Aberrations introduced by the atmospheric turbulence in large telescopes are compensated using adaptive optics systems, where the use of deformable mirrors and multiple sensors relies on complex control systems. Recently, the development of larger scales of telescopes as the E-ELT or TMT has created a computational challenge due to the increasing complexity of the new adaptive optics systems. The Complex Atmospheric Reconstructor based on Machine Learning is an algorithm based on artificial neural networks, designed to compensate the atmospheric turbulence. During (...) recent years, the use of GPUs has been proved to be a great solution to speed up the learning process of neural networks, and different frameworks have been created to ease their development. The implementation of CARMEN in different Multi-GPU frameworks is presented in this paper, along with its development in a language originally developed for GPU, like CUDA. This implementation offers the best response for all the presented cases, although its advantage of using more than one GPU occurs only in large networks. (shrink)

Student performance and its evaluation remain a serious challenge for education systems. Frequently, the recording and processing of students’ scores in a specific curriculum have several flaws for various reasons. In this context, the absence of data from some of the student scores undermines the efficiency of any future analysis carried out in order to reach conclusions. When this is the case, missing data imputation algorithms are needed. These algorithms are capable of substituting, with a high level of accuracy, the (...) missing data for predicted values. This research presents the hybridization of an algorithm previously proposed by the authors called adaptive assignation algorithm, with a well-known technique called multivariate imputation by chained equations. The results show how the suggested methodology outperforms both algorithms. (shrink)

In this study, a hybrid model based on intelligent techniques is developed to predict the active power generated in a bioclimatic house by a low power wind turbine. Contrary to other researches that predict the generated power taking into account the speed and the direction of the wind, the model developed in this paper only uses the speed of the wind, measured mainly in a weather station from the government meteorological agency (MeteoGalicia). The wind speed is measured at different heights, (...) against the usual measurements in others researches, which uses the wind speed and the direction measured in a weather station on the wind turbine nacelle. The prediction is performed 30 minutes ahead, what ensures that the Building Management System knows the energy generated by the low power wind turbine 30 minutes before, and it can adapt the consumption of different equipment in the house to optimize the power use. The main objective is to allow the Building Management System to optimize the uses of energy, taking into account the predicted amount of energy that will be produced and the energy consumed in the house. The developed model uses a hybrid topology with four clusters to improve the prediction, achieving an error lower than 6.5% for Mean Absolute Error measured in a final test. To perform this test, part of the original dataset was isolated from the beginning of the training process to check the model with a dataset that is not used before, simulating the model as it is receiving new data. (shrink)

Nowadays, the quality standards of higher education institutions pay special attention to the performance and evaluation of the students. Then, having a complete academic record of each student, such as number of attempts, average grade and so on, plays a key role. In this context, the existence of missing data, which can happen for different reasons, leads to affect adversely interesting future analysis. Therefore, the use of imputation techniques is presented as a helpful tool to estimate the value of missing (...) data. This work deals with the academic records of engineering students, in which imputation techniques are applied. More specifically, it is assessed and compared to the performance of the multivariate imputation by chained equations methodology, the adaptive assignation algorithm based on multivariate adaptive regression splines and a hybridization based on self-organisation maps with Mahalanobis distances and AAA algorithm. The results show that proposed methods obtain successfully results regardless the number of missing values, in general terms. (shrink)

Nowadays, batteries play an important role in a lot of different applications like energy storage, electro-mobility, consumer electronic and so on. All the battery types have a common factor that is their complexity, independently of its nature. Usually, the batteries have an electrochemical nature. Several different test are accomplished to check the batteries performance, and commonly, it is predictable how they work depending of their technology. The present research describes the hybrid intelligent system created to accomplish fault detection over a (...) Lithium Iron Phosphate—LiFePO4 power cell type, commonly used in electro-mobility applications. The approach is based on the cell temperatures behaviour for voltage and current specific values. Taken into account the operating range of a real system based on a LiFePO4 cell, a large set of points of operation have been used to achieve the dataset. The different behaviour zones have been obtained by clustering as a first step. Then, different regression techniques have been used over each cluster. Polynomial regression, artificial neural networks and support vector regression were the combined techniques to develop the hybrid intelligent model proposed. The intelligent system gives very good results over the operating range, detecting all the faults tested during the validation. (shrink)

ObjectiveThis study aimed to analyse how stereotypes towards older people moderate the relationship between burnout and quality of life of professionals working in nursing homes.MethodA total of 312 professionals were asked to complete questionnaires of burnout Maslach Burnout Inventory quality of Life and aging stereotypes. The moderation effects were tested using linear regression models.ResultsA negative association was observed between burnout and QoL. It was also found a statistically significant moderator effect of the total score of stereotypes and the health stereotypes, (...) besides a marginally statistically significant moderator effect for motivational stereotypes. The moderator effects were different for people with low and high negative stereotypes. QoL was more affected under conditions of high burnout, in which people with more negative stereotypes tended to present higher QoL than people with lower negative stereotypes.ConclusionHighly burned-out professionals in nursing homes may avoid their negative feelings projecting them to residents through stereotypes, as a way of coping with burnout and increasing their QoL. However, this mechanism is an “aggressive reaction” and may have negative effects for both the older adult and the professional. The comprehension of these variables is essential for developing adequate intervention programs. (shrink)

