The impact of population migrations in contemporary Amman city architecture

This research addresses the evolution stages of the city of Amman through the influence of the diverse population migrations in the city. The diverse styles were highlighted which accompanied the arrival of these immigrants from different places through the study of design trends and facades forms and architectural elements in terms of architectural patterns, architectural and interior distributions or construction techniques characterized by each stage. Amman had gone through periods of stability and turbulence throughout its long history, as Amman has embraced, the city of valleys and mountains, and springs of water, residential communities since the stone ages, but it has witnessed discontinuity spanned nearly four centuries. Hence, modern Amman has been formed by the advent of Circassians, and as a result of its falling under the rule of the Ottoman Empire, and with the establishment of the Hejaz Railway, which made Amman a station to attract immigrants from neighboring areas, all this gradually led to the formation of a modern image of Amman different from that prevailing before the end of the nineteenth century. Amman received many cultures and population assets, each one in turn led to leaving a trace in Amman architecture of its residential and public buildings alike, leading to the formation of a diverse Ammani's architectural identity. The study of it will determine whether Amman architecture is the result of the experiences and local cultures or the external factors have affected significantly in the formation of architectural fabric and the typical architecture. Keywords: history of Amman architecture, traditional architecture, contemporary architecture, the city of Amman

Advancing Customer Experience Theory: Five-Way Conversations in Two-Person Customer-Marketer Talk

This study advances customer experience theory (CET) by configuring research on talk, storytelling, customer-marketer interactions, and customer assessments of experiences in encounters with sales and hospitality/service representatives. Customers’ introspections and assessments of their meetings with marketers constitutes one genre of storytelling that include not only surface talk between two persons but surface and subsurface (nonconscious) talk between persons and within self. Practical implications include creative storytelling scripts for performing in sales and service training programs in firms and classroom contexts. Given the centrality of face-to-face meetings in many consumer shopping contexts (e.g., cars, houses, medical services; campus visits by high school seniors and parents, insurance selling, clothes shopping; tourism and hospitality), advancing CET and personal selling/buying effectiveness represent worthwhile pursuits. The study is one step forward in reducing the relative scarcity of extant research on customer-marketer talk. Empirically, the study includes customers’ thick descriptions of their self-marketer interactions via subjective personal introspections (SPI) and assessments of these exchanges. Interpersonal verbalization is only one of five levels of processing that take place when a researcher observes a decision-maker in a marketing organization interact with a decision-maker in a customer organization. At level 2, the speaker, listener, and observer are consciously editing thoughts as well as surfacing unconscious thoughts to combine and change conscious editing of what is said, heard, or observed. Level 3 is an automatic process in which unconscious thoughts are brought into working memory to mingle with conscious processing and to send some of the conscious processing into unconscious storage. Level 4 includes unconscious processing between or among individuals that do not become part of conscious processes or verbalization. Level 5 processing spreads activation within the person’s unconscious so that automatic thoughts and behaviors are set into motion without the individual being aware of the process. Customers’ introspections and assessments of their meetings with marketers constitutes one genre of storytelling that include not only surface talk between two persons but surface and subsurface (nonconscious) talk between persons and in within self. The study here includes customers’ thick descriptions of their self-marketer interactions via subjective personal introspections (SPI) and assessments of these exchanges. SPI uses the researcher as the subject of the study and allows for rich, thick, impressionistic narratives of the author’s own experiences in a particular context. Students in various marketing classes in five nations participated in a Trade Tales project. The Appendix provides a common set of instructions used by the Trade Tales Team members. All Trade Tales had a title page, abstract, story (with dialogue), five possible solutions with points awarded for choosing a particular solution and the rationale behind the choice, and surface (explicit) and deep (implicit/personal) assessments of the situation, story, and outcome assessments. Theory and practical implications: the participating student experiences “proper pleasure” in the re-telling of his or her story and also achieves better sense making and problem solving. The finalized versions of the Trade Tales can be used in other classes as case lets for studying customer-marketer interactions. The following case study illustrates one of the stories collected for the Trade Tales Team project. To achieve anonymity, the names of firms and persons are disguised. “AbsolutelyBest Ham to Pocatello, Idaho, USA: Arrival Delay in Customer\u27s Order” is the title of the case study. A customer goes on-line at firm’s (AbsolutelyBest) website and orders 9-lb ham to be delivered to daughter’s home in Pocatello, Idaho, on December 29th. Customer pays extra for two-day delivery service. Ham fails to arrive on December 29 due date. Customer asks for a credit on service not received. Bad weather hit most of the U.S. on December 28. What should the firm do? The full story appears in the paper with possible solutions for students to assess. Practical implications for Trade Tales include creative scripts for performing in sales and service training programs in firms and classroom contexts. Trade Tales are useful as case studies in classroom instruction. Given the centrality of face-to-face meetings in many consumer shopping contexts (e.g., cars, houses, medical services; campus visits by high school seniors, insurance selling; clothes shopping; tourism and hospitality), the relative scarcity of extant research on customer-marketer talk is surprising and represents a vacuum that researchers need to fill

