2+1 Cases of rehabilitation of the Commercial Centre of Athens: study of a city block

Η διπλωματική αυτή εργασία ερευνά τους όρους επανακατοίκησης του Εμπορικού Τριγώνου Αθήνας. Από προσωπική έρευνα καταλήξαμε ότι αυτό μπορεί να γίνει με τρείς τρόπους: την επανάχρηση υφιστάμενου κτηρίου, την εκ νέου δόμηση και την αποκατάσταση και ενεργοποίηση των διατηρητέων κτηρίων. Επικεντρωνόμαστε σε ένα οικοδομικό τετράγωνο(μεταξύ των οδών Κολοκοτρώνη,Χαβρίου, Πραξιτέλους, Λεωχάρους) προκειμένου να μελετήσουμε τις παραπάνω περιπτώσεις σε σύστημα και παράλληλα την ενοποίηση και αναδιαμόρφωση του ακαλύπτου χώρου του τετραγώνου. Πάνω στο τελευταίο μελετάμε και τη διάνοιξη των υπαρχουσων στοών, για την ενεργοποίηση της δημόσιας κίνησης. Ξεκινάμε από την ανάλυση της περιοχής μελέτης σε πολεοδομική κλίμακα και καταλήγουμε σε προτάσεις κλίμακας 1/100 για τα κτήρια και τον ακάλυπτο. Κεντρική συνθετική ιδέα υπήρξε η δημιουργία κοινόχρηστων χώρων για συλλογικές δραστηριότητες: στο νέο κτήριο αυτοί παρεμβάλλονται ανάμεσα στις κατοικίες, μοιρασμένοι στα επίπεδα, ενώ στο κτήριο της επανάχρησης, ελλείψει χώρου, υλοποιούνται από την αίθουσα πολλαπλών χρήσεων σε ισόγειο/ ημιώροφο. Οι κατοικίες διατάχθηκαν με κριτήρια το βέλτιστο προσανατολισμό και την ύπαρξη για την κάθε μία υπαίθριου χώρου σε συνέχεια με το καθημερινό.This diploma project examines the conditions of rehabilitation of the Commercial Centre of Athens. After our own personal research we believe this can be possible in three ways: the reuse of existing buildings, the creation of new ones, and finally the renovation of preservable buildings. We focus our study on a specific city block (between the streets Kolokotroni,Havriou,Praxitelous,Leoxarous) and we search the above ways all together, along with the unification and re-design of the interior courts of the block. In addition to this we study the opening of the existing galleries in order to activate the everyday public routes. We start our research analyzing the given area(Commercial Centre) in an urban scale and we end up designing the building and the interior yard in 1/100 scale. Our main synthetical idea has been the creation of communal spaces for collective activities: we place these spaces between the domestic areas in the new building; in the building to reuse, however, we create on the ground floor a multifunctional small theatre, open to the community. The houses were placed at the best possible orientation and they all have a terrace in front of the living room.Χριστίνα Β. ΒούτουΜαρία Κ. Σερέτ

Preventing Data Ambiguity in Infectious Diseases with Four-Dimensional and Personalized Evaluations

Background: Diagnostic errors can occur, in infectious diseases, when anti-microbial immune responses involve several temporal scales. When responses span from nanosecond to week and larger temporal scales, any pre-selected temporal scale is likely to miss some (faster or slower) responses. Hoping to prevent diagnostic errors, a pilot study was conducted to evaluate a four-dimensional (4D) method that captures the complexity and dynamics of infectious diseases. Methods: Leukocyte-microbial-temporal data were explored in canine and human (bacterial and/or viral) infections, with: (i) a non-structured approach, which measures leukocytes or microbes in isolation; and (ii) a structured method that assesses numerous combinations of interacting variables. Four alternatives of the structured method were tested: (i) a noise-reduction oriented version, which generates a single (one data point-wide) line of observations; (ii) a version that measures complex, three-dimensional (3D) data interactions; (iii) a non-numerical version that displays temporal data directionality (arrows that connect pairs of consecutive observations); and (iv) a full 4D (single line-, complexity-, directionality-based) version. Results: In all studies, the non-structured approach revealed non-interpretable (ambiguous) data: observations numerically similar expressed different biological conditions, such as recovery and lack of recovery from infections. Ambiguity was also found when the data were structured as single lines. In contrast, two or more data subsets were distinguished and ambiguity was avoided when the data were structured as complex, 3D, single lines and, in addition, temporal data directionality was determined. The 4D method detected, even within one day, changes in immune profiles that occurred after antibiotics were prescribed. Conclusions: Infectious disease data may be ambiguous. Four-dimensional methods may prevent ambiguity, providing earlier, in vivo, dynamic, complex, and personalized information that facilitates both diagnostics and selection or evaluation of anti-microbial therapies

