Urban Thoroughfares Research Articles

Lidar pose estimation method based on factor graph optimization

Abstract In the realm of computer vision and robotics, lidar SLAM is an important technical means. Lidar SLAM frequently serves to ascertain the spatial coordinates and orientation of mobile robots amidst their surroundings. In this paper, an adaptive factor graph optimization of the lidar pose estimation method using only point-to-line constraints is proposed. The algorithm only employs the measure of distance between a point and a line to construct the constraint problem and solves the pose through point-to-line ICP and the pose with higher accuracy by optimizing the factor graph. The robustness of mobile robots in indoor scenes is improved. According to different application scenarios, including street and gate, comparative experiments are carried out on the open-source data set M2DGR containing lidar data. Empirical findings demonstrate that the algorithm put forth enhances the precision of the lidar odometer when confronted with outdoor scenarios, thereby bolstering the resilience of mobile robots traversing urban thoroughfares.

Synchronized truck and drone routing under disastrous conditions (case study: Urban thoroughfares disinfection)

Spraying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are widely utilized in the agricultural sector for various field operations including irrigation as well as fertilizing and pesticides applications. In this paper, we explore the application of spraying UAVs to neutralize environmental contamination or infections in crises such as outbreak of epidemics. Given the limitations of current UAV technologies and their operational constraints in urban areas, such crisis management operations are carried out in collaboration with ground vehicles. Consequently, a novel mixed-integer linear programming (MILP) model is proposed to facilitate the collaboration of ground vehicles with UAVs. A hybrid heuristic algorithm consisting of simulated annealing and tabu search is also developed to solve the large-size instances efficiently. Finally, the applicability of the model and its solution approach are validated using real-world data.

AN INNOVATIVE METHOD IN MEASURING PERMEABILITY AND EVAPORATION PARAMETERS IN POROUS PAVEMENTS WITH EMPHASIS ON ITS EFFECTS ON INCREASING URBAN TRANSPORT SAFETY

Today, the increasing development of urbanization and climate change and its resulting issues, including the occurrence of urban floods, is one of the important issues facing city managers. One of these problems that seriously affect lives today is the occurrence of floods and the inundation of urban thoroughfares. Among the problems of floods in urban areas are the disruption of the urban transportation system, reduced transportation safety, inundation of thoroughfares, and consequently, the poor appearance of urban roads. One of the successful strategies in controlling urban runoff is the use of porous pavements in urban thoroughfares. The two capabilities of permeability and evaporation of a porous pavement lead to reduced runoff and a resultant lack of occurrence of inundation of thoroughfares; therefore, accurate measurement of these two parameters is of special importance. This study aims to introduce two devices for measuring the permeability and evaporation of porous asphalt with an innovative method that can measure the permeability and evaporation of asphalt and porous concrete with appropriate accuracy.

Review: Riemenschneider in Rothenburg: Sacred Space and Civic Identity in the Late Medieval City

Review: <i>Riemenschneider in Rothenburg: Sacred Space and Civic Identity in the Late Medieval City</i>

Tree layout methodology for shading pedestrian zones: Thermal comfort study in Bilbao (Northern Iberian Peninsula)

The need to reduce heat-related thermal stress calls for a reassessment of shading in outdoor urban spaces with the aim of achieving more habitable and sustainable cities. In this research, a methodology based on mathematical formulas is presented and applied to determine the most appropriate geometric properties and position of the trees to be planted in an urban canyon, based on its E-W solar orientation and the height of the buildings. The methodology relies on shading the largest possible surface area of the pedestrian zones of a canyon through the appropriate autochthonous tree species, but it also requires a thermal-comfort evaluation of tree transmissivity. The case study is validated in Bilbao, where a combination of measurement and modelling techniques (Solweig model) are used to verify suitable guidelines for urban design. The results will be of interest to architects and city planners for decision-making when integrating trees, so that urban thoroughfare development can improve thermal comfort in actual or new canyons. The methodology could be applied to other climatic regions, although some of the parameters used both for the evaluation of the heat-related critical moments and in the formulas should be adapted.

