Addressing cultural, social and environmental sustainability in architecture. The approach of five contemporary Australian architects

Regionalist architecture offers a promising and conscientious response to the present scenario of growing trend toward cultural, social and technical globalization. It has a great potential to preserve local cultural identities, despite the spread of global culture, to define possible relationships between construction and natural, cultural, political, economic and social factors, to combine traditional approaches and technical skills creatively and to suggest a new role for designers, as active subjects in dialogue with the manufacturing sector. An exemplary regionalist approach to contemporary architecture is given by a niche of Australian architects sensitive to the relation between communities and technical skills, dwelling patterns and building techniques, who tend to reduce the environmental load of construction through the use of local resources, who adopt community design processes and combine tradition with creative innovation. Glenn Murcutt, Richard Leplastrier, Peter Stutchbury, Gregory Burgess and Troppo Architects, who, learning from Aboriginal people's sacred respect for the land, balance the tension between global needs and local expressions, by listening to people and place, preserving traditional lifestyle preferences and combining new technologies with historic building types

Advanced Regenerative Environmental Control and Life Support Systems: Air and Water Regeneration

Extended manned space missions will require regenerative life support techniques. Past manned missions used nonregenerative expendables, except for a molecular sieve based carbon dioxide removal system aboard Skylab. The resupply penalties associated with expendables becomes prohibitive as crew size and mission duration increase. The Space Station scheduled to be operational in the 1990's is based on a crew of four to sixteen and a resupply period of 90 days or greater. It will be the first major spacecraft to employ regenerable techniques for life support. The techniques to be used in the requirements for the space station are addressed

On-board aircraft oxygen generating system

Onboard oxygen generation equipment with minimal ground support equipment and applicable to spacecraft and submarine us

Management Accountant's Role and Functions in the Enterprise Resource Planning Environment - Author's Own Research into Enterprises in Poland

This article seeks to answer whether the implementation of an ERP system has an effect on the management accountant's tasks and functions, especially in the field of performance measurement and internal reporting. The ERP impacts on the controller's role in the organization will be evaluated using field studies on six enterprises owned by multinational corporations. The question that should be asked here is whether controller's functions and tasks will also be unaffected.Celem badania jest próba odpowiedzi na pytanie czy zastosowanie zintegrowanego systemu informatycznego w przedsiębiorstwie zmienia zadania i funkcje specjalisty do spraw rachunkowości zarządczej. Na podstawie studium przypadku sześciu przedsiębiorstw będących częścią koncernów międzynarodowych zostaje dokonana ocena wpływu zastosowania ERP na rolę kontrolera w organizacji. Autor odpowiada również na pytanie czy w funkcjach i zadaniach kontrolera nie zaobserwowane zostaną zmiany w związku z implementacją ERP

Hydrogen peroxide is a neuronal alarmin that triggers specific RNAs, local translation of Annexin A2, and cytoskeletal remodeling in Schwann cells

Schwann cells are key players in neuro-regeneration: They sense "alarm" signals released by degenerating nerve terminals and differentiate toward a proregenerative phenotype, with phagocytosis of nerve debris and nerve guidance. At the murine neuromuscular junction, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) is a key signal of Schwann cells' activation in response to a variety of nerve injuries. Here we report that Schwann cells exposed to low doses of H2O2 rewire the expression of several RNAs at both transcriptional and translational levels. Among the genes positively regulated at both levels, we identified an enriched cluster involved in cytoskeleton remodeling and cell migration, with the Annexin (Anxa) proteins being the most represented family. We show that both Annexin A2 (Anxa2) transcript and protein accumulate at the tips of long pseudopods that Schwann cells extend upon H2O2 exposure. Interestingly, Schwann cells reply to this signal and to nerve injury by locally translating Anxa2 in pseudopods, and undergo an extensive cytoskeleton remodeling. Our results show that, similarly to neurons, Schwann cells take advantage of local protein synthesis to change shape and move toward damaged axonal terminals to facilitate axonal regeneration

A framework for experimental determination of localised vertical pedestrian forces on full-scale structures using wireless attitude and heading reference systems

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record.A major weakness among loading models for pedestrians walking on flexible structures proposed in recent years is the various uncorroborated assumptions made in their development. This applies to spatio- temporal characteristics of pedestrian loading and the nature of multi-object interactions. To alleviate this problem, a framework for the determination of localised pedestrian forces on full-scale structures is presented using a wireless attitude and heading reference systems (AHRS). An AHRS comprises a triad of tri-axial accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers managed by a dedicated data processing unit, allowing motion in three-dimensional space to be reconstructed. A pedestrian loading model based on a single point inertial measurement from an AHRS is derived and shown to perform well against benchmark data collected on an instrumented treadmill. Unlike other models, the current model does not take any predefined form nor does it require any extrapolations as to the timing and amplitude of pedestrian loading. In order to assess correctly the influence of the moving pedestrian on behaviour of a structure, an algorithm for tracking the point of application of pedestrian force is developed based on data from a single AHRS attached to a foot. A set of controlled walking tests with a single pedestrian is conducted on a real footbridge for validation purposes. A remarkably good match between the measured and simulated bridge response is found, indeed confirming applicability of the proposed framework.The research presented here was funded by EPSRC (grant EP/I029567/2). Authors thank Devon County Council for permitting the experimental campaign to be conducted on Baker Bridge in Exeter, UK, and Dr Erfan Shahabpour (supported by EPSRC grant EP/K03877X/1) for providing access to and assisting with measurements on the ADAL-3D treadmill at the University of Sheffield (funded by EPSRC grant EP/E018734/1)

Neurofunctional correlates of attention rehabilitation in Parkinson's disease: an explorative study

The effectiveness of cognitive rehabilitation (CR) in Parkinson's disease (PD) is in its relative infancy, and nowadays there is insufficient information to support evidence-based clinical protocols. This study is aimed at testing a validated therapeutic strategy characterized by intensive computer-based attention-training program tailored to attention deficits. We further investigated the presence of synaptic plasticity by means of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Using a randomized controlled study, we enrolled eight PD patients who underwent a CR program (Experimental group) and seven clinically/demographically-matched PD patients who underwent a placebo intervention (Control group). Brain activity was assessed using an 8-min resting state (RS) fMRI acquisition. Independent component analysis and statistical parametric mapping were used to assess the effect of CR on brain function. Significant effects were detected both at a phenotypic and at an intermediate phenotypic level. After CR, the Experimental group, in comparison with the Control group, showed a specific enhanced performance in cognitive performance as assessed by the SDMT and digit span forward. RS fMRI analysis for all networks revealed two significant groups (Experimental vs Control) × time (T0 vs T1) interaction effects on the analysis of the attention (superior parietal cortex) and central executive neural networks (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex). We demonstrated that intensive CR tailored for the impaired abilities impacts neural plasticity and improves some aspects of cognitive deficits of PD patients. The reported neurophysiological and behavioural effects corroborate the benefits of our therapeutic approach, which might have a reliable application in clinical management of cognitive defici

MAO A VNTR polymorphism and amygdala volume in healthy subjects

The X-linked Monoamine Oxidase A (MAO A) gene presents a well known functional polymorphism consisting of a variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) (long and short variants) previously associated with altered neural function of the amygdala. Using automatic subcortical segmentation (Freesurfer), we investigated whether amygdala volume could be influenced by this genotype. We studied 109 healthy subjects (age range 18-80 years; 59 male and 50 female), 74 carrying the MAO A High-activity allele and 35 the MAO A Low-activity allele. No significant effect of the MAO A polymorphism or interaction effect between polymorphism × gender was found on amygdalar volume. Thus, our findings suggest that the reported impact of the MAO A polymorphism on amygdala function is not coupled with consistent volumetric changes in healthy subjects. Future studies are needed to investigate whether the association between volume of the amygdala and the MAO A VNTR polymorphism is influenced by social/psychological variables, such as impulsivity, trauma history and cigarette smoking behaviour, not taken into account in this work