Biophotonic Sensing Cells (BICELLs) for label-free biosensing

Label free immunoassay sector is a ferment of activity, experiencing rapid growth as new technologies come forward and achieve acceptance. The landscape is changing in a “bottom up” approach, as individual companies promote individual technologies and find a market for them. Therefore, each of the companies operating in the label-free immunoassay sector offers a technology that is in some way unique and proprietary. However, no many technologies based on Label-free technology are currently in the market for PoC and High Throughput Screening (HTS), where mature labeled technologies have taken the market.

Refuerzo sonoro del pabellón de deportes Manín Larraz (Tauste, Zaragoza)

Diseño y simulación del comportamiento acústico del recinto bajo estudio con el sistema refuerzo sonoro instalado. El objeto de este proyecto fin de carrera es el de diseñar y simular el comportamiento acústico de un pabellón polideportivo con la instalación de un sistema de refuerzo sonoro adecuado a sus características arquitectónicas (y a los eventos a realizar). En estas simulaciones se utilizarán varias herramientas de diseño para poder comparar resultados y así obtener una mejor sonorización del recinto. Se llevarán a cabo varios diseños de sistemas de refuerzo sonoro para este recinto deportivo con el conocido programa de simulación sonora EASE, que incorpora sistemas de varias vías, filtros, etc. Otro software de simulación sonora a usar será EASE Focus, más intuitivo y principalmente enfocado a fuentes sonoras del tipo "arrays lineales", en dos dimensiones. En cuanto al método y las fases de trabajo, inicialmente, será necesario obtener información del estado actual del mercado del sector de instalaciones de sonorización y las características que los eventos a realizar requieren de estos sistemas de refuerzo sonoro. Se deberá a su vez estudiar los diferentes tipos de sistemas existentes (altavoces, procesadores, amplificadores...) a disposición de los técnicos de sonido. Una vez recogida esta información, se procederá a diseñar y simular los sistemas de refuerzo sonoro elegidos con las mencionadas herramientas de simulación sonora EASE y EASE Focus. ABSTRACT. Design and simulation of the acoustic behavior of the enclosure/complex under study with installed sound reinforcement. The purpose of this final project is to design and simulate the acoustic behavior of a sports arena with the installation of an adequate systems sound radiation to its architectural features (and events to be organisated). In these simulations several design tools to compare results and get a better sound enclosure shall be used. Be carried out several designs of speaker systems for this sports arena known program EASE with sound simulation and tools that incorporates several avenues systems, filters, etc. Another sound simulation software using EASE Focus is very used professionally, more intuitive and mainly focused on sound sources groupings (clusters) of type "linear array", in one or more dimensions. It must in turn studying different types of systems (loudspeakers, processors, amplifiers ...) available to the sound technicians. Once collected this information, proceed to design and simulate the sound reinforcement systems chosen with sound simulation tools mentioned EASE and EASE Focus. As for the method and the phases of work initially be necessary to obtain information on the current state of the sector sound systems and features that make the events of these systems require sound reinforcement market.

Secretify: de la idea al mercado

La extrema competitividad derivada de la globalización, hace que los proyectos en Tecnologías de la Información (TI), no se valoren por si son buenos o malos. Se da por supuesto que el producto tecnológico es innovador, aporta un valor añadido y tiene un fundamento tecnológico sólido y bien construido. Europa es un gran exponente en Desarrollo e Investigación (I+D), pero todavía está por detrás de países como Estados Unidos o Japón en cuanto a Innovación (i). Nos falta conseguir llegar al mercado. No basta con conseguir con éxito una prueba de concepto. Hay que ir más allá. Partimos de la base de un proyecto: Secretify, un cliente de correo web multicuenta sencillo y atractivo que permite a los usuarios cifrar sus comunicaciones utilizando cuentas de correo electrónico ya existentes, sin la necesidad de saber nada sobre seguridad, criptografía o gestión de claves. La finalidad de este Trabajo es aplicar todos los conceptos aprendidos durante el Máster (en concreto en la rama de Gestión, Innovación y Negocio TI), para convertir Secretify en un producto que sacar al mercado con éxito, teniendo los conocimientos tanto técnicos como empresariales, para minimizar los riesgos y adecuarse al mercado.---ABSTRACT---The extreme competitiveness derived from globalization, makes projects in Information Technologies (IT) to not be evaluated for its goodness. It is assumed that the technology product is innovative, provides added value and has a solid technology basis and well constructed. Europe is a great exponent in Research & Development (R&D), but It is still far behind from countries like USA or Japan in terms of Innovation (i). We need to reach the market: it is not enough having a successful proof of concept. We must go further. We start from a project: Secretify, a simple and beautiful web-based multiaccount email client that allow users to cypher their communications using already existing email accounts, without the need to know about security, cryptography or key management. The purpose of this thesis is to apply all concepts learnt during the Master course (specifically in Management, Innovation and IT business), to turn Secretify into a successful market launch, having the technical and business knowledges, in order to reduce the risks and to adapt to the market.

Proyecto para la instalación de una planta de tratamiento de residuos de construcción y demolición en la comunidad de Madrid

La problemática actual de las canteras en la cercanía de las grandes ciudades, debido a la escasez de yacimientos y a las restricciones medioambientales, están poniendo en graves problemas el abastecimiento de áridos naturales y encareciendo su coste. El proyecto realizado responde a la actual necesidad de los países del mundo desarrollado por buscar soluciones a los problemas de abastecimiento de materias primas para la construcción en las zonas urbanizadas. La dependencia de nuestra sociedad hacia los recursos naturales y la consideración de su importancia hacen que se deban aprovechar al máximo, ya sea reciclando, reutilizando o revalorizando. Este proyecto está centrado en los residuos utilizados en el sector de la construcción y la viabilidad de su reutilización. Hemos evaluado la situación y la legislación acerca de la posibilidad de reciclar los materiales de la construcción para volverlos a introducir en el mercado; llevando a cabo una aplicación práctica en la Comunidad de Madrid. El proyecto se complementa con el diseño y estudio de viabilidad de una instalación de reciclaje de residuos de la construcción y demolición en este micromercado. ABSTRACT The current problems of the quarries in the vicinity of large cities, due to the scarcity of deposits and environmental restrictions are putting in serious trouble supplying natural aggregates and more expensive cost. The project undertaken reflects the current need for developed countries to seek solutions to the problems of supply of raw materials for construction in urbanized areas worldwide. The dependence of our society towards natural resources and consideration of its importance that should be made to maximize either by recycling , reusing or revalued. This project is focused on the waste used in the construction sector and feasibility of reuse. We have assessed the situation and legislation about the possibility of recycling construction materials for re- entering the market ; carrying out a practical application in the Community of Madrid. The project complements the design and feasibility study of a facility for recycling construction waste and demolition in this micro market

A proposal for a Business Framework targeted at emerging business services and applications

