Detection of irrigation inhomogeneities in an olive grove using the NDRE vegetation index obtained from UAV images

We have developed a simple photogrammetric method to identify heterogeneous areas of irrigated olive groves and vineyard crops using a commercial multispectral camera mounted on an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). By comparing NDVI, GNDVI, SAVI, and NDRE vegetation indices, we find that the latter shows irrigation irregularities in an olive grove not discernible with the other indices. This may render the NDRE as particularly useful to identify growth inhomogeneities in crops. Given the fact that few satellite detectors are sensible in the red-edge (RE) band and none with the spatial resolution offered by UAVs, this finding has the potential of turning UAVs into a local farmer’s favourite aid tool.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

Functional explanation of extreme hatching asynchrony: Male Manipulation Hypothesis

Hatching asynchrony in birds is considered an adaptation to facilitate brood reduction because under conditions of food scarcity, the smallest nestling usually dies soon after hatching, thereby minimizing parental effort. However, in species with extreme hatching asynchrony, the last hatchlings paradoxically experience a very low probability of survival and death can take so long that it can hardly be considered an adaptation. Here, we propose and experimentally tested a new adaptive hypothesis explaining the brood reduction paradox, namely the “Male Manipulation Hypothesis”. Our hypothesis suggests that by inducing asynchronous hatching, females increase the feeding requirements of the brood, which will induce males to increase provisioning effort. In addition, females may extend the period of male manipulation by feeding the smallest nestling just enough to sustain life. Our study showed that male common blackbirds (Turdus merula) increased their effort (i.e., number of food items per hour) in experimental asynchronous broods compared to synchronous broods, while females reduced their contribution, as predicted by the hypothesis

Making a virtual learning environment for non-assisted physics laboratory

The Physics laboratory is usually the main place where our students of engineering approach to the physical daily reality, from the technological and the scientific point of view, through experiments and motivating demonstrations. Thinking of those students that can not follow an established schedule of attendance to the classroom, an innovative educational material has been created, which is based on digital filming of the experiments that nowadays are carried out in our real Physics laboratory. The objective is to minimize the lack of acquisition of some abilities associated with the real experimentation, by means of the use of virtual experiments and by working others individual competences by a streaming video. The filming is accompanied by some tutorials that introduce the experiment and illustrate the associated theoretical concepts, together with some simulations. Evaluation and self-evaluation tests are also available to monitor the student’s learning. Anyone can find all the material in the webpage: http://www.epsem.upc.edu/~practiquesfisica/ After putting these materials into practice, we have carried out a survey in which the students compare the real and the virtual experimentation systems and to ask their opinion about the quality of the generated material for two different experiments. The answers of the students encourage us to produce more material of this kind and to improve the autonomous learning of our future students of engineering.Peer Reviewe

Hydrodynamic limit of a coupled Cucker-Smale system with strong and weak internal variable relaxation

This project has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No 639638), the MECD (Spain) research grant FPU14/06304, the MINECO-Feder (Spain) research grant number RTI2018- 098850-B-I00, the Junta de Andalucia (Spain) Projects PY18-RT-2422 & A-FQM-311-UGR18 (D.P, J.S).In this paper, we present the hydrodynamic limit of a multiscale system describing the dynamics of two populations of agents with alignment interactions and the effect of an internal variable. It consists of a kinetic equation coupled with an Euler-type equation inspired by the thermomechanical Cucker–Smale (TCS) model. We propose a novel drag force for the fluid-particle interaction reminiscent of Stokes’ law. Whilst the macroscopic species is regarded as a self-organized background fluid that affects the kinetic species, the latter is assumed sparse and does not affect the macroscopic dynamics. We propose two hyperbolic scalings, in terms of a strong and weak relaxation regime of the internal variable towards the background population. Under each regime, we prove the rigorous hydrodynamic limit towards a coupled system composed of two Euler-type equations. Inertial effects of momentum and internal variable in the kinetic species disappear for strong relaxation, whereas a nontrivial dynamics for the internal variable appears for weak relaxation. Our analysis covers both the case of Lipschitz and weakly singular influence functions.European Research Council (ERC) 639638MECD (Spain) FPU14/06304MINECO-Feder (Spain) RTI2018-098850-B-I00Junta de Andalucia European Commission PY18-RT-2422 A-FQM-311-UGR18Basic Science Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - Ministry of Science and ICT NRF-2020R1A4A307906

El turismo social accesible como nuevo modelo turístico

El concepto de Turismo Social viene íntimamente vinculado al desarrollo de actividades turísticas y de ocio por aquellos grupos sociales más desfavorecidos bien sea por motivos sociales o bien por motivos económicos. Junto a este concepto, surge el llamado Turismo Accesible, vinculado, sin embargo, al desarrollo de actividades turísticas por personas que presentan problemas de accesibilidad y funcionalidades diferentes. Tradicionalmente, ambos modelos turísticos habían sido estudiados por separado en atención a los destinatarios de cada uno de ellos. No obstante, se pretende ofrecer un nuevo concepto que aúna la esencia subyacente en cada uno de los tipos turísticos señalados, éste es, el llamado Turismo Social Accesible1. Y ello, por considerar que el nuevo panorama sociológico hace necesario la no exclusión del desarrollo del turismo de ninguna persona, sea cuál sea su funcionalidad, capacidad económica o situación social. 

