What is Missing for Traditional Design-Centric Engineering Education to Better Prepare Newly Graduated Engineers for the Global Era?

This paper presents an analysis of the capacity of design centric methodologies to prepare engineering students to succeed in the market. Gaps are brainstormed and analyzed with reference to their importance. Reasons that may lead the newly graduated engineers not to succeed right from the beginning of their professional lives have also been evaluated. A comparison among the two subjects above was prepared, reviewed and analyzed. The influence of multidisciplinary, multicultural and complex environmental influences created in the current global business era is taken into account. The industry requirements in terms of what they expect to 'receive' from their engineers are evaluated and compared to the remaining of the study above. An innovative approach to current engineering education that utilizes traditional design-centric methodologies is then proposed, aggregating new disciplines to supplement the traditional engineering education. The solution encompasses the inclusion of disciplines from Human Sciences and Emotional Intelligence fields willing to better prepare the engineer of tomorrow to work in a multidisciplinary, globalized, complex and team working environment. A pilot implementation of such an approach is reviewed and conclusions are drawn from this educational project.

Modelling shared attention through relational reinforcement learning

Shared attention is a type of communication very important among human beings. It is sometimes reserved for the more complex form of communication being constituted by a sequence of four steps: mutual gaze, gaze following, imperative pointing and declarative pointing. Some approaches have been proposed in Human-Robot Interaction area to solve part of shared attention process, that is, the most of works proposed try to solve the first two steps. Models based on temporal difference, neural networks, probabilistic and reinforcement learning are methods used in several works. In this article, we are presenting a robotic architecture that provides a robot or agent, the capacity of learning mutual gaze, gaze following and declarative pointing using a robotic head interacting with a caregiver. Three learning methods have been incorporated to this architecture and a comparison of their performance has been done to find the most adequate to be used in real experiment. The learning capabilities of this architecture have been analyzed by observing the robot interacting with the human in a controlled environment. The experimental results show that the robotic head is able to produce appropriate behavior and to learn from sociable interaction.

Cytogenetic instability of dental pulp stem cell lines

Human adult stem cells (hASCs) offer a potentially renewable source of cell types that are easily isolated and rapidly expanded for use in regenerative medicine and cell therapies without the complicating ethical problems that are associated with embryonic stem cells. However, the eventual therapeutic use of hASCs requires that these cells and their derivatives maintain their genomic stability. There is currently a lack of systematic studies that are aimed at characterising aberrant chromosomal changes in cultured ASCs over time. However, the presence of mosaicism and accumulation of karyotypic abnormalities within cultured cell subpopulations have been reported. To investigate cytogenetic integrity of cultured human dental stem cell (hDSC) lines, we analysed four expanded hDSC cultures using classical G banding and fluorescent in situ hybridisation (FISH) with X chromosome specific probe. Our preliminary results revealed that about 70% of the cells exhibited karyotypic abnormalities including polyploidy, aneuploidy and ring chromosomes. The heterogeneous spectrum of abnormalities indicates a high frequency of chromosomal mutations that continuously arise upon extended culture. These findings emphasise the need for the careful analysis of the cytogenetic stability of cultured hDSCs before they can be used in clinical therapies.

Consolidation of international guidelines for the management of canine populations in urban areas and proposal of performance indicators

Consolidation of international guidelines for the management of canine populations in urban areas and proposal of performance indicators The objective of this study is to propose a generic program for the management of urban canine populations with suggestion of performance indicators. The following international guidelines on canine population management were revised and consolidated: World Health Organization, World Organisation for Animal Health, World Society for the Protection of Animals, International Companion Animal Management Coalition, and the Food and Agriculture Organization. Management programs should cover: situation diagnosis, including estimates of population size; social participation with involvement of various sectors in the planning and execution of strategies; educational actions to promote humane values, animal welfare, community health, and responsible ownership (through purchase or adoption); environmental and waste management to eliminate sources of food and shelter; registration and identification of animals; animal health care, reproductive control; prevention and control of zoonoses; control of animal commerce; management of animal behavior and adequate solutions for abandoned animals; and laws regulating responsible ownership, prevention of abandonment and zoonoses. To monitor these actions, four groups of indicators are suggested: animal population indicators, human/animal interaction indicators, public service indicators, and zoonosis indicators. The management of stray canine populations requires political, sanitary, ethologic, ecologic, and humanitarian strategies that are socially acceptable and environmentally sustainable. Such measures must also include the control of zoonoses such as rabies and leishmaniasis, considering the concept of "one health," which benefits both the animals and people in the community.

O uso de um software na (re)habilitação de crianças com deficiência auditiva

OBJETIVO: Verificar a aplicabilidade de um software na (re)habilitação de crianças com deficiência auditiva. MÉTODOS: A amostra foi composta por 17 crianças com deficiência auditiva, sendo dez usuárias de Implante Coclear (IC) e sete usuárias de Aparelho de Amplificação Sonora Individual (AASI). Foi utilizado o "Software Auxiliar na Reabilitação de Distúrbios Auditivos (SARDA)". Aplicou-se o protocolo de treinamento durante 30 minutos, duas vezes por semana, pelo tempo necessário para a finalização das estratégias que compõe software. Para mensurar a aplicabilidade do software no treinamento da habilidade de percepção da fala no silêncio e no ruído, foram realizadas avaliações com o Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) pré e pós o treinamento auditivo. Os dados foram analisados estatisticamente. RESULTADOS: O grupo de usuários de IC necessitou em média 12,2 dias para finalizar as estratégias e o grupo de usuários de AASI em média 10,14 dias. Os dois grupos apresentaram diferença entre as avaliações pré e pós no silêncio e no ruído. As crianças mais novas apresentaram maior dificuldade durante a execução das estratégias, porém não houve correlação entre a idade e o desempenho. Não houve influência do tipo do dispositivo eletrônico durante o treinamento. As crianças apresentaram maior dificuldade na estratégia que envolvia estímulos não verbais e na estratégia com estímulos verbais que treina a habilidade de atenção sustentada. A atenção e a motivação da criança durante a estimulação foram fundamentais para o bom rendimento do treinamento auditivo. CONCLUSÃO: O treinamento auditivo com o SARDA foi eficaz, pois propiciou melhora na habilidade de percepção da fala, no silêncio e no ruído, das crianças com deficiência auditiva.