Syrian refugees in Palestinian refugee camps and informal settlements in Beirut, Lebanon

Informal spaces often develop on the periphery of cities as a result of the arrival of rural migrants, national and international workers, refugees and others. In Lebanon during the 1950s, Palestinian refugees arrived and settledin tent camps, which were originally created in 1948 for temporary use. 69 years later, they are still considered refugees and still in these “temporary camps”, which have transformed into informal concrete slums. The number of Palestinians exceeds 500,000 in a Lebanese population of less than 4.5 million. The Syrian conflict has added a further one million Syrian refugees who, for security, as well as political and economic reasons, found themselves searching for shelter; they had no choice but to go to the existing overcrowded Palestinian camps or other dense poor neighborhoods, mostly in Beirut City, the capital city of Lebanon. This paper analyzes the transitional settlement of Syrian refugees in Lebanon, examining two distinct elements in the Beiruti urban fabric: the Burj El-Barajne Palestinian refugee camp and Nabaa Neighborhood, one of the informal urban areas. The cross comparison highlights the typology of housing, the use of space, the health situation and the challenges faced by new arrivals. It also evaluates the population transformation, the integration of refugees in the wider social structure of the host community and their incorporation in the labor market and local economy. Based on existing studies and first-hand materials gathered through interviewing residents while visiting both case-studies, this paper highlights current living conditions and provides recommendations for healthier and more sustainable urban environments. We also consider urban integration strategies to ensure refugee social and economic participation. The paper contributes towards improving outcomes for refugees and providing practical knowledge for humanitarian organizations, in Beirut or in similar urban refugee contexts

In vivo imaging of blood-brain barrier disruption in a multiple sclerosis animal model

La sclérose en plaques est une maladie inflammatoire du système nerveux central qui touche beaucoup de jeunes adultes dans le monde entier. Malgré les efforts de recherche, la cause demeure inconnue. Afin de développer de meilleurs traitements et de trouver un remède, les modèles animaux sont utilisés pour identifier des biomarqueurs cellulaires. La caractérisation de ces modèles est essentielle afin de bien transposer les résultats à la maladie humaine et de tester de nouveaux médicaments. Cette thèse est le résultat d'un projet de maîtrise au Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Québec (CRIUSMQ) qui visait à étudier la barrière hématoencéphalique en tant que biomarqueur possible chez un modèle animal de la sclérose en plaques. Le chapitre 1 présente les différents thèmes abordés dans ce projet. Les chapitres 2, 3 et 4 se concentrent sur les méthodes choisies, tandis que le chapitre 5 présente les résultats obtenus.Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease of the central nervous system that affects many young adults worldwide. Despite research efforts, the cause of the disease remains unknown. In order to develop better therapies and ultimately find a cure, animal models are used to identify cellular biomarkers. Characterizing these models is essential in order to properly relate findings to the human disease and test possible medications. This thesis is the result of a three-year Master's project at Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire en santé mentale de Québec (CRIUSMQ) that aimed to study the blood-brain barrier as a possible biomarker of disease pathology in a multiple sclerosis animal model. Chapter 1 introduces the different themes addressed in this project. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 focus on the materials and methods chosen, while chapter 5 presents the results obtained. These findings are discussed in chapter 6

Evaluación de proyectos en la enseñanza de la arquitectura y el urbanismo

Abstracts aceptados sin presentacion / Accepted abstracts without presentatio

Statistically Valid Variable Importance Assessment through Conditional Permutations

Variable importance assessment has become a crucial step in machine-learning applications when using complex learners, such as deep neural networks, on large-scale data. Removal-based importance assessment is currently the reference approach, particularly when statistical guarantees are sought to justify variable inclusion. It is often implemented with variable permutation schemes. On the flip side, these approaches risk misidentifying unimportant variables as important in the presence of correlations among covariates. Here we develop a systematic approach for studying Conditional Permutation Importance (CPI) that is model agnostic and computationally lean, as well as reusable benchmarks of state-of-the-art variable importance estimators. We show theoretically and empirically that $\textit{CPI}$ overcomes the limitations of standard permutation importance by providing accurate type-I error control. When used with a deep neural network, $\textit{CPI}$ consistently showed top accuracy across benchmarks. An empirical benchmark on real-world data analysis in a large-scale medical dataset showed that $\textit{CPI}$ provides a more parsimonious selection of statistically significant variables. Our results suggest that $\textit{CPI}$ can be readily used as drop-in replacement for permutation-based methods

Comparação entre método tradicional de georeferenciamento de imóveis rurais e possibilidade da utilização de sistema de informações geográficas como método alternativo, para uma propriedade rural situada no município de Sengés - Paraná

Orientadora: Professora Ma. Ângela Maria Klein HentzMonografia (especialização) - Universidade Federal do Paraná, Setor de Ciências Agrárias, Curso de MBA Internacional em Gestão AmbientalInclui referênciasResumo : O presente estudo teve como objetivo avaliar a possibilidade de realizar o georefe-renciamento de uma propriedade rural com o uso de imagens de satélite processa-das em ambiente SIG, de forma a obter valores comparáveis aos obtidos pelo geore-ferenciamento realizado com estação total. Foram feitos levantamentos em uma propriedade rural, localizada em Sengés - PR, no ano de 2012 com equipamento Estação Total LEICA TC 407, desenvolvidos por uma empresa especializada, sendo utilizados os resultados deste procedimento para comparação com os obtidos por meio do processamento das imagens do satélite RapidEye, referentes a 2014. O uso do solo da fazenda Tucunduva foi obtido pelo processo de interpretação visual da imagem do satélite RapidEye, com o auxílio do software Quantum Gis Valmiera, e os resultados quanto aos valores de área e perímetro foram comparados aos obtidos pelo georeferenciamento com estação total. A área totalizada com a estação total foi de 1.096,19 hectares, enquanto que com o uso das imagens RapidEye o total da área foi de 1.079,36 hectares, o que representa uma diferença negativa de 1,53% em relação aos dados da estação total, correspondente a aproximadamente 16,83 hectares, assim como se observou uma diferença negativa de 0,37% no perímetro da propriedade, o que corresponde a 75,60 metros à menos, quando mapeado com base na imagem RapidEye. Com relação ao Uso e Ocupação da Terra as áreas que apresentaram maiores acréscimos, considerando-se a diferença do calculado no SIG com o valor da estação total, foram: Áreas de Agricultura Temporária com 27,47 ha, Áreas de Pastagens com 9,26 ha e áreas de Preservação Permanente Preser-vada com 6,73 ha. As áreas que apresentaram maiores decréscimos foram: Áreas diversas ou Demais Áreas em 24,32 ha, Áreas de Agricultura Permanente com Frutí-feras em 13,93 ha e Áreas de Reflorestamento com Exóticas em 8,37 ha. Com estes resultados pode-se considerar que o georeferenciamento com base em imagens de satélite processadas em software SIG, apresenta resultados satisfatórios, sobretudo considerando o dinamismo de troca de culturas e crescimento de vegetação nativa, que podem ser evidenciados de forma pontual pelas imagens de satélite e, portanto, esse método pode ser utilizado em estudos como atualização do Uso e Ocupação da Terra de propriedades ou monitoramentos

A Survey Paper on Service Oriented Architecture Approach and Modern Web Services

Service-Oriented Architecture is an architectural design pattern based on distinct pieces of software providing application functionality as services to other applications via a protocol. It is a collection of micro-services which are self-contained and provides unit functionality. The architectural style has the following essential core features which are inter-operability, service abstraction, service discovery, service autonomy, service statelessness re-usability, loose coupling. Service-oriented architectures are not a new thing. The first service-oriented architecture for many people in the past was with the use DCOM (uses RPC – Remote Procedural Calls) and CORBA (uses IIOP protocol) but because of the lack of standards and also with the advent of modern web development (Web 2.0) and the use of mobile phones and their penetration service oriented architecture is being implemented as Web Services (uses mainly HTTP/HTTPS) protocol. Most common implementations of Web Services can be done as SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)-based which essentially is a HTTP/HTTPS POST with an XML payload in it. SOAP based web services expose service interface using WSDL (Web Service Description Language) and there is a pre-defined contract via XSD (XML Schema Definition) between the service being exposed and the client side that consumes this service. The other most popular lightweight implementation of web services is using RESTful (Representational State Transfer) architecture where the payload is in JSON (Java Script Object Notation) / XML and uses RESTful style of communication to access resources on the server. So any application written in any language for example C# or C++ or C or Groovy or Java that can make a HTTP call should be able to access the services and since the data is in XML/JSON they can make a sense of data and this way we can re-use services and be inter-operable. The goal of our survey is to delve deeper into SOA principles, key constituents and how Web Services - implementation of SOA has taken this into such a wide spread usage and created a phenomena and various technologies that can be used to develop/consume web services and also about the protocols being used and some common use cases in building re-usable and scalable application architectures using web services

Role of the neuronal K-Cl co-transporter KCC2 in inhibitory and excitatory neurotransmission

