Musical commemorations in post-Civil War Spain: Joaquín Rodrigo’s <i>Concierto Heroico</i>

No abstract available

Review of "Rock Around Spain. Historia, Industria, Escenas y Medios de Comunicación", edited by Kiko Mora and Eduardo Viñuela

No abstract available

Robust error detection methods for H.264/AVC videos

The 3rd generation of mobile systems is mainly focused on enabling multimedia services such as video streaming, video call and conferencing. In order to achieve this, the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), is the standard that has been developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership ect (3GPP) in Europe, including the baseline profile of H.264/AVC in the specification. With the union of both technologies a great improvement on video transmission over mobile networks, and even modification of the user habits towards the use of the mobile phone is expected. Nevertheless, video transmission has always been related to wired networks and unfortunately the migration to wireless networks is not as easy as it seems. In real time applications the delay is a critical constraint. Usually, transmission protocols without delivery warranties, like the User Network Protocol (UDP) for IP based networks, are used. This works under the assumption that in real time applications dropped packets are preferable to delayed packets. Moreover, in UMTS the network needs to be treated in a different way, thus the wireless channel is a prone error channel due to its high time variance. Typically, when transmitting video, the receiver checks whether the information packet is corrupted (by means of a checksum) or if its temporal mark exceeds the specified delay. This approach is suboptimal, due to the fact that perhaps the video information is not damaged and could still be used. Instead, residual redundancy on the video stream can be used to locate the errors in the corrupted packet, increasing the granularity of the typical upper-layer checksum error detection. Based on this, the amount of information previous to the error detection can be decoded as usually. The aim of this thesis is to combine some of the more effective methods concretely, Syntax check, Watermarking and Checksum schemes have been reformulated, combined and simulated

Libraries and Information Systems Need XML/RDF... but Do They Know It?

This article presents an approach to the uses of XML (eXtensible Markup Language) and Semantic Web technologies in the field of information services, focusing mainly on the creation and management of digital libraries compared to traditional libraries, while paying special attention to the concept and application of metadata, and RDF based integration

Media for a Change: Use of Films in the EFL Classroom to Teach Social Justice and Culture

Learning about culture plays a fundamental role in communication even though it is not always included in English instruction. Students can develop a greater tolerance and become aware of different cultural backgrounds and social issues, which increase their interest and motivation. The main aim of this Master’s Dissertation is to present a didactic proposal for first-year Bachillerato students in which selected clips from films and TV shows can be used in the classroom to initiate discussion about cultural elements and social justice issues taking place in the past and present of the United States. Moreover, the proposal pursues a development of the students’ critical thinking that allows a thorough reflection on inequalities not only in American culture but also in their own country.El conocimiento de las culturas extranjeras puede resultar determinante durante la comunicación a pesar de que no siempre se incluye en la enseñanza de la lengua inglesa. Los alumnos pueden desarrollar una mayor tolerancia y conciencia de elementos culturales y problemas de justicia social que, a su vez, puede repercutir en un incremento del interés y la motivación por la lengua. Este Trabajo de Fin de Máster busca presentar una propuesta didáctica para alumnos de primero de Bachillerato en la que se utilicen películas y series que reflejen la cultura americana y su contexto para iniciar conversaciones y debates sobre esa cultura y algunos problemas de justicia social. La propuesta también busca desarrollar el pensamiento crítico de los alumnos a través de una profunda reflexión acerca de desigualdades presentes, no solo en Estados Unidos, sino también en la propia cultura española.Departamento de Filología InglesaMáster en Profesor de Educación Secundaria Obligatoria y Bachillerato, Formación Profesional y Enseñanzas de Idioma

Information Policies in Spain: Towards the New “Information Society”

The concept of a society based on information and knowledge is becoming the norm in every country, including Spain. The need to have well-designed information policies that allow us to come to terms with the new upsurge of media, technology and services that has taken place in our society is discussed first. Information policies required by these changes in society have been implemented in Spain and are described in relation to the new challenges of the “Society of Knowledge.” Similarly, the background and past efforts made in the field of information policy in Spain are analysed, along with the latest government projects that comprise an attempt to get this country to form part of the “Information Society” with the help of the supra-national information policy of the European Union

Metadata and ontologies for organizing students’ memories and learning: standards and convergence models for context awareness

