Radar track segmentation with cubic splines for collision risk models in high density terminal areas

This paper presents a method to segment airplane radar tracks in high density terminal areas where the air traffic follows trajectories with several changes in heading, speed and altitude. The radar tracks are modelled with different types of segments, straight lines, cubic spline function and shape preserving cubic function. The longitudinal, lateral and vertical deviations are calculated for terminal manoeuvring area scenarios. The most promising model of the radar tracks resulted from a mixed interpolation using straight lines for linear segments and spline cubic functions for curved segments. A sensitivity analysis is used to optimise the size of the window for the segmentation process

Guide of 'best practices' for the collection, management and analysis of the road accident data in urban zones

The reduction of the number of road accident fatalities by 50 %, by the year 2010, suggested by the EU, involves the active contribution of all the agents in charge of the road safety in Europe. Even though the accidents that happened in urban areas have a relative smaller severity, it is the place where, for the moment, in absolute terms, the major number of accidents take place in the EU countries, as well as generating serious consequences on the more vulnerable users (pedestrians, cyclists, children, the elderly…). The current action has as main objective the creation, validation, discussion and spreading, at European level, of the ‘best practices’ for the collection, processing and analysis of traffic accident (TA) data in urban areas. The foreseen final result fundamentally consists in the disposal of a European guide of advices or of “best practices” in order to implement / improve the traffic accident collection, analysis and monitoring systems in urban areas. For that, a compilation of the current “best practices” and on the exchange of experiences between municipalities from several EU countries will be counted on, added to the practical pilot experience that will be carried out as part of this project in several Spanish cities. With the spreading of this guide, the purpose is to contribute to the development of local tools in order to help giving answers and solutions, with more reliable and accurate knowledge, to the problematic of the accident rate in each municipality. This guide tries to serve as a technical working document to set up measures directed to the improvement of the collection procedures, data quality, and achievement and dissemination of the statistical results. For that purpose, all the ideas and recommendations gathered in the SAU project framework, as well as the ones set in the European Statistics Code of D1.1 [7] Practice developed by the Commission of the European Communities (COM(2005) 217 final), have been compiled. The document is structured in two parts: - On the one hand, a summary of the different phases of the project and the results gathered in the Deliverables I, II and III is presented. - On the other hand, organized in several sections, there is a compilation of best practices and indicators to evaluate the procedures of the road accident data collection, storage, management and analysis. We only want to point out that many of the recommendations might affect several of the considered sections and that the differentiation obeys practical aims to consult and organize the information

La empresa social. Experiencias innovadoras a través del deporte

Within the field of social economy, social enterprises stand out as organizations which identify and try to solve social problems that public administrations are not able to. Meanwhile, the current economic crisis has increased social inequalities and has led to increased poverty and risk of social exclusion. In this new scenario social entrepreneurship is gaining relevance, because it is able to meet social needs unattended by public institutions or by the market; due mainly to lack of resources in the case of public institutions, but also due to the lack of sufficient profitability, in the case of the market. The social enterprise can, however, make profitable such innovative social actions, and give prominence to people rather than capital. In this sense, the social purpose and the reinvesting of profits is its own goal, and fosters such entities to benefit the communities which they belong to. One of the areas where social entrepreneurship can have a high impact is in sport. In fact, the main objective of this study is to highlight the importance and appropriateness of sport as an area for development of social entrepreneurship. Both seek similar ends, which include equal opportunities, cohesion and integration, along with achieving a more equitable and responsible society.Dentro del ámbito de la economía social destacan las empresas sociales, las cuales identifican y tratan de solucionar problemas sociales que las administraciones públicas no son capaces de solventar de la manera adecuada. Por su parte, la actual crisis económica ha aumentado las desigualdades sociales y ha provocado un aumento de la pobreza y del riesgo de exclusión social. En este nuevo escenario es donde el emprendimiento social está adquiriendo relevancia, pues es capaz de satisfacer las necesidades no atendidas, ni por las instituciones públicas, ni por el mercado. Respecto a las instituciones públicas, principalmente debido a la falta de recursos, y por lo que se refiere al mercado, por la falta de interés derivada de la escasa rentabilidad económica que presenta este tipo de actividades. La empresa social puede, en este contexto, rentabilizar su actuación social innovadora al dar protagonismo por encima de todo a las personas en lugar del capital. En este sentido, su finalidad social y la reinversión de sus beneficios económicos en su propio objetivo, propician que este tipo de entidades sean idóneas para poder beneficiar a las comunidades en las que están asentadas. Dentro de los ámbitos donde el emprendimiento social puede tener una mayor incidencia se encuentra el deporte. De hecho, a lo largo del presente estudio se pretende poner de manifiesto la importancia y la idoneidad del deporte como ámbito para el desarrollo del emprendimiento social, ya que ambos buscan fines semejantes: la igualdad de oportunidades, la cohesión y la integración entre otros, junto con el logro de una sociedad más equitativa, dentro de un proyecto social responsable en todas sus dimensiones

