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

Basketball game-related statistics that discriminate between teams season-long success

The aim of the present study was to identify the game-related statistics that discriminate between season-long successful and unsuccessful basketball teams participating in the Spanish Basketball League (LEB1). The sample included all 145 average records per season from the 870 games played between the 2000-2001 and the 2005-2006 regular seasons. The following game-related statistics were gathered from the official box scores of the Spanish Basketball Federation: 2- and 3-point field-goal attempts (both successful and unsuccessful), free-throws (both successful and unsuccessful), defensive and offensive rebounds, assists, steals, turnovers, blocks (both made and received), and fouls (both committed and received). To control for season variability, all results were normalized to minutes played each season and then converted to z-scores. The results allowed discrimination between best and worst teams' performances through the following game-related statistics: assists (SC=0.47), steals (SC=0.34), and blocks (SC=0.30). The function obtained correctly classified 82.4% of the cases. In conclusion, season-long performance may be supported by players' and teams' passing skills and defensive preparation

Symmetries and Ambiguities in the linear sigma model with light quarks

We investigate the role of undetermined finite contributions generated by radiative corrections in a $SU(2)\times SU(2)$ linear sigma model with quarks. Although some of such terms can be absorbed in the renormalization procedure, one such contribution is left in the expression for the pion decay constant. This arbitrariness is eliminated by chiral symmetry.Comment: 9 pages. Added references through the text; an author was added due to an important contribution; corrected typos; the title also was changed. Submitted to Modern Physics Letter

Ultraviolet and Infrared Divergences in Implicit Regularization: a Consistent Approach

Implicit Regularization is a 4-dimensional regularization initially conceived to treat ultraviolet divergences. It has been successfully tested in several instances in the literature, more specifically in those where Dimensional Regularization does not apply. In the present contribution we extend the method to handle infrared divergences as well. We show that the essential steps which rendered Implicit Regularization adequate in the case of ultraviolet divergences have their counterpart for infrared ones. Moreover we show that a new scale appears, typically an infrared scale which is completely independent of the ultraviolet one. Examples are given.Comment: 9 pages, version to appear in Mod. Phys. Lett.

Charge Influence On Mini Black Hole's Cross Section

In this work we study the electric charge effect on the cross section production of charged mini black holes (MBH) in accelerators. We analyze the charged MBH solution using the {\it fat brane} approximation in the context of the ADD model. The maximum charge-mass ratio condition for the existence of a horizon radius is discussed. We show that the electric charge causes a decrease in this radius and, consequently, in the cross section. This reduction is negligible for protons and light ions but can be important for heavy ions.Comment: 4 pages, 0 figure. To be published in Int. J. Mod. Phys. D