The institute of optimism for professional journalism in the social media era

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2013.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Cataloged from student-submitted PDF version of thesis. Page 75 blank.Includes bibliographical references (p. 72-74).The ecology of contemporary journalism is experiencing a power shift from traditional media such as newspapers and TV news to social media. This shift is bringing a crisis of professional journalism in the traditional media and the emergence of public journalism based on social media. The Institute of Optimism for Professional Journalism in the Social Media Era (hereafter "lOPS") is a new institutional building for a professional broadcasting organization. The aim of the thesis is to find a new spatial medium to reformulate the function of professional journalism through a systematic friction with public journalism in the process of news production. The thesis deals with the imminent deterioration of the broadcasting station through two phased strategies. First, the thesis studies the trajectory of the relationship between the sphere of professional journalism and the sphere of the public in the broadcasting building. Based on this research, the new type of relationship envisaged by the project is formulated. Second, the thesis addresses systematic friction between professional journalism and public journalism through the architectural interfaces in a tectonic manner. Subsequently, the synthesis between the logic of the new relationship and the logic of transparency derived from the interfaces is utilized as the foundation for the construction of an institutional building generating optimal alternative journalism.by Jin Kyu Lee.M.Arch

Organism of options : a design strategy for flexible space

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2008.This electronic version was submitted by the student author. The certified thesis is available in the Institute Archives and Special Collections.Includes bibliographical references (p. [83]-[86]).The need for "flexibility" of architecture has been increasing as recent social demands are rapidly changing. However, many buildings designed in the name of flexibility are blocky, boring, and actually quite inflexible because of incomplete systems, or simple bad planning. A space is designed and built to fulfill a certain request, and in order to perform properly, the space needs to be equipped with the proper systems such as lighting, acoustics, structural system, etc. At the same time, the segregation of functions, or the blind obedience of spatial organization to functions can potentially eliminate the true multi-functionality of a space. The double interpretations of spatial flexibility-- for function, for adaptation-- comprises a primary concern for me. On March 16, 2007, Junior High School 13 (M013) in Harlem, Manhattan was considered by the city of New York for closing. Under the existing education segregation problem in Manhattan, the shutting down of a school in Harlem does not only mean a failure of one institution, but it would further result in deterioration of nearby schools as a result of increased overcrowding. Additionally, considering the fact that the neighborhood school used to function as a community space in Harlem, the absence of M013 would make the community condition worse. Because of this, I propose a community-centered school by associating it with the concept of flexibility. The flexibility in this new architecture can be achieved by effectively arranging spaces and by manipulating the relationship between spaces. The flexibility does not result from the interchangeability or variability of the space, but from the changing the relationship between functions.by Young-Ju Kim.M.Arch

Testing a Novel 3D Printed Radiographic Imaging Device for Use in Forensic Odontology

There are specific challenges related to forensic dental radiology and difficulties in aligning X-ray equipment to teeth of interest. Researchers used 3D printing to create a new device, the combined holding and aiming device (CHAD), to address the positioning limitations of current dental X-ray devices. Participants (N = 24) used the CHAD, soft dental wax, and a modified external aiming device (MEAD) to determine device preference, radiographer\u27s efficiency, and technique errors. Each participant exposed six X-rays per device for a total of 432 X-rays scored. A significant difference was found at the 0.05 level between the three devices (p = 0.0015), with the MEAD having the least amount of total errors and soft dental wax taking the least amount of time. Total errors were highest when participants used soft dental wax-both the MEAD and the CHAD performed best overall. Further research in forensic dental radiology and use of holding devices is needed

State-of-the-art of spatial arch bridges

The paper describes a new form of bridge called a spatial arch bridge. This bridge type was developed in response to the demand for landmark structures, which have started to appear in the modern urban landscape to provide a symbol of originality, innovation and progress. Spatial arch bridges are defined as bridges in which the vertical deck loads produce bending moments and shear forces not contained in the arch plane, owing to their geometrical and structural configuration. Moreover, the arch itself may not be contained in a plane. The different variables and geometries that create such a structural configuration have been studied and classified. A wide compilation of examples of this bridge type has been made in chronological order, according to their construction date, from Maillarts first concrete spatial arch bridges to the latest designs and materials

Overview of Human Factors and Habitability at NASA

This slide presentation reviews the ongoing work on human factors and habitability in the development of the Constellation Program. The focus of the work is on how equipment, spacecraft design, tools, procedures and nutrition be used to improve the health, safety and efficiency of the crewmembers. There are slides showing the components of the Constellation Program, and the conceptual designs of the Orion Crew module, the lunar lander, (i.e., Altair) the microgravity EVA suit, and the lunar surface EVA suit, the lunar rover, and the lunar surface system infrastructure

Role of β3-adrenergic receptors in the action of a tumour lipid mobilizing factor

Induction of lipolysis in murine white adipocytes, and stimulation of adenylate cyclase in adipocyte plasma membranes, by a tumour-produced lipid mobilizing factor, was attenuated by low concentrations (10−7–10−5 M) of the specific β3-adrenoceptor antagonist SR59230A. Lipid mobilizing factor (250 nM) produced comparable increases in intracellular cyclic AMP in CHOK1 cells transfected with the human β3-adrenoceptor to that obtained with isoprenaline (1 nM). In both cases cyclic AMP production was attenuated by SR59230A confirming that the effect is mediated through a β3-adrenoceptor. A non-linear regression analysis of binding of lipid mobilizing factor to the β3-adrenoceptor showed a high affinity binding site with a Kd value 78±45 nM and a Bmax value (282±1 fmole mg protein−1) comparable with that of other β3-adrenoceptor agonists. These results suggest that lipid mobilizing factor induces lipolysis through binding to a β3-adrenoceptor

Colossal naturality in disordered territories

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 2012.Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 311-315)."A controversial new development has recently been put up for debate within the discipline of Geology: Do current levels of human interaction in Earth's geology and atmosphere justify the proclamation of a new geological age or era: The Anthropocene? Entering a realm of scientific uncertainty and discourse, this thesis argues that the conceptualization of the Anthropocene (as a product of human ubiquity) yields the premise to summarize and critique a whole number of recent influential paradigm shifts and theoretical frameworks in architecture, which, in essence, address the relationship between the "man-made"and the "natural" The main hypothesis of this thesis is based on the assumption that principles of dirt and contamination (states of disorder) will replace principles of natural preservation and mythical naturality (seemingly ordered states) as the new primary vessel of meaning for the production of Anthropocene environment, architecture, ecology, society and culture. The Chernobyl Exclusion Zone will serve as a case study for investigating the Anthropocene condition."by Sasa Zivkovic.M.Arch