Engaging without over-powering: A case study of a FLOSS project

This is the post-print version of the published chapter. The original publication is available at the link below. Copyright @ 2010 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing.The role of Open Source Software (OSS) in the e-learning business has become more and more fundamental in the last 10 years, as long as corporate and government organizations have developed their educational and training programs based on OSS out-of-the-box tools. This paper qualitatively documents the decision of the largest UK e-learning provider, the Open University, to adopt the Moodle e-learning system, and how it has been successfully deployed in its site after a multi-million investment. A further quantitative study also provides evidence of how a commercial stakeholder has been engaged with, and produced outputs for, the Moodle community. Lessons learned from this experience by the stakeholders include the crucial factors of contributing to the OSS community, and adapting to an evolving technology. It also becomes evident how commercial partners helped this OSS system to achieve the transition from an “average” OSS system to a successful multi-site, collaborative and community-based OSS project

La función derivada a partir de una visualización de la linealidad local

Las nociones de derivada en un punto y de función derivada entrañan tradicionalmente una dificultad especial para los alumnos. La forma clásica de introducir el concepto de derivada, con la noción de límite en el centro de sus acepciones puntual y funcional, conlleva un alto nivel de complejidad, lo que pudiera explicar el origen de la dificultad mencionada. En este trabajo se presenta el diseño, la implementación y la valoración de una secuencia de actividades didácticas asistidas por computadora, que promueve la construcción de significado en torno a la función derivada, con alumnos del primer curso de Cálculo de la División de Ingeniería de la Universidad de Sonora, buscando constituir una primera introducción al tratamiento posterior a través de límites, desde la noción de linealidad local

The hydrological regime of a forested tropical Andean catchment.

The hydrology of tropical mountain catchments plays a central role in ecological function, geochemical and biogeochemical cycles, erosion and sediment production, and water supply in globally important environments. There have been few studies quantifying the seasonal and annual water budgets in the montane tropics, particularly in cloud forests. We investigated the water balance and hydrologic regime of the Kosñipata catchment (basin area: 164.4 km2) over the period 2010–2011. The catchment spans over 2500 m in elevation in the eastern Peruvian Andes and is dominated by tropical montane cloud forest with some high-elevation puna grasslands. Catchment-wide rainfall was 3112 ± 414 mm yr−1, calculated by calibrating Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) 3B43 rainfall with rainfall data from nine meteorological stations in the catchment. Cloud water input to streamflow was 316 ± 116 mm yr−1 (9.2% of total inputs), calculated from an isotopic mixing model using deuterium excess (Dxs) and δD of waters. Field streamflow was measured in 2010 by recording height and calibrating to discharge. River run-off was estimated to be 2796 ± 126 mm yr−1. Actual evapotranspiration (AET) was 688 ± 138 mm yr−1, determined using the Priestley and Taylor–Jet Propulsion Laboratory (PT-JPL) model. The overall water budget was balanced within 1.6 ± 13.7%. Relationships between monthly rainfall and river run-off follow an anticlockwise hysteresis through the year, with a persistence of high run-off after the end of the wet season. The size of the soil and shallow groundwater reservoir is most likely insufficient to explain sustained dry-season flow. Thus, the observed hysteresis in rainfall–run-off relationships is best explained by sustained groundwater flow in the dry season, which is consistent with the water isotope results that suggest persistent wet-season sources to streamflow throughout the year. These results demonstrate the importance of transient groundwater storage in stabilising the annual hydrograph in this region of the Andes

Belnap-Dunn semantics for natural implicative expansions of Kleene's strong three-valued matrix with two designated values

27 p.A conditional is natural if it fulfils the three following conditions. (1) It coincides with the classical conditional when restricted to the classical values T and F; (2) it satisfies the Modus Ponens; and (3) it is assigned a designated value whenever the value assigned to its antecedent is less than or equal to the value assigned to its consequent. The aim of this paper is to provide a ‘bivalent’ Belnap-Dunn semantics for all natural implicative expansions of Kleene's strong 3-valued matrix with two designated elements. (We understand the notion ‘natural conditional’ according to N. Tomova, ‘A lattice of implicative extensions of regular Kleene's logics’, Reports on Mathematical Logic, 47, 173–182, 2012.)S

Neoteetonics of the eastern border of the Madrid basin

[Abstract] An analysis ofthe neotectonic activity and the current stress state of the eastern border of Madrid Basin has been carried ont using structural-methods (fault population analysis), as well as seismological methods. Two stress tensors have been established: - Tensor 1: with a N1500E shortening trend, characterized mainly by strikeslip faults. This tensor corresponds to the «Guadarrama» stress field (Capote et al., 1990), wihch causes the Central System structure; dated middle Aragonian -lower Pleistocene in the eastern border ofMadrid Basin (Muñoz Martín, 1993). - Tensor 2: dated post-Iower Pleistocene, with a N150° E extension trend, characterized basically by normal faults. Actual stress tensor deduced focal mechanisms by the seismological method is compatible with the paleostress field deduced for the middle-Iower Pleistocene (tensor 2)

Off-shell N=2 tensor supermultiplets

A multiplet calculus is presented for an arbitrary number n of N=2 tensor supermultiplets. For rigid supersymmetry the known couplings are reproduced. In the superconformal case the target spaces parametrized by the scalar fields are cones over (3n-1)-dimensional spaces encoded in homogeneous SU(2) invariant potentials, subject to certain constraints. The coupling to conformal supergravity enables the derivation of a large class of supergravity Lagrangians with vector and tensor multiplets and hypermultiplets. Dualizing the tensor fields into scalars leads to hypermultiplets with hyperkahler or quaternion-Kahler target spaces with at least n abelian isometries. It is demonstrated how to use the calculus for the construction of Lagrangians containing higher-derivative couplings of tensor multiplets. For the application of the c-map between vector and tensor supermultiplets to Lagrangians with higher-order derivatives, an off-shell version of this map is proposed. Various other implications of the results are discussed. As an example an elegant derivation of the classification of 4-dimensional quaternion-Kahler manifolds with two commuting isometries is given.Comment: 36 page

Spatial variation of aerosol properties over Europe derived from satellite observations and comparison with model calculations

International audienceAerosol optical depths (AOD) and Angström coefficients over Europe were retrieved using data from the ATSR-2 radiometer on board the ESA satellite ERS-2, for August 1997. Taking advantage of the nadir and forward view of the ATSR-2, the dual view algorithm was used over land to eliminate the influence of the surface reflection. Over sea the AOD was retrieved using only the forward observations. Retrieved aerosol optical properties are in good agreement with those from ground-based sunphotometers. The AOD and Angström coefficients together yield information on the column integrated effective aerosol distribution. Observed regional variations of the AOD and Angström coefficient are related to anthropogenic emissions of aerosol precursors such as SO2 and NOx in the major European industrial and urban areas, and their subsequent transformation into the aerosol phase. The influence of anthropogenic aerosols such as ammonium sulphate and ammonium nitrate on the total AOD is estimated using a regional chemistry transport model. Sulphate is estimated to contribute from 15% in very clean areas to 70% in polluted areas, the contribution of nitrate is between 5% and 25% over most of Europe. This paper shows the great importance of nitrate in summer over The Netherlands