Approach to the use of indicators for the assessment of the environmental level of construction products

The European construction industry is supposed to consume the 40% of the natural European resources and to generate the 40% of the European solid waste. Conscious of the great damage being suffered by the environment because of construction activity, this work tries to provide the building actors with a new tool to improve the current situation. The tool proposed is a model for the comprehensive evaluation of construction products by determining their environmental level. In this research, the environmental level of a construction product has been defined as its quality of accomplishing the construction requirements needed by causing the minimum ecological impact in its surrounding environment. This information allows building actors to choose suitable materials for building needs and also for the environment, mainly in the project stage or on the building site, contributing to improve the relationship between buildings and environment. For the assessment of the environmental level of construction products, five indicators have been identified regarding their global environmental impact through the product life cycle: CO2 emissions provoked during their production, volume and toxicity of waste generated on the building site, durability and recycling capacity after their useful life. Therefore, the less environmental impact one construction product produces, the higher environmental level performs. The model has been tested in 30 construction products that include environmental criteria in their description. The results obtained will be discussed in this article. Furthermore, this model can lay down guidelines for the selection of ecoefficient construction products and the design of new eco-competitive and eco-committed ones

Fish communities as indicators of biological conditions of rivers: methods for reference conditions

Fish communities are a key element in fluvial ecosystems Their position in the top of the food chain and their sensitivity to a whole range of impacts make them a clear objective for ecosystem conservation and a sound indicator of biological integrity. The UE Water Framework Directive includes fish community composition, abundance and structure as relevant elements for the evaluation os biological condition. Several approaches have been proposed for the evaluation of the condition of fish communities, from the bio-indicator concept to the IBI (Index of biotic integrity) proposals. However, the complexity of fish communities and their ecological responses make this evaluation difficult, and we must avoid both oversimplified and extreme analytical procedures. In this work we present a new proposal to define reference conditions in fish communities, discussing them from an ecological viewpoint. This method is a synthetic approach called SYNTHETIC OPEN METHODOLOGICAL FRAMEWORK (SOMF) that has been applied to the rivers of Navarra. As a result, it is recommended the integration of all the available information from spatial, modelling, historical and expert sources, providing the better approach to fish reference conditions, keeping the highest level of information and meeting the legal requirements of the WFD.

Integración Wi-Fi en un proyecto ICT

La instalación de Infraestructuras Comunes de Telecomunicación (IICCTT) en el interior de las edificaciones para el acceso a los servicios de telecomunicación facilitó la incorporación a las viviendas de las nuevas tecnologías de forma económica y transparente para los usuarios. Actualmente, todos los edificios de nueva construcción deben presentar un proyecto ICT firmado por un Ingeniero Técnico de Telecomunicación de la especialidad correspondiente o un Ingeniero de Telecomunicación. La legislación que las regula afecta a todo tipo de viviendas con independencia del poder adquisitivo del comprador, y contribuye de manera decisiva a que disminuyan a corto y medio plazo las desigualdades sociales en lo relativo al acceso a servicios de telecomunicación tales como telefonía, Internet, telecomunicación por cable, radiodifusión sonora y televisión analógica, digital, terrenal o por satélite, etc.. Desde 1997, el Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros de Telecomunicación junto con otras organizaciones públicas y privadas ha participado en la elaboración de la normativa aplicable a las Infraestructuras Comunes de Telecomunicación, dando lugar al actual decreto, el Real Decreto 346/2011, de 11 de Marzo. El propósito general de este proyecto es diseñar una red Wi-Fi a partir de las canalizaciones e instalaciones del proyecto ICT de un conjunto de viviendas unifamiliares, para que todas ellas dispongan de conexión a internet de forma inalámbrica. Para llevar a cabo este diseño, se ha realizado un estudio de las características del estándar IEEE 802.11, conocido como Wi-Fi, analizando las posibilidades de comunicación inalámbrica que ofrece, así como las limitaciones que presenta en la actualidad. Se ha analizado el proyecto ICT del conjunto de viviendas, estudiando la viabilidad de utilizar sus instalaciones para implementar la red Wi-Fi, añadiendo tanto las canalizaciones como los dispositivos comerciales necesarios para llevar a cabo dicha implementación. Además, se ha estudiado la posibilidad de integrar la red Wi-Fi utilizando el cableado de televisión de la propia ICT. Por último, se ha estudiado la gran importancia que al Hogar Digital se da en el Real Decreto 346/2011, de 11 de marzo, por el que se aprueba el Reglamento regulador de las Infraestructuras Comunes de Telecomunicaciones para el acceso a los servicios de telecomunicación en el interior de las edificaciones, presentando los aspectos fundamentales que se persiguen con la domotización de la vivienda como mejora de vida de sus habitantes. Abstract The installation of Telecommunications Common Infrastructures (TCIs, in Spanish Infraestructuras Comunes de Telecomunicación –IICCTT-) in the buildings, in order to gain access to telecommunications services, facilitated the incorporation into the houses of new technologies in an economical and transparent way for users. Nowadays, every new construction building must have a TCI project signed by a Telecommunications Engineer or a Technical Telecommunications Engineer with the appropriate specialization. The legislation that regulates TCIs affects every kind of houses, independently of the buyer´s purchasing power, and contributes decisively to decrease in short and medium terms the social inequalities concerning the access to the telecommunication services, such as telephony, Internet, wired telecommunications, audible broadcasting and digital, analogical, land, satellite television, etc.. Since 1997, the Telecommunications Engineer Official College, together with other public and private organizations, has been elaborating the regulations for the TCIs, giving rise to the current decree, the Royal Decree 346/2011, of 11th of March. The general purpose of this project is to design a Wi-Fi network based on the canalizations and installations of the TCI project of a housing development, in such a way that every house is provided with a wireless connection to the Internet. In order to carry out this design, the characteristics of the standard IEEE 802.11, known as Wi-Fi, have been studied, analyzing the wireless-communication possibilities that it offers, as well as the constraints that it presents currently. The TCI project has been analyzed, studying the feasibility of using its installations to implement the Wi-Fi network, adding the canalizations and commercial devices required to execute the aforementioned implementation. Besides, the possibility of integrating the Wi-Fi network using the television wires of the TCI project has been investigated. Finally, it has been studied the great importance that has been given to Digital Home in the Royal Decree 346/2011, of 11th of March, that approves the regulatory Regulations of Telecommunications Common Infrastructures for the access to telecommunications services inside the buildings, presenting the essential aspects that are pursued with the house domotization as a way to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants.

New ICT Literacies and Holistic Approaches for the Effective Learning of Languages in Tertiary Education

Abstract: This paper summarizes the evolution of different subjects of English for Specific Purposes and English for Academic and Professional Purposes. The aim here is to show a continuum of changes that have not started and nished in one subject alone but affect the whole curriculum. After the discussion section where advantages and drawbacks of the changes introduced are analyzed, we arrive at some conclusions regarding this ve year period of development in the approach to the teaching and learning of the specific or academic English language in the Escuela Universitaria de Ingeniería Técnica de Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Resumen: Este trabajo resume la evolución que han experimentado distintas asignaturas de Inglés para Fines Especí cos e Inglés para Fines Académicos y Profesionales. El objetivo principal es mostrar cómo el esfuerzo por mejorar las asignaturas afecta al currículo como un todo y no sólo a cada una de las asignaturas. Tras el análisis de algunas de las ventajas e inconvenientes de los cambios introducidos, se alcanzan algunas conclusiones sobre la evolución que han sufrido este tipo de asignaturas durante los últimos cinco años en la Escuela Universitaria de Ingeniería Técnica de Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.

Simulation of academic performance rates, estimation of indicators of subjects and of a complete degree

The purpose of this paper is to present a program written in Matlab-Octave for the simulation of the time evolution of student curricula, i.e, how students pass their subjects along time until graduation. The program computes, from the simulations, the academic performance rates for the subjects of the study plan for each semester as well as the overall rates, which are a) the efficiency rate defined as the ratio of the number of students passing the exam to the number of students who registered for it and b) the success rate, defined as the ratio of the number of students passing the exam to the number of students who not only registered for it but also actually took it. Additionally, we compute the rates for the bachelor academic degree which are established for Spain by the National Quality Evaluation and Accreditation Agency (ANECA) and which are the graduation rate (measured as the percentage of students who finish as scheduled in the plan or taking an extra year) and the efficiency rate (measured as the percentage of credits which a student who graduated has really taken). The simulation is done in terms of the probabilities of passing all the subjects in their study plan. The application of the simulator to Polytech students in Madrid, where requirements for passing are specially stiff in first and second year subjects, is particularly relevant to analyze student cohorts and the probabilities of students finishing in the minimum of four years, or taking and extra year or two extra years, and so forth. It is a very useful tool when designing new study plans. The calculation of the probability distribution of the random variable "number of semesters a student has taken to complete the curricula and graduate" is difficult or even unfeasible to obtain analytically, and this is even truer when we incorporate uncertainty in parameter estimation. This is why we apply Monte Carlo simulation which not only provides illustration of the stochastic process but also a method for computation. The stochastic simulator is proving to be a useful tool for identification of the subjects most critical in the distribution of the number of semesters for curriculum vitae (CV) completion and subsequently for a decision making process in terms of CV planning and passing standards in the University. Simulations are performed through a graphical interface where also the results are presented in appropriate figures. The Project has been funded by the Call for Innovation in Education Projects of Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) through a Project of its school Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales ETSII during the period September 2010-September 2011.

Ranking web services using centralities and social indicators

Nowadays, developers of web application mashups face a sheer overwhelming variety and pluralism of web services. Therefore, choosing appropriate web services to achieve specific goals requires a certain amount of knowledge as well as expertise. In order to support users in choosing appropriate web services it is not only important to match their search criteria to a dataset of possible choices but also to rank the results according to their relevance, thus minimizing the time it takes for taking such a choice. Therefore, we investigated six ranking approaches in an empirical manner and compared them to each other. Moreover, we have had a look on how one can combine those ranking algorithms linearly in order to maximize the quality of their outputs.

Time derivatives in air temperature and enthalpy as non-invasive welfare indicators during long distance animal transport in Spain and Portugal.

High temperatures and relative humidity can compromise animal welfare on the farm level, but less is known about those changes during long distance transport of domestic animals to slaughter. Although upper temperature limits have been established to transport pigs in Europe, few indices include relative or absolute humidity maxima or mention appropriate enthalpy ranges.

Relationship between objective and subjective indicators in urban soundscape analysis. The case of Cordoba - Argentina

This paper presents the main results of a comparative evaluation of some acoustical parameters with the user´s perception of urban sounds. The study was carried out in three open spaces integrated with different environmental characteristics but similar objective conditions of urban noise. The subjective evaluation was done by means of a survey simultaneously with the objective measurements. The results of the crossed analysis confirmed that in environments with similar noise levels not always exists direct correlation between the objetive indicators and the acoustic comfort of the people. To predict the acustical quality of the soundscape it is necessary to consider aspects such as the background noise and the perception of natural or technological sounds as complements of the general sound level.

Including accessibility in higher education curricula for ICT

This paper describes the successful experience carried out by professors of the CETTICO research group of the Technical University of Madrid to incorporate accessibility in the curricula of higher education in ICT in Spain. The paper covers the legal requirements to include accessibility in curricula in Spain, the courses and modules that we have been teaching through the years and the teaching techniques and tools that we have been using.

Development of a methodology and tool to evaluate the impact of ICT measures on road transport emissions

The paper presents the main elements of a project entitled ICT-Emissions that aims at developing a novel methodology to evaluate the impact of ICT-related measures on mobility, vehicle energy consumption and CO2 emissions of vehicle fleets at the local scale, in order to promote the wider application of the most appropriate ICT measures. The proposed methodology combines traffic and emission modelling at micro and macro scales. These will be linked with interfaces and submodules which will be specifically designed and developed. A number of sources are available to the consortium to obtain the necessary input data. Also, experimental campaigns are offered to fill in gaps of information in traffic and emission patterns. The application of the methodology will be demonstrated using commercially available software. However, the methodology is developed in such a way as to enable its implementation by a variety of emission and traffic models. Particular emphasis is given to (a) the correct estimation of driver behaviour, as a result of traffic-related ICT measures, (b) the coverage of a large number of current vehicle technologies, including ICT systems, and (c) near future technologies such as hybrid, plug-in hybrids, and electric vehicles. The innovative combination of traffic, driver, and emission models produces a versatile toolbox that can simulate the impact on energy and CO2 of infrastructure measures (traffic management, dynamic traffic signs, etc.), driver assistance systems and ecosolutions (speed/cruise control, start/stop systems, etc.) or a combination of measures (cooperative systems).The methodology is validated by application in the Turin area and its capacity is further demonstrated by application in real world conditions in Madrid and Rome.

