bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
A Truthful Two-Stage Mechanism for Eliciting Probabilistic Estimates with Unknown Costs
Authors: Papakonstantinou Athanasios  , Rogers Alex  , Gerding Enrico H.  , Jennings Nicholas R.
Published: February 2025

This paper reports on the design of a novel two-stage mechanism, based on strictly proper scoring rules, that motivates selfish rational agents to make a costly probabilistic estimate or forecast of a specified precision and report it truthfully to a centre. Our mechanism is applied in a setting where the centre is faced with multiple agents, and has no knowledge about their costs. Thus, in the first stage of the mechanism, the centre uses a reverse second price auction to allocate the estimation task to the agent who reveals the lowest cost. While, in the second stage, the centre issues a payment based on a strictly proper scoring rule. When taken together, the two stages motivate agents to reveal their true costs, and then to truthfully reveal their estimate. We prove that this mechanism is incentive compatible and individually rational, and then present empirical results comparing the performance of the well known quadratic, spherical and logarithmic scoring rules. We show that the quadratic and the logarithmic rules result in the centre making the highest and the lowest expected payment to agents respectively. At the same time, however, the payments of the latter rule are unbounded, and thus the spherical rule proves to be the best candidate in this setting.
Adaptive play in Texas Hold'em Poker
Authors: Maîtrepierre Raphaël  , Mary Jérémie  , Munos Rémi
Published: February 2025

We present a Texas Hold'em poker player for limit headsup games. Our bot is designed to adapt automatically to the strategy of the opponent and is not based on Nash equilibrium computation. The main idea is to design a bot that builds beliefs on his opponent's hand. A forest of game trees is generated according to those beliefs and the solutions of the trees are combined to make the best decision. The beliefs are updated during the game according to several methods, each of which corresponding to a basic strategy. We then use an exploration-exploitation bandit algorithm, namely the UCB (Upper Confidence Bound), to select a strategy to follow. This results in a global play that takes into account the opponent's strategy, and which turns out to be rather unpredictable. Indeed, if a given strategy is exploited by an opponent, the UCB algorithm will detect it using change point detection, and will choose another one.
Definability in Logic and Rough Set Theory
Authors: Fan Tuan-Fang  , Liau Churn-Jung  , Liu Duen-Ren
Published: February 2025

Rough set theory is an effective tool for data mining. According to the theory, a concept is definable if it can be written as a Boolean combination of equivalence classes induced from classification attributes. On the other hand, definability in logic has been explicated by Beth's theorem. In this paper, we propose two data representation formalisms, called first-order data logic (FODL) and attribute value-sorted logic (AVSL), respectively. Based on these logics, we explore the relationship between logical definability and rough set definability.
How Many Objects?: Determining the Number of Clusters with a Skewed Distribution
Authors: Oyama Satoshi  , Tanaka Katsumi
Published: February 2025

We propose a supervised approach to enable accurate determination of the number of clusters in object identification. We use the aggregated attribute values of the data set to be clustered as explanatory variables in the prediction model. Attribute aggregation can be done in linear time with respect to the number of data items, so our method can be used to predict the number of clusters with a low computational burden. To deal with skewed target values, we introduce a two-stage method as well as a method using a higher-order combination of explanatory variables. Experiments demonstrate our methods enable more accurate prediction than existing methods.
Description Logic Rules
Authors: Krötzsch Markus  , Rudolph Sebastian  , Hitzler Pascal
Published: February 2025

We introduce description logic (DL) rules as a new rule-based formalism for knowledge representation in DLs. As a fragment of the Semantic Web Rule Language SWRL, DL rules allow for a tight integration with DL knowledge bases. In contrast to SWRL, however, the combination of DL rules with expressive description logics remains decidable, and we show that the DL 𝒮ℛ𝒪ℐ𝒬 – the basis for the ongoing standardisation of OWL 2 – can completely internalise DL rules. On the other hand, DL rules capture many expressive features of 𝒮ℛ𝒪ℐ𝒬 that are not available in simpler DLs yet. While reasoning in 𝒮ℛ𝒪ℐ𝒬 is highly intractable, it turns out that DL rules can be introduced to various lightweight DLs without increasing their worst-case complexity. In particular, DL rules enable us to significantly extend the tractable DLs ℰℒ++and DLP.
Integrating a Domain Ontology Development Environment and an Ontology Search Engine
Authors: Morita Takeshi  , Izumi Noriaki  , Yamaguchi Takahira
Published: February 2025

