Biological NanoArchitecture: Architecture in the Age of Biomaterials

2013 ◽  
Vol 671-674 ◽  
pp. 2174-2179
Author(s):  
Maged Elsamny

Biological NanoArchitecture is to build natural spaces that contribute to the biological-system and integrated with the surrounding environment, and as healthy as the womb for an embryo to grow. It should have a positive effect on the health of its occupants while enriching the ecosystem of the planet by consuming zero resources and producing zero waste. In this paper, I will try to introduce the myriad potentials of advanced technologies in the 21st century to architects and builders. Advances in Biotechnology and Nanotechnology will change the way we think, design and construct our buildings, and transform our inorganic buildings into synthetic organic structures that can behave like living species and merge with the biological cycle of the planet. This change of thinking can be achieved through adopting bionic systems in our buildings and mimicking nature the way it builds life forms. After 3.8 million years of evolution, it’s nature that does it best to adapt for survival, and the more our buildings look and function like natural systems, the more we are likely to find solutions to our contemporary global problems like overpopulation and climate change. This requires that we should look at nature as a source of learning and inspiration rather than a source of materials and energy.

Author(s):  
Martin Surbeck ◽  
Gottfried Hohmann

The nature of the relationships between males is a characteristic trait of many multi-male group living species with implications for the individuals. In our study population of bonobos, certain male dyads exhibit clear preferences for ranging in the same party and sitting in proximity. These preferences are not reflected in the frequency of aggression towards each other and only to some extent in their affiliative and socio-sexual behaviours. While bonobo males at LuiKotale clearly do not benefit from close relationships in the way chimpanzee males do (cooperative hunting, territorial patrol, mate competition), some relationships might result from close associations between their mothers. In some particular situations, these male relationships can be very important as in the case of an orphan adopted by his older maternal brother. La nature des relations entre mâles est un trait caractéristique de plusieurs groupes qui ont plusieurs mâles, avec des implications au niveau d’individus. Dans notre étude des populations de bonobos, certains dyades mâles montrent une préférence à aller dans le même groupe et s’asseoir proche l’un de l’autre. Cette préférence n’est pas reflétée dans la fréquence d’agression entre eux et est seulement lié, à degrés, à leur comportements socio-sexuels et d’appartenance. Tandis que les mâles bonobos à LuiKotale ne profitent pas de leur fortes relations comme les chimpanzés mâles (chasse coopérative, patrouille territoriale, compétition pour compagnon), ils peuvent aider leur partenaires à supporter le stress de la vie en groupe et peuvent en conséquence contribuer au bien-être des individus. Quelques proches associations entre les mâles peuvent provenir d’associations entre leurs mères. Dans quelques situations particulières, ces relations mâles prouvent leur importance comme dans le cas d’un orphelin adopté par son grand frère maternel.


RSC Advances ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 6958-6971
Author(s):  
Yaxian Tian ◽  
Zhaoju Tian ◽  
Yanrong Dong ◽  
Xiaohui Wang ◽  
Linsheng Zhan

This review focuses on the way how nanoparticles affect the structure and function of erythrocyte membranes, and is expected to pave the way for development of new nanodrugs.


Author(s):  
Kaitlyn Barton

Rapid advancements in radical life extension technologies contribute to humanity’s ever-changing world. The normalization of radical life extension technologies would signify that the present era in which biology and evolution act as dictators of human life and health would come to an end, thereby ushering in the age of the post-human. The purpose of this paper is to engage in a theological analysis of how and to what degree the ways in which humanity speaks about God could be changed or influenced if radical life extension becomes normative within society. . It is likely that this powerful technology would have a significant impact on many facets of culture, including the way in which humanity engages with religion, in particular Christianity. To accomplish this, the technology that could potentially support radical life extension, namely nanotechnology and cybernetic immortality, will be explained in terms of their relevance and function. Subsequently, the affects of radical life extension for human life will be addressed. Specifically, the implications of the partial or full eradication of human biological and psychological suffering and death through the use of cybernetic immortality and nanotechnology and will be considered. From there, the core theological concepts and narratives will be analyzed in the context of the potential actualization of radical life extension technology. A focus will be placed on the ethic of loving thy neighbour, Christ’s suffering on the cross, the hope of salvation and the Christian hope of entrance into heaven after death. 


1987 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
L. P. Pretorius ◽  
C. J. H. Blignaut

From a perceptual point of view it is not clear whether, and under what conditions, the presence of colour in television commercials aids the processing of information. In this study it was argued that the way in which colour is used, would have an effect on the comprehension and memory of children regarding television commercials. It was found that colour, when used in a "concrete" fashion, aids the comprehension process. The results of the study also show that the "concrete" as well as the "symbolic" use of colour have a positive effect on the memory of children for the content of television commercials. Opsomming Vanuit 'n perseptuele benadering is dit nie duidelik of, en onder watter omstandighede, die teenwoordigheid van kleur in televisie advertensies die prosessering van inligting positief bei'nvloed nie. In hierdie studie is daar van die standpunt uitgegaan dat die wyse van kleurgebruik 'n effek sal he op die begrip en geheue van kinders ten aansien van televisie advertensies. Daar is gevind dat kleur, wat op 'n "konkrete" manier gebruik word, die begripsproses bevorder. Die resultate van die studie toon ook dat sowel die "konkrete" as "simboliese" gebruik van kleur 'n positiewe effek op die geheue van kinders ten opsigte van televisie advertensie inhoud het.


2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (104) ◽  
pp. 148-165
Author(s):  
Frederik Tygstrup ◽  
Isak Winkel Holm

Literature and PoliticsLiterature is political by representing the world. The production of literature is a contribution to a general cultural poetics where images of reality are constructed and circulated. At the same time, the practice of literature is institutionalized in such a way that the form and function of the images of reality it produces are conceived and used in a distinctive way. In this article, we suggest distinguishing between a general cultural poetics and a specific literary poetics by using Ernst Cassirer’s neo-Kantian concept of »symbolic forms«. We argue that according to this view, the political significance of literary representational practices resides in the way they activate a common cultural repertoire of historical symbolic forms while at the same time deviating from the common ways of treating these forms.


Antichthon ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 47 ◽  
pp. 156-172
Author(s):  
James S. McLaren

AbstractDuring the late republic and early principate the Jews who called Rome their home occasionally found themselves in the public gaze. Some of their customs and aspects of their ways of life also attracted occasional comment, often for their apparently strange and foreign manner. At no stage, however, during this period did they feature prominently in the public sphere of life in Rome. The aftermath of the war of 66-70 CE brought about an abrupt change in circumstances for the Jews living in Rome. Apart from the immediate visual celebration of the triumph, there followed a number of substantial monumental and numismatic commemorations of the Roman victory. In this article the purpose and function of those commemorations and the possible consequences for the Jews who lived in Rome are examined. In particular, the impact of the public profiling of the war on Jewish identity and of how the writings of Josephus are to be read in this setting is explored. Rather than regard Josephus as a supporter of the Flavian rulers, writing an account of the war that encouraged fellow Jews to collaborate with Rome, it is argued that he was offering Jews in Rome a counter-narrative to the way the war was being publicly commemorated.


2011 ◽  
pp. 47-98
Author(s):  
Stephen J. Andriole

This chapter looks at the range of investment targets ranging all the way from software applications to communications networks to new advanced technologies like Web 2.0 and Web 3.0. The chapter talks about the opportunities in succession describing the range of opportunities available to CIOs, vendors, and VCs. The chapter also highlights the individual opportunities for all three investors through investment guidelines that appear at the end of each major section.


2021 ◽  
pp. 149-183
Author(s):  
Thom Dancer

David Mitchell’s fiction provides an opportunity to reconsider the claims of modesty in the context of globalization. This chapter draws upon the arguments of the previous ones to put critical modesty to its most difficult test. Are minor achievements enough given the massive scale of planetary life and of urgent global problems facing humanity, not the least of which is environmental ruin? I argue that Mitchell’s novels directly face the problems of scaling that cast into doubt the place and function of the novel as a relevant cultural force in the twenty-first century and beyond. Mitchell’s work helps us to reconcile realism as a kind of modest speculation. Where the novel has long been understood as a form that easily scales from the local to the global, Mitchell emphasizes the discontinuity afforded by novelistic thinking. The efficient causality that has subtended literary realism aims to retroactively recreate the events that lead inevitably from the past to the future. Mitchell’s formal investment in discontinuity resists the tyranny of the inevitable by narrating moments of bifurcation in which a new possibility for action suddenly and unexpectedly emerges. Thus, his novels adopt an inefficient causality that give expression to the feeling that things might be different than they are, that inevitability (optimistic or pessimistic) is a dangerous trap. The challenge that Mitchell poses for himself and other novelists is to imagine a disposition modest enough to nurture and shepherd into being these moments of bifurcation when, by definition, there is nothing in the prior state that predicts them.


1997 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 7-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barry A. Fields

In this paper the nature and function of teacher rules in Year I and 2 primary classrooms is discussed. It is argued that the classroom is a complex mini-society which children must come to understand if they are to adjust to and succeed in school. Rules, it is believed, help children make sense of the world of the classroom. Rules are viewed as serving both a managerial function (helping to establish order) and as a mechanism for defining and understanding the ‘way of life’ in the classroom. Against this backdrop of perspectives on school and teacher rules, the rules of 60 Year 1 and 2 teachers were examined. The findings are discussed with reference to the above two perspectives and to the importance of rules in reinforcing the authority of the teacher in the classroom.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 423-432 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daniel J Jordan ◽  
Marco Malahias ◽  
Sandip Hindocha ◽  
Ali Juma

The lower extremities of the human body are more commonly known as the human legs, incorporating: the foot, the lower or anatomical leg, the thigh and the hip or gluteal region.The human lower limb plays a simpler role than that of the upper limb. Whereas the arm allows interaction of the surrounding environment, the legs’ primary goals are support and to allow upright ambulation. Essentially, this means that reconstruction of the leg is less complex than that required in restoring functionality of the upper limb. In terms of reconstruction, the primary goals are based on the preservation of life and limb, and the restoration of form and function. This paper aims to review current and past thoughts on reconstruction of the lower limb, discussing in particular the options in terms of soft tissue coverage.This paper does not aim to review the emergency management of open fractures, or the therapy alternatives to chronic wounds or malignancies of the lower limb, but purely assess the requirements that should be reviewed on reconstructing a defect of the lower limb.A summary of flap options are considered, with literature support, in regard to donor and recipient region, particularly as flap coverage is regarded as the cornerstone of soft tissue coverage of the lower limb.


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