9300 research outputs found
Sort by
La politica dell' Unione Europea in tema di criminalità organizzata
No full textIl tema del contrasto alla criminalità organizzata nell'Unione Europea rappresenta un'occasione di riflessione e di approfondimento per le implicazioni sugli ordinamenti interni di ogni Stato membro. In questo Capitolo, attraverso un excursus storico, esamineremo la politica di contrasto alla criminalità organizzata che deriva dalla messa in campo di tradizioni politiche nazionali deverse. Già l'articolo 29 del Trattato sull'Unione Europea indicava, tra gli Stati membri un'azione in comune nel settore della cooperazione di polizia e membri coincide con la volontà degli stessi di combattere la criminalità organizzata: come unica forma di contrasto utile al fine perseguito
Penicillium chrysogenum as a fungal factory for feruloyl esterases
No full textPlant biomass is a promising substrate for biorefinery, as well as a source of bioactive compounds, platform chemicals, and precursors with multiple industrial applications. These applications depend on the hydrolysis of its recalcitrant structure. However, the effective biological degradation of plant cell walls requires several enzymatic groups acting synergistically, and novel enzymes are needed in order to achieve profitable industrial hydrolysis processes. In the present work, a feruloyl esterase (FAE) activity screening of Penicillium spp. strains revealed a promising candidate (Penicillium rubens Wisconsin 54–1255; previously Penicillium chrysogenum), where two FAE-ORFs were identified and subsequently overexpressed. Enzyme extracts were analyzed, confirming the presence of FAE activity in the respective gene products (PrFaeA and PrFaeB). PrFaeB-enriched enzyme extracts were used to determine the FAE activity optima (pH 5.0 and 50–55 °C) and perform proteome analysis by means of MALDI-TOF/TOF mass spectrometry. The studies were completed with the determination of other lignocellulolytic activities, an untargeted metabolite analysis, and upscaled FAE production in stirred tank reactors. The findings described in this work present P. rubens as a promising lignocellulolytic enzyme producer.This study was funded by a project (ref. no. CTM2012-32026) of the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (MINECO) and co-funded by the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund). Ms. Laura García-Calvo was supported by a PhD grant (ref. no. BES-2013–064578) and an international stay grant (ref. no. EEBB-I-16–11760), awarded by the Spanish Ministry MINECO
A Low-Cost System Using a Big-Data Deep-Learning Framework for Assessing Physical Telerehabilitation: A Proof-of-Concept
No full textThe consolidation of telerehabilitation for the treatment of many diseases over the last decades is a consequence of its cost-effective results and its ability to offer access to rehabilitation in remote areas. Telerehabilitation operates over a distance, so vulnerable patients are never exposed to unnecessary risks. Despite its low cost, the need for a professional to assess therapeutic exercises and proper corporal movements online should also be mentioned. The focus of this paper is on a telerehabilitation system for patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease in remote villages and other less accessible locations. A full-stack is presented using big data frameworks that facilitate communication between the patient and the occupational therapist, the recording of each session, and real-time skeleton identification using artificial intelligence techniques. Big data technologies are used to process the numerous videos that are generated during the course of treating simultaneous patients. Moreover, the skeleton of each patient can be estimated using deep neural networks for automated evaluation of corporal exercises, which is of immense help to the therapists in charge of the treatment programs.This work was supported by project PI19/00670 of the Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Spain. The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the NVIDIA Corporation and its donation of the TITAN Xp GPU used in this research. In addition, this work was partially supported by the European Social Fund, as the authors José Miguel Ramírez-Sanz, José Luis Garrido-Labrador, and Alicia Olivares-Gil are the recipients of a pre-doctoral grant (EDU/875/2021) from the Conserjería de Educación de la Junta de Castilla y León
Codocencia para la formación inicial de docentes de inglés en educación STEAM+AICLE integrada
No full textIn Spain, primary education teachers teaching subject matter in a foreign lan-guage through Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL) require new pedagogical competencies. Teaching in a second language often poses problems, as many teachers have no specific training in CLIL and often wish to gain greater self-confidence when teaching some subjects, for example, Natural Sciences, in a foreign language. In that scenario, two general objectives are proposed in this study within the framework of pre-service CLIL teacher training: to examine the impact of a co-teaching programme on the development of the pedagogical competences of pre-service English as a Foreign Language (EFL) teach-ers engaged in STEAM+CLIL integrated education; and 2) to study the impact of the pro-gramme on the perceived self-confidence of pre-service teachers when teaching CLIL. The results of this research involving three experimental cohorts of pre-service teachers showed an improvement in their pedagogical competencies at designing integrated STEAM+CLIL didactic units, compared to the respective control groups; and an increase in their