ELECTRONIC STATES IN GRADED-GAP JUNCTIONS WITH BAND INVERSION

We theoretically study electronic states in graded-gap junctions of IV-VI compounds with band inversion. Using a two-band model within the ${\bf k}\cdot{\bf p}$ approximation and assuming that the gap and the gap centre present linear profiles, we demonstrate the existence of a set of localized states along the growth direction with a discrete energy spectrum. The envelope functions are found to be combination of harmonic oscillator eigenfunctions, and the corresponding energy levels are proportional to the square root of the quantum number. The level spacing can be directly controlled by varying the structure thickness.Comment: REVTEX 3.0, 7 pages, no figures, to appear in Phys. Lett.

Solving multi-objective hub location problems by hybrid algorithms

In many logistic, telecommunications and computer networks, direct routing of commodities between any origin and destination is not viable due to economic and technolog- ical constraints. In that cases, a network with centralized units, known as hub facilities, and a small number of links is commonly used to connect any origin-destination pair. The purpose of these hub facilities is to consolidate, sort and transship e ciently any commodity in the network. Hub location problems (HLPs) consider the design of these networks by locating a set of hub facilities, establishing an interhub subnet, and routing the commodities through the network while optimizing some objective(s) based on the cost or service. Hub location has evolved into a rich research area, where a huge number of papers have been published since the seminal work of O'Kelly [1]. Early works were focused on analogue facility location problems, considering some assumptions to simplify network design. Recent works [2] have studied more complex models that relax some of these assumptions and in- corporate additional real-life features. In most HLPs considered in the literature, the input parameters are assumed to be known and deterministic. However, in practice, this assumption is unrealistic since there is a high uncertainty on relevant parameters, such as costs, demands or even distances. In this work, we will study the multi-objective hub location problems with uncertainty.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tec

Solving Multi-Objective Hub Location Problems with Robustness

Hub location problems (HLP) are considered in many logistic, telecommunications, and computer problems, where the design of these networks are optimized based on some objective(s) related to the cost or service. In those cases, direct routing between any origin and destination is not viable due to economic or technological constraints. From the seminal work of O'Kelly~\cite{OKelly86}, a huge number of works have been published in the literature. Early contributions were focused on analogue facility location problems, considering some assumptions to simplify the network design. Recent works have studied more complex models by incorporating additional real-life features and relaxing some assumptions, although the input parameters are still assumed to be known in most of the HLPs considered in the literature. This assumption is unrealistic in practice, since there is a high uncertainty on relevant parameters of real problems, such as costs, demands, or even distances. Consequently, a decision maker usually prefer several solutions with a low uncertainty in their objectives functions instead of the optimum solution of an assumed deterministic objective function. In this work we use a three-objective Integer Linear Programming model of the p-hub location problem where the average transportation cost, its variance, and the processing time in the hubs are minimized. The number of variables is $O(n^4)$ where $n$ is the number of nodes of the graph. ILP solvers can only solve small instances of the problems and we propose in this work the use of a recent hybrid algorithm combining a heuristic and exact methods: Construct, Merge, Solve, and AdaptUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Stability fem analysis of rock masses modeling pattern of joints

In the south of the city of Morelia, Mexico, there is a geological normal fault denominated "La Paloma". It has a height of 180 m and has limited the growth of the city. To improve the connectivity of the city, an urban road is building and it includes the digging of a tunnel that goes through this fault. Due to the presence of an ancient landslide in the exit tunnel, it is imperative to verify the stability of a slope in this zone. The geological structures founded “in situ” make complex the stability analyses, but the used of more realistic representation helps to understand the mechanism of failure. The data collected in geotechnical explorations helped to construct several models for slope stability analysis. Rocks and soils were identified in the interest area. In this way, an elastoplastic Finite Element Analysis (FEA) was carried out to verify the slope stability, considering a strength reduction by a safety factor. Stability was revised in static and seismic conditions. The rock structure is represented by using the Modified Hoek and Brown constitutive model and patterns of the joints with a Mohr-Coulomb constitutive model. The fragments of rock were emulated with joint patterns according to the geologic structure. The slope stability results show a stable slope considering static and pseudo-static FEA analysis. The failure mechanism could be appreciated with the slope stability analysis realized

Collimo, un verbo fantasma

In this article we maintain that collimo is a «phantom-verb» that ought to be eliminated not only from future Latin dictionaries but also from the texts of Apuleius, Cicero and Aulus Gellius

Deep Neural Networks for the Recognition and Classification of Heart Murmurs Using Neuromorphic Auditory Sensors

Auscultation is one of the most used techniques for detecting cardiovascular diseases, which is one of the main causes of death in the world. Heart murmurs are the most common abnormal finding when a patient visits the physician for auscultation. These heart sounds can either be innocent, which are harmless, or abnormal, which may be a sign of a more serious heart condition. However, the accuracy rate of primary care physicians and expert cardiologists when auscultating is not good enough to avoid most of both type-I (healthy patients are sent for echocardiogram) and type-II (pathological patients are sent home without medication or treatment) errors made. In this paper, the authors present a novel convolutional neural network based tool for classifying between healthy people and pathological patients using a neuromorphic auditory sensor for FPGA that is able to decompose the audio into frequency bands in real time. For this purpose, different networks have been trained with the heart murmur information contained in heart sound recordings obtained from nine different heart sound databases sourced from multiple research groups. These samples are segmented and preprocessed using the neuromorphic auditory sensor to decompose their audio information into frequency bands and, after that, sonogram images with the same size are generated. These images have been used to train and test different convolutional neural network architectures. The best results have been obtained with a modified version of the AlexNet model, achieving 97% accuracy (specificity: 95.12%, sensitivity: 93.20%, PhysioNet/CinC Challenge 2016 score: 0.9416). This tool could aid cardiologists and primary care physicians in the auscultation process, improving the decision making task and reducing type-I and type-II errors.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2016-77785-

NAVIS: Neuromorphic Auditory VISualizer Tool

This software presents diverse utilities to perform the first post-processing layer taking the neuromorphic auditory sensors (NAS) information. The used NAS implements in FPGA a cascade filters architecture, imitating the behavior of the basilar membrane and inner hair cells and working with the sound information decomposed into its frequency components as spike streams. The well-known neuromorphic hardware interface Address-Event-Representation (AER) is used to propagate auditory information out of the NAS, emulating the auditory vestibular nerve. Using the information packetized into aedat files, which are generated through the jAER software plus an AER to USB computer interface, NAVIS implements a set of graphs that allows to represent the auditory information as cochleograms, histograms, sonograms, etc. It can also split the auditory information into different sets depending on the activity level of the spike streams. The main contribution of this software tool is that it allows complex audio post-processing treatments and representations, which is a novelty for spike-based systems in the neuromorphic community and it will help neuromorphic engineers to build sets for training spiking neural networks (SNN).Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad TEC2012-37868-C04-0