Design for disaster preparedness: A self-sustained communication network in earthquake scenarios

Design solution I am proposing here consists of an application interface for the disaster victims and an underlying communication network solution that can self-sustain by building a mesh network between the mobile devices that are in the disaster area. This new network comes into play when the existing internet or GSM network fails. Aim of this project is to strengthen the communication between the citizens themselves as well as between the citizens and the governments civil defense organizations. I was inspired to work on this topic as my home country, Turkey, is prone to earthquakes and has suffered multiple disasters in the past. Personally, I have great motivation to introduce design solutions in the area of natural disasters because I believe there is great potential to improve, and every step is important in the way to create a prepared society, social systems and governments. Project begins with the research question on how to sustain the communication network in the case of a natural disaster. Initial research consists of reading through literature, news sources, and internet sources of government organizations. This is to understand the risks, nature of an earthquake scenario, and how different systems in a city interacts with each other. Initial research is combined with Gigamapping method to create a gigamap of the earthquake scenario. Consisting of before, during the disaster and the situation after. Research part has multiple additional categories as well; reading on existing technologies to understand how some communication systems work and going through social media websites of a selected time frame. The research was followed by interviews. I used the initial gigamap as a reference during the interviews to make it easy for the attendants to visualize and propose solutions. Those solutions and then used to generate first concepts and follow up interviews were used to get feedback on the concepts. The final design solution was shaped after the feedback sessions. Materials used in this project was mainly limited to digital, this is due to nature of the project as well as the global pandemic that was taking place while this project were in progress. Interviews were held through video and audio calls, also screen-sharing and digital white-board were used. I think this project has an advantage of timing, digitalization is very on demand currently and I believe the design solution explored here has the potential to attract attention of the right organizations

In Ancient Times the Abailability of Clay Around the Agora

Bu çalışmada Agora'da (Smyrna) yapılan arkeolojik kazılar sonucunda elde edilen 3 adet terra sigillata ve 6 adet red slip seramik parçaları üzerinde petrografik, jeokimyasal ve mineralojik analizler yapılmıştır. Bölgede seramik üretimine uygun kil sahası (Agora güneyi) saptanarak mineralojik ve kimyasal olarak incelenmiştir. Agora seramiklerinin tane boyu saptanmış ve Agora kilinden temsili seramikler üretilmiştir. Temsili seramikler 800, 850 ve 900 °C'de pişirilmiş ve petrografik incelemeleri yapılmıştır._x000B_Petrografik çalışmalar sonucunda terra sigillatalarda baskın matriks kilce zengin, kil olmayan taneler kuvars ve granitik kaya kırıntılıdır. Red sliplerde de benzer içerikler görülmesine karşın mika oranları yer yer artmaktadır.Jeokimyasal analizlere göre terra sigillatalar kendi içlerinde iki, red slipler ise üç gruba ayrılabilmektedir. Bu sonuca mineralojik analizlerde destek vermektedir. Red slip örneklerinde iki adet örnek kaolinitik ağırlıklıdır. Pişme sonucunda mullit oluşumları gözlenmektedir.Agora güneyinden alınan kil örneğinden yapılı temsili seramik ince taneli karbonatça zengindir, kimyasal analiz sonucuna göre SiO2 miktarı Agora seramiklerine göre azdır, ancak içerisine kuvars'ça zengin plastik olmayan tane ilave edildiğinde SiO2 miktarı artacaktır._x000B_Çalışma sonucunda İzmir ve çevresinde olasılı kil yatakları içerik açısından değerlendirilmiştir. Agora güneyinde yer alan killerin seramik üretiminde kullanılmış olma olasılığı yüksektir. Ancak, bu sonuca daha fazla seramik örneğinin incelenmesi ve kazılar sonucunda pişirme işleminin burada yapılıp yapılmadığı araştırılmalıdır. In this study, petrogrpaphic, geochemical and mineralogical analyses of three terra sigillatas and six red slips pieces which were obtained from archeological excavations in Agora (Smyrna). Clay deposit which is suitable for ceramic production in this region determined and analyzed as mineralogical and chemical. Grain size of Agora ceramics was determined and representative ceramics were prepared. These ceramics fired at 800, 850 and 900 oC, and studied petrographically._x000B_According to petrogaphical studies of terra sigillatas are rich in clay matrix and have quartz and granitic rock fragments as non?plastic material. Even the same matrix occurred in red slip, concentration of mica was increased.According to geochemistry, terra sigillatas are separated in two and red slips are separated in three groups. Mineralogical analyses supported these results. Two samples among the red slip samples have dominantly kaolinitic. After firing of Agora clay, mullit formation can be observed. Representative ceramic that is made up of clay samples taken from south of Agora has enriched of carbonate. According to chemical analyses these ceramics have lower values of SiO2 amount in respect of Agora ceramics. However SiO2 amount will be increased when the SiO2 enriched non plastic grains added._x000B_As a result of this study, probable clay deposit in and around of İzmir city is evaluated in terms of mineralogical and chemical contents. Clay which is located south part of Agora, is probable to use production of ceramics. However, it is necessary to study on more ceramic samples from this excavation and has also to examine firing places in this area

Adaptive capacity and flexibility of the Neanderthals at Heidenschmiede (Swabian Jura) with regard to core reduction strategies

The branched reduction system at the Heidenschmiede described here is hitherto exceptional for the Middle Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura. By means of refits and supporting objects, we are able to describe a superordinate reduction system that combines several individual reduction concepts, such as Levallois and blade production, within one volume. In the Middle Paleolithic of the Swabian Jura, blade technology has thus far played a rather minor role. On the one hand, it is possible to split a selected volume (nodule) into three parts, which are reduced separately according to individual concepts. On the other hand, it is also possible to reduce parts of a volume with one concept first and then with another. The hypothetical reduction system can be branched or linear, thus emphasizing the technological flexibility in core reduction, which requires a high degree of cognitive skills of three-dimensional imagination