perceived self-confidence when teaching EFL through CLIL. These results point towards an alternative pathway for primary school teacher training in a foreign language, particularly English.Keywords: co-teaching, teacher training, EFL, STEAM, CLILEn España, la enseñanza de asignaturas en una lengua adicional a través del Aprendizaje Integrado de Contenidos y Lengua Extranjera (AICLE) en Educación Primaria requiere nuevas competencias pedagógicas por parte de docentes. Esta situación suele plantear un problema, ya que muchos no tienen una formación específica en AICLE y consideran que necesitan más autoconfianza para enseñar dichas asignaturas en una lengua adicional, por ejemplo, en Natural Science. Ante este escenario, en este estudio se plantean dos objetivos generales en el marco del profesorado AICLE en formación: 1) examinar el impacto de un programa de codocencia en el desarrollo de competencias pedagógicas de futuros maestros de inglés como lengua extranjera en educación STEAM+AICLE integrada, y 2) estudiar el impacto de este programa en la autoconfianza hacia la enseñanza AICLE generada por los futuros maestros. Los resultados obtenidos en la investigación con tres cohortes experimentales de maestros en formación muestran una mejora de sus competencias pedagógicas para diseñar propuestas didácticas STEAM+AICLE integradas, en comparación con sus respectivos grupos de control; también a un aumento de su autoconfianza en la enseñanza de inglés como lengua extranjera a través de AICLE. Estos resultados parecen mostrar una alternativa para la formación docente de maestros de Educación Primaria en lengua adicional, particularmente inglés.This research was funded by the European Commission which financed the research project STEAM Education and Foreign Language Learning in Europe - SeLFIE (2020-1-ES01KA201-081850)
Risk of Cognitive Impairment in Patients With Parkinson’s Disease With Visual Hallucinations and Subjective Cognitive Complaints
No full textBackground and Purpose: Visual hallucinations (VH) and subjective cognitive complaints (SCC) are associated with cognitive impairment (CI) in Parkinson’s disease. Our aims were to determine the association between VH and SCC and the risk of CI development in a cohort of patients with Parkinson’s disease and normal cognition (PD-NC).
Methods: Patients with PD-NC (total score of >80 on the Parkinson’s Disease Cognitive Rating Scale [PD-CRS]) recruited from the Spanish COPPADIS cohort from January 2016 to November 2017 were followed up after 2 years. Subjects with a score of ≥1 on domain 5 and item 13 of the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale at baseline (V0) were considered as “with SCC” and “with VH,” respectively. CI at the 2-year follow-up (plus or minus 1 month) (V2) was defined as a PD-CRS total score of <81.
Results: At V0 (n=376, 58.2% males, age 61.14±8.73 years [mean±SD]), the frequencies of VH and SCC were 13.6% and 62.2%, respectively. VH were more frequent in patients with SCC than in those without: 18.8% (44/234) vs 4.9% (7/142), p<0.0001. At V2, 15.2% (57/376) of the patients had developed CI. VH presenting at V0 was associated with a higher risk of CI at V2 (odds ratio [OR]=2.68, 95% confidence interval=1.05–6.83, p=0.0.039) after controlling for the effects of age, disease duration, education, medication, motor and nonmotor status, mood, and PD-CRS total score at V0. Although SCC were not associated with CI at V2, presenting both VH and SCC at V0 increased the probability of having CI at V2 (OR=3.71, 95% confidence interval=1.36–10.17, p=0.011).
Conclusions: VH were associated with the development of SCC and CI at the 2-year follow-up in patients with PD-NC.The resources obtained for the development of this project have been obtained by the Degen Foundation (https://fundaciondegen.org/). A part of the Project is financed with grants from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [PI16/01575] co-founded by ISCIII (Concesión de subvenciones de Proyectos de Investigación en Salud de la convocatoria 2020 de la Acción Estratégica en Salud 2017-2020 por el proyecto “PROGRESIÓN NO MOTORA E IMPACTO EN LA CALIDAD DE VIDA EN LA ENFERMEDAD DE PARKINSON”)
El pacto verde europeo y los objetivos de la directiva (UE) 2022/2464, de 16 de diciembre, sobre formación corporativa en materia de sostenibilidad (CSRD)
No full textTrabajo presentado en: Congreso Internacional Sostenibilidad y Derecho del Sistema Financiero, 15, 16 y 17 de noviembre de 2023, València (Spain
Public perception towards electric light vehicles: an empirical look across six European cities
No full textEn el nuevo paradigma de electrificación del transporte, los vehículos eléctricos ligeros representan una vía de bajo coste prometedora para la movilidad urbana inteligente. A pesar de ello, su penetración en el mercado es relativamente baja en comparación con la de otros vehículos eléctricos, como las bicicletas o los coches eléctricos. Uno de los obstáculos para su despliegue masivo es el escaso conocimiento de su existencia por parte de los usuarios. La tesis doctoral explora la actitud previa de la población hacia los vehículos eléctricos ligeros a través de la recogida de datos en seis ciudades piloto, un cuestionario online y entrevistas in situ. El modelo matemático utilizado ha contemplado ocho percepciones y actitudes a priori: predisposición a su uso según el motivo de viaje, predisposición a su utilización como parte de un viaje multimodal, facilidad de aparcamiento, comodidad, seguridad, capacidad de carga, comodidad en la recarga eléctrica y precio.With the paradigm shift towards transport electrification, Electric Light Vehicles (EL-Vs) represent a low-cost, promising pathway to smart urban mobility. Despite this, the current market penetration of EL-Vs is relatively low compared to that of other e-powered vehicles such us e-bikes or e-cars. A major hindrance in wide market deployment of EL-Vs is the users’ low awareness of their existence. The doctoral thesis pursues a beter understanding of the prior attitude of the population towards EL-Vs through data collection in six demonstration cities, an online questionnaire survey and on-site interviews. A mathematical model also explores eight a-priori perceptions and attitudes (indicators) towards EL-V usage: Willingness to use per trip purpose, Willingness to use as a part of a multimodal trip, Ease of parking, Comfort, Safety, Luggage capacity, Charging convenience and Affordability
Síntesis empírica de meta-análisis, técnicas de optimización multi-objetivo y minería de datos aplicadas al diagnóstico de la Enfermedad de Alzheimer
No full textEn los últimos años se han producido importantes avances en la investigación científica sobre la Enfermedad de Alzheimer (EA). En la sección 1 de esta tesis se ofrecen estimaciones específicas de los tamaños del efecto de la asociación entre diferentes factores de riesgo modificables y la EA mediante técnicas metaanalíticas. En la sección 2 se aborda la prevención secundaria dirigida al diagnóstico precoz de la EA. Para ello, se describe una metodología específica para desarrollar un sistema generador de modelos a partir de diagnósticos médicos establecidos en una base de datos. Resultados de la primera parte: Agrupando todos los efectos extraídos de los meta-análisis realizados con los diferentes factores de riesgo, los mayores tamaños de efecto son para: Depresión (OR = 2,46) e Ictus (OR = 2,27). Otro de los mayores tamaños del efecto se encuentra entre la asociación entre el tipo de colesterol LDL y la EA (OR = 2,55). Resultados de la segunda parte: la variable ictus fue la más relevante (predicción del 74,87%) en todos los clasificadores. La hipertensión arterial también constituyó una variable importante en el clasificador SVM. Además, los fármacos antiarrítmicos se consideraron un factor protector en todos los clasificadores. Por último, la variable tabaquismo genera controversia en los distintos modelos, ya que en algunos se clasifica como factor protector y en otros como factor de riesgo para la EA. En conclusión, esta tesis aplica diversas metodologías con diferentes muestras para demostrar la robustez predictiva de los factores de riesgo asociados al desarrollo de la EA.In recent years, there have been important advances in scientific research on AD. Section 1 of this thesis, specific estimates of the effect sizes of the association between different modifiable risk factors and AD are provided using meta-analytic techniques. Section 2 deals with secondary prevention aimed at the early diagnosis of AD. Therefore, a specific methodology is described to develop a model generator system from medical diagnoses established in a database. Results of the first part: Pooling all the effects extracted from the meta-analyses performed with the different risk factors, the largest effect sizes are for: Depression (OR = 2.46) and Stroke (OR = 2.27). Another of the highest effect sizes is found between the association between LDL cholesterol type and AD (OR = 2.55). Results of the second part: stroke variable was the most relevant variable (predict at 74.87%) in all classifiers. Arterial hypertension also constituted an important variable in the SVM classifier. Furthermore, antiarrhythmic drugs were considered a protective factor in all classifiers. Finally, the smoking variable generates controversy in the different models, since in some it is classified as a protective factor and in others as a risk factor for AD. To conclude, this thesis applies diverse methodologies with different samples to demonstrate the predictive robustness of risk factors associated with the development of AD
Working with collaborative robots and its influence on levels of working stress
No full textThe use and the rapid growth of the cobot in industry are changing working conditions. New jobs can imply new advantages and inconveniences, which call for new occupational risk assessments. The aim here is to assess occupational risks in terms of mental stress, so as to determine whether a worker experiences greater stress when working in collaboration with a cobot rather than with another person while performing the same production-line process. The study involved a total of 32 volunteers of various ages, with no previous experience of cobots. An eye-tracker system that records a range of biometric data was used to quantify stress. Pupil diameter was mainly used in this investigation, as well as the number of gaze fixations by zones. The data registered were analyzed using the T-test method, with which data on two groups can be compared to test for significant differences. In addition, other secondary parameters were also analyzed, such as the time required to complete each test, and the number of errors that were committed. Among the most important conclusions, it was noted that working with cobots in no way increased stress levels, confirming one of the objectives for which these robots were designed.This work was supported by the Department of Employment of the Regional Government of Castile and Leon and the General Directorate of Labour and Occupational Risk Prevention under Grant INVESTUN/21/BU/0005 and is part of the research project ‘Occupational risk prevention in Industry 4.0. Study of working conditions and risk simulation with collaborative robotics. Results dissemination for sensitization in Castile and Leon’
