Profile of female students of engineering universities in Mexico and Spain

Gender studies in higher education have emerged in parallel to reflections and rising feminist movement. The main objectives of academic feminism are related to women's visibility improvement as well as soft skills developers’ roles. But a gap in TECH studies can be detected. Women studies in higher education are mostly related to life and social sciences, behavioral, journalism and information, business and management and law, in contrast to engineering, architecture, manufacturing, construction, ICT or any kind of TECH studies. Thus, the main objective of this work is related to survey design in order to develop a qualitative research to inquire about TECH higher education, female population profile, both at UdG-CUALTOS (Guadalajara, Mexico) and UPC (Barcelona, Spain).This profile can provide some influent identity elements, related to perceptions and expectations of women-TECH, deemed appropriate from their professions as engineers. From these results, it should be possible to draw gender alternatives for future generations in TECH environmentsPostprint (published version

Dynamic Soil Properties in the Lower Rio Grande Valley: Carbon and Nitrogen Responses to Different Tillage Practices

There has been increased attention in utilizing agriculture for carbon sequestration. Soil carbon and nitrogen are two dynamic soil properties (DSPs) that are indicators of soil health and function and have overlapping cycles. These soil properties change frequently as a result of environmental conditions and agricultural management practices. This study focuses on the impact of tillage practices in unirrigated agricultural fields in Hidalgo and Willacy counties located in South Texas on Hidalgo Sandy Clay Loam; With a particular focus on Soil Total Carbon (TC), Soil Inorganic Carbon (SIC), Permanganate Oxidizable Carbon (POXC), Carbon and Nitrogen ratio (C:N), Soil Organic Matter (SOM), and Total Nitrogen (TN). The tillage regimes are strip tillage (conservation tillage for 3 to 6 years), intermittent tillage (strip tillage for 2 to 3 years followed by conventional tillage) , and conventional tillage. Two ecological sites (established tree lines that have been undisturbed for at least 50 years) are included as reference points. Results show ecological reference sites on average are significantly higher than those fields under conventional, intermittent and strip tilled for TC, TN, and SOM for the top 0 - 5cm. POXC on ecological reference sites was significantly higher from 0 - 5 cm, 5 - 10 cm, and 30 -50cm. However, when comparing conventional tillage to intermittent and strip there was no statistically significant difference among TC, TN, SOM, POXC, and C:N at all depths. Finally, most significant differences among the parameters measure could be observe on the top 0 - 10cm with the exception of SIC due to the soil high content of calcium carbonates and POXC in which the ecological reference sites were significantly higher at 30 – 50 cm than conventional sites

Quantifying the effect of aerial imagery resolution in automated hydromorphological river characterisation

Existing regulatory frameworks aiming to improve the quality of rivers place hydromorphology as a key factor in the assessment of hydrology, morphology and river continuity. The majority of available methods for hydromorphological characterisation rely on the identification of homogeneous areas (i.e., features) of flow, vegetation and substrate. For that purpose, aerial imagery is used to identify existing features through either visual observation or automated classification techniques. There is evidence to believe that the success in feature identification relies on the resolution of the imagery used. However, little effort has yet been made to quantify the uncertainty in feature identification associated with the resolution of the aerial imagery. This paper contributes to address this gap in knowledge by contrasting results in automated hydromorphological feature identification from unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) aerial imagery captured at three resolutions (2.5 cm, 5 cm and 10 cm) along a 1.4 km river reach. The results show that resolution plays a key role in the accuracy and variety of features identified, with larger identification errors observed for riffles and side bars. This in turn has an impact on the ecological characterisation of the river reach. The research shows that UAV technology could be essential for unbiased hydromorphological assessment

Automated identification of river hydromorphological features using UAV high resolution aerial imagery

European legislation is driving the development of methods for river ecosystem protection in light of concerns over water quality and ecology. Key to their success is the accurate and rapid characterisation of physical features (i.e., hydromorphology) along the river. Image pattern recognition techniques have been successfully used for this purpose. The reliability of the methodology depends on both the quality of the aerial imagery and the pattern recognition technique used. Recent studies have proved the potential of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to increase the quality of the imagery by capturing high resolution photography. Similarly, Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) have been shown to be a high precision tool for automated recognition of environmental patterns. This paper presents a UAV based framework for the identification of hydromorphological features from high resolution RGB aerial imagery using a novel classification technique based on ANNs. The framework is developed for a 1.4 km river reach along the river Dee in Wales, United Kingdom. For this purpose, a Falcon 8 octocopter was used to gather 2.5 cm resolution imagery. The results show that the accuracy of the framework is above 81%, performing particularly well at recognising vegetation. These results leverage the use of UAVs for environmental policy implementation and demonstrate the potential of ANNs and RGB imagery for high precision river monitoring and river management

Do projects really end late? On the shortcomings of the classical scheduling techniques

