Herramienta para el aprendizaje de técnicas de mezcla en producción musical

Desde los años 60, la grabación musical consta, desde un punto de vista técnico, de tres etapas. Generalmente, primero se graba el sonido, después se mezcla y finalmente se masteriza. Estas dos últimas etapas son fundamentales de cara a definir exactamente cómo queremos que suene la grabación. La mezcla y la masterización no son, sin embargo, tareas fáciles. Esto se debe, entre otras cosas, a que suponen una actividad artística que individualiza las acciones técnicas en función de la actitud estética de cada ingeniero de sonido. Es por ello, por lo que no siempre resulta evidente aprender el conjunto de técnicas y conceptos, relacionados con el tratamiento del sonido y la mezcla, que sirven para expresar esa actividad artística. Este trabajo tiene como objetivo desarrollar una herramienta de aprendizaje para la mezcla de grabaciones musicales que facilite la comprensión de los aspectos básicos de la mezcla estéreo. En la aplicación, desde un punto de vista visual, los instrumentos musicales estarán representados en un espacio tridimensional mediante esferas, las cuales podrán ser posicionadas en el espacio y modificadas de tamaño. El usuario, modificando estos y otros parámetros, podrá de este modo realizar una mezcla multipista. A continuación, la aplicación hará un análisis de dicha mezcla y la calificará de cara a enseñar al usuario los aspectos básicos de la mezcla estéreo

Enriquecimiento tecnológico y psicopedagógico del concepto de comunidades de práctica en la educación a distancia

This paper addresses the issue of the transformation of communities of practice as a collective strategy of knowledge construction, which has incorporated new technological developments, innovative forms of learning, constructive nature of knowledge creation and the use of virtual spaces of interactivity that promote teaching and learning. This paper describes how communities of practice (now converted in virtual learning communities) have been enriched by the contributions of theoretical approaches as connectivism and collective intelligence, development of virtual learning environments, personal learning spaces, use of Web 2.0 applications and Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC). The concept of communities of practice and their general characteristics is described and updated the concept based on the notion of virtual learning communities and some current technological and educational developments that enhance, mainly, distance education.El presente documento aborda el tema de la transformación de las comunidades de práctica como un colectivo vigente de construcción de conocimiento, que ha incorporado nuevos desarrollos tecnológicos, formas adecuadas de concepción del aprendizaje, la naturaleza constructiva de la creación del conocimiento y la utilización de espacios virtuales de interactividad que promueven la enseñanza y el aprendizaje. Con base en lo anterior, este trabajo expone cómo las comunidades de práctica (convertidas ahora en comunidades virtuales de aprendizaje) se han enriquecido con las aportaciones de enfoques teóricos como el conectivismo y la inteligencia colectiva, el desarrollo de los ambientes virtuales de aprendizaje, los espacios personales de aprendizaje, el uso de aplicaciones de la Web 2.0 y los cursos masivos (MOOC). A continuación se describe el concepto de comunidades de práctica y sus características generales y, posteriormente, se actualiza el concepto con base en la noción de comunidades virtuales de aprendizaje y se presentan algunos desarrollos tecnológicos y pedagógicos actuales que enriquecen la educación a distancia

Actuarial accounting for a notional defined contribution scheme combining retirement and longterm care benefits

This paper develops a social insurance accounting model for a notional defined contribution (NDC) scheme combining retirement and long-term care (LTC) contingencies. The procedure relies on standard double-entry bookkeeping and enables us to compile a “Swedish” type actuarial balance sheet (ABS) following a framework equivalent to an open group approach. This methodology is suitable for reporting the system’s solvency status and can show periodical changes in the system’s financial position by means of an income statement. The information underpinning the actuarial valuation is based on events and transactions that are verifiable at the valuation date, without considering expected future trends. The paper also contains an illustrative example to make it easier for policymakers to understand the main advantages and difficulties of our proposal. The policy conclusions stress the need to properly report social insurance benefits to enhance transparency and sustainability and to improve decision-making because it is in the public interest to do so

Social insurance accounting for a notional defined contribution scheme combining retirement and long-term care benefits

This paper develops a social insurance accounting model for a notional defined contribution (NDC) scheme combining retirement and long-term care (LTC) contingencies. The procedure relies on standard double-entry bookkeeping and enables us to compile a 'Swedish' type actuarial balance sheet (ABS) following a framework equivalent to an open group approach. This methodology is suitable for reporting the system's solvency status and can show periodical changes in the system's financial position by means of an income statement. The information underpinning the actuarial valuation is based on events and transactions that are verifiable at the valuation date, without considering expected future trends. The paper also contains an illustrative example to make it easier for policymakers to understand the main advantages and difficulties of our proposal. The policy conclusions stress the need to properly report social insurance benefits to enhance transparency and sustainability and to improve decision-making because it is in the public interest to do so

Multithreshold Segmentation by Using an Algorithm Based on the Behavior of Locust Swarms

As an alternative to classical techniques, the problem of image segmentation has also been handled through evolutionary methods. Recently, several algorithms based on evolutionary principles have been successfully applied to image segmentation with interesting performances. However, most of them maintain two important limitations: (1) they frequently obtain suboptimal results (misclassifications) as a consequence of an inappropriate balance between exploration and exploitation in their search strategies; (2) the number of classes is fixed and known in advance. This paper presents an algorithm for the automatic selection of pixel classes for image segmentation. The proposed method combines a novel evolutionary method with the definition of a new objective function that appropriately evaluates the segmentation quality with respect to the number of classes. The new evolutionary algorithm, called Locust Search (LS), is based on the behavior of swarms of locusts. Different to the most of existent evolutionary algorithms, it explicitly avoids the concentration of individuals in the best positions, avoiding critical flaws such as the premature convergence to suboptimal solutions and the limited exploration-exploitation balance. Experimental tests over several benchmark functions and images validate the efficiency of the proposed technique with regard to accuracy and robustness