Software Design Guidelines for Usability

For years, the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community has crafted usability guidelines that clearly define what
characteristics a software system should have in order to be easy to use. However, in the Software Engineering (SE)
community keep falling short of successfully incorporating these recommendations into software projects. From a SE
perspective, the process of incorporating usability features into software is not always straightforward, as a large number
of these features have heavy implications in the underlying software architecture. For example, successfully including an
“undo” feature in an application requires the design and implementation of many complex interrelated data structures and
functionalities. Our work is focused upon providing developers with a set of software design patterns to assist them in the
process of designing more usable software. This would contribute to the proper inclusion of specific usability features
with high impact on the software design. Preliminary validation data show that usage of the guidelines also has positive
effects on development time and overall software design quality

El rol de la etimología en la enseñanza de los modismos relacionados con los colores en una L2

Teaching figurative language, in general, and idioms, in particular, is one of the most controversial and difficult areas in L2 teaching, as it seems to be a big challenge from a cultural point of view and, subsequently, from a pedagogical one. With regard to idioms related to colours, these expressions differ highly depending on whether their origin is Spanish or Anglo-Saxon. Examples ranging from colours such as white, black and red to blue, yellow and green will be the axis of our study. Through etymology we will be able to ascertain the root of these fixed expressions and provide some tips regarding their teachability/learnability. The use of etymology as a didactic tool, combined with illustrations, games, and dynamic exercises, will help students to understand these idioms, which are the reflection of a culture.La enseñanza del lenguaje figurado, en general, y de los modismos, en particular, es uno de los temas más difíciles y polémicos en la enseñanza de L2, ya que se considera un obstáculo desde un punto de vista cultural y, por tanto, pedagógico. En cuanto a los modismos que incluyen colores en su articulación, estas expresiones difieren sustancialmente dependiendo de los orígenes que se arraigan en la cultura española o anglosajona. A este respecto, el eje principal de nuestro estudio serán ejemplos que oscilan desde algunos de los colores, como el blanco, negro y rojo hasta el azul, amarillo y verde. A través de la etimología podremos establecer lo esencial de estos modismos y ofrecer alguna sugerencia respecto a la enseñanza y el aprendizaje de los mismos. El uso de la etimología como herramienta didáctica en conjunto con ilustraciones, juegos, y ejercicios dinámicos ayudará a los estudiantes a entender estos modismos, reflejo de una cultura

Score Normalization for Keystroke Dynamics Biometrics

Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works. A. Morales, E. Luna-Garcia, J. Fierrez and J. Ortega-Garcia, "Score normalization for keystroke dynamics biometrics," Security Technology (ICCST), 2015 International Carnahan Conference on, Taipei, 2015, pp. 223-228. doi: 10.1109/CCST.2015.7389686This paper analyzes score normalization for keystroke dynamics authentication systems. Previous studies have shown that the performance of behavioral biometric recognition systems (e.g. voice and signature) can be largely improved with score normalization and target-dependent techniques. The main objective of this work is twofold: i) to analyze the effects of different thresholding techniques in 4 different keystroke dynamics recognition systems for real operational scenarios; and ii) to improve the performance of keystroke dynamics on the basis of target-dependent score normalization techniques. The experiments included in this work are worked out over the keystroke pattern of 114 users from two different publicly available databases. The experiments show that there is large room for improvements in keystroke dynamic systems. The results suggest that score normalization techniques can be used to improve the performance of keystroke dynamics systems in more than 20%. These results encourage researchers to explore this research line to further improve the performance of these systems in real operational environments.A.M. is supported by a post-doctoral Juan de la Cierva contract by the Spanish MECD (JCI-2012-12357). This work has been partially supported by projects: Bio-Shield (TEC2012-34881) from Spanish MINECO, BEAT (FP7-SEC-284989) from EU, CECABANK and Cátedra UAM Telefónica

