User-created persona: Namibian rural Otjiherero speakers

Persona is a communicative artefact for usability that currently functions under the umbrella of User-Centred Design (UCD). Since we argue usability methods differ across cultures, this project presents a cross-cultural research probe on persona generated by indigenous Otjiherero speakers in Namibia. The objective is to find out how participants in this milieu take on, understand and portray persona artefacts, what goals of User Experience (UX) emerge from the inquiry, and whether the artefacts created simulate or differ from those in literature. Tentative methods scaffold from benefits attained by persona in the attempt to advance persona technical communication in cross-cultural design. This experience report presents initial findings on narrative content, rhetorical preferences, and the physical layout of persona artefacts as so-far constructed by Otjiherero speakers in rural Namibia. The report draws to a close reflecting on present challenges and advances, and indicating upcoming pathways

Perceived Trustworthiness of Natural Language Generators

Natural Language Generation tools, such as chatbots that can generate human-like conversational text, are becoming more common both for personal and professional use. However, there are concerns about their trustworthiness and ethical implications. The paper addresses the problem of understanding how different users (e.g., linguists, engineers) perceive and adopt these tools and their perception of machine-generated text quality. It also discusses the perceived advantages and limitations of Natural Language Generation tools, as well as users' beliefs on governance strategies. The main findings of this study include the impact of users' field and level of expertise on the perceived trust and adoption of Natural Language Generation tools, the users' assessment of the accuracy, fluency, and potential biases of machine-generated text in comparison to human-written text, and an analysis of the advantages and ethical risks associated with these tools as identified by the participants. Moreover, this paper discusses the potential implications of these findings for enhancing the AI development process. The paper sheds light on how different user characteristics shape their beliefs on the quality and overall trustworthiness of machine-generated text. Furthermore, it examines the benefits and risks of these tools from the perspectives of different users.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figures, First International Symposium on Trustworthy Autonomous Systems (TAS '23

On bands, tribes and chiefdoms: an approach to amazonian archaeology

En este artículo se presenta un estado de la cuestión de la arqueología amazónica. Este campo de investigación relativamente nuevo intenta comprender una zona enorme que abarca el bosque húmedo tropical y el rio más grandes del mundo, por lo que la tarea es un desafío constante. Aparte de los pioneros de principios del siglo XX, la arqueología amazónica gira entorno a los enfoques opuestos y por ello fecundos de Betty J. Meggers y Donald W. Lathrap, que desembocan sobre todo desde los años setenta en adelante en una serie de investigaciones con las que, junto con comprender con más hallazgos el origen, la antigüedad, y la dispersión del hombre y la mujer amazónicos, se intenta responder a la cuestión de hasta qué punto las sociedades y culturas indígenas amazónicas son iguales a las de antes de la conquista europea. Este debate tiene dos líneas relacionadas: (i) la población que puede sostener el medio amazónico; y (ii) el nivel de complejidad de las sociedades de la zona. Con los nuevos datos aparecen interrogantes clave como los cambios en el patrón de asentamiento y el incremento de conflictos y guerras en los albores de nuestra Era.In this paper a short assessment of the Amazonian archaeology is presented. This relatively new field of research attempts to understand a huge area covering both the largest rainforest and river in the world, so the task is a constant challenge. Aside from the pioneers of the early twentieth century, Amazonian archaeology revolves around the opposite approaches of Betty J. Meggers and Donald W. Lathrap. With new findings, this debate continues from the seventies onwards trying to better understand the origin, antiquity, and dispersion of Amazonian men and women, in addition of trying to answer the question whether Amazonian indigenous societies and cultures are equal or not to those before the European conquest. This debate has two related lines: (i) the population Amazonian environment can sustain; and (ii) the level of complexity of societies in the area. New data rise key questions such as changes in the settlement pattern and increased conflicts and wars in the beginning of our Era

Between New Public Management and New Public Governance: The Case of Mexican Municipalities

In recent years, the academic debate on the real and symbolic effects of New Public Management (NPM) has been intense. Some maintain that we are facing a new paradigm (Barzelay, 1992). Others question its significance and insist that it is only a revision of old approaches concerned with the technical qualities of public administration (Hood, 1991; Arellano, 2002). In this respect, there are those who believe that the results have been fundamentally positive, (Osborne and Gaebler, 1992) those who argue that the effects of this government reform trend are not yet clear (Lynn, 1996a, Kettl, 1999) and even that they might be questionable (Pollit, Birchall and Putnam, 1998). In this article, I intend to stimulate this discussion by arguing that the NPM is neither a positive or negative strategy by itself. It is more an approach with both achievements and failures. From my point of view it is necessary to analyze the conditions in which the potential of these types of reforms would seem to be greater, as well as those situations in which they can be innocuous or even contradictory to reform processes of other natures

(E)Lección del Japón

Como parte de los estudios del Grupo de Investigación de la UPM “Nuevas Técnicas, Arquitectura y Ciudad”, desarrollamos el análisis de la vivienda en Japón en el curso de doctorado “Nuevas Técnicas y Vivienda”, como se ha explicado en la introducción de esta publicación. Tratamos en principio de investigar la arquitectura del estudio SANAA (Kazuyo Sejima y Ryue Nishizawa), aunque la visita que realizamos a aquel lejano país nos indujo a extender el campo de estudio al trabajo de otros arquitectos y a la cultura japonesa en general. El objetivo de nuestro trabajo era, en principio, averiguar cómo era posible plantear una arquitectura que -siendo a nuestro juicio bellísima- se desenvolvía con unas condiciones dimensionales que en nuestro país son imposibles. Nos interesaba investigar cómo puede una pared exterior tener tan sólo seis centímetros, según observábamos en las publicaciones de la “Casa del huerto de los ciruelos”, por ejemplo -cuando sabemos que el clima de Tokio es semejante al de Madrid

Gestión de una planta productiva con el uso de indicadores Lean Manufacturing

El objetivo principal de las prácticas ha sido la adaptación del sistema Lean Manufacturing al sistema de gestión de Queserías Entrepinares. Aprovechando la carrera de ingeniería técnica y el uso de análisis de datos, se han centrado las prácticas en el desarrollo y adaptación de indicadores Lean para una mayor facilidad de gestión y la toma de decisiones consecuentes a esos indicadores estudiadosDepartamento de Derecho Mercantil, Derecho del Trabajo e Internacional PrivadoMáster en Gestión de la Prevención de Riesgos Laborales, Calidad y Medio Ambient

La protección social de la dependencia en España. Un modelo sui generis de desarrollo de los derechos sociales

Social and demographic changes related to informal care model as well as the new idea of social risk have lead to a social and political debate which has concluded at least in Spanish case in a new branch of the Welfare State, in many ways a synthesis of informal care Mediterranean tradition, Continental family vision and Nordic universalism. The new social protection model involves the construction of a complex institutional building. Its management, coordination, financing and evaluation constitutes a test of a mixed welfare which will show the conflicts between the new social protection model, the financial limits of Welfare State and the decentralization of social policies. The development of the Social protection Dependency Law from 2007 onwards it is crucial in relation to the future of Spanish social reform in the first half present century