Multi-directional data ambiguity.

<p>Ambiguity was also expressed when temporal data directionality was evaluated: arrows that connected pairs of consecutive observations displayed different temporal directionality even when they exhibited similar numerical information (boxes, <b>a-d</b>). Such pattern indicated that some dynamic changes took place at temporal scales smaller than the one utilized. Therefore, the 3D, single line of data points defined by the L%, the phagocyte/lymphocyte (P/L) and the mononuclear cell/neutrophil (MC/N) ratios failed to discriminate dynamics: some observations with similar numerical values, which expressed different biological conditions, were not distinguished.</p

Longitudinal relationships in septic humans.

<p>Spatial patterns differentiated three data subsets among 7 septic patients analyzed with dimensionless indicators: (i) a vertical subset, (ii) a right subset, and (iii) the remaining observation, or ‘left’ subset (<b>a</b>). Higher M% and M/N ratio values distinguished the ‘right’ subset from the remaining data points, while higher L% and lower N/L ratio values differentiated the ‘left’ data point from the remaining observations (horizontal lines, <b>b</b>). Discrimination further improved when temporal and multidirectional data flows were assessed: several numerically similar observations displayed different directionalities (<b>c</b>). While not all observations could be analyzed statistically because some patterns included only one or two data point(s), the spatial-temporal analysis detected non-overlapping M% and M/N ratio distributions that differentiated by the ‘right’ subset with a left-to-right directional flow from the ‘right’ subset with a right-to-left flow (boxes, <b>d</b>). Non-numerical information (arrows) also distinguished ‘bottom/right-to-left’ from ‘bottom/left-to-right’ observations (boxes, <b>d</b>).</p

Human leukocyte spatial-temporal (HIV/MRSA-related) relationships.

<p>Viral load values of the HIV+ patient were not informative: they exhibited more than 1000-fold changes among clinically stable observations (arrows indicating green symbols, <b>a</b>). In contrast, dimensionless indicators (DIs) differentiated two spatial (‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’) subsets, which included two MRSA isolations within the vertical subset (set I, <b>b</b>), while all bacteria-negative data points were horizontally located (set II, <b>b</b>). A second set of DIs separated the ‘vertical’ data points into two sub-subsets: (i) the ‘top vertical’ and (ii) the ‘left horizontal’ groups, which did not overlap with the remaining (‘right horizontal’) data points (<b>c</b>). At least the L% and the M/N ratio distinguished the three spatial data subsets (<b>d</b>). More information was extracted when arrows that connected pairs of consecutive observations were measured (<b>e, f</b>). The assessment of <i>spatial</i>-<i>temporal data directionality</i> differentiated, twice, changes that took place within one day (days 118–119; and 135–136; arrows, <b>e, f</b>). While the spatial (3D) analysis detected only two or three data subsets (<b>b, c</b>), the spatial-temporal (4D) assessment distinguished five data subsets (<b>g</b>). For instance, the L%, M%, N/L, and M/N ratios differentiated ‘top vertical’ from the remaining observations (blue horizontal lines, <b>g</b>). The L% and N/L ratio also distinguished the ‘left/top-down’ observation from the ‘left/bottom-up’ observations (green horizontal lines, <b>g</b>). Furthermore, the N/L ratio discriminated the ‘right horizontal’ from the remaining subsets (red horizontal line, <b>g</b>). Some leukocyte profiles were associated with antibiotic therapy, for instance, higher M/L values were observed after antibiotics were prescribed, even after antibiotic therapy was discontinued (<b>h</b>).</p

Spatial-temporal and personalized data analysis.

