Search results for: exploratory landscape analysis

Authors: Nooralhuda Aljlas

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In the ever-growing field of non-governmental organizations, the enhancement of performance management and measurement systems has been increasingly acknowledged by political, economic, social, legal, technological and environmental factors. Within Bahrain Athletics Association, such enhancement results from the key factors leading performance management including collaboration, feedback, human resource management, leadership and participative management. The exploratory, qualitative research conducted reviewed performance management theory. As reviewed, the key factors leading performance management were identified. Drawing on a non-governmental organization case study, the key factors leading Bahrain Athletics Association’s performance management were explored. By exploring the key factors leading Bahrain Athletics Association’s performance management, the research study proposed a theoretical framework of the key factors leading performance management in non-governmental organizations in general. The research study recommended further investigation of the role of the two key factors of command and control and leadership, combining military and civilian approaches to enhancing non-governmental organizations’ performance management.

Keywords: Bahrain athletics association, exploratory, key factor, performance management

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Authors: Chuang-Hung Lin, Cheng-Yuan Hsu, Jia-Yan Lin

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It is an indispensible strategy to adopt greenery approach on architectural bases so as to improve ecological habitats, decrease heat-island effect, purify air quality, and relieve surface runoff as well as noise pollution, all of which are done in an attempt to achieve sustainable environment. How we can do with plant design to attain the best visual quality and ideal carbon dioxide fixation depends on whether or not we can appropriately make use of greenery according to the nature of architectural bases. To achieve the goal, it is a need that architects and landscape architects should be provided with sufficient local references. Current greenery studies focus mainly on the heat-island effect of urban with large scale. Most of the architects still rely on people with years of expertise regarding the adoption and disposition of plantation in connection with microclimate scale. Therefore, environmental design, which integrates science and aesthetics, requires fundamental research on landscape environment technology divided from building environment technology. By doing so, we can create mutual benefits between green building and the environment. This issue is extremely important for the greening design of the bases of green buildings in cities and various open spaces. The purpose of this study is to establish plant selection and allocation strategies under different building sunshade levels. Initially, with the shading of sunshine on the greening bases as the starting point, the effects of the shades produced by different building types on the greening strategies were analyzed. Then, by measuring the PAR( photosynthetic active radiation), the relative DLI( daily light integral) was calculated, while the DLI Map was established in order to evaluate the effects of the building shading on the established environmental greening, thereby serving as a reference for plant selection and allocation. The discussion results were to be applied in the evaluation of environment greening of greening buildings and establish the “right plant, right place” design strategy of multi-level ecological greening for application in urban design and landscape design development, as well as the greening criteria to feedback to the eco-city greening buildings.

Keywords: daily light integral, plant design, urban open space

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Authors: Jorge Eliseo Muñiz-Gutierrez, Daniel Olvera-García, Cristina Sotelo-Salas

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The objective of this research is to allow the understanding of the hybridization process shown in culture through the architecture of mass production for the purpose of consumption, taking as a case study the mass-built housing of the city of Mexicali, Mexico. The methodology is born from the hermeneutical study of the meta-modified architectural object, which guided the research with a qualitative focus to be carried out in two stages, the first is based on the literature review regarding cultural hybridization, and the second stage is carried out in through an ethnographic study of the cultural exploration of the contextual landscape produced by the houses located in popular neighborhoods of the city of Mexicali, Mexico. The research shows that there is an unconscious hybridization process, the birth of a mixture of impositions guided by the popular and the personal aspirations of the inhabitant. The study presents the possibilities of a home and the relationship with its inhabitant and, in turn, its effects on the context and its contribution to culture through hybridization.

Keywords: hybridization, architectural landscape, architecture, mass housing

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Authors: John Doe

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This paper presents the research project “Escape Through Culture”, which is co-funded by the European Union and national resources through the Operational Programme “Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation” 2014-2020 and the Single RTDI State Aid Action "RESEARCH - CREATE - INNOVATE". The project implementation is assumed by three partners, (1) the Computer Technology Institute and Press "Diophantus" (CTI), experienced with the design and implementation of serious games, natural language processing and ICT in education, (2) the Laboratory of Environmental Communication and Audiovisual Documentation (LECAD), part of the University of Thessaly, Department of Architecture, which is experienced with the study of creative transformation and reframing of the urban and environmental multimodal experiences through the use of AR and VR technologies, and (3) “Apoplou”, an IT Company with experience in the implementation of interactive digital applications. The research project proposes the design of innovative infrastructure of digital educational escape games for mobile devices and computers, with the use of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality for the promotion of Greek cultural heritage in Greece and abroad. In particular, the project advocates the combination of Greek cultural heritage and literature, digital technologies advancements and the implementation of innovative gamifying practices. The cultural experience of the players will take place in 3 layers: (1) In space: the digital games produced are going to utilize the dual character of the space as a cultural landscape (the real space - landscape but also the space - landscape as presented with the technologies of augmented reality and virtual reality). (2) In literary texts: the selected texts of Greek writers will support the sense of place and the multi-sensory involvement of the user, through the context of space-time, language and cultural characteristics. (3) In the philosophy of the "escape game" tool: whether played in a computer environment, indoors or outdoors, the spatial experience is one of the key components of escape games. The innovation of the project lies both in the junction of Augmented/Virtual Reality with the promotion of cultural points of interest, as well as in the interactive, gamified practices of literary texts. The digital escape game infrastructure will be highly interactive, integrating the projection of Greek landscape cultural elements and digital literary text analysis, supporting the creation of escape games, establishing and highlighting new playful ways of experiencing iconic cultural places, such as Elefsina, Skiathos etc. The literary texts’ content will relate to specific elements of the Greek cultural heritage depicted by prominent Greek writers and poets. The majority of the texts will originate from Greek educational content available in digital libraries and repositories developed and maintained by CTI. The escape games produced will be available for use during educational field trips, thematic tourism holidays, etc. In this paper, the methodology adopted for infrastructure development will be presented. The research is based on theories of place, gamification, gaming development, making use of corpus linguistics concepts and digital humanities practices for the compilation and the analysis of literary texts.

