Applied Technologies

Web services have been consolidated as technology for the use of the Internet, these services require integration mechanisms, to establish themselves as useful technological tools in the process of information and knowledge management and in dissimilar research activities, development of the organizations. In the process of modeling the Semantic Web, natural language processing algorithms are used, which improve the quality of the information stored in the digital repositories. The metrics of precision and completeness that contain the Weekly Web contribute to corroborate the quality, relevance and relevance of the information held on the internet. The objective of this paper is to compare the RDF and OWL ontology languages, in order to select the language that best fits the use of the Semantic Web, to carry out the process of managing the information, corresponding to the research activities with the greatest impact on the digital repositories of Ecuadorian universities.

In this paper the authors introduce a model for the mathematical support of the decision-making process during the evaluation of investment projects. As an example, the sphere of investing in Smart City development projects is considered. The emphasis in the model is placed on the multifactorial nature of the task in the search of rational financial strategies carried out by investor groups. The model particularly allows groups of investors (players) to evaluate the attractiveness and financial potential of the analyzed projects. At the same time, players can exercise control over a dynamic system in multidimensional project spaces. The model implies subsequent software implementation in a decision support system (DSS) or an expert system for cross-platform software products.The results presented in the article have been obtained through computational experiments based on the solution of a bilinear multi-step quality game with several terminal surfaces. The scientific novelty of the research lies in the fact that, in contrast to existing solutions and related to conceptual direction of research, the article first considers a new class of multi-step bilinear games. The proposed solution provides an opportunity to correctly and adequately describe the investment processes, given the multifactorial nature of the problem statement. Computational experiments were performed in the MatLab system to search for sets of investors’ preferences and their optimal financial strategies during the analysis of Smart City development projects. The results of computational experiments have proved and confirmed the correctness and adequacy of the model.

Service- and resource-oriented technologies have achieved a widely level of popularity and acceptance for the development of distributed systems. Most of the current processes executed on web, mobile and pervasive applications are generally developed by invoking heterogeneous services and resources through different models. This paper presents an analysis of the main approaches originated from the integration of Multiagent Systems (MASs) with service and resource architectures. The behavior of agents that explore and consume distributed services and resources on heterogeneous ecosystems was analyzed empirically in order to define a taxonomy of agents. Furthermore, a software tool for composing processes oriented to control IoT scenarios based on invoking services and resources is described. The experiments carried out show that the use of the artifice agent&services/resources is technically feasible and contributes significantly to the abstraction of the complexity of actions carried out in IoT environments.

This paper presents a development methodology for Internet of Things (IoT)-based Systems (IoTS) that gathers ideas from several of the most outstanding software development paradigms nowadays, such as Model-Driven Engineering (MDE) and Test-Driven Development (TDD), in addition to incorporating the principles that govern agile software development methodologies, such as SCRUM and XP. The methodology presented here, called Test-Driven Development Methodology for IoTS (TDDM4IoTS), has been proposed after an exhaustive review of different software development methodologies, leading us to conclude that none of them are specially oriented towards the development of IoTS. The methodology mainly consists of eleven phases, whose order of application can be established by the team that will develop the project in question. In this paper, we suggest an order to follow, as well as existing software tools that could be used as support for obtaining the corresponding deliverables at each phase.

In this article, the differential transform method has been used to solve the characteristic equation of the flow of a magnetorheological pseudoplastic fluid on a flat plate. Prior to this, other techniques were performed that allowed the transformation of the equation for the application of the method object of this investigation, considering a positive fluid deformation rate. The phenomenon of equal plate and fluid velocities with and without magnetic field was mainly taken into account. When the magnetic field is applied, the dimensionless velocity domain is drastically reduced, demonstrating that these types of special fluids are magnetorestrictive and their usefulness is under study for industrial and scientific applications.

The present investigation makes an approach to the experiences of a group of students in the use, appropriation, and implementation of the TIC from the professional practice or internship carried out in the business sector and other entities and institutions constituted as a practice center located in the localities of Bosa and Kennedy of the city of Bogotá - Colombia, this with the objective of evaluating the degree of appropriation of these and their level of competence when it comes to solving problems that arise in the daily routine of professional practice. The type of research under which the project was worked was the case study, with a mixed approach through the use of qualitative and quantitative instruments such as the survey, the interview, the field diary, and the documentary analysis; Results were obtained that point to the improvement in the processes of appropriation of ICTs within the different academic programs that are currently offered in order to improve the way in which these technological tools are implemented at the time of to solve business problems, especially those that arise in newly constituted companies or with technological and budgetary limitations, in such a way that it can give good business support.