Many engineering projects fail to meet their planned completion dates in real practice. This is a recurrent topic in the project management literature, with poor planning and controlling practices frequently cited among the most significant causes of delays. Unfortunately, hardly any attention has been paid to the fact that the classical scheduling techniques—Gantt chart, Critical Path Method (CPM), and Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT)—may not be as fit for purpose as they seem. Arguably, because of their relative simplicity, these techniques are still almost the only ones taught nowadays in most introductory courses to scheduling in many engineering and management degrees. However, by utterly ignoring or inappropriately dealing with activity duration variability, these techniques provide optimistic completion dates, while suffering from other shortcomings. Through a series of simple case studies that can be developed with a few participants and common dice, a systematic critique of the classical scheduling techniques is offered. Discussion of the case studies results illustrate why limiting the contents of scheduling education and teaching can be detrimental, as the aforementioned classical scheduling techniques cannot not provide project managers with sufficient resources to effectively plan and control real projects

A travessia do fantasma, um ato que possibilita o advento da identidade sinthomática e de um laço social não segregativo

Four years after his excommunication, Lacan proposes an end-of-analysis theory in Proposition of October 9th, 1967 as understood by the psychoanalyst of the School in the form of the phantom crossing. There he argues that in the logical pass an analysand becomes a psychoanalyst, producing with such movement the fall of the Other with whom the subject phantomatically kept a bond. Based on this, Bassols (2017) states that in the Proposition, Lacan interrogates the basis of the social bond inasmuch as it may be deduced from it that an analysis conducted to the end would give place to a particular mode of bonding that would not be based on any of the three forms of Freudian identification. This work aims to explore the act that leads to the phantom crossing and the new bond modality resulting from such a movement.Cuatro años después de su excomunión, Lacan propone una teoría del fin de análisis en La proposición del 9 de octubre de 1967 sobre el psicoanalista de la Escuela bajo la forma del atravesamiento del fantasma. Allí sostiene que en el pase lógico un analizante deviene psicoanalista y que, en ese mismo movimiento, se produce la caída del Otro con el cual el sujeto sostenía fantasmáticamente un lazo. Partiendo de esto, Bassols (2017) afirma que en La proposición Lacan interroga los fundamentos del vínculo social, en tanto se deduce de la misma que un análisis llevado hasta el final daría lugar a un modo de lazo particular, que no se sostendría en ninguna de las tres formas de la identificación freudiana. Este trabajo tiene por objetivo indagar el acto que da lugar al atravesamiento del fantasma y la nueva modalidad de lazo que se funda a partir de dicho movimiento.Lacan, quatro anos depois da sua excomunhão, propõe uma teoria do fim de análise na Proposição de 9 de outubro de 1967 sobre o psicanalista da Escola sob a forma da travessia do fantasma. Ali sustenta que no passe lógico um analisante se torna psicanalista e que, nesse mesmo movimento, se produz a queda do Outro no qual o sujeito sustentava fantasmaticamente um laço. Partindo disso, Bassols (2017) afirma que na Proposição, Lacan interroga os fundamentos do vínculo social, no sentido de que deduz da mesma que uma análise levada até o final daria lugar a um modo de laço particular, que não se sustentaria em nenhuma das três formas da identificação freudiana. Este trabalho tem por objetivo indagar o ato que dá lugar a travessia do fantasma e a nova modalidade de laço que se funda a partir de dito movimento

Vocational guidance in childhood and career aspirations by gender

The aim of this work is to identify the areas of study and the factors that children take into account to choose their career or occupation aspirations. The research is based on the contextual and evolutionary theories of people’s life cycle and integrates the traditional professions by gender; in addition,it implements a research-action project in groups of primary-school level in two schools of Tepatitlán, Jalisco (Mexico). The results reveal that the fields of knowledge are still chosen according to gender and the most frequent are health sciences, biotechnolog and agricultural sciences, humanities and engineering; the factors of interaction with larger registrations are macro-and micro-level (immediate and proximate environment), this is to say family and school. Childhood is a period of vocational attainment, vocational guidance programs in basic education will expand the information panorama and create favorable conditions for children.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Economic scoring formulae in multi-Attribute construction auctions

Copyright © 2017 ISEC Press. Public tendering implies the free concurrence and competition of bidding companies that certify their solvency, so that those companies proposing the most attractive bid, both technically and economically, are awarded the contracts and carry them out according to the same terms and conditions that they proposed. Generally, there is high competition in public tendering, both concerning the number of bidders (constantly increasing), as well as the profit margin (constantly decreasing). On the other side, handling the procurement process, there is a contracting authority that spends public money while trying to fulfill a particular socio-economic objective. This paper will take the contracting authority's (auctioneer's) point of view which is in charge of devising and implementing the awarding criteria, as well as choosing the best bidder. Particularly, this paper will focus on some aspects of the Economic Scoring Formula (ESF) design. The ESF constitutes a set of mathematical expressions that transform the economic bids submitted by the bidders into scores, so that, eventually, the bidders can be ranked and the best one selected. We will conclude that, despite apparently simple, how ESF are configured eventually have profound consequences on bidding behavior and some bidding results, like a higher or lower bid dispersion