Systems at Play: The Construction of International Systems in Social Impact Games

This thesis explores how game makers conceive of and navigate the intersection between digital systems and real world systems by asking, how can social impact game designers shape procedural rhetoric to effectively address complex real world systems with digital systems? By examining three game case studies, I reach four significant findings regarding player agency, subversive play, design approaches to scale, and game difficulty in regards to systems fluency

A Novel Artificial Organic Controller with Hermite Optical Flow Feedback for Mobile Robot Navigation

This chapter describes a novel nature-inspired and intelligent control system for mobile robot navigation using a fuzzy-molecular inference (FMI) system as the control strategy and a single vision-based sensor device, that is, image acquisition system, as feedback. In particular, FMI system is proposed as a hybrid fuzzy inference system with an artificial hydrocarbon network structure as defuzzifier that deals with uncertainty in motion feedback, improving robot navigation in dynamic environments. Additionally, the robotics system uses processed information from an image acquisition device using a real-time Hermite optical flow approach. This organic and nature-inspired control strategy was compared with a conventional controller and validated in an educational robot platform, providing excellent results when navigating in dynamic environments with a single-constrained perception device

Relationship between prolonged sweetener consumption and chronic stress in the production of carbonylated proteins in blood lymphocytes

Artículo derivado de un proyecto de investigación para la identificación del efecto del consumo de edulcorantes sobre el sistema inmunitario.Introduction: Modern lifestyles have changed eating habits, encouraged physical inactivity, and increased stress in daily life. These living conditions cause elevated concentrations of carbonylated proteins like biomarker of oxidative stress. The expression of this proteins represent irreversible damage to structural intracellular proteins in cells and extracellular matrix. It is not clear whether a rise in the concentration of these proteins is the origin or consequence of diseases. Objective: To determine in a healthy young mice model the possible correlation between prolonged sweetener consumption and the presence of chronic physiological stress, evidenced by the production of carbonylated proteins in peripheral blood lymphocytes. Methods: Sixty-four 21-day-old CD1 male mice were divided into two groups, stressed (with immobilization) and unstressed. Each group was divided into four subgroups: Control or experimental with a 6-week administration of sucrose, sucralose or stevia. Body mass index, food intake, number and concentration of carbonylated proteins, levels of glucose and peripheral lymphocytes in blood were evaluated. Data were analyzed with ANOVA. Results: Compared to the unstressed control, the glucose concentration was elevated in all stressed subgroups (F = 13.41, p < 0.01), with greater weight found in the stressed sucralose supplemented subgroup (F = 77.58, p < 0.001). The blood level of peripheral lymphocytes was above the control in all subgroups (F = 19.97, p < 0.01), except the decrease observed in unstressed sucrose supplemented subgroup. Carbonylated protein concentration in peripheral blood lymphocytes was high in all subgroups (versus the control) except in unstressed animals suppelemented with stevia (F = 51.16, p <0.01). Conclusions: Stress plus sucralose increased number of lymphocytes and carbonylated proteins concentration. The physiological stress with or without sweetener consumption generated increase in carbonylated proteins concentration. Stevia did not modify lymphocytes and carbonylated proteins

Capacidad de absorción e innovación: Un análisis para la Industria en Colombia /

“CAPACIDAD DE ABSORCIÓN E INNOVACIÓN: UN ANÁLISIS PARA LA INDUSTRIA EN COLOMBIA” es un libro escrito con el propósito de contribuir a llenar el vacío de literatura sobre innovación en español que cubra el contexto colombiano. Si bien el reto de la innovación no es algo nuevo, lo cierto es que su importancia se acentúa con el desarrollo de la agenda de internacionalización que adelantan la mayoría de los países. En mercados cada vez más abiertos, la innovación se convierte en el factor clave de competitividad, así como otrora lo fue los costos laborales o la calidad. Hoy día, en mercados cada vez más exigentes, con consumidores cada vez más informados y caracterizados por un cambio técnico que avanza a un ritmo cada vez más vertiginoso, la innovación constituye el factor estratégico por excelencia. La literatura reciente coincide en reconocer la innovación como un proceso interactivo, que involucra diversos actores y subsistemas, y en el cual las fuentes externas de conocimiento tecnológico se muestran como elementos complementarios a las capacidades internas de la empresa. En esta línea, un aspecto que ha llamado la atención de los investigadores, no sólo por su interés teórico sino también por su valor práctico para el diseño de políticas, es el análisis de la capacidad de absorción empresarial entendida como “la habilidad de la empresa para reconocer el valor de una nueva información externa, asimilarla y aplicarla con fines comerciales” (Cohen y Levinthal, 1990). Desde la introducción del concepto por Cohen y Levinthal, se han desarrollado diferentes investigaciones orientadas al análisis de los determinantes de la capacidad de absorción y su efecto sobre el dinamismo innovador de las empresas. No obstante, la mayor parte de estas investigaciones se han desarrollado en contextos de países desarrollados y en sectores intensivos en Investigación y desarrollo. En este sentido, avanzar en la comprensión de los determinantes de la capacidad de absorción y su efecto sobre la capacidad innovadora de las empresas es aún una tarea pendiente y constituye un objetivo principal de la presente obra

Competitividad, innovación y empresa /

Los acontecimientos de lo corrido del presente siglo y el final del anterior son una gran puesta a prueba de las verdades históricas. Las predicciones de lo inexorable del socialismo terminaron mostrando su caida y relativizando esa verdad admitida por muchos y bastante respaldada en varios medios académicos. Hoy se asiste a la relativización de la verdad como fuente de la construcción de los saberes humanos. En especial se relativiza la ética y con ello el soporte de la interacción e interación social de contenidos, culturas y sociedades constituidas en la búsqueda de la unicidad y el todo.Universidad Autónoma del Caribe

Gestión del conocimiento. Perspectiva multidisciplinaria. Volumen 8

El libro “Gestión del Conocimiento. Perspectiva Multidisciplinaria”, volumen 8, de la Colección Unión Global, es resultado de investigaciones. Los capítulos del libro, son resultados de investigaciones desarrolladas por sus autores. El libro es una publicación internacional, seriada, continua, arbitrada de acceso abierto a todas las áreas del conocimiento, que cuenta con el esfuerzo de investigadores de varios países del mundo, orientada a contribuir con procesos de gestión del conocimiento científico, tecnológico y humanístico que consoliden la transformación del conocimiento en diferentes escenarios, tanto organizacionales como universitarios, para el desarrollo de habilidades cognitivas del quehacer diario. La gestión del conocimiento es un camino para consolidar una plataforma en las empresas públicas o privadas, entidades educativas, organizaciones no gubernamentales, ya sea generando políticas para todas las jerarquías o un modelo de gestión para la administración, donde es fundamental articular el conocimiento, los trabajadores, directivos, el espacio de trabajo, hacia la creación de ambientes propicios para el desarrollo integral de las instituciones

Non-Contact Breathing Rate Estimation Using Machine Learning with an Optimized Architecture

The breathing rate monitoring is an important measure in medical applications and daily physical activities. The contact sensors have shown their effectiveness for breathing monitoring and have been mostly used as a standard reference, but with some disadvantages for example in burns patients with vulnerable skins. Contactless monitoring systems are then gaining attention for respiratory frequency detection. We propose a new non-contact technique to estimate the breathing rate based on the motion video magnification method by means of the Hermite transform and an Artificial Hydrocarbon Network (AHN). The chest movements are tracked by the system without the use of an ROI in the image video. The machine learning system classifies the frames as inhalation or exhalation using a Bayesian-optimized AHN. The method was compared using an optimized Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). This proposal has been tested on a Data-Set containing ten healthy subjects in four positions. The percentage error and the Bland–Altman analysis is used to compare the performance of the strategies estimating the breathing rate. Besides, the Bland–Altman analysis is used to search for the agreement of the estimation to the reference.The percentage error for the AHN method is 2.19±2.1 with and agreement with respect of the reference of ≈99%

A Contactless Respiratory Rate Estimation Method Using a Hermite Magnification Technique and Convolutional Neural Networks

The monitoring of respiratory rate is a relevant factor in medical applications and day-to-day activities. Contact sensors have been used mostly as a direct solution and they have shown their effectiveness, but with some disadvantages for example in vulnerable skins such as burns patients. For this reason, contactless monitoring systems are gaining increasing attention for respiratory detection. In this paper, we present a new non-contact strategy to estimate respiratory rate based on Eulerian motion video magnification technique using Hermite transform and a system based on a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN). The system tracks chest movements of the subject using two strategies: using a manually selected ROI and without the selection of a ROI in the image frame. The system is based on the classifications of the frames as an inhalation or exhalation using CNN. Our proposal has been tested on 10 healthy subjects in different positions. To compare performance of methods to detect respiratory rate the mean average error and a Bland and Altman analysis is used to investigate the agreement of the methods. The mean average error for the automatic strategy is 3.28 &plusmn; 3.33 % with and agreement with respect of the reference of &asymp;98%

A Novel Artificial Organic Control System for Mobile Robot Navigation in Assisted Living Using Vision- and Neural-Based Strategies

Robots in assisted living (RAL) are an alternative to support families and professional caregivers with a wide range of possibilities to take care of elderly people. Navigation of mobile robots is a challenging problem due to the uncertainty and dynamics of environments found in the context of places for elderly. To accomplish this goal, the navigation system tries to replicate such a complicated process inspired on the perception and judgment of human beings. In this work, we propose a novel nature-inspired control system for mobile RAL navigation using an artificial organic controller enhanced with vision-based strategies such as Hermite optical flow (OF) and convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Particularly, the Hermite OF is employed for obstacle motion detection while CNNs are occupied for obstacle distance estimation. We train the CNN using OF visual features guided by ultrasonic sensor-based measures in a 3D scenario. Our application is oriented to avoid mobile and fixed obstacles using a monocular camera in a simulated environment. For the experiments, we use the robot simulator V-REP, which is an integrated development environment into a distributed control architecture. Security and smoothness metrics as well as quantitative evaluation are computed and analyzed. Results showed that the proposed method works successfully in simulation conditions

Precisiones teórico-metodológicas para la comprensión de la ética y la bioética médica

El pensamiento ético y bioético es una de las áreas de conocimiento recurrentes en el ejercicio reflexivo del profesional de la salud en Cuba; sin embargo, se detectan insuficiencias relacionadas con imprecisiones y falta de claridad en el pensamiento ético-moral por parte de este personal, según se observa en materiales evaluados para su publicación, en los ejercicios para el proceso de obtención de categorías docentes y en la presentación de las evaluaciones de posgrados. El artículo tiene el objetivo de argumentar precisiones teórico- metodológicas para la elaboración de trabajos en ética y bioética