Parametric Modelling Within Immersive Environments: Building a Bridge Between Existing Tools and Virtual Reality Headsets

Even though architectural modelling radically evolved over the course of its history, the current integration of Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality(VR) components in the corresponding design tasks is mostly limited to enhancing visualisation. Little to none of these tools attempt to tackle the challenge of modelling within immersive environments, that calls for new input modalities in order to move away from the traditional mouse and keyboard combination. In fact, relying on 2D devices for 3D manipulations does not seem to be effective as it does not offer the same degrees of freedom. We therefore present a solution that brings VR modelling capabilities to Grasshopper, a popular parametric design tool. Together with its associated proof-of-concept application, our extension offers a glimpse at new perspectives in that field. By taking advantage of them,one can edit geometries with real-time feedback on the generated models, without ever leaving the virtual environment. The distinctive characteristics of VR applications provide a range of benefits without obstructing design activities. The designer can indeed experience the architectural models at full scale from a realistic point-of-view and truly feels immersed right next to them.Comment: 6 pages, 36th eCAADe conferenc

Establishing Awareness through Pointing Gestures during Collaborative Decision-Making in a Wall-Display Environment

Sharing a physical environment, such as that of a wall-display, facilitates gaining awareness of others' actions and intentions, thereby bringing benefits for collaboration. Previous studies have provided first insights on awareness in the context of tabletops or smaller vertical displays. This paper seeks to advance the current understanding on how users share awareness information in wall-display environments and focusses on mid-air pointing gestures as a foundational part of communication. We present a scenario dealing with the organization of medical supply chains in crisis situations, and report on the results of a user study with 24 users, split into 6 groups of 4, performing several tasks. We investigate pointing gestures and identify three subtypes used as awareness cues during face-to-face collaboration: narrative pointing, loose pointing, and sharp pointing. Our observations show that reliance on gesture subtypes varies across participants and groups, and that sometimes vague pointing is sufficient to support verbal negotiations.Comment: \c{opyright} Authors | ACM 2023. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in the CHI'23 proceedings, http://dx.doi.org/10.1145/3544549.358583

Modélisation Paramétrique en Réalité Virtuelle

Les technologies immersives ont fait leur apparition dans bon nombre d’outils de modélisation architecturale. Néanmoins, leur usage se limite bien souvent à des fins de visualisation, par exemple pour valider un design auprès d’un client muni d’un casque de réalité virtuelle. Notre travail vise à permettre une utilisation de ce medium immersif durant l’activité de conception architecturale elle-même. Nous présentons dès lors un outil de modélisation paramétrique en réalité virtuelle permettant de combiner, en immersion, l’édition de modèles Grasshopper et la visualisation des géométries générées. Nous validerons notre approche auprès d’architectes et d’étudiants formés à ce paradigme de conception

Changing the rules of the game: an analysis of EU influence on electricity and gas liberalization: with a focus on the Baltic Sea Region, and future challenges to EU energy market regulation

This study analyses the expansion of the EU into energy market regulation. It shows that the limits to EU influence and, thereby, EU energy market regulation for the internal energy market, begin where EU influence affects national interests with regard to ensuring energy security. This scientifically established insight bears an important practical implication. The further development of EU energy market regulation as a cornerstone of the internal energy market faces a particular policy challenge: It is necessary to establish a regulatory framework for the internal electricity and gas market, which acknowledges the primacy of national energy security interests. This finding is important in the light of the new and increasing energy policy challenges that some Member States face today, not least as a result of a liberalized energy market. Moreover, in the context of new systemic risks arising from ongoing energy market integration, a politically unstable (in the worst case - collapsing) EU regulatory framework can cause significant social and economic costs for individual Member States. With regard to that, the study points to the increasingly complex policy areas that are made subject to EU integration and calls for more attention to the related regulatory and political risks - also with a view to the current euro crisis. Diese Studie analysiert die Expansion der EU in die Energiemarktregulierung. Sie zeigt, dass die Grenzen des EU Einflusses und damit des EU Regulierungsrahmens für den Energiebinnenmarkt dort beginnen, wo nationale Interessen mit Blick auf die Gewährleistung der Energieversorgungssicherheit tangiert werden. Diese Erkenntnis hat eine wichtige praktische Implikation. Die weitere Ausgestaltung der EU Energiemarktregulierung und damit des Fundaments des Energiebinnenmarktes steht vor einer besonderen politischen Herausforderung: Es gilt einen stabilen gemeinschaftlichen Regulierungsrahmens für den europäischen Strom- und Gasmarkt unter dem Primat nationaler Energiesicherheitsinteressen bereitzustellen. Dies ist von Bedeutung im Lichte wachsender und neuer energiepolitischer Herausforderungen für die einzelnen Mitgliedstaaten, nicht zuletzt als Folge eines liberalisierten Energiemarktes. In Anbetracht neuer systemischer Risiken, die sich aus einem integrierten europäischen Energiemarkt ergeben, kann ein politisch instabiler (im schlimmsten Fall kollabierender) gemeinschaftlicher Regulierungsrahmen für die Mitgliedstaaten hohe soziale und ökonomische Kosten nach sich ziehen. An dieser Stelle verweist die Studie auf die immer komplexeren Integrationsgegenstände der EU und fordert, dass den damit einhergehenden Risiken, regulatorischer und politischer Art, grössere Aufmerksamkeit zu schenken ist - gerade auch mit Blick auf die aktuelle Krise der Gemeinschaftswährung

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field