Stream Stage Monitoring with Community Science-Contributed Stage Data

Volunteered Geographic Information, data contributed by community scientists, is an increasingly popular tool to collect scientific data, involve the community in scientific research, and provide information and education about a prominent issue. Johnson City, Tennnessee, USA has a long history of downtown flooding, and recent redevelopment of two land parcels has created new city parks that mitigate flooding through floodwater storage, additional channel capacity, and reduced impervious surfaces. At Founders Park, a project to collect stage data using text messages from community scientists has collected 1479 stage measurements from 597 participants from May 2017 through July 2021. Text messages were parsed to extract the stage and merged with local precipitation data to assess the stream’s response to precipitation. Of 1479 observations, 96.7% were correctly parsed. Only 3% of observations were false positives (parser extracted incorrect stage value) or false negatives (parser unable to extract correct value but usable data were reported). Less than 2% of observations were received between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., creating an overnight data gap, and fewer than 7% of observations were made during or immediately following precipitation. Regression models for stage using antecedent precipitation explained 21.6% of the variability in stream stage. Increased participation and development of an automated system to record stage data at regular intervals will provide data to validate community observations and develop more robust rainfall–runoff models.

Sense of place and the city: the case of non-native residents in Lisbon

When immigrants move to a new city, they tend to develop distinct relationships with the urban landscape, which in turn becomes the new setting of their routine-based activities that evolve over time. Previous works in environmental psychology have quantitatively examined non-native residents' development of sense of place towards their new environment. In this paper, we introduce the spatial perspective into studying the sense of place experienced by non-natives in an urban context. We study the person-place bonds, relationships, and feelings cultivated by non-native residents living in the city of Lisbon (Portugal) through an online map-based survey. Then, we carried out spatial analysis aimed at distinguishing and visualizing the different facets of sense of place developed by two participant groups: short-term residents and long-term residents. Results showed that while short-term residents reported bonds with places, long-term residents' senses of place were more intense and broader throughout the city. The correlations, associations, and relationships between participant groups and the dimensions of sense of place allowed us to observe features and patterns that were previously described in the literature, although adding the spatial lenses can potentially provide better insights for urban planning, community development, and inclusive policies.

Stability and Ride Comfort Performance of Three-Axle City Buses due to the Third Axle Position: A Comparative Approach

The efficiency of public transport is fundamental for the city traffic. Taking this as a goal and linking with the financial and structural situations of each market, new technologies regarding city buses have emerged in recent years and one of them is studied in a comparative way in the present work. A new city bus which has 15 meters length, front-engine and three-axles. The great difference of this vehicle is the positioning of the third axle near to the front axle of the vehicle instead of the traditional configuration whereupon this axle is located near the rear axle. With the aid of MATLAB/Simulink, the two mentioned vehicle models were generated with eighteen degrees of freedom and were tested in two different manoeuvrers, passing through a bump and then a sequence of turns. At the end of the work, it was possible to conclude that the new city bus presents less oscillations in terms of roll and pitch angles in addition to smaller vertical displacements for the same proposed manoeuvre, which leads to greater passenger comfort.

