Espacio web para el diseño de un museo virtual de la historia de la informática

El objetivo principal de crear un espacio web para el Museo Histórico de la Informática (MHI) perteneciente a la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Informáticos (ETSIINF) de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM) es la difusión de la historia de la informática entre el público en general. Si bien es cierto que existe ya una página web de consulta del MHI con algunas imágenes y contenido sobre los objetos que allí se exhiben, es también reseñable que se trata de un espacio obsoleto, lleno de carencias y extremadamente difícil de gestionar y actualizar, por lo que se hacía imprescindible actualizar el diseño del espacio web, los contenidos y el sistema de gestión de los mismos, cosa que es de gran interés para un lugar divulgativo. En la actualidad, existen maneras mucho más amigables para el usuario de navegar por una web; y de la misma manera para un administrador, gestionar el contenido de la misma y mantener a los usuarios bien informados de todo lo que se ofrece en cada momento. Esto es posible gracias a los sistemas de gestión de contenidos o content management system (CMS), de los que se hablará lo largo de todo el documento. Estos sistemas, dan una facilidad mucho mayor a los encargados de llevar al día una página web, sin tener que saber de programación, lenguajes o informática en general, ya que incorporan paneles de control muy intuitivos y fáciles de manejar, que son una ventaja tanto para ellos como para los usuarios. Es por esta razón que, hay páginas web como la de las empresas IKEA, Ubuntu o, en especial para el caso que compete al documento, el museo del Louvre usan gestores de contenidos para sus páginas web. Y es que las ventajas y facilidades que ofrece un CMS son realmente interesantes y se tratará de todas ellas en el documento, de la elección del CMS que mejor se ajusta a los requisitos del museo, las restricciones a la hora del despliegue en el ámbito de la ETSIINF y de cómo mejorará esto la calidad visual y divulgativa del MHI. Este trabajo se desarrolla a lo largo de 11 capítulos, en los que se muestra como construir un sitio web, las posibilidades y la elección final para este caso. En el primer capítulo se hace una pequeña introducción de lo que es el proyecto, se especifican los objetivos, la motivación del mismo y el alcance que tiene. En el segundo capítulo se muestra la información que se ha recopilado en el trabajo de investigación que se hace previo al desarrollo. En él se muestran los distintos tipos de páginas web, que tecnologías y lenguajes se pueden usar para su construcción, una comparativa sobre otras entidades similares al MHI, las limitaciones que presenta el entorno y la elección final que se consideró más adecuada para este caso. En el capítulo tres se empieza a desarrollar la solución a través del diseño. Aquí se puede encontrar el diseño de más bajo nivel que se le presenta al cliente para sentar las bases del trabajo, el diseño de alto nivel con un mayor grado de realidad que el anterior y una preparación de lo que serán los planes de prueba. El capítulo cuatro muestra todo lo que se ha usado en la implementación y la integración de la página web: herramientas, tecnologías, plantillas de diseño y módulos que proporcionan distintas funcionalidades. Llegados al capítulo cinco, se puede ver una detallada documentación de los resultados de las pruebas de usabilidad y accesibilidad realizadas, y las conclusiones que subyacen de estas. Una vez acabada la implementación del sitio web del MHI, en el capítulo seis se intenta hacer una labor de consultoría, mostrando precios y presupuestos de las distintas tareas que se han llevado a cabo para la realización de este proyecto. En el capítulo siete se extraen las conclusiones de todo lo acontecido en los capítulos anteriores y en el ocho unas líneas sobre posibles trabajos futuros que se podrían llevar a cabo en base a lo que ya se tiene en la institución, incluido este trabajo. Para facilitar la comprensión y satisfacer la curiosidad del lector, se ha incluido en el capítulo nueve la bibliografía con toda la documentación consultada y en el diez un glosario de términos para la aclaración de términos y acrónimos más técnicos. Para acabar, en el capítulo once se anexionan tanto el documento que se usó para las pruebas de usabilidad como un manual de administrador para el sitio web, que hace más amigable el entorno para las personas que lo tengan que mantener en un futuro.---ABSTRACT---The main goal of creating a website for the Informatics Historical Museum (“Museo Histórico de la Informática” or MHI) located in the Higher Technical School of Informatics Engineers (“Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingenieros Informáticos” or ETSIINF) of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (“Universidad Politécnica de Madrid” UPM), is to promote the aforementioned museum as to increase its reach to the public. While it is true that there already is a consulting website with some pictures and information about the items which are displayed in the building, it is outdated and the data is scarce. Moreover, it is extremely complicated to manage and to regularly update the web page, which is very important for informative/broadcasting media. Currently, there are easier ways for the users of a website to consult whatever information they want, as well as it is now easy for a website manager to display new content and to keep the users informed about what is been offered at every moment. This is possible because of content management systems (CMS), which will be discussed throughout the entire paper. These systems make it easier to use for the administrator of a website to keep it up to date without the necessity for them of having any knowledge or skills in programming, languages or computing, because the systems have an intuitive control panel that is easy to use, which is an advantage for both managers and users. Because of all these reasons, there are lots of companies that use this kind of systems, such as IKEA, Ubuntu or, especially, the Louvre Museum, to which we direct our attention all throughout this report. It is easy to notice that these systems have an important and very interesting number of perks and benefits. In the next chapters of the document we will explain the benefits of the program as well as the choice on the kind of CMS that best suits the requirements of the museum and, finally, the restrictions of the school for the deployment and of how all of this will improve the visual and informational qualities of the MHI. This work is developed over 11 chapters, shown how to build up a website, the possibilities and the final choice for this case. In the first chapter a brief introduction of the project, goals, motivation and scope thereof having specified are done. Before the development of the website, the second chapter shows de information of the researching work. It discusses the different types of websites, technologies and languages that can be used for build-up, a comparison of similar entities to MHI, the limitations of the environment and the final choice was considered more appropriate for this case. Chapter three begins to develop the design of the solution. Here there are the lowest level design that presents the customer to fix any problem, the high level design with a higher degree of reality than the last and the test plans. Chapter four shows everything that has been used in the implementation and integration of the website: tools, technologies, design templates and modules that provide different functionalities. Reaching the fifth chapter, you can see a detailed documentation of the results of the usability and accessibility tests made to some users and the conclusions of it. Once the implementation of MHI website is done, in chapter six there is a consultancy work, showing prices and budgets of the different tasks which were carried out for this project. In chapter seven there are the conclusions of what happened in the previous chapters and eight chapter shows possible future works that could be carried out based on what the institution already have, including this work. To make easier to the reader understand this paper and satisfy his curiosity, the chapter nine includes the bibliography consulted with all the documentation and chapter ten has a glossary of terms and an explanation of technical terms and acronyms. Finally, in chapter eleven there are attached both the document that was used for usability testing as a manual administrator for the website, making the environment friendlier for people who have to maintain it in the future.