The educational inclusion of people with disabilities continues to be a great challenge for society. Due to the field’s diversity and complexity, people with disabilities have few opportunities to be integrated into educational activities or even entertainment. This article describes a novel educational resource developed within the field of applied technologies. Q’inqu is an inclusive board game that encourages the family and educational inclusion of people with disabilities. Q’inqu is a Quechua word meaning “Labyrinth”. This is a metaphor for the challenges faced by families living with a person with disabilities, and it also reflects its narrative structure based on the “Legend of the Incas’ treasure”. Q’inqu has the general theme of a traditional board game where turns are taken until the treasure is found. What makes it different is the integration of inclusive elements through the use of technology. There are cards with a braille code, a rectangular board with high relief, and a circular board with textures. An App reads QR codes and also patterns, which present additional information based on augmented reality. These features provide support to blind players and to those who are unable to read, making the game both entertaining and educational. Q’inqu was developed and tested by a multidisciplinary team of 80 people, which included students and professionals from design, education and pedagogy. The most relevant result was that out of 367 ideas that were presented, it was awarded first prize in the category Toys for children with disabilities in the CMA contest held in Ecuador.

Internet of Things (IoT) experiences exponential growth in research and industry fields; the usefulness provided by IoT extends from critical applications such as intelligent transport systems and e-health to business-related applications such as banking and logistics. At the same time, faces privacy and security vulnerabilities becoming target of cyber-attacks, being necessary to mitigate them. Conventional security and privacy approaches tend not to be applicable for IoT, due to its decentralized topology and limited resources on its devices. Blockchain appears as a possible solution to the intrinsic security deficiency in IoT environments, since it has demonstrated its applicability in security and privacy fields over end-to-end networks with similar topologies as the ones used in IoT, thanks to its Defense-in-Depth approach is ideal for critical environments.Blockchain is based on a ledger with capability to preserve an immutable record of all chronological ordered transactions processed in network, subsequently shared with members of the network. However, this technology requires high computational performance and high bandwidth, generating delays that are not found in most IoT applications.This document examines the feasibility of implementing Blockchain considering IoT devices as endorsing peers and not only as users that invoke transactions. The results of proof of concept, bandwidth and performance measurements in several transactional tests are presented, applying the “Design Science Research” methodology. As a result, a high-level model for the implementation of IoT networks with Blockchain is proposed.

Oil production in mature oilfields is affected by the decrease of reservoir energy; it generates free gas presence in reservoir and well. The free gas presence during the process of lifting fluid by sucker rod pumping systems can generates blockage or interference in the bottom pump, therefore, lowers the efficiency and the capacity to lift fluid in each oil wells production.In this project it seeks to optimize the bottom hole equipment of the sucker rod pumping lifting system in the Petropolis oilfield.The methodological process applied in this study was theoretical-experimental; the characteristics of the fluid and the pressure drop between the reservoir and the well were used to determine the optimal lifting flow in the system. Finally, was sized the bottom tool, it is consisting of a gas separator located in the bottom pump, in order to reduce gas interference and blockage.Considering the implementation of the gas separator in each well analyzed, it was possible to increase oil production in all wells from 12% to 21% approximately.Due to the maturity of the oilfield and the present conditions of each wells, the use of gas separation system in bottom well was implemented to optimize the pump’s performance, managing to increase oil production and therefore increase economic income.

At the moment in the software development companies, teams have been created to guarantee the quality of their products, applying methodologies that have resulted in successful companies, proposing to copy the model and replicate it in your organization strictly in some cases, or trying to adapt it to the reality of your company, into others.In this article, the implementation is analyzed in a quality “live model”, a Quality Management System (QMS) comprehensive and based on the ISO 9001: 2015 “Quality Management Systems” Standard, with emphasis on “Projects Management” and “Service Management” processes of a medium-sized company dedicated to software development.The application of this model called SPF (System Process Framework) implied, among other activities, the exact definition of the areas, procedures and tasks involved, determination of roles and functions of each member of the organization, implementation of technological tools, in general, activities that allowed evaluating indicators that are part of the methodology, tailored solution that is continually adapting and improving “in hot”.By virtue of this, this article intends to present the results of the application of this “live model”, a concept based on the agile project management methodologies, this time applied to the quality assurance of the software product, with the objective that this experience, with its conclusions, be an input when choosing a quality model in the software development industry.

