Nouvelles impressions d’Afrique comme livre illustré

Examinant le rapport qu’elles entretiennent avec le texte de Raymond Roussel, cet article montre que les illustrations participent au mystère de Nouvelles impressions d’Afrique en amplifiant les emboîtements du texte,en lui opposant un type de représentation différent et en intervenant dans des réseaux textuels complexes.Illustrations in Nouvelles impressions d’Afrique contribute to the mystery of the text by highlighting its junctures, adding a different representational layer and intervening in complex textual linkages

Towards the implementation of a preference-and uncertain-aware solver using answer set programming

Logic programs with possibilistic ordered disjunction (or LPPODs) are a recently defined logic-programming framework based on logic programs with ordered disjunction and possibilistic logic. The framework inherits the properties of such formalisms and merging them, it supports a reasoning which is nonmonotonic, preference-and uncertain-aware. The LPPODs syntax allows to specify 1) preferences in a qualitative way, and 2) necessity values about the certainty of program clauses. As a result at semantic level, preferences and necessity values can be used to specify an order among program solutions. This class of program therefore fits well in the representation of decision problems where a best option has to be chosen taking into account both preferences and necessity measures about information. In this paper we study the computation and the complexity of the LPPODs semantics and we describe the algorithm for its implementation following on Answer Set Programming approach. We describe some decision scenarios where the solver can be used to choose the best solutions by checking whether an outcome is possibilistically preferred over another considering preferences and uncertainty at the same time.Postprint (published version

Creating agent platforms to host agent-mediated services that share resources

After a period where the Internet was exclusively filled with content, the present efforts are moving towards services, which handle the raw information to create value from it. Therefore labors to create a wide collection of agent-based services are being perfomed in several projects, such as Agentcities does. In this work we present an architecture for agent platforms named a-Buildings. The aim of the proposed architecture is to ease the creation, installation, search and management of agent-mediated services and the share of resources among services. To do so the a-Buildings architecture creates a new level of abstraction on top of the standard FIPA agent platform specification. Basically, an a-Building is a service-oriented platform which offers a set of low level services to the agents it hosts. We define low level services as those required services that are neccesary to create more complex high level composed services.Postprint (published version

Geographical changes in relative frequency of inversions in chromosome III of Drosophila pseudoobscura among natural populations from Mexico

Chromosomal polymorphism in natural populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura have been broadly studied in the USA but scarcely in Mexico where only about 60 localities have been analyzed. Differences among both regions are notorious with respect to their chromosomal constitution. Northern populations, those of USA, have as representative inversions the sequences ST, AR and CH contrasting with those in Southern populations (Mexico) in which prevail the gene arrangements TL, CU and SC. Assuming as a probable mechanism that has allowed these substitutions the flow generated by the presence of a North - South clines, we took as a goal find out if such clines really exist. With that objective in mind we studied 29 populations of this species distributed along four North - South transects. Specimens of D. pseudoobscura caught by attracting them with fermenting bananas were carried to the laboratory where from each female an isofemale line was established. When their offspring appeared a single larva from each isofemale was taken, its salivary glands extracted and stained with a solution of lacto-aceto- orcein, by these means the polytene chromosomes were obtained. On these chromosomes we identified, for each larva, the inversion (s) carried in the third chromosome, in such a way 3439 third chromosomes were analyzed. Among the 29 localities we identified 17 different inversions but the number of them varied from population to population from three to eleven. Relative frequencies of each inversion at every location were calculated and with them for each transect the presence or absence of clines was determined. Among each transect the existence of clines was observed only between two or three near by populations, but we were not able to find a clear manifestation of the presence of clines along a complete transect. Our results at this respect are similar to those previously reported for USA populations. A mechanism that explains North - South substitutions of predominant inversions remains as open question

Protección de datos médicos e Internet

This report presents a discussion of the adventages electronic clinical data gives, not only to the medical staff (helping them to get more accurate data about their patients) but also to the patient (receiving a better medical care). Then we present a study of the current spanish and european laws that rule about protection of medical data. Finally we present the characteristics a distributed information system managing and storing medical data should have, and the security measures to be taken if such a system is connected to a public network such as Internet.Postprint (published version

La mujer sin hogar: realidades y reflexiones. The homeless women: Realities and reflections

The article deals with tome aspects of homeless women and possible modes of intervention with them. As such, it discuses a context, work models that frame the analysis and specific experiences. It is shown that there is a primary fact that marks the intervention for both men and women, that is their homelessness and everything that this implies. The article also attemps to show that there aren’t any definitive “profiles” for these people non single ways of helping them. If there is a relevant event that stands out here, one which appears frequently when king with these women it is to presence of abuse throughout their lifetime.El artículo trata algunos aspectos sobre mujeres en situación de “sin hogar” y los posibles modos de intervención con ellas. Para ello, se habla de un contexto y de unos modelos de trabajo que van a marcar el análisis y las experiencias concretas que se relatan. Queda reflejado cómo hay un primer hecho que marca la intervención, tanto para hombres como para mujeres, qué es su situación de persona sin hogar y todo lo que esto conlleva. También se pretende reflejar que no hay perfiles definitorios en estas personas, ni, por tanto, formas de ayuda únicas. Si se destaca un hecho relevante, que aparece con frecuencia cuando se trabaja con estas mujeres, y es la presencia de los malos tratos a lo largo de su trayectoria de vida

Natural Robot Control Interfaces Using Wearable Sensors

The JPL BioSleeve is a gesture control interface that is worn on the forearm, which contains an array of surface electromyogram sensors to read electrical activity created by muscle flexion and extension, and inertial sensors to measure arm motions. An embedded processor then uses machine learning algorithms to recognize activity patterns and generate control commands from hand gestures. The goal of this project is to use Matlab and Unreal Engine to convert the muscle activity to inputs used to control a simulated robot in a virtual environment. To prove viability we are creating a virtual environment with a model of the International Space Station (ISS) to navigate a SPHERES robot in an Unreal simulation. There are various other means of controlling robots, but many are cumbersome and limit the user’s ability to interact with the objects in their vicinity. By developing a wearable gesture control interface, the person controlling the robot will be able to interact with the environment and control the robot in a more intuitive nature

UCTx: a multi-agent system to assist a transplant coordination unit

We present a system called UCTx, designed to model and automate some of the tasks performed by a Transplant Coordination Unit (UCTx) inside a Hospital. The aim of this work is to show how a multi-agent approach allows us to describe and implement the model, and how UCTx is capable of dealing with another multi-agent (Carrel, an Agent Mediated Institution for the exchange of Human Tissues among Hospitals for Transplantation) in order to meet its own goals, acting as the representative of the hospital in the negotiation. As an example we introduce the use of this Agency in the case of Cornea Transplantation.Postprint (published version

Extending the Carrel system to mediate in the organ and tissue allocation processes: a first approach

In this paper we extend the formalization of Carrel, a virtual organization for the procurement of tissues for transplantation purposes, in order to model also the procurement of human organs for transplants. We will focus in the organ allocation process to show how it can be formalized with the ISLANDER formalism. Also we present a first mechanism to federate the institution in several geographically-distributed platforms.Postprint (published version