scholarly journals Handprint, the Shower of Gold, and Thingness of Architecture

2020 ◽  
pp. 118-135
Author(s):  
Krunoslav Ivanišin

Architecture is an eminently artificial human enterprise but subject to natural laws and principles residing somewhere between the mineral world and vegetation. It is eminently archaic, as the dominant epistemologies, pragmatic conditions and techniques may change, but fundamental notions, ideas and principles remain where they have been ever since the construction of the first shelter. Architecture is also eminently thingly. As a thing, every work of architecture is in opposition to our broken world of events. For better or for worse, in actual practice this opposition settles in the act of construction, as a project becomes a building: material, structure, space.

Author(s):  
Johannes Dornheim ◽  
Lukas Morand ◽  
Samuel Zeitvogel ◽  
Tarek Iraki ◽  
Norbert Link ◽  
...  

AbstractA major goal of materials design is to find material structures with desired properties and in a second step to find a processing path to reach one of these structures. In this paper, we propose and investigate a deep reinforcement learning approach for the optimization of processing paths. The goal is to find optimal processing paths in the material structure space that lead to target-structures, which have been identified beforehand to result in desired material properties. There exists a target set containing one or multiple different structures, bearing the desired properties. Our proposed methods can find an optimal path from a start structure to a single target structure, or optimize the processing paths to one of the equivalent target-structures in the set. In the latter case, the algorithm learns during processing to simultaneously identify the best reachable target structure and the optimal path to it. The proposed methods belong to the family of model-free deep reinforcement learning algorithms. They are guided by structure representations as features of the process state and by a reward signal, which is formulated based on a distance function in the structure space. Model-free reinforcement learning algorithms learn through trial and error while interacting with the process. Thereby, they are not restricted to information from a priori sampled processing data and are able to adapt to the specific process. The optimization itself is model-free and does not require any prior knowledge about the process itself. We instantiate and evaluate the proposed methods by optimizing paths of a generic metal forming process. We show the ability of both methods to find processing paths leading close to target structures and the ability of the extended method to identify target-structures that can be reached effectively and efficiently and to focus on these targets for sample efficient processing path optimization.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1043 ◽  
pp. 149-154
Author(s):  
Sergey Skuratov ◽  
Galina Danilova-Volkovskaya ◽  
Edvard Yanukyan ◽  
Mikhail Beilin

The description of bamboo varieties is given, the material structure and the application scope are considered. The characteristics of the advantages and disadvantages of bamboo as a structural building material are given. The results of determining the mechanical properties of bamboo are investigated. The normative documents (ISO standards) regulating the use of bamboo in construction are presented. There has been a lag in the operating instructions production for bamboo use in construction. The researchers who studied the bamboo properties and nodal junctures of bamboo rods, as well as the architects and designers of original bamboo structures are indicated.


Author(s):  
Cecil E. Hall

The visualization of organic macromolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, viruses and virus components has reached its high degree of effectiveness owing to refinements and reliability of instruments and to the invention of methods for enhancing the structure of these materials within the electron image. The latter techniques have been most important because what can be seen depends upon the molecular and atomic character of the object as modified which is rarely evident in the pristine material. Structure may thus be displayed by the arts of positive and negative staining, shadow casting, replication and other techniques. Enhancement of contrast, which delineates bounds of isolated macromolecules has been effected progressively over the years as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 by these methods. We now look to the future wondering what other visions are waiting to be seen. The instrument designers will need to exact from the arts of fabrication the performance that theory has prescribed as well as methods for phase and interference contrast with explorations of the potentialities of very high and very low voltages. Chemistry must play an increasingly important part in future progress by providing specific stain molecules of high visibility, substrates of vanishing “noise” level and means for preservation of molecular structures that usually exist in a solvated condition.


Author(s):  
J. Temple Black

The output of the ultramicrotomy process with its high strain levels is dependent upon the input, ie., the nature of the material being machined. Apart from the geometrical constraints offered by the rake and clearance faces of the tool, each material is free to deform in whatever manner necessary to satisfy its material structure and interatomic constraints. Noncrystalline materials appear to survive the process undamaged when observed in the TEM. As has been demonstrated however microtomed plastics do in fact suffer damage to the top and bottom surfaces of the section regardless of the sharpness of the cutting edge or the tool material. The energy required to seperate the section from the block is not easily propogated through the section because the material is amorphous in nature and has no preferred crystalline planes upon which defects can move large distances to relieve the applied stress. Thus, the cutting stresses are supported elastically in the internal or bulk and plastically in the surfaces. The elastic strain can be recovered while the plastic strain is not reversible and will remain in the section after cutting is complete.


1882 ◽  
Vol 14 (351supp) ◽  
pp. 5602-5603
Author(s):  
B. T. Giraud
Keyword(s):  

1985 ◽  
Vol 46 (C8) ◽  
pp. C8-379-C8-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Hosemann
Keyword(s):  

2012 ◽  
pp. 41-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Storchevoy

The paper deals with development of a general theory of the firm. It discusses the demand for such a theory, reviews existing approaches to its generalization, and offers a new variant of general theory of the firm based on the contract theory. The theory is based on minimization of opportunistic behaviour determined by the material structure of production (a classification of ten structural factors is offered). This framework is applied to the analysis of three boundaries problems (boundaries of the job, boundaries of the unit, boundaries of the firm) and five integration dilemmas (vertical, horizontal, functional, related, and conglomerate).


2016 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 105-124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danny Hsu

Is the Christian teaching on sin a ‘stumbling block’ to Chinese accepting Christianity? This paper critiques the notion that Chinese have difficulty comprehending ‘sin’ because of the culture's long-standing belief in the humanistic potential for self-perfection without any reference to the divine. This view of Chinese culture has been too narrow and does not account for the fact that Chinese religious traditions have always had at their disposal a wide variety of resources to comprehend the Christian concept of sin. Incorporating a history-of-practice perspective can contribute to a more productive balance between the representation of Chinese culture and its actual practice and avoid the current tendency to posit Western theology against a narrowly constructed and idealised version of Chinese culture that is severed from both historical and present-day realities.


2003 ◽  
Vol 762 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Smit ◽  
D.L. Williamson ◽  
M.C.M. van de Sanden ◽  
R.A.C.M.M. van Swaaij

AbstractExpanding thermal plasma CVD (ETP CVD) has been used to deposit thin microcrystalline silicon films. In this study we varied the position at which the silane is injected in the expanding hydrogen plasma: relatively far from the substrate and close to the plasma source, giving a long interaction time of the plasma with the silane, and close to the substrate, resulting in a short interaction time. The material structure is studied extensively. The crystalline fractions as obtained from Raman spectroscopy as well as from X-ray diffraction (XRD) vary from 0 to 67%. The average particle sizes vary from 6 to 17 nm as estimated from the (111) XRD peak using the Scherrer formula. Small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and flotation density measurements indicate void volume fractions of about 4 to 6%. When the samples are tilted the SAXS signal is lower than for the untilted case, indicating elongated objects parallel to the growth direction in the films. We show that the material properties are influenced by the position of silane injection in the reactor, indicating a change in the plasma chemistry.


2016 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-172
Author(s):  
Marcus Moberg ◽  
Tommy Ramstedt

Following the continuing general decline of institutional religion across the Western world, scholars have increasingly turned their attention to the emergence of various types of, less conventionally organized, post-institutional forms of religion. Post-institutional religious spaces have, however, often proven difficult to pin down and grasp empirically through already available frameworks and concepts. This article aims to provide an impetus for further methodological discussion on the empirical study of post-institutional religious spaces through re-contextualizing the framework of scene for the study of post-institutional religious spaces in actual practice. The article outlines and explicates the methodological utility of the framework of scene through applying it on a particular geographically located post-institutional religious space: the present-day so-called “fringe-knowledge” scene in Finland.


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