Transfer learning or design a custom CNN for tactile object recognition

International Workshop on Robotac: New Progress in Tactile Perception and Learning in RoboticsNovel tactile sensors allow treating pressure lectures as standard images due to its highresolution. Therefore, computer vision algorithms such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) can be used to identify objects in contact. In this work, a high-resolution tactile sensor has been attached to a robotic end-effector to identify objects in contact. Moreover, two CNNs-based approaches have been tested in an experiment of classification of pressure images. These methods include a transfer learning approach using a pre-trained CNN on an RGB images dataset and a custom-made CNN trained from scratch with tactile information. A comparative study of performance between them has been carried out.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Spanish project DPI2015-65186-R, the European Commission under grant agreement BES-2016-078237, the educational project PIE-118 of the University of Malag

Comparación de la emisión de recibos de pago implementados por Emapa San Martín SA

Esta investigación tuvo como objetivo comparar la emisión de recibos de pago entre los años 2018 y 2019 en la empresa Emapa San Martín SA. Estudio de tipo básica, enfoque cuantitativo, método hipotético deductivo y diseño no experimental comparativo. La muestra estuvo conformada los 12 meses correspondientes a los años 2018 y 2019 con datos financieros relacionados a la respuesta de los clientes en la cancelación de los recibos de pagos, antes y después de implementarse el recibo rojo. La técnica de recojo de datos fue el análisis documental, en tanto, el instrumento fue la guía de análisis documental. Los resultados mostraron que, existe diferencia significativa en la cantidad mensual de recibos emitidos con aviso de corte entre los años 2018 y 2019, de la misma manera, existe diferencia significativa en la cantidad mensual de recibos cancelados con aviso de corte. También, existe diferencia significativa en los montos de recibos de pago con aviso de corte. Y, existe diferencia significativa en los montos de recibos de pago cancelados con aviso de corte. Concluyendo que la implementación de la estrategia de cobranza mediante el recibo de color rojo tuvo un impacto significativo en la institución, demostrado estadísticamente donde el valor p fue menor al nivel de significancia (p< 0,05)

Effect of Static Magnetic Field Exposure of Salvia Seeds on Germination Characteristics (Salvia officinalis, L.)

The main objective of this study is to determine the effects of magnetic treatment, in addition to the geomagnetic field, on germination of salvia officinalis L. seeds. This objective has a practice application in agriculture science: to obtain an early growth of salvia. A great development of crops of medicinal, condimentary and aromatic plants crops is taking place in Mediterranean countries due to their high added value as consequence of the Fitotherapy reappearance among other reasons. In recent decades magnetic treatment of seeds became very popular in agricultural sector. Salvia seeds were exposed to 125 mT stationary magnetic field generated by magnets for different time: 10 minutes (A1), 20 minutes (A2), 1hour (A3), 24 hours (A4) and chronic exposure (A5). Other group of seeds were subjected to a magnetic pretreatment (P1). Not exposed seeds were used as control (C). Germination tests were performed at temperature 20-22ºC under laboratory conditions. The selected germination parameters were: time for the first seed to germinate (T1), time to reach 10, 25% etc. germination (T10, T25, T50 and T75), number of germinated seeds (Gmax) and the mean germination time (MGT), all of them were provided by the Seedcalculator software package. Results indicate that magnetic field application enhanced the seed performance in terms of laboratory germination, rate and percentage of germination compared to unexposed (C). The germination parameters recorded for salvia seeds and for each treatment and pretreatment were lower than corresponding control value. Among the various treatments, chronic exposure to 125mT (A5) gave best results. Data obtained for salvia treated seeds showed that MGT was significantly reduced compared to control ones (79.68 h for A3, 81.84 h for A4, 75.60 h for A5, and 81.60 h for P1 vs. 95.28 h for control). Parameters (T1-T50) and MGT were also significantly reduced for treatments A2, A3, A4, A5 and P1

