URBANO: A Tour-Guide Robot Learning to Make Better Speeches

—Thanks to the numerous attempts that are being made to develop autonomous robots, increasingly intelligent and cognitive skills are allowed. This paper proposes an automatic presentation generator for a robot guide, which is considered one more cognitive skill. The presentations are made up of groups of paragraphs. The selection of the best paragraphs is based on a semantic understanding of the characteristics of the paragraphs, on the restrictions defined for the presentation and by the quality criteria appropriate for a public presentation. This work is part of the ROBONAUTA project of the Intelligent Control Research Group at the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid to create "awareness" in a robot guide. The software developed in the project has been verified on the tour-guide robot Urbano. The most important aspect of this proposal is that the design uses learning as the means to optimize the quality of the presentations. To achieve this goal, the system has to perform the optimized decision making, in different phases. The modeling of the quality index of the presentation is made using fuzzy logic and it represents the beliefs of the robot about what is good, bad, or indifferent about a presentation. This fuzzy system is used to select the most appropriate group of paragraphs for a presentation. The beliefs of the robot continue to evolving in order to coincide with the opinions of the public. It uses a genetic algorithm for the evolution of the rules. With this tool, the tour guide-robot shows the presentation, which satisfies the objectives and restrictions, and automatically it identifies the best paragraphs in order to find the most suitable set of contents for every public profil

Matemáticas en la mira: una propuesta didáctica para enamorarnos de la matemática

El proyecto de matemática en la mira tiene como principio pedagógico el constructivismo basado en aprendizajes significativos, para la formación del ser humano, donde no sólo se fortalece el fundamento epistémico de los alumnos, sino las situaciones y procesos dinámicos donde ellos alumno aprendan a pensarse por sí mismos y utilicen diferentes estrategias para su propio aprendizaje como el juego y la lúdica

El concepto de metanoia. Una perspectiva especulativa

En el marc de la gestació del recent moviment anomenat «realisme especulatiu», que no data d'abans del 2007, els filòsofs i crítics literaris alemanys, Armen Avanessian i Anke Hennig, han desenvolupat el concepte de «metanoia» en la seva obra Metanoia: Spekulative Ontologie der Sprache. Una metanoia és una experiència fundadora en la qual una obra escrita afecta la nostra manera de veure el món i ens atorga una nova conceptualitat, a partir de la qual el món mateix es torna diferent. El desenvolupament d'aquest concepte suposa la concreció d'un intent per superar les barreres entre llenguatge i món, entre representació i realitat, entre conceptes i referents, etc. mitjançant un model basat en la metonímia com a fenomen lingüístic fonamental. Analitzarem el marc general del «realisme especulatiu», veurem en què consisteix l'aportació del concepte de metanoia i apuntarem possibles desenvolupaments.In the context of the early stages of the so-called «speculative realism» (a very recent philosophical trend which only dates back to 2007), the German philosophers and literary critics Armen Avanessian and Anke Hennig have developed the concept of «metanoia» in their work Metanoia: Spekulative Ontologie der Sprache. A «metanoia» is a founding experience in which a written work affects our outlook on the world and provides us a new conceptuality, through which the world itself does not remain unaltered. The development of this concept amounts to the attempt to surpass the barriers between language and world, between representation and reality, between concepts and referents, etc. by means of a model based in the metonymy as a fundamental linguistic phenomenon. In this paper, I first analyze the general conceptual frame of the «speculative realism», I then consider what the contribution of the concept of metanoia is, and I finally suggest further elaboration

Study of a hot asphalt mixture response based on energy concepts

The main objective of the research reported in this paper is to determine the response of a hot mix asphalt (HMA) in terms of both the tensile strength and energy parameters (based on the assessment of the force-displacement curve) as potential tools for improving the HMA mixture design. The HMAs analyzed were fabricated using a 60-70 penetration asphalt binder, dense-graded aggregate, mineral filler, and different types and contents of mineral filler replacements (i.e., lime, cement, and fly ash). The indirect tensile test was conducted to determine both the HMA tensile strength and force-displacement curve, which allowed for the computation of the HMA toughness as well as the energies involved in the process before and after reaching the tensile strength. Corresponding results suggest that the replacement of mineral filler by cement, lime, and fly ash modified the HMA response in terms of both the tensile strength and energy parameters. In addition, analysis of the energy parameters discussed proved to be useful for determining the optimum mineral filler content of HMA. Consequently, analysis of these energy parameters can benefit the HMA mixture design process. // El objetivo principal de la investigación fue determinar el comportamiento de una mezcla asfáltica en función de la resistencia a la tracción indirecta y parámetros de energía (calculados en función de la curva fuerza-desplazamiento) como herramientas potenciales para mejorar el diseño de mezclas asfálticas. Las mezclas asfálticas analizadas fueron fabricadas con asfalto de penetración 60/70, granulometría cerrada md10 y relleno mineral en diferentes porcentajes y materiales (cal, cemento y ceniza volante). El ensayo de tracción indirecta se utilizó para determinar la resistencia máxima a la tracción y la curva fuerza-desplazamiento, a partir de la cual se calcularon la tenacidad de la mezcla y las energías involucradas en el proceso antes y después de alcanzar la resistencia máxima. Los resultados obtenidos sugieren que reemplazar el relleno mineral por cemento, cal o ceniza volante modifica el comportamiento de la mezcla asfáltica en términos de la resistencia a la tracción y los parámetros de energía. Adicionalmente, el análisis de los parámetros de energía discutidos es útil para establecer el contenido óptimo del relleno mineral. En consecuencia, el análisis de estos parámetros de energía puede beneficiar el proceso de diseño de mezclas asfálticas.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

