Carmen Llinares

Factores de Satisfacción Laboral Evocados por los Profesionales de la Construcción en la Comunidad Valenciana (España)

La satisfaccion laboral de los profesionales tecnicos de la construccion no parece haber sido estudiada en Espana hasta el momento. De ahi el objetivo de esta investigacion: estudiar empiricamente la satisfaccion laboral de estos profesionales en la Comunidad Valenciana, desde la perspectiva de los propios investigados, a traves de un enfoque cualitativo. Se pretende descubrir como viven, sienten y perciben su actividad laboral; analizar si se sienten satisfechos en la cotidianeidad de su trabajo y describir los aspectos generadores de mayor satisfaccion laboral. La estrategia metodologica utilizada para la obtencion de datos ha sido la entrevista en profundidad, que ha permitido explorar los significados de los sujetos estudiados y captar detalles y matices expresados con su propio lenSatisfaction. A traves de una estrategia gradual de muestreo, se ha seleccionado y entrevistado a una muestra de cuarenta profesionales, arquitectos y arquitectos tecnicos de titulacion, de distinto sexo, edad y experiencia profesional. Se concluye que los profesionales entrevistados estan satisfechos con su trabajo en el sector de la construccion, disfrutan del mismo y describen globalmente su experiencia laboral en terminos positivos. Los factores de satisfaccion laboral mas importantes son los relacionados con la naturaleza y el contenido del trabajo, es decir, con factores intrinsecos como la identidad, el interes, la variedad y la significatividad de las tareas realizadas, el reconocimiento obtenido y el reto cotidiano. Palabras clave: Motivacion, satisfaccion laboral, profesionales tecnicos de la construccion.

Human factors in computer simulations of urban environment. Differences between architects and non-architects’ assessments

Abstract Computer visualisations are widely used to evaluate future urban environments in international competitions. Rapid technological progress in graphics computer software has enabled architects and landscape planners to produce sophisticated images that are not only capable of transmitting the characteristics of the future environment, they also manage to evoke in observers the sort of feelings and emotions which can only be aroused by experiencing the space. This present paper attempts to identify the affective responses that influence the evaluation of urban environment proposal, analysing the model of architects and non-architects’s preferences. A sample of 104 architects and 113 non-architects expressed their opinions on 48 urban computer simulations. The results show that for both groups the success of a digital visualisation is associated to the feelings of innovation and wellbeing. However, their assessments differ significantly because each group associates these feelings with different aspects. In general, architects are more critical in their assessments.

Affective computing in virtual reality: emotion recognition from brain and heartbeat dynamics using wearable sensors

Affective Computing has emerged as an important field of study that aims to develop systems that can automatically recognize emotions. Up to the present, elicitation has been carried out with non-immersive stimuli. This study, on the other hand, aims to develop an emotion recognition system for affective states evoked through Immersive Virtual Environments. Four alternative virtual rooms were designed to elicit four possible arousal-valence combinations, as described in each quadrant of the Circumplex Model of Affects. An experiment involving the recording of the electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocardiography (ECG) of sixty participants was carried out. A set of features was extracted from these signals using various state-of-the-art metrics that quantify brain and cardiovascular linear and nonlinear dynamics, which were input into a Support Vector Machine classifier to predict the subject’s arousal and valence perception. The model’s accuracy was 75.00% along the arousal dimension and 71.21% along the valence dimension. Our findings validate the use of Immersive Virtual Environments to elicit and automatically recognize different emotional states from neural and cardiac dynamics; this development could have novel applications in fields as diverse as Architecture, Health, Education and Videogames.

Sound Insulation of Lightweight Partitions with Circular Apertures with Varying Overlap

A simple prediction model is developed to predict the decrease in sound reduction index in single and double frame lightweight partitions with the space between gypsum boards filled mineral wool and with circular apertures. The calculation model shows how the distance between centres of the circular apertures on each side of the partition affects the sound reduction index of the whole partition. Calculated results are compared with measured ones. In general, the prediction model developed shows good agreement with the measured results.