Dumb and Forked: The Street Tree Poetics of Millay and Williams

This urban ecocritical study reads the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay and William Carlos Williams in the context of the American street tree movement, a civic health and beautification program that advocated for the planting of shade trees along urban thoroughfares. It argues that both poets critique the ‘ideal’ street tree forwarded by the movement. In ‘City Trees,’ Millay presents a shade tree whose therapeutic effects are overwhelmed by the noise pollution in New York City, much like the speaker herself. In ‘Young Sycamore,’ Williams eschews the visual ideal of symmetrical, evenly-spaced shade trees in favor of a wily, asymmetrical organism that actively torques toward the light. By extension, these poets present city habitats as alternately more toxic and more wild than the street tree movement had imagined, a critique with ramifications for contemporary urban reforestation movements today.

A Model for Locating Tall Buildings through a Visual Analysis Approach

Tall buildings have become an integral part of cities despite all their pros and cons. Some current tall buildings have several problems because of their unsuitable location; the problems include increasing density, imposing traffic on urban thoroughfares, blocking view corridors, etc. Some of these buildings have destroyed desirable views of the city. In this research, different criteria have been chosen, such as environment, access, social-economic, land-use, and physical context. These criteria and sub-criteria are prioritized and weighted by the analytic network process (ANP) based on experts’ opinions, using Super Decisions V2.8 software. On the other hand, layers corresponding to sub-criteria were made in ArcGIS 10.3 simultaneously, then via a weighted overlay (map algebra), a locating plan was created. In the next step seven hypothetical tall buildings (20 stories), in the best part of the locating plan, were considered to evaluate how much of theses hypothetical buildings would be visible (fuzzy visibility) from the street and open spaces throughout the city. These processes have been modeled by MATLAB software, and the final fuzzy visibility plan was created by ArcGIS. Fuzzy visibility results can help city managers and planners to choose which location is suitable for a tall building and how much visibility may be appropriate. The proposed model can locate tall buildings based on technical and visual criteria in the future development of the city and it can be widely used in any city as long as the criteria and weights are localized.

Detection of canine parvovirus types 2b and 2c in canine faecal samples contaminating urban thoroughfares in Brazil.

Canine parvovirus type 2 (CPV-2) is a highly contagious virus that causes acute gastroenteritis in dogs all over the world. Because of its stability in the environment, CPV-2 can remain infective for a long time, especially if protected in organic matter. To demonstrate CPV-2's potential as an environmental hazard for nonimmunized susceptible hosts, we investigated 50 faecal samples collected from public areas in a municipality of Paraná state, Brazil. Seven samples tested positive for CPV by a PCR assay targeting the partial VP2 gene, with three strains being confirmed as CPV-2b variant and one as CPV-2c variant by sequence analysis. These findings were supported by phylogenetic analysis, and the species identity of faecal samples source was confirmed by canine mitochondrial DNA amplification and sequencing. Our results demonstrate the presence of CPV in canine faeces contaminating urban thoroughfares and reinforce the importance of environmental control to reduce the potential exposure risks to susceptible hosts.

Dendrochronology and dendroclimatology of Ceiba speciosa (A. St.-Hil.) Ravenna (Malvaceae) exposed to urban pollution in Rio de Janeiro city, Brazil

Nowadays, the biological monitoring through the growth rings has received increasing attention from ecologists and toxicologists. Structural analysis of these rings allows the incorporation of a time component in the study of plant responses to environmental variation. This allows also to evaluate long time series from the woody plants. In this paper, we assessed the dendrochronological characteristics of Ceiba speciosa growing in forest environment and under urbanization impact. Stem samples were obtained with Pressler probe into trees growing the campus of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, adjacent to one of the main urban thoroughfares of the city of Rio de Janeiro (Avenida Brasil), and at Tinguá Biological Reserve, an important remnant of Atlantic Forest. The samples were processed and analyzed following usual dendrochronological methods, with COFECHA and ARSTAN softwares. A negative exponential curve was used for standardization of the series. The residual chronologies were correlated with precipitation and temperature indexes obtained from NOAA weather database. Growth rings are distinct and annual, marked by bands of marginal parenchyma, thick-walled and radially flattened fibres in latewood and distended rays in earlywood. In both sites, the intercorrelation between the trees was above 0.40. Ages ranged from 11 to 41 years in the urban site and from 27 to 64 years in the forest site. In urban area, mean annual increment and cumulative average growth rates were 6 mm/year and 142.62 mm, respectively. At the forest site, these rates were 4 mm/year and 173.07 mm, respectively. The comparison between cumulative radial increment of the two sites revealed that trees of the urban site had higher increment rates beginning at the start of their development and consequently, they showed similar diameters despite lower ages. Correlation analysis between the chronologies and climatic factors revealed a positive association between growth and hot and rainy periods for both study sites. However, there is an immediate response of urban trees in relation to the rains and, a late response of forest trees to the same factor. The dry and hot climate, typical of urban environments, and the absence of natural water reserves in urban soil, may explain this more immediate response of urban tree growth to rainfall and temperature indexes. Our results revealed that Ceiba speciosa is a plastic and stress-tolerant species that is able to survive and adapt to polluted urban conditions. These features, along with its wide natural distribution and frequent planting for city landscaping, make this species an important biomarker for environmental monitoring studies.

An environmental indicator: particulate characteristics on pedestrian pathway along integrated urban thoroughfare in Metropolis

Particulate matter (PM) originated by road transport constitutes an urgent task for megacities and pedestrians are supposed to be the first batch of innocent victims that exposed to and inhaled the polluted air. Footbridges have become a promising resolution to land tension, the location and design of them should be more considered in order to provide a more desirable walking system to pedestrians. In this study, three groups of PM [i.e., 0.3–0.9 μm (sub-fine), 0.9–2.5 μm (fine) and 2.5–10 μm (coarse)] were measured at different traffic scenario related footbridges (i.e., upstream of the on-ramp, downstream of the on-ramp, and signalized intersection) along an urban artery in Hong Kong, and their traffic volume composition, multifractality and cross-correlation behavior were investigated thereafter. Multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis and multifractal detrended fluctuation cross-correlation analysis were used simultaneously to quantify the persistency of different PM groups and interaction between them. The results indicate that although the particle concentration at intersection above footbridges presents the lowest, it has the highest emission rate and the strongest multifractality and cross-correlation behavior, especially the finer ones. Hence, it is suggest that the nature ventilation style of footbridges should avoid to be built above the signalized intersection due to the long persistency of particles and active interaction between different particle groups.

A MONUMENTAL MID-REPUBLICAN BUILDING COMPLEX AT GABII

Excavations at the Latin city of Gabii in 2012–15 conducted by the Gabii Project have uncovered a monumental building complex, hitherto known only very partially from previous excavations in the 1990s. Organized on a series of three artificial terraces that regularized the slope of the volcanic terrain, it measures some 60 m by 35 m, occupying an entire city-block. It is prominently situated at one of the most central locations within the city, on the main urban thoroughfare at the important intersection of the roads from Tibur, Praeneste and Rome. Stratigraphic evidence and construction techniques date the original phase of the building to the mid-third century BC. This report focuses on a contextualization and description of this first, mid-Republican phase and offers a preliminary interpretation of this complex as a public building, with spaces designed for a variety of functions: bathing, public feasting, and ritual activity. If this is correct, it now represents one of the very few examples of public buildings other than temples and fortifications known from the mid-Republican period, and sheds important light on the development of Roman architecture and of the Latin cities in a crucial and obscure period.

Review: Precise Poetry: Lina Bo Bardi's Architecture, by Belinda Rukschcio

Belinda Rukschcio, director Precise Poetry: Lina Bo Bardi's Architecture Bundesministerium fur Unterricht und Kunst, Austria, 2014, 53 min. The opening shot of this documentary film shows a huge crowd at an outdoor concert. The crowd spills over the plaza onto Avenida Paulista, the busy urban thoroughfare in the center of the city of Sao Paulo. As this image fades to black, the sound of cheering goes on for a full twenty seconds. Our imagination animates the scene until it appears again with text overlaid: “Live concert by Olodum, MASP, 1992.” It is the year Lina Bo Bardi died. The unmistakable red columns of Bo Bardi's iconic Museum of Art of Sao Paulo (1957–68) frame Olodum, a Brazilian black carnival band from the city of Salvador in northeast Bahia. Bo Bardi (1914–92) renovated the building in which the Olodum organization had been established just four years earlier. “The museum used to do shows at lunchtime,” recalls Ivani di Grazia Costa, librarian at the museum, “such a big show in that space isn't allowed anymore. The structure of the museum couldn't bear it.” In its first minute, Belinda Rukschcio's film lives up to the rigor and beauty of its title, Precise Poetry: Lina Bo Bardi's Architecture . In another sequence, a close-up of an emblematic stone fragment, a dislodged paver, depicts the nearly empty quiet plaza. Immediately, I think of the first lines of Bo Bardi's self-published 1957 book Contribuicao propedeutica ao ensino da teoria da arquitetura (Propaedeutic contribution to the teaching of the theory of architecture): “There is not a single piece of stone laid down by man at the center of any of our cities, that does not express an idea, that does not represent a letter in the alphabet of our civilization.”1 Bo Bardi quoted this statement from the Brazilian intellectual and education reformer Manuel Araujo Porto-Alegre for two reasons, she explains in her text: first, …

