Sociodemographic, behavioral and genetic determinants of allostatic load in a Swiss population-based study.

Allostatic load (AL) is a marker of physiological dysregulation which reflects exposure to chronic stress. High AL has been related to poorer health outcomes including mortality. We examine here the association of socioeconomic and lifestyle factors with AL. Additionally, we investigate the extent to which AL is genetically determined. We included 803 participants (52% women, mean age 48±16years) from a population and family-based Swiss study. We computed an AL index aggregating 14 markers from cardiovascular, metabolic, lipidic, oxidative, hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal and inflammatory homeostatic axes. Education and occupational position were used as indicators of socioeconomic status. Marital status, stress, alcohol intake, smoking, dietary patterns and physical activity were considered as lifestyle factors. Heritability of AL was estimated by maximum likelihood. Women with a low occupational position had higher AL (low vs. high OR=3.99, 95%CI [1.22;13.05]), while the opposite was observed for men (middle vs. high OR=0.48, 95%CI [0.23;0.99]). Education tended to be inversely associated with AL in both sexes(low vs. high OR=3.54, 95%CI [1.69;7.4]/OR=1.59, 95%CI [0.88;2.90] in women/men). Heavy drinking men as well as women abstaining from alcohol had higher AL than moderate drinkers. Physical activity was protective against AL while high salt intake was related to increased AL risk. The heritability of AL was estimated to be 29.5% ±7.9%. Our results suggest that generalized physiological dysregulation, as measured by AL, is determined by both environmental and genetic factors. The genetic contribution to AL remains modest when compared to the environmental component, which explains approximately 70% of the phenotypic variance.

Construction of an index of information from clinical practice in Radiology and Imaging Diagnosis based on text mining and thesaurus

Objective To construct a Portuguese language index of information on the practice of diagnostic radiology in order to improve the standardization of the medical language and terminology. Materials and Methods A total of 61,461 definitive reports were collected from the database of the Radiology Information System at Hospital das Clínicas – Faculdade de Medicina de Ribeirão Preto (RIS/HCFMRP) as follows: 30,000 chest x-ray reports; 27,000 mammography reports; and 4,461 thyroid ultrasonography reports. The text mining technique was applied for the selection of terms, and the ANSI/NISO Z39.19-2005 standard was utilized to construct the index based on a thesaurus structure. The system was created in *html. Results The text mining resulted in a set of 358,236 (n = 100%) words. Out of this total, 76,347 (n = 21%) terms were selected to form the index. Such terms refer to anatomical pathology description, imaging techniques, equipment, type of study and some other composite terms. The index system was developed with 78,538 *html web pages. Conclusion The utilization of text mining on a radiological reports database has allowed the construction of a lexical system in Portuguese language consistent with the clinical practice in Radiology.

CRM and higher education : developing a monitoring system to improve relationships in e-learning environments

Peer-reviewed

Exploring new criteria to design materials for online education

Peer-reviewed

Web and education, a successful open entanglement

E-learning, understood as the intensive use of Information and Communication Technologies in mainly but not only) distance education, has radically changed the meaning of the latter. E-learning is an overused term which has been applied to any use of technology in education. Today, the most widely accepted meaning ofe-learning coincides with the fourth generation described by Taylor (1999), where there is an asynchronousprocess that allows students and teachers to interact in an educational process expressly designed in accordance with these principles. We prefer to speak of Internet-Based Learning or, better still, Web-Based Learning, for example, to explain the fact that distance education is carried out using the Internet, with the appearance of the virtual learning environment concept, a web space where the teaching and learning process is generated and supported (Sangrà, 2002). This entails overcoming the barriers of space and time of brickand mortar education (although we prefer the term face-to-face) or of classical distance education using broadcasting and adopting a completely asynchronous model that allows access to education by many more users, at any level (including secondary education, but primarily higher education and lifelong learning).

Metadata for describing learning scenarios under European Higher Education Area paradigm

In this paper we identify the requirements for creating formal descriptions of learning scenarios designed under the European HigherEducation Area paradigm, using competences and learning activities as the basic pieces of the learning process, instead of contents and learning resources, pursuing personalization. Classical arrangements of content based courses are no longer enough to describe all the richness of this new learning process, where user profiles, competences and complex hierarchical itineraries need to be properly combined. We study the intersection with the current IMS Learning Design specification and theadditional metadata required for describing such learning scenarios. This new approach involves the use of case based learning and collaborativelearning in order to acquire and develop competences, following adaptive learning paths in two structured levels.

