Community and Resilience among Sherpas in the Post-Earthquake Everest Region

In this article, I examine how residents of the Mount Everest region of Nepal responded after two major earthquakes occurred on April 25th and May 12th, 2015. This article is based on my participant-observation of discussions among Sherpas, on-foot surveys of earthquake damage, and the experiences of residents, which I recorded in Pharak, between the two major seismic events. I also reviewed institutional activities and reports that pertained to the Everest region and spoke at length with other Sherpas. In these discussions, the boundaries of ‘community’ were both fluid and self-understood. A ‘sense of community’ and ‘resilience’ emerged as salient themes, and provided an analytical framework to understand the Sherpa communities’ responses to these earthquakes. The case studies presented herein are selected based on my direct engagement with them. The narratives present critical social responses to the process of relief and recovery and illustrate Sherpa resilience. ‘Resilience,’ as an analytical lens, also reveals the residents’ ambivalent attitudes about the situation. Although the community was highly aware of devastation and post-earthquake recovery needs, ‘external’ discussions of these topics were subdued. This article then addresses how ‘internal’ Sherpa discussions arose as a response to external portrayals of the Everest region, a popular tourism destination, as a ‘non-affected’ or ‘less-affected’ earthquake zone. Interactions and discussions that took place ‘externally’ were unidirectional and top-down, wherein the villagers were at the receiving end, and often absent. While internal discussions strengthened the community’s ability to rebuild itself, external discussions were instrumental in diverting large-scale relief and rebuilding assistance, not only from the region, but from the entire Solukhumbu district

Modelling of GTAW Weld Pool under Marangoni Convection

With several different fusion welding processes, the melted weld pool profile which ultimately solidifies to form the fusion zone, diverging greatly by a wide variety of factors, e.g. base material, workpiece size, machine setups and extensive range of other process variables. For each distinctive welding setup, the weld pool geometry could vary considerably, and thought to be largely dependent on the hydrodynamics of the weld pools [1]. The Marangoni Effect or thermo-capillarity is seen to be the a dominant force influencing weld pool flow patterns under Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW), inducing liquid metal to flow to regions with higher surface tension (γ) caused by surface tension thermal gradients ∂γ⁄∂T, this in turn would greatly alter the weld pool thermal history, hence the fusion zone geometry [2]. As a general trend, for a negative ∂γ⁄∂T, outward flow from the pool centre to the edge tends to produce wide and shallow pools; whereas for a positive ∂γ⁄∂T, the liquid metal would flow inward to the pool centre, thus creating deep and narrow pool shapes [3]. Fig. 1 Schematic illustration of GTAW process with negative surface tension temperature gradient. This research group believes that the Marangoni Effect is the dominant force in weld pool shaping. To better understand the weld pool behaviours, a two-dimensional simulation model was constructed in CFD package Fluent®, based on stationary arc GTAW welding conditions. In addition, GTAW welding experiments were also performed on titanium alloy Ti-5Al-5Mo-5V-3Cr as reference data for the numerical results to evaluate against

Rancang Bangun Modul PAD (Packet Assembler Dissassembler) Menggunakan AX.25 Pada Sistem Komunikasi ITS-SAT

ITS-Sat merupakan jenis satelit piko yang saat ini sedang dikembangkan di Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember. ITS-Sat membutuhkan suatu protokol komunikasi yang mengatur tata cara komunikasi satelit. Protokol AX.25 merupakan protokol komunikasi yang digunakan dalam sistem komunikasi ITS-Sat. Protokol ini berada pada layer data link dalam model OSI Layer. Protokol ini dapat membangun dan memutuskan link serta melakukan pengiriman data. Protokol AX.25 menggabungkan data-data field menjadi suatu frame. Makalah ini mengimplementasikan protokol AX.25 ke dalam modul PAD (Packet Assembler Dissassembler). Protokol AX.25 diimplementasikan ke dalam mikrokontroler yang merupakan otak dari modul PAD dengan menggunakan bahasa pemograman. Modul PAD berfungsi untuk mengkapsulasi data tiap field menjadi sebuah frame AX.25 sebelum dikirim dan kemudian frame AX.25 yang diterima dienkapsulasi kembali menjadi data field. Modul PAD yang dibuat dapat mengirim dan menerima data teks sebanyak 500 karakter. Hasil pengujian menunjukan bahwa modul PAD yang dibuat mampu melakukan komunikasi antar modul PAD dengan baik

Machining cobalt-based dental alloys with tungsten carbide mills

Milling characteristics of dental alloys have been investigated and compared. The four differently configured tools used were made of cemented tungsten carbide. Most were uncoated but one was coated with a diamond-like carbon layer. The dental alloys studied were cobalt-chrome (Co-Cr) and cobalt-chrome-titanium (Co-Cr-Ti) alloys, fairly strong alloys. There is a requirement for a reliable test to evaluate the properties of dental tools by measuring the cutting forces during milling. A full characterization of dental mills is a difficult task, because the geometry of the mills is complex, with conical multi-cutting surfaces. In this study a more comprehensive understanding of the effects of cutting rate on cutting forces was achieved by varying the tool cutting speed and measuring the force on the workpiece as it was driven into the rotating tool at a fixed feed velocity. It was observed that the cutting forces were changed by varying cutting speeds. Side milling required lower forces than central slot milling. After milling the surfaces of the dental tools and dental alloy specimen were analyzed by scanning electron microscopy

Popular nutrition-related mobile apps: an agreement assessment against a UK reference method

Background: Nutrition-related apps are commonly used to provide information about the user’s dietary intake, but limited research has been performed to assess how well their outputs agree with those from standard methods. Objective: The objective of our study was to evaluate the level of agreement of popular nutrition-related apps for the assessment of energy and available macronutrients and micronutrients against a UK reference method. Methods: We compared dietary analysis of 24-hour weighed food records (n=20) between 5 nutrition-related apps (Samsung Health, MyFitnessPal, FatSecret, Noom Coach, and Lose It!) and Dietplan6 (reference method), using app versions available in the United Kingdom. We compared estimates of energy, macronutrients (carbohydrate, protein, fat, saturated fat, and fiber), and micronutrients (sodium, calcium, iron, vitamin A, and vitamin C) using paired t tests and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests, correlation coefficients, and Bland-Altman plots. We obtained 24-hour weighed food records from 20 participants (15 female, 5 male participants; mean age 36.3 years; mean body mass index 22.9 kg/m2) from previous controlled studies conducted at the Hugh Sinclair Unit of Human Nutrition, University of Reading, Reading, UK. Participants had recorded their food consumption over a 24-hour period using standard protocols. Results: The difference in estimation of energy and saturated fat intake between Dietplan6 and the diet apps was not significant. Estimates of protein and sodium intake were significantly lower using Lose It! and FatSecret than using Dietplan6. Lose It! also gave significantly lower estimates for other reported outputs (carbohydrate, fat, fiber, and sodium) than did Dietplan6. Samsung Health and MyFitnessPal significantly underestimated calcium, iron, and vitamin C compared with Dietplan6, although there was no significant difference for vitamin A. We observed no other significant differences between Dietplan6 and the apps. Correlation coefficients ranged from r=–.12 for iron (Samsung Health vs Dietplan6) to r=.91 for protein (FatSecret vs Dietplan6). Noom Coach was limited to energy output, but it had a high correlation with Dietplan6 (r=.91). Samsung Health had the greatest variation of correlation, with energy at r=.79. Bland-Altman analysis revealed potential proportional bias for vitamin A. Conclusions: he findings suggest that the apps provide estimates of energy and saturated fat intake comparable with estimates by Dietplan6. With the exception of Lose It!, the apps also provided comparable estimates of carbohydrate, total fat, and fiber. FatSecret and Lose It! tended to underestimate protein and sodium. Estimates of micronutrient intake (calcium, iron, vitamin A, and vitamin C) by 2 apps (Samsung Health and MyFitnessPal) were inconsistent and less reliable. Lose It! was the app least comparable with Dietplan6. As the use and availability of apps grows, this study helps clinicians and researchers to make better-informed decisions about using these apps in research and practice