La juventud después de la austeridad. Comportamiento y actitudes políticas

The economic crisis transformed the way in which European citizens relate to politics in general but particularly affected young people. The crisis resulted in decreased levels of trust in political institutions and increased levels of political protest. But little attention has been paid to the post-crisis period. Ten years on, what are young people’s attitudes and behaviour? This article examines the potential long term consequences of the economic crisis on young people’s political interest, political trust and political participation. In examining political behaviour we use a classification of types of participants that allows us to compare young people to adults, and young people before, during and after the economic crisis. Empirically, we use a descriptive approach using survey data from the European Social Survey, covering a considerable period of time (2002-2016) and 16 European countries. The comparison is threefold: young people over time, young people to adults, and young people across countries. The results support the idea of the emergence of a post-crisis youth that is more engaged and participative than adults and young people before the crisis. However the results do not show radical differences among countries that were affected by the economic crisis in varying degrees.La crisis económica transformó la manera en la que los ciudadanos se relacionan con la política, afectando de forma más directa a los jóvenes. La crisis supuso un descenso en los niveles de confianza en las instituciones políticas, así como un aumento de las acciones de protesta. Sin embargo, el periodo post-crisis está aún por ser analizado. Diez años después, ¿qué ha ocurrido con las actitudes y comportamientos políticos de los jóvenes? Este artículo analiza las potenciales consecuencias a largo plazo del interés por la política y la confianza institucional de los jóvenes, así como de sus niveles de participación política. Al examinar su comportamiento político, usamos una clasificación de distintos tipos de participantes que nos permite comparar jóvenes y adultos, y también los jóvenes de antes, durante y después de la crisis. A nivel empírico, utilizamos una estrategia descriptiva, valiéndonos de datos de encuesta de la Encuesta Social Europea, cubriendo un importante periodo de tiempo (2002-2016) y 16 países europeos. La comparación, por tanto, es triple: jóvenes a lo largo del tiempo, jóvenes y adultos y jóvenes en diferentes países. Los resultados apoyan la idea del surgimiento de una juventud distinta en el periodo post-crisis, más implicada y participativa que los adultos y los jóvenes de antes de la crisis. Con todo, los resultados no muestran diferencias radicales entre países más y menos afectados por la crisis económica

Political Interest among European Youth with and without an Immigrant Background

Our article investigates political engagement among youth with and without an immigration background. Tapping to current debates on intergenerational assimilation processes in Europe, we look at differences in levels of political interest between immigrants, children of immigrants and natives. In particular, we argue that such differences are a function of respondents’ identification with the receiving society. We predict that among respondents with an immigrant background higher levels of national identification will be positively correlated with political interest. Among natives, political interest will not depend on levels of national identification. These expectations reflect the ideas of the social identity perspective according to which group identification increases adherence to group norms and adherence to norms is stronger among individuals who suffer from identity uncertainty. We test our model in four European countries: England, Germany, the Netherlands, and Sweden, using data from the CILS4EU project. Our findings indicate that interest in the politics of the survey country differs between respondents with and without an immigrant background. Respondents with an immigrant background who also have a strong national identification are more likely to report a political interest than natives. Respondents with an immigrant background who have a low national identification, are less likely to report a political interest than natives. The findings also reveal that political discussions at home and associationism positively predict political interest whereas girls show significantly lower odds to be politically interested

Herramienta para el análisis y anotación de conocimiento pragmático para modelos de diálogo

Este proyecto se engloba dentro del marco del modelo de diálogo y tiene como objetivo desarrollar una herramienta que facilite la anotación del conocimiento pragmático de corpus. La finalidad que se persigue es la implementación de una herramienta fácil de manejar e intuitiva que permita a usuarios expertos en pragmática llevar a cabo todas las fases de las que consta el análisis individual de una muestra de diálogo. La herramienta estará orientada a la anotación de muestras de diálogo de modo independiente, si bien parte del conocimiento anotado puede ser reutilizado en sucesivas anotaciones. Esto quiere decir que la herramienta Cognos.Dial se encarga de facilitar el análisis individual de cada muestra de diálogo y de almacenar la información recogida para cada uno de los análisis en una base de conocimiento. Sin embargo, este conocimiento no puede ser utilizado directamente por el modelo de diálogo, sino que se requiere realizar una unificación del conocimiento individual. Para que el conocimiento anotado pueda ser utilizado por el modelo de diálogo, es necesario que sobre las muestras individuales analizadas se apliquen algoritmos de unificación (tanto de tareas como de segmentos) y un algoritmo de aprendizaje para el compromiso. El conocimiento unificado se almacenará en una base de conocimiento global con el propósito de ser utilizada en el modelo de diálogo. Este conjunto de funciones que operan globalmente sobre la totalidad de las muestras de un corpus quedan fuera del ámbito del proyecto pero serán implementadas en un futuro próximoIngeniería en Informátic

