Live demonstration: Neuro-inspired system for realtime vision tilt correction

Correcting digital images tilt needs huge quantities of memory, high computational resources, and use to take a considerable amount of time. This demonstration shows how a spikes-based silicon retina dynamic vision sensor (DVS) tilt can corrected in real time using a commercial accelerometer. DVS output is a stream of spikes codified using the address-event representation (AER). Event-based processing is focused on change in real time DVS output addresses. Taking into account this DVS feature, we present an AER based layer able to correct in real time the DVS tilt, using a high speed algorithmic mapping layer and introducing a minimum latency in the system. A co-design platform (the AER-Robot platform), based into a Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA and an 8051 USB microcontroller, has been used to implement the system

Neuro-inspired system for real-time vision sensor tilt correction

Neuromorphic engineering tries to mimic biological information processing. Address-Event-Representation (AER) is an asynchronous protocol for transferring the information of spiking neuro-inspired systems. Currently AER systems are able sense visual and auditory stimulus, to process information, to learn, to control robots, etc. In this paper we present an AER based layer able to correct in real time the tilt of an AER vision sensor, using a high speed algorithmic mapping layer. A codesign platform (the AER-Robot platform), with a Xilinx Spartan 3 FPGA and an 8051 USB microcontroller, has been used to implement the system. Testing it with the help of the USBAERmini2 board and the jAER software.Junta de Andalucía P06-TIC-01417Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TEC2006-11730-C03-02Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación TEC2009-10639-C04-0

La importancia de capacitar a los estudiantes de ingeniería en medir magnitudes físicas con exactitud y precisión

El proceso docente - educativo dirigido a la formación de ingenieros no siempre responde a la necesidad de hacerlos competentes para medir magnitudes físicas propias del desempeño profesional, debido a lo cual no queda preparado para cumplir algunas de las funciones propias del egresado de estas carreras. La formación de esta capacidad depende de la sistematización de un conjunto de habilidades asociadas al proceso de medición, que circula entre varias disciplinas o queda en el marco estrecho de una de ellas, lo que conlleva a una pérdida en los niveles de asimilación y profundidad de los contenidos, y al final resulta que el ingeniero no está capacitado para medir con la exactitud y precisión requerida. El trabajo pretende presentar este problema, argumentarlo y hacer una propuesta para su solución, basada en un enfoque transdisciplinar.Palabras clave: Magnitudes físicas, proceso de medición, exactitud, precisión, transdisciplinariedad.The importance of enabling engineering students to measure physical quantities with accuracy and precisionThe process of instruction and education aimed at the training of engineers does not always respond to the need to make them competent to measure physical magnitudes of professional performance, due to which it is not prepared to fulfill some of the functions of graduates of these courses. The formation of this capacity depends on the systematization of a set of skills associated with the measurement process, which circulates between several disciplines or is within the narrow frame of one of them, which leads to a loss in the levels of assimilation and depth of the contents, and in the end it turns out that the engineer is not able to measure with the accuracy and precision required. The paper tries to present this problem, to argue it and to make a proposal for its solution, based on a transdisciplinary approach.Key words: Physical magnitudes, measurement process, accuracy, precision, transdisciplinarity

Potenziale del metodo Service-Learning per la promozione della cittadinanza e l’educazione del carattere

