Revisión sistemática de la producción española sobre rendimiento académico entre 1980 y 2011

El bajo rendimiento académico sigue siendo un problema de investigación de gran impacto social. Sin embargo, los resultados científicos no están teniendo repercusión en la mejora, ni en las políticas educativas. En este trabajo nos propusimos identificar, ordenar, analizar y extraer conclusiones sobre la producción española sobre rendimiento académico, con el fin de visualizarla y derivar problemas futuros objeto de investigación. Para ello se llevó a cabo un estudio de revisión en seis etapas, en el que se combinaron procedimientos metodológicos de investigación de síntesis y de investigación bibliométrica. Se identificaron las publicaciones en cuatro bases de datos españolas; posteriormente se analizaron y codificaron los datos extraídos alrededor de nueve indicadores: título, año, tipo de documento, editorial, autor, número autores, institución, comunidad autónoma y tema. Los resultados muestran una producción constante y creciente (1595 referencias), pero dispersa, tanto por el inmenso número de autores que publican, la mayoría con un solo trabajo, como por los lugares donde publican. Las temáticas más tratadas se refieren en primer lugar a modelos explicativos, diagnóstico y tratamiento; en segundo lugar se abordan los factores y variables determinantes del bajo y alto rendimiento académico; en tercer lugar se desarrollan estudios sobre legislación y de otras variables psicológicas y educativas en relación con el rendimiento. Este estudio supone una aproximación sintetizada de la producción sobre rendimiento académico en España, y un primer paso para investigaciones de síntesis posteriores, que nos permitan identificar buenas prácticas para el ejercicio de “prácticas basadas en la evidencia”, y otros problemas de investigación.

Cardiac rehabilitation uptake following myocardial infarction: cross-sectional study in primary care

Background Policies suggest that primary care should be more involved in delivering cardiac rehabilitation. However, there is a lack of information about what is known in primary care regarding patients' invitation or attendance. Aim To determine, within primary care, how many patients are invited to and attend rehabilitation after myocardial infarction (MI), examine sociodemographic factors related to invitation, and compare quality of life between those who do and do not attend. Design of study Review of primary care paper and computer records; cross-sectional questionnaire. Setting Northern Ireland general practices (38); stratified sample, based on practice size and health board area. Method Patients, identified from primary care records, 12-16?weeks after a confirmed diagnosis of MI, were posted questionnaires, including a validated MacNew post-MI quality-of-life questionnaire. Practices returned anonymised data for non-responders. Results Information about rehabilitation was available for 332 of the 432 patients identified (76.9%): 162 (37.5%) returned questionnaires. Of the total sample, 54.4% (235/432) were invited and 37.0% (160/432) attended; of those invited, 68.1% (160/235) attended. Invited patients were younger than those not invited (mean age 63?years [standard deviation SD 16] versus 68.5?years [SD 16]); mean difference 5.5?years (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.7 to 9.3). Among questionnaire responders, those who attended were younger and reported better emotional, physical, and social functioning than non-attenders (P = 0.01; mean differences 0.44 (95% CI = 0.11 to 0.77), 0.48 (95% CI = 0.10 to 0.85) and 0.54 (95% CI = 0.15 to 0.94) respectively). Conclusion Innovative strategies are needed to improve cardiac rehabilitation uptake, integration of hospital and primary care services, and healthcare professionals' awareness of patients' potential for health gain after MI.

Neural Network Modeling of Rheological Parameters of Grouts Containing Viscosity-Modifying Agent

The development of artificial neural network (ANN) models to predict the rheological behavior of grouts is described is this paper and the sensitivity of such parameters to the variation in mixture ingredients is also evaluated. The input parameters of the neural network were the mixture ingredients influencing the rheological behavior of grouts, namely the cement content, fly ash, ground-granulated blast-furnace slag, limestone powder, silica fume, water-binder ratio (w/b), high-range water-reducing admixture, and viscosity-modifying agent (welan gum). The six outputs of the ANN models were the mini-slump, the apparent viscosity at low shear, and the yield stress and plastic viscosity values of the Bingham and modified Bingham models, respectively. The model is based on a multi-layer feed-forward neural network. The details of the proposed ANN with its architecture, training, and validation are presented in this paper. A database of 186 mixtures from eight different studies was developed to train and test the ANN model. The effectiveness of the trained ANN model is evaluated by comparing its responses with the experimental data that were used in the training process. The results show that the ANN model can accurately predict the mini-slump, the apparent viscosity at low shear, the yield stress, and the plastic viscosity values of the Bingham and modified Bingham models of the pseudo-plastic grouts used in the training process. The results can also predict these properties of new mixtures within the practical range of the input variables used in the training with an absolute error of 2%, 0.5%, 8%, 4%, 2%, and 1.6%, respectively. The sensitivity of the ANN model showed that the trend data obtained by the models were in good agreement with the actual experimental results, demonstrating the effect of mixture ingredients on fluidity and the rheological parameters with both the Bingham and modified Bingham models.

Comparison of plasma transport theory with measurements in a H- discharge

This paper and its companion paper describe the comparison between a one-dimensional theoretical model of a hydrogen discharge in a magnetic multipole plasma source and experimental measurements of the plasma parameters. The discharge chamber, described here, has been designed to produce significant densities of H- ions by incorporating a weak transverse field through the discharge to obtain electron cooling so as to maximize H- production. Langmuir probes are used to monitor the plasma, determining the ion density, the electron density and temperature and the plasma potential. The negative density is measured by photo-detachment of the extra electron using an intense laser beam. The model, described in the companion paper, uses the presented source geometry to calculate these plasma quantities as a function of the major are parameters; namely the are current and voltage and gas pressure. Good agreement is obtained between theory and experiment as a function of position and arc parameters.

A study of secondary instabilities in postbuckling composite aerostructures

A number of experimental studies have shown that postbuckling stiffened composite panels, loaded in uniaxial compression, may undergo secondary instabilities, characterised by an abrupt change in the buckled mode-shape of the skin between the supporting stiffeners. In this study high-speed digital speckle photogrammetry is used to gain further insight into an I-stiffened panel's response during this transient phase. This energy-dissipating phenomenon will be shown to be able to cause catastrophic structural failure in vulnerable structures. It is therefore imperative that an accurate and reliable methodology is available to predict this phenomenon. The shortcomings of current non-linear implicit solution schemes, found in most commercially-available finite element codes, are discussed. A robust and efficient strategy, which utilises an automated quasi-, static/pseudo-transient hybrid scheme, is presented in this paper and validated using a number of experimental tests. This approach is shown to be able to predict mode-jumping with good accuracy.

“Boundary-setting as a core activity in complex public systems”

Title: Boundary-setting as a core activity in complex public systems
Authors: Joanne Murphy & Mary Lee Rhodes

The definition of the boundary of a system is at the core of any systems approach (Midgley 2000; 2003). By defining boundaries we enable – and delimit – the range of outcomes sought and the actions and resources that can be brought to bear. In complex adaptive systems (CAS) analysis, the conceptualisaion and definition of boundaries is particularly challenging as they are constantly undergoing redefinition through agent action, interaction and entry/exit. (Rhodes et al 2011). The concept of ‘boundaries’ appears regularly in a wide range of literature around public management, administration, geopolitics, regeneration and organisational development. Discussions around boundaries focus on many things from concrete physical manifestations and barriers, to virtual interfaces between one organisational unit and another, or even entirely theoretical demarcations between different schools of thought (Kaboolian, 1998, Levi-Faur, 2004, Agranoff & McGuire, 2004).

However, managing ‘beyond’ such boundaries is a routinely recurring aspiration that transcends sectors and local concerns. Unsurprisingly then, there is an increasing understanding of the need to acknowledge and manage such boundaries (whether they be physical, social or organisational) within public management as a discipline (Currie et al 2007, Fitzsimmons and White, 1997, Murtagh, 2002). This paper explores the impact of boundaries on public management strategic decision-making in the sectors of urban regeneration and healthcare. In particular, it focuses on demarcations to physical space, communal identity and within professional relationships in these sectors.

The first section describes the research that gave rise to the paper and the cases examined. Next we briefly define what we mean by boundaries. We explore issues that have emerged from our analysis of urban regeneration and health care singularly, before looking at how the concept of boundaries is a recurrent concern across the sectors. The main contribution of the paper is an exploration of how a CAS lens can bring a new insight into the concept of boundaries and decision-making in the two sets of case studies. This discussion will concentrate on initial conditions, bifurcation and adaptation as key CAS factors in relation to boundaries. We conclude with a brief discussion on the benefits of a CAS lens to an analysis of boundaries in public management decision-making.
References:

Agranoff, R. and McGuire, M. (2003) Collaborative Public Management: Strategies for Local Government. Washington, DC: Georgetown Univ. Press.

Currie, G., Lockett, A. (2007) “A critique of transformational leadership: moral, professional & contingent dimensions of leadership within public services organizations”. Human Relations 60: 341-370.

Fitzsimmons and White, (1997) "Crossing boundaries: communication between professional groups", Journal of Management in Medicine, Vol. 11 Iss: 2, pp.96 – 101

Kaboolian, L. (1998) “The New Public Management: Challenging the Boundaries of the Management vs. Administration Debate” Public Administration Review Vol. 58, No. 3 pp.189-193

Levi-Faur D. and Vigoda-Gadot Eran (eds) (2004) International Public Policy and Management: Policy Learning Beyond Regional, Cultural and Political Boundaries, Marcel Dekker,
Midgley, G. (ed) (2003) Systems Thinking. London: Sage Publications

Midgley, G. (2000) Systemic Intervention: Philosophy, Methodology and Practice. New York, NY: Kluwer.

Murtagh, B. (2002). The Politics of Territory: Policy and Segregation in Northern Ireland. Basingstoke, Palgrave.

Rhodes, ML, Joanne Murphy, Jenny Muir, John Murray (2011) Public Management & Complexity Theory: Richer Decision Making in Irish Public Services, UK: Routledge

Landmark Cases in Property Law

This book explores the development of basic principles of property law in leading cases. Each paper considers a case on land, personal property or intangibles, discussing what that case contributes to the dominant themes of property jurisprudence - how are property rights acquired? What is the content of property rights? What are the limits or boundaries of property? How are property rights extinguished? Individually and collectively, the papers identify a number of important themes for the doctrinal development of property institutions and their broader justification. These themes include: the obscure and incremental development of seemingly foundational principles, the role of instrumentalism in property reasoning, the influence of the law of tort on the scope of property doctrines, and the impact of Roman legal reasoning on the common law of property. One or more of these themes (and others) is revealed through careful case analysis in each paper and they are collected and critically explored in the editors' introduction. This makes for a coherent and provocative collection.

Very high speed 17 Gbps SHACAL encryption architecture

Very high speed and low area hardware architectures of the SHACAL-1 encryption algorithm are presented in this paper. The SHACAL algorithm was a submission to the New European Schemes for Signatures, Integrity and Encryption (NESSIE) project and it is based on the SHA-1 hash algorithm. To date, there have been no performance metrics published on hardware implementations of this algorithm. A fully pipelined SHACAL-1 encryption architecture is described in this paper and when implemented on a Virtex-II X2V4000 FPGA device, it runs at a throughput of 17 Gbps. A fully pipelined decryption architecture achieves a speed of 13 Gbps when implemented on the same device. In addition, iterative architectures of the algorithm are presented. The SHACAL-1 decryption algorithm is derived and also presented in this paper, since it was not provided in the submission to NESSIE. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2003.

Avaliação online das aprendizagens com propósitos formativos : nota positiva?

Trabalho de projeto de mestrado, Tecnologias e Metodologias em E-Learning, Universidade de Lisboa, Instituto de Educação, Faculdade de Ciências, 2013

A normative framework for agent-based systems

One of the key issues in the computational representation of open societies relates to the introduction of norms that help to cope with the heterogeneity, the autonomy and the diversity of interests among their members. Research regarding this issue presents two omissions. One is the lack of a canonical model of norms that facilitates their implementation, and that allows us to describe the processes of reasoning about norms. The other refers to considering, in the model of normative multi-agent systems, the perspective of individual agents and what they might need to effectively reason about the society in which they participate. Both are the concerns of this paper, and the main objective is to present a formal normative framework for agent-based systems.

Graffiti composition: screenplay

Ongoing collaboration with Christian Marclay. ‘Graffiti Composition’ and ‘Screenplay’ are two related works consisting of live musical improvisation and performance. They are part of an ongoing collaboration with the artist Christian Marclay. 'Graffiti Composition' involved Beresford directing an invited orchestra of improvising musicians. The work focuses on making music from the random compositional acts of strangers. Prior to realization, Marclay fly-posted several hundred sheets of blank manuscript paper, collecting the sheets some days later, after passers-by had written on them – using either traditional music notation or more transgressive interference modes (colour-blocks, torn holes in or abstract graphic symbols on the paper) – and sending photographs of them to Beresford. Beresford’s directorial decisions helped these random graffiti become music via simple formal processes – restricting each musician to a handout of two MS each, or stipulating a mini-concerto for each player. Beresford’s contribution explores the paradox of improvisation stipulated by strangers and controlled, however loosely, by the structuring agency of a musical director. ‘Screenplay’ extended this collaborative process between Marclay and Beresford. Beresford and other musicians responding to a visual track comprising found and public domain moving images manipulated by Marclay – gunfight scenes from a TV Western; running water; racing cars morphing into crying children, and so on, in black-and-white, with single-colour blocks appearing and developing as lines, spots, and other suggestive ‘notation’. The elliptical, surprising, humorous nature of the images at times is hyperexplicated by the improvised music, and at others challenged, ignored or contradicted by the musicians’ interaction. ‘Graffiti Composition’ was performed by the LSO at St. Luke’s, London, March 22, 2005. ‘Screenplay’ premiered in Dundee in 2006, and toured Europe during 2007. Reviewed in the Herald (21 Feb 06) and Times (24 March 07). Beresford’s work as improviser, composer and performer was profiled in The Wire (April 2002, May 2005).

Técnicas de rating em contexto de crise no setor bancário português

Dissertação para a obtenção do Grau de Mestre em Contabilidade e Finanças Orientador: Mestre Adalmiro Álvaro Malheiro de Castro Andrade Pereira

Production of chitin-glucan complex by Pichia pastoris

Dissertation for the Degree of Master in Biotechnology

The role of crowdfunding in promoting entrepreneurship

Crowdfunding is a collaborative initiative, usually via internet, where people network to collectively raise funds in order to invest in and support projects delivered by other people or organizations. Tools such as crowdfunding are born and thrive in a grassroots environment, with a strong potential to positively disrupt the entrepreneurial generation setting and grow to a position of significant relevance in society, namely at a time when alternatives to traditional forms of finance are welcome and the technology to deliver them is abundant. Entrepreneurship is the act of transforming ideas and projects into economic products or services. Entrepreneurship related to starting new businesses is better known as start‐up ventures. Entrepreneurs face a series of challenges, from idea conception and business plan design, to obtaining finance, promoting new products and services, generating revenues and profits and generally growing and sustaining a business for the long‐run. These challenges can be overwhelming, namely in the start‐up phase of a new venture, leaving several ideas on paper without them having a chance to “grow legs and walk”. This paper and its analysis offer important insights about the contribution of crowdfunding to facilitate the attainment of critical factors for successful entrepreneurship. With extensive use of real practical examples, leveraging previous analytical studies of other crowdfunding implications and reviewing expert literature, by interviewing entrepreneurs, crowdfunding platform owners and by benefitting from hands on experience of working in such an organization, we intend to clarify the impact of crowdfunding in what we considered to be 7 key entrepreneurial requirements detailed further in the introduction section and later in the body of the paper. The findings have implications for entrepreneurs, naturally, and for business generation theory, extending current entrepreneurial guidelines with innovative tools and methodologies capable of sustaining successful ventures in a newly highlighted cooperative world. We live in innovative times where the channels for the transfer of funds and resources suffer disruptive changes with the potential to significantly improve the ability to generate new initiatives for the well‐being of entrepreneurs and all related communities.

Bioluminescent sensor proteins for point-of-care therapeutic drug monitoring.

For many drugs, finding the balance between efficacy and toxicity requires monitoring their concentrations in the patient's blood. Quantifying drug levels at the bedside or at home would have advantages in terms of therapeutic outcome and convenience, but current techniques require the setting of a diagnostic laboratory. We have developed semisynthetic bioluminescent sensors that permit precise measurements of drug concentrations in patient samples by spotting minimal volumes on paper and recording the signal using a simple point-and-shoot camera. Our sensors have a modular design consisting of a protein-based and a synthetic part and can be engineered to selectively recognize a wide range of drugs, including immunosuppressants, antiepileptics, anticancer agents and antiarrhythmics. This low-cost point-of-care method could make therapies safer, increase the convenience of doctors and patients and make therapeutic drug monitoring available in regions with poor infrastructure.