On the Ethics of Reconstructing Destroyed Cultural Heritage Monuments

Philosophers, archeologists, and other heritage professionals often take a rather negative view of heritage reconstruction, holding that it is inappropriate or even impermissible. In this paper, we argue that taking such hardline attitudes towards the reconstruction of heritage is unjustified. To the contrary, we believe that the reconstruction of heritage can be both permissible and beneficial, all things considered. In other words, sometimes we have good reasons, on balance, to pursue reconstructions, and doing so can be morally acceptable. In defending this claim, we discern a number of arguments made against heritage reconstruction and demonstrate that these arguments are either exaggerated or lack support

Development and application of process capability indices

In order to measure the performance of manufacturing processes, several process capability indices have been proposed. A process capability index (PCI) is a unitless number used to measure the ability of a process to continuously produce products that meet customer specifications. These indices have since helped practitioners understand and improve their production systems, but no single index can fully measure the performance of any observed process. Each index has its own drawbacks which can be complemented by using others. Advantages of commonly used indices in assessing different aspects of process performance have been highlighted. Quality cost is also a function of shift in mean, shift in variance and shift in yield. A hybrid is developed that complements the strengths of these individual indices and provides the set containing the smallest number of indices that gives the practitioner detailed information on the shift in mean or variance, the location of mean, yield and potential capability. It is validated that while no single index can fully assess and measure the performance of a univariate normal process, the optimal set of indices selected by the proposed hybrid can simultaneously provide precise information on the shift in mean or variance, the location of mean, yield and potential capability. A simulation study increased the process variability by 100% and then reduced by 50%. The optimal set managed to pick such a shift. The asymmetric ratio was able to detect both the 10% decrease and 20% increase in µ but did not alter significantly with a 50% decrease or a 100% increase in σ, which meant it was not sensitive to any shift in σ. The implementation of the hybrid provides the quality practitioner, or computer-aided manufacturing system, with a guideline on prioritised tasks needed to improve the process capability and reduce the cost of poor quality. The author extended the proposed hybrids to fully measure the performance of a process with multiple quality characteristics, which follow normal distribution and are correlated. Furthermore, for multivariate normal processes with correlated quality characteristics, process capability analysis is not complete without fault diagnostics. Fault diagnostics is the identification and ranking of quality characteristics responsible for multivariate process poor performance. Quality practitioners desire to identify and rank quality characteristics, responsible for poor performance, in order to prioritise resources for process quality improvement tasks thereby speeding up the process and minimising quality costs. To date, none of the existing commonly used source identification approaches can classify whether the process behaviour is caused by the shift in mean or change in variance. The author has proposed a source identification algorithm based on mean and variance impact factors to address this shortcoming. Furthermore, the author developed a novel fault diagnostic hybrid based on the proposed optimal set selection algorithm, principal component analysis, machine learning, and the proposed impact-factor. The novelty of this hybrid is that it can carry out a full multivariate process capability analysis and provides a robust tool to precisely identify and rank quality characteristics responsible for the shifts in mean, variance and yield. The fault diagnostic hybrid can guide the practitioners to identify and prioritise quality characteristics responsible for the poor process performance, thereby reducing the quality cost by effectively speeding up the multivariate process improvement tasks. Simulated scenarios have been generated to increase/decrease some components of the mean vector (µ2/µ4) and in increase/reduce the variability of some components (σ1 reduced to close to zero/σ6 multiplied by 100%). The hybrid ranked X2 and X6 as the most contributing variables to the process poor performance and X1 and X4 as the major contributors to process yield. There is a great challenge in carrying out process capability analysis and fault diagnostics on a high dimensional multivariate non-normal process, with multiple correlated quality characteristics, in a timely manner. The author has developed a multivariate non-normal fault diagnostic hybrid capable of assessing performance and perform fault diagnostics on multivariate non-normal processes. The proposed hybrid first utilizes the Geometric Distance (GD) approach, to reduce dimensionality of the correlated data into fewer number of independent GD variables which can be assessed using univariate process capability indices. This is followed by fitting Burr XII distribution to independent GD variables. The independent fitted distributions are used to estimate both yield and multivariate process capability in a time efficient way. Finally, machine learning approach, is deployed to carry out the task of fault diagnostic by identifying and ranking the correlated quality characteristics responsible for the poor performance of the least performing GD variable. The results show that the proposed hybrid is robust in estimating both yield and multivariate process capability, carrying out fault diagnostics beyond GD variables, and identifying the original characteristic responsible for poor performance. The novelty of the proposed non-normal fault diagnostic hybrid is that it considers quality characteristics related to the least performing GD variable, instead of investigating all the quality characteristics of the multivariate non-normal process. The efficacy of the proposed hybrid is assessed through a real manufacturing examples and simulated scenarios. Variables X1,, X2 and X3 shifted away from the target by 25%, 15% and 35%, respectively, and the hybrid was able to select variables X3 to be contributing the most to the corresponding geometric distance variable's poor performance

Conflicting Values or Common Ground? : Some Concluding Thoughts

Peer reviewe

In the eye of the student : "An intangible cultural heritage experience, with a human-computer interaction twist"

We critically engage with CHI communities emerging outside the global North (ArabHCI and AfriCHI) to explore how participation is configured and enacted within sociocultural and political contexts fundamentally different from Western societies. We contribute to recent discussions about postcolonialism and decolonization of HCI by focusing on non-Western future technology designers. Our lens was a course designed to engage Egyptian students with a local yet culturally-distant community to design applications for documenting intangible heritage. Through an action research, the instructors reflect on selected students' activities. Despite deploying a flexible learning curriculum that encourages greater autonomy, the students perceived themselves with less agency than other institutional stakeholders involved in the project. Further, some of them struggled to empathize with the community as the impact of the cultural differences on configuring participation was profound. We discuss the implications of the findings on HCI education and in international cross-cultural design projects

Archives orales de la Convention du patrimoine mondial : entrevue menée avec Dawson Munjeri par Christina Cameron

Dawson Munjeri est titulaire d’un diplôme en histoire et langue africaine de l’Université du Zimbabwe et d’un diplôme en systèmes d’information de l’Université du pays de Galles. En 1983, il est devenu directeur et gestionnaire du site du Grand Zimbabwe, qui a été inscrit sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial en 1986. Il a ensuite pris la tête des Monuments et Musées Nationaux du Zimbabwe. C’est à ce titre qu’il a véritablement commencé à s’impliquer dans la Convention du patrimoine mondial en recevant, en 1995, la première réunion tenue dans le cadre de la Stratégie globale à Harare. Il accueillera également la réunion sur l’authenticité et l’intégrité dans le contexte africain en 2000 au Grand Zimbabwe. Membre de l’ICOMOS depuis 1993, il en a été le vice-président de 1999 à 2003. À cet égard, il a contribué à l’organisation de la première Assemblée générale tenue en Afrique aux Chutes Victoria en 2003. Il a également réalisé plusieurs missions d’évaluation pour l’ICOMOS. Dawson Munjeri a fait partie de la délégation du Zimbabwe auprès du Comité du patrimoine mondial de 1997 à 2003, et a servi comme vice-président et rapporteur à la 24e session du Comité à Cairns en 2000. Il a par ailleurs fait partie de plusieurs groupes d’experts, notamment celui chargé de réviser les Orientations devant guider la mise en œuvre de la Convention du patrimoine mondial de 2000 à 2004, et celui chargé de rédiger le texte de la Convention pour la sauvegarde du patrimoine culturel immatériel de 2003. Il est aussi l’auteur de nombreuses publications portant sur l’histoire orale, le patrimoine immatériel, l’authenticité et les paysages culturels, ainsi que d’une thèse de doctorat portant sur lois internationales encadrant la protection du patrimoine. Â partir de 2002, il a été Sous-délégué permanent du Zimbabwe auprès de l’UNESCO pendant plusieurs années. Les extraits audio sont issus d’une entrevue menée avec Dawson Munjeri par Christina Cameron en août 2010 à Brasilia. Il puise dans sa riche expérience avec la Convention du patrimoine mondial pour commenter la mise en œuvre de celle-ci dans le contexte africain. Il lance par ailleurs une mise en garde quant à la politisation du Comité et rappelle que seuls les biens dotés d’une valeur universelle exceptionnelle devraient être inscrits sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial.1. La Convention du patrimoine mondial ; 1a. Implication et rôle de Dawson Munjeri dans le patrimoine mondial ; 1b. Objectifs clés de la Convention du patrimoine mondial ; 1c. La liste du patrimoine mondial ; 1d. Décisions et cas spécifiques ayant influencé la mise en œuvre de la Convention ; 1e. Réussites et échecs de la Convention ; 2. Le Comité du patrimoine mondial ; 3. Les organisations consultatives ; 4. Le Secrétariat de l’UNESCO ; 5. Efforts de conservation des États partie

The dynamics of Newcastle disease virus and antibodies post-outbreak and post-vaccination

(Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal, 1998, 29 (1): 1-6

Detection of Tritrichomonas Foetus in Cattle Using a PCR Amplification System

A trichomoniasis polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was successfully established at the Central Veterinary Laboratory (CVL). Four preputial and 27 vaginal washings of bulls and cows obtained from communal cattle in Zimbabwe's Buhera and Wedza districts were tested using a PCR amplification assay as well as the traditional method of microscopy. Out of the 31 cattle tested, two bulls and three cows were positive on trichomoniasis PCR assay. The trichomoniasis microscopy method detected only one cow which was also positive with the PCR assay. The use of the PCR assay for routine diagnosis will greatly improve the CVL's capacity to accurately diagnose bovine trichomoniasis. The PCR tests on clinical samples have for the first time confirmed tritrichomoniasis infection in communal cattle using a highly sensitive and specific molecular based diagnostic test. Zimbabwe Veterinary Journal (2002) 33; 1-