Concentration levels of heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in car parks at Queensland University of Technology

This study investigates the level of pollutants (polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and heavy metals) in three car parks at QUT, one at Kelvin Grove campus and two at the Gardens Point campus. In addition, comparisons between site designs were assessed to identify the possible sources of heavy metals and PAHs. The main contributing source for heavy metals was identified to be from vehicle debris and emissions, while the source of PAHs was identified to be from petrol and diesel engine vehicle emissions. The highest concentration of pollutants was typically found for the 63 micro meter dust samples, proposed to be due to increased surface areas and thus available adsorption sites.

Performance of reinforced concrete columns under the vehicular impacts

Frontal columns in buildings and columns in car parks are vulnerable to vehicular impacts. This paper treats the impact response of such concrete columns under vehicular loads and the use of polymer wrap to enhance their impact capacity. Comprehensive dynamic computer simulation techniques are used along with strain rate effects and hour glass control to evaluate the impact response. Results indicate the effectiveness of wraps in enhancing the impact capacity of these columns.

A simulation study of unified GPS and roadside ranging technologies for vehicle positioning

The future vehicle navigation for safety applications requires seamless positioning at the accuracy of sub-meter or better. However, standalone Global Positioning System (GPS) or Differential GPS (DGPS) suffer from solution outages while being used in restricted areas such as high-rise urban areas and tunnels due to the blockages of satellite signals. Smoothed DGPS can provide sub-meter positioning accuracy, but not the seamless requirement. A disadvantage of the traditional navigation aids such as Dead Reckoning and Inertial Measurement Unit onboard vehicles are either not accurate enough due to error accumulation or too expensive to be acceptable by the mass market vehicle users. One of the alternative technologies is to use the wireless infrastructure installed in roadside to locate vehicles in regions where the Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS) signals are not available (for example: inside tunnels, urban canyons and large indoor car parks). The examples of roadside infrastructure which can be potentially used for positioning purposes could include Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN)/Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) based positioning systems, Ultra-wide band (UWB) based positioning systems, Dedicated Short Range Communication (DSRC) devices, Locata’s positioning technology, and accurate road surface height information over selected road segments such as tunnels. This research reviews and compares the possible wireless technologies that could possibly be installed along roadside for positioning purposes. Models and algorithms of integrating different positioning technologies are also presented. Various simulation schemes are designed to examine the performance benefits of united GNSS and roadside infrastructure for vehicle positioning. The results from these experimental studies have shown a number of useful findings. It is clear that in the open road environment where sufficient satellite signals can be obtained, the roadside wireless measurements contribute very little to the improvement of positioning accuracy at the sub-meter level, especially in the dual constellation cases. In the restricted outdoor environments where only a few GPS satellites, such as those with 45 elevations, can be received, the roadside distance measurements can help improve both positioning accuracy and availability to the sub-meter level. When the vehicle is travelling in tunnels with known heights of tunnel surfaces and roadside distance measurements, the sub-meter horizontal positioning accuracy is also achievable. Overall, simulation results have demonstrated that roadside infrastructure indeed has the potential to provide sub-meter vehicle position solutions for certain road safety applications if the properly deployed roadside measurements are obtainable.

Awareness of risky behaviour among Chinese drivers

Background In China, as in many developing countries, rapid increases in car ownership and new drivers have been coupled with a large trauma burden. The World Health Organization has identified key risk factors including speeding, drink-driving, helmet and restraint non-use, overloaded vehicles, and fatigued-driving in many rapidly motorising countries, including China. Levels of awareness of these risk factors among road users are not well understood. Although research identifies speeding as the major factor contributing to road crashes in China, there appears to be widespread acceptance of it among the broader community. Purpose To assess self-reported speeding and awareness of crash risk factors among Chinese drivers in Beijing. Methods Car drivers (n=299) were recruited from car washing locations and car parks to complete an anonymous questionnaire. Perceptions of the relative risk of drink-driving, fatigued-driving and speeding, and attitudes towards speeding and self-reported driving speeds were assessed. Results Overall, driving speeds of >10km/hr above posted limits on two road types (60 and 80 km/hour zones) were reported by more than one third of drivers. High-range speeding (i.e., >30 km/hour in a 60 km/hour zone and >40 km/hour in an 80 km/hour zone) was reported by approximately 5% of the sample. Attitudinal measures indicated that approximately three quarters of drivers reported attitudes that were not supportive of speeding. Drink-driving was identified as the most risky behaviour; 18% reported the perception that drink-driving had the same level of danger as speeding and 82% reported it as more dangerous. For fatigued-driving, 1% reported the perception that it was not as dangerous as speeding; 27.4% reported it as the same level and 71.6% perceived it as more dangerous. Conclusion Driving speeds well above posted speed limits were commonly reported by drivers. Speeding was rated as the least dangerous on-road behaviour, compared to drink-driving and fatigued-driving. One third of drivers reported regularly engaging in speeds at least 10km/hr above posted limits, despite speeding being the major reported contributor to crashes. Greater awareness of the risks associated with speeding is needed to help reduce the road trauma burden in China and promote greater speed limit compliance.

