Advantages and disadvantages of a interdisciplinary group in the face of European Space for Higher Education. Contributions to the processes of innovation and integration of ICT

La formación universitaria está viviendo uno de esos momentos donde el cambio se institucionaliza y hay que afrontar nuevos retos, básicamente impuestos. En ellos los docentes tendremos que asumir una modificación de nuestras percepciones y estar unidos para trabajar y converger en la universidad del Siglo XXI. Entendemos que es necesario el cambio, siempre y cuando lleve consigo un nuevo modelo de formación en el que el alumnado sea el protagonista de sus aprendizajes y el profesorado se convierta en facilitador de esos procesos. Para ello, deberá introducir nuevas formas de trabajo, tutoría, evaluación y seguimiento en las clases, bien empleando las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC) como apoyo al proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, o incorporando nuevos materiales didácticos que favorezcan el aprendizaje autónomo del alumno y el desarrollo de competencias genéricas y específicas para su futuro profesional. En este artículo expondremos desde la perspectiva transversal de los participantes, las principales conclusiones extraídas del proyecto: Análisis y Estudio de Experiencias Colaborativas Apoyadas en E-Learning para el Espacio Europeo de Enseñanza Superior en la Universidad de Valladolid. (Curso 2007-2008). A lo largo del artículo analizaremos los puntos fuertes y débiles, los aciertos, los problemas y las soluciones comunes en relación con el uso de las TIC respecto a las distintas experiencias evaluadas. Todo ello, con la intención de promover sugerencias a un planteamiento común en su integración de cara a mejorar y facilitar el proceso formativo y adaptación a los criterios propuestos desde el EEES.In this moment, European Universities are experiencing one of those moments where change is institutionalized and they must face new challenges which are primarily imposing. Like teachers, we will have to assume a change in our perceptions working together to converge at the new universitary concept. For these reasons, we think change is necessary, but there is to build a new training model in which the students are the principle protagonists of their learning processes and teachers have to define the skills. At the same time, teachers must apply new methodologies, as well as mentoring and monitoring processes in their courses. In order to do this, they could use the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) resources or other new sources which promote learning autonomous student and the development of generic and specific skills. In this article, we are going to present one of the project parts “Analysis and Study of collaborative experiences supported by E-Learning for the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) at the University of Valladolid”, which has taken place in 2007-2008. In this case, we have analysed some strength and weaknesses, as well as successes, problems and some possible solutions regarding the ICT use. One of our aims is to improve and facilitate these adaptation processes to the EHE

The effects of native shrub, fencing, and acorn size on the emergence of contrasting co-occurring oak in Mediterranean grazed areas

Producción CientíficaResearch Highlights: The regeneration of Quercus species is usually very difficult in many oak woodlands transformed by livestock farming. Some studies have reported that shrubs can facilitate regeneration. However, the strength of interaction may vary depending on, among other factors, the shrub species and the stress tolerance of the oak species. Moreover, further studies are necessary to clarify the relative importance of the two facilitation mechanisms in the same community. Background and Objectives: Cytisus multiflorus (L’Her.) Sweet is a predominant shrub species in the Mediterranean grazed open-oak-woodlands found in the central west of the Iberian Peninsula (bioclimatic limit) and is present with Quercus pyrenaicaWilld and Quercus ilex subsp. ballota Samp trees. Thus, we assessed the effect of these native shrubs and acorn size, and the effect of excluding large herbivores, on the seedling emergence of two contrasting co-occurring Quercus species under a bioclimatic limit. Materials and Methods: A manipulative field experiment was carried out considering four treatments as a combination of shrubs (shrub/no-shrub) and fence (fenced/open) factors. A total of twenty plots, five replicates for each treatment were available. In each plot, 20 acorns were sown: 10 acorns (5 small and 5 large) for each Quercus species. Acorn emergence was recorded during the first four years following the sowing. Results: Seedling emergence took place mostly in the spring of the first year after sowing. The presence of shrub was the main significant factor and incremented the emergence of both Q. ilex and Q. pyrenaica. The effect of the fence depended on the Quercus species considered, improving only the emergence of Q. pyrenaica. A negative effect with the small acorns was detected but only for Q. pyrenaica. In all treatments, Q. ilex emerged more than Q. pyrenaica. Conclusions: C. multiflorus had a clear facilitative effect on the seedling emergence of Q. ilex and Q. pyrenaica, which was much greater than the physical effect that acorn size and excluding large herbivores had. As such, this native shrub may have a key role in oak regeneration in Mediterranean grazed areas. Furthermore, in these areas of contact between marcescent and sclerophyllous Quercus species, Q. ilex currently emerges more than Q. pyrenaica. This could be indicative of a shift towards more xeric climatic conditions, which could lead to a change in the dominant tree species in the future. However, this change could be modulated by the effects of native shrub and large herbivores.Junta de Castilla y León - (Project SA013G19)Universidad de Salamanca - (Programa de financiación de grupos de investigación (2014/00165/001)

The Effects of Native Shrub, Fencing, and Acorn Size on the Emergence of Contrasting Co-Occurring Oak in Mediterranean Grazed Areas

[ENG]Research Highlights: The regeneration of Quercus species is usually very difficult in many oak woodlands transformed by livestock farming. Some studies have reported that shrubs can facilitate regeneration. However, the strength of interaction may vary depending on, among other factors, the shrub species and the stress tolerance of the oak species. Moreover, further studies are necessary to clarify the relative importance of the two facilitation mechanisms in the same community. Background and Objectives: Cytisus multiflorus (L’Her.) Sweet is a predominant shrub species in the Mediterranean grazed open-oak-woodlands found in the central west of the Iberian Peninsula (bioclimatic limit) and is present with Quercus pyrenaicaWilld and Quercus ilex subsp. ballota Samp trees. Thus, we assessed the effect of these native shrubs and acorn size, and the effect of excluding large herbivores, on the seedling emergence of two contrasting co-occurring Quercus species under a bioclimatic limit. Materials and Methods: A manipulative field experiment was carried out considering four treatments as a combination of shrubs (shrub/no-shrub) and fence (fenced/open) factors. A total of twenty plots, five replicates for each treatment were available. In each plot, 20 acorns were sown: 10 acorns (5 small and 5 large) for each Quercus species. Acorn emergence was recorded during the first four years following the sowing. Results: Seedling emergence took place mostly in the spring of the first year after sowing. The presence of shrub was the main significant factor and incremented the emergence of both Q. ilex and Q. pyrenaica. The effect of the fence depended on the Quercus species considered, improving only the emergence of Q. pyrenaica. A negative effect with the small acorns was detected but only for Q. pyrenaica. In all treatments, Q. ilex emerged more than Q. pyrenaica. Conclusions: C. multiflorus had a clear facilitative effect on the seedling emergence of Q. ilex and Q. pyrenaica, which was much greater than the physical effect that acorn size and excluding large herbivores had. As such, this native shrub may have a key role in oak regeneration in Mediterranean grazed areas. Furthermore, in these areas of contact between marcescent and sclerophyllous Quercus species, Q. ilex currently emerges more than Q. pyrenaica. This could be indicative of a shift towards more xeric climatic conditions, which could lead to a change in the dominant tree species in the future. However, this change could be modulated by the effects of native shrub and large herbivores

Evolutionary q-Gaussian Radial Basis Functions for Improving Prediction Accuracy of Gene Classification Using Feature Selection

This paper proposes a Radial Basis Function Neural Network (RBFNN) which reproduces different Radial Basis Functions (RBFs) by means of a real parameter q, named q-Gaussian RBFNN. The architecture, weights and node topology are learnt through a Hybrid Algorithm (HA) with the iRprop + algorithm as the local improvement procedure. In order to test its overall performance, an experimental study with four gene microarray datasets with two classes taken from bioinformatic and biomedical domains is presented. The Fast Correlation–Based Filter (FCBF) was applied in order to identify salient expression genes from thousands of genes in microarray data that can directly contribute to determining the class membership of each pattern. After different gene subsets were obtained, the proposed methodology was performed using the selected gene subsets as the new input variables. The results confirm that the q-Gaussian RBFNN classifier leads to promising improvement on accuracy

Thin servers for thin clients (TS4TC): a computer lab experience

El uso de terminales de bajo coste u obsoletos reconvertidos en equipos con prestaciones actualizadas, está de moda en todo el mundo y sobre todo en Hispanoamérica, son los denominados PXES. Están demostradas sus ventajas económicas, de ahorro energético y medioambientales. Para ello es necesario la utilización de un conjunto de programas para Linux que nos permiten crear, arrancar y usar esta clase de sistemas. La mayor dificultad es el ajuste óptimo de los diversos servicios sin sobrecargar la red. Existen muchas experiencias sobre este tema pero hay muy pocas sobre su uso combinado con servidores del mismo tipo. Estos están configurados para atender cada una de las necesidades de las prácticas de los alumnos de la titulación de Ingeniería Informática. Se ha querido utilizar esta configuración y experimentar con los alumnos de las asignaturas de Iniciación a la programación y Sistemas Operativos, con objeto de validar, comparar y obtener conclusiones de esta experienci

Evaluation of styrene-divinylbenzene beads as a support to immobilize lipases

A commercial and very hydrophobic styrene-divinylbenzene matrix, MCI GEL® CHP20P, has been compared to octyl-Sepharose® beads as support to immobilize three different enzymes: lipases from Thermomyces lanuginosus (TLL) and from Rhizomucor miehie (RML) and Lecitase ® Ultra, a commercial artificial phospholipase. The immobilization mechanism on both supports was similar: interfacial activation of the enzymes versus the hydrophobic surface of the supports. Immobilization rate and loading capacity is much higher using MCI GEL® CHP20P compared to octyl-Sepharose® (87.2 mg protein/g of support using TLL, 310 mg/g using RML and 180 mg/g using Lecitase® Ultra). The thermal stability of all new preparations is much lower than that of the standard octyl-Sepharose® immobilized preparations, while the opposite occurs when the inactivations were performed in the presence of organic co-solvents. Regarding the hydrolytic activities, the results were strongly dependent on the substrate and pH of measurement. Octyl-Sepharose ® immobilized enzymes were more active versus p-NPB than the enzymes immobilized on MCI GEL® CHP20P, while RML became 700-fold less active versus methyl phenylacetate. Thus, the immobilization of a lipase on this matrix needs to be empirically evaluated, since it may present very positive effects in some cases while in other cases it may have very negative ones. © 2014 by the authors.We gratefully recognize the support from the Spanish Government, grant CTQ2009-07568 and CTQ2013-41507-R and CNPq (Brazil). The predoctoral fellowships for García-Galán (Spanish Government) and dos Santos (CNPq, Brazil) are also recognized. The authors wish to thank Ramiro Martínez (Novozymes, Spain) for kindly supplying the enzymes used in this research. The help and comments from Ángel Berenguer (Instituto de Materiales, Universidad de Alicante) are kindly acknowledged. We acknowledge support by the CSIC Open Access Publication Initiative through its Unit of Information Resources for Research (URICI)Peer Reviewe

Advantages and disadvantages of a interdisciplinary group in the face of European Space for Higher Education. Contributions to the processes of innovation and integration of ICT

La formación universitaria está viviendo uno de esos momentos donde el cambio se institucionaliza y hay que afrontar nuevos retos, básicamente impuestos. En ellos los docentes tendremos que asumir una modificación de nuestras percepciones y estar unidos para trabajar y converger en la universidad del Siglo XXI. Entendemos que es necesario el cambio, siempre y cuando lleve consigo un nuevo modelo de formación en el que el alumnado sea el protagonista de sus aprendizajes y el profesorado se convierta en facilitador de esos procesos. Para ello, deberá introducir nuevas formas de trabajo, tutoría, evaluación y seguimiento en las clases, bien empleando las Tecnologías de la Información y las Comunicaciones (TIC) como apoyo al proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje, o incorporando nuevos materiales didácticos que favorezcan el aprendizaje autónomo del alumno y el desarrollo de competencias genéricas y específicas para su futuro profesional. En este artículo expondremos desde la perspectiva transversal de los participantes, las principales conclusiones extraídas del proyecto: Análisis y Estudio de Experiencias Colaborativas Apoyadas en E-Learning para el Espacio Europeo de Enseñanza Superior en la Universidad de Valladolid. (Curso 2007-2008). A lo largo del artículo analizaremos los puntos fuertes y débiles, los aciertos, los problemas y las soluciones comunes en relación con el uso de las TIC respecto a las distintas experiencias evaluadas. Todo ello, con la intención de promover sugerencias a un planteamiento común en su integración de cara a mejorar y facilitar el proceso formativo y adaptación a los criterios propuestos desde el EEES.In this moment, European Universities are experiencing one of those moments where change is institutionalized and they must face new challenges which are primarily imposing. Like teachers, we will have to assume a change in our perceptions working together to converge at the new universitary concept. For these reasons, we think change is necessary, but there is to build a new training model in which the students are the principle protagonists of their learning processes and teachers have to define the skills. At the same time, teachers must apply new methodologies, as well as mentoring and monitoring processes in their courses. In order to do this, they could use the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) resources or other new sources which promote learning autonomous student and the development of generic and specific skills. In this article, we are going to present one of the project parts “Analysis and Study of collaborative experiences supported by E-Learning for the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) at the University of Valladolid”, which has taken place in 2007-2008. In this case, we have analysed some strength and weaknesses, as well as successes, problems and some possible solutions regarding the ICT use. One of our aims is to improve and facilitate these adaptation processes to the EHE

La Wiki-WebQuest: una actividad colaborativa en la asignatura de nuevas tecnologías aplicadas a la educación

Producción CientíficaLas instituciones de educación superior están sufriendo un proceso de reconversión buscando su adaptación a las características del Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior. Uno de los cambios más importantes, a los que debe hacer frente su profesorado, consiste en una reorganización metodológica diferente de sus clases. Por ello, es necesario pensar en nuevas fórmulas en la formación del profesorado. Como resultado de esta necesidad, decidimos organizar la asignatura de Nuevas Tecnologías Aplicadas a la Educación, de la Facultad de Educación de Valladolid, empleando una metodología activa, el IBL, apoyada en una plataforma Wiki, proponiendo a nuestro alumnado una serie de actividades que debían realizar colaborativamente. En este trabajo, presentamos una de esas actividades, la elaboración de una Wiki-WebQuest. A partir de la descripción de esta actividad, pretendemos mostrar algunas luces y sombras sobre su puesta en práctica (la versatilidad y flexibilidad de la plataforma, la posibilidad de colaboración entre la universidad y la escuela, la falta de adaptación de algunos contenidos al nivel curricular del curso concreto, la falta de asesoramiento del profesorado al alumnado de primaria sobre el uso de estas nuevas herramientas, etc.) Esta actividad fue desarrollada a partir de la colaboración con contextos educativos reales (dos centros de primaria), sirviendo de caso de estudio para diseñar una Wiki-WebQuest. Asimismo, también colaboraron dos asignaturas de la titulación de Magisterio (Didáctica General y Metodología del Idioma Extranjero), con el objetivo de enriquecer el proceso de aprendizaje

Immobilization of Proteins in Poly-Styrene-Divinylbenzene Matrices: Functional Properties and Applications

Supports based on poly-styrene-divinylbenzene (PSD) are commercially available since a long time ago. However, they are not commonly used as enzyme immobilization matrices. The main reason for this lies in the negative effect of the very hydrophobic surface on enzyme stability that produces the instantaneous enzyme inactivation in many instances. However, they have recently regained some impact in enzyme immobilization. They are easy to modify, and have been prepared with different modifiers. We will pay special attention to the coating of these supports with ionic liquids, which permits to have the ionic liquid phase anchored to the solid and modulate the enzyme properties without risk of losing these expensive and potentially toxic compounds. Thus, this review will present the covalent or physical immobilization of enzymes on PSD supports, submitted to different modifications. Moreover, lipases immobilized via interfacial activation on some naked PSD supports have shown some unexpected improvement in their catalytic properties, with uses in reactions like hydrolysis, esterification or transesterification.We gratefully recognize the support from the Spanish Government, CTQ2013-41507-R and CNPq (Brazil). The predoctoral fellowships for Ms. García-Galán (Spanish Government), Mr K. Hernandez (I3P-CSIC) and Mr dos Santos (CNPq, Brazil) are also recognized. ). Á. Berenguer-Murcia thanks the Spanish Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion for a Ramon y Cajal fellowship (RyC-2009-03813)