Standard Bearers

In both ethics and epistemology an important question is whether justification is a fully internal or a partly external matter. In view of analogies between relevant considerations in each area, I recommend distinguishing, as basic and independent subjects of normative status, (i) people and (ii) what they do. Evaluations of subjects, on one hand, and of their beliefs and actions, on the other, are less intimately related than is presupposed. This helps resolve internalism/externalism controversies in both domains. An important related advantage of the distinction is its effect on our understanding of normative luck, both moral and epistemic

Checking Searle's Background

The literal meaning of an ordinary sentence is often consistent with unacceptable interpretations. Searle's hypothesis of the Background enables us to understand how that literal meaning might nevertheless yield a determinate condition of satisfaction. But Searle intends the Background to be a condition on representation in general, not just on the representational significance of linguistic items. This paper argues, using distinctions Searle himself has drawn, that it is in the transmission of intentionality from the mental to the linguistic that a gap between meaning and condition of satisfaction opens up. A sharper distinction between mental and linguistic intentionality, thus, checks the role of the Background

Diseño e implementación de un sistema de administración para la gestión de información, dirigido a la Parroquia San Pedro Julián Eymard de la localidad Ciudad Bolívar

Práctica SocialEste trabajo de grado está enfocado en la realización de una solución tecnológica que ayude a realizar de una forma más eficiente y eficaz las tareas diarias de las parroquias. Dicha solución tecnológica nació a partir de un análisis sobre las experiencias vividas en la parroquia San Pedro Julián Eymard, debido a las alfabetizaciones tecnológicas impartidas en la localidad Ciudad Bolívar, localizada en la ciudad de Bogotá, Colombia. La solución tecnológica implementada contempla la gestión y organización de las principales tareas realizadas comúnmente en la parroquia, tales como la generación de actas de bautismo, confirmación, matrimonio y defunción, guardando en un almacén de datos todas las personas que han realizado dichos actos sacramentales, con el objetivo de que la información esté disponible en un futuro cuando requiera ser utilizada.PregradoIngeniero de Sistema

Self-supervised 3D Human Pose Estimation from a Single Image

We propose a new self-supervised method for predicting 3D human body pose from a single image. The prediction network is trained from a dataset of unlabelled images depicting people in typical poses and a set of unpaired 2D poses. By minimising the need for annotated data, the method has the potential for rapid application to pose estimation of other articulated structures (e.g. animals). The self-supervision comes from an earlier idea exploiting consistency between predicted pose under 3D rotation. Our method is a substantial advance on state-of-the-art self-supervised methods in training a mapping directly from images, without limb articulation constraints or any 3D empirical pose prior. We compare performance with state-of-the-art self-supervised methods using benchmark datasets that provide images and ground-truth 3D pose (Human3.6M, MPI-INF-3DHP). Despite the reduced requirement for annotated data, we show that the method outperforms on Human3.6M and matches performance on MPI-INF-3DHP. Qualitative results on a dataset of human hands show the potential for rapidly learning to predict 3D pose for articulated structures other than the human body

An Efficiency-Motivated Attack Against Vehicles in a Platoon: Local Vehicle Control, Platoon Control Strategies, and Drive Train Technologies Considerations

