Against mass media trends: minority growth in cultural globalization

We investigate the collective behavior of a globalized society under the influence of endogenous mass media trends. The mass media trend is a global field corresponding to the statistical mode of the states of the agents in the system. The interaction dynamics is based on Axelrod's rules for the dissemination of culture. We find situations where the largest minority group, possessing a cultural state different from that of the predominant trend transmitted by the mass media, can grow to almost half of the size of the population. We show that this phenomenon occurs when a critical number of long-range connections are present in the underlying network of interactions. We have numerically characterized four phases on the space of parameters of the system: an ordered phase; a semi-ordered phase where almost half of the population consists of the largest minority in a state different from that of the mass media; a disordered phase; and a chimera-like phase where one large domain coexists with many very small domains.Comment: 7 pages and 7 figure

Game-theoretic analysis of development practices: Challenges and opportunities

Developers continuously invent new practices, usually grounded in hard-won experience, not theory. Game theory studies cooperation and conflict; its use will speed the development of effective processes. A survey of game theory in software engineering finds highly idealised models that are rarely based on process data. This is because software processes are hard to analyse using traditional game theory since they generate huge game models. We are the first to show how to use game abstractions, developed in artificial intelligence, to produce tractable game-theoretic models of software practices. We present Game-Theoretic Process Improvement (GTPI), built on top of empirical game-theoretic analysis. Some teams fall into the habit of preferring “quick-and-dirty” code to slow-to-write, careful code, incurring technical debt. We showcase GTPI’s ability to diagnose and improve such a development process. Using GTPI, we discover a lightweight intervention that incentivises developers to write careful code: add a singlecode reviewer who needs to catch only 25% of kludges. This 25% accuracy is key; it means that a reviewer does not need to examine each commit in depth, making this process intervention cost-effective

El bicomercio en el Perú: Una alternativa para el desarrollo

Analiza el biocomercio, como un modo de comercializar, el mismo que tiene en curso siete principios propuestos, que van en línea con la sostenibilidad ambiental, social y económica. En ese sentido, en base a la literatura , se ha expuesto las ventajas del biocomercio, encontrando como límite fundamental la falta de financiamiento para la implementación de ese tipo de producción y comercialización sostenible.Tesi

Against mass media trends: Minority growth in cultural globalization

We investigate the collective behavior of a globalized society under the influence of endogenous mass media trends. The mass media trend is a global field corresponding to the statistical mode of the states of the agents in the system. The interaction dynamics is based on Axelrod’s rules for the dissemination of culture. We find situations where the largest minority group, possessing a cultural state different from that of the predominant trend transmitted by the mass media, can grow to almost half of the size of the population. We show that this phenomenon occurs when a critical number of long-range connections are present in the underlying network of interactions. We have numerically characterized four phases on the space of parameters of the system: an ordered phase; a semi-ordered phase where almost half of the population consists of the largest minority in a state different from that of the mass media; a disordered phase; and a chimera-like phase where one large domain coexists with many very small domains

Tratamiento de la biodiversidad en los textos escolares de la educación secundaria en España

El presente trabajo estudia el tratamiento del concepto de diversidad biológica, en los libros de texto de la ESO y del Bachillerato de España. Para ello, se define el ámbito conceptual de la biodiversidad atendiendo a la visión que ofrece la comunidad de expertos con el objetivo de servir de referente epistemológico en el proceso de análisis. Los resultados muestran una multiplicidad de definiciones de la biodiversidad, con un fuerte predominio de reducirlo al número de especies, lo que pone en evidencia su des-actualización. A la luz de este estudio, el listado de contenidos del currículo oficial no garantizaría la transposición de una conceptualización de biodiversidad más actual

Effect of UV-C on the physiology and biochemical profile of fresh Piper nigrum berries

Application of UV-C has been shown to enhance the biochemical profile of various plant materials. This could be used to increase biochemical load, reducing the amount of material required but still impart equivalent flavour. As spices, such as black pepper (Piper nigrum L.), are typically dried to low moisture content to create a stable product for transportation and storage, little work has explored the use of modern postharvest treatments to enhance flavour. In this work, fresh P. nigrum berries were exposed to four UV-C doses (0, 1, 5 and 15 kJ m−2) and subsequently stored at 5 °C for ca. 4 weeks. Two separate experiments (early and late season) were conducted across one season. Replicate P. nigrum berry clusters were stored separately within continuously ventilated 13 L boxes. Real-time respiration rate (ex situ), ethylene production, fruit colour and water potential were measured at regular intervals during storage. In addition, piperine and essential oils were assessed using a simple newly developed method which enabled both compound groups to be simultaneously extracted and subsequently quantified. UV-C was found to cause significant changes in colour (from green to brown) whilst also altering the biochemical composition (piperine and essential oils), which was influenced by UV-C dose and berry maturity. Low to medium UV-C doses could potentially enhance flavour compounds in black pepper enabling processors to create products with higher biochemical load

