Applying Problem-Based Project-Organized Learning in a traditional system

Nowadays, PBL is considered a suitable methodology for engineering education. But making the most of this methodology requires some features, such as multidisciplinary, illstructured teamwork and autonomous research that sometimes are not easy to achieve. In fact, traditional university systems, including curricula, teaching methodologies, assessment and regulation, do not help the implementation of these features. Firstly, we look through the main differences found between a traditional system and the Aalborg model, considered a reference point in PBL. Then, this work is aimed at detecting the main obstacles that a standing traditional system presents to PBL implementation. A multifaceted PBL experience, covering three different disciplines, brings us to analyse these difficulties, order them according to its importance and decide which should be the first changes. Finally, we propose a straightforward introduction of generic competences in the curricula aimed at supporting the use of Problem-Based Project-Organized Learning

Contributions to traditional electronic voting systems in order to reinforce citizen confidence

This document provides a general description of the telematic voting scenario designed by the author?s research group. This scenario reinforces verification procedures as key elements to achieve full acceptance of the system on the part of voters. To frame this work, a general overview of electronic voting is given and the conditions entailed by these systems are specified.

Analysis of the stress state of a halved and tabled traditional timber scarf joint with the Finite Element Method

The purpose of this study is to determine the stress distribution in the carpentry joint of halved and tabled scarf joint with the finite element method (FEM) and its comparison with the values obtained using the theory of Strength of Materials. The stress concentration areas where analyzed and the influence of mesh refinement was studied on the results in order to determine the mesh size that provides the stress values more consistent with the theory. In areas where stress concentration is lower, different mesh sizes show similar stress values. In areas where stress concentration occurs, the same values increase considerably with the refinement of the mesh. The results show a central symmetry of the isobar lines distribution where the centre of symmetry corresponds to the geometric centre of the joint. Comparison of normal stress levels obtained by the FEM and the classical theory shows small differences, except at points of stress concentration.

Traditional education vs modern education. What is the impact of teaching techniques' evolution on students learning process?

The main objective of this article is to focus on the analysis of teaching techniques, ranging from the use of the blackboard and chalk in old traditional classes, using slides and overhead projectors in the eighties and use of presentation software in the nineties, to the video, electronic board and network resources nowadays. Furthermore, all the aforementioned, is viewed under the different mentalities in which the teacher conditions the student using the new teaching technique, improving soft skills but maybe leading either to encouragement or disinterest, and including the lack of educational knowledge consolidation at scientific, technology and specific levels. In the same way, we study the process of adaptation required for teachers, the differences in the processes of information transfer and education towards the student, and even the existence of teachers who are not any longer appealed by their work due which has become much simpler due to new technologies and the greater ease in the development of classes due to the criteria described on the new Grade Programs adopted by the European Higher Education Area. Moreover, it is also intended to understand the evolution of students’ profiles, from the eighties to present time, in order to understand certain attitudes, behaviours, accomplishments and acknowledgements acquired over the semesters within the degree Programs. As an Educational Innovation Group, another key question also arises. What will be the learning techniques in the future?. How these evolving matters will affect both positively and negatively on the mentality, attitude, behaviour, learning, achievement of goals and satisfaction levels of all elements involved in universities’ education? Clearly, this evolution from chalk to the electronic board, the three-dimensional view of our works and their sequence, greatly facilitates the understanding and adaptation later on to the business world, but does not answer to the unknowns regarding the knowledge and the full development of achievement’s indicators in basic skills of a degree. This is the underlying question which steers the roots of the presented research.

Resonancias de los paradigmas científicos en las arquitecturas de la Escuela de Madrid

Los años cincuenta y sesenta son los años de la incorporación definitiva de la arquitectura española al panorama internacional. Entre los arquitectos que protagonizan ese salto sin retorno, se encuentra el grupo de aquellos que unos años más tarde serán denominados por Juan Daniel Fullaondo como Escuela de Madrid. Carlos Flores, en su libro Arquitectura Española Contemporánea 1880-1950, se refiere a esos arquitectos como aquellos que se aplicaban a la difícil tarea de restablecer en España un tipo de arquitectura que conectaba con las teorías, soluciones y lenguajes establecidos por Europa durante las primeras décadas del siglo XX. Sigfried Giedion plantea en Espacio, Tiempo y Arquitectura el origen de una nueva tradición, surgida a partir de la revolución óptica de principios de siglo. Con tradición se refiere a una nueva cultura, que abarca la interrelación de las diferentes actividades del hombre: la similitud de los métodos que se usan en la arquitectura, la construcción, la pintura, el urbanismo o la ciencia. Esa novedad, fundamentada en su independencia y desvinculación con el periodo anterior, se inscribe dentro del esquema evolutivo que Thomas Kuhn plantea en su texto La Estructura de la Revoluciones Científicas, conforme a periodos no acumulativos. Kuhn habla del surgimiento de anomalías en cada periodo, origen de las crisis de pensamiento cuya explicación precisará un necesario cambio paradigmático. En la ciencia, en el campo de la óptica Thomas Young demuestra a principios del siglo XIX la naturaleza ondulatoria de la luz con su experimento de doble rendija; en el electromagnetismo se produce el salto conceptual que supone la postulación de la existencia del campo eléctrico por parte de Michael Faraday, y en termodinámica la consideración apuntada por Planck de que la radiación de la energía de produce de forma discreta, a través de cuantos. En las artes plásticas, paralelamente, Gleizes y Metzinger, en su recopilación de logros cubistas recogida en Sobre el Cubismo, hablan de la evolución sufrida durante el siglo XIX por la pintura: desde el idealismo de principios de siglo, para pasando por el realismo y la representación impresionista de la realidad, concluir prescindiendo de la perspectiva clásica. También la matemática, una vez desarrolladas por Gauss o Lobachevsky y Bolyai geometrías coherentes que incumplen el quinto postulado de Euclides, terminará dando validez a través de Riemann a los espacios ambiente en los que habitan dichas geometrías, desvinculando la relación directa entre espacio geométrico –el espacio ambiente al que da lugar un tipo de geometría- y el espacio físico. Capi Corrales refleja en su libro Contando el Espacio, cómo hasta la teoría de la relatividad y el cubismo, las geometrías no euclídeas no se hicieron notorias también fuera del campo de las matemáticas. El origen de la nueva tradición con la que Giedion se refiere a la nueva cultura de la modernidad coincide con los saltos paradigmáticos que suponen la teoría de la relatividad en las ciencias y el cubismo en las artes plásticas. Ambas se prolongan durante las primeras décadas hasta la teoría cuántica y la abstracción absoluta, barreras que los dos principales precursores de la relatividad y el cubismo, Einstein y Picasso, nunca llegan a franquear. En ese sentido Giedion habla también, además del origen, de su desarrollo, e incorpora las aportaciones periféricas en la arquitectura de Brasil, Japón o Finlandia, incluyendo por tanto la revisión orgánica propugnada por Zevi como parte de esa nueva tradición, quedando abierta a la incorporación tardía de nuevas aportaciones al desarrollo de esa cultura de la modernidad. Eliminado el concepto de la estética trascendental de Kant del tiempo como una referencia absoluta, y asumido el valor constante de la velocidad de la luz, para la teoría de la relatividad no existe una simultaneidad auténtica. Queda así fijada la velocidad de la luz como uno de los límites del universo, y la equivalencia entre masa y energía. En el cubismo la simultaneidad espacial viene motivada por la eliminación del punto de vista preferente, cuyo resultado es la multiplicidad descriptiva de la realidad, que se visualiza en la descomposición en planos, tanto del objeto como del espacio, y la consecuente continuidad entre fondo y figura que en arquitectura se refleja en la continuidad entre edificio y territorio. Sin la consideración de un punto de vista absoluto, no existe una forma auténtica. El cubismo, y su posterior desarrollo por las vanguardias plásticas, hacen uso de la geometría como mecanismo de recomposición de la figura y el espacio, adoptando mecanismos de penetración, superposición y transparencia. Gyorgy Kepes indica en El Lenguaje de la Visión que la descomposición cubista del objeto implica la sucesiva autonomía de los planos, hasta convertirse en elementos constituyentes. Algo que refleja las axonometrías arquitectónicas de Van Doesburg y que culmina con los espacios propuestos por Mies van der Rohe en sus primeros proyectos europeos. Estos mecanismos, encuentran eco en los primeros planteamientos de Javier Carvajal: en la ampliación del Panteón de españoles del cementerio de Campo Verano, un recinto virtual reconstruido mentalmente a partir del uso de tres únicos planos; o en el Pabellón de Nueva York, que organiza su planta baja desde el recorrido, introduciendo el parámetro temporal como una dimensión más. Al uso diferenciado del plano como elemento constituyente, Carvajal incorpora su plegado y su disposición conformando envolventes como mecanismo de cualificación espacial y formal, potenciando la prolongación entre arquitectura y territorio. Una continuidad que quedará culminada en las dos viviendas unifamiliares construidas en Somosaguas. La descomposición volumétrica conduce a unos niveles de abstracción que hace precisa la incorporación de elementos de la memoria -fuentes, patios, celosías…- a modo de red de señales, como las que Picasso y Braque introducen en sus cuadros para permitir su interpretación. Braque insiste en el interés por el espacio que rodea a los objetos. Una búsqueda de la tactilidad del espacio contraria a la perspectiva que aleja el objeto del observador, y que en los jardines de las viviendas de Somosaguas parece emanar de su propia materialidad. Un espacio táctil alejado del espacio geométrico y que Braque identifica con el espacio representativo en el que Poincaré, en La Ciencia y la Hipótesis, ubica nuestras sensaciones. Desdibujar los límites del objeto prolonga el espacio indefinidamente. Con el paso en el arte griego del mito al logos, se abre paso a la matemática como herramienta de comprensión de la naturaleza hasta el siglo XIX. Leon Lederman, en Simetría y la Belleza del Universo, apunta a que una de las mayores contribuciones de la teoría de Einstein es hacer cambiar el modo de pensar la naturaleza, orientándolo hacia la búsqueda de los principios de simetría que subyacen bajo las leyes físicas. Considerando que la simetría es la invariancia de un objeto o un sistema frente a una transformación y que las leyes físicas son las mismas en cualquier punto del espacio, el espacio de nuestro universo posee una simetría traslacional continua. En la ocupación del espacio de las primeras propuestas de Corrales y Molezún aparecen estructuras subyacentes que responden a enlosetados: paralelogramos sometidos a transformaciones continuas, que la naturaleza identifica tridimensionalmente con los grupos cristalográficos. Las plantas del museo de Arte Contemporáneo de la Castellana, la residencia de Miraflores, el pabellón de Bruselas o la torre Peugeot pertenecen a este grupo. La arquitectura como proceso de ocupación continua del territorio y de su trasposición al plano de cubierta, se materializa en líneas estructurales coincidentes con la estructura matemática de sus simetrías de traslación cuya posibilidad de prolongación infinita queda potenciada por el uso de la envolvente transparente. Junto a esta transparencia literal, inherente al material, Colin Rowe y Robert Slutzky nos alertan sobre otra transparencia inherente a la estructura: la transparencia fenomenal, ilustrada por los cuadros de Juan Gris, y cuya intuición aparece reflejada en la casa Huarte en Puerta de Hierro de Madrid. Corrales y Molezún insisten en una lectura de su volumetría alejada de la frontalidad, en la que los contornos de sus cubiertas inclinadas y las visuales tangenciales sugeridas por la organización de sus recorridos introducen una estructura diagonal que se superpone al entendimiento ortogonal de su planta, dibujando una intrincada red de líneas quebradas que permiten al espacio fluctuar entre las secuencia volumétrica propuesta. Los datos relativos al contenido energético de la luz y el concepto de átomo parten de la consideración de la emisión de energía en cuantos realizada por Planck, y concluyen con una circunstancia paradójica: la doble naturaleza de la luz -demostrada por la explicación de Einstein del efecto fotoeléctrico- y la doble naturaleza de la materia -asumida por Bohr y demostrada por el efecto Compton-. Schrödinger y Heisenberg formularán finalmente la ecuación universal del movimiento que rige en las ondas de materia, y cuya representación matemática es lo que se conoce como función de onda. El objeto es así identificado con su función de onda. Su ondulatoriedad expresará la probabilidad de encontrarse en un lugar determinado. Gyorgy Kepes subraya la necesidad de simplificar el lenguaje para pasar de la objetividad que aún permanece en la pintura cubista a la abstracción total del espacio. Y es así como los artistas plásticos reducen los objetos a simples formas geométricas, haciendo aflorar a la vez, las fuerzas plásticas que los tensionan o equilibran, en un proceso que acaba por eliminar cualquier atisbo de materia. Robert Rosenblum en La Pintura Moderna y la Tradición del Romanticismo Nórdico habla de cómo ese rechazo de la materia en favor de un vacío casi impalpable, campos luminosos de color denso que difunden un sereno resplandor y parecen engendrar las energías elementales de la luz natural, está directamente vinculado a la relación con la naturaleza que establece el romanticismo nórdico. La expresión de la energía de la naturaleza concentrada en un vacío que ya había sido motivo de reflexión para Michael Faraday en su postulación del concepto de campo eléctrico. Sáenz de Oíza incide en la expresión de la condición material de la energía en su propuesta junto a José Luis Romany para la capilla en el Camino de Santiago. La evocación de diferentes fuerzas electromagnéticas, las únicas junto a las gravitatorias susceptibles de ser experimentadas por el hombre, aparecerán visualizadas también en el carácter emergente de algunas de sus obras: el Santuario de Aránzazu o Torres Blancas; pero también en la naturaleza fluyente de sus contornos, la dispersión perimetral de los espacios -el umbral como centro del universoo la configuración del límite como respuesta a las tensiones germinales de la naturaleza. Miguel Fisac, a la vuelta de su viaje a los países nórdicos, aborda una simplificación lingüística orientada hacia la adecuación funcional de los espacios. En el Instituto de Daimiel, el Instituto de formación del profesorado o los complejos para los Padres Dominicos en Valladolid o Alcobendas, organiza progresivamente la arquitectura en diferentes volúmenes funcionales, incidiendo de un modo paralelo en la manifestación de los vínculos que se establecen entre dichos volúmenes como una visualización de las fuerzas que los tensionan y equilibran. En ellos la prolongación de la realidad física más allá de los límites de la envolvente ya es algo más que una simple intuición. Un proceso en el que el tratamiento de la luz como un material de construcción más, tendrá un especial protagonismo. En la iglesia de la Coronación, la iluminación del muro curvo escenifica la condición ondulatoria de la luz, manifestándose como si de un patrón de interferencia se tratara. Frente a la disolución de lo material, el espacio se manifiesta aquí como un medio denso, alejado de la tradicional noción de vacío. Una doble naturaleza, onda y partícula, que será intuido también por Fisac en la materia a través de su uso comprometido del hormigón como único material de construcción. Richard Feynmann nos alerta de la ocupación del espacio por multitud de fuerzas electromagnéticas que, al igual que la luz, precisan de receptores específicos para captar su presencia. Sus célebres diagramas suponen además la visualización definitiva de los procesos subatómicos. Al igual que la abstracción absoluta en las artes plásticas, esas representaciones diagramáticas no son asimilables a imágenes obtenidas de nuestra experiencia. Una intuición plasmada en el uso del diagrama, que irán adquiriendo progresivamente los dibujos de Alejandro de la Sota. La sección del gimnasio Maravillas recoge los trazos de sus principales elementos constructivos: estructura, cerramientos, compartimentaciones…, pero también, y con la misma intensidad, los de las fuerzas que generan su espacio, considerando así su condición de elementos constituyentes. El vacío, nos deja claro Sota, es el lugar donde habitan dichas tensiones. La posterior simplificación de las formas acompañadas de la obsesión por su aligeramiento, la casi desaparición de la envolvente, incide en aquella idea con la que Paul Klee define la actividad del artista en su Teoría del Arte Moderno, y en la que se transmite el distanciamiento hacia lo aparente: No se trata de reproducir lo visible, se trata de volver visible. Así, en Bankunión y Aviaco, como en tantos otros proyectos, frente al objetivo de la forma, Sota plantea el límite como la acotación de un ámbito de actuación. Su propia representación aséptica y diagramática transmite la renuncia a una especificidad espacial. Gilles Deleuze expresa ese posicionamiento en Pintura, el Concepto de Diagrama: el diagrama como la posibilidad de cuadros infinitos, o la posibilidad infinita de cuadros. Aparece así una concepción probabilística del espacio en la que frente a la renuncia por la forma, la tendencia al aligeramiento, y lo difuso de su definición – ideas claras, definición borrosa, en palabras de Llinás referidas al modo de operar de Sota-, la insistente atención a algunos elementos como escaleras, protecciones o miradores parece trasmitir la idea de que la arquitectura queda condensada en aquellos acontecimientos que delatan su condición dinámica, transitoria. Primando la relación frente al objeto, el vínculo frente a lo tangible. English summary. The fifties and sixties were the years of the final incorporation of Spanish architecture to the international scene. Among the architects who star that no return leap, is the group of those who a few years later will be named by Juan Daniel Fullaondo as Escuela de Madrid. Carlos Flores, in his book Arquitectura Española Contemporánea 1880-1950, refers to those architects as those that applied to the difficult task of restoring in Spain an architecture that connected with theories, solutions and established languages in Europe during the first decades of the twentieth century. Sigfried Giedion proposes in Space, Time and Architecture, the origin of a new tradition, arising from the optical revolution at the beginning of the century. With tradition he refers to a new culture, covering the interplay of different human activities: the similarity of the methods used in architecture, building, painting, urban planning or science. This new feature, based on its independence and detachment from the previous period, is part of the evolutionary scheme that Thomas Kuhn proposes in his text The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, according to non-accumulative periods. Kuhn talks about the emergence of anomalies in each period, origin of thought crisis whose explanation will require a paradigm shift needed. In science, in the field of optical Thomas Young demonstrates at the early nineteenth century the wave nature of light with its double-slit experiment , in electromagnetism the postulation of the existence of the electric field by Michael Faraday involves a conceptual leap, and in thermodynamic, the consideration pointed by Planck about quantum energy radiation. In the arts, in a parallel process, Gleizes and Metzinger , in his collection of cubism achievements on their book Du Cubisme, speak of evolution occurring during the nineteenth century by the painting: from the idealism of beginning of the century, going for realism and impressionist representation of reality, and finishing regardless of the classical perspective . Mathematics also, once developed by Gauss and Lobachevsky and Bolyai consistent geometries that violate Euclid's fifth postulate , will end validating Riemann’s ambient spaces in which these geometries inhabit, decoupling the direct relationship between geometric space -the space environment that results in a type of geometry- , and physical space. Capi Corrales reflectes in his book Contando el Espacio, that non-Euclidean geometries were not noticeable outside the field of mathematics until the theory of relativity and cubism. The origin of the new tradition that Giedion relates to the new culture of modernity coincides with paradigmatic leaps pointed by the theory of relativity in science and Cubism in the visual arts. Both are extended during the first decades until quantum theory and absolute abstraction, barriers that the two main precursors of relativity and cubism, Einstein and Picasso never overcome. In that sense Giedion speaks about the origin, but also the development, and incorporates peripheral inputs from Brazil, Japan and Finland architecture, thus including organic revision advocated by Zevi as part of this new tradition, being open to the late addition of new contributions to the development of that culture of modernity. Removed the concept of Kant's transcendental aesthetics, of time as an absolute reference, and assumed the constant value of the speed of light, theory of relativity says there is no authentic concurrency. It is thus fixed the speed of light as one of the limits of the universe, and the equivalence of mass and energy. In cubism, spatial simultaneity results from the elimination of preferential points of view, resulting in the multiplicity descriptive of reality, which is displayed in decomposition levels, both the object and the space, and the resulting continuity between figure and background that architecture is reflected in the continuity between building and land. Without the consideration of an absolute point of view, there isn’t an authentic shape. Cubism, and its subsequent development by the vanguard arts, make use of geometry as a means of rebuilding the figure and space, taking penetration mechanisms, overlapping and transparency. Gyorgy Kepes suggest in Languaje of Vision, that cubist decomposition of the object involves successive planes autonomy, to become constituent elements. Something that reflects the Van Doesburg’s architectural axonometrics and culminates with the spaces proposed by Mies van der Rohe in his first European projects. These mechanisms are reflected in the first approaches by Javier Carvajal: the extension of Spanish Pantheon in Campo Verano Cemetery, virtual enclosure mentally reconstructed from 24 the use of only three planes, or in the Spanish Pavilion of New York, which organizes its ground floor from the tour, introducing the time parameter as an additional dimension. Carvajal adds to the differential use of the plane as a constituent, Carvajal incorporates its folding and forming enclosures available as a mechanism for spatial and formal qualification, promoting the extension between architecture and territory. A continuity that will be completed in the two houses built in Somosaguas. Volumetric decomposition, as the fragmentation achieved in the last cubist experiences, needs the incorporation of elements of memory - fountains, patios, shutters...- as a network of signals, such as those introduced by Picasso and Braque in their paintings to allow their interpretation. Braque insists in his interest in the space surrounding the objects. A search of the tactility of space contrary to the perspective, which moves the observer away from the object, and that in the gardens of Somosaguas seems to emanate from its own materiality. A tactile space away from the geometric space and Braque identified with the representative space in which Poincaré in La Science et l´hypothèse, located our feelings. To blur those boundaries of the object extends the space indefinitely. With the passage in Greek art from myth to logos, it opens up to mathematics as a tool for understanding the nature until the nineteenth century. Leon Lederman, in Symmetry and beautiful Universe, suggests that one of the greatest contributions of Einstein's theory is to change the mindset of nature, namely the search for symmetry principles that underlie physical laws. Considering that symmetry is the invariance of an object or system from a transformation and that physical laws are the same at any point in space, the space of our universe has a continuous translational symmetry. In the space occupation of the first proposals by Corrales and Molezún underlying structures appear that match enlosetados: parallelograms under continuous transformations, which nature identifies tridimensionally with the crystallographic groups. Plants in the Contemporary Art Museum in La Castellana, the residence in Miraflores, the Brussels pavilion or the Peugeot tower belong to this group. The architecture as a process of continuous occupation of the territory and of its transposition to the deck, embodied in structural lines coincide with the mathematical structure of the translational symmetry and infinite extension whose possibility is enhanced by the use of the transparent cover. Alongside this literal transparency inherent to the material, Colin Rowe and Robert Slutzky alert us another transparency inherent in the structure: phenomenal transparency, illustrated by the Juan Gris’ works, and whose intuition is reflected in the Huarte’s house in Puerta de Hierro in Madrid. Corrales and Molezún insist on a reading of its volume away from the frontal, in which the outline of their inclined roofs and tangential visual suggested by the organization of his circulations introduce a diagonal structure which overlaps the orthogonal understanding of its plant, drawing an intricate web of broken lines that allow the space fluctuate between the volumetric sequence proposal. Information concerning to the energy mean of light and the concept of atom start from the consideration by Plank about the energy emission, and conclude with a paradoxical situation: the dual nature of light - demonstrated by the explanation of Einstein's photoelectric effect-, and the dual nature of matter -assumed by Bohr and demonstrated by the Compton effect-. Finally, Schrödinger and Heisenberg will formulate the universal movement equation governing in undulatory matter, whose mathematical representation is what is known as a wave function. The object is thus identified with its wave function. Its undulatory expression speaks about the probability of being found in a certain place. Gyorgy Kepes emphasizess the need to simplify the language to move from the objectivity that still remains in the cubist painting to the total abstraction of the space. And this is how artists reduced the objects to simple geometric shapes, making emerge at a time, the plastic forces that tense or balance them, in a process that eventually eliminate any trace of matter. Robert Rosenblum in Modern Painting and the Northern Romantic Tradition. Friedrich to Rothko talks about how this rejection of matter in an almost impalpable vacuum: dense color light fields that broadcast a serene glow and seem to generate the elemental energies of natural light is directly linked to the relationship with nature that sets the northern romanticism. An expression of the power of nature concentrated in a vacuum which had been reason for thought by Michael Faraday in his application of the concept of electric field. Saenz de Oíza touches upon the material expression of the energy in its proposal with Jose Luis Romany to the chapel on the Camino de Santiago. The presence of electromagnetic forces, the only ones with the gravitational one capable of being experienced by the man will also visualize in the emerging nature of some of his works: the sanctuary of Aránzazu or Torres Blancas, but also in the flowing nature of its contours, and the inclusion of interest in the realization of space fluctuating boundary: the threshold as the center of the universe. Miguel Fisac, back from his trip to the Northern Countries, starts on a linguistic simplification oriented to the functional adequacy of spaces. In the Daimiel Institute, in the Institute to Teacher Formation or in the complex to the Dominican Fathers in Valladolid or Alcobendas, progressively organized into different functional volumes architecture, focusing in a parallel way in the manifestation of the links established between these volumes as a visualization of the forces that tense and balance them. The prolongation of the physical reality beyond the limits of the envelope is already something more than a simple intuition. A process in which the treatment of light as a construction material, have a special role. In the Coronation church, curved wall lighting dramatizes the undulatory condition of the light, manifesting as if an interference pattern is involved. Versus the dissolution of the material, the space is expressed here as a dense atmosphere, away from the traditional notion of the vacuum. A dual nature, wave and particle, which is also sensed by Fisac in his committed use of concrete as a unique construction material. Richard Feynman alerts us to the occupation of space by many electromagnetic forces, which like the light, require specific receptors to capture their presence. His famous diagrams also involve the final visualization of atomic processes. As absolute abstraction in the visual arts, these representations are not assimilated to images obtained from our experience. A diagrammatic nature, abstracted from figuration, which will obtein the pictures of Alejandro de la Sota. The section of Maravillas gym collects traces of its main building blocks: structure, enclosures... but also, and with the same intensity, of the forces that generate their space as constituent elements. Sota makes it clear: the vacuum is where inhabit these tensions. The subsequent simplification of forms, accompanied by the obsession with his lightening, the near disappearance of the envelope, touches upon that idea which Paul Klee defines the activity of the artist in his Modern Art Theory, the spacing out to the apparent: it is not to reproduce the visible, it is to turn visible. Thus, in Bankunión and Aviaco, as in many other projects, against the shape, raises the limit as the dimension of a scope. His own aseptic and diagrammatic representation transmits waiver to a spatial specificity that Gilles Deleuze clearly expressed in Painting. The Concept Diagram: The diagram as the possibility of infinite pictures, or infinite possibility of the picture. Thus appears the probabilistic concept of space in which, opposite to the diffuse of its definition -clear ideas, diffuse definition, as Llinas said- the insistent attention to some elements like stairs, guards or lookouts seems to concentrate the architecture in its dynamic condition, transitional. The relationship opposite the object, the link opposite the tangible.

Understanding landscape and the values of traditional architecture and construction

Ponencia presentada en el congreso internacional organizado por el Comité Internacional de Arquitectura Vernácula de ICOMOS - UNESCO.

The nature of gypsum mortars for external rendering in Spain. Traditional manufacture and mineralogy

The present work focuses on gypsum mortar manufactu red in traditional kilns and used historically as exterior rendering. A documentation survey has been carried out followed by an experimental analysis using geological techniques. Conclusion shows that traditional gypsum is formed by anhydrite and inert active impurities (crystalline amorphous silica; cl ays and hydraulic phases) produced by the craft manufacture process of the system, in a kiln with a 200ºC to 1000ºC temperature interval, and continuo us fuel supply during 36 hours. Anhydrite together wit h the hydraulic phases set at consecutive time peri ods and with the presence of moisture improve the physi cal and mechanical properties of the final product. The hydration system is of great complexity and sho ws a very slow kinetics when in presence of impurities

Genetic characterization of chestnut (Castanea sativa Mill.) orchards and traditional nut varieties in El Bierzo, a glacial refuge and major cultivation site in Northwestern Spain

This paper presents a detailed genetic study of Castanea sativa in El Bierzo, a major nut production region with interesting features. It is located within a glacial refuge at one extreme of the distribution area (northwest Spain); it has a centenary tradition of chestnut management; and more importantly, it shows an unusual degree of genetic isolation. Seven nuclear microsatellite markers were selected to analyze the genetic variability and structure of 169 local trees grafted for nut production. We analyzed in the same manner 62 local nuts. The selected loci were highly discriminant for the genotypes studied, giving a combined probability of identity of 6.1 × 10−6. An unprecedented density of trees was sampled for this project over the entire region, and nuts were collected representing 18 cultivars marketed by local producers. Several instances of misclassification by local growers were detected. Fixation index estimates and analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) data are supportive of an unexpectedly high level of genetic differentiation in El Bierzo, larger than that estimated in a previous study with broader geographical scope but based on limited local sampling (Pereira-Lorenzo et al., Tree Genet Genomes 6: 701–715, 2010a). Likewise, we have determined that clonality due to grafting had been previously overestimated. In line with these observations, no significant spatial structure was found using both a model-based Bayesian procedure and Mantel’s tests. Taken together, our results evidence the need for more fine-scale genetic studies if conservation strategies are to be efficiently improved.

The Spreading of Christianity and the introduction of Modern Architecture in Shannxi, China (1840-1949): Christian churches and traditional Chinese architecture

La arquitectura china ha experimentado grandes cambios a lo largo de un extenso proceso histórico. El hito de mayor importancia es el que da paso al denominado Tiempo Moderno, periodo en el cual irrumpe por vez primera en China la arquitectura occidental, que comienza a tener una influencia muy activa y significativa sobre los rasgos y la identidad de la arquitectura tradicional china, hasta ese momento el único estilo o forma de hacer –muy diferente, en cuanto a su concepción y fisonomía, de los planteamientos occidentales- que había sobrevivido sin desvíos significativos, configurando un panorama milenario bastante homogéneo en los aspectos técnicos y artísticos en el desarrollo de esa arquitectura. Por un cúmulo de complejas razones, la mayor parte de la arquitectura china del periodo feudal -es decir el que forman todos los años anteriores a 1849- ha desaparecido. Sin embargo, desde la fecha indicada hasta la Revolución de 1949 (el denominado periodo semicolonial o semifeudal), sí se conservan muchas edificaciones, que fueron mejor construidas y mantenidas luego, destacando por su importancia en ese sentido las iglesias cristianas. Dichos templos representan cronológicamente, no sólo la primera irrupción de la arquitectura clásica occidental en China, sino el inicio de un proceso de modernización de la profundamente enraizada y, en buena medida, estancada arquitectura vernácula, combinando técnicas y estilos de ambos planteamientos, para dar como resultado originales edificaciones de un singular eclecticismo que caracterizarían buena parte de la arquitectura de dicha etapa semicolonial. En términos generales, últimamente se ha ido prestando cada vez más atención a esta arquitectura de los tiempos modernos, aunque las iglesias cristianas de la provincia de Shaanxi no han sido objeto de estudio específico, a pesar de que su tipología es muy representativa de las construcciones de esta clase en otras regiones del interior de China. La investigación que desarrolla la presente tesis doctoral sale al paso de esa deficiencia, abriendo puertas a la continuación del trabajo referido, extendido a otras zonas o arquitecturas, y, por extensión, a la profundización analítica de la hibridación arquitectónica y cultural entre China y Occidente. Sobre las bases de investigación documental, estudios de campo y dibujo, la tesis plantea un estudio aclaratorio de los rasgos y raíces de la arquitectura tradicional china, al que sigue otro histórico y tipológico de los templos cristianos en la provincia de Shaanxi, deteniéndose en sus características fundamentales, situación (uso) actual y estado de conservación. Se ha considerado imprescindible añadir al trabajo, como apéndice, un elaborado glosario conceptual ilustrado de términos básicos arquitectónicos y constructivos, en chino, inglés y español. ABSTRACT The Chinese architecture has gone through great changes during the long process of history. The tremendous changing period was the named Modern Times of China when, for the very first time, the western architecture was introduced into China and became to influence majorly on the traditional Chinese architecture. Before that, the traditional Chinese architecture which has its own, yet totally different system from the occidental architecture system was the only architectural style could be found in China. Although, due to many historical, conceptual and architectural characteristic reasons, large amount of the ancient Chinese architecture built in the feudal China was not preserved, there are a lot of buildings of semi-feudal China that was well constructed and conserved. The most important architectural type of the semi-feudal China is the Christian Churches. It was not only the first western architectural form that was brought into and well developed in China, but also was the beginner of the modernization process of Chinese architecture. Because of the deep root of the 2000-year traditional Chinese architecture, all the Christian Churches built in China during the semi-colonial society has a combined style of both the traditional Chinese architecture and the classic western churches. They are a priceless asset of the Chinese architectural history. Recently, more and more attention had been paid on the Chinese Modern Times architecture, however, the Christian Churches in Shaanxi Province, the province which has a unique history with the Christian, but less economically developed have never been researched yet. The Christian Churches of Shaanxi Province reflect the general feature of developing history of the Christian Churches of common inner-land regions in China. The research opens the door to further study on other Christian Churches and related buildings, and also for the further study on the Chinese-western architectural and culture communication. On the base of document research, field survey and mapping, in this thesis, an in-depth study had been done on the general history of the features and roots of the traditional Chinese architecture, the developing history of the Christian Churches of Shaanxi Province and the architectural types, examples, characteristics, present situation and conservation status. By comparing the Christian Churches of the cities in Shaanxi province to the Christian Churches in other more developed cities, and by comparing the Christian Churches in China to the classic western churches, the architectural combination feature of the Christian Churches in China are highlighted. The thesis is a fundamental research on which many further studies about the architectural developing history, characteristics and conservation of the Christian Churches in China could be done. It is considered essential to add to the work, as an appendix, an elaborate conceptual illustrated glossary of architectural and construction terms in Chinese, English and Spanish.

Influencia del tratamiento "a fuego" en las características del estuco tradicional con cal = Influence of treatment "by fire" in the characteristics of traditional lime stucco

Esta investigación avanza en el intento de recuperar la técnica tradicional del estuco a fuego, paradigma de la decoración de espacios interiores hasta la mitad del s. XX por sus imitaciones marmóreas de gran calidad. Para ejecutarlos se utilizaban morteros de cal con áridos de mármol, pigmentos minerales y grasas; con estos materiales se preparaban y tendían las masas, se pintaban al fresco y se terminaban con el paso de una herramienta metálica caliente. Como sucede con otras técnicas, el paso del tiempo ha difuminado los conocimientos sobre la materia, haciendo muy difícil la conservación o restauración de los ejemplos en nuestro patrimonio. A partir de la escasa bibliografía existente se ha recuperado el proceso, sometiendo las muestras elaboradas a diferentes ensayos que han caracterizado el acabado final,tanto en sus características intrínsecas como en las que le son conferidas al proteger finalmente las muestras con una capa de cera, tal y como se realizaba tradicionalmente.---ABSTRACT---This research advances in the attempt to recover the traditional technique of stucco by fire; paradigm of indoor decoration until half of 20th century due to its high quality marbled imitations. On its implementation process, it was used lime mortars with marble aggregates, mineral pigments and greases. With these materials, masses were prepared and extended into the walls, they were painted in fresco and ended with the passage of a heated metal tool. As with any other technique, the time passing over has blurred the knowledge on the subject, making very difficult the preservation or restoration of examples in our heritage. Despite of the limited literature, the process has been recovered; subjecting the samples prepared at different trials that have characterized the finished, both in its merits and its conferred characteristics by finally protecting the samples with a layer of wax, as was done traditionally.

Combine use of Selected Schizosaccharomyces pombe and Lachancea thermotolerans Yeast Strains as an Alternative to the Traditional Malolactic Fermentation in Red Wine Production

Most red wines commercialized in the market use the malolactic fermentationprocess in order to ensure stability from a microbiological point of view. In this secondfermentation, malic acid is converted into L-lactic acid under controlled setups. Howeverthis process is not free from possible collateral effects that on some occasions produceoff-flavors, wine quality loss and human health problems. In warm viticulture regions suchas the south of Spain, the risk of suffering a deviation during the malolactic fermentationprocess increases due to the high must pH. This contributes to produce wines with highvolatile acidity and biogenic amine values. This manuscript develops a new red winemakingmethodology that consists of combining the use of two non-Saccharomyces yeast strains asan alternative to the traditional malolactic fermentation. In this method, malic acid is totallyconsumed by Schizosaccharomyces pombe, thus achieving the microbiological stabilizationobjective, while Lachancea thermotolerans produces lactic acid in order not to reduce andeven increase the acidity of wines produced from low acidity musts. This technique reducesthe risks inherent to the malolactic fermentation process when performed in warm regions.The result is more fruity wines that contain less acetic acid and biogenic amines than thetraditional controls that have undergone the classical malolactic fermentation.

Dinámicas de ocupación urbana del Anillo Verde metropolitano, desde sus orígenes en el Plan General del Área Metropolitana de Madrid de 1963 hasta el Plan General de Ordenación Urbana de 1997

El Anillo Verde metropolitano, definido por el Plan General de Ordenación Urbana del Área Metropolitana de Madrid en 1963 siguiendo los modelos planteados por la cultura urbanística internacional, como armadura de la estructura urbana del AMM, espacio protagonista dentro del sistema de espacios libres, lugar de uso público destinado al recreo y contacto con la naturaleza de la población madrileña, se convierte en realidad en una reserva de suelo que va entrando en juego motivado por las alianzas entre el poder institucional y la clase social dominante actuando al margen del planeamiento, poniendo en evidencia la escasez de recursos legales y culturales disponibles para la salvaguarda de los intereses comunes y, donde los condicionantes geográficos y naturales del territorio madrileño han influido decisivamente en la especialización funcional y espacial del Área Metropolitana de Madrid. Así pues considerando esta idea como HIPÓTESIS, el objetivo de la TESIS sería demostrarla, para lo cual se hace necesario primero, acotar espacial y temporalmente el objeto de estudio, es decir, del Anillo Verde metropolitano1, segundo, contextualizar histórica y disciplinarmente los presupuestos teóricos que conformaban la idea del Anillo Verde, tercero, reconocer, localizar y documentar las piezas que han ido materializando la ocupación urbana del Anillo Verde, clasificándolas según parámetros temporales, funcionales, urbanísticos y, formales, lo que permite analizar la geografía, uso, instrumentación y forma de su transformación a escala general metropolitana y, cuarto, profundizar a modo de comprobación a escala municipal y urbana en dos escenarios representativos del conjunto metropolitano: el municipio de Pozuelo de Alarcón y el distrito de Hortaleza-Barajas. El contenido del documento se divide en tres bloques, el bloque I, se centra en las bases teóricas, el bloque II sitúa el hilo argumental de la tesis a escala metropolitana y el bloque III comprueba el fenómeno a escala municipal y urbana. De esta forma, se comienza por la comprensión del significado del concepto del Anillo Verde, que va más allá de la dimensión instrumental asignada de límite y contención urbana frente al crecimiento de la ciudad industrial de principios del siglo XX, basada en la descentralización de la ciudad tradicional, para adquirir un significado más complejo, como gran espacio de reserva y salvaguarda de valores naturales y culturales que se expresaban en su territorio y que permitirían alcanzar el equilibrio entre la ciudad y sus habitantes, es decir, entre el hombre y el espacio que habita. Se hace un recorrido por las principales corrientes urbanísticas que se van nutriendo de distintas disciplinas (economía, sociología, geografía, biología, ecología) para plantear teorías que permitieran materializar un nuevo orden urbano según principios de equidad social, económica y ambiental, en una secuencia donde Europa y Estados Unidos realizaban un constante intercambio -el movimiento de la Ciudad Jardín o el Regionalismo, que dieron paso a propuestas como el Greater London o el Gran Berlín, donde la figura del Anillo Verde tenía un papel protagonista, y del que también participaría nuestro país y la ciudad de Madrid, con modelos regionales como el Plan Besteiro y urbanos como el Plan Bidagor, antecedentes directos del Plan General de Ordenación Urbana del Área Metropolitana de Madrid de 1963 que pone en marcha la ordenación del crecimiento metropolitano de Madrid. El hilo argumental de la tesis se organiza en una doble aproximación: un acercamiento a escala metropolitana a partir del reconocimiento del modelo de ciudad definido en los distintos planes generales que acompañaron el desarrollo metropolitano (municipio de Madrid y de los siete términos municipales que rodeaban a este y que tenían suelo destinado a Anillo Verde), haciendo referencia además a las relaciones con el planeamiento regional, concretando en una escala de aproximación municipal que avanza hasta la interpretación urbana detallada. El primer acercamiento tiene lugar en el bloque II y se organiza en tres capítulos. El capítulo 4 se dedica al punto obligado de partida de la geografía local, describiendo las características biofísicas de los terrenos que formaban parte del Anillo Verde, que han marcado históricamente la forma de aprovechamiento del territorio, desde las extensiones de bosques mediterráneos al norte y al oeste continuación del Monte del Pardo, a los distintos tipos de cultivo que se adaptaban al sustrato geológico y la forma del terreno (de las suaves ondulaciones de sedimentos arcósicos al norte a las extensas plataformas arenosas y yesíferas del sur), además de las zonas de huertos aprovechando las depresiones y los cursos de agua (arroyo del Monte Carmelo, arroyo de Valdebebas, arroyo del Quinto, arroyo del Santo, arroyo Butarque, arroyo Meaques y arroyo Pozuelo). Una vez reconocida la realidad física, el capítulo 5, avanza en la descripción de los distintos modelos de ciudad propuestos desde el planeamiento urbanístico, en sus distintas escalas, la regional y la municipal, como respuesta a la coyuntura social, económica y política que ha caracterizado el proceso de ocupación del Anillo Verde al compás de la construcción del AMM. Se han reunido las propuestas de planeamiento municipal de los distintos municipios que disponían de terreno calificado como Anillo Verde: Madrid, Coslada, Getafe, Leganés, Alcorcón, Boadilla del Monte y Pozuelo de Alarcón. Además se han incorporado las distintas propuestas de ordenación territorial que han servido de referencia al planeamiento municipal, en todas sus versiones, desde las sectoriales, de mayor éxito y apoyo institucional, a los distintos intentos de ordenación integral, de mayor complejidad pero de menor calado, precisamente por la dificultad de consenso entre la ordenación física y el desarrollo económico, entre los intereses privados y el beneficio público. El primer horizonte, comienza con la formulación del Plan General de Ordenación Urbana del Área Metropolitana de Madrid de 1963, su desarrollo y la puesta en marcha de los primeros planes municipales en la década de los años setenta, donde se comprueba la necesidad de un marco regional que “ordene” el territorio de forma integral y sirva de referencia a las actuaciones sectoriales que habían marcado el primer desarrollo metropolitano. El segundo, se sitúa dos décadas más tarde con la aprobación del Plan General de Ordenación Urbana de Madrid de 1985 y el conjunto de planes municipales de los términos limítrofes, que siguen su filosofía de austeridad en cuanto a crecimiento territorial. El tercero se inicia en 1997 con la siguiente generación de planes de corte neoliberal que imponen un modelo territorial basado en las grandes operaciones metropolitanas de centralidad, infraestructuras y equipamiento, que consumen de forma indiscriminada la totalidad del territorio madrileño. Será en el último capítulo del segundo bloque (capítulo 6) donde se represente gráficamente a escala metropolitana y se analicen las 229 piezas que han ido colmatando el espacio destinado a Anillo Verde, según los parámetros de estudio, en base a las cuales se plantean las primeras conclusiones generales de la tesis, poniendo de manifiesto que las alianzas entre los agentes soberanos en la construcción de la ciudad y su entorno han trasgredido sucesivamente las determinaciones del Planeamiento en su definición de modelo de ciudad y territorio, acusando la carencia de recursos instrumentales y jurídicos que alentaron el proceso de su desmantelamiento, y revelando la influencia de los condicionantes geográficos y naturales en la especialización funcional y segregación social en el conjunto del Área Metropolitana de Madrid. Se remata el discurso metropolitano con una batería de conclusiones que interpretan el fenómeno de ocupación del anillo de verdor metropolitano confirmando las hipótesis iniciales, reconociendo los valores medioambientales y culturales trasgredidos, sus diversos actores, las numerosas operaciones urbanísticas desarrolladas con distintos usos y envergadura, así como los instrumentos de planeamiento utilizados, en base a las cuales se materializa la construcción del AMM según un modelo extendido (spread), dibujando una mancha de aceite (o grase-spots según Geddes) que precisamente había querido evitarse desde el planeamiento urbanístico con la definición de un Anillo Verde, espacio inmune a la edificación, que se aleja de su papel estructurante (equilibrador entre la ciudad y sus habitantes) para convertirse en armadura de la estructura comunicativa, que una vez consolidada se convierte en la mejor aliada de la máquina inmobiliaria. El último paso, se desarrolla en el bloque III que se divide en los capítulo 7,8 y 9 y supone la comprobación de lo descrito en el conjunto de escala metropolitana, en dos aspectos fundamentales, la falta de consideración por los valores culturales y medioambientales que han modelado el territorio, imprimiéndole un carácter singular y específico y, la estructura del dominio del suelo, donde se reconoce de forma precisa el grupo social y los agentes encargados en cada momento de comercializar los suelos del anillo, que bajo el paraguas de la urgencia social y el engañoso beneficio popular, obtienen importantes beneficios económicos. Con esa intención, se da un salto hacia la escala municipal y urbana, seleccionando dos escenarios de estudio, el municipio de Pozuelo de Alarcón, que representa la materialización del crecimiento suburbano de la élite madrileña ocupando las zonas de mayor valor ecológico del anillo, y el distrito de Hortaleza-Barajas que ofrece su territorio a las grandes operaciones metropolitanas, apoyándose en el eje de actividad marcado por la conexión Madrid-Barcelona y el sistema aeroportuario de escala global, ambos situados al norte de la línea de borde entre la Sierra y la Mancha, ocupando por tanto los lugares más valiosos de la geografía madrileña (estructura funcional anticipada por Bidagor en 1946 en su modelo de ciudad adaptada al territorio madrileño) Una vez descrito este proceso trasgresor de límites, de normas, de conductas, y desde una perspectiva del fenómeno suficientemente documentada, en el capítulo 10, se realiza una reflexión sobre la incidencia real de la propuesta urbanística del Anillo Verde en la construcción del AMM, de la misma forma que se sugieren nuevos roles al planeamiento en un formato intencionado de largo recorrido en oposición a lo inmediato y circunstancial, que permita hacer una nueva lectura de los presupuestos teóricos que conformaban la idea del Anillo Verde, espacio articulador (medioambiental, social y cultural) del territorio madrileño. ABSTRACT The Metropolitan Greenbelt was defined by the 1963 Master Plan for the Madrid Metropolitan Area (MMA), following established international models of urban development, as the structural framework of the MMA, the principal open space within its network of open spaces and a public area of recreation and contact with nature for the residents of Madrid. In reality, however, it ha become a reserve of land in which various alliances between the institutional authorities and the dominant social class have been operating on the margin of the original plan, exposing a scarcity of legal and cultural resources for the safeguarding of common interests, and in which the geographical and natural characteristics of the territory itself have come to play an influential role in the functional specialization and spatial segregation of the MMA. With that idea as its HYPOTHESIS, the aim of this THESIS is to demonstrate its reality. The first step in this is to delineate, temporally and spatially, the object of study; i.e. the Metropolitan Greenbelt2. The second is to contextualize historically and disciplinarily those theoretical ideas which conform to the greenbelt concept. The third is to acknowledge, locate and document the elements which have characterized the urban occupation of the Greenbelt and classify these according to the parameters of time, function, urban development and form, which in turn would enable the geography, use, instrumentation and form of its transformation to be analysed on a general metropolitan scale. The fourth step, as a method of verification, is an in-depth analysis of two representative settings within the metropolitan network: the municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcón and the Hortaleza-Barajas district. The content of the document is divided into three parts. Part I focuses on the study’s theoretical foundations, Part II establishes a line of argument at the metropolitan level and Part III examines the phenomenon from a municipal and urban perspective. The thesis, then, begins with a study of the greenbelt concept itself and its meaning, which is far more complex than the accepted instrumental dimension of limiting and containing urbanization in response to the growth of the industrial city of the early 20th century, and which is based on a decentralization of the traditional city. This wider purpose is the setting aside of a large reserved space to safeguard the natural and cultural values of the region and thereby achieve a balance between the city and its residents; that is to say, between man and the space he inhabits. The principal currents of thought in urban planning will then be examined. These have drawn upon a variety of disciplines (economics, sociology, geography, biology, ecology) to develop theories for establishing a new urban order according to the principles of social, economic and environmental equity, and have involved a constant interchange between Europe and the United States. Thus, the City Garden and Regionalist movements would clear the way for proposals such as Greater London and Great Berlin, Chicago and Washington, in which the greenbelt would play a fundamental role. The participation of our own country and the city of Madrid is also discussed, through regional models such as the Besteiro Plan and urban ones like the Bidagor Plan, direct forerunners of 1963’s General Organizational Plan for the Madrid Metropolitan Area, which would set into motion the organization of Madrid’s metropolitan growth. The line of argument followed in this thesis is two-fold: first, an examination of metropolitan development in keeping with the city model as defined in the various General Plans for the development of both the municipality of Madrid and the seven surrounding municipalities which have land designated for its Greenbelt; and second, an examination of this growth in relation to Regional Planning measures, is detailed on a smaller scale (municipal and district), where the conditioning factors affecting the land property structure and the network of biophysical units may be analysed in depth. The first of these is dealt with in Part II and organized into three chapters (4, 5 and 6). Chapter 4 is dedicated to the obligatory starting point of the geographical setting itself. The biophysical characteristics of the territories set aside for the Greenbelt, and which historically have played a role in the area’s exploitation, are described here. These range from expanses of Mediterranean woodland to the north and west of Monte del Pardo to the various types of farmland that have been adapted to the geological substratum and the contours of the terrain (gentle undulations of arkosic sediment in the north, and wide sandy and gypsiferous tableland in the south), as well as orchards planted in low valleys and along watercourses (the creeks of Monte Carmelo, Valdebebas, Quinto, Santo, Butarque, Meaques and Pozuelo). Once this physical reality ha been detailed, in Chapter 5 will examine the various city models proposed by urban planners, both regionally and municipally, in response to the confluence of social, economic and political interests that have characterized the process of occupation in the Greenbelt area during the construction of the MMA. Municipal planning proposals will be collected and examined for the various municipalities which have land designated for the Greenbelt: Madrid, Coslada, Getafe, Leganés, Alcorcón, Boadilla del Monte and Pozuelo de Alarcón. Furthermore, the various territorial organization proposals which have served as references for municipal planning will also be addressed here, in all of their versions –from the sectorial, which have met with more success and institutional approval, to the many attempts at integration, which have been more complex but less influential, precisely for the difficulty of reconciling physical organization with economic development, and private interest with public benefit. The first period in this process was the development of the General Plan of 1963, followed by the first municipal development plans of the 1970s, in which the need for a regional framework that “organized” the territory in an integral fashion was defined. This would serve as a reference for the sectorial actions that marked the metropolitan area’s initial development. The second came two decades later with the approval of the General Plan of 1985, and the network of municipal plans for the surrounding communities, which followed the same philosophy of austerity with regard to territorial growth. The third would begin to take form in 1997, as a new generation of neo-liberal development plans imposed a territorial model based on centralized large-scale metropolitan operations of infrastructure and equipment, which would indiscriminately consume the totality of Madrid’s land. At the end of the Part II, in Chapter 6, the metropolitan area will be represented graphically and the 229 pieces that have been gradually encroaching upon land designated for the Greenbelt will be analysed. This analysis will be carried out according to the parameters defined for the study, and the first general conclusions of the thesis will be based on its findings. It will show how alliances between the various governing authorities in the construction of the city and its environment have successively violated established plans with regard to the definitions of city and territory, how shortages of instrumental and judicial resources have accentuated the dismantling process, and how natural and geographical factors have influenced functional specialization and social segregation in the Madrid Metropolitan Area. The final step, detailed in Part III, will address two fundamental aspects of what has just been described: the lack of consideration for the cultural and environmental values which have shaped this territory and imprinted upon it a specific and unique character; and the structure of land domination, with a precise identification of the social group and agents responsible at each stage of the Greenbelt’s commercialization, who, under an umbrella of social urgency and deceptive public benefit, have used it to obtain substantial financial rewards. For this purpose, a closer look is taken at two specific areas: the municipality of Pozuelo de Alarcón, representative of the suburban growth of an elite population which has occupied the Greenbelt areas of the greatest ecological value; and the Hortaleza-Barajas district, which has offered its territory to large metropolitan business interests, based on activities centred on the connection between Madrid and Barcelona and the system of international air travel. Both of these settings are located to the north of the line which divides the Sierra from La Mancha, and thus occupy the most valuable land in the Madrid region (a functional structure anticipated by Bidagor in 1946, with his city model adapted to the territory of Madrid). Finally, an attempt will be made to interpret the phenomenon of metropolitan Greenbelt occupation, confirming initial hypotheses, specifying the environmental and cultural values that have been violated, and identifying the various players involved, as well as numerous urbanization operations of varying sizes and interests, and the instruments of planning they have used. It will be seen from this that the construction of the MMA has in fact followed a “spread” model, a “grease spot” (as Geddes calls it) which, from the outset of the planning process and according to the definition of a greenbelt as a construction-free zone, was precisely to be avoided. This structural role (to provide a balance between a city and its residents) has thus been abandoned and the Greenbelt converted instead into a communicative framework which, once consolidated, has become the greatest ally of the real estate machine. After this process of violating limits, norms and established behaviour has been described and solidly documented, a reflection will be made on the real influence of the Greenbelt proposal in the construction of the MMA. At the same time, new roles will be suggested for future planning, roles which are deliberate and long term, in opposition to the immediate and circumstantial. This will enable a new interpretation of the theoretical principles behind the greenbelt concept, a space designed to connect the territory of Madrid environmentally, socially and culturally.

High-Performance and Traditional Multicrystalline Silicon: Comparing Gettering Responses and Lifetime-Limiting Defects

In recent years, high-performance multicrystalline silicon (HPMC-Si) has emerged as an attractive alternative to traditional ingot-based multicrystalline silicon (mc-Si), with a similar cost structure but improved cell performance. Herein, we evaluate the gettering response of traditional mc-Si and HPMC-Si. Microanalytical techniques demonstrate that HPMC-Si and mc-Si share similar lifetime-limiting defect types but have different relative concentrations and distributions. HPMC-Si shows a substantial lifetime improvement after P-gettering compared with mc-Si, chiefly because of lower area fraction of dislocation-rich clusters. In both materials, the dislocation clusters and grain boundaries were associated with relatively higher interstitial iron point-defect concentrations after diffusion, which is suggestive of dissolving metal-impurity precipitates. The relatively fewer dislocation clusters in HPMC-Si are shown to exhibit similar characteristics to those found in mc-Si. Given similar governing principles, a proxy to determine relative recombination activity of dislocation clusters developed for mc-Si is successfully transferred to HPMC-Si. The lifetime in the remainder of HPMC-Si material is found to be limited by grain-boundary recombination. To reduce the recombination activity of grain boundaries in HPMC-Si, coordinated impurity control during growth, gettering, and passivation must be developed.

Early human occupation of Western Europe: Paleomagnetic dates for two paleolithic sites in Spain

The lacustrine deposits infilling the intramontane Guadix-Baza Basin, in the Betic Range of Southern Spain, have yielded abundant well-preserved lithic artifacts. In addition, the lake beds contain a wide range of micromammals including Mimomys savini and Allophaiomys burgondiae and large mammals such as Mammuthus and Hippopotamus together with the African saber-toothed felid Megantereon. The association of the lithic artifacts along with the fossil assemblages, themselves of prime significance in the Eurasian mammal biochronology, is providing new insight into the controversy of the human settlement in Southern Europe. Despite the importance of the artifacts and fossil assemblage, estimates of the geological age of the site are still in conflict. Some attempts at dating the sediments have included biochronology, uranium series, amino acid racemization, and stratigraphic correlation with other well-dated sections in the basin, but so far have failed to yield unambiguous ages. Here we present paleomagnetic age dating at the relevant localities and thus provide useful age constraints for this critical paleoanthropological and mammal site. Our data provide firm evidence for human occupation in Southern Europe in the Lower Pleistocene, around 1 mega-annum ago. The current view of when and how hominids first dispersed into Europe needs to be reevaluated.