This paper reports the design and analysis of an American Sign Language (ASL) alphabet translation system implemented in hardware using a Field-Programmable Gate Array. The system process consists of ...three stages, the first being the communication with the neuromorphic camera (also called Dynamic Vision Sensor, DVS) sensor using the Universal Serial Bus protocol. The feature extraction of the events generated by the DVS is the second part of the process, consisting of a presentation of the digital image processing algorithms developed in software, which aim to reduce redundant information and prepare the data for the third stage. The last stage of the system process is the classification of the ASL alphabet, achieved with a single artificial neural network implemented in digital hardware for higher speed. The overall result is the development of a classification system using the ASL signs contour, fully implemented in a reconfigurable device. The experimental results consist of a comparative analysis of the recognition rate among the alphabet signs using the neuromorphic camera in order to prove the proper operation of the digital image processing algorithms. In the experiments performed with 720 samples of 24 signs, a recognition accuracy of 79.58% was obtained.
A major dust event occurred on 15 December 2003 in the Chihuahuan Desert region of Texas and New Mexico (USA) and Chihuahua (Mexico) and in the Southern High Plains region of Texas and New Mexico. ...Using a MODIS satellite image, 146 individual small-scale sources (plumes) of dust were identified. These plumes merged to form the regional-scale dust storm. The point sources were characterized with respect to land use and land cover using a combination of field work and aerial photography. Fifty-eight of the sources are on cropland, mostly on the Southern High Plains. Forty-nine are on rangeland, from across the entire region. Thirty of the dust plumes originate within playa basins, mostly in the Chihuahuan Desert.
Point sources of dust only represent a small fraction of the total land surface at any given moment (i.e., the period when the image was acquired) because most of the land within the region was not subject to erosion during the event. In general, land use and soil characteristics of point sources matched those of adjacent areas that were not emitting dust at the time, suggesting that microscale variations in erodibility or meteorological factors may dictate the actual emission points of dust during individual events.
Traditional approaches to automatic classification of pollen grains consisted of classifiers working with feature extractors designed by experts, which modeled pollen grains aspects of special ...importance for biologists. Recently, a Deep Learning (DL) algorithm called Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) has shown a great improvement in performance in many computer vision tasks such as classification, due to this great performance the computational requirements have increased considerably; therefore, it is advisable to use new platforms such as the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which offer large computational resources for the development of new systems with CNN. This paper presents the GPU-Trained implementation of a DL system with the CNN algorithm, proposing a CNN model capable of running on a GPU in real-time for the automatic classification of 19 different pollen grains belonging to 14 different families, which are found in high concentrations in Mexico, and which are large interest in areas such as beekeeping, paleoecology, botany, allergology, agriculture among others. These areas seek to improve the collection of palynological data in terms of time and accuracy. In order to evaluate our model, evaluation tests were performed in the NVIDIA Jetson TX2 Developer Kit GPU. Experimental results achieves around 90% in CCR and Sensitivity in the proposed model. Additionally, the proposed model works at a processing speed of 6,826 Frames Per Second (FPS) and has approximately 50% fewer parameters than reported in related works.
El presente trabajo estudia la vertiente procedimental del fenómeno de la (re)municipalización entendida como la recuperación de la gestión directa de servicios públicos locales que fueron ...gestionados por una Entidad local y, posteriormente, confiados a la gestión privada. A tal efecto, se estudia, primero, la necesidad de seguir el procedimiento establecido en los artículos 86 de la Ley Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local y 97 del Texto Refundido del Régimen Local, relativo al ejercicio de actividades económicas; y, en segundo lugar, la incidencia de la Ley 27/2013, de 27 de diciembre, de racionalización y sostenibilidad de la Administración Local en el artículo 85 de la Ley Reguladora de las Bases del Régimen Local, donde se recogen los diferentes modos de gestión de los que dispone la Entidad local para prestar servicios públicos.
•Soil naturally mixed with calcium carbonate was employed to construct Paquimé.•Arroyo Seco’s walls were built with soil excavated at the construction site.•Desegregated surface bedrock was used for ...construction of Cueva de la Olla.•Earth construction in Casas Grandes region employs sandy loam without any fibers.
This study compares pre-Columbian earthen construction techniques in three archaeological sites of the Casas Grandes region: Paquimé, Arroyo Seco, and Cueva de la Olla. These sites are found in different geological and geomorphological setting, although they present similar architectural typology. Their construction techniques were examined by archaeometric characterization, such as particle-size analysis, thin-section petrography, X-ray diffraction, and X-ray fluorescence analysis. These analyses were performed on samples from walls of archaeological constructions and samples from local material banks previously identified as potential original material source banks. The results demonstrate some common aspects on construction materials and techniques between these sites, such as use of sandy loam, nonexistence of fiber stabilizer, and hand-built coursed adobe. On the other hand, diversity of each site was also found: utilization of soil naturally mixed with calcium carbonate to construct multistoried earthen architecture of Paquimé.
Hotel Guests’ Responses to Service Recovery Zoghbi-Manrique-de-Lara, Pablo; Suárez-Acosta, Miguel A.; Aguiar-Quintana, Teresa
Cornell hospitality quarterly,
05/2014, Letnik:
55, Številka:
2
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Contrary to conventional wisdom, loyalty may be a driver of hotel guests’ favorable behavior when they are satisfied with a hotel’s service recovery effort. Instead of having satisfaction with ...service recovery directly influencing guests’ supportive actions, loyalty acts as a precondition to consumers’ positive citizenship behavior. Moreover, the factors that drive such favorable behavior may be independent of those that cause guests to offer favorable word of mouth after a hotel stay. Based on a study of 288 guests in seven high-end hotels in Spain’s Canary Islands, satisfaction with service recovery has a direct effect on loyalty, which in turn has a strong effect on customer citizenship behaviors. However, loyalty plays its mediating role only on the effects of satisfaction with service recovery on favorable citizenship behavior. That is, the fact that a guest is loyal helps to explain why a guest decides to help the hotel after satisfactory service recovery. On the other hand, loyalty does not enter into the equation when a guest is not happy with the service recovery and elects to behave dysfunctionally, including trashing the room.
El Nuevo Pacto sobre Migración y Asilo de la Comisión Europea, aprobado en septiembre de 2020, presenta una serie de propuestas legislativas en la consecución de un enfoque integrado ante la realidad ...migratoria. No obstante, no parece que exista a fecha de hoy un auténtico consenso entre los Estados miembros a fin de lograr una verdadera política migratoria común. Por otra parte, la posible incidencia del Nuevo Pacto en la Política Común de Seguridad y Defensa demuestra, en nuestra opinión, un claro reconocimiento a su labor de control fronterizo y lucha contra el tráfico ilícito de inmigrantes.
Little is known about how guests respond to a hotel based on the way they perceive management’s treatment of staff. This study suggests that during their stay at the hotel, the more guests witness ...episodes where staff members are fairly treated, the more they will display (a) satisfaction with hotel service and (b) customer citizenship behaviour directed at the hotel as a whole. It then suggests that (c) service satisfaction serves as a mediator to explain why justice perceptions would lead guests to citizenship behaviour. Data were collected from 343 guests in seven sampled hotels in the Canary Islands (Spain). Results provide support for the effects of justice on citizenship and partial mediation. Given that guests’ citizenship helps the hotel to function, the results warn managers about ‘looking the other way’ or getting involved in episodes of employee mistreatment. In addition, the support for service satisfaction as a mediator suggests that by striving to achieve management’s fair treatment of staff, managers also communicate to guests that they aim to provide satisfactory service and, therefore, are deserving of their help.
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