Traffic Sign Recognition System

The research group CAOS at the Computing Department of the Carlos III University of Madrid, Spain, offers an efficient recognition system for traffic signs using a set of classifiers. This system can be used as part of an active security system in cars. The fact that the system is based on a set of classifiers facilitates a distributed implementation, resulting in cheaper hardware and an improvement in fault-tolerance.Contrato Programa de Comercialización e Internacionalización. Sistema Regional de Investigación Científica e Innovación Tecnológica. (Comunidad de Madrid; Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Molecular modification of coumarin dyes for more efficient dye sensitized solar cells

solo para uso personalIn this work, new coumarin based dyes for dye sensitized solar cells (DSSC) have been designed by introducing several substituent groups in different positions of the NKX-2311 structure. Two types of substitutions have been considered: the introduction of three electron-donating groups (–OH, –NH2, and –OCH3) and two different substituents with steric effect: –CH2–CH2–CH2– and –CH2–HC=CH–. The electronic absorption spectra (position and width of the first band and absorption threshold) and the position of the LUMO level related to the conduction band have been used as theoretical criteria to evaluate the efficiency of the new dyes. The introduction of a –NH2 group produces a redshift of the absorption maximum position and the absorption threshold, which could improve the cell efficiency. In contrast, the introduction of –CH2–CH2–CH2– does not modify significantly the electronic structure of NKX-2311, but it might prevent aggregation. Finally, –CH2– HC=CH– produces important changes both in the electronic spectrum and in the electronic structure of the dye, and it would be expected as an improvement of cell efficiency for these dyes.Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación de España-MAT2008-4918 y CSD2008-002

Objective Competitiveness Ranking amongst EU Regions (Objective Method for Quantifying Regional Competitiveness - a case study applied to EU15 Regions)

Nowadays the key target of Cohesion Policy is to promote the creation of conditions to improve the growth, and to increase the factors that lead to a real convergence (Economic and Social Cohesion). An important group of these factors is found when considering the competitivity of a Region that implies, (even whitout existintg a clear definition), to consider at the same time two different levels: - The first one through the specific factors to improve the development of the resident managerial weave (Innovation, Research & Development, enterprises nets, labour market, training, support in the use of new technologies, servicies to entreprises, etc.). – The second one, improving the enviromental conditions for the development of such an managerial activity (Transport and comunication infrastructures, environment and sustainable developpment ,use of renewable energies, etc.) The objetcive of the present paper is to propose an objective way to consider the totalitiy of factors simultaneously, in order to obtain a ranking of the of the regional competitivity, and to study his changes in the time. For this, it will be used the data base “REGIO” and techniques of ranking belonging to multicriteria decision making. The analyzed period is from 1987 to 2002 which shows interesting results mainly when compared with other analyses carried out.