The K-Cl co-transporter KCC2 plays multiple roles in the physiology of central neurons and alterations of its function and/or expression are associated with several neurological conditions. By regulating intraneuronal chloride homeostasis, KCC2 strongly influences the efficacy and polarity of the chloride-permeable γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A and glycine receptor (GlyR) mediated synaptic transmission. This appears particularly critical for the development of neuronal circuits as well as for the dynamic control of GABA and glycine signaling in mature networks. The activity of the transporter is also associated with transmembrane water fluxes which compensate solute fluxes associated with synaptic activity. Finally, KCC2 interaction with the actin cytoskeleton appears critical both for dendritic spine morphogenesis and the maintenance of glutamatergic synapses. In light of the pivotal role of KCC2 in the maturation and function of central synapses, it is of particular importance to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying its regulation. These include development and activity-dependent modifications both at the transcriptional and post-translational levels. We emphasize the importance of post-translational mechanisms such as phosphorylation and dephosphorylation, oligomerization, cell surface stability, clustering and membrane diffusion for the rapid and dynamic regulation of KCC2 function

An Energy Resource Allocation Model for the University of Central Florida Central Energy Plant

The demand for energy increases every year, and it is important that we ensure that the energy consumed is used efficiently. This study examines a system which provides energy in multiple forms from multiple energy sources using multiple energy conversion equipment. Such a system is termed a Central Energy Plan (CEP). A linear programming model was formulated to provide a close approximation of a CEP operation. It was used to determine the optimal operating configuration, that is, which equipment should be on or off at a particular time of the day to minimize the operating cost of the plant while at the same time meeting output requirements. The CEP model was validated by using actual data provided by the physical plant personnel at the University of Central Florida (UCF). The feasibility of installation of a steam turbine driven electrical generator to improve the performance of the CEP was investigated as a test vehicle to prove the practicality of the model

A virada antropológica: o retorno do sujeito e da história

The emphasis on the representational field and the structural linguistics turn transposition into anthropology have opened space for new categories and new reflections in the discipline, which now question not only the possibility of a complete objectivity, but its own conception of representation. Thus, the present essay aims to show the influence of the structural turn in anthropology from two perspectives: a) the notions of history and structure; b) the presence of the author in ethnography and the textual production.El énfasis en el campo representacional y la transposición del giro lingüístico estructural hacia la antropología han abierto espacio para nuevas categorías y nuevas reflexiones en la disciplina, que cuestionan ahora no sólo la posibilidad de una objetividad total, sino su propia concepción de representación. Así, el presente ensayo pretende mostrar la influencia del cambio estructuralista en la antropología a partir de dos núcleos: a) las nociones de historia y estructura; b) la presencia del autor en la etnografía y en la producción textual.A ênfase no campo representacional e a transposição da virada linguística estrutural para a antropologia abriram espaço para novas categorias e novas reflexões na disciplina, que questionam agora não só a possibilidade de uma objetividade total, mas sua própria concepção de representação. Assim, o presente ensaio visa mostrar a influência da virada estruturalista na antropologia a partir de dois núcleos: a) as noções de história e estrutura; b) a presença do autor na etnografia e na produção textual

Reação de microimunodifusão em gel de ágar no diagnóstico sorológico da paracoccidioidomicose

We used the micro- and macroimmunodiffusion test for the qualitative and quantitative measurement of anti - P. brasiliensis antibodies in serum of patients with paracoccidioidomycosis. All 103 paracoccidioidomycosis sera (100%) were positive in the micro test versus 87% positivity index in the macrotest. All 83 control sera from patients with other diseases were negative in both tests. Titers of the positive sera tended to be higher in the microtest, which revealed sharper and easier to read precipiting bands. Microimmunodiffusion is simple to be performed, requires a minimum amount of reagents and allows the simultaneous testing of 102 sera. It may replace the macrotest specially in laboratories dealing with great serologic routine.Utilizou-se técnica de microimunodifusão dupla em gel de ágar para a medida quali e quantitativa de anticorpos circulantes anti - P. brasiliensis, comparando-se os resultados com o macrométodo. Todos os 103 soros de pacientes portadores de paracoccidioidomicose foram positivos no micrométodo contra 87% de positividade no macrométodo. Os 83 soros de pacientes sem paracoccidioidomicose foram negativos em ambas as reações. Os títulos dos soros positivos tenderam a ser mais elevados no micrométodo, que forneceu bandas de precipitação mais nítidas e fáceis de serem lidas. O micrométodo é de realização simples, utiliza pequena quantidade de material e possibilita o teste simultâneo de 102 soros. Acreditamos que ele poderá substituir o macrométodo, especialmente em laboratórios de grande rotina sorológica