Automated wordlength optimization framework for multi-source statistical interval-based analysis of nonlinear systems with control-flow structures

El uso de aritmética de punto fijo es una opción de diseño muy extendida en sistemas con fuertes restricciones de área, consumo o rendimiento. Para producir implementaciones donde los costes se minimicen sin impactar negativamente en la precisión de los resultados debemos llevar a cabo una asignación cuidadosa de anchuras de palabra. Encontrar la combinación óptima de anchuras de palabra en coma fija para un sistema dado es un problema combinatorio NP-hard al que los diseñadores dedican entre el 25 y el 50 % del ciclo de diseño. Las plataformas hardware reconfigurables, como son las FPGAs, también se benefician de las ventajas que ofrece la aritmética de coma fija, ya que éstas compensan las frecuencias de reloj más bajas y el uso más ineficiente del hardware que hacen estas plataformas respecto a los ASICs. A medida que las FPGAs se popularizan para su uso en computación científica los diseños aumentan de tamaño y complejidad hasta llegar al punto en que no pueden ser manejados eficientemente por las técnicas actuales de modelado de señal y ruido de cuantificación y de optimización de anchura de palabra. En esta Tesis Doctoral exploramos distintos aspectos del problema de la cuantificación y presentamos nuevas metodologías para cada uno de ellos: Las técnicas basadas en extensiones de intervalos han permitido obtener modelos de propagación de señal y ruido de cuantificación muy precisos en sistemas con operaciones no lineales. Nosotros llevamos esta aproximación un paso más allá introduciendo elementos de Multi-Element Generalized Polynomial Chaos (ME-gPC) y combinándolos con una técnica moderna basada en Modified Affine Arithmetic (MAA) estadístico para así modelar sistemas que contienen estructuras de control de flujo. Nuestra metodología genera los distintos caminos de ejecución automáticamente, determina las regiones del dominio de entrada que ejercitarán cada uno de ellos y extrae los momentos estadísticos del sistema a partir de dichas soluciones parciales. Utilizamos esta técnica para estimar tanto el rango dinámico como el ruido de redondeo en sistemas con las ya mencionadas estructuras de control de flujo y mostramos la precisión de nuestra aproximación, que en determinados casos de uso con operadores no lineales llega a tener tan solo una desviación del 0.04% con respecto a los valores de referencia obtenidos mediante simulación. Un inconveniente conocido de las técnicas basadas en extensiones de intervalos es la explosión combinacional de términos a medida que el tamaño de los sistemas a estudiar crece, lo cual conlleva problemas de escalabilidad. Para afrontar este problema presen tamos una técnica de inyección de ruidos agrupados que hace grupos con las señales del sistema, introduce las fuentes de ruido para cada uno de los grupos por separado y finalmente combina los resultados de cada uno de ellos. De esta forma, el número de fuentes de ruido queda controlado en cada momento y, debido a ello, la explosión combinatoria se minimiza. También presentamos un algoritmo de particionado multi-vía destinado a minimizar la desviación de los resultados a causa de la pérdida de correlación entre términos de ruido con el objetivo de mantener los resultados tan precisos como sea posible. La presente Tesis Doctoral también aborda el desarrollo de metodologías de optimización de anchura de palabra basadas en simulaciones de Monte-Cario que se ejecuten en tiempos razonables. Para ello presentamos dos nuevas técnicas que exploran la reducción del tiempo de ejecución desde distintos ángulos: En primer lugar, el método interpolativo aplica un interpolador sencillo pero preciso para estimar la sensibilidad de cada señal, y que es usado después durante la etapa de optimización. En segundo lugar, el método incremental gira en torno al hecho de que, aunque es estrictamente necesario mantener un intervalo de confianza dado para los resultados finales de nuestra búsqueda, podemos emplear niveles de confianza más relajados, lo cual deriva en un menor número de pruebas por simulación, en las etapas iniciales de la búsqueda, cuando todavía estamos lejos de las soluciones optimizadas. Mediante estas dos aproximaciones demostramos que podemos acelerar el tiempo de ejecución de los algoritmos clásicos de búsqueda voraz en factores de hasta x240 para problemas de tamaño pequeño/mediano. Finalmente, este libro presenta HOPLITE, una infraestructura de cuantificación automatizada, flexible y modular que incluye la implementación de las técnicas anteriores y se proporciona de forma pública. Su objetivo es ofrecer a desabolladores e investigadores un entorno común para prototipar y verificar nuevas metodologías de cuantificación de forma sencilla. Describimos el flujo de trabajo, justificamos las