Transformation Of Space Research Articles

Transdisciplinary, transgressive and transformative: Pedagogical reflections on sexual ethics, religion, and gender

Over the last four years, student movements in South Africa have demanded the ‘fall’ of normative systems of power in government and higher education. These ‘fallist’ movements have called for decolonised curricula and pedagogies. However, there is debate surrounding what decolonial means and what it looks like. Drawing on four years of experience teaching gender and sexual ethics at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) we offer some tentative reflections on what constitutes a decolonial and socially just pedagogy. Facilitated through critical, queer, liberatory and feminist theories, our reflections comprise our teaching experience and the curriculum reform process of a third-year undergraduate module. In this module we explored the ways in which religious and cultural discourses form and transform understandings and experiences of gender and sexuality. This paper draws on a range of data which includes personal reflections, the module outline, course evaluations which were submitted anonymously via an electronic survey, classroom engagement and student essays. We reflect on the ways in which we made use of a transdisciplinary co-teaching method which drew on four disciplines, Ethics, Gender Studies, Sociology of Religion, and Biblical Studies. We also engage with how the classroom became transgressive as we destabilised the taken-for-granted separation between the academic and the popular. Last, by facilitating student-centred, participatory approaches to learning we argue that the classroom became a transformative space.

Critical Experiential Education: Re-Imagining Teaching and Learning

Understanding, complexifying, and co-generating space for critique, growth, and transformation through experiential education informs and helps re-imagine education in more equitable ways. Through a critical lens, critical experiential education offers the potential to engage students and educators alike in putting what educators re-imagine education to be into practice. A more equitable educational system calls for transforming our world into communities that are more generous, liberatory, kind, engaged, and appreciative of difference. The work of building these communities is the work educators and activists should focus on more now than ever in today's ever-changing and tumultuous world.

Transferability of a large mid‐infrared soil spectral library between two Fourier‐transform infrared spectrometers

AbstractLarge and publicly available soil spectral libraries, such as the USDA National Soil Survey Center–Kellogg Soil Survey Laboratory (NSSC‐KSSL) mid‐infrared (MIR) spectral library, are enormously valuable resources enabling laboratories around the world to make rapid low‐cost estimates of a number of soil properties. A limitation to widespread sharing of soil spectral data is the need to ensure that spectra collected on a secondary spectrometer are compatible with the spectra in the primary or reference library. Various spectral preprocessing and calibration transfer techniques have been proposed to overcome this limitation. We tested the transferability of models developed using the USDA NSSC‐KSSL MIR library to a secondary instrument. For the soil properties, total carbon (TC), pH, and clay content, we found that good performance (ratio of performance to deviation [RPD] = 4.9, 2.0, and 3.6, respectively) could be achieved on an independent test set with Savitzky‐Golay smoothing and first derivative preprocessing of the secondary spectra using a memory‐based learning chemometric approach. We tested three calibration transfer techniques (direct standardization [DS], piecewise direct standardization [PDS], and spectral space transformation [SST]) using different size transfer sets selected to be representative of the entire NSSC‐KSSL library. Among the transfer methods, SST consistently outperformed DS and PDS with 50 transfer samples being an optimal number for transfer model development. For TC and pH, performance was improved using the SST transfer (RPD = 7.7 and 2.2, respectively) primarily through the elimination of bias. Calibration transfer could not improve predictions for clay. These findings suggest that calibration transfer may not always be necessary, but users should test to confirm this assumption using a small set of representative samples scanned at both laboratories.

ORGANIZATION OF EDUCATION PROCESS IN TEACHING MICROBIOLOGY TO PARAMEDIC STUDENTS

Today, one of the leading trends in the development of higher professional education is increasing attention to the problem of training specialists of a qualitatively new level, professionals which would be ready for professional growth, capable of self-education, self-improvement and self-realization. Accordingly, the training of a specialist of a new formation with a medical education, in particular, paramedics, requires the transformation of the educational space, the introduction of the latest technologies, methods and techniques. Therefore, the purpose of this work was to highlight the basic principles and technologies of the educational process of training paramedics at the Department of Microbiology, Virology and Immunology of the Poltava State Medical University. The article presents the main elements of the educational and professional training program for paramedics, key technologies, which are aimed at ensuring deep assimilation of knowledge from this discipline and their practical application in medical practice. One of the ways to increase the effectiveness of education is the use of interactive teaching methods. For example, students can participate in discussions, group projects, and practical sessions at the laboratory, where they can study microorganisms and perform various experiments. For effective learning, it is also important to use visual aids, for example, multimedia support of the topic, animation, electronic diagrams, photos, diagrams, drawings. This will help students to understand complex processes and phenomena more easily.
 Thus, the organization of the educational process at the Department of Microbiology, Virology and Immunology when teaching the educational discipline "Microbiology" to paramedic students, is based on the educational and professional programs. To ensure the effective provision of educational services, modern means and technologies of education are used.