Reflective Learning in Higher Education: A Comparative Analysis

A descriptive, exploratory study is presented based on a questionnaire regarding the following aspects of reflective learning: a) self-knowledge, b) relating experience to knowledge, c) self-reflection, and d) self-regulation of the learning processes. The questionnaire was completed by students studying four different degree courses (social education, environmental sciences, nursing, and psychology). Specifically, the objectives of a self-reported reflective learning questionnaire are: i) to determine students’ appraisal of reflective learning methodology with regard to their reflective learning processes, ii) to obtain evidence of the main difficulties encountered by students in integrating reflective learning methodologies into their reflective learning processes, and iii) to collect students’ perceptions regarding the main contributions of the reflective learning processes they have experienced

A Case-based reasoning approach to validate grammatical gender and number agreement in Spanish language

Across Latin America 420 indigenous languages are spoken. Spanish is considered a second language in indigenous communities and is progressively introduced in education. However, most of the tools to support teaching processes of a second language have been developed for the most common languages such as English, French, German, Italian, etc. As a result, only a small amount of learning objects and authoring tools have been developed for indigenous people considering the specific needs of their population. This paper introduces Multilingual–Tiny as a web authoring tool to support the virtual experience of indigenous students and teachers when they are creating learning objects in indigenous languages or in Spanish language, in particular, when they have to deal with the grammatical structures of Spanish. Multilingual–Tiny has a module based on the Case-based Reasoning technique to provide recommendations in real time when teachers and students write texts in Spanish. An experiment was performed in order to compare some local similarity functions to retrieve cases from the case library taking into account the grammatical structures. As a result we found the similarity function with the best performance

Digital learner portfolio as a tool for inovating assessment in the European Higher Education Area

The present article comes from a doctoral thesis that turns on digital learner portfolio, which is an innovating methodology from the perspective of European Higher Education Area. First, the educative concept of eportfolio is described in the sense of its procedure and its structure, by means of the technological support of a platform of virtual campus. Second, it is shown the pedagogical model of an eportfolio that adapts subjects with an instrumental character to one organization based on tasks and reflections. This design of virtual learning environment is based on a teaching- learning methodology sustained in the activity of the student, which tries to give support to the management of his or her own process of learning and assessment. Finally, the article illustrates the experience of implementation of the first digital learner portfolios in the University of Barcelona and the Autonomous University of Barcelona, with the objective of reflecting about the pedagogical consequences that this assessment model with technological support has in a traditional higher education institution.

Games in Education and Process Development

The aim of the thesis is to devise a framework for analyzing simulation games, in particular introductory supply chain simulation games which are used in education and process development. The framework is then applied to three case examples which are introductory supply chain simulation games used at Lappeenranta University of Technology. The theoretical part of the thesis studies simulation games in the context of education and training as well as of process management. Simulation games can be seen as learning processes which comprise of briefing, micro cycle, and debriefing which includes observation and reflection as well as conceptualization. The micro cycle, i.e. the game itself, is defined through elements and characteristics. Both briefing and debriefing ought to support the micro cycle. The whole learning process needs to support learning objectives of the simulation game. Based on the analysis of the case simulation games, suggestions on how to boost the debriefing and promote long term effects of the games are made. In addition, a framework is suggested to be used in designing simulation games and characteristics of introductory supply chain simulation games are defined. They are designed for general purposes, are simple and operated manually, are multifunctional interplays, and last about 2.5 4 hours. Participants co operate during a game run and competition arises between different runs or game sessions.

'L’escriptura del jo', una proposta d’educació intercultural i tractament de la diversitat per a l’ensenyament secundari obligatori = The writing of I, an intercultural educational proposal and treatment of diversity for Compulsory Secondary Education

The writing of I is a project that starts an itinerary through past, present and future experiences of each of our students based on following research activities. Reading, creation and recreation of text and other items that turn essentially around autobiographical writing and culminate with the elaboration of a free autobiography

Repensando la formación inicial del profesorado para abordar el tratamiento a la diversidad cultural y lingüística en el aula = Rethinking initial teacher education for linguistic and cvltural diversity in the classroom

In recent decades, European educational systems are facing many challenges related to the treatment of cultural and linguistic diversity. The need to address this diversity requires new approaches to education; this in turn requires changes in the way we prepare teachers for the new reality they face in their classrooms. In this article we highlight some of the major problems that initial teacher training has to address in order to enable teachers to deal effectively, respectfully, and fairly with students whose linguistic and cultural background is different from their own. We also present several models for teacher education from Europe and North America based on clearly identified teacher competences for linguistic and cultural diversity