Event-based Vision meets Deep Learning on Steering Prediction for Self-driving Cars

Event cameras are bio-inspired vision sensors that naturally capture the dynamics of a scene, filtering out redundant information. This paper presents a deep neural network approach that unlocks the potential of event cameras on a challenging motion-estimation task: prediction of a vehicle's steering angle. To make the best out of this sensor-algorithm combination, we adapt state-of-the-art convolutional architectures to the output of event sensors and extensively evaluate the performance of our approach on a publicly available large scale event-camera dataset (~1000 km). We present qualitative and quantitative explanations of why event cameras allow robust steering prediction even in cases where traditional cameras fail, e.g. challenging illumination conditions and fast motion. Finally, we demonstrate the advantages of leveraging transfer learning from traditional to event-based vision, and show that our approach outperforms state-of-the-art algorithms based on standard cameras.Comment: 9 pages, 8 figures, 6 tables. Video: https://youtu.be/_r_bsjkJTH

Personality and nonjudging make you happier: Contribution of the Five-Factor Model, mindfulness facets and a mindfulness intervention to subjective well-being

Mindful individuals are able to acknowledge mind wandering and live in the present moment in a nonjudgmental way. Previous studies have found that both mind wandering and mindfulness are associated with subjective well-being. However, the main predictor of happiness is personality; more specifically, happier people are emotionally stable and extraverted. The present study aimed to explore the contribution of the five factors of personality, dispositional mindfulness facets and a mindfulness intervention to happiness. A sample of 372 university students was assessed with the NEO-Five Factor Inventory, and another sample of 217 community adults answered the Big Five Personality Trait Short Questionnaire. Both samples, 589 participants in all, completed the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire and the Subjective Happiness Scale. Furthermore, 55 participants from the general population sample took a 6-week training course in meditation and developing mindfulness. The regression analyses showed that emotional stability and extraversion traits were the strongest predictors of subjective well-being. Nonetheless, the nonjudging facet, which is nonevaluative/acceptance awareness of thoughts and feelings, still remained a significant predictor of happiness when personality was accounted for. Finally, mindfulness training did not increase subjective well-being. Being nonjudgmental of one’s inner thoughts, feelings and sensations contributes to happiness even when personality is taken into account. Accordingly, it seems reasonable that mindfulness training that intends to improve subjective well-being should focus on noticing thoughts without judging the

Robustness of Device Independent Dimension Witnesses

Device independent dimension witnesses provide a lower bound on the dimensionality of classical and quantum systems in a "black box" scenario where only correlations between preparations, measurements and outcomes are considered. We address the problem of the robustness of dimension witnesses, namely that to witness the dimension of a system or to discriminate between its quantum or classical nature, even in the presence of loss. We consider the case when shared randomness is allowed between preparations and measurements and we provide a threshold in the detection efficiency such that dimension witnessing can still be performed.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, published versio

HPN rara, cara i desconeguda : Documental sobre l’Hemoglobinúria Paroxística Nocturna

Curs 2013-2014Aquest treball acadèmic reflecteix, a través d’un documental audiovisual, la situació dels malalts d’HPN (Hemoglobinúria Paroxística Nocturna) a Espanya. Són un col•lectiu d’uns 300 afectats. Com a malaltia rara que és, fa que cada pacient tingui una situació molt diferent. En aquest treball, fet a partir d’entrevistes a malalts i experts, s’intenta explicar com viuen el seu dia a dia i quins problemes tenen.This scholarship reflects, with a documentary, the situation of patients with PNH (Paroxysmal Nocturnal Hemoglobinuria) in Spain. They are a group of 300 affected. As a rare disease, every patient has a very different situation. This work, drawing on interviews with patients and experts, try to explain how they live and what problems they have

National institutions, stakeholder engagement, and firms' environmental, social, and governance performance

