Energy and number of collisions fluctuations in inelastic gases

We study by numerical simulations the two-dimensional Inelastic Maxwell Model (IMM), and show how the inelasticity of collisions together with the fluctuations of the number of collisions undergone by a particle lead to energy fluctuations that decay like a power-law. These fluctuations are associated to a shrinking of the available phase space. We find the asymptotic scaling of these energy fluctuations and show how they affect the tail of the velocity distribution during long time intervals.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Automatic Recognition of Mammal Genera on Camera-Trap Images using Multi-Layer Robust Principal Component Analysis and Mixture Neural Networks

The segmentation and classification of animals from camera-trap images is due to the conditions under which the images are taken, a difficult task. This work presents a method for classifying and segmenting mammal genera from camera-trap images. Our method uses Multi-Layer Robust Principal Component Analysis (RPCA) for segmenting, Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs) for extracting features, Least Absolute Shrinkage and Selection Operator (LASSO) for selecting features, and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) or Support Vector Machines (SVM) for classifying mammal genera present in the Colombian forest. We evaluated our method with the camera-trap images from the Alexander von Humboldt Biological Resources Research Institute. We obtained an accuracy of 92.65% classifying 8 mammal genera and a False Positive (FP) class, using automatic-segmented images. On the other hand, we reached 90.32% of accuracy classifying 10 mammal genera, using ground-truth images only. Unlike almost all previous works, we confront the animal segmentation and genera classification in the camera-trap recognition. This method shows a new approach toward a fully-automatic detection of animals from camera-trap images

Cost-Effective Monitoring of Railroad Bridge Performance

The railroad network carries 40 % of the freight in the US. Railroad bridges are the most critical part of the network and they need to be properly maintained for safety of operations. Railroad managers need to inspect the bridges in order to assess their structural condition. Railroad managers are interested in measuring displacements under train crossing events to prioritize their bridge management and safety decisions. However, bridge displacements are difficult to collect in the field, because they require a fixed reference from where to measure. Accelerations can be used to estimate dynamic displacements but to this date, the pseudo-static displacements cannot be measured using reference-free sensors. This study proposes a method to estimate the total displacements of a railroad bridge under live train loads using acceleration and tilt data without a need for fixed reference. Researchers used real bridge displacement data representing different bridge serviceability level under train traffic. This study explores the design of a new bridge deck-pier experimental model that simulates the vibrations of railroad bridges under traffic. This experiment configuration includes the use of a shake table to input the recorded signal from the field into a railroad pile bent. Reference-free sensors measured both the inclination angle and accelerations of the pile cap. The different acceleration readings are used to estimate the total displacements of the bridge using data filtering. The estimated displacements are then compared to the true responses of the model measured with displacement sensors. The results show that this method can cost-effectively measure the total displacement of railroad bridges without a fixed reference. In addition, this paper studies the use of a low-cost data acquisition platform to measure reference-free dynamic displacements of railroad bridges by combining low-cost microcontrollers and accelerometers. Researchers used the new system to measure accelerations and reconstruct reference-free displacements from several railroad bridge crossing events. The results obtained from the proposed low-cost sensors were compared with those of commercial sensing equipment. The results show that low-cost sensors and commercial sensing systems can measure reference-free displacements with comparable accuracy. The results of this study show that the proposed platform estimates reference-free displacements with a peak error between 20 % and 30 % and a root mean square (RMS) error between 10 % and 20 %, which is similar to commercial SHM systems. The proposed low-cost system is approximately 300 times less expensive than the commercial sensing equipment. In conclusion, this study evaluates the accuracy of cost-effective systems to measure the reference-free displacement of railroad bridges. The conclusions of this study propose a cost-effective method to measure the reference-free displacement of railroad bridges that all railroad companies can afford. The ultimate goal of this research is to provide stakeholders with means to design, develop, own, and operate their own SHM systems

An innovative cooperative model for the Master Degree Project of Architecture. Overcoming the traditional system.

http://dx.doi.org/10.4995/HEAD17.2017.6713Although the Bologna’s process has highlighted the need to develop deep and structural changes in the educational institutions, there is a scarce bibliography on innovation projects in Master Degree Projects, specifically in the field of Architecture. This paper is part of a educational innovative reaserch project that is proposing a cooperative process-and-product model-based for MDP. The model is developed in three stages, from collaborative learning action groups to indivual project. At the end of the process the student has developed three documents: a presentation, a product and a daily-portfolio. Finally, MDP assessment is the sum of three evaluationsUniversidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

La administración pública en los estados y reflexiones sobre el federalismo

El federalismo en México, desde su concepción orig i nal en la Constitución de 1824, ha venido transformándose y adecuándose a las nuevas exigencias de estados y municipios para pasar de una centralización a una descentralización, con la finalidad de transferir más facultades y atribuciones del gobierno cen tral hacia otros órdenes gubernamentales. A la par, han surgido organizaciones como la Conferencia Nacional de Gobernadores (Conago) para el caso de los estados, y asociaciones como la Conferencia Nacional de Municipios de México (Conamm) para los municipios, como un contrapeso real para el fortalecimiento del federalismo. A continuación analizaremos algunos aspectos de la descentralización que están contribuyendo a dicho fortalecimiento en México

Gerentes de escuelas de enfermería: una discusión sobre su adaptación al entorno social según la Teoría de Roy

Objetivo: la investigación aborda el desempeño gerencial de las primeras directoras enfermeras en la región central de México, con el objetivo de analizar los retos afrontados por ellas en su entorno social durante su gestión en las escuelas de enfermería en la década de los setenta. Método: se llevó a cabo un estudio cualitativo de corte histórico-social, sustentado en la teoría de adaptación; los sujetos de estudio fueron las directoras o sus colaboradoras cercanas. Para la recolección de datos se utilizó la entrevista; los datos se analizaron con la técnica colorimétrica. Resultados: los resultados revelaron que sus retos fueron: sociales, de género y erradicar el estigma social. Los mecanismos innatos: ser visionarias; los adquiridos: vencer el miedo al cargo, adaptarse a la organización universitaria. Conclusión: la investigación ofrece aportes a la teoría, y señala su aplicabilidad en el ámbito gerencial. Se refleja el significado de adaptación en la posición gerencial, mostrando que el nivel de adaptación fue integrado

How new technologies can promote an active and healthy city. Digital platform to identify areas of informal sport practise in the city of Malaga

La investigación realizada se ha llevado a cabo en el marco de la Cátedra Tecnologías Emergentes para la Ciudadanía, Red de Cátedras Estratégicas del Vicerrectorado de Proyectos Estratégicos, Universidad de Málaga, y el Polo Digital, Ayuntamiento de Málaga.In recent years the urban public space has become the largest casual sports infrastructure in cities and suburbs. WHO establishes a direct relationship between the Active Healthy City, social cohesion of communities and public space. This approach provides a framework for research and work on the design of the city and urban space as support for this sport practice. Moreover, new technologies provide an opportunity to promote the sport in the city. “Malaga Activa” digital platform project is an initiative that wants to promote the informal sport practice on the urban public space (outside the regulated sports facilities) and healthy living in the neighborhoods of the city of Malaga. This paper presents the results of the first phase of the project identifying the active sport areas -those in which physical and casual sport activities take place-. It also includes a methodology and a performance test of the created digital platform, as well as an assessment of the experience and possible improvements to be incorporated in the successive phases of the project.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

A near zero consumption building as an urban acupuncture for a vertical slum. A case study in the city of Malaga, Spain

Vertical slum is defined as a particularly vulnerable height building, with serious problems of functionality, safety and habitability. Venezuela’s Tower of David is a famous example. Vertical slums are associated with an important level of physical degradation, coupled with a precarious socioeconomic situation of its occupants. Their inability to create a community for proper and mandatory maintenance increases their physical deterioration. The abandonment of the original owners is replaced by a system of occupation and illegal activities. In many cases, with an interest in maintaining the building in a state of precariousness, which annuls any attempt to rehabilitate it Facing this situation, the intervention is proposed through an urban acupuncture project, understood as a project of expropriation and physical rehabilitation of the building, associated to a project of social rehabilitation in a disadvantaged environment. It is about creating a hybrid building associated with four objectives 1- Create a hybrid building with a mixed offer of social and housing services: sheltered housing for seniors, residence and accommodation for young entrepreneurs. The idea of a social condenser is related to studies of the hybrid building such as the Downtown Athletic Club in New York, or the Rokade Tower and Maartenshof residence (Groningen, The Netherlands). 2- Incorporate the sustainability parameters directed to a building almost zero. 3- Incorporate a model of provision of housing services, managed by the municipality, but with the possibility of incorporating NGOs 4- Design a social rehabilitation project that facilitates the creation of a web of social-based companies or cooperatives that fosters entrepreneurship, and that can actively participate in the rehabilitation and maintenance of the neighborhood itself. This paper applies these principles to a building in Malaga as a case study and 10 strategies are developed and analysed in regards to its physical, social and sustainable transformation.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Fusion Lidar-RGB basée sur les transformateurs pour la prédiction de grille sémantique dans les véhicules autonomes

International audienceSemantic grids are simple and compact top-view representations of a 3D environment used in a variety of robotics tasks, including autonomous vehicles. These grids are composed by several cells that contain the occupancy status (e.g. Free or Occupied), and the object class related to it (e.g. vehicle, road). In order to obtain these semantic grids, some works rely exclusively on camera data, while others rely only in Lidar input, obtaining state-of-the-art results, nevertheless, neglecting the benefits of using both complementary modalities at the same time. In this work, we present a Transformer-based Lidar-RGB fusion network for semantic grid prediction. This architecture receives as input multi-camera views and a Lidar point cloud, and transforms this incoming data onto top-view features that are fused at multiple scales using transformers. Finally, a decoder processes the fused features to predict a semantic grid. This model is trained and tested for Vehicle, Drivable area, Lane divider and Walkway classes, and is evaluated in challenging conditions such as Night and Rain. The results show significant improvement and superior performance for the proposed architecture using Transformer feature fusion in the Vehicle, Drivable area and Walkway classes. This compared with naive fusion methods such as concatenation, and with single modality models based on camera-only and Lidar-only data.Les grilles sémantiques sont des représentations simples et compactes de vue de dessus d'un environnement en 3D utilisées dans une variété de tâches de robotique, notamment les véhicules autonomes. Ces grilles sont composées de plusieurs cellules qui contiennent l'état d'occupation (par exemple, libre ou occupé) ainsi que la classe d'objet qui lui est associée (par exemple, véhicule, route). Pour obtenir ces grilles sémantiques, certaines méthodes se basent exclusivement sur les données de la caméra, tandis que d'autres se basent exclusivement sur les données Lidar, obtenant des résultats de pointe, mais négligeant les avantages de l'utilisation simultanée de ces deux modalités complémentaires. Dans ce travail, nous présentons une architecture de fusion Lidar-RGB basée sur les transformateurs pour la prédiction de grilles sémantiques. Cette architecture reçoit en entrée des vues multi-caméras et un nuage de points Lidar, et transforme ces données d'entrée en caractéristiques de vue de dessus qui sont fusionnées à plusieurs échelles en utilisant des transformateurs. Enfin, un décodeur traite les caractéristiques fusionnées pour prédire une grille sémantique. Ce modèle est entraîné et testé pour les classes Véhicule, Zone roulable, Diviseur de voie et Passage piéton et est évalué dans des conditions difficiles telles que la nuit et la pluie. Les résultats montrent une amélioration significative et une performance supérieure pour l'architecture proposée utilisant la fusion de caractéristiques Transformer pour les classes Véhicule, Zone roulable et Passage piéton, comparé aux méthodes de fusion naïves telles que la concaténation et aux modèles à modalité unique basés sur les données de caméra uniquement et Lidar uniquement