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Web applications that are based on user-generated content are often criticized for containing low-quality information; a popular example is the online encyclopedia Wikipedia. The major points of criticism pertain to the accuracy, neutrality, and reliability of information. The identification of low-quality information is an important task since for a huge number of people around the world it has become a habit to first visit Wikipedia in case of an information need. Existing research on quality assessment in Wikipedia either investigates only small samples of articles, or else deals with the classification of content into high-quality or low-quality. This thesis goes further, it targets the investigation of quality flaws, thus providing specific indications of the respects in which low-quality content needs improvement. The original contributions of this thesis, which relate to the fields of user-generated content analysis, data mining, and machine learning, can be summarized as follows:
(1) We propose the investigation of quality flaws in Wikipedia based on user-defined cleanup tags. Cleanup tags are commonly used in the Wikipedia community to tag content that has some shortcomings. Our approach is based on the hypothesis that each cleanup tag defines a particular quality flaw.
(2) We provide the first comprehensive breakdown of Wikipedia's quality flaw structure. We present a flaw organization schema, and we conduct an extensive exploratory data analysis which reveals (a) the flaws that actually exist, (b) the distribution of flaws in Wikipedia, and, (c) the extent of flawed content.
(3) We present the first breakdown of Wikipedia's quality flaw evolution. We consider the entire history of the English Wikipedia from 2001 to 2012, which comprises more than 508 million page revisions, summing up to 7.9 TB. Our analysis reveals (a) how the incidence and the extent of flaws have evolved, and, (b) how the handling and the perception of flaws have changed over time.
(4) We are the first who operationalize an algorithmic prediction of quality flaws in Wikipedia. We cast quality flaw prediction as a one-class classification problem, develop a tailored quality flaw model, and employ a dedicated one-class machine learning approach. A comprehensive evaluation based on human-labeled Wikipedia articles underlines the practical applicability of our approach.
Text classification deals with discovering knowledge in texts and is used for extracting, filtering, or retrieving information in streams and collections. The discovery of knowledge is operationalized by modeling text classification tasks, which is mainly a human-driven engineering process. The outcome of this process, a text classification model, is used to inductively learn a text classification solution from a priori classified examples. The building blocks of modeling text classification tasks cover four aspects: (1) the way examples are represented, (2) the way examples are selected, (3) the way classifiers learn from examples, and (4) the way models are selected.
This thesis proposes methods that improve the prediction quality of text classification solutions for unseen examples, especially for non-standard tasks where standard models do not fit. The original contributions are related to the aforementioned building blocks: (1) Several topic-orthogonal text representations are studied in the context of non-standard tasks and a new representation, namely co-stems, is introduced. (2) A new active learning strategy that goes beyond standard sampling is examined. (3) A new one-class ensemble for improving the effectiveness of one-class classification is proposed. (4) A new model selection framework to cope with subclass distribution shifts that occur in dynamic environments is introduced.
The present thesis studies the effects of rice husk ash (RHA) as a pozzolanic admixture and the combination of RHA and ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) on properties of ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC). The ultimate purpose of this study is to replace completely silica fume (SF) and partially Portland cement by RHA and GGBS to achieve sustainable UHPC. To reach this aim, characteristics of RHA in dependence of grinding period, especially its pozzolanic reactivity in saturated Ca(OH)2 solution and in a cementitious system at a very low water binder ration (w/b) were assessed. The influences of RHA on compatibility between superplasticizer and binder, workability, compressive strength, shrinkage, internal relative humidity, microstructure and durability of UHPC were also evaluated. Furthermore, synergic effects of RHA and GGBS on the properties of UHPC were investigated to produce more sustainable UHPC. Finally, various heat treatments were applied to study the properties of UHPC under these conditions. All the characteristics of these UHPCs containing RHA were compared to those of mixtures containing SF.
Der Film BERLIN – DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSTADT (1927, Walter Ruttman) gilt bis heute als der Sinfonische Dokumentarfilm schlechthin. Er präsentiert nicht nur die Traditionslinien, die ihre Wurzeln in der neuen Sachlichkeit und den ersten Dokumentarfilmtheorien fanden, sondern auch die künstlerische und filmische Vorstellung von Ruttmann. Um den höchsten Grad an Objektivität in der Realitätsdarstellung zu erreichen, hat dieser Film einerseits treu alle theoretischen und ästhetischen Gedanken der neusachlichen Kunst zum ersten Mal filmisch in einem DOKUMENTARFILM dargestellt. Noch dazu drückt der Berlin-Film seinen kulturellen Beitrag mit ausschliesslich filmischen Mitteln aus, also mit rein visuellen Mitteln, oder anders gesagt mit FILMSPRACHE.
Im Gegensatz zur ersten Ankündigung des Films und der Filmliteratur, die den Film als Dokumentarfilm ansehen, ist er in Wirklichkeit einer der ersten innovativen Musikfilme in seinem historischen Kontext, welcher mit der Montage von Wirklichkeitsabbilden autonome Musik zu interpretieren versucht. Seine sachlichen, dokumentarischen Reportage-Bilder ordnen sich der abstrakten Struktur und dem Taktmaß der Musik unter. Als Folge entsteht laut Ruttmann eine VISUELLE SINFONIE, die eigentlich vielmehr eine Vision von Berlin darstellte, als zukünftige industrielle Musterstadt. Mit anderen Worten ist Berlin in diesem Film eine realistische Illusion, aber keineswegs ein reales Bild. Er bildet ein neues Filmgenre, den KUNSTDOKUMENTARFILM, das den Grundprinzipien des Dokumentarfilms nicht folgt.
Dies unterscheidet ihn aber auch von den KÜNSTLERISCHEN DOKUMENTARFILMEN, die einerseits dem Film BERLIN – DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSTADT zwar formalstilistisch und ästhetisch ähneln. Aber im Gegensatz zu ihm erfüllen diese die elementaren Voraussetzungen für einen Dokumentarfilm. Beispiele dafür sind: DER MANN MIT DER KAMERA (1929, Dsiga Vertov), KOYAANISQATSI (1982,Godfry Reggio) und das Remake BERLIN, SINFONIE EINER GROßSTADT (2002, Thomas Schadt).
BERLIN – DIE SINFONIE DER GROSSTADT von Walter Ruttmann stellt nicht nur ein neues Filmgenre dar, er ist auch eine singuläre Erscheinung in der Filmgeschichte. In diesem Sinne spielte er, laut dem Filmkritiker Helmut Korte, eine entscheidende Rolle in der Weiterentwicklung des absoluten Films „als Musterbeispiel für die Möglichkeiten des künstlerisch-dokumentarischen Films“ (Korte 1991: 76).
The aim of this doctoral thesis was to investigate whether the German term “shrinking city” is appropriate to depopulating Polish cities. In order to do so an attempt to define the currently still vague notion of “shrinking city” was made. The urban development of Eastern Germany was thoroughly examined both in a short term perspective and in a wide historical as well as international context, with the Polish urban development used as reference. 25 cities (kreisfreie Städte) in Eastern Germany and depopulating Polish cities: Łódź and the Metropolis Silesia were chosen as case studies.
On the basis of the gathered information a “shrinking city” in Eastern Germany was defined as a city with a long-lasting population decrease coupled with over-dimensioned, growth-oriented development policies carried out for decades. Such a development path is triggering negative consequences in the spatial, economic and also demographic dimension, which tend to intensify each other.
The thesis postulates that the definition of the “shrinking city in Eastern Germany” is not appropriate to depopulating cities in Poland. Polish cities are characterized by a short-lasting population decrease and this trend is not triggering negative spatial and economic consequences. Oversized growth development policies were never present in the cities and they still suffer from great deficiencies in housing and other basic infrastructure, which derive from the socialist period. Furthermore, radical de-economization, known from Eastern German cities, did not occur in the Polish cities. Both Łódź and the Metropolis Silesia remain main production centers of the country.
This doctoral thesis presents a contradictory view to contemporary publications on “shrinking cities”, in which this phenomenon is regarded as having occurred suddenly after the collapse of the socialism. It proved that “shrinking cities” in Eastern Germany are not the outcome of short-lasting processes, but are deeply rooted in the past. Moreover, they represent a very distinct development pattern that highly differentiates from the one found in Central Eastern Europe and the one in Western Europe. In this way the doctoral thesis provided a new, critical approach to the discourse on “shrinking cities” in Germany. It also draws attention to the importance of the historical analysis in cities’ development research, particularly in cross border studies. In time of European integration peculiarities resulting from centuries of different spatial, economic and social development paths should not be underestimated.
Post Conflict Reconstruction is a very complex topic, whether it is to be undertaken by the Local or the International Community. The process of the Post Conflict Development is to be very hard to investigate, primarily for the combination of socio-cultural phenomena, war and political instability; having difficulties of conducting solid empirical analysis (obtaining reliable data) and dealing with war-torn communities. The multifaceted process of the reconstruction is ought to touch a lot of countries vital segments, whereas each of them requires different approach; coordination with one another; and unification in their common aim.
The emergency of the assistance programs are not equal, same as with the priority and weight when compared with each other, therefore occasionally there are programs for the success of which the other less important actions are violated or neglected.
The case is with the International Community presence ( the set up), which aside from their mission and projects, it is considered to play a very important role on the urban development of a post conflict city; the setting was never planned or considered in a holistic manner, therefore IC establishment was done ad hoc and it was guided by issues which did not help at its greatest to the urban development of the city and more over to the citizens who were most in need.
The study is about the Urban Development, due to the fact that the biggest concentration of the International Community is likely to be in the urban centers, and the experienced changes are of a much considerable magnitude. The reconstruction phase is likely to be lasting at about 10 years and more , consequently the International Community for that time being tends to be recognized as temporary citizens of the city, and it is inevitably that they will be having an impact on the urban development of the city; in that basis it is considered to be significant that the International Community Establishment/Set Up be included into the International Organizations mission and assist in the overall mission of the reconstruction.
Environmental and operational variables and their impact on structural responses have been acknowledged as one of the most important challenges for the application of the ambient vibration-based damage identification in structures. The damage detection procedures may yield poor results, if the impacts of loading and environmental conditions of the structures are not considered.
The reference-surface-based method, which is proposed in this thesis, is addressed to overcome this problem. In the proposed method, meta-models are used to take into account significant effects of the environmental and operational variables. The usage of the approximation models, allows the proposed method to simply handle multiple non-damaged variable effects simultaneously, which for other methods seems to be very complex. The input of the meta-model are the multiple non-damaged variables while the output is a damage indicator.
The reference-surface-based method diminishes the effect of the non-damaged variables to the vibration based damage detection results. Hence, the structure condition that is assessed by using ambient vibration data at any time would be more reliable. Immediate reliable information regarding the structure condition is required to quickly respond to the event, by means to take necessary actions concerning the future use or further investigation of the structures, for instance shortly after extreme events such as earthquakes.
The critical part of the proposed damage detection method is the learning phase, where the meta-models are trained by using input-output relation of observation data. Significant problems that may encounter during the learning phase are outlined and some remedies to overcome the problems are suggested.
The proposed damage identification method is applied to numerical and experimental models. In addition to the natural frequencies, wavelet energy and stochastic subspace damage indicators are used.
In this research work, an energy approach is employed for assessing quality in dynamic soil-structure interaction (SSI) models, and energy measures are introduced and investigated as general indicators of structural response.
Dynamic SSI models with various abstraction levels are then investigated according to different coupling scenarios for soil and structure models.
The hypothesis of increasing model uncertainty with decreasing complexity is investigated and a mathematical framework is provided for the treatment of model uncertainty. This framework is applied to a case study involving alternative models for incorporating dynamic SSI effects. In the evaluation process, energy measures are used within the framework of the \textit{adjustment factor} approach in order to quantitatively assess the uncertainty associated with SSI models. Two primary types of uncertainty are considered, namely the uncertainty in the model framework and the uncertainty in the model input parameters.
Investigations on model framework uncertainty show that the more complex three-dimensional FE model has the best quality of the models investigated, whereas the Wolf SSI model produces the lowest model uncertainty of the simpler models. The fixed-base model produces the highest estimated uncertainty and accordingly the worst quality of all models investigated.
These results confirm the hypothesis of increasing model uncertainty with decreasing complexity only when the assessment is based on the ratio of structural hysteretic energy to input energy as a response indicator.
Einleitung:
Die Kunst und der Kunstbetrieb haben sich in den letzten Jahrzehnten stark verändert und werden sich aller Voraussicht nach in Zukunft noch weit rascher und durchgreifender ändern. In meiner Dissertation geht es um eine Analyse des Jetzt-Zustandes des Kunstbetriebs und um die Konsequenzen die daraus für die zu erwartende Entwicklung zu ziehen sind, insbesondere bezüglich der Ausbildung von Künstlern an Kunsthochschulen. Dort sollten meines Erachtens die beruflichen Aspekte des künstlerischen Feldes (in und außerhalb der Akademie) verstärkt erläutert und vermittelt werden.
Der Fokus der Arbeit liegt auf den folgenden 4 Aspekten: Der Künstler, die Arbeitswelt, die Ausbildung und das Netz und die Vernetzung und ihren Zusammenhängen.
Diese Feststellungen basieren auf meinen Recherchen zu den vier Hauptthemen im Rahmen meiner Arbeit in der Lehre und der eigenen künstlerischen Praxis der letzten Jahre und spiegeln diese wider und sollen gleichzeitig als Beispiel für ihre Anwendung dienen und bieten einen Überblick in deren Ausführung in der Praxis.
Hinweis
Die hier vorliegende Dateien (in 5 Teilen) sind die digitale Veröffentlichung meiner Dissertation im Rahmen der Promotion im Studiengang "Kunst und Design" an der Bauhaus-Universität Weimar.
Diese Publikation ist open source und wird in einem offenen und kollaborativen Prozess weiterentwickelt werden. Die jeweils aktuelle Version wird hier zu finden sein: http://phd.nts.is Dort befinden sich auch weitere Formate zum Download, ebenso wie der vollständige (markdown-formatierte) Quelltext.
(Aus urheber- und lizenzrechtlichen Gründen sind in dieser Version der Bildtafeln einige Bilder ausgelassen. Die gedruckte Ausgabe enthält alle Bildtafeln, diese liegt in der Bibliothek der Bauhaus-Universität aus.)
Teile:
- Thesenpapier
- PhD Dissertation
- Bildtafeln
- Der 5-Jahres-Plan
- KIOSK09-Katalog
Resumen
La pregunta de investigación que guía el trabajo es: ¿cuál es la lógica de reproducción urbana de una ciudad intermedia en el contexto de los territorios possocialista? y ¿por qué referimos a esa lógica en términos de desarrollo urbano posfordista? Lo que se demuestra con esta investigación es cómo la forma particular de entrecruzamiento de territorialidades - estrategias espacializadas de los agentes - y las sinergias que de ellas se derivan con sus respectivas expresiones en el espacio, caracterizan el desarrollo urbano de Weimar.
El objetivo general del trabajo es interpretar el tipo de desarrollo urbano posfordista alcanzado por esta ciudad intermedia, que se configura en relación a su hinterland inmediato como una ciudad-región en una región de ciudades. Los objetivos específicos son: contextualizar geohistóricamente la ciudad-región Weimar, analizar los factores que posibilitan y condicionan el desarrollo urbano, identificar la constelación de agentes sociales que participan en el proceso de governance de la ciudad considerando sus estrategias, e indagar sobre las sinergias territoriales a partir del cruce y convergencia de esas estrategias convertidas en territorialidades.
En el trabajo se aplico una lógica metodológica cualitativa de investigación basada en: relevamiento bibliográfico, lectura de periódicos locales y regionales, observaciones in situ, captación de atmósfera, entrevistas complementadas con estadísticas oficiales y recolección de folletos informativos.
Uno de los principales aportes del trabajo es la definición del concepto de desarrollo urbano posfordista como una modalidad de reproducción urbana en el contexto de relaciones capitalistas de producción caracterizadas por producción flexible, terciarización de servicios públicos, creación de nuevos niveles territoriales de regulación, flexibilización de los mercados de trabajo urbano y precarización de las condiciones de vida. En las últimas décadas se asiste a cambios profundos en las ciudades. Así, es posible hablar de ciudades en transición que ensayan diversidad de modalidades ante los desafíos que implican estos cambios. En efecto, en muchos espacios urbanos comenzaron a suceder procesos de rápida desindustrialización y/o reindustrialización, con lo cual las ciudades han perdido parcialmente su base económica o han debido reestructurarse como un lugar vinculado a la economía de servicios. Incluso en aquellas ciudades que mantuvieron industrias de producción masiva, propias de las llamadas economía fordista, como por ejemplo la industria automotriz, requirieron importantes cambios en sus planificaciones espaciales. De este modo, los cambios en las modalidades de producción y sus impactos socioterritoriales en el contexto de la glocalización permiten observar el paso de una sociedad fordista a una posfordista.
A more careful consideration of food waste is needed for planning the urban environment. The research signals links between the organization of individuals, the built environment and food waste management through a study conducted in Mexico. It recognizes the different scales within which solid waste management operates, explores food waste production at household levels, and investigates the urban circumstances that influence its management. This is based on the idea that sustainable food waste management in cities requires a constellation of processes through which a ‘people centered’ approach offers added value to technical and biological facts. This distinction addresses how urban systems react to waste and what behavioral and structural factors affect current sanitary practices in Mexico. Food waste is a resource-demanding item, which makes for a considerable amount of refuse being disposed of in landfills in developing cities. The existing data shortage on waste generation at household levels debilitates implementation strategies and there is a need for more contextual knowledge associated with waste. The evidence-based study includes an explorative phase on the culture of waste management and a more in-depth examination of domestic waste composition. Mixed data collection tools including a household based survey, a food waste diary and weighing recording system were developed to enquire into the daily practices of waste disposal in households. The contrasting urban environment of Mexico City Metropolitan Area holds indistinctive boundaries between the core and the periphery, which hinder the implementation of integrated environmental plans. External determinants are different modes of urban transformation and internal determinants are building features and their consolidation processes. At the household level, less and more affluents groups responded differently to external environmental stressors. A targeted planning proposition is required for each group. Local alternative waste management is more likely to be implement in less affluent contexts. Further, more effective demand-driven service delivery implies better integration between the formal and informal sectors. The results show that efforts toward securing long-term changes in Mexico and other cities with similar circumstances require creating synergy between education, building consolidation, local infrastructure and social engagement.
Alkali-silica reaction causes major problems in concrete structures due to the rapidity of its deformation which leads to the serviceability limit of the structure being reached well before its time. Factors that affect ASR vary greatly, including alkali and silica content, relative humidity, temperature and porosity of the cementitious matrix,all these making it a very complex phenomenon to consider explicitly. With this in mind, the finite element technique was used to build models and generate expansive pressures and damage propagation due to ASR under the influence of thermo-hygrochemoelastic loading. Since ASR initializes in the mesoscopic regions of the concrete,
the accumulative effects of its expansion escalates onto the macroscale level with the development of web cracking on the concrete surface, hence solution of the damage model as well as simulation of the ASR phenomenon at both the macroscale and mesoscale levels have been performed. The macroscale model realizes the effects of ASR expansion as a whole and shows how it develops under the influence of moisture, thermal and mechanical loading. Results of the macroscale modeling are
smeared throughout the structure and are sufficient to show how damage due to ASR expansion orientates. As opposed to the mesoscale model, the heterogeneity of the model shows us how difference in material properties between aggregates and the cementitious matrix facilitates ASR expansion. With both these models, the ASR phenomenon under influence of thermo-chemo-hygro-mechanical loading can be better understood.
Die Arbeit fokussiert die Rolle des Abjekten in der zeitgenössischen Kunst und hier insbesondere die Rolle der Künstler aus den wohlhabenden – sogenannten postindustriellen – Ländern. Die Arbeit mit abjekten Themen in der Kunstproduktion ist sehr präsent, jedoch aus einer anderen, eher individualistischen Perspektive. Die wichtigsten Orte der Kunst (Galerien, Museen, Kulturzentren) sind Räume der Legitimation dieser Art von Produktion, dabei wird das Potential der Provokation hinterfragt. Die klassische Avantgarde, besonders der Dadaismus, hat das Abjekte zu Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts als künstlerisches Material genutzt. Das Spiel mit Grenzüberschreitungen durch die Darstellung des Verbotenen und Ekelerregenden machte das Abjekte zur produktiven Kraft auch auf sozialer Ebene, weil es als Mittel dem gesellschaftlichen Protest und der sozialen Kritik diente.
Ausgangspunkt der Arbeit ist der Aspekt des Unheimlichen in jener Hochhausstadt, deren Entwurf Ludwig Hilberseimer 1924 zum ersten Mal publizierte und die später zum Synonym für die Aberrationen modernistischen Städtebaus wurde. Daraus geht die Forschungsfrage hervor, wie der Eindruck des Unheimlichen evoziert wird und an welchen Elementen des Entwurfs und/oder der Darstellung dieser festgemacht werden kann. Hier geht es nicht um eine Analyse der Intentionen des Autors der Hochhausstadt, der diese ja als Verbesserung zu den herrschenden Wohnverhältnissen anpries; stattdessen wird eine Reihe von unterschiedlichen interpretatorischen Ansätzen gewählt (von Nelson Goodmans Theorie der Notation über Norman Brysons visuelles Zeichensystem bis hin zu Adornos Negativer Dialektik; von der „Bildwissenschaft“ bis hin zur „visual theory“). In diesem Zusammenhang werden schließlich auch jene Divergenzen herausgearbeitet, die zwischen der Architektur der Moderne und der Kunst der Avantgarde herrschten. Da aufgrund der Frage nach der Bildwirkung der beiden Perspektiven der Hochhausstadt die Ästhetik des Erhabenen eine besondere Rolle spielt, reicht der Fokus der Arbeit bis in den kunst- und architekturtheoretischen Diskurs des 18. Jahrhundert zurück. Zuletzt mündet die Arbeit in eine Diskussion von Interpretation selbst und der Möglichkeit einer kritischen Architekturtheorie.
Development of a Sustainability-based Sanitation Planning Tool (SusTA) for Developing Countries
(2014)
Background and Research Goal
Despite all the efforts in the sanitation sector, it is acknowledged that the world is not on track to meet the MDG sanitation target to reduce the number of people without access to sanitation by 2015. Furthermore, a large number of existing sanitation facilities in developing countries is out of order. This leads to the conclusion that, besides technical failures, the planning process in the sanitation sector was ineffective. This ineffectiveness may be attributed to the lack of knowledge of the sanitation planners about the local conditions of the sanitation project. In addition, sustainability of a technology is often approached from a fragmented perspective that often leads to an unsustainable solution.
The dissertation is conducted within the framework of the Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM) Indonesia project. The goal of this work is to contribute to the development of a methodology of a planning tool for sustainable sanitation technology. The tool is designed for sanitation planners in developing countries, where a top-down planning approach is common practice. The proposed tool enables comprehensive sustainability assessments (using the Helmholtz Concept of Sustainability as reference), taking into account local conditions.
State of the Science
In the planning practice, many sanitation planning tools focus on technology selection. However, it has become evident that the selection criteria for sustainable technologies are not always considered in the tools’ framework. In other cases, when the criteria are provided by the tool, there is no clear indication of the conditions to be fulfilled in order to meet these criteria. Specifically, there is no reference to what is meant by sustainable technology in a particular context and how to comprehensively assess the sustainability of different technology options.
Research Methodology
Developing a planning tool is an empirical process, combining theory and practical experience. Hence, the development process of such a tool requires extensive observations, particularly on the interaction between stakeholders in the sanitation sector as well as between technology and its environment. For this purpose, a case study within the project area was carried out. Pucanganom, a village representing common strategic problems in developing countries (e.g. top-down planning approaches, lack of involvement of beneficiaries in the planning process, lack of sustainability assessments) was finally selected as the case study area. After the in-depth case study, an analytical generalisation was developed to enable the tool’s application to a broader context.
Results
The result of this research is a new tool – the Sustainability-based Sanitation Planning Tool (SusTA). SusTA enables comprehensive sustainability assessment in its five generic steps, namely: (1) analysis of stakeholders and sanitation policy in the region, (2) distance-to-target analysis on sanitation conditions in the region, (3) examination of physical and socio-economic conditions in the project area, (4) contextualisation of the technology assessment process in the project area, and (5) sustainability-oriented technology assessment at the project level. These steps are conducted at two levels of planning – the region and the project area – in order to identify the specific problems and interests which influence the selection of a sanitation system. Each planning step is equipped with tool elements (e.g. set of indicators, household questionnaires, technology assessment matrices) to support the analysis.
From the development of SusTA, it can be concluded that four elements are required for an effective and widely applicable sanitation planning tool: sustainability concept, participatory approach, contextualisation framework and modification framework. SusTA provides both a theoretical and a practical basis for assessing the sustainability of sanitation technologies in developing countries. The tool’s main advantages for decision makers in these countries are: It is simple and transparent in its steps, does not require vast amounts of data and does not need a sophisticated computer program.
Exploratory Research into Transformation Processes of Former Industrial Complexes of Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei (Leipzig) and Mattatoio di Testaccio (Rome); New Meanings of Industrial Heritage
Physical manifestations of the Industrial Revolution left a permanent imprint on the complexion of cities. Abandonment that followed the deindustrialization contributed to an estrangement, turning derelict industrial spaces and run‐down factories into a ballast to conjure with. At present, industrial heritage management applies flexibility and creativity, partially overcoming the essentially traditional paradigm of heritage preservation. This approach permits sustainable conservation – utilization and integration of disused industrial constructs in the contemporary urban landscape. Being a part of the European cultural stock, industrial heritage is an exciting and unique setting from many perspectives. It is defined and consumed by many markets, ranging from the industrial heritage tourism to the market of special events and festivals. Reused industrial buildings and factories come into view as products of post‐industrial societies, fitting to the Western post‐industrial (consumer) culture, offering a field of activities that are at an interface between the industrial history and contemporary socio‐cultural milieu.
Alteration of values, growth of new roles and definitions of industrial heritage, generated by functional restructuring, is a subject which is often left behind the general discussion about sustainable conservation and adaptive reuse of industrial heritage. Yet, in the modified state, industrial heritage is very complex to understand and to define.
By conducting a desk and a case study research of former industrial complexes – Leipziger Baumwollspinnerei and Mattatoio di Testaccio, this doctoral thesis aims to identify industrial heritage as a contemporary (post‐industrial) concept. Observation of ideas, values and definitions that emerge as a consequence of the transformation and re‐conceptualization of industrial heritage are intended to raise awareness and appreciation of industrial heritage in the full richness of its contemporary interpretation.
Die Dissertation Staubaufwirbeln oder die Kunst der Partizipation stellt die Frage, ob und inwiefern künstlerische Interventionen zur Aktualisierung und Entwicklung demokratischer Teilhabe beitragen können. Im Zentrum der Untersuchung stehen sechs Projektgruppen, die experimentelle Freiräume gestalten, in denen neue Formen von Demokratielernen, Stadtnutzung, gesellschaftlicher Repräsentation und Symbolpolitik erprobt werden. Die Kunst der Partizipation wird in fünf Dimensionen beschrieben: Initiative, Kollektivität, Inszenierung, Öffentlichkeit und Kooperation. Sie erweitert damit das Repertoire demokratischer Beteiligungsformen sowie gegenwärtige Kunstbegriffe. Ihre heimliche Relevanz besteht darin, sich immer wieder dem Risiko auszusetzen, von allen Seiten als unzureichend betrachtet zu werden. Demokratie konstituiert sich hier als ästhetische Erfahrung. Die Kunst besteht darin, die Flüchtigkeit demokratischer Teilhabe erfahrbar zu machen, also gestaltbar und veränderbar.
Rapid urbanisation that is not accompanied by socio-economic development strains the capacity of local and national governments to provide even basic services such as shelter. Informal settlements i.e. settlements not built or developed according to the formal regulations have become a solution to many urban dwellers in developing countries. In Tanzania informal settlements accommodate people from low, middle and high income groups. The study explores the nature of potentials and challenges posed by the existence of mixed socio-economic groups in informal settlements, including an assessment of what can be done to optimise utilisation of potentials and mitigation of conflicts. Using a case study strategy, the study was conducted in Dar es Salaam city focusing on Makongo mixed informal settlement.
The results show that mixed informal settlements are as a result of several factors including uncoordinated energies of people. The urban development forces that bring change in the development of the city are stronger than the public states capacity to coordinate and manage them. Informal settlements also offer user-friendly land tenure, flexibility in house construction and proximity to livelihoods. Other factors include the nature of socio-economic living patterns and extension of urban boundaries. Community members operate using social norms. Advantages of mixed informal settlements include availability of plots according to needs and affordability while a disadvantage is, people of different socio-economic groups perceive problems differently.
For policies to be effective, their formulation should be derived from what is happening on the ground i.e. addressing informal settlements according to their heterogeneity. Moreover, empowered local authorities can assist in implementing national development plans; also actors in land development including government institutions, non-governmental institutions, financial institutions, private sector, professionals, political leaders, research institutions, policy-makers and training institutions need to recognise, understand and respect each other’s roles, and pull resources together to minimise problems related to informality in land development; utilise potentials and minimise challenges in mixed informal settlements in Dar es Salaam.
Key words: Informal settlements, land development, urbanisation
The increasing success of BIM (Building Information Model) and the emergence of its implementation in 3D construction models have paved a way for improving scheduling process. The recent research on application of BIM in scheduling has focused on quantity take-off, duration estimation for individual trades, schedule visualization, and clash detection.
Several experiments indicated that the lack of detailed planning causes about 30% non-productive time and stacking of trades. However, detailed planning still has not been implemented in practice despite receiving a lot of interest from researchers. The reason is associated with the huge amount and complexity of input data. In order to create a detailed planning, it is time consuming to manually decompose activities, collect and calculate the detailed information in relevant. Moreover, the coordination of detailed activities requires much effort for dealing with their complex constraints.
This dissertation aims to support the generation of detailed schedules from a rough schedule. It proposes a model for automated detailing of 4D schedules by integrating BIM, simulation and Pareto-based optimization.
Structural vibration control of high-speed railway bridges using tuned mass dampers, semi-active tuned mass dampers, fluid viscous dampers and magnetorheological dampers to reduce resonant structural vibrations is studied. In this work, the addressed main issues include modeling of the dynamic interaction of the structures, optimization of the parameters of the dampers and comparison of their efficiency.
A new approach to optimize multiple tuned mass damper systems on an uncertain model is proposed based on the H-infinity optimization criteria and the DK iteration procedure with norm-bounded uncertainties in frequency domain. The parameters of tuned mass dampers are optimized directly and simultaneously on different modes contributing significantly to the multi-resonant peaks to explore the different possible combinations of parameters. The effectiveness of the present method is also evaluated through comparison with a previous method.
In the case of semi-active tuned mass dampers, an optimization algorithm is derived to control the magnetorheological damper in these semi-active damping systems. The use of the proposed algorithm can generate various combinations of control gains and state variables. This can lead to the improvement of the ability of MR dampers to track the desired control forces. An uncertain model to reduce detuning effects is also considered in this work.
Next, for fluid viscous dampers, in order to tune the optimal parameters of fluid viscous dampers to the vicinity of the exact values, analytical formulae which can include structural damping are developed based on the perturbation method. The proposed formulae can also be considered as an improvement of the previous analytical formulae, especially for bridge beams with large structural damping.
Finally, a new combination of magnetorheological dampers and a double-beam system to improve the performance of the primary structure vibration is proposed. An algorithm to control magnetorheological dampers in this system is developed by using standard linear matrix inequality techniques. Weight functions as a loop shaping procedure are also introduced in the feedback controllers to improve the tracking ability of magnetorheological damping forces. To this end, the effectiveness of magnetorheological dampers controlled by the proposed scheme, along with the effects of the uncertain and time-delay parameters on the models, are evaluated through numerical simulations.
Additionally, a comparison of the dampers based on their performance is also considered in this work.
This research represents an effort made towards contribute to the critical thinking from an analysis of the hegemonic neoliberal ideology, which supports the idea of the end of history and the technocratic universalism which in turn implies the imposition of a single model of life, denying, in the name of realism and the end of utopias, any other alternative possibility.
This makes it necessary to recover the critical thinking to analyze and understand the reality, thus overcoming the ideological barrier towards claiming that things can be otherwise.
It is clear from this research that the discourse of sustainable development has unquestionably transformed the context and content of political activity in Europe. This discourse has exercised and obvious influence in the Governance processes, mainly because it has contributed to the introduction of a new political field, which was then promoted, either explicitly or implicitly by policy-makers, researchers on the field and practitioners during the last three decades. Though it may be bold to affirm that the discourse of sustainable development is the sole driver of these whole set of changes, there is no doubt that it has played a key part in the way in which the governance priorities have been handled in the European continent.
This thesis concerns the physical and mechanical interactions on carbon nanotubes and polymers by multiscale modeling. CNTs have attracted considerable interests in view of their unique mechanical, electronic, thermal, optical and structural properties, which enable them to have many potential applications.
Carbon nanotube exists in several structure forms, from individual single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to carbon nanotube bundles and networks. The mechanical properties of SWCNTs and MWCNTs have been extensively studied by continuum modeling and molecular dynamics (MD) simulations in the past decade since the properties could be important in the CNT-based devices. CNT bundles and networks feature outstanding mechanical performance and hierarchical structures and network topologies, which have been taken as a potential saving-energy material. In the synthesis of nanocomposites, the formation of the CNT bundles and networks is a challenge to remain in understanding how to measure and predict the properties of such large systems. Therefore, a mesoscale method such as a coarse-grained (CG) method should be developed to study the nanomechanical characterization of CNT bundles and networks formation.
In this thesis, the main contributions can be written as follows: (1) Explicit solutions for the cohesive energy between carbon nanotubes, graphene and substrates are obtained through continuum modeling of the van der Waals interaction between them. (2) The CG potentials of SWCNTs are established by a molecular mechanics model. (3) The binding energy between two parallel and crossing SWCNTs and MWCNTs is obtained by continuum modeling of the van der Waals interaction between them. Crystalline and amorphous polymers are increasingly used in modern industry as tructural materials due to its important mechanical and physical properties. For crystalline polyethylene (PE), despite its importance and the studies of available MD simulations and continuum models, the link between molecular and continuum descriptions of its mechanical properties is still not well established. For amorphous polymers, the chain length and temperature effect on their
elastic and elastic-plastic properties has been reported based on the united-atom (UA) and CG MD imulations in our previous work. However, the effect of the CL and temperature on the failure behavior is not understood well yet. Especially, the failure behavior under shear has been scarcely reported in previous work. Therefore, understanding the molecular origins of macroscopic fracture behavior such as fracture energy is a fundamental scientific challenge.
In this thesis, the main contributions can be written as follows: (1) An analytical molecular mechanics model is developed to obtain the size-dependent elastic properties of crystalline PE.
(2) We show that the two molecular mechanics models, the stick-spiral and the beam models, predict considerably different mechanical properties of materials based on energy equivalence. The difference between the two models is independent of the materials. (3) The tensile and shear failure behavior dependence on chain length and temperature in amorphous polymers are scrutinized using molecular dynamics simulations. Finally, the influence of polymer wrapped two neighbouring SWNTs’ dispersion on their load transfer is investigated by molecular dynamics (MD) simulations, in which the SWNTs' position, the polymer chain length and the temperature on the interaction force is systematically studied.
A fundamental characteristic of human beings is the desire to start learning at the moment of birth. The rather formal learning process that learners have to deal with in school, on vocational training or in university, is currently subject to fundamental changes. The increasing technologization, overall existing mobile devices, the ubiquitous access to digital information, and students being early adaptors of all these technological innovations require reactions on the part of the educational system.
This study examines such a reaction: The use of mobile learning in higher education.
Examining the subject m-learning first requires an investigation of the educational model e-learning. Many universities already established e-learning as one of their educational segments, providing a wide range of methods to support this kind of teaching.
This study includes an empirical acceptance analysis regarding the general learning behavior of students and their approval of e-learning methods. A survey on the approval of m-learning supplements the results.
Mobile learning is characterized by both the mobility of the communication devices and the users. Both factors lead to new correlations, demonstrate the potential of today's mobile devices and the probability to increase the learning performance.
The dissertation addresses these correlations and the use of mobile devices in the context of m-learning. M-learning and the usage of mobile devices not only require a reflection from a technological point of view. In addition to the technical features of such mobile devices, the usability of their applications plays an important role, especially with regard to the limited display size.
For the purpose of evaluating mobile apps and browser-based applications, various analytical methods are suitable.
The concluding heuristic evaluation points out the vulnerability of an established m-learning application, reveals the need for improvement, and shows an approach to rectify the shortcoming.
Bücher werden nicht erst seit ihrer industriellen Produktion aus gefalzten Papierbogen zusammengesetzt – schon mittelalterliche Codices wurden aus gefalteten Pergamenthäuten konstruiert. Fokus dieser Studie über das Medium Buch ist daher die Kulturtechnik der Faltung. Anders als in der philosophischen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Begriff der Falte, ist die Buchfalte keine anti-lineare Figur, sondern ein operationales Falzscharnier, welches Anordnungen im Buchraum bestimmt und Ornamente hervorbringt. Mediengeschichtliche Fragestellungen sind auf Analysen von Buchmaterial und Künstlerbüchern vom 19. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart basiert. Mit den Büchern u.a. von Christian Boltanski, Hanne Darboven und Hans-Peter Feldmann werden Erkenntnisse über buchgeschichtliche Zusammenhänge gewonnen und das Künstlerbuch in eine Geschichte des Mediums Buch eingestellt.
Bücher werden nicht erst seit ihrer industriellen Produktion aus gefalzten Papierbogen zusammengesetzt – schon mittelalterliche Codices wurden aus gefalteten Pergamenthäuten konstruiert. Fokus dieser Studie über das Medium Buch ist daher die Kulturtechnik der Faltung. Anders als in der philosophischen Auseinandersetzung mit dem Begriff der Falte, ist die Buchfalte keine anti-lineare Figur, sondern ein operationales Falzscharnier, welches Anordnungen im Buchraum bestimmt und Ornamente hervorbringt. Mediengeschichtliche Fragestellungen sind auf Analysen von Buchmaterial und Künstlerbüchern vom 19. Jahrhundert bis zur Gegenwart basiert. Mit den Büchern u.a. von Christian Boltanski, Hanne Darboven und Hans-Peter Feldmann werden Erkenntnisse über buchgeschichtliche Zusammenhänge gewonnen und das Künstlerbuch in eine Geschichte des Mediums Buch eingestellt.
Die Entwicklung von Hybridtechnologien führt zu vielen neuartigen und effizienten Anwen-dungen. Hybridtechnologien kommen immer dann zum Einsatz, wenn die ausschließliche Nutzung einer Technologie oder eines Werkstoffs nicht zum gewünschten Ergebnis führt. Dann kann durch Kombination unterschiedlicher Werkstoffe oder Technologien ein System geschaffen werden, das in seiner Konfiguration ein Optimum an Eigenschaften darstellt.
Im Bauwesen geht die Entwicklung schon seit jeher in Richtung von immer schlankeren ar-chitektonisch ansprechenden Konstruktionen. In der gegenwärtigen Entwicklung ermöglichen hochtechnologische Kunststoffe und Faserwerkstoffe, wie z. B. Kohlenstofffasern, sehr schlanke, leichte und dennoch hochtragfähiger Konstruktionen. Der wirtschaftliche Aspekt bei der Entwicklung von Tragsystemen bzw. -strukturen erfordert dabei in fast allen Fällen eine kostengünstig effiziente Ausbildung und die Optimierung von Trageigenschaften und Kostenfaktoren. Daher besteht oft die Anforderung nach einem Verbundsystem, bei dem unterschiedliche Materialien in der Art miteinander kombiniert werden, dass jeder Werkstoff für eine bestimmte Beanspruchung angeordnet wird und sein Tragfähigkeitspotenzial optimal ausschöpft. Im Rahmen dieser Arbeit werden an konkreten Beispielen Möglichkeiten aufge-zeigt, Hochtechnologiewerkstoffe in effizienter Art und Weise zu nutzen.
Der Kunststoff-Faser-Verbundwerkstoff stellt eine Möglichkeit dar, den als solches nur für dünnschichtige Klebverbindungen nutzbaren Klebstoff in seinen Anwendungsmöglichkeiten zu erweitern. Die Fasern wirken dabei dem mechanischen Schwachpunkt des Klebstoffs, einer nur geringen Zugfestigkeit, effektiv entgegen. Mit faserverstärkten Klebstoff können Anwendungen realisiert werden, bei denen der Klebstoff auch zur Zugkraftübertragung ge-nutzt wird. Zusätzlich bieten Füllstoffe eine Möglichkeit, die Steifigkeit des Klebstoffs zu stei-gern, was für viele mechanischen Beanspruchungen Vorteile mit sich bringt. Die Kombination aus einem partikelgefüllten und zusätzlich faserverstärkten Klebstoff führt zu einem Ver-bundwerkstoff, der für viele unterschiedliche Anwendungen geeignet ist. Praktische Anwen-dungsmöglichkeiten finden sich in der Herstellung von Fassadenelementen, wo der faserver-stärkte Klebstoff zur Verbindung von Aluminiumhohlprofilen verwendet wird. Weitere Anwen-dungsgebiete erstrecken sich auf die Zugkraftbewehrung von Betontragelementen, bei denen der faserverstärkte Klebstoff die Rolle einer Zugbewehrung an der Betonoberfläche übernimmt.
Alu-CFK-Hybridelemente ermöglichen die Herstellung sehr effizienter Tragsysteme, bei de-nen Gewichtsreduzierung der Tragstruktur und Kosteneinsparungen im Betrieb des Bauwerks gleichermaßen ermöglicht werden. Die CFK-Lamellen werden dabei in den am stärksten längskraftbeanspruchten Bereichen eines Aluminiumtragelementes angeordnet, wodurch sich die Biegetragfähigkeit des dann hybriden Tragelements signifikant erhöht. In der Folge können Gewichtsreduzierungen, verglichen mit herkömmlichen Aluminiumtragelementen, erzielt werden. Weiterhin können die Querschnittsaußenmaße bei Alu-CFK-Hybridelementen deutlich reduziert werden. In der Folge vereinfachen sich der Transport und die Montage dieser Art Tragwerke, was besonders bei fliegenden Bauten einen wesentlichen Vorteil dar-stellt.
Der Einsatz von Glas-Kunststoff-Hybridelementen ermöglicht die Konstruktion transparenter Tragstrukturen in einer optisch einzigartigen Qualität. Die Konstruktion eines Glas-Kunststoff-Hybridelementes ermöglicht ein redundant wirkendes Tragverhalten, bei dem die Steifigkeit und optische Qualität des Glases optimal im Tragsystem genutzt werden können. Der Kunst-stoff stellt eine Art Sicherheitselement dar und übernimmt im Falle eines Glasbruchs die Tragwirkung des Glases. Die Eigenschaft der Vorankündigung eines Systemversagens stellt die Grundlage für eine baupraktische Anwendung des Glas-Kunststoff-Hybridelementes als statisches Tragsystem dar. Durch die Redundanz des Tragverhaltens von Glas-Kunststoff-Hybridelementen ist das Versagen dieser Tragstruktur durch optische oder strukturelle An-zeichen erkennbar und eine Bemessung somit möglich.
Für die mechanische Analyse grundlegender Zusammenhänge in Hybridsystemen können ingenieurmäßige, analytische und numerische Betrachtungen durchgeführt werden. Die in-genieurmäßigen Betrachtungen sind sehr gut geeignet, um Abschätzungen zu treffen, die in später durchgeführten experimentellen Bauteiluntersuchungen oft auch ihre Bestätigung fan-den. Bei Detailbetrachtungen, wie z. B. der Analyse eines nichtlinearen Spannungsverlaufes in mechanisch beanspruchten Klebfugen, bietet eine numerische Betrachtung mittels FEM Vorteile, da sie eine sehr detaillierte Auswertung in Bereichen mit hohen Spannungsgradien-ten ermöglicht. Durch die Anwendung der FEM ist es möglich, Strukturen in unterschiedlichen Skalierungsbereichen zu analysieren und dabei auch Bereiche einzubeziehen, die für experimentelle Untersuchungen nur sehr schwer zugänglich sind. Genaue Kenntnisse über das Materialverhalten der zu analysierenden Stoffe stellen dabei eine wesentliche Grundlage für die Erstellung qualitativ hochwertiger Rechenmodelle dar.
Druckbeanspruchte Bauteile aus Beton können mit zugfesten Umschnürungen von außen verstärkt werden. Mit dieser etablierten Methode konnten axiale Traglast und Duktilität von unzureichend bewehrten Stützen bereits verbessert werden. Es wurde jedoch festgestellt, dass der umschnürte Betonkern dennoch an Festigkeit verliert. Um die Wirksamkeit der Umschnürung zu erhöhen, wird deshalb vorgeschlagen, das umschnürende Material vorzuspannen. Dieser Vorschlag wird insbesondere von der neuen Materialgruppe der Formgedächtnislegierungen inspiriert, die thermisch vorspannbar sind.
Bisher sind die Auswirkungen der Vorspannung einer Umschnürung auf das Tragverhalten von Betondruckgliedern kaum untersucht worden. Diese Lücke wird durch systematische Versuche an Betonzylindern mit vorgespannter Umschnürung aus Stahl und kohlenstofffaserverstärktem Kunststoff geschlossen. Die Abbildung der Versuchsergebnisse durch geeignete Modelle ermöglicht auch Aussagen zum Verhalten von Betondruckgliedern mit Umschnürungen aus anderen Materialien, beispielsweise Formgedächtnislegierungen. Um diese in den Berechnungen zu simulieren, wird eine für das Bauwesen infrage kommende eisenbasierte Legierung in separaten axialen Versuchen charakterisiert und thermisch vorgespannt. Die in der vorliegenden Arbeit entwickelten neuen Modelle orientieren sich im Wesentlichen an zwei Zielen: dem Abbilden des mehraxialen Spannungs-Dehnungs-Verhaltens des vorgespannt umschnürten Betons und dem Berechnen der Restfestigkeit des Betons.
Die durchgeführten Versuche und Parameterstudien auf Basis der Modelle zeigen: Die Vorspannung der Umschnürung beeinflusst vor allem die Restfestigkeit des Betons wesentlich. Die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse und neuen Methoden können eingesetzt werden, um das Tragverhalten von Betondruckgliedern mit Umschnürungen aus Stahl, faserverstärktem Kunststoff oder Formgedächtnislegierungen zu bewerten.
Viele Baudenkmale sind dem Konflikt aus baulichem Instandsetzungsbedarf für eine zeitgemäße Nutzung und einer sich möglicherweise daraus ergebenden Gefährdung der Denkmalsubstanz ausgesetzt. Gründe sind steigende Energiekosten für den Gebäudebetrieb, zeitgemäße Anforderungen an Behaglichkeit und Arbeitsschutz, sowie die Vermeidung von Schäden an der Substanz aufgrund baulicher Mängel des konstruktiven Wärme- und Feuchteschutzes. Gleichzeitig gilt für viele Bauten aber auch die Notwendigkeit regelmäßiger Nutzung und Bewirtschaftung, um den Erhalt überhaupt zu sichern. Die energetische Ertüchtigung von Baudenkmalen scheitert in diesem Spannungsfeld oft am unlösbaren Konflikt zwischen dem Erhalt der bauzeitlichen Substanz auf der einen und der notwendigen energetischen Optimierung der Gebäudehülle auf der anderen Seite. Zielsetzung dieser Fallstudie ist die beispielhafte Entwicklung einer bauklimatischen und denkmalgerechten Ertüchtigungsstrategie am Beispiel eines Verwaltungsgebäudes der Nachkriegsmoderne als Beitrag zur Lösung dieses Konfliktes.
Die Reise der Zeichen - Eine Studie zur symbolischen Bildwelt der Xiyü-Kultur an der Seidenstraße
(2015)
Kurzfassung
Die vorliegende Studie untersucht die traditionellen Xiyü-Zeichen im Visuellen verschiedener Volksgruppen am Beispiel Xinjiangs im Nordwesten Chinas, wo einst die alte Seidenstraße entlangführte. Die Untersuchung versteht sich als ein Versuch der systematischen Darstellung der symbolischen Bildwelt in Xinjiang und damit im weiteren Sinne auch als ein Versuch, das Xiyü-Kulturerbe zu bewahren, das angesichts des tiefgreifenden Wandels in China und der Go-West-Strategie des chinesischen Wirtschaftsprogramms, welches sich auf die weiten Westgebiete Chinas bezieht, in Gefahr geraten ist. Es muss ein Weg gefunden werden, Modernisierung und Tradition in Einklang zu bringen.
Diese Studie beschreibt, analysiert und bewertet exemplarisch, wie sich Zeichen und Symbole des Wissens und der Kultur entlang der Seidenstraße in Xinjiang zwischen den östlichen und westlichen Kulturen vermischt haben, wie sie übertragen wurden und inwieweit die Xiyü-Kultur reflektiert, dass Xinjiang ein Treffpunkt zwischen östlichen und westlichen Einflüssen war. In der Annährung an dieses Forschungsziel werden drei Hauptfragen zusammengefasst:
Erstens, was kann das Erfahrungsmodell der alten Seidenstraße zum Verständnis der kulturellen Entwicklung im heutigen Informationszeitalter beitragen?
Zweitens, was bedeutet Vielfalt für die kulturelle Kommunikation in Xinjiang? Steigen die Medienereignisse der visuellen Kommunikation und die internationalen Einflüsse an?
Drittens, wie kann Xinjiang die Chancen der Go-West-Strategie des chinesischen Wirtschaftsprogramms in einer zunehmend globalisierten Welt nutzen und in der zukünftigen weltwirtschaftlichen Entwicklung wieder Vitalität zeigen?
Um sich auf diese Weise den Antworten zu nähern, verwendet diese Studie einen Ansatz, der eine kulturanthropologische Perspektive integriert. Auf Grundlage einer Feldstudie werden Eigenschaften der traditionellen visuellen Xiyü-Zeichen, ihre Bedeutung für die ethnischen Volksgruppen Xinjiangs und den kulturellen Austausch zwischen Europa und Asien diskutiert und der besondere Einfluss von Handel und Verkehrswegen aufgezeigt.
Die visuellen Zeichenformen der Xiyü-Kultur wurden von der Zeit vor der Islamisierung bis hin zur heutigen islamischen Zeit dargestellt. Die Forschung zeigt, dass die Zeichen kein ortsgebundenes Kulturphänomen oder eine lokale Tradition sind, vielmehr werden sie von regionalen, nationalen und internationalen Kulturkreisen bewusst oder unbewusst beeinflusst. Sie sind ein Ergebnis kultureller Kommunikation. Schließlich setzt sich die Studie mit den Zeichen der Xiyü-Kultur Xinjiangs in Relation mit der Go-West-Strategie der chinesischen Regierung auseinander. Die wirtschaftliche Entwicklung bringt für Xinjiang nicht nur Modernisierung und Wohlstand, sondern auch ein kulturelles und ökologisches Ungleichgewicht.
Der Mensch strukturiert alles, was er in seiner Umgebung wahrnimmt, mit Zeichen. Die Xiyü-Zeichen schaffen eine visuelle Strukturierung. Die Xiyü-Kultur hat nach wie vor Einfluss auf die Lebensweise der ethnischen Gruppen in Xinjiang. Heute hat die Konfrontation zwischen der traditionellen Xiyü-Kultur und der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung zu einem ernsthaften Konflikt in Xinjiang geführt.
Diese Studie versteht sich als eine kritische Interpretation der aktuellen Situation der Xiyü-Kultur bzw. des chinesischen Wirtschaftsprogramms in Xinjiang. Sie will darüber hinaus einen Beitrag leisten zur Analyse der bislang nur unzureichend erfassten Wechselwirkungen zwischen Geschichte, Kultur, Politik und Wirtschaft in der kulturellen Globalisierung in Xinjiang.
As human thought was developing, likewise, the technology used for illumination was growing. But a haul through history, reviewing its pages and analyzing it, inherently brings up old and new question, like: Is it possible to alter negatively the image of historic buildings and monuments through inadequate lighting to the degree of distorting the perception that people have of the work? and if so, what are the causes that generate it? Do the light designers take into consideration criteria to protect not only historic buildings and monuments, but also the environment? What are the consequences that may generate the inadequate lighting of urban heritage to the environment? What are the factors to consider for a proper illumination of urban heritage? The answers to these questions will help lay the foundation for proper illumination of the urban heritage, avoiding at the maximum the light pollution and the effects that it generates, seeking a balance and harmonious reconciliation between the technology, urban heritage and environment, taking as a framework and the case study the urban heritage of a city from the colonial era in southern Mexico, with pre-Hispanic roots and where today you can still see through its streets and buildings an atmosphere of mysticism reflection of their folklore and traditions, this city is known as Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas.
The conservation of living heritage sites is a highly complex process. Two factors need careful consideration in order to achieve a balance in the management of such sites: the conservation demands of conservation experts for built heritage and the needs of local people for development of their heritage living space. The complexity of factors involved make for an interesting study of living heritage, taken up by this research in its main case study of the town of Nan in Thailand.
Research into the historical background of Nan and its cultural heritage reveals a living heritage site, which is both unique and diverse. Present day Nan was examined using a variety of analysis tools, which were applied to data from interviews, empirical data, field surveys, and documents, in order to better understand the nature of the living heritage site and changing trends over time. Luang Prabang in Lao PDR, a World Heritage site since 1995, was also selected as a further case study with which to compare Nan’s potential World Heritage status from a point of view of changes to living heritage attributes.
The outcomes of the research indicate the importance of the management of the sites, which can be at risk of losing balance by focusing on one aspect of heritage to the detriment of the other. The conservation perspective, if allowed to dominate, as in Luang Prabang, can cause irreparable damage to the social fabric, where the development needs of the town are not met. This research concludes that a balance of power amongst stakeholders in the collaborative networks managing such sites is vital to sustaining a balance of living heritage attributes.
This is a work concerned with the increasing processes of social exclusion in cities nowadays. In approaching this phenomenon, the research highlights how people interact with their institutional environments. This is also, perhaps centrally, an investigation into the possibility to engage an individual perspective to understand the transformation in urban experience, which is orienting society to new uses and forms of exclusion. Following the perspective deployed by the so-called “sociology of individuals” in French sociology or “reengagement of agency” in the Anglo-Saxon world; I claim that individuals as well as collectives are gaining increasing power to question and re-organize institutions. This re-organization, in the case of socio-urban institutions, is no guarantee for major levels in integration, cohesion, and equality. Unfortunately, social institutions are becoming hard in its exclusionary capabilities under people intervention during the last four decades.
I believe that urban sociology is a field of struggle between different perspectives competing to “make sense” of social phenomena in cities. The orientation supported in this research is just one on many and it follows the roots of people and their life experiences within cities and how they influence the processes that shape the city. The last formulation is possibly not the clearest, because as we all know, references to “inhabitants” are presented in every variant of urban sociology. Nevertheless, there are not many variants focusing on peoples’ capability to influence institutional environments and by this way affecting the urban condition in which they find themselves. The particular institution selected for this study is the “School”.
This thesis is organized around two parts: part one includes the conceptual framework, methodological approach, and historical contextualization; part two describes three case studies produced to analyse the forms of and the relations between individuals and school institution. Part one starts from a premise: within the context of declining welfare State in the case of industrialized countries, an important part of urban studies focuses on economic and spatial restructuration. Confronted with the same situation, a part of social sciences shifts to the individuals’ agency and social uncertainty. This research is embedded in the last theoretical description presented above, thus, because it tries to observe urban processes from the perspective of the individual and outside of developed economies. In this sense, Latin America represents a fundamental reference because urban conditions are historically marked by weak institutional arrangements to integrating people and large levels of marginality and exclusion among population. In this scenario individuals’ practices around inclusion-exclusion have an essential meaning in everyday life.
Part two offers three study cases in which the relation between individuals and school institutions has been analyzed for the Metropolitan area of Santiago de Chile (MAS). Using different methodological resources an exhaustive account on three levels is presented: i) geo-referencing State intervention in public policies connected with neighborhood and schools to understand the form and extent of socio-urban exclusion in MAS, ii) narrative biographies applied to parents with children attending primary school, in order to reconstruct the familiar process of school selection and describing its impacts on the stabilization of school as an exclusionary device, and iii) autoethnography to describe in detail the temporal dimension involved in stabilizing actions which reinforces social mechanisms of urban integration-exclusion during the last three decades in Chile.
A key argument advanced by this research proposes that: the way in which the idea of integration is enacted by people in their biographical careers imprints changes on the institutional orientation and by this way, contributes to the reorganization urban life. The high level of social exclusion in Santiago de Chile is not accountable without considering transformation in all socio-urban institutions, especially the school. No family considers social integration with people from a low social, economical or cultural background as relevant orientation for school selection. This particularity of the Chilean social reality is not derivable from any big capitalistic or modernization processes impacting our cities.
Within the light of the thesis findings, I conclude that socio-urban institutions logics must be reassessment under the influences of people actions and representations. I also propose a consideration to major complementarities between urban studies and urban-institutions analysis. The school institutions is not just a sectorial field reserved to the researcher in education, on the contrary, it represent a key entrance to address people’s experience in their institutional urban environments. The re-emergence of social and urban movements in 2010, under the “Arab Spring” or the “Chilean Student Movements”, is not only a demonstration in the public space as result of major global trends. These situations are in essence, for this research, individuals gathering together and calling for recognition and autonomy inside institutional environment that tends to reject them. Similar situation was the focus of the Latin American urban sociology research, within the focus on grassroots and urban social movements at the end of the 1960s and beginning of the 1970s.
In both cases, socio-urban institutions, unaware of recognition requirements claimed by inhabitants, are not beyond individual or collective reach. My main concern is to show that socio-urban institutions are constantly re-shaped as a result of individual action, what makes the difference, is the spirit that we all, socially, imprint on the logics of our socio-urban institutions, moving them to inclusion or exclusion.
Nanostructured materials are extensively applied in many fields of material science for new industrial applications, particularly in the automotive, aerospace industry due to their exceptional physical and mechanical properties. Experimental testing of nanomaterials is expensive, timeconsuming,challenging and sometimes unfeasible. Therefore,computational simulations have been employed as alternative method to predict macroscopic material properties. The behavior of polymeric nanocomposites (PNCs) are highly complex.
The origins of macroscopic material properties reside in the properties and interactions taking place on finer scales. It is therefore essential to use multiscale modeling strategy to properly account for all large length and time scales associated with these material systems, which across many orders of magnitude. Numerous multiscale models of PNCs have been established, however, most of them connect only two scales. There are a few multiscale models for PNCs bridging four length scales (nano-, micro-, meso- and macro-scales). In addition, nanomaterials are stochastic in nature and the prediction of macroscopic mechanical properties are influenced by many factors such as fine-scale features. The predicted mechanical properties obtained by traditional approaches significantly deviate from the measured values in experiments due to neglecting uncertainty of material features. This discrepancy is indicated that the effective macroscopic properties of materials are highly sensitive to various sources of uncertainty, such as loading and boundary conditions and material characteristics, etc., while very few stochastic multiscale models for PNCs have been developed. Therefore, it is essential to construct PNC models within the framework of stochastic modeling and quantify the stochastic effect of the input parameters on the macroscopic mechanical properties of those materials.
This study aims to develop computational models at four length scales (nano-, micro-, meso- and macro-scales) and hierarchical upscaling approaches bridging length scales from nano- to macro-scales. A framework for uncertainty quantification (UQ) applied to predict the mechanical properties
of the PNCs in dependence of material features at different scales is studied. Sensitivity and uncertainty analysis are of great helps in quantifying the effect of input parameters, considering both main and interaction effects, on the mechanical properties of the PNCs. To achieve this major
goal, the following tasks are carried out:
At nano-scale, molecular dynamics (MD) were used to investigate deformation mechanism of glassy amorphous polyethylene (PE) in dependence of temperature and strain rate. Steered molecular dynamics (SMD)were also employed to investigate interfacial characteristic of the PNCs.
At mico-scale, we developed an atomistic-based continuum model represented by a representative volume element (RVE) in which the SWNT’s properties and the SWNT/polymer interphase are modeled at nano-scale, the surrounding polymer matrix is modeled by solid elements. Then, a two-parameter model was employed at meso-scale. A hierarchical multiscale approach has been developed to obtain the structure-property relations at one length scale and transfer the effect to the higher length
scales. In particular, we homogenized the RVE into an equivalent fiber.
The equivalent fiber was then employed in a micromechanical analysis (i.e. Mori-Tanaka model) to predict the effective macroscopic properties of the PNC. Furthermore, an averaging homogenization process was also used to obtain the effective stiffness of the PCN at meso-scale.
Stochastic modeling and uncertainty quantification consist of the following ingredients:
- Simple random sampling, Latin hypercube sampling, Sobol’ quasirandom sequences, Iman and Conover’s method (inducing correlation in Latin hypercube sampling) are employed to generate independent and dependent sample data, respectively.
- Surrogate models, such as polynomial regression, moving least squares (MLS), hybrid method combining polynomial regression and MLS, Kriging regression, and penalized spline regression, are employed as an approximation of a mechanical model. The advantage of the surrogate models is the high computational efficiency and robust as they can be constructed from a limited amount of available data.
- Global sensitivity analysis (SA) methods, such as variance-based methods for models with independent and dependent input parameters, Fourier-based techniques for performing variance-based methods and partial derivatives, elementary effects in the context of local SA, are used to quantify the effects of input parameters and their interactions on the mechanical properties of the PNCs. A bootstrap technique is used to assess the robustness of the global SA methods with respect to their performance.
In addition, the probability distribution of mechanical properties are determined by using the probability plot method. The upper and lower bounds of the predicted Young’s modulus according to 95 % prediction intervals were provided.
The above-mentioned methods study on the behaviour of intact materials. Novel numerical methods such as a node-based smoothed extended finite element method (NS-XFEM) and an edge-based smoothed phantom node method (ES-Phantom node) were developed for fracture problems. These methods can be used to account for crack at macro-scale for future works. The predicted mechanical properties were validated and verified. They show good agreement with previous experimental and simulations results.
Superplasticizers are utilized both to improve the fluidity during the placement and to reduce the water content of concretes. Both effects have also an impact on the properties of the hardened concrete. As a side effect the presence of superplasticizers affects the strength development of concretes that is strongly retarded. This may lead to an ecomomical drawback of the concrete manufacturing. The present work is aimed at gaining insights on the causes of the retarding effect of superplasticizers on the hydration of Portland cement. In order to simplify the complex interactions occurring during the hydration of Portland cement the majority of the work focuses on the interaction of superplasticizer and tricalcium silicate (Ca3SiO5 or C3S, the main compound of Portland cement clinker). The tests are performed in three main parts accompanied by methods as for example isothermal conduction calorimetry, electrical conductivity, Electron Microscopy, ICP-OES, TOC, as well as Analytical Ultracentrifugation.
In the first main part and based on the interaction of cations and anionic charges of polymers, the interactions between calcium ions and superplasticizers are investigated. As a main effect calcium ions are complexed by the functional groups of the polymers (carboxy, sulfonic). Calcium ions may be both dissolved in the aqueous phase and a constitute of particle interfaces. Besides these effects it is furthermore shown that superplasticizers induce the formation of nanoscaled particles which are dispersed in the aqueous phase (cluster formation). Analogous to recent findings in the field of biomineralization, it is reasonable to assume that these nanoparticles influence the crystal growth by their assembly process.
Based on the assumption that superplasticizers hinder either or both dissolution and precipitation and by that retard the cement hydration, the impact on separate reactions is investigated. On experiments that address the solubility of C-S-H phases and portlandite, it is shown that complexation of calcium ions in the aqueous phase by functional groups of polymers increases the solubility of portlandite. Contrary, in case of C-S-H solubility the complexation of calcium ions in solution leads to decrease of the calcium ion concentration in the aqueous phase. These effects are explained by differences in adsorption of polymers on C-S-H phases and portlandite. It is proposed that adsorption is stronger on C-S-H phases compared to portlandite due to the increased specific surface area of C-S-H phases. Following that, it is claimed that before polymers are able to adsorb on C-S-H phases the functional groups must be screened by calcium ions in the aqueous phase. It is further shown that data regarding the impact of superplasticizers on the unconstrained dissolution rate of C3S does not provide a clear relation to the overall retarding effect occurring during the hydration of C3S. Both increased and decreased dissolution rate with respect to the reference sample are detected. If the complexation capability of the superplasticizers is considered then also a reduced dissolution rate of C3S is determined. Despite the fact that the global hydration process is accelerated, the addition of calcite leads to a slower dissolution rate. Thus, a hindered unconstrained dissolution of C3S as possibly cause for the retarding effect still remains open for discussion. In the last section of this part, the pure crystallization of hydrate phases (C-S-H phases, portlandite) is fathomed. Results clearly show that superplasticizers prolong the induction time and modify the rate of crystal growth during pure crystallization in particular due to the complexation of ions in solution. But this effect is insufficient to account for the overall retarding effect. Further important factors are the blocking of crystal growth faces by adsorbed polymers and the dispersion of nanoscaled particles which hinders their agglomeration in order to build up crystals.
In the last main part of the work, the previously gathered results are utilized in order to investigate hydration kinetics. During hydration, dissolution and precipitation occur in parallel. Thereby, special attention is laid on the ion composition of the aqueous phase of C3S pastes and suspensions in order to determine the rate limiting step. All in all it is concluded that the retarding effect of superplasticizers on the hydration of tricalcium silicate is based on the retardation of crystallization of hydrate phases (C-S-H phases and portlandite). Thereby, the two effects complexation of calcium ions on surfaces and stabilization of nanoscaled particles are of major importance. These mechanisms may partly be compensated by template performance and increase in solubility by complexation of ions in solution. The decreased dissolution rate of C3S by the presence of superplasticizers during the in parallel occuring hydration process can only be assessed indirectly by means of the development of the ion concentrations in the aqueous phase (reaction path). Whether this observation is the cause or the consequence within the dissolution-precipitation process and therefore accounts for the retarding effect remains a topic for further investigations.
Besides these results it is shown that superplasticizers can be associated chemically with inhibitors because they reduce the frequency factor to end the induction period. Because the activation energy is widely unaffected it is shown that the basic reaction mechanism sustain. Furthermore, a method was developed which permits for the first time the determination of ion concentrations in the aqueous phase of C3S pastes in-situ. It is shown that during the C3S hydration the ion concentration in the aqueous phase is developed correspondingly to the heat release rate (calorimetry). The method permits the differentiation of the acceleration period in three stages. It is emphasized that crystallization of the product phases of C3S hydration, namely C-S-H phases and portlandite, are responsible for the end of the induction period.
One major research focus in the Material Science and Engineering Community in the past decade has been to obtain a more fundamental understanding on the phenomenon 'material failure'. Such an understanding is critical for engineers and scientists developing new materials with higher strength and toughness, developing robust designs against failure, or for those concerned with an accurate estimate of a component's design life. Defects like cracks and dislocations evolve at
nano scales and influence the macroscopic properties such as strength, toughness and ductility of a material. In engineering applications, the global response of the system is often governed by the behaviour at the smaller length scales. Hence, the sub-scale behaviour must be computed accurately for good predictions of the full scale behaviour.
Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations promise to reveal the fundamental mechanics of material failure by modeling the atom to atom interactions. Since the atomistic dimensions are of the order of Angstroms ( A), approximately 85 billion atoms are required to model a 1 micro- m^3 volume of Copper. Therefore, pure atomistic models are prohibitively expensive with everyday engineering computations involving macroscopic cracks and shear bands, which are much larger than the atomistic length and time scales. To reduce the computational effort, multiscale methods are required, which are able to couple a continuum description of the structure with an atomistic description. In such paradigms, cracks and dislocations are explicitly modeled at the atomistic scale, whilst a self-consistent continuum model elsewhere.
Many multiscale methods for fracture are developed for "fictitious" materials based on "simple" potentials such as the Lennard-Jones potential. Moreover, multiscale methods for evolving cracks are rare. Efficient methods to coarse grain the fine scale defects are missing. However, the existing multiscale methods for fracture do not adaptively adjust the fine scale domain as the crack propagates. Most methods, therefore only "enlarge" the fine scale domain and therefore drastically increase computational cost. Adaptive adjustment requires the fine scale domain to be refined and coarsened. One of the major difficulties in multiscale methods for fracture is to up-scale fracture related material information from the fine scale to the coarse scale, in particular for complex crack problems. Most of the existing approaches therefore were applied to examples with comparatively few macroscopic cracks.
Key contributions
The bridging scale method is enhanced using the phantom node method so that cracks can be modeled at the coarse scale. To ensure self-consistency in the bulk, a virtual atom cluster is devised providing the response of the intact material at the coarse scale. A molecular statics model is employed in the fine scale where crack propagation is modeled by naturally breaking the bonds. The fine scale and coarse scale models are coupled by enforcing the displacement boundary conditions on the ghost atoms. An energy criterion is used to detect the crack tip location. Adaptive refinement and coarsening schemes are developed and implemented during the crack propagation. The results were observed to be in excellent agreement with the pure atomistic simulations. The developed multiscale method is one of the first adaptive multiscale method for fracture.
A robust and simple three dimensional coarse graining technique to convert a given atomistic region into an equivalent coarse region, in the context of multiscale fracture has been developed. The developed method is the first of its kind. The developed coarse graining technique can be applied to identify and upscale the defects like: cracks, dislocations and shear bands. The current method has been applied to estimate the equivalent coarse scale models of several complex fracture patterns arrived from the pure atomistic simulations. The upscaled fracture pattern agree well with the actual fracture pattern. The error in the potential energy of the pure atomistic and the coarse grained model was observed to be acceptable.
A first novel meshless adaptive multiscale method for fracture has been developed. The phantom node method is replaced by a meshless differential reproducing kernel particle method. The differential reproducing kernel particle method is comparatively more expensive but allows for a more "natural" coupling between the two scales due to the meshless interpolation functions. The higher order continuity is also beneficial. The centro symmetry parameter is used to detect the crack tip location. The developed multiscale method is employed to study the complex crack propagation. Results based on the meshless adaptive multiscale method were observed to be in excellent agreement with the pure atomistic simulations.
The developed multiscale methods are applied to study the fracture in practical materials like Graphene and Graphene on Silicon surface. The bond stretching and the bond reorientation were observed to be the net mechanisms of the crack growth in Graphene. The influence of time step on the crack propagation was studied using two different time steps. Pure atomistic simulations of fracture in Graphene on Silicon surface are presented. Details of the three dimensional multiscale method to study the fracture in Graphene on Silicon surface are discussed.
The main objective of this thesis is to investigate the characteristics of rice husk ash RHA) and then its behaviour in self-compacting high performance concrete (SCHPC) with respects to rheological properties, hydration and microstructure development and alkali silica reaction, in comparison with silica fume (SF). The main results show that the RHA is a macro-mesoporous amorphous siliceous material with a very high silica content comparable with SF. The pore size distribution is the most important parameter of RHA besides amorphous silica content. This parameter affects pore volume, specific surface area, and thus the water demand and the pozzolanic reactivity of RHA and its behaviour in SCHPC. The incorporation of RHA decreases filling and passing abilities, but significantly increases plastic viscosity and segregation resistance of SCHPC. Therefore, RHA can be used as a viscosity modifying admixture for SCHPC. The incorporation of RHA increases the superplasticizer adsorption, the superplasticizer saturation dosage, yield stress and plastic viscosity of mortar. Fresh mortar formulated from SCHPC is a shear-thickening material. The incorporation of RHA/SF ecreases the shearthickening degree. The incorporation of RHA/SF increases the degree of cement hydration. SF appears more effective at 3 days possibly due to the better nucleation site effect, whereas RHA dominates at the later ages possibly due to the internal water curing effect. The incorporation of RHA/SF increases the degree of C3S hydration, particularly the C3S hydration rate from 3 to 14 days. The pozzolanic reaction takes place outside and inside RHA particles.
The internal pozzolanic eaction products consolidate the pores inside RHA particles rather than contribute to the pore refinement in the cement matrix. In the presence of the high alkali concentration, RHA particles act as microreactive aggregates and react with alkali hydroxide to generate the expansive alkali silica reaction products. Increasing the particle size and temperature increases the alkali silica reactivity of RHA. The mechanism for the successive pozzolanic and alkali silica reactions of RHA is theorized. Additionally, a new simple
mix design method is proposed for SCHPC containing various supplementary cementitious materials, i.e. RHA, SF, fly ash and limestone powder.
Abstract
This doctoral thesis defines the relationship between the urban and rural in the 21st century, and focuses on food as a key component. The fact that food is, for the most part, produced in the countryside and then transported to the city has a significant influence on this very unbalanced relationship today. The main goal was to show that it is necessary to bring agriculture, urban gardening, the breeding of domestic farm animals, and beekeeping back to the city, which would have a positive affect on both the city and the countryside. All of this is already taking place at the local level, within the neighbourhoods of our cities and through the work of self-organised activities and initiatives, which have been taken up by city residents themselves. One example of this is the community garden, a new model of gardening which offers fertile ground for growing vegetables and to test various forms of co-existence, different ways of designing spaces, the creation of alternative values, and a positive vision for the future of city residents.
In 2010, I co-created the community urban garden Beyond a Construction Site, which is the central part of this artistic research. Throughout the entire four-year process of creating this community garden, theory and artistic practice were intertwined, and informed one another. This community garden is an example of a self-organised and self-managed community space located in a residential neighbourhood in the centre of the city of Ljubljana, and as such is a typical example of urbanism from the bottom up. I placed the creation and development of our community garden in a dialogue with the formal way of arranging urban gardening in Ljubljana, a top-down approach, which the city has been carrying out intensively since 2007. I compared the solutions being proposed by the city of Ljubljana for organising urban gardening with the way it is organised in other European cities, the UK, and the USA. I also researched the recent rapid growth of self-organised initiatives which are focused on the local production of food and seek to find more economic and ecologically friendly models to visibly influence the future of cities and the countryside. Here, community gardens play an important role, as in addition to the production of food they are also spaces for the criticism of existing urban policies, a self-organised revitalisation of neglected spaces, and places of resilience, because they differ from that which real estate agencies, large financial companies, and city authorities desire them to be.
The community garden Beyond a Construction Site has become living proof that, through a group action, the residents of a neighbourhood can influence existing city policies and the future of both their own neighbourhood and that of the entire city. The initiators of this garden are artists and architects, and we began this community garden in the context of an art festival, which also shows that art can influence the processes of everyday life and help to create much needed spaces within cities to serve various purposes. Our community garden has also shown itself to be an important platform for the exchange of knowledge on organic gardening, ecology in everyday life, and critical architecture, as well as serving to connect related initiatives. Together with these other initiatives we are stronger, and are influencing structural changes within city politics, thereby also co-creating the future of Ljubljana. This community garden is helping us to redefine our relationship with the city and re-awaken the desires and actions of residents connected with realising their fundamental right, the right to the city.
My other artworks, which I am presenting in the context of this doctoral thesis, show an optimistic vision for the future of cities. The video animations Back to the City (2011) and The Right Balance (2013), as well as the accompanying collages, visualise a city of the future where urban and rural practices live together side-by-side. This vision is being realised by city residents themselves, with their active participation in the creation of community gardens, growing their own vegetables, urban beekeeping, and by having egg-laying hens in their gardens. My desire was also to present the theoretical concept and scientific research to a non-academic public, and to people without specialised training. Using the method of storytelling I included knowledge from the research into the video animations and collages. In this way my artistic work, with an intentional playfulness, challenges today’s faith in science and theoretical concepts, as well as directing attention to working with common sense, with one’s own hands, and with the earth. This can contribute to a change in the still dominant anthropocentric view of nature, which is an urgently needed change for our future.
Keywords: rural, urban agriculture, community gardens, urban beekeeping, the bottom-up approach to urban planning, alternative spaces
This thesis applies the theory of \psi-hyperholomorphic functions dened in R^3 with values in the set of paravectors, which is identified with the Eucledian space R^3, to tackle some problems in theory and practice: geometric mapping properties, additive decompositions of harmonic functions and applications in the theory of linear elasticity.
In der vorliegenden Ph.D.-Arbeit werden die Bereiche Materialität, Objektkultur und Physical Computing adressiert. Der Autor erkennt nun durch die durchlaufene intensive theoretische Betrachtungsweise des Themas Materialität die Bedeutung von Tastsinn und Objektoberflächen für den Alltag des praktizierenden Gestalters und proklamiert eine Wende und Hinwendung der Designpraxis zu den Potenzialen von Materialität und deren Bedeutung für die Akteure. Die Aufgabe der Praxisforschung ist es, eine inklusive Optimierungsmethode des Produktdesigns zu gestalten, mit der Designentwicklungen durch überprüfbare Nutzungsdaten optimiert werden können. Die taktile Pilotmethode ergab auf Basis der Generierung von Nutzerkarten Erkenntnisse über biometrische Werte, individuelle Körpergrößen und unterschiedliche Handhabungsprinzipien.
Communities in discourse and space. Towards a spatial dialectic in gated residential developments
(2015)
This research projects deals with the discoursivity of spatial production.
By looking at contemporary residential development in the city of Istanbul, I will examine the reciprocity of the material production of space on one hand, and social discourses on the other, in order to make a contribution to how physical space can be used as a source of research in urban studies. In real estate marketing social discourses are used as a source of reference for place branding or identity design. Branding concepts therefore relate to how social groups imagine their position or future position in society, imaginaries that are continuously influenced and changed by social dynamics within the city but also from the outside. How such urban identities are formed and it what way they relate to the urban environment is crucial to a wide spectrum of social and cultural science. The constitutive role urban space attains has been described and analysed in much detail. Such scrutiny however has yet to be applied to the visual and communicative forms of engagement, the build environment partakes in the formation and change of social discourses.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden Manifestäußerungen des Design- und Architekturdiskurses im situativen, medialen, institutionellen und historischen Kontext untersucht. Auf Grundlage einer Analyse der Etymologie und der Ideengeschichte des Manifestes wird anhand ausgewählter Beispiele die These belegt, dass das Medium vor allem der gezielten Rezeptionssteuerung im Diskurs dient. Darüber hinaus wird die Fähigkeit und Bedeutung des Manifestes als Spiegel vergangener und gegenwärtiger, aber auch als Wegbereiter zukünftiger Diskurse analysiert und Entwicklungen des Manifestes hinsichtlich Stilistik, Inhalt, Funktion und Bedeutung im Design- und Architekturdiskurs dargestellt.
In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden Manifestäußerungen des Design- und Architekturdiskurses im situativen, medialen, institutionellen und historischen Kontext untersucht. Auf Grundlage einer Analyse der Etymologie und der Ideengeschichte des Manifestes wird anhand ausgewählter Beispiele die These belegt, dass das Medium vor allem der gezielten Rezeptionssteuerung im Diskurs dient. Darüber hinaus wird die Fähigkeit und Bedeutung des Manifestes als Spiegel vergangener und gegenwärtiger, aber auch als Wegbereiter zukünftiger Diskurse analysiert und Entwicklungen des Manifestes hinsichtlich Stilistik, Inhalt, Funktion und Bedeutung im Design- und Architekturdiskurs dargestellt.
This thesis deals with the basic design and rigorous analysis of cryptographic schemes and primitives, especially of authenticated encryption schemes, hash functions, and password-hashing schemes.
In the last decade, security issues such as the PS3 jailbreak demonstrate that common security notions are rather restrictive, and it seems that they do not model the real world adequately. As a result, in the first part of this work, we introduce a less restrictive security model that is closer to reality. In this model it turned out that existing (on-line) authenticated encryption schemes cannot longer beconsidered secure, i.e. they can guarantee neither data privacy nor data integrity. Therefore, we present two novel authenticated encryption scheme, namely COFFE and McOE, which are not only secure in the standard model but also reasonably secure in our generalized security model, i.e. both preserve full data inegrity. In addition, McOE preserves a resonable level of data privacy.
The second part of this thesis starts with proposing the hash function Twister-Pi, a revised version of the accepted SHA-3 candidate Twister. We not only fixed all known security issues
of Twister, but also increased the overall soundness of our hash-function design.
Furthermore, we present some fundamental groundwork in the area of password-hashing schemes. This research was mainly inspired by the medial omnipresence of password-leakage incidences. We show that the password-hashing scheme scrypt is vulnerable against cache-timing attacks due to the existence of a password-dependent memory-access pattern. Finally, we introduce Catena the first password-hashing scheme that is both memory-consuming and resistant against cache-timing attacks.
This thesis presents new interactive visualization techniques and systems intended to support users with real-world decisions such as selecting a product from a large variety of similar offerings, finding appropriate wording as a non-native speaker, and assessing an alleged case of plagiarism.
The Product Explorer is a significantly improved interactive Parallel Coordinates display for facilitating the product selection process in cases where many attributes and numerous alternatives have to be considered. A novel visual representation for categorical and ordered data with only few occurring values, the so-called extended areas, in combination with cubic curves for connecting the parallel axes, are crucial for providing an effective overview of the entire dataset and to facilitate the tracing of individual products. The visual query interface supports users in quickly narrowing down the product search to a small subset or even a single product. The scalability of the approach towards a large number of attributes and products is enhanced by the possibility of setting some constraints on final attributes and, therefore, reducing the number of considered attributes and data items. Furthermore, an attribute repository allows users to focus on the most important attributes at first and to bring in additional criteria for product selection later in the decision process. A user study confirmed that the Product Explorer is indeed an excellent tool for its intended purpose for casual users.
The Wordgraph is a layered graph visualization for the interactive exploration of search results for complex keywords-in-context queries. The system relies on the Netspeak web service and is designed to support non-native speakers in finding customary phrases. Uncertainties about the commonness of phrases are expressed with the help of wildcard-based queries. The visualization presents the alternatives for the wildcards in a multi-column layout: one column per wildcard with the other query fragments in between. The Wordgraph visualization displays the sorted results for all wildcards at once by appropriately arranging the words of each column. A user study confirmed that this is a significant advantage over simple textual result lists. Furthermore, visual interfaces to filter, navigate, and expand the graph allow interactive refinement and expansion of wildcard-containing queries.
Furthermore, this thesis presents an advanced visual analysis tool for assessing and presenting alleged cases of plagiarism and provides a three-level approach for exploring the so-called finding spots in their context. The overview shows the relationship of the entire suspicious document to the set of source documents. An intermediate glyph-based view reveals the structural and textual differences and similarities of a set of finding spots and their corresponding source text fragments. Eventually, the actual fragments of the finding spot can be shown in a side-by-side view with a novel structured wrapping of both the source, as well as the suspicious text. The three different levels of detail are tied together by versatile navigation and selection operations. Reviews with plagiarism experts confirm that this tool can effectively support their workflow and provides a significant improvement over existing static visualizations for assessing and presenting plagiarism cases.
The three main contributions of this research have a lot in common aside from being carefully designed and scientifically grounded solutions to real-world decision problems. The first two visualizations facilitate the decision for a single possibility out of many alternatives, whereas the latter ones deal with text at varying levels of detail. All visual representations are clearly structured based on horizontal and vertical layers contained in a single view and they all employ edges for depicting the most important relationships between attributes, words, or different levels of detail. A detailed analysis considering the context of the established decision-making literature reveals that important steps of common decision models are well-supported by the three visualization systems presented in this thesis.
Der vorliegende Text beschreibt die intensive Erforschung von Wabenplatten aus Papierwerkstoffen, die durch Faltprozesse neue räumliche Zustände einnehmen können und somit ihr ursprüngliches Anwendungsspektrum erweitern. Die gezeigten Lösungsansätze bewegen sich dabei im Spannungsfeld von Architektur und Ingenieurbau, denn die gefalteten Bauteile sind nicht nur äußerst tragfähig sondern besitzen auch eine ästhetische Form. Die entwickelten Verfahren und Konstruktionen werden auf einem hohen architektonischen Niveau präsentiert und mit einfachen ingenieurtechnischen Methoden verifiziert. Zur Lösungsfindung werden geometrische Verfahren ebenso angewendet wie konstruktive Faustformeln und Recherchen aus Architektur und Forschung.
Der Fokus der Arbeit liegt auf der Untersuchung von Faltungen in Wabenplatten. Während der Auseinandersetzung mit der Thematik erschienen jedoch viele weitere Aspekte als sehr interessant und bearbeitungswürdig. Als theoretische Grundlage dieser Arbeit werden deshalb die geschichtliche Entwicklung und die gesellschaftliche Bedeutung von Papier und Papierwerkstoffen analysiert und deren Produktionsprozesse beleuchtet. Diese Vorgehensweise ermöglicht eine Einordnung des Potentials und der Bedeutung des Werkstoffs Papier. Der Kontext der Arbeit wird dadurch gestärkt und führt zu interessanten zukünftigen Forschungsansätzen.
Intensive Untersuchungen widmen sich der geometrischen Bestimmung von Faltungen in Wabenplatten aus Papierwerkstoffen sowie deren Manifestation als konstruktive Bauteile. Auch die statischen Eigenschaften der Elemente und ihr Konstruktionspotential werden erforscht und aufbereitet. Wichtige Impulse aus Forschung und Technik fließen in die Recherche der Arbeit ein und erlauben die Verortung der Ergebnisse im architektonischen Kontext. Versuchsreihen und Materialstudien an Prototypen belegen die Ergebnisse virtueller und rechnerischer Studien. Konzepte zur parametrischen Berechnung und Visualisierung der Forschungsergebnisse werden präsentiert und zeigen zukunftsfähige Planungshilfen für die Industrie auf. Etliche Testreihen zu unterschiedlichsten Abdichtungskonzepten führen zur Realisierung eines sehenswerten Experimentalbaus. Er erlaubt die dauerhafte Untersuchung der entwickelten Bauteile unter realistischen Bedingungen und bestätigt deren Leistungsfähigkeit. Dadurch wird nicht nur ein dauerhaftes Monitoring und eine Evaluierung der Leistungsdaten möglich sondern es wird auch der sichtbare Beweis erbracht, dass mit Papierwerkstoffen effiziente und hochwertige Architekturen zu realisieren sind, welche das enorme gestalterische Potential von gefalteten Wabenplatten ausnutzen.
Abstract
In this research, based on socio-spatiality as the starting point, it has conducted extensive city space analysis to advance a new urban social space theory. Resting upon the basis of traditional continent philosophy, this social space theory has adopted the structuration methods, at the same time trying to build certain combination between theoretical frame work establishment and empirical observations. Therefore, the socio-spatial transition study is neither a macro theory of traditional structuralism nor a typology of urban planning theory, or a positivism social geography, but an operative theory on practical purpose. Firstly, what’s distinct from the traditional structuralism is that this study examines the endless transiting structural relations, not macroscopic narrations of absolute definition and structure. In fact, any city and space are always co-existed in their structurational transiting relationship, thus research in transition has become the main body of this study. And case study is a must for research in transition, as part of efforts to apply the structuration concept into practice reason. Secondly, this study first establishes the fundamental structuration concept of socio-spatial transition, which, as an operative tool, is applied to conduct transition analysis on specific case about the City of Beijing. Therefore, as a social space theory, referring to as science, remains criticism of traditional continent philosophy. However, this criticism did not working on the level of ideology or conceptions, but on transiting under structural relations, keeping it from incompetent ideology criticism of continental critical theory. Unfortunately contemporary urban and space development have now gone extremely unbalanced under a background of globalization; yet traditional macro theories are incapable of either producing significant impact on practice or helping people identify practical problems. While facing general issues, particularly the Chinese urban issue category established on a meta-structured city mode, the micro-case study has plunged into dilemma for unknowing either to ask questions or to answer questions. Therefore, this study is set to identify dilemma and find direction for future relevant research. In this dissertation, Beijing is used as a model, and structuration methods as tools. It has extensively analyzed the social-spatial transition of the city space of Beijing, acquiring brand-new knowledge of its urban space development. It is helpful to an in-depth understanding of the city space development not only in Beijing, but also in many other cities that were influenced by the capital model of Beijing. Since the start of reform and opening-up, China has created a unique development mode of the new-styled metropolitan and urbanization in history. This research is expected to analyze or decode what China’s urban development in between communal space and associative space.
The refurbishment of old buildings often goes hand in hand with an increase in both the dead and live loads. The latter, combined with the higher safety factors, often make the reinforcement of the old structures necessary. Most reinforcement methods involve transforming a structural timber member into a composite beam. Composite sections have a long tradition in timber construction. In the early days, multiple timber beams were connected with interlocking tooth and wooden shear connecters, which resulted in an elastic connection. Although historical timber structures are frequently upgraded, no method has yet been established and fully accepted by all stakeholders such as owners, builders, architects, engineers and cultural heritage organisations. Carbon fibre-reinforced polymers (CFRP) have already shown their efficiency in structural reinforcement especially in concrete structures. Moreover, previous studies have shown that CFRP has the potential to meet the expectations of all parties involved.
In order to reach the service-limit state, a high amount of carbon fibres has to be used, or considering the cost of reinforcement, prestress has to be applied. However, prestressing often goes hand-in-hand with delaminating issues. The camber method presented here offers an efficient solution for prestressing timber bending members and overcoming the known obstacles.
In the method proposed, the timber beam is cambered using an adjustable prop at midspan during the bonding of the CRFP-lamella to the lower side of the bending member. After curing the adhesive, the prop is removed and the prestressed composite beam is ready to be used. The prestress introduced in the system is not constant, but has a triangular shape and peaks at midspan, where it is used the most. The prestress force, which declines towards the end of the beam, leads to a constant shear stress over the whole length of the reinforcement,avoiding a concentrated anchorage zone.
An analytical calculation model has been developed to calculate and design prestressed timber-
bending members using the camber method. Numerical modelling, using a multi-surface plasticity model for timber, confirmed the results from the analytical model, and clearly reduced delaminating issues, comparing very favourably to traditional prestressing methods. The experimental parametric study, including the determination of the short-term loadbearing capacity of structural-sized beams, showed agreement with the analytical and numerical calculation. The prestressed reinforcement showed a benefit of nearly 50% towards the ultimate-limit state and up to 70% towards the service-limit state. Calculations revealed that the use of high modulus CFRP allows even higher benefits, depending on the configurations and requirements. The long-term design of the prestressed composite beam was investigated by extending the analytical model. The creep of the timber leads to a load transfer from the timber towards the CFRP, and therefore increases the benefit towards the ultimatelimit design. Applying high modulus CFRP-lamellas allows for a complete utilisation of the
design capacity of timber and carbon fibre-reinforced polymer.
The thorough investigation conducted demonstrated that the camber method is an efficient technique for prestressing and reinforcing timber-bending members. Furthermore, the calculation model presented allows for a safe design and estimation of long-term behaviour.
Methods based on B-splines for model representation, numerical analysis and image registration
(2015)
The thesis consists of inter-connected parts for modeling and analysis using newly developed isogeometric methods. The main parts are reproducing kernel triangular B-splines, extended isogeometric analysis for solving weakly discontinuous problems, collocation methods using superconvergent points, and B-spline basis in image registration applications.
Each topic is oriented towards application of isogeometric analysis basis functions to ease the process of integrating the modeling and analysis phases of simulation.
First, we develop reproducing a kernel triangular B-spline-based FEM for solving PDEs. We review the triangular B-splines and their properties. By definition, the triangular basis function is very flexible in modeling complicated domains. However, instability results when it is applied for analysis. We modify the triangular B-spline by a reproducing kernel technique, calculating a correction term for the triangular kernel function from the chosen surrounding basis. The improved triangular basis is capable to obtain the results with higher accuracy and almost optimal convergence rates.
Second, we propose an extended isogeometric analysis for dealing with weakly discontinuous problems such as material interfaces. The original IGA is combined with XFEM-like enrichments which are continuous functions themselves but with discontinuous derivatives. Consequently, the resulting solution space can approximate solutions with weak discontinuities. The method is also applied to curved material interfaces, where the inverse mapping and the curved triangular elements are considered.
Third, we develop an IGA collocation method using superconvergent points. The collocation methods are efficient because no numerical integration is needed. In particular when higher polynomial basis applied, the method has a lower computational cost than Galerkin methods. However, the positions of the collocation points are crucial for the accuracy of the method, as they affect the convergent rate significantly. The proposed IGA collocation method uses superconvergent points instead of the traditional Greville abscissae points. The numerical results show the proposed method can have better accuracy and optimal convergence rates, while the traditional IGA collocation has optimal convergence only for even polynomial degrees.
Lastly, we propose a novel dynamic multilevel technique for handling image registration. It is application of the B-spline functions in image processing. The procedure considered aims to align a target image from a reference image by a spatial transformation. The method starts with an energy function which is the same as a FEM-based image registration. However, we simplify the solving procedure, working on the energy function directly. We dynamically solve for control points which are coefficients of B-spline basis functions. The new approach is more simple and fast. Moreover, it is also enhanced by a multilevel technique in order to prevent instabilities. The numerical testing consists of two artificial images, four real bio-medical MRI brain and CT heart images, and they show our registration method is accurate, fast and efficient, especially for large deformation problems.
Theoretischer Teil:
Durch den Vergleich der Daten, die sowohl von den Instituten bzw. Statistikunternehmen z. B. Google, Bundesnetzagentur und Statista in Deutschland, 中国互联网络信息中心 in China, FIND in Taiwan usw. zur Verfügung gestellt wurden, als auch durch die von mir durchgeführten Umfragen in den jeweiligen Ländern, sowie durch die Interviews in Weimar, zeigen sich die kulturellen Unterschiede sowie die Gemeinsamkeiten bei der Nutzung des Smartphones. Darüber hinaus ergaben sich noch einige Konsequenzen bei den Interpretationen dieser Ergebnisse, die eng mit der Entstehung der kulturellen Unterschiede zusammenhängen.
Praktischer Teil:
Der erste Entwurf ist eine visuelle Tastatur. Um die Bildschirmtastatur zu verbessern, versucht type right ! (der Name meines Entwurfs) das Problem von Vertippen beim Eingeben zu lösen. type right ! hat zwei Schwerpunkte: 1. geänderte Positionen der Buchstaben und Zeichen und 2. geänderte Form der Taste.
Der zweite Entwurf handelt von einem Konzept einer App für die Integrationsmöglichkeit der Kommunikation.