Search results for: richness

Authors: Haroon Altarawneh, Sattam Allahawiah

Abstract:

This paper has two main ideas. Firstly, it describes Evans and Wurster-s concepts “the trade-off between reach and richness", and relates them to the impact of technology on the virtual markets. Authors Evans and Wurster see the transfer of information as a 'trade'off between richness and reach-. Reach refers to the number of people who share particular information, with Richness ['Rich'] being a more complex concept combining: bandwidth, customization, interactivity, reliability, security and currency. Traditional shopping limits the number of shops the shopper is able to visit due to time and other cost constraints; the time spent traveling consequently leaves the shopper with less time to evaluate the product. The paper concludes that although the Web provides Reach, offering Richness and the sense of community required for creating and sustaining relationships with potential clients could be difficult.

Keywords: Internet, Web sites, Richness and Reach, Ecommerce, virtual markets.

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Authors: O. S. Eludoyin, A. A. Aiyeloja, O. C. Ndife

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The study investigated the spatial analysis of trees composition, diversity and richness in the built up area of University of Port Harcourt, Nigeria. Four quadrats of 25m x 25m size were laid randomly in each of the three parks and inventories of trees ≥10cm girth at breast height were taken and used to calculate the species composition, diversity and richness. Results showed that species composition and diversity in Abuja Park was the highest with 134 species and 0.866 respectively while the species richness was highest in Choba Park with a value of 2.496. The correlation between the size of park (spatial coverage) and species composition was 0.99 while the correlation between the size of the park and species diversity was 0.78. There was direct relationship between species composition and diversity while the relationship between species composition and species richness was inversely proportional. Rational use of these resources is encouraged.

Keywords: Built up area, composition, diversity, richness, spatial analysis, urban tree.

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Authors: R. Green, T. Mazzuchi, S. Sarkani

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Through inward perceptions, we intuitively expect distributed software development to increase the risks associated with achieving cost, schedule, and quality goals. To compound this problem, agile software development (ASD) insists one of the main ingredients of its success is cohesive communication attributed to collocation of the development team. The following study identified the degree of communication richness needed to achieve comparable software quality (reduce pre-release defects) between distributed and collocated teams. This paper explores the relevancy of communication richness in various development phases and its impact on quality. Through examination of a large distributed agile development project, this investigation seeks to understand the levels of communication required within each ASD phase to produce comparable quality results achieved by collocated teams. Obviously, a multitude of factors affects the outcome of software projects. However, within distributed agile software development teams, the mode of communication is one of the critical components required to achieve team cohesiveness and effectiveness. As such, this study constructs a distributed agile communication model (DAC-M) for potential application to similar distributed agile development efforts using the measurement of the suitable level of communication. The results of the study show that less rich communication methods, in the appropriate phase, might be satisfactory to achieve equivalent quality in distributed ASD efforts.

Keywords: agile software development (ASD), distributedsoftware teams, media richness theory, software development.

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Authors: Paolo Pietro Biancone

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The spread of Islamic financial instruments is an opportunity to offer integration for the immigrant population and to attract, through the specific products, the richness of sovereign funds from the "Arab" countries. However, it is important to consider the possibility of comparing a traditional finance model, which in recent times has given rise to many doubts, with an "alternative" finance model, where the ethical aspect arising from religious principles is very important.

Keywords: Banks, Europe, Islamic Finance, Italy.

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Authors: Mohammed Sghir Taleb

Abstract:

Morocco is characterized by a great richness and diversity in aromatic and medicinal plants and it has an ancestral knowledge in the use of plants for medicinal and cosmetic purposes. In effect, the poverty of riparian, specially, mountain populations have greatly contributed to the development of traditional pharmacopoeia in Morocco. The analysis of the bibliographic data showed that a large number of plants in Morocco are exploited for aromatic and medicinal purposes and several of them are commercialized internationally. However, these potentialities of aromatic and medicinal plants are currently subjected to climate change and strong human pressures: Collecting fruits, agriculture development, harvesting plants, urbanization, overgrazing...

Keywords: Aromatic, medicinal, plants, socioeconomy, Morocco.

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Authors: Gebriel M. Shamia

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The Improved Generalized Diversity Index (IGDI) has been proposed as a tool that can be used to identify areas that have high conservation value and measure the ecological condition of an area. IGDI is based on the species relative abundances. This paper is concerned with particular attention is given to comparisons involving the MacArthur model of species abundances. The properties and performance of various species indices were assessed. Both IGDI and species richness increased with sampling area according to a power function. IGDI were also found to be acceptable ecological indicators of conditions and consistently outperformed coefficient of conservatism indices.

