Between justice and morality: meta-theoretical criteria in justice, morals, and law

The social advance of the last decades implies the need to rethink various legal schemes and the way they are integrated into contemporary society. For this reason, human dignity, human rights and the democratic principle, which serves as their foundation while, at the same time, limiting them too, must be assumed as political and legal values for the sake of collective development. This means the subjection of powers and institutions to the Constitution and to fundamental rights in diverse private and public spheres that individuals must handle, such as the social, cultural, and political spheres.El avance social de las últimas décadas supone la necesidad de replantearse los diversos esquemas jurídicos y la forma como estos se integran a la sociedad contemporánea. Por ello, se deben asumir como valores políticos y jurídicos la dignidad humana, los derechos humanos y el principio democrático que los fundamentan y, a la vez, los limitan, en aras del desarrollo colectivo. Lo anterior supone un sometimiento de los poderes y las instituciones a la Constitución y a los derechos fundamentales en las diversas esferas privadas y públicas que maneja el individuo, como la social, la cultural y la política

Human rights founded on legitimation and legal morality

El Estado colombiano está inmerso en el proceso de paz y posconflicto, si llegara a concretarse tal acuerdo, razón por la cual debe enfrentar una etapa de transición continua en la que se replanteen aspectos como el modelo de justicia que se ha venido aplicando y que terminará por modificar el sistema jurídico y las políticas públicas que hasta la fecha se han venido ejecutando. Es por ello que, a la hora de plantear políticas públicas cuyo objetivo sea la consecución de la paz, estas deben ser entendidas desde la esfera de la sana convivencia y la aceptación del otro. Todo aquello se lograría a partir de una evolución del sistema jurídico y cultural de la sociedad colombiana que permita incluir la moral jurídica, la cual, tiene como requisito fundamental el reconocimiento recíproco entre personas y se materializa con un sistema jurídico que abarque más allá de una simple protección a los derechos humanos. Lo anterior hace referencia a la pluricultural existente en todo el territorio nacional, por ejemplo, las minorías étnicas gitanas, afrodescendientes, etc. y a cómo deben ser incluidas de forma efectiva en un modelo social sostenible.Colombia is immersed in the peace process, as well as in a post-conflict context, in case the peace agreement is signed. Consequently, it must face a stage of continuous transition, in which to rethink aspects such as the model of justice as employed so far, which in turn will end up changing the legal system and public policies as practiced to date. Therefore, when it comes to considering public policies aimed at achieving peace, these must be understood from the perspective of peaceful coexistence and the acceptance of others. All this would be achieved by the evolution of the legal and cultural system of the Colombian society in order to include legal morality, which has as its fundamental requirement a mutual recognition among people, and which comes to life with a legal system that goes beyond simply protecting human rights. This refers to pluriculturality that exists throughout the national territory, for example, gipsy ethnic minorities, Afro-descendants, etc., as well as how they should be effectively included in a sustainable social model

Introducing probabilistic celular automata. A versatile extension of Game of Live

The "Game of life" model was created in 1970 by the mathematician Jonh Horton Conway using cellular automata. Since then, di erent extensions of these cellular automata have been used in many applications, such as car traffic control or baggage traffic in an airport. These extensions introduce ideas not only from cellular automata models but also from neural networks theory. In this work, we introduce probabilistic cellular automata which include non-deterministic rules for transitions between successive generations of the automaton together with probabilistic decisions about life and death of the cells in next generation of the automaton. This way, more realistic situations can be modeled and the obtained results are also non-deterministic. As an example of use, an implementation of this probabilistic cellular automaton has been developed using it for simulating tissues evolution. The authors are specially interested in simulations of cancerous tissues.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Transformaciones políticas: lesbianas al poder

Junto con un grupo de mujeres que hacen parte de la mesa LGBT de Suba, se iniciaron una serie de investigaciones que se centraron inicialmente en el impacto político que ha generado el rechazo hacia la comunidad de lesbianas, a partir de un grupo creado, llamado Mesa LGBT de Suba se crea un movimiento social de mujeres lesbianas de Suba, donde se pretendía buscar el método correcto de ser escuchadas, considerando que, la mejor manera de obtener resultados positivos era vinculándose en el ámbito político, en este punto se empieza a participar activamente con este movimiento visibilizando la problemática de rechazo y violencia latente en la localidad de suba y las entidades competentes, poco a poco se empezarían a aplicar políticas que garanticen la protección de los derechos humanos explicando profundamente nuestro sistema simbólico