In order to reduce the cost of building domain ontologies manually, in this paper, we propose a method and a tool named DODDLE-OWL for domain ontology construction reusing texts and existing ontologies extracted by an ontology search engine: Swoogle. In the experimental evaluation, we applied the method to a particular field of law and evaluated the acquired ontologies.
Knowledge Engineering for Affective Bi-Modal Interaction in Mobile Devices
Authors: Alepis Efthymios  , Virvou Maria  , Kabassi Katerina
Published: February 2025

This paper focuses on knowledge engineering for the development of a system that provides affective interaction in mobile devices. The system bases its inferences about users' emotions on user input evidence from the keyboard and the microphone of the mobile device. For this purpose different experimental studies have been conducted with the participation of mobile users and human experts. The experiments' aim was twofold. They aimed at revealing the criteria that are taken into account in each mode for emotion recognition as well as their weight of importance. The results of the studies are further used for the application of a multi-criteria decision making model.
Mining Combinatorial Effects on Quantitative Traits from Protein Expression Data
Authors: Yoshihiro Takuya  , Inoue Etsuko  , Nakagawa Masaru
Published: February 2025

In this paper we proposed a data mining method to find interesting relation among the small number of proteins and a quantitative trait from protein expression data. It is practically important to find small number of proteins which in combination effects on some characteristics of samples because it motivates further experiments to investigate the function of the proteins. Further, treating quantitative trait rather than categorical data is also practically important since considerable part of characteristics of samples is represented by quantitative values. Our data mining method apply discriminant analysis into protein expression data and quantitative trait data to derive interesting relations among them.
Mining of Protein Subcellular Localizations based on a Syntactic Dependency Tree and WordNet
Authors: Kim Mi-Young
Published: February 2025

Detection of protein subcellular localization is essential in information extraction from biomolecular texts. There has been a great deal of research on text mining to detect protein subcellular localization information in documents. Previous researches have insisted that linguistic information is useful for identifying the subcellular localizations of proteins. However, previous systems for detecting protein subcellular localizations have used only shallow syntactic parsers, and showed poor recall. Thus, there remains a need to use a deep level of linguistic knowledge to the analysis of text. To improve performance in detecting protein subcellular localization information, this paper proposes a method based on a syntactic dependency tree and WordNet. From the syntactic dependency tree, we construct syntactic paths from a protein to its location candidate. Then, we retrieve syntactic and semantic information from the root, protein subtree and location subtree of each syntactic path. We extract syntactic category and syntactic direction as syntactic information, and synset offset of the WordNet thesaurus as semantic information. According to the information, we extract (protein, localization) pairs. Even with no biomolecular knowledge, our method shows reasonable performance in experiments using Medline abstract data. The experimental results show that our method outperforms previous methods, and the obtained syntactic and semantic information contributes to the improvement of the performance.
Translation Accuracy Influence on the Retrieval Results
Authors: Mizera-Pietraszko Jolanta  , Zgrzywa Aleksander
Published: February 2025

This report presents a novel methodology in evaluating performance of the popular on-line multilingual search engine AltaVista. We study some crucial aspects of natural language that usually disrupt translation process and the extend to which it influences retrieval results. Having prepared the test set, we analyze phenomena of an English and French language pair in relation to the strategy of browsing the Web for documents with the features specified in the query. Using Natural Language Processing techniques, we test a Machine Translation system performance in order to improve the translation quality, which in turn has an impact on the results of information retrieval in a language other than the query language.
Notes on the Unfinished Modern Monument: Clorindo Testa's Civic Center in Santa Rosa, La Pampa
Authors: Cabral Cláudia Costa
Published: February 2025

The Modern Ensemble; La Pampa Interrota; The Unfinished Condition; Notes
Plymouth: City of the Welfare State in the 21st Century
Authors: Gould Jeremy
Published: February 2025

Delivering the Vision; The Completion of the Plan – Alteration and Decline; The Future of the Plan; References
Securing Ornamental Design in Modern Havana Heritage: Architectural High Rise Building
Authors: Gayoso Blanco Regino
Published: February 2025

Introduction; Case Studies; Ornamentation Design Using Portland Cement; Experimental Mortar; Chemical and Polymers Admixtures; Discussion of Results; Ceramic Veneer Ornamental Design; Discussion of Results; Conclusions; References
Visualization
Authors: Goldschmidt G.
Published: February 2025

The different modes of visualisation found in the Delft Interviews are explored with respect to their particular advantages at specific phases of the design process, and as a means of communicating with various project stakeholders. Two main conclusions arise from this exploration. First, that with few exceptions there are no significant differences between architects and industrial designers in the way they produce and use visuals. Second, despite the proliferation of potent digital visualisation means and their willing adaptation by design practitioners, freehand sketching continues to be practised by almost all designers throughout the design process. The extraordinary cognitive advantages of sketching are outlined and it is argued that because of those advantages sketching will continue to reign in design until other means of visualisation will be capable of emulating its supremacy.
Modular Argumentation For Modelling Legal Doctrines in Common Law of Contract
Authors: Dung Phan Minh  , Thang Phan Minh
Published: February 2025