Quality and representativity of the traffic accident data in urban areas: State of the Art

The reduction of the number of road accident fatalities by 50 %, by the year 2010, suggested by the EU, involves the active contribution of all the agents in charge of the road safety in Europe. Even though the accidents that happened in urban areas have a relative smaller severity, it is the place where, for the moment, in absolute terms, the major number of accidents take place in the EU countries, as well as generating serious consequences on the more vulnerable users (pedestrians, cyclists, children, the elderly…). The current action has as main objective the creation, validation, discussion and spreading, at European level, of the ‘best practices’ for the collection, processing and analysis of traffic accident (TA) data in urban areas. The foreseen final result fundamentally consists in the disposal of a European guide of advices or of “best practices” in order to implement / improve the traffic accident collection, analysis and monitoring systems in urban areas. For that, a compilation of the current “best practices” and on the exchange of experiences between municipalities from several EU countries will be counted on, added to the practical pilot experience that will be carried out as part of this project in several Spanish cities. With the spreading of this guide, the purpose is to contribute to the development of local tools in order to help giving answers and solutions, with more reliable and accurate knowledge, to the problematic of the accident rate in each municipality. The concrete actions that are developed in the project are the following ones: 1) Bibliographical revision and summary of the “state of the art” on the problem of underreporting, the quality, management and analysis / exploitation of TA data in urban area. 2) Development of an in-depth “case study” and application and evaluation of the best practices in some Spanish municipalities from different sizes. D1.1 [8] 3) Execution of a survey study with the objective of getting an approximation to the current situation and practice from a representative sample of European cities from different sizes. 4) Organization of a workshop where the results will be discussed, after the fulfilment of the previously exposed objectives. From all the information obtained from the previous stages, writing and spreading of the Guide of Best Practices throughout the EU. The document that is delivered hereafter is the Deliverable I: Quality and representativity of the traffic accident data in urban area: State of the art. In this stage, as it has been pointed out in the project statement, it is expected, through a bibliographical and documentary revision and summary, to get a general perspective of the state of the accident rate urban records in terms of data collection and information quality, as well as the rules in force in relation to the accident rate collection systems at the European level. The results obtained in this first stage mean a starting point on which the next stages of the SAU study will be developed

El reto de la destreza del speaking en centros de educación secundaria monolingües de Andalucía