Indicators and Estimators in P-Adaptive Boundary Elements

The paper presents the possibility of implementing a p-adaptive process with the B.E.M. Although the exemples show that good results can be obtained with a limited amount of storage and with the simple ideas explained above, more research is needed in order to improve the two main problems of the method, i.e.: the criteria of where to refine and until what degree. Mathematically based reasoning is still lacking and will be useful to simplify the decission making. Nevertheless the method seems promising and, we hope, opens a path for a series of research lines of maximum interest. Although the paper has dealt only with plane potential problem the extension to plane elasticity as well as to 3-D potential problem is straight-forward.

The influence of economic incentives linked to road safety indicators on accidents: The case of toll concessions in Spain

The goal of this paper is to evaluate whether the incentives incorporated in toll highway concession contracts in order to encourage private operators to adopt measures to reduce accidents are actually effective at improving safety. To this end, we implemented negative binomial regression models using information about highway characteristics and accident data from toll highway concessions in Spain from 2007 to 2009. Our results show that even though road safety is highly influenced by variables that are not managed by the contractor, such as the annual average daily traffic (AADT), the percentage of heavy vehicles on the highway, number of lanes, number of intersections and average speed; the implementation of these incentives has a positive influence on the reduction of accidents and injuries. Consequently, this measure seems to be an effective way of improving safety performance in road networks.

Indicators of sustainability of agriculture and livestock in Spain - Indicadores de sostenibilidad de la agricultura y ganadería española

Sustainability is an adjective used to characterize agriculture according to the degree of fulfillment of goals. Those goals are related to agro-ecological, environmental and socio-economic dimensions. Sustainability is a dynamic and temporal character. In absolute terms there is not an ending value because it changes as its dimensions make it. Spain is one of the main agricultural countries of the European Union both in terms of crop land and value of productions. The object of this study is to present a methodology of sustainability account to be incorporated into national statistical and to assess their performance in the course of the years. For that reason the data sources used have been the statistics of the Department of Agriculture and from others database. We presented a set of indicators of sustainability and its evaluation in a time series of at least 30 years. The trend analysis offers the evolution of the numerical values of the indicators in terms of efficiency, physical units used for a unit of product or its value in euros. The analyzed crops have been: wheat, barley, maize, sunflower, sugar beet, wine grape, olive oil, citrus, melon and tomato. Physical indicators were: land, water, energy, erosion, soil organic matter, and carbon balance; socio-economic indicators were: agricultural final production, prices, income, employment and use of fertilizers. In general, all crops increased their productive efficiency, higher in irrigated than on dry land. Spanish agricultural carbon sequestration capacity has multiplied by five in the last seventy years, as a result of the increase in the productivity of crops, in terms of total biomass and the modification of the soil management techniques. Livestock sector presents data of pork, broilers and laying hen. Those showed an improvement in efficiency and economic indicators. Overall we can say that Spanish agriculture and livestock subsector have a tendency towards sustainability, being its main threats extreme meteorological factors and the instability of todays markets.

ICT: an empowering tool for social enterprises

In recent years new models for organizations working on poverty alleviation have emerged. One of them, the social enterprise, has attracted the attention of both academics and practitioners all over the world. Even if defined in different ways depending on the context, this model has an enormous potential to generate social benefits and to promote local agency and private initiative in poverty alleviation.

The Role of ICT in Scaling Up the Impact of Social Enterprises

Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) can help social enterprises and other organizations working on global sustainability issues and in the human development sector in general scale their social impact. The flexibility, dynamism, and ubiquity of ICTs make them powerful tools for improving relationships among organizations and their beneficiaries, multiplying the effects of action against many, if not all, aspects of global unsustainability, including poverty and exclusion. The scaling of social impact occurs in two different dimensions. On one hand, ICTs can increase the value proposition of a program or action (depth scaling) in different ways: providing accurate and fast needs recognition, adapting products and services, creating opportunities, building fairer markets, mobilizing actions on environmental and social issues, and creating social capital. On the other hand, ICTs can also increase the number of people reached by the organization (breadth scaling) by accessing new resources, creating synergies and networks, improving organizational efficiency, increasing its visibility, and designing new access channels to beneficiaries. This article analyzes the role of ICT in the depth and breadth scaling of social impact.