A generalized adaptive mathematical morphological filter for LIDAR data

Airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) technology has become the primary method to derive high-resolution Digital Terrain Models (DTMs), which are essential for studying Earth's surface processes, such as flooding and landslides. The critical step in generating a DTM is to separate ground and non-ground measurements in a voluminous point LIDAR dataset, using a filter, because the DTM is created by interpolating ground points. As one of widely used filtering methods, the progressive morphological (PM) filter has the advantages of classifying the LIDAR data at the point level, a linear computational complexity, and preserving the geometric shapes of terrain features. The filter works well in an urban setting with a gentle slope and a mixture of vegetation and buildings. However, the PM filter often removes ground measurements incorrectly at the topographic high area, along with large sizes of non-ground objects, because it uses a constant threshold slope, resulting in "cut-off" errors. A novel cluster analysis method was developed in this study and incorporated into the PM filter to prevent the removal of the ground measurements at topographic highs. Furthermore, to obtain the optimal filtering results for an area with undulating terrain, a trend analysis method was developed to adaptively estimate the slope-related thresholds of the PM filter based on changes of topographic slopes and the characteristics of non-terrain objects. The comparison of the PM and generalized adaptive PM (GAPM) filters for selected study areas indicates that the GAPM filter preserves the most "cut-off" points removed incorrectly by the PM filter. The application of the GAPM filter to seven ISPRS benchmark datasets shows that the GAPM filter reduces the filtering error by 20% on average, compared with the method used by the popular commercial software TerraScan. The combination of the cluster method, adaptive trend analysis, and the PM filter allows users without much experience in processing LIDAR data to effectively and efficiently identify ground measurements for the complex terrains in a large LIDAR data set. The GAPM filter is highly automatic and requires little human input. Therefore, it can significantly reduce the effort of manually processing voluminous LIDAR measurements.

Vivências do pai/ acompanhante no processo da hospitalização do filho

The presence of the man with the hospitalized child is still insignificant and the relationships established in hospitals culminate in several situations that can to influence his experience. The study aimed to analyze the experiences of the parent / caregiver during the hospitalization of their child. In intention to develop the research, it was conducted an exploratory and descriptive qualitative research approach, developed with 11 fathers who accompanied sick childen at the Paediatric Hospital in metropolitan area of Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil. As inclusion criteria men should be aged 18 years; have favorable emotional conditions to answer the questions are be accompanying his child aged between one to five years old in clinical or surgical. Data collection occurred in March and April 2014, using an interview script. This step prior to the approval of the Health Department of state of Rio Grande do Norte, approved by Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Norte Committee on Ethics in Research by Certificate of Presentation and Ethics Consideration No. 22821513.1.0000.5537. The data treatment occurred following the content analysis method in thematic modality proposed by Bardin. According to statements the following categories emerged: "The presence of the father in the hospitalization of a child" and "Responsibilities and parental attitudes the hospitalization of a child”, which were analyzed and discussed based on the literature on the family in the hospitalization of the child and considerations about the care of the child. It was founded that the respondents the experienced institutionalization son were inserted in a context of active participation of tasks and sharing responsibilities. Thus it was considered in the study the need of enforcing rights of the father as a family entity in practice of them child care instead of social and gender issues that are still strongly rooted in contemporary society. Given this, it is necessary that the nursing staff consider the various situations faced by man during infant hospitalization with the first fruits of this approach to the care of the son process minimizing the sequelae stemming from being away from the family nucleus