Keywords: escape games, cultural landscapes, gamification, digital humanities, literature

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Authors: Timothy Kephart

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Many law enforcement officials believe that gangs communicate messages to both the community and to rival gangs through graffiti. Some social scientists have documented this as well, however no recent research has examined gang graffiti for its underlying meaning. Empirical research on gang graffiti and gang communication through graffiti is limited. This research can be described as an exploratory effort to better understand how, and perhaps why, gangs employ this medium for communication. Furthermore this research showcases how law enforcement agencies can utilize this hidden form of communication to better direct resources and impact gang violence.

Keywords: gangs, graffiti, juvenile justice, policing

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Authors: Monika Rani, Claudio Marchesi, Stefania Federici, Laura E. Depero

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Degradation of the aquatic environment by plastic litter, especially microplastics (MPs), i.e., any water-insoluble solid plastic particle with the longest dimension in the range 1µm and 1000 µm (=1 mm) size, is an unfortunate indication of the advancement of the Anthropocene age on Earth. Microplastics formed due to natural weathering processes are termed as secondary microplastics, while when these are synthesized in industries, they are called primary microplastics. Their presence from the highest peaks to the deepest points in oceans explored and their resistance to biological and chemical decay has adversely affected the environment, especially marine life. Even though the presence of MPs in the marine environment is well-reported, a legitimate and authentic analytical technique to sample, analyze, and quantify the MPs is still under progress and testing stages. Among the characterization techniques, vibrational spectroscopic techniques are largely adopted in the field of polymers. And the ongoing miniaturization of these methods is on the way to revolutionize the plastic recycling industry. In this scenario, the capability and the feasibility of a miniaturized near-infrared (MicroNIR) spectroscopy combined with chemometrics tools for qualitative and quantitative analysis of urban plastic waste collected from a recycling plant and microplastic mixture fragmented in the lab were investigated. Based on the Resin Identification Code, 250 plastic samples were used for macroplastic analysis and to set up a library of polymers. Subsequently, MicroNIR spectra were analysed through the application of multivariate modelling. Principal Components Analysis (PCA) was used as an unsupervised tool to find trends within the data. After the exploratory PCA analysis, a supervised classification tool was applied in order to distinguish the different plastic classes, and a database containing the NIR spectra of polymers was made. For the microplastic analysis, the three most abundant polymers in the plastic litter, PE, PP, PS, were mechanically fragmented in the laboratory to micron size. The distinctive arrangement of blends of these three microplastics was prepared in line with a designed ternary composition plot. After the PCA exploratory analysis, a quantitative model Partial Least Squares Regression (PLSR) allowed to predict the percentage of microplastics in the mixtures. With a complete dataset of 63 compositions, PLS was calibrated with 42 data-points. The model was used to predict the composition of 21 unknown mixtures of the test set. The advantage of the consolidated NIR Chemometric approach lies in the quick evaluation of whether the sample is macro or micro, contaminated, coloured or not, and with no sample pre-treatment. The technique can be utilized with bigger example volumes and even considers an on-site evaluation and in this manner satisfies the need for a high-throughput strategy.

Keywords: chemometrics, microNIR, microplastics, urban plastic waste

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Authors: Valliyil Govindankutty

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Human civilizations across the globe stand testimony to water being one of the major interaction points with nature. The interactions with nature especially in drier areas revolve around water, be it harnessing, transporting, usage and management. Many ingenious ideas were born, nurtured and developed for harnessing, transporting, storing and distributing water through the areas in the drier parts of the world. Many methods of water extraction, collection and management could be found throughout the world, some of which are associated with efficient, sustained use of surface water, ground water and rain water. Karez is one such ingenious method of collection, transportation, storage and distribution of ground water. Most of the Karez systems in India were developed during reign of Muslim dynasties with ruling class descending from Persia or having influential connections and inviting expert engineers from there. Karez have strongly influenced the village socio-economic organisations due to multitude of uses they were brought into. These are masterpiece engineering structures to collect groundwater and direct it, through a subsurface gallery with a gradual slope, to surface canals that provide water to settlements and agricultural fields. This ingenious technology, karez was result of need for harnessing groundwater in arid areas like that of Bidar. The study views this traditional technology in historical perspective linked to sustainable utilization and management of groundwater and above all the immediate environment. The karez system is one of the best available demonstration of human ingenuity and adaptability to situations and locations of water scarcity. Bidar, capital of erstwhile Bahmani sultanate with a history of more than 700 years or more is one of the heritage cities of present Karnataka State. The unique water systems of Bidar along with other historic entities have been listed under World Heritage Watch List by World Monument Fund. The Historical or cultural landscape in Bidar is very closely associated to the natural resources of the region, Karez systems being one of the best examples. The Karez systems were the lifeline of Bidar’s historical period providing potable water, fulfilling domestic and irrigation needs, both within and outside the fort enclosures. These systems are still functional, but under great pressure and threat of rapid and unplanned urbanisation. The change in land use and fragmentation of land are already paving way for irreversible modification of the karez cultural and geographic landscape. The Paper discusses the significance of character defining elements of Naubad Karez Landscape, highlights the importance of conserving cultural heritage and presents a geographical approach to its revival.

