Abstract

Abstract
The inclusion of site-specific conditions is essential to adequately represent the seismic hazard and the seismic risk for a region. We acquired, gathered, and organized a near-surface shear-wave velocity database for Portugal and applied a three-step methodological approach for developing a V-S30 site-condition map using extrapolation based on surface geology. The methodology includes (1) defining a preliminary set of geologically defined units, (2) calculating the probability distribution of log V-S30 for each unit, and (3) merging the units according to the results of statistical tests. The final model comprises three geologically defined units characterized by log V-S30 distributions that are statistically significantly different from each other: F1, igneous, metamorphic, and old sedimentary rocks; F2, Neogene and Pleistocene formations; and F3, Holocene formations. The site conditions for the F3 unit may be further refined using correlations with topographic slope based on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission at 3 arcsec resolution (SRTM3) dataset. We analyzed the performance site-condition models based on correlations with exogenous data (topographic slope and surface-geology analogs). The results show that the residual distributions between log V-S30 values measured and estimated from those proxies are strongly biased for some geological units, emphasizing the need for acquiring regional V-S data.

Abstract
Head-mounted displays enable a user to view a complete environment as if he/she was there; providing an immersive experience. However, the lighting in a full environment can vary significantly. Panoramic images captured with conventional, Low Dynamic Range (LDR), imaging of scenes with a large range of lighting conditions, can include areas of under- or over-exposed pixels. High Dynamic Range (HDR) imaging, on the other hand, is able to capture the full range of detail in a scene. However, HMDs are not currently HDR and thus the HDR panorama needs to be tone mapped before it can be displayed on the LDR HMD. While a large number of tone mapping operators have been proposed in the last 25 years, these were not designed for panoramic images, or for use with HMDs. This paper undertakes a two part subjective study to investigate which of the current, state-of-the-art tone mappers is most suitable for use with HMDs.

Abstract

Abstract
The safety of people and spaces is of paramount importance for societies. With time, the implementation of safety measures is rapidly changing from a need to a priority. Video surveillance systems play a key role in the surveillance of crucial and critical areas as these systems help the authorities keep places safer. With the rapid growth of technology and the implementation of the smart city concept, it is becoming possible to develop and deploy wide area surveillance systems. The ease with which these systems can be installed in private and public spaces (e.g., homes, streets and parks) allow for the creation of ubiquitous monitored environments. Rapid intervention responses to any abnormal situation or the use of recorded video as evidence are some advantages of the use of this type of surveillance systems. Although ubiquitous video surveillance systems are relevant for present modern societies, their cost is still high. To solve or, at least to mitigate this problem, a low-cost smart surveillance system was developed, which is presented and described in this paper. The developed surveillance system, based on available low-cost technology, can help keep critical spaces under surveillance 24/7. The proposed solution was found to have a minimal cost, a low bandwidth, and to be scalable and adaptable to every client’s needs. Thus, the solution can be used by anybody (private and public) and applied in different contexts (e.g., residential, industrial). The system can provide still images, captured from surveillance video cameras, real time video and real time video processing, which can be used for motion detection. When this happens, the user is warned via an e-mail containing the identification of the respective surveillance camera. Only the relevant video events are sent, recorded and maintained in the cloud platform system, consequently reducing the amount of storage space required to maintain all the historical video events. The results of the tests carried out show that it is possible to stream a video from the surveillance cameras with an insignificant delay and that motion detection can be attained through real time video processing. The system presented potentiates a low-cost solution for a smart city in the surveillance field. © Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature 2018.

Abstract
A flexible control of the distribution system is an efficient strategy to enhance the grid reliability and quality of service, in this sense, the maneuver devices play an important role to reach flexibility under network faults. In this direction, the present work proposes a new approach to solve the allocation problem of optimal maneuver devices in electric distribution systems (EDS) that considers both permanent and temporary faults. The considered maneuver devices are normally closed switches coupled to the beginning or to the end of distribution branches. The objective is to improve the system reliability with minimal investment cost. The metaheuristic and bio-inspired technique known as artificial immune system (AIS) is applied to handle the discrete feature of the switch allocation problem. The index considered to evaluate the reliability is the system expected outage cost to customers due to supply outages (ECOST). The paper includes a case study with four different simulations using the well-know RBTS Bus 4 test system The obtained results were compared to the literature ones and proved that the proposed approach can lead to promising solutions that establish a suitable trade-off between the reliability and the utility costs. © 2018 Power Systems Computation Conference.