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Reports on the attendance in the International Federation for Information Processing sponsored by the World Computer Congress in Madrid, Spain from September 7 to 11, 1992. Factors that contributed to the low-industry turnout on the conference; Topics included in the symposia; Research papers presented at the conference.

Describes a method for analyzing the performance of grounding systems. Equivalent circuit of the grounding system; Resistances, inductances and conductances; Comparison with other evaluation methods; Analysis of the Balaidos Substation in Spain.

Discusses provisions incorporated by the Spanish wholesale electricity market in taking into account thermal plant running requirements. Effect of the market clearing algorithm; Implementation of the minimum income condition payment versus cost minimization; Description of the Spanish wholesale electricity market.

Presents the results of a field measurement campaign at the experimental COFDM 8K digital terrestrial television network by the partners of the VIDITER project in Spain. Field strength spatial variation distribution inside small coverage areas; Measurement campaign targets.

Presents some results of a measurement campaign in the service area of the digital terrestrial television experimental network of Madrid, Spain. Degradation suffered by analog PAl-G signals in the presence of co-channel and adjacent channel digital emissions; Protection ratios between analogue and digital received power levels.

Presents a preliminary study of some optical properties of atmospheric aerosols over the area of Valencia, Spain. Irradiance measurements obtained using three Li-cor 1800 spectroradiometers; Spectral aerosol optical thickness (AOT); Parameterization of the AOT Angstrom coefficients; Aerosol size distribution.

Investigates the complexity of geographical information in Sevilla, south of Spain. Characteristic of boundaries between different phenomena; Consequences of unrealistic assumptions; Comparison of the result with obtained information from the ERDAS ISODATA classification program.

Presents the field trials and coverage measurements carried out in the terrestrial digital audio broadcasting network in Spain. Parameters obtained characterizing the propagation channel for urban environments; Evaluation of the propagation radio channel for the network; Calculation of the standard deviation of the field strength levels.

Investigates the integrated with automatic generation control of a wind farm with variable speed wind turbines in Spain. Components of the G47/660 wind turbines; Electrical layout of the turbine; Control of active and reactive power at the wind farm substation.

Analyzes the impact of high wind power penetration on the planning and operation of the Spanish power system. Information on the plans of several countries in Europe to install wind energy farms; Amount of power peak of the Spanish power system; Electrical regions of the Spanish system.

This paper presents the measurement results obtained in an extensive field test campaign developed in two large cities of Spain (Madrid and Bilbao) with the aim of characterizing the portable outdoor reception of digital terrestrial television (COFDM) and continue the studies carried out by the authors during the past years [1], [2]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the undergraduate radar course taught at the Escola Universitària Politècnica del Baix Llobregat (EUPBL) of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC), Barcelona, Spain. At present, the EUPBL offers a three-year degree in Technical Telecommunications Engineering. This paper briefly describes the EUPBL, the organization of the degree program, the structure of the radar course, the evaluation methods, and two practical exercises on a sonar demonstrator and a global positioning system kit. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Fourth Conference on Telematics Engineering (JITEL) took place in Gran Canaria, Spain from September 15-17, 2003. Previous celebrations of this conference took place in Bilbao in 1997, Leganés, Madrid, in 1999 and Barcelona in 2001. JITEL is the flagship meeting of Spanish researchers and industry experts on the following topics: network design and interconnection, distributed platforms and network management, agents and active networks, access networks, traffic models and control, mobile and wireless communications etc.

This paper presents a field measurement campaign developed to study the influence of the special features of a Single Frequency Network (SFN) reception in the C/N thresholds applicable to portable DTV reception. The measurements presented here were performed inside coverage areas of the nation wide SFN which broadcasts DTV (COFDM 8 K mode) services in Spain. The aim of this paper is to present some network planning reference values for portable reception in urban environments where both multipath and multiple transmitter reception have to be taken into account to ensure a good quality of service. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 8th Therminic Workshop was held in Madrid, Spain, from October 1-4, 2002. Therminic is spon sored by the IEEE Computer Society Test Technology Technical Council and TIMA Laboratory in cooperation with the IEEE Components, Packaging, and Manufacturing Technology Society, and the European Test Technology Technical Committee. From the 80 submissions the Program Committee selected this year 33 for oral presentation and 39 for poster presentation. The Workshop had over 90 participants from 22 countries. Proceedings have been distributed among the participants and copies are available from TIMA.

The article describes a multimedia approach to the efficient implementation and use of emergency plans using the subway system of Valencia, Spain as an example. Metro Valencia is the public company that manages the railway transportation in the Valencia metropolitan area. In 1998, the Metro Valencia Safety Office began developing a system to improve its emergency plan. The Hypermedia Emergency Plan has been operational since June 2000 at the Metro Valencia's Traffic Control Office. Without the Hypermedia plan, emergency procedures are carried out manually. Its advent has greatly streamlined the execution of emergency procedures. Currently, when an emergency occurs, the safety manager interacts with the hypermedia plan instead of the paper-based plan. The solution is applicable to other public service organizations like hotels, stadiums, theaters and even whole cities in case of natural disasters. Although every situation is different, and many specific details must be taken into account, systems supporting emergency management must fulfill two basic requirements. First, they must provide multimedia storage and delivery. Second, they must support advanced, workflow-like navigation of the available information. Based on the experience gathered from the Valencia project, a number of issues have been identified that need attention and further research before safety-oriented systems are widely used. These are process, presentation, information management and retrieval, communication, collaboration and intelligence.

The solution of power system constraints is an important issue that has to be addressed to achieve a fair operation of a competitive electricity market. In the Spanish electricity market, the System Operator (SO) is in charge of determining the technical feasibility of the generation dispatch provided by the Market Operator (MO). An optimal solution method of power system constraints in the Spanish market must take into account the connection of off-line units to solve both branch overloads and voltage constraints, the adjustment of voltage control resources, the solution of the postulated n-I and n-2 contingencies with a preventive criteria and the coupling of the solution in the 24 hourly scenarios due to the start-up cost of nonconnected units. This paper details the management of power system constraints in the Spanish market, and contains a comprehensive review of solution methods of power system constraints. In addition, the paper proposes a novel approach to solve Spanish power system constraints that overcomes the limitations of existing methods, by decoupling the solution of branch overloads and voltage constraints. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine price by season and by year in 14 deregulated markets, by looking at diurnal price patterns and price volatility. Power price volatility is measured by price velocity, the daily average of the absolute value of price change per hour, which is broken into a component expected from the average diurnal pattern, and an unexpected component. Deregulated markets can be categorized into three groups: stable markets, markets that experienced one bad period or season of high price excursion, and chaotic markets. Britain, Spain and Scandinavia show consistent price patterns and low unexpected price velocity; a thoughtful consumer could reasonably implement demand side management (DSM) by shaping consumption patterns to reflect price. California, New Zealand and Alberta are examples of markets that had a period of very high price excursion; we discuss factors affecting public reaction to this. Australian power markets have inconsistent price patterns from season to season and year to year, and very high unexpected price velocity. Planned DSM in these markets would be very difficult. We offer four policy considerations for markets considering deregulation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, a probabilistic methodology for estimating the energy costs in the market for wind generators associated with wind prediction errors is proposed. Generators must buy or sell energy production deviations due to prediction errors when they bid in day-ahead or hour-ahead energy markets. The prediction error is modeled through a probability density function that represents the accuracy of the prediction model. Production hourly energy deviations and their associated trading costs are then calculated. Three study cases based on real wind power installations in Spain are analyzed. The three study cases show that the error prediction costs can reach as much as 10% of the total generator energy incomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reports on the highlights of the 2005 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA) in Barcelona, Spain. Total attendees at ICRA; ICRA 2005 award winners; IEEE RAS/IFR Entrepreneurs' Workshop and Innovation Awards; Robotics and Automation Society Awards.

