Redefining Gender Equality from the Context of Culture

Social media reports that the Philippines is the only country in Asia entered the top countries with best gender equality in the world. Also included in the top ten are countries like Iceland, Norway, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, New Zealand, Denmark, Switzerland, and Lesotho. Doubtful with this report, the researchers made an intersectional analysis on culture and gender participation in the society. The purpose is to awaken the public that the equal rate of gender economic participation in the society does not equate to gender equality and that the Philippines is still under the shadow of male domination despite of the claim that Philippines ranked 8th in the 2011 Global Gender Gap Report. The socio-cultural merit of this study is to push the gender equality promoters to deeply examine their measurement index in assessing gender equality. Measurement index should be based on cultural contextual realities and not on quantity base gender participation. Keywords: culture, gender equality, intersectional analysi

Formulation, implementation and validation of a scalar damage model for brittle materials applied to three- dimensional solid elements

La mecánica del daño continuo describe el deterioro progresivo de las propiedades mecánicas de los materiales a partir de un modelo fenomenológico. En este trabajo se presenta la formulación, implementación y validación de un modelo de daño escalar aplicado a elementos sólidos tridimensionales. Se trata de un modelo de gran versatilidad definido a partir de una superficie de falla y una variable de daño escalar. Su campo de aplicación es la modelación numérica de materiales elásticos isótropos con degradación de la rigidez cuya tensión límite a tracción es igual a la de compresión. El modelo queda definido a partir de cuatro propiedades del material determinables en un ensayo Tensión-Desplazamiento. El modelo es implementado en el software ABAQUS por medio de una subrutina UMAT. Para la resolución de las ecuaciones de equilibrio no lineal se propone un algoritmo de tipo implícito (Método de Backward Euler). La validación a esfuerzos de tracción muestra una adecuada correlación entre los resultados numéricos y los experimentales, con una dispersión de la energía disipada del 6%. Finalmente, se presenta un ejemplo de aplicación. Los resultados alcanzados demuestran que se trata de una herramienta sencilla y, a la vez, poderosa para el análisis numérico de materiales frágiles.Continuum Damage Mechanics describes the progressive degradation of the material properties based on a phenomenological model. This work presents the formulation, implementation and validation of a scalar damage model applied to three-dimensional solid elements. It is a highly versatile model defined from a fault surface and a scalar damage variable. Isotropic elastic materials with softening behavior and a single threshold surface can be simulated by this model. Four parameters are necessary to define the model and they derive from the classical stress-strain test. The model is implemented through a user-defined UMAT subroutine in software ABAQUS. The non-linear equilibrium equations are solved by an implicit algorithm based on the Backward Euler Method. The tensile stress validation shows an adequate correlation between the numerical and experimental results, with a 6% dispersion of dissipated energy. Finally, an illustrative example is presented. The results show that it is a simple but powerful tool for the numerical analysis of brittle materials.Fil: González del Solar, Gerardo Andrés. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Mendoza. Centro Regional de Desarrollos Tecnológicos para la Construcción, Sismología e Ingeniería Sísmica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Martín, P.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Mendoza. Centro Regional de Desarrollos Tecnológicos para la Construcción, Sismología e Ingeniería Sísmica; ArgentinaFil: Maldonado, N.. Universidad Tecnológica Nacional. Facultad Regional Mendoza. Centro Regional de Desarrollos Tecnológicos para la Construcción, Sismología e Ingeniería Sísmica; Argentin

Abstract Learning Frameworks for Synthesis

We develop abstract learning frameworks (ALFs) for synthesis that embody the principles of CEGIS (counter-example based inductive synthesis) strategies that have become widely applicable in recent years. Our framework defines a general abstract framework of iterative learning, based on a hypothesis space that captures the synthesized objects, a sample space that forms the space on which induction is performed, and a concept space that abstractly defines the semantics of the learning process. We show that a variety of synthesis algorithms in current literature can be embedded in this general framework. While studying these embeddings, we also generalize some of the synthesis problems these instances are of, resulting in new ways of looking at synthesis problems using learning. We also investigate convergence issues for the general framework, and exhibit three recipes for convergence in finite time. The first two recipes generalize current techniques for convergence used by existing synthesis engines. The third technique is a more involved technique of which we know of no existing instantiation, and we instantiate it to concrete synthesis problems

Bridging boolean and quantitative synthesis using smoothed proof search

We present a new technique for parameter synthesis under boolean and quantitative objectives. The input to the technique is a "sketch" --- a program with missing numerical parameters --- and a probabilistic assumption about the program's inputs. The goal is to automatically synthesize values for the parameters such that the resulting program satisfies: (1) a {boolean specification}, which states that the program must meet certain assertions, and (2) a {quantitative specification}, which assigns a real valued rating to every program and which the synthesizer is expected to optimize. Our method --- called smoothed proof search --- reduces this task to a sequence of unconstrained smooth optimization problems that are then solved numerically. By iteratively solving these problems, we obtain parameter values that get closer and closer to meeting the boolean specification; at the limit, we obtain values that provably meet the specification. The approximations are computed using a new notion of smoothing for program abstractions, where an abstract transformer is approximated by a function that is continuous according to a metric over abstract states. We present a prototype implementation of our synthesis procedure, and experimental results on two benchmarks from the embedded control domain. The experiments demonstrate the benefits of smoothed proof search over an approach that does not meet the boolean and quantitative synthesis goals simultaneously.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (NSF Award #1162076