To create a programming environment in which autonomous agents could be built to resolve contract disputes, we propose an extension of assumption-based argumentation (ABA) into modular assumption-based argumentation (MABA) in which different modules of argumentation representing different knowledge bases for reasoning about beliefs and facts and for representation and reasoning with the legal doctrines could be built and assembled together. A distinct novel feature of modular argumentation in compare with other modular logic-based systems like Prolog is that it allows references to different semantics in the same module at the same time, a feature critically important for application of argumentation in legal domains like contract dispute resolution where the outcomes of court cases often depend on whether credulous or skeptical modes of reasoning were applied by the contract parties. We apply the new framework to model the doctrines of contract breach and mutual mistake.
Did He Jump or Was He Pushed? Abductive Practical Reasoning
Authors: Bex Floris  , Bench-Capon Trevor  , Atkinson Katie
Published: February 2025

In this paper we present an approach to abductive reasoning in law by examining it in the context of an argumentation scheme for practical reasoning. We present a particular scheme, based on an established scheme for practical reasoning, that can be used to reason abductively about how an agent might have acted to reach a particular scenario, and the motivations for doing so. Plausibility here depends on a satisfactory explanation of why this particular agent followed these motivations in the particular situation. The scheme is given a formal grounding in terms of Action-based Alternating Transition Systems and we illustrate the approach with a running legal example.
Automatic Classification of Sentences in Dutch Laws
Authors: de Maat Emile  , Winkels Radboud
Published: February 2025

The work described here builds on [1], where we presented a categorisation of norms or provisions in legislation. We claimed that the categories are characterized by the use of typical sentence structures and that this would enable automatic detection and classification. In this paper we present the results of experiments in such automatic classification of provisions. We have defined fourteen different categories of provisions, and compiled a list of 81 sentence structures for those categories from twenty Dutch laws. Based on these structures, a parser was used to classify the sentences in fifteen different Dutch laws, classifying 94% of 476 sentences correctly. It compares well with other, statistical approaches. An important improvement of our classifier will be the distinction of principal and auxiliary sentences.
Multi-Agent Knowledge Modelling
Authors: Duží Marie  , Heimbürger Anneli  , Tokuda Takehiro  , Vojtáš Peter  , Yoshida Naofumi
Published: February 2025

This paper contains five contributions of the participants of the panel discussion on “Multi-agent Knowledge Modelling” in the EJC 2008 conference. We addressed four main topics: (a) Semantic Web technologies, (b) reality vs. agents, (c) cross-cultural knowledge and (d) communication of agents. Each of the discussants presented his/her view of the addressed problem. Some views were rather pessimistic, other optimistic or realistic, but all of them posed questions and raised open problems as well as solution proposals. Thus this paper is a contribution to the topic of multi-agent knowledge modelling from different points of view.
Random projections preserving the Hamming distance between words
Authors: Arca Stefano  , Bertoni Alberto  , Lipori Giuseppe
Published: February 2025

Random projections in the Euclidean space reduce the dimensionality of the data approximately preserving the distances between points. In the hypercube it holds a weaker property: random projections approximately preserve the distances within a certain range.
Historic land cover changes at Natura 2000 sites and their associated landspaces across Europe
Authors: Mücher C.A.  , Hazeu G.W.  , Swetnam R.  , Gerard F.  , Luque S.  , Pino J.  , Halada L.
Published: February 2025

In order to test the potential efficiency of the Natura 2000 network in protecting habitats and landscapes from land use changes that have a significant impact on biodiversity, an analysis of land use changes over the last fifty years was undertaken for 71 protected sites across Europe. The analysis showed that designation of sites limits the amount of dramatic land cover changes. Unfortunately, the speed of land cover changes outside protected sites does not slow down and causes increased isolation of protected sites and fragmentation of remaining habitats within the wide diversity of European landscapes. Therefore, the landscapes in which the remaining habitats are embedded should receive more attention for conservation strategies. This paper focuses firstly on a very detailed level (scale 1:20.000) on land cover changes at protected sites over the last fifty years, and secondly it focuses on a more regional scale (scale 1:100.000) at land cover changes within the European landscapes over the last 10 years. The impacts of the land cover changes on biodiversity are very site-specific and depends on the habitat types occurring with the specific landscape type and what the range of the specific habitat is.
Application of remote sensing to heritage conservation: a case study in central Portugal
Authors: Gonçalves L.M.S.  , Fonte C.C.  , Júlio E.N.B.S.  , Caetano M.
Published: February 2025