Spectral study and classification of worldwide locations considering several multijunction solar cell technologies

Multi-junction solar cells are widely used in high-concentration photovoltaic systems (HCPV) attaining the highest efficiencies in photovoltaic energy generation. This technology is more dependent on the spectral variations of the impinging Direct Normal Irradiance (DNI) than conventional photovoltaics based on silicon solar cells and consequently demands a deeper knowledge of the solar resource characteristics. This article explores the capabilities of spectral indexes, namely, spectral matching ratios (SMR), to spectrally characterize the annual irradiation reaching a particular location on the Earth and to provide the necessary information for the spectral optimization of a MJ solar cell in that location as a starting point for CPV module spectral tuning. Additionally, the relationship between such indexes and the atmosphere parameters, such as the aerosol optical depth (AOD), precipitable water (PW), and air mass (AM), is discussed using radiative transfer models such as SMARTS to generate the spectrally-resolved DNI. The network of ground-based sun and sky-scanning radiometers AERONET (AErosol RObotic NETwork) is exploited to obtain the atmosphere parameters for a selected bunch of 34 sites worldwide. Finally, the SMR indexes are obtained for every location, and a comparative analysis is carried out for four architectures of triple junction solar cells, covering both lattice match and metamorphic technologies. The differences found among cell technologies are much less significant than among locations.

