Indonesian domestic workers and the (un)making of transnational livelihoods and provisional futures

Doreen Massey (2005. For Space. London: Sage.) argued that space and time should not be reduced to a bounded locality of the ‘here and now’ and instead proposed re-imagining ‘space as simultaneity of stories-so-far’. We build on her argument to suggest that an appreciation of migrant aspirations and future trajectories require us to go beyond simultaneous ‘stories-so-far’ but also consider ‘stories-to-come’ which may build upon, divert from, or even unmake the ‘stories-so-far’. We apply these ideas to our study (based on a questionnaire survey and in-depth interviews) of the transnational journeys traced by Indonesian domestic workers employed in Singaporean middle-class homes. We argue that socially and culturally specific notions of risk can work to propel and sustain migration into retrogressive occupations like domestic work, as well as disrupt dominant narratives around migrants as strategic actors, necessarily in control of their trajectories and driven by their migration plans. The calculus of risk-taking and aspiration on which transnational livelihoods are predicated is one that takes into account both situatedness in and connectedness across different places (in short simultaneous ‘stories-so-far’). At the same time, future ‘stories-to-come’ may entail both subtle shifts and constant (re)negotiations that propel individual life stories unto different pathways.     

Physics-based Simulation and High-fidelity Visualization of Fire Following Earthquake Considering Building Seismic Damage

This work proposes a framework for the physics-based simulation and high-fidelity visualization of fire following earthquake (FFE) considering building seismic damage. The seismic damage of regional buildings is simulated using multiple degree-of-freedom building models in conjunction with nonlinear time-history analysis. In parallel, a high-fidelity visualization is presented to simulate fire spread and smoke effects. A case study of downtown Taiyuan with 44,152 buildings is performed. The results show that the influence of different ground motions and building seismic resistances on fire ignition and fire spread can be taken into account and that the FFE scene can be displayed realistically.     

一种基于形状和颜色特征的建筑彩画检索方法

为了能够在建筑彩画数据库系统中自动找出与所给事例彩画相似的彩画及各种相关数据资料,需要进行彩画图像检索。给出了一种基于形状和颜色特征的建筑彩画检索方法,第一步是对彩画基本类型进行检测识别,先对彩画图像进行边缘检测,再利用先验模板对边缘图像进行匹配,然后根据匹配结果来识别彩画的基本类型。第二步是在相同的基本类型中进行相似性匹配,主要是在HSV空间中统计颜色直方图特征矢量,以同类型彩画之间颜色直方图矢量的相似度大小作为检索依据,最后给出检索结果。实验表明,本方法的检索结果更符合人眼对相似性的感知。