Filtration–UV irradiation as an option for mitigating the risk of microbiologically influenced corrosion of subsea construction alloys in seawater

The effect of filtration-UV irradiation of seawater on the biofilm activity on several offshore structural alloys was evaluated in a continuous flow system over 90 days. Biofilms ennobled the electrode potential by +400–500 mV within a few days of exposure to raw untreated seawater. Filtration-UV irradiation of the seawater delayed the ennoblement of the steels for up to 40 days and lowered localized corrosion rates in susceptible alloys. Ennobling biofilms were composed of microbial cells, diatoms and extracellular polymeric substances and the bacterial community in biofilms was affected by both the alloy composition and seawater treatment

Livelihood and vulnerability in the wake of Typhoon Yolanda: lessons of community and resilience

Livelihood strategies that are crafted in ‘extra-ordinary’ post-disaster conditions should also be able to function once some semblance of normalcy has resumed. This article aims to show that the vulnerability experienced in relation to Typhoon Yolanda was, and continues to be, directly linked to inadequate livelihood assets and opportunities. We examine the extent to which various livelihood strategies lessened vulnerability post-Typhoon Yolanda and argue that creating conditions under which disaster survivors have the freedom to pursue sustainable livelihood is essential in order to foster resilience and reduce vulnerability against future disasters. We offer suggestions to improve future relief efforts, including suggestions made by the survivors themselves. We caution against rehabilitation strategies that knowingly or unknowingly, resurrect pre-disaster vulnerability. Strategies that foster dependency, fail to appreciate local political or ecological conditions or undermine cooperation and cohesion in already vulnerable communities will be bound to fail. Some of the livelihood strategies that we observed post-Typhoon Yolanda failed on some or all of these points. It is important for future policy that these failings are addressed

A framework for end-to-end ontology management system

An Ontology once developed needs to be kept up-to-date preferably as a collaborative process which will require web based tools. We have developed a large user centered ontology for Sri Lankan agriculture domain to represent agricultural information and relevant knowledge that can be queried in user context. We have generalized our design approach. In doing so we have identified various processes that are required to manage an ontology as a collaborative process. Based on these processes we developed an ontology management system to manage the ontology life cycle. The main processes such as modify, extend and prune the ontology components as required are included. It also has facilities to capture users’ information needs in context for modifications, search domain information, reuse and share the ontological knowledge. This is a semi-automatic ontology management system that helps to develop and manage complex real-world applications based ontologies collaboratively

Interactive web-based hypermedia coordination

This paper discusses the interactive coordination of hypermedia documents' components in the world wide web environment, proposing a design space based on discrete events transmission between linked media and on an extension of the concept of spine introduced by the IEEE 1599 standard for music description. The elements of the design space draw from the early hypermedia models the basic concepts of anchor and link, framing them in the world wide web technology, and integrate the user interaction into dynamic media behavior in a coherent and seamless way. The paper describes the components and operations defined in the design space, giving a rationale for them. Several examples are discussed which represent the typical patterns of dynamic media synchronization and user interaction found in current hypermedia applications. Guidelines for the implementation in the standard HTML5/CSS/Javascript environment are also discussed