Vast Vistas Research Articles

“It’s a little soap opera of its own”: Fascinating green roofs offer complexity, movement, sensory engagement, and vast vistas

Green roofs are a popular way of providing environmental benefits and places where people can experience and benefit from nature, but we know very little about the features and experiential characteristics that can support this. Fascination through interest and engagement is argued to be a key component of landscapes that restore wellbeing. We explored this proposition using complementary approaches in two studies investigating green roof landscapes. The first explored fascinating visual features using a photo-based survey, with 29 diverse international green roofs. The second explored fascinating features and characteristics of experience using interviews following virtual green roof visits, asking participants for their perceptions of the view and experience while visiting. We integrated findings across studies to develop a model of green roof design. We identified complexity through space and time, movement into and of features in the landscape, multi-sensory engagement, and connecting with distance through vast vistas as key to fascinating green roof experiences. These characteristics were associated with features on and beyond the roof, both natural and built. Many of these characteristics and features are applicable to urban landscapes more broadly, however, some, such as connection with the sky and movement and process in the city, appear to be unique to elevated views and experiences and warrant further study.

Construction of green versatile coating integrating fireproof, electric-conduction and self-cleaning performance for cotton fabrics

The development of conductive cotton fabrics possessing superb self-cleaning and fire-proof performances exhibits vast vistas in wearable electronic devices. However, the secretion substances from human body or contaminants from the environment may interpret the normal functions of the devices and induces short-circuiting and even fire. Herein, a new strategy for the fabrication of multifunctional cotton fabrics was introduced, involving with the sequent coating of bio-based flame-retardant, conductive two-dimensional material and hydrophobic long chain alkyl silane. The multiple coating endowed the cotton fabric with a higher limited oxygen index value of 36.7% and a dramatical reduction in peak of heat release rate (74.4%) and total heat release rate (62.4%), also with a rapid self-extinguishing ability during burning. The deposition of MXene tremendously promoted the conductivity of the fabric and the coated fabric could make a steady-state electrothermal response of 129.3 °C at 5 V. Moreover, the fabric showed an excellent self-cleaning ability for common dyes and contaminants which allowed it to retain the normal functions under various conditions. The multifunctional cotton fabric designed in this work showed a high prospective in the practical applications of wearable electronics, flexible sensors, early warning, and even special membranes for extreme environments.

Pakistan: State Autonomy, Extraction, and Elite Capture—A Theoretical Configuration

―When groups are adequately stated, everything is stated!‖1 Management of actions and interest groups has historically been sovereign‘s existentialist imperative. The paper revitalizes philosophical state autonomy debate and then narrows down its focus to capture extractive antics of as erratic a state as Pakistan. A typology of factions – captioned as Elites – operative in extractive realm of Pakistan is developed to round them in theory, identify their properties, and lay bare mechanics of intra-elite and elite-non-elite transactions. The paper seminally develops the rational actor dilemma confronting Pakistani elites and identifies the modes through which the dilemma plausibly resolves itself. The transactional engagement between Pakistan‘s internal and external rational actors is dissected to theorize that Pakistan essentially is an equilibrium consensus subsistence state thereby opening up vast vistas for future research. The paper concludes with the glum finding that Pakistan in its current essence and manifestation is fundamentally a captive state – beholden to elites of Pakistan. JEL Classification: H1 Keywords: State Autonomy; Elite Capture; Pakistan‘s Tax System; Pakistani Elites; Elites‘ Rational Actor Dilemma; Equilibrium Consensus Subsistence State; Captive State

The View From the Tree.

The View From the Tree.

The Research Interview: A Performative Reinterpretation

The shift from positivistic to interpretive and critical paradigms within qualitative research entails a certain messiness in its methodology and analyses. This aligns with an entailed abandonment of objectives to arrive at absolute truth. I argue in this article that the same levels of messiness and uncertainty should apply to the definition and characterizations of perhaps the primary knowledge-producing activity within qualitative inquiry, the research interview. Untethering this concept from unnecessary delimitation might, or so I argue, allow for fresh perspectives concerning its uses and analyses, revealing less positivistically “loaded” deployment strategies and opening up vast vistas for future research.

