Space, mass and ornament in the Gothic-Renaissance transition in Spain

La introducción en España de las nuevas formas y sintaxis renacentistas a lo largo del siglo xvi no se produjo con un abandono radical e inmediato de los viejos usos góticos, de validez comprobada en trascendentales cuestiones del diseño arquitectónico. La renovación de la producción fue heterogénea y en cierto modo particular de cada artífice, según su formación previa y el grado de contacto, coherencia y compromiso con las novedades italianas, generando un panorama híbrido y plural en la arquitectura del quinientos hispano. Atendiendo a significativos textos y documentos gráficos de la época, se pretende rastrear los cambios, e inercias, en el proceso de diseño arquitectónico durante esta larga etapa de transición, estructurando el análisis a partir de tres categorías sustanciales, interdependientes y autónomas a la vez: espacio, masa y ornato.During the sixteenth century the new Renaissance forms were introduced in Spain, but the Gothic procedures continued to be used due to their proven validity for the architectural design. The renovation of the architecture was heterogeneous and different for each master, according to his previous training and his knowledge of the new Italian forms. This involved a hybrid and plural context in the Spanish architecture of the 16th century. The changes and continuities of the architectural design process during this transitory stage are investigated in this paper, based on significant texts and graphic documents of this period. The analysis is structured based on three substantial architectural categories, which are simultaneously interdependent and autonomous: space, mass and ornamen

Videojuegos, una narrativa en evolución : Knight Lore, Half-Life 2 y Heavy Rain como casos de estudio

Los videojuegos han evolucionado desde su nacimiento como entretenimiento puro hasta su papel actual como medio para transmitir historias complejas. Este trabajo pretende resumir el marco teórico de estudio de los videojuegos para mostrar cómo ha evolucionado su narrativa. Para ello revisaremos su crecimiento tecnológico y artístico, tanto en sus rasgos definitorios como en su relación con otras disciplinas artísticas. Además, haremos hincapié en el rol cambiante del jugador, su inmersión en las historias que se le proponen y en la forma en que la narrativa del medio consigue una identificación e implicación cada vez mayor de sus usuarios. Así, mostraremos cómo ha cambiado el papel del jugador, y su libertad, en el desarrollo argumental y en la experiencia de los títulos hasta convertirse en un campo de estudio semiótico de primer orden. Relacionado con todo lo anterior, hablaremos de la simulación como forma última de la evolución narrativa, que puede llevar al jugador a un proceso de confusión entre la realidad física en la que vive y el simulacro que se construye en los videojuegos de última generación. Finalmente propondremos un análisis narrativo de tres títulos de diferentes épocas para mostrar con ejemplos concretos la evolución de la narrativa: Knight Lore (1984), inicio de la edad de oro de los juegos de ZX Spectrum; Half-Life 2 (2004), que marca el punto álgido del género de tirador en primera persona, y Heavy Rain (2010), título que muestra la confluencia entre el mundo de los videojuegos, el cine y la literatura

An educational tool to assist the design process of switched reluctance machines

The design of electric machines is a hot topic in the syllabuses of several undergraduate and graduate courses. With the development of hybrid and electrical vehicles, this subject is gaining more popularity, especially in electrical engineering courses. This paper presents a computeraided educational tool to guide engineering students in the design process of a switched reluctance machine (SRM). A step-by-step design procedure is detailed and a user guide interface (GUI) programmed in the Matlab® environment developed for this purpose is shown. This GUI has been proved a useful tool to help the students to validate the results obtained in their lecture assignments, while aiding to achieve a better understanding of the design process of electric machines. A validation of the educational tool is done by means of finite element method (FEM) simulations.Postprint (author's final draft

Morphological changes, beach inundation and overwash caused by an extreme storm on a low-lying embayed beach bounded by a dune system (NW Mediterranean)

