SIG aplicado na identificação de áreas potenciais aos investimentos habitacionais Estudo de caso: porção oeste do Município do Rio de Janeiro.

A expansão industrial e o desenvolvimento territorial na porção oeste do Município do Rio de Janeiro trazem inúmeras modificações no cenário socioeconômico da região e adjacências. O destaque de investimentos na indústria de transformação é a implantação da Companhia Siderúrgica do Atlântico (CSA), que se mostra como o maior empreendimento privado em realização no país. Investimentos públicos e privados no setor de infraestrutura estão previstos, considerando as características naturais e a localização geográfica privilegiada da região. A influência do porto de Itaguaí e a construção do Arco Metropolitano configuram um corredor de desenvolvimento com reflexos positivos logísticos e socioeconômicos, não só para o estado do Rio de Janeiro, mas também para outros estados brasileiros. Os impactos da reordenação do espaço urbano, com a possibilidade de incremento populacional nas proximidades do novo eixo rodoviário e industrial, tende a gerar um aumento da demanda por serviços no setor terciário. Dessa forma, o planejamento territorial se faz obrigatório, apoiado por geotecnologias. O objetivo da pesquisa foi atender às necessidades do setor habitacional, analisando fatores relevantes e condições favoráveis à implantação de novas construções habitacionais. Baseando-se em dados provenientes do censo do IBGE de 2010 e do Instituto de Urbanismo Pereira Passos (IPP), a Tecnologia da Informação integrada com os dados de mapas digitais e imagens de satélite de alta resolução (World View-2), permitiram uma análise geral do contexto do crescimento regional. Além da análise das variáveis existentes nos dados socioeconômicos, outras variáveis de pesquisa foram empregadas em ambiente SIG, tais como: segurança, proximidades de logradouros principais, existências de escolas e hospitais municipais e estaduais, distância dos centros industriais e de shopping. Após as análises multicriteriais de dados socioeconômicos e bases cartográficas, relatórios na forma de mapas foram emitidos, com a finalidade de orientar o poder público e as construtoras nas tomadas de decisões.

National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science Coastal Ecosystem Assessment Program: a manual of methods

Environmental managers strive to preserve natural resources for future generations but have limited decision-making tools to define ecosystem health. Many programs offer relevant broad-scale, environmental policy information on regional ecosystem health. These programs provide evidence of environmental condition and change, but lack connections between local impacts and direct effects on living resources. To address this need, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration/National Ocean Service (NOAA/NOS) Cooperative Oxford Laboratory (COL), in cooperation with federal, state, and academic partners, implemented an integrated biotic ecosystem assessment on a sub-watershed 14-digit Hydrologic Unit Code (HUD) scale in Chesapeake Bay. The goals of this effort were to 1) establish a suite of bioindicators that are sensitive to ecosystem change, 2) establish the effects of varying land-use patterns on water quality and the subsequent health of living resources, 3) communicate these findings to local decision-makers, and 4) evaluate the success of management decisions in these systems. To establish indicators, three sub-watersheds were chosen based on statistical analysis of land-use patterns to represent a gradient from developed to agricultural. The Magothy (developed), Corsica (agricultural), and Rhode (reference) Rivers were identified. A random stratified design was developed based on depth (2m contour) and river mile. Sampling approaches were coordinated within this structure to allow for robust system comparisons. The sampling approach was hierarchal, with metrics chosen to represent a range from community to cellular level responses across multiple organisms. This approach allowed for the identification of sub-lethal stressors, and assessment of their impact on the organism and subsequently the population. Fish, crabs, clams, oysters, benthic organisms, and bacteria were targeted, as each occupies a separate ecological niche and may respond dissimilarly to environmental stressors. Particular attention was focused on the use of pathobiology as a tool for assessing environmental condition. By integrating the biotic component with water quality, sediment indices, and land- use information, this holistic evaluation of ecosystem health will provide management entities with information needed to inform local decision-making processes and establish benchmarks for future restoration efforts.

National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) research highlights in the Chesapeake Bay

The Chesapeake Bay is the largest estuary in the United States. It is a unique and valuable national treasure because of its ecological, recreational, economic and cultural benefits. The problems facing the Bay are well known and extensively documented, and are largely related to human uses of the watershed and resources within the Bay. Over the past several decades as the origins of the Chesapeake’s problems became clear, citizens groups and Federal, State, and local governments have entered into agreements and worked together to restore the Bay’s productivity and ecological health. In May 2010, President Barack Obama signed Executive Order number 13508 that tasked a team of Federal agencies to develop a way forward in the protection and restoration of the Chesapeake watershed. Success of both State and Federal efforts will depend on having relevant, sound information regarding the ecology and function of the system as the basis of management and decision making. In response to the executive order, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS) has compiled an overview of its research in Chesapeake Bay watershed. NCCOS has a long history of Chesapeake Bay research, investigating the causes and consequences of changes throughout the watershed’s ecosystems. This document presents a cross section of research results that have advanced the understanding of the structure and function of the Chesapeake and enabled the accurate and timely prediction of events with the potential to impact both human communities and ecosystems. There are three main focus areas: changes in land use patterns in the watershed and the related impacts on contaminant and pathogen distribution and concentrations; nutrient inputs and algal bloom events; and habitat use and life history patterns of species in the watershed. Land use changes in the Chesapeake Bay watershed have dramatically changed how the system functions. A comparison of several subsystems within the Bay drainages has shown that water quality is directly related to land use and how the land use affects ecosystem health of the rivers and streams that enter the Chesapeake Bay. Across the Chesapeake as a whole, the rivers that drain developed areas, such as the Potomac and James rivers, tend to have much more highly contaminated sediments than does the mainstem of the Bay itself. In addition to what might be considered traditional contaminants, such as hydrocarbons, new contaminants are appearing in measurable amounts. At fourteen sites studied in the Bay, thirteen different pharmaceuticals were detected. The impact of pharmaceuticals on organisms and the people who eat them is still unknown. The effects of water borne infections on people and marine life are known, however, and the exposure to certain bacteria is a significant health risk. A model is now available that predicts the likelihood of occurrence of a strain of bacteria known as Vibrio vulnificus throughout Bay waters.

Nonradiative recombination centers in Ga(As,N) and their annealing behavior studied by Raman spectroscopy

Nitrogen-related defects in diluted Ga(As,N) have been detected by Raman scattering in resonance with the localized E+ transition. These defects are attributed to local vibrational modes of nitrogen dimers on Ga- and As-lattice sites. Rapid thermal annealing under appropriate conditions is found to be able to remove the nitrogen dimers. The required minimum annealing temperature coincides with the threshold-like onset of strong, near-band-gap photoluminescence. This finding suggests that the nitrogen dimers are connected with nonradiative recombination centers. (C) 2004 American Institute of Physics.

Photoluminescence of Te isoelectronic centers in ZnS : Te under hydrostatic pressure

The photoluminescence of four epitaxial ZnS: Te samples with Te concentration from 0.5% to 3.1% was investigated at different temperature and ambient pressure. Two well-known emission bands related to the isolated Te-1 and Te-2 pair isoelectronic centers were observed for the samples with Te concentrations of 0.5% and 0.65%. For the samples with Te concentrations of 1.4% and 3.1%, only was the Te-2-related peak observed. The pressure behaviors of these emission bands, were studied at 15 K. The Te-1 -related band has faster pressure shift to higher energy than ZnS band gap. On the other hand, the pressure coefficient of Te-2 -related bands is smaller than that of the ZnS band gap. According to a Koster-Slater model, we found that the increase of the density bandwidth of the valence band with pressure is the main reason for the faster shift of the Te-1 centers, while the relatively large difference in the pressure behavior of the Te-1 and Te-2 centers is mainly due to the difference in the pressure-induced enhancement of the impurity potential on Te-1 and Te-2 centers.