Focuses on heterogeneous engineering. Creation of dynamic networks comprised of actors possessing many different attributes, interest and goals; Conference on the Hydrogen Economy, held in Washington D.C., Information on the 2005 International Conference on Robotics and Automation, sponsored by the IEEE Robotics and Automation Society, held in April 2005 in Barcelona, Spain; Symposium on machine ethics with the American Association for Artificial Intelligence in 2005.

The article presents information on the 2004 Workshop on Radiation and its Effects on Components and Systems (RADECS), which was held from September 22-24, 2005 in Madrid, Spain. The special issue of the journal "IEEE Transactions on Nuclear Science" contains selected papers from the Workshop. At least three reviewers scrutinized these manuscripts to ensure that all manuscripts were original and represented significant contributions to the literature. A separate proceedings of this RADECS 2004 Workshop contains a complete record of all manuscripts presented orally or via poster.

The article presents an overview of the 8th European Workshop on Radiation and its Effects on Components and Systems, which was held from September 19-23, 2004, at the CIEMAT facilities in Madrid, Spain. More than 210 participants from 26 countries all over the world attended this workshop. A total of 58 papers were presented in this workshop. The attendees also had the possibility to use the breaks to visit the industrial exhibition, composed of nine booths with a good representation of the different sectors, which involved component manufacturers, service providers, etc.

The article announces the recipient for the 2005 IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award presented at the Awards Ceremony of the Society during the 44th IEEE Conference on Decision and Control in Seville, Spain on December 14, 2005. The winning research titled "Worst-Case and Distributional Robustness Analysis of Finite-Time Control Trajectories for Nonlinear Distributed Parameter Systems," by Zoltan K. Nagy and Richard D. Braatz was selected among the papers published in the 2003-2004 issues of the journal. It also calls for nominations for the 2006 IEEE Transactions on Control Systems Technology Outstanding Paper Award covering the period from January 2004 to December 2005 issues of the journal.

