Novel spatial scanning technique for surface roughness measurement

We present the first spatial scanning system using wavelength-spatial transformation of chromatic dispersion device. Optical probe used in fiber optic interferometer for surface measurement is demonstrated by using diffraction grating and wavelength scanning technique.

Arquitectura e comensalidade

Dissertação para obtenção do grau de Mestre em Arquitectura, apresentada na Universidade de Lisboa - Faculdade de Arquitetura.

Correlation between urban form and PM2.5 concentration — Evidence from the New York metropolitan Area and Shanghai city

With the development of the economy and society, air pollution has posed a huge threat to public health around the world, especially to people who live in urban areas. Typically, urban development patterns can be roughly divided into compact cities and urban sprawl. In recent years, the relationship between urban form and air quality (especially PM2.5) is gaining more and more attention from urban planners, environmentalists, and governments. This study is focusing on The New York metropolitan area and Shanghai city, which are both megacities but with different urban spatial forms. For both study areas,there are five main variables to measure the urban form metrics, naming Population Density, Artificial Land Area Per Ten Thousand People, Road Density, Green Land Area Ratio and Artificial Land Area Ratio. In addition, considering the impact of economic activities and public transportation, GDP per capita, Number of bus stop and Number of subway station are used as control variables. Based on the results of regression, a megacity like the New York metropolitan area with urban sprawl shows a low spatial correlation on PM2.5 concentration. Meanwhile, almost all the spatial form indicators effect on PM2.5 concentration is not significant. However, a compact megacity like Shanghai shows a diametrically opposite result. Urban form, especially population density, has a strong relationship with PM2.5 concentration. It can be predicted that a reduction in population density would lead to significant improvements on decrease the PM2.5 concentration in Shanghai. Meanwhile, increasing the ratio of green land and construction area per capita will get a positive influence on reducing PM2.5 concentration as well. Road density is not a significant factor for a megacity in both two urban forms. The way and type of energy used by vehicles on megacities maybe more critical.

O pátio jesuítico no Palácio Anchieta: narrativas tipomorfológicas e paisagísticas na cidade de Vitória (ES)

A hipótese defendida nesta pesquisa se baseia na possibilidade de a arquitetura jesuítica implantada em terras brasileiras (século XVI) dialogar e agenciar, num mesmo corpo edificado, e de modo inter-relacionado, aspectos relativos à morfologia urbana, tipologia e paisagem. Lama explica que, como disciplina, a morfologia urbana agrega para si não somente o ambiente construído, mas os meios pelos quais este foi construído em sua interação com a forma urbana, ou seja, os “fenômenos sociais, econômicos e outros motores da urbanização” (LAMAS, 1992). Entender a forma urbana é entender seus elementos constituintes, “quer em ordem à leitura ou análise do espaço, quer em ordem à sua concepção ou produção” (LAMAS, 1992). Estudar a forma urbana significa compreender o lugar onde se insere a cidade e seus elementos constituintes, seus espaços e a inter-relação entre eles e seu contexto, em um espectro abrangente do que se denomina cidade, e urbano. A tipologia arquitetônica e a morfologia urbana estão interligadas no cerne de suas análises, considerando que ambas, segundo Pereira, estudam “duas ordens de fatos homogêneos” (PEREIRA, 2012); estudam elementos constituintes da cidade – arquitetônicos e espaciais – que se sobrepõem ou se complementam de acordo com a escala de análise utilizada. A arquitetura jesuítica do Brasil colonial modela de modo determinante a construção de distintos núcleos urbanos originários na costa brasileira no século XVI. Isso, por meio da implantação de tipologia edilícia que acompanha a doutrina jesuítica de localização e escolha do sítio para suas construções, preconizando segurança, visibilidade do entorno e facilidade de acesso por rios ou pelo mar. Essas construções, realizadas em áreas elevadas, marcaram, por conseguinte, no tempo e no espaço, a paisagem dos primeiros núcleos urbanos brasileiros. A pesquisa analisou um dos exemplares históricos da arquitetura jesuítica no Estado do Espírito Santo, especificamente na cidade de Vitória, capital e núcleo urbano original da colonização portuguesa neste Estado. A instalação dos jesuítas na antiga Vila da Vitória, no séc. XVI, através de sua igreja dedicada a São Tiago e de seu colégio anexo, marca a presença tipológica de uma arquitetura religiosa que influencia a própria morfologia da cidade – caracterizando esta arquitetura como um tipomorfológico - e, por reflexo, participa da construção de sua paisagem urbana secular. Entende-se que o antigo complexo jesuítico de São Tiago e atual Palácio Anchieta, sede governamental e prédio cultural capixaba, é uma arquitetura que permeia estas três grandes narrativas arquitetônicas e urbanas: a tipologia, a morfologia e a paisagem.

