Comparative pollen foraging of Africanized and European honeybees in a non-agricultural environment

With the advent of the Africanized honeybee, ways to differentiate it from the European honeybee have been greatly sought in attempts to better understand the role of Africanized bees in pollination. Pollen collecting strategies for both honeybee subspecies have been explored in attempts to exploit their pollinating capabilities. This project examined pollen collected by honeybees from feral and managed European and Africanized colonies in a relatively isolated site. Paired European and Africanized honeybee colonies were used to obtain pollen foragers. Through acetolysis (series acidified Acetic Anhydride washings); the collected pollen from the individual foragers was treated and observed with light and scanning electron microscopes for further evaluation, and possible identification

Contributions to nonlinear system modelling and controller synthesis via convex structures

Esta tesis discute diferentes metodologías de modelado para extraer mejores prestaciones o resultados de estabilidad que aquéllas que el modelado convencional basado en sector no-lineal de sistemas Takagi-Sugeno (también denominados cuasi-LPV) es capaz de producir. En efecto, incluso si las LMIs pueden probar distintas cotas de prestaciones o márgenes de estabilidad (tasa de decaimiento, $\mathcal H_\infty$, etc.) para sistemas politópicos, es bien conocido que las prestaciones probadas dependen del modelo elegido y, dado un sistema no-lineal, dicho modelo politópico no es único. Por tanto, se presentan exploraciones hacia cómo obtener el modelo que es menos perjudicial para la medida de prestaciones elegida. Como una última contribución, mejores resultados son obtenidos mediante la extensión del modelado politópico Takagi-Sugeno a un marco de inclusiones en diferencias cuasi-convexas con planificación de ganancia. En efecto, una versión sin planificación de ganancia fue propuesta por un equipo de investigadores de la Universidad de Sevilla (Fiaccini, Álamo, Camacho) para generalizar el modelado politópico, y esta tesis propone una version aún más general de algunos de dichos resultados que incorpora planificación de ganancia.This thesis discusses different modelling methodologies to eke out best performance/stability results than conventional sector-nonlinearity Takagi-Sugeno (also known as quasi-LPV) systems modelling techniques are able to yield. Indeed, even if LMIs can prove various performance and stability bounds (decay rate, $\mathcal H_\infty$, etc.) for polytopic systems, it is well known that the proven performance depends on the chosen model and, given a nonlinear dynamic systems, the polytopic embeddings available for it are not unique. Thus, explorations on how to obtain the model which is less deletereous for performance are presented. As a last contribution, extending the polytopic Takagi-Sugeno setup to a gain-scheduled quasi-convex difference inclusion framework allows to improve the results over the polytopic models. Indeed, the non-scheduled convex difference inclusion framework was proposed by a research team in University of Seville (Fiacchini, Alamo, Camacho) as a generalised modelling methodology which included the polytopic one; this thesis poses a further generalised gain-scheduled version of some of these results.Aquesta tesi discuteix diferents metodologies de modelatge per extreure millors prestacions o resultats d'estabilitat que aquelles que el modelatge convencional basat en sector no-lineal de sistemes Takagi-Sugeno (també anomenats quasi-LPV) és capaç de produir. En efecte, fins i tot si les LMIs poden provar diferents cotes de prestacions o marges d'estabilitat (taxa de decaïment, $\mathcal H_\infty$, etc.) per a sistemes politòpics, és ben conegut que les prestacions provades depenen del model triat i, donat un sistema no-lineal, el dit model politòpic no és únic. Per tant, es presenten exploracions cap a com obtenir el model que és menys perjudicial per a la mesura de prestacions triada. Com una darrera contribució, millors resultats són obtinguts mitjançant l'extensió del modelatge politòpic Takagi-Sugeno a un marc d'inclusions en diferències quasi-convexes amb planificació de guany. En efecte, una versió sense planificació de guany va ser proposada per un equip d'investigadors de la Universitat de Sevilla (Fiaccini, Álamo, Camacho) per a generalitzar el modelatge politòpic, i aquesta tesi proposa una versió més general d'alguns d'aquests resultats que incorpora planificació de guany.Robles Ruiz, R. (2018). Contributions to nonlinear system modelling and controller synthesis via convex structures [Tesis doctoral no publicada]. Universitat Politècnica de València. https://doi.org/10.4995/Thesis/10251/100848TESI

UN RARO CASO DE ENCANECIMIENTO PROGRESIVO CON EXPRESIÓN DE XANTOCROISMO EN EL CACIQUE MEXICANO (CASSICULUS MELANICTERUS)

Resumen. Con el objeto de reportar un raro caso de encanecimiento progresivo con expresión de xantocroísmo en el cacique mexicano (Caciculus melanicterus) y su desarrollo en el tiempo, se tomaron fotografías anualmente entre 2018 y 2021 a un individuo de plumaje aberrante. En 2018 el ave mostraba simplemente una macha amarilla atípica en la cabeza que ocupaba un estimado del 5% de la superficie de su plumaje. Con el tiempo el color negro de sus plumas fue  progresivamente sustituido por amarillo con ligera despigmentación en la cara y las alas. De manera que en 2019, la aberración se había extendido hasta abarcar aproximadamente el 50% de su plumaje y  para 2020-2021 alcanzó el 75%. El presente reporte se trata del primer caso de este tipo conocido en el Neotrópico.Palabras clave: Aberración del plumaje, carotenismo, flavismo, pluma, xantocroismo

