Search

The utilization of inertial measurement units as wearable sensors is proliferating across various domains, such as health care, sports, and rehabilitation. This expansion has produced a market of devices tailored to accommodate very specific ranges of operational demands. Simultaneously, this growth is creating opportunities for the development of a new class of devices more oriented towards general-purpose use and capable of capturing both high-frequency signals for short-term, event-driven motion analysis and low-frequency signals for extended monitoring. For such a design, which combines flexibility and low cost, a rigorous evaluation of the device in terms of deviation, noise levels, and precision is essential. This evaluation is crucial for identifying potential improvements and refining the design accordingly, yet it is rarely addressed in the literature. This paper presents the development process of such a device. The results of the design process demonstrate acceptable performance in optimizing energy consumption and storage capacity while highlighting the most critical optimizations needed to advance the device towards the goal of a smart, general-purpose unit for human motion monitoring.

Este trabajo tiene como objeto fundamental llevar a cabo una reconstrucción de la teoría trascendental del conocimiento en las experiencias filosóficas de Kant y Habermas. En ambas se produce un peculiar tránsito de la subjetividad a la intersubjetividad, gracias al cual se rompe el paradigma de la filosofía de la conciencia y emerge una específica experiencia comunicativa a través del sensus communis y de la razón comunicativa. A lo largo de esta investigación se intenta poner de manifiesto el paralelismo entre ambos proyectos filosóficos, cuyo fundamento es la ilustración o la autonomía de la razón. Subjetividad trascendental, sensus communis, intereses del conocimiento y razón comunicativa representan distintas soluciones al problema de la comunicabilidad de los juicios mediante los que declaramos la posibilidad, realidad y necesidad de los estados de cosas.

Ground contact time (GCT) is one of the most relevant factors when assessing running performance in sports practice. In recent years, inertial measurement units (IMUs) have been widely used to automatically evaluate GCT, since they can be used in field conditions and are friendly and easy to wear devices. In this paper we describe the results of a systematic search, using the Web of Science, to assess what reliable options are available to GCT estimation using inertial sensors. Our analysis reveals that estimation of GCT from the upper body (upper back and upper arm) has rarely been addressed. Proper estimation of GCT from these locations could permit an extension of the analysis of running performance to the public, where users, especially vocational runners, usually wear pockets that are ideal to hold sensing devices fitted with inertial sensors (or even using their own cell phones for that purpose). Therefore, in the second part of the paper, an experimental study is described. Six subjects, both amateur and semi-elite runners, were recruited for the experiments, and ran on a treadmill at different paces to estimate GCT from inertial sensors placed at the foot (for validation purposes), the upper arm, and upper back. Initial and final foot contact events were identified in these signals to estimate the GCT per step, and compared to times estimated from an optical MOCAP (Optitrack), used as the ground truth. We found an average error in GCT estimation of 0.01 s in absolute value using the foot and the upper back IMU, and of 0.05 s using the upper arm IMU. Limits of agreement (LoA, 1.96 times the standard deviation) were [−0.01 s, 0.04 s], [−0.04 s, 0.02 s], and [0.0 s, 0.1 s] using the sensors on the foot, the upper back, and the upper arm, respectively.

Semantic image segmentation is a core task for autonomous driving, which is performed by deep models. Since training these models draws to a curse of human-based image labeling, the use of synthetic images with automatically generated labels together with unlabeled real-world images is a promising alternative. This implies addressing an unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) problem. In this paper, we propose a new co-training procedure for synth-to-real UDA of semantic segmentation models. It performs iterations where the (unlabeled) real-world training images are labeled by intermediate deep models trained with both the (labeled) synthetic images and the real-world ones labeled in previous iterations. More specifically, a self-training stage provides two domain-adapted models and a model collaboration loop allows the mutual improvement of these two models. The final semantic segmentation labels (pseudo-labels) for the real-world images are provided by these two models. The overall procedure treats the deep models as black boxes and drives their collaboration at the level of pseudo-labeled target images, i.e., neither modifying loss functions is required, nor explicit feature alignment. We test our proposal on standard synthetic and real-world datasets for onboard semantic segmentation. Our procedure shows improvements ranging from approximately 13 to 31 mIoU points over baselines.

