An AER-Based Actuator Interface for Controlling an Anthropomorphic Robotic Hand

Bio-Inspired and Neuro-Inspired systems or circuits are a relatively novel approaches to solve real problems by mimicking the biology in its efficient solutions. Robotic also tries to mimic the biology and more particularly the human body structure and efficiency of the muscles, bones, articulations, etc. Address-Event-Representation (AER) is a communication protocol for transferring asynchronous events between VLSI chips, originally developed for neuro-inspired processing systems (for example, image processing). Such systems may consist of a complicated hierarchical structure with many chips that transmit data among them in real time, while performing some processing (for example, convolutions). The information transmitted is a sequence of spikes coded using high speed digital buses. These multi-layer and multi-chip AER systems perform actually not only image processing, but also audio processing, filtering, learning, locomotion, etc. This paper present an AER interface for controlling an anthropomorphic robotic hand with a neuro-inspired system.Unión Europea IST-2001-34124 (CAVIAR)Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC-2003-08164-C03-0

Effect of dietary sunflower hulls on nutrient digestibility, ileal morphology, and volatile fatty acid concentration in broilers and pullets fed a broiler diet from 1 to 21 days of age

The effects of sunflower hulls (SFH) inclusion on performance, TTAR of nutrients, ileal mucosa morphology, and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentration in the ceca were studied in birds from 1 to 21 d of age. There were 4 treatments organized as 2 × 2 factorial with 2 chicken lines (broilers vs. pullets) and 2 levels of SFH (0 vs. 3%). Each treatment was replicated 7 times (10 birds). The corn-soybean meal control diet contained 3,010 kcal AMEn/kg, 1.25% digestible Lys, and 8.7% NDF. In the experimental diet, SFH was included at the expense (wt:wt) of the control diet. Diets were offered in mash form. No interactions between main effects were detected for any trait. From 1 to 21 d of age, ADG was greater and FCR was better in broilers than in pullets (P < 0.001) but SFH inclusion did not affect bird performance. The TTAR of all nutrients was higher (P < 0.05) in broilers than in pullets. The inclusion of SFH improved AMEn of the diet (P < 0.05) at both ages and DM and N retention (P < 0.001) at 21 d. Broilers had larger villus and deeper crypt (P < 0.01) than pullets. Broilers tended to have higher (P = 0.077) cecal proportion of acetate than pullets but no effects were observed for the other VFA. SFH inclusion tended to increased villus height (P < 0.05) and cecal proportion of acetate and propionate (P < 0.01). In summary, broilers grew faster, were more efficient, had higher ileum absorptive capacity, TTAR of nutrients than pullets. The inclusion of 3% SFH in substitution (wt:wt) of the whole diet improved AMEn without showing any negative effect on growth performance of the bird

Generation of Literary Sentences: a Preliminary Approach

En este trabajo abordamos la generación automática de frases literarias en español. Proponemos un modelo de generación textual basado en algoritmos estadísticos y análisis sintáctico superficial. Presentamos resultados preliminares que son bastante alentadores.In this paper we address the automatic generation of literary phrases in Spanish. We propose a model for text generation based on statistical algorithms and Shallow Parsing. We present preliminary results that are quite encouraging

Analysis of the solar cycle and core rotation using 15 years of Mark-I observations:1984-1999. I. The solar cycle

High quality observations of the low-degree acoustic modes (p-modes) exist for almost two complete solar cycles using the solar spectrophotometer Mark-I, located at the Observatorio del Teide (Tenerife, Spain) and operating now as part of the Birmingham Solar Oscillations Network (BiSON). We have performed a Fourier analysis of 30 calibrated time-series of one year duration covering a total period of 15 years between 1984 and 1999. Applying different techniques to the resulting power spectra, we study the signature of the solar activity changes on the low-degree p-modes. We show that the variation of the central frequencies and the total velocity power (TVP) changes. A new method of simultaneous fit is developed and a special effort has been made to study the frequency-dependence of the frequency shift. The results confirm a variation of the central frequencies of acoustic modes of about 450 nHz, peak-to-peak, on average for low degree modes between 2.5 and 3.7 mHz. The TVP is anti-correlated with the common activity indices with a decrease of about 20% between the minimum and the maximum of solar cycle 22. The results are compared with those obtained for intermediate degrees, using the LOWL data. The frequency shift is found to increase with the degree with a weak l-dependence similar to that of the inverse mode mass. This verifies earlier suggestions that near surface effects are predominant.Comment: Accepted by A&A October 3 200

