Dynamic Critical approach to Self-Organized Criticality

A dynamic scaling Ansatz for the approach to the Self-Organized Critical (SOC) regime is proposed and tested by means of extensive simulations applied to the Bak-Sneppen model (BS), which exhibits robust SOC behavior. Considering the short-time scaling behavior of the density of sites ($\rho(t)$) below the critical value, it is shown that i) starting the dynamics with configurations such that $\rho(t=0) \to 0$ one observes an {\it initial increase} of the density with exponent $\theta = 0.12(2)$; ii) using initial configurations with $\rho(t=0) \to 1$, the density decays with exponent $\delta = 0.47(2)$. It is also shown that he temporal autocorrelation decays with exponent $C_a = 0.35(2)$. Using these, dynamically determined, critical exponents and suitable scaling relationships, all known exponents of the BS model can be obtained, e.g. the dynamical exponent $z = 2.10(5)$, the mass dimension exponent $D = 2.42(5)$, and the exponent of all returns of the activity $\tau_{ALL} = 0.39(2)$, in excellent agreement with values already accepted and obtained within the SOC regime.Comment: Rapid Communication Physical Review E in press (4 pages, 5 figures

Designing tangible interfaces for collective decision making in interactive theatre

The focus of this project-based thesis work is how to design for audience participation in the context of an interactive live theatre play. The interactive play, Anatomy of a Decision, requires the audience to decide which direction the story of the play should take throughout nine scenes. These are the research questions answered in this thesis: How can I design for audience participation in an interactive theatre play? What behaviours emerge among the audience members due to the interaction design? The first question is answered through an iterative design process, outlined in the thesis. The second question is answered through an analysis of key findings derived from audience observations, questionnaires, and a qualitative interview with one of the audience members. The research confronts two design problems. The first design problem is how to mediate audience participation via interactive technology in a live theatre context without letting the technology set the boundaries for participation. The second is how agency (i.e. the individual’s feeling of control in an interactive narrative), can be provided and ideally increased for multiple co-located participants simultaneously rather than limiting a participant’s power in the decision because of multiple people making a single choice. The project was started in the beginning of 2014 with the creating of the interfaces, and ended with the premiere of the show Anatomy of a Decision in March of 2015. The outcome of the project is twelve interconnected tangible interfaces, integrated into preexisting tables within the theatre hall, and nine different applications for collective decision-making processes to be used with these interfaces. The decision mechanisms encourage the audience to either compete, collaborate, or discuss in order to take part in the decision. We discovered that the competitive and collaborative decision-making mechanisms were perceived as the most interesting and engaging by the audience, and that only these succeed in providing agency for the individual. These particular mechanisms give the individual the power to either compete to win, and in the case of the collaborative mechanisms, the ability to disrupt or collaborate in the collectives aim of success. This thesis consists of a written documentation along with online documentation of the performance in the form of video clips

Urban expansion and the right to green spaces for public use as an essential element in the right to the city

El proceso de expansión de las ciudades latinoamericanas se ha dado de manera vertiginosa en los últimos años, conformando ciudades con periferias extensas. Este configuración en la mayoría de los casos conlleva a tener una ciudad desprovista de espacios verdes de uso público y donde no se hace foco en el derecho a la ciudad por parte de sus habitantes. El objetivo de la investigación es indagar acerca del proceso de expansión urbana en Latinoamérica y cómo garantizar el derecho a los espacios verdes en el derecho a la ciudad. De este modo se busca corroborar como ya no basta con una correcta relación de área verde por habitante en ciudades donde periferia cada vez es más extensa sino que tenemos que pensar en la distribución espacial de los mismos.The process of expansion of Latin American cities has taken place accelerated in recent years, forming cities with extensive peripheries. This configuration in most cases leads to having a city devoid of green spaces for public use and where there is no focus on the right to the city by its inhabitants. The objective of the research is to investigate the process of urban expansion in Latin America and how to guarantee the right to green spaces in the right to the city. In this way, we seek to corroborate how it is no longer enough to have a correct ratio of green area per inhabitant in cities where the periphery is increasingly more extensive, but we have to think about the spatial distribution of them.Instituto de Investigaciones y Políticas del Ambiente Construid

Urban expansion and the right to green spaces for public use as an essential element in the right to the city