Re-using the gods: a 6th-c. statuary display at Sagalassos and a re-evaluation of pagan mythological statuary in Early Byzantine civic space

In 2009, a set of under-lifesized statues was discovered on top of the pavement of the main N–S colonnaded street of Sagalassos. Their particular find contexts suggest that they had been on display along the street on top of statue brackets in its final phase. These statuettes not only survived in the cityscape into the 7th c. A.D., they were part of a large-scale renovation of the lower town datable to the second quarter of the 6th c. This exceptionally late example of displayed pagan mythological statuary provides information on what pieces of statuary were still available and considered suitable for re-use in the Early Byzantine period. In addition, the collection's composition can inform us about the preferred appearance of a bustling urban thoroughfare and something of the values and beliefs of the population at that period, since “whereas the common folk […] did not read Homer and Pindar, everyone — the butcher, the candlemaker, and the lower-class saint — could and did look at these statues”.

Reliability and validity of mapping the community food environment using direct observation: a case study in urban Guatemala (255.4)

Background: Measures of the community nutrition environment are important to understanding the food environment, which affects individual diet.Objective: To determine the reliability and validity of direct observation as a low‐cost method in mapping a food environment in Guatemala.Methods: Two teams of two raters were asked to walk two urban thoroughfares in urban Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. Both teams were instructed to record the address, food outlet type, and the main items sold by each food outlet. Teams walked each thoroughfare on separate days and in opposite directions, respectively. Mirror‐image correspondence analysis was used to determine the inter‐rater reliability between teams. The validity of direct observation in mapping a community food environment in Quetzaltenango was determined based on the face validity of this work by two experts who also walked the same thoroughfares.Results: The inter‐rater reliability between teams was moderate for both thoroughfares A and B (Percent agreement 65% and 60%), respectively. The face validity of this work was classified as also being moderate.Conclusions: In Guatemala, where store listings are incomplete and addresses are not well‐marked, we have shown that direct observation is a low‐cost method that has the potential to be both reliable and valid to map the community food environment in a low‐ and middle income country.

The Achieved Dreams of a Neighborhood

This article explains the social transformation process initiated at the end of the 1970s within the neighborhood of La Verneda-Sant Martí in Barcelona. This process started with the foundation of an adult education center that was organized as a Learning Community (the first one in the world). From the beginning, it was administered for and by the community. It became a space of debate where the demands and dreams of the neighbors converged about transforming their neighborhood along with the recommendations of the international scientific community. Twenty years later, the dreams came true: There have been substantial improvements throughout the urban space, infrastructures, housing, urban thoroughfares, and public highways. The INCLUD-ED European project, using the communicative methodology of research, has thoroughly studied the transformation carried out in the La Verneda-Sant Martí Adult School and its neighborhood. INCLUD-ED has identified successful practices within diverse social areas that are transferable to other contexts and contribute to overcoming inequalities and improving the most underprivileged neighborhoods.

Material Politics: Concrete Imaginations and the Architectural Definition of Urban Life inLeCorbusier's Master Plan forBuenosAires

AbstractBased on the example ofLeCorbusier's design for a network of urban thoroughfares inBuenosAires, this article examines the role of concrete in the invention of a new material imaginary, where novel structures were used to architecturally delimit the expressivity of urban life. The article is structured in two parts. The first part examines how materiality has been repositioned as a site of and for politics. I chart three different strands of material politics prevalent in contemporary urban theory: material politics as (1) the inscription of metabolic infrastructures, (2) the disruption of the sensible and (3) the assembling of socio‐material entanglements. I then argue for the need to devise a definition of material politics that incorporates the notion of actualization and reflects the involvement of materials in the invention of and experimentation with alternative urban imaginaries. In the second part, I describe the assembly ofLeCorbusier's proposed concrete biology forBuenosAires by examining three interrelated mechanisms: valorization, circulation and abstraction. To conclude, I emphasize the methodological value of using the instance of materialization as a form of tracing the historical emergence and transformation of alternative forms of problematizing and imagining the production of urban space.

