Preliminary Design of Moment-Resisting Frame Buildings for Tolerable Financial Loss

This paper aims to transfer the current performance-based seismic assessment (PBSA) methodology to engineering practice by providing a preliminary design procedure denoted herein as the preliminary performance-based seismic design (PPBSD). PPBSD aims at guiding a conceptual design given the tolerable expected loss and target hazard level. The suggested preliminary design procedure implicitly incorporates the main sources of variability in the seismic performance assessment of building structures including the variability associated with seismic excitation. PPBSD can help stakeholders make informed decisions on how to handle potential seismic risk at the preliminary design level with minimal computational effort. The process for development of design tools required for implementation of PPBSD are described and such development is illustrated for a 4-story reinforced concrete special moment-resisting frame (RC-SMRF) building located in Los Angeles for a 475-year ground motion return period. A design example is offered to demonstrate how PPBSD can be implemented in practice

Conspicuous Asceticism: Collapsing Consumers\u27 Hungry Ghosts

The author investigates an emerging construct called conspicuous asceticism expositioned from a narcissism-centric view. The understanding of this construct is approached by drawing an idiomatic semantic parallel in opposition to conspicuous consumption and by utilizing its current theoretical framework of narcissism. Moreover, this paper seeks to extend conspicuous consumption’s theoretical framework as synonymous with the construct of compulsive consumption. Furthermore, I illustrate that consumers must transcend narcissism through engaging in treatment modalities requisite to operationalize a pioneering effort in which consumers can engage in marketing campaign efforts to advertise conspicuous ascetic contexts. This dissertation gleans from extant literature in sociology, anthropology, psychiatry, nutrition, and consumer research to elucidate the history, implications, and difficulties of treating narcissism that are linked to narcissistic consumption, and to additionally explore a number of relief-providing treatment modalities such as entheogenic medicines, gratitude, twelve step efforts, meditation and how each program can minimize the expression of narcissism in consumers. My dissertation is divided into three studies: (1) Study 1 provides a comprehensive overview of how narcissism develops in consumers and maps the unsustainability of narcissistic states in which they then become open to treatment and the different treatment plans available to them, (2) Study 2 details the historical responses of how Native American cultures used nutrition to treat narcissism in its community members, (3) Study 3 deploys an experiment of how keeping a gratitude journal minimizes narcissism in consumers. The implications of this study provide key insights for the characteristics of a post-narcissism segment in response to growing and global trends of narcissism

Information Loss in the Human Auditory System

From the eardrum to the auditory cortex, where acoustic stimuli are decoded, there are several stages of auditory processing and transmission where information may potentially get lost. In this paper, we aim at quantifying the information loss in the human auditory system by using information theoretic tools. To do so, we consider a speech communication model, where words are uttered and sent through a noisy channel, and then received and processed by a human listener. We define a notion of information loss that is related to the human word recognition rate. To assess the word recognition rate of humans, we conduct a closed-vocabulary intelligibility test. We derive upper and lower bounds on the information loss. Simulations reveal that the bounds are tight and we observe that the information loss in the human auditory system increases as the signal to noise ratio (SNR) decreases. Our framework also allows us to study whether humans are optimal in terms of speech perception in a noisy environment. Towards that end, we derive optimal classifiers and compare the human and machine performance in terms of information loss and word recognition rate. We observe a higher information loss and lower word recognition rate for humans compared to the optimal classifiers. In fact, depending on the SNR, the machine classifier may outperform humans by as much as 8 dB. This implies that for the speech-in-stationary-noise setup considered here, the human auditory system is sub-optimal for recognizing noisy words

CDC: Convolutional-De-Convolutional Networks for Precise Temporal Action Localization in Untrimmed Videos

Temporal action localization is an important yet challenging problem. Given a long, untrimmed video consisting of multiple action instances and complex background contents, we need not only to recognize their action categories, but also to localize the start time and end time of each instance. Many state-of-the-art systems use segment-level classifiers to select and rank proposal segments of pre-determined boundaries. However, a desirable model should move beyond segment-level and make dense predictions at a fine granularity in time to determine precise temporal boundaries. To this end, we design a novel Convolutional-De-Convolutional (CDC) network that places CDC filters on top of 3D ConvNets, which have been shown to be effective for abstracting action semantics but reduce the temporal length of the input data. The proposed CDC filter performs the required temporal upsampling and spatial downsampling operations simultaneously to predict actions at the frame-level granularity. It is unique in jointly modeling action semantics in space-time and fine-grained temporal dynamics. We train the CDC network in an end-to-end manner efficiently. Our model not only achieves superior performance in detecting actions in every frame, but also significantly boosts the precision of localizing temporal boundaries. Finally, the CDC network demonstrates a very high efficiency with the ability to process 500 frames per second on a single GPU server. We will update the camera-ready version and publish the source codes online soon.Comment: IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), 201

Abstraction-Based Output-Feedback Control with State-Based Specifications

We consider abstraction-based design of output-feedback controllers for non-linear dynamical systems against specifications over state-based predicates in linear-time temporal logic (LTL). In this context, our contribution is two-fold: (I) we generalize feedback-refinement relations for abstraction-based output-feedback control to systems with arbitrary predicate and observation maps, and (II) we introduce a new algorithm for the synthesis of abstract output-feedback controllers w.r.t. LTL specifications over unobservable state-based predicates. Our abstraction-based output-feedback controller synthesis algorithm consists of two steps. First, we compute a finite state abstraction of the original system using existing techniques. This process typically leads to an abstract system with non-deterministic predicate and observation maps which are not necessarily related to each other. Second, we introduce an algorithm to compute an output-feedback controller for such abstract systems. Our algorithm is inspired by reactive synthesis under partial observation and utilizes bounded synthesis

Investigación y evaluación de los indicadores que afectan el desarrollo de complejos culturales amigables con la infancia con un enfoque de reconciliación con los espacios históricos (estudio de caso: Shiraz)

El presente estudio tiene como objetivo investigar los indicadores de una ciudad amiga de la infancia e introducir estrategias para el diseño de espacios y centros amigables con la infancia con un enfoque de reconciliación con los espacios históricos, con el fin de hacer avanzar la ciudad hacia una ciudad amiga de la infancia y promover sus objetivos. El presente estudio es descriptivo-analítico en términos de naturaleza, aplicado en términos de propósito y combinado (cuantitativo y cualitativo) en términos de método. Este estudio se realizó en un contexto histórico en Shiraz para niños de 4 a 12 años. Para encontrar la ubicación y seleccionar el sitio deseado, se extrajeron los factores con base en fundamentos teóricos, y de acuerdo con la tabla FODA, se analizaron las debilidades, fortalezas, oportunidades y amenazas de los tres sitios. Finalmente, utilizando la herramienta AHP, se consideró el sitio número 1 como el sitio más adecuado para diseñar el complejo. Luego, utilizando el método cuantitativo, la información y los factores fueron analizados de acuerdo al marco teórico incluyendo factores espaciales, físicos y funcionales que inciden en la mejora de la calidad del medio ambiente, incluyendo 21 indicadores en forma de escala Likert de 5 puntos de muy alto a muy bajo con el software SPSS. Resultados: De acuerdo con la información obtenida sobre el indicador factor espacial de “forma y tamaño del espacio”, el índice de factor físico de “color” y el índice de factor físico de “fantasía” tuvieron el mayor impacto en el diseño del centro cultural infantil con una aproximación a la reconciliación con los espacios históricos de Shiraz. Conclusión: Al final, de acuerdo con las investigaciones de los fundamentos teóricos y las teorías de los teóricos y los resultados obtenidos, se presentaron soluciones e ideas arquitectónicas que inciden en el diseño de complejos en forma de soluciones para el uso de luz, color, geometría y proporciones, naturaleza, y forma y tamaño del espacio

Investigación y evaluación de los indicadores que afectan el desarrollo de complejos culturales amigables con la infancia con un enfoque de reconciliación con los espacios históricos (estudio de caso: Shiraz)

The present study aims to investigate the indicators of a child-friendly city and to introduce strategies for designing child-friendly spaces and centers with an approach to reconciliation with historical spaces, in order to advance the city toward a child-friendly city and promote its goals. The present study is descriptive-analytical in terms of nature, applied in terms of purpose, and combined (quantitative and qualitative) in terms of method. This study was conducted in a historical context in Shiraz for children aged 4 to 12 years. In order for location finding and selecting the desired site, the factors were extracted based on theoretical foundations, and according to SWOT table, the weaknesses, strengths, opportunities, and threats of the three sites were analyzed. Finally, using AHP tool, site number 1 was considered as the most suitable site for designing the complex. Then, using quantitative method, the information and factors were analyzed according to the theoretical framework including spatial, physical, and functional factors affecting improvement of quality of the environment, including 21 indicators in the form of 5-point Likert scale from very high to very low using SPSS software. According to the information obtained about the spatial factor of “shape and size of the space” indicator, the physical factor of “color” index and the physical factor of “fantasy” index had the greatest impact on designing children’s cultural center with an approach to reconciliation with Shiraz’s historical spaces. In the end, according to investigations of the theoretical foundations and theories of theorists and the obtained results, architectural solutions and ideas affecting the designing of complexes were presented in the form of solutions for using light, color, geometry and proportions, nature, and shape and size of the space.El presente estudio tiene como objetivo investigar los indicadores de una ciudad amiga de la infancia e introducir estrategias para el diseño de espacios y centros amigables con la infancia con un enfoque de reconciliación con los espacios históricos, con el fin de hacer avanzar la ciudad hacia una ciudad amiga de la infancia y promover sus objetivos. El presente estudio es descriptivo-analítico en términos de naturaleza, aplicado en términos de propósito y combinado (cuantitativo y cualitativo) en términos de método. Este estudio se realizó en un contexto histórico en Shiraz para niños de 4 a 12 años. Para encontrar la ubicación y seleccionar el sitio deseado, se extrajeron los factores con base en fundamentos teóricos, y de acuerdo con la tabla FODA, se analizaron las debilidades, fortalezas, oportunidades y amenazas de los tres sitios. Finalmente, utilizando la herramienta AHP, se consideró el sitio número 1 como el sitio más adecuado para diseñar el complejo. Luego, utilizando el método cuantitativo, la información y los factores fueron analizados de acuerdo al marco teórico incluyendo factores espaciales, físicos y funcionales que inciden en la mejora de la calidad del medio ambiente, incluyendo 21 indicadores en forma de escala Likert de 5 puntos de muy alto a muy bajo con el software SPSS. Resultados: De acuerdo con la información obtenida sobre el indicador factor espacial de “forma y tamaño del espacio”, el índice de factor físico de “color” y el índice de factor físico de “fantasía” tuvieron el mayor impacto en el diseño del centro cultural infantil con una aproximación a la reconciliación con los espacios históricos de Shiraz. Conclusión: Al final, de acuerdo con las investigaciones de los fundamentos teóricos y las teorías de los teóricos y los resultados obtenidos, se presentaron soluciones e ideas arquitectónicas que inciden en el diseño de complejos en forma de soluciones para el uso de luz, color, geometría y proporciones, naturaleza, y forma y tamaño del espacio