Anatomizing NetLogo. Some advices on how to consider a programmable environment for designing inhabited landscapes

NetLogo is a freely programmable environment that offers an interface whose graphic synthesis is sufficient to depict emergent and complex phenomena as long as they are characterized by the appropriate variables; it looks for ways to incorporate geometric and geographical bases of real cartographies; it has the capacity to speculate with the future of reciprocal, cooperative societies; is able to diagram the virtual model on the graph of real data; finally, it helps researchers and teachers to set methodologies to project from the consideration of minimum knowledge units and neighbourhood conditions. This paper explains some resource implications as well as examples chosen in recent years by students of the UA

As-Built 3D Heritage City Modelling to Support Numerical Structural Analysis: Application to the Assessment of an Archaeological Remain

Terrestrial laser scanning is a widely used technology to digitise archaeological, architectural and cultural heritage. This allows for modelling the assets’ real condition in comparison with traditional data acquisition methods. This paper, based on the case study of the basilica in the Baelo Claudia archaeological ensemble (Tarifa, Spain), justifies the need of accurate heritage modelling against excessively simplified approaches in order to support structural safety analysis. To do this, after validating the 3Dmeshing process frompoint cloud data, the semi-automatic digital reconstitution of the basilica columns is performed. Next, a geometric analysis is conducted to calculate the structural alterations of the columns. In order to determine the structural performance, focusing both on the accuracy and suitability of the geometric models, static and modal analyses are carried out by means of the finite element method (FEM) on three different models for the most unfavourable column in terms of structural damage: (1) as-built (2) simplified and (3) ideal model without deformations. Finally, the outcomes show that the as-built modelling enhances the conservation status analysis of the 3D heritage city (in terms of realistic compliance factor values), although further automation still needs to be implemented in the modelling process

ICADS: A cooperative decision making model with CLIPS experts

A cooperative decision making model is described which is comprised of six concurrently executing domain experts coordinated by a blackboard control expert. The focus application field is architectural design, and the domain experts represent consultants in the area of daylighting, noise control, structural support, cost estimating, space planning, and climate responsiveness. Both the domain experts and the blackboard were implemented as production systems, using an enhanced version of the basic CLIPS package. Acting in unison as an Expert Design Advisor, the domain and control experts react to the evolving design solution progressively developed by the user in a 2-D CAD drawing environment. A Geometry Interpreter maps each drawing action taken by the user to real world objects, such as spaces, walls, windows, and doors. These objects, endowed with geometric and nongeometric attributes, are stored as frames in a semantic network. Object descriptions are derived partly from the geometry of the drawing environment and partly from knowledge bases containing prototypical, generalized information about the building type and site conditions under consideration

Finsler and Lagrange Geometries in Einstein and String Gravity

We review the current status of Finsler-Lagrange geometry and generalizations. The goal is to aid non-experts on Finsler spaces, but physicists and geometers skilled in general relativity and particle theories, to understand the crucial importance of such geometric methods for applications in modern physics. We also would like to orient mathematicians working in generalized Finsler and Kahler geometry and geometric mechanics how they could perform their results in order to be accepted by the community of ''orthodox'' physicists. Although the bulk of former models of Finsler-Lagrange spaces where elaborated on tangent bundles, the surprising result advocated in our works is that such locally anisotropic structures can be modelled equivalently on Riemann-Cartan spaces, even as exact solutions in Einstein and/or string gravity, if nonholonomic distributions and moving frames of references are introduced into consideration. We also propose a canonical scheme when geometrical objects on a (pseudo) Riemannian space are nonholonomically deformed into generalized Lagrange, or Finsler, configurations on the same manifold. Such canonical transforms are defined by the coefficients of a prime metric and generate target spaces as Lagrange structures, their models of almost Hermitian/ Kahler, or nonholonomic Riemann spaces. Finally, we consider some classes of exact solutions in string and Einstein gravity modelling Lagrange-Finsler structures with solitonic pp-waves and speculate on their physical meaning.Comment: latex 2e, 11pt, 44 pages; accepted to IJGMMP (2008) as a short variant of arXiv:0707.1524v3, on 86 page

Geometric combinatorics and computational molecular biology: branching polytopes for RNA sequences

Questions in computational molecular biology generate various discrete optimization problems, such as DNA sequence alignment and RNA secondary structure prediction. However, the optimal solutions are fundamentally dependent on the parameters used in the objective functions. The goal of a parametric analysis is to elucidate such dependencies, especially as they pertain to the accuracy and robustness of the optimal solutions. Techniques from geometric combinatorics, including polytopes and their normal fans, have been used previously to give parametric analyses of simple models for DNA sequence alignment and RNA branching configurations. Here, we present a new computational framework, and proof-of-principle results, which give the first complete parametric analysis of the branching portion of the nearest neighbor thermodynamic model for secondary structure prediction for real RNA sequences.Comment: 17 pages, 8 figure

A Monte Carlo exploration of threefold base geometries for 4d F-theory vacua

We use Monte Carlo methods to explore the set of toric threefold bases that support elliptic Calabi-Yau fourfolds for F-theory compactifications to four dimensions, and study the distribution of geometrically non-Higgsable gauge groups, matter, and quiver structure. We estimate the number of distinct threefold bases in the connected set studied to be $\sim { 10^{48}}$. The distribution of bases peaks around $h^{1, 1}\sim 82$. All bases encountered after "thermalization" have some geometric non-Higgsable structure. We find that the number of non-Higgsable gauge group factors grows roughly linearly in $h^{1,1}$ of the threefold base. Typical bases have $\sim 6$ isolated gauge factors as well as several larger connected clusters of gauge factors with jointly charged matter. Approximately 76% of the bases sampled contain connected two-factor gauge group products of the form SU(3)$\times$SU(2), which may act as the non-Abelian part of the standard model gauge group. SU(3)$\times$SU(2) is the third most common connected two-factor product group, following SU(2)$\times$SU(2) and $G_2\times$SU(2), which arise more frequently.Comment: 38 pages, 22 figure

Computing topological zeta functions of groups, algebras, and modules, II

Building on our previous work (arXiv:1405.5711), we develop the first practical algorithm for computing topological zeta functions of nilpotent groups, non-associative algebras, and modules. While we previously depended upon non-degeneracy assumptions, the theory developed here allows us to overcome these restrictions in various interesting cases.Comment: 33 pages; sequel to arXiv:1405.571