Bóvedas sexpartitas : los orígenes del gótico

Uno de los capítulos más interesantes del gótico europeo lo constituyen las bóvedas sexpartitas, sin lugar a dudas una de las bóvedas más singulares jamás creadas dentro de este estilo. Las primeras bóvedas góticas, en cruce de ojivas y de planta cuadrada, limitaban su uso a espacios relativamente pequeños, pero ante la necesidad de cubrir espacios de considerables dimensiones, apareció una nueva bóveda de características muy peculiares; la sexpartita. Esta bóveda en cruce de ojivas está reforzada por el centro con un arco paralelo a los arcos fajones que la divide por la mitad y que fragmenta el arco formero en dos, creando una pareja de ventanales en cada lado. La sencilla superficie en bóveda de arista, en el origen de las bóvedas de crucería, se complica extraordinariamente creando una volumetría de gran complejidad con seis cuarteles de plementería y con seis apoyos de distinto tamaño, cuatros esquineros y dos centrales más pequeños. Las dificultades que implica la construcción de este tipo de bóvedas explican quizás su abandono prematuro y la vuelta a la bóveda de crucería simple, ahora de tramos rectangulares. No obstante, a pesar de su corta existencia, la bóveda sexpartita fue la gran protagonista de los inicios del gótico y con ella se llevaron a cabo importantes abovedamientos, desde Inglaterra hasta Rumanía. La disciplina de la Historia de la Construcción se vio extraordinariamente favorecida por los estudios realizados en el siglo XIX, sin embargo su investigación se abandona durante el siglo XX para ser recuperada recientemente. Viollet-le-Duc, a finales del s. XIX, hace una sucinta explicación de este tipo de bóvedas. También Auguste Choisy, más tarde, dedica unas páginas a la bóveda sexpartita francesa; desde entonces, este tema, ha merecido escasísimas referencias en los estudios posteriores. Esta investigación se enmarca en este contexto y pretende poner de manifiesto los conocimientos geométricos y constructivos que hicieron posible la realización de las bóvedas sexpartitas europeas. Para ello se ha llevado a cabo la investigación de las principales bóvedas en Europa occidental; Francia, España, Inglaterra, Alemania, Suiza e Italia. Su estudio comparativo nos ha permitido poner de manifiesto sus características constructivas comunes y aquellos aspectos propios de cada país, así como algunos de los canales de comunicación que permitieron la expansión de esta arquitectura. Las nuevas tecnologías de medición, el escáner láser, la estación total, la fotogrametría, etc., han supuesto una revolución para la documentación y restauración del Patrimonio y un salto cualitativo formidable para el análisis de las bóvedas góticas, permitiendo estudios de la arquitectura histórica hasta ahora inabordables. Para realizar el análisis de las bóvedas sexpartitas europeas se ha llevado a cabo un levantamiento exhaustivo de las mismas, lo que ha permitido definir su despiece, obteniendo la forma de la talla de cada uno de los elementos constructivos que la componen; jarjas, dovelas, claves y plementería. La obtención de estos datos nos ha permitido abordar un profundo estudio de su estereotomía y construcción, aportando datos inéditos hasta el momento. Por otro lado se ha llevado a cabo la detección y catalogación de las principales bóvedas sexpartitas que aún se conservan en Europa. Los estudios realizados nos permiten afirmar que la bóveda sexpartita surge en Francia en la segunda mitad del siglo XII, utilizándose en las principales catedrales francesas, como Notre Dame de Paris, Bourges o Laon. A comienzos del siglo XIII cae en desuso en Francia y comienza su expansión por el resto de Europa, donde se abandona medio siglo después, desapareciendo definitivamente del gótico europeo. Mientras que los ejemplos que datan del siglo XII muestran soluciones escasamente desarrolladas y propias del románico, las bóvedas construidas en el siglo XIII muestran soluciones enormemente complejas, con grandes jarjamentos e inteligentes estrategias constructivas y geométricas que permiten la simplificación de sus estructuras auxiliares y una mayor libertad en su diseño. Estas bóvedas son el reflejo del desarrollo de la estereotomía gótica en sus comienzos por lo que su estudio nos ha permitido conocer el desarrollo y la evolución del gótico primitivo en Europa. ABSTRACT One of the most interesting chapters of European Gothic is the sexpartite vault, without doubt one of the most remarkable vaults ever created within this style. The first Gothic vaults, with crossed ribs on a square base, were restricted to relatively small areas, but a new vault, with very particular characteristics emerged to address the need to cover spaces of considerable size; the sexpartite vault. This cross-ribbed vault is reinforced in the centre by an arch that runs parallel to the transverse arches, divides the vault in half and splits the wall arch in two, creating a pair of windows, one on each side. The simple groin vault surface, the source of ribbed vaults, was greatly complicated creating a highly complex volume with six sections of severies and with six supports of different sizes, four on the corners and two smaller central ones. The construction difficulties involved in building this type of vault may explain its premature abandonment and a return to the simple cross-ribbed vault, now in rectangular sections. However, despite its brief existence, the sexpartite vault was the great protagonist of the beginnings of Gothic architecture and important vaulting was built using this system from England to Romania. Studies undertaken in the 19th century helped the History of Construction as a discipline tremendously. Research was abandoned during the twentieth century however, and has only recently been taken up again. Towards the end of the 19th century, Viollet-le-Duc gave a brief description of this type of vault. Later, Auguste de Choisy also devoted some pages to the French sexpartite vault; since then, later studies have made very few references to it. Against this background, this research now attempts to bring to light the knowledge of geometry and construction that made the construction of the European sexpartite vault possible. To this end, the main vaults in Western Europe - France, Spain, England, Germany, Switzerland and Italy, have been studied. By making a comparative study we have been able to reveal the common construction features and those that are specific to each country, as well as some of the channels of communication that enabled this architecture to spread. New measuring technologies, the laser scanner, total station, photogrammetry, etc., have given rise to a revolution in heritage documentation and restoration, as well as facilitating a huge qualitative leap for the analysis of Gothic vaults, enabling studies of historical architecture that until now were inaccessible. A comprehensive survey was carried out to be able to analyse European sexpartite vaults. We could thus create an exploded view, which enabled us to obtain the form of each of the elements; tas-de-charges, voussoirs, keystones and severies. The data gathered provided previously unknown facts that enabled us to make an in-depth study of stereotomy and construction. Furthermore, the main sexpartite vaults still preserved in Europe have been identified and categorised. The studies undertaken allowed us to affirm that the sexpartite vault appeared in France in the second half of the twelfth century, being used in the main French cathedrals, such as Notre Dame de Paris, Bourges or Laon. At the beginning of the thirteenth century it fell into disuse in France and began to expand throughout the rest of Europe, where it was abandoned half a century later, disappearing from European Gothic for good. While the examples dating back to the 12th century display poorly developed solutions more characteristic of the Romanesque, the vaults built in the 13th century reveal enormously complex solutions, with large tas-de-charges and intelligent construction and geometric strategies that allowed auxiliary support structures to be simplified, and gave more freedom to design. These vaults reflect the beginnings of Gothic stereotomy and by studying them we have been able to learn more about the development and evolution of Early Gothic architecture in Europe.

