Search results for: scene linking

Authors: Valeria Abreu Minero, Edward Barker, Hannah Dickson, Francois Husson, Sandra Flynn, Jennifer Shaw

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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify offender typologies based on aspects of the offenders’ psychopathology and their associations with crime scene behaviours using data derived from the National Confidential Enquiry into Suicide and Safety in Mental Health concerning homicides in England and Wales committed by offenders in contact with mental health services in the year preceding the offence (n=759). Design/methodology/approach – The authors used multiple correspondence analysis to investigate the interrelationships between the variables and hierarchical agglomerative clustering to identify offender typologies. Variables describing: the offender’s mental health history; the offenders’ mental state at the time of offence; characteristics useful for police investigations; and patterns of crime scene behaviours were included. Findings – Results showed differences in the offender’s histories in relation to their crime scene behaviours. Further, analyses revealed three homicide typologies: externalising, psychosis and depression. Analyses revealed three homicide typologies: externalising, psychotic and depressive. Practical implications – These typologies may assist the police during homicide investigations by: furthering their understanding of the crime or likely suspect; offering insights into crime patterns; provide advice as to what an offender’s offence behaviour might signify about his/her mental health background; findings suggest information concerning offender psychopathology may be useful for offender profiling purposes in cases of homicide offenders with schizophrenia, depression and comorbid diagnosis of personality disorder and alcohol/drug dependence. Originality/value – Empirical studies with an emphasis on offender profiling have almost exclusively focussed on the inference of offender demographic characteristics. This study provides a first step in the exploration of offender psychopathology and its integration to the multivariate analysis of offence information for the purposes of investigative profiling of homicide by identifying the dominant patterns of mental illness within homicidal behaviour.

Keywords: offender profiling, mental illness, psychopathology, multivariate analysis, homicide, crime scene analysis, crime scene behviours, investigative advice

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Authors: Zeinab Ranjbar

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Service-oriented architecture in the world today, it is proposed to exchange information and services of interest to those such as IT managers, business managers, designers and system builders scene. The basic architecture of the software used to provide service to all users.the worries of all people (managers, business managers, designers, and system builders scene) effectiveness of this model, how reliable it is in security transactions.To increase the reliability of multi-layer fuzzy logic Architectures used.

Keywords: SOA, service oriented architecture, fuzzy logic, multi layer, SOA security

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Authors: Roghieh Eskandari, Ali Motamedi

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There is a significant demand for renovation as-built assets are aging. To plan for a desirable and comfortable indoor environment, stakeholders use simulation technics to assess potential renovation scenarios with the innovative designs. Diminished Reality (DR), which is a technique of visually removing unwanted objects from the real-world scene in real-time, can contribute to the renovation design visualization for stakeholders by removing existing structures and assets from the scene. Using DR, the objects to be demolished or changed will be visually removed from the scene for a better understanding of the intended design scenarios for stakeholders. This research proposes an integrated system for renovation plan visualization using Building Information Modelling (BIM) data and mixed reality (MR) technologies. It presents a BIM-based DR method that utilizes a textured BIM model of the environment to accurately register the virtual model of the occluded background to the physical world in real-time. This system can facilitate the simulation of the renovation plan by visually diminishing building elements in an indoor environment.

Keywords: diminished reality, building information modelling, mixed reality, stock renovation

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Authors: Arun Kumar, Ravindra Pal Verma, Harsh Sharma, Shani Kumar

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For the present study samples was collected from 20 donors with unknown blood group and secretor status had been determined from saliva by using biological fluid. ABO typing on the concentrated samples was successfully performed after 1 month of storage. Urine stained clothing samples are often submitted to forensic science laboratories for ABH blood group antigen determination. The serogenetic markers of semen stains submitted can be used to determine the origin of any of these samples. ABH blood group substances have previously been identified from urine. ABH blood group substance is low in urine in comparison with other body fluids.

Keywords: ABH blood group, crime scene, serological markers, body fluids and urine

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Authors: Xiang Zhang, Daohong Yang, Ziyuan Wu, Lei Li, Wanting Zhou

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Visual Simultaneous Localization and Mapping (VSLAM) uses cameras to collect information in unknown environments to realize simultaneous localization and environment map construction, which has a wide range of applications in autonomous driving, virtual reality and other related fields. At present, the related research achievements about VSLAM can maintain high accuracy in static environment. But in dynamic environment, due to the presence of moving objects in the scene, the movement of these objects will reduce the stability of VSLAM system, resulting in inaccurate localization and mapping, or even failure. In this paper, a robust VSLAM method was proposed to effectively deal with the problem in dynamic environment. We proposed a dynamic region removal scheme based on semantic segmentation neural networks and geometric constraints. Firstly, semantic extraction neural network is used to extract prior active motion region, prior static region and prior passive motion region in the environment. Then, the light weight frame tracking module initializes the transform pose between the previous frame and the current frame on the prior static region. A motion consistency detection module based on multi-view geometry and scene flow is used to divide the environment into static region and dynamic region. Thus, the dynamic object region was successfully eliminated. Finally, only the static region is used for tracking thread. Our research is based on the ORBSLAM3 system, which is one of the most effective VSLAM systems available. We evaluated our method on the TUM RGB-D benchmark and the results demonstrate that the proposed VSLAM method improves the accuracy of the original ORBSLAM3 by 70%˜98.5% under high dynamic environment.