Keywords: Karez, groundwater, traditional water harvesting, cultural heritage landscape, urban planning

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Authors: Elvan Ender, Murat Zencirkıran

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One of the most important criteria that increase the success of design in landscape architecture is the visual effect. The characteristics that affect visual appearance in plant design vary depending on the phenological periods of the plants. In plants, although different effects are observed in different periods of the year, this effect is felt most prominently in flowering periods. For this reason, knowing the flowering time, duration and flower characteristics should be considered as a factor increasing the success of plant design. In this study, flower characteristics of natural woody plants with attractive flowers have been examined. Because of the variability of these characteristics of plants in the region, consideration of these criteria in the planting design processes in the region may increase the success of the design. At the same time, when species selection is made considering the obtained data, visuality and sustainability of natural species can be possible in Bursa city with planting design.

Keywords: Bursa, flower characteristics, natural plants, planting design

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Authors: Rafla Attia, Claudio Zucca, Bao Quang Le, Sana Dridi, Thouraya Sahli, Taoufik Hermassi

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In Tunisia, landscape change and land degradation are critical issues for landscape conservation, management, and planning. Landscapes are undergoing crucial environmental problems made evident by soil degradation and desertification. Human improper uses of land resources (e.g., unsuitable land uses, unsustainable crop intensification, and poor rangeland management) and climate change are the main factors leading to the landscape transformation and desertification affecting high proportions of the Tunisian lands. Land use planning (LUP) to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN) must be supported by methodologies and technologies that help identify best solutions and practices and design context-specific sustainable land management (SLM) strategies. Such strategies must include restoration or rehabilitation efforts in areas with high land degradation, as well as prevention of degradation that could be caused by improper land use (LU) and land management (LM). The geoinformatics Land Use Planning for LDN (LUP4LDN) tool has been designed for this purpose. Its aim is to support national and sub-national planners in i) mapping geographic patterns of current land degradation; ii) anticipating further future land degradation expected in areas that are unsustainably managed; and iii) providing an interactive procedure for developing participatory LU-LM transitional scenarios over selected regions of interest and timeframes, visualizing the related expected levels of impacts on ecosystem services via maps and graphs. The tool has been co-developed and piloted with national stakeholders in Tunisia. The piloting implementation assessed how the LUP4LDN tool fits with existing LUP processes and the benefits achieved by using the tool to support land use planning for LDN.

Keywords: land use system, land cover, sustainable land management, land use planning for land degradation neutrality

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Authors: Kwaku Damoah

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The agricultural sector is characterized by continuous transformation, driven by factors such as demographic shifts, evolving consumer preferences, climate change, and migration trends. This dynamic environment presents complex challenges for key stakeholders including farmers, governments, and investors, who must navigate these changes to achieve optimal investment returns. To effectively predict market trends and uncover promising investment opportunities, a systematic, data-driven approach is essential. This paper introduces the Structural Evolution Index (SEI), a machine learning-based methodology. SEI is specifically designed to analyse long-term trends and forecast the potential of emerging agricultural products for investment. Versatile in application, it evaluates various agricultural metrics such as production, yield, trade, land use, and consumption, providing a comprehensive view of the evolution within agricultural markets. By harnessing data from the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAOSTAT), this study demonstrates the SEI's capabilities through Comparative Exploratory Analysis and evaluation of international trade in agricultural products, focusing on Malaysia and Singapore. The SEI methodology reveals intricate patterns and transitions within the agricultural sector, enabling stakeholders to strategically identify and capitalize on emerging markets. This predictive framework is a powerful tool for decision-makers, offering crucial insights that help anticipate market shifts and align investments with anticipated returns.

Keywords: agricultural investment, algorithm, comparative exploratory analytics, machine learning, market trends, predictive analytics, structural evolution index

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Authors: Valentina Adduci

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The developing research aims to define in general the criteria of environmental sustainability of rural buildings in Puglia and particularly in the manor farm. The main part of the study analyzes the relationship / dependence between the rural building and the landscape which, after many stratifications, results clearly identified and sometimes also characterized in a positive way. The location of the manor farm, in fact, is often conditioned by the infrastructural network and by the structure of the agricultural landscape. The manor farm, without the constraints due to the urban pattern’s density, was developed in accordance with a logical settlement that gives priority to the environmental aspects. These vernacular architectures are the most valuable example of how our ancestors have planned their dwellings according to nature. The 237 farms, analysis’ object, have been reported in cartography through the GIS system; a symbol has been assigned to each of them to identify the architectural typology and a different color for the historical period of construction. A datasheet template has been drawn up, and it has made possible a deeper understanding of each manor farm. This method provides a faster comparison of the most recurring characters in all the considered buildings, except for those farms which benefited from special geographical conditions, such as proximity to the road network or waterways. Below there are some of the most frequently constants derived from the statistical study of the examined buildings: southeast orientation of the main facade; placement of the sheep pen on the ground tilted and exposed to the south side; larger windowed surface on the south elevation; smaller windowed surface on the north elevation; presence of shielding vegetation near the more exposed elevations to the solar radiation; food storage’s rooms located on the ground floor or in the basement; animal shelter located in north side of the farm; presence of tanks and wells, sometimes combined with a very accurate channeling storm water system; thick layers of masonry walls, inside of which were often obtained hollow spaces to house stairwells or depots for the food storage; exclusive use of local building materials. The research aims to trace the ancient use of bioclimatic constructive techniques in the Apulian rural architecture and to define those that derive from an empirical knowledge and those that respond to an already encoded design. These constructive expedients are especially useful to obtain an effective passive cooling, to promote the natural ventilation and to built ingenious systems for the recovery and the preservation of rainwater and are still found in some of the manor farms analyzed, most of them are, today, in a serious state of neglect.

Keywords: bioclimatic devices, farmstead, rural landscape, sustainability

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Authors: Yung-Chung Chuang

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The cultural layers of archaeological sites are mainly affected by surface land use, land cover, and root system of surface vegetation. For this reason, continuous monitoring of land use and land cover change is important for archaeological sites protection and management. However, in actual operation, on-site investigation and orthogonal photograph interpretation require a lot of time and manpower. For this reason, it is necessary to perform a good alternative for surface vegetation survey in an automated or semi-automated manner. In this study, we applied semi-automatic digital aerial survey technology and canopy characters classification with very high-resolution aerial photographs for surface vegetation interpretation of archaeological sites. The main idea is based on different landscape or forest type can easily be distinguished with canopy characters (e.g., specific texture distribution, shadow effects and gap characters) extracted by semi-automatic image classification. A novel methodology to classify the shape of canopy characters using landscape indices and multivariate statistics was also proposed. Non-hierarchical cluster analysis was used to assess the optimal number of canopy character clusters and canonical discriminant analysis was used to generate the discriminant functions for canopy character classification (seven categories). Therefore, people could easily predict the forest type and vegetation land cover by corresponding to the specific canopy character category. The results showed that the semi-automatic classification could effectively extract the canopy characters of forest and vegetation land cover. As for forest type and vegetation type prediction, the average prediction accuracy reached 80.3%~91.7% with different sizes of test frame. It represented this technology is useful for archaeological site survey, and can improve the classification efficiency and data update rate.

Keywords: digital aerial survey, canopy characters classification, archaeological sites, multivariate statistics

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Authors: Zahra BehboodiI-Moghadam, Zohre Khalajinia, Ali Reza Nikbakht Nasrabadi, Minoo Mohraz

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The purpose of our study was to explore and describe the experiences of pregnant women with HIV in Iran. A qualitative exploratory study with conventional content analysis was used. Twelve pregnant women with HIV who referred to perinatal care at the Imam Khomeini Hospital Behavioral Diseases Consultation: Center in Tehran were recruited to participate in in-depth interviews. The average age of the participants was 32.5 years. Four main themes were extracted from the data: “fear and hope, “stigma and discrimination, “marital life stability” and “trust”. The findings reveal the pregnant women living with HIV are vulnerable and need professional support. Improving the knowledge of healthcare professionals especially midwifes on pregnancy complications for women with HIV is crucial in order to provide high-quality care to pregnant women with HIV-positive.

Keywords: HIV, pregnancy, content analysis, experiences, Iran, qualitative research

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Authors: Temidayo O. Omotehinwa, David O. Oyewola, Friday J. Agbo

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This study aims to gather a proper perspective of the development landscape of Computer Science research in Nigeria. Therefore, a bibliometric analysis of 4,333 bibliographic records of Computer Science research in Nigeria in the last 31 years (1991-2021) was carried out. The bibliographic data were extracted from the Scopus database and analyzed using VOSviewer and the bibliometrix R package through the biblioshiny web interface. The findings of this study revealed that Computer Science research in Nigeria has a growth rate of 24.19%. The most developed and well-studied research areas in the Computer Science field in Nigeria are machine learning, data mining, and deep learning. The social structure analysis result revealed that there is a need for improved international collaborations. Sparsely established collaborations are largely influenced by geographic proximity. The funding analysis result showed that Computer Science research in Nigeria is under-funded. The findings of this study will be useful for researchers conducting Computer Science related research. Experts can gain insights into how to develop a strategic framework that will advance the field in a more impactful manner. Government agencies and policymakers can also utilize the outcome of this research to develop strategies for improved funding for Computer Science research.

Keywords: bibliometric analysis, biblioshiny, computer science, Nigeria, science mapping

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Authors: Salam N. Abdo, Orien L. Tulp, George P. Einstein

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The purpose of this exploratory study was to gather the insights into psoriasis etiology, treatment, and patient experience, for developing psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis diagnostic test. Data collection methods consisted of a comprehensive meta-analysis of relevant studies and psoriasis patient survey. Established meta-analysis guidelines were used for the selection and qualitative comparative analysis of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis research studies. Only studies that clearly discussed psoriasis etiology, treatment, and patient experience were reviewed and analyzed, to establish a qualitative data base for the study. Using the insights gained from meta-analysis, an existing psoriasis patient survey was modified and administered to collect additional data as well as triangulate the results. The hypothesis is that specific types of psoriatic disease have specific etiology and pathophysiologic pattern. The following etiology categories were identified: bacterial, environmental/microbial, genetic, immune, infectious, trauma/stress, and viral. Additional results, obtained from meta-analysis and confirmed by patient survey, were the common age of onset (early to mid-20s) and type of psoriasis (plaque; mild; symmetrical; scalp, chest, and extremities, specifically elbows and knees). Almost 70% of patients reported no prescription drug use due to severe side effects and prohibitive cost. These results will guide the development of psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis diagnostic test. The significant number of medical publications classified psoriatic arthritis disease as inflammatory of an unknown etiology. Thus numerous meta-analyses struggle to report any meaningful conclusions since no definitive results have been reported to date. Therefore, return to the basics is an essential step to any future meaningful results. To date, medical literature supports the fact that psoriatic disease in its current classification could be misidentifying subcategories, which in turn hinders the success of studies conducted to date. Moreover, there has been an enormous commercial support to pursue various immune-modulation therapies, thus following a narrow hypothesis/mechanism of action that is yet to yield resolution of disease state. Recurrence and complications may be considered unacceptable in a significant number of these studies. The aim of the ongoing study is to focus on a narrow subgroup of patient population, as identified by this exploratory study via meta-analysis and patient survey, and conduct an exhaustive work up, aiming at mechanism of action and causality before proposing a cure or therapeutic modality. Remission in psoriasis has been achieved and documented in medical literature, such as immune-modulation, phototherapy, various over-the-counter agents, including salts and tar. However, there is no psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis diagnostic test to date, to guide the diagnosis and treatment of this debilitating and, thus far, incurable disease. Because psoriasis affects approximately 2% of population, the results of this study may affect the treatment and improve the quality of life of a significant number of psoriasis patients, potentially millions of patients in the United States alone and many more millions worldwide.

