Evaluating air emission inventories and indicators from cruise vessels at ports

This paper provides an estimation of air emissions (CO2, NOX, SOX and PM) released by cruise vessels at the port level. The methodology is based on the Bfull bottom-up^ approach and starts by evaluating the fuel consumed by each vessel on the basis of its individual port activities (manoeuvring, berthing and hoteling). The Port of Barcelona was selected as the site at which to perform the analysis, in which 125 calls of 30 cruise vessels were monitored. Real-time data from the automatic identification system (AIS), factor emissions from engine certificates and vessel characteristics from IHS Sea-web database were also collected for the analysis. The research findings show that the most appropriate indicators are inventory emissions per Bport-time gross tonnage^, Bport-time passenger^ and Bport time^. These emission indicators improve our understanding of cruise emissions and will facilitate the work that aims to estimate reliably and quickly the in-port ship emission inventories of cruise ports.Postprint (published version

Beyond the discourses of rating. When reception matters more than consumption. An empirical study about the Colombian television audience

Las mediciones industriales del rating enfrentan desafíos y limitaciones originados por nuevos hábitos de consumo y preferencias de contenidos en ambientes televisivos digitales caracterizados por la globalización, la sobreoferta, la variedad de programación temática y la fragmentación de las audiencias. El presente artículo de investigación presenta los resultados más importantes de la evidencia empírica obtenida a partir de un estudio de orden probabilístico, financiado por el canal privado RCN, que fue aplicado a televidentes colombianos, entre 17 y 60 años, habitantes de los 12 centros urbanos más importantes del país.Rating measurement’ industrial system faces challenges and limits due to new consumption habits and particular content preferences among audiences, in a television environment characterized by globalization, oversupply, thematic programming and audiences’ fragmentation. This research article shows the main results obtained from a quantitative study, of a probabilistic sample, financed by RCN channel, applied to Colombian T.V. audiences, between 17 and 60, who live in the 12 most important urban areas

Interpolation centers' selection using hierarchical curvature-based clustering

It is widely known that some fields related to graphic applications require realistic and full detailed three-dimensional models. Technologies for this kind of applications exist. However, in some cases, laser scanner get complex models composed of million of points, making its computationally difficult. In these cases, it is desirable to obtain a reduced set of these samples to reconstruct the function's surface. An appropriate reduction approach with a non-significant loss of accuracy in the reconstructed function with a good balance of computational load is usually a non-trivial problem. In this article, a hierarchical clustering based method by the selection of center using the geometric distribution and curvature estimation of the samples in the 3D space is described

Estudio de efectos de asimetría en vibradores ultrasónicos axisimétricos

8 pages, 6 figures.-- Comunicación presentada en: XXXV Congreso Español de Acústica – TecniAcústica 2004, IV Congreso Iberoamericano de Acústica, IV Congreso Ibérico de Acústica y EAA Symposium "Environmental and Architectural Acoustics" (Guimaraes, 14-17 Sep 2004).[EN] The use of high-power ultrasonic plate transducers shows a series of problems related with the presence of modal coupling or interactions between the vibrational modes of the ultrasonic system. In such system, the radiator consists of a stepped circular plate. The radiator plate is driven at its centre by a tuned piezoelectric vibrator generating an axysimetric mode of vibration. Nevertheless, in many cases the nodal figures are deformed and present ovals instead of circles in the plate. This phenomenon which is frequently observed can be basically due to two main reasons: the material anisotropy and the influence of the high-density of nonaxysimetrical modes around the operating frequency.This paper deals with the study and analysis of both possibilities using numerical simulations by finite element techniques and experimental measurements.[ES] El uso de transductores ultrasónicos de potencia del tipo placa vibrante, plantea una serie de problemas relacionados con el posible acoplamiento o interacción entre los diversos modos de vibración que contiene el sistema. En estos transductores el radiador está constituido por una placa vibrante de geometría circular y perfil escalonado. Esta placa se pone en vibración mediante un excitador piezoeléctrico sintonizado a la frecuencia del modo de vibración de interés. La placa radiante se excita sinusoidalmente en su centro generando un modo de vibración axisimétrico. Las figuras nodales que se forman son círculos concéntricos. Sin embargo, en muchos casos aparecen asimetrías en el modo de vibración, de forma que las figuras nodales aparecen deformadas en forma de óvalos. Este fenómeno, que se repite con determinada frecuencia, puede ser debido fundamentalmente a dos causas: la influencia de modos cercanos no axisimétricos o a la anisotropía del material.En este trabajo se estudian y analizan ambas posibilidades empleando tanto técnicas de simulación numérica por elementos finitos como medidas experimentales.Este trabajo ha sido financiado con cargo al Proyecto del Plan Nacional de Investigación DPI 2002-3409.Peer reviewe

Los noticieros espejo o la liviandad de la información

Este artículo explora las implicaciones de la falta de contextualización de la informaciónque publican los noticieros de televisión colombianos en la toma de decisiones y laformación de opinión pública en los ciudadanos. Está basado en los resultados de unainvestigación realizada por el Observatorio de Medios de la Facultad de Comunicaciónde la Universidad de La Sabana y el Centro Multimedial de la Universidad Eafit, yfinanciada por la Comisión Nacional de Televisión que, a través de un análisis decontenido, indaga sobre la estructura, cobertura y contenidos de los noticieros de latelevisión en Colombia. El predominio de la noticia escueta, sin contexto o con pocoselementos de éste, termina por desdibujar la función orientadora del periodism

Scaling properties of rainfall and desert dust in the Canary Islands

Precipitation and desert dust event occurrence time series measured in the Canary Islands region are examined with the primary intention of exploring their scaling characteristics as well as their spatial variability in terms of the island's topography and geographical orientation. In particular, the desert dust intrusion regime in the islands is studied in terms of its relationship with visibility. Analysis of dust and rainfall events over the archipelago exhibits distributions in time that obey power laws. Results show that the rain process presents a high clustering and irregular pattern on short timescales and a more scattered structure for long ones. In contrast, dustiness presents a more uniform and dense structure and, consequently, a more persistent behaviour on short timescales. It was observed that the fractal dimension of rainfall events shows an important spatial variability, which increases with altitude, as well as towards northern latitudes and western longitudes

A NEW HIGH-INTENSITY ULTRASONIC TECHNOLOGY FOR FOOD DEHYDRATION

12 páginas, 7 figurasAt present, there is a growing interest in the field of dehydration for preserving food. Ultrasonic energy represents a means to obtain dehydration without affecting the food. This paper deals with an experimental study about the use of high-intensity ultrasound for vegetable dehydration by using a new power ultrasound generator and a procedure in which ultrasonic vibrations are applied in direct contact with the product and under a certain static pressure. The drying effect of this new process is compared with that obtained from forced-air drying assisted by air-borne ultrasonic radiation and from a conventional hot-air drying. The results show that by using the new technology and procedure it is possible to reduce dramatically the treatment time and it is relatively easy to reach a final moisture content in the samples less than 1%. In addition, the product qualities are well preserved, the sample rehydration is higher than 70% and, because of the high efficiency of the new ultrasonic system employed, the energy consumption is low. As a consequence of the results a new technology for industrial applications is under development.Peer reviewe

Agrupamiento jerárquico para selección de centros de interpolantes RBF

RESUMENLa teoría de la interpolación está bien definida y desarrollada. Existen amplios estudios relacionados con su eficiencia, comportamiento y precisión. Sin embargo, al llevar estas teorías en campos de aplicación, en los cuales la cantidad de las muestras obtenidas de la función desconocida son significativamente grandes en relación con las capacidades de procesamiento de una computadora clásica, los procedimientos conocidos suelen enfrentarse a limitaciones de carácter computacional fundamentalmente. En estos casos es deseable obtener un conjunto reducido de estas muestras con el cual reconstruir la función. Reducir adecuadamente este conjunto de muestras sin una pérdida significativa en la precisión de la función reconstruida, pero con un balance adecuado en la carga computacional suele ser un problema no trivial. En este artículo se presentan un enfoque jerárquico de selección guiado mediante la distribución geométrica de las muestras en el espacio 3D.ABSTRACTThe theory of the interpolation is well defined and explained. Many related works show their efficiency, behavior and precision. However, when we applied these theories in engineering fields, in which, the obtained samples of the unknown function are too many in quantity in relation with the processing capacities of a classic computer, the well-known procedures usually face limitations of computational complexity. In these cases it is desirable to obtain a reduced group of these samples with which to reconstruct the function’s surface. To appropriately reduce it without a significant loss of accuracy in the reconstructed function, but with a good balance of computational load, it is usually a non trivial problem. In this article we show up a hierarchical-based method for centers selection by means the geometric distribution of the samples in the 3D space