Matriciamento em saúde mental: atuação de núcleos de apoio à saúde da família

In the context of break with psychiatric hospitals, the Brazilian Psychiatric Reform is a historical process of reformulation of knowledge and mental health practices. In this way, the Centers of Support for Family Health (NASF) have been acting in the supply of matrix support in mental health. So, the present research aims to analyze the actions which the NASF is taking for the matrix support in mental health in the city of Natal/RN. This is a kind of research descriptive, exploratory and qualitative. The data collection, was made by a direct observation of the professional pratices and semi-structured interviews with health professionals NASF's. The Data were analyzed according to thematic analysis technique, with the support of the content analysis method, which is a way to investigate clusters of meanings which make up the communication of the investigated object. Three analytical categories were organized by this method, whose titles were inspired in two theories in the health field called “Health to Paidéia” and “Expanded Clinic”. The name of the categories are: 1. “Mental illness in brackets: working dimensions of the Centers of Support for Family Health interfaces with the concrete subject”, which is about the work process of NASF; 2. “Freedom and engagement in the arrangement of matrix support in mental health”, which explore the matrix support limitations in mental health in Natal/RN from the professionals interviewed at the NASF’s; 3. “Between the desire and interest: influence of expert orientation in mental health in Psychosocial Care Network” (RAPS), which is related to matrix support in mental health, as an organizational arrangement responsible to ensure intersectoral and comprehensive care, strategies inside of context of the constitution of RAPS. We can extract and say that the actions of NASF teams in the brazilian city called Natal/RN, still not part of a structured link with health care networks, as happens with the absence of discussions and lack of professionals in the matrix support. In addition, there is a difficulty to do an specialized orientation in mental health because of the lack of human resources in this area and of the insufficient number of the replacement services for psychiatric hospital pratices, bringing up the discussion about the consolidation and expansion of RAPS in fact investigated.

Industrial fault detection and diagnosis using Bayesian belief network

Rapid development in industry have contributed to more complex systems that are prone to failure. In applications where the presence of faults may lead to premature failure, fault detection and diagnostics tools are often implemented. The goal of this research is to improve the diagnostic ability of existing FDD methods. Kernel Principal Component Analysis has good fault detection capability, however it can only detect the fault and identify few variables that have contribution on occurrence of fault and thus not precise in diagnosing. Hence, KPCA was used to detect abnormal events and the most contributed variables were taken out for more analysis in diagnosis phase. The diagnosis phase was done in both qualitative and quantitative manner. In qualitative mode, a networked-base causality analysis method was developed to show the causal effect between the most contributing variables in occurrence of the fault. In order to have more quantitative diagnosis, a Bayesian network was constructed to analyze the problem in probabilistic perspective.

A evasão no Curso Técnico Subsequente em Secretaria Escolar no campus São Sebastião do Instituto Federal de Brasília : uma questão de género?

Dissertação apresentada para obtenção do grau de mestre no âmbito do Mestrado em Educação Social e Intervenção Comunitária da Escola Superior de Educação do Instituto Politécnico de Santarém

Dissolved Iron, Aluminium, and Dissolved Inorganic Phosphorus in the (Sub-)Tropical Atlantic Surface Ocean

Inorganic nitrogen depletion restricts productivity in much of the low-latitude oceans, generating a selective advantage for diazotrophic organisms capable of fixing atmospheric dinitrogen (N2). However, the abundance and activity of diazotrophs can in turn be controlled by the availability of other potentially limiting nutrients, including phosphorus (P) and iron (Fe). Here we present high-resolution data (~0.3°) for dissolved iron, aluminum, and inorganic phosphorus that confirm the existence of a sharp north-south biogeochemical boundary in the surface nutrient concentrations of the (sub)tropical Atlantic Ocean. Combining satellite-based precipitation data with results from a previous study, we here demonstrate that wet deposition in the region of the intertropical convergence zone acts as the major dissolved iron source to surface waters. Moreover, corresponding observations of N2 fixation and the distribution of diazotrophic Trichodesmium spp. indicate that movement in the region of elevated dissolved iron as a result of the seasonal migration of the intertropical convergence zone drives a shift in the latitudinal distribution of diazotrophy and corresponding dissolved inorganic phosphorus depletion. These conclusions are consistent with the results of an idealized numerical model of the system. The boundary between the distinct biogeochemical systems of the (sub)tropical Atlantic thus appears to be defined by the diazotrophic response to spatial-temporal variability in external Fe inputs. Consequently, in addition to demonstrating a unique seasonal cycle forced by atmospheric nutrient inputs, we suggest that the underlying biogeochemical mechanisms would likely characterize the response of oligotrophic systems to altered environmental forcing over longer timescales.

