Improving health in the military and beyond using salutogenic design

Purpose Service members of the US Department of Defense (DoD) have alarmingly high rates of depression, anxiety, probable stress disorders and suicidality, all of which are negative health conditions exacerbated by various external stressors. High-stress work conditions – to include shift work, hazardous territories, high-stakes mission sets and generally disconnected sites – require a work environment that facilitates, rather than inhibits, stress reduction and mental well-being. This paper aims to present “salutogenic design” as an innovative approach: Salutogenic design offers demonstrated architectural solutions that improve health and well-being. Design/methodology/approach This paper describes salutogenic design strategies beginning with the need for such an approach, the call to action to implement strategic and tactical solutions and the challenges and financial impacts of such a broad and innovative strategy to improve workplace health, well-being and performance in the DoD and beyond. Examples of these strategies, via biophilic design solutions, are presented in the central Table 1 as an easy-to-reference tool and supported by the voluminous literature as referenced, in part, through this research paper. Findings Salutogenic design strategies offer innovative, financially viable solutions to help mitigate stress and improve workforce well-being while maintaining the highest level of building security requirements in access-controlled spaces and disconnected sites, such as military installations and government compounds. Research limitations/implications Issues of mental and physical health are complex and multi-faceted, and they require complex and multi-faceted solutions. Salutogenic design is presented as one facet of that solution: a tangible solution to an often-intangible issue. Further, as a novel approach to address a critical DoD issue, Table 1 bridges the common gap between high-concept design theory and practical construction-application solutions, with positive value to the health, performance, quality-of-life and well-being of service members. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper is the first to approach the DoD’s imperative to reduce service members’ mental stress with “salutogenic design.”

Signs and Emotions as the Experience of the Urban Explorer

Although we have the impression that we understand the urban texture in which we live, the city still holds surprises in the way it communicates everyday aspects, situations, and cultural history.The experience of the urban explorer, that flâneur/stroller mentioned by Guy Debord (1955) and the Situationist school, was until recently only a literary experience. The emotion of discovering the unusual in the urban daily life was communicated only in the form of textual narratives (Sinclair, 1997). Recently the psychogeographical approach to the city has become again a topic of interest. Although contemporary design transposed the behavioral codes of urban life into signs, it did not propose emoticons for the phenomenological experience of one who experiences the city. The original purpose of this paper is to translate the phenomenological experience of the urban explorer into infographics (which translates complex concepts into signs with condensed meaning) and to quantify and communicate emotionally and visually, the experience of the "invisible" [out of sight] cultural details to the hurried passerby. This paper will discuss the phenomenological (psychogeographical) experience of the city transferred into visual signs will be presented. The authors insist on the communicative value of infographics in making visible the hidden beauty of the city, the historical and esthetical details that are not seen by the passersby on the street, proposing a new urban visual language accompanied by visual design theory and cultural history explanations.

Change by Activism: Insurgency, Autonomy, and Political Activism in Potosí-Jerusalén, Bogotá, Colombia

Cities today face a context in which traditional politics and policies struggle to cope with increasing urbanisation rates and growing inequalities. Meanwhile, social movements and political activists are rising up and inhabiting urban spaces as sites of contestation. However, through their practices, urban activists do more than just occupy spaces; they are fundamental drivers of urban transformation as they constantly face—and contest—spatial manifestations of power. This article aims to contribute to ongoing discussions on the role of activism in the field of urban design, by engaging with two concepts coming from the Global South: <em>insurgency</em> and <em>autonomy</em>. Through a historical account of the building of the Potosí-Jerusalén neighbourhood in Bogotá in the 1980s, it illustrates how both concepts can provide new insight into urban change by activism. On the one hand, the concept of insurgency helps unpack a mode of bottom-up action that inaugurates political spaces of contestation with the state; autonomy, on the other hand, helps reveal the complex nature of political action and the visions of urban transformation it entails. Although they were developed at the margins of conventional design theory and practice, both concepts are instrumental in advancing our understanding of how cities are shaped by activist practices. Thus, this article is part of a broader effort to (re)locate political activism in discussions about urban transformation, and rethink activism as a form of urban design practice.

The Formal Modeling Of Engineering Design Information By Means Of An Axiomatic System

<div>There is mounting evidence in the current literature which suggests that our collective understanding of engineering design is insufficient to support the continued growth of the engineering endeavor. Design theory is the emergent research field that addresses this problem by seeking to improve our understanding of, and thus our ability to, design. The goal of this author's work is to demonstrate that formal techniques of logic can improve our understanding of design. Specifically, a formal system called the Hybrid Model (HM) is presented; this system is a set-theoretic description of engineering design information that is valid independent of (a) the processes that generate or manipulate the information and (b) the role of the human designer. Because of this, HM is universally applicable to the representation of design-specific information throughout all aspects of the engineering enterprise. The fundamental unit in HM is a design entity, which is defined as a unit of information relevant to a design task. The axioms of HM define the structure of design entities and the explicit means by which they may be rationally organized. HM provides (a) a basis for building taxonomies of design entities, (b) a generalized approach for making statements about design entities independent of how the entities are generated or used, and (c) a formal syntactic notation for the standardization of design entity specification. Furthermore, HM is used as the foundation of DESIGNER, an extension to the Scheme programming language, providing a prototype-based object-oriented system for the static modeling of design information. Objects in the DESIGNER language satisfy the axioms of HM while providing convenient programming mechanisms to increase usability and efficiency. Several design-specific examples demonstrate the applicability of DESIGNER, and thus of HM as well, to the accurate representation of design information. </div>

The geometric reason for the non-existence of a MOL(6)

The problem of Euler concerning the 36 officers, (Euler, in Leonardi Euleri Opera Ser I 7:291–392, 1782), was first solved by Tarry (Comptes rendus Ass Franc Sci Nat 1 (1900) 2:170–203, 1901). Short proofs for the non-existence were given in Betten (Unterricht 36:449–453, 1983), Beth et al. (Design Theory, Bibl. Inst. Mannheim, Wien, Zürich, 1985), Stinson (J Comb Theory A 36:373–376, 1984). This problem is equivalent to the existence of a MOL(6), i. e., a pair of mutually orthogonal latin squares of order 6. Therefore in Betten (Mitt Math Ges Hamburg 39:59–76, 2019; Res Math 76:9, 2021; Algebra Geom 62:815–821, 2021) the structure of a (hypothetical) MOL(6) was studied. Now we combine the old proofs and the new studies and filter out a simple way for the proof of non-existence. The aim is not only to give still other short proofs, but to analyse the problem and reveal the geometric reason for the non-existence of a MOL(6)- and the non-solvability of Euler’s problem.

The Formal Modeling Of Engineering Design Information By Means Of An Axiomatic System

<div>There is mounting evidence in the current literature which suggests that our collective understanding of engineering design is insufficient to support the continued growth of the engineering endeavor. Design theory is the emergent research field that addresses this problem by seeking to improve our understanding of, and thus our ability to, design. The goal of this author's work is to demonstrate that formal techniques of logic can improve our understanding of design. Specifically, a formal system called the Hybrid Model (HM) is presented; this system is a set-theoretic description of engineering design information that is valid independent of (a) the processes that generate or manipulate the information and (b) the role of the human designer. Because of this, HM is universally applicable to the representation of design-specific information throughout all aspects of the engineering enterprise. The fundamental unit in HM is a design entity, which is defined as a unit of information relevant to a design task. The axioms of HM define the structure of design entities and the explicit means by which they may be rationally organized. HM provides (a) a basis for building taxonomies of design entities, (b) a generalized approach for making statements about design entities independent of how the entities are generated or used, and (c) a formal syntactic notation for the standardization of design entity specification. Furthermore, HM is used as the foundation of DESIGNER, an extension to the Scheme programming language, providing a prototype-based object-oriented system for the static modeling of design information. Objects in the DESIGNER language satisfy the axioms of HM while providing convenient programming mechanisms to increase usability and efficiency. Several design-specific examples demonstrate the applicability of DESIGNER, and thus of HM as well, to the accurate representation of design information. </div>

Investigation of the Mechanical, Microstructure and 3D Fractal Analysis of Nanocalcite-Modified Environmentally Friendly and Sustainable Cementitious Composites

Unlike conventional concrete materials, Engineered Cementitious Composites (ECC) use a micromechanics-based design theory in the material design process. Recently, the use of nanoparticles in various concretes and mortars has increased. This study used nanocalcite to investigate the mechanical, microstructural fractal analysis of environmentally friendly nanocalcite-doped ECC (NCa-ECC). This paper investigated the effects of nanocalcite (NCa) with different contents (0.5, 1, and 1.5% by mass of binder) on the mechanical properties of engineered cementitious composites (ECC). For this purpose, compressive strength, ultrasonic pulse velocity (UPV), and flexural strength tests were conducted to investigate the mechanical properties of the ECC series. In addition, SEM analyses were carried out to investigate the microstructural properties of the ECC series. The content of nanocalcite improved the mechanical and microstructural properties of the nanocalcite-modified ECC series. In addition, the 1 NCa series (1% nanocalcite modified to the mass of the binder) had the best performance among the series used in this study.

Transferring Biophilic and Universal Design Theory to Practice With Learning From Green Buildings

The study aims to guide the assisted living facility (ALF) design, in which biophilic design, which is observed to have positive physiological, psychological, and sociological effects on humans, is observed, and the principle of universal design is accessible and designed for everyone. Since there is no place called a biophilic ALF, the study is supported by a nature-oriented design method called Green Building Rating Tools. Green building certificate systems are explored in terms of biophilic and universal design, and three of the certifications show credits linked to the theories researched. With these certificates, green building certified ALFs located in the same region are selected. With the methodology applied on the case studies of three ALFs that received these certificates, how and where biophilic and universal design patterns can be transferred from theory to practice has been examined. The study observed the extent of 14 biophilic design patterns in ALFs and tabulated how to find each pattern in these facilities according to the methods and places.

Research on cooperative optimization of multiphase pump impeller and diffuser based on adaptive refined response surface method

Multiphase pumps play an important role in the exploitation of natural gas hydrate. Compared with ordinary pumps, they can handle fluids with higher gas volume fraction (GVF). Therefore, it is important to improve the performance of the pump under high GVF. A model pump is designed based on the design theory of axial flow pump and centrifugal pump inducer. The hydraulic performance of the model pump is verified by numerical simulation and experiment. The Sparse Grid method is applied to the design of experiment (DOE), and three different adaptive refined response surface methods (RSM) are applied to the build the approximate model. Refinement points and verification points are used to improve and verify the precision of the response surface, respectively. The model with high precision and high computational efficiency is obtained through comparison and analysis. The multi-objective optimization of the optimal response surface model is carried out by MOGA (Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm) method. The pressure increment of the optimized model is increased by 38 kPa. The efficiency is significantly improved under large mass flow conditions. The hydraulic performance of the optimized model is compared with that of the basic model. And the reasons that affect the performance of the multiphase pump are analyzed.