scholarly journals In Situ Observations on the Crack Morphology in the Ancient Timber Beams

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 439
Author(s):  
Nicola Ruggieri

The conservation of ancient structures is, in the construction panorama, a highly eco-sustainable operation. In fact, it provides for a very limited consumption of resources. This article provides an in-depth analysis of ancient wooden material, an essential element for drawing up correct conservation interventions. Ancient timber beams have a peculiar morphology of failure dependent on many factors, among which are the species of wood, the quality of the material-knots, presence of fissures caused by shrinkage (checks), direction of the grain, and environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity. In addition, it is linked to load conditions and static configuration. This paper presents a case study of failed ancient timber members still in place and describes the type of failure as well as the origin and propagation of the cracks. The objective is to provide a classification of the causes and of the effects and their evolution, useful to practitioners and to those who have to make decisions on the timber structures conservation.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (9) ◽  
pp. 5071
Author(s):  
Beata Makowska

Intensive urban development has created a shortage of urban green areas. The need to economically plan and use urban green spaces has fueled the redefinition of public spaces and parks so as to provide the residents with both recreation and relaxation facilities, as well as a forum for contact with culture. This paper discusses the case of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) in the Kallithea district on the outskirts of Athens, near the Mediterranean Sea. It fills a gap in the research on the aspects of the practical functioning of such facilities. The methodology used in the research included an analysis of the literature, the SNFCC’s reports, and an in situ survey. The cultural center hosts a number of events aimed at promoting Greece’s natural and cultural heritage. The paper includes a detailed analysis of the events organized by the SNFCC in the period 2017–2020 and their immense impact on residents. The aim of the study is to show that the creation of the SNFCC with the park areas has functioned as a factor contributing to the improvement of the quality of urban space and the quality of life of the city’s inhabitants. The paper’s conclusions indicate that the sustainable SNFCC project, which fulfils the urban ecology criteria, has been very well received by the visitors—citizens and tourists alike. A program-centered innovation introduced by the SN Park has added great value to their lives. The project contributes to economic and cultural growth, as well as the protection and promotion of heritage.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Atie Rachmiatie ◽  
Fitri Rahmafitria ◽  
Karim Suryadi ◽  
Ajeng Ramadhita Larasati

Purpose The research aims to classify halal hotels based on Islamic values as embodied in both physical and non-physical attributes. Design/methodology/approach This study explores the perceived values of business owners of the halal hotels. Findings Perceptions of hotel owners are divided into three types: those who view the value of halal hotel only in terms of branding and attracting consumers; those who consider the ideology behind halal hotels based on strong Islamic values; and those who avoid halal branding but implement Islamic values in their hotels. For the hotel industry, halal certification is not a priority because a minimum effort at implementing halal standards can already attract Muslim customers. This case is especially true for countries where Muslims make up the majority of the population. Research limitations/implications This study was limited to a case study in Bandung and Bangkok as a representative of halal tourism in Asia. Hence, it could be extended by conducting comparative studies with other cities in Association of South East Asian Nation which already declare to develop halal tourism. Practical implications The findings of this research show that there is a large variety of halal hotel products, depending on the Islamic values upheld, which is causing difficulties for the government in creating standards. Then the result can help inform the government in establishing the strategic framework of halal tourism development, more particularly in the formulation of policy for industrial actors. Originality/value The findings contribute to the concept of product-centered business, in which it is generally assumed that industrial actors are frequently focused on the mere label of “halal” and ignore the true values. However, the research shows that some industrial actors put Islamic values first instead of the mere halal label, and another case shows that some of them implement Islamic values in their business but avoid halal branding. This empirical evidence shows that in halal hotels, the concept of product-centered is not always proper. The quality of halal hotel products depends on the Islamic value of the owner, not always influenced by business imperatives.


Author(s):  
Ana Maria Mihaela Iordache ◽  
Codruța Cornelia Dura ◽  
Cristina Coculescu ◽  
Claudia Isac ◽  
Ana Preda

Our study addresses the issue of telework adoption by countries in the European Union and draws up a few feasible scenarios aimed at improving telework’s degree of adaptability in Romania. We employed the dataset from the 2020 Eurofound survey on Living, Working and COVID-19 (Round 2) in order to extract ten relevant determinants of teleworking on the basis of 24,123 valid answers provided by respondents aged 18 and over: the availability of work equipment; the degree of satisfaction with the experience of working from home; the risks related to potential contamination with SARS-CoV-2 virus; the employees’ openness to adhering to working-from-home patterns; the possibility of maintaining work–life balance objectives while teleworking; the level of satisfaction on the amount and the quality of work submitted, etc. Our methodology entailed the employment of SAS Enterprise Guide software to perform a cluster analysis resulting in a preliminary classification of the EU countries with respect to the degree that they have been able to adapt to telework. Further on, in order to refine this taxonomy, a multilayer perceptron neural network with ten input variables in the initial layer, six neurons in the intermediate layer, and three neurons in the final layer was successfully trained. The results of our research demonstrate the existence of significant disparities in terms of telework adaptability, such as: low to moderate levels of adaptability (detected in countries such as Greece, Croatia, Portugal, Spain, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland, Italy); fair levels of adaptability (encountered in France, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia, or Romania); and high levels of adaptability (exhibited by intensely digitalized economies such Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, etc.).


