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Sin resume

Integration of Mobile Robot Navigation on a Control Kernel Middleware based system

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07593-8_55This paper introduces how a mobile robot can perform navigation tasks by taking the advantages of implementing a control kernel middleware (CKM) based system. Smart resources are also included into the topology of the system for improving the distribution of computational load of the needed tasks. The CKM and the smart resources are both highly recon gurable, even on execution time, and they also implement.lt detection mechanisms and QoS policies. By combining of these capabilities, the system can be dinamically adapted to the requirements of its tasks. Furthermore, this solution is suitable for most type of robots, including those which are provided of a low computational power because of the distribution of load, the bene ts of exploiting the smart resources capabilities, and the dynamic performance of the system.This work has been partially supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under the CICYT project Mission Based Control (COBAMI): DPI2011-28507-002-02.Munera Sánchez, E.; Muñoz Alcobendas, M.; Posadas-Yagüe, J.; Poza-Lujan, J.; Blanes Noguera, F. (2014). Integration of Mobile Robot Navigation on a Control Kernel Middleware based system. En Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence, 11th International Conference. Springer Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing Volume 290. 477-484. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-07593-8_55S477484Rock (Robot Constrution Toolkit), http://www.rock-robotics.org/Albertos, P., Crespo, A., Simó, J.: Control kernel: A key concept in embedded control systems. In: 4th IFAC Symposium on Mechatronic Systems (2006)Bruyninckx, H., Soetens, P., Koninckx, B.: The Real-Time Motion Control Core of the Orocos Project. In: IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, pp. 2766–2771 (2003)De Souza, G.N., Kak, A.C.: Vision for mobile robot navigation: A survey. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence 24(2), 237–267 (2002)Fitzpatrick, P., Metta, G., Natale, L.: Towards long-lived robot genes. Robotics and Autonomous Systems (2008)Mohamed, N., Al-Jaroodi, J., Jawhar, I.: Middleware for robotics: A survey. In: 2008 IEEE Conference on Robotics, Automation and Mechatronics, pp. 736–742. IEEE (2008)Montemerlo, M., Roy, N., Thrun, S.: Perspectives on standardization in mobile robot programming: The carnegie mellon navigation (carmen) toolkit. In: Proceedings of 2003 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems (IROS 2003), vol. 3, pp. 2436–2441. IEEE (2003)Muñoz, M., Munera, E., Blanes, J.F., Simo, J.E., Benet, G.: Event driven middleware for distributed system control. XXXIV Jornadas de Automatica, 8 (2013)Muñoz, M., Munera, E., Blanes, J.F., Simó, J.E.: A hierarchical hybrid architecture for mission-oriented robot control. In: Armada, M.A., Sanfeliu, A., Ferre, M. (eds.) First Iberian Robotics Conference of ROBOT 2013. AISC, vol. 252, pp. 363–380. Springer, Heidelberg (2014)Sánchez, E.M., Alcobendas, M.M., Noguera, J.F.B., Gilabert, G.B., Ten, J.E.S.: A reliability-based particle filter for humanoid robot self-localization in RoboCup Standard Platform League. Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) 13(11), 14954–14983 (2013)Poza-Luján, J.-L., Posadas-Yagüe, J.-L., Simó-Ten, J.-E.: Relationship between Quality of Control and Quality of Service in Mobile Robot Navigation. In: Omatu, S., De Paz Santana, J.F., González, S.R., Molina, J.M., Bernardos, A.M., Rodríguez, J.M.C. (eds.) Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence. AISC, vol. 151, pp. 557–564. Springer, Heidelberg (2012)Proetzsch, M., Luksch, T., Berns, K.: Development of complex robotic systems using the behavior-based control architecture iB2C. Robotics and Autonomous Systems 58(1), 46–67 (2010)Quigley, M., Conley, K., Gerkey, B., Faust, J., Foote, T., Leibs, J., Wheeler, R., Ng, A.Y.: Ros: An open-source robot operating system. In: ICRA Workshop on Open Source Software, vol. 3 (2009)Roy, N., Burgard, W., Fox, D., Thrun, S.: Coastal navigation-mobile robot navigation with uncertainty in dynamic environments. In: Proceedings of the 1999 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, vol. 1, pp. 35–40. IEEE (1999)Nicolau, V., Muñoz, M., Simó, J.: KertrolBot Platform: SiDiReLi: Distributed System with Limited Resources. Technical report, Institute of Control Systems and Industrial Computing - Polytechnic University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain (2011

