Sistema de e-learning en el entorno AFRICA BUILD Portal

Diversos estudios consideran que las claves para el desarrollo técnico, social y económico de los países en desarrollo, y en especial en África, son la educación, la investigación y la innovación. No obstante, en el ámbito sanitario en particular, la formación e investigación en África sigue siendo escasa por diversos motivos. Por un lado, los investigadores africanos encuentran dificultades añadidas para obtener financiación frente a investigadores en países de desarrollo. Y, por otro lado, los investigadores no disponen de las herramientas y tecnologías adecuadas para acceder a información relevante para su trabajo. En este contexto, el proyecto AFRICA BUILD tiene como principal objetivo mejorar y fomentar la investigación y educación sanitaria en África a través de las nuevas tecnologías. Uno de los resultados principales de este proyecto es el AFRICA BUILD Portal (ABP), que pretende ser un punto de encuentro para los investigadores africanos, donde podrán encontrar un amplio abanico de herramientas que les permita no sólo mejorar su educación, sino compartir conocimientos con otros investigadores. Este portal, que está actualmente en desarrollo, pretende fomentar la comunicación entre instituciones africanas y les proveerá herramientas biomédicas avanzadas. En este Trabajo de Fin de Grado se han marcado como principal objetivo la mejora del sistema de e-learning que existía en el ABP. El nuevo sistema será: (i) más potente, óptimo y rico en funcionalidades, (ii) tendrá una importante base social permitiendo a los usuarios aportar información y compartir conocimiento, y (iii) será distribuido y escalable, capaz de integrar distintos gestores de contenidos didácticos como fuentes de información. Los resultados obtenidos son positivos y el nuevo sistema de aprendizaje ha mejorado la usabilidad, funcionalidad y apariencia del anterior. Para concluir, la herramienta posee aún un gran margen de mejora, pero gracias al trabajo realizado el sistema de e-learning es ahora más social, distribuido, escalable e innovador. ---ABSTRACT---Several studies find that the keys to the technical, social and economic development of developing countries, especially in Africa, are education, research and innovation. However, in the health sector in particular, training and research in Africa remains low for various reasons. On the one hand, African researchers experience additional difficulties for funding against researchers in developing countries. And on the other hand, researchers do not have the right tools and technologies to access information relevant to their work. In this context, the AFRICA BUILD project's main objective is to improve and enhance research and health education in Africa through new technologies. One of the main results of this project is the AFRICA BUILD Portal (ABP), which aims to be a meeting point for African researchers, where they can find a wide range of tools that allows them to not only improve their education but to share knowledge with other researchers. This portal, which is currently under development, aims to promote communication between African institutions and will provide advanced biomedical tools. The main objective of this Final Year Project is the improvement of the former elearning system that already existed in the ABP. The new system will be: (i) more powerful, richer in features, (ii) will have an important social base allowing users to contribute information and knowledge sharing; and (iii) will be distributed and scalable, capable of integrating different learning management systems as sources of information. The final results obtained are fairly positive and the new e-learning system has improved its usability, functionality and appearance of the former. To conclude, the tool still has much room for improvement, but thanks to the new features of the improved elearning system has become more social, distributed, scalable and innovative.

Ampliación de un portal Wordpress para el diseño de cursos basados en la metodología PBL

La metodología PBL propone el aprendizaje basado en problemas. A grandes rasgos sugiere que el estudiante sea el protagonista de su propio aprendizaje mediante el desarrollo de proyectos. Con esa idea, el grupo de innovación educativa DMAE-DIA (Desarrollo de nuevas Metodologías de Aprendizaje/Evaluación del Departamento de Informática Aplicada), comenzó la construcción de un portal web para mostrar los principios de dicha metodología, que permitiese a los usuarios del mismo conocerla y aprender a utilizarla en un entorno colaborativo. El objetivo de este trabajo es ampliar este portal para que los usuarios sean capaces de crear, eliminar y mantener sus propios proyectos para posteriormente utilizarlos como base para su práctica docente. El trabajo se ha planteado siguiendo el paradigma de la orientación a objetos, mediante la metodología UML y siguiendo el ciclo de vida del software y se ha implementado utilizando como base el CMS Wordpress y desarrollando con los lenguajes que más adelante se especificarán. Wordpress por su parte es un sistema de gestión de contenidos dotado de gran potencia que permite, de una manera muy sencilla, construir entornos web con el mínimo esfuerzo. ABSTRACT The PBL methodology proposed problem-based learning. Roughly suggests that the student is the protagonist of their own learning by developing projects. With that, the group of educational innovation DMAE-DIA (Development of new Learning/Assessment methodologies, Department of Applied Computing) began building a web portal to show the principles of this methodology, which would allow users to know and learn to use it in a collaborative environment. The aim of this work is to extend this website so that users are able to create, delete and maintain their own projects for later use as the basis for their teaching practice. The work has been raised following the paradigm of object orientation, by following the UML methodology and software life cycle and has been implemented using as a basis the CMS Wordpress and developed with the languages that will be specified later. Meanwhile Wordpress is a content management system endowed with great power that allows,in a very simple way to build web environments with minimal effort.

Portal Sistema FM: intercâmbio técnico científico entre profissionais que atuam com alunos usuários de Sistema FM

Para a adequada implantação de um Programa de Concessão, Adaptação e Acompanhamento do Sistema FM em estudantes com deficiência auditiva nas escolas brasileiras é necessário um trabalho intersetorial, caracterizado por uma cuidadosa articulação entre os Sistemas Educacional e de Saúde. As ações em rede integrarão os diferentes níveis de atenção da pessoa com deficiência auditiva, conforme a nova política interministerial Viver Sem Limites. O objetivo deste estudo foi desenvolver e analisar a eficácia de um ambiente virtual de transmissão de informações sobre Sistema FM para profissionais utilizando a Teleducação Interativa. Devido à distribuição geográfica dos profissionais que atuam com a adaptação do Sistema FM em alunos usuários de Sistema FM foi proposto o acesso aos módulos à distância (Teleducação) via internet por meio do Portal Sistema FM disponibilizado em endereço eletrônico http://portalsistemafm.fob.usp.br/. O portal é composto por 7 módulos, sendo que todos os materiais foram transformados em infográficos, com possibilidade de download. Realizaram o cadastro no Portal Sistema FM 50 profissionais que atuam em Serviços de Saúde Auditiva credenciados pelo SUS, sendo que 31 fonoaudiólogos avaliaram o Portal Sistema FM. Para a avaliação do programa de capacitação foram propostos os instrumentos Ficha de Pesquisa Motivacional, Escala de Autoavaliação de Impacto do Treinamento no trabalho - medida de amplitude e um Questionário sobre o conteúdo teórico, todos contidos em um módulo do Portal. Os fonoaudiólogos, respondendo a Ficha de Pesquisa Motivacional, consideraram o Portal Sistema FM com expectativa para o sucesso. A Escala de Impacto no Trabalho demonstrou que o acesso aos módulos do Portal Sistema FM gerou um impacto no trabalho dos participantes, quando aplicado após o primeiro acesso e dois meses depois, porém não foi indicada diferença estatisticamente significante quando comparadas. No questionário sobre o conteúdo teórico os participantes obtiveram uma média de 79,03% de acerto. O Portal Sistema FM foi criado e encontra-se disponível no endereço eletrônico http://portalsistemafm.fob.usp.br/, sendo avaliado como um portal impressionante quanto à motivação dos participantes. O acesso aos módulos trouxe impacto no trabalho dos profissionais.

AVALIAÇÃO DA ACEITAÇÃO DO PORTAL INOVAÇÃO: UM ESTUDO DE CASO

Esta pesquisa apresenta estudo de caso cujo objetivo foi analisar a aceitação do Portal Inovação, identificando os fatores preditivos da intenção comportamental de uso e do comportamento de uso direcionadores da adoção da tecnologia por seus usuários via extensão do Modelo Unificado de Aceitação de Tecnologia, denominado pela sigla UTAUT (Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technololgy) de Venkatesh et al. (2003). O objeto da pesquisa o Portal Inovação foi desenvolvido pelo Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (MCTI) em parceria com o Centro de Gestão e Estudos Estratégicos (CGEE), Associação Brasileira de Desenvolvimento Industrial (ABDI) e Instituto Stela, visando atender às demandas do Sistema Nacional de Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (SNCTI) do País. Para atingir os objetivos propostos, recorreu-se às abordagens qualitativa, que foi subsidiada pelo método estudo de caso (YIN, 2005) e quantitativa, apoiada pela metodologia UTAUT, aplicada a usuários do portal e que contemplou o resultado de 264 respondentes validados. Quanto ao material de análise, utilizou-se da pesquisa bibliográfica sobre governo eletrônico (e-Gov), Internet, Sistema Nacional de Inovação, modelos de aceitação de tecnologia, dados oficiais públicos e legislações atinentes ao setor de inovação tecnológica. A técnica de análise empregada quantitativamente consistiu no uso de modelagem por equações estruturais, com base no algoritmo PLS (Partial Least Square) com bootstrap de 1.000 reamostragens. Os principais resultados obtidos demonstraram alta magnitude e significância preditiva sobre a Intenção Comportamental de Uso do Portal pelos fatores: Expectativa de Desempenho e Influência Social. Além de evidenciarem que as condições facilitadoras impactam significativamente sobre o Comportamento de Uso dos usuários. A conclusão principal do presente estudo é a de que ao considerarmos a aceitação de um portal governamental em que a adoção é voluntária, o fator social é altamente influente na intenção de uso da tecnologia, bem como os aspectos relacionados à produtividade consequente do usuário e o senso de utilidade; além da facilidade de interação e domínio da ferramenta. Tais constatações ensejam em novas perspectivas de pesquisa e estudos no âmbito das ações de e-Gov, bem como no direcionamento adequado do planejamento, monitoramento e avaliação de projetos governamentais.

Developing a forest data portal to support multi-scale decision making

Forests play a pivotal role in timber production, maintenance and development of biodiversity and in carbon sequestration and storage in the context of the Kyoto Protocol. Policy makers and forest experts therefore require reliable information on forest extent, type and change for management, planning and modeling purposes. It is becoming increasingly clear that such forest information is frequently inconsistent and unharmonised between countries and continents. This research paper presents a forest information portal that has been developed in line with the GEOSS and INSPIRE frameworks. The web portal provides access to forest resources data at a variety of spatial scales, from global through to regional and local, as well as providing analytical capabilities for monitoring and validating forest change. The system also allows for the utilisation of forest data and processing services within other thematic areas. The web portal has been developed using open standards to facilitate accessibility, interoperability and data transfer.

One Approach to Knowledge Mapping for International Student Portal

* The work is partly supported by RFFI grant 08-07-00062-a

Share.TEC Portal: How the Metadata Repositories of Educational Resources Meet the Users’ Expectations

This is an extended version of an article presented at the Second International Conference on Software, Services and Semantic Technologies, Sofia, Bulgaria, 11–12 September 2010.

A new stepwise carbon cycle data assimilation system using multiple data streams to constrain the simulated land surface carbon cycle

Acknowledgements. This work was mainly funded by the EU FP7 CARBONES project (contracts FP7-SPACE-2009-1-242316), with also a small contribution from GEOCARBON project (ENV.2011.4.1.1-1-283080). This work used eddy covariance data acquired by the FLUXNET community and in particular by the following networks: AmeriFlux (U.S. Department of Energy, Biological and Environmental Research, Terrestrial Carbon Program; DE-FG02-04ER63917 and DE-FG02-04ER63911), AfriFlux, AsiaFlux, CarboAfrica, CarboEuropeIP, CarboItaly, CarboMont, ChinaFlux, Fluxnet-Canada (supported by CFCAS, NSERC, BIOCAP, Environment Canada, and NRCan), GreenGrass, KoFlux, LBA, NECC, OzFlux, TCOS-Siberia, USCCC. We acknowledge the financial support to the eddy covariance data harmonization provided by CarboEuropeIP, FAO-GTOS-TCO, iLEAPS, Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, National Science Foundation, University of Tuscia, Université Laval and Environment Canada and US Department of Energy and the database development and technical support from Berkeley Water Center, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Microsoft Research eScience, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, University of California-Berkeley, University of Virginia. Philippe Ciais acknowledges support from the European Research Council through Synergy grant ERC-2013-SyG-610028 “IMBALANCE-P”. The authors wish to thank M. Jung for providing access to the GPP MTE data, which were downloaded from the GEOCARBON data portal (https://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/geodb/projects/Data.php). The authors are also grateful to computing support and resources provided at LSCE and to the overall ORCHIDEE project that coordinate the development of the code (http://labex.ipsl.fr/orchidee/index.php/about-the-team).

Economic crisis and national health system

The text analyzes the impact of the economic crisis in some critical aspects of the National Health System: outcomes, health expenditure, remuneration policy and privatization through Private Public Partnership models. Some health outcomes related to social inequalities are worrying. Reducing public health spending has increased the fragility of the health system, reduced wage income of workers in the sector and increased heterogeneity between regions. Finally, the evidence indicates that privatization does not mean more efficiency and better governance. Deep reforms are needed to strengthen the National Health System.

Mechanical stretch up-regulates the B-type natriuretic peptide system in human cardiac fibroblasts:a possible defense against transforming growth factor-β mediated fibrosis

BACKGROUND: Mechanical overload of the heart is associated with excessive deposition of extracellular matrix proteins and the development of cardiac fibrosis. This can result in reduced ventricular compliance, diastolic dysfunction, and heart failure. Extracellular matrix synthesis is regulated primarily by cardiac fibroblasts, more specifically, the active myofibroblast. The influence of mechanical stretch on human cardiac fibroblasts' response to pro-fibrotic stimuli, such as transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ), is unknown as is the impact of stretch on B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) and natriuretic peptide receptor A (NPRA) expression. BNP, acting via NPRA, has been shown to play a role in modulation of cardiac fibrosis.

METHODS AND RESULTS: The effect of cyclical mechanical stretch on TGFβ induction of myofibroblast differentiation in primary human cardiac fibroblasts and whether differences in response to stretch were associated with changes in the natriuretic peptide system were investigated. Cyclical mechanical stretch attenuated the effectiveness of TGFβ in inducing myofibroblast differentiation. This finding was associated with a novel observation that mechanical stretch can increase BNP and NPRA expression in human cardiac fibroblasts, which could have important implications in modulating myocardial fibrosis. Exogenous BNP treatment further reduced the potency of TGFβ on mechanically stretched fibroblasts.

CONCLUSION: We postulate that stretch induced up-regulation of the natriuretic peptide system may contribute to the observed reduction in myofibroblast differentiation.

The Kepler-454 system: a small, not-rocky inner planet, a Jovian world, and a distant companion

Kepler-454 (KOI-273) is a relatively bright (V = 11.69 mag), Sun-like star that hosts a transiting planet candidate in a 10.6 day orbit. From spectroscopy, we estimate the stellar temperature to be 5687 ± 50 K, its metallicity to be [m/H] = 0.32 ± 0.08, and the projected rotational velocity to be v sin i <2.4 km s^-1. We combine these values with a study of the asteroseismic frequencies from short cadence Kepler data to estimate the stellar mass to be , the radius to be 1.066 ± 0.012 R_o, and the age to be Gyr. We estimate the radius of the 10.6 day planet as 2.37 ± 0.13 R_⊕. Using 63 radial velocity observations obtained with the HARPS-N spectrograph on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo and 36 observations made with the HIRES spectrograph at the Keck Observatory, we measure the mass of this planet to be 6.8 ± 1.4 M_⊕. We also detect two additional non-transiting companions, a planet with a minimum mass of 4.46 ± 0.12 M_J in a nearly circular 524 day orbit and a massive companion with a period >10 years and mass >12.1 M_J. The 12 exoplanets with radii ⊕ and precise mass measurements appear to fall into two populations, with those ⊕ following an Earth-like composition curve and larger planets requiring a significant fraction of volatiles. With a density of 2.76 ± 0.73 g cm^-3, Kepler-454b lies near the mass transition between these two populations and requires the presence of volatiles and/or H/He gas.

The HARPS-N Rocky Planet Search. I. HD 219134 b: A transiting rocky planet in a multi-planet system at 6.5 pc from the Sun

We know now from radial velocity surveys and transit space missions thatplanets only a few times more massive than our Earth are frequent aroundsolar-type stars. Fundamental questions about their formation history,physical properties, internal structure, and atmosphere composition are,however, still to be solved. We present here the detection of a systemof four low-mass planets around the bright (V = 5.5) and close-by (6.5pc) star HD 219134. This is the first result of the Rocky Planet Searchprogramme with HARPS-N on the Telescopio Nazionale Galileo in La Palma.The inner planet orbits the star in 3.0935 ± 0.0003 days, on aquasi-circular orbit with a semi-major axis of 0.0382 ± 0.0003AU. Spitzer observations allowed us to detect the transit of the planetin front of the star making HD 219134 b the nearest known transitingplanet to date. From the amplitude of the radial velocity variation(2.25 ± 0.22 ms-1) and observed depth of the transit(359 ± 38 ppm), the planet mass and radius are estimated to be4.36 ± 0.44 M⊕ and 1.606 ± 0.086R⊕, leading to a mean density of 5.76 ± 1.09 gcm-3, suggesting a rocky composition. One additional planetwith minimum-mass of 2.78 ± 0.65 M⊕ moves on aclose-in, quasi-circular orbit with a period of 6.767 ± 0.004days. The third planet in the system has a period of 46.66 ± 0.08days and a minimum-mass of 8.94 ± 1.13 M⊕, at0.233 ± 0.002 AU from the star. Its eccentricity is 0.46 ±0.11. The period of this planet is close to the rotational period of thestar estimated from variations of activity indicators (42.3 ± 0.1days). The planetary origin of the signal is, however, thepreferredsolution as no indication of variation at the corresponding frequency isobserved for activity-sensitive parameters. Finally, a fourth additionallonger-period planet of mass of 71 M⊕ orbits the starin 1842 days, on an eccentric orbit (e = 0.34 ± 0.17) at adistance of 2.56 AU.The photometric time series and radial velocities used in this work areavailable in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr(ftp://130.79.128.5) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/584/A72

Using Computational Significance and Resilience in System Software Stacks.:Keynote Talk

This talk explores how the runtime system and operating system can leverage metrics that express the significance and resilience of application components in order to reduce the energy footprint of parallel applications. We will explore in particular how software can tolerate and indeed exploit higher error rates in future processors and memory technologies that may operate outside their safe margins.