The promise of transformation through participation: an analysis of Communal Councils in Caracas, Venezuela

Communal Councils (CCs) in Venezuela are deemed as part of a greater project of social transformation under a radical approach to participatory democracy. The Hugo Chavez’s administration endorsed the creation of thousands of allegedly self-governing CCs in every neighbourhood of every city or town in the country. The initial goal was to address people’s most urgent needs while including them in the decision-making process in their communities. The passing of President Chavez, a charismatic leader who was the driving force behind Chavismo and the Bolivarian Revolution, represents a challenge to the participatory process where CCs have been framed. Within this overall context, a radical approach to participation should lay the foundations of a State-led process of social transformation of the left. Based on this, the objectives of this paper are: on the one hand, to propose a set of indicators to study spaces of participation at the community level framed in a State-led process of social transformation; on the other, to show the viability of these indicators in the analysis of Communal Councils in the context of the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela. These indicators refer to the recognition of ‘the other’; autonomy from state institutions; mobilization of the community; and design and internal dynamics. In order to advance these objectives, this paper explores how participation in the CCs has been operationalized under the Bolivarian Revolution. Therefore, this research has empirically implemented the proposed indicators in six CCs of Caracas through semi-structure interviews with community leaders. The results suggest that the type of participation offered is one strongly conditioned by an ideological system which promises transformation but impedes this transformation in practice. I have called this situation a ‘conditioned participation’

CRISPR/Cas9-mediated editing of the TM6 MADS-box gene in the octoploid strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa)

El contenido del poster presentado está desarrollado en: doi:10.1093/jxb/ery400 y Publicado por Oxford University pressThe B-class of MADS-box transcription factors has been studied in many plant species, but remain functionally uncharacterized in the Rosaceae family. APETALA3 (AP3), a member of this class, controls the identity of petals and stamens in Arabidopsis thaliana. In this work, we identified two members of the AP3 lineage in the cultivated strawberry (Fragaria × ananassa): FaAP3 and FaTM6. Interestingly, FaTM6, and not FaAP3, shows an expression pattern equivalent to that of AP3 in Arabidopsis. Genome editing using Cluster Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 system is becoming a robust tool for targeted and stable mutagenesis of DNA. However, whether it can be efficiently used in an octoploid species such as F. × ananassa is not known. In our study, we report the application of the CRISPR/Cas9 in F. × ananassa to characterize the function of FaTM6 in flower development. An exhaustive analysis by high-throughput sequencing of the FaTM6 locus spanning the target sites showed a high efficiency genome editing already in the T0 generation. The phenotypic characterization of the mutant lines indicates that FaTM6 plays a key role in petal and especially in anther development in strawberry. Our results validate the CRISPR/Cas9 strategy for gene functional analysis in an octoploid species such as F. × ananassa, and offer new opportunities for engineering strawberry to improve traits of interest in breeding programs.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Improving Knowledge-Based Systems with statistical techniques, text mining, and neural networks for non-technical loss detection

Currently, power distribution companies have several problems that are related to energy losses. For example, the energy used might not be billed due to illegal manipulation or a breakdown in the customer’s measurement equipment. These types of losses are called non-technical losses (NTLs), and these losses are usually greater than the losses that are due to the distribution infrastructure (technical losses). Traditionally, a large number of studies have used data mining to detect NTLs, but to the best of our knowledge, there are no studies that involve the use of a Knowledge-Based System (KBS) that is created based on the knowledge and expertise of the inspectors. In the present study, a KBS was built that is based on the knowledge and expertise of the inspectors and that uses text mining, neural networks, and statistical techniques for the detection of NTLs. Text mining, neural networks, and statistical techniques were used to extract information from samples, and this information was translated into rules, which were joined to the rules that were generated by the knowledge of the inspectors. This system was tested with real samples that were extracted from Endesa databases. Endesa is one of the most important distribution companies in Spain, and it plays an important role in international markets in both Europe and South America, having more than 73 million customers

Sistema de monitoreo en línea de las variables de control: ultrasonido, temperatura, aire y caudal de agua de los motores DC del tren acabador del proceso de laminación en caliente en acerías nacionales del Ecuador.

