Search Results (6)

The Taiwan Lantern Festival (TLF) is a specific cultural tradition that has evolved over many years. It is a large-scale festival as determined by the large number of installations and visitors—that is, 20 million visitors in a period of two weeks. The aim of this study is to combine the TLF-related physical dynamics of land use and lantern installations with the augmented dynamics of lantern installations at reallocated sites. We compared five cities in Taiwan with regard to land alterations between 2016 and 2020. The TLF land assessment identified 34 cross-referred types of land use between aerial imagery and GIS surveys in a small area of 2 km × 2 km, in total. The change in land use by year varied between 2% and 499%, up to three times. The complexity of physical dynamics was re-experienced by a more sustainable dynamic of augmented reality (AR) using a scan-to-AR approach to reactivate the installations and fabrics at redeployed sites. The installations of the 2016 TLF were applied. We found that the land use, 3D scan, and AR reshaped the spatio-temporal festivalscape by both types of dynamics. The simulation demonstrated that the fabric retrieved by heterogeneous technologies had equal importance in assessing the host city and in enabling a reactivation for more diversified scales and characters, even with a smartphone AR. Full article

The Lantern Festival constitutes a specific tradition that originated from a long-term evolved culture. Should the festival only consist of a large number of installations and visitors? This study aims to assess the Taiwan Lantern Festival (TLF) in terms of government procurements between 2016 and 2020 according to the classification of tender projects. The classifications contribute to a comparison of the similarities and diversities in respect to the major challenge of the number of visitors exceeding 10 million in two weeks. The 140–234 tender projects each year presented a 76% increment of the budget for services, financing, and construction. The similarities and differences made each year’s TLF a local-identity-rich event. Shared similarities accounted for approximately 54% of all 654 tender items and 66% of the budget. The shared main items demonstrated their importance in transferring the TLF experience to the host city of the subsequent year. The interpretation of procurement contributed to the novelty of TLF classifications and the shared project similarities and diversities through the government acting as a curator. The findings contributed to an evolved model of classification for local situation and TLF experience transfer, evolved measures for diversities and shared similarities, and an evolved instrumentation for traditions. Full article

A lantern festival was 3D-scanned to elucidate its unique complexity and cultural identity in terms of Intangible Cultural Heritage (ICH). Three augmented reality (AR) instancing scenarios were applied to the converted scanned data from an interaction to the entire site; a forward additive instancing and interactions with a pre-defined model layout. The novelty and contributions of this study are three-fold: documentation, development of an AR app for situated tasks, and AR verification. We presented ready-made and customized smartphone apps for AR verification to extend the model’s elaboration of different site contexts. Both were applied to assess their feasibility in the restructuring and management of the scene. The apps were implemented under a homogeneous and heterogeneous combination of contexts, originating from an as-built event description to a remote site as a sustainable cultural effort. A second reconstruction of screenshots in an AR loop process of interaction, reconstruction, and confirmation verification was also made to study the manipulated result in 3D prints. Full article

Carbonaceous aerosol, one of the major components of atmospheric aerosols, significantly affects haze episodes, climate change, and human health. Northeastern China suffers severe air pollution, especially in some periods (e.g., the Spring Festival). However, studies on carbonaceous aerosols in typical northeast industrial cities (i.e., Changchun) are rare, limiting further comprehension of the atmospheric haze formation. In this study, we monitored the concentrations of carbonaceous aerosols (i.e., OC and EC) in Changchun during the Lunar New Year of 2018 (i.e., from Lunar 20 December to Lunar 20 January), and analyzed the temporal variation and source contributions via the HYbrid-Single Particle Lagrangian Integrated Trajectory (HYSPLIT) model with the potential source contribution factor weights (PSCF) method. The daily concentrations of OC and EC were 9.00 ± 2.81 and 1.57 ± 0.46 µg m⁻³, respectively, and were significantly lower at nighttime than at the day during the Spring Festival. The concentrations during the major period (i.e., OC: 8.13 ± 2.93 µg m⁻³; EC: 1.47 ± 0.47 µg m⁻³ in festival days), including the Lunar Little New Year; the Lunar New Year’s Eve; New Year’s Day; Lunar 5 January, and the Spring Lantern Festival, were mainly from the northwestward with the wind speed of 4–6 m/s being lower than that of normal period (OC: 9.87 ± 2.46 µg m⁻³; EC: 1.67 ± 0.44 µg m⁻³) from the southeastward with a wind speed of 6–7 m/s. The direction of the airflow trajectory was mainly in local, northwestward, and northward, carrying particulate matter and gaseous pollutants. In major period, the daily concentration of atmospheric pollutants presented a bimodal trend, with peaks appearing regularly from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. 10:00 p.m., which might be related to traffic, cooking, and firecrackers. The OC/EC was greater than 2 during the whole period, indicating the generation of secondary organic aerosols (i.e., SOC). This study was essential to understand the formation mechanisms of severe pollution episodes and develop control measures for the industrial cities of Northeast China during the Spring Festival. Full article

Shui Wei Sheng Niang (水尾圣娘) Temple is located within a united temple at 109a, Hougang Avenue 5, Singapore. Shui Wei Sheng Niang is a Hainanese goddess, the worship of whom is widespread in Hainanese communities in South East Asia. This paper examines a specific Hainanese temple and how its rituals reflect the history of Hainanese immigration to Singapore. The birthday rites of the goddess (Lantern Festival Celebration) are held on the 4th and 14th of the first lunar month. This paper also introduces the life history and ritual practices of a Hainanese Daoist master and a Hainanese theater actress. Full article

Objective: To explore the seasonal and monthly patterns, weekly variations, and the holiday effect of outpatient visits for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, as well as the influence of gender, age, and insurance type on variations. Methods: Data were obtained from the Shandong medical insurance database, including all outpatients in 12 cities of Shandong province in China from 2015 to 2017. The seasonal index (S_t) was calculated in terms of seasons, months, and weeks by the moving average method. Results: A total of 904,488 patients received outpatient services during the study period. The seasonal indices of outpatient visits by type 2 diabetes patients were higher in autumn (108.36%) and spring (102.67%), while lower in winter (89.92%) and summer (99.04%), exhibiting an obvious seasonality. Gender and age had no effect on seasonal patterns. The month impacted the seasons patterns: January to February were the lowest and December the highest months of outpatient visits, complicating the seasonal patterns. We also identified a weekly pattern of outpatient visits. In addition, the outpatient visits for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients was also strongly affected by the Spring Festival, Lantern Festival, and National Day holiday periods. The type of medical insurance had a significant impact on outpatient visits. Conclusions: The outpatient visits for type 2 diabetes mellitus patients displayed seasonal patterns that were contradictory to the variations in blood glucose fluctuations found in previous studies and was also strongly affected by the holiday effect. The type of medical insurance impacted the pattern of outpatient visits. Full article