Formation of supermassive stars in the first star clusters

The formation of supermassive stars is believed to be an essential intermediate step for the formation of the massive black hole seeds that become the supermassive black holes powering the quasars observed in the early Universe. Numerical simulations have shown that supermassive stars can form in atomic-cooling halos when protostars reach accretion rates higher than $\sim10^{-2}$ M$_\odot$ yr$^{-1}$ and fragmentation is suppressed on pc scales. It is however still uncertain if a supermassive star still emerges when fragmentation occurs at smaller scales and a cluster of stars is formed instead. In this work we explore the problem of massive object formation due to the interplay of collisions and accretion in star clusters at low metallicity. We model a small embedded cluster of accreting protostars following sub-parsec scale fragmentation during the collapse of a primordial gas cloud and follow its evolution by performing $N$-body plus hydrodynamical simulations. Our results show that supermassive stars with 10$^3$ and 10$^4$ M$_\odot$ are always formed due to the interplay of collisions and accretion, and in some cases these objects are part of a binary system. The resulting supermassive star is surrounded by tens of smaller stars with typical masses in the range $1$-$100$ M$_\odot$.Comment: 16 pages, 20 figures, accepted by MNRA

Metodología para seleccionar oportunidades de mejora continua en promociones de viviendas

Continuous improvement should always be present in business, have they or not management systems on hand according to the UNE EN ISO 9001:2008 Standard. However, its application in the construction sector is especially hard due to the particular characteristics of this business (1). This paper focuses on how to apply four of the seven basic statistical continuous improvement tools (Data collection sheet, Stratification, Histogram and Pareto Diagram) in order to select improvement opportunities within the planification phase of a continuous improvement project whose aims is the reduction of the construction failures in housing blocks which would be detected during the pre-delivery phase. The conclusion is that the three works in which it would be convenient to act in order to reduce significantly the construction failures during the pre-delivery phase are: Wood Carpentry, Ceramic Tile and Electricity.La mejora continua debería estar presente siempre en las empresas, dispongan o no de sistemas de gestión conforme a la Norma UNE EN ISO 9001:2008. Sin embargo, su aplicación en el sector de la construcción es especialmente difícil debido a las características particulares del mismo (1). Este articulo describe cómo aplicar cuatro de las siete herramientas estadísticas básicas de la mejora continua (Hoja de recogida de datos, Estratificación, Histograma y Diagrama de Pareto) para seleccionar oportunidades de mejora, dentro de la fase de planificación de un proyecto de mejora continua que tenga como objetivo reducir los defectos de construcción en edificios de viviendas detectados en la fase de pre-entrega. Concluyendo que los tres oficios en los que convendría actuar para reducir de manera significativa los fallos de construcción en la fase de pre-entrega son: Carpintería de Madera, Revestimientos Cerámicos e Instalación de Electricidad

Temporal Stream Logic: Synthesis beyond the Bools

Reactive systems that operate in environments with complex data, such as mobile apps or embedded controllers with many sensors, are difficult to synthesize. Synthesis tools usually fail for such systems because the state space resulting from the discretization of the data is too large. We introduce TSL, a new temporal logic that separates control and data. We provide a CEGAR-based synthesis approach for the construction of implementations that are guaranteed to satisfy a TSL specification for all possible instantiations of the data processing functions. TSL provides an attractive trade-off for synthesis. On the one hand, synthesis from TSL, unlike synthesis from standard temporal logics, is undecidable in general. On the other hand, however, synthesis from TSL is scalable, because it is independent of the complexity of the handled data. Among other benchmarks, we have successfully synthesized a music player Android app and a controller for an autonomous vehicle in the Open Race Car Simulator (TORCS.

After the great inventions: technological change in UK cotton spinning, 1780–1835

This article analyses the improvement of cotton-spinning technologies in the years after the great inventions of Hargreaves, Arkwright, and Crompton. While these ‘macro-inventions’ have attracted considerable historical attention, our understanding of the major changes in types and sizes of spinning machines used in the UK between the 1780s and the onset of state-collected factory statistics in the 1830s is still largely based on the experience of high-profile firms or specific technologies and regions. A new dataset of 1,465 machinery advertisements published in newspapers in England, Scotland, and Ireland between 1780 and 1835 allows us to examine the temporal and spatial dimensions of the market for cotton-spinning machinery, the timings of transitions between different spinning machines, and increases in machine size. The article demonstrates the importance of post-invention technical improvements in the cotton industry, showing that the productivity increases associated with the initial transition from hand to machine spinning have been overstated and that larger gains were made in the ‘micro-invention’ phase, when spinning machines became larger and faster, and required fewer workers to operate them