Quantity and degree assessment in an RDF.based semantic language

This paper introduces a semantic language developed with the objective to be used in a semantic analyzer based on linguistic and world knowledge. Linguistic knowledge is provided by a Combinatorial Dictionary and several sets of rules. Extra-linguistic information is stored in an Ontology. The meaning of the text is represented by means of a series of RDF-type triples of the form predicate (subject, object). Semantic analyzer is one of the options of the multifunctional ETAP-3 linguistic processor. The analyzer can be used for Information Extraction and Question Answering. We describe semantic representation of expressions that provide an assessment of the number of objects involved and/or give a quantitative evaluation of different types of attributes. We focus on the following aspects: 1) parametric and non-parametric attributes; 2) gradable and non-gradable attributes; 3) ontological representation of different classes of attributes; 4) absolute and relative quantitative assessment; 5) punctual and interval quantitative assessment; 6) intervals with precise and fuzzy boundaries

Semantic Service Discovery Techniques for the composable web

This PhD thesis contributes to the problem of resource and service discovery in the context of the composable web. In the current web, mashup technologies allow developers reusing services and contents to build new web applications. However, developers face a problem of information flood when searching for appropriate services or resources for their combination. To contribute to overcoming this problem, a framework is defined for the discovery of services and resources. In this framework, three levels are defined for performing discovery at content, discovery and agente levels. The content level involves the information available in web resources. The web follows the Representational Stateless Transfer (REST) architectural style, in which resources are returned as representations from servers to clients. These representations usually employ the HyperText Markup Language (HTML), which, along with Content Style Sheets (CSS), describes the markup employed to render representations in a web browser. Although the use of SemanticWeb standards such as Resource Description Framework (RDF) make this architecture suitable for automatic processes to use the information present in web resources, these standards are too often not employed, so automation must rely on processing HTML. This process, often referred as Screen Scraping in the literature, is the content discovery according to the proposed framework. At this level, discovery rules indicate how the different pieces of data in resources��� representations are mapped onto semantic entities. By processing discovery rules on web resources, semantically described contents can be obtained out of them. The service level involves the operations that can be performed on the web. The current web allows users to perform different tasks such as search, blogging, e-commerce, or social networking. To describe the possible services in RESTful architectures, a high-level feature-oriented service methodology is proposed at this level. This lightweight description framework allows defining service discovery rules to identify operations in interactions with REST resources. The discovery is thus performed by applying discovery rules to contents discovered in REST interactions, in a novel process called service probing. Also, service discovery can be performed by modelling services as contents, i.e., by retrieving Application Programming Interface (API) documentation and API listings in service registries such as ProgrammableWeb. For this, a unified model for composable components in Mashup-Driven Development (MDD) has been defined after the analysis of service repositories from the web. The agent level involves the orchestration of the discovery of services and contents. At this level, agent rules allow to specify behaviours for crawling and executing services, which results in the fulfilment of a high-level goal. Agent rules are plans that allow introspecting the discovered data and services from the web and the knowledge present in service and content discovery rules to anticipate the contents and services to be found on specific resources from the web. By the definition of plans, an agent can be configured to target specific resources. The discovery framework has been evaluated on different scenarios, each one covering different levels of the framework. Contenidos a la Carta project deals with the mashing-up of news from electronic newspapers, and the framework was used for the discovery and extraction of pieces of news from the web. Similarly, in Resulta and VulneraNET projects the discovery of ideas and security knowledge in the web is covered, respectively. The service level is covered in the OMELETTE project, where mashup components such as services and widgets are discovered from component repositories from the web. The agent level is applied to the crawling of services and news in these scenarios, highlighting how the semantic description of rules and extracted data can provide complex behaviours and orchestrations of tasks in the web. The main contributions of the thesis are the unified framework for discovery, which allows configuring agents to perform automated tasks. Also, a scraping ontology has been defined for the construction of mappings for scraping web resources. A novel first-order logic rule induction algorithm is defined for the automated construction and maintenance of these mappings out of the visual information in web resources. Additionally, a common unified model for the discovery of services is defined, which allows sharing