20 research outputs found
Tourism and local self-government on the Dodecanes
Get PDFThe Southern Sporades Island of Greece, or the Dodecanese as they came to be called around of the 20th century, the islands of the south-eastern Aegean, lie scattered between Crete and Asia Minor. Their two ageold and brilliant civilizations are historically-linked with these islands, which, great or small, inhabited or now uninhabited, number more than twenty, all bearing the traces of human habitation upon them. Today main characteristic of these islands is strong development of tourism
Cultural Tourism in Europe
Get PDFThe importance of culture as an engine of urban development can be fully gauged by considering its role in regenerating cities. In the last few years, interest in the cultural industries as an economic force of its own has grown. The European Commission has identified culture and the various sectors of the cultural industry as a major economic and social force in Europe. The growth of cultural employment has been strong in the past ten years, exceeding average employment-growth figures. (Commission Européenne du Tourisme, 2004)
La progettazione tecnologica e ambientale: Italia e Grecia a confronto | Technological and environmental design: Italy and Greece in comparison
No full textAs an answer to new challenges concerning the role of
the architect in future societies, a new approach to the
teaching of technological and environmental design was
developed by an interdisciplinary team of academics,
involving a reconsideration of the basic concepts and
strategies in architectural design and its interaction both
with natural and built environment and users. A new
methodology has tested in technological and environ-
mental design courses taught to students of the Technical
University of Athens (School of Civil Engineering) and
the University of Campania (Department of Architecture
and Industrial Design) in comparison, where the analysis
of environmental parameters is based not only on perfor-
mance assessment, but also on the evaluation of environ-
mental comfort for users
Enhancing Onshore Wind Tower Foundations: A Comprehensive Automated Design Approach
No full textThe realm of green energy is in constant flux, drawing considerable attention from stakeholders dedicated to minimizing environmental impact, reducing costs, and developing structures that align with stringent standards. This study introduces an innovative approach aimed at improving onshore wind tower foundation systems, emphasizing both engineering and financial feasibility. The approach involves a comprehensive analysis of design load cases, particularly emphasizing resistance against overturn, while ensuring compliance with Eurocode guidelines. The foundation system is conceptualized as a beam slab with voids filled by soil material. High reduction in concrete quantity is achieved by reaching 30%, while the steel reduction reaches 90%. It is worth mentioning that the total cost is reduced by up to 70%. Furthermore, as a future trend, this study aims to integrate the new foundation system with steel 3D printing technology in the manufacturing process of the wind tower’s structural elements. This integration is expected to enhance the precision and customization of the superstructure-foundation system, thereby improving overall performance and efficiency. The optimized design not only significantly reduces construction costs but also streamlines installation, saving time. Simultaneously, this study enhances the structural behavior of the wind tower foundation by focusing on elements crucial to its efficiency
On Rimbaud’s “Vowels”, Again: Vowels or Colors?
