A freshmen mentoring program at the Universitat Politècnica de València over the period 2000-2010

Purpose: We quantify the dedication of mentors and mentees in a double-mentor program for freshmen. We also analyze the fulfillment of the expectations of all the participants and the utility of each mentor during the meetings. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire addressed to the participants was designed and took to all of them. Findings: We see that the mentees are highly satisfied with the mentoring program. Despite of mentors want mentees to participate more intensively in the program, mentees consider that their participation in the program is sufficient. Student and teacher mentors agree that freshmen could take more profit of the program. We also observe that the student mentor is slightly more implicated in the program than the teacher mentor. Research limitations/implications: Our results depend on the opinion of the mentors and the mentees. It would be fruitful to know the opinion of the freshmen who are not enrolled in the program. Practical implications: Our research confirms the validity of the system. We hope that our conclusions will be fruitful for other institutions that would like to implement a double-mentor program for freshmen. Originality/value: Many mentoring programs have been designed basing on a big brother/sister system. We analyze the development of a double-mentor program. The last law concerning university students, approved in Spain in 2011, indicates that mentoring programs should be designed in the frame of every degree, and they should be conducted by teachers and by technical staff. With our formula, both approaches are combined.Peer Reviewe

Smart tourist information points by combining agents, semantics and AI techniques

The tourism sector in the province of Teruel (Aragon, Spain) is increasing rapidly. Although the number of domestic and foreign tourists is continuously growing, there are some tourist attractions spread over a wide geographical area, which are only visited by a few people at specific times of the year. Additionally, having human tourist guides everywhere and speaking different languages is unfeasible. An integrated solution based on smart and interactive Embodied Conversational Agents (ECAs) tourist guides combined with ontologies would overcome this problem. This paper presents a smart tourist information points approach which gathers tourism information about Teruel, structured according to a novel lightweight ontology built on OWL (Ontology Web Language), known as TITERIA (Touristic Information of TEruel for Intelligent Agents). Our proposal, which combines TITERIA with the Maxine platform, is capable of responding appropriately to the users thanks to its Artificial Intelligence Modeling Language (AIML) database and the AI techniques added to Maxine. Preliminary results indicate that our prototype is able to inform users about interesting topics, as well as to propose other related information, allowing them to acquire a complete information about any issue. Furthermore, users can directly talk with an artificial actor making communication much more natural and closer

Reducing emergence services arrival time by using vehicular communications and Evolution Strategies

Nowadays, traffic jams in urban areas have become a problem that keeps growing every year since the number of vehicles in our cities is continuously increasing. One of the most common causes producing traffic jams are vehicle accidents. Moreover, the arrival time of the emergency services could be raised due to traffic congestion. Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) have a key role in order to reduce or mitigate this problem. In this paper, we propose four different approaches addressing the traffic congestion problem, comparing them to obtain the best solution. Using V2I communications, we are able to accurately estimate the traffic density in a certain area, which represents a key parameter to perform efficient traffic redirection, thereby reducing the emergency services arrival time, and avoiding traffic jams when an accident occurs. Specifically, we propose two approaches based on the Dijkstra algorithm, and two approaches based on Evolution Strategies. Notice that, when an accident occurs, time is a critical issue, and the strategies here proposed contribute to find the optimal solution within a short time period.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Spain, under Grant TIN2011-27543-C03-01, as well as by the Fundacion Universitaria Antonio Gargallo, the Obra Social de Ibercaja, under Grant 2013/B010, and by the Government of Aragon and the European Social Fund (T91 Research Group).Barrachina, J.; Garrido, P.; Fogue, M.; Martínez, FJ.; Cano Escribá, JC.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM.; Manzoni, P. (2014). Reducing emergence services arrival time by using vehicular communications and Evolution Strategies. Expert Systems with Applications. 41(4):1206-1217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eswa.2013.08.004S1206121741

Laparoscopically assisted percutaneous inguinal ring closure for resolution of inguinal/scrotal hernias in rams: cadaveric study and three cases report

The aim of this study is to evaluate a laparoscopically assisted percutaneous suture (LAPS) procedure to treat inguinal hernia (IH) while preserving testicles in rams. An ex vivo experiment with six ram cadavers and a report of three clinical cases are discussed. In cadavers, both internal inguinal rings (IIR) were partially closed by LAPS. Two LAPS methods were tested: (1) using a laparoscopic portal closure device and (2) using a suture loop inserted through needles in each IIR. After each procedure, the closure was laparoscopically evaluated and the number of U- sutures was recorded. The procedure was also performed on three client-owned rams with unilateral non-strangulated IH and the occurrence of re-herniation was followed up. In cadavers, LAPS of the IIRs could be easily and satisfactorily performed with either of the two systems, requiring one to three U-sutures per IIR. No differences were observed between the two surgical procedures. In two clinical cases, the procedure was successfully performed without reoccurrence of herniation or alterations in reproductive behavior in the following 3 and 6 months. In the third case, the hernia was reduced but a retroperitoneal emphysema during laparoscopy prevented hernioplasty and the animal herniated again. In conclusion, LAPS of IIR can be used as a simple and feasible treatment to preserve testicles in rams with IH

Design of conceptual maps for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS)

Massive Open Online Courses have opened a new perspective for learning. The fragmentation of their contents made them easier to follow and permits a faster access to each single video where a content is presented. Nevertheless, this fragmentation is also a handicap in order to set the connections between different contents. We propose the use of concept maps for showing the interconnection of the contents of the course. These maps are elaborated by the teachers and offered as a material of the course. We also expect that these maps will facilitate a deeper learning and the retention of the students in the course.The development of the MOOC and this research has been supported by the Departamento de Matemática Aplicada of the Universitat Politècnica de València under the project Aplicaciones de la Teoría de Grafos a la vida real, within the call Ayudas para proyectos de innovación docente en el DMA de la UPV (PID-DMA 2013).Barrachina, X.; Conejero, JA.; Jordan-Lluch, C.; Murillo Arcila, M. (2015). Design of conceptual maps for Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS). En INTED2015 Proceedings. IATED. 2074-2078. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/70493S2074207

A classical interpretation of the off-shell Coulomb transition matrix

Abstract. We analyse the transition matrix for the two-body Coulomb scattering problem out of the energy shell. This quantity appears in high-order perturbation treatments of multichannel processes and plays a central role in the generalization of the scattering theory to include long-range interactions. In particular, its branch-point singularities on the initial and final half of the energy shell are known to produce sizeable effects in multiple-scattering amplitudes for rearrangement and ionization collisions. In this paper we present a classical description of the off-shell collision process which helps to clarify its essential concepts

Geographical variation in inorganic arsenic in paddy field samples and commercial rice from the Iberian Peninsula

This study investigated total arsenic and arsenic speciation in rice using ion chromatography with mass spectrometric detection (IC-ICP-MS), covering the main rice-growing regions of the Iberian Peninsula in Europe. The main arsenic species found were inorganic and dimethylarsinic acid. Samples surveyed were soil, shoots and field-collected rice grain. From this information soil to plant arsenic transfer was investigated plus the distribution of arsenic in rice across the geographical regions of Spain and Portugal. Commercial polished rice was also obtained from each region and tested for arsenic speciation, showing a positive correlation with field-obtained rice grain. Commercial polished rice had the lowest i-As content in Andalucia, Murcia and Valencia while Extremadura had the highest concentrations. About 26% of commercial rice samples exceeded the permissible concentration for infant food production as governed by the European Commission. Some cadmium data is also presented, available with ICP-MS analyses, and show low concentration in rice samples.Peer Reviewe

Development of a glass-ceramic glaze formulated from industrial residues to improve the mechanical properties of the porcelain stoneware tiles

In this research a mixture of 90%wt of industrial residues (recycled soda-lime glass and ashes from a coalpower thermal plant) have been vitrified for their use as ‘‘secondary raw material”. Then, a glaze suspen-sion was prepared to be applied on the porcelain stoneware tile. The tested pieces have been fired by aconventional porcelain cycle at 1180 °C of maximum temperature. The XRD, XRF, SEM/EDS and thedilatometric analysis have been the instrumental techniques used to characterize the material. Finally,an ecological glass-ceramic glaze perfectly fitting on porcelain ceramic tile has been produced, exhibitinga unique phase, anorthite, which ensures a high flexural strength (around 96 MPa) and a significantVickers microhardness of 250 GPa, improving the mechanical properties of a conventional the porcelainceramic tile

Understanding Evolutionary Algorithms through Interactive Graphical Applications

It is very common to observe, especially in Computer Science studies that students have difficulties to correctly understand how some mechanisms based on Artificial Intelligence work. In addition, the scope and limitations of most of these mechanisms are usually presented by professors only in a theoretical way, which does not help students to understand them adequately. In this work, we focus on the problems found when teaching Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs), which imitate the principles of natural evolution, as a method to solve parameter optimization problems. Although this kind of algorithms can be very powerful to solve relatively complex problems, students often have difficulties to understand how they work, and how to apply them to solve problems in real cases. In this paper, we present two interactive graphical applications which have been specially designed with the aim of making Evolutionary Algorithms easy to be understood by students. Specifically, we present: (i) TSPS, an application able to solve the ”Traveling Salesman Problem”, and (ii) FotEvol, an application able to reconstruct a given image by using Evolution Strategies. The main objective is that students learn how these techniques can be implemented, and the great possibilities they offer