Keywords: dynamic scene, dynamic visual SLAM, semantic segmentation, scene flow, VSLAM

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Authors: Simone Jane Dennis

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This paper leverages the spatial and temporal investigative strategy utilized by crime scene investigators – blood spatter work– to engage with the real and metaphorical memorialization of blood-soaked places. It uses this key trope with phenomenological sensibility, to trace the physical and temporal movement of blood outbound from the human body to sites beyond. Working backward, as crime scene investigators do, this paper traces the importance of both space and time and their confluence, to developing a comprehensive theory of violence. To do this work, the paper engages a range of geo-violent scales, from murder scenes to genocides, to both engage an extraordinarily replete literature of bloodshed across history and to move beyond analyses of how significance is assigned to the sites in which blood comes to rest to instead consider the importance of space and time to the structure of violence itself. It is in this regard that the kind of investigative work upon which blood spatter analysis depends is crucial: it engages time and space in reverse to understand the microscopic relations between bodies, places, and numerous (biological, clock, and seasonal) temporalities. Considering the circumstances under which blood escaped a body, the details of its destination in place, and the temporal circumstances of corporal departure, is crucial to making new knowledge about the peculiar temporality and spatiality of violence itself.

Keywords: blood, crime scenes, temporality, violence

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Authors: Mohammad Aldubyan, Fateh Belaid, Anwar Gasim

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This paper aims at linking to link residential energy efficiency to the rebound effect concept, a well-known behavioral phenomenon in which service consumption increases when consumers notice a reduction in monetary spending on energy due to improvements in energy efficiency. It provides insights on into how and why the rebound effect happens when energy efficiency improves and whether this phenomenon is positive or negative. It also shows one technique to estimate the rebound effect on the national residential level. The paper starts with a bird’s eye view of the rebound effect and then dives in in-depth into measuring the rebound effect and evaluating its impact. Finally, the paper estimates the rebound effect in the Saudi residential sector through by linking pre-estimated price elasticities of demand to the Saudi residential building stock.

Keywords: energy efficiency, rebound effect, energy consumption, residential electricity demand

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Authors: Barrere Sarah

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The area of liberty, security, and justice within the European Union is still a work in progress. No one can deny that the EU struggles between a monistic and a dualist approach. The aim of our essay is to first review how the European law is perceived by the rest of the international scene. It will then discuss two main mechanisms at play: the interpretation of larger international treaties and the penal mechanisms of European law. Finally, it will help us understand the role of a penal Europe on the international scene with concrete examples. Special attention will be paid to cases that deal with fundamental rights as they represent an interesting case study in Europe and in the rest of the World. It could illustrate the aforementioned duality currently present in the Union’s interpretation of international public law. On the other hand, it will explore some specific European penal mechanism through mutual recognition and the European arrest warrant in the transnational criminality frame. Concerning the interpretation of the treaties, it will first, underline the ambiguity and the general nature of some treaties that leave the EU exposed to tension and misunderstanding then it will review the validity of an EU act (whether or not it is compatible with the rules of International law). Finally, it will focus on the most complete manifestation of liberty, security and justice through the principle of mutual recognition. Used initially in commercial matters, it has become “the cornerstone” of European construction. It will see how it is applied in judicial decisions (its main event and achieving success is via the European arrest warrant) and how European member states have managed to develop this cooperation.

Keywords: European penal law, international scene, liberty security and justice area, mutual recognition

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Authors: Marwa Hanafy

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The objective of linking the museum with school curriculum is to focus on the values and principles of the educational standards of the fourth grade as "equality, cooperation, allegiance, belonging, participation, peace, tolerance, pride and patriotism, etc." through activities, discussion, exhibits, etc., which can help the students to develop their characters and be useful for their society. For example, there is a lesson in Module 3 assess the role of women as mothers and queens, here this research will focus on the value of women and respect them through statues or images of women which support and affect positively on the students who will apply these Morals to themselves and to the community by dependency. It cannot be denied that the students have to be a part of the museum educational programs which have designed for them, by giving them the opportunity to participate, talk, discuss and express their opinions and hear them in the museums, this may be an effective way to confirm that the interests of children are taken into account.

