Impact of new technologies and social networks on a secondary education theatre project

This paper describes the potential impact of social media and new technologies in secondary education. The case of study has been designed for the drama and theatre subject. A wide set of tools like social networks, blogs, internet, multimedia content, local press and other promotional tools are promoted to increase students’ motivation. The experiment was developed at the highschool IES Al-Satt located in Algete in the Comunidad de Madrid. The students included in the theatre group present a low academic level, 80% of them had previously repeated at least one grade, half of them come from programs for students with learning difficulties and were at risk of social exclusion. This action is supported by higher and secondary education professors and teachers who look forward to implanting networked media technologies as new tools to improve the academic results and the degree of involvement of students. The results of the experiment have been excellent, based on satisfactory opinions obtained from a survey answered by students at the end of the course, and also revealed by the analytics taken from different social networks. This project is a pioneer in the introduction and usage of new technologies in secondary high-schools in Spain.

Transient behavior of a system composed of conductive thin wire structures excited by harmonic and lightning type signals

The transient response of a system of independent electrodes buried in a semi-infinite conducting medium is studied. Using a simple and versatile numerical scheme written by the authors and based on the Electric Field Integral Equation (EFIE), the effect caused by harmonic signals ranging on frequency from Hz to hundred of MHz, and also by lightning type driving signal striking at a remote point far from the conductors, is extensively studied. The value of the scalar potential appearing on the electrodes as a function of the frequency of the applied signal is one of the variables investigated. Other features such as the input impedance at the injection point of the signal and the Ground Potential Rise (GPR) over the electrode system are also discussed

A proposal for an Internet of Things-based monitoring system composed by low capability, open source and open hardware devices

The Internet of Things makes use of a huge disparity of technologies at very different levels that help one to the other to accomplish goals that were previously regarded as unthinkable in terms of ubiquity or scalability. If the Internet of Things is expected to interconnect every day devices or appliances and enable communications between them, a broad range of new services, applications and products can be foreseen. For example, monitoring is a process where sensors have widespread use for measuring environmental parameters (temperature, light, chemical agents, etc.) but obtaining readings at the exact physical point they want to be obtained from, or about the exact wanted parameter can be a clumsy, time-consuming task that is not easily adaptable to new requirements. In order to tackle this challenge, a proposal on a system used to monitor any conceivable environment, which additionally is able to monitor the status of its own components and heal some of the most usual issues of a Wireless Sensor Network, is presented here in detail, covering all the layers that give it shape in terms of devices, communications or services.

J.A.D.E. jardín y arquitectura doméstica del este: (la casa contemporánea japonesa, el refugio y el jardín, Tokio: 1991-2011)

El capítulo 1 de esta tesis doctoral describe conceptos relativos a la ontología y a la arquitectura como, por ejemplo, la cuestión de “El lugar” o “Basho” o el espacio visto desde un punto de vista filosófico. En este capítulo se examinan las diferencias y similitudes entre la ideología oriental y la filosofía de occidente a lo largo de la historia y se esbozan los puntos comunes entre ambas en cuestiones que atañen al habitar. En el capítulo 2, estos conceptos se enumeran y ordenan y se extraen diferentes conclusiones en cuanto a la percepción de valores como el espacio o el vacío, fundamentales para entender la arquitectura y el paisaje en las culturas de Oriente y Occidente. El capítulo 3 describe el paisaje oriental y el jardín chino a modo de prólogo del de Japón. Este capítulo introduce al lector en la historia del jardín y explica las transformaciones que éste ha sufrido a lo largo de la historia de China. El capítulo 4 es una asimilación de los conceptos examinados en los capítulos 1,2 y 3 y en él se analizan los aspectos compositivos fundamentales del jardín chino y sus elementos como, por ejemplo, el centro, el límite, el agua o la montaña. El capítulo 5 consiste en una introducción al paisaje japonés que comienza con el estudio de su geografía, su lengua, su literatura y sus períodos históricos más importantes previos a la era moderna: la era primitiva “Jomon”, la era “Yayoi”, los tres Shogunatos y la Revolución Meiji. La segunda parte del capítulo 5 describe los jardines japoneses a lo largo de la historia tales como el jardín Karesansui, los jardines de Kioto o el arte del jardín Tatebana, entre otros. El capítulo 6 comienza con una copia del texto medieval japonés, “HOJOKI”. Al igual que en los capítulos 2 y 4, en el capítulo 6 se extraen los valores del capítulo anterior, esta vez, mediante un comentario de texto. En esencia, este libro demuestra la importancia de la “cabaña en la naturaleza” para la cultura japonesa, así como la relación del espacio doméstico y el jardín a lo largo de su historia. El capítulo 7 describe la evolución del paisaje de la ciudad china en paralelo a la evolución del paisaje urbano japonés que se desarrolla en el capítulo 9. El capítulo 8 es un nexo de unión entre los capítulos 7 y 9 puesto que explica las influencias paisajísticas y urbanas mutuas entre las culturas china y japonesa a lo largo de la historia como es el caso del trazado de las antiguas ciudades capitales chinas y japonesas o el de los paisajes y urbes proyectados sobre la topografía de Manchuria durante la ocupación japonesa de China. El capítulo 9 describe el paisaje japonés moderno, sus ciudades y sus paisajes interurbanos como, por ejemplo, el Tokai-do. A continuación describe la evolución de la arquitectura y el jardín japonés a lo largo del siglo XX, los principales movimientos de vanguardia, las circunstancias económicas que llevaron al país a la crisis de los 90 y la lenta recuperación económica posterior. Por último, este capítulo explica la destrucción del paisaje del norte tras El Gran Terremoto del Este del 2011 y su recuperación a corto plazo. El capítulo 10 se compone de tres entrevistas a tres figuras relevantes del mundo académico y de la arquitectura japonesa. Algunos de los temas que exponen son la arquitectura doméstica japonesa, el jardín y la naturaleza de esta cultura, la situación de la ciudad de Tokio o el rol del arquitecto en la sociedad contemporánea, entre otros. Además de estas cuestiones, se debate acerca de los recursos y la recuperación del país tras El Gran Terremoto del Este de Japón. Finalmente, el capítulo 11 consiste en un estudio en profundidad acerca del paisaje de la ciudad de Tokio y el espacio doméstico y el jardín en base a los conceptos estudiados en los capítulos 1 y 2 y en relación a los valores paisajísticos vistos en los capítulos 3,4,5 y 6, además de los temas urbanos y topográficos estudiados en los capítulos 7,8,9 y 10. En este capítulo se estudia la figura del sujeto individual y colectivo, el refugio, el jardín, las acciones urbanas del Machizukuri, el parque y la morfología y evolución de los barrios centrales de Tokio y sus espacios domésticos y parques y jardines vistos a través de los datos estadísticos proporcionados por el gobierno. Además, el texto estudia un total de 21 casos seleccionados y analizados a través de la comparación de cerca de 800 viviendas domésticas publicadas entre 1991 y 2011 en las revistas de gran prestigio nacional e internacional, Shinkenchiku Jutakutokushu y GA Houses. Tras el análisis de los casos de estudio, se extraen una serie de conclusiones y clasificaciones del jardín en el espacio doméstico del centro de Tokio en dicho periodo. Los últimos tres capítulos de la tesis doctoral se dividen en: una traducción al inglés del resumen y las conclusiones más importantes del capítulo 11 (capítulo 12) una conclusión y resumen homólogos en japonés (capítulo 13) y un cuaderno de dibujos a mano realizado por la autora sobre especies botánicas naturalizadas domésticas de la ciudad de Tokio (capítulo 14) ABSTRACT Chapter 1 of this Ph.D. thesis describes concepts related to ontology and architecture like the issue of “The place” in Japan, or “The space” as seen from a philosophic point of view. In this chapter, the differences between the essential ancient Asian ideology and the philosophical contemporary thought of the East are discussed, and at the same time the transcendental thought coming from the West is analysed and compared to both of them. In Chapter 2 these concepts are analysed specifically in the field of “inhabiting the domestic space” and the text fathoms the common points between Eastern and Western thought relating to the house and the garden. Chapter 3 describes the oriental landscape and garden of China as a prologue to that of Japan. This chapter starts with a brief description of the history of the garden in the East and the West and introduces the reader into the geography and changes that have taken place in China since the birth of its culture. Chapter 4 entails a brief assimilation of what has been deduced from chapters 1, 2 and 3. In this chapter the compositive and design aspects of the Chinese garden are described, aspects such as centre, limit, the element of the mountain, emptiness, water, and vision or the theatre. Chapter 5 is an introduction to the history of landscape and architecture in Japan that starts with a geographical insight into the country and with a short summary about the language, the primitive “Jomon” culture, the “Yayoi” era , the three Shogunates.and the Meiji Revolution. In the second part of chapter 5, the text describes Japanese gardens throughout history, for example the Karesansui garden, the history of Kyoto and its gardens, the garden in relationship with art and with Japanese literature or the art of Tatebana. Chapter 6 starts with a copy of the medieval text “HOJOKI” and discusses issues such as the meaning of “the hut in the nature” for Japanese culture and its relationship with the domestic space and the garden. Chapter 7 discusses the development of cities in the landscape in Chinese culture in parallel with an observation of the evolution of cities in Japanese culture and landscape. Chapter 8 is the crux of the Ph.D. research as it explains the mutual influences of landscape, urban planning, construction and architecture between Japan in China. Chapter 9 describes the Japanese urban planning since the very first urban developments and develops a study on the evolution of the Japanese cities and roads (like the Tokai-do) in the landscape. Also, it describes the reconstruction of the cities of Japan after the Second World War, the cultural vanguard movements, the economical circumstances that led to the Japan´ s economic crisis of the 90´s and the slow recovery of its economy. Also, at the end of this chapter, the text analyses the event of the Great East Japan Earthquake of 211. Chapter 10 of this Ph.D. research is composed of a number of interviews with architects and professors about architecture, nature in the domestic space, the role of the architect nowadays in addition to facts about energy and about the Great East Japan Earthquake . Finally, chapter 11 consists of a deep study concerning the current situation in the city of Tokyo and the relationship between its domestic spaces (dwellings) and gardens based on the philosophical values studied in chapters 1 and 2, aswell as the landscape values of the garden studied in chapters 3,4,5, and 6 plus the information about the cities in the landscape studied in chapters 7,8, 9 and 10. In this chapter the main goal is to study the human being, the refuge, the garden, the urban planning actions of Machizukuri, the park and the morphology and evolution of the central quarters of Tokyo and of its domestic spaces and parks seen through the statistical data provided by the Japanese government in the last decades. Also, the text provides a study on 21 cases selected and analysed through the comparison of around 800 domestic spaces designed in between 1991 and 2011 and published in “Shinkenchiku Jutakutokushu” and “GA Houses” magazines. After these study cases, a number of conclusions are developed and also a classification of the domestic garden in the center of Tokyo. The last three chapters of this Ph.D. work are divided in: the translation to English of the summary and main conclusions of chapter 11 of the research in Chapter 12, the translation to Japanese of the summary and main conclusions of chapter 11 of the research in Chapter 13, and a collection of hand-drawings done by the author about the botanical species found in the gardens of the domestic realms of Tokyo in Chapter 14.