Fiber Optic Acoustic Sensing to Understand and Affect the Rhythm of the Cities: Proof-of-Concept to Create Data-Driven Urban Mobility Models

In the framework of massive sensing and smart sustainable cities, this work presents an urban distributed acoustic sensing testbed in the vicinity of the School of Technology and Telecommunication Engineering of the University of Granada, Spain. After positioning the sensing technology and the state of the art of similar existing approaches, the results of the monitoring experiment are described. Details of the sensing scenario, basic types of events automatically distinguishable, initial noise removal actions and frequency and signal complexity analysis are provided. The experiment, used as a proof-of-concept, shows the enormous potential of the sensing technology to generate data-driven urban mobility models. In order to support this fact, examples of preliminary density of traffic analysis and average speed calculation for buses, cars and pedestrians in the testbed’s neighborhood are exposed, together with the accidental presence of a local earthquake. Challenges, benefits and future research directions of this sensing technology are pointed out.B-TIC-542-UGR20 funded by “Consejería de Universidad, Investigación e Innovacción de la Junta de AndalucíaERDF A way of making Europ

Nuevas formas de ejercicio del voto: la escisión entre la propiedad de las acciones y los derechos de voto

La intensidad del derecho del voto se ha determinado tradicionalmente en proporción a la aportación del socio a la sociedad. Además de las posibles excepciones a este principio previstas por el Derecho de sociedades, los accionistas gracias al recurso a derivados equity y al préstamo de valores han conseguido crear disociaciones de facto que reciben el nombre de decoupling. Los accionistas pueden obtener una influencia relevante sin soportar el riesgo de mercado asociado a su participación (empty voting) o un inversor puede replicar una posición larga en acciones hasta conseguir determinar el sentido del voto de un accionista de manera informal sin llegar a ser el propietario de las mismas (hidden morphable ownership). El objeto de esta tesis es el examen de la incidencia que el uso cualificado de estos contratos en la toma de decisiones en la junta general. En consecuencia, ha sido necesario afrontar el estudio de los elementos de los contratos sobre acciones, sus usos y los posibles abusos del decoupling en las sociedades afectas, si se cuenta con la suficiente transparencia para detectar futuras estrategias y las posibles lagunas de nuestro ordenamiento en relación con la prevención y sanción de las nuevas disociaciones. A lo largo de la investigación se ha aplicado la aplicación la metodología basada en la Ciencia del Derecho que nos ha permitido finalmente ofrecer unas propuestas con el fin de prevenir y reducir los efectos adversos y mantener la vertiente positiva de las nuevas formas de voto

Toward Knowledge Extraction in Classification of Volcano-Seismic Events: Visualizing Hidden States in Recurrent Neural Networks

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank the Instituto Andaluz de Geofísica for providing us with the Decepction Island dataset and invaluable geophysical insight.Understanding how deep hierarchical models build their knowledge is a key issue in the usage of artificial intelligence to interpret the reality behind data. Depending on the discipline and models used, such knowledge may be represented in ways that are more or less intelligible for humans, limiting further improvements on the performance of the existing models. In order to delve into the characterization and modeling of volcano-seismic signals, this article emphasizes the idea of deciphering what and how recurrent neural networks (RNNs) model, and how this knowledge can be used to improve data interpretation.The key to accomplishing these objectives is both analyzing the hidden state dynamics associated with their hidden units as well as pruning/trimming based on the specialization of neurons. In this article, we process, analyze, and visualize the hidden states activation maps of two RNN architectures when managing different types of volcano-seismic events. As a result, the class-dependent discriminative behavior of most active neurons is analyzed, thereby increasing the comprehension of the detection and classification tasks. Arepresentative dataset fromthe deception island volcano (Antarctica), containing volcano-tectonic earthquakes, long period events, volcanic tremors, and hybrid events, is used to train the models. Experimental analysis shows how neural activity and its associated specialization skills change depending on the architecture chosen and the type of event analyzed.MINECO under Grant PID2019-106260GB-I00 FEMALEFEDER/Junta de Andalucia-Consejería de Economía y Conocimiento/ Proyecto A-TIC-215- UGR18

