Practical considerations for acoustic source localization in the IoT era: Platforms, energy efficiency, and performance

The rapid development of the Internet of Things (IoT) has posed important changes in the way emerging acoustic signal processing applications are conceived. While traditional acoustic processing applications have been developed taking into account high-throughput computing platforms equipped with expensive multichannel audio interfaces, the IoT paradigm is demanding the use of more flexible and energy-efficient systems. In this context, algorithms for source localization and ranging in wireless acoustic sensor networks can be considered an enabling technology for many IoT-based environments, including security, industrial, and health-care applications. This paper is aimed at evaluating important aspects dealing with the practical deployment of IoT systems for acoustic source localization. Recent systems-on-chip composed of low-power multicore processors, combined with a small graphics accelerator (or GPU), yield a notable increment of the computational capacity needed in intensive signal processing algorithms while partially retaining the appealing low power consumption of embedded systems. Different algorithms and implementations over several state-of-the-art platforms are discussed, analyzing important aspects, such as the tradeoffs between performance, energy efficiency, and exploitation of parallelism by taking into account real-time constraintsThis work was supported in part by the Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Generalitat Valenciana under Grant APOSTD/2016/069, in part by the Spanish Government under Grant TIN2014-53495-R, Grant TIN2015-65277-R, and Grant BIA2016-76957-C3-1-R, and in part by the Universidad Jaume I under Project UJI-B2016-20.Publicad

Exactitud en la Identificación de Caras y Tiempo de Respuesta: Face Identification Accuracy and Response Latency

El objetivo de este trabajo consistió en analizar en dos experimentos la relación existente entre la exactitud de la identificación de personas y el tiempo de respuesta. Para ello se presentó brevemente la fotografía de una persona desconocida. A continuación los sujetos realizaron una tarea distractora. Después trataron de reconocer a la persona objetivo, en una fotografía nueva, entre un conjunto de seis fotografías de personas de apariencia similar. Los resultados muestran que existe una amplia variabilidad en el tiempo de respuesta para las identificaciones correctas y las falsas alarmas. Sólo en el experimento 2, en el que se pidió a los sujetos que trataran de identificar a la persona objetivo en una tarea de elección forzosa, se encontraron diferencias significativas en el tiempo de respuesta en función del acierto. Los sujetos que acertaron tardaron menos tiempo en contestar que los sujetos que señalaron erróneamente a uno de los cebos de la rueda. En general, el tiempo de respuesta fue superior a los 10-12 segundos propuestos por Dunning y Perretta (2002) como tiempo límite para predecir las identificaciones correctas. Los resultados se analizan considerando sus posibles implicaciones en la valoración de la exactitud de los testigos en las pruebas de reconocimiento de sospechosos.[ABSTRACT] The aim of this project was to examine the relationship between the accuracy in the identification of persons and the response time, by means of two experiments. In the experiment 1 the subjects were presented a photographic image of an unknown person and then they were asked to perform a distracting task. Subsequently they tried to identify the target person in a new photography placed among a set of five images of persons of a similar appearance. The results showed that there is a large variability in the response time between correct identifications and false alarms. In the experiment 2 the subjects were asked to identify the target person in a forced choice assignment. In this test significant differences in the response time were found in relation to the right answer. The subjects that gave correct responses took less time in answering than the subjects that gave false alarms by choosing one of the foils in the lineup. In most cases the response time was higher than the 10-12 sec proposed by Dunning and Perretta (2002) as the time limit needed to predict the correct identifications. The results will be examined considering the possible implications regarding the evaluation of the eyewitnesses’ exactitude in the suspects’ recognition assignments

Fall Detection Analysis Using a Real Fall Dataset

International Conference on Soft Computing Models in Industrial and Environmental Applications (13th. 2018. San Sebastián

Population Structure and Dispersal Patterns within and between Atlantic and Mediterranean Populations of a Large-Range Pelagic Seabird