On Intrinsic Safety of Soft Robots

The rapidly growing field of soft robotics owes its success to the vast vistas of possibilities they promise. They may be utilized as standalone systems, or work in harmony with the existing robotic technologies. Being based on soft and/or flexible materials, soft robots have usually high dexterity and at the same time, they are also often considered ‘intrinsically safe’. This is generally true and soft-bodied robots can be considered safer from a mechanical point of view, but this is sometimes improperly used. The identification of possible safety loopholes in soft robots is the subject of this paper. After a general overview of safety in robotics, we reported an overview of the main sources of unsafe conditions that may arise by the use of soft robotics technologies. Safety aspects are discussed in three categories quasi-static, dynamic and material failure. Some safety factors exclusive to soft robots such as whiplash like effect and energy stored in highly strained elements are also introduced. Measures to avoid such unsafe conditions are presented such as establishing operational limits and introduction of inspection regimes and arrest systems.

Barrier free visibility for staff in ICU Focused on space syntax for circulation in Asian ICU

The main contribution of paper is for designersthrough identification of appropriate shape geometry required forcare givers in a hospital by using space syntax technique.Healthcare management field is at a boom now a days, andfacilitating nurse is one of the important aspect coming up infuture, thus a lot of new courses in this field are also beenintroduced and management is in demand. Focus is on creatingthe optimal conditions for innovation in healthcare, which hasmore to do with team dynamics and mindset than standardprocesses and tools. Researchers are rigorously working toimprove patient safety by increasing and improving interface withnurse. This study systematically analyses the Nurse Stationtypo-morphology, and simulates nurse vision. The visualconnectivity is measured on depth map graphs. Hence the aim isto reduce staff stress and fatigue by support space distribution byincreasing effectiveness in delivering care. A depth mapcomparative analysis of three types of the Surgical Intensive CareUnit (SICU), Medical Intensive Care Unit MICU and CriticalCare Unit CCU found at hospitals Hallym University MedicalCenter, South Korea (HUMC), is analyzed here. Concussively, itwas proved that L-Shape provides maximum visibility, where as Ishape provides vast vista of a panoramic view from the NurseStation.

3 Barrier free visibility for staff in ICU Focused on space syntax for circulation in Asian ICU

The main contribution of paper is for designersthrough identification of appropriate shape geometry required forcare givers in a hospital by using space syntax technique.Healthcare management field is at a boom now a days, andfacilitating nurse is one of the important aspect coming up infuture, thus a lot of new courses in this field are also beenintroduced and management is in demand. Focus is on creatingthe optimal conditions for innovation in healthcare, which hasmore to do with team dynamics and mindset than standardprocesses and tools. Researchers are rigorously working toimprove patient safety by increasing and improving interface withnurse. This study systematically analyses the Nurse Stationtypo-morphology, and simulates nurse vision. The visualconnectivity is measured on depth map graphs. Hence the aim isto reduce staff stress and fatigue by support space distribution byincreasing effectiveness in delivering care. A depth mapcomparative analysis of three types of the Surgical Intensive CareUnit (SICU), Medical Intensive Care Unit MICU and CriticalCare Unit CCU found at hospitals Hallym University MedicalCenter, South Korea (HUMC), is analyzed here. Concussively, itwas proved that L-Shape provides maximum visibility, where as Ishape provides vast vista of a panoramic view from the NurseStation.

Barrier free visibility for staff in ICU Focused on space syntax for circulation in Asian ICU

The main contribution of paper is for designers through identification of appropriate shape geometry required forcare givers in a hospital by using space syntax technique. Healthcare management field is at a boom now a days, and facilitating nurse is one of the important aspect coming up in future, thus a lot of new courses in this field are also been introduced and management is in demand. Focus is on creating the optimal conditions for innovation in healthcare, which has more to do with team dynamics and mindset than standard processes and tools. Researchers are rigorously working to improve patient safety by increasing and improving interface with nurse. This study systematically analyses the Nurse Station typo-morphology, and simulates nurse vision. The visual connectivity is measured on depth map graphs. Hence the aim is to reduce staff stress and fatigue by support space distribution by increasing effectiveness in delivering care. A depth map comparative analysis of three types of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU), Medical Intensive Care Unit MICU and Critical Care Unit CCU found at hospitals Hallym University Medical Center, South Korea (HUMC), is analyzed here. Concussively, it was proved that L-Shape provides maximum visibility, where as I shape provides vast vista of a panoramic view from the Nurse Station.