Isolation of recombinant antibody fragments (scFv) by phage display technology for detection of almond allergens in food products

Tree nut allergies are considered an important health issue in developed countries. To comply with the regulations on food labeling, reliable allergen detection methods are required. In this work we isolated almond-specific recombinant antibody fragments (scFv) from a commercial phage display library bypassing the use of live animals, hence being consistent with the latest policies on animal welfare. To this end an iterative selection procedure employing the Tomlinson I phage display library and a crude almond protein extract was carried out. Two different almond-specific scFv (named PD1F6 and PD2C9) were isolated after two rounds of biopanning, and an indirect phage ELISA was implemented to detect the presence of almond protein in foodstuffs. The isolated scFvs demonstrated to be highly specific and allowed detection of 40 ng mL?1 and 100 ng mL?1 of raw and roasted almond protein, respectively. The practical detection limit of the assay in almond spiked food products was 0.1 mg g?1 (110e120 ppm). The developed indirect phage ELISA was validated by analysis of 92 commercial food products, showing good correlation with the results obtained by a previously developed real-time PCR method for the detection of almond in foodstuffs. The selected phage clones can be affinity maturated to improve their sensitivity and genetically engineered to be employed in different assay formats.

Characterization of genes modulated during pheomelanogenesis using differential display

Molecular and biochemical mechanisms that modulate the production of eumelanin or pheomelanin pigments involve the opposing effects of two intercellular signaling molecules, α-melanocyte stimulating hormone (MSH) and agouti signal protein (ASP). ASP is an antagonist of MSH signaling through the melanocyte-specific MSH receptor, although its mechanism(s) of action is controversial. We previously have reported significant down-regulation of all known melanogenic genes during the eumelanin to pheomelanin switch in murine hair follicle melanocytes and in cultured melanocytes treated with recombinant ASP. To identify factors that might be involved in the switch to pheomelanogenesis, we screened ASP-treated melanocytes by using differential display and identified three up-regulated genes: a DNA replication control protein, a basic helix–loop–helix transcription factor, and a novel gene. We have simultaneously identified six down-regulated genes in ASP-treated melanocytes; two of those encode tyrosinase and TRP2, melanogenic genes known to be down-regulated during pheomelanogenesis, which provide good internal controls for this approach. These results suggest that there are complex mechanisms involved in the switch to pheomelanin production, and that these modulated genes might be involved in the pleiotropic changes seen in yellow mice, including the change in coat color.

Screening for imprinted genes by allelic message display: Identification of a paternally expressed gene Impact on mouse chromosome 18

A systematic screen termed the allelic message display (AMD) was developed for the hunting of imprinted genes. In AMD, differential display PCR is adopted to image allelic expression status of multiple polymorphic transcripts in two parental mouse strains, reciprocal F1 hybrids and pooled backcross progenies. From the displayed patterns, paternally and maternally expressed transcripts can be unequivocally identified. The effectiveness of AMD screening was clearly demonstrated by the identification of a paternally expressed gene Impact on mouse chromosome 18, the predicted product of which belongs to the YCR59c/yigZ hypothetical protein family composed of yeast and bacterial proteins with currently unknown function. In contrast with previous screening methods necessitating positional cloning efforts or generation of parthenogenetic embryos, this approach requires nothing particular but appropriately crossed mice and can be readily applied to any tissues at various developmental stages. Hence, AMD would considerably accelerate the identification of imprinted genes playing pivotal roles in mammalian development and the pathogenesis of various diseases.

VMAT2 knockout mice: Heterozygotes display reduced amphetamine-conditioned reward, enhanced amphetamine locomotion, and enhanced MPTP toxicity

The brain vesicular monoamine transporter (VMAT2) pumps monoamine neurotransmitters and Parkinsonism-inducing dopamine neurotoxins such as 1-methyl-4-phenyl-phenypyridinium (MPP+) from neuronal cytoplasm into synaptic vesicles, from which amphetamines cause their release. Amphetamines and MPP+ each also act at nonvesicular sites, providing current uncertainties about the contributions of vesicular actions to their in vivo effects. To assess vesicular contributions to amphetamine-induced locomotion, amphetamine-induced reward, and sequestration and resistance to dopaminergic neurotoxins, we have constructed transgenic VMAT2 knockout mice. Heterozygous VMAT2 knockouts are viable into adult life and display VMAT2 levels one-half that of wild-type values, accompanied by smaller changes in monoaminergic markers, heart rate, and blood pressure. Weight gain, fertility, habituation, passive avoidance, and locomotor activities are similar to wild-type littermates. In these heterozygotes, amphetamine produces enhanced locomotion but diminished behavioral reward, as measured by conditioned place preference. Administration of the MPP+ precursor N-methyl-4-phenyl-1,2,3,6-tetrahydropyridine to heterozygotes produces more than twice the dopamine cell losses found in wild-type mice. These mice provide novel information about the contributions of synaptic vesicular actions of monoaminergic drugs and neurotoxins and suggest that intact synaptic vesicle function may contribute more to amphetamine-conditioned reward than to amphetamine-induced locomotion.

Phage display of a catalytic antibody to optimize affinity for transition-state analog binding

Catalytic antibodies have shown great promise for catalyzing a tremendously diverse set of natural and unnatural chemical transformations. However, few catalytic antibodies have efficiencies that approach those of natural enzymes. In principle, random mutagenesis procedures such as phage display could be used to improve the catalytic activities of existing antibodies; however, these studies have been hampered by difficulties in the recombinant expression of antibodies. Here, we have grafted the antigen binding loops from a murine-derived catalytic antibody, 17E8, onto a human antibody framework in an effort to overcome difficulties associated with recombinant expression and phage display of this antibody. “Humanized” 17E8 retained similar catalytic and hapten binding properties as the murine antibody while levels of functional Fab displayed on phage were 200-fold higher than for a murine variable region/human constant region chimeric Fab. This construct was used to prepare combinatorial libraries. Affinity panning of these resulted in the selection of variants with 2- to 8-fold improvements in binding affinity for a phosphonate transition-state analog. Surprisingly, none of the affinity-matured variants was more catalytically active than the parent antibody and some were significantly less active. By contrast, a weaker binding variant was identified with 2-fold greater catalytic activity and incorporation of a single substitution (Tyr-100aH → Asn) from this variant into the parent antibody led to a 5-fold increase in catalytic efficiency. Thus, phage display methods can be readily used to optimize binding of catalytic antibodies to transition-state analogs, and when used in conjunction with limited screening for catalysis can identify variants with higher catalytic efficiencies.