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Tapered steel sections are widely used in house building design due to their structural efficiency and aesthetic appearance. Due to the practical usage of web tapering specifications in the metal building industry, fabrication and material expenses are analyzed to achieve geometric and economic productivity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of utilizing web profiles with openings in reducing the weight of steel beams.

In this paper, the nonlinear analysis of the bending behavior of a tapered steel section with an opening was studied by finite element analysis. The results were then compared with those of the tapered steel section without an opening in terms of displacement and yield moment.

The bending capacity of a tapered steel section was analyzed using finite element analysis. Results showed that the tapered steel section without openings had a higher bending capacity compared to the section with various sizes of web openings. The results also showed that decreasing the number of openings would increase the bending capacity, whereas increasing the size of the opening would decrease it. The difference in the yield moment between the tapered steel section with and without openings was only 15.818%. A total of 60 nonlinear analyses were conducted to investigate the effect of the number and size of web openings, flange thickness and web thickness on the bending behavior. However, this study showed that web opening with octagon shape and 0.6D size of web opening, where D is the depth of section, showed the best section in terms of yield moment and volume reduction compared to other opening size and shape.

It is also found that tapered steel section has better moment resistance in thicker flange and web. The study is valuable for engineers and designers who work with steel structures and need to optimize the performance of tapered steel sections with web openings.

This study aims to explore aesthetic atmospheres and their affordances in urban squares to advance knowledge on the research and design of attractive living environments.

Descriptions of pleasant and unpleasant experiences of urban squares were collected using qualitative questionnaires with open-ended questions. The theoretical framework and the lens of aesthetic affordances were applied to pinpoint and understand the connections between the place attributes and experiences.

This study found four distinct aesthetic atmospheres formed by perceived synergies of both the material and immaterial aspects of the environment. It was also found that the atmospheres may shift. A model that shows the aesthetic atmospheres and their potential affordances as layered and emerging is presented.

Everyday aesthetics considered as affordances open new research perspectives for the understanding of what generates attractive living environments – or not.

Aesthetics affordances may provide the design professionals and alike means on how to design places that engender specific aesthetic atmosphere.

Gathering and discussing commonplace aesthetic experiences in everyday life may enhance democratic participation in place development among people with different levels of design expertise.

This study combines theories of place with a novel concept of aesthetic affordances to identify distinct aesthetic atmospheres. A holistic overview structure of how the various constituents of aesthetic atmospheres relate to each other provides new ways of studying and understanding urban aesthetic atmospheres.

This study examines the influence of Centrality of Visual Product Aesthetics (CVPA) on multi-stage food consumption and emotions under aesthetic disruption, assessing how CVPA affects consumption and whether food aesthetics moderate these behaviours and emotional responses.

Data were collected using qualitative interviews and quantitative experimental designs, employing a moderated mediation model for statistical analysis.

Consumers with higher CVPA are more likely to adopt multi-stage consumption for higher aesthetic food, generating greater positive emotions, both in personal experiences and when viewing food bloggers' posts.

This study introduces the novel concept of “multi-stage consumption” and investigates its origins and outcomes.

Thus far, we have treated critical thinking descriptively and analytically in previous chapters. In this, the epilogue, as a closing chapter, we intend to consider critical thinking normatively – what it should be, ideally and holistically. We do this in four stages. First, recapitulating the essential concepts, theories, and paradigms of social welfare, social well-being, and social progress, we suggest that critical thinking should ultimately understand and further social progress and social well-being for all humanity. Second, we submit that the great wealth of corporate and free-market capitalism should – as spiritual capital – benefit all, especially the poor and the marginalized. Third, in order to realize the first two objectives, we posit that critical thinking should be repositioned as the art of aesthetic reasoning and aesthetic rationality such that, fourth, it is best realized within the framework of social mindfulness. We discuss major theories grounding these four parts and reflect on their managerial implications and propose future directions for critical thinking research and development.

The purpose of this paper is to determine how we ought to distinguish between reference and readers' advisory (RA) service, given the latter’s turn toward a whole collection approach. In other words, the paper answers this question: If both reference and RA librarians aim to meet patrons’ information needs and may theoretically do so using the same materials, then how are we to differentiate the two services conceptually?

In this conceptual paper, we posit that we can distinguish between RA and reference using Louise Rosenblatt’s theory of the aesthetic transaction. With this theory in hand, we can redefine the service distinction in terms of the stance – aesthetic or efferent – that the patron expects to take toward the material they seek.

On our account, the reader’s desired stance becomes a kind of hermeneutical lens through which a library worker may productively evaluate plausible pathways and materials. An aesthetic lens is characteristic of RA; it makes features of potential aesthetic transactions between a particular reader and a particular text (or genre or author’s oeuvre) salient.

The proposed account constitutes a novel application of Rosenblattian response theory, one that grounds and refines the going view that RA’s proper focus is on supporting a particular sort of experience rather than providing particular sorts of texts. This theoretical emendation also better aligns the service distinction with contemporary conceptualizations of RA as a “whole collection” service. Important practical and philosophical implications follow from the new account.

Recently, this steel section has found increasing popularity in residential, industrial and commercial buildings with their high load-carrying capacity due to the nature of high strength to weight ratio properties. However, the rise on the price of steel section should be more emphasized; therefore, the optimization in steel section design is needed to overcome the issue of material cost. As such, tapered steel sections save on material use, while the introduction of web openings allows the placement of mechanical and electrical services, plumbing and also aesthetic design considerations.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the lateral torsional buckling behavior of a tapered steel section with an ellipse-shaped opening by analyzing its structural parameters. To achieve this, the finite element analysis (FEA) of the section is modeled using LUSAS software, which allows for a detailed analysis of the section's behavior under varying loads and conditions. It involves the variation in web opening size, opening layout, opening rotation angle and the tapering ratio. Eigenvalue buckling analysis is adopted to know the parametric effects of each 108 model. The size of opening varies from 0.2 to 0.5 d of the total depth where the opening located. There are three type of layouts applied in this study, which are the layouts A, B and C. There are three types of rotation angles for the ellipse-shaped opening, including the non-rotated vertical opening and two additional types formed by rotating the opening 45 degrees clockwise and counterclockwise around the center-point of the ellipse. A fixed-free boundary condition was applied, resulting in a simulation of a cantilever beam. The models are fixed at one end with a larger depth, and free at the other end with a smaller depth. Loading condition is an application of 10 kN/m uniform distributed load in the direction of gravity along the mid-span of the top flange.

It is observed that the model 82 with Layout A, tapering ratio 0.3, opening size 0.5 d and opening rotated in 45 degree anti-clockwise direction results in the highest structural efficiency among the 108 models. Therefore, the buckling moment of model 82 is 1,013.08 kNm with structural efficiency of 481.26, which shows an increase of 3.17% compared to the controlled model.

The FEA results shows a significant increase in ductility and stiffness of the tapered steel section with elipse shape opening and consequently changes in the behaviour of yield point.

This research study focuses on investigating the seismic performance of non-straight beams in steel structures and exploring the mechanism by which plastic hinges are formed within these beams. The findings contribute to the understanding of their behaviour under seismic loads and offer insights into their potential for enhancing the lateral resistance of the structure. The abstract of the study highlights the significance of corners in structural plans, where non-coaxial columns, diagonal elements or beams deviating from a straight path are commonly observed. Typically, these non-straight beams are connected to the columns using pinned connections, despite their unknown seismic behaviour. Recognizing the importance of generating plastic hinges in special moment resisting frames and the lack of previous research on the involvement of these non-straight beams, this study aims to address this knowledge gap.

This study examines the seismic behaviour and plastic hinge formation of non-straight beams in steel structures. Non-straight beams are beams that connect non-coaxial columns and diagonal elements, or deviate from a linear path. They are usually pinned to the columns, and their seismic contribution is unknown. A critical case with a 12-m non-straight beam is analysed using Abaqus software. Different models are created with varying cross-section shapes and connection types between the non-straight beams. The models are subjected to lateral monotonic and cyclic loads in one direction. The results show that non-straight beams increase the lateral stiffness, strength and energy dissipation of the models compared to disconnected beams that act as two cantilevers.

The analysis results reveal several key findings. The inclusion of non-straight beams in the models leads to increased lateral stiffness, strength and energy dissipation compared to the scenario where the beams are disconnected and act as two cantilever beams. Plastic hinges are formed at both ends of the non-straight beam when a 3% drift is reached, contributing to energy damping and introducing plasticity into the structure. These results strongly suggest that non-straight beams play a significant role in enhancing the lateral resistance of the system. Based on the seismic analysis results, this study recommends the utilization of non-straight beams in special moment frames due to the formation of plastic hinges within these beams and their effective participation in resisting lateral seismic loads. This research fills a critical gap in understanding the behaviour of non-straight beams and provides valuable insights for structural engineers involved in the design and analysis of steel structures.

The authors believe that this research will greatly contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the seismic performance of non-straight beams in steel structures.

The ballet industry has long been criticized for using excessively thin and exclusively Anglo-looking ballerinas. The statement that they fit the “look” or comments such as this in the 2015 New York Daily Post: “A lot of people feel ballerinas should all be the same color” (Keivom, 2015) have been used to exclude Black and Brown ballerinas. This chapter describes the relationship between race, gender, and beauty within the ballet industry. It describes the challenges that Black women experience and the anti-Blackness that takes place within ballet due to Eurocentric beauty standards. Through a focus on the emphasis on hair texture, flesh-tone tights, and pointe shoes, and on the racist history of America and ballet, this chapter demonstrates how ballet continues to discriminate against and marginalize Black women.

The purpose of this paper is to explore teacher candidates’ response to young adult literature (prose and comics) featuring fat identified protagonists. The paper considers the textual and embodied resources readers use and reject when imagining and interpreting a character’s body. This paper explores how readers’ meaning making was influenced when reading prose versus comics. This paper adds to a corpus of scholarship about the relationships between young adult literature, comics, bodies and reader response theory.

At the time of the study, participants were enrolled in a teacher education program at a Midwestern University, meeting monthly for a voluntary book club dedicated to reading and discussing young adult literature. To examine readers’ responses to comics and prose featuring fat-identified protagonists, the author used descriptive qualitative methodologies to conduct a thematic analysis of meeting transcripts, written participant reflections and researcher memos. Analysis was grounded in theories of reader response, critical fat studies and multimodality.

Analyses indicated many readers reject textual clues indicating a character’s body size and weight were different from their own. Readers read their bodies into the stories, regarding them as self-help narratives instead of radical counternarratives. Some readers were not able to read against their assumptions of thinness (and whiteness) until prompted by the researcher and other participants.

Although many reader response scholars have demonstrated readers’ tendencies toward personal identification in the face of racial and class differences, there is less research regarding classroom practices around the entanglement of physical bodies, body image and texts. Analyzing reader’s responses to the constructions of fat bodies in prose versus comics may help English Language Arts (ELA) educators and students identify and deconstruct ideologies of thin-thinking and fatphobia. This study, which demonstrates thin readers’ tendencies to overidentify with protagonists, suggests ELA classrooms might encourage readers to engage in critical literacies that support them in reading both with and against their identities.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the specific characteristics of consumers’ lived experience in a brand museum within a luxury context. While previous research has investigated this experience through the lens of brand heritage, the unique attributes and prestigiousness of the luxury field have not yet been examined. The authors argue that these distinctive features may alter the brand heritage experience in significant ways.

To understand the dimensions of a brand heritage experience in a luxury context, the authors applied a qualitative method using reflexive introspection. Specifically, the authors used 89 reflective introspections of 29 visitors of nine different luxury brand museums.

The findings indicate that a brand heritage experience in luxury is based on four dimensions: aesthetic, authentic, scientific and mythic. The data also reveal the heterogeneous aspect of the experience, which varies according to the level of consumers’ brand familiarity as well as whether the museum visit is led by a guide or not.

The authors contribute to the literature by emphasizing a new dimension of a brand heritage experience in luxury: a mythic dimension. This study also unveils the impact of contextual factors on the brand heritage experience.