Optimizations on semantic environment management: an application for humanoid robot home assistance

© 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.This article introduces some optimization mechanisms focused on environment management, object recognition, and environment interaction. Although the generality of the presented system, this work will be focused on its application on home assistance humanoid robots. For this purpose, a generic environment formalization procedure for semantic scenery description is introduced. As the main contribution of this work, some techniques for a more efficient use of the environment knowledge are proposed. That way, the application of an areabased discrimination mechanism will avoid to process large amounts of data, useless in the current context, improving the object recognition, and characterizing the available interactions in the current area. Finally, the formalized description, and the optimization procedure, will be tested and verified on a specific home scenario using a humanoid robotThis work has been supported by the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry MICINN under the CICYT project COBAMI: DPI2011-28507-C02-01/02. The responsibility for the content remains with the authors.Munera Sánchez, E.; Posadas-Yagüe, J.; Poza-Lujan, J.; Blanes Noguera, F.; Simó Ten, JE. (2014). Optimizations on semantic environment management: an application for humanoid robot home assistance. En 2014 IEEE-RAS International Conference on Humanoid Robots. IEEE. 720-725. doi:10.1109/HUMANOIDS.2014.7041442S72072

Robot Behavior Architecture Based on Smart Resource Service Execution

[EN] Robot behavior definition aims to classify and specify the robot tasks execution. Behavior architecture design is crucial for proper robot operation performance. According to this, this work aims to establish a robot behavior architecture based on distributed intelligent services. Therefore, behavior definition is set in a high-level delegating the task execution to distributed services provided by network abstractions characterized as Smart Resources. In order to provide a mechanism to measure the performance of this architecture, an evaluation mechanisms based on a service performance composition is introduced. In order to test this proposal it is designed a real use case implementing the proposed robot behavior architecture on a real navigation task.Work supported by the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry MICINN: CICYT 866 project M2C2: Codiseño de sistemas de control con criticidad mixta basado en 867 misiones TIN2014-56158-C4-4-P and PAID (Polytechnic University of Valencia): 868 UPV-PAID-FPI-2013.Munera-Sánchez, E.; Poza-Lujan, J.; Posadas-Yagüe, J.; Simó Ten, JE.; Blanes Noguera, F. (2017). Robot Behavior Architecture Based on Smart Resource Service Execution. International Journal of Soft Computing And Artificial Intelligence (Online). 5(1):55-60. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/152272S55605

Integrating Smart Resources in ROS-based systems to distribute services

[EN] Mobile robots execute complexes tasks that involve the management of several embedded sensors and actuators. Therefore, in many cases, a robot is characterized as an intelligent distributed system formed with a central unit, which manages the on-board embedded devices and distributes the tasks execution. Embedded devices are also evolving to more complex systems. These systems are developed not only for executing simple tasks but also for offering some advanced mechanisms. Thus, complex data processing, adaptive execution, or fault-tolerance routines are some common system features. The Smart Resource topology has been developed in order to manage these embedded systems. This topology offers high-level routines that rely on a certain physical hardware execution. Therefore, Smart Resources are defined as distributed services providers, which operates within some context and quality requirements. Provided services can adapt its execution in order accomplish the set requirements and maximize the system performance. How to improve the versatility of the Smart Resources by making their services compatibles with the Robot Operating System (ROS) is addressed along this work. This solution integrates all the execution mechanisms provided by ROS with the service distribution, adaptive execution, and fault-tolerance routines offered by the Smart Resources. This integration is tested through a set of experiments using the Turtlebot robot platform and a simulated version of it. In both approaches ROS mechanisms are used to access the Smart Resource Services. Finally, obtained results are used to characterize the performance of this proposal.Work supported by the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry MICINN: CICYT project M2C2: "Codiseno de sistemas de control con criticidad mixta basado en misiones" TIN2014-56158-C4-4-P and PAID (Polytechnic University of Valencia): UPV-PAID-FPI-2013.Munera-Sánchez, E.; Poza-Lujan, J.; Posadas-Yagüe, J.; Simó Ten, JE.; Blanes Noguera, F. (2017). Integrating Smart Resources in ROS-based systems to distribute services. Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal. 6(1):13-19. https://doi.org/10.14201/ADCAIJ2017611319S13196

