The tortoise,the scorpion and the horse - partial notes on architectural research/teaching/practice

‘With Blade Runner's replicants, circulating capital achieves its highest form and real subsumption attains its ultimate stage of development: the replicants become the privileged objects of society's intelligence.’1 Eric Alliez and Michel Feher, ‘Notes on the Sophisticated City’, trs, David Berris and Astrid Hustvedt, in, Sanford Kwinter and Michel Feher, eds, Zone 1/2 (New York, Urzone Inc., 1986), p.41.

The term ‘replicant’, drawn from the 1982 film Blade Runner directed by Ridley Scott, is used here to conceptualise the ‘urbanism’ produced within the Central Building designed by Zaha Hadid Architects for BMW's plant at Leipzig in 2005. It is used not so as to critique the project's urban dimension as fake, but to propose that it is, like the humanoid replicants of the film, a new reality produced by corporate capital designed to function in its service as an improved version of the original from which it is derived.2 Ridley Scott, Dir., Blade Runner (1982). In the film's opening sequences replicants are introduced, in the form of an entry from the 2012 edition of Webster's Dictionary, as follows: Early in the 21st Century, THE TYRELL CORPORATION advanced Robot evolution into the NEXUS phase—a being virtually identical to a human—known as a replicant. The NEXUS 6 Replicants were superior in strength and agility, and at least equal in intelligence, to the genetic engineers who created them. Replicants were used Off-world as slave labor, in the hazardous exploration and colonisation of other planets. This proposition is developed through an analysis of the models of labour organisation currently utilised within managerial practice, and the confluence of its concerns with those of certain currents in contemporary architecture. The BMW Central Building is also analysed in the economic and political contexts of the plant's specific location, and with reference to the architectural means through which it has been designed to replicate and instrumentalise urban organisational patterns for the corporation.     

Creativity and Innovation in Haute Cuisine: Towards a Systemic Model

The contribution of this study is an increased understanding of personal creativity and the innovation process in haute cuisine, a validation of the socio‐cultural systems view of creativity and a model that accounts for the socio‐cultural dimensions of haute cuisine. In this paper we discuss existing views that conceptualize creativity and innovation in this sector as a sequential developmental process following the principles of operations management. However, based on in‐depth interviews with world‐renowned chefs, we argue for a systemic rather than sequential developmental process view. The reason for this is that the chefs interviewed understand the ‘creativity part’ of the innovation process as an embodied experience often guided by intuition and the ‘innovation part’ as a process of social evaluation greatly dependent on the perception, knowledge and value judgement of the testers from the leading restaurant guides. The main implications of the findings go beyond the haute cuisine sector and open areas for future research on creativity and intuition more generally.     

SUPPRESSOR OF VARIEGATION4,a New var2 Suppressor Locus,Encodes a Pioneer Protein that Is Required for Chloroplast Biogenesis

VAR2 is an integral thylakoid membrane protein and a member of the versatile FtsH class of metalloproteases in prokaryotes and eukaryotes. Recessive mutations in the VAR2 locus give rise to variegated plants (var2) that contain white sectors with abnormal plastids and green sectors with normal-appearing chloroplasts. In a continuing effort to isolate second-site suppressors of var2 variegation,we characterize in this report ems2505,a suppressor strain that has a vi-rescent phenotype due to a missense mutation in At4g28590,the gene for a pioneer protein. We designated this gene SVR4 (for SUPPRESSOR OF VARIEGATI0N4) and the mutant allele in ems2505 as svr4-1. We demonstrate that SVR4 is located in chloroplasts and that svr4-1 single mutants are normal with respect to chloroplast anatomy and thylakoid membrane protein accumulation. However,they are modestly impaired in several aspects of photochemistry and have enhanced non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) capacity. A T-DNA insertion allele of SVR4,svr4-2,is seedling-lethal due to an early blockage of chloroplast development. We conclude that SVR4 is essential for chloroplast biogenesis,and hypothesize that SVR4 mediates some aspect of thylakoid structure or function that controls NPQ. We propose that in the suppressor strain,photoinhibitory pressure caused by a lack of VAR2 is ameliorated early in chloroplast development by enhanced NPQ capacity caused by reduced SVR4 activity. This would result in an increase in the number of chloroplasts that are able to surmount a threshold necessary to avoid photo-damage and thereby develop into functional chloroplasts.     

Human Adipose Tissue Conditioned Media from Lean Subjects Is Protective against H2O2 Induced Neurotoxicity in Human SH-SY5Y Neuronal Cells

Adipose tissue secretes numerous hormone-like factors, which are known as adipokines. Adipokine receptors have been identified in the central nervous system but the potential role of adipokine signaling in neuroprotection is unclear. The aim of this study is to determine (1) Whether adipokines secreted from cultured adipose tissue of lean humans is protective against oxidative stress-induced neurotoxicity in human SH-SY5Y neuronal cells; and (2) To explore potential signaling pathways involved in these processes. Adipose tissue conditioned media (ATCM) from healthy lean subjects completely prevented H₂O₂ induced neurotoxicity, while this effect is lost after heating ATCM. ATCM activated the phosphorylation of ERK1/2, JNK and Akt at serine 308 in SH-SY5Y cells. PD98059 (25 µM), SP600125 (5 µM) and LY29400 (20 µM) partially blocked the protective effects of ATCM against H₂O₂ induced neurotoxicity. Findings demonstrate that heat-sensitive factors secreted from human adipose tissue of lean subjects are protective against H₂O₂ induced neurotoxicity and ERK1/2, JNK, and PI3K signaling pathways are involved in these processes. In conclusion, this study demonstrates preliminary but encouraging data to further support that adipose tissue secreted factors from lean human subjects might possess neuroprotective properties and unravel the specific roles of ERK1/2, JNK and PI3K in these processes.     

Changes in structural aspects of mood during 39–66 h of sleep loss using matched controls

A number of studies have described mood change during sleep loss in the laboratory, however, an understanding of fluctuations in structural aspects of mood under such conditions is lacking. Sixty-two healthy young adults completed one of three possible conditions: one (n = 20) or two (n = 23) nights of sleep loss or the control condition which consisted of one (n = 9) or two (n = 10) nights of 9 h time in bed. The Mood Scale II was completed every two waking hours and data were analysed in terms of the frequency and intensity of mood reports. Overall, sleep loss conditions were associated with significantly less frequent happiness and activation and more frequent fatigue reports (p < 0.001). Intensity was also significantly reduced for activation and happiness, and increased for depression, anger and fatigue (p < 0.05). Interestingly, there were no significant differences in anger following two nights in the laboratory with or without sleep. Further, two nights in the lab with normal sleep was associated with significant increases in depression intensity (p < 0.05). Findings support the hypothesis of a mood regulatory function of sleep and highlight the relative independence of frequency and intensity and of positive and negative mood dimensions. Findings also suggest that the laboratory environment, in the absence of sleep loss, may have a significant negative impact on mood.     

Gatekeeping or gate slippage? A national survey of counseling educators in Australian undergraduate and postgraduate academic training programs.

Counseling educators fulfill a complex and demanding role as gatekeepers. The role serves a quality control function and involves ethical and educational responsibilities; it also interfaces with a confounding array of issues. This study was undertaken to establish how counseling educators view and experience the gatekeeping function, and to identify the mechanisms implemented by training programs to facilitate educators in the gatekeeping process. Educators from across Australia involved in counseling training at the bachelor's degree or higher award level were surveyed (n = 63, response rate = 34%). Findings suggested that educators are highly motivated by their sense of responsibility toward the counseling profession when assessing students. Nevertheless, their gatekeeping efforts are often compromised having been predominantly impeded by a lack of clear evidence of the problematic issues and leniency biases within their programs. In addition, gatekeeping efforts have not been generally supported by program initiatives, such as written policy and procedures, which are recognized to be facilitative of the gatekeeping process. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Functionalization of Silicon Surfaces for Device Applications

Over the past decade, there has been increasing interest in functionalizing silicon surfaces, avoiding the ubiquitous oxide overlayer utilized in most integrated circuits based upon silicon. While silicon is clearly the backbone material of the microelectronics industry, an understanding of its surface chemistry still remains in preliminary stages. The native oxide overlayer on silicon chips has served admirably well for most microelectronic applications but as the features on integrated circuits become increasingly small, the ability to tailor the interfacial properties of the surface is extremely desirable. As the well known Moore's law describes, the number of devices on an integrated circuit has been increasing exponentially since the early 1960's, approximately doubling every year to 18 months. The smallest feature on a Pentium processor chip is now about 300 nm, and both industry and academia look to make even tinier surface features and devices as the state-of-the-art moves from ultra-to giga-scale integration, with over 10 to 100 million transistors per chip. Because the surface properties of these nanoscale devices will have crucial effects on their performance, new surface terminations and the chemical tools to access them are required.