decisiones de diseño tomadas, explicamos su API pública y hacemos una demostración paso a paso de su funcionamiento. Además mostramos, a través de un ejemplo sencillo, la forma en que conectar nuevas extensiones a la herramienta con las interfaces ya existentes para poder así expandir y mejorar las capacidades de HOPLITE. ABSTRACT Using fixed-point arithmetic is one of the most common design choices for systems where area, power or throughput are heavily constrained. In order to produce implementations where the cost is minimized without negatively impacting the accuracy of the results, a careful assignment of word-lengths is required. The problem of finding the optimal combination of fixed-point word-lengths for a given system is a combinatorial NP-hard problem to which developers devote between 25 and 50% of the design-cycle time. Reconfigurable hardware platforms such as FPGAs also benefit of the advantages of fixed-point arithmetic, as it compensates for the slower clock frequencies and less efficient area utilization of the hardware platform with respect to ASICs. As FPGAs become commonly used for scientific computation, designs constantly grow larger and more complex, up to the point where they cannot be handled efficiently by current signal and quantization noise modelling and word-length optimization methodologies. In this Ph.D. Thesis we explore different aspects of the quantization problem and we present new methodologies for each of them: The techniques based on extensions of intervals have allowed to obtain accurate models of the signal and quantization noise propagation in systems with non-linear operations. We take this approach a step further by introducing elements of MultiElement Generalized Polynomial Chaos (ME-gPC) and combining them with an stateof- the-art Statistical Modified Affine Arithmetic (MAA) based methodology in order to model systems that contain control-flow structures. Our methodology produces the different execution paths automatically, determines the regions of the input domain that will exercise them, and extracts the system statistical moments from the partial results. We use this technique to estimate both the dynamic range and the round-off noise in systems with the aforementioned control-flow structures. We show the good accuracy of our approach, which in some case studies with non-linear operators shows a 0.04 % deviation respect to the simulation-based reference values. A known drawback of the techniques based on extensions of intervals is the combinatorial explosion of terms as the size of the targeted systems grows, which leads to scalability problems. To address this issue we present a clustered noise injection technique that groups the signals in the system, introduces the noise terms in each group independently and then combines the results at the end. In this way, the number of noise sources in the system at a given time is controlled and, because of this, the combinato rial explosion is minimized. We also present a multi-way partitioning algorithm aimed at minimizing the deviation of the results due to the loss of correlation between noise terms, in order to keep the results as accurate as possible. This Ph.D. Thesis also covers the development of methodologies for word-length optimization based on Monte-Carlo simulations in reasonable times. We do so by presenting two novel techniques that explore the reduction of the execution times approaching the problem in two different ways: First, the interpolative method applies a simple but precise interpolator to estimate the sensitivity of each signal, which is later used to guide the optimization effort. Second, the incremental method revolves on the fact that, although we strictly need to guarantee a certain confidence level in the simulations for the final results of the optimization process, we can do it with more relaxed levels, which in turn implies using a considerably smaller amount of samples, in the initial stages of the process, when we are still far from the optimized solution. Through these two approaches we demonstrate that the execution time of classical greedy techniques can be accelerated by factors of up to ×240 for small/medium sized problems. Finally, this book introduces HOPLITE, an automated, flexible and modular framework for quantization that includes the implementation of the previous techniques and is provided for public access. The aim is to offer a common ground for developers and researches for prototyping and verifying new techniques for system modelling and word-length optimization easily. We describe its work flow, justifying the taken design decisions, explain its public API and we do a step-by-step demonstration of its execution. We also show, through an example, the way new extensions to the flow should be connected to the existing interfaces in order to expand and improve the capabilities of HOPLITE.

