The ephemeral aesthetic of spontaneous design on the streets of São Paulo, Brazil

There are few opportunities when the poor and prosperous can be spoken about with respect to the same, shared cultural experience. And yet, visual culture, and the design process that contributes to its materialisation in specific contexts, offers an opportunity to recognise a socially inclusive activity that reveals similarity rather than difference. This paper celebrates an ephemeral aesthetic that is appreciated by people at different ends of the economic, political and social spectrum. A mutual appreciation for the medium of collage differs only in terms of the environment within which the recycled object is eventually revealed. This paper explores some of these different contexts, and those who recognise and practise this phenomenon in a South American and European context. The conclusion of this speculative and exploratory study is that there is potential to develop this unique medium as an accessible and inclusive visual language, giving voice to those who often do not have the opportunity or the means to speak and be heard. Collage is recognised as a channel that mediates between social exclusion and inclusion when political and economic means have been exhausted. The resulting ephemeral aesthetic is proven to have visual appeal, satisfying low- and high-order human needs. Keywords: Bricolage; Ephemeral Aesthetic; Urban Poor; Human Need; Graphic Design</p

Soybean cultivars yield in alternative plant arrangements.

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Architecture Held Suspect: Notes on Design and Collaboration

We work under the premise that to fabricate architectural, landscape, or urban insertions, interpretations, and alterations is an activist endeavor that is often ignored or unconsciously pursued. Design supports or disrupts the actions of individuals and the actions of the institutions that culture has formed

Using Sequential Mixed Social Science Methods to Define and Measure Heritage Conservation Performance

There is no agreed-upon definition for heritage conservation performance, but it is possible to borrow ideas from the natural resource conservation field to inform this concept. Dimensions of performance can include economic, technical, and sociocultural and experiential indices. Because heritage conservation ostensibly benefits people as its primary goal, however, the values of most stakeholders ought to play a role in defining performance. Most of these values are subjective and represent sociocultural and personal meanings and tend to differ dramatically from the positivistic, fabric-centered value system of conservation experts. Measurement implies quantification, yet many sociocultural values are based on qualitative meanings that defy direct attempts at quantification. One solution for this predicament is to employ a sequential mixed-method approach where qualitative meanings are gathered from stakeholders and then these meanings are used to inform the development of a quantitative method, such as a survey instrument. In this way, while the qualitative meanings are not being directly “measured” as such, aspects of the phenomenon behind these meanings can be measured, quantified, and subjected to statistical techniques. A brief representative case study is presented as an example of how social science methodologies can help define and measure performance

Street Art and Space

Various forms of street art, such as murals, anamorphic painting or urban interventions, become an important component of urban space. The paper examines examples of selected works of urban art in the context of space and its reception. These unexpected “events” entertain and educate. They become, on the one hand, a tourist attraction, and on the other hand, a major voice in the debate on the public nature of visual urban sphere. Although ephemeral and inconspicuous, usually reluctantly accepted by architects and urban planners, they successfully urge viewers to reflect on space and its existing functions

4-aminopyridyl-based lead compounds targeting CYP51 prevent spontaneous parasite relapse in a chronic model and improve cardiac pathology in an acute model of Trypanosoma cruzi infection.

BackgroundChagas disease, caused by the protozoan Trypanosoma cruzi, is the leading cause of heart failure in Latin America. The clinical treatment of Chagas disease is limited to two 60 year-old drugs, nifurtimox and benznidazole, that have variable efficacy against different strains of the parasite and may lead to severe side effects. CYP51 is an enzyme in the sterol biosynthesis pathway that has been exploited for the development of therapeutics for fungal and parasitic infections. In a target-based drug discovery program guided by x-ray crystallography, we identified the 4-aminopyridyl-based series of CYP51 inhibitors as being efficacious versus T.cruzi in vitro; two of the most potent leads, 9 and 12, have now been evaluated for toxicity and efficacy in mice.Methodology/principal findingsBoth acute and chronic animal models infected with wild type or transgenic T. cruzi strains were evaluated. There was no evidence of toxicity in the 28-day dosing study of uninfected animals, as judged by the monitoring of multiple serum and histological parameters. In two acute models of Chagas disease, 9 and 12 drastically reduced parasitemia, increased survival of mice, and prevented liver and heart injury. None of the compounds produced long term sterile cure. In the less severe acute model using the transgenic CL-Brenner strain of T.cruzi, parasitemia relapsed upon drug withdrawal. In the chronic model, parasitemia fell to a background level and, as evidenced by the bioluminescence detection of T. cruzi expressing the red-shifted luciferase marker, mice remained negative for 4 weeks after drug withdrawal. Two immunosuppression cycles with cyclophosphamide were required to re-activate the parasites. Although no sterile cure was achieved, the suppression of parasitemia in acutely infected mice resulted in drastically reduced inflammation in the heart.Conclusions/significanceThe positive outcomes achieved in the absence of sterile cure suggest that the target product profile in anti-Chagasic drug discovery should be revised in favor of safe re-administration of the medication during the lifespan of a Chagas disease patient. A medication that reduces parasite burden may halt or slow progression of cardiomyopathy and therefore improve both life expectancy and quality of life

Understanding the genetic and morphological basis of bushy root and bifuricate, two mutations affecting plant architecture in Solanum lycopersicum L.

The classical ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS) tomato mutant bushy root (brt) was studied using a homozygous near isogenic line (brtNIL) in the Micro-Tom (MT) genetic background. The mutation has a pleiotropic phenotype comprising slow seedling development, which may be a consequence of a maternally-inherited small seed phenotype, and a more compact, smaller but not bushier, root phenotype. The number of lateral roots, total root length and taproot size are all smaller in brtNIL than the WT. The BRT locus was mapped to a 137 kbp region containing 9 candidate genes on chr 12; an InDel in the promoter region of Solyc12g014590 – containing two highly conserved pirin domains (Pirin_C and Pirin), was detected. Different expression patterns were confirmed by transcriptomic results, supporting Solyc12g014590 as the gene responsible for the brt phenotype. A naturally occurring recessive mutant named bifuricate (bif) shows an increase in inflorescence (truss) branching in comparison to the wild type (WT) control line, LAM183. In addition, the number of flowers per truss was 235% higher in bif plants than WT. Low temperature is known to increase truss branching, and so a four day low temperature treatment was applied and it was demonstrated that flowering increased significantly more in bif than in LAM183. The BIF locus was mapped to a 2.01 Mbp interval of chromosome 12 containing 53 genes. All coding region polymorphisms in the interval were surveyed, and two genes Solyc12g019420 (a BTB/TAZ transcription factor) and Solyc12g019460 (a MAP kinase) contained one stop codon predicted to disrupt gene function; both genes are excellent candidates for inflorescence branching control based on literature evidence. A newly developed introgression browser was used to demonstrate that the origin of the bif mutant haplotype is Solanum galapagense

Traditional wooden houses in Maringá (Brazil): ICT in planning research

In many cities, the examples of traditional architecture are being replaced by contemporary buildings, without any strategies in order to preserve a specific period of the urban and housing histories. These legacies are witnesses of particular features in terms of local communities, societies, political environments, urban morphologies or architectural languages. In this sense, this article presents the case study of the traditional wooden houses in the city of Maringá in Paraná (Brazil). There is a set of buildings which still remain among the existing urban fabric. However, every year some of them are destroyed in order to give room for new ways of designing the city. The methodological approach is based on the ICT (information and communication technologies) as a tool to study the features of these traditional wooden buildings.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

’Team GB’ and London 2012: The Paradox of National and Global Identities

This article explores the problems associated with ’national identity’ in the UK and examines the tensions arising between the international and local dimensions of the games through examples of domestic (UK) and international (Brazil, Chicago) media coverage of the key debates relating to London’s period of preparation. The chapter proposes a conception of London 2012 as exemplar of an event poised to generate insights and experiences connected to a new politics of ’cosmopolitan’ identity; insights central to grasping the cultural politics of contemporary urban development-and the paradoxes of national identity in current discourses of Olympism. Properly speaking, cosmopolitanism suits those people who have no country, while internationalism should be the state of mind of those who love their country above all, who seek to draw to it the friendship of foreigners by professing for the countries of those foreigners an intelligent and enlightened sympathy. © 2010 Taylor & Francis

Morphology and design: reconciling intellect, intuition, and ethics in the reflective practice of architecture

This paper starts by exploring models of knowledge in order to place architectural knowledgein relation to the forms of knowledge that have been developed by other academic disciplineswithin the universities. In the light of suggestions that the low esteem in which architectureis held within the universities may be due to its basis in practice and its apparent lack of acoherent body of knowledge, the proposition is made that morphology has a special place inadvancing architectural knowledge because it is able to make the link between design and itssocial consequences. Understanding this relationship is vital if architecture is to defend itsposition as an art that is of general social relevance as opposed to being the domain of thesocially privileged. Kolb?s learning cycle is introduced as a device to track the forms of knowledgethat are essential to the reflective practice of a genuinely social architecture and to relatethese to the insights into morphology and design that have been provided by space syntaxover the past two decades. ?Sheltered? housing for older people is taken as an example of howa morphological approach can offer an enlightened critique of design guidance that articulatesthe authentic experiences of the inhabitants. The creative interplay of intellect and intuition isconsidered in relation to how morphology can help to clarify strategic design choices early onin the design process. The importance of briefing and evaluation are also stressed as essentialingredients that will enable space syntax to turn Kolb?s learning cycle into a dynamic learningprocess. The paper concludes by proposing an ethical framework for design. This paper starts by exploring models of knowledge in order to place architectural knowledgein relation to the forms of knowledge that have been developed by other academic disciplineswithin the universities. In the light of suggestions that the low esteem in which architectureis held within the universities may be due to its basis in practice and its apparent lack of acoherent body of knowledge, the proposition is made that morphology has a special place inadvancing architectural knowledge because it is able to make the link between design and itssocial consequences. Understanding this relationship is vital if architecture is to defend itsposition as an art that is of general social relevance as opposed to being the domain of thesocially privileged. Kolb?s learning cycle is introduced as a device to track the forms of knowledgethat are essential to the reflective practice of a genuinely social architecture and to relatethese to the insights into morphology and design that have been provided by space syntaxover the past two decades. ?Sheltered? housing for older people is taken as an example of howa morphological approach can offer an enlightened critique of design guidance that articulatesthe authentic experiences of the inhabitants. The creative interplay of intellect and intuition isconsidered in relation to how morphology can help to clarify strategic design choices early onin the design process. The importance of briefing and evaluation are also stressed as essentialingredients that will enable space syntax to turn Kolb?s learning cycle into a dynamic learningprocess. The paper concludes by proposing an ethical framework for design