Davies, Wendy (2007) Acts of Giving. Individual, Community, and Church in Tenth-Century Christian Spain. Oxford University Press (244 + xvi pp.)

Fil: Cimino, Carla. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Davies, Wendy (2007) Acts of Giving. Individual, Community, and Church in Tenth-Century Christian Spain. Oxford University Press (244 + xvi pp.)

Fil: Cimino, Carla. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educación; Argentina.

Hontoria’s stone (Burgos, Spain): Characteristics and weathering

This paper deals with petrological and petrophysical features of the Hontaria's stone, Burgos (Spain), with which many important monuments were built in northern Spain, in orderr to establish a basis for individual monument restoration. The study contains an historical reference to sorne buildings in which this stone was employed, geological considerations of the origin area, laboratory analysis of the samples, and results of the most common characterization tests. As a conclusion, it can be stated that the Hontoria's stone is apure limestone, with good mechanical and hydrological behaviour, resistent to weathering, easy to quarry (underground mining) and with large resources

Mejora del comportamiento térmico de los morteros de cal aditivados y su empleo en la rehabilitación de inmuebles = Improvement of thermal behaviour of additived lime mortars and their use in rehabilitation of buildings

La envolvente de la edificación es la responsable de equilibrar el intercambio energético entre el interior y el exterior, por lo tanto cualquier actuación encaminada a la reducción del consumo energético ha de establecer, como uno de sus objetivos prioritarios, la mejora del comportamiento de la misma. Las edificaciones anteriores a 1940 constituyen la mayor parte de las existentes en áreas rurales y centros urbanos. En ellas, la repercusión de la fachada sobre las transmitancias globales pone de manifiesto la necesidad de intervención. Sin embargo, su elevada inercia térmica y los importantes saltos térmicos característicos de gran parte de España plantean la importancia de que aquélla se efectúe por el exterior. A tal respecto, la falta de disponibilidad de espesor suficiente para implantar sistemas tipo SATE deriva en que, frecuentemente, la única solución viable sea la de aislar por el interior perdiendo con ello la capacidad de acumulación térmica del muro y con el asociado riesgo de condensaciones. La amplia tradición en el empleo de revestimientos, especialmente en base de cal, permiten que éstos sean utilizados no sólo como elemento estético o de protección de la obra de fábrica antigua sino también para la mejora del comportamiento térmico del soporte, si se aprovecha el mecanismo de transmisión térmica por radiación. Éste es el objetivo de la presente Tesis Doctoral en la que se estudia la modificación de las propiedades radiantes de los morteros de revestimiento para la mejora de la eficiencia energética de las construcciones históricas, principalmente las constituidas por muros monolíticos, aunque podría ser de aplicación a otro tipo de construcciones compuestas por diversas capas. Como punto de partida, se estudió y revisó la documentación disponible sobre las investigaciones de las tres áreas científico-tecnológicas que convergen en la Tesis Doctoral: rehabilitación, material y comportamiento térmico, a partir de lo cual se comprobó la inexistencia de estudios similares al objeto de la presente Tesis Doctoral. Complementariamente, se analizaron los revestimientos en lo concerniente a los materiales que los constituyen, la composición de las mezclas y características de cada una de las capas así como al enfoque que, desde el punto de vista térmico, se estimaba más adecuado para la obtención de los objetivos propuestos. Basándonos en dichos análisis, se preseleccionaron ochenta materiales que fueron ensayados en términos de reflectancia y emisividad para elegir cuatro con los que se continuó la investigación. Éstos, junto con la cal elegida para la investigación y el árido marmóreo característico de la última capa de revestimiento, fueron caracterizados térmicamente, de forma pormenorizada, así como química y físicamente. Los fundamentos teóricos y los estudios preliminares desarrollados con distintos materiales, en estado fresco y endurecido, fueron empleados en la dosificación de componentes de las mezclas, en dos proporciones distintas, para el estudio del efecto del agregado. Éstas se ensayaron en estado fresco, para comprobar su adecuación de puesta en obra y prever su VI adherencia al soporte, así como en estado endurecido a 28 y 90 días de curado, para conocer las propiedades que permitieran prever su compatibilidad con aquél y estimar el alcance de la reducción de transferencias térmicas lograda. Además, se estudiaron las características generales de las mezclas que sirvieron para establecer correlaciones