The short-term prediction of a person’s trajectory during normal walking becomes necessary in many environments shared by humans and robots. Physics-based approaches based on Newton’s laws of motion seem best suited for short-term predictions, but the intrinsic properties of human walking conflict with the foundations of the basic kinematical models compromising their performance. In this paper, we propose a short-time prediction method based on gait biomechanics for real-time applications. This method relays on a single biomechanical variable, and it has a low computational burden, turning it into a feasible solution to implement in low-cost portable devices. We evaluate its performance from an experimental benchmark where several subjects walked steadily over straight and curved paths. With this approach, the results indicate a performance good enough to be applicable to a wide range of human–robot interaction applications.

Universities have been pressured by governments to change their way of acting and to be more responsible with the requirements of social development to face the challenges of globalization. To this end, universities must use the principles of Open Science, to allow them to be more transparent regarding the dissemination of scientific results. The purpose of this paper is firstly, to determine the progress made in Open Access policies made by the best-ranked universities regarding ARWU. Secondly, to examine influencing factors that enhance the level of openness in researching, in particular, “transparency”, “reputation”, “participation”, “funding”, “foundation” and “size”. The main results show that those private and older universities, best-ranked in terms of excellence researching and those that have been gradually adopting Open Government policies concerning the dissemination of information through institutional web pages and social participation, are the most interested with complying the recommendations established by the authorities of the Open Science projects.

En la actualidad el e-Gobierno es considerado uno de los principales temas incluidos en las agendas gubernamentales, parte central de la transformación de las administraciones públicas, e innovación en la gestión y rendición de cuentas. Aunque muchas han sido las investigaciones llevadas a cabo sobre esta temática desde diferentes perspectivas, no existe aún una clara justificación percibida por los expertos de su necesidad en procesos de reformas administrativas. Esta investigación plantea como objetivo ofrecer una base sólida para futuras investigaciones mediante el análisis de las publicaciones sobre la evolución de la implementación de las tecnologías asociadas a la información y la comunicación en las administraciones públicas (e-Gobierno) como instrumento esencial para las reformas administrativas realizadas en las revistas incluidas en el índice del Instituto para la Información Científica. El análisis bibliométrico llevado a cabo destaca el bajo grado de madurez de este tema y, como principal oportunidad de investigación, la necesidad de dotar al e-Gobierno de teorías sólidas y de investigaciones de carácter cuantitativo.

Top-performing computer vision models are powered by convolutional neural networks (CNNs). Training an accurate CNN highly depends on both the raw sensor data and their associated ground truth (GT). Collecting such GT is usually done through human labeling, which is time-consuming and does not scale as we wish. This data-labeling bottleneck may be intensified due to domain shifts among image sensors, which could force per-sensor data labeling. In this paper, we focus on the use of co-training, a semi-supervised learning (SSL) method, for obtaining self-labeled object bounding boxes (BBs), i.e., the GT to train deep object detectors. In particular, we assess the goodness of multi-modal co-training by relying on two different views of an image, namely, appearance (RGB) and estimated depth (D). Moreover, we compare appearance-based single-modal co-training with multi-modal. Our results suggest that in a standard SSL setting (no domain shift, a few human-labeled data) and under virtual-to-real domain shift (many virtual-world labeled data, no human-labeled data) multi-modal co-training outperforms single-modal. In the latter case, by performing GAN-based domain translation both co-training modalities are on par, at least when using an off-the-shelf depth estimation model not specifically trained on the translated images.

In the context of human–robot collaborative shared environments, there has been an increase in the use of optical motion capture (OMC) systems for human motion tracking. The accuracy and precision of OMC technology need to be assessed in order to ensure safe human–robot interactions, but the accuracy specifications provided by manufacturers are easily influenced by various factors affecting the measurements. This article describes a new methodology for the metrological evaluation of a human–robot collaborative environment based on optical motion capture (OMC) systems. Inspired by the ASTM E3064 test guide, and taking advantage of an existing industrial robot in the production cell, the system is evaluated for mean error, error spread, and repeatability. A detailed statistical study of the error distribution across the capture area is carried out, supported by a Mann–Whitney U-test for median comparisons. Based on the results, optimal capture areas for the use of the capture system are suggested. The results of the proposed method show that the metrological characteristics obtained are compatible and comparable in quality to other methods that do not require the intervention of an industrial robot.