Dynamic Reconfiguration of a RGBD Sensor Based on QoS and QoC Requirements in Distributed Systems

The inclusion of embedded sensors into a networked system provides useful information for many applications. A Distributed Control System (DCS) is one of the clearest examples where processing and communications are constrained by the client s requirements and the capacity of the system. An embedded sensor with advanced processing and communications capabilities supplies high level information, abstracting from the data acquisition process and objects recognition mechanisms. The implementation of an embedded sensor/actuator as a Smart Resource permits clients to access sensor information through distributed network services. Smart resources can offer sensor services as well as computing, communications and peripheral access by implementing a self-aware based adaptation mechanism which adapts the execution profile to the context. On the other hand, information integrity must be ensured when computing processes are dynamically adapted. Therefore, the processing must be adapted to perform tasks in a certain lapse of time but always ensuring a minimum process quality. In the same way, communications must try to reduce the data traffic without excluding relevant information. The main objective of the paper is to present a dynamic configuration mechanism to adapt the sensor processing and communication to the client s requirements in the DCS. This paper describes an implementation of a smart resource based on a Red, Green, Blue, and Depth (RGBD) sensor in order to test the dynamic configuration mechanism presented.This work has been supported by the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry MICINN under the CICYT project M2C2: "Codiseno de sistemas de control con criticidad mixta basado en misiones" TIN2014-56158-C4-4-P and the Programme for Research and Development PAID of the Polytechnic University of Valencia: UPV-PAID-FPI-2013. The responsibility for the content remains with the authors.Munera Sánchez, E.; Poza-Lujan, J.; Posadas-Yagüe, J.; Simó Ten, JE.; Blanes Noguera, F. (2015). Dynamic Reconfiguration of a RGBD Sensor Based on QoS and QoC Requirements in Distributed Systems. Sensors. 15(8):18080-18101. https://doi.org/10.3390/s150818080S1808018101158Gupta, R. A., & Mo-Yuen Chow. (2010). Networked Control System: Overview and Research Trends. IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics, 57(7), 2527-2535. doi:10.1109/tie.2009.2035462Morales, R., Badesa, F. J., García-Aracil, N., Perez-Vidal, C., & Sabater, J. M. (2012). Distributed Smart Device for Monitoring, Control and Management of Electric Loads in Domotic Environments. Sensors, 12(5), 5212-5224. doi:10.3390/s120505212Zhang, Z. (2012). Microsoft Kinect Sensor and Its Effect. IEEE Multimedia, 19(2), 4-10. doi:10.1109/mmul.2012.24Gonzalez-Jorge, H., Riveiro, B., Vazquez-Fernandez, E., Martínez-Sánchez, J., & Arias, P. (2013). Metrological evaluation of Microsoft Kinect and Asus Xtion sensors. Measurement, 46(6), 1800-1806. doi:10.1016/j.measurement.2013.01.011Pordel, M., & Hellström, T. (2015). Semi-Automatic Image Labelling Using Depth Information. Computers, 4(2), 142-154. doi:10.3390/computers4020142Zuehlke, D. (2010). SmartFactory—Towards a factory-of-things. Annual Reviews in Control, 34(1), 129-138. doi:10.1016/j.arcontrol.2010.02.008Wang, X., Şekercioğlu, Y., & Drummond, T. (2014). Vision-Based Cooperative Pose Estimation for Localization in Multi-Robot Systems Equipped with RGB-D Cameras. Robotics, 4(1), 1-22. doi:10.3390/robotics4010001Gil, P., Kisler, T., García, G. J., Jara, C. A., & Corrales, J. A. (2013). Calibración de cámaras de tiempo de vuelo: Ajuste adaptativo del tiempo de integración y análisis de la frecuencia de modulación. Revista Iberoamericana de Automática e Informática Industrial RIAI, 10(4), 453-464. doi:10.1016/j.riai.2013.08.002Castrillón-Santan, M., Lorenzo-Navarro, J., & Hernández-Sosa, D. (2014). Conteo de personas con un sensor RGBD comercial. Revista Iberoamericana de Automática e Informática Industrial RIAI, 11(3), 348-357. doi:10.1016/j.riai.2014.05.006Vogel, A., Kerherve, B., von Bochmann, G., & Gecsei, J. (1995). Distributed multimedia and QOS: a survey. IEEE Multimedia, 2(2), 10-19. doi:10.1109/93.388195Eugster, P. T., Felber, P. A., Guerraoui, R., & Kermarrec, A.