Visiting Dark Murals: An Ethnographic Approach to the Sustainability of Heritage

[EN] Political, war-themed and controversial murals aim to show the history of a community, making the intangible tangible, and, because these events are still recent, they stir people's emotions. Visitors to this type of heritage have a mixture of artistic and dark interests that lead to what we call 'dark mural attractions'. These political murals need a public strategy to be preserved, become better known and attract local economic development funds to make them sustainable. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to analyse how communities could build a co-narrative around murals to generate a sustainable local development. To achieve this goal, an in depth study needs to be performed to establish what kind of narrative will enable political murals to attract dark visitors and examine how communities can build a sustainable co-narrative around a dark mural. As a case study, we analyse the Battle of Cable Street mural in London, located in the non-touristic borough of Tower Hamlets, by means of an ethnographic qualitative approach based on stakeholders' opinions, among other sources. In this case, results show that dark murals have the potential to attract visitors, but they require a public strategy for the sustainability of heritage, based on a narrative of community solidarity for educational and discovery purposes.This research was funded by the Valencian Regional Government, Spain, during the visiting research period of De Miguel at the University of Roehampton, under the enlightened supervision of Jonathan Skinner. Grant number: BEST/2019/175.De-Miguel-Molina, M. (2020). Visiting Dark Murals: An Ethnographic Approach to the Sustainability of Heritage. Sustainability. 12(2):1-16. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12020677S116122Hooper, G., & Lennon, J. J. (Eds.). (2016). Dark Tourism. doi:10.4324/9781315575865Yan, L., Xu, J. (Bill), Sun, Z., & Xu, Y. (2019). Street art as alternative attractions: A case of the East Side Gallery. Tourism Management Perspectives, 29, 76-85. doi:10.1016/j.tmp.2018.11.001Culture for Sustainable Development. UNESCOhttps://en.unesco.org/themes/culture-sustainable-developmentSantamarina-Campos, V., Carabal-Montagud, M. Á., Miguel-Molina, M. D., & Miguel-Molina, B. D. (Eds.). (2017). Conservation, Tourism, and Identity of Contemporary Community Art. doi:10.1201/9781315209586Neill, W. J. V. (2001). Marketing the Urban Experience: Reflections on the Place of Fear in the Promotional Strategies of Belfast, Detroit and Berlin. Urban Studies, 38(5-6), 815-828. doi:10.1080/00420980125183Walls and Places: Political Murals in Belfasthttp://web2.uwindsor.ca/courses/ps/dartnell/wallandplaces.htmlCampos, R., & Sequeira, Á. (2019). Urban Art touristification: The case of Lisbon. Tourist Studies, 20(2), 182-202. doi:10.1177/1468797619873108De Miguel Molina, M., de Miguel Molina, B., & Santamarina Campos, V. (2019). Visiting African American murals: a content analysis of Los Angeles, California. Journal of Tourism and Cultural Change, 18(2), 201-217. doi:10.1080/14766825.2019.1597877Merrill, S. (2014). Keeping it real? Subcultural graffiti, street art, heritage and authenticity. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 21(4), 369-389. doi:10.1080/13527258.2014.934902McAuliffe, C., & Iveson, K. (2011). Art and Crime (and Other Things Besides … ): Conceptualising Graffiti in the City. Geography Compass, 5(3), 128-143. doi:10.1111/j.1749-8198.2011.00414.xBarnes, T. J., & Hayter, R. (1992). ‘The Little Town That Did’: Flexible Accumulation and Community Response in Chemainus, British Columbia. Regional Studies, 26(7), 647-663. doi:10.1080/00343409212331347281Grondeau, A., & Pondaven, F. (2018). Le street art, outil de valorisation territoriale et touristique : l’exemple de la Galeria de Arte Urbana de Lisbonne. EchoGéo, (44). doi:10.4000/echogeo.15324Improving Places: Culture & Business Improvement District Partnershipshttps://www.artscouncil.org.uk/publication/improving-places-culture-business-improvement-district-partnershipsSaunders, A. (2013). Recovering the street: relocalising urban geography. Journal of Geography in Higher Education, 37(4), 536-546. doi:10.1080/03098265.2013.801069Figini, P., & Vici, L. (2012). Off-season tourists and the cultural offer of a mass-tourism destination: The case of Rimini. Tourism Management, 33(4), 825-839. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2011.09.005Arts audiences: Insighthttps://www.artscouncil.org.uk/sites/default/files/download-file/arts_audience_insight_2011.pdfLight, D. (2017). Progress in dark tourism and thanatourism research: An uneasy relationship with heritage tourism. Tourism Management, 61, 275-301. doi:10.1016/j.tourman.2017.01.011Cohen, E. H. (2011). Educational dark tourism at an in populo site. Annals of Tourism Research, 38(1), 193-209. doi:10.1016/j.annals.2010.08.003Seaton, A. V. (1996). Guided by the dark: From thanatopsistothanatourism. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2(4), 234-244. doi:10.1080/13527259608722178Foley, M., & Lennon, J. J. (1996). JFK and dark tourism: A fascination with assassination. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 2(4), 198-211. doi:10.1080/13527259608722175Raine, R. (2013). A dark tourist spectrum. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 7(3), 242-256. doi:10.1108/ijcthr-05-2012-0037Blom, T. (2000). Morbid tourism - a postmodern market niche with an example from Althorp. Norsk Geografisk Tidsskrift - Norwegian Journal of Geography, 54(1), 29-36. doi:10.1080/002919500423564de-Miguel-Molina, M., & Barrera-Gabaldón, J. L. (2019). Controversial heritage: the Valley of the Fallen. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 13(1), 128-143. doi:10.1108/ijcthr-01-2019-0006Koster, R. L. P. (2008). Mural-based tourism as a strategy for rural community economic development. Advances in Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research Volume 2, 153-292. doi:10.1016/s1871-3173(08)02004-1Isaac, R. K., Çakmak, E., & Butler, R. (Eds.). (2019). Tourism and Hospitality in Conflict-Ridden Destinations. doi:10.4324/9780429463235Arandelovic, B., & Bogunovich, D. (2014). City profile: Berlin. Cities, 37, 1-26. doi:10.1016/j.cities.2013.10.007Heidenry, R. (2014). The Murals of El Salvador: Reconstruction, Historical Memory and Whitewashing. Public Art Dialogue, 4(1), 122-145. doi:10.1080/21502552.2014.878486Skinner, J., & Jolliffe, L. (Eds.). (2017). Murals and Tourism. doi:10.4324/9781315547978Koensler, A., & Papa, C. (2011). Political tourism in the Israeli-Palestinian space (Respond to this article at http://www.therai.org.uk/at/debate). Anthropology Today, 27(2), 13-17. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8322.2011.00796.xMcAtackney, L. (2011). Peace maintenance and political messages: The significance of walls during and after the Northern Irish ‘Troubles’. Journal of Social Archaeology, 11(1), 77-98. doi:10.1177/1469605310392321Crooke, E. (2010). The politics of community heritage: motivations, authority and control. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 16(1-2), 16-29. doi:10.1080/13527250903441705Morris, P., & Arford, T. (2018). «Sweat a little water, sweat a little blood»: A spectacle of convict labor at an American amusement park. Crime, Media, Culture: An International Journal, 15(3), 423-446. doi:10.1177/1741659018780201Narvselius, E. (2018). Demonized, domesticated, virtualized: fortification buildings as a case of Prussian heritage in present-day Kaliningrad. Nationalities Papers, 46(3), 400-421. doi:10.1080/00905992.2017.1374938Murtagh, B., Boland, P., & Shirlow, P. (2017). Contested heritages and cultural tourism. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 23(6), 506-520. doi:10.1080/13527258.2017.1287118Ong, C.-E., Minca, C., & Felder, M. (2014). The historic hotel as ‘quasi-freedom machine’: negotiating utopian visions and dark histories at Amsterdam’s Lloyd Hotel and ‘Cultural Embassy’. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 10(2), 167-183. doi:10.1080/1743873x.2014.985223Shaw, W. M. K. (2017). In Situ: The Contraindications of World Heritage. International Journal of Islamic Architecture, 6(2), 339-365. doi:10.1386/ijia.6.2.339_1Frew, E. A. (2012). Interpretation of a sensitive heritage site: the Port Arthur Memorial Garden, Tasmania. International Journal of Heritage Studies, 18(1), 33-48. doi:10.1080/13527258.2011.603908Upton, A., Schänzel, H., & Lück, M. (2017). Reflections of battlefield tourist experiences associated with Vietnam War sites: an analysis of travel blogs. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 13(3), 197-210. doi:10.1080/1743873x.2017.1282491Podoshen, J. S. (2016). Trajectories in Holocaust tourism. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 12(4), 347-364. doi:10.1080/1743873x.2016.1197228Yankholmes, A., & McKercher, B. (2015). Rethinking slavery heritage tourism. Journal of Heritage Tourism, 10(3), 233-247. doi:10.1080/1743873x.2014.988159Eriksson, P., & Kovalainen, A. (2008). Qualitative Methods in Business Research. doi:10.4135/9780857028044An antidote to the far right’s poison’—The battle for Cable Street’s muralhttps://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2016/sep/21/battle-cable-street-mural-fascists-east-endStanding Up to Hatred on Cable Streethttps://www.facinghistory.org/resource-library/standing-democracy/standing-hatred-cable-streetMccarthy, J. (2006). Regeneration of Cultural Quarters: Public Art for Place Image or Place Identity? Journal of Urban Design, 11(2), 243-262. doi:10.1080/13574800600644118Yirik, S., Seyitoğlu, F., & Çakar, K. (2016). From the white darkness to dark tourism: the case of Sarikamish. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality Research, 10(3), 245-260. doi:10.1108/ijcthr-06-2015-0064The Battle of Cable Street. APT Filmshttps://vimeo.com/5817684Duffy, A. (2016). Trusting me, trusting you: Evaluating three forms of trust on an information-rich consumer review website. Journal of Consumer Behaviour, 16(3), 212-220. doi:10.1002/cb.1628Museum in Cable St about women and suffragettes turns out to be ‘Jack the Ripper’. The Docklands & East London Advertiserhttps://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/heritage/museum-in-cable-st-about-women-and-suffragettes-turns-out-to-be-jack-the-ripper-1-4172863Miguel Molina, M., & Skinner, J. (2019). Walls of Expression and Dark Murals Tourism. Anthropology News, 60(6). doi:10.1111/an.1310Strange, C., & Kempa, M. (2003). Shades of dark tourism. Annals of Tourism Research, 30(2), 386-405. doi:10.1016/s0160-7383(02)00102-0Young, A. (2010). Negotiated consent or zero tolerance? Responding to graffiti and street art in Melbourne. City, 14(1-2), 99-114. doi:10.1080/1360481090352521

Distributed photovoltaic generation in Spain: analysis of the impact of energy regulation in the economic viability of photovoltaic installations for self consumption; UC3M Campus of Leganés case study

The aim of this paper is to evaluate the impact that energy regulation has on the viability of distributed PV applications for self-consumption. More precisely, the impact of the application of backup charges on self-consumption as well as the remunerating mechanisms for surplus of electricity injected into the grid. The current Spanish energy regulation is reviewed, together with those from the international panorama, applicable in some of the countries where distributed solar PV for self-consumption is more relevant. This is done in order to explore the impact of alternative regulatory mechanisms. The analysis is based on a hypothetical solar installation to be deployed at Carlos III University’s Campus of Legan´es. A solar potential analysis of the premises was carried out making use of PVSol Software. Furthermore, a tool was developed through Matlab for the techno-economic analysis of the investment. The main conclusions obtained from this analysis is that the application of variable backup charges for self-consumption has a very negative impact on the profitability of these projects, where the main purpose of the generated electricity is to be consumed locally. In fact, removing the variable backup-charge on self-consumption increases savings by around 24%. Under the current Spanish regulation, the project would not be economically viable, having a negative NPV and very low returns (3%). The implementation of an investment compensation mechanism improves the profitability of the project, having a positive NPV, but offering low returns (5.28%). The most profitable remuneration mechanism is found to be a feed-in-tariff, followed by a net metering mechanism. However, this does not produce a comparable increase in savings given the small percentage of electricity exported to the grid.Ingeniería de la Energí

An enhanced classifier system for autonomous robot navigation in dynamic environments

In many cases, a real robot application requires the navigation in dynamic environments. The navigation problem involves two main tasks: to avoid obstacles and to reach a goal. Generally, this problem could be faced considering reactions and sequences of actions. For solving the navigation problem a complete controller, including actions and reactions, is needed. Machine learning techniques has been applied to learn these controllers. Classifier Systems (CS) have proven their ability of continuos learning in these domains. However, CS have some problems in reactive systems. In this paper, a modified CS is proposed to overcome these problems. Two special mechanisms are included in the developed CS to allow the learning of both reactions and sequences of actions. The learning process has been divided in two main tasks: first, the discrimination between a predefined set of rules and second, the discovery of new rules to obtain a successful operation in dynamic environments. Different experiments have been carried out using a mini-robot Khepera to find a generalised solution. The results show the ability of the system to continuous learning and adaptation to new situations.Publicad

Acerca de la atracción de pobladores en las ciudades fronterizas de la España cristiana (siglos XI - XII)

Sin resume

Descripción de la larva y la pupa en tres especies de Iberodorcadion Breuning, 1943 (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Laminae)

Se describe la larva y la pupa de Iberodorcadion (Hispnnodorcadion) hispanicum (Mulsant, 1851), I.(H.) ghilianii (Chevrolat, 1862) e I.(H.) perezi (Graells, 1849). En todas ellas los caracteres preimaginales resultan ser aún mis homogéneos que los del adulto, lo que indica una gran proximidad filogenética entre los tres taxones.Description of larva and pupa of three Iberodorcadion Breuning, 1943 species (Coleoptera, Cerambycidae, Lamiinae). Larval and pupa1 stages of lberodorcadion (Hispanodorcadion) hispanicum (Mulsant, 1851), I.(H.) ghilianii (Chevrolat, 1862) e I.(H.) perezi (Graells, 1849) are described. The homogeneity of preimaginal characters show a filogenetical relationship very closed in the taxa studied

Neural network controller against environment: A coevolutive approach to generalize robot navigation behavior

In this paper, a new coevolutive method, called Uniform Coevolution, is introduced to learn weights of a neural network controller in autonomous robots. An evolutionary strategy is used to learn high-performance reactive behavior for navigation and collisions avoidance. The introduction of coevolutive over evolutionary strategies allows evolving the environment, to learn a general behavior able to solve the problem in different environments. Using a traditional evolutionary strategy method, without coevolution, the learning process obtains a specialized behavior. All the behaviors obtained, with/without coevolution have been tested in a set of environments and the capability of generalization is shown for each learned behavior. A simulator based on a mini-robot Khepera has been used to learn each behavior. The results show that Uniform Coevolution obtains better generalized solutions to examples-based problems.Publicad

Las TICS aplicadas a las necesidades educativas especiales

Durante todo el proceso en el que he desarrollado mi trabajo he intentado descubrir los beneficios que aportan la Nuevas Tecnologías en el proceso de enseñanza – aprendizaje en un centro específico de educación especial, tomando como punto de partida mi propia práctica docente y experiencia personal. Me interesa conocer los beneficios que aportan las Nuevas Tecnologías a los alumnos con Necesidades Educativas Especiales y como favorecen su desarrollo integral y su integración en la sociedad. Por último, es una forma de enfocar el compromiso de toda una comunidad educativa en la inclusión de las nuevas tecnologías en su tarea docente, no sólo porque son unas herramientas útiles sino por la actualización de la Escuela al progreso tecnológicoGrado en Educación Primari