Designing Bare Essentials: Aldi, Lidle and the architectures of cheapness

They’re cheap. They’re in every settlement of significance in Britain, Ireland and elsewhere. We all use them but perhaps do not always admit to it. Especially, if we are architects.
Over the past decades Aldi/Lidl low cost supermarkets have escaped from middle Europe to take over large tracts of the English speaking world remaking them according to a formula of mass-produced sheds, buff-coloured cobble-lock car parks, logos in primary colours, bare-shelves and eclectic special offers. Response within architectural discourse to this phenomenon has been largely one of indifference and such places remain, perhaps reiterating Pevsner’s controversial insights into the bicycle shed, on the peripheries of what we might term architecture. This paper seeks to explore the spatial complexities of the discount supermarket and in doing so open up a discussion on the architecture of cheapness. As a road-map, it takes former managing director Dieter Brandes’ treatise on the Aldi formula, Bare Essentials: the Aldi Way to Retailing, and investigates the strategies through which economic exigencies manifest themselves in a series of spatial tactics which involve building. Central to this is the idea of architecture as system rather than form and, in Aldi/Lidl’s case, the result of a spatial network of flows. To understand the architecture of the supermarket, then, it is necessary to measure the times and spaces of supply across the scales of intersection between global and local.
Evaluating the energy, economy and precision of such systems challenges the liminal position of the commercial, the placeless and especially the cheap within architectural discourse. As is well known, architectures of mass-production and prefabrication and their origins exercised modernist thinkers such as Sigfried Giedion and Walter Gropius in the early twentieth century and has undergone a resurgence in recent times. Meanwhile, the mapping of the hitherto overlooked forms and iconography of commerce in Learning from Las Vegas (1971) was extended by Rem Koolhaas et al into an investigation of the technologies, systems and precedents of retail in the Harvard Design School Guide to Shopping, thirty years later in 2001. While obviously always a criteria for building, to find writings on architecture which explicitly celebrate cheapness as a design virtue or, indeed, even iterate the word cheap is more difficult. Walter Gropius’ essay ‘How can we build cheaper, better, more attractive houses?’ (1927), however, situates the cheap within the discussions – articulated, amongst others, by Karl Teige and Bruno Taut – surrounding the minimal dwelling and the moral benefits of absence of the 1920s and 30s.
In our contemporary age of heightened consumption, it is perhaps fitting that an architecture of bare essentials is defined in retail rather than in housing, a commercial existenzminimum where the Miesian paradox of ‘less is more’ is resold as a paradigm of ‘more for less’ in the ubiquitous yet overlooked architectures of the discount supermarket.

Simulação de sistema de desenfumagem de parques de estacionamento recorrendo ao programa OpenFOAM

