Turning bad things into good things: invasive species as a source of energy in insular ecosystems

Insular native ecosystems due to their weak resistance to biological invaders,are being damaged because of the introduction, colonization, conquest and naturalizationof exotic species. Some of these plants are used as food, feed and even building material.However, the rate of extraction performed by economic agents is less than its naturalgrowth, making the invasive biomass is increasing. In this context it proposed a newmethod for use of harmful invasive species: bioenergy. As a first step it must be updated aregister of harmful invaders and quantification of their biomass. Then, compute the energyequivalent for making a market research. Parallel to this activity, it must be designedappropriate technology for biomass collection and transport, processing and subsequentdistribution of energy for performing some mechanical work. The result is achieved bymapping the location of exploitable areas and the cost in monetary units that theirpresence creates. Trials to test the method in Chile showed that bioenergy exploitation ofinvasive plants replacing native forest is profitable in the adjacency of rural roads

Caracterización sísmica de sitio en la zona del Distrito II de la Ciudad de Managua

Lós efectós de lós terremótós sóbre las cónstrucciónes existentes en un lugar són el resultadó directó de las caracterí sticas geóló gicas lócales. Lós dan ós causadós pór lós terremótós dependen de la fuerza, el periódó, la duració n de lós mismós y de la vulnerabilidad de lós elementós expuestós. Estós para metrós esta n fuertemente influenciadós pór las própiedades del sueló en la zóna, lós cuales a su vez dependen de las caracterí sticas tópógra ficas y geóte cnicas existentes. Las mediciónes de vibraciónes ambientales ó ruidó ambiental tienen el pótencial de cóntribuir significativamente a la mitigació n de amenaza sí smica, y au n ma s en a reas urbanas. Existe un me tódó pra cticó utilizandó micrótremóres para un mismó sitió, própuestó pór Nógóshi Nakamura en Japó n en 1989. Cónsiste en registró de ruidó ambiental causadó pór el medió natural e inclusó de móvimientós sí smicós y se calcula el cóciente espectral de la cómpónente hórizóntal y vertical del móvimientó. Los registros usados en este estudio pertenecen al distrito II de la ciudad de Managua, Managua. Un total de 78 registros de ruido ambiental (microtremores) seleccionados de los 208 puntos obtenidos, distribuidos a cada 200 m, del estudio que realiza INETER en el cual colaboramos en su obtención y que con su autorización utilizamos en este trabajo monográfico. Estos puntos presentaron los requisitos para aplicar el método. Es importante mencionar que los registros de ruido ambiental en su totalidad fueron colectados con un acelerógrafo K2 fabricado por Kinemetrics.inc y un registrador digital con sensor de 3 componentes o ETNA también fabricado por kinemetrics.inc. Los registros se tomaron con duraciones variantes entre 3 y 12 minutos completos. Para el cálculo de modelos de velocidad de corte se estiman con la frecuencia natural del suelo, dato importante obtenido mediante los microtremores, a partir del uso de modelos de referencia que sirvieron para obtener las velocidades cortantes en los sitios donde no hay o no existe un modelo específico disponible. De esta manera se obtuvo modelos de velocidades nuevos que surgieron de un ajuste de la repuesta teórica de un modelo de suelo ejemplar y la curva de H/V de nuestro lugar de estudio. Y se estimaron los espectros de respuesta usando el método lineal equivalente, el cual se contrastará con la envolvente para el tipo de suelo requerido según el Reglamento Nacional de la Construcción (RNC)

Improving resource usage in large FPGA accelerators

In modern FPGA devices, place and route has become a difficult task for the underlying FPGA implementation tools. This is caused by an increase of device size and complexity. As devices grow in size and number of resources, their topology also grows in complexity. Larger devices are divided in different regions. While this allows to pack a larger number of resources in a single device, it creates a new set of challenges in order to obtain good quality of results while using as many resources as possible. Devices such as Xilinx’s Alveo accelerators are comprised of multiple regions called Super Logic Regions (SLR). Crossing from one region to another adds some delay to signal propagation. This can hurt overall timing if implementation tool decides to scatter a single accelerator among different SLRs. Thus, the design may not reach operating frequencies expected by the user. In a similar fashion as the SLRs, they usually have multiple independent memory banks that interface with DDR modules. This requires memory allocations and interconnection to be manually managed by the user, causing extra burden to users. Otherwise, the design will not be able to take profit of the aggregated available bandwidth. We propose methods to improve resource and bandwidth usage that allow a user to direct how a design is built and implemented while maintaining device abstraction and minimal development overhead

La sana crítica y la argumentación del estado constitucional moderno en la sentencia del nuevo código nacional de procedimientos penales.

