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Studies have suggested the benefits of biophilic designs on people’s wellbeing, however, none has investigated the effects of biophilic wallpaper on people’s mental wellbeing, especially in school settings. This project aimed to fill this research gap by investigating the following research question, how does biophilic wallpaper impact university students’ positive affect and negative affect? We hypothesized that staying in a classroom with biophilic wallpaper will increase students’ positive affect and decrease their negative affect, and students will prefer biophilic wallpaper over non-biophilic wallpaper and a plain wall. We conducted an online experiment which randomly assigned the participants to view a picture of a classroom with either biophilic wallpaper, non-biophilic wallpaper, or a plain wall. Then, we asked them to imagine being in the classroom and indicate their likings for the picture and their current positive and negative affect. We obtained 246 valid responses and performed an ANOVA analysis. Results showed that the participants have a stronger preference towards the biophilic wallpaper than towards the non-biophilic wallpaper and the plain wall; they have less negative affect in the biophilic condition than in other two conditions. However, the results were not statistically significant, so we rejected our hypotheses. Disclaimer: “UBC SEEDS provides students with the opportunity to share the findings of their studies, as well as their opinions, conclusions and recommendations with the UBC community. The reader should bear in mind that this is a student project/report and is not an official document of UBC. Furthermore readers should bear in mind that these reports may not reflect the current status of activities at UBC. We urge you to contact the research persons mentioned in a report or the SEEDS Coordinator about the current status of the subject matter of a project/report.”

In this paper, the control operation circuit system was designed to simulate and test the operation of the elevator in Multisim 13.0 software environment. The control operation circuit system was designed with 5 functional units: trigger latch circuit unit, code comparison circuit unit, count display circuit unit, feedback circuit unit, and delay circuit unit. Trigger latch circuit unit was used to generate, display and latch the request of elevator in different floors. Code comparison circuit unit was used to compare the current working floor number and the requested floor number. Count display circuit unit was used to display working status of current floor number. Feedback circuit unit was used to quench floor number indicator light when the elevator reaches the requested destination floor. Delay circuit unit was used to extend the period of stay on certain floor for the safety performance of the elevator. The result of simulation showed that the control operation circuit system worked well to realize the function needed.

Aiming at the problem of high risk of manual hanging and removing safety ropes when tower overhauling workers are working at high altitude, we have designed a V-shaped angle steel symmetrical clamping mechanism which is mainly composed of clamping claw. The clamping and releasing of the angle steel of the clamping claw was realized by the cooperation of the screw elevator and the sliding guide rail. The abducting mechanism vertically arranged with the clamping arm can change the position of the clamping claw by adjusting the display distance, and the ejecting mechanism can ensure that the robot body is always parallel to the angle steel. The static model was established, and the static analysis and simulation of the clamping mechanism were carried out. Finally, the prototype was tested, and the experimental results verified the feasibility of the clamping mechanism design

Soil respiration (Rs) of forests plays an important role in the global carbon cycle. However, patchy remnant forests and their Rs characteristics are rarely studied. In this study, the diurnal and seasonal dynamics of the Rs of three patchy remnant forests and two urban green landscapes were determined using a portable soil carbon flux automatic analyzer in the urban fringe of Tianjin, China. Then, the effects of abiotic and biotic factors on the Rs of the patchy remnant forests and urban green landscapes were evaluated. Results showed that the patchy remnant forests had higher Rs than the urban green landscapes throughout the year. However, the Rs responses of the patchy remnant forests to soil temperature (ST) were more modest than those of the urban green landscapes, which indicated the higher resistant capacity to global warming of the former than the latter. In contrast to the pair traits of Rs-ST, fit lines of Rs and soil water content (SWC) showed an opposite trend in the growing and dormant periods. In the growing season, the slopes of Rs-SWC were similar between the patchy remnant forests and the urban green landscapes. The higher y-intercept of the patchy remnant forests indicated their larger water use efficiency than the urban green landscapes. In the dormant period, the higher slope of Rs-SWC for the patchy remnant forests suggested they were more sensitive to changes in SWC than the urban green landscapes. Meanwhile, the linear slopes of Rs and fine root biomass (FRB) were lower in the patchy remnant forests than in the urban green landscapes, which demonstrated that the Rs of the patchy remnant forests increased gently with increasing FRB. In addition, Rs was positively correlated with the amounts of bacteria and actinomycetes but negatively correlated with fungi. Results of canonical correlation analysis showed that the first two driving factors on the Rs of the patchy remnant forests were ST and FRB.