Open to Re-Interpretation

In this interactive visual panel session, participants will be asked to reinterpret and explore places through imagery. Participants will be encouraged to interpret student drawings and models produced out of two similar but different classes. Both courses emphasize the need to interpret a place, to make a mark, and to reinterpret through drawings and models. This process of reinterpretation is cyclical, reflexive, and exploratory. Students have created work which even they did not expect

Places, Spaces, and Faces: Teaching Sustainable Design through Cross-Disciplinary Studio Integration

One of the core missions of the ACSA is the advancement of architectural education through the facilitation of teaching at all member schools. In an effort to promote increased discourse on “how” we teach, this session will examine current best practices from all areas of the curriculum. Topics covered include cooperative education, building technology, integrated studios, thesis, and teaching writing to architecture students. This session aims to foster informative dialogue and the sharing of ideas among faculty at all levels

The geometry of reaction norms yields insights on classical fitness functions for Great Lakes salmon.

Life history theory examines how characteristics of organisms, such as age and size at maturity, may vary through natural selection as evolutionary responses that optimize fitness. Here we ask how predictions of age and size at maturity differ for the three classical fitness functions-intrinsic rate of natural increase r, net reproductive rate R0, and reproductive value Vx-for semelparous species. We show that different choices of fitness functions can lead to very different predictions of species behavior. In one's efforts to understand an organism's behavior and to develop effective conservation and management policies, the choice of fitness function matters. The central ingredient of our approach is the maturation reaction norm (MRN), which describes how optimal age and size at maturation vary with growth rate or mortality rate. We develop a practical geometric construction of MRNs that allows us to include different growth functions (linear growth and nonlinear von Bertalanffy growth in length) and develop two-dimensional MRNs useful for quantifying growth-mortality trade-offs. We relate our approach to Beverton-Holt life history invariants and to the Stearns-Koella categorization of MRNs. We conclude with a detailed discussion of life history parameters for Great Lakes Chinook Salmon and demonstrate that age and size at maturity are consistent with predictions using R0 (but not r or Vx) as the underlying fitness function

Joint repair methods for cast iron natural gas distribution mains and the preliminary development of an alternative joint seal.

Approximately 10 percent of the natural gas pumped into distribution systems is unaccounted for. A significant portion of this amount is leakage from joints in 50 to 100 year old cast iron main. Because of the cumulative effects of many small leaks, these leaks must be repaired even though the repair expense is not always justified by the value of the gas conserved.Part One identifies and evaluates leak sealing techniques of the past and present by compiling available test data. A major task was to review all documented test results in journals and technical reports. This study followed-up on published articles by contacting all the individuals and organizations concerned. Recommendations for future development of an alternate sealing system are made.Part Two discusses preliminary criteria for the design of an alternative system to seal main joints from within the main without service interruption. Experiments were performed showing that very soft elastomers pressed against the rough pipe wall could prohibit leakage. Potential cleaning methods were tested. Wire and abrasive wheels, and water-jets were recommended for further development. Based on time-dependent characteristics and resistance to aging and to chemicals found in mains, fluorocarbon was recommended for use as the seal material. Preliminary design of the seal verified its feasibility. Several innovative concepts for the seal are presented. Considerations for the cleaning and sealing device and for the overal'. system are discussed

Wavefront sensing and control performance modeling of the Thirty Meter telescope for systematic trade analyses

We have developed an integrated optical model of the semi-static performance of the Thirty Meter Telescope. The model includes surface and rigid body errors of all telescope optics as well as a model of the Alignment and Phasing System Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensors and control algorithms. This integrated model allows for simulation of the correction of the telescope wavefront, including optical errors on the secondary and tertiary mirrors, using the primary mirror segment active degrees of freedom. This model provides the estimate of the predicted telescope performance for system engineering and error budget development. In this paper we present updated performance values for the TMT static optical errors in terms of Normalized Point Source Sensitivity and RMS wavefront error after Adaptive Optics correction. As an example of a system level trade, we present the results from an analysis optimizing the number of Shack-Hartmann lenslets per segment. We trade the number of lenslet rings over each primary mirror segment against the telescope performance metrics of PSSN and RMS wavefront error

Drawing As An Advent To Design Studio Education

Design studio education separates design and visual representation as individual subjects requiring different educational objectives. Each subject employs distinct skills such as line and value for visual representation or form and experience for design. The potential of design decisions should be based upon integration creative ideas with observation and representation skills. This paper describes a drawing process conceived by the author which considers issues of drawing including i) the pictorial function of drawing, ii) the ability of drawing to illuminate ideas, and iii) the relationship between seeing and imagining when drawing. The goal is to consider the intrinsic relationship between design and its representation and the concurrent activities of observation, imagination and representation in the creative process

Two Teachers, Mixed Methods

As a studio instructor, I believe in teaching students to creatively explore their imagination through making models

All Hands on Deck: Instructors as Collaborators and the Modified Dynamics of Design Build Interaction

In beginning architectural education, design-build studios offer uniquely challenging, but beneficial, learning opportunities. Because of the elevated expectation that the studio activities will conclude with an occupied environment designed and built primarily by students, students and instructors have to bear new responsibilities and apply a broader range of skills towards the project. These new responsibilities require responsive pedagogical adjustments

An Evolutionary Hypothesis of Binary Opposition in Functional Incompatibility about Habenular Asymmetry in Vertebrates

Many vertebrates have asymmetrical circuits in the nervous system. There are two types of circuit asymmetry. Asymmetrical circuits in sensory and/or motor systems are usually related to lateralized behaviors. It has been hypothesized that spatial asymmetry in the environment and/or social interactions has led to the evolution of asymmetrical circuits by natural selection. There are also asymmetrical circuits that are not related to lateralized behaviors. These circuits lie outside of the sensory and motor systems. A typical example is found in the habenula (Hb), which has long been known to be asymmetrical in many vertebrates, but has no remarkable relationship to lateralized behaviors. Instead, the Hb is a hub wherein information conveyed to the unilateral Hb is relayed to diverging bilateral nuclei, which is unlikely to lead to lateralized behavior. Until now, there has been no hypothesis regarding the evolution of Hb asymmetry. Here, we propose a new hypothesis that binary opposition in functional incompatibility applies selection pressure on the habenular circuit and leads to asymmetry. Segregation of the incompatible functions on either side of the habenula is likely to enhance information processing ability via creating shorter circuits and reducing the cost of circuit duplication, resulting in benefits for survival. In zebrafish and mice, different evolutionary strategies are thought to be involved in Hb asymmetry. In zebrafish, which use a strategy of structurally fixed asymmetry, the asymmetrical dorsal Hb leads to constant behavioral choices in binary opposition. In contrast, in mice, which use a strategy of functionally flexible lateralization, the symmetrical lateral Hb is functionally lateralized. This makes it possible to process complicated information and to come to variable behavioral choices, depending on the specific situation. These strategies are thought to be selected for and preserved by evolution under selection pressures of rigidity and flexibility of sociability in zebrafish and mice, respectively, as they are beneficial for survival. This hypothesis is highly valuable because it explains how the Hb evolved differently in terms of asymmetry and lateralization among different species. In addition, one can propose possible experiments for the verification of this hypothesis in future research

In search of the authentic nation: landscape and national identity in Canada and Switzerland

While the study of nationalism and national identity has flourished in the last decade, little attention has been devoted to the conditions under which natural environments acquire significance in definitions of nationhood. This article examines the identity-forming role of landscape depictions in two polyethnic nation-states: Canada and Switzerland. Two types of geographical national identity are identified. The first – what we call the ‘nationalisation of nature’– portrays zarticular landscapes as expressions of national authenticity. The second pattern – what we refer to as the ‘naturalisation of the nation’– rests upon a notion of geographical determinism that depicts specific landscapes as forces capable of determining national identity. The authors offer two reasons why the second pattern came to prevail in the cases under consideration: (1) the affinity between wild landscape and the Romantic ideal of pure, rugged nature, and (2) a divergence between the nationalist ideal of ethnic homogeneity and the polyethnic composition of the two societies under consideration