Are clients, architects and juries becoming environmental? -A critical view on the competition briefs and the juries\u92 assessments in relation to the outcome in ten school competitions

This paper first examines how evaluation criteria for judging architecture evolve over time. Secondly it takes a look on how new assessment criteria are emphasized when judging architecture. Finally this paper seeks to study to what degree the new assessment criterion, whether a project is environmental or not, is emphasized. This is studied through the examination of ten school competitions in Norway. The clients\u92 competition briefs, the assessment criteria, the competitors\u92 proposals and the juries\u92 assessments are compared in respect of the qualities daylight and being environmental. Based on the results from this study, one conclusion is that the environmental criterion is a new parameter fundamentally affecting which project designs will win or lose competitions. The juries may even seem to over emphasize the importance of sustainability compared to other traditional criteria like daylight

Use of Chemical Ecology for control of the cane toad

In 1935, 101 cane toads, B. marinus, were introduced into north Queensland, Australia in an attempt to control the greyback cane beetle, Dermolepida albohirtum, a pest of sugar cane fields. The cane toad was, however, completely unable to control the beetles and itself became a successful pest. Since their arrival, cane toads have been implicated in the population declines of many native frog species and mammalian and reptilian predators. These effects are through predation, competition and the toxic secretions produced by the toad, poisoning potential predators. While the toxic nature of their secretions has been long known, only a part of the chemical complexity of the secretion has been identified to a molecular level. Our study aims to look at how diverse the chemical composition of cane toad skin secretions is, as well as its variability across life-history stages, between individuals and also whether different populations of toads may show differences in their chemistry. Beyond this, the chemical ecology of the toad, which probably includes pheromonal communication, may offer opportunities for control of this pest