Parametric Generator for Architectural and Urban 3D Objects

The authors developed and finalized a specific tool able to model the global structure of architectural objects through a morphological and semantic description of its finite elements. This discrete conceptual model - still in study - was refined during the geometric modeling of the “Vieux Lyon” district, containing a high level of morpho-stylistic disparity. Future developments should allow increasing the genericity of its descriptive efficiency, permitting even more sparse morphological and\or stylistic varieties. Its general purpose doesn’t consist in creating a “universal modeler,” but to offer a simple tool able to quickly describe a majority of standard architectural objects compliant with some standard parametric definition rules.

Possibility of Fractal Aesthetics

Fast development of computer networking contributes to the global spreading and popularizing of the notion of fractals and complex patterns in their use in computer-aided design and computer art. This chapter looks for answers to the following questions: How are fractals perceived? Are fractals predominantly man-made or natural objects? How do fractals relate to the overall visual art experience of mankind? What are the main problems in using fractals in arts? What are the experiences from the visual art-history? Do Nature and artists use the same algorithm? What fractal experts can do to help artists?

Exploring Structural and Dynamical Properties Microtubules by Means of Artificial Neural Networks

Microtubules (MTs) are cylindrical polymers of the tubulin dimer, are constituents of all eukaryotic cells cytoskeleton and are involved in key cellular functions and are claimed to be involved as sub-cellular information or quantum information communication systems. The authors evaluated some biophysical properties of MTs by means of specific physical measures of resonance and birefringence in presence of electromagnetic field, on the assumption that when tubulin and MTs show different biophysical behaviours, this should be due to their special structural properties. Actually, MTs are the closest biological equivalent to the well-known carbon nanotubes (CNTs), whose interesting biophysical and quantum properties are due to their peculiar microscopic structure. The experimental results highlighted a physical behaviour of MTs in comparison with tubulin. The dynamic simulation of MT and tubulin subjected to electromagnetic field was performed via MD tools. Their level of self-organization was evaluated using artificial neural networks, which resulted to be an effective method to gather the dynamical behaviour of cellular and non-cellular structures and to compare their physical properties.

Fractal Geometry as a Bridge between Realms

This chapter describes fractal geometry as a bridge between the imaginary and the real, mind and matter, conscious and the unconscious. Fractals are multidimensional objects with self-similar detail across size and/or time scales. Jung conceived of number as the most primitive archetype of order, serving to link observers with the observed. Whereas Jung focused upon natural numbers as the foundation for order that is already conscious in the observer, I offer up the fractal geometry as the underpinnings for a dynamic unconscious destined never to become fully conscious. Throughout nature, fractals model the complex, recursively branching structures of self-organizing systems. When they serve at the edges of open systems, fractal boundaries articulate a paradoxical zone that simultaneously separates as it connects. When modeled by Spencer-Brown’s mathematical notation, full interpenetration between inside and outside edges translates to a distinction that leads to no distinction. By occupying the infinitely deep “space between” dimensions and levels of existence, fractal boundaries contribute to the notion of intersubjectivity, where self and other become most entwined. They also exemplify reentry dynamics of Varela’s autonomous systems, plus Hofstadter’s ever-elusive “tangled hierarchy” between brain and mind.

Recurrence Indicators for the Estimation of Characteristic Size and Frequency of Spatial Patterns

In this chapter, the authors propose a method for the estimation of the characteristic size and frequency of the typical structure in systems showing two dimensional spatial patterns. In particular, they use several indicators caught from the nonlinear framework for identifying the small and large scales of the systems. The indicators are applied to the images corresponding to the instantaneous realization of the system. The method assumes that it is possible to capture the main system’s properties from the distribution of the recurring patterns in the image and does not require the knowledge of the dynamical system generating the patterns neither the application of any image segmentation method.

Thinking Animals and Thinking Machines in Psychoanalysis and Beyond

In this chapter, the authors examine some similarities between computer science and psychoanalysis, and formulate some hypotheses by bringing closer the statute of connectionism to the energetic model of the psychic apparatus as well as the OOP (object-oriented programming) to the object relations theory. The chapter also describes the relation existing between the functioning of mnemic systems and human temporalities as dynamic structures/processes which might be represented as complementary images of each other. The authors make some remarks on the machine and people theme, the way in which men relate to machines, especially “thinking machines,” describing the fantasies they arouse. In order to do this, the chapter uses Tausk’s classic (1919/1933) “On the Origin of the ‘Influencing Machine’ in Schizophrenia”1, as well as some of Freud’s writings.

The Residence Time of the Water in Lake MAGGIORE. Through an Eulerian-Lagrangian Approach

This chapter describes a study designed to evaluate the spectrum of the residence time of the water at different depths of a deep lake, and to examine the mechanisms governing the seasonal cycle of thermal stratification and destratification, with the ultimate aim of assessing the actual exchange time of the lake water. The study was performed on Lake Maggiore (depth 370m) using a multidimensional mathematical model and computer codes for the heat and mass transfer in very large natural water bodies. A 3D Eulerian time-dependent CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) code was applied under real conditions, taking into account the effects of the monthly mean values of the mass flow rates and temperatures of all the tributaries, mass flow rate of the Ticino effluent and meteorological, hydrological, and limnological parameters available from the rich data-base of the CNR-ISE (Pallanza). The velocity distributions from these simulations were used to compute the paths of a large number of massless markers with different initial positions and evaluate their residence times in the lake.

Neurofeedback

This chapter explores the use of neurofeedback training as a mechanism for altering human brain functioning and in turn influencing behaviour. It outlines the notion that such training provides a plausible mechanism by which an individual may be able to learn to alter and control specific aspects of his electro-cortical activity. The chapter highlights some of the findings from research, including clinical, peak performance, and functional validation studies. In addition, it delineates some important methodological issues that remain to be addressed. It is hoped that outlining these issues will serve a dual purpose. First, it will assist in the understanding of some of the theoretical and methodological limitations that may be holding the field back. Second, it is hoped that such information will stimulate researchers to work towards designing more efficient and effective research protocols and neurofeedback training paradigms.

Reflexing Interfaces

Since the first production of tools at the beginning of human presence on earth, evolutionary jumps mark human development. Sometimes, these punctuations were triggered by inventions of new tools, combined with new environmental adaptations. Affordances, as specialized forms of symbiotic embodiment with tools and environments, represent one of the main factors for human evolutionary processes. The cognitive neuroscience of the reflexive function can be one of the main keys to understand how the emergence of new interfaces yields new ways of projecting the human presence and consciousness in the world.

Fractals, Computer Science and Beyond

In the modelling of the natural shapes (clouds, ferns, trees, shells, rivers, mountains), the limits imposed by Euclidean geometry can be exceeded by the fractals. Fractal geometry is relatively young (the first studies are the works by the French mathematicians Pierre Fatou (1878-1929) and Gaston Julia (1893-1978) at the beginning of the 20th century), but only with the mathematical power of computers has it become possible to realize connections between fractal geometry and the other disciplines. It is applied in various fields now, from the biology to the architecture. Important applications also appear in computer science, because the fractal geometry permits to compress the images; to reproduce, in the virtual reality environments, the complex patterns and the irregular forms present in nature using simple iterative algorithms execute by computers. Recent studies apply this geometry for controlling the traffic in the computer networks (LANs, MANs, WANs, and the Internet) and in the realization of virtual worlds based on World Wide Web. The aim of this chapter is to present fractal geometry, its properties (e.g., the self similarity), and their applications in computer science (starting from the computer graphics, to the virtual reality).