Social Housing in Great Metropolitan Areas: A New Methodology for Integrated Quality Evaluation and Comparison.

Este artículo expone la primera aplicación experimental de un método para el análisis y la comparación de experiencias de vivienda social internacional en el contexto de las grandes áreas metropolitanas. El método, desarrollado en la Universidad Politécnica Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) desde 2009, se basa en la utilización de códigos gráficos y numéricos comunes y la integración de diferentes escalas de aproximación al entorno construido, de la vivienda y su arquitectura, a sus materiales de construcción y llegando más lejos, la ciudad. Además, los datos están vinculados a tres conceptos clave estrechamente relacionados con las condiciones específicas de las grandes áreas metropolitanas: la economía, la densidad y la diversidad. El objetivo final de la investigación es proporcionar una herramienta para la evaluación de la calidad de las viviendas sociales, optimización de recursos y un diseño innovador.

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.

A syntactic approach to combining functional notation, lazy evaluation, and higher-order in LP systems

Nondeterminism and partially instantiated data structures give logic programming expressive power beyond that of functional programming. However, functional programming often provides convenient syntactic features, such as having a designated implicit output argument, which allow function cali nesting and sometimes results in more compact code. Functional programming also sometimes allows a more direct encoding of lazy evaluation, with its ability to deal with infinite data structures. We present a syntactic functional extensión, used in the Ciao system, which can be implemented in ISO-standard Prolog systems and covers function application, predefined evaluable functors, functional definitions, quoting, and lazy evaluation. The extensión is also composable with higher-order features and can be combined with other extensions to ISO-Prolog such as constraints. We also highlight the features of the Ciao system which help implementation and present some data on the overhead of using lazy evaluation with respect to eager evaluation.

Intermittency reinjection probability density function with and without noise effects.

Intermittency phenomenon is a continuous route from regular to chaotic behaviour. Intermittency is an occurrence of a signal that alternates chaotic bursts between quasi-regular periods called laminar phases, driven by the so called reinjection probability density function (RPD). In this paper is introduced a new technique to obtain the RPD for type-II and III intermittency. The new RPD is more general than the classical one and includes the classical RPD as a particular case. The probabilities of the laminar length, the average laminar lengths and the characteristic relations are determined with and without lower bound of the reinjection in agreement with numerical simulations. Finally, it is analyzed the noise effect in intermittency. A method to obtain the noisy RPD is developed extending the procedure used in the noiseless case. The analytical results show a good agreement with numerical simulations.

Evaluation and improvement of empirical models of global solar irradiation: Case study northern Spain

This paper presents a new methodology to build parametric models to estimate global solar irradiation adjusted to specific on-site characteristics based on the evaluation of variable im- portance. Thus, those variables higly correlated to solar irradiation on a site are implemented in the model and therefore, different models might be proposed under different climates. This methodology is applied in a study case in La Rioja region (northern Spain). A new model is proposed and evaluated on stability and accuracy against a review of twenty-two already exist- ing parametric models based on temperatures and rainfall in seventeen meteorological stations in La Rioja. The methodology of model evaluation is based on bootstrapping, which leads to achieve a high level of confidence in model calibration and validation from short time series (in this case five years, from 2007 to 2011). The model proposed improves the estimates of the other twenty-two models with average mean absolute error (MAE) of 2.195 MJ/m2 day and average confidence interval width (95% C.I., n=100) of 0.261 MJ/m2 day. 41.65% of the daily residuals in the case of SIAR and 20.12% in that of SOS Rioja fall within the uncertainty tolerance of the pyranometers of the two networks (10% and 5%, respectively). Relative differences between measured and estimated irradiation on an annual cumulative basis are below 4.82%. Thus, the proposed model might be useful to estimate annual sums of global solar irradiation, reaching insignificant differences between measurements from pyranometers.

Nondestructive quality evaluation and monitoring of Braeburn apples by Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy.