The aim of this work is to evaluate the applicability of Very High Spatial Resolution (VHSR) images to heritage conservation, by using multi-spectral images with different resolutions to extract information concerning the state of conservation of building roofs. To this end, a hybrid classification method was developed that incorporates uncertainty information in the automatic classification of VHSR images. The developed classification methodology includes the following steps: 1) a soft pixel-based classification; 2) computation of the classification uncertainty; and 3) buildings classification based on decision rules which include the results of the soft pixel-based classification and its uncertainty.
Assessment of unsupervised classification techniques for intertidal sediments
Authors: Ibrahim E.  , Adam S.  , Monbaliu J.
Published: February 2025

The aim of this study is to explore three techniques for unsupervised classification of airborne hyperspectral imagery of intertidal flats. The unsupervised classification techniques considered are k-means (hard clustering), the Gustafson-Kessel algorithm (Fuzzy clustering), and the mixture of Gaussians model (probabilistic clustering). The behavior and suitability of these techniques is analyzed for sediment classification. Artificial data sets based on real airborne and field spectra are used for this purpose. The sensitivity of the techniques is investigated on two spectral aspects: the effect of within class (intra-class) variability and the effect of spectral dimensionality using feature selection. This sensitivity is expressed as classification accuracy in terms of the Kappa statistic (κ) that indicates how better the classification is than chance agreement. The results show that the three techniques are suitable for sediment classification. When there is no feature selection involved, the mixture of Gaussians results in the best classification results. When feature selection is considered, sediment classification accuracy increases for all three techniques applied on the artificial imagery.
Impact of topographic parameters on seismic amplification applying Geospatial tools
Authors: Shafique Muhammad  , van der Meijde Mark  , Kerle Norman  , van der Meer Freek
Published: February 2025

The impact of topography on the uneven distribution of seismic response is well observed synthetically, experimentally and visually during seismic events. Numerical and experimental investigations for predicting topographic effects on seismic shaking are limited to isolated and/or synthetic hills and ridges. Furthermore, most of these studies only focus on one of the many terrain parameters necessary for analyzing the impact of topographic features on amplification or de-amplification of seismic response. Seismic events located in rough terrain, like the Kashmir earthquake (2005) in the western Himalaya, exhibit intensified ground shaking and associated devastation at hill ridges and on inclined slopes. Regional seismic ground shaking maps developed through USGS-ShakeMap ignore this topographic impact. DEM derived topographic attributes and seismic event characteristics can be integrated, to predict the topographic seismic amplification.
Calibration of land use change models: the potential of spatial metrics
Authors: van der Kwast J.  , Engelen G.
Published: February 2025

Recently, spatial metrics have been introduced in the field of urban land use mapping and modelling to characterize the spatial dynamics of such systems. The question raised in this study is whether spatial metrics can be applied directly on remote sensing images to calibrate and validate dynamic land use models of urban systems. The underlying hypothesis is that a methodology can be developed which enables to calculate metrics on both the remote sensing image and the land use map which quantify the same distinguishing spatial structures at some level of abstraction. A positive answer to this question would simplify and speed up greatly the calibration procedures in so far that the development of time series of land use maps could be avoided. In this study, remote sensing derived land use patterns have been compared with a land use map at four different levels of abstraction: 1) a pixel-based comparison between the classi- fied image and the map, 2) comparison of landscape metrics calculated for each pixel by using a circular moving window, 3) comparison of landscape metrics for all urban classes individually, and 4) comparison of the aggregated urban classes. Results show that the agreement between the two maps depends on the level of abstraction at which they are compared and the spatial metric that has been used. The study concludes by presenting a concept of using landscape metrics in the calibration of urban land use change models.
Fire danger assessment using remote sensing and geographic information system Technologies
Authors: Chuvieco Emilio  , de la Riva Juan
Published: February 2025

Forest fires play a critical role in landscape transformationvegetation succession, soil degradation and air quality. Improvements in fire risk estimation are vital to reduce the negative impacts of fire. This paper defines a conceptual scheme for fire risk assessment, as well as methods for data generation based on remotely sensed and geographic information system techniques. It presents proposals for their integration into synthetic risk indices, and provides a first validation exercise on several study regions in Spain. All variables were mapped at 1 sq km spatial resolution, and were integrated into a web-mapping service system. This service was active in the summer of 2007 for semi-operational testing of end-users.
Detecting changes in mountainous terrain from time series of remote sensing data
Authors: Potůčková Markéta  , Štefanová Eva  , Kolář Jan  , Vilímek Vít
Published: February 2025

