The article describes the use of publicly available materials of radar mapping from spacecraft as a way to increase the reliability, as well as to reduce the cost and time of work to select the site of linear construction projects situated in remote underdeveloped areas. Based on the results of theoretical study and practical application of radar mapping of the Earth's surface from spacecrafts the conclusion is made about the availability of these materials, their reliability (relevance) and accuracy in order to select the site of linear construction projects at the concept design stage.

The last three decades have witnessed in Europe an increasing interest from institutions, and creative communities in independent research connected to crafting, DIY, maker culture, and design activism. A new generation of designers has focused on the experimentation of processes, materials, and technologies used as a vehicle for socio-political and environmental messages and as the starting point of solid narrative projects. This paper aims to analyse this phenomenon inside the niche of Collectible Design, a field in recent years of great interest by galleries and institutions for its ability to embrace material and technological research as well as craftsmanship and art. We investigate the phenomenon, through a series of interviews with designers such as Shahar Livne, Eugenia Morpurgo, Pleun van Dijk, Tellurico, and Standard 404, selected for their ability to use experimental materials and technologies, as communicative media for reflections on systemic issues.

This Practice-based research explores the innovative application of textiles in the creation of decorative flower vases, positioning them at the intersection of functional design and contemporary art. The study investigates the potential of techniques such as weaving, embroidery, and applique to transcend the conventional boundaries of the medium. Through a methodological framework combining material experimentation interviews with textile artisans and pottery producers in Accra, and critical reflection, the research examines the interplay of materiality, form and aesthetics. It integrates traditional Ghanaian motifs with modern design principles to create culturally resonant, sustainable artworks. The findings demonstrate textiles' significant versatility and creative capacity for producing unique decorative objects. This study contributes to discourses on material innovation and sustainable design by highlighting textiles as a dynamic medium for artistic expression. It offers practical insights for artisans and designers, underscoring the role of textiles in evolving traditional crafts for contemporary contexts.

Bead jewellery is common in all Ghanaian communities. Bead jewellers are well-known for their important bead jewellery production and have advanced to the Master craft level. The industry can be utilized if the industry's difficulties are discovered and remedied. The study area for the research includes Ghana's Eastern, Ashanti, and Greater Accra Regions. The study's population included bead jewellers, bead jewellery firms, bead dealers, bead aficionados, clients, and bead makers. With a sample size of 30, data was gathered mostly through direct observations, interviews, and document reviews. The study went over the procedure for securing land for a bead jewellery workshop. According to a survey conducted by the Ghanaian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCII), Ghanaian bead jewellers should use qualified designers. Cost pooling in legal services, accounting, and consulting is likely to save money.

The present article seeks to provoke a discussion into how video games can be used in anxiety treatments and social stimulation tools among middle-year students and children of that same age. To do so, we initially start this article by reflecting on how the covid-19 pandemic disparate all anxiety alerts in our society including mental health issues such as depression and special anxiety disorders. Then we compare how the numbers of anxiety among children and young adults were already alarming before the lockdowns imposition and the social distance measures, especially in urban centers. This rising anxiety condition can be felt especially in the years that followed the social isolation of children especially because their social connection and recognition were just starting to grow and to establish important connections between their peers in-person and in virtual environments, throwing light on how to screen media and children`s homes are related with the anxiety increase and how we can investigate that phenomenon without succumbing to excessive positivism to today`s technology or to a deconstructive pessimism that leads us to distrust those media that are already in contact with middle-year students and children`s in that same age. To do so, we will resort to philosophical tools such as Edusemiotics and Cultural Studies to understand how games such as Minecraft and Roblox can be used in school environments to help students and teachers manage anxiety levels and surpass socialization issues past covid-19 lockdowns. To finish our reflection we also bring some data related to how those same media and games helped middle-year students to surpass social isolation and family disconnection during the pandemic while their kept exercising school content in those games, sharing and debating with their peers on virtual platforms.

This study seeks to collect, recycle and repurpose fabrics waste into decorative household items to reinforce the concept of recycling as a viable alternative to indiscriminate dumping that leads to environmental pollution. It has been observed that garment producers, fashion designers, dressmakers, seamstresses and tailors generate several quantities of fabric waste which are initially piled up to occupy space at their workshops then later disposed indiscriminately. For this studio-based study, an average of 300kg of fabric remnants which are generated by the 30 workshops of garment producers in four suburbs of Kumasi in the Ashanti region of Ghana were collected. The fabric waste was sorted into types, sizes, colours and textures, out of the 300kg collected, approximately 250kg were identified as cotton and the remaining 50kg were an assortment of polyester, nylon, rayon, wool, acetate and sateen. It also came out that the garment producers lack adequate knowledge on waste management, hence the indiscriminate disposal of the waste fabrics. The need for effective means of recycling without adverse repercussion to the environment was found critical. Based on the idea of recycle art, 280 kilograms of the fabric waste collected were converted into interior decoration pieces such as a pair of footrest, a set of arm rest, a set of chair-back, Others include a set of table mats, a set of placemats, a door mat, and a set of curtains and window blinds. It is anticipated that such craft activities will serves as pointers to craft people about the potential of waste fabrics as cheaper raw materials for diverse products and by extension help to reduce the waste management problems associated with fabric waste.

Innovations in computing and communication technologies are reshaping finance. The seismic changes are casting uncertainty about the future of financial services. On one hand, fintech evangelists project a rosy future, asserting that the fast-moving algorithms can deliver low-cost financial services intuitively, customized to meet robust consumer expectations. On the other hand, many finance veterans fret that the traditional banking model could disintermediate, bleeding banks via a ‘death by a thousand cuts’, reducing them to passive portfolio holders with no direct customer relationship, eclipsed by digital giants which use their enormous treasure troves of customer data to offer banking as an added service with nearly free cost. Amidst the upbeat technological promises and apocalyptic forebodings, there are two constant, mostly agreed-upon, truths. The first is the vital importance of data. Advances in the internet, cloud computing, and record-keeping technologies are producing an ‘exponential growth in the volume and detail of data’. Some of this big data are personal information. Smartphones are deployed in almost all developed and emerging economies, serving as little spies; tracking, recording location histories, social networks, and app usage of their unsuspecting owners; often with a great degree of precision. ‘People are walking data-factories’ in this ‘mobile digital society’. Data are the fermentation of these global exchanges, electronic commerce and communication, and financial transactions. To just take Facebook as an example, it shares 30 million people a day through updates and posts, hosting personal information on 2.23 billion users. To the alarm of the uninformed public, much of this information is available for commercial harvest. The second constant is the rise of intelligent solutions. Consumers today—be it disclosed or not—are fed tailored clothes, music, film, holiday packages—almost anything you like, notably dynamic pricing, varying in accordance with individual profiles, or personalized search results. The availability of powerful computers has enabled comparable applications that are intended to make the system more responsive to their customer profiles and desires, or to capitalize competitive business possibilities. Such changes will transform the financial industry and occupy a prominent position among the mechanisms of policy competition, reshaping the way in which financial services are bestowed and led on the demand side.

Imagine a consumer financial services company with 20 million customers. Its sales and marketing organizations collaborate across product lines, deploying hundreds of marketing campaigns each quarter that aim to increase customer product usage and/or cross-buying of products. Each campaign is based on forecasts of customer responses derived from predictive models updated every quarter. The goals of these models are to achieve large return on investment ratios and to maximize contribution to local profit centers. What’s important is that their modeling is based only on data created, curated and maintained by these marketing organizations. The difference today is that the modeling is no longer based solely on a small number of response-determined variables that are constantly assessed in terms of importance. A quarterly campaign update generates hundreds of statistical models — involving campaign responses, purchase-lag time, the relative magnitude of the direct effect, and the cross-buying effects — using thousands of variables, including customer demographics, life stage, product transactions, household composition, and customer service history. It’s a network of models, not just a table of variable-by-residual importance values. But that’s only part of the story of data products. The predictive modeling utilized by these campaign plans is based on analytics and data preparation, which are data products in their most diminutive form. These products would be even more elementary were they not crafted quarterly by highly skilled, experienced modelers using advanced software and processes. Most companies have enough data to create models that contain not simply hundreds of variables, but thousands, so that the focus can return to information instead of data reduction. These models largely replace the internal econometric models previously used to produce advanced forecasts in the absence of campaign modeling. People used these forecasts to simulate ROI and contribution forecasts for the planned campaigns. In the old days, reliance on econometrically forecast ROI-guideline contribution values reduced the reliance on the marketing campaign modelers because of a lack of trust in their predictive ability.