Stress Inversion Using LiDAR Tunnel Deformation Measurements

Far-field stresses are those present in a volume of rock prior to excavations being created. Estimates of the orientation and magnitude of far-field stresses, often used in mine design, are generally obtained by single-point measurements of stress, or large-scale, regional trends. Point measurements can be a poor representation of far-field stresses as a result of excavation-induced stresses and geological structures. For these reasons, far-field stress estimates can be associated with high levels of uncertainty. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the practical feasibility, applications, and limitations of calibrating far-field stress estimates through tunnel deformation measurements captured using LiDAR imaging. A method that estimates the orientation and magnitude of excavation-induced principal stress changes through back-analysis of deformation measurements from LiDAR imaged tunnels was developed and tested using synthetic data. If excavation-induced stress change orientations and magnitudes can be accurately estimated, they can be used in the calibration of far-field stress input to numerical models. LiDAR point clouds have been proven to have a number of underground applications, thus it is desired to explore their use in numerical model calibration. The back-analysis method is founded on the superposition of stresses and requires a two-dimensional numerical model of the deforming tunnel. Principal stress changes of known orientation and magnitude are applied to the model to create calibration curves. Estimation can then be performed by minimizing squared differences between the measured tunnel and sets of calibration curve deformations. In addition to the back-analysis estimation method, a procedure consisting of previously existing techniques to measure tunnel deformation using LiDAR imaging was documented. Under ideal conditions, the back-analysis method estimated principal stress change orientations within ±5° and magnitudes within ±2 MPa. Results were comparable for four different tunnel profile shapes. Preliminary testing using plastic deformation, a rough tunnel profile, and profile occlusions suggests that the method can work under more realistic conditions. The results from this thesis set the groundwork for the continued development of a new, inexpensive, and efficient far-field stress estimate calibration method.

The capacities of institutions for the integration of ecosystem services in coastal strategic planning: The case of Jiaozhou Bay

This paper explains how the practice of integrating ecosystem-service thinking (i.e., ecological benefits for human beings) and institutions (i.e., organisations, policy rules) is essential for coastal spatial planning. Adopting an integrated perspective on ecosystem services (ESs) both helps understand a wide range of possible services and, at the same time, attune institution to local resource patterns. The objective of this paper is to identify the extent to which ESs are integrated in a specific coastal strategic planning case. A subsequent objective is to understand whether institutions are capable of managing ESs in terms of uncovering institutional strengths and weaknesses that may exist in taking ESs into account in existing institutional practices. These two questions are addressed through the application of a content analysis method and a multi-level analysis framework on formal institutions. Jiaozhou Bay in China is used as an illustrative case. The results show that some ESs have been implicitly acknowledged, but by no means the whole range. This partial ES implementation could result from any of four institutional weaknesses in the strategic plans of Jiaozhou Bay, namely a dominant market oriented interest, fragmented institutional structures for managing ESs, limited ES assessment, and a lack of integrated reflection of the social value of ESs in decision-making. Finally, generalizations of multi-level institutional settings on ES integration, such as an inter-organisational fragmentation and a limited use of ES assessment in operation, are made together with other international case studies. Meanwhile, the comparison highlights the influences of extensive market-oriented incentives and governments' exclusive responsibilities on ES governance in the Chinese context.

Temporalization of History and Methodological Perspectivism

This essay aims to explore the issue of methodologic perspectivism in Kosselleck’s thought considering as cornerstone the concept of temporalization. The first section links the concepts of temporalization and secularization introducing beforehand philosophies of the history from Sattelzeit time. Then the text focuses on reconstructing the notion of temporalization based on an emerging tension between the language and the reality it describes. This article concludes bringing up the notion of ficcionality as a key element in Koselleck’s theory of history making up for the methodological deficits after this tension. The unifying thread of this essay is that the theoretical project of a conceptual history it is not only an analysis method but mainly a theory of modernity.

