Developing a 3D Web-GIS Mapping Platform to support seismic vulnerability assessment of urban areas: an introduction

In 2020, natural disasters globally affected around 100 million people, causing substantial economic and human losses. The population density in low-lying coastal or riverside areas heightens the risk of significant impacts from natural disasters. Due to its location, Portugal's tectonic environment induces low to moderate seismic and co-seismic hazards with the potential for considerable economic and human losses, especially in urban areas like Lisbon, underlying the urgency for enhanced risk assessment and preparedness strategies. While robust seismic risk models exist for Lisbon, the absence of a user-friendly tool capable of automatically estimating real-time earthquake damages and safe rescue pathways is a notable gap. This is where the proposed 3D web-GIS platform will play an important role. This platform aims to provide dynamic maps that illustrate the city's vulnerability to these natural disasters. The incorporation of 3D model buildings will enhance the visualization and communication of potential impacts and losses, thus facilitating more effective preventive and response measures. The platform's dynamic nature allows the integration of various models, including those for assessing building collapse risks and identifying priority areas and safe rescue routes. With dynamic, visual, and interactive representation of seismic risk data, the platform will enhance seismic vulnerability comprehension and improve the decision-making process for various stakeholders. For policymakers and urban planners, this platform will offer a powerful tool for visualizing the potential impacts of seismic events, aiding more effective urban planning and risk mitigation strategies. It will also provide emergency response teams with critical information for swift and safe response actions in the aftermath of an earthquake, potentially saving lives and reducing economic losses, ultimately contributing to safer, more resilient urban environments. The PhD thesis, entitled "Developing a 3D Web-GIS Mapping Platform to Support the Seismic Vulnerability Assessment of Urban Areas," which forms the basis of this abstract, is in its early stage. The research is currently in a comprehensive literature review, concentrating on seismic risk modelling, specifically in Lisbon City. This initial stage is crucial for identifying potential gaps and opportunities in current methodologies, which will inform and guide the development of the webGIS platform.UIDB/04683/2020, DOI: 10.54499/UIDB/04683/2020; UIDP/04683/2020, DOI: 10.54499/UIDP/04683/202

Geological setting of the chipindo mine: a preliminary analysis

As a contribution to the metallogenic model for the Chipindo mineral deposit, the preliminary characterization of the geology of the area is presented. The open-pit mine is located in Huíla, Angola, and currently explores primary gold. It is included in the South Sheet D-33/J of Caconda from the Geological Map of Angola at 1:250 000 scale. - essentially, composed by leucocratic granites, with potassium feldspar phenocrysts of idiomorphic habit and poikilitic texture. The exploration targets mineralised quartz veins. For this work, and as part of a PhD thesis of Kumoleha A., a total of 49 rock and mineral samples were collected in the mining area for the lithological and mineralogical characterization of the deposit. 21 samples were collected in the mining area, including the mineralized structures, and host rocks. The field description encompasses i) Quartz associated with leucogranites; ii) Mineralized quartz veins; iii) Pegmatitic veins; iv) Strongly fractured quartz; v) Quartz veins with en-echelon structures; vi) Weakly mineralized quartz; vii) Highly altered and deformed volcanic tuffs; viii) Volcanic rocks, with copper sulphides (mainly bornite); ix) Altered dolerite rock. To characterise the regional geological setting, 20 rock samples were collected in the following geological units: a) Acid metavulcanites; b) Granites to biotitic-amphibolic, porphyroid granodiorites; c) Gabbros, diorites and quartz-diorites, variably foliated, metamorphosed and/or metasomatized; d) Coarse-grained porphyroid leucogranites. Eight samples of mine waste were collected from the floatation tanks for geochemical analysis and study of tailings, including the potential environmental impact. The sampling and sample description already carried out allows the preliminary characterization of this gold deposit. Future investigation will include mineralogical, geochemical, petrographic and metallographic studies that will certainly increase our understanding of the processes that formed this mineral deposit

Biomechanics of Competitive Swimming Strokes

The aim of this chapter has two folds: (i): to perform a biomechanical characterization of the four competitive swimming strokes, based on the kinematics, kinetics and neuromuscular analysis; (ii) to report the relationships established between all the domains and how it might influence the swimming performance

Hipertensão arterial sistémica em idade pediátrica

The definition of hypertension (HT) in the pediatric age group is based on the normal distribution of blood pressure (BP) in healthy children. Normal BP is defined as being below the 90th percentile for gender, age and height, and hypertension as equal to or higher than the 95th percentile on at least three separate occasions. If the values are above the 90th percentile but below the 95th percentile, the child should be considered prehypertensive. Ambulatory BP monitoring is useful in the assessment of BP levels in the young. P values in children and adolescents have creased in the last decade, in parallel with increases in body mass index, and HT now has a prevalence of 2-5%. Obesity in childhood and adolescence is one of the main predictors of HT in adulthood, but it is also associated with other cardiovascular risk factors such as dyslipidemia, abnormal glucose metabolism, insulin resistance, inflammation and impaired vascular function. Left ventricular hypertrophy is the most prominent evidence of target organ damage caused by hypertension in children and adolescents. The goal for antihypertensive treatment is to reduce BP below the 95th percentile. Weight control, with regular physical activity and dietary changes, is the primary therapy for obesity-related hypertension. Weight loss decreases not only BP but also other cardiovascular risk factors. The indications for use of antihypertensive drugs are: symptomatic hypertension, secondary hypertension, established hypertensive target organ damage, stage 2 hypertension and failure of nonpharmacologic measures

