Semi-guided learning tool as framework for STEM students learning: A case study for final year projects.

Communication and planning are skills expected among graduates. However, a skills deficit continues to be present among students. To address this problem, here we considered the final year project (FYP), a widely used way of working on skills in STEM degrees. Furthermore, we took into account recent research that highlights the importance of students' thoughts, beliefs, and emotions, in addition to characteristics such as self-efficacy or self-management within the learning process. Here a framework was designed around a semi-guided learning approach, with the aim of improving STEM students' skills and providing them with a work context that facilitates favorable behaviors and feelings associated with writing their FYP report. This framework, implemented in a Spanish university in Madrid, was designed to accomplish their work during restricted face-to-face work due to COVID-19. Through mixed-focus surveys, the perceptions of 55 students (male/female ratio = 4) were collected in relation to what the framework had provided them. The results showed that most of the students perceived improvement both in planning and written communication skills. The qualitative analysis also allowed us to determine the most common difficulties found among students, as well as benefits provided by the framework, among which they highlighted, greater efficiency in the writing process and help to ensure the quality of the FYP report. Our findings allow promoting beneficial results for STEM student and support the idea of considering the cognitive-emotional context of the student as a part of the environment in which to develop facilitating tools for learning and skills development. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10639-022-11231-0.

Chronic patient remote monitoring through the application of big data and internet of things.

Chronic patients could benefit from the technological advances, but the clinical approaches for this kind of patients are still limited. This paper describes a system for chronic patients monitoring both, in home and external environments. For this purpose, we used novel technologies as big data, cloud computing and internet of things (IoT). Additionally, the system has been validated for three use cases: cardiovascular disease (CVD), hypertension (HPN) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which were selected for their incidence in the population. This system is innovative within e-health, mainly due to the use of a big data architecture based on open-source components, also it provides a scalable and distributed environment for storage and processing of biomedical sensor data. The proposed system enables the incorporation of non-medical data sources in order to improve the self-management of chronic diseases and to develop better strategies for health interventions for chronic and dependents patients.

Perceptions of the use of intelligent information access systems in university level active learning activities among teachers of biomedical subjects.

BACKGROUND: Student participation and the use of active methodologies in classroom learning are being increasingly emphasized. The use of intelligent systems can be of great help when designing and developing these types of activities. Recently, emerging disciplines such as 'educational data mining' and 'learning analytics and knowledge' have provided clear examples of the importance of the use of artificial intelligence techniques in education. OBJECTIVE: The main objective of this study was to gather expert opinions regarding the benefits of using complementary methods that are supported by intelligent systems, specifically, by intelligent information access systems, when processing texts written in natural language and the benefits of using these methods as companion tools to the learning activities that are employed by biomedical and health sciences teachers. METHODS: Eleven teachers of degree courses who belonged to the Faculties of Biomedical Sciences (BS) and Health Sciences (HS) of a Spanish university in Madrid were individually interviewed. These interviews were conducted using a mixed methods questionnaire that included 66 predefined close-ended and open-ended questions. In our study, three intelligent information access systems (i.e., BioAnnote, CLEiM and MedCMap) were successfully used to evaluate the teacher's perceptions regarding the utility of these systems and their different methods in learning activities. RESULTS: All teachers reported using active learning methods in the classroom, most of which were computer programs that were used for initially designing and later executing learning activities. All teachers used case-based learning methods in the classroom, with a specific emphasis on case reports written in Spanish and/or English. In general, few or none of the teachers were familiar with the technical terms related to the technologies used for these activities such as "intelligent systems" or "concept/mental maps". However, they clearly realized the potential applicability of such approaches in both the preparation and the effective use of these activities in the classroom. Specifically, the themes highlighted by a greater number of teachers after analyzing the responses to the open-ended questions were the usefulness of BioAnnote system to provide reliable sources of medical information and the usefulness of the bilingual nature of CLEiM system for learning medical terminology in English. CONCLUSIONS: Three intelligent information access systems were successfully used to evaluate the teacher's perceptions regarding the utility of these systems in learning activities. The results of this study showed that integration of reliable sources of information, bilingualism and selective annotation of concepts were the most valued features by the teachers, who also considered the incorporation of these systems into learning activities to be potentially very useful. In addition, in the context of our experimental conditions, our work provides useful insights into the way to appropriately integrate this type of intelligent information access systems into learning activities, revealing key themes to consider when developing such approaches.

