Understanding the barriers to virtual student placements in the Semester of Code

The Semester of Code initiative organised virtual placements for university students around Europe, working on authentic business problems using open source software. The project was welcomed by stakeholders, and many companies and open source foundations became involved. However, the response from students was disappointing. In this paper we examine the reasons for this, discussing the results of the evaluation work carried out. Finally, we consider the implications of our work for student placements and the Knowledge Alliance European Union programme.La iniciativa Semester of Code organiza prácticas virtuales para estudiantes universitarios de toda Europa, trabajando en problemas reales de empresas que emplean software de código abierto en sus procesos de negocio. El proyecto fue bienvenido por todos actores involucrados, entre los que se encuentran varias empresas y fundaciones relacionadas con el software libre. Sin embargo, la respuesta por parte de los estudiantes fue menor de lo esperado. En este artículo se examinan las razones de ello, se discuten los resultados de la evaluación que se ha llevado a cabo. Finalmente, se reflexiona sobre las implicaciones del trabajo realizado para las prácticas en empresas de los estudiantes y el Programa Knowledge Alliance de la Unión Europea

VALS: Virtual Alliances for Learning Society

[EN] VALS has the aims of establishing sustainable methods and processes to build knowledge partnerships between Higher Education and companies to collaborate on resolving authentic business problems through open innovation mediated by the use of Open Source Software. Open Source solutions provide the means whereby educational institutions, students, businesses and foundations can all collaborate to resolve authentic business problems. Not only Open Software provides the necessary shared infrastructure and collaborative practice, the foundations that manage the software are also hubs, which channel the operational challenges of their users through to the people who can solve them. This has great potential for enabling students and supervisors to collaborate in resolving the problems of businesses, but is constrained by the lack of support for managing and promoting collaboration across the two sectors. VALS should 1) provide the methods, practice, documentation and infrastructure to unlock this potential through virtual placements in businesses and other public and private bodies; and 2) pilot and promote these as the “Semester of Code”. To achieve its goals the project develops guidance for educational institutions, and for businesses and foundations, detailing the opportunities and the benefits to be gained from the Semester of Code, and the changes to organisation and practice required. A Virtual Placement System is going to be developed, adapting Apache Melange, and extending it where necessary. In piloting, the necessary adaptations to practice will be carried out, particularly in universities, and commitments will be established between problem owners and applicants for virtual placements

The OpenDock project: Putting in place the infrastructure for sharing learning activities

The OpenDock project is introduced, and the approach to supporting the sharing of online educational resources outlined. The functional requirements for the OpenDocument repository are stated, and their significance discussed. The system which is currently being implemented is described. This is a light weight, open source, peer to peer system. The peer nodes are the users web presence, rather than their own computer, reducing the infrastructure requirements for small institutions and individuals. Support for IMS Learning Design is provided, with Content Packages being unzipped and stored as a hierarchy, and a parser provided to analyse the manifests and represent the UoLs. The effectiveness of the system in supporting sharing will be established in trials and demonstration activities in the OpenDock project

Education in the knowledge society : EKS

Resumen basado en el de la publicaciónLa iniciativa Semester of Code organiza prácticas virtuales para estudiantes universitarios de toda Europa, trabajando en problemas reales de empresas que emplean software de código abierto en sus procesos de negocio. El proyecto fue bienvenido por todos actores involucrados, entre los que se encuentran varias empresas y fundaciones relacionadas con el software libre. Sin embargo, la respuesta por parte de los estudiantes fue menor de lo esperado. Se examinan las razones de ello, se discuten los resultados de la evaluación que se ha llevado a cabo. Finalmente, se reflexiona sobre las implicaciones del trabajo realizado para las prácticas en empresas de los estudiantes y el Programa Knowledge Alliance de la Unión Europea.ES

Validation of a deep learning computer aided system for CT based lung nodule detection, classification, and growth rate estimation in a routine clinical population.

ObjectiveIn this study, we evaluated a commercially available computer assisted diagnosis system (CAD). The deep learning algorithm of the CAD was trained with a lung cancer screening cohort and developed for detection, classification, quantification, and growth of actionable pulmonary nodules on chest CT scans. Here, we evaluated the CAD in a retrospective cohort of a routine clinical population.Materials and methodsIn total, a number of 337 scans of 314 different subjects with reported nodules of 3-30 mm in size were included into the evaluation. Two independent thoracic radiologists alternately reviewed scans with or without CAD assistance to detect, classify, segment, and register pulmonary nodules. A third, more experienced, radiologist served as an adjudicator. In addition, the cohort was analyzed by the CAD alone. The study cohort was divided into five different groups: 1) 178 CT studies without reported pulmonary nodules, 2) 95 studies with 1-10 pulmonary nodules, 23 studies from the same patients with 3) baseline and 4) follow-up studies, and 5) 18 CT studies with subsolid nodules. A reference standard for nodules was based on majority consensus with the third thoracic radiologist as required. Sensitivity, false positive (FP) rate and Dice inter-reader coefficient were calculated.ResultsAfter analysis of 470 pulmonary nodules, the sensitivity readings for radiologists without CAD and radiologist with CAD, were 71.9% (95% CI: 66.0%, 77.0%) and 80.3% (95% CI: 75.2%, 85.0%) (p ConclusionThe applied CAD significantly increased radiologist's detection of actionable nodules yet also minimally increasing the false positive rate. The CAD can automatically classify and quantify nodules and calculate nodule growth rate in a cohort of a routine clinical population. Results suggest this Deep Learning software has the potential to assist chest radiologists in the tasks of pulmonary nodule detection and management within their routine clinical practice

