From nominal to higher-order rewriting and back again

We present a translation function from nominal rewriting systems (NRSs) to combinatory reduction systems (CRSs), transforming closed nominal rules and ground nominal terms to CRSs rules and terms, respectively, while preserving the rewriting relation. We also provide a reduction-preserving translation in the other direction, from CRSs to NRSs, improving over a previously defined translation. These tools, together with existing translations between CRSs and other higher-order rewriting formalisms, open up the path for a transfer of results between higher-order and nominal rewriting. In particular, techniques and properties of the rewriting relation, such as termination, can be exported from one formalism to the other.Comment: 41 pages, journa

Deep Neural Networks for the Recognition and Classification of Heart Murmurs Using Neuromorphic Auditory Sensors

Auscultation is one of the most used techniques for detecting cardiovascular diseases, which is one of the main causes of death in the world. Heart murmurs are the most common abnormal finding when a patient visits the physician for auscultation. These heart sounds can either be innocent, which are harmless, or abnormal, which may be a sign of a more serious heart condition. However, the accuracy rate of primary care physicians and expert cardiologists when auscultating is not good enough to avoid most of both type-I (healthy patients are sent for echocardiogram) and type-II (pathological patients are sent home without medication or treatment) errors made. In this paper, the authors present a novel convolutional neural network based tool for classifying between healthy people and pathological patients using a neuromorphic auditory sensor for FPGA that is able to decompose the audio into frequency bands in real time. For this purpose, different networks have been trained with the heart murmur information contained in heart sound recordings obtained from nine different heart sound databases sourced from multiple research groups. These samples are segmented and preprocessed using the neuromorphic auditory sensor to decompose their audio information into frequency bands and, after that, sonogram images with the same size are generated. These images have been used to train and test different convolutional neural network architectures. The best results have been obtained with a modified version of the AlexNet model, achieving 97% accuracy (specificity: 95.12%, sensitivity: 93.20%, PhysioNet/CinC Challenge 2016 score: 0.9416). This tool could aid cardiologists and primary care physicians in the auscultation process, improving the decision making task and reducing type-I and type-II errors.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-

NAVIS: Neuromorphic Auditory VISualizer Tool

This software presents diverse utilities to perform the first post-processing layer taking the neuromorphic auditory sensors (NAS) information. The used NAS implements in FPGA a cascade filters architecture, imitating the behavior of the basilar membrane and inner hair cells and working with the sound information decomposed into its frequency components as spike streams. The well-known neuromorphic hardware interface Address-Event-Representation (AER) is used to propagate auditory information out of the NAS, emulating the auditory vestibular nerve. Using the information packetized into aedat files, which are generated through the jAER software plus an AER to USB computer interface, NAVIS implements a set of graphs that allows to represent the auditory information as cochleograms, histograms, sonograms, etc. It can also split the auditory information into different sets depending on the activity level of the spike streams. The main contribution of this software tool is that it allows complex audio post-processing treatments and representations, which is a novelty for spike-based systems in the neuromorphic community and it will help neuromorphic engineers to build sets for training spiking neural networks (SNN).Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-0

Stereo Matching in Address-Event-Representation (AER) Bio-Inspired Binocular Systems in a Field-Programmable Gate Array (FPGA)

In stereo-vision processing, the image-matching step is essential for results, although it involves a very high computational cost. Moreover, the more information is processed, the more time is spent by the matching algorithm, and the more ine cient it is. Spike-based processing is a relatively new approach that implements processing methods by manipulating spikes one by one at the time they are transmitted, like a human brain. The mammal nervous system can solve much more complex problems, such as visual recognition by manipulating neuron spikes. The spike-based philosophy for visual information processing based on the neuro-inspired address-event-representation (AER) is currently achieving very high performance. The aim of this work was to study the viability of a matching mechanism in stereo-vision systems, using AER codification and its implementation in a field-programmable gate array (FPGA). Some studies have been done before in an AER system with monitored data using a computer; however, this kind of mechanism has not been implemented directly on hardware. To this end, an epipolar geometry basis applied to AER systems was studied and implemented, with other restrictions, in order to achieve good results in a real-time scenario. The results and conclusions are shown, and the viability of its implementation is proven.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-

Diseño de una instalación de energía solar térmica a baja temperatura en un albergue juvenil

El siguiente trabajo de fin de grado trata el estudio y el diseño de una instalación de energía solar térmica para la producción de agua caliente sanitaria en un albergue juvenil, situado en el sevillano barrio de San Jerónimo, al norte de la ciudad. El documento está dividido en cinco partes: Memoria Descriptiva, Memoria de Cálculo, Pliego de Condiciones Técnicas, Mediciones y Presupuesto, y, por último, Planos. Para calcular la contribución solar mínima necesaria, se ha hecho uso de la herramienta CHEQ4, desarrollada por el IDAE y la ASIT. Se han elaborado diversas curvas comparando distintos factores para obtener la configuración más beneficiosa para la instalación. Todos y cada uno de los componentes que forman parte de la instalación han sido dimensionados respetando la normativa vigente.Universidad de Sevilla. Grado en Ingeniería de las Tecnologías Industriale

Introduction

Word-formation is the branch of linguistics that studies the nature and circumstances surrounding the coining of new complex lexemes. This field of research has been a source of fascination to scholars for centuries – descriptions regarding the mechanisms of lexical innovation of Classical Sanskrit existed already in the 4th century BCE. A number of controversial issues have traditionally underlain the discipline and, despite the efforts directed at solving them, many remain a matter of debate to the present day. As happened in other areas of linguistics, the 20th century witnessed a revolution in word-formation, thanks to Saussure’s writings and to monographs like Chomsky (1957), Dokulil (1962) and Marchand (1969). If one had to name a distinctive attribute of modern word-formation, it would probably be the non-predominance of a single linguistic theory.This volume was conceived as a reflection of the current trends in word-formation, and has therefore tried to embrace a variety of theoretical frameworks, viewpoints and languages.