Keywords: biologics, early diagnosis, etiology, immune disease, immune modulation therapy, inflammation skin disorder, phototherapy, plaque psoriasis, psoriasis, psoriasis classification, psoriasis disease marker, psoriasis diagnostic test, psoriasis marker, psoriasis mechanism of action, psoriasis treatment, psoriatic arthritis, psoriatic disease, psoriatic disease marker, psoriatic patient experience, psoriatic patient quality of life, remission, salt therapy, targeted immune therapy

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Authors: R. Tamborrino, F. Rinaudo

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Digital technologies offer possibilities to effectively convert historical archives into instruments of knowledge able to provide a guide for the interpretation of historical phenomena. Digital conversion and management of those documents allow the possibility to add other sources in a unique and coherent model that permits the intersection of different data able to open new interpretations and understandings. Urban history uses, among other sources, the inventories that register human activities in a specific space (e.g. cadastres, censuses, etc.). The geographic localisation of that information inside cartographic supports allows for the comprehension and visualisation of specific relationships between different historical realities registering both the urban space and the peoples living there. These links that merge the different nature of data and documentation through a new organisation of the information can suggest a new interpretation of other related events. In all these kinds of analysis, the use of GIS platforms today represents the most appropriate answer. The design of the related databases is the key to realise the ad-hoc instrument to facilitate the analysis and the intersection of data of different origins. Moreover, GIS has become the digital platform where it is possible to add other kinds of data visualisation. This research deals with the industrial development of Turin at the beginning of the 20th century. A census of factories realized just prior to WWI provides the opportunity to test the potentialities of GIS platforms for the analysis of urban landscape modifications during the first industrial development of the town. The inventory includes data about location, activities, and people. GIS is shaped in a creative way linking different sources and digital systems aiming to create a new type of platform conceived as an interface integrating different kinds of data visualisation. The data processing allows linking this information to an urban space, and also visualising the growth of the city at that time. The sources, related to the urban landscape development in that period, are of a different nature. The emerging necessity to build, enlarge, modify and join different buildings to boost the industrial activities, according to their fast development, is recorded by different official permissions delivered by the municipality and now stored in the Historical Archive of the Municipality of Turin. Those documents, which are reports and drawings, contain numerous data on the buildings themselves, including the block where the plot is located, the district, and the people involved such as the owner, the investor, and the engineer or architect designing the industrial building. All these collected data offer the possibility to firstly re-build the process of change of the urban landscape by using GIS and 3D modelling technologies thanks to the access to the drawings (2D plans, sections and elevations) that show the previous and the planned situation. Furthermore, they access information for different queries of the linked dataset that could be useful for different research and targets such as economics, biographical, architectural, or demographical. By superimposing a layer of the present city, the past meets to the present-industrial heritage, and people meet urban history.

Keywords: digital urban history, census, digitalisation, GIS, modelling, digital humanities

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Authors: Umer Ayyaz Aslam Sheikh

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Non Apis bee like the bumblebees are important due to their utilization of diverse floral plants and belong to the richest and most conspicuous flower visitors in alpine, temperate and arctic environments for pollination in both natural and managed cropping systems. These bees generally construct underground nests and habitat devastation and crumbling are major causes for their decline in nature. The present study was conducted in the Himalayan range of Azad Jammu, and Kashmir, Pakistan, surveys were conducted during the early spring season to observe maximum Bombus haemorrhoidalis queens (emerged after winter diapauses) searching for a nesting place. Whole study area was grouped into four types of landscape (open field, relatively open , relatively wooded and wooded), five habitat types (field, field boundary, pasture forest boundary and forest) and these habitat further grouped into four different patch types including withered grass, new grass, tussocks and stones and moss. Maximum nest seeking bumblebee queens preferred relatively open field landscape followed by open fields and forest boundaries. Field boundaries were recorded as most proffered habitat along with withered grasses for nesting sites of B. haemorrhoidalis queens. A wooded landscape with stone and moss type of patches were found least preferred nesting sites. This study will be helpful in the future for conservation program this for declining bumblebee species in this region. It will also provide the baseline for the conservation of other bumblebee species of the world.

Keywords: bumblebee, Bombus haemorrhoidalis, habitat, nest seeking preference, Pakistan

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Authors: Shengjun Yan, Xuan Wang

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Water level changes in a shallow lake always introduce dramatic land pattern changes. To achieve sustainable ecosystem service, it is necessary to evaluate habitat quality dynamic and its spatio-temporal variation resulted from water level changes, which can provide a scientific basis for protection of biodiversity and planning of wetland ecological system. Landsat data in the spring was chosen to obtain landscape data at different times based on the high, moderate and low water level of Baiyangdian Shallow Lake. We used the InVEST to evaluate the habitat quality, habitat degradation, and habitat scarcity. The result showed that: 1) the water level of shallow lake changes from high to low lead to an obvious landscape pattern changes and habitat degradation, 2) the most change area occurred in northwestward and southwest of Baiyangdian Shallow Lake, which there was a 21 percent of suitable habitat and 42 percent of moderately suitable habitat lost. Our findings show that the changes of water level in the shallow lake would have a strong relationship with the habitat quality.

