MoBiSea: a binary search algorithm for product clustering in Industry 4.0

Proprietary systems used to modernize Industry 4.0 usually involve high financial costs. Consequently, using low-cost devices with the same functionalities, capable of replacing these proprietary systems but at a lower cost, has become an incipient trend. However, these low-cost devices usually come with electromagnetic interference problems as they are encapsulated in electrical panels, sitting alongside electromechanical devices. In this article, we present Mode Binary Search, an algorithm specifically designed for use in a low-cost automated-industrial-productivity-data-collection system. Specifically, productivity data are obtained from the availability and sealing signals of the thermoplastic sealing machines in production lines belonging to the agri-food industry. Mode Binary Search was designed to cluster sealing signals, thus enabling us to identify which products have been made. Furthermore, the algorithm determines when the manufacturing of each product starts and ends, in other words, the exact moment a product change occurs and all this without the need for operator supervision or intervention. Finally, we compared our algorithm, based on binary search, with three clustering mechanisms: k-means, k-rms and x-means. Out of all the cases we analyzed, the maximum error committed by Mode Binary Search is limited to 2.69%, thereby outperforming all others

Understanding Evolutionary Algorithms through Interactive Graphical Applications

It is very common to observe, especially in Computer Science studies that students have difficulties to correctly understand how some mechanisms based on Artificial Intelligence work. In addition, the scope and limitations of most of these mechanisms are usually presented by professors only in a theoretical way, which does not help students to understand them adequately. In this work, we focus on the problems found when teaching Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs), which imitate the principles of natural evolution, as a method to solve parameter optimization problems. Although this kind of algorithms can be very powerful to solve relatively complex problems, students often have difficulties to understand how they work, and how to apply them to solve problems in real cases. In this paper, we present two interactive graphical applications which have been specially designed with the aim of making Evolutionary Algorithms easy to be understood by students. Specifically, we present: (i) TSPS, an application able to solve the ”Traveling Salesman Problem”, and (ii) FotEvol, an application able to reconstruct a given image by using Evolution Strategies. The main objective is that students learn how these techniques can be implemented, and the great possibilities they offer

Non-emergency patient transport services planning through genetic algorithms

Non-emergency Patient Transport Services (PTS) are provided by ambulance companies for patients who do not require urgent and emergency transport. These patients require transport to or from a health facility like a hospital, but due to clinical requirements are unable to use private or public transport. This task is performed nowadays mainly by human operators, spending a high amount of time and resources to obtain solutions that are suboptimal in most cases. To overcome this limitation, in this paper we present NURA (Non-Urgent transport Routing Algorithm), a novel algorithm aimed at ambulance route planning. In particular, NURA relies on a genetic algorithm to explore the solution space, and it includes a scheduling algorithm to generate detailed routes for ambulances. Experimental results show that NURA is able to outperform human experts in several real scenarios, reducing the time spent by patients in ambulances during non-emergency transportations, increasing ambulance usage, while saving time and money for ambulance companies

Rúbricas como estrategia de evaluación en entornos TICS [Rubrics as an evaluation strategy in ICT environments]

La enseñanza de las asignaturas de Tecnologías de la Información y Comunicaciones (TICs) enmarcadas en titulaciones de Ciencias Sociales, es de gran importancia y elevada complejidad. Por eso se requiere una metodología de trabajo adecuada, que facilite el correcto aprendizaje por parte de los alumnos. Sin embargo aún es bastante habitual utilizar metodologías de enseñanza basadas en la escuela tradicional, en donde se abusa de clases magistrales, se califica a los alumnos utilizando una única prueba de evaluación final y en caso de realizar algún ejercicio práctico, la única retroalimentación que reciben los alumnos es su calificación numérica, a veces incluso después de realizar los exámenes. En este trabajo se expondrá el uso de una metodología de trabajo innovadora, adaptada al Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES), basada en la utilización del Aprendizaje Basado en Proyectos Colaborativos (ABPC) en la que además se ha utilizado como estrategia evaluadora la utilización de rúbricas. Los resultados obtenidos son muy esperanzadores, consiguiendo una participación activa por parte de los alumnos, una reducción del absentismo y los problemas derivados de la disciplina, permitiendo atender a la diversidad y heterogeneidad del alumnado, y lo que es más importante, fomentan el aprendizaje de todo el aula, lo que es altamente satisfactorio e inusual para la actividad académica en educación superior. [Information and Communications Technology (ICT) teaching subjects, framed in Social Sciences degrees, is of great importance and high complexity. That is why a proper working methodology is required, which facilitates the correct learning on the part of the students. However, it is still quite common to use teaching methods based on the traditional school, where lectures are abused, students are graded using a single final exam and in the case of some practical exercise, the only feedback students received is their numerical rating, sometimes even after the exams. This work will show the experience of using an innovative work methodology, adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), and based on the use of Collaborative Project-Based Learning (CPBL) together with the innovative strategy of using rubrics. The results obtained are very encouraging, getting an active participation by the students, absenteeism reduction and problems arising from discipline, allowing to attend to the diversity and heterogeneity of the students, and what is more important, to get the whole classroom learning, which is highly satisfactory and unusual for academic activity in higher education

