Tough Reality Research Articles

Triaxial shake table testing of an integrated low‐damage building system

AbstractLessons from recent earthquakes have provided a tough reality check of the traditional seismic design approach and technologies, highlighting the urgent need for a paradigm shift of performance‐based design criteria and objectives toward low‐damage design philosophy and technologies for the whole building system. Modern society is asking for “earthquake proof” resilient buildings that are able to withstand seismic events without compromising their functionality. The EU‐funded SERA (Seismology and Earthquake Engineering Research Infrastructure Alliance for Europe Project) project discussed in this paper provided the opportunity to develop and validate within the European context an integrated seismic low‐damage prototype, including main structure and non‐structural elements, for the next generation of high‐performance buildings. This paper presents an overview of the research, involving three‐dimensional shake table tests of a two‐storey 1:2 scaled timber‐concrete post‐tensioned dissipative low‐damage structure “dressed” by earthquake‐resistant gypsum/masonry partitions and glass/concrete facades. Specimen details, construction and assembly phases, test setup, and experimental results are discussed. After many cycles of input motions at increasing levels of seismic intensity (higher than Collapse Prevention Limit State), the integrated building system exhibited a very high seismic performance. The experimental campaign carried out at the National Laboratory of Civil Engineering in Lisbon confirmed the unique potential of low‐damage technologies and the opportunity for their widespread implementation into design practice.

Purposive Understanding of the Texts on Dealing with Non-Muslims: A Critical, Analytical Study

This article analyzes the literature related to the treatment of non-Muslims in Islam. It discusses Islamic jurisprudential provisions and judgements, as well as their causes and purposes, using the descriptive, analytical, and critical methods. The article concludes that Islam ensures freedom of belief, respects individual choice and invites Muslims to accept the other within the framework of citizenship. Many of the jurisprudential rulings rejecting the other have sprung from tough realities, rather than the accurate Islamic view. The Sharia calls for the good treatment of non-Muslims and improving the principle of good citizenship. This should be done to ensure the religious and non-religious privacy of Muslims.
 
 Received: 6 October 2022 / Accepted: 29 December 2022 / Published: 5 January 2023

Postgraduate Supervision at Kenya’s Public Universities: The Tough Reality

Postgraduate Supervision at Kenya’s Public Universities: The Tough Reality

Christian Responses to Conflict in Burma

Abstract Political violence, ethnic war, and religious conflict have gravely rocked the modern state of Burma ever since 1948 when it became independent. The Burmese perhaps know better than most what it feels like to be devastated by racial hatred and religious intolerance as they have seen the deadly consequences of unchecked ethno-religious bigotry. They endeavor in spite of this to make a better future for the coming generation, and Burmese Christians, as responsible citizens, make a relatively considerable contribution to this national collective attempt. Few scholars following events in Burma, though, pay sufficient attention to how Christians respond to this politically complex and tense situation. This article, thus, carefully navigates the historical trajectories of toxic ethno-religious conflict and political violence and closely explores some role Christians seemingly prudently play in positive reaction to this tough reality.

The Educational Significance of Literature from the Perspective of Growth and Healing in the Bridge to Terabithia

Children s literature has provided various storybooks on the issue of death since the 1970s. When the young readers are facing on the situation related to death, they never recover their condition without helping of adults. Newbery Medal winner such as The Bridge to Terabithia incorporates the subject of death as part of the plot and is distinguished by its masterful treatment regarding the issue of death. While stages of dealing with grief and loss about death have been analysed, we need to take care of children s emotional problems and recovering. So we must know the meaning and effect of bibliotherapy and then apply for them using books. The author, Katherine Paterson is an American writer known for children s novels; Bridge to Terabithia is about the friendship between a country boy, Jesse, and a city girl, Leslie, and Leslie has a great impact on Jess s growth artistically and spiritually. The author emphasizes on describing the tough reality and the effect of close friend’s death on Jesse. This fiction also depicts the death of Leslie and Jess s recovery process and provides optimistic vision by suffering death and healing process. The healing properties of this novel effectively can help children or young readers to deal with current and potential problems regarding to death. In this sense, this paper focuses on investigating the internal growth of Jesse and recovery process after his friend s death. It can be useful not only for artistic but also for therapeutic purpose for the young readers.

Pioneers in Dermatology and Venereology: an interview with Professor Ricardo Luis Galimberti.

Pioneers in Dermatology and Venereology: an interview with Professor Ricardo Luis Galimberti.