El impacto de los proyectos institucionales de evaluación educativa en España = The impact of institutional programmes of educational assessment in Spain

273 p.El objeto de estudio de esta Tesis Doctoral se centra en conocer si el programa PISA (Programme of International Student Assessment) cumple sus fines: por una parte, que la calidad y riqueza de sus datos constituyan base para la investigación; y, por otra, fomentar el análisis destinado a mejoras en el campo de la educación. Esta investigación abarca los catorce años de vigencia del programa PISA en España. Para ello, la investigación se ha llevado a cabo en dos fases: En primer lugar, se ha analizado el impacto de PISA en las publicaciones académicas internacionales para verificar si el programa constituye base para la investigación. En esta primera fase, se llevó a cabo un análisis bibliométrico de las publicaciones incluidas en las bases de datos de Eric, EBSCOhost y el ISI Web of Knowledge, de 2002 a 2010. La investigación se centró en cuatro cuestiones principales: quiénes publican sobre PISA en las revistas científicas, en qué revistas se ha publicado, cómo ha sido la evolución de estas publicaciones y cuáles han sido los principales temas tratados. En segundo lugar, se ha analizado el impacto en la prensa escrita española para comprobar si PISA contribuye a un debate público en los medios de comunicación para la mejora de las políticas educativas. La metodología utilizada fue el análisis cuantitativo y de contenido de los artículos publicados en cuatro periódicos nacionales: El Mundo, El País, ABC y La Vanguardia, de 2000 a 2014 (n=2634). El estudio se centró en cuatro aspectos: la evolución en la publicación de artículos en prensa, la relación de los artículos con temas educativos, si estos artículos analizan informes de resultados o sólo citan PISA en temas educativos y qué competencias se mencionan. Por una parte, el estudio concluye que PISA ha tenido un impacto considerable en la investigación científica, que se refleja principalmente por autores universitarios de las áreas de la educación y de las ciencias sociales que analizan el desempeño del estudiante. La evolución desde 2007 parece indicar que se publicarán más artículos científicos en los próximos años a través de la iniciativa de los investigadores (en lugar de los consejos editoriales), incluso de otras áreas científicas, lo que aumentará el número de temas de análisis. Por otra parte, este estudio también concluye que la mayor parte de la información publicada en la prensa española sobre PISA es simplista y superficial. La producción de artículos fue aumentando hasta el año 2008 y a partir de ese momento se ha ido observando una disminución. A lo largo de los ciclos PISA, el mayor volumen de artículos siempre se concentra en el año posterior a la publicación de un informe de resultados por parte de la OCDE. Los artículos publicados en la prensa de nuestro país, son mayoritariamente educativos, pero hemos observado un porcentaje elevado de artículos que no tienen vinculación con temas educativos, siendo su principal temática la política general. Además, se ha comprobado que la competencia más mencionada a lo largo del ciclo, no siempre coincide con la tratada prioritariamente en PISA durante ese cicl

Sound Recognition System Using Spiking and MLP Neural Networks

In this paper, we explore the capabilities of a sound classification system that combines a Neuromorphic Auditory System for feature extraction and an artificial neural network for classification. Two models of neural network have been used: Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network and Spiking Neural Network. To compare their accuracies, both networks have been developed and trained to recognize pure tones in presence of white noise. The spiking neural network has been implemented in a FPGA device. The neuromorphic auditory system that is used in this work produces a form of representation that is analogous to the spike outputs of the biological cochlea. Both systems are able to distinguish the different sounds even in the presence of white noise. The recognition system based in a spiking neural networks has better accuracy, above 91 %, even when the sound has white noise with the same power.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-02Junta de Andalucía P12-TIC-130

A Sensor Fusion Horse Gait Classification by a Spiking Neural Network on SpiNNaker

The study and monitoring of the behavior of wildlife has always been a subject of great interest. Although many systems can track animal positions using GPS systems, the behavior classification is not a common task. For this work, a multi-sensory wearable device has been designed and implemented to be used in the Doñana National Park in order to control and monitor wild and semiwild life animals. The data obtained with these sensors is processed using a Spiking Neural Network (SNN), with Address-Event-Representation (AER) coding, and it is classified between some fixed activity behaviors. This works presents the full infrastructure deployed in Doñana to collect the data, the wearable device, the SNN implementation in SpiNNaker and the classification results.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-02Junta de Andalucía P12-TIC-130

Live Demonstration: On the distance estimation of moving targets with a Stereo-Vision AER system

Distance calculation is always one of the most important goals in a digital stereoscopic vision system. In an AER system this goal is very important too, but it cannot be calculated as accurately as we would like. This demonstration shows a first approximation in this field, using a disparity algorithm between both retinas. The system can make a distance approach about a moving object, more specifically, a qualitative estimation. Taking into account the stereo vision system features, the previous retina positioning and the very important Hold&Fire building block, we are able to make a correlation between the spike rate of the disparity and the distance.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TEC2009-10639-C04-0