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The former Italian concession in Tianjin (1901–1945) has assumed symbolic significance for the modern urban redevelopment of this municipality through experimentation with distinctive practices of conservation management. In 1986, when the Historic Buildings Protection Area was defined, the former Italian concession was identified as a pilot urban conservation project. In 2002, the public company Haihe Construction and Development Investment Ltd. was put in charge of the design and implementation plan for the site, which progressively assumed the semblance of an 'Italian-Style Town'. The distinctive transformation raised significant questions regarding the architectural restyling as well as its specific historical and cultural value. In August 2020, the management of the Italian-Style town was handed over to the Hebei District Government. This coincided with the emergence of a proposal for the creation of a 'Larger Italian-Style Town', that extended beyond the borders of the original Italian concession to include the former Austrian concession and the western section of the ex-Russian concession. The redevelopment strategy for this larger area aimed to create a service-oriented commercial area, presented as an 'urban living room', while showcasing Tianjin as an international metropolis. This article analyses the evolution of the conservation strategy as well as the relevant legislation, management, and practices during the redevelopment of the former Italian concession. The aim of this study is to address the conflict between heritage protection and commercialisation. Thus, this article offers a critique of the trend towards functional replacement and structural adaptation to cater to the tourism industry rather than to the value of the community's livelihood as a living heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Personalized Sound Zone (PSZ) is the ultimate sound space that enables a world in which one hears only the sounds one wants to hear and others hear only the sounds that one wants them to hear. It will enable new lifestyles in which people can enjoy work and entertainment experiences regardless of location, provide a new acoustic experience by merging real space and virtual sound space, enable selfdriving cars in which people seated apart from each other can comfortably have conversations in a space as quiet as a living room, and improve the quality of life by enhancing hearing ability. These Feature Articles introduce the challenges involved in achieving PSZ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walter Benjamin's criticisms of dwelling and the modern interior are well known. The middle classes retreated from the alienation of nineteenth-century city life into domestic seclusion, surrounding themselves with soft furnishings in a search for comfort. In Living Rooms (2022), Sam Johnson-Schlee uses objects typically found in the living room or lounge as his starting point for the development of Benjamin's ideas. Recognising the labour invested in domestic commodities would allow us to realise our dreams of connecting with others and escaping the confines of capitalism like roots breaking out of a plant pot. The personal observations used to support the arguments reflect the experience of Generation Rent. They inform an attempt to relate IKEA's 1996 'Chuck out that chintz!' advert to crucial changes in the British housing market. The emphasis on labour largely sidelines household labour and its gendering, with the exception of the activities of 'cleanfluencer' Mrs. Hinch. The link between domestic commodities and our longing for intimacy is effectively depicted using a combination of historical research, cultural references and family stories. Plants and flowers are used throughout to illustrate specific arguments and to serve as a symbol of a different, and better, life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bajo tribe is a tribe that lives on the coast or islands. This is related to their livelihood, namely fishermen. Even though most already occupy land, fishermen still choose land close to the beach. The research aims to discover the essential things in their lives as a process of adaptation to the residential environment. The method used is naturalistic qualitative research by selecting several samples of residential houses on land and those that still choose land above water as cases to be analyzed. Even though there have been changes in occupying residential land, the Bajo tribe still has several adjustments regarding the placement of their homes, which are incredibly close to water or the coast. Residential houses on coastal land still have a back room facing the sea as the main room and are shaped like a house on stilts, while the front faces the road as a space for social interaction. Residential houses that occupy land and highways are the primary orientation and areas for social interaction. Although there is still a back room, it is not the main room. The shape of the building has changed both in structure and building materials. Almost all buildings on the land are permanent, consisting of several rooms, functioning as a bedroom, living room, etc.. In contrast, houses that occupy water land still use wood, bamboo, and woven sago leaf roofs and only have a onebedroom family room equipped with a back terrace. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this study was to document the milking efficiency of a sample of Irish dairy farms and to understand the effects of (1) seasonality, (2) management practices, (3) parlor infrastructure, and (4) parlor automations on milking efficiency metrics. A novel methodology based on empirical data from video cameras, infrastructure surveys, and milk yield data allowed for the accurate computation of milking efficiency metrics and quantification of the effects of seasonality, number of operators, and parlor automations on milking efficiency across 2 parlor types. The data for this study were collected over 2 periods: period 1 (July 28, 2020, to October 23, 2020, peak-late production) and period 2 (April 12, 2021, to May 19, 2021, early-peak production) from a sample of 16 herringbone and 10 rotary commercial Irish dairy farms. Milking efficiency was evaluated on each farm using 3 key performance indicators: (1) cows milked per hour (cows/h), (2) cows milked per operator per hour (cows/h per operator), and (3) liters of milk harvested per hour (L/h). Milking efficiency key performance indicators were calculated using "total process time," defined as the time between the first cow entering the holding yard and the end of the cleaning process. Average herd sizes for herringbone and rotary farms were 180 and 425 cows, respectively. Average system sizes for herringbone and rotary farms were 20 and 50 clusters, respectively. For herringbone farms, the average milking efficiency was 94 cows/h, 73 cows/h per operator, and 1,012 L/h, whereas rotary farms achieved an average milking efficiency of 170 cows/h, 132 cows/h per operator, and 1,534 L/h. Parlor size was strongly correlated with milking efficiency (cows/h) for herringbone parlors (0.91) but was only moderately correlated for rotary parlors (0.50). Hence, we documented the effect of parlor size on milking efficiency is relative to parlor type. Cluster utilization values on herringbone farms were 5 cows/cluster per h, 4 cows/cluster per operator per h, and 51 L/cluster per h, which were 67%, 33%, and 65% greater than rotary farms, respectively. We found for both herringbone and rotary farms hourly cow throughput (cows/h, cows/h per operator) were greatest during period 1 and that the volume of milk harvested per hour (L/h) was greatest for period 2. Thus, we documented an inverse seasonal relationship between hourly rates of cows milked and milk harvested. We observed that for herringbone farms, milking efficiency (cows/h, L/h) had a strong positive correlation (0.75, 0.74) with the levels of automation use. However, the minimal variation in automations used among rotary farms made it difficult to evaluate their effect on milking efficiency. Similarly, we found that the effect of automations on milking efficiency was dependent on parlor type. On average, a second operator at milking for both herringbone (H) and rotary (R) farms increased values for cows/h (+19%, H; +34%, R) and L/h (+21%, H; +12%, R) but lowered values for cows/h per operator (−35%, H; −12%, R). The holistic methodology applied in this study allowed us to add novel data to the literature by quantifying the effects of seasonality, the number of operators present at milking, and parlor automation use on milking efficiency across 2 parlor types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A review of the most important concepts of the last 100 years on the topic of fascia and its fundamental importance to tissue and organ structure and function is provided as a basis for the author's commentary on the self-organizing nature of fascia. Implications for clinical applications in medicine, in both pathophysiology and the treatment of disease, follow from these anatomic insights. Organizing principles of nature put forth by D'Arcy Thompson, Buckminster Fuller, Benoit Mandelbrot, and Adrian Bejan set the stage for understanding tissue and fascial form. The author presents videos from the operating room of living anatomy illustrating the concept of a basic fascia segment, which differentiates according to need in the various locations of the body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cultural geography has a long and fruitful tradition of working at the intersections between geography and performance art: in this piece we build upon this by considering how artistic practice can shed light on the housing crisis via a focus on quotidian practices of housing design. Here, we focus on Anne Tallentire's exhibition Material Distance, which took place in 2022–23 at the John Hansard Gallery, Southampton, UK. A conceptual artist working with moving image, installation, performance and photography, Tallentire's work has frequently addressed issues of spatial cognition, homemaking and transience. Material Distance extends this interest by foregrounding issues of housing size, adopting the abstract forms of representation – floorplans, measurements, technical drawings – which professionals use for determining the material and physical requirements of domestic inhabitation. Contrasting abstract and lived experiences of home, and comparing housing constructed on post-war council estates with some of the smaller homes recently converted from industrial or retail premises, Tallentire's work invites us to develop a critical awareness of dimensionality through an embodied encounter with art that is relational, performative and experiential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Udder edema (UE) is a metabolic disorder that most commonly occurs around the transition period. However, gaps exist in our knowledge about its effects on parlor behavior. The aim of this study was to examine the prevalence and effects of UE on behavior in the milking parlor during udder preparation and active milking from 2 to 9 days in milk in first- (FL) and second-lactation (SL) Holstein dairy cattle. Each cow (n = 375) was observed once and monitored from the point of first contact during udder preparation through the first 5 min of active milking. Behavior measurements include step, kick, and kicking off the milking unit. Cows were determined to have UE when the rear udder medial suspensory ligament lost definition and was softened due to the presence of interstitial fluid. In this study, 237 out of 247 (95.6%) FL cows and 104 of 128 (81.3%) SL cows presented with UE. First-lactation cows with UE had a higher step rate (3.97 steps/session) when in contact during udder preparation and attachment (2.80 steps/session), and kick rate during milking (2.68 kicks/milking session) compared with SL cows with UE (2.37 steps/session, 1.25 steps/session, 1.24 kicks/milking session). Those FL cows with UE had a lower step rate during milking (6.04 steps/milking session) compared with FL cows without UE (7.20 steps/milking session). The FL cows with UE had a higher average count of kicking off the milking unit (μ = 0.220 kick-offs) than SL cows with UE (μ = 0.029 kick-offs) and FL cows without UE (μ = 0.091 kick-offs). The results indicate that UE is prevalent among dairy cattle, and the disorder has effects on behaviors presented in the milking parlor. Reducing UE has the potential to decrease step and kick behaviors to improve welfare of transition cows and reduce risk to dairy caretakers in the milking parlor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nitrous acid (HONO) is an emerging indoor pollutant that can exert adverse health effects. The chemical production of indoor HONO has been attributed to NO2 heterogeneous reactions, and the source strength has been extensively evaluated via laboratory and model simulation studies. Photolysis of surface nitrate has recently been proposed as an indoor HONO source based on correlation analysis between indoor HONO accumulation and visible light radiation. However, neither experimental validation of the proposed mechanism nor source strength characterization is currently available. In this work, we designed an outdoor photochemical chamber (OPC) to simulate indoor HONO accumulation and established an indoor photochemical model (ICM) to calculate the indoor HONO budget. Indoor HONO accumulation revealed a distinct diel variation with a daytime maximum. Only with this indoor HONO source, the ICM reproduced the indoor HONO budget determined in the OPC. The enhanced reactive cross section of surface nitrate in visible light accounted for the major portion of the HONO source budget (77.2%) and the distinct diel variation. Success with the ICM encouraged us to simulate the HONO budget in real indoor environments. The calculated HONO production rates from surface nitrate photolysis at noon ranged from 1.4 to 4.1 ppbv h-1 under different indoor scenarios. On a daily average, this indoor HONO source contributed 42.4–52.7% to the total chemical sources in the living room but only contributed 4.7% to that in the kitchen, where NO2 heterogeneous reactions dominated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Simple Summary: In barns that use milking parlors, cows walk from their pens to the milking area at least twice a day. A question can be raised: In what position are the cows at the moment of opening the exit gate in the pen, before going to the milking parlor? Is it a standing or lying position? When the cow is lying down, she must stop this activity. The forced break from lying can be considered in terms of cow welfare. The study compared the number of cows lying down when the exit gates opened in four pens over a period of 26 days. A greater number of lying cows were found before leaving for morning milking compared to afternoon milking. More cows were lying on the stalls with a lower level of sand compared to a higher level of sand. For comparisons between animals, an index of forced standing up of cows has been proposed. The results of the research may be an inspiration to identify solutions that will reduce the forceful getting up of cows. Such solutions include milking cows with a voluntary milking system instead of a milking parlor. Equipping a farm with a milking parlor requires moving groups of cows from their pens to the part of the barn where milking takes place. The task of moving cows, carried out two or three times each day, shows links to the lying area of the barn. When the cows are taken from the pen to the milking parlor, some of them may be lying down, and this lying down must be interrupted. The forced standing up of cows can be considered in terms of their welfare. The aim of the study was to examine the number of cows lying in the stalls at the time of opening the exit gates in the pens in order to take the cows to the milking parlor. The study covered four pens, each with 12 cows. The behavior of the cows in the pens before morning and afternoon milking was recorded over 26 days. In the analysis, the dependent variable was the number of lying cows, and the independent variables were the time of milking and the level of sand in the lying stalls. The results of the study showed the significance of differences in the number of lying cows for stalls with a low and high level of sand, both in the case of morning and afternoon milking. Differences in the number of lying cows were also found when comparing the time before morning and afternoon milking. To compare the tendency of individual cows to lie down before going to milking, an index of forced standing up was proposed. The research conducted showed differences in the behavior of cows before leaving the pen to the milking parlor. The stage to reduce the forced standing up of cows is to equip the farm with an automatic milking system (AMS) instead of using a milking parlor. In barns with AMS, cows have full freedom to get up and approach the milking stall. The results of the observations are thus an additional argument confirming the benefits of using an automatic milking system, considered in terms of the welfare of dairy cows, regarding their lying down and getting up. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) is a primary fuel in rural residence. LPG burning can generate detrimental air pollutants, e.g. formaldehyde (HCHO) and nitrogen dioxide (NO 2), posing health hazard to human beings and affecting atmospheric environment. However, emission characteristics of HCHO and NO 2 from LPG combustion remains unclear. To address this issue, this study investigated emission rate and emission factor of formaldehyde and NO 2 by field measurements in nine Chinese kitchens. Results showed that LPG combustion rate in this study varied in 185 mg/min - 4477 mg/min. Given this combustion rate, emission rates of formaldehyde and NO 2 ranged from 0.003 mg/min to 0.460 mg/min (median: 0.125 mg/min) and 0.004 mg/min to 0.746 mg/min (median: 0.139 mg/min), respectively. Accordingly, emission factor of formaldehyde and NO 2 were in a range of 1.65–1064 mg/kg (median: 151 mg/kg) and 1.84–611 mg/kg (median: 111 mg/kg), respectively. As LPG flow increased, emission factor of formaldehyde and NO 2 decreased significantly (p < 0.05). For typical use in residences, annual emissions of formaldehyde and NO 2 from household LPG combustion were estimated up to 3200 ± 2775 tons and 2400 ± 1953 tons in China, respectively. Formaldehyde and NO 2 dispersed quickly from kitchen to an adjacent living room when kitchen door was open. The range hood exhaust can substantially remove formaldehyde (decrease by 58%) and NO 2 (decrease by 57%) when window is open and kitchen door is closed. This study provides baseline information on pollutant emissions from LPG combustion along with CO 2 , and also reveals that building electrification can have both health and climate yields. [Display omitted] [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our homes are our unwritten autobiographies, the places to which we are most emotionally attached. As such, our houses should be as unique as we are, satisfying our deepest desires and enriching our lives in our specific time and place. The purpose of this essay was to determine what factors, both physical and emotional, make it possible to design such unique houses for ourselves. For an architect-designed home, what information must be discovered and revealed to the architect to achieve this goal? The author discusses the process he employed over 40 years of designing houses that their owners loved and cherished, beginning with having clients remember and analyze their favorite childhood places. He suggests that "only a detailed, intimate, and uniquely specific description will tender a unique house," and that "the most valuable guide to what makes you comfortable" – more than photos, magazine clippings, or thousands of links to shelter websites – is the memory of that special childhood place. Determining what made that place so special, he concludes, is the beginning of our journey toward a new home that is as unique as we are. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]