Academic literature on the topic 'Other construction not elsewhere classified'

Detailed laboratory investigations were conducted on Mae Moh fly ash from northern Thailand for the determination of its grain size distribution, mineralogy, pozzolanic activity, compaction and strength characteristics, and the collapse potential. On the basis of the experimental results, this fly ash is classified as ASTM class C, which is considered to be pozzolanic. It has good potential to be utilized as an effective fill for embankments (roads and dams), airfields, pavements, and building bricks, as well as for the stabilization of compressible or erodible foundations. Because of the fact that Mae Moh fly ash contains only a negligible amount of unburned carbon, its pozzolanic reactivity is accelerated, in comparison with the relatively inert, high-carbon fly ash produced elsewhere in Thailand and many other parts of Asia. It is also demonstrated that Mae Moh fly ash can be easily compacted to produce acceptable dry densities over a wide range of water contents. Curing with an adequate moisture supply in the presence of calcium oxide plays an important role in accelerating the pozzolanic reactions, hence improving the time-dependent-properties. This study further proposes that a curing period of 2–3 weeks is sufficient for this material to approach its maximum strength. Although the behaviour of one specific fly ash cannot generalize the wide array of other ashes, the test results obtained for Mae Moh fly ash may be applied to lignite ashes in the category of ASTM class C. Key words: fly ash, structural fill, compaction, compressive strength, shear strength, collapse potential, pozzolanic activity.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the main causes of delay in public construction projects. This is motivated by feedback from public construction experts concerning substantive delays during the last decade. The study thus seeks to help decision makers in Jordan and elsewhere identify problems and develop mitigating strategies. Design/methodology/approach Causes of delay were identified from previous related studies and then augmented after consultation with experts. This resulted in 56 delay factors classified into eight groups. The sampling frame for the study was defined in terms of public construction projects (mostly related to roads) owned by the Ministry of Public Works and Housing in Jordan. A survey was conducted with engineers working as representatives of the owner, contractors or consultants to elicit and evaluate the importance of the 56 delay factors. Findings Overall, 113 completed questionnaire responses were returned and analyzed to rank the causes of delay using the relative importance index method. Owners and consultants showed more interest in factors related to themselves, while contractors showed highest interest in an external factor related to the owner of services. Four recommendations are put forward for decision makers to mitigate against delays. Originality/value This research investigates a relatively large number of delay factors compared to other studies and these are categorized into groups to facilitate thematic understanding. Further, compared to previous related research, this research fills a gap by exploring the opinions of different contract parties.

The author of this paper deals with the problem of cultural difference through the analysis of the relationship ?us? - ?others?. He searches for the answer to the question why the culture of other peoples or individuals are often considered inferior in many societies. This type of treatment leads to the extreme where the position of the ?other? is reduced to the level of ?primitive? (less valuable, lowly, and brutal). In such a context, the author analyzes theoretical concepts of the Enlightenment rationalism of the 18th century and the anthropological evolutionism of the 19th century, believing that the roots of the negative assessment of the ?other? can be found in them. Namely, the majority of these theories conduct a hierarchization of culture according to the time and value principles, from which peoples and cultures can be classified as ?primitive? and ?civilized?. European modernism provided the vision of history as one of linear growth, which led to modern cultures being a priori declared more valuable and culturally more sublime. However, modern cultures are also classified among themselves according to value principles. The differentiation of cultures is performed using various stereotypes, and the idea of progress as rational improvement in the sphere of material culture, science, and technology legitimizes the transformation of the different (other) into primitive. From this prejudice, according to the author, emerges the Eurocentric thought on the exclusiveness of the European culture, which latently justifies colonialism and other negative phenomena coming from the European civilization. Primitivism is being presented as an objective state, while it is, in fact, the case of a social construction which has the aim of proclaiming the ?other? as ?primitive?.

This paper reports on an investigation into the role of shuffling and concatenation in the theory of graph drawing. A simple syntactic description of these and related operations is proved to be complete in the context of finite partial orders, and as general as possible. An explanation based on this result is given for a previously investigated collapse of the permutohedron into the associahedron, and for collapses into other less familiar polyhedra, including the cyclohedron. Such polyhedra have been considered recently in connection with the notion of tubing, which is closely related to tree-like finite partial orders, which are defined simply here and investigated in detail. Like the associahedron, some of these other polyhedra are involved in categorial coherence questions, which will be treated elsewhere.

Building on cases of conflict-generated diaspora groups, the article proposes to understand diaspora politics as a co-construction between a series of actors that is not limited to home and host states. It argues that repeated attempts to understand diaspora politics as mostly produced by home or host countries is the result of an unwillingness to embrace the fundamentally disruptive nature of diasporas in interstate politics. Diasporas are hybrid political actors that have connections, not only with their countries of origin and of residence, but also with other diaspora groups located in the same country or elsewhere as well as with other actors at the transnational level. Taking stock of state-based approaches to diaspora politics, as well as of analyses focusing on internal diaspora matters, the article shifts the focus towards the interstate and transnational dimensions of diaspora politics and emphasises their potential to move across levels and spheres of engagement

This article offers an approach through administrative and cultural history to the problems associated with gathering and processing data for the Spanish national census of 1920, and by implication for earlier Spanish censuses. It focuses on the Basque province of Guipúzcoa, making use of correspondence between the central statistical office in Madrid, the provincial jefe de estadística and the localities, and of reports on three problematic towns within the province. The issues that emerge regarding ‘undercounting’, the definition of administrative boundaries and the classification of demographic characteristics are set in the wider context of census-taking practices and problems elsewhere in Spain and in other cultures.

AbstractThe author examines Williams’ appraisal of Collingwood both in his eponymous essay on Collingwood, in the posthumously published Sense of the Past (2006), and elsewhere in his work. The similarities and differences between their philosophies are explored: in particular, with regard to the relationship between philosophy and history and the relationship between the study of history and our present-day moral attitudes. It is argued that, despite Williams usually being classified as an analytic philosopher and Collingwood being classified as an idealist, there is substantial common ground between them. Williams was aware of this and made clear his sympathy for Collingwood; but, nonetheless, the relationship between Williams and Collingwood has not previously been explored in any detail. After establishing the common ground between these philosophers, and the areas of disagreement, the author suggests that both may have something to gain from the other.

Purpose – The primary aim of this study was to better understand the grounds to develop a monitoring and performance measurement method to support the environmental management of construction operations. The practical purpose was to improve environmental activities in construction sites. This study helps to fill the gap between environmental needs and practices on construction sites. Design/methodology/approach – Action research was the principal research method. The research procedure was executed in collaboration with construction companies. The EICS meter was originally developed to create rules for environmental competition between construction sites. Since the time of this competition, the meter has been further improved in other studies. Findings – Based on the literature and feedback gained in the testing round of the EICS, five relevant categories were formulated to evaluate environmental operations: environmental information management, waste management, material handling and shielding, energy use and emissions. A simple index method was applied for these five categories. Furthermore, observation targets and acceptance criteria were defined for these categories. The meter supports environmental management in practise. The method can be used to analyse the starting point level when developing environmental processes. Originality/value – This study offers insights based on action research for both academics and practitioners. The meter is outlined for Nordic conditions, but the structure of the method is also suitable elsewhere. The national demands can be locally fine-tuned.