Tackling pain with exercise: It's Your Move.

The recent National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) guideline on chronic pain recommends that GPs prioritise physical activity programmes for people suffering from chronic pain.1 This article describes an innovative scheme in the West Country. Chronic pain is debilitating. As well as dealing with the challenge of pain, most people with painful conditions also face the tough reality of fatigue, social isolation, and the anxiety that comes with it. Pain clinics have long waiting times and medication brings little solace. At Active Gloucestershire (https://www.activegloucestershire.org) we have been forging new ground, with a successful trial that is now expanding to all GPs throughout Gloucestershire. Our trial, It’s Your Move, is run in partnership with Gloucestershire Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). It offers …

Local Factors Matter

Local Factors Matter Paweł Sowiński Molly Pucci, Security Empire: The Secret Police in Communist Eastern Europe. 378 pp. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2020. ISBN-13 978-0300242577. $65.00. The most fascinating thing about the book by Molly Pucci is her enthusiasm for the comparative perspective on the communist security forces in Eastern Europe before 1956. The topic has already been researched, but unlike most of the previous investigations, Pucci's contribution does not focus on one national case but provides us with a wider perspective on three countries—Czechoslovakia, the German Democratic Republic (GDR), and Poland.1 Each case is to some extent unique, Pucci claims, but all have common elements that make such a comparison both justified and stimulating. Take, for example, the shared fate of the three countries being dependent on the Soviet Union and forcefully transformed into totalitarian states. Pucci deserves praise for taking a real transnational perspective on the security police in the region. In addition, she uses a variety of sources in the book to minimize the distortions of the past: for instance, the risk of being trapped by the dominant narrative of party and government sources, which are very numerous but tell only one side of the story. This approach offers, most of all, a historical perspective on the subject. Pucci is well aware of some more general concepts but does not gather them in a separate chapter on theoretical frames. Instead, she demonstrates the great [End Page 656] ability to mine the archival material and produce a historical narrative that is interwoven with references to larger themes and covers the broader sociopolitical canvas of communist security.2 Taking into consideration the wide scope of the subject, the linguistic obstacles, and a plethora of documents to choose from, Pucci carried out really in-depth research to capture the most defining moments in the history of communist security forces. She makes wide use of East European literature. The book does a good job of bridging Western and Eastern scholarly communities.3 Pucci draws from both Western and Eastern scholars to provide us with a more nuanced picture of what she calls the security empire of the secret police in communist Eastern Europe. In the first chapters, Pucci offers fascinating insights into the diversity of institutional models in all three countries. In the Polish case, the security forces quickly loomed large and produced a repressive political environment. Pucci dwells on inner tensions in the security units, which led to many disruptions and, as a result, generated even more violence in postwar Polish society. The emotional climate of the work in the security community is excellently marked in the book by the stress, fatigue, and growing paranoia of the "hidden enemy" inside and outside the secret police. What distinguishes the Polish from the Czechoslovak experience is that the Czechoslovak secret service was built more bottom-up than top-down. The building of the security infrastructure was less dependent on the Soviet model. As a consequence, the Czechoslovak police developed its own model—more rooted in the tradition of the Czechoslovak prewar state. Pucci reflects extensively on early communist East Germany, which was the most dramatic case in the postwar reality of Central-Eastern Europe. Since East Germany was declared a war zone ruled by the Red Army, the German population suffered most from Soviet military and security personnel. Brutality, fear, and chaos were omnipresent in the pre-GDR realm as local stories—quoted by the author—strongly suggested. The state of war over this [End Page 657] territory was lifted as late as 1955. The occupation zone gave no shelter to civilians from harassment by Soviet forces, while Poland and Czechoslovakia, although also badly affected by the tough reality, functioned to a greater extent as separate entities with stronger domestic authorities, local norms, and laws. In the German case, the Soviets' power was limitless, and local communities were outlawed. Yet despite the German zone's heavy reliance on the Soviets, the engagement of Germans in the rebuilding of German life soon became inevitable. This process led to the formation of the German secret police. As Pucci argues, influences from Soviet officers and advisers remained...

Women’s Safety Security System using Raspberry PI

Today in the present global scenario, a woman's word of security and safe life is a tough reality to happen, because women's sexual abuse has become a mainstream news in our everyday routine life. We should create a society in which women can travel openly and even at odd hours not of fear. While there are many rules and laws present, they are insufficient to provide the women in society with the full degree of security, safe and stable life. When the technology advances every day, it is a solution to other problems. And why can't we use these to create a stable and prosperous women's community. This project composed of components such as GSM, GPS, memory card, shock circuit, buzzer, camera, module Raspberry pi-3.

