Beautification of Chinese Architectural Images in the New Media Age

From the perspective of communication science,the communication of architectural images in the new media age has an obvious beautifying trend.Due to the differences in politics,economics,and cultural environment between China and western countries,the beautification of architectural images in China is a unique phenomenon.This study classifies the beautification of Chinese architectural images into different types in terms of image communication:audience orientation,time orientation,space orientation,and cultural orientation.By investigating and analyzing relevant cases,this study explores the beautification of Chinese architectural images in the new media age and puts forward thoughts and evaluation,aiming to better comprehend the relationship between beautification and architectural communication.

The ARQUIGRAFIA project: A Web Collaborative for Review Only Environment for Architecture and Urban Heritage Image

Purpose:This paper presents the ARQUIGRAFIA project,an open,public and nonprofit,continuous growth web collaborative environment dedicated to Brazilian architectural photographic images.Design/methodology/approach:The ARQUIGRAFIA project promotes the active and collaborative participation among its institutional users(GLAMs,NGOs,laboratories and research groups)and private users(students,professionals,professors,researchers),both can create an account and share their digitized iconographic collections in the same Web environment by uploading their files,indexing,georeferencing and assigning a Creative Commons license.Findings:The development of users interactions by means of semantic differentials impressions recording on visible plastic-spatial aspects of the architectures in synthetic infographics,as well as by the retrieval of images through an advanced system search based on those impressions parameters.By gamification means,the system often invites users to review images’in order to improve images’data accuracy.The pilot project named Open Air Museum that allows users to add audio descriptions to images in situ.An interface for users’digital curatorship will be soon available.Research limitations:The ARQUIGRAFIA’s multidisciplinary team gathering professorsresearchers,graduate and undergraduate students from the Architecture and Urbanism,Design,Information Science,Computer Science faculties of the University of S?o Paulo,demands continuous financial resources for grants,for contracting third party services,for the participation in scientific events in Brazil and abroad,and for equipment.Since 2016,significant budget cuts in the University of S?o Paulo own research funds and in Brazilian federal scientific agencies can compromise the continuity of this project.Practical implications:The open source template called+GRAFIA that can freely help other areas of knowledge to build their own visual Web collaborative environments.Originality/value:The collaborative nature of the ARQUIGRAFIA distinguishes it from institutional image databases on the internet,precisely because it involves a heterogeneous network of collaborators.

How can we harness quantitative genetic variation in crop root systems for agricultural improvement?

Root systems are a black box obscuring a comprehensive understanding of plant function,from the ecosystem scale down to the individual. In particular,a lack of knowledge about the genetic mechanisms and environmental effects that condition root system growth hinders our ability to develop the next generation of crop plants for improved agricultural productivity and sustainability. We discuss how the methods and metrics we use to quantify root systems can affect our ability to understand them,how we can bridge knowledge gaps and accelerate the derivation of structurefunction relationships for roots,and why a detailed mechanistic understanding of root growth and function will be important for future agricultural gains.