Este artículo trata de las ontologías que sirven para la comprensión en contexto y la Gestión de la Información Personal (PIM)y su aplicabilidad al proyecto Memex Metadata(M2). M2 es un proyecto de investigación de la Universidad de Carolina del Norte en Chapel Hill para mejorar la memoria digital de los alumnos utilizando tablet PC, la tecnología SenseCam de Microsoft y otras tecnologías móviles(p.ej. un dispositivo de GPS) para capturar el contexto del aprendizaje. Este artículo presenta el proyecto M2, dicute el concepto de los portafolios digitales en las actuales tendencias educativas, relacionándolos con las tecnologías emergentes, revisa las ontologías relevantes y su relación con el proyecto CAF (Context Awareness Framework), y concluye identificando las líneas de investigación futuras.This paper focuses on ontologies supporting context awareness and Personal Information Management (PIM) and their applicability in Memex Metadata (M2) project. M2 is a research project of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill to improve student digital memories using the tablet PC, Microsoft’s SenseCam technology, and other mobile technologies (e.g., a GPS device) to capture context. The M2 project offers new opportunities studying students’ learning with digital technologies. This paper introduces the M2 project; discusses E-portfolios and current educational trends related to pervasive computing; reviews relevant ontologies and their relationship to the projects’ CAF (context awareness framework), and concludes by identifying future research directions

Vegetationshistoria och etablering av Picea abies (L.) Karst. i Härjedalen, mellersta Sverige

The traditional theory about Picea abies (L.) Karst. arrival and establishment in Sweden is being revised. Until Picea abies megafossils were radiocarbon dated between the late-Glacial and the mid-Holocene (Kullman, 2000), it was widely accepted that Picea abies established at the Swedish East coast approximately 3500 B.P., then spreading to the South and West. Early- to mid-Holocene occurrence of Picea abies in previous pollen diagrams, such as Lundqvist (1969), that were considered as long distance pollen transport, could now be interpreted as early outposts of Picea abies. The overall aim of this project is to reconstruct the past vegetation in central Sweden. The specific question is whether pollen records can verify the early-Holocene Picea abies establishment in Sweden as is suggested by Lundqvist (1969). A pollen analysis study was performed in Stenhammaren, in the Härjedalen province (central Sweden), a few kilometres from the site with high early pollen proportion of Picea abies. The results permit the reconstruction of the past vegetation in the site, however no early Picea abies pollen has been found. Nevertheless, the presence of Picea abies trees near the study site in the early-Holocene should not be discarded, and further research is needed. RESUMEN La teoría tradicional acerca de la llegada y establecimiento de Picea abies (L.) Karst. en Suecia está siendo revisada. Hasta que megafósiles de Picea abies fueron datados por radiocarbono entre el fin de la glaciación y el Holoceno Medio (Kullman, 2000), era ampliamente aceptado que Picea abies se estableció en la costa este de Suecia aproximadamente 3500 A.P., propagándose más tarde hacia el sur y oeste. La aparición en el temprano y medio Holoceno de Picea abies en diagramas de polen previos, tales como Lundqvist (1969), eran considerados polen transportado desde larga distancia, ahora podrían ser interpretados como posiciones tempranas de Picea abies. El objetivo general de este proyecto es reconstruir el pasado de la vegetación en el centro de Suecia. La cuestión específica es si registros de polen pueden verificar el establecimiento de Picea abies en Suecia al comienzo del Holoceno, como sugiere Lundqvist (1969). Se ha llevado a cabo un estudio de análisis de polen en Stenhammaren, en la provincia de Härjedalen (centro de Suecia), a pocos kilómetros del lugar con alta proporción de polen de Picea abies temprano. Los resultados permiten la reconstrucción del pasado de la vegetación en el lugar, sin embargo no se ha encontrado polen temprano de Picea abies. A pesar de todo, la presencia de árboles de Picea abies cerca del lugar de estudio al comienzo del Holoceno no debe ser descartada, y más investigaciones son necesarias

A real variable characterization of Gromov hyperbolicity of flute surfaces

23 pages, 1 figure.-- MSC2000 codes: 41A10, 46E35, 46G10.-- ArXiv pre-print available at: http://arxiv.org/abs/0806.0093Previously presented as Communication at International Congress of Mathematicians 2006 (ICM2006, Madrid, Spain, Aug 22-30, 2006).Preaccepted for publication at: Osaka Journal of MathematicsIn this paper we give a characterization of the Gromov hyperbolicity of trains (a large class of Denjoy domains which contains the flute surfaces) in terms of the behavior of a real function. This function describes somehow the distances between some remarkable geodesics in the train. This theorem has several consequences; in particular, it allows to deduce a result about stability of hyperbolicity, even though the original surface and the modified one are not quasi-isometric.Research partially supported by three grants from M.E.C. (MTM 2006-11976, MTM 2006-13000-C03-02 and MTM 2007-30904-E), Spain.No publicad

Four lichen species new to Spain

Se presentan cuatro nuevas citas de líquenes de España, concretamente Aspicilia ruceniuro, Lecanora stenotropa, Vezdaea leprosa y Xanthoparmelia plitii. Las especies probablemente no son raras pero habían sido obviadas, bien por ser inconspicuas bien por ser similares morfológicamente a otras especies.Four species of Lichens are reported as new to Spain, namely Aspicilia moenium, Lecanora stenotropa, Vezdaea leprosa aud Xanthoparmelia plitii. The species are probably not rare, but overlooked, since they are either inconspicuous or morphologically similar to other [email protected]