Spain, following the recommendations of the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR, 2011), is undergoing a quick English-learning process in order to qualify the population as citizens of the world. The mastering of speaking skills in English is crucial to ease personal, social, political, professional and economic relationships. For this reason, the objectives of this paper are: analysing the current regional and national legislation regarding foreign language communication; understanding how relevant it is for the Andalusian population to speak fluently in English, given the magnitude of the international tourism industry in Andalusia and the current European socio-educational context; as well as knowing if Andalusian Secondary Education students are aware of this situation, and how comfortable they feel with their current oral-skills in English nowadays.España, siguiendo las recomendaciones del Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas (MCER, 2011), se encuentra inmersa en un rápido proceso de aprendizaje del inglés que permita a sus gentes convertirse en ciudadanos del mundo. El dominio del componente oral de esta lengua es fundamental para facilitar las relaciones sociales, laborales, políticas o económicas. Por ello, esta investigación establece los siguientes objetivos: analizar la legislación estatal y autonómica vigente con respecto a la comunicación en lenguas extranjeras; entender hasta qué punto es relevante para la población andaluza el hecho de poder hablar con fluidez en lengua inglesa dada la envergadura del turismo internacional en Andalucía y el contexto socioeducativo europeo actual; tratar de averiguar si los estudiantes de Educación Secundaria andaluces son conscientes de esta situación, y conocer cómo de cómodos se sienten hoy día con la práctica de la destreza oral o speaking en lengua inglesa

Fucoxanthin-Containing Cream Prevents Epidermal Hyperplasia and UVB-Induced Skin Erythema in Mice

Microalgae represent a source of bio-active compounds such as carotenoids with potent anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. We aimed to investigate the effects of fucoxanthin (FX) in both in vitro and in vivo skin models. Firstly, its anti-inflammatory activity was evaluated in LPS-stimulated THP-1 macrophages and TNF-α-stimulated HaCaT keratinocytes, and its antioxidant activity in UVB-irradiated HaCaT cells. Next, in vitro and ex vivo permeation studies were developed to determine the most suitable formulation for in vivo FX topical application. Then, we evaluated the effects of a FX-containing cream on TPA-induced epidermal hyperplasia in mice, as well as on UVB-induced acute erythema in hairless mice. Our results confirmed the in vitro reduction of TNF-α, IL-6, ROS and LDH production. Since the permeation results showed that cream was the most favourable vehicle, FX-cream was elaborated. This formulation effectively ameliorated TPA-induced hyperplasia, by reducing skin edema, epidermal thickness, MPO activity and COX-2 expression. Moreover, FX-cream reduced UVB-induced erythema through down-regulation of COX-2 and iNOS as well as up-regulation of HO-1 protein via Nrf-2 pathway. In conclusion, FX, administered in a topical formulation, could be a novel natural adjuvant for preventing exacerbations associated with skin inflammatory pathologies as well as protecting skin against UV radiation

Cultura científica comunitaria para una pandemia. La COVID persistente

Despite some scattered precedents and exceptions, there is an evident gap in the literature on the concept of community-based scientific culture. By this we refer to situations in which citizens perceive a problem, come together, organise, communicate, and pool their resources to search for, evaluate and produce scientific knowledge to address the problem. In this paper, we propose a characterisation of community-based scientific culture. Subsequently, we apply and contrast it to the case of groups of people affected by long COVID. The methodology used was based on documentary analysis.A pesar de algunos antecedentes dispersos y excepciones, existe una manifiesta laguna en la literatura sobre el concepto de cultura científica comunitaria. Con esa expresión nos referimos a situaciones en las cuales unos ciudadanos perciben un problema, se agrupan, organizan, comunican y ponen en común sus recursos para buscar, evaluar y producir conocimiento científico con el fin de encarar dicho problema. En este trabajo realizamos una propuesta de caracterización de la cultura científica comunitaria. Posteriormente, procedemos a aplicarla y contrastarla respecto del caso de los colectivos de afectados por la COVID persistente. La metodología empleada se ha basado en el análisis documental

Off the Shelf Cloud Robotics for the Smart Home: Empowering a Wireless Robot through Cloud Computing

In this paper, we explore the possibilities offered by the integration of home automation systems and service robots. In particular, we examine how advanced computationally expensive services can be provided by using a cloud computing approach to overcome the limitations of the hardware available at the user’s home. To this end, we integrate two wireless low-cost, off-the-shelf systems in this work, namely, the service robot Rovio and the home automation system Z-wave. Cloud computing is used to enhance the capabilities of these systems so that advanced sensing and interaction services based on image processing and voice recognition can be offered.Ministerio de Economía TEC2016-80242-PJunta de Andalucía P11-TEP-812