No full textArthur Rimbaud’s sonnet Vowels presents a poetic vision based ostensibly on a quasi-psychedelic or synesthetic experience. It has inspired writers, critics, painters, and singers for over a century mainly because of its often obscure form and content. From the first verse of the text, for instance, the author juxtaposes each of the normal five French vowels printed in capital letters with what appears to be a random choice of an "appropriate" color. As a result, the majority of readers assume that these colors somehow correspond, semantically speaking, to the selected vowels. In making such connections, however, our poet suggests that his specific fusion of basic colors and sounds is capable of generating not just one but multiple significations, be they religious, erotic, aesthetic, even anthropological. Yet the poem itself - an irregular French sonnet - already derives much of its obscurity from another odd feature: the faulty order of French vowels used by Rimbaud: A to O instead of A to U or Y. Formal explanations are often cited to justify this so-called "mistake." This paper demonstrates that his poem hides a different interpretation of the words used to expand upon these sound/color combinations. After all, vowels are metonymically linked to sounds, since they constitute the minimal elements of the latter. Contemporary linguists have discovered, however, that in almost all languages, colors come in the same fixed order of words - Black, White, Red, Green and Blue - that Rimbaud proposes. Indeed, in countless documents created over millennia, people in dissimilar societies have tended to identify the same basic colors in the same sequence, for reasons we can only begin to explore here. This previously unnoticed coincidence thus provides further proof that Rimbaud’s sonnet thematically conflates ideas about the historical Beginnings and Endings of various civilizations. Thanks to this chronological conflation, the poem also develops more effectively than previously thought three major themes: the Apocalypse, the Final Judgment, and the future of poetic language. Through its form and content, it thus specifically illustrates the future of French poetry, which Rimbaud compares elsewhere, paradoxically, to Ancient Greek poetry.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe
A face tracking system for dynamic event recognition: application to continuous recognition of non-manual markers of American sign language and to deception detection by kinesic analysis
No full textFace tracking has numerous applications in the field of Human Computer Interaction and behavior understanding in general. Yet, face tracking is a difficult problem because the tracker must generalize to new faces, adapt to changing illumination, keep up with fast motions and pose changes, and tolerate target occlusion. We first present our efforts to develop a system for probabilistic face tracking, using anthropometric and appearance constraints. We then move onto the focus of our work, which is the application of the face tracker to two interesting recognition problems. Firstly, given that sign language is used as a primary means of communication by deaf individuals and as augmentative communication by hearing individuals with a variety of disabilities, the development of robust, real-time sign language recognition technologies would be a major step forward in making computers equally accessible to everyone. However, most research in the field of sign language recognition has focused on the manual component of signs, despite the fact that there is critical grammatical information expressed through facial expressions and head gestures. Therefore, we present our novel framework for robust tracking and analysis of facial expressions and head gestures, by means of a dynamic feature descriptor, a 3D face model and temporal models, with an application to sign language recognition. We apply it to successful continuous recognition of six different classes of non-manual grammatical expressions. Secondly, deception is present in our everyday social and professional lives and its detection can be beneficial, not only to us individually but to our society as a whole. For example, accurate deception detection can aid law enforcement officers in solving a crime. It can also help border control agents to detect potentially dangerous individuals during routine screening interviews. Therefore, we also present two novel methods for deception detection, using only visual cues extracted from our face tracker and a skin blob tracker, both with promising results. One is based on a novel kernel density descriptor of human behavior, which can differentiate normal behavior profiles from over-controlled and agitated ones, using nearest neighbor search. The other is based on the notion of subject-interviewer synchrony.Ph. D.Includes bibliographical referencesIncludes vitaby Nicholas Michae
Mesothelial Cyst of the Round Ligament Misdiagnosed as Irreducible Inguinal Hernia
Get PDFWe report the case of a 36-year-old woman who presented with signs and symptoms of an irreducible inguinal hernia. Surgical exploration revealed a mesothelial cyst of the round ligament of the uterus. Mesothelial cysts of the round ligament are rare lesions, frequently masquerading as inguinal hernias, and should be included in the differential diagnosis of any inguinal mass. Clinical findings are those of a groin mass, discomfort, and bulging. Ultrasound and CT scans often demonstrate an aperistaltic cystic mass. Definitive diagnosis is usually made intraoperatively and confirmed histopathologically
Transient Femoral Nerve Palsy Complicating “Blind” Transversus Abdominis Plane Block
Get PDFWe present two cases of patients who reported quadriceps femoris weakness and hypoesthesia over the anterior thigh after an inguinal hernia repair under transversus abdominis plane (TAP) block. Transient femoral nerve palsy is the result of local anesthetic incorrectly injected between transversus abdominis muscle and transversalis fascia and pooling around the femoral nerve. Although it is a minor and self-limiting complication, it requires overnight hospital stay and observation of the patients. Performing the block under ultrasound guidance and injecting the least volume of local anesthetic required are ways of minimizing its incidence
