Factors that explain the use of ICT in secondary-education classrooms: the role of teacher characteristics and school infrastructure

Paradoxically, in Spain, schools have relatively ample information and communication technology (ICT)infrastructure but low levels of classroom ICT use. In this study, we analyse the role of school ICTinfrastructure and teacher characteristics to explain ICT use in education. We use data from the Spanishsample in the 2013 Teaching and Learning International Study (TALIS), which consists of 3339 teachersfrom 192 secondary education centres. The analysis was conducted using multilevel logistic regressionmodels. The principal results indicate that the availability of educational software, teacher ICT training,collaboration among teachers, perceived self-efficacy, and teaching concepts influence classroom ICT use.School hardware and internet-connection infrastructure are less significant. Based on thefindings,recommendations are presented to orient Spanish educational policy to encourage the use of ICT in classroom

Job-search strategies of individuals at risk of poverty and social exclusion in Spain

In Spain, the issue of unemployment or precarious employment worsen with globalization, leading to an expansion of the so-called working poor in the labour market.According to previous literature, the economic poverty that is characteristic of this group may accompany poverty competency.In particular, the working poor resort to informal and poorly developed job-searchstrategies.This study addresses the job search methods used by people at risk of poverty and social exclusion. It provides evidence on the subject and serves as a basis for the adaptation of socio-labour intermediation programmes to this group.The hypothesis of this study is that people at high risk will predominantly use informal strategies that require a low level of job-searchs kills.A survey-based correlational study is conducted using a questionnaire completed by 279 people participating in socio-labourinter mediation programmes developed by the Action against Hunger Foundation(AaHF) in Spain.Information on poverty indicators and on job-search strategies is collected.Data are analysed through cluster analysis,which distinguish two groups of people at risk of poverty and social exclusion(high risk and low risk),followed by a comparison of means(t-test)with a subsequent calculation of effect size using Cohen’s d. Results show statistically significant differences with a medium effect size(between 0.45 and 0.50)for the typology of job-search strategies used,confirming the initial hypothesis.These results offer relevant information that should be considered when developing programmes aimed at improving social and labour issues for people at risk of poverty and social exclusion.Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO- Government of Spain)European Regional Development Fund (ERDF-FEDER

Elementary Landscape Decomposition of the Test Suite Minimization Problem

Chicano, F., Ferrer J., & Alba E. (2011). Elementary Landscape Decomposition of the Test Suite Minimization Problem. In Proceedings of Search Based Software Engineering, Szeged, Hungary, September 10-12, 2011. pp. 48–63.Landscape theory provides a formal framework in which combinatorial optimization problems can be theoretically characterized as a sum of a special kind of landscape called elementary landscape. The decomposition of the objective function of a problem into its elementary components provides additional knowledge on the problem that can be exploited to create new search methods for the problem. We analyze the Test Suite Minimization problem in Regression Testing from the point of view of landscape theory. We find the elementary landscape decomposition of the problem and propose a practical application of such decomposition for the search.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. This research has been partially funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and FEDER under contract TIN2008-06491- C04-01 (the M∗ project) and the Andalusian Government under contract P07- TIC-03044 (DIRICOM project)

Leiocephalus onaneyi

Number of pages: 7Geological SciencesIntegrative Biolog

Tropidophis hendersoni

Number of Pages: 8Integrative BiologyGeological Science

Tropidophis celiae

Number of pages: 8Geological SciencesIntegrative Biolog

Measuring the Quality of Machine Learning and Optimization Frameworks

Software frameworks are daily and extensively used in research, both for fundamental studies and applications. Researchers usually trust in the quality of these frameworks without any evidence that they are correctly build, indeed they could contain some defects that potentially could affect to thousands of already published and future papers. Considering the important role of these frameworks in the current state-of-the-art in research, their quality should be quantified to show the weaknesses and strengths of each software package. In this paper we study the main static quality properties, defined in the product quality model proposed by the ISO 25010 standard, of ten well-known frameworks. We provide a quality rating for each characteristic depending on the severity of the issues detected in the analysis. In addition, we propose an overall quality rating of 12 levels (ranging from A+ to D-) considering the ratings of all characteristics. As a result, we have data evidence to claim that the analysed frameworks are not in a good shape, because the best overall rating is just a C+ for Mahout framework, i.e., all packages need to go for a revision in the analysed features. Focusing on the characteristics individually, maintainability is by far the one which needs the biggest effort to fix the found defects. On the other hand, performance obtains the best average rating, a result which conforms to our expectations because frameworks’ authors used to take care about how fast their software runs.University of Malaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. We would like to say thank you to all authors of these frameworks that make research easier for all of us. This research has been partially funded by CELTIC C2017/2-2 in collaboration with companies EMERGYA and SECMOTIC with contracts #8.06/5.47.4997 and #8.06/5.47.4996. It has also been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and /Junta de Andalucı́a/FEDER under contracts TIN2014-57341-R and TIN2017-88213-R, the network of smart cities CI-RTI (TIN2016-81766-REDT

Rubio de Francia's extrapolation theory: estimates for the distribution function

Let $T$ be an arbitrary operator bounded from $L^{p_0}(w)$ into $L^{p_0, \infty}(w)$ for every weight $w$ in the Muckenhoupt class $A_{p_0}$. It is proved in this article that the distribution function of $Tf$ with respect to any weight $u$ can be essentially majorized by the distribution function of $Mf$ with respect to $u$ (plus an integral term easy to control). As a consequence, well-known extrapolation results, including results in a multilinear setting, can be obtained with very simple proofs. New applications in extrapolation for two-weight problems and estimates on rearrangement invariant spaces are established too.Comment: 29 page