Experimentation and Representation in Architecture: analyzing one’s own design activity

Architects materialize ideas on physical supports to register their thoughts and to discover new possibilities from hints and suggestions in their own drawings. Uncertainty is inherent to creative processes encouraging the production of different ideas through testing. This research brings to light that the re-examination of artefacts from new points of view allows for the review and generation of design ideas and decisions, capacitating students to make yet new discoveries from what they have done so far. Tacit knowledge aids specific decisions. Student reports become analytical records of their material registers (sketches, physical and virtual models) making it explicit that which is implicit in those artefacts. This apparently confirms previous studies that suggest that knowledge per se not always triggers or controls decisions in design. Many physical as well as perceptive actions actually lead the initial steps and play a crucial role in the whole course of production. Besides serving as external representations, sketches and models provide visual hints that will be checked later, favouring the upcoming of the unexpected, stimulating creativity. The intent here is to point out how these different means of representation and expression contribute in a peculiar manner to the whole process of discovery and solution to problems in architecture. The authors propose here a reflection on the process of design and its uncertainties in its initial phase, concentrating on sketches and real models as experimentations. They consider these means not from a graphic and physical register stand point, but in terms of conception and concepts they embody, as records of students thinking and knowledge. Keywords: Experimentation; Uncertainty; Representation; Design Process; Cognition; Education</p

Student-teachers’ Emotion Regulation in Speaking

Several scholars in education have asserted that emotions play a significant role in motivation to learn. On the side of self-regulated learning theory, it is believed that a learner would succeed more if he owned fully constructed self-regulation in learning. This research aims to describe the student-teachers’ academic emotions, specifically in speaking, and later to elaborate on their tendency to regulate it. The researcher applied mixed methods in this study. The data was obtained through questionnaires and in-depth interviews. Supporting theory used to gain the description of the student-teacher state of academic emotion is the theory proposed by Pekrun et al. (2002). The result showed that the student-teachers tend to perceive negative emotions about their ability to speak. However, they managed to use a cognitive reappraisal strategy to modify their academic emotion in both stages of preparation and mastering speaking. Meanwhile, they tend to use expressive suppression to manage their academic emotion in performing speaking. Moreover, the implications and implementation of emotion regulation in the East Nusa Tenggara context as a part of the researcher’s reflection are also discussed

Urban Religion in Late Antiquity

Aim of the volume is the analysis of the entanglement of religious communication and city life during an arc of time that is characterised by dramatic and even contradicting developments. Bringing together textual analyses and archaelogical case studies in a comparative perspective, the volume zooms in on the historical context of the advanced imperial and late antique Mediterranean space (2nd–8th centuries CE)

NF-κB controls the global pro-inflammatory response in endothelial cells: evidence for the regulation of a pro-atherogenic program

Activation of the transcription factor NF-κB is critical for the tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α)-induced inflammatory response. Here we report the complete gene expression profile from activated microvascular endothelial cells emphasizing the direct contribution of the NF-κB pathway. Human microvascular endothelial cell line-1 (HMEC-1) cells were modified to express dominant interfering mutants of the IKK/NF-κB signaling module and expression profiles were determined. Our results provide compelling evidence for the virtually absolute dependence of TNF-α-regulated genes on NF-κB. A constitutively active IKK2 was sufficient for maximal induction of most target genes, whereas a transdominant IκBα suppressed gene expression. Several genes with a critical role in atherogenesis were identified. The endothelial lipase (EL) gene, a key enzyme involved in lipoprotein metabolism, was investigated more in detail. Binding sites interacting with NF-κB in vitro and in vivo were identified and co-transfection experiments demonstrated the direct regulation of the EL promoter by NF-κB. We conclude that targeting the IKK/NF-κB pathway or specific genes downstream may be effective for the control or prevention of chronic inflammatory diseases such as atherosclerosis