Designing the Dragon or does the Dragon Design? An Analysis of the Impact of the Creative Industry on the Process of Urban Development of Beijing, China

After reading Richard Florida’s work (e.g. Florida, 2003) on the creative industry and on the importance of the creative class for urban development in post-industrial economies, many cities in Europe and the USA have started to invest in creativity in general and in design in particular. Much less is known about the role of creativity in industrial economies. This paper analyses the role of design in the economic and social development of China’s political and cultural capital Beijing. We will try to identify the main success factors and barriers for the design business and show how design can be further used for social and economic development of the city. Backed up by conspicuous state investments and by fast decision making, industrial areas have been transformed and neighbourhoods have been revitalised, infrastructure has been upgraded, and some modern iconic landmarks are added to the collection of old monuments. Moreover, priority has changed from “Made in China” to “Create in China”, allowing economic activities to move upwards in the value chain. Nevertheless, and despite the presence of key research and art institutes, further developments of the design sector and the use of design in other (manufacturing) sectors will still be a huge challenge.Creative Industry, Design, Urban Development, Industrial Economy, Beijing, China

Estágio obrigatório como lugar de pesquisa: cultura escolar e formação docente

Trabalho de Conclusão de Curso apresentado ao Instituto Latino-Americano de Arte, Cultura e História da Universidade Federal da Integração Latino- Americana, como requisito parcial à obtenção do título de História Licenciatura. Orientador: Prof. Dr. Tiago SanchesO disposto trabalho tem como principal objetivo de demonstrar a partir das experiências de estágio a importância da pesquisa da cultura escolar na formação docente, neste sentido o trabalho ressalta que investigar e sistematizar a cultura dos espaços e sujeitos na escola pode contribuir para o planejamento e desenvolvimento das práticas docentes. Os referenciais teóricos deste trabalho são resultados de leituras e discussões realizadas para o entendimento das bases curriculares, cultura e formação docente nas disciplinas de estagio I, II e III do curso de história licenciatura como aluno e estagiário. A metodologia adotada se traduz em analisar e refletir sobre os relatos de experiências, com base nas vivências dos estágios realizados. O trabalho indica que o processo de reflexão sobre a realidade escolar e seus sujeitos contribui para uma resignificação da prática docente.El presente trabajo en construcción tiene como objetivo de demostrar a partir de las experiencias de pasantía la importancia de la investigación de la cultura escolar en la formación docente, en este sentido el trabajo resalta que investigar y sistematizar la cultura de los espacios e sujetos en la escuela puede contribuir para el planeamiento y desarrollo de las prácticas docentes. Los referenciales teóricos de este trabajo son resultados de lecturas e discusiones realizadas para el entendimiento de las bases curriculares, cultura e formación docente en las disciplinas de pasantía I, II y III del curso de historia profesorado como alumno e pasante. La metodología adoptada se traduce en analizar e reflexionar sobre los relatos de experiencias, con base en las vivencias de las pasantías realizadas. El trabajo todavía no presenta resultados consolidados, sin embargo indican que el proceso de reflexión sobre la realidad escolar y sus sujetos contribuyen para una resignificación de la práctica docent

Correlação tomográfica e topográfica do trajeto anatómico do nervo alveolar inferior e a osteotomia sagital do ramo mandibular

Introdução: Este estudo teve por objetivo avaliar a correlação topográfica do trajeto do nervo alveolar inferior com o seu posicionamento intraoperatório após separação dos cotos osteotomizados na osteotomia sagital do ramo mandibular em pacientes com deformidade dentofacial. Materiais e Métodos: Um estudo prospectivo e de secção transversal foi conduzido através da análise de 20 indivíduos portadores de deformidades dentofaciais que foram submetidos a osteotomias sagitais do ramo mandibular bilateralmente. As análises consistiram em medidas da distância do nervo alveolar inferior a córtex óssea lingual e bucal, a mensuração da espessura mandibular, grau de densidade óssea mandibular (unidades de Hounsfield) e a proporção de osso cortical e medular em três locais diferentes. Durante o período intraoperatório, foi analisado o segmento ao qual o nervo permaneceu aderido após a realização da osteotomia sagital do ramo sagital mandibular, e esses dados foram correlacionados. Resultados: A distância medida do canal mandibular à superfície interna do osso cortical vestibular mostrou um valor médio de 2,6 mm no ponto “A” quando o nervo permaneceu aderido ao segmento distal e valor médio de 0,7 mm quando o nervo foi aderido no segmento proximal . Quanto à espessura, o valor médio foi de 11,2 mm no ponto “A”, quando o nervo aderiu nos segmentos distais e 9,8 mm no ponto “A”, quando aderido no segmento proximal. Após a avaliação tomográfica de 40 hemi-mandíbulas, observou-se que houve uma relação significante (p<0,05) entre a espessura do corpo mandibular, e a distância do trajeto do nervo alveolar inferior à córtex vestibular e lingual com a possibilidade de seu encarceramento intra-operatório durante a osteotomia sagital do ramo mandibular. Conclusão: Este estudo concluiu que mandibulas que apresentavam o corpo mandibular estrreito e com a distância do trajeto do nervo alveolar inferior a superfície interna das corticais linguais e vestibulares menores que dois milímetros aumentavam significativamente o risco do encarceramento do nervo alveolar inferior durante a osteotomia sagital do ramo mandibular.Introduction: This research evaluated the topographic correlation, through computed tomography (CT Scan), of the trajectory of the inferior alveolar nerve with its intraoperative positioning after mandibular sagittal split osteotomy in patients with dentofacial deformities. Material and Methods: A prospective cross-sectional research was carried out through the analysis of twenty CT scans of individuals with dentofacial deformities who underwent mandibular bilateral sagittal split osteotomy (BSSO). The analyzes consisted of measurements of the distance from the inferior alveolar nerve to the lingual and buccal bone cortex, the mandibular thickness measurement, the degree of mandibular bone density (Hounsfield units) and the proportion of cortical and medullary bone in three different locations. During the intraoperative period, the segment to which the nerve remained adhered after performing mandibular sagittal split ramus osteotomy was analyzed, and these data were correlated. Results: The distance measured from the mandibular canal to the internal surface of the buccal cortical bone showed a mean value of 2.6 mm at point “A” when the nerve remained adhered the distal segment and mean value of 0.7 mm when the nerve were adhered in proximal segment. As for the thickness the mean value was 11.2 mm at point “A”, when the nerve adhered in distal segments and 9.8 mm at point “A”, when adhered in proximal segment. In the 40 osteotomies evaluated, the mandibular thickness, distance from the mandibular canal to the buccal cortical bone and distance from the mandibular canal to the lingual cortical bone were observed to be significantly related to the intraoperative position of the inferior alveolar nerve (p<0,05). Conclusion: This study concluded that mandibles that presented a narrow mandibular body and with a reduced distance of the inferior alveolar nerve trajectory to the internal surface of the lingual and vestibular cortical bone less than two millimeters have significantly increased the risk of nerve entrapment during mandibular sagittal split ramus osteotomies

Formation of black holes in the pair-instability mass gap: evolution of a post-collision star

The detection of GW190521 by the LIGO-Virgo collaboration revealed the existence of black holes (BHs) in the pair-instability (PI) mass gap. Here, we investigate the formation of BHs in the PI mass gap via star -- star collisions in young stellar clusters. To avoid PI, the stellar-collision product must have a relatively small core and a massive envelope. We generate our initial conditions from the outputs of a hydro-dynamical simulation of the collision between a core helium burning star ($\sim 58$ M$_\odot$) and a main-sequence star ($\sim 42$ M$_\odot$). The hydro-dynamical simulation allows us to take into account the mass lost during the collision ($\sim 12$ M$_\odot$) and to build the chemical composition profile of the post-collision star. We then evolve the collision product with the stellar evolution codes PARSEC and MESA. We find that the post-collision star evolves through all the stellar burning phases until core collapse, avoiding PI. At the onset of core collapse, the post-collision product is a blue super-giant star. We estimate a total mass loss of about 1 M$_\odot$ during the post-collision evolution, due to stellar winds and shocks induced by neutrino emission in a failed supernova. The final BH mass is $\approx{87}$ M$_\odot$. Therefore, we confirm that the collision scenario is a suitable formation channel to populate the PI mass gap.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures, comments welcome

