Urban design, public space and creative milieus: an international comparative approach to informal dynamics in cultural dsitricts

This paper explores the relation between urban design, publicspace appropriation and the informal dynamics verified on creative milieus,from an international comparative perspective. Based on an empirical approachto urban morphology, everyday life and symbolic public space appropriation onthose areas, ten cultural quarters around the world are studied: Bairro Alto(Lisbon); La Gracia (Barcelona); Vila Madalena (São Paulo); Beyoglu (Istanbul);Marais (Paris); Oltrarno (Florence); Akihabara (Tokyo); Kreuzberg SO36 (Berlin);Capitol Hill (Seattle); and Brick Lane (London). They represent very diversesituations in terms of their historical, cultural and economic backgrounds aswell as in what concerns to the spatial conditions that support creativeclusters and the vitality and sustainability of “creative milieus”. Drawing onliterature review and on the recollection and critical interpretation of visualinformation on these areas, a comparative approach to these cases is developed,considering multiple analytical dimensions, which enable us to map andcharacterize the diversity of urban cultural districts. This may provide acontribution towards the development of a new planning agenda for dealing withurban creative dynamics and cultural quarters.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Is street art institutionalizable? Challenges to an alternative urban policy in Lisbon

Two preliminary drafts of this paper were presented at two international conferences: a first version of the paper with the title “Is street art institutionalizable? The case of graffiti in Lisbon city center”, was presented to the 2012 Annual Meeting of the Association of American Geographers, 22-26 February 2012, New York, USA. A second version of the paper, entitled, “Is street art institutionalizable? Challenges to an alternative urban policy in Lisbon”, was presented to the Lisbon Street Art & Urban Creativity International Conference, Faculty of Fine Arts of the University of Lisbon, FBAUL, Lisbon, 3rd-5th July 2014. The authors express their gratitude for the comments and suggestions of participants on both sessions.In recent years Lisbon City Council promoted a new policy towards graffiti and street art, on one hand, fighting and actively controlling these practices in some central neighborhoods, and on the other hand facilitating it and institutionalizing it in specific areas of the city. In spite of all the controversy around it, being a multifaceted and quite inorganic set of public actions conducted by different city-council departments, this policy can be considered an alternative urban development policy. It is essentially a bottom-up kind of approach to urban problems, targeted to local community and, more than that, to a specific non-mainstream segment of urban society, and is directed to establish socio-political (and cultural) regulations in order to limit uneven urban development. Naturally, this policy had clear consequences in terms of what are the type, forms and quality of public art developed, as well as in the economic, social and cultural value that it creates in the city, specifically in its center. The aim of this paper is to analyze the implications of this action and the challenges they bring to the design of public policies in this field, seeking to understand the changes related with this process of “institutionalization” of graffiti, their immediate socio-economic and cultural impacts in the city, and their implications in terms of the own form of artistic expression, usually free and independent in its genesis.FC

Artistic Urban Interventions, Informality and Public Sphere: Research Insights from Ephemeral Urban Appropriations on a Cultural District

This paper draws upon two previous versions, which were presented at several international conferences: “Artistic intervention in public sphere, conflict and urban informality: an international comparative approach to informal dynamics in cultural districts”, Paper presented at the International RC21 Conference 2013, Resourceful Cities, Berlin (Germany), 29‐31 August 2013; and “Artistic Urban Interventions, Informality and Public Sphere: Research Insights from Ephemeral Urban Appropriations on a Cultural District“, paper presented at XVIII ISA World Congress of Sociology “Facing an Unequal World: Challenges for Global Sociology”, Pacifico Yokohama, Yokohama, Japan, 13th-19th July 2014 and at European Sociological Association Research Network 37 “Urban Sociology” Mid-Term Conference “Public spaces and private lives in the contemporary city”, Lisbon, FCSH-UNL, 19-21st November 2014.Artistic intervention in cultural districts can be an outstanding viewpoint to understand the multiple layers of uses and segregations that bring everyday life vitality to the complex organisms cities are. Urban informality contexts can be fundamental for the expression of this diversity and to liminality strategies, particularly interesting in the case of artistic intervention, as artistic creativity is often about transgression, differentiation, and, therefore, conflict. Small initiatives that develop in an informal and ephemeral way by artists who choose the city as stage for their work, exploring the ambiguous and flexible boundaries between public and private spaces are particular interesting, evidencing the usual conflicts verified on creative milieus but being also important to keep these places as vernacular as possible and to avoid gentrification processes. In this perspective, this paper aims to discuss this relation between urban interventions, informality and public sphere appropriation, analyzing the way informal artistic dynamics can contribute to urban re-vitalization and to the enhancement of real creative milieus. Drawing on a research-action based methodology the authors explore the results and impacts of three experiences of urban intervention that they developed in three consecutive years in informal urban contexts in Bairro Alto, the main cultural quarter of Lisbon, Portugal. These ephemeral artistic interventions introduced in the city new spaces of public use, performing different public and private spaces, and bringing them to the public sphere, creating also “new” zones that re-gain a utility in the city, contributing to the vitality and symbolic centrality of this area.FC

Urban design, public space and the dynamics of creative milieus: a photographic approach to Bairro Alto (Lisboa), Gracia (Barcelona) and Vila Madalena (São Paulo)

This text was presented as a paper to the 26th Annual Congress of AESOP (Association of European Schools of Planning), in Ankara, Turkey, July 10th-15th, 2012.Drawing on some results of a broader research project, this paper aims to discuss the relation between urban design and the creative dynamics in cultural districts. Appropriation and production of public spaces in three “creative quarters” (Bairro Alto, Lisbon; La Gracia, Barcelona; Vila Madalena, São Paulo) are analyzed. The specific conditions and ambiances which seem to be determinant to embed sustainable creative processes in these areas are studied, aiming to explain the development of “creative milieus” and their relation with the urban socioeconomic and morphological dimensions. The main conceptual and empirical framework of the project is briefly presented, in order to sum up the main key-issues on the relation between urban form and creative clustering. Then, the methodological and empirical approach followed in this particular part of our work is described. The analysis and discussion of more than one thousand images allowed characterizing each district on 15 analytical dimensions, covering material aspects, human appropriation and livability and the symbolic dimensions of it. Departing from a discussion on the boundaries of public spaces and their relevance for creative dynamics (through the conviviality and sociability they promote), it is argued that urban design characteristics and specific place morphologies are determinant for the attractiveness of creative activities and for the appropriation of these areas. Their role on the sustainability of each of these districts, as they become challenged as “vibrant” and “creative” centers in their cities, is also discussed. Finally some concluding policy guidelines are drawn out from the analysis.FC

Dynamic ground stress‐path evolution due to the railway traffic: A parametric study

No presente artigo apresenta‐se um estudo numérico sobre a evolução do estado de tensão geomecânico induzido pela passagem de tráfego ferroviário. O modelo numérico proposto é baseado na formulação 2,5D apoiada no MEF‐PML, permitindo a consideração da interação do sistema composto pelo comboio, via‐férrea e maciço de fundação. Para o caso de estudo proposto, as alterações do estado de tensão são sistematizadas sob a forma de trajetórias de tensão. Perante os resultados alcançados é possível reconhecer a grande influência da velocidade de circulação do comboio e da presença de irregularidades na via no comportamento da via‐férrea. Tirando partido dos conhecimentos adquiridos com a realização dos estudos paramétricos referidos, verifica‐se a adequabilidade de um ensaio laboratorial –ensaio torsional com cilindro vazado– na simulação das complexas trajetórias de tensão induzidas no solo de fundação pela passagem do tráfego ferroviário. Os resultados obtidos permitem perspetivar a simulação em laboratório dessa ação, através de um carregamento cíclico, com o objetivo de estudar a acumulação de dano nas amostras.In this paper, a numerical study of the geomechanical stress state evolution induced by the railway traffic is presented. The numerical model is based on a 2.5D formulation with the ability to account for the dynamic train‐track interaction. For the case study, the stress state evolution is systematized in the form of stress paths. The results obtained allow to recognize the great influence of the train speed and the presence of irregularities in the track for the behavior of the railway track. Based on the knowledge acquired during the implementation of previous parametric studies, the adequacy of the hollow cylinder torsional test to simulate the complex stress paths induced in the ground of the traffic railway is evaluated. The results obtained allow to put in perspective the simulation of these loads in laboratory, with the aim of studying the damage accumulation in the specimens.Peer Reviewe

