La enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la psicología : Estudio de la práctica docente en profesores y principiantes

El proyecto de investigación "La enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la psicología: estudio de la práctica docente en profesores y principiantes" tuvo entre sus propósitos iniciales indagar y comprender el sistema de creencias y representaciones de profesores y principiantes respecto a la enseñanza de la psicología, presuponiendo que los puntos de vista que los profesores tienen sobre el conocimiento psicológico afectan o inciden sobre el modo en que enseñan. Considerando que un número importante de profesores comparte la docencia con el ejercicio profesional, uno de los aspectos a explorar fue el impacto que sobre el pensamiento del profesor, genera la relación docencia-profesión. El proyecto se inscribe en un enfoque de investigación cualitativo, en el que la exploración y descripción no intentan señalar nexos causales del problema planteado sino comprender distintos aspectos del objeto de estudio. Ello posibilitó la aproximación a las prácticas de docentes expertos y principiantes, con el propósito de captar los constructos personales que mediatizan y significan la acción del docente en el aula.

Problemas de representaciones sociales

En el marco del 9no Congreso Argentino y 4to Latinoamericano de Educación Física y Ciencias, desarrollado en junio de 2011, se constituyó una mesa de trabajo denominada "Problemas de representaciones sociales". El desafío de abordar estas conceptualizaciones propias del campo de las ciencias sociales nos permite problematizar algunos ejes específicos en diálogo con las prácticas corporales y la educación física

Ingenieros extensionistas formoseños desde la mirada de los pequeños productores. Representaciones, expectativas y realidades

Las conductas, prácticas y actitudes de los pequeños productores agropecuarios muchas veces carecen de sentido si son vistas exclusivamente desde el punto de vista técnico. Atendiendo a la importancia de perfeccionar y potenciar las prácticas de extensión rural, resulta de particular interés aportar a la comprensión del mundo de sentido subjetivo de los pequeños productores, para generar estrategias de mayor impacto. De esta forma, se llevó a cabo una investigación cualitativa en la localidad de Misión Tacaaglé, (provincia de Formosa, Argentina) que permitió contribuir a la descripción de la representación social que los pequeños productores tienen del extensionista, actor de suma importancia para distintas iniciativas de desarrollo rural. La metodología utilizada incluyó observación participante y toma de entrevistas abiertas y semiestructuradas. Concretamente, en el artículo se describen (1) los sentidos asociados a la figura del extensionista, (2) la función asignada a este profesional y (3) las características valoradas en él. Las conclusiones señalan la importancia de comprender el punto de vista del pequeño productor, con el fin de generar estrategias de intervención más efectivas y duraderas. Finalmente, se destaca la tendencia de los pequeños productores a adoptar posicionamientos pasivos y a valorar de manera ambivalente al extensionista, lo que habla de la necesidad de generar vínculos horizontales y dialógicos entre técnicos y productores con el fin de superar estas limitaciones.

Impacto de la Asignación Universal por Hijo (AUH) en la escolaridad de las familias pobres : El caso de Villa Argüello (Berisso) 2007-2013

El presente trabajo tiene como objetivo analizar el impacto, que la Asignación Universal por Hijo (en adelante AUH) tuvo en las representaciones y prácticas escolares de las familias destinatarias, domiciliadas en el barrio Villa Argüello (Berisso, Provincia de Buenos Aires), durante la implementación de dicha asignación; a través de la observación de los cambios y/o continuidades en los significados y prácticas escolares de los niños/as perceptores de esta AUH; para comprender las representaciones de los integrantes de las familias respecto de la AUH, como también la praxis escolar de los niños/as, antes y después de percibir la AUH (2007-2013). Puesto que hemos percibido que los estudios que anteceden a nuestra investigación, no abordaron específicamente el impacto que la AUH tuvo, sobre los significados y las prácticas escolares de los niños/as y de sus familias, desde los propios sujetos, como tampoco incorporaron la opinión de los docentes, directivos, psicopedagogos y preceptores respecto a la asistencia y retención escolar de los niños/as perceptores del Decreto de Necesidad y Urgencia 1602/09. Por lo tanto, para evaluar si las políticas sociales del modelo de la post-convertibilidad, generaron modificaciones en las prácticas y representaciones escolares de los niños/as en situación de pobreza a través de la AUH, consideramos indispensable investigar a partir de lo cualitativo desde la perspectiva de la historia social

Corporalidad juvenil y educación física : Usos y representaciones corporales en jóvenes escolarizados

La propuesta del siguiente proyecto es analizar el fenómeno del Cuerpo en la Escuela, entendido aquel como una construcción social, productora y reproductora de sentidos culturales. La mayoría de los estudios sobre los Jóvenes y la Educación se han preocupado por cuestiones relacionadas con la deserción, la falta de interés, las posibilidades de acceso y permanencia, la clase social y el tipo de educación, la formación y su relación con el mercado de trabajo, pero omitiendo o minimizando el análisis de lo relacionado con la condición juvenil. En los últimos años, varios estudios han comenzado a investigar cómo "se filtra" la juventud en la escuela y cómo ésta institución interpela y construye juventud. Línea en la que se ubica nuestro proyecto. El objetivo principal consiste en observar y descubrir las características que adoptan las prácticas corporales de los sujetos juveniles que transitan la vida cotidiana de una escuela de gestión privada religiosa de la ciudad de La Plata, analizando los usos y representaciones que despliegan en los diferentes escenarios de interacción. Se adscribe a la necesidad de analizar las lógicas de actuación juvenil para comprender las nuevas y variadas formas de participación en las escuelas de Nivel Medio. En tanto que proyecto, reviste un carácter provisorio y no definitivo, con lo cual los lineamientos teóricos de esta investigación en curso, expresados en el cuerpo del presente artículo, reflejan el estado provisional de la construcción del objeto de investigación. Ubicados en la perspectiva cualitativa-etnográfica en principio deberíamos "suspender" toda teoría para "entrar al campo", pero conscientes de la imposibilidad de este principio metodológico, creemos conveniente abordar algunas aproximaciones teóricas que "confiesen" nuestra posición y nos permitan elaborar categorías que, aunque flexibles, sirvan para ser puestas en "diálogo" con la realidad.

La enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la psicología : Estudio de la práctica docente en profesores y principiantes

El proyecto de investigación "La enseñanza y el aprendizaje de la psicología: estudio de la práctica docente en profesores y principiantes" tuvo entre sus propósitos iniciales indagar y comprender el sistema de creencias y representaciones de profesores y principiantes respecto a la enseñanza de la psicología, presuponiendo que los puntos de vista que los profesores tienen sobre el conocimiento psicológico afectan o inciden sobre el modo en que enseñan. Considerando que un número importante de profesores comparte la docencia con el ejercicio profesional, uno de los aspectos a explorar fue el impacto que sobre el pensamiento del profesor, genera la relación docencia-profesión. El proyecto se inscribe en un enfoque de investigación cualitativo, en el que la exploración y descripción no intentan señalar nexos causales del problema planteado sino comprender distintos aspectos del objeto de estudio. Ello posibilitó la aproximación a las prácticas de docentes expertos y principiantes, con el propósito de captar los constructos personales que mediatizan y significan la acción del docente en el aula.

Prácticas de lectura en bibliotecas virtuales en contextos didácticos diversos

Este trabajo se propone examinar los procesos cognitivos de alumnos de escuelas primaria en las prácticas de lectura en bibliotecas virtuales en el contexto de dos situaciones didácticas contrastantes. La perspectiva teórica adoptada considera los aportes de la tradición socio-histórica vigotskiana y del constructivismo relacional piagetiano. El diseño metodológico se inscribe en un estudio cualitativo de casos en el que se realiza el seguimiento de las prácticas de lectura de los alumnos mediante observaciones de aula donde se registran minuciosamente las acciones de un grupo frente a la pantalla y los intercambios con sus compañeros y el docente. Estos datos se complementan con encuestas realizadas previamente y entrevistas clínicas individuales, administradas a posteriori de la observación. Los resultados evidencian que los estudiantes parten de ideas provenientes de una historia socio-cognitivo-cultural que guían sus representaciones acerca de las bibliotecas virtuales. Estas ideas entran en constante contradicción con las formas organizativas y los contenidos que las bibliotecas les presentan. Las condiciones e intervenciones didácticas tienen un papel constitutivo en el desarrollo de las prácticas y saberes altamente complejos que requieren las búsquedas. La comparación permite avanzar sobre las situaciones que generan una mayor autonomía de los alumnos.

Recuerdos, espejos y lugares en el teatro comunitario argentino contemporáneo : Memoria colectiva, identidades y espacios público en las prácticas del Grupo de Teatro Popular de Sansinea [2010-2012]

La tesis de maestría 'Recuerdos, espejos y lugares en el teatro comunitario argentino contemporáneo. Memoria colectiva, identidades, y espacio público en las prácticas del Grupo de Teatro Popular de Sansinena [2010-2012]', indaga en las operaciones de memoria, la constitución de identidades y los procesos construcción/ reapropiación del espacio público, que tienen lugar en las prácticas de este grupo de teatro. Dentro del proceso de creación colectiva de la obra, se reconstruyen interpretaciones del pasado compartido, tensiones que dan cuenta de las lógicas que estructuran la selección de los hechos a contar, valores y representaciones que visibilizan un modo de percibir/ construir las identidades. El Grupo de Teatro Popular de Sansinena, la primera organización social que existe en el pueblo, configura un experiencia colectiva novedosa, que instaura nuevas lógicas de sociabilidad, genera vínculos con el 'afuera' y reivindica la bandera de resistencia y el reclamo de visibilización a través de la práctica cultural. Dentro de las dinámicas relacionales que atraviesan el grupo, observamos ciertas tendencias jerárquicas en los vínculos entre la directora y los vecinos que conforman el grupo 'lo que se percibe como una dificultad a superar- estructuradas en el fuerte liderazgo construido por la directora. Una Legitimidad configurada sobre los saberes reconocidos, virtudes heredadas y capacidades comprobadas en la práctica, que se perciben en los testimonios de los vecinos-actores. La conformación del Grupo de Teatro Comunitario de Rivadavia -compuesto por doscientos vecinos de seis pueblos del Partido de Rivadavia (incluido Sansinena)-, da cuenta de los alcances de este fenómeno, que deberá seguir estudiándose desde diversas perspectivas, a fin de visibilizar la relevancia que esta práctica cultural adquiere, tanto a nivel local como nacional

Reflexiones en torno al proceso de implementación de un programa social en el campo de la actividad física en poblaciones vulnerables : Aportes para la formación del profesorado de Educación Física y la mejora de las políticas públicas

En este artículo se propone describir y analizar el proceso de implementación de un Programa social de intervención en poblaciones vulnerables a través del deporte, la actividad física y el juego recreativo que se desarrolla desde 2011 en tres espacios socio-residenciales de villa o asentamiento urbano informal del Partido de la Matanza. El programa social es analizado en diferentes aspectos claves de su proceso de implementación. Estos aspectos fueron abordados a través de una investigación cualitativa con objetivos amplios y un enfoque integral, en esta oportunidad se reflexiona sobre un avance de investigación que privilegia las percepciones y representaciones de los docentes técnicos que ejercieron el rol docente en el marco del Programa y se realizan algunos aportes para pensar la mejora en las futuras acciones y en la formación del profesorado.Se realizaron 6 grupos focales y se estima que los insumos generados serán útiles para la mejor planificación de las prácticas docentes y formación específica de los futuros profesores. Asimismo, se espera poder aportar elementos de análisis y de juicio para la gestión de políticas públicas en el campo del deporte y la actividad física como estrategia de integración social

El rol de la literatura en la escuela primaria argentina en el marco de la constitución de identidades nacionales (1900-1940)

