Robust control of structures subject to uncertain disturbances and actuator dynamics

The objective the present research is try to find some control design strategies, which must be effective and closed to the real operation conditions. As a novel contribution to structural control strategies, the theories of Interval Modal Arithmetic, Backstepping Control and QFT (Qualitative Feedback Theory) will be studied. The steps to follow are to develop first new controllers based on the above theories and then to implement the proposed control strategies to different kind of structures. The report is organized as follows. The Chapter 2 presents the state-of-the-art on structural control systems. The chapter 3 presents the most important open problems found in field of structural control. The exploratory work made by the author, research proposal and working plan are given in the Chapter 4

An Interval Intelligent-based Approach for Fault Detection and Modelling

Not considered in the analytical model of the plant, uncertainties always dramatically decrease the performance of the fault detection task in the practice. To cope better with this prevalent problem, in this paper we develop a methodology using Modal Interval Analysis which takes into account those uncertainties in the plant model. A fault detection method is developed based on this model which is quite robust to uncertainty and results in no false alarm. As soon as a fault is detected, an ANFIS model is trained in online to capture the major behavior of the occurred fault which can be used for fault accommodation. The simulation results understandably demonstrate the capability of the proposed method for accomplishing both tasks appropriately

Robust fault detection using consistency techniques for uncertainty handling

Often practical performance of analytical redundancy for fault detection and diagnosis is decreased by uncertainties prevailing not only in the system model, but also in the measurements. In this paper, the problem of fault detection is stated as a constraint satisfaction problem over continuous domains with a big number of variables and constraints. This problem can be solved using modal interval analysis and consistency techniques. Consistency techniques are then shown to be particularly efficient to check the consistency of the analytical redundancy relations (ARRs), dealing with uncertain measurements and parameters. Through the work presented in this paper, it can be observed that consistency techniques can be used to increase the performance of a robust fault detection tool, which is based on interval arithmetic. The proposed method is illustrated using a nonlinear dynamic model of a hydraulic system

Control de glicèmia en pacients crítics mitjançant CGMS

L’estudi que es realitza en aquest projecte/treball final de carrera queda englobat dins del grup de recerca MICE (Modal Intervals Control and Engeneering), el qual realitzainvestigacions entorn al control de glucèmia. Aquest grup de recerca vinculat a la Universitat de Girona col•labora amb l’Hospital Universitari Dr. Josep Trueta de Girona. La temàtica principal tractarà de realitzar el control de glucèmia en pacients crítics, que es troben ingressats en la unitat de cures intensives de qualsevol hospital. Com a conseqüència d’aquesta problemàtica, s’ha implementat en un entorn virtual, un pacient el qual simula la situació d’un pacient real en la unitat de cures intensives. El model emprat per a la obtenció del model de pacient virtual és el desenvolupat per Chase et al. (2005), el qual mitjançant variables com l’alimentació enteral i la sensibilitat insulínica, es podien realitzar assajos reals per a validar protocols de control ‘in silico’ per posteriorment realitzar assajos amb població real

DIC.CAT. Dona, immigració i ciutadania: les dones marrquines com a generadores de ciutadania a Catalunya

DIC.CAT es centra en les contribucions a la ciutadania que realitzen les dones immigrants marroquines, sobre les quals recauen forts estereotips i imatges que, sovint, les vinculen a la passivitat i a la submissió. Partint d'aquest fet, el projecte analitza el paper d'aquetes dones com a generadores de noves formes de ciutadania a Catalunya, a partir de les seves accions en les esferes pública i privada. El projecte contribueix, d'una banda a ampliar el coneixement teòric sobre la noció de ciutadania, incorporant la dimensió del gènere i partint de la realitat multicultural actual; i de l'altra a aprofundir sobre el rol que estan exercint les doens marroquines estudiades, com agents actius de xsocialització i generadores de canvis en els formes d'exercir la ciutadania en la societat catalana. Destaquen les accions que desenvolupen des de la seva quotidianitat en relació a aspectes com el procés de reagrupació, la incorporació al mercat laboral, la transmissio de valores dins la familia, la relació amb la comunitat d'origen, les motivacions, aspiracions o els projectes professionals i personals propis. Alhora, el projecte vincula aquestes accions amb les que desenvolupen des dels espais públics en els que participen, especialment dins l'àmbit associatiu.

Explaining parental dedication to child care in Spain

The quality of the time dedicated to child care has potential positive effects on children’s life chances. However, the determinants of parental time allocation to child care remain largely unexplored, particularly in context undergoing rapid family change such as Spain. We assess two alternative explanations for differences between parents in the amount of time spent with children. The first, based in the relative resources hypothesis, links variation in time spent with children to the relative attributes (occupation, education or income) of one partner to the other. The second, derived from the social status hypothesis, suggests that variation in time spent with children is attributable to the relative social position of the pair (i.e. higher status couples spend more time with children regardless of within-couple difference).To investigate theses questions, we use a sample of adults (18-50) from the Spanish Time Use Survey (STUS) 2002-2003 (n=7,438). Limiting the analysis to adults who are married or in consensual unions, the STUS allows to assess both the quantity and quality of parental time spent with children. We find little support for the “relative resources hypothesis”. Instead, consistent with the “social status hypothesis”, we find that time spent on child care is attributable to the social position of the couple, regardless of between-parent differences in income of education.

Aproximación discursiva a la escritura académica de odontología: estructura retórica y estrategias de atenuación en casos clínicos publicados en revistas hispanoamericanas (1999-2005)

Pese a ser un género discursivo importante en el ámbito académico y en el profesionalbiomédico, el caso clínico ha sido muy poco estudiado en español. En Medicina, resaltanlos estudios sobre atenuación y crítica retórica de Salager-Meyer y su equipo. EnOdontología, en cambio, no encontramos investigaciones sobre este género, pese a serpublicado, presentado en congresos y utilizado en las facultades de Odontología para la enseñanza de las distintas especialidades. En vista de esto, realizamos el presente trabajo, de carácter descriptivo y exploratorio, empleando un enfoque metodológico cualitativocuantitativo.Tiene un doble propósito: por un lado, identificar y analizar algunos rasgosretóricos y discursivos del caso clínico y las secciones retóricas que lo constituyen; por el otro, describir y analizar las estrategias de atenuación utilizadas.Seleccionamos al azar un corpus de 40 casos clínicos publicados entre 1999 y 2005 de entre las publicaciones odontológicas hispanoamericanas disponibles en las bases de datos más consultadas y de mayor aceptación en el ámbito odontológico. Empleamos el análisis de género para el estudio de las secciones y movimientos retóricos. Asimismo, identificamoslas estrategias de atenuación empleadas en las secciones retóricas por medio de un análisis textual. En ambos casos, consideramos el contexto y el testimonio de informantes especialistas. Para el análisis de los atenuantes, en cambio, utilizamos cinco categorías, adaptadas de estudios previos: construcciones impersonales, aproximadores, escudos, deícticos temporales y atenuantes compuestos.Los resultados muestran que predomina la siguiente estructura: introducción, presentación del caso, discusión/conclusión, siendo la segunda la sección distintiva. Identificamos 20 movimientos: 5 en la introducción, 8 en la presentación del caso y 7 en la discusión/conclusión. Prevalecen las secuencias de tipo narrativo y descriptivo en todas las secciones. Además, hay muy pocas citas, aparecen esencialmente en la introducción y en la discusión. En relación con el segundo objetivo, encontramos abundantes y variadasestrategias de atenuación, usadas con frecuencias muy similares en las tres secciones retóricas. Predominaron las construcciones impersonales, los aproximadores y los escudos –entre éstos últimos resalta el modal epistémico “poder”-, usados para expresar honestidad, variabilidad, imposibilidad de precisión y varios niveles de certidumbre de lasproposiciones. Los deícticos y los atenuantes compuestos se emplean principalmente en la introducción y la discusión, para enfatizar la provisionalidad del saber científico odontológico y para proyectar falta de compromiso con la verdad de la proposición expresada.Se concluye que, pese a la variabilidad retórica discursiva, el caso clínico constituye un género discursivo particular, de tipo descriptivo, narrativo y atenuado. La alta frecuencia de atenuación puede estar relacionada con la posición de los autores en la comunidad científica, con las características del género y su función comunicativa.El caso clínico es un género importante para las distintas sub-especialidades ontológicas;por lo tanto, los resultados tienen aplicaciones didácticas para la educación de odontólogos.Incorporar el estudio de este género al currículum de Odontología permitiría al estudiantado desarrollar las competencias para producir, comprender y publicar este género, lo cual puede favorecer su incorporación a la comunidad científica.

Fish ecology in Lake Banyoles (NE Spain): a tribute to Ramon Margalef

Lake Banyoles is the second largest lake in the Iberian Peninsula and due to this relative uniqueness, its peculiar geological origin, and its considerable age attracted the early attention of the late Professor Ramon Margalef. One of the first papers by Margalef was on the biota of Lake Banyoles and two of the first four Ph.D. theses that he supervised were about the limnology of this lake. Unfortunately, the uniqueness of this lake also implied that it was the first place of introduction into the Iberian Peninsula of several exotic fish species, early in the XXth Century and nowadays the lake fish assemblage is dominated by invasive species, and some native ones have been extirpated. Although the limnological studies in Lake Banyoles were pioneering within the Iberian Peninsula, studies on fish ecology of the lake did not start until 1989. Thereafter, four Ph.D. theses have been completed on different aspects of the fish assemblages of Lake Banyoles. The aim of this paper is to provide a short overview of this research, largely brought about by the considerable limnological information previously available for this lake, thanks to the insightful, pioneering work of Professor Margalef

Growth and reproduction of the dolphinfish (Coryphaena equiselis and Coryphaena hippurus) in the Canary Islands, Central-East Atlantic (preliminary results)

The size, growth and spawning characteristics of pompano dolphin (N=150) and common dolphinfish (N=36) caught off the Canary Islands between May and September 1995 and between July and September 1996 were examined. Fork length (FL) of pompano dolphin was in the range 28.3-62.8 cm. In 1995, the mean length increased significantly from June to September. However, in 1996, the mean length was significantly larger in July than in September. The overall length-weight relationship was W=0.0287*FL2.774 (r=0.97), while these relationships by sex were as follows: W=0.031*FL2.758 (r=0.98) and W=0.0282*FL2.776 (r=0.97), for males and females respectively. Spawning takes place at the beginning of the Summer (June-July). All the individuals obtained showed developing gonads, but females showed a higher gonadosomatic index (GSI) than males. The highest GSI values were obtained in June (x- =3.10±1.73), and decreased progressively towards the end of the season (September), when the average of this index was x- = 1.86±0.87. Similarly, the condition index decreased significantly from June to September. The proportion of females was always significantly higher than males, except in July 1996 when it was 1:1. There was a high correspondence between growth rates determined by annuli scale interpretation and modal progression analysis. According to scale annuli interpretation, the individuals caught showed more than five age classes. However, there are doubts about age assignation from scales. Fork length of common dolphinfish was in the range of 76.5-103.0 cm. The length-weight relationships obtained for all the specimens caught was W=0.00095FL3.527 (r=0.96), while these relationships by sex were as follows: W=0.00398FL3.222 (r=0.94) and W=0.01656FL2.873 (r=0.91), for males and females respectively. Spawning probably takes place at the beginning of the Summer. All the individuals obtained showed developing gonads, although the GSI of females were higher than males. The highest GSI values were obtained in June (x- =5.50±2.17). In the same way, the condition index decreased from May to June. The proportion of females was always slightly higher than males (1:1.4), but the ratio was not significantly different from 1:1

Preservació digital al núvol

Ara que ja ningú qüestiona les publicacions digitals, l'accés obert o els repositoris de tipus institucional o temàtic, cal co-mençar a treballar en els temes de preservació. Som responsables d'assegurar l'accés i l'ús futurs dels documents digitals, hagin nascut en format digital o siguin fruit dels projectes de digitalització. En aquest article es parla sobre la preservació digital i els tipus de continguts, així com els conceptes, tipologies, costos i usos de l'anomenat «núvol». També es mostra un exemple de núvol privat, la preservació de tesis doctorals del TDX i es comenta una experiència de núvol públic, el DuraCloud.

Electronic thesis and dissertations conference, University of Pittsburgh, 10-12 de junio de 2009

El pasado mes de junio se celebró en Pittsburgh, EE.UU., el duodécimo simposio internacional sobre tesis electrónicas: Electronic Thesis and Dissertations Conference (ETD2009). Fue organizado por Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). La mayoría de los ponentes explicaron las experiencias de su propia universidad. Además, hubo expertos invitados entre los cuales se pueden destacar Stevan Harnad (Univ. Southampton), Karla Hahn (Association of Research Libraries) y Deanna Marcum (Library of Congress). Estos simposios pretenden promover la adopción, creación, uso, difusión y preservación de las tesis electrónicas. De hecho, el éxito ha sido tal, que algunas universidades ya prescinden de la copia en papel para el depósito y preservación del documento. Un caso reciente es el de la University of Albany cuya nueva política, anunciada durante el simposio, consiste en que a partir de setiembre del 2009 ya no requiere el depósito de una copia impresa de las tesis aprobadas en aquella universidad.

The situation of open access institutional repositories in Spain: 2009 report

Introduction. The DRIVER I project drew up a detailed report of European repositories based on data gathered in a survey in which Spain's participation was very low. This created a highly distorted image of the implementation of repositories in Spain. This study aims to analyse the current state of Spanish open-access institutional repositories and to describe their characteristics. Method. The data were gathered through a Web survey. The questionnaire was based on that used by DRIVER I: coverage; technical infrastructure and technical issues; institutional policies; services created; and stimulators and inhibitors for establishing, filling and maintaining their digital institutional repositories. Analysis. Data were tabulated and analysed systematically according responses obtained from the questionnaire and grouped by coverage. Results. Responses were obtained from 38 of the 104 institutions contacted, which had 29 institutional repositories. This represents 78.3% of the Spanish repositories according to the BuscaRepositorios directory. Spanish repositories contained mainly full-text materials (journal articles and doctoral theses) together with metadata. The software most used was DSpace, followed by EPrints. The metadata standard most used was Dublin Core. Spanish repositories offered more usage statistics and fewer author-oriented services than the European average. The priorities for the future development of the repositories are the need for clear policies on access to scientific production based on public funding and the need for quality control indicators. Conclusions.This is the first detailed study of Spanish institutional repositories. The key stimulants for establishing, filling and maintaining were, in order of importance, the increase of visibility and citation, the interest of decision-makers, simplicity of use and search services. On the other hand the main inhibitors identified were the absence of policies, the lack of integration with other national and international systems and the lack of awareness efforts among academia.

La forma lògica de les oracions d'acció i la tesi d'Anscombe

This paper has three sections. In the first one, I expose and discuss Davidson's semantic account of adverbial sentences: the basic idea is that these sentences involve quantification over events, and I defend that view from opposing perspectives like the theory of adverbs as predicate modifiers. In the second section I defend the claim that in english constructions following the scheme: ¿X did V by T-ings¿, we are referring to the same action of X; what is sometimes called ¿The Anscombe Thesis¿. Again I discuss competing theories only to conclude that the Anscombe Thesis is true. In the third section, however, it is shown that to assume as premisses these two theses -Davidson's account and the Anscombe Thesis- leads to a serious conflict. Alternative solutions are worked out and rejected. It is also argued that the only tenable solution depends on certain metaphysical assumptions. Finally, however, I will cast doubt on this solution.

Mathematics in Catalonia: 1996-2002

The aim of this article is to present the main conclusions of the Report on research in Catalonia for the area of mathematics**. The report was prepared by Joaquim Bruna, Marta Sanz, Joan de Solà-Morales and the author of this text, and published by the Institute for Catalan Studies in 1998. In the report, scientific activity in the area of mathematics was measured essentially by examining two parameters: papers published in specialised journals and doctoral theses read. It should be recognised that a considerable amount of activity in the field of mathematics consists of applying existing knowledge to the resolution of practical technological problems that arise in particular companies. This kind of scientific activity was not measured in any way in the report due to the difficulty of obtaining objective data. This article is divided into the following sections: human resources, scientific production, funding, research publications, research centres, and conclusions.

Effects of total fishing prohibition on the rocky fish assemblages of Medes Islands marine reserve (NW Mediterranean)

Visual scuba diving censuses were used to assess the effects of fishing prohibition on abundance and size structure of littoral fish populations by comparing the same benthic communities inside and outside the protected area of Medes Islands (NE Catalonia, Spain). The total number of species found was 43 in the reserve and 44 outside, but the mean value of species richness per sampling station was significantly higher in the protected area. However, diversity, heavily affected by the presence or absence of large schools of pelagic species, showed no significant differences between sites. The prohibition of fishing for 6 years is the first factor affecting the qualitative and quantitative structure of fish populations ('reserve effect'), and depth is the second factor. Thus, except in the cases of Serranus cabrilla and Mullus surmuletus, all other vulnerable species are highly sensitive to the protection measures. The size structure of all vulnerable species was found to be absolutely different at the reserve sites than in the unprotected zones, and the modal size classes of size frequency distributions were always higher in the reserve than outside. The reserve effect was significantly responsible of the differences observed in this change on size structure. Some highly vulnerable species, such as Epinephelus guaza and Sciaena umbra, have only been found in the protected area. Others, such as Sparus aurata, Diplodus cervinus and Dicentrarchus labrax, were much more frequent inside the reserve.