Domain-Specific Multi-Modeling of Security Concerns in Service-Oriented Architectures

As a common reference for many in-development standards and execution frameworks, special attention is being paid to Service-Oriented Architectures. SOAs modeling, however, is an area in which a consensus has not being achieved. Currently, standardization organizations are defining proposals to offer a solution to this problem. Nevertheless, until very recently, non-functional aspects of services have not been considered for standardization processes. In particular, there exists a lack of a design solution that permits an independent development of the functional and non-functional concerns of SOAs, allowing that each concern be addressed in a convenient manner in early stages of the development, in a way that could guarantee the quality of this type of systems. This paper, leveraging on previous work, presents an approach to integrate security-related non-functional aspects (such as confidentiality, integrity, and access control) in the development of services.

Some past decision theory models for euro construction model codes and for road drainage in Spain, and modest hints with multi-criteria methods for agro and environmental assurance

The authors are from UPM and are relatively grouped, and all have intervened in different academic or real cases on the subject, at different times as being of different age. With precedent from E. Torroja and A. Páez in Madrid Spain Safety Probabilistic models for concrete about 1957, now in ICOSSAR conferences, author J.M. Antón involved since autumn 1967 for euro-steel construction in CECM produced a math model for independent load superposition reductions, and using it a load coefficient pattern for codes in Rome Feb. 1969, practically adopted for European constructions, giving in JCSS Lisbon Feb. 1974 suggestion of union for concrete-steel-al.. That model uses model for loads like Gumbel type I, for 50 years for one type of load, reduced to 1 year to be added to other independent loads, the sum set in Gumbel theories to 50 years return period, there are parallel models. A complete reliability system was produced, including non linear effects as from buckling, phenomena considered somehow in actual Construction Eurocodes produced from Model Codes. The system was considered by author in CEB in presence of Hydraulic effects from rivers, floods, sea, in reference with actual practice. When redacting a Road Drainage Norm in MOPU Spain an optimization model was realized by authors giving a way to determine the figure of Return Period, 10 to 50 years, for the cases of hydraulic flows to be considered in road drainage. Satisfactory examples were a stream in SE of Spain with Gumbel Type I model and a paper of Ven Te Chow with Mississippi in Keokuk using Gumbel type II, and the model can be modernized with more varied extreme laws. In fact in the MOPU drainage norm the redacting commission acted also as expert to set a table of return periods for elements of road drainage, in fact as a multi-criteria complex decision system. These precedent ideas were used e.g. in wide Codes, indicated in symposia or meetings, but not published in journals in English, and a condensate of contributions of authors is presented. The authors are somehow involved in optimization for hydraulic and agro planning, and give modest hints of intended applications in presence of agro and environment planning as a selection of the criteria and utility functions involved in bayesian, multi-criteria or mixed decision systems. Modest consideration is made of changing in climate, and on the production and commercial systems, and on others as social and financial.

Multi-Resolution Texture Coding for Multi-Resolution 3D Meshes

We present an innovative system to encode and transmit textured multi-resolution 3D meshes in a progressive way, with no need to send several texture images, one for each mesh LOD (Level Of Detail). All texture LODs are created from the finest one (associated to the finest mesh), but can be re- constructed progressively from the coarsest thanks to refinement images calculated in the encoding process, and transmitted only if needed. This allows us to adjust the LOD/quality of both 3D mesh and texture according to the rendering power of the device that will display them, and to the network capacity. Additionally, we achieve big savings in data transmission by avoiding altogether texture coordinates, which are generated automatically thanks to an unwrapping system agreed upon by both encoder and decoder.

Multi-microphone recordings (EigenMike32) inside a WFS system (Iosono) through Ambisonics techniques using Matlab

