Exploring Social Capital within Damietta’s furniture industry value chain as mode of community currency

Social Capital contributes to the development of professions as well as communities, especially in small scale urban settings with a dense interlocking social structure. Within industry-based communities, a strong Social Capital Network acts as a basis for transactions between enterprises, which strongly ties into the drivers that constitute many of today’s community/alternative currency initiatives. Furniture enterprises in Damietta form the main economic base of the city, with majority of residents working in furniture-related activities, passing down their businesses through generations. This paper examines the impact of Social Capital on the nature of this industry’s value chain and extent of its influence on business patterns and transactions as a driving force towards an unspoken alternative currency. This is achieved though examining Damietta’s existing spatial, social and business patterns, which arise and influence the city’s socio-economic industry dynamics. The paper aims at provoking arguments on geographical scale and lifestyle patterns being instrumental in the formulation of a local system of transactions based on Social Capital. The paper builds on the work of Putnam, Wallman and Porter, using interviews and GIS spatial mapping to investigate the connection between Social Capital measures (trust, networks and norms), local furniture industry value chain and socio-spatial living and working patterns in Damietta. The results reveal spatial and social connections that exhibit how Social Capital in Damietta’s Furniture industry drives an unspoken currency between enterprises in the city

Optimizing Handover of As-Built Data Using BIM for Highways

An efficient maintenance of the UK’s transportation network is of critical importance to the country’s economy and among the top priorities of the government and public agencies (e.g. Network Rail, Highways England). The public transportation agencies have huge data sets related to asset management and maintenance. However, those data sets are usually held in disparate platforms and have been historically developed using multiple standards and formats. As a result, full value of such data is often not fully realized. Effective management of asset data and availability of reliable information as and when needed, could bring in key benefits for effective management of the transportation network. This paper aims to present the initial findings of a research effort understanding the potential of Building Information Modelling (BIM) in handover processes for a more efficient maintenance of highways assets, and discuss the way forward. The research methodology applied is systematic literature review and two recent best practice cases in the Highways Sector. The research findings suggest that efficient data management through BIM could provide a structured framework to improve asset handover and maintenance. However, it is important to capture the current handover practices between the construction and maintenance phase, and maintenance processes in the UK’s highways sector, both of which seem to be absent in the literature at the moment

Envisioning happy places for all : a systematic review of the impact of transformations in the urban environment on the wellbeing of vulnerable groups

Urban planning and design can impact mental health, but it is unclear how ever-growing and changing cities can sustain the psychological wellbeing of vulnerable groups, who are among the most mentally sensitive to spatial inequalities. This systematic review synthesised quantitative and qualitative studies on urban design interventions and their impact on wellbeing in vulnerable groups. Using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines, we searched five online databases from inception to May 2020. A total of 10 papers were included. We found mixed evidence of benefits for wellbeing linked to urban regeneration projects or focused interventions (green spaces, transport, security). Interventions that were centred around participation, sustainable living, and quality of design (e.g., perceived sense of safety) were associated with increased residential satisfaction and wellbeing, particularly among low-income communities and women. Risk of bias was low to medium, but there was high methodological heterogeneity; studies were mainly from Western countries, and none of the included studies investigated the experiences of people with disabilities, migrants, or racial minorities. This review highlights the importance of inclusive and sustainable design interventions to create happy places for all strata of society, although further investigation is warranted

Transformation towards risk-sensitive urban development : a systematic review of the issues and challenges

Risk-sensitive urban development is an innovative planning approach that can transform the way cities are built to face uncertainties that arise from climate-induced disaster risks. However, the potential to initiate such a transformative approach has not materialised due to many underlying issues that need to be understood properly. Therefore, this study conducted a systematic review to gather empirical evidence on the issues and challenges in implementing risk-sensitive urban development. The study identified forty-six issues and challenges under seven key themes that need addressing to facilitate the desirable transition: trade-offs, governance, fragmentation and silos, capacity, design and development, data, and funding. The issues and challenges that exist under trade-offs for negotiating solutions for risk-sensitive urban development and governance of multiple stakeholders were identified as the top two areas that need attention in facilitating the desirable transition. This study also revealed that important information such as scientific information, hazard and risk information, temporal and spatial information, and critical local details are not being produced and shared between stakeholders in decision-making. A profound participatory process that involves all the stakeholders in the decision-making process was identified as the pathway to ensure equitable outcomes in risk-sensitive urban development

Organic Molecules and Water in the Inner Disks of T Tauri Stars

We report high signal-to-noise Spitzer IRS spectra of a sample of eleven classical T Tauri stars. Molecular emission from rotational transitions of H2O and OH and ro-vibrational bands of simple organic molecules (CO2, HCN, C2H2) is common among the sources in the sample. The gas temperatures (200-800 K) and emitting areas we derive are consistent with the emission originating in a warm disk atmosphere in the inner planet formation region at radii < 2 AU. The H2O emission appears to form under a limited range of excitation conditions, as shown by the similarity in relative strengths of H2O features from star to star and the narrow range in derived temperature and column density. Emission from highly excited rotational levels of OH is present in all stars; the OH emission flux increases with the stellar accretion rate, and the OH/H2O flux ratio shows a relatively small scatter. We interpret these results as evidence for OH production via FUV photo-dissociation of H2O in the disk surface layers. No obvious explanation is found for the observed range in the relative emission strengths of different organic molecules or in their strength with respect to water. We put forward the possibility that these variations reflect a diversity in organic abundances due to star-to-star differences in the C/O ratio of the inner disk gas. Stars with the largest HCN/H2O flux ratios in our sample have the largest disk masses. We speculate that such a trend could result if higher mass disks are more efficient at planetesimal formation and sequestration of water in the outer disk, leading to enhanced C/O ratios and abundances of organic molecules in the inner disk. A comparison of our derived HCN to H2O column density ratio to comets, hot cores, and outer T Tauri star disks suggests that the inner disks are chemically active.Comment: Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journa

Probing the embedded YSOs of the R CrA region through VLT-ISAAC spectroscopy

Near IR spectra obtained with ISAAC at VLT, have been used to pose constraints on the evolutionary state and accretion properties of a sample of five embedded YSOs located in the R CrA core. This sample includes three Class I sources (HH100 IR, IRS2 and IRS5), and two sources with NIR excesses (IRS6 and IRS3). Absorption lines have been detected in the medium resolution spectra of all the observed targets, together with emission lines likely originating in the disk-star-wind connected regions. We derived spectral types, veiling and stellar luminosity of the five observed sources, which in turn have been used to infer their mass and age adopting pre-main sequence evolutionary tracks. We find that in HH100 IR and IRS2 most of the bolometric luminosity is due to accretion, while the other three investigated sources, including the Class I object IRS5a, present a low accretion activity (L_{acc}/L_{bol} < 0.2). We observe a general correlation between the accretion luminosity, the IR veiling and the emission line activity of the sources. A correlation between the accretion activity and the spectral energy distribution slope is recognizable but with the notable exception of IRS5a. Our analysis therefore shows how the definition of the evolutionary stage of deeply embedded YSOs by means of IR colors needs to be more carefully refined.Comment: 17 pages, 13 figures, accepted on A&