The use of LANDSAT data to monitor the urban growth of Sao Paulo Metropolitan area

Urban growth from 1977 to 1979 of the region between Billings and the Guarapiranga reservoir was mapped and the problematic urban areas identified using several LANDSAT products. Visual and automatic interpretation techniques were applied to the data. Computer compatible tapes of LANDSAT multispectral scanner data were analyzed through the maximum likelihood Gaussian algorithm. The feasibility of monitoring fast urban growth by remote sensing techniques for efficient urban planning and control is demonstrated

Study of the urban evolution of Brasilia with the use of LANDSAT data

The urban growth of Brasilia within the last ten years is analyzed with special emphasis on the utilization of remote sensing orbital data and automatic image processing. The urban spatial structure and the monitoring of its temporal changes were focused in a whole and dynamic way by the utilization of MSS-LANDSAT images for June 1973, 1978 and 1983. In order to aid data interpretation, a registration algorithm implemented at the Interactive Multispectral Image Analysis System (IMAGE-100) was utilized aiming at the overlap of multitemporal images. The utilization of suitable digital filters, combined with the images overlap, allowed a rapid identification of areas of possible urban growth and oriented the field work. The results obtained permitted an evaluation of the urban growth of Brasilia, taking as reference the proposed stated for the construction of the city

Data-driven topo-climatic mapping with machine learning methods

Automatic environmental monitoring networks enforced by wireless communication technologies provide large and ever increasing volumes of data nowadays. The use of this information in natural hazard research is an important issue. Particularly useful for risk assessment and decision making are the spatial maps of hazard-related parameters produced from point observations and available auxiliary information. The purpose of this article is to present and explore the appropriate tools to process large amounts of available data and produce predictions at fine spatial scales. These are the algorithms of machine learning, which are aimed at non-parametric robust modelling of non-linear dependencies from empirical data. The computational efficiency of the data-driven methods allows producing the prediction maps in real time which makes them superior to physical models for the operational use in risk assessment and mitigation. Particularly, this situation encounters in spatial prediction of climatic variables (topo-climatic mapping). In complex topographies of the mountainous regions, the meteorological processes are highly influenced by the relief. The article shows how these relations, possibly regionalized and non-linear, can be modelled from data using the information from digital elevation models. The particular illustration of the developed methodology concerns the mapping of temperatures (including the situations of Föhn and temperature inversion) given the measurements taken from the Swiss meteorological monitoring network. The range of the methods used in the study includes data-driven feature selection, support vector algorithms and artificial neural network

On the acoustic levitation stability behaviour of spherical and ellipsoidal particles

We present here an in-depth analysis of particle levitation stability and the role of the radial and axial forces exerted on fixed spherical and ellipsoidal particles levitated in an axisymmetric acoustic levitator, over a wide range of particle sizes and surrounding medium viscosities. We show that the stability behaviour of a levitated particle in an axisymmetric levitator is unequivocally connected to the radial forces: the loss of levitation stability is always due to the change of the radial force sign from positive to negative. It is found that the axial force exerted on a sphere of radius ${R}_{s}$ increases with increasing viscosity for ${R}_{s} / \lambda \lt 0. 0125$ ( $\lambda$ is the acoustic wavelength), with the viscous contribution of this force scaling with the inverse of the sphere radius. The axial force decreases with increasing viscosity for spheres with ${R}_{s} / \lambda \gt 0. 0125$ . The radial force, on the other hand, decreases monotonically with increasing viscosity. The radial and axial forces exerted on an ellipsoidal particle are larger than those exerted on a volume-equivalent sphere, up to the point where the ellipsoid starts to act as an obstacle to the formation of the standing wave in the levitator chambe

Bakhtinian theory and modernist theatre? Carnival and dialogism in Shaw's Arms and the Man, Jarry's Ubu Roi and Pirandello's Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore and Enrico IV