Processing of time series of imagery for the purpose of monitoring changes of terrain in mountainous area over a long period of time from archive aerial images as well as from very high resolution satellite images is discussed. The information eventually obtained can be beneficial to studies of some geomorphological phenomenas like land slides, avalanches or rock slumping. Although the remote sensing technology provides efficient tool for the purpose, the quality of data available is often far from the optimum forcing to look for methods modifying the standard procedure accordingly. In the presented paper an area nearby Huascaran Mt. in Peru is taken as an example. The data available for the processing include aerial images from the years 1967 and 1970 and a QuickBird satellite image from 2003.
Novel vector-based preprocessing of MODIS data
Authors: Kristof Daniel  , Pataki Robert
Published: February 2025

The Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) instruments onboard NASA's Terra and Aqua satellites provide continuous observations and have been increasingly used in different disciplines since 1999. A whole suite of derived products is also produced in a systematic manner. However, these data have some intrinsic characteristics that make their processing a delicate issue when used on pixel- or subpixel-scale studies. Due to the wide field of view, the actual ground pixel size changes continuously off-nadir both in along-track and along-scan directions. All kinds of resampling carried out due to the fixed cell size implemented in the raster data model inevitably result in artifacts in the data. The MODIS gridding process also has a large influence. As a result, the average overlap between grid cells and “real” observations is less than 30%. Therefore, the accuracy of current MODIS data at its original resolution is not sufficient for carrying out pixel- or subpixel-level studies such as spectral unmixing or pixel-level change detection. Spatial or temporal aggregation is widely used to cope with these issues, but may lead to a considerable loss of information.
Analysis of persistent trends in vegetation activity in Mediterranean areas affected by land degradation phenomena
Authors: Lanfredi M.  , Simoniello T.  , Liberti M.  , Coppola R.  , Macchiato M.
Published: February 2025

The characterization of vegetation cover dynamics plays an important role for both land degradation and climate change studies. In such a context AVHRR/NDVI time series provide a powerful tool for improving knowledge on processes involving vegetation and consequently for supporting restoration policies.
Above the Clouds: From Grids to Service-oriented Operating Systems
Authors: Schubert Lutz  , Kipp Alexander  , Wesner Stefan
Published: February 2025

Over recent years, resource provisioning over the Internet has moved from Grid to Cloud computing. Whilst the capabilities and the ease of use have increased, uptake is still comparatively slow, in particular in the commercial context. This paper discusses a novel resource provisioning concept called Service-oriented Operating Systems and how it differs from existing approaches of Grids and Clouds. The proposed approach aims for making applications and computers more independent of the underlying hardware and increase mobility and performance. The base architecture and functionality will be detailed in this paper, as well as how such operating systems could be deployed in future workspaces.
Control of Resources in Pan-European Testbed Federation
Authors: Gavras Anastasius  , Hrasnica Halid  , Wahle Sebastian  , Lozano David  , Mischler Denis  , Denazis Spyros
Published: February 2025

The Pan-European laboratory – Panlab – is based on federation of distributed testbeds that are interconnected, providing access to required platforms, networks and services for broad interoperability testing and enabling the trial and evaluation of service concepts, technologies, system solutions and business models. In this context a testbed federation is the interconnection of two or more independent testbeds for the temporary creation of a richer environment for testing and experimentation, and for the increased multilateral benefit of the users of the individual independent testbeds. The technical infrastructure that supports the federation is based on a web service interface through which available testing resources can be queried, provisioned and controlled. Descriptions of the available resources are stored in a repository, and a processing engine is able to identify, locate and provision the requested testing infrastructure, based on the testing users' requirements, in order to dynamically create the required testing environment. The concept is implemented using a gateway approach at the border of each federated testbed. Each testbed is an independent administrative domain and implements a reference point specification in its gateway.
Nanotechnology and the Global South: Exploratory Views on Characteristics, Perceptions and Paradigms
Authors: MacLurcan Donald C.
Published: February 2025