Un Service Business Framework consiste en una serie de componentes interrelacionados que permiten la gestión de servicios de negocio a través de su ciclo de vida, desde su creación, descubrimiento y comparación, hasta su monetización (incluyendo un posible reparto de beneficios). De esta manera, el denominado FIWARE Business Framework trata de permitir a los usuarios de la plataforma FIWARE mejorar sus productos con funcionalidades de búsqueda, describrimiento, comparación, monetización y reparto de beneficios. Para lograr este objetivo, el Business Framework de FIWARE proporciona la especificación abierta y las APIs de una serie de components (denominados \Generic Enablers" en terminología FIWARE), junto con una implementación de referencia de las mismas pueden ser facilmente integradas en los sitemas existentes para conseguir aplicaciones con valor a~nadido. Al comienzo de este trabajo de fin de master, el Business Framework de FIWARE no era lo suficientemente maduro como para cubrir los requisitos de sus usuarios, ya que ofrecía modelos demasiado generales y dejaba algunas funcionalidades clave para ser implementadas por los usuarios. Para solucionar estos problemas, el principal objectivo desarrollado en el contexto de este trabajo de fin de master ha consistido en mejorar y evolucionar el Business Framework de FIWARE para dar respuesta a las demandas de sus usuarios. Para alcanzar el pricipal objetivo propuesto, el Business Framework de FIWARE ha sido evaluado usando la información proporcionada por los usuarios de la plataforma, principalmente PyMEs y start-ups que usan este framework en sus soluciones, con el objetivo de obtener una lista de requisitos y de dise~nar a partir de éstos un roadmap de evolución a 6 meses. Después, los diferentes problemas identificados se han tratado uno por uno dando en cada caso una solución capaz de cubrir los requisitos de los usuarios. Finalmente, se han evaluado los resultados obtenidos en el proyecto integrando el Business Framework desarrollado con un sistema existente para la gestión de datos de consusmo energético, construyendo lo que se ha denominado Mercado de Datos de Consumo Energético. Esto además ha permitido demostrar la utilidad del framework propuesto para evolucionar una plataforma de datos abiertos bien conocida como es CKAN a un verdadero mercado de datos.---ABSTRACT---Service Business Frameworks consist on a number of interrelated components that support the management of business services across their whole lifecycle, from their creation, publication, discovery and comparison, to their monetization (possibly including revenue settlement and sharing). In this regard, the FIWARE Business Framework aims at allowing FIWARE users to enhance their solutions with search, discovery, comparison, monetization and revenue settlement and sharing features. To achieve this objective, the FIWARE Business Framework provides the open specification and APIs of a comprehensive set of components (called Generic Enablers in FIWARE terminology), along with a reference implementation of these APIs,, that can be easily integrated with existing systems in order to create value added applications. At the beginning of the current Master's Thesis, the FIWARE Business Framework was not mature enough to cover the requirements of the its users, since it provided too general models and leaved some key functionality to be implemented by those users. To deal with these issues, the main objective carried out in the context of this Master's Thesis have been enhancing and evolving the FIWARE Business Framework to accomplish with the demands of its users. For achieving the main objective of this Master's Thesis, the FWARE Business Framework has been evaluated using the feedback provided by FIWARE users, mainly SMEs and start-ups, actually using the framework in their solutions, in order to determine a list of requirements and to design a roadmap for the evolution and improvement of the existing framework in the next 6 months. Then, the diferent issues detected have been tackle one by one enhancing them, and trying to give a solution able to cover users requirements. Finally, the results of the project have been evaluated by integrating the evolved FIWARE Business Framework with an existing system in charge of the management of energy consumption data, building what has been called the Energy Consumption Data Market. This has also allowed demonstrating the usefulness of the proposed business framework to evolve CKAN, a renowned open data platform, into an actual, fully- edged data market.

Mining mobile apps reviews to support release planning

The mobile apps market is a tremendous success, with millions of apps downloaded and used every day by users spread all around the world. For apps’ developers, having their apps published on one of the major app stores (e.g. Google Play market) is just the beginning of the apps lifecycle. Indeed, in order to successfully compete with the other apps in the market, an app has to be updated frequently by adding new attractive features and by fixing existing bugs. Clearly, any developer interested in increasing the success of her app should try to implement features desired by the app’s users and to fix bugs affecting the user experience of many of them. A precious source of information to decide how to collect users’ opinions and wishes is represented by the reviews left by users on the store from which they downloaded the app. However, to exploit such information the app’s developer should manually read each user review and verify if it contains useful information (e.g. suggestions for new features). This is something not doable if the app receives hundreds of reviews per day, as happens for the very popular apps on the market. In this work, our aim is to provide support to mobile apps developers by proposing a novel approach exploiting data mining, natural language processing, machine learning, and clustering techniques in order to classify the user reviews on the basis of the information they contain (e.g. useless, suggestion for new features, bugs reporting). Such an approach has been empirically evaluated and made available in a web-­‐based tool publicly available to all apps’ developers. The achieved results showed that the developed tool: (i) is able to correctly categorise user reviews on the basis of their content (e.g. isolating those reporting bugs) with 78% of accuracy, (ii) produces clusters of reviews (e.g. groups together reviews indicating exactly the same bug to be fixed) that are meaningful from a developer’s point-­‐of-­‐view, and (iii) is considered useful by a software company working in the mobile apps’ development market.

Integrated plant monitoring to improve plant operation strategy and results

The more and more demanding conditions in the power generation sector requires to apply all the available technologies to optimize processes and reduce costs. An integrated asset management strategy, combining technical analysis and operation and maintenance management can help to improve plant performance, flexibility and reliability. In order to deploy such a model it is necessary to combine plant data and specific equipment condition information, with different systems devoted to analyze performance and equipment condition, and take advantage of the results to support operation and maintenance decisions. This model that has been dealt in certain detail for electricity transmission and distribution networks, is not yet broadly extended in the power generation sector, as proposed in this study for the case of a combined power plant. Its application would turn in direct benefit for the operation and maintenance and for the interaction to the energy market

Diseño e implementación de una aplicación de detección como elemento de realidad aumentada en automóviles

En este proyecto se realiza el diseño y la implementación de un sistema que genera realidad aumentada, mediante la detección de vehículos que se encuentran en una trayectoria, y sirve de base para la conducción autónoma en vehículospara ambientes nocturnos ya que se ha observado mediante el estudio del arte que no existen aplicaciones de este tipo en dichas condiciones. La implementación de dicho sistema se realiza mediante una aplicación móvil en el sistema operativo de Android, que se apoya en sus librerías para el uso de sensores y la creación de menús, y las de OpenCV para el tratamiento de las imágenes. Además, se han realizado una serie de pruebas para demostrar la validez y la eficiencia de dicho algoritmo y se presenta al usuario mediante una aplicación de fácil manejo y uso en un dispositivo móvil. ABSTRACT. This project is about the design and implemantation of a system which generates augmented reality by detecting vehicles that stand along a followed trayectory, working out the basis for autonomus driving in night environments, because it was noticed that any other applications exist for this particular purpose, under the given circumstances. Implementation works through an Android mobile application, and learns over this operative system libraries in order to work with sensors, menu configurations, and OpenCV for image processing. A number of tests were run to prove the algorithm right and efficient; and it is introduced to the users via an easy-to-use app on a mobile device.

Diseño e implementación de una aplicación de detección como elemento de realidad aumentada en automóviles

En este proyecto se realiza el diseño y la implementación de un sistema que genera realidad aumentada, mediante la detección de vehículos que se encuentran en una trayectoria, y sirve de base para la conducción autónoma en vehículospara ambientes nocturnos ya que se ha observado mediante el estudio del arte que no existen aplicaciones de este tipo en dichas condiciones. La implementación de dicho sistema se realiza mediante una aplicación móvil en el sistema operativo de Android, que se apoya en sus librerías para el uso de sensores y la creación de menús, y las de OpenCV para el tratamiento de las imágenes. Además, se han realizado una serie de pruebas para demostrar la validez y la eficiencia de dicho algoritmo y se presenta al usuario mediante una aplicación de fácil manejo y uso en un dispositivo móvil. ABSTRACT. This project is about the design and implemantation of a system which generates augmented reality by detecting vehicles that stand along a followed trayectory, working out the basis for autonomus driving in night environments, because it was noticed that any other applications exist for this particular purpose, under the given circumstances. Implementation works through an Android mobile application, and learns over this operative system libraries in order to work with sensors, menu configurations, and OpenCV for image processing. A number of tests were run to prove the algorithm right and efficient; and it is introduced to the users via an easy-to-use app on a mobile device.

Mangaapp

Este proyecto consiste en el análisis, diseño e implementación de un sistema completo, que a través de una aplicación móvil para teléfonos inteligentes con sistema operativo Android, permitirá la organización y lectura de comics digitales. Abstract This project consists in analysis, design and implementation of a complete system, which using Android smartphone application, it allows to manage and to read digital comics.

Seasonal Dynamic Factor Analysis and Bootstrap Inference: Application to Electricity Market Forecasting

In this work, we propose the Seasonal Dynamic Factor Analysis (SeaDFA), an extension of Nonstationary Dynamic Factor Analysis, through which one can deal with dimensionality reduction in vectors of time series in such a way that both common and specific components are extracted. Furthermore, common factors are able to capture not only regular dynamics (stationary or not) but also seasonal ones, by means of the common factors following a multiplicative seasonal VARIMA(p, d, q) × (P, D, Q)s model. Additionally, a bootstrap procedure that does not need a backward representation of the model is proposed to be able to make inference for all the parameters in the model. A bootstrap scheme developed for forecasting includes uncertainty due to parameter estimation, allowing enhanced coverage of forecasting intervals. A challenging application is provided. The new proposed model and a bootstrap scheme are applied to an innovative subject in electricity markets: the computation of long-term point forecasts and prediction intervals of electricity prices. Several appendices with technical details, an illustrative example, and an additional table are available online as Supplementary Materials.

The Economic Value of Residential Land in Historical Areas: An Application of the Residual Method to the Secondary Market

Land value bears significant weight in house prices in historical town centers. An essential aim for regulating the mortgage market, particularly in the financial and property crisis that countries such as Spain are undergoing, is to have at hand objective procedures for its valuation, whatever the conditions (location, construction, planning). Of all the factors contributing to house price make-up, the land is the only one whose value does not depend on acquisition cost, but rather on the location-time binomial. That is to say, the specific circumstances at that point and at the exact moment of valuation. For this reason, the most commonly applied procedure for land valuation in town centers is the use of the residual method: once the selling price of new housing in a district is known, the other necessary costs and expenses of development are deducted, including those of building and the developer’s profit. The value left is that of the land. To apply these procedures it is vital to have figures such as building costs, technical fees, tax costs, etc. But, above all, it is essential to obtain the selling price of the new housing. This is not always feasible, on account of the lack of newbuild development in this location. This shortage of information occurs in historical town cities, where urban renewal is slight due to the heritage-protection policies, and where, nevertheless there is substantial activity in the secondary market. In these circumstances, as an alternative for land valuation in consolidated urban areas, we have the adaptation of the residual method to the particular characteristics of the secondary market. To these ends, there is the proposal for the appreciation of the dwelling which follows, in a backwards direction, the application of traditional depreciation methods proposed by the various valuation manuals and guidelines. The reliability of the results obtained is analyzed by contrasting it with published figures for newly-built properties, according to different rules applied in administrative appraisals in Spain and the incidence of an eventual correction due to conservation state.

Multiprotocol Android Application for Smart Control and Monitoring in Buildings

This paper presents a multiprotocol mobile application for building automation which supports and enables the integration of the most representative control technologies such as KNX, LonWorks and X-10. The application includes a real-time monitoring service. Finally, advanced control functionalities based on gestures recognition and predefined scenes have been implemented. This application has been developed and tested in the Energy Efficiency Research Facility located at CeDInt-UPM, where electrical loads, blinds and HVAC and lighting systems can be controlled.

Evaluation and implementation of a hybrid cross-platform application combining mobile web-technologies and native device functions

