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Virtual reality simulators represent an affordable alternative for teaching and learning specific skills in environments not available in reality for educational purposes. Their goal is to provide a simulated environment where students can practice real tasks in a safer way and with no real consequences in fields as engineering or surgery. For a simulator to become a more complete teaching and learning tool, it should also include the expert knowledge required to provide instant feedback to the user. SHULE is a framework for building haptic simulators to be used witheducational purposes that includes expert knowledge. In order to increase users' motivation, we have also considered game features in the framework design, development and integration with other tools. This process includes the elements needed to provide a challenging goal for the simulator with the correct amount of uncertainty that would increase user's curiosity enough to keep on using it until certain skill is achieved. Simulators produced with SHULE can be integrated with a Learning Management System (LMS) such as Moodle by means of web services. Their functionality offers the teacher the possibility to create new activities to be performed at the simulator, and also offers the students the possibility to see the results of their simulator sessions in the LMS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teaching and learning does not only imply transferring knowledge, but also experience. And there is a special kind of experience that involves the use of hand skills and both visual-spatial and bodily-kinesthetic intelligence. One possible solution involves the use of knowledge-based systems to transmit expertise through virtual reality simulators. These simulators have to include the sense of touch, so haptic devices are needed. They have also to act as teaching/learning tools whose goal is to improve students' performance, so individual assessment is a vital characteristic. In order to fulfil these requirements, a framework and the associated methodology for building haptic simulators as learning objects is proposed. The use of this framework reduces the time to develop haptic simulators by using software engineering and including expert knowledge as the core of the system. There are two main actors, besides the user, involved in the development of every new simulator: the expert and the engineer. The expert brings the knowledge to be included in the simulator. The engineer is in charge of building the system using the framework as foundation. The main fields where haptics are being used are engineering and surgery. A proof of concept on surgery is included bringing together engineering and surgery. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses a study that determines the types of behaviors that occur between humans and dogs to provide insights on how to create robot behaviors. It offers brief overview of the purpose of the study and its proposed concept of social monitoring. However, it argues that the study lacks experimental data regarding the levels of interaction between humans and robot needed for different types of social robots.

The production of H2was studied using a packed bed reactor with polyurethane foam acting as support material. Experiments were performed using mixed microflora under non sterile conditions. The system was initially operated with synthetic wastewater as the sole substrate. Subsequently, cheese whey permeate was added to the system at varying organic loading rates (OLR). The performance of the reactor was evaluated by applying a continuous decrease in OLR. As a result, a significant decrease in H2yields (HY) was observed with the decrease in OLR from 18.8 to 6.3 g chemical oxygen demand (COD)/L d. Microbial analysis demonstrated that the prevalence of non-hydrogen producers,Sporolactobacillus sp.andPrevotella,was the main reason for low HYs obtained. This behavior indicates that the fermentation under non-sterile conditions was favored by high concentrations of substrate by creating an adverse environment for nonhydrogen producer organisms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Declaration of Bologna proclaims to change both the academic organization and the way of teaching that are currently implemented in European Higher Education. With regard to teaching methods, an instructional strategy focused on lecturers' teaching is being replaced by methodologies focused on students' learning. However, the application of a student-centered instructional strategy, known as 'active learning', is a formidable task, requiring a great deal of effort from all those involved, plus a suitable instructional process and a set of specific instructional activities. This paper shows the pilot case study of an introductory programming course of the degree in Computer Engineering based on an active learning strategy. Such a pilot case study was carried out to analyze the outcomes of applying the Bologna principles and, based upon those outcomes, to identify the needs and distinctiveness of the Declaration as well as the methodological changes required to implement such principles. During a whole semester, learners followed a continuous assessment process and a student centered instructional strategy that involved an extra effort from both students and teachers. The results show learners benefited from the experience but the system is not entirely prepared to support the new instructional process and several adaptations should be made. Throughout this paper, in addition to the explanation of the pilot study, a set of recommendations, instructional principles, educational tools, and methodological directions will be outlined in order to provide a discussion framework that stimulates and focuses the debate on the application of the Bologna principles to the learning programming activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The basic idea of service-oriented learning is that a learning environment should be conceived as a set of independent units of learning packaged as learning services. The design, development and deployment of a learning system based on integrating different learning services needs both a technological platform to support the system as well as a methodology that manages the development process. Such technological platform is provided by the Service-Oriented Learning Architecture (SOLA). SOLA proposes an architecture style, which defines how to deploy several units of packeged-learning services. The purpose of this paper is to review the SOLA concept and to present a specific method based on specifying instructional domains, to complement the SOLA approach. Our method suggests the definition of a feature model, which represents the characteristics of the instructional domain, in order to address the identification and clasiffication of candidate services. The approach here proposed facilitates the definition of candidate-learning services in order to enhance the integration of such services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: Listeria monocytogenes is the bacterium responsible for the majority of cases of human listeriosis, a foodborne infection that, in certain groups in the population (children, elderly, pregnant women and immunocompromised individuals), exhibits a high fatality rate (of up to 30%), and the need for hospital admission in more than 90% of cases. An awareness of the minimal concentrations for disinfectants and antibiotics necessary to destroy L. monocytogenes, may assist with choosing the most effective antimicrobials for controlling this microorganism, whether in the food industry or in the health system. The lethal concentrations of three disinfectants (sodium hypochlorite, benzalkonium chloride, and peracetic acid) and eight antibiotics (ampicillin, cephalothin, cefoxitin, erythromycin, chloramphenicol, gentamicin, tetracycline, vancomycin, and fosfomycin) for eight different strains of L. monocytogenes were determined in this research work. It was demonstrated that the lethal concentrations for the disinfectants tested were much lower than the concentrations customarily used of these compounds. The characteristics of the cell surface play an important role in the tolerance of L. monocytogenes to these biocides. A considerable prevalence of resistance to most of the antibiotics tested was noted, making it clear that the necessary measures to control resistance in L. monocytogenes must be adopted. When selecting effective doses of antimicrobials, be they biocides or antibiotics, it is essential to know the minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) and minimum bactericidal concentrations (MBCs) of these substances. The present research determined the MICs and MBCs for three biocides, sodium hypochlorite (SH), benzalkonium chloride (BC), and peracetic acid (PAA), and nine antibiotics in eight strains of Listeria monocytogenes of varying serotypes. Marked intra-species differences were observed in the resistance of L. monocytogenes to the biocides and antibiotics. The MICs (ppm) for the biocides ranged between 1750 and 4500 for SH, 0.25 and 20.00 for BC, and 1050 and 1700 for PAA. Their MBCs (ppm) ranged from 2250 to 4500 for SH, 0.50 to 20.00 for BC, and 1150 to 1800 for PAA. The MICs (ppm) for antibiotics lay between 1 and 15 for ampicillin, 8 and 150 for cephalothin, 20 and 170 for cefoxitin, 0.05 and 0.20 for erythromycin, 4 and 50 for chloramphenicol, 3 and 100 for gentamicin, 2 and 15 for tetracycline, 2 and 80 for vancomycin, and 160 and 430 for fosfomycin. The corresponding MBCs (ppm) were from 5 to 20 for ampicillin, 9 to 160 for cephalothin, 70 to 200 for cefoxitin, 4 to 5 for erythromycin, 9 to 70 for chloramphenicol, 5 to 100 for gentamicin, 3 to 30 for tetracycline, 3 to 90 for vancomycin, and 160 to 450 for fosfomycin. Notably, erythromycin showed considerable efficacy, demonstrated by the low values for both MIC and MBC. Based on EUCAST and the CLSI criteria, all strains were susceptible to erythromycin. All strains were resistant to cephalothin, cefoxitin, gentamicin, and fosfomycin. Further values for resistance were 87.50% for ampicillin and vancomycin, 75.00% for tetracycline, and 62.50% for chloramphenicol. The high prevalence of antibiotic resistance is a matter for concern. A positive correlation was found between MIC and MBC values for most of the biocides and antibiotics. The higher the hydrophobicity of the cell surface, the higher the susceptibility to biocides, suggesting that surface characteristics of bacterial cells influence resistance to these compounds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of computer-supported learning systems is a complex task that must take into account diverse issues and perspectives. Given the difficulties attached to this process, different authors have proposed the use of software engineering as a reference to optimize the courseware development process. Following this trend, and given the efficiency of the outcomes, it seems convenient to adapt existing product line development principles from software engineering to the development of learning resources. The purpose of this paper is to postulate a specific analysis method for computer-supported learning systems that guarantees the quality of the development. This specific analysis method can facilitate the learning object reusability and minimize the relevance of the expertise in the development of learning resources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Instructional engineering provides methods to conduct the design and adaptation of competence development programmes by the combination of diverse learning components (i.e. units of learning, learning activities, learning resources and learning services). It occurs through an established process workflow in which models with diverse levels of abstraction are used to depict such learning components. This paper presents a model-driven generative method used to adapt and reuse a set of learning components for the delivery of a competence development programme concerned with a given learning objective and which serves for a specific instructional context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the authors describe a mechanism for the introduction of small variations in the original learning design process defined in a particular Unit of Learning (UoL). The objective is to increase the UoL reusability by offering the designers an alternative to introduce slight variations on the original design instead of creating a new one each time they want to reuse it. No changes or extensions to the Learning Design definition are required to perform these modifications. The use of design patterns to include the adaptations offers the possibility to easily introduce new operations, such as tracing the activity progress, for instance. The structure of a Learning Design player that is able to process the desired adaptation information and to apply it at runtime will be outlined. The player will be part of an architecture for the automatic adaptation of UoLs to their actual context of execution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carbon coatings are used in many different industrial areas, for example in cutting, electronics, or medical applications. On the one hand, carbon coatings have improved the functional properties of medical products because of their high biotolerance, which makes them an important material for implant coatings. On the other hand, high rigidity and abrasion resistance are properties needed in case of surgical tools. Thus, the aim of this research was to study the influence of mechanical abrasion by tumbling and chemical passivation on carbon coatings deposited by reactive magnetron sputtering (RMS) and radio frequency plasma activated chemical vapor deposition (RF PACVD) of X39Cr13 (mainly used for surgical tools) and 316LVM (mainly used for implants). Functional properties, such as roughness, coatings adhesion (scratch test), and wettability were investigated. As a result, DLC coatings applied by magnetron sputtering were found to be the optimum surface treatment in terms of adhesion and wettability properties, being more appropriate for the use of X39Cr13 base than 316LVM for carbon layer deposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Caesarean section is necessary to save the lives of mothers and newborns at times, but it is important to perform it only when it is essential due to all the risks involved. This study aimed to examine the rate of caesarean sections performed at a tertiary hospital using the Robson classification to detect methods for the detection of and/or reduction in these caesarean section rates. Methods: A descriptive, cross-sectional study of a retrospective database was carried out. Results: A total of 10,317 births were assessed. The Robson classification was used to assess these interventions and verify whether the indication for performed caesarean sections was appropriate. In total, 2036 births by caesarean section were performed in the whole sample. The annual caesarean section rate varied between 18.67% and 21.18%. Conclusions: Caesarean sections increased by about 20% in 2021 compared to 2020 even though the trend over the years of study was decreasing. Vaginal delivery after caesarean section is a reasonable and safe option. Caesarean section rates could be improved, mostly in Robson's Group 2. The Robson classification facilitated progress in the implementation of measures aimed at improving care and adjusting caesarean section rates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]