IAMG - Asociación Internacional para las Geociencias Matemáticas

We introduce the International Association for Mathematical Geosciences (IAMG) from its origins to the present and summarize the means by which is fulfilling its mission. The IAMG was set up in Prague in 1968 with the intention of “promoting throughout the world the advancement of mathematics, statistics and informatics in the Geosciences”. It is a non-profit organisation that includes among its members researchers, teachers, professionals and students dedicated to mathematical and statistical Applications in all branches of the earth sciences. The IAMG publishes three major journals and a newsletter and organises a yearly conference, whist at the same time supporting many others. It bestows 4 biannual prizes that recognise outstanding achievements in its field, organises a distinguished lecturer series, and encourages Young researchers by providing Student research and travel funds and promoting Student societies. The IAMG celebrated its 40tn anniversary in Oslo, Norway, in 2008 and continues to be a venue for a vast array of researchers in this broad field by providing a common driving force for their activities

La enseñanza de estrategias de resolución de problemas matemáticos en la ESO: un ejemplo concreto

Within this article is included a description and justification of a didactical sequence to improve the learning of problem solving strategies of Secondary Education students. The design of the didactical sequence is guided by four principles: a) to context the activities and problems to solve in students’ every day practices; b) to use teaching methods that show the problem solving processes; c) to design didactical materials in order to guide strategies such as selection, organisation and control; d) to facilitate the co-operative learning of problem solving strategies.

Regioselectividad en fullerenos, una visión computacional

Fullerenes are wonderful molecules that exhibit a wealth of interesting properties, which promises a major role for this family in the future in the (bio)medicine and nanotechnology fields. However, there are still many unknowns such as for instance the reactivity of these molecules and how this is affected by metals. These aspects are difficult to apprehend by experiments alone, for which reason there is a widespread interest in the description and simulation of them by theoretical chemistry. Here we briefly describe our results from the past five years and their future impact

Fundamentos de un programa de tutoría entre iguales en los estudios universitarios de las artes

[spa]En este artículo, se presenta el programa de tutoría entre iguales implantado por el Observatorio sobre la Didáctica de las Artes (ODAS, Universidad de Barcelona) en la Facultad de Bellas Artes durante el curso académico 2010-2011. Sin embargo, en la exposición de su finalidad, objetivos y proceso de implantación, se ha buscado que la descripción y comentario de las particularidades de esta experiencia incorporara también una reflexión más general sobre algunos de los puntos clave de la tutoría entre iguales. En el plano teórico, y a partir de las ideas de Lave y Wenger, el artículo defiende la importancia de la teoría entre iguales en la construcción de la identidad del estudiante como uno de los ejes de la mejora de sus aprendizajes y de su participación en la institución educativa. En este artículo, se presenta el programa de tutoría entre iguales implantado por el Observatorio sobre la Didáctica de las Artes (ODAS, Universidad de Barcelona) en la Facultad de Bellas Artes durante el curso académico 2010-2011. Sin embargo, en la exposición de su finalidad, objetivos y proceso de implantación, se ha buscado que la descripción y comentario de las particularidades de esta experiencia incorporara también una reflexión más general sobre algunos de los puntos clave de la tutoría entre iguales. En el plano teórico, y a partir de las ideas de Lave y Wenger, el artículo defiende la importancia de la teoría entre iguales en la construcción de la identidad del estudiante como uno de los ejes de la mejora de sus aprendizajes y de su participación en la institución educativa.

Bowing the violin : a case study for auditory-motor pattern modelling in the context of music performance

This project addresses methodological and technological challenges in the development of multi-modal data acquisition and analysis methods for the representation of instrumental playing technique in music performance through auditory-motor patterning models. The case study is violin playing: a multi-modal database of violin performances has been constructed by recording different musicians while playing short exercises on different violins. The exercise set and recording protocol have been designed to sample the space defined by dynamics (from piano to forte) and tone (from sul tasto to sul ponticello), for each bow stroke type being played on each of the four strings (three different pitches per string) at two different tempi. The data, containing audio, video, and motion capture streams, has been processed and segmented to facilitate upcoming analyses. From the acquired motion data, the positions of the instrument string ends and the bow hair ribbon ends are tracked and processed to obtain a number of bowing descriptors suited for a detailed description and analysis of the bow motion patterns taking place during performance. Likewise, a number of sound perceptual attributes are computed from the audio streams. Besides the methodology and the implementation of a number of data acquisition tools, this project introduces preliminary results from analyzing bowing technique on a multi-modal violin performance database that is unique in its class. A further contribution of this project is the data itself, which will be made available to the scientific community through the repovizz platform.