User study and integration of assistive technologies for people with cognitive disabilities in their daily life activities

Journal of Ambient Intelligence and Smart Environments, vol. 7, no. 3, Gomez, Javier; Montoro, Germán, Evaluating Ambient Assisted Living Components and Systems, pp. 389-390, Copyright (2015), with permission from IOS PressThe present article summarizes the doctoral dissertation of Javier Gomez

Bootstrap testing for cross-correlation under low firing activity

A new cross-correlation synchrony index for neural activity is proposed. The index is based on the integration of the kernel estimation of the cross-correlation function. It is used to test for the dynamic synchronization levels of spontaneous neural activity under two induced brain states: sleep-like and awake-like. Two bootstrap resampling plans are proposed to approximate the distribution of the test statistics. The results of the first bootstrap method indicate that it is useful to discern significant differences in the synchronization dynamics of brain states characterized by a neural activity with low firing rate. The second bootstrap method is useful to unveil subtle differences in the synchronization levels of the awake-like state, depending on the activation pathway.Comment: 22 pages, 7 figure

2D-3D Geometric Fusion Network using Multi-Neighbourhood Graph Convolution for RGB-D Indoor Scene Classification

Multi-modal fusion has been proved to help enhance the performance of scene classification tasks. This paper presents a 2D-3D Fusion stage that combines 3D Geometric Features with 2D Texture Features obtained by 2D Convolutional Neural Networks. To get a robust 3D Geometric embedding, a network that uses two novel layers is proposed. The first layer, Multi-Neighbourhood Graph Convolution, aims to learn a more robust geometric descriptor of the scene combining two different neighbourhoods: one in the Euclidean space and the other in the Feature space. The second proposed layer, Nearest Voxel Pooling, improves the performance of the well-known Voxel Pooling. Experimental results, using NYU-Depth-V2 and SUN RGB-D datasets, show that the proposed method outperforms the current state-of-the-art in RGB-D indoor scene classification task

SkinningNet: two-stream graph convolutional neural network for skinning prediction of synthetic characters

This work presents SkinningNet, an end-to-end Two-Stream Graph Neural Network architecture that computes skinning weights from an input mesh and its associated skeleton, without making any assumptions on shape class and structure of the provided mesh. Whereas previous methods pre-compute handcrafted features that relate the mesh and the skeleton or assume a fixed topology of the skeleton, the proposed method extracts this information in an end-to-end learnable fashion by jointly learning the best relationship between mesh vertices and skeleton joints. The proposed method exploits the benefits of the novel Multi-Aggregator Graph Convolution that combines the results of different aggregators during the summarizing step of the Message-Passing scheme, helping the operation to generalize for unseen topologies. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of the contributions of our novel architecture, with SkinningNet outperforming current state-of-the-art alternatives.This work has been partially supported by the project PID2020-117142GB-I00, funded by MCIN/AEI /10.13039/501100011033.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Normalización del análisis de la piedra y conservación del patrimonio cultural. The Standardization of Stone Analysis and Conservation of Cultural Heritage

La normalización de los métodos de análisis y de los principales aspectos relacionados con la conservación de los bienes culturales ha empezado en 2004 con la creación del comité europeo de normalización, CEN/TC 346 Conservation of Cultural Property, que tiene la responsabilidad no solamente de redactar protocolos de ensayos en laboratorio, sino también proponer las recomendaciones más adecuadas para designarlos de forma consensual y conservarlos de la forma más apropiada. Se comentan los aspectos relacionados con el origen de estas normas, el trabajo desarrollado y que muchas de ellas, aunque no estén dirigidas específicamente a la piedra, tienen en cuenta la presencia de este material en objetos arqueológicos, obras de arte, estructuras de fábricas y elementos ornamentales

Delimited Massively Parallel Algorithm based on Rules Elimination for Application of Active Rules in Transition P Systems

In the field of Transition P systems implementation, it has been determined that it is very important to determine in advance how long takes evolution rules application in membranes. Moreover, to have time estimations of rules application in membranes makes possible to take important decisions related to hardware/software architectures design. The work presented here introduces an algorithm for applying active evolution rules in Transition P systems, which is based on active rules elimination. The algorithm complies the requisites of being nondeterministic, massively parallel, and what is more important, it is time delimited because it is only dependant on the number of membrane evolution rules

Ifaces: Adaptative user interfaces for ambient intelligence

Proceedings of the IADIS International Conference on Interfaces and Human Computer Interaction. Amsterdam, The Netherlands 25-27 July 2008In this paper we present an ontology language to model an environment and its graphical user interface in the field of ambient intelligence. This language allows a simple definition of the environment and automatically produces its associated interaction interface. The interface dynamically readjusts to the characteristics of the environment and the available devices. Therefore it adapts to the necessities of the people who have to use it and their resources. The system has been developed and tested employing a real ambient intelligence environment.This work has been partly funded by HADA project number TIN2007 – 64718 and the UAM – Indra Chair in Ambient Intelligence

To buy green or not to buy: environmental concerned companies and individuals' rewarding behaviour

The present research aim to examine individuals´ purchasing behavioural intention related with corporations who are environmental concerned. Two Structural Equations Models are proposed and tested independently for the behavioral intention or rewarding and punishing companies by buying or not their products. Results highlight the importance of increasing perceived consumer effectiveness of their energy saving actions, as well as involvement to enhance the risk perceived of global climate change and pro-environmental related behaviors. Furthermore, behavioral intention seems to be determined by past reported behaviour and consumers´ risk perception.Incentivos a proyectos de investigación de excelencia de las universidades y organismos de investigación de Andalucía: proyectos de promoción general del conocimiento PGC.SEJ.6768.Incentivos para la formación de personal docente e investigador predoctoral en áreas de conocimiento deficitarias, concedido a la doctoranda por la Consejería de Innovación, Ciencia y Empresa de la Junta de Andalucía en la convocatoria 2010

Performance comparison of large-area SiPM arrays suitable for gamma ray detectors

[EN] The use of photosensors of the type Silicon Photomultpliers (SiPM) has widely been extended in recent years for multiple applications in both research and industry. However, there is a lack of comparative studies of different SiPMs under the same conditions, making it difficult to choose the most appropriate one for a specific application. SiPM arrays are suitable for gamma rays detectors, especially when covering large active areas. They are used either in clinical or pre-clinical scenarios, constituting Single-Photon Emission Computed Tomography (SPECT) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) scanners, or just gamma cameras. The current work presents, for the first time, a comparative study between SensL, Hamamatsu Photonics and KETEK arrays of 12 x 12 SiPMs, with individual active areas of 3 mm x 3 mm, thus covering a total active area of about 5 cm x 5 cm. In this study, we have first evaluated their bias and temperature dependencies, resulting in a very similar behaviour with just a slightly larger dependency of the tested Hamamatsu parts. We also report the performance of detector blocks based on these three SiPM arrays, when coupled to pixelated crystal arrays and monolithic scintillators, in terms of photon impact estimation accuracy, as well as energy resolution. In the case of the monolithic crystals, also the depth of interaction resolution was determined. Both monolithic and pixelated blocks are nowadays widely used in academia or are commercially available for molecular imaging systems. The results obtained for the three SiPM arrays when using those crystals, are comparable, without observing any significant different among them.This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation program (grant agreement No 695536). It has also been supported by the Spanish Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad under Grant TEC2016-79884-C2-1-R.Gonzalez-Montoro, A.; González Martínez, AJ. (2019). Performance comparison of large-area SiPM arrays suitable for gamma ray detectors. Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express. 5(4):1-10. https://doi.org/10.1088/2057-1976/ab0f6eS11054Henseler, D., Grazioso, R., Nan Zhang, & Schmand, M. (2009). SiPM performance in PET applications: An experimental and theoretical analysis. 2009 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record (NSS/MIC). doi:10.1109/nssmic.2009.5402157Buzhan, P., Dolgoshein, B., Filatov, L., Ilyin, A., Kantzerov, V., Kaplin, V., … Smirnov, S. (2003). Silicon photomultiplier and its possible applications. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 504(1-3), 48-52. doi:10.1016/s0168-9002(03)00749-6Dolgoshein, B., Balagura, V., Buzhan, P., Danilov, M., Filatov, L., Garutti, E., … Tikhomirov, I. (2006). Status report on silicon photomultiplier development and its applications. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 563(2), 368-376. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2006.02.193Berard, P., Couture, M., Deschamps, P., Laforce, F., & Dautet, H. (2011). Performance measurement for a new low dark count UV-SiPM. 2011 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium Conference Record. doi:10.1109/nssmic.2011.6154109Moliner, L., González, A. J., Soriano, A., Sánchez, F., Correcher, C., Orero, A., … Benlloch, J. M. (2012). Design and evaluation of the MAMMI dedicated breast PET. Medical Physics, 39(9), 5393-5404. doi:10.1118/1.4742850Gonzalez, A. J., Aguilar, A., Conde, P., Hernandez, L., Moliner, L., Vidal, L. F., … Benlloch, J. M. (2016). A PET Design Based on SiPM and Monolithic LYSO Crystals: Performance Evaluation. IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science, 63(5), 2471-2477. doi:10.1109/tns.2016.2522179Gonzalez-Montoro, A., Benlloch, J. M., Gonzalez, A. J., Aguilar, A., Canizares, G., Conde, P., … Sanchez, F. (2017). Performance Study of a Large Monolithic LYSO PET Detector With Accurate Photon DOI Using Retroreflector Layers. IEEE Transactions on Radiation and Plasma Medical Sciences, 1(3), 229-237. doi:10.1109/trpms.2017.2692819González-Montoro, A., Sánchez, F., Martí, R., Hernández, L., Aguilar, A., Barberá, J., … González, A. J. (2018). Detector block performance based on a monolithic LYSO crystal using a novel signal multiplexing method. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 912, 372-377. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2017.10.098Ronzhin, A., Albrow, M., Los, S., Martens, M., Murat, P., Ramberg, E., … Ritt, S. (2013). A SiPM-based TOF-PET detector with high speed digital DRS4 readout. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research Section A: Accelerators, Spectrometers, Detectors and Associated Equipment, 703, 109-113. doi:10.1016/j.nima.2012.11.043Kim, C., McDaniel, D., Malaney, J., McBroom, G., Peterson, W., Tran, V. H., … Ganin, A. (2012). Time-of-flight PET-MR detector development with silicon photomultiplier. 2012 IEEE Nuclear Science Symposium and Medical Imaging Conference Record (NSS/MIC). doi:10.1109/nssmic.2012.6551808Schaart, D. R., van Dam, H. T., Seifert, S., Vinke, R., Dendooven, P., Löhner, H., & Beekman, F. J. (2009). A novel, SiPM-array-based, monolithic scintillator detector for PET. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 54(11), 3501-3512. doi:10.1088/0031-9155/54/11/01