3,223 research outputs found
UMSL Bulletin 2023-2024
The 2023-2024 Bulletin and Course Catalog for the University of Missouri St. Louis.https://irl.umsl.edu/bulletin/1088/thumbnail.jp
Proceedings of the 10th International congress on architectural technology (ICAT 2024): architectural technology transformation.
The profession of architectural technology is influential in the transformation of the built environment regionally, nationally, and internationally. The congress provides a platform for industry, educators, researchers, and the next generation of built environment students and professionals to showcase where their influence is transforming the built environment through novel ideas, businesses, leadership, innovation, digital transformation, research and development, and sustainable forward-thinking technological and construction assembly design
Tradition and Innovation in Construction Project Management
This book is a reprint of the Special Issue 'Tradition and Innovation in Construction Project Management' that was published in the journal Buildings
Towards an integrated vulnerability-based approach for evaluating, managing and mitigating earthquake risk in urban areas
Tese de doutoramento em Civil EngineeringSismos de grande intensidade, como aqueles que ocorreram na Turquía-Síria (2023) ou México (2017)
deviam chamar a atenção para o projeto e implementação de ações proativas que conduzam à identificação
de bens vulneráveis. A presente tese propõe um fluxo de trabalho relativamente simples para
efetuar avaliações da vulnerabilidade sísmica à escala urbana mediante ferramentas digitais. Um modelo
de vulnerabilidade baseado em parâmetros é adotado devido à afinidade que possui com o Catálogo Nacional
de Monumentos Históricos mexicano. Uma primeira implementação do método (a grande escala)
foi efetuada na cidade histórica de Atlixco (Puebla, México), demonstrando a sua aplicabilidade e algumas
limitações, o que permitiu o desenvolvimento de uma estratégia para quantificar e considerar as incertezas
epistémicas encontradas nos processos de aquisição de dados. Devido ao volume de dados tratado, foi
preciso desenvolver meios robustos para obter, armazenar e gerir informações. O uso de Sistemas de
Informação Geográfica, com programas à medida baseados em linguagem Python e a distribuição de
ficheiros na ”nuvem”, facilitou a criação de bases de dados de escala urbana para facilitar a aquisição de
dados em campo, os cálculos de vulnerabilidade e dano e, finalmente, a representação dos resultados.
Este desenvolvimento foi a base para um segundo conjunto de trabalhos em municípios do estado de
Morelos (México). A caracterização da vulnerabilidade sísmica de mais de 160 construções permitiu a
avaliação da representatividade do método paramétrico pela comparação entre os níveis de dano teórico
e os danos observados depois do terramoto de Puebla-Morelos (2017). Esta comparação foi a base para
efetuar processos de calibração e ajuste assistidos por algoritmos de aprendizagem de máquina (Machine
Learning), fornecendo bases para o desenvolvimento de modelos de vulnerabilidade à medida (mediante
o uso de Inteligência Artificial), apoiados nas evidências de eventos sísmicos prévios.Strong seismic events like the ones of Türkiye-Syria (2023) or Mexico (2017) should guide our attention
to the design and implementation of proactive actions aimed to identify vulnerable assets. This work is
aimed to propose a suitable and easy-to-implement workflow for performing large-scale seismic vulnerability
assessments in historic environments by means of digital tools. A vulnerability-oriented model based
on parameters is adopted given its affinity with the Mexican Catalogue of Historical Monuments. A first
large-scale implementation of this method in the historical city of Atlixco (Puebla, Mexico) demonstrated its
suitability and some limitations, which lead to develop a strategy for quantifying and involving the epistemic
uncertainties found during the data acquisition process. Given the volume of data that these analyses involve,
it was necessary to develop robust data acquisition, storing and management strategies. The use
of Geographical Information System environments together with customised Python-based programs and
cloud-based distribution permitted to assemble urban databases for facilitating field data acquisition, performing
vulnerability and damage calculations, and representing outcomes. This development was the
base for performing a second large-scale assessment in selected municipalities of the state of Morelos
(Mexico). The characterisation of the seismic vulnerability of more than 160 buildings permitted to assess
the representativeness of the parametric vulnerability approach by comparing the theoretical damage estimations against the damages observed after the Puebla-Morelos 2017 Earthquakes. Such comparison is
the base for performing a Machine Learning assisted process of calibration and adjustment, representing
a feasible strategy for calibrating these vulnerability models by using Machine-Learning algorithms and the
empirical evidence of damage in post-seismic scenarios.This work was partly financed by FCT/MCTES through national funds (PIDDAC) under the R&D Unit
Institute for Sustainability and Innovation in Structural Engineering (ISISE), reference UIDB/04029/2020.
This research had financial support provided by the Portuguese Foundation of Science and Technology
(FCT) through the Analysis and Mitigation of Risks in Infrastructures (InfraRisk) program under the PhD
grant PD/BD/150385/2019
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Neural Decoding Leveraging Motor-Cortex Population Geometry
Intracortical brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) provide the means to do something extraordinary: restore movement to patients with paralysis or amputated limbs. Realizing this potential requires the development of decode algorithms capable of accurately translating measurements of neural activity, in real time, into appropriate time-varying commands for an external device (e.g. prosthetic limb).