En el año 2008 se reformó la Constitución1 , a fin de que entrara en vigencia un nuevo sistema penal, siendo este el sistema acusatorio, del cual se desprende de que el legislador faculta al juzgador de poder apreciar las pruebas de manera libre y lógica; es decir de acuerdo a las reglas de la lógica, los conocimientos científicos afianzados y las máxima de la experiencia, por lo que no seguirá las reglas preestablecidas en la legislación, pues se determina el valor de cada medio de prueba por medio de una valoración libre, pero sin llegar a una valoración arbitraria, debiendo sustentar su decisión en lineamientos de la experiencia, lógica y el recto entendimiento humano2

Incidencia del Laboratorio de Ciencias Naturales en los estudiantes de URACCAN

Currently, the work of the Natural Science Laboratories is discussed and it is difficult to understand what their contributions are, since their work depends on various factors. The work of these at URACCAN Nueva Guinea campus is no stranger to such a statement. With this research, the incidence of these spaces in the student formation and, therefore, the achievement of the university's mission is visualized. The research was from a perspective of mixed, predominantly quantitative, descriptive approach with a population of 268 students and 16 teachers of 6 careers. The sample for students was 71, calculated with the STATTM. In the case of teachers, a 100% sampling (census) was carried out. The student population was stratified by careers and gender. The survey, interview and documentary review were used. The relevance, quality, impact and sustainability of the practices of the Natural Sciences Laboratory were defined as outsized variables. There was a significant incidence of the Natural Sciences Laboratory in the student's educational process and contributions to teaching, with a general average of 82%, highlighting the link between theory and practice, the usefulness of acquired knowledge for academic and professional performance to strengthen their ability to analyze, develop skills and abilities, among others. They were able to identify the potential of the laboratory and some limitations that are part of the reality of this. The training processes and activities developed in the laboratory have contributed effectively, efficiently and with quality, favoring learning and contributing to the strengthening of teaching capacities. Despite this, the readjustment and expansion of spaces and provision of resources (equipment, materials and reagents) is recommended.Actualmente se discute el quehacer de los Laboratorios de Ciencias Naturales y es difícil entender cuáles son sus aportes, pues su labor depende de diversos factores. El trabajo de estos en el recinto URACCAN Nueva Guinea no es ajeno a tal afirmación. Con esta investigación se visualiza la incidencia de dichos espacios en la formación del estudiantado y por ende el logro de la misión de la universidad. La investigación fue desde una perspectiva de enfoque mixto, predominantemente cuantitativo, de tipo descriptiva con una población de 268 estudiantes y 16 docentes de 6 carreras. La muestra para estudiantes fue de 71, calculada con el STATTM. En el caso de los docentes se realizó un muestreo al 100% (censo). La población de estudiantes se estratificó por carreras y por género. Se utilizaron la encuesta, entrevista y revisión documental. Se definieron como grandes variables la pertinencia, calidad, impacto y sostenibilidad de las prácticas del Laboratorio de Ciencias Naturales. Se constató incidencia significativa del Laboratorio de Ciencias Naturales en el proceso educativo del estudiantado y aportes a la docencia, con un promedio general de 82 %, resaltando la vinculación de la teoría con la práctica, la utilidad de los conocimientos adquiridos para el desempeño académico y profesional para fortalecer su capacidad de análisis, desarrollar habilidades y destrezas, entre otras. Se lograron identificar las potencialidades del laboratorio y algunas limitantes que son parte de la realidad de este. Los procesos y actividades de formación desarrolladas en el laboratorio han aportado de manera efectiva, eficiente y con calidad, favoreciendo el aprendizaje y contribuyendo al fortalecimiento de las capacidades docentes. Pese a ello, se recomienda la readecuación y ampliación de espacios y dotación de recursos (equipos, materiales y reactivos). &nbsp

Implementation of the K-Means Algorithm on Heterogeneous Devices: A Use Case Based on an Industrial Dataset

This paper presents and analyzes a heterogeneous implementation of an industrial use case based on K-means that targets symmetric multiprocessing (SMP), GPUs and FPGAs. We present how the application can be optimized from an algorithmic point of view and how this optimization performs on two heterogeneous platforms. The presented implementation relies on the OmpSs programming model, which introduces a simplified pragma-based syntax for the communication between the main processor and the accelerators. Performance improvement can be achieved by the programmer explicitly specifying the data memory accesses or copies. As expected, the newer SMP+GPU system studied is more powerful than the older SMP+FPGA system. However the latter is enough to fulfill the requirements of our use case and we show that uses less energy when considering only the active power of the execution.This work is partially supported by the European Union H2020 project AXIOM (grant agreement n. 645496), HiPEAC (grant agreement n. 687698), and Mont-Blanc (grant agreements n. 288777, 610402 and 671697), the Spanish Government Programa Severo Ochoa (SEV-2015-0493), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (TIN2015- 65316-P) and the Departament d’Innovació, Universitats i Empresa de la Generalitat de Catalunya, under project MPEXPAR: Models de Programaci´o i Entorns d’Execució Paral·lels (2014-SGR-1051).Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Evaluación de impacto de un fondo de financiamiento para la innovación en pymes

ArtículoPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of one productive development program (PROPYME) in a developing nation like Costa Rica. This program seeks to increase the capacity of small and medium-sized firms (SMEs) to innovate. Design/methodology/approach – Impacts have been estimated assuming that beneficiary firms are trying to maximize their profits and that PROPYME aims to increase these firms productivity. The impacts were measured in terms of three result variables real average wages employment demand and the probability of exporting. A combination of fixed effects and propensity score matching techniques was used in estimations to correct for any selection bias. The authors worked with panel data companies treated and untreated for the period 2001-2011. Findings – PROPYME’s beneficiaries performed better than other firms in terms of labor demand and their probability of exporting. In addition, the dose and the duration of the effects of the treatment (timing effects) are important. Originality/value – The authors study the impact in ways that go beyond the average treatment effects on the treated (ATT) usually estimated in the existing literature. Specifically, the research focusses on the identification of the timing or dynamic effects (i.e. how long should we wait to see results?) and treatment intensity (dosage effects). Keywords Impact evaluation, Innovation, Financing, Probability of exporting, Labour demand, R&D, SMEs, Costa Rica Paper type Research pape

Growth of silver on ZnO and SnO2 thin films intended for low emissivity applications

In the present work we have investigated the relationships existing between the optical properties and the growth mechanism, microstructure and surface roughness of SnO2 and ZnO oxide films prepared by magnetron sputtering under conditions resembling those utilized in industry. Thin films of these oxides with different thicknesses were characterized by atomic force microscopy, glancing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXRD), X-ray reflectometry and spectroscopic ellipsometry. The roughness evolution of the film properties (density, surface roughness and refraction index) as a function of their thickness has been evaluated within the concepts of the Dynamic Scaling Theory of thin film growth. Zinc oxide films were rougher than tin oxide films of similar thickness, indicating a different growing mechanism for the two materials. Silver was evaporated onto the surface of the two oxide thin films and its earlier stages of nucleation studied by background analysis of the X-ray photoemission spectra. A different nucleation mechanism was found depending on the nature of the oxide acting as substrate. The superior performance of the zinc oxide based low emissive coatings is related with a better wetting of silver on the surface of this oxide despite the comparatively lower roughness of the tin oxide layers.Junta de Andalucía P09-CTS- 5189 TEP5283 FQM-6900España Ministerio de Competitividad CONSOLIDER CSD2008-00023 MAT2010-21228 MAT2010-1844

Automatic design of domain-specific instructions for low-power processors

This paper explores hardware specialization of low­ power processors to improve performance and energy efficiency. Our main contribution is an automated framework that analyzes instruction sequences of applications within a domain at the loop body level and identifies exactly and partially-matching sequences across applications that can become custom instructions. Our framework transforms sequences to a new code abstraction, a Merging Diagram, that improves similarity identification, clusters alike groups of potential custom instructions to effectively reduce the search space, and selects merged custom instructions to efficiently exploit the available customizable area. For a set of 11 media applications, our fast framework generates instructions that significantly improve the energy-delay product and speed­ up, achieving more than double the savings as compared to a technique analyzing sequences within basic blocks. This paper shows that partially-matched custom instructions, which do not significantly increase design time, are crucial to achieving higher energy efficiency at limited hardware areas