Small matters: Explaining the city through a medieval wall

In the city of Kranj, Slovenia, three former medieval defence towers were redesigned as public spaces. The three interventions are positioned and discussed within the frame of small-scale interventions, specifically as urban acupuncture. First, small-scale interventions are looked at as an approach to designing open space, and parallels with landscape approach are presented. Second, the Three Towers project is discussed, focussing on the relationship it establishes between the city and its context. As the city is built on top of a conglomerate canyon, the interventions open up the slopes and offer distinct views of the surrounding landscape. In this way, they rediscover and emphasise the relationships between the existing contextual amenities and the city itself. The experience of the site grounds the visitor in a physical and historical context and thus fulfils the mental map one might create of Kranj. In this way, the three small interventions influence the perception of the whole city

Machine learning from coronas using parametrization of images

We were interested to develop an algorithm for detection of coronas of people in altered states of consciousness (two-classes problem). Such coronas are known to have rings (double coronas), special branch-like structure of streamers and/or curious spots. We used several approaches to parametrization of images and various machine learning algorithms. We compared results of computer algorithms with the human expert’s accuracy. Results show that computer algorithms can achieve the same or even better accuracy than that of human experts

People in Glass Houses: The Practical and Conceptual Challenges of Public Access in Mid-Century Modernist Residences

High Modernist residential architecture of the mid-twentieth century embodied an austere beauty of simplicity and purity of form. Applying strict design theory to material and structure, architects connected man, architecture and nature in a way that enabled a surreal experience, pushing a residential structure beyond a dwelling to a spiritual place. Over time, some of the most famous and iconic pieces of this architecture have shifted ownership and are no longer used as residences. A new demand for public access and visitation has transformed them into museums and public spaces, turning each into a piece of art in its own right. The function has now shifted in part into the public sphere. As ownership shifts, places originally designed as private retreats for their occupants are now under pressure to open to the public for view and exploration. Highly appreciated as works of art, they draw crowds eager to experience the unique and sensational lifestyle they provided. While this transformation gives a second life to buildings that otherwise might be threatened by destruction or unsympathetic ownership, it also presents problems. Issues of practicality (public access), integrity (durability of physical fabric), and theory (conceptual continuity) raise questions about the most appropriate future for Modernist residential architecture

Small matters: Explaining the city through a medieval wall

In the city of Kranj, Slovenia, three former medieval defence towers were redesigned as public spaces. The three interventions are positioned and discussed within the frame of small-scale interventions, specifically as urban acupuncture. First, small-scale interventions are looked at as an approach to designing open space, and parallels with landscape approach are presented. Second, the Three Towers project is discussed, focussing on the relationship it establishes between the city and its context. As the city is built on top of a conglomerate canyon, the interventions open up the slopes and offer distinct views of the surrounding landscape. In this way, they rediscover and emphasise the relationships between the existing contextual amenities and the city itself. The experience of the site grounds the visitor in a physical and historical context and thus fulfils the mental map one might create of Kranj. In this way, the three small interventions influence the perception of the whole city

Čebele - včeraj, danes, jutri

Čebele so se razvile skupaj s kritosemenkami. Živalski plen, s katerim so se hranile njihove prednice, so zamenjale s pelodom in medičino. Tako se je razvilo eno najbolj zanimivih zavezništev, sožitje med rastlinami in čebelami. Med bolj opaznimi posledicami tega sožitja je izjemna pestrost cvetov, s katerimi rastline privabljajo čebele, manj opazna in znana pa je pestrost čebel. Po svetu jih je kar okrog 20 tisoč vrst. Čeprav večina živi samotarsko, so najbolj znane tiste, ki živijo v skupnostih. Nekatere med njimi pridelujejo med in te so človeka privlačile že od nekdaj in sčasoma se je tudi med čebelami in človekom razvilo nekakšno sožitje. Človek je čebelam priskrbel domovanja, cvetoče rastline, ki jih je gojil, pa si bile bogat vir hrane. V zameno jim je vzel med, a ne toliko, da ne bi mogle preživeti

FORGOTTEN CHILDREN

Diplomsko delo govori o izzivih, s katerimi se soočajo otroci in mladostniki, zaradi prestajanja zaporne kazni enega od staršev. V teoretičnem uvodu je opredeljeno, kako se otroci in mladostniki odzovejo na staršev odhod v zapor, kako to vpliva na njihove odnose z ostalimi družinskimi člani, vrstniki in šolo. Definiran je pojem travmatskega dogodka, ki ga prinese ločitev otroka od starša. Ta lahko privede do posttravmatske stresne motnje, saj obdobje, ko je otrok ločen od starša, postane obdobje velike ranljivosti otroka oz. mladostnika. Prav tako je opredeljen pojem stigme, saj se otrok srečuje tudi s starševo stigmo. V diplomskem delu je opredeljena vloga socialnega delavca, ki pomaga premagovati izzive, s katerimi se sooča otrok ali mladostnik. Raziskovalni del temelji na kvantitativni metodologiji anketnih vprašalnikov, empirični del pa odgovarja na vprašanja, kaj otrok doživlja, ko je soočen z izgubo starša zaradi prestajanja zapone kazni in ali bi otroci v tistem trenutku potrebovali psihosocialno pomoč socialne delavke. Ugotovitve raziskave kažejo, da staršev odhod v zapor vpliva na veliko vidikov otrokovega življenja in da bi otroci oz. mladostniki potrebovali ustrezno pomoč socialne delavke oz. delavca.The graduation thesis addresses the challenges that children and adolescents are facing because of their parent’s incarceration. The theoretical introduction defines how children and adolescents respond to a parent\u27s imprisonment, how that affects their relationships with the rest of the family, peers and school. It also defines the concept of a traumatic event coasted by the separation of child and parent which can lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. The period when the child is separated from the parent becomes a period of great vulnerability of the child. The concept of stigma is defined, because the child also faces the parent\u27s stigma. The thesis describes the role of a social worker who helps to overcome the challenges which a child or adolescent is facing. The research part is based on the quantitative methodology of the questionnaires. The empirical part answers the questions of what a child experiences when confronted with the loss of a parent as a result of serving a custodial sentence and whether the child would need psychosocial assistance from a social worker at the time. The findings of the study show that a parent\u27s imprisonment affects many aspects of a child\u27s life and that children or adolescents needed appropriate help from a social worker or worker

Usposabljanje zaposlenih za prenos znanja - interno izobraževanje in izobraževanje izobraževalcev

In the period of privatisation of NLB d.d. and accession and integration in the European Union, we here at NLB d.d. are more than ever before aware that we will only be able to retain our competitive advantage or even further increase it with a well qualified personnel. Above all, we see our key opportunity to reach this goal in training end educating internal educators, who will be capa­ ble of communicating the acquired knowledge to others, too, either directly at their job posts, via seminars, workshops or in any other form. Therefore we will pay much attention to continuous search for new internal educators as well as to further training and educating of the existing ones and we'll encourage gathering knowl edge in various new forms and methods.V obdobju privatizacije NLB in pristopanja k Evropski uniji ter integraciji z njo se v NLB vse bolj zavedamo, da bomo lahko ohranili svojo konkurenčno prednost ali jo celo izboljšali samo z dobro usposobljenimi kadri. Svojo ključno priložnost za dosego tega cilja vidimo predvsem v usposabljanju in izobraževanju notranjih izobraževalcev, ki bodo sposobni prenesti pridobljeno znanje tudi na druge, neposredno na svojih delovnih mestih, na seminarjih, delavnicah in v drugih oblikah. Zato se nameravamo tudi v prihodnosti posvečati nenehnemu iskanju novih internih izobraževalcev kot tudi nadaljnjim treningom in izobraževanju, spodbujali pa bomo pridobivanje znanja v različnih novih oblikah in z novimi metodami

Simulations of fluids using the Monte Carlo method on graphic processing units

Molecular simulations are a set of methods for performing computer experiments on models of molecular systems. They act as a bridge between theoretical predictions and experimental results. The need for greater computational power grows with the complexity and size of the simulation model. Graphics processing units are increasingly being used for general-purpose computing due to their favourable ratio of computing capacity to power consumption and price. In our work, we focus on the Monte Carlo method for simulation of fluids. We have successfully adapted it for execution on graphics processing units using the CUDA platform and the energy decomposition principle. Throughout the simulation the system energy and radial distribution function are calculated. Inter-atom interactions are modelled using the Lennard-Jones potential. We have also implemented support for molecules composed of several different atoms. We have analysed the performance of our parallel implementation in comparison to a sequential implementation. We have achieved up to 172-fold speedups when using double precision for floating-point number representation and almost up to 640-fold speedups when using single precision