La autoreferencialidad en el arte. El metalenguaje en el medio digital. L'autoreferencialitat en l'art. El metallenguatge en el mitjà digital.

Este artículo analiza las obras de algunos artistas digitales que utilizan los recursos propios del medio digital como mensaje central. Nuestra intención será exponer las múltiples formas de utilizar, desarrollar y manipular el metalenguaje. Primeramente, con la intención de comprender estas obras, se elabora un contexto en que se plantearán unos precedentes, para ver, en una segunda parte, cómo el metalenguaje en nuestra actualidad artística y digital vuelve a ser muy utilizado, de manera que llega a convertirse en una metodología característica del arte contemporáneo y de los medios digitales. Palabras clave aleatoriedad, simulación, glitch, net art, interfaz, reactividad, interactividad

Performance aux tests d'intelligence : vers une inversion de l'effet Flynn ?

Des nombreuses études ont montré une augmentation des scores aux tests d'aptitudes à travers les générations (« effet Flynn »). Différentes hypothèses d'ordre biologique, social et/ou éducationnels ont été élaborées afin d'expliquer ce phénomène. L'objectif de cette recherche est d'examiner l'évolution des performances aux tests d'aptitudes sur la base d'étalonnages datant de 1991 et de 2002. Les résultats suggèrent une inversion non homogène de l'effet Flynn. La diminution concerne plus particulièrement les tests d'aptitudes scolaires, comme ceux évaluant le facteur verbal et numérique. Cette étude pourrait refléter un changement de l'importance accordée aux différentes aptitudes peu évaluées en orientation scolaire et professionnelle.

De lo analógico a lo digital. El futuro de la enseñanza de la composición

Las prácticas lectoras están cambiando a causa de factores múltiples: leemos otro tipo de textos, con objetivos también más ambiciosos, en contextos nuevos, que nunca antes habían existido. Analizamos algunos de los matices que ha adoptado la práctica de la lectura en este inicio del siglo XXI, desde esta perspectiva sociocultural.

El portafolios digital como herramienta para el desarrollo de competencias transversales en el alumnado.

Partiendo de un enfoque sobre las relaciones entre las tecnologías digitales como herramientas de mediación, se analiza el papel de un caso concreto, los portafolios electrónicos, para la mejora de competencias transversales en el ámbito universitario. Los resultados indican que se obtienen mejoras, como mínimo desde la percepción de los propios estudiantes, en algunas dimensiones ligadas a la capacidad para seleccionar y organizar información, así como a la planificación del aprendizaje.

La autoreferencialidad en el arte. El metalenguaje en el medio digital

Este artículo analiza las obras de algunos artistas digitales que utilizan los recursos propios del medio digital como mensaje central. Nuestra intención será exponer las múltiples formas de utilizar, desarrollar y manipular el metalenguaje. Primeramente, con la intención de comprender estas obras, se elabora un contexto en que se plantearán unos precedentes, para ver, en una segunda parte, cómo el metalenguaje en nuestra actualidad artística y digital vuelve a ser muy utilizado, de manera que llega a convertirse en una metodología característica del arte contemporáneo y de los medios digitales. Palabras clave aleatoriedad, simulación, glitch, net art, interfaz, reactividad, interactividad

Development of LRFD Procedures for Bridge Pile Foundations in Iowa, Volume I: An Electronic Database for PIle LOad Tests (PILOT), TR-573, 2011