Keywords: museum education, primary school education, school curriculum, informal learning

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Authors: Heri Hermansyah, Annisa Kurnia, A. Vania Anisya, Adi Surjosatyo, Yopi Sunarya, Rita Arbianti, Tania Surya Utami

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Lipase is one of biocatalyst which is applied commercially for the process in industries, such as bioenergy, food, and pharmaceutical industry. Nowadays, biocatalysts are preferred in industries because they work in mild condition, high specificity, and reduce energy consumption (high pressure and temperature). But, the usage of lipase for industry scale is limited by economic reason due to the high price of lipase and difficulty of the separation system. Immobilization of lipase is one of the solutions to maintain the activity of lipase and reduce separation system in the process. Therefore, we conduct a study about lipase immobilization with the adsorption-cross linking method using glutaraldehyde because this method produces high enzyme loading and stability. Lipase is immobilized on different kind of resin with the various functional group. Highest enzyme loading (76.69%) was achieved by lipase immobilized on anion macroporous which have anion functional group (OH^‑). However, highest activity (24,69 U/g support) through olive oil emulsion method was achieved by lipase immobilized on anion macroporous-chitosan which have amino (NH₂) and anion (OH^-) functional group. In addition, it also success to produce biodiesel until reach yield 50,6% through interesterification reaction and after 4 cycles stable 63.9% relative with initial yield. While for Aspergillus, niger lipase immobilized on anion macroporous-kitosan have unit activity 22,84 U/g resin and yield biodiesel higher than commercial lipase (69,1%) and after 4 cycles stable reach 70.6% relative from initial yield. This shows that optimum functional group on support for immobilization with adsorption-cross linking is the support that contains amino (NH₂) and anion (OH^-) functional group because they can react with glutaraldehyde and binding with enzyme prevent desorption of lipase from support through binding lipase with a functional group on support.

Keywords: adsorption-cross linking, immobilization, lipase, resin

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Authors: Josep Domenech Mingot, Francisco Javier Esclapes Jover

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The arrival of the age of information and new technologies allowed humanity to see what the future has in store, but occasionally it also brings the opportunity to look through a window to the past, an opportunity to relive history. This paper introduces a prototype of a digital system that lets us peek into our past making use of augmented reality technologies. A 3D scene will be modeled and animated based on an old image, depicting an event of historical significance. From this scene, a video will be rendered, recreating the events that were taking place at the time. Also, a smartphone app will be created. This app will detect the original image with the smartphone’s camera, overlay the rendered video so that it fully covers it and track the detected image, so that the overlaying video can keep covering the image. The recreation of Alicante’s Central Market bombing during the Spanish Civil War is presented as a case study.

Keywords: augmented reality, digital heritage, history, multimedia, smartphone

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Authors: K. Shimazaki, M. Mishina, A. Fujii

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In a previous study, we developed a hazard-perception training tool for drivers using a tablet device and verified its effectiveness. Accident movies recorded by drive recorders were separated into scenes before and after the collision. The scene before the collision is presented to the driver. The driver then touches the screen to point out where he/she feels danger. After the screen is touched, the tool presents the collision scene and tells the driver if what he/she pointed out is correct. Various effects were observed such as this tool increased the discovery rate of collision targets and reduced the reaction time. In this study, we optimized this tool for the smartphone and verified its effectiveness. Verifying in the same way as in the previous study on tablet devices clarified that the same effect can be obtained on the smartphone screen.

Keywords: hazard perception, smartphone, tablet devices, driver education

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Authors: Faisal A. Aburub

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Organizations today need to invest in software in order to run their businesses, and to the organizations’ objectives, the software should be in line with the business process. This research presents an approach for linking process models and system models. Particularly, the new approach aims to synthesize sequence diagram based on role activity diagram (RAD) model. The approach includes four steps namely: Create business process model using RAD, identify computerized activities, identify entities in sequence diagram and identify messages in sequence diagram. The new approach has been validated using the process of student registration in University of Petra as a case study. Further research is required to validate the new approach using different domains.

Keywords: business process modelling, system models, role activity diagrams, sequence diagrams

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Authors: Patrick Ho

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Bloodstain Pattern Analysis (BPA) forensic evidence can be complex, requiring effective courtroom presentation to ensure clear and comprehensive understanding of the analyst’s findings. BPA witness statements can often involve reference to spatial information (such as location of rooms, objects, walls) which, when coupled with classified blood patterns, may illustrate the reconstructed movements of suspects and injured parties. However, it may be difficult to communicate this information through photography alone, despite this remaining the UK’s established method for presenting BPA evidence. Through an academic-police partnership between the University of Warwick and West Midlands Police (WMP), an integrated 3D scanning and HDR photography workflow for BPA was developed. Homicide scenes were laser scanned and, after processing, the 3D models were utilised in the BPA peer-review process. The same 3D models were made available for court but were not always utilised. This workflow has improved the ease of presentation for analysts and provided 3D scene models that assist with the investigation. However, the effects of incorporating 3D scene models in judicial processes may need to be studied before they are adopted more widely. 3D models from a simulated crime scene and West Midlands Police cases approved for conference disclosure are presented. We describe how the workflow was developed and integrated into established practices at WMP, including peer-review processes and witness statement delivery in court, and explain the impact the work has had on the Criminal Justice System in the West Midlands.

Keywords: bloodstain pattern analysis, forensic science, criminal justice, 3D scanning

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Authors: Paulomi (Polly) Burey, Zoe Lynch

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In STEM education, students often have difficulty linking static images and words from textbooks or online resources, to the underlying mechanisms of the topic of study. This can often dissuade some students from pursuing study in the physical and chemical sciences. A growing movement in current day students demonstrates that the YouTube generation feel they learn best from video or dynamic, interactive learning tools, and will seek these out as alternatives to their textbooks and the classroom learning environment. Chemistry, and in particular visualization of molecular structures in everyday materials, can prove difficult to comprehend without significant interaction with the teacher of the content and concepts, beyond the timeframe of a typical class. This can cause a learning hurdle for distance education students, and so it is necessary to provide strong electronic tools and resources to aid their learning. As one of the electronic resources, an animation design approach to link everyday materials to their underlying chemistry would be beneficial for student learning, with the focus here being on food. These animations were designed and storyboarded with a scaling approach and commence with a focus on the food material itself and its component parts. This is followed by animated transitions to its underlying microstructure and identifying features, and finally showing the molecules responsible for these microstructural features. The animation ends with a reverse transition back through the molecular structure, microstructure, all the way back to the original food material, and also animates some reactions that may occur during food processing to demonstrate the purpose of the underlying chemistry and how it affects the food we eat. Using this cyclical approach of linking students’ existing knowledge of food to help guide them to understanding more complex knowledge, and then reinforcing their learning by linking back to their prior knowledge again, enhances student understanding. Food is also an ideal material system for students to interact with, in a hands-on manner to further reinforce their learning. These animations were launched this year in a 2nd year University Food Chemistry course with improved learning outcomes for the cohort.

Keywords: chemistry, food science, future pedagogy, STEM Education

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Authors: M. Ramesh Kanthan, S. Naga Nandini Sujatha

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The goal of haze removal algorithms is to enhance and recover details of scene from foggy image. In enhancement the proposed method focus into two main categories: (i) image enhancement based on Adaptive contrast Histogram equalization, and (ii) image edge strengthened Gradient model. Many circumstances accurate haze removal algorithms are needed. The de-fog feature works through a complex algorithm which first determines the fog destiny of the scene, then analyses the obscured image before applying contrast and sharpness adjustments to the video in real-time to produce image the fusion strategy is driven by the intrinsic properties of the original image and is highly dependent on the choice of the inputs and the weights. Then the output haze free image has reconstructed using fusion methodology. In order to increase the accuracy, interpolation method has used in the output reconstruction. A promising retrieval performance is achieved especially in particular examples.

Keywords: single image, fusion, dehazing, multi-scale fusion, per-pixel, weight map

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Authors: T. Nguyen, H. Rennie, S. Vallance, M. Mackay

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Municipal Associations, also called Unions, Leagues or Federations of municipalities have been established worldwide to represent the interests and needs of urban governments in the face of increasing urban issues. In 2008, the Association of Cities of Vietnam (ACVN) joined the Asian Coalition of Community Action Program (ACCA program) and introduced the community-based upgrading approach to help Vietnamese cities to address urban upgrading issues. While this community-based upgrading approach has only been implemented in a small number of Vietnamese cities and its replication has faced certain challenges, it is worthy to explore insights on how the Association of cities of Vietnam played its role in implementing some reportedly successful projects. This paper responds to this inquiry and presents results extracted from the author’s PhD study that sets out with a general objective to critically examine how social capital dimensions (i.e., bonding, bridging and linking) were formed, mobilized and maintained in a local collective and community-based upgrading process. Methodologically, the study utilized the given general categorization of bonding, bridging and linking capitals to explore and confirm how social capital operated in the real context of a community-based upgrading process, particularly in the context of Vietnam. To do this, the study conducted two exploratory and qualitative case studies of housing projects in Friendship neighbourhood (Vinh city) and Binh Dong neighbourhood (Tan An city). This paper presents the findings of the Friendship neighbourhood case study, focusing on the role of the Vietnamese municipal association in forming, mobilizing and maintaining bonding, bridging and linking capital for a community-based upgrading process. The findings highlight the essential but uncertain role of ACVN - the organization that has a hybrid legitimacy status - in such a process. The results improve our understanding both practically and theoretically. Practically, the results offer insights into the performance of a municipal association operating in a transitioning socio-political context of Vietnam. Theoretically, the paper questions the necessity of categorizing social capital dimensions (i.e., bonding, bridging and linking) by suggesting a holistic approach of looking at social capital for urban governance issues within the Vietnamese context and perhaps elsewhere.

