Interlex : investigación por internet para mejorar la competencia léxica del inglés en el alumnado de ESO y bachillerato.

Se presenta memoria final de proyecto educativo que pretende diagnosticar el nivel léxico del alumnado en inglés, mediante la adaptación e informatización de pruebas tipo test, búsqueda de materiales didácticos y elaboración de un banco de actividades para la adquisición y mejora del vocabulario. Se realiza en el IES Albayzín en Granada. El proceso consta de varias fases: en la fase inicial se trabajó 'las utilidades de internet-el uso de internet para la enseñanza de lenguas' y en la fase de selección se realizó un curso intensivo con el programa de autor hot potatoes. Los resultados obtenidos han sido: determinar qué palabras necesita saber un alumno que acabe la educación secundaria; haber conseguido un test fiable y válido que mida esas 1660 palabras; haber diseñado ejercicios específicos para incentivar el aprendizaje de ese vocabulario con distintos niveles de dificultad; ponerlo todo en soporte informático; crear una página web; investigación rigurosa de libros de texto de educación primaria y secundaria; contrastar, probar, discutir métodos y procedimientos experimentando nuevas formas de trabajo en clase y aprendiendo informática como herramienta de trabajo y comunicación.

Guía visual para el acceso y la utilización de Internet.

El trabajo es fruto de las actividades elaboradas para la fase presencial del 'Curso básico de Internet a distancia' organizado por el CPR de Cartagena-La Unión

Publicidad en Internet.

Guía compuesta por diferentes unidades didácticas para secundaria, dirigida a docentes que quieran analizar la publicidad de Internet con sus alumnos como parte del tema transversal de educación del consumidor. Los contenidos que se tratan son: el mercadeo, los formatos publicitarios de las páginas web, el mercadeo apoyado en bases de datos, actitudes ante la publicidad en Internet y estrategias.

AFL-1: A Programming Language for Massively Concurrent Computers

Computational models are arising is which programs are constructed by specifying large networks of very simple computational devices. Although such models can potentially make use of a massive amount of concurrency, their usefulness as a programming model for the design of complex systems will ultimately be decided by the ease in which such networks can be programmed (constructed). This thesis outlines a language for specifying computational networks. The language (AFL-1) consists of a set of primitives, ad a mechanism to group these elements into higher level structures. An implementation of this language runs on the Thinking Machines Corporation, Connection machine. Two significant examples were programmed in the language, an expert system (CIS), and a planning system (AFPLAN). These systems are explained and analyzed in terms of how they compare with similar systems written in conventional languages.

Building Grounded Abstractions for Artificial Intelligence Programming

Most Artificial Intelligence (AI) work can be characterized as either ``high-level'' (e.g., logical, symbolic) or ``low-level'' (e.g., connectionist networks, behavior-based robotics). Each approach suffers from particular drawbacks. High-level AI uses abstractions that often have no relation to the way real, biological brains work. Low-level AI, on the other hand, tends to lack the powerful abstractions that are needed to express complex structures and relationships. I have tried to combine the best features of both approaches, by building a set of programming abstractions defined in terms of simple, biologically plausible components. At the ``ground level'', I define a primitive, perceptron-like computational unit. I then show how more abstract computational units may be implemented in terms of the primitive units, and show the utility of the abstract units in sample networks. The new units make it possible to build networks using concepts such as long-term memories, short-term memories, and frames. As a demonstration of these abstractions, I have implemented a simulator for ``creatures'' controlled by a network of abstract units. The creatures exist in a simple 2D world, and exhibit behaviors such as catching mobile prey and sorting colored blocks into matching boxes. This program demonstrates that it is possible to build systems that can interact effectively with a dynamic physical environment, yet use symbolic representations to control aspects of their behavior.

On the Convergence of Stochastic Iterative Dynamic Programming Algorithms

Recent developments in the area of reinforcement learning have yielded a number of new algorithms for the prediction and control of Markovian environments. These algorithms, including the TD(lambda) algorithm of Sutton (1988) and the Q-learning algorithm of Watkins (1989), can be motivated heuristically as approximations to dynamic programming (DP). In this paper we provide a rigorous proof of convergence of these DP-based learning algorithms by relating them to the powerful techniques of stochastic approximation theory via a new convergence theorem. The theorem establishes a general class of convergent algorithms to which both TD(lambda) and Q-learning belong.

Reasoning about Temporal Context using Ontology and Abductive Constraint Logic Programming

The underlying assumptions for interpreting the meaning of data often change over time, which further complicates the problem of semantic heterogeneities among autonomous data sources. As an extension to the COntext INterchange (COIN) framework, this paper introduces the notion of temporal context as a formalization of the problem. We represent temporal context as a multi-valued method in F-Logic; however, only one value is valid at any point in time, the determination of which is constrained by temporal relations. This representation is then mapped to an abductive constraint logic programming framework with temporal relations being treated as constraints. A mediation engine that implements the framework automatically detects and reconciles semantic differences at different times. We articulate that this extended COIN framework is suitable for reasoning on the Semantic Web.

Reasoning about Temporal Context using Ontology and Abductive Constraint Logic Programming

The underlying assumptions for interpreting the meaning of data often change over time, which further complicates the problem of semantic heterogeneities among autonomous data sources. As an extension to the COntext INterchange (COIN) framework, this paper introduces the notion of temporal context as a formalization of the problem. We represent temporal context as a multi-valued method in F-Logic; however, only one value is valid at any point in time, the determination of which is constrained by temporal relations. This representation is then mapped to an abductive constraint logic programming framework with temporal relations being treated as constraints. A mediation engine that implements the framework automatically detects and reconciles semantic differences at different times. We articulate that this extended COIN framework is suitable for reasoning on the Semantic Web.

Reasoning about Temporal Context using Ontology and Abductive Constraint Logic Programming

The underlying assumptions for interpreting the meaning of data often change over time, which further complicates the problem of semantic heterogeneities among autonomous data sources. As an extension to the COntext INterchange (COIN) framework, this paper introduces the notion of temporal context as a formalization of the problem. We represent temporal context as a multi-valued method in F-Logic; however, only one value is valid at any point in time, the determination of which is constrained by temporal relations. This representation is then mapped to an abductive constraint logic programming framework with temporal relations being treated as constraints. A mediation engine that implements the framework automatically detects and reconciles semantic differences at different times. We articulate that this extended COIN framework is suitable for reasoning on the Semantic Web.

Reasoning about Temporal Context using Ontology and Abductive Constraint Logic Programming

The underlying assumptions for interpreting the meaning of data often change over time, which further complicates the problem of semantic heterogeneities among autonomous data sources. As an extension to the COntext INterchange (COIN) framework, this paper introduces the notion of temporal context as a formalization of the problem. We represent temporal context as a multi-valued method in F-Logic; however, only one value is valid at any point in time, the determination of which is constrained by temporal relations. This representation is then mapped to an abductive constraint logic programming framework with temporal relations being treated as constraints. A mediation engine that implements the framework automatically detects and reconciles semantic differences at different times. We articulate that this extended COIN framework is suitable for reasoning on the Semantic Web.

Preconditioning and iterative solution of symmetric indefinite linear systems arising from interior point methods for linear programming

We study the preconditioning of symmetric indefinite linear systems of equations that arise in interior point solution of linear optimization problems. The preconditioning method that we study exploits the block structure of the augmented matrix to design a similar block structure preconditioner to improve the spectral properties of the resulting preconditioned matrix so as to improve the convergence rate of the iterative solution of the system. We also propose a two-phase algorithm that takes advantage of the spectral properties of the transformed matrix to solve for the Newton directions in the interior-point method. Numerical experiments have been performed on some LP test problems in the NETLIB suite to demonstrate the potential of the preconditioning method discussed.

Uso de Internet y portal enlaces en las Escuelas Básicas de la Comuna de Valparaíso.

Conocer la realidad en torno al uso de Internet y el uso que hacen los docentes del Portal Enlaces del Ministerio de Educación chileno considerando los factores esenciales para la utilización de futuras estrategias, técnicas o materiales que puedan desarrollarse para aprovechar educativamente los potenciales de las páginas web. 25 establecimientos que imparten Educación Básica para niños en la Comuna de Valparaíso (Chile). Para la recogida de información se opta por la utilización de una encuesta estructurada que se aplico a los profesores de los centros participantes en el estudio. a) Un gran porcentaje de los profesores encuestados se ha conectado en alguna ocasión a Internet, poseen correo electrónico, obtienen recursos para su labor educativa a través de la red y visitan periódicamente sitios de Internet; b) Un porcentaje menor del profesorado admite haber participado en un chat o en una videoconferencia y señalan conocer cuales son los servicios que pueden obtener de Internet; c) Menos de la mitad de los profesores conocen los objetivos del Portal Enlaces; d) Solo un doce por ciento visita periódicamente este portal; e) Más del setenta por ciento del profesorado nunca ha participado en el foro de Enlaces y un veintiuno por ciento declara haberlo hecho en una ocasión. a) Existe un buen grado de conocimientos y manejo de Internet por parte de los profesores; b) La gran mayoría de ellos no lo han logrado a través del Portal Enlaces; c) La experiencia acumulada respecto al tema de Internet, por parte de los docentes, no es necesariamente fruto del uso de Internet con fines educativos; d) El portal Enlaces está lejos de ser un sitio que cumpla con los objetivos de unir a los estudiantes y profesores del país y de ser un lugar usado normalmente por los docentes para obtener materiales, ideas, etc.

Els Adolescents en l'entorn de l'ordinador, internet i el mòbil

L'article proposa una reflexió sobre els resultats d'un qüestionari sobre els nous mitjans audiovisuals administrat a estudiants d'ESO de Catalunya durant els anys 1999,2001 i 2003. Les dades mostren l'evolució de la disponibilitat a casa d'ordinador, Internet i telèfon mòbil per part dels adolescents

A compositional data analysis package for R providing multiple approaches

”compositions” is a new R-package for the analysis of compositional and positive data. It contains four classes corresponding to the four different types of compositional and positive geometry (including the Aitchison geometry). It provides means for computation, plotting and high-level multivariate statistical analysis in all four geometries. These geometries are treated in an fully analogous way, based on the principle of working in coordinates, and the object-oriented programming paradigm of R. In this way, called functions automatically select the most appropriate type of analysis as a function of the geometry. The graphical capabilities include ternary diagrams and tetrahedrons, various compositional plots (boxplots, barplots, piecharts) and extensive graphical tools for principal components. Afterwards, ortion and proportion lines, straight lines and ellipses in all geometries can be added to plots. The package is accompanied by a hands-on-introduction, documentation for every function, demos of the graphical capabilities and plenty of usage examples. It allows direct and parallel computation in all four vector spaces and provides the beginner with a copy-and-paste style of data analysis, while letting advanced users keep the functionality and customizability they demand of R, as well as all necessary tools to add own analysis routines. A complete example is included in the appendix

Behavioral Measures and their Correlation with IPM Iteration Counts on Semi-Definite Programming Problems

We study four measures of problem instance behavior that might account for the observed differences in interior-point method (IPM) iterations when these methods are used to solve semidefinite programming (SDP) problem instances: (i) an aggregate geometry measure related to the primal and dual feasible regions (aspect ratios) and norms of the optimal solutions, (ii) the (Renegar-) condition measure C(d) of the data instance, (iii) a measure of the near-absence of strict complementarity of the optimal solution, and (iv) the level of degeneracy of the optimal solution. We compute these measures for the SDPLIB suite problem instances and measure the correlation between these measures and IPM iteration counts (solved using the software SDPT3) when the measures have finite values. Our conclusions are roughly as follows: the aggregate geometry measure is highly correlated with IPM iterations (CORR = 0.896), and is a very good predictor of IPM iterations, particularly for problem instances with solutions of small norm and aspect ratio. The condition measure C(d) is also correlated with IPM iterations, but less so than the aggregate geometry measure (CORR = 0.630). The near-absence of strict complementarity is weakly correlated with IPM iterations (CORR = 0.423). The level of degeneracy of the optimal solution is essentially uncorrelated with IPM iterations.