A dimensão urbana da arquitetura : ambientes de transição

The present work aims to discuss the urban dimension of architecture and to investigate the role of the architectural spaces in the quality of life in between buildings and their environments. It investigates the transitional spaces between building and thoroughfare; building, thoroughfare and built environments located on the ground level of the buildings, and the potential they have to modify (individually or in groups) the environment where they are. For that, the research studies aspects of the architecture that urban buildings (individually or in groups) have and the inference of the morphology, building type and urban environment quality within the extended context of the Brazilian contemporary city. The analysis of the relation between building, thoroughfare and adjacent surroundings will be performed by the lights of, the evolution they have suffered since European urban spatial interventions that took place in the 19th Century; the morphological rupture on the traditional modern city of the 20th Century; the Brazilian experience focused on edifices, by showing analysis of a group of buildings, in their majority, iconic examples of Brazilian architecture from the 1930s onwards; and finally by an extensive investigation on the micro areas that have been selected in the Camburi region, in the city of Vitória-ES, focused on the characteristics of their architectural complex. As a preliminary conclusion, it can be stated that architecture cannot determine the quality in urban life and in its environments by itself, but because of its architectural and urban configuration of space, it may contribute to quality of environment in its surroundings

Thoracic wall reconstruction using ultrasound images to model/bend the thoracic prosthesis for correction of pectus excavatum

Pectus excavatum is the most common congenital deformity of the anterior thoracic wall. The surgical correction of such deformity, using Nuss procedure, consists in the placement of a personalized convex prosthesis into sub-sternal position to correct the deformity. The aim of this work is the CT-scan substitution by ultrasound imaging for the pre-operative diagnosis and pre-modeling of the prosthesis, in order to avoid patient radiation exposure. To accomplish this, ultrasound images are acquired along an axial plane, followed by a rigid registration method to obtain the spatial transformation between subsequent images. These images are overlapped to reconstruct an axial plane equivalent to a CT-slice. A phantom was used to conduct preliminary experiments and the achieved results were compared with the corresponding CT-data, showing that the proposed methodology can be capable to create a valid approximation of the anterior thoracic wall, which can be used to model/bend the prosthesis

Spatio-temporal patterns of tuberculosis incidence in Ribeirão Preto, State of São Paulo, southeast Brazil, and their relationship with social vulnerability: a Bayesian analysis

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this ecological study was to evaluate the urban spatial and temporal distribution of tuberculosis (TB) in Ribeirão Preto, State of São Paulo, southeast Brazil, between 2006 and 2009 and to evaluate its relationship with factors of social vulnerability such as income and education level. METHODS: We evaluated data from TBWeb, an electronic notification system for TB cases. Measures of social vulnerability were obtained from the SEADE Foundation, and information about the number of inhabitants, education and income of the households were obtained from Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Statistical analyses were conducted by a Bayesian regression model assuming a Poisson distribution for the observed new cases of TB in each area. A conditional autoregressive structure was used for the spatial covariance structure. RESULTS: The Bayesian model confirmed the spatial heterogeneity of TB distribution in Ribeirão Preto, identifying areas with elevated risk and the effects of social vulnerability on the disease. We demonstrated that the rate of TB was correlated with the measures of income, education and social vulnerability. However, we observed areas with low vulnerability and high education and income, but with high estimated TB rates. CONCLUSIONS: The study identified areas with different risks for TB, given that the public health system deals with the characteristics of each region individually and prioritizes those that present a higher propensity to risk of TB. Complex relationships may exist between TB incidence and a wide range of environmental and intrinsic factors, which need to be studied in future research.

Informality in the City: a Theoretical Analysis

This thesis theoretically studies the relationship between the informal sector (both in the labor and the housing market) and the city structure.

Natal qual é a sua cara?: análise do perfil edilício da avenida Eng. Roberto Freire (Natal/RN) à luz da acessibilidade

This study focuses on the building ensemble of Avenida Roberto Freire, a main road in Natal, Brazil, as a material expression of the confluence of various factors among which the following may be emphasized: high level of accessibility due to urban spatial re-structuring and the growth of the real estate market, in view of the increasing number of consumers, who arrived in Natal within the last decades. The intense urban modification process that has been going on in Natal since at least the 1980s, has engendered the formation of long axial lines which express the expansion dynamics and some of the forces subjacent to it. Avenida Roberto Freire has been an iconic example of an urban thoroughfare where architecture becomes primarily a communication support that can be perceived by fast moving passers-by, what brings it close to the venturian concept of strip (Venturi at al, 1972). The building types that line the road not only respond to the dynamics in process but also contribute to intensify it, as they house a variety of uses which attract people and generate more movement. The dynamics is further strengthened by the action of the real estate business which benefits from the increase of highly accessible locations, and from the private and public investments and incentives to tourism that aim to insert this city into the globalized world. Although the intention of reconstituting part of the history of density increase on this avenue in a diachronical perspective was attempted within the limits of the available references and documentation, the central contribution of this study is to understand the relations between topological accessibility and the typological nature of the building ensemble. By observing the synchronic morphological frame resulting from the spatial configuration analysis pertinent to this avenue (cf. Hillier and Hanson,1984) and the inventory and classification of the building ensemble there existing, this study aims to understand how architecture responds to accessibility in view of the real estate pressure, boosted by a cosmopolitanizing process brought about by the continuous flow of foreign and Brazilian arrivals as visitors, temporary or permanent residents

Território e economia política - uma abordagem a partir do novo processo de industrialização no Ceará

