System Virtualization Tools for Software Development

The configuration complexity of preproduction sites coupled with access-control mechanisms often impede the software development life cycle. Virtualization is a cost-effective way to remove such barriers and provide a test environment similar to the production site, reducing the burden in IT administrators. An Eclipse-based virtualization tool framework can offer developers a personal runtime environment for launching and testing their applications. The authors have followed a model-driven architecture (MDA) approach that integrates best-of-breed virtualization technologies, such as Xen and VDE.ITECBAN is an IT innovation project partially funded by CENIT (a Spanish public R&D program). We're grateful to MITYC (Ministerio de Industria, Turismo y Comercio) and CDTI (Centro para el Desarrollo Tecnológico e Industrial) for supporting ITECBAN through CENIT

A MODEL-BASED REPOSITORY FOR OPEN SOURCE SERVICE AND COMPONENT INTEGRATION

Abstract: Open source is a software development paradigm that has seen a huge rise in recent years. It reduces IT costs and time to market, while increasing security and reliability. However, the difficulty in integrating developments from different communities and stakeholders prevents this model from reaching its full potential. This is mainly due to the challenge of determining and locating the correct dependencies for a given software artifact. To solve this problem we propose the development of an extensible software component repository based upon models. This repository should be capable of solving the dependencies between several components and work with already existing repositories to access the needed artifacts transparently. This repository will also be easily expandable, enabling the creation of modules that support new kinds of dependencies or other existing repository technologies. The proposed solution will work with OSGi components and use OSGi itself

Hardware design of a small UAS helicopter for remote sensing operations

This paper presents the hardware design and integration process employed to develop an Unmanned Aircraft System (UAS) helicopter. The design process evolves from the bare airframe (without any electronics), to become a complete and advanced UAS platform for remote sensing applications. The improvements, design decisions and justifications are described throughout the paper. Two airframes have been used during the design and integration process: the AF25B model and the more advanced AF30 model, from the Copterworks company. The airframe engine reliability and fuel economy have been improved by adding an Electronic Fuel Injection (EFI) and Capacitor Discharge Ignition (CDI), both managed by an Engine Control Unit (ECU). On-board power supply generation and regulation have also been designed and validated. Finally, the integration process incorporates on-board mission computation to improve the concept of operation in remote sensing applications. Several flight tests have been performed to verify the reliability of the whole system. The flight test results demonstrate the correct process of integration and the feasibility of the UAS.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Regional pragmatic variation in the use of the discourse marker pues in informal talk among university students in Quito (Ecuador), Santiago (Chile) and Seville (Spain)

The discourse marker pues in spoken Spanish has been studied extensively in Peninsular Spanish (cf. Fuentes Rodríguez 1987; Portolés 1989; Garcés Gómez 1992). There is also a growing body of studies on pues in Latin American varieties of Spanish (cf. Zavala 2001; Travis 2005; Vázquez Carranza 2013). Less attention, however, has been given to this discourse marker in Chilean and Ecuadorian Spanish (cf. Poblete 1998; Olbertz 2013). Taking a variational pragmatics perspective (Schneider and Barron 2008; Placencia 2011; Schneider and Placencia forthcoming), this paper examines the impact of region in the use of pues among university students in Quito (Ecuador), Santiago (Chile) and Seville (Spain). It is based on a corpus of 60 role-play interactions within each location eliciting advice-giving and complaint talk in –SD (social distance) –P (power) scenarios. The paper looks at variation in relation to form, position and distribution relating to turns and sections of the conversations. It also looks at the function of pues across data sets, noting its use as both a connector and an operator (Fuentes Rodríguez 2003, 2009), and thus highlighting the close interconnection between position and discursive function. Some shared features as well as features of variation were observed. Concerning function, for example, pues was found to occur as both a connector and an operator across varieties; however, we found a clear preponderance of pues as an operator in Quito and Santiago, and of pues as a connector in Seville

Red deer reveal spatial risks of Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus infection

