Physical Surroundings Research Articles

Linking IPCC AR4 & AR5 frameworks for assessing vulnerability and risk to climate change in the Indian Bengal Delta

The term ‘vulnerability’ is used to examine the interlinkages between humans and their social and physical surroundings. This approach is similar to the IPCC AR4's (2007) conceptual framework of vulnerability to climate change. The IPCC AR5 (2014) introduces a new approach and terminology that is in line with the concept of risk, thus differing from the previous understanding of vulnerability as mentioned in the IPCC AR4. This study attempts to link the new concept of risk (AR5) with the previous concept of vulnerability (AR4). Based on IPCC AR4 and AR5 frameworks, different bio-physical and socio-economic variables have been used for vulnerability (AR4) and risk (AR5) assessments in the 51 sub-districts (community development blocks) of the Indian part of Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna Delta (Indian Bengal Delta or IBD) applying principal component analysis (PCA). The results show that Basanti is the most vulnerable sub-district using the AR4 approach, whereas Gosaba is found to be the highly exposed to risk using the AR5 approach. Both sub-districts are spatially contiguous and with similar geographic characteristics which reflects the validity of the IPCC frameworks of assessment.

ODOUR POLLUTION AT THE COASTAL TOWN OF LUMUT, PERAK, MALAYSIA

Stench related to odouris one of the main issues in human physical surroundings nowadays.Thisarticle aims to study the odour pollution level in Lumut town, Perak. Lumut town has been selected as a study area with six stations involved. Data collection was done by using the OMX-SRM Handheld Odour Meter to measure the odour rate levels in October 2017, which covers morning, noon and evening observations. The intensity of the odour in Lumut is at an extreme level, especially in the afternoon. The minimum value recorded for all stations is 1.17 OU/M3, the maximum value is at 22.23 OU/M3, and an average is at 7.72 OU/M3.The diversity of human activity has become a source of rising levels of odour in Lumut town. Hence, local authorities should take appropriate action as the Lumut town is one of the major tourist destinations in Perak State.

Under the Concealing Surface: Detecting and Understanding Live Webcams in the Wild

Given the central role of webcams in monitoring physical surroundings, it behooves the research community to understand the characteristics of webcams' distribution and their privacy/security implications. In this paper, we conduct the first systematic study on live webcams from both aggregation sites and individual webcams (webpages/IP hosts). We propose a series of efficient, automated techniques for detecting and fingerprinting live webcams. In particular, we leverage distributed algorithms to detect aggregation sites and generate webcam fingerprints by utilizing the Graphical User Interface (GUI) of the built-in web server of a device. Overall, we observe 0.85 million webpages from aggregation sites hosting live webcams and 2.2 million live webcams in the public IPv4 space. Our study reveals that aggregation sites have a typical long-tail distribution in hosting live streams (5.8% of sites contain 90.44% of live streaming contents), and 85.4% of aggregation websites scrape webcams from others. Further, we observe that (1) 277,239 webcams from aggregation sites and IP hosts (11.7%) directly expose live streams to the public, (2) aggregation sites expose 187,897 geolocation names and more detailed 23,083 longitude/latitude pairs of webcams, (3) the default usernames and passwords of 38,942 webcams are visible on aggregation sites in plaintext, and (4) 1,237 webcams are detected as having been compromised to conduct malicious behaviors.

Heritage of the Finnish Civil War monuments in Tampere

ABSTRACT The 100th anniversary of the Finnish Civil War has made questions about the construction of its heritage and cultural memory topical. Taking the concept of dissonant heritage as a starting point, the paper looks at two monuments in the City of Tampere and their reception and landscape, focusing on recent decades. War monuments are always understood within the framework of current politics, but they are also in continuous dialogue with their physical surroundings and, thus, shape and are shaped by their landscape. In this paper, we look at the statues as arenas for politics of history and cultural memory, and the changes and continuums they carry with them. Monuments are at the core of urban public space and the processes of placemaking. Even when they are distanced from the historical events, they represent and remind us of the historical and political nature of public space.

Generating Situational Awareness of Pedestrian and Vehicular Movement in Urban Areas Using IoT Data Streams

Humans have continuously endeavored to enhance their sensory perception and awareness of the physical surroundings for the betterment of themselves as individuals as well as communities. Advancing this notion to the present day, the Internet of Things (IoT) provides a unique opportunity to attempt the same in an increasingly digital landscape. The prevalence and pervasiveness of IoT data streams gives us this ability to represent a situation with clarity and nuance, leading to a refined awareness of the environment. However, there are several challenges in managing the scale, velocity, and magnitude of IoT data streams, as well as the cohesive representation of these varied sources in a single frame of reference. In this article, we present a new algorithm, the deep growing self-organizing map (deep GSOM) algorithm that addresses these challenges. Deep GSOM incrementally generates a latent representation of situational awareness from high entropy to low entropy IoT data streams. It utilizes an implementation of the fuzzy integral to define a metric that can be moved across spatial and temporal situations to profile the density of congestion. We have also expanded deep GSOM into an IoT platform that can collate, aggregate, and process an entire network of IoT data streams. We demonstrate the workings of deep GSOM on the real-life scenario of profiling vehicular and pedestrian movement using IoT data streams of two highly urbanized cities. The results of these experiments confirm the validity and effectiveness of the proposed approach for generating situational awareness from multiple IoT data streams.

AR AND VR IN THE GAMING INDUSTRY

Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have revolutionized the gaming industry, delivering immersive experiences that transcend traditional gaming boundaries in recent years, AR and VR technologies have gained attention great, changing the way users interact with games. AR overlays digital objects into the real world, while VR is a fully immersive simulated environment. The fusion of this technology has changed gaming, providing players with unparalleled engagement, interactivity, and virtual reality.
 One of the most important impacts of AR and VR in gaming is to enhance the user experience. AR enables players to integrate digital objects with their physical surroundings, allowing them to blend virtual and virtual interactions. This integration enables a unique gaming experience, creating new dimensions of immersion and interactivity. On the other hand, V.R. This technology allows gamers to engage with their favourite titles in ways previously unimaginable.
 Additionally, AR and VR have increased the innovation of games in the gaming industry. Developers now have the opportunity to explore new ideas and gaming technologies, and the market has expanded with the introduction of AR-enabled mobile games and high-end VR headsets to leverage these technologies to create a variety of experiences it challenges traditional game values. possibilities on offer.
 Despite these advances, there are still challenges to the widespread use of AR and VR in gaming. Technical constraints such as hardware requirements and cost may hinder some users. 
 Additionally, creating content that maximize the potential of AR and VR demands specialized skill and resource, posting a barrier for smaller game development team.

Factors Affecting Satisfaction with the Process of Orthodontic Treatment in Young Adults: A Questionnaire Study

Introduction: Recently, there has been an increase in adults undergoing orthodontic treatment in both the public and the private sector. Satisfaction during and after the orthodontic treatment process has not been widely discussed so far, however, and few research studies have emphasized patient satisfaction with treatment outcome and the factors affecting patient satisfaction.Aim: To investigate factors affecting patient satisfaction with the process of orthodontic treatment in young adults.Material and methods: Fifty-eight patients (33 girls and 25 boys with a mean age of 25.05 years, SD 2.83) were included in the survey. All patients were young adults who had completed their orthodontic treatment with fixed appliances and were taken from two centers (a teaching hospital and a private practice). Data was collected using online survey forms and was analyzed using content thematic analysis. Five main factors were identified related to patient satisfaction with the process of orthodontic treatment: communication, faculty (orthodontist), physical surroundings, consultation/appointments, and impact of appliance treatment.Results: Effective communication was the most prominent factor among all five factors considered, especially detailed explanation given during treatment and making patients feel comfortable under their care. Median values were generally high for satisfaction with treatment results. There was a clear correlation ( p < 0.001) between patient satisfaction and treatment outcome. Age, sex and treatment time did not have any correlation with treatment satisfaction.Conclusion: In general, young adults were observed to be satisfied with the treatment process, and good communication played a dominant role in this. Though there were many differences in working models between public and private sectors, many similarities were observed when comparing the factors between the two centers.

The importance of mediolateral forces on foot rehabilitation after injury

Displaced fractures of the foot and ankle take considerable time to heal. Throughout this rehabilitation period, the goal is to provide sufficient stimulus to the bone to prevent bone loss while limiting the chance of re‐injury. Both of these goals require understanding the ground reaction forces (GRFs) applied to the foot while walking. Most understanding of the forces to which bones of the foot are subjected is premised on data developed from force plates in laboratories that evaluate movement. The coordinate system of force plates is typically aligned with the physical surroundings as well as the coordinate system of motion capture equipment to create a world coordinate system (WCS). This WCS also aligns with most skeletal elements and joints. The anatomical directions of the foot, particularly during walking, do not necessarily match up to these primary axes. The degree to which foot placement impacts the internal forces and moments of the foot and ankle remains unclear; however, the variation of foot placement has the potential to substantially change internal forces. Consequently, the purpose of this work is to determine if forces aligned in a foot coordinate system (FCS) differ from those in the WCS in order to inform orthopedic treatment and rehabilitation.Twenty participants were recruited to walk unshod for this study. Kinematic and kinetic data were collected using an eight‐camera Qualisys system with four Kistler force plates. The FCS, which tracks the orientation of foot as it moves through space, was calculated from the position of the heel and first and fifth metatarsal heads. GRFs were translated and rotated from WCS to FCS using custom‐developed MatLab code. Proximodistal, mediolateral, and superioinferior forces were compared between WCS and FCS. In FCS, mediolateral forces developed during the propulsive phase are 150–200N larger than in WCS (p<0.001), and the maximum mediolateral force is directed toward the centerline of the body in WCS, while in FCS it is directed laterally.Rotating the GRF into FCS produces a different picture of internal forces than is usually understood from WCS. Typically, mediolateral forces are considered less consequential when considering treatment for foot and ankle injuries. These data show that mediolateral forces (relative to the foot) are larger than previously understood. Injuries that are sensitive to these mediolateral forces include metatarsal fractures, Lisfranc injuries, talar neck fractures, and distal fibular fractures, among others. Implants and interventions used to stabilize these injuries should take into consideration these forces including potential modifications to the rehabilitation protocol.

Augmented criminality: How people process in situ augmented reality crime information in relation to space/place

Communication about crime and the places it occurs has been an important area of study for criminology, sociology, public policy, and media scholars. Where incidents used to be communicated through word of mouth, physical evidence, and news outlets, recent advances in crime tracking, mapping, and mobile media have dramatically changed how individuals are informed about crime. Many organizations have adopted mobile text alerts, and recent advances in augmented reality (AR) technologies have made it possible to overlay visuals about crime on top of users’ physical surroundings. How people make sense of this visual, individualized, and location-specific crime information, however, is largely unknown and complicated by the fact that mobile technologies are challenging to study in situ, as people move through and experience urban place. Within the AR literature, while existing research has started to look at the ways that AR can affect people’s experience of place, the precise ways that people perceive and integrate AR displays into their understanding of place are still largely unexplored. This empirical study reports findings from a project utilizing AR as an urban probe, where we took participants ( N = 57) around to places in a large metropolitan area in the United States and showed them visual AR crime information overlaid on the physical place where they were moving through. After seeing these urban probes, participants were asked what they noticed, remembered, and thought occurred in that place when shown AR crime information. The analysis draws on Lefebvre’s (1991) spatial triad to explain how people read places through the lens of AR, and also how they extrapolate, speculate, and make associations from AR information. Based on these findings, this study discusses the implications for mobile media scholars and their understanding of visual place-based communication, as well as for designers and policymakers considering the use of AR to communicate crime information.

Deep-learning-enabled self-adaptive microwave cloak without human intervention

Becoming invisible at will has fascinated humanity for centuries and in the past decade it has attracted a great deal of attention owing to the advent of metamaterials. However, state-of-the-art invisibility cloaks typically work in a deterministic system or in conjunction with outside help to achieve active cloaking. Here, we propose the concept of an intelligent (that is, self-adaptive) cloak driven by deep learning and present a metasurface cloak as an example implementation. In the experiment, the metasurface cloak exhibits a millisecond response time to an ever-changing incident wave and the surrounding environment, without any human intervention. Our work brings the available cloaking strategies closer to a wide range of real-time, in situ applications, such as moving stealth vehicles. The approach opens the way to facilitating other intelligent metadevices in the microwave regime and across the wider electromagnetic spectrum and, more generally, enables automatic solutions of electromagnetic inverse design problems. A deep-learning-enabled metasurface cloak actively self-adapts to take into account changing microwave illumination and varying physical surroundings.

Uncovering inconspicuous places using social media check-ins and street view images

There is a Chinese proverb, “if your wine tastes really good, you do not need to worry about the location of your bar (酒香不怕巷子深)”, which implies that the popular places for local residents are sometimes hidden behind an unassuming door or on unexpected streets. Discovering these unassuming places (e.g. restaurants) of a city will benefit the understanding of local culture and help to build livable neighborhoods. Previous work has been limited by the lack of appropriate data sources and efficient tools to evaluate the popularity, ambiance and physical surroundings of places in large-scale urban areas. In addition, how to characterize places with respect to different groups of people remains unclear. In this work, we propose a data-driven approach using social media check-ins and street-level images to compare the different activity patterns of visitors and locals, and uncover inconspicuous but interesting places for them in a city. We use check-in records as a proxy of the popularity of a particular type of place, and differentiate visitors and locals based on their travel and social media behaviors. In addition, we employ street-level images to represent the physical environments of places. As a result, we discovered a number of inconspicuous yet popular restaurants in Beijing. These restaurants are located mostly in deep alleys of Old Beijing neighborhoods, where the physical environments are not particularly appealing; however, these places are frequently visited by locals for social engagements. We also discovered beautiful but unpopular outdoor places in Beijing. These places are potential recreational areas for all groups of people and could be improved regarding urban design and planning to make these public infrastructures more attractive. This work demonstrates how multi-source big geo-data can be combined to build comprehensive place-based representations for different groups of people.

The Role of an Interactive Visual Learning Tool and Its Personalizability in Online Learning: Flow Experience

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of interactive online learning tools on college student learning using flow as the guiding perspective. Study 1 was conducted to test the effect of online interactivity manipulated by dynamic visual learning tools on student’s flow experience, level of telepresence, actual performance in test, and perceived values of such activities. Study 2 was designed to test the effect of personalizability of difficulty levels in the interactive online activity on students’ learning experience. The results found that interactive online learning tools can facilitate student’s active learning process by increasing attention, curiosity, and interest about the online activity, and by reducing awareness of physical surroundings. In addition, the interactive activity significantly improved students’ test scores. This study also found that personalized difficulty options available in the interactive online activity significantly increased students’ perceived hedonic value (i.e., enjoyment) of and the level of satisfaction with the activity. The results emphasize the critical role of interactive visual learning tool in the online activities in improving students’ flow experience and actual performance. Personalizability of task levels is also recommended to be used in online activities to increase students’ perceived hedonic value and satisfaction with such online activities.

The Camp not Taken: Analysis of Preferences and Barriers Among Frequent, Occasional and Noncampers

Camping is a recreational activity that links people with their physical surroundings and the environment. Hence, efforts in promoting camping activities may help promote sustainable and accessible recreation and tourism. This research focuses on preferences and barriers for camping in Israel as perceived by frequent, occasional, and noncampers. The findings of an online study with 665 respondents show that focusing only on current campers may create self-selection bias and overlook the barriers that prevent people from camping. While noncampers shared some barriers with campers, they also experienced more barriers regarding information gaps (location of campsites) and camping equipment. All participants had a similar preference for solitude and lack of crowding. These findings create a dilemma for camping managers and marketing campaigns: to reduce the barriers that prevent low frequency campers and noncampers from camping or to keep the situation as is and minimize overcrowding in campsites.

Fine scale characteristics of catfish aquaculture ponds influencing piscivorous avian species foraging use in the Mississippi Delta.

Piscivorous avian species are the main source of catfish depredation at aquaculture facilities in Mississippi, resulting in the economic loss of millions of dollars every year. Most notable of these avian species are the double-crested cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus), great blue heron (Ardea herodias), and great egret (A. alba). Understanding why these species select specific ponds can increase management efficiency directed at avian dispersal and provide insight into their decision making with respect to foraging behavior. We collected species presence data on catfish ponds by flying 35 surveys from October through April of 2015–2017, during which an average of 973 catfish ponds were observed each year. We collected data associated with each pond’s physical surroundings and contents and used occupancy modeling to determine their influence on avian occupancy probability. We also collected data associated with stocking practices and catfish health on a subset of ponds, and constructed resource selection functions to model their influence on avian presence. Pond area was positively related to occupancy probability of each species. Cormorant occupancy increased as pond distance from forest cover and activity centers, such as workshops and offices, increased. Distance to nearest activity center was positively related to egret occupancy, while distance to nearest forested area was negative. Ponds containing diseased catfish had an increased probability of use by both herons and egrets. In general, cormorants and egrets showed greater probability of use on the periphery of pond clusters. The abundance of catfish was positively related to cormorant and heron presence. Specific pond contents and characteristics influenced presence of each avian species in different ways, including fish species cultured, production methods, pond systems, and fish types. Many pond selection relationships were species-specific, illustrating inherent differences in their foraging ecology. Consequently, specific management actions aimed to reduce avian presence will depend on the targeted species.

Satisfaction with high-resolution anoscopy for anal cancer screening among men who have sex with men: a cross-sectional survey in Abuja, Nigeria

BackgroundMen who have sex with men (MSM) living with HIV are at increased risk for anal cancer. We evaluated satisfaction with first-time anal cancer screening using high resolution anoscopy (HRA) as a cross sectional survey among men who have sex with men (MSM) attending a community-engaged clinic in Abuja, Nigeria.MethodsBetween March and August 2017, 342 MSM underwent screening and 307 (89%) completed a satisfaction survey that evaluated 8 domains related to expectations, convenience, staff interpersonal skills, physical surroundings, technical competence, pain/discomfort, general satisfaction, and intention to re-screen if symptomatic. The 22-item questionnaire used 5-point Likert scales ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree). For each domain, responses to specific items were averaged, aggregated, and converted to a 100-point scaled score (SS) with 25 and 75 corresponding to disagree and agree, respectively.ResultsMedian age was 24 years (interquartile range [IQR]: 22–28), median years since anal coital debut was 7 (IQR: 4–12), and 58% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 52–64%) were living with HIV. Despite respondents reporting pre-procedure anxiety (SS:73), most were comfortable with the setting and procedure and reported overall satisfaction (SS:74–76). Willingness to undergo future screening had the lowest score (SS:69) within the general satisfaction domain. The lowest scoring domains were pain/discomfort (SS:57) and agreement to re-screen if symptomatic (SS:59), which correlated with lower overall satisfaction (p < 0.001). Domain responses did not differ by HIV infection after adjusting for multiple comparisons (p > 0.006) or number of anal biopsies (all p > 0.05).ConclusionsOverall, HRA was satisfactory for those naïve to screening but moving forward necessitates monitoring levels of discomfort with pain scales and normalizing dialogue around clinical symptoms of anal cancer and overall anal health to sustain future screening.

Designing a Rapid Optical Response Trigger(RORT) for self-navigating and path explorer robot

Human beings are capable of making complex decisions with a limited number of sensors due to their rich logical reasoning capability. The decision-making process derives in combination with perceiving the environment and referring to previously known concepts. Similarly, machines can interact with the environment with large support of sensors in a number of ways and each of them has their advantage as well as limitations. In this work, systematic Optical Marker(OM) are used as control triggers as an efficient alternative of sensing the physical environment and rapid movement-control of Remotely Operating Vehicle(ROV). The quick response of OM is much more efficient in different lighting condition, cost-effective and less resource hungry. Sequential placement of OM as control triggers contain information about the physical environment which in turn provides a guided path to ROV for a kind of supervised path exploration. The device scans the optical marker and perceives that information about its physical surroundings. For self-navigation, the robot uses a mobile device camera as an optical precept and parse the OM code to process state-space representation. The path of navigation is explored by applying graph theoretic algorithmic approach for finding an optimal path. The episodic interaction design is experimented under different device and lighting variation. The proposed RORT algorithm for path exploration and compensating missing information proved to be robust enough to hop forward or retract to the point of origin without any external support of complex computations.

