Sustainability and Communication in Higher Education

Sustainability Sciences need communication to communicate knowledge effectively and to engage audiences toward sustainable development. Therefore, the present study examines to what extent media and communication aspects are integrated into sustainability science's curricula of higher education institutions in Europe. For this purpose, a total of n=1117 bachelor and master's degree programs and their related curricula/program specifications from 31 European countries were analyzed by means of content analysis. Results show that the level of curricular integration of media and communication aspects in the field of sustainability science is not (yet) far advanced (18%). This leaves room for a reflection on the perceived (ir-)relevance of communication as a crucial discipline and competence in the sustainability science area, as well as on the social and educational responsibility of higher education institutions.

Gut Microbiota and Host Metabolism: From Proof of Concept to Therapeutic Intervention

The field of the gut microbiota is still a relatively young science area, yet many studies have already highlighted the translational potential of microbiome research in the context of human health and disease. However, like in many new fields, discoveries are occurring at a fast pace and have provided new hope for the development of novel clinical applications in many different medical conditions, not in the least in metabolic disorders. This rapid progress has left the field vulnerable to premature claims, misconceptions and criticism, both from within and outside the sector. Tackling these issues requires a broad collaborative effort within the research field and is only possible by acknowledging the difficulties and challenges that are faced and that are currently hindering clinical implementation. These issues include: the primarily descriptive nature of evidence, methodological concerns, disagreements in analysis techniques, lack of causality, and a rather limited molecular-based understanding of underlying mechanisms. In this review, we discuss various studies and models that helped identifying the microbiota as an attractive tool or target for developing various translational applications. We also discuss some of the limitations and try to clarify some common misconceptions that are still prevalent in the field.

Desenvolvimento de um Gerador de Programas Aleatórios em Java

With great advances in the computer science area where technologicalsystems are becoming more and more complex, tests are hardto perform. The problem is even more serious in critical systems,such as flight control or nuclear systems, where an error can causecatastrophic damage in our society. Currently, two techniques areoften used for software validation: testing and software verification.This project aims the testing area, generating random programs tobe used as input to property-based tests, in order to detect errorsin systems and libraries, minimizing the possibility of errors. Morespecifically, Java programs will be automatically generated from existentclasses and interfaces, considering all syntactic and semanticconstraints of the language.

Waves and Quasi-Periodic-Pulsations in Weak Active Solar Emissions

<p>The presence of Quasi-periodic pulsations (QPPs) is found to be a common feature of flaring energy release processes on the Sun. They are observed all across the EM range from hard X-rays to radio and provide insights into the physical conditions in the coronal plasma and the processes involved in the generation of these waves and oscillations. There have been numerous observations of spatially resolved QPPs at higher energies, though there are fewer examples at radio frequencies. Spatially resolved observations of these phenomena are particularly rare at low radio frequencies and there are none which are associated with the weaker episodes of active emissions which are much more numerous and frequent. The key reason limiting such studies has been the lack of availability of spectroscopic snapshot images of sufficient quality to detect and characterise the low level changes in the morphology of the sources of active emissions. Together, the data from the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA), a SKA precursor, and an imaging pipeline developed to meet the specific needs of solar imaging, now meet this challenge and enable us to explore this rich and interesting science area. Our work has led to the discovery of several previously unknown phenomena - second-scale QPPs in the size and orientation of a type III source, with simultaneous QPPs in intensity; 30 s QPPs in the radio light curve of a type I emission source associated with active region loop hosting a transient brightening; and intermittent presence of an anti-correlation in the size and intensity of a type I noise storm source along with QPPs. In this presentation we will briefly summarise these recent results and discuss their implications.</p>

