Mining Patterns for Web-based Emergency Management Systems

6 pages, 1 figure.-- Contributed to: 4th International Conference on Information Systems for Crisis Response and Management (ISCRAM2007, Delft, the Netherlands, May 13-16, 2007).Design patterns describe problems that occur recurrently, and specify the core of the solution in such a way that we can (re)use it in different contexts and applications. Although, web-based Emergency Management Systems domain is still in its nascent stages, there are design principles, real systems and design patterns from other related areas that can be a valuable source of knowledge to mine design patterns. From these sources we have created a patterns catalogue to assist novice designers on discovering what issues should be addressed to develop useful and successful systems. In this paper, we present the mining process and some patterns as example.This work is supported by the ARCE++ project (TSI2004-03394) funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Education (MEC) and a cooperation agreement between "Universidad Carlos III de Madrid" and "Dirección General de Protección Civil y Emergencias" (Ministry of the Interior).Publicad

The role of asynchronous and synchronous activities in university academic performance: A comparative study of traditional and inverted class methodologies

Purpose: The objective of this work is to investigate the effect of synchronous and asynchronous activities on the academic performance of university students. For this purpose, the academic results obtained and the involvement and motivation of the student and the teacher in the different learning methodologies involved are analyzed. Students’ perception of the effectiveness of the flipped class with the face-to-face classroom and online methodologies is compared to that of the traditional learning methodology. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected from undergraduate students in three marketing courses and were analyzed through a quantitative descriptive, quasi-experimental and cross-sectional study. Academic performance with the different learning methodologies and the effect of synchronous and asynchronous activities on academic performance were compared using logistic regression on each course and methodology. Findings: The results showed that academic performance in synchronous and asynchronous activities was better in the flipped class, except for synchronous activities in the online flipped class. In addition, the best academic performance was obtained in the face-to-face inverted classes. The explanatory effect of asynchronous activities on academic performance was also identified. The greatest predictive capacity and the best prognosis were obtained in the online inverted classes. Students expect to obtain satisfactory results with the inverted class methodology and perceive it as effective, although they prefer a mixture of inverted classes and the traditional methodology. Originality/value: We contribute to theoretical and practical research with this new model to study the influence of the flipped learning methodology and asynchronous and synchronous activities on academic performance. We believe that these results, despite the specific and limited scope of the study, will be of great interest to the teaching community and contribute to improving the motivation and performance of students, which constitutes a main challenge in the higher education systemPeer Reviewe

Riesgo Ambiental y Riesgo de Desastre: ¿Cuál es la diferencia?

Nuestro punto de partida para esta discusión es la hipótesis de que los conceptos ‘riesgo ambiental’ y ‘riesgo de desastre’ se originaron en forma separada; el primero derivado de las preocupaciones en Europa por la contaminación ambiental y las actividades altamente riesgosas; y el segundo, originado en América Latina, por el impacto de los desastres ‘naturales’; ambos conceptos se integraron o empalmaron en los inicios del siglo XXI hasta no llegar a presentar diferencias en su definición. El presente artículo realiza un breve relato sobre el origen y desarrollo de estos dos conceptos a nivel internacional; además de presentar, relacionar y comparar los conceptos utilizados en Guatemala

ALCANCES Y LIMITACIONES DE LA COOPERACIÓN INTERNACIONAL PARA EL DESARROLLO. EL CASO DE PROYECTOS PARA LA GESTIÓN Y SUMINISTRO DE AGUA EN EL ALTIPLANO OCCIDENTAL DE GUATEMALA

La Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (CID) se ha erigido a partir de distintos enfoques; entre ellos, el histórico y el teórico. Desde el primer enfoque, la CID adquirió relevancia debido a los acontecimientos ocurridos en el siglo XX, a saber, las guerras mundiales, el origen del tercermundismo y la polaridad del sistema internacional, principalmente. Por su parte, el enfoque teórico deviene de corrientes realistas y liberales que enfatizan en el poder y en la preeminencia institucional. Desde sus inicios, la ayuda externa se planteó a partir de dinámicas económicas, políticas y sociales, entre las que la cooperación se consolidó como un puente de intereses geopolíticos, y sobre la base del crecimiento económico como la razón principal del desarrollo. De esta manera, una vez terminada la II Guerra Mundial y con la firma de la Carta de las Naciones Unidas en 1945, se presentan los primeros intentos de cooperación internacional. Como primera acción, se declaró el Plan Marshall. Fue la iniciativa de los Estados Unidos de Norteamérica (EUA) para coadyuvar con la reconstrucción económica de los países europeos devastados tras la guerra. El texto del Plan Marshall, originalmente conocido como Programa de Recuperación Europea1, estipuló como objetivo central impulsar la recuperación económica de Europa para facilitar la adquisición de productos ofertados por Estados Unidos, y así, mantener la balanza comercial estadounidense en un estado favorable. En primera instancia, se buscó la recuperación de la producción agrícola elevándola a los niveles que se tenían en 1938.2 Asimismo, se definieron estrategias para impulsar la cooperación entre los países participantes en el ámbito de la producción, del desarrollo de recursos para el comercio, el transporte y el flujo de diásporas (Álvarez, 2017)

TRANSFERENCIA DE LA HERRAMIENTA FODA AL ANÁLISIS DE RIESGO DE DESASTRES EN ÁREAS URBANAS HISTÓRICAS

Para el presente artículo partimos de la pregunta: ¿la herramienta FODA es transferible al proceso de análisis de los riesgos de desastre en las áreas urbanas históricas? Por lo que, en principio se analizaron las variables de esta herramienta, posteriormente fueron examinados los componentes del riesgo de desastres y por último se describió la importancia del análisis del riesgo en las poblaciones históricas. A manera de solución, se presenta una síntesis de la propuesta de procesos e instrumentos para el análisis del riesgo en las poblaciones y áreas urbanas históricas

Strategic, systemic and forward planning to prevent and to mitigate disaster risks in historic urban areas of Guatemala

El artículo aborda la necesidad de fortalecer el enfoque de planificación estratégica para las áreas urbanas históricas (AUH) en Guatemala desde la perspectiva de la prevención y mitigación de los riesgos de desastre. Para ello, resalta la importancia de adicionar dos enfoques a los procesos de planificación: el sistémico y el prospectivo. El primero como aspecto fundamental para el entendimiento de los riesgos de desastre, de las AUH y del mismo proceso de planificación. Y el segundo, como una disciplina científica que contribuye a reducir la incertidumbre en la temática de los riesgos. Además, se presentan cuatro conceptos que se espera contribuyan a la construcción de un modelo metodológico de planificación para la seguridad urbana de estas áreas y su patrimonio histórico. El conjunto de estos conceptos representa el objeto de este estudio

Aerial video geo-registration using terrain models from dense and coherent stereo matching

In the context of aerial imagery, one of the first steps toward a coherent processing of the information contained in multiple images is geo-registration, which consists in assigning geographic 3D coordinates to the pixels of the image. This enables accurate alignment and geo-positioning of multiple images, detection of moving objects and fusion of data acquired from multiple sensors. To solve this problem there are different approaches that require, in addition to a precise characterization of the camera sensor, high resolution referenced images or terrain elevation models, which are usually not publicly available or out of date. Building upon the idea of developing technology that does not need a reference terrain elevation model, we propose a geo-registration technique that applies variational methods to obtain a dense and coherent surface elevation model that is used to replace the reference model. The surface elevation model is built by interpolation of scattered 3D points, which are obtained in a two-step process following a classical stereo pipeline: first, coherent disparity maps between image pairs of a video sequence are estimated and then image point correspondences are back-projected. The proposed variational method enforces continuity of the disparity map not only along epipolar lines (as done by previous geo-registration techniques) but also across them, in the full 2D image domain. In the experiments, aerial images from synthetic video sequences have been used to validate the proposed technique

Robust Image Registration with Global Intensity Transformation

This paper presents a registration method for images with global illumination variations. The method is based on a joint iterative optimization (geometric and photometric) of the L1 norm of the intensity error. Two strategies are compared to directly find the appropriate intensity transformation within each iteration: histogram specification and the solution obtained by analyzing the necessary optimality conditions. Such strategies reduce the search space of the joint optimization to that of the geometric transformation between the images

Synthesis and expression of CDw75 antigen in human colorectal cancer

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Increased ST6Gal I activity has been associated with the α(2,6)sialylation enhancement of membrane glycoconjugates observed in metastatic colorectal carcinomas (CRC). Siaα(2,6)Galβ(1,4)GlcNAc sequence, known as CDw75, is a sialylated carbohydrate determinant generated by the ST6Gal I. This epitope has been reported to be associated with the progression of gastric and colorectal tumours, hence there are only a few conclusive studies to date.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>By radioisotopic techniques we evaluated the ST6Gal I activity in healthy, transitional and tumour tissues from 43 patients with CRC. By immunohistochemistry we assessed the CDw75 expression in 25 colorectal adenomas, 43 tumours, 13 transitional and 28 healthy tissues of CRC patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>ST6Gal I activity was likewise found to be statistically higher in tumour tissue respect to healthy tissue from CRC patients. CDw75 expression was positive in 20% of colorectal adenomas. Furthermore, 70% of tumour specimens and 8.3% of transitional specimens were positive for CDw75 expression, whereas none of the healthy ones showed the presence of the epitope.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The major contribution of this study is the inclusion of data from transitional tissue and the analysis of CDw75 antigen expression in CRC and in colorectal adenomas, little known so far. ST6Gal I activity and CDw75 antigen expression were increased in CRC. Although their comparison did not reach the statistical significance, a great extent of patients showed both, an enhanced tumour ST6Gal I activity and an increased CDw75 expression in the tumour tissue. So, these two variables may play a role in malignant transformation. The expression of CDw75 in colorectal adenomas suggests that this antigen may be a tumour marker in CRC.</p