-M. (2003). The many faces of publish/subscribe. ACM Computing Surveys, 35(2), 114-131. doi:10.1145/857076.857078Aurrecoechea, C., Campbell, A. T., & Hauw, L. (1998). A survey of QoS architectures. Multimedia Systems, 6(3), 138-151. doi:10.1007/s005300050083Xu, W., Zhou, Z., Pham, D. T., Liu, Q., Ji, C., & Meng, W. (2012). Quality of service in manufacturing networks: a service framework and its implementation. The International Journal of Advanced Manufacturing Technology, 63(9-12), 1227-1237. doi:10.1007/s00170-012-3965-yKang, W., Son, S. H., & Stankovic, J. A. (2012). Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a QoS-Aware Real-Time Embedded Database. IEEE Transactions on Computers, 61(1), 45-59. doi:10.1109/tc.2010.240Poza-Lujan, J.-L., Posadas-Yagüe, J.-L., Simó-Ten, J.-E., Simarro, R., & Benet, G. (2015). Distributed Sensor Architecture for Intelligent Control that Supports Quality of Control and Quality of Service. Sensors, 15(3), 4700-4733. doi:10.3390/s150304700Manzoor, A., Truong, H.-L., & Dustdar, S. (2014). Quality of Context: models and applications for context-aware systems in pervasive environments. The Knowledge Engineering Review, 29(2), 154-170. doi:10.1017/s0269888914000034Cardellini, V., Casalicchio, E., Grassi, V., Iannucci, S., Presti, F. L., & Mirandola, R. (2012). MOSES: A Framework for QoS Driven Runtime Adaptation of Service-Oriented Systems. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 38(5), 1138-1159. doi:10.1109/tse.2011.68Nogueira, L., Pinho, L. M., & Coelho, J. (2012). A feedback-based decentralised coordination model for distributed open real-time systems. Journal of Systems and Software, 85(9), 2145-2159. doi:10.1016/j.jss.2012.04.033del-Hoyo, R., Martín-del-Brío, B., Medrano, N., & Fernández-Navajas, J. (2009). Computational intelligence tools for next generation quality of service management. Neurocomputing, 72(16-18), 3631-3639. doi:10.1016/j.neucom.2009.01.016Tian, Y.-C., Jiang, X., Levy, D. C., & Agrawala, A. (2012). Local Adjustment and Global Adaptation of Control Periods for QoC Management of Control Systems. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 20(3), 846-854. doi:10.1109/tcst.2011.2141133Vilalta, R., & Drissi, Y. (2002). Artificial Intelligence Review, 18(2), 77-95. doi:10.1023/a:1019956318069Cortes, C., & Vapnik, V. (1995). Support-vector networks. Machine Learning, 20(3), 273-297. doi:10.1007/bf00994018Yélamos, I., Escudero, G., Graells, M., & Puigjaner, L. (2009). Performance assessment of a novel fault diagnosis system based on support vector machines. Computers & Chemical Engineering, 33(1), 244-255. doi:10.1016/j.compchemeng.2008.08.008Zhang, X., Qiu, D., & Chen, F. (2015). Support vector machine with parameter optimization by a novel hybrid method and its application to fault diagnosis. Neurocomputing, 149, 641-651. doi:10.1016/j.neucom.2014.08.010Iplikci, S. (2010). Support vector machines based neuro-fuzzy control of nonlinear systems. Neurocomputing, 73(10-12), 2097-2107. doi:10.1016/j.neucom.2010.02.008Ferrari, P., Flammini, A., & Sisinni, E. (2011). New Architecture for a Wireless Smart Sensor Based on a Software-Defined Radio. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement, 60(6), 2133-2141. doi:10.1109/tim.2011.2117090Munera Sánchez, E., Muñoz Alcobendas, M., Blanes Noguera, J., Benet Gilabert, G., & Simó Ten, J. (2013). A Reliability-Based Particle Filter for Humanoid Robot Self-Localization in RoboCup Standard Platform League. Sensors, 13(11), 14954-14983. doi:10.3390/s131114954Adams, R., & Bischof, L. (1994). Seeded region growing. IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, 16(6), 641-647. doi:10.1109/34.295913JIMÉNEZ-GARCÍA, J.-L., BASELGA-MASIA, D., POZA-LUJÁN, J.-L., MUNERA, E., POSADAS-YAGÜE, J.-L., & SIMÓ-TEN, J.-E. (2014). Smart device definition and application on embedded system: performance and optimi-zation on a RGBD sensor. ADCAIJ: ADVANCES IN DISTRIBUTED COMPUTING AND ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE JOURNAL, 3(8), 46. doi:10.14201/adcaij2014384655Feng-Li Lian, Moyne, J., & Tilbury, D. (2002). Network design consideration for distributed control systems. IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology, 10(2), 297-307. doi:10.1109/87.98707

Smart device definition and application on embedded system: performance and optimi-zation on a RGBD sensor

[EN] Embedded control systems usually are characterized by its limitations in terms of computational power and memory. Although this systems must deal with perpection and actuation signal adaptation and calculate control actions ensuring its reliability and providing a certain degree of fault tolerance. The allocation of these tasks between some different embedded nodes conforming a distributed control system allows to solve many of these issues. For that reason is proposed the application of smart devices aims to perform the data processing tasks related with the perception and actuation and offer a simple interface to be configured by other nodes in order to share processed information and raise QoS based alarms. In this work is introduced the procedure of implementing a smart device as a sensor as an embedded node in a distributed control system. In order to analyze its benefits an application based on a RGBD sensor implemented as a smart device is proposed.This work has been supported by the coordinated project COBAMI: Mission-based Hierarchical Control. Education and Science Department, Spanish Government. CICYT: MICINN:DPI2011-28507-C02-01/02 and project “Real time distributed control systems” of the Support Program for Research and Development 2012 UPV (PAID-06-12)Jimenez-Garcia, J.; Baselga-Masia, D.; Munera Sánchez, E.; Poza-Lujan, J.; Posadas-Yagüe, J.; Simó-Ten, J. (2014). Smart device definition and application on embedded system: performance and optimi-zation on a RGBD sensor. ADCAIJ : Advances in Distributed Computing and Artificial Intelligence Journal. 3(8):46-55. https://doi.org/10.14201/ADCAIJ2014384655S46553

Distributed sensor architecture for intelligent control that supports quality of control and quality of service

This paper is part of a study of intelligent architectures for distributed control and communications systems. The study focuses on optimizing control systems by evaluating the performance of middleware through quality of service (QoS) parameters and the optimization of control using Quality of Control (QoC) parameters. The main aim of this work is to study, design, develop, and evaluate a distributed control architecture based on the Data-Distribution Service for Real-Time Systems (DDS) communication standard as proposed by the Object Management Group (OMG). As a result of the study, an architecture called Frame-Sensor-Adapter to Control (FSACtrl) has been developed. FSACtrl provides a model to implement an intelligent distributed Event-Based Control (EBC) system with support to measure QoS and QoC parameters. The novelty consists of using, simultaneously, the measured QoS and QoC parameters to make decisions about the control action with a new method called Event Based Quality Integral Cycle. To validate the architecture, the first five Braitenberg vehicles have been implemented using the FSACtrl architecture. The experimental outcomes, demonstrate the convenience of using jointly QoS and QoC parameters in distributed control systems.The study described in this paper is a part of the coordinated project COBAMI: Mission-based Hierarchical Control. Education and Science Department Spanish Government. CICYT: MICINN: DPI2011-28507-C02-01/02 and project "Real time distributed control systems" of the Support Program for Research and Development 2012 UPV (PAID-06-12).Poza-Lujan, J.; Posadas-Yagüe, J.; Simó Ten, JE.; Simarro Fernández, R.; Benet Gilabert, G. (2015). Distributed sensor architecture for intelligent control that supports quality of control and quality of service. Sensors. 15(3):4700-4733. https://doi.org/10.3390/s150304700S4700473315

The fatal contribution of serine protease-related genetic variants to COVID-19 outcomes

