Dynamic Multi-Objective Optimization With jMetal and Spark: a Case Study

Technologies for Big Data and Data Science are receiving increasing research interest nowadays. This paper introduces the prototyping architecture of a tool aimed to solve Big Data Optimization problems. Our tool combines the jMetal framework for multi-objective optimization with Apache Spark, a technology that is gaining momentum. In particular, we make use of the streaming facilities of Spark to feed an optimization problem with data from different sources. We demonstrate the use of our tool by solving a dynamic bi-objective instance of the Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP) based on near real-time traffic data from New York City, which is updated several times per minute. Our experiment shows that both jMetal and Spark can be integrated providing a software platform to deal with dynamic multi-optimization problems.

Venture Capital for University Spin-Outs Companies in the context of University-based Entrepreneurial Ecosystems: an International Comparison

The objectives are, firstly, to identify the role of the university-focused intermediaries, specifically University-focused Venture Capital Firms (UVCs), in order to explain how they interact at the early stage of University Spin-out Companies (USOs) creation, particularly regarding knowledge sharing. Secondly, to analyse whether they change their position once the USO is developed, in the context of the dynamics of a university-based entrepreneurial ecosystem.

Economía colaborativa y web startups. Una aproximación conceptual

La crisis global de carácter económico, que tuvo sus inicios en 2008, derivó en un incremento del desempleo a escala internacional, y también un rechazo en ciertos casos a las grandes empresas, debido a que se ha considerado en parte, por ejemplo a las entidades financieras, como responsables de esta crisis económica. Esta situación ha derivado en cambios, particularmente, en los hábitos de consumo, búsqueda de formas alternativas para realizar las transacciones económicas, lo que se ha venido en denominar economía colaborativa. A pesar de su corto periodo de evolución, el valor económico de la economía colaborativa se estimaba en 2013 en los 26 billones de dólares. La economía colaborativa se encuentra en sus inicios, aunque se ha señalado que fenómenos como el consumo colaborativo puede ser tan importante como en su día fue la Revolución Industrial, sin duda esta nueva forma de consumo supone un nuevo paradigma para el ámbito de los negocios y para la economía. Muy pocas empresas están libres de verse afectadas por la economía colaborativa, incluso las actividades basadas en el conocimiento, la propia universidad, se está viendo afectada por esta nueva filosofía, tenemos el ejemplo de plataformas como Researchgate, que lo ponen de manifiesto. Es en este entorno, en el que los modelos de negocio colaborativos, web startups, han encontrado unas condiciones favorables para su desarrollo. Se pueden encontrar ejemplos de estos modelos de negocio en el ámbito de los servicios turísticos, de los servicios financieros, los servicios de transporte, y otros servicios en general (Uber, Airbnb, entre otros). Las innovaciones disruptivas en las que se basan los modelos de negocio colaborativos han venido a modificar las relaciones entre los productores/prestadores de bienes y servicios y los consumidores, ofreciendo nuevas oportunidades emprendedoras. Estas empresas han aprovechado las deficiencias de estos sectores, en la relación empresa-cliente, para crear valor añadido al usuario, a través del uso de la tecnología. Estos nuevos actores son nuevas iniciativas empresariales, normalmente, con las implicaciones que esto tiene para la creación de empleo y la actividad emprendedora. Los objetivos que nos planteamos en este trabajo se refieren a: conceptualizar la economía colaborativa, describir los modelos de negocio colaborativos se están desarrollando en el contexto de esta economía colaborativa como nuevas empresas (web startups), y conceptualizar y analizar las consecuencias de este emprendimiento colaborativo.

El nuevo sistema de pagos directos en la reforma de la PAC 2015-2020

Los pagos directos, ayudas que se abonan directamente al agricultor, constituyen la columna vertebral de la Política Agrícola Común (PAC) debido a su importancia presupuestaria y a su impacto sobre la renta agraria. El modelo surgido tras las reformas de 2003 y 2008 ha presentado algunos elementos cuestionables en la definición de los beneficiarios de la política, el impacto medioambiental del régimen, la distribución de las ayudas entre Estados miembros y dentro de los mismos, las repercusiones específicas de los modelos históricos y regional, ect. Por ello la PAC reclamaba una reforma que la hiciera más eficaz y legítima, reforma que tras largos y arduos debates se aprobó en 2013. El objetivo de este trabajo es proporcionar una visión global sobre la arquitectura del nuevo sistema de pagos directos emanado de la reforma de la PAC para el período 2015-2020, definiendo los principales instrumentos y mecanismos, así como una valoración de los mismos, sin olvidar la aplicación del sistema en España.

Effect of organic amendments on the afforestation performance of plant species on degraded semiarid conditions

Vegetation plays a fundamental role in soil conservation, so it is common to consider an increase in vegetation cover as one of the techniques to mitigate the effects of desertification in Mediterranean forest environments. There are two factors limiting the establishment and growth of seedlings in dry environments: (i) an excessive radiation and, (ii) the limited availability of water during the summer drought. During an afforestation plan, soil preparation is always necessary to reduce sapling mortality. The goal of this study was to analyze the effect of various organic amendments on soil according to chemical and hydrological properties, and to assess the effects of these parameters on an afforestal proposal under Mediterranean climate conditions. Five amendments were applied in an experimental set of plots: straw mulching (SM); mulch with chipped branches of Aleppo Pine (PM); TerraCotten hydroabsobent polymers (HP); sewage sludge (RU); sheep manure (SH) and control (C). Plots were afforested following the same spatial pattern, and amendments were mixed with the soil at the rate 10 Mg ha -1 . Under bare soil conditions (C), most of mortalities occurred during the summer period of the first year. A substantial positive effect of SM, PM and HP on the survival rates have been clearly observed. Conversely, when the soil was amended with SH, the survival rate quickly decreased or remained more or less constant regarding to C. In this study, the lack of differences on chemical properties indicates that there may exist other reasons to justify the differences that were found in the pattern of vegetation. However, regarding to the hydrological properties some differences have been found. In C, soils were registered below the wilting point during 4 months a year, and therefore, in the area of water unusable by plants. These months were coinciding with the summer Mediterranean drought and can justify the high mortality found on plants. Conversely, in SM, PM and HP, soil moisture remained below the wilting point less period than C and, the plant available water was also higher. In these treatments, the survival sapling rates measured were the highest. SH showed water holding capacity slightly more limited than C. For this treatment, the survival sapling rates measured were the lowest. In conclusion, from a land management standpoint, the PM, SM and HP have been proved as a significant method to reduce sapling mortality rates during the Mediterranean summer drought.

Probability and Common-Sense: Tandem Towards Robust Robotic Object Recognition in Ambient Assisted Living

The suitable operation of mobile robots when providing Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) services calls for robust object recognition capabilities. Probabilistic Graphical Models (PGMs) have become the de-facto choice in recognition systems aiming to e ciently exploit contextual relations among objects, also dealing with the uncertainty inherent to the robot workspace. However, these models can perform in an inco herent way when operating in a long-term fashion out of the laboratory, e.g. while recognizing objects in peculiar con gurations or belonging to new types. In this work we propose a recognition system that resorts to PGMs and common-sense knowledge, represented in the form of an ontology, to detect those inconsistencies and learn from them. The utilization of the ontology carries additional advantages, e.g. the possibility to verbalize the robot's knowledge. A primary demonstration of the system capabilities has been carried out with very promising results.

An assisted navigation method for telepresence robots

Telepresence robots have emerged as a new means of interaction in remote environments. However, the use of such robots is still limited due to safety and usability issues when operating in human-like environments. This work addresses these issues by enhancing the robot navigation through a collaborative control method that assists the user to negotiate obstacles. The method has been implemented in a commercial telepresence robot and a user study has been conducted in order to test the suitability of our approach.

Enhancing smart environments with mobile robots

Sensor networks are becoming popular nowadays in the development of smart environments. Heavily relying on static sensor and actuators, though, such environments usually lacks of versatility regarding the provided services and interaction capabilities. Here we present a framework for smart environments where a service robot is included within the sensor network acting as a mobile sensor and/or actuator. Our framework integrates on-the-shelf technologies to ensure its adaptability to a variety of sensor technologies and robotic software. Two pilot cases are presented as evaluation of our proposal.

The relationship between Security and Health: A New Paradigm for the United Nations Security Council?

One of the aspects related to biolaw is that related to security and health. In other words, using the expression of relevant authorities on this subject, “the securitization of health” and, those situations connected with the Security Council labour in the last decades, may constitute an interesting subject. Beginning with the role of the UN blue helmets in many countries where the expansion of HIV/AIDS is usual, followed by the expansion of some diseases in Haiti, together with the Ebola “crisis” in 2014 and connected with the efforts of the World Health Organization to fight against the zika...what is the role played by the United Nations Security Council on this field, trying to establish a relationship between security and health?

Detección de Lugares con Camaras RGB-D. Aplicación a Cierre de Bucles en SLAM

En este trabajo se propone un método que combina descriptores de imágenes de intensidad y de profundidad para detectar de manera robusta el problema de cierre de bucle en SLAM. La robustez del método, proporcionada por el empleo conjunto de información de diversa naturaleza, permite detectar lugares revisitados en situaciones donde m´etodos basados solo en intensidad o en profundidad presentan dificultades (p.e. condiciones de iluminación deficientes, o falta de geometría). Además, se ha diseñado el métod cuenta su eficiencia, recurriendo para ello al detector FAST para extraer las características de las observaciones y al descriptor binario BRIEF. La detección de bucle se completa con una Bolsa de Palabras binarias. El rendimiento del método propuesto se ha evaluado en condiciones reales, obteniéndose resultados muy satisfactorios.

Experimental and analytical study of cracks under biaxial fatigue

Most mechanical components experience multi-axial cyclic loading conditions during service. Experimental analysis of fatigue cracks under such conditions is not easy and most works tend to focus more on the simpler but less realistic case of uni-axial loading. Consequently, there are many uncertainties related to the load sequence effect that are now well known and are not normally incorporated into the growth models. The current work presents a new methodology for evaluating overload effect in biaxial fatigue cracks. The methodology includes evaluation of mixed-mode (KI and KII) stress intensity factor and the Crack Opening Displacement for samples with and without overload cycle under biaxial loading. The methodology is tested under a range of crack lengths. All crack-tip information is obtained with a hybrid methodology that combines experimental full-field digital image correlation data and Williams' elastic model describing the crack-tip field.

Tranbajo transfronterizo. La desregularización 'normalizada' (en las porteadoras)

Esta comunicación se presenta en el II Congreso Internacional de Antropología (AIBR) celebrado en Barcelona entre el 6 y el 9 de septiembre de 2016 y parte de un trabajo de campo etnográfico realizado en la frontera entre Melilla (España) y Nador (Marruecos).

Synthesis of porous graphene/TiO2 by use of recycled graphite

Graphene-based nanomaterials are a kind of new technological materials with high interest for physicists, chemists and materials scientists. Graphene is a two-dimensional (2-D) sheet of carbon atoms in a hexagonal configuration with atoms bonded by sp2 bonds. These bonds and this electron configuration provides the extraordinary properties of graphene, such as very large surface area, a tunable band gap, high mechanical strength and high elasticity and thermal conductivity [1]. Graphene has also been investigated for preparation of composites with various semiconductors like TiO2, ZnO, CdS aiming at enhanced photocatalytic activity for their use for photochemical reaction as water splitting or CO2 to methanol conversion [2-3]. In this communication, the synthesis of porous graphene@TiO2 obtained from a powder graphite recycled, supplied by ECOPIBA, is presented. This graphite was exfoliated, using a nonionic surfactant (Triton X-100) and sonication. Titanium(IV) isopropoxide was used as TiO2 source. After removing the surfactant with a solution HCl/n-propanol, a porous solid is obtained with a specific area of 358 m2g-1. The solid was characterized by XRD, FTIR, XPS, EDX and TEM. Figure 1 shows the graphene 2D layer bonded with nanoparticles of TiO2. When a water suspension of this material is exposed with UV-vis radiation, water splitting reaction is carried out and H2/O2 bubbles are observed (Figure 2)

Material didáctico de la asignatura Gestión y control de la calidad en las organizaciones

En estos documentos se explican los aspectos generales sobre el control y la gestión de la calidad en las organizaciones. Comprenden una introducción sobre las organizaciones, su estructura y naturaleza, conceptos básicos sobre calidad, como se debe implantar una norma de calidad, en concreto la más utilizada a nivel mundial como es la ISO 9001 y, por último, se presenta como se debe realizar ese proceso de implantación y el de certificación del sistema de gestión de la calidad ISO 9001.

On the optimaL response of q-vortex

Wingtip vortices represent a hazard for the stability of the following airplane in airport highways. These flows have been usually modeled as swirling jets/wakes, which are known to be highly unstable and susceptible to breakdown at high Reynolds numbers for certain flow conditions, but different to the ones present in real flying airplanes. A very recent study based on Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) shows that a large variety of helical responses can be excited and amplified when a harmonic inlet forcing is imposed. In this work, the optimal response of q-vortex (both axial vorticity and axial velocity can be modeled by a Gaussian profile) is studied by considering the time-harmonically forced problem with a certain frequency ω. We first reproduce Guo and Sun’s results for the Lamb-Oseen vortex (no axial flow) to validate our numerical code. In the axisymmetric case m = 0, the system response is the largest when the input frequency is null. The axial flow has a weak influence in the response for any axial velocity intensity. We also consider helical perturbations |m| = 1. These perturbations are excited through a resonance mechanism at moderate and large wavelengths as it is shown in Figure 1. In addition, Figure 2 shows that the frequency at which the optimal gain is obtained is not a continuous function of the axial wavenumber k. At smaller wavelengths, large response is excited by steady forcing. Regarding the axial flow, the unstable response is the largest when the axial velocity intensity, 1/q, is near to zero. For perturbations with higher azimuthal wavenumbers |m| > 1, the magnitudes of the response are smaller than those for helical modes. In order to establish an alternative validation, DNS has been carried out by using a pseudospectral Fourier formulation finding a very good agreement.