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The use of computational tools for medical image processing are promising tools to effectively detect COVID-19 as an alternative to expensive and time-consuming RT-PCR tests. For this specific task, CXR (Chest X-Ray) and CCT (Chest CT Scans) are the most common examinations to support diagnosis through radiology analysis. With these images, it is possible to support diagnosis and determine the disease’s severity stage. Computerized COVID-19 quantification and evaluation require an efficient segmentation process. Essential tasks for automatic segmentation tools are precisely identifying the lungs, lobes, bronchopulmonary segments, and infected regions or lesions. Segmented areas can provide handcrafted or self-learned diagnostic criteria for various applications. This Chapter presents different techniques applied for Chest CT Scans segmentation, considering the state of the art of UNet networks to segment COVID-19 CT scans and a segmentation experiment for network evaluation. Along 200 epochs, a dice coefficient of 0.83 was obtained.

Current global shifts in education towards inclusive early childhood education are deeply engineered by the crisis of educational exclusion. In responding to exclusion, teachers have mainly utilized dominant western theories to plan and implement inclusive teaching. In this chapter, we draw on a non-western philosophy, a Nichiren Buddhist (Soka) philosophy, to provide a ‘kaleidoscopic’ lens through which to create inclusive educational learning spaces that engender full participation of all children. The Soka education philosophy is a humanist concept which can guide teachers when preparing to create inclusive education. The aims of this chapter are threefold: The first is an exploration of the Nichiren Buddhist (Soka) philosophy. The second aim is to highlight how this philosophy can enable teachers to unleash the unlimited potential of children in inclusive learning settings. Thirdly, we argue that grounding early childhood teacher education in this philosophy can help improve the effectiveness of inclusive educational experience for all children.

The global pandemic triggered by the Corona Virus Disease firstly detected in 2019 (COVID-19), entered the fourth year with many unknown aspects that need to be continuously studied by the medical and academic communities. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), until January 2023, more than 650 million cases were officially accounted (with probably much more non tested cases) with 6,656,601 deaths officially linked to the COVID-19 as plausible root cause. In this Chapter, an overview of some relevant technical aspects related to the COVID-19 pandemic is presented, divided in three parts. First, the advances are highlighted, including the development of new technologies in different areas such as medical devices, vaccines, and computerized system for medical support. Second, the focus is on relevant challenges, including the discussion on how computerized diagnostic supporting systems based on Artificial Intelligence are in fact ready to effectively help on clinical processes, from the perspective of the model proposed by NASA, Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). Finally, two trends are presented with increased necessity of computerized systems to deal with the Long Covid and the interest on Precision Medicine digital tools. Analyzing these three aspects (advances, challenges, and trends) may provide a broader understanding of the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the development of Computerized Diagnostic Support Systems.

The application of different tools for predicting COVID19 cases spreading has been widely considered during the pandemic. Comparing different approaches is essential to analyze performance and the practical support they can provide for the current pandemic management. This work proposes using the susceptible-exposed-asymptomatic but infectious-symptomatic and infectious-recovered-deceased (SEAIRD) model for different learning models. The first analysis considers an unsupervised prediction, based directly on the epidemiologic compartmental model. After that, two supervised learning models are considered integrating computational intelligence techniques and control engineering: the fuzzy-PID and the wavelet-ANN-PID models. The purpose is to compare different predictor strategies to validate a viable predictive control system for the COVID19 relevant epidemiologic time series. For each model, after setting the initial conditions for each parameter, the prediction performance is calculated based on the presented data. The use of PID controllers is justified to avoid divergence in the system when the learning process is conducted. The wavelet neural network solution is considered here because of its rapid convergence rate. The proposed solutions are dynamic and can be adjusted and corrected in real time, according to the output error. The results are presented in each subsection of the chapter.

The COVID-19 pandemic spread generated an urgent need for computational systems to model its behavior and support governments and healthcare teams to make proper decisions. There are not many cases of global pandemics in history, and the most recent one has unique characteristics, which are tightly connected to the current society’s lifestyle and beliefs, creating an environment of uncertainty. Because of that, the development of mathematical/computational models to forecast the pandemic behavior since its beginning, i.e., with a restricted amount of data collected, is necessary. This chapter focuses on the analysis of different data mining techniques to allow the pandemic prediction with a small amount of data. A case study is presented considering the data from Wuhan, the Chinese city where the virus was first detected, and the place where the major outbreak occurred. The PNN + CF method (Polynomial Neural Network with Corrective Feedback) is presented as the technique with the best prediction performance. This is a promising method that might be considered in future eventual waves of the current pandemic or event to have a suitable model for future epidemic outbreaks around the world.

This book offers an objective and dispassionate analysis of modern educational architecture allowing us to notice gaps. The fundamental question addressed is whether our education system will embrace knowledge-based society and have the foresight to better prepare future generations. If educators around the world step back for a moment, it is not difficult to notice that unanswered questions about education are looming everywhere. The existent academic literature on education is abundant and embracing. In consequence, one can ask why is this book necessary? Indeed, this book is the result of senior university professors sharing their learnings and anticipating the pivotal issues facing all education professionals. According to the United Nations, by 2050, 68% of the world’s population will be living in urban areas. This fact cannot be ignored as it is one of the drivers of the profile of the future students. The reasons to organize this publication are many, but among them three stand out which also function as the driving forces behind this project: (1) University professors teach future generations based on models grounded on knowledge advanced by past experiences; (2) The decisive requirement to understand the needs of the new generations of university millennial students; and (3) What are the critical challenges of global societies? "This book problematizes the issues concerning education, and its main contribution is to answer the need to rethink education, face contemporary challenges, and reorganize the way public policies address education. It critically analyses the challenges of global societies in a decentralized perspective, not only reflecting a western perspective of education and knowledge production. The project's originality comes from the contemporaneity of the topics covered, from the interdisciplinary perspective, and from the specific attention given to trends around education." —Cátia Miriam Costa, Researcher and Invited Assistant Professor, Centre for International Studies, Perfil Ciência

- Flipped classroom metodologiak eskaintzen dituen abantaila pedagogikoak (Ander Goikoetxea Pérez, Hannot Mintegia Beaskoa). - Conocimiento de la actualidad informativa a partir de la participación del alumnado que ejerce de periodista y lector crítico (María del Mar Rodríguez González, Iñigo Marauri Castillo, Guillermo Gurrutxaga Rekongo). - El papel del procesamiento dual de la información en la discriminación de noticias falsas (José Manuel Meza Cano, Cinthia Aranda-Solís, Blanca Olalde López de Arechavaleta, Santiago Palacios Navarro). - No trespassing: Arau, traba eta mugen bidezko metodologia sortzaile bat kazetaritza gradurako (Hannot Mintegia Beaskoa, Ander Goikoetxea Pérez). - Learning digital journalism: Analysing web media in comparative perspective to learn what is quality in digital communication (Javier Díaz-Noci). - El sistema híbrido vehículo de comunicación educativa (Antonio Vaquerizo Mariscal). - The pedagogical role of ethics and deontology for future professionals of communication and media: How to develop and nourish virtues (José Manuel Simões). - Desgaitasuna duten pertsonen Komunikazio ikasketetako prestakuntzari buruzko gogoetak (Terese Mendiguren, Jesús Ángel Pérez Dasilva, Koldobika Meso Ayerdi, Simón Peña, Ainara Larrondo, María Ganzabal). - Teaching Communication (and Journalism) History from Social History Theory: Some proposals (Javier Díaz-Noci).

This book is a compilation of the best papers presented at the APEF 2019 conference which was held on 25th and 26th July 2019 at the Grand Copthorne Waterfront in Singapore. With a great number of submissions, it presents the latest research findings in economics and finance and discusses relevant issues in today's world. The book is a useful resource for readers who want access to economics, finance and business research focusing on the Asia-Pacific region.