Open University of Catalonia

About: Open University of Catalonia is a education organization based out in Barcelona, Spain. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Context (language use) & Higher education. The organization has 1943 authors who have published 4646 publications receiving 64200 citations. The organization is also known as: Universitat Oberta de Catalunya & UOC.

Variable-latency design by function speculation

Abstract: Variable-latency designs may improve the performance of those circuits in which the worst-case delay paths are infrequently activated. Telescopic units emerged as a scheme to automatically synthesize variable-latency circuits. In this paper, a novel approach is proposed that brings three main contributions with regard to the methods used for telescopic units: first, no multi-cycle timing analysis is required to ensure the correctness of the circuit; second, the method can be applied to large circuits; third, the circuit can be optimized for the most frequent input patterns. The approach is based on finding approximations of critical nodes in the netlist that substitute the exact behavior. Two cycles are required when the approximations are not correct. These approximations can be obtained by the simulation of traces applied to the circuit. Experimental results on selected examples show a tangible speed-up (15%) with a small area overhead (3%).

¡Indígnate!: The 2011 popular protests and the limits to democracy in Spain

Abstract: We are the unemployed, the poorly remunerated, the subcontracted, the precarious, the young … we want change and a dignified future. We are fed up with antisocial reforms, those that leave us unemployed, those with which the bankers that have provoked the crisis raise our mortgages or take our homes, those laws that they impose upon us that limit our liberty for the benefit of the powerful. We blame the political economic and economic powers for our precarious situation and we demand a change of direction. iDemocracia Real YA! website, 2011Thus explains one of the principal organisations behind the ‘movement of the indignant’ that has re-awakened popular political consciousness in Spain since 15 May 2011.1 From its origins in a network of activists utilising new social media to coordinate a series of protest marches in cities across Spain, the ‘15-M’ movement has since staged camp-outs in several main city squares, and in the space of a month mobilised 40,000 protestors in Madrid and 80,000 in Barcelona t...

'A New Space for Knowledge and People'? Henri Lefebvre, Representations of Space, and the Production of '22@Barcelona'

Abstract: The Barcelona model of urban transformation has for some time now been considered a paradigmatic case of successful regeneration. Urban change is ongoing in the city, albeit in a changed global context in which cities are increasingly being seen as the principal drivers of economic growth and competitiveness in the ‘new’ or ‘knowledge’ economy. The paper draws on the writing of Henri Lefebvre and on his critique of representations of space, in particular, in order to examine the current strategic transformation of the Poblenou district of Barcelona into 22@Barcelona: An innovation district. The paper endorses Lefebvre's work as a point of departure in critically analysing contemporary strategies to engineer urban competitiveness. It argues that the functionalist and reductive representations of 22@Barcelona betray an ideological concern with the globally competitive abstract space, the reduction of differences, and the closing of the circuit of everyday life in Poblenou.

An innovative waste management system in a smart city under stochastic optimization using vehicle routing problem

Abstract: A smart city (SC) is a sustainable and efficient urban center that provides a high quality of life to its inhabitants through optimal management of its resources that nowadays have been wider and wider. In modern societies, municipal solid waste management (MSWM) is an important part of SCs, the main problem of MSWM is the cost that it generates and must be reduced. To solve this situation in this paper are considered two sub-models. The first sub-model uses vehicle routing problem (VRP) for routing fleet among generation waste to separation facilities. The second sub-model is designed to allocate resources from separation facilities to set of recovery plants or landfill centers. From the best of our knowledge, most of the past studies related to this topic have focused only on deterministic implementations. Also, recent studies usually focus on uncertain parameters in the area of waste generation. In addition, a few related studies have developed the uncertain parameter which has focused on facilitating separation. This study considers the uncertain parameters in the output rate of separation facilities as well as the importance of value recovery from each bin; the aim is to enhance the efficiency of operations. The purpose of this study is to minimize the total transportation cost and to maximize recycled revenue. Chance-constrained programming has been used to deal with stochastic optimization model. Four metaheuristic algorithms are employed to identify the best solution. Besides, the performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated. Finally, sensitivity analyses along with number of scenarios have developed to measure the tightness of the proposed problem. The results of the study illustrate the optimized number of vehicles that can help the managers and decision-makers in various tightness conditions.