Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Objective: This work seeks to implement a control mechanism for the population dynamics of a complex network-based evolutionary algorithm. The study hypothesis states that the complex network strategy provides better results than traditional evolutionary algorithms.  Methodology: Herein, the convergence of the proposed model is assessed against the traditional evolutionary solution. To this end, statistical assessments were conducted against the experimental results obtained for different optimization problems. Results: The strategies through which small-world networks are integrated as population dynamics control mechanisms evidence better overall performance than other network topologies. Conclusions: The integration of a complex network structure, such as an underlying network within the dynamics of an evolutionary algorithm, denotes a competitive advantage against traditional strategies. Thus, small-world networks display better performance.

Objective: Design and implement an automated IoT oriented Smart Home Prototype managed via a mobile application.  Methodology: It was used a deductive methodology, linking the variables of the Internet of Things and devices used within homes. Similarly, applied technology was used, providing solutions in homes through the Internet of Things. The project was developed in phases such as design, implementation and assembly of the system. Results: The Smart Home prototype with IoT oriented devices developed project was adapted to work in a scale-sized household made of wood and synthetic material. Conclusions: It was found that a Smart Home can integrate different devices, appliances and sensors inside a house and automate it with a minimum or no intervention of people. The developed prototype can keep data and records of the different IoT variables presented and automate the devices to work according to the user's needs. Not only an improvement is noticed through the automation process in the daily use of household appliances but also in the notification of sensor events and in saving electricity consumption, managing everything from a tablet or smartphone.

Objective: To conduct a study on technologies, environmental problems, and environmental processes in mining companies that exploit clay in the Guajira region (Colombia).  Methodology: The research was based on the post-positivist epistemological paradigm with a descriptive approach, and its sources come from documentary review and direct observation, with field, non-experimental, and cross-sectional designs. The population comprised five mining companies, i.e., Camarones, San Pedrito, El Confuso, Loma Fresca, and La Junta, dedicated to the extraction of clay and marketing of bricks in the Guajira region. To collect the information, the Leopold matrix and a questionnaire structured by 24 items were applied, implementing the validity and reliability through criteria set by experts. Results: It was found that the technologies used in the mines are handmade and rudimentary, showing a pattern of environmental externalities that affect the physical, biological, and socioeconomic environments. Likewise, a disarticulation was found between the general environmental law, mining code, and land use planning at the location of the mines, this being one of the causes of environmental and territorial conflicts in the mines.  Conclusions: In short, five impacts on the physical and biological environments and four impacts on the socioeconomic environment were identified, for a total of nine environmental externalities affecting the zone of influence of each of the mines; in particular, it is suggested to technically improve mining processes using clean technologies and the insertion of environmental processes to facilitate the socioenvironmental management of the mining companies.

Objective: This work dynamically and geometrically models a biped structure with 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) because one of the most difficult systems to model is the biomechanics of human walking.  Methodology: This study used the parameter-based optimization technique to calculate the cyclical trajectories that define human walking. The geometric and dynamic biped parameters were adopted from the Hydroid robot as it is based on the morphological model proposed by HANAVAN that faithfully characterizes the human body. Results: Using the proposed mathematical models, the positions, speeds, and angular accelerations that each biped joint adopts at different moments of time when performing cyclical movements are estimated. In addition, the study identifies the optimal joint torques (criterion of minimum energy consumption) required to perform a specific movement: walking composed of consecutive simple support and impact phases, disregarding the foot rotation phase. Then, a simulation is performed based on these data. Conclusions: According to the results reported by the study, parameter-based optimization and mathematical modeling will result in extensive development in the mechatronics and biomedical fields, wherein movement patterns are required for their application in robot systems and for rehabilitation and pathology identification devices.

Objective: This paper assesses the future performance of the National Interconnected System (SIN for its name in Spanish) in Colombia after large photovoltaic power stations (PGSFV for its name in Spanish) are massively incorporated in 2022. Methodology: This research study is descriptive in nature, and includes a non-experimental design supported by electrical model developments and simulations. The research was descriptive, with a non-experimental design, supported by simulations and development of electrical models. Results: The massive incorporation of PGSFVs into SIN is expected to not only increase electrical power generation costs in Colombia but also generate energy losses in the transmission and distribution grids. In addition, the study found that inertia is drastically reduced through this incorporation, which can trigger rapid frequency changes and deep frequency drops against disturbances. Conclusions: After PGSFVs have been massively incorporated to SIN, losses are expected to rise by 14.87%. Moreover, the system inertia constant will experience a reduction of over 50%, which means that SIN safety will be drastically reduced.

Objective: This research study proposes the use of the polynomial regression approach to model data behavior for characterizing behavior patterns for COVID-19 case, death, and recovery curves in Colombia.  Methodology: Data were obtained from the reports provided by the Colombian Ministry of Health. First, the authors assessed the polynomial regression procedure through multiple linear regressions. Then, a tool was designed and implemented for applying this procedure on the collected dataset. Finally, the corresponding results were assessed. Results: For the three studies considered (cases, deaths, and recoveries), 20 polynomials were obtained together with the root mean square error (RMSE) and the determination level (R2) associated with each study. Further, a set of predictions was generated based on the linear regressions obtained for each study.  Conclusions: Because polynomials with future values are volatile, polynomial equations have proven more useful when assessing COVID-19 curves up to the data capture date. Therefore, they can be used to determine the impact of government measures over a given period of time. In addition, the machine learning libraries provided in Python language significantly supported the estimation of polynomial regressions.

Objective: This article discusses the development and features of a custom web application, developed in accordance with the requirements from the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF for its name in Spanish) for last-mile traceability of the Bienestarina Más® dietary supplement in the municipalities of Chía and Soacha.  Methodology: The project was grounded on the SCRUM agile methodology, which facilitates systematic development as system modules are assembled, employing good small team work practices to secure the best results. This converges into the objective of obtaining an end-to-end application for the operational registration of Bienestarina Más® from distribution to final delivery, thus allowing ICBF to better monitor the developed dietary supplement, as it is considered as a Government asset. Results and conclusions: Herein, a technical and technological solution is provided for the service unit logistics processes in the municipalities of Chía and Soacha. Consequently, manual processes are optimized and automated, facilitating a detailed monitoring of the delivery of the Bienestarina Más® from its point of distribution to its final beneficiaries in addition to conducting biometric registrations to minimize impersonation risks.

Agriculture data are characterized to be noisy, heterogeneous, large volume, and with different granularities. However, technologies traditionally used for processing and storage of these data lack methods to handle the demands of modern systems. Objective: This research presents a Big Data architecture specialized in the crop yield prediction process. Methodology: The research took two approaches. On the one hand, the crop yield prediction process. On the other hand, studies about related software architectures. These investigations were the basis for defining the requirements for a storage and processing system in this domain. Results: The architecture included (1) a data model on MongoDB collections, (2) a queue system Kafka, (3) a PySpark processing system. This architecture inherits from the used technologies capabilities to scale up and scale-out, to handle heterogeneous data and domain-specific variables. Also, it enables interaction with different transformations and machine learning models. Conclusion: Big Data technologies can model this process. This architecture serves as a reference to carry out agriculture data analytics upon a scalable and flexible Big Data environment.

Objective: To compare two deterministic mathematical epidemiological models from the literature, to simulate the death curve in the Atlantic department caused by COVID-19.  Methodology: The first model proposed to simulate the number of deaths by COVID-19 is that of Tappe. This approach is based on the exponential behavior of the death number curve, and was initially used by the author with the available data on the number of deaths in China. The other model proposed is the SIRD, an extension of the SIR model, which divides the population between susceptible, infected, dead and recovered. Results: From the obtained results of both models, comparing with the available data from INS, both models reach similar behavior. However, when analyzing the projection for the next 30 days from the 26th may, it is observed that the curve of number of deaths is greater in the SIRD model than the Tappe’s model, probably due to the adding of more variables on the model.  Conclusions: As SIRD is a more complete model that involves a wide number of variables of population, the projection made with this model is more reliable than that made with the Tappe’s model. For future studies, the aim is to incorporate the population of those exposed to describe the number of deaths, in a SEIRD model, in the department of Atlántico.

José María Merino excels in the practice of short short stories, in addition to other narrative genres. It includes mini-stories in each new installment of short stories, as it did in Aventuras e invenciones del profesor Souto (2017), volume object of our study. In "Nanophilology and literary theory", Ottmar Ette leans on some ideas of Levi-Strauss in El pensamiento salvaje to admit that "[...] the strength of the artistic conception grows [...] from resignation, from reduction; that is to say, from a modeling that is based on miniaturization and that bets on it ”(2015, 52). Without a doubt, they are the foundations of the mini-story, whose differential features, in our opinion, are ultra-brevity and condensation, never forgetting the essential narrative. Ette takes up Roland Barthes' concept of archipelago, of worlds-islands, to conclude that "[...] individual text-islands can be traversed and linked to one another through the most diverse paths, their corresponding meaning is produced precisely from the different sense of the reading (s) ”(2015: 62). It is an illuminating idea when studying the minifictions, since in this way a set of micro-stories can be seen in its entirety -the archipelago and its multiple relationships and connections- and also in its individuality -each minitext as an island.From this conceptualization, in this essay it will be verified how the different literary islands of the minisoutos have proposed reflections on our knowledge of the world and of today's society, crossing literary and thought boundaries.