On fuzzy-qualitative descriptions and entropy

This paper models the assessments of a group of experts when evaluating different magnitudes, features or objects by using linguistic descriptions. A new general representation of linguistic descriptions is provided by unifying ordinal and fuzzy perspectives. Fuzzy qualitative labels are proposed as a generalization of the concept of qualitative labels over a well-ordered set. A lattice structure is established in the set of fuzzy-qualitative labels to enable the introduction of fuzzy-qualitative descriptions as L-fuzzy sets. A theorem is given that characterizes finite fuzzy partitions using fuzzy-qualitative labels, the cores and supports of which are qualitative labels. This theorem leads to a mathematical justification for commonly-used fuzzy partitions of real intervals via trapezoidal fuzzy sets. The information of a fuzzy-qualitative label is defined using a measure of specificity, in order to introduce the entropy of fuzzy-qualitative descriptions. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

GeoCommons. Geolocalizació de la producció acadèmica de la UPC

El novembre de l’any 2016 es va posar en funcionament el portal ‘GeoCommons: la UPC en el territori’ (http://geocommons.upc.edu), amb l’objectiu de poder mostrar l’activitat i l’impacte que la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) té en el territori, a partir de la geolocalització dels documents publicats al dipòsit institucional ‘UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC’. Pel desenvolupament del projecte es va formar un grup de treball format per bibliotecaris de diferents biblioteques de la UPC i informàtics, que en van definir els requeriments, model de metadades, prototipatge i mecanismes de gestió i actualització de la plataforma. Un dels aspectes que més es van tenir en compte va ser la sostenibilitat i viabilitat del projecte. Es varen desenvolupar eines específiques de suport al procés de geolocalització de documents o d’identificació de les organitzacions col·laboradores, per tal de reduir-ne els costos de gestió i actualització. El resultat ha estat un web que permet veure en un mapa del món quina ha estat la producció acadèmica de la UPC que fa referència a una zona concreta del món, mostrant les dades bibliogràfiques bàsiques del document i enllaçant-lo també al dipòsit institucional per poder-ne consultar el contingut. Com a valor afegit es pot visualitzar també amb quines organitzacions (empreses, universitats, centres de recerca, ....) s’han realitzat els treballs dipositats a UPCommons. La bona acollida de la plataforma fa que a dia d’avui s’estiguin implementant millores, com la personalització de mapes per il·lustrar pàgines web o el desenvolupament de projectes de caràcter interuniversitari.El noviembre del año 2016 se puso en funcionamiento del portal 'GeoCommons: la UPC en el territorio' (http://geocommons.upc.edu), con el objetivo de poder mostrar la actividad y el impacto que la Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) tiene en el territorio, a partir de la geolocalización de los documentos publicados al repositorio institucional 'UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC'. Para el desarrollo del proyecto se creó grupo de trabajo formado por bibliotecarios de las bibliotecas de la UPC e informáticos, que definieron los requisitos, modelo de metadatos, prototipage y mecanismos de gestión y actualización de la plataforma. Uno de los aspectos que más se tuvieron en cuenta fue la sostenibilidad y viabilidad del proyecto. Se desarrollaron herramientas específicas de soporte al proceso de geolocalización de documentos, con el fin de reducir los costes de gestión y actualización. El resultado es un web que permite ver en un mapa cual ha sido la producción académica de la UPC que hace referencia a una zona concreta del mundo, mostrando los datos bibliográficos básicos y enlazando también al repositorio institucional para poder consultar el contenido. Como valor añadido se pueden visualizar también las organizaciones (empresas, universidades, centros de investigación,…) con las que se han realizado los trabajos depositados en UPCommons. La buena acogida de la plataforma ha provocado que su desarrollo siga evolucionando, con mejoras en las opciones de personalización de mapas o el desarrollo de proyectos de carácter interuniversitario.The GeoCommons portal (http://geocommons.upc.edu) was launched in November 2016 to show the activity and impact of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) across the world by geolocating documents published in the UPCommons institutional repository. A work group composed of librarians from UPC libraries and computer scientists was set up to establish the requirements and to develop the metadata model and prototypes for the portal. As sustainability and feasibility were priority objectives, specific tools were developed to geolocate documents and identify collaborating organisations, thereby reducing the costs of managing and updating the platform. The result is a website showing the academic output of the UPC on a world map that gives documents’ basic bibliographic data and a link to the full text in UPCommons. The organisations (companies, universities, research centres, etc.) with which the works deposited in UPCommons have been carried out can also be viewed. Because the platform has been well received, improvements such as the customisation of maps to illustrate web pages and the development of interuniversity projects have been implemented.Postprint (author's final draft