La Siderúrgica ANDEC es una empresa que elabora varillas de acero para la construcción siendo una de las más importantes en el país. El área de laminación es la encargada de elaborar el producto final que llega a los distribuidores siendo, por este motivo, un proceso de vital importancia para la empresa. Al no tener un monitoreo en su tren acabador están vulnerables a paradas no programadas, que perjudican la producción y no se cumple con su tonelaje de entrega esperado. El presente tema de tesis se fundamenta en el monitoreo del estado de los motores del área mencionada. Las fallas más comunes en estos motores son: vibración alta debido al mal estado de los rodamientos y esto a su vez acarrea un aumento de temperatura por una posible rotura de la jaula o pérdida de lubricación. También pueden ser producidas por falta de refrigeración en el intercambiador de calor del motor por baja o nula presión de agua. Para esta investigación se realizó la programación en un PLC S7-300 el cual mediante sensores tales como: PT100 y ultrasonido, para tener las tendencias del comportamiento de temperatura y vibración, respectivamente de los rodamientos; el sensor de presión a la salida de la tubería del intercambiador de calor para verificar la presión de agua precisa para su funcionamiento, se procesan interactuando con un SCADA donde se muestran en línea estos parámetros de forma amigable para poder ser visualizados por el personal técnico y los operadores de la planta. El software que se utilizó en el proceso fue Step 7 V5.5 en el cual se hicieron las líneas de programación y el WinCC explorer el cual sirvió para realizar el SCADA. Para la comunicación software y hardware se usó una red Ethernet. Se diseñó este trabajo para tener valores reales e instantáneos que sirvan para diagnosticar el estado de los motores.ANDEC is a company that makes steel rods for construction remains one of the most important in the country. The rolling area is responsible for developing the final product reaches the distributors being, for this reason, a process vital to the company. Having no monitoring his finisher train is vulnerable to unscheduled shutdowns, which hurt production and is not satisfied with delivery expected tonnage. This thesis topic is based on the monitoring of the state of the engines of said area. The most common failures in these engines are high vibration due to the poor condition of the bearings and this in turn leads to an increase in temperature by a possible break in the cage or loss of lubrication. They can also be produced by lack of refrigeration in the heat exchanger engine by low or no water pressure. Programming for this research was conducted in a S7-300 PLC which uses sensors such as PT100 and ultrasound, to have behavioral trends of temperature and vibration, respectively, of the bearings; the pressure sensor to the output of the heat exchanger pipe to check the water pressure required for operation, are processed interacting with a SCADA online show where these parameters so friendly to be viewed by the staff and plant operators. The software used was Step7 V5.5 in which the lines of programming made and WinCC explorer which served to make the SCADA. The communication between Hardware and software was made in Ethernet network. This work was designed to have real and instantaneous values that serve to diagnose the state of the engines

Functional Analysis of TM6 MADS-box gene in the Octoploid Strawberry by CRISPR/Cas9 directed mutagenesis

The B-class of MADS-box transcription factors has been studied in many plant species, but remain functionally uncharacterized in the Rosaceae family. APETALA3 (AP3), a member of this class, controls the identity of petals and stamens in Arabidopsis thaliana. In this work, we identified two members of the AP3 lineage in the cultivated strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa): FaAP3 and FaTM6. Interestingly, FaTM6, and not FaAP3, shows an expression pattern equivalent to that of AP3 in Arabidopsis. Genome editing using Cluster Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR)/Cas9 system is becoming a robust tool for targeted and stable mutagenesis of DNA. However, whether it can be efficiently used in an octoploid species such as F. ananassa is not known. Here we report for the first time the application of CRISPR/Cas9 in F. x ananassa to characterize the function of FaTM6 in flower development. An exhaustive analysis by high-throughput sequencing of the FaTM6 locus spanning the target sites showed a high efficiency genome editing already in the T0 generation. The phenotypic characterization of the mutant lines indicates that FaTM6 plays a key role in petal and especially in anther development in strawberry. Our results validate the CRISPR/Cas9 strategy for gene functional analysis in an octoploid species such as F. x ananassa, and offer new opportunities for engineering strawberry to improve traits of interest in breeding programs

An Expert System to Improve the Energy Efficiency of the Reaction Zone of a Petrochemical Plant