Contact Spatially Resolved Spectroscopy (SRS) measurements by means of a fiber-optics probe were employed for nondestructive assessment and monitoring of Braeburn apples during shelflife storage. SRS measurements and estimation of optical properties were calibrated and validated by means of liquid optical phantoms with known optical properties and a metamodeling method. The acquired optical properties (absorption and reduced scattering coefficients) for the apples during shelf-life storage were found to provide useful information for nondestructive evaluation of apple quality attributes (firmness and SSC) and for monitoring the changes in their microstructure and chemical composition. On-line SRS measurement was achieved by mounting the SRS probe over a conveyor system

Simulating potential growth and yield of oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) with PALMSIM: Model description, evaluation and application.

Reducing the gap between water-limited potential yield and actual yield in oil palm production systems through intensification is seen as an important option for sustainably increasing palm oil production. Simulation models can play an important role in quantifying water-limited potential yield, and therefore the scope for intensification, but no oil palm model exists that is both simple enough and at the same time incorporates sufficient plant physiological knowledge to be generally applicable across sites with different growing conditions. The objectives of this study therefore were to develop a model (PALMSIM) that simulates, on a monthly time step, the potential growth of oil palm as determined by solar radiation and to evaluate model performance against measured oil palm yields under optimal water and nutrient management for a range of sites across Indonesia and Malaysia. The maximum observed yield in the field matches the corresponding simulated yield for dry bunch weight with a RMSE of 1.7 Mg ha?1 year?1 against an observed yield of 18.8 Mg ha?1. Sensitivity analysis showed that PALMSIM is robust: simulated changes in yield caused by modifying the parameters by 10% are comparable to other tree crop model evaluations. While we acknowledge that, depending on the soils and climatic environment, yields may be often water limited, we suggest a relatively simple physiological approach to simulate potential yield, which can be usefully applied to high rainfall environments and is considered as a first step in developing an oil palm model that also simulates water-limited potential yield. To illustrate the application possibil- ities of the model, PALMSIM was used to create a potential yield map for Indonesia and Malaysia by sim- ulating the growth and yield at a resolution of 0.1?. This map of potential yield is considered as a first step towards a decision support tool that can identify potentially productive, but at the moment degraded sites in Indonesia and Malaysia. ?

Modeling of dangerous phenomena and innovative techniques for hazard evaluation and risk mitigation

Society is frequently exposed to and threatened by dangerous phenomena in many parts of the world. Different types of such phenomena require specific actions for proper risk management, from the stages of hazard identification to those of mitigation (including monitoring and early-warning) and/or reduction. The understanding of both predisposing factors and triggering mechanisms of a given danger and the prediction of its evolution from the source to the overall affected zone are relevant issues that must be addressed to properly evaluate a given hazard.

Experimental tests in human-robot collision evaluation and characterization of a new safety index for robot operation

This paper describes an experimental procedure consisting of impact tests that simulate a collision of a human head with an industrial robot with the aim to validate a safety index named as New Index for Robots (NIR) and its outputs. The experiments in this paper are based on lab tests. It is an attempt to characterize the NIR index underlying the main parameters that are involved in crash interaction and to highlight limitations and weakness of suggested impact tests.

Prototype emitter for use in subsurface drip irrigation: Manufacturing, hydraulic evaluation and experimental analyses

The current research aims to analyse theoretically and evaluate a self-manufactured simple design for subsurface drip irrigation (SDI) emitter to avoid root and soil intrusion. It was composed of three concentric cylindrical elements: an elastic silicone membrane; a polyethylene tube with two holes drilled on its wall for water discharge; and a vinyl polychloride protector system to wrap the other elements. The discharge of the emitter depends on the change in the membrane diameter when it is deformed by the water pressure. The study of the operation of this emitter is a new approach that considers mechanical and hydraulic principles. Thus, the estimation on the membrane deformation was based on classical mechanical stress theories in composite cylinders. The hydraulic principles considered the solid deformation due to force based on water pressure and the general Darcy–Weisbach head-loss equation. Twenty emitter units, with the selected design, were handcrafted in a lathe and were used in this study. The measured pressure/discharge relationship for the emitters showed good agreement with that calculated by the theoretical approach. The variation coefficient of the handcrafted emitters was high compared to commercial emitters. Results from field evaluations showed variable values for the relative flow variation, water emission uniformity and relative flow rate coefficients, but no emitter was obstructed. Therefore, the current emitter design could be suitable for SDI following further studies to develop a final prototype.

Instrumental Colour Evaluation and Visual Consumer Study of Commercial Beverages Made with Fruit Juice and Milk

Análisis del color de bebidas formuladas con leche y frutas mediante análisis de imagen y estudio de la aceptación del color por los consumidores

Zonas de actividad logística : 25 años de experiencia española : evolución y tendencias : criterios y parámetros de diseño para su implantación y ordenación

El objeto de la investigación es analizar la situación de las plataformas logísticas y caracterizar las mismas, sus áreas funcionales y los parámetros de diseño que se utilizan para su planificación y desarrollo. La investigación se ha realizado sobre las plataformas logísticas existentes en España, si bien se ha contrastado la situación nacional con otras experiencias internacionales. Para ello se ha procedido al estudio del estado del arte a nivel internacional, determinando la terminología, caracterización y clasificación que aporta la comunidad científica al respecto sobre las plataformas logísticas. La investigación se ha centrado en el estudio de un elevado número de plataformas logísticas ubicadas en distintas Comunidades Autónomas, que representan en torno al cuarenta por ciento de las que se encuentran en estos momentos en activo, analizando sus datos básicos, su clasificación en lo que respecta a su grado de centralidad, su intermodalidad, su accesibilidad, y la información urbanística relativa a superficies de áreas funcionales, edificabilidades, usos principales, complementarios y no admitidos, red viaria, zonas verdes, y parámetros máximos y mínimos de ordenación. El análisis, valoración e interpretación de los resultados obtenidos, ha permitido concluir en la heterogeneidad existente sobre el término, proponiéndose por parte del autor un nuevo concepto que englobe y defina de forma genérica pero clara la tipología de plataformas logísticas presentes en el panorama nacional. Del mismo modo, y como consecuencia de la investigación realizada, ha sido posible la caracterización de una “plataforma logística tipo”, estableciendo unos parámetros de diseño estándar para desarrollos posteriores. Finalmente se proponen varias líneas de investigación. En primer lugar, analizar el conjunto del transporte de mercancías, para determinar y valorar su desequilibrio, para de este modo potenciar la intermodalidad e internacionalizar la misma; y, en segundo lugar, establecer una regulación global de las competencias y legislación en materia de planificación de centros logísticos, para racionalizar el desarrollo de estos elementos. The aim of this research is to analyze the situation of logistics platforms and to characterize them, their functional areas and the design parameters that are used in their planning and development. This study was conducted on logistics platforms in Spain, although the situation in Spain has been compared to other international experiences. For this purpose, the international state-of-the-art has been examined, determining the terminology, characterization and classification provided by the scientific community in regard to logistics platforms. The research focuses on the study of a large number of logistics platforms located in different Autonomous Regions, representing approximately 40% of those currently in operation. An analysis has been made of the fundamental data, classification in regard to the degree of centrality, intermodality, accessibility and the urban planning information relating to functional area spaces, as well as buildable potential, main, complementary and prohibited uses, the road network, green zones and maximum and minimum development planning parameters. The analysis, evaluation and interpretation of the results obtained has led to the conclusion of the heterogeneous nature of the term, and the author proposes a new concept that would cover and define, in a generic yet clear way, the typology of logistics platforms present in the national scenario. In a similar manner, and as a result of the research conducted, it has been possible to define a “logistics platform type”, establishing standard design parameters for future developments. Lastly, various lines of research are proposed. In the first place, to analyze overall goods transport to determine and evaluate its imbalances and, in this way, to promote its intermodality and internationalization. In the second place, to establish a global regulation of competencies and legislation with regard to the planning of logistics centers, to rationalize the development of these elements.

An integration of partial evaluation in a generic abstract interpretation framework

Information generated by abstract interpreters has long been used to perform program specialization. Additionally, if the abstract interpreter generates a multivariant analysis, it is also possible to perform múltiple specialization. Information about valúes of variables is propagated by simulating program execution and performing fixpoint computations for recursive calis. In contrast, traditional partial evaluators (mainly) use unfolding for both propagating valúes of variables and transforming the program. It is known that abstract interpretation is a better technique for propagating success valúes than unfolding. However, the program transformations induced by unfolding may lead to important optimizations which are not directly achievable in the existing frameworks for múltiple specialization based on abstract interpretation. The aim of this work is to devise a specialization framework which integrates the better information propagation of abstract interpretation with the powerful program transformations performed by partial evaluation, and which can be implemented via small modifications to existing generic abstract interpreters. With this aim, we will relate top-down abstract interpretation with traditional concepts in partial evaluation and sketch how the sophisticated techniques developed for controlling partial evaluation can be adapted to the proposed specialization framework. We conclude that there can be both practical and conceptual advantages in the proposed integration of partial evaluation and abstract interpretation.

Conflict and cognitive control during sentence comprehension: recruitment of a frontal network during the processing of Spanish object-first sentences.

During sentence processing there is a preference to treat the first noun phrase found as the subject and agent, unless marked the other way. This preference would lead to a conflict in thematic role assignment when the syntactic structure conforms to a non-canonical object-before-subject pattern. Left perisylvian and fronto-parietal brain networks have been found to be engaged by increased computational demands during sentence comprehension, while event-reated brain potentials have been used to study the on-line manifestation of these demands. However, evidence regarding the spatiotemporal organization of brain networks in this domain is scarce. In the current study we used Magnetoencephalography to track spatio-temporally brain activity while Spanish speakers were reading subject- and object-first cleft sentences. Both kinds of sentences remained ambiguous between a subject-first or an object-first interpretation up to the appearance of the second argument. Results show the time-modulation of a frontal network at the disambiguation point of object-first sentences. Moreover, the time windows where these effects took place have been previously related to thematic role integration (300–500 ms) and to sentence reanalysis and resolution of conflicts during processing (beyond 500 ms post-stimulus). These results point to frontal cognitive control as a putative key mechanism which may operate when a revision of the sentence structure and meaning is necessary