Este Proyecto de Fin de Carrera presenta un prototipo de aplicación móvil híbrida multi-plataforma para Android y iOS. Las aplicaciones móviles híbridas son una combinación de aplicaciones web móviles y aplicaciones móviles nativas. Se desarrollan parcialmente con tecnologías web y pueden acceder a la capa nativa y sensores del teléfono. Para el usuario se presentan como aplicaciones nativas, ya que se pueden descargar de las tiendas de aplicaciones y son instaladas en el dispositivo. El prototipo consiste en la migración del módulo de noticias financieras de las aplicaciones actuales para móviles de una compañía bancaria reimplementándolo como aplicación híbrida utilizando uno de los entornos de desarrollo disponibles en el mercado para este propósito. El desarrollo de aplicaciones híbridas puede ahorrar tiempo y dinero cuando se pretende alcanzar más de una plataforma móvil. El objetivo es la evaluación de las ventajas e inconvenientes que ofrece el desarrollo de aplicaciones híbridas en términos de reducción de costes, tiempo de desarrollo y resultado final de la aplicación. El proyecto consta de varias fases. Durante la primera fase se realiza un estudio sobre las aplicaciones híbridas que podemos encontrar hoy en día en el mercado utilizando los ejemplos de linkedIn, Facebook y Financial times. Se hace hincapié en las tecnologías utilizadas, uso de la red móvil y problemas encontrados. Posteriormente se realiza una comparación de distintos entornos de desarrollo multi-plataforma para aplicaciones híbridas en términos de la estrategia utilizada, plataformas soportadas, lenguajes de programación, acceso a capacidades nativas de los dispositivos y licencias de uso. Esta primera fase da como resultado la elección del entorno de desarrollo más adecuado a las exigencias del proyecto, que es PhoneGap, y continua con un análisis más detallado de dicho entorno en cuanto a su arquitectura, características y componentes. La siguiente fase comienza con un estudio de las aplicaciones actuales de la compañía para extraer el código fuente necesario y adaptarlo a la arquitectura que tendrá la aplicación. Para la realización del prototipo se hace uso de la característica que ofrece PhoneGap para acceder a la capa nativa del dispositivo, esto es, el uso de plugins. Se diseña y desarrolla un plugin que permite acceder a la capa nativa para cada plataforma. Una vez desarrollado el prototipo para la plataforma Android, se migra y adapta para la plataforma iOS. Por último se hace una evaluación de los prototipos en cuanto a su facilidad y tiempo de desarrollo, rendimiento, funcionalidad y apariencia de la interfaz de usuario. ABSTRACT. This bachelor's thesis presents a prototype of a hybrid cross-platform mobile application for Android and iOS. Hybrid mobile applications are a combination of mobile web and mobile native applications. They are built partially with web technologies and they can also access native features and sensors of the device. For a user, they look like native applications as they are downloaded from the application stores and installed on the device. This prototype consists of the migration of the financial news module of current mobile applications from a financial bank reimplementing them as a hybrid application using one of the frameworks available in the market for that purpose. Development of applications on a hybrid way can help reducing costs and effort when targeting more than one platform. The target of the project is the evaluation of the advantages and disadvantages that hybrid development can offer in terms of reducing costs and efforts and the final result of the application. The project starts with an analysis of successfully released hybrid applications using the examples of linkedIn, Facebook and Financial Times, emphasizing the different used technologies, the transmitted network data and the encountered problems during the development. This analysis is followed by a comparison of most popular hybrid crossplatform development frameworks in terms of the different approaches, supported platforms, programming languages, access to native features and license. This first stage has the outcome of finding the development framework that best fits to the requirements of the project, that is PhoneGap, and continues with a deeper analysis of its architecture, features and components. Next stage analyzes current company's applications to extract the needed source code and adapt it to the architecture of the prototype. For the realization of the application, the feature that PhoneGap offers to access the native layer of the device is used. This feature is called plugin. A custom plugin is designed and developed to access the native layer of each targeted platform. Once the prototype is finished for Android, it is migrated and adapted to the iOS platform. As a final conclusion the prototypes are evaluated in terms of ease and time of development, performance, functionality and look and feel.

Mixed models for short-run forecasting of electricity prices: Application for the Spanish market

Short-run forecasting of electricity prices has become necessary for power generation unit schedule, since it is the basis of every profit maximization strategy. In this article a new and very easy method to compute accurate forecasts for electricity prices using mixed models is proposed. The main idea is to develop an efficient tool for one-step-ahead forecasting in the future, combining several prediction methods for which forecasting performance has been checked and compared for a span of several years. Also as a novelty, the 24 hourly time series has been modelled separately, instead of the complete time series of the prices. This allows one to take advantage of the homogeneity of these 24 time series. The purpose of this paper is to select the model that leads to smaller prediction errors and to obtain the appropriate length of time to use for forecasting. These results have been obtained by means of a computational experiment. A mixed model which combines the advantages of the two new models discussed is proposed. Some numerical results for the Spanish market are shown, but this new methodology can be applied to other electricity markets as well