Estudio de la actividad biocida de aceites procedentes de plantas aromáticas sobre Tetranychus urticae y Ceratitis capitata

Se ha estudiado la actividad biocida de aceites esenciales extraídos de plantas aromáticas como el romero (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) y la salvia (Salvia officinalis L.) sobre la araña roja (Tetranychus urticae Koch) y la mosca de la fruta (Ceratitis capitata Wiedemann). El aceite esencial de salvia a la concentración del 1% se mostró capaz de atraer adultos de C. capitata. La mayor actividad frente a la araña roja se observó por parte del aceite esencial de salvia, provocando, con gran rapidez, una alta tasa de mortalidad. El aceite de salvia al 0,25% consiguió reducir el nivel de puesta de T. urticae, llegando incluso a tasas de reducción de un 50%

Discrete modeling of human body using preprocessing and segmentation techniques of medical images

Los tejidos humanos son estructuras anatómicas que se caracterizan por tener una morfología compleja y solapada entre sí, razones por las cuales la generación de modelos geométricos precisos no resulta una tarea fácil. En la actualidad, esta tarea se ha beneficiado por el desarrollo de técnicas de diagnóstico por imágenes médicas, las cuales permiten visualizar el cuerpo humano en una forma confiable y no invasiva, generando cortes transversales que representan una sección de los tejidos bajo evaluación. En este trabajo, se propone el uso de un conjunto de técnicas numéricas de procesamiento digital de imágenes implementadas en una herramienta de software para la obtención de modelos geométricos a través de cinco etapas: (1) lectura y reconstrucción tridimensional (3D) inicial de los cortes originales de imágenes de tomografía computacional y resonancia magnética; (2) corrección de la baja calidad de las imágenes utilizando algoritmos de preprocesamiento para suavizar el ruido y realzar los bordes de los tejidos; (3) segmentación híbrida para obtener la geometría 3D de los tejidos de interés; (4) posprocesamiento para corregir errores de segmentación, y (5) exportación de los volúmenes en formatos legibles por otras herramientas de visualización médica y de Diseño Asistido por Computador (CAD) para verificar su utilidad para la generación de modelos discretos a través del análisis con los métodos numéricos. Las técnicas utilizadas fueron validadas calculando descriptores estadísticos en los modelos generados y los modelos proporcionados por otros medios como base de datos libres disponibles en sitios web. Los resultados demostraron que las técnicas implementadas generan modelos precisos y útiles para el análisis numérico, de manera versátil y en corto tiempo de procesamiento.The generation of anatomical models is one the most important concern to biomedical researchers as well as to medical doctors, due to needed to understand the human tissues. Is know that the soft tissues like heart, brain, prostate and hard tissues like jaw, bones, skull, etc are structures of complex morphologies, so, the anatomical models generation is not an easy and trivial task. Currently, this task has benefited of advances of imaging diagnostic, which permit obtain cross and longitudinal sections of human body. In this research, we describe a method to obtain 3D discrete models of human body given by a dataset of medical images. Five main modules were implemented in prototype software: (1) Reading and 3D reconstruction of Computerized Axial Tomography and Magnetic Resonance Images. (2) Preprocessing techniques for improve the low medical images quality by using enhancement algorithms to reduce image noise and to increase structures contrast. (3) Combined segmentation techniques for tissue identification, which were applied through a multi-stage approach. (4) Post processing techniques to improve segmented volumes and (5) Exportation task of volumes to readable formats by Computer Aided Design (CAD) tools to be later analyzed by numerical methods. The performance of our method is shown on several medical examples and the techniques were validated using statistical descriptors to compare our models with models from free databases. Results showed that the implemented techniques generate precise and useful models for numerical analysis and medical survey, planning and surgery in a short processing time.Peer Reviewe

Anatomía computacional: una metodologia eficiente basada en imágenes médicas para la generación de modelos 3D

Este libro está orientado a introducir en los conceptos generales de la reconstrucción 3D de estructuras anatómicas y presentar una metodología para la obtención de modelos geométricos de tejidos del cuerpo humano a partir de imágenes médicas, útiles para su discretización con los métodos numéricos, con el objetivo de poder simular su comportamiento y planificar intervenciones quirúrgicas. Para este fin, se implementaron diferentes técnicas de procesamiento en imágenes médicas de diversas modalidades, lo que nos permitió obtener geometrías precisas de los tejidos de interés en un corto tiempo de procesamiento. La amplia gama de estudios basados en la reconstrucción tridimensional de tejidos del ser humano a partir de las imágenes médicas, demuestran que éstas han revolucionado los métodos clínicos de diagnosticar y tratar las enfermedades. No sólo permiten a los médicos y científicos obtener información vital observando el interior del cuerpo humano de una manera no invasiva, además, combinadas con técnicas de procesamiento digital, constituyen herramientas para la obtención de modelos geométricos de nuestro cuerpo más precisos sin necesidad de ingresar al paciente