9300 research outputs found
Sort by
Explainable machine learning for project management control
Get PDFProject control is a crucial phase within project management aimed at ensuring —in an integrated manner— that the project objectives are met according to plan. Earned Value Management —along with its various refinements— is the most popular and widespread method for top-down project control. For project control under uncertainty, Monte Carlo simulation and statistical/machine learning models extend the earned value framework by allowing the analysis of deviations, expected times and costs during project progress. Recent advances in explainable machine learning, in particular attribution methods based on Shapley values, can be used to link project control to activity properties, facilitating the interpretation of interrelations between activity characteristics and control objectives. This work proposes a new methodology that adds an explainability layer based on SHAP —Shapley Additive exPlanations— to different machine learning models fitted to Monte Carlo simulations of the project network during tracking control points. Specifically, our method allows for both prospective and retrospective analyses, which have different utilities: forward analysis helps to identify key relationships between the different tasks and the desired outcomes, thus being useful to make execution/replanning decisions; and backward analysis serves to identify the causes of project status during project progress. Furthermore, this method is general, model-agnostic and provides quantifiable and easily interpretable information, hence constituting a valuable tool for project control in uncertain environments
A Deep Learning Image System for Classifying High Oleic Sunflower Seed Varieties
No full textSunflower seeds, one of the main oilseeds produced around the world, are widely used in the food industry. Mixtures of seed varieties can occur throughout the supply chain. Intermediaries and the food industry need to identify the varieties to produce high-quality products. Considering that high oleic oilseed varieties are similar, a computer-based system to classify varieties could be useful to the food industry. The objective of our study is to examine the capacity of deep learning (DL) algorithms to classify sunflower seeds. An image acquisition system, with controlled lighting and a Nikon camera in a fixed position, was constructed to take photos of 6000 seeds of six sunflower seed varieties. Images were used to create datasets for training, validation, and testing of the system. A CNN AlexNet model was implemented to perform variety classification, specifically classifying from two to six varieties. The classification model reached an accuracy value of 100% for two classes and 89.5% for the six classes. These values can be considered acceptable, because the varieties classified are very similar, and they can hardly be classified with the naked eye. This result proves that DL algorithms can be useful for classifying high oleic sunflower seeds
Social Support Seeking Among Women Victims of Intimate Partner Violence: A Qualitative Analysis of Lived Experiences
Get PDFPurpose:
Intimate partner violence against women is a major source of morbidity and mortality among women worldwide. In this study, 131 testimonies of female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) are examined to study the factors associated with victims’ decision to seek social support (formal and informal).
Method:
Semi-structured interviews were conducted with female victims of IPV in Spain. The IRaMuTeQ 7 software was used to analyze the discourses. A total of 10,845 words with 1183 different forms were examined.
Results:
The analysis identified six clusters. Cluster 1 (18% of the total content) reflects the emotional component of aggression (fear of death). Cluster 2 (13.1%) describes psychological aggression (threatening), and Cluster 3 (17.2%) refers to the use of power within relationships (control). Cluster 6 (13.8%) includes different types of physical aggression (hitting); and Clusters 4 (21%) and 5 (16.9%) refer to formal (judging) and informal (friends) social support.
Conclusions:
Results indicated a strong association between emotions (e.g., fear of dying) and physical and psychological aggression. Non-fatal strangulation represented an extreme form of physical violence that was used to control women increasing the risk of violence becoming lethal. Women tended to seek more support when the violence increased, and they perceived a greater risk to their children. There was an association between suffering violence, power, control, and seeking formal and informal social support. Results have significant implications to interrupt coercive control processes and to motivate help seeking behaviors in victims of IPV.Open Access funding provided thanks to the CRUE-CSIC agreement with Springer Nature. This piece of research was funded by Projects led by the Spanish Ministry of Innovation and Science (MCIN/ AEI/https://doi.org/10.13039/501100011033/), reference PID2020- 16658GB-I00PSI
Taking the world seriously: Autonomy, reflexivity and engagement research in social and environmental accounting
Get PDFThere is a long-standing debate within the social and environmental accounting research community concerning whether research engagement with (commercial) organisations and decision-makers is detrimental to the pursuit of sustainability transformation. Those critical of engagement research see such an approach as futile or outright harmful, suggesting that scholars are bound to be co-opted in the process and essentially end up reproducing systems of domination. In response, we emphasise in this paper how engagement research requires an exercise of reflexivity, which, hopefully, makes us “more conscious and more systematic” about engagement research and provides “the mutual surveillance” (Bourdieu, 2000b, p. 119) required for this academic exercise. Drawing on Bourdieu’s Pascalian Meditations, we discuss the implications of the notions of intellectual autonomy and scientific capital in the field of social and environmental accounting research and stress that both the scholastic situation and engagement with the social world are necessary elements for scholarship. We argue, on the one hand, that critical research in social and environmental accounting is a key mechanism to enhance the scientific capital of the field—through improved theorising of power and conflict—and hence retain (strengthen) the autonomy of social and environmental accounting. On the other hand, we also suggest that reinvigorating research on the relevance of accounting techniques for sustainable development is essential for our scientific capital and the wider contribution of social accounting across intellectual fields and beyond.We wish to thank Editor Yves Gendron and the two anonymous referees for their substantial comments challenging us to develop, reflect upon and clarify our thinking. We are grateful for the financial assistance provided by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, FEDER, Academy of Finland and Consejería de Educación, Junta de Castilla y León (Grants ECO2015-65782-P, RTI2018-099920-B-I00 and BU058P17). Previous drafts of this paper were presented at the 2015 IPA Conference in Stockholm and at a research seminar in Strathclyde University
Theoretical Insights into Flavonol Solubilization by Deep Eutectic Solvents
Get PDFThe low solubility of flavonols in common solvents such as water hinders their extraction from natural sources, solubility, and bioavailability; thus, new solvents are required for the development of flavonols’ related technologies and applications. The alternative of deep eutectic solvents for flavonols solubilization is considered in this work through the analysis of the properties and structure of archetypical flavonols (galangin, kaempferol, quercetin, myricetin) in a model deep eutectic solvent (choline chloride:glycerol 1:2) as a function of flavonol concentration through the use of a theoretical approach combining density functional theory and classical molecular dynamics simulations. The solvation and self-aggregation of flavonols in the considered solvent are analyzed through the study of extension and the nature of hydrogen bonding. The complexity of the considered fluids stands on the competing effect for hydrogen bonding development between the components of the solvent, those between the solvent and the flavonols, and the trend to self-aggregation between flavonol molecules, thus determining the solubility of flavonols and the mechanism of solubilization
Percepción de alumnos y familias sobre la robótica educativa en la educación no formal
No full textLa robótica es una disciplina educativa basada en una metodología de aprendizaje que se apoya en áreas del conocimiento tales como la tecnología, la física y las matemáticas y que, a partir de la puesta en práctica de actividades vinculadas con la creación, la construcción y la programación de diseños robóticos, facilita el desarrollo de habilidades y competencias técnico-científicas. El objetivo de la investigación es conocer la percepción de los estudiantes y sus familias sobre la robótica educativa, como una metodología eficiente y motivadora durante el desarrollo formativo del alumnado. La metodología aplicada en la investigación es cuantitativa, siendo un estudio retrospectivo y de cohorte. A través de la elaboración de dos cuestionarios ad-hoc (familias y alumnado), se recopila información mediante cuestiones planteadas con posibilidad de respuesta tipo Likert (escala del 1 al 4), respuesta múltiple y cuestiones con respuesta semiabierta. Para ello la muestra se compone de 104 participantes: 61 alumnos que cursan robótica como actividad educativa no formal y 43 padres y/o madres. La percepción de las familias reafirma las virtudes de la robótica educativa en el desempeño académico del alumnado y en su futuro profesional y/o laboral a través de la adquisición de competencias tecnológicas y digitales, unidas con la mejora y desarrollo de la capacidad de enfrentarse a los problemas. Por su parte el alumnado muestra que la robótica es un área relevante y motivante en su formación, así como en el desarrollo de su creatividad e imaginación.Robotics is an educational discipline based on a learning methodology that relies on areas of knowledge such as technology, physics, and mathematics and that, from implementing activities related to the creation, construction, and programming of robotic designs, facilitates the development of technical-scientific skills and competencies. The objective of the research is to know the perception of the students and their families about educational robotics as an efficient and motivating methodology during the formative development of the students. The methodology applied in the research is quantitative, being a retrospective and cohort study. Through the preparation of two ad-hoc questionnaires (families and students), information is collected through questions posed with the possibility of a Likert-type response (scale from 1 to 4), multiple answers and questions with semi-open answers. For this, the sample comprises 104 participants: 61 students who study robotics as a non-formal educational activity and 43 fathers and/or mothers. The perception of families reaffirms the virtues of educational robotics in the academic performance of students and in their professional and/or work future through the acquisition of technological and digital skills, together with the improvement and development of the ability to face problems. From the students, it is extracted that robotics is a relevant and motivating area in their training and developing their creativity and imagination
Outdoors, indoors: (trans-)domesticity as social dialectics in «La señorita Julia» by Amparo Dávila and “The Babadook” by Jennifer Kent
No full textEl espacio doméstico ha sido un locus arquetípico de la literatura fantástica. Dentro de las posibilidades críticas que ha encarnado, una de las más reconocidas es la representación de las limitaciones sociales que han aquejado a la figura femenina. Sin embargo, el papel un tanto desgastado de este marco diegético ha contribuido a la diversificación de sus repre-sentaciones y a la amplificación de sus vertientes semióticas. Una de dichas vertientes incide en la necesidad de no limitar la concepción de la casa encantada a una mera interioridad, a un espacio clausurado, ajeno al exterior. En esta dirección, este trabajo se propone explorar la dialéctica doméstico-social que se establece entre el afuera y el adentro en el cuento «La señorita Julia» (1959), de la mexicana Amparo Dávila, y la película The Babadook (2014), de la australiana Jennifer Kent.Domestic space has been an archetypal locus for fantastic literature. Among its critical potentials, a central one has been the representation of the social limitations afflicting women. However, the somewhat worn-out role of this diegetic framework has contributed to the diversification of its representations and the amplification of its semiotic aspects. One of these aspects implicates the need not to limit the conception of the haunted house to a mere interiority, to a closed space, alien to the exterior. In this direction, this work intends to explore the domestic-social dialectic that is established between the outside and the inside in the story «La señorita Julia» (1959), by the Mexican Amparo Dávila, and the film The Babadook (2014), by the Australian Jennifer Kent.Este trabajo se ha realizado en el marco del proyecto de investigación competitivo «Mujer y espacio: discursos sobre la memoria y la identidad en la cultura visual y el arte» (código PII2022_05), del grupo de investigación CViArPe (Cultura Visual, Arte y Pensamiento), financiado por la Universidad Internacional de Valencia (VIU), a través de la Convocatoria para la concesión de subvenciones a proyectos internos de investigación 2021-2022
Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis: driven by the symptoms
No full textPneumatosis cystoides intestinalis is an uncommon disease of uncertain etiology,
defined as the presence of submucosal or subserosal gas cysts in the wall of the small
or large bowel. It is usually a casual finding, with a wide array of symptoms, from
diarrhea, pain or bloating, to bowel intussusception, volvulus or obstruction