Proposal of a real time microservice architecture applied to business intelligence for the financial sector

This work proposes to i) generate a microservice, which allows the capture of massive transaction information from a relational database, ii) develop the extract, transform and load process (ETL), and iii) store proper and valuable information for decision-making in a non-relational database. The entire process also uses business intelligence mechanisms to convert data into information. Three phases were used for the implementation of this process: the first one, a mechanism within the relational database for change data capture (CDC)- Then, the second one, the design and implementation of a consumer in charge of listening to the messages, generate the transformation process and load it to the non-relational data-base, ensuring fault tolerance, reliability and scalability. Finally, through defined indicators, a control panel was designed, which offers operators and managers the necessary guidelines to generate decisions and measure the achievement of objectives and goals. The entire process, implemented through a visual and intuitive tool, allows converting the data into knowledge, which generates a competitive advantage in companies’ management and operational processes. The proposed integration, results in an architecture design that efficiently manages thousands of records in real-time, offering greater speed, performance, and optimization in searches of large volumes of data for effective decision-making. © 2022, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.Quit

Ensuring traceability and Orchestration in the food supply chain

Ensure traceability and orchestration of the participants in the food supply chain can help improve the food production and reduce the distribution of unsafe or low-quality products. This article provides some insights about the design of a high-level architecture to support a semantic blockchain platform that ensures traceability and orchestration of the food systems. The design involves two layers that cover: (a) the decentralized orchestration of the participants, (b) the semantic modeling of the data and processes involved, and (c) the storage and integrity of the data. To deal with the platform design, it is analyzed the operation and attributes of the food supply chain management and it is discussed how the combination of Semantic and Blockchain technologies can address the platform features.Quit

Digital repositories and linked data: lessons learned and challenges

Los repositorios digitales han sido utilizados por Universidades y Bibliotecas para almacenar sus contenidos bibliográficos, científicos y / o institucionales, y luego poner a disposición del público sus metadatos correspondientes en la web y a través del protocolo OAI-PMH. Sin embargo, estos metadatos no son lo suficientemente descriptivos para que un documento sea fácilmente detectable. Si bien el surgimiento de las tecnologías de Web Semántica ha suscitado el interés de los proveedores de Repositorios Digitales por publicar y enriquecer su contenido utilizando tecnologías de Datos Vinculados (LD), esas instituciones han utilizado enfoques de generación diferente y, en ciertos casos, soluciones ad-hoc para resolver usos particulares. casos, pero ninguno de ellos ha realizado una comparación entre los enfoques existentes para demostrar cuál es la mejor solución antes de su aplicación. Para abordar esta pregunta, Hemos realizado un estudio de referencia que compara dos enfoques de generación de uso común y también describe nuestra experiencia, lecciones aprendidas y desafíos encontrados durante el proceso de publicación de un repositorio digital DSpace como LD. Los resultados muestran que el método sencillo para extraer datos de un repositorio digital es a través del protocolo estándar OAI-PMH, cuyo rendimiento en términos de tiempo de ejecución es mucho más corto que el enfoque de base de datos, mientras que las tareas adicionales de limpieza de datos son mínimas. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Los resultados muestran que el método sencillo para extraer datos de un repositorio digital es a través del protocolo estándar OAI-PMH, cuyo rendimiento en términos de tiempo de ejecución es mucho más corto que el enfoque de base de datos, mientras que las tareas adicionales de limpieza de datos son mínimas. © 2019, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Los resultados muestran que el método sencillo para extraer datos de un repositorio digital es a través del protocolo estándar OAI-PMH, cuyo rendimiento en términos de tiempo de ejecución es mucho más corto que el enfoque de base de datos, mientras que las tareas adicionales de limpieza de datos son mínimas.Digital repositories have been used by Universities and Libraries to store their bibliographic, scientific, and/or institutional contents, and then make their corresponding metadata publicly available to the web and through the OAI-PMH protocol. However, such metadata is not descriptive enough for a document to be easily discoverable. Even though the emergence of Semantic Web technologies have produced the interest of Digital Repository providers to publish and enrich their content using Linked Data (LD) technologies, those institutions have used different generation approaches, and in certain cases ad-hoc solutions to solve particular use cases, but none of them has performed a comparison between existing approaches in order to demonstrate which one is the best solution prior to its application. In order to address this question, we have performed a benchmark study that compares two commonly used generation approaches, and also describes our experience, lessons learned and challenges found during the process of publishing a DSpace digital repository as LD. Results show that the straightforward method for extracting data from a digital repository is through the standard OAI-PMH protocol, whose performance in terms of execution time is much shorter than the database approach, while additional data cleaning tasks are minimal.Cayo Santa Marí

Current challenges of interactive digital television

Este artículo presenta una descripción general de alto nivel de los desafíos actuales que implica la televisión digital interactiva debido a los cambios en el comportamiento del usuario bajo la experiencia actual de ver televisión. Presentamos una breve revisión de los múltiples trabajos encontrados en la literatura que abordan problemas específicos que surgen al convertir un entorno de observación única en una experiencia interactiva. Además, hemos previsto una arquitectura de sistema que evidencia cómo los dispositivos que acompañan la segunda pantalla, como los teléfonos móviles o las tabletas, pueden utilizarse para facilitar el proceso de interactividad desde los puntos de vista técnico y operativo. En particular, esta arquitectura admite aplicaciones interactivas innovadoras para el reconocimiento automático de anuncios utilizando un dispositivo de segunda pantalla como una interfaz de usuario amigable. © 2017 IEEE.This article presents a high level overview of the current challenges that Interactive Digital Television involves due to the changes in user's behaviour under the current TV watching experience. We present a short review of multiple works found in the literature which have addressed specific issues that arise on converting an only-watching setting onto an interactive experience. Moreover, we have envisioned a system architecture that evidence how second screen accompanying devices, such as mobile phones or tablets, can be used to facilitate the interactivity process from the technical and operative viewpoints. In particular, this architecture supports innovative interactive applications for automatic ad recognition utilizing a second screen device as a friendly user interface.Salina

Estudio y selección de una arquitectura orientada a servicios (SOA) que permita la integración de sistemas informáticos legados

El presente trabajo, tiene por objeto el an ́alisis del marco tecnol ́ogico relacionado con la integraci ́on de sistemas inform ́aticos legados, adem ́as de esto, se revisaran algunas t ́ecnicas para la exposici ́on de servicios, es- to con objetivo de establecer una arquitectura orientada a servicios que puede ser implementada en el Programa para el Manejo del Agua y Suelo (Promas), y que pueda permitir la integraci ́on a la misma de varios sis- temas inform ́aticos que han sido creados y que se encuentran todav ́ıa en funcionamiento. Para poder cumplir este objetivo, es necesario el an ́ali- sis de los principales sistemas inform ́aticos para poder extraer las carac- ter ́ısticas principales y agruparlos de acuerdo a estas, una vez realizada esta agrupaci ́on es necesario tambi ́en el an ́alisis de algunas de las t ́ecnicas que existen actualmente para poder llevar a cabo esta integraci ́on. Una vezidentificadasestast ́ecnicas,esnecesario tambi ́enelestablecimientodeuna metodolog ́ıa a seguir para la exposici ́on de futuros servicios, para esto se ha visto necesario la implementaci ́on de una arquitectura piloto que sea capaz de soportar algunos de los servicios que son considerados como vita- les en las actividades diarias del Programa. Al final de la implementaci ́on del mencionado piloto, se podr ́a disponer de una arquitectura orientada a servicios que sea capaz de incluir nuevos requerimientos y adaptarse f ́acilmente a los cambios tecnol ́ogicos que puedan presentarse.El presente trabajo, tiene por objeto el an ́alisis del marco tecnol ́ogico relacionado con la integraci ́on de sistemas inform ́aticos legados, adem ́as de esto, se revisaran algunas t ́ecnicas para la exposici ́on de servicios, es- to con objetivo de establecer una arquitectura orientada a servicios que puede ser implementada en el Programa para el Manejo del Agua y Suelo (Promas), y que pueda permitir la integraci ́on a la misma de varios sis- temas inform ́aticos que han sido creados y que se encuentran todav ́ıa en funcionamiento. Para poder cumplir este objetivo, es necesario el an ́ali- sis de los principales sistemas inform ́aticos para poder extraer las carac- ter ́ısticas principales y agruparlos de acuerdo a estas, una vez realizada esta agrupaci ́on es necesario tambi ́en el an ́alisis de algunas de las t ́ecnicas que existen actualmente para poder llevar a cabo esta integraci ́on. Una vezidentificadasestast ́ecnicas,esnecesario tambi ́enelestablecimientodeuna metodolog ́ıa a seguir para la exposici ́on de futuros servicios, para esto se ha visto necesario la implementaci ́on de una arquitectura piloto que sea capaz de soportar algunos de los servicios que son considerados como vita- les en las actividades diarias del Programa. Al final de la implementaci ́on del mencionado piloto, se podr ́a disponer de una arquitectura orientada a servicios que sea capaz de incluir nuevos requerimientos y adaptarse f ́acilmente a los cambios tecnol ́ogicos que puedan presentarse