This paper studies the influence of different national institutions on corporate environmental, social, and governance (ESG) performance through the varieties of institutional systems approach. This research complements previous research that used traditional approaches such as the national business systems and the varieties of capitalism, because it considers companies in understudied economies in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe, the Middle East, and Latin America. To that aim, a dataset of 4, 751 firms within 52 countries is examined through a multilevel model, which allows establishing three levels of analysis: (a) yearly observations of a firm ESG performance, (b) the companies, and (c) the countries. This technique is useful to address the nested nature of firms' ESG performance within higher level institutional contexts. The results identify which specific national institutions enhance/restrict companies' ESG performance. This provides interesting implications because firms' ESG represent most of the companies' contributions to environmental preservation, social well-being, and community development

Level and length of cyclic solar activity during the Maunder minimum as deduced from the active day statistics

The Maunder minimum (MM) of greatly reduced solar activity took place in 1645-1715, but the exact level of sunspot activity is uncertain as based, to a large extent, on historical generic statements of the absence of spots on the Sun. Here we aim, using a conservative approach, to assess the level and length of solar cycle during the Maunder minimum, on the basis of direct historical records by astronomers of that time. A database of the active and inactive days (days with and without recorded sunspots on the solar disc respectively) is constructed for three models of different levels of conservatism (loose ML, optimum MO and strict MS models) regarding generic no-spot records. We have used the active day fraction to estimate the group sunspot number during the MM. A clear cyclic variability is found throughout the MM with peaks at around 1655--1657, 1675, 1684 and 1705, and possibly 1666, with the active day fraction not exceeding 0.2, 0.3 or 0.4 during the core MM, for the three models. Estimated sunspot numbers are found very low in accordance with a grand minimum of solar activity. We have found, for the core MM (1650-1700), that: (1) A large fraction of no-spot records, corresponding to the solar meridian observations, may be unreliable in the conventional database. (2) The active day fraction remained low (below 0.3-0.4) throughout the MM, indicating the low level of sunspot activity. (3) The solar cycle appears clearly during the core MM. (4) The length of the solar cycle during the core MM appears $9\pm 1$ years, but there is an uncertainty in that. (5) The magnitude of the sunspot cycle during MM is assessed to be below 5-10 in sunspot numbers; A hypothesis of the high solar cycles during the MM is not confirmed.Comment: Accepted to Astron. Astrophy

El papel de los padres y los amigos en el consumo temprano de alcohol

Introducción: El consumo de alcohol en la adolescencia es atribuible a la influencia de variables de tipo social, sobre todo del grupo de iguales y del ámbito familiar. Es-pecíficamente, el consumo de los amigos resulta ser la variable más importante en las primeras etapas del consumo de alcohol. No obstante, el uso que hacen los padres de esta sustancia y el empleo de estilos permisivos e inconsistentes en la educación de sus hijos, parecen favorecer también el inicio temprano al consumo de alcohol. Por tanto, el objetivo del presente trabajo es estudiar la influencia de los estilos educativos y el consumo de alcohol paterno, así como del consumo de los amigos, en las prime-ras etapas del uso de alcohol durante la adolescencia. método: 330 adolescentes jó-venes (M = 13,05; 57,27 % chicas) completaron diferentes cuestionarios que evaluaban los estilos educativos parentales percibidos (eMbu y aPq), así como su consumo de al-cohol, el de sus amigos y el de sus padres (aiS-uJi). resultados: El modelo de ecuación estructural propuesto mostró como el consumo de los iguales se asociaba directamen-te y de forma muy importante al consumo de alcohol de los jóvenes. Además, existía una relación indirecta entre consumo de los padres y de los amigos, que vendría mediada por los estilos educativos permisivos. conclusiones: El presente estudio revela que los padres más consumidores tienden a mostrar estilos educativos más permisivos e inconsistentes, lo que favorecería la afiliación con amigos más bebedores y un consu-mo de alcohol más temprano. Estos resultados resultan de especial importancia para el desarrollo de estrategias de prevención más personalizadas y eficaces en el consu-mo de sustancias de jóvenes adolescentes.Introduction: Alcohol consumption in adolescence is influenced by social variables, such as peer group and family. Thus, friends’ alcohol use is the most important factor in the early stages of alcohol consumption. Moreover, parents’ drinking behaviour and permissive and inconsistent rearing style also seem to encourage the early onset of alcohol consumption.The aim of this research work was to study the influence of parenting style, and parents’ and friends’ alcohol use, on adolescent drinking behav-iour, that is to say in the early stages of alcohol use. method: 330 young adolescents (Mage = 13.05 years; 57.27 % females) completed two perceived parenting style ques-tionnaires (eMbu and aPq), and a scale assessing own, friends’ and parents’ alcohol use (aiS-uJi). results: The proposed structural equation model showed that peers’ con-sumption was associated directly and very significantly with adolescents’ alcohol use. In addition, there was an indirect relationship between parents’ and friends’ consump-tion, which was mediated by permissive parenting style. conclusions: The present study reveals that those parents that consume more alcohol tend to use permissive and inconsistent parenting style, favouring their offspring’s affiliation with drinking friends and an early onset of alcohol use. These results are particularly important for develop-ing more personalised and successful prevention programmes for alcohol misuse in young adolescents

