Social interaction diagrams analysis in virtual contexts for a reinterpretation of relationships at the school

Las Tecnologías de la Información y la Comunicación (TIC) se han convertido en recursos comunicativos que permiten múltiples formas de relaciones interpersonales. En la Sociedad del Conocimiento, donde las TIC juegan un papel fundamental, las interacciones sociales no sólo afectan a los contextos presenciales, sino también a los virtuales. Diversos estudios han analizado las frecuencias de interacción virtual y su relación con las relaciones interpersonales presenciales. Sin embargo, hay una falta de información sobre la manera de los jóvenes interactúan en el contexto virtual, sus objetivos y la influencia de otros actores. Un estudio reciente analiza el papel de las TIC y las redes sociales en los hábitos de comunicación social en las relaciones sociales de estudiantes españoles de Secundaria, con especial énfasis en la influencia de los amigos y la red de contactos. ¿Interaccionamos realmente con todos estos contactos? ¿Dónde están los límites de la calidad de la interacción social de los jóvenes? Estas y otras preguntas son respondidas en este trabajo, mediante el uso de mapas de interacción social en la presencialidad y la virtualidad, a partir de las relaciones identificadas por los alumnos de Educación Secundaria. Para concluir, a partir del análisis e interpretación de estos mapas de interacción se realiza una reinterpretación de las relaciones en la escuela y las implicaciones educativas que estas pueden poner de manifiesto.The Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have emerged as communicative resources which allow multiple ways of interpersonal relations. In the Society of Knowlegdge, where ICTs play a fundamental role, social interactions are not only subjected to present contexts but also to virtual ones. Several works have analyzed the frequencies of virtual interaction and their relation with the present interpersonal relations. However, there is a lack of information about the way young people interact in the virtual context, their objectives and the influence of other actors. A recent study analyzes the role of ICT's and social networks in the communication habits ans social relations in spanish students of Secondary School, with special emphasis on their influence of the friends and contacts network. Do we actually interact with all our contacts? Where are the limits of the social interaction quality in young people? These and other questions are answered in this work, using social interaction maps in the presence and technological spheres, using the information obtained from students of Secondary School level. This study allows re-interprete the relationships at school and their educative implications

A global analysis of bank profitability factors

We analyze the factors that explain banks’ profitability globally and by region. With increasing globalization, knowing the different aspects of bank profitability is essential for countries’ financial stability and economic growth. This study used a sample of 2,091 commercial banks operating in 110 countries grouped into major world regions. With random effect regression models, the global results show that the internal factors that explain the bank´s profitability are listed entities, impaired loans, efficiency, gross interest margin, and capitalization. For its part, the most significant external factors are related to the position of the countries in the ranking by assets, inflation, unemployment, interest rates, and economic growth. From a regional perspective, the results allow us to deduce with high robustness the existence of variable sets that determine bank profitability in each region and that regional models outperform global models in most cases

Social Learning Analytics en la Educación Superior. Una experiencia en el Grado de Educación Primaria