Keywords: bonding capital, bridging capital, municipal association, linking capital, social capital, housing upgrading

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Authors: Usha Barahmand, Ali Khazaee, Goudarz Sadeghi Hashjin

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The purpose of this study is to assess the relative mediating effects of impulsivity and internalizing problems in the relationship between childhood neglect and motives for opiate use. Seventy-two adolescent opiate users were recruited for the study. Participants completed assessments of childhood abuse history, distress, impulsiveness and motives for substance use as well as a socio-demographic information sheet. Findings from bootstrap mediator analyses indicated that distress, but not impulsiveness, mediated the relationship between childhood emotional abuse and expansion and enhancement motives for substance use. The current study provides preliminary evidence that internalizing problems may function as a mechanism linking prior childhood experiences of emotional neglect to subsequent motives for substance use. Clinical implications of these findings suggest that targeting emotion dysregulation problems may be an effective adjunct in the treatment of adolescents with a history of childhood maltreatment that are at risk for substance use.

Keywords: childhood neglect, impulsiveness, internalizing problems, substance use motives

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Authors: Yudhajit Datta, Hamsi Iyer, Jonathan Bandi, Ankit Sethia

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Motion Tracking and Stereo Vision are complicated, albeit well-understood problems in computer vision. Existing softwares that combine the two approaches to perform stereo motion tracking typically employ complicated and computationally expensive procedures. The purpose of this study is to create a simple and effective solution capable of combining the two approaches. The study aims to explore a strategy to combine the two techniques of two-dimensional motion tracking using Kalman Filter; and depth detection of object using Stereo Vision. In conventional approaches objects in the scene of interest are observed using a single camera. However for Stereo Motion Tracking; the scene of interest is observed using video feeds from two calibrated cameras. Using two simultaneous measurements from the two cameras a calculation for the depth of the object from the plane containing the cameras is made. The approach attempts to capture the entire three-dimensional spatial information of each object at the scene and represent it through a software estimator object. In discrete intervals, the estimator tracks object motion in the plane parallel to plane containing cameras and updates the perpendicular distance value of the object from the plane containing the cameras as depth. The ability to efficiently track the motion of objects in three-dimensional space using a simplified approach could prove to be an indispensable tool in a variety of surveillance scenarios. The approach may find application from high security surveillance scenes such as premises of bank vaults, prisons or other detention facilities; to low cost applications in supermarkets and car parking lots.

Keywords: kalman filter, stereo vision, motion tracking, matlab, object tracking, camera calibration, computer vision system toolbox

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Authors: Nicholas V. Scott, Jack McCarthy

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Military, law enforcement, and counter terrorism organizations are often tasked with target detection and image characterization of scenes containing explosive materials in various types of environments where light scattering intensity is high. Mitigation of this photonic noise using classical digital filtration and signal processing can be difficult. This is partially due to the lack of robust image processing methods for photonic noise removal, which strongly influence high resolution target detection and machine learning-based pattern recognition. Such analysis is crucial to the delivery of reliable intelligence. Polarization filters are a possible method for ambient glare reduction by allowing only certain modes of the electromagnetic field to be captured, providing strong scene contrast. An experiment was carried out utilizing a polarization lens attached to a hyperspectral imagery camera for the purpose of exploring the degree to which an imaged polarized scene of potassium, phosphorus, and nitrogen mixture allows for improved target detection and image segmentation. Preliminary imagery results based on the application of machine learning algorithms, including competitive leaky learning and distance metric analysis, to polarized hyperspectral imagery, suggest that polarization filters provide a slight advantage in image segmentation. The results of this work have implications for understanding the presence of explosive material in dry, desert areas where reflective glare is a significant impediment to scene characterization.

Keywords: explosive material, hyperspectral imagery, image segmentation, machine learning, polarization

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Authors: Khader S. Al-Aidmat, Venus W. Samawi

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Blurred vision in the misty atmosphere is essential problem which needs to be resolved. To solve this problem, we developed a technique to restore foggy degraded image from its original version using Back-propagation neural network (BP-NN). The suggested technique is based on mapping between foggy scene and its corresponding original scene. Seven different approaches are suggested based on type of features used in image restoration. Features are extracted from spatial and spatial-frequency domain (using DCT). Each of these approaches comes with its own BP-NN architecture depending on type and number of used features. The weight matrix resulted from training each BP-NN represents a fog filter. The performance of these filters are evaluated empirically (using PSNR), and perceptually. By comparing the performance of these filters, the effective features that suits BP-NN technique for restoring foggy images is recognized. This system proved its effectiveness and success in restoring moderate foggy images.