Report on virtual placements pilots and evaluation of their results - Virtual Alliances for Learning Society (VALS) project & Semester of Code

This deliverable explains the evaluations carried out regarding to the students’ intention to participate in the Semester of Code and VALS project and later the evaluation of the placements performed during the Semester of Code. The three main stakeholders involved performed these evaluations: students, mentors and academic supervisors.<br>Apart of the main content of the evaluations and its questionnaires, this deliverable comment the results gathered among the different participants involved in the Semester of Code, explaining the key points and responses. Finally, are presented some conclusions about the evaluation results, comparing the main issues gathere

Developing win-win solutions for virtual placements in informatics: the VALS case

The placements and internships are one of the main paths to get professional background and some skills for students, especially in areas like informatics and computer sciences. The European-funded VALS project tries to promote the virtual placements and establish a new initiative in virtual placements called Semester of Code. This initiative binds higher education institutions, students, companies, foundations and Open Source projects in order to create virtual placements and solve needs that they have in relation with those placements. This paper introduces some projects about virtual placements that other institutions and companies perform, also the paper describes the needs, opinions and considerations about the virtual placements for each stakeholder involved in the placements, to finally explain the design decisions and actions behind the Semester of Code, and how they are intended to get better virtual placements and successful results

Developing win-win solutions for virtual placements in informatics: the VALS case

The placements and internships are one of the main paths to get professional background and some skills for students, especially in areas like informatics and computer sciences. The European-funded VALS project tries to promote the virtual placements and establish a new initiative in virtual placements called Semester of Code. This initiative binds higher education institutions, students, companies, foundations and Open Source projects in order to create virtual placements and solve needs that they have in relation with those placements. This paper introduces some projects about virtual placements that other institutions and companies perform, also the paper describes the needs, opinions and considerations about the virtual placements for each stakeholder involved in the placements, to finally explain the design decisions and actions behind the Semester of Code, and how they are intended to get better virtual placements and successful results

The genomic landscape of 85 advanced neuroendocrine neoplasms reveals subtype-heterogeneity and potential therapeutic targets

Metastatic and locally-advanced neuroendocrine neoplasms (aNEN) form clinically and genetically heterogeneous malignancies, characterized by distinct prognoses based upon primary tumor localization, functionality, grade, proliferation index and diverse outcomes to treatment. Here, we report the mutational landscape of 85 whole-genome sequenced aNEN. This landscape reveals distinct genomic subpopulations of aNEN based on primary localization and differentiation grade; we observe relatively high tumor mutational burdens (TMB) in neuroendocrine carcinoma (average 5.45 somatic mutations per megabase) with TP53, KRAS, RB1, CSMD3, APC, CSMD1, LRATD2, TRRAP and MYC as major drivers versus an overall low TMB in neuroendocrine tumors (1.09). Furthermore, we observe distinct drivers which are enriched in somatic aberrations in pancreatic (MEN1, ATRX, DAXX, DMD and CREBBP) and midgut-derived neuroendocrine tumors (CDKN1B). Finally, 49% of aNEN patients reveal potential therapeutic targets based upon actionable (and responsive) somatic aberrations within their genome; potentially directing improvements in aNEN treatment strategies

The genomic landscape of 85 advanced neuroendocrine neoplasms reveals subtype-heterogeneity and potential therapeutic targets

Metastatic and locally-advanced neuroendocrine neoplasms (aNEN) form clinically and genetically heterogeneous malignancies, characterized by distinct prognoses based upon primary tumor localization, functionality, grade, proliferation index and diverse outcomes to treatment. Here, we report the mutational landscape of 85 whole-genome sequenced aNEN. This landscape reveals distinct genomic subpopulations of aNEN based on primary localization and differentiation grade; we observe relatively high tumor mutational burdens (TMB) in neuroendocrine carcinoma (average 5.45 somatic mutations per megabase) with TP53, KRAS, RB1, CSMD3, APC, CSMD1, LRATD2, TRRAP and MYC as major drivers versus an overall low TMB in neuroendocrine tumors (1.09). Furthermore, we observe distinct drivers which are enriched in somatic aberrations in pancreatic (MEN1, ATRX, DAXX, DMD and CREBBP) and midgut-derived neuroendocrine tumors (CDKN1B). Finally, 49% of aNEN patients reveal potential therapeutic targets based upon actionable (and responsive) somatic aberrations within their genome; potentially directing improvements in aNEN treatment strategies.</p