Desarrollo de un módulo de adaptación en tiempo de ejecución para un reproductor de procesos de aprendizaje

La finalidad principal de este Proyecto Fin de Carrera de la titulación de Ingeniería Informática es la de desarrollar un mecanismo que permita extender un motor de ejecución de procesos de aprendizaje, concretamente CopperCore, con el fin de implementar adaptaciones de procesos de aprendizaje especificados mediante IMS LD en tiempo de ejecución. El Proyecto se enmarca dentro del ámbito de los procesos de aprendizaje asistidos por ordenador en los que es necesaria la presencia de un tutor que los supervise. La figura de este tutor es de suma importancia debido a que ejerce un rol de guía sobre los alumnos para garantizar que se cumpla con la planificación establecida y para ofrecer asistencia pedagógica en caso de que sea necesario. Este tipo de proceso de aprendizaje es un modelo que se ha estado siguiendo desde hace décadas en la enseñanza a distancia, si bien con el auge de las nuevas tecnologías ha experimentado un auge espectacular. A la hora de analizar las soluciones informáticas que se han desarrollado durante las últimas décadas para dar soporte a este tipo de procesos de aprendizaje, nos vamos a centrar en el seguido por los Learning Management Systems (LMS) o Sistemas de Gestión del Aprendizaje. Con este enfoque lo que se persigue es, desde un punto de vista comercial, desarrollar entornos virtuales que proporcionen los servicios necesarios para el desarrollo de experiencias educativas. Los LMS son aplicaciones software que automatizan las tareas de administración, gestión y monitorización de procesos de aprendizaje. De manera paralela al desarrollo de este tipo de aplicaciones surgió la necesidad de establecer estándares para el desarrollo de los contenidos educativos, de forma que se garantizase su interoperabilidad y se asegurase la rentabilidad de las inversiones realizadas por los fabricantes. El estándar en el que se basa este Proyecto Fin de Carrera es el desarrollado por el IMS Global Consistorium Inc., más concretamente IMS Learning Design. IMS Learning Design es un lenguaje de modelado educativo (EML, siglas en inglés de Educational Modelling Language), el más completo y aceptado en la actualidad, en el que, además de detallar los componentes y recursos que van a ser empleados en un proceso educativo, se describen explícitamente las actividades que se llevarán a cabo, así como el uso que hará cada una de ellas de los recursos disponibles, los roles de los participantes de las actividades, etc. Además, IMS Learning Design permite la creación de descripciones completas, abstractas y portables desde el punto de vista pedagógico de forma que puedan ser puestas en práctica a través de motores de ejecución compatibles con la especificación. Este estándar se basa en el uso de Unidades de Aprendizaje (UOL, siglas en inglés de Unit Of Learning), que son ficheros que contienen un manifiesto, en el que se incluye toda la información para llevar a cabo un proceso educativo, y todos los recursos necesarios. El formato de especificación del manifiesto es el lenguaje XML. Una vez editada una UOL, existen diversos programas que se encargan de su interpretación y de su representación en una interfaz con el fin de poder desarrollar las actividades propuestas, al mismo tiempo que controlan las interacciones que se llevan a cabo. Este tipo de software se denomina Learning Design Player, y este Proyecto Fin de Carrera está basado en el desarrollado por la OUNL, CopperCore, que es una aplicación open source.Ingeniería en Informátic

A comunicação Social e a actividade policial: a percepção de imprensa sobre a actuação policial em grandes eventos de cariz político

