Small World Folksonomies: Clustering in Tri-Partite Hypergraphs

Many recent Web 2.0 resource sharing applications can be subsumed under the "folksonomy" moniker. Regardless of the type of resource shared, all of these share a common structure describing the assignment of tags to resources by users. In this report, we generalize the notions of clustering and characteristic path length which play a major role in the current research on networks, where they are used to describe the small-world effects on many observable network datasets. To that end, we show that the notion of clustering has two facets which are not equivalent in the generalized setting. The new measures are evaluated on two large-scale folksonomy datasets from resource sharing systems on the web.

Non-University Higher Education and the Relationship of Its Graduates and the World of Work: Colombia

The non-university sector has been part of the Colombian higher education system for more than 50-years. Despite its long years of existence, it has never occupied such an important role within the education system as the one it is having today. Therefore, the aim of this work is to analyze the development of the non-university sector in the framework of the country’s social, educational and economic demands. Likewise, its actual situation and certain aspects of the relationship between its graduates and the world of work, i.e., graduates’ employment characteristics, the relationship of higher education studies and their work, as well as their early career success, are examined. In order to generate the required information, a graduate survey was carried out in Atlántico (Colombia). The target population was graduates from higher education institutions registered in Atlántico who were awarded a technical, technological or professional degree in 2008 from any of the following knowledge areas: Fine Arts, Health Science, Economy-Administration-Accountancy and similar, and Engineering-Architecture-Urban planning and similar. Besides, interviews with academic and administrative staff from non-university institutions were carried out, and higher education related documents were analyzed. As a whole, the findings suggest that the non-university sector is expanding and may help to achieve some of the goals, for which it is widely promoted i.e., access expansion for under-represented groups, enhancement of the higher education system, and the provision of programs pertinent to the needs of the market. Nevertheless, some aspects require further consideration, e.g., the sector’s consolidation within the system and its quality. As for the relationship between non-university higher education and the world of work, it was found to be close; particularly in those aspects related to the use of knowledge and skills in the work, and the relationship between graduates’ studies and their work. Additionally, the analysis of the graduates’ in their early career stages exposes the significant role that the socioeconomic stratum plays in their working life, particularly in their wages. This indicates that apart from education, other factors like the graduates’ economic or social capital may have an impact on their future work perspectives

Agricultural Production and Yield Estimation: Two distinctive aspects of Brazilian Agriculture and a perspective on world food problems

Brazil has been increasing its importance in agricultural markets. The reasons are well known to be the relative abundance of land, the increasing technology used in crops, and the development of the agribusiness sector which allow for a fast response to price stimuli. The elasticity of acreage response to increases in expected return is estimated for Soybeans in a dynamic (long term) error correction model. Regarding yield patterns, a large variation in the yearly rates of growth in yield is observed, climate being probably the main source of this variation which result in ‘good’ and ‘bad’ years. In South America, special attention should be given to the El Niño and La Niña phenomena, both said to have important effects on rainfalls patterns and consequently in yield. The influence on El Niño and La Niña in historical data is examined and some ways of estimating the impact of climate on yield of Soybean and Corn markets are proposed. Possible implications of climate change may apply.

World Hunger, Malnutrition and Brain Development of Children

Hunger is still a major problem faced by people in the world especially in some areas in developing countries, and this condition is a cause of undernutrition. Insufficient nutrition during the early stages of life may adversely influence brain development. It was observed from my own research conducted in Bogor, Indonesia, that children with severe acute malnutrition (SAM, body mass index or BMI for age z score < -3) (N=54) had significantly (p<0.05) lower memory ability score (46.22±1.38) compared to normal children (BMI for age z score -2 ≤ z ≤ 1) (N=91) (51.56±1.24). Further, children with Moderate Acute Malnutrition (MAM, BMI for age z score -3 ≤ z <-2) tended to (p<0.1) have lower memory ability (50.08±1.58) than the normal children. On the other hand, overnutrition among children also might impair the brain function. The study revealed that children who are overweight (BMI for age z score 1 < z ≤ 2) (N=8) significantly (p<0.05) had lower memory ability score (46.13±4.50) compared to the normal children. This study also revealed that obese children (BMI for age z score > 2) (N=6) tended to (p<0.1) have lower memory ability score (50.33±5.64) than the normal children. It is therefore very important to maintain children at a normal BMI, not being undernourished (SAM and MAM categories) on one side and not being overnourished (overweight and obesity categories) on the other side in order to optimise their brain development. This could be achieved through providing children with an adequate and balanced nutrient supply via food.

How do domestic policies affect the integration of Ethiopian fertiliser markets with world markets?

Frequent shifts in policy on fertiliser markets have occurred in Ethiopia with the aim of facilitating both physical and economic access of farmers to fertiliser. The last shift was the introduction of a monopoly on each stage of the supply chain in 2008. Furthermore, government control of prices and margins as well as stockholding programmes are also present on the markets. This paper evaluates the effect of these policies on the integration of domestic with world markets of fertiliser, using cointegration methods. Time series data of diammonium phosphate (DAP) and urea prices on world, import and retail markets between 1971 and 2012 are used. The findings show high transmission of price signals from world markets to import prices for both DAP and urea. However, between import and retail prices there is no evidence of cointegration for urea, while for DAP full price transmission is concluded. In the retail market, domestic transaction costs associated with storing large volumes of fertiliser act as a buffer between import and retail prices, especially for urea. Therefore, economic benefits could be achieved by reducing the size of stocks and revising the demand estimation process.

MARVEL: A System for Recognizing World Locations with Stereo Vision

To use a world model, a mobile robot must be able to determine its own position in the world. To support truly autonomous navigation, I present MARVEL, a system that builds and maintains its own models of world locations and uses these models to recognize its world position from stereo vision input. MARVEL is designed to be robust with respect to input errors and to respond to a gradually changing world by updating its world location models. I present results from real-world tests of the system that demonstrate its reliability. MARVEL fits into a world modeling system under development.

Surface Reflectance Recognition and Real-World Illumination Statistics

Humans distinguish materials such as metal, plastic, and paper effortlessly at a glance. Traditional computer vision systems cannot solve this problem at all. Recognizing surface reflectance properties from a single photograph is difficult because the observed image depends heavily on the amount of light incident from every direction. A mirrored sphere, for example, produces a different image in every environment. To make matters worse, two surfaces with different reflectance properties could produce identical images. The mirrored sphere simply reflects its surroundings, so in the right artificial setting, it could mimic the appearance of a matte ping-pong ball. Yet, humans possess an intuitive sense of what materials typically "look like" in the real world. This thesis develops computational algorithms with a similar ability to recognize reflectance properties from photographs under unknown, real-world illumination conditions. Real-world illumination is complex, with light typically incident on a surface from every direction. We find, however, that real-world illumination patterns are not arbitrary. They exhibit highly predictable spatial structure, which we describe largely in the wavelet domain. Although they differ in several respects from the typical photographs, illumination patterns share much of the regularity described in the natural image statistics literature. These properties of real-world illumination lead to predictable image statistics for a surface with given reflectance properties. We construct a system that classifies a surface according to its reflectance from a single photograph under unknown illuminination. Our algorithm learns relationships between surface reflectance and certain statistics computed from the observed image. Like the human visual system, we solve the otherwise underconstrained inverse problem of reflectance estimation by taking advantage of the statistical regularity of illumination. For surfaces with homogeneous reflectance properties and known geometry, our system rivals human performance.

Manuel Fern??ndez de Castro : materiales did??uticos. 'Manuel Fern??ndez de Castro : materiales did??cticos'

Con motivo de dedicarse la XVIII Selmana de les Lletres Asturianes de 1997 a la figura y a la obra de Manuel Fern??ndez de Castro se elaboraron unos materiales did??cticos destinados a los centros de ense??anza secundaria donde se imparte la optativa de lengua asturiana. Este autor del siglo XIX, traductor y poeta principalmente de textos religiosos sirve como ejemplo para valorar el trabajo del traductor como instrumento indispensable en la normalizaci??n de una lengua. Se hacen una serie de propuestas organizadas alrededor de unos centros de inter??s; las actividades se plantean desde una perspectiva interdisciplinar como v??a de integraci??n de la lengua asturiana en el curr??culo de secundaria. Los tres bloques que se trabajan son: 1-El tiempo que le toc?? vivir a Manuel Fern??ndez de Castro. 2-El ambiente literario que rodea la obra del autor. 3-La obra de Fern??ndez de Castro y la traducci??n al asturiano. Se presenta una selecci??n de textos, actividades como rellenar cuadros, esquemas, resolver pasatiempos de contenido literario, etc. Finalmente se ofrece como ejemplo de una futura serie, un material en el que unas fichas gr??ficas con un personaje central llamado Marga, sirvi??ndose en este caso de la figura de Fern??ndez de Castro y su obra en asturiano, propone actividades al alumnado del primer ciclo de Secundaria y de los cursos m??s altos de la Ense??anza Primaria.

Actividades para la ense??anza de ingl??s a trav??s de contenidos en secundaria (II)

El Programa PALE (programa de apoyo al aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras), cofinanciado por el Ministerio de Educaci??n y Ciencia y las Comunidades Aut??nomas, pretende dar respuesta, desde el Sistema Educativo, a las necesidades derivadas de la mejora de la ense??anza y el aprendizaje de lenguas extranjeras en una sociedad como la actual, donde las lenguas se consideran conocimientos b??sicos que precisa la ciudadan??a europea para su formaci??n, para mejorar sus posibilidades de empleo, para la promoci??n del intercambio cultural y para la realizaci??n persona. El material incluido en este Cd-Rom ha sido realizado en la tercera fase del curso PALE 2008 para Secundaria del CPR de Oviedo, tras la formaci??n recibida en Asturias y en el extranjero, mediante la constituci??n de un grupo de trabajo. Consta de una serie de presentaciones realizadas durante el desarrollo del curso PALE, de once unidades did??cticas en relaci??n con distintas ??reas en las que se ejemplifica la forma de trabajar la ense??anza a trav??s de contenidos, CLIL ('Content and Language Integrated Learning'), de una gu??a para la realizaci??n de presentaciones orales y de un listado de frases ??tiles para el profesorado. Las materias y las unidades trabajadas son: 1) Art: Multimedia language: building images. 2) Biology: Healthy habits and healthy life y 'Health and disease'. 3) Chemistry: 'Chemical reactions'. 4) Citizenship and Ethics: 'Conflicts and solutions' y 'The rights of our body'. 5) Maths: 'Equations' y 'Similarity'. 6) Music: 'The singing voice'. 7). Physical Education: 'Welcome to the world of PE' y 'Health related fitness'.

A First approximation to the realism/idealism debate about the external world

El text intenta fer una primera aproximació al debat contemporani entre realistes i anti-realistes sobre el món empíric, centrant-se en les posicions de Putnam i Nagel. El seu objectiu principal és el d'entendre les motivacions de les posicions i l'estructura actual del debat, i el d'establir les característiques que hauria de tenir qualsevol posició satisfactòria

Fern??ndez de Lizardi y la necesidad ilustrada de la educaci??n civil y pol??tica

Resumen tomado de la publicaci??n