Promuovere la cittadinanza nelle società odierne significa rafforzare quegli aspetti del carattere delle persone che consentiranno loro di comportarsi in modo responsabile e attivo e di essere coinvolti nel raggiungimento del bene comune. Riteniamo che la principale difficoltà che si trova oggi nell’educazione civica sia la mancanza di etica. Imparare ad essere un buon cittadino è un compito che dura tutta la vita e una saggezza pratica che non richiede solo intelligenza per riconoscere quali tratti migliorano la nostra vita nella società, ma anche la volontà di praticarli. L’educazione del carattere è un modo di comprendere e identificare l’educazione morale. Mira a riaffermare la dimensione etica inevitabile dell’educazione. L’idea di poter educare il carattere delle persone è antica e risale ai tempi della Grecia classica. Ma anche nella nostra società più attuale abbiamo dei punti di riferimento validi. Negli anni Ottanta e Novanta, ad esempio, il concetto di etica della virtù ha ricevuto un grande impulso ed è diventato la base per una buona educazione del carattere contemporaneo. Non è un caso che l’educazione del carattere sia diventata così importante negli ultimi anni, specialmente nel mondo di lingua inglese, parallelamente a una diffusione del metodo Service-Learning.Promoting citizenship in present-day societies means reinforcing those aspects of people’s characters which will allow them to behave responsibly and actively and be involved in achieving the common good. We believe that the main difficulty to be found in civic education nowadays is a lack of ethics. Learning to be a good citizen is a lifelong task and practical wisdom which not only demands intelligence to recognize which traits improve our life in society but also the will to practice them. Character education is a way of understanding and identifying moral education. It aims to reaffirm the inescapable ethical dimension of education. This proposal has its origins in classical Greece, but it was not until the 1980s and 90s that the ethics of virtue received a great boost and became the basis for a good deal of contemporary character education. It is not by chance that character education has grown so much in importance over the last few years, especially in the English-speaking world, in parallel with an increase in Service-Learning methodology

Educación del carácter en España: causas y evidencias de un débil desarrollo

En los últimos años hemos presenciado un resurgimiento internacional del interés por la educación del carácter que no ha tenido un seguimiento equiparable en España. El objetivo de este artículo es examinar algunas de las principales causas y evidencias de este débil desarrollo en nuestro país, mediante el análisis de la legislación educativa y los problemas teóricos que en ella subyacen. Junto a ello, se propone una educación del carácter de base neoaristotélica que posibilita superar los problemas del modelo kohlbergiano y avanzar hacia una educación integral que tenga como objetivo la plenitud humana.During the last few years, there has been an internationally renewed focus on character education that has not been observed likewise in Spain. The aim of this article is to examine some of the main reasons and evidences of this weak development in our country, through an analysis of the educational legislation and the theoretical problems that underlie it. Moreover, a neoaristoelian character education is proposed, which overcomes problems of Kohlberg’s model and makes possible an integral education whose main aim is human flourishing

Desarrollo ético-cívico en el Aprendizaje-Servicio: un análisis desde la filosofía de la educación a través del pensamiento comunitarista de Amitai Etzioni

The growth of research and practice on Service-Learning has not been sufficiently wedded to a development of its theoretical foundations and the study of its contributions to ethical-civic education and the links of the school and the community. This study proposes an analysis of the contributions that Amitai Etzioni's communitarianism can make to the justification of this educational methodology in the current context and, more specifically, against the ultra-individualistic, utilitarian and mercantilist tendencies that blur the idea of community, starting from a moral dialogue, mutualism, social justice and community empowerment.El crecimiento de la investigación y la práctica sobre Aprendizaje-Servicio no ha venido suficientemente acompasado de un desarrollo de sus bases teóricas y el estudio de sus contribuciones a la formación ético-cívica y a la vinculación de la escuela con la comunidad. Este artículo propone un análisis de las aportaciones que el comunitarismo de Amitai Etzioni puede realizar a la justificación de esta metodología educativa en el contexto actual y, más concretamente, frente a las tendencias ultraindividualistas, utilitaristas y mercantilistas que difuminan la idea de comunidad, partiendo de un diálogo moral, el mutualismo, la justicia social y el empoderamiento comunitario

Mechanical Identities of RNA and DNA Double Helices Unveiled at the Single-Molecule Level