Garment image style transfer based on deep learning

Before neural networks, image style transfer procedures had a common idea: analyze images with a certain style, build a mathematical or statistical model for the style, and then change the image to be transferred, so that it better fits the established model. In this paper, k-means and semantic closed natural matting algorithm is combined for image segmentation, the style and content in the image are extracted based on neural network, and the resulting image is synthesized by image reconstruction technology to realize the migration of national costume styles. Due to the serious artifacts of the output image, an improved image style transfer algorithm is adopted to constrain the transformation from the input image to the output image in the local affine transformation of the color space, and this constraint is expressed as a completely differentiable parameter term, image distortion is suppressed effectively. In the process of real photo style transfer, there is also space inconsistency. Smoothing is done to ensure that the space style is consistent after style processing, it greatly speeds up the operation speed. On NVIDIA GTX1080TI graphics card, algorithm is tested with 256×256 resolution images. It includes three indicators of average running time, memory usage and the number of styles generated by a single model, which are 0.06 s, 136.06 MB and 1 respectively. These indicators can reflect the efficiency and flexibility of the algorithm.

Soft semi-linear uniform spaces and their perceptual application

In this paper, we use the soft set theory and the concept of semi-linear uniform spaces to introduce the notion of soft semi-linear uniform spaces with its generalization, briefly soft-GSLUS. We investigate some properties of soft topology that induced by soft-GSLUS. Also, we use the members of soft-GSLUS to define a soft proximity space and a soft filter then we establish the relationships between them. Finally, we give the perceptual application of soft semi-linear uniform structures by employing the natural transformation of a soft semi-linear uniform space to a soft proximity.

Spatio-Temporal Heterogeneity and Cumulative Ecological Impacts of Coastal Reclamation in Coastal Waters

The coastal reclamation, as one of the most extreme transformations of the ocean space by humans, still lacks scientific quantitative evaluating methods to a large extent, compared with the evolution of land use patterns. A cumulative ecological impacts of reclamation (RCEI) was established in our study based on ecological influence characteristics of different reclamation types, and the attenuation effect of reclamation on adjacent areas. It was characterized by spatio-temporal features in decades. Here, we estimated that the cumulative reclamation area in the Bohai Sea from 1985 to 2018 was 5839.5 km2. Under the influence of human activity, proportions of the industrial and urban boundary, marine construction boundaries (e.g., ports, wharves, and bridges), and protective dams were increased significantly, which led to a sharp increase of the RCEI. In addition, spatio-temporal changes of reclamation were affected by the combination of population growth, economic development, urbanization, industrialization, and marine industry development in coastal cities. These results provided an important historical reference for tracking future development of the Bohai Sea by humans and provided basic data support for the development and protection of the ocean.

Modeling to Correct the Effect of Soil Moisture for Predicting Soil Total Nitrogen by Near-Infrared Spectroscopy

Near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy can improve the efficiency of soil property prediction, such as that of soil total nitrogen (TN) content. However, soil spectra are very sensitive to soil moisture content, which is a crucial factor affecting the accuracy of soil nutrient composition prediction. In response to this issue, the goal of this study is to identify the best model to correct the effect of soil moisture for predicting soil total nitrogen by near-infrared spectroscopy. The 107 collected soil samples were divided into six different water content (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%) sample groups. Then, five correction methods, including direct standardization (DS), piecewise direct standardization (PDS), external parameter orthogonalization (EPO), spectral space transformation (SST), and slope/bias (S/B), were executed. Finally, partial least squares regression (PLSR) models were established to forecast TN content. The results showed that SST could minimize the influence of moisture. Furthermore, SST–PLSR had the best TN content prediction accuracy: Rp2 (the coefficient of determination of the prediction set) in the range of 0.81–0.82, RMSEP (the root mean square error of the prediction set) in the range of 0.09–0.10 g/kg, and RPD (ratio of performance to deviation) in the range of 2.32–2.40. Therefore, the dry soil prediction model is competent for wet soil samples and could achieve preciseness in TN content prediction. The use of SST can effectively eliminate the influence of moisture and achieve high-precision TN prediction in wet soil samples. Additionally, the introduction of SST expands the application scope of soil nutrient prediction models and increases model robustness.

