Fung Tat Wai Ken. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2008-2009, design report." / Urban Ruins: Empowering the Underprivileged --- p.4-17 / "This thesis is inspired by two social and economic issues: Urban Ruins and migrant workers. Here urban ruins refer to suspended or abandoned structures resulting from speculation failures caused by market and financial fluctuations. Through a comparison between these unoccupied and often unfinished structures and ""traditional"" ruins like those resulting from natural disasters, it is obvious that they share common characteristics and Urban Ruins are thus named. For example, they both consist of visible and invisible parts, though they represent different time and space." / Guangdong Region --- p.18-23 / "Following the real estate boom in the 1990s, there were once more than 300 Urban Ruins in Guangdong Province. However in the past 10 years, most of the suspended projects have been resumed and completed by developers, this phenomenon has given rise to worries at the beginning of research that it might not be the right time to touch on this issue, yet the recent financial crisis has again proven the periodic nature of the issue that is worthwhile further investigation." / Shenzhen - Dongmen Building --- p.24-37 / "Dongmen Building one of the remaining few existing Urban Ruins in Shenzhen urban area. It is a special case that the cause of its suspension is not only financial and market forces, the original developer has been cheated by other company, taking away all the capital that were invested into this building, the construction was then brought to a halt since the completion of the concrete structure more than 10 years ago. This is going to be the site of the intervention." / Shenzhen - A Transient City --- p.38-43 / "Apart from the property market, Shenzhen has been growing exponentially since it was declared Special Economic Zone in 1979, plus its geographical advantage of its proximity to Hong Kong, it has been functioning as the hinterland to Hong Kong providing cheap products and services. The manufacturing industry and services sector flourished, attracting migrant workers from all over China. These migrant workers do not have a local hukou, meaning they are not registered residence in Shenzhen, they face problems of employment, accommodation and low wages. Making the migrant workers the underprivileged and over exploited group in the economy." / "According to a recent survey, there are as much as 100 million migrant workers in China, of which one tenth of them are working in the Guangdong Province. Migrant workers, together with associated Village in the City issue pose a rising social demographic problem to the authorities." / Program --- p.44-49 / "Based on these two issues, Urban Ruins and migrant workers, a programmatic approach has been adopted. The proposed program is composed of 3 scales, firstly on a city wide scale responding to periodical market fluctuations that created Urban Ruins by taking the abandoned structure as a host for intervention. Secondly on a national-wide scale dealing with perennial population flow of migrant workers and tourists, providing temporary residence for migrant workers who are forced to stay in Shenzhen or those who just arrived in search for jobs. Thirdly on a more local scale, accommodating daily needs of public transport and recycling in the Dongmen commercial district." / Empowering the under-privileged and the over-exploited --- p.50-53 / "Going back to the title of the thesis, how to empower the under-privileged? It could be achieved by using their own expertise, agricultural knowledge, by means of an urban farm. The urban farm ties up all the other previously mentioned programs, they work in a symbiotic relationship that the public transport interchange bring shoppers to the marketplace where the produces from the urban farm, while the kitchen waste collected from the commercial district can be treated at the recycling centre suppling organic fertiliser to the urban farm. The temporary residence is run on the financial support from the profit of the marketplace and also the hostel for tourists. This establishment could be a centre for new arrivals in Shenzhen, providing vocational training of hydroponic agriculture and accommodation while they can look for other jobs." / Hydroponics and Vertical Farming --- p.54-57 / "The conventional type of farm is not feasible on the tower due the required soil depth cannot be achieved on the origi- nal structure. Hydroponic farming is introduced to produce high economic value crops like fruits and flowers. Moreover, the skills required by hydroponic farming can be acquired by the migrant workers as vocational training." / Parasitic Approach --- p.58-64 / "In order to maintain a ruin-like quality of the existing structure to create a""scar of greed"" in the city, the design approach would partly retain the existing appearance and introduce the new programs as parasitic structures. Three parasitic operations: Attachment, Add-on and Intrusion were identified from a study of parasitic structures. In the preliminary design proposal, the growing area is applied an attachment on the southern facades with other programs such as residence punching through into the existing structure as intrusions."

Lee Kang Yau. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2010-2011, design report."

published_or_final_version / Architecture / Master / Master of Architecture

Since the late 1970s many empty buildings in Montreal have been adapted for residential purposes. The main focus of this thesis is to document and analyse the most representative examples of these projects in order to define the nature and results of the adaptive-use practice in Montreal. / Due to complexity of the field, the framework for analysis must be flexible enough to apply to different contexts and building types, yet firm enough to solve the perpetual dilemmas intrinsic to adaptive-use design. The attitude of this research is that the best way to do this is to learn from architectural, social, and political history---indeed how these types of histories interrelate to form a continuum of popular and professional opinion. / The study starts the examination of the main preservationist and adaptive-use methods with the discussion of preservationist terminology and origins of preservationist theories in Europe. It traces them as they come to North America, examines the roots of adaptive use for residential purposes in Manhattan, and follows the phenomenon as it has appeared in Montreal from the sixties to present. After tracking preservation theory and practice until this point, the parameters for determining what is a successful adaptive-use project become clearer. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)

Hung Kwai Yu, Jo. / "Architecture Department, Chinese University of Hong Kong, Master of Architecture Programme 2009-2010, design report." / "May 2010." / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 70). / Abstract of the Thesis --- p.2 / Issue of Concern - Teenagers and Education --- p.3 / Development Psychology of Teenagers --- p.7 / Research on Education an Learning Space --- p.11 / Hong Kong Education System & Local School Case Study --- p.16 / A Learning Village for Teenagers - Preliminary Thoughts --- p.21 / Site Analysis --- p.31 / Concepts of the Learning Village --- p.37 / Special Study / Chapter - --- Space for 334 New Curriculum / Chapter - --- Village as a School and Village as a Teenage Place --- p.52 / Final Design --- p.55 / Zoom-in Pictures of the Village --- p.62 / Bibliography --- p.70

Hypertension is a leading risk factors associated with cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, killing millions of people every year. And in hypertension oxidative stress is increased and may be the cause or a consequence of elevated blood pressure. In recent years the exercise has been shown to be an alternative for the prevention and treatment of hypertension to lower blood pressure, as has been demonstrated the ability to strength training improve antioxidant defense in normotensive. Thus, the objectives of this work were: (1) to evaluate the effects of a low-intensity resistance exercise session on oxidative stress indicators in cardiac muscle of hypertensive rats; (2) evaluate the effects of strength training on renal and cardiac hypertrophy-induced renovascular hypertension; (3) evaluate the effects of strength training on renal oxidative stress in rats with renovascular hypertension. We verified that the power exercise can reduce oxidative damage by increasing the activity of antioxidant enzymes in the heart. These effects are similar in the kidney when it is performed strength training chronically with moderate intensity in renovascular hypertension. It was possible to verify that strength training has beneficial effects on hypertension and renovascular is able to reduce mean arterial pressure and heart rate, and reverse hypertrophy of the contralateral kidney and heart. / A hipertensão arterial é um dos principais fatores de risco associados às morbidades e mortalidade cardiovasculares, causando a morte de milhões de pessoas por ano. Na hipertensão, o estresse oxidativo está aumentado, podendo ser este o motivo ou uma consequência da elevação da pressão arterial. Nos últimos anos o exercício físico tem se mostrado como uma alternativa para a prevenção e o tratamento da hipertensão por reduzir a pressão arterial, assim como tem sido demonstrada a capacidade de o treinamento de força melhorar a defesa antioxidante em normotensos. Desta forma, os objetivos desta dissertação foram: (1) avaliar o efeito de uma sessão de exercício de força de baixa intensidade sobre os indicadores de estresse oxidativo no músculo cardíaco de ratos hipertensos; (2) avaliar os efeitos do treinamento de força sobre a hipertrofia renal e cardíaca induzida pela hipertensão renovascular; (3) avaliar os efeitos do treinamento de força sobre o estresse oxidativo renal em ratos com hipertensão renovascular. Verificamos que o exercício de força é capaz de reduzir os danos oxidativos através do aumento da atividade das enzimas antioxidantes no coração. Estes efeitos são similares no rim quando é realizado o treinamento de força de forma crônica na hipertensão renovascular. Foi possível verificar que o treinamento de força tem efeitos benéficos na hipertensão renovascular e é capaz de reduzir a pressão arterial média e frequência cardíaca, além de reverter a hipertrofia do rim contralateral e do coração.

No description available.

"It has neither name nor place. I shall repeat the reason why I was describing it to you: from the number of imaginable cities we must exclude those whose elements are assembled without a connecting thread, an inner rule, a perspective, a discourse. With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams are made of desires and fears, even the thread of their discourse is secret, their rules are absurd, their perspectives deceitful, and everything conceals something else." "Cities also believe they are the work of the mind or of chance, but neither the one nor the other suffices to hold up their walls. You take delight not in a city's seven or seventy wonders, but in the answer it gives to a question of yours." / Master of Architecture

Herzinsuffizienz mit konsekutivem Herzversagen ist ein zentrales kardiovaskuläres Problem der heutigen Bevölkerung.Ursächlich ist insbesondere eine progrediente Herzhypertrophie. Die Calcium-Calmodulin abhängige Phosphatase Calcineurin (CnR) spielt hierbei in der Pathogenese eine entscheidende Rolle. CnR wird über seine Calciumbindungsstellen an der regulatorischen Untereinheit Calcineurin B (CnB) aktiviert.Um zu untersuchen, inwieweit CnB bei der Hypertrophie verschiedener Ätiologien reguliert wird, wurde in linksventrikulären Myokardbiopsien von Patienten mit Aortenstenose (AS= 14) bzw. aus explantierten Herzen mit Dilatativer Kardiomyopathie (DCM=27) und Koronarer Herzerkrankung (KHK=7) der mRNA-und Proteingehalt von CnB bestimmt und mit der Expression von ANP und BNP korreliert. Als Kontrollgruppe dienten 15 abgelehnte Spenderherzen mit normaler systolischer Funktion und gesunder Morphologie. In den Herzen der Kontroll-, DCM-, und KHK-Gruppen wurde der linksventrikuläre Fibrosegehalt bestimmt. Hierzu wurden eine extern standardisierte Real-Time-PCR-Technik und ein etabliertes Western Blot Verfahren angewandt. Die Ergebnisse werden im Median ± 25%/75%-Perzentile angegeben und mit dem Mann-Whitney-Test bzw. Korrelationsanalysen nach Spearman berechnet. In den Herzen mit DCM zeigte sich eine signifikante Erhöhung der CnB mRNA auf ca. das Dreifache der Kontrollen (293% der Ko, p / Heart failure is a central cardiovascular problem for the current population. Cardiac hypertrophy is a central factor. The calcium-Calmodulin dependent phosphatase Calcineurin (CnR) plays a crucial role in the pathogenesis. CnR is activated via its calcium-binding site in the regulatory subunit Calcineurin B (CnB). In order to examine, to what extent CnB is regulated in different aetiologies of hypertrophy, we analysed CnB´s mRNA and protein in left ventricular samples from patients with aortic valve stenosis (AS = 14) and from explanted hearts with dilated (DCM=27) and ischemic (ICM=7) cardiomyopathy and correlated them with the expression of ANP and BNP. As a control, 15 rejected donor hearts with normal systolic function and non-pathologic changed morphology were used. Fibrosis of the left ventricle was determined in three groups: control , DCM and ICM. Therefore, we used an externally standardized real-time PCR and an established Western Blot. Data are given as median ± 25%/75%- percentiles; Mann Whitney test and Spearman´s correlation-analyses were used. CnB mRNA was significantly raised in DCM (293% of control, p

Ischämische Herzerkrankungen stellen die weltweit häufigste Todesursache dar. Das Chemokin SDF-1 zählt zu den vielversprechendsten neuen Therapietargets. Allerdings werden die dem SDF-1 Effekt zugrunde liegenden Mechanismen kontrovers diskutiert. Um den Einfluss von SDF-1 auf die Herzregeneration aufzuklären, wurden transgene Ratten generiert, welche SDF-1 in Kardiomyozyten überexprimieren. Die basale Herzfunktion war in diesen Ratten nicht verändert, jedoch zeigte sich nach Herzinfarkt eine Verschlechterung der kardialen Funktion. Des Weiteren ließen sich eine verstärkte Fibrosebildung, ein Anstieg neutrophiler Granulozyten im Blut sowie eine erhöhte Einwanderung von Makrophagen in die Herzen transgener Ratten feststellen. Dagegen waren die Anlockung von Stammzellen und die Blutgefäßneubildung nicht verändert. Diese Daten bestätigen, dass kardiales SDF-1 eine nachteilige Wirkung ausüben kann, indem es entzündliche Prozesse im geschädigten Gewebe beeinflusst. Ferner wurde ein Microarray-basiertes Screening in kardialem Gewebe nach Herzinfarkt durchgeführt. Ziel der Studie war die Identifizierung neuer Moleküle, deren Rolle bei Herzerkrankungen bislang unbekannt ist. Das Screening brachte das Glykoprotein GPNMB hervor, welches an fibrotischen Prozessen nach Gewebeschädigung beteiligt ist. Wir untersuchten das Protein mit Hilfe des DBA/2J Mausstammes, in dem kein funktionelles GPNMB vorhanden ist. Die Untersuchung dieser Mäuse ergab keine Veränderungen der basalen Herzfunktion, nach Herzinfarkt zeigte sich jedoch eine verbesserte kardiale Funktion sowie erhöhte Hämoglobinkonzentrationen im Blut. Außerdem war die Funktion von Makrophagen verändert. Darüber hinaus fanden wir erhöhte Konzentrationen von GPNMB in Plasmaproben von Patienten nach akutem Herzinfarkt. Zusammenfassend weisen die Ergebnisse darauf hin, dass GPNMB nicht nur ein vielversprechendes Therapietarget, sondern auch einen potenziellen Biomarker für ischämische Herzerkrankungen darstellt. / Ischemic heart diseases are a major cause of death worldwide due to the postmitotic state of the heart. The chemokine SDF-1 is one of the most promising novel therapeutic targets due to its ability to attract leukocytes and stem cells. However, the role of different cardiac cell types in this process remains elusive and underlying mechanisms have been controversially discussed. To clarify the role of SDF-1 and its receptor CXCR4 in myocardial regeneration, we generated transgenic rats overexpressing SDF-1 in cardiomyocytes. The function of the heart at baseline was not altered in these rats, whereas the induction of myocardial infarction resulted in impaired cardiac function and remodeling. This finding was accompanied by increased fibrosis, neutrophil blood counts and macrophage infiltration into the heart. On the other hand, stem cell recruitment and neovascularization were not altered in SDF-1 transgenic rats. In conclusion, our findings confirm that the SDF-1/CXCR4 axis can have adverse effects by affecting the inflammatory state of the healing heart. In addition, a microarray-based screening was conducted in rat hearts after myocardial infarction with the aim to discover yet unknown molecules involved in cardiac repair. This screening yielded GPNMB, a glycoprotein known to be involved in inflammatory and fibrotic processes after tissue injury. We studied the protein further using DBA/2J mice that lack functional levels of GPNMB. While the cardiac function was normal in these mice at baseline, induction of myocardial infarction revealed a preservation of cardiac function, less dilatation as well as higher red blood cell and hemoglobin levels. Moreover, the absence of GPNMB resulted in an altered activity and distribution of macrophages. We also found increased levels of GPNMB in plasma of patients after myocardial infarction. In conclusion, our findings suggest that GPNMB might constitute a novel therapeutic target and biomarker of acute ischemic heart diseases.