Spatiotemporal Stacked Sequential Learning for Pedestrian Detection

Pedestrian classifiers decide which image windows contain a pedestrian. In practice, such classifiers provide a relatively high response at neighbor windows overlapping a pedestrian, while the responses around potential false positives are expected to be lower. An analogous reasoning applies for image sequences. If there is a pedestrian located within a frame, the same pedestrian is expected to appear close to the same location in neighbor frames. Therefore, such a location has chances of receiving high classification scores during several frames, while false positives are expected to be more spurious. In this paper we propose to exploit such correlations for improving the accuracy of base pedestrian classifiers. In particular, we propose to use two-stage classifiers which not only rely on the image descriptors required by the base classifiers but also on the response of such base classifiers in a given spatiotemporal neighborhood. More specifically, we train pedestrian classifiers using a stacked sequential learning (SSL) paradigm. We use a new pedestrian dataset we have acquired from a car to evaluate our proposal at different frame rates. We also test on a well known dataset: Caltech. The obtained results show that our SSL proposal boosts detection accuracy significantly with a minimal impact on the computational cost. Interestingly, SSL improves more the accuracy at the most dangerous situations, i.e. when a pedestrian is close to the camera.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figure, 1 tabl

Una alternativa actual al dualismo en Psicología: la Ciencia Conductual Contextual

El artículo busca constatar el carácter dualista que aún invade la Psicología, y cómo los problemas pragmáticos y filosóficos de la misma tienen como solución más socorrida el acudir a un monismo materialista, encarnado en la figura del reduccionismo cerebrocentrista. Así mismo, se presentan las características, filosofía y aplicaciones de la CBS (Ciencia Conductual Contextual) en vistas a ofrecer una alternativa dentro de la propia Psicología que supere el dualismo imperante y preserve la independencia de la Psicología como campo autónomo en la ciencia, entre la biología y la sociología.The article tries to verify the dualist character that still invades psychology, and how the pragmatic and philosophical problems of it have as a most useful solution to resort to a materialist monism, embodied in the figure of brain-centered reductionism. Likewise, the characteristics, philosophy and applications of the CBS (Contextual Behavioral Science) are presented in order to offer an alternative within the psychology that overcomes the prevailing dualism and preserves the independence of psychology as an autonomous field in science, among biology and sociology

La banalización de la guerra en los videojuegos y su impacto en la construcción de actitudes hacia los conflictos bélicos

En el presente proyecto de tesis doctoral se plantea el estudio de la influencia de los videojuegos de temática bélica en la actitud y percepción de la guerra y la violencia en la sociedad actual, utilizando la Teoría del Cultivo como eje teórico fundamental para explicar dicho fenómeno

La banalización de la guerra en los videojuegos bélicos 

[ES]La presente tesis doctoral, partiendo de la psicología social y las teorías de la comunicación, pretende aportar su contribución en este ámbito académico relativamente minoritario y novedoso. Su objetivo fundamental es abordar el estudio de la representación de la guerra presente en los videojuegos de género bélico, con el fin de profundizar en la investigación sobre su papel en la construcción de actitudes, valores y creencias hacia esta clase de objetos sociales. Para lograr tal meta, el presente manuscrito se estructura en dos grandes apartados vertebrados en capítulos; el primero de ellos conforma una extensa revisión teórica y un análisis del estado del arte en el campo de los game studies. El segundo, recoge las diferentes investigaciones empíricas realizadas a partir de dichas reflexiones, en un intento de ofrecer a la comunidad científica conclusiones sólidas y relevantes sobre los efectos de los videojuegos bélicos en sus jugadores

Fisioterapia en el paciente pediátrico con Síndrome de Down

Introducción: el síndrome de Down es la principal causa mundial de retraso mental moderado. Su incidencia de 14 cada 10 000 nacidos vivos y la gran cantidad de comorbilidades a las que va asociado el síndrome hace necesario un protocolo de actuación muy diverso. Objetivo: informar por medio de la evidencia científica reciente de los procedimientos fisioterápicos que se pueden llevar a cabo para tratar las comorbilidades del paciente con síndrome de Down. Metodología: se utilizaron las bases de datos Medline, PEDro y el buscador Google Académico. Conclusiones: la fisioterapia tiene un amplio marco de actuación dentro de dicho síndrome que va desde el abordaje de afecciones respiratorias hasta el tratamiento de alteraciones osteomusculares produciendo una mejora de la calidad de vida del paciente que lo sufre. Sin embargo, el tratamiento de las alteraciones osteomusculares presenta una falta de evidencia que hace indispensable que se realicen más investigaciones al respecto.Grado en Fisioterapi

Multi-scale accretion in dense cloud cores and the delayed formation of massive stars

The formation mechanism of massive stars remains one of the main open problems in astrophysics, in particular the relationship between the mass of the most massive stars, and that of the cores in which they form. Numerical simulations of the formation and evolution of large molecular clouds, within which dense cores and stars form self-consistently, show in general that the cores' masses increase in time, and also that the most massive stars tend to appear later (by a few to several Myr) than lower-mass stars. Here we present an idealized model that incorporates accretion onto the cores as well as onto the stars, in which the core's mass growth is regulated by a ``gravitational choking'' mechanism that does not involve any form of support. This process is of purely gravitational origin, and causes some of the mass accreted onto the core to stagnate there, rather than being transferred to the central stars. Thus, the simultaneous mass growth of the core and of the stellar mass can be computed. In addition, we estimate the mass of the most massive allowed star before its photoionizing radiation is capable of overcoming the accretion flow onto the core. This model constitutes a proof-of-concept for the simultaneous growth of the gas reservoir and the stellar mass, the delay in the formation of massive stars observed in cloud-scale numerical simulations, the need for massive, dense cores in order to form massive stars, and the observed correlation between the mass of the most massive star and the mass of the cluster it resides in. Also, our model implies that by the time massive stars begin to form in a core, a number of low-mass stars are expected to have already formed.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS. Originally submitted to Nature Astronomy, but withdrawn from that journal after not having received a reviewer's report for over four months. Comments welcom

Using testimonial narratives to persuade people about artificial intelligence: the role of attitudinal similarity with the protagonist of the message

This study addresses the factors that increase the persuasive impact of testimonial narrative messages on artificial intelligence (AI). In particular, the effect on two variables that, to date, have not been explored in this field is analyzed: the attitudes toward AI (positive versus ambivalent) expressed by the protagonist of the narrative message (a testimonial in audiovisual format) and the role of participants’ prior beliefs about AI. An online experiment (N = 652) was carried out to contrast the effect of attitudinal similarity on identification with the protagonist of the narrative message and the indirect effect on attitudes and intention to use AI. The results showed that the message whose protagonist expressed positive attitudes toward AI induced greater identification only in those participants with previous positive beliefs. In contrast, the message whose protagonist expressed ambivalent attitudes toward AI induced greater identification only among participants with previous negative beliefs. In addition, identification and cognitive elaboration were found to mediate the effect of attitudinal similarity on the attitude toward and intention to use AI. These findings are discussed in the context of narrative persuasion research and the development of campaigns for improving social perceptions of data science

Ontologies in medicinal chemistry: current status and future challenges

[Abstract] Recent years have seen a dramatic increase in the amount and availability of data in the diverse areas of medicinal chemistry, making it possible to achieve significant advances in fields such as the design, synthesis and biological evaluation of compounds. However, with this data explosion, the storage, management and analysis of available data to extract relevant information has become even a more complex task that offers challenging research issues to Artificial Intelligence (AI) scientists. Ontologies have emerged in AI as a key tool to formally represent and semantically organize aspects of the real world. Beyond glossaries or thesauri, ontologies facilitate communication between experts and allow the application of computational techniques to extract useful information from available data. In medicinal chemistry, multiple ontologies have been developed during the last years which contain knowledge about chemical compounds and processes of synthesis of pharmaceutical products. This article reviews the principal standards and ontologies in medicinal chemistry, analyzes their main applications and suggests future directions.Instituto de Salud Carlos III; FIS-PI10/02180Programa Iberoamericano de Ciencia y Tecnología para el Desarrollo; 209RT0366Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2012/217Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2011/034Galicia. Consellería de Cultura, Educación e Ordenación Universitaria; CN2012/21

Restriction of cytosolic Acetyl-CoA to promote healthy aging

Motivation: During the last century humans have reached the longest lifespan in History. However, the increase on lifespan is associated to the development of age-related diseases that limit the quality of life of aged individuals (1). Therefore, there is a current need to determine the molecular mechanisms underlining age-related pathologies and to develop novel effective therapies for these diseases. Acetyl-CoA (Ac-CoA) is a central metabolite in energy metabolism involved in protein acetylation, fatty acid synthesis and cholesterol synthesis (2,3), which may play a significant role modulating the intrinsic processes of aging. In this work, we studied the effects of 4 cytosolic Ac-CoA reducing agents; two inhibitors of the ATP citrate lyase; SB-204990 (SB) and hydroxycitric acid (HCA), an inhibitor of Ac-CoA synthase; allicin, and a inhibitor of the citrate isocitrate carrier; 1,2,3-benzenetricarboxylic acid (BTC).Methods: Mice were fed a Standard Diet (STD) or a High Fat Diet (HFD) supplemented with SB for 15 weeks. After in vivo studies, we performed WB on metabolic tissues. In liver tissue we performed a proteomic analysis by iTRAQ (Isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification). In parallel, we have initiated a longevity assay using HCA. Necropsies have been performed to determine the cause of death. Finally, we are currently investigating the effects of BTC and allicin in murine physiology using three experimental approaches; a healthy STD, a prophylactic treatment using an obesogenic/diabetogenic HFD and a therapeutic treatment used in obese mice.Results: Preliminary in vivo results have shown improvements in metabolic health on mice treated with SB. Ex vivo analyses have indicated that SB modulates lipid metabolism. Proteomic analyses revealed a decrease in the expression of proinflammatory proteins in SB-treated and HFD-fed mice. HCA supplementation in healthy STD-fed mice has resulted in delayed early mortality in mice. Additionally, HCA treatment revealed potential benefits in muscle strength in wirehang test. Our research using BTC and allicin will generate results in the nearly future.Conclusions: Results of SB-treated and HFD-fed mice show a robust modulation in lipid metabolism and in inflammatory pathways, suggesting that the intervention could rescue the phenotype associated to a metabolic deregulation. The improvements observed in HCA-treated mice suggest that HCA could have geroprotective effects in early mortality

Mathematical modelling and numerical simulation of the heat transfer in a trough of a blast furnace

In this article, we address the numerical simulation of the cross section of a blast furnace (BF) trough to ensure its durability based on the location of the critical isotherms, so the objective is to know the heat transfer from the trough walls in contact with the hot liquids flowing inside (hot metal and slag) to the lining of the trough, which is in contact with air. With this aim, we propose a 2D heat transfer mathematical model which is solved using a finite element method (FEM). The proposed model is based on energy balance equation, and Fourier's law to relate the heat flux and the temperature gradients are assumed. The convective and radiative heat transfers as well as Dirichlet temperatures are included as boundary conditions, and the radiation view factor concept is considered, introducing an additional nonlinearity in the model. This factor plays a key role in the radiation heat transfer between the slag surface and the wall inside the trough in contact with air, which receives the radiation of the slag. The proposed 2D heat transfer model is applied in two sections: at the middle of the trough and downstream. The numerical simulations are performed using a FEM, and their numerical results are compared with the experimental data from a measurements campaign in a BF. The results demonstrate that the model can reproduce quite accurately the temperature distribution in BF troughs.The authors wish to thank ArcelorMittal-Spain for supporting with experimental data this work development. This work was supported with FEDER and Xunta de Galicia funds under the GRC2013-014 and ED431C 2017/60 grants as well as, FEDER and the Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness through the Plan Nacional de I + D + I (MTM2011-23976 and MTM2015-68275-R).S