The risks of a monetary emission

Este ensayo presenta un análisis desde la perspectiva macroeconómica, acerca de los efectos de la implementación en Colombia de una estrategia de emisión monetaria, en el comportamiento de variables claves: la tasa de interés, la inflación, los tipos de cambio, la demanda agregada y el nivel de renta. Lo anterior se analiza a partir de un modelo macroeconómico tradicional para una economía abierta, en donde se integran los mercados monetario, de bienes y de divisas. Igualmente, se plantean algunas ideas, en borrador, en torno a los riesgos potenciales que puede enfrentar la economía colombiana en caso de darse la emisión monetaria.This ensay present a analysis since the macroeconomics perspective, about the effects of the implantation in Colombia of a strategy of a monetary emission, in the behavior of key variables: the interest rate, the inflation, the types of change, the added demand and the rent level. The before analysis is done from a traditional macroeconomics model for a open economy, and it integrate the markets monetary, goods and devices. Equally, this article plan some ideas, foul copy, about the potential risks that opposite the Colombian economy in case of a monetary emission

The Creation of a Latin American Catholic Church. Vatican Authority and Political Imagination (1854–1899)

The principal aim of this article is to analyse the rise of a Latin American Catholic identity during the mid- to late nineteenth century. It examines the institutionalisation of this collective project via the foundation of the Latin American College in Rome in 1858 and the initiatives that led to the Latin American Plenary Council in 1899. This article also explores how this collective religious identity was imagined and how its limits were drawn. In doing so a new insight into how religions contributed to the imagining and defining of geographical spaces is offered

Linear components of quadratic classifiers

This is pre-print of an article published in Advances in Data Analysis and Classification. The final authenticated version is available online at: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11634-018-0321-6We obtain a decomposition of any quadratic classifier in terms of products of hyperplanes. These hyperplanes can be viewed as relevant linear components of the quadratic rule (with respect to the underlying classification problem). As an application, we introduce the associated multidirectional classifier; a piecewise linear classification rule induced by the approximating products. Such a classifier is useful to determine linear combinations of the predictor variables with ability to discriminate. We also show that this classifier can be used as a tool to reduce the dimension of the data and helps identify the most important variables to classify new elements. Finally, we illustrate with a real data set the use of these linear components to construct oblique classification treesThis research was supported by the Spanish MCyT grant MTM2016-78751-

Do product innovation-related activities affect downsizing decisions? An organizational efficiency perspective

Firms’ innovation strategy typically involves the need to shape organizational changes within work structures and routines, even those concerning employee downsizing decisions. However, little effort has been directed toward exploring the role of firm innovation strategy as a determinant of downsizing. Drawing on organizational efficiency perspective, this study proposes a framework to examine the impact of product innovation-related activities on downsizing. The model will be tested using data from a longitudinal sample of Spanish innovative manufacturing firms. It is expected that the results show that firms developing product and process innovations are associated with downsizing decisions. Furthermore, companies that use formal protection of intellectual property through patents, utility models, trademarks and copyrights are believed to keep their personnel. The study attempt to unravel the impact of firm innovation on downsizing decisions and to offer guidance on how innovative firms might operate to control negative effects on their workforce

Obtaining Anti-Missile Decoy Launch Solution from a Ship Using Machine Learning Techniques

One of the most dangerous situations a warship may face is a missile attack launched from other ships, aircrafts, submarines or land. In addition, given the current scenario, it is not ruled out that a terrorist group may acquire missiles and use them against ships operating close to the coast, which increases their vulnerabilitydue to the limited reaction time. One of the means the ship has for its defense are decoys, designed to deceive the enemy missile. However, for their use to be effective it is necessary to obtain, in a quick way, a valid launching solution. The purpose of this article is to design a methodology to solve the problem of decoy launching and to provide the ship immediately with the necessary data to make the firing decision. To solve the problem machine learning models (neural networks and support vector machines) and a set of training data obtained in simulations will be used. The performance measures obtained with the implementation of multilayer perceptron models allow the replacement of the current procedures based on tables and launching rules with machine learning algorithms that are more flexible and adaptable to a larger number of scenarios

Riesgos y Catástrofes. Actitudes y conductas en la sociedad española

Depto. de Sociología AplicadaFac. de Ciencias Políticas y SociologíaTRUEpu