Os parques de estacionamento cobertos estão obrigados por legislação a terem sistemas de desenfumagem. Assim, nesta dissertação desenvolve-se um procedimento computacional para a analise e verificação de funcionamento de sistemas de desenfumagem com ventiladores de impulso para parques de estacionamento, recorrendo ao software de mecânica dos fluidos computacional OpenFOAM. Actualmente nos sistemas de desenfumagem de parques de estacionamento estão a ser aplicados ventiladores de impulso. Este tipo de ventiladores não estão contemplados pela legislação em vigor. Assim, para serem utilizados é necessário verificar se estes podem substituir as redes de condutas. A verificação do funcionamento de sistemas de desenfumagem com ventiladores de impulso e efectuada com recurso a programas de simulação de mecânica dos fluidos computacional. O software OpenFOAM não tem tutoriais para ventiladores de impulso. Assim, foi executado um procedimento para validação dos ventiladores de impulso. A validação consistiu em reproduzir-se uma experiência executada por Giesen et al. (2011). Executaram-se várias simulações com diferentes modelos de turbulência, verificando-se que o programa buoyantpimplefoam do software OpenFOAM ao utilizar o modelo de turbulência k -ɛ simulou quase na perfeição os ventiladores de impulso. O desenvolvimento do procedimento computacional foi executado para um parque de estacionamento com uma geometria bastante complexa. O parque de estacionamento foi criado com um software em 3D e posteriormente inserido numa malha j a criada com as dimensões exteriores do parque. Foram estipuladas as condições de fronteira e executou-se uma simulação de seiscentos segundos com parâmetros determinados previamente. O processamento da simulação teve a duração de aproximadamente oito dias. Dos resultados obtidos concluiu-se que o procedimento computacional apresentado simula adequadamente sistemas de desenfumagem em parques de estacionamento.

Prototipo para la Creación de un Sistema de Información Geográfica web, para la Gestión de Elementos Universitarios Localizados Espacialmente

RESUMEN Este trabajo nace con la necesidad de ofrecer un Sistema de Información Geográfico implantado en un entorno Web, para una comunidad de usuarios,que proporcione información sobre recursos, instalaciones y servicios que se ofrecen localizados espacialmente. Se trata de estudiar y seleccionar ciertos objetos de interés relevantes para una Comunidad universitaria, en concreto se ha utilizado el Campus Sur de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Estos objetos serán representados en su localización geográfica, sobre el mapa de los exteriores del Campus o sobre planos digitalizados de los interiores de algunos de los edificios que lo componen. La Escuela Universitaria de Informática es la utilizada para el prototipo presentado en este trabajo. Además los objetos de interés llevarán asociada información temática con distintos formatos. Este sistema podrá aplicarse en la planificación de futuras obras, tanto nuevas como de remodelación, de los elementos que constituyen el Campus como, edificios,caminos, aparcamientos, etc. SUMMARY: This work comes with the need to provide a Geographic Information System,implanted in a web environment, for a user community, which gives information on resources, facilities and services offered at a university spatially located. That consists in to study and select some objects of interest, relevant for a University community; in particular the South Campus of the Polytechnic University of Madrid where it has been used. These objects will be represented in their geographic location, over the outside map of the Campus or over digitized maps which represent the interiors of some Campus buildings. The Computer Science University School is used in the prototype shown in this paper. Also, the interest objects will have associated thematic information in different formats. This system may be applied in the planning of future works, both new and remodeling, of the elements that constitute the Campus such as buildings,roads, car parks, etc.

The Interior City Infinity and Concavity in the No-Stop City (1970-1971)

In the late 60s it had become clear how the environment technification had allowed some typologies (supermarkets, car parks, factories) to reach potentially unlimited built depths becoming, therefore, independent from the outside. The No-Stop City is born from a very simple idea: to extend this technification to the totality of built reality encompassing, not only almost all functions, but ultimately, the whole city. This operation has paradoxical effects: as architecture grows, it loses most of the features that have traditionally defined it. A dissolution by hypertrophy that gives rise to an homogeneous, concave and potentially infinite space. But beyond the pure technical feasibility, there are two key influences, seemingly contradictory, that explain this endeavor for an interior and endless city: Marxism and Pop Art. The project is, in many senses, a built manifesto reflecting the militancy of the group members within the Italian Marxism. But it is also the embodiment of the groups declared interest in Pop Art, popular culture and mass society. The cross-influence of communism and consumerism explains this "quantitative utopia" in which the society and the factory, the production and consumption, would match. A city based on the centrality of consumer products and the subsequent loss of prominence of architecture, in which the urban phenomenon, while spreading endlessly over territory, ignoring its rural exteriority, dissolves the home as a sphere of privacy, ignoring its domestic interiority. A project, also in the wake of Marshall McLuhan, that illustrates like few others the conversion of the urbane into a virtually omnipresent "condition" and that still interrogates us with questions that are, on the other hand, eternal: What is a building? What is a city?

La participación de los jóvenes universitarios en la planificación urbana. Estudios de caso de Lisboa, Madrid y Fortaleza

La participación de los jóvenes en los procesos de planificación urbana en Lisboa, Madrid y Fortaleza ha sido tema central de la presente tesis. Los principales objetivos perseguidos consisten en: caracterizar y analizar críticamente las dimensiones más importantes de la participación de jóvenes universitarios en los procesos participativos; aportar características de interés juvenil para un “modelo” de planificación urbana; elaborar directrices para el diseño de actuaciones en un proceso urbano participativo desde la perspectiva de los jóvenes; establecer el alcance de un instrumento urbano participativo reglamentado por el gobierno local entre los jóvenes; determinar si la percepción de los jóvenes universitarios acerca de las acciones del gobierno local tiene influencia en los procesos participativos. El universo estadístico de la muestra lo conforman la totalidad de 737 jóvenes universitarios encuestados en Lisboa, Madrid y Fortaleza. Que se distribuye en 104 encuestados en Lisboa, 329 en Madrid, y 304 en la ciudad de Fortaleza. El cuestionario contiene preguntas: abiertas, cerradas y mixtas. La mayor parte de las cuestiones son cerradas, y en cuanto a las opciones de respuesta: en muchas preguntas se ha aplicado, una escala tipo Likert, entre 1 y 4, siendo 4 el grado más alto (totalmente de acuerdo), y 1 el grado más bajo (nada de acuerdo), y para otras, una opción múltiple, con solamente una opción de respuesta. Se realizó un cuestionario de 31 preguntas en Lisboa, y tras su aplicación y obtención de resultados se revisó y mejoró obteniendo un cuestionario de 23 preguntas que fue aplicado en Madrid y Fortaleza. Se realizan análisis descriptivos, y algún análisis factorial en diversas preguntas del cuestionario, y se estudian diferencias en función de las variables sociodemográficas planteadas. Los resultados constatan que es muy baja la participación en los procesos institucionalizados por el gobierno local, en contrapartida es bastante alta en los procesos organizados por los ciudadanos. La información limita la participación de los jóvenes y ya que estos reconocen como motivación estar más y mejor informados y controlar y acompañar las acciones de su gobierno local. Por otra parte, desean participar en grupo en foros y debates presenciales. Los jóvenes madrileños consideran que las etapas más importantes en un proceso urbano participativo son: información, seguimiento y evaluación, mientras que para los jóvenes de Fortaleza son: Fiscalización, concienciación e información. Se ha verificado que desde la percepción de los jóvenes de Lisboa los ciudadanos son consultados en los procesos urbanos participativos y de acuerdo con los jóvenes de Madrid y Fortaleza los ciudadanos son dirigidos, influenciados y manipulados. Los problemas de carácter urbano no tienen una conceptualización clara y precisa entre los jóvenes universitarios y los problemas urbanos que más afectan la vida de los jóvenes universitarios son aparcamientos, contaminación y seguridad urbana. Sin embargo, los transportes son apuntados por los jóvenes universitarios de Lisboa, Madrid y Fortaleza. Además no saben identificar los problemas de su barrio. Así como de las causas y consecuencias y soluciones de los problemas urbanos. Eligen como mejor estrategia para desarrollar un proceso urbano participativo el acuerdo entre técnicos, población y el gobierno local. Los jóvenes universitarios de Fortaleza apuntan directrices para una planificación urbana con énfasis en la seguridad urbana, la sostenibilidad y la investigación, tecnología e innovación. Por otro lado, los jóvenes universitarios de Madrid perfilan tres “modelos” de planificación urbana: un “Modelo” socio-económica, un “Modelo” sostenible e innovadora y un “Modelo” de Planificación Urbana con énfasis en espacios públicos, entretenimiento, seguridad urbana y deporte. Los jóvenes universitarios rechazan la idea que la planificación urbana lleva en cuenta sus perspectivas y opiniones. Respeto al Presupuesto Participativo, el alcance de dicho proceso entre los jóvenes universitarios es extremamente bajo. Sin embargo, opinan que la aproximación entre ciudadanos, técnicos y gobierno en los procesos de Presupuesto Participativo mejora la rendición de cuentas. Además los jóvenes creen que dichos procesos conceden un poder moderado a los ciudadanos, y consideran que el poder concedido en los procesos urbanos influye directamente en el interés y empeño en participar. ABSTRACT Youth participation in urban planning processes in Lisbon, Madrid and Fortaleza is the main subject of this thesis. Our key goals are the following: characterising and critically analysing the most important dimensions of young university students’ participation in participative processes; providing features of interest for the young for an urban planning “model”; developing a variety of guidelines for designing actions in a participative urban process from the perspective of young people; analysing the impact upon the young of a participative urban instrument implemented by the local government; determining whether young university students’ perception of local government actions influences participative processes. The statistical universe of the sample comprises a total of 737 young university students who were surveyed in Lisbon, Madrid and Fortaleza, distributed as follows: 104 respondents in Lisbon, 329 in Madrid, and 304 in Fortaleza. The survey is made up of open-ended, closed-ended and mixed questions. Most questions are closed-ended. Regarding the answer options, a Likert-type scale has been used in many questions. The scale ranges from 1 to 4, 4 being the highest value (completely agree) and 1 the lowest (completely disagree). Besides, there are multiple-choice questions with only one possible answer. A 31- question survey was conducted in Lisbon. After the survey was run and the results were obtained, it was reviewed and improved. The improved version was a 23- question survey which was conducted in Madrid and Fortaleza. Descriptive analyses as well as some factorial analyses are carried out in several questions, and differences are studied depending on the socio-demographic variables involved. The results show that participation in processes implemented by local governments is very low. In contrast, participation is quite high in processes organised by citizens. Information limits youth participation, as young people point out that they are motivated by more and better information and by the possibility of monitoring and keeping track of their local government actions. They also wish to take part in face-to-face group forums and discussions. Young people from Madrid think that the most important stages in participative urban processes are information, follow-up and assessment, whereas young people from Fortaleza highlight tax matters, awareness and information. It has been confirmed that Lisbon youth perceive that citizens are consulted in participative urban processes. Youth from Madrid and Fortaleza, on the other hand, state that citizens are directed, influenced and manipulated. Young university students do not have a clear, precise concept of urban problems. Among these, they are most affected by car parks, pollution and urban safety, but the transport problem is pointed out by young university students from Lisbon, Madrid and Fortaleza. Furthermore, they cannot identify the problems in their neighbourhoods, nor are they able to specify the causes, consequences and solutions of urban problems. Their preferred strategy for developing a participative urban process is an agreement between technicians, the population and the local government. Young university students from Fortaleza suggest guidelines for an urban planning approach emphasising urban safety, sustainability and research, technology and innovation. Those from Madrid, for their part, outline three urban planning “models”: a socioeconomic “model”, a sustainable and innovative “model”, and an urban planning “model” with a focus on public areas, entertainment, urban safety and sport. Young university students disagree that urban planning takes their perspectives and views into account. Moreover, the impact of the Participative Budget upon their lives is extremely low. In their opinion, however, closer collaboration between citizens, technicians and governments in Participative Budget processes promotes accountability. The young also think that these processes give moderate power to citizens, and in their view the power that can be exerted in urban processes directly influences the interest in participating and the will to do so.

