New Method for Historic Rammed-earth Wall Characterization: The Almohade Ramparts of Malaga and Seville

ABSTRACT

The goal of this research is to propose a new method of characterizing rammed-earth walls. Based on their historic building materials properties, five broad test groups were established for the characterization: chemical and mineralogical composition, physical properties, mechanical properties, particle size distribution, and dating. These determinations can, in turn, be grouped into two different types: instrumental techniques such as XRF, XRD, and SEM-EDX, as well as adaptations of standard methods (mainly UNE-EN standards) for application to these materials. As case studies where the proposed method is applied, we present our research on the rammed-earth walls in the ramparts of Seville and Malaga (Spain), clearly showing the method’s capacity for comparing and differentiating different rammed-earth walls.     

The Impact of Corporate Media News on Market Valuation

This article explores the influence of Web-based corporate reporting on the investors' valuation of companies in the information and communications technology industry. This study compiled 8,111 news items issued in the “Press Releases” tab of the firms' Web sites between January 2003 and April 2005, and analyzed what type of news items affects stock returns. The results show a positive price reaction to news regarding new customers, completion of acquisitions, strategic long-term decisions, and non-technological alliances. In contrast, the results show a negative price reaction to news regarding the launch of new or upgraded products.     

An annual JCR impact factor calculation based on Bayesian credibility formulas

Our aim deals with appraising the annual impact calculation of journals belonging to the JCR, in terms of the expected citation (with or without selfcitations) by published paper in a range of k-years. A Bayesian approach to the problem, should reflect not only the current prestige of a journal, but also taking into account its recent trajectory. In this wide context, credibility theory becomes an adequate mechanism deciding whether journal's impact factor calculation to be more or less plausible. Under prior belief that journal quality is determined by its impact factor, we model the citation-quality process by choosing a conjugated family of the exponential class in order to obtain a net impact credibility formula. Proposed weighting schema produces the effect of smoothing out any sudden increases or decreases in the year-by-year impact factor.     

Accuracy of simple,initials-based methods for author name disambiguation

There are a number of solutions that perform unsupervised name disambiguation based on the similarity of bibliographic records or common coauthorship patterns. Whether the use of these advanced methods, which are often difficult to implement, is warranted depends on whether the accuracy of the most basic disambiguation methods, which only use the author's last name and initials, is sufficient for a particular purpose. We derive realistic estimates for the accuracy of simple, initials-based methods using simulated bibliographic datasets in which the true identities of authors are known. Based on the simulations in five diverse disciplines we find that the first initial method already correctly identifies 97% of authors. An alternative simple method, which takes all initials into account, is typically two times less accurate, except in certain datasets that can be identified by applying a simple criterion. Finally, we introduce a new name-based method that combines the features of first initial and all initials methods by implicitly taking into account the last name frequency and the size of the dataset. This hybrid method reduces the fraction of incorrectly identified authors by 10–30% over the first initial method.     

Coloniality and Education: Negotiating Discourses of Immigration in Schools and Communities Through Border Thinking

In this article, we examine the discursive construction of knowledge about immigration in two geographic spaces whose “border” many students navigate: a school context meant to support English Language Learners and an out-of-school faith based organization serving immigrant communities. We draw on the concept of “border thinking” (Mignolo, 2000, p. 18) to understand how colonial histories continue to influence contemporary educational contexts. Through examples from students’, community members’, and educators’ interactions with available discourses of immigration, we elaborate on the implications of community knowledge for revising school practices to represent a fuller complexity of immigration experiences.     

Grading Multiple Choice Exams with Low-Cost and Portable Computer-Vision Techniques

Although technology for automatic grading of multiple choice exams has existed for several decades, it is not yet as widely available or affordable as it should be. The main reasons preventing this adoption are the cost and the complexity of the setup procedures. In this paper, Eyegrade, a system for automatic grading of multiple choice exams is presented. While most current solutions are based on expensive scanners, Eyegrade offers a truly low-cost solution requiring only a regular off-the-shelf webcam. Additionally, Eyegrade performs both mark recognition as well as optical character recognition of handwritten student identification numbers, which avoids the use of bubbles in the answer sheet. When compared with similar webcam-based systems, the user interface in Eyegrade has been designed to provide a more efficient and error-free data collection procedure. The tool has been validated with a set of experiments that show the ease of use (both setup and operation), the reduction in grading time, and an increase in the reliability of the results when compared with conventional, more expensive systems.     

Sobre la didáctica del texto expositivo. Algunas propuestas para la clase de lengua

La omnipresencia del texto expositivo en el ámbito escolar, tanto en el discurso del profesor como en el de los alumnos, constituye una razón importante para que pase a ser objeto de enseñanza y aprendizaje en la clase de lengua, no como información «sobre» la exposición ni como simple adiestramiento práctico, sino como trabajo de análisis y producción de textos. Ante las frecuentes quejas sobre la pobreza de vocabulario de los alumnos, la falta de orden en la expresión de sus ideas y, en general, sobre su poca destreza en la exposición oral y escrita, conviene señalar que estas habilidades que echamos de menos en nuestros alumnos se pueden enseñar y, si no se enseñan, no debe extrañarnos que no se aprendan. Las autoras de este trabajo pretenden llamar la atención sobre la importacia y las posibilidades del texto expositivo para la clase de lengua en la enseñanza secundaria.     

El currículum invisible: Los medios de comunicación y la prensa en la escuela

¿Cuál es la alternativa cuando uno se plantea el problema de que el niño aprende cosas triviales que le interesan y no aprende cosas importantes que no le interesan? ¿Son tan triviales las triviales? ¿Son tan importantes las que no le interesan?

Parece que la incorporación de los medios a la escuela está ayudando a establecer ese necesario puente entre el curriculum formal y el informal, entre la escuela y el mundo real. El caso de la prensa, alentado por su obvia relación con el proceso de lectoescritura, ha llevado también a extender el experimento al impulso que el uso de los medios en clase puede dar al aprendizaje de los diversos códigos y lenguajes.

Este artículo revisa en la primera parte algunos conceptos básicos para entender el papel de los medios en la educación, sobre todo en relación con el sentido de ésta para el alumno y ofrece en la segunda parte una serie de propuestas concretas para su integración en el curriculum de la reforma y para la aplicación práctica.