Background: The neonatal behavioral assessment scale (NBAS) was primarily developed to aid in the assessment of full-term neonates. The aim of this study was to detect if the NBAS was also valuable in the assessment of preterm neonates. Materials and Methods: We assessed 112 infants at a neonatal unit using the NBAS, 4th edition. The inclusion criteria included an oxygen saturation level between 88–95% and a heartrate of 100–205 beats per minute. Infant neurobehavior was assessed using the NBAS. Results: For full-term and preterm neonates, we observed that the NBAS enabled us to assess both groups of infants and gave relevant information pertaining to them. We found a significant correlation between the average week of gestation and response to touch, sensory input, peak of excitement, cost of attention, hand-to-mouth, and quality of alertness. Conclusions: The NBAS is a valuable scale for evaluating the neurobehavior of preterm neonates. The week of gestation at birth affects certain aspects of neurobehavior, such as response to sensory input, putting hand to mouth, peak of excitement, and cost of attention. The NBAS as an individually structured assessment may help in planning for early rehabilitation and intervention for this vulnerable population. The assessment of the neurobehavior of a neonate helps guide a practitioner in developing appropriate treatment and intervention. The examination of high-risk patients should take place as soon as possible. An assessment should provide objective knowledge of an infant’s behavior observed during the clinician-patient interaction to allow for the evaluation and prediction of neurodevelopmental outcomes. This can then be used to plan for the early rehabilitation and intervention of services according to the needs of a neonate .The neonatal behavioral assessment scale (NBAS) is a neurobehavioral assessment used for infants up to 8 weeks postmenstrual age (PMA). Thanks to the NBAS, parents and caregivers can attain knowledge not only about the neurobehavior but also the development of their child. Additionally, parents and caregivers may determine what their baby needs and how they can best communicate with them. The NBAS may help improve caregiver–infant interactions when the relationship between an infant and mother is challenging due to the hospitalization of a preterm neonate . It is fAs a result, it is more common to apply the NBAS assessment with full-term infants rather than with preterm infants. However, the NBAS ensures a holistic and systematic assessment of clinical conditions for both full- and preterm neonates . Early aThe aim of this study was to determine the areas of the NBAS that may be different between these two groups in reference to week of gestation, as well as items that may be demanding to assess for preterm neonates. Appropriately applying the NBAS allows a practitioner to assess and treat a neonate with dignity and to plan for intervention accordingly, if needed.2) between 88 and 95%, and a resting heartrate between 100–205 beats per minute. The pulse oximetry of each neonate was measured on the sole of his or her foot using a Nellcor pulse oximeter [2 < 88%, a heart rate lower than 100 or higher than 205 beats per minute, active inflammation, sepsis, reflux, bone replacement, the presence of a tumor, encephalopathy, and lethal birth defects . After considering all inclusion and exclusion criteria for the study’s participants, we included 100 patients in our study. Of the 100 patients included in our study, 93 of these NICU patients were born preterm and 7 were born full-term. Each participant was placed on a flat and comfortable surface in a cot incubator during the assessment.We examined 112 infants hospitalized at a neonatal unit. All parents and caregivers provided written informed consent prior to the assessment and examination of their child. The clinician explained the process of the NBAS to all participants in the study. This study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the Poznań University of Medical Sciences . The inclusion criteria for our study’s participants included a stable condition of the neonate, a peripheral oxygen saturation , 4th edition ,13. We op < 0.05. Regarding statistical analysis, we considered the week of gestation and not only the division between full-term and preterm neonates.Statistical analysis was performed using STATISTICA 13.0 software . The normality of the data distribution was checked using the Shapiro–Wilk test. As the data obtained did not consistently display a normal distribution, differences between unpaired data were analyzed using the Mann–Whitney U test. Categorical data were analyzed using Pearson’s chi-squared test. The correlation coefficient was determined using Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r). The differences found were considered significant at p < 0.05. When we assessed reflexes, we only found statistical significance in tonic deviation of head and eyes present between full-term and preterm infants . Of the children included in the study, 14% had a normal birth weight, 54% had a low birth weight, 24% had a very low birth weight, and 8% had an extremely low birth weight. The average number of weeks of gestation for newborns was 32 weeks (±3). We took into consideration whether or not neonates who were born before 37 weeks of gestation were more difficult to assess compared to full-term infants or if any item was not possible to perform with them for the purposes of the NBAS. We found the following statistically significant items in the NBAS: consolability, general irritability, and lability of states between full-term neonates (≥36 week of gestation) and preterm neonates (<36 week of gestation) with  infants .We also considered if any features of the NBAS were significantly different to perform regarding week of gestation. We observed statistically significant differences according to week of gestation in assessing children via the NBAS in a few items .The assessment of the neurobehavior of a neonate helps a clinician understand its needs and therefore apply an appropriate intervention as soon as possible. Assessment should be a standardized component of a neonatal clinical observation . This seAdditional neurobehavior assessment scale that may be useful in every day clinical practice in neonatal units is the Assessment of Preterm Infants’ Behavior (APIB) or the NeoNatal Neurobehavioral Scale (NNNS) ,14,15,16It should be emphasized that we found statistical significance for a just few NBAS items in the division before and after 37 weeks of gestation: response decrement to tactile stimulation of foot, animate visual and auditory, peak of excitement, cost of attention, hand to mouth, and quality of alertness. We hypothesize that the week of gestation is correlated with features that may be connected with the maturity of the nervous system such as reflexes, response to sensory stimuli, quality of alertness, lability of state, quality of alertness, and cost of attention. Tactile stimuli are very important for the process of embodied reparation . Others Preterm infants tend to demonstrate problems with state regulation . Our stuIn general, the shorter the period of gestation, the poorer the rate of maturation . We initAdditionally, we observed that the higher the week of gestation the better the results were for assessing sensory stimulation such as touch, visual input, and auditory input. Preterm infants have immature organ systems, including their auditory and visual systems . ResearcOur study revealed that the visual and auditory responses of neonates may be different in regard to the age of gestation. Compared to full-term infants, preterm infants have no evidence of neural changes in the occipital lobe, which, should they appear, may lead to the emergence of visual prediction . SimilarThe NBAS is an important tool that helps in assessing the neurobehavior of preterm neonates. This neurobehavioral scale is essential in the planning of appropriate therapeutic interventions. Even if decreased maturity of the ANS and habituation in preterm neonates is suspected, it is worthwhile to observe how best to support this vulnerable population. In regard to the NBAS, we can take care of these children in respect to their needs and actual condition . The NBAThe week of gestation may influence certain aspects of a child’s behavior, such as state regulation, response to sensory input, the ability to put hand to mouth, peak of excitement, cost of attention, and quality of alertness. However, taking into consideration the division between full-term and preterm neonates, there are just a few significant differences between children who were born before and after 37 weeks of gestation. The NBAS seems to indicate similar neurobehavioral outcomes for both groups of children. Even if there are no differences found between full-term and preterm infants using the NBAS assessment, this neurobehavioral scale still enables us to observe many important features of a newborn. It can help a practitioner in getting to know a preterm neonate not only as a patient in the neonatal unit but also as a person, and their particular and specific needs. This may improve the rehabilitation process and the relationship between a child and their parents, caregivers, and specialists.


