Coherent two pion photoproduction on 12C

We develop the formalism for coherent two pion photoproduction in nuclei and perform actual calculations of cross sections for $\pi^-\pi^+$ and $\pi^0\pi^0$ photoproduction on $^{12}C$. We find that due to the isospin symmetry the cross section for $\pi^0\pi^0$ production is very small and has a maximum when the pions propagate together. However, the kinematical region where the energies and polar angles of the two $\pi^0$ mesons are equal and their relative azimuthal angle $\phi=180^0$ is forbidden. Conversely in the $\pi^-\pi^+$ production the pions prefer to have a relative azimuthal angle 180$^0$ and the production of the pions propagating together is suppressed. The dominant one-body mechanism in both channels is related to the excitation of the $\Delta$ isobar. Hence the reaction can serve as a source of information about $\Delta$'s properties in nucleus. We have found that the reaction is sensitive to effects of the pion and $\Delta$ renormalization in the nuclear medium, similar to those found in the coherent $(\gamma,\pi^0)$ reaction, but magnified because of the presence of the two pions.Comment: 17 pages LATEX and 11 postscript figure

GEMA: An open-source Python library for self-organizing-maps

Organizations have realized the importance of data analysis and its benefits. This in combination with Machine Learning algorithms has allowed to solve problems more easily, making these processes less time-consuming. Neural networks are the Machine Learning technique that is recently obtaining very good best results. This paper describes an open-source Python library called GEMA developed to work with a type of neural network model called Self-Organizing-Maps. GEMA is freely available under GNU General Public License at GitHub (https://github.com/ufvceiec/GEMA). The library has been evaluated in different a particular use case obtaining accurate results

Automatic Assessment of Oral Reading Accuracy for Reading Diagnostics

Automatic assessment of reading fluency using automatic speech recognition (ASR) holds great potential for early detection of reading difficulties and subsequent timely intervention. Precise assessment tools are required, especially for languages other than English. In this study, we evaluate six state-of-the-art ASR-based systems for automatically assessing Dutch oral reading accuracy using Kaldi and Whisper. Results show our most successful system reached substantial agreement with human evaluations (MCC = .63). The same system reached the highest correlation between forced decoding confidence scores and word correctness (r = .45). This system's language model (LM) consisted of manual orthographic transcriptions and reading prompts of the test data, which shows that including reading errors in the LM improves assessment performance. We discuss the implications for developing automatic assessment systems and identify possible avenues of future research

Penicillium aureocephalum Munt.-Cvetk., Hoyo et Gómez-Bolea, un interessant ascomicet anamòrfic amb aspecte de mixomicet : distribució, ecologia i fenologia

Cinc anys després de la descripció de Penicillium aureocephalum per Muntañola-Cvetkovic, Hoyo i Górnez-Bolea, els autors del present treball han anat afegint més dades de camp a les ja existents, que comencen a subministrar una imatge més viva d'aquest curiós anamorf saprotròfic dins de les comunitats naturals on esporula. El present treball és un resum d'aquestes dades corològiques, ecològiques i fenològiques, acompanyat de comentaris. La principal conclusió és que I'espècie se'ns presenta com un fong termòfil que colonitza preferentment fulles caigudes de surera (Quercus suber), que han mort a l'arbre per la calor produïda per incendis, però que també pot créixer, menys sovint, sobre altres substrats, com ara fulles o fruits de Cistus salviifolius, C. ladanifer, Quercus coccifera, etc. que han estat descarregats per les plantes com a resposta a un fort estrès hídric. El treball inclou un mapa de la distribució de I'espécie en el Parc Natural del Cap de Creus, fins ara I'àrea òptima de creixement, i un altre mapa amb la distribució coneguda actualment en els Països Catalans, on apareix provisionahnent endèmica. S'ofereix un estudi macrofotogràfic de l'espècie, útil per ajudar els micòlegs a trobar noves localitats d'aquesta curiosa espècie d'anamorf, tan diferent de les més conegudes de Penicillium, ja que té aspecte de mixomicet, que es comporta com a termòfila i saprotròfica sobre fulles riques en nutrients.Five years after the description of Penicillium aureocephalum by Muntañola-Cvetkovic, Hoyo and Gómez-Bolea, an increasing wealth of field data has been gathered by the authors, which provide a vivid image of the anamorph of this curious saprotrophic species. Chorological, ecological and phenological data are here summarized and discussed. The species appears to be thermophilous, preferentially colonizing fallen leaves of cork trees (Quercus suber) killed by wildfires, but also growing sometimes on other substrata, such as dead leaves of Cistus salviifolius, C. ladanifer, Quercus coccifera, etc. which may have dropped as a response to severe water stress. A distribution map of the species in the Natural Park of Cap de Creus, which apparently is its natural habitat and another nowith showing the currently known distribution in the Catalan Countries, are given. A macrophotographic survey of the species is also included in order to aid in the recognition of this curious myxomycete-looking thermophilou s, anamorphic species, saprotrophic on nutrient-rich substrata, and so different from the usual Penicillium taxa

Penicillium aureocephalum Munt.-Cvetk., Hoyo et Gómez-Bolea, un interessant ascomicet anamòrfic amb aspecte de mixomicet : distribució, ecologia i fenologia