Control de túnel de carretera con tecnología Allen Bradley a través de Ethernet/IP

El proyecto tiene por objeto definir y valorar el funcionamiento automático de las instalaciones a estudiar, así como su control desde un edificio terminal situado a 200 metros de distancia y desde cualquier punto del mundo a través de la web. Comenzaremos estudiando las características básicas de las instalaciones de un túnel de estas características. Continuaremos proponiendo una arquitectura de control capaz de gestionar dichas instalaciones. Estudiaremos a continuación la red de comunicaciones más eficiente y de más fácil instalación que nos pueda servir para comunicar nuestros equipos de control con los de supervisión y que nos de un fácil acceso a internet. Estudiaremos el hardware y el software necesario para éste tipo de instalaciones. Evaluaremos un presupuesto real de lo que supondría el hardware, el software, la programación y la puesta en marcha de éste sistema de control. Por último construiremos una maleta de demostración que pueda simular el comportamiento de ésta instalación. Estructura del Proyecto: - Estudio de las instalaciones típicas en un túnel - Estudio de diferentes arquitecturas de control posibles - Estudio de los diferentes tipos de hardware posibles - Estudio de las posibles redes de comunicación viables para el proyecto - Estudio de los diferentes tipos de SCADAs posibles - Estudio del hardware seleccionado - Estudio del software seleccionado - Presupuesto - Construcción de una maleta de demostración que simule el control del túnelIngeniería Industria

An ontology for human-like interaction systems

This report proposes and describes the development of a Ph.D. Thesis aimed at building an ontological knowledge model supporting Human-Like Interaction systems. The main function of such knowledge model in a human-like interaction system is to unify the representation of each concept, relating it to the appropriate terms, as well as to other concepts with which it shares semantic relations. When developing human-like interactive systems, the inclusion of an ontological module can be valuable for both supporting interaction between participants and enabling accurate cooperation of the diverse components of such an interaction system. On one hand, during human communication, the relation between cognition and messages relies in formalization of concepts, linked to terms (or words) in a language that will enable its utterance (at the expressive layer). Moreover, each participant has a unique conceptualization (ontology), different from other individual’s. Through interaction, is the intersection of both part’s conceptualization what enables communication. Therefore, for human-like interaction is crucial to have a strong conceptualization, backed by a vast net of terms linked to its concepts, and the ability of mapping it with any interlocutor’s ontology to support denotation. On the other hand, the diverse knowledge models comprising a human-like interaction system (situation model, user model, dialogue model, etc.) and its interface components (natural language processor, voice recognizer, gesture processor, etc.) will be continuously exchanging information during their operation. It is also required for them to share a solid base of references to concepts, providing consistency, completeness and quality to their processing. Besides, humans usually handle a certain range of similar concepts they can use when building messages. The subject of similarity has been and continues to be widely studied in the fields and literature of computer science, psychology and sociolinguistics. Good similarity measures are necessary for several techniques from these fields such as information retrieval, clustering, data-mining, sense disambiguation, ontology translation and automatic schema matching. Furthermore, the ontological component should also be able to perform certain inferential processes, such as the calculation of semantic similarity between concepts. The principal benefit gained from this procedure is the ability to substitute one concept for another based on a calculation of the similarity of the two, given specific circumstances. From the human’s perspective, the procedure enables referring to a given concept in cases where the interlocutor either does not know the term(s) initially applied to refer that concept, or does not know the concept itself. In the first case, the use of synonyms can do, while in the second one it will be necessary to refer the concept from some other similar (semantically-related) concepts...Programa Oficial de Doctorado en Ciencia y Tecnología InformáticaSecretario: Inés María Galván León.- Secretario: José María Cavero Barca.- Vocal: Yolanda García Rui

