Air movement preferences observed in naturally ventilated buildings in humid subtropical climate zone in China

Occupants’ preferences for air movement in naturally ventilated buildings have been extracted from a database of three thermal comfort surveys conducted in the humid subtropical climate zone in China, during winter, spring, and summer seasons. The distribution of draft sensation shows that only 25.7, 38.5, and 28.7% of the subjects in winter, spring, and summer, respectively, felt that the available air movement was just right, suggesting that indoor air velocity may be a big problem in naturally ventilated buildings in humid subtropical China. Air movement preferences show that 15.8, 61.3, and 80.6% of subjects in winter, spring, and summer, respectively, wanted more air movement. Only a handful of subjects wanted less air movement than they were actually experiencing in any season, suggesting that draft was not much of an issue for thermal comfort. Occupants’ preference for air movement is strongly related to thermal sensation, showing that people want to control air movement as a means of improving their comfort. The demand for less air movement under cool sensation is much smaller than the overwhelming demand for more air movement when the sensation was warm. The above results indicate that air movement might have a significant influence over the respondents’ comfort sensation and that people required a high level of air movement in order to be comfortable during the summer season. Thus, one efficient way to improve the thermal environment in summer in humid subtropical China could be to provide occupants with effective natural ventilation and allow personal control of the air movement. Our findings are also applicable to other buildings, to encourage designers to provide air movement as a low energy cooling strategy and to ensure that sufficient levels of air movement are available.     

Thermal comfort in naturally ventilated and air-conditioned buildings in humid subtropical climate zone in China

A thermal comfort field study has been carried out in five cities in the humid subtropical climate zone in China. The survey was performed in naturally ventilated and air-conditioned buildings during the summer season in 2006. There were 229 occupants from 111 buildings who participated in this study and 229 questionnaire responses were collected. Thermal acceptability assessment reveals that the indoor environment in naturally ventilated buildings could not meet the 80% acceptability criteria prescribed by ASHRAE Standard 55, and people tended to feel more comfortable in air-conditioned buildings with the air-conditioned occupants voting with higher acceptability (89%) than the naturally ventilated occupants (58%). The neutral temperatures in naturally ventilated and air-conditioned buildings were 28.3°C and 27.7°C, respectively. The range of accepted temperature in naturally ventilated buildings (25.0∼31.6°C) was wider than that in air-conditioned buildings (25.1∼30.3°C), which suggests that occupants in naturally ventilated buildings seemed to be more tolerant of higher temperatures. Preferred temperatures were 27.9°C and 27.3°C in naturally ventilated and air-conditioned buildings, respectively, both of which were 0.4°C cooler than neutral temperatures. This result suggests that people of hot climates may use words like “slightly cool” to describe their preferred thermal state. The relationship between draught sensation and indoor air velocity at different temperature ranges indicates that indoor air velocity had a significant influence over the occupants’ comfort sensation, and air velocities required by occupants increased with the increasing of operative temperatures. Thus, an effective way of natural ventilation which can create the preferred higher air movement is called for. Finally, the indoor set-point temperature of 26°C or even higher in air-conditioned buildings was confirmed as making people comfortable, which supports the regulation in China that in public and office buildings the set-point temperature of air-conditioning system should not be lower than 26°C.     

Frits Went’s Atomic Age Greenhouse: The Changing Labscape on the Lab-Field Border

In Landscapes and Labscapes Robert Kohler emphasized the separation between laboratory and field cultures and the creation of new “hybrid” or mixed practices as field sciences matured in the early twentieth century. This article explores related changes in laboratory practices, especially novel designs for the analysis of organism–environment relations in the mid-twentieth century. American ecologist Victor Shelford argued in 1929 that technological improvements and indoor climate control should be applied to ecological laboratories, but his recommendations were too ambitious for the time. In the postwar period Frits W. Went, plant physiologist at the California Institute of Technology, created a new high-tech laboratory, dubbed a “phytotron”, in the hope that it would transform plant sciences by allowing for unprecedented control of environmental variables. Went’s aspirations, the research conducted in his laboratory, and its impact in initiating an international movement, are considered. Went’s laboratory can be seen as a “hybrid culture” evolving in the laboratory, complementing and intersecting with some of the field practices that Kohler describes. It was also a countercultural movement against the reductionist trends of molecular biology in the 1950s and 1960s. By considering the history of the laboratory in relation to field sciences, we can explore how new funding sources and cross-disciplinary relations affected the development of field sciences, especially in the postwar period.     

Engrained experience—a comparison of microclimate perception schemata and microclimate measurements in Dutch urban squares

Acceptance of public spaces is often guided by perceptual schemata. Such schemata also seem to play a role in thermal comfort and microclimate experience. For climate-responsive design with a focus on thermal comfort it is important to acquire knowledge about these schemata. For this purpose, perceived and “real” microclimate situations were compared for three Dutch urban squares. People were asked about their long-term microclimate perceptions, which resulted in “cognitive microclimate maps”. These were compared with mapped microclimate data from measurements representing the common microclimate when people stay outdoors. The comparison revealed some unexpected low matches; people clearly overestimated the influence of the wind. Therefore, a second assumption was developed: that it is the more salient wind situations that become engrained in people’s memory. A comparison using measurement data from windy days shows better matches. This suggests that these more salient situations play a role in the microclimate schemata that people develop about urban places. The consequences from this study for urban design are twofold. Firstly, urban design should address not only the “real” problems, but, more prominently, the “perceived” problems. Secondly, microclimate simulations addressing thermal comfort issues in urban spaces should focus on these perceived, salient situations.     

Ontogeny, anatomy, and the problem of homology: Carl Gegenbaur and the American tradition of cell lineage studies

Summary In this paper we analyze Carl Gegenbaur’s conception of the relationship between embryology (“Ontogenie”) and comparative anatomy and his related ideas about homology. We argue that Gegenbaur’s conviction of the primacy of comparative anatomy and his careful consideration of caenogenesis led him to a more balanced view about the relationship between ontogeny and phylogeny than his good friend Ernst Haeckel. We also argue that Gegenbaur’s ideas about the centrality of comparative anatomy and his definitions of homology actually laid the conceptual foundations for Hans Spemann’s (1915) later analysis of homology. We also analyze Gegenbaur’s reception in the United States and how the discussions between E.B. Wilson and Edwin Conklin about the role of the “embryological criterion of homology” and the latter’s argument for an even earlier concept of cellular homology reflect the recurring theme of preformism in ontogeny, a theme that finds its modern equivalent in various genetic definitions of homology, only recently challenged by the emerging synthesis of evolutionary developmental biology. Finally, we conclude that Gegenbaur’s own careful methodological principles can serve as an important model for proponents of present day “evo-devo”, especially with respect to the integration of ontogeny with phylogeny embedded in comparative anatomy.     

Agonistic and courtship behaviour patterns in the skink Chalcides viridanus (Fam. Scincidae) from Tenerife

There have been relatively few attempts to quantitatively describe behaviours in scincid lizards. Chalcides viridanus is a small body-sized skink endemic of Tenerife (Canary Islands). We describe and quantify 18 behaviour patterns (both social and agonistic) of this species, some of which have not been described before for other scincids. Video recordings of male–male, female–female, and male–female interactions were made under laboratory conditions, with controlled light–dark cycle and temperature. We describe several agonistic and courtship behaviour patterns. Within the first context, we detected a new agonistic behaviour for a scincid, “Snout to body”, that appeared at the beginning of agonistic sequences; it consisted of each animal placing its snout in contact with the other individual’s lateral side of the body. The amplitude of head movement during “Head bobbing” was lower than that described for many other lizard species. Agonistic behaviours were shown in intrasexual staged encounters both within males and females. The comparison of behaviour patterns of both types of intrasexual encounters showed that females were more active, exhibiting significantly higher frequencies of behaviour than males. Specifically, females showed the “Snout to body” pattern more frequently than males. In male–female encounters we detected courtship and copulation patterns only in April, when males performed “Bites” and “Snout to body” directed at females.     

The relationship between invasive alien species and main climatic zones

Analysis of numbers of invasive species (insects, plants, plant diseases) in each of Chinese provinces and the world’s climatic zones respectively, demonstrated positive correlations between diversity of bioinvasion and air temperature and precipitation (the two main criteria for classifying world climate types). When the air temperature is within the range of 1–25°C, the degree of diversity of invasive alien species increases exponentially with air temperature. However, when the air temperature falls outside the range of 1–25°C, the diversity of harmful invasive alien species changes with air temperature in a parabolic pattern, showing a “mid-latitude bulge”. Namely, when air temperatures are too high or too low, a lower average invasion frequency of harmful alien species is observed. Invasion by harmful invasive alien species is more weakly related to precipitation. Different climatic zones showed dramatic differences in resistance to the invasion of invasive alien species due to their different characteristic climatic factors, mainly including air temperature and precipitation.     

Science through the internet: Researching, evaluating and citing websites

This article attempts to convey the joys and frustrations of skimming the Internet trying to find relevant information concerning an academic’s work as a scientist, a student or an instructor. A brief overview of the Internet and the “do’s and don’ts” for the neophyte as well for the more seasoned “navigator” are given. Some guidelines of “what works and what does not” and “what is out there” are provided for the scientist with specific emphasis for biologists, as well as for all others having an interest in science but with little interest in spending countless hours “surfing the net”. An extensive but not exhaustive list of related websites is provided.     

A reexamination of Gilligan’s analysis of the female moral system

Gilligan’s (1982) refinement of Kohlberg’s theory on moral development operates on two theses: (1) females, more so than males, reach moral decisions based on the personalities of the relevant individuals; and (2) female behaviors stemming from moral decisions are based upon “care” and “responsibility for others.” This article accepts the first thesis but argues that the second is incorrect. That is, self-interest—i.e., aiding “blood” kin and/or carefully monitoring reciprocity—rather than “altruism” is argued to be the operant dynamic in forging distaff morality and resultant behavior. Six empirical examples are presented as contraindicative of Gilligan’s second thesis. Finally, it is suggested that selection for the psychological traits of independence and the mastery of subtle social chess yielded ancestral females who had more descendants—us—than did females with alternative profiles. Nancy S. Coney is a professor at Western Illinois University and is interested in both clinical and nonclinical aspects of women’s psychology. Wade C. Mackey is interested in biocultural anthropology and has authored two books on fathering:Fathering Behaviors (Plenum, 1995) andThe American Father (Plenum, 1996).     

Sluggishness of auditory perception during localization of short moving sound images

During localization of a moving sound source, a shift of the perceived position relative to the actual one of the starting point is an expression of the perception of sluggishness of the auditory system. In this study, the human ability to localize starting points during a gradual or abrupt movement of fused auditory images (FAIs) was compared with the ability to localize the position of a stationary sound image. Sound images moved from the midline of the head in the direction of each of the ears. The subject’s responses were recorded using a graphics table. There was a tendency to shift the starting point of the trajectory in the direction of the movement. This tendency was stronger for gradual rather than for abrupt FAI movement and for shorter stimuli (100 ms) than for long ones (200 ms). The value of the starting point’s displacement depended on the final interaural time delay. The results obtained are discussed in terms of the “snapshots” and “movement detector” theories, as well as in terms of the sluggish and anticipatory ability of auditory perception.     

“Not <Emphasis Type="Italic">Here</Emphasis>”: Making the Spaces and Subjects of “Global Health” in Botswana

This essay argues that what makes “global health” “global” has more to do with configurations of space and time, and the claims to expertise and moral stances these configurations make possible, than with the geographical distribution of medical experts or the universal, if also uneven, distribution of threats to health. Drawing on a study of public–private partnerships supporting Botswana’s HIV/AIDS treatment program, this essay demonstrates ethnographically the processes by which “global health” and its quintessential spaces, namely “resource-limited” or “resource-poor settings,” are constituted, reinforced, and contested in the context of medical education and medical practice in Botswana’s largest hospital. Using Silverstein’s work on orders of indexicality, I argue that the terms of “global health” are best understood as chronotopic, and demonstrate how actors orient themselves and others spatio-temporally, morally, and professionally by using or refuting those terms. I conclude by arguing that taking “global health” on its own terms obscures the powerful forces by which it becomes intelligible. At stake are the frames within which medical anthropologists understand their objects of study, as well as the potential for the spaces of “global health” intervention to expand ever outward as American medical personnel attempt to calibrate their experiences to their expectations.     

Are Animals Just Noisy Machines?: Louis Boutan and the Co-invention of Animal and Child Psychology in the French Third Republic

Historians of science have only just begun to sample the wealth of different approaches to the study of animal behavior undertaken in the twentieth century. To date, more attention has been given to Lorenzian ethology and American behaviorism than to other work and traditions, but different approaches are equally worthy of the historian’s attention, reflecting not only the broader range of questions that could be asked about animal behavior and the “animal mind” but also the different contexts in which these questions were important. One such approach is that represented by the work of the French zoologist Louis Boutan (1859–1934). This paper explores the intellectual and cultural history of Boutan’s work on animal language and the animal mind, and contextualizes the place of animal behavior studies within late-nineteenth-and early-twentieth-century French biology. I explore the ways in which Boutan addressed the philosophical issue of whether language was necessary for abstract thought and show how he shifted from the idea that animals were endowed with a purely affective language to the notion that of they were capable of “rudimentary” reasoning. I argue that the scientific and broader socio-cultural contexts in which Boutan operated played a role in this transition. Then I show how Boutan’s linguistic and psychological experiments with a gibbon and children provide insights into his conception of “naturalness.” Although Boutan reared his gibbon at home and studied it in the controlled environment of his laboratory, he continued to identify its behavior as “natural.” I specifically demonstrate the importance of the milieu of the French Third Republic in shaping Boutan’s understanding not only of animal intelligence and child education, but also his definition of nature. Finally, I argue that Boutan’s studies on the primate mind provide us with a lens through which we can examine the co-invention of animal and child psychology in early-twentieth-century France.     

Civic Biology and the Origin of the School Antievolution Movement

In discussing the origins of the antievolution movement in American high schools within the framework of science and religion, much is overlooked about the influence of educational trends in shaping this phenomenon. This was especially true in the years before the 1925 Scopes trial, the beginnings of the school antievolution movement. There was no sudden realization in the 1920’s – sixty years after the Origin of Species was published – that Darwinism conflicted with the Bible, but until evolution was being taught in the high schools, there was no impetus to outlaw it. The creation of “civic biology” curricula in the late 1910’s and early 20’s, spearheaded by a close-knit community of textbook authors, brought evolution into the high school classroom as part of a complete reshaping of “biology” as a school subject. It also incorporated progressive ideologies about the purposes of compulsory public education in shaping society, and civic biology was fundamentally focused on the applications of the life sciences to human life. Antievolution legislation was part of a broader response to the ideologies of the new biology field, and was a reaction not only to the content of the new subject, but to the increasingly centralized control and regulation of education. Viewing the early school antievolution movement through the science-religion conflict is an artifact of the Scopes trial’s re-creation of its origins. What largely caused support for␣the school antievolution movement in the South and particularly Tennessee were concerns over public education, which biology came to epitomize.     

Joseph Hooker Takes a “Fixed Post”: Transmutation and the “Present Unsatisfactory State of Systematic Botany”, 1844–1860

Joseph Hooker first learned that Charles Darwin believed in the transmutation of species in 1844. For the next 14 years, Hooker remained a “nonconsenter” to Darwin’s views, resolving to keep the question of species origin “subservient to Botany instead of Botany to it, as must be the true relation”. Hooker placed particular emphasis on the need for any theory of species origin to support the broad taxonomic delimitation of species, a highly contentious issue. His always provisional support for special creation waned during the 1850s as he lost faith in its expediency for coordinating the study of plant geography, systematics and physiology. In 1858, Hooker embraced Darwin’s “considerable revolution in natural history,” but only after Darwin had carefully molded his transmutationism to meet Hooker’s exacting specifications.     

Eco-floristic sectors and deforestation threats in Sumatra: identifying new conservation area network priorities for ecosystem-based land use planning

Biogeographical studies are a necessary step in establishing conservation area networks. Determining the ecological factors influencing vegetation is also a basic principle for hierarchical ecological classifications and a necessary prerequisite for ecosystem-based land use planning. Eco-floristic sectors (EFS) have already been identified for the Indonesian island of Sumatra, combining both approaches, dividing it into 38 EFSs representing unique ecosystems in terms of tree flora and environment (Laumonier 1997). The impact of deforestation on individual EFSs has been highly varied and in some cases extreme. We assigned one of five ‘extinction risk categories’ to each EFS based on the percentage of forest lost between 1985 and 2007. Eighty-five percent of all forest loss (10.2 million ha) occurred in the eastern peneplain, western lowland regions and swamps. In 2007, only 29% of forests were protected by conservation areas, only nine of the 38 EFS had more than 50% of their remaining forest cover protected. 38% of remaining forest was “critically endangered”, “endangered” or “vulnerable” EFSs (5 million ha) but only 1 million ha (20%) were protected. Sumatra’s existing network of conservation areas does not adequately represent the island’s ecosystems. Priorities for a new conservation area network can be formulated for integration into Sumatra’s new land use plans at provincial and district level. Decision makers can now use EFSs to locate new conservation areas so they represent and maintain the whole range of the island’s diversity.     

The occurrence and significance of amino acids in floral nectar

Approximately 1 500 angiosperm species, in previous papers, have been sampled for the assessment of the amino acids (a. a.) in their nectar. We reaffirm that the findings provide statistically significant data linking differences in the concentration with pollinator type. Flowers that are pollinated by animals that have alternative sources of protein-building a. a.’s show lower a. a. concentration than those that are not. There is a tendency for woody plant nectar a. a.’s to be less concentrated than those of herbaceous plants, but there can be “phylogenetic constraints” which may reduce the correlations of a. a. concentration with pollinator type and with life form. The individual a. a.’s form complements which are qualitatively extremely constant within species. Proline is a normal constituent of many nectars and does not necessarily indicate contamination of the nectar by pollen. Criticism of our findings byGottsberger & al. (1984) is answered by reference to our previous publications and those of other workers, and to the presentation of data from California native species, not published previously. All previous postulates are borne out by these new data with the exception of positive correlations of a. a. concentration with “primitive” and “advanced” floral characteristics taken one at a time, which appear to be inconsistent and are affected strongly by the nature of the family in which they occur. Summary data are provided for families and genera which indicate that high or low a. a. concentration can typify certain families and genera of both relatively “primitive” and relatively “advanced” nature. Needs for future research on an ecosystem basis are quoted.     

A second generation climate index for tourism (CIT): specification and verification

Climate is a key resource for many types of tourism and as such can be measured and evaluated. An index approach is required for this task because of the multifaceted nature of weather and the complex ways that weather variables come together to give meaning to climate for tourism. Here we address the deficiencies of past indices by devising a theoretically sound and empirically tested method that integrates the various facets of climate and weather into a single index called the Climate Index for Tourism (CIT). CIT rates the climate resource for activities that are highly climate/weather sensitive, specifically, beach “sun, sea and sand” (3S) holidays. CIT integrates thermal (T), aesthetic (A) and physical (P) facets of weather, which are combined in a weather typology matrix to determine a climate satisfaction rating that ranges from very poor (1 = unacceptable) to very good (7 = optimal). Parameter A refers to sky condition and P to rain or high wind. T is the body-atmosphere energy balance that integrates the environmental and physiological thermal variables, such as solar heat load, heat loss by convection (wind) and by evaporation (sweating), longwave radiation exchange and metabolic heat (activity level). Rather than use T as a net energy (calorific) value, CIT requires that it be expressed as thermal sensation using the standard nine-point ASHRAE scale (“very hot” to “very cold”). In this way, any of the several body-atmosphere energy balance schemes available may be used, maximizing the flexibility of the index. A survey (N = 331) was used to validate the initial CIT. Respondents were asked to rate nine thermal states (T) with different sky conditions (A). They were also asked to assess the impact of high winds or prolonged rain on the perceived quality of the overall weather condition. The data was analysed statistically to complete the weather typology matrix, which covered every possible combination of T, A and P. Conditions considered to be optimal (CIT class 6–7) for 3S tourism were those that were “slightly warm” with clear skies or scattered cloud (≤25% cloud). Acceptable conditions (CIT = 4–5) fell within the thermal range “indifferent” to “hot” even when the sky was overcast. Wind equal to or in excess of 6 m/s (22 km/h) or rain resulted in the CIT rating dropping to 1 or 2 (unacceptable) and was thus an override of pleasant thermal conditions. Further cross-cultural research is underway to examine whether climate preferences vary with different social and cultural tourist segments internationally.     

Levodopa influences the regularity of the ankle joint kinematics in individuals with Parkinson’s disease

The aim of the investigation was to explore the influence of levodopa therapy on the regularity of the structural variations present in the lower extremity joints of individuals with Parkinson’s disease (PD). Ten participants with PD walked on a treadmill during the states of “off” and “on” levodopa. Approximate entropy was used to quantify the regularity of the structural variations present in the joint kinematics. Additionally, a pseudo-periodic surrogation analysis was used to evaluate if changes in the regularity of the joint’s movement were associated with a noisy or deterministic motor process. This investigation provided two key findings. The first was that the structural variations present in ankle joint were more regular with levodopa therapy. The second was that changes in the structural variations were related to a deterministic motor process. This indicated that the variations present in the walking patterns of individuals with PD most likely arose from higher-order neural couplings rather than noise in the motor process. Monitoring the regularity of the structural variations present in gait may help improve the management of PD.