Architectural enthusiasm: visiting buildings with The Twentieth Century Society

In this paper we put forward the concept of architectural enthusiasm—a collective passion and shared emotional affiliation for buildings and architecture. Through this concept and empirical material based on participation in the architectural tours of The Twentieth Century Society (a UK-based architectural conservation group), we contribute to recent work on the built environment and geographies of architecture in three ways: first, we reinforce the importance of emotion to people’s engagements with buildings, emphasising the shared and practised nature of these engagements; second, we highlight the role of architectural enthusiasts as agents with the potential to shape and transform the built environment; and third, we make connections between (seemingly) disparate engagements with buildings through a continuum of practice incorporating urbex, local history, architectural practice and training, and mass architectural tourism. Unveiling these continuities has important implications for future research into the built environment, highlighting the need to take emotion seriously in all sorts of professional as well as enthusiastic encounters with buildings, and unsettling the categories of amateur and expert within architectural practices.

User-friendly free-text keystroke dynamics authentication for practical applications

This paper introduces a novel approach for free-text keystroke dynamics authentication which incorporates the use of the keyboard’s key-layout. The method extracts timing features from specific key-pairs. The Euclidean distance is then utilized to find the level of similarity between a user’s profile data and his/her test data. The results obtained from this method are reasonable for free-text authentication while maintaining the maximum level of user relaxation. Moreover, it has been proven in this study that flight time yields better authentication results when compared with dwell time. In particular, the results were obtained with only one training sample for the purpose of practicality and ease of real life application.

Friendly amendment: a commentary on Doyle and Ford's proposed re-definition of 'mental model'

Some amendments are proposed to a recent redefinition of the mental model concept in system dynamics. First, externalised, or articulated mental models should not be called cognitive maps; this term has a well established, alternative meaning. Second, there can be mental models of entities not yet existing beyond an individual's mind; the modelling of planned or desired systems is possible and recommended. Third, saying that mental models maintain social systems connects with some exciting research opportunities for system dynamics; however, it is probably an accidental distraction from the intended meaning of the redefinition. These minor criticisms apart, the new definition of mental model of a dynamic system is welcomed as a useful contribution to both research and practice.

Do consumers want public or private bodies to monitor animal friendly production and marketing schemes? And does trust matter?

Producing according to enhanced farm animal welfare (FAW) standards increases costs along the livestock value chain, especially for monitoring certified animal friendly products. In the choice between public or private bodies for carrying out and monitoring certification, consumer preferences and trust play a role. We explore this issue by applying logit analysis involving socio-economic and psychometric variables to survey data from Italy. Results identify marked consumer preferences for public bodies and trust in stakeholders a key determinant.

Where is the UK's pollinator biodiversity? The importance of urban areas for flower-visiting insects

Insect pollinators provide a crucial ecosystem service, but are under threat. Urban areas could be important for pollinators, though their value relative to other habitats is poorly known. We compared pollinator communities using quantified flower-visitation networks in 36 sites (each 1 km2) in three landscapes: urban, farmland and nature reserves. Overall, flower-visitor abundance and species richness did not differ significantly between the three landscape types. Bee abundance did not differ between landscapes, but bee species richness was higher in urban areas than farmland. Hoverfly abundance was higher in farmland and nature reserves than urban sites, but species richness did not differ significantly. While urban pollinator assemblages were more homogeneous across space than those in farmland or nature reserves, there was no significant difference in the numbers of rarer species between the three landscapes. Network-level specialization was higher in farmland than urban sites. Relative to other habitats, urban visitors foraged from a greater number of plant species (higher generality) but also visited a lower proportion of available plant species (higher specialization), both possibly driven by higher urban plant richness. Urban areas are growing, and improving their value for pollinators should be part of any national strategy to conserve and restore pollinators.

Supporting local diversity of habitats and species on farmland: a comparison of three wildlife-friendly schemes

Restoration and maintenance of habitat diversity have been suggested as conservation priorities in farmed landscapes, but how this should be achieved and at what scale are unclear. This study makes a novel comparison of the effectiveness of three wildlife-friendly farming schemes for supporting local habitat diversity and species richness on 12 farms in England. The schemes were: (i) Conservation Grade (Conservation Grade: a prescriptive, non-organic, biodiversity-focused scheme), (ii) organic agriculture and (iii) a baseline of Entry Level Stewardship (Entry Level Stewardship: a flexible widespread government scheme). Conservation Grade farms supported a quarter higher habitat diversity at the 100-m radius scale compared to Entry Level Stewardship farms. Conservation Grade and organic farms both supported a fifth higher habitat diversity at the 250-m radius scale compared to Entry Level Stewardship farms. Habitat diversity at the 100-m and 250-m scales significantly predicted species richness of butterflies and plants. Habitat diversity at the 100-m scale also significantly predicted species richness of birds in winter and solitary bees. There were no significant relationships between habitat diversity and species richness for bumblebees or birds in summer. Butterfly species richness was significantly higher on organic farms (50% higher) and marginally higher on Conservation Grade farms (20% higher), compared with farms in Entry Level Stewardship. Organic farms supported significantly more plant species than Entry Level Stewardship farms (70% higher) but Conservation Grade farms did not (10% higher). There were no significant differences between the three schemes for species richness of bumblebees, solitary bees or birds. Policy implications. The wildlife-friendly farming schemes which included compulsory changes in management, Conservation Grade and organic, were more effective at increasing local habitat diversity and species richness compared with the less prescriptive Entry Level Stewardship scheme. We recommend that wildlife-friendly farming schemes should aim to enhance and maintain high local habitat diversity, through mechanisms such as option packages, where farmers are required to deliver a combination of several habitats.

Family-friendly employment laws (re)assessed: the potential of care ethics

In light of various reforms in recent years, this article provides a (re)assessment of the broad package of family-friendly employment rights and relevant dispute resolution procedure now available to pregnant workers and working carers. It exposes how the realities of working life for many pregnant workers and carers and the long standing desire to promote gender equality in informal care-work remain at odds with the legal framework. An argument is presented in favour of an approach that, based upon the concept of care ethics, better engages with the impact of the provisions upon crucial interdependent care relationships.

The Impact of the NIHERST/NGC National Science Centre, Trinidad and Tobago on Visiting Student Groups

The aim of this study was to asses the impact of a visit to the NIHERST/NGC National Science Centre in Trinidad on four different school-age visitor groups. The research was conducted through the administering of a post-visit questionnaire immediately upon completion of each visit by each group, and via visitor feedback obtained in post-visit or pre-visit activities conducted within two weeks of the visit for three groups. Teachers/instructors who accompanied the groups on their visit also completed post-visit questionnaires and provided additional information on follow-up activities via an interview. The results of this investigation suggest that the visit to this science centre provided entertainment/enjoyment value and potential educational value to most individuals. The nature of this enjoyment was noted for various age groups and genders in this study. Quantification of the educational impact was not possible within the constraints of this study, which was unable to capture long-term effects of the supply of ‘new knowledge’ to visitors which the visit to the science centre had provided.

A rapid, environmentally friendly, and reliable method for pesticide analysis in high-fat samples

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

The golden lancehead Bothrops insularis (Serpentes: Viperidae) relies on two seasonally plentiful bird species visiting its island habitat

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

An environmentally friendly reflectometric method for ranitidine determination in pharmaceuticals and human urine

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

An Environmentally Friendly Reflectometric Method for Bumetanide Determination in Pharmaceuticals

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

An eco-friendly protocol for synthesis of thiourea derivatives: 1-benzoyl-3-benzylguanidine and 1-benzoyl-3-benzyl-O-ethylisourea. A possible non-purely thermal microwave assisted reaction

1-Benzoyl-3-benzylguanidine and 1-benzoyl-3-benzyl-O-ethylisourea were synthesized in good yields (68 and 76%, respectively) from 1-benzoyl-3-benzylthiourea and benzoyl-ethylthiocarbamate in dry media conditions using KF-Al2O3 under microwave irradiation. Strong nucleophilic amines promoted the sulfur elimination by attack on the thiocarbonyl group in both thiourea and thiocarbamates to afford guanidines and isourea, respectively. Transesterification products were obtained from p-TsOH catalyzed reaction of thiocarbamate with alcohols under MW-solvent-free conditions. Very important non-purely thermal MW specific effects were evidenced and attributed to stabilization by coulombic interactions between materials and waves. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.