The concept of Learning Analytics, as we understand it today, is relatively new but the practice of evaluating user behavior is not innovative. For years, technological development, along with other educational aspects, have encouraged, developed and facilitated this practice as a way of providing a personalized quality experience to students. The main goal of this study, carried out in the Primary Education Degree of the University of Murcia, was to research, from the perspective of Social Learning Analytics, how students learn and collaborate in online environments, specifically through their use of social media. With the idea of improving and optimizing future teaching experiences, a pilot study was conducted using weblog, Twitter and Facebook to work with different topics on the subject. The method used in this research was a participant observation and the analysis performed was both quantitative, based mainly on the data gathered from the learning analytics, and qualitative (analyzing students’ content from comments). Results show that there was greater interaction on Facebook than weblogs, where students interacted to deal with aspects related to the learning process and the topic of the subject. This exchange of information grew during the development of the experience. In addition, learning analytics shows that there is a relationship between group members and their interaction and behavior in networks.El concepto de Learning Analytics es relativamente nuevo tal como lo entendemos hoy en día, pero la práctica de evaluar el comportamiento del usuario a través de registros previos de actividad no lo es tanto. Con el tiempo, los avances tecnológicos, junto con otros factores educativos han alentado, desarrollado y facilitado esta práctica para proporcionar una experiencia personalizada de calidad al alumnado. El objetivo general de este estudio, realizado en el Grado de Educación Primaria de la Universidad de Murcia, se centra en conocer desde la perspectiva de Social Learning Analytics, cómo aprende y colabora el alumnado en entornos virtuales, específicamente a través de medios sociales. Con la idea de mejorar y optimizar futuras experiencias docentes, se llevó a cabo un estudio piloto en el que se usó Facebook, Twitter y un blog grupal para el desarrollo de las tareas de la asignatura. El método empleado en esta investigación ha sido el de la observación participante y el tipo de análisis realizado ha sido tanto cuantitativo, basado principalmente en los datos obtenidos de las propias analíticas de aprendizaje, como cualitativo (análisis de contenido de las intervenciones y comentarios del alumnado). Los resultados obtenidos muestran que hubo una mayor interacción en Facebook que en el blog grupal, donde los alumnos interaccionaban para tratar aspectos relacionados con el proceso de aprendizaje y la temática de la asignatura. Este intercambio de información fue creciendo durante el desarrollo de la experiencia. Además, las analíticas de aprendizaje muestran que existe una relación en cuanto a los miembros del grupo y sus interacciones y comportamientos en las redes

Tourist accommodation pricing through peer-topeer platform: evidence from Seville (Spain)

The expansion of holiday rentals’ worldwide makes it relevant to confirm what are the determinants of these accommodations’ daily rates. This research aims to compare two models on estimating holiday rentals’ daily rate through variables that influence it; using artificial neural networks and hedonic pricing method, with the same cross-sectional dataset and variables with data obtained from Booking.com listings from Seville (Spain), a ‘cultural tourism’ large European city. Artificial neural networks estimations adapt better than the hedonic pricing method due to non-linear relations involved, although hedonic estimators have a clearer economic interpretation. Variables related to size, location and amenities appear as the most relevant in the models, including also seasonal and special events factors. The models presented, not only help to clarify these variables but also allow estimating a rental price congruent with the characteristics of the dwelling and season, being useful as an objective valuation method for the main agents of the accommodation sector: Owners, clients and peer-to-peer platforms. This study wants to highlight the convenience of using Booking.com listings as the main data source, as two variables presented as relevant for the models (size and location) are not available in other peer-to-peer platforms like Airbnb

Ten Years of Airbnb Phenomenon Research: A Bibliometric Approach (2010–2019)

The interest in the Airbnb phenomenon is represented in the fast growth of publications indexed in the Web of Science (WoS) since the research inception of this topic in 2010. However, there are no studies that analyze the incidence of this phenomenon from a bibliometric approach using WoS. Therefore, this paper aims to quantify the incidence and composition of the Airbnb phenomenon through bibliometrics taken it as a data source. To achieve this aim, the WoS statistical instruments and the bibliometric tool VOSviewer are used. The results obtained, such as the number of articles and citations per year, the main categories of these articles, the nationalities of the authors, the most productive institutions, the sources and authors in terms of publications, and the H-Core of the most cited articles, are presented. Finally, concept maps are exposed, representing the relatedness of co-authorship and co-citation among authors, as well as the co-occurrence of the keywords in the articles analyzed. Satisfaction, trust, and innovation appear as the main research lines. This paper can be useful for academics and professionals, giving them a holistic overview of the topic, identifying new research areas, or as an objective manner to literary review approaches

Exposure to Bisphenol A and phthalates metabolites in the third trimester of pregnancy and BMI trajectories

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146291/1/ijpo12279.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/146291/2/ijpo12279_am.pd