<p>When the leukocyte data of five septic patients tested daily over three days were analyzed on personalized bases, several <i>temporal patterns</i> were observed (the data of the two remaining septic patients were not analyzed because they were tested only two days). At least <i>two directionalities</i> were differentiated: (i) data flows that came from the center or left and, over time, moved to the right (‘from left-to-right’, <b>a, b</b>); and (ii) responses that followed the opposite directionality (<b>c-e)</b>. These responses were induced by: <i>A</i>. <i>baumannii</i> (<b>a</b>), <i>E</i>. <i>faecalis</i> (<b>b</b>), <i>S</i>. <i>liquefaciens</i> (<b>c</b>), and <i>E</i>. <i>coli</i> (<b>d, e</b>).</p

Spatial analysis of low-complexity indicators.

<p>Even in its simplest version–which did not utilize dimensionless indicators–, the 4D method was more informative than the non-structured analysis reported in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0159001#pone.0159001.g001" target="_blank">Fig 1</a>. When low-complexity indicators that measured interactions involving two or more cell types were spatially analyzed (the phagocyte/lymphocyte [P/L], the mononuclear cell/neutrophil [MC/N], and the neutrophil/lymphocyte [N/L] ratios), two subsets of septic patients-related data, perpendicular to one another, were detected (<b>a</b>). The spatial analysis exhibited a single (one data point-wide) line of observations (<b>a</b>). When leukocyte data were partitioned according to the spatial patterns, several comparisons reached statistical significance ((<b>b)</b> and Table J in <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0159001#pone.0159001.s001" target="_blank">S1 File</a>).</p

Spatial-temporal data ambiguity.

<p>Ambiguity (numerically similar observations that expressed different biological conditions) was also documented when three-dimensional (3D) relationships were explored and single (one data point-wide) lines of observations were utilized to explore longitudinal data. <i>Ambiguity</i> exhibited <i>spatial-temporal relativity</i>: data points that corresponded to recent infections occupied more space and/or exhibited broader data ranges than observations not associated with recent infections and/or recorded over longer periods (<b>a-d</b>). For instance, observations recorded within three days (red arrow, <b>a</b>) displayed a broader data range than observations collected over the following four months (blue oval, <b>a</b>). Consequently, no numerical value of leukocyte data, per se, could distinguish recent from older or protracted responses.</p

Classic analysis of immuno-microbial data.

<p>The classic method did not discriminate: leukocyte data distributions overlapped among different biological conditions, such as fever-positive and fever-negative individuals or individuals that recovered or did not recover from infections (blue boxes, <b>a-d</b>). The analysis of temporal data did not improve discrimination (<b>e-h</b>). Four studies were evaluated, including: (i) one dog [<b>a, e</b>], (ii) one human infected by MSSA [<b>b, f</b>]; (iii) one human HIV case, with a secondary MRSA infection [<b>c, g</b>]), and (iv) seven humans presenting with sepsis [<b>d, h</b>]).</p

Canine leukocyte spatial-temporal relationships.

<p>When dimensionless indicators (DIs) were utilized and three-dimensional (3D) patterns were considered, canine data revealed two (‘left’ and ‘right’) subsets (<b>a, b</b>). Spatial data subsets exhibited non-overlapping lymphocyte percentages and N/L and M/L ratios (<b>c</b>). When temporal data directionality was considered, arrows expressing different directionality (<b>d</b>) increased discrimination: 4D (spatial-temporal) patterns distinguished five subsets (in addition to the first observation) and non-overlapping N% differentiated the ‘right side/left-to-right flow’ observations from the first one (horizontal lines indicate non-overlapping data subsets, <b>e</b>).</p