374 research outputs found
Thoughts on the Importance of the Meso Perspective: the “ Plattform Produktives Stadtgrün” / Gedanken zur Bedeutung der Mesoperspektive: „Plattform Produktives Stadtgrün“
No full textInvited to contribute to a book section on Berlin, Katrin Bohn thinks about the importance of a middle ground between the big pressing macro questions of climate change and the micro spaces of individual food system activities. She writes: ‘Judging by the realities of environmental degradation, traditional urban planning has failed. Concerns of experts have not been sufficiently acknowledged. It requires a middle ground—a meso perspective—to better enable conversation between the various urban stakeholders and bring about widely supported and lasting change. How can this be initiated? In a time of social media, the author proposes to look at a recently developed tool for information, communication, networking, and—ultimately—urban planning’.Bohn uses the Plattform Produktives Stadtgrün [Plattform Productive Urban Green], a Berlin-based interactive online tool developed in a collaboration between the local council, local community gardeners and external experts, including Katrin, to illustrate such a meso perspective.The book Urban Open Space + is edited by Carolin Mees and published by Jovis. Subtitled Strategies inbetween architecture and open space planning, the bi-lingual publication (English/German) explores ‘commonly used and designed open spaces [as] anchor points in the city and a possible response to the consequences of urbanization and climate change, as well as to the presence of social and cultural differences’
The role of climate and plant functional trade-offs in shaping global biome and biodiversity patterns
No full textAim: Two of the oldest observations in plant geography are the increase in plant diversity from the poles towards the tropics and the global geographic distribution of vegetation physiognomy (biomes). The objective of this paper is to use a process-based vegetation model to evaluate the relationship between modelled and observed global patterns of plant diversity and the geographic distribution of biomes.Location: The global terrestrial biosphere.Methods: We implemented and tested a novel vegetation model aimed at identifying strategies that enable plants to grow and reproduce within particular climatic conditions across the globe. Our model simulates plant survival according to the fundamental ecophysiological processes of water uptake, photosynthesis, reproduction and phenology. We evaluated the survival of an ensemble of 10,000 plant growth strategies across the range of global climatic conditions. For the simulated regional plant assemblages we quantified functional richness, functional diversity and functional identity.Results: A strong relationship was found (correlation coefficient of 0.75) between the modelled and the observed plant diversity. Our approach demonstrates that plant functional dissimilarity increases and then saturates with increasing plant diversity. Six of the major Earth biomes were reproduced by clustering grid cells according to their functional identity (mean functional traits of a regional plant assemblage). These biome clusters were in fair agreement with two other global vegetation schemes: a satellite image classification and a biogeography model (kappa statistics around 0.4).Main conclusions: Our model reproduces the observed global patterns of plant diversity and vegetation physiognomy from the number and identity of simulated plant growth strategies. These plant growth strategies emerge from the first principles of climatic constraints and plant functional trade-offs. Our study makes important contributions to furthering the understanding of how climate affects patterns of plant diversity and vegetation physiognomy from a process-based rather than a phenomenological perspective
The relative importance of seed competition, resource competition and perturbations on community structure
No full textWhile the regional climate is the primary selection pressure for whether a plant strategy can survive, however, competitive interactions strongly affect the relative abundances of plant strategies within communities. Here, we investigate the relative importance of competition and perturbations on the development of vegetation community structure. To do so, we develop DIVE (Dynamics and Interactions of VEgetation), a simple general model that links plant strategies to their competitive dynamics, using growth and reproduction characteristics that emerge from climatic constraints. The model calculates population dynamics based on establishment, mortality, invasion and exclusion in the presence of different strengths of perturbations, seed and resource competition. The highest levels of diversity were found in simulations without competition as long as mortality is not too high. However, reasonable successional dynamics were only achieved when resource competition is considered. Under high levels of competition, intermediate levels of perturbations were required to obtain coexistence. Since succession and coexistence are observed in plant communities, we conclude that the DIVE model with competition and intermediate levels of perturbation represents an adequate way to model population dynamics. Because of the simplicity and generality of DIVE, it could be used to understand vegetation structure and functioning at the global scale and the response of vegetation to global change
Plates by George Cruikshank from The works of Henry Fielding: complete in one volume with the memoir of the author
No full textCruikshank's plates from The works of Henry Fielding: complete in one volume with the memoir of the author / by Thomas Roscoe. Illus. by George Cruikshank.1116 p. front., [22] leaves of plates : ill. ; 24 cm
Views of nature, or, Contemplations on the sublime phenomena of creation : with scientific illustrations / by Alexander von Humboldt ; translated from the German by E.C. Otté and Henry G. Bohn ; with a frontispiece from a sketch by the author, a fac-simile of his handwriting, and a comprehensive index.