This problem is fundamentally interdisciplinary, drawing on tools and insights from engineering, neuroscience, statistics, and computer science, among others. Decode algorithms that have been favored historically tend to be computationally efficient, but perform suboptimally, likely because their assumptions fail to fully and accurately capture the complexity in neural population responses. Recent work harnessing the power of contemporary machine learning methods has raised the performance bar, yet these methods can be computationally demanding and it is unclear what properties of neural and/or behavioral data they exploit. In this dissertation, we characterize properties of motor-cortex population geometry and let these properties dictate decoder design, resulting in methods that perform very well, yet retain the benefits of simpler methods.
We use this approach to develop a closed-loop navigation BCI, and to design a highly accurate, general, and interpretable decoder. The properties described in this dissertation have implications for any BCI. By designing decoders to explicitly respect (and leverage) these properties, we can construct powerful yet practical BCIs that better meet the needs of patients
Learning-based generative representations for automotive design optimization
In automotive design optimizations, engineers intuitively look for suitable representations of CAE models that can be used across different optimization problems. Determining a suitable compact representation of 3D CAE models facilitates faster search and optimization of 3D designs. Therefore, to support novice designers in the automotive design process, we envision a cooperative design system (CDS) which learns the experience embedded in past optimization data and is able to provide assistance to the designer while performing an engineering design optimization task. The research in this thesis addresses different aspects that can be combined to form a CDS framework.
First, based on the survey of deep learning techniques, a point cloud variational autoencoder (PC-VAE) is adapted from the literature, extended and evaluated as a shape generative model in design optimizations. The performance of the PC-VAE is verified with respect to state-of-the-art architectures. The PC-VAE is capable of generating a continuous low-dimensional search space for 3D designs, which further supports the generation of novel realistic 3D designs through interpolation and sampling in the latent space. In general, while designing a 3D car design, engineers need to consider multiple structural or functional performance criteria of a 3D design. Hence, in the second step, the latent representations of the PC-VAE are evaluated for generating novel designs satisfying multiple criteria and user preferences. A seeding method is proposed to provide a warm start to the optimization process and improve convergence time. Further, to replace expensive simulations for performance estimation in an optimization task, surrogate models are trained to map each latent representation of an input 3D design to their respective geometric and functional performance measures. However, the performance of the PC-VAE is less consistent due to additional regularization of the latent space.
Thirdly, to better understand which distinct region of the input 3D design is learned by a particular latent variable of the PC-VAE, a new deep generative model is proposed (Split-AE), which is an extension of the existing autoencoder architecture. The Split-AE learns input 3D point cloud representations and generates two sets of latent variables for each 3D design. The first set of latent variables, referred to as content, which helps to represent an overall underlying structure of the 3D shape to discriminate across other semantic shape categories. The second set of latent variables refers to the style, which represents the unique shape part of the input 3D shape and this allows grouping of shapes into shape classes. The reconstruction and latent variables disentanglement properties of the Split-AE are compared with other state-of-the-art architectures. In a series of experiments, it is shown that for given input shapes, the Split-AE is capable of generating the content and style variables which gives the flexibility to transfer and combine style features between different shapes. Thus, the Split-AE is able to disentangle features with minimum supervision and helps in generating novel shapes that are modified versions of the existing designs.
Lastly, to demonstrate the application of our initial envisioned CDS, two interactive systems were developed to assist designers in exploring design ideas. In the first CDS framework, the latent variables of the PC-VAE are integrated with a graphical user interface. This framework enables the designer to explore designs taking into account the data-driven knowledge and different performance measures of 3D designs. The second interactive system aims to guide the designers to achieve their design targets, for which past human experiences of performing 3D design modifications are captured and learned using a machine learning model. The trained model is then used to guide the (novice) engineers and designers by predicting the next step of design modification based on the current applied changes
Handbook Transdisciplinary Learning
What is transdisciplinarity - and what are its methods? How does a living lab work? What is the purpose of citizen science, student-organized teaching and cooperative education? This handbook unpacks key terms and concepts to describe the range of transdisciplinary learning in the context of academic education. Transdisciplinary learning turns out to be a comprehensive innovation process in response to the major global challenges such as climate change, urbanization or migration. A reference work for students, lecturers, scientists, and anyone wanting to understand the profound changes in higher education
Ditransitives in germanic languages. Synchronic and diachronic aspects
This volume brings together twelve empirical studies on ditransitive constructions in Germanic languages and their varieties, past and present. Specifically, the volume includes contributions on a wide variety of Germanic languages, including English, Dutch, and German, but also Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, as well as lesser-studied ones such as Faroese. While the first part of the volume focuses on diachronic aspects, the second part showcases a variety of synchronic aspects relating to ditransitive patterns. Methodologically, the volume covers both experimental and corpus-based studies. Questions addressed by the papers in the volume are, among others, issues like the cross-linguistic pervasiveness and cognitive reality of factors involved in the choice between different ditransitive constructions, or differences and similarities in the diachronic development of ditransitives. The volume’s broad scope and comparative perspective offers comprehensive insights into well-known phenomena and furthers our understanding of variation across languages of the same family
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