An application framework for the systematic construction of multimedia-based Collaborative Complex Learning Resources

Aquest treball de tesi proposa aportar una infraestructura de programari per donar suport a nous tipus de metodologies i recursos d'aprenentatge col·laboratiu augmentats pedagògicament i a través d'una plataforma d'aplicació innovadora anomenada Plataforma de Virtualització de Sessions Col·laboratives (VCSF de l'angles Virtualized Collaborative Sessions Framework). El VCSF ajuda a satisfer els requisits pedagògics exigents de l'aprenentatge col·laboratiu en línia d’avui en dia, com ara augmentar la participació de l'estudiant i millorar el rendiment de l'aprenentatge durant la col·laboració. Al seu torn, l'aplicació sistemàtica de la plataforma VCSF, enriquida amb tecnologies semàntiques, permet als desenvolupadors d'e-learning aprofitar experiències d'aprenentatge col·laboratiu prèvies a través de la reutilització de programari, estalviant temps de desenvolupament i esforç. La plataforma ha sigut prototipada i provada amb èxit en entorns reals, el que demostra la capacitat de reutilització del programari i els beneficis pedagògics de l'enfocament VCSF.Este trabajo de tesis propone aportar una infraestructura de software para apoyar a nuevos tipos de metodologías y recursos de aprendizaje colaborativo aumentados pedagógicamente ya través de una plataforma de aplicación innovadora llamada Plataforma de Virtualización de Sesiones Colaborativa (VCSF del inglés Virtualized Collaborative Sessions Framework). El VCSF ayuda a satisfacer los requisitos pedagógicos exigentes del aprendizaje colaborativo en línea de hoy en día, tales como aumentar la participación del estudiante y mejorar el rendimiento del aprendizaje durante la colaboración. A su vez, la aplicación sistemática de la plataforma VCSF, enriquecida con tecnologías semánticas, permite a los desarrolladores de e-learning aprovechar experiencias de aprendizaje colaborativo previas a través de la reutilización de software, ahorrando tiempo de desarrollo y esfuerzo. La plataforma ha sido prototipada y probada con éxito en entornos reales, lo que demuestra la capacidad de reutilización del software y los beneficios pedagógicos del enfoque VCSF.This thesis project aims to provide a software infrastructure to support new types of pedagogically augmented collaborative learning methodologies and resources by means of an innovative application framework called Virtualized Collaborative Sessions Framework (VCSF). The VCSF helps meet challenging pedagogical requirements in online collaborative learning, such as increasing students' engagement and learning performance during the collaboration. In turn, the systematic application of the VCSF platform, enriched with semantic technologies, enables e-learning developers to leverage successful collaborative learning experiences through software reuse, saving in both development time and effort. The framework has been prototyped and successfully tested in real environments, thus showing the software reuse capability and the pedagogical benefits of the VCSF approach

The Morfeo Open Source Community: Building Technologies of the Future Web through Open Innovation

Nowadays enterprise collaboration is becoming essential for valuable innovation and competitive advantage. This collaboration has to be brought a step forward from technical collaboration till collective smart exploitation of global intelligence. Morfeo Open Source Community implements it as an open innovation schema of collaboration among SME’s, universities, research centres, public administration and major corporations. Its disruptive contribution to the state of the art is to manage the collaboration licensing the shared technology as open, with an OSI accepted license. The main results of this innovation model are the development of SOA open software standards, the increase of OSS quality, the creation of an OSS services provider ecosystem, with an important impact in the local economical development and the dissemination of the R&D&i activities among a broader set of organizations. Now Morfeo, with established relationship in Spain and EU, is involved defining new cooperation schemas in Ibero-America. The aim is to define a network of Morfeo Office in several countries to coordinate the global communit

Modificación de resinas fenólicas con lignina procedente del pulpeo alcalino del bagazo de caña

Lignina extraída del licor negro del bagazo de caña ha sido empleada como modificador de resinas fenólicas tipo novolaca. Ensayos como la espectroscopia infrarroja por transformada de Fourier (FTIR), resonancia magnética nuclear carbono 13 (13C RMN) y análisis termogravimetrico (TGA) han sido utilizados para caracterizar las muestras de lignina. La lignina se ha modificado por desmetilación y fenolación para aumentar su reactividad. Se comprobó que la lignina produce significativas variaciones en las características de la resina, en particular sobre: el punto de fusión, temperatura de curado y flujo. Esto sugiere alteraciones durante la polimerización y el curado de las resinas

Modificación de resinas fenólicas con lignina procedente del pulpeo alcalino del bagazo de caña

Lignina extraída del licor negro del bagazo de caña ha sido empleada como modificador de resinas fenólicas tipo novolaca. Ensayos como la espectroscopia infrarroja por transformada de Fourier (FTIR), resonancia magnética nuclear carbono 13 (13C RMN) y análisis termogravimetrico (TGA) han sido utilizados para caracterizar las muestras de lignina. La lignina se ha modificado por desmetilación y fenolación para aumentar su reactividad. Se comprobó que la lignina produce significativas variaciones en las características de la resina, en particular sobre: el punto de fusión, temperatura de curado y flujo. Esto sugiere alteraciones durante la polimerización y el curado de las resinas

Gamification as a Service for Formative Assessment E-Learning Tools

Formative assessment tools can benefit from the addition of gamification elements, as stronger engagement may generate further learning opportunities. However, adding gamification elements to such tools may require a significant development effort and leads to few opportunities for re-use, e.g. among different e-learning tools within the same course or degree. In this paper, we describe a platform for offering gamification elements as a service to any formative assessment tool. We describe our experience in an introductory course for Digital Circuit Design in a Computer Science Degree

Clonal chromosomal mosaicism and loss of chromosome Y in elderly men increase vulnerability for SARS-CoV-2

The pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19) had an estimated overall case fatality ratio of 1.38% (pre-vaccination), being 53% higher in males and increasing exponentially with age. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, we found 133 cases (1.42%) with detectable clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations (mCA) and 226 males (5.08%) with acquired loss of chromosome Y (LOY). Individuals with clonal mosaic events (mCA and/or LOY) showed a 54% increase in the risk of COVID-19 lethality. LOY is associated with transcriptomic biomarkers of immune dysfunction, pro-coagulation activity and cardiovascular risk. Interferon-induced genes involved in the initial immune response to SARS-CoV-2 are also down-regulated in LOY. Thus, mCA and LOY underlie at least part of the sex-biased severity and mortality of COVID-19 in aging patients. Given its potential therapeutic and prognostic relevance, evaluation of clonal mosaicism should be implemented as biomarker of COVID-19 severity in elderly people. Among 9578 individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 in the SCOURGE study, individuals with clonal mosaic events (clonal mosaicism for chromosome alterations and/or loss of chromosome Y) showed an increased risk of COVID-19 lethality

CC-LO: embedding interactivity, challenge and empowerment into collaborative learning sessions

Despite their demonstrated potential through a range of early studies, on-line collaborative learning systems do not yet have the impact that many believe is possible. In particular, collaborative learning approaches cannot be readily applied to every e-learning experience, since they require a degree of presence and/or collaboration which may be difficult to achieve. In addition, collaborative learning systems often lack the challenging resources and tools required to fully support collaborations, making the experience unattractive to end-users and discouraging progression. Whilst the learner might expect to control the collaborative experience, often it is the collaborative experience that controls and limits the learner. As a result, collaborative learning resources can lack authentic interactivity, user empowerment and balanced levels of challenge, thus having a negative effect in learner motivation and engagement. To overcome these deficiencies, we propose a new paradigm named Collaborative Complex Learning Objects (CC-LO): a special type of Learning Object which aims to leverage the knowledge elicited during live sessions of collaborative learning, augmented with authorgenerated information, to produce interactive and attractive resources to be experienced and played by learners. During CC-LO execution, learners can observe how avatars discuss and collaborate, how discussion threads grow, and how knowledge is constructed, refined and consolidated. Furthermore, learners can interact with the CC-LO in order to modify some parameters observing the consequences and assessing their understanding. The research reported in this paper was undertaken within the European Framework 7 project ALICE (Adaptive Learning via Intuitive/Interactive, Collaborative and Emotional Systems)

Standards, reliability and major hazards legislation

Available from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:87/00693(Standards) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreSIGLEGBUnited Kingdo

LECO : an internal virtual tool to aid collaboration in the context of a virtual university

It is a reality that most e-learning environments, like that of the virtual campus of the UOC, are only thought up to support learning processes and focused to meet the student requirements. The quality of the university not only relies on the quality of the learning processes, but also on the internal processes of the university. In order to improve these internal processes, it is necessary to support the needs of the university faculty and staff and such needs are mainly concerned with collaboration. An environment called LECO has been created in order to support the collaborative requirements of the Information, Multimedia and Telecommunication Studies department (IMTS) of the UOC. It is our belief that our experience may be useful to other companies that plan to use an integrated environment (or a set of tools) to improve the collaboration of their members

Exploiting the semantic web to represent information from on-line collaborative learning

In this paper we propose a framework for modeling, representing populating and enriching information from online collaborative sessions within Web forums. The main piece of the framework is an ontology called Collaborative Session Conceptual Schema (CS 2) that allows for specifying collaborative sessions. The paper describes the information this ontology needs to know, the alignment of the ontology with the ontologies of relevant specifications, how the ontology can be automatically populated from the data existent in forums, and how to model such data about what is happening during the collaboration by using a dialogue-based model. This model is based on primitive exchange moves found in any forum posts, which are then categorized at different description levels with the aim to effectively collect and classify the type and intention of the forum posts. An experiment has been conducted to assess the validity and usefulness of the presented approach. The research reported in this paper is currently undertaken within a FP7 European project called ALICE