Increasingly, tourists desire to have more genuine experiences with both nature and foreign cultures through ecotourism and adventure tourism. The industry has shifted to be more concerned with its environmental footprint, which can be beneficial, but has a complex set of consequences. While more universally lucrative for governments and foreign entrepreneurs, the benefitsof ecotourismÕs increased popularity rarely extend to the towns and villages in which resorts are built. Culturally rich neighborhoods across the United States face similar consequences as they are gentrified by entrepreneurs with no stake in the existing community looking to profit from the online short term rental boom. Parallel disconnects exists in both international and domestic tourism between the actual and perceived authenticity of place. Small farms that participate in the local food movement have made great strides in advocating against the unhealthy and unsustainable practices of the industrial agricultural complex that dominate o global food system. This has lead to a higher quality of food production and environmentally sustainable consumption practices have become the expectation. Many small farmsÕ dependency on exploitation of migrant labor, going against our romanticized image of the family farm, shows a disconnect between our popular concern for ethical cultivation of produce and livestock and concern for the ethical treatment of the laborers who do it. The romanticized image of what an American farm looks like has also become racially homogeneous in the United States as a history of oppression and racially prejudiced policies have forced African-Americans out of organized agriculture with few left to advocate for the vital role agriculture plays in the defense of black land ownership. This thesis looks to analyze the opportunities culturally threatened neighborhoods within American cities have through intersection with the tourism industry and the local and organic food movements. Through critique of the successes and shortcom gs of tourism and farming, an argument will be made for the potential neighborhood farms have to utilize the flourishing agritourism industry as a way of promoting more sustainable lifestyle practices through connecting tourists with the process of growing food, its relationship to the larger environment, and the communities most influenced by injustices that exist within AmericaÕs food system. It will look at tourism through a lens of knowledge and self improvement rather than leisure and the opportunity to develop resorts as community and education centers rather than places of privilege. Through this model, neighborhood farms would advocate for food and environmental justice while fostering resilience within communities of color who have been less visible despite being just as active in AmericaÕs agricultural revolution. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

ARCHITECTURE AND PERCEPTION, ARCHITECTURE AND THE LANDSCAPE Architecture is uniquely situated to impact human experience. It engages us externally - through scale, relationship to the body, and sensory experience - and internally, affecting thought and emotion. Often, the things we build fail to recognize their experiential and connective impact, leading to under-engaging spaces that remove us from our surroundings. With a value system driven by efficiency and economy, our ways of building have facilitated a distancing from the landscape, or natural world. Landscape elements are often over-simplified or unconsidered. Our relationship to the world is sterile, static, and incomplete. We find ourselves living “in a series of (disconnected) interiors...built up against the world”. REDIRECTING ATTENTION In an urban setting, natural elements exist, obscured by layers of hard-scape and fast-pace. Four interventions, architectural experiences, attempt to unearth and draw attention to these elements. Air, earth, water, and light, found materials, are framed in an attempt to make them visible. They are extracted from an urban context, offering experiences of tactility, multi-scalar connection, and depth in time and space. The ambition is to challenge our understanding, alter our ways of perceiving, even if just for a moment. / 0 / SPK / specialcollections@tulane.edu

Hazards and risks are currently identified in generic risk silos using top-down tools and methods which are incorporated into whole system risk management frameworks such as enterprise risk management. The current methods of identification and documentation are linear in approach and presentation. However, the world is multi-dimensional requiring a method of identification which responds to complex non-linear relationships. A method is required to identify cross- disciplinary hazards and formulate a register method to evidence the identified hazards. This study uses expert elicitation, web, survey and case studies to develop a method for cross-disciplinary hazard identification by application of the dimensions of generic, interface, causation and accumulation. The results of the study found many of the tools and methods used for hazard and risk identification such as hazard and operability studies took a top down approach commencing with a known failure and establishing cause and effect. The starting position of a known failure or event precludes identification of new types of failure or events and perpetuates a linear approach to hazard identification. Additionally the linear design of a risk register does not facilitate the presentation of multidimensional hazards. The current methods do not accommodate multiple lifecycles and components within cross discipline relationships. The method was applied to three case studies. The first case study had an existing risk register of 50 risks, post method application an additional 531 hazards were identified; case study (2) a register of 49 hazards and post method application additional hazards of 261; case study (3) an initial register of 45 hazards and an additional 384 hazards after method application. The impact of the method application highlights inconsistencies in the initial risk register and provides a tool which will aid the identification understanding and communication of hazards. Additionally it documents previously unidentified cross-disciplinary hazards and provides a proactive register method for identification and documentation by application of the dimensions of interface, causation and accumulation.

Environmental stress cracking (ESC) is one of the main, and probably the most common, failure mechanisms involved in polymer fractures. This type of failure is critically important as it occurs suddenly, without any visible pre-fracture deformation. Such failure can be catastrophic and costly in cases where structural integrity is required. In polyethylene (PE), ESC occurs through a slow crack growth mechanism. Cracks initiate from stress-concentrated imperfections, propagate through the bulk of PE, and ultimately result in a brittle fracture. In order to predict the environmental stress cracking resistance (ESCR) of PE, it is necessary to fully understand the molecular structure of the resin. In this thesis, attempts were made to find relationships between molecular structure characteristics and material responses, mainly inter-lamellar entanglements and strain hardening behaviour of PE resins, through mechanical and rheological experiments. Inter-lamellar entanglements are believed to be the main factor controlling slow crack growth of PE. Extent of entanglements and entanglement efficiency were investigated by monitoring the strain hardening behaviour of PE resins in the solid state through a uniaxial tensile test, and in the melt state, through extensional rheometry. ESCR is usually assessed by unreliable and time consuming testing methods such as the notch constant load test (NCLT) on notched PE specimens in the presence of an aggressive fluid and elevated temperatures. In this thesis, a practical, yet reliable, tensile test was developed for the evaluation and prediction of ESCR. The developed test offers a more reliable and consistent ESCR picture without the drawbacks of the subjective notching process and presence of aggressive fluids. Through this test, a factor called ???corrected hardening stiffness (cHS)??? was developed, which can easily be used for a relative ranking of ESCR of different PE resins. Studies were next extended to the melt state via shear and extensional rheometry. Through studies in the shear mode, a molecular weight-normalized average characteristic relaxation time (??N) was found to be efficient in predicting the extent of chain entanglements in resins. This provided a potential melt indicator for a relative measure of ESCR, for linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), with different short chain branching levels. Extensional studies were conducted to evaluate the strain hardening behaviour in the melt state. An inverse correlation was obtained between ESCR and the melt strain hardening coefficient (MSHC), found from Sentmanat Extensional Rheometry (SER). This indicated an inverse relationship between ESCR and chain extensibility in the melt. In addition, a new factor called ???melt hardening stiffness (mHS)??? was developed from the slope of a stress-strain line, obtained from SER. This factor, analogous to cHS, can be used for a practical and reliable ranking of ESCR of PEs. ESCR is usually associated with classical crystalline phase property indicators, such as crystallinity and lamella thickness. In this thesis, the effect of processing and post processing temperature on the extent of inter-lamellar entanglements were investigated, evaluated, and correlated to ESCR. Also, analysis of the lamella surface area (LSA) was pursued since LSA reflects changes in phase interconnectivity more precisely. The focus of this part of the study was on the effect of temperature on LSA to identify the optimum processing and post-processing conditions which yield a higher LSA. It was reasonable to presume that PE with larger lamella lateral surface areas will have more inter-lamellar entanglements, hence higher ESCR. Finally, a well-controlled ultraviolet (UV) photoinitiated reactive extrusion (REX) process was developed for selective formation of long chain branches in the PE structure. This was conducted to impose restrictions against stretching of the polymer chain, which consequently enhanced ESCR.

No description available.

Thesis (M.Ing. (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Thesis (M.Ing. (Development and Management Engineering))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

The purpose of this research is to try to understand and be aware of what happens when space is transformed and the body becomes space. Space understood as the place where bodies and movement are situated or inhabit, commonly characterised as unlimited, continuous or three-dimensional, as well as, on the other hand, a limited surface with common purposes. The physical body understood as that with mass, energy and three-dimensionality, which does not distinguish between human and non-human, material and living. The manipulation of bodies as the action of manipulating with the hands, with other parts of the body or even with another instrument, is the idea of distorting reality, of transforming and transposing it. Through manipulation, or rather movement, space is changed and dialogues and stories are created. Since the concept of manipulation focuses on what the person wants to achieve, creating a hierarchy between bodies, and the concept of transformation can be understood as the exchange or dialogue between bodies, where everyone offers and receives, the term manipulation will be changed to transformation. Transforming space as a horizontal place where bodies and movement inhabit; understanding bodies as that human and non-human, material and living, and movement as the means by which they dialogue with each other and with space. The transformation of space as a leap from what has so far been known as the manipulation of objects, with the aim of understanding the relationship between bodies and space as a circus discipline through movement as dialogue. As an aerial harness dance artist working with suspension, distortion of reality and shifting perspectives between the vertical and horizontal plane, I seek to understand what happens to space when it is transformed through a series of methodologies and methods. The methodologies employed focus on the practice of circus and dance, spatial architecture, the art therapy and the adaptation of bodies as pedagogy. In terms of methods, there is a difference between those that already exist, such as the study of concepts and other projects, and others that emerge as a result of the research. The latter are new methods, concepts such as movement as dialogue, horizontality as a multidimensional space [the breaking down of boundaries between human - non-human and space – body], limitation and control as possibility, vulnerability as a potential, bodies as spaces; as well as pause, adaptation, installation and observation as means to understand the transformation of space and the body as space. Treat this study within the field of research of new materialism with the aim of developing the potential of interconnectedness, understood as that which reciprocally relates bodies occupying a space, and spaces occupying a body; the means of expression that arises between body and space; and the breaking down of barriers inside, such as between living and material bodies, space and body, or the human being and everything else; within the circus with the aim of transforming the space.

Background Dengue is a significant problem of international health concern. According to the World Health Organization in 2012, globally, dengue is “the most important mosquito borne viral disease” with incidence 30 higher than it had been 50 years ago. While most of the burden of disease associated with dengue is located in areas with a tropical and sub-tropical climate, increasing evidence suggests temperate areas are also at risk. Considering the recent introduction of relevant mosquito vectors into Southern Europe, and increasing numbers of imported dengue via travelers, Europe and other temperate areas may be increasingly at risk for dengue emergence, establishment and local transmission in the foreseeable future. Methods Recent dengue emergence in Madeira and reemergence in Tokyo underline the hypothesis that passenger air-travel can be an important conduit for the importation of vector-borne disease leading to emergence in naïve areas climatically suitable for dengue transmission, including parts of Europe. Combining information on travel with virus genetic similarity was useful in discerning likely pathways of for the importation of infections. Generalizing information learned from outbreaks in Tokyo and Madeira with global epidemic intelligence, global travel networks, and climate change projections, leads to more refined understanding of the magnitude of dengue infectious imported into temperate areas and these virus introduction events’ potential implications for seeding epidemics in the 21st century. Results While compared to total travel, imported dengue events and epidemics of dengue outside the tropics are rare, our combined evidence and modeled estimations suggest strongly that epidemic dengue emergence in temperate areas is possible and will continue to increase. We found that global change dynamics including warming temperatures in the much of the northern hemisphere and increasing passenger interconnectivity between areas endemic for dengue and dengue free areas are key mechanisms partly explaining these unprecedented epidemiological transitions. Conclusion While we calibrated our models on information known about dengue, many elements of the methods and conclusions may increase understanding of the potentially global implications for imported infections of other climate-sensitive infectious diseases’ that may have similar parameters. During 2016 and the years to come, techniques developed in this doctoral research will contribute to models used in risk analysis for vector-borne diseases of interest, including the increasing important potential for imported Chikungunya and Zika viruses into a variety of unexposed areas.

In 21st century, the development strategy and the management policy of Information Communication Technology (ICT) is a key issue to a nation¡¦s competitiveness. Particularly, the development of telecommunication liberalization, governance in the telecommunications regime and the relevant science and technology policies of the telecommunication industry is the most important factor for creating a leading knowledge-based economy for Information Communication Technology related industries. Looking forward to the future, the trends and developments of the convergence of telecommunication, broadcasting and internet services will drive the demand for the telecommunication and broadcasting industries to look for cost-efficient provisioning of converged multimedia services. The emerging technology of next generation network (NGN) infrastructure enables the convergence of multi-access networks to deliver the multimedia contents and application services seamlessly. Therefore, the consumers, government, and industry can obtain the benefits because of technology development and industrial cooperation. In addition, the converged broadcasting and telecommunication services as well as Fixed-Mobile Converged applications over the internets results in the needs for the improvement in network interconnectivity and service interoperability. No matter it is telecommunication, broadcasting or information, to converge as common info-communication services, such as telephony, data and multimedia will eventually run over the all IP networks. Therefore, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) becomes one of the promising technologies to drive it happen. However, existing policy and regulations must cope with the changes of this development. The liberalization of broadband and communication market allows the participation of the private companies to create new investment and revenue. This research studies the possible evolution of an IP-based communication infrastructure from today's networks toward a converged next generation network and proposes an Inter-Exchange Center of Converged Network Architecture (IEXCNA), applying to VoIP service. The IEXCNA model shows more efficient in the transmission, interconnectivity and reducing implementation cost of network infrastructure. Thus the consumers are able to enjoy better quality of service and cheaper rate of use for multimedia services.