The Bride of the Desert

<p>The Syrian civil war has caused the largest global migration in history, where more than 11 million refugees have been forced to leave their home country due to political conflict. In January 2016 Angela Merkel announced that Syrian war refugees in Europe would be repatriated once the Syrian war is over. But for many Syrians, their homes have been destroyed. The problem for the returning Syrian people is more than simply providing housing - even more important is how to provide a renewed sense of community as well as cultural and place identity for the returning refugees. This thesis reflects on how architecture can make a difference in helping to re-establish the cultural and place identity of a war-torn country. The investigation takes a speculative approach to this topic with the principal objective being to provoke discussion and awareness about the fragile future of war-torn historic cities like Palmyra in Syria. The investigation explores how architectural narrative can be perceived metaphorically as a guardian or a hero sitting within or on the outskirts of a devastated city, watching over it, in a place where it can reflect upon the historic symbolic attributes of the city that once provided its place identity. The Syrian site of this investigation is in Palmyra, and for this site the most important attributes are: the historic Roman ruins to the south (past), the new city being rebuilt in the north (future), the community camel racing track in the west (recreation, freedom) and the Tadmor Prison in the east (imprisonment, restriction). These four sites can be understood as icons of the city’s ongoing time line, and acting as catalysts for new development that ensure the continuity of the community’s past and future. The final design proposition is to establish a metaphorical sanctuary for returning Syrian refugees, a place that functions as: 1) a memorial to ensure remembrance of the devastating crisis, 2) an archive of broken cultural artefacts, and 3) a place where returning refugees can come to understand the war as but one chapter in an ongoing cultural heritage that has endured the past and will move forward proudly into the future. This metaphorical sanctuary acts as a ‘guardian’, meant to greet the refugees upon their return to their homeland. As a sanctuary, they ‘inhabit’ it while awaiting the rebuilding of their homes - and by inhabiting it, they become a community with others who have suffered devastating loss, others who are determined to remember, and to move forward. This speculative sanctuary design has been conceived to aid them in the essential process of recovery, as an architectural exhibition. Like similar work of Woods and Libeskind, it is buildable architecture, never intended to be built. Through this memorial/sanctuary, the devastation of war and tragic loss can be reflected upon as one segment of an ongoing eternal time line linked back to their ancient civilization, so that the recent war is not perceived as an ending of their community, but instead as an important reminder of a greater narrative that everyone shares, a narrative that can help define their strength and resilience as they move into the future.</p>

The Bride of the Desert

<p>The Syrian civil war has caused the largest global migration in history, where more than 11 million refugees have been forced to leave their home country due to political conflict. In January 2016 Angela Merkel announced that Syrian war refugees in Europe would be repatriated once the Syrian war is over. But for many Syrians, their homes have been destroyed. The problem for the returning Syrian people is more than simply providing housing - even more important is how to provide a renewed sense of community as well as cultural and place identity for the returning refugees. This thesis reflects on how architecture can make a difference in helping to re-establish the cultural and place identity of a war-torn country. The investigation takes a speculative approach to this topic with the principal objective being to provoke discussion and awareness about the fragile future of war-torn historic cities like Palmyra in Syria. The investigation explores how architectural narrative can be perceived metaphorically as a guardian or a hero sitting within or on the outskirts of a devastated city, watching over it, in a place where it can reflect upon the historic symbolic attributes of the city that once provided its place identity. The Syrian site of this investigation is in Palmyra, and for this site the most important attributes are: the historic Roman ruins to the south (past), the new city being rebuilt in the north (future), the community camel racing track in the west (recreation, freedom) and the Tadmor Prison in the east (imprisonment, restriction). These four sites can be understood as icons of the city’s ongoing time line, and acting as catalysts for new development that ensure the continuity of the community’s past and future. The final design proposition is to establish a metaphorical sanctuary for returning Syrian refugees, a place that functions as: 1) a memorial to ensure remembrance of the devastating crisis, 2) an archive of broken cultural artefacts, and 3) a place where returning refugees can come to understand the war as but one chapter in an ongoing cultural heritage that has endured the past and will move forward proudly into the future. This metaphorical sanctuary acts as a ‘guardian’, meant to greet the refugees upon their return to their homeland. As a sanctuary, they ‘inhabit’ it while awaiting the rebuilding of their homes - and by inhabiting it, they become a community with others who have suffered devastating loss, others who are determined to remember, and to move forward. This speculative sanctuary design has been conceived to aid them in the essential process of recovery, as an architectural exhibition. Like similar work of Woods and Libeskind, it is buildable architecture, never intended to be built. Through this memorial/sanctuary, the devastation of war and tragic loss can be reflected upon as one segment of an ongoing eternal time line linked back to their ancient civilization, so that the recent war is not perceived as an ending of their community, but instead as an important reminder of a greater narrative that everyone shares, a narrative that can help define their strength and resilience as they move into the future.</p>

Characteristics of peripheral white blood cells in COVID-19 patients revealed by a retrospective cohort study