In the Global North, confusion, hype and disagreement plague nanotechnology debates. In the meantime, the debate about the Global South's engagement with nanotechnology has forged ahead, assuming common understandings about what nanotechnology is and what it is not, as well as the general irrelevance of definitional debates. This despite evidence that nanotechnology is being presented in a conflicting manner in the literature, through mixed terminology and imagery, and that little has been documented about Southern understandings. Given the importance of understandings in the genetically-modified foods debate, the way nanotechnology is understood holds serious repercussions for the framing of its ethical, legal and social implications. This chapter reports on the perspectives of Thai and Australian key informants, from a broad range of fields. It seeks to explore and clarify how nanotechnology might be defined, perceived and framed in terms of the South. The results suggest that nanotechnology may be conceptualized in similar ways, focussing on near-term nanotechnology that is defined by a common set of characteristics. Yet, when it comes to the way these conceptualisations translate into applications, there may be large differences in nanotechnology's perceived scope, sophistication and complexity. This holds interesting ramifications for global nanotechnology discourse, particularly in terms of the assumed costs and infrastructure required to conduct nanotechnology research and development and the more general role the South will play in the global nanotechnology picture.
Intelligent Authoring of ‘Graph of Microworlds’ for Adaptive Learning with Microworlds based on Compositional Modeling
Authors: Horiguchi Tomoya  , Hirashima Tsukasa
Published: February 2025

In science education, in order to facilitate a student's conceptual understanding, it is important to sequence a set of microworlds (which means a system and its model limited from educational viewpoint) of various complexity adaptively to the context of learning. We previously proposed Graph of Microworlds (GMW), a framework for indexing a set of microworlds based on their models. With GMW, it is possible to adaptively select the microworld a student should learn next, and to assist him/her in transferring between microworlds. However, it isn't easy to describe GMW because, for model-based indexing, an author must have the expertise in the process of modeling. In this paper, we propose a method for semi-automating the description of GMW by introducing an automatic modeling mechanism: compositional modeling. Our method assists an author in generating a set of indexed microworlds and also in considering educational meanings of the relations between them. We present how to design such a function and also illustrate how it works. A preliminary test with a prototype system showed the effectiveness of our method.
Fostering engaged and directed learning by activity foregrounding and backgrounding
Authors: Howland Katy  , Du Boulay Benedict  , Good Judith
Published: February 2025

We propose a design model for guiding learning in exploratory environments through representational choices. Selecting the appropriate representations at the correct granularity can foreground the salient activities and background the irrelevant.. We demonstrate how this model can be applied via learner-centred design to ensure that the engaging factors of an environment are preserved whilst the learner is guided towards the development of specific skills.
Intelligent Support for Inquiry Learning from Images: A Learning Scenario and Tool
Authors: Mulholland Paul  , Zdrahal Zdenek  , Abrahamcik Jan  , Wolff Annika
Published: February 2025

Inquiry learning involves the learner acquiring new concepts and skills by means of carrying out an investigation. Some previous studies have looked into how these learning activities can be carried out on source materials, such as web documents, and the provision of appropriate scaffolding to guide the learning process. Here we consider how intelligent support can be provided to guide the learner in analysing source materials and building knowledge from their interpretation. An important feature of our case study is that the source materials are images, potentially having greater variation in how they are interpreted and therefore increasing the need for intelligent support. Intelligent support provided by our system can identify patterns and inconsistencies in the learner's interpretation and knowledge building, and offer recommendations based on comparison with a reference model. The recommendations derived from a reference model aim to guide the learner in reviewing and revising their interpretation of the images and the implications of these for their inferences, rather than directly providing a “right” or “wrong” evaluation of their answer.
The Impact of Off-task and Gaming Behaviors on Learning: Immediate or Aggregate?
Authors: Cocea Mihaela  , Hershkovitz Arnon  , Baker Ryan S.J.d.
Published: February 2025

Both gaming the system (taking advantage of the system's feedback and help to succeed in the tutor without learning the material) and being off-task (engaging in behavior that does not involve the system or the learning task) have been previously shown to be associated with poorer learning. In this paper we investigate two hypotheses about the mechanisms that lead to this reduced learning: (a) less learning within individual steps (immediate harmful impact) and (b) overall learning loss due to fewer opportunities to practice (aggregate harmful impact). We show that gaming tends to have immediate harmful impact while off-task tends to have aggregated harmful impact on learning.
Learners' exploratory behavior within MetaTutor
Authors: Witherspoon Amy  , Azevedo Roger  , Cai Zhiqiang
Published: February 2025

This study investigated the navigation patterns of 56 learners within a hypermedia learning environment, MetaTutor. Using K-Means cluster analysis, four types of navigational profiles were created. One cluster including participants who navigated primarily linearly through the learning environment, one showed high levels of non-linear progression, one included participants who opened the images very frequently, and the last cluster had a balance of all the navigational variables included in the analysis. Data from the learning measures used indicated that the balanced cluster and the cluster which opened the image frequently had the highest learning outcomes. Implications for the design of adaptive hypermedia learning systems are discussed.
Stiffness methods for compaction control: the P-FWD device
Authors: Conde M.C.  , Lopes M.G.  , Caldeira L.
Published: February 2025

