The concept of adaptability in architecture is one that very often bears technical rather than social connotations. What are the mechanisms and systems that allow buildings to adapt to fluctuating environmental and climatic conditions? These responses are often the driving force behind design considerations, placing emphasis on the manner in which the technical resolutions facilitate appropriate adaptability and environmental response. This adaptability is generally addressed through the building envelope, which acts as the mediator between the interior conditions of a building, and the exterior conditions of its environment (Lovell, 2010). However, beyond addressing these environmental conditions, there are greater urban and social conditions that bear equal weight within any design inquiry. Building adjacencies, ethnographics, social development and imageability of spatial ordering are all fundamental factors that need to be addressed within building envelope design (Lovell, 2010). The design dissertation inquiry explores the multi-faceted nature of building envelopes as well as an architecture of internal and external thresholds. The inquiry examines ways in which building envelopes respond to both the environmental and social complexities of a context, as well as how internal and external threshold and edge conditions can be design generative and communicative; expressing spatial organisations, conditions of privacy and mechanisms of adaptability. This topic of adaptive envelopes and defining thresholds in relation to social complexities has been explored in an architectural design project, which aims to practically address social and environmental issues. This exploration yields a set of key findings into an architecture of thresholds and adaptability in response to the sociotechnical conditions of a context where the lines between the formal and informal are blurred.

The purpose of this thesis is to explore how surface engagement through touch affects perception of stimuli and mood. Researchers have found psychological, physiological and cognitive benefits associated with exposure to and interaction with nature. Stress Reduction Theory with Psychoevolutionary framework, and Attention Restoration Theory are often used to explain and interpret results. However, studies that focus on individuals with negative perspectives of nature find a positive affective response to nature is not universal. Rather, individuals respond differently based on their own experience with nature. Childhood exposure and culture have been found to influence attitudes towards nature. Theories of embodied cognition emphasize the importance of previously learned associations and embodied states have been found to influence judgment, experience of emotions, and physiological states. To assess whether an individual's attitude towards nature influences the embodiment of a positive or negative state, participants were randomly assigned to come into physical contact with one of four surfaces with their feet: grass, fake grass, dirt and cement. Individuals affective, cognitive and physical relationship with nature was measured with the Nature Relatedness Scale. Change in perception of neutral stimuli and mood before and after surface exposure were measured. Results suggested surfaces influenced mood in different ways, however the effects on perception were unclear. A participant's perspective of nature did not seem to influence mood change depending on surface type. Future research is needed to assess whether the shift in mood was based on metaphors of language, priming from surface texture, or a result of complex interaction between bodily sensations and cognition.

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Euglena gracilis is a species of unicellular photosynthetic flagellate that inhibits aquatic ecosystems. E. gracilis belongs to the supergroup Excavata, and are an important component of the global biosphere, have biotechnological potential and is useful biological model due to their evolutionary history and complex biology. Whilst the evolutionary position of E. gracilis is now clear, their relationship with other protists such as Naegleria, Giardia, and Kinetoplastids, remains to be investigated in detail. Investigating and understanding the biology of this complex organism is a promising way to approach many evolutionary puzzles, including secondary endosymbiotic events and the evolution of parasitism, due to their relationship with Kinetoplastids. Here, I report a draft genome for E. gracilis, together with a high quality transcriptome and proteomic analysis. The estimated genome size is ~ 2 Gbp, with a GC content of ~ 50 % and a protein coding potential predicted at 36,526 Open Reading Frames (ORFs). Less than 25% of the genome is single copy sequence, indicating extensive repeat structure. There are evidences for large number of paralogs amongst specific gene families, indicating expansions and possible polyploidy as well as extensive sharing of genes with other non photosynthetic and photosynthetic eukaryotes: red and green algael genes, together with trypanosomes and other members of the excavates. Functional resolution into several of the biological systems indicates multiple similarities with the trypanosomatids in terms of orthology, paralogy, relatedness and complexity. Several biological systems such as nuclear architecture (e.g. chromosome segregation, nuclear pore complex, nuclear lamins), protein trafficking, translation, surface, consist of conserved and divergent components. For instance, several gene families likely associated with the cell surface and signal transduction possess very large numbers of lineage-specific paralogs, suggesting great flexibility in environmental monitoring and, together with divergent mechanisms for metabolic control, novel solutions to adaptation to extreme environments. I also demonstrate that the majority of control of protein expression levels is post-transcriptional and absence of transcriptional regulation, despite the presence of conventional introns. These data are a major advance in the understanding of the nuclear genome of Euglenids and provide a platform for investigation of the contributions of E. gracilis and relatives to the biosphere.

科学研究費補助金 研究種目:特定領域研究(A)(1) 課題番号:08276103 研究代表者:山下 興亜 研究期間:1996-2000年度