[EN] Double-stranded (ds) RNA is the genetic material of a variety of viruses and has been recently recognized as a relevant molecule in cells for its regulatory role. Despite that the elastic response of dsDNA has been thoroughly characterized in recent years in single-molecule stretching experiments, an equivalent study with dsRNA is still lacking. Here, we have engineered long dsRNA molecules for their individual characterization contrasting information with dsDNA molecules of the same sequence. It is known that dsRNA is an A-form molecule unlike dsDNA, which exhibits B-form in physiological conditions. These structural types are distinguished at the single-molecule level with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and are the basis to understand their different elastic response. Force¿extension curves of dsRNA with optical and magnetic tweezers manifest two main regimes of elasticity, an entropic regime whose end is marked by the A-form contour- length and an intrinsic regime that ends in a low-cooperative overstretching transition in which the molecule extends to 1.7 times its A-form contour-length. DsRNA does not switch between the A and B conformations in the presence of force. Finally, dsRNA presents both a lower stretch modulus and overstretching transition force than dsDNA, whereas the electrostatic and intrinsic contributions to the persistence length are larger.This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (BFU2011-29038 and BFU2010-15703) and the Comunidad de Madrid (S2009/MAT/1507). IRA.-G. acknowledges a Ramon y Cajal contract from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (RYC-2007-01765). Work in the F.M.-H. laboratory was supported by a Starting Grant from the European Research Council (no. 206117) and a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation (FIS2011-24638). We thank M. S. Dillingham for kindly providing the pSP73-JY0 plasmid, M. Menendez for access to a spectropolarimeter, A. Monserrate for polylysine-AFM control experiments, and B. Ibarra for fruitful discussions.Herrero-Galán, E.; Fuentes-Perez. M.E.; Carrasco, C.; Valpuesta, J.; Carrascosa, J.; Moreno-Herrero, F.; Arias-Gonzalez, JR. (2013). Mechanical Identities of RNA and DNA Double Helices Unveiled at the Single-Molecule Level. Journal of the American Chemical Society. 135(1):122-131. https://doi.org/10.1021/ja3054755S122131135

Using meteorological measurements from different sources to evaluate the human comfort in urban area

Climate change affects the thermal and human comfort in urban areas. This is more evident in equatorial towns that have experienced, in the last decades, of an increase of air temperature which, acting together with the increasing of the rain rate, generates a strong deterioration of the human comfort. The characterization of the urban heat island is one of the most important points in the agenda of the Research Centers, as well as of the Weather Services of the Nations located in the equatorial area. The Escuela Superior Politecnica del Litoral (Ecuador), jointly with the Instituto Nacional de Meteorologia e Hidrologia (INAMHI - Ecuador) and with the Politecnico di Torino and the Università di Torino (Italy), started a project devoted to the analysis of the thermal comfort in the Guayaquil urban area. The research is funded by the Secretaria de Educacion Superior, Ciencia, Tecnologia e Innovacion (SENESCYT – Ecuador) in the context of the PROMETEO project. The preliminary results of this research show us how, to better describe the thermal comfort in the urban area, it is important to have available the meteorological parameters measured by a meso-network of Automatic Weather Stations. The elaboration of these measures with the Universal Thermal Climate Indices, like the PMV and the PET, provide a detailed analysis of the thermal comfort and of the related human comfort in the urban area. The results of this analysis are to be evaluated jointly with the aerological measurements and with the remote sensing images to characterize correctly the urban heat island

World Health Organization critical priority Escherichia coli clone ST648 in magnificent frigatebird (Fregata magnificens) of an uninhabited insular environment

Antimicrobial resistance is an ancient natural phenomenon increasingly pressured by anthropogenic activities. Escherichia coli has been used as markers of environmental contamination and human-related activity. Seabirds may be bioindicators of clinically relevant bacterial pathogens and their antimicrobial resistance genes, including extended-spectrum-beta-lactamase (ESBL) and/or plasmid-encoded AmpC (pAmpC), in anthropized and remote areas. We evaluated cloacal swabs of 20 wild magnificent frigatebirds (Fregata magnificens) of the Alcatrazes Archipelago, the biggest breeding colony of magnificent frigatebirds in the southern Atlantic and a natural protected area with no history of human occupation, located in the anthropized southeastern Brazilian coast. We characterized a highly virulent multidrug-resistant ST648 (O153:H9) pandemic clone, harboring bla, bla, qnrB, tetB, sul1, sul2, aadA1, aac(3)-VIa and mdfA, and virulence genes characteristic of avian pathogenic (APEC) (hlyF, iroN, iss, iutA, and ompT) and other extraintestinal E. coli (ExPEC) (chuA, kpsMII, and papC). To our knowledge, this is the first report of ST648 E. coli co-producing ESBL and pAmpC in wild birds inhabiting insular environments. We suggest this potentially zoonotic and pathogenic lineage was likely acquired through indirect anthropogenic contamination of the marine environment, ingestion of contaminated seafood, or by intra and/or interspecific contact. Our findings reinforce the role of wild birds as anthropization sentinels in insular environments and the importance of wildlife surveillance studies on pathogens of critical priority classified by the World Health Organization