El audio multicanal ha avanzado a pasos agigantados en los últimos años, y no solo en las técnicas de reproducción, sino que en las de capitación también. Por eso en este proyecto se encuentran ambas cosas: un array microfónico, EigenMike32 de MH Acoustics, y un sistema de reproducción con tecnología Wave Field Synthesis, instalado Iosono en la Jade Höchscule Oldenburg. Para enlazar estos dos puntos de la cadena de audio se proponen dos tipos distintos de codificación: la reproducción de la toma horizontal del EigenMike32; y el 3er orden de Ambisonics (High Order Ambisonics, HOA), una técnica de codificación basada en Armónicos Esféricos mediante la cual se simula el campo acústico en vez de simular las distintas fuentes. Ambas se desarrollaron en el entorno Matlab y apoyadas por la colección de scripts de Isophonics llamada Spatial Audio Matlab Toolbox. Para probar éstas se llevaron a cabo una serie de test en los que se las comparó con las grabaciones realizadas a la vez con un Dummy Head, a la que se supone el método más aproximado a nuestro modo de escucha. Estas pruebas incluían otras grabaciones hechas con un Doble MS de Schoeps que se explican en el proyecto “Sally”. La forma de realizar éstas fue, una batería de 4 audios repetida 4 veces para cada una de las situaciones garbadas (una conversación, una clase, una calle y un comedor universitario). Los resultados fueron inesperados, ya que la codificación del tercer orden de HOA quedo por debajo de la valoración Buena, posiblemente debido a la introducción de material hecho para un array tridimensional dentro de uno de 2 dimensiones. Por el otro lado, la codificación que consistía en extraer los micrófonos del plano horizontal se mantuvo en el nivel de Buena en todas las situaciones. Se concluye que HOA debe seguir siendo probado con mayores conocimientos sobre Armónicos Esféricos; mientras que el otro codificador, mucho más sencillo, puede ser usado para situaciones sin mucha complejidad en cuanto a espacialidad. In the last years the multichannel audio has increased in leaps and bounds and not only in the playback techniques, but also in the recording ones. That is the reason of both things being in this project: a microphone array, EigenMike32 from MH Acoustics; and a playback system with Wave Field Synthesis technology, installed by Iosono in Jade Höchscule Oldenburg. To link these two points of the audio chain, 2 different kinds of codification are proposed: the reproduction of the EigenMike32´s horizontal take, and the Ambisonics´ third order (High Order Ambisonics, HOA), a codification technique based in Spherical Harmonics through which the acoustic field is simulated instead of the different sound sources. Both have been developed inside Matlab´s environment and supported by the Isophonics´ scripts collection called Spatial Audio Matlab Toolbox. To test these, a serial of tests were made in which they were compared with recordings made at the time by a Dummy Head, which is supposed to be the closest method to our hearing way. These tests included other recording and codifications made by a Double MS (DMS) from Schoeps which are explained in the project named “3D audio rendering through Ambisonics techniques: from multi-microphone recordings (DMS Schoeps) to a WFS system, through Matlab”. The way to perform the tests was, a collection made of 4 audios repeated 4 times for each recorded situation (a chat, a class, a street and college canteen or Mensa). The results were unexpected, because the HOA´s third order stood under the Well valuation, possibly caused by introducing material made for a tridimensional array inside one made only by 2 dimensions. On the other hand, the codification that consisted of extracting the horizontal plane microphones kept the Well valuation in all the situations. It is concluded that HOA should keep being tested with larger knowledge about Spherical Harmonics; while the other coder, quite simpler, can be used for situations without a lot of complexity with regards to spatiality.

Multi-objective Estimation of Distribution Algorithm Based on Joint Modeling of Objectives and Variables

This paper proposes a new multi-objective estimation of distribution algorithm (EDA) based on joint modeling of objectives and variables. This EDA uses the multi-dimensional Bayesian network as its probabilistic model. In this way it can capture the dependencies between objectives, variables and objectives, as well as the dependencies learnt between variables in other Bayesian network-based EDAs. This model leads to a problem decomposition that helps the proposed algorithm to find better trade-off solutions to the multi-objective problem. In addition to Pareto set approximation, the algorithm is also able to estimate the structure of the multi-objective problem. To apply the algorithm to many-objective problems, the algorithm includes four different ranking methods proposed in the literature for this purpose. The algorithm is applied to the set of walking fish group (WFG) problems, and its optimization performance is compared with an evolutionary algorithm and another multi-objective EDA. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithm performs significantly better on many of the problems and for different objective space dimensions, and achieves comparable results on some compared with the other algorithms.

Some techniques for automated, resource-aware distributed and mobile computing in a multi-paradigm programming system

Distributed parallel execution systems speed up applications by splitting tasks into processes whose execution is assigned to different receiving nodes in a high-bandwidth network. On the distributing side, a fundamental problem is grouping and scheduling such tasks such that each one involves sufñcient computational cost when compared to the task creation and communication costs and other such practical overheads. On the receiving side, an important issue is to have some assurance of the correctness and characteristics of the code received and also of the kind of load the particular task is going to pose, which can be specified by means of certificates. In this paper we present in a tutorial way a number of general solutions to these problems, and illustrate them through their implementation in the Ciao multi-paradigm language and program development environment. This system includes facilities for parallel and distributed execution, an assertion language for specifying complex programs properties (including safety and resource-related properties), and compile-time and run-time tools for performing automated parallelization and resource control, as well as certification of programs with resource consumption assurances and efñcient checking of such certificates.

