The role of the Teaching Quality and Innovation Support Unit in the ICT Engineering Studies at Universitat Pompeu Fabra

One of the strategies of Universitat Pompeu Fabra to support Quality Learning has been the creation of Units for the Support of Teaching Quality and Innovation within each faculty. In the seminar we will present the role and activities of the Polytechnic School Unit in charge or coordinating the efforts towards quality learning in the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Engineering Studies. We will also discuss how these activities are informed to relevant academic stakeholders.

Computing infinite plans for LTL goals using a classical planner

Classical planning has been notably successful in synthesizing finite plans to achieve states where propositional goals hold. In the last few years, classical planning has also been extended to incorporate temporally extended goals, expressed in temporal logics such as LTL, to impose restrictions on the state sequences generated by finite plans. In this work, we take the next step and consider the computation of infinite plans for achieving arbitrary LTL goals. We show that infinite plans can also be obtained efficiently by calling a classical planner once over a classical planning encoding that represents and extends the composition of the planningdomain and the B¨uchi automaton representingthe goal. This compilation scheme has been implemented and a number of experiments are reported.

Evaluation of a Bridge Constructed using High Performance Steel, May 2006

Of the approximately 25,000 bridges in Iowa, 28% are classified as structurally deficient, functionally obsolete, or both. Because many Iowa bridges require repair or replacement with a relatively limited funding base, there is a need to develop new bridge materials that may lead to longer life spans and reduced life-cycle costs. In addition, new and effective methods for determining the condition of structures are needed to identify when the useful life has expired or other maintenance is needed. Due to its unique alloy blend, high-performance steel (HPS) has been shown to have improved weldability, weathering capabilities, and fracture toughness than conventional structural steels. Since the development of HPS in the mid-1990s, numerous bridges using HPS girders have been constructed, and many have been economically built. The East 12th Street Bridge, which replaced a deteriorated box girder bridge, is Iowa’s first bridge constructed using HPS girders. The new structure is a two-span bridge that crosses I-235 in Des Moines, Iowa, providing one lane of traffic in each direction. A remote, continuous, fiber-optic based structural health monitoring (SHM) system for the bridge was developed using off-the-shelf technologies. In the system, sensors strategically located on the bridge collect raw strain data and then transfer the data via wireless communication to a gateway system at a nearby secure facility. The data are integrated and converted to text files before being uploaded automatically to a website that provides live strain data and a live video stream. A data storage/processing system at the Bridge Engineering Center in Ames, Iowa, permanently stores and processes the data files. Several processes are performed to check the overall system’s operation, eliminate temperature effects from the complete strain record, compute the global behavior of the bridge, and count strain cycles at the various sensor locations.

Volume of Traffic on the Primary Road System, 2002

The Office of Transportation Data, in cooperation with the Federal Highway Administration, prepares this biennial traffic report. This report is used by federal, state, and local governmental agencies in determining highway needs, construction priorities, route location and environmental impact studies, and the application of appropriate design standards. The general public uses this information in determining the amount of traffic that passes a given area as they make their development plans and propose land use changes. The above reflects only a few of the many technical uses for this data.

College of Engineering Strategic Plan,2006

College of Engineering at Iowa State University produced a strategic plan for the years 2005-2010.

Trauma in the elderly caused by traffic accident: integrative review

OBJECTIVE To describe the scientific knowledge produced about trauma in the elderly caused by traffic accidents in healthcare area studies. METHODS Integrative review of studies from 2003 to 2013 searched in LILACS, SciELO, PubMed and CINHAL databases. We used combination of the descriptors injuries, wounds and accidents, in English, Portuguese and Spanish languages. RESULTS 32 studies were selected. In the thematic analysis, three categories emerged: epidemiological data from traffic accidents involving elderly; traffic accidents with elderly pedestrians; and trauma care in the elderly. We observed increased incidence of trauma in most countries and pedestrians represented a large part of the victims. Among these, the elderly are the most vulnerable group. CONCLUSION Studies showed that trauma care in the elderly need protocols and professionals with training in gerontology specialized in trauma care services.

OVERLAND FLOW AND SURFACE RUNOFF / Hydrological Science and Engineering

Cape Verde, off the coast of Senegal in western Africa, is a volcanic archipelago where soil and water conservation techniques play an important role in the overall subsistence of half a million inhabitants. In fact, the step slopes in the more agricultural islands due to it's volcanic origin, together with semi-arid and arid environments (the country is located in the Sahelian region), characterized by a very irregular wet season, with high intensity rainfall events, make life tough. The hard conditions lead during the first half of the XX century to frequent cycles of drought with severe implications on the local populations, with impressive numbers of deaths by famine, and a decrease of the number of local inhabitants by more than halve in some islands. Maintain the soil in place and the water inside the soil was there after a mater of survival, and the CapeVerdians implemented over the last half century a number of soil and water conservation techniques that cover all the landscape. In this work, we monitored a number of slope soil and water conservation techniques, such as terraces, half moons, live barriers, etc, together with two cultural strategies, used to plant corn and beans on one side and peanuts on the other, with a semi-quantitative methodology, to evaluate their effectiveness. A discussion is given on the costs and effectiveness of the techniques to reduce overland flow production and therefore erosion, and to promote rainfall infiltration.

Engineering polyhydroxyalkanoate content and monomer composition in the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica by modifying the ß-oxidation multifunctional protein.

Recombinant strains of the oleaginous yeast Yarrowia lipolytica expressing the PHA synthase gene (PhaC) from Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the peroxisome were found able to produce polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA). PHA production yield, but not the monomer composition, was dependent on POX genotype (POX genes encoding acyl-CoA oxidases) (Haddouche et al. FEMS Yeast Res 10:917-927, 2010). In this study of variants of the Y. lipolytica β-oxidation multifunctional enzyme, with deletions or inactivations of the R-3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase domain, we were able to produce hetero-polymers (functional MFE enzyme) or homo-polymers (with no 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase activity) of PHA consisting principally of 3-hydroxyacid monomers (>80%) of the same length as the external fatty acid used for growth. The redirection of fatty acid flux towards β-oxidation, by deletion of the neutral lipid synthesis pathway (mutant strain Q4 devoid of the acyltransferases encoded by the LRO1, DGA1, DGA2 and ARE1 genes), in combination with variant expressing only the enoyl-CoA hydratase 2 domain, led to a significant increase in PHA levels, to 7.3% of cell dry weight. Finally, the presence of shorter monomers (up to 20% of the monomers) in a mutant strain lacking the peroxisomal 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase domain provided evidence for the occurrence of partial mitochondrial β-oxidation in Y. lipolytica.

Validation of the New Mix Design Process for Cold In-Place Rehabilitation Using Foamed Asphalt, 2007

Asphalt pavement recycling has grown dramatically over the last few years as a viable technology to rehabilitate existing asphalt pavements. Iowa's current Cold In-place Recycling (CIR) practice utilizes a generic recipe specification to define the characteristics of the CIR mixture. As CIR continues to evolve, the desire to place CIR mixture with specific engineering properties requires the use of a mix design process. A new mix design procedure was developed for Cold In-place Recycling using foamed asphalt (CIR-foam) in consideration of its predicted field performance. The new laboratory mix design process was validated against various Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) materials to determine its consistency over a wide range of RAP materials available throughout Iowa. The performance tests, which include dynamic modulus test, dynamic creep test and raveling test, were conducted to evaluate the consistency of a new CIR-foam mix design process to ensure reliable mixture performance over a wide range of traffic and climatic conditions. The “lab designed” CIR will allow the pavement designer to take the properties of the CIR into account when determining the overlay thickness.