IntroductionSerine proteases play a critical role during SARS-CoV-2 infection. Therefore, polymorphisms of transmembrane protease serine 2 (TMPRSS2) and serpine family E member 1 (SERPINE1) could help to elucidate the contribution of variability to COVID-19 outcomes.MethodsTo evaluate the genetic variants of the genes previously associated with COVID-19 outcomes, we performed a cross-sectional study in which 1536 SARS-CoV-2-positive participants were enrolled. TMPRSS2 (rs2070788, rs75603675, rs12329760) and SERPINE1 (rs2227631, rs2227667, rs2070682, rs2227692) were genotyped using the Open Array Platform. The association of polymorphisms with disease outcomes was determined by logistic regression analysis adjusted for covariates (age, sex, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and obesity).ResultsAccording to our codominant model, the GA genotype of rs2227667 (OR=0.55; 95% CI = 0.36-0.84; p=0.006) and the AG genotype of rs2227667 (OR=0.59; 95% CI = 0.38-0.91; p=0.02) of SERPINE1 played a protective role against disease. However, the rs2227692 T allele and TT genotype SERPINE1 (OR=1.45; 95% CI = 1.11-1.91; p=0.006; OR=2.08; 95% CI = 1.22-3.57; p=0.007; respectively) were associated with a decreased risk of death. Similarly, the rs75603675 AA genotype TMPRSS2 had an OR of 1.97 (95% CI = 1.07-3.6; p=0.03) for deceased patients. Finally, the rs2227692 T allele SERPINE1 was associated with increased D-dimer levels (OR=1.24; 95% CI = 1.03-1.48; p=0.02).DiscussionOur data suggest that the rs75603675 TMPRSS2 and rs2227692 SERPINE1 polymorphisms are associated with a poor outcome. Additionally, rs2227692 SERPINE1 could participate in hypercoagulable conditions in critical COVID-19 patients, and this genetic variant could contribute to the identification of new pharmacological targets and treatment strategies to block the inhibition of TMPRSS2 entry into SARS-CoV-2

