ADVANCED ARCHITECTURAL DESCRIPTIONS OF AL-ANDALUS ISLAMIC PALACES: DEVELOPMENT OF A KNOWLEDGE-BASED DESCRIPTIVE FRAMEWORK

Author(s):  
Gabriela Alejandra García-Templado ◽  
Remah Y. Gharib

 Architectural design theories developed during the last decades of the 20th century - including Environmental Psychology and Pattern Theories - aimed to improve the quality of the built environment while centred on the experience of users. However, their approaches of analytical methodologies are not usually applied to understand and comprehend historic buildings from a wider architectural perspective. This study aims to deepen the analysis of historic buildings by advancing their depictions using concepts and ideas mainly established in pattern theories and contemporary best practices, in order to facilitate how modern designers may learn from the significant buildings of the past. To achieve this, a knowledge-based descriptive framework has been developed; this tool serves to enrich the architectural description of a building by including both qualitative and quantitative details, abstract and as-built characteristics, and spatial patterns which are inherent to architectural designs. Four historical palatial complexes erected in the Iberian Peninsula during the Islamic rule in al-Andalus have been selected to demonstrate the practical application and validity of this tool. The information collected through such a descriptive tool adds a layer of quantitative information that enriches the depiction of the historic buildings studied. An organized display of the resulting data provides for comparative analysis and also serves as a way to develop contemporary architectural proposals which reflect distinctive features of significant historical buildings.

Author(s):  
Maria Cristina Forlani

<p>Vitruvius wrote the first treatise of Architecture and in it we find the fundamental recommendations for a good design. In the past 50 years it seems, instead, that each of these directions had been lost and there is today the need of promoting a new design paradigm that is attentive to nowadays criticalities and directed to sustainable development.<br />The term sustainability starts to configure the quality of human actions since the 80’s following reflections on the resources limit (raw materials and fossil fuels) and the environment capacity limit of absorbing emissions and waste.<br />The concept of sustainable development was elaborated in 1987 in the Brundtland report according to the need of distinguishing it from the concept of growth, that is to say with the goal of tending simultaneously toward the quality verification of programs in the environmental, social and economic dimensions.<br />All that invited the whole society to reconsider its "lifestyle" that, in the specific field of architecture, meant finding a new design approach geared to a lower consumption and greater caution and responsibility in the choices.<br />The configuration of a new design paradigm can trace their roots in the study of history and can proceed to evaluate the actions in a broad context of skills to ensure the quality of the products.</p>


2008 ◽  
pp. 1416-1434
Author(s):  
Taeho Hong ◽  
Woojong Suh

Data mining has drawn much attention in generating the useful information from Web data. Data mining techniques have typically considered quantitative information rather than qualitative, though the qualitative information can often be used to improve the quality of a result. This chapter provides a hybrid data mining application, KBNMiner (Knowledge-Based News Miner), to predict interest rates on the basis of qualitative information on the Web as well as quantitative information stored in a database. The KBNMiner is developed through the integration of cognitive maps and neural networks. To validate the effectiveness of the KBNMiner, an experiment with Web news information is conducted and its results are discussed.


2005 ◽  
pp. 332-352
Author(s):  
Taeho Hong ◽  
Woojong Suh

Data mining has drawn much attention in generating the useful information from Web data. Data mining techniques have typically considered quantitative information rather than qualitative, though the qualitative information can often be used to improve the quality of a result. This chapter provides a hybrid data mining application, KBNMiner (Knowledge-Based News Miner), to predict interest rates on the basis of qualitative information on the Web as well as quantitative information stored in a database. The KBNMiner is developed through the integration of cognitive maps and neural networks. To validate the effectiveness of the KBNMiner, an experiment with Web news information is conducted and its results are discussed.


Author(s):  
K. T. Tokuyasu

During the past investigations of immunoferritin localization of intracellular antigens in ultrathin frozen sections, we found that the degree of negative staining required to delineate u1trastructural details was often too dense for the recognition of ferritin particles. The quality of positive staining of ultrathin frozen sections, on the other hand, has generally been far inferior to that attainable in conventional plastic embedded sections, particularly in the definition of membranes. As we discussed before, a main cause of this difficulty seemed to be the vulnerability of frozen sections to the damaging effects of air-water surface tension at the time of drying of the sections.Indeed, we found that the quality of positive staining is greatly improved when positively stained frozen sections are protected against the effects of surface tension by embedding them in thin layers of mechanically stable materials at the time of drying (unpublished).


Author(s):  
Jerrold L. Abraham

Inorganic particulate material of diverse types is present in the ambient and occupational environment, and exposure to such materials is a well recognized cause of some lung disease. To investigate the interaction of inhaled inorganic particulates with the lung it is necessary to obtain quantitative information on the particulate burden of lung tissue in a wide variety of situations. The vast majority of diagnostic and experimental tissue samples (biopsies and autopsies) are fixed with formaldehyde solutions, dehydrated with organic solvents and embedded in paraffin wax. Over the past 16 years, I have attempted to obtain maximal analytical use of such tissue with minimal preparative steps. Unique diagnostic and research data result from both qualitative and quantitative analyses of sections. Most of the data has been related to inhaled inorganic particulates in lungs, but the basic methods are applicable to any tissues. The preparations are primarily designed for SEM use, but they are stable for storage and transport to other laboratories and several other instruments (e.g., for SIMS techniques).


2020 ◽  
pp. 10-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vladimir V. Voronov ◽  
Nikolay I. Shchepetkov

The article describes content of original and relevant but virtually forgotten thesis of V.V. Voronov on lighting of production site interiors by means of overhead natural (using three types of skylights) and artificial illumination, in order to elaborate scientific methodology for architectural design of more qualitative luminous environment on the basis of comprehensive approach and enhanced criteria framework of its evaluation using light engineering parameters. The thesis is unique in terms of the scope and quality of field and laboratory observations which are reflected not only in the text but also in the graphical attachments, namely photos, figures, schemes, drawings, charts, nomograms, and diagrams accompanied by specific measured or calculated parameters. The first part of the thesis contains theoretical basics and results of field observations conducted by different methods. This second part is the exposition of chapter 3 of the V.V. Voronov’s candidate thesis (1985). It describes the methodology for and the results of the experiments by means of planar and volumetric light simulation using the architectural lighting simulating assembly (chamber) which were conducted in MARKHI in 1970–1985.


2013 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
pp. 769-784 ◽  
Author(s):  
Estella Tincknell

The extensive commercial success of two well-made popular television drama serials screened in the UK at prime time on Sunday evenings during the winter of 2011–12, Downton Abbey (ITV, 2010–) and Call the Midwife (BBC, 2012–), has appeared to consolidate the recent resurgence of the period drama during the 1990s and 2000s, as well as reassembling something like a mass audience for woman-centred realist narratives at a time when the fracturing and disassembling of such audiences seemed axiomatic. While ostensibly different in content, style and focus, the two programmes share a number of distinctive features, including a range of mature female characters who are sufficiently well drawn and socially diverse as to offer a profoundly pleasurable experience for the female viewer seeking representations of aging femininity that go beyond the sexualised body of the ‘successful ager’. Equally importantly, these two programmes present compelling examples of the ‘conjunctural text’, which appears at a moment of intense political polarisation, marking struggles over consent to a contemporary political position by re-presenting the past. Because both programmes foreground older women as crucial figures in their respective communities, but offer very different versions of the social role and ideological positioning that this entails, the underlying politics of such nostalgia becomes apparent. A critical analysis of these two versions of Britain's past thus highlights the ideological investments involved in period drama and the extent to which this ‘cosy’ genre may legitimate or challenge contemporary political claims.


2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 57-60 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gina G Mentzer ◽  
Alex J Auseon

Heart failure (HF) affects more than 5 million people and has an increasing incidence and cost burden. Patients note symptoms of dyspnea and fatigue that result in a decreased quality of life, which has not drastically improved over the past decades despite advances in therapies. The assessment of exercise capacity can provide information regarding patient diagnosis and prognosis, while doubling as a potential future therapy. clinically, there is acceptance that exercise is safe in hf and can have a positive impact on morbidity and quality of life, although evidence for improvement in mortality is still lacking. specific prescriptions for exercise training have not been developed because many variables and confounding factors have prevented research trials from demonstrating an ideal regimen. Physicians are becoming more aware of the indices and goals for hf patients in exercise testing and therapy to provide comprehensive cardiac care. it is further postulated that a combination of exercise training and pharmacologic therapy may eventually provide the most benefits to those suffering from hf.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 1
Author(s):  
Andi Asadul Islam

Neurosurgery is among the newest of surgical disciplines, appearing in its modern incarnation at the dawn of twentieth century with the work of Harvey Cushing and contemporaries. Neurosurgical ethics involves challenges of manipulating anatomical locus of human identity and concerns of surgeons and patients who find themselves bound together in that venture.In recent years, neurosurgery ethics has taken on greater relevance as changes in society and technology have brought novel questions into sharp focus. Change of expanded armamentarium of techniques for interfacing with the human brain and spine— demand that we use philosophical reasoning to assess merits of technical innovations.Bioethics can be defined as systematic study of moral challenges in medicine, including moral vision, decisions, conduct, and policies related to medicine. Every surgeon should still take the Hippocratic Oath seriously and consider it a basic guide to follow good medical ethics in medical practice. It is simple and embodies three of the four modern bioethics principles – Respecting autonomy, beneficence, nonmaleficence, and justice.Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a devastating condition often affecting young and healthy individuals around the world. Currently, scientists are pressured on many fronts to develop an all-encompassing “cure” for paralysis. While scientific understanding of central nervous system (CNS) regeneration has advanced greatly in the past years, there are still many unknowns with regard to inducing successful regeneration. A more realistic approach is required if we are interested in improving the quality of life of a large proportion of the paralyzed population in a more expedient time frame.


GYNECOLOGY ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (6) ◽  
pp. 42-47
Author(s):  
O V Yakushevskaya ◽  
S V Yureneva ◽  
A E Protasova ◽  
G N Khabas ◽  
M R Dumanovskaya

The aim of the work is to conduct a systematic analysis of the available research results on the possibility of using menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) in patients who successfully completed the treatment of endometrial cancer (EC). Materials and methods. The review includes data from foreign articles published in PubMed and Medline, and domestic works published on elibrary.ru over the past 40 years. Results. The results obtained allow us to consider MHT as an independent method of medical rehabilitation for women who have undergone EC. A clear patient profile should be established, allowing the use of this method, with strict adherence to health monitoring. Conclusion Patients who have successfully completed the treatment of EC require the creation of special rehabilitation conditions in the interests of maintaining health and quality of life and should be under the close attention of the doctor. Argumented approaches to the appointment of MHT in such patients will avoid complications associated with estrogen deficiency after surgery, radiation with or without systemic (cytostatic) treatment methods.


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