Distribution of economic damages due to climate-driven sea-level rise across European regions and sectors

Economic costs of climate change are conventionally assessed at the aggregated global and national levels, while adaptation is local. When present, regionalised assessments are confined to direct damages, hindered by both data and models’ limitations. This article goes beyond the aggregated analysis to explore direct and indirect economic...

Totalitarian heritage: Contemporary reconstruction of the Haus der Kunst and the Space Pavilion at the V.D.N.H.

“Difficult heritage” often becomes a crucial point of current political and public debate in countries with totalitarian past (Vyazemtseva, 2020). This term refers mainly to architectural and sculptural monuments that were erected during the rule of totalitarian regimes, and it was first used relatively recently, in 2008 (Macdonald, 2008). At...

Incorporating Trust into Context-Aware Services

Enabling technologies concerning hardware, networking, and sensing have inspired the development of context-aware IT services. These adapt to the situation of the user, such that service provisioning is specific to his/her corresponding needs. We have seen successful applications of context-aware services in healthcare, well-being, and smart...

Combining Context-Awareness and Data Analytics in Support of Drone Technology

Drones performing an autonomous mission need to adapt to frequent changes in their environment. In other words, they have to be context-aware. Most current context-aware systems are designed to distinguish between situations that have been pre-defined in terms of anticipated situation types and corresponding desired behavior types. This only...

Using Drones for Resilience: A System of Systems Perspective

Disruptive Events (DE), such as disasters, virus outbreaks, and military conflicts, are often hugely affecting human life, and works featuring resilience against DE are receiving much attention. A key priority in this regard is the effective monitoring of the affected systems' state after a DE has occurred. Earlier work shows relevant strengths...

Through, Above and Under: Art Hub on the path of Surrealism

In the architectural profession we often encounter the notions of the unjustified distinction between research and design, putting them in the antipodal categories of science and art. During a lecture in 2017 on Methodologies of Architectural Reuse, Martin de Jong brought up the highly discussed issue of the relationship between the two aspects...

The Environmental Impact of Green Consumption and Sufficiency Lifestyles Scenarios in Europe: Connecting Local Sustainability Visions to Global Consequences

The sustainability transformation calls for policies that consider the global consequences of local lifestyles. We used stakeholders' visions of sustainable lifestyles across Europe to build 19 scenarios of sufficiency (net reductions) and 17 of green consumption (shift in consumption patterns). We applied Environmentally Extended Multi...

Draft genome sequence of Dethiobacter alkaliphilus strain AHT1^T, a gram-positive sulfidogenic polyextremophile

Dethiobacter alkaliphilus strain AHT1^T is an anaerobic, sulfidogenic, moderately salt-tolerant alkaliphilic chemolithotroph isolated from hypersaline soda lake sediments in northeastern Mongolia. It is a Gram-positive bacterium with low GC content, within the phylum Firmicutes. Here we report its draft genome sequence, which...

Results of the ontology alignment evaluation initiative 2017

Ontology matching consists of finding correspondences between semantically related entities of different ontologies. The Ontology Alignment Evaluation Initiative (OAEI) aims at comparing ontology matching systems on precisely defined test cases. These test cases can be based on ontologies of different levels of complexity (from simple...

Complete genome sequence of Desulfurivibrio alkaliphilus strain AHT2^T, a haloalkaliphilic sulfidogen from Egyptian hypersaline alkaline lakes

Desulfurivibrio alkaliphilus strain AHT2^T is a strictly anaerobic sulfidogenic haloalkaliphile isolated from a composite sediment sample of eight hypersaline alkaline lakes in the Wadi al Natrun valley in the Egyptian Libyan Desert. D. alkaliphilus AHT2^T is Gram-negative and belongs to the family Desulfobulbaceae within...

Building new roads in tendering: Towards selection based on values and competencies

Adsorption Forms of CO₂ on MIL-53(Al) and NH₂-MIL-53(Al) As Revealed by FTIR Spectroscopy

Adsorption of CO₂ on MIL-53(Al) and NH₂-MIL-53(Al) has been studied by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy at different temperatures and equilibrium pressures. For better interpretation of the spectra ¹³CO₂ was also utilized. It is established that with both samples at low coverages CO...

Partial genome sequence of Thioalkalivibrio thiocyanodenitrificans ARhD 1^T, a chemolithoautotrophic haloalkaliphilic sulfur-oxidizing bacterium capable of complete denitrification

Thioalkalivibrio thiocyanodenitrificans strain ARhD 1^T is a motile, Gram-negative bacterium isolated from soda lakes that belongs to the Gammaproteobacteria. It derives energy for growth and carbon fixation from the oxidation of sulfur compounds, most notably thiocyanate, and so is a chemolithoautotroph. It is capable of complete...

Benchmarking and improving point cloud data management in MonetDB

The popularity, availability and sizes of point cloud data sets are increasing, thus raising interesting data management and processing challenges. Various software solutions are available for the management of point cloud data. A benchmark for point cloud data management systems was defined and it was executed for several solutions. In this...

Umhlanga Rocks coastal defense

The eThekwini coastline is a vulnerable coastline subject to chronic erosion and damage due to sea level rise. In 2007 a severe storm caused major physical and economic damage along the coastline, proving the need for action. Umhlanga Rocks is a densely populated premium holiday destination on the eThekwini coastline suffering from similar...

Point cloud data management (extended abstract)

Point cloud data are important sources for 3D geo-information. The point cloud data sets are growing in popularity and in size. Modern Big Data acquisition and processing technologies, such as laser scanning from airborne, mobile, or static platforms, dense image matching from photos, multi-beam echo-sounding, or from autotracking seismic data,...

Simulated generator for wave energy extraction in deep water