John of Plano Carpini, Papal Diplomat and Spy along the Silk Road

Alfred J. Andrea 계명대학교 실크로드연구원 2023 Acta Via Serica Vol.8 No.1

In March 1245, Pope Innocent IV authorized three missions to the Mongols, seeking information about this menace from the East and summoning Eastern Christian support against an anticipated Mongol onslaught. Only one of the missions, led by John of Plano Carpini, reached Mongolia—the first-known Western European party to reach East Asia by a land route. Traveling along the Silk Road’s new “Grasslands Route,” John and his companion Benedict reached the camp of Güyüg Khan, where they witnessed his installation as the Great Khan. Upon their return to the papal court in 1247, they delivered Güyüg’s letter demanding the submission of the pope and all the West’s princes. John also presented a detailed report on what he and Benedict had learned. A close reading of it reveals a master intelligence operative at work. In addition to presenting an overview of Mongol history and culture, Friar John’s report provides detailed information on the Mongols’ grand strategy, their military organization and armaments, and their battle tactics. Turning from intelligence gathering to military operations, he offered practical advice on how to meet and defeat the coming Mongol onslaught, an attack that, providentially for the West, never came. What did occur was a modest but significant migration of Western missionaries and merchants to East Asia in the century following this pioneering journey.

The failure of democratization in Russia: A comparative perspective

Alfred B. Evans 한양대학교 아태지역연구센터 2011 Journal of Eurasian Studies Vol.2 No.1

During the 1990s American leaders and many others in the West viewed Russia as the most important test case for a transition to democracy. Today the consensus of scholarly analyses in the West concludes that, if Russia did enter a transition to democracy, that transition was not successful. This article attempts to suggest some of the main lessons about democratization that may be derived from the study of the experience of post-communist Russia, seen in a comparative perspective. The thesis that the first competitive national election after the downfall of an authoritarian regime marks a decisive breakthrough for forces striving for democratization has not proved true for Russia. Yet the withering of democracy and the consolidation of a semi-authoritarian regime followed the period of competitive elections in Russia. In the early and mid-1990s scholars who had specialized in the study of communist regimes warned that the post-communist states would need to carry out radical economic and social changes as well as sweeping political transformation. In Russia, however, the consequences of a corrupted process of privatization of state assets were enormously damaging for the institutionalization of democracy. As was shown in a number of countries in the 1970s and 1980s, a strong civil society can play an important role in a nation's transition to democracy. The barriers to the development of civil society within the Soviet system and the conditions causing weakness in social organizations in post-communist Russia made it easier for members of the elite to subvert reform and guaranteed that there would be fewer restraints on the tendency toward more authoritarian control after 2000. Among post-communist nations, those in which a consensus of most segments of the elite and the public was committed to a radical break with the old system have been much more successful in carrying out marketization and democratization. The combination of historical conditions that had created a strong anti-communist consensus in most of Eastern Europe had not taken shape in Russia. The absence of a fusion of democratization and national liberation in Russia explained the lack of a clear national consensus in favor of political and economic transformation. One of the main lessons from the course of events in Russia from the early 1990s to the present is that change away from one form of authoritarian rule, which usually has been labeled as a transition to democracy, is not irreversible. Some democratic transitions may prove to be shallow, and the changes in post-communist Russia have provided a good example of a shallow transition. The scholarly literature on transitions to democracy that appeared after the early 1980s departed from earlier writings' emphasis on the growth of social, economic, and cultural conditions for the institutionalization of democracy in the political system. The experience of Russia may encourage us to return to the study of the long-term trends facilitating or inhibiting the growth of democratic institutions.

Influence line- model correction approach for the assessment of engineering structures using novel monitoring techniques

Alfred Strauss,Roman Wendner,Dan M. Frangopol,Konrad Bergmeister 국제구조공학회 2012 Smart Structures and Systems, An International Jou Vol.9 No.1

In bridge engineering, maintenance strategies and thus budgetary demands are highly influenced by construction type and quality of design. Nowadays bridge owners and planners tend to include life-cycle cost analyses in their decision processes regarding the overall design trying to optimize structural reliability and durability within financial constraints. Smart permanent and short term monitoring can reduce the associated risk of new design concepts by observing the performance of structural components during prescribed time periods. The objectives of this paper are the discussion and analysis of influence line or influence field approaches in terms of (a) an efficient incorporation of monitoring information in the structural performance assessment, (b) an efficient characterization of performance indicators for the assessment of structures, (c) the ability of optimizing the positions of sensors of a monitoring system, and (d) the ability of checking the robustness of the monitoring systems applied to a structure. The proposed influence line- model correction approach has been applied to an integrative monitoring system that has been installed for the performance assessment of an existing three-span jointless bridge.

Exploring the Performance of Australian Construction Industry in a Recent Global Recession

Alfred, Olatunji Oluwole Korea Institute of Construction Engineering and Ma 2011 Journal of construction engineering and project ma Vol.1 No.3

Available data on the recent global financial crisis (GFC) show that it lasted between the second quarter (Q2) of 2007 and the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2009. Australia is one of the first economies to fully recover from this crisis. This study explorles the role played by the Australian construction industry in stimulating economic growth during the recession. In order to investigate the macro-variability trend during the financial crisis, data were collected and analysed relating to the quarterly GDP of Australia and selected countries between Q1 2000 and Q4 2009. Specifically, changes in the construction industry's GDP were compared with aggregate GDP changes in Australian economy and similar indices in the 'Group of 7' (G7) countries and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries. Moreover, specific attention was focused on Germany, France, Japan, United States of America (USA) and United Kingdom (UK). Graphical and Pearson's correlation methods were used to analyse the relationships between changes in construction GDP and Australia's overall economic growth during the recession. In addition, an attempt was made to develop a regression model for predicting economic growth during the recent recession using changes in gross fixed capital formation (GFCF), changes in construction GDP and the impact of these changes on national economy. Analysis shows a slight contraction in construction activities during the crisis; however construction triggered significant growth in the economy during the crisis period and afterwards. This appears to be the major difference between Australia and other major economies that have experienced a longer recession.

Wrinkling, Crumpling and Snapping for Surface Property Control

Alfred Crosby 한국고분자학회 2008 한국고분자학회 학술대회 연구논문 초록집 Vol.33 No.2

Liver Transplantation for HCC in NASH/NAFLD Patients: Outcomes and Complications

Alfred KOW 대한외과학회 2021 대한외과학회 학술대회 초록집 Vol.2021 No.11

Machine-to-Machine Communication

Alfred Daniel,Awais Ahmad,Anand Paul ICT플랫폼학회 2014 JOURNAL OF PLATFORM TECHNOLOGY Vol.2 No.2

Galvanostatic co-electrodeposition of Cu and Pd as catalyst for reduction of nitrates in water

( Alfred Madzamuse ),( Bren Mark Felisilda ),이해수,( Latifatu Mohammed ),고장면 한국공업화학회 2015 한국공업화학회 연구논문 초록집 Vol.2015 No.0

The galvanostatic co-electrodeposition of copper and palladium from 8mM CuCl2 and 5mM PdCl2 in 0.5M HNO3 is studied using cyclic voltammetry and linear sweep voltammetry. The optimized current density for co-electrodeposition is found to beat 7mA/cm2 for 7200 seconds. The prepared electro catalyst showed promising efficiency of reducing nitrates in water at an average of 95-98% reduction from an original 100ppm concentration. This was after applying the optimized reduction current density at 12mA/cm2 for 10800seconds. SEM images reveal the surface deposits to be amorphous and with cauliflower-like structures. This indicates the catalyst as a good alternative for electrocatalys is applications. With added electrolytes, the reduction efficiency of the catalyst was enhanced by 2-3%. Soaking the prepared electrodes in tap water for 14 weeks caused possible detrimental effects on its nitrate reduction efficiency.

Flexible and patterned-free Ni/NiO-based temperature device on cylindrical PET fabricated by RF magnetron sputtering: Bending and washing endurance tests

Alfred Bekoe Appiagyei,Jomaris Banua,한정인 한국공업화학회 2021 Journal of Industrial and Engineering Chemistry Vol.100 No.-

Flexible Resistive Temperature Detectors (RTDs) based on metal thinfilm have broad applicationprospects in smart clothes, however, they are constructed with patterned metalfilms using complicatedmanufacturing processes. Herein, we report a simple radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering methodto fabricate light-weight, inexpensive andflexible temperature sensors (TS), whose sensitive materialsact as electrode itself composed of Ni, NiO and Ni/NiO bilayer thinfilms. The Ni/NiO bilayer TS could bebent in different radius with resistance change below 5% signifying highflexibility. Fabricated Ni/NiObilayer TS exhibited superior sensing performance with temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) of3.8 10 3 C 1 compared to 3.2 10 3 C 1 and 3.110 3 C 1 for Ni and NiO thinfilms respectively. Itshowed a linear response with R2-value of 0.9852. The Ni/NiO bilayer TS showed TCR of 1.0 10 4 C 1even after 16,000 repetitive mechanical bends. Ni/NiO temperature sensor maintains high TCR towardsexposure to different chemical solutions (acid, alkaline, detergents). The easy-fabrication process withgood surface condition, together with the demonstrated results, suggest Ni/NiO is a promising candidateforflexible RTD device.

Boosting electrochemical properties of NiCo-OH heterostructure through sulphidation and carbon coating

Alfred Bekoe Appiagyei,Jeong In Han 대한전기학회 2021 대한전기학회 학술대회 논문집 Vol.2021 No.10

Supercapacitors remains one of the energy storage devices with high power density and long cycle life. High capacitive devices are required to boost the energy demand in the globe currently. Here in this study, we report rGO wrapped nickel cobalt sulphide heterostructure for supercapacitor application. The capacitance achieved more than 2000 F/g with retention of 93% after 20,000 cycles. This stands as a potential electrode for future application.