entre distintas propiedades y entender los resultados mecánicos, físicos (comportamiento frente al agua) y energéticos. Del estudio conjunto de las distintas propiedades analizadas se propusieron dos mezclas, una blanca y otra coloreada, cuyas características permiten garantizar la compatibilidad con la obra de fábrica antigua, desde el punto de vista físico y mecánico, y preservar la autenticidad de los revestimientos, en cuanto a la técnica de aplicación tradicional en sistemas multicapa. El comportamiento térmico de las mismas, sobre una obra de fábrica de 40 cm de espesor, se estimó, en estado estacionario y pseudo-transitorio, demostrándose reducciones del flujo térmico entre 16-48%, en condiciones de verano, y entre el 6-11%, en invierno, en función de la coloración y de la rugosidad de la superficie, en comparación con el empleo de la mezcla tradicional. Por lo que, se constata la viabilidad de los materiales compuestos propuestos y su adecuación al objetivo de la investigación. VII ABSTRACT The envelope is responsible for balancing the energy exchange between the inside and outside in buildings. For this reason, any action aimed at reducing energy consumption must establish, as one of its key priorities, its improvement. In rural areas and urban centers, most of the constructions were built before 1940. In them, the impact of the façade on the global transmittance highlights the need for intervention. However, its high thermal inertia and fluctuation of temperatures in the majority of Spain bring up that it should be placed outside the insulation. In this regard, the lack of availability of enough thickness to implement systems such as ETICS results in that often the only viable solution is to isolate the interior, losing thereby the wall’s heat storage capacity with the associated risk of condensation. The tradition in the use of renders, especially lime-based, allows us to use them not only as an aesthetic element or to protect the ancient masonry, but also for improved thermal performance of the support by taking advantage of the heat transfer mechanism by radiation. This is the aim of this Doctoral Thesis in which the modification of the radiative properties of lime mortars for renders to improve the energy efficiency of historic buildings, mainly composed of monolithic walls, is studied, although it could be applied to other structures composed of several layers. As a starting point, the available literature in the three scientific-technological areas that converge at the Doctoral Thesis: rehabilitation, material and thermal behaviour, was reviewed, and confirmed the absence of researches similar to this Doctoral Thesis. Additionally, the renders were studied with regard to the materials that constitute them, the composition of the mixtures and the characteristics of each layer, as well as to the approach which, from a thermal point of view, was deemed the most suitable for achieving the objectives sets. Based on thre aforementioned analysis, eighty materials tested in terms of reflectance and emissivity were pre-selected, to choose four with which the research was continued. Common marble sand, used in the last layer of the renders, together with the appointed materials and hydrated lime were characterized thermally, in detail, as well as chemically and physically. The theoretical bases and preliminary studies with different materials, in fresh and hardened state, were used in the dosage of the composition of the mixtures. In order to study their effect they were used in two different proportions, that is, ten mixtures in total. These were tested in their fresh state to evaluate their setting-up suitability and foresee their adhesion to the support, as well as in their hardened state, at 28 and 90 days of curing, to establish the properties which enabled us to anticipate their compatibility with the old masonry walls and estimate the scope of the reduction of heat transfers achieved. In addition, the general characteristics of the mixtures used to establish correlations and to understand the mechanical, physical and energy results were studied. Two mixtures, one white and one colored, were proposed as the result of the different properties analysed, whose characteristics allow the guarantee of mechanical and physical compatibility VIII with the old masonry and preserve the authenticity of the renders. The thermal behavior of both, applied on a masonry wall 40 cm thick, was estimated at a steady and pseudo-transient state, with heat flow reductions between 16-48% during summertime and 6-11% during wintertime, depending on the color and surface roughness, compared to the use of the traditional mixture. So, the viability of the proposed composite materials and their fitness to the aim of the research are established.

New Constructive Solutions to Improve Energy Efficiency in Existing Buildings and their Economic Viability