Qualitative Analysis of Pedestrian Spaces in the Institutional Zone in Chennai, India

Nowadays, spaces for pedestrian are becoming increasingly rare on the urban thoroughfares. The explosive increase in vehicular traffic has relegated the pedestrian to subways and over head bridges. The Indian Roads Congress (IRC) has stipulated standards for pedestrian facilities. But, pedestrian amenities, street furniture and context-specific standards according to the location, hierarchy and functions of streets have not been thought of. This research paper presents a report of the .existing status of pedestrian facilities in the institutional zone in Chennai city, evaluating them from a qualitative point of view. The evaluation was supported by a study of various standards, which could be used for the design of pedestrian facilities. An evaluation of the stretch was conducted against a checklist of preferred qualities and amenities using a ratings scale. This qualitative evaluation of pedestrian. amenities and the overall pedestrian enviromnent reveals serious shortcomings in them that leads to a variety of issues.

Children in the Streets of Brazil: Drug Use, Crime, Violence, and HIV Risks

The presence of vast numbers of unsupervised and unprotected children is a phenomenon that is common throughout Latin America, and in few places are the street children more visible, and reviled, than in Brazil. Estimates of their numbers in Brazil have ranged from 7 to 17 million, but more informed assessments suggest that between 7 and 8 million children, ages 5 to 18, live and/or work on the streets of urban Brazil. Accounts of drug misuse among street youths in Brazil are commonplace. Numerous scientific studies and media stories have reported the widespread use of inhalants, marijuana and cocaine, and Valium among street children. Also common is the use of coca paste and Rohypnol. Risk of exposure to HIV is rapidly becoming an area of concern because of the large number of street youths engaging in unprotected sexual acts, both renumerated and nonrenumerated. Moreover, Brazil's street children are targets of fear. Because of their drug use, predatory crimes, and general unacceptability on urban thoroughfares, they are frequently the targets of local vigilante groups, drug gangs, and police “death squads.” Although there have been many proposals and programs for addressing the problems of Brazilian street youth, it would appear that only minimal headway has been achieved. [Translations are provided in the International s Section of this issue.]

Sleepwalking Disorder and Mens Rea: A Review and Case Report

This paper examines complications of sleepwalking disorder (DSM-IV 307.46), an arousal disorder or parasomnia, in relationship to mens rea, or culpable mental state necessary to a finding of criminal responsibility. The legal history of criminal intent and insanity is reviewed. A case of indecent exposure is discussed in a man with a history of closed head injuries and sleepwalking disorder who was found standing naked in the middle of a busy urban thoroughfare in the wee hours of the morning and arrested. On psychiatric evaluation, the defendant was found to have a long-standing sleepwalking disorder. At trial, scientific literature and psychiatric expert testimony concerning sleepwalking disorder was presented. The psychiatrist opined that the defendant was probably sleepwalking at the time of the alleged offense. No rebuttal testimony was offered by the prosecution. The jury found the man not guilty. The author surveys the legal history of sleepwalking disorder and compares this example with others in which uncontrolled behavior during sleep has resulted in harm to the patient or to others. Clinical and forensic implications of the disorder are reviewed. The parasomnias' impact on forensic practice should be systematically studied. Intervention strategies should be refined and implemented.

An Analysis of an Urban Thoroughfare

This paper considers the economic impact of an urban transportation thoroughfare emanating from the central business district of a city to agricultural land. Utilizing the elements of microeconomic theory, namely the models of the producer and of the consumer, we have made an analysis of how a residential area develops around a thoroughfare under different assumptions including transportation costs along the thoroughfare, and the technology of producing residential dwellings in the surrounding area. This contribution can be looked upon as the analysis of residential development in a star-shaped city; the focus is on one branch of the star. With the aid of computer graphics, alternative economic landscapes surrounding the thoroughfare are simulated. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the nature of city-forming forces which are generated by the decision making of producers and consumers in spatially defined areas. By demonstrating in the particular case of an urban thoroughfare the powerful city-forming influences of decision making of city dwellers, it is hoped that urban policy makers may be alerted to some different aspects of the ongoing processes of urban change.