I propose in this paper a reflection, a self-analysis, about my extensive teaching experience, not from a formal point of view of the specificity of the program and the subjects of my courses, but about the singularity of the teaching activities. The commitment with the students, with the topic taught and with the Institution in which I have the honor to work, constitute the fundamental motive that leads and conducts my profession as teacher. My explanation displays ten items (1.The lesson as creation. 2. Space, time, and subject. 3. There is always time. About the difficulty to adjust contents to 52 hours. 4. The worst lesson is the one not given. 5. The teacher’s virtues. 6.To spare the rod is to spoil the child. The child’s rod. 7. Extension and intensity of the contents in the academic year. 8. The reward of the well-done work. 9. Our dignity lies in the fulfillment of the agreements. 10 Tutorial, exams and evaluation). Each of them presents a speculation about one of the ideal elements of the good teacher all of us aim to be. For that reason this essay is not a positivist description of the teaching reality, but it expects to reconstruct the critical demarcation between the ideality which all of us try to achieve and the empirical reality that constantly pull us in the opposite direction. The coercion without coercions of the exemplariness pushes us to maintain alive the faith in the appropriation of the nature and soul of the ideal teacher

Abstract: In the last few decades, Central American countries are making a significant effort in order to modernize their governments' legislation both on financial management and systems of financial information. In this sense, these countries aim to enhance the quality of public financial information in order to improve decision-making processes, decrease the level of corruption, and keep citizens informed. In this context, the purpose of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to assess the degree of similarity of the financial information that is being developed by Central American governments with regard to the recommendations set up by Ipsas, and secondly, to analyse the efforts and the strategies that those countries are carrying out in the process of implementing those standards. To determine the differences in the information containing the annual financial statements issued by national public authorities and the recommendations set up by Ipsas we conducted a deductive content analysis. In view of the results we can say that the quality of annual financial statements presented by the countries in Central America, in comparison to the recommendations by the Ipsas concerning Ifac information, is not enough. Hence, in order to operate significant changes, it is still necessary to create new strategies for the implementation of the Ipsas.

On-board vision systems may need to increase the number of classes that can be recognized in a relatively short period. For instance, a traffic sign recognition system may suddenly be required to recognize new signs. Since collecting and annotating samples of such new classes may need more time than we wish, especially for uncommon signs, we propose a method to generate these samples by combining synthetic images and Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) technology. In particular, the GAN is trained on synthetic and real-world samples from known classes to perform synthetic-to-real domain adaptation, but applied to synthetic samples of the new classes. Using the Tsinghua dataset with a synthetic counterpart, SYNTHIA-TS, we have run an extensive set of experiments. The results show that the proposed method is indeed effective, provided that we use a proper Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to perform the traffic sign recognition (classification) task as well as a proper GAN to transform the synthetic images. Here, a ResNet101-based classifier and domain adaptation based on CycleGAN performed extremely well for a ratio ∼ 1 / 4 for new/known classes; even for more challenging ratios such as ∼ 4 / 1 , the results are also very positive.

The central thesis of this paper is as follows: Unamuno’s genuine concept of God, namely,the biotic God, the cordial God, the God-Love, is the result of the convergence of three philosophical traditions in which Unamuno introduces a peculiar change. The first is Unamuno’s critique of ScholasticTheology and its conception of God as ens realissimum, First Cause or Prime Mover. The second can be found in the Augustinian-Lutheran-Kierkegaardian tradition and its call to the inner world, personality and individuality. And finally, engaging in a peculiar reflection activity that allows him to join the intellectualist and voluntarist traditions, the philosopher of Salamanca turns to the atheistic philosophy of Schopenhauer,who presents a world as will, pain and compassion. A new conception of God based on will, faith and hope emerges because of the critique and transformation of these philosophies.

The disclosure of financial documents can be extremely significant for improving information transparency as part of the management of financial resources to render public sector services. Therefore, this research focuses on the role played by new technologies in this respect, particularly in promoting the transparency of financial information documents and on the key determinants to make financial documents available on the World Wide Web. To achieve this aim, an empirical test is made of models we propose, to discover whether the national websites of OCDE countries are using the Internet to provide citizens with governmental budgetary transparency and whether this disclosure is influenced by socio-economic factors. The results of the study confirm that factors previously found to be important in paper-based reporting, such as education level, population, internet access or fiscal pressure seem to have no influence on the public financial information disclosed on the Internet. Only debt seems to be a relevant factor in the degree of information transparency achieved via the Internet for accountability documents.