Background Peripheral hematological changes in severe COVID-19 patients may reflect the immune response during SARS-CoV-2 infection. Characteristics of peripheral white blood cells as early signals were needed to be investigated for clarifying its associations with the fatal outcomes in COVID-19 patients. Methods A retrospective cohort study was performed and the hospitalized COVID-19 patients were recruited in wards of Sino-French New City Branch of Tongji Hospital in Wuhan, Hubei province, China. Characteristics of peripheral white blood cells in survivors and non-survivors were analyzed. Comparison among patients with different level of eosinophils was performed. Results Of 198 patients included in this study, 185 were discharged and 13 died. Levels of eosinophils, lymphocytes and basophils in non-survivors were significantly lower than those in survivors. Death rate in low eosinophils group was higher and no patient died in normal eosinophils group (16.7% vs 0, P < 0.001). The proportion of patients in low eosinophils group who used glucocorticoids was higher than in normal eosinophils group, but glucocorticoids usage was not an indicator for death in subgroup analysis in low eosinophils patients. Moreover, positive correlation was found between the counts of lymphocytes and eosinophils in patients with glucocorticoids use but not in patients without the treatment. Conclusions Hematological changes differed between survivors and non-survivors with COVID-19. Lymphopenia and eosinopenia could be predictors for poor prognosis of COVID-19 patients. Initial counts of eosinophils may guide us in usage of glucocorticoids for COVID-19 treatment.

Optimization of Ecosystem Services of Shanghai Urban–Suburban Street Trees Based on Low-Carbon Targets

Road traffic carbon emissions are an important cause of global warming, and street trees play an important role in regulating road carbon emissions. During urbanization, major differences in the planting management modes and growth status of the street trees in urban–suburban gradient may exist, leading to significant differences in the low-carbon values of the street trees in urban–suburban gradient. Based on this, this study took two typical urban–suburban gradient zones in Shanghai as an example to analyze the changes in the characteristics of street tree species, planting density, tree sizes, and low-carbon contribution with urban and rural changes, and proposed strategies for optimizing the low-carbon contribution of urban street trees. The results showed that, from the inner ring to the outer ring and the suburban ring, the proportion of London plane tree gradually changed from 82% to 11%, and the proportion of the camphor tree gradually changed from 9% to 70%; the average DBH of the trees gradually decreased from 28.81 to 23.74 cm. The number of plantings per unit road length gradually increased, and the number of plantings per unit area gradually decreased; therefore, the average low-carbon contribution of urban–suburban street trees is not significant, but the low-carbon contribution of upper street trees per unit area is higher, and suburban unit street trees have a higher low-carbon contribution. Finally, this article proposes different optimization strategies for future urban micro-renewal and suburban new-city construction.

From Individual Cognitive Maps to a Collective Cognitive Map: Prescriptive Guidelines and Measurement of Factors that Could Distort the Mapping Process

In the collective navigation scenario of a trio exploring in a foreign city, we propose a theoretical piece, which is a prescriptive guideline describing rational ways that can enable the trio to form a collective cognitive map. The guidelines center around three stages of exploration: the initial gathering of information, coming together to plan a route in the new city, and executing the exploration plan. Depending on the desires and goals of the group, they might explore together for some or all of the time, splitting up only when their individual goals diverge. The guidelines suggest an optimal plan for these different possibilities. We propose that a collective cognitive map is formed and improved during the entire cognitive navigation process as demonstrated by the trio drawing sketch maps, creating place maps, and revising other people’s place maps. However, multiple factors could distort the navigation process at various points in the proposed prescriptive guidelines. These factors include individual differences (e.g., personal navigation ability, navigation anxiety, and sex), group dynamics (e.g., leaders and followers, group strategies), and the impact of the environment (e.g., language, culture, safety, and spatiality). We describe a thought experiment for testing collective navigation, including the measurement of these factors and the corresponding possible distortions in the collective map caused by these factors. Finally, we discuss future research directions, including using virtual environments and commercial applications. By utilizing our model, people can be flexible in resolving conflicting information during goal planning while still navigating efficiently.

Braiding stories, singing memories: narratives and displacements of a refugee woman

Using ethnography and a research methodology developed for this research project, this article sets out to describe the trajectories of a female refugee and the relationship she has established with her new city of residence. Ruth was born in Angola, but grew up in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She is 35 years old and has lived in Rio de Janeiro since 2014. She has three children and works as an actress and singer. She reconnects to her roots and reinvents herself in the new territory through spending time with Congolese women in a market in Madureira and in an evangelical church in Brás de Pina. The methodology, using photos, drawings and objects, reveals the experiences of a Black refugee woman in the city where she has come to live. The article intends to reflect on the way these women have reinvented themselves based on the place of the frontier and how they have given different meanings to their identities in their new place.