Flexible Fuzzy Rule Bases Evolution with Swarm Intelligence for Meta-Scheduling in Grid Computing

Fuzzy rule-based systems are expert systems whose performance is strongly related to the quality of their knowledge and the associated knowledge acquisition processes and thus, the design of effective learning techniques is considered a critical and major problem of these systems. Knowledge acquisition with a swarm intelligence approach is a recent learning strategy for the evolution of fuzzy rule bases founded on swarm intelligence showing improvement over classical knowledge acquisition strategies in fuzzy rule based systems such as Pittsburgh and Michigan approaches in terms of convergence behaviour and accuracy. In this work, a generalization of this method is proposed to allow the simultaneous consideration of diversely configured knowledge bases and this way to accelerate the learning process of the original algorithm. In order to test the suggested strategy, a problem of practical importance nowadays, the design of expert meta-schedulers systems for grid computing is considered. Simulations results show the fact that the suggested adaptation improves the functionality of knowledge acquisition with a swarm intelligence approach and it reduces computational effort; at the same time it keeps the quality of the canonical strategy

Long-term trends in atmospheric Quercus pollen related to climate change in southern Spain: A 25-year perspective

Long-term trends of atmospheric Quercus pollen recorded for 25 years (1995–2019) in southern Spain (Cordoba city, Andalusia region) have been studied to determine the influence of climate fluctuations and other anthropogenic factors on Mediterranean oak vegetation areas. Atmospheric pollen analysis revealed different changes on reproductive Quercus phenology through the study period. Pollination intensity showed an average cumulated value of the Main Pollen Season Integral of 12,832 Pollen * day/m3, with a high variability among years (±SD 8,048) and a significant rising trend of 771 pollen grains per year, being stronger in recent years (2014–2019). It was remarkable the high quantity of Quercus pollen grains detected out of the Main Pollen Season (703 Pollen * day/m3 ± SD 431), also increasing in recent years. Regarding Quercus phenology, results indicated as the main Quercus species in the area, Quercus ilex subsp. ballota (holm oak), Q. coccifera, Q. faginea and Q. suber, presented a gradually pollination during spring (from mid-March to early June), although a lengthening of the pollination season is observed in recent years. This phenomenon could be explained by the progressive delay in the pollination of Q. suber. Regarding climate factors, a decrease in rainfall, especially during winter and autumn was recorded, along with colder winters but warmer springs, summers, and autumns. These changes were significantly correlated with pollination timing and intensity. The climate parameters most affecting were those related to temperature and sunshine. However, the total annual pollen showed a significant negative correlation with the annual recorded rainfall. Results show that recent climatic change, among other factors, are leading to changes in the timing and intensity of the Quercus pollen season in the Mediterranean area

Factors Driving Autumn Quercus Flowering in a Thermo-Mediterranean Area

The flowering period of plants is a critical time since it determines their reproductive success. Flowering is controlled by different factors including genetic regulation and environmental conditions. In the Mediterranean area, favourable conditions usually occur in spring, when most plant species flower including those of the Mediterranean Quercus genus. This paper reveals and analyses an unusual and lesser-known phenomenon occurring in the two main Mediterranean agroforestry ecosystems of South Europe, the Mediterranean forest and “dehesa”, that is, a second flowering occurring in autumn for the species Quercus ilex subsp. ballota (holm oak). The continuous pollen monitoring of the atmosphere in the city of Cordoba (southern Spain) for 25 years, together with field phenological observations in the area, has indicated that, apart from the main pollination period in spring, secondary flowerings also occasionally occur in this area, specifically in autumn. The present work examines these uncommon pollination events detected in the autumns of certain years with the aim of determining the main environmental factors that influence and control them. During the 25-year study period, there were 7 years in which a secondary Quercus flowering was detected in the area from the second half of October until the end of November. The univariate statistical analysis of the influence of environmental variables determined that the meteorological conditions in September were the most influential. Low mean temperatures, together with record rainfall in that month, led to autumn flowering events. The phenological characteristics of the spring pollen season were also influential. In the years with a shorter spring, the Quercus pollen season tended to present autumn flowerings. A multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS) model was built to explain the effects of the different variables on the occurrence of autumn pollination. The results indicated that the combined effect of three predicting variables, September rainfall, the length of the spring pollen season, and the end of the spring pollen season, explained 92% of the variance. The validation showed a strong relationship between the expected and the observed autumn pollen concentrations. Therefore, the present analysis of a long-term pollen database revealed that the main causes of this unusual second flowering in autumn were strongly related to climate change, i.e., strong dry summers and warm autumns. In addition, the results showed that the phenomenon was more frequent in the years with low pollination during spring due to different meteorological events potentiated by climate change, such as dryness or heavy rain episodes, as a way of ensuring acorn crops. The results explain how this unusual and lesser-known phenomenon in agroforestry dynamics is related to the adaptation to climate change and the main factors that are driving it, as well as the potential consequences for these important and endangered Mediterranean ecosystems

Atmospheric Pathways and Distance Range Analysis of Castanea Pollen Transport in Southern Spain

The sweet chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) is the only native species of this genus in Europe, where it faces various threats that are causing a severe decrease in populations, with the resulting loss of genetic diversity. In the Iberian Peninsula, it is of high economic and ecological importance, being well represented, especially in northern areas, whilst it is limited to isolated populations in medium-range mountains in southern Spain (Andalusia region). Taking advantage of this fragmented distribution, this study analyzes the dynamics of atmospheric transport of Castanea pollen through Andalusia region in order to obtain a better understanding of the pollination pathways as a key aspect of the floral biology of this partially anemophilous species. The aerobiological characteristics of this species are also of special interest since its pollen has been recognized as allergenic. Pollen transport pathways were studied by applying back-trajectories analysis together with aerobiological, phenological, land cover, and meteorological data. The results reveal that airborne Castanea pollen concentrations recorded in the city of Cordoba, in the center of Andalusia region, reach medium- and even long-range distances. The backward-trajectory analysis indicates that most of the pollen data detected outside the Castanea flowering season were related to westerly slow and easterly airflows. Furthermore, some of the case studies analyzed indicate the presence of southerly airflow patterns, which could influence medium- and long-range transport events from chestnut populations further south, even from those located in north African mountains. The integrated analysis of the results offers us better knowledge of the cross-pollination pathways of this endangered species, which help us to understand its genetic flows, as a basis for designing conservation strategies for this highly fragmented species in southern Spain

A QVGA Vision Sensor with Multi-functional Pixels for Focal-Plane Programmable Obfuscation

Privacy awareness constitutes a critical aspect for smart camera networks. An ideal awless protection of sensitive information would boost their application scenarios. How- ever, it is still far from being achieved. Numerous chal- lenges arise at di erent levels, from hardware security to subjective perception. Generally speaking, it can be stated that the closer to the image sensing device the protection measures take place, the higher the privacy and security at- tainable. Likewise, the integration of heterogeneous camera components becomes simpler since most of them will not require to consider privacy issues. The ultimate objective would be to incorporate complete protection directly into a smart image sensor in such a way that no sensitive data would be delivered o -chip while still permitting the tar- geted video analytics. This paper presents a 320 240-px prototype vision sensor embedding processing capabilities useful for accomplishing this objective. It is based on re- con gurable focal-plane sensing-processing that can provide programmable obfuscation. Pixelation of tunable granular- ity can be applied to multiple image regions in parallel. In addition to this functionality, the sensor exploits recon g- urability to implement other processing primitives, namely block-wise high dynamic range, integral image computation and Gaussian ltering. Its power consumption ranges from 42.6mW for high dynamic range operation to 55.2mW for integral image computation at 30fps. It has been fabricated in a standard 0.18 m CMOS process.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-38921-C02, IPT-2011-1625- 430000, IPC-20111009 CDTIJunta de Andalucía TIC 2338-2013Office of Naval Research (USA) N00014141035

The Sustainability of Public Social Services: A Qualitative Study

[EN] The 2008 global economic crisis heightened social inequality and drastically reduced equal opportunities for many people. It had negative consequences for social regulation in many European countries, which have dismantled their public social policies. The objective of the study was to describe social workers’ perceptions of their lived experiences in di erent areas of the public social services system. A qualitative study was developed, based on a hermeneutic approach. Six in-depth interviews and two focus groups were conducted with 20 social workers employed by community social services and the Andalusian public health service (Spain). The professionals agreed that the public social services system has been eroded, that the lack of resources has consequences for workers and the general public alike, and that the public authorities and the administration are responsible for this situation. Social services have become distributors of scarce resources rather than a social protection system that empowers and accompanies the most vulnerable. The system must provide the necessary resources and structures so that they can escape the situation of poverty, exclusion and social injustice.S