Search results for "Simplicity"
showing 10 items of 47 documents
An improved photographic method to estimate the shading effect of obstructions
2012
Abstract A new photographic method is presented to evaluate the shading effects of obstructions on surfaces exposed to the sun. The method overcomes the difficulties caused by the need to accurately describe the surrounding objects to estimate the shading effects by means of the usual tools that use the spatial reconstruction of obstructions or cylindrical or polar suncharts. The photographs of the surrounding objects are used as the background on which the solar disc is depicted at the various hours of the day. In this way it is easily detectable if the sun is visible from the place where the photographs were taken or if the surrounding obstructions obscure the sun. In spite of the complex…
A photographic method to estimate the shading effect of obstructions
2012
Abstract A new, simplified photographic method is proposed to estimate the shading effects of obstructions. In spite of the complex mathematical background of the new tool, its practical application is very simple, and only requires the measurements of three angles for each photograph. The proposed method is particularly useful for overcoming the difficulties caused by the need to accurately describe surrounding objects to estimate shading effects. The new method uses the information contained in a picture and allows one to draw daily solar paths directly on the photograph. The procedure is useful to verify the suitability of a generic site for solar exploitation; its main benefit is the si…
Smart Assistance for Students and People Living in a Campus
2019
Being part of one of the fastest growing area in Artificial Intelligence (AI), virtual assistants are nowadays part of everyone's life being integrated in almost every smart device. Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana are just few examples of the most famous ones. Beyond these off-the-shelf solutions, different technologies which allow to create custom assistants are available. IBM Watson, for instance, is one of the most widely-adopted question-answering framework both because of its simplicity and accessibility through public APIs. In this work, we present a virtual assistant that exploits the Watson technology to support students and staff of a smart campus at the University of Pa…
Review of Agent-Based Models of Social Conflict and Civil Violence
2017
This chapter contains a review of the state of the art on agent-based models for simulation of large-scale social conflict and violence. It is structured in four parts. The first contains a summary of general definitions and concepts. The second contains the presentation and discussion of Epstein’s agent-based model, which is a landmark model of civil and ethnic violence due to its simplicity, soundness, and explanatory power. The third part contains a review of extensions of Epstein’s model that have been proposed by several authors. The chapter ends with some remarks on the limitations of existing ABM and on possibilities for their improvement.
Shaded-Mask Filtering for Extended Depth-of-Field Microscopy
2013
This paper proposes a new spatial filtering approach for increasing the depth-of-field (DOF) of imaging systems, which is very useful for obtaining sharp images for a wide range of axial positions of the object. Many different techniques have been reported to increase the depth of field. However the main advantage in our method is its simplicity, since we propose the use of purely absorbing beam-shaping elements, which allows a high focal depth with a minimum modification of the optical architecture. In the filter design, we have used the analogy between the axial behavior of a system with spherical aberration and the transverse impulse response of a 1D defocused system. This allowed us the…
Updating input–output matrices: assessing alternatives through simulation
2009
A problem that frequently arises in economics, demography, statistics, transportation planning and stochastic modelling is how to adjust the entries of a matrix to fulfil row and column aggregation constraints. Biproportional methods in general and the so-called RAS algorithm in particular, have been used for decades to find solutions to this type of problem. Although alternatives exist, the RAS algorithm and its extensions are still the most popular. Apart from some interesting empirical and theoretical properties, tradition, simplicity and very low computational costs are among the reasons behind the great success of RAS. Nowadays computer hardware and software have made alternative proce…
From the kinetic theory of active particles to the modeling of social behaviors and politics
2007
This paper deals with the modeling of complex social systems by methods of the mathematical kinetic theory for active particles. Specifically, a recent model by the last two authors is analyzed from the social sciences point of view. The model shows, despite its simplicity, some interesting features. In particular, this paper investigates the ability of the model to describe how a social politics and the disposable overall wealth may have a relevant influence towards the trend of the wealth distribution. The paper also outlines various research perspectives.
Selfish vs. Unselfish Optimization of Network Creation
2005
We investigate several variants of a network creation model: a group of agents builds up a network between them while trying to keep the costs of this network small. The cost function consists of two addends, namely (i) a constant amount for each edge an agent buys and (ii) the minimum number of hops it takes sending messages to other agents. Despite the simplicity of this model, various complex network structures emerge depending on the weight between the two addends of the cost function and on the selfish or unselfish behaviour of the agents.
Analysis of Chromatin Structure and Composition
1989
Introduction Biochemistry, like many other sciences, is currently undergoing increasing specialization which is thought to be unavoidable because of the rapid progress within this field. Obviously education in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology is also affected. Consequently, the student may lose the ability to integrate his knowledge, which should be a requirement during the training of a scientist. The solution to this problem is quite easy in the case of theoretical courses because, here, the lecturer may include several 'integrative lessons' which give a global view of previously explained facts and place them within the general context of the course. However, in practical courses it is…
Graphical and Analytical Quantitative Comparison in the Domes Assessment: The Case of San Francesco di Paola
2021
(1) Methods for checking the condition of monumental masonry structures can still be considered understudied. Among the different approaches available in the literature, the graphical ones have a special role, due to their simplicity and effectiveness. (2) In this work, a 2D method (Thrust Line Analysis (TLA)), the Modified Thrust Line Method (MTLM), and the 3D Membrane Equilibrium Analysis (MEA) method are compared. All methods have the same starting concept: no tensile strength, no sliding between the stone blocks, infinite compressive strength. (3) The methods are compared in terms of stress distribution (for the same—or similar—thrust line), and in terms of the Geometrical Safety Factor…