Soil compaction is essential in the construction of highways, airports, buildings, bridges and dams. There is a current trend towards measuring the soil modulus instead the density. This approach is supported by the concept that the performance requirements (e.g., maximum soil strength, minimum permeability or minimum compressibility) may not correspond to the maximum soil dry density at its optimum water content.
Mathematical characterization of rate-dependent undrained shear behavior of soils
Authors: Juárez-Badillo E.
Published: February 2025

The general theoretical equations given by the principle of natural proportionality are applied to describe all the experimental data contained in the basic paper “Rate-Dependent Undrained Shear Behavior of Saturated Clay” by Sheahan, Ladd and Germaine. “The paper describes results from 25K0consolidated-undrained triaxial compression tests on resedimented Boston blue clay using a computer-automated triaxial apparatus with lubricated end platens and a midheight pore-pressure measurement device. Specimens were consolidated to four overconsolidation ratios (OCR=1,2,4 or 8), and for each OCR, undrained shear was performed using four axial strain rates (0.05%, 0.5%, 5% and 50%/h).”
Investigation of sediment environments in closed water body using RI-density Log
Authors: Umezaki T.  , Kawamura T.  , Yoshimura M.
Published: February 2025

A new technique using a radioisotope (RI) density log with gamma rays is proposed for investigation of sediment environments. A series of field investigations was carried out by penetrating an RI cone probe by its own weight from a small boat. Main conclusions are obtained as follows: The wet density of sediments comprising suspension, fluid mud, and bed mud can be measured with sufficient accuracy using an RI-density log. The lower limit of water, which is the sediment surface, is definable based on a pore water pressure distribution obtained from a cone penetration test.
Settlement predictions for coarse grained soils based on SPT results
Authors: Caputo V.
Published: February 2025

Burland and Burbidge (1984) collected, presented and back-analysed more than 200 hundred case histories of settlement of full scale structures founded on coarse grained soils and proposed an empirical procedure for settlement prediction.
Shaft Friction of Bored Piles in Sand
Authors: Akbar A.  , Khilji S.D.  , Khan S.B.  , Qureshi M.S.
Published: February 2025

The precise prediction of maximum load carrying capacity of bored piles is a complex problem because it is a function of a number of factors. These factors include method of boring, method of concreting, quality of concrete, expertise of the construction staff, the ground conditions etc. besides the pile geometry. The performance of pile load tests is, therefore, of paramount importance to establish the most economical design of piles especially where bored cast-in-situ piles are to be provided to support a structure.
Comparative analysis of different type of piles work in problematical soil ground of Astana (Kazakhstan)
Authors: Zhusupbekov A.  , Ashkey Y.  , Bazilov R.  , Enkebaev S.  , Lukpanov R.  , Bazarbaev D.  , Jousupbekov A.  , Seidmarova T.
Published: February 2025

In this article presented analysis of working different type of piles. Problematical inhomogeneous soil condition of Astana (Kazakhstan) gives us to possibility to consider the work of different type piles in various soil ground, and numerical analysis helps us to understand difficult soil-pile interaction.
Statistical Analysis of Geotechnical Parameters of Recycled Construction and Demolition Waste (RCDW)
Authors: Santos E.C.G.  , Vilar O.M.  , Assis A.P.
Published: February 2025

Construction and demolition waste has become a serious trouble to public administration authorities due to adoption of repeated, expensive and inefficient management solutions. These actions are generally supported by the feeling that construction and demolition wastes present a high variability in their compounds, thus being inappropriate to reuse. In considering a competent approach in engineering practice, the decisive factors for the use of recycled construction and demolition wastes are their properties as a construction material, and the fact that variability may only be assessed by the use of statistical tools. In this investigation the authors have carried out a laboratory testing program (characterization, Proctor compaction, pH and direct shear test) on RCDW sampled in different times in order to conduct statistical analyses of its chemical and geotechnical parameters. The results have shown that recycled construction and demolition waste has a low variation of its properties and high levels of confidence that justify its use in a range of geotechnical application.
Investigation of Pile Behaviour Using Embedded Piles
Authors: Engin H.K.  , Brinkgreve R.B.J.
Published: February 2025

The embedded pile model consisting of beam elements with non-linear skin and tip interfaces is developed in Plaxis 3D Foundation to describe the pile-soil interaction in an efficient manner. The interaction between the pile and the surrounding soil at the pile shaft is described by means of embedded interface elements. At the pile tip, the soil resistance against compression is represented by means of embedded non-linear spring elements. There is no need for mesh refinement around piles as 3D mesh is not distorted by introducing these elements which make embedded piles very efficient and time saving especially when a large group of piles is modelled. In this paper a description of the model is given with preliminary validation results for single piles in compression and also in tension. Performance of the model is investigated and validated for pile groups. Effectiveness of the model for bored piles is verified.
Large diameter casing piles, design, testing and monitoring
Authors: Brinkman J.  , van de Water J.G.  , de Jong E.
Published: February 2025

