Evaluation of the police operational tactical procedures for reducing officer injuries resulting from physical interventions in problematic arrests. The case of the Municipal Police of Cádiz (Spain)

Objectives: This paper describes some operational tactical procedures (OTP) and discusses the results of a 14-year-long study, spanning the period 2003-2016, conducted by the Municipal Police of Cadiz, Spain, which comprised 3 time periods: 2003-2006, when the officers were trained in traditional policing procedures; 2007-2013, when the officers were taught an innovative set of OTP in the form of a basic set of self-defense and arrest mechanisms, different from the traditional policing procedures that rely on martial arts and combat sports; and finally 2014-2016, when the OTP training was discontinued. The aim of this study was to improve policing and reduce officer injuries resulting from interventions in controversial or violent situations, such as problematic arrests. Material and Methods: The study involved 162 police officers and commanders of the Municipal Police of Cadiz, who were in street duty for their first time. There were 8 females and 154 males aged 24-55 years. Three OTP stages are shown as examples. Results: Based on the analysis of "training hours" and "physical interventions in problematic arrests," the results were: 1) the number of sick leaves in the police was identical according to the number of arrests, and 2) data on sick leaves show remarkable differences among the 3 periods under analysis. Conclusions: The OTP-based training substantially reduced officer sick leaves. The overall reduction in sick leaves in the period 2007-2013 was observed that cannot be ascribed to a decrease in criminal acts, and hence in police physical interventions

A Robot-Sensor Network Security Architecture for Monitoring Applications

This paper presents SNSR (Sensor Network Security using Robots), a novel, open, and flexible architecture that improves security in static sensor networks by benefiting from robot-sensor network cooperation. In SNSR, the robot performs sensor node authentication and radio-based localization (enabling centralized topology computation and route establishment) and directly interacts with nodes to send them configurations or receive status and anomaly reports without intermediaries. SNSR operation is divided into stages set in a feedback iterative structure, which enables repeating the execution of stages to adapt to changes, respond to attacks, or detect and correct errors. By exploiting the robot capabilities, SNSR provides high security levels and adaptability without requiring complex mechanisms. This paper presents SNSR, analyzes its security against common attacks, and experimentally validates its performance

Hacia un sistema de coordenadas de sostenibilidad turística

La sostenibilidad turística ha sido objeto de numerosos y complejos estudios. Sin embargo no se dispone de un sistema estandarizado que a modo de sistema de coordenadas sitúe cada destino turístico en un marco de referencia comparable y transparente. Idealmente dicho sistema debe ser manejable, simple, rápido y poco costoso. Esta investigación propone un avance de instrumento a tal fin, que es aplicado en el contexto andaluz. Finalmente se discuten los resultados obtenidos y esbozan posibles líneas de mejora.Sustainable tourism has been the subject of numerous and complex studies. However there is no standardized system (coordinate system) capable of positioning any destination in a transparent and comparable framework. Such a system should ideally be manageable, simple, fast and inexpensive. This research proposes a tool, applied in the context of Andalusia, which aims to meet those requirements. Finally the results are discussed and possible lines of improvement are outlined

Real-time motor rotation frequency detection with event-based visual and spike-based auditory AER sensory integration for FPGA

Multisensory integration is commonly used in various robotic areas to collect more environmental information using different and complementary types of sensors. Neuromorphic engineers mimics biological systems behavior to improve systems performance in solving engineering problems with low power consumption. This work presents a neuromorphic sensory integration scenario for measuring the rotation frequency of a motor using an AER DVS128 retina chip (Dynamic Vision Sensor) and a stereo auditory system on a FPGA completely event-based. Both of them transmit information with Address-Event-Representation (AER). This integration system uses a new AER monitor hardware interface, based on a Spartan-6 FPGA that allows two operational modes: real-time (up to 5 Mevps through USB2.0) and data logger mode (up to 20Mevps for 33.5Mev stored in onboard DDR RAM). The sensory integration allows reducing prediction error of the rotation speed of the motor since audio processing offers a concrete range of rpm, while DVS can be much more accurate.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-02/0

Live Demonstration: Real-time motor rotation frequency detection by spike-based visual and auditory AER sensory integration for FPGA

Multisensory integration is commonly used in various robotic areas to collect much more information from an environment using different and complementary types of sensors. This demonstration presents a scenario where the motor rotation frequency is obtained using an AER DVS128 retina chip (Dynamic Vision Sensor) and a frequency decomposer auditory system on a FPGA that mimics a biological cochlea. Both of them are spike-based sensors with Address-Event-Representation (AER) outputs. A new AER monitor hardware interface, based on a Spartan-6 FPGA, allows two operational modes: real-time (up to 5 Mevps through USB2.0) and off-line mode (up to 20Mevps and 33.5Mev stored in DDR RAM). The sensory integration allows the bio-inspired cochlea limit to provide a concrete range of rpm approaches, which are obtained by the silicon retina.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-02/0

Cellular automata and cluster computing: An application to the simulation of laser dynamics

Firstly, the application of a cellular automata (CA) model to simulate the dynamics of lasers is reviewed. With this kind of model, the macroscopic properties of the laser system emerge as a cooperative phenomenon from elementary components locally inter-acting under simple rules. Secondly, a parallel implementation of this kind of model for distributed-memory parallel computers is presented. Performance and scalability of this parallel implementation running on a computer cluster are analyzed, giving very satisfac-tory results. This confirms the feasibility of running large 3D simulations— unaffordable on an individual machine—on computer clusters, in order to simulate specific real laser systems.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2005-08818-C04-0

Performance and risk in the Brazilian banking industry

Andres J. Picazo-Tadeo aknowledges the financial support from the Generalitat Valenciana (project PROMETEO 2018/102).This paper assesses the technical performance of Brazilian banks while accounting for risk, which is considered as an undesirable outcome of banking. To this end, frontier techniques based on Data Envelopment Analysis and directional distance functions are applied to a sample of 124 banks and data for the six-year period 2014-19. Our main finding is that the Brazilian banking industry could notably increase its production of conventional outputs without additional input usage and while maintaining the same levels of risk. Besides, investment banks are found to be more efficient than commercial banks mainly because of their superior managerial performance.Generalitat Valenciana European Commission PROMETEO 2018/10

System based on inertial sensors for behavioral monitoring of wildlife

Sensors Network is an integration of multiples sensors in a system to collect information about different environment variables. Monitoring systems allow us to determine the current state, to know its behavior and sometimes to predict what it is going to happen. This work presents a monitoring system for semi-wild animals that get their actions using an IMU (inertial measure unit) and a sensor fusion algorithm. Based on an ARM-CortexM4 microcontroller this system sends data using ZigBee technology of different sensor axis in two different operations modes: RAW (logging all information into a SD card) or RT (real-time operation). The sensor fusion algorithm improves both the precision and noise interferences.Junta de Andalucía P12-TIC-130

On-Line RSSI-Range Model Learning for Target Localization and Tracking

This article belongs to the Special Issue QoS in Wireless Sensor/Actuator Networks and Systems: http://www.mdpi.com/journal/jsan/special_issues/QoS_netw_systThe interactions of Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) with the environment are very difficult to be modeled, inducing significant errors in RSSI-range models and highly disturbing target localization and tracking methods. Some techniques adopt a training-based approach in which they off-line learn the RSSI-range characteristics of the environment in a prior training phase. However, the training phase is a time-consuming process and must be repeated in case of changes in the environment, constraining flexibility and adaptability. This paper presents schemes in which each anchor node on-line learns its RSSI-range models adapted to the particularities of its environment and then uses its trained model for target localization and tracking. Two methods are presented. The first uses the information of the location of anchor nodes to dynamically adapt the RSSI-range model. In the second one, each anchor node uses estimates of the target location –anchor nodes are assumed equipped with cameras—to on-line adapt its RSSI-range model. The paper presents both methods, describes their operation integrated in localization and tracking schemes and experimentally evaluates their performance in the UBILOC testbedUnión Europea EU Project MULTIDRONE H2020-ICT-2016-2017/H2020-ICT-2016-1Unión Europea EU Project AEROARMS H2020-ICT-2014-1-644271AEROMAIN Spanish R&D plan DPI2014-59383-C2-1-RUnión Europea EU Project AEROBI H2020-ICT-2015-1-68738

Las metáforas políticas en los discursos parlamentarios del presidente Pedro Sánchez durante el confinamiento

This article analyzes the political metaphors used by President Pedro Sánchez, in his parliamentary speeches during lockdown in Spain, between March and June 2020. This context of globalized health crisis favored specific uses of political language in various national contexts. This study develops a qualitative methodology that seeks to classify metaphors according to their object and link them with the communicative priorities of each parliamentary speech. The article is theoretically based on the structural metaphor conceived by Lakoff and Johnson to find those unnoticed metaphors in everyday life and on Wittgenstein’s theory of language games. These theories allow us to identify how the use of rhetorical figures it serves to create dominant narratives. This article shows that metaphors used by Pedro Sánchez served three purposes: to legitimize the government’s actions, to inform the population in easily understandable terms and, lastly, to help to retain the political power.En este artículo se analizan las metáforas políticas utilizadas por el presidente Pedro Sánchez, en los discursos parlamentarios durante el confinamiento en España, entre marzo y junio de 2020. Este fue un contexto de crisis sanitaria globalizada que favoreció usos específicos del lenguaje político en diversos contextos nacionales. Este estudio desarrolla una metodología cualitativa que busca clasificar las metáforas según su objeto y enlazarlas con las prioridades comunicativas de cada discurso parlamentario. El artículo se fundamenta teóricamente en la metáfora estructural concebida por Lakoff y Johnson para encontrar las metáforas inadvertidas, y en la teoría de juegos del lenguaje de Wittgenstein. Ello permite entender cómo el empleo de figuras retóricas sirve para crear narrativas dominantes. Las conclusiones muestran que las metáforas empleadas por Pedro Sánchez responden a un triple objetivo: legitimar la acción del gobierno, informar en términos comprensibles a la población y, por último, favorecer el mantenimiento del poder político