Políticas de inclusão digital no México. Um olhar sobre o estado de Oaxaca

El objetivo de este artículo es presentar el análisis de dos políticas de inclusión digital desplegadas en el estado de Oaxaca, México, en el período 2013-2018. Estas políticas son los sitios públicos de conectividad del Programa México Conectado y el Centro de Inclusión Digital (CID), orientado al desarrollo de habilidades digitales. En ambos casos, los resultados muestran divergencias significativas respecto a los objetivos de las políticas. En los sitios públicos la disponibilidad de tecnologías de la información y la comunicación y el acceso a internet son deficientes; mientras que el CID cuenta con equipamiento y personal capacitado para impulsar el desarrollo de habilidades digitales, aunque su contribución es marginal debido a la poca cobertura que provee.The objective of this article is to present the analysis of two digital inclusion policies deployed in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico in the period 2013-2018. These policies are the public connectivity sites of the México Conectado Program and the Center for Digital Inclusion (CID) aimed at the development of digital skills. In both cases, the results show significant divergences with respect to the objectives of the policies. In public sites, information and communication technologies availability and internet access are deficient; while the CID has equipment and trained personnel to promote the development of digital skills; however, its contribution is marginal due to the little coverage it provides.O objetivo deste artigo é apresentar a análise de duas políticas de inclusão digital implantadas no estado de Oaxaca, México, no período 2013-2018. Essas políticas são os sites públicos de conectividade do Programa México Conectado e o Centro de Inclusão Digital (CID) voltados para o desenvolvimento de habilidades digitais. Em ambos casos, lós resultados mostram divergências significativas respeito a lós objetivos de lãs políticas. Nos sites públicos disponibilidade de tecnologia da informação e comunicação e acesso à internet são deficientes; enquanto o CID dispõe de equipamentos e pessoal capacitado para promover o desenvolvimento de competências digitais; no entanto, sua contribuição é marginal devido à pouca cobertura que oferece

Cost Optimisation for Minimizing the Visual Impact of Ornamental Stone Quarrying. A Case Study in Murcia Region

Quarrying of ornamental stone has adverse effects that are both visual and environmental. This paper aims to develop a methodology for minimising the costs associated with reducing the visual impact of ornamental stone quarrying. This study uses digital topographical maps of the study zone and a GPS and GIS application to calculate the extent of the area affected by quarrying activities for each altitude designated in the work plan and to calculate the extent of the potential visual impact. The results obtained applying the proposed methodology for the selected area suggested that the potential visual impact is minimal for an altitude of 520 metres, this being the optimal point for the observer. When altitude increases, the potential visual impact increases and the optimal point for the observer diminishes until the highest impact altitude (740 m) is readied. The optimal point that the exploitation should reach is that at which the values of the diagram generated by the (%) area of potential visual impact and area of exploitation (%) intersect. The methodology allows the optimal altitude to be determined for mining exploitations and helps assess the viability of a given exploitation from an environmental point of view

Monitoring salinization processes in soils by using a chemical degradation indicator

The main aim of this work is to progress in the study of desertification processes in Mediterranean regions in the framework of DESERTNET project by means of the execution of pilot studies and development of evaluation models. This paper shows the results of an investigation on the degradation processes of soils carried out in the Murcia Region (SE, Spain). Specifically, salinization problems in Murcia Region were evaluated by means of two chemical degradation indicators, salinization state and salinization rate. We define chemical degradation indicator as the representative value of an observed chemical phenomenon in soil which produce its degradation. Chemical degradation indicators were calculated in order to simplify the interpretation of all the complex processes involved in environmental monitoring. The results obtained showed that in some areas an increase in salinization processes is taking place. On the other hand, there are only a few points with high a risk of salinization, obtaining similar results in the two periods of time studied

Artificial Intelligence and Dimensionality Reduction: Tools for Approaching Future Communications

ACKNOWLEDGMENT The authors would like to thank the Fraunhofer-Heinrich- Hertz-Institut for acquiring and sharing the data associated to the rooftop and auditorium communication scenarios, the NextG Channel Model Alliance for creating a space to share public databases of propagation measurements, José Francisco Cortés-Gómez for the graphical support, Carmelo García-García for his help in the measurements acquisition, and Sohrab Vafa, Pablo Padilla and Francisco Luna-Valero for their valuable comments.This article presents a novel application of the t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) clustering algorithm to the telecommunication field. t-SNE is a dimensionality reduction algorithm that allows the visualization of large dataset into a 2D plot. We present the applicability of this algorithm in a communication channel dataset formed by several scenarios (anechoic, reverberation, indoor and outdoor), and by using six channel features. Applying this artificial intelligence (AI) technique, we are able to separate different environments into several clusters allowing a clear visualization of the scenarios. Throughout the article, it is proved that t-SNE has the ability to cluster into several subclasses, obtaining internal classifications within the scenarios themselves. t-SNE comparison with different dimensionality reduction techniques (PCA, Isomap) is also provided throughout the paper. Furthermore, post-processing techniques are used to modify communication scenarios, recreating a real communication scenario from measurements acquired in an anechoic chamber. The dimensionality reduction and classification by using t-SNE and Variational AutoEncoders show good performance distinguishing between the recreation and the real communication scenario. The combination of these two techniques opens up the possibility for new scenario recreations for future mobile communications. This work shows the potential of AI as a powerful tool for clustering, classification and generation of new 5G propagation scenarios.Spanish Program of Research, Development, and Innovation under Project RTI2018-102002-A-I00Junta de Andalucía under Project B-TIC-402-UGR18 and Project P18.RT.4830Ministerio de Universidades, Gobierno de España under Predoctoral Grant FPU19/0125