Educational Environment in Agricultural Colleges from Maharashtra

Educational environment refers to the physical, social, biological and artificial surroundings provided by the agricultural college so as to fulfill requirements of the students during their B.Sc. Agri. Degree. The study was undertaken to know the status of educational environment in affiliated agricultural colleges in comparison with constituent agricultural colleges from the state of Maharashtra. An educational environment was measured with the help of a three-point continuum scale developed by Tarde (2002) and Thoke (2011) with some additions. It was observed that, two third of affiliated agricultural colleges were having ‘fair’ educational environment followed. As regards to the constituent agricultural colleges, the majority of constituent agricultural colleges were having ‘fair’ educational environment. There was no constituent college in the category of ‘poor’ educational environment. Correlation analysis showed that, there was a positive association between educational environment and overall performance of the both types of agricultural colleges. However, the difference between educational environment of affiliated and constituent colleges was found to be non-significant.

Examining the role of culture, retail environment, and emotions in determining festival shopping engagement: an emerging market perspective

The study attempts to understand the role played by culture, retail environment, and emotions in determining festival shopping engagement. In the realm of culture literature, this is the first-of-its-kind study to link culture dimensions with festival engagement. The study has been conducted in two folds, the first study explores the factors related to customers' shopping engagement, and the second study tested the relationship between the factors extracted from an exploratory study of the dimensions of culture, retail environment and emotion. The finding of the first part of the study concludes that the style and appearance, safety, hygiene and cleanliness of the physical surroundings play a vital role to enhance the overall customer experience in service exchange. In the second part of the study, it was found that retail atmospherics (colour, music and lighting) highly influence festival shopping engagement. The results hold implications for festival planners and retailers.

Examining the role of culture, retail environment and emotions in determining festival shopping engagement: An emerging market perspective

The study attempts to understand the role played by culture, retail environment, and emotions in determining festival shopping engagement. In the realm of culture literature, this is the first-of-its-kind study to link culture dimensions with festival engagement. The study has been conducted in two folds, the first study explores the factors related to customers' shopping engagement, and the second study tested the relationship between the factors extracted from an exploratory study of the dimensions of culture, retail environment and emotion. The finding of the first part of the study concludes that the style and appearance, safety, hygiene and cleanliness of the physical surroundings play a vital role to enhance the overall customer experience in service exchange. In the second part of the study, it was found that retail atmospherics (colour, music and lighting) highly influence festival shopping engagement. The results hold implications for festival planners and retailers.

“Accursed Time”: Gilles Deleuze’s Difference and Repetition and John McGahern’s That They May Face the Rising Sun

Abstract: This article analyses the connecting threads between the philosophies of Gilles Deleuze – as they appear in his 1968 text Difference and Repetition, which is one of Deleuze’s major solo works (along with The Logic of Sense) prior to his famous, anti-Oedipal collaborations with Félix Guattari – and the final novel written by John McGahern, That They May Face the Rising Sun (2002). It shall be argued that Deleuze’s conceptualisations of temporality and humanity’s relationship with its physical surroundings find their perfect literary realisations in the pages of McGahern’s That They May Face as he attempts to provide a vision of contemporary Ireland’s transcending of James Joyce’s nightmare of history and the deadening habit of what Samuel Beckett’s character Pozzo calls “accursed time”. Shakespeare, Proust, Joyce, and Beckett are the four literary authors who most unite Deleuze and McGahern in shared enthusiasm and they shall be considered as mediating presences between McGahern and Deleuze throughout the course of the article. It shall be argued that a Deleuzian vision lies at the heart of contemporary Irish literature and that That They May Face the Rising Sun represents a primary textual example of this literary strand.