Relational and Allegorical Semantics for Constraint Logic Programming

El cálculo de relaciones binarias fue creado por De Morgan en 1860 para ser posteriormente desarrollado en gran medida por Peirce y Schröder. Tarski, Givant, Freyd y Scedrov demostraron que las álgebras relacionales son capaces de formalizar la lógica de primer orden, la lógica de orden superior así como la teoría de conjuntos. A partir de los resultados matemáticos de Tarski y Freyd, esta tesis desarrolla semánticas denotacionales y operacionales para la programación lógica con restricciones usando el álgebra relacional como base. La idea principal es la utilización del concepto de semántica ejecutable, semánticas cuya característica principal es el que la ejecución es posible utilizando el razonamiento estándar del universo semántico, este caso, razonamiento ecuacional. En el caso de este trabajo, se muestra que las álgebras relacionales distributivas con un operador de punto fijo capturan toda la teoría y metateoría estándar de la programación lógica con restricciones incluyendo los árboles utilizados en la búsqueda de demostraciones. La mayor parte de técnicas de optimización de programas, evaluación parcial e interpretación abstracta pueden ser llevadas a cabo utilizando las semánticas aquí presentadas. La demostración de la corrección de la implementación resulta extremadamente sencilla. En la primera parte de la tesis, un programa lógico con restricciones es traducido a un conjunto de términos relacionales. La interpretación estándar en la teoría de conjuntos de dichas relaciones coincide con la semántica estándar para CLP. Las consultas contra el programa traducido son llevadas a cabo mediante la reescritura de relaciones. Para concluir la primera parte, se demuestra la corrección y equivalencia operacional de esta nueva semántica, así como se define un algoritmo de unificación mediante la reescritura de relaciones. La segunda parte de la tesis desarrolla una semántica para la programación lógica con restricciones usando la teoría de alegorías—versión categórica del álgebra de relaciones—de Freyd. Para ello, se definen dos nuevos conceptos de Categoría Regular de Lawvere y _-Alegoría, en las cuales es posible interpretar un programa lógico. La ventaja fundamental que el enfoque categórico aporta es la definición de una máquina categórica que mejora e sistema de reescritura presentado en la primera parte. Gracias al uso de relaciones tabulares, la máquina modela la ejecución eficiente sin salir de un marco estrictamente formal. Utilizando la reescritura de diagramas, se define un algoritmo para el cálculo de pullbacks en Categorías Regulares de Lawvere. Los dominios de las tabulaciones aportan información sobre la utilización de memoria y variable libres, mientras que el estado compartido queda capturado por los diagramas. La especificación de la máquina induce la derivación formal de un juego de instrucciones eficiente. El marco categórico aporta otras importantes ventajas, como la posibilidad de incorporar tipos de datos algebraicos, funciones y otras extensiones a Prolog, a la vez que se conserva el carácter 100% declarativo de nuestra semántica. ABSTRACT The calculus of binary relations was introduced by De Morgan in 1860, to be greatly developed by Peirce and Schröder, as well as many others in the twentieth century. Using different formulations of relational structures, Tarski, Givant, Freyd, and Scedrov have shown how relation algebras can provide a variable-free way of formalizing first order logic, higher order logic and set theory, among other formal systems. Building on those mathematical results, we develop denotational and operational semantics for Constraint Logic Programming using relation algebra. The idea of executable semantics plays a fundamental role in this work, both as a philosophical and technical foundation. We call a semantics executable when program execution can be carried out using the regular theory and tools that define the semantic universe. Throughout this work, the use of pure algebraic reasoning is the basis of denotational and operational results, eliminating all the classical non-equational meta-theory associated to traditional semantics for Logic Programming. All algebraic reasoning, including execution, is performed in an algebraic way, to the point we could state that the denotational semantics of a CLP program is directly executable. Techniques like optimization, partial evaluation and abstract interpretation find a natural place in our algebraic models. Other properties, like correctness of the implementation or program transformation are easy to check, as they are carried out using instances of the general equational theory. In the first part of the work, we translate Constraint Logic Programs to binary relations in a modified version of the distributive relation algebras used by Tarski. Execution is carried out by a rewriting system. We prove adequacy and operational equivalence of the semantics. In the second part of the work, the relation algebraic approach is improved by using allegory theory, a categorical version of the algebra of relations developed by Freyd and Scedrov. The use of allegories lifts the semantics to typed relations, which capture the number of logical variables used by a predicate or program state in a declarative way. A logic program is interpreted in a _-allegory, which is in turn generated from a new notion of Regular Lawvere Category. As in the untyped case, program translation coincides with program interpretation. Thus, we develop a categorical machine directly from the semantics. The machine is based on relation composition, with a pullback calculation algorithm at its core. The algorithm is defined with the help of a notion of diagram rewriting. In this operational interpretation, types represent information about memory allocation and the execution mechanism is more efficient, thanks to the faithful representation of shared state by categorical projections. We finish the work by illustrating how the categorical semantics allows the incorporation into Prolog of constructs typical of Functional Programming, like abstract data types, and strict and lazy functions.