Prediction of walking turns allows to improve human factors such as comfort and perceived safety in human-robot interaction. The current state-of-the-art suggests that upper body kinematics can be used for that purpose and contains evidence about the reliability and the quantitative anticipation that can be expected from different variables. However, the experimental methodology has not been consistent throughout the different works and the related data has not always been given in an explicit form, with different studies containing partial, complementary or even contradictory results. In this paper, with the purpose of providing a uniform view of the topic that can trigger new developments in the field, we performed a systematic review of the relevant literature addressing three main questions: (i) Which upper body kinematic variables permit to anticipate a walking turn? (ii) How long in advance can we anticipate the turn from them? (iii) What is the expected contribution of walking turn prediction systems from upper body kinematics for human-robot interaction? We have found that head yaw was the most reliable kinematical variable from the upper body to predict walking turns about 200ms. Trunk roll anticipates walking turns by a similar amount of time, but with less reliability. Both approaches may benefit human-robot interaction in close proximity, helping the robot to exhibit appropriate proxemic behavior interacting at intimate, personal or social distances. From the point of view of safety, they have to be considered with caution. Trunk yaw is not valid to anticipate turns. Gaze Yaw seems to be the earliest predictor, although existing evidence is still inconclusive.

In human motion science, accelerometers are used as linear distance sensors by attaching them to moving body parts, with their measurement axes its measurement axis aligned in the direction of motion. When double integrating the raw sensor data, multiple error sources are also integrated integrated as well, producing inaccuracies in the final position estimation which increases fast with the integration time. In this paper, we make a systematic and experimental comparison of different methods for position estimation, with different sensors and in different motion conditions. The objective is to correlate practical factors that appear in real applications, such as motion mean velocity, path length, calibration method, or accelerometer noise level, with the quality of the estimation. The results confirm that it is possible to use accelerometers to estimate short linear displacements of the body with a typical error of around 4.5% in the general conditions tested in this study. However, they also show that the motion kinematic conditions can be a key factor in the performance of this estimation, as the dynamic response of the accelerometer can affect the final results. The study lays out the basis for a better design of distance estimations, which are useful in a wide range of ambulatory human motion monitoring applications.

In this paper we propose an approach for the estimation of the slope of the walking surface during normal walking using a body-worn sensor composed of a biaxial accelerometer and a uniaxial gyroscope attached to the shank. It builds upon a state of the art technique that was successfully used to estimate the walking velocity from walking stride data, but did not work when used to estimate the slope of the walking surface. As claimed by the authors, the reason was that it did not take into account the actual inclination of the shank of the stance leg at the beginning of the stride (mid stance). In this paper, inspired by the biomechanical characteristics of human walking, we propose to solve this issue by using the accelerometer as a tilt sensor, assuming that at mid stance it is only measuring the gravity acceleration. Results from a set of experiments involving several users walking at different inclinations on a treadmill confirm the feasibility of our approach. A statistical analysis of slope estimations shows in first instance that the technique is capable of distinguishing the different slopes of the walking surface for every subject. It reports a global RMS error (per-unit difference between actual and estimated inclination of the walking surface for each stride identified in the experiments) of 0.05 and this can be reduced to 0.03 with subject-specific calibration and post processing procedures by means of averaging techniques.

El presente artículo tiene por objetivo analizar el proceso que se está siguiendo para adoptar las normas internacionales de Contabilidad para el sector Público (ipsas, por su sigla en inglés) como innovación en los sistemas de contabilidad gubernamental de los países centroamericanos, prestando especial atención al caso de Costa Rica. se centra en este último dado que es el primer país de la región que ha decidido su adopción, por lo que el análisis de las acciones que se han desarrollado en el proceso de implementación puede servir de base para países del entorno que en el futuro decidan someterse a procesos similares. así, los resultados muestran que los países de la región centroamericana, en mayor o menor medida, están realizando acciones dirigidas a confluir sus sistemas contables a la normativa de la iFaC para el sector público, y que concretamente en el caso de Costa Rica ha sido necesario que se conjuraran numerosos factores tanto contextuales, instrumentales como de comportamiento para que la implantación se esté desarrollando exitosamente.

Knowledge and true relations represent the principal task of Theory of Knowledge. This paper argues about various solutions to the justification of knowledge, given by William James, Richard Rorty and Jürgen Habermas. For classic Pragmatism Knowledge and Truth converge with the idea of a guideline, direction and orientation with an effective value for men. The Newpragmatism represented by Rorty tries out the way of the widest possible widening of justification contexts, taking as last referent the features of a western liberal culture. Habermas pleads for a strong idealization in his discussion with Rorty up to the ideal speech situation.

La auditoría de contratos o auditoría de costes y precios se aplica por el Ministerio de Defensa español (MINISDEF) en aquellos casos en que los precios de los bienes y servicios que se desean adquirir no se determinan en el marco de lo que la doctrina económica considera un entorno de competencia efectiva. En este escenario, el órgano de contratación no dispone de información suficiente, íntegra y fiable que le permita soportar la aprobación de un gasto basado en un precio razonable. Si bien la metodología y los procedimientos de trabajo de la auditoría de costes y precios en España ha sido desarrollada por el Grupo de Evaluación de Costes sobre la base de las normas de The Defense Contract Audit Agency de Estados Unidos (EE.UU.), la misma ha evolucionado hasta adquirir unos rasgos propios que caracterizan el modelo actualmente vigente en España. En este contexto, el principal objetivo de este trabajo es analizar la metodología utilizada en la aplicación de la auditoría de costes y precios en España, así como los principales resultados alcanzados en la racionalización del gasto público en defensa. The contract audit or cost and price auditing is applied by the Spanish Ministry of Defense (MINISDEF) when prices of goods and services to be acquired are not determined in the framework of what economic theory considers an environment of effective competition. In this scenario, the contracting authority does not have enough information, and it is neither integral nor reliable to support the decision to take an expenditure based on a reasonable price. Although the methodology and working procedures of the cost and price auditing in Spain has been developed by the Cost Assessment Group based on the rules of The Defense Contract Audit Agency of the United States (U.S.), such methodology has been adapted including some distinctive features that characterize the current model of cost and price auditing in Spain. The main objective of this paper is to analyze the methodology used in the implementation of audit costs and prices in Spain, and the main results achieved in rationalizing public expenditure on defense.

Sin resumen

En los últimos años, numerosos países del ámbito iberoamericano están realizando reformas en sus sistemas de información contable pública, con la intención de mejorarlos. Aunque los cambios que se operan, por lo general, toman como punto de referencia la base de devengo, se siguen encontrando bastantes discrepancias en sus prácticas contables. No obstante, esta situación podría modificarse, ya que por primera vez un organismo internacional como es la Federación Internacional de Contadores (IFAC) ha emitido una serie oficial de normas para la elaboración de informes financieros de entidades públicas que, en el caso de ser adoptadas, podrían contribuir activamente a la armonización contable. En este contexto, el objetivo de nuestro trabajo es llevar a cabo una comparación entre las prácticas de presentación de la información financiera recomendadas por las IPSAS de la IFAC y las que muestran las Cuentas Generales gubernamentales de los países del Mercosur, para así medir el grado de adaptación que sería necesario en cada una de ellas si se pretendiese lograr una armonización, tomando como referencia dicho modelo, en la difusión de la información financiera pública de estos países.In recent years, numerous Latin-American countries have been carrying out reforms in their public accounting systems with a view to improving the information that guides the decision-making process. However, bearing in mind that, in general terms, the accounting systems adopt the accrual basis, there still exist differences in accounting practices. Nevertheless, this situation could be modified since, for the first time, an international agency, which is the case of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), has issued official standards for the financial elaboration of public entities' reports which, if adopted, could actively contribute to accounting harmonization. In this context, the objective of our article is to compare the financial reporting practices recommended by the IFAC's IPSAS with those showing the annual public financial reporting of the South Cone countries, with a view to measuring the level of adaptation that would be necessary in each of them if they intend to achieve harmonization, adopting this model as a reference framework for these countries' disclosure of public financial information.

Avoiding vehicle-to-pedestrian crashes is a critical requirement for nowadays advanced driver assistant systems (ADAS) and future self-driving vehicles. Accordingly, detecting pedestrians from raw sensor data has a history of more than 15 years of research, with vision playing a central role. During the last years, deep learning has boosted the accuracy of image-based pedestrian detectors. However, detection is just the first step towards answering the core question, namely is the vehicle going to crash with a pedestrian provided preventive actions are not taken? Therefore, knowing as soon as possible if a detected pedestrian has the intention of crossing the road ahead of the vehicle is essential for performing safe and comfortable maneuvers that prevent a crash. However, compared to pedestrian detection, there is relatively little literature on detecting pedestrian intentions. This paper aims to contribute along this line by presenting a new vision-based approach which analyzes the pose of a pedestrian along several frames to determine if he or she is going to enter the road or not. We present experiments showing 750 ms of anticipation for pedestrians crossing the road, which at a typical urban driving speed of 50 km/h can provide 15 additional meters (compared to a pure pedestrian detector) for vehicle automatic reactions or to warn the driver. Moreover, in contrast with state-of-the-art methods, our approach is monocular, neither requiring stereo nor optical flow information.

Despite all the significant advances in pedestrian detection brought by computer vision for driving assistance, it is still a challenging problem. One reason is the extremely varying lighting conditions under which such a detector should operate, namely day and nighttime. Recent research has shown that the combination of visible and non-visible imaging modalities may increase detection accuracy, where the infrared spectrum plays a critical role. The goal of this paper is to assess the accuracy gain of different pedestrian models (holistic, part-based, patch-based) when training with images in the far infrared spectrum. Specifically, we want to compare detection accuracy on test images recorded at day and nighttime if trained (and tested) using (a) plain color images; (b) just infrared images; and (c) both of them. In order to obtain results for the last item, we propose an early fusion approach to combine features from both modalities. We base the evaluation on a new dataset that we have built for this purpose as well as on the publicly available KAIST multispectral dataset.

La tesis que deseo discutir en este trabajo es la siguiente: las ciencias humanas (ciencias del espíritu según Dilthey, ciencias histórico-hermenéuticas según Habermas) son posibles en la medida en que pueda ser epistemológicamente justificado el método que las hace posibles, a saber, la comprensión hermenéutica del sentido cuyo núcleo central lo constituye el círculo hermenéutico. Se trata, pues, de justificar epistemológicamente la hermenéutica como comprensión del sentido de las vivencias propias y ajenas, para lo cual es preciso analizar la reflexividad y reciprocidad que impregna la estructura del lenguaje ordinario. En el diálogo que Habermas establece con Dilthey en Conocimiento e interés aparecen los suficientes argumentos para dicha fundamentación. Nuestro texto hará especial hincapié en los siguientes tópicos: distinción entre ciencias de la naturaleza y ciencias del espíritu, comprensión hermenéutica del sentido, lenguaje ordinario y reflexividad, especificidad del círculo hermenéutico, ciencia y contexto vital, y, finalmente, haremos un balance de la interpretación habermasiana de Dilthey a partir de las relaciones entre ciencias histórico-hermenéuticas e interés práctico del conocimiento.

Si el krausismo y la Institución Libre de Enseñanza fueron una laguna en medio del páramo que presentaba la educación en la España decimonónica, su discípulo José Castillejo Duarte (1877-1945) representó el engarce cultural con Europa de la España de la Restauración tardía, sumida en una grave crisis política y económica durante la segunda década del siglo XX. Sólo su trabajo abnegado, unido a su espíritu liberal, tolerante y austero, fuertemente influenciado por el institucionismo de Giner de los Ríos, podía conseguir, con unos mínimos apoyos económicos y políticos, un éxito tan mayúsculo como el que supuso la intelectualidad española de la II República, que alcanzó las cotas más altas de reconocimiento internacional.If krausism and «Institución Libre de Enseñanza» were a blank on the plateau of decimononic Spanish educatión, his disciple José Castillejo Duarte (1877-1945), represented a cultural hook to the Spanish late Restoratión in Europe, immersed in a seríous politic and economic crisis in the second decade of the XXc. Only hard work, mingled with his liberal thinking, tolerant and austere, highly influenced by Giner de los Rios could reach such a success with minimal economic and political support, resulting in the intelectuality of the Spanish second Republic, reaching the highest International prestige.

Sin resumen

Sin resumen

Sin resumen

Abstract Contract auditing, or cost and price auditing, has been applied in Spain as a means of determining prices in non-competitive defense contracts since 1989. Factors such as Spain's participation in international defense organizations, the characteristics of the defense market and the contractual legal framework for the procurement of defense goods and services help underscore the need for the Spanish Ministry of Defense to implement cost and price auditing. With the evolution of cost and price auditing in Spain in mind, this paper analyses the entire process, describes the audit procedures that are most commonly used today and assesses the main results achieved, in terms of financial savings. The results obtained show that cost and price auditing does indeed contribute to a more efficient use of public resources.