Modelos idiomáticos y prescriptivismo. El caso del andaluz

El peso de una larga tradición de codificación del español ha influido en sus usos “ejemplares”, pues ha ido conformando un tipo de lengua, un estándar, asociado al concepto de “lengua culta”. Esto explica que dicho estándar actúe como superestrato nivelador de variedades internas de la lengua que convergen hacia él, al tiempo que ha servido también para marcar los usos regionales como disidencias (lo “no estándar” o “subestándar” suele, querámoslo o no, adquirir connotaciones asociadas a lo “incorrecto” o a lo “vulgar”). El carácter panhispánico, más en consonancia con un ideal de lengua pluricéntrico, de los nuevos procesos de codificación del español obliga a establecer nuevas relaciones y referencias de las variedades con respecto a lo codificado como estándar y esto puede plantear problemas prácticos. En el caso del andaluz, por ejemplo, con la pretensión de normalizar unos determinados usos regionales para que funcionen como “norma culta del andaluz”.The weight of a long encoding tradition of the Spanish language has influenced its “exemplary” uses: a type of language, a standard has been constructed, linked to the concept of "educated language”. This explains that such a standard acts as a “superstratus” which levels the internal varieties of the language that converge towards it. At the same time it has helped marking the regional uses as dissidences (the “non standard” or “substandard”, wether we want it or not, usually acquires connotations linked to the "incorrect" or"vulgar"). The panhispanic character of the new encoding processes of the Spanish language makes it compulsory to establish new relationships between the varieties and the pluricentrical standard, thus generating practical problems. In the case of Andalusian, for example, the problems arise from the intention of normalizing specific regional uses to make them work as “educated andalusian standard”.Les uses exemplaires de l’espagnol ont subi l’influence d’une longue tradition de codification parce qui’ils ont conformé une langue standard associé au concept de « langue culte ». Cet ainsi que cet standard peut agir comme un superstrate que produit la nivelage des variétés internes de la langue dans laquelle y convergent. Le standard a permit a son tour marquer certes uses régionaux. Puisque les derniers procès de codification de l’espagnol indiquent un idéal de langue dit pluricentrique et permettent parler de son caractère panhispanique, il faudra établir les nouvelles relations que se produisent parmi les différentes variétés et en plus, les codifications conçues comme standard. Á propos de ces problèmes, la variété de l’espagnol parlé au sud de l’Espagne (surtout dans l’Andalousie) c’est un cas très riche en beaucoup des aspects, que nous allons considérer

Acciones Cooperativas que Contribuyan a la Valoración Ambiental del Entorno Educativo

The present research has as general objective to promote cooperative actions that contribute to the environmental valuation of the educational environment in the Center of Initial Education Bolivariano "Cinqueña III" of the municipality Barinas state Barinas. The research model was qualitative, the method is action research. The key informants are five (5) teachers, twenty-two (22) parents and representatives; As well as twenty-six (26) boys and girls of the mentioned educational center, who were selected because they belong to the same context of study. The techniques that will be used to compile the information will be direct observation and for that reason an observation guide will be built for parents and representatives, for the teachers the interview will be used, for that reason an interview script will be designed to be Applied to them. In addition, the triangulation process will be taken as validity and reliability of the instruments, which implies that the data are collected from various points of view, allowing diverse comparisons to the same phenomenon, of a group at several moments; In this way increases the degree of validation of the results obtained.La presente investigación tiene como objetivo general promover acciones cooperativas que contribuyan a la valoración ambiental del entorno educativo en el Centro de Educación Inicial Bolivariano “Cinqueña III” del municipio Barinas estado Barinas. El modelo de la investigación fue cualitativo, el método es investigación acción. Los informantes claves son cinco (5) docentes, veintidós (22) padres y representantes; así como veintiséis (26) niños y niñas del mencionado centro educativo, los cuales fueron seleccionados porque pertenecen al mismo contexto de estudio. Las técnicas que se utilizarán para la recopilación de la información serán la observación directa y por ello se construirán una guía de observación dirigida a los padres y representantes, para los docentes se utilizará la entrevista, por tal razón se diseñará un guión de entrevista a ser aplicados a los mismos. Además, se tomará como validez y fiabilidad de los instrumentos el proceso de triangulación, el cual, implica que los datos se recojan desde variados puntos de vistas, que permitan comparaciones diversas a un mismo fenómeno, de un grupo en varios momentos; de esta manera aumenta el grado de validación de los resultados obtenidos, permitiendo llevar a la práctica los valores que amplían la conciencia ambiental en los infantes. Debido a esto se afirma que las acciones cooperativas es una estrategia de gran cuantía para fortalecer los valores ambientales