Runahead threads to improve SMT performance

In this paper, we propose Runahead Threads (RaT) as a valuable solution for both reducing resource contention and exploiting memory-level parallelism in Simultaneous Multithreaded (SMT) processors. Our technique converts a resource intensive memory-bound thread to a speculative light thread under long-latency blocking memory operations. These speculative threads prefetch data and instructions with minimal resources, reducing critical resource conflicts between threads. We compare an SMT architecture using RaT to both state-of-the-art static fetch policies and dynamic resource control policies. In terms of throughput and fairness, our results show that RaT performs better than any other policy. The proposed mechanism improves average throughput by 37% regarding previous static fetch policies and by 28% compared to previous dynamic resource scheduling mechanisms. RaT also improves fairness by 36% and 30% respectively. In addition, the proposed mechanism permits register file size reduction of up to 60% in a SMT processor without performance degradation.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Control a Baja Velocidad de una Rueda con Motor de Accionamiento Directo mediante Ingeniería Basada en Modelos

Los motores de corriente continua sin escobillas (BLDC) con accionamiento directo suponen una solución compacta para la tracción en vehículos eléctricos, si bien requieren detectar la posición del rotor, habitualmente mediante un codificador angular de efecto Hall dentro del mismo motor. No obstante, la ausencia de reductora y a la dificultad de añadir un codificador angular de precisión suponen un reto para lograr un control preciso a baja velocidad, especialmente si se hace uso de controladoras industriales donde las posibilidades de programación son limitadas. Este trabajo propone aplicar una estrategia de ingeniería basada en modelos (MDE) para el control a baja velocidad de una rueda con motor BLDC de accionamiento directo. En particular, se presenta la solución para un caso de estudio basado en hardware de bajo coste que incluye una tarjeta Arduino Due, una controladora Roboteq HBL2360 y un interfaz de comunicación de bus CAN. La solución MDE basada en Simulink ofrece simplicidad conceptual, capacidad de adaptación a nuevas especificaciones de diseño usando herramientas de diseño avanzadas y generación de código automática. El artículo ofrece resultados experimentales obtenidos sobre el sistema real.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech, CICYT DPI2015-65186-R y el proyecto de Innovación educativa de la Universidad de Málaga PIE 15-18

Germination of grass seeds with recycling waste water

This study was designed to determine the effects of residual water irrigation on the rate and percentage of germination of grass seeds. Germination tests were carried out to compare the seeds irrigated with recycling waste water with seeds irrigated with distilled water. Test with Festuca arundinacea Sch. and Agrostis tenuis L. seeds was performed under laboratory conditions. Parameters used to evaluate germination were: number of germinated seeds (Gmax), mean germination time (MGT), the time required for 1 to 75%, of the seeds to germinate (T1, T10, T25, T50 and T75). The evaluated parameters for both seeds irrigated with recycled waste water were below the control seeds parameters. These reductions involve that germination rate was increased. Recycling waste water could be used for irrigation of grass seeds because produces a beneficial effect in germination rate and percentage

Monitorización de víctimas con manipuladores aéreos en operaciones de búsqueda y rescate

En este trabajo se presenta el primer dispositivo de monitorización de víctimas para su colocación automática con robots manipuladores aéreos. Se trata de un sistema sensorial distribuido para la evaluación de forma continua del estado de salud de víctimas de catástrofes. Se describen el sensor diseñado y el sistema de comunicaciones, así como la aplicación mediante la colocación del sensor basado en el uso de sistemas aéreos no tripulados (UAS) o robots manipuladores aéreos. El dispositivo de monitorización continua ofrece ventajas sobre el sistema de triage actual ya que permite obtener datos de la evolución de cada víctima. Recoge medidas de las constantes vitales de las víctimas, que son publicadas mediante protocolos de Internet de las Cosas (IoT) que permiten su procesado de forma remota. Además, posee métodos basados en aprendizaje profundo para la detección automática de la posición relativa de la muñeca del brazo de una persona con respecto al manipulador aéreo. Se han realizado experimentos preliminares de obtención de medidas y de colocación de sensores mediante una versión preliminar del sensor, cuyos resultados se incluyenUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

