Homogenisation of slender periodic composite structures

AbstractA homogenisation technique is introduced to obtain the equivalent 1-D stiffness properties of complex slender periodic composite structures, that is, without the usual assumption of constant cross sections. The problem is posed on a unit cell with periodic boundary conditions such that the small-scale strain state averages to the large-scale conditions and the deformation energy is conserved between scales. The method can be implemented in standard finite-element packages and allows for local stress recovery and also for local (periodic) nonlinear effects such as skin wrinkling to be propagated to the large scale. Numerical examples are used to obtain the homogenised properties for several isotropic and composite beams, with and without transverse reinforcements or thickness variation, and for both linear and geometrically-nonlinear deformations. The periodicity in the local post-buckling response disappears in the presence of localisation in the solution and this is also illustrated by a numerical example

Production of Social Housing in urban renewal areas : a balance of the public policies of the last 23 years in Bogotá

Este trabajo se centra en realizar un balance de los últimos 23 años, en relación con el efecto que han producido las políticas públicas del orden nacional y distrital, en la producción de vivienda social en las áreas de renovación urbana que se han definido y regulado para Bogotá, a través de los planes de ordenamiento territorial. Para tal efecto, esta revisión se realiza con el objetivo de encontrar coincidencias, inconsistencias o debilidades tanto en la formulación de las políticas públicas, como en las normas adoptadas a través de los planes de ordenamiento territorial que se han adoptado desde el año 2000, con énfasis en aquellas que regulan el tratamiento de renovación urbana.This work focuses on making a balance of the last 23 years, in relation to the effect that public policies of the national and district order have produced, in the production of social housing in the urban renewal areas that have been defined and regulated for Bogotá, through territorial ordering plans. For this purpose, this review is carried out with the objective of finding coincidences, inconsistencies or weaknesses both in the formulation of public policies, as well as in the norms adopted through the territorial ordering plans that have been adopted since the year 2000, with emphasis on those that regulate the treatment of urban renewal.Magíster en Planeación Urbana y RegionalMaestrí

Extended phone log-likelihood ratio features and acoustic-based I-vectors for language recognition

This paper presents new techniques with relevant improvements added to the primary system presented by our group to the Albayzin 2012 LRE competition, where the use of any additional corpora for training or optimizing the models was forbidden. In this work, we present the incorporation of an additional phonotactic subsystem based on the use of phone log-likelihood ratio features (PLLR) extracted from different phonotactic recognizers that contributes to improve the accuracy of the system in a 21.4% in terms of Cavg (we also present results for the official metric during the evaluation, Fact). We will present how using these features at the phone state level provides significant improvements, when used together with dimensionality reduction techniques, especially PCA. We have also experimented with applying alternative SDC-like configurations on these PLLR features with additional improvements. Also, we will describe some modifications to the MFCC-based acoustic i-vector system which have also contributed to additional improvements. The final fused system outperformed the baseline in 27.4% in Cavg

Profile of the physical condition of the sporting reserve of the Camagüeyano baseball (Original)

The physics conditions valuation is a fundamental work in to fulfill in the habitual check of the athletes. Its adjective is essential, valuation they physiological-sport interesting characteristic for the individual, that express of the progression, they prognostic, ask of the profitable and nuncios effects of the charge of applied work. Is for this that of investigation, to have as adjective determine the profile of the physics conditions of the sports reserve they camagüeyano baseball. The investigation process itself to carry out all the year round 2015-2106, mediate the of investigation model of field, of transversal cortex. The population of study the compound the basseball athletes that to conform the sports reserve of the Camagüey, in the dead between the 12 y 18 years, the that to promoted a 315 athletes. The result conclusition that profile of the force of the hands, is under at the national indicating to used for the selections of the talent, no send thus in the rapid.La valoración de la condición física es una de las labores fundamentales a realizar en el control habitual de los deportistas, su objetivo es claro, evaluar aquellas características fisiológico-deportivas interesantes para el individuo, y que dan idea de la progresión, del pronóstico, así como de los efectos beneficiosos y nocivos de la carga de trabajo aplicada. Es por ello que la investigación llevada a cabo, tiene como objetivo determinar el perfil de la condición física de la reserva deportiva del béisbol camagüeyano. El proceso de investigación se llevó a cabo durante el curso escolar 2015-2106, mediante el modelo de investigación de campo de corte transversal. La población objeto de estudio la componen los atletas de béisbol que conforman la reserva deportiva de la provincia Camagüey, en las edades comprendidas entre los 12 y 18 años, la que ascendiendo a 315 jugadores investigados. Los resultados arrojados permitieron concluir que el perfil de la condición física de la fuerza de los brazos, es inferior a los indicadores nacionales utilizados para la selección de los talentos, por lo que se puede plantear que no satisfacen las exigencias de la disciplina deportiva, no siendo así en la rapidez

New Enabling Technologies to Observe and Characterise Urban Environments with Big Data from Space – the Urban Thematic Exploitation Platform

Modern Earth Observation (EO) satellite missions provide valuable opportunities to support sustainable urban planning and management by delivering dedicated information on the spatiotemporal development of the built environment and its key morphological and physical characteristics such as imperviousness, greenness, built-up density, building volume, albedo – from global down to local scale. However, the transformation of the raw EO imagery into ready-to-use thematic data and indicators for scientist or planners on the one hand and actionable information for decision makers on the other hand requires detailed technical expert knowledge. Moreover, the imagery collected by satellite missions such as the US Landsat program or the European fleet of Sentinel satellites, but also by airborne systems or drones, rapidly adds up to a multiple of the data volume that can effectively be handled with standard work stations and software solutions. Hence, this contribution introduces the Urban Thematic Exploitation Platform (https://urban-tep.eo.esa.int) that utilizes modern information and communication technology to bridge the gap between the mass data collections of the technology-driven EO sector and the demand of science, planning, and policy for up-to-date information on the status, properties and dynamics of the urban system. Key components of the Urban Thematic Exploitation Platform (U-TEP) are an open, web-based portal that is connected to distributed high-level computing clusters and clouds and that also provides key functionalities for i) high-performance data access, analysis and visualization, ii) customized development and sharing of algorithms, products and services, and iii) networking, communication and exchange of data and information. The overarching objective here is to enable any interested (non-expert) user to easily generate actionable indicators and information for effective sustainable urban development based on a joint analysis of various data sources such as official survey data, EO mission data, socio-economic statistics, and data collected via social media or citizen science. So far more than 3.5 PB of data have been processed and analyzed by means of the U-TEP to finally provide a broad spectrum of urban information products and related services for visualization and analytics that have yet successfully been used by more than 240 institutions (science, planning, NGOs, policy) from 41 countries (i.a. World Bank Group, United Nations, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, World Food Programme, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Group on Earth Observation, Global Platform for Sustainable Cities)

Beyond Individual Triage: Regional Allocation of Life-Saving Resources such as Ventilators in Public Health Emergencies

In the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, healthcare workers in some countries were forced to make distressing triaging decisions about which individual patients should receive potentially life-saving treatment. Much of the ethical discussion prompted by the pandemic has concerned which moral principles should ground our response to these individual triage questions. In this paper we aim to broaden the scope of this discussion by considering the ethics of broader structural allocation decisions raised by the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, we consider how nations ought to distribute a scarce life-saving resource across healthcare regions in a public health emergency, particularly in view of regional differences in projected need and existing capacity. We call this the regional triage question. Using the case study of ventilators in the COVID-19 pandemic, we show how the moral frameworks that we might adopt in response to individual triage decisions do not translate straightforwardly to this regional-level triage question. Having outlined what we take to be a plausible egalitarian approach to the regional triage question, we go on to propose a novel way of operationalising the ‘save the most lives’ principle in this context. We claim that the latter principle ought to take precedence in the regional triage question, but also note some important limitations to the extent of the influence that it should have in regional allocation decisions