For well over 100 years, the Working Stress Design (WSD) approach has been the traditional basis for geotechnical design with regard to settlements or failure conditions. However, considerable effort has been put forth over the past couple of decades in relation to the adoption of the Load and Resistance Factor Design (LRFD) approach into geotechnical design. With the goal of producing engineered designs with consistent levels of reliability, the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) issued a policy memorandum on June 28, 2000, requiring all new bridges initiated after October 1, 2007, to be designed according to the LRFD approach. Likewise, regionally calibrated LRFD resistance factors were permitted by the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) to improve the economy of bridge foundation elements. Thus, projects TR-573, TR-583 and TR-584 were undertaken by a research team at Iowa State University’s Bridge Engineering Center with the goal of developing resistance factors for pile design using available pile static load test data. To accomplish this goal, the available data were first analyzed for reliability and then placed in a newly designed relational database management system termed PIle LOad Tests (PILOT), to which this first volume of the final report for project TR-573 is dedicated. PILOT is an amalgamated, electronic source of information consisting of both static and dynamic data for pile load tests conducted in the State of Iowa. The database, which includes historical data on pile load tests dating back to 1966, is intended for use in the establishment of LRFD resistance factors for design and construction control of driven pile foundations in Iowa. Although a considerable amount of geotechnical and pile load test data is available in literature as well as in various State Department of Transportation files, PILOT is one of the first regional databases to be exclusively used in the development of LRFD resistance factors for the design and construction control of driven pile foundations. Currently providing an electronically organized assimilation of geotechnical and pile load test data for 274 piles of various types (e.g., steel H-shaped, timber, pipe, Monotube, and concrete), PILOT (http://srg.cce.iastate.edu/lrfd/) is on par with such familiar national databases used in the calibration of LRFD resistance factors for pile foundations as the FHWA’s Deep Foundation Load Test Database. By narrowing geographical boundaries while maintaining a high number of pile load tests, PILOT exemplifies a model for effective regional LRFD calibration procedures.

El portafolios digital como herramienta para el desarrollo de competencias transversales en el alumnado.

Partiendo de un enfoque sobre las relaciones entre las tecnologías digitales como herramientas de mediación, se analiza el papel de un caso concreto, los portafolios electrónicos, para la mejora de competencias transversales en el ámbito universitario. Los resultados indican que se obtienen mejoras, como mínimo desde la percepción de los propios estudiantes, en algunas dimensiones ligadas a la capacidad para seleccionar y organizar información, así como a la planificación del aprendizaje.

Exploring neural cell dynamics with digital holographic microscopy.

In this review, we summarize how the new concept of digital optics applied to the field of holographic microscopy has allowed the development of a reliable and flexible digital holographic quantitative phase microscopy (DH-QPM) technique at the nanoscale particularly suitable for cell imaging. Particular emphasis is placed on the original biological information provided by the quantitative phase signal. We present the most relevant DH-QPM applications in the field of cell biology, including automated cell counts, recognition, classification, three-dimensional tracking, discrimination between physiological and pathophysiological states, and the study of cell membrane fluctuations at the nanoscale. In the last part, original results show how DH-QPM can address two important issues in the field of neurobiology, namely, multiple-site optical recording of neuronal activity and noninvasive visualization of dendritic spine dynamics resulting from a full digital holographic microscopy tomographic approach.

Evaluation of the SHRP Modified Georgia Digital Faultmeter, MLR-93-01, 1993

The SHRP Modified Georgia Digital Faultmeter was loaned to the Iowa Department of Transportation in January 1993 for evaluation. A study was undertaken comparing the faultmeter to Iowa's current method of fault measurement. The following conclusions were made after comparing the faultmeter to Iowa's gauge: The faultmeter was lighter and easier to maneuver and position. The faultmeter's direct readout was quicker to read. The faultmeter has increased precision. The faultmeter gave consistently lower fault readings than the Iowa gauge.

digital¡. Fifth strategic plan for UPC libraries 2012-2014

Postprint (published version)

Using Digital Video Analysis to Monitor Driver Behavior at Intersections

Commercially available instruments for road-side data collection take highly limited measurements, require extensive manual input, or are too expensive for widespread use. However, inexpensive computer vision techniques for digital video analysis can be applied to automate the monitoring of driver, vehicle, and pedestrian behaviors. These techniques can measure safety-related variables that cannot be easily measured using existing sensors. The use of these techniques will lead to an improved understanding of the decisions made by drivers at intersections. These automated techniques allow the collection of large amounts of safety-related data in a relatively short amount of time. There is a need to develop an easily deployable system to utilize these new techniques. This project implemented and tested a digital video analysis system for use at intersections. A prototype video recording system was developed for field deployment. A computer interface was implemented and served to simplify and automate the data analysis and the data review process. Driver behavior was measured at urban and rural non-signalized intersections. Recorded digital video was analyzed and used to test the system.

