This study presents the application of self-organizing maps to air-quality data in order to analyze episodes of high pollution in Madrid. The goal of this work is to explore the dataset and then compare several scenarios with similar atmospheric conditions : some of them when no actions were taken and some when traffic restrictions were imposed. The levels of main pollutants, recorded at these stations for eleven days at four different times from 2015 to 2018, are analyzed in order to (...) determine the effectiveness of the anti-pollution measures. The visualization of trajectories on the self-organizing map let us clearly see the evolution of pollution levels and consequently evaluate the effectiveness of the taken measures, after and during the protocol activation time. (shrink)

Ozone is one of the pollutants with most negative effects on human health and in general on the biosphere. Many data-acquisition networks collect data about ozone values in both urban and background areas. Usually, these data are incomplete or corrupt and the imputation of the missing values is a priority in order to obtain complete datasets, solving the uncertainty and vagueness of existing problems to manage complexity. In the present paper, multiple-regression techniques and Artificial Neural Network models are applied to (...) approximate the absent ozone values from five explanatory variables containing air-quality information. To compare the different imputation methods, real-life data from six data-acquisition stations from the region of Castilla y León are gathered in different ways and then analyzed. The results obtained in the estimation of the missing values by applying these techniques and models are compared, analyzing the possible causes of the given response. (shrink)

Detecting intrusions in large networks is a highly demanding task. In order to reduce the computation demand of analysing every single packet travelling along one of such networks, some years ago flows were proposed as a way of summarizing traffic information. Very few research works have addressed intrusion detection in flows from a visualizations perspective. In order to bridge this gap, the present paper proposes the application of a novel projection method (Beta Hebbian Learning) under this framework. With the aim (...) to validate this method, 8 traffic segments, containing many flows, have been analysed by means of this projection method. The promising results obtained for these segments, extracted from the University of Twente dataset, validate the proposed application. (shrink)

In the field of cybernetic systems and more specifically in robotics, one of the fundamental objectives is the detection of anomalies in order to minimize loss of time. Following this idea, this paper proposes the implementation of a Hybrid Intelligent System in four steps to impute the missing values, by combining clustering and regression techniques, followed by balancing and classification tasks. This system applies regression models to each one of the clusters built on the instances of data set. Subsequently, a (...) variety of balancing techniques are applied to improve the classifier’s ability to discern whether it is in an error or a normal state. These techniques support to obtain better classification ratios in which a robot is close to error and allow us to bring the behavior back to a normal state. The experimentation is performed using a modern and public data set, which has been extracted from a component-based robotic system, in which different anomalies are induced by software in their components. (shrink)

Present research proposes the application of unsupervised and supervised machine-learning techniques to characterize Android malware families. More precisely, a novel unsupervised neural-projection method for dimensionality-reduction, namely, Beta Hebbian Learning, is applied to visually analyze such malware. Additionally, well-known supervised Decision Trees are also applied for the first time in order to improve characterization of such families and compare the original features that are identified as the most important ones. The proposed techniques are validated when facing real-life Android malware data by (...) means of the well-known and publicly available Malgenome dataset. Obtained results support the proposed approach, confirming the validity of BHL and DTs to gain deep knowledge on Android malware. (shrink)

Since Darwin, Biology has been framed on the idea of evolution by natural selection, which has profoundly influenced the scientific and philosophical comprehension of biological phenomena and of our place in Nature. This book argues that contemporary biology should progress towards and revolve around an even more fundamental idea, that of autonomy. Biological autonomy describes living organisms as organised systems, which are able to self-produce and self-maintain as integrated entities, to establish their own goals and norms, and to promote the (...) conditions of their existence through their interactions with the environment. Topics covered in this book include organisation and biological emergence, organisms, agency, levels of autonomy, cognition, and a look at the historical dimension of autonomy. The current development of scientific investigations on autonomous organisation calls for a theoretical and philosophical analysis. This can contribute to the elaboration of an original understanding of life - including human life - on Earth, opening new perspectives and enabling fecund interactions with other existing theories and approaches. This book takes up the challenge. (shrink)

This paper aims to enhance security in IoT device networks through a visual tool that utilizes three projection techniques, including Beta Hebbian Learning (BHL), t-distributed Stochastic Neighbor Embedding (t-SNE) and ISOMAP, in order to facilitate the identification of network attacks by human experts. This work research begins with the creation of a testing environment with IoT devices and web clients, simulating attacks over Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) for recording all relevant traffic information. The unsupervised algorithms chosen provide a set (...) of projections that enable human experts to visually identify most attacks in real-time, making it a powerful tool that can be implemented in IoT environments easily. (shrink)

¿Qué es una revolución? ¿Qué fuerzas la desencadenan? ¿Por qué fases atraviesa? ¿Es un acontecimiento imprevisible, que actúa al modo de una explosión volcánica, como pensaba Joseph de Maistre, o es un fenómeno enraizado en factores observables, acumulados a lo largo del tiempo, como afirmó Tocqueville? ¿Es el resultado necesario de factores estructurales, de acuerdo con procesos deterministas de carácter inevitable, como pensaba Karl Marx, o es algo contingente, provocado y dirigido por la acción consciente de grupos sociales con propósitos (...) definidos, como demostró Ted R. Gurr? Y, de ser así, ¿están enraizados tales factores y/o responden tales propósitos a aspiraciones predominantemente materiales y económicas, o son más bien de tipo espiritual, relacionados con la dignidad y el deseo de libertad de los participantes, o incluso con percepciones transcendentes, relacionadas con la seguridad ontológica y la percepción identitaria de las sociedades y los grupos participantes? ¿Qué resultados cabe esperar de las revoluciones y qué factores inciden sobre ellos? (shrink)

El acceso equitativo a la energía y a la vivienda es una preocupación básica de la justicia social. A pesar de los numerosos vínculos entre estos dos bienes esenciales, los marcos teóricos de la justicia y la pobreza energética se han referido casi exclusivamente a la cuestión de la vivienda en términos de la eficiencia energética de los edificios residenciales. En respuesta a esta carencia conceptual, se propone la reintegración del factor vivienda en el marco de la justicia y pobreza (...) energética a lo largo de los siguientes tres ejes: dimensiones materiales y temporales; dimensiones políticas; y dimensiones éticas y legales. Como ejemplo empírico de la importancia del nexo vivienda-energía en la práctica de la justicia social, se presenta el caso de dos movimientos sociales surgidos en Barcelona que trabajan con una perspectiva conjunta de derecho a la vivienda y a la energía: la Plataforma de Afectados por la Hipoteca (PAH) y la Aliança contra la Pobresa Energètica (APE). El artículo subraya la importancia de la vivienda y la energía como fundamentos materiales de una vida digna y su naturaleza conflictiva como necesidades esenciales y bienes de mercado. (shrink)

This paper argues that at Cicero, De re publica 6.17 the manuscript text unum globum should be kept instead of the conjecture summum globum. This conjecture is unanimously attributed to Fr. Boll (1910), but it was proposed already in 1790 by G. W. Maier. The use of unus in this context, in which the set of harmonic spheres of our cosmos is described, can be explained as an alternative to primus when referring to the first element of a sequence; further (...) instances in Cicero’s works support this interpretation. (shrink)

Las metodologías activas son unas excelentes herramientas para la mejora del desarrollo de competencias, así como del aprendizaje del alumnado. Se recogen las percepciones y el uso que 92 profesores de educación secundaria de la Comunidad Valenciana (España) manifestaron en un cuestionario tras haber realizado una formación en las mismas. Los resultados permiten constatar que, si bien se produce un aumento en el uso y una mejora en las percepciones, sigue habiendo una considerable resistencia al cambio de este colectivo de (...) profesorado. Encuentran desventajas como considerarlas muy exigentes con el tiempo y son escépticos en el aprendizaje real del alumnado. (shrink)

This article intends to contribute to the science–religion historiography with two topics—philology and the construction of national identities—that can help provide a more complex picture of the relations between science and religion. We use the life and work of the Mallorcan Catholic priest Antoni Maria Alcover (1862–1932) as a case study that puts language, linguistics, and nationalism on the board of science and religion studies. Alcover was the main driving force of the Catalan Dictionary, a collective enterprise that set out (...) to inventory the complete oral and literary lexicon of this language, and which mobilized thousands of people, many of which were clergymen, from all over the Catalan‐speaking territories. In the article, we will explore Alcover's education; the way he established a link between language, religion, and fatherland; the shaping of his identity as a philologist in the image mainly of new German notions and practices; as well as his role in the institutionalization process of the Catalan language as a scientific language, as a language for science and for religion. (shrink)

The project of growing meat artificially represents for some the next best thing to humanity. If successful, it could be the solution to several problems, such as feed- ing a growing global population while reducing the environmental impact of raising animals for food and, of course, reducing the amount and degree of animal cruelty and suffering that is involved in animal farming. In this paper, I argue that the issue of the morality of such a project has been framed only (...) in terms of the best conse- quences for the environment, animals, and humans, or in terms of deontic princi- ples. I argue that to appreciate how deep and difficult this issue is, it is necessary to consider it in terms of a virtue-oriented approach. Such an approach will reveal aspects that are not apparent, not contemplated by typical approaches, but are essen- tial to our understanding of the morality of lab-grown meat. As I argue, evaluating the issue from a virtue-oriented perspective suggests that the project of in vitro meat should not be supported because it stems from unvirtuous motivations. (shrink)

En este artículo se pretende realizar un análisis del origen filosófico de uno de los puntos clave que cambiaron los cimientos de la metafísica moderna a partir de la aportación de la noción de filosofía de naturaleza de Schelling, que conlleva a abrir desde el idealismo alemán una concepción alternativa de las relaciones entre la finitud y el Absoluto a las llevadas a cabo por Fichte y Hegel. Su filosofía de la naturaleza inaugurará toda una corriente de pensamiento que incluirá (...) tanto gran parte de la filosofía de Spinoza como el discurrir estético del Sturm und Drang alemán. Posteriormente, y previa enorme reflexión del tótem ineludible de la filosofía crítica kantiana y ruptura con la fichteana, la importancia de su legado filosófico no hará más que crecer, ya que de la influencia sus escritos participarán, de manera más o menos explícita, pensadores como Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud o Heidegger, e incluso llegará hasta el siglo XXI de la mano de gran parte de los autores de la denominada época posmoderna, como Deleuze o Zizek entre otros. (shrink)

The first form of the inside-outside dichotomy appears as a self-encapsulated system with an active border. These systems are based on two complementary but asymmetric processes: constructive and interactive. The former physically constitute the system as a recursive network of component production, defining an inside. The maintenance of the constructive processes implies that the internal organization also constrains certain flows of matter and energy across the border of the system, generating interactive processes. These interactive processes ensure the maintenance of the (...) constructive processes thus specifying a meaningful outside. Upon this basic form of identity formation, the evolutionary and historical domain is open for the emergence of a whole hierarchy and ecology of insides and outsides. These which mutually subsume and collaborate in the maintenance of the essential inside-outside dichotomy that defines the conditions of possibility of the subjects and the worlds they generate. (shrink)

In this article, we propose some fundamental requirements for the appearance of adaptivity. We argue that a basic metabolic organization, taken in its minimal sense, may provide the conceptual framework for naturalizing the origin of teleology and normative functionality as it appears in living systems. However, adaptivity also requires the emergence of a regulatory subsystem, which implies a certain form of dynamic decoupling within a globally integrated, autonomous system. Thus, we analyze several forms of minimal adaptivity, including the special case (...) of motility. We go on to explain how an open-ended complexity growth of motility-based adaptive agency, namely, behavior, requires the appearance of the nervous system. Finally, we discuss some implications of these ideas for embodied robotics. (shrink)

The project of growing meat artificially represents for some the next best thing to humanity. If successful, it could be the solution to several problems, such as feeding a growing global population while reducing the environmental impact of raising animals for food and, of course, reducing the amount and degree of animal cruelty and suffering that is involved in animal farming. In this paper, I argue that the issue of the morality of such a project has been framed only in (...) terms of the best consequences for the environment, animals, and humans, or in terms of deontic principles. I argue that to appreciate how deep and difficult this issue is, it is necessary to consider it in terms of a virtue-oriented approach. Such an approach will reveal aspects that are not apparent, not contemplated by typical approaches, but are essential to our understanding of the morality of lab-grown meat. As I argue, evaluating the issue from a virtue-oriented perspective suggests that the project of in vitro meat should not be supported because it stems from unvirtuous motivations. (shrink)

Around the Council of Basel, and opposing the nominalism renewal, in the University of Salamanca a whole new movement of humanistic renewal is promoted from the field of philosophy and theology, having in Pedro Martinez de Osma one of its most significant representatives. In this paper the meaning of his work, with influences from L. Bruni and L. Valla, is shown and two of his most significant texts are rescued from that fight which confronted the humanism against the nominalism.

In view of the changes and achievements which the science and technique are producing at the end of the XV and XVI centuries, fragmenting the medieval order, Fernán Pérez de Oliva, in order to bring into harmony the new Renaissance times, will offer a new image of the human being. This will must be as the well tuned vihuela wich produces sweet harmony.