Abstract In Japanese, direct combination of verbs or adjectives by coordination (with to ‘and’) or juxtaposition (with its empty counterpart) can form a NP, if the conjuncts are antonymous to each other; the coordinator to ‘and’ can combine only NPs elsewhere. We claim that this is because there is a phonetically empty nominalizer that can nominalize each conjunct, and that the new nominal construction has been gradually developing in the history of Japanese. An acceptability-rating experiment targeting 400 participants shows that the younger speakers were likely to judge this construction more acceptable than the older ones, that this tendency is slightly weaker in the Nominative condition than in the Genitive condition, and that the coordination condition was significantly worse than the juxtaposition condition.

Several disorders have been classified together in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (4th ed.; DSM-IV) as impulse control disorders not elsewhere classified. These impulse control disorders have been grouped together based on perceived similarities in clinical presentation and hypothesized similarities in pathophysiologies. The question exists whether these disorders belong together or whether they should be categorized elsewhere. Examination of the family of impulse control disorders generates questions regarding the distinct nature of each disorder: whether each is unique or whether they represent variations of each other or other psychiatric disorders. Neurobiology may cut across disorders, and identifying important intermediary phenotypes will be important in understanding impulse control disorders and related entities. The distress of patients with impulse control disorders highlights the importance of examining these disorders. More comprehensive information has significant potential for advancing prevention and treatment strategies for those who suffer from disorders characterized by impaired impulse control.

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) shares features and often co-occurs with other anxiety disorders, as well as with other psychiatric conditions classified elsewhere in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM-IV), the so-called “OCD spectrum disorders.” Neurobiologically, it is unclear how all these disorders relate to one another. The picture is further complicated by the clinical heterogeneity of OCD. This chapter will review the literature on the common and distinct neural correlates of OCD vis-à-vis other anxiety and “OCD spectrum” disorders. Furthermore, the question of whether partially distinct neural systems subserve the different symptom dimensions of OCD will be examined. Particular attention will be paid to hoarding, which is emerging as a distinct entity from OCD. Finally, new insights from cognitive and affective neuroscience will be reviewed before concluding with a summary and recommendations for future research.

This chapter applies the theoretical framework of events to the study of non-core arguments. The applied argument in the symmetric applicative construction is introduced by a PP. This PP serves as the modifier of the event predicate, and its head, a null P, is incorporated into V. In an asymmetric applicative, including the ditransitive construction in English, two predicates are involved: in addition to the matrix verb, the other predicate is a PHAVEP. The derivation of this construction is therefore by nature identical to that of English resultatives. An implication of this chapter concerns the syntactic distinction between core arguments and non-core arguments. The core argument is merged in either [Spec EP] or [Spec FP], while the applied argument is introduced elsewhere providing its merge position is permitted by general syntactic constraints.

The thirty years Carlo Goldoni spent in Paris hold an ambiguous place in his career. The preface to his autobiography explicitly draws attention to France as the site of his authorial glory, but elsewhere he dismisses his work for the Parisian Comédie-Italienne as a failure, and this view has come to dominate modern readings of his French experience. This study sets out to explore this apparent contradiction. By reading Goldoni’s own contemporary and subsequent accounts through the lens of his context as a dramatic author in 1760s Paris, this book sheds new light on both his experience and critical reactions to that experience. A key part of this contextualization is an examination of contemporary Comédie-Italienne archives, resulting in the most comprehensive existing account of this oft-neglected theatre and its authorial relations in the period. When material and artistic conditions at the Comédie-Italienne thwarted the self-fashioning strategies Goldoni had developed in Italy, he turned his attention to other areas of French life; notably the court and the Comédie-Française. Yet despite relative success in this regard, his career as an eclectic homme de lettres was lost in translation to posterity. In his French Mémoires, he constructed the claim of Parisian glory according to an outdated understanding of what it meant to succeed in the French literary field, focusing predominantly on the power of Comédie-Française success. Ultimately, this construction was a failure: in modern France, Goldoni is remembered as a famous foreigner, not the consecrated French littérateur he believed he had become.

Nationalism: Past as Prologue began as a single volume being compiled by Ad Akande, a scholar from South Africa, who proposed it to me as co-author about two years ago. The original idea was to examine how the damaging roots of nationalism have been corroding political systems around the world, and creating dangerous obstacles for necessary international cooperation. Since I (Bruce E. Johansen) has written profusely about climate change (global warming, a.k.a. infrared forcing), I suggested a concerted effort in that direction. This is a worldwide existential threat that affects every living thing on Earth. It often compounds upon itself, so delays in reducing emissions of fossil fuels are shortening the amount of time remaining to eliminate the use of fossil fuels to preserve a livable planet. Nationalism often impedes solutions to this problem (among many others), as nations place their singular needs above the common good. Our initial proposal got around, and abstracts on many subjects arrived. Within a few weeks, we had enough good material for a 100,000-word book. The book then fattened to two moderate volumes and then to four two very hefty tomes. We tried several different titles as good submissions swelled. We also discovered that our best contributors were experts in their fields, which ranged the world. We settled on three stand-alone books:” 1/ nationalism and racial justice. Our first volume grew as the growth of Black Lives Matter following the brutal killing of George Floyd ignited protests over police brutality and other issues during 2020, following the police assassination of Floyd in Minneapolis. It is estimated that more people took part in protests of police brutality during the summer of 2020 than any other series of marches in United States history. This includes upheavals during the 1960s over racial issues and against the war in Southeast Asia (notably Vietnam). We choose a volume on racism because it is one of nationalism’s main motive forces. This volume provides a worldwide array of work on nationalism’s growth in various countries, usually by authors residing in them, or in the United States with ethnic ties to the nation being examined, often recent immigrants to the United States from them. Our roster of contributors comprises a small United Nations of insightful, well-written research and commentary from Indonesia, New Zealand, Australia, China, India, South Africa, France, Portugal, Estonia, Hungary, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, Georgia, and the United States. Volume 2 (this one) describes and analyzes nationalism, by country, around the world, except for the United States; and 3/material directly related to President Donald Trump, and the United States. The first volume is under consideration at the Texas A & M University Press. The other two are under contract to Nova Science Publishers (which includes social sciences). These three volumes may be used individually or as a set. Environmental material is taken up in appropriate places in each of the three books. * * * * * What became the United States of America has been strongly nationalist since the English of present-day Massachusetts and Jamestown first hit North America’s eastern shores. The country propelled itself across North America with the self-serving ideology of “manifest destiny” for four centuries before Donald Trump came along. Anyone who believes that a Trumpian affection for deportation of “illegals” is a new thing ought to take a look at immigration and deportation statistics in Adam Goodman’s The Deportation Machine: America’s Long History of Deporting Immigrants (Princeton University Press, 2020). Between 1920 and 2018, the United States deported 56.3 million people, compared with 51.7 million who were granted legal immigration status during the same dates. Nearly nine of ten deportees were Mexican (Nolan, 2020, 83). This kind of nationalism, has become an assassin of democracy as well as an impediment to solving global problems. Paul Krugman wrote in the New York Times (2019:A-25): that “In their 2018 book, How Democracies Die, the political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt documented how this process has played out in many countries, from Vladimir Putin’s Russia, to Recep Erdogan’s Turkey, to Viktor Orban’s Hungary. Add to these India’s Narendra Modi, China’s Xi Jinping, and the United States’ Donald Trump, among others. Bit by bit, the guardrails of democracy have been torn down, as institutions meant to serve the public became tools of ruling parties and self-serving ideologies, weaponized to punish and intimidate opposition parties’ opponents. On paper, these countries are still democracies; in practice, they have become one-party regimes….And it’s happening here [the United States] as we speak. If you are not worried about the future of American democracy, you aren’t paying attention” (Krugmam, 2019, A-25). We are reminded continuously that the late Carl Sagan, one of our most insightful scientific public intellectuals, had an interesting theory about highly developed civilizations. Given the number of stars and planets that must exist in the vast reaches of the universe, he said, there must be other highly developed and organized forms of life. Distance may keep us from making physical contact, but Sagan said that another reason we may never be on speaking terms with another intelligent race is (judging from our own example) could be their penchant for destroying themselves in relatively short order after reaching technological complexity. This book’s chapters, introduction, and conclusion examine the worldwide rise of partisan nationalism and the damage it has wrought on the worldwide pursuit of solutions for issues requiring worldwide scope, such scientific co-operation public health and others, mixing analysis of both. We use both historical description and analysis. This analysis concludes with a description of why we must avoid the isolating nature of nationalism that isolates people and encourages separation if we are to deal with issues of world-wide concern, and to maintain a sustainable, survivable Earth, placing the dominant political movement of our time against the Earth’s existential crises. Our contributors, all experts in their fields, each have assumed responsibility for a country, or two if they are related. This work entwines themes of worldwide concern with the political growth of nationalism because leaders with such a worldview are disinclined to co-operate internationally at a time when nations must find ways to solve common problems, such as the climate crisis. Inability to cooperate at this stage may doom everyone, eventually, to an overheated, stormy future plagued by droughts and deluges portending shortages of food and other essential commodities, meanwhile destroying large coastal urban areas because of rising sea levels. Future historians may look back at our time and wonder why as well as how our world succumbed to isolating nationalism at a time when time was so short for cooperative intervention which is crucial for survival of a sustainable earth. Pride in language and culture is salubrious to individuals’ sense of history and identity. Excess nationalism that prevents international co-operation on harmful worldwide maladies is quite another. As Pope Francis has pointed out: For all of our connectivity due to expansion of social media, ability to communicate can breed contempt as well as mutual trust. “For all our hyper-connectivity,” said Francis, “We witnessed a fragmentation that made it more difficult to resolve problems that affect us all” (Horowitz, 2020, A-12). The pope’s encyclical, titled “Brothers All,” also said: “The forces of myopic, extremist, resentful, and aggressive nationalism are on the rise.” The pope’s document also advocates support for migrants, as well as resistance to nationalist and tribal populism. Francis broadened his critique to the role of market capitalism, as well as nationalism has failed the peoples of the world when they need co-operation and solidarity in the face of the world-wide corona virus pandemic. Humankind needs to unite into “a new sense of the human family [Fratelli Tutti, “Brothers All”], that rejects war at all costs” (Pope, 2020, 6-A). Our journey takes us first to Russia, with the able eye and honed expertise of Richard D. Anderson, Jr. who teaches as UCLA and publishes on the subject of his chapter: “Putin, Russian identity, and Russia’s conduct at home and abroad.” Readers should find Dr. Anderson’s analysis fascinating because Vladimir Putin, the singular leader of Russian foreign and domestic policy these days (and perhaps for the rest of his life, given how malleable Russia’s Constitution has become) may be a short man physically, but has high ambitions. One of these involves restoring the old Russian (and Soviet) empire, which would involve re-subjugating a number of nations that broke off as the old order dissolved about 30 years ago. President (shall we say czar?) Putin also has international ambitions, notably by destabilizing the United States, where election meddling has become a specialty. The sight of Putin and U.S. president Donald Trump, two very rich men (Putin $70-$200 billion; Trump $2.5 billion), nuzzling in friendship would probably set Thomas Jefferson and Vladimir Lenin spinning in their graves. The road of history can take some unanticipated twists and turns. Consider Poland, from which we have an expert native analysis in chapter 2, Bartosz Hlebowicz, who is a Polish anthropologist and journalist. His piece is titled “Lawless and Unjust: How to Quickly Make Your Own Country a Puppet State Run by a Group of Hoodlums – the Hopeless Case of Poland (2015–2020).” When I visited Poland to teach and lecture twice between 2006 and 2008, most people seemed to be walking on air induced by freedom to conduct their own affairs to an unusual degree for a state usually squeezed between nationalists in Germany and Russia. What did the Poles then do in a couple of decades? Read Hlebowicz’ chapter and decide. It certainly isn’t soft-bellied liberalism. In Chapter 3, with Bruce E. Johansen, we visit China’s western provinces, the lands of Tibet as well as the Uighurs and other Muslims in the Xinjiang region, who would most assuredly resent being characterized as being possessed by the Chinese of the Han to the east. As a student of Native American history, I had never before thought of the Tibetans and Uighurs as Native peoples struggling against the Independence-minded peoples of a land that is called an adjunct of China on most of our maps. The random act of sitting next to a young woman on an Air India flight out of Hyderabad, bound for New Delhi taught