Characteristics of non-fatal injuries in Leon, Nicaragua - 2004

This article describes the epidemiology of injuries collected in the Injury Surveillance System in Leon Hospital in Nicaragua. A total of 6659 persons were treated for injuries in 2004. It was discovered that 88% of all injuries were unintentional, 9% involved interpersonal violence, 2% were self-inflicted and 0.2% was undetermined. Men accounted for 64.7% of the cases, with the highest rate among 20 - 24 year olds (5625.8 per 100,000 inhabitants). Among women, the highest rate was in those aged 64 years and older (5324.2 per 100 000 inhabitants). The most common mechanisms were falls (33.9%), blunt force (26.8%), cut/pierce/stab (15.1%) and transportation-related (12.8%). These results indicate the need to identify prevention strategies for those injuries that were most commonly treated in emergency, such as unintentional falls among older women, self-inflicted poisoning among young women and blunt force and transportation-related injuries among young men.     

Local accessibility inequalities and willingness to walk in Latin-American cities: Findings from Medellín,Colombia

As planning for accessibility is becoming a priority for most cities, policies encouraging short-distance traveling and the use of active modes of transport are gaining force. Emphasizing short-distance travel and localized practices can produce positive sustainable outcomes, but in order to design proper public policies, a deeper understanding of the determinants of this mobility of proximity is still needed. This paper uses mobility data from the city of Medellín, Colombia, to examine the role of local accessibility and the proximate scale in the city's everyday mobility. The analysis aimed at testing whether significant efforts on improving local conditions and fostering local mobility would help to improve social exclusion and transport disadvantage situations by alleviating the need of motorized and long-distance transport. Unlike most traditional analysis, proximity is not defined by Euclidian distance but instead using travel and modal choice variables. Results show the relevance of socioeconomic variables at determining travel behaviors as well as the importance of local accessibility for social groups in situations of transport disadvantage.     

Human resource accounting

Human resources is an old field of research in economics, as reflected by accounting treatments. This paper reviews this contribution from accounting literature and the European legal framework. Different institutional attitudes toward this topic were collected from such organizations as the Financial Accounting Standards Board [1984, 1993] and the American Accounting Association [1970]. After that, a detailed revision is made of the main costs related to human resources: training and selection costs and exit costs. This analysis is made from the points of view of external and internal (or managerial) accounting and from historical costs and opportunity costs. Finally, no unique solution to this problem is given, but all possible alternatives are evaluated and open for discussion.     

Spatial ability learning through educational robotics

Several authors insist on the importance of students’ acquisition of spatial abilities and visualization in order to have academic success in areas such as science, technology or engineering. This paper proposes to discuss and analyse the use of educational robotics to develop spatial abilities in 12 year old students. First of all, a course to introduce robotics to 6th grade primary school students was designed. The key intention was to prepare practical and motivating sessions in order to foster the students’ involvement in hands-on learning. Hence, during the sessions of the course, challenges were provided for the students, in order to develop their capabilities as proficient problem solvers. The teacher assisted and guided the students, and the students were encouraged to solve the problems by themselves, working in 3-members teams. The main goal of this paper is to discuss and analyse the potential usefulness of educational robotics to develop spatial abilities. To carry out the analysis, students were randomly divided into an experimental group (EG), which participated in the robotics course, and a control group (CG), which did not take part in the robotics course. The extensive existing literature for spatial ability evaluation was analysed and reviewed and a pre-test and a post-test were prepared for use in the research study. Initially, the spatial ability of both EG and CG students was assessed with the pre-test. Then, after finishing the robotics course, the same sets of students were tested with the post-test. An extensive analysis of the results is provided in the paper. Results show that the positive change in spatial ability of the participants in the robotics course (EG) was greater than change evident in the students who did not join the course (CG). The improvement was statistically significant. The results also show that the overall performance of the students depends on the instruments used to evaluate their spatial abilities. Hence, this study manifests clearly the importance of the selection of those instruments.     

Enhancing spatial ability and mechanical reasoning through a STEM course

There is a clear contemporary interest for developing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) at schools. Besides, there exist a lot of research that justify the importance of spatial ability to obtain success in STEM subjects. Nevertheless, the spatial ability is relatively ignored in the general practice of teaching and learning in the K-12 setting. The goal of this paper is to analyse the evolution of spatial abilities of students that assist to a STEM course. Additionally, the evolution of their mechanical reasoning is also analysed. The STEM course was designed and implemented for the first time in a 6th grade class (primary school) and a 7th grade class (secondary school) throughout a whole academic year. First, the spatial ability and the mechanical reasoning of the students were assessed with the corresponding prepared pre-tests. Then, after finishing the STEM course, the students were tested with analogous post-tests. An exhaustive analysis of the obtained results is provided in the paper. It is shown that the spatial ability of the students was definitely improved. Furthermore, this improvement was statistically significant. Results also evidenced that the mechanical reasoning of the participants was also improved, although the improvement was not statistically significant. Moreover, this research showed that, in general, obtained results do not depend significantly on the gender of the participants. Finally, results manifested the statistically significant difference of spatial ability between 6th grade and 7th grade students. The difference between grade levels was not as significant in the mechanical reasoning case.     

Sustainable transport challenges in a suburban university: The case of the Autonomous University of Barcelona

This paper provides detailed accounts of the transport patterns at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), including its motivations, barriers and user preferences, and explores the main transport challenges faced by the UAB campus. This suburban university is an important transport activity generator in the Barcelona Metropolitan Region, which is committed to achieving sustainable transportation. Results have been obtained through a personal survey (n=5525) of members of the university community. These show that the main limitations for changing travel mode from private means to non-motorised or public modes of transport are: the lack of adequate infrastructure, the marginal role of walking and cycling as a means of transport, and the longer time involved using public transport.