Academic Resilience and Achievement

This study uses narrative analysis to understand the ways in which Mexican university faculty members used their self-motivational resources to persist in an instructional technology training program within adverse work conditions. The methodology included interviews and participant observation. Findings suggest that faculty’s academic resilience was based on faculty’s self-definition as permanent learners and innovators, the perception of instruction as a field of reflection-in-action and systematization, and the caring instructional approach used by training instructors

Diffuse interstellar bands in fullerene planetary nebulae: the fullerenes - diffuse interstellar bands connection

We present high-resolution (R~15000) VLT/UVES optical spectra of two planetary nebulae (PNe; Tc 1 and M 1-20) where C60 (and C70) fullerenes have already been found. These spectra are of high-quality (S/N > 300) for PN Tc 1, which permits us to search for the expected electronic transitions of neutral C60 and diffuse interstellar bands (DIBs). Surprisingly, we report the non-detection of the most intense optical bands of C60 in Tc 1, although this could be explained by the low C60 column density estimated from the C60 infrared bands if the C60 emission peaks far away from the central star. The strongest and most common DIBs in both fullerene PNe are normal for their reddening. Interestingly, the very broad 4428 A DIB and the weaker 6309 A DIB are found to be unusually intense in Tc 1. We also report the detection of a new broad (FWHM~5 A) unidentified band at ~6525 A. We propose that the 4428 A DIB (probably also the 6309 A DIB and the new 6525 A band) may be related to the presence of larger fullerenes (e.g., C80, C240, C320, and C540) and buckyonions (multishell fullerenes such as C60@C240 and C60@C240@C540) in the circumstellar envelope of Tc 1.Comment: Accepted for publication in Astronomy & Astrophysics Letters (6 pages, 4 figures, and 1 Table

A Comparative Evaluation of Heart Rate Estimation Methods using Face Videos

This paper presents a comparative evaluation of methods for remote heart rate estimation using face videos, i.e., given a video sequence of the face as input, methods to process it to obtain a robust estimation of the subjects heart rate at each moment. Four alternatives from the literature are tested, three based in hand crafted approaches and one based on deep learning. The methods are compared using RGB videos from the COHFACE database. Experiments show that the learning-based method achieves much better accuracy than the hand crafted ones. The low error rate achieved by the learning based model makes possible its application in real scenarios, e.g. in medical or sports environments.Comment: Accepted in "IEEE International Workshop on Medical Computing (MediComp) 2020

Cross-layer Balanced and Reliable Opportunistic Routing Algorithm for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks

For improving the efficiency and the reliability of the opportunistic routing algorithm, in this paper, we propose the cross-layer and reliable opportunistic routing algorithm (CBRT) for Mobile Ad Hoc Networks, which introduces the improved efficiency fuzzy logic and humoral regulation inspired topology control into the opportunistic routing algorithm. In CBRT, the inputs of the fuzzy logic system are the relative variance (rv) of the metrics rather than the values of the metrics, which reduces the number of fuzzy rules dramatically. Moreover, the number of fuzzy rules does not increase when the number of inputs increases. For reducing the control cost, in CBRT, the node degree in the candidate relays set is a range rather than a constant number. The nodes are divided into different categories based on their node degree in the candidate relays set. The nodes adjust their transmission range based on which categories that they belong to. Additionally, for investigating the effection of the node mobility on routing performance, we propose a link lifetime prediction algorithm which takes both the moving speed and moving direction into account. In CBRT, the source node determines the relaying priorities of the relaying nodes based on their utilities. The relaying node which the utility is large will have high priority to relay the data packet. By these innovations, the network performance in CBRT is much better than that in ExOR, however, the computation complexity is not increased in CBRT.Comment: 14 pages, 17 figures, 31 formulas, IEEE Sensors Journal, 201

African Traditional Religion: A Religious Drama

It is a fact, that African Traditional Religions are embedded in the Traditional life of Africans; therefore, there is a great difficulty on understanding it outside of the daily activities of the indigenous people; the reason why is simply, because religion enters into every aspect of African people’s lives. Therefore, its study has to go in accordance with the study of the people who practise the religion. The fallowing article presents ATR as an existential reality to be understood out of the wrong ideas created in the past, rather acknowledging first of all, essential features as carriers of its identity, as well its sense of belonging to the people who lives immersed in it. Keywords: African traditional religion, African traditional life, Superstition, Animism, Fetishism, Ancestor worship, Magic or Fetishism, Heathenism. African Traditional Religions (ATRs) will be discussed within the context of which it belongs to, the African traditional life (ATL). Let’s begun by saying that ATR, refer to the indigenous religious beliefs and practices of Africans. It is the religion which resulted from the sustaining faith held by the forebears of the present Africans, and which is being practiced today in various forms and various shades and intensities by a very large number of Africans, including individuals who claim to be Muslims or Christians. (J. O. Awolalu 1976)

Defensa de bienes comunes naturales y decolonialidad: caso Xochicuautla, México

El artículo se deriva de la investigación denominada Proyectos hegemónicos de desarrollo y alternativas de los sujetos colectivos. Un estudio de tres experiencias de la zona metropolitana del valle de Toluca. Clave de Registro: 3802/2014/CIA, a cargo de la Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociales de la Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México.El presente artículo intenta comprender las dinámicas provenientes de movimientos sociales latinoamericanos relacionados con la defensa de bienes comunes naturales. Ello, a partir de dos enfoques: las epistemologías del Sur y la perspectiva del pensamiento crítico decolonial, para dar cuenta de las luchas y resistencias, así como de las propuestas que emergen desde colectivos sociales que ven amenazados sus territorios por la actual ofensiva capitalista. Para ello, retomamos el caso de la lucha en San Francisco Xochicuautla, Lerma, estado de México, al que consideramos un referente de los actuales movimientos sociales, en el contexto mexicano. De este modo, caracterizamos la lucha de la comunidad de Xochicuautla, para destacar cómo se articulan sus demandas, exigencias, alternativas, prácticas y discursos con otros movimientos más amplios que actúan en el territorio nacional, y cómo ello aporta a las construcciones teóricas latinoamericanas. En términos metodológicos, recurrimos al análisis documental extenso, la revisión y reflexión teórica, así como al trabajo de campo en la comunidad de Xochicuautla.SIEA-UAEMe