Intervención educativa sobre salud bucal en portadores de prótesis parcial removible en Amancio / Educational intervention about oral health for users of removable partial dentures in Amancio

Se realizó un estudio de intervención educativa en servicios de salud, con la finalidad de elevar el nivel de conocimientos sobre salud bucal de los pacientes del consultorio 12-62 en el municipio de Amancio, Las Tunas, que son portadores de prótesis parcial removible, en el período de mayo de 2012 a julio de 2013. El universo estuvo constituido por 269 personas portadoras de prótesis dental, la muestra quedó conformada por 51 pacientes portadores de prótesis parcial. Se realizó una entrevista estructurada para recoger la información higiénico-sanitaria bucal, además se comprobó la eficacia del cepillado dental. Se diseñó un sistema de acciones educativas, basadas en técnicas afectivo-participativas, las que se aplicaron durante seis meses, con una frecuencia semanal. Más de la mitad de los pacientes mejoraron la información higiénico- sanitaria bucal; en la mayoría de las personas la eficiencia del cepillado dental fue evaluada de buena, después de aplicada la intervención educativa (AU)

A study of educational intervention in health services was carried out with the purpose of raising the level of knowledge about oral health of the patients from the doctors office 12-62 who used removable partial dentures in Amancio, Las Tunas, from May, 2012 to July, 2013. The universe was constituted by 269 people who used dental prosthesis, and the sample was made up of 51 patients who used partial dentures. A structured interview was organized to collect the information about oral hygiene, proving, likewise, the effectiveness of the teeth brush. A system of educational actions was designed based on affective and participatory techniques, which were applied weekly for six months. More than half the patients improved their information about oral hygiene; after the educational intervention was applied, the effectiveness of the teeth brush was evaluated as good in most of the patients (AU)

Comparison of methacholine and adenosine inhalation challenge in patients with suspected asthma.

OBJECTIVE: Bronchial hyperresponsiveness is usually measured by bronchial challenge with direct (e.g. methacholine) and indirect (e.g. adenosine) agonists. A prospective, randomized, crossover, single-blind study was performed to compare both methods in the first diagnosis of asthma. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Fifty-seven patients, in which asthma was suspected, were selected (21 male, 36 female). Fifty-four underwent both challenges following the five-breath dosimeter protocol. PC20 was calculated according to ATS guidelines. Data of symptoms developed during the challenge, PC20 methacholine and adenosine, and FEV1 improvement after bronchodilator therapy were recorded. RESULTS: Symptoms at consultation were consistent with asthma in 68.4% patients, asthma and rhinitis in 29.8% and exercise-induced asthma in 1.8%. Atopy was reported in 93%; 49.1% had family history of atopy and 26.3% of asthma. The most frequent symptoms developed during the challenge were cough (40.4% with adenosine and 20.4% with methacholine) and wheezing (26.3% and 7.4% respectively), statistically significant differences. Bronchial challenge with MCh resulted positive in 44.4% of the patients and positive with AMP in 50%. Every patient with negative result to adenosine, was also negative to methacholine. In 94.4% subjects the result of both challenges was concordant (kappa index = 0.889). PC20 in both challenges showed poor linear correlation (Pearson r = 0.43, p < 0.05). Positivity of both challenges was only associated with having a positive skin prick test to danders (p = 0.001). Percentage of improvement after bronchodilator was 34.9% (SD12.2%) with adenosine challenge and 33.9% (SD17.9%) with methacholine (differences non statistically significant). CONCLUSIONS: Concordance in the result of both techniques is very high. Cough and wheezing are more frequent with adenosine, though not severe. PC20 with both techniques shows poor linear correlation.

An online heart simulator for augmenting first-year medical and dental education.

In this study, we present the results of the development and implementation of an online simulator of human cardiac function. The program comprises a set of modular applets in the Java programming language that allow first-year medical and dental students at Columbia University to study the pressure-volume relationship in the left ventricle of the heart. The results of the student and faculty surveys administered suggest that student learning was augmented by the simulator and that students enjoyed the experience of studying with it.