Art beside a single handshake : can you believe it?

Although I was familiar with works by both McKinzie and Phil, their prints still caught my attention during the Printmaking Graduate Biennial at Rhode Island School of Design in January 2019. In contrast to the numerous talented artists who employed strategies to affirm the relevancy of printmaking in a contemporary discourse, McKinzie and Phil seemed to desire something different. Their collaboration series of Ten Identical Prints was predictably “printerly” and perilously unexciting, betraying a fraught and commonplace relationship between an expressive artist and a scrupulous master printer. How could these two artists showcase such mundanity? What was the stake of not stepping out of bounds when the ease of doing so was enticing and risk-free? Wasn’t it their privilege to be showing work in a graduate student gallery which did not embody a shared style or stricture

Para Eco House

Material of interest: Green walls. Material used: Wood plates, vegetation Propertiesof material: Perforated walls, the concept of creating a multi-layer skin emerges from a combination of Dao theory in eastern philosophy and the theories of Michel Foucault in western thought, especially the ideas of autonomy in architecture.https://openscholarship.wustl.edu/bcs/1091/thumbnail.jp

1 Recipe 4 Dérive

This visual essay attempts to provide a recipe for dérive, a form of conceptual navigation on supposedly uncharted grounds. Because of the digital platform and the accompanying hint of community, dérive can gain momentum and pose questions on both personal and collective levels. One feels wildly autonomous yet suspects they are operating within a much larger arena. Ultimately, this field guide serves as a casual reminder that independence and collective culture are necessary to the thriving of any society even during tumultuous times

Essay on International Transmission of Shocks

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

SHORT TERM TEMPORAL TRENDS IN GENE EXPRESSION IN SENSITIVE AND TOLERANT SOYBEAN GENOTYPES EXPOSED TO OZONE

Soybean (Glycine max) is sensitive to O3. My work aimed to identify molecular mechanisms associated with the differential tolerance to O3 among tolerant (Fiskeby III) and sensitive (Mandarin Ottawa) soybean genotypes. Short-term changes in gene expression were investigated using quantitative real-time PCR techniques. Plants were exposed from 9 am to 5 pm at 19.3 + 0.43 ppb or 63.6 + 0.43 ppb O3. A single leaflet was collected just prior to exposure, and at 1, 2, 4, 8, 12, 24, and 48 hours post-exposure, and frozen in liquid N2 until processing. Gas exchange measurements were made on each plant at the end of the exposures to determine if there were changes due to O3 exposure and/or genotype. Photosynthetic rate was not significantly different between the treatments or genotypes, but stomatal conductance was higher in Mandarin than Fiskeby under both O3 conditions. Glutathione reductase 2 (GR2) expression in both genotypes was upregulated under high O3 treatment. Protein D1 (pD1) expression was downregulated in Mandarin but not affected in Fiskeby III, maybe due to the larger gs in Mandarin and subsequently higher dose. An improved understanding of the molecular factors influencing O3 sensitivity could help guide breeders to develop O3 tolerant genotypes

Meta-analysis of ridge-furrow cultivation effects on maize production and water use efficiency

Ridge-furrow cultivation (RF) is a popular dryland agricultural technique in China, but its effects on maize yield, total water consumption during crop growing stage (ET), and water use efficiency (WUE) have not been systematically analyzed. Here we conducted a meta-analysis of the RF effects on maize yield, ET and WUE based on the data collected from peer-reviewed literature. Yield, ET and WUE varied with climate, soil and mulching management. Averaged across all the geographic locations, RF increased the yield and WUE of maize by 47 % and 39 %, respectively, but no effects on ET. An increase in the yield and WUE occurred under RF in regions regardless of the mean growing season air temperature (MT) or a mean precipitation during the growing season (MP), although there was a trend that RF is more beneficial under low MP. RF also decreased ET in regions with MT>12 °C. RF increased the yield and WUE in regions with medium or fine soil texture. RF increased the yield, ET, and WUE in regions with low soil bulk density (BD) (≤1.3 g cm−3). But in areas where BD is larger than 1.3 g cm−3, RF only increased the yield and WUE. RF increased the yield and WUE with or without mulching, but decreased ET when no mulching was used. Together, optimizing RF effects on the yield, ET and WUE in maize was largely dependent on environmental conditions and management practices

Crop yield and soil organic carbon under ridge–furrow cultivation in China: A meta-analysis

Ridge–furrow cultivation (RF) is a popular emerging technique that can increase crop productivity in dry areas. However, the efficacy of RF on crop yield and soil organic carbon (SOC) remains uncertain under different climate and management conditions. Here, we compiled data from 48 publications to evaluate the response of yield and SOC to RF in China. Overall, our meta-analysis showed that RF increased yield by 30.2%, but it had no effects on SOC. When differentiated based on different categories, yield and SOC varied by crop species, climate, soil textures, mulching management, and ridge–furrow patterns. RF increased the yield of wheat, maize, soybean, rape, linseed, potato, and SOC under soybean cultivation. Yield increase with RF was also consistent across temperature and precipitation. Yield increase was observed in all the soil textures. There were no RF effects on SOC under different soil textures. RF enhanced yields under no mulching, straw mulching and plastic film mulching, but increased SOC only in combination with straw mulching. A higher yield increase was observed under alternating small and large ridges (ASLR) than alternating ridges and furrows (AR). RF decreased SOC by 11.7% under AR, but had no effects on SOC under ASLR. Together, ASLR with straw mulching could increase yield and SOC in coarse soil texture regions with annual mean temperature >10°C and annual mean precipitation > 400 mm. This study showed the importance of considering local environmental conditions with management practices in identifying appropriate RF practices for improving crop productivity and soil carbon sequestration

A Combined Urban Metabolism and Life Cycle Assessment Approach to Improve the Sustainability of Urban Hardscapes [Policy Brief]

Streets, sidewalks, parking areas, plazas, and other paved surfaces cover large portions of urban areas. These urban hardscapes contribute significantly to cities\u2019 resource consumption. Although urban hardscapes enable people and goods to move freely, they also have profound impacts on cities\u2019 water, air quality, energy, and material use. Reducing the environmental impacts of hardscapes will be an important component of making cities more sustainable. The necessary first step is to quantify those impacts

Framework for Urban Metabolism and Life Cycle Assessment of Hardscape

According to the United Nations, 54 percent of the world's population lived in cities in 2014, and this figure is projected to be 66 percent by 2050. Job opportunities, better quality of life, and greater access to services are some of the attractions of urban areas that lead to the expansion of city boundaries, land use development and an increase in the use of resources. The use of materials and energy in urban areas, particularly large urbanized areas, is intense. Whether urbanization is more or less efficient per capita than other forms of development is uncertain. Regardless of whether urbanized development, and particularly large urbanized areas, are more efficient than other forms of land development it is clear that the trend towards urbanization is increasing as GDP increases, and that goals for improved efficiency of those urbanized areas are needed to reduce their impact on the planet through global warming, and to improve the health, safety and quality of life for the people living in them and in the surrounding areas from which they draw their resources. The goal of this white paper is to advocate that researchers and policy-makers use the analytical approach of combining urban (UM), material flow analysis (MFA) and elements of life cycle assessment (LCA) to measure and improve the efficiency of urban hardscape in large urbanized areas with respect to environmental impacts affecting global warming, safety and quality of life through use of alternative hardscape structure and materials and more permeable hardscape