Aplicaciones de interés forestal de las imágenes obtenidas con el sensor Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR)

Las aplicaciones de la teledetección al seguimiento de lo que ocurre en la superficie terrestre se han ido multiplicando y afinando con el lanzamiento de nuevos sensores por parte de las diferentes agencias espaciales. La necesidad de tener información actualizada cada poco tiempo y espacialmente homogénea, ha provocado el desarrollo de nuevos programas como el Earth Observing System (EOS) de la National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Uno de los sensores que incorpora el buque insignia de ese programa, el satélite TERRA, es el Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR), diseñado para capturar información multiangular de la superficie terrestre. Ya desde los años 1970, se conocía que la reflectancia de las diversas ocupaciones y usos del suelo variaba en función del ángulo de observación y de iluminación, es decir, que eran anisotrópicas. Tal variación estaba además relacionada con la estructura tridimensional de tales ocupaciones, por lo que se podía aprovechar tal relación para obtener información de esa estructura, más allá de la que pudiera proporcionar la información meramente espectral. El sensor MISR incorpora 9 cámaras a diferentes ángulos para capturar 9 imágenes casi simultáneas del mismo punto, lo que permite estimar con relativa fiabilidad la respuesta anisotrópica de la superficie terrestre. Varios trabajos han demostrado que se pueden estimar variables relacionadas con la estructura de la vegetación con la información que proporciona MISR. En esta Tesis se ha realizado una primera aplicación a la Península Ibérica, para comprobar su utilidad a la hora de estimar variables de interés forestal. En un primer paso se ha analizado la variabilidad temporal que se produce en los datos, debido a los cambios en la geometría de captación, es decir, debido a la posición relativa de sensores y fuente de iluminación, que en este caso es el Sol. Se ha comprobado cómo la anisotropía es mayor desde finales de otoño hasta principios de primavera debido a que la posición del Sol es más cercana al plano de los sensores. También se ha comprobado que los valores máximo y mínimo se van desplazando temporalmente entre el centro y el extremo angular. En la caracterización multiangular de ocupaciones del suelo de CORINE Land Cover que se ha realizado, se puede observar cómo la forma predominante en las imágenes con el Sol más alto es convexa con un máximo en la cámara más cercana a la fuente de iluminación. Sin embargo, cuando el Sol se encuentra mucho más bajo, ese máximo es muy externo. Por otra parte, los datos obtenidos en verano son mucho más variables para cada ocupación que los de noviembre, posiblemente debido al aumento proporcional de las zonas en sombra. Para comprobar si la información multiangular tiene algún efecto en la obtención de imágenes clasificadas según ocupación y usos del suelo, se han realizado una serie de clasificaciones variando la información utilizada, desde sólo multiespectral, a multiangular y multiespectral. Los resultados muestran que, mientras para las clasificaciones más genéricas la información multiangular proporciona los peores resultados, a medida que se amplían el número de clases a obtener tal información mejora a lo obtenido únicamente con información multiespectral. Por otra parte, se ha realizado una estimación de variables cuantitativas como la fracción de cabida cubierta (Fcc) y la altura de la vegetación a partir de información proporcionada por MISR a diferentes resoluciones. En el valle de Alcudia (Ciudad Real) se ha estimado la fracción de cabida cubierta del arbolado para un píxel de 275 m utilizando redes neuronales. Los resultados muestran que utilizar información multiespectral y multiangular puede mejorar casi un 20% las estimaciones realizadas sólo con datos multiespectrales. Además, las relaciones obtenidas llegan al 0,7 de R con errores inferiores a un 10% en Fcc, siendo éstos mucho mejores que los obtenidos con el producto elaborado a partir de datos multiespectrales del sensor Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), también a bordo de Terra, para la misma variable. Por último, se ha estimado la fracción de cabida cubierta y la altura efectiva de la vegetación para 700.000 ha de la provincia de Murcia, con una resolución de 1.100 m. Los resultados muestran la relación existente entre los datos espectrales y los multiangulares, obteniéndose coeficientes de Spearman del orden de 0,8 en el caso de la fracción de cabida cubierta de la vegetación, y de 0,4 en el caso de la altura efectiva. Las estimaciones de ambas variables con redes neuronales y diversas combinaciones de datos, arrojan resultados con R superiores a 0,85 para el caso del grado de cubierta vegetal, y 0,6 para la altura efectiva. Los parámetros multiangulares proporcionados en los productos elaborados con MISR a 1.100 m, no obtienen buenos resultados por sí mismos pero producen cierta mejora al incorporarlos a la información espectral. Los errores cuadráticos medios obtenidos son inferiores a 0,016 para la Fcc de la vegetación en tanto por uno, y 0,7 m para la altura efectiva de la misma. Regresiones geográficamente ponderadas muestran además que localmente se pueden obtener mejores resultados aún mejores, especialmente cuando hay una mayor variabilidad espacial de las variables estimadas. En resumen, la utilización de los datos proporcionados por MISR ofrece una prometedora vía de mejora de resultados en la media-baja resolución, tanto para la clasificación de imágenes como para la obtención de variables cuantitativas de la estructura de la vegetación. ABSTRACT Applications of remote sensing for monitoring what is happening on the land surface have been multiplied and refined with the launch of new sensors by different Space Agencies. The need of having up to date and spatially homogeneous data, has led to the development of new programs such as the Earth Observing System (EOS) of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). One of the sensors incorporating the flagship of that program, the TERRA satellite, is Multi-angle Imaging Spectroradiometer (MISR), designed to capture the multi-angle information of the Earth's surface. Since the 1970s, it was known that the reflectance of various land covers and land uses varied depending on the viewing and ilumination angles, so they are anisotropic. Such variation was also related to the three dimensional structure of such covers, so that one could take advantage of such a relationship to obtain information from that structure, beyond which spectral information could provide. The MISR sensor incorporates 9 cameras at different angles to capture 9 almost simultaneous images of the same point, allowing relatively reliable estimates of the anisotropic response of the Earth's surface. Several studies have shown that we can estimate variables related to the vegetation structure with the information provided by this sensor, so this thesis has made an initial application to the Iberian Peninsula, to check their usefulness in estimating forest variables of interest. In a first step we analyzed the temporal variability that occurs in the data, due to the changes in the acquisition geometry, i.e. the relative position of sensor and light source, which in this case is the Sun. It has been found that the anisotropy is greater from late fall through early spring due to the Sun's position closer to the plane of the sensors. It was also found that the maximum and minimum values are displaced temporarily between the center and the ends. In characterizing CORINE Land Covers that has been done, one could see how the predominant form in the images with the highest sun is convex with a maximum in the camera closer to the light source. However, when the sun is much lower, the maximum is external. Moreover, the data obtained for each land cover are much more variable in summer that in November, possibly due to the proportional increase in shadow areas. To check whether the information has any effect on multi-angle imaging classification of land cover and land use, a series of classifications have been produced changing the data used, from only multispectrally, to multi-angle and multispectral. The results show that while for the most generic classifications multi-angle information is the worst, as there are extended the number of classes to obtain such information it improves the results. On the other hand, an estimate was made of quantitative variables such as canopy cover and vegetation height using information provided by MISR at different resolutions. In the valley of Alcudia (Ciudad Real), we estimated the canopy cover of trees for a pixel of 275 m by using neural networks. The results showed that using multispectral and multiangle information can improve by almost 20% the estimates that only used multispectral data. Furthermore, the relationships obtained reached an R coefficient of 0.7 with errors below 10% in canopy cover, which is much better result than the one obtained using data from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), also onboard Terra, for the same variable. Finally we estimated the canopy cover and the effective height of the vegetation for 700,000 hectares in the province of Murcia, with a spatial resolution of 1,100 m. The results show a relationship between the spectral and the multi-angle data, and provide estimates of the canopy cover with a Spearman’s coefficient of 0.8 in the case of the vegetation canopy cover, and 0.4 in the case of the effective height. The estimates of both variables using neural networks and various combinations of data, yield results with an R coefficient greater than 0.85 for the case of the canopy cover, and 0.6 for the effective height. Multi-angle parameters provided in the products made from MISR at 1,100 m pixel size, did not produce good results from themselves but improved the results when included to the spectral information. The mean square errors were less than 0.016 for the canopy cover, and 0.7 m for the effective height. Geographically weighted regressions also showed that locally we can have even better results, especially when there is high spatial variability of estimated variables. In summary, the use of the data provided by MISR offers a promising way of improving remote sensing performance in the low-medium spatial resolution, both for image classification and for the estimation of quantitative variables of the vegetation structure.

Response threshold models, stochastic learning automata and ant colony optimization-based decentralized self-coordination algorithms for heterogeneous multi-tasks distribution in multi-robot systems

In recent decades, there has been an increasing interest in systems comprised of several autonomous mobile robots, and as a result, there has been a substantial amount of development in the eld of Articial Intelligence, especially in Robotics. There are several studies in the literature by some researchers from the scientic community that focus on the creation of intelligent machines and devices capable to imitate the functions and movements of living beings. Multi-Robot Systems (MRS) can often deal with tasks that are dicult, if not impossible, to be accomplished by a single robot. In the context of MRS, one of the main challenges is the need to control, coordinate and synchronize the operation of multiple robots to perform a specic task. This requires the development of new strategies and methods which allow us to obtain the desired system behavior in a formal and concise way. This PhD thesis aims to study the coordination of multi-robot systems, in particular, addresses the problem of the distribution of heterogeneous multi-tasks. The main interest in these systems is to understand how from simple rules inspired by the division of labor in social insects, a group of robots can perform tasks in an organized and coordinated way. We are mainly interested on truly distributed or decentralized solutions in which the robots themselves, autonomously and in an individual manner, select a particular task so that all tasks are optimally distributed. In general, to perform the multi-tasks distribution among a team of robots, they have to synchronize their actions and exchange information. Under this approach we can speak of multi-tasks selection instead of multi-tasks assignment, which means, that the agents or robots select the tasks instead of being assigned a task by a central controller. The key element in these algorithms is the estimation ix of the stimuli and the adaptive update of the thresholds. This means that each robot performs this estimate locally depending on the load or the number of pending tasks to be performed. In addition, it is very interesting the evaluation of the results in function in each approach, comparing the results obtained by the introducing noise in the number of pending loads, with the purpose of simulate the robot's error in estimating the real number of pending tasks. The main contribution of this thesis can be found in the approach based on self-organization and division of labor in social insects. An experimental scenario for the coordination problem among multiple robots, the robustness of the approaches and the generation of dynamic tasks have been presented and discussed. The particular issues studied are: Threshold models: It presents the experiments conducted to test the response threshold model with the objective to analyze the system performance index, for the problem of the distribution of heterogeneous multitasks in multi-robot systems; also has been introduced additive noise in the number of pending loads and has been generated dynamic tasks over time. Learning automata methods: It describes the experiments to test the learning automata-based probabilistic algorithms. The approach was tested to evaluate the system performance index with additive noise and with dynamic tasks generation for the same problem of the distribution of heterogeneous multi-tasks in multi-robot systems. Ant colony optimization: The goal of the experiments presented is to test the ant colony optimization-based deterministic algorithms, to achieve the distribution of heterogeneous multi-tasks in multi-robot systems. In the experiments performed, the system performance index is evaluated by introducing additive noise and dynamic tasks generation over time.

ARGoS: a modular, multi-engine simulator for heterogeneous swarm robotics

We present ARGoS, a novel open source multi-robot simulator. The main design focus of ARGoS is the real-time simulation of large heterogeneous swarms of robots. Existing robot simulators obtain scalability by imposing limitations on their extensibility and on the accuracy of the robot models. By contrast, in ARGoS we pursue a deeply modular approach that allows the user both to easily add custom features and to allocate computational resources where needed by the experiment. A unique feature of ARGoS is the possibility to use multiple physics engines of different types and to assign them to different parts of the environment. Robots can migrate from one engine to another transparently. This feature enables entirely novel classes of optimizations to improve scalability and paves the way for a new approach to parallelism in robotics simulation. Results show that ARGoS can simulate about 10,000 simple wheeled robots 40% faster than real-time.

Virtual Excursions: a new way to explore science in class

The educational platform Virtual Science Hub (ViSH) has been developed as part of the GLOBAL excursion European project. ViSH (http://vishub.org/) is a portal where teachers and scientist interact to create virtual excursions to science infrastructures. The main motivation behind the project was to connect teachers - and in consequence their students - to scientific institutions and their wide amount of infrastructures and resources they are working with. Thus the idea of a hub was born that would allow the two worlds of scientists and teachers to connect and to innovate science teaching. The core of the ViSH?s concept design is based on virtual excursions, which allow for a number of pedagogical models to be applied. According to our internal definition a virtual excursion is a tour through some digital context by teachers and pupils on a given topic that is attractive and has an educational purpose. Inquiry-based learning, project-based and problem-based learning are the most prominent approaches that a virtual excursion may serve. The domain specific resources and scientific infrastructures currently available on the ViSH are focusing on life sciences, nano-technology, biotechnology, grid and volunteer computing. The virtual excursion approach allows an easy combination of these resources into interdisciplinary teaching scenarios. In addition, social networking features support the users in collaborating and communicating in relation to these excursions and thus create a community of interest for innovative science teaching. The design and development phases were performed following a participatory design approach. An important aspect in this process was to create design partnerships amongst all actors involved, researchers, developers, infrastructure providers, teachers, social scientists, and pedagogical experts early in the project. A joint sense of ownership was created and important changes during the conceptual phase were implemented in the ViSH due to early user feedback. Technology-wise the ViSH is based on the latest web technologies in order to make it cross-platform compatible so that it works on several operative systems such as Windows, Mac or Linux and multi-device accessible, such as desktop, tablet and mobile devices. The platform has been developed in HTML5, the latest standard for web development, assuring that it can run on any modern browser. In addition to social networking features a core element on the ViSH is the virtual excursions editor. It is a web tool that allows teachers and scientists to create rich mash-ups of learning resources provided by the e-Infrastructures (i.e. remote laboratories and live webcams). These rich mash-ups can be presented in either slides or flashcards format. Taking advantage of the web architecture supported, additional powerful components have been integrated like a recommendation engine to provide personalized suggestions about educational content or interesting users and a videoconference tool to enhance real-time collaboration like MashMeTV (http://www.mashme.tv/).

A federated repository for PaaS components in a multi-cloud environment

Cloud computing has seen an impressive growth in recent years, with virtualization technologies being massively adopted to create IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) public and private solutions. Today, the interest is shifting towards the PaaS (Platform as a Service) model, which allows developers to abstract from the execution platform and focus only on the functionality. There are several public PaaS offerings available, but currently no private PaaS solution is ready for production environments. To fill this gap a new solution must be developed. In this paper we present a key element for enabling this model: a cloud repository based on the OSGi component model. The repository stores, manages, provisions and resolves the dependencies of PaaS software components and services. This repository can federate with other repositories located in the same or different clouds, both private and public. This way, dependencies can be fulfilled collaboratively, and new business models can be implemented.

Design equations for reinforced concrete members strengthened in shear with external FRP reinforcement formulated in an evolutionary multi-objective framework

Methods for predicting the shear capacity of FRP shear strengthened RC beams assume the traditional approach of superimposing the contribution of the FRP reinforcing to the contributions from the reinforcing steel and the concrete. These methods become the basis for most guides for the design of externally bonded FRP systems for strengthening concrete structures. The variations among them come from the way they account for the effect of basic shear design parameters on shear capacity. This paper presents a simple method for defining improved equations to calculate the shear capacity of reinforced concrete beams externally shear strengthened with FRP. For the first time, the equations are obtained in a multiobjective optimization framework solved by using genetic algorithms, resulting from considering simultaneously the experimental results of beams with and without FRP external reinforcement. The performance of the new proposed equations is compared to the predictions with some of the current shear design guidelines for strengthening concrete structures using FRPs. The proposed procedure is also reformulated as a constrained optimization problem to provide more conservative shear predictions.

Enhancing K-12 science education through a multi-device web tool to facilitate content integration and e-infrastructure access

An effective K-12 science education is essential to succeed in future phases of the curriculum and the e-Infrastructures for education provide new opportunities to enhance it. This paper presents ViSH Viewer, an innovative web tool to consume educational content which aims to facilitate e-Science infrastructures access through a next generation learning object called "Virtual Excursion". Virtual Excursions provide a new way to explore science in class by taking advantage of e-Infrastructure resources and their integration with other educational contents, resulting in the creation of a reusable, interoperable and granular learning object. In order to better understand how this tool can allow teachers and students a joyful exploration of e-Science, we also present three Virtual Excursion examples. Details about the design, development and the tool itself are explained in this paper as well as the concept, structure and metadata of the new learning object.

An online e-Learning authoring tool to create interactive multi-device learning objects using e-Infrastructure resources

Education can take advantage of e-Infrastructures to provide teachers with new opportunities to increase students' motivation and engagement while they learn. Nevertheless, teachers need to find, integrate and customize the resources provided by e-Infrastructures in an easy way. This paper presents ViSH Editor, an innovative web-based e-Learning authoring tool that aims to allow teachers to create new learning objects using e-Infrastructure resources. These new learning objects are called Virtual Excursions and are created as reusable, granular and interoperable learning objects. This way they can be reused to build new ones and they can be integrated in websites or Learning Management Systems. Details about the design, development and the tool itself are explained in this paper as well as the concept, structure and metadata of the new learning objects. Lastly, some real examples of how to enrich learning using Virtual Excursions are exposed.