Geological and geotechnical surveys in tectonically active rock masses

The economic development of a region depends on the speed that people and goods can travel. The reduction of people and goods travel time can be achieved by planning smooth road layouts, which are obtained by crossing natural obstacles such as hills, by tunneling at great depths, and allowing the reduction of the road alignment length. The stress state in rock masses at such depths, either because of the overburden or due to the tectonic conditions of the rock mass induces high convergences of the tunnel walls. These high convergence values are incompatible with the supports structural performance installed in the excavation stabilization. In this article it is intended to evaluate and analyze some of the solutions already implemented in several similar geological and geotechnical situations, in order to establish a methodological principle for the design of the tunnels included in a highway section under construction in the region influenced by the Himalayas, in the state of Himachal Pradesh (India) and referenced by "four laning of Kiratpur to Ner Chowk section".

ECG biometrics using a dissimilarity space representation

Electrocardiogram (ECG) biometrics are a relatively recent trend in biometric recognition, with at least 13 years of development in peer-reviewed literature. Most of the proposed biometric techniques perform classifi-cation on features extracted from either heartbeats or from ECG based transformed signals. The best representation is yet to be decided. This paper studies an alternative representation, a dissimilarity space, based on the pairwise dissimilarity between templates and subjects' signals. Additionally, this representation can make use of ECG signals sourced from multiple leads. Configurations of three leads will be tested and contrasted with single-lead experiments. Using the same k-NN classifier the results proved superior to those obtained through a similar algorithm which does not employ a dissimilarity representation. The best Authentication EER went as low as 1:53% for a database employing 503 subjects. However, the employment of extra leads did not prove itself advantageous.

Planning smart cities using wireless low energy monitoring systems

Thesis to obtain the Master Degree in Electronics and Telecommunications Engineering

The insular shelves of the Faial-Pico Ridge (Azores archipelago): a morphological record of its evolution

Shelves surrounding reefless volcanic ocean islands are formed by surf erosion of their slopes during changing sea levels. Posterosional lava flows, if abundant, can cross the coastal cliffs and fill partially or completely the accommodation space left by erosion. In this study, multibeam bathymetry, high-resolution seismic reflection profiles, and sediment samples are used to characterize the morphology of the insular shelves adjacent to Pico Island. The data show offshore fresh lava flow morphologies, as well as an irregular basement beneath shelf sedimentary bodies and reduced shelf width adjacent to older volcanic edifices in Pico. These observations suggest that these shelves have been significantly filled by volcanic progradation and can thus be classified as rejuvenated. Despite the general volcanic infilling of the shelves around Pico, most of their edges are below the depth of the Last Glacial Maximum, revealing that at least parts of the island have subsided after the shelves formed by surf erosion. Prograding lava deltas reached the shelf edge in some areas triggering small slope failures, locally decreasing the shelf width and depth of their edges. These areas can represent a significant risk for the local population; hence, their identification can be useful for hazard assessment and contribute to wiser land use planning. Shelf and subaerial geomorphology, magnetic anomalies and crustal structure data of the two islands were also interpreted to reconstruct the long-term combined onshore and offshore evolution of the Faial-Pico ridge. The subaerial emergence of this ridge is apparently older than previously thought, i.e., before approximate to 850 ka.