Percepciones que tienen los docentes del SENA -Centro de Comercio - Regional Antioquia sobre el uso de las TIC en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje

Maestría en Educación y Desarrollo Humano, Facultad de Ciencias Sociales y Humanas.La presente investigación titulada “Percepciones que tienen los docentes del Sena Centro de Comercio Regional Antioquia sobre el uso de las TIC en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje”. tuvo como objetivo general comprender las percepciones que tienen los docentes del SENA Centro de Comercio Regional Antioquia sobre el uso de las TIC en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje. Para desarrollar la investigación se utilizó la metodología cualitativa, con un método hermenéutico, en el que se utilizó la entrevista a profundidad con un grupo de docentes del Centro de Comercio del SENA Regional Antioquia, para comprender como los docentes incorporan las TIC en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje se utilizaron cuatro categoría: posibilidades, potencialidades, limitaciones y obstáculos. Como principales resultados se destaca que el problema no es meramente instrumental, es también un reto pedagógico, que depende de las políticas para su incorporación, el liderazgo y acompañamiento institucional, el esfuerzo, compromiso e interés del docente, el tiempo que se invierte en los procesos de formación y planeación para diseñar las sesiones pertinentes, del conocimiento acerca de las posibilidades que ofrece, de su aplicación pedagógica y metodológica, de la conectividad, la dotación técnica y tecnológica; y, en general, de todos los estamentos y recursos que confluyen para que se pueda promover una exitosa y efectiva incorporación de las TIC en los procesos de enseñanza y aprendizaje

CacheSim: un simulador de cache configurable

Los conceptos de memoria virtual y jerarquía de memoria son importantes en la docencia de arquitectura de computadores. La mayoría de los libros de texto presentan estos temas como una descripción completa de conceptos básicos, modos de funcionamiento, y algoritmos. Pero es básico completar esto con ejemplos prácticos de diseño de caches reales, en la que puedan observar de forma empírica la influencia de las decisiones de diseño sobre la jerarquía de memoria en el rendimiento global del sistema

Combined impact of traditional and non-traditional health behaviors on mortality: A national prospective cohort study in Spanish older adults

Background: Data on the combined effect of lifestyles on mortality in older people have generally been collected from highly selected populations and have been limited to traditional health behaviors. In this study, we examined the combined impact of three traditional (smoking, physical activity and diet) and three non-traditional health behaviors (sleep duration, sedentary time and social interaction) on mortality among older adults. Methods: A cohort of 3,465 individuals, representative of the Spanish population aged ≥60 years, was established in 2000/2001 and followed-up prospectively through 2011. At baseline, the following positive behaviors were selfreported: never smoking or quitting tobacco >15 years, being very or moderately physically active, having a healthy diet score ≥ median in the cohort, sleeping 7 to 8 h/d, spending <8 h/d in sitting time, and seeing friends daily. Analyses were performed with Cox regression and adjusted for the main confounders. Results: During an average nine-year follow-up, 1,244 persons died. Hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) for allcause mortality among participants with two, three, four, five and six compared to those with zero to one positive behaviors were, respectively, 0.63 (0.46 to 0.85), 0.41 (0.31 to 0.55), 0.32 (0.24 to 0.42), 0.26 (0.20 to 0.35) and 0.20 (0.15 to 0.28) (P for trend <0.001). The results were similar regardless of age, sex and health status at baseline. Those with six vs. zero to one positive health behaviors had an all-cause mortality risk equivalent to being 14 years younger. Adding the three non-traditional to the four traditional behaviors improved the model fit (likelihood ratio test, P <0.001) and the accuracy of mortality prediction (c-statistic: + 0.0031, P = 0.040). Conclusions: Adherence to some traditional and non-traditional health behaviors may substantially reduce mortality risk in older adults.This work was funded by grants from the FIS (ref. 12/1166) and the ‘Plan Nacional sobre Drogas’ (ref. 06/2010), and by the ‘Cátedra UAM de Epidemiología y Control del Riesgo Cardiovascular’. DMG had a “Juan de la Cierva” contract from the Spanish Ministry of Scienc