Dispersal is critically linked to the demographic and evolutionary trajectories of populations, but in most seabird species it may be difficult to estimate. Using molecular tools, we explored population structure and the spatial dispersal pattern of a highly pelagic but philopatric seabird, the Cory's shearwater Calonectris diomedea. Microsatellite fragments were analysed from samples collected across almost the entire breeding range of the species. To help disentangle the taxonomic status of the two subspecies described, the Atlantic form C. d. borealis and the Mediterranean form C. d. diomedea, we analysed genetic divergence between subspecies and quantified both historical and recent migration rates between the Mediterranean and Atlantic basins. We also searched for evidence of isolation by distance (IBD) and addressed spatial patterns of gene flow. We found a low genetic structure in the Mediterranean basin. Conversely, strong genetic differentiation appeared in the Atlantic basin. Even if the species was mostly philopatric (97%), results suggest recent dispersal between basins, especially from the Atlantic to the Mediterranean (aprox. 10% of migrants/generation across the last two generations). Long-term gene flow analyses also suggested an historical exchange between basins (about 70 breeders/generation). Spatial analysis of genetic variation indicates that distance is not the main factor in shaping genetic structure in this species. Given our results we recommend gathering more data before concluded whether these taxa should be treated as two species or subspecies. © 2013 Genovart et al.Peer Reviewe

Culturable bacterial diversity from the chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) phyllosphere and antagonism against the fungi causing the chestnut blight and ink diseases

[EN] The phyllosphere supports a large and complex bacterial community that varies both across plant species and geographical locations. Phyllosphere bacteria can have important effects on plant health. The sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is an economically important tree species affected worldwide by the fungal pathogens Cryphonectria parasitica and Phytophthora cinnamomi. We examined the culturable phyllosphere bacterial community of the sweet chestnut at two nearby locations in Central Spain in order to know its geographical variability and to explore its potential as source of biological control agents against these two pathogenic fungi. The bacterial diversity at strain level was high but it varied significantly between locations; however, phylotype richness and diversity were more comparable. The isolates were affiliated with the phyla Actinobacteria, Firmicutes and Proteobacteria. Most of them were members of recognized bacterial species, with a notable proportion of representative of the genera Dietzia and Lonsdalea, but a small fraction of the strains revealed the existence of several potential novel species or even genera. Antagonism tests showed the occurrence in the chestnut phyllosphere of bacterial strains potentially useful as biological control agents against the two pathogenic fungi, some of which belong to species never before described as fungal antagonists. Chestnut phyllosphere, therefore, contains a great diversity of culturable bacteria and may represent an untapped source of potential biocontrol agents against the fungi causing blight and ink diseases of this tree species

Optimized Fundamental Signal Processing Operations for Energy Minimization on Heterogeneous Mobile Devices

[EN] Numerous signal processing applications are emerging on both mobile and high-performance computing systems. These applications are subject to responsiveness constraints for user interactivity and, at the same time, must be optimized for energy efficiency. The increasingly heterogeneous power-versus-performance profile of modern hardware introduces new opportunities for energy savings as well as challenges. In this line, recent systems-on-chip (SoC) composed of low-power multicore processors, combined with a small graphics accelerator (or GPU), yield a notable increment of the computational capacity while partially retaining the appealing low power consumption of embedded systems. This paper analyzes the potential of these new hardware systems to accelerate applications that involve a large number of floating-point arithmetic operations mainly in the form of convolutions. To assess the performance, a headphone-based spatial audio application for mobile devices based on a Samsung Exynos 5422 SoC has been developed. We discuss different implementations and analyze the tradeoffs between performance and energy efficiency for different scenarios and configurations. Our experimental results reveal that we can extend the battery lifetime of a device featuring such an architecture by a 238% by properly configuring and leveraging the computational resources.This work was supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad projects under Grant TIN2014-53495-R and Grant TEC2015-67387-C4-1-R, in part by the University Project UJI-B2016-20, in part by the Project PROMETEOII/2014/003. The work of J. A. Belloch was supported by the GVA Post-Doctoral Contract under Grant APOSTD/2016/069. This paper was recommended by Associate Editor Y. Ha.Belloch Rodríguez, JA.; Badia Contelles, JM.; Igual Peña, FD.; Gonzalez, A.; Quintana Ortí, ES. (2017). Optimized Fundamental Signal Processing Operations for Energy Minimization on Heterogeneous Mobile Devices. IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems I Regular Papers. 65(5):1614-1627. https://doi.org/10.1109/TCSI.2017.2761909S1614162765

Role of Visual Assessment of High-Quality Cakes in Emotional Response of Consumers

