Digital manufacturing: what are we able to print?

In a rational exercise, in the present paper it is extrapolated how the development of ICTs (information and communication technologies) and the incipient technological development of additive manufacturing has the potential to change our society. In the following, it is analyzing the evolution of man over physical matter and how this has shaped our society. The main milestones or key stages in history that have marked a transcendental change in the human-machine-environment relationship have been identified and consequently have led us to ask ourselves: What is next, how far are we, and what are we capable of printing? In an attempt to identify the current state of the art, highlighting the possibilities those additive technologies can offerPostprint (published version

High-resolution reconstruction of atmospheric CO2 concentrations during the last interglacial based on the EDC ice core

The successful reconstruction of past atmospheric CO2 concentrations from Antarctic ice cores started in the early 1980s. Each newly published record is the product of painstaking discrete measurements of hand-sized samples from ice cores that can reach more than 3 kilometers of depth. Hence, high-resolution reconstructions of CO2 are usually limited to a specific window of time of the last 800 thousand years (800 ka). Using the EDC ice core, we reconstructed atmospheric CO2 concentrations during Marine Isotope Stage 5 (MIS 5; 135–106 ka). The new dataset covers the penultimate deglaciation, the last interglacial, and the last glacial inception in unprecedented centennial resolution. Our new record shows remarkably stable CO2 concentrations for ten thousand years during MIS 5e. Simultaneously, a series of worldwide climatic changes took place, such as falling temperatures in the oceans and over the poles, growing ice sheets, generalized climate instability in the Northern Hemisphere, and changes in the Earth’s orbital parameters. The lack of marked variability in the CO2 record during this period can be explained by an unusual combination of dynamic carbon fluxes and the lack of a suitable deep ocean storage reservoir. As enigmatic as the plateau is the last glacial inception when CO2 suddenly drops from interglacial levels and resumes its coupling with Antarctic temperature. We propose that a Northern Hemisphere trigger sourced this threshold-like behavior. Despite the centennial-scale resolution achieved with the MIS 5 record, we only tentatively interpret submillennial CO2 features. While building the dataset, we realized that CO2 showed sharp oscillations between neighboring data points, too fast to be fingerprinted by true atmospheric variability. Much of the ensuing work tackled the understanding of CO2 fluctuations at the centimeter scale and how they affected our record. We concluded that while the high resolution allowed the establishment of precisely timed slope changes, individual fluctuations at the centennial scale were likely the result of fractionation effects during the bubble enclosure process in the ice core. The measurement device used to reconstruct CO2 at the University of Bern is the end product of decades of accumulated knowledge on how to measure CO2 from ancient air bubbles trapped in polar ice. The centrifugal ice microtome (CIM), continuously developed and improved since 2008, is a dry-extraction technique with state-of-the-art precision and high sample throughput. During this Ph.D., the implemented improvements regarding the CIM related to statistical analysis of different potential sources of error. These finesses allowed for a deeper understanding of the system’s intricacies and increased confidence when interpreting its output concentrations

A proposition for bottom-up local community participation through digital mapping

IN ENGLISH: Europeanisation and European urbanistic standards (urban sustainability) have been present in Croatia, as the youngest member, for only a few years, and more declaratively than in practice. Urban renewal, revitalization of cities’ centers and gentrification are therefore intensive processes, primarily economic in nature (with an increased real-estate value), and mostly beneficial for urban policy makers and holders of economic power (investors). Such renewal is often very partial and inconsiderate towards the quality of urban living for citizens, who are mostly excluded from participation without a possibility to influence the future appearance and purpose of space. This is also particularly problematic in peripheral city parts, smaller local communities or neighborhoods, in which residents’ everyday needs are inadequately met. Inadequate infrastructural equipment or reduced public or green areas threaten the basic citizens’ right to well-being. It is therefore possible to strengthen urbanity, as a fundamental measure of a more or less achieved urban living, only through citizens’ greater influence in a bottom-up participation process. Models of bottom-up urban public space design strategies should be adjusted to enter directly into the community and strive towards assisting its residents in making their space more acceptable on everyday level. In the Croatian spatial system, participation is weak, because commercialization and privatization are at the forefront of directing post-socialist countries’ urban development. In this context, the value of public spaces and interests is often destroyed. Examples of civic laboratories as possible models of local community action through applying digital technology would therefore be useful and could serve as examples of good bottom-up practice. Given the massive presence of the Internet and social networks, the main idea is to involve citizens in digital platforms and to design, with urban sociologists’ and architects’ assistance, preliminary research of the situation in every particular neighborhood. The results would be presented, with citizens’ consent, to urban policy and administration representatives to facilitate collaboration. On-line networking of residents and then on-line questionnaires or interviews would initiate the next inevitable phase of bringing residents closer. Such collaboration would motivate residents, but also make city authorities aware of the need to ‘leave the office’ and respond more openly to citizens’ demands, e.g. for improved waste removal and sorting, built or repaired parks and play-grounds, expanded green areas, increased citizens’ traffic safety, etc. Such digital mapping of community and citizens’ principal needs would mean an attempt to improve participation and extend its duration through phases (problem detection, collaboration and implementation). The institutional city authorities’ to-date ambivalence towards citizens can indeed be challenged more easily through digital technology because it implies the possibility of greater democratization. This is why it is important and long-term useful to develop models of civic laboratories, as fundamental participation models, upon which the future appearance and development of cities will depend. --------------- IN CROATIAN: Proces europeizacije i europski urbanistički standardi (urban sustainability) na primjeru HR, kao najmlađe članice, prisutan je tek nekoliko godina i više na deklarativnoj razini nego u praksi. Stoga su primjerice procesi urbane obnove i revitalizacije središta gradova, te gentrifikacije, intenzivni i prvenstveno ekonomske naravi (s povećanom vrijednošću nekretnina) te imaju najveću korist za nositelje urbane politike i nositelje ekonomske moći (investitore). Često je takva obnova vrlo parcijalna i ne uzima u obzir kvalitetu urbanog života za same građane. Oni su uglavnom izostavljeni iz participacijskog procesa i nemaju mogućnost utjecanja na budući izgled i namjenu prostora. To je posebno problematično i u drugim dijelovima grada, manjim lokalnim zajednicama ili susjedstvima, koji na svakodnevnoj razini nedovoljno ispunjavaju potrebe stanovnika. Neadekvatna infrastrukturna opremljenost ili smanjeni javni ili zeleni prostori postaju ugroženi te ugrožavaju i osnovno pravo građana na dobar život. Stoga je urbanitet, kao temeljnu mjeru više ili manje dostignutog urbanog života, moguće ojačati jedino uz veći utjecaj građana u procesu participacije odozdo. Modeli in bottom-up urban public space design strategies trebali bi biti prilagođeni direktnom ulazu u community i nastojati pomoći stanarima da prostor učine prihvatljivijim na svakodnevnoj razini. U hrvatskom prostornom sustavu postoji slab proces participacije jer procesi komercijalizacije i privatizacije (posljedice su poslovna i stambena preizgrađenost) predvode smjer urbanog razvoja postosocijalističkih zemalja. U tom je kontekstu vrijednost javnih prostora i javnih interesa često destruirana. Stoga bi primjeri civic laboratories kao mogućih modela akcije u lokalnoj zajednici kroz korištenje digitalne tehnologije bili korisni i mogli poslužiti kao primjeri dobre prakse odozdo. S obzirom na masovnu prisutnost interneta i društvenih mreža osnovna ideja je da se građani uključe u digitalne platforme te uz stručnu pomoć urbanih sociologa i arhitekata primjerice, osmisle preliminarna istraživanja o stanju u svakom pojedinom kvartu. Dobiveni rezultati u suglasnosti s građanima predstavili bi se predstavnicima urbane politike i administracije kako bi lakše ostvarili suradnju. On-line povezivanje stanara te zatim ispunjavanje on-line ankete ili intervjua prvenstveno bi bile pokretač i za sljedeću fazu koja je nezaobilazna i uključuje upoznavanje i zbližavanje stanovnika samih. Takvom bi se suradnjom pokrenulo stanovnike, ali i osvijestilo gradsku upravu da mora 'izaći iz ureda' i otvorenije odgovarati na zahtjeve građana, primjerice za boljim odvozom i razvrstavanjem otpada, gradnjom ili popravljanjem parkova i dječjih igrališta, povećanjem zelenih površina, povećanja sigurnosti građana u prometu itd. Takvim svojevrsnim digitalnim mapiranjem zajednice i najvažnijih potreba građana pokušalo bi se poboljšati proces participacije i produžiti njegovo trajanje po fazama (faza detektiranja problema, faza suradnje i faza realizacije). Korisno bi bilo usporediti postojeće pozitivne europske primjere participativnih modela kao što su portugalski, španjolski, slovenski, a kako bi se mogli primijeniti i hrvatski lokalni prostor. Dosadašnja podijeljenost institucionalne gradske vlasti spram građana uz digitalnu se tehnologiju zasigurno lakše može pokušati mijenjati jer ona u sebi nosi i mogućnost veće demokratizacije. Upravo je zbog toga važno i dugoročno korisno razvijati modele civic laboratories kao temeljnih participativnih modela o kojima će ovisiti budući izgled i razvoj gradova

Lupascian Non-Negativity Applied to Conceptual Modeling: Alternating Static Potentiality and Dynamic Actuality

In software engineering, conceptual modeling focuses on creating representations of the world that are as faithful and rich as possible, with the aim of guiding the development of software systems. In contrast, in the computing realm, the notion of ontology has been characterized as being closely related to conceptual modeling and is often viewed as a specification of a conceptualization. Accordingly, conceptual modeling and ontology engineering now address the same problem of representing the world in a suitable fashion. A high-level ontology provides a means to describe concepts and their interactions with each other and to capture structural and behavioral features in the intended domain. This paper aims to analyze ontological concepts and semantics of modeling notations to provide a common understanding among software engineers. An important issue in this context concerns the question of whether the modeled world might be stratified into ontological levels. We introduce an abstract system of two-level domain ontology to be used as a foundation for conceptual models. We study the two levels of staticity and dynamics in the context of the thinging machine (TM) model using the notions of potentiality and actuality that the Franco-Romanian philosopher Stephane Lupasco developed in logic. He provided a quasi-universal rejection of contradiction where every event was always associated with a no event, such that the actualization of an event entails the potentialization of a no event and vice versa without either ever disappearing completely. This approach is illustrated by re-modeling UML state machines in TM modeling. The results strengthen the semantics of a static versus dynamic levels in conceptual modeling and sharpen the notion of events as a phenomenon without negativity alternating between the two levels of dynamics and staticity.Comment: 11 pages, 21 figure

A survey on the development status and application prospects of knowledge graph in smart grids

With the advent of the electric power big data era, semantic interoperability and interconnection of power data have received extensive attention. Knowledge graph technology is a new method describing the complex relationships between concepts and entities in the objective world, which is widely concerned because of its robust knowledge inference ability. Especially with the proliferation of measurement devices and exponential growth of electric power data empowers, electric power knowledge graph provides new opportunities to solve the contradictions between the massive power resources and the continuously increasing demands for intelligent applications. In an attempt to fulfil the potential of knowledge graph and deal with the various challenges faced, as well as to obtain insights to achieve business applications of smart grids, this work first presents a holistic study of knowledge-driven intelligent application integration. Specifically, a detailed overview of electric power knowledge mining is provided. Then, the overview of the knowledge graph in smart grids is introduced. Moreover, the architecture of the big knowledge graph platform for smart grids and critical technologies are described. Furthermore, this paper comprehensively elaborates on the application prospects leveraged by knowledge graph oriented to smart grids, power consumer service, decision-making in dispatching, and operation and maintenance of power equipment. Finally, issues and challenges are summarised.Comment: IET Generation, Transmission & Distributio

Applications integration for manufacturing control systems with particular reference to software interoperability issues

The introduction and adoption of contemporary computer aided manufacturing control systems (MCS) can help rationalise and improve the productivity of manufacturing related activities. Such activities include product design, process planning and production management with CAD, CAPP and CAPM. However, they tend to be domain specific and would generally have been designed as stand-alone systems where there is a serious lack of consideration for integration requirements with other manufacturing activities outside the area of immediate concern. As a result, "islands of computerisation" exist which exhibit deficiencies and constraints that inhibit or complicate subsequent interoperation among typical MCS components. As a result of these interoperability constraints, contemporary forms of MCS typically yield sub-optimal benefits and do not promote synergy on an enterprise-wide basis. The move towards more integrated manufacturing systems, which requires advances in software interoperability, is becoming a strategic issue. Here the primary aim is to realise greater functional synergy between software components which span engineering, production and management activities and systems. Hence information of global interest needs to be shared across conventional functional boundaries between enterprise functions. The main thrust of this research study is to derive a new generation of MCS in which software components can "functionally interact" and share common information through accessing distributed data repositories in an efficient, highly flexible and standardised manner. It addresses problems of information fragmentation and the lack of formalism, as well as issues relating to flexibly structuring interactions between threads of functionality embedded within the various components. The emphasis is on the: • definition of generic information models which underpin the sharing of common data among production planning, product design, finite capacity scheduling and cell control systems. • development of an effective framework to manage functional interaction between MCS components, thereby coordinating their combined activities. • "soft" or flexible integration of the MCS activities over an integrating infrastructure in order to (i) help simplify typical integration problems found when using contemporary interconnection methods for applications integration; and (ii) enable their reconfiguration and incremental development. In order to facilitate adaptability in response to changing needs, these systems must also be engineered to enable reconfigurability over their life cycle. Thus within the scope of this research study a new methodology and software toolset have been developed to formally structure and support implementation, run-time and change processes. The tool set combines the use of IDEFO (for activity based or functional modelling), IDEFIX (for entity-attribute relationship modelling), and EXPRESS (for information modelling). This research includes a pragmatic but effective means of dealing with legacyl software, which often may be a vital source of readily available information which supports the operation of the manufacturing enterprise. The pragmatism and medium term relevance of the research study has promoted particular interest and collaboration from software manufacturers and industrial practitioners. Proof of concept studies have been carried out to implement and evaluate the developed mechanisms and software toolset

A Model-Driven Architecture based Evolution Method and Its Application in An Electronic Learning System

Software products have been racing against aging problem for most of their lifecycles, and evolution is the most effective and efficient solution to this problem. Model-Driven Architecture (MDA) is a new technique for software product for evolving development and reengineering methods. The main steps for MDA are to establish models in different levels and phases, therefore to solve the challenges of requirement and technology change. However, there is only a standard established by Object Management Group (OMG) but without a formal method and approach. Presently, MDA is widely researched in both industrial and research areas, however, there is still without a smooth approach to realise it especially in electronic learning (e-learning) system due to the following reasons: (1) models’ transformations are hard to realise because of lack of tools, (2) most of existing mature research results are working for business and government services but not education area, and (3) most of existing model-driven researches are based on Model-Driven Development (MDD) but not MDA because of OMG standard’s preciseness. Hence, it is worth to investigate an MDA-based method and approach to improve the existing software development approach for e-learning system. Due to the features of MDA actuality, a MDA-based evolution method and approach is proposed in this thesis. The fundamental theories of this research are OMG’s MDA standard and education pedagogical knowledge. Unified Modelling Language (UML) and Unified Modelling Language Profile are hired to represent the information of software system from different aspects. This study can be divided into three main parts: MDA-based evolution method and approach research, Platform-Independent Model (PIM) to Platform-Specific Model (PSM) transformation development, and MDA-based electronic learning system evolution. Top-down approach is explored to develop models for e-learning system. A transformation approach is developed to generate Computation Independent Model (CIM), Platform-Independent Model (PIM), and Platform-Specific Model (PSM); while a set of transformation rules are defined following MDA standard to support PSM’ s generation. In addition, proposed method is applied in an e-learning system as a case study with the prototype rules support. In the end, conclusions are drawn based on analysis and further research directions are discussed as well. The kernel contributions are the proposed transformation rules and its application in electronic learning system

Causal spaces and the application of critical point theory to general relativity

Imperial Users onl

A reference model for information specification for metalworking SMEs

The work reported in this thesis offers a novel basis for the realisation of specifications for information requirements to meet the distinct operational requirements of metalworking SMEs. This has been achieved through the development of a reference SME enterprise model based on fundamental ideas of the holon and fractal factory concepts. The novel concept of a node holon is introduced, which allows the representation of the human dominated interactions in a company based on the fundamental concepts of the holon. This offers a competitive alternative to the methods for enterprise modelling and information specification which are based solely around business processes and procedural rules. A new representation for the organisation of the SME has been based on identifying the major zones of activity within the enterprise, which is seen to provide a more appropriate representation for companies whose basis for operation is informally structured. Two classes of zones have been identified, these are the business support zone and manufacturing zone. The relationship between a top down description of the enterprise as zones and the complementary bottoms up modelling of the enterprise based on concepts of the node holon are described in detail. A critical study of two candidate modelling architectures, namely CIN40SA and ARIS will show the applicability of the individual architectures for the task information specification. The constituents of the SMEE enterprise reference model is placed within the context of contemporary enterprise modelling practice by mapping against one of the architectures. This will demonstrate how the architectures can readily accommodate new modelling approaches whilst retaining their major advantages, thereby increasing their applicability and potential uptake. The reference SME enterprise model has been readily applied in the study of an SME, where a representation of the company has been achieved solely on the current organisation of its business support and manufacturing activities. The holonic aspects of the enterprise have also been successfully modelled. This process is supported by a CASE tool which has it constructs underpinned by the reference SME enterprise model