service descriptions. Future work comprises the further extension of service probing, resource ranking, the extension of the Scraping Ontology, extensions of the agent model, and contructing a base of discovery rules. Resumen La presente tesis doctoral contribuye al problema de descubrimiento de servicios y recursos en el contexto de la web combinable. En la web actual, las tecnolog��as de combinaci��n de aplicaciones permiten a los desarrolladores reutilizar servicios y contenidos para construir nuevas aplicaciones web. Pese a todo, los desarrolladores afrontan un problema de saturaci��n de informaci��n a la hora de buscar servicios o recursos apropiados para su combinaci��n. Para contribuir a la soluci��n de este problema, se propone un marco de trabajo para el descubrimiento de servicios y recursos. En este marco, se definen tres capas sobre las que se realiza descubrimiento a nivel de contenido, servicio y agente. El nivel de contenido involucra a la informaci��n disponible en recursos web. La web sigue el estilo arquitect��nico Representational Stateless Transfer (REST), en el que los recursos son devueltos como representaciones por parte de los servidores a los clientes. Estas representaciones normalmente emplean el lenguaje de marcado HyperText Markup Language (HTML), que, unido al est��ndar Content Style Sheets (CSS), describe el marcado empleado para mostrar representaciones en un navegador web. Aunque el uso de est��ndares de la web sem��ntica como Resource Description Framework (RDF) hace apta esta arquitectura para su uso por procesos automatizados, estos est��ndares no son empleados en muchas ocasiones, por lo que cualquier automatizaci��n debe basarse en el procesado del marcado HTML. Este proceso, normalmente conocido como Screen Scraping en la literatura, es el descubrimiento de contenidos en el marco de trabajo propuesto. En este nivel, un conjunto de reglas de descubrimiento indican c��mo los diferentes datos en las representaciones de recursos se corresponden con entidades sem��nticas. Al procesar estas reglas sobre recursos web, pueden obtenerse contenidos descritos sem��nticamente. El nivel de servicio involucra las operaciones que pueden ser llevadas a cabo en la web. Actualmente, los usuarios de la web pueden realizar diversas tareas como b��squeda, blogging, comercio electr��nico o redes sociales. Para describir los posibles servicios en arquitecturas REST, se propone en este nivel una metodolog��a de alto nivel para descubrimiento de servicios orientada a funcionalidades. Este marco de descubrimiento ligero permite definir reglas de descubrimiento de servicios para identificar operaciones en interacciones con recursos REST. Este descubrimiento es por tanto llevado a cabo al aplicar las reglas de descubrimiento sobre contenidos descubiertos en interacciones REST, en un nuevo procedimiento llamado sondeo de servicios. Adem��s, el descubrimiento de servicios puede ser llevado a cabo mediante el modelado de servicios como contenidos. Es decir, mediante la recuperaci��n de documentaci��n de Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) y listas de APIs en registros de servicios como ProgrammableWeb. Para ello, se ha definido un modelo unificado de componentes combinables para Mashup-Driven Development (MDD) tras el an��lisis de repositorios de servicios de la web. El nivel de agente involucra la orquestaci��n del descubrimiento de servicios y contenidos. En este nivel, las reglas de nivel de agente permiten especificar comportamientos para el rastreo y ejecuci��n de servicios, lo que permite la consecuci��n de metas de mayor nivel. Las reglas de los agentes son planes que permiten la introspecci��n sobre los datos y servicios descubiertos, as�� como sobre el conocimiento presente en las reglas de descubrimiento de servicios y contenidos para anticipar contenidos y servicios por encontrar en recursos espec��ficos de la web. Mediante la definici��n de planes, un agente puede ser configurado para descubrir recursos espec��ficos. El marco de descubrimiento ha sido evaluado sobre diferentes escenarios, cada uno cubriendo distintos niveles del marco. El proyecto Contenidos a la Carta trata de la combinaci��n de noticias de peri��dicos digitales, y en ��l el framework se ha empleado para el descubrimiento y extracci��n de noticias de la web. De manera an��loga, en los proyectos Resulta y VulneraNET se ha llevado a cabo un descubrimiento de ideas y de conocimientos de seguridad, respectivamente. El nivel de servicio se cubre en el proyecto OMELETTE, en el que componentes combinables como servicios y widgets se descubren en repositorios de componentes de la web. El nivel de agente se aplica al rastreo de servicios y noticias en estos escenarios, mostrando c��mo la descripci��n sem��ntica de reglas y datos extra��dos permiten proporcionar comportamientos complejos y orquestaciones de tareas en la web. Las principales contribuciones de la tesis son el marco de trabajo unificado para descubrimiento, que permite configurar agentes para realizar tareas automatizadas. Adem��s, una ontolog��a de extracci��n ha sido definida para la construcci��n de correspondencias y extraer informaci��n de recursos web. Asimismo, un algoritmo para la inducci��n de reglas de l��gica de primer orden se ha definido para la construcci��n y el mantenimiento de estas correspondencias a partir de la informaci��n visual de recursos web. Adicionalmente, se ha definido un modelo com��n y unificado para el descubrimiento de servicios que permite la compartici��n de descripciones de servicios. Como trabajos futuros se considera la extensi��n del sondeo de servicios, clasificaci��n de recursos, extensi��n de la ontolog��a de extracci��n y la construcci��n de una base de reglas de descubrimiento.

Building ontologies from folksonomies and linked data: Data structures and Algorithms

We present the data structures and algorithms used in the approach for building domain ontologies from folksonomies and linked data. In this approach we extracts domain terms from folksonomies and enrich them with semantic information from the Linked Open Data cloud. As a result, we obtain a domain ontology that combines the emergent knowledge of social tagging systems with formal knowledge from Ontologies.

Characterising emergent semantics in Twitter lists

Twitter lists organise Twitter users into multiple, often overlapping, sets. We believe that these lists capture some form of emergent semantics, which may be useful to characterise. In this paper we describe an approach for such characterisation, which consists of deriving semantic relations between lists and users by analyzing the cooccurrence of keywords in list names. We use the vector space model and Latent Dirichlet Allocation to obtain similar keywords according to co-occurrence patterns. These results are then compared to similarity measures relying on WordNet and to existing Linked Data sets. Results show that co-occurrence of keywords based on members of the lists produce more synonyms and more correlated results to that of WordNet similarity measures.

Teller: telemetr��a a partir de datos GPS

El avance y desarrollo de las nuevas tecnolog��as ha GPS sean cada vez m��s efectivos y precisos. En la actualidad son usados por miles de personas en una gran variedad de aplicaciones, siendo la competici��n una de ellas.Detr��s del funcionamiento de estas peque��as unidades juega un papel muy importante la telemetr��a, una tecnolog��a que cada vez es m��s relevante en el mundo actual, y que gracias a las avances tecnol��gicos sus aplicaciones son cada vez mayores. En este Trabajo de Fin de Grado se dise��ar�� Teller, un programa realizado en Erlang que mediante la telemetr��a y la tecnolog��a actual realizar�� c��lculos f��sicos de recorridos realizados en motocicleta, tales como velocidad o aceleraci��n (tangencial y radial), adem��s de clasificar los trayectos en tramos, dependiendo de si son curvas o rectas. Al mismo tiempo se realizar�� un estudio de precisi��n del dispositivo GPS, cotejando sus datos con los obtenidos por Teller. Por ��ltimo, toda esta informaci��n se mostrar�� en un mapa para que el usuario pueda visualizarlo y que de esta forma sirva como herramienta de informaci��n y aprendizaje. The development of new technologies has contributed to the improvement of GPS devices, making them more effective and accurate. Nowadays they are used by thousands of people in a wide variety of applications like competitions. The technology that is behind the functionality of those devices is the telemetry, which is getting more and more important in the real world. In this thesis a new program called Teller will be designed. Made in Erlang, it will use telemetry so as to obtain new and valuable data from a motorcycle track. Examples of this type of data can be speed and acceleration (either tangential and radial) for instance. Besides, Teller will classify the track into segments, depending if it is a curve or a straight. At the same time a study will be carried out in order to know how accurate the GPS device is. This will be achieved by comparing the data retrieved by the device with the data calculated by Teller. Finally, all this information will be shown in a map, so the user can see information about his route in a visual way. xi

AALUMO: a user model ontology for ambient assisted living services supported in next-generation networks

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) services are emerging as context-awareness solutions to support elderly people?s autonomy. The context-aware paradigm makes applications more user-adaptive. In this way, context and user models expressed in ontologies are employed by applications to describe user and environment characteristics. The rapid advance of technology allows creating context server to relieve applications of context reasoning techniques. Specifically, the Next Generation Networks (NGN) provides by means of the presence service a framework to manage the current user's state as well as the user's profile information extracted from Internet and mobile context. This paper propose a user modeling ontology for AAL services which can be deployed in a NGN environment with the aim at adapting their functionalities to the elderly's context information and state.

Implementaci��n del modelo RIM de HL7 v3 en orientaci��n a objetos y su uso en procesos de interoperabilidad sem��ntica

El trabajo ha sido realizado dentro del marco de los proyectos EURECA (Enabling information re-Use by linking clinical REsearch and Care) e INTEGRATE (Integrative Cancer Research Through Innovative Biomedical Infrastructures), en los que colabora el Grupo de Inform��tica Biom��dica de la UPM junto a otras universidades e instituciones sanitarias europeas. En ambos proyectos se desarrollan servicios e infraestructuras con el objetivo principal de almacenar informaci��n cl��nica, procedente de fuentes diversas (como por ejemplo de historiales cl��nicos electr��nicos de hospitales, de ensayos cl��nicos o art��culos de investigaci��n biom��dica), de una forma com��n y f��cilmente accesible y consultable para facilitar al m��ximo la investigaci��n de estos ��mbitos, de manera colaborativa entre instituciones. Esta es la idea principal de la interoperabilidad sem��ntica en la que se concentran ambos proyectos, siendo clave para el correcto funcionamiento del software del que se componen. El intercambio de datos con un modelo de representaci��n compartido, com��n y sin ambig��edades, en el que cada concepto, t��rmino o dato cl��nico tendr�� una ��nica forma de representaci��n. Lo cual permite la inferencia de conocimiento, y encaja perfectamente en el contexto de la investigaci��n m��dica. En concreto, la herramienta a desarrollar en este trabajo tambi��n est�� orientada a la idea de maximizar la interoperabilidad sem��ntica, pues se ocupa de la carga de informaci��n cl��nica con un formato estandarizado en un modelo com��n de almacenamiento de datos, implementado en bases de datos relacionales. El trabajo ha sido desarrollado en el periodo comprendido entre el 3 de Febrero y el 6 de Junio de 2014. Se ha seguido un ciclo de vida en cascada para la organizaci��n del trabajo realizado en las tareas de las que se compone el proyecto, de modo que una fase no puede iniciarse sin que se haya terminado, revisado y aceptado la fase anterior. Exceptuando la tarea de documentaci��n del trabajo (para la elaboraci��n de esta memoria), que se ha desarrollado paralelamente a todas las dem��s. ----ABSTRACT--- The project has been developed during the second semester of the 2013/2014 academic year. This Project has been done inside EURECA and INTEGRATE European biomedical research projects, where the GIB (Biomedical Informatics Group) of the UPM works as a partner. Both projects aim is to develop platforms and services with the main goal of storing clinical information (e.g. information from hospital electronic health records (EHRs), clinical trials or research articles) in a common way and easy to access and query, in order to support medical research. The whole software environment of these projects is based on the idea of semantic interoperability, which means the ability of computer systems to exchange data with unambiguous and shared meaning. This idea allows knowledge inference, which fits perfectly in medical research context. The tool to develop in this project is also "semantic operability-oriented". Its purpose is to store standardized clinical information in a common data model, implemented in relational databases. The project has been performed during the period between February 3rd and June 6th, of 2014. It has followed a "Waterfall model" of software development, in which progress is seen as flowing steadily downwards through its phases. Each phase starts when its previous phase has been completed and reviewed. The task of documenting the project���s work is an exception; it has been performed in a parallel way to the rest of the tasks.

