Capabilities and resources of the University of Alicante on color technology for automotive sector

Charla realizada en el pasado 1st BYK-Gardner Iberian Automotive Meeting, celebrado en Alicante, entre los días 13 y 14 de Octubre de 2011: http://web.csidiomas.ua.es/congresos/iberianautomotive/index.html

The University of Alicante at CL-SR Track

In this paper, the new features that IR-n system applies on the topic processing for CL-SR are described. This set of features are based on applying logic forms to topics with the aim of incrementing the weight of topic terms according to a set of syntactic rules.

OrientatUA: Mobile Application to guide visual disabled people at the University of Alicante

This paper shows an iOS application to guide visual disabled people in the campus of the University of Alicante by voice indications. The user interface is adapted to visual disabled people, using a bigger visual typography and a bigger area for the tactile buttons. Moreover, the application provides voice indications when users touch any of the elements in the interface, telling them where they are and how they can reach destination.

The University of Alicante Library copy of Palmerin d'Oliva (London, 1637): A Bibliographical Description

The purpose of this article is to provide bibliographical information about a copy of the fourth edition of the two parts of Anthony Munday's translation of Palmerin d'Oliva (London, 1637; STC 19160) recently purchased by the University of Alicante Library and not mentioned in the standard bibliographies. The article contains a detailed bibliographical description based on Bowers's principles (1949) and is designed to be useful to scholars by making direct consultation of the copy in most cases unnecessary. The description is preceded by a short introduction to the literary text and its publication in England.

An approach for characterising the weathering behaviour of Flysch slopes applied to the carbonatic Flysch of Alicante (Spain)

Various studies indicate that most of the slope instabilities affecting Flysch heterogeneous rock masses are related to differential weathering of the lithologies that make up the slope. Therefore, the weathering characteristics of the intact rock are of great importance for the study of these types of slopes and their associated instability processes. The main aim of this study is to characterise the weathering properties of the different lithologies outcropping in the carbonatic Flysch of Alicante (Spain), in order to understand the effects of environmental weathering on them, following slope excavation. To this end, 151 strata samples obtained from 11 different slopes, 5–40 years old, were studied. The lithologies were identified and their mechanical characteristics obtained using field and laboratory tests. Additionally, the slaking properties of intact rocks were determined, and a classification system proposed based on the first and fifth slake cycles (Id1 and Id5 respectively) and an Index of Weathering (IW5), defined in the study. Information obtained from the laboratory and the field was used to characterise the weathering behaviour of the rocks. Furthermore, the slaking properties determined from laboratory tests were related to the in-situ weathering properties of rocks (i.e., the weathering profile, patterns and length, and weathering rate). The proposed relationship between laboratory test results, field data, and in-situ observations provides a useful tool for predicting the response of slopes to weathering after excavation during the preliminary stages of design.

Construction of 17-19th century domes in the province of Alicante (Spain): the case of San Juan Bautista in Cox

From the late seventeenth to early nineteenth centuries, many religious temples have been built in the province of Alicante (south east of Spain) with brick domes as their main characteristic feature. Often, the limited data available about these remarkable constructions make rehabilitation interventions become into real research projects, with a high value for their historic conservation over time. The aim of this paper is to show a detailed refurbishment analysis of a religious temple built in 1778, showing the need of preservation of historic buildings as a part of the architectural heritage by establishing a common pattern of materials, geometry and constructive systems, specifically in their domes. In most cases, there was not an architectural project for the construction, that is why the analysis of any documentary and archival sources available is essential to find different ways to proceed on the use and maintenance of these religious buildings.

Campus of the University of Alicante

Versión inglesa y digital del libro "Campus Universidad de Alicante".

Evaluation of the Implementation of CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) Methodology in the Didactics of the English Language in Preschool Education Course Taught in the Preschool Education Teacher Undergraduate Program at the University of Alicante

Although it is known that the Spanish current Educative System promotes using the Communicate Approach to teach foreign languages in schools, other recently designed approaches are also used to help students improve their skills when communicating in a foreign language. One of these approaches is Content and Language Integrated Learning, also known as CLIL, which is used to teach content courses using the English language as the language of instruction. This approach improves the students’ skills in English as the same time as they learn content from other areas. The goal of this thesis is to present a research project carried out at the University of Alicante during the academic year 2011-2012. With this research we obtained results that provide quantitative and qualitative data which explains how the use of the CLIL methodology affects the English level of students in the “Didactics of the English Language in Preschool Education” course in Preschool Education Teacher Undergraduate Program as students acquire the contents of the course.

Población extranjera y turismo residencial en el litoral de Alicante (1960-2011): repercusiones territoriales

El litoral de la provincia de Alicante ha registrado importantes cambios territoriales desde la década de 1960, como consecuencia de la difusión de las actividades turísticas. Las transformaciones territoriales, entre las que destaca la configuración de una dorsal de poblamiento litoral, se completan con las sociales. La llegada de población extranjera jubilada o prejubilada procedente del norte y centro de Europa ha hecho de la provincia de Alicante (España) uno de los territorios donde el turismo residencial tiene mayor peso a escala nacional. El objetivo de esta investigación es, por un lado, analizar los factores que justifican el asentamiento de amplios colectivos de inmigrantes en estas tierras y, por otro, poner de manifiesto las repercusiones sociales y territoriales asociadas a su llegada. La realización de entrevistas en urbanizaciones de municipios litorales y prelitorales permite avanzar en el conocimiento de estos factores, más allá de los datos estadísticos.

High Speed Rail Passenger Profile in Sun and Beach Tourism Destinations: The Case of Alicante (Spain)

This paper aims to study and highlight the profile of the high speed rail (HSR) passenger in the case of the well-known sun and beach destination of Alicante, located in the Southeast of Spain. This region, which is directly connected with Madrid, differs from others because of its warm and sunny weather. The province is a tourist destination for both Spanish citizens and foreigners. However, the studies on the dynamics of the corridor towards Madrid and Alicante regarding HSR are quite recent and it is not possible to draw final conclusions about its impact on tourist mobility.

El uso del agua en los jardines de las urbanizaciones del litoral de Alicante. Prácticas de ahorro y sus causas

El intenso proceso de urbanización que ha vivido la costa mediterránea española con la instalación de la actividad turística ha llevado consigo una serie de repercusiones territoriales. Una de ellas ha sido el incremento del consumo de agua gracias al aumento de la urbanización de baja densidad caracterizada por la presencia de nuevas naturalezas urbanas como son jardines y piscinas. Esta investigación tiene como objetivo conocer y analizar el uso del agua en el exterior de los hogares de las urbanizaciones del litoral de Alicante. La metodología llevada a cabo ha consistido en la realización de diferentes entrevistas a los propietarios de estas viviendas, para de esta manera, conocer de primera mano el uso que hacen del recurso hídrico en el exterior de la vivienda. La principal conclusión extraída ha sido que los residentes han adoptado en los últimos años diferentes estrategias y cambios en el uso del agua en los espacios ajardinados con el objetivo de reducir el consumo de agua.

Engineer Leandro Badarán’s project to safeguard the fortresses of Alicante in 1794

After the construction of the San Carlos bastion in Alicante in the final decade of the seventeenth century, and the great trench which the English built around the district of San Francisco during their years of dominance in the War of Succession, the waters of the San Blas gully caused serious damage to these fortifications of the city and to the trade buildings of the port. In 1772, the diversion canal was built. It was designed to divert the riverbed of the gully and send the waters directly to the sea. The project had been initially designed by the Engineer General, Jorge Próspero de Verboom in 1721. This unique work of engineering had some defects, principally in the breakwater which prevented the waters from flowing down the former river course. On several occasions, the water returned to its original riverbed due to the weakness of the breakwater, the narrowness of the channel’s bed and its lack of regularisation, causing serious damage to the bastion, the Babel-facing façade, the traders’ warehouses and other buildings. This study describes the project that the military engineer Leandro Badarán carried out in 1794 in order to technically improve this canal and examines his report on the state of the fortifications. Similar works built in Spain are also explained. It also analyses the repeated disputes between the war department and the port throughout these years over finding a technical solution to the problem.

Linking tourism, retirement migration and social capital

A general trend in the study of international retirement migration has been the increased attention paid to the social contacts and network connections of the migrants in both the destination and the origin areas. These studies have examined the extent to which migrants build social relationships with their neighbours and the host society while also maintaining social links with their countries of origin, addressing the central role that leisure travel plays in sustaining increasingly dispersed social networks and maintaining the social capital of these networks and of the individuals involved in them. Using a case study approach to examine British retirement migration to Spain, we explore the relevance of transnational social networks in the context of international retirement migration, particularly the intensity of bidirectional visiting friends and relatives (VFR) tourism flows and the migrants’ social contacts with friends and/or family back in their home country. Building on the concept of social capital and Putnam's distinction between bonding and bridging social capital, we propose a framework for the analysis of the migrants’ international social networks. The results of a study conducted based on a sample of 365 British retirees living in the coast of Alicante (Spain) show both the strength of the retirees’ international bonding social capital and the role of ‘VFR's travel and communication technologies in sustaining the migrants’ transnational social practices and, ultimately, their international bonding social capital. It also provides evidence for the reinforcing links between tourism-related mobility and amenity-seeking migration in later life.

La expansión urbanística reciente de la costa alicantina, una realidad constatable

Se propone analizar la ocupación del suelo durante las dos últimas décadas en la costa de la provincia de Alicante; para ello se plantea estudiar las características de las nuevas ocupaciones, así como los nuevos modelos de ocupación urbana y territorial. Estas nuevas tendencias territoriales suponen un cambio importante en la utilización del territorio que conlleva nuevas relaciones espaciales y funcionales. Los objetivos del trabajo se centran, por tanto, en la identificación y caracterización de las áreas de nuevo crecimiento reciente y su evaluación cuantitativa —superficie, densidad, etc.— y cualitativa —nuevos paisajes, morfologías, etc. La metodología planteada parte del análisis gráfico y estadístico para abordar su consideración cuantitativa, posteriormente. A partir de la comparación entre las imágenes satelitales ofrecidas por el proyecto europeo Corine Land Cover en la Comunidad Valenciana correspondientes a los años 1990 y 2006, se identifican las principales áreas de crecimiento durante estas etapas. Una vez definidas dichas áreas de crecimiento, se plantea abordar el análisis gráfico en detalle, a partir de las fotografías aéreas correspondientes a las fechas más cercanas a las de Corine Land Cover. Por otro lado, las diferentes bases estadísticas ofrecidas por las distintas administraciones públicas permiten cuantificar dichos crecimientos y evaluar sus densidades. Los resultados esperados se centran en la caracterización y definición de los nuevos modelos de ocupación urbana en el litoral alicantino, así como las características territoriales del nuevo urbanismo reciente. La identificación de esos nuevos modelos residenciales permite incidir en las futuras planificaciones y planeamiento, tanto territorial como municipal.