An Innovative Workspace for The Cherenkov Telescope Array

The Cherenkov Telescope Array (CTA) is an initiative to build the next generation, ground-based gamma-ray observatories. We present a prototype workspace developed at INAF that aims at providing innovative solutions for the CTA community. The workspace leverages open source technologies providing web access to a set of tools widely used by the CTA community. Two different user interaction models, connected to an authentication and authorization infrastructure, have been implemented in this workspace. The first one is a workflow management system accessed via a science gateway (based on the Liferay platform) and the second one is an interactive virtual desktop environment. The integrated workflow system allows to run applications used in astronomy and physics researches into distributed computing infrastructures (ranging from clusters to grids and clouds). The interactive desktop environment allows to use many software packages without any installation on local desktops exploiting their native graphical user interfaces. The science gateway and the interactive desktop environment are connected to the authentication and authorization infrastructure composed by a Shibboleth identity provider and a Grouper authorization solution. The Grouper released attributes are consumed by the science gateway to authorize the access to specific web resources and the role management mechanism in Liferay provides the attribute-role mapping

Plot-based urbanism and urban morphometrics : measuring the evolution of blocks, street fronts and plots in cities

Generative urban design has been always conceived as a creation-centered process, i.e. a process mainly concerned with the creation phase of a spatial transformation. We argue that, though the way we create a space is important, how that space evolves in time is ways more important when it comes to providing livable places gifted by identity and sense of attachment. We are presenting in this paper this idea and its major consequences for urban design under the title of “Plot-Based Urbanism”. We will argue that however, in order for a place to be adaptable in time, the right structure must be provided “by design” from the outset. We conceive urban design as the activity aimed at designing that structure. The force that shapes (has always shaped) the adaptability in time of livable urban places is the restless activity of ordinary people doing their own ordinary business, a kind of participation to the common good, which has hardly been acknowledged as such, that we term “informal participation”. Investigating what spatial components belong to the spatial structure and how they relate to each other is of crucial importance for urban design and that is the scope of our research. In this paper a methodology to represent and measure form-related properties of streets, blocks, plots and buildings in cities is presented. Several dozens of urban blocks of different historic formation in Milan (IT) and Glasgow (UK) are surveyed and analyzed. Effort is posed to identify those spatial properties that are shared by clusters of cases in history and therefore constitute the set of spatial relationships that determine the morphological identity of places. To do so, we investigate the analogy that links the evolution of urban form as a cultural construct to that of living organisms, outlining a conceptual framework of reference for the further investigation of “the DNA of places”. In this sense, we identify in the year 1950 the nominal watershed that marks the first “speciation” in urban history and we find that factors of location/centrality, scale and street permeability are the main drivers of that transition towards the entirely new urban forms of contemporary cities

Automating the Generation of Cyber Range Virtual Scenarios with VSDL

A cyber range is an environment used for training security experts and testing attack and defence tools and procedures. Usually, a cyber range simulates one or more critical infrastructures that attacking (red) and defending (blue) teams must compromise and protect, respectively. The infrastructure can be physically assembled, but much more convenient is to rely on the Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) paradigm. Although some modern technologies support the IaaS, the design and deployment of scenarios of interest is mostly a manual operation. As a consequence, it is a common practice to have a cyber range hosting few (sometimes only one), consolidated scenarios. However, reusing the same scenario may significantly reduce the effectiveness of the training and testing sessions. In this paper, we propose a framework for automating the definition and deployment of arbitrarily complex cyber range scenarios. The framework relies on the virtual scenario description language (VSDL), i.e., a domain-specific language for defining high-level features of the desired infrastructure while hiding low-level details. The semantics of VSDL is given in terms of constraints that must be satisfied by the virtual infrastructure. These constraints are then submitted to an SMT solver for checking the satisfiability of the specification. If satisfiable, the specification gives rise to a model that is automatically converted to a set of deployment scripts to be submitted to the IaaS provider