A knowledge based system for valuing variations in civil engineering works: a user centred approach

There has been much evidence that valuing variations in construction projects can lead to conflicts and disputes leading to loss of time, efficiency, and productivity. One of the reasons for these conflicts and disputes concerns the subjectivity of the project stakeholders involved in the process. One way to minimise this is to capture and collate the knowledge and perceptions of the different parties involved in order to develop a robust mechanism for valuing variations. Focusing on the development of such a mechanism, the development of a Knowledge Based System (KBS) for valuing variations in civil engineering work is described. Evaluation of the KBS involved demonstration to practitioners in the construction industry to support the contents of the knowledge base and perceived usability and acceptance of the system. Results support the novelty, contents, usability, and acceptance of the system, and also identify further potential developments of the KBS

A First Derivative Potts Model for Segmentation and Denoising Using ILP

Unsupervised image segmentation and denoising are two fundamental tasks in image processing. Usually, graph based models such as multicut are used for segmentation and variational models are employed for denoising. Our approach addresses both problems at the same time. We propose a novel ILP formulation of the first derivative Potts model with the $\ell_1$ data term, where binary variables are introduced to deal with the $\ell_0$ norm of the regularization term. The ILP is then solved by a standard off-the-shelf MIP solver. Numerical experiments are compared with the multicut problem.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. To appear at Proceedings of International Conference on Operations Research 2017, Berli

Modelos elasto-plásticos de estado crítico para análisis numéricos de problemas geotécnicos. I- Formulación básica y principales modificaciones

Los modelos de estado crítico han tenido una importancia capital en la aplicación de la elastoplasticidad a la caracterización del comportamiento mecánico de materiales geotécnicos. En esta serie de dos artículos se revisa el estado actual de desarrollo de estos modelos y su aplicación a análisis numéricos de problemas geotécnicos. El primer artículo se inicia con una breve nota sobre el desarrollo histórico de los modelos pasando a continuación a describir, de forma resumida, la formulación básica y sus principales consecuencias. El artículo se completa con una descripción y breve discusión de las principales modificaciones propuestas a la formulación básica, en especial aquellas más frecuentemente utilizadas en análisis numéricos. Los temas seleccionados para ser objeto de una atención especial son: superficie de fluencia en el lado supercrítico, superficie de fluencia para suelos consolidados sin deformación lateral, componente elástica del modelo, comportamiento plástico en el interior de la superficie de fluencia principal y formulación en el plano desviador. El segundo artículo de la serie tratará de la implementación numérica de estos modelos y ofrecerá ejemplos de aplicación.Peer Reviewe

Mapping solar irradiance within Schrödinger Basin for future robotic sample return missions

The US National Research Council (NRC) identified eight scientific concepts and thirty-five prioritized investigations to be addressed with continued lunar exploration. These objectives are broadly consistent with those identified throughout the international community. the majority of these objectives require sample return from the Moon. Schrödinger basin has been highlighted as a particularly attractive location to find suitable samples

Quantifying the value of ecosystem services: a case study of honeybee pollination in the UK

There is concern that insect pollinators, such as honey bees, are currently declining in abundance, and are under serious threat from environmental changes such as habitat loss and climate change; the use of pesticides in intensive agriculture, and emerging diseases. This paper aims to evaluate how much public support there would be in preventing further decline to maintain the current number of bee colonies in the UK. The contingent valuation method (CVM) was used to obtain the willingness to pay (WTP) for a theoretical pollinator protection policy. Respondents were asked whether they would be WTP to support such a policy and how much would they pay? Results show that the mean WTP to support the bee protection policy was £1.37/week/household. Based on there being 24.9 million households in the UK, this is equivalent to £1.77 billion per year. This total value can show the importance of maintaining the overall pollination service to policy makers. We compare this total with estimates obtained using a simple market valuation of pollination for the UK

Application of exchange Monte Carlo method to ordering dynamics

We apply the exchange Monte Carlo method to the ordering dynamics of the three-state Potts model with the conserved order parameter. Even for the deeply quenched case to low temperatures, we have observed a rapid domain growth; we have proved the efficiency of the exchange Monte Carlo method for the ordering process. The late-stage growth law has been found to be $R(t) \sim t^{1/3}$ for the case of conserved order parameter of three-component system.Comment: 7 pages including 5 eps figures, to appear in New J. Phys. http://www.njp.or