The Role of the online learner: onsite students becoming online learners

As universities are offering tuition through online learning environments, “onsite students” in higher education are increasingly becoming “online learners”. Since the medium for learning (and teaching) online is a digital environment, and at a distance, the role taken by students and teaching staff is different to the one these are used to in onsite, traditional settings. Therefore the Role of the Online Learner, presented in this paper, is key to onsite students who are to become online learners. This role consists of five competences: Operational, Cognitive, Collaborative, Self-directing, Course-specific. These five competences integrate the various skills, strategies, attitudes and awareness that make up the role of online learner, which learners use to perform efficiently online. They also make up the basis of a tutorial for would-be online learners, going over the Role of the Online Learner by means of concepts, examples and reflective activities. This tutorial, available to students in the author’s website, is also helpful to teaching and counselling staff in guiding their students to become online learners

Combined Analysis of the Short-Term Effects of Photochemical Air Pollutants on Mortality within the EMECAM Project

In recent years, some epidemiologic studies have attributed adverse effects of air pollutants on health not only to particles and sulfur dioxide but also to photochemical air pollutants (nitrogen dioxide and ozone). The effects are usually small, leading to some inconsistencies in the results of the studies. Furthermore, the different methodologic approaches of the studies used has made it difficult to derive generic conclusions. We provide here a quantitative summary of the short-term effects of photochemical air pollutants on mortality in seven Spanish cities involved in the EMECAM project, using generalized additive models from analyses of single and multiple pollutants. Nitrogen dioxide and ozone data were provided by seven EMECAM cities (Barcelona, Gijón, Huelva, Madrid, Oviedo, Seville, and Valencia). Mortality indicators included daily total mortality from all causes excluding external causes, daily cardiovascular mortality, and daily respiratory mortality. Individual estimates, obtained from city-specific generalized additive Poisson autoregressive models, were combined by means of fixed effects models and, if significant heterogeneity among local estimates was found, also by random effects models. Significant positive associations were found between daily mortality (all causes and cardiovascular) and NO2, once the rest of air pollutants were taken into account. A 10 μg/m3 increase in the 24-hr average 1-day NO2 level was associated with an increase in the daily number of deaths of 0.43% [95% confidence interval(CI), –0.003–0.86%] for all causes excluding external. In the case of significant relationships, relative risks for cause-specific mortality were nearly twice as much as that for total mortality for all the photochemical pollutants. Ozone was independently related only to cardiovascular daily mortality. No independent statistically significant relationship between photochemical air pollutants and respiratory mortality was found. The results in this study suggest that, given the present levels of photochemical pollutants, people living in Spanish cities are exposed to health risks derived from air pollution

Preliminary Remarks on Old Spanish Auxiliares: haber, ser and estar

En aquest article s'intenta aportar una visió descriptiva del funcionament d'haber, ser i estar en construccions 'perifràstiques' del castellà medieval. Quant a les perífrasis 'AUX+ infinitiu', s'observa que no s'ajusten a una anàlisi del tipus 'SV que selecciona un SV'. D'altra banda, s'aporta evidència que afavoreix una visió de la derivació dels futurs i condicionals analítics on el verb [-finit] s'excorpora de l'auxiliar funcional per traslladar-se a CO. Finalment, s'estableix que les construccions 'haber/ser/estar+participi' poden ser analitzades com a verbs lèxics que subcategoritzen una oració reduïda el predicat de la qual és el participi. Això permet relacionar l'avantposició de participi amb la dels SA i la dels arguments interns. Els aspectes bàsics d'aquest canvi sintàctic que duu del castellà medieval i preclàssic a l'espanyol actual són: (a) la categoria lèxica SV dels verbs en qüestió es reanalitza com una categoria funcional SAsp i aquests verbs esdevenen auxiliars; (b) hi ha un canvi de subcabgorització, ja que aquests verbs deixen de subcategoritzar una oració reduïda per passar a subcategoritzar un SVmàx, i (c) la pèrdua de la projecció màxima SCONC1 comporta la desparició dels efectes de la llei Tobler-Mussafia, de la possibilitat d'avantposar el participi i també de la concordança de participi en els perfets compostos.

Estudi interlingüístic de les construccions que expressen estats patològics en català i en mandinga

La tesi de Crous (2009) descriu les característiques de les estructures gramaticals del català i del mandinga que expressen malalties, signes i símptomes, trets físics i psíquics, etc. (com ser diabètic, estar refredat, tenir febre, tenir un bony (a la cama), tenir mal de panxa o tenir mal a la panxa, venir un atac de tos, agafar febre o fer mal el cap). La tesi demostra que la conceptualització i la categorització dels estats patològics, la manera com els parlants perceben alguns aspectes dels estats (com la temporalitat, l'abast corporal, la causalitat o el grau d'afectació) i les relacions entre aquests estats i els altres dos participants de la situació d'afectació (una persona i les seves parts del cos), no només es posa de manifest en els mots d'una llengua sinó que també intervé en la construcció i en la distribució dels diferents participants dins d'una oració.