The improvement of energy efficiency in existing buildings is always a challenge due to their particular, and sometimes protected, constructive solutions. New constructive regulations in Spain leave a big undefined gap when a restoration is considered because they were developed for new buildings. However, rehabilitation is considered as an opportunity for many properties because it allows owners to obtain benefits from the use of the buildings. The current financial and housing crisis has turned society point of view to existing buildings and making them more efficient is one of the Spanish government’s aims. The economic viability of a rehabilitation action should take all factors into account: both construction costs and the future operative costs of the building must be considered. Nevertheless, the application of these regulations in Spain is left to the designer’s opinion and always under a subjective point of view. With the research work described in this paper and with the help of some case-studies, the cost of adapting an existing building to the new constructive regulations will be studied and Energetic Efficiency will be evaluated depending on how the investment is recovered. The interest of the research is based on showing how new constructive solutions can achieve higher levels of efficiency in terms of energy, construction and economy and it will demonstrate that Life Cycle Costing analysis can be a mechanism to find the advantages and disadvantages of using these new constructive solutions. Therefore, this paper has the following objectives: analysing constructive solutions in existing buildings - to establish a process for assessing total life cycle costs (LCC) during the planning stages with consideration of future operating costs - to select the most advantageous operating system – To determine the return on investment in terms of construction costs based on new techniques, the achieved energy savings and investment payback periods.

Assessing the solar irradiation potential for solar photovoltaic applications in buildings at low latitudes ¿ Making the case for Brazil

In Brazil, a low-latitude country characterized by its high availability and uniformity of solar radiation, the use of PV solar energy integrated in buildings is still incipient. However, at the moment there are several initiatives which give some hints that lead to think that there will be a change shortly. In countries where this technology is already a daily reality, such as Germany, Japan or Spain, the recommendations and basic criteria to avoid losses due to orientation and tilt are widespread. Extrapolating those measures used in high latitudes to all regions, without a previous deeper analysis, is standard practice. They do not always correspond to reality, what frequently leads to false assumptions and may become an obstacle in a country which is taking the first step in this area. In this paper, the solar potential yield for different surfaces in Brazilian cities (located at latitudes between 0° and 30°S) are analyzed with the aim of providing the necessary tools to evaluate the suitability of the buildings’ envelopes for photovoltaic use

datos.bne.es: A library linked dataset

We describe the datos.bne.es library dataset. The dataset makes available the authority and bibliography catalogue from the Biblioteca Nacional de España (BNE, National Library of Spain) as Linked Data. The catalogue contains around 7 million authority and bibliographic records. The records in MARC 21 format were transformed to RDF and modelled using IFLA (International Federation of Library Associations) ontologies and other well-established vocabularies such as RDA (Resource Description and Access) or the Dublin Core Metadata Element Set. A tool named MARiMbA automatized the RDF generation process and the data linkage to DBpedia and other library linked data resources such as VIAF (Virtual International Authority File) or GND (Gemeinsame Normdatei, the authority dataset from the German National Library).

Underground parking structure built with deep foundations and vault precast elements in Spain

In many cases the only places available for the construction of a new car park are the existing streets or roads. These streets may also have important or historic buildings very close to the structure, which means that they cannot be disturbed in any way during the construction of the parking structure. In many cases the only places available for the construction of a new car park are the existing streets or roads. These streets may also have important or historic buildings very close to the structure, which means that they cannot be disturbed in any way during the construction of the parking structure.

News in engineering education in Spain effective from 2010 in presence of external changes and mixed crisis, looking mostly to agro and civil engineers.

The engineering careers models were diverse in Europe, and are adopting now in Spain the Bolonia process for European Universities. Separated from older Universities, that are in part technically active, Civil Engineering (Caminos, Canales y Puertos) started at end of 18th century in Spain adopting the French models of Upper Schools for state civil servants with exam at entry. After 1800 intense wars, to conserve forest regions Ingenieros de Montes appeared as Upper School, and in 1855 also the Ingenieros Agrónomos to push up related techniques and practices. Other Engineers appeared as Upper Schools but more towards private factories. These ES got all adapted Lower Schools of Ingeniero Tecnico. Recently both grew much in number and evolved, linked also to recognized Professions. Spanish society, into European Community, evolved across year 2000, in part highly well, but with severe discordances, that caused severe youth unemployment with 2008-2011 crisis. With Bolonia process high formal changes step in from 2010-11, accepted with intense adaptation. The Lower Schools are changing towards the Upper Schools, and both that have shifted since 2010-11 various 4-years careers (Grado), some included into the precedent Professions, and diverse Masters. Acceptation of them to get students has started relatively well, and will evolve, and acceptation of new grades for employment in Spain, Europe or outside will be essential. Each Grado has now quite rigid curricula and programs, MOODLE was introduced to connect pupils, some specific uses of Personal Computers are taught in each subject. Escuela de Agronomos centre, reorganized with its old name in its precedent buildings at entrance of Campus Moncloa, offers Grados of Agronomic Engineering and Science for various public and private activities for agriculture, Alimentary Engineering for alimentary activities and control, Agro-Environmental Engineering more related to environment activities, and in part Biotechnology also in laboratories in Campus Monte-Gancedo for Biotechnology of Plants and Computational Biotechnology. Curricula include Basics, Engineering, Practices, Visits, English, ?project of end of career?, Stays. Some masters will conduce to specific professional diploma, list includes now Agro-Engineering, Agro-Forestal Biotechnology, Agro and Natural Resources Economy, Complex Physical Systems, Gardening and Landscaping, Rural Genie, Phytogenetic Resources, Plant Genetic Resources, Environmental Technology for Sustainable Agriculture, Technology for Human Development and Cooperation.

