Discursive design thinking: the role of explicit knowledge in creative architectural design reasoning

The main hypothesis investigated in this paper is based upon the suggestion that the discursive reasoning in architecture supported by an explicit knowledge of spatial configurations can enhance both design productivity and the intelligibility of design solutions. The study consists of an examination of an architect’s performance while solving intuitively a well-defined problem followed by an analysis of the spatial structure of their design solutions. One group of architects will attempt to solve the design problem logically, rationalizing their design decisions by implementing their explicit knowledge of spatial configurations. The other group will use an implicit form of such knowledge arising from their architectural education to reason about their design acts. An integrated model of protocol analysis combining linkography and macroscopic coding is used to analyze the design processes. The resulting design outcomes will be evaluated quantitatively in terms of their spatial configurations. The analysis appears to show that an explicit knowledge of the rules of spatial configurations, as possessed by the first group of architects can partially enhance their function-driven judgment producing permeable and well-structured spaces. These findings are particularly significant as they imply that an explicit rather than an implicit knowledge of the fundamental rules that make a layout possible can lead to a considerable improvement in both the design process and product. This suggests that by externalizing th

Incorporation of SCBA in Red Ceramics and Sintering in Microwave Oven

The present study investigated the incorporation of sugarcane bagasse ash (SCBA) in red ceramics, sintered in conventional oven and microwave oven, aiming to provide an alternative product, and a sintering process with higher energy efficiency in the production of red ceramics. The raw materials were characterized by XRF, XRD, thermogravimetry, particle size distribution and specific mass analyses. The specimens were shaped by extrusion in two different compositions, red clay and red clay with addition of 20 % SCBA and sintered at temperatures from 700 to 1100 ºC. The conventional sintering occurred for 60 min with heating rate of 10 ºC/min. In the microwave oven the sintering occurred in a hybrid way, with heating rate of 50 ºC/min for 5, 10 and 15 mins. After sintering the tests of linear shrinkage, compressive strength, water absorption, apparent porosity and apparent specific mass were performed. The addition of SCBA causes an increase in the values of water absorption and decreases the compressive strength and specific mass of the red ceramic. This occurs due to the creation of pores inside the material from the volatilization of organic matter present in the ashes. The sintering in microwave oven, when compared to conventional sintering, promotes an increase in the values of compressive strength and specific mass and reduction of water absorption values of ceramics, probably due to the refinement of the microstructure and the higher densification. Thus the incorporation of ashes can be partially compensated by a more efficient sintering. The use of SCBA and the sintering in microwave oven, showed to be viable alternatives in the development of a more sustainable and light material, promoting the management of waste, reduction in the consumption of raw materials and energy saving

Neoadjuvant photodynamic therapy augments immediate and prolonged oxaliplatin efficacy in metastatic pancreatic cancer organoids

Effective treatment of advanced metastatic disease remains the primary challenge in the management of inoperable pancreatic cancer. Current therapies such as oxaliplatin (OxPt)-based chemotherapy regimens (FOLFIRINOX) provide modest short-term survival improvements, yet with significant toxicity. Photodynamic therapy (PDT), a light-activated cancer therapy, demonstrated clinical promise for pancreatic cancer treatment and enhances conventional chemotherapies with non-overlapping toxicities. This study investigates the capacity of neoadjuvant PDT using a clinically-approved photosensitizer, benzoporphyrin derivative (BPD, verteporfin), to enhance OxPt efficacy in metastatic pancreatic cancer. Treatment effects were evaluated in organotypic three-dimensional (3D) cultures, clinically representative models that bridge the gap between conventional cell cultures and in vivo models. The temporally-spaced, multiparametric analyses demonstrated a superior efficacy for combined PDT+OxPt compared to each monotherapy alone, which was recapitulated on different organotypic pancreatic cancer cultures. The therapeutic benefit of neoadjuvant PDT to OxPt chemotherapy materialized in a time-dependent manner, reducing residual viable tissue and tumor viability in a manner not achievable with OxPt or PDT alone. These findings emphasize the need for intelligent combination therapies and relevant models to evaluate the temporal kinetics of interactions between mechanistically-distinct treatments and highlight the promise of PDT as a neoadjuvant treatment for disseminated pancreatic cancer

Multi-messenger searches via IceCube’s high-energy neutrinos and gravitational-wave detections of LIGO/Virgo

We summarize initial results for high-energy neutrino counterpart searches coinciding with gravitational-wave events in LIGO/Virgo\u27s GWTC-2 catalog using IceCube\u27s neutrino triggers. We did not find any statistically significant high-energy neutrino counterpart and derived upper limits on the time-integrated neutrino emission on Earth as well as the isotropic equivalent energy emitted in high-energy neutrinos for each event

IceCube Search for Earth-traversing ultra-high energy Neutrinos

The search for ultra-high energy neutrinos is more than half a century old. While the hunt for these neutrinos has led to major leaps in neutrino physics, including the detection of astrophysical neutrinos, neutrinos at the EeV energy scale remain undetected. Proposed strategies for the future have mostly been focused on direct detection of the first neutrino interaction, or the decay shower of the resulting charged particle. Here we present an analysis that uses, for the first time, an indirect detection strategy for EeV neutrinos. We focus on tau neutrinos that have traversed Earth, and show that they reach the IceCube detector, unabsorbed, at energies greater than 100 TeV for most trajectories. This opens up the search for ultra-high energy neutrinos to the entire sky. We use ten years of IceCube data to perform an analysis that looks for secondary neutrinos in the northern sky, and highlight the promise such a strategy can have in the next generation of experiments when combined with direct detection techniques