Discrete adjoint approximations with shocks

This paper is concerned with the formulation and discretisation of adjoint equations when there are shocks in the underlying solution to the original nonlinear hyperbolic p.d.e. For the model problem of a scalar unsteady one-dimensional p.d.e. with a convex flux function, it is shown that the analytic formulation of the adjoint equations requires the imposition of an interior boundary condition along any shock. A 'discrete adjoint' discretisation is defined by requiring the adjoint equations to give the same value for the linearised functional as a linearisation of the original nonlinear discretisation. It is demonstrated that convergence requires increasing numerical smoothing of any shocks. Without this, any consistent discretisation of the adjoint equations without the inclusion of the shock boundary condition may yield incorrect values for the adjoint solution

User-generated insight of Rio’s Rocinha favela tour: Authentic attraction or vulnerable living environment?

Urban transformations help shape new opportunities and create/re-create awareness in everyday living environments. It is not transformation in the infrastructural sense, but transformation in the form of a service industry producing socio-economic change that can result in inclusion and exclusion of people in the community—thus affecting the everyday living environment. Within this, we need to consider the tourist gaze and how users who visit/tour vulnerable living environments report perceptions of their experiences on forums such as TripAdvisor, which helps researchers frame understandings of commodification, opportunities/awareness and even authenticity (each addressed in this paper). This paper evaluates TripAdvisor posts of ‘Rio’s Rocinha Favela Tour’. In many respects, the notion of commodification, and even authenticity, runs through each theme, but the analysis and data posted to TripAdvisor challenges us to consider how a favela becomes a consumer product, or a tourist attraction. The Rocinha Favela tour is widely publicised to prospective visitors as a chance to experience a living and working favela. Given Rocinha has become a popular attraction in Rio, this leads to the second theme: opportunity or awareness. Opportunities do exist for people in the community to get involved in tourism, and turning the favela into a product helps shape and maintain awareness. The third theme builds on and relates to the previous two, but focuses more on the semblances of authenticity that emerges. To link the points highlighted in this paper, a discussion of soft power concerns relationships bonded through economic and cultural influence. Because favelas have become distinct attractions, it is cultural appeal and a different (residential) side of the city that persuades travellers to visit. Online and social media platforms for more than a decade now have played an important role today in projecting images and promoting authentic experiences based on user-perceptions, and this paper looks at how the users communicate their experiences

Rediscovering Slow Fashion: The use of Traditional Crafts to Encourage Sustainable Practices

This paper describes the teaching strategy and curricula for a four-week project that partner’s students with local refugees in the United States. Its aim is to establish a socio-cultural exchange between project participants that promotes the experiential transfer of traditional craft skills and expertise that promote sustainable design. According to Guntlow (1997), in the United States crafting means combining personal taste and function in a way that satisfies one’s individual aesthetic sense as well as practical needs. Indeed, it has been found that handcrafted items hold more intrinsic value, particularly if the maker and owner know each other, adding to the sustainability of the item through extended wear (DeLong, et.al., 2013). The associated design processes, techniques and principles are inherently sustainable; forming a blueprint for students to explore the principles of slow fashion. Lee and DeLong state that “handcrafting offers a meaningful opportunity to promote sustainable fashion design” (pg 78). The student/refugee teams will be encouraged to use their creativity to make traditional concepts contemporary; creating narratives that preserve and illustrate the heritage and originality of the crafts they explore, but in the context of driving the adoption of more sustainable approaches to commercial fashion, focusing on designing and crafting culturally valued, high-quality apparel or accessories with extended life-cycles. The project will explore the contexts of slow fashion and design methodologies along with the research associated with it, focusing on five key areas as outlined by Jung and Jin (2014): (1) Equity, (2) Authenticity, (3) Functionality, (4) Localism, and (5) Exclusivity. This project seeks to provide a practical example of how gaining first-hand knowledge and understanding of craft-based narrative and learning directly with those associated with it enables sensitivity and respect toward cultural origin and craft tradition. Learning outcomes meet the diversity component in the college’s required general electives. More broadly, it is hoped participants may view craft based narratives as a potential intervention in the transformation of the fashion industry toward more ethical and environmental practices and enhance their ability to develop innovative solutions toward the concept of a circular economy (The Circular Economy Concept, 2016)

Tales of the Unexpected: Understanding Emergence and Its Relationship to Design

Today’s techno driven society makes use of complexsystems which are made up of multiple components or entities. Thesesystems, and their interaction with the world around them, often givesrise to unpredictable, unexpected and unprecedented properties. Theseproperties cannot be attributed to a single entity within the system, butthe collective interaction of the system as a whole. This phenomena istermed emergence, and the resulting attributes emergent properties.This paper looks at how user adoption and design envisioningcontribute to the recognition, interpretation and utilisation of emergentproperties within the design life cycle. This life cycle encompasses notonly the actual design activity but extends into consideration of useradoption and consumption. The stages in this design (and emergence)life cycle can be identified as: pre-design emergence; design activity;post-design emergence. The value to the designer of an enhancedunderstanding of emergence and emergent properties is considered,and the way in which designers engage with emergent propertiesdiscussed. Models of these engagements are presented.Designer’s ability to understand and utilise emergentproperties in their creative endeavours provides an enhancedopportunity to develop solutions that are more responsive to userrequirements and acknowledge subsequent modes of user adoption.The exploration of the ‘mindset’ of the user through the use of futurescenarios is developed and a consideration of the value of EpisodicFuture Thinking (Atance and O'Neill 2001) to design and emergencediscussed. An awareness of the implications of emergence mayprovide opportunities for designers to develop intuitive and simplifiedmethods of utilising complex systems and technologies. The paperuses a case study, of the ubiquitous mobile phone, to illustrate the roleof emergent properties to design activity, user behaviour, and user adoption patterns

Eco-System Services and the Circular Economy for Textiles

The concept of industrial ecology has made important contributions to sustainable manufacturing. The discipline majored on applications of systems theory and modelling flows of materials energy and information. However, recognition of the importance of management and policy issues has moved thinking towards industrial ecosystems. This provides the context for interest in the circular economy (CE). The aim of this research, which emerges from the EU-funded Resyntex project, is to appraise the potential for CE in textiles to supplant the present linear supply chains where discarded materials end up in landfill or incinerated. There are major challenges adding value to textile wastes, especially as the materials are mostly from commodity products where price competition is intense. Preliminary work suggests that the business case for CE technologies and processes is not strong enough to attract potential investors. The research reported here draws on the concept of industrial ecosystem services to identify benefits not normally costed when making a financial appraisal. Some of these services can be measured financially, whereas others are indirect and can only be quantified by incorporating policy-related assumptions. However, when textile ecosystem services are quantified and incorporated into the business model, the outcome for CE is considerably more healthy