6664 research outputs found
Sort by
The Impact of COVID-19 on Household Welfare in the Comoros: The Experience of a Small Island Developing State
Get PDFIn this paper, we investigate the causal impact of a stringent Covid-19 lockdown policy on Comoros's household welfare, poverty, and labor market outcomes. Our identification strategy uses the national government lockdown policy implemented to curtail the unexpected outbreak of Covid-19. The lockdown policy coincided with the 2020 Harmonised Survey on Living Conditions of Households (EHCVM) data collection. It lends itself to a quasi-natural experiment in which households interviewed before the lockdown policy fall into the control while those interviewed after the lockdown fall into the treated group. We explore the impact of the Covid-19 using descriptive regression analysis and matching techniques and find a reduction in household expenditure, increased poverty, and a reduction in the likelihood of employment. The reduced welfare outcomes linger three months after the lockdown policy, and households resorted to selling expensive assets as a coping mechanism. In the absence of safety nets and government interventions, stringent lockdown policies increase the vulnerability to poverty for a developing country
Effect of Rigid Aquatic Bank Weeds on Flow Velocities and Bed Morphology
Get PDFThe prediction of changes in velocity distribution and channel bed morphology is significant in open channel management and design. This paper implements experimental work to realize and quantify the effect of rigid aquatic bank weeds on vertical velocity profiles and channel bed morphology. In the experimental work, weeds were given a staggered distribution using three distances of 25, 50, and 75 mm, unilaterally and bilaterally, with Froude numbers ranging from 0.11 to 0.30, achieving 168 scenarios. Results for the tested weed cases showed that the average velocity was directly proportional to the weed density and approached the Froude number. By comparing the smooth and weeded velocities, it was found that the velocity inside the infested reach was close to the downstream velocity and exceeded the upstream velocity by about 10% and 41%, respectively. Scour depths along the centerline of the vegetated reach for the bilateral weeds were higher by 11% to 33% than those for the unilateral weeds. The maximum observed depth of the scour holes along the smooth bank was about 30% to 60% of the maximum scour depth at the middle line. Finally, to quantify the results, multiple regression analysis was performed to develop empirical equations to assist in the water management process
A critical review of digital technology innovations for early warning of water-related disease outbreaks associated with climatic hazards
Get PDFWater-related climatic disasters pose a significant threat to human health due to the potential of disease outbreaks, which are exacerbated by climate change. Therefore, it is crucial to predict their occurrence with sufficient lead time to allow for contingency plans to reduce risks to the population. Opportunities to address this challenge can be found in the rapid evolution of digital technologies. This study conducted a critical analysis of recent publications investigating advanced technologies and digital innovations for forecasting, alerting, and responding to water-related extreme events, particularly flooding, which is often linked to disaster-related disease outbreaks. The results indicate that certain digital innovations, such as portable and local sensors integrated with web-based platforms are new era for predicting events, developing control strategies and establishing early warning systems. Other technologies, such as augmented reality, virtual reality, and social media, can be more effective for monitoring flood spread, disseminating before/during the event information, and issuing warnings or directing emergency responses. The study also identified that the collection and translation of reliable data into information can be a major challenge for effective early warning systems and the adoption of digital innovations in disaster management. Augmented reality, and digital twin technologies should be further explored as valuable tools for better providing of communicating complex information on disaster development and response strategies to a wider range of audiences, particularly non-experts. This can help to increase community engagement in designing and operating effective early warning systems that can reduce the health impact of climatic disasters
Georgia Hudson: Interview
Get PDFInterview with filmmaker Georgia Hudson about her career in screen advertising
Audio for extended realities: a case-study informed exposition
Get PDFAn area of immersive storytelling in rapid evolution is that of extended reality. This emergent mode of experience employs spatial mapping, and both plane and object detection to superimpose computer-generated images in the volumetric context of a physical space via a head-mounted display. This in turn produces a unique set of challenges and opportunities for associated audio implementation and aesthetics. Creative development of this audio is often a function of evolving toolsets, and the associated workflow is far from standardized.
This paper forms a context for such audio workflow, one that draws from precursor technologies such as audio for games and virtual reality and develops this into an outline taxonomy that is both representative of the state of the art, and forward facing towards impending step changes such as 5G-headset interaction and the metaverse.
The context is framed through a series of case studies. Between 2019 and 2021, BBC and Oculus TV commissioned virtual-reality and mixed-reality experiences of several classic documentary series by Sir David Attenborough: Museum Alive, Micro Monsters, First Life and Kingdom of Plants. The sound design, audio postproduction and immersive audio for these experiences were implemented by the company 1.618 Digital, and drawing from first-hand-creator involvement, the workflows are deconstructed and explored with reference to tools, technologies and techniques.
Such an exposition forms the basis for an analysis of both this and broader creative practice in the field of audio for extended reality, and this is subsequently used to present a vision of audio in the future of immersive storytelling.
The experiences received numerous award nominations and prizes, including from the Raindance Festival and a double Emmy
Anti-work architecture: domestic labour, speculative design, and automated plenty
Get PDFThis article presents a partial history of visions of technodomesticity in the global north, concentrating on dwellings which seek to problematize, challenge, or reorganize unpaid household labour. It is structured around three case studies, primarily drawn from the United States in the 1950s and 60s: the single-family suburban dream house, the bachelor pad, and the fully-automated future home. While these chosen examples may lend us certain resources for thinking about how best to mitigate the challenges of reproductive labour via living arrangements, they also possess a number of clear drawbacks or limitations. The article will argue that contesting these imaginaries (as much as learning from them) is likely to prove necessary in unpicking the connections between an inequitable distribution of unpaid intrafamilial domestic labour and the house itself as both a concrete site and an ideological formation – necessary, that is to say, in terms of building a meaningfully feminist conception of anti-work architecture
Different photovoltaic power potential variations in East and West China
No full textPhotovoltaic (PV) technology can help reduce carbon emissions significantly, but its benefits may be affected by climate change. Few studies have reported on the impact of climate change on the spatial and temporal distribution of solar energy in China based on the latest Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 6 (CMIP6) models, and few have explored the rooftop PV potential. In this study, 16 CMIP6 models are used for evaluation of the inter-annual and seasonal changes of solar irradiance and PV capacity factor under low (SSP1–2.6), medium (SSP2–4.5) and high (SSP5–8.5) greenhouse gas emission scenarios. The effects on the variation of solar irradiance of three factors are examined: clouds, aerosol optical thickness (AOT) and specific humidity. Furthermore, the future power generation potential of rooftop PV is investigated. It is found that the solar irradiance exhibits an upward trend on national level under all the future scenarios, especially for the SSP1–2.6 scenario, with an increasing rate of 1.4 W m−2 decade−1, mainly due to a reduction in AOT. Solar irradiance increases notably in southeast China while increases little in west China, and the level for 2051–2060 remains lower than that for 1960–2014. The PV capacity factor increases in southeast China with increasing solar irradiance, with a maximum increase of about 4% compared to the average PV CF for 1960–2014 and the highest increasing rate being 0.37% decade−1. In addition, to achieve the projected national distributed PV power generation level, >70% of the effective rooftop area needs to be utilized in 2050. This study hopes to enhance understanding of the impact of climate change on solar energy and provide recommendations for future PV planning to better achieve the long-term planetary temperature goal set by the Paris Agreement
A comprehensive investigation on the interaction between jaceosidin, baicalein and lipoxygenase: Multi-spectroscopic analysis and computational study
Get PDFLipoxygenase (LOX) has the harmful effect of accelerating lipid oxidation, and polyphenols have the inhibitory effect on lipoxygenase. However, there were rare researches investigated on the interactions between polyphenols and LOX. In this study, the binding mechanisms between polyphenols (Jaceosidin-JSD and baicalein-BCL) and LOX were investigated by multi-spectroscopic analysis and computational study. Both JSD and BCL binding to LOX resulted in static fluorescence quenching, and the complexes of JSD-LOX and BCL-LOX were built at a molar ratio of 1:1, respectively. The binding constants of LOX-JSD (72.18 × 105 L/mol at 298 K) and LOX-BCL (12.43 × 105 L/mol at 298 K) indicated that LOX had stronger binding affinity to JSD compared to BCL. Compared with BCL-LOX, the JSD-LOX system formed more hydrogen bonds which ensured a stronger bond between JSD and LOX. The studies in molecular dynamics also demonstrated that the JSD-LOX complex is more stable, and the addition of JSD is more conducive to the complex formation. The current study provides some new insights for the study on the inhibition of lipid oxidation and affords a new strategy for the discovery of novel food preservatives
Automated Multibeat Tissue Doppler Echocardiography Analysis Using Deep Neural Networks
Get PDFTissue Doppler Imaging is an essential echocardiographic technique for the non-invasive assessment of myocardial blood velocity. Interpretation by trained experts is time-consuming
and disruptive to workflow. This study presents an automated deep learning model, trained and tested on Doppler strips of arbitrary length, capable of rapid beat detection and Cartesian coordinate localisation of peak velocities with accuracy indistinguishable from human experts, but with greater speed
An Investigation into the Acquisition Parameters for GB-SAR Assessment of Bridge Structural Components
No full textStructural health monitoring (SHM) is a necessary measure to maintain bridge infrastructure safe. To this purpose, remote sensing has proven effective in acquiring data with high accuracy in relatively short time. Amongst the available methods, the ground-based synthetic aperture radar (GB-SAR) can detect sub-zero deflections up to 0.01 mm generated by moving vehicles or the environmental excitation of the bridges [1]. Interferometric radars are also capable of data collection regardless of weather, day, and night conditions (Alba et al., 2008). However, from the available literature - there is lack of studies and methods focusing on the actual capabilities of the GB-SAR to target specific structural elements and components of the bridge - which makes it difficult to associate the measured deflection with the actual bridge section. According to the antenna type, the footprint of the radar signal gets wider in distance which encompasses more elements and the presence of multiple targets in the same resolution cell adds uncertainty to the acquired data (Michel & Keller, 2021). To this effect, the purpose of the present research is to introduce a methodology for pinpointing targets using GB-SAR and aid the data interpretation. An experimental procedure is devised to control acquisition parameters and targets, and being able to analyse the returned outputs in a more clinical condition. The outcome of this research will add to the existing literature in terms of collecting data with enhanced precision and certainty.
Keywords
Structural Health Monitoring (SHM), GB-SAR, Remote Sensing, Interferometric Radar
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by the Vice-Chancellor’s PhD Scholarship at the University of West London.
References
[1] Benedettini, F., & Gentile, C. (2011). Operational modal testing and FE model tuning of a cablestayed bridge. Engineering Structures, 33(6), 2063-2073.
[2] Alba, M., Bernardini, G., Giussani, A., Ricci, P. P., Roncoroni, F., Scaioni, M., Valgoi, P., & Zhang, K. (2008). Measurement of dam deformations by terrestrial interferometric techniques. Int.Arch.Photogramm.Remote Sens.Spat.Inf.Sci, 37(B1), 133-139.
[3] Michel, C., & Keller, S. (2021). Advancing ground-based radar processing for bridge infrastructure monitoring. Sensors, 21(6), 2172