Keywords: Statistical ecology, MacArthur model, Functional Diversity.

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Authors: S. Ait Ali Yahia

Abstract:

One of the main features of the Maghreb is its linguistic richness. The multilingualism is a fact which always marked the Maghreb since the beginning of the history up to know. Since the arrival of the Phoenicians, followed by the Carthaginians, Romans, and Arabs, etc, there was a social group in the Maghreb which controlled two kinds of idioms. The libyc one remained, despite everything, the local language used by the major part of the population. This language had a support of written transmission attested by many inscriptions. Among all the forms of the Maghreb writing, this alphabet, however, continues to cause a certain number of questions about the origin and the date of its appearance. The archaeological, linguistic and historical data remain insufficient to answer these questions. This did not prevent the researchers from giving an opinion. In order to answer these questions we will expose here the various assumptions adopted by various authors who are founded on more or less explicit arguments. We will also speak about the various forms taken by the libyc writing during antiquity.

Keywords: The alphabet libyc, Eastern libyc, Western libyc.

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Authors: Seyedeh Belin Tavakoly Sany, Majid Rezayi, Rosli Hashim, Aishah Salleh, Omid Safari

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The purpose of this paper is to describe the main characteristics of macroinvertebrate species in response to environmental forcing factors. Overall, 23 species of Mollusca, 4 species of Arthropods, 3 species of Echinodermata and 3 species of Annelida were identified at the 9 sampling stations during four sampling periods. Individual species of Mollusca constituted 36.4% of the total abundance, followed by Arthropods (27.01%), Annelida (34.3%) and Echinodermata (2.4%). The results of Kruskal-Wallis test indicated that a significant difference (p <0.05) in the abundance, richness and diversity of the macro-benthic community in different stations. The correlation analysis revealed that anthropogenic pollution and natural variability caused by these variations in spatial scales.

Keywords: Benthic invertebrates, Diversity, Malaysia, West Port.

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Authors: Mohammad Torabiyan, Kazem Mosawi Nejad

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Today architecture has become as a powerful media for introducing cultures to the world, which in turn brings about a change in the global insight, power gaining, investment, and development. Islamic architecture is based on the language of Koran and shows the depth and richness of Islam through the spiritual soul. This is in a way that belief in monotheism and faith in Islamic teachings are manifested as Islam's aesthetic thought in Islamic architecture. Unfortunately, Islamic architecture has been damaged a lot due to the lack of the necessary information, and also successive wars that have overtaken the Moslems as well as the dominance of colonizing counties. Islamic architecture is rooted in the history, culture and civilization of Moslems, but its deficiencies and shortcomings should be removed through systematizing the Islamic architecture researchers. Islamic countries should act in a way that the art of Islamic architecture shows its true place in different architecture eras and makes everybody aware that Islamic architecture has a historical root and is connected eternally to the genuineness, religious art, and Moslems' culture and civilization.

Keywords: Art, culture and civilization, Islamic architecture, Moslems.

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Authors: Luis Teran, Aleksandar Drobnjak

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The number of electronic participation (eParticipation) projects introduced by different governments and international organisations is considerably high and increasing. In order to have an overview of the development of these projects, various evaluation frameworks have been proposed. In this paper, a five-level participation model, which takes into account the advantages of the Social Web or Web 2.0, together with a quantitative approach for the evaluation of eParticipation projects is presented. Each participation level is evaluated independently, taking into account three main components: Web evolution, media richness, and communication channels. This paper presents the evaluation of a number of existing Voting Advice Applications (VAAs). The results provide an overview of the main features implemented by each project, their strengths and weaknesses, and the participation levels reached.

Keywords: Evaluation Framework, eParticipation, e-Participation, Electronic Participation, eDemocracy, e-Democracy, Electronic Democracy, Voting Advice Applications, VAAs.

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Authors: Kazeem K. Adewole, Festus. A. Olutoge, Hamzat Habib

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In this paper, the effect of grades 32.4 and 42.5 Portland-limestone cements generally used for concrete production in Nigeria on concrete compressive strength is investigated. Investigation revealed that the compressive strength of concrete produced with Portland-limestone cement grade 42.5 is generally higher than that produced with cement grade 32.5. The percentage difference between the compressive strengths of the concrete cubes produced with Portland-limestone cement grades 42.5 and 32.5 is inversely proportional to the richness of the concrete with the highest and the least percentage difference associated with the 1:2:4 and 1:1:2 mix ratios respectively. It is recommended that cement grade 42.5 be preferred for construction in Nigeria as this will lead to the construction of stronger concrete structures, which will reduce the incidence of failure of building and other concrete structures at no additional cost since the cost of both cement grades are the same.

Keywords: Cement grades, Concrete, Compressive strength, Portland-limestone cement, Ordinary Portland cement.

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Authors: Chengming Li, Yong Yin, Peipei Guo, Xiaoli Liu

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Without taking account of the attribute richness of POI (point of interest) data and spatial distribution limited by roads, a POI generalization method considering both attribute information and spatial distribution has been proposed against the existing point generalization algorithm merely focusing on overall information of point groups. Hierarchical characteristic of urban POI information expression has been firstly analyzed to point out the measurement feature of the corresponding hierarchy. On this basis, an urban POI generalizing strategy has been put forward: POIs urban road network have been divided into three distribution pattern; corresponding generalization methods have been proposed according to the characteristic of POI data in different distribution patterns. Experimental results showed that the method taking into account both attribute information and spatial distribution characteristics of POI can better implement urban POI generalization in the mapping presentation.

Keywords: POI, Road network, spatial information expression, selection method, distribution pattern.

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Authors: Ozlem Koprulu Bagbanci, M.Bilal Bagbanci

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This paper presents the effects of migration at the urban sites with an integrated model under the sustainable local development policies for the conservation and revitalization of the site areas as a case at Reyhan heritage site in Bursa. It is known as the “City of immigrants" because of its richness of cultural plurality. The city has always regarded the dynamic impact of immigration as a positive contribution. As a result of this situation, the city created the earliest urbanization practices: being the first capital city of the Ottoman Empire. Bursa created the first modern movement practices and set the first Organized Industrial Zone. The most important aim of the study is to be offer a model for the similar areas with the context of conservation and revitalization of the historical areas, subjected to the local integrated sustainable development policies of local goverments.

Keywords: integration, migration, local policies, sustainability.

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Authors: S. A. Nta

Abstract:

The study assessed the levels of some heavy metals in the contaminated soil from a point source using pollution indices to measure the extent of pollution. The soil used was sandy-loam in texture. The contaminant used was landfill leachate, introduced as a point source through an entry point positioned at the center of top layer of the soil tank. Samples were collected after 50 days and analyzed for heavy metal (Zn, Ni, Cu and Cd) using standard methods. The mean concentration of Ni ranged from 5.55-2.65 mg/kg, Zn 3.67-0.85 mg/kg, Cu 1.60-0.93 mg/kg and Cd 1.60-0.15 mg/kg. The richness of metals was in decreasing order: Ni > Zn > Cu > Cd. The metals concentration was found to be maximum at 0.25 m radial distance from the point of leachate application. The geo-accumulation index (Igeo) studied revealed that all the metals recovered at 0.25 and 0.50 m radial distance and at 0.15, 0.30, 0.45 and 0.60 m depth from the point of application of leachate fall under unpolluted to moderately polluted range. Ecological risk assessment showed high ecological risk index with values higher than RI > 300. The RI shows that the ecological risk in this study was mostly contributed by Cd ranging from 9-96.

Keywords: Ecological risk, assessment, heavy metals, test soils, landfill leachate.

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Authors: R. Gaceb-Terrak, F. Rahmania

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Takerbucht is the only cultivar of date palm known as being resistant to the bayoud disease, caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. albedinis (F.o.a.). In the aim to understand more about the defense mechanisms implied, we realized phytochemical analyses of this cultivar leaflets and roots and this, for the first time, using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS).The examination of our results shows that fifty-four molecules have been detected, fourteen of which are common to leaflets and roots. This study revealed also the organs' richness in derivatives fatty acids: both saturated and unsaturated are represented mainly by methyl esters of Hexadecanoic and 9,12,15-Octadecatrienoic acids. 1-Dodecanethiol, derivative Dodecanoic acid is only present in roots. It’s of great interest to note that the screening revealed the steroidal saponins abundance, among which Yamogenin acetate and Diosgenin, exclusively detected in Takerbucht. They may play an essential role, in the date palm resistance to the bayoud disease.

