461 research outputs found
The death of drawing : architecture in the age of simulation /
No full text"The Death of Drawing explains how the shift from drawing by to hand to using building information models (BIM) is happening and the effect of this on how architects think and work. Author David Scheer helps you recognize that architectural drawings exist to represent construction and architectural simulations (BIM) exist to anticipate building performance. The values implicit in drawing - patience, care, attention to detail, knowledge of composition, appreciation of well-made things - which architects used to gain through years of drawing practice, don't apply to simulation, so Scheer discusses how losing this vital learning tool might affect your work and and the field of architecture. He also explains that simulation requires you to cast building information in the form of data, which means less of a distinction between designers and constructors, and, based on this, how your interactions with and relevance to clients and collaborators might impact your practice. Finally he reflects on this moment of profound transformation, to remember what drawing has meant to architecture so that you can anticipate what may follow"--Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-234) and index."The Death of Drawing explains how the shift from drawing by to hand to using building information models (BIM) is happening and the effect of this on how architects think and work. Author David Scheer helps you recognize that architectural drawings exist to represent construction and architectural simulations (BIM) exist to anticipate building performance. The values implicit in drawing - patience, care, attention to detail, knowledge of composition, appreciation of well-made things - which architects used to gain through years of drawing practice, don't apply to simulation, so Scheer discusses how losing this vital learning tool might affect your work and and the field of architecture. He also explains that simulation requires you to cast building information in the form of data, which means less of a distinction between designers and constructors, and, based on this, how your interactions with and relevance to clients and collaborators might impact your practice. Finally he reflects on this moment of profound transformation, to remember what drawing has meant to architecture so that you can anticipate what may follow"--Simulation and Representation -- Drawing and Architecture -- Building Information Modeling -- Performativity and Design -- Information Flow and Collaboration -- Computational Design -- Simulation and Design Thinking -- Architectures of Simulation
Daily circadian misalignment impairs human cognitive performance task-dependently
No full textShift work increases the risk for human errors, such that drowsiness due to shift work has contributed to major industrial disasters, including Space Shuttle Challenger, Chernobyl and Alaska Oil Spill disasters, with extraordinary socio-economical costs. Overnight operations pose a challenge because our circadian biology inhibits cognitive performance at night. Yet how the circadian system modulates cognition over multiple days under realistic shift work conditions remains to be established. Importantly, because task-specific cognitive brain regions show different 24-h circadian dynamics, we hypothesize that circadian misalignment impacts cognition task-dependently. Using a biologically-driven paradigm mimicking night shift work, with a randomized, cross-over design, we show that misalignment between the circadian pacemaker and behavioral/environmental cycles increases cognitive vulnerability on sustained attention, cognitive throughput, information processing and visual-motor performance over multiple days, compared to circadian alignment (day shifts). Circadian misalignment effects are task-dependent: while they acutely impair sustained attention with recovery after 3-days, they progressively hinder daily learning. Individuals felt sleepier during circadian misalignment, but they did not rate their performance as worse. Furthermore, circadian misalignment effects on sustained attention depended on prior sleep history. Collectively, daily circadian misalignment may provide an important biological framework for developing countermeasures against adverse cognitive effects in shift workers.Version of Recor
Abundance of Natural Riparian Forests and Tree Plantations in the Amudarya Delta of Uzbekistan and their impact on emissions of soil-borne greenhouse gases
No full textThrough a forest inventory in parts of the Amudarya river delta, Central Asia, we assessed the impact of ongoing forest degradation on the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHG) from soils. Interpretation of aerial photographs from 2001, combined with data on forest inventory in 1990 and field survey in 2003 provided comprehensive information about the extent and changes of the natural tugai riparian forests and tree plantations in the delta. The findings show an average annual deforestation rate of almost 1.3% and an even higher rate of land use change from tugai forests to land with only sparse tree cover. These annual rates of deforestation and forest degradation are higher than the global annual forest loss. By 2003, the tugai forest area had drastically decreased to about 60% compared to an inventory in 1990. Significant differences in soil GHG emissions between forest and agricultural land use underscore the impact of the ongoing land use change on the emission of soil-borne GHGs. The conversion of tugai forests into irrigated croplands will release 2.5 t CO2 equivalents per hectare per year due to elevated emissions of N2O and CH4. This demonstrates that the ongoing transformation of tugai forests into agricultural land-use systems did not only lead to a loss of biodiversity and of a unique ecosystem, but substantially impacts the biosphere-atmosphere exchange of GHG and soil C and N turnover processes
Differential effects of the circadian system and circadian misalignment on insulin sensitivity and insulin secretion in humans
No full textHelden am Himmel – Helden im Himmel. Sphärenwechsel zu den Sternen im griechischen Mythos.
No full textThe Catasterisms of Pseudo-Eratosthenes and the Astronomia, written by an author named Hyginus are the most important extant sources concerning ancient Greek star-myths. Analysing these texts this paper discusses questions about the reasons and circumstances that lead mythical heroes and heroines to changing the earthly sphere for the heavens in Greek myth. Which conse-quences did these changes inflict on the protagonists concerned? What did it mean to be put among the stars? The texts allowed their audience a wide range of possibilities “to think with”, including divine compassion, gratitude and eternal memory of great deeds as well as presenting warning examples for man-kind on earth. Since when these examples were told, is difficult to assess. The case of the Arkadian heroine Callisto shows how strata of mythical subjects (mythische Stoffe) changed over the centuries. The Homeric Odysseus was told of the ‘Bear’ as an important heavenly constellation, but it seems that it took some centuries before the heroine Callisto reached the sky and this bear finally got a personal name. Authors like Pseudo-Eratosthenes and Hyginus do not express the belief that such a changing of spheres included a happy afterlife or immortal feasting in the presence of the Olympic gods. Nevertheless their read-ers were at liberty to hope for it
Soil organic carbon stocks in mountain periglacial areas of northern Patagonia (Argentina)
No full textThis study presents a detailed soil organic carbon (SOC) inventory for two areas in the mountain periglacial zone of northern Patagonia (altitude range c. 1,400–2,100 m). We describe plant cover and soil profiles at twenty-seven sites representing the main land cover classes and landform types at and above the treeline. The mean SOC 0–100 cm storage is 2.31 kg C m−2 for the combined study areas, which includes 69 percent of bare ground surfaces with negligible SOC stocks. If we consider the vegetated alpine belt only, mean SOC 0–100 cm storage increases to 6.96 kg C m−2. Solifluction has resulted in areas with dense plant cover and deep soil profiles with mean SOC 0–100 cm of 17.1 to 18.3 kg C m−2 and a maximum total stock of 51.5 kg C m−2. Lowest SOC storages of 0.13 to 0.63 kg C m−2 are found in bare and sparsely vegetated high-elevation areas with shallow and stony soils developed in patterned ground (stripes and sorted circles). Projected future increases in ambient temperature will likely result in an upward shift of the alpine vegetation belt with soil development, creating new areas of ecosystem carbon storage.Fil: Fröjd, Christina. Stockholms Universitet; SueciaFil: Trombotto, Dario Tomas. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales. Provincia de Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Scheer, Christopher. Stockholms Universitet; SueciaFil: Pecker Marcosig, Ivanna. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales. Provincia de Mendoza. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales. Universidad Nacional de Cuyo. Instituto Argentino de Nivología, Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales; ArgentinaFil: Kuhry, Peter. Stockholms Universitet; Sueci
Continuation of chronic antiplatelet therapy is not associated with increased need for transfusions: a cohort study in critically ill septic patients
No full textFuchs C, Scheer CS, Wauschkuhn S, et al. Continuation of chronic antiplatelet therapy is not associated with increased need for transfusions: a cohort study in critically ill septic patients. BMC Anesthesiology . 2024;24(1): 146.BACKGROUND: The decision to maintain or halt antiplatelet medication in septic patients admitted to intensive care units presents a clinical dilemma. This is due to the necessity to balance the benefits of preventing thromboembolic incidents and leveraging anti-inflammatory properties against the increased risk of bleeding.; METHODS: This study involves a secondary analysis of data from a prospective cohort study focusing on patients diagnosed with severe sepsis or septic shock. We evaluated the outcomes of 203 patients, examining mortality rates and the requirement for transfusion. The cohort was divided into two groups: those whose antiplatelet therapy was sustained (n=114) and those in whom it was discontinued (n=89). To account for potential biases such as indication for antiplatelet therapy, propensity score matching was employed.; RESULTS: Therapy continuation did not significantly alter transfusion requirements (discontinued vs. continued in matched samples: red blood cell concentrates 51.7% vs. 68.3%, p=0.09; platelet concentrates 21.7% vs. 18.3%, p=0.82; fresh frozen plasma concentrates 38.3% vs. 33.3%, p=0.7). 90-day survival was higher within the continued group (30.0% vs. 70.0%; p0.05).; CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that continuing antiplatelet therapy in septic patients admitted to intensive care units could be associated with a significant survival benefit without substantially increasing the need for transfusion. These results highlight the importance of a nuanced approach to managing antiplatelet medication in the context of severe sepsis and septic shock. © 2024. The Author(s)
Review of \u3ci\u3eGovernor Lady: The Life and Times of Nellie Tayloe Ross\u3c/i\u3e By Teva J. Scheer
No full textNellie Tayloe Ross, governor of Wyoming from January 5, 1925-January 3, 1927, was sworn into office fifteen days before Miriam Ferguson in Texas, a precedence that earned the former a lasting legacy as the nation\u27s first woman governor. The novelty of her status and her elegant charm won Ross the attention of her contemporaries. A series of autobiographical essays titled Governor Lady, published in 1927 by Good Housekeeping, fed the interests of an admiring public. A more recent tribute is Teva Scheer\u27s Governor Lady: The Life of Times of Nellie Tayloe Ross. How should history evaluate the nation\u27s first woman governor? asks the author. For despite Ross\u27s later accomplishments as an organizer for the national Democratic Party and director of the U.S. Mint, it is as Wyoming\u27s governor that she is most remembered. Scheer\u27s evaluation, reflecting extensive research, is an affirmative one that recognizes Ross\u27s historical significance and argues her continuing importance.
Even as Ross extolled the virtues of hearth and home, after her husband\u27s death in 1924 she would seldom devote her own energies there. Ross\u27s story involves copious context, ranging from late nineteenth-century farming conditions to early twentieth-century monetary policy, from the nuances of Wyoming state politics through the years to postsuffrage feminism. Ross is described as a kindergarten teacher in Omaha and wife in Cheyenne, as gubernatorial candidate in the West and Chautauqua speaker in the East, as a political outsider among former suffragists and a Washington, D.C., insider during a succession of administrations. Explaining these shifts involves introducing a swelling cast of characters and conditions as much as portraying the woman herself.
Scheer describes Ross as the Missouri-born child of former slave owners, accounting for her Southern manners and perhaps some racist comments revealed in Ross\u27s later correspondence. She connects Ross with the typical middle-class American woman of her era, in contrast to her college-educated contemporaries who also distinguished themselves as female firsts in the public sector
Bax's 'Sea Symphony'
No full textBax's Fourth is the only one of his symphonies that alludes explicitly to an extramusical stimulus: 'a rough sea at flood-tide on a sunny day'. This essay contextualizes Bax's frequent use of sea imagery throughout his oeuvre, noting in particular the peripherality of the composer's observation of the sea from the liminal position of the shore. It then considers how the idea of the sea in the Fourth Symphony is related to several musical features (motivic coherence, thematic expansion, formal anomalies), and how the sea is central to the underlying conflict in the work between nature and humanity
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