Prognostic classification for malignant tumors of the parotid gland

AbstractObjectiveThe histological classification of the World Health Organization (WHO), along with improved imaging studies, provide relevant information for the management of parotid carcinomas. However, the prognosis depends on factors other than histology and tumor extension. This article evaluates the usefulness of a prognostic classification of parotid cancers, including these factors in patients in a hospital area.MethodsA follow-up was conducted on 19 patients with parotid carcinomas, excluding lymphoid tumors or intra-parotid metastases, between 1998 and 2012. The prognostic index was obtained from the formulas proposed by Vander Poorten, with factors including age, tumor size, lymph node involvement, skin invasion, facial nerve involvement, perineural growth and margins of resection, before surgery (PS1) and after (PS2). Overall survival was related to 5 years for each patient based on their inclusion in any of the 4 risk groups defined.ResultsRisk stratification based on the results Vander Poorten PS2 was distributed into Risk Groups (GR) 1 (3 patients, 15.7%), 2 (5 patients, 26.3%), 3 (1 patient, 5.8%) and 4 (10 patients, 52.2%). The 6 patients who died during follow-up belonged to GR4. Only one of the 4 patients belonging to GR4 has exceeded the 5-year survival up to the current time.The comparison of the values that relate the pretreatment (PS1) and after treatment (PS2) results showed overall survival in patients with PS1<4.5 and PS2<4.9, whereas mortality was greater with indices of PS1>6.5 and PS2>7.7.ConclusionsVander Poorten index can be applied in hospital areas with small numbers of parotid carcinomas. It enables a more accurate prognosis for individual patients

Synthesis of Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis infection in South America: amphibian species under risk and areas to focus research and disease mitigation

Amphibian chytridiomycosis, caused by Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd), has been recognized as the infectious disease causing the most catastrophic loss of biodiversity known to science, with South America being the most impacted region. We tested whether Bd prevalence is distributed among host taxonomy, ecoregion, conservation status and habitat preference in South America. Here we provide a synthesis on the extent of Bd infection across South America based on 21 648 molecular diagnostic assays, roles of certain species in the epidemiology of Bd and explore its association with the reported amphibian catastrophic declines in the region. We show that Bd is widespread, with a continental prevalence of 23.2%. Its occurrence in the region shows a phylogenetic signal and the probability of infection is determined by ecoregion, preferred habitat and extinction risk hosts' traits. The taxa exhibiting highest Bd occurrence were mostly aquatic amphibians, including Ranidae, Telmatobiidae, Hylodidae, Calyptocephalellidae and Pipidae. Surprisingly, families exhibiting unusually low Bd prevalence included species in which lethal chytridiomycosis and population declines have been described (genera Atelopus, Rhinoderma and Eleutherodactylus). Higher than expected prevalence of Bd occurred mainly in amphibians living in association with mountain environments in the Andes and Atlantic forests, reflecting highly favourable Bd habitats in these areas. Invasive amphibian species (e.g. Lithobates catesbeianus and Xenopus laevis) exhibited high Bd prevalence; thus we suggest using these as sentinels to understand their potential role as reservoirs, vectors or spreaders of Bd that can be subjected to management. Our results guide on the prioritization of conservation actions to prevent further biodiversity loss due to chytridiomycosis in the world's most amphibian diverse region

Band termination in the N=Z Odd-Odd Nucleus 46V

High spin states in the odd-odd N=Z nucleus 46V have been identified. At low spin, the T=1 isobaric analogue states of 46Ti are established up to I = 6+. Other high spin states, including the band terminating state, are tentatively assigned to the same T=1 band. The T=0 band built on the low-lying 3+ isomer is observed up to the 1f7/2-shell termination at I=15. Both signatures of a negative parity T=0 band are observed up to the terminating states at I = 16- and I = 17-, respectively. The structure of this band is interpreted as a particle-hole excitation from the 1d3/2 shell. Spherical shell model calculations are found to be in excellent agreement with the experimental results.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure