El futuro de la evaluación en la educación superior

The pending challenge of assessment in higher education, although also at other educational levels, continues to be its effective link with student learning. Students' strategic learning could and should be achieved by the assessment. This paper arises from the attempt to answer the question about what would be the future of assessment in higher education and it is presented under the form of a collaborative text that was elaborated by all the authors who sign it. This contribution offers a joint reflection by various authors from different contexts and regions on three essential aspects. First, the need for reflection and a change in assessment based on current trends that are demonstrating their timeliness and validity is highlighted. A second issue focuses on the value of technology for the changes that are taking place on assessment, but as long as it adapts to its principles and, therefore, does not imply a return to the last century under the dominance of models today widely overcome. Together with the use of technology-enhanced assessment, the interrelationship between assessment and learning implies to redesign assessment practices, to incorporate proposals from the fields of social justice and sustainable assessment, the design of authentic assessment tasks, to promote feedback and encourage students’ participation. In brief, to collaborate to develop the students' evaluative judgment in order to achieve free, socially responsible and fair citizensEl reto pendiente de la evaluación en educación superior, aunque también en otros niveles, sigue siendo su vinculación efectiva con el aprendizaje de los estudiantes. A través de la evaluación se puede y debe conseguir un aprendizaje estratégico del estudiantado. Esta aportación surge a partir del intento de dar respuesta al interrogante sobre cuál sería el futuro de la evaluación en la educación superior, presentándose la misma bajo la forma de un texto elaborado de forma colaborativa entre todos los autores que la firman. Se ofrece así una reflexión conjunta de diversos autores de diferentes contextos y regiones sobre tres aspectos esenciales. En primer lugar, se resalta la necesidad de reflexión y un cambio en la evaluación basado en las tendencias actual es que están demostrando su oportunidad y validez. Un segundo aspecto se centra en el valor de la tecnología en los cambios que se están produciendo en la evaluación, pero siempre que se adapte a sus principios y, por lo tanto, no implique una vuelta al siglo pasado bajo el dominio de modelos hoy ampliamente superados. Interrelacionar evaluación y aprendizaje junto a la utilización de tecnologías que mejoran la evaluación implica, finalmente, rediseñar las prácticas evaluativas incorporando propuestas desde los ámbitos de la justicia social y la evaluación sostenible, el diseño de tareas de evaluación auténticas, propiciar retroalimentación de los procesos y fomentar la participación del estudiantado. En definitiva, colaborar en la formación del juicio evaluativo del estudiantado para conseguir ciudadanos libres, socialmente responsables y justo

Multimedia means for professional guidance

El contexto de cambio en que nos ha tocado vivir plantea considerables retos a los procesos educativos y formativos. La orientación pretende aportar en esta situación un proceso de ayuda técnica que dote al individuo de los instrumentos y herramientas necesarias para hacer frente a dichas demandas. Con este propósito hemos abordado el diseño de una herramienta telemática para la formación de los orientadores, que presentamos en este trabajoThe changing context in which we are living raises considerable challenges in the educational and formative processes. Vocational guidance tries to bring the technical assistance that provides the individuals with the instrument and tools which are necessary to face these demands. With this intention, the authors have designed a telematic tool for the formation of the guiders, which they present in this paper

Host and Viral Genetic Correlates of Clinical Definitions of HIV-1 Disease Progression

BACKGROUND: Various patterns of HIV-1 disease progression are described in clinical practice and in research. There is a need to assess the specificity of commonly used definitions of long term non-progressor (LTNP) elite controllers (LTNP-EC), viremic controllers (LTNP-VC), and viremic non controllers (LTNP-NC), as well as of chronic progressors (P) and rapid progressors (RP). METHODOLOGY AND PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We re-evaluated the HIV-1 clinical definitions, summarized in Table 1, using the information provided by a selected number of host genetic markers and viral factors. There is a continuous decrease of protective factors and an accumulation of risk factors from LTNP-EC to RP. Statistical differences in frequency of protective HLA-B alleles (p-0.01), HLA-C rs9264942 (p-0.06), and protective CCR5/CCR2 haplotypes (p-0.02) across groups, and the presence of viruses with an ancestral genotype in the "viral dating" (i.e., nucleotide sequences with low viral divergence from the most recent common ancestor) support the differences among principal clinical groups of HIV-1 infected individuals. CONCLUSIONS: A combination of host genetic and viral factors supports current clinical definitions that discriminate among patterns of HIV-1 progression. The study also emphasizes the need to apply a standardized and accepted set of clinical definitions for the purpose of disease stratification and research

El grupu neandertal de la Cueva d' El Sidrón (Borines, Piloña)

El artículo está en la lengua asturianaPeer reviewe

Anti-Spike antibodies 3 months after SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine booster dose in patients on hemodialysis: the prospective SENCOVAC study

Background: Patients on hemodialysis are at high-risk for complications derived from coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The present analysis evaluated the impact of a booster vaccine dose and breakthrough severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infections on humoral immunity 3 months after the booster dose. Methods: This is a multicentric and prospective study assessing immunoglobulin G anti-Spike antibodies 6 and 9 months after initial SARS-CoV-2 vaccination in patients on hemodialysis that had also received a booster dose before the 6-month assessment (early booster) or between the 6- and 9-month assessments (late booster). The impact of breakthrough infections, type of vaccine, time from the booster and clinical variables were assessed. Results: A total of 711 patients [67% male, median age (range) 67 (20-89) years] were included. Of these, 545 (77%) received an early booster and the rest a late booster. At 6 months, 64 (9%) patients had negative anti-Spike antibody titers (3% of early booster and 29% of late booster patients, P =. 001). At 9 months, 91% of patients with 6-month negative response had seroconverted and there were no differences in residual prevalence of negative humoral response between early and late booster patients (0.9% vs 0.6%, P =. 693). During follow-up, 35 patients (5%) developed breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection. Antibody titers at 9 months were independently associated with mRNA-1273 booster (P =. 001), lower time from booster (P =. 043) and past breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infection (P <. 001). Conclusions: In hemodialysis patients, higher titers of anti-Spike antibodies at 9 months were associated with mRNA-1273 booster, lower time from booster and past breakthrough SARS-CoV-2 infectionThe present project has been supported by Fresenius Medical Care, Diaverum, Vifor Pharma, Vircell, Fundación Renal Iñigo Álvarez de Toledo and ISCIII FEDER funds RICORS2040 (RD21/0005

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = −0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics.publishedVersio

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic (vol 13, 517, 2022) : National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic (Nature Communications, (2022), 13, 1, (517), 10.1038/s41467-021-27668-9)

Publisher Copyright: © The Author(s) 2022.In this article the author name ‘Agustin Ibanez’ was incorrectly written as ‘Augustin Ibanez’. The original article has been corrected.Peer reviewe

National identity predicts public health support during a global pandemic.

Changing collective behaviour and supporting non-pharmaceutical interventions is an important component in mitigating virus transmission during a pandemic. In a large international collaboration (Study 1, N = 49,968 across 67 countries), we investigated self-reported factors associated with public health behaviours (e.g., spatial distancing and stricter hygiene) and endorsed public policy interventions (e.g., closing bars and restaurants) during the early stage of the COVID-19 pandemic (April-May 2020). Respondents who reported identifying more strongly with their nation consistently reported greater engagement in public health behaviours and support for public health policies. Results were similar for representative and non-representative national samples. Study 2 (N = 42 countries) conceptually replicated the central finding using aggregate indices of national identity (obtained using the World Values Survey) and a measure of actual behaviour change during the pandemic (obtained from Google mobility reports). Higher levels of national identification prior to the pandemic predicted lower mobility during the early stage of the pandemic (r = -0.40). We discuss the potential implications of links between national identity, leadership, and public health for managing COVID-19 and future pandemics

Predicting attitudinal and behavioral responses to COVID-19 pandemic using machine learning

At the beginning of 2020, COVID-19 became a global problem. Despite all the efforts to emphasize the relevance of preventive measures, not everyone adhered to them. Thus, learning more about the characteristics determining attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic is crucial to improving future interventions. In this study, we applied machine learning on the multinational data collected by the International Collaboration on the Social and Moral Psychology of COVID-19 (N = 51,404) to test the predictive efficacy of constructs from social, moral, cognitive, and personality psychology, as well as socio-demographic factors, in the attitudinal and behavioral responses to the pandemic. The results point to several valuable insights. Internalized moral identity provided the most consistent predictive contribution—individuals perceiving moral traits as central to their self-concept reported higher adherence to preventive measures. Similar results were found for morality as cooperation, symbolized moral identity, self-control, open-mindedness, and collective narcissism, while the inverse relationship was evident for the endorsement of conspiracy theories. However, we also found a non-neglible variability in the explained variance and predictive contributions with respect to macro-level factors such as the pandemic stage or cultural region. Overall, the results underscore the importance of morality-related and contextual factors in understanding adherence to public health recommendations during the pandemic.Peer reviewe