Damage identification in bridges combining deep learning and computational mechanic

xiv, 112 p.[EN]Civil infrastructures, such as bridges, are critical assets for society and the economy. Many of them have already reached their expected life and withstand loadings that exceed the design specifications. Besides, bridges suffer from various degradation mechanisms, including aging, corrosion, earthquakes, and, nowadays, the undeniable effect of climate change. This context has motivated an increasing interest in early detecting damage to prevent costly actions and dangerous failures. Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) consists of implementing effective strategies to continuously assess the health condition of structures using monitoring data collected by sensors. This dissertation focuses on the SHM problem of damage detection and identification. It is an ill-posed inverse problem that aims at inferring the health state of a structure from measurements of its response. The measurements include large amounts of noisy data affected by environmental and operational conditions, acquired with sensors of different nature. Solving such a multidisciplinary problem encompasses the use of applied mathematics, computational mechanics, and data science. In this dissertation, we exploit the potential of Deep Neural Networks in approximating complex inverse problems and employ computational parametrizations and the Finite Element Method to enrich the training phase by including damage scenarios. We explore two different approaches to the problem. In the first approach, we develop an outlier detection strategy to detect departures from the baseline condition. We only employ long-term monitoring data measured at the bridge during normal (healthy) operation. Starting from Principal Component Analysis (PCA) as a statistical data reconstruction technique, we design a specific Deep Autoencoder network that enhances PCA by adding residual connections to include nonlinear transformations. This architecture gains partial explainability by evaluating the contribution of nonlinearties over affine transformations in the reconstruction process. We also investigate the method performance when using local or global variables and evaluate the potential of combining both data sources in the damage detection task. In the second approach, we reach a higher level of damage identification by estimating its severity and location. The goal is to provide a suitable methodology for real full-scale applications that requires reasonable computational resources. We employ a calibrated computational parametrization to solve multiple Finite Element simulations under different damage scenarios. These synthetic scenarios enrich the training dataset of a Deep Neural Network that maps the response of the bridge with its health condition in terms of damage location and severity. Finally, we incorporate the effect of environmental and operational variability in the parametrization by applying a clustering algorithm to find representative samples among the entire dataset. We assume these samples cover most of the variability present in the data and consider them as starting points to generate synthetic training data. We apply the proposed methods to three main case study bridges with available monitoring data: the Beltran bridge in Mexico, and the Infante Dom Henrique bridge in Porto, and the Z24 bridge in Switzerland. Both structures resulted critical to validate and test the ability of the proposed methods and to demonstrate their applicability in the full-scale.[ES]Esta tesis investiga la aplicación de técnicas Deep Learning y Mecánica Computacional en el ámbito de identificación de daños estructurales en puentes. En primer lugar, abordamos técnicas basadas puramente en datos, que emplean únicamente la respuesta estructural adquirida mediante un sistema de instrumentación (sensores). Estas técncias proporcionan un diagnóstico de alerta (daño- no daño). Empleamos un tipo de red neuronal conocido como Autoencoder, al que dotamos de una arquitectura particular que pretende replicar transformaciones afines (como el Análisis de Componenetes Principales) e incorporar transormaciones no lineales de forma interpretable y comprensible. Con el objetivo de alcanzar un nivel más elevado en el diagnóstico, estudiamos una metodología híbrida que incorpora la mecánica computacional como fuente adicional de datos. Mediante el uso de una parametrización de elementos finitos, obtenemos la respuesta estructural sintética ante diferentes escenarios de daño, clasificados por su localización y su grado de severidad. Esta metodología require una calibración previa de la parametrización de acuerdo a un estado de referencia, y los escenarios generados se emplean para entrenar una red neuronal profunda capaz de estimar la localización y severidad de un daño cuando se obtienen nuevas mediciones en el sistema de instrumentación.This disseration has been possible thanks to the support received from: the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the grant agreement No 769373 (FORESEE project) and the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant agreement No 777778 (MATHROCKS); the Base Funding - UIDB/04708/2020 of the CONSTRUCT - Instituto de I&D em Estruturas e Constru¸c˜oes - funded by national funds through the FCT/MCTES (PIDDAC); the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) through the Interreg V-A Spain-France-Andorra program POCTEFA 2014-2020 Project PIXIL (EFA362/19); the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation with references PID2019-108111RB-I00 (FEDER/AEI) and the “BCAM Severo Ochoa” accreditation of excellence (SEV-2017-0718); and the Basque Government through the BERC 2018-2021 program, the four Elkartek projects 3KIA (KK-2020/00049), EXPERTIA (KK-2021/00048), MATHEO (KK-2019-00085), and SIGZE (KK-2021/00095); the grant “Artificial Intelligence in BCAM number EXP. 2019/00432”, and the Consolidated Research Group MATHMODE (IT1294-19) given by the Department of Education

Biodiversity and structure of parasite communities in Boops boops (Teleostei: Sparidae) from the Western Mediterranean and off the North East Atlantic coasts of Spain.

The present study carried out a detailed assessment of the metazoan parasite fauna in Boops boops (Sparidae) along the Spanish coasts off the Western Mediterranean and North-East Atlantic, which provided taxonomically consistent dataset comprising three levels of parasite community organisation that allowed questions regarding the structure of parasite communities to be addressed. The diversity of the parasite fauna of B. boops appeared to be higher than previously thought, as evidenced by the description of one new species, Wardula bartolii Pérez-del-Olmo et al., 2006 and the recovery of 53 parasite species (25 new host records). The complete checklist of parasites of this host throughout its distributional range comprises 78 species and 365 host-parasite-area records. A group of nine species with a wide geographical distribution was identified as the core of the parasite fauna of B. boops. The regional parasite fauna of B. boops was richest in the North-East Atlantic. There was a clear separation of the North-East Atlantic and Mediterranean local faunas, with a transition location occupying an intermediate position. Local parasite faunas were generally diverse. There was a high representation of parasites with complex life-cycles, transmitted via food ingestion, mostly trematodes. The phylogenetic influence on the parasite communities in B. boops is rather weak, since generalist parasites comprised a considerable part of communities. The species of the core parasite fauna of B. boops were already present in juvenile fish, whereas all species added to communities in larger fish were rare/accidental. The observed sequence of species appearance and persistence supported the hypothesis that species with wide geographical distributions appear in the fish population earlier than rare/stochastic species. Parasite communities were rich and abundant from an early age. Six species of the core parasite fauna of B. boops were identified as key parasites in developing communities since they persisted as common in all size cohorts and represented the majority of the individuals. A nested subset pattern was found which could not be completely attributed to either accumulation over time or segregation of the parasite species among different host cohorts. Nestedness was strongly related to the differential species abundance, suggesting that passive sampling could be the mechanism leading to this non-random structure. The data revealed that the geographical distance and the region affect the species composition and structure of parasite faunas and component communities in B. boops. The distance between localities/regions contributed significantly to the decay of the similarity estimated from parasite abundance at the infracommunity level. The structured spatial patterns were consistent in time but not across seasons. The spatial synchrony observed was solely due to the assemblage of the core species, supporting the hypothesis that widespread species would be strongly associated with patterns of variation in environmental conditions. The interspecific abundance-distribution patterns were recognized as the most important for the distance-decay relationship of similarity in this system due to the strong correlations observed at all scales of analysis. The comparative analyses revealed a notable alteration of parasite abundance patterns and dramatic changes in community richness, abundance and structure of parasite communities in B. boops studied after the Prestige oil-spill. A directional trend in parasite community succession was detected. However, the differences were still large indicating that shifting pollution baselines probably affect community recovery. The elevated levels of monoxenous infections could indicate that changes in immune parameters of fish. The increase of heteroxenous may have reflected an enhancement of the populations of the mollusc and copepod hosts due to organic enrichment following the oil-spill. Focusing on higher taxonomic/functional levels and the use of multivariate statistical approach have proved to be very useful in studying the response of parasite communities to pollution. __________________________________________________________________________________________________ RESUMEN En la presente tesis doctoral se realizó un estudio exhaustivo de los metazoos parásitos de la boga, Boops boops (Sparidae) en la costa Mediterránea y Atlántica española. La diversidad parásita fue mucho mayor de lo que previamente se pensaba, como se evidenció en la descripción de una nueva especie y la presencia de 53 especies (incluyendo 25 nuevos registros). Se encontró regularmente un grupo de nueve especies de amplia distribución, que fueron considerados el núcleo de la parasitofauna de B. boops. Las faunas parásitas locales resultaron ser diversas y caracterizadas por una gran representación de parásitos generalistas y con ciclos vitales complejos. La secuencia de aparición y persistencia observada en el desarrollo de las comunidades parásitas apoyó la hipótesis de que las especies con distribución geográfica amplia aparecen en las poblaciones de peces antes que las raras y estocásticas. Las comunidades parásitas de B. boops fueron ricas y abundantes desde una edad temprana. Se detectó una estructura anidada fuertemente relacionada con una abundancia diferencial de las especies, sugiriendo que el muestreo pasivo de parásitos del hospedador podría ser el mecanismo responsable de esta estructura no-aleatoria. Tanto la distancia geográfica como la región de origen afectaron la composición de especies y la estructura de las faunas parásitas y comunidades componentes. El patrón de estructura espacial fue consistente en el tiempo pero no entre estaciones. La relación abundancia-distribución interespecífica fue el aspecto más importante en el declive de la similitud con la distancia. El análisis comparativo de las muestras de localidades afectadas por el vertido del petrolero Prestige reveló un cambio drástico en la riqueza, abundancia y estructura de las comunidades parásitas, así como una notable alteración de los patrones de abundancia. Se detectó una tendencia direccional en la sucesión de las comunidades parásitas tras el vertido. Sin embargo, las diferencias siguen siendo acusadas, lo que podría indicar un desplazamiento de los niveles base que estaría afectando la recuperación de las comunidades bentónicas y parásitas tras el vertido. Tanto el enfoque basado en niveles taxonómicos y funcionales superiores como la aproximación mediante análisis estadísticos multivariantes, resultaron ser muy efectivos para este tipo de estudios

Hopf Galois structures on symmetric and alternating extensions

By using a recent theorem by Koch, Kohl, Truman and Underwood on normality, we determine that some types of Hopf Galois structures do not occur on Galois extensions with Galois group isomorphic to alternating or symmetric groups. Our theory of induced Hopf Galois structures allows us to obtain the whole picture of types of Hopf Galois structures on A4-extensions, S4-extensions, and S5-extensions. Combining it with a result of Carnahan and Childs, we obtain a complete count of the Hopf Galois structures on S5-extensions.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Por qué se eligen estudios de Comunicación en el campo de las Ciencias Sociales: análisis causal polimetodológico

The choice of communication studies in the framework of the Social Sciences is an attractive object of study, whose results allow us to focus more effectively marketing strategies. In the European Higher Education Area (EHEA), the proposed adaptation of higher education to professional output gives more importance to the decision. From a quantitative study, and various methodological options, we concluded that socioeconomic status, gender and secondary center of origin determine the choice of a university career.La elección de estudios de Comunicación en el marco de las Ciencias Sociales es un objeto de estudio atractivo, cuyos resultados permiten enfocar de forma más eficiente las estrategias de marketing. En el Espacio Europeo de Educación Superior (EEES), la pretendida adaptación de los estudios superiores a la salida profesional confiere más trascendencia a la decisión. A partir de un estudio cuantitativo, y de diversas opciones metodológicas, concluimos que el nivel socioeconómico, el sexo y el centro de Secundaria de procedencia condicionan la elección de la carrera universitaria

Larval trematode communities in Radix auricularia and Lymnaea stagnalis in a reservoir system of the Ruhr River

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Analysis of the data available from traditional faunistic approaches to mollusc-trematode systems covering large spatial and/or temporal scales in Europe convinced us that a parasite community approach in well-defined aquatic ecosystems is essential for the substantial advancement of our understanding of the parasite response to anthropogenic pressures in urbanised areas which are typical on a European scale. Here we describe communities of larval trematodes in two lymnaeid species, <it>Radix auricularia </it>and <it>Lymnaea stagnalis </it>in four man-made interconnected reservoirs of the Ruhr River (Germany) focusing on among- and within-reservoir variations in parasite prevalence and component community composition and structure.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The mature reservoir system on the Ruhr River provides an excellent environment for the development of species-rich and abundant trematode communities in <it>Radix auricularia </it>(12 species) and <it>Lymnaea stagnalis </it>(6 species). The lake-adapted <it>R. auricularia </it>dominated numerically over <it>L. stagnalis </it>and played a major role in the trematode transmission in the reservoir system. Both host-parasite systems were dominated by bird parasites (13 out of 15 species) characteristic for eutrophic water bodies. In addition to snail size, two environmental variables, the oxygen content and pH of the water, were identified as important determinants of the probability of infection. Between-reservoir comparisons indicated an advanced eutrophication at Baldeneysee and Hengsteysee and the small-scale within-reservoir variations of component communities provided evidence that larval trematodes may have reflected spatial bird aggregations (infection 'hot spots'). Two life history groupings of dominant species, the 'cyprinid' and 'anatid' parasites, that depict two aspects of progressive eutrophication in this mature reservoir system, were identified.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We conclude that trematode communities in the lake-adapted <it>R. auricularia </it>are better suited for monitoring the effect of environmental change on host-parasite associations in the reservoir system on the Ruhr River and other similar systems due to the important role of this host in trematode transmission in lakes. Whereas variations in trematode community diversity and abundance may indicate the degree of eutrophication on a larger scale (among reservoirs), the infection rates of the two life history groups of dominant species, the 'cyprinid' and 'anatid' assemblages, may be particularly useful in depicting environmental variability, eutrophication effects and infection 'hot spots' on smaller spatial scales.</p

Rhythmic ostensive gestures: How adults facilitate infants´ entrance into early triadic interactions

For decades, the literature on the emergence of triadic interactions considers the end of the first year of life as the time when children become able to communicate with others intentionally about a referent. Prior to that, children only relate in dyads, either with someone else or with an object. However, several researchers claim that referents are not naturally given in human communication and that they need to be established in interaction with others. In this study, we focus on earlier triadic interactions initiated by adults, when young babies still require an adult to bring the material world within their reach. In these early triadic interactions, ostensive gestures (with the object in the hand) are one of the first means of enabling the establishment of shared reference. Such gestures are easier to understand since sign (gesture) and referent (object) coincide. We conducted a longitudinal study with 6 babies filmed at 2, 3 and 4 months old in interaction with their mothers and a sounding object (a maraca). We analyzed different communicative initiatives by the adult and the child’s responses. The results show that children come to understand the adult’s communicative intention gradually through interaction. Adults include children in organized communicative “niches” based on ostensive actions, both through ostensive gestures and demonstrations of the use of the object. Consequently, the first shared understandings between adult and child take place around the object and its uses. Rhythm is a powerful tool used to structure the interaction. Eventually, adults provide space to children to actively interact with the sounding object themselves. These results highlight the importance of considering ostensive actions as a communicative tool that favors joint attention and action. They also bring some light to the interdependence between a child who actively perceives and acts, and the structured situation that the adult organizes for themThis study was supported by the program for the Training of University Teachers (Formación de Profesorado Universitario - FPU) of the Spanish Ministry of Education granted to the first author [reference AP2009-4064]; and the R&D National Plan of the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation [grant number EDU2011-27840

Inducing braces and Hopf Galois structures

© 2023 Elsevier. This manuscript version is made available under the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 license http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Let p be a prime number and let n be an integer not divisible by p and such that every group of order np has a normal subgroup of order p. (This holds in particular for .) Under these hypotheses, we obtain a one-to-one correspondence between the isomorphism classes of braces of size np and the set of pairs , where runs over the isomorphism classes of braces of size n and runs over the classes of group morphisms from the multiplicative group of to ⁎ under a certain equivalence relation. This correspondence gives the classification of braces of size np from the one of braces of size n. From this result we derive a formula giving the number of Hopf Galois structures of abelian type on a Galois extension of degree np in terms of the number of Hopf Galois structures of abelian type E on a Galois extension of degree n. For a prime number , we apply the obtained results to describe all left braces of size 12p and determine the number of Hopf Galois structures of abelian type on a Galois extension of degree 12p.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version