RoMoMatteR: Empowering Roma Girls’ Mattering through Reproductive Justice

Aim: To present a protocol study directed at tackling gender discrimination against Roma girls by empowering their mattering so they can envision their own futures and choose motherhood only if—and when—they are ready. Background: Motherhood among Roma girls (RGM) in Europe impoverishes their lives, puts them at risk of poor physical and mental health and precipitates school dropouts. Overwhelming evidence affirms that the conditions of poverty and the social exclusionary processes they suffer have a very important explanatory weight in their sexual and reproductive decisions. Methods: Through a Community-based Participatory Action Research design, 20–25 Roma girls will be recruited in each one of the four impoverished communities in Bulgaria, Romania and Spain. Data collection and analysis: Desk review about scientific evidences and policies will be carried out to frame the problem. Narratives of Roma women as well as baseline and end line interviews of girl participants will be collected through both qualitative and quantitative techniques. Quantitative data will be gathered through reliable scales of mattering, socio–political agency, satisfaction with life and self. A narrative analysis of the qualitative information generated in the interviews will be carried out. Expected results: (1) uncover contextual and psychosocial patterns of girl-motherhood among Roma women; (2) build critical thinking among Roma girls to actively participate in all decisions affecting them and advocate for their own gender rights within their communities; and (3) empower Roma girls and their significant adults to critically evaluate their own initiatives and provide feedback to their relevant stakeholders. Conclusions: Roma girls will improve their educational aspirations and achievements and their social status while respecting and enhancing Roma values.This initiative is funded by the DG Justice of the European Commission in the Call for proposals for action grants under 2017 Rights Equality and Citizenship Work REC-AG #809813

Micellar Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Coated with Anti-Tumor Glycosides

The synthesis procedure of nanoparticles based on thermal degradation produces organic solvent dispersible iron oxide nanoparticles (OA-IONP) with oleic acid coating and unique physicochemical properties of the core. Some glycosides with hydrophilic sugar moieties bound to oleyl hydrophobic chains have antimitotic activity on cancer cells but reduced in vivo applications because of the intrinsic low solubility in physiological media, and are prone to enzymatic hydrolysis. In this manuscript, we have synthetized and characterized OA-IONP-based micelles encapsulated within amphiphilic bioactive glycosides. The glycoside-coated IONP micelles were tested as Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) contrast agents as well as antimitotics on rat glioma (C6) and human lung carcinoma (A549) cell lines. Micelle antimitotic activity was compared with the activity of the corresponding free glycosides. In general, all OA-IONP-based micellar formulations of these glycosides maintained their anti-tumor effects, and, in one case, showed an unusual therapeutic improvement. Finally, the micelles presented optimal relaxometric properties for their use as T2-weighed MRI contrast agents. Our results suggest that these bioactive hydrophilic nano-formulations are theranostic agents with synergistic properties obtained from two entities, which separately are not ready for in vivo applications, and strengthen the possibility of using biomolecules as both a coating for OA-IONP micellar stabilization and as drugs for therapy.This research was funded by FP7 Marie Curie Pulmonary imaging network (PINET) and Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad MAT2015-65184-C2-2-R; SAF2016-79593-P; SAF2017-84494-C2-1-R). This work was partially funded by Instituto de Salud Carlos III (DTS16/00059), CNIC (Centro Nacional de Investigaciones Cardiovasculares), and Comunidad de Madrid (B2017-BMD3731 and B2017-BMD3875). We thank Ligue contre le cancer, comite Charentes Maritimes which allows to free up some time to complete the redaction of this manuscript during a grant-not dedicated on this work-agreed to LIENSs, UMR CNRS 7266, La Rochelle.S