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This paper analyses the effect that the fulfilment of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) has got among engineers in the information and communication technologies (ICT) sector. The focus is on Spain, and the comparison of the technical and managerial knowledge and skills most demanded by the sector in 2008 and 2018, coinciding with the first decade of the EHEA. The study also examines whether the professional skills acquired by university students are consistent with those required in the job market. The following question is answered: Are ICT students adequately trained a decade after the introduction of the EHEA? An empirical study was carried out on the basis of a cross-section of Spanish ICT sector enterprises. The results reveal a gap between employer expectations and the skills acquired by students. Policy and practice performance is also discussed.

Background Models developed to predict hospital-acquired acute kidney injury (HA-AKI) in non-critically ill patients have a low sensitivity, do not include dynamic changes of risk factors and do not allow the establishment of a time relationship between exposure to risk factors and AKI. We developed and externally validated a predictive model of HA-AKI integrating electronic health databases and recording the exposure to risk factors prior to the detection of AKI. Methods The study set was 36 852 non-critically ill hospitalized patients admitted from January to December 2017. Using stepwise logistic analyses, including demography, chronic comorbidities and exposure to risk factors prior to AKI detection, we developed a multivariate model to predict HA-AKI. This model was then externally validated in 21 545 non-critical patients admitted to the validation centre in the period from June 2017 to December 2018. Results The incidence of AKI in the study set was 3.9%. Among chronic comorbidities, the highest odds ratios (ORs) were conferred by chronic kidney disease, urologic disease and liver disease. Among acute complications, the highest ORs were associated with acute respiratory failure, anaemia, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, circulatory shock and major surgery. The model showed an area under the curve (AUC) of 0.907 [95% confidence interval (CI) 0.902–0.908), a sensitivity of 82.7 (95% CI 80.7–84.6) and a specificity of 84.2 (95% CI 83.9–84.6) to predict HA-AKI, with an adequate goodness-of-fit for all risk categories (χ2 = 6.02, P = 0.64). In the validation set, the prevalence of AKI was 3.2%. The model showed an AUC of 0.905 (95% CI 0.904–0.910), a sensitivity of 81.2 (95% CI 79.2–83.1) and a specificity of 82.5 (95% CI 82.2–83) to predict HA-AKI and had an adequate goodness-of-fit for all risk categories (χ2 = 4.2, P = 0.83). An online tool (predaki.amalfianalytics.com) is available to calculate the risk of AKI in other hospital environments. Conclusions By using electronic health data records, our study provides a model that can be used in clinical practice to obtain an accurate dynamic and updated assessment of the individual risk of HA-AKI during the hospital admission period in non-critically ill patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Featured Application: Study case for LMS Interoperability and Scalability, using Open Source Technologies in corporate information systems. In 2004, the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya decided to change one of its critical and strategic information services: the online teaching support platform. An Open Source software, Moodle, was adopted and the previous proprietary software was abandoned. In 2020, the home confinement of the population due to the pandemic caused by COVID-19 has been a stress test for the entire university community, and very specifically by those responsible for providing the support of the online teaching support platform. The increase in activity and the prospect of the generalization of online assessment raised the concerns of possible scalability issues with the quiz functionality during the examination period. The solution applied involved using Moodle's IMS LTI interoperability features to deploy a high-performance version of the Moodle Quizz Module As A Service (SaaS), to plug-and-play within the university's LMS without drawing on its internal resources. This solution combined with a systems strategy, private cloud operations, internal communication and teacher training, solved this problem and successfully complete the assessment of the university course in a situation of confinement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An anchored marine seismometer, acquiring real-time seismic data, has been built and tested. The system consists of an underwater seismometer, a surface buoy, and a mooring line that connects them. Inductive communication through the mooring line provides an inexpensive, reliable, and flexible solution. Prior to the deployment the dynamics of the system have been simulated numerically in order to find optimal materials, cables, buoys, and connections under critical marine conditions. The seismometer used is a high sensitivity triaxial broadband geophone able to measure low vibrational signals produced by the underwater seismic events. The power to operate the surface buoy is provided by solar panels. Additional batteries are needed for the underwater unit. In this paper we also present the first results and an earthquake detection of a prototype system that demonstrates the feasibility of this concept. The seismometer transmits continuous data at a rate of 1000 bps to a controller equipped with a radio link in the surface buoy. A GPS receiver on the surface buoy has been configured to perform accurate timestamps on the seismic data, which makes it possible to integrate the seismic data from these marine seismometers into the existing seismic network. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The onset of convection in systems that are heated via current dissipation in the lower boundary or that lose heat from the top boundary via Newton's law of cooling is formulated as a bifurcation problem. The Rayleigh number as usually defined is shown to be inappropriate as a bifurcation parameter since the temperature difference across the layer depends on the amplitude of convection and hence changes as convection evolves at fixed external parameter values. A modified Rayleigh number is introduced that does remain constant even when the system is evolving, and solutions obtained with the standard formulation are compared with those obtained via the new one. Near the 1:2 spatial resonance in low Prandtl number fluids these effects open up intervals of Rayleigh number with no stable solutions in the form of steady convection or steadily traveling waves. Direct numerical simulations in two dimensions show that in such intervals the dynamics typically take the form of a nearly heteroclinic modulated traveling wave. This wave may be quasiperiodic or chaotic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nonlinear two-dimensional Rayleigh-Bénard convection with periodic boundary conditions in the horizontal is studied for spatial periods near the 1:2 steady state mode interaction. The boundary conditions at the bottom are no-slip, and convection is driven by a fixed imposed temperature difference across the layer. Homotopic continuation is used to continue the boundary conditions at the top from no-slip (β = 0) to stress-free (β = 1). When β = 0 and nonBoussinesq effects are absent the system has midplane reflection symmetry and the 1:2 resonance is weak. When β = 1 this symmetry is strongly broken and the resonance is strong. The transition between these two cases is explored for two Prandtl numbers, σ = l0 and σ = 0.1, representing behavior typical of large and low Prandtl numbers, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of weak breaking of the midplane reflection symmetry on the 1:2 steady state mode interaction in Rayleigh-Bénard convection are discussed in a PDE setting. Effects of this type arise from the inclusion of non-Boussinesq terms or due to small differences in the boundary conditions at the top and bottom of the convecting layer. The latter provides the simplest realization, and captures all qualitative effects of such symmetry breaking. The analysis is performed for two Prandtl numbers, σ = 10 and σ = 0.1, representing behavior typical of large and low Prandtl numbers, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. The current models developed to predict hospital-acquired AKI (HA-AKI) in non-critically ill fail to identify the patients at risk of severe HA-AKI stage 3. Objective. To develop and externally validate a model to predict the individual probability of developing HA-AKI stage 3 through the integration of electronic health databases. Methods. Study set: 165,893 non-critically ill hospitalized patients. Using stepwise logistic regression analyses, including demography, chronic comorbidities, and exposure to risk factors prior to AKI detection, we developed a multivariate model to predict HA-AKI stage 3. This model was then externally validated in 43,569 non-critical patients admitted to the validation center. Results. The incidence of HA-AKI stage 3 in the study set was 0.6%. Among chronic comorbidities, the highest odds ratios were conferred by ischemic heart disease, ischemic cerebrovascular disease, chronic congestive heart failure, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic kidney disease and liver disease. Among acute complications, the highest odd ratios were associated with acute respiratory failure, major surgery and exposure to nephrotoxic drugs. The model showed an AUC of 0.906 (95% CI 0.904 to 0.908), a sensitivity of 89.1 (95% CI 87.0–91.0) and a specificity of 80.5 (95% CI 80.2–80.7) to predict HA-AKI stage 3, but tended to overestimate the risk at low-risk categories with an adequate goodness-of-fit for all risk categories (Chi2: 16.4, p: 0.034). In the validation set, incidence of HA-AKI stage 3 was 0.62%. The model showed an AUC of 0.861 (95% CI 0.859–0.863), a sensitivity of 83.0 (95% CI 80.5–85.3) and a specificity of 76.5 (95% CI 76.2–76.8) to predict HA-AKI stage 3 with an adequate goodness of fit for all risk categories (Chi2: 15.42, p: 0.052). Conclusions. Our study provides a model that can be used in clinical practice to obtain an accurate dynamic assessment of the individual risk of HA-AKI stage 3 along the hospital stay period in non-critically ill patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Covid-19 pandemic led Catalan universities to do all teaching and evaluation online from 11 March 2020 until the end of term on 30 July. Conventional universities made the transition to online teaching in just a few days and suddenly virtual platforms become the centre of interaction between lecturers and students. Data that were obtained from the virtual platforms gave extremely valuable information about what was being done in class. This paper analyses data taken from Atenea, the Moodle virtual platform at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), during quarantine. The key indicators and a data analysis design for Moodle have been proposed, which reveal teaching developments at various levels (overall and at the centre and subject level). This is applied to study data from the UPC Moodle and the results are discussed. The methodology can be extrapolated to other universities with Moodle platforms because the UPC is a set of small campuses and centres. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]