An international university network for online teaching of pathology in Frenchspeaking countries

Introduction: Building online courses is a highly time consuming task for teachers of a single university. Universities working alone create high-quality courses but often cannot cover all pathological fields. Moreover this often leads to duplication of contents among universities, representing a big waste of teacher time and energy. We initiated in 2011 a French university network for building mutualized online teaching pathology cases, and this network has been extended in 2012 to Quebec and Switzerland. Method: Twenty French universities (see & for details), University Laval in Quebec and University of Lausanne in Switzerland are associated to this project. One e-learning Moodle platform (http://moodle.sorbonne-paris-cite.fr/) contains texts with URL pointing toward virtual slides that are decentralized in several universities. Each university has the responsibility of its own slide scanning, slide storage and online display with virtual slide viewers. The Moodle website is hosted by PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité, and financial supports for hardware have been obtained from UNF3S (http://www.unf3s.org/) and from PRES Sorbonne Paris Cité. Financial support for international fellowships has been obtained from CFQCU (http://www.cfqcu.org/). Results: The Moodle interface has been explained to pathology teachers using web-based conferences with screen sharing. The teachers added then contents such as clinical cases, selfevaluations and other media organized in several sections by student levels and pathological fields. Contents can be used as online learning or online preparation of subsequent courses in classrooms. In autumn 2013, one resident from Quebec spent 6 weeks in France and Switzerland and created original contents in inflammatory skin pathology. These contents are currently being validated by senior teachers and will be opened to pathology residents in spring 2014. All contents of the website can be accessed for free. Most contents just require anonymous connection but some specific fields, especially those containing pictures obtained from patients who agreed for a teaching use only, require personal identification of the students. Also, students have to register to access Moodle tests. All contents are written in French but one case has been translated into English to illustrate this communication (http://moodle.sorbonne-pariscite.fr/mod/page/view.php?id=261) (use "login as a guest"). The Moodle test module allows many types of shared questions, making it easy to create personalized tests. Contents that are opened to students have been validated by an editorial committee composed of colleagues from the participating institutions. Conclusions: Future developments include other international fellowships, the next one being scheduled for one French resident from May to October 2014 in Quebec, with a study program centered on lung and breast pathology. It must be kept in mind that these e-learning programs highly depend on teachers' time, not only at these early steps but also later to update the contents. We believe that funding resident fellowships for developing online pathological teaching contents is a win-win situation, highly beneficial for the resident who will improve his knowledge and way of thinking, highly beneficial for the teachers who will less worry about access rights or image formats, and finally highly beneficial for the students who will get courses fully adapted to their practice.

Reconocimiento y representación digital de la notación matemática manual

El trabajo muestra un estudio comparativo de las soluciones que plantean diferentes soluciones comerciales y/o libres para la adecuación o no a su integración en un entorno como es el campus virtual de la UOC. Para esto se ha elaborado una lista de indicadores clave y más adelante se ha hecho una valoración de la integración en el entorno UOC, relacionando los indicadores anteriores con los requerimientos de la UOC. Investigando previamente cuales son estos. Por último se ha comprobado y corroborado la posible integración de la solución elegida al campus virtual, con el desarrollo de una pequeña aplicación web.

Comparison of five commercial serological tests for the detection of anti-Chlamydia trachomatis antibodies.

Screening for Chlamydia trachomatis-specific antibodies is valuable in investigating recurrent miscarriage, tubal infertility and extrauterine pregnancy. We compared here the performance of immunofluorescence (IF) to four other commercial tests in detecting IgG antibodies directed against C. trachomatis: two enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) using the major outer membrane protein (MOMP) as the antigen, commercialised respectively by Medac and R-Biopharm (RB), one ELISA using the chlamydial heat shock protein 60 (cHSP60) as the antigen (Medac), as well as a new automated epifluorescence immunoassay (InoDiag). A total of 405 patients with (n = 251) and without (n = 154) miscarriages were tested by all five tests. The prevalence of C. trachomatis-specific IgG antibodies as determined by the IF, cHSP60-Medac, MOMP-Medac, MOMP-RB and InoDiag was 14.3, 23.2, 14.3, 11.9 and 26.2%, respectively. InoDiag exhibited the highest sensitivity, whereas MOMP-RB showed the best specificity. Cross-reactivity was observed with C. pneumoniae using IF, MOMP-RB and InoDiag, and Parachlamydia acanthamoebae using the cHSP60 ELISA test. No cross-reactivity was observed between C. trachomatis and the other Chlamydiales (Neochlamydia hartmannellae, Waddlia chondrophila and Simkania negevensis). Given its high sensitivity, the new automated epifluorescence immunoassay from InoDiag represents an interesting alternative. The MOMP-based ELISA of R-Biopharm should be preferred for large serological studies, given the high throughput of ELISA and its excellent specificity.