The Catalan countries project (1931-1939)

In the evolution of Catalan nationalism, as much politician as cultural, the period of II Spanish Republic (1931-1939) was essential. The obtaining of the Statute of Autonomy (1931-1932) supposed the beginning of a stage of expansion in multiple aspects. One of them were the contacts with the Catalanists nuclei of the rest of the cultural space of Catalan language in which, at that time, it would begin to call Catalan Countries (Balearic Islands, Valencian Country, Andorra, Rosselló, to l'Alguer). On Those Collaborations between cultural organizations, political and particular parties Catalonia always will be the model to follow. The Increasing connections will be visualized on press, as well as on cultural celebrations, policy of parties and Constituent Courts. This evolution will be cut by the Franco victory in the Civil War in 1939.

Transferring QTL technology to the pig breeding industry (PigQTech) - a demonstration project

The aim of the project has been to demonstrate how the farm animal breeding industry can utilise gene mapping technology to accelerate genetic improvement. Previous theoretical studies had suggested that the use of marker assisted selection could potentially increase the annual improvement for quantitative traits like backfat with about 10% and for more difficult traits such as meat quality and reproduction by as much as 40-60% compared with existing technology. The work has comprised two major tasks: 1. Commercially relevant populations have been screened for segregation at QTLs identified in experimental populations. The aim has been to establish optimal strategies for QTL detection in commercial pig populations and the extent to which QTLs explaining major phenotypic differences between divergent lines used in experimental studies also explain quantitative variation within commercial lines. The results are important for specifying future strategies for finding economically valuable QTLs. 2. Marker assisted backcrossing has been used to demonstrate how a QTL allele can be introgressed from one breed to another. The work has focused on the major fatness QTL on pig chromosome 4 previously identified in a wild pig/Large White intercross. The end result was not designed to be a commercially viable product in its own right, but the process has validated a number of points of major importance for the exploitation of QTLs in livestock.

Inequality and a repeated joint project

Agents voluntarily contribute to an infinitely repeated joint project. We investigate the conditions for cooperation to be a renegotiation-proof and coalition-proof equilibrium before examining the influence of output share inequality on the sustainability of cooperation. When shares are not equally distributed, cooperation requires agents to be more patient than under perfect equality. Beyond a certain degree of share inequality, full efficiency cannot be reached without redistribution. This model also explains the coexistence of one cooperating and one free-riding coalition. In this case, increasing inequality can have a positive or negative impact on the aggregate level of effort.

Estimating patterns of leaf herbivory along an altitudinal transect in NE Queensland rainforests: might global warming increase leaf herbivory in tropical rainforests?

Climate change has been taking place at unprecedented rates over the past decades. These fast alterations caused by human activities are leading to a global warming of the planet. Warmer temperatures are going to have important effects on vegetation and especially on tropical forests. Insects as well will be affected by climate change. This study tested the hypothesis that higher temperatures lead to a higher insect pressure on vegetation. Visual estimations of leaf damage were recorded and used to assess the extent of herbivory in nine 0.1ha plots along an altitudinal gradient, and therefore a temperature gradient. These estimations were made at both a community level and a species level, on 2 target species. Leaf toughness tests were performed on samples from the target species from each plot. Results showed a strong evidence of increasing insect damage along increasing temperature, with no significant effect from the leaf toughness.

Disseny i optimització metològica de sistemes telemàtics interactius per a la millora de la docència universitària : l'entorn BSCW i nous recursos docents

Aquest projecte de dos anys de durada, ha tingut com a objectius: el disseny i la creació de recursos multimèdia, així com, l’optimització de metodologies d'aplicació de sistemes telemàtics interactius per a la millora de la docència universitària. Com a entorn telemàtic s’ha utilitzat la plataforma de treball cooperatiu BSCW (Basic Support for Cooperative Work). S'ha dissenyat i produït un recurs multimèdia enfocat a l'alumnat de l'assignatura troncal Ciències naturals i la seva didàctica de la diplomatura de Mestre d'Educació Primària, que porta per títol 'Alimentació i nutrició humanes i la seva didàctica’ i es pot consultar a: http://www.ub.edu/didactica_ciencies/mqd06/. Aquest material està format per dues unitats: a) Alimentació i nutrició; b) L'ensenyament-aprenentatge de la digestió humana des d'una perspectiva constructivista. Les unitats s'han orientat a la millora de la formació inicial dels futurs mestres i tenen un enfocament de clar caire constructivista, amb exercicis interactius de detecció de concepcions alternatives, així com organitzadors previs, posteriors nodes expositius i d'obtenció d'informació, exercicis interactius destinats al canvi conceptual i una interactivitat d'avaluació final amb un cert caràcter sumatiu. Cada unitat es tanca amb un mapa conceptual dels continguts tractats. La metodologia emprada en la seva elaboració és una evolució de la que l'equip de la Universitat Pompeu Fabra va encetar en la web ‘Aracné. Ciència en xarxa’: http://www.edu365.com/aulanet/aracne/ (usuari i contrasenya: guest100), i va perfeccionar a 'Idees i vincles en el segle XX. La ciència': http://www.xtec.es/aulanet/seglexx/ (cal permetre que s'obrin finestres emergents), en ambdós casos hi ha col·laborat professorat del nostre grup d'innovació docent de la UB.

After Art. Una propuesta de implementación digital en el Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona a través de Google Art Project

L’aplicació de la tecnologia de Google Art Project al Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) com a forma d’aproximació de l’art a un públic més internacional és el plantejament d’aquest treball. Amb aquesta finalitat es desenvoluparà una estratègia de comunicació digital que comprengui aquesta eina com a principal i abasti altres mètodes interactius a xarxes socials i a altres espais de socialització 2.0. L’elaboració d’aquesta estratègia estarà basada dins un context real de l’art contemporani a Barcelona i de la seva màxima compenetració amb aquesta innovadora iniciativa.

E-MOVE project : a case of successfulcooperation of European academic librariesof distance teaching universities

El Library and Learning Support Working Group (LLSWG) és una xarxa europea de professionals de biblioteca i de la informació i educadors dins de l'Associació Europea d'Universitats d'Ensenyament (EADTU). EADTU és l'organització que representa tant les universitats obertes i d'ensenyament a distància com els consorcis nacionals d'institucions d'ensenyament superior actius en els camps d'educació de distància i e-learning. El 2005 l'Associació Europea d'Universitats d'Ensenyament de Distància (EADTU) presentava a la Comissió Europea una proposta de projecte sobre Mobilitat Virtual anomenada E-MOVE. El projecte incloïa, entre d'altres, un paquet de treball referent a biblioteca i suport a l'aprenentatge al context de mobilitat virtual. Aquest fou desenvolupat pel LLSWG de l'EADTU.

COINE Project : Cultural Objects in Networked Environments

La idea subjacent al Projecte de Recerca i Desenvolupament COINE és permetre a la gent contar les seves pròpies històries. COINE pretén proporcionar les eines necessàries per crear estructuradament, un entorn basat en el World Wide Web, que permeti compartir continguts. Els resultats del Projecte ajudaran al desenvolupament d'estàndards per a la implantació i la recuperació estructurades de recursos digitals en entorns en xarxa distribuïda. El Projecte de COINE s'inicià el març de 2002 i finalitzà l'agost de 2004. Avui en dia estem al WorkPackage 5 on estem construint el Sistema, el programari i les interfícies. COINE pretén cobrir la gamma més àmplia possible d'usuaris potencials, des d'organitzacions de patrimoni cultural i institucions de qualsevol mida (principalment biblioteques, arxius i museus) fins a individus de qualsevol edat sense habilitats en l'ús de les TIC, o a grups petits de ciutadans. Els usuaris no utilitzaran només COINE com a eina de cerca, sinó que contribuiran amb el seu propi contingut.

Contribution to Asterisk Open Source Project

With this final master thesis we are going to contribute to the Asterisk open source project. Asterisk is an open source project that started with the main objective of develop an IP telephony platform, completely based on Software (so not hardware dependent) and under an open license like GPL. This project was started on 1999 by the software engineer Mark Spencer at Digium. The main motivation of that open source project was that the telecommunications sector is lack of open solutions, and most of the available solutions are based on proprietary standards, which are close and not compatible between them. Behind the Asterisk project there is a company, Digum, which is the project leading since the project was originated in its laboratories. This company has some of its employees fully dedicated to contribute to the Asterisk project, and also provide the whole infrastructure required by the open source project. But the business of Digium isn't based on licensing of products due to the open source nature of Asterisk, but it's based on offering services around Asteriskand designing and selling some hardware components to be used with Asterisk. The Asterisk project has grown up a lot since its birth, offering in its latest versions advanced functionalities for managing calls and compatibility with some hardware that previously was exclusive of proprietary solutions. Due to that, Asterisk is becoming a serious alternative to all these proprietaries solutions because it has reached a level of maturity that makes it very stable. In addition, as it is open source, it can be fully customized to a givenrequirement, which could be impossible with the proprietaries solutions. Due to the bigness that is reaching the project, every day there are more companies which develop value added software for telephony platforms, that are seriously evaluating the option of make their software fully compatible withAsterisk platforms. All these factors make Asterisk being a consolidated project but in constant evolution, trying to offer all those functionalities offered by proprietaries solutions. This final master thesis will be divided mainly in two blocks totally complementaries. In the first block we will analyze Asterisk as an open source project and Asterisk as a telephony platform (PBX). As a result of this analysis we will generate a document, written in English because it is Asterisk project's official language, which could be used by future contributors as an starting point on joining Asterisk. On the second block we will proceed with a development contribution to the Asterisk project. We will have several options in the form that we do the contribution, such as solving bugs, developing new functionalities or start an Asterisk satellite project. The type of contribution will depend on the needs of the project on that moment.

Email system upgrade : project report

Final degree project report. It summarizes the email upgrade project that was held at CELLS by Sergio Vicente.