me that the Tibetans had something to share with the Lakota, the Iroquois, and hundreds of other Native American states and nations in North America. Active resistance to Chinese rule lasted into the mid-nineteenth century, and continues today in a subversive manner, even in song, as I learned in 2018 when I acted as a foreign adjudicator on a Ph.D. dissertation by a Tibetan student at the University of Madras (in what is now in a city called Chennai), in southwestern India on resistance in song during Tibet’s recent history. Tibet is one of very few places on Earth where a young dissident can get shot to death for singing a song that troubles China’s Quest for Lebensraum. The situation in Xinjiang region, where close to a million Muslims have been interned in “reeducation” camps surrounded with brick walls and barbed wire. They sing, too. Come with us and hear the music. Back to Europe now, in Chapter 4, to Portugal and Spain, we find a break in the general pattern of nationalism. Portugal has been more progressive governmentally than most. Spain varies from a liberal majority to military coups, a pattern which has been exported to Latin America. A situation such as this can make use of the term “populism” problematic, because general usage in our time usually ties the word into a right-wing connotative straightjacket. “Populism” can be used to describe progressive (left-wing) insurgencies as well. José Pinto, who is native to Portugal and also researches and writes in Spanish as well as English, in “Populism in Portugal and Spain: a Real Neighbourhood?” provides insight into these historical paradoxes. Hungary shares some historical inclinations with Poland (above). Both emerged from Soviet dominance in an air of developing freedom and multicultural diversity after the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed. Then, gradually at first, right wing-forces began to tighten up, stripping structures supporting popular freedom, from the courts, mass media, and other institutions. In Chapter 5, Bernard Tamas, in “From Youth Movement to Right-Liberal Wing Authoritarianism: The Rise of Fidesz and the Decline of Hungarian Democracy” puts the renewed growth of political and social repression into a context of worldwide nationalism. Tamas, an associate professor of political science at Valdosta State University, has been a postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University and a Fulbright scholar at the Central European University in Budapest, Hungary. His books include From Dissident to Party Politics: The Struggle for Democracy in Post-Communist Hungary (2007). Bear in mind that not everyone shares Orbán’s vision of what will make this nation great, again. On graffiti-covered walls in Budapest, Runes (traditional Hungarian script) has been found that read “Orbán is a motherfucker” (Mikanowski, 2019, 58). Also in Europe, in Chapter 6, Professor Ronan Le Coadic, of the University of Rennes, Rennes, France, in “Is There a Revival of French Nationalism?” Stating this title in the form of a question is quite appropriate because France’s nationalistic shift has built and ebbed several times during the last few decades. For a time after 2000, it came close to assuming the role of a substantial minority, only to ebb after that. In 2017, the candidate of the National Front reached the second round of the French presidential election. This was the second time this nationalist party reached the second round of the presidential election in the history of the Fifth Republic. In 2002, however, Jean-Marie Le Pen had only obtained 17.79% of the votes, while fifteen years later his daughter, Marine Le Pen, almost doubled her father's record, reaching 33.90% of the votes cast. Moreover, in the 2019 European elections, re-named Rassemblement National obtained the largest number of votes of all French political formations and can therefore boast of being "the leading party in France.” The brutality of oppressive nationalism may be expressed in personal relationships, such as child abuse. While Indonesia and Aotearoa [the Maoris’ name for New Zealand] hold very different ranks in the United Nations Human Development Programme assessments, where Indonesia is classified as a medium development country and Aotearoa New Zealand as a very high development country. In Chapter 7, “Domestic Violence Against Women in Indonesia and Aotearoa New Zealand: Making Sense of Differences and Similarities” co-authors, in Chapter 8, Mandy Morgan and Dr. Elli N. Hayati, from New Zealand and Indonesia respectively, found that despite their socio-economic differences, one in three women in each country experience physical or sexual intimate partner violence over their lifetime. In this chapter ther authors aim to deepen understandings of domestic violence through discussion of the socio-economic and demographic characteristics of theit countries to address domestic violence alongside studies of women’s attitudes to gender norms and experiences of intimate partner violence. One of the most surprising and upsetting scholarly journeys that a North American student may take involves Adolf Hitler’s comments on oppression of American Indians and Blacks as he imagined the construction of the Nazi state, a genesis of nationalism that is all but unknown in the United States of America, traced in this volume (Chapter 8) by co-editor Johansen. Beginning in Mein Kampf, during the 1920s, Hitler explicitly used the westward expansion of the United States across North America as a model and justification for Nazi conquest and anticipated colonization by Germans of what the Nazis called the “wild East” – the Slavic nations of Poland, the Baltic states, Ukraine, and Russia, most of which were under control of the Soviet Union. The Volga River (in Russia) was styled by Hitler as the Germans’ Mississippi, and covered wagons were readied for the German “manifest destiny” of imprisoning, eradicating, and replacing peoples the Nazis deemed inferior, all with direct references to events in North America during the previous century. At the same time, with no sense of contradiction, the Nazis partook of a long-standing German romanticism of Native Americans. One of Goebbels’ less propitious schemes was to confer honorary Aryan status on Native American tribes, in the hope that they would rise up against their oppressors. U.S. racial attitudes were “evidence [to the Nazis] that America was evolving in the right direction, despite its specious rhetoric about equality.” Ming Xie, originally from Beijing, in the People’s Republic of China, in Chapter 9, “News Coverage and Public Perceptions of the Social Credit System in China,” writes that The State Council of China in 2014 announced “that a nationwide social credit system would be established” in China. “Under this system, individuals, private companies, social organizations, and governmental agencies are assigned a score which will be calculated based on their trustworthiness and daily actions such as transaction history, professional conduct, obedience to law, corruption, tax evasion, and academic plagiarism.” The “nationalism” in this case is that of the state over the individual. China has 1.4 billion people; this system takes their measure for the purpose of state control. Once fully operational, control will be more subtle. People who are subject to it, through modern technology (most often smart phones) will prompt many people to self-censor. Orwell, modernized, might write: “Your smart phone is watching you.” Ming Xie holds two Ph.Ds, one in Public Administration from University of Nebraska at Omaha and another in Cultural Anthropology from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, where she also worked for more than 10 years at a national think tank in the same institution. While there she summarized news from non-Chinese sources for senior members of the Chinese Communist Party. Ming is presently an assistant professor at the Department of Political Science and Criminal Justice, West Texas A&M University. In Chapter 10, analyzing native peoples and nationhood, Barbara Alice Mann, Professor of Honours at the University of Toledo, in “Divide, et Impera: The Self-Genocide Game” details ways in which European-American invaders deprive the conquered of their sense of nationhood as part of a subjugation system that amounts to genocide, rubbing out their languages and cultures -- and ultimately forcing the native peoples to assimilate on their own, for survival in a culture that is foreign to them. Mann is one of Native American Studies’ most acute critics of conquests’ contradictions, and an author who retrieves Native history with a powerful sense of voice and purpose, having authored roughly a dozen books and numerous book chapters, among many other works, who has traveled around the world lecturing and publishing on many subjects. Nalanda Roy and S. Mae Pedron in Chapter 11, “Understanding the Face of Humanity: The Rohingya Genocide.” describe one of the largest forced migrations in the history of the human race, the removal of 700,000 to 800,000 Muslims from Buddhist Myanmar to Bangladesh, which itself is already one of the most crowded and impoverished nations on Earth. With about 150 million people packed into an area the size of Nebraska and Iowa (population less than a tenth that of Bangladesh, a country that is losing land steadily to rising sea levels and erosion of the Ganges river delta. The Rohingyas’ refugee camp has been squeezed onto a gigantic, eroding, muddy slope that contains nearly no vegetation. However, Bangladesh is majority Muslim, so while the Rohingya may starve, they won’t be shot to death by marauding armies. Both authors of this exquisite (and excruciating) account teach at Georgia Southern University in Savannah, Georgia, Roy as an associate professor of International Studies and Asian politics, and Pedron as a graduate student; Roy originally hails from very eastern India, close to both Myanmar and Bangladesh, so he has special insight into the context of one of the most brutal genocides of our time, or any other. This is our case describing the problems that nationalism has and will pose for the sustainability of the Earth as our little blue-and-green orb becomes more crowded over time. The old ways, in which national arguments often end in devastating wars, are obsolete, given that the Earth and all the people, plants, and other animals that it sustains are faced with the existential threat of a climate crisis that within two centuries, more or less, will flood large parts of coastal cities, and endanger many species of plants and animals. To survive, we must listen to the Earth, and observe her travails, because they are increasingly our own.