El proceso de expansión de las ciudades latinoamericanas se ha dado de manera vertiginosa en los últimos años, conformando ciudades con periferias extensas. Este configuración en la mayoría de los casos conlleva a tener una ciudad desprovista de espacios verdes de uso público y donde no se hace foco en el derecho a la ciudad por parte de sus habitantes. El objetivo de la investigación es indagar acerca del proceso de expansión urbana en Latinoamérica y cómo garantizar el derecho a los espacios verdes en el derecho a la ciudad. De este modo se busca corroborar como ya no basta con una correcta relación de área verde por habitante en ciudades donde periferia cada vez es más extensa sino que tenemos que pensar en la distribución espacial de los mismos.The process of expansion of Latin American cities has taken place accelerated in recent years, forming cities with extensive peripheries. This configuration in most cases leads to having a city devoid of green spaces for public use and where there is no focus on the right to the city by its inhabitants. The objective of the research is to investigate the process of urban expansion in Latin America and how to guarantee the right to green spaces in the right to the city. In this way, we seek to corroborate how it is no longer enough to have a correct ratio of green area per inhabitant in cities where the periphery is increasingly more extensive, but we have to think about the spatial distribution of them.Fil: Jensen, Karina Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Arquitectura y Urbanismo. Instituto de Investigación y Política del Ambiente Construido; Argentin

A comparative morphological revision of the aphid genus Myzaphis van der Goot, 1913 (Insecta: Hemiptera: Aphididae) revealed a new genus and three new species

The aphid genus Myzaphis van der Goot, 1913 from the tribe Macrosiphini is revised to include eight species. Apterous and alate viviparous females, known fundatrices and known sexual morphs (oviparous females and males) of Myzaphis bucktoni, M. juchnevitschae, M. rosarum, M. tianshanica and M. turanica are re-described and illustrated. Lectotype and paralectotypes of Myzaphis bucktoni and M. turanica are designated. The status of M. komatsubarae nomen dubium is discussed. Myzaphis avariolosa is regarded as a species belonging to the genus Ericaphis. Three new species: M. oezdemirae Kanturski & Barjadze sp. nov., M. tuatayae Kanturski & Barjadze sp. nov. from Turkey and M. rezwanii Kanturski & Barjadze sp. nov. from Iran are described and illustrated. Myzaphis bucktoni is recorded from Portugal for the first time. Diagnosis of the genus Myzaphis van der Goot, 1913 is redefined and a new genus Richardsaphis Kanturski & Barjadze gen. nov. is erected with the type species R. canadensis (Richards) comb. nov. Richardsaphis is for the first time recorded from the USA and hitherto unknown oviparous female and alate male are described and illustrated. Original keys to species of the genus Myzaphis and aphid genera of the tribe Macrosiphini with 2-2-2 first tarsal chaetotaxy are also provided

The landscape in the public space as an integration medium between the city and the water: The case of the La Plata region, Argentina

This article argues that the current form of urban growth together with a fragmented urban environment and the lack of proposals on public spaces would mean a loss in the values of landscape integration, mainly in the public spaces adjacent to the watercourses. The case study is La Plata region, Argentina, in order to verify the existing separation between the water courses and residential urban area and, therefore, one of its characteristic landscapes. For this, the research focuses particularly on those urban open spaces adjacent to watercourses, conceived as key elements and potential triggers for habitat improvement. In this context, in which the city tends to dispersion, it is worth asking how to intervene in these spaces in a way that improves the built environment. The methodology identifies the fundamental characteristics of urban expansion to understand the logics of expansion and the main forms and elements that make up the landscape. From this, levels of integration are assigned to the water courses throughout their journey. And finally, from the notion of landscape, it will be proposed strategies for the creation of a water network and green spaces that respond to the new demands of the population

El paisaje y la forma de expansión en la ciudad de La Plata: lineamientos y estrategias para la planificación del crecimiento urbano

La Plata es una ciudad planificada ex novo con un sistema de espacios verdes que materializaba las teorías higienistas del siglo XIX. Su trazado es racionalista, con diagonales y plazas cada seis cuadras logrando un equilibrio entre el espacio construido y el espacio público. Con los años la ciudad se expandió hacia terrenos productivos evidenciando una baja calidad urbana y paisajística que en adición a la falta de planificación y la carencia de espacios verdes genera un contraste con la situación dentro del casco urbano. La investigaciónpretende verificar que el crecimiento actual conformaría un entorno urbano fragmentado, tendiendo a la pérdida de la calidad paisajística. Se propone en una primera instancia identificar las características de la expansión urbana mediante un relevamiento exhaustivo del tejido que permita comprender las lógicas de expansión y las formas que configuran el paisaje. En una segunda instancia, se proponen lineamientos y estrategias de intervención.La Plata is a city planned ex novo with a system of green spaces that materialized the hygienist theories of the nineteenth century. Its layout is rationalist, with diagonals and squares every six blocks achieving a balance between the built space and the public space. Over the years the city expanded into productive land evidencing a low urban and landscape quality that in addition to the lack of planning and the lack of green spaces generates a contrast with the situation within the planned urban area. The research aims to verify that the current growth would form a fragmented urban environment, tending to the loss of landscape quality. In the first instance, it is proposed to identify the characteristics of urban expansion by means of an exhaustive survey of the fabric that allows understanding the expansion logics and the shapes that make up the landscape. In a second instance, guidelines and intervention strategies are proposed