Academic competence, teacher–student relationship, and violence and victimisation in adolescents: The classroom climate as a mediator

School violence is a serious social and public health problem prevalent worldwide. Alt-hough the relevance of teacher and classroom factors is well established in the literature, few studies have focused on the role of teacher perceptions in school violence and victimisation and the poten-tial mediational role of classroom climate in this relationship. A total of 2399 adolescents (50% girls), aged between 11 and 18 years (M = 14.65, SD = 1.78) and enrolled in five Spanish Secondary Com-pulsory Education schools completed measures of classroom climate, school violence towards peers and perception of peer victimisation, and their teachers informed about their academic competence and the teacher–student relationship. Correlational analyses revealed that whereas academic competence perceived by the teacher was negatively related to overt violence and victimisation, its relationship with pure relational violence was positive. Structural equation modelling analyses showed that variables of classroom climate (involvement, affiliation, and teacher support) perceived by the students functioned as partial mediators between teacher perceptions of academic competence and of teacher–student relationship and violence and victimisation. In the mediational model, teacher perception of academic competence acted as a direct protective factor against violence and victimisation, and teacher perception of teacher–student relationship acted as a direct risk for violence, as well as an indirect protective factor through classroom climate for victimisation. The interpretation of these results points to the importance of the teacher’s subjective perceptions in the prevention of violence and victimisation problems and their practical implications for the classroom climate perceived by students

AER Building Blocks for Multi-Layer Multi-Chip Neuromorphic Vision Systems

A 5-layer neuromorphic vision processor whose components communicate spike events asychronously using the address-eventrepresentation (AER) is demonstrated. The system includes a retina chip, two convolution chips, a 2D winner-take-all chip, a delay line chip, a learning classifier chip, and a set of PCBs for computer interfacing and address space remappings. The components use a mixture of analog and digital computation and will learn to classify trajectories of a moving object. A complete experimental setup and measurements results are shown.Unión Europea IST-2001-34124 (CAVIAR)Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC-2003-08164-C0

Compatibilidad de variedades de cerezo húngaras sobre Adara y otros patrones Prunus

3 Págs. Contribución de los autores originalmente presentada, como comunicación,en el XIII Congreso Nacional de Ciencias Hortícolas (SECH 2012): “Convergencia de las Tecnologías Hortofrutícolas” (Almería, abril 2012)El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo determinar el grado de compatibilidad que presenta el ciruelo Adara y otros patrones Prunus para su utilización con variedades de cerezo húngaras. Entre las variedades estudiadas figuran: ‘Aida’, ‘Alex’, ‘Carmen’, ‘Kavics’, ‘Krupnoplodnaja’, ‘Rita’, ‘Sandor’ y ‘Vera’. El estudio se desarrolla sobre árboles injertados en viveros experimentales establecidos en la Estación Experimental de Aula Dei y fincas privadas comerciales. Para determinar los posibles casos de incompatibilidad del tipo ‘traslocada’ se realizaron observaciones visuales en campo durante el primer período vegetativo del árbol. Hasta la fecha no se han observado síntomas de incompatibilidad ‘traslocada’ para las combinaciones evaluadas. El diagnóstico de la incompatibilidad ‘localizada’ se realizará en años sucesivos mediante el examen macroscópico de las uniones de injerto y la determinación del grado de discontinuidad encontrado en corteza y madera.Este trabajo ha sido financiado por la acción integrada hispano-húngara del Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación español (MICINN) (proyecto HH2008-0012) y de la ‘National Innovation Office’ húngara (NIH) (proyecto ES-27/2008), así como por el proyecto AGL-2008-00283 cofinanciado por FEDER, y el Gobierno de Aragón (A44).Peer reviewe