Vehicle platooning has been heavily studied the last decade. A transportation system formed by electric vehicles driven by control systems with the help of on-board sensors, wireless inter-vehicle communication, and wireless recharge capability has been shown to increase highway capacity, transportation safety, reduce travel time, save energy, and release human drivers from stress. Two layers of control are required to automate a platoon, the low-level vehicle control, and the upper-level platoon control which seeks to maintain the constant spacing of the platoon, and avoid collisions. In order to have a robust platoon, the vehicle control system needs to be robust to gain variations. Simulations were run in Matlab\u27s Simulink to compare how well a vehicle control system would behave in the presences of nonlinearities and disturbances. The integer order and fractional order controllers were designed with the same specications. Fractional order controllers present better performance with no overshoot for the speed servo, and faster response for the steering system. For platoon control, the necessity is to achieve string stability. The bi-directional and leader-follower architectures have been shown to achieve string stability. Still, what happens to all the benets of platooning when a malicious vehicle (attacker) attempts to perturb the system? This malicious attack could be the result of a company trying to sabotage the operation of another\u27s in order to make it spend more energy than required, and thus raise its transportation costs. By using Matlab, a simulation platform was designed. It was used to simulate the response of a robust platoon to an optimal attack prole, generated by Matlab\u27s genetic algorithm. To calculate the energy expenditure a model for a 1995 Honda Accord LX from cappielo\u27s analysis is used. Two scenarios are considered: 1) the attacker intends to make the whole platoon spend extra energy, and 2) the attacker focuses on affecting only one victim. The greatest amount of extra energy expenditure for the rst scenario was obtained with the bi-directional architecture and a size 3 platoon (140%). The leader-follower architecture limited this peak value to 94% for a size 8 platoon. In order to really prot from the benets of platooning, a platoon size 8 or more is recommended. In this desirable range, the bi-directional control law manages to limit the extra energy expenditure to 80% (size 8) to only 35% (size 20). For the leader-follower and a size 20 platoon, the optimal attack produced an extra 65% expenditure. For the second scenario, with the bi-directional architecture the attacker could make the victim spend up to 122% (size 10). Still, this depends on both the attacker\u27s and the victim\u27s position. For instance, with the attacker in position 2, only 8% extra energy was observed. The leader-follower architecture allowed between 80% to 110% in any position for the attacker while in front of the victim (the attacker cannot affect the victim from behind). Regenerative braking in all cases saved between 35% to 50% of the energy that would be otherwise lost by the use of dissipative brakes. In order to create an operational platoon system, that is as robust as possible to the attack, the recommended platoon size is 12 or more. The use of regenerative braking capable vehicles is a must. The control system should be the fastest possible, and make use of the bi-directional architecture to limit energy expenditure. The implementation of an attacker or defective vehicle detection system is recommend, taking the measure of making the attacker=defective vehicle reposition to the last in the platoon

ALFA III – Projeto Universidades Estratégicas

Trabalho apresentado no 31º SEURS - Seminário de Extensão Universitária da Região Sul, realizado em Florianópolis, SC, no período de 04 a 07 de agosto de 2013 - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.O ALFA III é um projeto interinstitucional apoiado pela Comunidade Européia, iniciado em janeiro de 2012, com previsão inicial para término em dezembro de 2015, com efetivação da participação da UNIOESTE em agosto deste mesmo ano, a partir da assinatura do Acordo de Cooperação institucional entre nossa instituição e a Fundación Universidad Católica del Norte (UCN), da Colômbia, instituição coordenadora do projeto na América Latina e Caribe. O projeto envolve 09 Universidades Latino-americanas, do Caribe e da Comunidade Européia, as quais foram convidadas para participação na proposta, no final do ano de 2011, por uma Unidade de Coordenação de Projetos Estratégicos da Comunidade Européia, as quais são: Fundación Unversidad Católica Del Norte – Colômbia; Universidade Estadual do Oeste do Paraná – Brasil; Universidad Nacional de Asunción – Paraguay; Universidad Nacional de San Martin – Argentina; Universidad Nacional del Litoral – Argentina; Universidad de Antioquia – Colômbia; Universidad Católica del Táchira – Venezuela; Centro de Formación Florida – Espanha; Universidade del Molise – Itália

Chilling the Internet? Lessons from FCC Regulation of Radio Broadcasting

Congress included the Communications Decency Act (CDA) in the Telecommunications Act signed into law on February 8, 1996. The bill seeks to outlaw the use of computers and phone lines to transmit indecent material with provisions of jail terms and heavy fines for violators. Proponents of the bill argue it is necessary to protect minors from undesirable speech on the Internet. The CDA was immediately challenged in court by the American Civil Liberties Union, and the special 3-judge federal panel established to hear the case recently declared the Act unconstitutional. Yet, its ultimate adjudication remains in doubt. Ominously, the federal government has long experimented with regulations designed to improve the content of electronic speech. The Fairness Doctrine, for example, imposed on radio and television stations until 1987, was an attempt to establish a standard of fair coverage for important public issues. The deregulation of content controls for AM and FM radio programming, first under the Carter FCC in early 1981, and then under the Reagan FCC (which abolished the Fairness Doctrine in 1987), led to profound changes in radio markets. Specifically, the volume of informational programming increased dramatically immediately after controls were ended--powerful evidence of the potential for regulation to impose a chilling effect on free speech