Keywords: habitat quality, habitat degradation, water level changes, shallow lake

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Authors: Ana Paula Vilas Boas Viveiros Lopes, Marly Monteiro de Carvalho

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The new product development for decades has favored companies that can put their products to market quickly and efficiently, providing sustainable competitive advantage difficult to be achieved by their competitors. This paper presents the outcomes of a systematic review of the literature relating to new product development that was published between 1992 and 2012. A hybrid methodological approach that combines bibliometrics, content analysis and semantic analysis was applied. The review discusses the publication patterns, focusing on aspects related to scientific collaboration. The results show that the main academic journal that discusses this theme is “Journal of Product Innovation Management”. Although the first paper relating to this theme was published in 1992, the number of publications on the subject only began to increase substantially in 1999. Most of the studies reviewed in this paper applied qualitative research methods, indicating that most of the research on the theme is still in an exploratory phase.

Keywords: project type, project typology, new product development, sustainable competitive advantage

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Authors: Galal Omer, Onisimo Mutanga, Elfatih M. Abdel-Rahman, Elhadi Adam

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Threatened tree species (TTS) play a significant role in ecosystem functioning and services, land use dynamics, and other socio-economic aspects. Such aspects include ecological, economic, livelihood, security-based, and well-being benefits. The development of techniques for mapping and monitoring TTS is thus critical for understanding the functioning of ecosystems. The advent of advanced imaging systems and supervised learning algorithms has provided an opportunity to classify TTS over fragmenting landscape. Recently, vegetation maps have been produced using advanced imaging systems such as WorldView-2 (WV-2) and robust classification algorithms such as support vectors machines (SVM) and artificial neural network (ANN). However, delineation of TTS in a fragmenting landscape using high resolution imagery has widely remained elusive due to the complexity of the species structure and their distribution. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to examine the utility of the advanced WV-2 data for mapping TTS in the fragmenting Dukuduku indigenous forest of South Africa using SVM and ANN classification algorithms. The results showed the robustness of the two machine learning algorithms with an overall accuracy (OA) of 77.00% (total disagreement = 23.00%) for SVM and 75.00% (total disagreement = 25.00%) for ANN using all eight bands of WV-2 (8B). This study concludes that SVM and ANN classification algorithms with WV-2 8B have the potential to classify TTS in the Dukuduku indigenous forest. This study offers relatively accurate information that is important for forest managers to make informed decisions regarding management and conservation protocols of TTS.

Keywords: artificial neural network, threatened tree species, indigenous forest, support vector machines

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Authors: Emilia Segun-Ajao

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The strategy of relocation aimed at strengthening supply chain resilience in the United States is examined, taking into account recent global disturbances and vulnerabilities in offshore manufacturing. It explains the procurement challenges faced by enterprises and offers solutions to mitigate risks and improve resilience. Through the analysis of innovative approaches, including technological advances, policy considerations, and strategic frameworks, this study provides insights to decision-makers about the complexity of supply chain management. Reshoring has gained attention as a strategy to improve supply chain resilience in the face of global disruptions. This analysis focuses on the importance of relocating as a multifaceted approach to strengthening supply chains, advocating economic benefits, technological advances, and policy frameworks to create a more robust supply landscape in the United States.

Keywords: collaborative partnerships, supply chain resilience, procurement challenges, technology adoption

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Authors: Lin Chang

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Birmingham, England was a town in the late-eighteenth century and became the nation’s second largest city in the late nineteenth century. The city expanded rapidly in terms of its population and size. Three generations of artists from a local family, the Lines, made a large number of drawings and paintings depicting the growth and changes of their city. At first sight, the meaning of the pictures seems straight-forward: providing records of what were torn down and newly-built. However, except for being read as maps, the pictures reveal a struggle in vision as to whether unsightly manufactories and their smoking chimneys should be visualized and how far the borders of the town should have been positioned and understood as they continued to grow and encroached upon its immediate countryside. This art-historic paper examines some topographic views by the Lines family and explores how they, through unusual depiction of rural and urban scenery, manage to give form to the borderlands between the country and the city. This paper argues that while the idea of the country and the city seems to be common sense, the two realms actually pose difficulty for visual representation as to where exactly their borders are and the idea itself has dichotomized the way people consider landscape imageries to be.

Keywords: Birmingham, suburb, urban fringes, landscape

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Authors: Athena Daniilidou, Maria Platsidou

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Resilience is considered to greatly affect the personal and occupational wellbeing and efficacy of individuals; therefore, it has been widely studied in the social and behavioral sciences. Given its significance, several scales have been created to assess resilience of children and adults. However, most of these scales focus on examining only the internal protective or risk factors that affect the levels of resilience. The aim of the present study is to create a reliable scale that assesses both the internal and the external protective factors that affect Greek teachers’ levels of resilience. Participants were 136 secondary school teachers (89 females, 47 males) from urban areas of Greece. Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-Risc) and Resilience Scale for Adults (RSA) were used to collect the data. First, exploratory factor analysis was employed to investigate the inner structure of each scale. For both scales, the analyses revealed a differentiated factor solution compared to the ones proposed by the creators. That prompt us to create a scale that would combine the best fitting subscales of the CD-Risc and the RSA. To this end, the items of the four factors with the best fit and highest reliability were used to create the ‘Teachers' resilience scale’. Exploratory factor analysis revealed that the scale assesses the following protective/risk factors: Personal Competence and Strength (9 items, α=.83), Family Cohesion Spiritual Influences (7 items, α=.80), Social Competence and Peers Support (7 items, α=.78) and Spiritual Influence (3 items, α=.58). This four-factor model explained 49,50% of the total variance. In the next step, a confirmatory factor analysis was performed on the 26 items of the derived scale to test the above factor solution. The fit of the model to the data was good (χ2/292 = 1.245, CFI = .921, GFI = .829, SRMR = .074, CI90% = .026-,056, RMSEA = 0.43), indicating that the proposed scale can validly measure the aforementioned four aspects of teachers' resilience and thus confirmed its factorial validity. Finally, analyses of variance were performed to check for individual differences in the levels of teachers' resilience in relation to their gender, age, marital status, level of studies, and teaching specialty. Results were consistent to previous findings, thus providing an indication of discriminant validity for the instrument. This scale has the advantage of assessing both the internal and the external protective factors of resilience in a brief yet comprehensive way, since it consists 26 items instead of the total of 58 of the CD-Risc and RSA scales. Its factorial inner structure is supported by the relevant literature on resilience, as it captures the major protective factors of resilience identified in previous studies.

Keywords: protective factors, resilience, scale development, teachers

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Authors: Fabrizio Albion

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In response to the escalating recognition of the need to combat climate change, renewable energy sources (RES), particularly solar energy, have witnessed exponential growth. The intricate nature of agriphotovoltaics, which combines agriculture and solar energy production, demands rapid legislative and technological development, facing various challenges and multifaceted design. This complexity is also represented by its application for orchard cultivation (APVO), which, in the first part of this research, was studied in its environmental, economic, and sociocultural aspects. Insights from literature, case studies, and consultations with experts contributed valuable perspectives, forming a robust foundation for understanding and integrating APVO into rural environments, including those in the South Tyrolean context. For its harmonious integration into the sensitive Alpine landscape, the second part was then dedicated to the development of guidelines, from the identification of the requirements to be defined as APVO to its design flexibilities for being integrated into the context. As a basis for further considerations, the drafting of these guidelines was preceded by a program of interviews conducted to investigate the social perceptions of farmers, citizens and tourists on the potential integration of APVO in the fruit-growing valleys of the province. Conclusive results from the data collected in the first phase are, however, still pending. Due to ongoing experiments and data collection, the current results, although being generally positive, cannot guarantee a definitive exclusion of potential negative impacts on the crop. The guidelines developed should, therefore, be understood as an initial exploration, providing a basis for future updates, also in synergy with the evolution of existing local projects.

Keywords: agriphotovoltaics, Alpin agricultural landscapes, landscape impact assessment, renewable energy

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Authors: Tiera Tanksley, Amanda M. McLeroy

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The advent of technology and social media has ushered in a new era of communication, providing platforms for news dissemination and cause advocacy. However, this digital landscape has also exposed a distressing phenomenon termed "Black death," or trauma porn. This paper delves into the profound effects of repeated exposure to traumatic content on Black youth via social media, exploring the psychological impacts and potential reinforcing of stereotypes. Employing Critical Race Technology Theory (CRTT), the study sheds light on algorithmic anti-blackness and its influence on Black youth's lives and educational experiences. Through ethnographic content analysis, the research investigates common manifestations of Black death encountered online by Black adolescents. Findings unveil distressing viral videos, traumatic images, racial slurs, and hate speech, perpetuating stereotypes. However, amidst the distress, the study identifies narratives of activism and social justice on social media platforms, empowering Black youth to engage in positive change. Coping mechanisms and community support emerge as significant factors in navigating the digital landscape. The study underscores the need for comprehensive interventions and policies informed by evidence-based research. By addressing algorithmic anti-blackness and promoting digital resilience, the paper advocates for a more empathetic and inclusive online environment. Understanding coping mechanisms and community support becomes imperative for fostering mental well-being among Black adolescents navigating social media. In education, the implications are substantial. Acknowledging the impact of Black death content, educators play a pivotal role in promoting media literacy and digital resilience. Creating inclusive and safe online spaces, educators can mitigate negative effects and encourage open discussions about traumatic content. The application of CRTT in educational technology emphasizes dismantling systemic biases and promoting equity. In conclusion, this study calls for educators to be cognizant of the impact of Black death content on social media. By prioritizing media literacy, fostering digital resilience, and advocating for unbiased technologies, educators contribute to an inclusive and just educational environment for all students, irrespective of their race or background. Addressing challenges related to Black death content proactively ensures the well-being and mental health of Black adolescents, fostering an empathetic and inclusive digital space.

Keywords: algorithmic anti-Blackness, digital resilience, media literacy, traumatic content

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Authors: Manjari Srivastsva, Ruta Vyas

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The research in the area of self leadership advocates employee/team empowerment. It is well understood that empowered employees would contribute more and better to their organizational outcomes. This research is a part of an ongoing larger research in the area of empowering leadership behavior. The present research aims to understand some of the antecedents to empowering behavior of leaders such that the organizations can focus on the right elements and invest in the appropriate areas during their leadership development activities. The research is exploratory field study. Sampling is purposive, employing triadic design i.e. a manager and two of his/her subordinates are selected for data collection. The total no. of respondents is 240, with 80 managers and 160 of their direct reports. Initially focus group interview was done and based on the inputs from focus group, quantitative data was collected personally by the researchers using questionnaire. The sample is drawn from seven professionally run organization including those of Indian origin as well as multi-national companies. This study proposes to explore the constituents of empowering behavior both from leaders’ and their subordinates’ perspective and also see the relationship between some of the personal variables of leaders as an antecedent to empowering behavior. Similarly, the study aims to explore the subordinates’ perspectives as an antecedent to empowering behavior. The relationship between antecedent variables and empowering behavior is tested for moderation employing organization culture. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis was done to establish the validity of the questionnaires. Further hierarchical regression analysis results revealed that organization based self-esteem and global self-esteem impact leaders’ empowering behavior and this relationship is further moderated by organization culture. Team members’ perspective showed higher importance for task characteristics and members' readiness from the point of view of empowerment. The relation between task characteristics and members’ readiness was not moderated by culture. The finding from this research may be utilized by professionals to guide organizations desiring rapid and sustainable growth, to develop leaders who empower their teams such that they act as leaders themselves and become stimulants for the growth of organizations.