Keywords: Analysis by GC-MS, leaflets and roots of resistant date palm to F.o.a., derivatives fatty acids, steroidal saponins.

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Authors: Sheng-Lan Zeng, Ting-Ting Zhang, Yu Gao, Zu-Tao Ouyang, Jia-Kuan Chen, Bo Li, Bin Zhao

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Urbanization and related anthropogenic modifications cause extent of habitat fragmentation and directly lead to decline of local biodiversity. Conservation biologists advocate corridor creation as one approach to rescue biodiversity. Here we examine the utility of roads as corridors in preserving plant diversity by investigating roadside vegetation in Yellow River Delta (YRD), China. We examined the spatio-temporal distribution pattern of plant species richness, diversity and composition along roadside. The results suggest that roads, as dispersal conduits, increase occurrence probability of new settlers to a new area, meanwhile, roads accumulate the greater propagule pressure and favourable survival condition during operation phase. As a result, more species, including native and alien plants, non- halophyte and halophyte species, threatened and cosmopolitic species, were found prosperous at roadside. Roadside may be a refuge for more species, and the pattern of vegetation distribution is affected by road age and the distance from road verge.

Keywords: Native and alien species, Plant diversity conservation, Road construction, Road disturbance

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Authors: Khan Farhan Rafat, M. Junaid Hussain

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Seamless modification of an entity for the purpose of hiding a message of significance inside its substance in a manner that the embedding remains oblivious to an observer is known as steganography. Together with today's pervasive registering frameworks, steganography has developed into a science that offers an assortment of strategies for stealth correspondence over the globe that must, however, need a critical appraisal from security breach standpoint. Microsoft Word is amongst the preferably used word processing software, which comes as a part of the Microsoft Office suite. With a user-friendly graphical interface, the richness of text editing, and formatting topographies, the documents produced through this software are also most suitable for stealth communication. This research aimed not only to epitomize the fundamental concepts of steganography but also to expound on the utilization of Microsoft Word document as a carrier for furtive message exchange. The exertion is to examine contemporary message hiding schemes from security aspect so as to present the explorative discoveries and suggest enhancements which may serve a wellspring of information to encourage such futuristic research endeavors.

Keywords: Hiding information in plain sight, stealth communication, oblivious information exchange, conceal, steganography.

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Authors: Rao M. V., Joshi S. C., Balaji M.

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Coastal zone combines terrestrial, marine and atmospheric factors and gives rise to unique landforms that play an important role in long-term sustainability of the hinterland and economy of maritime nations. World over, efforts have been put forth to understand plants of the seacoasts. In India also, plants of several geographical entities have been well documented, but works devoted to plant communities of the vast tropical coast of India and its States are still insufficient. Therefore, an inventory of plants flourishing in a stretch of ~450km of the Coastal Regulatory Zone I encompassing a total of 84 villages in 6 revenue Districts of northern Andhra Pradesh (15o42’06”N, 80^o51’03”E to 19o05’51”N, 84^o47’44”E) along Bay of Bengal was carried out. The study revealed presence of a total of 364 species belonging to 225 genera under 71 families. In addition to inventory, zonation pattern, ethnobotany, and certain interesting ecological facts are included.

Keywords: Ecology, Ethnobotany, Inventory, Tropical coast, Zonation.

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Authors: Yanto Santosa, Rozza Tri Kwatrina

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High Conservation Value (HCV) is an area with conservation function within oil palm plantation. Despite the important role of HCV area in biodiversity conservation and various studies on HCV, there was a lack of research studying the factors determining its success. A preliminary study was conducted to identify the determinant factor of HCV that affected the diversity. Line transect method was used to calculate the species diversity of butterfly, birds, mammals, and herpetofauna species as well as their richness. Specifically for mammals, camera traps were also used. The research sites comprised of 12 HCV areas in 3 provinces of Indonesia (Central Kalimantan, Riau, and Palembang). The relationship between the HCV biophysical factor with the species number and species diversity for each wildlife class was identified using Chi-Square analysis with Cross tab (contingency table). Results of the study revealed that species diversity varied by research locations. Four factors determining the success of HCV area in relations to the number and diversity of wildlife species are land cover types for mammals, the width of area and distance to rivers for birds, and distance to settlements for butterflies.

Keywords: Ecological factors, high conservation value area, oil palm plantation, wildlife diversity.

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Authors: Ahmed Mansouri, Naoji Matsumoto

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This research is a comparative study of complexity, as a multidimensional concept, in the context of streetscape composition in Algeria and Japan. 80 streetscapes visual arrays have been collected and then presented to 20 participants, with different cultural backgrounds, in order to be categorized and classified according to their degrees of complexity. Three analysis methods have been used in this research: cluster analysis, ranking method and Hayashi Quantification method (Method III). The results showed that complexity, disorder, irregularity and disorganization are often conflicting concepts in the urban context. Algerian daytime streetscapes seem to be balanced, ordered and regular, and Japanese daytime streetscapes seem to be unbalanced, regular and vivid. Variety, richness and irregularity with some aspects of order and organization seem to characterize Algerian night streetscapes. Japanese night streetscapes seem to be more related to balance, regularity, order and organization with some aspects of confusion and ambiguity. Complexity characterized mainly Algerian avenues with green infrastructure. Therefore, for Japanese participants, Japanese traditional night streetscapes were complex. And for foreigners, Algerian and Japanese avenues nightscapes were the most complex visual arrays.

Keywords: Streetscape, Nightscape, Complexity, Visual Array, Affordance, Cluster Analysis, Hayashi Quantification Method.

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Authors: Amany A. Ragheb, Ghada Ragheb, Abd ElRahman A.

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Egypt has a countless heritage of mansions, castles, cities, towns, villages, industrial and manufacturing sites. This richness of heritage provides endless and matchless prospects for culture. Despite being famous worldwide, Egypt’s heritage still is in constant need of protection. Political conflicts and religious revolutions form a direct threat to buildings in various areas, historic, archaeological sites, and religious monuments. Egypt has witnessed two revolutions in less than 60 years; both had an impact on its architectural heritage. In this paper, the authors aim to review legal and policy framework to protect the cultural heritage and present the risk management strategy for cultural heritage in conflict. Through a review of selected international models of devastated architectural heritage in conflict zones and highlighting some of their changes, we can learn from the experiences of other countries to assist towards the development of a methodology to halt the plundering of architectural heritage. Finally, the paper makes an effort to enhance the formulation of a risk management strategy for protection and conservation of cultural heritage, through which to end the plundering of Egypt’s architectural legacy in the Egyptian community (revolutions, 1952 and 2011); and by presenting to its surrounding community the benefits derived from maintaining it.

Keywords: Cultural heritage, legal regulation, risk management, preservation.

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Authors: Anjali Sadanand, R. V. Nagarajan

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Architecture morphs with advances in technology and the roof, wall, and floor as basic elements of a building, follow in redefining themselves over time. Their contribution is bound by time and held by design principles that deal with function, sturdiness, and beauty. Architecture engages with people to give joy through its form, material, design structure, and spatial qualities. This paper attempts to re-interpret John Ruskin’s “Seven lamps of Architecture” in the context of the architecture of the modern and present period. The paper focuses on the “wall” as an element of study in this context. Four of Ruskin’s seven lamps will be discussed, namely beauty, truth, life, and memory, through examples of architecture ranging from modernism to contemporary architecture of today. The study will focus on the relevance of Ruskin’s principles to the “wall” in specific, in buildings of different materials and over a range of typologies from all parts of the world. Two examples will be analyzed for each lamp. It will be shown that in each case, there is relevance to the significance of Ruskin’s lamps in modern and contemporary architecture. Nature to which Ruskin alludes to for his lamp of “beauty” is found in the different expressions of interpretation used by Corbusier in his Villa Stein façade based on proportion found in nature and in the direct expression of Toyo Ito in his translation of an understanding of the structure of trees into his façade design of the showroom for a Japanese bag boutique. “Truth” is shown in Mies van der Rohe’s Crown Hall building with its clarity of material and structure and Studio Mumbai’s Palmyra House, which celebrates the use of natural materials and local craftsmanship. “Life” is reviewed with a sustainable house in Kerala by Ashrams Ravi and Alvar Aalto’s summer house, which illustrate walls as repositories of intellectual thought and craft. “Memory” is discussed with Charles Correa’s Jawahar Kala Kendra and Venturi’s Vana Venturi house and discloses facades as text in the context of its materiality and iconography. Beauty is reviewed in Villa Stein and Toyo Ito’s Branded Retail building in Tokyo. The paper thus concludes that Ruskin’s Lamps can be interpreted in today’s context and add richness to meaning to the understanding of architecture.

Keywords: Beauty, design, façade, modernism.

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