Creating ecologically sound buildings by integrating ecology, architecture and computational design

1. Research is revealing an increasing number of positive effects of nature for humans. At the same time, biodiversity in cities, where most humans live, is often low or in decline. Tangible solutions are needed to increase urban biodiversity. 2. Architecture is a key discipline that has considerable influence on the built-up area of cities, thereby influencing urban biodiversity. In general, architects do not design for biodiversity. Conversely, urban conservation planning generally focuses on the limited space free of buildings and does not embrace architecture as an important discipline for the creation of urban green infrastructure. 3. In this paper, we argue that the promotion of biodiversity needs to become a key driving force of architectural design. This requires a new multi-species design paradigm that considers both human and non-human needs. Such a design approach needs to maintain the standards of the architectural profession, including the aim to increase the well-being of humans in buildings. Yet, it also needs to add other stakeholders, organisms such as animals, plants and even microbiota. New buildings designed for humans and other inhabitants can then increase biodiversity in cities and also increase the benefits that humans can derive from close proximity to nature. 4. We review the challenges that this new design approach poses for both architecture and ecology and show that multi-species-design goes beyond existing approaches in architecture and ecology. The new design approach needs to make ecological knowledge available to the architectural design process, enabling practitioners to find architectural solutions that can facilitate synergies from a multi-species perspective. 5. We propose that a first step in creating such a multi-species habitat is the design of buildings with an ecolope, a multi criteria-designed building envelope that takes into account the needs of diverse organisms. Because there is no framework to design such an ecolope, we illustrate how multi-species design needs to draw on knowledge from ecology, as well as architecture, and design computation. 6. We discuss how architectures designed via a multi-species approach can be an important step in establishing beneficial human-nature relationships in cities, and contribute to human well-being and biodiversity conservation.Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog

A peripheral epigenetic signature of immune system genes is linked to neocortical thickness and memory

Increasing age is tightly linked to decreased thickness of the human neocortex. The biological mechanisms that mediate this effect are hitherto unknown. The DNA methylome, as part of the epigenome, contributes significantly to age-related phenotypic changes. Here, we identify an epigenetic signature that is associated with cortical thickness (P=3.86 × 10(-8)) and memory performance in 533 healthy young adults. The epigenetic effect on cortical thickness was replicated in a sample comprising 596 participants with major depressive disorder and healthy controls. The epigenetic signature mediates partially the effect of age on cortical thickness (P<0.001). A multilocus genetic score reflecting genetic variability of this signature is associated with memory performance (P=0.0003) in 3,346 young and elderly healthy adults. The genomic location of the contributing methylation sites points to the involvement of specific immune system genes. The decomposition of blood methylome-wide patterns bears considerable potential for the study of brain-related traits

bZIP-Type transcription factors CREB and OASIS bind and stimulate the promoter of the mammalian transcription factor GCMa/Gcm1 in trophoblast cells

One of the master regulators of placental cell fusion in mammals leading to multi-nucleated syncytiotrophoblasts is the transcription factor GCMa. Recently, we proved that the cAMP-driven protein kinase A signaling pathway is fundamental for up-regulation of GCMa transcript levels and protein stability. Here, we show that Transducer of Regulated CREB activity (TORC1), the human co-activator of cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB), but not a dominant-negative CREB mutant, significantly up-regulates the GCMa promoter. We identified potential cAMP response element (CRE)-binding sites within the GCMa promoter upstream of the transcriptional start site. Only the CRE site at -1337 interacted strongly with CREB in promoter mapping experiments. The characterization of GCMa promoter mutants and additional bZIP-type family members demonstrated that also old astrocyte specifically-induced substance (OASIS) is able to stimulate GCMa transcription. Knockdown of endogenous CREB or OASIS in BeWo cells decreased endogenous GCMa mRNA level and activity. Overexpression of TORC1 or OASIS in choriocarcinoma cells led to placental cell fusion, accompanied by placental expression of gap junction forming protein connexin-43. Further, we show that CREB expression is replaced by OASIS expression around E12.5 suggesting that a sequential order of bZIP-type family members ensures a high rate of GCMa transcription throughout placentation

The role of interstitial hydrogen species in Ni/YSZ patterned anodes: A 2D modeling study

The mechanistic details of the hydrogen oxidation at Ni/YSZ anodes are subject of controversial discussion. In the light of potential accumulation of secondary phases at the three-phase boundary, a mechanism involving interstitial hydrogen species in the bulk phases and charge-transfer at the Ni/YSZ two-phase boundary has been proposed. We present a quantitative analysis of this mechanism based on a two-dimensional elementary kinetic model of electrochemistry and bulk diffusion. The use of literature diffusion coefficients yields diffusion-limited current densities that are below those observed in experiments. Assuming increased diffusivity allows to quantitatively reproduce published experimental pattern anode data, including their dependence on gas composition and temperature. This shows the feasibility of interstitial mechanisms when impurities are present and explains their decreased performance. For clean three-phase boundaries, surface spillover pathways are preferred