Towards a Transfer Model of Scientific and Technological Knowledge: the Case of Mexico

This paper shows the development of a science-technological knowledge transfer model in Mexico, as a means to boost the limited relations between the scientific and industrial environments. The proposal is based on the analysis of eight organizations (research centers and firms) with varying degrees of skill in the practice of science-technological knowledge transfer, and carried out by the case study approach. The analysis highlights the synergistic use of the organizational and technological capabilities of each organization, as a means to identification of the knowledge transfer mechanisms best suited to enabling the establishment of cooperative processes, and achieve the R&D and innovation activities results.

Infrastructure (Resilience-oriented) Modelling Language: I®ML A proposal for modelling infrastructures and their connections

The modelling of critical infrastructures (CIs) is an important issue that needs to be properly addressed, for several reasons. It is a basic support for making decisions about operation and risk reduction. It might help in understanding high-level states at the system-of-systems layer, which are not ready evident to the organisations that manage the lower level technical systems. Moreover, it is also indispensable for setting a common reference between operator and authorities, for agreeing on the incident scenarios that might affect those infrastructures. So far, critical infrastructures have been modelled ad-hoc, on the basis of knowledge and practice derived from less complex systems. As there is no theoretical framework, most of these efforts proceed without clear guides and goals and using informally defined schemas based mostly on boxes and arrows. Different CIs (electricity grid, telecommunications networks, emergency support, etc) have been modelled using particular schemas that were not directly translatable from one CI to another. If there is a desire to build a science of CIs it is because there are some observable commonalities that different CIs share. Up until now, however, those commonalities were not adequately compiled or categorized, so building models of CIs that are rooted on such commonalities was not possible. This report explores the issue of which elements underlie every CI and how those elements can be used to develop a modelling language that will enable CI modelling and, subsequently, analysis of CI interactions, with a special focus on resilience

Specific skills assessment learned by students of building engineering and technical architecture in topics relating to durability and control of concrete structures

In many university courses such as Building Engineering or Technical Architectural, the high density of the contents included in the curriculum, make the student, after graduation, unable to develop the skills already acquired and evaluated in the disciplines of the first courses. From the Group of Educational Innovation at the Polytechnic University of Madrid (UPM) "Teaching of Structural Concrete" (GIEHE) we have conducted a study in which are valued specific skills acquired by students after the first courses of career. We have worked with students from UPM fourth-year career and with Technical Architecture students who have completed their studies and also have completed the Adaptation Course of Technical Architecture to the Building Engineer. The work is part of the Educational Innovation Project funded by the UPM "Integration of training and assessment of generic and specific skills in structural concrete" We have evaluated specific skills learned in the areas of durability and control of structural concrete structures. The results show that overall, students are not able to fully develop the skills already acquired earlier, even being these essential to their professional development. Possibly, the large amount of content taught in these degrees together with a teaching and assessment of "flat profile", ie, which are presented and evaluated with the same intensity as the fundamental and the accessory, are causes enough to cause these results.

Safety and health in forest harvesting operations. Diagnosis and preventive actions. A review

Aim of study: to review the present state of the art in relation to the main labour risks and the most relevant results of recent studies evaluating the safety and health conditions of the forest harvesting work and better ways to reduce accidents. Area of study: It focuses mainly on developed Countries, where the general concern about work risks prevention, together with the complex idiosyncrasy of forest work in forest harvesting operations, has led to a growing interest from the forest scientific and technical community. Material and Methods: The main bibliographic and Internet references have been identified using common reference analysis tools. Their conclusions and recommendations have been comprehensively summarized. Main results: Collection of the principal references and their most important conclusions relating to the main accident risk factors, their causes and consequences, the means used towards their prevention, both instrumental as well as in the aspects of training and business management, besides the influence of the growing mechanization of logging operations on those risks. Research highlights: Accident risk is higher in forest harvesting than in most other work sectors, and the main risk factors such as experience, age, seasonality, training, protective equipment, mechanization degree, etc. have been identified and studied. The paper summarizes some relevant results, one of the principal being that the proper entrepreneurial risk management is a key factor leading to the success in minimizing labour risks..

Proposal for a semantic hierarchy of terminological metaphors in science and technology

Cognitive linguistics is considered as one of the most appropriate approaches to the study of scientific and technical language formation and development, where metaphor is accepted to play an essential role. This paper, based on the Cognitive Theory of Metaphor, takes as the starting point the terminological metaphors established in the research project METACITEC(Note 1), which was developed with the purpose of unfolding constitutive metaphors and their function in the language of science and technology. After the analysis of metaphorical terms and using a mixed corpus from the fields of Agriculture, Geology, Mining, Metallurgy, and other related technical fields, this study presents a proposal for a hierarchy of the selected metaphors underlying the scientific conceptual system, based on the semantic distance found in the projection from the source domain to the target domain. We argue that this semantic distance can be considered as an important parameter to take into account in order to establish the metaphoricity of science and technology metaphorical terms. The findings contribute to expand on the CTM stance that metaphor is a matter of cognition by reviewing the abstract-concrete conceptual relationship between the target and source domains, and to determine the role of human creativity and imagination in the language of science and technology configuration

Design and technical evaluation of an enhanced location-awareness service enabler for spatial disorientation management of elderly with mild cognitive impairment

The progressive ageing of population has turned the mild cognitive impairment (MCI) into a prevalent disease suffered by elderly. Consequently, the spatial disorientation has become a significant problem for older people and their caregivers. The ambient-assisted living applications are offering location-based services for empowering elderly to go outside and encouraging a greater independence. Therefore, this paper describes the design and technical evaluation of a location-awareness service enabler aimed at supporting and managing probable wandering situations of a person with MCI. Through the presence capabilities of the IP multimedia subsystem (IMS) architecture, the service will alert patient's contacts if a hazardous situation is detected depending on his location. Furthermore, information about the older person's security areas has been included in the user profile managed by IMS. In doing so, the service enabler introduced contribute to “context-awareness” paradigm allowing the adaptation and personalization of services depending on user's context and specific conditions or preferences.

La competencia lingüística en el uso de los grupos nominales en inglés académico y profesional y su didáctica: estudio empírico

Esta tesis doctoral consiste en un estudio empírico de la competencia lingüística del alumnado de la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Industriales (ETSII), de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) en el uso de los grupos nominales (GN) en inglés profesional y académico (IPA). Mediante el análisis estadístico de los datos de las pruebas de nivel de inglés general y de conocimiento de los rasgos lingüísticos diferenciadores del IPA, se ha buscado constatar que los GN, tan presentes en los textos ingleses de carácter científico-técnico, son uno de los rasgos IPA que más dificultad presenta para el alumnado de ingeniería de habla española, cuya enseñanza es necesario abordar de forma diferenciada para que se puedan usar correctamente. El trabajo comienza presentando las características lingüísticas generales del IPA, entre las que destaca la frecuente presencia de los GN en las comunicaciones de carácter científico y técnico. Comprueba la hipótesis de que la comprensión y el uso de los GN es el rasgo lingüístico que ofrece mayor dificultad para esta población. Se detiene en explicar las propiedades de los GN en inglés y de las palabras que lo forman; es decir, muestra clases de palabras, regularidades y excepciones que están presentes en los textos científico-técnicos. También expone y razona el comportamiento de las distintas categorías gramaticales que pueden figurar como premodificadoras y se centra en ejemplos reales y datos objetivos, para llegar a conclusiones cuantitativas sobre el uso y la frecuencia de los GN en el discurso científico-técnico, así como en los diferentes grados de dificultad que dichas construcciones presentan al alumnado. El método de investigación seguido consiste en la recopilación y análisis estadístico de los datos procedentes de una muestra de población de alumnos de 5º curso de la ETSII de la UPM utilizando el análisis de la varianza ANOVA. Los datos se han tratado teniendo en cuenta el nivel general de inglés de cada alumno, según el Marco Común Europeo de Referencia para las Lenguas (MCERL), que oscila entre el nivel A2 y el C1, con una mayor frecuencia de B1 y B2. Las conclusiones se basan en el análisis de los datos empíricos obtenidos, que nos permiten deducir unos principios generales relevantes respecto al uso de los GN –simples y complejos- en el inglés para la ciencia y la tecnología (ICT) y al grado de dificultad que sus distintos tipos presentan al alumnado, con un grado de confianza superior al 95%. A partir de estos datos se ofrece un planteamiento didáctico que facilite la comprensión y elaboración de los distintos tipos de GN. La estructura general de la tesis se divide en seis capítulos. El capítulo 1 es una introducción en la que se presentan las razones que han motivado esta tesis, las hipótesis, los objetivos y la metodología de la misma. En el capítulo 2 se recogen los rasgos lingüísticos distintivos del ICT, incidiendo en la relación competencia comunicativa/competencia lingüística. En el capítulo 3 se analizan los GN profundizando en aspectos lingüísticos. El capítulo 4 se centra en el estudio empírico propiamente dicho y en el análisis estadístico de los datos. Del análisis se extraen las conclusiones objetivas sobre la dificultad que presentan los diferentes rasgos IPA analizados, con detenimiento en los GN simples y complejos. El capítulo 5 ofrece un planteamiento didáctico práctico sobre la enseñanza de los GN en el contexto del ICT, con una investigación sobre el terreno y el análisis estadístico de los resultados obtenidos antes y después de la aplicación didáctica. En el capítulo 6 se comentan los resultados obtenidos a lo largo del estudio, aportando las conclusiones, las limitaciones y las recomendaciones para futuros trabajos de investigación sobre el tema de la tesis. ABSTRACT This doctoral thesis consists of an empirical study of the linguistic competence of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM) industrial engineering students on the use of nominal groups (NG) in English for Academic and Professional Purposes (EAPP). In order to confirm that NG is the EAPP linguistic feature that presents the greatest difficulty to Spanish engineering students, a statistical analysis of the data obtained from the application of a general English test and the EAPP linguistic features tests -developed for this purpose- was carried out. Consequently, this linguistic feature needs to be specifically taught in order to be used correctly by Spanish engineering students. The study begins by presenting the general language characteristics of EAPP, among which the frequent presence of NG in scientific and technical writings stands out. It verifies the hypothesis that the understanding and use of NG in English is the most difficult linguistic feature for Spanish engineering students. It explains the features of English NG analyzing the words they are composed of by depicting the types of words, regularities and exceptions that are present in technical and scientific English. It also explains the behavior of the different grammar categories that act as pre-modifiers of the noun and focuses on real examples taken from authentic publications and quantitative data, to reach objective conclusions about the use and degree of difficulty of the NG for the students. The research methodology includes the gathering of data from the 5th year industrial engineering students´ tests and analyzing them by means of the ANOVA statistical application. The data have been treated in relation to the students’ Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFRL) levels, which range from A2 to C1, although the majority lye between B1 and B2 levels. The conclusions are based on the results, which allow us to obtain relevant information about the understanding and use of NG –simple and complex- by the focus group, with a 95% confidence level. From these data, a methodological approach to NG teaching has been tested to help students to acquire such linguistic feature. The general structure of this thesis is divided into six chapters. The first is an introduction containing the reasons that have motivated this piece of research, the hypotheses, objectives and methodology employed. The second deals with the distinctive linguistic features of EST underlying the concepts of linguistic and communicative competence. Chapter three focuses on the grammar aspects of NG. Chapter four contains the empirical study and the statistical analysis of the data. Results allow us to reach objective conclusions about the degree of difficulty of the EAPP linguistic features studied, focusing on simple and complex NG. Chapter five discusses a methodological approach to the teaching of NG in an EST context, comparing students’ test results before and after the NG teaching application. Finally, chapter six discusses the findings obtained along the study, presenting the conclusions, limitations and recommendations for future research in this area.