Organizational Psychology Special Section of Frontiers in Psychology was launched by founding Editor Richard Boyatzis. At that time, he challenged contributors to focus on the “how” and “what” of Organizational Psychology, and to “go where no one has gone before.” He envisioned the discipline as both boundary spanning and boundary breaking. Answering his challenge, authors have published in excess of 800 articles in the journal since its inception.Five years ago, the Frontiers review process and the promise of the open access concept has led to the journal's impressive global reach, impact factors, and overall readership. Focusing on the goals of access and impact, The Organizational Psychology Section is now poised to provide the platform through which the most universal and pressing issues can be rigorously addressed and effectively delivered to those most affected by these challenges.The quality and efficiency of the Unlike the “hard sciences,” the individuals and collectivities organizational scientists study are constantly changing and adapting to their environments. Thus, the accurate prediction of human or group behavior is an imperfect pursuit from which multiple theoretical lens may offer divergent, yet equally valid, predictions. Despite this realization, all too often, established paradigms, understandings, and assumptions are accepted without appropriate concern for context or alternative explanation. This has been perhaps never more evident than with the rapidity of change in organizations around the world we currently are witnessing.As we move into the third decade of the twenty-first century, the world offers many new challenges for organizations and those of us who study them. Broadly, we might be wise to investigate these new forms of organization and employment, and determine how they impact, and are impacted by, the changing expectations of the modern employee. With that in mind, I offer some challenges, the further study of which may benefit both science and practice. This is not meant to be an exhaustive list, but offers a glimpse into the new frontiers that organizational psychologists could more fully address in the next 5 years. I offer the following for your consideration:Artificial Intelligence (AI): AI is transforming the workplace in subtle but highly impactful ways. Human Resource functions such as hiring, onboarding, and training are being recreated by AI innovations. AI is also aiding productivity by reducing repetitive task demands and reducing overall efficiency of data utilization in decision-making. With that being said, organizations need to better understand how employees interact with, react to, and utilize this technology. This research stream has implications for the new models of decision-making, team dynamics, and/or leadership.Virtuality: At 1 time, virtual work meant simply doing your current job … at home. As technology has progressed, so has the nature and richness of such virtual work. Technological enhancement has helped organizations overcome some of the relational issues initially associated with such employment relationships, and these improvements account for a continuing increase in the prevalence of such work. Indeed, 75% of professionals worldwide are involved in remote work at least 1 day a week  currently comprise 20–30% of all workers in the United States and the European Union . Yet, the changing context of work discussed above implies a degree of behavioral flexibility not necessarily included in each leader's style. Indeed, it might be suggested that the shifting and often conflicting demands of today's workplace requires even moral dexterity as well. We necessarily need a more comprehensive understanding of the leader's fluidity in moving between different contexts and coalitions.Organizational Psychology Section demonstrated its promise during this pandemic by launching the first Special Issue related to the impact of the pandemic on the work environment. Whereas, recognition is warranted for our section quickly placing knowledge in the hands of decision-makers, this reactionary model is unsustainable and suboptimum for realizing the potential of organizational psychology.These 7 contexts are but a few of the most pressing issues facing organizations today. We have become even more aware of their impact during the COVID-19 pandemic. The In a world confronted with crises of health, equity, and morality, it is critical for the field of Organizational Psychology to meet these challenges with forward thinking research. That is, our Grand Challenge is to lead: through our scholarship, our compassion, and our humility. The flood of information brought about by enhanced access to technology, has led, at best, to an overwhelming volume of information that too often rewards the style rather than the substance of a scientific discovery. At its worst, this deluge of data has led to less precise conclusions based on pseudo-scientific information and the suppression of comprehensive scientific findings. Perhaps now more than any time in modern history, organizations, their leaders, and their participants need rigorous science to illuminate a path forward through an increasingly ambiguous environment. It is upon us as organizational scientists to engage these new challenges and offer rigorous research that improves the human condition.The author confirms being the sole contributor of this work and has approved it for publication.The author declares that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.


It indicates that males’ psychological adjustment ability and entrepreneurial ability in the entrepreneurial process are higher than females’, and their entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial ability will improve with the growth of age, education levels, and positions. It is concluded that entrepreneurial psychological capital and entrepreneurial opportunity are significantly positively correlated with financial risk expectation. The research results prove the impact of financial risks on the entrepreneurial psychology of new entrepreneurs, and provide a reference for new entrepreneurs in predicting financial risks.Entrepreneurship plays an important role in the development of national economy. The study aims to accelerate the construction of social and economic structure by improving the success rate of new entrepreneurs in the process of innovation and entrepreneurship. First, the related theories of financial risk prediction are introduced, and entrepreneurial psychological status and the psychological states on entrepreneurship are analyzed. Second, the current situation of entrepreneurial psychology of new entrepreneurs is analyzed through a questionnaire survey and model test. The results show that private enterprises account for the largest proportion, with a percentage of 58.14% of 125. In total, 32 Chinese-foreign joint ventures rank second and account for 14.88% of the total, and the scale of each type of enterprises accounts for 25%, respectively. The operating years of enterprises are mainly between 10 and 20 years. Among the enterprises surveyed, the significant level of entrepreneurial psychology and entrepreneurial opportunity of entrepreneurs is  Generally, the construction of an economic structure based on innovation and entrepreneurship requires the support of the government and social institutions. However, compared with the entrepreneurs in developed countries, Chinese entrepreneurs have to play two roles, that is, they have to create economic miracles and adapt themselves to the Chinese market economy system , which bIf positive psychological and organizational behavior are wanted under the entrepreneurial economy, the following questions should be answered: What are positive psychological behavior and positive organizational behavior under the entrepreneurial economy? Is psychological capital more important than human capital and social capital and does it become an advantage in the competition? Does entrepreneurs’ psychological capital affect the profitability of new enterprises? How do entrepreneurs develop their psychological capital and improve their performance in developing the entrepreneurial economy? The above questions will be answered here. Studying entrepreneurship from the perspective of entrepreneurs is a typical research paradigm .New entrepreneurs are taken as the research subject, and their entrepreneurial psychological states based on financial risk prediction are summarized after the analysis of the results of a questionnaire survey and a model test. The innovation is to combine financial risk prediction and entrepreneurial psychology of new entrepreneurs. The study provides a reference for the research on the influence of the psychological states of new entrepreneurs on their entrepreneurial success.The concept of psychological capital first appears in the literature of economic experts. The dimensions of entrepreneurial psychological capital have strong correlation, but their concentrations are different. Entrepreneurial self-efficacy puts emphasis on the positive self-cognitive characteristics of entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial hope and optimism attach importance to the positive attribution model in the face of challenges and failures. Entrepreneurial resilience highlights the cognitive reconstruction and emotional recovery after entrepreneurial activities. And the sub-dimensions of entrepreneurial psychological capital plays a synergistic role, that is, its overall effect is greater than the sum of all parts . Also, pThe internal causes of financial risks are: (1) Due to the imbalance of the structure of the financial system, the bank system with indirect financing of some financial institutions and their asset-liability periods do not match. (2) The blind encouragement of financial innovation leads to loose the supervision and management to the relevant financial institutions and products, especially to the cross-industry and cross-border financial products from various asset management activities and important financial holding companies, resulting in risk transfer between different financial sectors and institutions. (3) Some financial activities and bank credit