Using Recommendation System for E-learning Environments at degree level

Nowadays, new technologies and the fast growth of the Internet have made access to information easier for all kind of people, raising new challenges to education when using Internet as a medium. One of the best examples is how to guide students in their learning processes. The need to look for guidance from their teachers or other companions that many Internet users experience when endeavoring to choose their readings, exercises o practices is a very common reality. In order to cater for this need many different information and recommendation strategies have been developed. Recommendation Systems is one of these. Recommendation Systems try to help the user, presenting him those objects he could be more interested in, based on his known preferences or on those of other users with similar characteristics.This document tries to present the current situation with regards to Recommendation Systems and their application on distance education over the Internet

Aggregation of under canopy and bare soils in a Mediterranean environment affected by different fire intensities

7 páginas, 4 figuras, 3 tablas.Soil macroaggregation in relation to soil organic matter (SOM) and calcium carbonate(CaCO3) content was studied, before and after experimental fires of different intensities, in two environments (under canopy and on bare soil). In 1995, two experimental fire treatments, based on the addition of different biomass amounts, were applied on a set of nine plots at the Permanent Field Station of La Concordia (Valencia, Spain). Three plots were burned with high intensity fire (T1), three with moderate intensity (T2) and three plots were left unburned to be used as control treatment (T3). Soils under canopy were characterized by higher macroaggregate stability (SMS), SOM content and mean weight diameter of aggregates (MWD) than bare soils, which presented higher CaCO3 contents. After the fires, tendencies to increase were observed in the SOM and SMS of all burned soils, probably because of the incorporation of partially burned plant material. The trends of SMS and SOM in T1 burned soils were towards to decrease with the occurrence of the first erosive rainfalls. These trends continued until the end of the study. MWD of under canopy soils on T1 and of soils on T2 showed a decreasing trend immediately after fire treatments. Not significant differences between sampling periods were found for CaCO3 content, with the exception of under canopy soils on T1 which tended to increase, and showed higher values at the end of the studied period. The differences observed initially between under canopy and bare soil disappeared after one year of fire in T1, which suggests a major degradation of soils affected by this treatment. Significant changes of the studied properties were not observed in unburned soils during one year of research. In these soils, organic matter showed significant correlations with macroaggregate stability and mean weight diameter. However, significant statistical relationships were not observed between the Studied properties in burned soils, showing that fire impact probably affected other soil characteristics related to soil aggregation.We thank the financial support from the Agreement Generalitat Valenciana — CSIC (2005020112) “Impacto de los incendios forestalesrepetidos sobre los procesos de erosión hídrica del suelo y la recuperación de la cubierta vegetal. Seguimiento y evaluación en una estación permanente de campo”, and the Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia of the Spanish Government project “Procesos y balances hidrológicos y de sedimentos a diferentes escalas espaciales en ambientes mediterráneos: Efectos de la variabilidad climática y los cambios de uso del suelo” (PROBASE CGL2006-11619).Peer reviewe

Hydrological properties of a Mediterranean soil burned with different fire intensities

8 páginas, 5 figuras, 3 tablas.The influence of vegetation cover on soil hydrological properties and its response to the impact of different fire intensities, in a Mediterranean forest environment, has been evaluated. The study was carried out in the Permanent Experimental Field Station of La Concordia (Lliria-Valencia, Spain), on a set of nine erosion plots (4 x 20 m(2)). The Station is located on a calcareous hillside S-SE oriented, with soils of Rendzic Leptosol type and supporting Mediterranean shrubland vegetation. All runoff generated and sediment produced in every rain event was collected from each plot. The set up includes a system of sensors for the continuous monitoring of climatic parameters (air temperature and humidity, rain volume, intensity, etc.). In June 1995, a set of experimental fires was carried out to the Station. Three of the plots were burned with high intensity fire, three with moderate intensity and the remaining were left unaltered. Soil water content and water retention capacity (WRC) were measured in the different plots and in two different vegetation covers: under canopy (UC) and in bare soil (BS). The pF curves were also obtained for each fire treatment. A year after the fires (June 1995-June 1996), great differences, reaching 77.15%, in runoff generation between fire treatments and the control plots were observed. No significant differences were detected on water retention capacity between soils UC and BS in the burned plots. However, these differences appeared in the control plots, giving UC and BS values of 13% and 18%, respectively. Plots corresponding to the high intensity fire treatment showed values of WRC significantly higher than those of the moderate intensity and of the control treatments. The pF curves show that the values of water volume, at the different pressure points studied, were slightly greater on UC soil. Values obtained for BS samples are higher in the fire treatments, showing significant differences in respect to the control plots at pF 1 and 2. These differences were also observed for UC soil, but in this case at pF 2, 2.5 and 4.2.This work has been supported by the European Union (QLRT-2000-00289), the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology (CICYT) REN2001-1716 and Convenio (Agreement) Generalitat Valenciana – CSIC (02020024).Peer reviewe

