Use of corrugated steels in construction applications

The Research Group of Materials Performance works in the study of several corrugated steels, especially stainless steels. Different aspects are developed as corrosion tests and evaluation of welded joints, between similar and dissimilar materials. It is sought to find construction companies interested in the application of this technology.Contrato Programa de Comercialización e Internacionalización. Sistema Regional de Investigación Científica e Innovación Tecnológica. (Comunidad de Madrid; Universidad Carlos III de Madrid

Intertemporal and Spatial Location of Disposal Facilities

The optimal capacity and location of a sequence of landfills are studied, and the interactions between both decisions are pointed out. Deciding the capacity of a landfill has some spatial implications, because it effects the feasible region for the rest of the landfills, and some temporal implications because the capacity determines the lifetime of the landfill and hence the instant of time where the next landfills will need to be constructed. Some general mathematical properties of the solution are provided and interpreted from an economic point of view. The resulting problem turns out to be nonconvex and, therefore, it can not be solved by conventional optimization techniques. Some global optimization methods are used to solve the problem in a particular case to illustrate the behavior of the solution depending on the parameter values.Landfilling, Optimal Capacity, Optimal Location, Global Optimization.

Review of real brain-controlled wheelchairs

This paper presents a review of the state of the art regarding wheelchairs driven by a brain-computer interface (BCI). Using a brain-controlled wheelchair (BCW), disabled users could handle a wheelchair through their brain activity, granting autonomy to move through an experimental environment. A classification is established, based on the characteristics of the BCW, such as the type of electroencephalographic (EEG) signal used, the navigation system employed by the wheelchair, the task for the participants, or the metrics used to evaluate the performance. Furthermore, these factors are compared according to the type of signal used, in order to clarify the differences among them. Finally, the trend of current research in this field is discussed, as well as the challenges that should be solved in the future

Brain switch mode: an alternative to drive a brain-controlled wheelchair

To date, different control paradigms of low level navigation have been tested for brain-controlled wheelchairs, mainly divided into continuous or discrete control [1]. However, these paradigms have certain drawbacks such as the need to keep the mental tasks active for a long time, as in continuous mode, or the impossibility to freely choose any distance of the movement or the turn, as in the discrete mode. An alternative paradigm to solve these problems could be the use of the brain switch mode [2], which would allow a more flexible control of the distance, requiring a lower workload for the user.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Reformas en el Derecho local: Qué y quién

En 2008 se han iniciado varias vías de reforma del Derecho local, tanto en las Comunidades Autónomas como en el Estado. Las propuestas de reforma se desarrollan en un nuevo contexto competencial, el marcado por los nuevos Estatutos de Autonomía de 2006-2007, que reparten el «régimen local» entre el Estado y las Comunidades Autónomas no sólo con la técnica bases-desarrollo (como hasta ahora) sino también con el reconocimiento de algunas materias de competencia exclusiva autonómica. En este nuevo marco competencial se deben articular ahora las propuestas. Pese a la fragmentación del cuadro competencial, es conveniente que tanto los estudios académicos como los partidos políticos actúen con una visión global de las reformas necesarias, con independencia de a quién corresponda luego la competencia para ponerlas en marcha. En el estudio se apuntan algunas necesidades o conveniencias de reforma, y se ha ido identificando, materia a materia, a quién corresponde acometerlas: Estado, Comunidades Autónomas, o las propias entidades locales. Como resultado, y aunque con importantes matices, se va definiendo un cuadro funcional en el que al Estado corresponde definir, sobre todo, la forma de gobierno; a cada Comunidad Autónoma (en especial, Andalucía, Cataluña y Aragón) le corresponde el grueso del régimen local: estructura de la planta local; competencias y potestades, relaciones interadministrativas, bienes, empleo público local. Finalmente, a cada entidad local corresponde regular, casi en exclusiva, la organización administrativa propia (incluyendo los instrumentos de empleo público).Several drafts of bills on local government law —both of the State and of the Autonomous Communities— have been proposed along 2008. The new drafts take place in the new scheme of powers established by the new Statutes of Autonomy of 2006-2007 The new Statutes have assigned competences on local government not only under the classical scheme «basic versus secondary» legislation, but also devolving certain matters as «exclusive» of the Autonomous Communities. That is the new competencies framework in which any proposition of reform on local government makes sense. Though the fragmentation of competences, both scholars and parties should keep on holding a global conception of local government nevertheless what authority (State or regional) is called to pass any suggested reform. The present study identifies certain fields of local government where reforms are needed; and also precise which authority is competent for any reform (the State, the Autonomous Communities or even the local council themselves). As a result —and nevertheless the significant nuances in this field— a general scheme of competences can be drafted: the central State should mainly regulate the «government system». Any Autonomous Community —specially Andalusia, Catalonia and Aragon— is enabled to regulate the main contents of local government: type and number of local councils; powers of local governments; monitoring and relationships between local councils and central and regional governments; public property; and civil servant in local councils. Finally, every local council should define its internal organization, this including the own employment schem

Crisis económica y Derecho local

Desde 2007 hasta hoy los gobiernos locales actúan en un contexto de crisis económica. De un lado, las entidades locales sufren la crisis: reducción de ingresos y aumento de la demanda social de gasto. De otro lado, los gobiernos locales actúan como agentes de la política de reactivación económica de los Estados, como gestores de fondos públicos y como facilitadores de la iniciativa empresarial. Como sujetos pasivos de la crisis, los gobiernos locales disponen de escasos instrumentos propios de respuesta: escasa capacidad para mejorar las fuentes de ingreso y cierto margen para actuar sobre el gasto en inversión (aunque no el corriente, muy enfocado a la prestación de servicios a los ciudadanos). Como agentes de la política de reactivación económica las entidades locales están actuando de dos formas. Primero, como gestores de dos «fondos estatales» destinados a financiar contratos de obras, servicios y suministros con empresas que contraten a personas desempleadas. Estos fondos presentan algunos problemas jurídicos, tanto desde el punto de vista de la Ley de Contratos del Sector Público como del orden constitucional de distribución territorial del poder. La segunda forma de actuación local es mediante la progresiva eliminación de las licencias de actividad o apertura que dificultan el inicio de las actividades económicasSince 2007, local governments have been operating within the context of an economic crisis. On the one hand, they are forced to deal with reduced income and an increased social demand for spending while on the other, they are obliged to act as agents of the State economic recovery policy as well as trustees of public funds and facilitators of entrepreneurship. As victims of the crisis, local governments are very restricted as regards their capacity to respond. For example, there is very little they can do to improve their sources of income or to reduce capital investment spending (referring, of course, not to current spending which focuses more on public utilities). As agents of the State’s economic recovery policy, local councils act in two ways. Firstly, as managers of the two «State funds» which are appropriated for the financing of contracts for public works, services and supplies to private companies who in turn provide jobs to the unemployed. These funds present some legal problems, both from the standpoint of the Law on Public Sector Contracts as well as from the point of view of the constitutional territorial distribution of power. The second form of local action is through the progressive elimination of local operating permits which, frequently, hinder the onset of economic activitie

Corsarios y piratas ingleses y holandeses en el Sureste español durante el reinado de Felipe III (1598-1621)

En las primeras décadas del siglo XVII, y al calor del próspero comercio y la intensa circulación de embarcaciones mercantes en los puertos de Alicante y Cartagena, acudieron diferentes piratas de los países protestantes del Atlántico, una vez concluidas por éstos paces o treguas con España. Fueron militares reconvertidos en piratas, como los ingleses John Ward, Henry Mainwaring, Robert Walsingham y Peter Easton, o el famoso corsario flamenco Simon de Danser al que acompañaron algunos compatriotas suyos como Salomo de Veenboer y Jan Janszoon, los cuales entraron en connivencia con los corsarios de Argel y Túnez, formado escuadras mixtas o aliadas que hicieron mucho daño a la actividad mercantil desplegada desde el Sureste español, sin que encontraran la adecuada réplica por parte española.In the first decades of the 17th century, and due to the prosperous trade and the intensive traffic of merchant ships in the ports of Alicante and Cartagena, different pirates of the Protestant countries of the Atlantic carne, once they had signed a peace agreement or agreed to a truce with Spain. They were military men who became pirates, such as the English John Ward, Henry Mainwaring, Robert Walsingham and Peter Easton, or the well-known Flemish corsair Simon de Danser, whom some compatriots such as Salomo de Veenboer and Jan Janszoon accompanied. These acted in connivance with the corsairs from Algiers and Tunisia, forming mixed or allied squads that had an adverse effect on the commercial activity displayed by the South-East of Spain. However, they did not find a suitable reply on the Spanish part

Proposals of Control Paradigms Applied to a Brain-Controlled Wheelchair

Proposals of Control Paradigms Applied to a Brain-Controlled Wheelchair, Ron-Angevin R., Velasco-Álvarez F., Fernández Rodriguez A., Proceeding og the BITs 4th Annual World Congress of Smart Material 2018, Osaka (Japan), 6-8 March 2018Several of the neurological diseases that human beings can result in severe disabilities. In some cases, people who suffer from such deficiencies lose any chance of communication with their environment, being the only possible alternative to give the brain a new channel not based on muscular activity, allowing these people to send messages and commands to the external world. The systems that allows the latter is what is known as Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI). Their common feature is to process the brain’s electrical activity for extracting information that can be used to command an external device, as for example, a wheelchair to provide them some mobility. One of the most important limitations of these brain controlled wheelchair is to guarantee that a person can, through his mental activity, safely control the variety of navigation commands that provide control of the wheelchair: advance, turn, move back, and stop. The vast majority of the mobile robot navigation applications that are controlled via a BCI demand that the user performs as many different mental tasks as there are different control commands, worsening the classification accuracy. In order to enable an effective and autonomous wheelchair navigation with a BCI system without worsening user performance, the Brain–Computer Interface (BCI) group of the University of Málaga (UMA-BCI) proposed and later developed a new paradigm based on the discrimination of only two classes (one active mental task versus any other mental activity), which enabled the selection of four commands: move forwards, turn right, move backward and turn left. The final aim of this contribution is to show how to control a robotic wheelchair through the use of only two mental tasks. The mapping of these two mental tasks into several navigation commands allows the Brain-Controlled Wheelchair to be moved and turned in order to achieve effective navigation.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech