This paper is motivated by the Time Capsule Project (TCP) of the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). The historical developments of geotechnical risk and ...reliability are reviewed for the past six decades. The key features distinguishing geotechnical and structural engineering are the natural origin of the ground and the lack of sufficient data to characterize the ground using the more familiar frequentist interpretation of probability. For the first feature, random field theory is applied to model spatial variability and the random finite element method or other methods are proposed for solving soil-structure interaction problems in spatially variable soil. For the second feature, compilation of databases is essential to serve as priors for Bayesian updating and more recently for Bayesian machine learning. There is a gradual evolution towards reliability-based design because probabilistic methods offer a pathway to address big data and implement data-centric geotechnics as one step towards digital transformation. Given the complexity of the natural ground (known unknowns can be large and there are unknown unknowns), engineering judgment remains important to bridge the gap between theory and practice. However, the role of engineering judgment needs to be updated as modern machine learning methods become more powerful.
Preventing the progressive deterioration of works of art over time is a topic of great interest to collectors and museums. With this aim, time capsules where environmental conditions remain unchanged ...are well known for preserving art. In this paper, a prototype of an IoT time capsule is presented with a focus on low cost in order to make it accessible to private collectors or small museums with tight budgets. Valencian 'sainetes' (small plays), which are considered materials of artistic interest, have been placed in a "time capsule", which is a manually made container with insulating materials for keeping small pieces for a long time. Environmental control has been performed with a low-cost microcontroller, sensors and actuators connected to a free online IoT platform. This platform recorded data and made decisions based on these data, sending cooling or heating orders to an environmental control system. The results obtained are very satisfactory and open interesting perspectives for future research. However, they also highlight some relevant technical and economic limitations that will have to be considered in the future.
A large amount of waste slurry is generated during construction, but direct sedimentation and transportation increase construction costs. Improper treatment leads to ecological and environmental ...pollution. This paper proposes to reuse drilling waste slurry (DWS) as a raw material from a particular project as a grouting material for the real-time capsule grouting technique (RCG) to replace cement grouting material. This not only deals with DWS but also solves the material demand of RCG. An orthogonal experimental design evaluated the performance of the DWS grouting material (DWS-GM). The five levels for the three factors of this experiment were selected, including the fluidity, bleeding rate, initial setting time, and compression strength. A linear model, support vector machines, and neural networks were used to construct regression models, and the effects of different contents of cement, bentonite, and fly ash on the DWS-GM performance were analyzed. The SVM regression model had better performance in describing the laws of fluidity, bleeding rate, and 28-day compressive strength. Furthermore, the optimization model is proposed to obtain the optimal formulation of the DWS-GM under specific constraints. The optimization results show that the optimal formulation of the DWS-GM was 5.6% cement and 6.9% bentonite. The BL, FL, IST, and 28DCS were 1.61%, 21.87 cm, 27.05 h, and 0.22 MPa to meet the functional requirements of the DWS-GM. The above research fully proves the feasibility of the DWS reuse application. We will further reuse DWS to develop other multifunctional material applications in combination with the control needs of RCG technology and technology from other fields.
This paper highlights how a small group of minority students worked to take advantage of the privileges available once they were admitted to an elite school. The argument proposed is that, unlike ...their more privileged peers, minority students who have made it through the gateways of elite schools have to work out a salvation of privilege to level up their chances and aspirations of success. A grounded theory based on 'working out the salvation of privilege' is derived to examine the ways in which minority students in elite schools seize individual ways of self-saving their variegated disadvantages. The study tracked three students over a five-year period to explore the development of their aspirations and individual trajectories two years after they exited their schools. Despite the students' efforts in self-saving, their 'envisioned future' became limited over time. All had to modify their options and expectations because their non-privileged background hindered their aspirations.
Non-destructive analytical techniques are becoming increasingly important for the study of objects of cultural heritage interest. This study applied two techniques: X-ray fluorescence and neutron ...radiography, for the investigation of a capped, tubular metal object recovered from an urban construction site in Gore Park, Hamilton, Canada. The site is an urban park containing a World War I commemorative monument that underwent renovation and relocation. Historical documentation suggested that the object buried underneath the monument was a time capsule containing a paper document listing the names of 1800 Canadians who died during WWI. The purpose of this study was to assess the condition of the object, and to verify if it was what the historical records purported. XRF analysis was used to characterize the elemental composition of the metal artifact, while neutron radiography revealed that its contents were congruent with historical records and remained intact after being interred for 91years. Results of this study demonstrate the value of non-destructive techniques for the analysis and preservation of cultural heritage.
How should we save our personal memories? Many people keep diaries and take pictures for that purpose. In this study, we kept things of personal significance in a time capsule for 9 years and ...examined whether personal memories could be saved in a time capsule and how they might possibly change over time. We held a workshop in 2003 when participants put something that they had possessed which had personal significance at that time of their life. They were interviewed to explain what kinds of significance these possessions had for them, and these interview sessions were recorded. Nine years after the initial workshop, the participants came together again. Before the time capsule was opened, they were asked to recall what they had put in the time capsule and to describe in what ways their possession in the time capsule had been significant to them. By comparing the contents of the participants’ responses between 2003 and 2012, it was found that a great deal of the contents have been changed from 2003 to 2012. Implications were discussed as regards to the significance of objects themselves and the narratives that go with the objects in preserving personal memories.
The paper presents a program to construct a non-relativistic relational Bohmian theory, that is, a theory of
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moving point-like particles that dispenses with space and time as fundamental background ...structures. The relational program proposed is based on the best-matching framework originally developed by Julian Barbour. In particular, the paper focuses on the conceptual problems that arise when trying to implement such a program. It is argued that pursuing a relational strategy in the Bohmian context leads to a more parsimonious ontology than that of standard Bohmian mechanics without betraying the original motivations for adopting a primitive ontology approach to quantum physics. It is also shown how a relational Bohmian approach might clarify the issue of the timelessness of the dynamics resulting from the quantization of a classical relational system of particles.
This paper explores the ‘graphic artifacts’ (Hull, 2012) of jibunshi (‘personal history’), Japanese life writing, as semiotic time capsuling. By semiotic time capsuling, I mean a material process of ...effacement and resurfacing that mediates ‘non-adjacent timescales’ (Lemke, 2000). I focus on one grassroots literacy movement (original formulator of the genre name, jibunshi) and its ideology of addressivity, a fantasy of tele-communication that conjures up other times, other lives, and other values. The movement's practical philosophy of the life-historical ‘record’ as a time capsule-like sign addressed to distanced addressees offers its participants an unlikely tool for politicizing everyday life against hegemonic nationalist nostalgia.
•Life historical texts as graphic artifacts are analogized to modern time capsules.•The idea of semiotic time capsuling is proposed as a form of historical semiosis.•Semiotic time capsuling affords ideologization of addressivity.•A Japanese ‘personal history’ project is discussed as an ethnographic case.•The case reveals a conceptual contrast between two kinds of addressivity.
A collection intent on worrying the boundaries between natural and unnatural, human and not, Unlikely Designs draws far-ranging source material from the back channels of knowledge making: the talk ...pages of Wikipedia, the personal writings of Charles Darwin, the love advice doled out by chatbots, and the eclectic inclusions on the Golden Record time capsule. It is here we discover the allure of the index, what pleasure there is in bending it to our own devices. At the same time, these poems also remind us that logic is often reckless, held together by nothing more than syntactical short circuits— well, I mean, sorry, yes —prone to cracking under closer scrutiny. Returning us again and again to these gaps, Katie Willingham reveals how any act of preservation is inevitably an act of curation, an outcry against the arbitrary, by attempting to make what is precious also what survives.
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