Recombination kinetics of Te isoelectronic centers in ZnSTe

The recombination kinetics of Te isoelectronic centers in ZnS1-xTex (0.0065 less than or equal to x less than or equal to 0.85) alloys is studied by time-resolved photoluminescence (TRPL) at low temperature. The measured radiative recombination lifetimes of different Te bound exciton states are quite different, varying from a few nanoseconds to tens of nanosecond. As the bound exciton state evolves from a single Te impurity (Te-1) to larger Te clusters (Te-n, n=2,3,4), the recombination lifetime increases. It reaches maximum (similar to40 ns) for the Te-4 bound states at x=0.155. The increase of the exciton lifetime is attributed to the increasing exciton localization effect caused by larger localization potential. In the large Te composition range (x > 0.155), the exciton recombination lifetime decreases monotonically with Te composition. It is mainly due to the hybridization between the Te localized states and the host valence band states. The composition dependences of the exciton binding energy and the photoluminescence (PL) line width show the similar tendency that further support the localization picture obtained from the TRPL measurement. (C) 2005 American Institute of Physics.

Pressure behavior of the alloy band edge and nitrogen-related centers in GaAs0.999N0.001

The photoluminescence of a GaAsN alloy with 0.1% nitrogen has been studied under pressures up to 8.5 GPa at 33, 70, and 130 K. At ambient pressure, emissions from both the GaAsN alloy conduction band edge and discrete nitrogen-related bound states are observed. Under applied pressure, these two types of emissions shift with rather different pressure coefficients: about 40 meV/GPa for the nitrogen-related features, and about 80 meV/GPa for the alloy band-edge emission. Beyond 1 GPa, these discrete nitrogen-related peaks broaden and evolve into a broad band. Three new photoluminescence bands emerge on the high-energy side of the broad band, when the pressure is above 2.5, 4.5, and 5.25 GPa, respectively, at 33 K. In view of their relative energy positions and pressure behavior, we have attributed these new emissions to the nitrogen-pair states NN3 and NN4, and the isolated nitrogen state N-x. In addition, we have attributed the high-energy component of the broad band formed above 1 GPa to resonant or near-resonant NN1 and NN2, and its main body to deeper cluster centers involving more than two nitrogen atoms. This study reveals the persistence of all the paired and isolated nitrogen-related impurity states, previously observed only in the dilute doping limit, into a rather high doping level. Additionally, we find that the responses of different N-related states to varying N-doping levels differ significantly and in a nontrivial manner.

Enhanced near-infrared photoluminescence from isoelectronic luminescent centers in sulfur-implanted silicon with copper or silver coimplantation

Enhanced near-infrared photoluminescence (PL) from sulfur-related isoelectronic luminescent centers in silicon was observed from thermally quenched sulfur-implanted silicon in which additional copper or silver ions had been coimplanted. The PL from the sulfur and copper coimplanted silicon peaked between 70 and 100 K and persisted to 260 K. This result strongly supports the original conjecture from the optical detection of magnetic resonance studies that the strong PL from sulfur-doped silicon comes from S-Cu isoelectronic complexes [Frens , Phys. Rev. B 46, 12316 (1992); Mason , ibid. 58, 7007 (1998).]. (c) 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Probing deep level centers in GaN epilayers with variable-frequency capacitance-voltage characteristics of Au/GaN Schottky contacts

Under identical preparation conditions, Au/GaN Schottky contacts were prepared on two kinds of GaN epilayers with significantly different background electron concentrations and mobility as well as yellow emission intensities. Current-voltage (I-V) and variable-frequency capacitance-voltage (C-V) characteristics show that the Schottky contacts on the GaN epilayer with a higher background carrier concentration and strong yellow emission exhibit anomalous reverse-bias I-V and C-V characteristics. This is attributed to the presence of deep level centers. Theoretical simulation of the low-frequency C-V curves leads to a determination of the density and energy level position of the deep centers. (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics.

Influence of coupling between Er3+, nc-Si and nonradiative centers on photoluminescence from Er3+-doped nc-Si/SiO2 films

Con-elation between nc-Si, Er3+ and nonradiative defects in Er-doped nc-Si/SiO2 films is studied. Upon the 514.5 run laser excitation, the samples exhibit a nanocrystal-related spectrum centered at around 750 nm and an Er3+ luminescence line at 1.54mum. With increasing Er3+ content in the films,the Er3+ emission becomes intense while the photoluminescence at 750 nm decreases. Hydrogen passivation of the samples is shown to result in increases of the two luminescence peaks. However, the effect of hydrogen treatment is different for the samples annealed at different temperatures. The experimental results show that the coupling between Er3+, nc-Si and noradiative centers has a great influence on photoluminescence from nc-Si/SiO2 < Er > films.

Pressure behavior of Te isoelectronic centers in S-rich ZnS1-xTex alloy

The photoluminescence from ZnS1-xTex alloy with 0 < x < 0.3 was investigated under hydrostatic pressure up to 7 GPa. Two peaks were observed in the alloys with x < 0.01, which are related to excitons bound to isolated Te isoelectronic impurities (Te-1 centers) and Te pairs (Te-2 centers), respectively. Only the Te-2 related emissions were observed in the alloys with 0.01 < x < 0.03. The emissions in the alloys with 0.03 < x < 0.3 are attributed to the excitons bound to the Te-n (n greater than or equal to 3) cluster centers. The pressure coefficient of the Te-1 related peak is 89(4) meV/GPa, about 40% larger than that of the band gap of ZnS. On the other hand, the pressure coefficient of the Te-2 related emissions is only 52(4) meV/GPa, about 15% smaller than that of the ZnS band gap. A simple Koster-Slater model has been used to explain the different pressure behavior of the Te-1 and Te-2 centers. The pressure coefficient of the Te-3 centers is 62(2) meV/GPa. Then the pressure coefficients of the Te-n centers decrease rapidly with further increasing Te composition.

Pressure behavior of Te isoelectronic centers in ZnS : Te

ZnS:Te epilayers with Te concentration from 0.5% to 3.1% were studied by photoluminescence under hydrostatic pressure at 15 K. Two emission bands related to the isolated Te-1 and Te-2 pair isoelectronic centers were observed in the samples with Te concentrations of 0.5% and 0.65%. For the samples with Te concentrations of 1.4% and 3.1%, only the Te-2-related peak was observed. The pressure coefficients of all the Te-1-related bands were found to be unexpectedly much larger than that of the ZnS band gap. The pressure coefficients for all the Te-2-related bands are, however, rather smaller than that of ZnS band gap as usually observed. Analysis based on a Koster-Slater model indicates that an increase of the valence bandwidth with pressure is the main reason for the faster pressure shift of the Te-1 centers, and the huge difference in the pressure behavior of the Te-1 and Te-2 centers is due mainly to the difference in the pressure-induced enhancement of the impurity potential on the Te-1 and Te-2 centers. (C) 2002 American Institute of Physics.

Effect of rapid thermal annealing on electron emission and DX centers in strained InGaAs/GaAs single quantum well laser diodes

Thermal processing of strained In0.2Ga0.8As/GaAs graded-index separate confinement heterostructure single quantum well laser diodes grown by molecular beam epitaxy is investigated. It is found that rapid thermal annealing can improve the 77K photoluminescence efficiency and electron emission from the active layer, due to the removal of nonradiative centers from the InGaAs/GaAs interface. Because of the interdiffusion of Al and Ga atoms, rapid thermal annealing increases simultaneously the density of DX centers in the AlGaAs graded layer. The current stressing experiments of postgrowth and annealed laser diodes are indicative of a corresponding increase in the concentration of DX centers, suggesting that DX centers may be responsible for the degradation of laser diode performance.