Simón Bolívar University

About: Simón Bolívar University is a education organization based out in Caracas, Venezuela. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Crystallization. The organization has 5912 authors who have published 8294 publications receiving 126152 citations.

La Investigación Cualitativa (Síntesis conceptual)

Abstract: The Document offers an ample panorama us of the qualitative investigation. It initiates with necessary revision of the subject of the knowledge, boarded from his epistemologic nature to be able to understand the concrete totality of the reality, and in the terminology of the author, like an all polisistemico and interdisciplinariedad. In background it identifies the dynamic dimension of the qualitative investigation, as soon as it tries to identify the deep nature of the realities, his structure and relations that settle down, to fulfill the two tasks basic of all investigation: To gather data and to categorizar them and to interpret them. It makes a treatment of the referential frame, the objectives, the hypotheses and the variables, identifying several qualitative methods, as well as the instruments and procedures.

Domain-independent construction of pattern database heuristics for cost-optimal planning

Abstract: Heuristic search is a leading approach to domain-independent planning. For cost-optimal planning, however, existing admissible heuristics are generally too weak to effectively guide the search. Pattern database heuristics (PDBs), which are based on abstractions of the search space, are currently one of the most promising approaches to developing better admissible heuristics. The informedness of PDB heuristics depends crucially on the selection of appropriate abstractions (patterns). Although PDBs have been applied to many search problems, including planning, there are not many insights into how to select good patterns, even manually. What constitutes a good pattern depends on the problem domain, making the task even more difficult for domain-independent planning, where the process needs to be completely automatic and generaL We present a novel way of constructing good patterns automatically from the specification of planning problem instances. We demonstrate that this allows a domain-independent planner to solve planning problems optimally in some very challenging domains, including a STRIPS formulation of the Sokoban puzzle.

ANAPSID: an adaptive query processing engine for SPARQL endpoints

Abstract: Following the design rules of Linked Data, the number of available SPARQL endpoints that support remote query processing is quickly growing; however, because of the lack of adaptivity, query executions may frequently be unsuccessful. First, fixed plans identified following the traditional optimize-thenexecute paradigm, may timeout as a consequence of endpoint availability. Second, because blocking operators are usually implemented, endpoint query engines are not able to incrementally produce results, and may become blocked if data sources stop sending data. We present ANAPSID, an adaptive query engine for SPARQL endpoints that adapts query execution schedulers to data availability and run-time conditions. ANAPSID provides physical SPARQL operators that detect when a source becomes blocked or data traffic is bursty, and opportunistically, the operators produce results as quickly as data arrives from the sources. Additionally, ANAPSID operators implement main memory replacement policies to move previously computed matches to secondary memory avoiding duplicates. We compared ANAPSID performance with respect to RDF stores and endpoints, and observed that ANAPSID speeds up execution time, in some cases, in more than one order of magnitude.

GPS estimate of relative motion between the Caribbean and South American plates, and geologic implications for Trinidad and Venezuela

Abstract: Global Positioning System (GPS) data from eight sites on the Caribbean plate and five sites on the South American plate were inverted to derive an angular velocity vector describing present-day relative plate motion. Both the Caribbean and South American velocity data fit rigid-plate models to within ±1–2 mm/yr, the GPS velocity uncertainty. The Caribbean plate moves approximately due east relative to South America at a rate of ∼20 mm/yr along most of the plate boundary, significantly faster than the NUVEL-1A model prediction, but with similar azimuth. Pure wrenching is concentrated along the approximately east-striking, seismic, El Pilar fault in Venezuela. In contrast, transpression occurs along the 068°-trending Central Range (Warm Springs) fault in Trinidad, which is aseismic, possibly locked, and oblique to local plate motion.

Anisotropic solutions by gravitational decoupling

Abstract: We investigate the extension of isotropic interior solutions for static self-gravitating systems to include the effects of anisotropic spherically symmetric gravitational sources by means of the gravitational decoupling realised via the minimal geometric deformation approach. In particular, the matching conditions at the surface of the star with the outer Schwarzschild space-time are studied in great detail, and we describe how to generate, from a single physically acceptable isotropic solution, new families of anisotropic solutions whose physical acceptability is also inherited from their isotropic parent.