Energy is the most important cost factor in the petrochemical industry. Thus, energy efficiency improvement is an important way to reduce these costs and to increase predictable earnings, especially in times of high energy price volatility. This work describes the development of an expert system for the improvement of this efficiency of the reaction zone of a petrochemical plant. This system has been developed after a data mining process of the variables registered in the plant. Besides, a kernel of neural networks has been embedded in the expert system. A graphical environment integrating the proposed system was developed in order to test the system. With the application of the expert system, the energy saving on the applied zone would have been about 20%.Junta de Andalucía TIC-570

On the Benefits of a Cooperative Layer-2 based Routing Approach for Hybrid Wireless Mesh Networks

In a wireless mesh network, the convenience of a routing strategy strongly depends on the mobility of the intermediate nodes that compose the paths. Taking into account this behavior, this paper presents a routing scheme that works differently accordingly to the nodes mobility. In this sense, a proactive routing scheme is restricted to the backbone in order to promote the use of stable routes. On the other hand, the reactive protocol is used to search routes to or from a mobile destination. Both approaches are simultaneously implemented in the mesh nodes so that the routing protocols share routing information that optimize the network performance. Aiming at guaranteeing the IP compatibility, the combination of the two protocols in the core routers is carried out at the Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. Opposite to the operation at IP layer where two routing protocols are not able to concurrently work, the transfer of the routing tasks to the MAC layer enables the use of multiple independent forwarding tables. Simulation results show the goodness of the proposal in terms of packet losses and data delayTriviño, A.; Ariza, A.; Casilari, E.; Cano Escribá, JC. (2013). On the Benefits of a Cooperative Layer-2 based Routing Approach for Hybrid Wireless Mesh Networks. China Communications. 10(8):88-99. doi:10.1109/CC.2013.6633748S889910

An Approach to Detection of Tampering in Water Meters

Meter tampering is defined as a fraudulent manipulation which implies a service that is not billed by a utility company. It is a lack of consumption control for the utility company and a main problem because they represent an important loss of income. We have developed a methodology consists of a set of three algorithms for the detection of meter tampering in the Emasesa Company (a water distribution company in Seville and one of the most important of the country). The algorithms were generated and programmed after a data mining process from the database of the company and they detect three type of consumption patterns: Progressive drops, sudden drops and abnormally low consumption. The methodology has been tested with in situ inspections of the customers of a village of the province of Seville. Once carried out the inspections by the utility, the inspectors confirmed a good success rate taking into account that the detection of this type of fraud is very difficult because it is a noninvasive technique. Besides, this type of detections is a topic that, if we take a look at the state of the art, there are few references or works.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TEC2013-40767-

Electricity clustering framework for automatic classification of customer loads

Clustering in energy markets is a top topic with high significance on expert and intelligent systems. The main impact of is paper is the proposal of a new clustering framework for the automatic classification of electricity customers’ loads. An automatic selection of the clustering classification algorithm is also highlighted. Finally, new customers can be assigned to a predefined set of clusters in the classificationphase. The computation time of the proposed framework is less than that of previous classification tech- niques, which enables the processing of a complete electric company sample in a matter of minutes on a personal computer. The high accuracy of the predicted classification results verifies the performance of the clustering technique. This classification phase is of significant assistance in interpreting the results, and the simplicity of the clustering phase is sufficient to demonstrate the quality of the complete mining framework.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2013-40767-RMinisterio de Economía y Competitividad IDI- 2015004

Rule-based system to detect energy efficiency anomalies in smart buildings, a data mining approach

The rapidly growing world energy use already has concerns over the exhaustion of energy resources andheavy environmental impacts. As a result of these concerns, a trend of green and smart cities has beenincreasing. To respond to this increasing trend of smart cities with buildings every time more complex,in this paper we have proposed a new method to solve energy inefficiencies detection problem in smartbuildings. This solution is based on a rule-based system developed through data mining techniques andapplying the knowledge of energy efficiency experts. A set of useful energy efficiency indicators is alsoproposed to detect anomalies. The data mining system is developed through the knowledge extracted bya full set of building sensors. So, the results of this process provide a set of rules that are used as a partof a decision support system for the optimisation of energy consumption and the detection of anomaliesin smart buildings.Comisión Europea FP7-28522