Promoting Public Participation in Post-Disaster Construction through Wechat Platform

Purpose - How could memory, heritage and post-disaster construction integrated in practice? The purpose of this paper is to introduce our approach in public participation of reconstruction plan, after a raging fire destroyed part of the historic town of Shangri-la, China. Approach – We develop two kind of crowd sourcing platform to collect and also present memory of the vanishing streets which were distroyed completely by fire. One is on Wechat platform. Through secondary development on Wechat Platform, we built a public service account that allowed users to upload photos, hand-painted pictures, and text, all of the files can be saved automaticly in our database. The other platform in on web. The website is designed for users to upload photos based on location where they were taken. All the images collected from the two platforms can be open accessed viewed with location information, which had been sort out by volunteers. The wechat platform is also used to communicate and provide education and information of the historic town to promote awareness of the heritage value. Users can send text to the public account, without privacy risk. Findings – Spreading with help from a local non-government organization, the invations of the wechat public service account received amazing amount of attention, which, according to automatic web statistics, reached up to 40,000. About 150 people followed the Wechat public account. At last we received nearly 1000 photos and hand-painted pictures. About half of our users are from Shangrila local community, Their uploaded files including historical photos of the community, providing us local perspective with long period of concern. The other half users come from travlers from all over the world, mostly from China but also european people. Their photos and paintings also contribute to the memory construction. Implications –The widespread use of smart mobile devices can make individuals more active as participants of public fairs, with the premise of carefully designed infrastructure. In this way, new technologies may contribute to a people centred principle in our conservation and design process. Value – Our approach is so-called Volunteered Geographic Information(VGI)(Goodchild,2007) in collecting memory fragments for post-disaster construction. By convenience of uploading photos and texts from mobile devices, we successfully involved local people and travlers‘participation. The case might bring insight into the field of public participation practice

Failure mechanism and practical load-carrying capacity calculation method of welded hollow spherical joints connected with circular steel tubes

p. 2679-2691According to the ultimate load-carrying capacity obtained from finite element analysis, data point is designed based on orthogonal method, utilizing F-inspection from mathematical statistics to perform multi-parameter and single-factor significance analysis of compressive load capacity. The result indicates that yield strength of spherical material fy are the critical factor that influence the load carrying capacity of hollow spherical joint, as well as wall thickness t, outer diameter of sphere D and outer diameter of steel tube d. Comparatively destructive experiments on 8 typical full-scale joints made from two different graded material, Q235B and Q345B, were conducted to understand directly the structural behavior and the collapse mechanism of the joint, and also to validate the finite element analysis and parameter study. Finally, the simplified theoretical solution is also derived for the loading-carrying capacity of the joint based on the punching shear failure model, and the basic form for the design equation is obtained. By applying the results from the simplified theoretical solution, finite element analysis and experimental study, and utilizing the theory of mathematic statistics and regression analysis, the practical calculation method is established for the load-carrying capacity of the joints subjected to axial compressive forces. By the check of large amount of experiment data, the calculation result obtained from this formula is consistent with experiment result, and the practical formula has safety reserve meeting the regulation in national codes. The achievements from this study can be applied for direct design , and also provide a reference for the revision of relevant design codes.Xue, W.; Yang, L.; Zhang, Q.; Wang, P. (2009). Failure mechanism and practical load-carrying capacity calculation method of welded hollow spherical joints connected with circular steel tubes. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/660

Reduced scale model test on cable membrane roof of Shangai Expo Central Axis

p. 2008-2018In this paper a reduced scale model test on cable membrane roof of Shanghai Expo Central Axis is introduced. The membrane pre-stresses, cable forces and membrane geometry at the initial state are carefully inspected. Numerical form-finding analysis is also carried out and its result is compared with the inspecton. The behaviors of the membrane roof under breaking of cables are observed. Test proves the practicability of the project in aspects of system safety, analysis and inspection.Zhang, Q.; Yang, Z.; Chen, L.; Tang, H.; Zhu, B. (2010). Reduced scale model test on cable membrane roof of Shangai Expo Central Axis. Editorial Universitat Politècnica de València. http://hdl.handle.net/10251/718

Nonmetric Trait Correlation: A Look at Environmental and Biological Influences on Third Trochanter Formation Among Pre-Contact Upper Midwest Populations

Nonmetric traits of the human skeleton are thought to correlate with genetic and/or environmental influences; however, to what extent each may affect the presence of nonmetric traits has not been clearly substantiated in the literature. Nonmetric traits as defined by Larsen are, discrete or quasi-continuous anatomical entities often expressed as gradations from absence to full expression (1997:305). More precisely, nonmetric traits are anomalies that express themselves in the skeleton and are recorded as absent or present. A third trochanter is one of many nonmetric traits present in the femur and is defined by Finnegan as, a rounded tubercle that can be found at the superior end of the gluteal crest of the femur (1978:25). The third trochanter is considered an enthesopathy as well as a nonmetric trait because it is the insertion point of the gluteus maximus muscle, the most superficial muscle in the gluteal region (Gray 1918:426). Recent studies (Hawkey and Merbs 1995, Knusel 2000) indicate that enthesopathies are closely linked to patterns of subsistence, habitual activities and geographic location. It should also be noted that enthesopathies have been directly related to pathology, trauma, biological diversity, age, hormonal, and rheumatic conditions (Hawkey and Merbs 1995, Jurmain 1999). This research will examine the correlation between sex, age, pathology, and environmental influences on the presence of third trochanters in pre-contact populations of the Upper Midwest region of the United States