Bio-networking among librarians, parents, and children in a modern children’s library: a phenomenological study

PurposeThis study aimed to understand how parents and librarians describe their lived experiences in a modern children’s library that aims to create a triad bond through the organization of multiliteracy events and activities.Design/methodology/approachThe study used a phenomenological case study approach using two semistructured interviews, the first with parents (n = 5) and the second with library staff (n = 5), to record their lived experiences in creating and attending literacy events and activities.FindingsThe findings indicated multiplicities of transformative and heterotypic spaces that juxtapose different yet compatible and vicarious experiences for librarians, parents and their children. The virtual and interactive features of the library fuel children’s curiosity and creativity and afford them authentic materials through a creative blend of local heritage and technology-mediated multimodal literacies. Moreover, the librarians engage in constant program evaluation and upgrades. The library environment creates a vibrant bio-network for disseminating literacy through creativity and ingenuity and affords an affinity space for community socialization.Research limitations/implicationsThis study has some limitations and delimitations. The data for this study were collected during the pandemic, which affected the sample size. Moreover, the children’s views were not considered, which could broaden our understanding of the phenomena. Furthermore, the study relied on interviews as the sole source of data; other sources, such as archival data and documents, could enrich the data and increase the study’s rigor. Finally, the study is confined to only one site.Practical implicationsThe study found that a “living library” philosophy with an enthusiastic and attentive staff that caters to patrons’ interests draws parents and children to visit. Additionally, unexpected fun activities that occur when sufficient children are present keep them engaged and motivated to stay and learn more. The study suggests that librarians, architects, school leaders, policymakers and educators should consider how to conceptualize, design and experience a modern library space that prioritizes literacy activities and incorporates technology to inspire children’s innovations. The findings can be applied to both public and academic libraries.Originality/valueThe findings from this study could provide researchers, teachers, administrators, librarians and artificial intelligence with a viable orientation to envision new ways of reconceptualizing public and school libraries to create affinity spaces for the literate community, especially in a non-western context such as the United Arab Emirates.

Managing the digital transformation of education as part of the Chinese national project of a “Great Unity” society

The article deals with the phenomenon of digital transformation of the Chinese educational space as the main component of knowledge management system in the society of “Great Unity”. Using the comparative, hermeneutic, historical and philosophical methods, the authors analyse three problem areas – social ideal, forecasting, and national education in China. The conclusion is made that the traditional project of a society of “Great Unity”, that is, the Confucian model of the ideal Datong society, can be transformed into a national foresight project. A well-developed educational system and equal access to education are the key components of this project, digitalization of education being the most important direction of the modern Chinese educational reform. Based on the findings of studies carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic and other materials, various trends in the current digitalization process are described. Historical features of and socio-cultural preconditions for the development of the educational system existing in China today are analysed. The authors conclude that the system rests on a solid socio-cultural foundation and is aimed towards the digital future of the Chinese society.

Standing in the Breach: Discussion of Alexis Tomarken’s “The Shroud of Suicide”

ABSTRACT Tomarken (this issue) illuminates the intergenerational reverberation of suicide loss in a moment of historical precarity. With a rise in adolescent suicide risk globally, Tomarken contextualizes the emotional toll on families and the specific misogynistic demands that interpellate women as failed caregivers. The author joins Tomarken’s brave interrogation through the lens of her story of family suicide loss. The author extends Tomarken’s view of the violation of the moral code in family suicide by evoking the notion of a breach, a rupture in safety, trust, and protection that echoes across generations. Analysts’ personal history of suicide loss intermingles in clinical work with patients similarly haunted by suicide bereavement, creating opportunities to live out under-mentalized emotional states, both consciously and unconsciously, as an alive witness. Attunement to the analysts’ vulnerability and grief may deepen emotional resonance and recognition that co-creates a mutually transformative space.

Mobility, space and agency: pilgrimage by humans and others

PurposePilgrimage brings humans and other-than-humans together through a dual process – movement across space and the transformation of space through the process of sacralisation. This paper aims to explore this dual process by outlining the development of qualitative research on contemporary pilgrimage where the dominant representational approach which focuses on human agency has been complemented by a relational perspective where statues, springs and rocks, for example, are seen as possessing their own agency that influences human action.Design/methodology/approachThis paper describes the development of qualitative research on contemporary pilgrimage by bringing together both the representational and relational approach and drawing on the author’s experience of pilgrimage over many years and his reflections on that experience as a trained qualitative researcher.FindingsThis paper explores the ways in which the dominant representational approach in pilgrimage studies can be complemented by the relational approach by drawing on the author’s experience of pilgrimage in three different contextsOriginality/valueThe paper is original by bringing together both the representational and relational perspectives, contextualising them through the author’s experience of different types of pilgrimage and linking pilgrimage to the wider issues of migration, space and agency.

Cross cultural urbanism: the case of Miami

ABSTRACT The paper provides an overview of the waves of immigrants that have shaped Miami since its founding, while focusing on the decisive effect that the Cuban exile community had in transforming Miami into an emerging global city. Through detailed and illustrative case studies, the paper highlights the stories and constructed physical environments of three Cuban exile families. The chosen examples are notable for their capacity to have withstood the test of time, creating a sense of community through the adaptation and transformation of architectural spaces in support of social customs and rituals characteristic of a displaced homeland. In the end, they are emblematic of a cross-cultural urbanism that overlays Cuban social customs atop existing American urban environments to create new spaces of meaning, memory and community.

Efficient global sensitivity analysis for high-dimensional outputs combining data-driven probability models and dimensionality reduction

• GSA for applications involving complex numerical models and high-dimensional outputs is examined • Two different, recently developed, GSA formulations are combined • Principal component analysis (PCA) is firstly adopted as a dimensionality reduction technique. • Relevant latent output GSA statistics are then calculated by extending probability model-based GSA. • Extension pertains to estimation of necessary covariance statistics This paper examines the efficient variance-based global sensitivity analysis (GSA), quantified by estimating first-/higher-order and total-effect Sobol’ indices, for applications involving complex numerical models and high-dimensional outputs. Two different, recently developed, techniques are combined to address the associated challenges. Principal component analysis (PCA) is first considered as a dimensionality reduction technique. The GSA for the original output vector is then formulated by calculating variance and covariance statistics for the low-dimensional latent output space identified by PCA. These statistics are efficiently approximated by extending recent work on data-driven, probability model-based GSA (PM-GSA). The extension, constituting the main novel contribution of this work, pertains to the estimation of covariance statistics beyond the variance statistics examined in the original PM-GSA formulation. Specifically, a Gaussian mixture model (GMM) is developed to approximate the joint probability density function between some subset of the input vector, and each latent output, or each pair of latent outputs. The GMM is then utilized to estimate the aforementioned statistics. Results across two natural hazards engineering examples show that the dimensionality reduction and transformation of output space established through PCA do not impact the overall accuracy of the PM-GSA, and that the proposed implementation accommodates highly-efficient GSA estimates.

Digital Humanities Projects in Educational Process

The purpose of the study is to outline the main directions and prospects of digital humanities development; to find out the main principles of the scientific space transformation, caused by the implementation of digital humanities; to define the transdisciplinary ontology as digital humanities important tool. Methodology of the article is based on implementation of principle of information systematicity and its further modeling in educational and scientific aspects. The information is being analysed for distinguishing its structural components and their semantic and functional coherence. According to the structural and semantic analysis of information, the modeling of information representation is performed. As the productive way of modeling is the transdisciplinary ontology, so principle of transdisciplinarity is one of the basical principle in the study. Transdisciplinary ontology seems to be an important tool of digital humanities. Using ontology it is possible to perform educational information in structured form with all its components, organized in hierarchical construction, and their correlation depiction. Transdisciplinary ontology provides various forms of information graphical display, perception of which helps to understand essential causal factors, principles of information arrangement, its regularities Recommendation for further transdisciplinary ontology application is based on the possible ontology extention by new elements adding according to the enrichment of educational material being learned.

Informal Space Utilization Shifting post-Urban Revitalizationin the Semarang Old City

The Semarang Old City revitalization has changed its physical appearance significantly, from a slum and crowded area to a more organized, pleasant, and attractive one. The revitalization is one of the Mayor's missions after being reelected in 2015 to enhance the Old City’s image as a prominent historical tourist destination. The government established a regulation prohibiting informal activities in the Old City. Informality is considered an interference in urban areas, including spaces that accommodate informal activities through illegal acquisition. However, informal activities persist in the Old City, shifting the physical setting and transforming the spatial utilization. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the transformation of informal spaces in the Old City after revitalization. Quantitative methods were used by distributing questionnaires to informal activity workers and interviews with the Old City manager. The results showed spatial utilization and relation transformations, a close relationship between informal and formal activities, and no conflict regarding spatial utilization. However, the relationship between formal and informal spaces changed after the revitalization. Formal activities prefer clear spatial boundaries, making informal space utilization and pattern more dynamic.

Anzaldúing it: podcasting, Pláticas, and digital Jotería counterspaces

When we started the Anzaldúing It podcast in 2017, we were trying to find a healing space outside of academia to process our everyday experiences as first-generation queer Latina/xs in graduate school. We chose the medium of podcasting as our platform because of our shared experience of pláticas being transformative spaces of knowledge sharing, consciousness-raising, and connection. Drawing on the tenets of Chicana/Latina Feminista Pláticas and coupling it with jotería identity and consciousness, and literature on academic counterspaces we conceptualize five tenets that make up what we refer to as digital jotería counterspaces. As co-creators and co-hosts, we engage in digital pláticas to enact self and community care through co-learning and co-construction of knowledge, this digital presence affirms our commitment to centering queer and trans Latinx identity and consciousness. We share our pláticas with the public through the digital and host them on an online repository, and as a result, create opportunities for multiple pláticas and consciousness-raising to occur.

The transformation of the bright-dark space in Chinese traditional dwellings

ABSTRACT The spontaneous transformation of traditional residential space is one of the important phenomena in urban development in China, which is generally considered as a disorderly, random, and individual spatial product derived from current life. However, are these transformations really random individual phenomena? With traditional residential dwellings of Sanyi Street in Jingzhou as research objects, this study revealed the inherited characteristics of the concept system of “Bright-Dark” in the process of contemporary transformation of traditional residential dwellings. Typical residential dwellings were selected for surveying and mapping and the expression of the “Bright-Dark” concept system in the current transformed residential space compared with traditional residential space patterns. The results demonstrated the traditional concept system (“Bright-Dark”) of residential space still exerts its spatial control function in the seemingly random transformation of contemporary dwellings. In addition, the study provided new perspectives and methods for understanding contemporary transformation of traditional dwellings from the perspective of the concept system of “Bright-Dark”.

An Entropy-Based Condition Monitoring Strategy for the Detection and Classification of Wear Levels in Gearboxes.

Gears are reliable and robust elements that are found in any power transmission system. However, gears are prone to present incipient faults, such as wear, since they are constantly subjected to contact forces. Due to gears playing a key role in many industrial processes, it is important to develop condition monitoring strategies that ensure the proper functioning of the related power transmission system and the overall components. In this regard, the data on entropy provide relevant information that allow us to identify and quantify the effect of different wear levels in gears. Therefore, in this work, we proposed the use of seven entropy-related features to perform the identification of different wear severities in a gearbox. The novelty of this proposal lies in the use of the entropy features to carry out a high-performance characterization of the available vibration signals that are acquired from experimental tests. The novelty of this proposal lies in the fusion of three different techniques: entropy features, linear discriminant analysis, and artificial neural networks to obtain a machine learning approach for improving the detection of different wear severities in gears compared to other reported methodologies. This situation is achieved due to the high-performance characterization of the available vibration signals that are acquired from experimental tests. Additionally, the entropy features are subjected to a feature space transformation by means of linear discriminant analysis to obtain a 2D representation and, finally, the set of features extracted by linear discriminant analysis are used as inputs of a neural network-based classifier to determine the severity of wear that is present in the gears. The proposed methodology is validated and compared with a conventional statistical approach to show the improvement in the classification.

The Urban Public Space between Land and Sea: The Case of Quarteira, Portugal

Among the European coastal territories most vulnerable to the effects of mean sea level rise, such as flooding and erosion phenomena, are the 943 km of the Portuguese coastline where approximately 70 per cent of the population lives (Bigotte et al, 2014), a percentage that rises to around 80 per cent in the summer months, due to tourism (Andrade et al, 2002), especially in the Algarve region (southern Portugal). The case study of this research is the urban public space in the coastal city of Quarteira, which is particularly vulnerable. This space between the land and the sea has been recently framed in the inter-municipal climate change adaptation plan PIAAC-AMAL (Plano Intermunicipal de Adaptação às Alterações Climáticas do Algarve). The aim of the article is to explore the natural and anthropogenic process of formation and transformation of the urban space between the land and sea that occurred over time, up to the definition of the seashore street. Interpretative drawing is used as a methodology to understand the form of the public space. This is considered the first step for designing the public space between the land and the sea that deals both with the effects of climate change and the seasonal cycles of summer tourism. Through this analysis, it is argued that the understanding of the form (morphological characteristics) of this continuous space between land and sea is fundamental for consistent and robust adaptation design.