Customized housing design: Tools to enable inhabitants to co-design their house

In architecture, the individual needs and preferences of the end users need to be achieved in order to ensure a successful design. Standardized houses have been for long the reason for inhabitants' lack of satisfaction. The participation of inhabitants in the design process of their own houses is a crucial aspect to address housing customization, however there is a lack of effective tools to help inhabitants co-design their houses. Generative design solutions seem to be an effective way to address mass customization problem. In this paper we present a literature review on computer aided design systems that allow inhabitants to design, or partially design, their own houses. Existing solutions are classified in several categories (as generation process, target users, type of outcome, type of interaction, availability) regarding to what they accomplish and then analysed.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Using digital tools to facilitate co-design in housing projects

Community participation in architecture and urban planning is crucial for the satisfaction of end users. Housing that are not adjusted to inhabitants’ needs lead to modification works that generate unnecessary waste. This could be avoided if the design of houses was defined from the beginning with the participation of inhabitants. The use of digital technologies benefits design participatory processes by allowing non-design specialists to obtain a better understanding of space and design possibilities. There exist digital tools for housing customization, but these were not developed along with potential users. The aim of the present work is to define the requirements for a digital design tool that facilitates the involvement of inhabitants in the definition of the design of their homes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Get Together: A digital platform for urban social participation

Citizens are the daily users of urban spaces and their facilities. It is important that they collaborate with local authorities for effective management, development, and maintenance of the cities they live in. Public participation although important is still developing in several European cities because its implementation poses difficulties. In this paper we argue that using digital technologies via a participatory digital tool, can empower citizens towards more engagement and collaboration on the city development. Despite the existence of several participation tools, we identified the lack of a tool that allows citizens to collaborate more actively in local development in a simple way. In this paper we introduce Get Together, a tool designed to improve collaboration between citizens and local authorities, that proposes a user experience that enables citizens to create design solutions, promote debate and perform a vote on the preferred solution, while having technical advice from municipal officials’ specialists.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Revisiting the city, augmented with digital technologies: The SeeARch tool

This paper presents a digital tool that enables the city inhabitants or visitors to acquire in real time, relevant information about several aspects of a given city, augmenting their real experience of the place. We used digital technologies, particularly an in-house developed Augmented Reality (AR) tool referred to as SeeARch,that augments in situ the city explo-ration experience. This tablet-based AR tool, enables mobile users to recognize the facade of specific buildings and, in real-time, superimpose relevant associated 3D and multimedia information, while visiting the city. The aim of this app is to provide customized infor-mation to visitors suiting their own interests and time to visit the city. User satisfaction evaluation tests were performed with a sample of the potential users. The outcomes of such user studies, showed that participants considered that our approach delivers a more detailed knowledge about the city, and is more informative, when compared with the nor-mal sight-seeing visits in the city, performed by the same participants.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

Synthesis and characterization of four novel 1,3-azole based push-pull heterocyclic systems.

Benz[X]azole derivatives are interesting compounds due to their diverse biological activities and interesting optical properties. The benzothiazole, benzimidazole and benzoxazole heterocycles are heteroaromatic electron deficient moieties that act as both acceptor groups and π-conjugated spacers with auxiliary electron withdrawing ability. Moreover, benzimidazole derivatives offers the possibility of substitution on the nitrogen atom for further tuning of their optical and electronic properties. Recently we have reported the synthesis and evaluation of the electronic, thermal and optical properties of a large number of series of benz[X]azole derivatives functionalized with different π-spacers having in mind their application as optical chemosensors, nonlinear optical and photochromic materials, and emissive organic components for OLEDs. In continuation of the work developed in our research group, we report in this work the synthesis, the characterization and the evaluation of the optical properties of four novel 1-(4thiophene-2-yl)phenyl)-1H-pyrrole derivatives functionalized with different benz[X]azole moieties (benzothiazole, benzimidazole and benzoxazole). The results showed that the optical properties could be readily tuned by changing the electronic nature of the azole ring, or even by introduction of a strong acceptor group.Thank are due to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal) and FEDER-COMPETE for financial support through Centro de Química (UID/QUI/00686/2013 and UID/ QUI/0686/2016), and a PhD grant to S. S. M. Fernandes (SFRH/BD/87786/2012). The NMR spectrometer Bruker Avance III 400 is part of the National NMR Network and was purchased within the framework of the National Program for Scientific Re-equipment, contract REDE/1517/RMN/2005 with funds from POCI 2010 (FEDER) and FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Synthesis and characterization of novel thienyl-phthalazine based heterocyclic systems functionalized with (bi)thiophene moieties

