Hand-crafted Methods Research Articles

Solid Landscape Models in the Twenty-first Century – A Balanced Approach

Cartography in general, and building solid landscape models in particular, requires an interdisciplinary set of skills in order to be done well. Traditional handcrafted construction methods provide quality results, but are extremely labour-intensive and therefore costly. Modern methods using digital terrain models (DTMs) and computer numerical control (CNC) milling are fast and accurate, but the finished models are visually less than optimal. Solutions are proposed using DTMs and CNC milling to create landscape models in which the initial shaping is done mechanically and the fine details are carved by hand. This ‘balanced approach’ to landscape modelling combines the time- and cost-advantages of modern digital technology with the quality of traditional handcrafted techniques resulting in highly accurate landscape models which still retain the artistic ‘feel’ of the human touch.

The Metamorphosis of the Craftsman

Before the advent of the industrial revolution everything used by man was made by hand craft methods as a matter of course. The best things made were pervaded by a quality which we call craftsmanship, showing mastery of technique and embodying fitness for purpose, trueness of material, and beauty of form. Craftsmanship was both a method and a quality, the quality being essential, the method incidental, because the methods and tools had changed in the past and were to change again.

Gait assessment during the initial fitting of customized selective laser sintering ankle foot orthoses in subjects with drop foot

Recently, additive fabrication has been proposed as a feasible engineering method for manufacturing of customized ankle foot orthoses (AFOs). Consequently, studies on safety, comfort and effectiveness are now carried out to assess the performance of such devices. Evaluate the clinical performance of customized (selective laser sintering) SLS-AFOs on eight subjects with unilateral drop foot gait and compare to clinically accepted (polypropylene) PP-AFOs. Active control trial. For each subject two customized AFOs were fabricated: one SLS-AFO manufactured following an additive fabrication framework and one thermoplastic PP-AFO manufactured according to the traditional handcraft method. Clinical performance of both AFOs was evaluated during gait analysis. A significant beneficial effect of both custom-moulded PP-AFO and customized SLS-AFO in terms of spatial temporal gait parameters and ankle kinematic parameters compared to barefoot gait of adults with drop foot gait are observed. No statistically significant difference between the effect of PP-AFO and of SLS-AFO was found in terms of spatial temporal gait parameters and ankle kinematic parameters. AFOs manufactured through the SLS technique show performances that are at least equivalent to the handcrafted PP-AFOs commonly prescribed in current clinical practice. Clinical relevance Manufacturing personalized AFOs with selective laser sintering (SLS) in an automated production process results in decreased production time and guarantees the consistency of shape and functional characteristics over different production time points compared to the traditional manufacturing process. Moreover, it reduces the dependency of the appliance on the experience and craftsmanship of the orthopaedic technician.

Processo sustentável de produção de carvão vegetal quanto aos aspectos: ambiental, econômico, social e cultural

O Brasil produz aproximadamente 1/3 da produção mundial de carvão vegetal e sua quase totalidade é destinada à produção brasileira de ferro-gusa, ferro ligas e silício metálico. Quase 75% desse carvão ainda é produzido artesanalmente, utilizando-se principalmente a lenha de mata nativa. A pressão por sistemas produtivos sustentáveis tem dirigido a busca por tecnologias mais limpas e eficientes. A partir de pesquisa numa unidade industrial produtora de carvão vegetal pelo processo de carbonização em cilindros metálicos verticais, localizada no Paraná, este artigo objetiva mostrar que os aspectos de sustentabilidade deste processo estão no atendimento aos requisitos básicos de ser ecologicamente correto, economicamente viável, socialmente justo e culturalmente aceito. Este processo mostrou um potencial de economizar em torno de 25% de lenha, o atendimento à legislação trabalhista vigente e o atendimento aos anseios da sociedade, ao proporcionar aos trabalhadores condições dignas de trabalho e inserção social, quando comparado ao processo artesanal.

AUTONOMOUS BEHAVIORS OF GRAPHICAL AVATARS BASED ON MACHINE LEARNING

Graphical avatars have gained popularity in many application domains such as three-dimensional (3D) animation movies and animated simulations for product design. However, the methods to edit avatars' behaviors in the 3D graphical environment remained to be a challenging research topic. Since the hand-crafted methods are time-consuming and inefficient, the automatic actions of the avatars are required. To achieve the autonomous behaviors of the avatars, artificial intelligence should be used in this research area. In this paper, we present a novel approach to construct a system of automatic avatars in the 3D graphical environments based on the machine learning techniques. Specific framework is created for controlling the behaviors of avatars, such as classifying the difference among the environments and using hierarchical structure to describe these actions. Because of the requirement of simulating the interactions between avatars and environments after the classification of the environment, Reinforcement Learning is used to compute the policy to control the avatar intelligently in the 3D environment for the solution of the problem of different situations. Thus, our approach has solved problems such as where the levels of the missions will be defined and how the learning algorithm will be used to control the avatars. In this paper, our method to achieve these goals will be presented. The main contributions of this paper are presenting a hierarchical structure to control avatars automatically, developing a method for avatars to recognize environment and presenting an approach for making the policy of avatars' actions intelligently.

The Study about the Preservation of the Paper of Mulberry

This study is about the paper of Mulberry(桑紙). The paper which was usually applied to the ancient bookpaper and documents. But there is a rare record about it today. So the paper was made from the Mulberry(뽕나무) bast fiber using traditional handcraft method. and Paper Mulberry(닥나무) by traditional method. And tested by physical and optical methods in comparisons with Paper Mulberry(닥나무). The ratio of length/width of Mulberry fiber was 475, and its lignin content was lower than the Paper Mulberry. The Mulberry paper had similar forming properties and physical strength to the Paper Mulberry fiber. Therefore, the Mulberry fiber seem to be a good paper fiber for traditional paper. For the aging test, in the thermal acceleration treatment for 72 hours and 144 hours at the temperature of incubator, the Mulberry paper was more deteriorative than the Paper Mulberry. In the ultraviolet acceleration treatment for 100 hours and 200 hours the Mulberry paper was less interior to the Paper Mullberry, in the increase of treatment time. And the Mulberry paper was approved to be a good traditional paper in appearance. Furthumore, in considing the sample of bred Mulberry species grown today, its paper is thought to be superio to the paper of Paper Mulberry in symptom of senility in natural ultraviolet light.

Adaptive Fraud Detection

One method for detecting fraud is to check for suspicious changes in user behavior. This paper describes the automatic design of user profiling methods for the purpose of fraud detection, using a series of data mining techniques. Specifically, we use a rule-learning program to uncover indicators of fraudulent behavior from a large database of customer transactions. Then the indicators are used to create a set of monitors, which profile legitimate customer behavior and indicate anomalies. Finally, the outputs of the monitors are used as features in a system that learns to combine evidence to generate high-confidence alarms. The system has been applied to the problem of detecting cellular cloning fraud based on a database of call records. Experiments indicate that this automatic approach performs better than hand-crafted methods for detecting fraud. Furthermore, this approach can adapt to the changing conditions typical of fraud detection environments.

The Metamorphosis of the Craftsman

Before the advent of the industrial revolution everything used by man was made by hand craft methods as a matter of course. The best things made were pervaded by a quality which we call craftsmanship, showing mastery of technique and embodying fitness for purpose, trueness of material, and beauty of form. Craftsmanship was both a method and a quality, the quality being essential, the method incidental, because the methods and tools had changed in the past and were to change again.