Brain Computer Interface (BCI) systems are the tools that allow the acquisition of biopotential signal spectra, with the most used attention, meditation and eye blinking signals. The main objective of BCI is to translate brain activity in digital form that can be used in different areas such as education, industrial, games, robotics, home automation and medical areas. In particular, this paper focuses on the acquisition and filtering of attention and meditation signals. For this, the variation and behavior of these signals are analyzed against external stimuli and in situations of stress and/or relaxation. EEG signals from the brain were captured by the MindWave Mobile device through the NeuroSky interface at a sampling rate of 1 Hz. The signals obtained are transmitted to two different devices, Arduino (At mega 328) and Raspberry Pi 3 through the Bluetooth module (HC-06) in order to compare the effectiveness of the sending and receiving times. The preliminary results in controlled scenarios allowed us identifying activities where complex mathematical calculations, meditation activities and listening to relaxing music are required. In this same sense, the comparison between the Arduino and Raspberry devices is shown.

As software engineers, it is not an easy task to build a software solution that customers consider easy to use, cost-benefit balanced, secured, high available and prepared for high demand. There are many solutions for building a monitoring platform with these previous attributes and we need to consider all the technical factors to achieve this goal. We proposed an agile methodology for the project management approach, acquired the necessary equipment and services and hired the staff to design and develop a monitoring platform in Google Cloud Platform (GCP) with edge frameworks and technologies. We implemented a software working solution composed of five applications (app) or services and configured services in the GCP: IoT data web service, frontend web app, backend web app, IoT app, and mobile app. They were developed using Python, ReactJS, and Java and deployed in Google Cloud Platform for being used in personal computers, laptops, mobile devices, and IoT devices. We defined this architecture with its main basis in a cloud platform that used the publish/subscribe pattern for efficient data ingestion and reporting.

Based on the fact that pain modulates the contour of the photoplethysmographic (PPG) signal, several authors have used PPG-derived parameters, like the amplitude of the PPG signal (PPGA) and the variations of the inter-pulse intervals (i.e., the pulse rate variability – PRV), for pain measurement. However, all those studies were limited to use PPG-derived parameters to assess only thermally evoked pain and no recent studies seem to be available to examine whether it is possible to measure the intensity of the pain evoked by mechanical stimulation. The present study aims to analyze whether it is possible to assess the intensity of mechanically induced pain by using PPG-derived parameters. PPG signals were recorded from fifteen healthy subjects during 6 min, and three force stimuli (3, 6 and 9 N) were applied in ascendant order at 90 s intervals to induce three different levels of pain: low, medium and high. The PPGA, the heart rate (HR), and the high-frequency band (0.15 to 0.4 Hz) power of the pulse rate variability (PRV-HF) were computed before and after the initiation of mechanical stimulation and the percentage of change was calculated for each stimulus intensity. Results show that, even though all of the parameters varied considerably in response to painful stimuli, none of them were able to differentiate between three aforementioned levels of mechanical pain. Only HR was capable of differentiating between low and medium pain, as well as between low and high pain.

Many companies in Ecuador are managing the opportunities and risks that digital transformation represents. To help them to better understand how to address this challenge, we describe the strategic options that 94 companies, which are among the 500 largest companies in Ecuador, have adopted to implement those independent aspects that digital transformation demands. With a quantitative-deductive approach of a descriptive type and based on a corporate digital transformation framework, we design a set of variables that senior management can use as guidelines when planning a digital transformation strategy. The results obtained yield important definitions and findings of the performance of senior management in relation to the challenges of business transformation. This work contributes to the knowledge of those who must make strategic decisions in particular business contexts to overcome the complexities of strategic business transformations.

Nowadays, Twitter has become a rich source for sentiment analysis and opinion mining data since every day thousand of users freely expresses their opinions in this social network. In this research, we analyze and classify the sentiment of shared publications that have the hashtag “#5G” as positive, negative or neutral. We use Google Cloud AutoML Natural Language Sentiment Analysis and we obtained a classification model with accuracy and recall of 80.89%, likewise applying Latent Dirichlet Allocation for the detection of topics. The result shows that is possible to identify main factors about public opinion in the acceptance or rejection of technology 5G, this information can be useful for technology companies.

