Disseny de les instal·lacions d'un pàrquing soterrat de dues plantes a Lleida

El present projecte té per objectiu el d'especificar les condicions tècniques i econòmiques de la instal·lació de protecció contra incendis, ventilació i la d'electricitat necessàries per a la posta en marxa d'un pàrquing de dues plantes soterrades per a vehicles

Wireless monitoring for cliff stabilization at La Clua (Pre-Pyrenees, Spain)

La Clua is a village at the foot of a conglomerate cliff (Pre-Pyrenees, Spain), eventually af-fected by rockfalls. After last big event, in 2009, that affected a house of the village, a rope net was installed to protect the village. In order to obtain information about the performance of the protecting net, but also to gain knowledge on the triggering mechanism a wireless mon-itoring system was installed. The system is equipped with sensors (4 crackmeters, 2 biaxial tiltmeters, 2 rope tension load cells and 2 thermistors) that are measuring the changes on two unstable boulders (one protected with the net, the other not). Sensors are connected to wire-less dataloggers, installed next to the sensors and send data to the gateway. In this site, gate-way is located 250 m far from the furthest logger, but thanks to the long range technology of the system, loggers can be up to several km far from the gateway and the data which is pushed to an internet server every 15 minutes. Preliminary results show that no relevant movements have been observed in the boulders, since February 2016. Only some slight changes of around 0.15º have been observed after heavy rainfall events in spring.Postprint (published version

Origin of scale-free intermittency in structural first-order phase transitions

Acknowledgments FJPR acknowledges the financial support from the Carnegie Trust. LT acknowledges the financial support from the french ANR grant EVOCRIT.Peer reviewedPostprin

Automatic Melody Composition Inspired by Short Melodies Using a Probabilistic Model and Harmonic Rules

This demo shows how automatic melody composition of melodies that follow the style of a certain singleshort melodic excerpt can be achieved in such a way that the sample excerpt can be considered an inspirationalpiece of music for the automatic compositor.Music composition has been faced from diverse perspectives and using different approaches, among them theutilization of probabilistic schemes is common since early stages. For example, Brooks et al. [1] considerthe direct utilization of m-order Markov chains for music analysis and generation, and other authors havefollowed a relatively similar path [2]. Often large data sets are necessary to train music generation systems,though in some rare cases algorithms are developed to perform automatic melody composition based on asingle sample melody [5]; in such case, the application of explicit rules is of great importance.Considering the probabilistic approach to music models and music rules on the basis of the melody generationmodel developed in [4], a melody generation scheme is designed that is capable of generating music excerptswith the style and resemblance of short individual MIDI melody samples.Since only one sample melody of arbitrarily small duration will be considered, some modification must bedone to the system described in [4]. Specifically, modifications are necessary in the extraction of musicalparameters and in the generation scheme in order to provide with the necessary musical variability for theadaptation of extracted musical parameters and patterns. .Universidad de Málaga, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech.This work was funded by Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad of the Spanish Government under Project No. TIN2016-75866-C3-2-R

Water-washed fine and coarse recycled aggregates for real scale concretes production in Barcelona

The use of recycled aggregate to reduce the over-exploitation of raw aggregates is necessary. This study analysed and categorised the properties of water-washed, fine and coarse, recycled aggregates following European Normalization (EN) specification. Because of their adequate properties, zero impurities and chemical soluble salts, plain recycled concrete was produced using 100% recycled concrete aggregates. Two experimental phases were conducted. Firstly, a laboratory phase, and secondly, an on-site work consisting of a real-scale pavement-base layer. The workability of the produced concretes was validated using two types of admixtures. In addition, the compressive and flexural strength, physical properties, drying shrinkage and depth of penetration of water under pressure validated the concrete design. The authors concluded that the worksite-produced concrete properties were similar to those obtained in the laboratory. Consequently, the laboratory results could be validated for large-scale production. An extended slump value was achieved using 2.5–3% of a multifunctional admixture plus 1–1.2% of superplasticiser in concrete production. In addition, all the produced concretes obtained the required a strength of 20 MPa. Although the pavement-base was produced using 300 kg of cement, the concrete made with 270 kg of cement per m3 and water/cement ratio of 0.53 achieved the best properties with the lowest environmental impact.Peer ReviewedObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i InfraestructuraObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura::9.1 - Desenvolupar infraestructures fiables, sostenibles, resilients i de qualitat, incloent infraestructures regionals i transfrontereres, per tal de donar suport al desenvolupament econòmic i al benestar humà, amb especial atenció a l’accés assequible i equitatiu per a totes les personesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura::9.4 - Per a 2030, modernitzar les infraestructures i reconvertir les indústries perquè siguin sostenibles, usant els recursos amb més eficàcia i promovent l’adopció de tecnologies i processos industrials nets i racionals ambiental­ment, i aconseguint que tots els països adoptin mesures d’acord amb les capacitats respectivesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::9 - Indústria, Innovació i Infraestructura::9.5 - Augmentar la investigació científica i millorar la capacitat tecnològica dels sectors industrials de tots els països, en particular els països en desenvolupament, entre d’altres maneres fomentant la innovació i augmentant substancialment, d’aquí al 2030, el nombre de persones que treballen en el camp de la investigació i el desenvolupa­ment per cada milió d’habitants, així com la despesa en investigació i desenvolupament dels sectors públic i privatObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::11 - Ciutats i Comunitats SosteniblesObjectius de Desenvolupament Sostenible::12 - Producció i Consum ResponsablesPostprint (published version