Introduction to Devices Orchestration in Internet of Things Using SBPMN

In this research we try to provide an architecture that allows the orchestration of objects that are part of the Internet of things creating business processes. Internet of Things is still in full development; this implies that there is a lack of standards for its proper implementation. Among these gaps is for example the technology used to allow objects to connect to the network, since there are several options but none seems to end imposed that is why this work try to provide architecture that imposes an alternative solution to this problem. However, it is difficult to provide a common solution to all the objects used in everyday life because of its great diversity, it requires us to classify them and thus create an appropriate architecture for each of the types These architectures are designed to facilitate the devices orchestration in a similar way as is currently done with web services enabling business process modeling

General purpose MDE tools

MDE paradigm promises to release developers from writing code. The basis of this paradigm consists in working at such a level of abstraction that will make it easyer for analysts to detail the project to be undertaken. Using the model described by analysts, software tools will do the rest of the task, generating software that will comply with customer's defined requirements. The purpose of this study is to compare general purpose tools available right now that enable to put in practice the principles of this paradigm and aimed at generating a wide variety of applications composed by interactive multimedia and artificial intelligence components

Developing a Business Application with BPM and MDE

In this paper we have designed an architecture for the generation of a business application, that allows to business users to adapt their processes to the constant change. At the moment all the architectures based to a great extent on SOA allow to modify the processes in a short period of time, but we go beyond and give the possibility to the business user of modifying their processes. To design this architecture, we rely on the fundamental use of two technologies: BPM (Business Process Modeling) and MDE (Model Driven Engineering). Inside these technologies we focus on the creation of a business process notation extended from BPMN that is agile, easy to learn and design, and capable to provide semantic information about the process. Therefore this notation allows business process to modify their processes to achieve the proposed goal

Automated code generation support for BI with MDA TALISMAN

Model Driven Engineering (MDE) is gaining ever more strength due to the fact that with MDE the software development can be much more productive and this is the way to go closer to real software industrialization. With MDA TALISMAN, we have succeeded in creating complex software solutions for food traceability adapted to different customers, ready to be deployed. We rely on the approach to MDE most extended at present, MDA (Model-Driven Development) but as we shall see, we also use the main pillars that support the Software Factories, The proposal from Microsoft to MDE. Besides, in this paper we present five cases of success with MDA TALISMAN

Developing a Business Application with BPM and MDE

In this paper we have designed an architecture for the generation of a business application, that allows to business users to adapt their processes to the constant change. At the moment all the architectures based to a great extent on SOA allow to modify the processes in a short period of time, but we go beyond and give the possibility to the business user of modifying their processes. To design this architecture, we rely on the fundamental use of two technologies: BPM (Business Process Modeling) and MDE (Model Driven Engineering). Inside these technologies we focus on the creation of a business process notation extended from BPMN that is agile, easy to learn and design, and capable to provide semantic information about the process. Therefore this notation allows business process to modify their processes to achieve the proposed goal

Runoff and inter-rill erosion in a maritime pine and a eucalypt plantation following wildfire and terracing in north-central portugal

The purpose of this study was to assess how terracing affected overland\nflow and associated sediment losses, at the micro-plot scale (0.25\nm(2)), in recently burnt stands of the two principal forest types in\nnorth-central Portugal, i.e. mono-specific stands of Maritime Pine and\nEucalypt. Terracing is an increasingly common practice of slope\nengineering in the study region but its impacts on runoff and erosion\nare poorly studied. Non-terraced plots at the Eucalypt and the Pine site\nrevealed similar median runoff coefficients (rc: 20-30%) as well as\ncomparable median sediment losses (15-25 g m(-2)) during the first seven\nmonths following wildfire. During the ensuing, slightly wetter 18-month\nperiod, however, non-terraced plots at the Pine site lost noticeably\nmore sediments (in median, 90 vs. 18 g m(-2)), in spite the runoff\nresponse had remained basically the same (median rc: 33 vs. 28%). By\ncontrast, terraced plots at the same Pine site lost hugely more\nsediments (in median, 1,200 g m(-2)) during this 18-month period.\nTerraced plots at the Eucalypt site even lost three times more sediments\n(in median, 3,600 g m(-2)). Ground cover and resistance to shear stress\nseemed to be key factors in the observed/inferred impacts of terracing.The present study was carried out in the framework of the FIRECNUTS project (PTDC/AGRCFL/104559/2008), funded by the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC), with co-funding by FEDER through COMPETE (Programa Operacional Factores de Competitividade; POFC), and with support of the research grants, attributed by FCT/MCTES, of SPA (SFRH/BD/ 33392/2008), SRF (SFRH/BD/75562/2010) and METV (SFRH/BPD/63808/ 2009). We further gratefully acknowledge the help of Margarida Caria, Raquel Ferreira, Ana Heitor, Stefan Van den Heuvel, Maruxa Malvar, Robbert de Lenne, Ton van der Linden, Max Shu Fen Sheng, Iryna Skulska, Hein Vermin and Jovana Vilimonovic with field data and sample collection and/or with laboratory analysis of the runoff samples. Finally, we are much obliged to the two anonymous reviewers for their contribution in improving the original manuscript.publishe

Dinámica de la humedad del suelo. Propiedades físicas y escorrentía en laderas mediterráneas afectadas por incendios forestales

Memoria para optar al título de Doctor en C.C. Biológicas.-- Fecha de la defensa: 17-10-2011[ES] El siguiente estudio ha abordado la problemática de la recurrencia del fuego en sistemas mediterráneos. Más concretamente, se ha basado en los efectos producidos por fuegos repetidos sobre las propiedades hidrológicas del suelo. Se ha desarrollado en dos áreas de estudio (Valencia, España y Coimbra, Portugal). El diseño experimental se ha basado en la realización de fuegos experimentales y fuegos controlados, en el análisis de las propiedades hidrológicas de estos suelos, y de los consecuentes procesos erosivos, mostrando, como los cambios derivados del fuego repetido han generado respuestas que implican una mayor degradación del ecosistema. Se ha estudiado la hidrofobicidad, la capacidad y la tasa de infiltración en estos ambientes quemados y no quemados, los contenidos de agua en el suelo, y los subsiguientes procesos derivados de estos cambios. Se ha concluido que la intensidad del fuego y los subsiguientes cambios en las propiedades hidrológicas, junto con las características de las precipitaciones, son los principales parámetros responsables de la degradación del suelo.[EN] The following study has addressed the problem of fire recurrence in Mediterranean ecosystems. More specifically, it is based on the effects of repeated fires on soil hydrological properties. It was carried out in two study areas (Valencia, Spain and Coimbra, Portugal). The experimental design was based on the performance of experimental and controlled fires. The hydrological properties of these soils, and the consequent erosion were then analyzed. The hydrophobicity, the infiltration rates and capacity in these environments, burned and unburned, were studied. Soil water contents and the subsequent processes resulting from these changes were also analyzed. Changes resulting from repeated fires generated responses that imply greater ecosystem degradation. It is concluded that the fire intensity of and the subsequent changes in the hydrological properties, together with rainfall characteristics, are the parameters responsible for that degradationPeer Reviewe