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This article intends to reaffirm the value of disaster postcards to Disaster Risk Reduction studies, contributing to ongoing research based on comparative-historical analysis. The objective is to grasp the intrinsic meanings of the materiality that 338 postcards depicting the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake carry on them, by classifying their graphic elements and interpreting how the event is told. The main question is: What does the 1923 Great Kantō Earthquake postcards' materiality tell us about the event? Disaster postcards are a concrete register of cultural and social relations and play a critical role in constructing our ways of thinking and imaging disasters, as records of the most demanding images. The countless copies of similar subjects could reveal something about the people's 'mentalité' and the aspects of the earthquake that were intended to be accentuated. Findings reveal that postcards' graphic elements show a coherent and cohesive story of the event through the visuality of the aftermath, as no other visual media, at that time, could have done on a global scale. They carry on their materiality issues from bigger to smaller spheres of Japanese society's economic, political and social situations through the quality of their materiality. It is exactly because postcards are popular means that we should pay more attention to what they offer, as they validate it is possible to learn about cultures and their past backgrounds through postcard-sized images. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article analyses postcards depicting disasters in the early years of the 20th Century. At that time, postcards were common means of communicating everyday matters throughout the world, as they were affordable even to the poorest people. Devastating disasters were happening around the globe, some with more than 200,000 deaths, like China's 1920 Haiyuan (Gansu) Earthquake, which had almost no journalism coverage. Other events were almost a hundred times less fatal, like 1906 Chile's Valparaíso Earthquake, depicted by a vast production of postcards. This raises the question 'Why were some disasters portrayed in postcards and others might not have been?' To answer it, we use a historical methodology that evokes the context in which ten selected global disasters happened. Data include the postcards themselves as well as documents and shared data of collectors, and historians. We focus on postcards' role as a means of communication and on who, apart from the publishers, editors, and photographers, was involved in their production. Findings reveal that the locations of the disasters were primarily explained as to whether disaster postcards were produced or might have not. If they happened in a region where stakeholders had political, financial, or business interests, the opportunity to produce postcards depicting the event would not be wasted. Remote regions that were difficult to access did not get popularised regardless of the death toll, especially when such regions were populated by marginalised ethnic groups. The potential that disaster postcards had, has been consciously used or dismissed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Myanmar is one of the highest meteorological hazard risk countries in the world, owing to geographical factors such as a vast delta along the Ayeyarwady River. As the Ayeyarwady Region has suffered from seasonal floods in the monsoons since historical times, long earthen dykes were constructed in the 19th century during the British colonial period. As a result, one village was divided into two by a dyke about 150 years ago. The region was severely affected by floods in 2015. Most of the unprotected villages were inundated for two to three months, while villages inside of the dyke were protected. This research aims to identify strategies for long-term recovery related to housing, livelihood, and community activities in villages divided by the dyke in Hinthada Township using household surveys. The results show that unprotected villages have adapted their elevated houses against floods and planted water-resistant crops as an income source. Protected villages have relied on mitigation and maintenance of the dyke along with non-elevated houses, and have transformed their livelihoods in different ways. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public policy has a significant role in Indonesia's disaster management system to determine the livelihood of the disaster victims. The issuance of the Indonesian Disaster Management Law No. 24 of 2007 and its derivative regulations comprehensively manage the activities before and after the disaster. It was discovered that the private housing sector had the highest loss during the Aceh tsunami in 2004 , the Yogyakarta earthquake in 2006, and the Lombok earthquake in 2018. Therefore, this review study will clarify the Indonesian government's policy development and strategy implementation in the post-disaster housing reconstruction in Aceh , Yogyakarta , and Lombok before and after the DML 24/2007 by using literacy studies and field surveys to identify the reconstruction process documentation and references, to observe the post-reconstructed housing current condition in 2023, and conducting interviews with the beneficiaries, related government, and the NGO staff. The public policy implementation theory approach is applied to analyze Indonesia's disaster management system reformation and the post-disaster housing reconstruction implementation process to determine its significance and impact. Findings show that post-disaster housing reconstruction policy implementation will achieve better results by collaborating the contractor-based and community-based approaches into assisted community-driven strategies between the beneficiaries and stakeholders according to DML 24/2007 and the derivative regulations. However, policymakers must still implement essential adjustment strategies to deal with problems and dynamic conditions in the post-disaster areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Extreme natural events have a significant impact on communities. Post-disaster demographic changes can be an indicator of societal changes in communities. These changes in communities would differ reflecting the societal situation of the pre-event, even though the impact of damage and reconstruction projects is similar. However, it is still not clear what societal changes are specifically caused by disasters and thus are distinguishable from general changes. This study conducted a case study of the 1995 Kobe Earthquake and assessed the variations in impacts on regional demographics through comparisons with other regions with similar neighborhood characteristics. This study set out with three tasks: (1) to quantitatively classify neighborhood characteristics across Japan; (2) compare the demographics of the damaged area with those of others; and (3) assess the relationship between damage, demographics, and housing investments in affected areas. The results of the analysis show that an event concentrated neighborhood changes and facilitated them in heavily damaged areas, based on preexisting demands. This implies that the disaster in Kobe (1995), did not create new development demand and suggests that reconstruction after disasters should not be considered a development opportunity to accelerate regional growth but is actually dealing with preexisting demands. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fracture and drop-off of diamond grains are thought to be suppressed if the diamond grains used, such as those for electroplated wires, are coated with a material having a higher coefficient of thermal expansion than diamond and having good adhesion to the binder metal. In this study, we selected titanium carbide and titanium carbonitride as materials with such characteristics, and investigated their coating methods. The titanium carbide coating was formed by heating a mixture of diamond plate or diamond grains and titanium powder in vacuum at a temperature lower than the melting point of titanium. Titanium carbonitride formation tests were performed in two ways: by forming a titanium carbide coating and titanium carbonitride in the same chamber continuously or by exposing the sample to the atmosphere after titanium carbide formation and subsequently reheating it in nitrogen. The titanium carbide coating was tested by heating the mixture of the diamond plate and the titanium grains in vacuum of 2.0 × 10−3 Pa or less at 1073–1273 K for 60–120 min. For the titanium carbonitride coating, the primary titanium carbide coating was applied at temperatures of 1123–1273 K for 60 min. Then the titanium carbonitride formation was done at the same temperature but with different heating times. Products on the diamond after heating tests were analyzed using X-ray diffraction. Results show that titanium carbide can be coated onto the diamond surface by heating the mixture of diamond and titanium powder in vacuum at 1073 K or at a higher temperature. Results demonstrated further that titanium carbonitride can be formed by heating the diamond plate or the diamond grains coated with titanium carbide in nitrogen at a temperature higher than 1123 K. The titanium carbide layer thickness and the ratio of nitrogen in the titanium carbonitride increased concomitantly with increased heating temperature and increased heating time. • Coating method of titanium carbide (TiC) and titanium carbonitride (TiCN) on diamond. • TiC is formed by heating a mixture of diamond and titanium grains in vacuum. • TiC coating is performed at a temperature below the melting point of titanium. • TiCN is formed by heating TiC coated diamond in nitrogen. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]