An X-ray characterization of the central region of the SNR G332.5-5.6

We present an X-ray analysis of the central region of supernova remnant (SNR) G332.5-5.6 through an exhaustive analysis of XMM-Netwon observations with complementary infrared observations. We characterize and discuss the origin of the observed X-ray morphology, which presents a peculiar plane edge over the west side of the central region. The morphology and spectral properties of the X-ray supernova remnant were studied using a single full frame XMM-Newton observation in the 0.3 to 10.0 keV energy band. Archival infrared WISE observations at 8, 12 and 24 \mu m were also used to investigate the properties of the source and its surroundings at different wavelengths. The results show that the extended X-ray emission is predominantly soft (0.3-1.2 keV) and peaks around 0.5 keV, which shows that it is an extremely soft SNR. X-ray emission correlates very well with central regions of bright radio emission. On the west side the radio/X-ray emission displays a plane-like feature with a terminal wall where strong infrared emission is detected. Our spatially resolved X-ray spectral analysis confirms that the emission is dominated by weak atomic emission lines of N, O, Ne, and Fe, all of them undetected in previous X-ray studies. These characteristics suggest that the X-ray emission is originated in an optically thin thermal plasma, whose radiation is well fitted by a non-equilibrium ionization collisional plasma (VNEI) X-ray emission model. Our study favors a scenario where G332.5-5.6 is expanding in a medium with an abrupt density change (the wall), likely a dense infrared emitting region of dust on the western side of the source.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures and 2 tables. Accepted for publication in A&

On the origin of the jet-like radio/X-ray morphology of G290.1-0.8

The origin and evolution of supernova remnants of the mixed-morphology class is not well understood. Several remnants present distorted radio or X-ray shells with jet-like structures. G290.1-0.8 (MSH 11-61A) belongs to this class. We aim to investigate the nature of this supernova remnant in order to unveil the origin of its particular morphology. We based our work on the study of the X-ray emitting plasma properties and the conditions imposed by the cold interstellar medium where the remnant expanded. We use archival radio, HI line data and X-ray observations from XMM-Newton and Chandra observatories, to study G290.1-0.8 and its surrounding medium. Spatially resolved spectral analysis and mean photon energy maps are used to obtain physical and geometrical parameters of the source. Radio continuum and HI line maps give crucial information to understand the radio/X-ray morphology. The X-ray images show that the remnant presents two opposite symmetric bright spots on a symmetry axis running towards the NW-SE direction. Spectral analysis and mean photon energy maps confirm that the physical conditions of the emitting plasma are not homogeneous throughout the remnant. In fact, both bright spots have higher temperatures than the rest of the plasma and its constituents have not reached ionization equilibrium yet. HI line data reveal low density tube-like structures aligned along the same direction. This evidence supports the idea that the particular X-ray morphology observed is a direct consequence of the structure of the interstellar medium where the remnant evolved. However, the possibility that an undetected point-like object, as a neutron star, exists within the remnant and contributes to the X-ray emission cannot be discarded. Finally, we suggest that a supernova explosion due to the collapse of a high-mass star with a strong bipolar wind can explain the supernova remnant morphology.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figures. Accepted for publication in A&

How long does it take to admit that you do not know? Gender differences in response time to political knowledge questions

[Abstract]: The implications of the persistent gender gap in political knowledge are a puzzle that the literature is still disentangling; and research has evidenced important differences in the way women and men respond to survey questions. We argue in this article that political knowledge survey items not only inform about differences in cognition but also about other latent traits related to gender stereotyping. Gender stereo-types around political knowledge push men to be knowledgeable but not so much women, which we expect to affect men and women's survey responses differently. To test this expectation, we explore response times of do not know answers to political knowledge items. Our results show that men, particu-larly those who declare being interested in politics, take longer than women to admit that they do not know the answer to political knowledge items.Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation(Spanish Government); CSO2012-32009Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (Spanish Government); PID2020115568RB-I0

Adult roles and the gender gap in political knowledge: a comparative study

The unusual size and persistence of the gender gap in political knowledge is perplexing in comparison to other dimensions of politics. Building on situational explanations of political engagement, this article claims that women's and men's specific adult roles lead to an enlargement of the gender gap in knowledge. The present study analyses men and women's levels of political knowledge at different life stages by means of two unique datasets specifically collected to measure what people know about politics. Findings show that adult roles provide more opportunities for men to gain political knowledge than for women. Furthermore, the comparison of levels of political knowledge in two such dissimilar countries as Finland and Spain suggests that while gender equality policies are successful in tearing down some of the obstacles that hinder women's contact with the political world, they are still insufficient to completely bridge the gender gap in political knowledge during adulthood