This paper presents an approach to determine the optimal daily generation scheduling based on the Spanish electricity market rules. The Spanish power system considers the pool-based daily market and the technical constraints resolution as two different and consecutive processes. After the daily market has been cleared, a centralized constraints resolution process is applied to this initial scheduling through the redispatch of previously matched energy. In this paper, an algorithm based on Benders decomposition, arranged in three levels, is proposed to solve the technical constraints solution process in order to define a preventive secure dispatch. The constraints resolution process includes a full ac network and security model. This method determines the active power committed to each generating unit so as to minimize the energy redispatch cost subject to dispatch, network, and security constraints. The solution also provides the reactive power output of the generating units, the value of the transformers taps, and the committed voltage control devices. The model has been tested in an actual example of the Spanish power system. Some relevant results are reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some experimental results on the application of signal processing techniques to underwater seismic signals. The novelty of this paper stems from the fact that it is the first paper, to the best of the authors' knowledge, dealing with a comprehensive processing of signals obtained from active refraction seismology. In particular, this paper has adapted known signal processing techniques to problems such as time of arrival detection (TOA), compression, and representation through conventional images (hodocrones) used in underwater seismology. This work is part of a wider project aimed at the design of a small ocean bottom seismometer (OBS) undertaken by several research and development groups in Spain. This sophisticated easy to handle equipment allows recording useful active and passive seismicity information. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing necessity of engineers capable of handling the problems of the industry and able to face the technical challenges they will encounter in their professional career is boosting the teaching methods based on projects and real applications. The Center of Technological Innovation in Static Converters and Drives, Technical University of Catalonia (CITCEA-UPC) group, Barcelona, Spain, has introduced such learning methods applied to the automation field in a course taught for the electrical engineering degree and in some postgraduate workshops, making the laboratory platforms available through the Internet in order to allow the use of such practices in e-learning-based courses. The learning method is based on a flexible manufacturing ceil, resulting from the collaboration between the CITCEA-UPC and Schneider Electric and its Training Center. The problem proposed to the students is the automation of such a cell with commercial programmable logic controllers (PLCs). The experience has proved to be positive, and the students have valued it accordingly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an introduction to the main design features of a computer-aided educational package addressed to students of the final years of Electronic and Computer Engineering is presented. The software includes interrelated tutorial, computer simulations, and test questions in which graphical outputs, hypertexts, and animations are widely used. The package is devoted to the simulation study of electrooptic and acoustooptic theory and devices. It provides instant numerical evaluation and a graphical display of different studies. The software presented in this paper has all the following features: an integrative character, self-evaluation tests, a personalized and active learning process, adaptability to teacher's aims, versatility as a teaching tool, multimedia resources, and simplicity. This study has been completed with final-year students at the Superior Polytechnic School of Cordoba, Spain, with highly favorable results when compared with students who did not use the software. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, an efficient method based on a new fuzzy neural network is proposed for short-term price fore- casting of electricity markets. This fuzzy neural network has inter-layer and feed-forward architecture with a new hypercubic training mechanism. The proposed method predicts hourly market-clearing prices for the day-ahead electricity markets. By combination of fuzzy logic and an efficient learning algorithm, an appropriate model for the nonstationary behavior and outliers of the price series is presented. The proposed method is examined on the Spanish electricity market. It is shown that the method can provide more accurate results than the other price forecasting techniques, such as ARIMA time series, wavelet-ARIMA, MLP, and RBF neural networks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a calendar of events related to information technology. The "8th International Conference on e-Health Networking, Applications, and Services" is scheduled on August 17-19, 2006 in New Delhi, India. The "2nd International Workshop on Satellite and Space Communications" is scheduled on September 14-15, 2006 in Spain. The "International Conference on Information Technology" is scheduled on October 16-19, 2006 in Tel Aviv, Israel.

This paper introduces and evaluates BioLab, a tool for teaching biosignal processing. BioLab has been used in the biomedical engineering module that is given in the second semester of the fifth year of the electronic engineering degree at the University of Valencia, Spain. This module and its correspondent curricular pathway are also reviewed. BioLab allows the results obtained with digital processing techniques to be shown interactively in the theory classes, and it also provides support in laboratory sessions. The graphic interface of BioLab simplifies its learning and use and provides access to processing and visualization functions by means of menus. The tool is based on Matlab since the students have had previous experience in this environment. BioLab also supports diverse formats of data files, which facilitate access to real records and their conversion to usable formats. The modular structure of BioLab allows it to be easily extended to other educational materials that are related to signal processing and to research applications. An evaluation of BioLab has revealed that students found it useful for understanding the general concepts of digital processing and biosignal processing in particular. The students also found BioLab very easy to learn and use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This two-part paper surveys the frequency and voltage control ancillary services in power systems from various parts of the world. In this first part, the nomenclature used to describe active power reserves across 11 systems is first reviewed in order to facilitate the comparison of frequency control ancillary services. The essential technical features of frequency and voltage control ancillary services are then described. Finally, the technical requirements adopted in eight jurisdictions (North America, continental Europe, Germany, France, Spain, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Great Britain) are compared. The companion paper surveys the economic features of these ancillary services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the Spanish voltage control ancillary ser- vice is the minimization of the transmission losses while keeping the system away from voltage instability. The latter target can be achieved maintaining an adequate voltage profile in normal operating condition and assuring that generators exhibit enough reactive margins that guarantee that the system voltages will remain under acceptable values in case of contingencies. The service has been designed in Spain to be partially mandatory and partially subject to payment based on market-driven rules and performance evaluation. In the annual time scope, the optional reactive offers submitted by the service suppliers are selected analyzing a number of forecasted scenarios. This paper explains the implementation of the Spanish voltage control ancillary service (VCAS) that is provided by generators in the annual time scope. For this purpose, a mixed-integer linear programming optimal power flow (OPF) is used. Reactive bids of generators are modeled within each scenario by modifying the reactive limits of the generators. The use of the proposed OPF in the assignment of the voltage control ancillary service is explained and illustrated using actual scenarios of the Spanish power system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Surface Processes and Ecosystem Changes Through Response Analysis (SPECTRA) Barrax Campaigns were validation campaigns developed in the framework of the SPECTRA mission in order to verify that the geophysical data products provided by satellite imagery are consistent with the measurements made by independent means. Two campaigns took place in Barrax, Spain, during the summers of 2003 and 2004. This paper presents the results of the characterization of the atmospheric composition from solar radiation, radiosoundings, and lidar measurements. Several potentially interesting situations involving atmospheric layers with different types of aerosols and water content are discussed. The presence of a residual layer capping the mixing layer during some days of the 2003 campaign and the arrival of a dust-rich air mass from the Sahara on the last two days of the 2004 campaign provide some relevant aerosol vertical profiles to test atmospheric correction algorithms. The study of the effects of these atmospheric situations on radiative transfer calculations is required in the development and validation of advanced atmospheric correction codes for the new generation of Earth Observation Systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reports on the VI Spanish National Plan for Scientific R+D+I for the 2008-2011 period. The plan raises the budget to 48 billion pesos, which is double the investment for the 2003-2007 period. The structure of the new plan is based on the definition of the six instrumental lines of projects, human resources, infrastructures, institutional strengthening, internationalization of the system, and articulation. Spain hopes to promote continuous training within the area of mobility and knowledge or engineers and researchers.

The research presented in this paper shows how lab work can be organized into three phases: prelab, lab, and postlab, all supported by a Web-based experimental portal and a set of tools, some of which are connected to real lab devices. Different on-line tools and simulators are used in a flexible and configurable way that can be adapted to student curricula and course needs. This scenario is based upon real cases in distance learning courses in the Industrial Engineering School at the Universidad Nacional de Educación (The Spanish Open University), Madrid, Spain. The details of the combined real and simulated activities are discussed and some conclusions and lessons learned from this work are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A database of global, cloud-free, and atmospheric radiosounding profiles was compiled with the aim of simulating radiometric measurements from satellite-borne sensors in the thermal infrared. The objective of the simulated data is to generate split-window (SW) and dual-angle (DA) algorithms for the retrieval of land surface temperature (LST) from Terra/Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) and Envisat/Advanced Along Track Scanning Radiometer (AATSR) data. The database contains 382 radiosounding profiles acquired over land, with nearly uniform distribution of precipitable water between 0.02 and 5.5 cm. Radiative transfer calculations were performed with the MODTRAN 4 code for six viewing angles between 0° and 60°. The resulting radiance spectra were convoluted with the response filter functions of MODIS bands 31 and 32 and AATSR channels at 11 and 12 μm. By using the simulation database, the SW algorithms adapted for MODIS and AATSR data and the DA algorithms for AATSR data were developed. Both types of algorithms are quadratic in the brightness temperature difference and depend explicitly on the land surface emissivity. The SW and DA algorithms were validated with actual ground measurements of LST collected concurrently to MODIS and AATSR observations in a site located close to the city of Valencia, Spain, in a large, flat, and thermally homogeneous area of rice crops. The results obtained have no bias and a standard deviation around ±0.5 K for the SW algorithms at nadir for both sensors. The SW algorithm used in the forward view results in a bias of 0.6 K and a standard deviation of ±0.8 K. The worst results are obtained in the other algorithms with a bias close to -1.0 K and a standard deviation close to ±1.1 K in the case of the DA algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) projects of the National Strategic Consortia for Technical Research (CENIT) in Spain, which Telefonica de Espana SA participates. It relates that the projects include the automotive networking, ambient intelligence for electronic-health, and augmented telepresence and discusses the objectives of the individual projects. It also adds that the projects are designed for the development of technological innovations that can be used for the development of new products, services or processes. Moreover, it cites that the Spanish CENIT program aims to nurture the collaboration among private, public and research sectors and mobilizing very huge budgets on single projects.

In a competitive electricity market, an accurate forecasting of energy prices is an important activity for all the market participants either for developing bidding strategies or for making investment decisions. An adaptive wavelet neural network (AWNN) is proposed in this paper for short-term price forecasting (STPF) in the electricity markets. A commonly used Mexican hat wavelet has been chosen as the activation function for hidden-layer neurons of feed-forward neural network (FFNN). To demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, day-ahead prediction of market clearing price (MCP) of Spain market, which is a duopoly market with a dominant player, and locational marginal price (LMP) forecasting in PJM electricity market, are considered. The forecasted results clearly show that AWNN has good prediction properties compared to other forecasting techniques, such as wavelet-ARIMA, multi-layer perceptron (MLP) and radial basis function (RBF) neural networks as well as recently proposed fuzzy neural network (FNN). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes the author's experience with an Internet subscription service in Madrid, Spain. Topics include: the author's frustration with having to enter so much information on the service's web page; the arrangement for purchasing time on and gaining access to the Internet; the problem of a forgotten password for the PayPal account that is complicated by the use of a different credit card on an existing account; and three lessons learned from this experience that relate to the subscriber's convenience and a website's design and usability.

The penetration level of wind energy is continuously growing, and it is especially relevant in European countries such as Denmark, Germany, and Spain. For this reason, grid codes in different countries have been recently revised, or are now under revision in order to integrate this energy in the network taking into account the security of supply. This paper is related to reactive compensation, which is one aspect usually included in these codes. On the other hand, a great number of installed wind parks are formed by fixed speed wind turbines equipped with induction generators. The typical scheme for reactive compensation in this kind of wind parks is based on capacitor banks locally controlled in each machine. This configuration makes very difficult to follow the requirements of the new grid codes. To overcome this problem, a configuration with a central controller that coordinates the actuation over all the capacitor steps in the wind park is proposed in this paper. A central controller algorithm that is based on a dynamic programming is presented and evaluated by means of simulation. At this time, the proposed scheme has been installed at the Sotavento Experimental Wind Park (Spain) and it is currently being tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes and analyzes the Spanish AGC system. The differences with respect to a standard hierarchical structure are explained. A simple model useful for simulation is proposed. Using this model, the performance of the system and the influence of several parameters in system response is evaluated. The paper also suggests some changes in the configuration and parameter settings of the system to improve its performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studying fundamental Computer Architecture and Organization topics requires a significant amount of practical work if students are to acquire a good grasp of the theoretical concepts presented in classroom lectures or textbooks. The use of simulators is commonly adapted in order to reach this objective. However, as most of the available educational simulators focus on specific topics, different laboratory assignments usually require the use of different simulators. This paper presents a graphical and interactive reduced instruction set computer (RISC) processor and memory simulator that allows active learning of some theoretical concepts covered in Computer Architecture and Organization courses. The simulator can be configured to present different processor views, from a simple serial one, without caches or pipelines, to a more realistic one with caches and superscalar execution. This approach allows a set of increasingly complex code-based laboratory assignments to be developed using a single simulator, covering topics ranging from assembly language programming to the analysis (If the different kind of cache misses, pipeline hazards or branch prediction hits and misses produced during a program execution. The simulator has been included in a an automatic assessment system that helps the students to complete the assignments and helps teachers to evaluate the correctness of the students solutions in different environments, such as high-enrollment courses or distance education. Since 1996, both the simulator and the automatic assessment system have been successfully used by more than 5000 students in Computer Architecture and Organization courses at the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), Spain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]