Applications of TIMS data in agricultural areas and related atmospheric considerations

While much of traditional remote sensing in agricultural research was limited to the visible and reflective infrared, advances in thermal infrared remote sensing technology are adding a dimension to digital image analysis of agricultural areas. The Thermal Infrared Multispectral Scanner (TIMS) an airborne sensor having six bands over the nominal 8.2 to 12.2 m range, offers the ability to calculate land surface emissivities unlike most previous singular broadband sensors. Preliminary findings on the utility of the TIMS for several agricultural applications and related atmospheric considerations are discussed

The city thought and the city built: design approaches to Praça do Comércio

This paper analyses the urban design processes of the square "Pracą do Comércio", in Lisbon. It comprises two distinct moments in its history. The first moment is about the period in the aftermath of the 1755 earthquake. The second analysis moment is about the late XX, and the early XXI century. It confronts a methodological analysis of the iconography and cartography of those periods, with the current local observations and their spatial visual assessment. The paper has three parts. First, it presents the six proposals submitted for "Pracą do Comércio" in the second half of the XVIII century. Another sets of four-period maps are also shown as these maps include also the medieval city designs. This reveals the continuity of the different projects' ideas for the "Pracą do Comércio". The second part deals with the placement of the D. José I (1714-1777) equestrian statue. This section discusses the placement of the statue as part of an overall plan where the "Pracą do Comércio" acts as a stage for the D. José I statue. The ideology of public praise towards the reigning king is evident in this tie-in between the square and the statue. At last, the square's different functions and uses during the late XX and the early XXI century are presented. For that, two recent projects are analysed. The first developed between 1992 and 2000 and the second from 2010. The analysis of the square designs reveals the existence of a strong connection with the past. The projects recover the medieval square design, both the opening towards the Tagus River and its design, regardless of the different proposals advances and retreats in relation to its form, notable buildings, and dimensions. Public art acts in an unabridged whole with the urban design. This is near to the notion of urban composition, in that the monument transcends the idea of a sculptural object and becomes the entire urban set. This understanding is in contrary to the notion of public art as a decorative element apposed on pre-existing spaces. The urban composition is also in contrary to the idea of public space as an outdoor gallery where the art pieces are independent units without any coherent dialog with the public space. The 1992 and 2010 plans, although formally and materially different, present the concomitant ideas. Both present ideas for the occupation of the lateral arcades of the square as the touristic and living areas. The current project (2010 drawing), much criticized by architects in the media, abandoned the ideas of the previous plan (1992). These included a road tunnel and an underground car park. The 2010 project includes some movement architectural barriers. It also presents a new design for the pavement based on a diagonal grid that leads to a novel reading of the square. These projects, proposed in the XVIII-XXI centuries, show how to interpret the memories, the symbolism and the uses of the "Pracą do Comércio". The recent projects are dissonant about the image of the square, but nonetheless, all projects respect the attributes of its genesis.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

The city shaped through the railway line: Albergaria-a-Velha, Portugal (1908-2018)

The construction of the railway lines in the cities has led to relevant territorial transformations and instigated the first urban planning operations all over the world. In Portugal, the deployment of the railway line — even though late in the second half of the 19th century — had a crucial role in the transformation of the territory. This article analyses the relationships between the implementation of the railways and the urban development. This is clarified with the case study of the city of Albergaria-a-Velha, in Portugal, which takes part in the largest railway system named “Vale do Vouga” line. The article is organized into three main moments. First, the implementation of the railways in the cities, in general, is addressed. Then, in a second moment, the implementation of the railways in Portugal is studied. Finally, the article focuses on the case of Albergaria-a-Velha and the way the railways relate to the urban development in this territory. It was found that, initially, the deployment of the train line in Albergaria-a-Velha was not too invasive in the territory, occupying predominantly agricultural lands. Also, it is noticed that Albergaria-a-Velha suffered its greatest urban growth during the early 70s of the 20th century. This came about abruptly and unregulated, similarly to what occurred in several other cities during this period. In the current urban structure, the railway line is an element that clearly divides the city. But still, over time, the railway line was responsible for moments in which the city was redesigned and adapted to it, through the new buildings and streets. In fact, the railway line had an important role in the regulation of the urban fabric, shaping and defining the urban growth in Albergaria-a-Velha. We conclude that the railway line produces two opposite effects in the urban design of Albergaria-a-Velha. It regulates the space, but acts simultaneously as a barrier. Not only it conditions the roads that it crosses, but also conditions the limits on the development of urban form, while not preventing the urban growth.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Assessing the capability of in silico mutation protocols for predicting the finite temperature conformation of amino acids

Mutation protocols are a key tool in computational biophysics for modelling unknown side chain conformations. In particular, these protocols are used to generate the starting structures for molecular dynamics simulations. The accuracy of the initial side chain and backbone placement is crucial to obtain a stable and quickly converging simulation. In this work, we assessed the performance of several mutation protocols in predicting the most probable conformer observed in finite temperature molecular dynamics simulations for a set of protein-peptide crystals differing only by single-point mutations in the peptide sequence. Our results show that several programs which predict well the crystal conformations fail to predict the most probable finite temperature configuration. Methods relying on backbone-dependent rotamer libraries have, in general, a better performance, but even the best protocol fails in predicting approximately 30% of the mutations

Electron spin relaxation in graphene with random Rashba field: Comparison of D'yakonov-Perel' and Elliott-Yafet--like mechanisms

Aiming to understand the main spin relaxation mechanism in graphene, we investigate the spin relaxation with random Rashba field induced by both adatoms and substrate, by means of the kinetic spin Bloch equation approach. The charged adatoms on one hand enhance the Rashba spin-orbit coupling locally and on the other hand serve as Coulomb potential scatterers. Both effects contribute to spin relaxation limited by the D'yakonov-Perel' mechanism. In addition, the random Rashba field also causes spin relaxation by spin-flip scattering, manifesting itself as an Elliott-Yafet--like mechanism. Both mechanisms are sensitive to the correlation length of the random Rashba field, which may be affected by the environmental parameters such as electron density and temperature. By fitting and comparing the experiments from the Groningen group [J\'ozsa {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. B {\bf 80}, 241403(R) (2009)] and Riverside group [Pi {\it et al.}, Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 104}, 187201 (2010); Han and Kawakami, {\it ibid.} {\bf 107}, 047207 (2011)] which show either D'yakonov-Perel'-- (with the spin relaxation rate being inversely proportional to the momentum scattering rate) or Elliott-Yafet--like (with the spin relaxation rate being proportional to the momentum scattering rate) properties, we suggest that the D'yakonov-Perel' mechanism dominates the spin relaxation in graphene. The latest experimental finding of a nonmonotonic dependence of spin relaxation time on diffusion coefficient by Jo {\it et al.} [Phys. Rev. B {\bf 84}, 075453 (2011)] is also well reproduced by our model.Comment: 13 pages, 9 figures, to be published in New J. Phy