deliberately escape from financial regulation and violate the requirements for capital adequacy ratio and deposit-loan ratio, which weakens the roles of macroeconomic regulation and control and worsens the financial system. (4) The financial institutions don’t want to pay off the risk cost, which adds the burden to the central bank. (5) Induced by investors, financial institutions are easy to be involved in high-risk activities.Financial risks usually exist in the areas where the economy is under transformation . First, The structure and connotation of psychological capital are complementary. Enriching the connotation of psychological capital, strengthening its assistance ability and updating its structure are helpful to understanding the connotation of psychological capital, and they are also the elements to develop psychological capital. According to its components, psychological capital can be divided into economic capital, human capital, and social capital . EconomiSome experts believe that there are three ways to study entrepreneurial opportunities, namely, survival concept, structural concept, and structural concept. The concept emphasizes the fact that entrepreneurial opportunities already exist in the market, especially profit opportunities. The idea is that the relationship structure between individuals or organizations in a specific state generated by entrepreneurial opportunities, especially a supervisory and information advantage, is relative to other individuals or organizations. The constructed idea is that entrepreneurial opportunities do not exist independently, but are created or constructed by people in the interaction with the environment. Some experts divide entrepreneurial opportunities into identified, discovered, and created opportunities based on their clarity of means and objectives. Identifying opportunities means that entrepreneurs can identify opportunities through the relationship between means and objectives when the relationship between means and objectives in the market is very obvious. The discovery of opportunities means that the state of any party is more than the opportunity for entrepreneurs to explore unknown and expected possibilities. Creativity is not targeted, and opportunities should be more insightful and entrepreneurial than others in creating market opportunities . The mosPsychological capital is based on the existing theory and research of human capital, capitalism, and social capital, and is beyond economic capital, human capital, and social capital. It has a fundamental position and value of entrepreneurs, especially when strategic decisions need to be made timely, and high risk and uncertainty are dealt with. The psychological capital of entrepreneurs is more important. Entrepreneurs and service agencies seeking to support entrepreneurship believe that psychological capital is an important individual difference, although psychological capital and economic capital, human capital, and social capital are key factors for enterprise success. Entrepreneurial psychological capital is the extension of the concept of psychological capital. It is the psychological resources and quality of groups under specific circumstances, especially the psychological capital of entrepreneurial entrepreneurs. Some experts find that enterprise psychological capital is a model with seven factors, including optimistic hope, sensitivity and excellence, positive growth, positive adaptation, enthusiasm and innovation, self-efficacy, and social ability. The specific model is shown in The research on the entrepreneurial psychological states of new entrepreneurs based on financial risk prediction is carried out by an online questionnaire survey. The questionnaire survey is conducted on the “questionnaire star” platform. A total of 250 questionnaires are distributed and 215 valid questionnaires are recovered. For the recovered questionnaires, SPSS 25.0 is used for reliability and validity analysis, and the results show that the designed questionnaire has good reliability and validity. The data of the questionnaire survey show the overall situation of the entrepreneurial psychology of new entrepreneurs under financial risk prediction, and excel mathematical statistics software is used to analyze the collected data. The questionnaire has two parts. One is the basic information of enterprises and the other is the current situation of entrepreneurial psychological states of new entrepreneurs. In the questionnaire, entrepreneurial psychological states include optimistic characters, social wisdom, self-efficacy, acute excellence, passionate innovation, active response, and positive growth, and the key questions in the questionnaire are shown in The internal consistency reliability coefficient of the entrepreneurial psychology is tested, as shown in The consistency reliability of internal indicators in The basic information of the subjects is introduced, including gender, age, education level, position, industry, the nature of enterprises, the scale of enterprises, and the operation years of enterprises, as shown in The entrepreneurial psychologies of new entrepreneurs are studied from (A), social ability (B), self-efficacy (C), acute excellence (D), passion for innovation (E), active coping (F), positive growth (G), and their exploratory factor analysis is shown in t = 3.467 (p < 0.01) and the entrepreneurial ability t = 2.834 (P < 0.01), which shows that the entrepreneurial psychological states of males are better than those of the females, and the entrepreneurial opportunities of males are more than those of females. Therefore, it can be said that the entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial capital of entrepreneur are affected by genders. The relationship between the ages of entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial ability is shown in In p = 0.000 < 0.01, which indicates that entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial capital of entrepreneurs are affected by their ages. Entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial ability will be improved with the growth of ages. The relationship between the educational levels of entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial opportunities and abilities is shown in In p = 0.000, which is less than 0.01, indicating that the entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial capital of entrepreneurs are affected by their educational levels. Entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial ability of entrepreneurs will be improved if they have higher educational levels. The relationship between the positions of entrepreneurs and their entrepreneurial opportunities and entrepreneurial abilities is shown in p = 0.000, which is less than 0.01, indicating that the entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial ability of entrepreneurs are affected by their positions. The lower the positions of the entrepreneurs are, the worse their entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial abilities are.p = 0.000 < 0.01, indicating that males’ psychological adjustment ability and entrepreneurial ability are higher than females’ in the entrepreneurial process. The entrepreneurial psychological states and entrepreneurial ability will be improved with the increase of age, educational levels and positions. It is concluded that entrepreneurial psychological capital and entrepreneurial opportunity ability are significantly positively correlated with financial risk prediction.In short, private enterprises account for the largest proportion, accounting for 58.14%, with a total of 125, followed by 32 Chinese-foreign joint ventures of 14.88%. The scale of each type of enterprises accounts for 25%, respectively. The operation years of these enterprises are concentrated between 10 and 20 years, accounting for 36.28%. In the enterprises investigated, their entrepreneurial psychology and entrepreneurial opportunity ability are significant, that is, p = 0.000 < 0.01, and males’ psychological adjustments and entrepreneurial ability is higher than females’. With the continuous increase of educational levels, ages and positions, the mean of entrepreneurial psychology and entrepreneurial ability is increasing. It is concluded that entrepreneurial psychological capital is positively correlated with entrepreneurial opportunity ability. The innovation is to analyze the psychological change process of new entrepreneurs under the financial risk, which provides a reference for related research. Therefore, the research of this paper has an important impact on the entrepreneurial success of new entrepreneurs to analyze entrepreneurial psychology and entrepreneurial ability. However, there are still some limitations. The size of samples is small and is not sufficient to represent all new entrepreneurs. Therefore, in the follow-up study, the sample size will be expanded.Based on financial risks, the basic theories of new entrepreneurs and psychology are studied. Further research is conducted by analyzing the characteristics of new entrepreneurs. The model is verified by a questionnaire survey, and the influencing factors and current situation of entrepreneurial psychology of new entrepreneurs are analyzed. The results show that private enterprises account for 73.02% of the total number of Chinese-foreign joint ventures, and entrepreneurial psychology and entrepreneurial ability are dynamically affected by various factors. The entrepreneurial psychology and entrepreneurial opportunity ability of entrepreneurs is The raw data supporting the conclusions of this article will be made available by the authors, without undue reservation.The studies involving human participants were reviewed and approved by Jilin University Ethics Committee. The patients/participants provided their written informed consent to participate in this study. Written informed consent was obtained from the individual(s) for the publication of any potentially identifiable images or data included in this article.All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.XL was employed by Shanxi VC/PE Fund Management Co., Ltd. BZ was employed by China Asset Management Co., Ltd. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.