Damage assessment on building structures subjected to the recent near-fault earthquake in Lorca (Spain)

The city of Lorca (Spain) was hit on May 11th 2011 by two consecutive earthquakes with 4.6 and 5.2 Mw respectively, causing casualties and important damage in buildings. Lorca is located in the south-east region of Spain and settled on the trace of the Murcia-Totana-Lorca fault. Although the magnitudes of these ground motions were not severe, the damage observed was considerable over a great amount of buildings. More than 300 of them have been demolished and many others are being retrofitted. This paper reports a field study on the damage caused by these earthquakes. The observed damage is related with the structural typology. Further, prototypes of the damaged buildings are idealized with nonlinear numerical models and their seismic behavior and proneness to damage concentration is further investigated through dynamic response analyses.

On the economics of energy consumption in 4G networks: the case of Spain

Reducing energy consumption is one of the main challenges in most countries. For example, European Member States agreed to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 20% in 2020 compared to 1990 levels (EC 2008). Considering each sector separately, ICTs account nowadays for 2% of total carbon emissions. This percentage will increase as the demand of communication services and applications steps up. At the same time, the expected evolution of ICT-based developments - smart buildings, smart grids and smart transportation systems among others - could result in the creation of energy-saving opportunities leading to global emission reductions (Labouze et al. 2008), although the amount of these savings is under debate (Falch 2010). The main development required in telecommunication networks ?one of the three major blocks of energy consumption in ICTs together with data centers and consumer equipment (Sutherland 2009) ? is the evolution of existing infrastructures into ultra-broadband networks, the so-called Next Generation Networks (NGN). Fourth generation (4G) mobile communications are the technology of choice to complete -or supplement- the ubiquitous deployment of NGN. The risk and opportunities involved in NGN roll-out are currently in the forefront of the economic and policy debate. However, the issue of which is the role of energy consumption in 4G networks seems absent, despite the fact that the economic impact of energy consumption arises as a key element in the cost analysis of this type of networks. Precisely, the aim of this research is to provide deeper insight on the energy consumption involved in the usage of a 4G network, its relationship with network main design features, and the general economic impact this would have in the capital and operational expenditures related with network deployment and usage.

Vulnerability analysis of RC buildings with wide beams located in moderate seismicity regions

A significant number of short-to-mid height RC buildings with wide beams have been constructed in areas of moderate seismicity of Spain, mainly for housing and administrative use. The buildings have a framed structure with one-way slabs; the wide beams constitute the distinctive characteristic, their depth being equal to that of the rest of the slab, thus providing a flat lower surface, convenient for construction and the layout of facilities. Seismic behavior in the direction of the wide beams appears to be deficient because of: (i) low lateral strength, mainly because of the small effective depth of the beams, (ii) inherent low ductility of the wide beams, generated by high amount of reinforcement, (iii) the big strut compressive forces developed inside the column-beam connections due to the low height of the beams, and (iv) the fact that the wide beams are wider than the columns, meaning that the contribution of the outer zones to the resistance of the beam-column joints is unreliable because there is no torsion reinforcement. In the orthogonal direction, the behavior is worse since the only members of the slabs that contribute to the lateral resistance are the joists and the façade beams. Moreover, these buildings were designed with codes that did not include ductility requirements and required only a low lateral resistance; indeed, in many cases, seismic action was not considered at all. Consequently, the seismic capacity of these structures is not reliable. The objective of this research is to assess numerically this capability, whereas further research will aim to propose retrofit strategies. The research approach consists of: (i) selecting a number of 3-story and 6-story buildings that represent the vast majority of the existing ones and (ii) evaluating their vulnerability through three types of analyses, namely: code-type, push-over and nonlinear dynamic analysis. Given the low lateral resistance of the main frames, the cooperation of the masonry infill walls is accounted for; for each representative building, three wall densities are considered. The results of the analyses show that the buildings in question exhibit inadequate seismic behavior in most of the examined situations. In general, the relative performance is less deficient for Target Drift CP (Collapse Prevention) than for IO (Immediate Occupancy). Since these buildings are selected to be representative of the vast majority of buildings with wide beams that were constructed in Spain without accounting for any seismic consideration, our conclusions can be extrapolated to a broader scenario.

Development and implementation of a virtual laboratory for training process improvement in the mechanics of continuous media

The project arises from the need to develop improved teaching methodologies in field of the mechanics of continuous media. The objective is to offer the student a learning process to acquire the necessary theoretical knowledge, cognitive skills and the responsibility and autonomy to professional development in this area. Traditionally the teaching of the concepts of these subjects was performed through lectures and laboratory practice. During these lessons the students attitude was usually passive, and therefore their effectiveness was poor. The proposed methodology has already been successfully employed in universities like University Bochum, Germany, University the South Australia and aims to improve the effectiveness of knowledge acquisition through use by the student of a virtual laboratory. This laboratory allows to adapt the curricula and learning techniques to the European Higher Education and improve current learning processes in the University School of Public Works Engineers -EUITOP- of the Technical University of Madrid -UPM-, due there are not laboratories in this specialization. The virtual space is created using a software platform built on OpenSim, manages 3D virtual worlds, and, language LSL -Linden Scripting Language-, which imprints specific powers to objects. The student or user can access this virtual world through their avatar -your character in the virtual world- and can perform practices within the space created for the purpose, at any time, just with computer with internet access and viewfinder. The virtual laboratory has three partitions. The virtual meeting rooms, where the avatar can interact with peers, solve problems and exchange existing documentation in the virtual library. The interactive game room, where the avatar is has to resolve a number of issues in time. And the video room where students can watch instructional videos and receive group lessons. Each audiovisual interactive element is accompanied by explanations framing it within the area of knowledge and enables students to begin to acquire a vocabulary and practice of the profession for which they are being formed. Plane elasticity concepts are introduced from the tension and compression testing of test pieces of steel and concrete. The behavior of reticulated and articulated structures is reinforced by some interactive games and concepts of tension, compression, local and global buckling will by tests to break articulated structures. Pure bending concepts, simple and composite torsion will be studied by observing a flexible specimen. Earthquake resistant design of buildings will be checked by a laboratory test video.

Effects of conservation interventions on the archaeological Roman site of Merida (Spain). Advance of research.

Research on the assessment of the effects of conservation/restoration treatments on stone material has been significant in recent years, with focus on the early observation of decay caused by the application of these treatments. However, in the case of archaeological sites, research is still scarce and few studies on the subject have been published. Restoration, as everything else, has changed according to trends, mainly guided by the release of new products and technologies, an experimental field where scientific assessment of suitability, efficacy and durability pre-evaluations of treatments are not always conducted. Some efforts have been made to solve this problem in the architectural field, where functional needs and technical requirements force to set clear standards. Unfortunately, archaeological sites, unlike historic buildings, have specific features that preclude the extrapolation of these results. A critical review of the methodologies, products and restoration materials is necessary, coupled with deeper research on degradation mechanisms caused by these treatments in the mid- and long-term. The aim of this paper is to introduce the research on the above issues using Merida as a case study.

datos.bne.es and MARiMbA: an insight into Library Linked Data

Purpose – Linked data is gaining great interest in the cultural heritage domain as a new way for publishing, sharing and consuming data. The paper aims to provide a detailed method and MARiMbA a tool for publishing linked data out of library catalogues in the MARC 21 format, along with their application to the catalogue of the National Library of Spain in the datos.bne.es project. Design/methodology/approach – First, the background of the case study is introduced. Second, the method and process of its application are described. Third, each of the activities and tasks are defined and a discussion of their application to the case study is provided. Findings – The paper shows that the FRBR model can be applied to MARC 21 records following linked data best practices, librarians can successfully participate in the process of linked data generation following a systematic method, and data sources quality can be improved as a result of the process. Originality/value – The paper proposes a detailed method for publishing and linking linked data from MARC 21 records, provides practical examples, and discusses the main issues found in the application to a real case. Also, it proposes the integration of a data curation activity and the participation of librarians in the linked data generation process.