4,160 research outputs found
The geometry of syntax and semantics for directed file transformations
We introduce a conceptual framework that associates syntax and semantics with
vertical and horizontal directions in principal bundles and related
constructions. This notion of geometry corresponds to a mechanism for
performing goal-directed file transformations such as "eliminate unsafe syntax"
and suggests various engineering practices
Flexible Views for View-based Model-driven Development
Modern software development faces the problem of fragmentation of information across heterogeneous artefacts in different modelling and programming languages. In this dissertation, the Vitruvius approach for view-based engineering is presented. Flexible views offer a compact definition of user-specific views on software systems, and can be defined the novel ModelJoin language. The process is supported by a change metamodel for metamodel evolution and change impact analysis
OpenSPIM - an open access platform for light sheet microscopy
Light sheet microscopy promises to revolutionize developmental biology by
enabling live in toto imaging of entire embryos with minimal phototoxicity. We
present detailed instructions for building a compact and customizable Selective
Plane Illumination Microscopy (SPIM) system. The integrated OpenSPIM hardware
and software platform is shared with the scientific community through a public
website, thereby making light sheet microscopy accessible for widespread use
and optimization to various applications.Comment: 7 pages, 3 figures, 6 supplementary videos, submitted to Nature
Methods, associated public website http://openspim.or
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An African-European network of design universities fostering the goal of sustainable energy for all
This paper presents the intermediate results of the Learning Network on Sustainable Energy Systems (LeNSes) an African-European multi-polar network for curriculum development on Design for Sustainability (DfS) focused on Distributed Renewable Energy (DRE) and Sustainable Product-Service Systems (S.PSS). The paper discusses the convergence between the S.PSS and DRE models as promising approaches to provide sustainable energy solutions for all by increasing its access and improving efficiency in use. Currently, the project partners are collaboratively developing new curricula focused on these combined approaches. The paper examines the S.PSS and DRE models and how they can be used to develop and implement sustainable energy solutions for all within the African context. The research hypothesis is that S.PSS could be applied to DRE to offer a range of benefits such as: economic, environmental and socio-ethical. The paper describes some of the project activities that includes: development of a new modular and adaptable package of learning resources focused on DRE and S.PSS for the design discipline; implementation of pilot courses at African Higher Educational Institutions (HEIs) targeted at undergraduate and graduate students, practitioners and companies; and development of an open web platform for distributed production and transfer of knowledge and know-how in this area. The innovation of the project described in the paper is twofold, firstly by developing unique curricula based on design for sustainability focused on S.PSS and DRE applied to the African contexts, and secondly by delivering it through an open platform for free and in copy-left. This will equip design students in African universities with a broad knowledge base, as well as effective methods and tools with which to play an active role in the development and diffusion of sustainable energy systems
System design for sustainable energy systems in emerging an low-income contexts
This keynote presents Product-Service System Design for Sustainability as a promising approach to tackle in emerging and low-income contexts the socio-ethical dimension of sustainability together with the environmental and economic ones. Firstly, reasons for applying eco-efficient Product Service Systems (PSS) innovation in low-income and emerging contexts are highlighted. Secondly, the known model of distributed economy is introduced as a promising characteristic of such eco-efficient Product-Service Systems to address the issue of locally based renewable and sustainable energy systems as the key leverage for a democratisation of access to resources, goods and services. In this framework the EU funded Learning Network on Sustainability (LeNS) project and its Method for System Design for Sustainability (MSDS) are presented
Symmetric Edit Lenses: A New Foundation for Bidirectional Languages
Lenses are bidirectional transformations between pairs of connected structures capable of translating an edit on one structure into an edit on the other. Most of the extensive existing work on lenses has focused on the special case of asymmetric lenses, where one structures is taken as primary and the other is thought of as a projection or view. Some symmetric variants exist, where each structure contains information not present in the other, but these all lack the basic operation of composition. Additionally, existing accounts do not represent edits carefully, making incremental operation difficult or producing unsatisfactory synchronization candidates. We present a new symmetric formulation which works with descriptions of changes to structures, rather than with the structures themselves. We construct a semantic space of edit lenses between “editable structures”—monoids of edits with a partial monoid action for applying edits—with natural laws governing their behavior. We present generalizations of a number of known constructions on asymmetric lenses and settle some longstanding questions about their properties—in particular, we prove the existence of (symmetric monoidal) tensor products and sums and the non-existence of full categorical products and sums in a category of lenses. Universal algebra shows how to build iterator lenses for structured data such as lists and trees, yielding lenses for operations like mapping, filtering, and concatenation from first principles. More generally, we provide mapping combinators based on the theory of containers. Finally, we present a prototype implementation of the core theory and take a first step in addressing the challenge of translating between user gestures and the internal representation of edits
Beyond Flat Space: Representing Architecture in Virtual Reality
As architects, most of us go through years of training and experience just to read and draw plans, sections, and elevations. As students, we are taught how to read a plan and dissect the information we need to understand the spatial relationships. There are many times, however, that a plan doesn’t really tell us what experiencing this space is like. And how is the untrained client supposed to understand how this space really works? Isn’t that our job as architects, to represent our designs well enough to our clients that we communicate to them everything necessary for understanding this space that THEY hired US to design? How then, especially to the untrained eye, are we to use a packet of drawings of the space to really allow them to understand?
In the past, we have used renderings and perspectives to achieve this. But this comes at a cost to the client, and doesn’t always give the full detail of the space. Every type of media we use has strengths and limitations to represent and communicate design, but each new medium has afected the way we think about design. What if, through the way we use our knowledge of representational media, we could not only give clients lacking the years of training we have the ability to experience the designs we are making, but also enhance the way we communicate design so as to minimize the false perceptions in the built process?
I think the answer for architects lies in the power of virtual reality as a graphic representational tool. Yes, I’m talking a change from architecture being represented in 2D to a 3D representational style. My thesis explores virtual reality and its potential to allow architects to draw and design in 3 dimensional spaces, and takes a look at how this medium can afect our techniques of communication and representation of design
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