Keywords: empowering behavior, team leaders, subordinates, self-esteem, organization culture, task characteristics, team members readiness

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Authors: Sean McCarthy, Patrice M. Ludwig, Will Watson

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This exploratory case study explores the deployment of Social Network Analysis (SNA) in mapping community assets in an interdisciplinary, undergraduate, team-taught course focused on income insecure populations in a rural area in the US. Specifically, it analyzes how students were taught to collect data on community assets and to visualize the connections between those assets using Kumu, an SNA data visualization tool. Further, the case study shows how social network data was also collected about student teams via their written communications in Slack, an enterprise messaging tool, which enabled instructors to manage and guide student research activity throughout the semester. The discussion presents how SNA methods can simultaneously inform both community-based research and social innovation pedagogy through the use of data visualization and collaboration-focused communication technologies.

Keywords: social innovation, social network analysis, pedagogy, problem-based learning, data visualization, information communication technologies

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Authors: Gertrude I Hewapathirana, Mohamed M. Moustafa, Michel G. Zaitouni

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The purposes of this research are: (a) to provide an epistemological and ontological understanding of the WLB theory, practice, and research to illuminate how the WLB evolved between 2000 to 2020 and (b) to analyze peer-reviewed research to identify the gaps, hotspots, underlying dynamics, theoretical and thematic trends, influential authors, research collaborations, geographic networks, and the multidisciplinary nature of the WLB theory to guide future researchers. The research used four-step bibliometric network analysis to explore five research questions. Using keywords such as WLB and associated variants, 1190 peer-reviewed articles were extracted from the Scopus database and transformed to a plain text format for filtering. The analysis was conducted using the R version 4.1 software (R Development Core Team, 2021) and several libraries such as bibliometrics, word cloud, and ggplot2. We used the VOSviewer software (van Eck & Waltman, 2019) for network visualization. The WLB theory has grown into a multifaceted, multidisciplinary field of research. There is a paucity of research between 2000 to 2005 and an exponential growth from 2006 to 2015. The rapid increase of WLB research in the USA, UK, and Australia reflects the increasing workplace stresses due to hyper competitive workplaces, inflexible work systems, and increasing diversity and the emergence of WLB support mechanisms, legal and constitutional mandates to enhance employee and family wellbeing at multilevel social systems. A severe knowledge gap exists due to inadequate publications disseminating the "core" WLB research. "Locally-centralized-globally-discrete" collaboration among researchers indicates a "North-South" divide between developed and developing nations. A shortage in WLB research in developing nations and a lack of research collaboration hinder a global understanding of the WLB as a universal phenomenon. Policymakers and practitioners can use the findings to initiate supporting policies, and innovative work systems. The boundary expansion of the WLB concepts, categories, relations, and properties would facilitate researchers/theoreticians to test a variety of new dimensions. This is the most comprehensive WLB landscape analysis that reveals emerging trends, concepts, networks, underlying dynamics, gaps, and growing theoretical and disciplinary boundaries. It portrays the WLB as a universal theory.

Keywords: work-life balance, co-citation networks; keyword co-occurrence network, bibliometric analysis

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Authors: Yan Fang, Jie Yin, Bihu Wu

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The interaction between climate change and tourism is one of the most promising research areas of recent decades. In this paper, a scientometric analysis of 976 academic publications between 1990 and 2015 related to climate change and tourism is presented in order to characterize the intellectual landscape by identifying and visualizing the evolution of the collaboration network, the co-citation network, and emerging trends of citation burst and keyword co-occurrence. The results show that the number of publications in this field has increased rapidly and it has become an interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary topic. The research areas are dominated by Australia, USA, Canada, New Zealand, and European countries, which have the most productive authors and institutions. The hot topics of climate change and tourism research in recent years are further identified, including the consequences of climate change for tourism, necessary adaptations, the vulnerability of the tourism industry, tourist behaviour and demand in response to climate change, and emission reductions in the tourism sector. The work includes an in-depth analysis of a major forum of climate change and tourism to help readers to better understand global trends in this field in the past 25 years.

Keywords: climate change, tourism, scientometrics, CiteSpace

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Authors: Lagnajeet Mohanty, Mohnish Mishra, Pratham Tapdiya, Himanshu Sekhar Nayak, Swetapadma Singh

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In the era of global interconnectedness, effective risk assessment and management are critical for organizational resilience. This review explores the integration of machine learning (ML) into risk processes, examining its transformative potential and the challenges it presents. The literature reveals ML's success in sectors like consumer credit, demonstrating enhanced predictive accuracy, adaptability, and potential cost savings. However, ethical considerations, interpretability issues, and the demand for skilled practitioners pose limitations. Looking forward, the study identifies future research scopes, including refining ethical frameworks, advancing interpretability techniques, and fostering interdisciplinary collaborations. The synthesis of limitations and future directions highlights the dynamic landscape of ML in risk management, urging stakeholders to navigate challenges innovatively. This abstract encapsulates the evolving discourse on ML's role in shaping proactive and effective risk management strategies in our interconnected and unpredictable global landscape.

Keywords: machine learning, risk assessment, ethical considerations, financial inclusion

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