The Performance Analysis and Research about a Type of New Tubular Belt

Abstract. The tubular belt conveyor system is one of the most widely-used deferent manners in bulk material. It is a relatively important continuous deferent manners in modern intensive production, widely applied in metallurgy, coal, building materials and other different industries. The belt conveyor has advantages in long distance convey, large conveying volume, high efficiency, with simple structure. Now with the development of the machinery manufacturing technology, rubber industry and the requirements of the environmental aspects, the new type tubular belt type conveyor has obtained unanimous approval, and possessed vast vista in application and use value

Greek University Candidates’ Targets in a Changing, Unstable and Unpredictable Economic Environment

The topic of the present study is concerned with the university candidates’ educational and career choices against an unstable economic background that may necessitate the reformulation and readjustment of choices to innovative concepts of advancement and future development as they may apply to youngsters of different social class and gender. The sudden call to precipitated maturity is a shock, as eighteen- year olds are now expected to sit for exams and simultaneously opt for an education- conduit to vocational security. More specifically, a case study concentrating on two different geographical areas: the Northern suburbs and western Attica was designed, taking into consideration the class-related socio-economic and political traits of their population. It is also estimated the extent to which educational choices are determined by gender. Close and open- end questions are utilized to unravel the societal considerations and selection tactics of the subjects, which is semantically revealed to lead to gingerly realistic steps on the quick sand of political and economic instability. There was also considerable profit from a multitude of interpretative versions and research bibliographies, so as to uncover the role that gender and class-related inequality plays in shaping and directing educational and vocational choices. The crux of our problematic is centered in a liquid status quo with individuals making judgments according to the social and educational capital established in the class and gender-related correlations within the collectivity. The research proceeds to expose vast vistas of continually re-definable prospects, renewable explorative models and a systemic complexity that regenerate youngsters' choices. It is noteworthy that information has for the first time become available on education being tied to vocation, not only against the backdrop of an economic and value crisis but also the end decade- long governmental providence.

Fabrication and Calibration of Cu-Ni Thin Film Thermocouples

Thin film thermocouples (TFTCs) have vast vistas owing to their advantages, such as thin junction, small volume, fast response rate, high sensitivity and so on. In this investigation, a transient temperature sensor of TFTCs was fabricated to measure the surface transient temperature by vacuum coating technology. Silicon dioxide was selected as insulating substrate, the overall dimension of which was 8 mm long, 8 mm wide, and 0.1 mm thick. Two different metal layers were sandwiched between silicon dioxide 2 insulating substrate and silicon dioxide protective layer: cuprum and nickel films, which were 0.08 μm thick. TFTCs consist of 13 Cu-Ni junctions, which are connected in series. The whole TFTCs area is 4.6mm × 4.6 mm. The aggregate thickness of the transient temperature sensor is 0.17 μm. To protect Cu and Ni films, a silicon dioxide layer thickness of 0.01 μm was evaporated on metal layers excluding terminal points. This research carried out static and dynamic calibration to TFTCs. The Seebeck coefficient of the thin film thermocouple is 0.83843 μV/°C. The dynamic performance of TFTCs exhibited dynamic behavior corresponding to the heat flux change on the surface of thin film thermocouple.

Returning to Addis Ababa

Returning to Addis Ababa Dinaw Mengestu (bio) The first time I saw Ethiopia since I was two years old was while looking out the window of a British Airways flight as it headed into the capital's new airport at 3am. Twenty-five years had passed since I had left Addis Ababa, and in that time I had attached an almost mythical significance to what it would be like to see the city again. In my imagination I pictured myself looking out onto a vast vista of low-lying mountains, with a ramshackle city built in the middle. My father, who had worked for Ethiopian Airlines before fleeing the country in 1978, four years into the Communist Revolution, had once shown me a postcard of an Ethiopian Airlines plane sitting on a tarmac with an enormous lion crouched next to it. From that moment on that was the image I had when I thought of returning back home: a bright sunny day with a single airplane sitting on the tarmac, lion and all. I was surprised to see the streetlights from the plane. They sprawled into the distance, and from a thousand feet, made Addis resemble any one of a dozen small cities that I could have been flying into that night. Even then I was on the lookout for any sign of familiarity, for things that I could hold onto to make the country familiar and therefore manageable. Despite the late hour I knew someone would be there to meet me at the airport. With the exception of my uncle Berhane though, I did not know what any of them would look like. I had never met my aunt Aster or her daughter. The same was true of my aunt Rosa and her three children, along with a long list of other relatives, all of whom were strangers to me. I had seen only a few pictures here and there, none at all in at least a decade. I had never once heard any of their voices. I would realize later, after two months of never being without a relative near me, just how much had been lost during all those years away from one another, how much could never be regained, and at the same time, just how easy it was for a family to claim you as one of their own. At the time though, there was only an implacable fear of not knowing who or what to expect. We were strangers, and yet we carried all of the expectations and customs that came with close family, which in this case translated to a half dozen faces, only one of whom I had met, standing shoulder to shoulder behind a black rope at a few hours before dawn, waiting for me to get out of customs. In the other imagined scenarios-over the years I had built up dozens-I was supposed to walk directly out of the plane, onto the ground, hesitating at the last step because in two seconds I was going to touch Ethiopia's soil, and like the prodigal son, drop to my knees and weep. My aunt Aster's face was essentially my mother's. They both had the same high cheekbones, petite noses, and flawless skin. I knew it immediately, as I did my uncle Berhane, who fifteen years earlier had spent a week with my family in Chicago, and apparently had not aged since. I had taken him on the EL into the city, to the top of the Sears Tower, and [End Page 15] on a ferry ride around Lake Michigan, all of which to my thirteen-year old eyes seemed like the greatest things to do in the world. We all walked out of the airport together, completely silent after a brief round of customary kisses and hugs, into a misty early morning. This was late July and the middle of winter in Ethiopia, which meant chill damp nights that with time eased into the very fiber of one's skin, leaving no real hope for warmth. My uncle, who as a teenager had spent five years in jail during the Revolution, had been rewarded later in life...

In-lens cryo-high resolution scanning electron microscopy: methodologies for molecular imaging of self-assembled organic hydrogels.

The micro- and nanoarchitectures of water-swollen hydrogels were routinely analyzed in three dimensions at very high resolution by two cryopreparation methods that provide stable low-temperature specimens for in-lens high magnification recordings. Gemini surfactants (gS), poly-N-isopropylacrylamides (p-NIP Am), and elastin-mimetic di- (db-E) and triblock (tb-E) copolymer proteins that form hydrogels have been routinely analyzed to the sub-10-nm level in a single day. After they were quench or high pressure frozen, samples in bulk planchets were subsequently chromium coated and observed at low temperature in an in-lens field emission SEM. Pre-equilibrated planchets (4-40 degrees C) that hold 5-10 microl of hydrogel facilitate dynamic morphological studies above and below their transition temperatures. Rapidly frozen samples were fractured under liquid nitrogen, low-temperature metal coated, and observed in-lens to assess the dispersion characteristics of micelles and fragile colloidal assemblies within bulk frozen water. Utilizing the same planchet freezing system, the cryoetch-HRSEM technique removed bulk frozen water from the hydrogel matrix by low-temperature, high-vacuum sublimation. The remaining frozen solid-state sample faithfully represented the hydrogel matrix. Cryo- and cryoetch-HRSEM provided vast vistas of hydrogels at low and intermediate magnifications whereas high magnification recordings and anaglyphs (stereo images) provided a three-dimensional prospective and measurements on a molecular level.

Markov skeleton processes

A new class of stochastic processes—Markov skeleton processes is introduced, which have the Markov property on a series of random times. Markov skeleton processes include minimalQ processes, Doob processes,Q processes of order one, semi-Markov processes[1], piecewise determinate Markov processes[2], and the input processes, the queuing lengths and the waiting times of the system G1/G/1, as particular cases. First, the forward and backward equations are given, which are the criteria for the regularity and the formulas to compute the multidimensional distributions of the Markov skeleton processes. Then, three important cases of the Markov skeleton processes are studied: the (H, G, II)-processes, piecewise determinate Markov skeleton processes and Markov skeleton processes of Markov type. Finally, a vast vistas for the application of the Markov skeleton processes is presented.

Study on massage-evoked potentiogram from somatic nerves and analysis on the involvement of its afferent fibers

The experiments were applied on 66 rabbits. While massage was applied on six acupoints, such as Heyang (UB 55), Xiguan (Liv 7), and others on legs with the manipulations of finger pressure and finger kneading, the massage-evoked potentiogram on the nerve cutaneus posterior femoralis and the nerve gastrocnemius medialis were obtained. The massage-evoked potentiogram synchronized with massage evoked impulses and varied with different manipulations. All four groups of afferent fibers contained in nerve cutaneous posterior femoralis and nerve gastrocnemius medialis were involved in conducting the impulses caused by the two manipulations. These results indicate that the massage manipulations have regular influence on the activities of both the sensitive tissues in acupoints and the somatic afferent nerves. Therefore, the results will scientifically enrich the application of massotherapy as far as manipulations are concerned. Furthermore, the results suggest vast vistas for the systematical study of the mechanism of massage from the neurobiological view-point.

STUDY OF TRACE ELEMENTS IN CELLS USING SPM, SR-XRM AND PIXE

Trace elements play important roles in cells. Nuclear techniques as traditional PIXE, SPM and SR-XRM provide solid tools for quantitative element analysis. The article presents element-distribution maps of endometrium, nerve cell and relative quantity tables. Advantages of PIXE, SPM and SR-XRM techniques, especially in application to cell biology, are discussed. PIXE has a large beam and is convenient in measuring a large quantity of samples. SPM gives element-distribution maps owing to its high resolution. SR-XRM tells quantity of elements by its good sensitivity and nondestructive irradiation. The combination of PIXE, SPM and SR-XRM demonstrates that Zn is a component of cell membrane and is proved to be a complementary way which will open vast vistas for cell analysis.

"A Broad Fluid Language of Democracy": Discovering the American Idiom

Of course the Language must take on new powers in America, one popular book of the 1850s claimed. Was it supposed that the Language was finished? But there is no finality to a Language! The has vast vista in it -vast vista in America.' Between the Revolution and the Civil War, the idea of an was invented. It was an idea hotly debated, for not everyone thought a national idiom was either a good or even possible. literature might be doomed to the second-rate, the North Review feared, because our language was from a nation totally unlike our own. The difficulties were acute: How tame will his language sound, who would describe Niagara in language fitted for the falls at London bridge, or attempt the majesty of the Mississippi in that which was made for the Thames?2 Debating the category American English was part of an effort to imagine a nation, to construct some cohesive thing called the United States of America. Into fights over words, writers might pour all their profoundest hopes and deepest angst about the nation. At stake was nothing less than control over the nation's public identity. But if discussions of were bound up in nineteenth-century ideologies of nationalism, they also revealed something even deeper in Western cultural life-something about the relationship of invention to discovery in modern theories of knowledge. To invent, as the eighteenth-century rhetorician Hugh Blair noted, is to make something new; to discover is to find what's there but hidden. Galileo invented the telescope; William Harvey discovered the circulation of blood.3

Modified adaptive Dynamic Relaxation method and its application to elastic-plastic bending and wrinkling of circular plates

Based on the adaptive Dynamic Relaxation (aDR) method, a modified adaptive Dynamic Relaxation (maDR) method is proposed which is more efficient than the former in solving non-linear problems. It is then applied to analysing the elastic-plastic bending of circular plates in large deflection and their following wrinkling, and leads to satisfactory results compared with corresponding experimental ones. It shows that the maDR method possesses vast vistas of applications to engineering problems.