The development of multirotor unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) has enabled a vast number of applications. Since further market growth is expected in the future it is important that modern engineers be familiar with these types of mechatronic systems. In this paper, a comprehensive mathematical description of a multirotor UAV, with various configuration parameters, is given. A modular design approach for the development of an educational multirotor platform is proposed. Through the stages of computer-aided design and rapid prototyping an experimental modular multirotor (EMMR) platform is presented. Open-source control system and a novel EMMR enable students to create and test control algorithms for various multirotor configurations. The presented EMMR platform is suitable for students to expand their educational objectives in aerial robotics and control theory. The development of mechatronic systems has enabled many applications, especially in the field of mobile robotics and autonomous vehicles. Of particular interest are the mechatronic systems of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) which have experienced tremendous progress with the development of micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) sensors, microcontrollers, batteries, and propulsion components. We can distinguish several categories of UAVs. The most commonly used are aircraft with fixed wings, which can be comparable in size with unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), and a multirotor type of UAVs that can have a couple of watts of power up to a few tens of kilowatts. Multirotor UAVs are characterized as nonlinear, inherently unstable, multivariable, and high energy consumption systems. This type of UAV can perform vertical take-off and landing (VTOL), remain stationary (hover), and fly at a moderate speed. Such abilities make multirotors suitable for a wide range of missions like surveillance , preciseThe scope of educational robotics is the subject of numerous researches and a large number of programs with associated platforms have been implemented in the curriculum at different levels of education. Educational programs in robotics for children of primary school age, mostly contain basic principles, and such robots are programmed using designed drag & drop software. An overview of existing literature in robotics education using robotics kits for the primary school level is given in . The mosMultirotor UAVs are nowadays used in a large number of applications, and many new applications are expected in the future, which makes them interesting as educational tools. Multirotor educational platforms integrate existing educational objectives applied to ground mobile robots, but since they operate in three-dimensional (3D) space they are more demanding to design and control. Such aircraft are suitable to facilitate engineering education and research in the field of robotics and automation. Trends show that more and more multirotor platforms are being considered for the high school education level, such as a robotic platform for promoting programming and robotics skills . EducatiSeveral open-source platforms are used for research and engineering education, such as Parrot ArDrone quadrotor , or CrazIn this paper, a modular multirotor UAV design approach is presented for the development of an engineering (university level) education platform. A modular educational platform with complete open-source software is suitable for students to expand their educational objectives in robotics-mechatronics system design and control solutions. To enable simulations of system behavior and testing of different control algorithms a comprehensive mathematical model of a multirotor UAV for various configuration parameters is presented. Furthermore, the design steps of an experimental modular multirotor (EMMR) are given based on system characterization and the development process is presented through the phases of construction and manufacturing. The proposed modularized platform, from the aspect of system dynamics and control, combines the properties of commercial and experimental aircraft in one embodiment. Given the ability to change propulsion module parameters, it can potentially expand educational objectives to the area of omnidirectional aerial robots and the area of fault-tolerant control. Autonomous operation can also be achieved by adding additional sensors to sense the environment . Preliminary tests of EMMR in combination with test bench are given to perform mechanical load testing and to show some capabilities and usefulness for teaching and research purposes.The paper is organized as follows: Multirotors can be mathematically represented as rigid bodies with six DOF since they exist in 3D space. The only moving parts are the motor rotors on whose axes the fixed-pitch propellers are mounted, so it follows that the dynamics of this type of UAV directly depend on the rotor’s angular velocities. The symmetry of the aircraft body and the stiffness of the propeller were assumed. In this section, a comprehensive mathematical model of multirotor UAV is given. Multirotor UAV configuration is defined by the geometric arrangement of the rotors and by their components. The rotor represents an electric propulsion unit (EPU) consisting of an electronic speed controller (ESC) and a brushless DC (BLDC) motor to whose rotor a fixed-pitch propeller is attached.From the aspect of the aircraft motion, the multirotor state is, among other quantities, defined by position and orientation in 3D space. In order to describe the aircraft motion, typical right-handed Cartesian coordinate systems are used, as shown in A rigid body is an idealized body of invariant shape and volume in which the mutual position of the particles does not change. From these observations, it results that the movement of a rigid body can be described as the movement of a particle located in the body COG. Therefore, the motion of a multirotor can be described by the translation and rotation of The dynamic model of the multirotor UAV is described by the aircraft equations of motion with respect to Rigid body inertia matrix comprises members that resist body motion. It is time-invariant  forces and moments. The model examines the impact of four influences that make up the overall vector of forces and moments while the other influences, in this case, are neglected, but can be subsequently considered and integrated into the model. Vector of forces and moments is given in vector form:Through the propulsion vector, it is possible to directly influence the dynamics of the multirotor UAV system by changing the angular velocities of the rotors. Therefore it is called a control vector and consists of three forces and three moments duced in . PropulsN rotors is described by a control allocation scheme. It is determined by the parameters of the rotors geometric arrangement and the power of each rotor. In practice, conventional configurations are used to perform various missions, and what they have in common is that they consist of an even number of symmetrically arranged rotors in one or more parallel planes. In order to cancel the reactive moment around ith rotor is defined as:ith rotor arm length, as shown in ith rotor is defined as:ith rotor cant angle, ith rotor tilt angle. Since the considered aerodynamic effects are represented in the rotor vertical axis, the expression uses a unit vector The control allocation scheme describes the mapping of the rotors’ angular velocities to the aircraft control vector since propellers mounted on rotors by their rotation create aerodynamic forces and moments required for the aircraft motion. Therefore, the propulsion configuration, respectively multirotor configuration, consisting of dered in . The proith rotor with respect to The control vector is the sum of the vectors of forces and moments of each rotor. Control forces and moments are modeled as proportional to the square of the rotor’s angular velocities, where rotors are represented with thrust force factor . As a rule, multirotor UAVs are designed with approximately twice the thrust of the weight itself, where a more precise ratio is recommended by propulsion manufacturers. It can be concluded that the mass of the aircraft is a very important parameter in the design of such a system. For simpler analysis, design, and development of this type of UAV, the aircraft system is divided into four key subsystems regardless of the configuration or purpose of the aircraft. The total mass of the aircraft system is then equal to the sum of the masses of all its subsystems:With the aim of testing multiple aircraft configurations, the idea of a modular multirotor UAV was born. There are several papers on this topic, like multipurpose modular drone produced via the additive manufacturing process , or moduThe advantage of a modular approach to aircraft design is also its scalability. The same approach can be applied to small aircraft with a power of several hundred watts up to large aircraft with a power of several tens of kilowatts. For educational purposes, the development of a small modular aircraft with a maximum power of 800 W is further considered and presented.N), and the rotor propeller diameter (d). The most common variants of conventional configurations are shown in D = 500 mm is designed and developed.From the aspect of system dynamics, the propulsion module should provide the necessary forces and moments for the aircraft motion in 3D space. Therefore, the multirotor UAV flight performance depends on the geometric arrangement and power of the rotors. The basic geometric parameters of conventional configurations are the number of rotors  batteries. Additionally, the energy module consists of components for distributing energy to the control module.LiPo batteries are rechargeable high energy density batteries that use lithium ions to transfer charge between electrodes. Such type of batteries consists of one or more electrochemical cells where the nominal voltage of each battery cell is 3.7 V, and the fully charged cell is 4.2 V. They are characterized by a high discharge rate in order to provide a continuous energy stream to the propulsion module. The main parameters that define LiPo batteries are capacity (in mAh), discharge rate (C), and the operating voltage i.e., the number of cells (S). When choosing batteries, the crucial is the relationship between battery mass (weight) and capacity. For further analysis and implementation, The relationship between the propulsion module total thrust and the weight of the overall system, defined as TWR, is determined according to the manufacturer’s recommendations, and for considered EPU, TWR = 1.7 . Figure t series  is basedt series  containst series . The proIn the design phase of the experimental aircraft, the Solidworks software package  was used for the 3D modeling of parts. In the development phase, rapid prototyping technologies were used for manufacturing parts in order to shorten the production process and reduce costs. The choice of construction materials depends on the purpose of each part of the system. Generally, the main requirements are high strength and rigidity and low specific weight. A 3-axis computer-controlled milling machine was used to make the parts by the cutting process, mainly from a plate of composite materials. Additive technologies, as an essential element in the teaching of robotics , were emThe development of the propulsion module is the first and most important step in the development of the entire aircraft. The main goal is to design a propulsion module that allows the assembling of as many aircraft configurations as possible. The presented modular propulsion module consists of a central assembly to which other aircraft modules and rotor arms are connected. Designed central assembly of the propulsion module has features such as the mechanical and electrical connection of other modules and rotor arms. Commercially available connectors (XT30 type and XT60 type), are considered for energy distribution, while male/female headers are considered for signal distribution, both integrated into the aircraft frame parts and elements. The mechanical connection of the frame parts is realized using bolted joints.First, the development of the rotor arm for the considered EPU based on the MN1806 BLDC motor is shown. It is necessary to design and manufacture parts on which the EPU components are mounted and which enable the rotor arm connection to the central assembly of the propulsion module. The MN1806 motor is mounted on a carbon fiber plate adapter whose geometry depends on the motor dimensions. The motor adapter plate is coupled via a plastic adapter to the prefabricated carbon fiber tube inside which the ESC is located. The other side of the tube consists of a plastic adapter into which the male XT30 connector and the ESC signal connector are incorporated. The rotor arms are mounted on the central assembly of the propulsion module which allows the distribution of energy (power) and signal. Power is distributed via a high-power circuit that connects the batteries to the EPUs via the incorporated XT30 and XT60 connectors with an integrated power sensor that supplies power and signals to the control module. The distribution of signals from the control module to the rotor arms and the low-power circuit that connects peripheral sensors, signal lights, and other equipment, is achieved using the manufactured elements. A prototype of the propulsion module central assembly is considered, which enables the connection of an even number of rotors symmetrically arranged in the horizontal , the energy module, and the equipment module. In the case of an aircraft intended for experimental testing, the equipment module actually represents the landing gear. In a special case for testing the aircraft attitude, it is developed gimbal joint assembly.The control module is based on an open-source PX4  flight controller (FC). For the two types of PX4 FC, discussed in the next section, parts of the control module housing have been developed. Peripheral components of the FC and remote control elements are incorporated inside the housing. The control module is connected to the top of the propulsion module as shown in For the educational platform as presented in the paper, all parts, except the prefabricated carbon tubes, can be made by additive manufacturing. Moreover, due to the size and power of the educational aircraft, parts can be made by using FDM technology that is available in almost all technical universities and institutes, so the proposed approach can be applied in-house. Also, in case of a crash only damaged parts or components need to be replaced, and since multirotor parts are mostly made with ubiquitous 3D printing technologies, replacement parts are easily produced on demand. Therefore, the proposed novel EMMR represents a versatile and reproducible solution for education in the field of aerial robotics and automation, given that configurations with different parameters can be assembled in one embodiment.Since multirotor UAVs exist in 3D space, compared to ground-based mobile robots, they are more demanding from the aspect of overall system design. Considering the control allocation scheme, it is possible to analyze the influence of propulsion system parameters on aircraft performance for different configurations. This further enables the selection of suitable components and optimization of parameters regarding the requirements in individual missions and constraints in the design itself. Since fully-actuated configurations can be assembled, this capability extends educational applications to the field of omnidirectional aerial robots that, unlike conventional configurations, can move in arbitrary directions in 3D space. Furthermore, the EMMR design allows easy integration of additional system features, such as distance sensors or vision systems, which further expands the potential educational applications of the platform. Since the EMMR platform is planned to be used as an educational tool in the new course on UAV mechatronics, Control system design, which includes a field of control theory, signal processing, and other related fields, represents a considerable area of educational application. Multirotor type of UAV is generally a very interesting platform for evaluating existing and testing new control approaches which are part of many curriculums in engineering education. Furthermore, the control methods taught at the University of Zagreb through existing courses are considered in a new course on UAV mechatronics. Therefore, PID control, feedback linearization control (FLC), and robust control methods such as the SMC and active disturbance rejection control (ADRC) are planned to be taught through a new course. In real systems such as multirotor UAV, the field of control theory is closely related to the field of signal processing. The data from the sensor is noisy and needs to be processed. As with the implementation of control algorithms, the same applies to the implementation of various signal filters and state estimators. It follows that a multirotor aircraft can be used for educational purposes as a benchmark for different types of filters. For instance, a simple complementary filter or built-in extended Kalman filter (EKF). Furthermore, existing state and disturbance estimators, such as linear extended state observer (ESO) or novel state estimators, can be taught.Below is a proposal for the exercises that are planned to be incorporated into the syllabus for the new course on UAV mechatronics at the study of mechatronics at the University of Zagreb.Attitude control exercise—include synthesis of cascade PID controller, implementation on a real system, tuning procedure of controller parameters, experimental tests of various conventional configurations in combination with a test bench.Position control exercise—include implementation of remote control and GPS modules, experimental flights with various underactuated configurations, performance analysis.Trajectory tracking control exercise—include synthesis of FLC, implementation for underactuated and fully-actuated configurations, state estimation, flight planning, experimental flights with various underactuated and fully-actuated configurations.Disturbance rejection control exercise—include synthesis of control algorithm based on SMC, implementation, comparison with PID and FLC, experimental tests of various configurations in combination with a test bench and external disturbance.Fault-tolerant control exercise—include active disturbance rejection control design based on algebraic ESO  for undeIn potential applications of the aircraft where interaction with the environment, external disturbances, or even failure of the propulsion subsystem is possible, it is extremely important from a safety aspect that the system consists of safety mechanisms. In addition to mechanical mechanisms such as parachute, there are also control mechanisms in the form of fault-tolerant control algorithms. Therefore the area of fault-tolerant control is becoming increasingly interesting and important for future engineers, given that aircraft safety is a necessary prerequisite for utilization. The versatility of the proposed EMMR platform allows teaching fault-tolerant control in more detail. An example of an experiment included in the fault-tolerant control exercise is testing of a fully-actuated octorotor configuration in the case of performing complex movements  with a failure for one or two rotors. Furthermore, in contrast to similar platforms, the proposed EMMR is a fully functional multirotor UAV with the capability of problem-solving real-world scenarios outside the classroom, which raises the attention of students and improves their learning capabilities.In the experimental phase, the safest verification of the system is by integrating the aircraft with the test-bench , which is very convenient given that the aircraft is intended to be used as an educational tool. This allows for a phase of laboratory testing and adjustment of the control system and prevents aircraft from crashing due to software and hardware bugs. The proposed EMMR platform is currently used in the research. The same concept of a modular aircraft has been used for the construction of several other aircraft, also used in research. The proposed aircraft has proven to be very practical as it allows relatively fast disassembly and assembly of modules so no unnecessary time is wasted and all commonly used underactuated and fully-actuated configurations can be assembled. The next step necessary before the development of education is detailed and extensive testing on the basis of which the course implementation plan will be made. After the laboratory part of the course is implemented, based on the students feedback, future work will be done on program revision and improvements.An open-source FC is mandatory for a multirotor platform dedicated to education. There are several FC families that support open-source software such as Pixhawk, Matek, Kakute, Omnibus. They vary in size, weight, processor speed, amount of memory, number and type of I/O interfaces, supported features, open or closed hardware, supported peripherals and supported software tools. In this research, Pixhawk FC  was used as the open-source hardware and software control module (avionics) based on PX4  ecosysteThe used FCs were Pixhack as a derivative of Pixhawk 1 and Pixhawk Cube. Additional convenience of Pixhawk FCs is that they come with a “carrier board” that reduces wiring and contributes to the ease of use of ports, or connection to peripherals. Furthermore, the 14 PWM output ports give the possibility of connection to a large number of actuators. It also supports a variety of communication protocols  to connect to various peripheral devices, such as remote control (RC), telemetry, or global positioning system (GPS) module. The controller communicates with telemetry and GPS via the UART protocol, while the RC receiver, which receives signals from the RC transmitter (operator joystick), exchanges data with the controller via the S.BUS protocol. The accelerometer, magnetometer, and gyroscope sensors, with triple redundancy, are integrated inside the controller and isolated from vibrations. The Cube has a powerful 32-bit 168 MHz STM32F427 Cortex M4 processor, 256 kB of RAM, and 2 MB of flash memory. To perform tasks that require more processing power , there is the possibility of connecting the Cube to an additional controller. One such supported and the commonly used controller is Edison.PX4 software is written in C and C++ languages, and as mentioned before, PX4 is modular, where adding new modules/applications can add new functionality to a particular system. In recent years, PX4 has also received support through MATLAB/Simulink in form of a toolbox that allows the interaction of Simulink and Pixhawk FCs. In other words, control algorithms can be developed, built, and uploaded to the Pixhawk FC, while other functionalities of the PX4 system remain intact. Such an approach offers intuitive development, simple interaction, and graphical representation of control algorithms, with basic programming skills. Real-time interaction with the UAV is also possible. Due to the mentioned benefits, such a system is a great testing environment for educational purposes. Students can focus on developing control algorithms and disseminating knowledge. In addition, interaction with the UAV in real-time speeds up the learning process. By changing the parameters/settings in the UAV model, the student can see the results of the change almost instantly.The central part of the PX4 controller is the control system block, which represents a control algorithm that calculates and sends control signals to the propulsion module based on the reference state and sensor data. The functionality of the proposed EMMR platform and the key elements of the first exercise planned to be implemented in the course on UAV mechatronics are presented and tested through the experiment. The first exercise covers the cascade PID controller shown in The derived prototype of the EMMR was experimentally tested on a setup with a three DOF gimbal joint (only change of orientation enabled). The gimbal joint consists of four main parts a connectExperimental testing of attitude control was performed on several multirotor UAV configurations by setting various reference orientations during the testing cycle. In the first case, testing was performed for conventional flat quadrotor configuration (FX4) with 7024 propellers using a power source whose voltage was equivalent to a fully charged 3S battery. A motor mixer of quadrotor, which is implemented in PX4 controller, is given by the following expression:In the second case, testing was performed for conventional flat hexarotor configuration (FX6) with 7024 propellers using the same power source with voltage equivalent to a fully charged 3S battery. A motor mixer of hexarotor is given by the following expression.Since the EMMR also allows the assembly of configurations with a non-flat (non-planar) geometric arrangement of rotors, fully-actuated multirotor configurations that represent omnidirectional aerial robots can also be assembled. For this purpose, the outer ring was used which allows passive adjustment of the rotor tilt angle, thus determining the allocation of aerodynamic forces and rotor torques to the aircraft control vector. Preliminary tests  were perThe experimental tests presented in the paper show only a part of the EMMR potential and are given as proof of concept. An attitude control experiment with a multirotor platform mounted on a gimbal has some similarities and relationships to the well-known ball-on-plate system and can be used as a benchmark platform for various control methods.For the purpose of research and education, small or micro aircraft are mainly used with different EPU components. Unlike some commercial  and expeCompared to existing experimental multirotors, such as ,26, the In The EMMR platform can be used as a common four-rotor (quadrotor) experimental aircraft ,25 for tLaboratory exercises in the UAV mechatronics course were viewed as an area of the potential application of the EMMR platform as an educational tool. The possibilities of the proposed platform extend the educational objectives experimentally covered in the field of omnidirectional aerial robotics and the field of fault-tolerant control in terms of the diversity of the propulsion module. With the aim of additional validation of the considered course educational objectives, among complementary filter used in research , and buiIn this paper, a modular design approach is proposed for the development of a multirotor UAV engineering education platform. A comprehensive mathematical model of a multirotor UAV is presented, where the emphasis is on the control allocation scheme which generally describes multirotor configuration. The inverse of the control allocation scheme (motor mixer) allows control implementation for configurations with various geometric arrangements and propulsion parameters. The proposed modular concept consists of four separated subsystems that make up a multirotor UAV system. In addition to the fact that the proposed design allows easy replacement of the platform subsystems and enables the development of an easy-to-maintain and repair engineering education platform, the main feature is the versatility of a propulsion subsystem. The process of EMMR development takes place through the phases of computer-aided design and rapid prototyping, which allows easy and fast reproduction of the platform parts.For educational and research applications, an open-source control module is a must, while open-architecture is also preferable. In this research, the control module based on Pixhawk FC has been used which has an additional feature of compatibility with the MATLAB/Simulink software package commonly used in the academic community for mechatronics courses. In order to validate the proposed EMMR platform, experimental testing of different aircraft configurations was performed and the results for the aircraft attitude control were presented. It is planned to use the EMMR as an educational tool for performing exercises from the new course on UAV mechatronics at the University of Zagreb. Extensive experimental tests are planned in future research to validate the considered educational objectives based on which it is further planned to create a syllabus for course laboratory exercises.


The human body harbors numerous and diverse bacteria, the vast majority of which are located in the gut. These bacteria can mutate and evolve within the gut, which is their natural environment. This can have important public health implications . The gut features specific characteristics, including hydrodynamic flow and resulting gradients of food and bacterial concentrations. How do these characteristics impact the evolution and diversity of gut bacteria? We demonstrate that they can substantially increase the probability that neutral mutants reach high proportions and eventually take over the population. This is because only a fraction of gut bacteria is actively dividing. Thus, the specific environment of the gut enhances neutral bacterial diversity. The gut microbiota features important genetic diversity, and the specific spatial features of the gut may shape evolution within this environment. We investigate the fixation probability of neutral bacterial mutants within a minimal model of the gut that includes hydrodynamic flow and resulting gradients of food and bacterial concentrations. We find that this fixation probability is substantially increased, compared with an equivalent well-mixed system, in the regime where the profiles of food and bacterial concentration are strongly spatially dependent. Fixation probability then becomes independent of total population size. We show that our results can be rationalized by introducing an active population, which consists of those bacteria that are actively consuming food and dividing. The active population size yields an effective population size for neutral mutant fixation probability in the gut. In the human body, bacteria are approximately as numerous as human cells, and about 99% of these bacteria are located in the digestive tract . The gutEvolutionary models that investigate population spatial structure generally consider discrete patches of population with migrations between them and the same environment in each of them –13. Comp1418222932Here, we propose a minimal model of evolution of bacteria in the gut. Because most bacteria in the human digestive tract are located in the bulk of the colon lumen , 36, we 2  developed in ref. L and cross-section with surface area S , which is modeled by effective diffusion with diffusion coefficient D, and by the harvesting of the food by bacteria, which is described by a Hill-type function with Monod constant k and is coupled to their growth that has maximal rate r. This leads to the following coupled partial differential equations:The dynamics of wild-type and mutant bacteria and food in the gut is described through three concentration fields, of food e area S A. In addα denotes the yield of the conversion from food to bacteria. Note that there is zero inflow of bacteria, in agreement with observations that bacterial concentration in the smaller intestine is orders of magnitude smaller  /Fin C, severae system . We findflattest . Conversflattest , the fixectation .R(x) per unit volume and unit time . Furthermore, we demonstrate that the range of parameters considered in the present study matches the realistic one in the human colon. Finally, SI Appendix, Fig. S17 shows that our prediction in In SI Appendix, section S11). The dynamics of bacteria and food was described using a system of partial differential equations based on refs. We addressed bacterial evolution in the gut within a minimal model that incorporates flow and gradients of food and bacterial concentrations along the gut. We focused on the colon lumen, where the vast majority of our microbiota is located, and we studied parameter ranges relevant for the human colon. We considered neutral mutants appearing in the gut. Estimates of bacterial population sizes in the human colon , 52 and Studies addressing the impact of spatial population structure on evolution generally consider discrete patches of population with migrations between them and the same environment in each of them –21. Whil3229v is imposed, as opposed to a traveling wave velocity. Also, boundary conditions put us in a different parameter regime compared with Fisher waves. One may worry that our deterministic model may not be appropriate in the upstream region. However, this concern is alleviated by the directional flow, which transports bacteria downstream. Specifically, bacteria take at least 20 min to replicate , and since they are transported with the flow, the lineage of an upstream bacteria will be broadly distributed, including where there are many bacteria, before being large enough to affect F sufficiently to modify the dynamical equations via SI Appendix, section S12).In addition to hydrodynamic flow and gradients, the gut comprises an upstream zone with few bacteria and rapid growth. This is reminiscent of expanding fronts in populations that invade a new environment , 57, whi5847SI Appendix, Fig. S18 confirm that the timescale for the increase of the average proportion of mutants is much faster than the one for mutant fixation. Furthermore, while the minimal model used here captures some key characteristics of the gut , the reality of the gut is more complex. In particular, muscle contractions in peristalsis and segmentation (Extending our study from neutral mutants to beneficial and deleterious ones, and studying fixation times and the rate of evolution in the gut, would be interesting topics for future work. Note that given the very large numbers of bacteria at play, fixation is expected to be slow. However, even before fixation, our results show that the proportion of mutants is increased by the gut structure compared with a well-mixed system. Our stochastic simulation results in entation , 63 meanWhile this manuscript was in revision, an independent and complementary study  was releSupplementary File


Student's t test and an analysis of variance, which is of significant value when working with independent samples from a normal distribution, as in our case. The instrument utilised in the present study confirms the existence of a high and adequate internal consistency (Alpha = .873). The results obtained, as presented herein, confirm that the incorporation of the gamified proposals in primary school classes, unprecedentedly intertwined with the benefits provided by interdisciplinary work and transmedia narratives, notably improves the students' training process and their motivation, while also contributing to the better acquisition of compulsory curricular contents and enhanced academic performance.Previous research has established the lack of motivation by primary education students vis-à-vis the acquisition of the necessary key competencies compulsory in the Spanish school curriculum and this is closely linked to poor academic performance on the part of the aforesaid students. Based on this current educational reality, we present a quantitative study regarding the perception of students after the implementation of a new gamified experience in the classroom such that it integrates, for the first time and jointly, the benefits of gamification  with interdisciplinary methodologies  and technology-enhanced transmedia narratives . This integrative and innovative proposal was implemented in a primary school in Valencia (Spain) between October 2019 and February 2020. The research is designed based on survey-type studies, employing an experimental cross-sectional quantitative methodology with pretest and posttest, in addition to experimental and control groups. Regarding the cross-sectional approach, descriptive analyses (means and standard deviation) have been conducted, together with histograms of each of the items in the questionnaire, as well as the  Educational; Game; Information and communication technology (ICT); Student motivation; Transmedia storytelling. As an eThe incorporation of gamification into the educational domain  is increIn recent years, we have witnessed an explosion of the use of the term in specialised journals, presenting it as an important and new educational method as well as a highly attractive innovative instrument for 21st century students  not onlyAccording to extensive research, gamification tends to generate a high level of students’ commitment and involvement in subjects , as it fThe present study makes a major contribution to research on educational innovation by jointly encompassing three concepts of great relevance—gamification, interdisciplinarity, and transmedia narratives, while considering the current context, whereby gaming is increasingly present in our society and everyday lives as a form of leisure that we engage in different contexts and situations, with the aim of gaining pleasant and single experiences for ourselves and other people. The gamification concept and its operationalisation in non-gaming contexts have become a growing practice in several contexts . FurtherEducative innovation  is underIn view of the theoretical framework described above, we aim to address the following research objectives in the present study: (a) assess how gamification becomes a beneficial didactic strategy for the acquisition of curricular content which can significantly improve learning among students; (b) analyse the functionality of gamification for the development of interdisciplinary learning strategies with transmedia elements; (c) analyse the possibilities of the transmedia narratives in primary school; and (d) examine the level of student motivation towards academic performance after implementing a gamified proposal in the classroom that consequently promotes the improvement of the teaching–learning process itself. Based on a transversal methodology, our study explores the data obtained from all the students belonging to a whole educational level in a Spanish school.The data obtained have been analysed from a descriptive (mean and standard deviation) and experiential perspective, through different analyses and processes , and factorial analysis), from the configuration of an experimental and a control group. We hypothesise that the combination of the principles of gamification, interdisciplinarity, and transmedia narratives represents a didactic strategy with an immeasurable and innovative potential that has not been examined in previous publications, and which corresponds to the profile of the students we are targeting, i.e., users of multiple immersive platforms , 2018b ‘2The present study is aimed at providing a new manner of approaching primary education such that students at this initial educational level acquire, through more motivating and innovative methodologies, the key competencies that must be fulfilled in their school curriculum. In this sense, based on gamified interdisciplinary proposals, new teaching strategies that pursue a comprehensive training of the students are introduced. These are perceived as motivating and highly inclined towards improving the students’ academic performance.0) posits that classroom practice following a traditional teaching methodology hinders the acquisition of disciplinary contents and, therefore, the attainment of key competencies by the learners; while, the alternative hypothesis (H1) states that classroom practice with interdisciplinary gamified methodologies enables the acquisition of the contents within the field involved and, consequently, the achievement of the key competencies by that part of the learners.This investigation has been conceived from the following assumptions: the null hypothesis  in the classroom, as in the design of our proposal, the use of new technologies is essential to increase student motivation. As ICTs are used to access transmedia narratives, they serve as a support, among others, to the gamified proposal from the animated series fication . Howeverfication , 2018b afication , impleme3We use a quantitative, survey-based, cross-sectional pretest and posttest experimental methodological design with experimental groups  and control groups .3.2Two questionnaires are used, one prior to the implementation of the gamified methodology with transmedia narratives, and the other thereafter. The pre-intervention instrument consists of 23 items measured on a five-point Likert scale , and it is organised into three study dimensions: 1. Sociodemographic characteristics (items 1–3); 2. Student motivation towards learning (items 4–13); and 3. Key skills (items 14–23). The post-intervention instrument comprises 33 items, which are also measured on a five-point Likert scale and structured into four analysis groups: 1. Sociodemographic characteristics (items 1–3); 2. Student motivation towards learning (items 4–13); 3. Key skills (items 14–23); and 4. Perception of gamified methodologies and transmedia narratives (24–29). To verify the reliability of the questionnaire, we calculate the Cronbach alpha coefficient to obtain α = 0.873, which confirms that the proposed instrument has a high internal consistency that is adequate for the present work . It is n3.3A total of 183 students in their fifth year of primary education at a Spanish public centre participate in this research. These children are aged between 9 and 11 years and represent all the students in that school year (N = 183). We organise them into seven groups, ranging from A to G. Their distribution by gender is 52 males (28.6%) and 131 females (71.4%) .The experimental group consists of a cohort of 105 students who work on the contents through the gamified, transmedia, and interdisciplinary project. The control group comprises 78 students who work on the same contents of each of the areas involved with a traditional methodology  based on3.4We follow a usual experimental research strategy, with control and experimental groups. Thus, the pretest questionnaire is administered to the entire sample (N = 183) through a link hosted on the free-to-use Google Forms application before the gamified intervention is carried out in the classroom. As the participants are minors aged between 9 and 11 years old, their legal guardians are informed of the objective of the study and the confidentiality with which the collected data would be treated through a letter distributed by the Centre to request their consent for the investigative use of the responses obtained. The instrument was implemented in October 2019, and subsequently, the didactic activities were carried out in the experimental groups throughout December (2019) and January (2020).In the present study, we aim to test the implementation of a project that would allow learning the curricular content using a well-structured interdisciplinary gamified strategy  based onAll the materials we develop are based on the animated series—Avatar: The Last Airbender—which is a narrative universe well known to the students targeted by this intervention and is associated with several multimodal elements , includiAvatar series, explain the working methodology, and explore the project website which has different spaces that contain the system resources, including collectible cards, experience bars, context stories for each clan, project photographs, announcements, the complete didactic sequences, a list of rewards, and a list of missions. Each group invents a clan name, designs its logo and emblem using the Cool Text and Makebadges virtual tools, and contextualises its clans within the narrative universe of Avatar by writing a description that is included in the digital platform. Small heterogeneous groups are formed with six to seven members, and these constitute the clans in the fictional universe of the series. Many of the activities in the proposal are designed to help the entire team achieve common goals, thereby promoting cooperative learning . The normality of all the data sets is verified by analysing histograms and QQ graphs for each of the questionnaire items. Similarly, we conduct a Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, and find significance levels exceeding a probability of 0.05 (p < 0.05), thus confirming the normal distribution of the data . In our The statistics presented respond to the objectives of this research. On the one hand, using descriptive statistics, we manage to verify the extent to which the students are motivated towards studying before and after the gamified intervention, with transmedia and interdisciplinarity, to assess the relevance of the proposal, and whether or not it is a beneficial didactic strategy for the acquisition of curricular content.On the other hand, statistics permit the evaluation of the key competencies of the participants before and after the intervention ; StudentAll these analyses allow us to reach conclusions about the relevance of this type of study, ensuing a highly significant learning outcome for the students. Likewise, they enable the positive assessment of the functionality of gamification for the development of interdisciplinary learning with transmedia elements and, finally, to examine the degree of motivation of students linked to academic performance after implementing the gamified proposal in the classroom, which consequently promotes the improvement of teaching–learning process.44.1Likewise, the students presented unfavourable attitudes towards the academic results they might obtain in their tests, with average scores close to five points . Similarly, negative results are obtained when they are asked about their motivational self-esteem towards solving the exercises that are set . They also place little importance on learning content in the classroom  or on the value of interdisciplinary learning  to acquire new interrelated knowledge.Regarding key skills, the sample notably has a positive perception of becoming familiar with digital skills and the use of transmedia narratives, obtaining scores exceeding four points in both cases , with deviations in both the experimental and control groups exceeding 0.9 points . Similarly, the students respond positively when asked about their training in entrepreneurial spirit and sense of initiative . The same does not occur with the other skills: linguistics ; mathematics ; learning to learn ; social and civic skills ; and cultural expression , with average response values of two points.After the implementation of this gamified didactic proposal with transmedia narratives, the results change substantially in the experimental group compared to the control group. Thus, a significant increase in student motivation to work is confirmed in the experimental group  with a considerably reduced standard deviation , thereby suggesting that there is a generalised change in attitude in the experimental group students. Similarly, the students in the experimental group place greater importance on obtaining good grades , with average response values close to two points .Likewise, the students also show a proactive attitude towards their academic results by completing extra activities and exams after participating in the gamified intervention with transmedia elements, with responses averaging two points . Positive results are also obtained for motivational self-esteem towards solving academic exercises in the experimental group  compared to the control group, whose results remain negative , thus further suggesting the benefits of these classroom strategies.In relation to the importance of learning in class, in the experimental group there are increased scores assigned to the work carried out in the classroom  and for the variable of interdisciplinary learning with transmedia narratives to acquire new interrelated knowledge . Finally, after the gamified intervention, the students report a positive perception of the training in key skills, with results close to the maximum response value of five points  and an SD lower than 0.5  for all the items .4.2To evaluate the didactic and motivational functionality of the use of a well-structured gamification strategy based on interdisciplinary, transmedia narratives in a primary education classroom, we compare the results obtained in the experimental groups  with the control groups  using Student's t-tests for independent samples. Our results  indicateThe confidence interval limits for the differences indicate that the value 0 is not included in any of the variables, meaning that the hypothesis of equality of the means can be rejected for these items, as confirmed in the t-test results for these variables. The results returned in the analysis of variance show that there are significant differences between the experimental and control groups for the dimensions analysed (p < 0.01). Thus, the participants in the experimental group place greater importance on the variables related to motivation towards study than the students in the control group . The results are similar for the variables related to responsibility and personal work , which the students positively valued in the experimental group, with an average value of approximately five points  compared to lower scores in the control group students.Furthermore, in relation to the control group, the students in the experimental group consider that learning content, regardless of the grades they obtain in the tests , and the acquisition of new knowledge as a result of interdisciplinary work with transmedia narratives in class are important . In general, significant differences are found for these variables between the participants in the experimental versus the control groups , with higher mean values obtained for all the variables in the experimental group.Similarly, there is an improvement in the experimental group compared to the control group in the self-assessment scores for all the questions related to the key skills dimension. In particular, the scores for the perception of competence in linguistic communication , learning to learn , sense of initiative and entrepreneurial spirit , and cultural expression  are noticeable for their notable improvements.4.3As shown in Finally, it should be noted that all these descriptive values are corroborated by the results obtained in the tests we conduct .Figure 1The compulsory key competencies to be developed according to the primary school curriculum, as well as the didactic areas analysed in this interdisciplinary study  show better results among the students of the experimental group in all the learning dimensions analysed (contents and competencies).Similarly, results close to 97% confirm the achievement of the initial educational objectives of other areas involved in the interdisciplinary gamified proposal with transmedia narratives  as well as the achievement of the contents of the areas of Spanish Language and Literature, and Social Sciences.Furthermore, the training in key competencies shows positive results in the experimental group, with values that exceed 95% in their evaluation, while in the control group they do not reach 70%.5In this section, we discuss the results and how they relate to the research questions we address in the present work. Our first objective is to assess whether educational dynamics gamified through transmedia narratives improve the motivation of students in their fifth year of primary education. There is a substantial improvement in the descriptive results (M and SD) obtained in student perception in the experimental group after the classroom intervention (post-intervention results). Likewise, Student's t-tests for independent samples in this same dimension show that there are significant differences between the treatment and the control groups, indicating that both the gamification and implementation of transmedia narratives effectively improve the students' motivation to study.Similarly, these data also highlight the benefits of this type of methodology to promote work both inside and outside the classroom. All of these agree with the claims by various authors  that didThe promotion of teamwork is another advantage regarding the use of gamification in teaching. The second objective of the present study is to identify the influence of collaborative tasks through the students' reported sense of belonging to a group. When people feel that they belong to a group, their need for connection is satisfied . As showFrom the constructivist sphere, other educational possibilities offered by gamification entail the progressive construction of learning by students as they interact with novel, rich, and diverse environments . This prThe third objective in the present study is to analyse the functionality of gamification in the development of interdisciplinary learning. In this sense, gamified actions in education are associated with immersive training experiences  which aiAnother objective of the present study is to assess the usefulness of game mechanics and dynamics aimed at training in curricular content and key skills. Indeed, the values we obtain in the ANOVA test confirm that students in the experimental group acquire different types of skills  as well as abilities in other cognitive processes, including empathy and creative thinking, when troubleshooting. Thus, the results we obtain suggest that games and gamification processes are useful and valid strategies for teaching and learning key skills in the primary educational stage, and that these skills can be used to help students to acquire knowledge in different content areas. These findings concur with those obtained by other authors  who sugg6Education, influenced by social transformation factors, plays a fundamental role in a societal context of global changes at the socioeconomic, cultural, political, technological, and demographic levels. Recent studies have shown that there is a decline of those traditional methodologies which rely largely on the memorisation of disconnected concepts and whose content is organised into separate disciplinary shells . SimilarMotivation is one of the most acclaimed benefits of gamified methodologies , and itsFurthermore, the value of educational gamification is associated with the immersive training experiences it provides , which cFrom this perspective, this methodology enriches interdisciplinary learning because it actively involves students, promotes cooperative learning , teamworTherefore, the present research focusses on the motivating potential of games and confirms that one of its positive characteristics is that it allows students to attain points, which encourages them to work in the classroom and progress in their learning. Likewise, the relevance of gamified dynamics can be regarded as the development of student motivation to carry out tasks in search of recognition by their classmates and teachers. These conclusions coincide with those reported in very recent works by Summarily, the cross-sectional and descriptive analyses carried out in this research have verified that, given the current demotivation of primary education students in the process of acquiring key competencies that are mandatory in the Spanish school curriculum, the implementation of our didactic proposal has been perceived by students to be very positive in their training process. Our scheme has brought together, for the first time, a gamified intervention coupled with the benefits provided by an interdisciplinary methodology and the ICT innovation granted by transmedia narratives. Our proposal has notably increased students’ motivation, while similarly contributing to the better acquisition of compulsory curricular content and significantly increasing their academic performance.Mónica Ruiz-Bañuls & José Rovira-Collado: Conceived and designed the experiments; Performed the experiments; Wrote the paper.Isabel María Gómez-Trigueros & María Luisa Rico-Gómez: Analyzed and interpreted the data; Wrote the paper.This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.Data included in article/supp. material/referenced in article.The authors declare no conflict of interest.No additional information is available for this paper.