An Assessment of How Nurse Practitioners Create Access to Primary Care in Canadian Residential Long-Term Care Settings

The aim of this paper is to explore the role and activities of nurse practitioners (NPs) working in long-term care (LTC) to understand concepts of access to primary care for residents. Utilizing the "FIT" framework developed by Penchanksy and Thomas, we used a directed content analysis method to analyze data from a pan-Canadian study of NPs in LTC. Individual and focus group interviews were conducted at four sites in western, central and eastern regions of Canada with 143 participants, including NPs, RNs, regulated and unregulated nursing staff, allied health professionals, physicians, administrators and directors and residents and family members. Participants emphasized how the availability and accessibility of the NP had an impact on access to primary and urgent care for residents. Understanding more about how NPs affect access in Canadian LTC will be valuable for nursing practice and healthcare planning and policy and may assist other countries in planning for the introduction of NPs in LTC settings to increase access to primary care.

Síndrome de Burnout e autoeficácia: um estudo com profissionais de enfermagem de hospitais privados de Natal/RN

This research verifies the influence of the self-efficacy level on burnout syndrome incidence in relation to nursing professionals from private hospitals located in the Municipality of Natal, State of Rio Grande do Norte. The nature of the research was descriptive, and the used data analysis method was quantitative which was developed through SPSS computational package, version 17.0. The used instrument for the investigation was Maslach-Burnout Inventory (MBI), and the General Perceived Self-efficacy Scale (GPSES) was applied to a sample formed from 230 nursing professionals. The statistic techniques to data analysis were: frequency analysis; factor analysis; Cronbach.s alpha; Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin test (KMO); Bartlett efericity test; percentual analysis; Spearman rank correlation analysis; and simple regression. The achieved factors from factor analysis of MBI were the same, taking into account the dimensions which Maslach initially suggested to the instrument (emotional exhaustion, lack of personal realization, and depersonalization). However, one highlights that the low internal consistence of the depersonalization dimension can occur from people.s difficulty (caused by cultural aspects) of assuming this attitude in their work environment. Through GSE, it was achieved a factor which confirmed the unidimensionality showed by the author of the instrument. In relation to the syndrome incidence, it was verified that about 50% of the researched sample presented burnout syndrome evidence. Referring to self-efficacy level, about 65% of the researched sample presented low level of self-efficacy, what can be explained by the work characteristics of these professionals. In relation to the self-efficacy influence on the Burnout syndrome, it was verified that self-efficacy can be one of the aspects which influences occupational stress chronification (burnout), mainly to the personal realization dimension. Therefore, the researched hospital organizations need reflect about their attitudes in respect to their professionals, since the numbers showed a dangerous tendency regarding a predisposition to burnout syndrome of their staff, what implies not only a significant amount of individuals who can present high levels of emotional exhaustion, lack of personal realization, and depersonalization, but also the fact that this group presents low level of self-efficacy

Impact of Curling and Warping on Concrete Pavement, TR-668, 2016

Portland cement concrete (PCC) pavement undergoes repeated environmental load-related deflection resulting from temperature and moisture variations across the pavement depth. This phenomenon, referred to as PCC pavement curling and warping, has been known and studied since the mid-1920s. Slab curvature can be further magnified under repeated traffic loads and may ultimately lead to fatigue failures, including top-down and bottom-up transverse, longitudinal, and corner cracking. It is therefore important to measure the “true” degree of curling and warping in PCC pavements, not only for quality control (QC) and quality assurance (QA) purposes, but also to achieve a better understanding of its relationship to long-term pavement performance. In order to better understand the curling and warping behavior of PCC pavements in Iowa and provide recommendations to mitigate curling and warping deflections, field investigations were performed at six existing sites during the late fall of 2015. These sites included PCC pavements with various ages, slab shapes, mix design aspects, and environmental conditions during construction. A stationary light detection and ranging (LiDAR) device was used to scan the slab surfaces. The degree of curling and warping along the longitudinal, transverse, and diagonal directions was calculated for the selected slabs based on the point clouds acquired using LiDAR. The results and findings are correlated to variations in pavement performance, mix design, pavement design, and construction details at each site. Recommendations regarding how to minimize curling and warping are provided based on a literature review and this field study. Some examples of using point cloud data to build three-dimensional (3D) models of the overall curvature of the slab shape are presented to show the feasibility of using this 3D analysis method for curling and warping analysis.