This chapter examines the history of questions concerning life on other worlds within theology. Not surprisingly, in each phase of the historic extraterrestrial life (ETL) debates, the conceptions of ETL that were put forward tended either to strongly reflect and reinforce—or else provocatively controvert and undermine—traditional human self-conceptions. As such, traditional Christianity—as constructed in the Renaissance and early modern periods, in both its Catholic and non-Catholic forms—faced unique conceptual and interpretive exigencies in relation to the possibility of ETL, precisely because of its particular metaphysical and existential construction of the divine-human relation. Some thinkers viewed these conceptual and interpretive exigencies as opportunities for the creative extension, reinterpretation, and transformation of traditional Christian understandings. Others took their traditional understandings to be sufficient counterevidence to the ETL hypothesis, denying the possibility of life elsewhere in the cosmos on the basis that it conflicted with what they “knew” to be true, on the basis of Biblical or doctrinal authority. Still others viewed the emerging scientific plausibility of ETL as definitive counterevidence against Christianity.

This chapter examines the notion of Nordic otherness in the film work of Ingrid Bergman. Otherness here refers to the construction of Bergman as an outsider in films in Hollywood, Italy and, at the end of her career, back in Swedish cinema again. This difference can be understood as one that seemed both strange yet compelling, and is part of a long history of Hollywood casting Europeans as compelling others. From her works in Hollywood (1939–49) to her Italian period with Roberto Rossellini (1950–6), to her last film and her return to Swedish film in Ingmar Bergman’s Autumn Sonata (Höstsonaten, Sweden/West Germany, 1978), the present study characterizes Bergman’s body of work through interlinked themes: the role as a Swedish/European other; the working woman (i.e. a woman in the workforce), both in terms of the promotion of her career and many of the roles themselves that are subject to forms of constraint (from marriage to martyrdom). The chapter traces her transnational career and reclaims Bergman as an actress with a great deal of agency over her career.

Political activism acquired an international dimension in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as ideologically committed individuals followed developments elsewhere, made choices in the light of experience elsewhere, and forged fraternal links with the like-minded in other states. There were many reasons for activists to travel, political and otherwise; political changes that sent waves of exiles into the wider world were one contributing source. In the post-Napoleonic era, restrictions on political activity encouraged the establishment of secret societies to support national or international networks; fearful officials probably exaggerated their real potential to leverage change, though they did play some role in revolutions of the 1820s, and later. From the 1830s, the consolidation of some liberal regimes increased space for open forms of political activity. As a self-consciously ‘democratic’ challenge to narrower forms of liberalism took shape, an international democratic culture began to form, supporting the construction of a canon of democratic gurus and heroes.

Chapter 4 tells the story of Naharayim, the hydroelectric station at the confluence of the Jordan and Yarmuk Rivers. Construction began in 1927 and was completed in 1932. The significance of Naharayim was both material and representational. The station served an important function as a staging ground for the Zionist project’s civilizing mission, which, like other such missions elsewhere, also engendered an ethno-national division of labor. By generating electricity and transmitting it to the entire territory, Naharayim marked Palestine out as a Jewish national space and economy, which seemed to validate the basic ideological thrust of Zionism, namely that Jewish efforts in Palestine would lift everyone’s boats. This relegated the Palestinians to the category of second-order beneficiaries of Zionist development.

This chapter delves into the construction of a symbolic opposition between Buenos Aires and its suburbs. Like the city's outskirts themselves, the contrast was born of large-scale demographic and urban changes that were reinforced by a diverse body of documents—expert analysis, fictional narratives, mass media articles, and classified reports. Within this corpus, the analysis focuses on one strand of meaning: that which organized the symbolic location of legality and illegality, safety and danger, order and disorder. Unlike other works on the urban imaginary, here technical, artistic, and literary writings will take a backseat to more widely disseminated discourses: police press releases about security in Buenos Aires, and the stories and images that circulated in both the popular and the “serious” press.

London’s late antique restoration was signalled by the construction of a monumental riverside wall, the renewal of luxurious town houses within town, and the development of new patterns of supply. Recent dendrochronological evidence indicates that the riverside wall was probably built in the late 270s, perhaps under Aurelian and then Probus following the collapse of the Gallic Empire. Contemporary fortifications were built at other sites in southern Britain in this assertion of a new language of imperial control. It is suggested that changed patterns of urban supply reflect on the administrative reforms that supported these defended sites. London’s revival may also have relied on new settlement, and recent studies of cemetery populations around the city indicate that some 20–40 per cent of the buried dead—admittedly from an extremely small sample—had arrived from elsewhere in the Roman Empire.

Following this commentary is a short ‘manifesto’ piece on creating ‘concrete’ texts in ‘natural’ environments or environments in which the ‘natural world’ intervenes, ‘intrudes’, or defines the conditions of viewing. This necessitates a lot of scare quotes because of the problem of mediating the ‘natural’ in the context of human seeing, perception and activity. All human activity is contingent on the ‘natural world’, regardless of how much it attempts to distance itself from the materials and variables of its construction. In the case of the images below, it might entail a spider or some other creature walking over a sheet of paper displaying a poem – the poem/sheet placed on the ground (or elsewhere) in the expectation that something will cross its path, literally. The patience is in waiting to capture the photograph, to watch the patterns of place fluctuate....

We have already seen that some of the basic building blocks used in the biosynthesis of natural products are amino acids such as phenylalanine, tyrosine, and others. These and other crucial construction materials such as the acyl group in acetyl-CoA are all ultimately derived from carbohydrates. In this chapter, we will present an abbreviated overview of the components of carbohydrate structure and metabolism sufficient for our purposes going forward, with a schematic flowchart showing how carbohydrates and amino acids are modified, combined, and branched off in various ways to yield the distinct set of biosynthetic pathways that will form the core of the remainder of the text. We will finish the chapter with a brief, general review of amino acid nomenclature and structure with emphasis on the key amino acids that will be used throughout the remainder of the text. We know that plants make glucose (C6H12O6) by photosynthesis using light, water (H2O), and carbon dioxide (CO2). Another way of looking at the formula for glucose is C6(H2O)6, that is, six carbon atoms and six water molecules. Thus, glucose was originally referred to as a hydrated form of carbon—a carbohydrate. But this is a very general term since there are many different types of carbohydrate compounds. One way to broadly classify carbohydrates is to identify them as either mono- (one), di- (two), oligo- (a few) or poly- (many) saccharides. For example, glucose (C6H12O6) cannot be broken down into simpler carbohydrates by simple hydrolysis, so it is classified as a monosaccharide, that is, a single, discrete carbohydrate compound. On the other hand, the carbohydrate sucrose (C12H22O11) is classified as a disaccharide since when it is subjected to aqueous hydrolysis, it yields two different monosaccharide carbohydrates, namely glucose (C6H12O6) and fructose (C6H12O6). Noting that glucose and fructose are different compounds but with the same molecular formula, they must be related to one another either as stereoisomers or as constitutional isomers, so further refinement of classification is needed. Structurally speaking, most monosaccharide carbohydrates are simply polyhydroxyaldehydes (aldoses) or polyhydroxyketones (ketoses) which can be further classified using a combination of aldo- or keto- prefixes along with suffixes such as triose, tetrose, pentose, or hexose to designate the number of carbon atoms.

This chapter discusses William Wordsworth's misuse of the present-perfect tense in his famous lines about a boy of Winander—a mistake that implies that the boy is still living when one knows from the poem that he is gone, that the episode was in the past. It investigates several possibilities—the poet's ambiguous treatment of death in other poems about children, the prevalence of the present perfect elsewhere in Wordsworth's verse, and his own sense of grammatical propriety—before calling a mistake a mistake. The present perfect is a common Wordsworthian grammatical construction, especially in poems about memory, and one that he uses correctly and with assurance throughout his poetry. More likely than not, the poet would have corrected his present perfect had it been brought to his attention—just as he corrected his personal pronouns in revising that original draft. This particular error suggests a difference between accident and mistake that will be central to the chapters that follow.

The chapter proposes an analysis of the phenomenon of nation branding from the point of view of the attribution of an identity to places and the consequent development of a collective imagination related to them. The starting point for this analysis is a historical excursus concerning the formation of a collective imaginary of places. Nation branding is a recent phenomenon, which takes up the legacy of other historical phenomena to propose an imaginary linked to the identity aspects of a nation, synthesising it in a few graphic signs through a brand. The chapter describes this process of the construction of the identity of a place and its visual expression through a brand image. The analysis is limited to the nation recognizability as a tourism destination and does not take under consideration the nation products and economy. The considerations are supported by the analysis of some emblematic case studies of brand image classified according to their graphic characteristics.

The 5 Russian Arctic Seas have common features, but differ significantly from each other in the sea ice regime and navigation specifics. Navigation in the Arctic is a big challenge, especially during the winter season. However, it is necessary, due to limited natural resources elsewhere on Earth that may be easier for exploitation. Therefore sea ice is an important issue for future development. We foresee that the Arctic may become ice free in summer as a result of global warming and even light yachts will be able to pass through the Eastern Passage. There have been several such examples in the last years. But sea ice is an inherent feature of Arctic Seas in winter, it is permanently immanent for the Central Arctic Basin. That is why it is important to get appropriate knowledge about sea ice properties and operations in ice conditions. Four seas, the Kara, Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi have been examined in the book “Russian Arctic Seas. Navigation Condition and Accidents”, Marchenko, 2012 [1]. The book is devoted to the eastern sector of the Arctic, with a description of the seas and accidents caused by heavy ice conditions. The traditional physical-geographical characteristics, information about the navigation conditions and the main sea routes and reports on accidents that occurred in the 20th century have reviewed. An additional investigation has been performed for more recent accidents and for the Barents Sea. Considerable attention has been paid to problems associated with sea ice caused by the present development of the Arctic. Sea ice can significantly affect shipping, drilling, and the construction and operation of platforms and handling terminals. Sea ice is present in the main part of the east Arctic Sea most of the year. The Barents Sea, which is strongly influenced and warmed by the North Atlantic Current, has a natural environment that is dramatically different from those of the other Arctic seas. The main difficulties with the Barents Sea are produced by icing and storms and in the north icebergs. The ice jet is the most dangerous phenomenon in the main straits along the Northern Sea Route and in Chukchi Seas. The accidents in the Arctic Sea have been classified, described and connected with weather and ice conditions. Behaviour of the crew is taken into consideration. The following types of the ice-induced accidents are distinguished: forced drift, forced overwintering, shipwreck, and serious damage to the hull in which the crew, sometimes with the help of other crews, could still save the ship. The main reasons for shipwrecks and damages are hits of ice floes (often in rather calm ice conditions), ice nipping (compression) and drift. Such investigation is important for safety in the Arctic.

For construction of TF coil, a “Fabrication and Installation” standard FM-4000, accompanying a mandatory Appendix 41 “Welded Joint” and a “Nondestructive Examination” standard FM-5000 accompanying a mandatory Appendix 51 for “Ultrasonic Examination Method” and a “Pressure and Leak Testing” standard FM-6000 have been developed, based on other JSME standards for nuclear power plant (JSME S NB1) and also ASME Sec. III ND, NF or Sec. VIII-div.2 Since TF coil structure does not include radioactive materials but is operated under high stress produced by high magnetic field, it is not safety-relevant-barrier. The requirements to construction should be relaxed in comparison with a fission reactor. The TF coil structure is mainly classified into two divisions; (1) Jacket and helium cooling pipe that is required for leak tightness, and (2) The general structure which is stressed only by the electromagnetic force. For the welded joint in the structure part (1), more severe requirements for nondestructive examination are prescribed in addition to the requirement for pressure and leak testing, based on JSME S NB1 and ASME Sec. III ND, NF or Sec. VIII-div.2. All of weld joints are classified into 6 categories depending on strength and direction of the stress induced by the magnetic field. Approved weld joint configuration and welding processes, nondestructive examinations, pressure and leak testing required and also acceptance criteria of discontinuity are defined in each category. Qualification of welding personnel and inspector are also defined, but its final responsibility is to the owner of TF coil.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected all industries globally, including the construction industry. As a result, the construction industry is experiencing several challenges in terms of delivering projects on time and on budget. However, a few studies have shown that the COVID-19 pandemic has a positive impact on the construction industry. Hence, analysing the issues caused by COVID-19 is vital to lessen the effects of the pandemic. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the impact of COVID-19 on the construction industry. Accordingly, a detailed literature review was carried out to gain a theoretical understanding of the topic. A quantitative research approach was used to collect data. The questionnaire survey was conducted using snowball sampling with a total of one 108 respondents. Statistical Package for Social Science" (SPSS) was used to analyse the collected data. The findings revealed 86 negative impacts for the construction industry owing to the pandemic, which was classified as resources-related issues, project management issues, quality issues, financial issues, contractual issues, safety issues, technology-related issues, and other issues for the construction industry. An increase in the price of materials and equipment, project cost, exchange rate, and inflation rate were noted as significant negative impacts to the construction industry. The research further identified twelve (12) favourable impacts for the construction industry as a result of the pandemic. Encouraging risk assessment and collaboration and encouraging Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) were highlighted as the significant positive impacts. Therefore, strategies need to be identified to neutralise the negative impacts using the positive impacts caused by the pandemic. This study contributes to the body of knowledge to advance the construction industry towards the next level during the post- COVID-19 scenario, which will be the focus of the next phase of this research.