Analysis of wind velocity and release angle effects on discus throw using computational fluid dynamics

The aim of this paper is to study the aerodynamics of discus throw. A comparison of numerical and experimental performance of discus throw with and without rotation was carried out using the analysis of lift and drag coefficients. Initial velocity corresponding to variation angle of around 35.5° was simulated. Boundary condition, on the top and bottom boundary edges of computational domain, was imposed in order to eliminate external influences on the discus; a wind resistance was calculated for the velocity values of 25 and 27 m/s. The results indicate that the flight distance (D) was strongly affected by the drag coefficient, the initial velocity, the release angle and the direction of wind velocity. It was observed that these variables change as a function of discus rotation. In this study, results indicate a good agreement of D between experimental values and numerical results.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Modelling Propelling Force in Swimming Using Numerical Simulations

In the sports field, numerical simulation techniques have been shown to provide useful information about performance and to play an important role as a complementary tool to physical experiments. Indeed, this methodology has produced significant improvements in equipment design and technique prescription in different sports (Kellar et al., 1999; Pallis et al., 2000; Dabnichki & Avital, 2006). In swimming, this methodology has been applied in order to better understand swimming performance. Thus, the numerical techniques have been addressed to study the propulsive forces generated by the propelling segments (Rouboa et al., 2006; Marinho et al., 2009a) and the hydrodynamic drag forces resisting forward motion (Silva et al., 2008; Marinho et al., 2009b). Although the swimmer’s performance is dependent on both drag and propulsive forces, within this chapter the focus is only on the analysis of the propulsive forces. Hence, this chapter covers topics in swimming propelling force analysis from a numerical simulation technique perspective. This perspective means emphasis on the fluid mechanics and computational fluid dynamics methodology applied in swimming investigations. One of the main aims for performance (velocity) enhancement of swimming is to maximize propelling forces whilst not increasing drag forces resisting forward motion, for a given trust. This chapter will concentrate on numerical simulation results, considering the scientific simulation point-of-view, for this practical application in swimming

13th FINA World Championships: analysis of swimsuits used by elite male swimmers

The purpose of this study was to describe the distribution of different swimsuits models used by male swimmers during all the finals at the 13th FINA World Championships, being held at Rome in 2009. Simultaneously, it was intended to verify the distribution of the different swimsuits used along the distances of the freestyle finals, and thus to understand the preferences of the top-level swimmers. It were used the results databases from the 13th FINA World Championships, in Rome 2009. Only the male swimmers participating at the finals were analyzed, for a total number of 17 individual swimming events. The wear swimsuit by each swimmer in a given event was observed from video recorded of the television broadcast. Male swimmers participating in the finals limited their choice to seven types of commercial swimsuits, of four different sports brands. Jaked01 Full® was the most used (47.07%), followed by the Powerskin X-Glide Full® (34.56%), the Powerskin X-Glide Pants® (7.35%) and the LZR Racer Full® (5.15%). In freestyle swimming events most of the male swimmers choose to wear full body swimsuits. Jaked01 Full® was predominant in the 50 m event, with 62.50% of swimmers choices. This value decreases to 25.00% when analyzing 100 m event, and remained similar over the longer distances swum. The Powerskin X-Glide Full® was used for 37.50% of the swimmers in 50 m swimming event, and it increases to 62.50% for the 100 m freestyle. These results seem to demonstrate that swimmers have preferences for full swimsuits, and for these two swimsuits, the Powerskin X-Glide Full® and the Jaked01 Full®

THE EFFECT OF WARM-UP ON SPRINTING KINEMATICS

The purpose of this study was to verify the effects of warm-up on kinematic variables during short distance repeated sprints. Twenty-two college students randomly performed 2 x 30-m running time-trials after warm-up or with no warm-up, in different days. Performance (time-trial) and biomechanical (step length and step frequency) were assessed during both repeated trials. Performance was 0.5% faster after warm-up in the first 30-m time-trial (p = 0.03, d = 0.44), but without differences on step length and frequency. The second sprint was not different between conditions, but it was better than the first sprint in the no warm-up condition. This condition also led to higher changes between the first and second sprint. Thus, the warm-up is suggested to improve maximal running performances and maintaining kinematics more similar throughout the sprints

13th FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP FINALS: STROKE KINEMATICS AND RACE TIMES ACCORDING TO PERFORMANCE, GENDER AND EVENT

The aim of this work was to compare the stroke kinematics and race times of the freestyle final races at the 13th FINA World Championships between: (i) the three medalists versus the last three finalists; (ii) males versus female swimmers; (iii) all events in each gender. Data was collected from the champioships official web site. There were no significant differences in the stroke kinematics neither in the race times between medallists and non-medallists. There were significant effects in the stroke kinematics and race times according to race event. There were significant effects in the stroke kinematics and race times according to swimmers gender. It seems there are different tactics and biomechanical strategies according to gender and swimming event