Reclaiming human machine nature

Extending and modifying his domain of life by artifact production is one of the main characteristics of humankind. From the first hominid, who used a wood stick or a stone for extending his upper limbs and augmenting his gesture strength, to current systems engineers who used technologies for augmenting human cognition, perception and action, extending human body capabilities remains a big issue. From more than fifty years cybernetics, computer and cognitive sciences have imposed only one reductionist model of human machine systems: cognitive systems. Inspired by philosophy, behaviorist psychology and the information treatment metaphor, the cognitive system paradigm requires a function view and a functional analysis in human systems design process. According that design approach, human have been reduced to his metaphysical and functional properties in a new dualism. Human body requirements have been left to physical ergonomics or "physiology". With multidisciplinary convergence, the issues of "human-machine" systems and "human artifacts" evolve. The loss of biological and social boundaries between human organisms and interactive and informational physical artifact questions the current engineering methods and ergonomic design of cognitive systems. New developpment of human machine systems for intensive care, human space activities or bio-engineering sytems requires grounding human systems design on a renewed epistemological framework for future human systems model and evidence based "bio-engineering". In that context, reclaiming human factors, augmented human and human machine nature is a necessityComment: Published in HCI International 2014, Heraklion : Greece (2014

Biophysics and systems biology

Biophysics at the systems level, as distinct from molecular biophysics, acquired its most famous paradigm in the work of Hodgkin and Huxley, who integrated their equations for the nerve impulse in 1952. Their approach has since been extended to other organs of the body, notably including the heart. The modern field of computational biology has expanded rapidly during the first decade of the twenty-first century and, through its contribution to what is now called systems biology, it is set to revise many of the fundamental principles of biology, including the relations between genotypes and phenotypes. Evolutionary theory, in particular, will require re-assessment. To succeed in this, computational and systems biology will need to develop the theoretical framework required to deal with multilevel interactions. While computational power is necessary, and is forthcoming, it is not sufficient. We will also require mathematical insight, perhaps of a nature we have not yet identified. This article is therefore also a challenge to mathematicians to develop such insights

Reticulate evolution everywhere

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Reticulate Evolution: Symbiogenesis, Lateral Gene Transfer, Hybridization and Infectious heredity

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enactive manufacturing through cyber-physical systems: a step beyond cognitive manufacturing

Cognitive manufacturing, as a paradigm for providing intelligence to manufacturing systems and enabling interaction with operators presents limitations. Manufacturing system requires to be adaptive to machine tools, manufacturing environments and operators. In this line, the enactive approach to cognitive science provides a paradigm for the design of new biologically inspired cognitive architectures. Likewise, the advantages of Key Enabling Technologies and the concept of Industry 4.0 reveal new opportunities for increasing industrial innovation and developing sustainable industrial environments. These technologies are appropriated to overcome the limitations of cognitive manufacturing, because they can achieve the integration of physical and digital systems focused on cyber-physical systems. In this work, an architecture for the sustainable development of enactive manufacturing systems based on holonic paradigm is proposed and its main associated informational model is described

Symbiotic Organisms Search Algorithm: theory, recent advances and applications

The symbiotic organisms search algorithm is a very promising recent metaheuristic algorithm. It has received a plethora of attention from all areas of numerical optimization research, as well as engineering design practices. it has since undergone several modifications, either in the form of hybridization or as some other improved variants of the original algorithm. However, despite all the remarkable achievements and rapidly expanding body of literature regarding the symbiotic organisms search algorithm within its short appearance in the field of swarm intelligence optimization techniques, there has been no collective and comprehensive study on the success of the various implementations of this algorithm. As a way forward, this paper provides an overview of the research conducted on symbiotic organisms search algorithms from inception to the time of writing, in the form of details of various application scenarios with variants and hybrid implementations, and suggestions for future research directions

Realidades creativas de campo estético: hibridación entre el arte y la arquitectura digital

La arquitectura se ha ampliado en su complejidad por los recursos de la computación, la promoción de cambios significativos en la forma, la renuncia de la gama común de las apariencias y la búsqueda de experiencias con versiones inusuales, creando metáforas visuales para un nuevo mundo. Las formas espaciales se crean a partir de varios principios con muchas motas científicas para explorar, en una utilización intensa y sistemática de los medios digitales, lo que resulta en procesos de tenencias de plástico comunes a las artes digitales. La arquitectura digital puede materializarse signos de una muy amplia gama de referencias y, subyacente a la forma en que el deseo de expresión traducido en un carácter de la belleza.A arquitetura vem sendo ampliada na sua complexidade pelos recursos da computação, promovendo mudanças significativas nas formas, a renúncia das aparências do âmbito comum e a busca por experiências com versões inusitadas, criando metáforas visuais para um novo mundo. As formas espaciais são criadas a partir de princípios diversos, com muitos motes científicos a explorar, numa utilização intensa e sistemática do meio digital, surgindo assim processos de explorações plásticas comuns às artes digitais. A arquitetura digital pode materializar signos de uma diversidade muito grande de referentes, subvertendo à forma o desejo de uma expressão traduzida num caráter de beleza.The architecture has been expanded in its own complexity through computing resources, promoting significant changes in its forms, renouncing the appearances of the common scope and exploring new experiences with unusual versions and also, creating visual metaphors for a new world. The spatial forms are created by several principles, with many scientific motes to explore, in an intense and systematic use of digital medium, thus arising processes of aesthetic explorations common to the digital arts. The digital architecture can materialize signs through a diversity of references, subverting to the form the desire of an expression translated in a character of beauty

Toy models for macroevolutionary patterns and trends

A B S T R A C T Many models have been used to simplify and operationalize the subtle but complex mechanisms of biological evolution. Toy models are gross simplifications that nevertheless attempt to retain major essential features of evolution, bridging the gap between empirical reality and formal theoretical understanding. In this paper, we examine thirteen models which describe evolution that also qualify as such toy models, including the tree of life, branching processes, adaptive ratchets, fitness landscapes, and the role of nonlinear avalanches in evolutionary dynamics. Such toy models are intended to capture features such as evolutionary trends, coupled evolutionary dynamics of phenotype and genotype, adaptive change, branching, and evolutionary transience. The models discussed herein are applied to specific evolutionary contexts in various ways that simplify the complexity inherent in evolving populations. While toy models are overly simplistic, they also provide sufficient dynamics for capturing the fundamental mechanism(s) of evolution. Toy models might also be used to aid in high-throughput data analysis and the understanding of cultural evolutionary trends. This paper should serve as an introductory guide to the toy modeling of evolutionary complexity

Exploring the symbiotic pangenome of the nitrogen-fixing bacterium Sinorhizobium meliloti

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Sinorhizobium meliloti </it>is a model system for the studies of symbiotic nitrogen fixation. An extensive polymorphism at the genetic and phenotypic level is present in natural populations of this species, especially in relation with symbiotic promotion of plant growth. AK83 and BL225C are two nodule-isolated strains with diverse symbiotic phenotypes; BL225C is more efficient in promoting growth of the <it>Medicago sativa </it>plants than strain AK83. In order to investigate the genetic determinants of the phenotypic diversification of <it>S. meliloti </it>strains AK83 and BL225C, we sequenced the complete genomes for these two strains.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>With sizes of 7.14 Mbp and 6.97 Mbp, respectively, the genomes of AK83 and BL225C are larger than the laboratory strain Rm1021. The core genome of Rm1021, AK83, BL225C strains included 5124 orthologous groups, while the accessory genome was composed by 2700 orthologous groups. While Rm1021 and BL225C have only three replicons (Chromosome, pSymA and pSymB), AK83 has also two plasmids, 260 and 70 Kbp long. We found 65 interesting orthologous groups of genes that were present only in the accessory genome, consequently responsible for phenotypic diversity and putatively involved in plant-bacterium interaction. Notably, the symbiosis inefficient AK83 lacked several genes required for microaerophilic growth inside nodules, while several genes for accessory functions related to competition, plant invasion and bacteroid tropism were identified only in AK83 and BL225C strains. Presence and extent of polymorphism in regulons of transcription factors involved in symbiotic interaction were also analyzed. Our results indicate that regulons are flexible, with a large number of accessory genes, suggesting that regulons polymorphism could also be a key determinant in the variability of symbiotic performances among the analyzed strains.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>In conclusions, the extended comparative genomics approach revealed a variable subset of genes and regulons that may contribute to the symbiotic diversity.</p