicional, pero combina otras metodologías de enseñanza-aprendizaje: la clase invertida, el uso de rúbricas para la evaluación de la actividad, el aprendizaje colaborativo y en algunos casos, el aprendizaje-servicio. Un aspecto relevante es que los estudiantes son libres de elegir el problema sobre el que van a trabajar. Aún más importante es que el problema a resolver debe ser una situación real a la que se enfrenta la empresa. Son los estudiantes los que entran en contacto con una empresa cuyo campo de actividad corresponda a las competencias de la asignatura y seleccionan, junto con un representante de la empresa, el problema a resolver. De este modo, los estudiantes tienen un papel activo en la definición de las prácticas de la asignatura. Esta forma flexible de construir el currículo del estudiante ha demostrado motivarlos, siendo una excelente estrategia para abordar problemas reales de su especialidad. No obstante, no todos los sectores de la ingeniería están dispuestos a compartir sus problemas con los estudiantes. En este sentido, la industria biotecnológica es muy reticente a hacerlo, mientras que el sector agrario es proclive a ello. En este trabajo, se resumen los resultados de la evaluación a la que se ha sometido el PBL+ durante 4 cursos consecutivos, aplicando 9 indicadores que evalúan 7 resultados de aprendizaje. Además, se resume el tipo de problemas sobre los que han trabajado los estudiantes de ingeniería agronómica durante los 4 cursos, que corresponden a los problemas que más preocupan a las empresas del sector: el 60% de los problemas están relacionados con aspectos fitosanitarios, principalmente plagas o enfermedades emergentes. En segundo lugar, el 30% corresponde a alteraciones en el crecimiento de los cultivos por factores abióticos. El 10% restante consiste en adaptar los procesos productivos a los cambios legislativo

High frequency of low-count monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis in hospitalized COVID-19 patients

Low-count monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis (MBLlo, <500 clonal B-cells/μL) is a highly prevalent condition in the general population (4% to 16% of otherwise healthy adults), which increases significantly with age.1-7 In most cases, clonal B-cells share phenotypic and cytogenetic features with chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), but only a small fraction (≈1.8%) progresses to high-count MBL (MBLhi; ≥500 and <5000 clonal B-cells/μL)3 in the medium-term.8 However, previous reports showed that MBLlo subjects had an increased risk of severe infections in association with a (predominantly) secondary antibody deficiency,8-10 suggesting that MBLlo might be a risk marker for developing more severe infections.This work was supported by the Instituto de Salud Carlos III (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Madrid, Spain, and FONDOS FEDER (a way to build Europe) grants CB16/12/00400 (CIBERONC), COV20/00386, and PI17/00399; the Consejería de Educación and the Gerencia Regional de Salud, Consejería de Sanidad from Junta de Castilla y León (Valladolid, Spain) grants SA109P20 and GRS-COVID-33/A/20; the European Regional Development Fund (INTERREG POCTEP Spain-Portugal) grant 0639-IDIAL-NET-3-3; and the CRUK (United Kingdom), Fundación AECC (Spain), and Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca Sul Cancro (Italy) “Early Cancer Research Initiative Network on MBL (ECRINM3)” ACCELERATOR award. G.O.-A. is supported by a grant from the Consejería de Educación, Junta de Castilla y León (Valladolid, Spain); B.F.-H. was supported by grant 0639-IDIAL-NET-3-3.Peer reviewe

Immune cell kinetics and antibody response in COVID-19 patients with low-count monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis

Low-count monoclonal B-cell lymphocytosis (MBLlo) has been associated with an underlying immunodeficiency and has recently emerged as a new risk factor for severe COVID-19. Here, we investigated the kinetics of immune cell and antibody responses in blood during COVID-19 of MBLlo versus non-MBL patients. For this study, we analyzed the kinetics of immune cells in blood of 336 COVID-19 patients (74 MBLlo and 262 non-MBL), who had not been vaccinated against SARS-CoV-2, over a period of 43 weeks since the onset of infection, using high-sensitivity flow cytometry. Plasma levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies were measured in parallel by ELISA. Overall, early after the onset of symptoms, MBLlo COVID-19 patients showed increased neutrophil, monocyte, and particularly, plasma cell (PC) counts, whereas eosinophil, dendritic cell, basophil, and lymphocyte counts were markedly decreased in blood of a variable percentage of samples, and with a tendency toward normal levels from week +5 of infection onward. Compared with non-MBL patients, MBLlo COVID-19 patients presented higher neutrophil counts, together with decreased pre-GC B-cell, dendritic cell, and innate-like T-cell counts. Higher PC levels, together with a delayed PC peak and greater plasma levels of anti-SARS-CoV-2-specific antibodies (at week +2 to week +4) were also observed in MBLlo patients. In summary, MBLlo COVID-19 patients share immune profiles previously described for patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection, associated with a delayed but more pronounced PC and antibody humoral response once compared with non-MBL patients.This work was supported by “Early Cancer Research Initiative Network on MBL (ECRINM3)” ACCELERATOR award (CRUK-UK-, Fundación AECC-Spain-and Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca Sul Cancro _Italy-), by the CB16/12/00400 (CIBERONC), COV20/00386, PI17/00399, and PI22/00674, grants from the Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, (Madrid, Spain) co-funded by FONDOS FEDER, and by the SA109P20 (Consejería de Educación) and GRS-COVID-33/A/20 (Gerencia Regional de Salud, Consejería de Sanidad) grants from Junta de Castilla y León (Valladolid, Spain), by 0639-IDIAL-NET-3-3 grant (INTERREG POCTEP Spain-Portugal) from Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional. G. Oliva-Ariza is supported by a grant (PR-2019 487971) from the Consejería de Educación, Junta de Castilla y León (Valladolid, Spain), B. Fuentes-Herrero is supported by the 0639-IDIAL-NET-3-3, and ECRIN-M3 grants, and Ó. González-López is supported by a grant (FI20/00116) from Instituto de Salud Carlos III co-funded by Fondo Social Europeo Plus (FSE+).Peer reviewe

Treatment with tocilizumab or corticosteroids for COVID-19 patients with hyperinflammatory state: a multicentre cohort study (SAM-COVID-19)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to estimate the association between tocilizumab or corticosteroids and the risk of intubation or death in patients with coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) with a hyperinflammatory state according to clinical and laboratory parameters. Methods: A cohort study was performed in 60 Spanish hospitals including 778 patients with COVID-19 and clinical and laboratory data indicative of a hyperinflammatory state. Treatment was mainly with tocilizumab, an intermediate-high dose of corticosteroids (IHDC), a pulse dose of corticosteroids (PDC), combination therapy, or no treatment. Primary outcome was intubation or death; follow-up was 21 days. Propensity score-adjusted estimations using Cox regression (logistic regression if needed) were calculated. Propensity scores were used as confounders, matching variables and for the inverse probability of treatment weights (IPTWs). Results: In all, 88, 117, 78 and 151 patients treated with tocilizumab, IHDC, PDC, and combination therapy, respectively, were compared with 344 untreated patients. The primary endpoint occurred in 10 (11.4%), 27 (23.1%), 12 (15.4%), 40 (25.6%) and 69 (21.1%), respectively. The IPTW-based hazard ratios (odds ratio for combination therapy) for the primary endpoint were 0.32 (95%CI 0.22-0.47; p < 0.001) for tocilizumab, 0.82 (0.71-1.30; p 0.82) for IHDC, 0.61 (0.43-0.86; p 0.006) for PDC, and 1.17 (0.86-1.58; p 0.30) for combination therapy. Other applications of the propensity score provided similar results, but were not significant for PDC. Tocilizumab was also associated with lower hazard of death alone in IPTW analysis (0.07; 0.02-0.17; p < 0.001). Conclusions: Tocilizumab might be useful in COVID-19 patients with a hyperinflammatory state and should be prioritized for randomized trials in this situatio

Valorización energética de residuos: análisis de la combustión conjunta de biogás y gases de pirólisis (piro-BIOGÁS)

Pyro-BIOGAS is a project that proposes combined waste management applying anaerobic digestion and pyrolysis processes for recove-ring energy. This project aims to encourage the use of renewable resources that are currently considered as waste for energy production. In order to attain the main objectives proposed, it was performed an evaluation of biogas production yields of different waste materials, along with the analysis of thermal and kinetic properties during pyrolysis of digested material. With this information, energy efficiency and economic feasibility of a combined process of anaerobic digestion of swine manure and pyrolysis of the digestate with lignocellulosic material was studied. On the other hand, burning characteristics of the gas thus obtained were evaluated. Through the combined use of biogas and pyrolysis gases, self-sufficient systems can be achieved, with extra energy production to be used for other purposes in the installation. It was observed, that burning characteristics, such us flame speed and temperature were affected by H2 and CO2 content.En el proyecto piro-BIOGÁS se ha planteado el estudio del aprovechamiento energético de los gases combustibles generados en un proceso conjunto de digestión anaerobia y pirólisis del material digerido. Con esta propuesta se pretende incentivar el uso de recursos renovables, que en la actualidad se consideran residuos, para la producción de energía. Con la finalidad de cumplir los objetivos propuestos, se han evaluado los rendimientos de producción de biogás de diferentes residuos, junto con las propiedades térmicas y cinéticas de la pirólisis del material digerido. A partir de los datos obtenidos, se ha planteado el balance energético y el estudio de viabilidad económica en una planta de digestión anaerobia para el tratamiento de purín, integrando una unidad de pirólisis para el digerido, mezclado con material lignocelulósico. Por otro lado, también se ha estudiado el comportamiento durante la combustión de diferentes mezclas biogás-gas pirólisis. Mediante el análisis de los rendimientos energéticos y la evaluación económica, se observó que el uso combinado del biogás y de los gases de pirólisis permite plantear instalaciones autosostenibles energéticamente, con un excedente de energía que puede cubrir otro tipo de necesidades térmicas en la planta. Se ha comprobado que el comportamiento de la combustión de las mezclas biogás-gas pirólisis está condicionado por el contenido de CO2 y H2, afectando tanto a la velocidad de propagación como a la temperatura de la llama