2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 1505-1515 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. Alfieri ◽  
F. Pappenberger ◽  
F. Wetterhall

Abstract. Systems for the early detection of floods over continental and global domains have a key role in providing a quick overview of areas at risk, raise the awareness and prompt higher detail analyses as the events approach. However, the reliability of these systems is prone to spatial inhomogeneity, depending on the quality of the underlying input data and local calibration. This work proposes a simple approach for flood early warning based on ensemble numerical predictions of surface runoff provided by weather forecasting centers. The system is based on a novel indicator, referred to as an extreme runoff index (ERI), which is calculated from the input data through a statistical analysis. It is designed for use in large or poorly gauged domains, as no local knowledge or in situ observations are needed for its setup. Daily runs over 32 months are evaluated against calibrated hydrological simulations for all of Europe. Results show skillful flood early warning capabilities up to a 10-day lead time. A dedicated analysis is performed to investigate the optimal timing of forecasts to maximize the detection of extreme events. A case study for the central European floods of June 2013 is presented and forecasts are compared to the output of a hydro-meteorological ensemble model.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-72
Author(s):  
Agnieszka Kornet ◽  
Michał Kornet ◽  
Roksana Domańska ◽  
Konrad Perkowski ◽  
Magdalena Marczyńska-Stolarek ◽  
...  

Amelogenesis Imperfecta (henceforth: AI) is a term used to determine congenital qualitative and quantitative enamel defects, concerning both deciduous and permanent dentition. Classification of AI is based on the phenotype of lesions and is included in numerous types of classifications, among which the Witkop classification is the most popular. Apart from enamel abnormalities, patients afflicted with AI may also have other disorders, e.g. congenital deficiencies of tooth buds, pulp calcification, root and crown resorption, open bite. Aesthetic defects of dentition, pain reported when consuming acidic and hot foods, difficulties in obtaining satisfactory hygiene - all these significantly affect the quality of life of patients with AI. Care provided to these patients is highly specialised and starts as early as in early childhood. Aim. The aim of the study was to describe familial clustering, types, symptoms and treatment of Amelogenesis Imperfecta in members of two families treated at the Department of Orthodontics at the Medical University of Warsaw. Material and methods. The material comprised two unrelated families with clinically manifested symptoms of AI, treated at the Department of Orthodontics at the Medical University of Warsaw. A detailed interview, clinical examination and analysis of radiological documentation were conducted in each family. Results. All patients in the study were suffering from hypoplastic AI, their hygiene was satisfactory, four in five patients had an open bite. Reported symptoms did not differ from those most commonly described in the literature, and included discomfort while eating acidic and hot food, and excessive enamel abrasion. Conclusions. Treatment of patients with AI is multi-stage, multidisciplinary, and aims to restore proper functions of the dentition, as well as to obtain a correct occlusion, skeletal relationships, and to reduce hypersensitivity to thermal and chemical stimuli. Preventive measures are important, and should be introduced early, during the stage of the deciduous dentition, and be related to hygiene briefing and monitoring. (Kornet A, Kornet M, Domańska R, Perkowski K, Marczyńska-Stolarek M, Zadurska M. Familial clustering of Amelogenesis Imperfecta – a case study. Orthod Forum 2018; 14: 61-72)


Author(s):  
S. Pratali Maffei ◽  
E. Canevese ◽  
T. De Gottardo ◽  
L. Pizzol

<p><strong>Abstract.</strong> Advanced 3D technology, in line with the directives of the European Commission's Reflective 7 - Horizon 2020 project, allows to represent in an organized and accurate way (geometrically and chromatically speaking) any type of artefact belonging to the Cultural Heritage. This article will deal with the specific case-study of the research carried out in the archaeological site of the Roman fluvial port of Aquileia, in collaboration with the University of Trieste. Thirtysix MA Architecture students attending the experimental course in “Technologies for the conservation and enhancement of architectural heritage” were involved. The Advanced 3D model of the fluvial port was conveniently divided into 15 sectors, in order to allow the assignment of each sector to a different group of students. The students, using the tools provided by the proprietary EasyCUBE PRO software, were able to create a digital database with an accurate 3D representation of all types of degradation affecting the archaeological structures existing <i>in situ</i>. Starting from the digital database, the students created a report containing the surfaces, volumes, count of the specific elements and all the other textual and graphical data related to the degradation processes. The collected data allowed to produce a metric estimate of the restoration intervention and to realize visual simulations of the post-intervention result. This experience gave the chance to evaluate the advantages of creating a digital database of 3D representations of the various forms of degradation, also in terms of possible future developments.</p>


