scholarly journals Comparison of Quantitative Morphology of Layered and Arbitrary Patterns: Contrary to Visual Perception, Binary Arbitrary Patterns Are Layered from a Structural Point of View

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (14) ◽  
pp. 6300
Author(s):  
Igor Smolyar ◽  
Daniel Smolyar

Patterns found among both living systems, such as fish scales, bones, and tree rings, and non-living systems, such as terrestrial and extraterrestrial dunes, microstructures of alloys, and geological seismic profiles, are comprised of anisotropic layers of different thicknesses and lengths. These layered patterns form a record of internal and external factors that regulate pattern formation in their various systems, making it potentially possible to recognize events in the formation history of these systems. In our previous work, we developed an empirical model (EM) of anisotropic layered patterns using an N-partite graph, denoted as G(N), and a Boolean function to formalize the layer structure. The concept of isotropic and anisotropic layers was presented and described in terms of the G(N) and Boolean function. The central element of the present work is the justification that arbitrary binary patterns are made up of such layers. It has been shown that within the frame of the proposed model, it is the isotropic and anisotropic layers themselves that are the building blocks of binary layered and arbitrary patterns; pixels play no role. This is why the EM can be used to describe the morphological characteristics of such patterns. We present the parameters disorder of layer structure, disorder of layer size, and pattern complexity to describe the degree of deviation of the structure and size of an arbitrary anisotropic pattern being studied from the structure and size of a layered isotropic analog. Experiments with arbitrary patterns, such as regular geometric figures, convex and concave polygons, contour maps, the shape of island coastlines, river meanders, historic texts, and artistic drawings are presented to illustrate the spectrum of problems that it may be possible to solve by applying the EM. The differences and similarities between the proposed and existing morphological characteristics of patterns has been discussed, as well as the pros and cons of the suggested method.

Author(s):  
Ana Delgado ◽  
Silvio Funtowicz ◽  
Dorothy Dankel

As biology moves into the digital realm, new ways of representing, manipulating, and appropriating life are emerging. In this paper, the authors examine systems and synthetic biology and map imaginaries of the making of life. The authors present how they have worked with scientists in three different laboratories in Europe and the U.S. by exploring those imaginaries with them. Focusing on scientific images, methods, and scientific traditions through a number of dialogic sessions, three imaginaries became apparent: living systems as networks, life as building blocks, and living systems as circuits. By working in this way, the authors could explore how scientists imagine their relations with nature (i.e., in terms of ownership) and their role as scientist. Exploring imaginaries of the making of life can open plural and broadly oriented and normative debates on nature, society, technology, and their relations. This kind of dynamic, interactive, and reflexive societal talk is, from the authors’ point of view, a central condition for possible sustainable futures.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (19) ◽  
pp. 6935
Author(s):  
Osama Saber ◽  
Sajid Ali Ansari ◽  
Adil Alshoaibi

Development of electrochemical supercapacitor electrode is the best way to improve the performance and conductivity of the alone materials and support energy storage devices. In this work, cyanate anions have used as building blocks to build series of nanolayered materials based on Ti/Ni layered double hydroxides (LDHs). The structural and morphological characteristics of the prepared Ti/Ni LDHs were examined using different techniques. The electrochemical supercapacitive behavior of the prepared LDHs was observed in the three-assembly electrochemical cell. These results showed that the optimized ratio of the nickel and titanium plays an important role to enhance the electrochemical performance of the LDHs. The optimized Ti/Ni LDHs, which has the highest content of titanium, showed the highest specific capacitance (675 F/g) value. In this trend, this LDH also retain a high percentage of the cyclic retention after long cyclic charging-discharging process. The enhanced performance could be due to the double layer structure, enough interplanar distance between the layer, and large number of exposed active site within the double layer structure of the LDHs. Finally, although there are no reports for the electrochemical supercapacitive performance of Ti/Ni LDHs in the literature, it is interesting to produce a new candidate for energy storage applications.


Author(s):  
I. R. Khuzina ◽  
V. N. Komarov

The paper considers a point of view, based on the conception of the broad understanding of taxons. According to this point of view, rhyncholites of the subgenus Dentatobeccus and Microbeccus are accepted to be synonymous with the genus Rhynchoteuthis, and subgenus Romanovichella is considered to be synonymous with the genus Palaeoteuthis. The criteria, exercising influence on the different approaches to the classification of rhyncholites, have been analyzed (such as age and individual variability, sexual dimorphism, pathological and teratological features, degree of disintegration of material), underestimation of which can lead to inaccuracy. Divestment of the subgenuses Dentatobeccus, Microbeccus and Romanovichella, possessing very bright morphological characteristics, to have an independent status and denomination to their synonyms, has been noted to be unjustified. An artificial system (any suggested variant) with all its minuses is a single probable system for rhyncholites. The main criteria, minimizing its negative sides and proving the separation of the new taxon, is an available mass-scale material. The narrow understanding of the genus, used in sensible limits, has been underlined to simplify the problem of the passing the view about the genus to the other investigators and recognition of rhyncholites for the practical tasks.


1993 ◽  
Vol 39 (131) ◽  
pp. 10-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. F. Nye

AbstractThe pattern of horizontal strain rate in an ice sheet is discussed from a topological point of view. In a circularly symmetric ice sheet, the isotropic point for strain rate at its centre is degenerate and structurally unstable. On perturbation the degenerate point splits into two elementary isotropic points, each of which has the lemon pattern for the trajectories of principal strain rate. Contour maps of principal strain-rate values are presented which show the details of the splitting.


Author(s):  
Paul F. M. J. Verschure

This chapter introduces the “Capabilities” section of the Handbook of Living Machines. Where the previous section considered building blocks, we recognize that components or modules do not automatically make systems. Hence, in the remainder of this handbook, the emphasis is toward the capabilities of living systems and their emulation in artifacts. Capabilities often arise from the integration of multiple components and thus sensitize us to the need to develop a system-level perspective on living machines. Here we summarize and consider the 14 contributions in this section which cover perception, action, cognition, communication, and emotion, and the integration of these through cognitive architectures into systems that can emulate the full gamut of integrated behaviors seen in animals including, potentially, our own capacity for consciousness.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Esteban Gonzalez-Valencia ◽  
Ignacio Del Villar ◽  
Pedro Torres

AbstractWith the goal of ultimate control over the light propagation, photonic crystals currently represent the primary building blocks for novel nanophotonic devices. Bloch surface waves (BSWs) in periodic dielectric multilayer structures with a surface defect is a well-known phenomenon, which implies new opportunities for controlling the light propagation and has many applications in the physical and biological science. However, most of the reported structures based on BSWs require depositing a large number of alternating layers or exploiting a large refractive index (RI) contrast between the materials constituting the multilayer structure, thereby increasing the complexity and costs of manufacturing. The combination of fiber–optic-based platforms with nanotechnology is opening the opportunity for the development of high-performance photonic devices that enhance the light-matter interaction in a strong way compared to other optical platforms. Here, we report a BSW-supporting platform that uses geometrically modified commercial optical fibers such as D-shaped optical fibers, where a few-layer structure is deposited on its flat surface using metal oxides with a moderate difference in RI. In this novel fiber optic platform, BSWs are excited through the evanescent field of the core-guided fundamental mode, which indicates that the structure proposed here can be used as a sensing probe, along with other intrinsic properties of fiber optic sensors, as lightness, multiplexing capacity and easiness of integration in an optical network. As a demonstration, fiber optic BSW excitation is shown to be suitable for measuring RI variations. The designed structure is easy to manufacture and could be adapted to a wide range of applications in the fields of telecommunications, environment, health, and material characterization.


Author(s):  
Anni Lappela

Mountains and City as Contrary Spaces in the Prose of Alisa Ganieva I analyze Alisa Ganieva’s novel Prazdnichnaia gora (2012) and her novella Salam tebe, Dalgat! (2010) from a geocritical (Westphal, Tally) point of view. Ganieva was born in 1985 in Moscow, but she grew up in Dagestan, in North Caucasia. Since 2002, she has lived in Moscow. All Ganieva’s novels are set in present-day Dagestan, not only in the capital Makhachkala but also in the countryside.  I study the ways the two main spaces and main milieus, the mountains and the city, oppose each other in Prazdnichnaia gora. I also analyze how this opposition constructs the utopian and dystopian discourses of the novel. In this high/low opposition, the mountains appear as the utopian place of a better future, and the city in the lowlands is depicted as a dystopian place of the present-day life. The texts’ multilayered time is also part of my analysis, which follows Westphal’s idea of the stratigraphy of time. Furthermore, the mountains are associated with the traditional way of life and the Soviet past. In this way, the mountains have two kinds of roles in the texts. Nevertheless, the city is a central element of the postcolonial dystopian discourse of Prazdnichnaia gora. In my opinion, Ganieva’s texts problematize referentiality, one of the key concepts of geocriticism. Whilst the city tends to be very referential, the mountains escape the referential relationship to the “real” geographical space.


2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (12) ◽  
pp. 1361-1366
Author(s):  
Yurika Kimura ◽  
Tomomi Mizuyoshi ◽  
Eiko Hirabayashi ◽  
Keiko Ohno ◽  
Hitome Kobayashi

This chapter explores emerging technologies centered around cloud computing. From the technological point of view, cloud computing was born as a result of the emergence and the convergence of contemporary technologies. This chapter regards technological aspects of cloud. In the software area, Virtualization Technology and Web Services; in the hardware area, shared compute components (i.e., multicore processors); in networking, security, network virtualization, Virtual Private Network (VPN), virtual firewalls, and network overlay are the promising technologies for the future complex computing infrastructures. In this chapter, the authors review these technologies and describe how they contribute to the anatomy and the characteristics of cloud computing. These technologies constitute the building blocks of cloud computing technologies and infrastructures.


Author(s):  
Juan Manuel Adán-Coello

Service-oriented computing (SOC) is a new computing paradigm that uses services as building blocks to accelerate the development of distributed applications in heterogeneous computer environments. SOC promises a world of cooperating services where application components are combined with little effort into a network of loosely coupled services for creating flexible and dynamic business processes that can cover many organizations and computing platforms (Chesbrough & Spohrer, 2006; Papazoglou & Georgakopoulos, 2003). From a technical point of view, the efforts to offer services have focused on the development of standards and the creation of the infrastructure necessary to describe, discover, and access services using the Web. This type of service is usually called a Web service. The availability of an abundant number of Web services defines a platform for distributed computing in which information and services are supplied on demand, and new services can be created (composed) using available services. Nevertheless, the composition of Web services involves three fundamental problems (Sycara, Paolucci, Ankolekar, & Srinivasan, 2003): 1. To elaborate a plan that describes how Web services interact, how the functionally they offer can be integrated to provide a solution to the considered problem. 2. To discover Web services that accomplish the tasks required by the plan. 3. To manage the interaction of the chosen services. Problems 2 and 3 are of responsibility of the infrastructure that supports the composition of services, while the first problem is of responsibility of the (software) agents that use the infrastructure. The discovery and interaction of Web services poses two main challenges to the infrastructure: 1. How to represent Web services capabilities and how to recognize the similarities between service capabilities and the required functionalities. 2. How to specify the information a Web service requires and provides, the interaction protocol, and the low-level mechanisms required to service invocation.


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