A Framework to Evaluate Software Developer’s Productivity The VALORTIA Project

Currently, there is a lack in companies developing software in relation to assessing their staff’s productivity before executing software projects, with the aim of improving effectiveness and efficiency. QuEF (Quality Evaluation Framework) is a framework that allows defining quality management tasks based on a model. The main purpose of this framework is twofold: improve an entity’s continuous quality, and given a context, decide between a set of entity’s instances on the most appropriate one. Thus, the aim of this paper is to make this framework available to evaluate productivity of professionals along software development and select the most appropriate experts to implement the suggested project. For this goal, Valortia platform, capable of carrying out this task by following the QuEF framework guidelines, is designed. Valortia is a platform to certify users' knowledge on a specific area and centralize all certification management in its model by means of providing protocols and methods for a suitable management, improving efficiency and effectiveness, reducing cost and ensuring continuous quality.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TIN2013-46928-C3-3-

CO-121 Aplicación de Técnicas Analíticas Avanzadas en el Desarrollo de Nuevas Formulaciones para la Limpieza de Barnices en Obras de Arte

Cuando se lleva a cabo la limpieza de suciedad y de barniz en obras de arte con disolvente o emulsiones en medio acuoso es necesario considerar los efectos que pueden ocasionar sobre la policromía original. Este trabajo recoge los resultados de un estudio experimental sobre la eficacia de diferentes emulsiones a base de limonero para la limpieza de barnices en obras de arte, analizando su grado de eficacia, la permanencia de residuos en superficie y las posibles interacciones con las capas de policromía. La eficacia del tratamiento se ha comprobado mediante iluminación con luz ultravioleta, microscopía óptica polarizada, espectroscopía micro-Raman y cromatografía de gases acoplada a espectometría de masas

Bladder cancer index: cross-cultural adaptation into Spanish and psychometric evaluation

BACKGROUND: The Bladder Cancer Index (BCI) is so far the only instrument applicable across all bladder cancer patients, independent of tumor infiltration or treatment applied. We developed a Spanish version of the BCI, and assessed its acceptability and metric properties. METHODS: For the adaptation into Spanish we used the forward and back-translation method, expert panels, and cognitive debriefing patient interviews. For the assessment of metric properties we used data from 197 bladder cancer patients from a multi-center prospective study. The Spanish BCI and the SF-36 Health Survey were self-administered before and 12 months after treatment. Reliability was estimated by Cronbach's alpha. Construct validity was assessed through the multi-trait multi-method matrix. The magnitude of change was quantified by effect sizes to assess responsiveness. RESULTS: Reliability coefficients ranged 0.75-0.97. The validity analysis confirmed moderate associations between the BCI function and bother subscales for urinary (r = 0.61) and bowel (r = 0.53) domains; conceptual independence among all BCI domains (r ≤ 0.3); and low correlation coefficients with the SF-36 scores, ranging 0.14-0.48. Among patients reporting global improvement at follow-up, pre-post treatment changes were statistically significant for the urinary domain and urinary bother subscale, with effect sizes of 0.38 and 0.53. CONCLUSIONS: The Spanish BCI is well accepted, reliable, valid, responsive, and similar in performance compared to the original instrument. These findings support its use, both in Spanish and international studies, as a valuable and comprehensive tool for assessing quality of life across a wide range of bladder cancer patients

Seguimiento de las guías españolas para el manejo del asma por el médico de atención primaria: un estudio observacional ambispectivo

