Themed issue on selected papers SEG2015: part II

This themed issue of Geomechanics for Energy and the Environment ‘SEG-2015-Part II’, presents papers selected from extended abstracts submitted to the Symposium on Energy Geotechnics (SEG-2015) held in the Civil Engineering School of the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain, between June 2nd and 4th, 2015. This symposium SEG-2015 was the first event organized by the Technical Committee TC308 of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, which will have continuity in the next symposium SEG-2018 to be held in the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (Lausanne, Switzerland). The first issue ‘SEG-2015-Part I’ appeared just before the 1st International Conference on Energy Geotechnics (ICEG-2016), which was held in Kiel (Germany) at the end of August 2016. The second volume ‘SEG-2015-Part II’ on December 2016 will thus close a first cycle of successful conferences and publications along this initial stage of TC308.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

From 3D Point Clouds to Pose-Normalised Depth Maps

We consider the problem of generating either pairwise-aligned or pose-normalised depth maps from noisy 3D point clouds in a relatively unrestricted poses. Our system is deployed in a 3D face alignment application and consists of the following four stages: (i) data filtering, (ii) nose tip identification and sub-vertex localisation, (iii) computation of the (relative) face orientation, (iv) generation of either a pose aligned or a pose normalised depth map. We generate an implicit radial basis function (RBF) model of the facial surface and this is employed within all four stages of the process. For example, in stage (ii), construction of novel invariant features is based on sampling this RBF over a set of concentric spheres to give a spherically-sampled RBF (SSR) shape histogram. In stage (iii), a second novel descriptor, called an isoradius contour curvature signal, is defined, which allows rotational alignment to be determined using a simple process of 1D correlation. We test our system on both the University of York (UoY) 3D face dataset and the Face Recognition Grand Challenge (FRGC) 3D data. For the more challenging UoY data, our SSR descriptors significantly outperform three variants of spin images, successfully identifying nose vertices at a rate of 99.6%. Nose localisation performance on the higher quality FRGC data, which has only small pose variations, is 99.9%. Our best system successfully normalises the pose of 3D faces at rates of 99.1% (UoY data) and 99.6% (FRGC data)

Explaining computer predictions with augmented appraisal degrees

An augmented appraisal degree (AAD) has been conceived as a mathematical representation of the connotative meaning in an experience-based evaluation, which depends on a particular experience or knowledge. Aiming to improve the interpretability of computer predictions, we explore the use of AADs to represent evaluations that are per- formed by a machine to predict the class of a particular object. Hence, we propose a novel method whereby predictions made using a support vector machine classification process are augmented through AADs. An illustra- tive example, in which the classes of handwritten digits are predicted, shows how the augmentation of such predictions can favor their interpretability

A 12CO (J = 1 -> 0) study towards the Ara OB1 region

Intermediate angular resolution (HPBW = 8. 0 7) carbon monoxide (12CO J = 1→0) line observations towards the OB association Ara OB1 are reported. The molecular line observations cover an area of 2. ◦75 × 3. ◦00, and disclose a rich and complex distribution of the molecular line emission. The molecular features likely to be associated with the OB-association Ara OB1 span the velocity range from −28 to −20 km s−1. The most negative radial velocities are observed along NGC 6188 (≡Rim nebula). This nebula marks the interface between the H region RCW 108 and the highly absorbing molecular material located westwards of the ionised region. The dominant CO structures, labeled E and F, have a radial velocity of about −23.5 and −21.8 km s−1, respectively. The former harbours a bright optical knot, the infrared cluster RCW-108 and the strong IRAS source 16362−4845. IRAS point sources are also seen in projection onto 12CO concentrations F and H. This may indicate that the star forming process is a widespread phenomenon in this molecular complex. Extended continuum emission, having a high degree of spatial correlation with both the infrared and molecular emission, is observed in the region. We believe that this emission, thermal in nature, arises from the ionised surface layers of the molecular complex. The ionising agents are the high mass stars of NGC 6193, the nucleus of Ara OB1. The total amount of molecular gas related to Ara OB1 is about ∼1.4×104 M .Fil: Arnal, Edmundo Marcelo. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de la Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Astronómicas y Geofísicas; ArgentinaFil: May, J.. Universidad de Chile; ChileFil: Romero, Gisela Andrea. Provincia de Buenos Aires. Gobernación. Comisión de Investigaciones Científicas. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto Argentino de Radioastronomía; Argentin

Spectral evolution of the SU(4) Kondo effect from the single impurity to the two-dimensional lattice

We describe the evolution of the SU(4) Kondo effect as the number of magnetic centers increases from one impurity to the two-dimensional (2D) lattice. We derive a Hubbard-Anderson model which describes a 2D array of atoms or molecules with two-fold orbital degeneracy, acting as magnetic impurities and interacting with a metallic host. We calculate the differential conductance, observed typically in experiments of scanning tunneling spectroscopy, for different arrangements of impurities on a metallic surface: a single impurity, a periodic square lattice, and several sites of a rectangular cluster. Our results point towards the crucial importance of the orbital degeneracy and agree well with recent experiments in different systems of iron(II) phtalocyanine molecules deposited on top of Au(111) [N. Tsukahara et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 106, 187201 (2011)], indicating that this would be the first experimental realization of an artificial 2D SU(4) Kondo-lattice system.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figures. New version contains an Appendix with details of the derivation of the Hamiltonian Eq.(2), derivation of the slave-boson mean-field equations, and an estimation of the upper bounds of the RKKY interactio

Quality in crowdsourced experience-based evaluations : handling subjective responses

Experience-based evaluations (XBEs) are appraisals based on what someone has understood or learned about a topic by experience. Although XBEs can be highly subjective, imprecise, and diverse, information extracted from them can result in significant benefits for companies and organizations. However, handling XBEs can entail several challenges especially when potential data quality issues, such as a lack of reliability on XBEs provided by a large and heterogeneous group of (anonymous) sources, need to be handled. In this dissertation, challenges connected with the characterization, processing and quality of XBEs have been handled. Thereby, it is studied if and how existing and novel concepts and methods in the area of computational intelligence can be used to characterize and process XBEs in such a way that one can adequately handle data quality issues on subjective data provided by a large and heterogeneous group of respondents. It has been shown that existing and novel concepts and methods connected to fuzzy set theory, which aims to find approximate, achievable and robust solutions, can be used to address these challenges. Among the novel proposed concepts, augmented appraisal degrees and augmented (Atanassov) intuitionistic fuzzy sets are deemed to be the most important contributions of this dissertation

Gobierno "progresista" y capitalismo : El modelo extractivo-exportador y los movimientos sociales

El trabajo intenta profundizar sobre la imposición del sistema capitalista y del modelo neoliberal, principalmente desde la década de los 90' hasta nuestros días. Esta situación ha generado diferentes acciones que en esencia parecen mantener un denominador común en cuanto a las formas de acción contrahegemónicas: los grupos de resistencia. Estos grupos en la actualidad se encuentran principalmente bajo la denominación de movimientos sociales y sus características cobran sentido especialmente bajo el modelo extractivo-exportador imperante tanto en Argentina, como en distintos países latinoamericanos y del llamado "sur global"; todo lo cual condicionan a estos países a una relación productiva asimétrica y pauperizante. Es por ello que este trabajo intenta caracterizar tanto las formas de resistencia de los movimientos sociales en un contexto como el argentino, como las formas en que este gobierno "progresista", sobre todo en los últimos cinco años, ha ido asumiendo e incorporando este modelo productivo extractivo exportador como así también las iniciativas y las consecuencias que estas políticas han generado en torno a los movimientos de resistenci

NTA-IOT: A FLEXIBLE AND MODULAR ARCHITECTURE FOR IOT APPLICATIONS

This work introduces the NTA-IoT, an abstract IoT architecture that is intended to be flexible and modular, in order to serve as a generic guide tool for developing IoT projects. The model is composed of two types of layers: base layers and support layers, with each layer providing a particular service in the IoT infrastructure. Some considerations and possible roles for building IoT projects following the NTA-IoT architecture are also detailed. Finally, this paper presents an example of a concrete implementation of the architecture on a home automation problem, based on the use of different technologies such as KNX, MQTT and the Outsystems platform to build a functional end-to-end IoT project. The correct functioning of this implementation shows that the architecture is, in fact, consistent and well-suited to serve as strategic guide to carry IoT projects with satisfactory results. Although the case study presented in this work is applied to home automation, the framework is hoped to be applicable to any type of project