Are positive emotions just as “positive” across cultures?

Whereas positive emotions and feeling unequivocally good may be at the heart of well-being among Westerners, positive emotions often carry negative associations within many Asian cultures. Based on a review of East-West cultural differences in dialectical emotions, or co-occurring positive and negative feelings, we predicted culture to influence the association between positive emotions and depression, but not the association between negative emotions and depression. As predicted, in a survey of over 600 European-, immigrant Asian-, and Asian American college students, positive emotions were associated with depression symptoms among European Americans and Asian Americans, but not immigrant Asians. Negative emotions were associated with depression symptoms among all three groups. We also found initial evidence that acculturation (i.e., nativity) may influence the role of positive emotions in depression: Asian Americans fell “in between” the two other groups. These findings suggest the importance of studying the role of culture in positive emotions and in positive psychology. The use of interventions based on promoting positive emotions in clinical psychology among Asian clients is briefly discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

宜昌市黄柏河流域污染源调查及对策

黄柏河流域为宜昌市主要饮用水源地,为调查水体富营养化的原因,本次主要针对工矿企业、农业面源、生活垃圾、养殖以及库区水质进行了调查与监测。结果表明:流域内的磷主要来源于工矿企业,而氮主要来源于农业面源;工矿企业排放污水口水质均不达标;企业开发管理不规范;农业种植结构不合理;居民生活垃圾处理不当。     

Upgrading Computational Design

Shajay Bhooshan heads up the computation and design ZHACODE group at Zaha Hadid Architects (ZHA) and is a course master at the Architectural Association Design Research Laboratory (AADRL). Here he argues that Parametricism 2.0 has a vital role to play in the progressing of computational design. Assimilating the exploratory developments of the last 15 years, he asserts how the next phase of Parametricism will enable a further consolidation and evolution of digital practices.     

No More Stopping

The dissolution of the conventional breaking points in the construction and completion phases of a building's delivery has blurred ‘the distinction between the production of design intent and the transmission of information’. Here Richard Garber , Director of the School of Architecture at the New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT), advocates that architects should use this as an opportunity to widen their remit, gaining agency and with it responsibility and the financial rewards to practice. Here he draws from the examples of UNStudio, GLUCK+ and his own New-York based practice, GRO Architects.     

Combustion characteristics of biomass in SouthEast Asia

Gas emission during combustion of mixed tropical wood, bamboo, oil palm trunk, acacia, and rubber wood have been investigated by using TG–MS in presence of oxygen as well as FTIR. The weight decreasing profiles and the gas formation rates of oil palm trunk was significantly different among the samples although their elemental composition was almost the same from biomass samples. It was found that H₂O is the main product formed for all samples. The evolving rates of the gaseous products during the combustion and infrared spectrums such as CO, H₂O, CO₂, CH₄ and COOH⁺ were found. The DTG curves spectrums for biomass present four overlapping peaks.     

Energy sector of the Russian Far East: Current status and scenarios for the future

This article describes the Russian Far East's energy sector, stressing its limited energy exports, and use of separate electricity and heating grids to geographically dispersed population centers with various supply patterns distributed across a vast territory. One key strategic trend has been to strengthen the potential of the region as an energy supplier for the countries of Northeast Asia. This underlies the framework used to develop three energy scenarios of the Russian Far East's energy future through 2030: Reference, National Alternative and Regional Alternative. While the Regional Alternative case has much greater total costs for implementation, yields almost the same amount of emissions as the BAU case, and requires greater governmental efforts to bring it to reality, it looks preferable for the RFE as a whole because it has a well-balanced primary energy consumption mix, lower energy and ecology/GDP indices, and a lower fraction of energy imports; offers greater diversity of energy supply; and provides better local energy service. The authors would like to thank Boris Saneev, Alexander Sokolov, Alexander Izhbuldin from the Institute of Energy Systems, Irkutsk; Julia Savelieva from Far Eastern Coal Research; and Alla Filatova from Far Eastern Power Engineering Institute for providing technical information, and expertise.     

Indoor air quality,air exchange rates,and radioactivity in new built temporary houses following the Great East Japan Earthquake in Minamisoma,Fukushima

This study measured air exchange rates, indoor concentrations of aldehydes and volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and radioactivity levels at 19 temporary houses in different temporary housing estate constructed in Minamisoma City following the Great East Japan Earthquake. The 19 surveyed houses represented all of the companies assigned to construct temporary houses in that Minamisoma City. Data were collected shortly after construction and before occupation, from August 2011 to January 2012. Mean air exchange rates in the temporary houses were 0.28/h, with no variation according to housing types and construction date. Mean indoor concentrations of formaldehyde, acetaldehyde, toluene, ethylbenzene, m/p‐xylene, o‐xylene, styrene, p‐dichlorobenzene, tetradecane, and total VOCs (TVOCs) were 29.2, 72.7, 14.6, 6.35, 3.05, 1.81, 7.29, 14.3, 8.32, and 901 μg/m³, respectively. The levels of acetaldehyde and TVOCs exceeded the indoor guideline (48 μg/m³) and interim target (400 μg/m³) in more than half of the 31 rooms tested. In addition to guideline chemicals, terpenes (α‐pinene and d‐limonene) and acetic esters (butyl acetate and ethyl acetate) were often detected in these houses. The indoor radiation levels measured by a Geiger–Müller tube (Mean: 0.22 μSv/h) were lower than those recorded outdoors (Mean: 0.42 μSv/h), although the shielding effect of the houses was less than for other types of buildings.     

Energy security and sustainability in Northeast Asia

“Energy Security” has typically, to those involved in making energy policy, meant mostly securing access to oil and other fossil fuels. With increasingly global, diverse energy markets, however, and increasingly transnational problems resulting from energy transformation and use, old energy security rationales are less salient, and other issues, including climate change and other environmental, economic, and international considerations are becoming increasingly important. As a consequence, a more comprehensive operating definition of “Energy Security” is needed, along with a workable framework for analysis of which future energy paths or scenarios are likely to yield greater Energy Security in a broader, more comprehensive sense. Work done as a part of the Nautilus Institute's “Pacific Asia Regional Energy Security” (PARES) project developed a broader definition of Energy Security, and described an analytical framework designed to help to compare the energy security characteristics – both positive and negative – of different quantitative energy paths as developed using software tools such as the LEAP (Long-range Energy Alternatives Planning) system.     

Bennett house: Aboriginal heritage as real estate in East Perth

Abstract

As the mansions materialised in refurbished East Perth on the Swan River, a battle between the East Perth Redevelopment Authority and Perth's indigenous community over a land swap culminated in demolition of a heritage building significant to the Stolen Generations. This case study unravels the complex relations and practices underpinning Bennett House's demolition, resonant of other planning decisions involving Aboriginal sites in Western Australia.