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

O transporte coletivo urbano em São José do Rio Preto - SP e sua relação com as transformações do espaço urbano

The process of urbanization that happened in Brazil during the twentieth century led to processes of structuring and re-organization of space, besides the emergence of many urban problems. Industrialization and urbanization are some of the main causes that could be cited as consequences of this process. As a result of the steep rise of cities, the transport systems became fundamental in boosting flows (immaterial) and the mobility of people and stuff (materials) in the territory. The urban model created for the city of São Paulo in the 1930s was repeated over the years in the medium-sized cities, being repeated the same problems that occurred in the metropolis. In this context our work fits in analyzing the changes occurring in the urban area of São José do Rio Preto - SP, from his relationship with the public transportation system in the face of intra-urban spatial configuration of the city. Transport, while it is recognized by authors as being really important for the analysis and intra-urban spatial configuration, has been little analyzed as the object of study by a geographer, and so, our work has more value

As influências da paisagem urbana em grupos funcionais e riqueza de aves

Pós-graduação em Biologia Animal - IBILCE

Spatio-temporal patterns of tuberculosis incidence in Ribeirao Preto, State of Sao Paulo, southeast Brazil, and their relationship with social vulnerability: a Bayesian analysis

Introduction: The purpose of this ecological study was to evaluate the urban spatial and temporal distribution of tuberculosis (TB) in Ribeirao Preto, State of Sao Paulo, southeast Brazil, between 2006 and 2009 and to evaluate its relationship with factors of social vulnerability such as income and education level. Methods: We evaluated data from TBWeb, an electronic notification system for TB cases. Measures of social vulnerability were obtained from the SEADE Foundation, and information about the number of inhabitants, education and income of the households were obtained from Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Statistical analyses were conducted by a Bayesian regression model assuming a Poisson distribution for the observed new cases of TB in each area. A conditional autoregressive structure was used for the spatial covariance structure. Results: The Bayesian model confirmed the spatial heterogeneity of TB distribution in Ribeirao Preto, identifying areas with elevated risk and the effects of social vulnerability on the disease. We demonstrated that the rate of TB was correlated with the measures of income, education and social vulnerability. However, we observed areas with low vulnerability and high education and income, but with high estimated TB rates. Conclusions: The study identified areas with different risks for TB, given that the public health system deals with the characteristics of each region individually and prioritizes those that present a higher propensity to risk of TB. Complex relationships may exist between TB incidence and a wide range of environmental and intrinsic factors, which need to be studied in future research.

Spatio-temporal patterns of tuberculosis incidence in Ribeirão Preto, State of São Paulo, southeast Brazil, and their relationship with social vulnerability: a Bayesian analysis

INTRODUCTION: The purpose of this ecological study was to evaluate the urban spatial and temporal distribution of tuberculosis (TB) in Ribeirão Preto, State of São Paulo, southeast Brazil, between 2006 and 2009 and to evaluate its relationship with factors of social vulnerability such as income and education level. METHODS: We evaluated data from TBWeb, an electronic notification system for TB cases. Measures of social vulnerability were obtained from the SEADE Foundation, and information about the number of inhabitants, education and income of the households were obtained from Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics. Statistical analyses were conducted by a Bayesian regression model assuming a Poisson distribution for the observed new cases of TB in each area. A conditional autoregressive structure was used for the spatial covariance structure. RESULTS: The Bayesian model confirmed the spatial heterogeneity of TB distribution in Ribeirão Preto, identifying areas with elevated risk and the effects of social vulnerability on the disease. We demonstrated that the rate of TB was correlated with the measures of income, education and social vulnerability. However, we observed areas with low vulnerability and high education and income, but with high estimated TB rates. CONCLUSIONS: The study identified areas with different risks for TB, given that the public health system deals with the characteristics of each region individually and prioritizes those that present a higher propensity to risk of TB. Complex relationships may exist between TB incidence and a wide range of environmental and intrinsic factors, which need to be studied in future research.

Methodology for registration of distended recutms in pelvic CT studies

Purpose: Accurate delineation of the rectum is of high importance in off-line adaptive radiation therapy since it is a major dose-limiting organ in prostate cancer radiotherapy. The intensity-based deformable image registration (DIR) methods cannot create a correct spatial transformation if there is no correspondence between the template and the target images. The variation of rectal filling, gas, or feces, creates a noncorrespondence in image intensities that becomes a great obstacle for intensity-based DIR. Methods: In this study the authors have designed and implemented a semiautomatic method to create a rectum mask in pelvic computed tomography (CT) images. The method, that includes a DIR based on the demons algorithm, has been tested in 13 prostate cancer cases, each comprising of two CT scans, for a total of 26 CT scans. Results: The use of the manual segmentation in the planning image and the proposed rectum mask method (RMM) method in the daily image leads to an improvement in the DIR performance in pelvic CT images, obtaining a mean value of overlap volume index = 0.89, close to the values obtained using the manual segmentations in both images. Conclusions: The application of the RMM method in the daily image and the manual segmentations in the planning image during prostate cancer treatments increases the performance of the registration in presence of rectal fillings, obtaining very good agreement with a physician's manual contours.