This thesis sets itself the double task of analysing the chosen dramatic texts through Bakhtin's theories of carnival and dialogism, while at the same time debating these categories, exploring their validity, and testing their possible applications to the interpretation of modernist dramatic texts. The main body of the thesis will follow a critical path through Shaw's Arms and the Man, Pirandello's Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore, Jarry's Ubu Roi, and Pirandello's Enrico IV, highlighting the process of the debunking of conventions and ideology operated by the various texts. Shaw's Arms and the Man, the most traditional and least controversial in relation to Bakhtin's categories of interpretation, shows how they can be applied in a relatively straightforward and unproblematic way; the subsequent analysis of Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore starts to suggest some problems and flaws within the Bakhtinian conceptual framework; then, in the chapter on Ubu Roi, it will be argued that Bakhtin's theories of carnivalesque subversion become problematic when taken to such an extreme as this play seems to do. Finally, the analysis of Enrico IV attempts to show how the categories of carnival and dialogism can be observed utterly disrupting any convention or certainty about life and the self, and how therefore they have a tragic potential, to which Bakhtin himself remained blind

Screening tools for postpartum depression: validity and cultural dimensions

Objective: The purpose of this study is to review the main postpartum screening tools currently used in terms of their ability to screen for postnatal depression. Furthermore, the cultural characteristics of depressive postpartum symptomatology are examined.Method: A systematic literature search was conducted for the period 1987-2009, using the Medline electronic database for the following keywords: postpartum depression and postnatal depression. These terms were combined with: assessment, screening and psychometric tools. Results: Of the four screening tools reviewed and compared, the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) and the Postpartum Depression Screening Scale (PDSS) presented substantial sensitivity and specificity as screening tools. However, none of the instruments could be rated flawless when applied to different cultural contexts. Conclusions: In addition to the EPDS, a new generation of instruments is currently available. Supplementary research is needed to substantiate their use as screening tools in general practice. Additional studies are needed to adapt and test instruments to detect postnatal depression within a wider range of languages and cultures.Key words: Acculturation; Postnatal depression; Postpartum depression; Scales; Screenin

Urban land use of the Sao Paulo metropolitan area by automatic analysis of LANDSAT data

The separability of urban land use classes in the metropolitan area of Sao Paulo was studied by means of automatic analysis of MSS/LANDSAT digital data. The data were analyzed using the media K and MAXVER classification algorithms. The land use classes obtained were: CBD/vertical growth area, residential area, mixed area, industrial area, embankment area type 1, embankment area type 2, dense vegetation area and sparse vegetation area. The spectral analysis of representative samples of urban land use classes was done using the "Single Cell" analysis option. The classes CBD/vertical growth area, residential area and embankment area type 2 showed better spectral separability when compared to the other classes

Somatotopic organization of STN and DBS implications in Parkinson's disease - A case report of a woman "halved" by DBS stimulation.

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Kinetic modeling and microbial assessment by fluorescent in situ hybridization in anaerobic sequencing batch biofilm reactors treating sulfate-rich wastewater

This paper reports the results of applying anaerobic sequencing batch biofilm reactors (AnSBBR) for treating sulfate-rich wastewater. The reactor was filled with polyurethane foam matrices or with eucalyptus charcoal, used as the support for biomass attachment. Synthetic wastewater was prepared with two ratios between chemical oxygen demand (COD) and sulfate concentration (COD/SO4(2-)) of 0.4 and 3.2. For a COD/SO4(2-) ratio of 3.2, the AnSBBR performance was influenced by the support material used; the average levels of organic matter removal were 67% and 81% in the reactors filled with polyurethane foam and charcoal, respectively, and both support materials were associated with similar levels of sulfate reduction (above 90%). In both reactors, sulfate-reducing bacteria (SRB) represented more than 65% of the bacterial community. The kinetic model indicated equilibrium between complete- and incomplete-oxidizing SRB in the reactor filled with polyurethane foam and predominantly incomplete-oxidizing SRB in the reactor filled with charcoal. Methanogenic activity seems to have been the determining factor to explain the better performance of the reactor filled with charcoal to remove organic matter at a COD/SO4(2-) ratio of 3.2. For a COD/SO4(2-) ratio of 0.4, low values of sulfate reduction (around 32%) and low reaction rates were observed as a result of the small SRB population (about 20% of the bacterial community). Although the support material did not affect overall performance for this condition, different degradation pathways were observed; incomplete oxidation of organic matter by SRB was the main kinetic pathway and methanogenesis was negligible in both reactors.This work was funded by the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) and the Financiadora de Estudos e Projetos (FINEP), Brazil. The authors acknowledge the grants received from FAPESP and the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq), Brazi