Updates regarding the pathophysiology of liver cirrhosis in children

Liver cirrhosis in pediatric age is still a tough reality, both through the problems related to diagnosis and treatment and also by the idea of fatality, in the impossibility of liver trans­plan­ta­tion. Although there are remarkable ad­van­ces in de­ci­phering the pathogenic mechanisms, with new en­cou­ra­ging therapeutic options, the difficulties in the management of the cirrhotic child remain, along with the impossibility of using all therapeutic resources at an early age. The authors make an insight into the current pathophysiology of liver cirrhosis, with its specificities at pediatric age. Child­hood cirrhosis has etiological and evolu­tio­nary features related to immunological, nutritional, progression and decompensation factors.

A Comparison of Data Sampling Techniques for Credit Card Fraud Detection

Credit Card fraud is a tough reality that continues to constrain the financial sector and its detrimental effects are felt across the entire financial market. Criminals are continuously on the lookout for ingenious methods for such fraudulent activities and are a real threat to security. Therefore, there is a need for early detection of fraudulent activity to preserve customer trust and safeguard their business. A major challenge faced in designing fraud detection systems is dealing with the class imbalance issue in the data since genuine transactions outnumber the fraudulent transactions typically account less than 1% of the total transactions. This is an important area of study as the positive case (fraudulent case) is hard to distinguish and becomes even harder with the inflow of data where the representation of such cases even decreases further. This study trained four predictive models, Artificial Neural Network (ANN), Gradient Boosting Machine (GBM) and Random Forest (RF) on different sampling methods. Random Under Sampling (RUS), Synthetic Minority Over-sampling Technique (SMOTE), Density-Based Synthetic Minority Over-Sampling Technique (DBSMOTE) and SMOTE combined with Edited Nearest Neighbour (SMOTEENN) was used for all models. The findings of this study indicate promising results with SMOTE based sampling techniques. The best recall score obtained was with SMOTE sampling strategy by DRF classifier at 0.81. The precision score for this classifier was observed to be 0.86. Stacked Ensemble was trained for all the sampled datasets and found to have the best average performance at 0.78. The Stacked Ensemble model has shown promise in the detection of fraudulent transactions across most of the sampling strategies.

Researcher Tackles the Tough Realities of Pancreatic Cancer

Researcher Tackles the Tough Realities of Pancreatic Cancer

Complying with Australia's illegal logging laws: tough reality after a soft start? Lessons from the United States and the European Union

Australia's new illegal logging laws aim at prohibiting the import of illegally harvested forest products from around the world. Soon after adoption, and following an intense debate on the expected costs of compliance, the legislation was reviewed and the proposed amendments finally disallowed. As of 2018 stricter enforcement actions were announced. This article identifies compliance issues observed in Australia and proposes ways to tackle them based on experiences in the United States and the European Union. We find that law enforcement helps shape market behaviour and reinforces compliance. A national legality assurance system, established in the supplier country, is an effective way to ensure legality verification, to alleviate the burden on individual businesses to prove legality, and to support the regulated community to comply with the law.

Social Mobility of High-Quality S&T Human Resources in Universities - Case study: Vietnam National University, Hanoi and Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City

In the context of all countries are moving towards a dynamic and developed economy, it would be impossible not to mention the "labor factor". Obviously, this is an influential factor because the higher quality of labor resources will result in a more conveinent and easier economic development process and vice versa. However, the social mobilization of labor resources, especially high-quality S&T human resources, has become a tough reality. This phenomenon has become more and more popular and complicated within organizations and countries. There are many manifestations of the social mobility phenomenon of high quality S&T human resources, but in this article, the authors focus on two social mobility flows which are social mobility with migration, also known as "brain drain" and social mobility without migration – "internal brain drain". The authors conducted a survey on the current status of social mobility of high-quality S&T human resources in two national universities of Vietnam: Vietnam National University, Hanoi and Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City in order to recognize the highlights and trends of this phenomenon. From that, the authors set out a number of policy suggestions to minimize the negative impacts from social mobility and to improve the efficiency of using high-quality S&T human resources in Vietnam universities today.

Great expectations: geological theories and technological transfer at Aardal Copperworks in Norway in the first half of the eighteenth century

Aardal Copperworks in western Norway was a small royally owned copperworks that operated at an enormous loss during the first decades of the eighteenth century. When the king did not close it down after a short time, he had to choose between two options: 1) trust the director who, based on certain geological theories, predicted that large supplies of copper and other metals were to be found further down in the mountains, or 2) lease the copperworks to English interests who would introduce modern smelting technology based on coal. The king chose the first and his successor or rather the treasury the second. Both were unsuccessful, and Aardal Copperworks became only a minor episode in Norwegian mining history – but nonetheless included spectacular ideas, boundless optimism, extraordinary efforts and a tough reality.

A Study on Banho Yun Kwangan(盤湖 尹光顔)’s Poetry

반호 윤광안은 소론계의 한 축으로 노성에 세거하였던 파평윤씨 가문의 후예이자 정조의 초계문신으로 능력을 인정받았던 인물이다. 그러나 관료생활은 소론이라는 입지로 인하여 고난의 연속이었다. 순탄치 못한 삶 속에서도 맑고 깨끗함을 유지하고자 하였으며, 이러한 내면이 그의 시세계에잘 구현되어 있다. 본고는 반호의 시세계를 대략 세 가지 측면에서 살펴보 았다. 첫 번째는 靜觀의 興趣와 存養이다. 반호는 시적 대상에 내재한 본질을 직관하여 심미적 흥취의 경험을 표현하고 그 정신적 상태를 작품 속에 투영시켰다. 그는 자연을 있는 그대로 즐겼으며 그대로의 모습을 인정하고 사랑하는 모습을 시로 표출하였다. 또한, 반호에게 자연은 <精衛>라는 시에서 보듯 탐미의 대상뿐만이 아니라 깨달음과 성취하고자 하는 造道의 대상이다. 사물 역시 성찰의 대상이 되었다. 두 번째는 초탈의 경지와 자적이다. 반호는 속세의 삶에 지쳐 있었다. 그래서 잠시 찾아간 맑고 깨끗한 자연의 모습에서 그는 단정하게 살고자 했던 본연의 모습을 깨우치며 청정함이 가져다주는 자연의 소중함에 감동한다. 더하여 반호는 世運이 쇠퇴하여 순박한 풍조가 점점 사라지는 세상을 보며은거를 꿈꾸었으며, 비록 실천에 옮기지는 못했지만 그러한 갈망을 시에 표현하였다. 세 번째는 사회적 책무이다. 반호는 정조에게 학문적 성취를 인정받았고, 관직 생활을 하는 중에 영달을 누리기도 하였으나 소론 가문이라는 처지 때문에 정치적으로 수많은 어려움을 겪었다. 그래서 세속을 벗어나 자적하려는 의지를 늘 품고 있었지만, 사회적 책무에 대한 사명감을 잊지 않았다. 농가의 어려운 현실을 인식하고 그 문제해결의 책임이 위정자에게 있음을 토 로하였다. 그리고 자신의 곤욕이 자신의 문제만이 아니라 결국 위정자의 덕에 손상이 됨을 하소연하며 신하의 책무를 다하고자 하였다. 이러한 반호 윤광안의 시가 18세기 한시사의 새로운 흐름과 접목되어 있는 것은 아니다. 그러나 그의 시는 도문일치라는 유가의 이상을 실현하고자 한 수작들이다. 아울러 소론계 문학의 탐구라는 측면에서 특히 소론의 다른 계열보다 상대적으로 연구가 미진한 노성지역의 파평윤씨 가문의 문학적 면모를 보여준다는 점에서 의미가 있다.Banho Yun Kwangan(盤湖 尹光顔, 1757~1815) was a chogyemunsin(抄&#21855;文臣) who was a favorite with Jeongjo as a man of soron. Due to the difference of political standpoint, he was misunderstood, but embodied pure and clean poetic world. This thesis examined his poetic world from three aspects. First is Interest(興趣) of jungkwan(靜觀) and jonyang(存養). Banho intuited essence of poetic object, expressed experience of aesthetic heungchi, and reflected the spiritual status on the work. He enjoyed the nature as it was, recognized its appearance, and expressed loved appearance by poem. In addition, as a poem <jungwi(精衛)> shows, the nature is not only aesthetic object but also realization and illuminance to be achieved for Banho. Goods are also an object of reflection. Second is the stage of transcendence. and Self-adjustment(自適). Banho realized original appearance that intended to live neatly from the appearance of the pure and clean nature that was visited for a while after tired by secular society and was touched by the value of nature brought by cleanness. And, Banho did not practice, but dreamt retirement while watching the world that sewoon(世運) is declined and naive tendency is disappeared and expressed the longing in poem. Third is social responsibility. Banho’s academic achievement was recognized by Jeongjo and he enjoyed advancement while in public office, but was in lots of politic difficulties because of his soron family. So, he always has a will to be self-satisfied by getting out of the secular society, but did not forget the sense of social responsibility. He recognized tough realities of farm and expressed the responsibility of the solution should be assumed by politicians. And, he appealed that his difficulties are not only his own problems but also are damaged by politicians finally and intended to assume his responsibilities of a subject.

