Abstract
This paper presents a study of a uniform dry sand compacted by the pluviation method and submitted to different isotropic and anisotropic stress paths. The stress states were performed in two distinct triaxial cells using specimens of 100 mm and 150 mm diameter in order to assess also the scale-effects. The small strain stiffness for each stress state was evaluated in both triaxial cells by bender elements which were assembled vertically and horizontally for the comparison of the shear wave velocity in the two directions. In the specimens of 100mm, additionally to the bender elements in the vertical direction, accelerometers were used for the improvement of the results accuracy. All tests results were analysed in order to assess the initial fabric (inherent) anisotropy and the induced anisotropy by the different anisotropic stress paths.

Abstract
This paper intends to propose a platform dedicated to a community for inclusive fashion. This platform can innovate in the awareness creation process by involving a wide range of stakeholders through a novel combination of visually-centered networking/collaboration together with a powerful recommendation system based on data analytics. This solution can potentially impact positively the well-being of more than 50 million of motor/physical disabled citizens as consumers of fashion products. This can be achieved by bringing together three different networks: (i) fashion consumers, emphasizing consumers with disabilities; (ii) companies from fashion/garment/footwear industry; (iii) social and research organizations supporting disabled people. This will allow to create individual and collective awareness about sustainability at the social level demanding the engagement of groups of citizens and industries in sharing information and knowledge and developing ideas and solutions for people with disabilities facing problems related to fashion, garment and footwear products and services.

Abstract
In this paper, a reversible multilevel nine-leg converter for three-phase applications is investigated. This topology can be applied in line voltage regulators, power factor correction devices, and uninterrupted power supplies. It is composed of three single-phase three-leg converters with a leg shared by both load and grid sides. Suitable modeling, a pulse-width modulation (PWM) strategy based on a vector approach, and a control system are developed. The proposed PWM and control strategies are suitable to balance the dc-link voltages and to optimize the harmonic distortion, reducing switching stress and power losses. The investigated configuration is compared with two conventional topologies, including a neutral-point-clamped converter and has demonstrated that it presents some advantages in terms of voltage rating of the power switches, harmonic distortion, and semiconductor losses. Computer simulations and experimental results have been carried in the same operation conditions to verify the validity of theoretical considerations.

Abstract
HARMONI is a visible and near-infrared integral field spectrograph designed to be a first-light instrument on the European extremely large telescope. It will use both single-conjugate and laser tomographic adaptive optics to fully exploit high-performance and sky coverage. Using a fast AO modelling toolbox, we simulate anisoplanatism effects on the point spread function of the single-conjugate adaptive optics of HARMONI. We investigate the degradation of the correction performance with respect to the off-Axis distance in terms of Strehl ratio and ensquared energy. In addition, we analyse what impact the natural guide source magnitude, AO sampling frequency and number of sub-Apertures have on performance. We show, in addition to the expected PSF degradation with the field direction, that the PSF retains a coherent core even at large off-Axis distances. We demonstrated the large performance improvement of fine tuning the sampling frequency for dimer natural guide stars and an improvement of approx. 50% in SR can be reached above the nominal case. We show that using a smaller AO system with only 20x20 sub-Apertures it is possible to further increase performance and maintain equivalent performance even for large off-Axis angles.

Abstract
Despite the recent popularity achieved by the modern X-band SAR sensors, mainly due to their high spatial resolutions which enable the detection of deformation components impossible so far, such as thermal expansion, SAR C-band sensors continue to be of great utility and with a great future in the deformation monitoring field, namely for critical structure monitoring, such as dams. The new ESA missions (Sentinel-1A and 1B) and the extension of the Canadian Radarsat mission corroborate this finding. In this paper the possibility of using spacebome SAR sensors for dam monitoring is addressed in terms of feasibility and applications. The presented results show the potential of C-band sensors for the particular case of dam monitoring and can be handful to recognize the applicability of new Sentinel-1 data (since 2014) for continuous monitoring of dam deformations. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

Abstract
In this paper a cone tapered surface plasmon resonance (SPR) based chemical fiber sensor is fabricated and demonstrated for the detection of low water content in ethanol. Here the 11nm thickness of Aluminum (Al) is used to coat tip of probe to generate Plasmon wave. The output power has been found to increase linearly with water content in the range 1-10% due to the increase in refractive index (RI) of ethanolabove which, as the percentage of water increases in step of 20% it shows abrupt decrease in RI hence decrease in the output power. The compact size of sensor and its low cost fabrication makes it useful for many applications in the field of chemical and biochemical sensing. © 2016 Author(s).