A influência dos órgãos de comunicação social nas sociedades actuais é inquestionável, a ponto de os cidadãos, quando se querem fazer ouvir, procurarem sobretudo a sua atenção. No entanto os jornalistas não se limitam a reflectir a realidade, eles próprios são criadores de realidades e transmissores de enviesamentos ao elaborarem notícias com base em enquadramentos que vão condicionar a percepção do público sobre determinados acontecimentos. Importa perceber como esta forma de retratar a realidade influencia a percepção das pessoas relativamente às instituições do sistema social, como é o caso das polícias. Através de uma abordagem qualitativa procurámos analisar o conteúdo das notícias transmitidas por três jornais diários (Correio da Manhã, Diário de Notícias e Jornal de Notícias), durante o ano de 2012, sobre a actuação policial, especificamente da Polícia de Segurança Pública, em grandes eventos de cariz político. Procura-se perceber, através da análise de conteúdo, que tipo de informação é disponibilizada ao público, sabendo que para muitas pessoas esta é a única forma de terem contacto com os acontecimentos; e as suas exposições, apesar de moderadas pelas características pessoais de cada um, vão ser baseadas nessa informação. Procuramos destacar os esquemas interpretativos que são emitidos fornecendo uma grelha que facilite a compreensibilidade da realidade. Os resultados revelam, entre outros, que os jornalistas privilegiam a descrição dos factos descurando os motivos que levam ao seu surgimento; e, a maioria das fontes utilizadas não é identificada explicitamenteThe influence of the media in contemporary societies is unquestionable as to citizens, when they want to be heard, especially look after their attention. However journalists do not merely reflect reality, they are themselves creators of realities and transmit biases when making news based on frameworks that will condition the public's perception of certain events. It is important to understand how this portrayal of reality influences the perception of individuals with regard to the institutions of the social system, such as the police. Through a qualitative approach, we have analyzed the content of the news reported by three daily newspapers (Correio da Manhã, Diário de Notícias, and Jornal de Notícias) regarding the police activities, specifically the Polícia de Segurança Pública, in major political events. We aimed to realize, using content analysis, what kind of information is available to the public, knowing that for many people this is the only way they get in contact with the events; and that their exhibition, although mediated by their individual characteristics, will be based on that information. We aimed also to highlight the interpretive schemes that are issued providing a grid to facilitate the comprehensibility of reality. The results show, among other things, that journalists emphasize the description of the facts neglecting the reasons that lead to their appearance; and, most of the sources used are not explicitly identified

Transition to the Circular Economy in the Fashion Industry: The Case of the Inditex Family Business

Society is increasingly concerned about aspects of work related to sustainability. This leads organizations to reflect on the economic, environmental, and social problems that affect both current and future generations. When companies identify an environmental problem, they try to respond to it through changes in their environmental policies, aiming at the transition towards sustainability. In this context, the circular economy appears as a regenerative industrial system that replaces the concept of “end of life” with that of “restoration”. It is oriented to the use of renewable energies, eliminating the use of toxic chemicals, which are harmful to reuse. The theory of socio-emotional wealth describes the behavior patterns of family businesses in response to the environmental changes that occur and the reasons derived from the family character that make them move towards the circular economy model. This article studies the case of the Spanish textile manufacturing and distribution multinational Inditex, analyzing the information collected in its environmental balances in the period 2013–2018. The analysis allows us to observe the speed of Inditex’s transition to the circular economy. For this, transition speed indicators were formed in each of the dimensions of the circular economy model. The results of the study indicate areas in which the company is moving faster and those in which more effort is needed. Finally, a collection of good practices related to the CE used by Inditex is provided

Integrated analysis of the health and social inequalities of Spanish adolescents

Este estudio descriptivo presenta el proceso hasta la creación de una puntuación global de la salud en los adolescentes. En los últimos años, el concepto de salud, en el que se basa este estudio, ha sufrido cambios para incluir tanto los elementos disfuncionales como las fortalezas que protegen la salud. La muestra estuvo formada por 18.955 adolescentes, representativos de la población de 11 a 18 años en España y en cada una de las Comunidades Autónomas que conforman el Estado español. Utilizando técnicas de análisis factorial exploratorio y confirmatorio, los resultados mostraron una dimensión global de la salud, a partir de indicadores autoinformados de satisfacción vital, calidad de vida relacionada con la salud, percepción del estado general de salud y malestar psicosomático. Esta puntuación de salud disminuía a medida que aumentaba la edad y de manera más marcada en mujeres, así como en adolescentes de familias con capacidad adquisitiva baja. Los análisis comparativos entre Comunidades Autónomas mostraron diferencias entre ellas, no atribuibles en principio al bienestar económico de la región. Finalmente, se discutieron estos resultados y sus implicaciones, así como la importancia de la medida utilizada en el análisis de las desigualdades sociales en salud.This survey descriptive study presents the process leading up to the creation of a global health score for adolescents. In recent years, the concept of health, which is the bases for this study, has undergone changes to include both dysfunctional elements as well as the individual resources that protect health. The sample was made up of 18,955 adolescents between 11 to 18 years of age, in Spain and with participants in each of the regions making up the kingdom of Spain. Using exploratory and confirmatory factorial analysis techniques, the results showed a global dimension of the health, starting from self-report indicators of life satisfaction, health-related quality of life, perception of the general state of health and psychosomatic complaints. This health score decreased as age increased and more notably among girls, as well as in adolescents from low-income families. The comparative analyses between regions showed differences which were, in principle, not attributable to the economic well-being of the geographic area. Finally, these results and their implications were discussed, as well as the importance of the calculation used in the analysis of the social inequalities in health

treNch: Ultra-Low Power Wireless Communication Protocol for IoT and Energy Harvesting

Although the number of Internet of Things devices increases every year, efforts to decrease hardware energy demands and to improve efficiencies of the energy-harvesting stages have reached an ultra-low power level. However, no current standard of wireless communication protocol (WCP) can fully address those scenarios. Our focus in this paper is to introduce treNch, a novel WCP implementing the cross-layer principle to use the power input for adapting its operation in a dynamic manner that goes from pure best-effort to nearly real time. Together with the energy-management algorithm, it operates with asynchronous transmissions, synchronous and optional receptions, short frame sizes and a light architecture that gives control to the nodes. These features make treNch an optimal option for wireless sensor networks with ultra-low power demands and severe energy fluctuations. We demonstrate through a comparison with different modes of Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) a decrease of the power consumption in 1 to 2 orders of magnitude for different scenarios at equal quality of service. Moreover, we propose some security optimizations, such as shorter over-the-air counters, to reduce the packet overhead without decreasing the security level. Finally, we discuss other features aside of the energy needs, such as latency, reliability or topology, brought again against BLE.ECSEL Joint Undertaking through CONNECT project 737434Federal Ministry of Education & Research (BMBF)European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programSpanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD)/FEDER-EU FPU18/01376BBVA FoundationUniversity of Granad

EMG-based motion intention recognition for controlling a powered knee orthosis

Powered assistive devices have been playing a major role in gait rehabilitation. This work aims to develop a user-oriented assistive strategy with an EMG-based control using a powered knee orthosis (PKO) to provide assistive commands according to the user's motion intention tracked by electromyography (EMG) signals. To achieve this goal, the work first comprised the development of a wired EMG acquisition system, the study and implementation of a knee joint torque estimation method, and the development of a real-time controller, which uses the estimated torque as the reference actuator's torque to provide user-oriented assistance in walking. We used a proportional gain method to estimate the knee torque, which required a calibration procedure, allowing to determine the relation between the EMG signal and the actuator's torque. The EMG-based control was validated with two subjects walking in a treadmill. The EMG-based control performed as expected since it proved to be functional and time-effective when assisting the user's movements in walking at different walking speeds. Findings show that the developed assistive strategy can effectively follow the user's motion intention and has the potential for gait rehabilitation of patients with residual muscular strength.This work has been supported in part by the Fundacao para a Ciencia e Tecnologia (FCT) with the Reference Scholarship under Grant SFRH/BD/108309/2015, the reference project UID/EEA/04436/2019, by FEDER funds through the COMPETE 2020 - Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizacao (POCI) - with the reference Project POCI-01-0145-FEDER-006941; and the LIACC Project UID/CEC/00027/2019; and with national funds from FCT project SmartOs-under Grant NORTE-01-0145-FEDER-030386

A day-ahead irradiance forecasting strategy for the integration of photovoltaic systems in virtual power plants

Encouraged by the considerable cost reduction, small-scale solar power deployment has become a reality during the last decade. However, grid integration of small-scale photovoltaic (PV) solar systems still remains unresolved. High penetration of Renewable Energy Sources (RESs) results in technical challenges for grid operators. To address this, Virtual Power Plants (VPPs) have been defined and developed to manage distributed energy resources with the aim of facilitating the integration of RESs. This paper introduces a hybrid irradiance forecasting approach aimed at facilitating the integration of PV systems into a VPP, especially when a historical irradiance dataset is exiguous or non-existent. This approach is based on Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and a novel similar hour-based selection algorithm, has been tested for a real PV installation, and has been validated also considering irradiance measurements from an aggregation of ground-based meteorological stations, which emulate the nodes of a VPP. Under a reduced historical dataset, the results show that the proposed similar hour-based method produces the best forecasts with regard to those obtained by the ANN-based approach. This is particularly true for one-month and two-month datasets minimizing the mean error by 16.32% and 9.07% respectively. Finally, to demonstrate the potential of the proposed approach, a comparative analysis has been carried out between the hybrid method and the most used benchmarks in the literature, namely, the persistence method and the method based on similar days. It has been demonstrated conclusively that the proposed model yields promising results regardless the length of the historical dataset.Comunidad de MadridAgencia Estatal de Investigació

Bibliometric Study of Scientific Production on the Term Collaborative Learning in Web of Science

Currently, more and more teachers decide to follow active teaching methods, leaving behind traditional teaching methods. Among the most used pedagogical methods in the educational field is the collaborative learning. The general objective of the present investigation is to know the performance and academic development of the term "collaborative learning" in the documents collected in the Web of Science database. The research method developed was based on a bibliometric study, identifying academic performance and conceptual development, through a co-word analysis. Particularly, we have pursued four main objectives: (a) To determine the degree of performance of documents collected from collaborative learning; (b) to identify the scientific development of so-called collaborative learning; (c) to analyze the most incidental aspects of collaborative learning; and (d) to value the most representative authors who are experts in the use of collaborative learning. The total number of manuscripts studied is 3295. The results show the manuscripts are written mainly in English by researchers who belong from the United States. The main area of knowledge is Education Educational Research. As a conclusion, it can be said that the collaborative learning pedagogical method is at a turning point in the scientific field. Its scientific evolution, focused on its principles in the students themselves, has extended to other branches. At present, studies are oriented towards technological resources, co-regulation, and the academic achievements of students. Furthermore, in the coming years the terms innovation, design, patterns, collaboration, and communication will probably be the new lines of study in this scientific field.University of Granada HUM-67

Screen Printed Security-Button for Radio Frequency Identification Tags

Radio frequency identi cation (RFID) security is a relevant matter. The wide spread of RFID applications in the general society and the persistent attempts to safeguard it con rm it, especially since its use involves payments and the store or transmission of sensitive information. In this contribution, we present an innovative solution for improving the security of RFID passive tags through the use of a screen printed button, that allows the reception and transmission only when a certain level of physical pressure normal to its plane is applied. The materials and fabrication technology used demonstrate an easy to implement and cost-effective system, valuable in several scenarios where the user has straight contact with the tags and where its usage is direct and intentional.This work was supported by the fellowship under Grant 2020-MSCA-IF-2017-794885-SELFSENS

Low-Cost Energy-Autonomous Sensor Nodes Through RF Energy Harvesting and Printed Technology

The irruption of Internet of Things and 5G in our society comes along with several technological challenges to overcome. From an overall perspective, the low-cost and environmental friendliness of these technologies need to be ensured for their universal deployment in different areas, starting with the sensors and finishing with the power sources. To address these challenges, the production and maintenance of a great number of sensor nodes incur costs, which include manufacturing and integration in mass of elements and sub-blocks, changing or recharging of batteries, as well as management of natural resources and waste. In this article, we demonstrate how Radio Frequency Energy Harvesting (RFEH) and printed flexible technology (a growing technology for sensors) can solve these concerns through costeffective mass-production and utilization of energy harvesting for the development of energy-autonomous nodes, as part of a wireless sensor network. We present as illustration a sprayed flexible relative humidity sensor powered with RFEH under the store-and-use principle.This work was partially supported by the ECSEL Joint Undertaking through the Electronic Component Systems for European Leadership Joint Undertaking under grant agreement No 737434. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research and the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and Slovakia, Netherlands, Spain, Italy. In addition, the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (MECD) and the European Union supported it through the pre-doctoral grant FPU16/01451 and the fellowship H2020-MSCA-IF-2017794885-SELFSENS