Concept Of Morphogenesis Research Articles

Female patients with androgenetic alopecia: immunohistochemical picture of scalp biopsies

The aim of the research. To expand the knowledge about immunohistochemical changes in female patients with androgenetic alopecia (AGA) focusing on non-androgenic co-factors of pathogenesis of the disease, as this may serve as a basis for improving therapeutic regimens.
 Materials and methods. Scalp biopsies of female patients with androgenetic alopecia were examined by immunohistochemical method. The study included two groups: the main group of 30 female patients aged 22 to 40 years, average age 32,13±5,03 years, and the control group that included 20 skin samples from women aged 25–40 years (average age 34,75±4,19 years) who underwent autopsies.
 Results. It was found that AGA in women is characterized by a number of immunomorphological manifestations: the inflammatory infiltrate that consists of immunocompetent T-lymphocytes CD3+, CD4+ and CD8+, macrophages (CD68+); imbalance of growth polypeptides VEGF, TGF-β1, EGFR; accumulation of oxidative stress enzymes eNOS and iNOS; accumulation of pathological fraction of Collagen IV.
 Conclusions. The data obtained by this study helps to improve the concept of morphogenesis of AGA, and also can become a base to improve the standards of treatment of the disease. The pathological triade “oxidative stress-microinflammation- fibrosis” should be considered as a possible treatment target, as well as the imbalance of growth peptides.

Fictional Proto-architecture as an Introduction to Biologic Design: Challenging the Concept of Morphogenesis of Neo-architectural Organism

The architecture is based on a dialectical search for new ways of matter representation. We deal with the form of contemporary architecture under two approaches: expression and content. The article examines how mathematical principles based on natural growth can be applied in architectural design to create a dynamic, not static, structure. The dynamic process of the cell and its growth provides the basic structure. The continuity of the domain is exemplified by the impact of the new forms on the society that has already begun to emerge from the obscurity. The paper argues that without a deeper and more receptive connection between geometry and performance from a bio-morphogenetic perspective of complex systems. The experimental design methods are applied both to generate and to evaluate an architecture of the futuristic lines. These methodological frameworks focus on cyclically restated themes in the field of parametrises, which are identified as endemic to architecture: the realization of buildings, of multifunctional volumes and customized per se through a gradual approach of the architectural properties and the exploitation of a "concept construction" integrated as a process, obtained through innovative modelling environments. And so, and the reconstruction of architecture as an organ of nature is demonstrated. The new vanguard of proto architecture describes difficulties and inconsistencies in the relationship between theories and structures, difficulties arising from the very idea of "virtually" itself. It becomes difficult to say that a drawing in cyberspace is an architectural form or just a graph of architectural theory; in the virtual space, there is no difference between the particular structure and the general principle. Therefore, the form is first designed, only after to be constructed. Naturally, it is impossible (theoretically or technically) for design and construction processes to take place simultaneously. Predictably, bio-morphosis leads to multiple forms of expression, defined and transmitted in geometric terms. Doi: 10.28991/esj-2020-01248 Full Text: PDF

On the problem of biological form.

Embryonic development, which inspired the first theories of biological form, was eventually excluded from the conceptual framework of the Modern Synthesis as irrelevant. A major question during the last decades has centred on understanding whether new advances in developmental biology are compatible with the standard view or whether they compel a new theory. Here, I argue that the answer to this question depends on which concept of morphogenesis is held. Morphogenesis can be conceived as (1) a chemically driven or (2) a mechanically driven process. According to the first option, genetic regulatory networks drive morphogenesis. According to the second, morphogenesis results from an invariant tendency of embryonic tissues to restore changes in mechanical stress. While chemically driven morphogenesis allows an extension of the standard view, mechanically driven morphogenesis would deeply transform it. Which of these hypotheses has wider explanatory power is unknown. At present, the problem of biological form remains unsolved.

Architectural self-fabrication

The paper will focus on the role of computational design and digital fabrication in the processes of urban and architectural self-regeneration of existing infrastructures and buildings. The Architectural Fabrication research agenda takes inspiration from some of the concepts mentioned in Christopher Alexander’s essay ‘Systems generating systems’ (1968). It aims at introducing ways in which systems thinking and computer aided manufacturing can be most directly applied to the built environment. Hacking architectural spaces, by evolving their genetic spatial and structural codes, is developing the idea of optimizing resources involving inhabitants rather than generating other top down architectural solutions. During the last decades (starting from the book of Mario Carpo, ‘The Digital Turn in Architecture’) the digital shift in architectural design has generated a new discipline with the aim to define an innovative way to bridge the notion of nature with the one of teknè. From such a cultural milieu many research agenda were focusing on the concepts of morphogenesis and evolutionary thinking inspired by the work of French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari based on the theory of complex systems. Despite this interest in bridging an evolutionary approach with the notion of emergent technologies in architecture (well described in the book ‘The Architecture of Emergence’ of Michael Weinstock) only a very few researchers have investigated on the potential of computational design as a driver for the ecological rehabilitation of existing infrastructures. As a matter of fact, the computational designers were so worried to claim for a new aesthetical identity of their discipline while a new opportunity was emerging for applying this evolutionary approach in order to hack existing structures. The idea of living infrastructures is related to the possibility of developing contextual algorithms in order to customize standard solutions with a post-human process that creates diversified spatial configurations out of very rigid organizational systems. Therefore, the paper will also talk about the Hacking Gomorra project as a possible paradigm of experimenting a 3D printing protocol for the environmental rehabilitation of a mega-structural housing building in Naples (Italy).

