A new way of teaching different subjects in a foreign language in the Building Engineering Degree at the Universidad Politécnica.

The European Union has been promoting linguistic diversity for many years as one of its main educational goals. This is an element that facilitates student mobility and student exchanges between different universities and countries and enriches the education of young undergraduates. In particular, a higher degree of competence in the English language is becoming essential for engineers, architects and researchers in general, as English has become the lingua franca that opens up horizons to internationalisation and the transfer of knowledge in today’s world. Many experts point to the Integrated Approach to Contents and Foreign Languages System as being an option that has certain benefits over the traditional method of teaching a second language that is exclusively based on specific subjects. This system advocates teaching the different subjects in the syllabus in a language other than one’s mother tongue, without prioritising knowledge of the language over the subject. This was the idea that in the 2009/10 academic year gave rise to the Second Language Integration Programme (SLI Programme) at the Escuela Arquitectura Técnica in the Universidad Politécnica Madrid (EUATM-UPM), just at the beginning of the tuition of the new Building Engineering Degree, which had been adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) model. This programme is an interdisciplinary initiative for the set of subjects taught during the semester and is coordinated through the Assistant Director Office for Educational Innovation. The SLI Programme has a dual goal; to familiarise students with the specific English terminology of the subject being taught, and at the same time improve their communication skills in English. A total of thirty lecturers are taking part in the teaching of eleven first year subjects and twelve in the second year, with around 120 students who have voluntarily enrolled in a special group in each semester. During the 2010/2011 academic year the degree of acceptance and the results of the SLI Programme have been monitored. Tools have been designed to aid interdisciplinary coordination and to analyse satisfaction, such as coordination records and surveys. The results currently available refer to the first and second year and are divided into specific aspects of the different subjects involved and into general aspects of the ongoing experience

Integrated approach to foreign language in the building engineering degree at the Universidad Politécnica Madrid

The European Union has been promoting linguistic diversity for many years as one of its main educational goals. This is an element that facilitates student mobility and student exchanges between different universities and countries and enriches the education of young undergraduates. In particular,a higher degree of competence in the English language is becoming essential for engineers, architects and researchers in general, as English has become the lingua franca that opens up horizons to internationalisation and the transfer of knowledge in today’s world. Many experts point to the Integrated Approach to Contents and Foreign Languages System as being an option that has certain benefits over the traditional method of teaching a second language that is exclusively based on specific subjects. This system advocates teaching the different subjects in the syllabus in a language other than one’s mother tongue, without prioritising knowledge of the language over the subject. This was the idea that in the 2009/10 academic year gave rise to the Second Language Integration Programme (SLI Programme) at the Escuela Arquitectura Tecnica in the Universidad Politecnica Madrid (EUATM-UPM), just at the beginning of the tuition of the new Building Engineering Degree, which had been adapted to the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) model. This programme is an interdisciplinary initiative for the set of subjects taught during the semester and is coordinated through the Assistant Director Office for Educational Innovation. The SLI Programme has a dual goal; to familiarise students with the specific English terminology of the subject being taught, and at the same time improve their communication skills in English. A total of thirty lecturers are taking part in the teaching of eleven first year subjects and twelve in the second year, with around 120 students who have voluntarily enrolled in a special group in each semester. During the 2010/2011 academic year the degree of acceptance and the results of the SLI Programme are being monitored. Tools have been designed to aid interdisciplinary coordination and to analyse satisfaction, such as coordination records and surveys. The results currently available refer to the first semester of the year and are divided into specific aspects of the different subjects involved and into general aspects of the ongoing experience

Applying the random variable transformation method to solve a class of random linear differential equation with discrete delay

We randomize the following class of linear differential equations with delay, x 0 τ (t) = axτ(t) + bxτ(t − τ), t > 0, and initial condition, xτ(t) = g(t), −τ ≤ t ≤ 0, by assuming that coefficients a and b are random variables and the initial condition g(t) is a stochastic process. We consider two cases, depending on the functional form of the stochastic process g(t), and then we solve, from a probabilistic point of view, both random initial value problems by determining explicit expressions to the first probability density function, f(x, t; τ), of the corresponding solution stochastic processes. Afterwards, we establish sufficient conditions on the involved random input parameters in order to guarantee that f(x, t; τ) converges, as τ → 0 +, to the first probability density function, say f(x, t), of the corresponding associated random linear problem without delay (τ = 0). The paper concludes with several numerical experiments illustrating our theoretical findings.Ministerio de Economía y CompetitividadJunta de Andalucí

Effect of tiles, bricks and ceramic sanitary-ware recycled aggregates on structural concrete properties

In this paper, tile ceramic waste (TCW)1, red clay bricks (RCB) and ceramic sanitaryware (CSW) were used as the partial replacement (14-30 wt.%) of natural limestone aggregates to produce structural concrete. The natural and recycled aggregates were characterised, and the strength and density of the hardened concrete were investigated after 7 and 28 curing days at room temperature. The TCW concrete obtained the best compressive strength results (strength gain of up to 7% with 20 wt.% waste after 28 curing days). The mechanical properties of the CSW recycled concrete were similar to those of traditional samples, and slightly diminished with curing time and aggregate substitution, with a maximum strength loss of 5.77% for the 30 wt.% replacement. Although the RCB concrete presented the greatest strength loss (up to 18.4% after 7 curing days), it exhibited the best improvement of the strength with curing time, which resulted in a strength loss of only 11% in the 30 wt.% RCB concretes cured for 28 days. These results demonstrate the feasibility of using TCW and CSW as recycled aggregates in structural concrete production without significantly affecting the developed recycled concrete’s compressive strength

El turismo industrial minero como motor de desarrollo en áreas geográficas en declive. Un estudio de caso

La importancia que durante muchos años ha tenido en diferentes zonas geográficas las actividades industriales ha propiciado la creación de un gran patrimonio industrial que, puesto en valor, permite la articulación de nuevos destinos turísticos que permita el desarrollo socioeconómico de determinadas zonas industrial en la actualidad en declive. En este artículo se presenta un análisis sobre el turismo industrial minero y en el cuál se aborda cómo las actividades turísticas pueden convertirse en un motor complementario de desarrollo económico. Para dicho análisis se presenta un estudio de caso centrado en un área geográfica con una gran tradición minera localizada en el sur de España.Industrial Mining Tourism as a Development Strategy in Geographical Areas in Decline. A case study. The importance that industrial activities had for many years in different geographical areas has led to the making of a great industrial heritage. The rehabilitation of this industrial heritage allows the expression of new destinations in order to enable economic development in certain industrial areas currently in decline. This paper presents an analysis of tourism and the mining industry that deals with the manner tourism activities may become an additional engine of economic development. For this analysis a case study focused on a large geographical area with a mining tradition located in southern Spain is presente

Quality of services solution for efficient communication within a distributed urban traffic control system

Modern Urban Traffic Control (UTC) systems are based on cooperative entities, able to produce optimal signalling strategies independently of traffic control centres. The more information the junction’s entities receive from their neighbours, the more effective the distributed system is. But not all the information is critical. For improving the transmission of data and building an efficient QoS structure, a simplified UTC packet is proposed. This solution can be deployed in any real UTC distributed system for guaranteeing that critical traffic parameters are successfully exchanged between its local decision making units in order to ensure a fully adaptive operation

Turismo responsable y cooperación al desarrollo. Experiencias en Cabo Verde

Agencia Española de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AECID). Agencia Andaluza de Cooperación Internacional para el Desarrollo (AACID). Unión Europea-FEDER, Programa POCTEFEX/Proyecto BIOECONOM

Tourism and socio-economic development. An analysis of the Island of Santiago (Cape Verde)

Resulta muy importante el sector turístico en países más desfavorecidos como motor de desarrollo endógeno, alcanzando mayor protagonismo en países que tengan un atractivo singular, que permita un desarrollo sectorial de ese fenómeno. De esta manera podemos segmentar según los principales atractivos que atraen turistas en: turismo de sol y playa, turismo cultural, gastronómico, ecoturismo, agroturismo,... A su vez este sector puede implicar un importante crecimiento socioeconómico para la zona y, a su vez, servir para fortalecer otras actividades empresariales. De esta manera, el turismo se está convirtiendo en un motor de desarrollo en algunos países de África, en los cuáles la puesta en valor de diferentes recursos está articulando la creación de una oferta turística sostenible que sirva para dar respuesta a la demanda de unos viajeros cada vez más exigentes y que buscan nuevas experiencias. En esta comunicación presentamos un estudio realizado en la isla de Santiago (Cabo Verde) sobre la importancia del turismo, como alternativa a los tradicionales destinos turísticos masificados, y que permite un mayor contacto con la comunidad local y el conseguir nuevas experiencias para los viajeros. Para ello presentamos los resultados de un trabajo de campo realizado en esta isla donde se analiza y discute la valoración y la percepción que tienen los viajeros que visitan esta isla sobre diferentes aspectos en que se basa el turismo de la misma. Los principales resultados de este estudio resaltan la calidad de los servicios ofertados por las empresas, la importancia de los recursos naturales en la zona y la hospitalidad de la comunidad local, elementos clave para el desarrollo de esta clase de turismo. Resultan ser por tanto estos elementos la clave esencial para el desarrollo de una forma de turismo singular como es el turismo comunitario: la implicación de la comunidad local en el desarrollo del turismo, desplegándose a su vez elementos de desarrollo tan importantes como la democracia y planificación social, extendiéndose así el desarrollo no solo a aspectos económicos, sino que trasciende a procesos políticos y sociales.It is very important to the tourism sector in poor countries as an engine of endogenous development, reaching greater role in countries that have a unique attraction, allowing a sectorial development of this phenomenon. In this way, we can segment according to the main attractions that attract tourists in: tourism of Sun and beach, cultural, gastronomic tourism, ecotourism, rural tourism,... In turn this sector can involve a significant socio-economic growth to the area and, in turn, serve to strengthen other business activities. In this way, tourism is becoming an engine of development in some African countries, in which the enhancement of different resources is articulating the creation of a sustainable tourist offer that serves to respond to the demand for a more discerning travelers and looking for new experiences. In this communication are a study in the Santiago Island (Cape Verde) on the importance of tourism, as an alternative to the traditional tourist destinations, and allowing more contact with the local community and get new experiences for travellers. So we present the results of a field work carried out on this island where he analyzes and discusses the valuation and the perception that have travelers who visit this island on various aspects underlying tourism of the same. The main results of this study highlight the quality of the services offered by the companies, the importance of natural resources in the area and the hospitality of the local community, key elements for the development of this kind of tourism. They happen to be for both these elements the key essential for the development of a form of unique tourism such as community-based tourism: the involvement of the local community in the development of tourism, unfolding at the same time elements of development such as democracy and social planningextending the development not only to economic aspects as well, but that it transcends political and social processes

Maturidade sexual de Chilabothrus angulifer (Serpentes: Boidae) em estado selvagem

El majá de Santa María (C. angulifer) es el único boido en Cuba. Es el mayor miembro del género, así como el mayor ofidio del Caribe Insular (> 400 cm de longitud hocico-cloaca), esto la convierte en una especie icónica de la herpetofauna cubana. A pesar de que su historia natural se conoce muy poco, varios estudios describen aspectos de su biología reproductiva en cautiverio. Aquí documentamos las edades y tallas con que ambos sexos alcanzan la madurez sexual en la naturaleza y mostramos que el majá de Santa María alcanza la adultez con una talla mucho más pequeña de lo que previamente se ha reportado para especímenes de cautiverio. Basados en la escasa información sobre la tasa de crecimiento de C. angulifer en la naturaleza, los machos deben alcanzar la talla adulta después de los 3 años y las hembras después de los 5 añosA jiboia-cubana, Chilabothrus angulifer, é o único boídeo de Cuba. É a maior serpente do gênero e também das Índias Ocidentais (comprimento rostro-cloacal > 400 cm); por essa razão, trata-se de uma espécie icônica da herpetofauna cubana. Apesar de sua história natural ser pouco-conhecida, diversos estudos descrevem aspectos de sua biologia reprodutiva em cativeiro. Documentamos aqui o tamanho e a idade em que ambos os sexos atingem a maturidade sexual na natureza e mostramos que essa serpente atinge a idade adulta com um tamanho muito menor do que previamente relatado para indivíduos cativos. Com base na informação limitada sobre a taxa de crescimento de C. angulifer na natureza, os machos atingem o tamanho reprodutivo após 3 anos, e as fêmeas, após 5 anosThe Cuban Boa (C. angulifer) is the only boid snake in Cuba. It is the largest member of the genus, as well as the largest snake in the West Indies (> 400 cm in snout-vent length); as such, it is an iconic species of the Cuban herpetofauna. Although the snake’s natural history is poorly known, several studies describe aspects of its reproductive biology in captivity. Herein we document the sizes and ages at which both sexes reach sexual maturity in nature, and show that the Cuban Boa reaches adulthood at a much smaller size than previously reported for captive snakes. Based on the limited information on the growth rate of C. angulifer in nature, males must reach breeding size after 3 years and females after 5 year

Evaluación mediante Tests: ¿Por qué no usar el ordenador?

Ante la necesidad de medir el nivel de capacidad de los alumnos, uno puede decidir utilizar la computadora como medio para administrar tests de evaluación. En este punto se plantea un extenso abanico de posibilidades, desde la más simple aplicación de tests convencionales en formato electrónico hasta el desarrollo de tests adaptativos informatizados siguiendo la teoría de respuesta al ítem. Este texto presenta las diferentes formas en que los ordenadores pueden facilitar las labores de evaluación, desde la creación de los ítems que se incluirán en los tests hasta su almacenamiento, administración y posterior mantenimiento