Adaptación española de la escala dsm-oriented del Youth Self-Report (ysr) en población general

Introducción: En torno al 20 % de la población española ha desarrollado algún tras- torno mental en su vida. Para ayudar a los profesionales de la salud mental a identifi- car un posible cuadro clínico o subclínico, el Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (aseba) ha realizado una adaptación de sus instrumentos dirigidos a po- blación infantojuvenil. El resultado de esta adaptación son las escalas dsm-oriented. Específicamente, las escalas dsm-oriented del Youth Self-Report (ysr) recogen las principales categorías diagnósticas del dsm-iv: problemas afectivos, problemas de ansiedad, problemas somáticos, problemas de inatención e hiperactividad, problemas oposicionista-desafiante y problemas conductuales (Achenbach, Dumenci y Rescorla, 2001, 2003). El objetivo principal del presente estudio es la adaptación y validación de la escala orientada al dsm en nuestro contexto sociocultural a partir de la versión es- pañola para adolescentes de Achenbach (ysr). Método: Para ello, administramos el autoinforme ysr (Achenbach y Rescorla, 2001; Lemos, Vallejo y Sandoval, 2002) a 396 estudiantes de 4.o de la eso (58,93 % chicas), cuya media de edad fue de 15,28 años. Resultados: El análisis factorial exploratorio mostró una estructura de 6 facto- res, cuya fiabilidad en las diferentes escalas resultaron adecuadas, con un rango entre α = ,54 y α = ,80. Conclusión: El presente estudio ha confirmado cómo en nuestro contexto sociocultural, y a partir de una selección adecuada de ítems de la versión española del ysr, es posible evaluar de forma relativamente rápida, fiable y válida diferentes síntomas de los trastornos del dsm.Introduction: Around 20% of the Spanish population has developed a mental disor- der in their lifetime. The Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment (aseba) has adapted its instruments to children and youths to help mental health profession- als identify clinical or subclinical symptoms. The results of this adaptation are the dsm-Oriented Scales. Specifically, the dsm-Oriented Youth Self-Report (ysr) scales include the main diagnostic categories of dsm-iv: emotional problems, anxiety disor- ders, somatic problems, inattention-hyperactivity disorder, oppositional-defiant problems and disruptive behaviour (Achenbach, Dumenci & Rescorla, 2001, 2003, 2001, 2003). This research work aimed to adapt and validate the ysr dsm-Oriented scale in our social context. Method: We administered the ysr (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001; Lemos, Vallejo, & Sandoval, 2002) to a sample of 396 high school students (58.93% females), whose average age was 15.28 years. Results: The factor analysis showed a 6-factor structure whose reliability on different scales proved suitable, ranging from α =0.54 to α = 0.80. Conclusion: In our social context and from properly selecting items in the Spanish version of the dsm-Oriented ysr, this study confirmed that it is possible to evaluate different relatively fast reliable and valid symptoms of dsm disor- ders