The phthalazine moiety has a highly -deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good deficient aromatic character that makes it a good candidate to be incorporated as electron acceptor group, or even as spacer with auxiliary electron withdrawing abilities, into push-pull systems. Additionally, offers the possibility of protonation, hydrogen bond formation, and chelation through the nitrogen atoms. Phthalazine derivatives have applications as therapeutic agents, chemiluminescent materials, ligands in transition metal catalysis, and as optical materials. Some time ago, our research group developed a methodology for the preparation of phthalazine derivatives in three steps, affording halo-thienyl-phthalazine derivatives that play an important role in diazine chemistry since they offer great potential for further functionalization by nucleophilic displacement of the halogen, making numerous otherwise inaccessible diazines become available. In continuation of the work developed before by our research group, we report in this communication the synthesis and the evaluation of the optical properties of two novel thienyl-phthalazine derivatives, having in mind further functionalization to prepare push-pull heterocyclic systems for several optical and photovoltaic applications. These studies showed that the optical properties could be readily tuned by varying the π-conjugation path length through the introduction of a second thiophene unit.Thank are due to Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (Portugal) and FEDER-COMPETE for financial support through Centro de Química (UID/QUI/00686/2013 and UID/ QUI/0686/2016), and a PhD grant to S. S. M. Fernandes (SFRH/BD/87786/2012). The NMR spectrometer Bruker Avance III 400 is part of the National NMR Network and was purchased within the framework of the National Program for Scientific Re-equipment, contract REDE/1517/RMN/2005 with funds from POCI 2010 (FEDER) and FCT.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Simulation of a milk run material transportation system in the semiconductors industry

This paper deals with a project that consisted in the implementation of a Milk Run Lot Transportation System in Qimonda Porto Test Area, done by a multidisciplinary team formed by Qimonda Porto's workers, and the development of the corresponding simulation model. The first part of the study concerns an industrial engineering assessment of the test area, which identified sources of waste and improvement possibilities, and the implementation process of a Milk Run system in this area. Secondly, the results of the system implementation are discussed, and the construction of a simulation model in Arena® is presented. The purpose of the simulation exercise is to test different system configurations that may allow the improvement of the real-world system. Finally, some information about the simulation results and further steps to be taken regarding the improvement of the system is presented. The target of the project, framed in a Lean approach, was to reduce waste, namely transportation waste, thus optimizing the utilization of the test area human resources.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Eye-movements reveal semantic interference effects during the encoding of naturalistic scenes in long-term memory

Similarity-based semantic interference (SI) hinders memory recognition. Within long-term visual memory paradigms, the more scenes (or objects) from the same semantic category are viewed, the harder it is to recognize each individual instance. A growing body of evidence shows that overt attention is intimately linked to memory. However, it is yet to be understood whether SI mediates overt attention during scene encoding, and so explain its detrimental impact on recognition memory. In the current experiment, participants watched 372 photographs belonging to different semantic categories (e.g., a kitchen) with different frequency (4, 20, 40 or 60 images), while being eye-tracked. After 10 minutes, they were presented with the same 372 photographs plus 372 new photographs and asked whether they recognized (or not) each photo (i.e., old/new paradigm). We found that the more the SI, the poorer the recognition performance, especially for old scenes of which memory representations existed. Scenes more widely explored were better recognized, but for increasing SI, participants focused on more local regions of the scene in search for its potentially distinctive details. Attending to the centre of the display, or to scene regions rich in low-level saliency was detrimental to recognition accuracy, and as SI increased participants were more likely to rely on visual saliency. The complexity of maintaining faithful memory representations for increasing SI also manifested in longer fixation durations; in fact, a more successful encoding was also associated with shorter fixations. Our study highlights the interdependence between attention and memory during high-level processing of semantic information

Policies/politics, heritages and arts in contemporary cities

This panel aims to investigate knowledge, arts and policies in urban circuits through a transnational perspective. Our focus is on cultural production and performances by social collectives that employ political, cultural, management, economic and labor resources engendering exhibition scenarios, visibilities and disputes on urban public spaces. This comparative and ethnographic perspective (in its various forms) intends to contribute with an understanding on contemporary uses of public spaces in the city, in order to debate (re) urbanization processes and the role cultural practices, festive and artistic performances play in this context. We also propose a reflexive discussion on anthropologist’s practices and contemporary public policies, especially those with a cultural and heritage focus. This panel proposal is based on cooperation projects between researchers from Brazil, Argentina and Portugal with a vast experience in cultural and artistic practices research in the cities of Rio de Janeiro, Buenos Aires and Lisbon. Panel coordinators have also taken part in organizing national and international scientific events, including work groups and round tables, as well as joint bibliographic productions.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio