Transforming our World through Universal Design for Human Development

An environment, or any building product or service in it, should ideally be designed to meet the needs of all those who wish to use it. Universal Design is the design and composition of environments, products, and services so that they can be accessed, understood and used to the greatest extent possible by all people, regardless of their age, size, ability or disability. It creates products, services and environments that meet people’s needs. In short, Universal Design is good design. This book presents the proceedings of UD2022, the 6th International Conference on Universal Design, held from 7 - 9 September 2022 in Brescia, Italy.The conference is targeted at professionals and academics interested in the theme of universal design as related to the built environment and the wellbeing of users, but also covers mobility and urban environments, knowledge, and information transfer, bringing together research knowledge and best practice from all over the world. The book contains 72 papers from 13 countries, grouped into 8 sections and covering topics including the design of inclusive natural environments and urban spaces, communities, neighborhoods and cities; housing; healthcare; mobility and transport systems; and universally- designed learning environments, work places, cultural and recreational spaces. One section is devoted to universal design and cultural heritage, which had a particular focus at this edition of the conference. The book reflects the professional and disciplinary diversity represented in the UD movement, and will be of interest to all those whose work involves inclusive design

Tracking the Temporal-Evolution of Supernova Bubbles in Numerical Simulations

The study of low-dimensional, noisy manifolds embedded in a higher dimensional space has been extremely useful in many applications, from the chemical analysis of multi-phase flows to simulations of galactic mergers. Building a probabilistic model of the manifolds has helped in describing their essential properties and how they vary in space. However, when the manifold is evolving through time, a joint spatio-temporal modelling is needed, in order to fully comprehend its nature. We propose a first-order Markovian process that propagates the spatial probabilistic model of a manifold at fixed time, to its adjacent temporal stages. The proposed methodology is demonstrated using a particle simulation of an interacting dwarf galaxy to describe the evolution of a cavity generated by a Supernov

The Structure of Constraints: Social Networks of Immigrants from Taiwan

The Structure of Constraints: Social Networks of Immigrants from Taiwan This study looks at the social incorporation of affluent first generation immigrants from Taiwan who migrate to the deconcentrated settlement spaces of South Orange County in Southern California. Based on the socioeconomic and demographic profiles of these immigrants, it is assumed that not only will they experience economic and political integration, but also social integration into the mainstream society. At first glance, opportunities for incorporation into the larger society of the United States seem both plentiful and scarce. While some conditions facilitate integration, other circumstances work against integration. The present study aims to describe the present conditions for social integration of immigrants from Taiwan. It also discusses the nature of the incorporation process and the relation between spatial structure and social structure. Findings from ethnographic fieldwork, including 60 structured, 30 semi-structured interviews and numerous informal interviews, show that the social networks of ethnic Chinese and ethnic Taiwanese immigrants are not comparable to the densely knit, broadly-based ties linking neighbors and kin group members attributed to traditional immigrants. Instead, the social networks of immigrants with high levels of human and economic capital are based on loosely bounded, sparsely knit, and dynamic specialized ties. Recent immigrants have local networks involving less kinship, but higher numbers of former classmates and members of joint recreational associations. However, space- and time-compressing technologies still afford opportunities to maintain ties with family and friends in Taiwan as well as in other places around the globe. In addition, although immigrants from Taiwan choose to live geographically dispersed from other members of their ethnic group, they favor ethnically exclusive interaction outside their work or school environment. Numerous voluntary associations have evolved but are only weakly connected. However, membership in these religious, educational and recreational organizations fluctuates. This dissertation identifies the important structural constraints that shape the formation of personal networks of ethnic Taiwanese and ethnic Chinese immigrants from Taiwan and the degree of overlap created by these networks. Special attention is given to the implications of varying network structures for male and female immigrants on their sense of well-being and the different choices men and women make in building bridges to other social worlds. Analysis of personal network structures and the extent of connectivity between and across various subethnic community organizations is based on the notion that heterogeneity in network composition decreases while homogeneity increases the likelihood of social integration. Overall, there are few structural constraints to interaction with members of other ethnic groups in the social networks of ethnic Chinese and Taiwanese immigrants from Taiwan. However, while immigrants are economically integrated, the likelihood of social integration is not very high since immigrants rarely encounter the need to contact people outside their ethnic groups in their private lives