Hacia una plataforma de aprendizaje electrónico basada en elementos visuales interactivos

El enfoque tradicional de las plataformas de e-learning basadas en sistemas de gestión del aprendizaje ha permitido que la educación sea accesible para un grupo más amplio de personas; sin embargo, su modelo pedagógico basado en la promoción de un enfoque transmisivo ha provocado que los resultados de aprendizaje no logren el éxito de su contraparte tradicional. Hay una desconexión entre lo que sucede en el aula física y lo que sucede cuando los estudiantes toman una clase en línea. La experiencia generalmente pasa de interactiva a estática. En este trabajo, proponemos el diseño de una plataforma interactiva de aprendizaje electrónico que utilice medios dinámicos como videos, para mejorar la experiencia interactiva de los estudiantes. Con este fin, se estudian las principales limitaciones de los sistemas actuales y se proponen diferentes soluciones para mitigar los problemas. Las principales contribuciones de este trabajo son, en primer lugar, establecer un conjunto de desafíos que las plataformas interactivas de aprendizaje electrónico deben soportar, y en segundo lugar, la descripción de los procesos necesarios para implementar la plataforma.The traditional approach of e-learning platforms based on learning management systems has allowed education to be accessible to a broader group of people; however, their pedagogical model based on promoting a transmissive approach has caused learning outcomes do not achieve the success of their traditional counterpart. There is a disconnection between what happens in the physical classroom and what happens when students take an online class. The experience usually goes from interactive to static.In this work, we propose the design of an interactive e-learning platform that makes use of dynamic media such as videos, to improve the interactive experience of students. To this end, the main limitations of current systems are studied and different solutions are proposed to mitigate the problems. The main contributions of this work are, first, to establish a set of challenges that interactive e-learning platforms should support, and second, the description of the necessary processes to implement the platform.Santiag

A systematic literature review on composition of microservices through the use of semantic annotations: solutions and techniques

The aim of semantic web is to provide meaning to data shared by a network, therefore making it readable by humans and computer applications. The objective of this is to give the information and services a well-defined meaning by tagging web content with machine processable descriptions. Within the semantic web there are annotations, which relate data and classes offering a structured data. In addition, an ontology is an essential part of the semantic web, because it provides a vocabulary of terms and includes properties between concepts. There are several proposals over semantic annotations included in primary studies, but it is necessary to condense them in a secondary study, hence this paper presents a systematic literature review about the composition of microservices through the use of semantic annotations. This allows developers to determine which techniques are the most used in the semantic web. In order to perform this secondary study, the Kitchenham's methodology was applied. After its application, 68 articles were firstly obtained, once the inclusion and exclusion criteria was applied, only 39 studies were selected, which include automatic and manual review.The aim of semantic web is to provide meaning to data shared by a network, therefore making it readable by humans and computer applications. The objective of this is to give the information and services a well-defined meaning by tagging web content with machine processable descriptions. Within the semantic web there are annotations, which relate data and classes offering a structured data. In addition, an ontology is an essential part of the semantic web, because it provides a vocabulary of terms and includes properties between concepts. There are several proposals over semantic annotations included in primary studies, but it is necessary to condense them in a secondary study, hence this paper presents a systematic literature review about the composition of microservices through the use of semantic annotations. This allows developers to determine which techniques are the most used in the semantic web. In order to perform this secondary study, the Kitchenham's methodology was applied. After its application, 68 articles were firstly obtained, once the inclusion and exclusion criteria was applied, only 39 studies were selected, which include automatic and manual review.Quit

Food purchase and consumption after confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic: adult's perpections in Cuenca, Ecuador

