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The study examines the impact, added value and relevance of accreditation as a way of assuring quality at an institution of higher learning in the field of architecture. The qualitative impact of accreditation was examined through a survey presented to students, teachers and employers. A quantitative assessment was carried out by reviewing academic indicators, such as pass rate or weighted average per year, before and after the accreditation processes. The study examined a private institution of higher education in Peru; however, the methodology and results may be relevant to future studies of schools in developing countries with similar characteristics.

During microspore embryogenesis, microspores are induced to develop into haploid embryos. In Brassica napus, microspore embryogenesis is induced by a heat shock (HS), which initially produces embryogenic structures with different cell wall architectures and compositions, and with different potentials to develop into embryos. The B. napus DH4079 and DH12075 genotypes have high and very low embryo yields, respectively. In DH12075, embryo yield is greatly increased by combining HS and the histone deacetylase (HDAC) inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA). However, we show that HS + TSA inhibits embryogenesis in the highly embryogenic DH4079 line. To ascertain why TSA has such different effects in these lines, we treated DH4079 and DH12075 microspore cultures with TSA and compared the cell wall structure and composition of the different embryogenic structures in both lines, specifically the in situ levels and distribution of callose, cellulose, arabinogalactan proteins and high and low methyl‐esterified pectin. For both lines, HS + TSA led to the formation of cell walls unfavorable for embryogenesis progression, with reduced levels of arabinogalactan proteins, reduced cell adhesion of inner walls and altered pectin composition. Thus, TSA effects on cell walls cannot explain their different embryogenic response to TSA. We also applied TSA to DH4079 cultures at different times and concentrations before HS application, with no negative effects on embryogenic induction. These results indicate that DH4079 microspores are hypersensitive to combined TSA and HS treatments, and open up new hypotheses about the causes of such hypersensitivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Addressing the need for curbing private motorization and car dependency while reducing inequalities associated with transport requires an in-depth understanding of the individual and collective practices, attitudes, and experiences of urban accessibility and mobility of populations across diverse socio-economic backgrounds. This paper builds on qualitative research methods and a framework of transitions to sustainable mobility to examine the links between travel needs, preferences, attitudes, and structural factors such as urban form, poverty, and informality at different scales. It proposes qualitative methods and evidence for accessibility-centred analysis to enrich policy and practice in cities across Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), using Sierra Leone's capital, Freetown, as a case study. While the volume of literature on urban mobility, accessibility, and land-use in SSA is increasing, scholarship on cities in Western Africa remains limited. The study examines four neighborhoods with different levels of access and motorization. It interrogates participants' perceived accessibility, how they shape differentiated everyday mobility and land-use practices at the individual and collective level, and its implications for urban accessibility and sustainable mobility in the medium to long-term future. We found that perceived accessibility influences everyday mobility and land-use practices and the attitudes of individuals in diverse communities toward sustainable mobility by driving them to trade off immediate needs with long-term risks and exposures, imaginaries of motorized futures, as well as collectively transform the functional and physical configurations of the built environment to address their most critical needs in the absence of suitable top-down transport and land-use interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Displaced populations are housed in various constructions, including lightweight predesigned structures. Theoretically, self-built heavyweight structures should ensure better temperatures and be closer to cultural norms. To examine this directly for the first time, lightweight pre-designed solutions are compared with high-mass self-built alternatives in Afghanistan and Peru, via monitoring, dynamic simulation, occupant surveys, the Shelter Assessment Matrix (SAM) and ShelTherm. Lightweight solutions increase peak summer temperatures, but only by 2°C, but reduce minimum temperatures by up to 5°C. Simulations only provided a qualitatively similar time series to the monitoring, because identical homes showed a large variance in temperatures. This questions the benefit of simulation compared to approaches which concentrate on whether shelters exacerbate or ameliorate external temperatures. In addition, a dwelling provides more than comfort, it supports family life, which is best addressed by tools like SAM, not thermal simulation. Hence it might be ideal to recommend high-mass self-build if possible, and to focus modelling efforts on qualitative aspects of simulation time-series, such as whether the building suppresses or exacerbates external conditions, and equally on psycho-cultural aspects. The term narrative modelling is introduced to describe this new approach which will be of direct benefit to the humanitarian community. Practical application : Building simulation engineers have much to offer the humanitarian shelter sector, however they are not often brought into play in a disaster. Hence, we suggest a practical role they can take is in examining strategies before disasters and in creating knowledge or analysis methods that aid agency staff can apply on the ground. Here we showcase this approach. It is clear that although dynamic thermal simulation is highly useful, psycho-social aspects are equally important, thus engineers are likely to need to use tools that consider such aspects in order to maximize the usefulness of their conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]