The Changing Landscape of (Political) Islam in Azerbaijan: Its Contextual Underpinnings and Future Prospects

By the time Azerbaijan became independent in 1991, it had spent seven decades subsumed into the militant atheism of the Soviet modernization project. Moreover, it emerged into the staunchly secular international context of Western modernity. These two factors combined with the tough reality of the country’s precarious geography to promise a sustained indigenous effort to desacralize the country’s political space and exclude religion from politics, a blueprint common to the modern world and one which Azerbaijani state and society have united to pursue over the course of the country’s independent existence. Yet the specific dynamics facing the country in the third decade of independence and the changing contours of its international engagements have been working to loosen up the latter formula, laying the groundwork for a quintessentially Azerbaijani pathway of statehood that will combine the nation’s historical embeddedness in an Islamic milieu with its century-old practical experience of modern policymaking.

Multicultural Education: Tough Conversations, Questions, and Realities

Multicultural Education: Tough Conversations, Questions, and Realities

Fast and furious: the tough reality of re-entry

Getting into orbit is difficult, but getting back down again safely is one of the trickiest aspects of spaceflight. As space agencies and commercial players set their sights on the Moon, Mars and beyond, they need to know they can depend on a safe return. Re-entry is perhaps the most terrifying and low-tech part of space travel.

The Compatriot Magazine “Jednota”: A Mirror of Hundred-Year History of Slovak Immigrants in the USA

It was mainly the Slovak-American press that had unified the Slovak immigrant community in the USA. It represented a relevant source of information about the Slovak community life as well as about the situation back home in Europe. Today, the preservation of Slovak cultural heritage in an extensive assimilation process of the American Slovaks in the USA is of high significance. The primary objective of the article is to summarize the data obtained by the study of one of the most influencial compatriot periodicals (Jednota – The Union) in the USA as it represents an important part of the Slovak cultural heritage. Key words Slovak immigration, USA, compatriot periodicals Immigrant communities abroad represent a relevant part of the history of both home and host countries. Cultural heritage of immigrants reflects their life abroad as well as the situation back at home from their point of view. Cultural identity and language preservation of minorities living abroad are involved in charters and conventions of both national and international associations. All of them emphasize the importance of enhancing and supporting the activities of compatriots living abroad that keep them linked with their native country. The UNESCO and the European Council have the responsibility to formulate strategies and policies to respect and protect the traditional knowledge, to safeguard the linguistic heritage and to support expression, creation and dissimilation in the greatest possible number of languages. More than 2.8 million people of Slovak origin are scattered all over the world of which two thirds live in the USA (Holestiak, 2002). However, the Slovak Republic has joined these activities only after the fall of communism in 1989. The period before had represented a dark side of the flow of information about the Slovak immigration and their activities. One of the primary goals of Slovak foreign policy today is to protect the linguistic, cultural and religious identity of Slovak immigrants and to assure the cooperation and communication between the Slovak Republic and the compatriot organizations abroad. Consequently, the Slovak government has committed to consecutive financial intervention to encourage compatriot publishers and literary work of fraternal societies to meet international agreements. As the manifestation of the Slovak culture preservation abroad is reflected mainly in literary and publishing work, theatrical and musical performance and folk art. The framework of Slovak cultural identity is formed by three major elements – community, language and religion. To keep the Slovak cultural and national identity in the context of political and social situation both in Europe and in America was not easy. In early years of Slovak settlement in the USA, the Slovaks were just anonymous ethnic group within a large multi-ethnical environment. Since the Slovak national identity was not assured until the gain of independence from 1939 to 1945 and then later in 1993, religion played an important role in their self-identity. It represented an integral part of the Slovak everyday life and their struggle with tough reality. Christian traditions, holiday rituals and customs were kept in immigrant