No full textBridging ecophysiological trade-offs and population dynamics - How competition and climate shape community structure
No full textMarietta Robusti, La Tintoretta: a critical discussion of a Venetian pittrice
No full textMarietta Robusti, known also as Marietta Tintoretta, is recognized today primarily as a beloved pupil of her famous father, Jacopo Tintoretto. Before her premature death around 1590, Robusti earned international fame for her painted portraits and was praised by contemporary biographers. Though she was never granted the opportunity to practice autonomously outside of her father’s workshop, her role within it was multifaceted, working as an assistant, a portraitist, and most likely a model. Robusti was one of the earliest examples of a new but growing tradition of female painters being trained by their fathers in Cinquecento Italy. Robusti’s artistic legacy, however, is established by her biographers in terms of virtuous qualities pertaining to her gender and the adoration of her father rather than artistic achievement. As a result, no extant works by Robusti are securely known today. Chapter one discusses Marietta Robusti and the Tintoretto bottega, along with the rise of women artists in Cinquecento Venice and Renaissance constructs of feminine virtu in early modern biographies. The second chapter critically considers Robusti’s historiography, with specific attention to her earliest biographers and their gendered treatment of Robusti and her work. Chapter two also examines the trend of collecting works by women artists as curiosities. Chapter three includes a critical discussion of Robusti’s highly disputed oeuvre and range of paintings documented in collection history
Towards the definition of an 'eating disorder'
No full textThis dissertation is concerned with the diagnosis and classification of clinical eating disorders such as anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. There were four overarching aims. The first was to describe the clinical characteristics of patients with the neglected DSM-FV eating disorder diagnosis "eating disorder NOS" and compare them with those of patients with bulimia nervosa. It was found that the two groups were remarkably similar. The second was to examine how the classificatory problems associated with this diagnosis might be solved. Three solutions were proposed and the clinical utility of two of them examined. It was concluded that the best interim solution was to broaden the diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa and re-label the remaining cases of eating disorder NOS as either binge eating disorder or as a new eating disorder diagnosis. The third aim was to derive an operational definition of what constitutes an "eating disorder" This involved developing an interview-based measure of functional impairment secondary to eating disorder features and administering it to a large sample of people exhibiting the full range of eating disorder psychopathology. Multivariate statistics identified specific severity levels on five eating disorder features that were strongly associated with the presence of a clinically significant level of impairment. These eating disorder features were: the pursuit of strict dietary rules, objective bulimic episodes, purging episodes, dissatisfaction with shape and weight, and over-concern with maintaining strict control over eating. The presence of two or more of these features above the identified thresholds was most predictive of a clinically significant level of impairment. Thus, an impairment-based, transdiagnostic, provisional operational definition of an eating disorder was derived. The fourth aim was to develop a clinically useful, easily administered measure of psychosocial impairment secondary to eating disorder features. Such an instrument was created. Studies of its psychometric properties, reliability, validity and sensitivity to change all supported its use. Certain of the research strategies used in this dissertation could be usefully applied to other psychiatric disorders
Domenico Piola and his drawings: a study of his fresco preparations
No full textOne of the leading artists in late seventeenth-century Genoa, Domenico Piola (1627-1703) created and maintained his own successful and highly organized workshop, “Casa Piola.” Piola and his Casa Piola completed grand illusionistic interiors for noble residences through the unification of painting, sculpture, and architectural adornment, catering to the Genoese patronage’s taste for the ornate. Piola’s artistic production also includes a large number of drawings (some 4000) that drastically outnumber his paintings and frescos. These drawings display a careful and methodical technique utilized in preparing works in a variety of media from fabrics to frescoes. Using Piola’s five known preparatory drawings for his Allegory of Winter and Allegory of Autumn frescoes as a case study, this thesis will study Piola’s process of fresco design and argue that he used drawings to develop ideas that are reused and reworked in both final fresco compositions. My first chapter contextualizes Domenico Piola and his Casa Piola within seventeenth-century Genoese visual culture and highlights piolesque production’s inherent ties to the local aristocratic decoration. This introductory chapter traces the artist’s development from his early training through his rise to a prominent position in the city.The second chapter provides an overview of Piola’s draftsmanship, emphasizing his large output of highly finished compositional studies, often as iterations of similar subject matter. With comparisons to drawings by earlier influential Genoese artists such as Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione and Valerio Castello, I explore Piola’s corpus of drawings as indicative of the larger Genoese drawing tradition of full compositional designs. My third chapter examines Piola’s use of preparatory drawings for his frescoed Allegory of Autumn and Allegory of Winter decorations in the piano nobile of the Palazzo Rosso. Not completely corresponding to the final frescoes, Piola’s drawings show how he experiments with ideas through drawings, actively reworking elements to create innovative compositions that are not conceived until their final iteration in fresco. At various states of finish, these drawings show his specific approach to fresco design, while also continuing to design in complete compositional entities
- …