The present article proposes the design and construction of a mobile robot for interiors with a Cyber Physical System (CPS) approach. It has the capacity to navigate in indoor environment and it also recognizes its surroundings by the Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (SLAM). In the generated map, the platform is able to navigate and to plan different trajectories towards the goal, recognizing obstacles, avoiding them and optimizing the routes. Besides, a docking station was built to charge and monitor the machine. It has a projection to work together with other robots and humans throughout IoT protocols.

In recent years, the number of people reaching stages of ageing has increased considerably, reflecting a serious public problem. It is not enough to reach long ages, but to guarantee the integral care and attention of each individual. Thus, taking into consideration the difficulties faced by the elderly, States implement social security programs that seek to support their development. Ecuador follows this trend and presents proposals that address a number of fundamental rights, which are considered priority health care services. Although the measures implemented maintain the health, this reality changes when moving from an urban to a rural scenario. This is justified by the fact that in Ecuador, specialists who care for the elderly constantly change their location and, therefore, their patients, rather than maintaining a non-standardized data record on paper, causing inefficiency and waste of time. For these reasons, this article explains a proposal for a mobile application that seeks to standardize and digitalize the collection of medical data from the elderly in rural areas in order to increase the efficiency of current medical processes.

The steady increase in the world’s older adult population is about to become one of the most critical social transformations of the 21st century, demanding significant adaptations of each nation’s health and social systems. Consequently, from the various needs reflected by this demographic change, SAFER-LIM emerges, a Web platform based on three axes that guarantee the correct development of each individual during his/her aging: linkage with society, interaction with his/her peers and monitoring of the state of health. From there, a virtual space is created centralized in the elderly that is shared with doctors, caregivers and family members. On the one hand, the social requirements are satisfied thanks to the addition of friends, creation of events and recommendation of places, promoting the enhancement of spaces and places destined for the senescent. On the other hand, with respect to the state of health, has designed a network of e-Health sensors for doctors that process and record measurements on biological variables of each elderly, following a model based on user profiles. Finally, in general, caregivers or relatives can see in real time the geographic location of the older adult and receive alerts about the change of routes or the abandonment of safe areas (geo-fences). The results obtained on the deployment of SAFER-LIM in an elderly community show positive impressions about its use.

At present, precision agriculture involves a set of technologies for the optimal management of soil and crops to improve productivity. Banana cultivation is one of the leading export items in the province of El-Oro in Ecuador. However, most of the sprinkler and gravity irrigation systems used there are controlled by a manual operator. All of these raise the cost of operation and waste of resources, such as water and labor. Also, human errors and the inaccuracy of water control in irrigation generate stress on plants, and therefore, their growth and increase in humidity pests are affected. This work proposes a Smart Irrigation Control Panel (SICP), based on the Internet of things, as part of a SCADA system for automation of irrigation control of said crop, in the experimental farm “Santa Inés” of the Technique University of Machala. The SCADA proposed, has a dashboard, available in the IOTMACH cloud of the university, for real-time monitoring of the process variables and the remote control of the solenoid valves used for irrigation, an IoT gateway implemented in a Raspberry Pi 3 and a SICP installed in the field. The SICP is responsible for compiling the variables of temperature and humidity of the environment and the earth, water pressure, acquired through motes based on Arduino Mega. A radio link with Wimax technology was used to communicate the SICP with the cloud, to publish the variables mentioned. The tests of electrical continuity, insulation, and performance performed, allowed to verify the correct functioning of the entire system and the interaction time between the SICP, Gateway, and the IOTMACH Cloud.

This paper introduces a methodology for resilience assessment of critical infrastructures based on massive data. The methodology is developed for the needs of the RESIIST research project. We start from the observation that the security of large cities has become a major issue. To ensure the proper functioning of critical infrastructures, it is essential to make the right decisions at the right time. To do this, managers are informed in their decision-making processes by several indicators such as resilience. As insecurity becomes more and more threatening with technological, natural and terrorist risks, it is essential to have an indicator of resilience of the infrastructures guaranteeing security. We therefore propose an innovative method of assessing resilience. It is innovative in that it combines both the genericity (it applies to all types of infrastructure), it takes into account several dimensions (economic, technical, social, human, regulatory etc.), it integrates massive data (from cameras, sensors, GIS, and social networks), it allows decision-making in an immersive environment in virtual reality.

The areas of Engineering in Applied Sciences have contributed significantly to the social, economic and technological advances of the world, being of interest to the academy mainly in the university system and specialization in Ecuador and in several countries both in the teaching-learning process as well as in research, which makes it increasingly stronger and proposes better and new solutions to environmental problems. This article performs a quantitative, descriptive and systemic analysis, which combines with the analysis of the ISO/IEC 25010 standard considers criteria such as functionality, performance, compatibility, usability, reliability, maintainability, portability to evaluate the quality of the software; The analysis involves simulation tools immersed in the teaching-learning processes of the engineering area with the determination to identify the tools used to solve specific problems in this field, particularly in the Telecommunications Engineering Degree at the “Universidad Técnica del Norte” University. This study is based on the opinion of experts in the university and business field who validate the established criteria. The results of this article identify the use of the different simulation tools in the university education and research environment, in addition to promoting the inclusion of these tools in the process of training students so that they can propose solutions at a scientific level and/or technological.

The use of web services has increased and has become the most widely used implementation today. The most crucial part of a web development project is the choice of the right tools for application development, this decision significantly influences the requirements to implement solutions for these services. The comparative analysis between SOAP, REST and GraphQL web services aims to assess the effectiveness of data transfer capabilities. The methods used were a systematic mapping to define the metrics to use for comparison such as response time and performance. A test environment was implemented, starting with the development of a web application using each of the technologies to be evaluated and in different programming languages. Then, the performance of web services was tested with the defined metrics and tools. We found, from experimental tests, that GraphQL has a faster response time and better performance than web services based on SOAP and REST. The result of the comparison can help developers choose the optimal and appropriate technology based on the performance of web services and other metrics that influence an essential aspect such as software quality.

This paper presents the design and implementation of a kit that involves a portable device and mobile application in order to detect and prevent ultraviolet radiation from any natural or artificial emission of UV rays, one of the invisible threats to human health. The prototype presents an adequate design in Arduino with low-cost components and portability for people, compared to other existing devices before the presentation of this article. The mobile application from the Android platform presents the data of the portable device during wireless connection with a friendly interface. Furthermore, the data from the prototype (UV index) are compared with the data of meteorological institute in the country http://186.42.174.236/IndiceUV2/ . Such data, measurements in mW/cm2, are taken from the north and south key points in Guayaquil, Ecuador, a distance of 10.7 km, in an understandable period on the 7th of April 2019 to this present date. The information is lodged on the site https://github.com/brodriguezm998/UV-Reader .

Intelligence refers to the ability to learn and apply knowledge in new situations. Games have proven their capacity to support the process of learning as well as the ability of humans to apply knowledge in new and unknown situations. Artificial intelligence from the other hand definitely struggles to truly and fully emulate neurological functions and human intelligence. Following this logical equitation, gamification would probably may be in use for artificial intelligence development. This paper aims at examining if the concept of gamification would be a possible tool to support and boost artificial intelligence on its way of development. Reviewing the gamification literature, taking a deeper look at gamification in ICT, and examining contemporary artificial intelligence (AI) and gamification studies as concepts with some possible cross points, the paper exploits the idea of gamification as a pivotal tool to address some of the recent challenges of AI from a business perspective. The methodology in the research stepped on some already identified key challenges for AI development in the recent literature and results in a discussion of how gamification may support AI in its way to transform industries and humanity. The results of the discussion can be seen as starting points for future hypotheses and knowledge gaps for further study.

The rapid evolution of the technologies applied in modelling and simulation (M&S) of the operational activities of military systems has made simulation platforms fundamental. In the case of the combat air forces (CAF), the simulators mission so far has been the initial and advanced training of pilots in offensive and defensive air operations. A high operational hybridization between the real and the virtual has been achieved, incorporating the pilot’s tactical-operational behaviour in air operations that reproduce circumstances of extreme hostility and lethality, adjusted to the effort that the aircraft would experience in a real flight, and applying the latest digital technologies. Yet the development effort has focused exclusively on comprehensive training solutions. However, the strategic development vector of M&S systems for CAF presents a much more ambitious spectrum, which transcends training and can become the core of the operational and logistic structures of the military forces in the future. This paper analyzes the main aspects that have conditioned the transition from the approach of the human-computer interaction (HCI) to the design of the user experience (UX), as well as the design requirements necessary for the development of the organizational architecture LVC-AI of M&S systems for CAF, and new functionalities beyond training systems. In this line, two examples of strategic development of these new functionalities in the field of logistics and in the operational field are developed. First, the case of obtaining, applying and managing logistic support intelligence related to the simulated effort of simulated hostile air operations and adverse weather conditions. Second, the case of the transformation of the LVC simulation platform into a real cabin on the ground, transforming the fighter aircraft into a remote pilot aircraft (RPA) capable of operating alternately in a conventional or remote way.

A lot of communication protocols have been developed to support the efficient communication of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) devices. These kinds of applications are intended to run with constrained resources. However, the selection of a standard and effective industrial messaging protocol is a challenging task for any shop floor integration because it depends on the nature of the IoT system and its messaging requirements. In this paper, two IoT protocols like Advanced Message Queuing Protocol (AMQP) and Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP) are compared using a low-cost hardware device for factory integration. The results show that the CoAP protocol is designed to be so small that it fits inside a microcontroller, but it can be fully applied in cyber-physical environments, in another aspect the AMQP protocol is more complex, there is no official support and you need bigger installation packages; but it provides a higher communication speed.

This paper presents the study of reverse engineering and three-dimensional printing as an alternative in the design of automotive parts, taking as a case study the distribution cover of the 2015 Chevrolet Spark car. For this, a 3D scanner “Scanner Handy” was used Scan” to capture the shape and characteristics of the distribution cover, and obtain a three-dimensional mesh (point cloud) for analysis, which is processed by using the “Geomagic Desing” software to obtain the three-dimensional CAD model; This model is imported into Siemens NX software to make dimensional adjustments through a comparative analysis between the constructed CAD model and the copied element, to perform prototyping by 3D printing. Finally, as a result, a prototype of the Spark 2015 distribution cover is obtained with the respective valuation of its mechanical properties, and an analysis of the degree of feasibility of this manufacturing process in the manufacture of automotive parts by means of 3D printing “FDM”.

There is no doubt that population growth and the increase in non-communicable diseases represent a challenge to society, especially for the health system, including palliative care. Maintaining accessible sites is essential for all kinds of people to interact on the web. Ecuador does not have websites on palliative care, and the existing ones in the area of health are not all accessible. To solve this need, we propose the design of a website in the area of palliative care, applying standards based on Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1. By designing a website that applies the WCAG 2.1 standards, more people will be able to access healthcare, including people with disabilities. This research can contribute as a reference for the construction of more inclusive websites in the area of health.

The processes have been diversifying over time, the virtual modality of training is the one that currently predominates, many public and private entities also hold events such as congresses of majority attendance, all these educational processes are guaranteed by certificates that normally must be printed as soon as these events culminate. The management of the certificates involves some difficulties such as high individual cost, errors in names are commented on several times and they must be redone. The project aimed to systematize this management to obtain digital certificates that can be easily downloaded from any part of the world at any time. The research was carried out in several entities that issue training processes and are committed to these difficulties. It was also possible to base the development tools and finally, a web application was obtained as a result that allows managing all the digital diplomas of one or several training processes. Also, it should be mentioned that the security in digital certificates is given by QR codes. The main conclusion is that web applications allow the improvement of the operational aspects of any training center.

In this paper, we analyze the Upwind Differencing and the Essentially Non-Oscillatory (ENO) schemes for the level set method during the evolution of interfaces. Our evolution experiments use different vector fields to test the behavior of the interface in different aspects. The experiments presented in this work are: evolution of a circle in a rotating field, shrinking and expanding of a square, Zalesak’s disk revolution, and single-vortex evolution. Each one of them provides a different view of the strengths and weaknesses of the method. The experiments use the percentage of area loss, the $$L_{1}$$L1 error, and the order of convergence as accuracy metrics. We compare the different techniques, report our results, and provide conclusions.

In English linguistics the Gunning Fog Index is used to determine the readability of texts. This methodology isn’t as effective in the Spanish language because the complexity of words isn’t determined by the number of syllables, unlike what happens in English. Therefore, a software was developed that allows us to estimate the readability of an academic text written in Spanish in a quantitative way. This software allows to compare the traditional methodology of the Gunning fog index and a modification to it, using the corpus linguistics for the Spanish language, based on thousands of texts digitized by Google, where the frequency of use of certain words is related. Texts produced by students from first to last semester were evaluated. Each text was subjected to the Gunning fog index assessment methodology and the corpus methodology, changing the percentage of complex words to the percentage of unknown words. In the evaluation of first semester texts it was found that the average fog index was 29.25, and an average of 37.9 complex words, for these same texts was found a modified fog index of 18.62 and 5.1 unknown words. On the other hand, for the evaluation of the texts produced in the last semester, the average fog index was 27.55 and an average of 51.4 complex words, with the modified fog index was an average of 15.08 and 7.1 unknown words. With this study, aspects related to the best use of punctuation marks and the increase of vocabulary related to the profession can be identified in a quantitative way.

Ambient Assisted Living (AAL) aims to improve people’s quality of life through the use of information technologies. Due to the critical nature of AAL systems, quality is a priority. However, as AAL is a relatively new domain, its main limitation is the lack of consensus and standardization in quality assessment. This work presents a systematic review to determine the state of the art on the quality assessment of AAL systems from a multidimensional vision (software product, in use, data and context). Initially, 1308 primary studies were extracted, from them 21 relevant studies related to models, frameworks, taxonomies and other approaches of quality assessment were selected after applying the corresponding inclusion and exclusion criteria. The selected studies were subject to a comparative analysis that determined the most recurrent and critical quality attributes for AAL systems, being an important contribution to generate consensus in the construction of more complete quality models. Furthermore, this work allowed to recognize the strengths and limitations of the quality proposals studied and to identify research gaps and challenges.

With the advancement of technology and unlimited access to information through the Internet, traditional teaching models are evolving to become centralized in the student. The objective is to offer personalized education that overcomes any spatial-temporal barrier, achieving a continuous transfer of knowledge. However, under this scenario arises the need for equipment with high performance hardware and software. On the one hand, educational institutions, in most cases, do not have enough capital to migrate to new infrastructures; while, on the other hand, students encounter problems linked to licensing and lack of own resources. Overall, this translates into an impediment for teachers to design innovative activities. Hence, the concept of virtual desktop infrastructure (VDIs) is born, which relies on cloud computing techniques to provide access to remote machines pre-configured according to different storage, processing, network and software requirements. This paper presents an open source VDI solution based on OpenNebula, since the costs associated with using the services of large cloud providers could represent a considerable investment. Among the tests carried out, a pilot experiment stands out that demonstrates the benefits of deploying local VDIs, as well as a comparison of the savings they represent in relation to commercial solutions.

The research consists in the study of the problem arises from the improper use of software, which triggers an excessive investment in tools that do not represent an academic benefit for an institution of higher education. This work proposes the development of an adaptive system which captures the data generated from the execution of any computer application in the laboratories. At the same time, the modules send the data to a server hosted in the cloud where the activities are stored in offline files. On the other hand, the monitoring system tabulates these data and presents them through reports following the XP methodology to facilitate their maintenance. The implementation of the monitoring system made it possible to determine the use of the applications executed in a given time, for the proper control of academic systems.

Cyclograms are parametric curves composed by the angle trajectory curves of two joints and are an easy way of visualizing and condensate information. The features of Hip-Knee cyclograms can be used to evaluate and asses patient deviation from normality and to track treatment progress. Different joints of the patient can be used for the generation of this parametric curves, as well as the same joint for dominant and non-dominant limb. This former type of cyclograms are called bilateral cyclograms and provide insights of patient symmetry through their geometric properties. The present gait evaluation method is based on the comparison of patient cyclograms with healthy subject cyclograms. In order to obtain a reliable comparison, healthy subject-specific cyclograms should be used instead of generic standard cyclograms because joint angle curves are heavily influenced by subject characteristics (age, height, weight) and gait speed. In the present work, subject-specific knee and hip healthy reference curves are generated for a patient diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy using an Extreme Learning Machine. In this way features of importance to patient gait evaluation can be extracted and compared against several healthy reference cyclograms.

Software tools based on finite element analysis are widely used for structural mechanical analysis and even in other areas such as medicine. This research analyzes the efforts that occur in the two most important bones that are part of the knee joint from computerized axial tomography (CT) and proposes a methodology based on finite element meshes to obtain these efforts. From the simulation of the geometry of a real knee, stress-strain curves have been developed. The results obtained from the simulation showed that the stress pattern is at a value of 10.97 Mpa in the area between the intercondylar eminence and the intercondylar notch and a unit strain of 1.05 $$\times $$× 10 − 2 mm for the femur and 8, 5 $$\times $$× 10 − 4 mm in warm.