Topology-based broadcast schemes for urban scenarios targeting adverse density conditions

© 2014 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works[EN] Research works regarding vehicular communications usually obviate assessing the proposals in scenarios including adverse vehicle densities, despite such scenarios are quite common in real urban environments. In this paper, we study the effect of these hostile conditions on the performance of different schemes providing warning message dissemination. We then propose the Junction Store and Forward (JSF) and the Nearest Junction Located (NJL) schemes, which were specially designed to be used in very low and very high density scenarios, respectively. Simulation results using real maps demonstrate how our proposed schemes are able to outperform existing warning message dissemination schemes in urban environments under adverse vehicle density conditions.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion´ , Spain, under Grant TIN2011-27543- C03-01, as well as the Government of Arag ´on and the European Social Fund (T91 Research Group).Sanguesa, JA.; Fogue, M.; Garrido, P.; Martínez, FJ.; Cano Escribá, JC.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM. (2014). Topology-based broadcast schemes for urban scenarios targeting adverse density conditions. En 2014 IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference (WCNC). IEEE. 2564-2569. doi:10.1109/WCNC.2014.6952786S2564256

Redes Heterogéneas en el entorno vehicular

En la actualidad, los elementos de la infraestructura existentes para el despligue de redes vehiculares han sido desplegados en su totalidad por las operadoras de telefonía. Sin embargo, los fuertes requisitos de comunicaciones necesarios por parte de los vehículos y especialmente los vehículos autónomos, va a hacer necesario el uso combinado de las redes de telefonía (basadas en Macrocells) con otro tipo de paradigmas de red. En este artículo, presentamos un esquema para mejorar las comunicaciones vehiculares denominado DSM (\textit{Dynamic Small Cell Management}, o gestión dinámica de celdas pequeñas). La propuesta se centra en la activación dinámica de Small Cells cuando las Macrocells no son capaces de gestionar toda la información enviada por los vehículos. Para la validación de la propuesta se ha simulado un despligue real de Estaciones Base en Dublín. Los resultados de la simulación muestran mejoras en cuanto a la capacidad de comunicación y la reducción en la sobrecarga de las Estaciones Base

On the Selection of Optimal Broadcast Schemes in VANETs

©ACM 2013. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in MSWiM '13 Proceedings of the 16th ACM international conference on Modeling, analysis & simulation of wireless and mobile systems; http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2507924.2507935.In Vehicular ad hoc Networks (VANETs), efficient dissemination of messages is a key factor to speed up the development of useful services and applications. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm that automatically chooses the best dissemination scheme trying to fit the warning message delivery policy to the current characteristics of each specific vehicular scenario. Our mechanism uses as input parameters the vehicular density and the topological characteristics of the environment where the vehicles are located, in order to decide which dissemination scheme to use. Simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of our approach, which is able to support more efficient warning message dissemination in vehicular environments.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación, Spain, under Grant TIN2011-27543-C03-01, by the Fundación Universitaria Antonio Gargallo and the Obra Social de Ibercaja, under Grant 2013/B010, as well as the Government of Aragón and the European Social Fund (T91 Research Group).Sanguesa, JA.; Fogue, M.; Garrido, P.; Martínez, FJ.; Cano Escribá, JC.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM.; Manzoni, P. (2013). On the Selection of Optimal Broadcast Schemes in VANETs. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2507924.2507935