Introducción: La pandemia por COVID-19 conmocionó a la población mundial provocando cambios en los hábitos alimentarios, compra y consumo de alimentos, actividad física, estado emocional, entre otros, debido al impacto económico y a las medidas aplicadas para evitar el contagio del virus. Objetivo: Analizar la percepción de adultos sobre la compra, consumo y preparación de los alimentos practicados después del confinamiento por la pandemia de COVID-19. Métodos: Se realizó un estudio cualitativo exploratorio. Participaron 20 adultos del área urbana y rural de Cuenca. Se realizaron entrevistas semiestructuradas hasta la saturación de la información. Se transcribieron textualmente y se analizaron manualmente. Resultados: La compra y consumo de alimentos tuvo cambios a partir del confinamiento por la pandemia del COVID-19. Todos los participantes indicaron que tuvieron dificultades para acceder a los alimentos debido a su bajo poder adquisitivo. Los participantes del área rural tuvieron acceso a alimentos naturales de sus cultivos. Conclusiones: Los participantes en general tuvieron dificultades para acceder a alimentos con buena calidad nutricional, lo cual podría empeorar la situación de inseguridad alimentaria que existía en el Ecuador antes de la pandemia. Es necesario realizar más estudios que permitan generar estrategias enfocadas en mejorar la situación alimentaria de la población a nivel local y nacional.lntroduction: The COVID-19 pandemic shocked the world population causing changes in eating habits, food purchase and consumption, physical activity, emotional state, among others, due to the economic impact and the measures applied to prevent the virus's spread. Objective: To analyze the adult's perception about the food purchase, consumption, and preparation, practiced after the confinement by the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: An exploratory qualitative study was carried out. Twenty adults from the urban and rural areas of Cuenca participated. Semi-structured interviews were conducted until saturation. They were transcribed verbatim and analyzed manually. Results: Food purchase and consumption have changed from the confinement due to the COVID-19 pandemic. AII participants indicated that they had difficulty accessing food due to their low purchasing power. Participants from rural areas had access to natural foods of their own crops. Conclusions: The participants in general had difficulties accessing food with good nutritional quality, which could worsen the situation of food insecurity that existed in Ecuador befare the Pandemic. More studies are necessary to generate strategies focused on improving the food situation of the population at the local and national levels

A general process for the semantic annotation and enrichment of electronic program guides

Electronic Program Guides (EPGs) are usual resources aimed to inform the audience about the programming being transmitted by TV stations and cable/satellite TV providers. However, they only provide basic metadata about the TV programs, while users may want to obtain additional information related to the content they are currently watching. This paper proposes a general process for the semantic annotation and subsequent enrichment of EPGs using external knowledge bases and natural language processing techniques with the aim to tackle the lack of immediate availability of related information about TV programs. Additionally, we define an evaluation approach based on a distributed representation of words that can enable TV content providers to verify the effectiveness of the system and perform an automatic execution of the enrichment process. We test our proposal using a real-world dataset and demonstrate its effectiveness by using different knowledge bases, word representation models and similarity measures. Results showed that DBpedia and Google Knowledge Graph knowledge bases return the most relevant content during the enrichment process, while word2vec and fasttext models with Words Mover’s Distance as similarity function can be combined to validate the effectiveness of the retrieval task.Electronic Program Guides (EPGs) are usual resources aimed to inform the audience about the programming being transmitted by TV stations and cable/satellite TV providers. However, they only provide basic metadata about the TV programs, while users may want to obtain additional information related to the content they are currently watching. This paper proposes a general process for the semantic annotation and subsequent enrichment of EPGs using external knowledge bases and natural language processing techniques with the aim to tackle the lack of immediate availability of related information about TV programs. Additionally, we define an evaluation approach based on a distributed representation of words that can enable TV content providers to verify the effectiveness of the system and perform an automatic execution of the enrichment process. We test our proposal using a real-world dataset and demonstrate its effectiveness by using different knowledge bases, word representation models and similarity measures. Results showed that DBpedia and Google Knowledge Graph knowledge bases return the most relevant content during the enrichment process, while word2vec and fasttext models with Words Mover’s Distance as similarity function can be combined to validate the effectiveness of the retrieval task.Cayo Santa Marí

Una ontología para representar la información geográfica en el dominio hídrico ecuatoriano

In spite of the existing efforts for the creation of semantic models that ensure the interoperability in the water domain, the greater part of these proposals focus on solve specific needs, especially regarding the regulations that the geographic information has to fulfil in a territory or community. To tackle this need, in this work we propose the creation of an ontology that describes the basic concepts, based on existing semantic models of the community and that incorporate the representation of water resources applied to the Ecuadorian context considering the existing regulations. The data set instantiated in the ontological model come from of different Ecuadorian institutions. The modeling result is an ontological network conformed by a collection of ontologies joined through relations between them. All the process involved i) the selection and execution of activities proposed by the methodology NeOn for the construction of the ontology model, ii) the implementation using the Web Ontology Language (OWL), and iii) the documentation of the ontological model. We conclude that the created ontology, named hydrOntologyEC provides amore flexible platform to facilitate the interoperability of the agencies involved in the water domain.La Haban