Automatic control of physiological variables is one of the most active areas in biomedical engineering. This paper is centered in the prediction of the analgesic variables evolution in patients undergoing surgery. The proposal is based on the use of hybrid intelligent modelling methods. The study considers the Analgesia Nociception Index to assess the pain in the patient and remifentanil as intravenous analgesic. The model proposed is able to make a one-step-ahead prediction of the remifentanil dose corresponding to the current state (...) of the patient. The input information is the previous remifentanil dose, the ANI variable and the electromyogram signal. Modelling techniques used are Artificial Neural Networks and Support Vector machines for Regression combined with clustering methods. Both training and validation were done with a real dataset from different patients. Results obtained show the potential of this methodology to calculate the drug dose corresponding to a given analgesic state of the patient. (shrink)

El objetivo del presente artículo consiste en exponer y realizar un balance crítico del concepto de "administración de la muerte" en la obra de Agustín García Calvo. Considero que a través de este concepto el autor describe un mecanismo de dominación actual que está presente – especialmente– en nuestras sociedades llamadas "desarrolladas" o Estados del Bienestar. Así pues, por una parte describiré el significado de la administración de la muerte en la obra de García Calvo, pero, por otra, (...) en el esfuerzo por interpretar y valorar la potencialidad de su propuesta, defenderé también que este concepto puede comprenderse como una actualización y reelaboración de la crítica al ascetismo de Nietzsche, recogiendo también alguna influencia de Marx y de algunos otros autores contemporáneos. (shrink)

Assessing physical fitness has emerged as a proxy of the health status of children and adolescents and therefore as relevant from a public health point of view. DAFIS is a project included in Plan Galicia Saudable of the regional government of Galicia. DAFIS consists of an on-line software devoted to record the results of a standard physical fitness protocol carried out as a part of the physical education curriculum. The aims of this study were: to obtain normative values of physical (...) fitness of the Galician school population evaluated in the DAFIS project, and to identify a reduced number of components and tests able to capture a significant amount of the variability in the physical fitness of children and adolescents. From an initial sample of 27784 records, 15287 cases were considered after filtering. Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape were used for obtaining percentile curves and tables for each sex. Furthermore, a principal components analysis was performed, selecting the number of components by applying the Kaiser’s rule and selecting a subset of variables considering the correlation between each variable and the components. Percentile curves and normative values are reported for each test and sex. Physical fitness was better in boys than in girls throughout age groups, except for flexibility that was consistently higher in girls. Two main components were detected throughout age groups: the first one representing body composition and partially cardiorespiratory fitness and the second one muscular fitness. For boys and girls, waist to height ratio had the highest correlations with the first component in four out of six age groups. The highest correlation with the second component, was most frequently observed for the handgrip test both in boys and girls. This study provides evidence about the utility of school community actions like DAFIS aimed to track the health-related fitness of children and adolescents. The results suggest that fat mass distribution and muscular performance concentrate a high proportion physical fitness variance. (shrink)

1. Categories and the Scientific Turn of Metaphysics: The Notion of World-Fundamentality What are the fundamental inhabitants of the world? This question, as old as it is new, is about the fundamental structure of our world. Is our world a world of Aristotle's ordinary substances, Locke's physical substances, Husserl's wholes, Wittgenstein's facts, Sellars's processes, or Quine's sets? In order to distinguish the sort of metaphysical fundamentality at stake in this discussion from other possible types of fundamentality, I shall call it (...) from now on "world-fundamentality." In this article I want to make a proposal in the context of this metaphysical dispute. The proposal is the addition of a new criterion of world-fundamentality to the existing catalog of independence and simplicity, among some other prominent classical examples. I call this criterion "the materialist criterion of world-fundamentality" because it states that metaphysicians should not decide the question of whether our world is a world of facts rather than a world of sets or other categories without considering the explanatory power of such categories to account for the relation between "the manifest image" and "the scientific image," to use the words of Wilfrid Sellars. (shrink)

Jerry Fodor and Ernest Lepore have launched a powerful attack against Paul Churchland's connectionist theory of semantics—aka State Space Semantics. In one part of their overall attack, they exploit the potentially orthogonal histories of different individuals to introduce what they labeled ‘the collateral information problem’. Aarre Laakso and Gary Cottrell have recently put forward a mathematical technique for measuring conceptual similarity across neural networks. Churchland uses Laakso and Cottrell's tecnique to defend State Space Semantics. In this paper I shall highlight (...) a potential problem for Laakso and Cottrell's technique, and for Churchland's subsequent defence of connectionist semantics that has been ignored in the connectionist literature. I shall argue that a connectionist sympathiser of Churchland could not make use of Laakso and Cottrell's neurosimulations to address Fodor and Lepore's collateral information challenge. (shrink)

El presente documento intenta colocar diversas discusiones sobre la realidad latinoamericana, particularmente en la forma como diversos escenarios nacionales han asumido críticos periodos de violencia política en décadas recientes. Ello teniendo en cuenta que hay toda una serie de variantes y contextos políticos en la región, en donde se imponen por un lado, diferentes regímenes de gobierno y por otro, distintos posicionamientos políticos de los movimientos sociales. En ambos casos, estos se despliegan acorde al momento socioeconómico experimentado en una determinada (...) nación. El énfasis de esta propuesta, acentúa en abrir un debate respecto a cómo cada sociedad instaurada dentro de los marcos nacionales, ha enfrentado posterior o simultáneamente, críticos periodos de violación de los Derechos Humanos ocurridos en periodos de aguda confrontación política y social. Han sido momentos históricos donde se concentran las contradicciones sociales, ya sea bajo la forma de dictaduras o bajo la imposición de gobiernos autoritarios encubiertos en un sistema democrático. Son etapas pasadas y presentes que aún hoy dejan una huella profunda en la conciencia y vida de muchos activistas, de académicos, de organizaciones sociales y de víctimas del terrorismo de Estado. (shrink)

Al explorar la contraposición y/o complementación de convicciones y responsabilidades, el autor parte del enfoque de Weber y su polémica interna con la ética de Kant. Así, la Gesinnungsethik es entendida de forma unitaria como una ética de las intenciones que plantear1 problema de las consecuencias, como una ética de los fines que conduce a la cuestión de los medios y a la de los valores, y como una ética de las convicciones que abre el interrogante de los principios e (...) imperativos. Desde el punto de vista de la ética del siglo xxi, entendida como la teoría de la razón práctica, el articulo desarrolla tres perspectivas diferentes: las de su relación con la política, con la tecnociencia y con la ontología, y sus respectivas racionalidades y razonabilidades. (shrink)

Empirical research on Rational Choice Theory has brought up two focus of the economics laws problem. On one hand, we find the authors who state that the neoclassical economics laws are explanatory and predictive on specific cases: in transparent contexts in which the standard rationality operates successfully. On the other hand, we find the authors who state that the descriptive theories of the rational choice opens up a research path in which fundamental principles of the neoclassical building could be questioned. (...) Both view points have generated an important standard Rational Choice Theory revision what has produced the so called descriptive view point . It implies understanding that most of the choices take place under risky or uncertainty conditions and, that, these choices are far more complex than the normative Rational Choice Theory supposes. This article's main goal is to expand the descriptive point of view in rational choice, theorizing how some factors, coming from the social and cultural environment, operate within the rational choice. Into space of this research essay we find the debatable question of whether these sort of proposals expands the explanation of the deviation of the rational choice normative theory, and that, of the disturbing causes of the microeconomics laws, or they call into question fundamental principles of these laws and therefore they are opening the possibility to focus some economics issues in a new different manner. (shrink)

It remains at best controversial to claim, non-figuratively, that plants are cognitive agents. At the same time, it is taken as trivially true that many animals are cognitive agents, arguably through an implicit or explicit appeal to natural science. Yet, any given definition of cognition implicates at least some further processes, such as perception, action, memory, and learning, which must be observed either behaviorally, psychologically, neuronally, or otherwise physiologically. Crucially, however, for such observations to be intelligible, they must be counted (...) as evidence for some model. These models in turn point to homologies of physiology and behavior that facilitate the attribution of cognition to some non-human animals. But, if one is dealing with a model of animal cognition, it is tautological that only animals can provide evidence, and absurd to claim that plants can. The more substantive claim that, given a general model of cognition, only animals but not plants can provide evidence, must be evaluated on its merits. As evidence mounts that plants meet established criteria of cognition, from physiology to behavior, they continue to be denied entry into the cognitive club. We trace this exclusionary tendency back to Aristotle, and attempt to counter it by drawing on the philosophy of modelling and a range of findings from plant science. Our argument illustrates how a difference in degree between plant and animals is typically mistaken for a difference in kind. (shrink)

A partir de la hermenéutica de Gadamer, en este artículo se interpretan las posiciones que asumen Grondin, Zabala y Ortiz-Osés, acerca del sentido del ser como creación o dación, mediación y responsabilidad. La condición de ser y estar en el mundo es filosóficamente un modo de existencia compartida ..

En la actualidad, el desarrollo económico y social de un territorio necesita de los esfuerzos mancomunados de todos y cada uno de los agentes presentes en el medio. Es por ello que el presente artículo pretende reflexionar sobre la vinculación directa existente entre dos de ellos, por un lado las Agencias de Desarrollo Local --ADL’s- como máximo exponente del modelo de desarrollo local y por otro las organizaciones pertenecientes al Tercer Sector, como entidades clave en el sostenimiento y desarrollo social (...) de la comunidad. Para ello partiendo de las características propias del modelo actual de desarrollo local implantado, propondremos dos decálogos de conclusiones, que analicen tanto las similitudes como las divergencias existentes entre estos dos modelos. (shrink)