The railway extension project between three of the major Dutch cities, The Hague, Rotterdam and Utrecht, was commissioned by the Dutch railway authority Prorail in 2005. In the original client design all bridges had foundations that consisted of thick concrete slabs with a large number of driven prefab concrete piles as are commonly used in the Netherlands. Since the bridges themselves were supported by columns of 1,2 m diameter an alternative design was made using bored casing piles with a diameter of 1,65 m, one pile below each column. The piles should be capable of handling a design pile load of 12.000 kN, but should also have a vertical deformation less than 10 mm as a train passes by. Since bored piles normally have a rather feeble load-displacement behaviour, it was deemed necessary to equip the piles with a grouting device that was injected after hardening of the concreted piles.
Use of screw piles for floatation resistance
Authors: Hsi J.  , Zhang H.
Published: February 2025

Tugun Bypass Tunnel is part of the 7 km long Tugun Bypass connecting Southeast Queensland and Northeast New South Wales in Australia. The tunnel is under an extended section of the Gold Coast Airport runway and is built with diaphragm walls using the cut and cover method. The tunnel portals are joined with depressed ramps constructed with cast-in-situ U-shape reinforced concrete structures within the sheetpile-supported excavated areas. The site is underlain by alluvial and estuarine deposits up to 35m depth with the groundwater table close to the surface. Due to the high groundwater table, the ramps are constantly subjected to floatation. Steel screw piles with a single helix at the pile tip are used to resist the uplift force from floatation. The design of these screw piles requires the considerations of tensile capacity and long term displacement. A semi-empirical method was adopted for the calculation of the tensile capacity of the pile, which was then confirmed by full scale in-situ pull-out tests. Three-dimensional numerical modelling was undertaken to investigate the serviceability conditions of the ramp when it is subjected to floatation.
Surface roughness effects on the shaft resistance of piles in dry sand
Authors: Sadrekarimi J.  , Behpour Gouhari M.  , Roohimehr A.
Published: February 2025

In order to delineate effects of surface roughness on the unit shaft resistance, a research program comprising 25 loading tests was carried out on 44 mm diameter model piles, with different surface roughness, embedded in dry natural fine sand mass. In all tests the loading level was increased until the soil failed. The results obtained from this study indicate that pile surface roughness enhances the tendency of the sand to dilate during loading, which in turn increases the magnitude of the radial effective stress against the pile surface. Also, the results indicate that the pile shaft resistance increases due partially to the fact that the sand mass-sand paper interface friction angle increases as the sand paper roughness increases. However, it also depends on the rise of radial effective stress due to dilation of sand during loading.
Model tests on reinforcement effect of an anchorage work added to the existing anchored sheet pile wall
Authors: Morikawa Y.  , Kikuchi Y.
Published: February 2025

Flexible bulkheads, such as anchored sheet pile walls, are often employed as earth retaining structures for port facilities in Japan. In recent years, existing anchored sheet pile walls have required reinforcement for maintenance and functional enhancement for large ships. To meet these requirements, a reinforcement method called dual-anchored sheet pile wall, in which additional anchorage work is attached to the existing anchored sheet pile wall, has been developed. The additional anchorage work has the same role as braces of an earth retaining wall, and is installed after deformation of the existing anchored sheet pile wall. However, braces are placed before deformation of the earth retaining wall. Therefore, the loading histories of backfill of the dual-anchored sheet pile wall and the retaining wall are different. The additional anchorage work cannot be designed in the same manner as earth retaining wall braces. In this study, model tests of the dual-anchored sheet pile wall were conducted to understand its behaviours. This paper describes the effects of the additional anchorage work to reduce the load acting on the existing anchored sheet pile wall, such as the bending moment of the sheet pile.
Slope stability analysis using conventional methods and FEM
Authors: Totsev A.  , Jellev J.
Published: February 2025

The paper presents the results of the comparison between two different directions in slope stability analysis for a particular example and the way these results can affect various parameters. Different methods were used to establish the slope stability of a 56.00 meter high slope. The calculations of the safety factor were made using the conventional methods of Bishop, Fellenius and Bell. The results of applying these conventional methods were compared with the calculations performed by the FEM analysis using shear resistance reduction (ϕ, c – reduction). The comparison, analysis and assessment of the results obtained when applying different methods for solving the same problem is an important factor in designing buildings on steep slopes.