The commercial building sector is classified as a highly energy-intensive category in Sri Lanka. Building practitioners adopt energy-saving mechanisms to minimise energy consumption. However, the integration of smart features plays a vital role in conserving energy in commercial buildings. However, Sri Lanka lags behind in the adoption of smart features when compared to other countries. To address this problem, this study aimed to develop a framework for the better integration of smart features to minimise the energy consumption of Sri Lankan commercial buildings. This research is carried out initially by literature review, and then research has been followed by case study. Data collected is analysed through manual content analysis and computer software with the aid of NVivo 12 software. Findings revealed that smart features are the new technologies evolved in commercial buildings to conserve energy. However, building practitioners faced several issues in integrating these features within the existing buildings. Limited knowledge of management, building owners and operators, high initial cost, and lack of workforce skill were identified as main barriers to integrating smart features in Sri Lankan commercial buildings. Moreover, this research identified the possible mechanisms for the better integration of smart features in commercial buildings. For better integration, it is required to plan it at the initial design stage of buildings, select reliable contractors, and raise awareness of management and client about smart features. Finally, a framework was developed for the better integration of smart features to minimise the energy consumption of Sri Lankan commercial buildings.

Geohazards are threats of a geological, geotechnical, hydrological, or seismic/tectonic nature that may negatively affect people, infrastructure and/or the environment. In a pipeline integrity management context, geohazards are considered under the time-independent threat category of Weather-related and Outside Force in the American standard ASME B31.8S. Geotechnical failure of pipelines due to ground movement is addressed in Annex H and elsewhere in the Canadian standard CSA-Z662. Both of these standards allow flexibility in terms of geohazard assessment as part of pipeline integrity management. As a result of this flexibility, many systems for identifying, characterizing, analyzing and managing geohazards have been developed by operators and geotechnical engineering practitioners. The evolution of these systems, and general expectations regarding geohazard assessment, toward quantitative geohazard frequency assessment is a trend in recent pipeline hearings and regulatory filings in Canada. While this trend is intended to frame geohazard assessment in an objective and repeatable manner, partitioning the assessment into a series of conditional probability estimates, the reality is that there is always an element of subjectivity in assigning these conditional probabilities, requiring subject matter expertise and expert judgment to make informed and defensible decisions. Defining a specific risk context (typically loss of containment from a pipeline) and communicating uncertainty are important aspects of applying these types of systems. Adoption of these approaches for alternate risk contexts, such as worker safety during pipeline construction, is challenging in that the specific geohazards and threat scenarios considered for long-term pipeline integrity may or may not adequately represent all credible threats during pipeline construction. This paper explores the commonalities and differences in short- and long-term framing of geohazard assessment, and offers guidance for extending geohazard assessment for long-term pipeline integrity to other contexts such as construction safety.

Earthen constructions are one of the most widespread and fragile elements of the architectural heritage of the Iberian Peninsula. This situation is worsened when they lack the necessary protection and are found in vulnerable enclaves such as archaeological sites. Their geographical, cultural and constructive particularities expose them to different risks – natural, social and anthropic – which threaten their conservation and interpretation for future generations. This study aims to examine this type of heritage complex in constructive terms, focusing on constructions of a domestic and productive nature and paying special attention to those from prehistoric, protohistoric and Roman periods. Attention is also paid to later similar remains conserved. Quantitative and qualitative analysis methodologies are applied to a series of case studies found throughout the Iberian Peninsula in order to record the information on fiches examining general and specific aspects of the different techniques observed. Given the broad timeline and geography covered, as well as other identification and conservation factors, the data collected reflect a predominance of adobe over other earthen techniques which are also described, including daub, cob and rammed earth, with fewer examples identified throughout. This heritage is therefore classified to record the original states compiled from the different archives, reports and publications. Subsequently, a specific database is generated for the analysis of risks (exposure and sensitivity) and criteria, strategies or results (capacity for adaptation), gleaning as much information as possible from these characteristics.

Abstract Drill cuttings waste was recycled into new use and pilot project to utilize drill cutting waste in road and construction application were carried out. This work describes strategy and best practice to engage regulator in order to unlock regulatory requirements for the pilot on drill cutting waste utilization. Characterization of drill cuttings waste was carried out and its regulatory requirements as indicated in waste management plan and EIA were investigated in parallel to the study on technical feasibility to utilize drill cuttings waste. Equally important is investigation on the rule and regulation relevant to areas and/or industries that the drill cuttings waste will be used for. These regulatory requirements must be clearly identified in an early stage of the pilot project as it will indicate necessary analytical tests to be carried out and will provide information for designing of an environmental impact assessment and monitoring program. Drill cuttings waste is classified into two groups based on type of drilling mud used. Drill cuttings from upper section of well contaminated with water-based mud, called top-hole drill cuttings, is classified as non-hazardous waste while drill cuttings from lower section of well contaminated with synthetic-based mud, called bottom-hole drill cuttings, is classified as hazardous-minor waste. Physical properties of the drill cuttings waste such as pH, conductivity, salinity, chemical properties on chloride contents as well as heavy metal contents must be analyzed and identified to be within the standard limit. These analytical results provide necessary technical information for regulator to make decision based upon in order to support the drill cuttings waste utilization pilot. Based on characteristic of road usage and potential wear and tear of the pilot recycled drill cuttings road, environmental impact assessment and monitoring program on soil, surface water, and subsurface water on areas closed to the pilot site were performed prior and after construction of the pilot road. This environmental impact assessment and monitoring program provides track record of technical analytical data which is essential supporting information for regulator's consideration and endorsement on the future modification of EIA's regulatory requirements. This work demonstrates that good understanding on classification of the drill cuttings waste, its regulatory requirements, characteristic of application the drill cuttings waste will be used for, and its relevant legislations are essential. This information indicates necessary technical analyses required to be performed in order to obtain important technical data to unlock regulatory requirements. Drill cuttings waste utilization not only save waste management cost, but also reduce environmental footprint. This approach can be applied to utilization of other type of waste as well.

In the past 40 years, China has experienced the largest and fastest urbanization development in the world. The infrastructure, urban environment and medical services of cities have been improved significantly. The health impacts are manifested in the decrease of the incidence of infectious diseases and the significant increase of the life span of residents. However, the development of urbanization in China has also created many problems, including the increasing pollution of urban environment such as air, water and soil, the disorderly spread of urban construction land, the fragmentation of natural ecological environment, dense population, traffic congestion and so on. With the process of urbanization and motorization, the lifestyle of urban population has changed, and the disease spectrum and the sequence of death causes have changed. Chronic noncommunicable diseases have replaced acute infectious diseases and become the primary threat to urban public health. According to the data published by the famous medical journal The LANCET on China's health care, the economic losses caused by five major non-communicable diseases (ischemic heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, diabetes mellitus, breast cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) will reach US$23 trillion between 2012 and 2030, more than twice the total GDP of China in 2015 (US$11.7 trillion). Therefore, China proposes to implement the strategy of "Healthy China" and develop the policy of "integrating health into ten thousand strategies". Integrate health into the whole process of urban and rural planning, construction and governance to form a healthy, equitable and accessible production and living environment. China is building healthy cities through the above four strategies. The main strategies from national system design to local planning are as follows. First of all, the top-level design of the country. There are two main points: one point, the formulation of the Healthy China 2030 Plan determines the first batch of 38 pilot healthy cities and practices the strategy of healthy city planning; the other point, formulate and implement the national health city policy and issue the National Healthy City. The evaluation index system evaluates the development of local work from five aspects: environment, society, service, crowd and culture, finds out the weak links in the work in time, and constantly improves the quality of healthy city construction. Secondly, the reform of territorial spatial planning. In order to adapt to the rapid development of urbanization, China urban plan promote the reform of spatial planning system, change the layout of spatial planning into the fine management of space, and promote the sustainable development of cities. To delimit the boundary line of urban development and the red line of urban ecological protection and limit the disorderly spread of urban development as the requirements of space control. The bottom line of urban environmental quality and resource utilization are studied as capacity control and environmental access requirements. The grid management of urban built environment and natural environment is carried out, and the hierarchical and classified management unit is determined. Thirdly, the practice of special planning for local health and medical distribution facilities. In order to embody the equity of health services, including health equity, equity of health services utilization and equity of health resources distribution. For the elderly population, vulnerable groups and patients with chronic diseases, the layout of community health care facilities and intelligent medical treatment are combined to facilitate the "last kilometer" service of health care. Finally, urban repair and ecological restoration design are carried out. From the perspective of people-oriented, on the basis of studying the comfortable construction of urban physical environment, human behavior and the characteristics of human needs, to tackle "urban diseases" and make up for "urban shortboard". China is building healthy cities through the above four strategies. Committed to the realization of a constantly developing natural and social environment, and can continue to expand social resources, so that people can enjoy life and give full play to their potential to support each other in the city.

With dwindling water supplies and the impacts of climate change, many cities are turning to water sources previously considered unusable. One such source for inland cities is brackish groundwater. With prolonged drought throughout Texas, cities such as El Paso, Lubbock, and San Antonio are desalinating brackish groundwater to supplement existing water sources. Similar projects are under consideration elsewhere in Texas. While brackish groundwater contains fewer total dissolved solids than seawater, desalination of brackish groundwater is still an energy-intensive process. Brackish water desalination using reverse osmosis, the most common desalination membrane treatment process, consumes 20 to 40 times more energy than traditional surface water treatment using local water sources. This additional energy consumption leads to increased carbon emissions when using fossil fuel-generated electricity. As a result of concern over greenhouse gas emissions from additional energy consumption, some desalination plants are powered by wind-generated electricity. West Texas is a prime area for desalination of brackish groundwater using wind power, since both wind and brackish groundwater resources are abundant in the area. Most of the Texas Panhandle and Plains region has wind resource potential classified as Class 3 or higher. Additionally, brackish groundwater is found at depths less than 150 m in most of west Texas. This combination of wind and brackish groundwater resources presents opportunities for the production of alternative drinking water supplies without severe carbon emissions. Additionally, since membrane treatment is not required to operate continuously, desalination matches well with variable wind power. Implementing a brackish groundwater desalination project using wind-generated electricity requires economic feasibility, in addition to the geographic availability of the two resources. Using capital and operating cost data for wind turbines and desalination membranes, we conducted a thermoeconomic analysis for three parameters: 1) transmission and transport, 2) geographic proximity, and 3) aquifer volume. Our first parameter analyzes the cost effectiveness of tradeoffs between building infrastructure to transmit wind-generated electricity to the desalination facility versus pipelines to transport brackish groundwater to the wind turbines. Secondly, we estimate the maximum distance between the wind turbines and brackish groundwater at which desalination using wind power remains economically feasible. Finally, we estimate the minimum available brackish aquifer volume necessary to make such a project profitable. Our analysis illustrates a potential drinking water option for Texas (and other parts of the world with similar conditions) using renewable energy to treat previously unusable water. Harnessing these two resources in an economically efficient manner may help reduce future strain on the energy-water nexus.

Wide beam structures are categorized as Limited Ductility Class in Turkey and elsewhere and considered not fit for construction in areas of high seismicity. One of the main reasons that wide beam structures are considered to possess limited ductility is the perceived low local ductility of the wide beams, due to the high reinforcement ratios. Wide beams have small depths, which indeed require higher reinforcement ratios to produce the necessary moment capacities, as compared to normal beams. However, the low local ductility of the wide beams can be contested. This paper presents a database of more than 150 beam sections, some of which are normal and some of which are wide beams. The moment-rotation relationships were computed for all the sections, and the sectional ductility was calculated from the yield and ultimate rotations. The relations between sectional ductility and other parameters such as section aspect ratio, longitudinal reinforcement ratio and transverse reinforcement ratio were investigated. An example of the relation between ductility and section properties, in this case section aspect ratio is shown. Both positive and negative ductility were calculated and plotted. It should be noted that beams with section ratio of 0.5 are conventional beams, while the rest are wide beams. The values of ductility vary for all beams, and conventional beams have a slightly wider spread. While these parameters vary within the section database, the sectional ductility oscillates around 30, and no clear correlations could be established for any of the above-mentioned parameters. There were no significant differences between the average sectional ductility of conventional and wide beams. For this dataset, the mean positive ductility was 29.66 and 29.33 for conventional and wide beams respectively, and the mean negative ductility was 28.96 and 31.50 for conventional and wide beams, respectively.

Fires at Grenfell Tower in 2017, Lakanal House in 2009, and other residential tower blocks have raised questions about how construction products affect the severity and spread of fires. This briefing considers how the fire safety of construction products is regulated; how products are tested and classified; and challenges for product testing and the building regulations more widely.