Inferencia de emociones a través de detección corporal y facial

La emoción, del latín emotĭo (impulso) es la reacción a un estímulo externo a partir de una experiencia previa, además de la base de la comunicación no verbal. Se está produciendo un cambio en los paradigmas de interacción entre las personas y los ordenadores (de su estudio se ocupa la rama conocida como HCI, por sus siglas en inglés): actualmente las interacciones realizadas son más naturales (dispositivos táctiles) y normalmente a una distancia mayor (control a distancia de dispositivos). Existe una problemática relacionada con el cambio mencionado anteriormente: para el reconocimiento de las emociones, se ha usado clásicamente el reconocimiento facial; la interacción actual con los dispositivos a una distancia mayor demanda la exploración de otras alternativas para dicho reconocimiento, mediante la voz o los gestos realizados por un usuario. Esta última alternativa será la estudiada a lo largo de este proyecto. Las aplicaciones de dicho estudio serían diversas: por ejemplo en el área de experiencia de usuario, en cuanto a que supondría una nueva manera de evaluar la usabilidad y de satisfacer plenamente sus necesidades, en combinación con otras técnicas de extracción del conocimiento como entrevistas o encuestas. Otro ejemplo importante sería en labores relacionadas con el área de recursos humanos que requieran un examen minucioso de los estados de ánimo de un individuo, como podría ser una entrevista de trabajo. El objetivo de este proyecto es concentrarse en la detección corporal y facial para la inferencia de emociones mediante la visión por computador. Para la tarea descrita anteriormente, se empleará el dispositivo Kinect de Microsoft, que ofrece un kit de desarrollo software (SDK) para dicho dispositivo que facilita la labor de reconocer tanto el esqueleto humano como las expresiones faciales y, por tanto, el posterior análisis de ellos. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Emotion, a word derived from Latin “emotĭo” (impulse) is the reaction to an external stimulus, generated from a previous experience, as well as the basis of non-verbal communication. The interaction paradigms between humans and computers are changing (the branch involved in this study is known by his acronym, HCI): nowadays the accomplished interactions are more natural (e.g. tactile devices) and normally at a greater distance (e.g. remote control devices). There is a problematic related to change previously mentioned: to emotion recognition, there is classically used the facial tracking, but the prevailing interaction with devices at a greater distance demands the exploration of other alternatives to accomplish this recognition, through voice or gestures done by an user. The last alternative will be studied along this project. The applications of this study are several: for example, in User Experience area it could suppose a new way to evaluate the usability and satisfy completely the user needs, in combination with other knowledge-extraction techniques such as interviews or surveys. Another important example could be in tasks related with Human Resources area that require a deep exam of the emotional states of an individual, such as a job interview. Since Affective Computing is such a broad field, the objective of this project is to focus on the face and body tracking to inferring emotions, by means of computer vision. For the analysis mentioned before, Microsoft Kinect device will be used with his SDK (Source Development Kit) that makes easier the task of recognize both the human skeleton as well as the facial expressions and, hence, the later analysis of it.Ingeniería Informátic

Bullying according to the level of physical activity in adolescents

In the present study we analyze the relationship between the bullying implication of students of Secondary Education (SE) and the level of physical activity measured with accelerometry. To this end, 54 students from two ESO centers aged between 12 and 18 years (M = 14.26, Sd = 1.34) were evaluated through the European Bullying Intervention Project Questionnaire (EBIP-Q, 2016) to assess the involvement in bullying and, ActiGraph GT3X accelerometers, to assess the level of physical activity. The results show us that the average time invested in performing light Physical Activity (PA) is 1560.89 minutes in a week (Sd = 376.67), as well as in performing moderate PA is 358.87 (118.38) minutes / week and 451.89 (164.33) minutes / week in vigorous PA. These data are analyzed taking into account that 22.2% of the sample has involvement in bullying (victim: 16.7%, aggressor: 3.7% and victimized aggressor: 1.9%), although there are no significant correlations between the different levels of PA and the different roles of implication. Likewise, it should be noted in the ANOVA conducted between the involvement in bullying and the different levels of PA, that the F is significantly higher than 1 in the activity levels light (p = .029) and moderate (p = .020), by what there is no equality of means. As conclusions, it should be noted that according to our sample of the study, which is physically active, it has levels of involvement of bullying lower than other studies. Although we must indicate that after the results obtained, we cannot verify that attending to the practice recommendations of PA can protect against the direct implication of bullying

Bayesian network analysis of software logs for data-driven software maintenance

Software organisations aim to develop and maintain high-quality software systems. Due to large amounts of behaviour data available, software organisations can conduct data-driven software maintenance. Indeed, software quality assurance and improvement programs have attracted many researchers' attention. Bayesian Networks (BNs) are proposed as a log analysis technique to discover poor performance indicators in a system and to explore usage patterns that usually require temporal analysis. For this, an action research study is designed and conducted to improve the software quality and the user experience of a web application using BNs as a technique to analyse software logs. To this aim, three models with BNs are created. As a result, multiple enhancement points have been identified within the application ranging from performance issues and errors to recurring user usage patterns. These enhancement points enable the creation of cards in the Scrum process of the web application, contributing to its data-driven software maintenance. Finally, the authors consider that BNs within quality-aware and data-driven software maintenance have great potential as a software log analysis technique and encourage the community to deepen its possible applications. For this, the applied methodology and a replication package are shared.Junta de Andalucía, Grant/Award Number: P20‐00091; AEI, Grant/Award Number: PID2019‐106758GB‐32/AEI/10.13039/501100011033; Spanish project, Grant/Award Number: PDC2021‐121195‐I00; Spanish Program, Grant/Award Number: BEAGAL18/00064Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Science with Neutrino Telescopes in Spain

The authors gratefully acknowledge the funding support from the following Spanish programs: Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion, Investigacion y Universidades (MCIU): Programa Estatal de Generacion de Conocimiento (refs. PGC2018-096663-B-C41, -A-C42, -B-C43, -B-C44) (MCIU/FEDER); Generalitat Valenciana: Prometeo (PROMETEO/2020/019) and GenT (refs. CIDEGENT/2018/034, /2020/049, /2021/023); Junta de Andalucia (ref. A-FQM-053-UGR18).The primary scientific goal of neutrino telescopes is the detection and study of cosmic neutrino signals. However, the range of physics topics that these instruments can tackle is exceedingly wide and diverse. Neutrinos coming from outside the Earth, in association with othermessengers, can contribute to clarify the question of the mechanisms that power the astrophysical accelerators which are known to exist from the observation of high-energy cosmic and gamma rays. Cosmic neutrinos can also be used to bring relevant information about the nature of dark matter, to study the intrinsic properties of neutrinos and to look for physics beyond the Standard Model. Likewise, atmospheric neutrinos can be used to study an ample variety of particle physics issues, such as neutrino oscillation phenomena, the determination of the neutrino mass ordering, non-standard neutrino interactions, neutrino decays and a diversity of other physics topics. In this article, we review a selected number of these topics, chosen on the basis of their scientific relevance and the involvement in their study of the Spanish physics community working in the KM3NeT and ANTARES neutrino telescopes.Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovacion, Investigacion y Universidades (MCIU) PGC2018-096663-B-C41 A-C42 B-C43 B-C44MCIU/FEDERGeneralitat Valenciana PROMETEO/2020/019GenT CIDEGENT/2018/034 2020/049 2021/023Junta de Andalucia A-FQM-053-UGR1

A Safety System based on Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to prevent the misuse of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) in construction

In this paper we address the issue of safety in the use of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) in construction, industrial, or similar sites where power tools are used. We propose a novel solution that can control actively the power of the tool depending on the worker–tool distance. It is based on RSSI information transmitted by BLE devices arranged in a particular rig, combined with a Bayesian distance estimator. Such an approach minimizes the required instrumentation of the workplace and also the number of configuration parameters; therefore it enables a wide range of applications. Our aim is not only to signal risky situations caused by the misuse of the PPE (either due to its bad fitting or a wrong distance to the tool), but to intervene in a fast and robust way to avoid the safety risk. This solution is built upon previous results on the statistically sound measurement of distances and closeness in construction sites. Here, we contribute with a thorough analysis of collocating several BLE transmitters near orthogonally, which reduces interferences while avoiding the cost of more advanced technologies. We study how many transmitters are needed and what parameters are the best in the Bayesian filter for the optimal performance of the system. Real experiments with a prototype have been conducted in a construction workshop where a person operates a miter saw. The results show how the correct use of the PPE (an earmuff equipped with the BLE transmitters) can be inferred from the distance estimation in a robust and reliable way.This research received funding from Plan Propio-Universidad de Málaga and it is associated to the Proyecto Puente “Integración de dispositivos basados en el paradigma loT para la mejora de seguridad laboral en proyectos de contrucción (IoTcons)”. Funding for open access charge: Universidad de Málaga / CBU

Investigation of potential distribution on a CFRP coupon under impulse current: test results and FDTD simulation

CFRP is becoming in an important material for the future blades due to alternative renewable energy industry plans to increase the length of the blades. This work shows some analytical results about potential distribution on a CFRP coupon obtained after applying an impulse current with different rise time. Effects around electrodes are, symmetry behavior and some interesting comments about the influence of the rise time appear. A FDTD simulation is done and a comparison between FDTD and analytical results. The aim is to evaluate how useful can be this technique when current distribution is over an anisotropic material since tests are not always possible.Preprin

Modelling and simulation of heat and mass transfer for liquid type foods under high pressure processes

High Pressure (HP) Processing has turned out to be very effective in order to prolong the shelf life of some foods. This paper deals with the modelling and simulation of the effect of the combination of high pressure with thermal treatments on food. The behaviour and stability of this model are checked by various numerical examples. Furthermore, a simplified version of the model is presented and compared with the full model in terms of accuracy and computational time. The models developed provide a useful tool to design suitable industrial equipments and optimize the processes

Identificación de la conductividad de un material cuando depende de la presión a la que está sometido

Depto. de Análisis Matemático y Matemática AplicadaInstituto de Matemática Interdisciplinar (IMI)Fac. de Ciencias MatemáticasTRUEpu

Depressive-like states heighten the aversion to painful stimuli in a rat model of comorbid chronic pain and depression.

BACKGROUND: Chronic pain and depression are two complex states with sensory/somatic and emotional components, and they may mutually exacerbate one another in conditions of comorbidity, leading to a poorer prognosis. METHODS: The authors have evaluated the sensory and emotional components in a rat model combining chronic constriction injury (CCI, a model of chronic neuropathic pain) with unpredictable chronic mild stress (CMS, an experimental model of depression). In addition, the phosphorylation/activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinases 1 and 2 and neuronal density was also evaluated in the anterior cingulate cortex. Four groups were tested: sham-control, sham-CMS, CCI-control, and CCI-CMS. RESULTS: CMS selectively heightens aversion to painful experiences in animals subjected to CCI, as measured in the place escape/avoidance test at 20, 25, and 30 min (CCI-CMS (mean±SEM): 75.68±3.32, 66.75±4.70, 77.54±3.60 vs. CCI-control: 44.66±6.07, 43.17±6.92, 52.83±5.92, respectively), in conjunction with an increase in the accumulation of phosphorylation/activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinases (CCI-CMS: 4.17±0.52 vs. sham-control: 0.96±0.05) and a decrease in neuronal density in the anterior cingulate cortex. In contrast, chronic pain did not exacerbate the characteristic profile of depression (anhedonia and behavioral despair) in rats subjected to CMS. Furthermore, depression enhances the perception of some specific modalities of sensorial pain such as cold allodynia but has no influence on mechanical threshold. CONCLUSIONS: These findings support the theory that depression leads to emotional dysfunction in the interpretation of pain in patients suffering chronic pain. In addition, combined animal models of pain-depression may provide a valuable tool to study the comorbidity of pain and depression

Adaptive slope voltage control for distributed generation inverters with improved transient performance

© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.Reactive power injection in distributed generation inverters is an useful ancillary service for grid supporting purposes. For grid-feeding converters, the slope control method is the most common voltage regulation strategy used in local (communication-less) applications. Despite its simplicity, this method offers limited dynamic properties in scenarios with changing operation conditions. In this sense, this paper presents an adaptive slope voltage control which provides an improved transient performance against operating variations. To derive the control configuration, a control-oriented mathematical model is developed. The accuracy of the modeling and the performance of the proposed control are validated by selected experimental results.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft