Energy from depleting fossil fuels consumed in the construction and operation of buildings accounts for approximately half of the UK's emissions of carbon dioxide. With global warming increasing, amplifying extreme weather conditions and frequency, buildings can no longer remain static and unresponsive to their surrounding environment. Architecture must become adaptive, reactive to changes in climate, and reducing CO2, not generating it. As a tree responds to and moderates its surrounding environment, nature can become a key inspiration in developing mechanisms to reduce the impact of climate change and resource depletion. At Astudio, our research looks to incorporate fundamental processes in living and natural systems in the architectural design of responsive surfaces and building services. A form of synthetic biology, these ‘bio-responsive’ designs combine both biological and technical systems, which adapt to, and harvest from, the immediate climatic environment. This paper will demonstrate the potential of synthetic biology in improving the resilience of our built environment, documented through our practice research and our collaborations with industry and academic institutions to date. Astudio are world-class architects focused on reducing our buildings’ impact on the environment. Our courage in the pursuit new ways to reduce carbon and change behaviors gained us the coveted title of Architectural Practice of the Year in 2012. This unprecedented achievement led us to establish our research and development group, whose role is to investigate new ways of seeing and thinking about the challenges we face in the industry. With this group, we explore visionary concepts that enable us to consider how we may cross boundaries taking us out of architecture and work with different fields of expertise that can help us solve sustainable construction in new ways. We look to the future to propose buildable solutions today.
Personality factors analogous to the Big Five observed in humans are present in the great apes. However, few studies have examined the long-term stability of great ape personality, particularly using factor-based personality instruments. Here, we assessed overall group, and individual-level, stability of chimpanzee personality by collecting ratings for chimpanzees (N = 50) and comparing them with ratings collected approximately 10 years previously, using the same personality scale. The overall mean scores of three of the six factors differed across the two time points. Sex differences in personality were also observed, with overall sex differences found for three traits, and males and females showing different trajectories for two further traits over the 10 year period. Regardless of sex, rank-order stability analysis revealed strong stability for dominance; individuals who were dominant at the first time point were also dominant 10 years later. The other personality factors exhibited poor to moderate rank-order stability, indicating that individuals were variable in their rank-position consistency over time. As many studies assessing chimpanzee cognition rely on personality data collected several years prior to testing, these data highlight the importance of collecting current personality data when correlating them with cognitive performance.
Accidents in chemistry and biochemistry laboratories are a regular occurrence and have been associated with injuries, property damage, and deaths. However, despite a high prevalence rate of accident involvement reported in previous investigations of academic lab personnel (approximately 30%), little is known about the context in which academic lab accidents occur. Previous findings also suggest a high degree of accident underreporting (25–40%), but again, little is known about this phenomenon. Pilot data was gathered from a convenience sample of 104 students and postdoctoral fellows in chemistry-related fields through an online survey. Results showed a high level of accident involvement (56.7%); of that number, most of those (65.9%) had been involved in multiple accidents. Most accidents involved only personal injuries and happened on a weekday afternoon with other lab members present. The majority of participants reported wearing multiple types of PPE at the time; however, adherence rates for any one type of equipment (e.g., goggles, gloves, coat) was less than 50%. Most (69.6%) reported their accidents to multiple individuals and were at least somewhat or very satisfied (81.2%) with their decision to report. Participants who chose not to report their accidents reported barriers such as beliefs that the accident was not severe, concerns about judgment, self-blame, and not knowing they had to report the accident or how. Implications for safety training and reporting practices are considered.
Social learning theories predict biased transmission dictating what and whom is copied. We presented a novel tool-use task to six groups of captive chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes ) to investigate a model proficiency bias. The study included six groups totalling 54 chimpanzees (24 males) housed in six social groups at the KCCMR, University of Texas, U.S.A. Subjects were aged 12- to 43-years-old ( M = 24.5 years, SD = 7). In each of four groups (N = 33, Males = 18), two models were trained to use one of two visually and functionally different ‘hook’ and ‘spoon’ tools to obtain baskets containing food that were otherwise out-of-reach. Once trained, the models demonstrated their tool-use in the presence of the group. The two models differed in their novel-task-solving proficiency as ascertained by prior interactions with novel tasks (also observed by group members) and caregiver ratings of each chimpanzee’s general proficiency. Two groups of ‘control’ chimpanzees (N = 21) had no prior information regarding the task and saw no conspecific demonstrations. Within the experimental groups, significantly more chimpanzees touched the tool used by the ‘high proficiency’ model than the one used by the ‘low proficiency’ model ( p < 0.001), demonstrating some degree of model-based social learning bias. The tool used in observing chimpanzees’ first attempts and first successes, however, did not differ as a function of which model used the tool. This was likely because the task could be easily learned asocially. We propose that the chimpanzees’ tool-use behaviour was guided by biased stimulus enhancement alongside asocial learning. As with humans, chimpanzees demonstrate an ability to discern the most proficient model but also show the flexibility to asocially acquire multiple successful methods. Thus, chimpanzees and humans both demonstrate adaptive social learning strategies dictating when and whom they copy.
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