Ethical heuristics for pandemic allocation of ventilators across hospitals

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic philosophers and governments have proposed scarce resource allocation guidelines. Their purpose is to advise healthcare professionals on how to ethically allocate scarce medical resources. One challenging feature of the pandemic has been the large numbers of patients needing mechanical ventilatory support. Guidelines have paradigmatically focused on the question of what doctors should do if they have fewer ventilators than patients who need respiratory support: which patient should get the ventilator? There is, however, an important higher level allocation problem. Namely, how are we to ethically distribute newly obtained ventilators across hospitals: which hospital should get the ventilator(s)? In this paper, we identify a set of principles for allocating newly obtained ventilators across hospitals. We focus particularly on low and middle income countries, who frequently have limited pre-existing intensive care capacity, and have needed to source additional ventilators. We first provide some background. Second, we argue that the main population healthcare aim during the COVID-19 pandemic should be to save the most lives. Next, we assess a series of potential heuristics or principles that could be used to guide allocation: allocation to the most densely populated cities, random allocation, allocation based on the ratio of patients to ICU personnel, prioritisation in terms of intrahospital mortality, prioritisation of younger populations, and prioritisation in terms of population mortality. We conclude by providing a plausible ranking of the principles, while noting a number of epistemological challenges, in terms of how they best further the aim of increasing the probability of saving the most lives

Modelo de crowdfunding como fuente de financiamiento para proyectos de emprendimiento e innovación en entidades de educación superior

Introduction: This article is the product of research on reducing the number of intermediaries by making use of Crowdfunding as an alternative source of low-cost financing, developed at the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, in 2023. Problem: Although the term Crowdfunding is not new in the financial field, it is not very well known by the community, which means that it has not been applied as a recurrent financing alternative for projects or businesses in Colombia. Objective: This article presents a collaborative financing model for higher education institutions in Colombia, mainly for research groups oriented to the generation of new knowledge or spin-offs, with the aim of providing alternatives to classical financing models. Methodology: A literature review was conducted using the PRISMA methodology to identify, evaluate, and synthesize the existing body of knowledge produced by researchers, academics, or professionals. Results: The scope of this literature review encompasses the different types of crowdfunding, including its evolution over time and its inclusion in various economic areas. Additionally, it helps to visualize the level of knowledge about this concept among different university groups. Conclusion: The literature review examines the state of crowdfunding in Latin America, highlighting the lack of research compared to other regions. The impact of crowdfunding in various sectors, including technology, finance, and legislation, is emphasized. Furthermore, the need for theoretical reflection on how crowdfunding affects projects in the Southern Cone region is noted. The objective is to increase understanding and knowledge of crowdfunding among Latin American entrepreneurs and young people.Introducción: El artículo es producto de la investigación en el crowdfunding, alternativa de financiamiento que reduce la cantidad de intermediarios, lo que le permite ser una fuente de préstamos a bajo costo desarrollada en la Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas, en el año 2023. Problema: Si bien el término Crowdfunding no es nuevo en el ámbito financiero, no es muy conocido por la comunidad, lo que significa que no se ha aplicado como alternativa de financiamiento recurrente para proyectos o negocios en Colombia. Objetivo: Este artículo presenta un modelo de financiamiento colaborativo para instituciones de educación superior en Colombia, principalmente para grupos de investigación orientados a la generación de nuevos conocimientos o spin-offs, con el objetivo de brindar alternativas a los modelos clásicos de financiamiento. Metodología: Se realizó una revisión de la literatura utilizando la metodología PRISMA para identificar, evaluar y sintetizar el cuerpo de conocimiento existente producido por investigadores, académicos o profesionales. Resultados: El alcance de esta revisión bibliográfica abarca los diferentes tipos de crowdfunding, incluyendo su evolución en el tiempo y su inclusión en diversos ámbitos económicos. Además, ayuda a visualizar el nivel de conocimiento sobre este concepto entre diferentes grupos universitarios. Conclusión: La revisión de la literatura examina el estado del crowdfunding en América Latina, destacando la falta de investigación en comparación con otras regiones. Se enfatiza el impacto del crowdfunding en varios sectores, incluida la tecnología, las finanzas y la legislación. Además, se advierte la necesidad de una reflexión teórica sobre cómo afecta el crowdfunding a los proyectos en la región del Cono Sur. El objetivo es aumentar la comprensión y el conocimiento del crowdfunding entre los emprendedores y jóvenes latinoamericanos

From Pixels to Planning: Large-scale Mapping of Urban Morphology and Population Distribution with the World Settlement Footprint 3D

Urban morphology and human population distribution are two interrelated aspects of our urbanization that play a critical role in shaping the sustainability, resilience and liveability of cities. In recent years, the advent of global datasets with 3D information derived from Earth Observation (EO) technologies has revolutionised our ability to study and analyse these two aspects of urbanisation, providing information that is essential for designing cities that can accommodate the needs of their residents while minimizing their environmental impact. One such dataset is the novel World Settlement Footprint 3D (WSF3D) produced by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The WSF3D was the first global dataset providing detailed information of the fraction, area, average height and total volume of buildings, at unprecedented spatial resolution, coverage and consistency. Since its development, researchers from different organizations (e.g. WorldBank, United Nations, WorldPop) have employed the dataset as input data for large-scale studies in urban morphology and population distribution, with a level of detail that was previously impossible. In this paper we present a selection of WSF3D-driven applications with the objective of demonstrating how the new data can be used to support urban planning and management. First, the WSF3D has been employed to demonstrate how the four layers of the dataset can be used to determine a building's functional use, and how this information can be leveraged to improve large-scale models of population distribution at large-scale. Thereafter, the WSF3D has been used to determine the relationships among building height/volume, population density and income, which can provide insights into the efficient use of space (e.g. crowding vs layering) on the one hand, and shed light into infrastructure disparities and variations, on the other. With that being said, due to the global nature of the WSF3D dataset, the previous analyses were conducted from local to regional scales, which can also help identify opportunities for interventions that can be replicated across different locations. Overall, with the results of this research, the authors aim to provide planners and policy-makers with valuable insights into usability of the globally available WSF3D dataset. By demonstrating its potential as reliable and robust input data, this study seeks not only to empower evidence-based decision-making, but also to advocate for the widespread adoption of geospatial layers in the implementation of strategies towards sustainable development strategies of the built environment

From Pixels to Planning: Large-scale Mapping of Urban Morphology and Population Distribution with the World Settlement Footprint 3D

Urban morphology and human population distribution are two interrelated aspects of our urbanization that play a critical role in shaping the sustainability, resilience and liveability of cities. In recent years, the advent of global datasets with 3D information derived from Earth Observation (EO) technologies has revolutionised our ability to study and analyse these two aspects of urbanisation, providing information that iS essential for designing cities that can accommodate the needs of their residents while minimizing their environmental impact. One such dataset is the novel World Settlement Footprint 3D (WSF3D) produced by the German Aerospace Center (DLR). The WSF3D was the first global dataset providing detailed information of the fraction, area, average height and total volume of buildings, at unprecedented spatial resolution, coverage and consistency. Since its development, researchers from different organizations (e.g. WorldBank, United Nations, WorldPop) have employed the dataset as input data for large-scale studies in urban morphology and population distribution, with a level of detail that was previously impossible. In this paper we present a selection of WSF3D-driven applications with the objective of demonstrating how the new data can be used to support urban planning and management. First, the WSF3D has been employed to demonstrate how the four layers of the dataset can be used to determine a building's functional use, and how this information can be leveraged to improve large-scale models of population distribution at large-scale. Thereafter, the WSF3D has been used to determine the relationships among building height/volume, population density and income, which can provide insights into the efficient use of space (e.g. crowding vs layering) on the one hand, and shed light into infrastructure disparities and variations, on the other. With that being said, due to the global nature of the WSF3D dataset, the previous analyses were conducted from local to regional scales, which can also help identify opportunities for interventions that can be replicated across different locations. Overall, with the results of this research, the authors aim to provide planners and policy-makers with valuable insights into usability of the globally available WSF3D dataset. By demonstrating its potential as reliable and robust input data, this study seeks not only to empower evidence-based decision-making, but also to advocate for the widespread adoption of geospatial layers in the implementation of strategies towards sustainable development strategies of the built environment