Keywords: artificial neural network, discrete cosine transform, feed forward neural network, foggy image restoration

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Authors: Penn P. Wu

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Recent advances in virtual reality (VR) technologies have made it possible for students to experience a virtual on-the-scene or virtual in-person observation of an educational event. In an experimental class, the author uses VR, particularly 360° videos, to virtually engage students in an event, through a wide spectrum of educational resources, such s a virtual “bystander.” Students were able to observe the event as if they were physically on site, although they could not intervene with the scene. The author will describe the adopted equipment, specification, and cost of building them as well as the quality of VR. The author will discuss (a) feasibility, effectiveness, and efficiency of using VR as a supplemental technology to teach college students and criteria and methodologies used by the authors to evaluate them; (b) barriers and issues of technological implementation; and (c) pedagogical practices learned through this experiment. The author also attempts to explore (a) how VR could provide an interactive virtual in-person learning experience; (b) how VR can possibly change traditional college education and online education; (c) how educators and balance six critical factors: cost, time, technology, quality, result, and content.

Keywords: learning with VR, virtual experience of learning, virtual in-person learning, virtual reality for education

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Authors: Tianqi Yin

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Following the establishment of the state of Israel, how to harmonize the relationship between Palestinians and Jews in Israel has always been an intractable problem. As the number of Palestinian Arabs in Israel has increased to over two million, the issue has become more severe. Due to a variety of factors, Israeli Palestinians and Israeli Jews often find it hard to interact with each other, let alone form a relationship. Multiple authors and directors have produced cultural works to touch on the issue, exposing the reasons for the irreconcilable relation between the two ethnic groups. This paper analyzes the representation scenes of the Palestinian-Jewish relationship in three prominent cultural works, each from a distinct perspective, to examine the intrinsic challenges from the Israeli side that curb the two ethnicities from interacting successfully. The first scene is from the Jewish perspective in Amos Oz’s memoir A Tale of Love and Darkness, in which young Oz, a Jewish boy, attempts to interact with Aisha, a young Israeli-Arab girl, but eventually failed because of an accident. The second scene is from a short Israeli film Bus Station which, from an outsider perspective, depicted a brief encounter between an Arab woman and a Jewish woman in Jerusalem. The third scene is the initially successful yet eventually failed relationship between Eyad, a Palestinian boy, and Naomi, a Jewish girl, in an elite Israeli high school from the 2014 film A Borrowed Identity, which is depicted through Eyad’s Arab perspective. Through the analysis of these three narratives, this paper argues that the burden of national responsibility, family influences, and Israeli government’s discriminatory policies are the three main factors on the Jewish side, in ascender order of importance, that make Arab-Jewish interaction hard in Israel.

Keywords: arab-Jewish interaction, ethnographic conflicts, israel, Jewish narrative, narrative styles

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Authors: Daniele Abreu e Lima, Chloe Fitzpatrick

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During the 1930s, New Zealand received a wave of refugees feeling from the impeding war and atrocities the Nazi regime was imposing on the German people. Among the hundreds of refugees were highly trained artists, architects and musicians who made a huge contribution to Wellington’s culture and identity. It is unfeasible to chronicle the impact of every Jewish refugee in the development of New Zealand arts scene. But it is possible to choose a number of them and analyse their contribution to NZ culture. This research aims to bring to light the reception and life of five influential Jewish architects; Helmut Einhorn, Ernst Plischke, Frederick Neumann, Henry Kulka, and Maximillian Rosenfeld. Each had a key role in influencing New Zealand architectural landscape and the modernization of the country. Before coming to New Zealand, these five architects lived different lives working all over Europe, from Paris through to Moscow. In common, apart from their ethnicity, they had led cultured lives where they were culturally and politically active. This research looks at how much their individual contributions helped to transform the architectural scene in New Zealand but also in the amount of cultural and religious renunciation they had to endure to be accepted in the country.

Keywords: Jewish Refugee architects, modern architecture, World War 2, New Zealand

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Authors: Zahra Khan

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Hydrogels are a macromolecular network of hydrophilic copolymers with physical or chemical cross-linking structures with significant water uptake capabilities. They are a promising substrate for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) as they are both flexible and biocompatible materials. Conventional SERS-active substrates suffer from limitations such as instability and inflexibility, which restricts their use in broader applications. Gelatin-based hydrogels have been synthesised in a facile and relatively quick method without the use of any toxic cross-linking agents. Composite gel material was formed by combining the gelatin with simple polymers to enhance the functional properties of the gel. Gold nanoparticles prepared by a reproducible seed-mediated growth method were combined into the bulk material during gel synthesis. After gel formation, the gel was submerged in the analyte solution overnight. SERS spectra were then collected from the gel using a standard Raman spectrometer. A wide range of analytes was successfully detected on these hydrogels showing potential for further optimization and use as SERS substrates for biomedical applications.

Keywords: gelatin, hydrogels, flexible materials, SERS

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Authors: Ibtisam A. Abbas Al-Darkazly

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In this study, the mechanical properties of alginate hydrogel material for self-standing 3D scaffold architecture with proper shape fidelity are investigated. In-lab built 3D bio-printer extrusion-based technology is utilized to fabricate 3D alginate scaffold constructs. The pressure, needle speed and stage speed are varied using a computer-controlled system. The experimental result indicates that the concentration of alginate solution, calcium chloride (CaCl₂) cross-linking concentration and cross-linking ratios lead to the formation of alginate hydrogel with various gelation states. Besides, the gelling conditions, such as cross-linking reaction time and temperature also have a significant effect on the mechanical properties of alginate hydrogel. Various experimental tests such as the material gelation, the material spreading and the printability test for filament collapse as well as the swelling test were conducted to evaluate the fabricated 3D scaffold constructs. The result indicates that the fabricated 3D scaffold from composition of 3.5% wt alginate solution, that is prepared in DI water and 1% wt CaCl₂ solution with cross-linking ratios of 7:3 show good printability and sustain good shape fidelity for more than 20 days, compared to alginate hydrogel that is prepared in a phosphate buffered saline (PBS). The fabricated self-standing 3D scaffold constructs measured 30 mm × 30 mm and consisted of 4 layers (n = 4) show good pore geometry and clear grid structure after printing. In addition, the percentage change of swelling degree exhibits high swelling capability with respect to time. The swelling test shows that the geometry of 3D alginate-scaffold construct and of the macro-pore are rarely changed, which indicates the capability of holding the shape fidelity during the incubation period. This study demonstrated that the mechanical and physical properties of alginate hydrogel could be tuned for a 3D bio-printing extrusion-based system to fabricate self-standing 3D scaffold soft structures. This 3D bioengineered scaffold provides a natural microenvironment present in the extracellular matrix of the tissue, which could be seeded with the biological cells to generate the desired 3D live tissue model for in vitro and in vivo tissue engineering applications.

Keywords: biomaterial, calcium chloride, 3D bio-printing, extrusion, scaffold, sodium alginate, tissue engineering

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Authors: Wenfa Yu, Thuva Gnanasampanthan, John Finlay, Jessica Clarke, Charlotte Anderson, Tony Clare, Axel Rosenhahn

Abstract:

Marine biofouling is a worldwide problem at vast economic and ecological costs. Historically it was combated with toxic coatings such as tributyltin. As those coatings being banned nowadays, finding environmental friendly antifouling solution has become an urgent topic. In this study antifouling coatings consisted of natural occurring polysaccharides hyaluronic acid (HA), alginic acid (AA), chitosan (Ch) and polyelectrolyte polyethylenimine (PEI) are constructed into polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) in a Layer-by-Layer (LbL) method. LbL PEM construction is a straightforward way to assemble biomacromolecular coatings on surfaces. Advantages about PEM include ease of handling, highly diverse PEM composition, precise control over the thickness and so on. PEMs have been widely employed in medical application and there are numerous studies regarding their protein adsorption, elasticity and cell adhesive properties. With the adjustment of coating composition, termination layer charge, coating morphology and cross-linking method, it is possible to prepare low marine biofouling coatings with PEMs. In this study, using spin coating technology, PEM construction was achieved at smooth multilayers with roughness as low as 2nm rms and highly reproducible thickness around 50nm. To obtain stability in sea water, the multilayers were covalently cross-linked either thermally or chemically. The cross-linking method affected surface energy, which was reflected in water contact angle, thermal cross-linking led to hydrophobic surfaces and chemical cross-linking generated hydrophilic surfaces. The coatings were then evaluated regarding its protein resistance and biological species resistance. While the hydrophobic thermally cross-linked PEM had low resistance towards proteins, the resistance of chemically cross-linked PEM strongly depended on the PEM termination layer and the charge of the protein, opposite charge caused high adsorption and same charge low adsorption, indicating electrostatic interaction plays a crucial role in the protein adsorption processes. Ulva linza was chosen as the biological species for antifouling performance evaluation. Despite of the poor resistance towards protein adsorption, thermally cross-linked PEM showed good resistance against Ulva spores settlement, the chemically cross-linked multilayers showed poor resistance regardless of the termination layer. Marine species adhesion is a complex process, although it involves proteins as bioadhesives, protein resistance its own is not a fully indicator for its antifouling performance. The species will pre select the surface, responding to cues like surface energy, chemistry, or charge and so on. Thus making it difficult for one single factors to determine its antifouling performance. Preparing PEM coating is a comprehensive work involving choosing polyelectrolyte combination, determining termination layer and the method for cross-linking. These decisions will affect PEM properties such as surface energy, charge, which is crucial, since biofouling is a process responding to surface properties in a highly sensitive and dynamic way.

Keywords: hyaluronic acid, polyelectrolyte multilayers, protein resistance, Ulva linza zoospores

Procedia PDF Downloads 136

Authors: Aditaya Narayan Mishra

Abstract:

Unequal distribution of environmental resources as a possible cause of conflict has been the topic of substantial research, and these connections have ruled the post-Cold War attention in the discourse of environmental security. In this category, considerable concentration has been given to water resources, on account of their important standing for human existence. Thus, water is considered to be one of the most important non-conventional security issues. As per this consideration, the case of India-Bangladesh is one of the most critical examples of disputes over transboundary water sharing. The concern regarding sharing of trans-boundary rivers has been the main focus of Bangladesh and India‘s relationship for the last forty-five years. Both countries share fifty-four rivers, most of which have originated in the Himalayan range. The main causes for problems in the sharing of the waters of trans-boundary rivers between India and Bangladesh include the: Farakka Barrage, Teesta river sharing issue, River linking project and Tipaimukh Dam. The construction of Farakka barrage across the Ganga River was the beginning of water dispute. Attempts at unilateral exploitation of the trans-boundary water resources led to inter-state conflicts that spilled over into other areas of bilateral disputes between India and Bangladesh. Apart from Farakka, Barrage, the disputes over Teesta River sharing, River linking project and Tipaimukh Dam are also vital contents for the both countries bilateral diplomacy. Till date, India and Bangladesh have signed five treaties regarding water sharing. However, all these treaties have been rendered worthless due to mistrust and political upheaval in both countries. The current paper would address all these water sharing disputes between India and Bangladesh with focus on the various policy responses (both bilateral and multilateral initiatives) to deal with these water sharing disputes. It will try to analyze the previous agreements and their drawbacks and loopholes. In addition, it will mention the reasons for water sharing cooperation between India and Bangladesh.

Keywords: India and Bangladesh relations, water disputes, Teesta, river linking project, Tipaimukh Dam, Farakka, policy responses

Procedia PDF Downloads 204

Authors: Budi Hastuti, Mudasir, Dwi Siswanta, Triyono

Abstract:

Biosorbent, such as pectin and chitosan, are usually produced with low physical stability, thus the materials need to be modified. In this research, the physical characteristic of adsorbent was increased by grafting chitosan using acetate carboxymetyl chitosan (CC). Further, CC and Pectin (Pec) were crosslinked using cross-linking agent BADGE (bis phenol A diglycidyl ether) to get CC-Pec-BADGE (CPB) adsorbent. The cross-linking processes aim to form stable structure and resistance on acidic media. Furthermore, in order to increase the adsorption capacity in removing Pb(II), the adsorbent was added with NaCl to form macroporous adsorbent named CCPec-BADGE-Na (CPB-Na). The physical and chemical characteristics of the porogenic adsorbent structure were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). The adsorption parameter of CPB-Na to adsorb Pb(II) ion was determined. The kinetics and thermodynamics of the bath sorption of Pb(II) on CPB-Na adsorbent and using chitosan and pectin as a comparison were also studied. The results showed that the CPB-Na biosorbent was stable on acidic media. It had a rough and porous surface area, increased and gave higher sorption capacity for removal of Pb(II) ion. The CPB-Na 1/1 and 1/3 adsorbent adsorbed Pb(II) with adsorption capacity of 45.48 mg/g and 45.97 mg/g respectively, whereas pectin and chitosan were of 39.20 mg /g and 24.67 mg /g respectively.

Keywords: porogen, Pectin, Carboxymethyl Chitosan (CC), CC- Pec-BADGE-Na

Procedia PDF Downloads 126

Authors: R. R. Hordijk, O. J. G. Somsen

Abstract:

Traditionally, radar systems are the eyes and ears of a ship. However, these systems have their drawbacks and nowadays they are extended with systems that work with video and photos. Processing of data from these videos and photos is however very labour-intensive and efforts are being made to automate this process. A major problem when trying to recognize objects in water is that the 'background' is not homogeneous so that traditional image recognition technics do not work well. Main question is, can a method be developed which automate this recognition process. There are a large number of parameters involved to facilitate the identification of objects on such images. One is varying the resolution. In this research, the resolution of some images has been reduced to the extreme value of 1% of the original to reduce clutter before the polynomial fit (pre-processing). It turned out that the searched object was clearly recognizable as its grey value was well above the average. Another approach is to take two images of the same scene shortly after each other and compare the result. Because the water (waves) fluctuates much faster than an object floating in the water one can expect that the object is the only stable item in the two images. Both these methods (pre-processing and comparing two images of the same scene) delivered useful results. Though it is too early to conclude that with these methods all image problems can be solved they are certainly worthwhile for further research.

Keywords: image processing, image recognition, polynomial fit, water

Procedia PDF Downloads 507