Estimations of topographically correct regeneration to nerve branches and skin after peripheral nerve injury and repair.

Peripheral nerve injury is typically associated with long-term disturbances in sensory localization, despite nerve repair and regeneration. Here, we investigate the extent of correct reinnervation by back-labeling neuronal soma with fluorescent tracers applied in the target area before and after sciatic nerve injury and repair in the rat. The subpopulations of sensory or motor neurons that had regenerated their axons to either the tibial branch or the skin of the third hindlimb digit were calculated from the number of cell bodies labeled by the first and/or second tracer. Compared to the normal control side, 81% of the sensory and 66% of the motor tibial nerve cells regenerated their axons back to this nerve, while 22% of the afferent cells from the third digit reinnervated this digit. Corresponding percentages based on quantification of the surviving population on the experimental side showed 91%, 87%, and 56%, respectively. The results show that nerve injury followed by nerve repair by epineurial suture results in a high but variable amount of topographically correct regeneration, and that proportionally more neurons regenerate into the correct proximal nerve branch than into the correct innervation territory in the ski

On regeneration and collateral sprouting to hind limb digits after sciatic nerve injury in the rat

This study examines the proportions of regenerative and collateral sprouting to the skin after peripheral nerve injury. Methods: In the first experimental paradigm, primary afferent neurones were pre-labelled with Diamidino Yellow (DY), injected in digit 3, followed by sciatic nerve section and repair. After three months of regeneration, digit 3 was re-injected with Fast Blue (FB) to label regernating cells. Fluoro-Gold (FG) was applied to the femoral (FEM) and musculocutaneous (MC) nervers four days later to quantify their contribution to the innveration. In the second experimental paradigm, sciatic nerve was first sectioned and repaired. Three months later, the sciatic was resected, and digit 3 injected with FB. After four more days, FEM and MC were resected and FG injected in all digits. Results: Neurones in dorsal root ganglion (DRG) L5 had a higher rate of correct reinnervation of digit 3 (44-72%) than neurones in DRG L4 (14-44%). Like in control cases, only occasional axons were traced from the FEM and MC. In the second experiment, only occasional labelled neurones appeared. Conclusions: The results indicate differences in the capacity for correct peripheral sensory reinnvervation between segmental levels and that in this model collateral sprouting was practically non-existent compared to regenerative sprouting

El universo concentracionario: escribir para no olvidar

Impulsada por la cada vez mayor relevancia académica de los Memory Studies y de los análisis de los textos autobiográficos, la literatura concentracionaria ha recibido en las últimas décadas una constante atención desde diversas disciplinas humanísticas: Historia, Filosofía, Estética, Pedagogía, Teoría de la Literatura, Literatura Comparada, Historia de la Literatura, Crítica Literaria... A pesar de que el ámbito de estudios sobre la cuestión tiene un marcado carácter internacional y de que los principales focos analíticos han estado representados por investigadores estadounidenses, franceses y alemanes, el tema ha concitado también la atención de la academia española

The access to broadband services as a strategy to retain population in the depopulated countryside in Spain

