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Roads, plots and building types in the implementation of urban renewal planning: A case study of Canton, China in the early 20th century
No full textThe subject of this paper is the changes in the urban morphology of the main roads and surrounding areas within the city walls of Canton (Guangzhou) between 1918 and 1921, as a result of the demolition of the city walls and the construction of roads of modern city under the Office of Municipal Affairs. Based on a case study approach, this paper will apply an urban spatial research methodology based on urban morphological analysis as the main method, combined with a documentary reading approach for historical research. The urban renewal programme under the Shizheng Gongsuo (Office of Municipal Affairs) was driven by the idea that improving transport would increase the auction value of government-owned land and create revenue. The location of the government-owned lands and the accessibility of the main roads in the city were the main considerations in the choice of routes for the planned roads in this urban regeneration scheme. This plan changed the urban form of modern Canton in four ways: the demolition of the city walls, the construction of roads with pavements, the construction of Qilous, and the emergence of public space as a result of the commercialisation and publicisation of government-owned land
The Study of Xi ‘an Unitary Settlements’ Redevelopment Strategy in “Mobility Space” Aspect
No full textIn the 1950s, during the period of Chinese socialist collective economy, many unit-system urban settlements were formed that served the employees of the same enterprise, with cohesive space, complete functions, and independent land use as the basic spatial units. The migration of people, goods and capital had led to a dramatic ‘spatial reorganisation’ of these unitary urban areas. This paper selects the unitary settlements of the third, fourth and fifth factories of the State Cotton Factory in the Fangzhi City area of Xi'an as the research target. With the help of emerging network data and ArcGIS visualisation, using multiple sources of data to build a matrix of human, logistics, capital, information and traffic flows to study the network structure and node structure of mobility links at the block scale and obtain the development status and spatial network structure of the unitary settlements in the Fangzhi City area. The research shows that the flow connection network group is closely connected and the social network analysis subgroup structure is clear. Based on the existing form and development trend of this kind of flow space, a redevelopment strategy for unit-based residential quarters adapted to flow is proposed to comprehensively improve the quality and vitality of the community
Bufadienolides - natural, biologically active compounds for medicines and cosmetics. A review.
No full textToad skin secretions are a rich source of various biologically active compounds, such as alkaloids, bufadienolides, biogenic amines, or peptides. Also plants from Hyacinthaceae and Crassulaceae can be a potent source of these groups of molecules. These compounds play a crucial role in amphibians’ and plants’ physiology such as defense against predators or pathogenic microorganisms. Among them, bufadienolides are the focus of many researches in recent years. These molecules have a very interesting, steroidal chemical structure and have potent activity at the cellular level. They possess cardiotonic, antiviral, antibacterial, antitumor, anti-inflammatory, hemostatic, bacteriostatic, wound-healing, and antiparasitic properties. Although the structures of about 500 bufadienolides are known, it is strongly suggested that this group of compounds is still very poorly examined. Moreover, bufadienolides may be an excellent basis for the chemical synthesis of new drugs with selective bioactivity. The aim of this paper is to briefly overview bufadienolides as potent compounds for medicines and cosmetics
Using Security Games against Wild Dumping Sites
Get PDFSeveral types of criminal activity can by reduced, or prevented,
by randomly patrolling areas where it could take place. However, man-made
schedules tend to have hidden patterns, which reduces their effectiveness.
Thus in several cases game theory has been used to achieve true randomness,
while minimizing the potential gain of any hostile entity. Building on
this approach we propose a model for creating random schedules for placing
cameras to prevent creation of wild dumping sites. While the model is
constructed specifically to deal with this particular problem, it can be easily
used to plan other schedules involving roads and traffic
Życie Uczelni : biuletyn informacyjny Politechniki Łódzkiej nr 163 (2023)
No full textUkazuje się od 1984 rOpis na podst. nr 27 (1993)Od nr 34 (paźdz. 1995) podtyt.: biuletyn informacyjny Politechniki ŁódzkiejOkładka: projekt red., foto: zasoby Działu Promocji
AloneKnight – Enabling Affective Interaction within Mobile Video Games
No full textArtificial intelligence is used in various contexts, including video
games, where it can enhance the game design and adapt content to players’
emotional states through affective computing. In this paper, we present an
example of an affective mobile game and compare participants’ opinions
after playing two versions of the game, with and without an affective loop.
The game was developed using Unity. In the affective version, physiological
data is recorded and analysed to detect emotions based on facial expressions
and electrodermal activity, which then affects the game. The study with 11
participants showed positive feedback for the game with affective loop
Retain or Rebuild: Different Pathways of Redevelopment in Urbanising Chinese Villages
No full textWhile the ongoing rapid urbanisation in China transforms farmland into urban areas, old villages receive a certain level of protection from being completely rebuilt. This is due to the grassroots ownership of rural land, which is held by village collectives. The village becomes surrounded by the city, called chengzhongcun. During this intense transformation from an agricultural to a landless way of life, the village collectives redevelop their dense settlement in very different ways to create resilience and benefit from the opportunities that urbanisation brings. This research is examining four old villages in the Huangyan-Taizhou region during their redevelopment. It will be analysed how different stakeholder decisions create variations in their urban form and how this influences their economic resilience. Employing methods from the space syntax framework coupled with land use mapping and interviews, this research builds on Hillier’s concept of the movement economy. Hillier finds that urban form generates movement, which then becomes the precursor for street-based economic activities such as retail and services. This relates to Vaughan’s and Hall’s work on ethnic marketplaces which identifies informal economic networks as key social safety nets of low-income and migrant neighbourhoods. The findings suggest that villages that have seen bottom-up incremental changes and retained their organic street network generate higher movement than rebuilt villages and thus are able to shift their economies towards the service sector. Their building stock is also more adaptable to ground-floor subdivisions and retail use, while redeveloped villages often have set-back buildings with residential ground floors that cannot facilitate informal use or retail space. Since the former farmland surrounding the villages is developed into industrial land, the villages are the only possible site for restaurants, shops and other amenities, creating many opportunities for villagers. They can be however only realised with specific pathways of redevelopment
A world of thousand independent regions. Transforming the World to Small Countries as ‘Independent Regions’
No full textThis paper proposes a fundamental socio-spatial alternative for reorganizing our world structure, countries and regions which can help and support the ever-increasing number of refugees and, at the same time, can try to reduce or even eradicate the human-made refugee problem altogether. When the idea of ‘Independent Regions’is put into the context of refugees, it presents itself as a necessary alternative to the current imbalance of few large and dominant countries in contrast to a large number of smaller countries. First, we look at the best that current countries or groups of countries can provide for refugees based on the Geneva Refugee Convention from 1951. Second, we explore an alternative, that is based on fundamental principles of ‘Independent Regions’ with an ideal population size for governing itself, that has the potential to reduce the root problem of refugee creation of big countries vs small counties. Third, we investigate how to transition existing structures of countries to form ‘A World of Independent Regions’ in Europe, United States, Middle East and Northern Africa. We conclude that a world of ‘Independent Regions’ provides a stronger potential to deal with current issues and problems facing the world than the current system
Lung Xray Images Analysis for COVID-19 Diagnosis
No full textBackground: The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic began in early 2020. It
paralyzed human life all over the world and threatened our security. Thus,
proposing some novel and effective approaches to diagnosing COVID-19
infections became paramount. Methods: This article proposes a method
for the classification of chest X-ray images based on the transfer learning.
We examined also different scenarios of dataset augmentation. Results:
The paper reports accuracy=98%, precision=97%, recall=100% and
F1-score=98% in the most promising approach. Conclusion: Our research
proofs that machine learning can be used in order to support medics in chest
X-ray classification and implementing augmentation can lead to improvements
in accuracy, precision, recall, and F1-scores