En esta tesis se aborda la historia de la lectura en la escuela primaria argentina en el contexto de la construcción de identidades nacionales entre 1900 y 1940. Para esto, partimos de un análisis de las políticas educativas que se implementaron durante ese período, en tanto marco sociohistórico, para luego abocarnos a un relevamiento exhaustivo de las prácticas de lectura concretas que se llevaron a cabo en las aulas. En esta tesis, entonces, nos ocupamos de relevar en múltiples fuentes los discursos y representaciones sobre la lectura Iiteraria en la escuela desde la perspectiva de funcionarios, pedagogos, docentes y lectores alumnos; el lugar de los dispositivos didácticos en la formación de los lectores en edad escolar y la diversidad de géneros de libros de lectura de acuerdo a los objetivos didácticos. Por otro lado, también nos ocupamos de indagar cuales fueron los modos de leer y practicas de lectura habituales en la escuela y cómo se fue constituyendo el canon de textos Iiterarios que ingresaba en el circuito escolar. En este sentido, tomamos como caso testigo el episodio de censura y traducción cultural a los códigos argentinos de la novela Corazón de Edmundo De Amicis que fue retirada del circuito escolar durante la gestión de Ramos Mejia al frente del Consejo Nacional de Educación por considerar que era una amenaza a la nacionalización cultural y lingüística y fue sustituida por traducciones culturales argentinas. Para esto, analizamos la polémica en tomo a la inclusión de la novela como lectura escolar; las practicas de lectura, apropiaciones y propuestas didácticas en torno al texto y, por ultimo, hacemos un análisis descriptivo comparativo de los textos de las traducciones culturales. Nuestra investigación se enmarca en una perspectiva transdisciplinar y se establecen relaciones con dimensiones políticas, pedagógicas, culturales, sociales e históricas. Para ello fue necesario crear un aparato metodológico cualitativo que diera cuenta de la multiplicidad de fuentes, va sea par el formato -escritas, orales e icónicas- o por el origen -de la burocracia escolar, textos de sistematización didáctica, narrativas de la practica, artículos de revistas pedagógicas y escolares, libros de lectura, etc-. Estas fuentes son analizadas desde una perspectiva textual pero, fundamentalmente, desde una mirada sociocultural que permite acercamos alas micropolíticas escolares, a la vida cotidiana y a aspectos del contexto sociohistórico. En este sentido, nuestra tesis propone dar cuenta de un espacio vacante en la investigación realizada hasta el momento dando cuenta del lugar del lector y su formación como ciudadano argentino a partir de las practicas de lectura escolares; es decir, plantearnos la hipótesis de que durante el periodo estudiado uno de los mecanismos de nacionalización puestos en juego en la escuela fue la utilización del discurso literario y sus practicas de lectura en pos de la argentinización. Además, plantearnos que a pesar de los mecanismos, rituales y modos de intervención del Estado para la nacionalización, los lectores alumnos y los maestros se apropiaron de la literatura desde sus propias experiencias socioculturales, resistiendo al discurso hegemónico

Education and Training of Future Nuclear Engineers Through the use of an Interactive Plant Simulator

The successful experience of the Jose Cabrera Nuclear Power Plant Interactive Graphical Simulator implementation in the Nuclear Engineering Department in the Universidad Polite´cnica de Madrid, for the Education and Training of nuclear engineers is shown in this paper. The paper starts with the objectives and the description of the Simulator Aula, and the methodology of work following the recommendations of the IAEA for the use of nuclear reactor simulators for education. The practices and material prepared for the students, as well as the operational and accident situations simulated are provided.

OntoTag - A Linguistic and Ontological Annotation Model Suitable for the Semantic Web

