142 research outputs found
The vital role of metropolitan access in commuter, regional, intercity and overnight rail passenger transportation, and its relation to technology
Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, 2003.Pages [179]-[202] also numbered 1-24. Vita.Includes bibliographical references.by Lexcie Lu.S.M
Using MapReduce Streaming for Distributed Life Simulation on the Cloud
Distributed software simulations are indispensable in the study of large-scale life models but often require the use of technically complex lower-level distributed computing frameworks, such as MPI. We propose to overcome the complexity challenge by applying the emerging MapReduce (MR) model to distributed life simulations and by running such simulations on the cloud. Technically, we design optimized MR streaming algorithms for discrete and continuous versions of Conwayâs life according to a general MR streaming pattern. We chose life because it is simple enough as a testbed for MRâs applicability to a-life simulations and general enough to make our results applicable to various lattice-based a-life models. We implement and empirically evaluate our algorithmsâ performance on Amazonâs Elastic MR cloud. Our experiments demonstrate that a single MR optimization technique called strip partitioning can reduce the execution time of continuous life simulations by 64%. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to propose and evaluate MR streaming algorithms for lattice-based simulations. Our algorithms can serve as prototypes in the development of novel MR simulation algorithms for large-scale lattice-based a-life models.https://digitalcommons.chapman.edu/scs_books/1014/thumbnail.jp
Multi-Agent Systems
A multi-agent system (MAS) is a system composed of multiple interacting intelligent agents. Multi-agent systems can be used to solve problems which are difficult or impossible for an individual agent or monolithic system to solve. Agent systems are open and extensible systems that allow for the deployment of autonomous and proactive software components. Multi-agent systems have been brought up and used in several application domains
Wastiary: A Bestiary of Waste
Wastiary, or Bestiary of Waste, is a creative exercise that occupies letters, numbers, and symbols of Western academic language to compose a list of 35 short entries on the uncomfortable but pressing topic of waste in the contemporary world. The collection is richly illustrated with artwork, photography, collage and mixed media.
The book is a heterodox compendium of âbeasts of wasteâ, playfully re-imagining the medieval treatise on various kinds of animal. It conveys the message that various forms of waste and pollution have achieved a beast-like or untameable quality, at times pungently transferring to considerations of âthe humanâ, or humans treated as waste
Iain Sinclair and the psychogeography of the split city
Iain Sinclairâs London is a labyrinthine city split by multiple forces deliriously replicated in the complexity and contradiction of his own hybrid texts. Sinclair played an integral role in the âpsychogeographical turnâ of the 1990s, imaginatively mapping the secret histories and occulted alignments of urban space in a series of works that drift between the subject of topography and the topic of subjectivity. In the wake of Sinclairâs continued association with the spatial and textual practices from which such speculative theses derive, the trajectory of this variant psychogeography appears to swerve away from the revolutionary impulses of its initial formation within the radical milieu of the Lettrist International and Situationist International in 1950s Paris towards a more literary phenomenon. From this perspective, the return of psychogeography has been equated with a loss of political ambition within fin de millennium literature. However, the tangled contexts from which Sinclairâs variant psychogeography emerges have received only cursory scholarly attention. This study will unravel these contexts in order to clarify the literary and political ramifications of the seemingly incompatible strands that Sinclair interweaves around the term.
Are Sinclairâs counter-narratives to the neoliberal consensus of the early twenty-first century comparable to the critique of capitalism and urbanism advanced by the Situationists? Or is his appropriation of psychogeography emblematic of a broader contemporary recuperation of the oppositional tactics and strategies associated with counter-cultural currents from a more politically adversarial era? Is Sinclairâs transition from the margins of experimental poetry to the literary mainstream correlative with urban gentrification? By examining these questions through the orientating device of a series of psychogeographical plaques tournantes with which Sinclair is preoccupied, this study facilitates a more nuanced evaluation of Sinclairâs compulsively associative use of psychogeography to navigate the split city of London
Life, Re-Scaled
This edited volume explores new engagements with the life sciences in contemporary fiction, poetry, comics and performance. The gathered case studies investigate how recent creative work reframes the human within microscopic or macroscopic scales, from cellular biology to systems ecology, and engages with the ethical, philosophical, and political issues raised by the twenty-first centuryâs shifting views of life. The collection thus examines literature and performance as spaces that shape our contemporary biological imagination.
Comprised of thirteen chapters by an international group of academics, Life, Re-Scaled: The Biological Imagination in Twenty-First-Century Literature and Performance engages with four main areas of biological study: âInvisible scales: cells, microbes and myceliumâ, âNeuro-medical imaging and diagnosisâ, âPandemic imaginariesâ, and âEcological scalesâ. The authors examine these concepts in emerging forms such as plant theatre, climate change art, ecofiction and pandemic fiction, including the work of Jeff Vandermeer, Jon McGregor, Jeff Lemire, and Extinction Rebellionâs Red Rebel Brigade performances.
This valuable resource moves beyond the biological paradigms that were central to the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, to outline the specificity of a contemporary imagination. Life, Re-Scaled is crucial reading for academics, scholars, and authors alike, as it proposes an unprecedented overview of the relationship between literature, performance and the life sciences in the twenty-first century
âBut eyes are blind. You have to look with the heartâ. IBA Berlin 1979 â 1987, the drawing as tool to read and disclose
"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.â (Costanzo, 1991, p.14)
On the occasion of his direction of the Berlin International Bauausstellung (IBA 1979-1987) the German architect Josef Paul Kleihues referred to the fable of Antoine de Saint - ExupĂ©ry to encourage architects to awaken the values of ingenuity and imagination. He emphasized the Imago, as a point of reference and stable values at the base of human consciousness. The problem is based on the dialectic between tradition and modernity, the field of experimentation on which he himself elaborates the concept of "critical reconstruction". According to the architect, the rediscovery of the laws of the historic city is a decisive instrument for Berliners to recognize themselves in it. Another important concept which Kleihues placed at the base of his guidelines is the "poetic rationalism" presented during the Triennale di Milano exhibition entitled "The cities of the world of 1988 and the future of the metropolis". On this occasion, he maintained that "the possibility of a new rationalism exists only when the deterministic tendency is questioned by poetry". (Kleihues, 1989, p.57) Through this âpoetic rationalismâ, he criticizes the excessive bureaucracy that conditions and limits the creative process.
One of the most interesting areas of the Berlin International Bauausstellung is the SĂŒdliche Friedrichstad.
It is interesting to take into account the rules imposed by Josef Paul Kleihues about the permanence of the existing layout and the reconstruction of the continuity of the facades along the plot perimeter and to see how the architects Aldo Rossi and Rem Koolhaas stand about these principles. The proposed study investigates their interpretation of the concept of "poetic rationalism" through drawing, considered by the author as a fundamental interpretative, creative and cognitive activity
CHANCES. Practices, Spaces and Buildings in Cities' Tranformation
CHANCES has been an international conference that was aimed to explore, from a multidisciplinary perspective, the fragile but continuous urban transformation through the effective contribution of culture, nature and technology.
The aim of this conference was to provide a deeper understanding of urban transformationsâ research and practices, focusing on the use, re-use, design, renovation and innovative governance and management of public spaces, urban commons and buildings.
We believe that these thoughts will largely contribute to shape and increase sustainable design, construction and planning in constant citiesâ transformation.
Contributions could build on reflections and studies concerning current or historical approaches that are changing or drastically changed the cities we lived in
Unmanned Aircraft Systems in the Cyber Domain
Unmanned Aircraft Systems are an integral part of the US national critical infrastructure. The authors have endeavored to bring a breadth and quality of information to the reader that is unparalleled in the unclassified sphere. This textbook will fully immerse and engage the reader / student in the cyber-security considerations of this rapidly emerging technology that we know as unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). The first edition topics covered National Airspace (NAS) policy issues, information security (INFOSEC), UAS vulnerabilities in key systems (Sense and Avoid / SCADA), navigation and collision avoidance systems, stealth design, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms; weapons systems security; electronic warfare considerations; data-links, jamming, operational vulnerabilities and still-emerging political scenarios that affect US military / commercial decisions.
This second edition discusses state-of-the-art technology issues facing US UAS designers. It focuses on counter unmanned aircraft systems (C-UAS) â especially research designed to mitigate and terminate threats by SWARMS. Topics include high-altitude platforms (HAPS) for wireless communications; C-UAS and large scale threats; acoustic countermeasures against SWARMS and building an Identify Friend or Foe (IFF) acoustic library; updates to the legal / regulatory landscape; UAS proliferation along the Chinese New Silk Road Sea / Land routes; and ethics in this new age of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence (AI).https://newprairiepress.org/ebooks/1027/thumbnail.jp
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