Cinc anys després de la descripció de Penicillium aureocephalum per Muntañola-Cvetkovic, Hoyo i GórnezBolea, els autors del present treball han anat afegint Inés dades de camp a les ja existents, que comencen a subministrar una imatge més viva d'aquest curiós anamorf saprotrófic dins de les comunitats naturals on esporula. El present treball és un resum d'aquestes dades corológiques, ecológiques i fenológiques, acompanyat de comentaris. La principal conclu sió és que I'espécie se' ns presenta com un fong termófil que colonit za preferentm ent fulles caigudes de surera (Quercus suber), que han mort a l' arbre per la calor produída per incendis, pero que també pot créixer, menys sovint, sobre altres substrats, com ara fulles o fruits de Cistus salviifolius, C. ladanifer, Quercus coccifera, etc. que han estat descarre gats per les plantes com a resposta a un fort estrés hídric. El treball inclou un mapa de la distribuci ó de I'espécie en el Pare Natural del Cap de Creus, fins ara I' área óptima de creixement, i un altre mapa amb la distribució coneguda actualment en els Paisos Catalans, on apareix provisionahnent endémica. S'ofereix un estudi macrofotográfic de l'especie, útil per ajudar els mic ólegs a trobar noves localitat s d'aquest curiosa especie d'anamorf, tan diferent de les més conegudes de Penicillium , ja que té aspect e de mixomic et, que es comporta COIll a term ófila i saprotrófica sobre fulles riques en nutrients.Five years after the description of Penicillium aureocephalum by Muntañola-C vetkovic, Hoyo and G ómez-Bolea, an increasing wealth of field data has been gathered by the authors, which provide a vivid image of the anamorph of this curious saprotrophic species. Chorological, ecological and phenological data are here summarized and discussed. The species appears to be thermophilou s, preferentially colonizing fallen leaves of cork trees (Quercus suber) killed by wildfires, but also growing sometimes on other substrata, such as dead leaves of Cistus salviifolius,C. ladanifer, Quercus coccifera, etc. which may have dropped as a response to severe water stress. A distribution map of the species in the Natural Park of Cap de Creus, which apparently is its natural habitat and another nowith showing the currently known distribution in the Catalan Countries, are given. A macrophotographic survey ofthe species is also included in order to aid in the recognition of this curious myxomycete-looking thermophilou s, anamorphic species, saprotrophic on nutrient-rich substrata, and so different from the usual Penicillium taxa

Entanglement of two qubits mediated by one-dimensional plasmonic waveguides

We investigate qubit-qubit entanglement mediated by plasmons supported by one-dimensional waveguides. We explore both the situation of spontaneous formation of entanglement from an unentangled state and the emergence of driven steady-state entanglement under continuous pumping. In both cases, we show that large values for the concurrence are attainable for qubit-qubit distances larger than the operating wavelength by using plasmonic waveguides that are currently available.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures. Minor Changes. Journal Reference added. Highlighted in Physic

Automatic Speech Recognition of Non-Native Child Speech for Language Learning Applications

Voicebots have provided a new avenue for supporting the development of language skills, particularly within the context of second language learning. Voicebots, though, have largely been geared towards native adult speakers. We sought to assess the performance of two state-of-the-art ASR systems, Wav2Vec2.0 and Whisper AI, with a view to developing a voicebot that can support children acquiring a foreign language. We evaluated their performance on read and extemporaneous speech of native and non-native Dutch children. We also investigated the utility of using ASR technology to provide insight into the children's pronunciation and fluency. The results show that recent, pre-trained ASR transformer-based models achieve acceptable performance from which detailed feedback on phoneme pronunciation quality can be extracted, despite the challenging nature of child and non-native speech.Comment: Published on SLATE 2023, Esmad, Politecnico Do Porto, Portugal, 26-28 June, 2023, pp: 11:1-11:

Solución digital de seguimiento y gestión automatizada de la participación en actividades universitarias transversales

La participación de los estudiantes en actividades universitarias, realizadas fuera del plan de las asignaturas que cursan, es muy baja. Esto es debido a que no existe una herramienta que permita difundir este tipo de actividades, para que lleguen a los estudiantes y permita reconocer su participación mediante la creación de un currículum transversal complementario. El objetivo de este proyecto es construir una herramienta sencilla e intuitiva que ayude a alumnos y docentes a asistir, organizar y dar difusión a eventos que se desarrollan en la escuela. En este documento, se describe el proceso que se ha llevado a cabo para la realización de esta herramienta. Las fases del desarrollo de este proyecto han sido el análisis, diseño, implementación y pruebas. Se ha desarrollado una aplicación web, accesible por todo tipo de dispositivos, en la que aparece una lista con los distintos eventos que se desarrollan en la escuela. La aplicación permite la búsqueda y filtrado de eventos mediante fecha o etiquetas asociadas a los distintos eventos. Permite a los estudiantes registrarse fácilmente para poder inscribirse en los eventos que deseen asistir y reservar una plaza. La aplicación permite leer un código QR asociado a la inscripción del estudiante, de esta forma se puede validar la asistencia a los eventos. Cada estudiante tiene un histórico de asistencias, que forma su currículum transversal complementario, con el que puede solicitar el reconocimiento de créditos. Y por cada evento asistido puede obtener un certificado que lo acredite. Existe también un sistema de penalización a los estudiantes que se inscriben a un evento y que luego no asisten, ocupando una plaza que podría haber usado otro alumno. Por cada tres faltas es penalizado con un mes sin poder inscribirse a ningún evento. También permite visualizar el nivel de participación de un evento y contactar con los estudiantes inscritos. De forma que dependiendo de la participación, se pueda cambiar de aula y se pueda notificar