The aim of this paper is to analyze at what extent the connectivity of small localities is a determinant of their demography. Specifically, we pay attention to three factors: the evolution of the population; the distance, measured both in kilometres and travel time, to the province capital, the usual city where the largest set of services is available; and finally, the coverage of different kinds of broadband services (from ADSL or 3.5 G to the fastest ones FTTH) in rural areas. An econometric model was estimated where the dependent variable captures the increase of inhabitants along 2017–2020 of the 5955 Spanish municipalities with a population between 101 and 10,000 inhabitants (73.3 % of all municipalities). The results point out to the following facts: digital connectivity of small localities is a determinant of their demography, whatever the technology used, but physical distance remains being a significant factor on the population growth (both if it is measured of physical distance or travelling time) to explain the population growth of each locality

A framework for compliant physical interaction : the grasp meets the task

Although the grasp-task interplay in our daily life is unquestionable, very little research has addressed this problem in robotics. In order to fill the gap between the grasp and the task, we adopt the most successful approaches to grasp and task specification, and extend them with additional elements that allow to define a grasp-task link. We propose a global sensor-based framework for the specification and robust control of physical interaction tasks, where the grasp and the task are jointly considered on the basis of the task frame formalism and the knowledge-based approach to grasping. A physical interaction task planner is also presented, based on the new concept of task-oriented hand pre-shapes. The planner focuses on manipulation of articulated parts in home environments, and is able to specify automatically all the elements of a physical interaction task required by the proposed framework. Finally, several applications are described, showing the versatility of the proposed approach, and its suitability for the fast implementation of robust physical interaction tasks in very different robotic systems

Reliable non-prehensile door opening through the combination of vision, tactile and force feedback

Whereas vision and force feedback—either at the wrist or at the joint level—for robotic manipulation purposes has received considerable attention in the literature, the benefits that tactile sensors can provide when combined with vision and force have been rarely explored. In fact, there are some situations in which vision and force feedback cannot guarantee robust manipulation. Vision is frequently subject to calibration errors, occlusions and outliers, whereas force feedback can only provide useful information on those directions that are constrained by the environment. In tasks where the visual feedback contains errors, and the contact configuration does not constrain all the Cartesian degrees of freedom, vision and force sensors are not sufficient to guarantee a successful execution. Many of the tasks performed in our daily life that do not require a firm grasp belong to this category. Therefore, it is important to develop strategies for robustly dealing with these situations. In this article, a new framework for combining tactile information with vision and force feedback is proposed and validated with the task of opening a sliding door. Results show how the vision-tactile-force approach outperforms vision-force and force-alone, in the sense that it allows to correct the vision errors at the same time that a suitable contact configuration is guaranteed.This research was partly supported by the Korea Science and Engineering Foundation under the WCU (World Class University) program funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, S. Korea (Grant No. R31-2008-000-10062-0), by the European Commission’s Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007-2013 under grant agreements 217077 (EYESHOTS project), and 248497(TRIDENT Project), by Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (DPI-2008-06636; and DPI2008-06548-C03-01), by Fundació Caixa Castelló-Bancaixa (P1-1B2008-51; and P1-1B2009-50) and by Universitat Jaume I

Fibrosis glútea: ¿esencial o secundaria?

Constatamos la rara frecuencia de esta afección presentando 5 observaciones de Fibrosis Glútea recogidas en tres casos clínicos estudiados. Dos son bilaterales y uno afecta a un solo glúteo. Habiéndose invocado, por los autores consultados, etiologías diversas, actualmente sigue siendo desconocida. Creemos de interés resaltar que los casos presentados se trataron en las etapas finales de crecimiento, mientras que los referidos en la literatura consultada todos han recibido tratamiento quirúrgico en edad temprana. El tratamiento es de resultado satisfactorio, independientemente de la edad y de la técnica quirúrgica empleada.Three patients affected with gluteal fibrosis are colected by the authors. Two cases had bilateral presentation and one patient was unilateral. According to the literature, the aetiology continue to be unknow. All patients were treated at the end of growthing period, while all cases collected in the literature were treated early. The results have been satisfactory without relation to age or the surgical procedure employed

GeoCommons : geolocalización de la producción académica de la UPC

Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft