From foot-draggers to strategic counter-partners : the dynamics of U.S. and Chinese policies for tackling climate change

As can been seen from the U.S.'s non-ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, together with the negotiations toward the post-Kyoto Protocol framework, the U.S. and China have been quarrelling over their responsibilities and have contradicted one another over the introduction of compulsory domestic greenhouse gases emission reduction targets. Therefore, for a long time, it has been argued that the controversy between the two countries has hindered the process of forging an international agreement to deal with climate change. On the other hand, Sino-U.S. bilateral cooperation on climate change has significantly increased in recent years in summit talks and their Strategic & Economic Dialogue (S&ED), especially after the 15th Conference of Parties (COP) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Copenhagen, one of whose aims was to facilitate positive negotiations for the post-Kyoto Protocol agreement. Analyzing this in the light of recent developments, we find that the U.S. and China have tended to address climate change and related issues from a pluralistic viewpoint and approach, by regarding the achievement of bilateral cooperation and global agreements as their common strategic objective.

Inter-Packet Symbol Approach To Reed-Solomon FEC Codes For RTP-Multimedia Stream Protection

This paper presents an alternative Forward Error Correction scheme, based on Reed-Solomon codes, with the aim of protecting the transmission of RTP-multimedia streams: the inter-packet symbol approach. This scheme is based on an alternative bit structure that allocates each symbol of the Reed-Solomon code in several RTP-media packets. This characteristic permits to exploit better the recovery capability of Reed-Solomon codes against bursty packet losses. The performance of our approach has been studied in terms of encoding/decoding time versus recovery capability, and compared with other proposed schemes in the literature. The theoretical analysis has shown that our approach allows the use of a lower size of the Galois Fields compared to other solutions. This lower size results in a decrease of the required encoding/decoding time while keeping a comparable recovery capability. Finally, experimental results have been carried out to assess the performance of our approach compared to other schemes in a simulated environment, where models for wireless and wireline channels have been considered.

PDR with a foot-mounted IMU and ramp detection

The localization of persons in indoor environments is nowadays an open problem. There are partial solutions based on the deployment of a network of sensors (Local Positioning Systems or LPS). Other solutions only require the installation of an inertial sensor on the person’s body (Pedestrian Dead-Reckoning or PDR). PDR solutions integrate the signals coming from an Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU), which usually contains 3 accelerometers and 3 gyroscopes. The main problem of PDR is the accumulation of positioning errors due to the drift caused by the noise in the sensors. This paper presents a PDR solution that incorporates a drift correction method based on detecting the access ramps usually found in buildings. The ramp correction method is implemented over a PDR framework that uses an Inertial Navigation algorithm (INS) and an IMU attached to the person’s foot. Unlike other approaches that use external sensors to correct the drift error, we only use one IMU on the foot. To detect a ramp, the slope of the terrain on which the user is walking, and the change in height sensed when moving forward, are estimated from the IMU. After detection, the ramp is checked for association with one of the existing in a database. For each associated ramp, a position correction is fed into the Kalman Filter in order to refine the INS-PDR solution. Drift-free localization is achieved with positioning errors below 2 meters for 1,000-meter-long routes in a building with a few ramps.

Accurate pedestrian indoor navigation by tightly coupling foot-mounted IMU and RFID measurements

We present a new method to accurately locate persons indoors by fusing inertial navigation system (INS) techniques with active RFID technology. A foot-mounted inertial measuring units (IMUs)-based position estimation method, is aided by the received signal strengths (RSSs) obtained from several active RFID tags placed at known locations in a building. In contrast to other authors that integrate IMUs and RSS with a loose Kalman filter (KF)-based coupling (by using the residuals of inertial- and RSS-calculated positions), we present a tight KF-based INS/RFID integration, using the residuals between the INS-predicted reader-to-tag ranges and the ranges derived from a generic RSS path-loss model. Our approach also includes other drift reduction methods such as zero velocity updates (ZUPTs) at foot stance detections, zero angular-rate updates (ZARUs) when the user is motionless, and heading corrections using magnetometers. A complementary extended Kalman filter (EKF), throughout its 15-element error state vector, compensates the position, velocity and attitude errors of the INS solution, as well as IMU biases. This methodology is valid for any kind of motion (forward, lateral or backward walk, at different speeds), and does not require an offline calibration for the user gait. The integrated INS+RFID methodology eliminates the typical drift of IMU-alone solutions (approximately 1% of the total traveled distance), resulting in typical positioning errors along the walking path (no matter its length) of approximately 1.5 m.

Noticia del Viage [sic] literario a las iglesias de España : Emprendido de orden del Rey en el año 1802 : Escrita en el de 1814

El editor es Pedro Juan Mallén, segun consta en los preliminares

Valencia per sos Reys : relació dels adornos de la Bòlta, y prevencions ques feren en la vinguda de ses Magestats à esta Ciutat en 1802

Contiene: Memòria dels obsèquis fets per Valencia a sos Reys y Real Familia en 1802

Resolución de la Real Academia de S. Fernando comunicada en 28 de Junio de 1802, sobre la consulta que se le hizo acerca, de la abolición de titulos de Maestros de Obras aprobados con facultades limitadas por esta de S. Carlos... [Texto impreso]

Hay un ejemplar encuadernado con: Real Cedula con las nuevas ordenanzas que su magestad... y... su Real Junta General de Comercio, Moneda y Minas concede a la congregacion colegio y arte de Plateros de la ciudad... de Valencia... en 28 de Abril de 1761. (XVIII/3734).

Resolución de la Real Academia de S. Fernando comunicada en 28 de Junio de 1802 sobre la consulta que le hizo acerca de la abolición de títulos de Maestros de Obras aprobadas con facultades limitadas por esta de S. Carlos... [Texto impreso]

Hay un ejemplar encuadernado con: Real Cedula con las nuevas ordenanzas que su magestad... y... su Real Junta General de Comercio, Moneda y Minas concede a la congregacion colegio y arte de Plateros de la ciudad... de Valencia... en 28 de Abril de 1761. (XVIII/3734).

Un alma devota, muy afecta al Señor Sacramentado, celebra con los mas dulces, tiernos y fervorosos afectos, la nueva y loable Devocion del Alumbrado, y Vela del Santísimo Sacramento del Altar ... que dará principio á su instituto el dia 20 de Abril de 1802 [Texto impreso]

Hay un ejemplar encuadernado con: XVIII/3117