Inclusão social e suas abordagens na Ciência da Informação: análise da produção científica em periódicos nacionais no período de 2001 a 2010

Este estudo teve como objetivo verificar como a temática inclusão social tem sido abordada na área de Ciência da Informação, a partir da análise da produção científica publicada nos periódicos nacionais da área. Além disso, verificar quais maneiras de inclusão são recorrentemente abordadas na área da ciência da informação, mostrar as tendências de uso do conceito de inclusão social nos artigos científicos da área de Ciência da Informação, constatar como se apresenta o conceito de inclusão social relacionado ao profissional da informação e analisar se há relação com outras disciplinas. Foram feitas buscas em seis periódicos no período de 2001 a 2010. Utilizou-se como método de análise o referencial da análise de conteúdo de Bardin. Constituíram o corpus de análise 30 artigos que tratavam da temática inclusão social. Como resultados identificou-se que a inclusão social, no que se refere às publicações da área de Ciência da Informação, em geral, está voltada a inclusão digital e ao uso das Tecnologias da Informação e Comunicação. Ademais, identificou-se, ainda, relações com o profissional da informação, em que este deve servir como mediador entre a informação e os meios nos quais estas informações estão inseridas e os usuários.

CSR Reporting in the Finnish Banking Sector – Status and Recent Development

This thesis reviews the development of CSR reporting in the Finnish banking sector. This was achieved by analyzing the content of specific CSR reports published by three banks during years 2012-2014. The banks selected represent the three largest banks operating in Finland according to their market share, constituting approximately 70 percent of the total perceived market share. The purpose of the analysis is to establish a clear descriptive overview of the status of CSR reporting and how it has thematically developed over the years. The research was conducted with the qualitative content analysis method. By analyzing the contents of the CSR reports it was found that CSR reporting is understood in 3 different themes that reflect the general CSR theory: economic, social and environmental responsibility. The following research focused on analyzing these three core themes separately during years 2012-2014 in order to find specific tendencies in the development of CSR reporting. The results confirm that CSR reporting is developing in the Finnish banking sector. Reporting about economic responsibility is based on core financial performance reporting, and it’s mainly developing in the assessment of the global recession and how the potential fiscal reforms affect to the bank sector’s performance. Economic responsibility is also being understood and reported as a wider concept, including intertwined and shared meanings with the other responsibility reporting themes. The research also suggests that banks value social responsibility reporting increasingly each year. Environmental responsibility reporting is the most standardized form of reporting, however, the reporting development includes the increased use of digitalization as source of lessening the environmental impact.

Representações sociais sobre educação ambiental e objetivações em práticas pedagógicas no ensino fundamental

This work presents results, reflections, conclusions and considerations about the research entitled "Social representations of environmental education and objectivations in teaching practices in elementary school ". She intended to make known research whose objectives were to know the current environmental education framework (EA) developed by the teachers of the early years of elementary school of that city; identify their social representations about EA and the ways in which these representations are objectified in their teaching practices. Thus, the methodology is characterized by the qualitative approach; whose data collection instruments were the Free Evocation Questionnaire (QEV), the semi-structured interviews and documentary research. The QEV consists of free recall questions and essay questions, whose data is quantitative and qualitative. Data from this instrument were analyzed according to the procedures of the Structural Approach to Theory of Social Representations. In turn, the analysis of data obtained through the interview and reading the documents followed the guidelines of the Content Analysis method. The theoretical and methodological basis of this research was the Theory of Social Representations and critical approach to environmental education. Thus, the results obtained in the investigation allowed us to identify the social representations of EA of participants; confirm that such representations are being targeted in their pedagogical practices that are characterized as conservative. Also confirm that the teaching documents of the surveyed network are in line with the official documents on EA; the AE actions developed in the network are referenced in the teaching documents of the network and in the official documents of EA and the EA practices of survey participants teachers relate directly with their social representations on Environmental Education.