Técnicas de reforzamiento de estructuras construidas de concreto que presentan deficiencias estructurales

Proyecto de Graduación (Licenciatura en Ingeniería en Construcción) Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Escuela de Ingeniería en Construcción, 2010.The project named Reinforcement techniques of constructed concrete structures with structural deficiency has as a purpose to avoid unnecessary demolitions in concrete works that lack of design resistance or where the minimum steel was not placed, by the implementation of a complementary work. The compilation of the information was done by means of empirical experience in the reinforcement of works, data given by the professor guide, interviews to construction engineers, generating five application groups: foundations, columns, beams, slabs and walls. There are several limitations in this project and we can mention that the techniques can be applied to small and middle-sized works, one and maximum two height levels. The results show that works poorly constructed and a lack of information in most cases would be demolished but the techniques can be applied successfully to achieve the design standards or even exceed the capacity of each item. Thus the ultimate goal of the project is to propose tools to prevent the demolitions that have a negative impact on the cost of works, estimated time of delivery, generating environmental pollution from litter and debris, poor image of the professional or contractor.Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Escuela Ingeniería en Construcció

Accelerated reliability testing of articulated cable bend restrictor for offshore wind applications

PublishedFinal report.Power cable failures for offshore marine energy applications are a growing concern since experience from offshore wind has shown repeated failures of inter-array and export cables. These failures may be mitigated by dedicated cable protection systems, such as bend restrictors. This study presents the rationale and the results for accelerated reliability tests of an articulated bend restrictor. The tests are a collaborative effort between the University of Exeter, CPNL Engineering and NSW, supported by the EU Marinet Programme. The tests have been carried out at full - scale and exposed the static submarine power cable – bend restrictor specimen to mechanical load regimes exceeding the allowable design loads in order to provoke accelerated wear and component failures. The tested load cases combined cyclic bending motions with oscillating tensile forces. A range of acceleration factors have been applied in respect to the 1:50 years load case, subjecting each of the three restrictor samples to 25,000 bending cycles (50,000 tensile cycles). The static power cable was also loaded beyond its intended use, testing the worst case scenario of repeated dynamic loading, purposely inflicting failure modes for investigation. Throughout the test the static submarine power cable sustained over 77,000 bending cycles (154,000 tensile cycles). The test demonstrated the integrity of the cable protection system with quantified wear rates obtained through 3D scanning of the individual shells. The static power cable also showed a high reliability level. None of the failure modes, mainly fatigue cracks and fretting, identified by cable dissection would have caused direct loss of service. The observed failure modes could also be predicted through numerical load analysis, giving confidence in the utilised mechanical modelling and cross - sectional analysis for dynamic applications. Overall the study shows how dedicated collaborative component testing can make an important contribution to quantify and validate component behaviour in challenging offshore operating environments.The work described in this publication has received support from MARINET, a European Community - Research Infrastructure Action under the FP7 “Capacities” Specific Programme

Interpersonal Relationships Moderate the Effect of Faces on Person Judgments

Previous research suggests that people form impressions of others based on their facial appearance in a very fast and automatic manner, and this especially holds for trustworthiness. However, as yet, this process has been investigated mostly in a social vacuum without taking interpersonal factors into account. In the current research, we demonstrate that both the relationship context that is salient at the moment of an interaction and the performed behavior, are important moderators of the impact of facial cues on impression formation. It is shown that, when the behavior of a person we encounter is ambiguous in terms of trustworthiness, the relationship most salient at that moment is of crucial impact on whether and how we incorporate facial cues communicating (un)trustworthiness in our final evaluations. Ironically, this can result in less positive evaluations of interaction partners with a trustworthy face compared to interaction partners with an untrustworthy face. Implications for research on facial characteristics, trust, and relationship theories are discussed.trust;facial characteristics;person perception;relationship norms;word-of-mouth

Sales and Sincerity: The Role of Relational Framing in Word-of-Mouth Marketing

In the current research, we study relationship norms in a word-of-mouth marketing context. The presence of a financial incentive for a recommendation implies that the word-of-mouth behavior may be driven by ulterior motives. This setting triggers both friendship (Equality Matching; EM) and sales (Market Pricing; MP) relationship norms. However, the evaluation of the recommendation depends crucially on the relationship norm activated during the interaction. We show that, compared to MP relationship norms, activating EM norms leads to less sincere agent evaluations, but at the same time to higher intentions to comply with the target offer. We show that these norms can be activated outside awareness and influence our evaluations of interaction partners in a cognitively efficient manner. A second study shows that disclosing the financial motive has a positive effect on agent evaluations, but only when the recommendation target can devote full attention to the interaction.relationship norms;word-of-mouth;disclosure of ulterior motive;rewarded recommendations

El papel estratégico de la educación para el desarrollo sostenible

Un cambio de paradigma para el desarrollo del país, obliga a la universidad, como institución, a replantear todas las carreras de tal manera que los profesionales que se formen obtengan un perfil que les permita responder a las necesidades de la sociedad al integrar los aspectos relacionados con la conservación y protección de la biodiversidad, incluyendo al ser humano; relacionada con la organización social que permita la maximización del bienestar con equidad y vivir en forma responsable, solidaria y consciente de que las acciones individuales tienen impacto en la sociedad. Para lograrlo, no sólo debe remozarse la oferta académica, es necesario contar con el personal docente que se encuentre en condiciones de propiciar ese cambio con seriedad, responsabilidad y compromis

Inhibitory Spillover: Increased Urination Urgency Facilitates Impulse Control in Unrelated Domains

This is the authors’ final, accepted and refereed manuscript to the articleVisceral states are known to reduce the ability to exert self-control. In the current research, we investigated how self-control is affected by a visceral factor associated with inhibition rather than with approach: bladder control. We designed four studies to test the hypothesis that inhibitory signals are not domain-specific but can spill over to unrelated domains, resulting in increased impulse control in the behavioral domain. In Study 1, participants’ urination urgency correlated with performance on color-naming but not word-meaning trials of a Stroop task. In Studies 2 and 3, we found that higher levels of bladder pressure resulted in an increased ability to resist impulsive choices in monetary decision making. We found that inhibitory spillover effects are moderated by sensitivity of the Behavioral Inhibition System (Study 3) and can be induced by exogenous cues (Study 4). Implications for inhibition and impulse-control theories are discussed