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Evaluating guidance on fire evacuation from high‑rise residential buildings using Dr Rita Fahy’s research
Get PDFThis paper acknowledges the influence of Dr Rita Fahy’s life’s work on a research project to evaluate fire evacuation guidance from high-rise residential buildings. It compares the application of agent-based simulations with Rita’s publications into pre-evacuation delay times. Her observed bi-modal distribution shape aligns with an approach to modelling pre-evacuation time as a series of component elements. The paper shows where Rita’s work on discrediting the notion of ‘panic’ is further supported by recent surveys and interviews of high-rise residential building residents. Similar to Rita’s findings in which an average of 61% of those in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing would seek information as one of their actions, a key finding is that around 50% of the survey respondents indicated they would likely or very likely seek information from others. The paper describes Rita’s advancement of the EXIT89 network modelling tool and where her work has been used to assess the capability of an alternative model. A comparison is made between EXIT89 simulations with two other tools. A focus on wheelchair users examines Rita’s findings on expected population proportions and movement speeds. Simulation of total evacuation time with varying wheelchair user ratios shows EXIT89 generally predicts shorter times
CFD predictions of fire spread over wood cribs in large open-plan compartments: new insights
Get PDFA CFD-based numerical simulator, coupled with a multi-component pyrolysis model established for an isolated wood crib fire test, successfully predicts fire spread behaviours and the evolution in compartment fire conditions in a large-scale test with an extended, uniform fuel bed. Five distinct fire spread phases are identified, showing a gradual transition from 2D to 1D planar fire spread patterns. The kinetically controlled pyrolysis model permits an analysis of the drivers of fire spread at the level of the individual wood sticks, in relation to the evolution of the heat transfer boundary conditions on each stick surface. The analysis shows linear correlations of burning rates with the incident heat fluxes at the fire’s leading edge, and similar trends within the crib during the main travelling fire phase, but higher rates later in the fire when the effects of preheating become more dominant. Burning at the trailing edge is more decoupled from thermal exposures, perhaps due to the insulating effects of the char layer. The simulation also reveals complex behaviours inside the wood crib, with a progression from the initial fuel controlled burning through the travelling fire phase where fire spread on the crib surface dominates, to the final rapid growth phase where in-depth burning rapidly catches up. Thus, we establish the value of linking the detailed heat transfer controlled pyrolysis within individual wood sticks to the macroscopic behaviours of fire spread seen at compartment scale. Such models have potential for more general deployment as numerical simulators which can be used to explore the coupling of fire behaviours to design parameters
Quality disclosure and competitor encroachment in advance selling
Get PDFManufacturers engaged in advance selling increasingly disclose quality information to mitigate valuation uncertainty and boost sales, but this introduces a great challenge because it may facilitate competitor encroachment. This study aims to investigate the strategic interplay between a manufacturer’s quality disclosure strategy and a competitor’s encroachment decision in advance selling settings. Our analysis shows that, when the manufacturer’s quality is relatively high, the threat of competitor encroachment will drive the manufacturer to be more proactive in quality disclosure, since the disclosed information can enable the competitor to make informed quality decisions, thereby achieving market segmentation and mitigating demand competition (i.e., competition-mitigation effect). In contrast, when the manufacturer’s quality falls below a particular threshold, the manufacturer may benefit from the threat of competitor encroachment (i.e., achieve a higher profit compared to the monopoly scenario) through the non-disclosure strategy. This occurs because consumers may perceive the manufacturer’s non-disclosure behavior as a strategy to fend off competitor encroachment rather than a signal of inferior quality, thereby leading to an enhancement in consumers’ expectations for product quality (i.e., expectation-improvement effect). This suggests that competitor encroachment is not always detrimental to incumbents and quality disclosure can serve as an effective means to regulate competition
The Translation of Experience:Cultural Artefacts in Experiential Translation
Get PDFExperience is a multilayered, cumulative affair with transformation at its core. Its study, a necessary first step for its translation, requires an exploration of embodiment, the senses, and cultural and social environments. The second of two volumes, this book explores how artefacts, as outcomes of experience brought about by the "artistranslator" perform semiotic work. This semiotic work arises through the intervention of their makers but also through their viewers/audience, often through the latter's direct participation in the artefacts' creation, which we see as an open-ended process. Drawing on diverse examples from across the world, the chapters explore visual materiality, the digital world and the multisensory nature of artefacts such as monuments, festivals, theatre performances, artworks, religious rituals, the urban environment and human bodies-the embodied perception of which may draw holistically or variously on the haptic, olfactory, auditory, kinetic or kinaesthetic senses. Throughout the book, experiential translation is framed as a political endeavour that allows experience to be shared across linguistic, cultural, generational or gendered divides in the form of artefacts that facilitate transformation and the acquisition of knowledge. This book and its companion volume The Experience of Translation: Materiality and Play in Experiential Translation include an international range of contributions from graduate students and early career researchers (ECRs) to tenured academics in translation studies, comparative literature, performance arts, fine arts, media and cultural studies, as well as educators, artists and curators. It will be of particular interest to translators and arts practitioners, scholars and researchers in the transdisciplinary field of humanities.</p
Cultural artefacts and experiential translation:An entangled experience
Get PDFTaking its cue from the outward turn in translation studies and the expansion of translation beyond the linguistic, this chapter explores the entangled relationship between experience, translation and artefacts. It builds on our previous elaboration of experiential translation as a meaning-making process which is in-the-moment, temporally contingent, relational, material, ludic and embodied (see our Introduction to The Experience of Translation, 2024). Here we turn our attention from the translator to the role of experiential translation in the creation of cultural artefacts. Underpinned by an ecological view of the entangled nature of human and material agency, we explore conceptualizations of experience and artefact through a transdisciplinary lens including art and design, art history, anthropology, archaeology, material culture, social semiotics and cognitive and educational sciences. Through a discursive engagement with insights from these disciplines, the chapter presents a broad frame of reference within which to understand a spectrum of cultural artefacts as the translation of experience. Experience is here understood as a multilayered affair which is shaped by culture and society as well as by the senses (themselves influenced by culture and biology). With much of experience occurring on a prenoetic level, uncertainty plays an important role in the transformative and epistemic outcomes of experience. Further, we understand artefacts to comprise tangible and intangible instantiations like performance events, immersive art installations, or the conduct of religious or cultural ceremonies and festivals. Ultimately, the chapter argues that the translation of experience involves a transformative step whereby experience becomes embodied and materialized, even ephemerally, as an artefact in a perpetual state of becoming
Chapters overview
Get PDFExperience, as we have argued in the opening chapter, is a multilayered, cumulative affair with transformation at its core. Its study, a necessary first step for its translation, requires an exploration of embodiment and the senses as well as of cultural and social environments. It matters who experiences what, where, how and under what circumstances, but it also matters that experience is open and entails uncertainty and hence room for growth
A practical approach to determining mechanical degradation of corroded steel bars considering the corrosion environment conditions
Get PDFCorrosion of reinforcement is a primary cause of the degradation of reinforced concrete (RC) structures. From the basic mechanics point of view, the mechanical properties of a representative segment of corroded steel bar are affected by both the overall degree of corrosion, i.e. the average cross-section loss rate ηave, and the maximum cross-section loss rate ηmax. However, while the ηave parameter is a commonly used and a generally measurable parameter, the determination of ηmax, even in a laboratory condition, is challenging. This paper proposes a practical approach to determining the non-uniformity, and hence the ηmax parameter and the strength degradation, of corroded rebar based on the types of the corrosive environments. Firstly, for the purpose of defining the corrosion condition, a classification of the corrosion environment is proposed in accordance with exposure classes related to the surrounding environment. An extensive data collection exercise is subsequently carried out to gather the dataset encompassing the corrosion condition, geometric information, and the mechanical test results of corroded rebars from existing experimental literature. The dataset is then analysed to fit into appropriate environment categories, and the correlation between the non-uniformity and each class of the corrosive environment is established. Thus, a practically implementable approach is established such that the degree of nonuniform corrosion, and thereby ηmax, can be determined in accordance with the class of the corrosive environment. Subsequently, the degradation of the strength, as well as the deformation capacity, can be determined by the existing models. An application example is given to demonstrate the implementation of the developments in a practical assessment scenario
Total-body Positron Emission Tomography (PET) Imaging to Accelerate Radiotracer Discovery Pipelines
Get PDFThe development of the first total-body Positron Emission Tomography (PET) clinical scanner is a transformational moment in nuclear medicine, re-igniting the field by tackling two long-standing and critical barriers to the widespread clinical use of PET: radiation dose and patient throughput. Total-body PET also provides several other unique research and clinical opportunities, including potential to streamline radiotracer discovery and development pipelines. PET does not exist without radiotracers. However, despite decades of radiotracer development programmes, the number of successful PET radiotracers adopted and approved for human use is extremely low. In neurology, an important area for nuclear medicine, only approximately 4% of all novel radiotracers that survive the radiotracer translational “valley of death” are adopted clinically. The potential for total-body PET technology to reverse these low numbers of radiotracer development and adoption is high. This will require the PET community to come together with the regulators to chart new frameworks for radiotracer development and translational pipelines. This article will discuss which stages of the radiotracer discovery pipeline can benefit most from the recent development of total-body PET technology. It will review the latest key developments in radiochemistry modernisation and describe how these could ameliorate regulatory hurdles and deliver the ground-breaking potential of total-body PET. Finally, this article will highlight emerging radiotracer discovery opportunities that could be rapidly facilitated by total-body PET
Qualitative interview study exploring Maltese veterinarians' practice of behavioural medicine
No full textBACKGROUND: Veterinary behavioural medicine (VBM) is an emerging discipline, and behavioural support offered by veterinarians has been shown to positively impact One Welfare. However, the practice of VBM by veterinarians is reportedly limited. Research in this field is scant and predominantly quantitative in nature. This qualitative study aimed to explore the attitudes of small animal veterinarians in Malta towards VBM and canine mental health, their practice of VBM and any related barriers.METHODS: Qualitative semi-structured interviews were conducted, and a template analysis approach was applied to the collected data.RESULTS: Eleven Malta-based veterinarians were interviewed. Their responses suggest a positive regard towards canine mental health, with opportunities for improvement in VBM practice. Potential barriers to the practice of VBM included knowledge gaps, time constraints, difficulties in communicating with clients, limited availability of trusted behavioural service providers (BSPs), challenges in establishing effective working relationships with BSPs and lack of BSP regulation.LIMITATIONS: The generalisability of the findings is limited due to the nature of the study, and recruitment bias was possible.CONCLUSION: This study highlights avenues for changes in veterinary practices that could positively impact One Welfare. Improving veterinary knowledge of VBM and regulating BSPs are suggested as key factors in achieving this goal.</p
On the origin of green finance policies
No full textDespite the rising number of green finance policies, the socioeconomic determinants shaping them remain largely unexamined. Drawing from the literature analysing the relationship between regulation, market development and institutional economics, we contend that green finance policy adoption is driven by both market-based and institutional factors. Using a survival analysis approach to understand the levers influencing green finance policy adoption across 188 countries from 2000 to 2019, we find that exposure to the fossil fuel industry predominantly drives the initial issuance of green finance policies. The positive effect of fossil fuel commercial financing on the adoption of green finance policies exists in countries with high and medium climate change awareness levels. Meanwhile, in countries with a low climate change awareness level, fossil fuel government subsidies drive green finance policy adoption. Our study also highlights the role of the financial industry as one of the key actors in the policy cycle of green finance policies via two pathways: (i) affecting financial stability through financing oil and gas companies on primary financial markets and (ii) developing a market for sustainable finance products.</p
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