Descubrimiento de mappings en recursos geoespaciales

La integraci��n de fuentes de informaci��n heterog��neas ha sido un problema abordado en diferentes tipos de fuentes a lo largo de las d��cadas de diferentes maneras. Una de ellas es el establecimiento de unas relaciones sem��nticas que permitan poder unir la informaci��n de las fuentes relacionadas. A estos enlaces, claves en la integraci��n, se les ha llamado generalmente mappings. Los mappings se han usado en multitud de trabajos y se han abordado, de manera m��s pr��ctica que te��rica en muchos casos, diferentes soluciones para su descubrimiento, su almacenaje, su explotaci��n, etc. Sin embargo, aunque han sido muchas las contribuciones sobre mappings, no hay una definici��n generalizada y admitida por la comunidad que cubra todos los aspectos vinculados a los mappings. Adem��s, en su proceso de descubrimiento, no existe un marco te��rico que defina met��dicamente los procesos a seguir y sus caracter��sticas. Igualmente, la actual forma de evaluar el descubrimiento de mappings no es suficiente para toda la casu��stica existente. En este trabajo se aporta una definici��n de mapping g��nerica que engloba todos los sistemas actuales, la especificaci��n detallada del proceso de descubrimiento y el an��lisis y la propuesta de un proceso de evaluaci��n del descubrimiento. La validez de estos aportes se comprueba con la formulaci��n de hip��tesis y su comprobaci��n mediante un estudio cuantitativo sobre un caso de uso con recursos geoespaciales heterog��neos. ABSTRACT The integration of heterogeneous information resources has been an issue addressed in different types of sources over the decades in different ways. One of them is the establishment of semantic relations which allow information from different related resources to be linked. These links, crucial pieces of this integration, are usually known as mappings. These mappings have been widely used in many applications, and different solutions for their discovery, storing, explotation, etc. have been presented, following rather a more practical than theoretical way in many cases. However, although mappings have been widely applied by many researchers, there is a lack of a generally accepted definition that can cover all the aspects related to mappings. Moreover, in the process of mapping discovery, there is not a theoretical framework that defines methodically the processes to be followed and their characteristics. Similarly, the current way of assessing or evaluating the discovery of mappings is insufficient for all the existing use cases. The main contributions of this work are threefold. On the one hand, it presents a general definition of "mapping" which covers all current systems. On the other hand, it describes a detailed specification of the discovery process, and, finally, it faces the analysis and the purpose of the evaluation of this discovery process. The validity of these contributions has been checked with the formulation of hypothesis which have been verified by using heterogeneous geospatial resources in a quantitative study.

Cross-lingual Linking on the Multilingual Web of Data (position statement)

Recently, the Semantic Web has experienced signi���cant advancements in standards and techniques, as well as in the amount of semantic information available online. Even so, mechanisms are still needed to automatically reconcile semantic information when it is expressed in di���erent natural languages, so that access to Web information across language barriers can be improved. That requires developing techniques for discovering and representing cross-lingual links on the Web of Data. In this paper we explore the different dimensions of such a problem and reflect on possible avenues of research on that topic.

Hummingbird: Privacy at the time of Twitter

In the last several years, micro-blogging Online Social Networks (OSNs), such as Twitter, have taken the world by storm, now boasting over 100 million subscribers. As an unparalleled stage for an enormous audience, they offer fast and reliable centralized diffusion of pithy tweets to great multitudes of information-hungry and always-connected followers. At the same time, this information gathering and dissemination paradigm prompts some important privacy concerns about relationships between tweeters, followers and interests of the latter. In this paper, we assess privacy in today?s Twitter-like OSNs and describe an architecture and a trial implementation of a privacy-preserving service called Hummingbird. It is essentially a variant of Twitter that protects tweet contents, hashtags and follower interests from the (potentially) prying eyes of the centralized server. We argue that, although inherently limited by Twitter?s mission of scalable information-sharing, this degree of privacy is valuable. We demonstrate, via a working prototype, that Hummingbird?s additional costs are tolerably low. We also sketch out some viable enhancements that might offer better privacy in the long term.

Assessment of "mobile mapping system": A GIS-based support methodology

In this article, the authors examine the current status of different elements that integrate the landscape of the municipality of Olias del Rey in Toledo (Spain). A methodology for the study of rural roads, activity farming and local hunting management. We used Geographic Information Technologies (GIT) in order to optimize spatial information including the design of a Geographic Information System (GIS). In the acquisition of field data we have used vehicle "mobile mapping" instrumentation equipped with GNSS, LiDAR, digital cameras and odometer. The main objective is the integration of geoinformation and geovisualization of the information to provide a fundamental tool for rural planning and management.

A model for integrating learning object repository resources into web videoconference services

Reusing Learning Objects saves time and reduce development costs. Hence, achieving their interoperability in multiple contexts is essential when creating a Learning Object Repository. On the other hand, novel web videoconference services are available due to technological advancements. Several benefits can be gained by integrating Learning Objects into these services. For instance, they can allow sharing, co-viewing and synchronized co-browsing of these resources at the same time that provide real time communication. However, several efforts need to be undertaken to achieve the interoperability with these systems. In this paper, we propose a model to integrate the resources of the Learning Object Repositories into web videoconference services. The experience of applying this model in a real e-Learning scenario achieving interoperability with two different web videoconference services is also described.

An architecture for integrating learning object repository resources into web videoconference services

Reusing Learning Objects saves time and reduce development costs. Hence, achieving their interoperability in multiple contexts is essential when creating a Learning Object Repository. On the other hand, novel web videoconference services are available due to technological advancements. Several benefits can be gained by integrating Learning Objects into these services. For instance, they can allow sharing, co-viewing and synchronized co-browsing of these resources at the same time that provide real time communication. However, several efforts need to be undertaken to achieve the interoperability with these systems. In this paper, we propose a model to integrate the resources of the Learning Object Repositories into web videoconference services. The experience of applying this model in a real e-Learning scenario achieving interoperability with two different web videoconference services is also described.

Recursos intangibles como factores clave en la gesti��n estrat��gica de instituciones de educaci��n superior y su impacto en los procesos de innovaci��n

La presente investigaci��n, tiene como objetivo analizar las influencias que ejercen los recursos intangibles (Gesti��n del Conocimiento, Marca, Reputaci��n Organizacional y Responsabilidad Social) en la gesti��n estrat��gica de las instituciones de educaci��n superior (IES) y el impacto de los mismos en los procesos de innovaci��n a trav��s del valor a��adido que se transfiere al entorno. Se considera importante realizar un estudio sobre este tema dado que son las IES las encargadas de proporcionar los conocimientos y los nuevos hallazgos en innovaciones tecnol��gicas, que son transferidas al tejido productivo de las regiones, lo que proporciona crecimiento econ��mico y mejoras en la calidad de vida. El estudio se enmarca dentro de los postulados de la teor��a de los recursos y las capacidades (TRC) y de los intangibles, los cuales sirven de base a la investigaci��n. Se plante�� un sistema de hip��tesis subdividido en dos v��as de influencias. La primera, donde se analizan las influencias directas que ejercen los recursos intangibles sobre los resultados de las IES. La otra v��a es la indirecta, que estudia las influencias que ejercen los recursos intangibles gestionados estrat��gicamente sobre los resultados de las IES. Esta investigaci��n se ha concebido como no experimental, de tipo exploratorio, basada en el paradigma que busca explicar un fen��meno (variable dependiente) a trav��s del comportamiento de las variables independientes. Es un estudio transversal, cuantitativo, que intenta describir las causas del fen��meno. Con el objeto de determinar las influencias o relaciones de causalidad que subyacen entre las variables, se utiliz�� la t��cnica del modelo de ecuaciones estructurales (SEM). La poblaci��n objeto de estudio estuvo constituida por los 857 individuos pertenecientes a los consejos directivos de las IES, que forman parte de las base de datos que gestiona el Consorcio de Escuelas de Ingenier��a de Latinoam��rica y del Caribe y la Universidad Polit��cnica de Madrid, con un tama��o de muestra significativa de 250 directivos, lo que representa el 29,42% de la poblaci��n. Como fuentes de recolecci��n de informaci��n se utilizaron fuentes primarias y secundarias. Para recabar la informaci��n primaria se dise���� un cuestionario (ad hoc), el cual fue validado por expertos. La informaci��n de fuentes secundarias se extrajo de la bases de datos de la Red Iberoamericana de Ciencia y Tecnolog��a (RICYT). Los resultados obtenidos indican que las influencias directas que pueden ejercer los recursos intangibles (Gesti��n del Conocimiento, Marca, Reputaci��n Organizacional y Responsabilidad Social) no son significativas, por ello se rechazaron todas las hip��tesis de la v��a de influencia directa. Asimismo, de acuerdo con el contraste realizado al submodelo que representa la v��a de influencia indirecta, resultaron significativas las influencias que ejercen los intangibles Gesti��n del Conocimiento y Reputaci��n Organizacional, gestionadas estrat��gicamente sobre los resultados con valor a��adido generado por las IES y transferidos al entorno. Sin embargo, no se apoyan todas las hip��tesis del modelo, debido a que los constructos Marca y Responsabilidad Social resultaron no significativos. Las teor��as sobre intangibles enmarcadas en la TRC no son del todo robustas y requieren de mayores esfuerzos por parte de los investigadores para lograr definir los constructos a utilizar. De igual forma, se sigue corroborando el desfase que existe entre las teor��as que sustentan la investigaci��n y las comprobaciones emp��ricas de las mismas. Adem��s, se evidencia que las IES enfocan su actuaci��n hacia la academia, por encima de las otras funciones, otorgando a la ense��anza e investigaci��n y a la reputaci��n organizacional una mayor importancia. Sin embargo, debido a su naturaleza no empresarial, las IES siguen manteniendo una filosof��a de gesti��n enfocada a la generaci��n y transmisi��n de conocimientos que crean reputaci��n. Se excluyen los intangibles Marca y Responsabilidad Social, por considerar que no aportan valor a sus procesos internos o que est��n inmersos dentro de otros recursos intangibles. En conclusi��n, se corrobora el atraso de la gesti��n estrat��gica que presentan las IES en Latinoam��rica. Se comprueba la no aplicaci��n de postulados b��sicos de la gerencia moderna que contribuyan al manejo eficiente de todos sus recursos y al logro de sus objetivos. Esto deriva en la necesidad de modernizar la visi��n estrat��gica de las IES y en crear mejores mecanismos para lograr reconocer, mantener, proteger y desarrollar los Recursos Intangibles que poseen, realizando combinaciones de recursos ��ptimas, que maximicen la creaci��n de valor para s�� mismas y para la sociedad a la que pertenecen. ABSTRACT This research aims to analyze the influences exerted by intangible resources (Knowledge Management, Brand, Organizational Reputation and Social Responsibility) in the strategic management of higher education institutions (HEIs) and their impact in the innovation processes through the added value that is transferred to the environment. It is considered important to conduct a study on this issue since HEIs are responsible for providing knowledge and new findings on technological innovations, which are then, transferred to the productive fabric of these regions, providing economic growth and improvements in quality of life. The study is framed within the tenets of the Theory of Resources and Capabilities (TRC) and of intangibles which underlie this research. A system of hypotheses was raised which was subdivided into two pathways of influences. In the first system the direct influences exerted by intangible resources on the results of the IES are analyzed. The other system focuses on the indirect influences exerted by the strategically managed intangible resources on the HEIs results. This research is designed as experimental, exploratory and based on the paradigm that seeks to explain a phenomenon (the dependent variable) through the behavior of the independent variables. It is a crosssectional, quantitative study, which attempts to describe the causes of the phenomenon. In order to determine the influences or causal relationships among variables the structural equation modeling technique (SEM) was used. The population under study consisted of 857 individuals from the boards of HEIs, which are part of the database managed by the Consortium of Engineering Schools in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Technical University of Madrid, with a significant sample size of 250 managers which represents 29.42% of the population. As sources of information gathering primary and secondary sources were used. To collect primary information an ad-hoc questionnaire which was validated by experts was designed. The secondary information was extracted from the database of the Latin American Network of Science and Technology (RICYT). The results obtained indicate that the direct influences that intangible resources (Knowledge Management, Brand, Organizational Reputation and Social Responsibility) can exert are not significant. Therefore, all hypotheses related to direct influence were rejected. Also, according to the test made with the system which represents the indirect channel of influence, significant influences were exerted on the results with added value generated by the HEIs by the intangibles Knowledge Management and Organizational Reputation when they were managed strategically. However, all model hypotheses are not supported, because the constructs Brand and Social Responsibility were not significant. Theories of intangibles within the framework of the Theory of Resources and Capabilities are not entirely robust and require greater efforts by researchers to define the constructs to be used. Similarly the existing gap between the theories underpinning research and the empirical tests continues to be corroborated. In addition, there is evidence that HEIs focus their action on the academy neglecting the other functions, giving more importance to teaching, research and organizational reputation. However, due to their non-business nature, HEIs still maintain a management philosophy focused on the generation and transmission of knowledge which leads to reputation. The intangibles Brand and Social Responsibility are excluded, considering that they do not add value to their internal processes or are embedded within other intangible resources. In conclusion, the backwardness of HEIs��� strategic management in Latin America is confirmed. The lack of application of the basic principles of modern management that contribute to the efficient administration of all the resources and the achievement of objectives is proven. This leads to the need to modernize the strategic vision of HEIs and the need for better mechanisms to recognize, maintain, protect and develop the intangible resources they possess, achieving optimal combinations of resources in order to maximize the creation of value for them and for the society to which they belong.

An interactive web-based learning assistant for structural analysis of continuous beams

There are significant levels of concern about the relevance and the difficulty of learning some issues on Strength of Materials and Structural Analysis. Most students of Continuum Mechanics and Structural Analysis in Civil Engineering usually point out some key learning aspects as especially difficult for acquiring specific skills. These key concepts entail comprehension difficulties but ease access and applicability to structural analysis in more advanced subjects. Likewise, some elusive but basic structural concepts, such as flexibility, stiffness or influence lines, are paramount for developing further skills required for advanced structural design: tall buildings, arch-type structures as well as bridges. As new curricular itineraries are currently being implemented, it appears appropriate to devise a repository of interactive web-based applications for training in those basic concepts. That will hopefully train the student to understand the complexity of such concepts, to develop intuitive knowledge on actual structural response and to improve their preparation for exams. In this work, a web-based learning assistant system for influence lines on continuous beams is presented. It consists of a collection of interactive user-friendly applications accessible via Web. It is performed in both Spanish and English languages. Rather than a ���black box��� system, the procedure involves open interaction with the student, who can simulate and virtually envisage the structural response. Thus, the student is enabled to set the geometric, topologic and mechanic layout of a continuous beam and to change or shift the loading and the support conditions. Simultaneously, the changes in the beam response prompt on the screen, so that the effects of the several issues involved in structural analysis become apparent. The system is performed through a set of web pages which encompasses interactive exercises and problems, written in JavaScript under JQuery and DyGraphs frameworks, given that their efficiency and graphic capabilities are renowned. Students can freely boost their self-study on this subject in order to face their exams more confidently. Besides, this collection is expected to be added to the "Virtual Lab of Continuum Mechanics" of the UPM, launched in 2013 (http://serviciosgate.upm.es/laboratoriosvirtuales/laboratorios/medios-continuos-en-construcci%C3%B3n)