The geomorphological evolution of a low-lying, micro-tidal sandy beach in the western Mediterranean, Pals beach, was characterized using airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) data. Data were collected in prior to and six months after the impact of an extreme storm with a return period of approx. 50 years, with the aim of characterizing the beach's response to the storm. The use of repeated high-resolution topographic data to quantify beach geomorphic changes has allowed assessment of the accuracy of different proxies for estimating beach volume changes. Results revealed that changes in the shoreline position cannot accurately reproduce beach volume changes on low-lying beaches where overwash processes are significant. Observations also suggested that volume estimations from beach profiles do not accurately represent subaerial volume changes at large profile distances on beaches with significant alongshore geomorphological variability. Accordingly, the segmentation of the beach into regularly spaced bins is proposed to assess alongshore variations in the beach volume with the accuracy of the topographic data. The morphological evolution of Pals beach during the study period showed a net shoreline retreat (- 4 m) and a significant sediment gain on the subaerial beach (+ 7.5 m3/m). The net gain of sediment is mostly due to the impact of the extreme storm, driving significant overwash processes that transport sediment landwards, increasing volume on the backshore and dunes. The increase of volume on the foreshore and the presence of cuspate morphologies along the shoreline also evidence post-storm beach recovery. Observed morphological changes exhibit a high variability along the beach related to variations in beach morphology. Changes in the morphology and migration of megacusps result in a high variability in the shoreline position and foreshore volume changes. On the other hand, larger morphological changes on the backshore and larger inundation distances occur when the beach and the dunes are lower, favouring the dominance of overwash. The observed storm-induced morphological changes differ from predicted beach storm impacts because of spatial and temporal variations in the beach morphology, suggesting that detailed morphological parameters and indicators used for predicting beach vulnerability to storms should be regularly updated in order to represent the pre-storm beach conditions. Finally, observed morphological changes in Pals Bay evidenced a different behaviour between natural and urban areas, with better post-storm beach recovery on natural areas where the beach is not artificially narrowed.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Water-pumping permanent magnet synchronous motor optimization based on customized torque-speed operating area and performance characteristics

© 2019 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting /republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other worksThis paper presents a novel methodology for optimizing Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors for Water-Pumping applications. The algorithm is designed to start the optimization process from a predefined torque-speed area, its desired envelope, and the performance characteristics of the motor to be obtained after the optimization process, providing the information in an efficiency map, according to a predefined control strategy (MTPA, MTPV, etc.). This work also implements an image comparison technique based on the structural similarity index to evaluate the objective function.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Entrance in the Castle of Portell

[EN] The church square is part of the old castle of Portell. In this square, an old staircase, in poor condition and with excessive slope, connected the gap between the town and the upper part of the walled enclosure. The existing staircase is replaced by building a new more convenient access, occupying a small municipal plot located next to the square. The new access comes up as if it were deposited on the natural ground, thus facilitates a more leisurely and comfortable promenade that invites to stop and sit down, join and converse. A small enclosure is built with the new walls and, on the other hand, they co-exist with what already existed. A concrete wall configures the boundaries of the square not directly showing the new entrance, but rather, it is suggested behind it inviting to enter and explore it.[ES] La plaza de l’Esglèsia forma parte del antiguo castillo de Portell. En esta plaza, una antigua escalera, en mal estado y con excesiva pendiente, conectaba el desnivel entre la población y la parte superior del recinto amurallado. Se sustituye la escalera existente construyendo un nuevo acceso más cómodo, ocupando un pequeño solar municipal recayente a la plaza. El nuevo acceso asciende entendiéndose como depositado sobre el terreno natural, facilita un recorrido más pausado y cómodo que invita a parar y sentarse, al encuentro y la conversación. Los nuevos muros construyen un pequeño recinto y, por otra parte, se relacionan con lo existente. Un muro de hormigón configura los límites de la plaza. sin mostrar directamente el nuevo acceso, sino más bien, se sugiere detrás de él e invitan a entrar y recorrerlo.García Blay, A.; Ruiz Suaña, JA. (2018). Acceso en el castillo de Portell. En CIAB 8. VIII Congreso Internacional de arquitectura blanca. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. 174-181. https://doi.org/10.4995/CIAB8.2018.7432OCS17418

Introduction to nonlinearities, business cycles, and forecasting

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P2x7 receptor antagonism as a potential therapy in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

This review focuses on the purinergic ionotropic receptor P2X7 (P2X7R) as a potential target for developing drugs that delay the onset and/or disease progression in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Description of clinical and genetic ALS features is followed by an analysis of advantages and drawbacks of transgenic mouse models of disease based on mutations in a bunch of proteins, particularly Cu/Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1), TAR-DNA binding protein-43 (TDP-43), Fused in Sarcoma/Translocated in Sarcoma (FUS), and Chromosome 9 open reading frame 72 (C9orf72). Though of limited value, these models are however critical to study the proof of concept of new compounds, before reaching clinical trials. The authors also provide a description of ALS pathogenesis including protein aggregation, calcium-dependent excitotoxicity, dysfunction of calcium-binding proteins, ultrastructural mitochondrial alterations, disruption of mitochondrial calcium handling, and overproduction of reactive oxygen species (ROS). Understanding disease pathogenic pathways may ease the identification of new drug targets. Subsequently, neuroinflammation linked with P2X7Rs in ALS pathogenesis is described in order to understand the rationale of placing the use of P2X7R antagonists as a new therapeutic pharmacological approach to ALS. This is the basis for the hypothesis that a P2X7R blocker could mitigate the neuroinflammatory state, indirectly leading to neuroprotection and higher motoneuron survival in ALS patients.This project has received funding from: (1) the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement No. 766124; (2) the Spanish Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation SAF2016-78892R; and (3) Fundación Teófilo Hernando