In press.Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV) continues to cause new human cases in Iberia while its spatial distribution and ecological determinants remain unknown. The virus remains active in a silent tick-animal cycle to which animals contribute maintaining the tick populations and the virus itself. Wild ungulates, in particular red deer, are essential hosts for Hyalomma ticks in Iberia, which are the principal competent vector of CCHFV. Red deer could be an excellent model to understand the ecological determinants of CCHFV as well as to predict infection risks for humans because it is large, gregarious, abundant and the principal host for Hyalomma lusitanicum. We designed a cross-sectional study, analysed the presence of CCHFV antibodies in 1444 deer from 82 populations, and statistically modelled exposure risk with host and environmental predictors. The best-fitted statistical model was projected for peninsular Spain to map infection risks. Fifty out of 82 deer populations were seropositive, with individual population prevalence as high as 88%. The highest prevalence of exposure to CCHFV occurred in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula. Climate and ungulate abundance were the most influential predictors of the risk of exposure to the virus. The highest risk regions were those where H. lusitanicum is most abundant. Eight of the nine primary human cases occurred in or bordering these regions, demonstrating that the model predicts human infection risk accurately. A recent human case of CCHF occurred in northwestern Spain, a region that the model predicted as low risk, pointing out that it needs improvement to capture all determinants of the CCHFV infection risk. In this study, we have been able to identify the main ecological determinants of CCHFV, and we have also managed to create an accurate model to assess the risk of CCHFV infection.This study has been funded by the Spanish Ministry for the Science and Innovation (MCI) through projects CGL2017-89866-R & E-RTA2015-0002-C02-02, and by the Regional Government of Castilla-La Mancha and the European Social Fund (ESF) through project SBPLY/19/180501/000321. RC-M, LC-M, SJ-R and JM-G would like to thank the MCI, ESF and the University of Castilla-La Mancha for their support through contracts PRE2018-083801, PEJ2018-003155-A, 2018/12504 and BES-2015-072206, respectively. BC was supported by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (2020.04872.BD). DG-B would like to thank MCI and Instituto de Salud Carlos III (CD19CIII/00011) for funding him.Peer reviewe

Padres y maestros

Es la continuación del artículo 'Los tebeos y sus aplicaciones en el aula I' publicado en el núm. 263El tebeo aplicado al aula como recurso didáctico y como medio de afianzar conocimientos. Presenta una serie de fichas orientativas divididas en áreas temáticas (Educación Plástica, Educación Visual, Lengua Castellana, Otras lenguas, Matemáticas, Conocimiento del Medio, Ciencias de la Naturaleza, Física y Química, Historia, Ciencias Sociales, Cultura Clásica y Ética) con objetivos y actividades para realizar de forma individual o en grupo.GaliciaES

Padres y maestros

Se realiza una primera aproximación a los componentes y el lenguaje del tebeo, un 'género literario' donde la imagen y la palabra se encuentran. Se ofrece una definición y una descripción de los diferentes tipos de viñetas, bocadillos y didascalias. Se analiza el lenguaje del tebeo; por un lado, los códigos no verbales que se emplean: los movimientos, los gestos, el montaje, el ritmo y los ideogramas; y por otro, el lenguaje verbal que tiene un vocabulario particular donde abundan las onomatopeyas y una tipografía que simula el trazo a mano alzada. El tebeo ha establecido un tipo de lenguaje mixto con infinidad de estereotipos y convenciones que comparten autor y lector.GaliciaES

A Repository for Integration of Software Artifacts with Dependency Resolution and Federation Support

Abstract. While developing new IT products, reusability of existing components is a key aspect that can considerably improve the success rate. This fact has become even more important with the rise of the open source paradigm. However, integrating different products and technologies is not always an easy task. Different communities employ different standards and tools, and most times is not clear which dependencies a particular piece of software has. This is exacerbated by the transitive nature of these dependencies, making component integration a complicated affair. To help reducing this complexity we propose a model-based repository, capable of automatically resolve the required dependencies. This repository needs to be expandable, so new constraints can be analyzed, and also have federation support, for the integration with other sources of artifacts. The solution we propose achieves these working with OSGi components and using OSGi itself

Using LSTM to Identify Help Needs in Primary School Scratch Students

In the last few years, there has been increasing interest in the use of block-based programming languages as well as in the ethical aspects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in primary school education. In this article, we present our research on the automatic identification of the need for assistance among primary school children performing Scratch exercises. For data collection, user experiences have been designed to take into account ethical aspects, including gender bias. Finally, a first-in-class distance calculation method for block-based programming languages has been used in a Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) model, with the aim of identifying when a primary school student needs help while he/she carries out Scratch exercises. This model has been trained twice: the first time taking into account the gender of the students, and the second time excluding it. The accuracy of the model that includes gender is 99.2%, while that of the model that excludes gender is 91.1%. We conclude that taking into account gender in training this model can lead to overfitting, due to the under-representation of girls among the students participating in the experiences, making the model less able to identify when a student needs help. We also conclude that avoiding gender bias is a major challenge in research on educational systems for learning computational thinking skills, and that it necessarily involves effective and motivating gender-sensitive instructional design