OntoTag - A Linguistic and Ontological Annotation Model Suitable for the Semantic Web 1. INTRODUCTION. LINGUISTIC TOOLS AND ANNOTATIONS: THEIR LIGHTS AND SHADOWS Computational Linguistics is already a consolidated research area. It builds upon the results of other two major ones, namely Linguistics and Computer Science and Engineering, and it aims at developing computational models of human language (or natural language, as it is termed in this area). Possibly, its most well-known applications are the different tools developed so far for processing human language, such as machine translation systems and speech recognizers or dictation programs. These tools for processing human language are commonly referred to as linguistic tools. Apart from the examples mentioned above, there are also other types of linguistic tools that perhaps are not so well-known, but on which most of the other applications of Computational Linguistics are built. These other types of linguistic tools comprise POS taggers, natural language parsers and semantic taggers, amongst others. All of them can be termed linguistic annotation tools. Linguistic annotation tools are important assets. In fact, POS and semantic taggers (and, to a lesser extent, also natural language parsers) have become critical resources for the computer applications that process natural language. Hence, any computer application that has to analyse a text automatically and ‘intelligently’ will include at least a module for POS tagging. The more an application needs to ‘understand’ the meaning of the text it processes, the more linguistic tools and/or modules it will incorporate and integrate. However, linguistic annotation tools have still some limitations, which can be summarised as follows: 1. Normally, they perform annotations only at a certain linguistic level (that is, Morphology, Syntax, Semantics, etc.). 2. They usually introduce a certain rate of errors and ambiguities when tagging. This error rate ranges from 10 percent up to 50 percent of the units annotated for unrestricted, general texts. 3. Their annotations are most frequently formulated in terms of an annotation schema designed and implemented ad hoc. A priori, it seems that the interoperation and the integration of several linguistic tools into an appropriate software architecture could most likely solve the limitations stated in (1). Besides, integrating several linguistic annotation tools and making them interoperate could also minimise the limitation stated in (2). Nevertheless, in the latter case, all these tools should produce annotations for a common level, which would have to be combined in order to correct their corresponding errors and inaccuracies. Yet, the limitation stated in (3) prevents both types of integration and interoperation from being easily achieved. In addition, most high-level annotation tools rely on other lower-level annotation tools and their outputs to generate their own ones. For example, sense-tagging tools (operating at the semantic level) often use POS taggers (operating at a lower level, i.e., the morphosyntactic) to identify the grammatical category of the word or lexical unit they are annotating. Accordingly, if a faulty or inaccurate low-level annotation tool is to be used by other higher-level one in its process, the errors and inaccuracies of the former should be minimised in advance. Otherwise, these errors and inaccuracies would be transferred to (and even magnified in) the annotations of the high-level annotation tool. Therefore, it would be quite useful to find a way to (i) correct or, at least, reduce the errors and the inaccuracies of lower-level linguistic tools; (ii) unify the annotation schemas of different linguistic annotation tools or, more generally speaking, make these tools (as well as their annotations) interoperate. Clearly, solving (i) and (ii) should ease the automatic annotation of web pages by means of linguistic tools, and their transformation into Semantic Web pages (Berners-Lee, Hendler and Lassila, 2001). Yet, as stated above, (ii) is a type of interoperability problem. There again, ontologies (Gruber, 1993; Borst, 1997) have been successfully applied thus far to solve several interoperability problems. Hence, ontologies should help solve also the problems and limitations of linguistic annotation tools aforementioned. Thus, to summarise, the main aim of the present work was to combine somehow these separated approaches, mechanisms and tools for annotation from Linguistics and Ontological Engineering (and the Semantic Web) in a sort of hybrid (linguistic and ontological) annotation model, suitable for both areas. This hybrid (semantic) annotation model should (a) benefit from the advances, models, techniques, mechanisms and tools of these two areas; (b) minimise (and even solve, when possible) some of the problems found in each of them; and (c) be suitable for the Semantic Web. The concrete goals that helped attain this aim are presented in the following section. 2. GOALS OF THE PRESENT WORK As mentioned above, the main goal of this work was to specify a hybrid (that is, linguistically-motivated and ontology-based) model of annotation suitable for the Semantic Web (i.e. it had to produce a semantic annotation of web page contents). This entailed that the tags included in the annotations of the model had to (1) represent linguistic concepts (or linguistic categories, as they are termed in ISO/DCR (2008)), in order for this model to be linguistically-motivated; (2) be ontological terms (i.e., use an ontological vocabulary), in order for the model to be ontology-based; and (3) be structured (linked) as a collection of ontology-based triples, as in the usual Semantic Web languages (namely RDF(S) and OWL), in order for the model to be considered suitable for the Semantic Web. Besides, to be useful for the Semantic Web, this model should provide a way to automate the annotation of web pages. As for the present work, this requirement involved reusing the linguistic annotation tools purchased by the OEG research group (http://www.oeg-upm.net), but solving beforehand (or, at least, minimising) some of their limitations. Therefore, this model had to minimise these limitations by means of the integration of several linguistic annotation tools into a common architecture. Since this integration required the interoperation of tools and their annotations, ontologies were proposed as the main technological component to make them effectively interoperate. From the very beginning, it seemed that the formalisation of the elements and the knowledge underlying linguistic annotations within an appropriate set of ontologies would be a great step forward towards the formulation of such a model (henceforth referred to as OntoTag). Obviously, first, to combine the results of the linguistic annotation tools that operated at the same level, their annotation schemas had to be unified (or, preferably, standardised) in advance. This entailed the unification (id. standardisation) of their tags (both their representation and their meaning), and their format or syntax. Second, to merge the results of the linguistic annotation tools operating at different levels, their respective annotation schemas had to be (a) made interoperable and (b) integrated. And third, in order for the resulting annotations to suit the Semantic Web, they had to be specified by means of an ontology-based vocabulary, and structured by means of ontology-based triples, as hinted above. Therefore, a new annotation scheme had to be devised, based both on ontologies and on this type of triples, which allowed for the combination and the integration of the annotations of any set of linguistic annotation tools. This annotation scheme was considered a fundamental part of the model proposed here, and its development was, accordingly, another major objective of the present work. All these goals, aims and objectives could be re-stated more clearly as follows: Goal 1: Development of a set of ontologies for the formalisation of the linguistic knowledge relating linguistic annotation. Sub-goal 1.1: Ontological formalisation of the EAGLES (1996a; 1996b) de facto standards for morphosyntactic and syntactic annotation, in a way that helps respect the triple structure recommended for annotations in these works (which is isomorphic to the triple structures used in the context of the Semantic Web). Sub-goal 1.2: Incorporation into this preliminary ontological formalisation of other existing standards and standard proposals relating the levels mentioned above, such as those currently under development within ISO/TC 37 (the ISO Technical Committee dealing with Terminology, which deals also with linguistic resources and annotations). Sub-goal 1.3: Generalisation and extension of the recommendations in EAGLES (1996a; 1996b) and ISO/TC 37 to the semantic level, for which no ISO/TC 37 standards have been developed yet. Sub-goal 1.4: Ontological formalisation of the generalisations and/or extensions obtained in the previous sub-goal as generalisations and/or extensions of the corresponding ontology (or ontologies). Sub-goal 1.5: Ontological formalisation of the knowledge required to link, combine and unite the knowledge represented in the previously developed ontology (or ontologies). Goal 2: Development of OntoTag’s annotation scheme, a standard-based abstract scheme for the hybrid (linguistically-motivated and ontological-based) annotation of texts. Sub-goal 2.1: Development of the standard-based morphosyntactic annotation level of OntoTag’s scheme. This level should include, and possibly extend, the recommendations of EAGLES (1996a) and also the recommendations included in the ISO/MAF (2008) standard draft. Sub-goal 2.2: Development of the standard-based syntactic annotation level of the hybrid abstract scheme. This level should include, and possibly extend, the recommendations of EAGLES (1996b) and the ISO/SynAF (2010) standard draft. Sub-goal 2.3: Development of the standard-based semantic annotation level of OntoTag’s (abstract) scheme. Sub-goal 2.4: Development of the mechanisms for a convenient integration of the three annotation levels already mentioned. These mechanisms should take into account the recommendations included in the ISO/LAF (2009) standard draft. Goal 3: Design of OntoTag’s (abstract) annotation architecture, an abstract architecture for the hybrid (semantic) annotation of texts (i) that facilitates the integration and interoperation of different linguistic annotation tools, and (ii) whose results comply with OntoTag’s annotation scheme. Sub-goal 3.1: Specification of the decanting processes that allow for the classification and separation, according to their corresponding levels, of the results of the linguistic tools annotating at several different levels. Sub-goal 3.2: Specification of the standardisation processes that allow (a) complying with the standardisation requirements of OntoTag’s annotation scheme, as well as (b) combining the results of those linguistic tools that share some level of annotation. Sub-goal 3.3: Specification of the merging processes that allow for the combination of the output annotations and the interoperation of those linguistic tools that share some level of annotation. Sub-goal 3.4: Specification of the merge processes that allow for the integration of the results and the interoperation of those tools performing their annotations at different levels. Goal 4: Generation of OntoTagger’s schema, a concrete instance of OntoTag’s abstract scheme for a concrete set of linguistic annotations. These linguistic annotations result from the tools and the resources available in the research group, namely • Bitext’s DataLexica (http://www.bitext.com/EN/datalexica.asp), • LACELL’s (POS) tagger (http://www.um.es/grupos/grupo-lacell/quees.php), • Connexor’s FDG (http://www.connexor.eu/technology/machinese/glossary/fdg/), and • EuroWordNet (Vossen et al., 1998). This schema should help evaluate OntoTag’s underlying hypotheses, stated below. Consequently, it should implement, at least, those levels of the abstract scheme dealing with the annotations of the set of tools considered in this implementation. This includes the morphosyntactic, the syntactic and the semantic levels. Goal 5: Implementation of OntoTagger’s configuration, a concrete instance of OntoTag’s abstract architecture for this set of linguistic tools and annotations. This configuration (1) had to use the schema generated in the previous goal; and (2) should help support or refute the hypotheses of this work as well (see the next section). Sub-goal 5.1: Implementation of the decanting processes that facilitate the classification and separation of the results of those linguistic resources that provide annotations at several different levels (on the one hand, LACELL’s tagger operates at the morphosyntactic level and, minimally, also at the semantic level; on the other hand, FDG operates at the morphosyntactic and the syntactic levels and, minimally, at the semantic level as well). Sub-goal 5.2: Implementation of the standardisation processes that allow (i) specifying the results of those linguistic tools that share some level of annotation according to the requirements of OntoTagger’s schema, as well as (ii) combining these shared level results. In particular, all the tools selected perform morphosyntactic annotations and they had to be conveniently combined by means of these processes. Sub-goal 5.3: Implementation of the merging processes that allow for the combination (and possibly the improvement) of the annotations and the interoperation of the tools that share some level of annotation (in particular, those relating the morphosyntactic level, as in the previous sub-goal). Sub-goal 5.4: Implementation of the merging processes that allow for the integration of the different standardised and combined annotations aforementioned, relating all the levels considered. Sub-goal 5.5: Improvement of the semantic level of this configuration by adding a named entity recognition, (sub-)classification and annotation subsystem, which also uses the named entities annotated to populate a domain ontology, in order to provide a concrete application of the present work in the two areas involved (the Semantic Web and Corpus Linguistics). 3. MAIN RESULTS: ASSESSMENT OF ONTOTAG’S UNDERLYING HYPOTHESES The model developed in the present thesis tries to shed some light on (i) whether linguistic annotation tools can effectively interoperate; (ii) whether their results can be combined and integrated; and, if they can, (iii) how they can, respectively, interoperate and be combined and integrated. Accordingly, several hypotheses had to be supported (or rejected) by the development of the OntoTag model and OntoTagger (its implementation). The hypotheses underlying OntoTag are surveyed below. Only one of the hypotheses (H.6) was rejected; the other five could be confirmed. H.1 The annotations of different levels (or layers) can be integrated into a sort of overall, comprehensive, multilayer and multilevel annotation, so that their elements can complement and refer to each other. • CONFIRMED by the development of: o OntoTag’s annotation scheme, o OntoTag’s annotation architecture, o OntoTagger’s (XML, RDF, OWL) annotation schemas, o OntoTagger’s configuration. H.2 Tool-dependent annotations can be mapped onto a sort of tool-independent annotations and, thus, can be standardised. • CONFIRMED by means of the standardisation phase incorporated into OntoTag and OntoTagger for the annotations yielded by the tools. H.3 Standardisation should ease: H.3.1: The interoperation of linguistic tools. H.3.2: The comparison, combination (at the same level and layer) and integration (at different levels or layers) of annotations. • H.3 was CONFIRMED by means of the development of OntoTagger’s ontology-based configuration: o Interoperation, comparison, combination and integration of the annotations of three different linguistic tools (Connexor’s FDG, Bitext’s DataLexica and LACELL’s tagger); o Integration of EuroWordNet-based, domain-ontology-based and named entity annotations at the semantic level. o Integration of morphosyntactic, syntactic and semantic annotations. H.4 Ontologies and Semantic Web technologies (can) play a crucial role in the standardisation of linguistic annotations, by providing consensual vocabularies and standardised formats for annotation (e.g., RDF triples). • CONFIRMED by means of the development of OntoTagger’s RDF-triple-based annotation schemas. H.5 The rate of errors introduced by a linguistic tool at a given level, when annotating, can be reduced automatically by contrasting and combining its results with the ones coming from other tools, operating at the same level. However, these other tools might be built following a different technological (stochastic vs. rule-based, for example) or theoretical (dependency vs. HPS-grammar-based, for instance) approach. • CONFIRMED by the results yielded by the evaluation of OntoTagger. H.6 Each linguistic level can be managed and annotated independently. • REJECTED: OntoTagger’s experiments and the dependencies observed among the morphosyntactic annotations, and between them and the syntactic annotations. In fact, Hypothesis H.6 was already rejected when OntoTag’s ontologies were developed. We observed then that several linguistic units stand on an interface between levels, belonging thereby to both of them (such as morphosyntactic units, which belong to both the morphological level and the syntactic level). Therefore, the annotations of these levels overlap and cannot be handled independently when merged into a unique multileveled annotation. 4. OTHER MAIN RESULTS AND CONTRIBUTIONS First, interoperability is a hot topic for both the linguistic annotation community and the whole Computer Science field. The specification (and implementation) of OntoTag’s architecture for the combination and integration of linguistic (annotation) tools and annotations by means of ontologies shows a way to make these different linguistic annotation tools and annotations interoperate in practice. Second, as mentioned above, the elements involved in linguistic annotation were formalised in a set (or network) of ontologies (OntoTag’s linguistic ontologies). • On the one hand, OntoTag’s network of ontologies consists of − The Linguistic Unit Ontology (LUO), which includes a mostly hierarchical formalisation of the different types of linguistic elements (i.e., units) identifiable in a written text; − The Linguistic Attribute Ontology (LAO), which includes also a mostly hierarchical formalisation of the different types of features that characterise the linguistic units included in the LUO; − The Linguistic Value Ontology (LVO), which includes the corresponding formalisation of the different values that the attributes in the LAO can take; − The OIO (OntoTag’s Integration Ontology), which  Includes the knowledge required to link, combine and unite the knowledge represented in the LUO, the LAO and the LVO;  Can be viewed as a knowledge representation ontology that describes the most elementary vocabulary used in the area of annotation. • On the other hand, OntoTag’s ontologies incorporate the knowledge included in the different standards and recommendations for linguistic annotation released so far, such as those developed within the EAGLES and the SIMPLE European projects or by the ISO/TC 37 committee: − As far as morphosyntactic annotations are concerned, OntoTag’s ontologies formalise the terms in the EAGLES (1996a) recommendations and their corresponding terms within the ISO Morphosyntactic Annotation Framework (ISO/MAF, 2008) standard; − As for syntactic annotations, OntoTag’s ontologies incorporate the terms in the EAGLES (1996b) recommendations and their corresponding terms within the ISO Syntactic Annotation Framework (ISO/SynAF, 2010) standard draft; − Regarding semantic annotations, OntoTag’s ontologies generalise and extend the recommendations in EAGLES (1996a; 1996b) and, since no stable standards or standard drafts have been released for semantic annotation by ISO/TC 37 yet, they incorporate the terms in SIMPLE (2000) instead; − The terms coming from all these recommendations and standards were supplemented by those within the ISO Data Category Registry (ISO/DCR, 2008) and also of the ISO Linguistic Annotation Framework (ISO/LAF, 2009) standard draft when developing OntoTag’s ontologies. Third, we showed that the combination of the results of tools annotating at the same level can yield better results (both in precision and in recall) than each tool separately. In particular, 1. OntoTagger clearly outperformed two of the tools integrated into its configuration, namely DataLexica and FDG in all the combination sub-phases in which they overlapped (i.e. POS tagging, lemma annotation and morphological feature annotation). As far as the remaining tool is concerned, i.e. LACELL’s tagger, it was also outperformed by OntoTagger in POS tagging and lemma annotation, and it did not behave better than OntoTagger in the morphological feature annotation layer. 2. As an immediate result, this implies that a) This type of combination architecture configurations can be applied in order to improve significantly the accuracy of linguistic annotations; and b) Concerning the morphosyntactic level, this could be regarded as a way of constructing more robust and more accurate POS tagging systems. Fourth, Semantic Web annotations are usually performed by humans or else by machine learning systems. Both of them leave much to be desired: the former, with respect to their annotation rate; the latter, with respect to their (average) precision and recall. In this work, we showed how linguistic tools can be wrapped in order to annotate automatically Semantic Web pages using ontologies. This entails their fast, robust and accurate semantic annotation. As a way of example, as mentioned in Sub-goal 5.5, we developed a particular OntoTagger module for the recognition, classification and labelling of named entities, according to the MUC and ACE tagsets (Chinchor, 1997; Doddington et al., 2004). These tagsets were further specified by means of a domain ontology, namely the Cinema Named Entities Ontology (CNEO). This module was applied to the automatic annotation of ten different web pages containing cinema reviews (that is, around 5000 words). In addition, the named entities annotated with this module were also labelled as instances (or individuals) of the classes included in the CNEO and, then, were used to populate this domain ontology. • The statistical results obtained from the evaluation of this particular module of OntoTagger can be summarised as follows. On the one hand, as far as recall (R) is concerned, (R.1) the lowest value was 76,40% (for file 7); (R.2) the highest value was 97, 50% (for file 3); and (R.3) the average value was 88,73%. On the other hand, as far as the precision rate (P) is concerned, (P.1) its minimum was 93,75% (for file 4); (R.2) its maximum was 100% (for files 1, 5, 7, 8, 9, and 10); and (R.3) its average value was 98,99%. • These results, which apply to the tasks of named entity annotation and ontology population, are extraordinary good for both of them. They can be explained on the basis of the high accuracy of the annotations provided by OntoTagger at the lower levels (mainly at the morphosyntactic level). However, they should be conveniently qualified, since they might be too domain- and/or language-dependent. It should be further experimented how our approach works in a different domain or a different language, such as French, English, or German. • In any case, the results of this application of Human Language Technologies to Ontology Population (and, accordingly, to Ontological Engineering) seem very promising and encouraging in order for these two areas to collaborate and complement each other in the area of semantic annotation. Fifth, as shown in the State of the Art of this work, there are different approaches and models for the semantic annotation of texts, but all of them focus on a particular view of the semantic level. Clearly, all these approaches and models should be integrated in order to bear a coherent and joint semantic annotation level. OntoTag shows how (i) these semantic annotation layers could be integrated together; and (ii) they could be integrated with the annotations associated to other annotation levels. Sixth, we identified some recommendations, best practices and lessons learned for annotation standardisation, interoperation and merge. They show how standardisation (via ontologies, in this case) enables the combination, integration and interoperation of different linguistic tools and their annotations into a multilayered (or multileveled) linguistic annotation, which is one of the hot topics in the area of Linguistic Annotation. And last but not least, OntoTag’s annotation scheme and OntoTagger’s annotation schemas show a way to formalise and annotate coherently and uniformly the different units and features associated to the different levels and layers of linguistic annotation. This is a great scientific step ahead towards the global standardisation of this area, which is the aim of ISO/TC 37 (in particular, Subcommittee 4, dealing with the standardisation of linguistic annotations and resources).

Design and evaluation of an educational platform for implementing and testing bilateral control algorithms

This paper describes the design and evaluation of a new platform created in order to improve the learning experience of bilateral control algorithms in teleoperation. This experimental platform, developed at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, is used by the students of the Master on Automation and Robotics in the practices of the subject called “Telerobotics and Teleoperation”. The main objective is to easily implement different control architectures in the developed platform and evaluate them under different conditions to better understand the main advantages and drawbacks of each control scheme. So, the student’s tasks are focused on adjusting the control parameters of the predefined controllers and designing new ones to analyze the changes in the behavior of the whole system. A description of the subject, main topics and the platform constructed are detailed in the paper. Furthermore, the methodology followed in the practices and the bilateral control algorithms are presented. Finally, the results obtained in the experiments with students are also shown.

Ball possession effectiveness in men's and women's elite basketball according to situational variables in different game periods

The aim of the present study was to identify the importance of floorball tactical variables to predict ball possession effectiveness, when controlling quality of opposition and game periods. The sample was composed by 1500 ball possessions, corresponding to 14 games randomly selected from the International Championships played during 2008 and 2010 (World Championship, Four nations tournament and classificatory phases for World Championship) by teams from different competition levels (HIGH, INTERMEDIATE and LOW). The effects of the predictor variables on successful ball possessions according to the three game contexts (HIGH vs. HIGH; HIGH vs. LOW; LOW vs. LOW games) were analyzed using Binomial Logistic Regressions. The results showed no interaction with the game period. In HIGH vs. HIGH games, quality of opposition showed an association with ball possession effectiveness with ending zone, offensive system, possession duration, height of shooting and defensive pressures previous to the shot. In HIGH vs. LOW games the important factors were the starting zone, possession duration, defensive pressure previous to the last pass and to the shot, technique of shooting and the number players involved in each ball possession. Finally, in LOW vs. LOW games, the results emphasized the importance of starting and ending zones, the number of passes used and the technique of shooting. In conclusion, elite floorball performance is mainly affected by quality of opposition showing different game patterns in each context that should be considered by coaches when preparing practices and competitions.

Effect of conservation tillage on soil physical properties, in-situ rainwater harvesting, and erosion control in arid and semi-arid regions

La escasez del agua en las regiones áridas y semiáridas se debe a la escasez de precipitaciones y la distribución desigual en toda la temporada, lo que hace de la agricultura de secano una empresa precaria. Un enfoque para mejorar y estabilizar el agua disponible para la producción de cultivos en estas regiones es el uso de tecnologías de captación de agua de lluvia in situ y su conservación. La adopción de los sistemas de conservación de la humedad del suelo in situ, tales como la labranza de conservación, es una de las estrategias para mejorar la gestión de la agricultura en zonas áridas y semiáridas. El objetivo general de esta tesis ha sido desarrollar una metodología de aplicación de labranza de depósito e investigar los efectos a corto plazo sobre las propiedades físicas del suelo de las diferentes prácticas de cultivo que incluyen labranza de depósito: (reservoir tillage, RT), la laboreo mínimo: (minimum tillage, MT), la no laboreo: (zero tillage, ZT) y laboreo convencional: (conventional tillage, CT) Así como, la retención de agua del suelo y el control de la erosión del suelo en las zonas áridas y semiáridas. Como una primera aproximación, se ha realizado una revisión profunda del estado de la técnica, después de la cual, se encontró que la labranza de depósito es un sistema eficaz de cosecha del agua de lluvia y conservación del suelo, pero que no ha sido evaluada científicamente tanto como otros sistemas de labranza. Los trabajos experimentales cubrieron tres condiciones diferentes: experimentos en laboratorio, experimentos de campo en una región árida, y experimentos de campo en una región semiárida. Para investigar y cuantificar el almacenamiento de agua a temperatura ambiente y la forma en que podría adaptarse para mejorar la infiltración del agua de lluvia recolectada y reducir la erosión del suelo, se ha desarrollado un simulador de lluvia a escala de laboratorio. Las características de las lluvias, entre ellas la intensidad de las precipitaciones, la uniformidad espacial y tamaño de la gota de lluvia, confirmaron que las condiciones naturales de precipitación son simuladas con suficiente precisión. El simulador fue controlado automáticamente mediante una válvula de solenoide y tres boquillas de presión que se usaron para rociar agua correspondiente a diferentes intensidades de lluvia. Con el fin de evaluar el método de RT bajo diferentes pendientes de superficie, se utilizaron diferentes dispositivos de pala de suelo para sacar un volumen idéntico para hacer depresiones. Estas depresiones se compararon con una superficie de suelo control sin depresión, y los resultados mostraron que la RT fue capaz de reducir la erosión del suelo y la escorrentía superficial y aumentar significativamente la infiltración. Luego, basándonos en estos resultados, y después de identificar la forma adecuada de las depresiones, se ha diseñado una herramienta combinada (sistema integrado de labranza de depósito (RT)) compuesto por un arado de una sola línea de chisel, una sola línea de grada en diente de pico, sembradora modificada, y rodillo de púas. El equipo fue construido y se utiliza para comparación con MT y CT en un ambiente árido en Egipto. El estudio se realizó para evaluar el impacto de diferentes prácticas de labranza y sus parámetros de funcionamiento a diferentes profundidades de labranza y con distintas velocidades de avance sobre las propiedades físicas del suelo, así como, la pérdida de suelo, régimen de humedad, la eficiencia de recolección de agua, y la productividad de trigo de invierno. Los resultados indicaron que la RT aumentó drásticamente la infiltración, produciendo una tasa que era 47.51% más alta que MT y 64.56% mayor que la CT. Además, los resultados mostraron que los valores más bajos de la escorrentía y pérdidas de suelos 4.91 mm y 0.65 t ha-1, respectivamente, se registraron en la RT, mientras que los valores más altos, 11.36 mm y 1.66 t ha-1, respectivamente, se produjeron en el marco del CT. Además, otros dos experimentos de campo se llevaron a cabo en ambiente semiárido en Madrid con la cebada y el maíz como los principales cultivos. También ha sido estudiado el potencial de la tecnología inalámbrica de sensores para monitorizar el potencial de agua del suelo. Para el experimento en el que se cultivaba la cebada en secano, se realizaron dos prácticas de labranza (RT y MT). Los resultados mostraron que el potencial del agua del suelo aumentó de forma constante y fue consistentemente mayor en MT. Además, con independencia de todo el período de observación, RT redujo el potencial hídrico del suelo en un 43.6, 5.7 y 82.3% respectivamente en comparación con el MT a profundidades de suelo (10, 20 y 30 cm, respectivamente). También se observaron diferencias claras en los componentes del rendimiento de los cultivos y de rendimiento entre los dos sistemas de labranza, el rendimiento de grano (hasta 14%) y la producción de biomasa (hasta 8.8%) se incrementaron en RT. En el experimento donde se cultivó el maíz en regadío, se realizaron cuatro prácticas de labranza (RT, MT, ZT y CT). Los resultados revelaron que ZT y RT tenían el potencial de agua y temperatura del suelo más bajas. En comparación con el tratamiento con CT, ZT y RT disminuyó el potencial hídrico del suelo en un 72 y 23%, respectivamente, a la profundidad del suelo de 40 cm, y provocó la disminución de la temperatura del suelo en 1.1 y un 0.8 0C respectivamente, en la profundidad del suelo de 5 cm y, por otro lado, el ZT tenía la densidad aparente del suelo y resistencia a la penetración más altas, la cual retrasó el crecimiento del maíz y disminuyó el rendimiento de grano que fue del 15.4% menor que el tratamiento con CT. RT aumenta el rendimiento de grano de maíz cerca de 12.8% en comparación con la ZT. Por otra parte, no hubo diferencias significativas entre (RT, MT y CT) sobre el rendimiento del maíz. En resumen, según los resultados de estos experimentos, se puede decir que mediante el uso de la labranza de depósito, consistente en realizar depresiones después de la siembra, las superficies internas de estas depresiones se consolidan de tal manera que el agua se mantiene para filtrarse en el suelo y por lo tanto dan tiempo para aportar humedad a la zona de enraizamiento de las plantas durante un período prolongado de tiempo. La labranza del depósito podría ser utilizada como un método alternativo en regiones áridas y semiáridas dado que retiene la humedad in situ, a través de estructuras que reducen la escorrentía y por lo tanto puede resultar en la mejora de rendimiento de los cultivos. ABSTRACT Water shortage in arid and semi-arid regions stems from low rainfall and uneven distribution throughout the season, which makes rainfed agriculture a precarious enterprise. One approach to enhance and stabilize the water available for crop production in these regions is to use in-situ rainwater harvesting and conservation technologies. Adoption of in-situ soil moisture conservation systems, such as conservation tillage, is one of the strategies for upgrading agriculture management in arid and semi-arid environments. The general aim of this thesis is to develop a methodology to apply reservoir tillage to investigate the short-term effects of different tillage practices including reservoir tillage (RT), minimum tillage (MT), zero tillage (ZT), and conventional tillage (CT) on soil physical properties, as well as, soil water retention, and soil erosion control in arid and semi-arid areas. As a first approach, a review of the state of the art has been done. We found that reservoir tillage is an effective system of harvesting rainwater and conserving soil, but it has not been scientifically evaluated like other tillage systems. Experimental works covered three different conditions: laboratory experiments, field experiments in an arid region, and field experiments in a semi-arid region. To investigate and quantify water storage from RT and how it could be adapted to improve infiltration of harvested rainwater and reduce soil erosion, a laboratory-scale rainfall simulator was developed. Rainfall characteristics, including rainfall intensity, spatial uniformity and raindrop size, confirm that natural rainfall conditions are simulated with sufficient accuracy. The simulator was auto-controlled by a solenoid valve and three pressure nozzles were used to spray water corresponding to different rainfall intensities. In order to assess the RT method under different surface slopes, different soil scooping devices with identical volume were used to create depressions. The performance of the soil with these depressions was compared to a control soil surface (with no depression). Results show that RT was able to reduce soil erosion and surface runoff and significantly increase infiltration. Then, based on these results and after selecting the proper shape of depressions, a combination implement integrated reservoir tillage system (integrated RT) comprised of a single-row chisel plow, single-row spike tooth harrow, modified seeder, and spiked roller was developed and used to compared to MT and CT in an arid environment in Egypt. The field experiments were conducted to evaluate the impact of different tillage practices and their operating parameters at different tillage depths and different forward speeds on the soil physical properties, as well as on runoff, soil losses, moisture regime, water harvesting efficiency, and winter wheat productivity. Results indicated that the integrated RT drastically increased infiltration, producing a rate that was 47.51% higher than MT and 64.56% higher than CT. In addition, results showed that the lowest values of runoff and soil losses, 4.91 mm and 0.65 t ha-1 respectively, were recorded under the integrated RT, while the highest values, 11.36 mm and 1.66 t ha -1 respectively, occurred under the CT. In addition, two field experiments were carried out in semi-arid environment in Madrid with barley and maize as the main crops. For the rainfed barley experiment, two tillage practices (RT, and MT) were performed. Results showed that soil water potential increased quite steadily and were consistently greater in MT and, irrespective of the entire observation period, RT decreased soil water potential by 43.6, 5.7, and 82.3% compared to MT at soil depths (10, 20, and 30 cm, respectively). In addition, clear differences in crop yield and yield components were observed between the two tillage systems, grain yield (up to 14%) and biomass yield (up to 8.8%) were increased by RT. For the irrigated maize experiment, four tillage practices (RT, MT, ZT, and CT) were performed. Results showed that ZT and RT had the lowest soil water potential and soil temperature. Compared to CT treatment, ZT and RT decreased soil water potential by 72 and 23% respectively, at soil depth of 40 cm, and decreased soil temperature by 1.1 and 0.8 0C respectively, at soil depth of 5 cm. Also, ZT had the highest soil bulk density and penetration resistance, which delayed the maize growth and decreased the grain yield that was 15.4% lower than CT treatment. RT increased maize grain yield about 12.8% compared to ZT. On the other hand, no significant differences among (RT, MT, and CT) on maize yield were found. In summary, according to the results from these experiments using reservoir tillage to make depressions after seeding, these depression’s internal surfaces are consolidated in such a way that the water is held to percolate into the soil and thus allowing time to offer moisture to the plant rooting zone over an extended period of time. Reservoir tillage could be used as an alternative method in arid and semi-arid regions and it retains moisture in-situ, through structures that reduce runoff and thus can result in improved crop yields.