The Other Side as a Rule Rather than an Exception

AbstractCurrently, intercultural and heterogeneous realities set the tone in 21st literary education. Therefore, the role of multicultural children's literature plays an essential role in order to reflect this intercultural diversity in Spanish classrooms. In this regard, The Other Side (2001) portrays an African American experience where interaction, communication and negotiation become crucial aspects for their protagonists. In this way, this picture book can be used not only to teach English as a foreign language in primary school, but also to show values like respect, tolerance and partnership

Gold-catalyzed direct cycloketalization of acetonide-tethered alkynes in the presence of water

A methodology for the direct preparation of bridged acetals from acetonide-tethered alkynes under gold catalysis in the presence of water has been developed. The bicyclic ring structures bearing a bridged five-membered ring arise from the regioselective bis-oxycyclization by initial attack of the oxygen atom to the internal alkyne carbon. © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.Peer Reviewe

Integrated Circuitry to Detect Slippage Inspired by Human Skin and Artificial Retinas

This paper presents a bioinspired integrated tactile coprocessor that is able to generate a warning in the case of slippage via the data provided by a tactile sensor. Some implementations use different layers of piezoresistive and piezoelectric materials to build upon the raw sensor and obtain the static (pressure) as well as the dynamic (slippage) information. In this paper, a simple raw sensor is used, and a circuitry is implemented, which is able to extract the dynamic information from a single piezoresistive layer. The circuitry was inspired by structures found in human skin and retina, as they are biological systems made up of a dense network of receptors. It is largely based on an artificial retina , which is able to detect motion by using relatively simple spatial temporal dynamics. The circuitry was adapted to respond in the bandwidth of microvibrations produced by early slippage, resembling human skin. Experimental measurements from a chip implemented in a 0.35-mum four-metal two-poly standard CMOS process are presented to show both the performance of the building blocks included in each processing node and the operation of the whole system as a detector of early slippage.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2006-12376-C02-01Gobierno de España TEC2006- 1572

Integrated circuit interface for artificial skins

Artificial sensitive skins are intended to emulate the human skin to improve the skills of robots and machinery in complex unstructured environments. They are basically smart arrays of pressure sensors. As in the case of artificial retinas, one problem to solve is the management of the huge amount of information that such arrays provide, especially if this information should be used by a central processing unit to implement some control algorithms. An approach to manage such information is to increment the signal processing performed close to the sensor in order to extract the useful information and reduce the errors caused by long wires. This paper proposes the use of voltage to frequency converters to implement a quite straightforward analog to digital conversion as front end interface to digital circuitry in a smart tactile sensor. The circuitry commonly implemented to read out the information from a piezoresistive tactile sensor can be modified to turn it into an array of voltage to frequency converters. This is carried out in this paper, where the feasibility of the idea is shown through simulations and its performance is discussed.Gobierno de España TEC2006-12376-C02-01, TEC2006-1572

An alternative Volt-VAR management scheme for active distribution grids: ABB

Larger penetration of distributed generation and active loads is expected in the near future. These new loads have brought up new challenges to the electrical networks as well as new possible opportunities. The possibility of using these new elements to regulate and control the voltage is considered as the future scenario. Therefore this thesis, develops a coordination between the most common elements in the networks (capacitor banks, STATCOMs, OLTCs/VRs and DGs), in order to study their interaction and how they together could manage the voltage level. In addition, EV charging station integration has been also evaluated. Considering this scenario, several simulations varying different parameters such as time delay or bandwidth are carried out. Also the concept line compensation is taken into consideration in the networks analysed. Through all the simulations accomplished it is proved that a coordination is necessary between all the elements. Later on, a discussion about how each configuration affects the network complete this thesis. Besides, the simulated scenarios show that DGs and EVs can contribute to voltage regulation in an effcient way.Ingeniería Industria

Robust high-accuracy high-speed continuous-time CMOS current comparator

The authors present a CMOS current comparator which employs nonlinear negative feedback to obtain high-accuracy (down to 1.5pA) and high-speed for low input currents (8ns at 50nA). The new structure features a speed improvement of more than two orders of magnitude for a 1 nA input current, when compared to the fastest reported to date

A mismatch-insensitive high-accuracy high-speed continuous-time current comparator in low voltage CMOS

This paper presents a CMOS current comparator which employs nonlinear feedback to obtain high-accuracy (down to 1.5 pA) and high-speed for low input currents (8 ns@50 nA). This structure is much faster for low currents (below 10 /spl mu/A) than other previous nonlinear feedback comparators. Particularly, when compared to the fastest current comparator reported up to now, the new one operates at more that 100 times faster for a 1 nA current, with smaller area occupation and similar power consumption. In addition, the new comparator is virtually insensitive to mismatch and capable of operating with supply voltages as low as 1 V

Tactile on-chip pre-processing with techniques from artificial retinas

The interest in tactile sensors is increasing as their use in complex unstructured environments is demanded, like in tele-presence, minimal invasive surgery, robotics etc. The matrix of pressure data these devices provide can be managed with many image processing algorithms to extract the required information. However, as in the case of vision chips or artificial retinas, problems arise when the array size and the computation complexity increase. Having a look to the skin, the information collected by every mechanoreceptor is not carried to the brain for its processing, but some complex pre-processing is performed to fit the limited throughput of the nervous system. This is specially important for high bandwidth demanding tasks. Experimental works report that neural response of skin mechanoreceptors encodes the change in local shape from an offset level rather than the absolute force or pressure distributions. This is also the behavior of the retina, which implements a spatio-temporal averaging. We propose the same strategy in tactile preprocessing, and we show preliminary results when it faces the detection of the slip, which involves fast real-time processing.Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnología TIC2003 - 09817-C0

El rol de la família en la literatura infantil i juvenil del segle XXI: el desenvolupament de la competència lectora intercultural a través d’un àlbum il·lustrat

Tradicionalment la família ha estat un dels temes més adreçats als xiquets. En aquest sentit, el principal objectiu d’aquest article serà la reformulació del terme família al voltant dels nous models, com el que es mostra a l’àlbum il·lustrat In Our Mothers’ House (2009). A través de la història d’una família allunyada dels cànons tradicionals, explorarem com tracta Polacco el tema de la família i la interculturalitat atenent al gran valor que adquireix en la formació dels alumnes com a éssers humans. Representa, per tant, una eina eficaç i útil per a mostrar als estudiants que no existeix un únic concepte de família, així com la rellevància de la interculturalitat al món que els envolta. A més a més, promoure la competència literària i lectora intercultural en el segle XXI convida els alumnes a pensar d’una manera crítica i reflexiva, i fomenta la seua imaginació i creativitat. En conclusió, mitjançant un àlbum il·lustrat es pot afavorir el desenvolupament del xiquet no sols en àrees lingüístiques, literàries i cognitives sinó també morals i cíviques.Traditionally, family has been one of the themes most aimed to children. In this sense, the main objective of this work is the reformulation of the term family taking into account the new models as it is shown in the picture book In Our Mothers’ House (2009). Through the story of a family, which is away from the traditional canons, Polacco explores the theme of family and interculturality regarding its great value in the development of students as human beings. It represents, therefore, a useful and effective tool to show students that there is not a unique concept of family and the relevance of interculculturalism in the world around them. In addition, the promotion of intercultural literary competence in the XXI century invites students to think critically and reflectively and it also encourages their imagination and creativity. In conclusion, through picture books the development of children in not only linguistic, literary and cognitive but also moral and civic areas can be fostered

La educación literaria a través del álbum ilustrado: el desarrollo de la interculturalidad en la clase de inglés como lengua extranjera

En un mundo globalizado e internacional como el actual, tanto la interculturalidad como el multiculturalismo se muestran como nociones universales en el desarrollo integral del ser humano desde su infancia. Esto es debido a que aspectos como la solidaridad, la justicia social, el compañerismo, la empatía y la proximidad al otro forman parte y deben ser aprendidos en las aulas del siglo XXI. En este sentido, la heterogeneidad y la diversidad constituyen los elementos esenciales de la propuesta educativa que presentamos en esta tesis doctoral. Así, hemos considerado que la literatura; concretamente, el álbum ilustrado -artefacto cultural dotado de lenguaje narrativo y visual- es, sin lugar a dudas, el recurso más idóneo para transmitir dichos valores y también para la enseñanza/aprendizaje de inglés como lengua extranjera. Pretendemos, por tanto, fomentar el desarrollo de la competencia literaria y la multiliteracidad interculturales a través de una selección de álbumes ilustrados en una clase de sexto de primaria de inglés como lengua extranjera. Por consiguiente, bajo estas directrices, realizamos una selección de ocho álbumes ilustrados en relación a temáticas multi e interculturales. Se trata de ocho historias que reflejan momentos concretos de la historia o conflictos donde los autores buscan fomentar el pensamiento crítico-reflexivo, la imaginación, la curiosidad y la creatividad de sus lectores. Somos conscientes de que a través de los álbumes escogidos los niños pueden inferir conocimientos cognitivos, literarios, estéticos, sociales y culturales e iniciar un proceso de construcción y negociación de significado a través de una identificación y conocimiento personal que los acerca más al otro. Seguidamente, llevamos a cabo el diseño y la implementación de una secuencia didáctica basada en cuatro de los ochos álbumes. Esta vez la selección se basó en el contexto del alumnado y en la temporización, así como en la muestra de algunos de los temas más significativos y actuales como el “empoderamiento” de la mujer o el racismo. Tras analizar los resultados de la experiencia docente práctica, concluimos que los beneficios del uso de la literatura en el aula son numerosos ya que permiten un desarrollo integral del ser humano como estudiante y como persona.In a current, globalized and international world, both interculturalism and multiculturalism are shown as universal notions in the integral development of human beings from their childhood since aspects such as solidarity, social justice, partnership or empathy and proximity to the Other must be emphasized in the 21st century classrooms. In this sense, heterogeneity and diversity are the essential elements of the educative proposal which we present in this doctoral thesis. Thus, we have considered literature; specifically, picturebooks - cultural artifacts endowed with narrative and visual language - are, without a doubt, the most appropriate resource to transmit these values and also for teaching/learning of English as a foreign language. We intend, therefore, to promote the development of intercultural literary competence and multiliteracity through picturebooks in a sixth grade class of English as a foreign language. Therefore, following these guidelines, we made a selection of eight picturebooks regarding multi and intercultural themes. It is about eight stories that reflect specific historical moments or conflicts where the authors seek to foster critical-reflective thinking, imagination, curiosity and creativity among their readers. We are aware that through the selected picturebooks children can infer cognitive, literary, aesthetic, social and cultural knowledge and initiate a process of construction and negotiation of meaning through an identification and some personal knowledge that bring them closer to the Other. Next, we carry out the design and implementation of a didactic sequence based on four of the eight picturebooks. This time the selection was based on the context of the students and timing, as well as on the sample of some of the most significant and current issues such as the "empowerment" of women or racism. After analyzing the results of the practical teaching experience, we conclude that the benefits of using literature in the classroom are numerous since they enable an integral development of human beings as students and as people