A-GWASF-GA: The New Version of GWASF-GA to Solve Many Objective Problems

A new version of the evolutionary algorithm based on GWASF-GA [1] is proposed in this work. GWASF-GA is an aggregation-based algorithm which uses the Tchebychev metric plus an augmentation term as fitness function and two reference points (the utopian and nadir points) to classify the individuals according to a set of widely-distributed weight vectors. Although this algorithm obtains a good approximation of the Pareto front (PF) for multi-objective optimization problems, this may be more difficult to obtain for many-objective optimization problems due to the fact that the weight vectors used are never updated along the search process. For this reason, we propose a new version of the algorithm, called A-GWASF-GA, in which a dynamic adjustment of the weight vectors is carried out. The main idea is to re-calculate some weight vectors in order to obtain solutions in parts of the PF with a lack of solutions. Firstly, a percentage (p) of the total number of evaluations is performed with the original GWASF-GA [1]. Secondly, during the rest of evaluations (1-p), we re-calculate na times the projection directions determined by a subset of Na weight vectors. The re-calculation process is based on a scattering level, a measure based on the distance of each solution and the solutions around it. According to the scattering level of the generated solutions, we detect the Na weight vectors projecting toward overcrowded areas of the PF and we re-calculate them so that their new projection directions point towards areas of the PF which are not so well approximated. In order to show the effectiveness of A-GWASF-GA, we compare it with NSGA-III [2, 3], MOEA/D [4], MOEA/D-AWA [5] and the original GWASF-GA.To evaluate their performance, we use the IGD metric [6]. The results of the computational experiment demonstrate the good performance of A-GWASF-GA in the novel many-objective optimization benchmark problems considered.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Combining Overall and Target Oriented Sentiment Analysis over Portuguese Text from Social Media

This document describes an approach to perform sentiment analysis on social media Portuguese content. In a single system, we perform polarity classification for both the overall sentiment, and target oriented sentiment. In both modes we train a Maximum Entropy classifier. The overall model is based on BoW type features, and also features derived from POS tagging and from sentiment lexicons. Target oriented analysis begins with named entity recognition, followed by the classification of sentiment polarity on these entities. This classifier model uses features dedicated to the entity mention textual zone, including negation detection, and the syntactic function of the target occurrence segment. Our experiments have achieved an accuracy of 75% for target oriented polarity classification, and 97% in overall polarity

CareFall: Automatic Fall Detection through Wearable Devices and AI Methods

The aging population has led to a growing number of falls in our society, affecting global public health worldwide. This paper presents CareFall, an automatic Fall Detection System (FDS) based on wearable devices and Artificial Intelligence (AI) methods. CareFall considers the accelerometer and gyroscope time signals extracted from a smartwatch. Two different approaches are used for feature extraction and classification: i) threshold-based, and ii) machine learning-based. Experimental results on two public databases show that the machine learning-based approach, which combines accelerometer and gyroscope information, outperforms the threshold-based approach in terms of accuracy, sensitivity, and specificity. This research contributes to the design of smart and user-friendly solutions to mitigate the negative consequences of falls among older people.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, 2 table

Early Cretaceous absolute geomagnetic paleointensities from Córdoba province (Argentina)

We present here new paleointensity and geochronology results from Early Cretaceous volcanic rocks of Sierra Chica de Cordoba (Argentina). The new K-Ar isotopic ages of 5 samples range from 136 to 122 Ma. Twenty five samples from 7 individual flows yielded acceptable paleointensity estimates. The mean paleointensity values per flow are ranging from 53.0±1.9 to 25.4±2.6 μT and the corresponding Virtual Dipole Moments (VDMs) are ranging from 9.3±1.3 to 4.6±0.5 (1022 Am2). This corresponds to the mean value of 7.3±1.7x1022 Am2, which is compatible to the present geomagnetic axial dipole. Currently available selected paleointensity data from 80 to 130 Ma suggest that geomagnetic field strength frequently fluctuated before and during the Cretaceous Normal Superchron while the magnetic polarity maintained stable. The mean paleointensities derived from Cordoba lavas agree remarkably well with those obtained from the Parana Magmatic Province (133-132 Ma). This reinforces the hypothesis about the unreliability of ‘Mesozoic Dipole Low'.Fil: Cejudo Ruiz, Ruben. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Goguitchaichvili, Avto. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Geuna, Silvana Evangelina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Geociencias Básicas, Aplicadas y Ambientales de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Alva-Valdivia, Luis M.. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Solé, Jesus. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; MéxicoFil: Morales, Juan. Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México; Méxic

ChildCI Framework: Analysis of Motor and Cognitive Development in Children-Computer Interaction for Age Detection

This article presents a comprehensive analysis of the different tests proposed in the recent ChildCI framework, proving its potential for generating a better understanding of children's neuromotor and cognitive development along time, as well as their possible application in other research areas such as e-Health and e-Learning. In particular, we propose a set of over 100 global features related to motor and cognitive aspects of the children interaction with mobile devices, some of them collected and adapted from the literature. Furthermore, we analyse the robustness and discriminative power of the proposed feature set including experimental results for the task of children age group detection based on their motor and cognitive behaviors. Two different scenarios are considered in this study: i) single-test scenario, and ii) multiple-test scenario. Results over 93% accuracy are achieved using the publicly available ChildCIdb_v1 database (over 400 children from 18 months to 8 years old), proving the high correlation of children's age with the way they interact with mobile devices.Comment: 11 pages, 2 figures, 6 table