A novel expert system for objective masticatory efficiency assessment

Most of the tools and diagnosis models of Masticatory Efficiency (ME) are not well documented or severely limited to simple image processing approaches. This study presents a novel expert system for ME assessment based on automatic recognition of mixture patterns of masticated two-coloured chewing gums using a combination of computational intelligence and image processing techniques. The hypotheses tested were that the proposed system could accurately relate specimens to the number of chewing cycles, and that it could identify differences between the mixture patterns of edentulous individuals prior and after complete denture treatment. This study enrolled 80 fully-dentate adults (41 females and 39 males, 25 ± 5 years of age) as the reference population; and 40 edentulous adults (21 females and 19 males, 72 ± 8.9 years of age) for the testing group. The system was calibrated using the features extracted from 400 samples covering 0, 10, 15, and 20 chewing cycles. The calibrated system was used to automatically analyse and classify a set of 160 specimens retrieved from individuals in the testing group in two appointments. The ME was then computed as the predicted number of chewing strokes that a healthy reference individual would need to achieve a similar degree of mixture measured against the real number of cycles applied to the specimen. The trained classifier obtained a Mathews Correlation Coefficient score of 0.97. ME measurements showed almost perfect agreement considering pre- and post-treatment appointments separately (κ ≥ 0.95). Wilcoxon signed-rank test showed that a complete denture treatment for edentulous patients elicited a statistically significant increase in the ME measurements (Z = -2.31, p < 0.01). We conclude that the proposed expert system proved able and reliable to accurately identify patterns in mixture and provided useful ME measurements.This work was funded by the Secretaria Nacional de Educación, Ciencia y Teconología (SENESCYT) of the Government of Ecuador, with budget allocation No. 0099-SPP, http://www.educacionsuperior.gob.ec

Detección de incidentes basada en flujos de movimiento en cámaras de la DGT

Every year, thousands of accidents occur in the roads. Thanks to the effort and the investment of different institutions, this number has been reduced year after year, but it is not enough yet. To reduce the number of mortal victims, it is crucial to react as quick as possible, so that wounded can receive the needed cares in the briefest period of time. In this project, it is presented an automatic incident detection system that, installed on DGT (Dirección General de Tráfico), would allow to decrease the response time in case of accident. Moreover, this system informs about other anomalous situations like traffic jams or vehicles moving in forbidden directions that must also be taken into account in road surveillance. To achieve this functioning, the usual vehicle flow in the road is statistically modelled making use of video motion estimation. Then, if a group of motion vectors presents abnormal values and satisfies some spatial and temporal conditions, it can be considered that an anomaly is taking place on the scene. The evaluation is performed over a database of videos provided by the DGT, containing three accidents and some slow traffic situations. The system is able to properly detect all of the accidents, but the performance decreases slightly when detecting traffic jams. Nevertheless, obtained results are more robust than the ones from the reference system based on vehicle tracking.Ingeniería de Sistemas Audiovisuale

Solución integral para prevenir inundaciones en el Dren Aviación de Chimbote, 2017

El presente trabajo de investigación titulado “Solución integral para prevenir inundaciones en el dren Aviación de Chimbote, 2017.” se desarrolló con el objetivo general de elaborar una solución integral para prevenir inundaciones en el Dren Aviación de Chimbote, 2017. Para el presente estudio la población estuvo comprendida por 322 familias que residen colindantes al Dren Aviación, la muestra estuvo constituida por 75 jefes de familias, para la recolección de datos se utilizó como instrumento la encuesta. Por el tipo de investigación, el presente estudio es de tipo descriptivo de diseño no experimental transversal, los instrumentos fueron una guía de entrevista y una guía de observación de campo, para las técnicas de entrevista y para la técnicas de observación respectivamente, la teoría en la que se enmarca la tesis es la teoría de los recursos hídricos. Al concluir la investigación, los resultados permitieron lograr nuestros objetivos y finalmente se emiten conclusiones relacionadas con cada uno de los objetivos planteados que permitan dar una solución integral para prevenir inundaciones en el Dren Aviación, en beneficio de la población que vive cerca al dren y de la población en general de Chimbote

La "máquina" o "generador" de terremotos en un laboratorio universitario

La máquina o generador de terremotos es un dispositivo experimental que trata de modelizar el comportamiento de una falla. En la actividad propuesta, se le muestra al alumnado la complejidad de ciertos sistemas, así como la dificultad de predecir su comportamiento. Aunque inicialmente se postuló como un experimento abierto dirigido a estudiantes de enseñanza secundaria y bachillerato, la calidad de los datos que pueden obtenerse permite que pueda plantearse como un experimento en unlaboratorio universitario de ciencias de la Tierra. Los datos obtenidos en una experiencia de este tipo pueden ser equiparables, en cierto sentido, a los datos obtenidos por redes sísmicas regionales, en especial, los datos referentes a la sismicidad generada por una falla o sistema de fallas, en términos de magnitud, tiempo y caída de esfuerzos. Eso sí, con la clara ventaja de que en pocos minutos puede reproducirse lo que serían cientos o miles de años de acción de las fuerzas tectónicas. En función del nivel del curso en el que se proponga dicha experiencia, planteándose en este caso como una experiencia cerrada centrada en la obtención de determinados resultados, se pueden utilizar diferentes análisis de datos, fundamentalmente de tipo estadístico. Estos análisis permitirán conocer el nivel de predictibilidad de un modelo de estas características. Este trabajo plantea diferentes métodos y analiza los resultados que pueden obtenerse con este modelo mecánic

Clonación, alimentos transgénicos y opinión pública en España

In this paper we are going to analyze the Spanish public opinion about the Biotechnological innovation in the European context (particularly in the field of transgenic foods and cloning). The scientific journalism as mediators and the differentiation between what can be referred to as the “informed public” or “epistemological leaders” and the rest of the population were the starting point for our research on the impact of news related to biotechnological advances. For that reason, we present the results of our investigation on social construction of the public image of science, taking in consideration the activity of the scientific journalists and the role that the informed public opinion plays. From there, we will establish a set of strategies for improving the level of scientific-technological education in our complex societies.Este artículo aborda el estudio de la opinión pública española sobre los avances en biotecnología. Se consideran especialmente los cambios producidos respecto a los alimentos transgénicos y la clonación humana. El periodismo científico como mediador y la diferenciación entre lo que puede denominarse “público atento” o “líderes epistemológicos” y el resto de la población, han constituido el punto de partida de nuestra investigación. Por ello, presentamos los resultados de nuestra investigación sobre la construcción social de la imagen pública de la ciencia, tomando en consideración la actividad de los periodistas científicos, y el papel que desempeña en este proceso la opinión “pública informada”. A partir de los resultados, establecemos un conjunto de estrategias para mejorar la formación científico-tecnológica en nuestras sociedades complejas

Meson–meson and meson–baryon interactions in a chiral non-perturbative approach

A qualitative account of the meson-meson and meson-baryon interactions using chiral Lagrangians and the inverse amplitude method in coupled channels is done. The method, imposing exact unitarity, proves to be a very useful tool to extend the information contained in the chiral Lagrangians at energies beyond the realm of applicability of chiral perturbation theory.Oset Baguena, Eulogio, [email protected]

Combining user preferences and expert opinions: a criteria synergy-based model for decision making on the Web

Customers strongly base their e-commerce decisions on the opinions of others by checking reviews and ratings provided by other users. These assessments are overall opinions about the product or service, and it is not possible to establish why they perceive it as good or bad. To understand this “why”, it is necessary an expert’s analysis concerning the relevant factors of the product or service. Frequently, these two visions are not coincident and the best product for experts may not be the best one for users. For this reason, trustworthy decision-making methods that integrate the mentioned views are highly desirable. This article proposes a multi-criteria decision analysis model based on the integration of users’ preferences and experts’ opinions. It combines the majority’s opinion and criteria synergy to provide a unified perspective in order to support consumers’ ranking-based decisions in social media environments. At the same time, the model supplies useful information for managers about strengths and weaknesses of their product or service according to users’ experience and experts’ judgment. The aggregation processes and synergy criteria are modeled in order to obtain an adequate consensus mechanism. Finally, in order to test the proposed model, several simulations using hotel valuations are performed.Project UTN4058 of National Technological University (Argentine) Fellowship for Short Term Postdoctoral Stays at University of Malaga – International Campus of Excellence Andalucía Tec

Automatic identification of characteristic points related to pathologies in electrocardiograms to design expert systems

Electrocardiograms (ECG) record the electrical activity of the heart through 12 main signals called shunts. Medical experts examine certain segments of these signals in where they believe the cardiovascular disease is manifested. This fact is an important determining factor for designing expert systems for cardiac diagnosis, as it requires the direct expert opinion in order to locate these specific segments in the ECG. The main contributions of this paper are: (i) to propose a model that uses the full ECG signal to identify key characteristic points that define cardiac pathology without medical expert intervention and (ii) to present an expert system based on artificial neural networks capable of detecting bundle branch block disease using the previous approach. Cardiologists have validated the proposed model application and a comparative analysis is performed using the MIT-BIH arrhythmia database.Spanish project TSI-020302-2010-136 University of Málaga: 81434547001-