Technical and systemic keys and context of Hispanic fortifications on Western Mediterranean coast

[EN] On recent years, we have developed two new ways of scientific approximation to the study of fortifications: the technical analysis and the systemical analysis. Now, it is possible to recognize a personality and a characteristic technical evolution of the Hispanic fortification departing from the works, the debates, and the treatises generated since the end of 15th Century to the 18th Century. It is also possible to recognize, since the first periods, a clear intention to understand the fortification as a territorial system in which every single piece has its own mission and presents some specific characters that are not understandable from the independent study of every fortification. The current presentations review the technical and systemical keys that allow us to recognize and characterize the Hispanic fortification on the Western Mediterranean Sea. Those keys allow us to surpass the excessive valuation given to the orthodox following of the treatises and to recognize the value of technological landmark of many of the most heterodoxical fortifications. Those keys also allow us to reinterpret our vision of the landscape value of the fortification from new technical and systemic aspects.Cobos-Guerra, F. (2015). Technical and systemic keys and context of Hispanic fortifications on Western Mediterranean coast. En Defensive architecture of the mediterranean: XV to XVIII centuries. Vol. I. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. XIX-XXXIV. https://doi.org/10.4995/FORTMED2015.2015.1803OCSXIXXXXI

Caracterización y Evolución Técnica de la Fortificación Hispánica (1474-1700)

La tesis recoge el trabajo de investigación desarrollado por el doctorando en los últimos 25 años y está compuesta por 11 artículos previamente publicados que abordan la Caracterización Técnica de la Fortificación Hispánica entre 1474 y 1700 y sus relaciones e influencias con la fortificación de la Europa no hispánica en dicho periodo. Basada tanto en fuentes documentales como en análisis técnicos de fortificaciones construidas o tratados de la época, desarrolla una metodología de estudio que caracteriza la labor de los ingenieros, los tratadistas y las propias construcciones de la Corona española frente a la supuesta dependencia de las influencias comúnmente atribuidas a la tratadística no hispánica. El estudio analiza inicialmente las fortificaciones del periodo experimental como La Mota o Salsas, el trabajo de ingenieros como Ramiro López y su influencia en Francia e Italia a través del estudio de fuentes documentales y de los códices y tratados de Giorgio Martini, Leonardo o Durero. El siglo XVI se analiza desde el estudio de los principios de la fortificación abaluartada a partir de los tratados de Escrivá o Rojas y de las obras más significativas del periodo construidas por la Corona. La fortificación del XVII se analiza finalmente desde la teoría de la tratadística hispánica (Santans, Villegas, Escuela de Palas…) comparándose con tratadística hispana posterior (Cassani, Lucuce…) y con la tratadística europea y las teorías de Vauban. Se presta especial atención al análisis de los métodos gráficos y matemáticos de diseño y a la caracterización de sistemas territoriales de fortificación vinculados a fronteras terrestres o marítimas. El resultado del estudio permite reconocer características propias de la fortificación hispánica, en contrapunto con la supuesta dependencia de modelos italianos o franceses, y se distinguen diversos periodos dentro de la evolución de la fortificación hispánica en función de la preeminencia en cada época de algunas de estas características

Heart-rate modulations reveal attention and consciousness interactions

This is a pre-print. The final version of the manuscript can be consulted at DOI: 10.1111/psyp.13295Our environment is constantly overloaded with information, although we cannot consciously process all the stimulation reaching our senses. Current theoretical models are focused on the cognitive and neural processes allowing conscious perception. However, cognitive processes do not occur in an isolated brain, but in a complex interaction between the environment, the brain, and the organism. The brain-body interaction has largely been neglected in the study of conscious perception. The aim of the present study was to explore if heart rate (HR) and skin conductance (SC) are affected by the interaction between phasic alertness and conscious perception. We presented near-threshold visual stimuli which could be preceded by an alerting tone on 50% of the trials. Behaviorally, phasic alerting improved perceptual sensitivity to detect the near-threshold stimulus (along with changes in response criterion). Following the alerting tone, a cardiac deceleration-acceleration pattern was observed, which was more pronounced when the near-threshold stimulus was consciously perceived in comparison with unconsciously perceived stimuli. SC results further showed some degree of subliminal processing of unseen stimuli. These results reveal that cardiac activity could be a marker of attention and consciousness interactions, emphasizing the need of supplementing current theoretical models with a biological component

Towards a functional characterization of collaborative systems

The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-23734-8_30Proceedings of 8th International Conference, CDVE 2011, Hong Kong, China, September 11-14, 2011.In this paper we present major results of a detailed study about the functionalities that are present in different collaborative systems, realized as collaborative components. We have used this study to establish a methodology for the automatic generation of collaborative applications supporting group needs. The methodology is directed to any community of end users, who do not need to have any programming skills.This research was partly funded by the Spanish National Plan of R+D, project number TIN2008-02081/TIN and by the CAM (Autonomous Community of Madrid), project number S2009/TIC-1650

Artillería y poliorcética castellana en la estrategia de Fernando el Católico contra Francia. (Documentos para su estudio)

Not AvailableSe presenta un conjunto de documentos inéditos (1475-1503) sobre las dotaciones, características y empleo de la artillería, tanto española como francesa, en el asalto y defensa de las fortalezas, vinculándose la estrategia de su desarrollo al de las fortalezas claves del periodo de transición. Se apunta así una estrategia específica y distinta del resto de Europa en la España de los Reyes Católicos bajo cuyo reinado los responsables de la artillería y de la fortificación eran un mismo cuerpo de artilleros que desarrollaron sofisticados sistemas tanto de asalto como de defensa

Integrating open services for building educational environments

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 works.I. D. Carlos, R. Cobos, E. Guerra, J. de Lara, A. Pescador, and J. Sánchez Cuadrado, “Integrating Open Services for Building Educational Environments”, in Global Engineering Education Conference, Berlin (Germany), 2013, pp. 1147-1156The increasing popularity of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) has raised the need for highly scalable, customizable, open learning environments. At the same time, there is a growing trend to open the services that the companies offer on the web with open APIs and in the form of REST services, facilitating their integration in customized applications. The goal of this work is to show how such open services can be used for the support of on-line educational systems. These services were not created for an education context, so it is necessary to complement it with functionalities for supporting aspects such as evaluations, monitoring or collaboration. This article discusses on the strategies for integrating services for education and presents two cases studies: first, SMLearning, a collaborative learning environment supported by social media platforms Facebook and YouTube, and second, an application for project-based programming courses, customized through a generative architecture, making heavy use of Google services.This research was partly funded by the Spanish National Plan of R+D, project number TIN2011-24139; and by the Autonomous Community of Madrid, e-Madrid project, number S2009/TIC-1650

Herramienta de monitorización para mejorar las prestaciones de los grupos electrógenos fueloil en Cuba

En emplazamientos de grupos electrógenos de tecnología Hyundai instalados en Cuba se han presentado algunos problemas de funcionamiento que imposibilitan una rápida y correcta respuesta de los operarios ante distintas situaciones ocurridas. Por ejemplo, los reguladores de viscosidad en las baterías de los emplazamientos han sufrido averías debido a las vibraciones y altas temperaturas, ocasionando interrupciones, aumento del consumo de combustible, afectaciones en el suministro energético, elevación de los costes de explotación, incremento de la frecuencia de mantenimiento, afectación en la eficacia del Grupo y disminución de su vida útil, haciéndose más sensible al estar enlazado con el sistema nacional. Además, debido a la mala calidad y ubicación deficiente de los termómetros encargados de medir la temperatura de los gases a la salida de los cilindros de los motores hay una tendencia creciente a un daño irreparable en los mismos, ya que en algunos casos la lectura no es posible y no se garantiza la fiabilidad de la medición. En este trabajo se propone una posible solución a los problemas anteriormente mencionados mediante una herramienta de monitorización que permite incorporar a la aplicación de supervisión y control las mediciones de temperatura, la posibilidad de interactuar con la viscosidad, nuevas alarmas y acciones correctivas que el operador debe realizar. Las acciones anteriormente reseñadas se espera que contribuyan a la mejora de la disponibilidad energética de los grupos de esta tecnología, ya que garantizan que las válvulas de escape no se quemen y por tanto no se pierda la energía térmica que se convierte en energía mecánica de rotación. Además de aportar a la eficiencia energética se elimina el gasto por continuas adquisiciones de válvulas, montaje y mantenimiento. Con relación a la viscosidad se garantiza el funcionamiento del emplazamiento a plena capacidad y se ahorra en la adquisición de instrumentos como viscosímetr

Electrochemical Activation of Ni Catalysts with Potassium Ionic Conductors for CO2 Hydrogenation

Three different kind of Ni-based catalysts were prepared on a K-β″Al2O3 solid electrolyte by combining the annealing of an organometallic paste and the addition of a catalyst powder. The different catalysts films were tested in the CO2 hydrogenation reaction under electrochemical promotion by K+ ions, and were characterized by XRD and SEM. The catalyst film derived from the addition of an α-Al2O3 powder to the Ni catalyst ink presented the highest catalytic activity as a result of the increase in Ni catalyst film porosity. The influence of the applied potential and other operation variables were evaluated on the Ni catalytic activity and selectivity. Hence, the CO production rate was enhanced either by decreasing the applied potential (with the consequent supply of K+ ions to the catalyst surface) or by increasing the CO2 (electron acceptor) feed concentration. On the other hand, CH4 production rate was favoured at positive potentials (removing K+ from the catalyst surface) or by increasing the H2 (electron donor) feed concentration. The global CO2 consumption rate increased upon negative polarization in all experiments and the electrochemical promotion of catalysis effect showed to be reversible and reproducible. Hence, the electrochemical promotion phenomena demonstrated to be a very useful technique to in situ modify and control the catalytic activity and selectivity of a non-noble metal such as Ni for the production of CH4 or syngas via CO2 valorization.Es la versión preprint del artículo. Se puede consultar la versión final en https://doi.org/10.1007/s11244-015-0488-

Exploring Dietary Behavior Changes Due to the COVID-19 Confinement in Colombia: A National and Regional Survey Study

The authors would like to extend their gratitude and acknowledgments to all study participants and to all Foundations, Institutions, and Societies that supported the survey, helping in the process of dissemination: Asociacion Colombiana de Dietistas y Nutricionistas, ACODIN, Asociacion Colombiana de Facultades de Nutricion y Dietetica (ACOFANUD), Asociacion de Egresados de Nutricion y Dietetica de la Universidad Nacional (ANDUN), Colegio colombiano de nutricionistas Dietistas-COLNUD, Observatorio de Soberania y Seguridad alimentaria y Nutricional de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia (OBSSAN UN). The authors are also thankful to Gloria Esperanza Prada Gomez from Universidad Industrial de Santander (Facultad de Salud, Escuela de Nutricion y Dietetica), who also supported the dissemination of the survey in the Eastern region of Colombia. Sonia Liliana Pertuz Cruz is thankful to Fundacion Carolina, for a doctoral scholarship award.The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of coronavirus SARS-Cov2 (COVID-19) confinement measures in Colombia on the dietary behaviors of a large population sample, at national and regional levels. A survey was conducted to assess dietary behaviors during the COVID-19 confinement. The survey involved 2,745 participants, aged 18 years or older, from six regions of the country (Atlantica, Bogota, Central, Oriental, Orinoquia and Amazonia, and Pacifica). Dietary intake of foods and foods groups in grams per day before and during the confinement was estimated by considering standard serving sizes of foods. One-way ANOVA was used to analyze differences between the regions with regard to dietary behavior changes during the confinement. Differences were deemed significant at p-value < 0.05. Dietary patterns (DPs) before and during the confinement were derived from principal component analysis. Certain dietary habits were adopted by the study population during the confinement (e.g., higher frequency of snacking and home cooking), with significant differences by regions with regard to these habits, as well as regarding culinary processes. The levels of consumption of several foods also changed during the confinement, nationally and regionally. We identified three DPs before the confinement (protein-rich, carbohydrate-rich, and sugar foods patterns) and four DPs during the confinement (westernized, carbohydrate-rich, protein-rich, fish and fruits-vegetable patterns), with an explained total variance of 33 and 45%, respectively. The profile of these DPs varied to some extent between the regions; their adherence to each DP also varied (p-value < 0.001). Our results show that there were marked differences by regions in the dietary behaviors of this population during the confinement, with an overall trend toward unhealthier DPs. These results may help to shape public health nutrition interventions in Colombia during the COVID-19 pandemic and in a post-COVID stage.Fundacion CarolinaAsociacion Colombiana de Dietistas y Nutricionistas, ACODINAsociacion Colombiana de Facultades de Nutricion y Dietetica (ACOFANUD)Asociacion de Egresados de Nutricion y Dietetica de la Universidad Nacional (ANDUN)Colegio colombiano de nutricionistas Dietistas-COLNUDObservatorio de Soberania y Seguridad alimentaria y Nutricional de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia (OBSSAN UN