Objetivo Evaluar el grado de seguimiento de las recomendaciones de las versiones de la Guía española para el manejo del asma (GEMA 2009 y 2015) y su repercusión en el control de la enfermedad. Material y métodos Estudio observacional y ambispectivo realizado entre septiembre del 2015 y abril del 2016, en el que participaron 314 médicos de atención primaria y 2.864 pacientes. Resultados Utilizando datos retrospectivos, 81 de los 314 médicos (25, 8% [IC del 95%, 21, 3 a 30, 9]) comunicaron seguir las recomendaciones de la GEMA 2009. Al inicio del estudio, 88 de los 314 médicos (28, 0% [IC del 95%, 23, 4 a 33, 2]) seguían las recomendaciones de la GEMA 2015. El tener un asma mal controlada (OR 0, 19, IC del 95%, 0, 13 a 0, 28) y presentar un asma persistente grave al inicio del estudio (OR 0, 20, IC del 95%, 0, 12 a 0, 34) se asociaron negativamente con tener un asma bien controlada al final del seguimiento. Por el contrario, el seguimiento de las recomendaciones de la GEMA 2015 se asoció de manera positiva con una mayor posibilidad de que el paciente tuviera un asma bien controlada al final del periodo de seguimiento (OR 1, 70, IC del 95%, 1, 40 a 2, 06). Conclusiones El escaso seguimiento de las guías clínicas para el manejo del asma constituye un problema común entre los médicos de atención primaria. Un seguimiento de estas guías se asocia con un control mejor del asma. Existe la necesidad de actuaciones que puedan mejorar el seguimiento por parte de los médicos de atención primaria de las guías para el manejo del asma. Objective: To assess the degree of compliance with the recommendations of the 2009 and 2015 versions of the Spanish guidelines for managing asthma (Guía Española para el Manejo del Asma [GEMA]) and the effect of this compliance on controlling the disease. Material and methods: We conducted an observational ambispective study between September 2015 and April 2016 in which 314 primary care physicians and 2864 patients participated. Results: Using retrospective data, we found that 81 of the 314 physicians (25.8%; 95% CI 21.3–30.9) stated that they complied with the GEMA2009 recommendations. At the start of the study, 88 of the 314 physicians (28.0%; 95% CI 23.4–33.2) complied with the GEMA2015 recommendations. Poorly controlled asthma (OR, 0.19; 95% CI 0.13–0.28) and persistent severe asthma at the start of the study (OR, 0.20; 95% CI 0.12–0.34) were negatively associated with having well-controlled asthma by the end of the follow-up. In contrast, compliance with the GEMA2015 recommendations was positively associated with a greater likelihood that the patient would have well-controlled asthma by the end of the follow-up (OR, 1.70; 95% CI 1.40–2.06). Conclusions: Low compliance with the clinical guidelines for managing asthma is a common problem among primary care physicians. Compliance with these guidelines is associated with better asthma control. Actions need to be taken to improve primary care physician compliance with the asthma management guidelines

Project Albúmina: preserving photographic memories

The present work presents a joint proposal from University of Málaga Image Technology Centre (CTI) and Central ICT Service (SCI), to create a digital photographic archive for the former. Such archive will contribute to the preservation of valuable memories supported on photographies by allowing easier access to the wider society. The University of Málaga Image Technology Centre (CTI-UMA) is an audio-visual producing facility aimed at photo and video-graphic and multimedia production. The photographic archive has half a million photographs, both from historic collections from the late nineteenth century and the 1980's and from the service daily work.The project aim was to facilitate the creation of a standards based electronic archive of the digital version of the originals and, at the same time, allowing for an easy creation of on-line exhibitions based on web quality versions of the original images, catering both to researchers and professionals and to the general public. The archive was supposed to be at the same time scalable and affordable. Any code used or produced for the project had to be open source, so other institutions could easily make use of our work for their photographic archives.The results are encouraging, as the project, in its present status, has allowed for the classification of over fifty thousand originals, increasing the productivity of the archival team fivefold, and the creation of three virtual exhibits, with their physical counterparts

La escuela en la encrucijada del cambio epocal School in times of epochal change

La escuela es una producción institucional de otro momento histórico y que, por lo tanto, nació asociada a otras circunstancias sociales, políticas y culturales. El artículo presenta y analiza aquellos ítems que la autora considera de peso para mesurar las asimetrías existentes entre la institución escolar y el momento histórico y cultural en el que ésta se inserta. Para ello se analizan los cambios en el entramado institucional construido a partir de la sociedad industrial haciendo especial referencia a las transformaciones en la familia, el Estado y la propia escuela. Se discute el contexto cultural contemporáneo y las distancias existentes entre este y la cultura letrada que moldeo la escuela moderna. Por último se plantea que la escuela es una institución que se pensó en base a una secuencia temporal asociada a la idea de progreso social e individual que privilegia la construcción para el futuro y hoy esta sometida a una demanda de generar un presente gratificante para los jóvenes.<br>Associated to other social, political and cultural circumstances, school was institutionally created in a different historical moment. This paper presents and analyzes items that allow us to measure the existing asymmetry between school as an institution and the historical and cultural time in which it is nowadays inserted. The changes in the institutional network brought by the industrial society are thus analyzed, especially those related to the family, the state and school itself. The contemporaneous cultural context and the gaps between it and the literate culture that shaped modern school are discussed. Our argument is that although school as an institution was thought on the basis of a temporal sequence linked to the idea of individual and social progress, which privileges a construction for the future, it is currently required to generate a gratifying present to young students