Interacción con la Música Flamenca: Análisis y Generación

One main concern in Europe is the preservation and promotion of cultural heritage. Music is a main component of such heritage and flamenco is a main part of Andalusian musical culture. Focusing on flamenco music, in this paper, we describe steps on the analysis and generation of flamenco music oriented towards the diffusion and promotion of this musical style. Specifically, the separation of meaningful musical audio elements from flamenco excerpts by means of the scheme that will be described provides a novel an interactive way of listening to flamenco music by enabling the user to select or emphasize audio elements at will. Also, the scheme for the interactive generation of flamenco music that will be presented allows the user to play and interact with flamenco music by means of a user friendly interface implemented for iOS devices.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech. Ese trabajo ha sido parcialmente financiado por Campus de Excelencia Internacional en Patrimonio, PATRIMONIUN-10, para programas de generación de investigación de referencia internacional en materia de Patrimonio Cultural y Natural, convocatoria realizada en el ámbito del proyecto PATRIMONIUN-10, Jaén, Marzo de 2014, y por el Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad del Gobierno de España, Proyecto TIN2013-47276-C6-2-R

Pain and anxiety treatment based on social robot interaction with children to improve patient experience. Ongoing research

A major focus for children’s quality of life programs in hospitals is improving their experiences during procedures. In anticipation of treatment, children may become anxious and during procedures pain appears. The aim of this article is to introduce a proposal to design pioneering techniques based on the use of social robots to improve the patient experience by eliminating or minimizing pain and anxiety. According to this proposed challenge, this research aims to design and develop specific human-social robot interaction with pet robots. Robot interactive behavior will be designed based on modular skills using soft-computing paradigms.Postprint (published version

Identification of Plitidepsin as Potent Inhibitor of SARS-CoV-2-Induced Cytopathic Effect After a Drug Repurposing Screen

There is an urgent need to identify therapeutics for the treatment of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Although different antivirals are given for the clinical management of SARS-CoV-2 infection, their efficacy is still under evaluation. Here, we have screened existing drugs approved for human use in a variety of diseases, to compare how they counteract SARS-CoV-2-induced cytopathic effect and viral replication in vitro. Among the potential 72 antivirals tested herein that were previously proposed to inhibit SARS-CoV-2 infection, only 18 % had an IC50 below 25 µM or 102 IU/ml. These included plitidepsin, novel cathepsin inhibitors, nelfinavir mesylate hydrate, interferon 2-alpha, interferon-gamma, fenofibrate, camostat along the well-known remdesivir and chloroquine derivatives. Plitidepsin was the only clinically approved drug displaying nanomolar efficacy. Four of these families, including novel cathepsin inhibitors, blocked viral entry in a cell-type specific manner. Since the most effective antivirals usually combine therapies that tackle the virus at different steps of infection, we also assessed several drug combinations. Although no particular synergy was found, inhibitory combinations did not reduce their antiviral activity. Thus, these combinations could decrease the potential emergence of resistant viruses. Antivirals prioritized herein identify novel compounds and their mode of action, while independently replicating the activity of a reduced proportion of drugs which are mostly approved for clinical use. Combinations of these drugs should be tested in animal models to inform the design of fast track clinical trials.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Problem-Based Learning in Graduate and Undergraduate Chemistry Courses: Face-to-Face and Online Experiences

he problem-based learning (PBL) methodology has been applied in a set of chemistry courses at the University of Barcelona to determine the main factors that are relevant to a satisfactory application of this educational approach in different contexts (from undergraduate to master subjects). The exceptional situation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic has also forced us to adapt this methodology from the traditional face-to-face modality to an online version. Thus, the resulting comparative study has allowed us to identify the main aspects of each subject, student background, and modality used, which are relevant to a satisfactory application of PBL. In general, the application of the PBL methodology using Moodle and BBCollaborate as live teaching platforms has a positive impact on student learning and satisfaction. Interestingly, although the face-to-face implementation is preferred to the online modality, students evaluate positively the application of online PBL with respect to the traditional online teaching. Thus, the intrinsic characteristics of PBL, which enhance the learning motivation with suitable problems to be solved in groups, makes this required collaborative work a key point to facilitate student learning