[EN] Thinking of the present gastronomic trends is inevitable when talking about innovation in haute pastry. Launching a successful product that meets consumers' high expectations despite the rising demand for new creations is increasingly complex. For this reason, sensory analysis studies are more and more interested in studying the emotional response evoked by these products to better understand and improve user experiences. The main goal of this work was to conduct a study to analyze the emotional arousal of consumers after the visualization of five haute patisserie cakes. An online questionnaire with the EsSense Profile (R) scale and CATA methodology were used for data collection. The EsSense Profile (R) is a predefined and validated scale that measures food-related emotions, which includes 39 terms. When analyzing the emotions expressed by all the participants, 22 were statistically significant, of which 14 were classified as positive, 6 as neutral, and only 2 were negative. By analyzing the responses by gender, we observed differences in the number of elicited emotional terms: females showed significant differences between cakes for 18 emotion terms compared to 8 terms for males. The results obtained support the importance of the emotional profile to understand consumers' expectations and behavior.Author Cunha acknowledges financial support from National Funds from FCT-Fundacao para a Ciencia e a Tecnologia within the scope of UIDB/05748/2020 and UIDP/05748/2020.Alba-Martínez, J.; Bononad-Olmo, A.; Igual Ramo, M.; Cunha, LM.; Martínez-Monzó, J.; García-Segovia, P. (2022). Role of Visual Assessment of High-Quality Cakes in Emotional Response of Consumers. Foods. 11(10):1-15. https://doi.org/10.3390/foods11101412115111

El Practicum del Grado de Pedagogía: la implicación del estudiantado en la optimización del itinerario formativo

Projecte: 2016PID-UB/011La presente recopilación de anexos corresponden a la obra El Practicum del Grado de pedagogía: la implicación del estudiantado en la optimización del itinerario formativo, publicada en la colección Cuadernos de Docencia Universitaria, del ICE de la Universidad de Barcelona. Estos forman parte de las acciones y resultados generados del Proyecto de Innovación Docente “Miradas, voces y posicionamientos del estudiantado en su proceso de aprendizaje. La interrelación entre las 3 asignaturas del Practicum del Grado de Pedagogía” (2016PID-UB/011) , que se ha llevado a cabo a lo largo del curso académico 2016-17, en la Facultad de Educación de la Universidad de Barcelona

El Pràcticum del Grau de Pedagogia: la implicació de l'estudiantat en l'optimització de l'itinerari formatiu

Projecte: 2016PID-UB/011La present recopilació d’annexos correspon a l’obra El Pràcticum del Grau de Pedagogia: la implicació de l’estudiant en l’optimització de l’itinerari formatiu, publicada a la col·lecció Quaderns de Docència Universitària, de l’ICE de la Universitat de Barcelona. Aquests formen part de les accions i resultats generats del Projecte d’Innovació Docent “Mirades, veus i posicionaments de l’estudiant en el seu procés d’aprenentatge. La interrelació entre les 3 assignatures del Pràcticum del Grau de Pedagogia” (2016PID-UB/011), que s’ha dut a terme al llarg del curs acadèmic 2016-17, a la Facultat d’Educació de la Universitat de Barcelona

Buying Years to Extinction: Is Compensatory Mitigation for Marine Bycatch a Sufficient Conservation Measure for Long-Lived Seabirds?

Along the lines of the ‘polluter pays principle’, it has recently been proposed that the local long-line fishing industry should fund eradication of terrestrial predators at seabird breeding colonies, as a compensatory measure for the bycatch caused by the fishing activity. The measure is economically sound, but a quantitative and reliable test of its biological efficacy has never been conducted. Here, we investigated the demographic consequences of predator eradication for Cory's shearwater Calonectris diomedea, breeding in the Mediterranean, using a population model that integrates demographic rates estimated from individual life-history information with experimental measures of predation and habitat structure. We found that similar values of population growth rate can be obtained by different combinations of habitat characteristics, predator abundance and adult mortality, which explains the persistence of shearwater colonies in islands with introduced predators. Even so, given the empirically obtained values of survival, all combinations of predator abundance and habitat characteristics projected a decline in shearwater numbers. Perturbation analyses indicated that the value and the sensitivity of shearwater population growth rates were affected by all covariates considered and their interactions. A decrease in rat abundance delivered only a small increase in the population growth rate, whereas a change in adult survival (a parameter independent of rat abundance) had the strongest impact on population dynamics. When adult survival is low, rat eradication would allow us to “buy” years before extinction but does not reverse the process. Rat eradication can therefore be seen as an emergency measure if threats on adult survival are eliminated in the medium-term period. For species with low fecundity and long life expectancy, our results suggest that rat control campaigns are not a sufficient, self-standing measure to compensate the biological toll of long-line fisheries