Relational sociology, critical realism and social morphogenesis

This article aims to show how relational sociology, in synergy with critical realism, sees social change, understood as social morphogenesis, in advanced societies. The concept of morphogenesis (MG) in the social sciences can be traced back to organic system theory. This theory became problematic once research showed that social networks cannot be treated as systems. Along the way, the relational nature of MG was revealed ever more clearly. The new perspective is that of moving beyond a mechanical definition of the concepts of variety, selection, positive/negative feedbacks and the stabilization processes that go to realize MG. It is necessary to redefine these concepts from the perspective of a relational paradigm of MG. This article tries to explain and understand the production of society as a process of MG that takes place in terms of relational steering, which is characterized by recourse to relational feedbacks that generate emergent social effects.

Morphogenesis, morphology and men: pattern formation from embryo to mind

In 1952, Alan Turing published his last work on the concept of embryonic morphogenesis, propounding a computational framework for pattern formation within the developing embryo. This concept of morphogenesis and the concept of embryo pattern formation based on chemical diffusion patterns were corroborated with the discovery of the Homeobox or Hox genes. In the following decades, Hox gene research has expanded and is now shown to underlie the variety of morphological novelties that we experience in nature, the patterning of structural aspects of different organs including the brain and also mutant animals that may in the future give rise to novel speciation. Turing had the foresight and vision and with his work created the field of computational biology and mathematical modeling in biological systems. In this paper, we will discuss the concept of Hox genes, their role in patterning the embryo, how it relates to Turing’s concept of morphogenesis and what further insights they may provide.

Self-organizing systems based on morphogenesis principles

Morphogenesis is the process that gives shapes to organisms from an embryonic stage through a sequence of cell divisions. Starting from a simple embryonic cell, the controlled division and transformation of the cells into different types leads to the creation of a complex organism. The growth of complex organisms is completely autonomic and is one of the best examples of self-organizing systems found in nature. In comparison, the computing infrastructure in current data centers is more static and requires significant human intervention in order to take on the form that is desired. However, emerging technology such as virtualization of servers and networks enables an architecture where distributed computer systems can take different forms using the concept of morphogenesis. Using this vision, all machines in a virtualized data center initially start with a single software image and, using a distributed scheme, adopt a structure in which different images take on the roles of a database server, a web server, a load balancer, a firewall, or a caching proxy in topologies whose structures form on their own. In this paper, we present a novel architecture of a virtualized data center that self-organizes using the principles of morphogenesis.

Multiple Disguises for the Same Party: The Concepts of Morphogenesis and Phenotypic Variations in Cryptococcus neoformans?

Although morphological transitions (such as hyphae and pseudohyphae formation) are a common feature among fungi, the encapsulated pathogenic yeast Cryptococcus neoformans is found during infection as blastoconidia. However, this fungus exhibits striking variations in cellular structure and size, which have important consequences during infection. This review will summarize the main aspects related with phenotypic and morphological variations in C. neoformans, which can be divided in three classes. Two of them are related to changes in the capsule, while the third one involves changes in the whole cell. The three morphological and phenotypic variations in C. neoformans can be classified as: (1) changes in capsule structure, (2) changes in capsule size, and (3) changes in the total size of the cell, which can be achieved by the formation of cryptococcal giant/titan cells or microforms. These changes have profound consequences on the interaction with the host, involving survival, phagocytosis escape and immune evasion and dissemination. This article will summarize the main features of these changes, and highlight their importance during the interaction with the host and how they contribute to the development of the disease.

Theories of family adaptability: toward a synthesis of Olson's Circumplex and the Beavers systems models.

Two typologies of family process, Olson's Circumplex Model and the Beavers Systems Model, are discussed, focusing particularly upon their definitions of family adaptability. It is argued that the two typologies are not simply "separate but equal" (11), but, rather, that there is an ambiguity in the Circumplex Model that disguises a fundamental theoretical overlap between the two. Olson's definition of adaptability is founded upon the concepts of morphogenesis and change; Beavers builds upon the concepts of negentropy and competence. It may be shown, however, that both understandings are necessitated by the theoretical writings of Olson and his colleagues. The nature of this ambiguity in the Circumplex Model is critically explored, and a higher-order model that attempts to synthesize these two theories is proposed.

Cleft Lip and Palate New concept of morphogenesis of clefts in the lip, alveolus and palate

Cleft Lip and Palate New concept of morphogenesis of clefts in the lip, alveolus and palate