Measuring media and information literacy skills: construction of a test

Research on media and information literacy has been growing exponentially over the past years, but it has focused more on the examination of media practices than on the assessment of media and information literacy skills. In this paper we describe the process of designing and implementing a Media and Information Literacy Test comprising 20 items. We present the results of the analysis carried out to validate the items and to construct a scale of media and information literacy skills using Item Response Theory (IRT). Findings indicate that the conceptual framework adopted is adequate to measure media and information literacy and that the test has good discrimination and difficulty parameters. The test is based on a more comprehensive framework used to assess media and information literacy skills than those used in previous studies and can be used on an item-by-item basis. In this sense, it is a novel contribution to current efforts to measure media and information literacy skills.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

A Dain Inequality with charge

We prove an upper bound for angular-momentum and charge in terms of the mass for electro-vacuum asymptotically flat axisymmetric initial data sets with simply connected orbit space

Knowledge and attitude towards the gradual reduction of salt in bread – an online survey

Aim: Assess knowledge and attitude towards the gradual reduction of salt in bread and the potential impact on eating habits of children (6-18 years) and their families, as part as a Health Impact Assessment pilot study.N/

Há alguma diferença entre as próteses de disco cervicais?

Objetivo: A artroplastia cervical na patologia degenerativa surgiu como alternativa à artrodese anterior com o objetivo de eliminar a “doença do nível adjacente”. As próteses de disco apresentam diferentes materiais, design, técnica e mobilidade. Os autores avaliaram dor, disfunção e complicações para comparar a eficácia de diferentes próteses de disco.Material e Métodos: Foram analisadas retrospectivamente as próteses de disco cervical realizadas entre 2004 e 2010, com o total de 26 próteses em 22 doentes. Os resultados de 5 próteses Baguera® foram comparados com 14 próteses Prestige®, 4 PCM® e 3 Bryan®. Foi utilizada a escala visual analógica da dor (VAS), Neck Disability Index (NDI) e inquirido o grau de satisfação. Imagiologicamente foi determinada estabilidade, mobilidade e alterações degenerativas.Resultados: O follow-up das 5 próteses Baguera® foi 20.2±13.7 meses e nas restantes 21 próteses foi 55.2±15.8 meses (p=0.02). A avaliação da dor não foi diferente. O grupo Baguera® apresenta superioridade na mobilidade (p=0.045), NDI pós-operatório (p=0.009) e melhoria do NDI global (p=0.01). Comparando doentes com disfunção nula/ligeira e severa/completa, a prótese Baguera® tem vantagem sobre as restantes 3 (p=0.04). Ocorreram complicações em 4 (9.5%) doentes do grupo misto, com 2 reintervenções e 2 doentes com ossificação heterotrópica e perda total de mobilidade da prótese.Conclusão: A prótese de disco Baguera® apresenta superioridade em mobilidade e função, e apesar de diferente follow-up não apresenta complicações enquanto as restantes 3 próteses apresentam complicações e perda de mobilidade. Estudos a longo prazo vão determinar se as vantagens teóricas continuam a traduzir benefícios clínicos

The influence of a specific exercise program on ventilatory muscle strength in individuals with Ankylosing Spondylitis

Ankylosing Spondylitis is a systemic chronic rheumatic inflammatory disease that progressively leads to structural changes that condition the functionality and quality of life of the individuals with the disease. These structural changes can also lead to changes in the respiratory system namely the decrease in ventilatory muscle strength.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio