Hyper‐Heuristics and Metaheuristics for Selected Bio‐Inspired Combinatorial Optimization Problems

Many decision and optimization problems arising in bioinformatics field are time demanding, and several algorithms are designed to solve these problems or to improve their current best solution approach. Modeling and implementing a new heuristic algorithm may be time‐consuming but has strong motivations: on the one hand, even a small improvement of the new solution may be worth the long time spent on the construction of a new method; on the other hand, there are problems for which good‐enough solutions are acceptable which could be achieved at a much lower computational cost. In the first case, specially designed heuristics or metaheuristics are needed, while the latter hyper‐heuristics can be proposed. The paper will describe both approaches in different domain problems

Comparison of the assessment of teaching components during distance and traditional learning – perspective of academic teachers and students. Questionnaire survey

The Covid-19 pandemic forced students and academic teachers to start distance learning. Although both sides participated in the same process, its assessment from both sides may differ. In our study, using a structured survey, academic teachers and students assessed on a 5-point Likert's scale (where 1 = greater in traditional education, 5 =definitely greater in remote education) the effectiveness of 6 key elements of learning such as: student's involvement (1), student's activity (2), contact with the lecturer (3), consistent manner of work (4), timeliness of tasks performed (5), quality of tasks performed (6) and adequacy of grades awarded (7) . Most of the elements in both groups were assessed as more effective in traditional learning. The average score in the group of teachers in each of the elements was shifted towards greater effectiveness of traditional teaching. The greatest difference in grades between the two groups occurred in the scope of a student's involvement and activity. Students and teachers did not differ in the assessment of contact with the lecturer, although both groups indicated that it was greater in the case of traditional learning. Lecturers and students differed in assessing the effectiveness of key features of learning during distance and traditional education. It is necessary to continuously adapt curricula in order to improve the overall assessment of the examined elements and to ensure that there are no differences between the two groups

Students of the Medical College against the background of three other faculties of the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce

The need to limit people-to-people contacts during the COVID-19 pandemic introduced the need for distance learning at universities. After two years of pandemic restrictions, we decided to check the opinion of medical students and three other faculties on the conducted classes and compare groups with each other. We conducted a survey research based on standardized questionnaire which included 306 students from four faculties of the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce – Faculty of Law and Social Sciences (1), Medical College (2), Faculty of Exact and Life Sciences (3), Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology (4). Students did not differ in the assessment of most types of classes conducted in a virtual form. The exceptions were virtual meetings in a group of students, which were better assessed at the faculty no. 1 compared to 2 and 4. Students of Medical College faculty differed in terms of assessing level of distance learning and their own involvement. Their ratings on these two issues were the lowest among the four groups. The students of individual faculties did not differ in terms of assessing the effectiveness of the elements of education in the traditional and remote modes of operation.   The subjective assessment of distance learning by students from various faculties shows subtle differences. The transition to distance education resulted in a decline in the involvement of medical students in their education and a subjective decrease in quality of teaching comparing to other faculties. This opinion may be taken into account when adapting curricula and selecting the type of classes to be conducted in the course of distance or hybrid learning

Remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in the opinion of academic teachers. Survey research

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the academic community had to drop out of the full-time on-site education and switch to distance learning. After two years of this state of affairs and the current return to the traditional form, we would like to explore the opinions of academic teachers on this form of teaching.  The study was a questionnaire-based survey, including 86 teaching staff members of the Jan Kochanowski University of Kielce, working at four faculties. The teachers assessed the level of distance learning as average, no different from the traditional approach.  However, they pointed out that the involvement, activity of students, regularity of work, quality of the assignments completed, and the adequacy of the grades received is greater in the traditional approach. In the case of remote learning, in the group's assessment, the timeliness of performing the assignments had not deteriorated. The most frequently indicated advantage of remote learning was time saving, while the most common disadvantage was reduced contact with students. In the teachers' opinion, the traditional mode of learning still has an advantage over distance learning. Studies assessing effectiveness in achieving educational goals are needed in order to objectify the results. &nbsp

Students of the Medical College against the background of three other faculties of the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce

The need to limit people-to-people contacts during the COVID-19 pandemic introduced the need for distance learning at universities. After two years of pandemic restrictions, we decided to check the opinion of medical students and three other faculties on the conducted classes and compare groups with each other. We conducted a survey research based on standardized questionnaire which included 306 students from four faculties of the Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce – Faculty of Law and Social Sciences (1), Medical College (2), Faculty of Exact and Life Sciences (3), Faculty of Pedagogy and Psychology (4). Students did not differ in the assessment of most types of classes conducted in a virtual form. The exceptions were virtual meetings in a group of students, which were better assessed at the faculty no. 1 compared to 2 and 4. Students of Medical College faculty differed in terms of assessing level of distance learning and their own involvement. Their ratings on these two issues were the lowest among the four groups. The students of individual faculties did not differ in terms of assessing the effectiveness of the elements of education in the traditional and remote modes of operation.   The subjective assessment of distance learning by students from various faculties shows subtle differences. The transition to distance education resulted in a decline in the involvement of medical students in their education and a subjective decrease in quality of teaching comparing to other faculties. This opinion may be taken into account when adapting curricula and selecting the type of classes to be conducted in the course of distance or hybrid learning

ProProtein: A platform for fully automated identification of 3D structure fluctuations in MD simulation trajectories.

The main goal of Molecular Dynamics (MD) is a simulation of a physical system motions in a fixed time period. This technique allows users to observe the dynamic evolution of the system but requires advanced force fields and is computationally intensive. Furthermore, finding desirable features in the results obtained is usually a time-consuming task. This motivates the need to implement a tool that visualizes the most flexible protein fragments. ProProtein platform is a sophisticated web server where, with a single click, the user can set up, configure, and run an MD simulation of the 3D structure of the peptide/protein. We perform the simulation using an open-source software suite developed for high-performance molecular dynamics named Gromacs. The resulting MD trajectory is then automatically analyzed within the dedicated heuristic algorithm to identify 3D fragments characterized by high instability in the context of the given (input) structure. These high-fluctuation substructures are presented next to the user with the Mol* package. They are visualized in colors on each frame covered by the considered trajectory. This tool can easily support the evaluation of the reliability of protein 3D structure predictions obtained computationally. The ProProtein platform is free and open to all users. It is publicly available at: https://proprotein.cs.put.poznan.pl/