Clientelas y amistades femeninas en Plinio El Joven

<p>RESUMEN: En sus cartas, Plinio presenta una imagen en su mayor parte amable de las mujeres: la caracterización que practica con esas mujeres es claramente positiva, en más de un 70% del total. Ello debe de tener alguna explicación.</p><p>Creo que no hay otra que la propia naturaleza estilística del género epistolar: Plinio dirige sus cartas a amigos o parientes, y las mujeres que aparecen en ellas están relacionadas familiarmente con esos amigos, son amigas del propio Plinio, o familiares suyas. El 70% de las mujeres citadas están vinculadas al ordo senatorius, y gran parte de ellas son de familia consular. Sólo caracteriza negativamente a algunas mujeres debido a anécdotas judiciales vividas por él, o a que eran familiares o amigas de enemigos de Plinio, o víctimas de los mismos. Por tanto, cabe calificar la caracterización de mujeres en Plinio como «clientelar», dado que todas las menciones parecen responder a las premisas de la relación entre amigos, miembros de los círculos senatoriales, o clientes y patronos.</p><p>En ese sentido cobra una especial significación el juicio que le merecen a Plinio las mujeres en sus tradicionales papeles de esposa, madre o hija. En general, se observan en este autor unas definiciones de «esposa modelo» y de «hija modelo» muy conservadoras y amantes de las llamadas «virtudes antiguas». Sin embargo, no se menciona a la inevitable Cornelia, madre de los Gracos, en toda la obra pliniana, a diferencia de la de Tácito o Juvenal, y sí se crean nuevos mitos y modelos, quizá más cercanos a la Roma de su tiempo, pero no por ello menos adustos: como esposas, Arria y las de Tulo y Macrino; y como hijas, Minicia Marcella. Son modelos y ejemplos que, junto con Fannia, se presentan a la consideración de las mujeres de la época de Plinio por este autor, para que se siga su senda y se imite su virtud.</p><p>Este afán ejemplificador, claramente expresado en 7.19, invalida relativamente las menciones a mujeres en este autor como fuente para el estudio de la «situación de la mujer en el Imperio», ya que están viciadas por la necesidad de Plinio de relación con ciertos sectores senatoriales consulares y con sus mujeres, madres e hijas; por los propios odios y amores de Plinio; por su carácter de abogado y sus experiencias en la corte centunviral; y por la necesidad que él siente de legar ejemplos a las mujeres de su época, de las que nos proporciona algunos retratos literarios carentes de toda complejidad y casi todos ellos muy positivos.</p><p>No de otra forma pueden ser calificados los retratos que presenta de la emperatriz Plotina y de la hermana de Trajano en el Panegyricus: son modelos para su sexo, y sirven para definirlos principales ornatos de la mujer romana: la obediencia ciega al marido, la modestia en el vestido y acompañamiento, la sencillez y el pudor en el trato, la virtud en las costumbres y en la vida doméstica, y la fidelidad tanto al marido como al poder establecido. Su papel político debe reducirse a cero: no deben tomar parte en los problemas sucesorios de los emperadores, puesto que han ser elegidos entre los ciudadanos, como en el caso de Trajano, y su actitud en palacio es menester que sea la de una matrona tradicional romana, nada más.</p><p>Son las mujeres anónimas y plebeyas de su época las que, como se observa en las menciones generales, muy pocas, aparecen caracterizadas de forma bastante negativa; conclusión que queda corroborada por el análisis del léxico utilizado en las menciones, del que sobresale una cierta crítica soterrada entre tanta loa.</p><p>Por tanto, en Plinio encontramos una visión amable de ciertas mujeres de sus círculos más cercanos, una idealización de la emperatriz y de su cuñada, un afán ejemplificador en ciertas mujeres senatoriales para uso de las demás, y un cierto trasfondo de crítica social hacia el común de las romanas. Esta crítica se ve reafirmada por la necesidad imperiosa en Plinio de proporcionar exempla uirtutis a esas mismas mujeres. Y es que, si todas en su época fueran tan virtuosas, buenas madres, esposas e hijas –que no lo son si tenemos en cuenta el casi 25% de menciones negativas–, ¿a qué presentar ejemplos, modelos y acciones ilustres representativas de una virtud definida ya como antigua?</p><p>ABSTRACT: In his letters, Pliny the Younger presents a mostly kind image of women: the characterization practicing with these women is clearly positive, more than 70% of the total. This must be some explanation.</p><p>I think the explanation is the very nature of stylistic epistolary genre: Pliny addressed their letters to friends or relatives, and women who appear in them have family relations with these friends, are friends of Pliny himself, family or theirs. The 70% of women cited are linked to ordo senatorius, and many of them are consular family. Pliny only characterized negatively to some women because of anecdotes judicial experienced by him, or who were relatives or friends of enemies of Pliny, or victims of them. Therefore, it is the characterization of women voting in Pliny as’ client, given that all indications seem to respond to the premises of the relationship between friends, members of the senatorial circles, or clients and employers. In this sense takes on special significance the trial that Pliny deserved to women in their traditional roles of wife, mother or daughter. In general, there are some definitions in this author of «model wife and child model» very conservative and lovers of so-called «old virtues». However, not to mention the inevitable Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, throughout the Plinian work, unlike that of Tacitus or Juvenal, and it will create new myths and models, perhaps the closest to Rome of his time, but no less severe: as wives, Arria of Tulo and Macrina and as daughters, Marcella Minicia. They are models and examples, together with Fannia, and they are presented for consideration by women from the time of Pliny by this author, in order to continue its path and imitate their virtue.</p>This effort exemplifies clearly expressed in 7.19, invalidates relatively references to women in this author as a source for the study of the «status of women in the Empire», because they are tainted by the need to Pliny relationship with certain senatorial and consular sectors throughout their wives, mothers and daughters, for their own loves and hatreds of Pliny, in his capacity as a lawyer and their experiences in centunviral court, and he feels the need to bequeath examples to women of his time, which gives us some literary portraits devoid of any complexity and almost all of them very positive.<p>There may be otherwise qualified featuring portraits of the Empress Plotina and the sister of Trajan in Panegyricus: they are role models for their sex, and serve to define the main Roman ornate of women: the blind obedience to her husband, modesty in dress and accompaniment, simplicity and modesty in the deal, the virtue of customs and in domestic life, and fidelity to both the husband and the established power. Her political role should be reduced to zero: she should not take part in the inheritance problems of the emperors, as they have to be chosen from among citizens, as in the case of Trajan, and her attitude needed in Palace must be as a traditional midwife Roman, nothing more.</p><p>They are anonymous women and commoners of his time which, as noted in general terms, very few, are characterized fairly negative conclusion which is corroborated by the analysis of the lexicon used in the entries, which stands some criticism hidden among so much praise.</p><p>Therefore, in Pliny we find a vision of some kind women of their closest circles, an idealization of the empress and her sister-in-law, a desire exemplified by certain senatorial women for use by others and a certain undercurrent of social criticism toward the common Roman. This criticism is reaffirmed by the imperative of providing exempla uirtutis. Indeed, if all the women of his time were so virtuous, good mothers, wives and daughters –who are not given the almost 25% of negative mentions– what are Plny presenting examples, models and actions illustrious representative under an already defined as old?</p