A media framing analysis of urban flooding in Nigeria: current narratives and implications for policy

© 2017, The Author(s). A critical element of current flood management is the importance of engaging key policy actors when policy decisions are to be made. However, there is still only limited understanding of how narratives of flood management actors may influence flood management policies, even though there is a suggestion that actors can strategically use their narratives to influence policy directions. In a developing country like Nigeria, there are still questions around lessons that can be learnt from understanding the narratives of policy actors, to unravel the complex nature of strategies and policy directions in managing urban floods. To help fill these gaps, this paper uses quantitative content analysis to explore the frame of five policy actor groups (government, local communities, business, multilateral organisations and non-governmental organisations (NGOs)) as expressed in local and national newspapers between 2012 and 2016 to understand their narratives of causes and strategies to solve the problem of urban flooding in Nigeria. The narratives of government, local communities and businesses align with the premise that flooding can and should be prevented whilst that of multilateral and business actors champion adaptation strategies on the basis that flooding is inevitable and hence more energy should be directed at ‘living with water’—emergency response, damage reduction and the aftermath. The study also identified areas of potential consensus and conflict between direct actors such as government and local communities on the one hand and funders on the other. Better discussion among actors aiding understanding of contemporary thinking and local realities will aid policy-making and policy implementation in the Nigerian context. An important step will be in the collaborative design of an urgently needed ‘Nigerian policy on flooding’ which currently does not exist

Optimising exposure for children and adolescents with anxiety, OCD and PTSD: a systematic review

Cognitive-behavioural therapy is an effective treatment for anxiety disorders in children and young people, however, many do not benefit. Behavioural exposure appears to be the critical ingredient in the treatment of anxiety disorders. Research with adults has identified innovative strategies to optimise exposure-based treatments, yet it is not clear how to optimise the effects of exposure for children and young people. This review was a preliminary exploration of the association between potential optimisation strategies and treatment procedures and outcomes for the treatment of child anxiety symptoms/disorders. We searched PsychInfo and Medline databases using a systematic search strategy and identified 29 articles. We found preliminary evidence that some specific strategies may enhance the effects of exposure, such as dropping safety behaviours, parents and therapists discouraging avoidance, and the use of homework. However, not one significant finding was replicated by another study for the same time point using the same methodology. To a large degree, this lack of replication reflects a limited number of studies combined with a lack of consistency across studies around conceptualisations, methodological approaches, and outcome measures making it difficult to make meaningful comparisons between studies and draw firm conclusions. Examination is needed of a wide range of theoretically-driven potential optimisation strategies using methodologically robust, preclinical studies with children and young people. Furthermore, the methods used in future research must enable comparisons across studies and explore developmental differences in the effects of particular optimisation strategies

Design of a computer system for the analysis of defects and grading of woven fabrics

Inspection of fabrics is a major consideration in fabric manufacture, as well as in the manufacture of garments and other fabric-based goods. In the Sri Lankan industry fabric inspection is almost entirely carried out by manual methods, and is therefore subjective and prone to human error. This research has sought to address this problem by developing a computerised system to analyse and grade fabrics on the basis of captured defective images obtained from the fabric. In this research a computer-based system for the objective assessment of fabric defects was designed. The system was designed with special emphasis on the fabric defects occurring in the Sri Lankan industry. Image processing techniques were used to analyse scanned images of the test fabric, compare it with an ideal sample which is made available, and identify defects according to pre-learnt rules. The information gathered was then used to grade the fabric, either by giving the frequency of occurrence of defects or by assigning points. A new classification method for common defects was designed, that would facilitate easy grading according to commonly used grading systems. A coding system for defects was also designed, which helps in reporting defects to the user. The detected fabric defects were classified and stored according to the developed classification method and using the proposed coding system

A System for analysis, categorisation and grading of fabric defects using computer vision

Inspection of fabrics is a major consideration in fabric manufacture, as well as in manufacture of garments and other fabric-based goods. In this research, a computer-based system for objective assessment of fabric defects was designed with emphasis placed on fabric defects occurring in the Sri Lankan industry. Image processing techniques were used to analyse scanned images of the test fabric, compare it with an ideal sample, and identify defects according to pre-learnt rules. The information gathered was then used to grade the fabric, either by determining the frequency of defect occurrence or assigning points. A new classification method for common defects was designed, thereby facilitating grading according to commonly used grading systems. A coding system for defects was also designed to help report defects to the user. The fabric defects were classified and stored according to the developed classification method and coding system

The Development of pant sizing system for Sri Lankan females

Mass production in the garment industry requires pre-defined size charts based on up-to-date anthropometric data. These standard size charts provide information for anufacturers and retailers to plan the production and the inventories. Every country must have their own sizing systems based on the target population to provide better fit for ready- to – wear clothing which improves customer satisfaction. An anthropometric survey of Sri Lankan females aged 20-30 years was conducted. 645 females were selected for a pilot study representing 5 provinces in Sri Lanka. Eight major easurements of female lower body were taken following the ISO 8559:1998 standard. Principle Component Analysis was used to reduce the variables in to 2 major components and identify key variables. Two- stage Cluster analysis; Hierarchical cluster analysis and K-means algorithm, was used to find the body types and segment the data into more homogeneous clusters. Five different body types were identified and under each body type, many sizes were built up based on three key measurements. Sizing system for Cluster 1; Body type D, was shown with the percentage of population for each size which will be useful for manufacturers and retailers to plan production and inventory

Evaluation of single jersey knitted fabric drape behaviour

Drape is an important property directly related to textile aesthetics. It plays a significant role in developing and selecting textile materials in the textile and apparel industry. Considerable research has been carried out to examine the relationship between the drape behaviour and fabric physical parameters in woven fabric. However, very little research has been carried out on the drape of knitted fabrics. Knitted fabrics are more popular due to fashion versatility, ability of designs and product development. Objective evaluation of the drape of a fabric is of great importance, since understanding the drape behaviour is important for the selection of appropriate fabrics for intended end-uses and therefore the correlation between drape and fabric properties should be known. The focus of this research is to find out the relationship between single jersey (plain) finished knitted fabric drape behaviour and identified key fabric parameters. For this purpose, the drape of the fabric was tested against various fabric parameters using a Cusick Drape Tester. An empirical model was developed that expresses the relationship as well as helps to calculate the drape coefficient directly

Objective assessment of fabric defects - design of a computerised inspection system

Inspection of fabrics is a major consideration in fabric manufacture, as well as in the manufacture of garments and other fabric-based goods. In the Sri Lankan industry almost all fabric inspection is carried out by manual methods, and is therefore subjective and prone to human error. Various automated fabric inspection systems have been developed in various parts of the world. These systems are, however, rather costly. The purpose of this research is to design a cost-effective fabric inspection system for the objective assessment of fabric defects. This system is being designed with special relevance to the Sri Lankan industry, and should be capable of giving consistent results irrespective of user. Image processing techniques are used to scan images of the test fabric, compare it with an ideal sample with which the system has been calibrated before the commencement of inspection, and identify defects, according to pre-learnt rules. The information gathered would then be used to grade the fabric, either by giving the frequency of occurrence of defects or by assigning points. A new classification method for common defects has been designed, that will facilitate easy grading according to commonly used grading systems. A coding system for defects has also been designed, which will help in the reporting of defects to the user

Kernel-based clustering approach in developing apparel size charts

With the industry revolution, apparel products also become more sophisticated moving from the basic purpose of clothing to aesthetic appeal of the garment embracing the concepts garment fitting and fashion. Garment fitting is a key technical essential for comfortable wearing. In garment fitting, size refers to a set of specified values of body measurements, such that it will provide a means for garments perfectly fit to a person. With the advent of computer software and improved data mining techniques, researchers attempted new advances in formulation of size charts with a better fit. This article suggests a kernel-based clustering approach in developing an effective size chart for the pants of Sri Lankan females. A new kernel based approach “Global Kernel K- means clustering” was successfully deployed to cluster lower body anthropometric data of Sri Lankan females within the age range of 20-40 years. Through the proposed Kernel- based clustering method can effectively handle highly non-linear data in input space which is a key property of lower body anthropometric data and make it linearly separable in feature space without reduction in dimensions and also mathematically justified. Through this method promising results could be obtained and further clustering method was internally validated with kernel based Dunn’s index. The level of fitness of the developed size chart was also evaluated with the aggregate loss of fit factor. The proposed method has strong implications to utilize globally in developing size charts