RTAD: A real-time adaptive dissemination system for VANETs

Efficient message dissemination is of utmost importance to propel the development of useful services and applications in Vehicular ad hoc Networks (VANETs). In this paper, we propose a novel adaptive system that allows each vehicle to automatically adopt the most suitable dissemination scheme in order to fit the warning message delivery policy to each specific situation. Our mechanism uses as input parameters the vehicular density and the topological characteristics of the environment where the vehicles are located, in order to decide which dissemination scheme to use. We compare our proposal with respect to two static dissemination schemes (eMDR and NJL), and three adaptive dissemination systems (UV-CAST, FDPD, and DV-CAST). Simulation results demonstrate that our approach significantly improves upon these solutions, being able to support more efficient warning message dissemination in all situations ranging from low densities with complex maps, to high densities in simple scenarios. In particular, RTAD improves existing approaches in terms of percentage of vehicles informed, while significantly reducing the number of messages sent, thus mitigating broadcast storms. 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Spain, under Grant TIN2011-27543-C03-01, as well as the Government of Aragon and the European Social Fund (T91 Research Group).Sanguesa, JA.; Fogue, M.; Garrido, P.; Martinez, FJ.; Cano Escribá, JC.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM.; Manzoni, P. (2015). RTAD: A real-time adaptive dissemination system for VANETs. Computer Communications. 60:53-70. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.comcom.2015.01.017S53706

Using topology and neighbor information to overcome adverse vehicle density conditions

Vehicular networks supporting cooperative driving on the road have attracted much attention due to the plethora of new possibilities they offer to modern Intelligent Transportation Systems. However, research works regarding vehicular networks usually obviate assessing their proposals in scenarios including adverse vehicle densities, i.e., density values that significantly differ from the average values, despite such densities can be quite common in real urban environments (e.g. traffic jams). In this paper, we study the effect of these hostile conditions on the performance of different schemes providing warning message dissemination. The goal of these schemes is to maximize message delivery effectiveness, something difficult to achieve in adverse density scenarios. In addition, we propose the Neighbor Store and Forward (NSF) scheme, designed to be used under low density conditions, and the Nearest Junction Located (NJL) scheme, specially developed for high density conditions. Simulation results demonstrate that our proposals are able to outperform existing warning message dissemination schemes in urban environments under adverse vehicle density conditions. In particular, NSF reduces the warning notification time in low vehicle density scenarios, while increasing up to 23.3% the percentage of informed vehicles. As for high vehicle density conditions, NJL is able to inform the same percentage of vehicles than other existing approaches, while reducing the number of messages up to 46.73%This work was partially supported by the Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovacion, Spain, under Grant TIN2011-27543-C03-01, by the Fundacion Universitaria Antonio Gargallo and the Obra Social de Ibercaja, under Grant 2013/B010, as well as the Government of Aragon and the European Social Fund (T91 Research Group).Sanguesa, JA.; Fogue, M.; Garrido, P.; Martinez, FJ.; Cano Escribá, JC.; Tavares De Araujo Cesariny Calafate, CM. (2014). Using topology and neighbor information to overcome adverse vehicle density conditions. Transportation Research Part C: Emerging Technologies. 42:1-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.trc.2014.02.010S1134

Modulation of hepatic inflammation and energy-sensing pathways in the rat liver by high-fructose diet and chronic stress

Purpose High-fructose consumption and chronic stress are both associated with metabolic inflammation and insulin resistance. Recently, disturbed activity of energy sensor AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) was recognized as mediator between nutrient-induced stress and inflammation. Thus, we analyzed the effects of high-fructose diet, alone or in combination with chronic stress, on glucose homeostasis, inflammation and expression of energy sensing proteins in the rat liver. Methods In male Wistar rats exposed to 9-week 20% fructose diet and/or 4-week chronic unpredictable stress we measured plasma and hepatic corticosterone level, indicators of glucose homeostasis and lipid metabolism, hepatic inflammation (pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokine levels, Toll-like receptor 4, NLRP3, activation of NF kappa B, JNK and ERK pathways) and levels of energy-sensing proteins AMPK, SIRT1 and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator-1 alpha (PGC-1 alpha). Results High-fructose diet led to glucose intolerance, activation of NF kappa B and JNK pathways and increased intrahepatic IL-1 beta, TNF alpha and inhibitory phosphorylation of insulin receptor substrate 1 on Ser(307). It also decreased phospho-AMPK/AMPK ratio and increased SIRT1 expression. Stress alone increased plasma and hepatic corticosterone but did not influence glucose tolerance, nor hepatic inflammatory or energy-sensing proteins. After the combined treatment, hepatic corticosterone was increased, glucose tolerance remained preserved, while hepatic inflammation was partially prevented despite decreased AMPK activity. Conclusion High-fructose diet resulted in glucose intolerance, hepatic inflammation, decreased AMPK activity and reduced insulin sensitivity. Chronic stress alone did not exert such effects, but when applied together with high-fructose diet it could partially prevent fructose-induced inflammation, presumably due to increased hepatic glucocorticoids