Midwest Regional Rail Passenger Initiative Status Report, December 2002

Rail passenger report for Iowa Department of Transportation

Midwest Regional Rail Passenger Initiative Status Report, December 2003

Status report of Midwest Regional Rail Initiative

Identification of potential rockfall source areas at a regional scale using a DEM-based geomorphometric analysis

The availability of high resolution Digital Elevation Models (DEM) at a regional scale enables the analysis of topography with high levels of detail. Hence, a DEM-based geomorphometric approach becomes more accurate for detecting potential rockfall sources. Potential rockfall source areas are identified according to the slope angle distribution deduced from high resolution DEM crossed with other information extracted from geological and topographic maps in GIS format. The slope angle distribution can be decomposed in several Gaussian distributions that can be considered as characteristic of morphological units: rock cliffs, steep slopes, footslopes and plains. A terrain is considered as potential rockfall sources when their slope angles lie over an angle threshold, which is defined where the Gaussian distribution of the morphological unit "Rock cliffs" become dominant over the one of "Steep slopes". In addition to this analysis, the cliff outcrops indicated by the topographic maps were added. They contain however "flat areas", so that only the slope angles values above the mode of the Gaussian distribution of the morphological unit "Steep slopes" were considered. An application of this method is presented over the entire Canton of Vaud (3200 km2), Switzerland. The results were compared with rockfall sources observed on the field and orthophotos analysis in order to validate the method. Finally, the influence of the cell size of the DEM is inspected by applying the methodology over six different DEM resolutions.

Creació d’una Oficina Verda a la Facultad Regional Multidisciplinaria (FAREM) d’Estelí

Projecte d’educació i gestió ambiental a la Facultad Regional Multidisciplinaria de la ciutat d’Estelí (Nicaragua). L’”Oficina Verda” és un organisme que fomenta actituds ambientalment correctes dins l’àmbit universitari que en el futur pot repercutir en el municipi. A partir d’una diagnosi ambiental feta prèviament, s’han creat una sèrie de línies estratègiques que donen resposta a les problemàtiques ambientals detectades. Millorar les condicions ambientals i fomentar actituds ambientalment correctes, en la totalitat d’àmbits en els quals es desenvolupen les actuacions de la FAREM i del municipi d’Estelí; aconseguir que la FAREM sigui pionera en el mar de les universitats ambientalment sensibles a Nicaragua; prosseguir amb l’ambientalització del campus a través de la gestió de l’oficina verda són els objectius generals d’aquest projecte

South Central Iowa Regional E-911 Service Board, June 30, 2002

Other Audit Reports

Heart Of Iowa Regional Transit Agency, June 30, 2002

Other Audit Reports

South Central Iowa Regional E-911 Service Board, June 30, 2002 and June 30, 2003

Other Audit Report

Planificación y gestión activa de proyectos GNU/Linux con Redmine

Este TFC consiste en instalar e integrar Redmine en una distribución LiveCD de manera que cuando el usuario utilice el mismo ya tenga todas las configuraciones hechas de antemano y pueda empezar a trabajar inmediatamente en la planificación de proyectos.

Propuesta para incorporar evaluación y pruebas de usabilidad dentro de un proceso de desarrollo de software

Usability is critical to consider an interactive software system successful. Usability testing and evaluation during product development have gained wide acceptance as a strategy to improve product quality. Early introduction of usability perspectives in a product is very important in order to provide a clear visibility of the quality aspects not only for the developers, but also for the testing users as well. However, usability evaluation and testing are not commonly taken into consideration as an essential element of the software development process. Then, this paper exposes a proposal to introduce usability evaluation and testing within a software development through reuse of software artifacts. Additionally, it suggests the introduction of an auditor within the classification of actors for usability tests. It also proposes an improvement of checklists used for heuristics evaluation, adding quantitative and qualitative aspects to them

L'analyse des renvois régionaux et interrégionaux en pratique médicale ambulatoire. [Analysis of regional and interregional referrals in ambulatory medical practice].

This article examines, in two Swiss cantons, the interdependence from a medical care point of view of various regions (health planning zones in one canton, political districts in the other). The volume and the destination of patient referrals prescribed by physicians in ambulatory practice are analyzed. The available data (on 1609 referrals) were gathered by the practitioners themselves, during a National Ambulatory Medical Care Survey type study in February-March 1981, in which 203 physicians participated. Several indicators are proposed (including an integration coefficient and an attraction coefficient for each zone); they show marked differences among the regions. This dynamic approach, based on the effective behavior of physicians, appears to be of major interest for health planning purposes (as compared with the frequent practice to use mainly parameters in relation with the availability of care services--the "supply"--numbers of professionals and/or health facilities).

El trabajo en equipo, la planificación y la concertación de servicios en la práctica profesional

Con el título “El trabajo en equipo, la planificación y concertación de servicios en la práctica profesional” se presenta la experiencia formativa que se desarrolla en el segundo curso de la Diplomatura de Educación Social con la intención de que los estudiantes investiguen y reflexionen sobre la práctica de la planificación socioeducativa en un contexto de concurso público para la concertación de un servicio.

Temporal variability and trends of the downward solar radiation over Europe during the 20th century, with regional focus in the dimming/brightening phenomena on the Iberian Peninsula

Proyecto de investigación elaborado a partir de una estancia en el Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, a Alemanya, entre 2010 y 2012. La radiación solar que alcanza la superficie terrestre es un factor clave entre los procesos que controlan el clima de la Tierra, dado el papel que desempeñan en el balance energético y el ciclo hidrológico. Establecer su contribución al cambio climático reciente supone una gran dificultad debido a la complejidad de los procesos implicados, la gran cantidad de información requerida, y la incertidumbre de las bases de datos disponibles en la actualidad. Así, el objetivo principal del proyecto ha consistido en generar una base de datos de insolación incluyendo las series más largas (desde finales del siglo XIX) disponibles en toda Europa. Esta base de datos complementa para nuestro continente el Global Energy Balance Archive (GEBA) que mantiene y gestiona el grupo que ha acogido al receptor de la ayuda postdoctoral, y permite extender espacial (especialmente en países del sur de Europa) y temporalmente las series climáticas disponibles de mediciones de irradiancia solar. Como la insolación es un proxy de la irradiancia solar, el proyecto actual también ha tratado de calibrar de forma exhaustiva ambas variables, a fin de generar una nueva base de datos reconstruida de esta segunda variable que esté disponible desde finales del siglo XIX en Europa. Un segundo objetivo del proyecto ha consistido en continuar trabajando a escala de mayor detalle sobre la Península Ibérica, con el fin de proporcionar una mejor comprensión del fenómeno del “global dimming/brightening” y su impacto en el ciclo hidrológico y balance energético. Finalmente, un tercer objetivo del presente proyecto postdoctoral ha consistido en continuar estudiando los posibles ciclos semanales a gran escala de diferentes variables climáticas, línea de investigación de interés para la detección de posibles efectos de los aerosoles antrópicos en el clima a escalas temporales breves, y consecuentemente estrechamente vinculado al fenómeno del “global dimming/brightening”.

Midwest Regional Rail Passenger Initiative Status Report, December 2004

Status report of Midwest Regional Rail Initiative

South Central Regional E-911 Service Board, Independent Auditor's Reports, Finacial Statements and Supplementary Information, Schedule of Findings, June 30, 2004

Other Audit Reports - 28E Organizations

Supply Multipliers in Two Regional Economies

This paper focuses on the analysis of the economic impact that sectorial total factor productivity – or valued added - gains have on two regional Spanish economies (Catalonia and Extremadura). In particular it is studied the quantitative effect that each sector’s valued added injections has on household welfare (real disposable income), on the consumption price indices and factor relative prices, on real production (GDP) and on the government and foreign net income. To do that, we introduce the concept of supply multiplier. The analytical approach consists of a computable general equilibrium model, in which it is assumed perfect competition and cleared markets of goods and factors. All the parameters and exogenous variables of the model are calibrated by means of two social accounting matrices, one for each region under study. The results allow identifying those sectors with the greatest multipliers impact on consumer welfare as the key sectors in the regional economies. Keywords: efficiency gains, supply multipliers, key sectors, computable general equilibrium. JEL Classification: C68, R13.