IVA nas autarquias locais - Enquadramento da gestão de parques de estacionamento

Mestrado em Fiscalidade

Likelihood-maximising frameworks for enhanced in-car speech recognition

Speech recognition in car environments has been identified as a valuable means for reducing driver distraction when operating non-critical in-car systems. Likelihood-maximising (LIMA) frameworks optimise speech enhancement algorithms based on recognised state sequences rather than traditional signal-level criteria such as maximising signal-to-noise ratio. Previously presented LIMA frameworks require calibration utterances to generate optimised enhancement parameters which are used for all subsequent utterances. Sub-optimal recognition performance occurs in noise conditions which are significantly different from that present during the calibration session - a serious problem in rapidly changing noise environments. We propose a dialog-based design which allows regular optimisation iterations in order to track the changing noise conditions. Experiments using Mel-filterbank spectral subtraction are performed to determine the optimisation requirements for vehicular environments and show that minimal optimisation assists real-time operation with improved speech recognition accuracy. It is also shown that the proposed design is able to provide improved recognition performance over frameworks incorporating a calibration session.

H'ani : National Parks and Wildlife Facilities at Springbrook.

The paper describes the process in whcih a multi-disciplinary group of design students propose a redevelopment of individual and group camping facilities at Springbrook national Park. A romantic and fairyland atmosphere is developed to enhance the natural educational potential of the site and heighten the experience of the transient community, the campers.