Solar energy for self-contained power supply

Solar energy relevance in self-contained utility system as well as economic feasibility for each class of consumers considered. The article will outline utilising features of self-contained photovoltaic stations in Middle East and Northern Africa

Geospatial analysis and living urban geometry

This essay outlines how to incorporate morphological rules within the exigencies of our technological age. We propose using the current evolution of GIS (Geographical Information Systems) technologies beyond their original representational domain, towards predictive and dynamic spatial models that help in constructing the new discipline of "urban seeding". We condemn the high-rise tower block as an unsuitable typology for a living city, and propose to re-establish human-scale urban fabric that resembles the traditional city. Pedestrian presence, density, and movement all reveal that open space between modernist buildings is not urban at all, but neither is the open space found in today's sprawling suburbs. True urban space contains and encourages pedestrian interactions, and has to be designed and built according to specific rules. The opposition between traditional self-organized versus modernist planned cities challenges the very core of the urban planning discipline. Planning has to be re-framed from being a tool creating a fixed future to become a visionary adaptive tool of dynamic states in evolution

Abnormalities in Oxygen Sensing Define Early and Late Onset Preeclampsia as Distinct Pathologies

BACKGROUND: The pathogenesis of preeclampsia, a serious pregnancy disorder, is still elusive and its treatment empirical. Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1 (HIF-1) is crucial for placental development and early detection of aberrant regulatory mechanisms of HIF-1 could impact on the diagnosis and management of preeclampsia. HIF-1α stability is controlled by O(2)-sensing enzymes including prolyl hydroxylases (PHDs), Factor Inhibiting HIF (FIH), and E3 ligases Seven In Absentia Homologues (SIAHs). Here we investigated early- (E-PE) and late-onset (L-PE) human preeclamptic placentae and their ability to sense changes in oxygen tension occurring during normal placental development. METHODS AND FINDINGS: Expression of PHD2, FIH and SIAHs were significantly down-regulated in E-PE compared to control and L-PE placentae, while HIF-1α levels were increased. PHD3 expression was increased due to decreased FIH levels as demonstrated by siRNA FIH knockdown experiments in trophoblastic JEG-3 cells. E-PE tissues had markedly diminished HIF-1α hydroxylation at proline residues 402 and 564 as assessed with monoclonal antibodies raised against hydroxylated HIF-1α P402 or P564, suggesting regulation by PHD2 and not PHD3. Culturing villous explants under varying oxygen tensions revealed that E-PE, but not L-PE, placentae were unable to regulate HIF-1α levels because PHD2, FIH and SIAHs did not sense a hypoxic environment. CONCLUSION: Disruption of oxygen sensing in E-PE vs. L-PE and control placentae is the first molecular evidence of the existence of two distinct preeclamptic diseases and the unique molecular O(2)-sensing signature of E-PE placentae may be of diagnostic value when assessing high risk pregnancies and their severity

Identifying Trends in Masterplanning: A Typological Classification System

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Robert Adam, and Claire Jamieson, ‘Identifying trends in masterplanning: A typological classification system’, URBAN DESIGN International, Vol. 19 (4): 274-290, December 2014. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1057/udi.2013.24.This article reports research carried out to develop a new typological method for the analysis of masterplans. This quantitative method of analysis can be used to produce comparative data that will help in the comparison of urban design typologies and their development over time. This article sets out the research to date, describing how the initial aims have developed from simple analysis to the creation of an analytical tool with wide applications. Comprising a detailed taxonomy of urban design features gathered from a wide database of recent and emerging masterplans, the system provides opportunities for further study such as trends, qualitative comparison against quantitative measurement, and comparison of aims and outcomes. This article will describe the methodology and process of research, while elaborating on the potential of the tool.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Sense of place in the changing process of house form: Case studies from Ankara, Turkey

This paper aims to investigate the impact of typomorphological changes of residential environments on residents’ sense of place’. Seven housing developments representing different types introduced in Ankara, Turkey since the late 19th-century are selected as case studies. Their morphological characters at the building, street and neighbourhood scales are examined, and typological transformations among the cases in terms of the degrees of continuity are identified. The paper proposes a conceptual model consisting of ten indicators to assess sense of place at the building, street and neighbourhood scales of the residents of the seven cases. The scores of sense of place are generated through structured interviews with the residents and analysed in SPSS. The results show that sense of place is negatively affected by typomorphological changes over time, particularly when mutational changes occur. Continuity in typomorphological transformation helps to maintain sense of place at a desirable level. Furthermore, physical changes at the street and neighbourhood scales have larger impact on sense of place than that at the building scale. The research thus suggests that planning and design should be responsive to traditional types in residential development, particularly at the street and neighbourhood scales to maintain residents’ sense of place

Towards analytical typologies of plot systems: quantitative profile of five European cities

The importance of the plot (also referred to as ‘property’) as one of the fundamental elements of urban form is well recognized within the field of urban morphology. Despite the fact that it is often described as the basic element in the pattern of land divisions, which are essential as organizational frameworks for urban form, studies offering comprehensive descriptions and classifications of plot systems are quite scant. The aim of the paper is to introduce a classification of plot systems into typologies based on five European cities, in order to distinguish particular spatial differences and similarities in terms of their plot structure. The proposed typologies are developed using unsupervised k-means cluster analysis based on numeric attributes derived from central theories in urban morphology. The introduced typologies are essentially configurational, allowing collective systematic properties of plot systems to be captured. Numeric attributes include plot differentiation (or plot size), plot frontage and compactness ratio, corresponding to essential qualities of plot systems such as the capacity to carry differences in space, the ability to operate as interface between street and building and providing a framework for evolution of built form over time. All three attributes are translated into configurational measures in order to capture the context of the plot system, rather than the parameters of individual plots. The combination of these deductively defined variables with algorithmically defined classification methods results in seven plot types that can be used to scale up traditional urban morphological analysis to whole city regions and conduct substantial comparison of patterns within, but also between these regions. Further, it also makes it possible to describe commonly recognized plot patterns and discover new ones

Beyond oxygen: complex regulation and activity of hypoxia inducible factors in pregnancy

In the first trimester the extravillous cytotrophoblast cells occlude the uterine spiral arterioles creating a low oxygen environment early in pregnancy, which is essential for pregnancy success. Paradoxically, shallow trophoblast invasion and defective vascular remodelling of the uterine spiral arteries in the first trimester may result in impaired placental perfusion and chronic placental ischemia and hypoxia later in gestation leading to adverse pregnancy outcomes. The hypoxia inducible factors (HIFs) are key mediators of the response to low oxygen. We aimed to elucidate mechanisms of regulation of HIFs and the role these may play in the control of placental differentiation, growth and function in both normal and pathological pregnancies. The Pubmed database was consulted for identification of the most relevant published articles. Search terms used were oxygen, placenta, trophoblast, pregnancy, HIF and hypoxia. The HIFs are able to function throughout all aspects of normal and abnormal placental differentiation, growth and function; during the first trimester (physiologically low oxygen), during mid-late gestation (where there is adequate supply of blood and oxygen to the placenta) and in pathological pregnancies complicated by placental hypoxia/ischemia. During normal pregnancy HIFs may respond to complex alterations in oxygen, hormones, cytokines and growth factors to regulate placental invasion, differentiation, transport and vascularization. In the ever-changing environment created during pregnancy, the HIFs appear to act as key mediators of placental development and function and thereby are likely to be important contributors to both normal and adverse pregnancy outcomes

On the origin of spaces: morphometric foundations of urban form evolution

The modern discipline of urban morphology gives us a ground for the comparative analysis of cities, which increasingly includes specific quantitative elements. In this paper, we make a further step forward towards the definition of a general method for the classification of urban form. We draw from morphometrics and taxonomy in life sciences to propose such method, which we name ‘urban morphometrics’. We then test it on a unit of the urban landscape named ‘Sanctuary Area’ (SA), explored in 45 cities whose origins span four historic time periods: Historic (medieval), Industrial (19th century), New Towns (post-WWII, high-rise) and Sprawl (post-WWII, low-rise). We describe each SA through 207 physical dimensions and then use these to discover features that discriminate them among the four temporal groups. Nine dimensions emerge as sufficient to correctly classify 90% of the urban settings by their historic origins. These nine attributes largely identify an area's ‘visible identity’ as reflected by three characteristics: (1) block perimeterness, or the way buildings define the street-edge; (2) building coverage, or the way buildings cover the land and (3) regular plot coverage, or the extent to which blocks are made of plots that have main access from a street. Hierarchical cluster analysis utilising only the nine key variables nearly perfectly clusters each SA according to its historic origin; moreover, the resulting dendrogram shows, just after WWII, the first ‘bifurcation’ of urban history, with the emergence of the modern city as a new ‘species’ of urban form. With ‘urban morphometrics’ we hope to extend urban morphological research and contribute to understanding the way cities evolve

Downregulated miR-195 Detected in Preeclamptic Placenta Affects Trophoblast Cell Invasion via Modulating ActRIIA Expression

Preeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific syndrome manifested by on-set of hypertension and proteinuria after 20 weeks of gestation. Abnormal placenta development has been generally accepted as initial cause of the disorder. Recently, miR-195 was found to be down-regulated in preeclamptic placentas compared with normal pregnant ones, indicating possible association of this small molecule with placental pathology of preeclampsia. By far the function of miR-195 in the development of placenta remains unknown.Bioinformatic assay predicted ActRIIA as one of the targets for miR-195. By using Real-time PCR, Western blotting and Dual Luciferase Assay, we validated that ActRIIA was the direct target of miR-195 in human trophoblast cells. Transwell insert invasion assay showed that miR-195 could promote cell invasion in trophoblast cell line, HTR8/SVneo cells, and the effect could be abrogated by overexpressed ActRIIA. In preeclamptic placenta tissues, pri-miR-195 and mature miR-195 expressions were down-regulated, whereas ActRIIA level appeared to be increased when compared with that in gestational-week-matched normal placentas.This is the first report on the function of miR-195 in human placental trophoblast cells which reveals an invasion-promoting effect of the small RNA via repressing ActRIIA. Aberrant expression of miR-195 may contribute to the occurrence of preeclampsia through interfering with Activin/Nodal signaling mediated by ActRIIA in human placenta