DEVELOPMENT OF A WEBGIS FOR UNIVERSITY CAMPUS USING AN APPROACH BASED ON USER-CENTRED DESIGN TECHNIQUES

The techniques that seek to attend the user’s needs in a product’s development, like the Requirements Engineering (RE) and the User-Centred Design (UCD) have been increasingly used in different areas. The RE is a computer science area that seeks the development of methods and techniques to software elaboration, while the UCD is an iterative design process, where designers focus on users and place them at the center of the development process. This study approached the application of these techniques to developing a WebGIS oriented to university applications. In this research an interface to the WebGIS was proposed, with an application to assist the navigation in indoor and outdoor environments. The study case was applied in Polytechnic Center campus of Federal University of Paraná (UFPR). The interface was evaluated through tests with users, using tasks that allowed to explore its functionality. The methodology used was elaborated by Brooke (1996) to measure the usability through the System Usability Scale (SUS), and the classification of this scale adopted by Bangor, Kortum and Miller (2009) and Sauro (2011). The results show punctuation indices based on the SUS, what indicated that the use of UCD techniques allow to improve the interface development in a WebGIS.

Improving Students' Motivation and Focus Through the Gamification in the Computer Science Peer Instruction Methodology (CSPI)

The Peer Instruction (PI) is an active learning, student-centered approach designed to engage students through the administration of conceptual questions. On its turn, the CSPI is an adaptation of the PI to the computer science area, mainly Introductory Programming (CS1) courses. In this work, we present the initial assessment of the gamification adoption into the CSPI. Two CSPI/CS1 courses were administered, one without gamification (control experiment) and one with it. We identified that, although participants originally didn’t expect that gamification would affect their experience, results suggest that gamification positively impacts participants' motivation and focus. Future work involves the analysis of collaboration and interaction variables through learning analytics tools.

Evaluación comparativa de los resultados de la aplicación del cuestionario del estilo de aprendizaje Honey-Alonso a estudiantes del área de las ciencias computacionales

In this article a first approach was made about the tracking of a student’s learning styles preferences along their higher education. The investigation was applied to students of the Computer Science area, through a comparative evaluation of the Honey-Alonso Learning Styles Questionnaire to selected students, in three moments of their career path. In a first instance, the results show a change in the learning style of the students, later an analysis provides the nature of that change. The study presents the sample size as a limitation, because the tests had to be applied to the selected students and at different times of their professional studies. The interest for get knowledge about learning styles, aims to increasing the comprehension about how the students learn, and in the possibility of developing tools that allow, as far as possible, increasing the learning motivation and personalization.

The diversity and distribution of dragonflies and damselflies (Odonata) in University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, south-west Nigeria

The presence of dragonflies and damselflies may be taken as an indication of good ecosystem quality. The greatest numbers of species are found at sites that offer a wide variety of microhabitats. A survey of Odonata fauna inhabiting the University of Lagos, Akoka Lagos, south-west Nigeria was carried out between July and December 2014, with a view of determining its diversity and distribution. Four study sites used were Distance Learning Institute (DLI), Lagoon, Faculty of Science, and High Rise Area. Data collected were subjected to inferential statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Diversity indices were used to compare the odonate species in the study sites. Seven hundred and fifty (750) individuals representing 39 species in 22 genera and four families (Aeshnidae – 3%, Coenagrionidae – 13%, Libellulidae – 81% and Calopterygidae – 3%) were recorded. Orthetrum (18%) was the most dominant genus, followed by Ceriagrion (10%) while Palpopleura and Trithemis (8%) were the least dominant genera. The site with most diverse Odonata fauna (H’ = 2.70, E = 0.27), was High Rise Area while the least was the Lagoon Area (H’ = 1.97, E = 0.27). Odonata in High Rise Area were significantly lower (p>0.0128) than those in DLI and Science Area which were not significantly different from each other (0.00039 and 0.00368 respectively). The paucity of species with narrow range of adaptation at the university especially at Lagoon Area where they were expected to occur is an indication that the forested part of the campus is under considerable human disturbance. Urgent measures are needed to preserve the natural the natural habitats of these Odonata species. Keywords: Diversity indices; Odonata; fauna; diversity; distribution; University of Lagos; Nigeria