Globally Distributed Software Process Engineering

Software processes is becoming a more addressed issue in software development companies every day. These processes are defined regardless of the environment in which they run. To incorporate aspects of that environment is essential, especially if referring to GSE. Despite this fact, the process itself should not be necessary modified. This paper provides a first draft of a research focused on software process definition, modeling, implementation and evaluation in a GSE environment, so as to facilitate the information exchange through a hierarchical process that does not involve modification of specific processes.Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2007-67843-C06-03Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia TIN2010-20057-C03-0

Contribution to the characterization and evaluation of multiple antenna systems for communications: prototyping, propagation and antenna perspective

ABSTRACT The advent of new services and applications in mobile and wireless communications, most of them based on high data rates, is helping to reactivate the Telecommunication market. Moreover, current trends seem to point towards the preference for wireless connections to Internet instead of the traditional wired ones, towards the growing of data exchanges (for example with web 2.0 and peer-to-peer applications) and towards the exponential increase in the number of devices connected to Internet (as in the proposed future “Internet of things”). A clear consequence of all these trends is the significant increase in data rate requirements for wireless and mobile communications. As a result, research on new techniques that allow to increase data rate and system performance has been boosted by the market needs. Having intensively utilized frequency, time and even code diversity resources, spatial diversity offered by the radio channel has been proposed as an alternate method of great interest to be exploited. Advances in signal processing platforms have improved the computational capacities in digital signal processing, opening new options for signal processing for antenna arrays. The main objective of this thesis has been to investigate the possibilities for radiocommunication systems that are based on the use of multiple antennas to take advantage of the available spatial diversity in the channel. Moreover, current open issues and problems that prevent multi-antenna systems from being widely adopted have been thoroughly analysed, with special emphasis on real implementation issues. Novel approaches to evaluate multi-antenna systems have been proposed, and results regarding real prototypes have been presented and discussed. Multi-antenna systems for wireless and mobile communications is a very wide topic, and it would be impossible to cover every aspect on this topic. Therefore, the work in this thesis has been focused on four main aspects, which cover a quite multidisciplinary research area but are somehow interlinked. Those are: 1) adaptive antennas for mobile systems, 2) rapid prototyping for MIMO, 3) propagation aspects of MIMO systems and 4) antenna aspects of MIMO systems. The first step in exploiting spatial information and diversity in the channel consists in using multiple antennas at one end of the link (typically the base station) together with beamforming signal processing, forming the so-called adaptive antennas. Despite their undeniable advantages, there are some issues that make it difficult the adoption of adaptive antennas in real networks. We have analysed these issues, showing that a new simplified approach of adaptive antenna that allows a transparent operation from the network point of view is possible, at the cost of a small reduction in the adaptive antenna performance. A prototype based on the software-radio concept and with real-time operation has been implemented and its features have been evaluated. A new methodology to easily evaluate adaptive antennas has also been presented. Finally, a set-up module that allows seamless integration of the implemented Abstract adaptive antenna with a real 3G-UMTS network has been designed, implemented and tested under realistic circumstances. The natural next step in the spatial diversity world is using multiple antennas not only at one link end but at both transmitter and receiver. These systems are usually called multipleinput multiple-output (MIMO) systems, and can be based on different signal processing approaches, as spatial diversity, spatial multiplexing, etc. Taking advantage of the experience obtained from the development of an adaptive antenna, we have design and implemented a novel MIMO testbed. Many MIMO prototypes and testbeds have been presented in recent years. In spite of this, there are still some open issues regarding MIMO channel characterization and effect of realistic impairments, as well as the effect of antenna array configurations in the system. The main interest of our MIMO testbed is that it has been designed in order to allow studying these three aspects in an easy way for the user. Some results obtained from a measurement campaign carried out the the new MIMO testbed have been evaluated and discussed, being of special interest the comparison of single- and multi-polarized MIMO systems and the analysis of effect of channel normalization in capacity computation. In order to gain a better insight into other propagation characteristics of the MIMO channel, a complete measurement campaign was carried out. This time the main objective was to compare indoor and outdoor-to-indoor MIMO channel characteristics, since these scenarios are of great interest for low-mobility applications in offices (wireless access) and other indoor scenarios. We have included a detailed analysis of parameters as correlation, coverage or received power and available capacity for a 4×4 system. This study has complemented the previous one by including different combinations of base stations when one or two base stations are used simultaneously. Advantages and drawbacks of each scenario and base station locations have been drawn, which may help system deployments. Finally, in order to cover all the elements in the MIMO system (channel, base station and user equipment), realistic user devices have been studied. In order to overcome problems in size and weight, we have proved that compact arrays may be a suitable solution. A novel multielement antenna for handheld devices has been designed and implemented. Several methods to evaluate its performance have been proposed and their results compared, such as standardized MIMO channels, computation of antenna covariance and measurements with a MIMO testbed. The results in terms of accuracy of results and computation or time cost can be extrapolated to the evaluation of any antenna array for MIMO systems. The contributions of this thesis have been presented in several articles published in international technical journals, as well as in the most important international and national conferences in antennas and signal processing for communications. Resumen RESUMEN La continua propuesta de nuevos servicios y aplicaciones en comunicaciones móviles e inalámbricas, en gran parte con requisitos de altas tasas binarias de datos, está impulsando el crecimiento del mercado de las telecomunicaciones. Por otra parte, las tendencias actuales apuntan a la preferencia por conexiones inalámbricas a Internet en vez de las tradicionales conexiones por cable, al incremento de intercambio de datos (por ejemplo con la web 2.0 y las aplicaciones peer-to-peer) y al aumento exponencial en el número de los dispositivos conectados a Internet (como la propuesta de la futura "Internet de cosas"). Una consecuencia clara de todas estas tendencias es el aumento significativo en los requisitos de tasa de datos que las comunicaciones inalámbricas y móviles deben ser capaces de ofrecer. Como resultado de esto, la investigación de nuevas técnicas capaces de ofrecer ese aumento en la tasa de datos y la mejora en el funcionamiento del sistema ha sido y está siendo impulsada en los últimos años. Tras haber aprovechado al máximo los recursos de diversidad en frecuencia, tiempo e incluso código, la diversidad espacial ofrecida por el canal radio ha sido propuesta como un método alternativo a ser explotado de gran interés. Los avances en las plataformas de procesado de señal han mejorado la capacidad computacional del procesado, abriendo las nuevas opciones para el proceso de señal aplicado a arrays de antenas. Así, el objetivo principal de esta tesis ha sido investigar las posibilidades de los sistemas de la radiocomunicación basados en el uso de antenas múltiples para aprovechar la diversidad espacial disponible en el canal. Además, se han analizado aspectos no resueltos y problemas que impiden que los sistemas de múltiples antenas puedan ser desplegados y adoptados de forma masiva. Se ha puesto un especial énfasis en aspectos de implementación real. También se han propuestos nuevos enfoques para evaluar los sistemas multiantenna, y se han presentado y comentado los resultados obtenidos de los prototipos y medidas en sistema real. El estudio de sistemas de múltiples antenas para comunicaciones inalámbricas es un tema muy amplio y sería imposible cubrir todos sus aspectos en una tesis. Por eso se ha centrado el trabajo de esta tesis en 4 puntos principales, que han sido seleccionados tras un primer trabajo de análisis de estado del arte. Éstos son: 1) antenas adaptativas para sistemas móviles, 2) prototipado rápido para MIMO, 3) aspectos de propagación de los sistemas MIMO y 4) aspectos de antena de los sistemas MIMO. El primer paso en explotar la información y la diversidad espaciales en el canal consiste en usar múltiples antenas únicamente en uno de los extremos del enlace (típicamente en la estación base) junto con el procesado de conformación correspondiente, dando lugar a las antenas adaptativas. A pesar de sus innegables ventajas, hay ciertos aspectos que dificultan la adopción global de las antenas adaptativas, como son su complejidad y alto coste. En esta tesis se han analizado estos aspectos, mostrando que un nuevo modelo simplificado de antena adaptativa es posible, de modo que se permita su funcionamiento de forma transparente a la Resumen estación base y la red real. El coste que hay que pagar es un empeoramiento de las prestaciones de la antena, que a pesar de ello sigue mejorando significativamente las prestaciones de una antena sectorial convencional. Se ha implementado un prototipo basado en el concepto de software-radio, con funcionamiento en tiempo real, y se han evaluado sus características. Además, y puesto que los métodos de evaluación de antenas convencionales no son válidos en general para antenas adaptativas, se ha propuesto una nueva metodología de evaluación fácil de llevar a cabo. Finalmente, se ha diseñado e implementado un módulo de set-up para la integración transparente de la antena adaptativa en una red UMTS real, se ha probado su funcionamiento y se han presentado sus puntos fuertes y también sus deficiencias. El paso siguiente en el objetivo de aprovechar la diversidad espacial consiste en utilizar múltiples antenas no sólo en un lado del sistema, sino en ambos (transmisor y receptor): es lo que típicamente se denominan sistemas MIMO (Multiple-input multiple-output). Éstos se pueden basar en distintos esquemas de procesado, como la multiplexación espacial, los denominados de diversidad espacial, etc. Aprovechando la experiencia obtenida del desarrollo de la antena adaptativa, se ha diseñado y desarrollado un nuevo testbed MIMO. Existen muchos testbeds MIMO presentado en la literatura recientemente; sin embargo, el interés del presentado en esta tesis radica en que permite estudiar múltiples aspectos de los sistemas MIMO de forma fácil y cómoda para el usuario. En concreto, se ha hecho hincapié en el diseño del MIMO testbed en que éste incluyese efectos no ideales de sistemas reales, que permitiese evaluar distintas configuraciones de array y que ayudase a probar fácilmente algoritmos MIMO y a realizar medidas de canal MIMO. En este bloque de trabajo se han presentado algunos resultados obtenidos de una campaña de medidas realizada con este nuevo testbed MIMO, cuyos resultados se han evaluado y comentado. De especial interés es la comparación que se ha realizado entre sistemas con una y con varias polarizaciones, así como el análisis del efecto la normalización del canal en el cálculo de la capacidad. Para comprender mejor otras características de propagación del canal MIMO, la campaña de medidas previa se ha complementado con otra campaña de medidas muy completa, que se ha enfocado al estudio y comparación de entornos indoor con los entornos outdoorindoor. Hemos incluido un análisis detallado de parámetros como correlación, cobertura o capacidad disponible para un sistema 4×4. Además, se han estudiado diversos emplazamientos para la estación base y posibles combinaciones con y sin información del canal en el transmisor, proponiendo soluciones realistas para un despliegue en interiores. Se han presentado las ventajas y desventajas de cada escenario y emplazamiento de antena, tratando de presentar consejos de despliegue en líneas lo más generales posible. Finalmente, para cubrir todos los elementos en el sistema MIMO (canal, estación base y equipo de usuario), se han estudiado dispositivos multiantena de usuario que fuesen realistas. Para cumplir los requisitos de tamaño y peso, se han presentado las soluciones de los arrays Resumen compactos. En concreto se ha diseñado un array compacto para dispositivo de usuario tipo PDA. Se ha validado su buen funcionamiento para sistemas MIMO mediante varios métodos propuestos para evaluar antenas para MIMO. Se han comparado dichos métodos en cuanto a precisión en resultado y requisitos de tiempo y computacionales, mostrando así sus ventajas y desventajas de modo que éstas se puedan extrapolar para la evaluación de antenas para MIMO en general. Las contribuciones de esta tesis han sido plasmadas en varios artículos publicados en múltiples revistas científico-técnicas de reconocido prestigio. Además, los principales resultados se han presentado en congresos internacionales y nacionales de renombre en el área de las antenas y el procesado de señal para comunicaciones móviles e inalámbricas

Software Design Guidelines for Usability

For years, the Human Computer Interaction (HCI) community has crafted usability guidelines that clearly define what
characteristics a software system should have in order to be easy to use. However, in the Software Engineering (SE)
community keep falling short of successfully incorporating these recommendations into software projects. From a SE
perspective, the process of incorporating usability features into software is not always straightforward, as a large number
of these features have heavy implications in the underlying software architecture. For example, successfully including an
“undo” feature in an application requires the design and implementation of many complex interrelated data structures and
functionalities. Our work is focused upon providing developers with a set of software design patterns to assist them in the
process of designing more usable software. This would contribute to the proper inclusion of specific usability features
with high impact on the software design. Preliminary validation data show that usage of the guidelines also has positive
effects on development time and overall software design quality

Galaxy triplets in Sloan Digital Sky Survey Data Release 7 - III. Analysis of Configuration and Dynamics

We analyse the spatial configuration and the dynamical properties of a sample of 92 galaxy triplets obtained from the SDSS-DR7 (SDSS-triplets) restricted to have members with spectroscopic redshifts in the range $0.01\le z \le 0.14$ and absolute r-band luminosities brighter than $M_r=-20.5$. The configuration analysis was performed through Agekyan & Anosova map (AA-map). We estimated dynamical parameters, namely the radius of the system, the velocity dispersion, a dimensionless crossing-time and the virial mass. We compared our results with those obtained for a sample of triplets from the catalogue "Isolated Triplets of Galaxies" (K-triplets) and a sample of Compact Groups. We have also studied a mock catalogue in order to compare real and projected configurations, and to estimate the three dimensional dynamical parameters of the triple systems. We found that the SDSS-triplets prefer alignment configurations while K-triplets present an uniform distribution in the AA-map. From the dynamical analysis we conclude that the SDSS-triplets, K-triplets and Compact Groups present a similar behaviour comprising compact systems with low crossing-time values, with velocity dispersions and virial masses similar to those of low mass loose groups. Moreover, we found that observed and simulated triplets present similar dynamical parameters. We also performed an analysis of the dark matter content of galaxy triplets finding that member galaxies of mock triplets belong to the same dark matter halo, showing a dynamical co-evolution of the system. These results suggest that the configuration and dynamics of triple systems favour galaxy interactions and mergers.Comment: Accepted for publication in MNRAS. 9 pages, 8 figure

Not without my mobile phone: alcohol binge drinking, gender violence and technology in the Spanish culture of intoxication

The practice of binge drinking has in recent decades consolidated what is known as the ‘culture of intoxication’ among the young people of Spain. This has coincided with the increase in the use of mobile-phone technology and of social networks within the night-time economy. Our main aim is to explore these new, potentially risky uses and violent behaviours, through an analysis of the discourses of the young people involved. This is a qualitative study with in-depth interviews (n¼24) of young people between the ages of sixteen and twenty-two, resident in two cities in the south of Spain: Granada and Seville. Findings: our results show that gender violence is present in the contexts where alcohol is consumed intensively and is related to the use of the mobile phone in interpersonal or couple relationships. This violence is practiced mainly against the women, who suffer sexual harassment and violation of their public image through information and communication technologies. Our data show that prevention should consider the new vulnerabilities that are generated out of the problematic association between technology and alcohol, using innovative strategies that are adapted to the new patterns of youth behaviour.Ministry of Industry, Economy and Competitiveness FEM2016- 77116-C2-1-RFEDER FEM2016- 77116-C2-1-

Barcelona, 1802. Manuscritos de la Biblioteca Palatina de Parma y su visión artística de la ciudad

In the year 1802, Barcelona became the point of encounter of the Spanish and Neapolitan Royal families, wich arrived to attend the marriage of their children. The choice of the city as the promised exchange point meant a great challenge to the Barcelona autho rities at the time, who were forced to deal with a multitude of issues inj order to render the presence of such illustrious guests comfortable and workable. On of the aspects that tad to be dealt wich was an exemplary urban reform at all leves, from the pavement of the streets to problems raletd wich sanitation or the availability of water. The square then called Plaza de Palacio, wich housed the royal families of Spain (in the Royal Palace) and Naples (in the Palacio de la Aduana Nueva) and the Prime Minister Manuel Godoy (in the Casa Lonja) was one of the more drastically remodeled areas. The result not only made the participants proud but it was olsed reflected in the written impressions provided by foreign visitors and chroniclers of the royal trip

La Corona versus Cataluña: Don Fernando de Austria y las polémicas Cortes de Barcelona de 1632

Si el nombramiento de Francisco Gómez de Sandoval, duque de Lerma, inició durante el reinado de Felipe III una línea permanente de favoritos cuyo mérito principal fue su relación personal con el rey, la presencia de Gaspar de Guzmán, conde-duque de Olivares, representó la continuidad natural de la figura del valido bajo el reinado de Felipe IV. Más proclives a otro tipo de actividades que a las grandes responsabilidades que debían afrontar por nacimiento, ambos monarcas tomaron la decisión en su momento de delegar las riendas del país en sus manos..