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Living walls (LW) are vertical greening systems that are becoming popular due to their multiple social and environmental benefits. When LW are installed indoors, a lightening system is often required to ensure an appropriate plant development. This work assesses the performance of three artificial lighting systems on six indoor LW [0.7 m (wide) x 0.7 m (high)] placed at two distances from the light source. The plant species selected for the tests were Soleirolia soleirolii and Spathiphyllum wallisii, which are frequently used in indoor LW. Three different lamps were used in the experiment: incandescent (IL), fluorescent (FL) and metal halide (MHL) lamps, all of them with an input electric power of ≈250 W. Differences in plant growth were only observed when the LW were close to the light source (about 1 m) but not at greater distances (≈1.5 m). IL had the poorest performance. Despite the lower photosynthetic photon flux density efficiency of FL compared with MHL, FL light enabled plants placed in the upper LW (closer to light source) reached similar size to those grown under MHL. Plant quality attributes were generally not affected by light type or the distance to light source. IL and FL generated higher total water losses (i.e. transpiration plus evaporation) than MHL on a LW basis. When expressed per unit of LW area covered by vegetation, FL and MHL reduced water consumption by 34% and 56%, respectively, as compared to IL. Overall, our results indicate that both FL and MHL outperform IL and have a similar ornamental performance, whereas MHL are more advantageous than FL in terms of water consumption and annual cost. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Terrariums are little gardens. The plants grow in covered containers. It's fun to make your own! The container can be glass or plastic and needs a lid. Put rocks or [...]

Terrariums have decorated the shelves and counters of biology offices and classrooms for centuries. Living organisms inspire students and teachers alike. These wonderful ecosystems allow for both experimentation and observation of living systems. Here, I outline a new approach to building classroom terrariums. Historically, terrariums have been made using rocks, gravel, soil, wood, leaves, and organic props. This process often creates an immovable terrarium that weighs several hundred pounds. Although this approach will continue to produce beautiful terrariums, new technology has given us the opportunity to create more intricate terrariums that are a fraction of the weight and, therefore, mobile. The step-by-step protocol given here will allow biology professionals with little experience building terrariums an opportunity to explore this rewarding practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among 65 existing historic squares in Zagreb, 25 have been selected for this analysis. They were formed until 1918 in the areas of Upper town, Kaptol, Central city area and some suburban villages. Based on the clearly defined selection criteria and methodology, this paper considers the origin and historical stratification of the squares according to the periods of their formation as well as their comparable urban features (their site, topography, size and area, forms and proportions, functional and traffic characteristics, equipment, vegetation, landscaping, architectural accents etc.) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to investigate office users' perceptions of their working environment in relation to the addition of plants. Design/methodology/approach - Office users' perceptions were examined using a survey, administered to an experimental group and a control group before and after the installation of plants. The results were analysed to determine any statistically significant differences between the two groups and between the pre- and post-test surveys for the experimental group. Absence data were analysed to establish any changes in absence rates. Findings - Significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups for the work environment contributing to pressure, health concerns, morale and preference for plants. There were also perceived improvements in productivity, pressure, privacy and comfort although these were non-significant. Sickness absence reduced substantially in the area with plants and increased slightly in the control area. Research limitations/implications - It would be useful to extend this research over a longer time frame and in a greater range of buildings to validate the results. Practical implications - By providing well-designed workplaces, including living plants, organizations can potentially improve employee perceptions, leading to performance gains and reduced absence. This paper suggests that significant savings can be achieved in comparison to the cost of plants. Originality/value - The role of indoor nature has received relatively little attention compared to the number of studies on outdoor nature. Additionally, this paper applies the research to a real working environment as opposed to experimental designs, which have formed the majority of previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, it is evaluated the meteorological specialties of the Muğla Region that have been carried out widely greenhouse in this region, according to the greenhouse production. In this context, it is determined the monthly climate requirements like heating and ventilation for sample plastic and glass greenhouses with 1000 m² ground area that use frequently in the region. According to the results, it is determined that there is a necessity for heating in the months of the January, February, March, November and December in the Muğla province and Yatağan district those have high altitude and in the months of the January, February and December for the other districts. It is needed for heating in the January and February months in the Bodrum district that have a big advantage for heating among the other districts in the region. The maximum heat necessity (191.7 kWh) is seen at the Muğla province for plastic covered greenhouse in January and February and the minimum heat necessity (91.6 kWh) is seen at the Marmaris district for glasshouses in December. The plastic covered greenhouses need more heat according to the glasshouses. Similarly, it is understood that natural ventilation is sufficient in the Muğla province and it is needed for an active cooling from the first week of the June to the middle of the August in the other districts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: How might the fact that western people now spend so much of their time indoors impact upon techniques for studying urban greenspace experience? This paper takes this question as its starting point before substantiating one possible answer. It does so by using qualitative methods to examine the everyday practices of city professionals in London and what they tell us about the likelihood that this group will ever venture out into the various parks and gardens found around their offices. Many studies have considered which physical arrangements of city greenspace seem to deliver the greatest amounts of human benefit. Yet this kind of endeavour gives us only one part of the puzzle and contextual studies with those now generally found indoors have something important to add. It is with this in mind that the paper discusses how one sample of office workers quite easily forgot about these spaces, how certain social injunctions both pushed them outside and sealed them indoors, and why it sometimes made good sense for them to avoid any areas of local outdoor vegetation during the day. In so doing it highlights contextual dynamics that seem set to make significant impacts on the future of urban environmental experience and offers some novel suggestions about how best to promote positive greenspace relations in cities today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the architecture and implementation of a distributed autonomous gardening system with applications in urban/indoor precision agriculture. The garden is a mesh network of robots and plants. The gardening robots are mobile manipulators with an eye-in-hand camera. They are capable of locating plants in the garden, watering them, and locating and grasping fruit. The plants are potted cherry tomatoes enhanced with sensors and computation to monitor their well-being (e.g. soil humidity, state of fruits) and with networking to communicate servicing requests to the robots. By embedding sensing, computation, and communication into the pots, task allocation in the system is de-centrally coordinated, which makes the system scalable and robust against the failure of a centralized agent. We describe the architecture of this system and present experimental results for navigation, object recognition, and manipulation as well as challenges that lie ahead toward autonomous precision agriculture with multi-robot teams. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses indoor gardening in the nineteenth century, focusing particularly on how the middle class in Belgium used plants in interior spaces and urban settings. The author considers social trends which touted the benefits of individual scientific studies and specimen collecting; the use of conservatories and rooftop greenhouses; the development of plant containers suitable for a range of plants, especially bulbs; and the extension of interior gardens into streetscapes through the use of container gardening. The author also discusses private and public spaces; popular European culture and fashion trends; and botanical societies and exhibitions.

Objective A pilot study was performed to examine the efficacy of indoor gardening on sleep, agitation and cognition of dementia patients. Method Twenty-three institutionalized dementia patients who had sleep disturbance and/or agitation participated in a 5-week study protocol of 1 week of baseline and 4 weeks of treatment. The study design was a one group repeated measures study. For the first and fifth week of the study period, sleep patterns, agitation, and cognition were evaluated using a sleep diary, Modified Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory and revised Hasegawa Dementia Scale respectively. Results Significant improvement in wake after sleep onset, nap, nocturnal sleep time, and nocturnal sleep efficiency was identified. On the contrary sleep onset time, wake-up time, total sleep time did not change after indoor gardening. Agitation and cognition score was significantly improved. Conclusion Indoor gardening was found to be effective for sleep, agitation, and cognition of dementia patients. Randomized controlled studies of larger sample size are needed to confirm treatment effect. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From 2002 to 2004, wilted plants of different species of rocket ( Eruca vesicaria and Diplotaxis spp.) were found for the first time in Europe, in greenhouse cultivations in Piedmont and Lombardy, northern Italy. The causal agent of the disease was found to be Fusarium oxysporum. Vegetative compatibility analysis was carried out on 46 isolates of the fungus, 41 of them obtained from wilted rocket ( E. vesicaria and D. tenuifolia) and five reference strains, in order to increase the knowledge on the causal agent of recent epidemics of Fusarium wilt on rocket in Italy. The analysis showed the presence of two vegetative compatibility groups (VCGs) (VCG 0101 and VCG 0220) pathogenic on both kinds of rocket. The two VCG populations, which were classified as formae speciales conglutinans and raphani, respectively, are spread in the area of epidemics but are not related to the host species from which they were isolated ( D. tenuifolia or E. vesicaria). This finding shows the heterogeneity of the causal agent of Fusarium wilt on rocket in Italy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At Cornell University a continuous-mode greenhouse pilot-plant is producing lettuce at a constant rate throughout the year. Plants of all ages, floating on nutrient solution, are present in the greenhouse at any time. They move from the starting point to the harvest point in 24 days, all under the same environmental conditions, repeated day after day throughout the year. The key to the success of such an operation is a constant daily light integral, which can be achieved only through shading and supplemental lighting. Since the potential loss of yield from insufficient lighting (in winter) and the damage from leaf tip burn (LTB) from excessive light (in summer) are high, a rather tight light control is required, which is currently achieved with a rule-based strategy labelled C. A new strategy N, which tracks a reference light trajectory, is now introduced and compared, via simulation, with strategy C, as well as with a reference strategy R, which assumes the availability of a perfect 1-day-ahead forecast of total daily solar radiation. The results show that all strategies are rather robust to variation among years and among locations (within the US). Strategy N out-performs strategy C on average by about 7$m−2 yr−1 and does almost as well as strategy R (1$m−2 yr−1 difference). All strategies utilise at least some of the economic information contained in the performance criterion, with strategy N more than the others. The application of strategy N to sizing of the control equipment and to systems with insufficient equipment capacity, is demonstrated. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study examined the effects of indoor gardening on socialization, activities of daily living (ADLs), and perceptions of loneliness in elderly nursing home residents. A total of 66 residents from two nursing homes participated in this two-phase study. In phase one, experimental group 1 participated once a week for 5 weeks in gardening activities while a control group received a 20-minute visit. While no significant differences were found between groups in socialization or perceptions of loneliness, there were significant pretest-posttest differences within groups on loneliness and guidance, reassurance of worth, social integration, and reliable alliance. The results also demonstrated gardening interventions had a significant effect on three ADLs (transfer, eating, and toileting). Phase two examined differences in the effects of a 5-week versus a 2-week intervention program. Although no significant within-group differences were noted in socialization, loneliness, or ADLs, the 5-week program was more effective in increasing socialization and physical functioning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Radon (Rn222) levels in an indoor atmosphere of a multi-storey building at Mumbai have been measured for one year covering all the four seasons. Monitoring was carried out using the time-integrated passive detector technique, using Kodak-115 type Solid State Nuclear Track Detector (SSNTD) films of 2.5×2.5 cm size. Measured indoor radon levels showed a decreasing trend with height with concentration ranging from 41 Bq m-3 at ground floor level to 15 Bq m-3 at 19th floor level. Using the dose conversion factors, the inhalation dose due to breathing of radon gas is estimated to be 1.03 mSv y-1 at the ground floor to 0.38 mSv y−1 at the 19th floor level. Measured indoor radon concentrations on each floor were compared with the computed values using a mathematical model. The agreement between measured values and calculated values of indoor concentrations at different floors was very good within the limitations of various field parameter values. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]