Financial Literacy and Financial Fragility in Mexico

Alfabetización Financiera y Fragilidad Financiera en MéxicoEl objetivo de esta investigación es analizar la relación entre la fragilidad financiera de los mexicanos y las siguientes variables: alfabetización financiera, ahorro, tenencia de activos, shocks financieros, educación financiera e inclusión financiera. También se identifican las características socioeconómicas y demográficas asociadas a la fragilidad financiera. Se utiliza un modelo Probit dicotómico estimado con datos de la Encuesta Nacional de Inclusión Financiera, 2021. Los resultados muestran que la alfabetización financiera, el ahorro (formal e informal), la educación financiera y la tenencia de activos se relacionan negativamente con la probabilidad de ser financieramente frágil. Los altos ingresos y la tenencia de ahorros formales e informales son los predictores más robustos de fragilidad financiera, con un efecto marginal de -9.40%, -5.34% y -5.27%, respectivamente. La probabilidad de ser financieramente frágil está relacionada con bajos ingresos y bajo nivel educativo, así como haber experimentado sobreendeudamiento en el último año. Los hallazgos pueden ser de utilidad para el diseño de estrategias de educación financiera que brinden a la población capacitación y de esta forma protección contra la disminución de ingresos.The objective of this research is to analyze the relationship between Mexicans’ financial fragility and the following variables: financial literacy, savings, assets owning, financial shocks, financial education, and financial inclusion. Likewise, socioeconomic and demographic characteristics associated with financial fragility are identified. The dichotomous Probit model is used for the analysis, estimated with data from the 2021 National Survey of Financial Inclusion. The results show that financial literacy, savings (formal and informal), financial education and possession of assets are negatively related to the probability of being financially fragile. High income and holding formal and informal savings are the most robust predictors of financial fragility, with a marginal effect of -9.40%, -5.34% and -5.27%, respectively. The probability of being considered financially fragile is related to low income and a low educational level, plus having overspent in the last year. The findings can be useful for financial education strategies design, to provide the population financial training in resources administration and protection against income decrease

Reducing human effort in engineering drawing validation.

Oil & Gas facilities are extremely huge and have complex industrial structures that are documented using thousands of printed sheets. During the last years, it has been a tendency to migrate these paper sheets towards a digital environment, with the final end of regenerating the original computer-aided design (CAD) projects which are useful to visualise and analyse these facilities through diverse computer applications. Usually, this was done manually by re-sketching each page using CAD applications. Nevertheless, some applications have appeared which generate the CAD document automatically given the paper sheets. In this last case, the final document is always verified by an engineer due to the need of being a zero-error process. Since the need of an engineer is absolutely accepted, we present a new method to reduce the required engineer working time. This is done by highlighting the digitised components in the CAD document that the automatic method could have incorrectly identified. Thus, the engineer is required only to look at these components. The experimental section shows our method achieves a reduction of approximately 40% of the human effort keeping a zero-error process

The distribution of the left behind individuals in EU countries: Central and Eastern countries vs Western countries

This paper examines the differences in the extent individuals are left behind across the EU between Central and Eastern European (CEE) –former countries with non-democratic regimes and centrally planned economies – and Western European (WE) countries. We adopt the perspective of the principle of ‘Leaving no one behind’ of the 2030 Sustainable Development Agenda, and consider a multidimensional setting, addressing three dimensions, namely income, material deprivation and work intensity . We compare both blocs of countries over the period 2007-2019 and observe a certain process of convergence between blocs as a result essentially of the decrease in the LB level in the CEE countries over the period analysed, reaching levels similar to those of the WE countries.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

How Much Are Individuals Left Behind in Central and Eastern Compared to Western European Countries? A Fuzzy Comparative Analysis.

This paper examines the extent to which individuals of Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries are left behind compared to individuals from Western European (WE) countries based on a fuzzy approach applied to a multidimensional setting. Three decades after transitions from non-democratic regimes to liberal democracy and from centrally planned economies to market economies of these countries, we observe a certain process of convergence between both blocs of countries over the period 2007-2019, essentially as a result of the decrease in the level individuals are left behind in the CEE countries, reaching similar levels to WE countries. Furthermore, we reveal significant disparities across CEE countries, ranging from Czech Republic, Slovenia and Slovakia, where citizens are less left behind, to Bulgaria, Lithuania and Romania, with higher levels of leaving behind. Differences in the degree individuals are left behind along the income distribution and by sociodemographic characteristics are also analysed, highlighting dissimilarities of lagging socioeconomic profiles across countries.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech