Architecture,Environment, History: Questions and Consequences

There is increasing interest among architectural historians in addressing environmental concerns on both historical and theoretical terms. Simultaneously, other fields have been looking to architectural scholarship to understand the historical relationship between the built and the natural environment. For architectural historians, and others, this has also involved correlating the shifting discourse on environment with a history of architectural transformations and disciplinary expansions. These engagements have made clear that the environmental history of architecture does not simply add more objects to the historical database, but also changes the terms of historical analysis, as new matters of concern and new conceptual frameworks come to the fore. This paper gathers together a dialogic set of projections from scholars responding to the question of how we might newly understand the historical relationship between the built and the natural environment, and the opportunities and challenges this new phase presents to scholars, design researchers, and architects.     

Therapists’ use of congruence in nondirective play therapy and filial therapy.

Although the U.S. child-centered approaches of Garry Landreth and Louise Guerney have the same principles and practice skills as nondirective play therapy as practiced by therapists trained at the University of York, there are a few differences in their approach. Therapists’ practice of “congruence” is actively encouraged for York-trained therapists but not for Landreth and Guerney-trained therapists. The theoretical and practice rationales for expressing congruence that underlie the York approach are examined here, as well as potential pitfalls. Examples of therapists and parents verbally expressing their congruent feelings in therapy are given from both play therapy and filial therapy practice. Special attention is paid to the need for and uses of congruence when helping children and young people who were maltreated. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

The behavioural response of migratory sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) to potential damage-released larval and migratory chemical alarm cues

We investigated the presence of damage-released alarm cues and the reactions they may cause in landlocked migratory sea lamprey (Petromyzon marinus) using semi-natural laboratory conditions during the day. In two separate experiments, migratory sea lampreys were exposed to stimuli prepared from the skinless carcasses and skin tissue of larval sea lamprey and from the skin tissue and muscle tissue of migratory sea lamprey. Migratory female sea lamprey swam significantly longer after being exposed to the stimulus prepared from the skinless carcass of larval sea lamprey. No significant changes were seen in the behaviour of the migratory female lamprey in response to larval skin extract or in the behaviour of male sea lamprey to any experimental extract in the larval extract experiment. In the second experiment that utilised migratory lamprey stimuli, neither male and nor female migratory sea lamprey showed a significant difference in their behavioural response among different treatments and controls. Our findings indicate that adult female sea lamprey respond strongly to damage-released alarm cues from larval sea lamprey; hence, the latter holds promise for sea lamprey behavioural manipulations for control purposes during the day. Further research is needed to examine responses to damage-released alarm cues at night, when migratory sea lampreys are more active.     

Impaired timing precision produced by striatal D2 receptor overexpression is mediated by cognitive and motivational deficits.

Increased striatal dopamine D2 receptor activity is thought to contribute to the pathophysiology of schizophrenia. To model this condition in mice, Kellendonk et al. (2006) generated transgenic mice that selectively overexpress the D2 receptor in striatum (D2OE). Drew et al. (2007) reported that D2OE mice display deficits in interval timing and motivation. The present study further explored the impaired timing in D2OE mice. Experiment 1 assessed the role of motivation in producing timing deficits in the peak procedure and found that performance in D2OE mice was improved by increasing motivation. In addition, performance was impaired in control mice when motivation was decreased. In Experiment 2, we found that D2OE mice have no timing impairment when tested using the bisection task, a procedure in which the measure of timing performance is less influenced by motivation to respond. In Experiment 3, we also used the bisection task and found selective impairment in timing of long durations in D2OE mice. These results suggest that striatal D2 overexpression impairs timing by decreasing motivation and through its impact on working memory and/or sustained attention. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

High resolution time integration for SN radiation transport

First-order, second-order, and high resolution time discretization schemes are implemented and studied for the discrete ordinates (S_N) equations. The high resolution method employs a rate of convergence better than first-order, but also suppresses artificial oscillations introduced by second-order schemes in hyperbolic partial differential equations. The high resolution method achieves these properties by nonlinearly adapting the time stencil to use a first-order method in regions where oscillations could be created. We employ a quasi-linear solution scheme to solve the nonlinear equations that arise from the high resolution method. All three methods were compared for accuracy and convergence rates. For non-absorbing problems, both second-order and high resolution converged to the same solution as the first-order with better convergence rates. High resolution is more accurate than first-order and matches or exceeds the second-order method.     

Assessment of the risk of solar ultraviolet radiation to amphibians. I. Dose-dependent induction of hindlimb malformations in the northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens)

A number of environmental stressors have been hypothesized as responsible for recent increases in limb malformations in several species of North American amphibians. The purpose of this study was to generate dose-response data suitable for assessing the potential role of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation in causing limb malformations in a species in which this phenomenon seemingly is particularly prevalent, the northern leopard frog (Rana pipiens). Frogs were exposed from early embryonic stages through complete metamorphosis to varying natural sunlight regimes, including unaltered (100%) sunlight, sunlight subjected to neutral density filtration to achieve relative intensities of 85%, 75%, 65%, 50%, and 25% of unaltered sunlight, and sunlight filtered with glass or acrylamide to attenuate, respectively, the UVB (290-320 nm) and UVB plus UVA (290-380 nm) portions of the spectrum. The experiments were conducted in a controlled setting, with continual monitoring of UVB, UVA, and visible light to support a robust exposure assessment. Full sunlight caused approximately 50% mortality of the frogs during early larval development; no significant treatment-related mortality occurred under any of the other exposure regimes, including 100% sunlight with glass or acrylamide filtration. There was a dose-dependent (p < 0.0001) induction of hindlimb malformations in the frogs, with the percentage of affected animals ranging from about 97% under unaltered sunlight to 0% in the 25% neutral density treatment. Malformations were comprised mostly of missing or truncated digits, and generally were bilateral as well as symmetrical. Filtration of sunlight with either glass or acrylamide both significantly reduced the incidence of malformed limbs. The estimated sunlight dose resulting in a 50% limb malformation rate (ED50) was 63.5%. The limb ED50 values based on measured sunlight intensities corresponded to average daily doses of 4.5 and 100 Wh x m(-2) for UVB and UVA, respectively. Exposure to sunlight also resulted in increased eye malformations in R. pipiens, however, the dose-response relationship for this endpoint was not monotonic. The results of this study, in conjunction with measured or predicted exposure data from natural settings, provide a basis for quantitative prediction of the risk of solar UV radiation to amphibians.