Elaboració de material multimèdia de suport per al laboratori de física aplicada.

L’objectiu del projecte ha estat incrementar el material docent, digital i multimèdia, del laboratori de física, per tal d'optimitzar els resultats d'anteriors projectes (2007MQD00084, UPC_PMD2007), centrant-nos en el rendiment de les màquines relacionades amb processos industrials. Els futurs enginyers han de saber dissenyar màquines més eficients en un entorn tecnològic cada vegada més competitiu sense oblidar d’analitzar els efectes que poden transcendir en el medi ambient. El rendiment o eficiència és un paràmetre clau que cal ser estimat. El projecte es desenvolupa a l’entorn de la filmació de vídeos de quatre temàtiques diferents: calorimetria (calorímetre elèctric), energia elèctrica (pila elèctrica), màquines tèrmiques (motor Stirling) i energia solar (col•lector solar tèrmic). En els dos primers casos s’ha elaborat material en format digital que permet preparar, realitzar i després analitzar les dades obtingudes, i elaborar un informe de les pràctiques igual com si l’estudiantat l’hagués fet al laboratori. També s’ha dissenyat un sistema d'autoavaluació de l'aprenentatge de l'estudiantat i d'avaluació de companys. En els altres dos casos, el material elaborat es dedica preferentment a explicar el funcionament dels aparells. Aquest material permetrà a l'estudiantat realitzar pràctiques de laboratori no presencials, complementant l'experimentació al laboratori en augmentar les seves competències formatives: capacitat d'anàlisi i síntesi, treball en equip, presa de decisions, compromís ètic...Peer Reviewe

Filippov trajectories and clustering in the Kuramoto model with singular couplings

The work of J. Park was supported by the Basic Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) funded by the MSIT(NRF-2020R1A4A3079066). The work of D. Poyato (D.P.) and J. Soler (J.S.) has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement No. 639638), the MECD (Spain) research grant FPU14/06304 (D.P), the MINECO-Feder (Spain) research grant number RTI2018-098850-B-I00, the Junta de Andalucia (Spain) Projects PY18-RT-2422 & A-FQM-311-UGR18 (D.P., J.S.).We study the synchronization of a generalized Kuramoto system in which the coupling weights are determined by the phase differences between oscillators. We employ the fast-learning regime in a Hebbian-like plasticity rule so that the interaction between oscillators is enhanced by the approach of phases. First, we study the well-posedness problem for the singular weighted Kuramoto systems in which the Lipschitz continuity fails to hold. We present the dynamics of the system equipped with singular weights in all the subcritical, critical and supercritical regimes of the singularity. A key fact is that solutions in the most singular cases must be considered in Filippov’s sense. We characterize sticking of phases in the subcritical and critical case and we exhibit a continuation criterion for classical solutions after any collision state in the supercritical regime. Second, we prove that strong solutions to these systems of differential inclusions can be recovered as singular limits of regular weights.We also study the emergence of synchronous dynamics for the singular and regular weighted Kuramoto models.Basic Research Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) - MSIT NRF-2020R1A4A3079066European Research Council (ERC) 639638MECD (Spain) FPU14/06304MINECO-Feder (Spain) RTI2018-098850-B-I00Junta de Andalucia European Commission PY18-RT-2422 A-FQM-311-UGR1

Making a virtual learning environment for non-assisted physics laboratory

The Physics laboratory is usually the main place where our students of engineering approach to the physical daily reality, from the technological and the scientific point of view, through experiments and motivating demonstrations. Thinking of those students that can not follow an established schedule of attendance to the classroom, an innovative educational material has been created, which is based on digital filming of the experiments that nowadays are carried out in our real Physics laboratory. The objective is to minimize the lack of acquisition of some abilities associated with the real experimentation, by means of the use of virtual experiments and by working others individual competences by a streaming video. The filming is accompanied by some tutorials that introduce the experiment and illustrate the associated theoretical concepts, together with some simulations. Evaluation and self-evaluation tests are also available to monitor the student’s learning. Anyone can find all the material in the webpage: http://www.epsem.upc.edu/~practiquesfisica/ After putting these materials into practice, we have carried out a survey in which the students compare the real and the virtual experimentation systems and to ask their opinion about the quality of the generated material for two different experiments. The answers of the students encourage us to produce more material of this kind and to improve the autonomous learning of our future students of engineering.Postprint (author’s final draft

Protocol and material for the introduction to the laboratory experimentation

Introducing students in the world of the experimentation has always been a complicated task, since the students are not familiar with the new work place. They have to handle different measuring devices, interiorize the philosophy of the experimentation, measure and estimate uncertainty, graph data, and finally write a report about the results of the experimentation. Students do not know this whole process, and although they delight to do practical work in the laboratory, they do not feel confident of carrying out a proper work. In order to achieve so, a multimedia material has been elaborated, with an introduction to the laboratory and the experimental techniques which require the implication and the autonomy from the student. The outcome of this process -students setting the established protocol in practice and achieving competences- has been clearly superior to that reached in previous years.Peer Reviewe