Author(s):  
Yulia Aleksandrovna Evgrafova

Volume and quality of information circulating in modern society is constantly increasing. To process, record and transfer which it is needed to employ more capacious means that ask for less effort while decoding and perception. This leads to the situation when a semiotically expanded heterogeneous text becomes dominant in the modern information society. This article deals with the means of information coding in heterogeneous texts which mean of transmission is the screen. The classification of information codes based on synthesis of information and semiotic theories is suggested. The case study of a film text demonstrates the codes employed to generate audio-visual message, device of semiotic “stacking doll” is described, the employment of which leads to the appearance of semiotic situation od sumulacrativity, which aim is to make the spectator believe in what is happening on the screen. This article is aimed at specialist audience: students, post-graduates, professors, linguists and others who are interested in general and linguistic semiotics.


Author(s):  
Tran Anh Tuan ◽  
Nguyen Dinh Duong

Land cover mapping by optical remote sensing has many obstacles including clouds. Clouds block solar radiation coming to earth surface and reflective radiance from the earth surface to remote optical sensors resulting. Therefore, clouds result no-signal areas in images that cannot be used for study of ground objects. In many cases, thin clouds degrade quality of reflective radiance and some times alter, unexpectedly, spectral reflectance characteristics of ground objects leading to false classification. In this paper, the authors present an algorithm on application of multidate for development of cloud free image. The used image data were received in rainy and dry seasons and by stacking, cloud free images representing rainy and dry seasons were created. These cloud free images can be used further for classification of land cover in rainy and dry seasons. Experiments were conducted with Landsat 8 OLI images with path/row number 124/51 covering Dak Lak province of Vietnam. The results of case study were development of cloud free image data representing rainy and dry seasons allowing separation of evegreen and deciduous forests in the study site.  


Author(s):  
Alice Gadea ◽  
Maryvonne Charrier ◽  
Mathieu Fanuel ◽  
Philippe Clerc ◽  
Corentin Daugan ◽  
...  

Lichen secondary metabolites are generally considered as repellent compounds for lichen feeders. Nevertheless, if the only food available consists in lichens rich in secondary metabolites, lichenophages such as Notodiscus hookeri, a gastropod native from the Possession Island, seem able to implement strategies to overcome the toxicity of these metabolites. Thus, the balance between phagostimulant nutrients and deterrent metabolites appears to play a key role in their feeding preferences. To further understand lichen-gastropod interactions, we studied the feeding behavior of Notodiscus hookeri fed exclusively with Usnea taylori, a lichen rich in usnic acid and arabitol. Snail feeding choice experiments with intact lichens vs acetone-rinsed lichens were carried out to study the influence of secondary metabolites. Simultaneously, usnic acid and arabitol were quantified and localized within the lichen thallus using HPLC-DAD-MS and in situ imaging by mass spectrometry to assess whether their spatial distribution induce preferential snail grazing. Then, no-choice feeding experiments were devised using usnic acid and arabitol embedded in artificial diet, separately or together.&nbsp; This case study demonstrated that the nutritional activity of N. hookerii was governed by the chemical quality of the food and primarily by nutrient availability (arabitol), despite the presence of deterrent metabolites (usnic acid).


Cancers ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (23) ◽  
pp. 6048
Author(s):  
Joanna Jaworek-Korjakowska ◽  
Andrzej Brodzicki ◽  
Bill Cassidy ◽  
Connah Kendrick ◽  
Moi Hoon Yap

Over the past few decades, different clinical diagnostic algorithms have been proposed to diagnose malignant melanoma in its early stages. Furthermore, the detection of skin moles driven by current deep learning based approaches yields impressive results in the classification of malignant melanoma. However, in all these approaches, the researchers do not take into account the origin of the skin lesion. It has been observed that the specific criteria for in situ and early invasive melanoma highly depend on the anatomic site of the body. To address this problem, we propose a deep learning architecture based framework to classify skin lesions into the three most important anatomic sites, including the face, trunk and extremities, and acral lesions. In this study, we take advantage of pretrained networks, including VGG19, ResNet50, Xception, DenseNet121, and EfficientNetB0, to calculate the features with an adjusted and densely connected classifier. Furthermore, we perform in depth analysis on database, architecture, and result regarding the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Experiments confirm the ability of the developed algorithms to classify skin lesions into the most important anatomical sites with 91.45% overall accuracy for the EfficientNetB0 architecture, which is a state-of-the-art result in this domain.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document